Openness Main
Odia Wikipedia: Needs Assessment
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified May 09, 2013 11:25 AMThis blog encompasses the status of Odia Wikipedia and assessment of the needs for growth of the community.
Analysis of Konkani Wikipedia: Facts & Challenges
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified May 08, 2013 10:26 AMNitika Tandon, in this blog post, provides an analysis of the Konkani Wikipedia. She reflects on the challenges faced by Konkani Wikipedia and identifies four possible solutions.
Indian WikiWomen celebrate Women’s History Month
— by Netha Hussain — last modified Apr 29, 2013 05:21 PMMarch 2013 was a busy month for women Wikimedians in India, as we conducted various events, such as edit-a-thons and workshops to celebrate the presence of women in Wikimedia projects. The women Wikimedians, members of the Wikimedia India Chapter and the Access to Knowledge Team, brainstormed about the possible events, which we wanted to conduct to encourage women to participate and to increase the quality of articles related to Indian women in Wikipedias in English and the Indian languages.
Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project #2: Visualising Page Views and Project Pages
— by Sajjad Anwar and Sumandro Chattapadhyay — last modified Apr 22, 2013 09:37 PMIn this blog post, we bring you a visualisation of the page views statistics and the project specific pages that we created last month. The page views indicate the number of unique visits the Wikipedia project concerned has received in one month.
Odia Wikipedia - Bhubaneswar Community Meetup (March 17, 2013)
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Apr 30, 2013 11:52 AMThe Access to Knowledge team from the Centre for Internet and Society and the Odia Wikipedia community held a meetup in Bhubaneswar on March 17, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi participated in this meet-up.
Odia Wikipedia - Cuttack Community Meetup (March 16, 2013)
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Apr 30, 2013 11:52 AMA meetup of Odia wikipedians was organised by the Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet and Society and the Odia wikipedia community on March 16, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the meetup.
Wikipedia Indian Languages Workshop at IIT, Bombay
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Mar 28, 2013 07:44 PMThis is a brief report on the Wikipedia Indian languages workshop held on March 9, 2013 at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in partnership with Vaani, the Hindi bloggers' club at IIT, Bombay.
Iraqi Public Data Scenario Workshop: A Summary
— by Sumandro Chattapadhyay — last modified Apr 02, 2013 12:55 PMA workshop on public data was conducted by Sunil Abraham and Sumandro Chattapadhyay for the officials of the Government of Iraq. It was organized by UNDP Iraq in Amman, Jordan from October 18 to 23, 2012. Sumandro Chattapadhyay shares with us the developments from the workshop held over five days.
Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project #1: Visualising Basic Parameters
— by Sajjad Anwar and Sumandro Chattapadhyay — last modified Mar 26, 2013 06:04 PMSajjad Anwar and Sumandro Chattapadhyay bring you a visualisation of the growth of Indic Wikipedia in this first post on Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project. In doing so, the authors look into the different aspects of the past and present activities of Indic Wikipedias, and divide the visualisation into three different focus areas.
Wiki Women's Day in Goa
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Mar 19, 2013 02:32 PMInternational Women's Day (IWD), also called International Working Women's Day, is celebrated on March 8, every year. There were a series of Wikipedia events organised this year with the aim of increasing participation of women contributing to Wikipedia. One such event was organised by the Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet and Society and the Wikimedia India Chapter at the Nirmala Institute of Education (NIE), a Secondary Teacher Education College in Panaji, Goa on March 8, 2013.
Introductory Wikipedia session at BITS Goa
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Mar 19, 2013 01:46 PMThe Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet and Society was invited by Nikhil Dixit, Public Relations Officer at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani – Goa (BITS Goa) to organise Wikipedia session on March 7, 2013. Nitika Tandon participated in this workshop and shares with us the developments.
Ahmednagar — Marathi Wikipedia Workshop
— by Tanveer Hasan — last modified Mar 18, 2013 06:50 PMWikipedia Community members helped the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications Programme (HEIRA), CSCS Bangalore organize a day-long workshop on ‘Digital Literacy’ at Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, Maharasthra on January 17, 2013. Tanveer Hasan of HEIRA shares with us the developments in this report.
Creative Commons comes to India
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Mar 11, 2013 10:25 PMCreative Commons team visited four Indian cities to spread the word about CC free licenses and CC affiliate program. Wikimedia India chapter was approached to join hands with Creative Commons for research and community building.
Fifty-fourth Bangalore Wikimedia Meet-up at IIM, Bangalore
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Mar 06, 2013 05:09 PMThe 54th Wikimedia meet-up in Bangalore was held at the Indian Institute of Management on February 25, 2013. The event was planned and organized by Radhakrishna Arvapally, SIG (Special Interest Group) Chair, Bangalore (a part of the Wikimedia India Chapter) with support from Solutions IQ, Wikimedia India Chapter and CIS.
FOSS, Wikimedia and Mozilla Under One Roof at GNUnify 2013, Pune
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Mar 05, 2013 11:13 PMGNUnify 2013 organized in the campus in Pune from February 15 to 17, 2013. The event was organized by Pune Linux/Unix User Group (PLUG) and Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research (SICSR). Subhashish Panigrahi reports the outcomes in this blog post.
Odia Wikipedia Community Brings Wikipedia Education Program to IIMC, Dhenkanal
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Mar 06, 2013 12:31 AMThe Odia Wikipedia community collaborated with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal and hosted a pilot Odia Wikipedia Education Program. The program began in November 2012 and got over by January 2013. Sixteen student wikipedians signed up and took part in editing more than a dozen articles on Odia Wikipedia.
