Guidelines
/ Specifications:
You
will work with a team of 6 class members to develop this project. The result will be an oral presentation
(with some written support materials) by your group. It will be presented to other members of the class and your
instructor and/or TA at a time to be arranged.
To
develop the project, you should investigate the topic, using articles, material
from web sites and/or books, etc. for background. Your project must include:
1.
some
background research
2.
and
some activity, e.g., an interview, a visit, a survey
3.
and
some analysis of the issues involved.
To
do this: Find current
information and don’t just report.
Discuss pros and cons.
Evaluate. Use your own
words. Quote where appropriate. Give citations for facts and quotes (you
will turn in the list of citations.) If
you use articles from the Web, give the URL and the organization sponsoring the
site. There’s a lot of junk and
unsupported opinion on the Web so pay attention to the quality of the sites.
Requirements
/ timetable / details will be distributed in the weekly notes.
Suggested
topics: Many of these ideas come
from web-based Instructors Manual for Sara Baase, A Gift of Fire: Social,
Legal and Ethical Issues in Computing. You
can propose your own topic if you wish.
1.
Privacy
on the Web.
What’s
happening now? Recent abuses and
improvements. Web site policies,
arguments for and against government regulation, etc. Software like Carnivore, Net Witness.
2.
Personal
data privacy regulations in other countries.
England
has an elaborate system, for example.
3.
Copyright
on the Net.
What’s
being done to protect intellectual property (music, etc.) and encourage sales
on the Net?
4.
Copyright
and software.
What’s
happening with “free” software? What is the impact of Linux, for example? What are the implications for
consumers? For big companies like
Microsoft?
5.
Children
on the Internet.
There
are several problem areas: availability of material not appropriate for children,
contact with people who seek to abuse children, and privacy risks from game
sites that ask children for extensive personal and family information (for
marketing purposes). How serious are
these problems? What is bring done
about them? Evaluate various
solutions. Do benefits for children on
the Net outweigh the risks? Can we
arrange to have the benefits without the risks?
6.
Telemedicine
From
remote consultation to remote surgery.
Benefits, possible problem areas (privacy, errors, loss of personalized
care).
7.
Computers
in law enforcement.
Issues
include benefits to crime fighting, invasion of privacy, problems caused for
innocent people because of errors in databases. Describe cases where the computer system has been very helpful
in catching a criminal, and describe cases where it has caused serious
problems. A possible activity is to
interview someone who runs or supervises the use of local law enforcement
computer systems. What databases do
they access? How do they prevent
unauthorized access? Are they aware of
the serious injustices caused by errors in files. How do they try to avoid such problems?
8.
Automated
systems.
Study
progress and safety and social issues related to an automated system like
automated highways and self-driving vehicles.
9.
Spam
What
are the problems? Relevance to freedom
of speech. The roles of technical and
legislative solutions. What is
currently happening? What court cases
have been decided so far?
10.
Censorship on the Internet.
Some
aspect not covered in the text, or study some issue in more detail. One possibility is to focus on academic
freedom issues, censorship of newsgroups on college campuses. Another is to study control of the Net in
other countries.
11.
Information warfare.
Will
the next wars be fought without bombs?
Will computer networks and computer-controlled infrastructure by the
targets of military hackers? What is
happening now? What kind of defenses
are possible?
12.
Computers and conservation.
How
are computers used by nature researchers and organizations. What do environmentalists think of
computers? Are there ideological
conflicts?
13.
Computing
and network access in other countries.
Consider
the state of computing in several other countries, e.g., India, South Africa,
Haiti.
14.
What will the world be like 50 years from
now?
How
will electronic communications and commerce affect the power of centralized
governments? Everyday life? What will happen as computers are connected
to the human body? Deep Blue beat a
human at chess in 1997. Will human intelligence
be of less value in the future?
15.
Use
of computers in schools.
How
are they used? Are they really helping
to set teach or to babysit? Perhaps
visit a school and see what you can find out.
16.
Use of biometrics for identification.
Benefits,
problems, issues. Digital face
recognition (e.g., Visionics) and retinal scans are in the news.
17.
Security
vs. privacy and civil liberties.
Government
has proposed massive monitoring or major computer networks by the government to
protect the security of the nation’s information infrastructure. Is this a good idea? What are the pro and con arguments?
18.
Electronic
commerce.
Implications
for the economy, for privacy, etc.
Which industries will benefit?
Which will be hurt? How will
daily activities be affected? Are there
significant social benefits or detriments from electronic commerce?
19.
Electronic
commerce technology.
New
technology. (1) Smart cards: uses,
benefits, privacy implications and protections in a particular application or
industry. (2) Several companies are
working on technology for micropayments on the Net. What will be the impact on the structure of businesses, physical
store locations, communities, etc. if we can easily make little purchases on the
Net? What are the privacy and security
issues?
20.
Automated
systems.
Progress
and safety and social issues related to an automated system like automated
highways and self-driving vehicles.
21.
Computer
crime.
Credit
card fraud, identity theft, etc.