Kenneth Corbin

WASHINGTON — With the surge of collaborative technical innovation that has given rise to projects like Wikipedia and the open source software revolution, it might seem a little counterintuitive to argue that the technology industry is gradually shifting toward a closed-off, top-down model. It might seem counterintuitive, unless you’re Jonathan Zittrain. Speaking here at the […]

Today’s election, the culmination of a two-year campaign that has generated unprecedented media attention, has lit up the Web in a way that would have been unimaginable in 2004. The proliferation of online polling and politically-themed social-media content — from the candidates’ own Web sites to the ceaseless barrage of micro-rants on Twitter — have […]

Obama and McCain speak during the presidential debate at Hofstra University earlier this month. Source: Reuters When Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain’s and Sen. Barack Obama’s technology policies might not be at the forefront of most voters’ minds. But that doesn’t mean they’re not important. The campaign has lately been […]

With Election Day less than two weeks away, it’s anyone’s race to win. Interest among voters of both parties is high, but a new survey suggests that the very committed voters — those who contribute to a campaign or attend an event — are far more likely to identify themselves as liberal Democrats than conservative […]

(L-R) John Horrigan, Dan Burton, Mike Nelson, Ari Schwartz WASHINGTON — Most Internet users know what Webmail is. Many are familiar with YouTube, or at least the concept of watching videos online. But how many of them understand that they those applications live in the clouds? A new study from the Pew Internet and American […]

Bowing to requests from wireless carriers, the Federal Communications Commission has agreed to postpone its plans to move forward with a controversial initiative to create a family-friendly network that would provide free Internet access to nearly all Americans. The tension arises from T-Mobile’s claim, supported by its fellow carriers, that the spectrum the FCC would […]

Microsoft is not going to the social networking craze pass it by. So get ready for the latest from the software giant in the form of a social bookmarking service aimed at developers and other members of its tech-focused communities, the Microsoft Development Network (MSDN), TechNet and Expression. In early September, Microsoft (NADAQ: MSFT) plans […]

Customer satisfaction with online information-retrieval services is on the rise, reaching a record high and revealing a shift in the way people are seeking out content, according to a new study. To gauge how effectively businesses are satisfying consumers’ needs, researchers at the University of Michigan developed the American Customer Satisfaction Index, or ACSI, a […]

The social networking arms race has gone global. A recent report from online metrics firm comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) revealed that social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Bebo and Hi5 have collectively seen their traffic rise by 25 percent over the last year. Of course, the popularity contest is usually dominated by talk of […]

MySpace has jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, today unveiling an application that will deliver a mobile version of the social network to Apple’s hugely popular smartphone. The application will be available as a free download from Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes store and the forthcoming iPhone App Store. According to John Faith, general manager and vice […]