Centre for Internet and Society

March 2019 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2019-07-18T02:14:11Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) newsletter for the month of March 2019.

Highlights for March 2019

The Indian Patent Office (IPO) on 1 March 2019, published a draft of the “Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure, Version 3.0”. CIS provided comments on patenting of computer related inventions.
The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team has submitted its proposal for the year 2019-2020 to the Wikimedia Foundation. CIS-A2K has proposed to undertake content enrichment, skill development initiatives, cement partnership with existing partners and build relationships with new ones, and activities like Train-the-Trainer, Wikisource Conference, Wikimedia Summit India, Intensive Personal Wiki Training, supporting Indic Wikimedians through request page, etc.
Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organisation working on rejuvenation of rivers in India, has began documentation of rivers on Wiki, especially to draw attention to and mitigate the crisis of toxic deposits facing more than 40 rivers in India. The work was started by Jal Biradari, TBS’s Maharashtra based group, in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team of CIS. A report from the first pilot workshop conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, in Alwar, Rajasthan has been published.
With the objective of connecting the open knowledge movement with design, the Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet and Society co-organised the Wikigraphists Bootcamp India 2018 with the Wikimedia Foundation during September 28-30, 2018 in New Delhi. Saumyaa Naidu in a report has shared the learningsfrom the panel discussion aimed at exploring the potential collaborations between design and the open knowledge movement.
Karan Saini, Pranesh Prakash and Elonnai Hickok co-authored a policy brief titled Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India. The policy brief has recommended changes pertaining to current legislation, policy and practice to the Government of India regarding external vulnerability reporting and disclosure.
Arindrajit Basu, Elonnai Hickok and Aditya Singh Chawla co-authored a White Paper titled 'The Localisation Gambit'. The paper was edited by Pranav M.B., Vipul Kharbanda and Amber Sinha. Anjanaa Aravindan provided research assistance. Government of India has drafted multiple policy instruments which dictate that certain types of data must be stored in servers located physically within the territory of India. The White Paper serves as a resource for stakeholders attempting to intervene in this debate and arrive at a workable solution where the objectives of data localisation are met through measures that have the least negative impact on India’s economic, political, and legal interests.
The Technology Law Forum at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) has published the Report on Data Privacy and Citizen's Rights' Symposium.This report is a compilation of all the speakers' speeches during the panel discussion. Shweta Mohandas was one of the eight speakers at the panel and the excerpts from her presentation has also been covered in this report.
CIS in its r@w blog featured an essay titled 'Users and the Internet' by Purbasha Auddy, part of a series on Studying Internet in India (2015); and audio recording of a session titled #SelfiesFromtheField which was part of the Internet Researchers Conference, 2017.

Jobs

CIS is hiring:

CIS-A2K Finance Officer: Call for application (Only women candidates).
Internship - applications accepted throughout the year.

CIS and the News

The following news pieces were authored by CIS and published on its website in January:

Recapturing the Commons (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; March 7, 2019).
Digital Native: How an information overload affects what you forward (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; March 10, 2019).
Digital Native: Lessons from Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp going down (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; March 24, 2019).

CIS in the News

CIS was quoted in these news articles published elsewhere:

Why entrepreneurs are wary of the new draft e-commerce policy (Rahul Sachitanand; Economic Times; March 3, 2019).
'Website not found' pop-ups leave net activists fuming (Tushar Kaushik; Economic Times; March 6, 2019).
More urban Indian women are acting against offensive calls and text messages (Aria Thaker; Quartz India; March 8, 2019).
Unlike Facebook, Twitter is a ghost town for political ads in India so far (Aria Thaker; Quartz India; March 12, 2019).

Wie die chinesische Mega-App TikTok Indiens Wahlkampf beeinflussen könnte (Handelsblatt; March 13, 2019).
When laugh lines turn worry lines (K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj; Hindu; March 15, 2019).

Proposed Intermediary Liability Rules threat to privacy and free speech, global coalition tells MeitY (Zaheer Merchant; Medianama; March 18, 2019).
Now, police use apps to catch a criminal (Ketaki Desai with inputs from Sanjeev Verma; Times of India; March 31, 2019).

Access to Knowledge

Our Access to Knowledge programme currently consists of two projects. The Pervasive Technologies project, conducted under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to conduct research on the complex interplay between low-cost pervasive technologies and intellectual property, in order to encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The Wikipedia project, which is under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.

Copyright and Patent

Access to Knowledge is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. We prepared the India report for the Consumers International IP Watchlist, made submission to the HRD Ministry on WIPO Broadcast Treaty, questioned the demonisation of pirates, and advocated against laws (such as PUPFIP Bill) that privatize public funded knowledge.

Submission

Comments and Suggestions to the Draft Patent Manual March 2019 (Achal Prabhala, Feroz Ali, Ramya Sheshadri, Roshan John and Anubha Sinha; March 21, 2019).

Wikipdedia

As part of the project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).

Blog Entries

Train the Trainer program 2018 (Sailesh Patnaik; March 6, 2019).
The city of Bhubaneswar is going Open (Sailesh Patnaik; March 7, 2019).
Rejuvenating India’s Rivers the Wiki Way (Subodh Kulkarni; March 7, 2019).
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಯೋಜನೆ ಸಮಾವೇಶ ಮತ್ತು ತರಬೇತಿಯ ವರದಿ (Ananth Subray; March 7, 2019).
Design and the Open Knowledge Movement (Saumyaa Naidu; March 31, 2019).

Event Organized

Wikimedia Summit India 2019 (Organized by CIS-A2K; New Delhi; March 16 - 17, 2019). CIS-A2K team organized a two-day Wikimedia Summit event for the participants taking part in the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin.

Openness

Our work in the Openness programme focuses on open data, especially open government data, open access, open education resources, open knowledge in Indic languages, open media, and open technologies and standards - hardware and software. We approach openness as a cross-cutting principle for knowledge production and distribution, and not as a thing-in-itself.

Event Organized

Talks by Richard Abisla and Kaliya Young (Organized by CIS; Bangalore; March 4, 2019).

Internet Governance

As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.

Cyber Security

Research Paper

Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India (Karan Saini, Pranesh Prakash and Elonnai Hickok; March 20, 2019). This is an update to our previously released paper titled "Leveraging the Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Process to Improve the State of Information Security in India". The full document can be accessed here.

Privacy

Research Paper

The Localisation Gambit: Unpacking policy moves for the sovereign control of data in India (Arindrajit Basu, Elonnai Hickok and Aditya Singh Chawla; March 19, 2019).

Participation in Events

Nullcon Security Conference (Organized by Nullcon; March 1 - 2, 2019; Goa). Karan Saini attended the event.
Seminar on “Evolution of communication: Social Media & Beyond” (Organized by TRAI; Hotel Radisson Blu GRT, Near Airport, Chennaii; March 15, 2019).
DSCI-Infosys Roundtable (Organized by Infosys; Bangalore; March 25, 2019). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.

Free Speech and Expression

Event

Internet Speech: Perspectives on Regulation and Policy (Organized by CIS; India Habitat Centre; New Delhi; April 5, 2019).

