Course Syllabus
PUBLIC
POLICY
AND THE INTERNET
Fall 1999
Course Syllabus
PUBLIC
POLICY
AND THE INTERNET
Fall 1999
Course Number: PAF388K
Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m., Room SRH 3.110
Course Instructor: Gary Chapman, gary.chapman@mail.utexas.edu
Instructor telephone: 263-1218
Office: SRH 3.256
Course Sessions
Introduction to the Internet and Public Policy
Visions of Cyberspace and the Information Superhighway
Federal Telecommunications Regulation and Reform
State and Local Telecommunications Policies
Sept 30, Oct 7
Privacy: Problems and Possible Solutions
Freedom of Expression and Censorship Online
Copyright, Intellectual Property, and Public Access to Information
Electronic Commerce, "Disintermediation" and Taxation
Equity on the Information Superhighway
Shopping Mall or Town Hall? Community Networks
Utopia or Dystopia: The Emerging Politics of Cyberculture
Course Description
The LBJ School course, "Public Policy and the Internet," will be a graduate-level seminar on topics about U.S. public policy related to the Internet, the global network of computers and software. The course will cover a variety of public policy controversies, including federal telecommunications legislation; state and local telecommunications policy; privacy; digital encryption; copyright; public access to information; equity and access; the Internet and taxation; electronic commerce; and the emerging politics of "cyberculture," among other topics.
Seminar Requirements
The course will have four major requirements: readings, class participation, an oral presentation on a subject of interest, and a written paper on the same or a different subject.
Readings
Students will be expected to do the readings assigned for each class and be prepared to discuss the content of the readings assigned for each class. Students must consider the major policy controversies that they find reflected in the readings and be prepared to ask or answer questions related to such controversies. The assigned readings are introductory in nature only -- for some subjects, students may need to supplement the assigned readings with material that they find on their own or with material recommended by the course instructor. Some class sessions will feature reading lists that are quite extensive. It is up to each student to determine how to manage these readings -- i.e., whether each reading should be skimmed, reviewed, or read closely. Most of the readings assigned in this course are the basic documents available on their respective subjects, which means that they are recommended not only for their content but as references for the subject.
Class Participation
The course will be run as a graduate seminar, therefore class participation by everyone in the class is imperative and required. Students will be expected to discuss, query, challenge, and agree or disagree with assigned readings, the instructor, and each other. The aim of the course is to provide lively and instructive discussion about the controversies the course will cover.
Course Presentation
Each student will be expected to choose one of the subjects scheduled in the syllabus and prepare an oral presentation on the subject, and also take responsibility for leading class discussion about that issue for that particular day. Students can expect that their reading assignments, or recommended readings, for the subject they choose for an oral presentation, will be significantly more extensive than what is generally assigned to students for that specific class session. Students should model their presentations on an oral briefing they might give to a policymaking committee of some kind, which means that the presentation must cover the background of the issue, its history, the various developed positions around the issue, and an argument about what should be done, in terms of policy recommendations.
Course Paper
Each student will be required to write a course paper, to be turned in on the last day of the term, December 3rd. All student papers are due the same day, Thursday, December 3rd. The paper should be an in-depth, graduate-level research and briefing document on an issue of interest to the student which is also included, or at least touched upon, in the planned course outline. Course papers must be far more specific than the broad topics set for each class session, and, as such, topics must be approved by the instructor no later than the class session of Thursday, October 22.
Readings
Basic Texts
There are two basic texts for the course:
Steven E. Miller, Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway, Addison-Wesley, 1995.Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, Penguin Books, 1996.
These books should be available in the university bookstore on the corner of 26th Street and Medical Arts, across the street from the Law School.
Online Resources
Most of the supplementary material assigned for each class -- nearly all of it -- will be on the World-Wide Web or other online sites. Students are responsible for using the Uniform Resource Location (URL) addresses provided in the course syllabus to locate the assigned material. The course syllabus itself will be on the Web, with links to all the assigned reading material that is online.
Reserve Materials
In a few cases, reading material will be put on reserve in the Public Affairs Library (PAL) on the second floor of the LBJ School. This reading material will be supplementary to the basic texts, material that is not available online, and which is most likely in a book or other publication that is difficult or problematic to photocopy.
Electronic Updates
Routinely throughout the course the instructor will send out electronic updates, via e-mail, on issues the course aims to address. Students are also encouraged to share such news with their fellow students and with the instructor. Public policy surrounding the Internet is changing all the time, and in significant ways, so the course participants will have to stay on top of news using e-mail or other methods.
Internet Use
Students will be expected to take advantage of the Internet by using it for research, for keeping up with current events, and for passing around information to fellow class members, the instructor, or to people outside the class. The class will be using e-mail a lot between classes, and students are expected to read this mail and incorporate it into their thinking about the class. Everyone in the class should be familiar with how to find Web pages of interest, how to look at and contribute to Usenet news groups, and how to find and use special interest listservs.
Guest Speakers and Participants
Occasionally, the instructor may invite guest speakers or participants to class sessions, especially people who have a particular expertise or background in the issue under discussion. Students are encouraged to recommend guest speakers as well.
Introduction
In the first class session, we will cover the purpose of the class, what we intend to discuss, and how the seminar be conducted. We'll spend some time introducing ourselves to each other and talking about our interests and experiences with the Internet. The instructor will describe the criteria for class evaluation, what is required of seminar participants, and how the seminar will work. This will be followed by some introductory remarks about the topic of the seminar.
As a basic introduction to the Internet, review the material on the site http://whatis.com/tour.htm, titled "How the Internet Works." This is a "tour," which means that you go from page to page, using links, to tour the various components of the Internet and learn how they work. Plus, throughout these pages are links to technical definitions of terms we'll use in the class routinely. It would be a good idea to review the pages behind these links if you are not familiar with the technical vocabulary of the Internet.
Here are some other useful URLs to help inform seminar discussions:
Hobbes' Internet Timeline -- A detailed timeline of Internet history, complete with links to interesting related Web sites, and a table of Internet growth data. At: http://pollux.com/compuweb/timeline.htm.ILC Glossary of Internet Terms -- A useful and constantly updated glossary of terms used in discussing the Internet and telecommunications. At: http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html.
Georgia Tech GVU surrvey on Internet use -- An ongoing, periodically updated survey of Internet demographics, in the U.S. and other countries. An excellent look at who is using the Internet, and what they are using it for. At: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/
For background reading on the history of the Internet:
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: Origins of the Internet, by Katie Hafner and Matt Lyon, Simon and Schuster, 1996.
Visions of Cyberspace and the Information Superhighway
In this session we will look at some of the competing visions of cyberspace and the information superhighway, terms which are controversial in themselves because of their implications for the future. We'll look at who the players and actors are within policymaking about telecommunications and the Internet. During the reading of the following material and in class discussions, we'll want to ask how these different visions of cyberspace are expressed through policymaking, and where current policy trends are taking us.
Readings
Steven E. Miller, Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway. Chapters 1-5 (pages 1-98).Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, Chapters 4-6 (pages 71 to 152).
NOTE: FOR THE FOLLOWING TWO READINGS, THE WEB SITE WILL BRING UP A PASSWORD BOX. JUST CLICK "CANCEL" WHEN THE BOX COMES UP -- A PASSWORD IS NOT REQUIRED:
"From Internet to Information Superhighway," Howard Besser, in Resisting the Virtual Life, James Brook and Iaian A. Boal, eds., 1995, pages 59-70. On reserve, PAL.
Federal Telecommunications Regulation
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the most profound reordering of U.S. telecommunications policy in nearly seventy years. We're starting to see the effects of this massive legislation, and several of its chief components are already tied up in court battles. Moreover, many features of the federal act have yet to be determined in specific detail because the legislation gave broad rule-making authority to the Federal Communications Commission, which is now charged with implementing the Act.
