A fake write-up:
When Miguel Guhlin wrote a few entries about proxy avoidance, Websense was there to get the story wrong. As a result, this education blog is blocked under the category of Proxy Avoidance…the best way to handle the truth is to bury it so educators can’t read it, and kids can’t learn it.
Articles mentioning proxy avoidance by Miguel:
- Imprisoning Lightning Podcast – The points it raises really refer to the question of whether schools should place themselves between liberty and oppression? Obviously, some in business believe that use of “freedom tools” is wrong. I found this interesting article on the web that had this quote. It’s relevant to the conversation since I wouldn’t want listeners/readers to be TOO trusting of their imperviability (is that a word?) when they use programs like Tor.
- Freedom Fight
- Bypass Content Filtering with Toonel
- Freedom
- Hacker in Your Child’s Bedroom
Want to help out your favorite blog? Send a message to WebSense that Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org is NOT about proxy avoidance but instead a blog for nurturing educators who believe education, not oppression, is the best approach.
Send your Tweet to @websense content filtering business. Please be sure to include me with @mguhlin
Remember to be play nice and emulate Gandhi.
One question that comes to mind, though. Why should I have to “suggest” a category change to Websense? It was them who made the mistake…I’ve brought it to their attention, let them fix it. What’s wrong with that?
UPDATE: FOLLOW UP BLOG POST
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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure
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I had to put in a request a few weeks ago to get your site unblocked in my district (that uses Websense). You probably wouldn't be surprised at how many valid educational sites get blocked by Websense. Fortunately, LAUSD has a process for getting sites unblocked. Any word that triggers one of their flags gets blocked. I'm sure my district's security department is tired of hearing from me by now, but at least they allow for reason. I had to explain the posts about proxies to them, and then they understood. Hopefully this will get resolved for you soon.
Be proud! And grateful.There is something about banned materials that tends to make them very popular!About two years ago, I found I was being blocked. My opinion hasn't changed much:"I see this as a reverse promotional strategy. Everybody knows that if you want something read or viewed, you get it on somebody's banned list. I expect a lot more traffic when I can proudly state 'The Blue Skunk Blog – Banned by Schools Around the World""(Oh, thanks for promoting Buffy's SIGMS talk!)Doug