February 2018 Newsletter
February 2018 Newsletter
Dear readers,
Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.
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CIS in the News:
- Aadhaar: 'Safety is regularly evolving' (Kaplan Herald; February 5, 2018).
- To protect data, don’t opt for plastic or laminated Aadhaar card: UIDAI (Komal Gupta; Livemint; February 7, 2018).
- From 1 March, only registered devices to be used to authenticate Aadhaar (Komal Gupta; Livemint; February 8, 2018).
- Critics of India's ID card project say they have been harassed, put under surveillance (Rahul Bhatia; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Reuters; February 13, 2018).
- The mystery of the website which published the ‘scoop’ on BJP’s Ram Madhav (Kaveesha Kohli and Talha Ashraf; The Print; February 13, 2018).
- CCI leaves Google searching for answers (Nirmal John; Economic Times; February 13, 2018).
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Access to Knowledge
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Our Access to Knowledge programme currently consists of two projects. The Pervasive Technologies project, conducted under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to conduct research on the complex interplay between low-cost pervasive technologies and intellectual property, in order to encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The Wikipedia project, which is under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.
►Wikipedia
Events Reports
- Mini Train the Trainer 2018 (Subodh Kulkarni; February 26, 2018).
- Marathi Language Day events by CIS-A2K in February 2018 (Subodh Kulkarni; February 27, 2018).
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Internet Governance
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As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.
►Privacy
Submission
- Submission to the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India (Amber Sinha; February 5, 2018).
Blog Entry
- AI and Manufacturing and Services in India: Looking Forward (Shweta Mohandas and Pranav M. Bidare; February 13, 2018).
- Unpacking Data Protection Law: A Visual Representation (Amber Sinha; February 15, 2018).
- The Fundamental Right to Privacy - A Visual Guide (Amber Sinha; February 16, 2018).
Event Organized
- Roundtable on AI and Finance in India (TERI, Bangalore; February 7, 2018).
Telecom
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CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources, and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:
Article
- Matching Realities and Aspirations (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; January 31, 2018 and Organizing India Blogspot; February 1, 2018).
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Researchers at Work
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The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by an emerging need to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It aims to produce local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:
Symposium
- Research Symposium on Digital Transitions in Cultural and Creative Industries in India (Co-organized by LabEx ICCA (Université Paris 13), UNESCO New Delhi, Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH), Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud, and CIS; February 27 - 28, 2018; New Delhi). Anubha Sinha was a panellist for the session on "Copyright, Creative Content, and Rights of Performers", alongwith Nandita Saikia and Manojna Yeluri.
Article
- Digital Native: AI Manifesto (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; February 25, 2018).
About CIS
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The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.
► Follow us elsewhere
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/cis_india
- Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
- Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
- Facebook - Access to Knowledge: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
- E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: [email protected]
- E-Mail - Researchers at Work: [email protected]
- List - Researchers at Work: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers
► Support Us
► Request for Collaboration
We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at [email protected] (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at [email protected] (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at [email protected].
