Centre for Internet and Society

Transcript of the Opening Ceremony, WCIT-2012

snehashish — 2012-12-03T13:57:52Z

Rough live-transcript of the Opening Ceremony of the World Conference on International Telecommunications, 2012 (WCIT-12) held on December 3, 2012.

World Conference on International Telecommunications
Dubai United Arab Emirates
Opening ceremony
03 December 2012
11:00

Excellencies. Ladies and gentlemen. I request you to take your seats. The conference will begin in a few moments. You will need to use your headsets as this is a silent meeting.
There will be simultaneous interpretations in the six languages of the United Nations. On channel 1 you will find English. French 2. Spanish on channel 3. Russian on channel 4. Chinese on channel 5. And Arabic on channel 6.
For any assistance with WiFi connections, please feel free to call upon the staff wearing blue caps.
The ITU staff of koshs is available to assist you in any other matters.
We will begin very shortly. Please take your seats. Thank you.

(Please stand by. The meeting will begin momentarily)

.
>> Ladies and gentlemen. Would you please be up standing for the national anthem.
Thank you.
(Music) (Applause)
Honorable Ministers, excellency, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the ITU oying and the telecommunications regulatory authority of the United Arab Emirates, it is my great pleasure too welcome you here today to the World Conference on International Telecommunications, here at the World Trade Center in the wonderful City of Dubai. We have almost 2000 delegates assembled here, from 160 of the 1934 Member States, of the -- 193 Member States of the ITU. Many old and new friends from NGO, and the general public, you are all truly very welcome.
Over the preceding months, the world has expressed a great interest in the outcomes of this conference.
its collective eyes and ears are focusing a tentatively on us, but I feel very confident that we will not disappoint them.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. bn can I moon, has shown a particular interest in the outcomes of this conference, and we are honored today to commence this opening ceremony with an address which we will share with you now.
Thank you.

>> BAN-KI MOON: Excellencies. Secretary-General Toure', Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm pleased to address the ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications. I thank the United Arab Emirates for hosting.
Information and communications technologies are transforming our world, opening doors, educating, and empowering people, saving lives. The Arab Spring showed the power of ICT to help people voice their legitimate demands for human rights and greater accountability.
As we strive to achieve Millennium Development Goals and shape the post 2015 development agenda, expanding the benefits of ICTs will be crucial.
In the coming days, you will review the agreement that underpins how we communicate with each other across the globe.
Our over all objective must be to ensure universal access to information and communication technology, including for the two-thirds of the world's population currently not online.
A digital divide has no place in the information age, and 21st Century knowledge economy.
The management of information and communication technology should be transparent, Democratic, and inclusive. I'm great fied that you have -- I'm gratified that you have taken steps to open the process, including the vital voices of society and the -- civil society and the private sector. The U naitions systems hand between an open Internet. The right to communicate is essential to the ITU U Commission, the of declaration of human rights guarantees freedom of expression across all media and all frontiers. As a World Summit on Information Society, the free flow of information and ideas is essential for peace, development, human rights, and our common progress.
These freedoms are ind Spes sabl. We must continue to work together and find consensus on how to effectively keep cyberspace open, accessible, affordable and secure for all. I trust that together Governments, industry and civil society will rise to this occasion.
I wish you a successful conference.
(Applause)
. I would like to thank Mr. Ban-Ki moon in his absence for his message.
The United Arab Emirates has been a very generous host firstly WTSA which concluded last week and now to this WCIT. I want to invite the Director General of the regulatory authority to give an address on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
(Applause)
.
>> In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate doctor Hamadoun I. Toure', Secretary-General of the ITU, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, please be upon you in God's mercy and blessings.
It is an honor for me to welcome you to the World Conference on International Telecommunications. We are very proud to be able to welcome you here in the Middle East especially in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates have always been very honored to host such events. We would like to mention the fact that we hosted ITU Telecom World 2012 in October. And we hosted the world telecommunications standardization Assembly and now we are meeting for the World Conference on International Telecommunications.
We are very grateful for the trust that the ITU has demonstrated in us. The United Arab Emirates throughout its history has always been a living example of coexistence between different cultures and races. And from the ideal destination to embrace everyone without exception.
The foundations of the union were laid by late His Highness sheikh p Zayed bin Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Nahyan. He solved a great men issues in the interests of all. This conference was held at a timeline line when we are celebrating the 41st anniversary of our be loved country. We celebrate this under the spirit of our father, the late sheikh. The spirit which establishes our close ties and enable unity and solidarity and reflected spaes and love in our relations with the world and we hope this spirit will prevail in the work of this conference. We aspire today that the same spirit of oush union will facilitate the work of the world conference of the International Telecommunication Union and contribute as much as possible to play the role of consensus between the parties.
The UAE was among the first countries in the region and in the world investing in extensively in ICTs. We would like to provide the best possible services in this area, and we believe that the time has come today to take opportunities before us to ensure that we build a sound knowledge based economy.
We organized a forum on Next Generation Networks in order to accelerate the process of turning the telecommunications sector in the country into a very solid sector and to improve the communications systems and provide enterprises with the next-generation technology.
In this context and in support of the development plans for the state to support the knowledge based economy, it was announced by His Highness, sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and prime Minister and ruler of Dubai to further develop intelligent networks which will depend on the technical skills to acquire knowledge and exchange information using fourth generation networks based on IP, which represents backbone of the initiative. Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to share with you that according -- this recording that we are -- that this conference is being held, where the last conference was held in 1988, in Melbourne, Australia.
So this conference will be a new starting point to redefine our responsibilities and all the people of the world are looking at what we are doing today. Governments, service providers, and users, and we must rise to this challenge and assume our responsibilities.
Ministers, decision makers, and experts have all come together here to discuss the most important ICT issues, which are the very backbone and life blood of the world economy.
This will enable us to build on our achievements so far. The United Arab Emirates are hosting this conference as a stakeholder in this development. And I would like to welcome you yet again to our country.
I hope we will be able to make this into a better world with the tools at our disposal. And I hope that society will not be disappointed. I hope the global community will not be disappointed in us.
I hope we are successful in our work to further prosperity and well being for our people.
Thank you.
(Applause)

>> I now call about Mr. Fadi Chehade', President and CEO of the ICANN to address the delegates. His presence embodies the multi-stakeholder spirit of greater collaboration and coordination between ITU and ICANN and of the Internet ecosystem in general. We really thank him for accepting the Secretary-General's invitation as well as the UAE invitations to join us here today. Mr. Fadi Chehade', please.
(Applause)

>> FADI CHEHADE; Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mohammed Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Nahyan. Dr. Toure', excellencies, Minister, and heads of delegations. Ladies and gentlemen. I am deeply honored to address your distinguished conference today.
Responding to a truly most gracious invitation from Mr. Mohammed the Chairman of the conference, and the ITU Secretary-General, doctor Hamadoun I. Toure'. Thank you.
I sincerely thank both of them on behalf of myself and Dr. Steve Crocker, Chairman of the board of ICANN, who is here with us today, for their invitation to this historic opening ceremony.
I am here because I believe in the power of engagement.
Engagement starts with listening and I'm here for that.
It's a new season of engagement at ICANN and it's a new season of cooperation between ICANN and the ITU, which started recently at a meeting with Dr. Toure' at the IGF in Baku.
I recognize the ITU's deep impact on the development of the telecommunications industry and the broadband infrastructure of which we all benefit every day. Especially in the developing world, the world I come from.
The ITU and ICANN have complementary roles, and moving forward we shall cooperate in good spirit while clearly respecting our distinct roles. I therefore join my fellow organisations, the ISOC, the IETF, the regional Internet registries in our continued deep commitment to service the world's needs for Internet governance.
Allow me to address you now in my mother tongue, Arabic.
When we initiated cooperation with colleagues and brothers in the Arab world, I was delighted to meet the leaders of the Arab delegations here. It was a very fruitful meeting. And we committed ourselves to a period of cooperation and coordination on my own name and on behalf of ICANN. I would like to thank you all for that cooperative spirit, which is extremely positive and I should, too, like to take this opportunity to express my satisfaction and pride to see such an important conference being held in an Arab country, this brother country, the UAE. It is certainly a matter for great pride for all of those of us working in ICTs.
I thank the following. When I started at ICANN, I said we can build organisations either as fortresses or as Oasis.
I invite you to join me in making our organisations open Oasis. The Oasis is welcoming. It's open, it's vital. And that's what I intend to do. Remove the walls. Open the Windows. So that we can all participate together in building organisations that are welcoming, that are transparent, and I'm committed to that in front of all of you.
I wish you the best with your conference. Thank you.
(Applause)
.
>> And thank you to Mr. Fadi Chehade' for sharing his wishes of transparency and working together for the success of the conference.
On this very special time as we celebrate the 41st anniversary of the union of the Arab Emirates, let's take a few minutes to learn something about the history of the union.
Thank you.
(Video)
On December 2, 1971, the trution States gave way to the knewly born United Arab Emirates. Meeting in what was known as the guest palace, the rulers of abby, Dubai, Shaza, Umar quand and Suzara established the independent state of the UEA.
Ras Alqimi joined in February of the following year. Ruler of abda be was elected President of this new country.
Sheikh rach shid been Zayed Maktoum ruler of Dubai was appointed as the UAE's first Vice President and Minister. Together the dignitaries and guests gathered under the world's newest national flag. Today union house stands as a reminder of this successful federation shall with a much larger national flag now flying over this historic landmark.
Looking back, it's amazing how far the United Arab Emirates have progressed in such a short space of time.
It began with pearls. The perl industry was a major source of income for communities on the Arabian peninsula. Tribes men would migrate to the coast during the perling season to work on the fleets putting to sea. The perling Dows would spend many weeks and months gathering oyster s from the sea bed. The industry collapsed in the 19 30 due to the artificial pearls. Coastal communities dependent on fishesing and perling had to find new sources of income. It was shortly after this that the first air links to the region were established. Shaza became a stop over for aircraft enrule from GB, India and on to Australia. Passengers stayed overnight in the Almahada for the. It was practical. Necessary to protect against occasional raids by Bedoinn. Today the site is an aviation museum, displaying aircraft that served the region.
And Shaja has grown from its humble beginnings into a major city. (Sharjah)

These oorj dusty air Industrial Properties evolved into gleaming modern airports, linking the UAE to every major city in the world. Oil was discovered in commercial quantityness 19 58. Development of this abundant resource begin shortly thereafter, 196 2 the SO Dublin loaded the first cargo of crude oil.
In addition to exporting oil, the need to be self sufficient led to the opening of the Ruas oil refinery. On shore and offshore oil production continued to develop throughout the 1960 s.
The oil wealth was put to use improving infrastructure. The City of Abu Dhabi embarked on a wave of construction that saw the island's shoreline dramatically change.
The city's oldest building, Al Hausin or the white forth elected in 1798 was the most prominent landmark in the city. Today the Fort now undergoing restoration is surrounded by the sky scrapers of Abu Dhabi. The city is still growing, worthy of its place among the world's capitals.
With pearls now no longer able to supply vital income, the resilient City of Dubai turned to trade to restore its fortunes. It became a base for commerce throughout the Gulf region. The Dubai creek, tradition assistive technology alley the centre of business was dredged in the early 1960 s to allow larger Dows to navigate the water way. This allowed the city to continue to grow as an important commercial hub. Dows laden did goods are still seen, and an historical link between the old and new. Increasing demand led to the world's largest manmade port ceeing created. The docks are testament to the value role it now plays at centre of regional trade. These successful commercial links brought great change to the City of Dubai. Once crowded narrow alleyways, hardly wide enough to accommodate cam pels and donkeys have turned into highways. And there are record breaking sky scapeers and developments that are the Icons of the city.
In land, in the em RIT of abda by lies the oasis of Laine. It was the base for the p Omani skouts who set out on camel to police the area. They were based at Al Jehili forth which was used as sheikh Zayed the first. Surrounding the forth, the Houses were made from mud brick or palm fronds. Today the forth stands restored and is a popular tourist attraction.
The modern City of Alain and surrounding district expanded to be home to over 380,000 people.
Throughout the country, constant reminders of these links with the past can be found sitting side by side with modern wonders.
Practical has given way to recreational. Forts stand restored as museums. Construction methods have changed. Some things, however, remain the same.
The people of the UAE still remember and honor their past as they move into the future. A reminder of how much has been achieved in such a short space of time.
(Applause) vrnlts Honorable Ministers, excellency, ladies and gentlemen. It is as always a very great pleasure for me to invite the gentleman hose untiring energy has brought us all here together today, the International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure', to give his inAugust url speech. Dr. Toure, please.
(Applause)

