Personal Position on Internet Openness

Assignment Details:
You are to prepare a personal essay that reflects on the following:
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 in this course? How has anything in this course changed
your understanding or concerns about the internet as a shared resource?
Structure of Submitted Report:
Your submitted essay should be reflective of thorough (not cursory) consideration of the question 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. Try to shoot for 3-5 pages of narrative
discussion (APA/double line spacing). If you need more length to fully express yourself, feel free to write as
much as you like. 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 firstperson.
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.
For the final presentation, you can use a wide variety of digital text formatting resources including word
processors (MS Word preferred), Wikis, Blogs, or other appropriate online presentation tools. All submitted
work needs to come through the drop-box tool (see below) either as an attached full document or as a short
posting that includes a link to the external web location where your report can be retrieved.