[Professor Johnson, University of Iowa Cyberspace Law Seminar, Spring
2001]
[20010104 0800]
How to Read the References to Assigned Pages
Concepts (Vocabulary) to Look For, Grasp, and Articulate
The selections and questions from within:
pages 12-100
Any legal study requires a knowledge of the relevant law: court opinions, constitutional and statutory provisions, and regulations. But the first thing it requires is a factual foundation: some understanding of the subject matter and context in which the law arises and to which it applies – whether warehouse receipts, ocean shipping or oil exploration and drilling. Cyberspace law is no different.
So that’s what we’re going to do first.
One can approach an understanding of the Internet from a variety of directions – not unlike the story of the six blind men describing an elephant. For example, the entire seminar could be built around issues involving the impact of the Internet on personal privacy.
The approach with which we will begin involves the significance of the Internet in the growth of what is called “globalization.” No single insight can provide greater potential dividends for you over the next 50 years – your career – than to “get” what is meant by globalization. So this approach serves multiple purposes.
The book we have chosen to stimulate our discussion is Thomas L. Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Make sure you get the updated Anchor Books first edition of April 2000.
If you are in the habit of reading more than just casebooks while you are in law school this is undoubtedly one that will end up on your reading list (or you have already read). Even if you aren’t normally so inclined, I suspect that many of you will want to read it from cover to cover once you get into it.
However, for the required reading assignments I have selected passages that represent about one-fourth the length of the entire book. This will both (a) benefit those of you who are limited by other obligations to doing the minimum, and (b) help all of us to focus on what we’ll be discussing.
There are a number of qualities of this book that make it a delightful read. Among them is the fact that (1) it’s a storybook. The author provides an incredible number of personal anecdotes, others’ stories, quotations from interviews, and case studies to put persuasive and fascinating flesh on the skeleton of his general concepts. (2) Another is the new vocabulary Friedman uses. His lighthearted labels make the reader stop and focus on what he’s saying, and make more understandable concepts that an academic writer could make very heavy.
But this writing style also imposes on you, the seminar participant, the need to look for and grasp the vocabulary and concepts he uses.
The first number is a page number. The next number is a paragraph number. (E.g., “p. 62, par. 3.”) Only full paragraphs (that is, those that begin on the page in question) are counted. Any paragraph that continues on to another page is to be read to the end of the paragraph. If no paragraph number is used it means the entire page is to be read (including its carry-over paragraphs). The final number is the last page (or page and paragraph designation) for that selection.
Are you familiar with the SQ3R method of reading and studying? SQ3R stands for “Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review.” It’s a way of reducing the time you need spend studying while simultaneously substantially increasing what you retain. If you'd like a short explanation the Duke University SQ3R site is as good as any, but put "SQ3R" into a good search engine and you'll get hundreds more.
The only point I want to draw from it at the moment is the emphasis on “question.”
Whether you “survey” the material and follow the other steps or not, asking yourself questions before reading can keep you focused and insure you come away with at least something.
And, as you’ve already long since discovered during your years of education, much of learning any subject involves familiarity with a new vocabulary in every course of study from anthropology to zoology – or admiralty law to zoning law. So it is with globalization and the Internet.
That is why I have provided the following “Concepts (Vocabulary) to Look For, Grasp, and Articulate” and “Assigned Pages and Questions.”
Obviously, our seminar discussions of this material will focus on the implications of these concepts and trends for “cyberspace law” – questions which are not contained here. But we cannot begin to address those questions until you have mastered these – the answers to which form the basic factual and conceptual foundation on which the discussion will rest.
The list, and questions, are obviously also a useful prompt and review for any quizzes we may have over this material.
Adapters
Berlin Wall, The fall of the
Broadband
Democratization of Information
Democratization of Technology
Digitization
DOScapital 1.0/6.0
Electro-magnetic pulse
Electronic Herd
Evernet
Globalist
Globalization
Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention
Golden Straightjacket
Groundswell
Harpo
Hyperlinks
Information Arbitrage
Internet
Internet Doctors
Internet Quotient
Lexus
Little Brothers
Long-horn cattle
Megabits per capita
MID (“microchip immune deficiency”)
Mutual assured economic destruction
Network solution for human rights
Olive Tree
Political identities, the four basic
Search engine
Shapers
Short-horn cattle
Super-empowered individuals
Supermarkets
Web browser
World Wide Web
How is “globalization” different from the “Cold War”?p. 19, par. 4-p. 20, par. 1How was Jody Williams Nobel peace Prize related to the Internet?