Celebrating Odia Wikipedia's Ninth Anniversary
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Feb 28, 2013 12:32 PMOdia Wikipedia saw its first edit on January 29, 2004. After a dormancy of many years it got revived in 2011. To commemorate the effort of many volunteer wikipedians, a celebratory event was organized on January 29, 2013 in Bhubaneswar. Subhashish Panigrahi participated in this event.
Report of Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight
— by Zainab Bawa — last modified Mar 02, 2013 09:32 PMOn 19th and 20th January, HasGeek organized a hacknight to commemorate the life and works of Aaron Swartz. Zainab Bawa from HasGeek shares with us the developments.
Digital Literacy Workshop at Department of Arts, Delhi University
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Mar 05, 2013 09:03 AMA digital literacy workshop was organised at the Department of Arts, Delhi University for students pursuing their masters in Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies on February 5, 2013. Nitika Tandon shares the developments.
Access to Knowledge Report — September to December 2012
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Jan 31, 2013 06:14 PMThis post provides an overview of the activities done by the Access to Knowledge team under the grant provided by the Wikimedia Foundation from September 2012 to December 2012.
Remembering Aaron Swartz, Taking Up the Fight
— by Nishant Shah — last modified Jan 28, 2013 12:51 PMI encountered the Aaron Swartz memorial the other day that helps ‘liberate’ a randomly selected article from JSTOR, as an act of civil disobedience, to commemorate both the legacy that Swartz leaves behind, but also the high-profile witch-hunt case which was a crucial factor in him taking his own life.
Konkani in Wikipedia Incubator — Taking it to the Next Level
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Jan 25, 2013 03:34 PMAn introductory session on Konkani in Wikipedia was organized by the Centre for Internet and Society, Delhi in the Konkani Department at Goa University on December 12, 2012. About 30 participants took part in the event.
Aaron Swartz: The First Martyr of the Free Information Movement
— by Lawrence Liang — last modified Jan 24, 2013 08:26 PMWell known American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist died on January 11, 2013. Lawrence Liang from the Alternative Law Forum discusses with Newsclick the tragic loss. The interview was conducted by Prabir Purkayastha.
Promoting GLAM in Goa
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Jan 25, 2013 05:31 PMWe organised an introductory Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums (GLAM) session at Goa State Central Library on December 13, 2012. It was well attended by about 45 interested people coming from over 10 different GLAM institutes in Goa.
Bringing Konkani Encyclopedia in Public Domain
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Jan 25, 2013 06:27 PMOn December 14, 2012, a meeting was scheduled with the Vice Chancellor Dr. Satish R Shetye to discuss the possibility of bringing Konkani Encyclopedia in public domain. Nitika Tandon shares the development in this blog post.
A Wiki Workshop at Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Jan 22, 2013 11:09 AMThe Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team organized a Wikipedia workshop at Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology (RKGIT), Ghaziabad in collaboration with Metawings on January 17, 2013. Subhashish Panigrahi summarizes the happenings from the one-day workshop in this blog post.
Celebrating the success of Wikipedia in Wikipedia Summit Pune 2013
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Apr 16, 2013 08:48 PMWikipedia Club Pune, a local community based outreach user group in Pune has recently organized Wikipedia Summit Pune 2013 to spread words about “Spoken Wikipedia”, a project to add recorded audio for Indic language Wikipedia articles which will help the disabled to access Wikipedia and “Bridging Editor Gender Gap.”
Indic Language Wikipedias — Statistical Report — 2012
— by Shiju Alex — last modified Feb 03, 2013 10:40 AMI have compiled the statistical update of the Indic language Wikipedias for the year 2012. As usual, in this report, my aim is to provide my perspectives on the health of various Indic language communities as well as the state of various Indic language wikipedias.
Wikipedia in St. Xavier's College, Mapusa, Goa
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Jan 25, 2013 05:52 PMA three hour Wikipedia workshop was organized by the Centre for Internet & Society, Delhi, in the morning of December 14, 2012 at St. Xavier's College in Mapusa, Goa. Over 30 participants attended the session.
The Violence of Knowledge Cartels
— by Nishant Shah — last modified Jan 18, 2013 03:33 PMWe are all struck with a sense of loss, grief and shock since we heard of the death of Aaron Swartz, by suicide. People who have been his friends have written heart-felt obituaries, saluting his dreams and visions and unwavering commitment to a larger social good.
Two-day Wiki Workshop in Goa University: An Introduction
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Jan 25, 2013 02:30 PMLast month, on December 12 and 13, 2012, the Access to Knowledge team from the Centre for Internet & Society along with Wikipedia community members organized a two-day workshop for M.A. and Ph.D. students at the Goa University. Nitika Tandon participated in the event and shares with us the developments.
Open Access Champion Leslie Chan Delivers Five Talks in India
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Jan 02, 2013 01:35 PMProfessor Leslie Chan, a champion of Open Access (OA) and Associate Director of the Centre for Critical Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough visited Tiruvananthapuram and Mysore in December 2012 for a series of lectures. Well known advocate for OA in India and the developing world, Professor Subbiah Arunachalam, accompanied him on these tours.
