\documentclass[12pt]{article} \usepackage{fullpage} \title{Freshman Seminar: \\ Computing and Telecommunications in Society} \author{Dr. Stephen Bloch \\ office 112 Alumn\ae\ Hall \\ phone 877-4483 \\ email \texttt{sbloch@adelphi.edu} \\ Web page \texttt{http://www.adelphi.edu/sbloch/} \\ Class Web page \texttt{http://www.adelphi.edu/sbloch/class/catis/} \\ office hours TBA} \begin{document} \maketitle \section{Subject Matter --- Overview} Here's part of what I wrote up in proposing this course. More details as I get around to them. \subsection{Topics to be examined} Impact of global telecommunications on traditional geographical notions of law, import and export. Conflicts between privacy and law enforcement, and between free expression and safety (\emph{e.g.} from pornography, libel, terrorism, paparazzi), in the world of computer networks. Effect of computer-based expression on the Real World, \emph{e.g.} pornography, racist `hate speech', violent video-games. Impact of computer technology and the Net on women, ethnic minorities, and underdeveloped geographic areas. Computers in grade-schools. Intellectual property and the notion of ``theft'' in the information age. Computers and democracy; effects of individual ``publishing'' \emph{via} the Web, computer bulletin boards, newsgroups, and email lists. Effects of private- and public-key cryptography and digital signatures. Government and corporate databases; access to and cross-referencing of personal information. \subsection{Course objectives} I expect students to think deeply about these issues, debate them in a constructive fashion, and consider aspects and sides of each argument that they haven't seen before. After completing the course, students should be aware of more issues than before, should have either changed or sharpened their views on some issues, and should be prepared to contribute as educated citizens to public debate on these subjects in the future. \subsection{Readings} Many of the readings in this course are likely to be taken from current news media, both print (\emph{e.g.} newspapers, news magazines) and on-line (Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web); indeed, I expect students to find relevant readings on their own and report on them to the class. Other readings are being chosen now. You'll need to read quite a bit for this course --- let's say, 50 pages a week. \textbf{You are responsible for everything in the reading assignments, whether or not I discuss it in a lecture.} You are also responsible for checking my class Web page at least once a week or so; I often post assignments, corrections to assignments, solutions to assignments, \emph{etc.} there. \section{Who Should Take This Course?} This course is open to students regardless of their intended major. Indeed, I hope to have a mix of CS majors, business majors, philosophy majors, etc. sitting side by side. \section{Prerequisites} This course has no prerequisites. Students are not expected to know how to program, use, or even turn on a computer. Students \emph{are} expected to become comfortable using email and the Web early in the semester, so as to use them effectively as research tools. \section{How will the course operate?} I don't know yet, as I'm new at this too. I hope to focus each week on a different theme subject. Within each theme, students (and I) will read a variety of articles, essays, book chapters, etc. from various viewpoints, we'll all talk about them in class, and students will write a brief essay setting forth and supporting their views on some aspect of the subject. Each student (or perhaps pairs of students working together) will then choose one of these essays in consultation with me, and expand it into an oral presentation and a more detailed final paper. \section{Sample Topics for Debate and Writing Assignments} \begin{itemize} \item For most of human history, ``theft'' has meant taking a valuable physical object away from its owner. But one can ``steal'' a valuable piece of \emph{information} simply by copying it, leaving the owner still in possession but no longer \emph{exclusive} possession. How can our legal systems adapt to this shift in value from physical to informational goods? Should software be copyrightable? Patentable? How about other forms of encoded information, such as human DNA sequences? \item Informational goods differ from physical ones not only in being easily copied, but in having no geographic location. How do the notions of ``import'' and ``export'' apply to such goods? We'll examine U.S. export regulations that treat cryptographic software algorithms as a ``munition'', demanding special permission to take outside the U.S. If laws are passed and enforced by geographic jurisdictions like nations and states, whose laws apply in cyberspace? We'll examine the case of Robert and Carleen Thomas, a California couple who ran a computer bulletin board from which a Tennessee prosecutor downloaded what was considered pornography by Tennessee (but not California) law. \item Under what circumstances can and may a government restrict individual freedom of speech and expression? Remember that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, like the aforementioned Tennessee pornography law, is a ``local statute'', not applicable to everyone. For example, Canada (not what most people would call an authoritarian regime) has chosen to restrict racist ``hate speech'' and O.J. Simpson-style trial publicity in