Computer Science Education as Part of an Undergraduate Program in Community Information Systems

Social information systems have recently emerged as an empowering force for communities, organizations, and businesses. Consequently, new academic programs have been proposed around the globe, aiming at establishing a framework within which students gain experience in the socio-technical process of designing information systems in business, libraries, health, government, education and beyond. These new interdisciplinary programs often regard computer science (CS) as one of their supporting pillars and therefore include some core CS courses, aiming at educating broad-minded practitioners rather than expert programmers in the field of information systems. This paper presents some thoughts on incorporating CS education in academic programs intended for non-CS majors and proposes an approach called 'Program by Design' for the first CS course in a new undergraduate program in community information systems.