This course is broadly about the “access revolution” in science and technology, which is enabled by digitization and the Internet and regulated by licenses and copyrights. It will focus specifically on the tensions between openness and privacy, or sharing and secrecy. We will examine related initiatives for open access publishing, open science, and free/open source software development, and consider kindred movements such as open government, “data kind,” and “data for good.” We will emphasize sociological approaches, but will also read work by science and technology scholars, lawyers, practitioners, advocates, and critics. The main deliverable for this course is a collaborative empirical project.
Taught by John McLevey
Science and Technology in Society Teaching Group 