UNIT 2

LESSON 1

CS

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OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

Read about societal challenges of the Internet and relate to personal experiences.

Explain why it is important for everyone to know how the Internet works.

Explain one challenge related to the Internet being open and free for all.

IETF

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the group of mostly volunteer citizens that

• proposes and develops all of the standards and protocols that exist on the Internet.

• the protocols or rules by which Internet traffic is governed are not owned or controlled by any government or business (at the moment).

•  It’s a group of well-meaning citizen-engineers dedicated to keeping the Internet free, open and robust for all.  

• Request for Comments (RFC) documents are how these standards and protocols are defined and published for all to see on the IETF website.  

• They are some of the best-written technical documents in existence.

THE RFC ACTIVITY

With a partner, skim the RFC and look at the 9 challenges laid out at the end.

While you’re looking at the document, what do the challenges make you think of?  

With your partner, discuss the challenges and try to think of related examples you know about from your experience, the news, or history.

2.  With your partner pick two (2) of the challenges and for each be prepared to:

State the challenge briefly in your own words. You can start your statement with the “Internet is for everyone - but it won’t be if….” and then explain in your own words what it means.

Give an example you know of that applies to that challenge.

JOURNAL UNIT 2 #1

Summarize the 2 challenges you picked. Why did you pick them? Why are they important?

SUMMARY

The “Internet is for Everyone” is an important concept upon which the Internet as we know it was built.

Many of the issues raised by Vint Cerf still apply today, some even more so.

In this unit you will look at and study some of the biggest societal issues happening today related to the Internet

However, one issue that our society faces is that far too few people actually understand how the Internet works in order to be able to address these problems.  

SUMMARY

The people who propose the laws, or judge them often don’t really know how the Internet works, what makes sense and what doesn’t.

Citizens don’t know how to protect themselves from cybercrime, or often live in a cloud of fear and uncertainty not only about the law, but their rights, and about what’s actually technically possible.  

Hackers take advantage of unknowing, unsuspecting people. Corporations who provide Internet service need to balance

profitability with providing access to everyone.