Assigned Readings
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This page contains the readings for the entire class. Please keep in mind that readings will be updated over the course of the semester, so check back frequently to make sure you aren't missing anything!
January 28 - Politics and Technology of Control: Introduction
Readings/Watchings
What is the Internet?
- Ethan Zuckerman, History of the Internet (approx. 7 mins., watch all)
- Jonathan Zittrain, How the Internet Works (approx. 4 mins., watch all)
How does the Internet change governance?
- Rebecca MacKinnon, Let’s Take Back the Internet! (TED.com) (approx. 15 mins., watch all)
Who governs the Internet?
- ICANN, Who Runs the Internet? (infographic)
- Alex Simonelis, A Concise Guide to the Major Internet Bodies (skim, but focus on ICANN, IETF, IANA, and W3C)
Who is the Internet? Who is it not? What can we do about it?
- Eszter Hargittai, The Digital Divide and What to Do About It (New Economy Handbook) (focus on Sections I-III)
- Hargittai’s data is from 2003. For more recent data, see Pew Internet & American Life Project, Who's Not Online and Why (read the summary, skim the sections).
- Ethan Zuckerman, Why Our Webs Are Rarely Worldwide, And What We Can Do About It (approx. 14 mins., watch all)
Optional Readings
- Ellery Biddle, Who Controls the Internet? (Global Voices) (video in Spanish with English subtitles, 10 mins., watch all)
- Chris Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger, Cluetrain Manifesto (just the manifesto)
February 4 - Paradigms for Studying the Internet
Readings
- Mechanisms of control
- Lawrence Lessig, Code 2.0, Chapter 7 (read intro, "A Dot's Life," and "On Governments and Ways to Regulate")
- Rob Faris and Rebekah Heacock, Measuring Internet Activity: a (Selective) Review of Methods and Metrics (read 1-3 and 9-22)
- danah boyd, White Flight in Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook (read 1-11, skim 12-18, read 19-end)
- The effects of control
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It (Chapter 1, "The Battle of the Boxes," and Chapter 4, "The Generative Pattern," only)
- Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (pp. 379-396 only; stop at "The Physical Layer")
Optional Readings
- Jeffrey Lin, Play Nice: the Science and Behavior of Online Games (Focus on 0:00-27:17. It's a long video, but an interesting exploration of how one company uses game design to regulate griefing and other online bad behavior. Some of the discussed language is NSFW.)
- Orin Kerr, The Problem of Perspective in Internet Law (Focus on sections I and II)
February 11 - A Series of Tubes: Infrastructure, Broadband, and Baseline Content Control
Readings
- Comparing and measuring connectivity
- The Berkman Center, How Do We Connect To The Internet? (about 7 mins., watch all)
- Yochai Benkler, Next Generation Connectivity (executive summary and introduction only)
- What is the role of government?
Optional Readings
- Rob Faris and Rebekah Heacock, Measuring Internet Activity: a (Selective) Review of Methods and Metrics (pages 3-9)
February 18 - Regulating Speech Online
Readings
- Private and public control of speech online
- Berkman Center, How Internet Censorship Works (about 7 mins., watch all)
- Biz Stone and Alex Macgillivary, The Tweets Must Flow and The Tweets Still Must Flow
- Speech laws and liabilities in the United States
- Cross-border concerns
- Susan Benesch, Dangerous Speech (audio interview, about 9 mins., listen to all)
Optional Readings
- David Ardia, Free Speech Savior or Shield for Scoundrels: An Empirical Study of Intermediary Immunity Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Read all of Section I, Parts C&D of Section II, and Conclusion)
February 25 - Copyright Part 1: Guiding Principles and Online Application
Assignments
The first half of assignment 2 (posting your prospectus) is due before class today. Information on the assignment can be found here. Please note that we have updated the final project page's FAQ section based on some student questions that have come to us over the past week.
Readings/Watchings
- The mechanics of copyright law
- U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 1: Copyright Basics (read only Who Can Claim Copyright?, What Works Are Protected?, What is Not Protected by Copyright?, How to Secure a Copyright, and How Long Copyright Protection Endures)
- Digital applications and new challenges
- Lawrence Lessig, It is About Time: Getting Our Values around Copyright (watch first 6 minutes)
- Copyright solutions
- Creative Commons, A Shared Culture (video, watch all) and Spectrum of Rights
- U.S. Department of Commerce: Internet Policy Task Force, Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy (Executive summary only)
- Maria Pallante, The Next Great Copyright Act (skim Section II (323-339) only)
- Maria Pallante is the Register of Copyrights for the United States.
Recommended Readings
- Lewis Hyde, Common As Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership (video, watch from 2:12 to 24:37)
- Jessica Litman, The Exclusive Right to Read (introduction and Sections I and II only)
- Lawrence Lessig, Remix: Making Art and Culture Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (Introduction only)
March 4 - Copyright Part 2: Enforcement and Balances
Readings/Watchings
- The DMCA Notice-And-Takedown Process
- Digital Media Law Project, Claims Based on User Content and Protecting Yourself Against Copyright Claims Based on User Content
- Chilling Effects, About and peruse the weather reports.
- Case Study - SOPA/PIPA
- The big picture
Optional Readings
- Case Study - ISP "Six Strikes
- Case Study - Operation In Our Sites
March 11 - Collective Action, Politics, and Protests
Readings/Watchings
- Framing
- Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrel, The Power and Politics of Blogs (read introduction, "The networked structure of the blogosphere;" skim "How skewedness affects politics;" read "The constraints on blog influence" and conclusion)
- Bruce Etling et al., Political Change in the Digital Age: The Fragility and Promise of Online Organizing (read introduction, "Digital Technologies, Information and Political Transitions," "Online Organizing and Contentious Politics," and "The Uncertain Future of Digital Organizing")
- Case Studies
- Yochai Benkler et al., Social Mobilization and the Networked Public Sphere: Mapping the SOPA/PIPA Debate (read 4-10, skim 12-38, read 39-46)
- You may also want to play around with the controversy mapper Media Cloud put together in connection with this report.
