Term Paper / Presentation Topics

The paper. The paper should be the same length and style as the first two papers. The topic for the paper is the same as the topic for your presentation, so you can think of the paper as your background preparation for the presentation. The set of topics is listed below. There are some “starter” on-line references given. You are of course free to use as many additional sources as you want, and I expect that most people will use additional sources.

The presentation. Your talk should be about 10 minutes in length. (Due to time constraints with the class, we will have to cut you off at 12 minutes. Consider this as practice for the future when you have a specific time slot for your presentation to the board of directors of your company.) Be sure to give your well-reasoned opinion about the people events. Bring copies of your powerpoint as a handout for the class. Have a slide at the end listing the sources used. Think carefully about the color combinations and layout for your slides. Presentations will be graded on content and style.

Topic One (April 12) – The “CONFIRM” System and the Difficulty of Software.

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3423238

http://sunset.usc.edu/publications/TECHRPTS/1999/usccse99-523/usccse99-523.pdf

http://sunset.usc.edu/classes/cs510_2003/notes/confirm.pdf

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/e/x/exo4/JBE2001.pdf

Topic Two (April 12) – The FBI Case Management System Fiasco.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/ 2005-01-13-fbi-usat_x.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9063-2005Jan14.html

http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jordan041702.htm

Topic Three (April 14) – The “UCITA” Case History.

http://www.ucita.com/

http://iwsun4.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/07/02/010702opfoster.html

http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/ucita/ucita.htm

Topic Four (April 14) – The Therac-25 Software Failure.

http://sunnyday.mit.edu/therac-25.html

http://neptune.netcomp.monash.edu.au/cpe9001/assets/readings/www_uguelph_ca_~tgallagh_~tgallagh.html

http://www.cis.ksu.edu/~howell/492s03/MedicalDeviceSafety.pdf

Topic Five (April 19) – The “Digital Divide” Controversy.

http://www.pbs.org/digitaldivide/

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide/

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/nr/Downloads/libraries/uslibraries/reports/TowardEqualityofAccess.pdf

Topic Six (April 19) – The “Nuremburg Files” Web Site.

http://www.christiangallery.com/atrocity/

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/113/42.0.html

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/945898585?ltl=1111000119

http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000-all/morris-2000-02-all.html

Topic Seven (April 21) – The “Acacia” Patent Controversy.

http://www.eff.org/patent/wanted/patent.php?p=acacia

http://www.technologymarketing.com/mc/content/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1899661

http://www.streamingmedia.com/patent/

Topic Eight (April 21) – The Class Action Suit Against Viisage Technologies.

http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?symbols=NASDAQ:VISG&story=200503112232_PZN_74328

http://eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3055421

http://www.viisage.com/ww/en/pub/home.cfm

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Mar/1124447.htm

Topic Nine (April 26) – The Lexis-Nexis Security Breach.

http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_financial_services/002053.html

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/09/HNlexinnexisbreach_1.html

http://www.lexisnexis.com/about/releases/0779.asp

Topic Ten (April 26) – The ChoicePoint Security Breach.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4507687

http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/CPResponse.htm

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/11142923.htm

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0315choicepoint15-ON.html