Stretching it
Pittsburgh City Hall has a new filtering policy, one that now, among other things, apparently blocks Blogspot blogs. There are a lot of talented writers that provide valuable bits of criticism and cheerleading about Pittsburgh-related issues. Keeping these voices out of city hall is a rather closed-minded approach to governance, I think.
Of course, a government influenced by modern technologies is wishful thinking when there are people like this in charge:
City computer supercop Howard Stern said there was no conscious decision to block the blogs, and that the change in security settings came down, uninvited, from Websense. That said, he agrees with the new blog-proof city system.
“They’re untrusted Web sites,” he told us. They can transmit viruses, he said, “and that could knock out the whole city.”
I really hope the P-G took this quote out of context, or otherwise mangled it in some fashion. Because if they didn’t, that’s the most overblown and paranoid statement that I’ve read in some time.
(Hint: Google Reader + RSS = Unstoppable!)