- Lada Adamic and Natalie Glance, The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. Election: Divided They Blog (read introduction, analysis, and conclusion – i.e., pages 1-3 and 8-15)
- Alex Remington, Social Media and Participation in Political Protest: Observations from Tahrir Square
- Observations, tactics, and methods
Optional Readings
- Jillian York, Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere (focus on the Introduction, and “Social Media: Privacy Companies, Public Responsibilities”)
- Yochai Benker, The Wealth of Networks (Chapter 7 - "The Emergence of a Networked Public Sphere")
March 18 - No class (Spring Break)
March 25 - Peer Production: Development from the Edges and from the Crowd
Readings
- Development from the edges
- Eric Von Hippel, Democratizing Innovation (Chapter 1, focus on pages 1-3 and 13-15, skim rest)
- Development as a crowd
- Jerome Hergeaux, Cooperation in a Peer Production Economy: Experimental Evidence from Wikipedia (video, watch from beginning to 47:50)
- Yochai Benkler, News, Information and the Wealth of Networks (video, watch from 8:32 to 26:07)
- if you’re not familiar, you may want to spend a little time looking at Wikipedia’s entry on Seti@home.
- Crowd intelligence
- James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds (read excerpt)
Optional Readings
- Jonathan Zittrain, Minds for Sale (video, watch all)
April 1 - Privacy Part 1: Corporate Data Gathering
Readings
- Conceptualizing privacy
- Privacy and data
- Chris Anderson, The End of Theory (Wired appears to be having some troubles with their links this week, so if that doesn't work, try this cached version.)
- Bruce Schneier, Why Anonymous Data Sometimes Isn't (see the note above about Wired - try this cached version if the link above doesn't work).
- Play around with some of the websites by Latanya Sweeney
- Corporate data practices
- Jennifer Valentino-Devires, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Ashkan Soltani, Websites Vary Prices, Deals Based on Users' Information (if this appears behind a paywal, play around with the WSJ's interactive graphics)
Optional Readings
- Lawrence Lessig, Code 2.0 (Chapter 7) (focus on "Privacy in Public: Data")
April 8 - Privacy Part 2: Government Surveillance
Readings
- Government vs. Corporate Surveillance
- Emily Bell et al., Comment to Review Group on Intelligence and Communication Technologies Regarding the Effects of Mass Surveillance on the Practice of Journalism (pages 9-12 ("Mass surveillance raises issues beyond individual surveillance," "Secret and confusing law," and "Chilling Effects") only)
- Case Study - the NSA Scandal and Surveillance Policy
- Bruce Schneier, The Battle for Power on the Internet (approx. 12:30, watch all)
- Surveillance and U.S. law
- If you're interested, the Donohue article can be found here.
Optional Readings
- The Jennifer Granick / Orin Kerr debates on metadata and the Fourth Amendment
April 15 - Informing the Public in the Internet Age
Readings
- The whos and wheres of modern journalism
- Persephone Miel and Rob Faris, News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age (read executive summary)
- Federal Communications Commission, Information Needs of Communities (read executive summary, skim overview)
- Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (Chapter 7) (read from 225 ("Our second story focuses…") to 241 (end before "On Power Law Distributions, Network Topology, and Being Heard"); read from 261-66 ("Who Will Play the Watchdog Function?"))
- Threats and issues
- This American Life, Picture Show (audio, from 0:00 to 5:09)
- RonNell Anderson Jones, Litigation, Legislation, and Democracy in a Post-Newspaper America (Section I only)
- Brendan Nyhan, Biases Abound (about 15 mins., watch all)
- New technologies and models
- Catherine D'Ignazio, Ali Hashmi, and Ethan Zuckerman, Mapping the (Boston) Globe (play with the website)
Optional Readings
- Jonathan Zittrain, 2009 Richard S. Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press (the lecture starts at 19:45)
April 22 - Hacking, Hackers, and Hacktivism
Readings
- Defining hackers, hacking, and hacktivism
- Molly Sauter, Activist DDOS Campaigns: When Similes and Metaphors Fail (video, watch from to 1:56 to 21:44)
- Sauter uses the term "DDoS" throughout. This is an abbreviation for "distributed denial of service," a specific form of attack to a web server described in more detail here.
- Benjamen Walker, Doing it for the LULZ (from Too Much Information) (11:00 to 22:45 only, language at times is NSFW. Too Much Information drifts between fiction and non-fiction, but this excerpt is non-fiction.)
- Law and law enforcement
- United States Department of Justice, Prosecuting Computer Crimes (read pages 1-11: Introduction to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Key Definitions)
- Case studies
Optional Readings
- Intelligence Squared Debate: "The Cyberwar Threat Has Been Grossly Exaggerated" (an Oxford-style debate with Marc Rotenberg, Bruce Schneier, Mike McConnell, and Jonathan Zittrain; watch the video of the debate)
April 29 - The Internet as a Tool of Education
Readings
- Modern distance education
- What is new and what is not?
- Radio Berkman, Wikis, Teaching, and the Digital Divide (audio, about 18 mins., listen to all)
- Concerns, doubts, and issues
- Case Studies - HarvardX and CopyrightX