Participation in Event

Just Net Coalition Workshop on Equity and Social Justice in a Digital World (Organized by Just Net Coalition Workshop on Equity and Social Justice in a Digital World and its partners; Bangkok; March 25 - 27, 2019). Anubha Sinha participated in the event.

Artificial Intelligence, ICT and IoT

Participation in Events

RFCs We Love: Transport & Apps Edition (Organized by India Internet Engineering Society; March 2, 2019; Go-Jek; Domlur, Bangalore). Gurshabad Grover was a speaker at this event.
Consultation on Draft E-commerce Policy (Organized by Alternative Law Forum and IT for Change; March 14, 2019; Tony Hall, Ashirwad , Off St.Marks Road; Bangalore). Arindrajit Basu attended the event.
International Conference on Justice Education:Legal Implications of Artificial Intelligence (Organized by Nirma University; Ahmedabad; March 15 - 16, 2019). Arindrajit Basu attended the conference.
AI for India Summit (Organized by Facebook; Leela Palace, Bengaluru; March 26, 2019). Shweta Mohandas participated in the event.
Roundtable on Consumer Experiences with New Technologies in APAC (Singapore) (Organized by Consumers International; Google, Singapore; March 26, 2019). Arindrajit Basu participated in the event.

Researchers at Work (RAW)

The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by an emerging need to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It aims to produce local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:

Blog Entries

#CollectionAndIdentity (Ravi Shukla, Rajiv K. Mishra, and Mrutyunjay Mishra; March 2, 2019).
The Many Lives and Sites of Internet in Bhubaneswar (Sailen Routray; March 2, 2019).
Effective Activism: The Internet, Social Media, and Hierarchical Activism in New Delhi (Sarah McKeever; March 12, 2019).
#CampusCampaigns: User Perceptions in Pre-digital and Digital Eras (Arjun Ghosh; March 12, 2019).
Taking Open Science Offline (Shreyashi Ray; March 21, 2019).

Participation in Event

Presentation at Global Digital Humanities Symposium (Organized by Michigan State University; March 21 - 22, 2019). P.P. Sneha gave a virtual presentation of her work on digital cultural archives.

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.

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E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
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► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer and citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru - 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration

We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at tanveer@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2019-newsletter

Programme Officer - Digital Identity

amber — 2019-03-29T11:02:42Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is seeking applications for the position of Programme Officer, to be associated with a two year long research project on digital identity. We may hire up to three Programme Officers as part of this project. The position is full time and will be based in the Delhi office of CIS.

To apply for this position please write to amber@cis-india.org along with a CV, two writing samples and contact details of two references. Interested candidates are invited to send their applications at the earliest - latest by April 15th.

Organisation Profile

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfiguration of social processes and structures through the internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. Through its diverse initiatives, CIS explores, intervenes in, and advances contemporary discourse and practices around internet, technology and society in India, and elsewhere.

About Digital Identity Project

We are embarking on a two year research project on digital identity. As governments across the globe are implementing new, digital foundational identification systems or modernizing existing ID programs, there is a dire need for greater research and discussion about appropriate design choices for a digital identity framework. There is significant momentum on digital ID, especially after the adoption of UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9, which calls for legal identity for all by 2030. Instances of emerging new digital identity schemes include national projects in Algeria, Belgium (mobile ID), Cameroon, Ecuador, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Italy, Iran, Japan, Senegal, Thailand, Turkey, major announcements in Afghanistan, Denmark, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, the Maldives, Norway, Liberia, Poland, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Zambia and a pilot scheme in Myanmar.

The nature of choices made towards the creation of a digital identity system have significant consequences for privacy, security, inclusivity, scalability, fraud-detection capabilities and implementation costs of the framework. These choices exist in the context of a complex set of political, legal, technological, economic, and societal factors. In this project we will be looking at technical policy options and appropriate uses of a digital identity ecosystem.

The Role

Your role will require you to work closely with our team on research and policy analysis, and to engage with external researchers from whom we will commission research. Doing so will involve the following activities.

Interdisciplinary research and analysis: Literature review, policy design, detailed analysis on topics including technology design options and appropriate uses of digital identity systems;
Policy dissemination and stakeholder engagement: Supporting the Project Manager in the dissemination of research findings in innovative formats, as well as attending, planning, and executing events;
Writing op-eds, short notes, policy briefs and longer form academic writing for a range of audiences;
Presentations and formal discussions: Preparing and delivering presentations to various audiences;
Helping manage communications with stakeholders including international experts, regulators and policy makers;
Knowledge management: Staying up-to-date on developments of interest to the Initiative, and sharing and debating these with the team;
Contributing to documentary and knowledge management processes; and
Managing interns and team: Managing work outputs with our interns, and coordinating research with team members and the Project Manager.

Qualifications and Skills

We are looking for up to three professionals who may come from the following backgrounds: law, regulatory theory, public policy, economics, ethics, technology and development studies.

We are looking for candidates who can exhibit constructive problem-solving skills, sound analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to analyse issues from first principles and develop solutions.

This is a full-time position based out of Delhi. The position is for a duration of two years. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-digital-identity-2019

Presentation at Global Digital Humanities Symposium

sneha-pp — 2019-05-03T09:41:53Z

P.P. Sneha gave a virtual presentation of her work on digital cultural archives at the Global Digital Humanities Symposium organised by Michigan State University on March 21-22, 2019.

Puthiya Purayil Sneha (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India)

The archive has been an important context for conversations around digital humanities (DH) in India, as it has been globally. The last few decades have seen several large-scale efforts in digitalization across various sectors, including state institutions (National Museum, National Cultural Audio-Visual Archive (IGNCA)) universities (Jadavpur University, Ambedkar University,) and individual and collaborative efforts (Indian Memory Project, Indiancine.ma ) to name a few. The emergence of new fields like DH, digital cultures and cultural analytics also indicate several shifts in scholarship, pedagogy and practice, on the one hand alluding to the potential offered by democratizing technologies, but also reflecting persistent challenges related to the digital divide, and more specifically politics around the growth and sustenance of the humanities disciplines.

The growth of new areas of study and creative practice like DH has brought about a renewed focus on the creation of digital corpora, and the need for new technologies and methods of research, more specifically through the development of digital pedagogies. The contexts of these questions are however much wider, located in long-spanning efforts in digitization and digital literacy more broadly, which are still fraught with challenges of access, usage and context. Even as the colonial imagination of state archives remains prevalent in India, digital archival initiatives facilitated by infrastructure such as open source content management systems and tools like web annotation have opened up spaces for alternate narratives. Drawing upon excerpts from a report on mapping the field of DH in India, and ongoing conversations on the digital transition in archival practices, this presentation seeks to understand the politics of digital archiving in a postcolonial context, and how it informs larger trajectories of digitalisation, and the growth of fields like DH in India today.