>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you. Request morning to you all.
Excellencies, my dear brother, Mohamed Nasser Al-Ghanum, distinguished Ministers, delegates, my colleagues, elected officials of the union, the Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, directors. Director of Ability, Mr. Brahima Sanou, Director of TSB Mr. Malcolm Johnson, ladies and gentlemen.
What a great history we have seen here today. I would like to congratulate our host for all they have achieved in this 41 years of great history. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, welcome to the official opening of the World Conference on International Telecommunications, WCIT 12. We are very grateful to be here in Dubai and I would like to thank the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of United Arab Emirates for the tremendous facilities and efficient staff and support that they have provided to us.
Dubai is one of the most modern cities in the world, a city which has grown to become a wonderful symbol of Emirati culture and progress and a city which can rightly claim to be one of the greatest symbols of human achievement in the modern world.
So let me congratulate the United Arab Emirates on the 41st anniversary, yesterday, on its foundation on 2 December 1971.
Let me take the opportunity to again thank my good friend Fadi Chehade', President and CEO of ICANN, and Dr. Steve Crocker, Chairman of ICANN, who have accepted my invitation to come here. I have invited Fadi to recognize here the impact of ICANN on the development of Internet, and I've said this, this morning in our heads of delegations meeting that I believe we should be reaching out and them accepting here means that they are on the same road. I think if you help us, we can walk the talk and I believe I can count on you and the words that I received when I heard of the acceptance of Fadi Chehade' to this meeting was a testimony of everyone here, believing that it's time to start working together to be complementary and to work together. And I believe we have started the first step of that.
And I would like to count on you here to help us continue in that direction.
I believe it's the right direction. I believe it's the direction that will help us achieve great things for the humanity. The users out there in the world are not waiting for fights among us here. They are looking for results, so that we can help them be together in this knowledge society that we are all dreaming of.
On that note, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my good friend Minister and Senateter Steven conRoy, Minister of Telecommunications in Australia for his presence. Why I'm sing blink out Senator Conroy not only because of the achievement he made in his country, not only because of his contribution to the broadband Commission for the Internet development, but also balls Melbourne was the place for the last conference of the nature. 1988.
I would like to tell Senator Conway that the Melbourne conference has served its purpose. Thanks to the ITRs in 1988, the stage was set. The foundations were laid for the information society we are in today. Because thanks to the ITRs in 1988, the deregulation, privatization, competition, and innovation and growth that came in the 1990 s, ways were founded, and therefore I would like to thank Australia for being the host of such a big conference. This event, the WCIT 12 will bring to a close a most important year, ladies and gentlemen, for ITU. A year which has proved that consensus is the very foundation of harmony. It was a year we started with the world conference in Geneva, an event which achieved consensus on issues vital to the continued advancement of the global ICT sector.
And it was a year which just last week wrapped up in the world telecommunications standardization Assembly here in this room, an event which also successfully demonstrated the true might and power of consensus.
WCIT 12 as the resulting today will fulfill the promise not just of this year but of the entire century and a half of consensus building which makes ITU's history so unique.
Distinguished Delegates, we are here to explore the best ways to ensure that all the world's people can benefit from affordable, equitable access to ICTs.
I will take more time this afternoon of course to discuss this in more detail. But let me just list a few of the most important subjects for discussion where I can see in the proposals made that it is a great promise of being able to achieve compromise based on those proposals made here.
It includes broadband investment, we need to make sure that there is enough investment in the infrastructure to carry the traffic that we see that is going on -- growing in an expo nen shal way, voice, video and data, including the Internet.
Energy efficiency, accessibility, security, how the consequences of unsolicited content, misuse of numbering, roaming, reducing taxtation, how can this industry continue to be heavily taxed while it's the basis for all other industries in times of economic crisis?
Price transparency, the fostering of competitive, and Freedom of Expression that has been mentioned that was a risk of blocking the Freedom of Expression. So we made sure that we are addressing this issue in the very beginning of this conference * so that everyone understands that nothing can stop Freedom of Expression in this world today.
And nothing in this conference will be about that. On the contrary, what we do today here in this conference will enable the access to those people who want to express their Freedom of Expression.
Ladies and gentlemen, what you will notice in this list is that I have not mentioned one thing. Controlling the Internet. I did not mention that. Indeed, we have heard this morning from the President and CEO of ICANN, Fadi Chehade', who was invited as a special guest, along with the Chairman of the board. And I'm pleased that they are here so that we can start working together.
I'm very pleased to see that all stakeholders are very represented here with national delegations comprising representatives from Government, industry, and civil society as well as technical and legal experts and others, making this a fully inclusive conference.
Distinguished Delegates, this is a historic occasion and it is a hisser Rick opportunity asthma hat ma Gandhi said, the future depends on what you do today."
Gandhi also said you must be the change you want to see in the world."
In our debates and deliberations here in Dubai, let us remember the opening words of the charter of the United Nations. "We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the Scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorry to mankind. And to these ends, to practice tolerance and to live together in peace with one another as good neighbors and to unite our strength to maintain peace and security."
And we heard from Ban-Ki Moon, whose work is to ensure that there is peace and stability in this world. We share our desire for security, for our society. Peace for all peoples of the world and prosperity for our children and future generations.
Everyone here has a vital role to play. The Member State delegations include representatives of all stakeholders. There are some very large delegations here and some very small ones. To those smaller delegation, let me remind you of an old African proverb. "If you think you are too small to make a difference, then you have never spent a night with a Mosquito:"
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most important two weeks in the history of IC it is and it's time for us to work together and we can. Over the past six years, as Secretary-General of ITU, I have had the chance, the privilege, to travel widely across the globe. I have visited countries large and small and I have visited countries rich and poor, and everywhere, everywhere I have traveled, I've dishavediscovered that we all share the same hopes, dreams and aspirations. We are united, wherever we are, wherever we were born or whenever we came from, by a desire for progress. We want to grow. We want to develop. We want to innovate. To aspire to a better life for ourselves, certainly, but even more so for our children and our children's children.
And someone like me, who is lucky to be a grandfather can dream more, better, than the good life for my grandchildren.
We plant the tiny seeds that will grow into mighty trees. We look up to the stores. When you see, you know, there is a saying when you see a blutful flower up there, the roots of the tree are in the mud. * someone needs to do the work. And this has loads of progress and it's part of what makes us human. So Distinguished Delegates, we are here in did you boy to chart the course toward a better future. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a great membership bringing together great minds to a great meeting. We are also incredibly fortunate to be working in a sector, the information and technology sector that does so much to improve the lives of people across the world and which drives sustainable social and economic development. It is true, in the 21st Century, access to communication and information is ee vengs and invaluable. And this is true in the developed world and it is true in the developing world as well. I traveled to some of the world's most underserved countries and I have seen what ICTs really mean for the lives of those who have so little and the opportunities it can create for their children and for future generations. ICTs give people the power to totally transform their lives through education, healthcare and everything else on the online world we can deliver.
We have linked access bing broadband to Millennium Development Goals, to sustainable growth. ICTs also deliver a clear macro and microeconomic benefits. The at the macro economic level, we know that increasing mobile Tele dense see leads to additional GDP growth. This is even more true for increases in broadband penetration which deliver a multiplier effect. We have seen the difference of what can be made by mobile banking N and to the lives of people in southern India, where profits rose by 8 percent and consumer prices fell by 4 percent on average once the fishermen had mobile phones. When you transform individuals, you also transform whole societies and whole economies. *
75 years ago, during the second Inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt put it very wisely when he said "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
Ladies and gentlemen, I look forward to the successful outcome of this conference in 12 days' time. I look forward to knowing that we have done the right thing and created an enduring framework to ensure that all the world's people have access to ICTs.
lastz week, I made the statement when the telecommunications mobile infrastructure and Internet work were cut off in Syria. I condemd those actions. I demanded that the Government restore those back immediately. For some of the opponents of this conference, I received from some of them, I received a nice, for the first time, a nice note saying Hamadoun thanks for saying what you said about the Internet. They ignored what I said about the telecommunication and the mobile infrastructure. It was a nice gesture from them, their side, to understand that we are worried about that. I did the same message a year ago when it happened in Egypt. And four years ago, when it happened in Myanmar. I was first to do that.
But what's -- what they have not noted is the fact that there was -- in Syria, the mobile penetration was close to 70 percent. sbu but the Internet penetration is 20 percent. For the 80 percent of the people in Syria, Internet was not cut off because it was simply not there. And tutors of the Hugh -- two-thirds of the human population don't have access to the Internet. And that access, the people here are involved in ensuring that we have that access. That's what this conference is about.
Thank you.
(Applause)

Ladies and gentlemen, I look forward to sharing with you that in the knowledge that we can hold our heads up high for the future generations. Distinguished Delegates, I firmly believe that there are three keys to the success of this conference. They are: Consensus. Consensus. And consensus.
Just last month, I was reminded that while elections are by definition win-lose successful negotiations are always win-win. And that's what this conference is about. Win-win. In the true tradition of ITU. I look forward to seeing how the spirit of consensus, the spirit of compromise and the spirit of multi-stakeholderism will come together to deliver that win-win solution. And I'm confident that each one of us here will do our best to ensure security for our soy site, peace for all nations and prosperity for our children and future generations. Let me close with a quote from Mandella. The time for the healing of wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us."
Indeed, the time to build is upon us. We shall succeed.
I thank you very much.
(Applause)
.
>> Thank you very much for that uplifting speech. Our final presentation today will bring to the forefront the global advances made possible by the ICT industry. I hope you enjoy this presentation. Thank you.
(Video) information and communications has come a long way since the first message sent over the Atlanta in 1844 by Sam sul Morris. The need to be in constant touch with our family, colleagues and friends and business associates across the globe has accelerated technology development.
The digital revolution has made the telephone, Internet and social networking an integral part of modern life. Today 86 percent of the global population uses mobile phones. It's interesting that developing countries are fueling the drive for this uptake. There are more than 1.1 billion mobile broadband subscribers now. One-third of the world's population is online. That's a staggering 2.3 billion people. 45 percent of them are below the age of 25. What turns me on about the digital age is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. Bono of YouTube said that, information and communications technology, ICT, helps individuals and organisations at different levels. In fact, ICT has purveyeded all facets of our personal and business life. For starters, it keeps us connected. ICT enables effortless exchange of ideas. It facilitates learning at one's own pace, place and time. Networking is yet another benefit. It makes shopping and eCommerce possible. Travel is easier than ever before. Entertainment is virtually at your finger tips. Businesses are able to function more efficiently and profitably, fueled by timely information.
Even fields such as healthcare, banking, security, transportation, and echo conservation have benefited from ICT. The UAE has always been an early adapter of technology. It has built a vibrant communications environment by providing infrastructure, competitive service providers, and set up a regulatory authority, the TRA, since 2003.
The UAE currently has 2 million fixed lines and that figure is increasing. Mobile subscriptions total 13 million subscribers. Information and communications technology, ICT, has played an important part of the average growth and development. The United Arab Emirates is proud to be Heralding in the information and communications realm. Why we're bringing the world together, to define the future of ICT in the last quarter of 2012.
Welcome to the future! Welcome to the UAE. Welcome to Telecom World Dubai. 2010.
(Applause).
>> Honorable Ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the opening ceremony is coming to a close. Before taking leave, I would like to remind the press that there is a press conference at 12:30 in room D. That is room D for Dubai. At 2:30 we will invite everyone back to this room for the first plenary session. And finally, we look forward to seeing you all this evening at Jumar beach hotel for the welcoming reception. Honorable Minister, excellency, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the ITU and TRA, I would like to wish you all a very successful conference.
Thank you ever.
(Applause)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/transcript-of-the-opening-ceremony-wcit-2012

Second International e-Governance Conference

praskrishna — 2012-12-11T10:50:29Z

The second international conference on governance and electronics which is held under the motto "Together Toward Digital Inclusion" is organized by the National Committee for Corporate Governance Electronic Iraq and the United Nations Development Programme at Rashid Hotel in Baghdad from December 2-3, 2012. The event aims to review the achievements of the program e-governance Iraqi national, and discuss the challenges of applying e-governance as a tool to achieve public sector reform and digital inclusion.

Sunil Abraham is a speaker at this event and is presenting on "Review of the Legal Environment in Iraq for Effective e-Governance", and "Government Interoperability Frameworks: Global Overview and implications for Iraq".