ways that would be unconstitutional in the U.S. Does the existence of the Internet make all geographically-based legislation on communication unenforceable? Do we \emph{want} all such legislation to be unenforceable? \item Two areas in which the U.S. and many state governments have recently tried to restrict individual expression on the Net are pornography and terrorism. How can children be protected from ``unsuitable'' material (and who decides what that is?) without denying it to adults? How can terrorists be prevented from discussing bomb-making over the Net without infringing the rights of law-abiding U.S. citizens to speak freely and bear arms? \item To what extent do the things people say and experience in computer media leak over into their real-world behavior? Does viewing pornography make one more likely to treat people as sex objects? Does reading racist hate speech on the Web make one more likely to commit racist acts in reality? Does playing ``shoot-em-up'' computer games desensitize one to violence and make one more likely to walk into a high school cafeteria and start shooting? \item Who has what rights when employees use an employer-owned computer? Does the employer have the right to monitor the employee's email and Web activities? Does the employee have the right to post non-work-related material on a Web page? Does the employer have the right to monitor how much time the employee spends on various work-related tasks? What is the impact on employer, employee, and the latter's family of ``telecommuting'', \emph{i.e.} working from home over the modem? \item In 1977, two mathematicians named Diffie and Hellman made the most significant advance in secret codes in thousands of years, inventing computer-based ``public key cryptosystems'', which have since become widely available. If people (law-abiding and otherwise) have access to effectively unbreakable secret codes, how can \emph{any} government enforce \emph{any} regulation on \emph{any} kind of expression? Does government have the right (and the ability) to limit the strength of cryptographic software, or to insist that law enforcement agencies be given a ``back door key''? \item A side effect of public-key cryptosystems is that not only can anyone send a secret message to anyone, readable only by the intended recipient, but anyone can also ``sign'' a message digitally, authenticating that it did indeed come from the stated sender and has not been altered in transmission. This capability can be used to authorize purchases over the Net; what else does it mean? \item The ``anyone'' in the previous paragraph naturally means ``anyone with a computer and an email connection.'' But not everyone has those things, even in wealthy, developed nations like the U.S. In taking advantage of the blessings of computing and telecommunication, how can we avoid creating an unbridgeable rift between information ``haves'' and ``have-nots''? \item It has been shown that when a mixed group of women and men speak together in a room, the women say less than the men, and what they \emph{do} say tends to be credited to men instead. There is inconclusive evidence that these effects may decrease in on-line (as opposed to face-to-face) communication. What effects will computers and telecommunications have on gender roles and perceptions? Consider that girls have consistently (over several decades) shown less interest in computers than boys have, and that most (though not all) computer pioneers have been male engineers. Why do women and men perceive computers and telecommunication differently? \item What role do computers and telecommunications have to play in education? At what age should children be introduced to what capabilities of a computer? How can a teacher grade ``individual'' assignments when students can so easily exchange information over the Net? \item Electronic mail, computer bulletin boards and newsgroups, and the World Wide Web have provided successively greater power for individuals to ``publish'' their views and whatever information they wish, and have also made it easy and inexpensive for organizations (from special interest groups to non-partisan voter-education groups to governments themselves) to make information available to the public, and to receive feedback from the public. What does this mean for the future of democracy? Remember that some people don't have Net access. \item The availability of cheap computer storage and power has allowed organizations (government, nonprofit, media, and commercial) to build massive databases of individual behavior: everything you've ever bought with a credit card, every charity you've ever donated to, every medical examination you've ever had, every time you've gone through a toll plaza with E-Z Pass, every bank transaction you've ever made, every loan payment you've missed, and every tax return you've ever filed, may well be recorded in a computer somewhere; furthermore, all these databases can be easily cross-checked against one another. What does the word ``privacy'' mean in such an environment? Do individuals have the right to inspect and correct such information? To whom does the information belong? Some companies offer services inexpensively over the Net in exchange for personal information, which goes into their databases to be used for their own marketing or sold to other companies. If this is allowed, we may have ``privacy only for the rich;'' if not, we may have ``computer services