"Policy" Full Course Description

Course Description:

Please note: For the purposes of this course Policy is defined as: the expectations of the user(s) with respect to information. Information is defined as: that which reduces uncertainty.

A policy defines what information is to be protected, why it is to be protected, and who (and under what circumstances) may have what form of access to that information. The policy lays out the business case for the information protection. It is the basis for all protection measures. Ultimately the protection implementation must be traceable to the policy and the policy must be traceable to the implementation. If such traceability fails usually something breaks and the information is either not adequately protected or the implemented system contains superfluous components. Policy is the basis for the consideration of composition.

The course will begin with a study of the background of early communications, the establishment of the awareness of information having value (hence the emergence of policy), possible policy dimensions (expectations), and the means (mechanisms) for actually implementing that policy. This initial part of the course will draw heavily from the USC expertise in ancient languages, anchored with considerations of the “oral tradition”, in particular with focus on the identification of information, information objects themselves as distinct from the “containers” of those information objects, and markings.

The next phase of the course will consider the evolution of the user’s expectations, the information objects and the containers. This phase will focus on overall implications of the “climax” technology of the literate epoch of information, focusing on the considerations of information objects, encoding schemes, information containers, the technology for “managing” information containers, technology for policy implementation, markings, and communication of information. Additionally this phase will examine the “gains and losses” associated with the evolution of the “age of information.”

The next phase of the course will consider the evolution again of the user’s expectations, with regard to the information, the information objects and the containers. But this phase will focus on the overall implications of the transition to the digital age. This phase will examine the implications on policy, will extend the notions of encoding schemes, will examine very carefully the technology for policy implementation; and focusing on the considerations of information objects, encoding schemes, information containers, the technology for “managing” information containers, technology for policy implementation, markings, and communication of information. Additionally this phase will examine the “gains and losses” associated with the evolution of the “age of information”. A good deal of the technical discussion will derive from the above mentioned sources.

Lastly, the course will examine stated information policies with an eye to detecting errors, flaws and omissions. The intent of this phase is to develop, for those policies that survive careful scrutiny, high level architectural considerations for the possible systems implementations.

It is recommended that students have some background in computer security, or a strong willingness to learn. Recommended previous courses of studies include computer science, electrical engineering, computer engineering, management information systems, and/or mathematics. Because this is a foundational course, it is of a reasonable technical difficulty that it may be considered for students in non-technical program that have good technical acumen in degree programs such as business.

This class will be primarily individual study, with weekly assigned readings, seven homework assignments, four quizzes, one project, a midterm and a final. Students are also required to perform literature research for each class period.

Objectives:

This course has five primary learning objectives for students. Success in this course will largely depend on mastery of these objectives:

1. Understand and be able to articulate the genesis of information policy.

2. For each “epoch” of information technology what happened and what requirements were created for the implementation of policy.

3. Understand that some policies do not require sophisticated implementation solutions.

4. Understand that some policies cannot be implemented within the capabilities of existing technology.

5. Understand the problem of “composition” and how policy and careful policy implementation may or may not be able to contribute to the successful composition of information technology systems.