A Wikipedia Workshop at NMAIT
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Jan 05, 2013 12:30 AMThe Centre for Internet & Society, Delhi collaborated with Metawings Institute to spread the words about Wikipedia for Indian languages. A one-day workshop was organized to educated the students on contributing to Wikipedia on December 21, 2012. About 170 engineering students took part in this event.
New Avenues: Media Wiki Groups
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Jan 05, 2013 09:46 AMThis blog post is a brief recap and snippets of my conversation with Harsh Kothari, a volunteer on Gujarati Wikipedia on what we've been doing to help with MediaWiki groups.
A Wikipedia Workshop at SRM University, Chennai
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Dec 27, 2012 01:57 PMThe Centre for Internet & Society, Delhi in association with Metawings Institute organized a one-day workshop on contributing to Wikipedia at SRM University on December 17, 2012. About 40 students from different engineering colleges in Chennai participated in the workshop. Metawings coordinated for the logistics and for spreading the word among the students.
Non Unicode ISCII Text Can be Converted to Unicode Now!
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Dec 21, 2012 05:59 PMOdia Wikipedian Manoj Sahukar has designed a new tool which can convert non Unicode ISCII text to Odia Unicode text. A majority of the digitized text and web content of newspapers and books are in non unicode text which now could be used for Wikipedia and other Odia Wiki projects. This opens a new arena for digitized free license books in Odia language.
Random Hacks of Kindness Global December 2012 — A Report
— by Yogesh Londhe — last modified Jan 09, 2013 12:12 AMA Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) hackathon in Bangalore was hosted at office of the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) in Domlur on December 1 and 2, 2012. CIS, Amnesty International India Office, Greenpeace India Office, HasGeek, Yahoo Research & Development and SimpleTechLife sponsored the event.
Marathi Wiki Workshop at Tata Institute of Social Sciences
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Feb 04, 2013 12:55 PMThe Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai is taking up a number of activities and conducting workshops focusing on Indian languages across cities. A series of workshops in Marathi, Kannada and Bangla have been planned with Wikipedia sessions in each of these events.
Kolkata: Tasting the Sweetness of Wikipedia!
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Dec 04, 2012 03:19 PMRecently, Access to Knowledge team member Subhashish Panigrahi spent some time with wikipedians in Kolkata. Through this blog post he shares his experience and learning from the interaction. This post explores the journey of three wikipedians — Jayanta Nath, Deepon Saha and Ashwin.
First Odia Wikipedia Education Program to be Rolled Out
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Dec 14, 2012 08:17 PMOdia Wikipedians gathered at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal on November 8, 2012 to start the first Odia Wikipedia Education Program. This program aims to bring students edit articles on Odia Wikipedia through a series of assessments by professors. The local community members from Nalconagar would be supporting the four month program.
Wikipedia Women's Workshop in Mumbai
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Dec 03, 2012 02:01 PMThe Wiki Women Workshop was organized at the Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Wadala in Mumbai on November 4, 2012. It was attended by over 60 women participants who were taught how to contribute to Wikipedia articles and briefed about the knowledge gaps in Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia. Noopur Raval has prepared a report of the event.
An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB College, Bhubaneswar
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Dec 08, 2012 06:40 AMThe Centre for Internet and Society along with Odia Wikipedians in Bhubaneswar organized an Odia Wikipedia workshop on November 18, 2012. It was held in KMBB College of Engineering. Odia Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia in Odia language which everyone can edit.
Follow up to Wikipedia Introductory Session at Bharati Vidyapeeth — More Interested and More Involved Participants
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Dec 07, 2012 11:04 PMA Wikipedia introductory session was organised at Bharati Vidyapeeth Engineering College in Delhi early this year and a follow up session was organised by CIS on November 19, 2012. About 12 to 15 participants attended the follow up session. Although most of the participants had attended the introductory session there were a few who were coming over for the first time.
Odia Wikipedia Gets a New Typing Solution!
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Dec 12, 2012 08:28 PMSubhashish Panigrahi worked with Yuvi Panda to create a new typing scheme for Odia Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. This blog post gives a summary of this development and its outcome.
Open Government Platform: An Open Source Solution to Democratizing Access to Information and Energizing Civic Engagement
— by Neeta Verma, Alka Mishra and D.P. Mishra — last modified Nov 19, 2012 11:15 AMIf government could release these datasets in open format for people to use & reuse, a whole lot of new innovative apps could be built around these datasets to provide better, customized services to citizens.
Typing in Indic Languages from Mobiles made Easy!
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Dec 08, 2012 02:07 PMA new application designed for typing in Indic languages from mobile phones was recently released. The application is available online at: http://bitly.com/indictyping. At present it supports an offline version of the application only for iPhone and iPad. Android offline version is to be released soon.
Report on Wikipedia Hackathon held in Hyderabad
— by Yuvi Panda — last modified Dec 03, 2012 02:37 PMBITS Hyderabad had a tech fest from October 25 to 27, 2012, and wanted to conduct a technical wiki hackathon. We decided to do it on October 26 — all night.
A Wikipedia Mini-hackathon in Delhi
— by Yuvraj Pandian — last modified Dec 04, 2012 03:31 PMWikipedian Yuvaraj Pandian visited the CIS office in Delhi and helped the Access to Knowledge team conduct a super-ad-hoc mini-hackathon with two other volunteers, Sheel from Delhi and Harsh from Ahmedabad. The aim was to get them a kickstart in developing userscripts/gadgets, and get them to a point where the prior existing documentation makes sense to them.