Conference Agenda

Sunday, December 2, 2012

09:00 – 10:00	Conference Registration
10:00 – 11:00	Opening Ceremony H.E. Nuri Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq Ms. Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator H.E. Dr. Abdul Kareem Al-Samaraii, Minister of Science and Technology
11:00 – 11:30	Break
11:30 – 12:30	Plenary session 1: e-Governance and Public Sector Reform Chairman: Dr. Adil Matloob, Minister IT Advisor – Ministry of Science and Technology Mr. Thamir Al Ghadban, Head of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Commission (PMAC) Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar, UNDP Expert Q & A
12:30 – 13:30	Plenary session 2: Citizen Inclusion into the Digital Society Chairman: Mr. Imad Naji, Director General - Ministry of Planning Dr. Laurence Millar, UNDP Expert Dr. Kathim Ibrisim, Director General - Ministry of Planning Q & A
13:30 – 13:40	Plenary Session 3: Challenges of e-Governance Implementation Chairman: Dr. Mahmood Kassim Sharief, Director General – Ministry of Science and Technology
13:40 – 14:00	Break
14:00 – 15:30	Workshop 1: Challenges of implementing an adequate telecommunications infrastructure and Highlighting the role of the private sector and the establishment of the concept of true public-private sector partnership in the field of e-governance Chairman: Mr. Jaber Zwayed Atiyah, Director General – National Security Commission Dr. Rohan Samarajiva Lirne, UNDP Expert Dr. Shahani Markus Weerawarana, UNDP Expert Ms. Raghad Abdulrasoul National Centre for Consultation and Management Development/Ministry of Planning Q&A
13:30 – 14:30	Lunch @ AL-Rashid

Monday, December 3, 2012

09:00 – 09:15	Closure of the Plenary Session 3 Presentation of workshop results
09:15 – 10:45	Plenary Session 4: Effective Role of Local Governments in Framework of e-Governance Program Chairman: Dr. Kathim Ibrisim, Director General - Ministry of Planning Mr. Manu Srivastava, UNDP Expert Dr. Adil Abdullah Shuhaieb, member of e-Governance Committee in Missan Governorate Mr. Anmar Natik Mohammed, Manager of e-Governance Programme in Ninawa Governorate Eng Haider Shaker Yaji , Muthana Governorate Q&A
10:45 – 11:00	Break
11:00 – 12:00	Plenary Session 5: Challenges of Government Interoperability Framework Implementation, Standards and Information Chairman: Mr. Mohammed Raji Mousa, Council of Ministers Secretariat (COMSEC) Mr. Sunil Abraham, UNDP Expert Mr. Ammar Salih and Dr. Firas Hamadani/ Minister of Foreign Affairs Q&A
12:00 – 13:00	Plenary Session 6: Building e-Services Chairman: Dr. Saad Najem / University of Mustanserieh Mr. Emilio Bugli Innocenti, UNDP Expert Dr. Adil Matloob, Minister IT Advisor – Ministry of Science and Technology Mr. Ahmed Saad, Director General – Ministry of Municipality and Public Work Q&A
13:00 – 14:30	Conference Closing Session Chairman: Dr. Samir Attar, Deputy Minister – Ministry of Science and Technology Looking forward Adopt conference recommendation UNDP Closing Speech Government of Iraq Speech
14:30 – 15:30	Lunch @ AL-Rashid

Papers/Speakers Bio Summary

Plenary Session 1: e-Governance and Public Sector Reform

Chairman: Dr. Adil Matloob, Minister IT Advisor – Ministry of Science and Technology

e-Governance and public sector reform/ Subhash Bhatnagar The paper shares experiences from different countries of implementing e-Governance projects that have significantly contributed to governance reform by enhancing transparency and reducing corruption in delivery of public services. Some lessons are drawn for Iraq. E-Governance should be used as a means of implementing public sector reform agenda. The implementation of projects should be accelerated. *Subhash Bhatnagar* is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). Currently he is an honorary adjunct professor at the IIMA. He was a Chair Professor, member of Board of Governors and the Dean of IIMA in his 30 year tenure at IIMA. He has been a visiting Professor in universities in the US and Africa. He worked with the World Bank in Washington DC for six years serving as an advisor to to mainstream e-Governance in the operations of the Bank. He has been a lead speaker in training workshops for ministers and legislators for 16 states in India. His research and consulting work has covered E-Governance, ICT for development, National IT Policy, and Corporate IT Strategy. He has hundred research papers and seven books to his credit which include two books on eGovernance. He is on the editorial boards of seven international journals and has served as Chairman of International Committees in the ICT field. He serves on a number of central and state Government committees in Inda including the steering committee for ICT sector for formulating India’s 12^th Five Year Plan. He was made a Fellow of the Computer Society of India in 1994. He has served on the boards of a number of educational institutions and private enterprises in India. He has travelled to nearly 60 countries, delivering public lectures and conference key notes

Plenary Session 2: Citizen Inclusion into the Digital Society

Chairman: Mr. Imad Naji, Director General - Ministry of Planning

Citizen Inclusion into the Digital Society/ Laurence Millar This paper describes the importance of digital inclusion to achieve the e-governance Vision for Iraq. The paper reports on international experience in digital inclusion and e-governance, using examples from New Zealand, United Kingdom, Bahrain and Taiwan. These experiences illustrate how to develop a plan for increasing digital inclusion in Iraq which is aligned to the wider priorities for social and economic outcomes. Laurence Millar is an independent advisor in the use of ICT by governments, and Editor at Large for FutureGov magazine. He is the lead advisor for the e-government strategy and second action plan for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and has also worked with other GCC countries on their e-government strategies. He provides expert advice to the government on the adoption of digital technology and broadband in schools; he is also Chair of 2020 Communications Trust, which is the leading provider of digital literacy programmes in New Zealand. During his career of more than 35 years, he has worked in the public and private sector, in the UK, USA, Asia and New Zealand. From 2004, he led the New Zealand e-government programme providing leadership in strategy and policy, establishing a foundation of shared infrastructure, and maintaining oversight of government ICT investment; he finished in the role of NZ Government CIO on 1 May 2009. He is married with four adult children and lives in Wellington, New Zealand; he has a MA from Cambridge University and an MSc with distinction from London University.
The role of ICTs in promoting public participation/ Dr. Kathim Ibrisim Participation is a basic feature of good governance, which suggests providing a democratic environment in the community that allows the integration of citizens, institutions of civil society, stakeholders and the poor and marginalized groups into policy-making and follow-up implementation. As much a democratic atmosphere allows for participation good governance can achieve the hopes of community regardless of its different components. This paper provides an assessment of the reality of public participation in Iraq which is based on a survey of public participation in four sectors concerned with providing services (Health/Education/Higher Education/Water and Sanitation). It was carried out by the National Centre and the support of the ESCWA in 2011 - in the light of identification the main challenges facing the participation. It will focus on how to use ICT in promoting public participation in setting priorities and policy-making and follow-up implementation.
Dr. Kathim Mohammed Breisem Okabi, Director General of the National Center for Administrative Development and Information Technology since 2008, holds Ph.D. in object-oriented software engineering, M.A. in empirical computer science – 1989, Higher Diploma in systems analysis – 1982, and B.A. of Statistics – 1980. Dr. Kazem served as a professor at the universities of Jordan (Al al-Bayt University/Philadelphia University) for the period 1996-2008, a professor at the Al-Tahadi University/Libya for the period 1983 – 1992, and a statistician for the period 1980 -1983.

Plenary Session 3: Workshop 1 (Challenges of implementing an adequate telecommunications infrastructure and Highlighting the role of the private sector and the establishment of the concept of true public-private sector partnership in the field of e-governance)

Chairman: Dr. Mahmood Kassim Sharief, Director General – Ministry of Science and Technology

ICT Infrastructure for e-Government and e-Governance in Iraq / Rohan Samarajiva Lirne Governments provisioning e government services have to address two specific policy principles with regard to infrastructure: ensure universal access to their services and assure a higher level of reliability than with comparable private services. Unlike a decade or so ago, governments today do not have to rely solely on common-access centers (telecenters) to provide universal access. In most countries, mobile signals cover almost the entirety of the population; most households have at least one electronic access device; the few that do not, can gain such access. Today’s smartphones have capabilities little different from the early telecenters, except for functionalities such as printing, scanning, etc. and the support of intermediaries. Therefore, delivering voice-based e government services in the short term and mobile-optimized web-based services in the medium term, with common-access centers performing specialized backup functions, is a viable strategy. Conventional web interfaces that adhere to common standards must be maintained but articulated with mobile applications and voice-based services provided through a government call center. In light of difficulties in supplying continuous electricity and security at the present time, special attention has to be paid to reliability. Reliability can be achieved, beginning with a proper understanding of requirements such as the importance of ensuring redundancy of suppliers, paths and media. Samarajiva is founder Chair and CEO of LIRNEasia, a regional think tank focusing on ICT policy and regulation in the emerging Asia Pacific. He most recently completed a diagnostic report on the potential of the ICT Sector for inclusive growth in Bhutan for the Asian Development Bank. He is a member of the team supporting the World Bank to establish the Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Center, based at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. He served as policy advisor to the Ministry of Post and Telecom in Bangladesh in 2006-07 and 2009. In 2002-2004, Samarajiva served as Team Leader of the Public Interest Program Unit of the Ministry for Economic Reform, Science & Technology of Sri Lanka. He was one of the designers of the USD 53 million plus e Sri Lanka Initiative (that had a major e gov focus) that led the way to rapid growth of fixed and mobile broadband in Sri Lanka. He was one of the founder directors of the ICT Agency. Samarajiva has been active in ICT (including telecom) policy and regulation for over 20 years. From 1998-1999, he served as Director General of Telecommunications in Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka. He taught at the Ohio State University in the US (1987-2000) and at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands (2000-2003).
The role of private sector software development services companies in e-Government solution implementation/ Shahani Markus Weerawarana Iraq is a country in transformation and has embarked on a compelling vision for e-Government based on a National e-Governance Strategy and Action Plan. Since the private sector plays an important and pivotal role in any national e-Government program, it is important to develop a comprehensive roadmap towards establishing a true public-private sector partnership in Iraq. As a prerequisite for such an endeavor, we review the current status of the e-Government program implementation in Iraq, the critical challenges that need to be addressed in achieving a robust public-private sector partnership in Iraq and the best practices prevalent globally and regionally with respect to addressing such issues along with the resultant policy and program implications. Based on this critical analysis, we formulate many recommendations that could be included in a public-private sector partnership development roadmap that would create momentum in establishing a competitive and vibrant private-sector role in a knowledge-based economic environment geared towards enabling the vision of e-Iraq. Shahani Markus Weerawarana has global experience in the IT industry, government and academia, in a professional career has spanned many different roles, including being an educator, engineer, entrepreneur, manager and researcher. Currently, she is a Visiting Scientist at Indiana University, USA and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Previously, she was the CTO at the ICT Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka, which is the country's apex IT policy & planning agency for implementing the e-Sri Lanka program. At ICTA, she played a key role in providing technical guidance for many eGovernment projects, including spearheading the design and implementation of LankaGate, a 'FutureGov' Award winning project. Prior to joining ICTA, Shahani was the Head of Engineering at Virtusa (Sri Lanka), where she directly and indirectly led more than 600 IT professionals. Before joining Virtusa Shahani worked in the USA, at Prescient Markets Inc and at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in New York. Her professional activities have included being a member in the Sri Lankan Presidential Task Force in English and IT, an adviser to the Royal Government of Bhutan in their Interoperability Framework and Enterprise Architecture initiative, and a member of the Open eGovernance Forum Advisory Board in the Pan Asia Network for Democratic eGovernance. She is a free & open source software advocate and is a Committer and PMC member in the Apache Software Foundation. Shahani has more than 50 academic publications and her academic activities include the formulation of Asia's first MBA in eGovernance program for the University of Moratuwa, and the supervision of more than 30 MBA and MSc research projects. Her research interests include e-governance, software engineering, parallel & distributed systems, e-science, and TLA practices in higher education. Shahani has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University, USA.
Assess the reality of the public-private partnership (PPP) and its role in promoting ICT for development/ Raghad Abdulrasoul This paper, a field survey in four service sectors (health, education, higher education, water and sanitation), aims at identifying the reality and types of PPPs and how could such partnerships contribute in the provision of or complement services within the target sectors in addition to understand and recognize the quality of the services provided by the private sector than in the public sector with a focus on the role of PPP in the promotion of ICT to support national development efforts and improve the quality of public services. Raghad Abdulrasoul, an expert at the National Center for Administrative Development and Information Technology, Higher Diploma in Development Planning/specialty in feasibility studies and B.A. of Statistics. She has functional experience and participated in implementing projects with international organizations (UNICEF/UNDP/ESCWA) in different subjects dealing with the reform and modernization of the Iraqi public sector. She performed many advisory tasks for various institutions in the state in subjects (performance evaluation, organizational structures, job descriptions , mainstreaming of procedures). She provided a variety of lectures at the National Centre and state institutions in the areas of administration, planning and feasibility studies.

