CSci 300: Social Responsibility
Fall Semester 1996
Annotated Bibliography

Due Date

Note: I changed the due date on submission of the bibliography to Thursday, 26 September 1996.

You must choose a topic and submit your choice to the instructor for approval no later than 12 September 1996. The choice of the topic should be submitted via email. You should choose the topic(s) for the annotated bibliography assignment and the term paper as soon as possible.

The final assignment report should be submitted to the instructor by the beginning of class on 24 September 1996.

Assignment

• Choose an interesting topic related to the subject matter of this course. The topic you choose can be on any aspect of computing, but the focus should be on the professional, social, human, ethical, and/or legal issues and impacts. A non-exclusive list of possible topics might include:
  • Ethical analysis in computing.
  • Professional codes of ethics: history, comparisons, etc.
  • Professional accountability and liability.
  • Professional certification, licensing, and testing.
  • Software algorithm patents.
  • User interface copyrights.
  • Digital data property issues.
  • Free Software Foundation, GNU project, and software ownership issues.
  • Software licenses.
  • Computer viruses.
  • Computer crime.
  • Database privacy issues.
  • Free speech in "cyberspace".
  • Pornography and other offensive materials on the Internet.
  • Communications decency act.
  • Gender and race issues in computing.
  • Internationalization of computing technology.
  • Health, privacy, etc., issues surrounding use of computers in the workplace.
  • Encryption of data and communications.
  • Impacts of artificial intelligence and robotic systems.
  • Software correctness issues.
  • Human-computer interfaces.
  • Computer-facilitated education.
  • Commerce on the Internet.
  • Construction, operation, and control of the "information superhighway".
  • Electronic publishing.
  • Social interactions on the Internet.
  • Multi-user role-playing games on the Internet.
  • Avoidance of risks in computing applications in a selected field (e.g., medicine, national defense, aircraft, power or communications utilities).

• No two class members may choose exactly the same topic. In case of a conflict, topics will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, using the time of email receipt.

• You may choose the same topic for this bibliography as you do for the term paper.

• Find at least 8 good "papers" on the topic. By paper I mean an article from a journal, conference proceedings, or book. You may include no more than two articles that we discussed this semester. You may include a few items from the World Wide Web or from popular publications (newspapers, newsmagazines, computer trade magazines, etc.), but the at least half of the papers should come from professional journals or books.

• Construct a written bibliography of the articles. (That is, give authors, title, journal/book, volume and number, publisher, date of publication, etc.)

• For each article, include a short summary (e.g., one paragraph) of the article's content and significance. Also give the relationship of the article to others in your bibliography, if appropriate.

• The report should be either produced on a word processor or in HTML. If you use a word processor, submit a pleasingly formatted paper copy to the instructor. If you use HTML, submit the file(s) to the instructor via email; the document should be suitably formatted for "publication" on the World-Wide Web.

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