Today is the first day of the spring quarter at UCSB.  This naturally translates into less time for blog writing. But - on the plus side - I'm teaching two classes which should generate some interesting ideas for future posts.One of them is an upper-division undergraduate course framed around the idea of "Technology, Power, and the American Century." The goal is to look at the myriad ways technology and power (of all kinds) intersected during the long American century. (I'm defining this as roughly 1870 to the end of the Cold War...from when the U.S. became a key industrial power and a major figure on the global stage to when America emerged as the sole hyper-power after the collapse of the USSR). If you're interested, a copy of the syllabus is here.I am also co-teaching a graduate level class with a colleague from the Communications Department - it's the "gateway seminar" for our Technology and Society doctoral emphasis (sort of like a graduate minor). We decided to focus on questions - historical as well as contemporary - about data for a class we're calling "Data: Big & Small, Raw & Cooked." Besides thinking about the changing historical context of data – what is it? How have people collected, managed, and used it over time? – we will also address contemporary issues associated with data, especially those related to Big Data.As always, thanks for your interest in Leaping Robot :)  More anon...