Centre for Internet and Society

Exposing Data: Art Slash Activism

praskrishna — 2011-12-29T13:31:12Z

Tactical Tech and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) organised a public discussion on the intersection of Art and Activism at the CIS office in Bangalore on 28 November 2011. Videos of the event are now online. Ward Smith (Lecturer, University of California, LA), Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszinsky (Co-founders, Tactical Technology Collective), Ayisha Abraham (Film maker, Srishti School of Art Design) and Zainab Bawa (Research Fellow, Centre for Internet and Society) spoke in this event.

In the information societies that we live in, data is the new currency. While data – objective enumerations of life – has been around as the basis of providing evidence in research, practice and art, there is a renewed attention on data as the digital technologies start mediating our everyday lives. Digitization (like electronification in earlier times) is a process by which messy, chaotic, everyday life can be sorted, classified, arranged and built into clean taxonomies that flatten the experiential and privilege the objective. In many ways, the process of ubiquitous digitization goes back to the Cartesian dualism of the immaterial mind over the emergent materiality of the body. Historically, different disciplines and practices within the social and natural sciences, humanities, arts, development work, and governmentality, etc. have established protocols to create robust, rigorous, efficient and reliable data that can be used as evidence for thought and action. These protocols are not permanent and are often questioned within the disciplinary framework but especially with interdisciplinary dialogues where conflicting methodologies and reading practices often render the same data sets unintelligible to each other.

With the rise of the digital, these disciplines and practices start new negotiations with the world of databases, networks and archives. There is a growing anxiety that data, which was supposed to be an objective representation of reality, is increasingly becoming opaque in how it is structured. There is also an increasing awareness that the work that we make the —‘idea of data’— is not transparent. The Exposing Data Project came as a response to these anxieties, as we seek to unpack the processes, methodologies, challenges and implications of living in a data-rich, data-based world mediated by digital and internet technologies through a cross-disciplinary multi-sectoral dialogue.

Exposing Data is a curated practice of bringing together differently located researchers, academics, practitioners, policy actors, artists and public interlocutors to tease out the tensions and conflicts that digital data brings to their own practice and thought, especially when talking to people who are ‘not like us’.

For its first conversation titled ‘Art Slash Activism’, we decided to look at the tensions that often split communities and practices across historically drawn battle lines. There has been a huge tension between artists and activists, who, even though they often use same kind of data sets, are often at logger-heads when it comes to using that data for their practice. Artists, especially those dealing with public and community art projects, often work in the same spaces and communities as the activists, in making strong political statements and working towards a progressive liberal ideology. Activism has depended on artistic expressions – especially those around free speech, censorship, surveillance, human rights, etc. – in order to not only find peer support but also to oppose authoritarian forces that often seek to quell artistic voices. And yet, within the larger communities, the idea of political art – art that makes direct political statements – or activism as an art form – activism that takes the form of cultural production and overt subversion – often emerges as problematic. ‘Art Slash Activism’ brought together four people, identified (reluctantly, because they wear so many different hats) as an academic, as a researcher, as an activist and as an artist, who all straddle these chasms in their own work, to unpack the tensions through the lens of digital data.

Zainab Bawa, who is a research fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, working on a monograph that deals with politics of transparency in Indian e-governance systems, set out the terms of the debate as she questioned the very meaning of the word ‘data’. Zainab, by looking at case-studies of land-record digitization in the country, started to look at how the word ‘data’, despite its apparent transparency and objectivity, is actually an opaque concept that eclipsed the politics of data formation – what gets identified as data? What gets discarded as noise? Who gets to identify something as data? What happens to things which are not data? What happens to people who cannot be identified through data? What are the systems of rationality that we inherit to talk of data?

Video of Zainab Bawa Talk

These questions persisted through the different conversations but were brought into plain site when Ayisha Abraham, a film and video artist who also teaches at the Sristhi School of Art Design, showed us a digitally restored piece of an old film that disintegrated even as it was being saved. Heidegger in his Basic Writings had proposed that “Art assumes that the truth that discloses itself in the work can never be derived from outside.” Ayisha built on this idea to look at material historicity and physical presence of data to question the easy availability of data that has been established for data in art practices. When does data come into being? What precedes data? What happens to data when it decays beyond belief? How do we restructure reality in the absence of data? She mapped the role of affective restructuring, historical reconstruction and creative fictions in our everyday life when we deal with realities which cannot be supported by data.

Video of Ayisha Abraham Talk

Ward Smith added a layer of complication in his questioning of the established cause-effect relationship that data has with Reality. Within activism as well as in development and policy work, there is an imagination that data always followed reality – that it is a distilled set of abstractions based on experiences, information, knowledge, analyses, etc. However, Ward presented us with a case-study that shows that data is not benign. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Often, the creation of data sets and databases leads to construction of alternative and new material realities. Even within existing realities, the introduction of a data set or an attempt to account for the reality using data, produces new and evolved forms of reality. Drawing partly from the discussions within digital taxanomies and partly from conversations in quantum philosophy (remember Schrodinger’s Cat?) Ward showed how data realities need to be unpacked to reveal what lies underneath.

Video of Ward Smith Talk

Marek Tuszinsky rounded up the conversations by introducing us to different ways of looking at data. Drawing from a rich ethnographic and experience data set at the Tactical Technology Collective, Marek questioned how our relationships and reading practices – looking at data side-ways, for example – influences the shape, form, structure and meaning of the data under consideration. What came up was a compendium questions around data ethics, data values, our own strategies and reflectivity in dealing with a data-mediated and data-informed world. What are the kinds of imperatives that lead us to produce data? What methodologies do we deploy to render data intelligible? What kind of data manipulations do we engage in, in order to make it comprehensible to digital systems of archives and storage?

Video of Marek Tuzinsky Talk

What are the politics of exclusion, inclusion and making invisible of data sets?

The conversation further opened up to the other participants in the conversation to crystalise around three areas of concern:

Data Decay

An audience member pointed out that one is always confronted with the physical decay of data. While old film is an incredibly fragile medium, it has survived over 70 years to become a part of Ayisha’s work. A digital format, on the other hand, would likely become inaccessible within six years due to format changes and problems with compatibility. The discussion shifted to the temporary aspect of data. The digitization of data allows one to illuminate it in significant ways by adding new components and blowing up details of focus. Such options are not available in analogue form.

However, the fact that digital media has a limited lifespan is something that one must consider. Are we depicting data for immediate attention and action, or for future reference? How far down the timeline of history do we want our records to stretch? Regardless of whether the producers of the film that turned out to be a hidden treasure for Ayisha asked these questions, the persistence of the film 70 years later served to illuminate an important moment in history and spoke of lives and stories the knowledge of which is still of interest and inspiration in our time. The future accessibility of data can be seen as our legacy and the inheritance of the generations to come.

Data Realities / Subjects

At the same time, can we be sure of the factual nature of recovered and existing data? It is important to ask who commissioned the source of information, who collected the data, who depicted and disseminated it? When asking “who”, one should also ask what their motives were, what resources they had and what settings they were working in. These are only several factors that influence the accuracy, message and understanding of the presented data.

Data has political power, being used as a catalyst and a justifying factor for various policies and interventions. However, data that is collected and presented by policy makers, research organizations, NGO’s, and other institutions may not reflect the realities as they are experienced by the population represented by the data. Researchers may be asking the wrong questions, or seeking answers in the wrong places, as it was the case in the Atlanta homeless programs discussed in Ward’s presentation. Inaccurate or incomplete data can confuse cause and effect, as well as become the cause in and of itself by feeding into stereotypes and creating faulty convictions that shape conventional views and social action.

Data Values

The importance of deconstructing the nature of how data is presented was remarked on by an audience member. The question posed was how, in the process of data collection and presentation, one can make data more reflective of reality as it is experienced by the studied population through incorporating grassroots efforts to create a community-based ownership of data.

To tackle this question, Marek brought up the example of mapping out the Kibera slum in Kenya. An open source approach was used in the project, where locals actively participated in the process of mapping. However, as Marek pointed out, it was still an intervention from outside the community. Somebody funded the project, someone gave the equipment, and they followed a certain methodology for reasons of their own. A completely unbiased and neutral representation of the slum was not possible due to the various agendas and perspectives of the parties involved, the dominant agenda being that of the project funders. Complete objectivity, even when efforts are made, is impossible.

Is it really more data that we need then? Even though information exists, it may not be accurate and not everyone within the society has an equal reach to it. A worker from a village lacking in literacy skills has significantly less access to data than a PHD student from a renowned university, even though they both navigate within the same system. Access to data stems farther than what is put up on a website or a file that can be picked up from a government office. More important than having access to open data, Zainab believes that one should look for relationships and systems where there is responsiveness and responsibility of negotiating.

However, what came clear from the discussion is that there are existent infrastructures that enable researchers and activists in their quest for information and its fair representation. People, in their interactions with each other, in the institutions and ad hoc organizations we develop, take part in creating these enabling infrastructures. Being embedded in the system within which one is collecting information allows one to understand and manoeuvre the necessary avenues. Questions of data collection, representation, and dissemination are multidisciplinary, spanning across issues that touch all members of our society. From land property records, old abandoned film, government statistics, classifications, and artists’ quest for truth, data takes many forms and defines our lives in ways we cannot always control. Through revaluation and questioning of these processes we gain a better understanding of what shapes societal views, government action, and how we can take control and use data to illuminate the unseen and wheel social change.

