Centre for Internet and Society

Techies mapping change

radha — 2011-04-04T06:51:49Z

A group of 40 Bangaloreans, including techies and social activists, are creating digital maps that will be used to bring social change in India - an article in the Bangalore Mirror by Renuka Phadnis - Monday, December 07, 2009.

Here is an example of how technology can be misused and used. A year ago, following the Mumbai blasts, everyone was talking about how terrorists had misused information from Google maps. Now, a group of 40 people in Bangalore including activists and techies, are creating digital maps that will be used to bring social change in India.

Called “Maps for Making Change” the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, a social organisation that studies the connection between the Internet and society, and the NGO Tactical Tech Collective (Bangalore and UK) are creating a map of India that will show hotspots where social change can be brought about.

Individuals working with groups and organisations working for social change across India, including grassroots activists, NGO workers, artists and researchers, sent in 70 high quality and detailed additions to the digital map. These places across India highlighted issues such as: the socio-economic aspects and consequences of the construction of Bangalore’s Metro, fighting for clean rivers, people’s rights to livelihoods in the Himalayas, monitoring the national implementation of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005), mobilising slum dwellers to engage with Mumbai’s new Development Plan, human rights violations in Kashmir, identifying land where internally displaced people can be resettled in the North East.

“You don’t have to be a professional cartographer. With new technologies such as GPS and the Net, anyone can easily add to digital maps,” says Dr Anja Kovacs, fellow, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.

Bangalore Angle

In a city like Bangalore, the potential of using digital maps is tremendous. For instance, such maps could be used to show which Metro routes and stations Bangaloreans want. Or, it could show how BBMP’s reserved wards are delineated (example, the population profile in Bellandur or Girinagar). The maps could tell us where migrant labour (masons, carpenters, plumbers) enter the city, where they live and where they move on (information that could be useful for Unique Identification Authority of India too!). It can also show where marginalised people live in Bangalore in slums, along railway tracks, by the lakes.

Says Bangalorean techie B V Pradeep, who provided technical support to the map team, “In a map, every person draws what is important to him. One person may draw a mall, another may mark the school and hospital. This map will give visibility to invisible people.”

Bangalorean Rekha Shenoy, who has been involved in rehabilitating earthquake-affected people in Kutch for the past eight years, says, “Such digital maps are a good resource of marking places and social issues that other people know nothing of.”

Any one can access Maps for Making Change. See email list (http://groups.google.co.in/group/maps-for-making-change). The wiki will be up and running in a few days time (maps4change.cis-india.org), said Dr Kovacs. To follow on Twitter, use the hash tag #maps4change.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/techies-mapping-change

10 tactics for turning information into action

radha — 2011-04-05T04:19:46Z

Tactical Technology Collective (TTC) with The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and the Alternative Law Forum, is happy to announce the Bangalore launch of TTC's newest toolkit - '10 tactics for turning information into action'.

‘10 tactics’ explores the use of technology and social media platforms such as Google Earth, Twitter and Facebook on human rights advocacy in the developing world. The film presents ten strategies for turning information into action and is aimed at global human rights advocates, as well as campaigners of all kinds.

The launch will be in the form of a screening organised by Tactical Technology Collective- India, CIS and ALF. After the screening, there will be an open discussion on the use of social media for advocacy.

This documentary is very important and timely viewing for all and most relevant to advocates working in the grassroots, campaigners, information actvists...

This event is open to all. Admission is free. Attendees will receive a copy of the toolkit in its offline form.

For more information about the film and the event log in to: http://www.informationactivism.org/, or call 080 4153 1129.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/10-tactics-for-turning-information-into-action

ICT, transaction cost and development: The flip side

radha — 2011-08-20T22:56:05Z

Prof. Pradoshnath from NISTADS was at CIS, Bangalore on Nov 25th, 2009 and gave a presentation on ICT, transaction cost and development: The flip side. His bio and the abstract of the talk are given in this blog.

Abstract

The main observation is that the connectivity matters if and only if it connects the right way. The danger of being at the flip side looms large, if connected wrong way.

The conclusion is based on a rigorous theoretical understanding of the role of network technology in general and ICT in particular for augmenting the process of social and economic transformation. The theoretical framework also allows us to discover the danger of flip side of the network technology, and tells us that it is not always hunky-dory between ICT (or any network technology for that matter) and social and economic backwardness. Colonial plundering was possible through the adoption of network technologies in colonies.

