http://cis-india.org daily 1 2009-06-28T17:09:12Z http://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/understanding-spectrum What is spectrum and how do government and commercial decisions on this scientific phenomenon affect public facilities and costs? Shyam Ponappa examines this in his latest blog published in the Business Standard on March 4, 2010. No publisher praskrishna Telecom 2010-03-05T05:43:45Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/does-the-social-web-need-a-googopoly While the utility of the new social tool Buzz is still under question, the bold move into social space taken last week by the Google Buzz team has Gmail users questioning privacy implications of the new feature. In this post, I posit that Buzz highlights two privacy challenges of the social web. First, the application has sidestepped the consensual and contextual qualities desirable of social spaces. Secondly, Google’s move highlights the increasingly competitive and convergent nature of the social media landscape. No publisher rebecca Google Buzz Social Networking Competition Privacy 2010-03-02T14:56:17Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/gaming/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010 The India Game Developer Conference held at Nimhans Convention Centre on the 27th of February, 2010 was attended by Arun Menon who is working on The Gaming and Gold Project at The Centre for Internet and Society. The Developer forum brought together game developers from different sectors of the Game Production Cycle, with hardware manufacturers like Nvidia demonstrating their latest 3d technology and Software developers like Crytek and Adobe demonstrating the latest in developer tools for creating and editing games on multiple platforms. No publisher arun Conference Gaming Social media IGDS RPG Game Developer Conference 2010-03-09T16:55:33Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/the-in-visible-subject-power-privacy-and-social-networking In this entry, I will argue that the interplay between privacy and power on social network sites works ultimately to subject individuals to the gaze of others, or to alternatively render them invisible. Individual choices concerning privacy preferences must, therefore, be informed by the intrinsic relationship which exists between publicness/privateness and subjectivity/obscurity. No publisher rebecca Facebook Attention Economy Social Networking Privacy 2010-03-05T13:57:24Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/web-accessibility-government-mandate Is Web accessibility just a Government Mandate? Should private sites be ignored? Wesolowski examines this in light of the steps taken by ictQATAR to make its website accessible to W3C standards, and hopes that Qatar and eventually all other Arab nations will follow suit and make Web accessibility much more of a mandate. No publisher Brian Wesolowski Accessibility 2010-02-26T07:19:56Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/gaming/narrative-and-gameplay Not all games tell stories but narratives, gameplay, and their relational attributes are a relevant shift observed in the gaming scene, Arun Menon finds out. No publisher arun Gaming 2010-02-25T11:02:19Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/research/grants/ISShanghai/itcity4 In the second of his articles, Nishant Shah analyses a peculiar event of vandalism which has now become the core of free speech and anti-censorship debates in mainland China. Looking at the structure of user generated knowledge websites and the specific event on the Chinese language encyclopaedia, 'Baidu Baike', he shows how, in cities where spaces of political spectacle and public protest are quickly diminishing, the Internet has become a tool for producing new public spaces of demonstration and protest. The story about 'Cao Ni Ma' stands as an iconic representation of the playful processes by which young people in different contexts and cultures engage with the politics in their immediate environments. No publisher nishant 2010-03-05T06:27:53Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/wwrep The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, hosted WikiWars – an international event that brought together scholars, researchers, academics, artists and practitioners from various disciplines, to discuss the emergence and growth of Wikipedia and what it means for the information societies we inhabit. With participants from 15 countries making presentations about Wikipedia and the knowledge ecology within which it exists, the event saw a vigorous set of debates and discussions as questions about education, pedagogy, language, access, geography, resistance, art and subversion were raised by the presenters. The 2 day event marked the beginning of the process that hopes to produce the first critical reader – Critical Point of View (CPOV) - that collects key resources for research and inquiry around Wikipedia. No publisher nishant Digital Governance Wikipedia Featured Cybercultures Workshop CPOV 2010-02-23T08:53:07Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/arguments-against-software-patents CIS believes that software patents are harmful for the software industry and for consumers. In this post, Pranesh Prakash looks at the philosophical, legal and practical reasons for holding such a position in India. This is a slightly modified version of a presentation made by Pranesh Prakash at the iTechLaw conference in Bangalore on February 5, 2010, as part of a panel discussing software patents in India, the United States, and the European Union. No publisher pranesh Open Standards Intellectual Property Rights Software Patents Patents 2010-02-23T13:25:12Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/Internetcities/Introduction In the Introduction to the project, Pratyush Shankar at CEPT, Ahmedabad, lays out the theoretical and practice based frameworks that inform contemporary space-technology discourses in the fields of Architecture and Urban Design. The proposal articulates the concerns, the anxieties and the lack of space-technology debates in the country despite the overwhelming ways in which emergence of internet technologies has resulted in material and imagined practices of people in urbanised India. The project draws variously from disciplines of architecture, design, cultural studies and urban geography to start a dialogue about the new kinds of public spaces that inform the making of the IT City in India. You can also access his comic strip visual introduction to the project at http://www.isvsjournal.org/pratyush/internet/Dashboard.html No publisher nishant City Cyberspace Cybercultures Architecture Communities 2010-02-25T15:46:04Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/alternative-scenarios Only about 48 per cent of India is covered by the telecom network with only 20 per cent rural coverage, says Shyam Ponappa. In his article published in the Business Standard on 4 February, 2010, he points out how alternative approaches may enhance extensive coverage. No publisher praskrishna Telecom 2010-02-10T09:09:17Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/mumbai-phase-of-right-to-read-campaign The third phase of the 'Right to Read' campaign in India held in Mumbai was coordinated by the Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC). The Mumbai Phase of the Right to Read Campaign was launched on 1st January 2010 and ran till the 27th of January 2010. No publisher Prasad Accessibility 2010-02-10T07:16:20Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/sccr19-broadcast-treaty This statement on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty was delivered on December 17, 1010 at the 19th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights by Nirmita Narasimhan on behalf of CIS. No publisher pranesh Intellectual Property Rights Broadcasting WIPO 2010-02-01T15:00:06Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/gaming/the-elements-of-role-playing-games This article, the first in a three part series addresses the definitions of role-playing games (RPGs) and their elements, the integration of elements from other genres facilitating to what might lead to the hybridization of genres and the relation between online and offline games as well as solo gaming with respect to the ‘Alone Together’ phenomenon. No publisher arun Gaming RPG 2010-02-25T10:59:06Z Weblog Entry http://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/reconceptualizing-privacy-on-social-network-s-sites While “privacy” on social network sites remains a highly ambiguous notion, much debate surrounding the issue to date has focused on privacy as the nonpublic-ness of personal information. However, as these social platforms become sites for diverse forms of “networking”, privacy must also be popularly conceptualized as control over personal data flows. No publisher rebecca Cybercultures 2010-01-30T05:59:44Z Weblog Entry