This has been the first of our experiments at creating dialogues around Exposing Data. We invite people interested in these questions, to not only participate in the future conversations, but also help us draw upon different disciplines, questions and concerns around the subject of Data. The next conversation seeks to address the question of “Whose data is it anyway?” and we hope that the momentum of talk carries on.

Nishant Shah
Maya Ganesh
Yelena Gulkhandanyan

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/art-slash-activism

Now Streaming on Your Nearest Screen

nishant — 2011-12-24T08:58:13Z

Digital cinema, especially the kinds produced using mobile devices and travelling on Internet social networking systems like YouTube and MySpace, are often dismissed as apolitical and ‘merely’ a fad. Moreover, content in the non-English language, due to incomprehensibility or lack of understanding of the cultural context of the production, is labeled as frivolous, or inconsequential, writes Nishant Shah in this peer reviewed essay published in the Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Volume 3, Issue 1, June 2009.

Contextualising new digital cinema through Kuso[1]

Deploying the aesthetic framework of kuso as political engagement, this essay analyzes how its ‘aesthetic’ form of expression offers spaces of political participation and negotiation for the ‘Strawberry Generation’ digital natives in Taiwan. This paper draws from various youth phenomena like the emergence of the ‘BackDorm Boys’ as iconic representations of flawed stardom, the adoption of kuso lifestyles and the consumption/distribution cycles of cinema on the web to see the possibilities they offer for political engagement and participation through cultural expressions and productions, that are otherwise dismissed in contemporary discourse.

New digital technologies, initially developed for surveillance and strategic communication, because of the proliferation of the internet/s and the cyberspaces, have now become freely available at very inexpensive rates around the world. The easy availability of these technologies enables new conditions of production of hitherto privileged art forms. The new globalised circuits of un-contextualized distribution lead to the imagination of a deterritorialized community of consumers who share common systems of making meaning and receiving these objects. As has been noted in earlier cybercultures studies, objects found on the internet/s – the people and the narratives that they produce - are often consumed as outside of time and geographical space. William J. Mitchell (1996) in his now much critiqued conception of the ‘Infobahn’, conflates all geographical distinction in his imagining of the larger neural circuits of digital information and economy. Similarly, in his extraordinary book. Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger (2007), explores the role that digital dissemination and distribution (as also storage and archiving) play in evolving a new miscellaneous form of sorting and classification, thus deconstructing established coda of knowledge determination. Weinberger, despite the keen insight into the importance of metadata and user-based personalised galaxies of information, is unable to talk of the entire range of phenomena as rooted in particular geo-political contexts. In fact, as Gasser and Palfresy (2008) make evident in their book Born Digial, whenever a body is referred to within cybercultures studies, it is the body of a white, upper class, masculine body; whenever a place is evoked, it is unequivocally the economic centres of the North-West; Time, which is an affiliate of the space and the body, is also then the linear and historical time determined by these concrete referents.

The West, with its wide consumer base and widespread proliferation of new digital technologies, often becomes the hegemonic legitimising authority as objects produced elsewhere are understood through ‘foreign’ aesthetics and logistics. Imagining the internet/s as residing outside of the time-space continuums, allows for a cyclical re-assertion of the Western paradigms as credible and authentic, and other forms as parodic or derivative in nature. New forms of cultural expression and narrativisation, received outside of the context of their production or the circuits of distribution and reception, are often mis-read and interpreted to fit the existing modes of making meaning.

This paper is an attempt to look at a specific form of new digital cinema in North East Asia that challenges the west-centric modes of understanding these objects. New digital cinema is a category that needs to be more sharply defined. In the last three decades of extensive technological advent and deployment in the fields of cinematic production, many different forms have claimed the space of new digital cinema. Post-celluloid cinema,[2] production of movies augmented by technologies, studio house experiments in animation and 3D technologies, distribution of movies and the networks of piracy that come into being with peer2peer networks,[3] conditions of reception and movie watching with digitally owned copies of movies,[4] the emergence of multiplex cinema and conditions of consumption,[5] etc. have been looked upon by different theoreticians and practitioners as new digital cinema.

I use the term ‘new digital cinema’ in the rest of the paper in a very specific sense of the phrase to make a very clear point of departure from the aforementioned approaches, which, though exploring the possibilities that digital technologies offer, still, often, stay with contained and unquestioned understanding of the established cinematic practices of production, authorship, distribution and spectatorship. New digital cinema is located in the new wave of cinematic forms produced by people who are enabled to do so by the easy availability of conditions of production and distribution that are framed by new digital technologies. Instead of looking at movies being produced by ‘film-makers’ or ‘film-studios’, maintaining the distinctions of authorship, readership and distribution circuits, I explore movies which are produced by people who are otherwise relegated to the realm of spectatorship and consumption. For the scope of this paper, new digital cinema refers to the cheaply produced cinematic forms, shot through inexpensive and slowly-becoming ubiquitous camera enabled devices. Geared towards an almost obscene abundance of details and demanding an untiring self-narrativisation,[6] these sites of social networking and expression have led to the production of videos and distribution of the self in unprecedented ways. These videos are further marked in their distribution through cyberspatial forms like YouTube, MySpace, and Google video, Television based reality shows based that run on user based programming consisting of personal videos, personal webcam sites, and MMS forums, to millions of users who enter into an interaction that is no longer limited to spectatorship.

There are three dialectic processes around the ‘personal’ videos broadcast on such sites of digital social networking and sharing, that need to be mapped in order to understand the impulse of this paper as well as to look at the dialectic reconstruction of earlier categories as understood by non-digital, pre-internet cultural forms. The first trope of dialectic comes in the form of continuity. Histories of technology taking the When Old Technologies were New (Marvyn, 1988) approach, often produce these digital moving images as bearing a relational value with the emergence of earlier technological forms and the use of these forms to produce personal narratives – print, camera, video, to name the three most influential forms of self expression and narrativisation. Such a historical narrative, unless carefully inflected with the growth and development of indigenous technologies and the indigenisation of these technologies, reads both, the technological development as well as the cultural forms thus produced, only through a West-centric paradigm of aesthetics, glossing over the differences that might be present in the very process and methods of reading such technologised forms. This non-disruptive, uninterrupted historicisation, while it is fruitful in questioning some presumed categories in the process of cultural production,[7] still reinforce these digital moving images as merely a new form of old cinema.

The second tension that needs to be mapped out occurs in the form of carefully maintained distinctions between the Sacred Cow of originality and the much maligned miasma of derivative, plagiarised, copied (left, right, centre), forms that have been facilitated by the proliferation of copy-paste digital technologies and internet networks. In the public as well as the theoretical discourse around these digital moving images, there is almost a Universal original (generally Western, otherwise canonised by the Western gaze in other geo-political contexts), to which everything else has a relation that is either praodic or uniformly derivative in nature. Even within the West, these videos on youtube and myspace are easily dismissed as plagiarised or unoriginal, often leading to a wide range of public controversy and exchange.[8]

The third dialectic is in the blurring of the pre-digital accepted terms of producers, spectators and processes of reading that these digital moving images produce. It is necessary to realise that the context of not only the production but also that of the reader is crucial to understanding the aesthetics of cyberspatial forms. The author in the digital world is as digital and ephemeral as the object itself. The tension between the corporeal and the digital has been effectively resolved by conceptualising the ‘interface’ – the space between the two conflicting and tense oppositional ideas- as the bearer of thought, idea, meaning and intention for digital objects. Such a complex structuring challenges the earlier crystalised practices authorship, spectatorship, distribution and reception, thus marking new digital cinema as not merely a cinematic practice augmented by technology but as a new form of cinema that challenges, quite radically, the earlier cinematic forms, in very much the same way that, in another historical and cultural moment, the print did to the manuscript.

This paper locates itself in these three dialectical flows to explore new digital cinema as a form of popular and cultural expression in Asia, specifically in Taiwan. It hopes to dismantle the myth of the universal/accessible/west-centric view of new digital cinema and demonstrate the need to assert the geo-socio-cultural contexts of their origin through exploring the aesthetics and genre of Kuso.

Knowing Miso from Kuso

Kuso, though it is a relatively new term, is highly popular in describing the new cybercultural forms that emerged with the proliferation of the internet/s. Anime fans are familiar with Kuso as an expletive or an interjection, used as the English equivalent of ‘Shit!’ Though Japanese in origin, it was made popular as a word, an aesthetic and a lifestyle in Taiwan around 2000, subsequently spreading to Hong Kong and China. Now, Kuso, along with other N.E. Asian products like Hentai,[9] and Manga, is a popular way of identifying cybercultural forms. The wikipedia mentions that

[t]he roots of Taiwanese “Kuso’ was Kuso-ge’s from Japan. The word Kuso-ge is a portmanteau of Kuso and game, which means, quite literally, “shitty games.” The introduction of such a category is to teach gamers how to appreciate and enjoy a game of poor quality – such as appreciating the games’ outrageous flaws instead of getting frustrated at them.
(Wikipedia, 2006)

It was an attempt to not only identify or locate flaws but to celebrate them and encourage an active production of them. Kuso, for the younger generation in Taiwan (and the thousands of fans all around the world, who subscribe to Kuso Bulletin Boards and discussion forums) is not just a cursory form of parody but a lifestyle. A Taiwanese artist, Yeh Yi-Li, in her solo exhibition, seems to suggest that as well. Her introduction to her exhibition titled ‘KUSO – Red, Spring Snow, Orange Flower’ says

In Taiwan’s pop culture, internet subculture and video gamers’ communities, it (Kuso) became a trendy term that suggests “making fun of anything, playing practical jokes on everything.” KUSO subverts conventional values and turns things into garbage. It has no limits, history, agendas or logic. Like an amoeba, it is a subculture phenomenon that has no rules. (Yi-Li, 2006)

Making a list of characteristics of what might be Kuso is futile. As Yi-Li seems to suggest, Kuso, on the surface, is located on the ‘fun’ and ‘hilarity’ of an object. However, Kuso actually resides in the processes of subversion and resistance. Kuso not only makes ‘things into garbage’ but also, by logical corollary, turns ‘garbage into things’. It started as a subculture phenomenon but is now highly popular in mainstream cultures – on reality TV on youth oriented channels like MTV and Channel V, in local performances and spectacles, and in Stephen Chou movies. Kuso seems to refer to not just the discourse around a particular object but a subjective mode of representing the self into different narrative conditions enabled by new digital technologies. Kuso is about the ability to create fluid and transitory spectacles of the self as a trope of social interaction and communication. While Yi-Li might look upon Kuso as without ‘limits, history, agendas or logic’, she forgets that Kuso has been the way for organising political protests, flash mobs and social awareness collectives in many part of Asia.[10] It is in this very ‘free’ and ‘excessive’ structure of Kuso that one can locate the politics and processes by which New Digital Cinema can be understood.

