The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at the Law School is offering its first experimental online course open to the public. Professor Arthur R. Miller will moderate the cybercourse on Privacy in Cyberspace, scheduled to begin late this month.

Miller, a specialist in the Socratic method of instruction, says he "hopes to engage a worldwide audience in a Socratic dialogue about unsettled questions of privacy protection in a networked society." Miller's research interests include civil procedure and copyright, as well as the implications of computer technology for personal privacy.

Miller will pose tricky hypothetical questions to class participants, who will grapple with them in Internet discussion groups moderated by Harvard Law School students. Just when the participants think they have the answers figured out, they will face Miller in real-time Internet dialogues in which he will introduce new twists in the hypotheticals, challenging students to rethink their initial positions on tough issues of privacy policy.

Jonathan Zittrain, Berkman Center executive director, stresses that "the course is both a pedagogical and technological experiment." According to Zittrain, "The participation of people with varied amounts of exposure to the Internet and to the hot issue of cyberspace privacy, including people who have never used the Internet at all, is critical to the success of the venture."

Professor Charles Nesson, director of the Center, adds that "The Center hopes to use what it learns from this endeavor to develop a rich catalog of cybercourses."

The course will be free of charge; no credits will be offered. To register or learn more, visit the course Web site at cyber.harvard.edu/metaschool/

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School charts, and in some ways attempts to shape, the explosive development of the globally networked environment (a.k.a. cyberspace).