Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Herdict collects and disseminates real-­time, crowdsourced information about Internet filtering, denial of service attacks, and other blockages. Based at the Berkman Center at Harvard University, it is the first and only large-­scale project of its kind. When individuals can’t access a site, they can report that experience to Herdict through browser toolbars, e-­mail, Twitter, or Herdict.org. Herdict aggregates this data to create a real-­time map of global Internet health. This data can be sorted and visualized by country, URL, and date, creating a picture of changes as they are happening. As more of peoples’ lives move online, tools like Herdict will become increasingly important.

The brainchild of Harvard Professor Jonathan Zittrain, Herdict is a natural progression from the OpenNet Initiative. Whereas OpenNet views Internet filtering through an academic lens, Herdict uses crowdsourcing to present a rougher, but more timely analysis.

Herdict’s name is a portmanteau of 'herd' and 'verdict.’ We seek to gain insight into what users around the world are experiencing in terms of web accessibility; or in other words, determine the herdict.