Current Issue
Assignments #1 and #2 - 8 points each, due in Weeks 3 and 5
Your submitted file names must be of the form
Smith-Jane-curr-issue-1.doc and Smith-Jane-curr-issue-2.doc.
Choose two of the current issues below, and write a brief
paper (1000-2000 words) on each of them. You may use Internet
sources in your research, but you MUST provide a complete citation
of sources to receive credit. Be sure to indicate your paper's
topic at the top!
- Examine the role of Facebook,
Twitter, and other social-network sites in recent U.S.
elections.
- Examine the role of Facebook,
Twitter, and other social-network sites in recent U.S.
elections. Examine the role of Facebook, Twitter, and other
social-network sites in recent foreign political upheavals.
- Is google getting too big? See this
Atantic Wire article (and see if you can find other sources on
the issue) and comment.
- What is a "botnet"? Describe the
concept and its effect on the Internet.
- Examine 5 commercial web sites and
evaluate their privacy policies using the criteria from the
Online Privacy Alliance. www.privacyalliance.org
- Find articles online that express
different perspectives on content labeling (see e.g. the ACLU
web site, www.cdt.org). Write a brief paper that lists the
pros and cons of content labeling.
- Find out what ICANN is, and find
articles that are for and against ICANN - write a brief paper
that lists the strengths and weaknesses of ICANN. What
alternatives do people suggest to replace ICANN?
- Find articles about Matt Drudge and
the Drudge Report. Write a brief paper describing how others
view what he does online.
- Examine and discuss Facebook's
privacy policies.
- What is the "digital divide" all
about? Does it exist? Should it be remedied? If so, why and
how?
- Look up the "One Laptop per Child"
project. Describe it and what experts are saying about it. Do
you think it is effective?
- Go to the Center for Democracy and
Technology (CDT) web site and look at the information they
have on privacy legislation. Do a brief summary of the current
state of privacy legislation here and abroad.
- Compare the positions of EPIC and
OPA on privacy legislation. (See www.epic.org,
www.privacyalliance.org) What is your opinion about what the
US should do?
- Go to the World Intellectual
Property Organization (www.wipo.org) web site and write a
brief summary of the status of worldwide cooperation on
intellectual property issues, especially as it relates to
digital media.
- Go to the GovernmentOnline project
website to view the web sites of members of the US Congress.
At that site they provide a way to evaluate the usefulness of
congressional websites based on a set of criteria. Using the
evaluations, select 5 congressional websites and briefly
describe how well the websites meet the criteria.
