Classic paper assignments

The two classic paper assignments (CP1 and CP2) each have the same structure, described in the following sequence of steps.

1. Carefully read the assigned readings. Make notes (preferably handwritten on paper) that you can bring with you to the discussion session.

2. Before 8 AM on the day of the discussion session, post at least one question to the Moodle forum for the discussion.
   • At least one of your posted questions should demonstrate that you have thought about the assigned reading and gained insight into it.
   • If there are aspects of the reading you do not understand, you are encouraged to post questions asking for information or explanations. But this probably does not count as your question that demonstrates insight.

3. Optionally, respond to one or more of the questions posted by other class members.

4. Attend the discussion session and participate actively.

5. [This applies only if you are unable to attend the discussion.] If you are absent from the discussion session (regardless of whether your absence is excused in advance or not), you must still post discussion questions as described above, and you must write a blog post about the reading. In your blog post, discuss and respond to one or more of the questions posted by other students. Your post should be made publicly available online somewhere (e.g. tumblr.com). The post must be at least 800 words in length. Submit a link to your blog post to the Moodle forum. The link must be submitted within three days of our discussion session.

To obtain an excellent grade on these assignments, you must excel on the following aspects.

• At least one of your posted questions demonstrates insight into the assigned reading.
• Your participation in the classroom discussion demonstrates insight into and curiosity about the reading.

CP1 (100 points)

There are two assigned readings for this session, both available on Moodle:

• “Needles in the World’s Biggest Haystack: The algorithm that ranked the internet”: This is definitely not a classic paper. It is a short, light overview of the significance of Google’s PageRank algorithm. This reading will help provide perspective and background for the classic paper described next.
• “The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine.” This paper was written by the two co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. It describes Google’s famous PageRank algorithm and was originally published in the proceedings of the 1998 International Conference on the World Wide Web.

CP2 (100 points)

There is one assigned reading for this session, available on Moodle:

• Sweeney, L. (1997). Weaving technology and policy together to maintain confidentiality. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 25(2-3), 98-110.
  • The author of this paper is Latanya Sweeney, who is the Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government and Technology at Harvard.