Computers in Society Activism

Team Projects What is your name? Application? Presentation? Copyright The software industry The open source business Free Speech and Online Rights Computer Crime Monitoring and Censorship

Homework Application presentations are the week after next. You need to get started NOW! I need a topic TODAY! I want a wiki page Tuesday I want slides / poster Thursday I want to meet the teams to talk about the presentation no later than the 29 th.

Posters Your /. is not finished until a poster is on the wall. If you haven’t done a poster yet, you need to get to it!

Youtube Copyright Battles

The Pro-US Iraqi Blogs How old is this article? Where was it published? * What is the main question that this article addressed? * What did the reporter do to authenticate these blogs? * What makes some people suspicious about these blogs? * What is "astroturf"? * What is "Iraq the Model"?

The Iraqi Blog * What event sent this story in motion? * Are we any closer to knowing whether these blogs are "authentic"? Even if this blog is authentic, does that mean anything about the opinion of other Iraqis? Is there any simple way to evaluate the authenticity of first-hand accounts of Iraq published in blogs? How does the Wikipedia avoid problems with trustworthiness?

Repression in Myanmar

Revolution in Myanmar When was this written? Where? Where is Myanmar? What did it used to be called? Why is it important? What’s going on there? How was the Internet a factor? What did the rulers there do? What is “The Irrawaddy”? Why is it significant?

Revolution in Myanmar What happened to the Irrawaddy website? How have nations been able to extend censorship beyond their borders? What is the OpenNet initative? What is “Just in Time” filtering? Besides the Internet, what else was cut off? Does the Internet censorship matter there anymore?

Myanmar How else can images be smuggled out? How does the Internet organize activists? Who is Zapruder? What does the guy from Columbia compare the Internet to? Could China cut off the Internet in a similar way? How does this democratize news gathering?

A Blog Quote “Media coverage of Internet censorship is usually framed through one of two lenses: The “1984″ approach overstates censorship capabilities claiming that legions of internet police monitor everything in “real time” and are just one kick away if you make the wrong click. The “technoptimist” approach understates censorship capabilities and claims that circumvention technology is proliferating and the internet is a democracy-battering-ram chipping away at the crumbling walls of oppressive regimes. Recent coverage of the protests in Myanmar/Burma have generally been falling into the latter camp.

Censorship Internet censorship regimes, such as Myanmar/Burma’s, are effective not because they can filter out all the content they want but because their filtering systems are backed up by other forms of repression that force users into a condition of self-censorship where they will not seek out banned content (the filter is just a reminder) let alone seek to violate their countries laws and put themselves at risk by using circumvention technologies.

Another Quote The country's ruling junta, which controls its only Internet service provider, couldn't simply leave the Internet "off" without blocking its own communication, hampering the country's economy, and making Myanmar look like even more of a pariah to the world, he argues.

Campaign by Computer When and where? What is the basic idea in this article? Does this indicate that online campaigning is not particularly effective? Why do TV and radio seem to be more powerful tools to spread the campaign message than the web?

Campaign by Computer What Internet strategies are commonly used? Who was the first presidential candidate to use the Internet in a big way? What candidates are doing the most on the Internet? What sort of voters are attracted by Internet campaigns? Why are candidates using the Internet so much if it doesn’t reach many voters?