In her Kuso exhibition, Yi-Li created the ‘Worm-man’ that

drags its body and slithers in the ever-changing world. In different kinds of worlds, the Worm-man develops into different phases. As phenomena are happening, it is also transforming. The Worm-man has multipe possibilities, multiple personalities and multiple identities.
(Yi-Li, 2006)

While Kuso is often understood as parody, trash culture or camp humour, and is even attributed to MTV style movies by enthusiasts, for the large section of Kuso consumers, it is the governing principle for social interaction, dressing and appearance, hair and accessories, consumption of products and modes of expression. Kuso seems to be a way in which they produce themselves as parodic forms of themselves – producing themselves in conditions of constant transformation with ‘multiple possibilities, multiple personalities and multiple identities.’ As Yi-Li suggests in her art, Kuso is not just about producing parodies and mimicking popular art forms but it is also a way of producing the spectacle of the self. It is not surprising then, that Kuso emerges as an aesthetic with the proliferation of technologies and tools which allow for a narrativisation of the self for distribution and consumption in the public.

Contexualising Kuso

I look at two specific instances of Kuso to understand and frame the concept in this paper. The first emerged out of my own involvement with some of the students and their scheduled performances at the annual sports day.[11] My Chinese language teacher Mandy Hua, who is an undergraduate student at the NCU, is also a professional hip hop dancer. For her annual day performance at the university, Mandy chose (with some inputs from me) a popular Bollywood song that was creating raves in India at that time.[12] Mandy chose the song, edited the audio to make it tighter and shorter in duration and started the practice. Along with a flock of dancers from other schools on the campus, Mandy replicated an ‘Indian’ aesthetic for the song, doing elaborate costumes which included a lot of flowing skirts, veils, sequins and shimmer – the kind that was shown in the song. The female performers were in a state of erotic relationship – not only in their imitation of the seductive postures and movements of the dance sequence in the original movie song but also in presenting themselves as eroticised objects of glamour and desire to a young audience made primarily of students. The expected reactions of cat calls, of hooting, of lascivious laughter and of gasps of wonder and awe were all present in the crowd. However, a brief minute into the performance, their narrative of seduction, eroticism and obvious parody-imitation was disrupted and somehow harmoniously irrupted by a group of boys, wearing glasses, their bodies far from the perfectly sculpted eroticised bodies of the female performers, wearing clumsy looking ill-fitting karate dresses and making unrehearsed animal movements around the female performers.

It was the introduction of these dancers that completely displaced the element of parody within which I understood the performance. The male performers, who were completely unfamiliar with the original song, were imitating the female dancers on the ground. They were not interested in replicating either the movements of the female dancers or the sequences they were following. They were more interested in undermining the very aesthetic that the female dancers were trying to replicate or produce. Their movements were jerky, unpractised, bordering on the ridiculous. Their half naked bodies were un-sculpted and uneroticised. These were not the college hunks or super jocks coming out to parade their masculinities but the ‘geeks’ or the ‘dorks’ who were ravelling in their un-eroticised status and celebrating it with gusto.

What was more interesting was the way in which the audience was receiving these male performers. In spite of the engaged erotic relationship with the female performers, the audience was extremely appreciative of the male performers’ attempts at overthrowing the female performers’ spectacle. The audience was egging them to constantly be more ridiculous, be more flamboyant, be more self mocking, guiding their movements and actions, leading to a final mock chase sequence, where the male performers chased the female performers off the ground, stripped themselves to their shorts, flexed their un-muscled bodies and made their exit among huge cheering and applause. They were obviously the star attraction of the performance. Such a response was puzzling. It was the women who had put in hours of practice to produce themselves as erotic objects of consumption. The audience, in the beginning had engaged with them at that level. And yet, it was this bunch of slightly ‘with an L on my head’ guys who emerged in their buffoonery and antics as the heroes of the minute.

My first impulse was to read in it, the dynamics of a gendered space and a certain mock valorisation of this hyper masculinity. While gendered readings of the performance are indeed valuable and might offer an entry into looking at the construction of eroticism, desire, spectacle and the performative self, I am going to focus on the Kuso in this performance. My own gendered impulses were quickly overshadowed by the repeated use of the word Kuso that the members of the audience were using in order to explain the male performances. It was obvious that these male performers, in spite of their actions, were not really clowns but some sort of heroes and embodying this peculiar word – Kuso.

When I started asking around for Kuso, people pointed at several different objects, from Stephen Chou movies to Reality TV on Channel V, from personal videos to popular Kuso shows where people engaged in a set of ludicrous, often bizarre performances to make a public spectacle of themselves. The more I encountered these Kuso forms, the more difficult and incomprehensible it became to understand either the appeal or the aesthetic of the form. It looked like cheesy camp or an extension of a certain MTV aesthetic as a result of vulgarisation of technologies. When I crawled on the web looking at discussion forums that were devoted to Kuso, I found a huge number of people sharing my incomprehensibility and raised eyebrows at the Kuso objects, trying to figure out what it was that was attracting thousands of users to produce and consume Kuso with such dedication.

Especially in the context of Taiwan, Kuso belongs to the realm of what is called the ‘Strawberry Generation’ (Tsao-Mei Yi-Dai). The Strawberry generation in Taiwan refers to the people born between 1981 and 1991, and, despite its suggestions in English, carries negative connotations with it. The three most popular characteristics of the Strawberry generation – a phrase that has huge currency in popular media – have been severally explained. Rachel, who writes on the National Central University’s (Taiwan) website, explains:

In Taiwan, the Strawberry Generation refers to those who were born between 1981 and 1991, ranging from the 22-year-old university students to the 12-year-old junior high school students. This generation is labeled as “strawberry” due to two reasons: first, this generation of youth was raised in a better environment, as strawberries grown and nourished in a greenhouse, than the earlier generation. Second, strawberries are known for their beauty, delicacy and high price, suggesting that the young people can not withstand pressure, difficulties, and frustration as they grew up in a nice and comfortable environment and are able to get almost whatever they ask for.
(Rachel, 2008)

Henrry (2006), a student who also belongs to the Strawberry Generation, writes in his classroom assignment, ‘People of this generation are said to be fragile when facing pressure, just like the strawberries.’ He further goes on to suggest that the problems of the Strawberry Generation are largely economic in nature and might lead to serious problems for Taiwan’s economy. Myr Lim (2006) also looks at the economic and political instability of this generation and describes them as ‘Like the fruit, they look extremely good and sinfully juicy, who wouldn’t want one? But they have a very limited shelf life.’ Built into this criticism is also the understanding that the Strawberry Generation is also in a state of political disavowal.

And yet, when introduced to the different manifestations of Kuso, there was a very clear idea of resistance, subversion and mobilisation. A local incident, which made temporary heroes of two teenage boys who stripped in Public, on a university campus, was read as a sign of resisting the University’s attempts at regulating dress-codes for the students.[13] Other videos which were made for internet circulation had the digital natives refusing the Western models of masculinity or heroism and producing buffoon-like images to correspond with the glorified pop icons from the West – often producing infantile and juvenile forms of behaviour to exaggerate the effect. Other Kuso manifestations were in consumption, as different objects which were seemingly ‘cute’ (se-jiao) or ‘innocent’ were invested with sinister or often ludicrous intent.[14] The same kinds of aesthetics were also seen on the ‘LOL Cat’[15] and ‘All your base are belong to us’[16] internet memes which have gained currency online. It is while browsing through these worlds that I was introduced to a Kuso phenomenon which was garnering huge media and popular attention globally. This was a phenomenon which has now popularly been dubbed as the Backdorm Boys.

