November 18th, 2020 
Assignment Details:
You are to prepare a personal essay that reflects on the following after reading
The Master Switch (Timothy Wu) – ISBN: 978-0-307-26993-5
Consent of the Networked (Rebecca MacKinnon) – ISBN: 978-0-465-02442-1
From a personal perspective, do you feel the current internet environment is maximally “open” for use by any/all of its stakeholder/users? If not, what are some limitations to that openness? What groups are affected?
Do you feel that the internet needs to have restrictions on “openness”? If so for whom and why?
What, if any, risks to internet openness do you see at this time? How significant are any of these risks? What might be done to address those risks? By whom?
How does the current model of internet governance impact “openness” for individuals?
What are some relevant things you have learned after reading the 2 books? How has anything after reading them changed your understanding or concerns about the internet as a shared resource?
Your submitted report should be reflective of a thorough (not cursory) consideration of the prompts above and should be presented in a professional and readable manner. Given this is your opportunity to summarize what you have gained through this course, your submission should be extensive enough to adequately explain your positions on the assignment’s questions and support your arguments while showing your knowledge. While this is not an exercise in extensive writing, a thorough consideration of the assignment’s questions requires AT LEAST 3 pages of narrative discussion (APA format, double line-spacing). If you need more length to fully express yourself, feel free to write as much as you like. NOTE: The paper must be at least 3 full pages of text (not including reference pages)
Also, given the self-reflective nature of this assignment, do not feel bothered about using the first person in your writings (“I feel this way because…”, “My opinion is that …”) Sometimes students feel concerned about using first-person in academic writing. This is a case where you are encouraged to use first-person.
Because this is a reflective essay, there will be less expectation of dependency on outside sources. However, you can certainly bolster your personal arguments through the use of outside sources and if you do, then be sure and include a properly structured ‘References’ section that is in APA format with appropriate citations of outside sources included in the body of the narrative as needed.
Proper grammar, spelling and writing style should be applied throughout.
Posted in 