Centre for Internet and Society

科技改變社會數位原生代掀波

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T10:22:26Z

The Chinese press published an article on Digital Natives.

8月16日到18日，原生代工作坊（Digital Natives）將在中研院舉辦數位，關注年輕世代如何運用科技改變社會，荷蘭的國際發展組織、印度的網路與社會研究中心，以及台灣關心資訊社會實踐的研究機構與民間組織，將一起探索數位原生代的全球現象。

數位原生代工作坊的主要提問是，為何數位原生代變成理解當代的一個重要的範疇？我們認為什麼樣的人是數位原生代？我們認為數位原生代在浮現的資訊社會中，扮演著什麼樣的角色？我們該如何將科技實踐，整合到我們這個時代的政治關懷中？

年輕世代的力量
荷蘭Hivos人道發展合作組織（the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation）知識計畫召集人史傳密拉（Josine Stremmelaar）表示，Hivos知識計畫的目的，是希望結合在地與全球力量，關注社會與災害議題。

史傳蜜拉認為，過去沒有足夠的知識，讓在地與全球的組織作分享，如果無法處理知識快速流通及傳播，無法面對層出不窮的全球問題。

Hivos數位原生代計畫主持人簡森（Fieke Jansen）指出，全球年輕人運用科技，為社會做出貢獻，有些年輕人運用Facebook串連社會力量，表達年輕人對社會議題的憤怒與重視，她希望藉由工作坊，讓年輕人有更深入的討論，以及為過去行動作整理與分享。

科技與社會的關係
印度網際網路社會中心研究主任尼善‧沙（Nishant Shah），希望透過數位原生代計畫，讓年輕人瞭解自己，認識人際關係，也瞭解自己在社會上的位置。

尼善‧沙認為，數位原生代涵蓋就學的年輕人，也包括進入產官學界的年輕人，不同的領域透過科技促成社會的改變。2010 年，全世界的年輕人將達到12億人，其中有85％居住在開發中國家。這些年輕人潛能的開發，彼此的互相串連，將帶來社會的重組。

在中研院即將舉辦的工作坊將有16個國家，28 位與會者從微觀家庭到政治的各種脈絡中，來討論「數位原生代回應」的政治、影響與歷程，以及瞭解年輕人如何用科技改變現況，科技如何形塑人與人的新關係。

Pad.ma公共近用數位媒體典藏計畫共同創辦人馬荷卓（Namita A. Malhotra），她同時也是facilitator工作坊引導員。馬荷卓經營數位媒體典藏計畫，她希望透過紀錄片或影片的方式，來紀錄社會變動，也紀錄民眾如何用社會力量來對抗法律、社會跟言論審查。馬荷卓跑過的國家包括泰國、緬甸、印尼、印度等，透過影片紀錄不同國家情況，這次工作坊也會播出其中一部紀錄片。

開拓文教基金會李士傑表示，開拓文教基金會致力於讓資訊科技變成社會改變的關鍵力量，積極推廣全球資訊網給公民社會、非政府組織使用，這次與荷蘭、印度一同舉辦國際數位原生代工作坊，希望分享經營網路論壇，構想民間議題與對話的經驗，這次工作坊結合數位原生代國際浪潮，將國際關注的焦點與支持力量與台灣分享交流。

Pad.ma公共近用數位媒體典藏計畫共同創辦人馬荷卓（Namita A. Malhotra），將在數位原生代工作坊放映關於民眾力量對抗全球的影片。

Read the original

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/digital-natives-china

科技改變社會數位原生代計畫

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T10:22:00Z

The Chinese language press covered the Digital Natives workshop in Taipei.

8月16日到18日，原生代工作坊（Digital Natives）將在中研院舉辦數位，關注年輕世代如何運用科技改變社會，荷蘭的國際發展組織、印度的網路與社會研究中心，以及台灣關心資訊社會實踐的研究機構與民間組織，將一起探索數位原生代的全球現象。

荷蘭Hivos人道發展合作組織（the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation）知識計畫召集人史傳密拉（Josine Stremmelaar）表示，Hivos知識計畫的目的，是希望結合在地與全球力量，關注社會與災害議題。

史傳蜜拉認為，過去沒有足夠的知識，讓在地與全球的組織作分享，如果無法處理知識快速流通及傳播，無法面對層出不窮的全球問題。

Hivos數位原生代計畫主持人簡森（Fieke Jansen）指出，全球年輕人運用科技，為社會做出貢獻，有些年輕人運用Facebook串連社會力量，表達年輕人對社會議題的憤怒與重視，她希望藉由工作坊，讓年輕人有更深入的討論，以及為過去行動作整理與分享。

尼善‧沙認為，數位原生代涵蓋就學的年輕人，也包括進入產官學界的年輕人，不同的領域透過科技促成社會的改變。2010 年，全世界的年輕人將達到12億人，其中有85％居住在開發中國家。這些年輕人潛能的開發，彼此的互相串連，將帶來社會的重組。