ICT is believed to contribute to economic development by reducing the transaction and information cost associated with any economic activities. Transaction cost arises when transactions are made away from the market. There are two streams of arguments here; one, that suggests minimisation of transaction cost as means towards economic efficiency, and the other that considers the act of transactions away from the market is actually the process of value creation of a capitalist enterprise. We argue that both the arguments can be synchronised by partitioning the transaction costs in two broad components of production activities, namely, production (the value creation component, where in lies profit) and procurement. It is in the latter component where transaction cost can be minimised for efficiency, whereas in case of former transaction cost is created by a value creating capitalist enterprise. In reality both the processes are concurrent, and one complements the other.

It is this comprehensive perspective that enables us a fresh look at the ongoing programmes, and, therefore a general observation that ICTisation in less developed economies in effect make market operations friendlier for the capitalist ventures or inroads in the marginal economies, and create new varieties of distortions in the system. We call this distortion – the flip side of ICTisation, because in the absence of factors that enable make use of connectivity for economic and social gains, the marginalised population of a marginal economy runs the risk of falling in to a new dynamics of exploitation.

Profile of Prof. Pradosh Nath

An economist working on issues related to applications of science and technology for social and economic development. He is a scientist at National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi. At present affiliated to the Centre for Culture Media and Governance, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi as Senior Research Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi. His present research interest is in the area of application of ICT for social and economic development of the marginal economies. He has published widely in both national and international journals. He has co-authored two books and edited another. He has worked as consultant for IDRC, Canada, WAITRO, Copenhagen, Denmark, and ITU, Geneva. He has been the coordinator of the WAITRO sponsored international programme on ‘Knowledge management for R&D organisation’ conducted in different countries in Asia and Africa.

Videos

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/advocacy/other-advocacy/talk-by-prof-pradoshnath

Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net

radha — 2011-08-18T05:08:58Z

The Centre For Internet and Society and JAAGA organised a CC Salon on 02nd December, 2009 at 7.30pm.

Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net

CIS and JAAGA organised a CC Salon (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon) by Jon Phillps on Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net

Venue: JAAGA
Time: 7.30pm

The aim of this get together was to share knowledge and experiences of alternative copyright licensing. Artists, lawyers dealing with copyright licensing and others are encouraged to highlight their own work, experiences and queries about Creative Commons and other alternative licenses.

An abstract of the presentation and the bio of Jon is given below.

ABSTRACT:

Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net

Creative Commons is a well-known nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration. Its key tools are six licenses that fit between public domain and complete control, copyright, to give you control over how your work is shared with the world. This presentation explores high level case studies that use Creative Commons licenses to make a successful project. The key featured case study is Status.Net, a new status updating hosted service and open source software that uses Creative Commons licensing for content.

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon

BIO:

Jon Phillips is a community and business developer contributing to society and building meaningful relationships. In 2002 he helped launch the open source drawing tool, Inkscape and founded the Open Clip Art Library. From 2005 until 2008 he built Creative Commons’ community and business development projects and is currently a Creative Commons Fellow. Currently, he is growing the media company Fabricatorz with Cantocore Art Exhibitions, Laoban Open Soundsystems, and is recently assisting with an upcoming re-launch of Status.Net (Identi.ca). He is known for growing successful open communities globally, leading international business development in Asia (particularly China), and developing Open Marketing.

http://rejon.org/bio/#images

Videos

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/creative-commons

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

Books shut by law blinkers

radha — 2011-04-02T14:20:16Z

An article in The Telegraph (Kolkata) by Chandrima S Bhattacharya - 6th December, 2009

Imagine a life without books. Try to imagine it, really, said Moiz Tundawala, a student at the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS). He cannot read: he has lost his eyesight slowly over the years. He can only distinguish between light and dark now. But he is one of the toppers in his class and he initiated the meeting on the “Right to Read” campaign at the NUJS last month.

The campaign aims to amend the Indian copyright law, so that Moiz and millions like him in the country have far greater access to books. Now Moiz uses JAWS, a software that reads out the text from a computer screen. Sruti Disability Rights Centre, Calcutta, organised the programme that was hosted by the NUJS and launched “Right to Read” campaign in Calcutta, after The Centre for Internet and Society from Bangalore had launched it in Chennai.

Technology has helped the visually impaired tremendously over the past decade or so. But not enough, certainly not enough people in India, which is home to the world’s largest number of blind people.

Of the 37 million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are Indians. One problem India faces is that such software is expensive. JAWS costs Rs 50,000 for every user. It is difficult for most to afford the software. So most use demo versions. The price also encourages piracy. And when the text is read out in English, since the software often comes from the US, the voice uses an American accent, said S.B. Patnaik, the principal of the Blind Boys’ Academy, Narendrapur, part of a panel that discussed technology as an aid to the visually impaired at the NUJS event. Many Indians find that accent difficult to follow.