Workshop 2 Challenges for creating an enabling legal environment
Chairman: Mrs Afaf Khairallah Hussein, Prime Minister Office

Review of the legal environment in Iraq for effective e-Governance/ Sunil Abraham This paper examines the legal environment and compares it to international best practices for information society aspects that have direct implication for e-governance. It begins with transparency and openness law where there is an examination of right to information/access to information law and subsidiary policies such as free/open source software policy, open content or access policy, open standards policy, electronic accessibility policy, open government data policy. Then it examines privacy law looking at various options for the horizontal statute and also the vertical statutes necessary to comprehensive protect citizen/consumer rights and also public interest simultaneously. This is followed by an examination of intellectual property rights law overall before a more focussed examination patent law and copyright law. The paper ends with examination of some miscellaneous statutes such as the Cyber Crime Law and Electronic Signature and Electronic Transactions Act. Sunil Abraham is the executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore. CIS is a 4 year old policy and academic research organisation that focuses on accessibility by the disabled, intellectual property rights policy reform, openness [Free/Open Source Software, Open Standards, Open Content, Open Access and Open Educational Resources], internet governance, telecom, digital natives and digital humanities. He is also the founder of Mahiti, a social enterprise aiming to reduce the cost and complexity of information and communication technology for the voluntary sector by using free software. Sunil continues to serve on the board of Mahiti. He is an Ashoka fellow and was elected for a Sarai FLOSS fellowship. For three years, Sunil also managed the International Open Source Network, a project of United Nations Development Programme's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, serving 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2007 - 2008, he managed ENRAP an electronic network of International Fund for Agricultural Development projects in the Asia-Pacific, facilitated and co-funded by International Development Research Centre, Canada. Sunil currently serves on the advisory boards of Open Society Foundations - Information Programme, Mahiti, Tactical Technology Collective, Samvada and International Centre for Free/Open Source Software.
Implementation of the e-system in the Iraqi elections/Dr. Tariq Kazim Ajil, University of Thi Qar

Plenary Session 4: Effective Role of Local Governments in framework of e-Governance Program

Chairman: Dr. Kathim Ibrisim, Director General - Ministry of Planning

Municipal e-Governance Platform / Manu Srivastava The paper discusses the Municipal eGovernance Platform developed by eGovernments Foundation (eGov). The paper sees this in the back ground of the policies and frameworks that the shaped the Municipal eGovernance sector in India. The paper discusses the basic design approach for developing the platform, the platform itself and then discusses the future direction for the platform. *Manu Srivastava* Bio: Manu Srivastava managed and a founding member of the eGovernments Foundation since 2003, that aims at creating an eGovernance Platform (Municipal ERP) to improve the efficiencies of City Municipalities leading to better delivery of services. Between 2000 and 2003, Manu was the project leader of GlobeTrades (Silicon Valley), for creation an Internet platform for medium and large companies to set up industry specific Internet-based solutions to streamline global Procurement and Distribution. He Architected and delivered award winning Citizen Services Solutions in area of eGovernance such as Nirmala Nagara.
Ninawa e-Governance Roadmap/ Anmar Natik Mohammed, Manager of e-Governance Programme in Ninawa Governorate

Plenary Session 5: Challenges of Government Interoperability Framework Implementation, Standards and Information

Chairman: Mr. Mohammed Raji Mousa, Council of Ministers Secretariat (COMSEC)

Government Interoperability Frameworks: Global Overview and implications for Iraq/ Sunil Abraham This paper attempts to identify some next steps for the implementation of the Iraqi Government Interoperability Framework and National Enterprise Architecture[GIF/NEA]. The paper begins with an introduction which provides an historical overview of the GIF/NEA formulation process an the policy document itself. This is followed by a discussion of Open Standards to understand why the GIF/NEA and other open standards policies in the Iraqi government remain critical from a variety of perspectives. The paper then proceeds to look at GIFs across the world and attempts to characterize some of the strategies employed by governments to reach their policy objectives. The paper also features a examination of emerging semantic standards that are most useful from the perspective of storing government data. The paper ends with certain concrete recommendations for taking the open standards agenda forward with Iraqi e-governance. Sunil Abraham is the executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore. CIS is a 4 year old policy and academic research organisation that focuses on accessibility by the disabled, intellectual property rights policy reform, openness [Free/Open Source Software, Open Standards, Open Content, Open Access and Open Educational Resources], internet governance, telecom, digital natives and digital humanities. He is also the founder of Mahiti, a social enterprise aiming to reduce the cost and complexity of information and communication technology for the voluntary sector by using free software. Sunil continues to serve on the board of Mahiti. He is an Ashoka fellow and was elected for a Sarai FLOSS fellowship. For three years, Sunil also managed the International Open Source Network, a project of United Nations Development Programme's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, serving 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2007 - 2008, he managed ENRAP an electronic network of International Fund for Agricultural Development projects in the Asia-Pacific, facilitated and co-funded by International Development Research Centre, Canada. Sunil currently serves on the advisory boards of Open Society Foundations - Information Programme, Mahiti, Tactical Technology Collective, Samvada and International Centre for Free/Open Source Software.

Plenary Session 6: Building e-services

Chairman: Dr. Saad Najem / University of Mustanserieh

Breaking information silos: towards an Iraqi e-Service ecosystem supporting the life-event approach/ Emilio Bugli Innocenti This paper analyses the current status of the e-Service implementation within the e-Governance programmes in developing countries with a specific focus on the Life Event approach delivery of-e-Services along with the related Service Oriented Architecture. Then, it discusses the most suited SOA engineering methodology in order to boost e-Service re-use and integration. Finally, a combined SOA and Cloud Computing approach is proposed in order to provide an effective/efficient implementation of Iraqi e-Governance Action Plan along with a possible fast take-up of e-Services. Emilio Bugli Innocenti has 27 year experience in the ICT domain and over 20 in the e-Governance domain. As Senior e-Governance Consultant he has been working with assignments in transition and developing countries in the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, South America and South East Asia. He has been Project Manager of large International ICT projects targeting different sectors and e-Governance, in particular dealing with the implementation of e-Services. He is member of the Italian Industry Executive Association, IEEE Computer Society and Association for Computing Machinery. He holds a MSc in Physics and speaks English, Italian and French.
E-governance and cloud computing services This lecture addresses the historical perspective of cloud computing from a virtual concept to provide computing as a public facility launched in the mid-sixties of the last century as well as the phases of computing services offered by individual computers and then the network to the services provided on line. It also addresses the benefits and types of cloud computing comparing between the benefits and weaknesses of each type. Furthermore, it particularly tackles the economic benefits of balancing security with information, through the architecture and various levels of cloud computing and its impacts on architectures that must be taken into consideration. Furthermore, the ten risks will be put in cloud computing in particular. Adil Matloob is one of the advisors to the Ministry of Science & Technology Baghdad, Iraq. He works in the field of knowledge based systems and artificial intelligence for the last 30 plus years. He was the managing director of the SoftDev limited; a British based company, and a technical director for the Washington based multinational company; the United Press International. He is one of the pioneers’ researchers on machine translation software in the beginning of the nineties with the product known as ArabTrans software. He works on Arabic data mining as well as Arabic abstraction and Arabic knowledge based system. Adil has M.Sc and PhD from Manchester University, Manchester, United Kingdom in 1977 & 1980 respectively.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/second-international-e-governance-conference-at-baghdad

So Much to Lose

nishant — 2012-12-07T16:39:09Z

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have been a witness to the maelstrom of events that accompanied the death of the political leader Bal Thackeray.

Nishant Shah's column was published in the Indian Express on December 2, 2012.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have been a witness to the maelstrom of events that accompanied the death of the political leader Bal Thackeray. For me, the brouhaha was elbowed out by the case of the police arresting two women for critiquing the events on Facebook. The person who wondered about the nature of the enforced mourning and the state of our public life, and her friend who “liked” the comment on Facebook, were booked and arrested under charges that can only be considered preposterous.

I will not repeat these arguments because it is needless to say that I am on the side of the women and think of this as yet another manifestation of the stringent measures which are being evolved as an older broadcast way of thinking meets the decentralised realities of digital technologies.

In the midst of this the idea of internet freedom needs to be revisited. The global Press Freedom Index 2011-12 report compiled by Reporters Without Borders, ranks India at 131, or as a “partly free” country, marking us as a country where the notion of internet freedom is not to be taken for granted, and possibly also one where the concept is not properly understood.

Citing various instances from the central government’s plans to censor the social web to the authoritarian crackdown on activists and cultural producers involved in online civic protests, from the traditional media industry’s stronghold over intellectual property regimes to the arrest of individuals for voicing their independent critiques online, the report shows that we not only have an infrastructure deficit (with only 10 per cent of the people in the country connected), but also a huge social and political deficit, which is being exposed by our actions and reactions to the Web.

Take the case of professor Ambikesh Mahapatra dean of the chemistry department of Jadavpur University, who was picked up by the police and lodged in the lock up for almost 40 hours for forwarding an e-mail that contained a cartoon of Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi. He and his housing society co-resident Subrata Sengupta were charged with defamation and outraging the modesty of a woman. While the proceedings are underway with the next date of hearing slated in February, 2013, the Jadavpur university professor says, “Section, 66A of the IT Act is being used for suppression of the freedom of speech. In my opinion, it is being misused by the state government, repeatedly. The section does not empower anyone to arrest those who voice their opinion and never meant to harm anybody’s image. Prompt action is needed to check the misuse of law.”

Likewise, Ravi Srinivasan, a 46-year-old a businessman from Pondicherry, was arrested for tweeting against Karti Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram. His arrest and consequent release has not blunted his spirit. He says, “At the time (of the arrest) I had not heard of Section 66(A). I still cannot fathom why and how a tweet sent out to just 12 people — half of them family and friends — caught the eye of the police. By evening, when I had come home from the police station, my Twitter following had gone up to 1,700. About 15,000 people re-tweeted the statement that got me arrested.”

Given the series of incidents that have marked the last year and the whimsical nature of regulatory injunctions on internet freedom in the country, it might be a good idea for us to reflect on democracy and freedom.

We need to examine the fundamental nature of freedom, and how these attempts at regulating the internet are only a symptom of the systemic failures of enshrining freedom of speech, information, identity and dignity in India. However, internet freedom is often a difficult concept to engage with, because it is one of those phrases that seem to be self-explanatory but without a straightforward explanation. There are three axes which might be useful to unpack the baggage that comes with internet freedom, both for our everyday practices, and our imagined future:

Freedom of: The freedom of the internet is something that is new and needs more attention. We have to stop thinking of the internet as merely a medium or a conduit of information. As the Web becomes inextricably linked with our everyday lives, the internet is no longer just an appendage or an externality. It becomes a reference point through which our social, political and economic practices are shaped. It becomes a defining point through which we draw our meanings of what it is to be a part of the society, to have rights, to be politically aware, to be culturally engaged — to be a human. The freedom of the Net is important because the crackdowns on the Net are an attack on our rights and freedoms. The silencing of a voice on Facebook, might soon gag the voices of people on the streets, creating conditions of silence in the face of violence perpetuated by the powerful.

Freedom to: Freedom to the internet is often confused with access to the internet. While, of course, access is important in our imagination of a just society where everybody is equally connected, freedom is also about creating open and fair societies. If the power of the internet is in creating alternative spaces of expression, deliberation and opinion-making, then the freedom to the internet is about being safe and responsible in these spaces. A society that controls these spaces of public discussion, under the guise of security and public safety, is a society that has given up its faith in freedom.

Freedom for: It is often not clear that when popular technologies of information and communication are regulated and censored, it is not merely the technology that is being controlled. What is being shaped and contained is the way people use them. The freedom for the internet is about the freedom for people. The possibility that Internet Service Providers are being coerced into revealing personal information of users to police states, that intermediaries are being equipped to remove content that they find offensive from the web, and that views expressed on the social media can lead to legal battles by those who have the power but not the acumen to exercise it, all have alarming consequences. There is a need to fight for freedom, not only for the defence of technology but also for the defence of the rights that we cherish that risk being eroded.

The case of these Facebook arrests is not new. It has happened before and it will continue happening as immature governments are unable to cope with the real voices of representational democracy. These cases sometimes get naturalised because they get repeated, and even without our knowledge, can start creating a life of fear, where we internalise the regulatory system, not voicing our opinions and ideas for fear of persecution. And so, whether you agree with their politics or not, whether you endorse the viewpoints of the people who are under arrest, whether you feel implicated or not in this case, we have to realise that even if we might not agree with somebody’s viewpoint, we must defend their right to have that particular viewpoint. Anything else, and tomorrow, when you want to say something against powers of oppression, you might find yourself alone, as your voice gets heard only by those who will find creative ways of silencing you.

— With inputs from Gopu Mohan, Madhuparna Das and V Shoba

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-dec-2-2012-nishant-shah-so-much-to-lose

November 2012 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2013-01-06T13:59:11Z

Welcome to the newsletter of November 2012 from the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS). The present issue features an analysis of Section 66A of the IT Act by Pranesh Prakash, comments on the draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, an introduction to 12 mobile devices that we are researching as part of the Pervasive Technologies project, submissions of civil society in relation to the revision of International Telecommunication Regulations that are to take place at the ITU's World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai, updates from the Wikipedia community on Indic languages, and news and media coverage.

Jobs

CIS is seeking applications for the posts of Research Manager and Programme Officer – Internet Governance. To apply send your resume to sunil@cis-india.org.