For more info click here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/presentation-at-global-digital-humanities-symposium

Comments and Suggestions to the Draft Patent Manual March 2019

Achal Prabhala, Feroz Ali, Ramya Sheshadri, Roshan John and Anubha Sinha — 2019-04-05T02:15:07Z

A coordinated civil society response to the consultation on the Patent Manual. CIS provided comments on patenting of computer related inventions.

On behalf of the accessibsa project (www.accessibsa.org), the Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign (https://msfaccess.org/) and the Centre for Internet and Society (www.cis-india.org) , as well as numerous endorsing organisations and individuals across Indian Civil Society, we are pleased to present our comments, feedback and suggestions on the draft Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure, Version 3, published on 1 March 2019, to which your office invited comment from all stakeholders.

The Indian Patent Office (IPO) on 1 March 2019, published a draft of the “Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure, Version 3.0” (hereafter, the “Manual”). This draft extends upon the previous Manual, Version 01.11, dated 22 March 2011, which is currently the Manual in force.

At the outset, we should note that the current draft Manual does not differ substantially from the version in force. Aside from a few updations (for instance, noting the Indian Supreme Court decision in the Novartis case of 2013, as regarding Section 3(d) of Indian patent law), the current Manual under consideration is similar in most aspects to the Manual in force. However, given that several provisions in the current Manual in force were insufficient to implement Indian patent law as it was intended even in 2011, as well as the fact that there have been numerous developments in law, scholarship and practice since the time the Manual was last updated in 2011, we urge the IPO to take this opportunity to reflect upon the developments in patent law and practice, as well as the extensive scholarship now available to us.

Preamble: Indian patent law was substantially amended in 2005, and we began the process of implementing this law a few years later. Today, in 2019, we have data and evidence from almost 14 years of practice, and we suggest that the IPO fully incorporate all learnings available to us, to bring the full force of Indian patent

law into effect, as originally intended. The Manual of the Patent Office has the potential to be a comprehensive handbook on implementing patent law for all stakeholders including patent agents, applicants and the courts. The current version, in the manner proposed, is not. Our suggestions, if adopted in entirety, would make this so: furthermore, our suggestions provide a much-needed opportunity to correct course, by understanding and correcting the failures of the system to implement the original and far-sighted provisions in the Indian patent law amendment of 2005.

Overarching themes: Several of our suggestions for the current Manual under consideration are systemic, and, as such, require broad and serious attention to completely overhaul.

Structure: The Manual under consideration is badly composed and incomplete. Tabular columns are an inappropriate format for a patent manual. Furthermore and separately, the IPO makes use of several instances of “Guidelines” when examining patents. The IPO currently consults, among others, Guidelines for pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and computer related inventions. These guidelines are randomly categorized, badly deployed, hard to locate and amended haphazardly, without notice or any attention. There is no excuse for the IPO Guidelines to not form a part of the Patent Office Manual, thus giving them stability, and subjecting them to a transparent and participative process, like the rest of the Manual. Lastly, the Guidelines should evolve to covering the examination of Biologics as a distinct category, as we should with other frontier technology, such as Artificial Intelligence and Synthetic Biology.

Coherence: We have three inter-locking layers in the patent system in India: the patents act, the patent rules and the patent manual (which should incorporate the patent examination guidelines). The IPO is currently soliciting suggestions for the draft Patent Office Manual, while it has an ongoing amendment to the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2018. We expect the final Rules to be published shortly; however, we are also being asked to provide suggestions on the Manual, without any knowledge of what the IPO’s final version of the Rules will look like. (For instance, the Patent Rules have suggested a procedural change in how pre-grant patent oppositions will be conducted in India; however, since the Rules are not final, it is unclear how they integrate with the Manual, and how we can comment on the process, since the status of the Patent Rules remains unclear). Furthermore, the Manual makes no reference to the Rules. As such, the IPO should decide and publish a final version of the Rules, and only then solicit feedback on the Manual (which it could do in the current time by extending the date of feedback on the Manual). Regardless, the IPO must achieve coherence and cohesion between its many layers, including the patents act, the patent rules, and the patent manual. This coherence, if achieved, would allow the Manual to serve as a handbook for all stakeholders involved in the patent system, including serving as a basis for open-book exams for patent agents.

Updation: Patent law and practice are fast evolving fields. The IPO necessarily needs to keep up with the pace of technology, as well as evolving interpretations of existing patent law provisions. For instance, the Indian Supreme judgment in the Novartis case was announced in 2013; however, it has taken over 6 years for this important judgment to formally reflect in the work of the Patent Office Manual, despite being Indian law for these 6 years. The IPO, therefore, needs to update the Manual and the examination guidelines, frequently – at least as frequently as major events in technology and the law require.

Transparency & Accountability: In the current time, stakeholders in the Indian patent system, be they multinational corporations or ordinary members of Indian society, are faced with considerable challenges when attempting to view patent information. Despite the IPO having made information

available online for some years, the information on Indian patents is needlessly limited, often inaccurate, often incomplete, and frequently unavailable. On occasion, this is due to insufficient disclosure on the part of the applicant, but overwhelmingly, it is because the IPO is not well organized and insufficiently invested in transparency or accountability. For instance, mandating pharmaceutical patent applicants to provide an INN (International non-proprietary name) on all applications where the information is available, would invaluably assist in extending the transparency and utility of the IPO’s functioning with the Indian public. Patent information in India is the right of every Indian citizen to have, and we have made several suggestions by which the IPO can move towards complying with our constitutional right to information.

Specific themes: Drawing from law, scholarship and practice over the last 14 years of Indian patent law, we strongly urge the IPO to consider these very specific suggestions on having their work comply with the spirit and letter of Indian patent law.

Focus on Biologics: Biologics are a relatively new category of therapy that have quickly become the world’s most expensive medicines emerging as critical therapies in areas like cancer. 7 out of 10 of the world’s best-selling medicines are biologics, and they will play only an increasingly important part in public health in India. Therefore, identifying, understanding and examining patent applications on biologics is of crucial importance to Indian citizens. The IPO would benefit from identifying biologics as a critical category; providing them their distinct field of invention; as well as developing guidelines and practices for evaluating biologics, along with other frontier technology that emerges.

Expedited examination: Since 2016, expedited examination of patents has been the law. More recently, there are reports that the IPO is considering PPH partnerships with some rich country economies such as Japan. This is unwise, especially since even in the extended examination currently underway, the IPO has faced several challenges. We strongly suggest that the IPO needs to evidence the ability to manage the ordinary processes in place with accuracy and compliance with Indian law, before attempting to expedite the said processes, especially since the non-functioning of the patents side of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has meant that India has not had a corrective mechanism for any incorrect grants that may have been made at the IPO since May 2016.

Check exceptions to patentability first: The law, as has evolved in the Novartis Case in the Supreme Court, and the Roche vs Cipla case before the Delhi High Court, clearly points towards applying all exceptions to patentability under Sections 3 & 4 of the Indian Patents Act, first, before applying the test of patentability under Section 2 (1)(j). Such a procedure would make the work of the IPO more efficient, as well as fair.

