Centre for Internet & Society

Mapping Digital Humanities in India - Concluding Thoughts

This final blog post on the mapping exercise undertaken by CIS-RAW summarises some of the key concepts and terms that have emerged as significant in the discourse around Digital Humanities in India.

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National IPR Policy Series : Comments on the Proposed Intellectual Property Rights Policy to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion

On 13 November, 2014, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had released a Call for Suggestions for India's proposed National IPR Policy. This is the Centre for Internet and Society's (CIS) submission for the same.

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Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA at NAB, Delhi

Posted by Nirmita Narasimhan at Nov 30, 2014 09:00 AM |
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The objective of the workshop was to help the staff members understand NVDA and its functioning with the Indian languages so that they efficiently attend to the queries of the visitors and the callers at help desk.

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Access to Medicines: Petition to the US Government to Stop Pressure on India

Access to Medicines: Petition to the US Government to Stop Pressure on India

Posted by Nehaa Chaudhari at Nov 30, 2014 01:20 AM |

There is growing pressure on India from the US Government to change its intellectual property system. Bending to US pressure will put medicines out of reach for millions of patients in India and other developing countries.

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Introduction: About the Privacy and Surveillance Roundtables

Posted by Manoj Kurbet at Nov 27, 2014 01:34 PM |

The Privacy and Surveillance Roundtables is a Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) initiative, in partnership with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), as well as local partners. The Roundtable will be closed-door deliberation involving multiple stakeholders. Through the course of these discussions we aim to deliberate upon the current legal framework for surveillance in India, and discuss possible frameworks for surveillance in India.

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Nineteen Books Published by Ama Odisha Relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0

Posted by Subhashish Panigrahi at Nov 25, 2014 10:00 PM |

Odisha's most circulated newspaper Sambad has collaborated with CIS-A2K to relicense 19 books published by its sister concern "Ama Odisha".

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PERVASIVE TECHNOLOGIES PROJECT WORKING DOCUMENT SERIES: DOCUMENT 1 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR A PAPER ON COMPETITION LAW + IPR + ACCESS TO < $100 MOBILE DEVICES

This blog post is the research methodology for my research paper under the Pervasive Technologies Project. This is a work in progress and is likely to be modified from time to time.

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Teaching in the Age of Wikipedia

Posted by T. Vishnu Vardhan at Nov 22, 2014 01:00 PM |

This course is conceived by CIS-A2K. It is currently envisaged as an add-on Certificate Course jointly offered by CIS-A2K and the Nirmala Institute of Education (NIE)-a premier teacher training establishment in Goa, India.

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Report on Training in the Use of eSpeak Gujarati with NVDA

Report on Training in the Use of eSpeak Gujarati with NVDA

Posted by Nirmita Narasimhan at Nov 19, 2014 07:00 PM |
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The training was imparted at Blind Peoples Association, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad on November 17 and 18, 2014. Thirteen delegates underwent the training. R.P.Soni was the local coordinator.

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MHRD IPR Chairs — Underutilization of Funds and Lack of Information Regarding Expenditures

Posted by Nehaa Chaudhari at Nov 19, 2014 03:19 PM |
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Funds granted to the IPR Chairs set up by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development are often left underutilized. Details regarding the expenditures that are incurred by the Chairs are also currently unavailable. CIS intern Amulya Purushothama examines this further.

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The Socratic debate: Whose internet is it anyway?

Posted by Pranesh Prakash at Nov 18, 2014 09:05 PM |

In the US, President Obama recently spoke out on the seemingly arcane topic of net neutrality. What is more astounding is that the popular satire news show host John Oliver spent a 13-minute segment talking about it in June, telling Internet trolls to “focus your indiscriminate rage in a useful direction” by visiting the US Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) website and submitting comments on its weak draft proposal on net neutrality.

