WiSe 17/18: Seminar: Open Technology for an Open Society
Claudia Müller-Birn
Additional information / Pre-requisites
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Technology has come to play a vital role in today's world. Can you imagine a day without checking your emails, making phone calls or sending text messages—a day without receiving any piece of information? Every day, we feel the attraction and importance of being/staying connected: connected to other people, or connected to information.
Technologies such as the Internet, the World Wide Web but also mobile phones are the foundation for this change. However, the way people can make use of and interact with existing information is regularly threatened. For example, governments and companies may interfere with our privacy, our access to information and our freedoms by using our personal data without prior consent.
In this seminar, we would like to discuss the importance of open technology that is, as a working hypothesis, crucial for creativity, invention, and human progress. Examples are projects such as the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the Linux kernel, or the MakerBot; but also initiatives such as in the area of Open Educational Resources—to mention only a few out of thousands.
In this seminar we approach the importance of Open Technology for our society based on the following questions:
- How are these trends reflected in our society?
- To what extent do open technologies have an impact on law or regulations?
- What are examples of using open technologies for a stronger civic engagement?
- Can open technology be used to bridge the gap between the multiple gender, race and class identities?
This seminar accompanies the lecture series (Ringvorlesung) "Open Technology for an Open Society":
http://ot4os.imp.fu-berlin.de/
We invite you to learn more about existing projects in this field and also discuss different perspectives on this topic.
closeSuggested reading
Literatur wird im Rahmen des Seminars zur Verfügung gestellt.
16 Class schedule
Additional appointments
Wed, 2017-10-11 - Thu, 2018-02-22 14:00 - 16:00Regular appointments