Accessibility
India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies:
Blog Entry Human Machine Interfaces: The History of an Uncertain Future (by Sharath Chandra Ram, November 30, 2012).
Event Participated Workshop on Making ICT and Mobile Phones Accessible for Persons with Disabilities in Nepal (organised by ITU, November 9, 2012). Nirmita Narasimhan was a speaker in the session "Introduction: ICT and Telecom Accessibility, Good Practices in Policy and Industry Initiatives".
Access to Knowledge
The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:
WIPO Transcripts We are providing archival copies of the transcripts of the 25th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights held in Geneva from November 19 to 23, 2012: WIPO SCCR 25 Day 1, November 19, 2012 WIPO SCCR 25 Day 2, November 20, 2012 WIPO SCCR 25 Day 3, November 21, 2012 WIPO SCCR 25 Day 4, November 22, 2012 WIPO SCCR 25 Day 5, November 23, 2012
Comments Comments on the Broadcast Treaty and Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives (by Smitha Krishna Prasad, November 29, 2012). Comments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft) (by Snehashish Ghosh, submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology, November 26, 2012).
Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace As a part of the Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace research project, CIS is researching upon 12 gray-market mobile devices to generate a better understanding of the intellectual property implications of the pervasive mobile technologies available in the Indian market: Workshop Report Exploring the Internals of Mobile Devices — Report from a One-day Workshop at TERI (by Jadine Lannon, November 30, 2012).
Blog Entries ICOMM2012: International Communications and Electronics Fair (by Jadine Lannon, November 14, 2012). Pervasive Mobile Technologies: Meet Our Mobile Devices! (by Jadine Lannon, November 30, 2012).
Upcoming Event 2012 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest (FGV Law School, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, December 15 – 17, 2012).
Openness The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:
Event Organised Autonomy, Access, Infrastructure and Future — A Discussion with C S Lakshmi (CIS, Bangalore, November 29, 2012). A video of the event is published. Art in the Open Source Age — A Talk by Gene Kogan (CIS, Bangalore, November 30, 2012).
Blog Entry Open Government Platform (by Neeta Verma, Alka Mishra and D.P. Mishra, Informatics Magazine, July 2012).
Event Participated Science Gallery Workshop @ Srishti (organised by Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology and Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin, Srishti School of Art Design and Technology (N2 campus), Bangalore, November 23, 2012). Sunil Abraham participated in this event.
Access to Knowledge Programme Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation has awarded CIS a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The A2K team consists of three members based in Delhi: Nitika Tandon, Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval. Program Manager, Shiju Alex left the organisation. November 16, 2012 was his last working day.
Events Organised Kolkata: Tasting the Sweetness of Wikipedia! (Kolkata, November 3, 2012). First Odia Wikipedia Education Program (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, November 8, 2012). Odia Wikipedia Workshop at AML (Academy of Media Learning, Bhubaneswar, November 10, 2012). A Wikipedia Mini-hackathon in Delhi (CIS, New Delhi, November 11, 2012). Wikipedia: State of Tech — A Talk by Erik Moeller (CIS, Bangalore, November 12, 2012). An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB (KMBB College, Bhubaneswar, November 19, 2012). Follow up to Wikipedia Introductory Session (Bharati Vidyapeeth, Delhi, November 19, 2012).
Events Participated Wikipedia Hackathon (organised by BITS, Hyderabad, October 25 – 27, 2012). Wikipedia Women's Workshop in Mumbai (by Noopur Raval, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Wadala, Mumbai, November 4, 2012).
News and Media Coverage ‘Some Indian laws could be challenging’ (Bangalore Mirror, November 15, 2012). A Report of the Odia Wikipedia Workshop held in KMBB College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar (Sambad, November 19, 2012). OdishaDiary conferred prestigious Odisha Youth Inspiration Award 2012 to Odia Wikipedia team (Orissa Diary, November 23, 2012). વિકિપીડિયા ગુજરાતી માં પણ છે (by Harish Kothari, Cybersafar, November 28, 2012).
Blog Entry Typing in Indic Languages from Mobiles made Easy! (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 19, 2012).
HasGeek HasGeek creates discussion spaces for geeks and has organised conferences like the Fifth Elephant, Droidcon India 2011, Android Camp, etc. HasGeek is supported by CIS and works out from CIS office in Bengaluru. The following event was organised by HasGeek in the month of November: Droidcon India (November 2 and 3, 2012, MLR Convention Centre, Whitefield, Bangalore).
Internet Governance The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:
Analysis of IT Act Breaking Down Section 66A of the IT Act (by Pranesh Prakash, November 25, 2012). Fixing India’s anarchic IT Act (by Pranesh Prakash, Livemint, November 28, 2012). Draft nonsense (by Pranesh Prakash, The Times of India, November 24, 2012).
Analysis of Justice AP Shah Report Q&A to the Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy (by Elonnai Hickok, November 9, 2012).
Comments / Submissions to ITU Statement of Civil Society Members in the "Best Bits" pre-IGF Meeting. CIS was one of the signatories of this submission made to the ITU. Submission on India's Draft Comments on Proposed Changes to the ITU's ITRs. CIS was one of the signatories along with Society for Knowledge Commons, Delhi Science Forum, Free Software Movement of India, Internet Democracy Project and Media for Change. Submission by Indian Civil Society Organisations on Future ITRs and Related Processes. CIS was one of the signatories of this submission in response to ITU’s call for public comments. Indian Government's Submission to ITU: We have put up the text of the submission made by the Government of India to the World Conference of International Telecommunications, Dubai on November 3, 2012.
Event Participated India Internet Governance Conference (organised by the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, FICCI and Internet Society, October 4 -5, 2012). Pranesh Prakash made a presentation. CIS was one of the supporting organisations.
Blog Entries Arbitrary Arrests for Comment on Bal Thackeray's Death (by Pranesh Prakash, November 19, 2012). This was re-posted in Outlook (November 19, 2012), KAFILA (November 19, 2012), and Shail's Nest (November 20, 2012). DoT Blocks Domain Sites — But Reasons and Authority Unclear (by Smitha Krishna Prasad, November 21, 2012).
Upcoming Events Technology Culture and Events in South East Asia — A Presentation by Preetam Rai(CIS, Bangalore, Near Domlur Club and TERI Complex, December 18, 2012, 5.00 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.). DML Conference 2013 (Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers - Chicago, Illinois, March 14 – 16, 2012).
Internet Governance Forum Pranesh Prakash, Chinmayi Arun, Malavika Jayaram and Elonnai Hickok participated in the Internet Governance Forum held in Baku, Azerbaijan in the month of November 2012. In total, CIS spoke in 12 panels: Best Bits 2012 (organised by Best Bits, Baku, Azerbaijan November 3 and 4, 2012). Pranesh Prakash and Elonnai Hickok participated in this event. The Privatisation of Censorship: The Online Responsibility to Protect Free Expression (organized by Index on Censorship, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 5, 2012). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist. New Trends in Industry Self-Governance (organised by Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK and Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ, University of Zurich, Switzerland and Nominet, UK, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 7, 2012 from 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist. Civil Rights in the Digital Age, about the Impact the Internet has on Civil Rights (organised by ECP on behalf of the IGF-NL, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 7, 2012, 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.). Malavika Jayaram was a panelist. Solutions for Enabling Cross-border Data Flows (co-organised by ICC BASIS and the Internet Society, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 7, 2012). Cloudy Jurisdiction: Addressing the thirst for Cloud Data in Domestic Legeal Processes (co-organised by Electronic Frontier Foundation (Peru) and University of Ottawa, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 7, 2012). What Frameworks for Cross-Border Online Communities and Services (hosted by the Internet & Jurisdiction Project, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 8, 2012). Chinmayi Arun was a panelist. Governing Identity on the Internet (co-organised by Brenden Kuerbis, Citizen Lab and Christine Runnegar, Internet Society, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 8, 2012, 11.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.). Malavika Jayaram was a panelist. Law Enforcement via Domain Names: Caveats to DNS Neutrality (organised by Hong Xue, Vivekanandan, Wei Mao and Leo Liu, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 8, 2012). Chinmayi Arun was a panelist. Who is Following Me: Tracking the Trackers (organised by Internet Society and the Council of Europe, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 8, 2012). Malavika Jayaram was a speaker at this event. National IG Mechanisms – Looking at Some Key Design Issues (Baku, Azerbaijan, November 8, 2012). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist. Steady Steps.....FOSS and the MDG's (organised by International Center For Free and Open Source Software and Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 8, 2012). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist.
Event Participated Privacy in the Social Networked World (hosted by the Centre for Business Information Ethics, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan, on behalf of the Asian Privacy Scholars Network, November 19 – 20, 2012). Elonnai Hickok spoke on Transparency and Privacy in India.
Featured in the Media Power to youth (The Hindustan Times, November 3, 2012). The article names Sunil Abraham and Lawrence Liang as some of the young people who are shaping the future. 25 Indians to watch (FT Magazine, November 16, 2012). Sunil Abraham is one among the 25 rising Indian stars to watch out for. Malavika Jayaram named a top lawyer for Internet and e-Commerce in India (WHO’s WHO LEGAL, November 20, 2012).
Media Coverage Information security policy on govt agenda (by Surabhi Agarwal, LiveMint, November 6, 2012). Sunil Abraham is quoted. Law yet to catch up with tech-enabled peeping toms (by Sandhya Soman & Pratiksha Ramkumar, Times of India, November 7, 2012). Sunil Abraham is quoted. India second in requesting user info: Google (by Karthik Subramaniam, Hindu, November 14, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Post and be Damned (by Kavita Shanmugham, November 14, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. India second in keeping tabs on netizens (by Ishan Srivastava, The Times of India, November 15, 2012). India ranks second globally in accessing private details of users (thinkdigit, November 15, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Google's 'Transparency Report' sketchy, inconclusive: Government (by Indu Nandakumar, Economic Times, November 17, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Women Arrested in Mumbai for Complaining on Facebook (by Neha Thirani and Hari Kumar, New York Times, November 19, 2012). Girls arrested for Facebook post on Thackeray get bail (FirstPost, November 19, 2012). Arrest of girl over Thackeray FB update a clear misuse of Sec 295A (FirstPost, November 19, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. How to Steer Clear of India’s Strict Internet Laws (by Sangeeta Rajesh and Heather Timmons, New York Times, November 20, 2012). Internet users flay Mumbai girls' arrest over Facebook post (IBN Live, November 20, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Arrests over Facebook posts: Why we’re on a dangerous slide (Venky Vembu, FirstPost, November 20, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Girl's arrest draws flak on social media (The Times of India, November 20, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. India's Shame: World Reacts to FB Post Arrest (by Sonal Bhadoria, India Times, November 21, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Indian government at second position after U.S.A for demanding user data from Google (WHDI Reviews, November 22, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Indians Rank Second For Online Snooping (Indolink, November 23, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Civil society & industry oppose India’s plans to modify ITRs (by Shalini Singh, The Hindu, November 23, 2012). Sunil Abraham is quoted. Amnesty International calls for review of 66A of IT act (by Nirmalya Behera, Business Standard, November 28, 2012). Thousands go online against 66A (by Apoorva Dutt, DNA, November 29, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. The flaw in cyber law (by S Ronendra Singh, Hindu Business Line, November 29, 2012). Sunil Abraham and Snehashish Ghosh are quoted. Govt tweaks enforcement of IT Act after spate of arrests (by Surabhi Agarwal, LiveMint, November 29, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. Yes, You Can Get Arrested for a Facebook Status Update Now (by David Wagner, Atlantic Wire, November 29, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted. The real Sibal’s law: Resisting Section 66A is futile (by Lakshmi Chaudhry, FirstPost, November 30, 2012). Pranesh Prakash’s blog post on section 66A which was also published in Outlook is quoted.
Videos Women arrested for Facebook post: Did cops act under Sena pressure? (NDTV, November 19, 2012). YP Singh, Alyque Padamsee, Rohan Joshi, Karuna Nundy and Pranesh Prakash took part in a discussion about the arrest of two girls over a Facebook comment. The Last Word: Is there a need to review Information Technology Act? (CNN-IBN, November 20, 2012). Aryaman Sundaram, Pavan Duggal, Pranesh Prakash and Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad took part in a discussion with Karan Thapar on section 66A of the IT Act. Interview with Pranesh Prakash (by Surabhi Agarwal, LiveMint, November 30, 2012).
Telecom While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:
Building Knowledge and Capacity around Telecommunication Policy in India Ford Foundation has given a grant of USD 2,00,000 to CIS to build expertise in the area of telecommunications in India. The knowledge repository deals with these modules: Introduction to Telecommunications, Telecommunications Infrastructure and Technologies, Government of India Regulatory Framework for Telecom, Telecommunication and the Market, Universal Access and Accessibility, The International Telecommunications Union and other international bodies, Broadcasting, Emerging Topics and Way Forward. Dr. Surendra Pal, Satya N Gupta, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Payal Malik, Dr. Rakesh Mehrotra and Dr. Nadeem Akhtar are the expert reviewers.
The following are the new outputs: DoT — Its Powers and Responsibilities (by Snehashish Ghosh, November 30, 2012). Government Policy and Guidelines (by Snehashish Ghosh, November 30, 2012). TRAI Regulations (by Snehashish Ghosh, November 30, 2012). TRAI Telecommunication Tariff Orders (by Snehashish Ghosh, November 30, 2012).
Newspaper Columns Super WiFi & Shared Spectrum: A Time to Start Sharing (by Shyam Ponappa, Organizing India Blogspot on November 3, 2012 and Business Standard, November 1, 2012). Folly of Mandating Spectrum Auctions (by Jayna Kothari, Hindu Business Line, November 24, 2012).
Event Participated 2nd MPL Faculty Workshop (North Zone) on Teaching Public Policy, Media and Law (Central University, Rajasthan, November 1-2, 2012). Snehashish Ghosh made a presentation on "Building a Telecom Knowledge Repository."
Digital Natives Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:
Interview Whose Change Is It Anyway? \| DML2013: As a preparation for the DML conference, Nishant Shah had an interview with Howard Rheingold, a cyberculture pioneer, social media innovator, and author of "Smart Mobs. Watch the video on YouTube.
About CIS CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities with ITU and G3ict, and Digital Alternatives with a Cause?, Thinkathon Position Papers and the Digital Natives with a Cause? Report with Hivos, etc. We conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on WIPO Treaties, Copyright Bill, NIA Bill, etc. CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO, and has given policy briefs to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities from the Government of India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award.
Follow us elsewhere Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter Join the CIS group on Facebook Visit us at http://cis-india.org
Support Us Please help us defend consumer / 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, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2012-bulletin

Human Machine Interfaces: The History of an Uncertain Future

sharath — 2013-01-04T11:30:47Z

"Multimodal interfaces maybe re-engineered much more easily now and can transform the ways in which the physically,cognitively and sensorially disabled can access information and interact with the digital world", says Sharath Chandra Ram.

