All Blogs
Labouring (on) the app: agency and organisation of work in the platform economy
Ambika Tandon and Abhishek Sekharan published an academic paper highlighting the importance of women’s networks of information sharing and care in navigating opaque platform design. The paper is part of an issue of Gender and Development on ‘Women, Work and the Digital Economy’. Gender and Development is one of the few academic journals that priorities practitioners' experiences over theoretical contributions.
Gender and collective bargaining in the platform economy: Experiences of on-demand beauty workers in India
Abhishek Sekharan, Chiara Furtado, and Ambika Tandon contributed an essay on gender and collective bargaining in the platform economy in India, reflecting on the experiences of women beauty workers who organised India’s first women-led movement of platform workers. The essay has been published as part of an online collection of essays from contributors across the world and has been curated by the Digital Future Society Think Tank (Barcelona, Spain).
Metaphors of Work, from ‘Below’
Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon authored a chapter that describes platforms as more than technological interfaces. The chapter invokes some of the metaphors that gig workers use to make sense of platforms. This chapter was part of an edited volume published by Springer. This chapter forms part of the ‘Labour Futures’ research project, hosted at the Centre for Internet and Society, India, and supported by the Internet Society Foundation.
WIPO SCCR 43: Notes from Day 1
Member states delivered opening statements and deliberated on the progress, substantive provisions, and method of work on the draft broadcasting treaty text. This blog post summarises positions and contentions that supported: 1)The need for balance between rights of broadcasters and that of users and researchers 2) Questions around fixation and signal piracy 3) Need for consensus and towards a diplomatic conference
Securing Our Dependence on Code Reuse in Software
Dividing and breaking up a software project into smaller modules with functionality that can be reused to build other software is an increasingly common practice in software development today. We examine our infrastructural dependence on reuse of open-source software (OSS) components, examine the unique security risks posed by the widespread reuse of code, and survey systemic solutions to securing code reuse.
CIS Statement in WIPO SCCR 43
Shweta Mohandas delivered a statement on behalf of CIS, on day 1 of the 43rd WIPO SCCR session on the Broadcast Treaty.
CensorWatch: On the Implementation of Online Censorship in India
Results from a nation-wide empirical study on web censorship
Civil Society’s second opinion on a UHI prescription
On January 13, Pallavi Bedi and Shweta Mohandas from CIS participated in an online collaboration organised by Internet Freedom Foundation for a joint submission to the Consultation Paper on Operationalising Unified Health Interface (UHI) in India released by the National Health Authority.
Comments to the proposed amendments to The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021
This note presents comments by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India, on the proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“proposed amendments”). We thank Isha Suri for her review of this submission.
The Centre for Internet and Society’s comments and recommendations to the: The Digital Data Protection Bill 2022
The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) published its comments and recommendations to the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, on December 17, 2022.
CIS’ Comments to the (Draft) Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022
The Department of Telecommunications, Government of India invited comments on the Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022. The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) submitted its comments.
Why spectrum needs a change in approach
Rajat Kathuria and Isha Suri write: It must be recognised that spectrum needs to be combined with other infrastructure to enable service delivery.
‘Techplomacy’ and the negotiation of AI standards for the Indo-Pacific
Researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute have partnered with the Centre for Internet and Society (Bengaluru) to produce a ‘techplomacy guide’ on negotiating AI standards for stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific.
Exploring Knowledge Repositories on Water Resources in India
This research study explores knowledge repositories on water resources in India, with a focus on how the digital transition has impacted the process of creation & access to these resources and possible collaborations to build open digital repositories around water. The research was undertaken by Subodh Kulkarni, with editorial inputs by Puthiya Purayil Sneha, and Chiara Furtado. This is part of a series of short-term studies undertaken by the CIS-A2K team in 2021–2022.
Infrastructural Needs of Indian Language Wikisource Projects
This is a short study on identifying the infrastructural gaps on Indian language Wikisource projects, and potential strategies to address the same. The study was undertaken by Jayantha Nath, Puthiya Purayil Sneha and Satdeep Gill, with writing and editorial oversight by Puthiya Purayil Sneha and an external review by Divyank Katira. This is part of a series of short-term studies undertaken by the CIS-A2K team in 2021-22.
Mapping Content on Gender and Sexuality in Indian Languages
This research study explores content production processes on gender and sexuality in Indian languages, its digital documentation and factors that affect its availability and use on open access platforms. The research was undertaken by Yashashwini Srinivas, with editorial inputs by Puthiya Purayil Sneha, and Torsha Sarkar. This research was part of short-term studies undertaken at the CIS-A2K programme 2021-22.
Demystifying Data Breaches in India
Despite the rate at which data breaches occur and are reported in the media, there seems to be little information about how and when they are resolved. This post examines the discourse on data breaches in India with respect to their historical forms, with a focus on how the specific terminology to describe data security incidents has evolved in mainstream news media reportage.
