On March 30, 2001, OII Technology Director sent the following message to LM_Net mailing list.

Hi Folks,

That may be a total flop, but I want to make a different kind of HIT list, and I need your help. I don't know whether anyone has ever tried to paint a picture of overblocking this way, but it should be fun to try.

This will only work if enough people contribute. In a way it is a challenge to the list to actually take positive action against the overblocking of filters. You don't have to march. You don't have to write to your congressman. All you have to do is record the URL every time you get blocked at a site you think shouldn't be blocked, and then report it to the following web page.

http//oii.org/html/overblocking.html

Go there and bookmark it now. Let's run this experiment for one week (7school days). Day One will be Monday, but feel free to start right now.

At the end of the time I will compile the results, which the web form dumps into a database, and do three things with it.

1) I will report back the results here for better or worse

2) Decide other courses of action such as whether to continue collecting the information and widen the participation to other educational mailing lists, how to make the results more widely known, whether to get plastic surgery and change my identity, or whatever.

3) Make the raw data available to anyone who wants it (for better or worse).

I have said that we have the power to make a difference if we learn how to effectively use the Internet to harness our collective power. This experiment is one small step in that direction.

I don't want to add any excessive traffic to the list, but I will send a daily reminder with a similar heading to this and provide very brief updates on the progress of the survey to try to keep it in the forefront of your very busy minds.

Let's see what kind of a picture emerges from this exercise.

Art

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Art Wolinsky                       awolinsky@oii.org
OII Technology Director        http//oii.org/
East Coast Facilitator           http//web-and-flow.com/
National Action Committee    http//www.wiredkids.org
(609) 597-9481 ext 337         (609) 698-8223

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I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes.
I will surely learn a great deal today.
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