by Esther Dyson, The Daily Star, Lebanon - Collective action in the form of government interference is sometimes necessary. The problem is that we are as likely to get bad measures – like the recently abandoned U.S. attempt to enact anti-piracy laws that would have fostered wholesale website closures – as we are to get a freer Internet.

by Juliet Torome, Project Syndicate, Czech Republic - In Kenya, my home country, there is a popular saying that when two elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers. Nowhere is that more evident than in the numerous conflicts Africa has seen in the past 50 years.