Making anti-evergreening provisions work: The Manual currently does not capture the guidelines explicitly laid out in the Indian Supreme Court’s judgment in the Novartis case. Specific principles relating to how to apply Section 3(d) were laid out in the judgment which have no reflection in the Manual. Like with Section 3(d), applicants also routinely circumvent other anti-evergreening provisions in Indian law, such as Section 3(e) and 3(i). Sometimes, these provisions are circumvented alone; other times, when combined, applicants take advantage of the confusion and adduce evidence on one ground, and then use that as a basis to circumvent the other grounds. To apply anti-evergreening provisions in Indian patent law efficiently and fairly, we suggest an anti-

evergreening checklist that will facilitate this process, and which we recommend be an official part of the examiner’s report, both within the process and as a reported output.

Computer related inventions: The Manual currently does not adequately regulate Computer Related Inventions (CRIs). We suggest the introduction of a 3-step test to comprehensively regulate the patentability of mathematical methods, business methods, computer programmes and algorithms as laid down in the Indian Patents Act. Furthermore, we suggest ways in which the law can be applied more carefully within the Manual to detect camouflaging of claims, with an intent to confuse the IPO and Indian patent examiners, especially when conjoined to computer technology, by noting that (1) mathematical methods may sometimes be claimed as “technological development”, (2) that business methods must be evaluated as such, regardless of their application through computers, computer programmes, computer networks or other programmable apparatus, and that (3) that the scope of algorithms needs to be extended to any invention where the function claimed to be performed can only be carried out by means of a computer programme.

Finally, while the nature of our comments and suggestions are deep and extensive, we are aware that we have also asked for the system to be evaluated in full, rather than in parts. As such, the Indian Patent ecosystem is large and complex, and the IPO has been engaged with setting the Patent Rules (under finalization), the Patent Office Manual (the subject of our commentary in this communication) as well as the Examining Guidelines (which we recommend move from being arbitrarily categorized and extended to becoming a formal part of the Patent Office Manual).

In order to comprehensively react to changes to the Indian Patent ecosystem, we require the opportunity to comment comprehensively on a range of inter-linked proposals.

In this spirit, we hope you will allow us – as civil society – to react, once more, to the Patent Rules (as connected to the Patent Office Manual) as well as each of the Examining Guidelines (old and new, i.e. including those intended such as for biologics), in the interests of fairness and transparency. We look forward to assisting you at every step of this process.

Thank you for your time. We trust that, as civil society researchers, activists and academics, who have devoted a considerable number of years towards the research of intellectual property, and the protection of public interests and human rights in India, our submission will be considered seriously and acted upon. We remain, of course, at your disposal, should you or your office have any questions – which we will gladly answer.

Sincerely,

Achal Prabhala, Feroz Ali, Ramya Sheshadri, Roshan John and Anubha Sinha

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-and-suggestions-to-the-draft-patent-manual-march-2019

Proposed Intermediary Liability Rules threat to privacy and free speech, global coalition tells MeitY

Zaheer Merchant — 2019-03-20T15:56:51Z

“We respectfully call on you to withdraw the draft amendments proposed to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules in December. As published, the draft amendments would erode digital security and undermine the exercise of human rights globally.”

The blog post by Zaheer Merchant was published by Medianama on March 18, 2019.

A global coalition of 31 civil society organizations and technology experts has called on MeitY to reconsider the proposed amendments to the Intermediary Liability Rules, terming them a threat to privacy and free speech. In a letter to the ministry dated March 15, the coalition said that the proposed amendments “would harm fundamental rights and the space for a free internet, without necessarily addressing the problems that the ministry aims to resolve.” Some of the signatories are Centre for Internet and Society, SFLC.in, Internet Freedom Foundation, Government Accountability Project and Human Rights Watch, among others (A copy of the letter is attached at the bottom). The letter breaks down its reasons for opposing the proposed amendments:

1. Traceability would undermine security, lead to surveillance

Under the proposed guidelines, intermediaries would have to ensure ‘traceability’ of messages by providing information related to its originator and receivers. This, the letter argues, would force intermediaries to undermine the security of of their platforms and create a surveillance regime. “Undermining security features to ensure traceability would affect all users of that platform, not just those that are the subjects of the information request,” the letter reads. “… such wide and ambiguous powers… on interception of communications would directly harm the fundamental right to privacy of Indians and facilitate unchecked surveillance.”

2. Data retention antithetical to privacy, must go

The letter also states that the data retention mandate included in the draft guidelines is antithetical to privacy. The guidelines state that intermediaries must preserve content requested by law enforcement for 180 days or longer. This open-ended data retention, the letter argues, contradicts the principle of ‘Storage Limitation’ recommended by the Srikrishna Committee. “Provisions regarding storage limitation and data retention must not be included within the fold of the Intermediary Guidelines, and should be subject to parliamentary law-making,” the letter reads.

3. Proactive monitoring contradicts SC’s Shreya Singhal judgment, would result in censorship

The letter also criticizes the requirement that intermediaries proactively monitor and automatically delete ‘unlawful content’. “[This] would directly conflict with the legal standard laid down by the Supreme Court of India in the Shreya Singhal judgment, which holds that intermediaries should only be legally compelled to take down content on the basis of court orders or legally empowered government agencies,” the letter reads. It could also cause intermediaries to err in favor of takedowns, resulting in unnecessary censorship.

“With the upcoming General Elections in India and the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct on new policy decisions in place, we urge the government to not push through these amended regulations given their impact on fundamental rights and secure communications,” the letter concludes.

The proposed amendments to Intermediary Liability Rules

Released at the end of December 2018, the proposed amendments to the Intermediary Guidelines would modify guidelines under the Information Technology Act concerning intermediaries, ostensibly to prevent misuse of social media platforms and check the spread of fake news. Under India’s Information Technology Act, any entity, person or platform that receives, stores, processes, or transmits electronic information on behalf of another is considered an intermediary. These include social media platforms, cloud services, internet service providers, email service providers and more. For an intermediary to avoid liability for its users’ actions, it must comply with the proposed guidelines which are being amended to the following:

Traceability, and information within 72 hours: The new rules require platforms to introduce traceability to find where a piece of information originated. For this, platforms may have to break end-to-end encryption. The rules require the intermediary to hand over information or assistance to government bodies in 72 hours, including in matters of security or cybersecurity, and for investigative purposes. [Rule 3(5)]
Platforms with more than 50 lakh users are required to be registered under the Companies Act, have a physical address in the country, have a nodal officer who will cooperate with law enforcement agencies, etc. [Rule 3(7)]
Platforms have to pull down unlawful content within a shorter duration of 24 hours from the earlier 36 hours. They also have to keep records of the “unlawful activity” for 180 days – double the period of 90 days in the 2011 rules – as required by the court or government agencies [Rule 3(8)]
Platforms have to deploy tools to proactively identify, remove and disable public access to unlawful information or content. [Rule 3(9)]
The new rules insert a monthly requirement on platforms to inform users of the platforms’ right to terminate usage rights and to remove non-compliant information at their own discretion. [Rule 3(4)]

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/medianama-march-18-2019-zaheer-merchant-proposed-intermediary-liability-rules-threat-privacy-and-free-speech

Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India.pdf

karan — 2019-03-20T08:12:07Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/Improving%20the%20Processes%20for%20Disclosing%20Security%20Vulnerabilities%20to%20Government%20Entities%20in%20India.pdf

The Localisation Gambit: Unpacking policy moves for the sovereign control of data in India

Arindrajit Basu, Elonnai Hickok and Aditya Singh Chawla — 2019-05-21T15:24:58Z

Edited by: Pranav M.B., Vipul Kharbanda and Amber Sinha Research Assistance: Anjanaa Aravindan

The full paper can be accessed here.