在中研院即將舉辦的工作坊將有16個國家，28 位與會者從微觀家庭到政治的各種脈絡中，來討論「數位原生代回應」的政治、影響與歷程，以及瞭解年輕人如何用科技改變現況，科技如何形塑人與人的新關係。

Pad.ma公共近用數位媒體典藏計畫共同創辦人馬荷卓（Namita A. Malhotra），她同時也是facilitator工作坊引導員。馬荷卓經營數位媒體典藏計畫，她希望透過紀錄片或影片的方式，來紀錄社會變動，也紀錄民眾如何用社會力量來對抗法律、社會跟言論審查。馬荷卓跑過的國家包括泰國、緬甸、印尼、印度等，透過影片紀錄不同國家情況，這次工作坊也會播出其中一部紀錄片。

開拓文教基金會李士傑表示，開拓文教基金會致力於讓資訊科技變成社會改變的關鍵力量，積極推廣全球資訊網給公民社會、非政府組織使用，這次與荷蘭、印度一同舉辦國際數位原生代工作坊，希望分享經營網路論壇，構想民間議題與對話的經驗，這次工作坊結合數位原生代國際浪潮，將國際關注的焦點與支持力量與台灣分享交流。

Pad.ma公共近用數位媒體典藏計畫共同創辦人馬荷卓（Namita A. Malhotra），將在數位原生代工作坊放映關於民眾力量對抗全球的影片。

Read the original in echinanews.com

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/digital-natives-chinese-press

‘UID is being forced’

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:20:18Z

CIS feels that the UID project is forced on the citizens.

The Centre for Internet and Society on Wednesday said the UID project — Aadhaar — is being forced on the citizens. Speaking to reporters, the centre’s executive director Sunil Abraham said: “The 16-digit UID number will be mentioned on the driver’s license, PAN card, ration card and voter’s identity card with other important data. It is not transparent. Since the UID database is available online, hackers can easily obtain vital information.’’

Read the article in the Times of India

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/UID-is-forced

‘Piracy is now a mainstream political phenomenon'

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T07:44:40Z

“Piracy has become a mainstream political phenomenon,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society in the city. The piracy that he was referring to was not the piracy of the high seas but the piracy of intellectual property.

Mr. Abraham was speaking at the ‘Resource mela and meet of documentary centres' at the Centre for Education and Documentation (CED). The three-day mela ended on Sunday.

He argued that the process of documentation was a political matter. The theme of his talk was on the tussle between knowledge in the public domain versus its restriction by copyright. Mr. Abraham explained that documentation centres can have four positions vis-à-vis intellectual property restrictions.

The first position could be to agree with the existing law on intellectual property and defend the interests of those who own those rights.

A second position could be to acknowledge the usefulness of copyright laws while balancing it with the interests of the creator, entrepreneur, consumer and the general public. This balancing act is being further pushed by three important global campaigns — the right of persons with disabilities to read, the right of student communities to bypass certain copyright restrictions, and the necessities of archivists and librarians.

Moving to the other side of the spectrum, a third position that documentation centres can have is a ‘position of openness' by supporting only freely licensed intellectual property material. The extreme position that can be taken is to dismiss all the laws that exist around intellectual property and freely “pirate” knowledge.

‘No longer shameful'

Arguing from this position, Mr. Abraham said that it was no longer shameful to be known as a “pirate” today. “There are elected members of parties advocating piracy in certain European countries such as Sweden and even in the European Union.”

Mr. Abraham openly advised documentation centres not to greatly concern themselves with copyright issues in their work, as in India no two lawyers would agree on copyright laws while very few cases of copyright infringement actually came up in Indian courts.

He concluded his talk by indicating that there was no global model that could be applied to intellectual property rights “as there is no model that works for everyone everywhere”.

The resource mela was intended to be a multi-dimensional sharing centred around a national network of documentation centres called DCM. The programme was organised by Akshara, Aalochana and CED.

Read the original article in the Hindu

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/piracy-political-phenomenon

‘Learn from failed UK NIR project’

praskrishna — 2011-04-01T15:12:12Z

The new government in the UK recently scrapped its decade-long work spending millions of pounds on establishing the National Identity Registration (NIR) number simply because it realised it wasn't workable. This article by Madhumita was published in the Deccan Chronicle on March 22, 2011.

There might just be a lesson in this for India that has begun the ambitious Unique Identification (UID) project. The fact, experts says, is that the technology to make this project work successfully in India, that is attempting to cover the largest biometric registry in the world so far, does not exist, at the moment.

According to Dr Ian Brown, senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, there was very little evidence that the NIR in UK met the objectives it laid for the initiative. Dr Brown, who has worked extensively on privacy with regard to biometrics, asserted that in the area of privacy and trust there was already a lot of distrust among citizens concerning identity registration. Additionally the UK government losing the CDs that contained information of 25 million people, led to the debate of data breach, a major issue for India concerning the UID.

