Social Computing

Grad course, taught in Fall 2012-2013, Spring 2016 at UIUC, iSchool by Jana Diesner

We meet Tuesdays 1-3.50 pm @ 342

Short description:

How can society restore illegible text from digitized books at minimal costs? How can dispersed individuals be mobilized to quickly assemble trustworthy information, e.g. for disaster response? How can corporations, administrations and the public harness social media and collective action to improve public health, environmental protection, and the safety and security of critical infrastructures, personal data and their reputation? Learn how to answer these questions in 590SC.
Social computing is concerned with collective problem solving and social interactions facilitated by interconnected technologies. With the diffusion of networked communication and computing devices throughout society at large, the demand for solid expertise and skills in social computing keeps gaining momentum in academia and business.
This interdisciplinary course introduces students to fundamental theories, methods, technologies and applications of social computing. Students learn about this emerging discipline from two perspectives: First, basic principles of collective information production and processing, and methods for studying these principles. Topics include prediction markets, games with a purpose, open source software development, social media, social networks, information visualization, and online games. Second, socio-technical aspects of the design and usage of respective technologies. This includes participation, privacy and security. Students learn how to solve problems in social computing in a systematic and rigorous fashion. At the end of the course, students will be able to design, manage and execute social computing projects for scholarly and commercial use, and to critically assess work in this area.

No prerequisites, no programming skills required. 
Credit: 4