Fundamental inspirations in digital information practices sprouted from the hypothetical electro-mechanical device ‘Memex’ proposed by renowned scientist Vannevar Bush in 1945, who incidentally, as the graduate professor of Claude Shannon, also paved the way for digital circuit design theory. The Memex (Memory + Index) concept entailed a system where a user could add associative trails to notes, books, communication and audio-visual experiences involving both him and others. Memex in Bush’s view was to create trails of links in temporal sequences of subjective experiences of a person, accessible to him (and others) anytime — a sort of augmented and extended memory. So implausible was considered this ambitious proposal of his, that the word ‘vannevar’ has entered the dictionary as a noun used to describe something that is unfeasibly fantastic and imaginative.

Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, readymade with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.[1]

The Memex idea had an immediate bearing on the conception of the World Wide Web and also influenced Ted Nelson’s coinage of ‘hyperlink’ that mapped a single word in a document to other associative content. Douglas Engelbart inspired by Bush’s essay, invented an interface that aided the very metaphor of pinpointed navigation through hyperlinks — the X-Y Indicator — that later came to be known to the world as the Computer Mouse. Not much has changed in the ways by which humans have interacted at the interface level. The WIMP paradigm (Windows, Icons ,Menus and Pointers) has been here to stay.

The X-Y indicator that previously mapped motions made on a two dimensional track pad onto the screen has simply been infused onto touch screens. While this may have eased the process of visual design automation, could our interaction be more natural, expressive, immersive and creative? Our experience in the real world is multi modal and we communicate with others using our body, hands, visual cues and sound. Is there a way by which our interaction in the virtual world could closely mimic our real world behavior?

The answer to the above questions came around the same time that the mouse was invented — Myron Kreuger's Videoplace. Unarguably the first and finest immersive virtual reality created way back in the 1970s, ‘Videoplace’ combined two cultural forces — the television (a purveyor of passive experience) and computer (symbol of forbidding technology) to create an expressive medium for communicating playfulness and active participation. Kreuger argued that "computer art which ignores responsiveness is using the computer only for visual design automation, rather than as a basis for a new medium." Kreuger used image processing and gestural interaction as early as in the 70s to interact with virtual objects in the digital world and has inspired a whole generation of computer vision artists including the likes of Golan Levin. If one recalls the seemingly futuristic gestural interface that Tom Cruise used in the film ‘Minority Report’ — be assured it’s already here! Jaron Lanier, a pioneer in virtual reality systems who headed the National Tele Immersion Initiative developed the entire working set of the film.

It seems Kreuger’s work had remained in a niche closet due to early commercialization and large scale adoption of the XY mouse and touch devices. ‘User centric design’ has become increasingly device dependent and really only caters to enticing users to information that the interface wants to disseminate rather than let the user engage with the interface intuitively.

Today, natural interfacing techniques are regaining much commercial interest. A landmark event was the massively viral YouTube video of Johnny Lee Cheung hacking the Nintedo Wiimote’s infrared sensor to track the head movement of a user in real time and provide an illusion of 3-Dimensional Virtual Reality. Within a year, Microsoft hired Cheung to develop the Kinect Camera for gestural interaction with it’s X-box gaming console and also bought all assets of 3DV system’s 3D sensor ‘ZCam’ -- the most affordable option available to new media artists until then. Within a week of the Kinect’s release, it’s drivers were hacked and exposed by the opensource art community that responded to Adafruit’s USD 2000 Kinect hack challenge.

With similar gestural devices by ASUS and the much-awaited Leap sensor, we are on the brink of a paradigm shift in the ways of accessing information that shall redefine concepts in human computer interaction. Cognitive interface solutions by NeuroSky and Emotiv Systems have already paved the way to neuronal signal activated interactions and games. The OpenEEG project has propelled research into open hardware schematics for brain computer interaction.

The linear presentation of search engine results on a browser across millions of pages , I predict, will change this decade as the GUI will transform into a 4 Dimensional Space layered in time, with relevant search results being clustered onto a connected graph node structure and distanced based on their mutual relevance. This calls for a more natural interface that depends not on the traditional keyboard-mouse interaction but on the use of intelligent interfaces such as eye-tracking , gaze , gesture ,speech and thought waves to sift through large databases that shall present themselves in totality along with multimodal feedback to the user.

While all this will transform the ways in which the specially-abled shall access digital information, such transparent interfaces shall also raise a number of policy questions related to privacy and who knows ,one day, even freedom of thought!!

On one hand, we would like to see the price of natural interfaces being made affordable to the commoner, on the other it will require us to unlearn traditional means of information interaction that we have been made quite comfortably accustomed to. Until then it is anyone’s guess what Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Skype along with the desktop version of the Kinect would turn bedroom and boardroom interactions into!

[1].Ironically sourced from a present day Wikipedia article linking to Bush’s 1945 article in The Atlantic Monthly titled “As We May Think”. See http://goo.gl/4mZKx

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/human-machine-interfaces-the-history-of-an-uncertain-future

Exploring the Internals of Mobile Devices — Report from a One-day Workshop at TERI

jdine — 2012-12-01T05:57:53Z

On October 27, 2012, the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) organised a one-day workshop on exploring the internals of mobile technologies at the TERI Southern Regional Centre in Bangalore. The workshop received more than 140 registrants, of which approximately 40 attended. In this post, Jadine Lannon explores the discussions and the developments that took place at the workshop.

The event brought together professional and non-professional individuals and communities interested in exploring mobile technologies. The aim of the workshop was the provide participants with the knowledge and tools to better understand the internals of mobile technologies as well as familiarize the attendees with CIS's "Pervasive Technologies" research project.

Anil Kumar Pugalia, Sudar Muthu and Pankaj Bharadiya were the expert speakers. The event was supported by the well-established online security, hardware and software domain communities NULL, SecurityXploaded, Computer Club India and Bangalore Android User Group.

Sudar Muthu: Capabilities of Arduino

Capabilities of Arduino (including Due) from Sudar Muthu	Sudar Muthu began the workshop with a talk on the capabilities of Arduino and the ways in which Arduino can be used to interface with different external devices. He discussed with us different types of Arduino, the technical specifications of Arduino, the ways that Arduino can be used to interface with external boards and the interfacing that he has been able to accomplish using Arduino and various devices. The slides from his Powerpoint presentation are viewable on the left.

Anil Kumar Pugalia: Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers

Anil Kumar Pugalia followed Sudar's presentation with an exploration of methods of mobile hacking using Linux drivers. He discussed various Linux kernel hacking techniques as well as tools that can be used to perform reverse-engineering on a mobile device. The slides from Anil's presentation can be accessed on the right.	Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers from Anil Kumar Pugalia

The following two talks were delivered by Pankaj Bharadiya from Texas Instruments. In his first presentation, he explored hardware hacking and board/chips capabilities. His second talk was on porting open software on hardware. In addition to his discussions, he also covered porting Android on open hardware. The slides from his presentations will be posted shortly.

After all the presentations, the participants were invited to handle and open up the 12 mobile devices that CIS purchased for our Pervasive Mobile Technologies research project. The participants worked in teams of two to five members to open up the mobile devices and observe their internals. We asked the participants to record any information about the internals of the mobiles that they were able to find, including the make, model, and serial numbers of the components. Pictures from this part of the workshop will be posted shortly.

All of the collected information was recorded and distributed among the participants so that the group could continue to work on identifying the mobile internals and the various data sheets associated with each component. This data will be added to the specifications of each mobile device as it is collected. CIS hopes to continue to collaborate with the individuals and communities who participated in this workshop as well as other interested individuals who may have been unable to attend the one-day workshop to proceed with this process of identification. We also hope to hold a second event, a one- to two-day hackathon, sometime in December to continue the exploration of our mobile devices.

CIS would like to thank Anil Kumar Pagalia, Sudar Muthu, Pankaj Bharadiya, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Akash Mahajan (NULL representative), Amit Malik (SecurityXploaded representative), the NULL, SecurityXploaded, Bangalore Android User Group and Computer Club India communities, and all of the participants for making the workshop a huge success and aiding us in our ongoing research project!

You can reach participating communities at following links:

For any further information on the past workshop or future events, please connect with us:

Jadine Lannon (jadine@cis-india.org), research intern for the A2K programme
Amarjit Singh (amarjitlife@gmail.com), the Workshop Manager.

Click below for a slideshow of the pictures from the workshop:

Photos

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-devices

Comments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft)

snehashish — 2012-12-01T15:36:38Z

The Department of Science and Technology invited public comments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft). Accordingly, the Centre for Internet and Society has made the following comments on the draft policy document.

Department of Science and Technology,
Ministry of Science and Technology,
Government of India

Subject: Comments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft)

Dear Sir/Madam,

We at the Centre for Internet and Society commend the drafting of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013 (Draft). It is a well rounded policy which will pave the way for further informed policy decisions on innovation and research and development in the country.

Few of the notable and welcome policy statements are:

The Policy aims at ‘inclusive innovation’ and takes into consideration the “need to ensure access, availability and affordability of solutions to as large a population as possible”. It also aims at building a conducive environment for research and development by modifying the IPR policy to include marching rights with respect to social goods funded by public. This in line with the aim of the policy to provide access new technologies. The use of government funding in commercially viable research would not only assure better access to medicine and other technological innovations but also ensure knowledge transfer.

The policy decision to "foster data sharing and access" is most welcome and will act as a catalyst for further research and development through open and collaborative research and development.

Policy also lays emphasis on open source discoveries for "public and social good" and it is indeed a pleasure to note that the Policy wishes to build knowledge commons by collaborative generation of IPR. This will definitely go a long way in encouraging further innovation in the country.

It is also appreciated that the policy will aim at "increasing accessibility, availability and affordability of innovations" and will establish a fund for innovation in this direction.

The Policy also states that the "people" and "decision makers" should be made aware of the implications of emerging technologies, including their ethical, social and economic dimensions. Implementation of such policy is a necessity and will enable the government to make informed policy decisions in the future.

Suggestion:

It is submitted that the policy document should take into account that in order ensure ‘inclusive innovation’ and accessibility, the policy should specifically include mandates to encourage and foster innovation in technology related to accessibility tools for persons with disabilities.www.dst.gov.in/sti-policy.pdf

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-science-technology-and-innovation-policy-draft

Autonomy, Access, Infrastructure and Future — A Discussion with C S Lakshmi on the SPARROW Archive

praskrishna — 2012-12-05T10:22:20Z

What does it take to build an archive? Why build archives in the first place? What kind of challenges do archives created through independent initiatives face in terms of infrastructure, autonomy, access and futures? On Thursday, November 29, 2012, the Centre for Internet and Society and HasGeek present a Q&A session with Dr. C S Lakshmi, founder of SPARROW in Mumbai.

Set up in 1988 as a trust, SPARROW is a repository of narratives, diaries and documentation of women's stories, struggles, movements and trajectories. This session is an attempt to understand the process of building archives and who has access to these archives. How is sensitive information — gender, in this case — interpreted and reproduced from SPARROW archives? What kind of challenges does SPARROW face in terms of infrastructure and sustenance?

C. S. Lakshmi

C. S. Lakshmi (Ambai), born in 1944 in Tamil Nadu, is a distinguished fiction writer in Tamil. Her works are characterized by her passionate espousal of the cause of women, humor, a lucid and profound style, and a touch of realism. She is one of the most important Tamil writers today. She is the only Tamil writer to have been included in the recently published Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature edited by Amit Chaudhuri. Most of her stories are about relationships and they contain brilliant observations about contemporary life. Exploration of space, silence, coming to terms with one's body or sexuality, and the importance of communication are some of the recurring themes in her works.

A Doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University in the 1970's, she is presently the Director of Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW) in Mumbai. She is a recipient of Narayanaswamy Aiyar Prize for her fiction. Among her works are Sirakukal muriyum, Vittin mulaiyil oru camaiyalarai and The Face behind the mask : Women in Tamil literature. Many of her stories have been translated into English. The Library of Congress holds five of her writings in its collection.

This discussion is hosted as part of the Online Open Access Debates week, and HasGeek's IDRC project on "Examination of Open Data Initiatives in India".

VIDEO <embed type="application/x-shockwave- <iframe src="http://blip.tv/play/AYOK0HwA.html?p=1" width="250" height="510" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://a.blip.tv/api.swf#AYOK0HwA" style="display:none"></embed>

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/autonomy-access-infrastructure-future-a-discussion-with-cs-lakshmi-on-sparrow-archive

An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB College, Bhubaneswar

subha — 2012-12-07T22:40:32Z

The Centre for Internet and Society along with Odia Wikipedians in Bhubaneswar organized an Odia Wikipedia workshop on November 18, 2012. It was held in KMBB College of Engineering. Odia Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia in Odia language which everyone can edit.

Odia Wikipedians gathered in the temple city of Bhubaneswar on November 18, 2012 to organize the third Odia Wikipedia workshop in KMBB College of Engineering. KMBB College of Engineering is a BPUT affiliated engineering college supported by Ama Odisha, an organization working for media, communication and development of Odia language. Dr. Dhanada Mishra, Director-Academics, KMBB and a veteran educationalist and open source source enthusiast supported this event. Forty-five students from KMBB attended this workshop. The agenda for the two-and-a-half hour session was to educate students about open source movement, journey of Wikipedia and how to contribute to Odia Wikipedia and how it would help them. Nine active Odia Wikipedians joined to support this event.

