It’s possible.
Websense is a Web filtering tool used by many large organizations. It lets management control employee access to web content based on category definitions provided in a Websense database. There are over 150 categories, and each Websense client can choose what to block and what to allow.
Make sure your site is in the right category, since being in wrong group could limit your visibility.
A recent check of 85 hospital blogs found the following Websense groupings:
- 44 – Health
- 16 – Uncategorized
- 14 – Blogs and Personal Sites
- 3 – Social Networking
- 3 – Business and Economy
- 2 – Educational Institutions
- 1 – Society and Lifestyles
- 1 – Sports
- 1- Traditional Religions
The 17 hospital blogs categorized as “Social Networking” or “Blogs and Personal Sites” could have a problem. Some Websense clients block that group for productivity reasons. Note – Almost all of these hospitals used free hosting services from Blogspot, Typepad or WordPress, and had sub-domain URL’s of these services. (For example, innovishealth.wordpress.com)
Fortunately, you can request a category change in two ways:
1. If your organization uses Websense, sign up for a Support Account and use the Site Lookup tool. This tool will let you check sites and suggest changes.
2. If you are not a Websense customer, then send them an email at suggest@websense.com
Ed’s recommendations:
1. Check your Websense category at least once a quarter – make sure there are no surprises.
2. Get your own domain name, and don’t use the free blogging services. That gets you automatically grouped as a “Blog and Personal Site”
3. Be proactive for others – if you see a site blocked because it’s in the wrong category, suggest a change. It helps everyone.
Wondering about your hospital blog? Check the list here – The Hospital Blog Websense List Note – link goes to .xls Excel file. Use right-click “save as” to download
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