All Blogs
Moving Towards a Surveillance State
The cyberspace is a modern construct of communication and today, a large part of human activity takes place in cyberspace. It has become the universal platform where business is executed, discourse is conducted and personal information is exchanged. However, the underbelly of the internet is also seen to host activities and persons who are motivated by nefarious intent.
India:Privacy in Peril
The danger of mass surveillance in India is for real. The absence of a regulating law is damning for Indians who want to protect their privacy against the juggernaut of state and private surveillance.
Towards Critical Tool-building
The last blogpost focused on the importance of design for digital humanities research and on the concept of universal design to make research work more inclusive as well as more accessible, the visual being something that digital humanities stress the importance of in their work. But research work has always been put into form, so aesthetics have played a role in traditional humanities work. What has changed and why is there a self-proclaimed shift towards design in the digital humanities?
Telugu Wiki Academy at Centre for Good Governance
An account of the Telugu Wiki Academy organized for the staff of Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad on April 9, 2013 at their Jubilee Hills premises.
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 5) - Amelia Andersdotter
CIS interviews Amelia Andersdotter, member of the European parliament, as part of the Cybersecurity Series
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 4) - Marietje Schaake
CIS interviews Marietje Schaake, member of the European parliament, as part of the Cybersecurity Series
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 3) - Eva Galperin
CIS interviews Eva Galperin, Global Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
The Difficult Balance of Transparent Surveillance
Is it too much to ask for transparency in data surveillance? On occasion, companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and the other silicon valley giants would say no. When customers join these services, each company provides their own privacy statement which assures customers of the safety and transparency that accompanies their personal data.
Building Up vs Tearing Down
We have to find ways to deal with corruption without subverting our developmental aims.
Designing Change? Gatekeepers in Digital Humanities
After defining the archive as one of the important concepts for digital humanities research, the question arose, whether or not a redefined archive still functions as a gatekeeper. This blog entry follows the question, if the digital humanities have overcome gatekeepers of knowledge, or if there has simply been a shift in what is doing the gatekeeping.
Privacy Protection Bill, 2013 (With Amendments based on Public Feedback)
In 2013 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 FICCI and DSCI, with the objective of gaining public feedback to the Privacy Protection Bill and other possible frameworks for privacy in India.
Indian Language Wikipedia Statistics (September 2012 – April 2013)
The Access to Knowledge team carried out a quantitative analysis to identify trends and growth patterns in Indian Language Wikipedias over the time period from September 2012 to April 2013.
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 2) - Ram Mohan
CIS interviews Ram Mohan, a pioneer in the field of Internet security and internationalization, as part of the Cybersecurity Series
Bangalore RHoKed to Create 8 Apps for a Better World!
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) on June 1 and 2, 2013 hosted a Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event at its office. Yogesh Londhe shares with you a post-event report.
National Resource Kit: The Jharkhand 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 Jharkhand.
India's Closing Statement at Marrakesh on the Treaty for the Blind
This was the statement that the Government of India made at the closing of the WIPO Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities (17-28 June 2013), after the Marrakesh Treaty (the "Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for the Blind, Visually Impaired and otherwise Print Disabled") was adopted.
CIS's Closing Statement at Marrakesh on the Treaty for the Blind
Pranesh Prakash read out an abridged version of this statement as his closing remarks in Marrakesh, where the WIPO Treaty for the Blind (the "Marrakesh Treaty") has been successfully concluded. The Marrakesh Treaty aims to facilitate access to published works by blind persons, persons with visual impairment, and other print disabled persons, by requiring mandatory exceptions in copyright law to enable conversions of books into accessible formats, and by enabling cross-border transfer of accessible format books.
A 'Kannada' Wikipedia Workshop for Bloggers
On Sunday, June 23, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Suchitra, Bengaluru for Kannada bloggers by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team. This blog post gives a report on the workshop.
SEBI and Communication Surveillance: New Rules, New Responsibilities?
In this blog post, Kovey Coles writes about the activities of the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), discusses the importance of call data records (CDRs), and throws light on the significant transition in governmental leniency towards access to private records.
The State is Snooping: Can You Escape?
Blanket surveillance of the kind envisaged by India's Centralized Monitoring System achieves little, but blatantly violates the citizen's right to privacy; Snehashish Ghosh explores why it may be dangerous and looks at potential safeguards against such intrusion.
