Course Program:
Cooperation Studies have come into focus as an exploration to understand the nature and purpose of cooperative behavior. Charles Darwin, while acknowledging the existence of cooperation, emphasized competition to explain behavior patterns of individuals and species (survival of the fittest). In recent studies in fields like biology, economics, sociology, and computer science the significance of cooperation has become evident.
In this course, participants will explore the role of cooperation in the field of computer science. Topics to be covered include: Anatomy of cooperation. Digital communities. Cooperation technologies. Decentralized models for privacy protesting social networks. Social Network Analysis (including social media). Methods and technologies that support cooperative applications. Online common goods.
The course is organized as a seminar of lively discussions based on a collection of readings.
Throughout the semester, participants will be involved in cooperative practices such as contributing to blogs and wiki-based collective knowledge. These activities will serve to provide experiential knowledge as well as providing a continuous discussion forum for discussions related to issues discussed in class.
The study of cooperation is multidisciplinary in nature. This course is tailored to the issues that concern computer science. This course explores the nature and application of cooperation technologies. Each week we will examine some aspects of cooperation and technical details of technologies used in this area.
There will be a semester group project. Students must be willing to use Python in the project. Advanced programming skills are not required.
Grading:
| Criteria | % |
| In class and online participation | 40 |
| Project | 40 |
| Take home exam | 20 |
Additional Material:
We will use a collaborative platform during the class. Specific details about this course and our co-learning plan will be shared on this platform.
Notes:
Guidelines for class:
- Mindful attendance – we will pay attention to being there in body and mind.
- Each week we will
- discuss weekly articles
- discuss what's new? And there is always something new in our context. That means we all will keep our eyes open for related news in our field.
- contribute at least one blog related to cooperation technologies, which is abundant in our daily lives.
- Contribute article summaries for that week on our Wiki.
- You will be given an opportunity to suggest reading material in our context.
With collaborative and active co-learning we will cover a lot of ground. Exploring together has always been fun. I am sure it will be true this semester too.