CPS 49 (Duke University) The Global Commons: Cooperation and Conflict on the Internet

This calendar lists the topics discussed on each day. It will grow and change. You are responsible for completing the reading for each topic before we discuss the topic. Slides and reading assignments for each topic are on the topics page.

Date	Topic/Event
August 29	Course introduction
August 31	Acceptable use Victorian Internet, Day 1. Reading: Victorian Internet, ch 1-3
Sept 5	Victorian Internet, Day 2. Reading: Victorian Internet, ch 4-6
Sept 7	Victorian Internet, Day 3. Reading: Finish the Victorian Internet
Sept 12	Victorian Internet, wrapup. In this class we used the telegraph to discuss and illustrate a range of network infrastructure topics: switching, network evolution, network/graph topologies, survivability, congestion, multicast, relation to the power network. Reading: Finish the Victorian Internet.
Sept 14	Early Visions of the Internet: JCR Licklider Reading: Licklider and Taylor, The Computer as a Communications Device, 1968. Note that the pdf contains two papers: we are concerned with the second of the two. .
Sept 19	Early visions of the Internet: Paul Baran and packet switching. See Internet history. Reading: Paul Baran, Perspectives on networks--past present and future [PDF], 1977.
Sept 21	Internet history and compare/contrast to telegraph. Reading: A Brief History of the Internet
Sept 26	Internet architecture and Internet infrastructure: protocols and protocol stacks, ISPs, routing, transports. In this class we talked more about graph theory and its application to networks and other areas (epidemiology, social networks). We played with the Oracle of Bacon to illustrate paths through graphs, graph diameter, and "six degrees of separation". We used the traceroute tool to illustrate the analogy to network routing. Reading: A Brief History of the Internet
Sept 28	Chase out of town; Laura Grit leads a discussion on network neutrality. Reading: Litan and Lessig op-ed pieces and HR5273 on the network neutrality page.
Oct 3	HTML/Web discussion. Personal web page due Tuesday, October 17. Continuation of network neutrality discussion, focusing on the potential impact on quality-of-service innovation (e.g., telesurgery), per the Litan op-ed. Reading: Does HR5273 conflict with TIA Connectivity Principles, and if so, how?
Oct 5	Wrap up of network neutrality discussion, and discussion of government's legitimate interest in regulating the Internet service market and Internet content. Also begin discussion Goldsmith/Wu, the Yahoo/France Nazi memorabilia case, the Domain Name Service, and geo-location. Reading: Goldsmith/Wu, chapters 1-2
Oct 10	Fall break: no class
Oct 12	Internet naming infrastructure and its role as a "choke point" for Internet control. Reading: Goldsmith/Wu, chapters 3-5. Of particular interest is the Jon Postel/ICAAN case (chapter 3); chapters 4 and 5 provide the background for the discussion.
Oct 17	Internet service and control in China (PRC), and the role of US companies and impact on evolving Internet standards. Reading: Goldsmith/Wu, ch 6. Internet Society of China pledge Due: Personal web page
Oct 19	More on Internet censorship and control. How the system structure lends itself to central control, and countermeasures. Begin discussion of Internet filesharing and copyright. Reading: Goldsmith/Wu ch 7.
Oct 24	History and technology of peer-to-peer filesharing. Intellectual property protection, copyright, and plagiarism. Napster, Gnutella, free rider problem. RIAA-driven shutdown of centralized Napster, and decentralized alternatives. Reading: Goldsmith/Wu ch 7.
Oct 26	Landon Cox discusses BitTorrent, incentives, the evolution of cooperation, and other peer-to-peer systems and issues. Reading: none assigned
Oct 31	Finish with Internet borders, governance, and control. Reading: Finish Goldsmith/Wu, and two perspectives: Milton L. Mueller [PDF], Jon Mathiason [PDF]. Paper on network neutrality due in class.
Nov 2	Discussion of themes from Infotopia Reading: Infotopia to p. 60.
Nov 7	Electronic voting Reading: see the web page.
Nov 9	Internet malware Reading: I'll present material from two papers: A Crawler-based Study of Spyware on the Web, which is available from the UW systems security research site, and The Zombie Roundup: Understanding, Detecting, and Disrupting Botnets, which is available in PDF from Arbor Networks.
Nov 14	Further discussion of botnets, DDOS, and defenses. Reading: see above
Nov 16	Jeff Forbes on social networks Assignment: see the social networks page.
Nov 23	Internet security and the Tragedy of the Commons. Reading: Please familiarize yourself with the ToC and read Why Information Security is Hard: An Economic Perspective [PDF], by Ross Anderson.
Nov 28	Continuing discussion of information security, including a discussion of Butler Lampson's Security in the Real World, e-commerce security, and how https works.
Dec 1	Continuing discussion of Internet security and the Tragedy of the Commons. Why we don't have strong authentication for clients in the Internet. The problem of Internet congestion control, which today relies on voluntary compliance with congestion policies. Reading: Tussle in Cyberspace.
Dec 4	Tussle in Cyberspace Reading: Some reading