Dr. Mishra began the session by introducing Odia Wikipedians to the students. He spoke about Open source movement, how the community supports various open source projects, how Wikipedia was started and how it is essential for students to take part in such activities. Subhashish Panigrahi briefly spoke about the history of Odia wikipedia, how it grew up in the recent years to its present state. Odia Wikipedian Manoranjan Behera discussed about how everyone can contribute to the Wikipedia.

To explain the easiness of typing in Odia, some of the students were invited to write text on a board and test the typing tool on Odia Wikipedia. A new article about the college was created and one of the students wrote few sentences. Wikipedians explained the importance of creating user accounts and demonstrated how to search an article, how to create an article and the basics of editing an article. A Question and Answer session was held for students to put their queries. At the end of the session, contact details were shared with the students and the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/OdiaWiki) of Odia Wikipedia was shown so that students could continue editing and remain in touch with fellow wikipedians.

Odia daily “The Sambad” covered this event.

Presentation: Copy of Introduction to Wikipedia! on Prezi
Video:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wikipedia-workshop-organized-in-kmbb-college-bhubaneswar

Open Government Platform: An Open Source Solution to Democratizing Access to Information and Energizing Civic Engagement

Neeta Verma, Alka Mishra and D.P. Mishra — 2012-11-19T03:15:01Z

If government could release these datasets in open format for people to use & reuse, a whole lot of new innovative apps could be built around these datasets to provide better, customized services to citizens.

This article by Neeta Verma, Alka Mishra and D.P. Mishra was published as a lead story in the July 2012 edition of Informatics Magazine, printed by the National Informatics Centre.

Online publishing of Government data in open format shall play an important role in enhancing transparency and accountability of the government. It shall enable new forms of citizen engagement & innovation in citizen service delivery. More customized & personalized services could be offered to citizens. When implemented at large scale it shall bring a paradigm shift in development of e-governance applications. At NIC we have recently developed an Open Government Platform (OGPL) to enable government ministries & departments to launch their open data initiative.

Conceptual Overview

OGPL as a product caters to two sets of users - the government and the citizen/civil societies. It facilitates government departments to contribute their datasets, Apps, tools, documents, services etc., which gets validated and published, after passing through a predefined workflow to the citizen interfacing data portal. The single-point citizen interface is designed in such a way that catalogs can be searched with ease and datasets can be accessed/downloaded in various open formats. It also provides a platform for citizens and civil societies to engage with government on various aspects of socio economic development.

OGPL also facilitates building of subject specific communities through Citizen engagement modules. Communities shall discuss online the kind of datasets, government should release and also what kind of apps should be developed around these datasets. This shall provide first hand information to government as well as developer communities on public demand and prioritize their schedules accordingly.

OGPL Components

OGPL essentially consists of three major modules:

Dataset Management System
Data Portal
Monitoring and Management
Dashboard

Dataset Management System

Dataset Management system or DMS shall be used by all contributing ministries, departments as well as organisations using which, authorized officers of the departments can contribute datasets, documents, services, tools and apps which shall then be processed through a predefined workflow of moderation & approval to ensure that datasets being released in public domain are in compliance with existing acts & policies of the government
concerning privacy, security etc.

Through DMS each Ministry/Department can contribute their datasets in the form containing a set of Standard Metadata elements. After passing through various stages of moderation and approvals, these datasets gets published on the data portal viz. data.gov.in

Data Portal

Data Portal is the citizen facing frontend of the OGPL which shall provide single point access to all the datasets, apps as well as services. Portal has a strong component of search, discovery as well as citizen engagement. The development of the data portal is in compliance with the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW).

This Citizen interfacing Data Portal would also have a Communities component built into the system. This component facilitates Forums/Discussions around various datasets, apps available on the portal as well as platform to express and discuss the kind of datasets & apps they would like to have. This shall give first hand input to development community for building new components, apps. It shall also give input to departments as what kind of datasets are more useful and accordingly can raise the priority of their release.

Monitoring and Management Dashboard

Monitoring and management dashboard of OGPL helps government monitor & manage its Open Data Programme through three dimensions

Metrics, analytics & feedback from citizens: Metrics help understand amount of datasets uploaded, updated by different Departments. Frequency of upload is also available on a single dashboard.
Analytics module gives use perspective in terms of their usage of datasets, Number of downloads, aggregated ratings provided to datasets determine their value and to some extent quality of data released by government.
Feedback from citizens provide government with first hand input from citizens on quality, relevance of datasets, new datasets needed, kind of apps need to be developed, etc.

Open government platform can be used in multiple ways. One can directly publish their datasets after one time registration & authentication. Departments could build their subject specific catalogues through a cloud based services of OGPL. One can also ask for independent installation of OGPL with customized look & feel. OGPL can be used by any central or state government department, organisations as well as district and panchayat administrations. It can also be used by private organisations as well as non government organization and civil societies to bring in more
transparency in their functioning.

OGPL isn't simply about setting up a new web platform, moving to cloud computing or adopting open standards but it's about establishing a platform to enhance transparency, accountability & foster development of Innovative applications to better serve the citizens & other stakeholders. Open government data is gaining a lot of popularity & acceptance with governments across the world. Its led by government themselves, development communities, international organisations. OGPL is a perfect platform for them to launch their open data initiative.

Note by BK Gairola In India, National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) has been recently notified by the Government. According to this policy, all government departments shall release their datasets in open format for citizens and other stakeholders to freely use & reuse. To make these datasets easily accessible by citizens, policy has also mandated NIC to provide technology solution for establishing an Open Data Portal (http://data.gov.in) for Departments, Subordinate Offices and Organizations. OGPL implementation in India is being executed by NIC, DeitY in close coordination with DST. OGPL is an open source product with generic architecture, which would easily facilitate other organizations and institutions to adopt for their open data initiatives. Communities could also contribute further by developing innovative apps around datasets and also enhancing the product in terms of features & functionalities. The purpose of the platform is to enhance access and use of government data to foster innovation, promote transparency, accountability and public participation. I am sure it shall go a long way in democratizing the government information.

Indo-US Collaboration Open Government Platform (OGPL) was developed jointly by India & US government as a result of announcement made by President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the Indo-US Open Government Dialogue in 2010. OGPL leverages on the best practices & features of the India’s “India.gov.in” and the “Data.gov” of United States.National Informatics Centre (NIC) from Government of India and General Services Administration (GSA) of United States executed the development of OGPL. Open Government Platform, developed to promote access to government data and information and energize citizen engagement was launched by Hon’ble Minister of Communications & IT and HRD, Govt. of India during a press conference held on 30th March 2012 in New Delhi in presence of Dr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to Prime Minister of India. Secretary(DEITY), DG(NIC) & Joint Secretary, MEA also participated in the press conference, Senior officers from US Government & US Embassy were also present along with GSA team in India. CIO, US Government along with Deputy CTO also addressed the event over video conference.

OGPL - An Open Source Solution Open Government Platform is completely developed using Open Source Stack. In fact complete management of the collaborative development of OGPL by two teams stationed in two continents of the world was also handled using open source tools.It complies with the best practices of open source development, which helps in leveraging the strengths of future versions of the open source base products used in development of OGPL. OGPL being an open source initiative not only facilitates cost saving in terms of software and licenses but also facilitates community participation in terms of further development of product with additional components and innovative apps around the published datasets. This shall define a paradigm shift in the manner electronic government applications shall be developed in future. The entire source code is made available to public for review, feedback and participation for further development and enhancement.

Citizen Engagement OGPL has a strong component of Citizen engagement. Citizens can view, download datasets as well express their opinion on the quality of datasets, they can rate the datasets on a scale of 1 to 5. One can embed a dataset in their blog or web site as well as contact the owner of the datasets for any query or clarification. One can also publish or connect the datasets on their social media pages such as facebook, twitter etc. for wider reach. Ratings given by citizen are transparently shared on the portal in terms of number of views, current star rating which help new visitor understand quality of data sets, its popularity. Portal also enables visitors to submit their ideas, feedbacks and as well suggest datasets they would like government to release in open domain. These ideas are further rated by citizens to help government allocate priority in release of data sets.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/informatics-nic-in-neeta-verma-alka-mishra-d-p-mishra-july-2012-open-government-platform

Typing in Indic Languages from Mobiles made Easy!

subha — 2013-07-17T09:02:46Z

A new app is up for typing in Indic languages from mobile phones. This is is available online at: http://bitly.com/indictyping and supports on iOS. Android version is to be released soon.

"There are two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors."
Phil Karlton

Yuvi Panda smiles saying this. Yuvi Panda, a former Wikimedia Foundation contractor and developer was here in our Delhi office and I had an opportunity to spend some time discussing some of the technical problems that we have been facing.

One of the major setback most people have with their phones is the lack of language support and lack of typing support for Indic languages. Fortunately most of the new generation phones support Indic languages. Three of the major operating systems used currently by most phones are Android, Windows, Blackberry and iOS. Android being an open source operating system has extensive community support and developments which is something we were primarily hopeful while starting this project. Windows phones also have a good number of user base in India and support for Indic languages on Windows is really good. Though iOS has good support for Indic display there is no support for typing. IOS, Windows and Blackberry all being proprietary have really less community support and any tool available on these app market would be proprietary. So, our idea was to start a cross platform app which will use the available jQuery ime used for Indic typing for Indic Wikipedias and sister projects.

Currently, most of the Indic language Wikipedias use a typing tool called Narayam ( "Narayam" is a Malayalam word which refers to a metal stylus that was used for writing on palm leaves and papyrus in ancient days). By default the typing scheme for most of the language wikipedias is set to transliteration or phonetic. An Indian mobile user would normally type his own language using Roman letters from a mobile. "और दोस्त सब ठीक है?" in Hindi would be typed as "Aur dost sab thik hai?" when someone pings a friend on facebook or sends a text message. Now with the new typing tool you need to type "aur dosta saba thiika hai?" to get the same text in Devanagari script. This typing scheme is almost same like the phonetic typing most people use for regional languages on mobile which is why typing won’t be much of difference. In terms of usability most people would use the typed text either for web search in regional languages, Facebook posts, tweeting or even sending mails and text messages.

The detailed procedure for typing using this tool is documented at: http://goo.gl/HdVJW. Indic typing tool is available at: http://bitly.com/indictyping

Scan the QR code below using your QR code application to go "Indic typing tool".

Developer speaks:

This is a simple tool that lets you type in your native language on mobile phones. Currently only iOS devices are supported.

The tool is a simple wrapper around Wikimedia Foundation Language Engineering's jquery.ime project. It simply adds a much easier to use (on a mobile device) language selector, and makes it available offline (on iOS devices).

Quick links:

Source code: https://github.com/yuvipanda/indic-typing-tool
Test the app and report the bugs directly on GitHub or on Meta.
Credits: YuviPanda, Subhashish Panigrahi, Santhosh Thottingal

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/typing-in-indic-languages-from-mobiles

Statement of Civil Society Members and Groups Participating in the "Best Bits" pre-IGF meeting at Baku in 2012

pranesh — 2012-12-07T08:06:25Z

The Centre for Internet & Society was one of the signatories for this submission made to the ITU on November 16, 2012.

Read the statement of civil society members and groups participating in the “Best Bits” pre-IGF meeting at Baku in 2012

We thank the Secretariat of the ITU for making the opportunity to submit our views.

Nevertheless, the process of the revision of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) has not been sufficiently inclusive and transparent, despite some recent efforts to facilitate public participation. Fundamental to the framing of public policy must be the pursuit of the public interest and fundamental human rights, and we urge Member States to uphold and protect these values.

We as civil society organizations wish to engage with the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) process in this spirit. Member States, in most cases, have not held open, broad-based, public consultations in the lead up to the WCIT, nor have they indicated such a process for the WCIT itself.

In order to address this deficiency, and at a minimum, we would urge:

All Member States and regional groups to make their proposals available to the public in sufficient time to allow for meaningfulpublic participation;
All delegates to support proposals to open sessions of the WCIT meeting to the public;
The ITU Secretariat to increase transparency of the WCIT including live webcast with the video, audio, and text transcripts, as far as possible, to enable participation by all, including persons with disabilities;
The ITU Secretariat, Member States, and regional groups to make as much documentation publicly available as possible on the ITU's website, so that civil society can provide substantive input on proposals as they are made available;
Member States to encourage and facilitate civil society participation in their national delegations;
The ITU to create spaces during the WCIT for civil society to express their views, as was done during the WSIS process.

Given the uncertainty about the nature of final proposals that will be presented, we urge delegates that the following criteria be applied to any proposed revisions of the ITRs.

That any proposed revisions are confined to the traditional scope of the ITRs, where international regulation is required around technical issues is limited to telecommunications networks and interoperability standards.
There should be no revisions to the ITRs that involve regulation of the Internet Protocol and the layers above.
There should be no revisions that could have a negative impact on affordable access to the Internet or the public's rights to privacy and freedom of expression.

More generally we call upon the ITU to promote principles of net neutrality, open standards, affordable access and universal service, and effective competition.

