Centre for Internet and Society

Free Culture Roadshow

radha — 2011-04-05T04:20:44Z

The Free Culture Roadshow from 07th December, 2009 to 22nd December, 2009: A presentation on The Right to Share and The Promise of Open Video.

CIS in association with different institutions across India invites you to join in the Free Culture Roadshow: A presentation on The Right to Share and The Promise of Open Video.

The Co-hosts, Dates and the Venues for the Talk are given below:

Co-Host: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Date: 07th December, 2009 from 10am to 2pm
Venue – IIT-B, Mumbai
Co-Host: Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay
Date: 07th December, 2009 from 4.30pm to 7pm
Venue – TISS, Mumbai
Co-Host: Department of Media Sciences, CEGC, Anna University, Chennai
Date: 08th December, 2009 from 9.30am
Venue – Seminar Hall, Dept. Of Media Sciences, Anna University, Chennai
Co-Host: Dept. Of Management Studies, IIT-M, and BodhBridge Espl.
Date: 09th December, 2009 from 9.30am to 01.30pm
Venue – Central Lecture Theatre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Co-Host: Dept. Of Journalism, Mount Carmel College, Bangalore
Date: 14th December, 2009 from 10am to 01pm
Venue – Golden Jubilee Hall, Bangalore
Co-Host: National Law School, Bangalore
Date: 17th December, 2009 from 2.30pm onwards
Venue – National Law School, Bangalore
Co-Host: Faculty of Architecture, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad
Date: 18th December, 2009 from 4pm to 7pm
Venue – Auditorium, CEPT
Co- Host: Magic Lantern Foundation
Date: 20th December, 2009 from 9am to 1pm
Venue - Conference Room 2, India International Centre, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi
Co-Host: The Media Lab, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
Date: 22nd December, 2009 from 11.30am to 3.30pm
Venue – Jadavpur University, Kolkata

A Brief Abstract of the two discussions and the profile of the speakers are given below:

The Right to Share: What Does Copying Have to Do with Freedom?

The Internet has unleashed the potential to communicate and collaborate like never before, and the result has been an unprecedented flow of culture and information. Millions of individuals are now sharing and creating culture: copying, cutting, remixing, and participating in new and different ways.
Sometimes this activity is transformative. Sometimes it's straight copying. In either case, there is a clear connection between this sharing of culture and personal freedom.
This talk will explore how various conceptions of "freedom" have shaped the social movements for free software, free culture, and free knowledge, and how this ideology has manifested itself in real action. It will connect theory with practice, exploring the cultural innovations and political changes that have spawned forth from these movements. Lastly, it will make the case that the broad-based availability, accessibility, and abundance of culture is a good thing for our global society.

Speaker Profile:

Elizabeth Stark is a leader in the global free culture movement. She is a Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project and a Lecturer in Computer Science at Yale University. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Stark founded the Harvard Free Culture Group and served on the board of directors of Students for Free Culture. While at Harvard, she was Editor-at-Large of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, and worked on using new media to promote human rights with the Harvard Advocates for Human Rights. Elizabeth has worked extensively with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and has taught courses in Cyberlaw, Digital Copyright, Technology and Politics, and Electronic Music. She recently produced the inaugural Open Video Conference in NYC, garnering over 8000 viewers across the web. Elizabeth regularly gives talks around the world on free culture, and has collaborated with myriad organizations on promoting shared knowledge and the open web.

The Revolution Will Be Recorded, Remixed, and Redistributed: The Promise of Open Video

Between news, cinema, television, and documentary film, we find ourselves swimming in a sea of moving images. This has been the story of the 20th century. Yet in this age, the tools for creating and sharing video are becoming widely distributed in the hands of millions of individuals. Desktop video editing software is pervasive; webcams and video-equipped mobile phones abound. Video now belongs to everyone. It is becoming a powerful medium for self-expression, a kind of cultural currency.
How will this phenomenon change the Internet? How will it change society? What questions persist for the architecture of the Internet, and how will public policy address this ultimately political transformation? This talk sets forth a vision of networked video as a truly participatory medium, one that will power the next 10 years of innovation on the web. Dean Jansen and Ben Moskowitz introduce some core technologies for open video, and the obstacles they face on the road to mass adoption.

