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Civil Society Organisations and Internet Governance in Asia - Open Review
This is a book section written for the third volume (2000-2010) of the Asia Internet History series edited by Prof. Kilnam Chon. The pre-publication text of the section is being shared here to invite suggestions for addition and modification. Please share your comments via email sent to raw[at]cis-india[dot]org with 'Civil Society Organisations and Internet Governance in Asia - Comments' as the subject line. This text is published under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
Security: Privacy, Transparency and Technology
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has been involved in privacy and data protection research for the last five years. It has participated as a member of the Justice A.P. Shah Committee, which has influenced the draft Privacy Bill being authored by the Department of Personnel and Training. It has organised 11 multistakeholder roundtables across India over the last two years to discuss a shadow Privacy Bill drafted by CIS with the participation of privacy commissioners and data protection authorities from Europe and Canada.
Journalism Students of the SDM College Ujire Enrich Karnataka’s Folklore And Folk Art in Kannada Wikipedia
As part of an ongoing partnership with the Shree Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) College Ujjire, with active support from a few Kannada Wikipedia editors, CIS-A2K began an outreach programme so that the journalism students could help many Kannada readers about Karnataka’s rich folklore and folk art.
Wikipedia edit-a-thon in Mangalore to bring Tulu Wikipedia live
A Wikipedia edit-a-thon was organised in Mangalore, Karnataka this 14th to encourage more Tulu-language speakers to contribute to Tulu Wikipedia. Tulu Wikipedia is is currently in the Incubator but the enthusiastic editor community is putting their best effort to bring it live out of Incubator. This edit-a-thon is one of the many activities the Tulu Wikimedia community has organised.
A Review of the Policy Debate around Big Data and Internet of Things
This blog post seeks to review and understand how regulators and experts across jurisdictions are reacting to Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT) from a policy perspective.
War Driving in Lhasa Vegas
This post by Oxblood Ruffin is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. Oxblood Ruffin is a hacktivist and film maker. He joined the CULT OF THE DEAD COW in 1996 as its Foreign Minister. Colonel Ruffin is co-author of the Hacktivismo Enhanced Source Software Licencse Agreement (HESSLA), network curmudgeon, and line cook. He will publish a book on information warfare in 2016. In this essay, Colonel Ruffin traces the history of Internet access in Dharamsala, and the factors at play in shaping it - mundane and maverick, familiar and outlier.
Right to Privacy in Peril
It seems to have become quite a fad, especially amongst journalists, to use this headline and claim that the right to privacy which we consider so inherent to our being, is under attack. However, when I use this heading in this piece I am not referring to the rampant illegal surveillance being done by the government, or the widely reported recent raids on consenting (unmarried) adults who were staying in hotel rooms in Mumbai. I am talking about the fact that the Supreme Court of India has deemed it fit to refer the question of the very existence of a fundamental right to privacy to a Constitution Bench to finally decide the matter, and define the contours of such right if it does exist.
National IPR Policy Series: What Have the Sectoral Innovation Councils Been Doing on IPR
In this post, Nehaa Chaudhari and Varun Baliga delve into the question of what the mandate of the Sectoral Innovation Councils is, what its activities are, and what vision for IPR development in India has it put forth. An RTI Application has been filed by CIS to attain information on these issues.
Report on Training in Espeak Marathi
Venue: NAB, Nashik.
Dates: 22nd – 23rd June 2015
Number of Participants: 15
Trainer: Harshad Jadhav.
A batch of 17 Special Educators and teachers of the blind attended the workshop, conducted by the National Association for the Blind, Nashik Branch.
All the participants agreed that the workshop was very fruitful, and it would be of great use to them for preparing material for their students of Vernacular medium.
The participants were from surrounding towns of Aurangabad, Akola, Ahmednagar, etc.