Executive Summary

The vision of a borderless internet that functions as an open distributed network is slowly ceding ground to a space that is greatly political, and at risk of fragmentation due to cultural, economic, and geo-political differences. A variety of measures for asserting sovereign control over data within national territories is a manifestation of this trend. Over the past year, the Indian government has drafted and introduced multiple policy instruments which dictate that certain types of data must be stored in servers located physically within the territory of India. These localization gambits have triggered virulent debate among corporations, civil society actors, foreign stakeholders, business guilds, politicians, and governments. This White Paper seeks to serve as a resource for stakeholders attempting to intervene in this debate and arrive at a workable solution where the objectives of data localisation are met through measures that have the least negative impact on India’s economic, political, and legal interests. We begin this paper by studying the pro-localisation policies in India. We have defined data localisation as 'any legal limitation on the ability for data to move globally and remain locally.' These policies can take a variety of forms. This could include a specific requirement to locally store copies of data, local content production requirements, or imposing conditions on cross border data transfers that in effect act as a localization mandate.Presently, India has four sectoral policies that deal with localization requirements based on type of data, for sectors including banking, telecom, and health - these include the RBI Notification on ‘Storage of Payment System Data’, the FDI Policy 2017, the Unified Access License, and the Companies Act, 2013 and its Rules, The IRDAI (Outsourcing of Activities by Indian Insurers) Regulations, 2017, and the National M2M Roadmap.

At the same time, 2017 and 2018 has seen three separate proposals for comprehensive and sectoral localization requirements based on type of data across sectors including the draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2018, draft e-commerce policy, and the draft e-pharmacy regulations. The policies discussed reflect objectives such as enabling innovation, improving cyber security and privacy, enhancing national security, and protecting against foreign surveillance. The subsequent section reflects on the objectives of such policy measures, and the challenges and implications for individual rights, markets, and international relations. We then go on to discuss the impacts of these policies on India’s global and regional trade agreements. We look at the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and its implications for digital trade and point out the significance of localisation as a point of concern in bilateral trade negotiations with the US and the EU. We then analyse the responses of fifty-two stakeholders on India’s data localisation provisions using publicly available statements and submissions. Most civil society groups - both in India and abroad are ostensibly against blanket data localisation, the form which is mandated by the Srikrishna Bill. Foreign stakeholders including companies such as Google and Facebook, politicians including US Senators, and transnational advocacy groups such as the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, were against localisation citing it as a grave trade restriction and an impediment to a global digital economy which relies on the cross-border flow of data. The stance taken by companies such as Google and Facebook comes as no surprise, since they would likely incur huge costs in setting up data centres in India if the localisation mandate was implemented.

Stakeholders arguing for data localisation included politicians and some academic and civil society voices that view this measure as a remedy for ‘data colonialism’ by western companies and governments. Large Indian corporations, such as Reliance, that have the capacity to build their own data centres or pay for their consumer data to be stored on data servers support this measure citing the importance of ‘information sovereignty.’ However, industry associations such as NASSCOM and Internet and Mobile Association of Indian (IAMAI) are against the mandate citing a negative impact on start-ups that may not have the financial capacity to fulfil the compliance costs required. Leading private players in the digital economy, such as Phone Pe and Paytm support the mandate on locally storing payments data as they believe it might improve the condition of financial security services. As noted earlier, various countries have begun to implement restrictions on the cross-border flow of data. We studied 18 countries that have such mandates and found that models can differ on the basis of the strength and type of mandate, as well as the type of data to which the restriction applies, and sectors to which the mandate extends to. These models can be used by india to think think through potential means of pushing through a localisation mandate. Our research suggests that the various proposed data localization measures, serve the primary objective of ensuring sovereign control over Indian data. Various stakeholders have argued that data localisation is a way of asserting Indian sovereignty over citizens’ data and that the data generated by Indian individuals must be owned by Indian corporations. It has been argued that Indian citizens’ data must be governed my Indian laws, security standards and protocols.

However, given the complexity of technology, the interconnectedness of global data flows, and the potential economic and political implications of localization requirements - approaches to data sovereignty and localization should be nuanced. In this section we seek to posit the building blocks which can propel research around these crucial issues. We have organized these questions into the broader headings of prerequisites, considerations, and approaches:

PRE-REQUISITES

From our research, we find that any thinking on data localisation requirements must be preceded with the following prerequisites, in order to protect fundamental rights, and promote innovation.

Is the national, legal infrastructure and security safeguards adequate to support localization requirements?

Are human rights, including privacy and freedom of expression online and offline, adequately protected and upheld in practice?

Do domestic surveillance regimes have adequate safeguards and checks and balances?

Does the private and public sector adhere to robust privacy and security standards and what should be the measure to ensure protection of data?

CONSIDERATIONS

What are the objectives of localization?

Innovation and Local ecosystem

The Srikrishna Committee Report specifically refers to the value in developing an indigenous Artificial Intelligence ecosystem. Much like the other AI strategies produced by the NITI Aayog and the Task Force set up by the Commerce Department, it states that AI can be a key driver in all areas of economic growth, and cites developments in China and the USA as instances of reference.

National Security, Law Enforcement and Protection from Foreign Surveillance

As recognised by the Srikrishna White Paper, a disproportionate amount of data belonging to Indian citizens is stored in the United States, and the presently existing Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties process (MLATs) through which Indian law enforcement authorities gain access to data stored in the US is excessively slow and cumbersome.
The Srikrishna Committee report also states that undersea cable networks that transmit data from one country to another are vulnerable to attack.
The report suggests that localisation might help protect Indian citizens against foreign surveillance.

What are the potential spill-overs and risks of a localisation mandate?

Diplomatic and political: Localisation could impact India’s trade relationships with its partners.
Security risks (“Regulatory stretching of the attack surface”): Storing data in multiple physical centres naturally increases the physical exposure to exploitation by individuals physically obtaining data or accessing the data remotely. So, the infrastructure needs to be backed up with robust security safeguards and significant costs to that effect.
Economic impact: Restrictions on cross-border data flow may harm overall economic growth by increasing compliance costs and entry barriers for foreign service providers and thereby reducing investment or passing on these costs to the consumers. The major compliance issue is the significant cost of setting up a data centre in India combined with the unsuitability of weather conditions. Further, for start-ups looking to attain global stature, reciprocal restrictions slapped by other countries may prevent access to the data in several other jurisdictions.