Speaker Profiles:

Dean Jansen is a Free Culture activist and guerrilla artist based in New York. He attended Harvard University and was a leader in the Harvard Free Culture Group. Dean assisted in teaching media studies and law courses at MIT and Harvard, and has organized numerous academic conferences.
He currently serves as outreach director at the non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation, makers of the Miro internet TV player. His art projects can be viewed at www.notthemessiah.net.

Ben Moskowitz is general coordinator at the Open Video Alliance, a coalition to democratize the moving image. Ben co-founded the UC Berkeley chapter of Students for Free Culture and taught a seminar on the politics of piracy at Berkeley's School of Information.
He currently serves on the board of directors of the international organization Students for Free Culture, dedicated to promoting access to knowledge, technological freedom, and participatory culture.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/free-culture-roadshow

ff

radha — 2009-11-19T07:05:44Z

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Fellows

radha — 2021-11-26T05:22:19Z

Rahul Cherian

Rahul was a lawyer, disability policy activist and a co-founder of Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability and Policy. He was one of the experts who drafted the Treaty for the Visually Impaired currently being negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization. His areas of expertise included disability law, intellectual property law and technology law. He was also the co-founder of www.inclusiveplanet.com, the world's largest social network for persons with visual impairment.

Rahul was on the legal expert panel constituted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to give input on the new disability law, was instrumental in conceptualizing and executing a national Right to Read Campaign to bring about changes in copyright law to enable persons with disabilities access copyrighted work on an equal basis with persons without disabilities, helped the State of Kerala draft a plan document with a vision to ensure that by the year 2025 persons with disabilities are completely integrated into mainstream society.

Rahul Cherian passed away on February 7, 2013 due to an illness.

Click for Rahul's detailed profile. [PDF, 195 Kb]

Malavika Jayaram

Malavika is the inaugural Executive Director of the Digital Asia Hub. Prior to her relocation to Hong Kong, she spent three years as a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, focused on privacy, identity, biometrics and data ethics, and eight years in London, with the global law firm Allen & Overy in the Communications, Media & Technology group and as Vice President and Technology Counsel at Citigroup. While a partner at Jayaram & Jayaram in India previously, she was one of 10 Indian lawyers selected for The International Who’s Who of Internet e-Commerce & Data Protection Lawyers directory for 2012 and 2013. In August 2013, she was voted one of India’s leading lawyers – one of only 8 women to be featured in the “40 under 45” survey conducted by Law Business Research, London.

A graduate of the National Law School of India, Malavika has an LL.M. from Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago. She taught India’s first course on information technology and law in 1997, and as Adjunct Faculty at Northwestern more recently: part of the Master of Science in Law program bridging STEM subjects and the law. She has been a Fellow with the Centre for Internet & Society, India, since 2009 where she helped start their privacy program. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and has had fellowships at the University of Sydney and the Institute for Technology & Society, Rio de Janeiro. She is on the Advisory Board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

Chanuka Wattegama

Chanuka is an independent policy researcher and consultant with expertise in telecom policy and regulations, ICT for Development, Development Economics, Disaster Risk Reduction and Development Evaluation. An Electronics Engineer by profession, he graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka and obtained his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Colombo.

In the past he worked as a Senior Research Manager at LIRNEasia, an Asian think tank on policy and regulation and as a Program Specialist ICT4D at the United Nations Development Program and was posted in Colombo Regional Centre’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) initiative. His focus was to use Information and Communication Technology for poverty reduction and achievement of the MDGs.

As a researcher, he co-authored the Sri Lankan chapters for the books Cyber Communities of Asia (AMIC, Singapore), Media in Asia (Sage Publications, New Delhi), Internet in Asia (AMIC, Singapore) and Digital Review of Asia Pacific (APDIP, Orbicom and IDRC). He was the lead researcher for Sri Lanka in a nine-country study on ICT for Human Development in Asia, by UNDP and is also a regular writer and commentator on ICT issues in the Sri Lankan media. He founded Pariganaka, the largest selling ICT magazine in Sri Lanka with a circulation of more than 40,000 copies where he worked as a consultant editor. He is a two-time recipient of the Science Writer of the Year Award, presented annually by the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science.

Selvam Velmurugan

Selvam is the founder of eMoksha.org, a non-partisan non-profit focused on enabling stronger democracies through increased citizen awareness and participation. In 2009, eMoksha.org helped launch VoteReport, a citizen-driven election monitoring platform - in India, Lebanon, and Afghanistan - and FixOurCity, a local civic-management platform in Chennai.