Big Data and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules 2011
Experts and regulators across jurisdictions are examining the impact of Big Data practices on traditional data protection standards and principles. This will be a useful and pertinent exercise for India to undertake as the government and the private and public sectors begin to incorporate and rely on the use of Big Data in decision making processes and organizational operations.This blog provides an initial evaluation of how Big Data could impact India's current data protection standards.
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Introduction
In this blog post, Amulya Purushothama announces our new MHRD IPR Chair Series and charts the sequence of events, starting from the establishment of the MHRD IPR Chairs, to discussions surrounding their purpose and functioning, to concerns surrounding the lack of information about the IPR Chairs, the first round of RTIs CIS had filed in regard to this and the responses received. This series will document and analyze further RTIs filed and responses received in this regard.
Comparison of the Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 with: CIS recommendations, Sub-Committee Recommendations, Expert Committee Recommendations, and the Human DNA Profiling Bill 2015
This blog a comparison of 1. The Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 vs. the Human DNA Profiling Bill 2015, 2. CIS's main recommendations vs. the 2015 Bill 3. The Sub-Committee Recommendations vs. the 2015 Bill 4. The Expert Committee Recommendations vs. the 2015 Bill.
CIS submission to the UNGA WSIS+10 Review
The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) submitted its comments to the non-paper on the UNGA Overall Review of the Implementation of the WSIS outcomes, evaluating the progress made and challenges ahead.
Rare Telugu religious and historical work preserved at Annamacharya library to come on Wikisource!
Telugu Wikipedia Community and the Centre for Internet & Society conducted a day long edit-a-thon at Annamaya Library on August 6, 2015 at Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada.
Digital Activism in Asia Reader
The digital turn might as well be marked as an Asian turn. From flash-mobs in Taiwan to feminist mobilisations in India, from hybrid media strategies of Syrian activists to cultural protests in Thailand, we see the emergence of political acts that transform the citizen from being a beneficiary of change to becoming an agent of change. In co-shaping these changes, what the digital shall be used for, and what its consequences will be, are both up for speculation and negotiation. Digital Activism in Asia marks a particular shift where these questions are no longer being refracted through the ICT4D logic, or the West’s attempts to save Asia from itself, but shaped by multiplicity, unevenness, and urgencies of digital sites and users in Asia. It is our great pleasure to present the Digital Activism in Asia Reader.
Mock-Calling – Ironies of Outsourcing and the Aspirations of an Individual
This post by Sreedeep is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. He is an independent photographer and a Fellow at the Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi. In this essay, Sreedeep explores the anxieties and ironies of the unprecedented IT/BPO boom in India through the perspective and experiences of a new entrant in the industry, a decade ago. The narrative tries to capture some of the radical hedonistic consequences of the IT-burst on our lifestyles, imagination and aspirations delineated and fraught with layers of conscious deception and prolonged probation.
Those Dropped Calls
And what could be done to fix them...Why do we have so many dropped calls on our mobile phones? Operators say it's because of the closure and shortage of cell towers, and too little spectrum.
CCI Participation at the Upcoming 3rd International Conference on IPR and Competition
The Centre for Internet & Society wrote to the Competition Commission of India Chairman on August 5, 2015 about participation at a conference organised by Ericsson and concerns regarding conflict of interest. We also had several other NGOs sign on to the letter.
Policy Paper on Surveillance in India
This policy brief analyses the different laws regulating surveillance at the State and Central level in India and calls out ways in which the provisions are unharmonized. The brief then provides recommendations for the harmonization of surveillance law in India.
Studying the Emerging Database State in India: Notes for Critical Data Studies (Accepted Abstract)
"Critical Data Studies (CDS) is a growing field of research that focuses on the unique theoretical, ethical, and epistemological challenges posed by 'Big Data.' Rather than treat Big Data as a scientifically empirical, and therefore largely neutral phenomena, CDS advocates the view that data should be seen as always-already constituted within wider data assemblages." The Big Data and Society journal has provisionally accepted a paper abstract of mine for its upcoming special issue on Critical Data Studies.