An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at Academy of Media Learning
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Dec 07, 2012 06:34 PMOdia Wikipedians were invited to Academy of Media Learning (AML), Bhubaneswar for a guest lecture and a workshop on contributing to Odia Wikipedia. The event was organised by the Centre for Internet & Society on November 10, 2012. This is a report about the activities in AML.
Gujarati Wikipedia Article Competition – 10 schools, 200 students, 20 articles on Gujarati Wikipedia
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Nov 04, 2012 10:12 AMThis was a competition to raise Wikipedia awareness and help students discover the joy of writing articles in their native language and an attempt to connect producers having knowledge in Gujarati to a wide audience of more than four lakh readers.
Gujarat Wikipedia Education Program: Rajkot
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Oct 31, 2012 04:17 PMThis report analyses a series of meetings and workshops held in Rajkot, a city in Gujarat, India during the month of October 2012.
First Pune Odia Wikipedia Workshop Organized!
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Nov 30, 2012 08:44 PMThe first Pune Odia Wikipedia workshop was organized in Pune on October 27, 2012. Subhashish Panigrahi recollects his experience about the events through this report.
Malayalam Wikipedia Education Program: August to October Updates
— by Shiju Alex — last modified Nov 10, 2012 02:18 AMThree months back, I wrote a blog post (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/06/wikipedia-education-a-model-from-malayalam-wikipedia/) about the inauguration of the Wikipedia education program in Malayalam Wikipedia. This program is the first of its kind in an Indic language, and Malayalam community is doing the program in collaboration with the IT@School, a project of the Department of General Education, Government of Kerala, setup in 2001, to foster the IT education in schools.
Bridging Gender Gap in Pune: WikiWomenDay 2012 Celebrated with Success!
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Nov 10, 2012 04:30 PMA2K team members Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval participated in the "WikiWomenDay" organized by Wikipedia Club Pune at PAI International Learning Solutions, Azam Campus on October 28, 2012. Subhashish unfolds the happenings of this full day free fun workshop.
Launch of Assamese Wikipedia Education Program at Guwahati University
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Oct 22, 2012 06:29 PMThe Assamese Wikipedia community has shown a rapid growth in the past six months from 20 active editors in January 2012 to 29 active editors in June 2012. The absolute numbers might seem low but in terms of percentages its an overwhelming increment of 45 per cent.
Wikipedia workshop @ Inmantec College, Ghaziabad
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Jan 08, 2013 12:30 AMThe Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet & Society was approached by Gaurav Prashar, Assistant Dean at Inmantec College, Ghaziabad to organize a Wikipedia workshop. Accordingly, a workshop was organized on October 17, 2012.
Bengaluru: A Hub for Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects!
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Nov 04, 2012 10:03 PMKannada Wikipedia is one of those Indic language wikipedias which has seen many readers coming up every month. Subhashish Panigrahi summarizes the experiences of some of the very active Kannada wikipedians from the recent Kannada Wikipedia meetup held in Bengaluru on October 7, 2012.
Wikipedia comes to Hyderabad!
— by Noopur Raval — last modified Feb 13, 2013 07:40 PMThis post is a report on the series of Wikipedia meets organized in the city of Hyderabad on September 29-30, 2012. These workshops were a a part of the larger effort to help Wikipedia contributors in the same city to meet each other and strengthen the local community.
Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop at Amritsar
— by Shiju Alex — last modified Oct 05, 2012 12:11 AMAfter Ludhiana and Patiala we came to Amritsar, which we all know is home to the Golden Temple and the spiritual centre of Sikh religion, to introduce Punjabi Wikipedia. The workshop was held at the Spring Dale Senior School, Amritsar on August 17, 2012.
Editor Growth & Contribution Program on Telugu Wikipedia
— by Nitika Tandon — last modified Sep 29, 2012 08:13 PMNitika Tandon tells us about the Editor Growth & Contribution Program on Telegu Wikipedia, how it will run, its necessity and the future steps.
Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop at Punjabi University, Patiala
— by Shiju Alex and Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Oct 04, 2012 08:18 PMPatiala is the home to the famous Punjabi University. A Wikipedia workshop was organized at the Punjabi University's Punjabi Department on August 16, 2012.
Wikipedia Workshop in British Library, Chandigarh
— by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Oct 04, 2012 08:08 PMA Wikipedia workshop was organized in Chandigarh by the British Library over two days on August 24 and 25, 2012. Bipin Kumar, Head of British Library and Christina, Deputy Manager had pivotal roles in designing this workshop with support from Piyush, a wikipedian.
The First Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop
— by Shiju Alex and Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Oct 04, 2012 08:16 PMFor those who might not be aware, Punjabi Wikipedia is one of the first Indic Wikipedias where community started editing way back in 2002. However, after the initial few edits all activities got stopped and it was inactive over the last decade. Recently we conducted a few workshops that led to the revival of Punjabi Wikipedia. This post is about the first Punjabi Wikipedia workshop held in Ludhiana, Punjab on July 28, 2012.
Indic Language Wikipedias – Statistical Report: January – June 2012
— by Shiju Alex — last modified Sep 28, 2012 11:41 PMThe following is a compilation of the statistical update of the Indic language Wikipedias from January to June 2012. The author provides perspectives on the health of various Indic language communities as well as the state of various Indic language Wikipedias during the period.