Prior to founding eMoksha.org, Selvam was an internet technologist with more than 12 years of experience in building and managing distributed web-scale systems. During his 10-year stint at Amazon, he devised complex search indexing and querying algorithms, setup the Chennai Development Center, and managed critical platform components for Amazon Web Services. During that time, he took an active role in several non-profit and community efforts, notably being a core member of the Tsunami Relief team at Amazon enabling collection of over $15 million in relief funds.

Selvam holds an MS in CS from University of Georgia and BS in CS from College of Engineering, Guindy. He also holds a Diploma in Film-making from University of Washington. Currently, he lives in Seattle with his wife and two kids.

Nirmita Narasimhan

Nirmita is a Policy Director with the Centre for Internet and Society, working in the areas of policy research and advocacy related to technology access for persons with disabilities. She was involved in drafting the Indian National Universal Electronic Accessibility Policy and also worked closely with different departments of the Government of India to bring accessibility into their policies and programmes. Nirmita has authored several reports on accessibility which are being used by policymakers worldwide. She has also presented papers on ICT and Accessibility at international fora like the IGF and is the Director, Global Reports, for G3ict. She has also participated in the World Blind Union Treaty negotiations at WIPO. Nirmita has won several awards for her work, including the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, which she received from the President of India in December 2010. Her educational background includes degrees in Law, German and Music.

List of volumed edited by Nirmita:

e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities, in collaboration with the G3ict (Global Initiative for Inclusive Information Communication Technologies) and ITU (International Telecommunications Union), and sponsored by the Hans Foundation
Universal Service for Persons with Disabilities: A Global Survey of Policy Interventions and Good Practices, in collaboration with the G3ict.
Accessibility of Government Websites in India: A Report, supported by the Hans Foundation.

Read Nirmita's detailed resume.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/people/fellow

FAO

radha — 2009-08-24T06:22:56Z

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Experts debate on UID and rights

radha — 2011-04-02T12:32:54Z

Bangalore, Apr 16, DHNS: A debate on ‘UID and Fundamental Rights’ organised by several city-based organisations, discussed the social, ethical issues, economic and legal issues that accompanies the UID.

Noted law researcher Usha Ramanathan said that according to available information, UID would tap into National Population Registry and gather data and biometrics of the whole population. “UID by itself would not result in profiling, but will act as a bridge between silos of information that will help profile the individual,” she noted.

She also said that lack of answers for issues that were raised six months ago were disturbing. “It is not just about privacy, but the power of the state as the UID will be feeding off many registers,” she added.

Speaking on the economics side of it, R Ramkumar from the Tata Institute for Social Sciences, Mumbai, said claims of financial inclusion or elimination of corruption in Public Distribution System and the rural employment guarantee scheme was not enough justification. “Service delivery cannot justify the violation of freedom. It is a misplaced emphasis on benefits of technology,” he remarked.

He criticised the government’s thinking that technology could substitute social transformation, commenting that technology could only aid social development in the presence of conducive circumstances and it would be erroneous to assume a linear relationship between development of technology and development of society.

Col Thomas Mathews of the Citizens Action Forum said that UID could not prevent corruption as technology has to be used by people and new ways would be devised to deprive deserving people of the services.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/experts-debate-on-uid-and-rights

Experimental Economy Camp

radha — 2011-04-05T04:27:19Z

Experimental Economy Camp continued at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore on Nov 22nd, '09 from 10.30am to 5.30pm.

Experimental Economy Camp continued at CIS (http://www.cis-india.org/) which will combine a hackathon, inviting more local people to get
involved, with a 'camp' of presentations, live and via Skype (maybe you?), which discuss and brainstorm the Open Call, former a greater,
more discursive context. (without giving away any answers and not including people's proposals).

Shadow Search

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/experimental-economy-camp-1

Elizabeth Stark

radha — 2009-12-08T11:07:07Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/Elizabeth%20Stark.jpg

Drawing maps for change

radha — 2011-04-04T06:49:53Z

Digital maps can hold immense academic value – an article by Deepa Kurup, The Hindu, 3rd Jan, 2010.

BANGALORE: The mash-up story is an old but compelling one, particularly when used for advocacy as in Tunisia where exile Sami Ben Gharbiais used a GoogleMaps mash-up to paint a different kind of landscape.
So random net surfers were startled to find the Tunisian map dotted with a string of prisoner’s names, their biographies, and videos of their family members telling the story of the human rights situation in the country.
Closer home, rights activist K. Ramnarayan is trying to do something similar. Using GPS and simple mapping technologies, Mr. Ramnarayan maps the location and extent of damage that will be created by proposed hydro-electric projects in Uttarakhand.