The biggest problem is access to Indian texts. The Indian copyright law does not allow the conversion of all texts into formats accessible to the blind, such as in large print, audio, Braille or any electronic format. Nirmita Narasimhan of the Centre for Internet and Society said only a small percentage of Indian texts are now accessible to the visually impaired.
With her was Rahul Cherian of eBookbole, a website that encourages visually impaired and print-disabled people to connect and share books that have been converted into an accessible format.

The amendment of the copyright law is additionally important since India has already ratified the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The UN convention broadens the definition of accessibility for disabled persons considerably compared with its definition in Indian law. The activists are also demanding a change in the Persons with Disabilities Act, which defines access only in terms of built-in environment. They want to extend the definition of access, by taking it beyond the purely physical.
The UN convention extends the idea of access to many freedoms, and not only access to information, but to freedom of speech and expression and the right to culture and the right to leisure. In other words, it requires the written word to be fully available to the visually impaired, in whatever format the user is friendly with.

“India is under the obligation to implement the UN convention, since it has ratified it,” said Rukmini Sen, who teaches at the NUJS and was part of the panel.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/books-shut-by-law-blinkers

Mumbai no longer ‘meri jaan’

radha — 2011-04-04T06:52:29Z

Why online (and offline) activism after 26/11 never took off; what should have been done to mobilize people - an article in the Livemint by Seema Chowdhry and Samanth Subramanian - 20th November, 2009

On “One Million Strong for Bombay” (23,601 members), a 9 October post concerned the activist Hansel D’Souza, chairman of the Juhu Citizens’ Welfare Group, the Citizens’ Consensus candidate for the Andheri (West) assembly constituency; an earlier post involved the schedule of the Jazz Yatra. On “The Black Badge for Bombay” (853 members), the last post, from 31 August, wonders if Pakistan is a pawn being used by China against India.

“The idea behind ‘Black Badge for Bombay’ initially was to keep the pressure on so that the reaction to the attacks in terms of government preparedness results in concrete action,” says Somasekhar Sundaresan, the group’s creator. “The government has now set up a combat force in Mumbai, which was the stated immediate objective of this movement and
pressure group. After that, we needed to move on.”

Sundaresan admits that the posts have not been updated more frequently because he hasn’t worked hard enough to get people interested in newer issues. “Most of my discussions about civil rights movements are restricted to five or six friends who are members of this Facebook group too,” he says. “It is easier to talk to them because I meet them
professionally and personally often.” “The Black Badge for Mumbai” has also been unable to organize offline meetings.

What these groups lacked, according to Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, was a dedicated team to keep the momentum going. “They don’t have intelligently incremental action points that keep their audiences increasingly engaged,” he says in an email interview. “The creators often underestimate the importance of offline activities that will keep their audiences motivated. Finally, many of them take their membership for
granted and don’t bother sending regular updates or even an occasional thank you.”

It was perhaps the need to sustain momentum that drove some of the offline citizens’ groups into the political sphere. Anil Bahl allied his Let’s Rebuild India with the Professionals Party of India. A group called Jago Mumbai turned into the Jago Party, which fielded a candidate in the Lok Sabha election from north-west Mumbai. (He lost.) “We decided that we couldn’t do anything alone,” says Bhuresh Barot, a working member of the Jago Party. “You need to be in power to do anything.”

As his party’s south Mumbai coordinator, Barot witnessed a rapid dissolution of voter outrage back into voter apathy; in the Lok Sabha election, the turnout stood at 43.3%. “The main reason seemed to be that voters thought they already knew the ideology of every party,” Barot theorizes. “And they decided they simply didn’t have faith in the candidates.”

Link to original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/mumbai-no-longer-2018meri-jaan2019

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

Lawyers get socially involved: The Right to Read

radha — 2009-12-03T09:49:08Z

Thursday, 03 December 2009 by Tanuj Kalia (www.legallyindia.com)

"Imagine life without books, without having anything to read. Wouldn't it get suffocating?" asks Moiz Tundawala, a visually impaired student at NUJS Kolkata.

A number of engaged lawyers have been working hard to address the suffocation by trying to make books accessible to all in the Right to Read campaign.

"Just place yourself in the shoes of the print disabled and try evaluating," posits Tundawala. "Why deprive them of a fair opportunity to participate in society especially when you have the technology to make things easier?"

