First Websense and the Internet Police came for the fantasy football, and I didn't speak up,
because my league isn't really that active from Tuesday through Friday anyway.
Then they came for the message boards, and I didn't speak up,
because I didn't really need constant updates on the latest developments in the world of Uglydolls.
Then they came for the sports sites, but then gave those back because all the red-blooded males
couldn't handle being away from the NFL Power Rankings for that long.
Then they came for Daily Kos, and by that point I had almost stopped noticing because so much had
already been taken away from me.
Clicky.
Yes, Websense finally caught up with the main avenue of my non-work web traffic, and blocked Daily Kos. I don't know what the total number of blocked websites is, but it includes my blog, all other Blogger sites, nearly all message boards, any site hosted by Geocities or other free webhosting services, YouTube, Flickr, image-hosting services, anything with "MP3" in the URL...and now dKos.
The allegation is that Websense secures productivity (this is, in fact, a paraphrasing of their corporate motto). And that's all well and good. I want to be productive at work, even if my employer doesn't offer merit-based raises (ahem).
But take a look at the list of categories you might find if you looked at the websites blocked by Websense. Government? Advocacy groups? Abortion? Education?? What the hell are they trying to prevent?
And how about "Sports"? That seems pretty cut and dry, doesn't it? Except, of course, for the fact that my workplace, in its attempt to secure my productivity, thinks that ESPN and CBS SportsLine aren't threats to said productivity in the way that, say, The LOST Community is. Whatever.
Let's review:
Blogger sites? No.
ESPN? Yes.
Eating in Madison A to Z? Yes.
Commenting at Eating in Madison A to Z, which runs through TypePad? No.
Wikipedia? Yes.
LOSTpedia? No.
Daily Kos? No.
Fark? Yes.
So, I'm relegated to doing my Kos browsing at home. I'll have to do my best to contribute to the site and keep up with events in my free time. Which is fine, except that my dogs don't much like computers. They prefer that I play with them when I have free time at home. Nevermind my significant other, who isn't much for watching me blog. Can't exactly blame her. The handing out of recs and TRs isn't what you'd call a spectator sport.
If it were, it would probably be blocked.