BackDorm Boys were three graduate students, two of whom became instant celebrities – Huang Yi Xin and Wei Wei - from the Guangzhu Academy of Fine Arts in China, who shot to instant fame when, in a state of boredom, they made a lip-sync cover version of popular Backstreet Boys singles, using nothing more than cheap digital cameras on their computers, in the restrictive space of their dormitories, and distributing them through video sharing spaces like YouTube, MySpace and other blogs (The Full Plate, 2008). These weren’t, at a first glance, very different from the ‘funny’ videos that one encounters online all the time – cheaply produced, shot with a webcam mounted on the screen, an almost unedited, uninterrupted full frontal frame, and an exaggerated attempt creating a certain Kitsch video that have gained popularity in the past. However, within my own contexts, the BackDorm Boys had strong resonances with the earlier dance performance I described. Once again, the three students in the videos were not the hyper eroticised masculinities that the boy bands like Backstreet Boys have embodied in popular cultures. Given the Confucian model of academia and studentship, students are not easily granted such erotic value to begin with. These were also not students who were particularly talented at singing. In fact, they were not singing at all, they were lip synching the songs in their videos. The videos did not involve any attempts at shooting but were in the full-frontal, almost pornographic frames of spectacle where the camera was mounted over the screen and the two performers were being caught in that frame. Dressed in identical clothes, the two main performers sang with extraordinary histrionics, the otherwise mellow and slightly cliché ridden love ballads that the Backstreet Boys had made their signature. In the background, one of their other dorm mates, played a Kuso-ge called Quaker throughout the video. He occasionally simulated the actions of a music mixer or a DJ or sometimes helped them with props.[17]

There was, at the first glance, nothing spectacular about the Backdorm Boys. As one of the responders on a blog dedicated to the Backdorm Boys very succinctly puts it:

Let’s face it: it doesn’t take a lot of talent to make faces. They didn’t write the song, didn’t sing the song, didn’t play any musical instructions, etc. Their sole accomplishment is they made faces at a camera. That’s not talent, man!!! And if they weren’t Chinese—i.e., didn’t have the freak factor of Chinese boys lip-synching to Backstreet Boys songs—NOBODY will notice this.
Da Xiangchang 2005

And yet, the Backdorm Boys, apart from cults developing around them and various internet memes devoted to them,[18] were featured live on NBC and both dropped out of their academic programmes to become hugely successful brand ambassadors and spokespersons for some of the largest mass media brands in China. They have both acquired a celebrity status and are role models and now popular media persons on TV channels, hosting their own shows.[19] In trying to understand these Kuso products in the realm of parody one starts asking the wrong kind of questions: where is the talent? Several respondents, including Da Xiangchang very pointedly pointed out that ‘it takes very little talent to make a fool out of yourselves.’ The more interesting question to ask would be the question that Yi-Li asked in her exhibition: How does Kuso manage to make garbage out of things? And further, is it possible, to read into Kuso, a new politics which guises itself as ‘fun’ or ‘hilarity’.

Differentiating between parody and Kuso

The Western gaze will only allow Kuso to be understood in a relationship of parody. However, looking at the contexts within which Kuso emerges and its ability to ‘make garbage out of things’, Kuso changes the relationship between the ‘original’ and the ‘discursive’ objects. parody, as a literary and a narrative form, resides more in the object being parodied (original) rather than in the parodic creation (discursive). To understand, appreciate or enjoy the discursive object, it becomes necessary to be familiar with, sometimes at a very intimate level, with the original object. The chief aim of a parody is to invoke the original object by introjecting it into new frames of references and meaning making, establishing a tenuous relationship of invocation between the original and the discursive objects. Parody seeks, not to replace the original but add to the ‘aura’ of the original object. Legends, myths, cult-stories and folklores can be understood as parodic in nature as they add to the understanding of the original or the core object. In the case of cinema especially, parody is not simply a process of poking fun at an earlier cinematic form or object but is an effort to evoke the original as a way of making meaning and seeking sense in the narrative.

The relationship between the original object and the discursive object is one of invocation where the parody invokes, glorifies and seeks justification for its existence through the original object. parody also resides in a certain historical reading of cinema as it produces often unintentional but present residues of earlier forms. parody can be looked upon as enabling a certain genealogical reading of cinematic narratives and forms. In the non-linear consumption patterns of cinema reception, especially with cable television and global distribution, the boundaries between the original and the discursive are often blurred and reconfigured. Often the audiences and consumers encounter the discursive before they get familiar with the original and hence they change the way in which the original object is understood or received, often mis/reading it through the lens of the parody instead of the other way round. Cinema also makes more visible, the ways in which the parody can also work through different genres and media – be it in the production of books that try to appropriate the cinematic language of telling stories or in the production of movies that are based on books or sometimes try to deploy the narrative conditions of books in the cinematic narratives. The only way to talk of parody is to read it in the cinematic object itself and in the invocations that it produces with the imagined or the real object. The concept of an original is necessary to the understanding of the parody.

It is exactly this relationship between the original and the parody that Kuso disrupts from the within. Kuso does not produce the definitive terminal points of the original and the discursive objects that parody requires. In the instance of any Backdorm Boys video, there is no presumed knowledge of either the Backstreet Boys videos or the kind of globalised consumption that they can be contextualised under. While there are many references – almost at the level of invocation, in the clothes that they wear, in the choices they make in songs etc. – they are not necessarily the frameworks through which their videos can be made meaning of. If it was merely a question of parody of Backstreet Boys, their subsequent videos where they also ‘Kuso-ed’ other performers and local artists would not have worked for their fans.

Like a network, the relationship between the original and the discursive objects of Kuso is masked so that each constantly feeds back into the other. Hence, in the case of the Backdorm Boys, if you tried to understand their work as simply a Chinese/Asian parody of a Western form of popular culture, you end up bewildered, unable to account for the huge popularity and success. However, if we place their production as Kuso, it allows us to realise that the objects being parodied in the videos, are not American popular cultural forms or specifically Backstreet Boys videos. What is being parodied is the original self of the performers.

Instead of the framework of parody or intertextuality, we can locate the Backdorm Boys Kuso videos as embedded in a particular lifestyle choices and consumption of cultural forms, accessories, appearances, class differences, language and most importantly the conditions made available by technologies. The original object is the three boys and their ‘real’ or ‘original’ status in their lived practices. The discursive object is also the three boys and their projected selves or desired selves which they are expected to either appropriate or wish for. The Kuso is in exaggerating the differences between these two and celebrating the obvious flaws in them and making them available as a public spectacle. While I shall steer away from discussions of talent, it becomes more evident that Kuso allows for us to recognise the aesthetics, politics and proliferation of these new digital cinema artefacts which earlier notions of parody did not.

Kuso establishes more non-linear, sometimes disruptive relationships, between different objects that it refers to in its production. The relationship between the various objects is not invocative but evocative in nature. The Kuso narrative does not presume specific knowledge of some other object being invoked. Instead, it produces a redolent relationship where the different objects mutually explain each other. Like any cyberspatial form, Kuso seems to produce a system of self-referential, almost cannibalistic meaning making where a range of objects seem to co-exist in improbably frames of non-real and in-credible, each forming a node through which the others are understood. The references Kuso makes in its narrative, are not to the other, original object in a wistfully reconstructed or imagined past but to the other back-tracking objects present in the narrative itself. This produces an almost infinite chain of inter-referencing objects that justify each others’ existence. Kuso thus disrupts the more linear and historical constructions that parody (and the subsequent attempts to read parody as a relationship between new digital cinema and Cinema) establishes. It is located in the materiality of the object, its reception, its manipulation, its distribution, its transformation and its ability to escape the more effective-causal circuits of meaning making.

While parody seeks to reaffirm the similarities between the original and the discursive objects, Kuso emphasises the inability of the original to explain the discursive, thus producing a relationship of difference rather than one of similarity. While parody deals with the questions of representation, Kuso enters into conditions of simulation. It is this evocative relationship that allows me to locate Kuso as an aesthetic of understanding New Digital Cinema in Asia and to materialise it as a lifestyle and as a condition of reception in the body of the Asian consumer.

Politicising Kuso

An uncontextualised notion of Kuso only allows for a relationship at the level of the Parodic. Hence, the discussants of the Backdorm Boys were always in a condition of unintelligibility about why these slightly clownish characters would become imitable heroes for a particular generation. Given the highly polarized nature of political orientations in Taiwan, it has been the despair of many educators and practitioners that the Strawberry Generation, which is also the largest subscriber base to Kuso, has no apparent interest in politics. It is a generally lamented as a generation that is unashamedly devoted only to having fun. I propose, in my reading and understanding of Kuso objects and Kuso as an aesthetic, that the participatory and performative nature of Kuso paradigm, offers space for negotiation and expression of political intent. I shall demonstrate this particular argument at two levels – the level of the body and the personal, and at the level of the public and the national.

The question of the body becomes central to almost all representation studies. Analysis of Kuso videos or objects lends itself easily to see how the accessorisation and the freedom to produce unsupervised spectatorial narratives of the self lead to new spaces of negotiation. There is also, very clearly, a definite deconstruction of the traditional, masculine and often imported forms of masculinity, femininity and sexuality which the videos lend themselves to. Cross dressing, excessive make-up, exaggerated actions, etc. all create a fluid world where gender structures used to define the body are dismissed and indeed, enter into parodic relationship with traditional perceptions or expectations. However, for the scope of this paper, I shall more narrowly focus on the construction of the heroic body in the Kuso videos.

The body comes to materialise Kuso through various practices and becomes the site upon which the Kuso self is enacted. As Kuso celebrates the flaws and exaggerates the imperfections, it allows for a certain masked relationship between the private self and the public politics. As is demonstrated in the case of the Backdorm Boys, Kuso, with its self referential boundaries, allows for a critical engagement with the very practices of the generation that subjects them to sever criticism. The Kuso bodies or the narratives of self are not longer in relation with the imagined body of the star or the aura of the star vehicle but in masked relationship with the larger politics of its time. The bewilderment or unintelligibility that the discussants of the Backdorm videos exhibit, is not particularly about why or how the video was created but how heroism or stardom was created by the celebration of the un-iconic or the unheroic.