Signatories:

Access (Global)
Association for Progressive Communications (Global)
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (Bangladesh)
Bytes for All (Pakistan)
Center for Democracy and Technology (United States of America)
Centre for Community Informatics Research (Canada)
Centre for Internet and Society (India)
Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (Eastern and Southern Africa)
Consumer Council of Fiji (Fiji)
Consumers International (Global)
Dynamic Coalition on Internet Rights and Principles (IRP) (Global)
Electronic Frontier Finland (Finland)
Imagining the Internet Center (United States of America)
Instituto Nupef (Brazil)
Internet Democracy Project (India)
Internet Research Project (Pakistan)
Global Partners and Associates (United Kingdom)
GobernanzadeInternet.co (Colombia)
ICT Watch Indonesia (Indonesia)
Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor / Brazilian Institute for
Consumer Defense (Brazil)
InternetNZ (New Zealand)
IT for Change (India)
Media Education Center (Armenia)
ONG Derechos Digitales (Chile)
OpenMedia (Canada)
Public Knowledge (United States of America)
Thai Netizen Network (Thailand)
Ginger Paque (Venezuala)
Nnenna Nwakanma (Côte d'Ivoire)
Sonigitu Ekpe (Nigeria)
Wolfgang Kleinwächter (Denmark)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/statement-of-civil-society-members-and-groups-at-best-bits-pre-igf-meeting

ICOMM2012: International Communications and Electronics Fair

jdine — 2012-12-04T06:37:05Z

The seventh India International Communications and Electronics Fair (ICOMM2012) organized by CMAI Association of India was held at the NSIC Expo Grounds in New Delhi from September 14 to 15, 2012. Jadine Lannon attended the event, and shares us with some interesting and exciting new developments in ICT.

For the last seven years, the ICOMM event has been conducted by the Communication Multimedia Applications Infrastructure (CMAI) Association of India.[1] Since its first installment in 2006, ICOMM has grown to be a significant international tradeshow that showcases the latest products and technologies from a wide array of Asian mobile, tablets and consumer electronics manufacturers. Over the years, the event has also grown to include various participants from related industries, like service providers, application and software designers, and producers of equipment, components, parts and accessories.

While past ICOMM events had a strict B2B (business to business) structure, ICOMM2012 was the first year that the tradeshow was open to the public, making it India’s first consumer mobile and tablet exhibition. This B2B/C2B strategy appeared to be largely successful—the event received a high amount of traffic, especially from young people, and plans for the 8th ICOMM in 2013 involve an increase in event scale through integration with the India Telecom 2013 tradeshow.[2]

The main themes of ICOMM2012 were mobiles, tablets, and consumer electronics, though applications, accessories, and various related technologies and industries were also featured. The event hosted a large diversity of participants, from leading Indian brands like Micromax, Lava International, Karbonn and Maxx Mobile to smaller Indian and international brands such as GlobyTalky, Skymobiles, Gionee, Ivio, Belphone and Signal. A huge array of devices and innovations were featured at ICOMM2012, many of which are still prototypes. Here are some of the innovations and booths that caught my eye:

	Datawind Ltd. occupied a popular booth with the release of four new 7-inch UbiSlate tablets[3] UbiSlate 7Ci, 7C+, 7Ri and 7R+. These sophisticated Android devices function as both tablets and smartphones, support WiFi and GPRS connections, and are the only Android devices on the Indian market to feature Datawind’sUbiSurfer browser. The UbiSlate 7+ devices can now be pre-ordered for between Rs. 3,499 and Rs. 4,799. I was able to interview Mr. Jasjit Singh, the Executive Vice President of Datawind, on the UbiSlate tablets. A link to this interview will be provided in the near future. ICOMM2012 actually saw the launch of fair number of new devices onto the Indian market. One of the most prominent launches was SMSInfosys’[4] new product line of mobile, tablet, and computer devices under the brand GlobyTalky.[5] This “GlobyTalky” brand originally began as a mobile application called “GlobyTalky – Connected Life”, a multi-platform RCSe application that boasts multiple communication and sharing features. The application, brand and devices are the brainchildren of Imtiaz Ahmed, the founder of SMSInfosys.

Datawind Ltd. occupied a popular booth with the release of four new 7-inch UbiSlate tablets[3] UbiSlate 7Ci, 7C+, 7Ri and 7R+. These sophisticated Android devices function as both tablets and smartphones, support WiFi and GPRS connections, and are the only Android devices on the Indian market to feature Datawind’sUbiSurfer browser. The UbiSlate 7+ devices can now be pre-ordered for between Rs. 3,499 and Rs. 4,799.

I was able to interview Mr. Jasjit Singh, the Executive Vice President of Datawind, on the UbiSlate tablets. A link to this interview will be provided in the near future.

ICOMM2012 actually saw the launch of fair number of new devices onto the Indian market. One of the most prominent launches was SMSInfosys’[4] new product line of mobile, tablet, and computer devices under the brand GlobyTalky.[5] This “GlobyTalky” brand originally began as a mobile application called “GlobyTalky – Connected Life”, a multi-platform RCSe application that boasts multiple communication and sharing features. The application, brand and devices are the brainchildren of Imtiaz Ahmed, the founder of SMSInfosys.

The GlobyTalky launch was distinguished by the wide array of devices that were released. The brand features a good selection of feature phones, smartphones and tablets, as well as two laptops (I was unable to get a picture of the laptops). Each of the GlobyTalky mobile and tablet devices feature the GlobyTalky – Connected Life application. Two phones are of particular interest in the photo below—the thin light blue phone with the long blue strap and the dark blue candy bar-style phone on the right.


The light blue phone is about the size of a credit card and 5.6 mm thick. It was advertised as a “back-up” phone that one could keep in their wallet and use when their main phone failed, and was priced at Rs. 1000-1200. The dark blue phone, called the G-Aqua, is completely waterproof—it can function perfectly while submerged in water, and can survive submersion of up to 1.5 meters without taking any damage. It can even receive calls, play music, and take pictures while underwater. It can be seen again in white in the picture below.


According to Mr. Ahmed, 60 per cent of the mobile devices that are brought into services centers in India have water damage, which is what motivated him to create a completely waterproof phone for the Indian market. He estimates that it will be priced between Rs. 4,200 and Rs. 4,500.

GlobyTalky was not the only participant that showcased a waterproof phone, though. IVIO, a mobile brand owned by the Indonesian company PT. Intersys, was also giving demonstrations on their waterproof smartphone, the DG68. With its sleek design, 4.1-inch high-resolution screen, 3G and Wifi capabilities, capacitate touch and Android 4.0 OS, the DG68 is a much more sophisticated phone than the G-Aqua. However, IVIO has yet to release any of its devices onto the Indian market, and the DG68 is still a prototype.

The ShenZhen BLEPHONE Technology Co., Ltd., the company that owns the popular mobile brands Lesun and Lephone (the latter of which is available on the Indian market), also had a popular booth. Aside from their large presentation of feature phones and smartphones, BLEPHONE also showcased some interesting innovations and accessories. In particular, I was quite impressed by their Lephone mobile USB charging devices, called the CooMax, and their Lesun digital recorder-cum-mobile phone, the Gift I.

ICOMM2012 was a hugely successful exhibition. Aside from showcasing many of the most interesting and significant innovations and actors in the Asian ICT sectors, and possibly the wider world, the event was able to attract more than 21,500 delegates over a two-day period.[6] Further, according to NK Goyal, the president of the CMAI Association of India, the fair was able to generate business leads worth USD 154 million.[7] I highly encourage anyone interested in the exciting and ever-changing world of ICT to attend ICOMM2013, as it is sure to continue to grow and attract more and more exciting and fascinating technologies and devices.

Given below is a gallery of the photos taken at the event and of various other booths and devices.

[1]. The CMAI Association of India is a prominent trade association that works to promote growth in the Indian IT and telecom sector domestically and internationally through activities such as investing in industry services and promotion, education, training and market research. Through consultation, events, advocacy, research and promotion, the CMAI now boasts a substantial amount of members and international partners, as well as multiple international offices. More information can be found on the CMAI Association of India at http://www.cmai.asia/association.php
[2]. See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” EFYTimes.com, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.
[3]. The UbiSlate tablet is the commercial version of Datawind Ltd.’s Aakask tablet, a high-functioning low-cost tablet device that was developed in collaboration with the Indian government as part of the country’s endeavor to supply Indian college and university students with a low-cost computer device. This project was part of the government’s aim to provide an e-learning service to 25,000 colleges and 500 universities across India (this figure was retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817). More data on this device can be found at: http://www.akashtablet.com/
[4]. SMSInfosys is a mobile phone testing company with offices in India, Hong Kong and China. They perform quality assurance/quality control inspection, certification verification and IMEI services to mobile phone producers. More information about the company can be found here: http://smsinfosys.com/
[5]. More information on this brand and product line can be found here: http://globytalky.com/
[6].See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” EFYTimes.com, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.
[7]. See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” EFYTimes.com, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/icomm-2012-report

A Wikipedia Mini-hackathon in Delhi

Yuvraj Pandian — 2012-12-04T07:31:21Z

Wikipedian Yuvaraj Pandian visited the CIS office in Delhi and helped the Access to Knowledge team conduct a super-ad-hoc mini-hackathon with two other volunteers, Sheel from Delhi and Harsh from Ahmedabad. The aim was to get them a kickstart in developing userscripts/gadgets, and get them to a point where the prior existing documentation makes sense to them.

The ad-hoc plan had three parts:

The execution environment (Concept of userscripts vs gadgets, ResourceLoader)
The API concepts (Special:ApiSandbox, concept of 'actions' in the API)
Accessing the API from JS (mediawiki.api module, concept of AJAX)

Here is the account of what they did, written by Yuvi:

"We covered all parts of them slowly, with both Harsh and Sheel working at things until they fully understood what they were doing and why whatever they were doing was working.

I introduced them to the environment first by having them execute code in Chrome's JS Console, and then in their own common.js. Once they understood the context in which the code was getting executed, the 'ResourceLoader default modules'[1]documentation started making sense to them, and they could pick up other modules from there.

We then explored the API via the API Sandbox[2], which is a relatively new (and not very well known) way of letting people play around with the API. It is a massive improvement over the older, non-interactive docs[3], and both Harsh and Sheel were very excited about being able to discover all the things they could do with the API. A fair amount of time was spent messing around with it on different wikipedias (en, hi and gu) and reading bits of the API Documentation[4] to understand the concepts behind the actions - and for filling in the gaps.

Finally we had them use the API from a userscript to make calls. I went through the entire process line by line, explaining how AJAX works and how asynchronous programming works. We traced the flow of code together to understand how the seamingly nonlinear asynchronous programming model works. Then we dug into a bit of how to use the mw.loader module to make dependencies work, and why the same code that was working in the chrome js console was not working in their common.js.

It ended with them trying to port HotCat to their native language wikipedias. Harsh started to explore more about getting started with MediaWiki dev itself (rather than just gadgets), but the clone took a looooong time and we had run out of time by then. I directed him to a WMF tech open chat happening today, and hopefully that could help!

[1].https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader/Default_modules
[2].https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox
[3].https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php
[4].https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/mini-hackathon-delhi

Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy

praskrishna — 2012-11-06T09:39:43Z

The report covers international privacy principles, national privacy principles, rationale and emerging issues along with an analysis of relevant legislations/bills from a privacy perspective.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/report-of-group-of-experts-on-privacy.pdf

Centre for Internet and Society

Transcript of the Opening Ceremony, WCIT-2012

Second International e-Governance Conference

Conference Agenda

Papers/Speakers Bio Summary

Plenary Session 1: e-Governance and Public Sector Reform

Plenary Session 2: Citizen Inclusion into the Digital Society

Plenary Session 3: Workshop 1 (Challenges of implementing an adequate telecommunications infrastructure and Highlighting the role of the private sector and the establishment of the concept of true public-private sector partnership in the field of e-governance)

Plenary Session 4: Effective Role of Local Governments in framework of e-Governance Program

Plenary Session 5: Challenges of Government Interoperability Framework Implementation, Standards and Information

Plenary Session 6: Building e-services

So Much to Lose

November 2012 Bulletin

Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace

Access to Knowledge Programme

HasGeek

Media Coverage

Videos

Human Machine Interfaces: The History of an Uncertain Future

Exploring the Internals of Mobile Devices — Report from a One-day Workshop at TERI

Sudar Muthu: Capabilities of Arduino

Anil Kumar Pugalia: Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers

Comments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft)

Autonomy, Access, Infrastructure and Future — A Discussion with C S Lakshmi on the SPARROW Archive

C. S. Lakshmi

An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB College, Bhubaneswar

Presentation:

Video:

Open Government Platform: An Open Source Solution to Democratizing Access to Information and Energizing Civic Engagement

Conceptual Overview

OGPL Components

Dataset Management System

Data Portal

Monitoring and Management Dashboard

Note by BK Gairola

Indo-US Collaboration

OGPL - An Open Source Solution

Citizen Engagement

Typing in Indic Languages from Mobiles made Easy!

Developer speaks:

Quick links:

Statement of Civil Society Members and Groups Participating in the "Best Bits" pre-IGF meeting at Baku in 2012

Signatories:

ICOMM2012: International Communications and Electronics Fair

A Wikipedia Mini-hackathon in Delhi

Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy