Digital Democracy: 2003

Harvard Law School

Tuesdays, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Hauser 104

Prof. Charles Nesson, Andrew McLaughlin,
Michael Best, Geoffrey Kirkman, Colin Maclay,
James Moore, John Palfrey, and Ethan Zuckerman

Course Home | Syllabus | Administration | H2O Discussion | Weblogs | Berkman Center Home

Course Administration

Teaching Team: Digital Democracy will be taught collaboratively, colloquium-style, by Professor Nesson and a Berkman Center team of experts in Internet law, policy, technology, and international development (see above). Professor Nesson can most easily be reached by email: nesson@law.harvard.edu. Berkman Center senior fellow Andrew McLaughlin is the lead instructor; questions about the syllabus, assignments, course requirements, online written work, papers and projects, and administrative matters should be directed to him via email: mclaughlin at cyber.law.harvard.edu.

Office Hours: Please sign up for time on a sign-up sheet in the Berkman Center, which is housed in Baker House, 1587 Massachusetts Ave, near the northwest edge of the Law School campus. Office hours will be held from 10:00-noon on Wednesdays during the Fall semester.

Classroom: The course will ordinarily meet in Hauser 104. Some class meetings may take place elsewhere -- for the latest updates, check the Announcements section of the course homepage.

H2O: During the semester, there will be four short written assignments to be completed using the H2O teaching tool. Students must register on the H2O site and join the Digital Democracy project. Berkman Center staffers Hal Roberts (hroberts@cyber.law.harvard.edu) and Juliet Armstrong (jarmstrong@cyber.law.harvard.edu) are managing the course's H2O component, and will be happy to assist students with any aspect of it.

Grading: Students will be evaluated on the basis of:

  • Class participation, defined by both in-class and online participation (25%). Online participation refers to your posting of commentary to weblogs offered through the blogs@harvardlaw web site. The Berkman Center team is glad to help you in using the blogs site, as needed. Postings to the blogs will ideally reflect your thoughts on the material in the course and link to the thoughts of your colleagues in the class. (For more information regarding blogs and education, see this article from the New York Times, for instance).
  • Short written assignments through the H2O teaching tool (25%). There will be four short written assignments due throughout the term, which are to be answered via the online rotisserie.
  • A semester-long project or final paper of roughly 15-20 pages in length (50%), due on December 19, 2003.

Food for Thought Dinners: The Berkman Center invites you to join us for dinner this term for informal discussions among students taking the three cyberlaw courses offered at HLS this Fall. Berkman Center faculty, staff and fellows will also participate in these dinners. No homework is required and the dinners are not required or graded in any way. Please contact Wendy Koslow at the Berkman Center (e-mail: wkoslow@cyber.law.harvard.edu) if you are interested in signing up for a FFT Dinner.