Sheffield Hallam University Crypto Currencies Research Paper

Sheffield Hallam University Crypto Currencies Research Paper

Crypto Currencies Research Paper

 

 

Study Skills & Project Management

 

MSc Computing / MSc IT Management / MSc Big Data Analytics

55-706553

LEVEL 7

Assessment Brief

Task 1 Study skills and critical writing assignment- 3 pages submitted online                                                                                                            50%

We have provided you with some one-sided arguments (positions) which we would like you to analyse critically.  The issues are ethical, and you may have come across them before.  We know that there is a greater emphasis on ethics at master’s level and you may, in another module, be asked to write a full essay on a subject like the ones below.  For that reason, we are not asking for you to write the complete essay.  We will be assessing you on the criteria below.

The aim of the study skills in this module it is to ensure that you have the following tools to help you develop critical writing skills.

• This assignment is to check that you have developed a critical thinking model that you can understand and use.
• We want you to demonstrate that you have good searching and researching skills and can find evidence for and against a given argument.
• We want you to demonstrate that you can plan and use your evidence to build your argument and critique the argument.
• We want you to demonstrate that you can write in well-constructed paragraphs that contain topic sentences.
• And we want you to demonstrate the correct use of citations in the body of the text and the correct formatting of the reference list.

The list of suggested topics covers a range of ethical issues that are pertinent to different areas of computer science.  We would like you to choose one of those positions below to critically analyse.  You can choose your own position in discussion with your tutor, but you need to ensure that there are plenty of points to debate and evidence available.  You may reduce or restrict your potential mark if you choose a limited topic.  You will need to develop arguments in support of the position as well as the opposing arguments.

Position 1 – Support governments in their use of mass surveillance

Develop arguments to support the detailed electronic surveillance of populations. Governments claim that they should be allowed to do this to make the country safe and to target ever dwindling tax revenues on important resources for society. Governments claim that any data that is collected would be safe and that only trusted parties would ever be able to access it.

Position 2 – Support the use of crypto-currencies

Develop arguments in support of crypto currencies. The considerations here are establishing frictionless financial transactions, anonymity, and the ability to transcend international boundaries. You may wish to consider any spin-off advantages to the underlying technology.

Position 3 – Support the auction of patient medical records

Develop arguments in support of the release of medical records. Consider the likely benefits to the public. Also consider what mechanisms for data protection should be explored or stipulated by the NHS prior to the release of the records.

Position 4 – Support the Service Providers

Develop arguments in support of the internet being controlled on behalf of internet services providers. They claim that they need to do this to ensure optimum network speeds in the face of ever-increasing video traffic and to ensure a high quality of service for their customers. The providers often say they would charge a premium to eliminate waits/buffering of video by placing a higher priority on such traffic across their networks. Consider revenue for internet service providers and quality of service for customers.

Position 5 – Supporting the Student in a DRM case

It emerged that an application for converting and overriding DRM content was written by a university student. The student developed a stand-alone program and posted this on a file sharing site for anyone to use. The student claims he based the app on a freely available algorithm that demonstrated how the encryption system worked and the format of the data in the media files. This information was enough to enable the student to develop the application.

The student admits to developing the application but denies he did this to support illegal access to the media files, although he does acknowledge that the app could be used for this purpose. He sticks by his claims that the app was developed to show off his programming skills and to demonstrate that this was indeed technically possible. The student has not made any money from the app.

Build a case to support the student. Develop arguments that could be used to convince others that the student has not done anything wrong.

How we will assess

In your appendix – one page

We would like you to include your plan which maps out the arguments and supporting evidence using an appropriate diagram, table, or list.  We want you to provide citations to your references in the APA format within this plan.

• This assignment is to check that you have developed a critical thinking model that you can understand and use. This will be your map or table with the criteria and stakeholders labelled.
• We want you to demonstrate that you have good searching and researching skills and can find evidence for and against a given argument. We will assess this based on the citations that you provide after each outline argument in your map/table.
• We want you to demonstrate that you can plan and use your evidence to build your argument and critique the argument. We will assess this based on the number of outlined arguments in your plan.

We would like you to highlight from your plan a subsection. We will assess this based on the boundary that you draw on your map/table/list.  You may choose to highlight a subsection which covers a single criterion for a number of stakeholders or choose a stakeholder and examine a number of criteria.  Whichever you choose we would expect at least four different aspects to be covered.

In the essay body – one page

We would like you to write the one-page critique which covers the subsection selected above.  This one page will require an appropriate title, introduction, arguments that you are critiquing, and conclusions.  We expect to see well-constructed paragraphs and correct citations following the APA format for referencing.  At master’s level we would expect to see more than one citation to support a point of view.  Make sure that you consult an APA referencing guide to cite correctly.

• We want you to demonstrate that you can write in well-constructed paragraphs that contain topic sentences.
• And we want you to demonstrate the correct use of citations in the body of the text and the correct formatting of the reference list.

References – one page

Finally, we need you to attach a correctly formatted reference list/works cited following the APA standard.