We are anonymous, we are legion

Online Interest in Advani Rises

sachia — 2011-04-02T15:58:08Z

Article by Sruthi Krishnan in the Hindu, 15 May 2009, quoting CIS Research Director Nishant Shah

Online interest in BJP leader L.K. Advani reached its highest point in the last 12 months when a slipper was thrown at him. The data on Google Trends, an application that shows how often a search term has been sought for on Google over time, also shows that the interest in Mr. Advani’s name rose steadily as the general elections approached.

Contrary to what many consider as just another activity on the Internet, searching is the “backbone of cyberspace,” says Nishant Shah, Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. .

The search for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shows a peak in July 2008 in the last 12 months, corresponding to the UPA Government winning the trust vote. That the interest in searching for public personalities closely mirrors news interest in the outside world is undeniable, says Mr. Shah. “The Internet is not as much a broadcast media as a search-and-find media.” Hence, in this context, the Internet acts as a “reference book” rather than a “best seller,” he says.

In the last 12 months, the political event that fired up Google in India was the launch of Praja Rajyam, coinciding with a spike in the search for actor Chiranjeevi’s name. This was the highest among the search history in the last 12 months of the ten most searched politicians in India on Google – a list released by Google recently.

The list includes Mr. Advani, Mr. Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

However, Mr. Shah cautions that in an emerging information society like India, an increase in online search for a particular name or event may not imply that it is popular across the country. “Given the limited amount of internet access and the almost homogeneous user group that has interactive access to being online, it means that within that particular class-language group, a certain event or person is gaining popularity.”

The analysis by Google Trends also shows that most of the searches for Mr. Chiranjeevi were made in Telugu, compared to English.

While Hyderabad is where the actor’s name was searched the most number of times, the top 10 cities includes San Jose and Houston in the United States.

Interestingly, Sanjay Dutt, the other actor in the list, generated the highest volume of searches in Pakistan.

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Read the article at the Hindu website here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/online-interest-in-advani-rises

Internet, Transparency and Politics

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:36:59Z

Talk by Barun Mitra

The 2009 general elections in India have been preceded by various initiatives that seek to provide information to the voters about candidates contesting the elections. The aim of providing this information is to help voters to make 'informed choices' when casting their votes. This talk is being organized in the context of the research that CIS-RAW fellow Zainab Bawa is carrying out on "Internet, Transparency and Politics". Why has the Internet become an important space for publishing information that is streamlined for facilitating interaction between citizens and the state? What is the impact of making such information available to citizens? How does it transform their relationship with political actors and government agencies? Simultaneously, how are elected representatives and political parties responding to these 'transparency' initiatives?

Speaker

Barun Mitra is the Director of Liberty Institute, a think-tank based in Delhi. He has conceptualized EmpoweringIndia.org to enable voters to cast their votes thoughtfully during the elections and to use the information on the site to hold their elected representatives accountable after they have been voted in. Barun Mitra also writes on issues of environment, health, trade and democracy in publications such as The Mint, Economic Times and Business Standard.

Time and Date

Wednesday, 15 April 2009; 5.00-6.30 pm

Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052

Map

For a map, please click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/internet-transparency-and-politics

Technology and the Mediation of Place

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:37:18Z

Talk by Emma Ota

When mediated space surrounds us and our sense of place is increasingly constructed through technology, how do we locate ourselves? Challenging notions of location and locality, Emma Ota will present an overview of two years of research into the mediation of place through technology and the developments of media art in Asia.

We carry many locations with us, virtual, physical, psychological and cultural locations which have a complex relation to each other; this presentation will consider the impact of new media upon the construction of these locations and how they interact with each other, as these technologies increasingly become part of the reality of our located experience, no longer separate apparatus, not merely a portal to elsewhere but part of our encounter of place.