And it is to answer this question that we go back to the Strawberry Generation again. The Strawberry Generation in Taiwan was not merely marked by economic transitions and infidelity. It is also a generation that has seen a severely politicised state of nationalism and national identity in Taiwan. The younger generation that grew up after the removal of the martial law has engaged in serious consumerism as a part of their national identity. As Chen Kuan Hsing (1998) points out, ‘From 1994 onwards…the cultural atmosphere was mediated through commodity structures.’ Chen further goes on to explain how the political economy and the question of the national are intrinsically linked. Given the hegemonic presence of the West in the cultural galaxy of Taiwan and the constant negotiations between the political position vis-à-vis China as well as the cultural imperialism of Japan, the Taiwanese Strawberry Generation finds itself without a particular model of national identity to follow. Along with these are the allegations of widespread corruption and the complete disinterest of the current political parties in the ill-effects of liberalisation (Asian Economic News, 2007) which contribute to a high rate of mental ill-health and suicides in the Strawberry Generation (The China Post, 2008). Given such a murky situation, the Strawberry Generation has indeed withdrawn from active political participation of fighting in the streets and has taken to new forms of expression, which, outside of the context, appear as solipsistic or merely for fun.

Kuso, as an aesthetic then, transcends the analysis of gender and sexuality, performativity and spectatorship, and becomes a site of national representation and subversion and the Kuso stars like the BackDorm boys embody these positions for a Strawberry Generation in Taiwan. The notion of flawed heroism, which simultaneously mocks the ubiquitous presence of the pop-culture from the West, the inability of the local cultural industries to produce original works of art, the apathy of the younger generation caught in the mechanisms of a liberalised globalisation, and the unavailability of spaces for political negotiations that they are built in. This is the defence that many of the Taiwanese and other Chinese speaking individuals produce on the discussions around Kuso. On the discussions on the Sinosplice blog, one of the most vocal defenders, John, who starts with calling this condition, a ‘rare talent’ goes on to say,

Have you ever tried to make a funny video? It’s much harder than you give these boys credit for. The fact that they were able to do it merely by lip synching is testament to their talent. If they’re using certain cultural expectations for humorous effect, then that’s further evidence of talent.
(John, Sinosplice, 2005)

However, John’s idea of ‘playing with cultural expectation’ remains a solitary voice. The other discussants go on to talk about how this particular series is only interesting because of the ‘freak value’ of the videos. Karen, another participant who introduces herself as a student in the West, writes

I have to reluctantly admit, as politically incorrect and offensive (sic) some of the comments may be, they are mostly valid in my opinion. I’m not saying that the “Back Dormitory Boys’” talent doesn’t play a part in why it’s so funny but the fact that the they’re Chinese with no doubt plays a huge role in the humour that that you could easily find elsewhere. How hard is it to find a few college students making goofball videos and putting them on the internet?
(Karen, Sinosplice, 2005)

The opinions that Karen and XiangChang express, resonate with the general perception of the BackDorm boys on many different discussion groups and media talks around the world. As they gained more popularity and exposure, there were more and more people exclaiming at why these antics were being heralded as heroic. However, there were no explanations which were forwarded. The interesting part is that a similar predecessor called the ‘Numa Numa Boy’ (Wolk, 2006), who also had a parodic relationship with the Romanian song, while he gained equal amounts of popularity, was not at the centre of any debate. His claim to fame was slapstick humour and very clearly complied with the Western understanding of parody. However, in the case of the Backdorm Boys, the debates continue as the existing understanding of parody as a universal value fail to account for the aura that surrounds them.

Kuso, as a way of looking at it, offers that the Backdorm Boys were not mere imitators. Imitation would have been in them trying to do a representation of the original Backstreet Boys videos. Instead, the Backdorm Boys are in a world of simulation, where they are simulating the flawed masculinities and identities that are excluded within popular cultures. In this method of simulation, they are able to produce a new and perhaps more believable ‘reality’ which needs to be dealt with in the larger context of the production.

The reason why Kuso makes garbage of things is because that is the only way to deal with the way things are – demolish them, look at their flaws, and find, within those flaws, interstices of negotiation and interaction, which are no longer available. The Kuso, refuses to identify a homogeneous way of understanding digital cinema on the web and insists on thus, contextualising the cultural products through their geo-political status. Because of the geographical origins of digital technologies – the West, and the generally assumed audience and paradigms of understanding it – the West again, most of these new digital cinema forms are looked upon as derivative or engaging in a parodic relationship with the original which is placed in the West. Kuso is a way of complicating the relationship between the two.

This is the first step in thinking about ways in which one can formulate a digital aesthetic which does not presume a homogenised community online but asserts, not only the physical bodies that are behind the production of these narratives but also the geographical boundaries and socio-cultural locations, without which the objects become incomprehensible and indecipherable. Moreover, it is necessary to rescue such ‘popular’ ‘aesthetic’ forms from discussions that confine them to the realms of performance or solipsism and look at the larger potential they have in creating new conditions of political engagement. For Taiwan’s Strawberry Generation, Kuso is a lifestyle, by which they are able to establish discursive and subversive relationships with the very actions and practices which subject them to sever criticism. The wave of new digital cinema, streaming on a screen near us, thus emphasise the need to revisit the relationship between aesthetics and politics on the one hand and the connections between the universal and the contextual on the other.

References

Asian Economic News. 2007. “Thousands Protest Against Taiwan President”. Retrieved on 5th March, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2007_Sept_15/ai_n27465185
Kuan-Hsing, Chen. 2005. “Interview with Kuan-Hsing Chen” by Greert Lovink. Retrieved on 12th March, 2007 from http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-
9803/msg00002.html
China Post, The. 2008. “Disturbing Suicide Rate Among Young People”. Retrieved on 11th August, 2008 from http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/taiwan%20issues/2008/08/01/168122/Disturbing-suicide.htm
Fischer, Herve. 2006. The Decline of the Hollywood Empire. Tr. Rhonda Mullins. New York: Talon Books.
Full Plate, The. 2008. “Back Dorm Boys: Where are they now?”. Retrieved on 18th March, 2008 from http://escapetochengdu.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/back-dorm-boyswhere-are-they-now/
Gasser, Urs and John Palfrey. 2008. Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of Digital Natives. New York : Basic Books.
Henrry. 2006. Retrieved on 5th March, 2008. from Michel Cheng’s blog for her Writing Class at NCCU, available at http://nccujuniorwriting.blogspot.com/2006/06/weaknessesof-strawberry-generation_09.html
Ko, Yu-Fen. 2000. “Hello Kitty and the Identity Politics in Taiwan”. Retrieved on 10th January, 2007 from http://www.international.ucla.edu/cira/paper/TW_Ko.pdf
Lessig, Lawrence. 2008. “In Defence of Piracy”. The Wall Street Journal retrieved on 11th October 2008, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122367645363324303.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Liang, Lawrence. Forthcoming. “A brief history of the internet in the 14th and the 15th Century”
Lim, Myr. 2006. Retrieved on 5th March, 2008 from her blog titled ‘Wanderlust’ available at http://myr_fashionstylist.blogs.friendster.com/myr/2006/08/strawberry_gene.html
Mark Mclelland. 2006. “A Short History of Hentai”. Intersections: History and Culture in the Asian Context. Issue 12 http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/mclelland.html
Marvin, Carolyn.1990. When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking about Electric communication in the earliest 19th Century. London: Oxford University Press.
Mitchell, William J. 1996. City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. Massachusetts: MIT Press
Rachel. 2008. Retrieved on 5th March, 2008 from the National Central University’s (Taiwan) PR Team Page available at http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2005/10/25/back-dorm-boys
Yi-Li, Yeh. 2006. KUSO –Red, Spring Snow, Orange Flower. Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei. Retrieved on 20th November, 2006 from http://www2.tnua.edu.tw/etnua/modules/news/article.php?storyid=28
Sinosplice. 2005. “Backdorm Boys”, a blog entry on a blog. Retrieved on 10th November 2006 from http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2005/10/25/back-dorm-boys
Turkle, Sherry. 1996. Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
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Wolk, Douglas. 2006. “The Syncher, Not the Synch : The irresistible rise of the Numa Numa Dance”. Retrieved on 10th November, 2007 from http://www.believermag.com/issues/200606/?read=article_wolk

