Our class will engage in understanding and building a public realm in cyberspace. Dedicated to the memory of Aaron Swartz, we will consider the history of the Internet, its generative capacity for expanding our public realm, public access to open knowledge, and Internet-mediated civic engagement and political participation. Readings will range from Neuromancer and Snowcrash to Benkler, on the Economics of Networks. There will be a workshop component to the class in the model pioneered by Professor Fisher's CopyrightX, with students in the class also serving as discussion leaders of satellite discussion groups.