1. An Information Architecture for OpenChoice Prentiss Riddle INF 385E 12/7/2006

2. 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

3. 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...

4. 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

5. Categories of Users End users at organizations using OpenChoice (students, library patrons) Administrators at those organizations Owners of blocked sites Raters

6. The site http://www.prentissriddle.com/oc http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~riddle/oc