[1].A first draft of this article was first presented at the ‘New Cinemas in Asia’ conference organized by the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society at the Christ University, Bangalore. The paper owes its gratitude to S.V. Srinivas for his support both for my journey to Taiwan and for the confidence required to write such an essay on cultures and phenomena that I cannot with confidence claim to be my own.
[2]. The Jadavpur University Film and Media Lab, as recently as November 2008, organized a conference to discuss The Future of Celluloid,where, there were many engrossing presentations on what celluloid can mean in the digital age and where its futures reside. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, in his key-note speech, made a significant remark that the Celluloid is the original object that the digital shall always invoke in its manifestation; not merely in its aesthetics, which might change, but in the sheer capacity that the digital has to pay unprecedented attention to the moving image and reconstruct it for new meanings.
[3]. Hervé Fischer, in The Decline of The Hollywood Empire, arrives in a long line of prophets who have been announcing the demise and the end of Celluloid Cinema as we know it. Fischer announces, quite early in the book, ‘[d]igital distribution will end this archaic system of distribution and hasten the decline of the Hollywood Empire: Two giant steps forward for film in one fell step!’
[4]. The large undivided screen gets replaced by a small ‘Window’ on the right hand corner of the monitor which also houses various other contesting media forms that vie for the users’ attention. Sherry Turkle, in her study of MUD users also talks of how the Window has become a metaphor of our times.
[5].In a much more measured tone, Kim Soyoung, in her formulation of a trans-cinema and new public spheres simulated by Korean Cinema, suggests that ‘new digital cinema…attentive to the transformation of its production, distribution and reception modes as shown by independent digital filmmaking and its availability on the net’. She further goes on to propose ‘digital and net, cinema LCD screens (installed in subways, taxis and buses) and gigantic electrified display boards (chonkwangpan in Korean) should be seen as spaces into which cinema theories and criticism should intervene.’ This paper adds to the list, the extremely personalised but virtually public and shared space of the computer monitor and portable media devices.
[6]. In another essay exploring the aesthetics of social networking and blogging (especially with the increasing implementation of Web 2.0), I make a claim at these sites being sustained through a constant and incessant production of both the virtual persona of the author as well as the body of the author that serves as an anchor to the virtual reality. I further suggest that this process of continuous translation leads to the self as being recognised and gratified only in a state of performativity over inter-looped surfaces.
[7]. Lawrence Liang, in his forthcoming essay, “The History of the Internet from the 15th to the 18th Century”, examines the history of the print and pre-print cultures, to make a brilliant argument around the questions of knowledge, the authority of the knowledge, and the problems of legitimacy or authenticity that have surrounded the Wikipedia in recent years.
[8]. The anxiety around such objects primarily circulates around questions of copyright infringements and piracy. The Music And Film Independent Association, for instance, claims that due to the re-mix, unlicensed distribution, and/or re-working of their material, they are suffering a heavy financial loss, leading to ridiculous legal cases that seem to hold no legitimacy in their sense or sensibility. Lawrence Lessig looks at a recent controversy on youtube where a mother, who broadcast digital moving images of her 13 month old son dancing to Prince’s song Let’s go Crazy was accused of copyright violation by the License owners who demanded the withdrawal of the video from YouTube.
[9]. In A short History of Hentai, Marc Mclelland, defines Hentai as follows: “Hentai is a Sino-Japanese compound term widely used in modern Japanese to designate a person, action or state that is considered queer or perverse, particularly in a sexual sense. Unlike the English term 'queer', however, hentai does not have predominantly homosexual connotations but can be used to describe any sexual acts or motivations other than what might be termed 'normal' sexual relations. Indeed the loanword nōmaru (normal) is sometimes used as an antonym for hentai. Apart from this general use of the term hentai, it can also be used to designate a specific genre of Japanese manga and animation that features extreme or perverse sexual content and it is in this sense that hentai has become well-known among western fans of Japanese popular culture.”
[10]. Professor Yu-Fen Ko (2000) at the Hsih-Shin University in Taipei, locates similar receptions of the ‘Hello Kitty’ phenomenon in Taiwan. Yu-Fen Ko examines how, the larger reception of popular cultural artifacts fail to look at the political potential that these objects have in the way they reconfigure the existing relationship between the personal and the political.
[11]. This paper owes great intellectual and emotional debt to many people. Mandy Hua, who, apart from teaching me Chinese, also helped me get introduced to the intricacies of youth fashion and trends in Taiwan. Ted Cheng, who introduced me to many different Kuso objects and helped, whenever my own skills at access or analysis flailed. Amie Parry, Naifei Ding, David Barton, Chen Kuan-Hsing and Josephine Ho who made my stay in Taiwan so fruitful, providing emotional support, and listened to me patiently, correcting me when I was wrong and directing me to people and resources that helped me frame this argument and understand the entire new digital cinema phenomenon in a new light.
[12]. After much screening and watching of Indian movie songs from Bollywood, we finally narrowed down to “Kajrare Kajrare” from the movie Bunty aur Bubly, with Aishwarya Rai doing a special dance number.
[13]. The particular video can be viewed at http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=9NlZaDGPEOg The original video that is supposed to make this particular kind of Kuso-streaking is the video which also shot two young men into becoming Television celebrities and can be viewed at http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=0caIbkYfWTY
[14]. One of the most popular icons of such consumption is in the popularity of Hello Kitty – a young female cat without a mouth (and hence without speech or the need to eat) - and has elicited much popular discourse. An example of how Hello Kitty is used as a way of also resisting the Western, Disneyfied, Barbie concepts of femininity can be seen in the video available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFBHPbEtfqA
[15]. LOLCat started as an internet meme which displayed a set of cat pictures, with cheeky captions, parodying ot only the internet slang known as ‘netspeak’ but also reflecting upon how central internet discussions and arguments were to the lives of the digital natives. Some of the most famous examples of LOLCat captions are ‘I can haz cheezburger’, ‘Ceiling Cat’ and then subsequently ‘Basement Cat’. More information and almost an exhaustive range of pictures can be seen at http://icanhascheezburger.com/ More interesting LOLCat phenomena also include the under construction LOLCat Bible translation project available at
http://www.lolcatbible.com/
[16]. ‘All your base are belong to us’ started as a successful parody of the obsession with UFO and space travel in the late nineties. The meme borrows this slightly cryptic line from European Sega Mega Drive Version of the video game Zero Wing, where it signified victory and total takeover of enemy territories by aliens, and specializes in putting up the caption on different familiar images taken from contemporary as well as historical times. A large collection of ‘All your base are belong to us’ images can be found at http://www.allyourbasearebelongtous.com/
[17]. A full list of their videos is available to view and download at http://twochineseboys.blogspot.com/
[18]. A quick glimpse of their popularity can be obtained on fan and internet monitoring sites like http://www.milkandcookies.com/tag/backdormboys/ and http://www.tian.cc/2005/10/asian-backstreetboys.html
[19]. This trajectory from Reality TV to popular cultural icons is not unfamiliar or new. Various popular shows like American Idol in the USA, Big Brother in the UK, SaReGaMaPa in India, and Kuso Kuso in China, have all spawned instant celebrities who have cashed their media presence and fame to bag roles in featured television programming, cinema, etc. This particular ability of making one’s self popular and recognizable, often by using the internet as a medium for the same, and then penetrating more corporatized and affluent mass media markets, is a ploy that many aspiring media professionals are employing these days.

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That’s the unkindest cut, Mr Sibal

sunil — 2011-12-12T04:59:00Z

There’s Kolaveri-di on the Internet over Kapil Sibal’s diktat to social media sites to prescreen users’ posts. That diktat goes far beyond the restrictions placed on our freedom of expression by the IT Act. But, says Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society, India is not going to be silenced online.

Thanks to leaked reports about unpublicised meetings that communications minister Kapil Sibal had with social media operators – or Internet intermediaries, to use legalese — such as Facebook, Google and Indiatimes.com, censorship policy in India has gained public attention, and caused massive outrage.

According to The New York Times India Ink reportage, quoting unnamed sources from the Internet intermediaries, Mr Sibal demanded proactive and pre-emptive screening of posts that people make on social media sites, ostensibly to filter out or remove “offensive” content and hate speech. In a television interview, however, the minister denied he wanted to censor what Indians thought and shared with others online.

One is tempted to believe him. He was, after all, the amicus for the landmark People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) wiretapping judgment of 1996, which is pivotal to protecting our civil liberties when using communication technology in India.

Last week, though, Mr Sibal came out in public with his demands, saying that there was a lot of content that risked hurting the sensibilities of people and could lead to violence. “It was brought to my notice some of the images and content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google are extremely offensive to the religious sentiments of people ...”We will not allow Indian sentiments and religious sentiments of large sections of the community to be hurt,” he said.

There was even a threat of state action if Internet companies did not comply with demands to screen content before it was posted online.

The NYT blogpost said, however, quoting executives from the Internet companies Mr Sibal had reportedly met, that the minister showed them a Facebook page that maligned Congress president Sonia Gandhi and told them, “This is unacceptable.”

Google responded to Mr Sibal by releasing its Transparency Report, saying that out of 358 items that it had been requested to remove between January and June 2011, only eight requests pertained to hate speech, while as many as 255 complaints were against “government criticism”.

Indian netizens raged against Mr Sibal, and very quickly #IdiotKapil Sibal was ‘trending’ on Twitter, with thousands posting comments against attempts to ‘censor’ Internet content. Much has changed, in Mr Sibal’s reckoning, between 1996 and 2011.

So, what’s all the fuss over ‘pre-screening’ and what’s at stake here? Critics of Mr Sibal say, our freedom of speech and expression is under threat. They see a pattern in the way the government has sought to impose rules and restrictions on Internet and telecommunications players, with demands on BlackBerry-maker RIM to give it access to its users’ email and messenger content, on telecom players to install electronic surveillance equipment and let the government eavesdrop as it sees fit, and on the likes of Google and Yahoo to part with email content and users’ details.

It all started with the amendments to the Information Tech-nology Act 2000 in 2008. Together, they constitute damaging consequences for citizens, including the creation of a multi-tier blanket surveillance regime, inappropriate security recommendations, and undermining freedom of speech and expression.

The amendments passed in 2008 — without any discussion in Parliament – did solve some existing policy concerns, but simultaneously introduced new ones. For instance, Section 66, introduced during this amendment, criminalises sending offensive messages through any ICT-based communication service.

Offensive messages are described as “grossly offensive, menacing character..... or causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will.” These terms are not defined in the IT Act or in any other existing law, rules or case-law, except for a couple of exceptions such as what constitutes “criminal intimidation”. These limits on the freedom of expression go well beyond Article 19(2) of the Constitution, which only permits “reasonable restrictions...in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”

If Mr Sibal himself were to don his lawyer’s coat again and launch a legal challenge to Section 66, in all likelihood, courts in India would strike it down as unconstitutional.