Kannada Wiki Workshop at Tumkur University
— by Shiju Alex — last modified Oct 16, 2012 08:35 PMTumkur University, Karnataka hosted a Kannada Wiki Workshop on September 15, 2012. This was the first Kannada Wikipedia workshop at Tumkur.
Unpacking Openness: From Seemingly Transparent to Definitely Opaque
— by Maarten Zeinstra and Marlieke Kieboom — last modified Aug 01, 2012 05:16 PMNishant Shah was in Netherlands recently and as part of his trip had given a public lecture to an audience at Kennisland. One of the respondents wrote a small write-up of the talk.
2012 Conference on Trends in Knowledge Information Dynamics
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Jul 18, 2012 06:47 PMThe 2012 Conference on Trends in Knowledge Information Dynamics convened a panel on Open Access. There was consensus amongst the panelist that the “big question” facing the open access movement no longer remains "if" or "why" open access, but rather "how" open access. The panel proved instructive for shifting the discussion away from ideology towards concrete questions facing the open access agenda and its implementation.
Open Government Data
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jul 16, 2012 08:42 PMThe Transparency & Accountability Initiative published a book titled “Opening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector”. The Centre for Internet & Society contributed a chapter on Open Government Data.
Design!PubliC — Third Conclave in New Delhi
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified May 30, 2012 03:03 PMOn the 20th of April 2012, the third Design Public Conclave, organized by the Center for Knowledge Societies in collaboration with IBM, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google and the Centre for Internet and Society, was held at the National Museum, New Delhi. The Conclave brought together thought-leaders and decision makers from the government, the media, multinational organizations and academic institutions for a conversation about transforming India into an Innovation Society.
Cancel the Subscription
— by Subbiah Arunachalam — last modified May 09, 2012 11:44 AMIt has been a slow but steady move to make scholarship freely available, writes Prof. Arunachalam in an article published by the Indian Express on May 8, 2012.
Arduino Introductory Workshop at CIS
— by Priya Kuber — last modified May 01, 2012 03:50 PMThe Centre for Internet & Society organised a hands-on-free Arduino workshop in its office on March 3, 2012. Video is now online!
Hejje — Together with Kannada & Technology
— by Murali & Pavithra — last modified Apr 09, 2012 05:18 PMTo discover the place of Kannada in the field of information technology, Sanchaya.net organized Hejje in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Vishwakannada.com and Chanda Pustaka on January 22, 2012 in Bangalore. The event marked the first step to bring everyone working in Kannada in the IT field to brainstorm the ideas for future steps, and create a space for technological collaboration in Kannada.
Open DataCamp — 2012
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Mar 30, 2012 10:49 PMA one-day unconference for people working with data from various sectors to come together and share their projects and ideas was organised in Bangalore on March 24, 2012. It was organised by the DataMeet group. Pranesh Prakash participated in the event.
Francis Bags EPT Award for Open Access in Developing World
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Apr 28, 2012 12:08 PMThe Electronic Publishing Trust recently announced a new annual award to be made to individuals working in developed countries who have made significant contribution for the cause of open access and free exchange of research findings. There were 30 nominations from 17 countries around the world and Dr. Francis Jayakanth from the National Centre of Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore was selected for the inaugural EPT Award for Open Access in the Developing World by a committee that went through all the nominations.
Comments on Technical Standards for Interoperability Framework for E-Governance in India (Phase II)
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Feb 29, 2012 05:44 PMThe e-Governance Standards Division has called for public comments on the draft of the Technical Standards IFEG Phase II. We from the Centre for Internet and Society have given our comments.
An Interview with Dr. Francis Jayakanth
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Nov 24, 2012 02:09 PMIndia has been losing out its best talents to the West, however, this trend could be reversed if we create adequate number of world-class institutions and research facilities, and our scientific productivity and quality of research will improve significantly, says Dr. Francis Jayakanth in an email interview with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.
Summary of the Minutes of the Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Jan 31, 2012 12:24 AMThe Western Ghats Portal team had organized a one-day workshop to explore the contemporary state of biodiversity informatics as expressed in three spheres: technology behind biodiversity informatics, scientific commons and policy and biodiversity portals in India. It hoped to provide an opportunity to interact and learn from similar endeavors in this emerging discipline. The workshop was held at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bangalore on 25 November 2011.
Design!PubliC — Innovation and the Public Interest
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Jan 16, 2012 04:48 PMOn the 14th of October, 2011, the Center for Knowledge Societies organized the second edition of the Design Public Conclave, a conversation on how innovation can serve the Public Interest. The conclave was held at the lovely premises of the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore.
Report on the 'Open Access to Academic Knowledge' workshop
— by Tom Dane — last modified Jan 08, 2012 06:57 PMOn Wednesday the 2nd of November, during Open Access Week, the Indian Institute of Science in conjunction with the Centre for Internet and Society held a workshop on Open Access at the National Centre for Science Information, in Bangalore.
Know your Users, Match their Needs!
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Feb 27, 2012 11:06 PMAs Free Access to Law initiatives in the Global South enter into a new stage of maturity, they must be certain not to lose sight of their users’ needs. The following post gives a summary of the “Good Practices Handbook”, a research output of the collaborative project Free Access to Law — Is it Here to Stay? undertaken by LexUM (Canada) and the South African Legal Institute in partnership with the Centre for Internet and Society.
