Filtering Web Site?

[George Porter]

Bernie Sloan inquired about web sites that deal with filtering software
in a balanced manner, philosophically.  I highly recommend The Internet
Filter Assessment Project <http://www.bluehighways.com/tifap/>.  This
site is the result of the labors of more than 3 dozen librarians trying
to put the widest variety of filters through their paces using real
world  reference queries.  The results of the assessment, and a great
deal of background material, are included in Karen Schneider's new book,
_A Practical Guide to Internet Filters_, from Neal Schuman Publishers.

Before the polemics start, I was a participant in the design of the
questions and the testing of the filters.  There were a broad
cross-section of philosophies represented among the testers.  The
exercise was a mission of discovery and exploration of the limits of
configurability and performance (excluding that which was meant to be
excluded, passing that which was meant to be passed) of the filters.  It
was not a philosophical battleground.

George S. Porter
Technical Reference Librarian
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science

California Institute of Technology
Mail Code 1-43, Pasadena, CA  91125
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681
george at library.caltech.edu