Chapter 3: Part 2

Name Chris Wyant
Class time: 12PM
KEEP THIS TO 1-3 – PAGES LONG (EXCLUDING REFERENCE PAGE)

Author: Sara Baase
Date of Publication: 2008
Book: A Gift of Fire
Sections read: 3.4-3.6

1. (Knowledge)Tell three interesting elements of this chapter:
a. John Helsingius developed the first anonymous emailer in Finland. Grew to roughly 500,000 users and became very popular.
b. The CIA funded an anonymizer start-up to spy secretly. This would allow them to spy on us secretly and we would never know.
c. Phone companies were forced to lease phone lines to the competition at neutral low
prices because of net neutrality.

2. (Comprehension) Summarize what is being discussed within this chapter?
Within the chapter, campaign restrictions are discussed. The ways that campaign money is spent is monitored and regulated. The way that information is spread is also regulated. The Federal Election Commission administers election laws. In 2006 the FEC began charging a fee for online campaign regulation. It began possible to send emails anonymously in 1993. The CIA uses an anonymous IP address when spying on the society. Net Neutrality is a variety of proposals for restrictions on how telephone companies interact with their customers and how they set pricing.

3. (Application) Name a specific example or NEW solution for this type of problem/similar situation in society or that you have experienced – be specific and explain?
I have experienced a specific problem with anonymity in society before. I experienced the misuse and abuse of anonymous emailing. My mother a few years ago kept receiving harassing emails from anonymous emails. A way to solve this issue would be requiring something specific related to the person who is creating the anonymous email account when the account is created so that there is something that links that individual to the emails account.

4. (Analysis)Address ANY that apply. How can you compare one of the situations in this chapter to something that does not relate to computers, technology, or the Internet? Be sure to reference the chapter and your solution. What ideas NEW can you add to the issue that is being presented within the reading? Try to connect what you have by reading this article and how it applies to the stages in Bloom's taxonomy in 2 full sentences.
I can compare the anonymity (3.5) to the sending and receiving of letters with no return address or that are unlabeled. The anonymous letter sending is sometimes dangerous because this is how bombs and threatening letters are sent. To solve this problem, you should be required to show ID at every post office that you use to send mail.

5. (Synthesis) Address all that apply. Do you agree with what is being said within the article (Why/Why not? Back up with FACTS)? What new conclusions can you draw about this (or other topics) after reading this material?
I agree with what is being said about regulating the campaign money usage and advertising. It would get out of hand because it would be everywhere you looked and it could be sometimes offensive to other political parties if it was not regulated. I do not agree with what is said about anonymity because I think that there should be stricter laws about it. After experiencing the negative side effects of this personally, I think that we as a society need more restrictions on what can be done anonymously. I also agree with net neutrality because without it, big businesses would dominate and destroy littler companies and then they would have no competition for their prices.

6. (Evaluation) Address all that apply. Judge whether or not this topic is relevant in today’s society? Evaluate why you are viewing the topic in this manner based on your experiences. What ethical evaluations (see Chap1-1.4 for exp of Ethics) or decisions were made/can be assumed from this chapter? What new ideas will you make after reading this chapter?
I do agree that these topics are relevant in today’s society. Some topics may not be
as important, especially to some people, but they all are discussing present issues that are ever-changing. I have never been involved in politics and do not ever wish to get involved in politics therefore I do not care very much about the government campaign regulations. Net neutrality and anonymity I both have experienced the negative side effects from so I very them conservatively. I may think about anonymity and net neutrality more after reading this. I may think about big businesses leasing lines at neutral costs to competition more and think about who competes with who.



References

Baase, Sara. A Gift Of Fire, Social, Legal, And Ethical Issues For Computing And The Internet. 3rd. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall, 2008.