Essay

The essay shall present and discuss selected theory, technology and tools related to big data.

This autumn, we specifically invite essays that are related to your group assignments, for example discussion privacy aspects of your project (if any).

Theme

Your mandatory essay is supposed to be "an individual, theoretical essay on chosen topic". In practice, it is you who propose a theme, and then I either accept it as is or guide you towards a more suitable theme.

I invite essays that are not purely theoretical, but that present and reflect over your work with the group assignment. For example, the essay can discuss privacy-related aspects of your project. But in any case, your essay should demonstrate "thoughtful research and discussion". It should be well backed by scholarly literature.

Finding a theme

It is a good idea to start thinking about possible essay themes early in the semester, at least to get the processes started! Send me your ideas in an email, and I will provide early feedback. All I need is a few keywords or a sentence about one or more ideas your are considering. Later we can talk face to face.

• Here is an example of an initial idea on the keyword stage: "Ethics and Privacy in using social media for news production."
• A step further: "I want to look into how open and non-sensitive information collected from independent sources about the same individuals can become sensitive when recombined."
• Here is an even more developed idea: "How can potentially sensitive information be identified in big-data streams for news production? And how can guards be put in place to ensure that sensitive information is not created as part of the news production stream."

Proposing a theme: deadline

Everyone who intends to take the course must send an essay proposal by email to Andreas.Opdahl@uib.no. The subject line must contain the string "INFO319 Essay Proposal".

Deadline: Wednesday October 12th 1500.

Length

Suggested length is 3000-4000 words. But effort and quality is much more important than length.

Essay submission

Submit your file through Inspera as a single PDF file. The version of your essay that you submit should be anonymous.

Deadline for final essay submission is December 12th. Since the essay is graded, this is an official deadline. Submission is through Inspera and if you do not submit on time, you will be not allowed to take the course exam a week later.

Essay presentations

The session on Thursday, November 24th will focus on essay presentations. 10 minutes and around 5-8 slides are an appropriate length.

Depending on the number of people who take the course, we may not have much time per essay. This includes: getting your slides up and running, presenting the actual essay, presenting critique, and posing/answering questions. In addition to presenting your own essay. you are supposed to offer comments to at least one other essay.

This means that you need to be really well prepared. A short presentation is much harder than a long one: "Lincoln [... w]hen asked to appear upon some important occasion and deliver a five-minute speech, he said that he had no time to prepare five-minute speeches, but that he could go and speak an hour at any time." (H. H. Markham, Governor of California, 1893)