“The reasons behind the need for the card included politically popular goals that varied depending on the demands of that political moment. From anti-terrorism to reducing social security fraud, identification fraud, illegal immigration and creating a sense of community, the UK government's response was thin when it came to checking for evidence on the project successfully meeting these objectives. If it was for the largest argument of fitting into the wider perspective of criminal justice and security, then studies have shown that cost-effective measures such as streetlights managed to reduce crime by 30 per cent as against surveillance cameras that reduced crime a mere three per cent in the UK,” stated Dr Brown during a lecture at IISc.

India too has argued the same reasons of terrorism and security along with literacy and eradicating poverty. But where is the evidence that one cannot breach this system? Asked advocate Malavika Jayaram.

Prashant Iyengar of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) reiterating this stated that there was no guarantee that an individual's information would be safeguarded. The general consensus was that nobody is opposed to the UID, just its current form.

UK’s NIR disaster

The introduction of the UK’s National Identity Register (NIR) scheme was much debated, and various degrees of concern about the scheme were expressed by human rights lawyers, activists, security professionals and IT experts, as well as politicians.

Many of the concerns focused on the databases which underlie the identity cards rather than the cards themselves.

Biometrics consists of methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In computer science, in particular, biometrics is used as a form of identity access management and access control.

It is also used to identify individuals in groups that are under surveillance. India is undertaking an ambitious mega project (the Multipurpose National Identity Card) to provide a unique identification number to each of its 1.25 billion people.

Read the original in the Deccan Chronicle here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/failed-uk-nir-project

નિશાંત શાહ: ડિજિટલ પેઢીનો ઉદય

praskrishna — 2011-08-04T10:31:25Z

‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિક’ તેમને કહેવામાં આવે છે જેણે સામાન્ય જનજીવનમાં ડિજિટલ ટેક્નોલોજીના પ્રવેશ થઈ ગયા બાદ જન્મ લીધો છે. ડિજિટલ નાગરિકો દરેક જગ્યાએ છે. હવે સમય આવી ગયો છે કે આપણે એ જાણવાનો પ્રયાસ કરીએ કે આ લોકો કોણ છે, તેઓ શું કરી રહ્યા છે, તેઓ પોતાના અંગે શું વિચારે છે અને કેવી રીતે તેઓ કશું પણ જાણ્યા વગર આપણા ભવિષ્યને નવો આકાર આપવાનું કામ કરી રહ્યા છે.

એક નવા પ્રકારની ‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિકતા’નો ધીમે-ધીમે ઉદય થઈ રહ્યો છે. ડિજિટલ ટેકનિક આપણી નવી પેઢીના સામાજિક ડીએનએનો એક ભાગ બની ચૂકી છે. આ પેઢીએ ટેક્નોલોજીની દુનિયામાં જ જન્મ લીધો હોવાથી તેમનો તેની સાથેનો સંબંધ તેમની અગાઉની પેઢી જેવો નથી. દુનિયાના ઘણા બધા લોકોને અસર કરનારી ઓગસ્ટની એક ઘટના જાણવા જેવી છે. તેઓ જ્યારે પોતાનાં કમ્પ્યૂટરો,પીડીએ, આઈપેડ અને લેપટોપ પર ઓનલાઈન થયાં ત્યારે તેમને અહેસાસ થયો કે તેમની વાતચીત,ગપ્પાંબાજી, ચેટિંગ, શેરિંગ સહિતની અનેક બાબતોની તાસીર કોઈ પણ જાતની પૂર્વ સૂચના વગર રાતોરાત બદલાઈ ગઈ છે.

એક નાનકડા પરિવર્તને અનેક આયામો ખોલી નાખ્યાં છે. દુનિયાના કરોડો લોકો માટે દોસ્તી કરવાનો, સંબંધ બનાવવાનો, વ્યવસાયિક નેટવર્કની સ્થાપના કરવાનો, મનોરંજનનો, યાદોનો સંગ્રહ કરવાનો અને એક-બીજા સાથે આપ-લેનું માધ્યમ બનેલી વેબસાઈટ ફેસબુકે પોતાના પ્રાયવસી સેટિંગમાં એક નાનકડું પરિવર્તન કરીને અનેક લોકોને નવી સુવિધા પૂરી પાડી છે. જેના દ્વારા તેઓ જ્યાં ઇચ્છે ત્યાં ‘જિયો ટેગ’ (એક એવી પ્રણાલિ જેના દ્વારા ફોટા, વીડિયો, વેબસાઈટ જેવા વિવિધ મીડિયા કે આરએસએસ ફીડમાં ભૌગોલિક ઓળખના ડેટાને જોડી શકાય છે) નો ઉપયોગ કરી શકે છે.

