Citadel of the Blogs The Inbox of the Internet (really)

With recent concern around Google censoring results in China, I found this post interesting: searching through the great firewall of China. It shows how to get past some filtering restrictions (doesn’t work with Google but it does with some other search engines). I like the spirit of this post — more than bemoaning the situation of company and/or country. For example? Circumventing Internet Censorship. See also proxy searching which lets you surf the net in privacy (that page also shows you how to see what sites are banned by countries and how you can check to see which companies ban specific sites).

Recently, some of ex-classmates at FIMS have wrestled with filtering in London Public Library. Apparently, LPL is planning to monitor the public’s response over the next six months at which time they will, presumably, review and revise as necessary.

I am indifferent to the storm since I am all about: (a) anonymity on the Internet; and (b) getting around such bind-holds anyway. So I support empowering the citizen with the technical means to circumvent such filtering as described in the article above. For example? How to disable CYBERsitter, Net Nanny, Cyber Patrol, Surfwatch and other net babysitter programs or P E A C E F I R E

A similar storm recently came to light when the Internet radio station Pandora stopped streaming to foreign (non-US) countries. Again, it is easy enough to fool your browser – you just have to research how.

I am generally pessimistic when it comes to librarian activism. I see librarians as poor messengers — they do a terrible job at advocacy about their own profession so I am certainly not looking to them for moral guidance on other issues. Frankly, they do a poor job at explaining most things — reference librarians being a case in point. The true good of librarians comes from educating users to do their own searches effectively. I haven’t met many librarians that do this well — they are not teachers, after all. But the point is I support putting the tools of how to get information in the hands of citizens.

The fact remains that such goals remain obscured, however, until the individual learns to ask the right question.

So back to my contemplative domain. Let sleeping dogs lie, eh?

Very cool site on the history and geography of Europe including maps, pictures and atlases. I like the front page which is organized like a bookshelf! Some old web page designs appear to have come back (remember when site maps were organized to look like bookshelves in a library — and failed miserably??)

For the British history lover out there (like me!) check out the historical maps of Europe for every century from year 1 to year 1000. Be sure to click on the Northwest Europe link rather than the map itself. I found it a helpful way to visualize the vast colonization of Britain that transpired over the pivotal early centuries.