What are the existing alternatives to attain the same objectives?

The objective and potential alternatives are listed below:

OBJECTIVE	ALTERNATE
Law enforcement access to data	Pursuing international consensus through negotiations rooted in international law
Widening tax base by taxing entities that do not have an economic presence in India	Equalisation levy/Taxing entities with a Significant Economic Presence in India (although an enforcement mechanism still needs to be considered).
Threat to fibre-optic cables	Building of strong defense alliances with partners to protect key choke points from adversaries and threats
Boost to US based advertisement revenue driven companies like Facebook and Google (‘data colonisation’)	Developing robust standards and paradigms of enforcement for competition law

APPROACH

What data might be beneficial to store locally for ensuring national interest? What data could be mandated to stay within the borders of the country? What are the various models that can be adopted?

Mandatory Sectoral Localisation: Instead of imposing a generalized mandate, it may be more useful to first identify sectors or categories of data that may benefit most from local storage.

b. ‘Conditional (‘Soft’) Localisation: For all data not covered within the localisation mandate, India should look to develop conditional prerequisites for transfer of all kinds of data to any jurisdiction, like the Latin American countries, or the EU. This could be conditional on two key factors:

Equivalent privacy and security safeguards: Transfers should only be allowed to countries which uphold the same standards. In order to do this, India must first develop and incorporate robust privacy and security protections.
Agreement to share data with law enforcement officials when needed: India should allow cross-border transfer only to countries that agree toshare data with Indian authorities based on standards set by Indian law.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-localisation-gambit-unpacking-policy-moves-for-the-sovereign-control-of-data-in-india

The Localisation Gambit.pdf

karan — 2019-05-21T15:23:09Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/the-localisation-gambit.pdf

Digital Knowledge

sumandro — 2019-03-16T06:31:14Z

In this cluster, we study the digital conditions of production, circulation, consumption, appropriation, storage, and re-usage of various forms of knowledge in India. It brings together our interests in digital literacy, education and pedagogy; technological infrastructures and devices of digital learning; open access, open educational resources, open data, and open knowledge practices in general and their ecosystems; Internet and the emerging authorities, modes, and platforms of knowledge and education; computational methods in arts, humanities, social science, and natural science research; and software and hardware innovations towards knowledge infrastructures and practices.

Digital Knowledge: All Posts

Previous Projects

Vacancy: Programme Officer (Delhi)

pranav — 2019-03-29T08:44:03Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications for the position of Programme Officer, for research on intellectual property rights and access to knowledge. The position is full time and will be based in CIS’ Delhi office.

Responsibilities

To support and drive new research initiatives of the work done by the IP team, the Programme Officer will be primarily responsible for the following tasks –

Planning and developing research in the subject areas (including, but not limited to) of access to knowledge, international trade and IP treaties, intermediary liability, limitations and exceptions in copyright law, software patents, licensing of SEPs;
Participating in strategic meetings organised by stakeholders;
Locating opportunities and building research partnerships with stakeholders contributing to current and emerging issues;
Contributing to current debates in the relevant research areas.

Core Competencies

Awareness of issues at intersection of Intellectual Property law and emerging tech
Critical appreciation of open knowledge initiatives
Effective communication and collaboration
Intellectual curiosity and openness
Respect for diversity

Functional Competencies

Ability to learn-at-work, especially about the IP-Access to Knowledge and tech ecosystem
Highly organised, motivated, and able to take initiative;
Ability to produce high quality writing outputs regularly
Able to travel for domestic and international engagements

Required Skills and Experience

A degree in law (at a minimum)
Publications to demonstrate good writing and analytical capabilities
Excellent communication skills

Location and Remuneration

This position is based out of the Delhi Office of CIS.

Monthly remuneration for the position will be INR 50,000 (including taxes).

Application Process

We invite interested (and eligible) candidates to apply for the position by sending the following documents to anubha@cis-india.org and copy sunil@cis-india.org, with “Application for Programme Officer (IP)” as the subject.

Cover letter: This should introduce your relevant academic, professional, and other experiences, and describe the kind of work you look forward to do as part of the IP team. We strongly recommend reading CIS’ outputs under this vertical while writing this letter.
CV: This should provide details of your academic, professional, and other achievements.
Work Samples: The position will require you to produce high quality writing outputs regularly. Please share two samples of your writing (published or unpublished). At least one sample should demonstrate an in-depth understanding of intellectual property law.

Interested candidates are invited to send their applications at the earliest - latest by Sunday, March 31st. The shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by the CIS team. If needed, there will be multiple rounds of interviews. We will take the final hiring decision by early April, and invite the selected person to join us from May 1st, 2019.

Please do not hesitate to write to us at anubha@cis-india.org for any clarification regarding this.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-programme-officer-delhi

Rejuvenating India’s Rivers the Wiki Way

subodh — 2019-04-01T13:18:33Z

Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organisation working on rejuvenation of rivers in India, has began documentation of rivers on Wiki, especially to draw attention to and mitigate the crisis of toxic deposits facing more than 40 rivers in India. The work was started by Jal Biradari, TBS’s Maharashtra based group, in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team of CIS. Here is the report from the first pilot workshop conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, in Alwar, Rajasthan.

Events details on Wikimedia meta page

The Workshop

As per a Government of India report 42 rivers in India are polluted with toxic heavy metal deposits in them. To mitigate this crisis Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organization working on rejuvenation of rivers in India began documentation of rivers on Wiki. The work was started by TBS’s Maharashtra based group Jal Biradari in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge team of CIS (CIS-A2K).

Realizing the potential of the project TBS decided to integrate this as training module in their capacity building workshops conducted at Bhikampura in Rajasthan. The first pilot workshop was conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, Bhikampura, Alwar in Rajasthan for 34 participants from eight states of India. Dr. Rajendra Singh, Maulik Sisodiya and Subodh Kulkarni, CIS-A2K were the facilitators. The objectives behind organizing the workshop was to build an open knowledge resource on water related issues in all Indian languages, document the river basins of India, train volunteers working in the sector to work in Wikimedia projects, open street mapping exercises and photo walks along the river and post free content on Commons and Wikisource projects.

The documentation structure for river basin was decided through participatory process. The participants were divided into 6 groups for working on 6 river basins of Arvari district. The resource material available with TBS in the form of maps, reports, training booklets was used to prepare the schematic maps of each river basin. The water bodies such as ponds, manmade structures like dams were also listed.


Activists during the workshop conducted by TBS in Alwar, Rajasthan in December 2018

After this pre-work, the training on Wikipedia editing started. The participants worked in sandboxes first on their articles. The manual of style, giving offline and online references and categorisation were discussed and practiced on sandboxes. The Commons session started with elaborate discussion on copyrights, licenses and encyclopedic content. The images were uploaded on Commons and used in the articles. The articles in the sandboxes were presented by each working group. Taking into consideration various suggestions, appropriate modifications were done. The finished new articles and the additional content into existing articles were then moved in the main namespace of respective language Wikipedia. TBS has decided to re-license 30 books and training material on river in CC-BY-SA. Participants who attended the workshop have started contributing in various languages.

