Y210 Politics of the Internet

Fall 2008

Term Paper Assignment

---

Report Length: 20 pages (double-spaced and typed)

Report is due: Friday, December 5, 2008 at the end of class

Write a term paper on any subject related to the course. The following topics are examples of acceptable topics (other topics may be selected):

1. the net neutrality debate

2. the impact of file sharing on the audio and video industries

3. US court decisions regarding intellectual property in the digital age

4. post 9/11 anti-terrorist data mining operations

5. the FCC’s efforts to prevent Comcast from censoring certain types of Internet use

6. the open source software movement

7. MoveOn.org vs. cc.org

8. the politics of social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.)

9. the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the 2008 presidential campaign

10. podcasting and politics

You must discuss the topic of your paper with the instructor and get his approval prior to beginning your research. Please make an appointment to see him about this as soon as possible in the semester. You will be expected to present a preliminary version of your term paper during the last four weeks in class (see the syllabus for details).