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National Resource Kit : The Meghalaya 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 Meghalaya.
Strategic Issues Emerging from Open Access Dialogues - Final Report
A series of discussions - on the Chat Literacy forum of ELDIS and on Twitter - was organised during November 2012 to March 2013 to identify the global challenges in 'Navigating the Complexities of Open Access'. The discussions were facilitated by Eve Gray and Kelsey Wiens, in partnership with The African Commons Project (South Africa) and the Centre for Internet and Society (India), through support from the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. On behalf of CIS, Sumandro Chattapadhyay co-coordinated and contributed to these discussions.
Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 Analysis
Jeremy Gruber from the Council for Responsible Genetics, US provides an analysis of the Human DNA Profiling Bill, 2012. He says that India’s updated 2012 Human DNA Profiling Bill offers largely superficial changes from its predecessor, the Draft DNA Profiling Bill, 2007.
Wiki Women's Day in Goa
International Women's Day (IWD), also called International Working Women's Day, is celebrated on March 8, every year. There were a series of Wikipedia events organised this year with the aim of increasing participation of women contributing to Wikipedia. One such event was organised by the Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet and Society and the Wikimedia India Chapter at the Nirmala Institute of Education (NIE), a Secondary Teacher Education College in Panaji, Goa on March 8, 2013.
Introductory Wikipedia session at BITS Goa
The Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet and Society was invited by Nikhil Dixit, Public Relations Officer at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani – Goa (BITS Goa) to organise Wikipedia session on March 7, 2013. Nitika Tandon participated in this workshop and shares with us the developments.
Ahmednagar — Marathi Wikipedia Workshop
Wikipedia Community members helped the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications Programme (HEIRA), CSCS Bangalore organize a day-long workshop on ‘Digital Literacy’ at Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, Maharasthra on January 17, 2013. Tanveer Hasan of HEIRA shares with us the developments in this report.
Workshop on the Unique Identity Number (UID), the National Population Register (NPR) and Governance: What will happen to our data?
On March 2nd, 2013, the Centre for Internet and Society and the Say No to UID campaign organized a workshop to discuss the present state of the UID and NPR schemes. Some of the questions which were addressed included ´How do the UID and NPR impact citizenship´, ´Why and how is national security linked to UID/NPR´, and ´What is the relationship between UID and Big Data´.
Hacking without borders: The future of artificial intelligence and surveillance
In this post, Maria Xynou looks at some of DARPA´s artificial intelligence surveillance technologies in regards to the right to privacy and their potential future use in India.
A Comparison of the Draft DNA Profiling Bill 2007 and the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012
In this post, Maria Xynou gives us a comparison of the Draft DNA Profiling Bill 2007 and the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012.
Summary of the CIS workshop on the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012
On March 1st, 2013, the Centre for Internet and Society organized a workshop which analysed the April 2012 draft Human DNA Profiling Bill and its potential implications on human rights in India.
Unique Identification Scheme (UID) & National Population Register (NPR), and Governance
This post examines the UID, NPR and Governance as it exists in India. The background note gives a summary of what is the NPR, the legal grounding of NPR, its objectives, and the information which could be collected under the NPR. The post also throws light on the UID, its objectives, process of enrollment in UID, how UID is being adopted by different states in India, and finally the differences and controversies in UID and NPR.
Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill (April 2012): High Level Concerns
In 2007 the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill was piloted by the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, with the objective of regulating the use of DNA for forensic and other purposes. In February 2012 another draft of the Bill was leaked. The February 2012 Bill was drafted by the Department of Biotechnology. Another working draft of the Bill was created in April 2012. The most recent version of the Bill seeks to create DNA databases at the state, regional, and national level.
An Introduction to Bitfilm & Bitcoin in Bangalore, India
An event at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) was organized on January 23, 2013. The all star team at CIS was awesome at organizing this event for Bitcoin. Live streaming, mainstream newspaper coverage and Twitter based Q&A made this the first Bitcoin event in India that leveraged these mediums of information transfer.
Are India's Glory Days Over?
Unless major structural changes are effected, India will miss an economic take-off for many years, writes Shyam Ponappa.
Creative Commons comes to India
Creative Commons team visited four Indian cities to spread the word about CC free licenses and CC affiliate program. Wikimedia India chapter was approached to join hands with Creative Commons for research and community building.
Fifty-fourth Bangalore Wikimedia Meet-up at IIM, Bangalore
The 54th Wikimedia meet-up in Bangalore was held at the Indian Institute of Management on February 25, 2013. The event was planned and organized by Radhakrishna Arvapally, SIG (Special Interest Group) Chair, Bangalore (a part of the Wikimedia India Chapter) with support from Solutions IQ, Wikimedia India Chapter and CIS.
FOSS, Wikimedia and Mozilla Under One Roof at GNUnify 2013, Pune
GNUnify 2013 organized in the campus in Pune from February 15 to 17, 2013. The event was organized by Pune Linux/Unix User Group (PLUG) and Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research (SICSR). Subhashish Panigrahi reports the outcomes in this blog post.
Odia Wikipedia Community Brings Wikipedia Education Program to IIMC, Dhenkanal
The Odia Wikipedia community collaborated with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal and hosted a pilot Odia Wikipedia Education Program. The program began in November 2012 and got over by January 2013. Sixteen student wikipedians signed up and took part in editing more than a dozen articles on Odia Wikipedia.
Don’t SLAPP free speech
IIPM is proving adept at the tactical use of lawsuits to stifle criticism, despite safeguards. THE DEPARTMENT of Telecommunications, on 14 February, issued orders to block certain web pages critical of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM).
Women in the IT Industry: Request for Data
For CIS's research on indicators of female economic empowerment in the IT industry in India, we have sent formal request for participation in a short survey to the six largest IT companies based in India. A copy of the letter of request and survey as well as some details of the request for data can be found in this post.
