Technology is a boon for data creation and collection, but so much
content sometimes needs a proper filter, especially when Web pages are
involved. Filterlogix, with offices in Woodbury,
is a provider of Internet access control, virus protection, and the
strongest filtering technology available. President Dave Eike talks
about lights going on, and keeping the questionable stuff out.
How did FilterLogix get started?
The company was founded back in January of 2000. We're best known for
our capabilities in the Web filtering arena. We've developed some very
sophisticated artificial intelligence Web filtering technology that is
really starting to gain some momentum in the market. This technology
platform of ours was originally purposed for applications in the medical
products field for helping to do pre-term birth determination and
prediction. It was also designed for using in the petroleum industry,
for predicting where to drill oil wells.
Why do you feel there's a need for what you provide?
The Internet is continuing to grow at such a rapid pace, and the
production of less than appropriate material is at an all time high.
There's a significant need to replace older, less effective technologies
that can't cope very well with the problem.
Could you give me some background on the origin of your technology
(pre-term birth and oil wells)?
Our technology actually originated in Poland, and it's centered around
what's called "rough set theory." This theory and its advancement was
due in large part to one of our founders and his father, who's a very
prominent professor of computer science and AI at the University of
Kansas.
For our Web filtering technology, we've trained our filtering engine
with millions of Web pages from Sesame Street to porn, and everything in
between. It can recognize whether a Web page is appropriate or not. This
is a significant advancement in our industry, and certainly the wave of
the future.
How did you determine that this technology would be used for Web
filtering?
Purely by accident. Our founders were at a medical products conference
demonstrating our "pre-term birth solution," and at the end of a long
day, one of the founders said, "With the Internet growing as fast as it
is, why don't we apply it to something else, like pornography?" With
that, the light bulb in our CTO's head went on, and the rest is history.
What kinds of challenges are there in trying to filter properly?
The greatest challenge today is to filter sites that only contain
graphic images, not text. These are few and far between, but nonetheless
a challenge. Generally, anyone who is in the business of offering
pornography over the Internet is in it for the money, and they'll try
any tactic to keep from being filtered, including creating pages that
have no text. Because of the characteristics we look at on pages to
render a decision, non-text pages make it tough, but not impossible.
What do you like best about what you do?
We're in a very exciting and dynamic industry. The technology we've
developed is leading edge-and we're starting to get visibility
nationally and internationally, which for a very small company of 10
people is pretty exciting. Additionally, this new Managed Web Filtering
Service we're offering to the consumer market has been a great success
so far, and we've just started to get the word out.
Do you know a Twin Cities company we should cover? Let us know about it.
Send your local profile candidates to Elizabeth Millard at emillard@computeruser.com.
