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# System prepended metadata

title: 'Homework 0: Perspectives on Socially-Responsible Computing'
tags: [Homeworks-Summer21]

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tags: Homeworks-Summer21
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# Homework 0: Perspectives on Socially-Responsible Computing

## Assignment Overview

This assignment aims to introduce you to the key socially responsible computing (SRC) themes that undergird the technical content of CSCI0180. In particular, CSCI0180 will focus on systematically evaluating a program’s components and context to identify potential societal or environmental impacts of a program within and beyond its intended effects.

## Learning Objectives
* Technical and Societal Impact Analysis: Identify potential societal impacts of a program on individual users or populations
* Testing and Validation: Discuss how to detect whether a system has adverse impacts on individual users, populations, or organizations

## Task
*Be Careful What You Code For* is a talk by danah boyd (she does not capitalize her name). boyd is a technology and society researcher at Microsoft, the founder of the Data & Society Research Institute, and a Brown CS alum. Read a [summary of her talk](https://points.datasociety.net/be-careful-what-you-code-for-c8e9f3f6f55e) or watch the video of it (linked at the bottom of the summary), then answer the questions listed below each item, using one paragraph per question (please clearly label your answer to each question within your document). 

**Question 1:** boyd identifies two problem areas for coders: ‘Area One: Environmental Consequences’ and ‘Area Two: Social Consequences’. Think back to a program you wrote in your first introductory Computer Science course. Describe that program in a sentence, then describe  one way in which, if it were implemented in the real world, it could contribute to one of these problem areas.

**Question 2:** boyd argues that technologists must conscientiously think about the social and environmental costs of their code and suggests that it is essential for code to be evaluated or audited. When in the tech development process should question about these costs be asked (design, coding, testing, marketing, etc.)? Who should participate in these conversations?

## Grading
Our goal with this assignment is to get you started thinking about these issues, and to give you practice responding against the [rubric that we will use for grading your SRC responses](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1URfKsX1Q0zSQg4pwW_VDOCjthgQiTvGuJ65W-972A90/edit?usp=sharing) during the course. You will get feedback about how well you are meeting the rubric points, but this initial assignment will not count towards your course grade. 

## How to Hand in
Submit your work as a PDF file to [Gradescope](https://www.gradescope.com/courses/224988). This, like all assignments, is subject to the [course collaboration policy](https://hackmd.io/@cs18-spring-2021/H1bI7WX1d).

Please let us know if you find any mistakes, inconsistencies, or confusing language in this or any other CS 18 document by filling out our [anonymous feedback form](https://forms.gle/ym89rAZyBk8Hg3LNA).