What is “information arbitrage”?p. 22, par. 1-p. 24, par. 1.
What is the perspective of a “globalist”?p. 29-p. 34, par. 2
What is meant by “the Lexus” and “the Olive tree”?p. 46, par. 1-p. 52, par. 1What is the contrast between them? Why is it relevant?
What is the source of the potential “olive tree backlash”?
What are the interrelated trends contributing to the “democratization of technology”? Provide three examples of the geographical dispersion this makes possible and explain why.p. 62, par. 3-p. 68, par. 1
What is “ARPA” and what does it have to do with the Internet?p. 76, par. 4Where did the word “Internet” come from?
What is a “URL,” “HTTP” and “HTML,” how do they relate, and what was their contribution to the Internet?
Why does it make a difference how “broad” the “band” is (as in “high-speed, broadband Internet access”)?
What is meant by “the democratization of information”?
What is meant by “microchip immune deficiency” and what is its significance?p. 79, par. 3-p. 85, par. 3
What is meant by the “information revolution”?p. 94, par. 1-p. 100What have been its two (actually four) consequences for the marketplace?
Although the word “convergence” is not used (pp. 83-85) that’s what’s being described. How would you define or describe it?
What does “Internet Quotient” refer to?p. 104, par. 2-p. 105, par. 1What’s an “Internet Doctor”?
What are the four rules of Cisco’s Internet Doctor Alan Cohen?
What’s the relevance of the Chinese proverb, “No hand can block out the sun”?
What’s the “golden straightjacket”?p. 132, par. 3-134, par. 1What are its 17 requirements?
What are the “short-horn” and “long-horn” cattle?p. 139, par. 2-142How have the “three democratizations” affected the long-horns’ business strategies and operations?
What is the significance of the Cisco slogan, “Are you ready?”p. 158, par. 1-p. 161, par. 1What are the four global systems created by the Internet?
How does globalization affect a nation’s need for “size” and “quality” of government?p. 176, par. 2-p. 177, par. 2What’s the relevance of “freeways” and “stoplights”?
What’s meant by “DOScapital”?
What do the Internet and globalization have to do with the relationship between sweatshop conditions in Sri Lanka and student protests at the University of Iowa?p. 199, par. 1
What is meant by “megabits per capita” and why is it a measure preferred over “PCs per household”?p. 201, par. 1-p. 201, par. 2
What is meant by the “Evernet”?p. 201, par. 3-p. 202
Who and what are the “shapers” and the “adapters”?p. 203, par. 2
In what way was Dell both a “shaper” and an “adapter”?p. 205, par. 1-p. 211
What is the relevance of globalization and the Internet to those concerned about public interest law, human rights and other social activist movements?p. 248-p. 249, par. 1What is meant by “the network solution for human rights”?
What is the “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention” and what is its underlying rationale?p. 256, par. 1-p. 259, par. 1
Why have “a whole different web of interests and countervailing incentives been spun by globalization” compared with those of the Cold War years?p. 314, par. 1What was “mutual assured destruction,” or “MAD” (if you recall from general knowledge; it’s not defined in the reading)? What creates “mutual assured economic destruction,” how does it differ from MAD, and what is the significance of this difference?
What is meant by “winners take all” and what does this have to do with the Internet?p. 328, par. 3-p. 329What potential global danger lurks in this consequence of globalization?
What are some of the concerns of those creating the backlash against the Golden Straightjacket?p. 348-p. 349
Why is it possible for globalization to raise up, as well as oppress, those living in Third World poverty?p. 386, par. 1-p. 388, par. 1What is meant by “the groundswell”?
How does the Internet contribute to anti-Americanism?
What is metalsite.com and what are its implications for globalization and American firms' world domination?p. 394, par. 3-p. 395
Who are the “Harpos”? What is troubling them?p. 396, par. 5-p. 397
What are the implications of globalization for terrorism?p. 417-p. 420, par. 2
What are the five ways in which “globalization can threaten globalization”?p. 425, par. 4-p. 428
Who was “Big Brother” (if you recall from general knowledge; it’s not defined in the reading)? Who, now, are the “Little Brothers”?p. 436, par. 3-p. 439According to the book, what can you do, as a lawyer, to improve the standards of privacy?
Where would you now place yourself on the globalization matrix of “four basic political identities”?p. 470, par. 3-p. 471
What are the implications of the Internet and globalization for K-12 education and parenting?