CS 347U: The Internet Age

Course coordinates:
Tuesday/Thursday 2:00pm-3:50pm
Fourth Ave. Building (FAB) 40-06
Class e-mail/WWW:
cs347u at lists dot pdx dot edu
http://thefengs.com/wuchang/work/courses/cs347u

Instructor:
Wu-chang Feng
wuchang at cs pdx edu

Office hours:
4pm-5pm Tuesdays and Thursdays
By Appointment
FAB 120-17 (4th Ave Bldg.)

Course overview:

This course examines the Internet and contemporary issues related to it. The course will start with an overview of the Internet's design
philosophy and architecture, along with some of its essential protocols. Then, students will research and present material on contemporary technical, social, political and legal issues that it now faces including:

User privacy and security (privacy, anonymity, authentication, secrecy, non-repudiation)
Internet governance (TLD control, IP address allocation, international cooperation)
Conflicts with the law (net neutrality, intellectual property, freedom of speech)
Disruptive influence on traditional businesses (media delivery, telephony)
Evolution as a social medium (netnews, bulletin boards, IRC, social networks
Evolution as a publishing medium (blogs, Wikis, RSS, Mashups)
Design flaws and vulnerabilities (spam, malware, DNS/route hijacking)

Class Mail List

All students are required to join the class mail list. All communications will be done over this list.

Tentative schedule

Week #1	1/5	Course information and topic introductions
	1/7	Internet History and Design Slides
Week #2	1/12	Walkthrough of how it works Slides
	1/14	Web/E-mail/DNS Slides
Week #3	1/19	TCP Slides
	1/21	IP/Routing Slides
Week #4	1/26	Changing Society
	1/28	Privacy and censorship
Week #5	2/2
	2/4
Week #6	2/9	Intellectual property
	2/11	Internet administration
Week #7	2/16	Taxation and gambling
	2/18	Net Neutrality Technology
Week #8	2/23	Security
	2/25
Week #9	3/2
	3/4
Week #10	3/9	Quiz Review
	3/11	Final quiz

Attendance

Attendance and class participation are required.

Homeworks

Homework #1 (Due 1/7)

Join the class mailing list.

Homework #2 (Due 1/12)

Read the topic list and select one or two topics you would like to cover. As topics are chosen, I will update the available topics left. Choose from topics that are available and e-mail the class list a topic you wish to cover. If there is a topic you wish to cover that is not on the list, e-mail me to confirm.

Homework #3 (Due 1/14)

Go to http://web.pdx.edu to read about creating your own personal web page
Create a web page in your home directory for the course
http://web.pdx.edu/~username/cs347u.html
Create a template presentation using PowerPoint, OpenOffice Impress, or Google Docs
Upload this presentation to your web site and put a working link on the web page to this presentation.

Presentation

You are to become the class expert on a topic related to the Internet of your choice. The topic can range from technical (i.e. making the Internet's naming system scalable), social (i.e. the role of the Internet in elections), commercial (i.e. how the Internet has impacted print media), or legal (i.e. what laws govern the transmission of unsolicited e-mail). The topics are listed at the following http://thefengs.com/wuchang/work/courses/cs347u/topics.txt

If you wish to cover a topic that is not listed, you may arrange it with the instructor to have it added. This *must* be done by 1/14.

After gathering sufficient information on your topic, you will create and give a slide presentation on your topic in class that concisely presents the information you have acquired on your topic. *Before* the class period that you are scheduled to present, you will update the web page created at the beginning of class to include the content for each presentation topic you are assigned. It should include a working link to your presentation slides at http://web.pdx.edu/~username/cs347u.html that I will download for you in class so that you may give your presentation from my laptop. The presentation must address the main questions related to your topic and contain a list of references from which the material was taken from.

Grading

Homeworks	15%
Oral presentation	25%
Slide organization and completeness of references	25%
Attendance and participation	15%
Final quiz	20%