Participants' Feedback

“Rivers are essential for existence of life in land. Keeping its sanctity and health is very important. The Wikimedia workshop gave an insight on river pollution issues and the importance of reviving them. As Wikipedia is an open platform it can create a larger impact by reaching out to the society.” - Mrityunjay1010

“The wiki-workshop on "Rivers on Wiki" has been my maiden experience in the context of generalizing the knowledge for common good. The workshop gave me a lens to see the usage of Wikipedia in regional languages as a medium for environmental consciousness building as well as conservation. Wikipedia as a means for social audit was also another enriching experience in that workshop.” - Simantabharati

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-rejuvenating-indias-rivers-the-wiki-way

The city of Bhubaneswar is going Open

sailesh — 2019-03-07T11:41:16Z

The Openness movement is a concept or philosophy that is characterized by an emphasis on transparency, free and unrestricted access to knowledge and information. The movement across the world is trying to build on the interest of like-minded people and an urgent need of bringing new resources of knowledge for the benefit of people with a method of collaborative or cooperative management. Many successful projects such as OpenStreetMap, Github, Wikimedia projects are free, open for everyone and evolve both by contributions and review efforts by participant volunteers. Open Knowledge Projects across the world are embarking upon a silent revolution to change the way information and knowledge are consumed by people.

Bhubaneswar supporting the concept of Openness movement has joined as one of the ambassadors of the movement in the world by giving citizens the right to access the content online produced by the government and make use of the work. As the city turned 70-year-old as the capital of Odisha in April 2018, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched two websites — Bhubaneswar.me and Smart City Bhubaneswar under a Creative Commons license. The websites were made to provide visitor or tourist information about the city and to showcase various projects being undertaken as a part of the Smart City mission.

A visual walk-through video was released for the visit.Bhubaneswar.me and Smart City website over social media sites for the public to understand the features of the websites which ended saying “Knowledge now made more accessible”, anyone can use the content and data of the website under the campaign for Transparency in Governance. These websites have adopted Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license also known as CC-BY-4.0, which allows the citizens of Bhubaneswar to use the work of the government. Creative Commons licenses are a set of open licenses that are used worldwide to enable widen use and reuse of creative work that is otherwise restricted by the strict copyright laws. Currently, the majority of government websites under the Bhubaneswar administration are under an Open license.

Transparency is considered the traditional hallmark of an open government, meaning that the public should have access to government-held information and be informed of government proceedings, says an article from Opensource.com. Transparency, accountability, and participation are one of the needed conditions for the government to ensure that public resources are used efficiently, public policies are designed in the best interest of the population.

Though most of the government websites can be accessed online, the content of those sites are not open by default, the government has to adopt a specific license to open their content. In September 2017, Odisha became the first state in India to release all of its social media contents under a free license such as Creative Commons license, initially eight social media accounts of the state government were part of the project and followed by few other departments under the state government releasing their content under the same license. Because of this initiative by the government, currently, ten or more websites and eight social media accounts are allowing people from all around the world to freely reuse the state government’s work.

As the content of the websites is under a free license it creates an impact on a project like Wikipedia-one of the most popular websites in the world and the largest online encyclopedia available on the internet, committed to free and open copyright licenses from its earliest days on the internet. Currently, a near about files from the websites and social media accounts of the Government of Odisha are added into Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia’s sister site and an open multimedia repository, under a content donation program of which 70% of files are used in different Wikipedia articles, all of which together has received over 25 million page views in last 18 months.

Cities opening their data and content for the citizens encourages individuals for new innovation and to form new ideas that help to bridge the gap in the city. A report from Forbes in 2012 says Open city data can help app developers, urban planners, and others understand a city’s problems and manage city services in ways that improve the quality of life and business prospects for its residents. When Bhubaneswar led the way of promoting the Openness movement in India, there is a huge scope for the rest of the cities to adopt open licensing to make knowledge more accessible for the citizens and enhance public trust in government.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-city-of-bhubaneswar-is-going-open

CIS-A2K Finance Officer: Call for application

tito — 2019-03-07T08:46:29Z

The Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet and Society is seeking applications for the position of Finance Officer, to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme. The job application is open to women only.

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications from prospective candidates who identify themselves as female, for the position of Finance Officer, to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme. The job application is open to women only because we feel that a woman Finance Officer will contribute more towards bridging the gender gap in the Wikimedia movement and also it will bring a gender balance in the team. The position is full time and will be based in CIS’ Bangalore office No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071. Finance Officer will work closely with the CIS-A2K Team and would report to the Executive Director/any supervisor in Team.

Position Summary

As a Finance Officer, your job will be to support the A2K Programme and the community members in financial related aspects such as filing the reimbursements, maintaining the books of accounts etc.

Characteristics of the Programme Officer

High level of commitment: The Finance Officer should believe in the values of CIS and Wikimedia projects, exude enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and communicate the mission.
Intellectual curiosity and flexibility: Must enjoy tackling difficult, ambiguous problems and able to incorporate new knowledge into how one approaches situations and generates solutions, loves learning from others while expanding intellectual horizons.
Open and transparent: Have a high level of integrity and be comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion.
Strong cultural competency: Able to navigate in a global movement and on a global team in addition to navigating the complexity of India.
Willing to travel: The Finance Officer must regularly travel within India during the events to help the community members to file the reimbursements.

Responsibilities

You will be responsible for the overall finance-related aspects of Team that include maintaining the books of accounts, filing the reimbursements.
Assistance in book-keeping to include monthly expenditure, financial statements, accounts receivable, accounts payable, disbursement journal, trial balance, tax reports, etc.
Work in preparation of budgets, proposals, objectives, audits, annual reports.

Requirements

Prior experience of working in a collaborative community, preferably an open movement.
Must be fluent in English and at least in one Indian language.
Minimum of 1-year experience in clerical/bookkeeping/accounting field.
Ability and flexibility to deal with pressure and deadlines.
Good knowledge of formulas in excel sheets.
Basic knowledge of Tally software.

Wikimedians will be given priority.

Location: The position is based out of the CIS’s Bangalore office.

Remuneration: Compensation structure will be determined by the level of expertise, experience and current remuneration.

Contract period

Initial contract will be till 30 June 2019, following the current work-plan of the A2K team

Apply

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to Tito Dutta (tito+fo@cis-india.org) (please do not miss the +fo part in the email address). The last date of application is 18 March 2019.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-finance-officer-call-for-application

Train the Trainer program 2018

sailesh — 2019-03-06T08:13:05Z

Trainer the Trainer program is an annual three days residential program organised by the Access to Knowledge Program of Centre for Internet and Society. The program identifies the community leaders and brings Wikimedians from and around the SAARC countries to train them and provide mentorship in their work.

