FYS Internet Controversies

www.cs.amherst/~ccm/fys-internet/paper2.html

FYS 22 Internet Controversies

Second Paper Assignment

For this assignment, you must build a website that advocates and argues for (or against) some Internet trend or policy. Here are some deadlines.

On Tuesday, October 16th, the class will meet in Seeley Mudd 002 for a tutorial on making web pages at Amherst College. If necessary, I will also set up some evening time for you to get more help making websites. The Dreamweaver software package that we will be using is available on all public terminals at the college.
To prepare for the tutorial, write out (on paper) three short paragraphs that give three different reasons to support your argument. Also write down one URL to a website that people could visit to find out more about your subject. Finally, download one or two image files, from the web, that could be relevant to your topic, and save them on your U Drive. If you don't know how to do this last part, don't worry: substitute images will be provided in the lab, and you will be taught how to download and save images.
On Thursday, the 18th, in addition to the course readings, we will spend some time talking about good web style, and how plagiarism and copyright policies apply to website design.
The draft website is due Tuesday, October 23rd. Bring the URL of your draft website to class. As before, you will be asked to trade websites with other students for critiquing purposes. I will provide a questionnaire for you to fill out.
Your critique is due in class Thursday, October 25th.
Your final website is due Tuesday, October 30th. Bring the URL to class and I will grade the online version.

The Contents of the Website

Think of this as a regular paper assignment, except websites are organized and formatted differently from college papers. In this assignment you have to present a convincing and compelling argument for (or against) one of the claims below. Your website should strive to convince others to believe as you do. Your target audience is a fellow student that you are trying to convince to support your cause.

Your argument will be more convincing if you provide factual information and evidence that draws on class readings and discussions, as well as any relevant outside sources that you can fine. It will also be more persuasive if you can acknowledge and address any counter-arguments.

Heree Internet controversies that we have discussed. Pick one, take a stand, and build a convincing multi-point argument in support of your position.

Eben Moglen (Open source and the death of proprietary culture) quotes Craig Mundie, the chief technology officer of Microsoft Corporation: ``The health of the software industry depends upon one simple proposition: never show anybody the source code to anything.'' Another quote: ``He [Mundie] said the Free Software Foundation was destroying the global software industry.'' Take a stand for or against Open Source software.
Tabscott and William (Wikinomics) write (in a chapter you didn't read): ``Billions of connected individuals can now actively participate in innovation, wealth creation, and social development in ways we once only dreamed of. And when these masses of people collaborate they collectively can advance the arts, culture, science, education, government, and the economy in surprising but ultimately profitable ways. Companies that engange with these exploding Web-enabled communities are already disovering the true dividends of collective capability and genius. ''
On the other hand, Andrew Keen (The Cult of the Amateur pp.44-45, which you didn't read) writes: ``In undermining the expert, the ubiquity of free, user-generated content threatens the very core of our professional institutions....So what do we get in exchange for free amateur content? We get, of course, what we pay for. We get what the great thinker and writer Lewis Mumford called, ``a state of intellectual enervation and depelention hardly to be distinguished from massive ignorance.'' Take a stand for or against Internet-supported mass collaboration in social and/or economic life.
Lessig (Free Culture, Chapter Ten) laments the shrinkage of Fair Use and the growth of Digital Rights Management. Do you agree with him that the growth of the Internet has led to the Death of Fair Use? Or are we witnessing the Death of Copyright? Which do you lament? What can you do to change it?
The MPAA (www.respectocpyrights.com/content.hmtl) Says that copyright violation is theft, plain and simple. Therefore, it should be treated as theft both legally and in terms of society's perception. Do you think that laws protecting Intellectual Property (IP) should be weakened or strengthened?
DMCA: Is it, as Andrew Grosso says, ``A Failure of Reason''? Which parts do you agree with? Which parts should be changed?
Other topics are allowed; just check with me first.

Notes on Good Web Design

Some links to Web Style Guides are available on the course syllabus. Here is a checklist of things that I will be looking for.

Your website should present about the same amount of text as the first paper assignment: that is, it should contain at least 2500 words total.
Websites tend to have less text per page than do student papers. Your website should contain at least five different pages of content, with links among them:
- One page should clearly be the ``main page'', with a title, and your name and contact information shown. (If it has at least a paragraph of text content in addition to the headings, you can count it as one of the five content pages.)
- Your website should also have a ``Here's What You Can Do to Help'' section. Think about which of Lessig's four mechanisms of control would provide the most effective kind of support for your cause, and encourage your readers take some appropriate action.
- Please include a separate References page that provides a bibliographic list of references you used. References to web resources should have links; references to traditional text sources do not need links. (Do not count this as a content page and do not include it in your word-count.)
Web pages use headings, fonts, color, images, and (table-like) layouts to organize content and make it attractive. Your pages should make good use of these features, as described in the Web Style Guides. .
Good websites present a consistent overall appearance. Your pages should all have the same general color scheme, layout, and patterns of headings and sub-headings.
It should be easy for the user to navigate your site. The link structure should be easy to understand. There should be no ``dead end'' pages with no links -- every page should contain a link to the main page, and perhaps to another page that you want the user to vistit next. For example, if your site is meant to be read in sequence, use next/previous links so the user knows where to go next. If you want a heirarchical structure that can be visited in any order, then your links should reflect that.