By contrast the situation as it stands today in India is simple: if you can not read printed text for whatever reason, most books will remain forever closed to you.

Pesky laws

And while technology is making headway towards accessibility it stumbles upon myriad legal roadblocks.

The biggest spoilsport is the India Copyright Act, which does not explicitly permit the conversion of books into accessible formats without breaching their copyrights.

Three organisations active in the field have now joined hands to launch the Right to Read campaign in India, following the eponymous global campaign by the World Blind Union. The Indian campaign is supported by social enterprise Inclusive Planet with its first product BookBolé, the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) and the non-profit organisation Daisy Forum of India.

And throughout lawyers have been vital in getting the campaign off the ground.

"We believe that the right to read is a fundamental right and persons with disabilities should be able to enjoy this right just like any other person," says CIS programme manager Nirmita Narasimhan. She is an LLB graduate of Campus Law Centre, Delhi University and has years of experience in working in the courts and with intellectual property (IP).

"Nearly 70 million print disabled Indians are being deprived of this right because they are unable to read in the same manner as other persons," she continues. "This goes against our constitutional guarantees of rights to equality and non-discrimination."

The movement does not restrict itself to the blind and visually impaired and the Right to Read campaigners are quick to point out that the term print disabled is a wider term and includes persons who have dyslexia, learning disabilities and persons who due to physical disability are unable to hold books or turn pages.

The campaign therefore aspires to reach to all those who do not have access to knowledge due to the non-availability of books in accessible formats.

Technology's outer limits

Inclusive Planet's co-founder and policy head Rahul Cherian is also the founder and managing partner of IndoJuris Law Offices.

He and Narasimhan co-wrote a letter to the IPR Division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

In it they explained why formats like audio files and Braille cannot fully address the issue of accessibility and what should be done about it.

"Audio files have to be played serially and navigation is severely limited. In the case of Braille, the printing costs are expensive and reading a Braille book is up to 4 times slower than a normal book," they wrote.

"Moreover, Braille is extremely difficult to learn if you lose sight at a later age, and persons using Braille can communicate only with others who know Braille. Braille cannot be used by persons with other print impairments such as dyslexia or persons with physical disabilities".

Perhaps more innovative technologies are necessary but technology also has some serious limitations, such as not being able to cater to India's multilingual needs, points out Narasimhan.

Tundawala's first-hand experience with technology is instructive.

"Audio brings in the human element," he says, "but a lot depends on the reader. Some are naturally good readers, some others are not. Listening to monotonous voices is not at all enjoyable."

Cost is a big hurdle too. "A wonderful device that is in the markets in places like the US is the portable reader. It is a hand held device and comes with a camera with OCR (Optical Charachter Recognition) and TTS (Text To Speech) installed on it. How I wish to get hold of it. But this comes at a whopping two thousand dollars", says Tundawala.

Even screen reading software that converts the text on screen to speech such as JAWS for Windows comes at a mind-boggling fifty thousand rupees.

The co-founder and CEO of Inclusive Planet Sachin Malhan, who is perhaps best-known for starting up the CLAT preparation service Law School Tutorials after a stint in a law firm, defends technology.

"Any large solution will have imperfections," says Malhan, "but one must keep in mind how small these obstacles are when compared with the opportunities."

Being Good: the subtle art of Dharma

Issues of cost and accessibility are serious. Inclusive Planet, which is run as a for-profit social organisation, will face the challenge of making its first product BookBolé pay for itself.

Cherian is optimistic. "The cost of printing, stocking and distributing books which is huge in regular books is virtually nil in our model," he says.

"We are in the process of convincing a few publishers about the possibility of tapping into the needs of the millions in need of books in accessible formats. The World Blind Union has given the phrase 'Same day. Same price' for books to be made available to the print disabled and we want to live up to it."

And going by the magnitude of response BookBolé has been able to generate it already sounds like a success story.

Cherian told Legally India that Inclusive Planet has five new products and projects lined up for the disabled. Two among these will cater exclusively to needs of the visually impaired and according to Cherian will truly revolutionize the ecosystem for the visually impaired, making their world happier and more inclusive.

Tundawala, however, disagrees with this approach and argues: "If we start selling technology through the market mechanism, it may not serve the needs of the vast multitude."

Legal Samaritans

The Right to Read has journeyed well and is picking up momentum with legal activists forming the vanguard.

"The prominent people behind our freedom struggle were lawyers so the legal community owes a special responsibility in this case to help bring about a change for the better," insists Tundawala. "Their support will give a sense of hope to millions of individuals that the people who know the law empathise with them and think the way they do about this problem."