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Methodology: Access to Music through the Mobile

Posted by Maggie Huang at Nov 18, 2014 01:45 AM |

Like its predecessors the vinyl, the cassette tape, the CD, and the MP3 player, the mobile phone as the most recent musical carrier have been well documented to be a disruptive technology, one which has made earlier carrier technologies virtually obsolete. The mobile phone has transformed the music industry and its supporting infrastructure — dramatically altering the roles of various intermediaries and stakeholders who enable the creation, distribution, and consumption of musical content.

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Odia Wikisource, its Potential

Posted by Subhashish Panigrahi at Nov 17, 2014 09:00 PM |

I wrote an editorial in Odia newspaper the "Samaja" on November 17, 2014. I have written about Odia Wikisource, its potential and how people can get involved in it with a short note about the digitization done already. I have also highlighted the authors and copyright holders who kindly have donated their work under CC-by-SA license.

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Odia author Nirmala Kumari Mohapatra's 21 books relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0

Posted by Subhashish Panigrahi at Nov 17, 2014 08:00 PM |

Twenty one books of renowned Odia author Nirmala Kumari Mohapatra will now be available under the Creative Commons License.

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Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India

Posted by Anubha Sinha at Nov 17, 2014 09:00 AM |

A steady rise in smart phone penetration in India has led to a corresponding growth of the mobile application development industry. Mobile application development like all technological implementations is subject to intellectual property issues. However, very little is understood about the effect of existing patent and copyright law on this niche industry. I aim to develop an understanding of the mobile applications industry, and how it is governed by current Indian patent and copyright regime. I will also use this research to inform the optimal ways in which policymakers may ensure the continual emergence of the mobile applications industry. This blog post lays down a document delineating the research methodology and research questions within the Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India chapter under the Pervasive Technologies Project. The document is a work in progress.

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Methodology: Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India

Posted by Anubha Sinha at Nov 15, 2014 07:55 AM |

A steady rise in smart phone penetration in India has led to a corresponding growth of the mobile application development industry. Mobile application development like all technological implementations is subject to intellectual property issues. However, very little is understood about the effect of existing patent and copyright law on this niche industry. I aim to develop an understanding of the mobile applications industry, and how it is governed by current Indian patent and copyright regime. I will also use this research to inform the optimal ways in which policymakers may ensure the continual emergence of the mobile applications industry. This blog post lays down a document delineating the research methodology and research questions within the Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India chapter under the Pervasive Technologies Project. The document is a work in progress.

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An Article on Kannada Wikipedia

Posted by U.B.Pavanaja at Nov 14, 2014 07:05 PM |

I wrote an article on Kannada Wikipedia which was published in the Yojana magazine on November 2014 issue.

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Privacy vs. Transparency: An Attempt at Resolving the Dichotomy

Posted by Sunil Abraham at Nov 14, 2014 01:50 AM |

The right to privacy has been articulated in international law and in some national laws. In a few countries where the constitution does not explicitly guarantee such a right, courts have read the right to privacy into other rights (e.g., the right to life, the right to equal treatment under law and also the right to freedom of speech and expression).

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55 Works of Iconic Indian writer released under Free Licence to benefit Wikisource

Posted by T. Vishnu Vardhan at Nov 13, 2014 03:50 PM |

Kannada is a language spoken by 40 million people in Karnataka – one of the four southern states of India.The Kannada Wikimedia community, in collaboration with CIS-A2K, are enthusiastic about having almost all of the works of Niranjana re-licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava.

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Methodology: Patent Landscaping in the Indian Mobile Device Market

Posted by Rohini Lakshané at Nov 10, 2014 04:35 PM |

Through the patent landscaping exercise, we have identified patents pertaining to Internet-enabled mobile devices sold in India for USD 100 or less. The findings from this exercise are being used to develop legal strategies to reduce patent-based impediments to the widespread and rapid proliferation of this beneficial technology throughout India. The research methodology adopted for the patent landscaping exercise has been delineated here. This document is a work in progress.

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