From: Dave Del Torto <ddt@digicash.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 95 19:23:43 PST
To: <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: W3 Self-Regulation?
Message-ID: <v03003912acbc72d1d4cf@[129.46.82.80]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


[Where's Tipper when you need her? Answer:]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:   Ron Warris, President, Internet Filtering Systems, Inc.
phone:     1-403-258-5804, email: warrisr@colt.t8000.com
Web:       www.tenagra.com/ifsi

DEMOCRATIC WORLD-WIDE WEB SELF-REGULATION ANNOUNCED

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA -- October 30, 1995 -- Internet Filtering Systems,
Inc. (IFSI) today announced Net Shepherd, the first product designed to
democratically rate and filter World Wide Web sites and selectively
supervise access.

Net Shepherd is the first PICS-compliant rating and filtering solution.
Under the auspices of The World Wide Web Consortium, PICS (Platform for
Internet Content Selection) is a cross-industry working group whose goal is
to facilitate the development of technologies to give users control over
the kinds of material to which they and their children have access.

According to Ron Warris, president of IFSI, "There are a number of
companies offering filtering solutions. What is really needed is a rating
solution. How do you go about reviewing and rating 8.5 million volatile
documents on the Internet? Our approach will allow the people who surf the
Internet to be the people who rate the Internet. With Net Shepherd,
parents, educators and other concerned organizations will be able to
voluntarily participate in the rating process.

Mr. Warris continues, "Net Shepherd will also provide parents with the
ability to selectively filter documents viewed by their children. Parents
can choose from a variety of rating databases that represent the
accumulated ratings from others who hold similar views and philosophies.
Organizations that wish to create rating databases for their subscribers
will also be able to use Net Shepherd. You'll be able to subscribe to the
Good Housekeeping database or the Lutheran Church database or the ACLU
database. Take your pick.

"The Internet has always been self-regulating and special-interest-group
oriented. Now the World Wide Web can be as well."

IFSI's mission is to become the preferred and premier provider of Internet
rating systems and services for individual consumers, concerned groups and
associations, as well as other filter software developers. A World-Wide Web
site currently contains basic information about IFSI, and will evolve over
the coming weeks into an extensive resource for those interested in
Internet content filtering. It is located at URL

<http://www.tenagra.com/ifsi/>

From the Web page:

Internet Filtering Systems, Inc. is the developer of Net Shepherd, the
first product designed to democratically rate and filter World Wide Web
sites and selectively supervise access. The Internet has always been
self-regulating and special-interest-group oriented. Now the World Wide Web
can be as well.

Net Shepherd is the first PICS-compliant rating and filtering solution.
Under the auspices of The World Wide Web Consortium, PICS (Platform for
Internet Content Selection) is a cross-industry working group whose goal is
to facilitate the development of technologies to give users control over
the kinds of material to which they and their children have access.

Net Shepherd allows the people who surf the Internet to be the people who
rate the Internet. With Net Shepherd, parents, educators and other
concerned organizations will be able to voluntarily participate in the
rating process. Net Shepherd will also provide parents with the ability to
selectively filter documents viewed by their children. Parents can choose
from a variety of rating databases that represent the accumulated ratings
from others who hold similar views and philosophies. Organizations that
wish to create rating databases for their subscribers will also be able to
use Net Shepherd.

IFSI's mission is to become the preferred and premier provider of Internet
rating systems and services for individual consumers, concerned groups and
associations, as well as other filter software developers.


[cf. PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) at
  <http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/PICS/>]