When identity, community and culture are formulated upon mediated experiences we are led back to Benjamin’s discussion of the loss of aura, debating what meaning can still lie in the original; yet, arguably, such an original state has never existed, all phenomena encountered and assimilated through one form of mediation or another. But to be mediated is to transform and, as Heidegger has demonstrated, technology presents an enframing of its content, which may lead to new revealings but also a loss of that which lies beyond the frame. We have perhaps reached a stage where we can no longer comment upon mediated localities, but must turn to the localities of mediation.

These are just some of the critical debates which Ota has been investigating in her research. While pursuing theoretical research into this topic, Ota has also followed studies in Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia in an examination of new media art provision and development in East/South East Asia. Interviewing artists, curators, theorists etc. over the course of a year, a large body of documentation has been accumulated which will be presented as a small glimpse into the new media condition of the region.

Speaker

Emma Ota is a curator and researcher based in Tokyo, the Director of Dislocate, Project for Art, Technology and Locality, and a Researcher at Musashino Art University, Department of Visual Imaging and Sciences. Her practices focus upon media arts and international exchange. She has worked for the media arts organization Trampoline, based in Germany and the UK and co-curated the Radiator Festival for Art and Technology in 2005. She initiated the project Traversing Territories, fostering collaboration between students and young artists in Japan and the UK (which has since continued annually). In 2006 she established the project Dislocate for art, technology and locality which brings together international artists and experts in the discussion and debate of the role of new media in relation to our surrounding environment.

Ota is guest curator at Ginza Art Lab, an independent artist run space and was also co-curator of Space Rabi Adesso, Koenji in 2008. Ota is highly concerned with promoting international cross-cultural communication between children and is co-founder of Inter-play, an organization which runs collaborative workshops and projects between children in Japan and other countries around the world.

Other projects have included ‘The Moon’, a groundbreaking contemporary art exhibition of Japanese and UK artists held in the historic gardens of Kodaiji Temple, Kyoto, and ‘A Gift to Those who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling’, an artist in residency exchange project with participant artists Erika Tan (UK) and Mio Shirai (Japan).

As a researcher Ota is investigating the development of media arts in Asia and its relation to specific social and cultural contexts, in particular ideas of place, these investigations have led her to China, Korea, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. For more information please see www.dis-locate.net and www.eonsbetween.net.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/technology-and-the-mediation-of-place

Bloggers battle India's supreme court over prosecution for internet threats

sachia — 2011-04-02T16:17:48Z

Article by Randeep Ramesh in the Guardian, 26 February 2009

India's supreme court is facing the wrath of the country's bloggers over the prosecution of a student because of anonymous comments published on a social networking group he created.

The computer science student, named as Ajith D, was arrested over allegations that death threats had been posted on his "anti-Shiv Sena" group on Google's networking site, Orkut. The 20-year-old also faces charges of criminal intimidation and hurting religious sentiments.

The Shiv Sena (Army of Shiv) is a political party that made its name in the 1990s for populist policies that were anti-Muslim and favoured locals over outsiders. Its leader, Bal Thackeray, has been quoted as admiring Hitler.

Mumbai police had been monitoring the site since the Sena staged violent protests against Orkut for carrying anti-party statements, vandalising cybercafes across Mumbai. Officers contacted federal authorities in Delhi before bringing charges.

In response, the lawyer representing the student asked the supreme court to quash the case, saying his client had published nothing provocative. However India's chief justice, KG Balakrishnan, refused the application saying: "We will not do that. Anything that is posted on the internet goes to the public. The internet is open to the world."

The case highlights how India, the world's largest democracy, deals with the thorny issue of freedom of speech on the internet. A law about to arrive on the statute books places the onus for publishing material on the web, not on hosts of the material, such as Google's Orkut service, but on individuals who create blogs and websites.

"The difficulty here is that my client did not make the threats. He simply set up a community group and left it unmoderated," Jogy Scaria, Ajith's lawyer, said. "He only created the anti-Shiv Sena site."