બદલાઈ રહેલી દુનિયામાં આ પ્રકારની સુવિધાઓ મહત્વની બની રહી છે. ડિજિટલ નાગરિકો વચ્ચે આ બાબતો ચર્ચા અને કેટલીક વખત અફવાનો વિષય પણ બની જતી હોય છે, જેની પાછળ ચર્ચા કરવામાં યુવાનો પોતાની ઘણી ઊર્જા ખર્ચી નાખે છે. વેબદુનિયામાં તમને એવા અનેક લોકો મળી જશે જે ટિન ફોઈલની ટોપી પહેરીને ફરતા હોય છે અને નવા માધ્યમમાં જૂની માન્યતાઓ અંગે વાતો કરતા હોય છે. તેમને માટે આ નવી ટેકનિકલ સુવિધાઓનો અર્થ છે રોજિંદા જીવનના અનુભવો અને વિચારોને એક-બીજા સાથે વહેંચવાનો વધુ એક નવો વિચાર.

‘જિયો-ટેગિંગ’ જેવી સુવિધાઓનો ઉપયોગ કરતા લોક વાસ્તવિક જીવન અને કલ્પનાઓની સરહદોને એક-બીજા સાથે મિલાવી દેવાનું પસંદ કરે છે. આપણામાંથી ઘણા લોકો એવા હશે જેમને આ બધી બાબતો વિચિત્ર લાગે એમ છે. તેઓ વિચારશે કે આ પ્રકારની પ્રતિક્રિયાઓનું શું કારણ છે? છેવટે લોકો આટલી સામાન્ય બાબતોમાં કેમ રસ દાખવે છે? આ પ્રકારની ફાલતું બાબતો માટે લોકોને સમય ક્યાંથી મળે છે? જે લોકો ડિજિટલ દુનિયાથી અપરિચિત છે કે જેમને તેની સાથે કોઈ સંબંધ જ નથી, તેમની સામે હું માથું નમાવ્યા સિવાય કશું કરી શકું તેમ નથી.

પરંતુ પોતાનો ઘણો બધો સમય ફેસબુક, માયસ્પેસ અને ટ્વિટર જેવી સોશિયલ નેટવર્કિંગ સાઈટ પર વિતાવનારા, ગેમ્સ રમતા, બ્લોગ લખતા કે બીજાના બ્લોગ પર પોતાનો અભિપ્રાય વ્યક્ત કરતા, પોતાના ફોટો એકાઉન્ટને અપડેટ કરતા રહેતા અને પોતાની ડિજિટલ ઓળખને વધુ વિસ્તારતા રહેતા ‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિકો’ માટે આ તમામ બાબતો અત્યંત મહત્વની છે.

કદાચ તમારામાંથી ઘણા લોકોએ આ અગાઉ ‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિકતા’ અંગે સાંભળ્યું નહીં હોય, પરંતુ આ કોઈ કપોળ કલ્પિત વાત નથી. ‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિક’ તેમને કહેવામાં આવે છે જેણે સામાન્ય જનજીવનમાં ડિજિટલ ટેક્નોલોજીના પ્રવેશ બાદ જન્મ લીધો છે. આ કારણે તે કમ્પ્યૂટર, ઇન્ટરનેટ, મોબાઈલ ફોન, એમપીથ્રી જેવી ટેક્નિકલ સુવિધાઓથી સંપૂર્ણપણે વાકેફ છે. સામાન્ય રીતે ૧૯૭૦ બાદ જન્મેલાને ડિજિટલ પેઢી કહેવામાં આવે છે, પરંતુ ૨૧મી સદીની માહિતી ક્રાંતિમાં ઊછરેલી પેઢી માટે આ વ્યાખ્યા ફિટ બેસે છે.

‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિકતા’ શબ્દનો સૌ પ્રથમ ઉપયોગ માર્ક પ્રેન્સ્કીએ વર્ષ ૨૦૦૧માં પોતાના પુસ્તક ‘ડિજિટલ નોટિંગ્સ, ડિજિટલ ઇમિગ્રન્ટ્સ’માં કર્યો હતો. ડિજિટલ નાગરિકોનાં સામાજિક ગુણસૂત્રોમાં જ આ ટેક્નોલોજી સમાઈ ચૂકી છે. તેની સાથે નવી પેઢી એટલી વણાયેલી છે કે તેમને તે કૃત્રિમ ઉપકરણ નથી લાગતાં. આ ટેક્નોલોજી તેમની જીવનશૈલીનો એક ભાગ બની ચૂકી છે. ‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિકતા’ના સૌથી મોટી ઉંમરના સભ્યો તે છે જેમણે પોતાની ઉંમરના ત્રણ દાયકા પાર કરી દીધા છે.

જ્યારે સૌથી નાની ઉંમરના તેમને કહેવાય જેમણે તાજેતરમાં જ દુનિયાને જાણવા-સમજવાની શરૂઆત કરી છે. શક્ય છે કે દુનિયાનાં અનેક મહત્વનાં દસ્તાવેજોમાં હજુ તેમના નામનો સમાવેશ પણ થયો ન હોય. ડિજિટલ નાગરિકો દરેક જગ્યાએ છે. કદાચ તેઓ એવી માહિતીઓ અને જાણકારીઓના સ્ત્રોત છે જેમને આપણે વિકીપીડિયા પર વાંચીએ છીએ.

