Join the #iSchoolUI! We invite applications for the Director of Recruitment and Admissions, who will be responsible for the overall recruitment, admissions, and yield operations for the School. Submit your application by January 16 ▶️ bit.ly/44z76mf

#iSchoolUI Associate Professor @crhinesmith.bsky.social has been elected to serve on the iSchools Board of Directors, where he will assist in developing the strategic direction of the iSchools organization. Congratulations, Colin! ▶️ bit.ly/4iSvwwV

In this new podcast, #iSchoolUI Associate Professor Colin Rhinesmith and Allison Lester, host of the Thinking Through... Podcast, reflect on what gets overlooked in conversations about the digital divide. ➡️ bit.ly/4pmMtl2

Thrilled to announce that my new book, "Digital Equity Ecosystems: How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracy" will be published by @ucpress.bsky.social in June 2026! www.ucpress.edu/books/digita...

This is a very sad reality of our current moment in U.S. history. #publicbroadcasting www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is so clearly immoral that it *feels* like it should be illegal. But current IP laws (state-level rights of publicity) aren't up to the task & ratcheting them up would risk impinging on artistic freedom. What we need instead is an anti-deepfake law, which Congress has tried and failed to pass.

Thrilled to share the design for the cover of my new book, which will be published by the University of California Press in 2026! Many thanks to the UC Press creative team and Vanessa Rhinesmith for heavily informing the final design. #digitalequity

Data centers for AI and cloud computing don’t just use a lot of electricity – they also use enormous quantities of water as well, to cool down all those servers. buff.ly/KtLcLZ2

Canceling Colbert is just another egregious example of why we can't entrust our major media institutions in the hands of profit-driven oligarchs. Such concentrated power over media is especially dangerous under growing authoritarianism, muffling dissent precisely at the moment when we need it most.

Thrilled to have a new article published in the Journal of Information Policy co-authored with my wonderful colleagues Dr. Pierrette Renée Dagg, Dr. Megan Knittel, and Joon Oh. #digitalequity #digitalinclusion #broadband doi.org/10.5325/jinf...

"Federal damage to affordable, equitable broadband and digital inclusion" via @bentoninstitute.bsky.social #digitalequity #digitalinclusion #broadband #SaveTheDigitalEquityAct uccmediajustice.org/federal-dama...

BREAKING: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out after being released from ICE detention. "The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here," Khalil said.

A significant development (via Wall Street Journal)... "One of the first coordinated public efforts from the business community to push back on some of the Trump administration’s moves." Business Leaders Call Trump Attacks on Universities a Competitive Threat

I am excited to share that our 2019 paper, titled “The Ability to Pay for Broadband” (Rhinesmith, Reisdorf, & Bishop) is now available open access in the journal Communication Research and Practice. #digitalequity #broadband #digitalinclusion www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"The artificial intelligence boom means the Environment Agency has no idea how much water England will be short of in future decades, as datacentres do not have to report how much they are using to cool their servers."

🚨 There’s a lot of horrific news out of Washington right now—but you might have missed this: Senate Republicans just introduced a plan to sell off 120 million acres of our public lands. Let me break down what’s in the bill and why it’s a full-scale land grab. 🧵

Your regular reminder tariffs are taxes paid by American consumers. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/u...

Unbelievable. The supposedly progressive state of MA, where I reside, is sharing teenagers' biometric data with FBI and ICE. Multiple students have recently been detained by ICE in Chelsea, MA. We have a bill to stop this: H.1657 / S.1058. Please send letters: actionnetwork.org/letters/emai...

One of the reasons this program is so popular is the Whittier Public Library also offers free summer meals for kids and teens. So ICE decided to show up the day the summer reading and free meal program for children began. Absolute ghouls. www.whittierlibrary.org/Home/Compone...

"By threatening to defund Digital Equity Act programs, Trump has declared war on a program that benefitted many of his own supporters." #digitalequity #digitaldivide progressive.org/latest/trump...

This piece in the NY Times correctly hones in on why international students are vital to US interests Kicking them out will destroy the research & development pipeline that has propelled the US into global leadership in science & tech

Stay connected with us wherever you are!   Follow us on all your favorite platforms for the latest news, events, and #iSchoolUI happenings—now including Bluesky! 🦋

"State Plans Show Us the Cost of Eliminating the Digital Equity Act" #digitaldivide #digitalequity #SavetheDigitalEquityAct www.benton.org/blog/state-p...

At least 31 gender and sexuality based resource centers have shuttered across 23 college campuses. Read the full story here ⤵️

Thrilled to share my new article with Sangha Kang-Le, titled "Understanding the Value of a Digital Equity Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration Using Participatory Action Research" just published in the Journal of Participatory Research Methods. #digitalequity jprm.scholasticahq.com/article/1290...

