CSCI 102T:: The Socio-Techno Web

In lieu of a final exam, you will complete a final paper or project (which is worth 20% of your overall grade). Details about these papers/projects are described below.

According to the registrar, "for courses without final exams, the latest that written work may be due is 5:00 p.m. on the third-to-last day of the exam period, which is Friday, December 18, 2015." Thus your paper/projects are due by 5:00pm on December 18th.

Please submit a 100 word summary of your paper or project by 5:00pm on November 20th (Friday). If you would like to discuss your topic, just let me know!

If you choose to write a paper, it will involve both research and analysis. Your final paper needs to be 7-9 pages long with reasonable font size, margins, etc, not including your bibliography. For your paper topic, you may choose any topic loosely related to ideas covered in this class. For example, you could extend one of our weekly reading topics, or you can pick a new controversial topic that we did not cover that addresses the societal implications of web technologies. You should present arguments that support both sides of the controversy surrounding your chosen topic (this is the research part of the assignment), and then present an analysis of each argument, as well as your final conclusions (which should include your opinion). Choose a topic that interests you and will allow you to more deeply explore the issues covered in class. You should have a minimum of 10 outside sources.

If you choose a project, the requirements are a bit more open-ended. You may choose to explore a new web technology, implement a game in Javascript, or explore advanced functionality in jQuery. For the project, you may also work with a partner if you would like, however keep in mind that I will expect the end result to be more substantial if you are working in a group. Creativity is strongly encouraged!

You will submit your code, and come demo your project to me before you leave campus. In addition, you will submit a 1-2 page reflection/summary of the project that describes what you learned, what was challenging, what works, what doesn't, etc. This part should not involve a huge time commitment. I just think it's important to briefly reflect on the project once you complete it.

Here are some ideas for final papers/projects. You DO NOT have to choose from this list! This is just a starting point. Pick something that interests you.

RFIDs and privacy: The RFID technology is used to track down shipments of goods, but also customer behavior. Some of the questions your paper could answer are: What are some of the useful uses of RFIDs? What can be intrusive and compromising our privacy? How can our privacy be enhanced through laws and technology? Could RFID technology be used to enhance our privacy? You may want to start by reviewing the information of the Spychips book.
Jobs: Think of a job that will be greatly affected by the growing Social Web. In other words, this job will either flourish or disappear as technologies continue to evolve. Find articles about people who do this job, find out more about what they do and how they do it, etc. Analyze how exactly the changes will happen.
Crowdsourcing 1: Investigate the use of Amazon Mechanical Turk for crowdsourcing. Interview people on whether they would do the tasks listed there for the offered amount of money. Try to find out whether the jobs offered there are new types of jobs or jobs that were cut from real people in some industries. Find positive and negative stories. Read chapters from the book "The Big Switch" related to the subject of crowdsourcing as a starting point.
Human Computation: The idea of human computation was introduced by Luis von Ahn, creator of CAPTCHAs, re-CAPTCHAs, ESPs and co-creator of Duolingo. Investigate how and why it works. Why do people spend enormous amounts of time to produce useful work and give it away for free? What are the economics of this development?
Social good: There are several websites trying to do good things for the humanity. Some examples are Kiva, charity water, etc. If you are interested in how technology can impact the life of people in developing countries, study these websites, find news stories about them, try to talk to people that have created or use them, and find out whether such use of technology can have a real impact. From an economic standpoint, how do these approaches compare to traditional ones?
Smart Computers: If the progress in computing speed continues, futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that by 2029 we will have computers as smart as humans. What implications would this have in society? If you think that his predictions will be way off the mark, explain why.
Misinformation on the Web: There are plenty of examples where misinformation has propagated on the Web and Social Web. This article is a good starting point to read about political misinformation, but we see examples daily involving religious, medical or celebrity-related misinformation. Why does it exist and how can we deal with it as a society?