For Cherian help from the corporate sector has made life easier. "None of this would have been possible without the collaboration of corporate lawyers. Corporate lawyers have helped in the legal research and strategy."

Delhi Chalo!

The Indian campaign, which was launched in September, is also closely allied to the global debate and involves many issues and organisations.

"We are actively involved in The Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled presently tabled before the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the WIPO and are working with the World Blind Union to help from an India level," explains Nirmita.

She adds that earlier this month they also organised a meeting with the Director General of WIPO in Delhi and submitted a statement document on behalf of the Indian visually impaired community.

And the Right to Read, explains Cherian, will soon be taken up to India's Human Resources Development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal.

"We plan to organise 4 more road shows in different cities, culminating with a large event in Delhi," he says.

"We will also be submitting a research paper to the HRD Ministry on the constitutional, domestic and international law compulsions that require the amendment of the copyright act for the benefit of persons with disability."

Sign the Declaration and express your support at the Right to Read campaign website. If you needed any other incentive, today is World Disability Day.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/lawyers-get-socially-involved

The disabled also grapple with copyright issues

radha — 2009-12-03T09:34:58Z

An article in The Hindu by Deepa Kurup - 03rd December, 2009

Go beyond Braille to include e-formats in amendment, they tell Government

MOVING AHEAD: Making books legally available in e-format will fuel technology-enabled learning among the blind.

BANGALORE: Young management executive Hari Raghavan, who is visually impaired, runs into a moral obstacle every time he wishes to read a contemporary novel or a management textbook protected under copyright. For, the Indian Copyright Act (1957) does not explicitly allow for conversion and distribution of reading material in alternative formats persons with disability can access.

While a proposed draft amendment to the Act includes a clause that allows for “specialised formats” such as Braille and sign language, it nevertheless ignores the needs of a large section of the disabled. Rights groups are currently lobbying for equal access for people like Mr. Raghavan and others with medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, dyslexia, multiple sclerosis or paralysis. The amendment is legally discriminatory as it requires these people to apply for licences to the Copyright Board, which will finalise licence terms and royalties, explains Rahul Cherian, a copyright lawyer working with Inclusive Planet, a non-governmental organisation working in this sector.

'Use technology’
Mr. Raghavan’s dilemma is precisely what drives the need to modify this clause. An IBM employee set to receive the Empowerment of People with Disability 2009 Award from President Pratibha Patil on Thursday, his blindness was a “deteriorating condition” so he never took to Braille. “Like me, a significant number of the ‘late blind’ use computers and e-formats to read. Making books legally available in e-formats is critical as it will fuel greater technology-enabled learning among the blind,” he says.

In a country where less than 0.5 per cent of printed material is available in e-format, it is imperative that the law makes it easier to access copyrighted works, Mr. Cherian explains. His Right to Read campaign, in association with Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, attempts to address these very issues. “Why should a person with cerebral palsy who cannot hold a book or a dyslexic person having trouble reading print not be treated on a par with someone who uses Braille?” he asks.

Onscreen keyboard
For instance, 26-year-old Deepa Narasimhan suffers from spinal muscular dystrophy. Her condition does not allow her to hold a book or flip through its pages. However she can read text on her computer using an onscreen keyboard. This self-taught graphic designer says in this “technological world” such legislation could change the way she looks at making copies of books. “If there was a legal and easy way for us to get a book converted, it would make a world of difference,” she says. At present she has to scan every page of a textbook for her correspondence course. “I find it difficult to make people understand why I need everything in an e-format. Recognising my condition legally and making a provision for us would really broaden our horizon.”

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-disabled-also-grapple-with-copyright-issues

Preserving Digital Memories: A Patrimonial Approach

radha — 2011-04-05T04:19:32Z

The Centre for Internet & Society and The Centre for Contemporary Studies, Bangalore cordially invite you to a public lecture and discussion by Dr. Bruno Bachimont, on Preserving Digital Memories: A Patrimonial Approach, on 10th December, 2009 from 4pm to 6pm.

Dr. Bachimont is visiting India as a part of the “Bonjour French Science” framework constructed by the Embassy of France in India. He comes from a well-known technology university in France and has a background in computer science and philosophy. He is a researcher in the fields of Cognitive Science and Knowledge Engineering and has been very active in instrumenting connections between Philosophy, Science and Technology in the French Higher Education environment.

Sponsored by
The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore
The Centre for Contemporary Studies, Bangalore

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/preserving-digital-memories-a-patrimonial-approach

CC Salon

radha — 2011-04-05T04:21:24Z

Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net - The Centre For Internet and Society and JAAGA are organising a CC Salon on 02nd December, 2009 at 7.30pm.

Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net

CIS and JAAGA are organising a CC Salon (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon) by Jon Phillps on Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net

Venue: JAAGA

Time: 7.30pm

The aim of this get together is to share knowledge and experiences of alternative copyright licensing. Artists, lawyers dealing with copyright licensing and others are encouraged to highlight their own work, experiences and queries about Creative Commons and other alternative licenses.

An abstract of the presentation and the bio of Jon is given below.

ABSTRACT:

Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon

BIO:

http://rejon.org/bio/#images

VIDEOS

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/cc-salon

Shanty home

radha — 2011-04-04T06:53:08Z

A nationwide initiative is imploring that you look closely at the greyed-out areas on your GPS maps, says Jaideep Sen in an article in the Time Out Bengaluru Magazine, November 13-26 2009 [Vol 2 Issue 9]

Call up a map of Bangalore city on Google, key in the letters “HAL”, and hit the return key. When the squiggly lines demarcating the area show up, put down the end of your forefinger at the Marathahalli end of the Old Airport Road stretch, and begin tracing your way all the way up to MG Road. It’s an easy route to follow, if you’re merely looking to head from one end of the city to the other, but that isn’t the purpose of this particular exercise, which could well be tried out along all major roadways in any city across India.

As the two Bangalore-based groups Centre for Internet and Society, and Tactical Technology Collective describe it, the attempt of that lingering fingertip is to ascertain the possibilities of creating “maps from the margins and of margins”. While that wouldn’t make immediate sense to most GPS-impelled drivers, what they’re implying is that you look around that route to try and locate and identify the numerous slums, unauthorised settlements and illegal waterways that remain greyed-out along those delineated main roads and prominent residential areas. As co-hosts of a two-month-long nationwide project titled “Maps for Social Change”, the groups are also wagering that you most likely won’t find such expanses on a map. Although, if you were to explore the neighbourhoods of say, HAL, Indira Nagar and Ulsoor, you’d find at least 30 unmarked shanties along that stretch of Old Airport Road alone.

Official figures peg the city’s slum-dwelling population at roughly 10 per cent of an estimated total 5.3 million people, in a little over 200 slums as declared by the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board. While that figure would appear minor in comparison to that of a city like Mumbai, where 60 per cent of approximately 19 million people are said to live in slums, it’s precisely that kind of disparity that this project aims to pin down against latitudinal and longitudinal positions. The purpose, said a note from the groups, is to use “geographical mapping techniques to support struggles for social justice in India”. The end result, it added, could make maps as “tools to fight injustice in society”. To understand that intention, the activists and technology specialists of the two host groups are urging people, and groups involved in social projects especially, to revisit maps and identify possibilities relevant to local campaigns and movements.

“In other countries, there’s a lot of talk about social movements using technology, even in subversive ways, but in India, this hasn’t really taken off,” said Anja (pronounced Anya) Kovacs, a Belgian who has lived in India for eight years, is a member of various campaigns in New Delhi, and is a CIS member spearheading this project. While there are many reasons for Indians to be desisting from technological means, there are many practical applications where mapping techniques can benefit social causes, she insisted.

“One example is to do with people who face displacement caused due to upcoming Special Economic Zones,” explained Kovacs. “The media, at times, portrays people against such models of development as a minority. But if you count the number of people involved in these movements, you’d come up with a mad number, and there are a mad number of struggles going on.” The project, she added, could help place such information on a map, “so that different classes of people could see what the truth actually is”.

The application inviting proposals from groups, individuals and students, begins with an exhortation for people to rethink the concept of maps. “Most of us think of maps as representations of territory,” it states. “But have you wondered why poor people are rarely given prominence, or at times are absent altogether?”

The graphic representation of a map also presents a handy educational medium, added Kovacs. “People working on concerns of sexual harassment, or state repression, public health, water management issues… the possibilities are immense.” Allan Stanley, another CIS member working on the project’s technical aspects, said the aim was to facilitate training, and extend their expertise. “It’s easily doable even for people with little internet experience,” said Stanley. “Where you create mash-ups, with [online photo and video hosting services] Flickr and You Tube, and some overlaid locative work.” At advanced levels, Stanley said that open-map projects could serve to track things like education, and density of schools in areas. Kovacs also spoke of the recent “pink chaddi” campaign, against instances of violence inflicted upon women, where a simple Google map was used to mark locations that attacks were reported from, to highlight the possibility of indicating potentially unsafe urban regions.