Tribal colleges and universities have endured decades of chronic underfunding, relying heavily on federal support to stay afloat. Now, the Trump administration’s broad cuts to federal programs are hitting Indian Country hard, posing a serious threat to the future of these vital institutions.

1. Our paper examines what literacies people need to challenge big tech companies. We selected key digital rights practitioners to share from their experience what works and what doesn't work when trying to mobilize people to challenge Big Tech -> www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The big bill the House passed today *does* include the 10-year ban on state AI regulation, I've confirmed. And it can pass the Senate without Democrats' help. But there is one group that could still stop it: Senate Republicans. My newsletter today: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Here are the federal Digital Equity Act grant programs we have lost under this administration. #digitalequity web.archive.org/web/20250420...

While $2.75 billion approved by Congress to advance access to the internet, computers, and digital skills was eliminated, the President's new domestic policy bill includes "$175 billion in new spending to enforce President Trump’s ambitious anti-immigration agenda." www.nytimes.com/article/hous...

Unfortunately Collins plus King plus two Dems doesn't equal a meaningful bipartisan pushback. It's been almost two weeks since states got their Digital Equity Act grant cancellation notices -- total of $1.4 billion. Why aren't blue-state attorneys general in court about it?

"Maine's members of Congress argue that terminating the Digital Equity Act and related grants 'will have an outsized impact on Maine families, small businesses, and communities.'" #digitalequity #digitaldivide www.pressherald.com/2025/05/21/m...

At a subcommittee hearing titled "AI Regulation and the Future of US Leadership," House Republicans and Democrats sparred over a proposed 10-year moratorium on enforcing state AI laws that passed out of Energy & Commerce as part of a budget reconciliation package last week. Transcript:

"'The internet is a key to our economy. In Illinois, we need to make sure our many rural areas have the tools they need to access the internet and the doorways it opens for jobs, education, and telemedicine,' said Governor JB Pritzker." #digitalequity gov.illinois.gov/news/press-r...

"Trump's Cancellation of Digital Equity Act Programs Will Perpetuate the Digital Divide" by Jessica Dine at Tech Policy Press via Benton Institute for Broadband & Society #digitalequity #digitaldivide www.techpolicy.press/trumps-cance...

“'That's the great irony. It's rural residents. It's older Americans. It's veterans. It's a bunch of folks that voted for Donald Trump,'” said Gigi Sohn, a senior fellow at the Benton Institute." #digitalequity #broadband #digitaldivide www.cnet.com/home/interne...

Excellent reminder from @bentoninstitute.bsky.social "The Digital Equity Act is constitutional, on solid legal footing, and aims to ensure everyone in America can reap the benefits of the 21st Century’s infrastructure of opportunity: broadband." #digitalequity www.benton.org/blog/achievi...

NDIA Executive Director, Angela Siefer "Responds to Trump Post Calling for Immediate End of Digital Equity Act Funds" #digitalequity #digitalinclusion #digitaldivide www.digitalinclusion.org/blog/stateme...

Every book published in the United States is sent to the Library of Congress. Also, if you are under 16 you cannot use the reading room or order books.

#NSF had a 11am meeting. By 11:07, I received a message from our program officer stating, "the entire Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM has just been dissolved and the entire staff fired." This attack on science, research and academic freedom is unconscionable! www.savensf.com/take-action

Lurking behind the latest Trump cruelty — cutting a Biden-era grant program to close America's digital divide — is a scheme to award crony Elon Musk's Starlink with billions of dollars in federal contracts. www.freepress.net/news/trumps-...

Your regular reminder that NSF grants built the internet and helped the U.S. dominate tech.

Trump just ordered an end to federal support for NPR and PBS. Attacking journalists and the media is on page one of the authoritarian playbook. Free Press's statement: www.freepress.net/news/trump-o...

It's hard to find the words. NSF just terminated the grant for Journeys, a mentoring workshop that tried to tackle underrepresentation of women in international relations. Future scholarship will be the worse for it. But this photo from our last gathering will motivate me to keep fighting.

In the increasingly bitter trade war between the U.S. and China, perhaps nobody has more at stake than America’s soybean farmers, whose crop has become the country’s single biggest export to China. We spoke to an Iowa farmer who helped build that $13 billion market. Listen to "The Daily."

In state after state, we're seeing the impacts of proposed cuts to federal library funding. In Hawai'i, that would mean less access to information & services: www.civilbeat.org/2025/04/prop... Tell Congress to #FundLibraries: bit.ly/FundLibraries26House Other ways to take action: ala.org/showup

The sudden dismissal of FOIA staff at CDC, FDA, and NIH will worsen existing backlogs and limit the public's ability to examine recent agency actions and get important health safety data. By a Yale health services researcher: