Be sure to read "The Digital Republic" for Tuesday's class. We'll have a quiz, but it will be a slightly different quiz--no short answer questions, but just one longer essay question (since too many people are spending all their time looking up the short answers, and then offering a quick, vague response to the essay question--which is the most important part!).
Some ideas you might consider:
* How might this article offer a naysayer response to the idea in our last essay of "the internet of things"? Do they want everything to be connected? Is that a utopia for most Estonians?
* As one Estonian says in the article, "in today's world, everything will be public at some point" (161). Why should all information be increasingly public--and how will this help protect countries like Estonia in the long run?
* Why do many Estonians feel that "it is possible to imagine a future in which nationality is determined not so much by where you live as by what you log on to" (158)? Why is that an important goal? How is it somewhat utopian in their eyes?
* How does this essay address the naysayers, particularly those who might say, "if you're a citizen of the world, you're a citizen of nowhere"?
* Why is Estonia (a nation most people have never even heard of) so far in advance of this kind of technology and thinking? What makes them uniquely qualified (or inspired) to develop it?
* Why is internet citizenship in Estonia relatively popular around the world? What is the advantage that some people see in this unorthodox approach to business?
* Why does this essay argue that to change the world, you have to change how you think about society?
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