Train the Trainer 2018 was the 5th iteration of the Train the Trainer Program by the CIS-A2K. This year TTT was organised in the city of Mysore. The event was attended by 21 Wikimedians throughout the Indic language communities, including three foreign delegates from Bangladesh and Nepal. Like previous years, this year, TTT followed the pre-event session with ice breaker activities, which helped the Wikimedians to know each other, and interact with the fellow participants.

The day one of TTT 2018 began with a small round of formal introductions for participants who joined later, the idea of the introduction session was for the participants to share their area expertise and projects they are working on. We have always identified that during the free time participants interact with each other and talk about collaboration activities, so this session helps to know more about your fellow participants. We had a Master Class (Master Class 1) about the Pre and Post event best practices, for the participants to understand how to plan an an event and what should be the preworks before organising an event, we also had sessions on best practices for community members to write and review grant proposals and an introductory session on Wikidata.

The day two was a field trip (Master Class 2) to Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, a local zoo in Mysore. The intent of the field trip was to give exposure to the participants to learn in an open environment. Followed by the field trip, a session on Diversity initiatives was conducted to understand the challenges and opportunities of having a diverse community.

On the day three, the participants were introduced to a variety of Wikimedia events (Master Class 3) and a panel discussion by Wikimedia affiliates from India (WMF, Chapter, User-group and CIS-A2K) about the organisational structure and responsibilities. The aim of the panel was to help the participants to understand the structure of Wikimedia affiliates in Inda, to share the different kind of events and collaborations they can do with the affiliates. This year CIS-A2K introduced Revolving cafe for the participants to attend some parallel sessions related to Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Institutional Partnership, Support and Safety. The day was concluded with a lightning talk on Social media best practices, how affiliates and community member should use social media channels to promote their work. Subsequently, there was feedback and summing up session.

This year CIS-A2K made a few changes to the Train the Trainer program, for the first time the event was held out of Bangalore. We had invited a longtime Punjabi Wikimedian, a previous alumnus of TTT to externally audit the TTT 2018 being part of the team. Dr Manavpreet Kaur has provided a 10 points suggestion/feedback to the team which will be addressed in TTT 2019.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/train-the-trainer-program-2018

Talks by Richard Abisla and Kaliya Young

Admin — 2019-03-07T23:59:25Z

The Centre for Internet & Society will be hosting public talks by Richard Abisla and Kaliya Young, who are both 2019 India-U.S. Public Interest Technology Fellows at New America at its Bangalore office on March 4, 2019.

The event is over. Pictures of the speakers were posted on Twitter.

Agenda

4:30 - 5:10 p.m.: "Open Data from Below: Civil Society and Open Data" by Richard Abisla
5:10 - 5:50 p.m.: "Exploring the Domains of Identity and Emerging Open standards for Decentralized Identity" by Kaliya Young

The Talks

"Open Data from Below: Civil Society and Open Data" by Richard Abisla

Often NGOs and Civil Society Organizations' roles in the Open Data movement are considered to be solely last mile training with citizens. This talk will give examples from the TechSoup Global Network of how NGOs act to prioritize, organize, and create open data sets that can exist alongside official data sources, or become official government data. The talk will explore barriers to opening up data, both from within government and civil society, and possible solutions. For more info click here.

"Exploring the Domains of Identity and Emerging Open standards for Decentralized Identity" by Kaliya Young

In this seminar she will share two significant pieces of her work firstly the Domains of Identity that provides a clear picture of all the different domains individual's data ends up in databases. This can serve as the basis of a dialogue about the proper relationship between different domains. Secondly she has been at the heart of a community developing new Decentralized Identity Technology standards and will share more about them and how they can enable a many-to-many exchange of verifiable credentials between individuals and the institutions they interact with.

The Speakers

Richard Abisla

Richard Abisla is a 2019 India-U.S. Fellow at New America. Abisla is currently the Portfolio Manager for the Americas at Caravan Studios, a division of TechSoup. Abisla has a long history of working alongside local communities to help them access digital information and education and integrate technology into both their work and lives. He has created and directed technology education and adoption programs in Honduras, Jamaica, Chicago, and San Francisco, all the while focusing on increasing access to digital resources for those who need them most. Most recently, Abisla has focused on working with librarians and library users in Brazil to create applications and processes that help solve local problems through open data resources, as well as training librarians to integrate human-centered design principles into their work in order to plan more impactful programming.

Kaliya Young

Kaliya Young is a 2019 India-U.S. Fellow at New America. Young is one of the world’s leading experts on decentralized or self-sovereign identity technology. She is the author of A Comprehensive Guide to Self-Sovereign Identity and currently holds the position of adjunct professor at Merritt College where she is developing a curriculum about identity. For the last 15 years, she has worked within the industry to catalyze the formation of a new layer of the internet designed to serve individuals. She began sketching out distributed social networks in 2003 and co-founded the Internet Identity Workshop in 2005 with Doc Searls and Phil Windley. More details can be found here. She is also known as Identity Woman.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/talks-by-richard-abisla-and-kaliya-young

Centre for Internet and Society

March 2019 Newsletter

Highlights for March 2019

Jobs

CIS and the News

CIS in the News

Access to Knowledge

Copyright and Patent

Wikipdedia

Openness

Internet Governance

Cyber Security

Privacy

Free Speech and Expression

Artificial Intelligence, ICT and IoT

Researchers at Work (RAW)

About CIS

Programme Officer - Digital Identity

To apply for this position please write to amber@cis-india.org along with a CV, two writing samples and contact details of two references. Interested candidates are invited to send their applications at the earliest - latest by April 15th.

Organisation Profile

About Digital Identity Project

The Role

Qualifications and Skills

Presentation at Global Digital Humanities Symposium

Puthiya Purayil Sneha (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India)

Comments and Suggestions to the Draft Patent Manual March 2019

Proposed Intermediary Liability Rules threat to privacy and free speech, global coalition tells MeitY

The proposed amendments to Intermediary Liability Rules

Improving the Processes for Disclosing Security Vulnerabilities to Government Entities in India.pdf

The Localisation Gambit: Unpacking policy moves for the sovereign control of data in India

The Localisation Gambit.pdf

Digital Knowledge

Digital Knowledge: All Posts

Previous Projects

Indian Newspapers' Digital Transition (2016)

Mapping Digital Humanities in India (2014-2016)

Pathways to Higher Education

The Digital Classroom in the Time of Wikipedia (2012)

Vacancy: Programme Officer (Delhi)

Responsibilities

Core Competencies

Functional Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Location and Remuneration

Application Process

Rejuvenating India’s Rivers the Wiki Way

Events details on Wikimedia meta page

The Workshop

Participants' Feedback

The city of Bhubaneswar is going Open

CIS-A2K Finance Officer: Call for application

Position Summary

Characteristics of the Programme Officer

Responsibilities

Requirements

Contract period

Apply

Train the Trainer program 2018

Talks by Richard Abisla and Kaliya Young

Agenda

The Talks

"Open Data from Below: Civil Society and Open Data" by Richard Abisla

"Exploring the Domains of Identity and Emerging Open standards for Decentralized Identity" by Kaliya Young

The Speakers

Richard Abisla

Kaliya Young