Breaking News Experts Needed: 1) U.S. Government Sequester, 2) Child "Cured" of HIV, 3) SpaceX Supply Ship Arrives at ISS.

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'Digital Divide' Expert to FCC: Make Broadband Cheaper

Low-income city residents learn to use broadband through public programs, but they will not get home broadband until it costs less -- and government must help make that happen, says a UIC professor to the Federal Communications Commission.

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Have You Heard? Nearly 15 Percent of Work Email Is Gossip

According to some estimates, the average corporate email user sends 112 emails every day. About one out of every seven of those messages, says a new study from Georgia Tech, can be called gossip. Assistant Professor Eric Gilbert of the School of Interactive Computing examined hundreds of thousands of emails from the former Enron corporation and found that 14.7 percent of the emails qualify as office scuttlebutt.

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Privacy Law Expert Warns of the Perils of Social Reading

The Internet and social media have opened up new vistas for people to share preferences in films, books and music. Services such as Spotify and the Washington Post Social Reader already integrate reading and listening into social networks, providing what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls “frictionless sharing.” “But there’s a problem. A world of automatic, always-on disclosure should give us pause,” says Neil M. Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

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Internet Use Promotes Democracy Best in Countries That Are Already Partially Free

Although use of the internet has been credited with helping spur democratic revolutions in the Arab world and elsewhere, a new multinational study suggests the internet is most likely to play a role only in specific situations.

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Too Much Information: Lacking Federal Oversight, Cell Service Providers Liberally Peddle Your Private Data

Stephen B. Wicker, Cornell University professor of electrical and computer engineering, comments on obsolete federal data privacy laws. He conducts research on wireless information networks, and focuses on networking technology, law, sociology, and how regulation can affect privacy and speech rights. He is the author of “Cellular Convergence and the Death of Privacy,” a book to be published by Oxford University Press at the end of 2012.

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Internet Censorship Revealed Through the Haze of Malware Pollution

On a January evening in 2011, Egypt – with a population of 80 million, including 23 million Internet users – vanished from cyberspace after its government ordered an Internet blackout amidst anti-government protests that led to the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The following month, the Libyan government, also under siege, imposed an Internet “curfew” before completely cutting off access for almost four days.

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Recent WikiLeaks Release Renews Focus on Balancing Internet Freedom

Stephen B. Wicker, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University, conducts research in wireless information networks and how regulation can affect privacy and speech rights. Wicker comments on the recent WikiLeaks releases, how those releases connect to SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), and the need to balance Internet freedom.

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Internet Law Expert Available to Comment on Piracy Bills

Internet law and copyright expert Ned Snow is available to comment on the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect IPA Act, both of which have begun to lose Congressional support. If passed, the bills would curb illegal downloading and streaming of TV shows and movies online.

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SOPA ‘Invisibility Cloak’ Too Tempting a Tool to Spare Free Speech

Tarleton Gillespie, a professor of communication and information science at Cornell University, comments on today’s protests by Wikipedia and other websites over potential federal antipiracy legislation.

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