“We knew that many projects were announced. But it was only when we began mapping, we found that the 550-odd projects were concentrated in three valleys, and could potentially ruin all the State’s rivers,” he says.

Detailed perspectives

Mr. Ramnarayan believes that mapping technology can provide detailed perspectives, enable analysis — GPS devices are easy to use and collated data can be simply added as layers to existing maps — and create better awareness by sharing data online. Using the more accurate GIS mapping can also hold immense academic value.

It is this potential that “Maps for Change,” a collaborative project hosted by Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and Tactical Tech, endeavours to tap into. Anja Kovacs, a CIS fellow, believes maps are powerful, as they provide the larger picture. For instance, she says, news reports lead one to believe that protests against SEZs are isolated today. Now, put all those protests on a map, and you get the real picture! “Maps for Change” participants are involved in a slew of fascinating projects such as mapping land acquisition patterns in Bangalore, tribal displacement issues and dissident sexualities in Delhi.

Layer of information

So mapping is not a complex cartographer’s job anymore. With cheaper and more efficient GPS devices, in the market and on your cellphones, anybody can map. Pradeep B.V. of MapUnity.org, a site that lets you create your own map, says that ‘neogeographers’ are redefining online maps.

Neogeographers use available online maps such as Google MyMaps or Open Street Maps to add layers of information to a typical mashup.

GIS adds that critical layer of accuracy, and is essential in remote areas which are not mapped by these services. So you collect data (typically latitude, longitude and altitude information), mark your points of interest and upload this on a map, Mr. Pradeep explains.

Using attributes these simple maps can be used, accurately, to tell a story and document several layers of information.

Tracking changes
Say you wish to record access to health facilities in a backward district. A GPS device helps you collate info and create a ‘schema’ of data that can be uploaded directly to any mashup. Open source tools such as JUMP or UDIG can help you work easily with GIS datasets. The map can be interactive, you can track changes and can be as dynamic as you want it to be — for instance, you upload videos of health care facilities or highlight patches of social exclusion.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/drawing-maps-for-change

Digital Natives with a Cause? A Report

radha — 2012-03-13T10:43:09Z

Youth are often seen as potential agents of change for reshaping their own societies. By 2010, the global youth population is expected reach almost 1.2 billion of which 85% reside in developing countries. Unleashing the potential of even a part of this group in developing countries promises a substantially impact on societies. Especially now when youths thriving on digital technologies flood universities, work forces, and governments and could facilitate radical restructuring of the world we live in. So, it’s time we start listening to them.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/publications-automated/cis/nishant/dnrep.pdf

Digital Natives @ Rangashankara

radha — 2009-08-24T04:16:35Z

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DFI-Cambridge University Press2

radha — 2009-11-27T08:01:06Z

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DFI-Cambridge University Press1

radha — 2009-11-27T08:00:11Z

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DFI and Cambridge University Press join hands for getting print access to the "print impaired"

radha — 2011-08-17T08:45:27Z

Cambridge University Press has given permission for books published in India by them to be converted into other accessible formats such as in DAISY, says Dr. Sam Taraporevala, Director, Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged in this blog.

Print access is a major area that the DAISY Forum of India (DFI) is working towards. Two of the many member organizations of DFI, The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) and the Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) approached the India office of Cambridge University Press, one of the major publishers in India. The rationale behind contacting publishers is to explain to them the need to have accessible copies of the printed word for the print disabled and obtain their permission for converting their books into such accessible formats such as in DAISY.

XRCVC interacted with Mr. Anil Kumar Pandey, General Manager for Western India of Cambridge University Press, Nirmita Narasimhan of CIS contacted Mr. Manas Saikia, Managing Director of Cambridge University Press, India. Both of them were very open to this idea of accessibility and thereby began a collaborative effort from both the Cambridge University Press in India and the DFI.

Mr. Saikia strengthened his support to the cause by not only giving permission for books published in India by Cambridge University Press but also offering to obtain for DFI the global permission of Cambridge University Press books. Ms. Anita Parkash, Legal and IP Manager, Asia of the Singapore office of Cambridge University Press also endorsed this stand. She reinforced the positive response given by Mr. Saikia and agreed for collaboration with the XRCVC to work out a system which would be in the best interests of the stakeholders. Having worked out the final draft of this agreement, she offered to get it duly endorsed from the United Kingdom office of the Cambridge University Press.