These class sessions will take a look at some of the primary features of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996: restructuring telephone service delivery; deregulating the cable industry; the future of universal service. Some of the questions we'll address include:
Readings:
Miller, Chapters 6-8 (pages 101-208)The Telecommunications Act of 1996. At: http://www.technologylaw.com/techlaw/act.html
State and Local Telecommunications Policies
Texas and Austin are both innovators and leaders in telecommunications policy. The Texas legislature passed H.B. 2128 in 1995, one of the most influential and closely-watched state regulatory reform bills in the nation. However, a lot of what 2128 aimed at has yet to unfold. Telecommunications policy may again be one of the main issues facing the state legislature in its 1999 session.
One significant feature of 2128 was the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, or TIF, a $1.5 billion investment fund to support advanced networking in Texas schools, medical facilities, and libraries. It is the largest public infrastructure program for telecommunications in the U.S. Controversy has developed about how the TIF is being run and whether its program is likely to be effective in meeting the initiative's long-range goals.
The City of Austin has also investigated new ways of improving the city's telecommunications infrastructure, although several of the City government's efforts have failed or been weakened. We will take a look at the bold approach the City of Austin first proposed, and why this approach failed.
In this class session, we'll review the state of telecommunications policy in Texas and Austin, covering what's been done to date and what remains on the table.
Readings:
"HB 2128 Summary," prepared by Texas Rural Communities, at http://texasrural.org/telcom/HB2128sm.html.
Privacy: Problems and Solutions
In a 1996 poll by the Equifax Corporation, over 80% of respondents -- as close to unanimity as such surveys get -- responded that they have serious concerns about privacy when using the Internet.
Over the past few years, the Internet has become increasingly interactive in real-time. Any amount of interactivity over a computer-based system produces a data stream, and this data stream can be captured and used for purposes far different than those for which it was produced in the first place. Thus privacy is likely to be one of the chief controversies surrounding the use of interactive online systems, and something that will be of growing interest to policymakers.
Digital encryption is the science of turning digital information, in the form of bits, into code that can only be decoded by the intended recipient. Many programs exist now that can turn digital information into code that is extremely difficult to break unless the user has the proper "key." A wide variety of people believe that digital encryption is the only true guarantee of privacy in the information age.
However, governments, and particularly law enforcement agencies, are worried that unbreakable encryption algorithms will create massive opportunities for criminal activity, espionage, fraud, tax evasion, and various other threats to society. Because of this, until recently, encryption algorithms, even simple ones, have been subject to export controls as severe as those for nuclear weapons components -- in fact, encryption software has been classified as an "armament" by the federal government and several people have faced federal prosecution for exporting, or making available for export (such as by posting to the Internet), encryption software.
In almost no other area of digital information policy is the government at such odds with industry, privacy activists, and professional societies. While compromises have been proposed, to date there is no agreement between law enforcement officials and industry and civil liberties advocates.
In our second class session, we'll try an experment: the class will be divided into two teams, with one team taking the position of privacy activists and the other team taking the position of government and law enforcement officials. The two teams will research the issue, then, in class, engage in a debate about what the federal government's policy should be for digital encryption.
Readings:
Miller, Chapter 10 (pages 260-318)Gates, pages 95-100, 302-306.
Texas Conviction Records Database, at http://records.txdps.state.tx.us/dps/default.cfm.
Yahoo! Privacy Links, at: http://www.yahoo.com/Law/Privacy/.
Pretty Good Privacy (page about PGP encryption program). At: http://www.nai.com/default_pgp.asp.
Freedom of Expression and Censorship Online
Perhaps the most controversial policy issue connected to the Internet has been the Communications Decency Act, part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which initiated criminal penalties for the transmission of "obscene, lewd or lascivious" information over the Internet. No other issue has galvanized the Internet-using community as much as the CDA, yet Internet activists were unable to prevent the bill's passage, by nearly unanimous Congressional votes, nor its signing by President Clinton. However, in June of 1996 the CDA was ruled unconstitutional by a federal panel of judges in Philadelphia, and the case is now before the Supreme Court, the Philadelphia ruling having been appealed by the Clinton administration.