Professor Balaram talks Open Access
— by Tom Dane — last modified Aug 04, 2012 07:10 AMLast week Tom Dane spoke with Professor P Balaram, Director of the Indian Institute of Science, about his thoughts on the Open Access movement. A podcast of the interview is available for download in the audio player within this post.
Open Access Week begins in Bangalore
— by Tom Dane — last modified Aug 04, 2012 07:04 AMOn Monday 24 October, the National Aerospace Laboratories in Bangalore held an event to mark the beginning of Open Access Week 2011
Open Government Data in India (v2)
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Dec 14, 2012 06:25 PMThe first draft of the second version of the Open Government Data Report is now online. Nisha Thompson worked on updating the first version of the report. This updated version of the report on open government data in India includes additional case studies as well as a potential policy (National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy) that would create a central government data portal. The report was distributed for peer review and public feedback.
Open Access to Scholarly Literature in India: A Status Report: Call for Comments
— by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Madhan Muthu — last modified Dec 14, 2012 06:26 PMThe Centre for Internet and Society welcomes comments on the first draft of "Open Access to Scholarly Literature in India: A Status Report". This report, on open access to scholarly literature, with a special focus on scientific literature, has been written by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Madhan Muthu. The report surveys the field of scholarly and scientific publication in India and provides a detailed history of the open access movement in India.
People are Knowledge – Experimenting with Oral Citations on Wikipedia
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Dec 14, 2012 06:26 PMThe Centre for Internet and Society in association with the Wikimedia Foundation has produced a documentary film "People are Knowledge". The film evolved out of a project on Oral Citations in India and South Africa funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, and undertaken by Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board Member Achal Prabhala as a short-term fellowship, to help overcome a lack of published materials in emerging languages on Wikipedia. New Delhi-based filmmaker Priya Sen has directed the film, with additional assistance from Zen Marie who handled the shooting in South Africa. The film explores how alternate methods of citation could be employed on Wikipedia, documenting a series of specific situations with regards to published knowledge, and subsequently, with oral citations.
Opening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Dec 14, 2012 06:26 PMThe Transparency & Accountability Initiative has published a book called “Opening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector”. We at the Centre for Internet & Society contributed the section on Open Government Data.
Comments on the draft National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 24, 2011 02:32 PMA draft of the 'National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy', which some hope will be the open data policy of India, was made available for public comments in early May. This is what the Centre for Internet and Society submitted.
Open Government Data Study
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Oct 12, 2011 04:35 PMCIS produced a report on the state of open government data in India—looking at policy, infrastructure, and particular case studies—as well as emerging concerns, future strategies and recommendations. The Transparency and Accountability Initiative provided generous funding for this report.
Q&A on open access with Subbiah Arunachalam of the Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore)
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:01 PMAmrit Dhir, a 1L at Harvard Law School, has been working with the Harvard Law School Library on open access activities. He recently had an opportunity to interview Subbiah Arunachalam of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in India. The interview was published by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University on May 5, 2011.
Comments on Draft National Policy on ICT in School Education
— by Krithika Dutta Narayana — last modified Aug 30, 2011 10:23 PMThe Department of School Education & Literacy under the Ministry of Human Resources Development invited comments on its latest draft of the National Policy on ICT in School Education. CIS' comments are listed in this post.
Towards Open and Equitable Access to Research and Knowledge for Development
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:04 PMThere is growing recognition that the capacity to conduct research and to share the resulting knowledge is fundamental to all aspects of human development, from improving health care delivery to increasing food security, and from enhancing education to stronger evidence-based policy making. This article by Leslie Chan, Barbara Kirsop and Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam was published in PLoS (Public Library of Science) on March 29, 2011.
Engaging on the Digital Commons
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 20, 2011 08:56 PMWe at the Centre for Internet and Society are very glad to be able to participate in the 13th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). Our interest in the conference arises mainly from our work in the areas of intellectual property rights reform and promotion of different forms of ‘opennesses’ that have cropped up as a response to perceived problems with our present-day regime of intellectual property rights, including open content, open standards, free and open source software, open government data, open access to scholarly research and data, open access to law, etc., our emerging work on telecom policy with respect to open/shared spectrum, and the very important questions around Internet governance. The article by Sunil Abraham and Pranesh Prakash was published in the journal Common Voices, Issue 4.
CIS Comments on the Interoperability Framework for e-Governance (Phase I)
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified May 22, 2013 06:48 PMIn November 2010, the Central Government released the Draft 0.6 of the Technical Standards for the Interoperability Framework for e-Governance (Phase I), requesting comments by January 27, 2011. Here are the comments that CIS submitted.
Withdrawal of Journal Access is a Wake-up Call for Researchers in the Developing World
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:05 PMGuest blog by Leslie Chan, Barbara Kirsop, Subbiah Arunachalam (Trustees for the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development). This article was published in Speaking of Medicine PLoS Medicine community blog on January 17, 2011.
E-Governance Interoperability Framework — Meeting in Iraq
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:04 PMA meeting to create a plan of action for the development of e-Governance Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) in Iraq and include formulation of an e-GIF policy and technical document within the larger framework of public sector modernization, was held from 25 to 27 January 2011. Sunil Abraham was the main resource person for this meeting.
The Online Video Environment in India - A Survey Report
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Oct 03, 2011 05:31 PMiCOMMONS, the OPEN VIDEO ALLIANCE, and the CENTRE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY have initiated a research project which seeks to survey the online video environment in India and the opportunities this new medium presents for creative expression and civic engagement. This report seeks to define key issues in the Indian context and begins to develop a short-term policy framework to address them.
Call for Comments for Report on Open Government Data in India
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Mar 01, 2013 01:50 PMThe Centre for Internet & Society is pleased to announce a public call for comments on the Report on Open Government Data in India prepared by Glover Wright, Pranesh Prakash, Sunil Abraham and Nishant Shah.
Wikipedia Meet-up in TERI
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Sep 22, 2011 08:21 PMThe Wikipedia Bangalore meet-up is a monthly get-together of Wikipedians (contributors and users) to meet, discuss, share experiences, reach out and advocate for Wikipedia and Wikimedia. Danese Cooper, Chief Technical Officer, Wikimedia Foundation, Alolita Sharma, Engineering Programs Manager, Wikimedia Foundation, Erik Möller, Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation and Achal Prabhala, Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board Member attended the meeting. The Centre for Internet and Society made arrangements for this event.
Call for Comments for Report on the Online Video Environment in India
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Dec 14, 2012 08:12 PMThe Open Video Alliance, the Centre for Internet and Society and iCommons are pleased to announce a public call for comments on version 1 of "Online Video Environment in India: A Survey Report".
Free Access to Law—Is it here to Stay? An Environmental Scan Report
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Mar 21, 2012 02:36 AMThe following is a preliminary project report collaboratively collated by the researchers of the "Free Access to Law" research study. This report aims to highlight the trends, as well as the risks and opportunities, for the sustainability of Free Access to Law initiatives in each of the country examined.
Open Access to Science and Scholarship - Why and What Should We Do?
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 23, 2011 11:13 AMThe National Institute of Advanced Studies held the eighth NIAS-DST training programme on “Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Science, Technology and Society” from 26 July to 7 August, 2010. The theme of the project was ‘Knowledge Management’. Dr. MG Narasimhan and Dr. Sharada Srinivasan were the coordinators for the event. Professor Subbiah Arunachalam made a presentation on Open Access to Science and Scholarship.
Civic Hacking Workshop
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 11:14 AMCIS, with the UK Government's Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office Team for Digital Engagement, and Google India, is organizing a workshop on open data (or the lack thereof) and 'civic hacking'.
Open Access to International Agricultural Research
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 25, 2011 04:13 PMOpen access advocates have urged the top management of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research to give open access to its research publications. A report by Subbiah Arunachalam on 3 June, 2010 was also circulated to all the signatories of the letter.
Research Project on Open Video in India
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 10:51 AMOpen Video Alliance and the Centre for Internet and Society are calling for researchers for a project on open video in India, its potentials, limitations, and recommendations on policy interventions.
Does the Social Web need a Googopoly?
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:06 PMWhile 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.
The (in)Visible Subject: Power, Privacy and Social Networking
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:06 PMIn 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.
Impaired Social Mobility
— by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:07 PMLeading e-mail providers like Gmail and Yahoo Mail have introduced open protocols for copying e-mails offline through Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird but popular social networking websites like Facebook, Myspace, etc generally do not allow the user to backup their own data. Sunil Abraham through this article points out that if competition and technological development does not rectify the situation then the government needs to intervene for the sake of its citizens.
Openness, Videos, Impressions
— by Nishant Shah — last modified Sep 22, 2011 08:23 PMThe one day Open Video Summit organised by the Centre for Internet & Society, iCommons, Open Video Alliance, and Magic Lantern, to bring together a range of stakeholders to discuss the possibilities, potentials, mechanics and politics of Open Video. Nishant Shah, who participated in the conversations, was invited to summarise the impressions and ideas that ensued in the day.
Open Content and Access in the Knowledge Society
— by Radha Rao — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:08 PMOpen Content and Access: Democratising and Disruptive Impacts on the Knowledge Society - by Madanmohan Rao, Editor, The KM Chronicles - Bangalore; Dec 16, 09
Open Video Summit
— by Radha Rao — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:08 PMThe Open Video Summit: A one-day workshop to explore issues of intellectual property and telecom policy for video is being organized by The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), iCommons, Open Video Alliance and Magic Lantern on December 15, 2009 at TERI, Bangalore, from 9am to 6pm.
Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net
— by Radha Rao — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:08 PMThe Centre For Internet and Society and JAAGA organised a CC Salon on 02nd December, 2009 at 7.30pm.
Open Standards Workshop at IGF '09
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 10:54 AMThe Centre for Internet and Society co-organized a workshop on 'Open Standards: A Rights-Based Framework' at the fourth Internet Governance Forum, at Sharm el-Sheikh. The panel was chaired by Aslam Raffee of Sun Microsystems and the panellists were Sir Tim Berners-Lee of W3C, Renu Budhiraja of India's DIT, Sunil Abraham of CIS, Steve Mutkoski of Microsoft, and Rishab Ghosh of UNU-MERIT.
Is Copyright Law Censoring the Art World?
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:09 PMLast week, ART and the Center for Law and Policy Research held a workshop on “Copyright, Censorship and the Creative Commons” for individuals interested in examining the art/law nexus, and exploring its broader implications for individual artists and the creative commons. While it appears that artists are becoming more rights conscious, the increasing copyrightability of art today is compelling many artists to critically rethink the role of law in the art world.
After 15 Years, Is Free Access to Law Here to Stay?
