Final project guidelines

Topic

Your topic can be one that you already started to explore with your blog posts or for discussion. It can be a topic that you haven't explored yet but in which you are interested. The skies the limit. Feel free to talk with either of your instructors about topic possibilities.

Paper guidelines:

• A 3-4 page, double-spaced paper on a topic of your choice (related to this class, of course) - your Works Cited page does not "count" as part of the length of the paper.
  
• 3-5 sources. These sources must be cited in a Works Cited page at the end of your paper in the MLA style. Each source must be utilized in your paper, meaning that you need to quote from or paraphrase each of the sources listed in your Works Cited. Each time you quote or paraphrase from a source, make sure that you also provide an in-text citation. If you need help with any of this, ask me. This website is also a great online guide to all facets of citing sources.
  
• The paper can be a straight-forward report that describes your topic and possibly includes a small bit of your opinion. Or, it can be more of a persuasive piece, stating your opinion from the beginning of the paper and providing the research to support that opinion.

Power Point presentation

• You presentation should be 5-10 minutes long.
• Just like the paper, your research should be supported by 3-5 external sources. These should be cited on a Works Cited slide and should also be noted in the body of the presentation when utilized.
  

Video

• Make a video. 2-3 minutes long.
• Again, 3-5 external sources are required along with a list of credits at the ends.
• If you are choosing this option, let one of your instructors know before hand.

Questions for review, 5/20

Pick a question. Work as a group or as an individual. We'll discuss on Monday. That means your blog post on this will be due the following Monday, 5/27.

Question 1
Take a look at examples of ‘open source’ or ‘open licensing.’ Explore the following links:
Open licensing/Open source
OSI – Open Software Initiative
Free Software Foundation
Proprietary software

What is open source or open licensing mean?
What are the goals of these types of initiatives/projects?
What kinds of benefits are there for users of these projects?
How does open source or open licensing differ from proprietary software?

Question 2
Public Domain

• Make sure you’ve watched the Lawrence Lessig video on TED (we watched this on Wednesday in class)
• Read about "Oral History" on Wikipedia.
• Is oral history "read only" or "read/write"?
  
• Read the article about Alan Lomax's work at the American Folklife Center. Follow some of the links to his recordings of artists in the American South, the Carribean, Ireland, etc. Listen to some of these recordings.
• Look into the influences of some of the bands from the 60s and 70s - The Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Cream, etc.
• What kind of conclusions can you make about the influence of public domain on our culture?
• Do copyright rules benefit or hinder the impact of the public domain?
• How do Creative Commons and open licensing/open source address this issue?
  

Question 3
Creative Commons

• Look for resources with Creative Commons mark - Flickr, Youtube, music, book sites, Wikimedia, and any other site of your choice. Here's a head start.
• Here are other places: Jamendo, and Public Library of Science.
• Where (or with what media) do you see the Creative Commons mark most often/least?
• What advantages do you see in using the Creative Commons idea - for the artist? For the publisher? For the consumer?
• Give some examples of Creative Commons use that you found.
• When looking at Wikimedia, you'll notice that many of the items have a GNU free documentation license? What is this?
  

Question 4
Freedom of Speech

• Go back to this site.
• Review what we discussed including cyberbullying, hate speech, censorship, etc. and the impact the of the internet on them
• Read the responsibility piece concerning freedom of speech.
• Here's another good article with multiple perspectives. Take a look at some of the comments below each article. These include some good points.
• Formulate your thoughts on the topic. Should there be more federal regulation of hate speech? More consequences for cyberbullying? A more toned down political debate atmosphere?
  

Intellectual property

Today, we'll be talking about Intellectual Property, focusing on copyright and how that intersects with the digital age. I'm listing some links that I'll refer to in class today.

Copyright

• Stanford
• Copyright Protection: What it is, How it works - Good description of copyright expiration
  

Other Intellectual Property terms (see this website, bottom left box for these terms)
Public domain, fair use, patents, trademarks, etc.

Example of use of public domain for continued creativity through time
The Gallow's Pole is a traditional song that has been covered throughout time by artists such as Leadbelly and Led Zepplin, most notably. These artists drew on the creativity of the public domain to create a new sound or interpretation of the original work.