Section 79, which was amended, brought into being an intermediary liability regime. This was in part precipitated by the arrest of Avnish Bajaj, the former CEO of bazee.com in December 2004 for the infamous Delhi Public School MMS clip which was being sold on his e-commerce platform. Policy-makers were, however, convinced to follow international best practices and grant intermediaries immunity under certain conditions.

Just as the postal department is not considered liable for the content of letters or telecom operators liable for the content of phone conversations, Internet intermediaries, too, were to be considered “dumb pipes” or “common carriers” of content produced and distributed by users. Intermediaries therefore earned immunity from legal action so long as they acted upon take-down notices, or written requests for deletion of illegal content.

Section 79 was further clarified in April this year when the Intermediaries Guidelines Rules were notified. Stakeholders from the technology industry, media and civil society had sent feedback to the Department of Information Technology under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in February, but DIT choose to ignore the feedback and finalised rules with serious flaws in them. For one, a standardised “Terms of Service” that focused on limits on free expression had to be implemented by all intermediaries – forcing a one-size-fits-all approach.

Content that was 'harmful to minors' was not permissible regardless of the target market of the website. All intermediaries were supposed to act upon take-down notices within 36 hours, something that a Google may be able to do, but an average blogger could not.

Two, the vague terms introduced in Section 66A were left undefined. Intermediaries were asked to sit on judgment on the question of whether an article, image or video was causing 'inconvenience'.

Three, all principles of natural justice were ignored – the person responsible for posting the content would not be informed, s/he would not be given an opportunity to file a counter-notice to challenge the intermediary’s decision in court.

Four, the rules left it open for economically or politically motivated actors to seriously damage opponents online using fraudulent take-down notices, instead of treating abuse of the take-down notice system as an offence.

How the take-down system terrorises free expression on the Internet was illustrated when the Centre for Internet and Society, where this author works, undertook a research project. A pro-bono independent researcher who led the exercise sent fraudulent take-down notices to seven Internet companies in India. These included some of the largest and most popular Indian and foreign search engines, news portals and social media platforms.

Although they all employ the most competent lawyers in the country, six of the seven intermediaries over-complied, confirming our worst fears. In one case, a news portal deleted not just the specific comment that was mentioned in the take-down notice but 14 other comments as well. Most importantly, it must be pointed out, the comment identified in the take-down notice was itself an excellent piece of writing that could not be construed as “offensive” by any stretch!

In the single exception to the rule, one e-commerce portal refused to act upon a take-down notice trying to prevent the sale of diapers on the grounds that it was “harmful to minors”, rightly dismissing the notice as frivolous. But that exception simply proved a rule: Private intermediaries use their best lawyers to protect their commercial interests, but are highly risk-averse and do not value freedom of expression, unless it affects their bottomline.

Proactive and pre-emptive screening of social media content, as Mr Sibal has demanded, will only further compromise online civil liberties in what’s already a dismal situation. In short, we move from a post-facto to a pre-emptive censorship regime.

In fact, given the magnitude of the task of pre-screening in a nation with a 100 million Internet users and growing, such an intense censorship regime will mean not only that what Indian citizens say or post will be censored by private companies, but those private companies will, in turn, use machines to screen what humans are saying and doing! After all, otherwise, companies would require armies of human censors to screen the millions of posts that are made on Twitter and Facebook every minute.

But the Supreme Court has held that even the executive arm of government cannot engage in censorship prior to publication, let alone ordering private companies to do so. In any case, it’s a policy that’s bound to fail, for both technical reasons and for its failure to take into account human motivations.

Machines, as we know, continue to be poor judges of the nuances of human expression and will likely cause massive damage to the idea of public debate. Humans, on the other hand, will begin to circumvent machine filters – for example, content labelled as PRON instead of PORN will go through.

Draconian crackdown on certain types of fringe content is likely to have the counterproductive result of the general society developing an unhealthy obsession for exactly such content. Despite the comprehensive censorship controls in Saudi Arabia, for instance, pornography consumption is rampant, usually accessed via pirated satellite TV and circulated using personal computing devices and mobile phones.

But all is not lost yet, perhaps. Faced with the barrage of criticism, Mr Sibal has now called for public consultations on the issue of pre-screening content. There’s hope yet for freedom of speech and expression in India. Thanks to the Internet, a throwback to 1975 simply does not look possible.

Sunil Abraham is executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru. He wrote this article in the Deccan Chronicle on December 11, 2011. Read the original here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/unkindest-cut-mr-sibal

Govt wants to scrub the Internet clean

praskrishna — 2011-12-07T04:07:03Z

Web advocacy groups, experts say govt’s move to evolve content guidelines amounts to censorship. This article by Surabhi Agarwal & Leslie D’monte was published in Livemint on 7 December 2011. Sunil Abraham has been quoted in this article.

India, the world’s largest democracy, may force companies such as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Facebook Inc. to take down online content that it deems offensive because they haven’t been able to come up with an effective self-censorship mechanism governing millions of users.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had no option but to "evolve guidelines" to ensure that "blasphemous content on the Internet or television is not allowed", with Internet and social networking sites such as those above "failing to respond to and cooperate with" the government’s request to keep "objectionable" content out of their websites, Kapil Sibal, minister of communications and information technology (IT), said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

His comments unleashed a firestorm of criticism by Internet advocacy groups and experts, who said the move amounted to censorship and was anti-democratic, impractical and unwarranted since existing laws were comprehensive enough to remove "objectionable" content. The move, they argued, would also stem the growth of user-generated content sites, and thus the Internet itself.

The government has been battling a series of corruption scandals and criticism of its inability to move forward on policy reforms. A campaign against corruption fuelled by online support has also challenged the government’s authority to legislate, forcing its own version of an anti-graft legislation onto the agenda.

The latest move by the government follows the introduction of new rules to the Information Technology Act, 2008, that were published earlier this year, also heavily criticized, that called on Internet service providers (ISPs) along with other entities to police online postings, including blogs.

Sibal referred to what he considered objectionable content as a "matter of grave concern", which affects the "sensibility of our people and is against our cultural ethos".

Once the new policy framework is implemented, companies “will be duty-bound to share information about those who post content, even if it (the content) is posted outside India”. He didn’t say by when the policy would be put in place.

Discussions with executives from the firms mentioned above had begun in September, Sibal said. They had been asked to come up with solutions to address the perceived problem in a month’s time and had failed to do so, he said.

According to local media reports, the move follows posts about some senior Congress leaders, including party president Sonia Gandhi. The minister, who is also one of India’s top lawyers, did not refer to any specific "objectionable" material during his press briefing, but rued that “the content has still not been removed".

Google India defended the right of free speech, while saying that it didn’t condone illegality.

"Even where content is legal but breaks our own terms and conditions, we take that down too, once we’ve been notified about it," Google India said in a release. "But it also means that when content is legal but controversial, we don’t remove it because people’s differing views should be respected, so long as they are legal."

Facebook India also said that it would remove any content that crossed the line.

It "has policies and onsite features in place that enable people to report abusive content", the company said. "We will remove any content that violates our terms, which are designed to keep material that is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity off the service."

While Yahoo India declined to comment, Microsoft did not respond to an email till press time.

Internet censorship is a rising trend, with approximately 40 countries filtering the Web in varying degrees, including democratic and non-democratic governments. Governments are using increasingly sophisticated censorship and surveillance techniques, including blocking social networks, to restrict a variety of types of content, says the 2010 Global Network Initiative (GNI) report. GNI seeks to protect freedom of speech online.

This August, for instance, the Centre had written to the department of telecommunications, asking it to "ensure effective monitoring of Twitter and Facebook", which minister of state for communications and IT Milind Deora acknowledged a few days later in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. He mentioned access to “encrypted data” on social networking sites, but did not elaborate on the subject.

Currently, the Indian Telegraph Act and the IT Act, 2008, (amendments were introduced in IT Act, 2000) give the government the power to monitor, intercept and even block online conversations and websites. The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has put up a list of 11 such websites blocked by a government order. The data was received from the department of information technology (DIT).

Moreover, under section 79 of the IT Intermediary (Rules and Guidelines), 2011, intermediaries (comprising telcos, ISPs, network services providers, search engines, cyber cafes, Web-hosting companies, online auction portals and online payment sites) are mandated to exercise "due diligence" and advise users not to share/distribute information violative of the law or a person’s privacy and rights. Intermediaries are expected to act on a complaint within 36 hours of receiving it, and remove such content when warranted.

In case the intermediary doesn’t find the content objectionable, the matter will have to be contested in a court of law.

"Currently, you need a court of law to direct a company in case something has to be removed. That takes a lot of time. So there has to be a mechanism that is faster in dealing with such content as (it) can be very damaging," said a DIT official, who did not want to be named.

"The Indian government can, and should, monitor conversations and websites if it believes the content can harm the security, defence, sovereignty and integrity of the country," said Pavan Duggal, a Supreme Court lawyer and cyber law expert. However, he wondered how the government would go about implementing the task of monitoring each and every conversation on an unstructured Internet.

Bangalore-based CIS, an Internet advocacy group, said "this pre-emptive manual screening of content, if implemented, would sound the death knell of freedom of expression in India".

"This screening is worrisome. Companies will err on the side of caution in a bid to please the government, and the courts will not be involved," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of CIS. “This is not only unconstitutional, but technically impossible too. Speech and words have nuances. Can humans decipher these with accuracy?"

The move will undermine key principles on which the Internet was built, said Nikhil Pahwa, editor and publisher of digital industry news and analysis blog MediaNama.

"It is completely impossible to enforce this. There is no way that content can be prescreened before it is placed online," he said. “It also kills the concept of immediate communication, which the Internet stands for."