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:07 PMCIS, in collaboration with partners LexUM and SAFLII, is undertaking a Global Free Access to Law Study. Being the first of its kind within the Free Access to Law Movement, this comparative study will examine what free access to law initiatives do, evaluate their core benefits and identify factors determining of their sustainability. In the end, the free access to law study will provide future initiatives and existing LII networks with proven and adoptable best practices which will support the continued growth of the legal information commons.
Wiki Academy
— by Radha Rao — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:01 PMAn article by Hari Prasad Nadig on Wiki Academy, a workshop based on usage of Indian languages, editing and its applications in academics of Wikipedia - the free online encyclopedia, was held at Eric Mathias hall in St Aloysius College in Mangalore on Saturday, August 22.
Second Response to Draft National Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:06 PMThe government is in the process of drafting a national policy on open standards for e-governance. The National Informatics Centre recently released draft version 2 of the policy, and CIS sent in its comments on the draft.
Letter to Education Secretary, Government of Karnataka, Advocating Adoption of FOSS in State IT Academies
— by Sanchia de Souza — last modified Aug 23, 2011 10:55 AMThe Centre for Internet and Society is a signatory to a letter being sent to the Education Secretary, Government of Karnataka, advocating the adoption of FOSS at state IT academies.
An Interview With Arjen Kamphuis
— by Sanchia de Souza — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:01 PMIn an email interview with the Centre for Internet and Society, Dutch open source activist Arjen Kamphuis discussed his experience of successfully working with the government for a policy mandating open standards for all government IT in the Netherlands.
International Repository Infrastructure Workshop, Amsterdam, 16-17 March 2009: A Report
— by Sanchia de Souza — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:01 PMOpen Access activist Madhan Muthu recently attended the International Repository Infrastructure Workshop, held in Amsterdam, 16-17 March 2009, in company with CIS Distinguished Fellow Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam. In this entry, as a guest blogger for CIS, he files a report on the proceedings at the workshop.
Journals, Open Access, Copyright, Repositories
— by Sanchia de Souza — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:01 PMProf N. Mukunda, Editor of Publications, The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, discusses open access in his keynote address at the 26 March 2009 one-day conference on 'Scholarly Communications in the Age of the Commons'.
RTI Application to Visvesvaraya Technological University
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:01 PMThe Centre for Internet and Society filed an RTI application to Visvesvaraya Technological University asking it to provide details about its curriculum design, and its tie-ups with various software vendors.
Department of Information Technology Meeting on a National Policy on E-Accessibility
— by Nirmita Narasimhan — last modified Sep 22, 2011 08:32 PMOn 30 January 2009, the Department of Information Technology hosted a meeting in New Delhi bringing together important stakeholders to discuss the issue of electronic accessibility for the disabled and persons with special needs in India.
Updated List of Signatories for Letter Supporting WIPO Treaty for the Reading Disabled
— by Sanchia de Souza — last modified Aug 25, 2011 04:35 PMThe list of signatories to a letter in support of the WIPO Treat for the Reading Disabled has been updated.
Workshop on Reforming the International ICT Standardization System
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 10:56 AMOn Day 4, the last day, of the Internet Governance Forum, a workshop was conducted by the Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards on the reforming the international ICT standardisation system. The panellists were Bob Jolliffe of Freedom to Innovate South Africa, Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society, Ashish Gautam of IBM India, and Aslam Raffee, Chairperson of the Government IT Officers' Council, OSS Working Group, Republic of South Africa, who moderated the session.
Report on Open Standards for GISW2008
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jan 05, 2009 02:52 PMIn this report, Sunil Abraham lays out the importance and the policy implications of Open Standards.
DCOS Agreement on Procurement
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 10:58 AMOn December 6, 2008, at the closing of the third Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India, the Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS), of which the Centre for Internet and Society is a member, released an agreement entitled the "Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS) Agreement on Procurement in Support of Interoperability and Open Standards".
Open Access Day celebrated in India
— by Sunil Abraham — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:06 PMThe Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance co-organised joint celebrations of Open Access Day in Jamia Millia Islamia campus on the 14th of October 2008. Around 50 people attended the event from different departments in Jamia there were also some participants from the Indian Linux Users Group. CIS also published an Open Access flyer on this day featuring quotations from Sam Pitroda, MS Swaminathan, Peter Suber, Alma Swan, Frederick Noronha, Barbara Kirsop and Samir Brahmachari.
The National Public Meeting on Software Patents
— by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 11:02 AMOn Saturday, October 4, 2008, the Centre for Internet and Society, with the support of eighteen other organization, held a meeting on the National Public Meeting on Software Patents in the United Theological College campus. The aim of the event was to explore various issues surrounding software patents, especially from the perspective of the draft Patent Manual.
A2K3 Panel XI: Open Access to Science and Research
— by Sunil Abraham — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:07 PMProf. Subbiah Arunachalam participated in the third Access to Knowledge hosted by The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School between September 8-10, 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference held at the Geneva International Conference Centre brought together hundreds of decision-makers and experts on global knowledge to discuss the urgent need for policy reforms.
Essay Competition for Software Freedom Day
— by Sunil Abraham — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:02 PMThe Free Software Users Group of Bangalore and the Centre for Internet and Society in collaboration organise an essay competition for schools and colleges in Bangalore on the topic of "Software Freedom"
Reconceptualizing Privacy on Social Network(s) Sites
— by Rebecca Schild — last modified Aug 18, 2011 01:07 PMWhile “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.