This brought together Mr. Gordon Johnson, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University Press, Mr. Manas Saikia and Mr. Anil Kumar Pandey to the XRCVC on 23rd November, 2009 to sign the agreement with DFI. Dr. Sam Taraporevala, Director of XRCVC on behalf of DFI signed this agreement in the presence of Mr. Ketan Kothari who represented Sightsavers International, one of XRCVC’s partners in its “print access” quest. This we are sure has marked the beginning of a long and continuing association between DFI and Cambridge University Press for championing the cause of making the printed word accessible to the print disabled across India.

Coverage in The Bookseller

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/dfi-and-cambridge-university-press

Developments in spectrum sharing

radha — 2011-08-18T04:54:47Z

New ways to share spectrum can revolutionise broadband in India - An article in the Business Standard by Shyam Ponappa / New Delhi December 3, 2009, 1:35 IST

As the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) deliberates on spectrum and licensing after the hearings ending December 2, some important points are worth highlighting. Spectrum is public property and, therefore, need not add a layer of cost (through auctions and such other artifices), provided it is available to network builders, and these networks are available to operators for their customers on payment. The question is whether the government should give spectrum
free, or for an up-front price, i.e., a hefty spectrum fee, or through a progressive revenue-sharing arrangement as for telecommunications. This can be to network builders for their use, or to operators, to pool through either their own arrangements or through network builders-cum-operators.

One way to think about communications networks is to consider an analogy with road networks. The road network is accessed by paying road taxes and special tolls as required, e.g., when using a toll bridge or highway. The rest of the time, once a transport operator pays road taxes, the fleet’s vehicles have access to the entire public road network.

In the same way, it should be feasible for operators to access communications networks. These networks may be the operator’s own, or the public network, i.e., the Public Switched Telephone Network, paying as they go. In other words, whether operators use their own or others’ networks should be immaterial as long as they pay the tariffs, which result from a mesh of interconnection agreements. In this manner, network builders/service providers can use the spectrum as part of their “plant” for wireless transmission, just as they use optical fibre and copper wire for wire-line transmission.

Networks are already being built and operated by network builders-cum-operators. According to The Economist on developments in network operations, initially in New Zealand and then extended on a much larger and broader scale in India, “The vendors... gain economies of scale because they build, run and support networks for several Indian operators. Ericsson’s Mr Svanberg says his firm can run a network with 25% fewer staff than an operator would need. Bharti’s operating expenses are around 15% lower than they would be if it were to build and run its network itself, and its IT costs are around 30% lower, according to Capgemini.”*

Meanwhile, a momentous experiment in spectrum sharing is taking place in America. A company called Spectrum Bridge has developed a database-driven model for dynamic spectrum allocation in unused spectrum bands, the “white space” in the TV bands. This is in the 200 to 600 MHz band, with considerable advantages in propagation over distances, through foliage and walls, without attenuation as experienced at higher frequencies.

This system is being tried in Claudville, a rural community on the border of Virginia and North Carolina. As is likely to be true in rural India, using open spectrum that is unlicensed is impractical because of the distances, terrain and foliage. Fibre and copper lines are not only impractical, but also prohibitively expensive, a fact that people who suggest the use of existing wiring for broadband don’t seem to realise.

In this context, given the discussions on the possibility of spectrum trading as a solution going forward in the Trai hearings, it is instructive to note that despite the US Federal Communication Commission’s secondary market initiatives taken in 2003, not much spectrum trading had actually taken place until Spectrum Bridge’s introduction of their tracking and trading model, SpecEx (see www.specex.com). Subscribers view available spectrum at a chosen location and frequency band with pricing details when they want to buy, or list available spectrum to sell by location and frequency band. Therefore, any recommendations by Trai or decisions by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) or the government should take this into account in considering the path of market traded spectrum based on exclusively assigned bands. It would be unrealistic to expect such trading to take place simply because it is allowed, without other
facilitating developments as have been achieved by Spectrum Bridge in America.

A second problem is that trading in spectrum can result in effects equivalent to land-grabbing in real estate. This serves less for effective communications than as an asset play for profit.

Like SpecEx for priced spectrum, www.ShowMyWhiteSpace.com is a free website that the company supports to show free TV white space (the “digital dividend” that is talked about) that can be used on the basis of open access to unlicensed or open spectrum.

