Monday, August 06, 2012

Censorship of internet in university environments


One of the first things which strikes me about the internet is how it really evolved because of the need to collaborate on research and share information and resources among academic researchers - Be it the NSFNet or the www. Universities seem to have played a very pivotal role in making internet what it is today.
Yet I also find the absolute lack of networking in many universities [I speak from my experience in India] and many of the universities which do provide networking and internet facilities block or filter a number of websites like Youtube and resource sharing, which are a central tool in learning and online education and collaboration. The worst bit is that in most cases that I know of, the censorship is not transparent- i.e. we don't know why certain websites are censored, which are censored, and there is no consultation with the student community OR the faculty while making such decisions. It is done purely on an administrative level.
I have been wondering what the experience of others has been in this regard. Care to share your story?
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