only for the rich.'' How can we resolve this? \end{itemize} \section{Course Requirements} All students are required to attend and contribute to classroom discussions, and to complete a significant project (typically a paper) illustrating and analyzing one of the issues raised in the course. Students not already comfortable with email, Usenet newsgroups, and the World Wide Web are expected to become comfortable with these sources by the end of the semester, and to use them both in communicating with the professor and classmates and in research for their projects. \section{Grading} I expect to give about ten ``brief-essay'' assignments --- roughly one a week, due the following week --- which will probably be on the five-paragraph scale, although more or less detail will be appropriate for different topics. Some of these that call for out-of-class research may be done by teams of two students working together; I'll let you know more details as I figure them out. No later than 2/3 of the way through the semester, you'll choose one of these topics to investigate in more depth, presenting your findings in an oral presentation to the class (be prepared for questions and arguments!) and a term paper (on the order of 10--20 pages), which will serve in lieu of a final exam. Let's say, each brief-essay assignment is $5\%$ of your semester grade, class participation $15\%$, the oral presentation $15\%$, and the paper $20\%$. Or thereabouts. Since I'll have an enormous number of essays to grade and return, I have to insist that they be turned in on time: preferably in class on the due date, and absolutely no later than whenever I leave campus that day. If you can't come to class that day, let me know in advance. Writing assignments may be turned in by email in a mutually agreed-upon format (if you use a word processor I don't have, that's your problem!), on paper, or (if you wish) on the Web. \section{Ethics} The World Wide Web makes it fairly easy to copy somebody else's writing and turn it in as your own (indeed, that's one of our topics of discussion!) but even easier to find and catch people who have done so. If you want to quote someone else's writing, give that person credit; if your essay is nothing \emph{but} quotations, you're not doing enough thinking of your own. If I see essentially identical papers turned in by three different people (not hard to spot, when one professor is in charge of all the students), I'll grade it once and divide the points among those students, so the best grade any of them can hope for is a 33\%. \section{Schedule} This course meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:25 to 10:40 AM. \subsection{Tentative Course Outline by Week} \begin{enumerate} \item Overview of topics and issues \item Basic ethical theory and techniques of argument \item Pornography, Hate Speech, and Violence \item Censorship and Import/Export of Information \item Cryptography and Digital Signatures \item Terrorism and Computer Crime \item Databanks and Information Ownership \item Privacy, Publicity, and Paparazzi \item Education and Plagiarism \item Race and Gender Differences \item Access, Equality, and Democracy \item Discussion of student topics and research directions \item Student presentations and discussion \item Student presentations and discussion \item Student presentations and discussion \end{enumerate} % All dates in the following schedule are tentative, except those fixed % by the University; if some topic listed here as taking one lecture in % fact takes two lectures to cover adequately, or \emph{vice versa}, % the schedule will shift. % % In the column marked ``Reading'', the letters ``AW'' precede page % numbers in the Arnow % \& Weiss textbook, while the letters ``FF'' precede page numbers in % the Felleisen \& Friedman textbook. % % % In no case will an assignment be due earlier than indicated in the % % following schedule, but some may be due later; this will be announced % % in class a reasonable time in advance. I'll try to keep an updated % % version of this schedule available online. % % I expect you to have read the reading assignments (usually about 20 % pages per lecture) % \emph{before} the lecture that deals with that topic. % This way I can % concentrate my time on answering questions and clarifying subtle or % difficult points in the textbook, rather than on reading the textbook % to you, which will bore both of us. \textbf{Please read ahead!} % % When I say ``read'' above, I % mean a fairly active process, involving not only the textbook but % pencil, scratch paper, and a notebook for writing down key points. % Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you'll need a computer for trying % out the new ideas you find in your reading. Just as you cannot learn % about cooking or driving a car just by reading about it, you cannot % learn about programming just by reading about it. So I emphasize: % \emph{every} time you read about a new programming idea, \emph{try it!} % % \pagebreak % % % \subsubsection{Reading Assignments} % \textbf{Fill this in!} % % \subsection{Further readings or related resources} % % In addition to the enormous collection of readings mentioned in % section~\ref{subsec:textbooks} above, I've been using a series of % reports from the NSF-funded ``Project ImpactCS''; these reports, along % with sample curricula for similar courses, are available on the Web at % \\ % \texttt{http://www.seas.gwu.edu/seas/impactcs/}. \end{document}