School of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Computer Science CSci 1030 -- Technology and Society http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/csci1030/summer11 Prof. Michael B. Feldman, course instructor mfeldman@gwu.edu

Current Issue Assignments #1 and #2 - 8 points each, due in Weeks 3 and 5

1. Examine the role of Facebook, Twitter, and other social-network sites in recent U.S. elections.

2. Examine the role of Facebook, Twitter, and other social-network sites in recent foreign political upheavals.

3. What is WikiLeaks all about? Examine the social impact of WikiLeaks' existence.
   

4. Is google getting too big? See this very recent Atantic Wire article (and see if you can find other sources on the issue) and comment.
   

5. Examine the problem of bullying and vigilantism on the Internet. Discuss the interaction between this serious problem and the legal and constitutional protection of privacy (on the one hand) and free speech (on the other).

6. Examine the problem of "malware". How serious do you think it is? Can it be regulated?

7. What is a "botnet"? Describe the concept and its effect on the Internet.
   

8. Examine 5 commercial web sites and evaluate their privacy policies using the criteria from the Online Privacy Alliance. www.privacyalliance.org

9. Find articles online that express different perspectives on content labeling (see the ACLU web site, www.cdt.org, Anti-defamation League; You can also search using RSAC (Recreational Software Advisory Council) and ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association. Write a brief paper that lists the pros and cons of content labeling.

10. 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?

11. Find articles about Matt Drudge and the Drudge Report. Write a brief paper describing how others view what he does online.

12. Examine and discuss Facebook's privacy policies.

13. What is the "digital divide" all about? Does it exist? Should it be remedied? If so, why and how?
    

14. Look up the "One Laptop per Child" project. Describe it and what experts are saying about it. Do you think it is effective?
    

15. 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.

16. 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?

17. 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.

18. Go to the ICRA web site (www.icra.org) to view the set of common vocabulary terms they now use for content labeling. What is your assessment of the items they have selected to be used by parents to filter Internet content for young children? What is your opinion about this type of filtering?

19. 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.