There will be a presentation by the VIDEO group on this day. Readings on this topic have already been listed on the course homepage:
Chapter One: This deals with the early days of the Internet, how it emerged among computer hobbyists and technicians who develope their own anarchic culture. Much of this developed around bulletin boards and usenet feeds prior to the World Wide Web. Communities developed around services such as CompuServe, The Well and Echo. An interesting book about life in an online community is Cyberville by Stacy Horn.
Chapter Two and Chapter Fifteen cover commercialization of the Internet,which clashed with the original noncommercial culture. Our commerce group should cover this. A site you might find interesting is the CompuServe video shop in the UK, which includes 3D if you have a viewer to observe it. The topic of junk mail (spam) and cancelers is covered. The book How to Make a Fortune on the Information Superhighway was the first to bring the Internet down to the level of supermarket tabloids.
Chapter Three is a critique of America Online, the first mainstream American online service. It started primarily as a Bulletin Board, i.e., a service which offered services only to members from its own site. It also offers Internet connections, and is widely used as an Internet Service Provider. Culturally the opposite of The Well and Echo.
Chapters Four and Five: Cryptography. This should be covered by members of the class, we should ask Ben to discuss any mathematical questions. Dual Key Cryptography is a neat idea which he can explain technically. The government's attempts to ban export of this technology were ludicrous in the opinion of most people involve in the field. Cryptography is important for business, so people can send credit card information and even cash safely.
Chapter Six deals with copyright issues, a topic our publication group may address. It focuses specifically on the attempt of the Scientolology group to use copyright to protect its secret documents. This is related to the general typic of anti-cult organizations.
Chapter Seven deals with censorship, especially technical issues. This should be dealt with by the group examining this. Question: why was the town of Scunthorpe banned by AOL?
Chapter Eight and Chapter Thirteen deal with access issues, which will be dealt with by one of our groups. This involves money and resources, and also cultural issues. Many minorities (cultural, racial, etc.) may want sites limited to their own group.
Chapter Nine deals with the pornography issue. We will hear about this from the group working on it. Some of the issues are general issues about the effects and dangers of pornography versus the right of freedom of speech. Some of the issues, which interest us more, are unique to the Internet as a chaotic medium.
Chapter Ten deals with hackers, which is related to security and cryptography. These grew out of the phone phreak culture.
Chapter 11, behavioral problems on the Net. This relates to Net Communities which we will hear about from the class. Many of the problems are common to all human groups, but the anonymity and rapid communication of the WEB creates some unique issues. The Cyberville book has a good deal on this.
Chapter 12 is on statistics of WEB use. Those in the book are out of date, of course. Let's skip this one.
Chapter 14 deals with the economics of paying for the NET itself, which is not so much a problem as the NET is pretty cheap. Technically the key to this is packet-switching vs circuit-switching on telephone connections. Video requires more resources, of course, but people can pay for it as they pay for cable TV. Let's skim this chapter.
Chapter 16 is on the politics of cyberspace, which tends
to be libertarian. The Internet breaks down political barriers.
Mention is made of John Perry Barlow's
"Cyberspace Independence
Declaration".