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National Resource Kit: The Puducherry Chapter (Call for Comments)
The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Puducherry.
TRAI Consultation Paper on Spectrum
Shyam Ponappa and A.B.Beliappa worked on this submission to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on their spectrum consultation paper. The submission was made on August 21, 2013.
Indian government to bar politicians from using Gmail for official business
US-based email services seen as too risky.
Report on the Sixth Privacy Roundtable Meeting, New Delhi
In 2013 the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) drafted the Privacy Protection Bill as a citizens' version of a privacy legislation for India. Since April 2013, CIS has been holding Privacy Roundtables in collaboration with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and DSCI, with the objective of gaining public feedback to the Privacy Protection Bill and other possible frameworks for privacy in India. The following is a report on the Sixth Privacy Roundtable held in New Delhi on August 24, 2013.
National Resource Kit: The Manipur Chapter (Call for Comments)
The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Manipur.
National Resource Kit: The Assam Chapter (Call for Comments)
The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Assam.
An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at Sambalpur
A training workshop for Odia Wikipedians was held in Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla, Sambalpur on July 26 and 27, 2013. The workshop was organized by Odia Wikipedian Gorvachove Pothal, with financial support from CIS-A2K programme. It was a part of the Access To Knowledge - Outreach Programs.
Voices from Goa: Rusita Paryekar, a MA student writes articles on Konkani Wikipedia
Rusita Paryekar is one of the 38 students from the MA Konkani department of Goa University gathered at the State Central Library to learn writing and editing articles on Konkani Wikipedia. Currently Konkani Wikipedia is in incubation and needs more voluntary participation from enthusiasts who want their language, Konkani to strengthen its base in the digital knowledge domain.
Voices from Goa: Frania Pereira tells Why She Writes Articles on Konkani Wikipedia
Konkani as a language has seen geographical, political and religious conflicts. Being the official language of Goa and spoken widely in the Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra it is still trying to strengthen its base. Recently the Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with the Konkani department of Goa University organized a four-day Wikipedia workshop for MA, Konkani language students. This workshop involved 38 students creating 43 new articles on Konkani Wikipedia which is incubation. We’re hoping that these efforts will contribute towards bringing this 7 year old project out of incubation to a live Wikipedia project.
Out of the Bedroom
We have shared it with our friends. We have watched it with our lovers. We have discussed it with our children and talked about it with our partners. It is in our bedrooms, hidden in sock drawers. It is in our laptops, in a folder marked "Miscellaneous". It is in our cellphones and tablets, protected under passwords. It is the biggest reason why people have learned to clean their browsing history and cookies from their browsers.
Copyrights and Copywrongs Why the Government Should Embrace the Public Domain
Each of you reading this article is a criminal and should be jailed for up to three years. Yes, you. "Why?," you may ask.
Freedom from Monitoring: India Inc Should Push For Privacy Laws
More surveillance than absolutely necessary actually undermines the security objective.
Wikimania 2013: Wikipedians represent Indian Languages in Hong Kong
The 7th, 8th and 9th of August 2013 saw over 600 Wikipedians across the world participating Wikimania at Hong Kong. The three day annual international conference for users and contributors of Wikipedia brought many debates about open educational research, open source technologies, gender gap, documenting the history of mankind in a free and open platform like Wikipedia and its sister sites in collaboration with Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums and all of these in 286 world languages. More and more volunteers are joining this movement and it is expanding the media of accessing and disseminating knowledge.
A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop at Krishnarajapet
On Sunday, August 11, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Shyam Computers, Krishnarajapet, Karnataka. The workshop was co-organized by the CIS-A2K team along with Kannada Sahitya Parishat of KR Pet. This report summarizes the proceedings of that workshop and subsequent research into relevant questions flowing from the discussions.
A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop in Mysore
On Tuesday, August 6, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at the Centre for Proficiency Development and Placement Services (CPDPS), Manasa Gangotri campus, University of Mysore, Karnataka by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
FinFisher in India and the Myth of Harmless Metadata
In this article, Maria Xynou argues that metadata is anything but harmless, especially since FinFisher — one of the world's most controversial types of spyware — uses metadata to target individuals.
Banking and Accessibility in India: A Report by CIS
The report gives an analysis of banking accessibility for persons with disabilities in India. Besides a detailed look at the legal provisions and guidelines on banking and technology, the report also provides a view on different disabilities in relation to banking and accessibility in India and contains case studies and guidelines from countries such as New Zealand, Australia, the United States of America, Canada and the Netherlands. The report sums up the analysis with suggestions and recommendations to improve banking accessibility for persons with disabilities in India.
Breaking into the Closed Circle: Domestic High-Tech Manufacturing Needs Access To Markets
The deferral of India's preferential market access (PMA) policy for locally manufactured high-tech products indicates some lack of clarity and/or confusion in the government.
Are Indian Consumer Laws Ready for the Digital Age?
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, recognizing the need for protection of the rights of consumers, drafted a set of model guidelines on consumer protection which were adopted by the General Assembly in 1985. The United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP) act as an international reference point of the consumer movement, however since it has been over a quarter of a century since they were first drafted, there is a strong argument for revising them to bring them in line with new developments in technology and business practices.
Ethical Issues in Open Data
On August 1, 2013, I took part in a web meeting, organized and hosted by Tim Davies of the World Wide Web foundation. The meeting, titled “Ethical issues in Open Data,” had an agenda focused around privacy considerations in the context of the open data movement.
