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An Information Architecture for OpenChoice. Prentiss Riddle INF 385E 12/7/2006. What is OpenChoice?. Web filtering software A noncommercial alternative for schools and libraries to comply with CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2003
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An Information Architecture for OpenChoice Prentiss Riddle INF 385E 12/7/2006
What is OpenChoice? • Web filtering software • A noncommercial alternative for schools and libraries to comply with CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2003 • An open-source development project based here at the iSchool • A mix of automatic classification and collaborative filtering techniques: both bots and humans
Design goals I assume that OpenChoice is to be: • Transparent • Reveals why a site is blocked • Accountable • Allows the public to challenge a rating • Participatory • Allows the public to help rate sites • Resistant to abuse These last two goals are in tension...
Participation invites abuse There are strong political and financial motivations to game the system • Over 99% of FCC indecency complaints in 2003 came from one group, the Parents Television Council • Porn and gambling sites are heavily associated with spam This imposes a major design constraint: Raters must not be able to choose what to rate
Categories of Users • End users at organizations using OpenChoice (students, library patrons) • Administrators at those organizations • Owners of blocked sites • Raters
The site http://www.prentissriddle.com/oc http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~riddle/oc