Copyright Law of 1976 (amended in 1988)

• Lays out copyright law that we know today, including concepts like Fair Use
• Original range of protection – author’s life + 50 years
  

Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998

• Basically, extends the coverage of copyright for the individual and corporate holder
• Labeled Sunny Bono Act or Mickey Mouse Act (Disney) because of the strong support these interest
• Effectively froze the advance of the public domain
  

Digital Millenium Copyright Act, 1998 – effort to apply intellectual property to the digital age

• Recent example of this in action - Sony v. Hotz
• Other examples of this in action?
  

Creative Commons

• Read Only/Read Write culture -this has shaped a new intellectual property discussion
• Look for CC sign in youtube, music, other creative works (Public Library of Science – scholarly works)
• Creative Commons and other open licensing revolves around the idea of allowing open use of creative works for collaboration and more open access, not necessarily for the protection of “property” but for the collaborative development of our culture; of writing it together; of writing ideas; of rewriting those ideas; of creating something better as a community.
  

Other examples of this:

• Open licensing/Open source
• OSI – Open Software Initiative
• Free Software Foundation
• GNU license; GNU/Linux operating system
  

Here's a good description of the goal of "free software:"
Taken from http://www.gnu.org/.

Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”.
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
· The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
· The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
· The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
· The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Instead of putting a Creative Commons license on this type of software, you would use a GNU GPL (General Public License), for example.

Open access in publishing:
Example - Public library of science

TED, Lawrence Lessig: Laws that choke creativity

Point of the class

The point of this class is to introduce ideas to you. You, then, take the ball and run with it in your own related explorations (blog posts) and participation in class (attendance and discussion). You will shape a rich online discussion. The quality of the class is up to you.

Quality aside, you're grade depends on this. You must post and you must participate to do well. If you are concerned about your grade, then please talk to Rich or I so that we can help you.

Wednesday, we'll talk about Intellectual Property.

Friday, you'll do some research.

Monday, we'll discuss in class.

The blog for this week's topic will be due Monday, May 23rd.

Blog for my week due May 13

The template works the same with both Rich and I - your blog post will be due one week after the day that we have a class discussion. So, my discussion was last Friday; your blog post on one of those topics will be due this Friday, May 13.

Questions

For those of you who were not here on Wednesday, pick an area to look into and be prepared to discuss on Friday!

Group 1: Patriot act

Here’s a trail to follow. Look at the links below. They will take you from the Patriot Act legislation itself (1), to an outline of the sunset provisions, the reauthorizations of key provisions, and finally, an argument for and one against the Patriot Act.

Familiarize yourself with the content and be prepared to discuss the key elements that were recently reauthorized, your thoughts about the Patriot Act, and anything else you feel relevant.

An overview of the Patriot Act titles and sections. Focus on Title II.

Read the sketch of sunset provisions

Read 2005 authorization

Read most recent authorization and here.

Obama signs reauthorization

Patriot act debate will ramp up again next month

Find some pro and con arguments supporting the Patriot Act. After reading those and the above resources, plus any other information that you find, what's your opinion of the Patriot Act?


Group 2: Polls & Legislation

Take a look at this site. Scroll down to Polls and Surveys. Look at some of these polls.

Is this public concern for privacy leading to any legislation?

Read about the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011.

Here's a more concise read and a video.

Find any other specifics that you can about this piece of legislation. Does this bill go far enough in protecting people’s privacy? What are some of the highlights?

Group 3: Take a look at Carnivore, Room 641A, and MalIntent.

Here's another description of MalIntent and here.

Find more background resources if necessary.

What was/is each?

Take a look at COINTELPRO. What was it? What were its goals? What happened to it?

Are these programs/surveillance technologies in the interest of national security or do they violate the rights of American citizens? Or, is it more complicated than that?

Here's a nice look at data mining in the private sector.


And in the public sector.
This one is lengthy, but browse it anyway to get a feel for its contents. It's a little dated - 2004 - but it gives a nice overview of data mining in the public sector.

Read both for background information about this topic and preparation for Wednesday and Friday.