Orkut is one of India's most popular social networking sites and many bloggers vented their fury online. "I am not able to gather how it is possible that bloggers can be hit with libel and criminal suits on the basis of anonymous postings on their websites," wrote one on Ekawaaz-One Voice.

Lawrence Liang, India's foremost authority on freedom of speech on the internet, wrote about the case on Kafila.org.

"When organisations like the Shiv Sena start using defamation laws, it smacks of chutzpah to me … What other way can we describe the bizarre situation of the violence-prone macho men, who suddenly run around screaming about the violation of their legal rights and the slurring of their reputation?"

India's constitution guarantees freedom of expression as long as this does not extend to libel, national security, contempt and a broad category of public morality – which includes "hurting religious sentiments".

Pranesh Prakash of Bangalore's Centre for Internet and Society, a thinktank specialising in web civil rights, said the internet had allowed "everyone to become a publisher but not the awareness of what responsibilities of a publisher. The way the law is dealing with it is highly problematic."

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To read the article at the Guardian website, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/bloggers-battle-indias-supreme-court-over-prosecution-for-internet-threats

DigiActive Meetup

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:40:21Z

Chilling for Digital Activism--Meeting with Mary Joyce

Are you interested in using the Internet and mobile phones as part of a campaign for political and social change? Do you have a story to share about your own experience using these tools? CIS invites you to an informal interaction with Mary Joyce, co-founder of DigiActive.org, an organization dedicated to promoting digital activism around the world.

Mary Joyce is the co-founder of DigiActive.org, was also New Media Operations Manager for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and has been a master's student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Research Assistant for the Internet and Democracy Project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Mary also works as a consultant in the field of technology and social change.

Time and Date

Thursday, 26 February, 2009; 4.00-5.30 pm

Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052

Map

For a map, please click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/technology-for-activism

The Internet and Illusions of Space and Liberty

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:40:05Z

Talk by Kiran Sahi

The Centre for Internet and Society invites you to a talk by Kiran Sahi on 'The Internet and Illusions of Space and Liberty'. Kiran will use this talk as an opportunity to look at the parallels that can be drawn between the spatial elements of the mind, corporal physical space, and the virtual domains of the internet. Reflecting on the roles of these parallel domains, we can discuss how dissident elements within society, traditionally found in geographical wildernesses, have found new opportunities for freedom in the realms of the internet. The talk will also explore the idea of the internet as a heterotopia, a safe space for displaced realities, and the pressures which make it adopt a panoptic structure.

Speaker

Kiran Sahi is is a designer and educator working from his home in a village north of Bangalore. His work involves presenting and interpreting the changing socio-political geography of his locality for teachers and students visiting from international academic institutions and education authorities. He also advises on local education development projects. Kiran works as a consultant design faculty, teaching materials and sculptural design, and runs a ceramic studio that produces large scale ceramic murals for public spaces. His previous work has involved exploring cultural narratives and their visual representations. He has been interested in exploring the possibilities of a collaborative community based business involving professional designers and local craftsmen.

Time and Date

Saturday, 7 March, 2009; 5.00-6.30 pm

Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052

Map

For a map, please click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/the-internet-and-illusions-of-space-and-liberty

Digital Empowerment Foundation--Internet Governance Forum Workshop, 5 December 2008, Hyderabad

sachia — 2011-04-02T16:16:28Z

CIS Director (Policy) Sunil Abraham will be a panelist at a workshop on Low Cost Sustainability Access to be held at the Internet Governance Forum 2008.

CIS Director (Policy) Sunil Abraham will be a panelist at a workshop on Low Cost Sustainability Access to be held at the Internet Governance Forum 2008. The workshop is organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Association of India, in association with Internet Society and Intel. It will be held on December 5, 2008, from 14:30 – 16:00.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/digital-empowerment-foundation-internet-governance-forum-workshop-5-december-2008-hyderabad