Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia based on the model that anyone can contribute to or edit any entry, has placed new restrictions on editing. Certain entries in any reference work are bound to be contentious, and with Wikipedia, disagreements can escalate to a “revert war,” in which competing factions simply change an entry back and forth […]

The U.S. Justice Department has filed suit against the attorney general of New Jersey to prevent her from finding out whether telecom companies in the state have provided customer information to the National Security Agency (NSA). An uproar followed the reporting last month that several companies had given call data to the NSA as part […]

A new study by an assistant professor of communications and sociology at Northwestern University attempts to identify what today’s college students spend most of their time online doing. Based on her survey of more than 1,300 students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Eszter Hargittai said that a number of common assumptions about students […]

Following a decision to let its current contract with Qwest expire in 2007, Internet2 has announced that the network that will replace Abilene will be built by Level 3 Communications and Internet2. Douglas Van Houweling, president of Internet2, said that in addition to common Internet transmissions, the new network will allow researchers to establish high-speed […]

Responding to a changing landscape of media, Nielsen Media Research has said it will begin tracking viewership of television programs over the Internet. Media companies have criticized Nielsen for only tracking shows that people watch on televisions in their homes, even as growing numbers of consumers watch shows on computers, cell phones, or other devices, […]

According to Creative Technology, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will investigate whether the extremely popular iPod device infringes on a patent held by Creative. Creative, based in Singapore, and its U.S. subsidiary have filed two lawsuits alleging that the iPod infringes on a user-interface patent Creative holds for its own portable music devices. Creative […]

Google has launched a new Web site specifically for the works of William Shakespeare and related resources. At the site, users have access to the full texts of Shakespeare’s 37 plays and can search those texts for words or phrases. The site also has links to academic resources concerning the plays, online groups that focus […]

Microsoft has announced a donation of as much as $30 million in software to high school and college students in Massachusetts. The software package will include software-writing and Web-development tools and is valued at about $800 per high school student and $2,400 per college student. The software will be offered to all public high schools […]

A small California-based company says it has computer chips that transmit video signals wirelessly throughout a home using ultrawideband (UWB) technology. Other vendors making such products have used Wi-Fi for the transmission, although wireless video provided by Wi-Fi is often choppy. The new chips, from Tzero Technologies, use UWB technology, which is fast but has […]

A joint project among several organizations will digitize and post online a vast collection of material from and relating to John F. Kennedy. Technology vendor EMC, the Kennedy Presidential Library, and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration will work together to put an estimated 11 terabytes of content online, including papers, photographs, and audio […]