WebliminalBlog

I was catching up on my reading of BonigBoing today and was led to a link in EFF Deep Links that mentioned a piece put up by the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard Law School describing the work of the Open Net Initiative.

“The OpenNet Initiative is a collaborative partnership of four leading academic institutions: the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme, University of Cambridge, and the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University.

Our aim is to investigate, expose and analyze Internet filtering and surveillance practices in a credible and non-partisan fashion. We intend to uncover the potential pitfalls and unintended consequences of these practices, and thus help to inform better public policy and advocacy work in this area.”

The Web site for the Open Net Initiative contains a Global Internet Filtering Map. You select the type of filtering – political, social, security, Internet tools, and then get a visual representation of the type of filtering in place – pervasive, selected, substantial, and so on.

The site and, of course, the organization provides an objective international view of filtering.

Taking a more subjective and activist oriented role Peacefire has since the 1990s provided tools for circumventing filters. This site is aimed at teenagers whose Internet activities are being blocked and filtered by commercial software.

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DoD Confirmation List Latest Coalition Fatality: May 26, 2007
Source: Iraq Coalition Casualties