ડિજિટલ નાગરિકો સંપૂર્ણ રીતે નવી ટેક્નોલોજીમાં ઊતરી ચૂકેલા છે, નિપુણ છે. તેમને માટે ભૌતિક દુનિયામાંથી આભાસી-કાલ્પનિક દુનિયામાં પહોંચી જવું ડાબા હાથનો ખેલ છે. સમય અને સ્થળની મર્યાદાઓ તેમના માટે કોઈ અર્થ નથી રાખતી. તેઓ ધીમે-ધીમે, ચુપચાપ પરંતુ નિરંતરતાની સાથે આપણી દુનિયાની રૂપરેખાઓને બદલી રહ્યા છે. આ ‘ડિજિટલ નાગરિક’ આપણી દુનિયાના સ્થાયી નાગરિક છે અને હવે તેમની વાતો પર ધ્યાન આપવાનો સમય આવી ગયો છે. આપણે એ જાણવાનો પ્રયાસ કરીએ કે આ લોકો કોણ છે, તેઓ શું કરી રહ્યા છે, તેઓ પોતાના અંગે શું વિચારે છે અને કેવી રીતે તેઓ કશું પણ જાણ્યા વગર આપણા ભવિષ્યને નવો આકાર આપવાનું કામ કરી રહ્યા છે.

નિશાંત શાહ, લેખક સેન્ટર ફોર ઇન્ટરનેટ એન્ડ સોસાયટીના સંશોધન ડાયરેક્ટર છે.

This column on Digital Natives by Nishant Shah appeared in the Gujarati newspaper Divya Bhaskar

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-native-in-divya-bhaskar

Zuckerberg's Plan Spurned as India Backs Full Net Neutrality

praskrishna — 2016-02-15T02:18:54Z

Facebook Inc.’s plans for expansion in India have suffered a major setback.

The article by Adi Narayan and Bhuma Srivastava was published in Bloomberg on February 8, 2016. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

Telecom regulator bans differential Internet data plans
Facebook had lobbied India to approve its Free Basics plan

After the company spent months lobbying the country to accept its Free Basics service -- a way of delivering a limited Internet that included Facebook, plus some other tools, for no cost -- India’s telecom regulator ruled against any plans from cellular operators that charge different rates to different parts of the Web.

Telecom operators can’t offer discriminatory tariffs for data services based on content, and aren’t allowed to enter into agreements with Internet companies to subsidize access to some websites, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in a statement Monday. Companies violating the rules will be fined, it said.

“This is the most extensive and stringent regulation on differential pricing anywhere in the world,” Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, said via phone. “Those who suggested regulation in place of complete ban have clearly lost.”

With this decision, India joins countries such as the U.S., Brazil and the Netherlands in passing laws that restrict telecom operators from discriminating Internet traffic based on content. It is a big blow to Facebook’s Internet sampler plan known as Free Basics, which is currently offered in about three dozen countries including Kenya and Zambia, none of which come close to the scale or reach that could’ve been achieved in India.

With 130 million Facebook users, 375 million people online, and an additional 800 million-plus who aren’t, India is the biggest growth market for the social network, which remains blocked in China.

Facebook said in a statement that it’s “disappointed with the outcome.”

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the decision won’t cause Facebook to give up on connecting people to the Internet in India, “because more than a billion people in India don’t have access to the Internet.” The company will continue to focus on its other initiatives, like extending networks using satellites, drones and lasers.

Freebies Curtailed

The rule will put an end to prepaid plans that offered free access to services such as Google searches, the WhatsApp messaging application and Facebook. These packages were popular with low-income users by giving them an incentive to get online, said Rajan Mathews, director general of the lobby group Cellular Operators Association of India.

“These types of plans were being used by operators to meet the policy goals of connecting one billion people,” Matthews said. “With these gone, the government needs to tell us what alternatives are there.”

The regulator’s decision comes after months of public lobbying by Facebook for India to approve Free Basics, which allows customers to access the social network and other services such as education, health care, and employment listings from their phones without a data plan.

Free Basics was criticized by activists who said it threatened net neutrality, the principle that all Internet websites should be equally accessible, and could change pricing in India for access to different websites.

The regulator, which had sought stakeholders’ views, said it was seeking to ensure data tariffs remain content agnostic. Operators will have six months to wind down existing differential pricing services.

Google Unaffected

“Anything on the Internet can’t be priced based on content, applications, source and destination,” R.S. Sharma, the regulator’s chairman, told reporters in New Delhi. Some Internet companies’ plans to offer free WiFi at public venues, like Google Inc.’s project with Indian Railways, are not affected by this ruling, he said.

For Free Basics, one or two carriers in a given country offer the package for free at slow speeds, betting that it will help attract new customers who’ll later upgrade to pricier data plans. In India, Facebook had tied up with Reliance Communications Ltd., though the service was suspended in December as the government solicited comments from proponents and opponents.

