Centre for Internet & Society

Making Change is a research project ran by CIS and HIVOS Knowledge Programme exploring new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, this section will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia. This compilation of oral stories, at the intersections of digital technologies and political activism, will uncover the less visible narratives of change and unpack the discourse around social change in the digital era.

Blog Entry Reaping the Benefits of Gamification by Dipali Sheth — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:24 PM
As a part of the Making Change blog-post series, in this post we will identify a new technique: gamification. This technique is being used for sustainable environment conservation by modern day change-makers. We interview two out of three co-founders of Reap benefit- Kamal Raj and Gautam Prakash who believe in the adoption of more sustained environmental practices that induce social change towards conserving the environment.
Blog Entry From Taboo to Beautiful - Menstrupedia by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:25 PM
On this post, we take a look at 'menstrual activism' -a movement that despite its trajectory in feminism, remains unnoticed in most accounts of traditional and digital activism. We interview Tuhin Paul, the artist and storyteller behind Menstrupedia, an India-based social venture creating comics to shatter the myths and misunderstandings surrounding menstruation around the world.
Blog Entry Bridging the Information Divide - Political Quotient by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:28 PM
On this post, we will unpack 'information poverty'- a problem lying at the very foundation of the crises that inspired this project and a barrier impacting political action. We interview Surabhi HR, the founder director of the political consulting firm Political Quotient, an initiative that seeks to change how youth interacts with politics in India
Blog Entry Multimedia Storytellers: Panel Discussion by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:26 PM
This post brings three storytellers together to find points of intersection between their methods. The format will be that of a panel discussion and it features: Arjun Srivathsa from Pocket Science India, Ameen Haque from the Storywallahs, and Ajay Dasgupta from The Kahani Project. They discuss technology, interpretation and action in storytelling.
Blog Entry Information Structures for Citizen Participation - Janaagraha by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:28 PM
In our efforts to understand how change is conceptualized in the digital era, we find a growing emphasis on the role of effective information structures to empower the citizen and the government. We interview Joylita Saldanha from Janaagraha to answer questions around information, participation and e-governance.
Blog Entry Digital Design: Human Behavior vs. Technology - Vita Beans by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:29 PM
What comes first? Understanding human behavior and communication patterns to design digital technologies? Or should our technologies have the innate capacity to adapt to the profiles of all its potential users? This post will look at accessibility challenges for digital immigrants and the importance of behavioral science for the design of digital technologies. We interview Amruth Bagali Ravindranath from Vita Beans.
Blog Entry Storytelling as Performance: The Ugly Indian and Blank Noise 2 by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:30 PM
This post compares the method of storytelling with performances. To illustrate this, we explore the narratives of the Blank Noise project and The Ugly Indian, two civic groups from Bangalore making interventions in the public space. Part 2 looks at the role of actors and the stage in performances to explore the role of agency and the public space in storytelling.
Blog Entry Storytelling as Performance: The Ugly Indian and Blank Noise 1 by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Oct 24, 2015 02:31 PM
This post compares the production behind a performance with the process of storytelling. To illustrate this analogy, we explore the stories of the Blank Noise project and The Ugly Indian- two civic groups from Bangalore making interventions in the public space. This post looks at the stages of pre-production and the screenplay to explore methods and narratives in storytelling.
Blog Entry Storytelling and Technology - Sartaj Anand by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Mar 12, 2014 11:43 AM
This post outlines the general characteristics of storytelling. The second section is an interview with Sartaj Anand, the founder of EgoMonk and BIllion Strong, who talks about storytelling as a strategy to build trust at the intersections of business and technology. This is the first of a series of installments exploring the potential of storytelling for social change.
Blog Entry Creative Activism - Voices of Young Change Makers in India (UDAAN) by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Apr 14, 2015 01:21 PM
This post is a short account of what happened at UDAAN in December 2013 — a conference that gathered 100 youth from across the country to discuss pressing environmental issues and creative strategies to tackle them. We conducted a survey to map the perspectives of these young change-makers and get a glimpse of how India's youth is now framing and going about making 'change'
Blog Entry Information Design - Visualizing Action (TTC) by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Apr 17, 2015 10:34 AM
This is the second part of the Making Change analysis on information activism. It explores the role of the presentation and design of information to translate information into action.
Blog Entry Information Activism - Tactics for Empowerment (TTC) by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Apr 17, 2015 10:36 AM
This is the first of a two-part analysis of information activism for the Making Change project. This post looks at the benefits and limitations of increasing access to information to enable citizenship and political participation.
Blog Entry Methods for Social Change by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Apr 17, 2015 10:42 AM
On this brief introduction, I outline the main targets of my research project for CIS and the HIVOS Knowledge Program. As a response to the thought piece ‘Whose Change is it Anyway’ I will explore civic engagement among middle class youth over the course of the next 9 months by interviewing change makers and collectives that are part of multi-stakeholder projects in Bangalore.
Blog Entry Public Art, Technology and Citizenship - Blank Noise Project by Denisse Albornoz — last modified Apr 17, 2015 10:43 AM
Jasmeen Patheja speaks about the active citizen in the digital age, its challenges in the public and private spheres and interdisciplinary methods to overcome them.