In the trial at Claudville, Spectrum Bridge deployed the network with Dell and Microsoft contributing computer equipment and software to the local school. Teachers can now incorporate distance learning resources into the school’s curriculum.

Our policy-makers need to move beyond debates over slicing and dicing the spectrum to determine the smallest efficient band — 2.5 MHz for CDMA and 4.4 for GSM? Is 6.2 MHz all that any operator needs?... and so on. A direct solution is to not assign spectrum for exclusive use, and instead enable its use as a common resource that must be accessed by everyone
who needs to communicate on the network, exactly as public roads are accessed by paying road taxes and tolls. If spectrum must be assigned nominally to operators for administrative reasons, they should be obligated to pool this spectrum for common access.

Once we are able to aggregate spectrum in the frequency range which allows propagation over distances and through natural and man-made obstacles — buildings, foliage, etc. — we will have the open “highways” for broadband for its widespread usage across the country. This can only be achieved at relatively low cost through a progressive revenue-sharing arrangement, which is what happened eventually for voice communications with the National Telecom Policy 1999.

These are complex technical and commercial issues, and require the concerted effort of stakeholders and experts to devise the most effective solution in the public interest. The Trai hearings are the first step in this process.

shyamponappa@gmail.com <mailto:shyamponappa@gmail.com>

* ‘The mother of invention’, The Economist, September 24, 2009

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/developments-in-spectrum-sharing

Deconstructing ‘Internet addiction’

radha — 2011-04-02T15:09:28Z

An article by Sruthi Krishnan and Shyam Ranganathan in The Hindu on August 30th,'09

CHENNAI: Earlier this week, the first rehabilitation centre for ‘Internet addicts’ was opened in the United States. De-addiction camps in China were in the news recently for the death of a teenager because of the brutal methods used there to cure ‘Internet addiction.’

‘Internet addiction’ for now is a catch-all term that not only stands for addiction to specific activities such as gambling or gaming but also refers to longer hours devoted to the computer network at the expense of other activities.

Though the Internet is only a medium of communication and information transmission like the printed book or television, ‘addiction’ is being used in this case with concern because of a fundamental dialectic: ‘quantity becomes quality.’

“A whole new world is just a click away with the Internet. It is a medium just like books and TV, but the amount of interaction it makes possible with others, sometimes replacing the need for real world interaction, makes it vastly different,” says E.S. Krishnamoorthy, consultant neuropsychiatrist, Voluntary Health Services, Chennai.

Though chemical changes may not be induced by the broadly repetitive action involved in gaming and general ‘Internet addiction,’ social behavioural modifications do take place, including sleep deprivation and aggression towards the depriver of access to the Internet, he says.

“It is somewhat between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and addiction due to substance abuse. Substance abuse-led addiction focusses on gratification which this form of attachment provides, though there is no chemical ingestion. At the same time, the behavioural modifications are similar to those with OCD. It is almost like the ‘rush’ gamblers get out of a purely gratification-oriented repetitive action,” Dr. Krishnamoorthy adds.

Generational gap

Sunil Abraham, director-policy, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, says what constitutes ‘Internet addiction’ is sometimes misunderstood because of a generational gap between those who grew up immersed in technology and those who adopted technology later in their lives.

Can a teenager’s extensive use of social networking be categorised as ‘addiction’? Not necessarily. Social networking could lead to forging new relationships which could be beneficial.

For now, such activities may not be the norm, but it could be the way our society is configured in the future, says Mr. Abraham.

The Internet itself offers solutions to balance your real and virtual activities. For instance, ‘Freedom’ is an application that disables networking on an Apple computer for up to eight hours at a time. In the settings of Google mail, you can enable ‘Email addict’ (a Google Labs feature) that disables your screen and makes you invisible on chat for 15 minutes. There are many such timer software that let you set a period for which a certain activity would be banned.

Dr. Krishnamoorthy advocates counselling and concerted effort to increase real world social interactions for “treating” Internet addiction. He warns that the problem is larger in that we are creating an “inward-looking society.”

“There is a big problem on hand if many people replace the real world with the Internet instead of using it as a device to enhance interactions,” he says.

Mr. Abraham says controls should come from a more open and informed discussion, of which even children are a part. Dubbing an activity not fully understood an “addiction” and imposing old-fashioned controls are not the right approach, he adds.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/deconstructing-2018internet-addiction2019