Since the government’s telecommunications regulator announced the suspension, Facebook bought daily full-page ads in major newspapers and plastered billboards with pictures of happy farmers and schoolchildren it says would benefit from Free Basics. Zuckerberg has frequently made the case himself via phone or newspaper op-eds, asking that Indians petition the government to approve his service.

Entrepreneurs, business people and activists took to Twitter to share their views after the decision came out on Monday.

“Great to see TRAI backing #NetNeutrality,” Kunal Bahl, founder of Snapdeal.com, one of India’s biggest e-commerce sites, said. “Let’s keep the Internet free and independent.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bloomberg-adi-narayan-bhuma-srivastava-february-8-2016-zuckerberg-plan-spurned-as-india-backs-full-net-neutrality

Zuckerberg's India Backlash Imperils Free Global Web Vision

praskrishna — 2016-01-06T14:51:42Z

When Facebook's co-founder proposed bringing free Web services to India, his stated aim was to help connect millions of impoverished people to unlimited opportunity. Instead, critics have accused him of making a poorly disguised land grab in India's burgeoning Internet sector. The growing backlash could threaten the very premise of Internet.org, his ambitious, two-year-old effort to connect the planet.

The blog post by Bhuma Shrivastava was published by NDTV on January 4, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.

Indian authorities are circumspect because the Facebook initiative provides access to only a limited set of websites -- undermining the equal-access precepts of net neutrality. The telecommunications regulator is calling for initial comments by Jan 7, extending the deadline from today, on whether wireless carriers can charge differently for data usage across websites, applications and platforms.

Losing this fight could imperil Facebook's Free Basics, which allows customers to access the social network and select services such as Messenger and Microsoft's Bing without a data plan.

"The India fight is helping shape debates elsewhere," said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-based non-profit advocacy group. "Activists in other countries such as Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia are watching this debate and will seize the momentum created in India."

Zuckerberg's argument for free Web access is based in part on Deloitte research showing that for every 10 people who are connected to the Web, one is lifted out of poverty and one job is created.

Facebook argues that by giving people free access to a small slice of the Internet, they will quickly see the value in paying for the whole thing. Zuckerberg has said his biggest challenge in connecting people to the Web isn't access to cellular networks, but a social hurdle: he needs to prove to people who have never been online that the Internet is useful.

"Who could possibly be against this?" Zuckerberg wrote in an impassioned op-ed in the Times of India this week. "Surprisingly, over the last year there's been a big debate about this in India."

Zuckerberg's pleas underscore what's at stake. Facebook already attracts 1.55 billion people monthly, or about half of the Internet-connected global population. To keep growing, the world's largest social network needs to get more people online. Hence the billions of dollars Facebook is spending on projects to deliver the Web to under-served areas via drones, satellites and lasers. And Internet.org, which now spans 37 nations.

India, as the world's second most populous nation, is arguably the most important piece of Zuckerberg's Free Basics strategy. But the opposition is fierce. Critics note that the Facebook service doesn't offer Web favorites such as Google's search. Facebook has said it would be open to adding more features from competitors, but critics are skeptical of giving the social-networking giant such influence on the Internet.

Critics also say that by offering a limited swath of the Internet at comparatively slow speeds, the company is creating a diluted version of the Web. That could stifle innovation by causing disadvantages for Indian startups building rival apps, or allow Facebook and its telecommunications carrier-partners to act as Internet gatekeepers.

In a sign of the importance he attaches to the issue, Zuckerberg on Tuesday called one of India's most prominent entrepreneurs to make his case.

One97 Communications, the mobile payments startup backed by Alibaba Group Holding, is one of several tech companies that have come out against Facebook's plans.

"We are totally against telcos preferring one developer over another," One97 founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in a phone interview before that call. "We are asking for access neutrality. We are hoping that all startups will be treated equally."

Sonia Dhawan, a spokeswoman for One97's payment website Paytm, said the call took place but didn't describe the conversation further. Sharma wasn't available for further comment.

Facebook is now scrambling to drum up support. It's started a "Save Free Basics In India" campaign, asking Indian users to support "digital equality" by filling out a form that shoots an e-mail to regulators. That also has the effect of sending notifications to user's friends unless they opt out.
Facebook has also taken out full-page advertisements, including one featuring a smiling Indian farmer and his family who the ads say used new techniques to double his crop yield.

While countries such as the Philippines have embraced Free Basics, India has been "the outlier and more challenging," Chris Daniels, vice president of Internet.org, said in a Dec. 26 chat on Reddit.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-bhuma-shrivastava-january-4-2016-zuckerberg-india-backlash-imperils-free-global-web-vision

Zuckerberg

praskrishna — 2015-10-18T11:54:26Z

Zuckerberg

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/Zuckerberg.png

Zomato hack: You need to enhance online security with a password manager

praskrishna — 2017-05-23T15:54:50Z

Hacking incident at Zomato underlines need to employ different passwords for different accounts.

