The SurfSafety.com news letter is *NEVER* sent unsolicited. You or someone using your e-mail account has joined our mailing list, or you have expressed interest in this newsletter by some other means. If you feel you have received this news letter in error or wish to unsubscribe DO NOT HIT REPLY! Automatic removal instructions are at the end of this newsletter. To subscribe just go to http://surfsafety.com/frameset_news.html. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you enjoy reading this newsletter as much as we do writing it, pass it on to everyone you consider a friend! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this issue: 1. General announcements. 2. SurfSafely Status report 3. The new face of RSACi 4. Second Printing 5. Upcoming Seminar 6. National media exposure ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Other news and guest articles may be submitted for editorial review to mailto:news@surfsafety.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ General announcements ===================== Good grief have I been busy! So let's get right into it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SurfSafely status report. ========================= This tops my list and for good reason. Designed as a companion site for my book Child Safety-Net, http://surfsafely.com/ now has, at last count, 2117 PICS rated pages from roughly 1200 unique web domains! What does this mean to you? It means that you now have a single source you can turn to to find an ever growing assortment of high quality information. It means you can configure your browsers to use PICS to completely block unrated sites and rarely face the hassle of being asked to approve with your password pages your children would like to see. Everything there is rated. The good news is the SurfSafely.com web spider is combing the web right now, automatically searching for the highest quality content it can find, adding to the index at an approximate rate of 100 new web pages a day! The bad news is that's only 2% of the total sites visited each day. With such a low percentage of rated material, this is why it's vital that the ones which do exist be found easily in one place. Without a resource like SurfSafely.com, PICS is worthless. With it, PICS works. A woman recently asked me to explain in laymans terms what PICS is. I thought a minute and asked her if she has a peephole on her door. She said yes and I asked "Why?" "Well," she said, "I want to know who's at the door first." "Why?" I asked again. "So I can decide if I want to let them in or not" she replied. "EXACTLY!" I said. "PICS is your peephole into web sites." Authors who omit rating their sites, deliberately or otherwise, prevent you from knowing what is on the site before that site ends up on your desktop and in your home. The opportunity of saying no to that site is taken away by that omission. I believe that's wrong. That is why I support PICS through SurfSafely.com. This index is growing exponentially, becoming more useful every day. Help me send a message to the development community. Use the index I've created at SurfSafely.com and let them know we want a peephole into their sites. We want the opportunity to choose. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The new face of RSACi ===================== Let's start with what RSACi is. It stands for the Recreational Software Advisory Council for the Internet and is one of two widely accepted standards built upon the PICS platform adopted by the governing body of the World Wide Web Consortium. (The second one is SafeSurf but more on that later.) Exclusive rights to RSACi were recently acquired by the ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association, http://www.icra.org/), formed and run by representatives of major forces online with a keen interest in protecting and preserving the integrity of the Internet. Up until this point, I have strongly supported SafeSurf over RSACi because SafeSurf is far more flexile and allows much greater control over content selection. RSACi, by contrast, is far too granular and can not adequately classify sites other than porn or kiddie sites. Recognizing the need for improvement, as a web developer and staunch advocate of PICS the ICRA has asked yours truly to take part in field trials geared towards giving RSACi a long overdue facelift. I definitely like the direction they have taken. But, despite their best efforts, I still don't feel they will be able to produce anything better than that which is already available in SafeSurf right now. Basically another "Me too" product. That said, I really don't much care which standard captures the greatest audience. Right now they are not but when all is said and done they will be very much comparable products. All I care about is that developers pick at least one and USE it. One of either is all that is required for entry into the SurfSafely.com index. On the receiving end, parents can use both simultaneously so that sites rated with one but not the other can be filtered by the standard which was used, ignoring the one which was not used. All of this new activity attests to my belief that PICS is regaining momentum. I am proud to be part of the RSACi facelift and support PICS with the SurfSafely.com index. As long as governments worldwide can resist the temptation to meddle with it, the marketplace will drive the acceptance and regulate PICS just fine thank you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Second Printing =============== Seems like just yesterday that I completed work on my book Child Safety-Net and going to my print shop for the first run. To say that sales have been awesome is an understatement. To those of you who have the book already, thank you. I sincerely hope you have sat down in front of your computer and put it to good use. You might laugh at this but even I refer back to this book now and then. Even though I wrote it, there is so much information and so many little tips and tricks I learned along the way that I simply can't be bothered with committing it all to memory. I have better things to do with my time. When I need it, I know where to find it. That's all that matters. Next week I will be going back to the print shop and placing an even bigger order! Two new wholesalers have picked up my book, both serving the educational and library markets. S&B Books USA and Barker & Taylor. To both of them I say welcome aboard. I'm delighted you have chosen to distribute my book. So, for those of you still waiting, it is now available from both of these distributors as well as amazon.com and from me directly at http://surfsafety.com/. I've also been asked about bumper stickers and t-shirts. All I can say right now is I hate bumper stickers! T-shirts maybe but instead of bumper stickers how about window static stickers? They look nicer and when you're bored of them, come off easily without a trace. I'll see what I can do. Keep an eye out for them at surfsafety.com! I'll probably announce it on the message board there too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Upcoming Free Seminar ====================== Westport, CT. Sunday evening October 1st from 7:00-8:30 PM. Details to be posted at http://surfsafety.com/ as I get them. I may also have the pleasure of sharing the limelight with my esteemed colleague Brook Jones. Just one more twist of her arm ought to do it! :) This one will be open only to members of the Parish there but news media is, of course, always welcome. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National media exposure ======================= And last but not least, this coming Sunday, September 17 at 11:45 PST (2:45 EST) yours truly will be a phone-in guest on the nationally syndicated radio talk show "The Dixon Report, where technology meets humanity" with Pam Dixon. She's out of Sandiego. If you have no local affiliates you can still catch it on the web with RealAudio at http://www.thedixonreport.com/ live and archived afterward. This is an interesting program well worth your time tuning in to when it starts at 11:00 PST. Do it and you'll be hooked! I am. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's news for now. Until next time... Be informed, Be involved, Be well. Sincerely, Mark Brasche ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~