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Continuum 2 - IT expert replies to blocking

Reader comment on item: No Longer Banned in the British Library!

Submitted by Peter (United States), Apr 14, 2014 at 19:45

Someone who attributes sinister motives that easily will not make friends easily either.

I'm not saying Mr. Pipes is wrong, but you have to give the BL the benefit of the doubt at the moment.

Having a rudimentary understanding of Web filtering is part of my professional work, as I market complex firewalls and web filtering systems. It's staggeringly difficult to get right, as so much is subjective, the playing field isn't level, and the rules of the game keep changing.

Most systems produce a 'score' for each web object, based on direct assessment of content and reference to other indices elsewhere. Over a certain threshold will get it (or the whole domain) blocked. Scores are usually on several different scales, and mathematically combined. This helps effectiveness. Usually, all administrators do is set the threshold values and set exceptions based on complaints from users.

There's no practical alternative to this. There are simply far too many sites to have a manual process, AND this process has to work for every language on the web-connected planet, not just English (and not just the Roman alphabet, either). The system also has to consider hosting services known to have low security, or a history of virus delivery, or a history of hosting unpleasantness.

The problem is turning network administrators into 'thought police.' It's a role they universally hate, don't want, and has nothing to do with the technical complexity of their training and mainstream work. It's analogous to holding a car mechanic responsible for the vehicle owner's bad driving!

It's not going to change much, either. If you run a public organisation, which would you rather hear as a complaint: "Johnny downloaded hundreds of porno images while he was using your computers!", or, "I couldn't research transvestite hem-line trends because the sites were blocked!"

One makes you laugh, the other may well get you sacked.

And you can't hold a conversation above the clattering sound of middle managers running for the bunkers. They usually don't want to think about this and they certainly don't have the bandwidth to formally decide whose illiterate 3-page rant, sorry, blog, gets blocked and whose doesn't. Of course Mr. Pipes' blog isn't in /that/ category, but that's no help to underpaid administrators.*

Welcome to modern life, Daniel Pipes.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (18) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
2Thank you for exhibiting the truth [57 words]Michael KerjmanApr 23, 2014 01:31214588
1Tell me - why? [47 words]Michael KerjmanSep 8, 2014 12:50214588
1Continuum 2 - IT expert replies to blocking [380 words]PeterApr 14, 2014 19:45214473
2Britain Transformed [77 words]DaveApr 11, 2014 14:48214433
1UK and the "compassionate" release of the convicted bomber of Pan Am 103 [57 words]EdwardApr 11, 2014 13:28214432
British Library [44 words]Levi SokolicApr 11, 2014 10:39214431
3Britain is the laughing stock of the world [161 words]dhimmi no moreApr 10, 2014 07:42214412
4British Library twitter accounts [247 words]ZhingisenderApr 10, 2014 02:50214410
libary blockage of truths yet access to muslim hatred [80 words]rodney allsworthApr 9, 2014 23:45214408
Who runs the Goverhment Libray Anyway? [48 words]Don FergusonApr 9, 2014 22:33214405
Constitution of negative rights?! [26 words]infosiftApr 9, 2014 21:48214403
Why? [19 words]hadassaApr 9, 2014 20:09214402
This is suspicious [27 words]Canto28Apr 9, 2014 19:58214401
back in the 18th century [70 words]mythApr 9, 2014 17:14214400
4Censorship algorithims [43 words]Carl GoldbergApr 9, 2014 16:54214399
Dr. Pipes swinging into action! Nice going ... [61 words]kmanApr 9, 2014 16:50214398
Proud of you Daniet well done mate!!! [32 words]kafurApr 9, 2014 16:48214397
Photo accompanying post [31 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
ZhingisenderApr 9, 2014 16:41214396

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