The article by Sanjay Kumar Singh was published in the Business Standard on May 23, 2017.

Recently, food-tech company Zomato suffered a security breach where 17 million user records were stolen, including email addresses and passwords. Such hacking incidents can have wider consequences, including, in the gravest of scenarios, financial losses. They emphasise the need for people to adopt newer protection mechanisms, such as password managers.

In Zomato's case, the passwords are said to be hashed, which means they were converted into unintelligible characters. However, experts say that depending on the hashing protocol used, hashes can be re-engineered to generate the password.

The hacking of one account can have wider ramifications. "By hacking one account, hackers get access to your email ID and password. To save themselves the bother of remembering many passwords, users often use the same password in all their accounts. So, the hackers get access to your email and other accounts. Sometimes, they use your email account to reset the passwords in your other accounts," explains Shomiron Das Gupta of NetMonastery, a threat management provider. He adds that people often store sensitive information, including their net banking and credit card numbers and passwords within their email accounts. Also, on a website like Amazon, you can only view the last four digits of your credit card number. Other websites may not blur this information, in which case hackers would get access to this and other sensitive information.

Experts recommend you create complex passwords and use different ones for different accounts. Since generating complex passwords and remembering them all is difficult, you should use a password manager. Some of the good ones are LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane and TrueKey.

Password managers can generate long and complex passwords that are difficult to replicate. They also remember on your behalf the passwords on all the sites and apps you use. Also, hackers sometimes steal passwords by inserting a malware that copies keystrokes. Since a password manager inputs the password, you don't have to type them in, thereby doing away with the risk of your keystrokes being captured and stolen.

A password manager is a secure vault that stores all your passwords. You get access to the vault with a master password. Instead of remembering many passwords, you have to remember just one.

Browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox also offer password managers. However, if you wish to use your password manager across browsers and apps, use a third-party one like those mentioned above. And while a password manager that is stored locally is safer, one that is cloud-based is more convenient, since you can use it across devices having internet connection. Password managers also offer two-factor authentication. They either send a password to your phone or generate it on your device. Unless your device also gets stolen, the password manager is difficult to break into.

As for whether password managers are themselves safe, experts concede they are a prime target for hackers who know that the information stored within will be valuable. "The password manager is safe provided you set a strong master password. Your password should have at least 13 characters of which two should be small, two should be in capital, two should be random numbers, and two should be special characters. Using a word that is not there in the dictionary will enhance its strength. Keep changing your master password every three-six months," says Udbhav Tiwari, policy officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru. Since their primary job is to provide security, most password managers do have strong security practices, he adds.

Most password managers offer a free account but you have to pay to use their advanced security features.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-sanjay-kumar-singh-may-23-2017-zomato-hack-you-need-to-enhance-online-security-with-a-password-manager

Zero Project Conference on Accessibility: Innovative Policies and Practices for Persons with Disabilities

praskrishna — 2014-03-06T08:44:00Z

Essl Foundation, the World Future Council and the European Foundation Centre convened an international conference at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria on February 27 and 28, 2014. Pranesh Prakash participated in the conference as a speaker. On February 27 he spoke on e-speak and on the following day (February 28) he spoke in a session on Copyright & the Marrakesh Treaty: Opportunities and Challenges.

The conference was attended by over 450 people. Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan had submitted two proposals, one on innovative practices (eSpeak) and one on innovative policy (India's copyright policy). Click on the links below to find more on these:

Once again, the Essl Foundation, the World Future Council and the European Foundation Centre have joined forces to convene an international conference in Vienna, Austria. On this occasion we aim to raise awareness about innovative solutions from around the world that advance accessibility for persons with disabilities. The conference seeks to strengthen the commitment of all stakeholders to promote, protect and advance the rights of persons with disabilities, and to improve their daily lives.

At the third Zero Project Conference on “Accesibility: Innovative Policies and Innovative Practices for Persons with Disabilities” parliamentarians, representatives of NGOs and foundations, academics, social entrepreneurs, disability rights activists and the business world will come together to discuss Innovative Policies and Innovative Practices and explore ways to promote and spread them to other countries.

Innovative Policies: Paving the Way

Building on the success of our conferences in January 2012 and February 2013, at this Zero Project Conference, 15 Innovative Policies will be presented. They contain promising elements, have achieved identifiable improvements on the ground and point to a positive dynamic change that can be easily replicated in many countries around the world to advance the implementation of the Convention. They overcome conditions that act as barriers to the full exercise of rights by persons with disabilities and constitute the outcome of a multilevel research and selection process.

Innovative Practices: Crucial Steps

The Zero Project team has done extensive research worldwide on the most outstanding projects. The expert network that contributed their expertise in actively nominating and evaluating projects included more than 500 persons worldwide from 120 countries.