This seminar session will review the aims and history of the CDA, why its proponents and its antagonists are so passionate about their positions, and what the future of Internet censorship is likely to be, either with the CDA in place if the Supreme Court rules it constitutional, or without such legislation. Alternatives to the CDA, such as "blocking" software, will be examined, as well as the new campaigns against online filtering. Is censorship of the Internet desirable or even possible?
Readings:
Text of the Communications Decency Act, February 1996. At: http://www.cdt.org/policy/freespeech/12_21.cda.html.Surfwatch Web site, at: http://www.surfwatch.com/.
Cyberpatrol Web site, at: http://www.microsys.com/cyber/default.htm.
Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) site, at: http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/PICS/.
Copyright and Intellectual Property
Many people believe that the real promise of the Internet will only unfold if there are changes in the way authors, artists, musicians and other "content" providers can protect their copyrights to original material. Other people believe that current copyright law already protects content providers adequately, and there is no need for new law. Still others believe that copyright is a dead concept in the age of the Internet, because digital material can be copied at will without compromising its quality. Considerable debate has grown around the issue of copyright and intellectual property online because of new legislation proposed in the Congress, and an international treaty, signed in 1996, which is now before the Congress for ratification. Industry has divided into two coalitions, and public interest groups are divided as well.
Do we need new laws to protect intellectual property in cyberspace? If so, what should those laws look like and what should they do and not do?
What kind of information should be made available to the public on the Internet? This is a question that has vexed policymakers for quite some time now, for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, public sector officials are often committed to offering public sources of information online as a public service, or even as a way to cut publishing costs. On the other hand, many private sector information providers don't want to see the government in the information business as a subsidized competitor. Information companies have pushed for "privatization" of information delivery, especially for so-called "value-added" information resources, which include online tools such as search engines, user-friendly interfaces, or online transactions. But the World-Wide Web has changed the picture considerably, making it much easier, perhaps even imperative, for public sector information managers to become online publishers.
Other issues in this topic include the scope of an "electronic Freedom of Information Act," what kind of revenue public sector agencies can expect from their information assets (such as expensive Geographical Information Service data), whether information should be available only to those taxpayers who contributed to its collection and maintenance, and whether certain kinds of information -- such as patents -- constitute the pieces of a "mosaic effect" that compromises national economic security or even military security. Another looming controversy is how public agencies should organize their information sources to help citizens find the answers to questions -- are "one-stop shops" the answer, or are they just too complex? How do we rationalize information from a dizzying array of multiple agency jurisdictions?
Readings:
Miller, pages 221-236, 359-375.Review documents and links of the Digital Futures Coalition, at: http://www.ari.net/dfc/.
Review Thomas Web site, Library of Congress, at http://thomas.loc.gov/.
Look at Web site of the Government Printing Office, at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/.
Review Texas Window on State Government site, at: http://www.window.state.tx.us/.
Electronic Commerce, "Disintermediation," and Taxation
An entirely new sector of economic activity is what's called "electronic commerce," or buying and selling over the Internet, in some cases using new forms of "digital cash." Some people believe that this may be the way most people in advanced industrialized societies will engage in commerce in the future.
If "electronic commerce" and other forms of electronic transactions take off and become common, this will entail a process of so-called "disintermediation," meaning the elimination ofjobs that once managed commercial transactions: store clerks, telemarketing operators, video stores, etc. Some people see this as a great leap forward, a move toward a "friction-free" economy. Others see this as the beginning of the end of our traditional concept of work, with vast collateral effects.
What are the policy implications of a society undergoing "disintermediation?" Are we facing a "jobless future" or a new golden age of "friction-free" capitalism?
Will the public sector see its revenues plunge as more and more commerce moves to the Internet? This is one of the looming controversies surrounding electronic commerce, or the deployment of Internet resources for economic activity. Most states, for example, do not tax mail order transactions with a customer who lives outside the state. Some communities have tried to impose a tax on Internet-related activity, only to have to withdraw or repeal such proposals. The City of Austin is negotiating a "franchise fee" on telecommunications carriers, which some people regard as a tax and others see as fair payment for the use of rights-of-way.
Imagine it is fifty years from now. What are the taxes on Internet activity? How would these be imposed and monitored? If we don't have taxes on electronic commerce, how will the public sector be funded?
Readings:
Gates, Chapter 7-8, 11The End of Work, Jeremy Rifkin, Chapters 1-3, Chapter 11. On reserve, PAL.
Review site of Cybercash, at: http://www.cybercash.com/.
Review site of First Virtual, at: http://www.fv.com/.
Review site of e-Trust, at: http://www.etrust.org/.
Equity on the Information Superhighway
A recurrent issue surrounding the development of the Internet is whether this technology is creating a new class of "have-nots," those without access to the Internet or to the money required to acquire access. Internet access is not cheap -- it requires a computer, a modem, and an Internet account. And because of increasing income inequality in the U.S., there are wide disparities in access among different socioeconomic groups.
What is the scope of this problem? What should we do about it? Should we do anything, or will it take care of itself over time?
Readings
Richard Civille, "The Internet and the Poor," in Public Access to the Internet, Brian Kahin and James Keller, eds., 1995, pages 175-207. On reserve, PAL.Recommended Decision of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, at: http://idi.net/fcc/.
Review documents and links of the Community Technology Centers Network, at http://www.ctcnet.org/.
Look at the site for Plugged In, in East Palo Alto, California, at: http://www.pluggedin.org/.
Look at the site for Neighborhood Tech, at: http://www.iit.edu/~nnet/.
Look at the site for Austin Free-Net, at: http://www.austinfree.net/.
Look at the site for the Austin Learning Academy, at: http://www.alaweb.org/
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Shopping Mall or Town Hall? Community Networks
Many public interest Internet activists have described the choices for the future of the "information superhighway" using the metaphors of a "shopping mall" versus a "town hall." And perhaps the best examples of the "town hall" model of computer networking are community computing networks. There are over 200 community networks in the U.S. now, many of them modeled on the original form of "Free-Nets," which started in Cleveland in the 1980s. And even commercial companies are starting to get into the business of building community networks.
What is a community network, and what is the vision of the community networking movement? How do these networks work, and what do they try to do that other Internet resources don't do? What does the existence of the community networking model and philosophy mean for public policy?
Readings
Miller, Chapter 11, pages 319-340.Read the preface and look at the chapter abstracts of New Community Networks: Wired for Change, Douglas Schuler, 1995, at: http://www.scn.org/ip/commnet/ncn.htm.
"Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks," Frank Odasz, in Public Access to the Internet, Brian Kahin and James Keller, eds., 1994, pages 115-136. On reserve, PAL.
"Community Networks," Malabika Das, March 1996. At: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/pubs/netnotes/notes28.htm.
Directory of Public Access Networks, at http://www.clir.org/pand/pandhome.htm.
In particular, look at Blacksburg Electronic Village, InfoZone, Seattle Community Network, Texas Metronet (Dallas), and Austin Free-Net.
See a Web page created by class member Jose Carlos Vaz
on Brazilian and U.S. city sites
December 2
Utopia or Dystopia: The Emerging Politics of Cyberculture
The spectacular growth of the Internet, the fortunes that have been made, and the astonishingly rapid development of new technological features online have all prompted speculations about whether we're entering a new utopian era. Others are skeptical, and even see the new technologies as the leading edge of a dystopian era of powerful mega-corporations, an omniscient state, an end to privacy, and an atrophied social life. The answer probably lies somewhere between these two extremes, but what are the real dimensions of the future, as they are shaped by information technologies? And what sorts of ethical questions do we face now, or what kind of political philosophies are emerging, because of these technologies?
Readings
"Part IV: Dawn of a second renaissance," Peter Leyden, 1996, at: http://www.startribune.com/digage/main4.htm.