International Affairs & Technology Policy > Syllabus

INTA 4050
International Affairs & Technology Policy
MW 9:35 – 10:55am
Instructional Center 113

Dr. Michael L. Best
Ivan Allen College (Habersham) Building Room 144B
michael.best@inta.gatech.edu

Office Hours: MW 11:00am – 12noon and by appointment

This is a dynamic syllabus; it is subject to change. Please consult the web for the latest version.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS

Pool, I. d. S. (1984). Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lessig, L. (1999). Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.

OPTIONAL TEXTBOOK

Mueller, M. L. (2002). Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

OVERVIEW

This class will examine the reciprocal relationship of technology and technology policies, on the one hand, and relations within and between states, on the other. In other words it will study how technology policies are influencing international affairs and, similarly, how international affairs have influenced and determined technology policy. We will discuss technology policy along four critical dimensions: law, norms, the market, and architecture or code. We will argue that technology policy is not just a matter for lawmakers but is also set down by the private sector exercising market interests, society broadly as described by cultural norms, and engineers who imbed policy in their built environment.

Our ultimate goal is for a robust understanding of global Internet governance (IG). We will seek to understand the international issues of IG around matters of security, intellectual property, privacy, infrastructure, technical standards, content, cryptography, authentication, electronic commerce, and related concerns. We will start out, however, with a historical consideration of policies in the United States (primarily) and the desire to reduce public control of communications in an electronic era.

COURSE REQUIRMENTS

Participation (10%). Students are required to have done all readings, attend class regularly, and engage in discussion and debate. Please come to each class with questions or comments relevant to that day’s readings. I will occasionally take attendance. It is understood and expected that students will miss the occasional class (one or two throughout the term) and there is no need to contact me regarding these couple absences.

Policy brief  (15%). Each student will produce an annotated policy brief (800-1,500 words) advocating some position on Internet governance in a selected country.

Term paper (25%). Students will chose some specific concern within our focus areas of global Internet policies (all words broadly construed) and produce a term paper (3,000 – 5,000 words plus bibliography). One-page term paper briefs will be due prior to commencing on the full paper; this is an opportunity for you to “sanity-check “ your term paper thesis.

Final exam (35%). This exam will probe the student’s understanding of class themes, readings, and lectures.

Readings Quizzes (15%). One or more in-class quizzes will examine the student’s grasp of recent readings.

NOTE ON LATE SUBMISSIONS

Incompletes will not be given for this course. All submissions lose half a grade for each day (or fraction) late. Missed in-class quizzes will be marked as zero. Approved absences and late submissions, or required incompletes, will be given appropriate accommodations.

STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC HONESTY

Students in this class are expected to abide by the Georgia Tech Honor Code and avoid any instances of academic misconduct. In particular, plagiarism of any sort, in any writing, will not be tolerated. A useful web resource is: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html. All students should become familiar with this website and strictly adhere to these proscriptions.

SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND READINGS

Aug 16                Course Introduction

Aug 18        Four Forms for Technology Policy: Law, Norms, Markets, and Code
Law: Isenberg, D. (2003). Internet Law Year in Review 2003. Retrieved August 4, 2004, from http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2003-all/isenberg-2003-12-all.html
Norms: Blood, R.Weblog Ethics. Retrieved August 4, 2004, from http://rebeccablood.net/handbook/excerpts/weblog_ethics.html
Markets: Standage, T. (2003, Oct 9). Beyond the bubble (Survey: Telecoms). The Economist.
Code: Saltzer, J. H., Reed, D. P., & Clark, D. D. (1984). End-to-End Arguments in System Design. ACM Transactions in Computer Systems, 2(4), 277-288.
               
