Technologies for democratic society
Weekly outline
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Lecture: Mondays at 15:15 - 17:00 in CM1 3
Lecture Recordings: Available here
Exercise Session: Mondays at 17:15 - 18:00 in CM1 105
This course is highly interactive, and your active participation in lectures is essential.Course Staff
Professor: Bryan Ford
TAs: Shailesh Mishra, Louis-Henri Merino, Yi Jiang
AEs: Jérémy Hugentobler, Youssef Belghmi, Srushti Singh
The CS-234 staff can be reached by email, on Ed, and during exercise sessions.Assessments
Assignments make up 50% of the final grade, and the Final Exam accounts for the other 50%.
Assignments (Grade Weights & Deadlines)
HW #1 (5%): Usenet
- Due Sep 24 @ 11:59
HW #2 (15%): Peer Review
- Part 1 (6%): Write Up (due Oct 1 @ 23:59)
- Part 2 (6%): Peer Review (released Oct 2, due Oct 8 @ 23:59)
- Part 3 (3%): Metareview (released Oct 9, due Oct 15 @ 23:59)
HW #3 (10%): Ethereum Smart Contract
- Released on Oct 18
- Part 1: Register Sepolia address (due Nov 8 @ 23:59)
- Part 2: Smart contracts deployment (due Dec 13 @ 23:59)
- Part 3: Quadratic Voting (due Dec 13 @ 23:59)
HW #4 (20%): Collective Problem Solving
- Propose a Problem (due Oct 18 @ 23:59)
- Comment on Proposals (due Oct 30 @ 23:59)
- Vote on Proposals (due Nov 1 @ 23:59)
- Form Teams (due Nov 6 @ 23:59)
- Information Gathering & Initial Proposals (due Dec 2 @ 23:59)
- Discussion & Proposal Feedback (due Dec 6 @ 23:59)
- Presentation Preparation (due Dec 9 @ 12:00)
- Final Approval & Peer Evaluations (due Dec 20 @ 23:59)
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This week: 1. Course introduction
Recording: https://drive.switch.ch/index.php/s/7q8WhQpUS5iV8Tb
Next week: 2. UseNet, Internet, and "Democratization"
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By J.C.R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor, April 1968.
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Excerpt: Chapter 8 from "Democracy and its Critics", Robert Dahl, 1989
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By Michael and Ronda Hauben, April 1997.
Reading assignment: chapters 1-4 and 18.
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This week: 2. UseNet, Internet, and "Democratization"
Video: https://mediaspace.epfl.ch/media/CS-234+Week+2/0_oy5akiib
Next week: 3. Social influence and choice
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This week: 3. Social influence and choice
Next week: 4. Online trust networks and reputation systems
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This week: 4. Online trust networks and reputation systems
Next week: 5. Election methods -
This week: 5. Election methods
Next week: 6. Smart contracts and decentralized governance
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This week: 6. Smart contracts and decentralized governance
Next week: 7. Scaling participation through delegation
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This week: 7. Scaling participation through delegation
Next week: 8. Market-based mechanisms -
This week: 8. Market-based mechanisms
Next week: 9. Deliberative representation by lottery -
This week: 9. Deliberative representation by lottery
Next week: 10. Social bots and Sybil attacks -
This week: 10. Social bots and Sybil attacks
Next week: 11. Identity and anonymity online -
This week: 11. Identity and anonymity online
Next week: 12. Identity and anonymity technologies -
This week: 12. Identity and anonymity technologies
Next week: 13. Polarization -
This week: 13. Polarization
Next week: 14. E-voting and E-democracy -
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In this homework you are going to learn about smart contracts by interacting with a quadratic voting contract on Ethereum. This homework consists of three parts.
The first part is due Friday, November 8th @ 23:59. If you do not complete this part (i.e., submit a Google Form), you will not be able to participate in part 3. No exceptions.
The deadline for Part 2 & 3 is Friday, December 13th @ 23:59.
You can find the assignment here:
https://github.com/dedis/cs234-public/blob/main/DAO/handout/handout.md
Submit your Part 2 answers to this Moodle Assignment as stated in the handout.