Link to original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/shanty-home

Asia Source 3 Meeting

radha — 2011-04-02T14:27:11Z

The Asia Source 3 Meeting Reinforces Asian Free and Open Source Software Movement - More than 150 Asian Open Source activists met in the Philippines from 07th November to 12th November to discuss the latest IT-tools for NGOs and SMEs and this time the Main Theme of Asia Source 3 was: Building Capacities and Empowering Humanity through FOSS

Asia Source 3 Meeting Reinforces Asian Free and Open Source Software Movement

More than 150 Asian Open Source activists discuss latest IT-tools for NGOs and SMEs in the Philippines
Gathering ends with knowledge sharing and plans to migrate to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
Main Theme of Asia Source 3: Building Capacities and Empowering Humanity through FOSS

Silang, Cavite - While most technology conferences happen as swanky, slick, and well-rehearsed events, the recently concluded Asia Source 3 took the opposite track and ran a camp that was spartan yet spontaneous. From November 7 to 12, 2009, Asia Source 3 gathered 150 representatives in the Yen Center to discuss developments in open source. For those six days, the campers lived in a communal environment that married fun and relaxation with exchange of ideas.
Asia Source 3 campers represented a large cross section of non-governmental organizations, small businesses, youth networks, and technology entrepreneurs from 15 countries (see full list below). While technology issues permeated the discussions, it took place with an emphasis on the economic and social context of cooperation among developing countries.

This is the third such event in the region, organized by the International Open Source Network (IOSN) and InWEnt - Capacity Building International of Germany ; earlier camps took place in Bangalore, India in 2005 and Sukabumi, Indonesia in 2007. It is based on the source camp template of the Tactical Technology Collective, an NGO that consults for other NGOs on technology. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), the ASEAN Foundation and the Open Society Institute funded Asia Source 3, with the aim to increasing awareness and adoption of free and open source software.

"We believe that the continuous strengthening of the Free Software community through source camps like this contribute to a more open collaborative environment," said Dr. Alvin Marcelo, Director of IOSN for ASEAN+3. "While the rising popularity and relevance of open source software is now unstoppable, the challenge is to harness the many activities into a coherent whole. And we are able to achieve this through community building."

Asia Source 3 also marked the official highlight of five years of regional FOSS support by InWEnt in Southeast Asia. "We are honored to be part of this movement through our training and network program it@foss" said Balthas Seibold, Senior Project Manager of InWEnt. InWEnt has trained and connected more than 1000 experts from Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines in more than 30 training courses under its it@foss program.

In the tradition of previous camps, Asia Source 3 emphasized spontaneity over rigid planning. “We try to create an environment of collaboration and community," said Allen Gunn, the event's head facilitator. "No keynote speakers, no panels, no powerpoint slides. Instead, we set-up mini-discussions."

This approach makes the exchange of knowledge and development of relationships more organic and natural. It creates opportunities to broaden expertise, and forge new ideas and connections. Asia Source 3’s theme dwelt on building capacity among technical experts and organizational practitioners. It dealt with the topics of managing and broadcasting information through free and open source software and migration from proprietary alternatives.

Asia Source 3 was jointly organized by UNDP-International Open Source Network (UNDP-IOSN) through its ASEAN+3 Centre of Excellence (based at the University of the Philippines Manila) and InWEnt - Capacity Building International Germany, together with the Tactical Technology Collective, Aspiration (USA) and the Centre for Internet and Society (India). Funders include the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), the ASEAN Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

Asian countries represented in Asia Source III include Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vietnam.

PRESS CONFERENCE
Asia Source 3 held a press conference last November 13, 2009, 12:00 pm, at the Yen Center, International Institute for Rural Reconstruction in Silang, Cavite. Press pictures and video footage can be found at http://asiasource3.net/blogs.

MORE INFORMATION
More information on Asia Source 3, and information on all organizers and funders
To join the community
More information on the International Open Source Network (UNDP-IOSN)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/asia-source-3-meeting

Citizen 2.0?

radha — 2011-08-20T22:55:56Z

Exploring Research Questions, Frameworks, and Methods - A presentation was given by Minna Aslama, at CIS, on Nov 23rd @ 4.30pm , Bangalore. The Videos for the talk are given here.

Abstract:

The early and mid 1990s witnessed a surge of academic thinking and public debates around the democratizing power of the Internet. The most hopeful utopias of deliberative online communication and formation of active ‘subaltern counter-publics’ (Fraser 1992/1997) were countered with fears ranging from trivialization, fragmentation, even disappearance of widely and commonly shared issues, to viral distribution of non-democratic, ‘harmful’ content. Now the same debates are re-emerging once again in era that is witnessing the explosion of ‘social production’ in a multitude of digital platforms.