Aug 23                Freedoms of Press and Expression in the USA
Pool Ch 1 - 4
               
Aug 25                Class canceled

Aug 30                Common Carriage
Pool Ch 5
Pecar, J. A., & Garbin, D. A. (2000). The New McGraw-Hill Telecom Factbook. New York: McGraw-Hill. Ch 1 & 2
               
Sep 1                Broadcast
Pool Ch 6
Noll, R. G. (2003). The FCC's New Television Ownership Rule: Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

Sep 6                Holiday

Sep 8                Convergence, the Internet, and Policies of Freedom
Etheredge, L. S. (1997). What Next? The Intellectual Legacy of Ithiel de Sola Pool. Retrieved August 2, 2004, from http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/etheredge.html
Pool Ch 7 – 9

Sep 13                Guest lecture
                Attendance taken
                TBA
                Quiz
               
Sep 15                Guest lecture
                Attendance taken
                Prof. Seymour Goodman
                Cybersecurity
The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. (2003). Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President.

Sep 20                History and Architecture of the Internet
Zuckerman, E., & McLaughlin, A. (2003). Architecture (BOLD 2003: Development and the Internet). Retrieved August 9, 2004, from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/bold/devel03/modules/episodeI.html
(Click through and read ALL links of Module 1 in this material.)
Leiner, B. M., Cerf, V. G., Clark, D. D., Kahn, R. E., Kleinrock, L., Lynch, D. C., et al. A Brief History of the Internet. Retrieved August 9, 2004, from http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Sep 22                Regulability
Lessig Ch 1 – 5

Sep 27                Code and other regulators
Lessig Ch 6 – 8

Sep 29                Translation, IPR, and Privacy
Lessig Ch 9 – 11
GartnerG2, & The Berkman Center for Internet & Society. (2003). Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World. Cambridge, MA: The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School.

Oct 4        Guest lecture
Attendance taken
                Prof. Seymour Goodman
                Cybersecurity Part II

Oct 6                Guest lecture
                Attendance taken
TBA
Quiz

Oct 11                Free speech and sovereignty
Lessig Ch 12 & 14
Dempsey, J. X., Weitzner, D. J., & et al. Regardless of Frontiers: Protecting the human right to freedom of expression on the global Internet. Retrieved August 4, 2004, from http://www.cdt.org/gilc/report.html
Policy brief due at beginning of class.

Oct 13                Responses
Lessig Ch 15 – 17
Blumenthal, M. S., & Clark, D. D. (2001). Rethinking the Design of the Internet: The End-to-End Argument vs. the Brave New World. ACM Transaction on Internet Technology, 1(1), 70-109.
               
Oct 18                Holiday

Oct 20                WSIS
WSIS Plan of Action. (2004). Retrieved August 10, 2004, from http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsis/doc/S03-WSIS-DOC-0005!!PDF-E.pdf
WSIS Declaration of Principles. (2004). Retrieved August 10, 2004, from http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsis/doc/S03-WSIS-DOC-0004!!PDF-E.pdf
Klein, H. (2004). Understanding WSIS: An Institutional Analysis of the UN World Summit on the Information Society. Information Technologies and International Development, 1(4).
Maclay, C., & Bridges, M. (2004). The WSIS Index. Information Technologies and International Development, 1(4).

Oct 25                ICANN
                Mueller Ch 10 & 11
Caslon Analytics. (2003). ICANN and the UDRP. Retrieved August 10, 2004, from http://www.caslon.com.au/icannprofile.htm
(be sure to follow links from Overview through Chronology.)

Oct 27                VoIP
Intven, H. Internet Telephony – The Regulatory Issues. Retrieved January 4, 2004, from http://www.mccarthy.ca/pubs/publication.asp?pub_code=829.
GIPI. (2002). Voice-over-IP: The Future of Communications. Unpublished manuscript.
                Term paper brief due by email.

Nov 1                WiFi
Werbach, K. (nd). Radio Revolution: The Coming Age of Unlicensed Wireless. Washington, D.C.: New America Foundation & Public Knowledge.

Nov 3                Europe

Nov 8                Africa

Nov 10                South Asia

Nov 15                East Asia

Nov 17                Open Networks Closed Regimes

Nov 22         ICT4D and Universal Access
Nov 24                Term paper due at beginning of class.
Nov 29                Course wrap-up
Dec 1                FINAL