These projects cover all areas of accessibility, including built environment, transport, products and services and ICT (information, communication and technology).

Be part of the Zero Project Network!

The Zero Project Conference gathers in Vienna the world’s leading representatives of the disability rights movement in order to facilitate a direct exchange of experiences. In this way the world’s most innovative and promising solutions are jointly identified, disseminated and further developed in order to make a noticeable improvement in the daily life and legal situation of persons with disabilities.

Join the discussion and explore possibilities and potentials on how global implementation of these exemplary solutions can be advanced!

Click here to see the programme schedule
Click here to see the speakers list

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/zero-project-conference-vienna-february-27-28-2014

Zeenab

praskrishna — 2017-06-16T13:43:21Z

Zeenab Aneez

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Zainab

praskrishna — 2011-11-25T04:40:41Z

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YouTube is the answer to what has changed in India

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T07:00:48Z

Alternative Law Forum’s Lawrence Liang on relaunching Creative Commons, and how it changes the legal landscape of copyright issues.

The article by Moulishree Srivastava was published in Livemint on November 20, 2013. Lawrence Liang was quoted.

Creative Commons (CC), a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, US, which enables Internet users to share and use the creativity and knowledge of others, on Tuesday relaunched its India chapter after six years. CC provides free copyright licences that give creators a way to share their creative work, on conditions of their choice.

In India, for instance, Pratham Books, a not-for-profit publisher, licenses its content under a CC licence that allows others to use the content (on certain conditions). And the National Council of Educational Research and Training has created a portal where digital versions of its course material have been uploaded under a CC licence.

In an interview, Lawrence Liang , co-founder of Alternative Law Forum and chairman of the board at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, which is one of the CC affiliates in India, spoke about the re-launch, what went wrong the last time, what it means for the country and how it changes the legal landscape of copyright issues. Edited excerpts:

People all over the world are already using CC licences. What does this relaunch mean for India?

There are two things. One is the legal component. The licences have been tailor-made for Indian law. Tomorrow, if someone were to use CC licence and there were violations and it came up in court, this (the CC licence) would be in compliance with the Indian Copyright Act. The other is, we have a very large number of young people who are entering the space of making creative works. The CC means for them to be aware that there are options they have apart from traditional copyright licensing.

How does it impact the legal landscape of copyright issues?

In the US, you have something called derivative rights, which is conversion of one medium into another medium. In India, you don’t have that idea; you have the right of adaptation, which is a much more narrowly defined idea. It has the specific definition of what the adaptation is. There is the right to adaptation of a work from, say, literary into dramatic, but it doesn’t mean conversion of a work into any form.

The second is in terms of presumption of how you gain ownership over copyright, which is slightly different in India than it is in the US.

In India—section 17 (of the Constitution) lays out different classes of work—there are different presumptions of who the owner of copyright is, which becomes very important. For example, if a film-maker wants to license his work, now it has to be clear that he is the owner of the copyright in the first place, because the presumption in India would be that the producer is the owner of the work, whereas in Europe the producer is the first owner of the work. These are some of the small differences that CC attempts to clarify.

What went wrong the last time?

When it was first launched (in India) in 2007, perhaps there wasn’t the momentum. Last time CC was launched as a licence in India, but not as a community, which was the key issue. Second, it was institutionally housed in IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Bombay and it needed being pluralized. You can’t depend on CC being housed in one single institution. It should be in as many institutions as possible, which is what has happened this time. The crucial thing here is that we will be developing a community. A lot more people know about CC now than they did back in 2007.

Why do you think it will succeed?

One is the overall awareness about open source and alternatives. The other one, which is more crucial, is, when CC was launched in the US, it was in response to a very clear crisis. The crisis was that a large number of users were being prevented from using existing works. Lawrence Lessig (one of the co-founders of CC) felt that there was a need to create a legal alternative. There was already, in a way, a certain kind of environment which allowed CC to automatically speak to a number of people’s concerns. In India, we didn’t have that. Copyright was anyway not being enforced. That’s happening now. So once people could use YouTube, could create remixes, then they suddenly realized that they have used a film song and other copyrighted content. Then they suddenly realize a need of legal content as alternative. YouTube is the answer to what has changed.

What does it mean for the media?

It depends on whether you are looking at it from the perspective of a media producer or a user. From the perspective of a media producer, one of the big things that people assume is that everything is copyrighted until stated otherwise and that you can’t use it. There are a number of people who will be very happy to use it, but they may not want to use it commercially. With a CC licence, the boundaries are clear. What you are allowed to do and what you are not allowed to do is extremely clear. One of the biggest problems in the digital landscape at the moment is opacity. You are not sure. There is an image on a website, which seems to be used in many places. Am I allowed to reproduce it? What is the extent to which I can use the content? A lot of these will be rendered clear for media practitioners.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/livemint-november-12-2013-moulishree-srivastava-you-tube-is-answer-to-what-changed-in-india

YouTube

praskrishna — 2012-02-17T06:54:45Z

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