The recent examples of the elections in two very different societies, the United States and Iran, provide just two cases where information production by non-professional individuals and loose associations, distributed via informal networks including social networking sites and microblogging, has played a major role in democratic processes (e.g., Williams & Gulati 2007; Keim & Clark 2009).

A question remains: do social networks facilitate platforms for democratic debate and participation in our ‘post-broadcast’ democracies (Prior 2007) characterized by ‘a networked information economy’ (Benkler 2006)? And further, is or can there exist such a phenomenon as a ‘Citizen 2.0’ who actively participates in democratic processes (issue driven and/or local, regional, national, transnational) via digital media? So far academic scholarship has focused on theorization rather than empirical analyses (e.g., Gripsrud 2009), has tended to emphasize activities of social justice movements that are by default networked and proactive (Aslama & Erickson 2009), and thus have ‘romanticized’ the participatory and democratizing nature of the Internet, web 2.0 and mobile communications (while most quantitative indicators tend to point towards concentrated and elite communication, and while digital divide still clearly exists, Hindman 2009). Needless to say, much of the hopeful theorization is European / Anglo-American, and there seems to be relatively little cultural sensitivity in grand visions of global public spheres (c.f., Castells 2008).

The talk will not claim to provide answers to these paramount questions. Instead, Minna wished to raise more questions about (1) what should be researched about mediated democracy and citizenry in our time; what should we know? (2) How could we frame that research theoretically and conceptually? And (3) what kinds of methodological solutions might be useful in this context. Rather than presenting a comprehensive research agenda, Minna suggested some ideas that would broadly connect to macro, meso and micro-level view of media, power and citizenship (c.f. Clegg 1989), and would illustrate those ideas with some empirical examples of her current pilot work for a planned multi-country study on the theme.

References:

Aslama M. & Erickson I. (2009). Public Spheres, Networked Publics, Networked Public Spheres? Tracking the Habermasian Public Sphere in Recent Discourse. Fordham University, McGannon Center Working Papers.Retrieved at: http://www.fordham.edu/images/undergraduate/communications/public%20spheres,%20networked%20publics,%20networked%20public%20spheres.pdf

Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks. How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.

Castells, M. (2008). The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance. The Annals Of The American Academy Of Political And Social Science, vol. 616, no. 1, pp. 78-93.
Clegg, S. (1989). Frameworks of Power. London: Sage.

Fraser N. (1997(1992)). Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of an Actually Existing Democracy. In Calhoun C (ed.). Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pp., 109-142.

Gripsrud, J. (2009, March). Digitising the Public Sphere: Two Key Issues. Javnost-The Public, 16(1), 5-16.

Hindman, M. (2009). The Myth of Digital Democracy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Keim N & Clark J (2009) Public Media 2.0 Field Report: Building Social Media Infrastructure to Engage Publics. Twitter Vote Report and Inauguration Report ’09. American University, center for Social Media.
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/public_media_20_field_report_building_social_media_infrastructure_to_engage/ (accessed 30 August 2009).

Prior, M. (2007) Post-Broadcast Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Williams, C. B., & Gulati, G. J. (2007). Social Networks in Political Campaigns: Facebook and the 2006 Midterm Elections. Paper presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.

Minna Aslama’s Bio:

Minna Aslama is a researcher and a lecturer at Fordham University, New York, and the University of Helsinki. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki and has taken part in several international research activities including The Media Between Culture and Commerce Project by the European Science Foundation, and the research-advocacy project on Global Media Monitoring of news media (GMMP, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2009). From 2008-2009, she served as the Program Officer for the Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere program at the Social Science Research Council.
Prior to her academic career, she worked at the Division of Advancement for Women of the UN Secretariat and at the Finnish Broadcasting Company in the research, training and development unit. She has also served as a consultant for various national and international organizations on research and training, especially with regard to issues of media and gender.
Her recent/ongoing research work includes new conceptualizations of media audiences and the concept of ‘participation’, public service media and content diversity in the digital era, and media policy flows in the globalizing media environment. In addition, she is especially interested in new forms of collaboration emerging in relation to the media justice and reform movements. Together with Phil Napoli, she is currently editing a book “Communication Research in Action” that depicts scholar-practitioner collaborations in the field.
Contact: minna.aslama@helsinki.fi

Videos

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/advocacy/other-advocacy/citizen-2.0