Cyber law expert NA Vijayashankar, who runs cyber law information portal Naavi, said: "The government has valid reason to control anti-national activities on the Internet. But there are existing laws for it. The current proposition is impractical since pre-scrutiny of content on the Internet is not possible. It will affect the growth of user-generated content, which is helping Internet penetration grow in India."

Internet censorship happens frequently in countries such as Myanmar, Cuba, China (which had blocked keyword searches of the word "Egypt" on the Internet as well as on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. On the very day the Egyptian government set out to block Internet services in the country (in January), US Republican senator Susan Collins floated the COICA Bill, popularly called the "kill switch" Bill, which, if approved, would give the US president similar powers.

Read the original published in Livemint here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/scrub-the-internet-clean

Privacy Matters — Analyzing the "Right to Privacy Bill"

Natasha Vaz — 2012-04-28T04:10:12Z

Privacy India in partnership with International Development Research Centre, Canada, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the Godrej Culture Lab, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore is organising "Privacy Matters", a public conference at IIT, Bombay on 21 January 2012.

The conference will focus on the questions and dilemmas posed by privacy in India today, with a concentration on the "Right to Privacy Bill". The right to privacy in India has been a neglected area of study and engagement. Although sectoral legislation deals with privacy issues, India does not as yet have a horizontal legislation that deals comprehensively with privacy across all contexts. The absence of a minimum guarantee of privacy is felt most heavily by marginalized communities, including HIV patients, children, women, sexuality minorities, prisoners, etc. — people who most need to know that sensitive information is protected.

Privacy India was established in 2010 with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around privacy challenges and violations in India. One of our goals is to build consensus towards the promulgation of comprehensive privacy legislation in India through consultations with the public, legislators and the legal and academic community.

The event will focus on discussing the challenges and concerns to privacy in India. We invite you to attend the meeting and contribute your views. Please confirm your participation by getting in touch with Natasha (natasha@cis-india.org). We sincerely hope that you will be able to attend and look forward to your participation.

Agenda

09:30- 10:00	Registration
10:00- 10:30	Welcome- Privacy in India Prashant Iyengar is a practicing lawyer and lead researcher for Privacy India. He will present who Privacy India is, and the objectives of Privacy India's research. His presentation will focus on discussing privacy in India.
10:30- 11:15	Key Note Address- Draft Privacy Bill Critique Na. Vijayashankar is an e-business consultant. He established the premier Cyber Law information portal in India. He is the founder secretary of Cyber Society of India, Founder Trustee of International Institue of Information Technology Law, and Founder Chairman of Digital Society Foundation. He will present a critique of the Draft Privacy Bill.
11:15- 11:30	Tea Break
11:30- 12:15	Session I Privacy and the Legal System Sudhir Krishnaswamy is an Assistant Professor at the National law School of India University and is currently writing a Doctoral Thesis at the Faculty of Law, Oxford University on ‘The Basic Structure Doctrine in Indian Constitutional Adjudication’. His presentation will look at the trajectory of privacy through the years from a legal perspective.
12:15- 13:00	Privacy and Constitutional Law N. Nappinai is an advocate who specializes in IP and technology laws. She is a founder member of Technology Law Forum (TLF). She has spearheaded and driven several initiatives of TLF with various organization including NASSCOM, FICCI, IMC etc., and has also conducted several workshops and training sessions for the Mumbai Police, Public Prosecutors & Industry verticals in Cyber Laws. Her presentation will define the scope of Article 21 under the Indian Constitution, which protects the right to privacy.
13:00- 13:15	Discussion
13:15- 14:00	Lunch Break
14:00- 14:45	Session II Privacy and Freedom of Expression Apar Gupta is an advocate who specializes in intellectual property, electronic commerce law and technology media and telecoms. He holds a master from Columbia Law School and has authored a Commentary on the Information Technology Act, 2000. His presentation will focus on the limits of a privacy right when it competes and conflicts with the freedom of speech and expression. He will examine certain provisions of the Draft Privacy Bill questioning how privacy arguments may be used to stifle debate or disclosure made in the public interest.
14:45- 15:30	Sexuality Minorities and Privacy Danish Sheikh graduated from Nalsar University of Law with a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.). Currently, he is a researcher at the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore. He will examine the status of sexual minorities in the light of privacy framework in India. Culling out some real life examples based on various studies, media reports and judgments from the Supreme Court and the High Courts of Delhi and Allahabad, he will bring to light the privacy violations being committed by both individuals as we all state authorities.
15:30- 15:45	Discussion
15:45- 16:30	Session III Privacy and National Security Menaka Guruswamy practices law at the Supreme Court of India. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, a Gammon Fellow at Harvard Law School, and a gold medalist from the National Law School of India and has law degrees from all three schools. Menaka has advised the United National Development Program and the United Nations Development Fund for Women. She will discuss the relationship between national security and privacy, from the perspective of surveillance by the state etc.
16:30- 17:15	Privacy and UID R. Ramkumar is a Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He is advocate as well as a patent and trademark attorney. His presentation will focus on what standards of privacy are afforded within the UID system.
17:15- 17:30	Tea Break
17:30- 18:00	Discussion and Questions

	Organizers
	Privacy India Privacy India was established in 2010 with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around privacy challenges and violations in India. One of our goals is to build consensus towards the promulgation of comprehensive privacy legislation in India through consultations with the public, legislators and the legal and academic community.
	Privacy International (https://www.privacyinternational.org/) Privacy International’s mission is to defend the right to privacy across the world, and to fight surveillance and other intrusions into private life by governments and corporations. PI has been providing citizens and policy-makers with the tools and perspectives to enable them to hold to account those who threaten privacy since 1990. PI has active associates and networks in 46 countries.
	The International Development Research Centre (www.idrc.ca/) Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is one of the world’s leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges of international development. They help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems they face.
	The Centre for Internet & Society (http://cis-india.org/) The Centre for Interenet & Society brings together a team of practitioners, theoreticians, researchers and artists to work on the emerging field of Internet and Society to critically engage with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.
	Partners
	The Godrej India Culture Lab (www.godrej.com) The Godrej India Culture Lab is an interdisciplinary space which aims to build knowledge networks and interpret the changes rapidly taking place in contemporary India by bringing together the best minds from global academia, business and the creative worlds working on different aspects of Indian society.
	IIT, Bombay (www.iitb.ac.in/) Established in 1958, IIT is recognised worldwide as a leader in the field of engineering education and research. It is reputed for the quality of its faculty and the outstanding calibre of students graduating from its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Over the years, there has been dynamic progress at IIT Bombay in all academic and research activities, and a parallel improvement in facilities and infrastructure, to keep it on par with the best institutions in the world.
	Tata Institute of Social Sciences (http://www.tiss.edu/) Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) offers higher professional education in the field of human service and applied social science research. The institute has gone beyond the initial concern of social work education, since its inception in 1936, to consistently contribute to the promotion of sustainable, participatory development and social justice. Through its work, the Institute facilitates strong linkages between education, research, field action and policy advocacy.

Speakers

1. Apar Gupta

2. Danish Sheikh, Alternative Law Forum

3. NA Vijayashankar, E-Business Consultant, Founder Secretary of Cyber Society of India, Founder Trustee of International Institute of Information Technology Law, and Founder Chairman of Digital Society Foundation

4. N S Nappinai, Advocate and Founder Member of Technology Law Forum

5. Prashanth Iyengar, Assistant Professor & Assistant Director, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies, Lead Researcher with Privacy India, Bangalore; Legal Aid Manager with Rural Development Institute, Hyderabad; Researcher & Lawyer with Alternative Law Forum

6. R. Ramkumar, Assistant Professor, School of Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences

7. Shishir Jha, Project Lead at Creative Commons India and Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

8. Menaka Guruswamy, practices law at the Supreme Court of India.

9. Sudhir Krishnaswamy, is an Assistant Professor at the National law School of India University.

Download the invitation [PDF, 988 kb]

Download the event poster [PDF, 2155 kb]
IIT Bombay Map http://www.iitb.ac.in/campus/howto/howtoget.html

VIDEOS

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/right-to-privacy-bill-conference

3rd Canadian Science Policy Conference

praskrishna — 2011-11-23T15:57:58Z

The Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC) organised the 2011 conference at the Ottawa Convention Centre from 16 to 18 November 2011. Sunil Abraham spoke in the session on Global Implications of Open and Inclusive Innovation.

Conference Objectives

The Canadian Science Policy Conference fills a critical gap in the Canadian science policy environment by providing a permanent national forum for discussing science policy issues. The main objectives of the conference were to:

to provide an inclusive forum at the national level to identify, discuss and provide insights into the current Canadian science, technology and innovation policy issues;
to forge stronger linkages and create networking opportunities among science policy stakeholders;
to provide a venue for a new generation of scientists, entrepreneurs and policy makers to interact, innovate and shape the future of Canadian science policy landscape which is required for a knowledge-driven economy;
to provide a supportive environment for innovative ideas and projects in science policy, and encourage further collaborations across sectors;
to lay the foundation for a centre dedicated to science, technology and innovation policy.

Agenda

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Registration Opens
9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Optional Workshop - Science Policy 101 (additional charges apply)
Part I: Understanding the Nuts and Bolts…
This workshop will provide a general overview of science policy, both in terms of “policy for science” and “science for policy.” The introductory session assumes participants have no prior knowledge of science policy and is intended for researchers, policy analysts, journalists/communicators, students and others interested in gaining a basic understanding of science policy definitions, concepts, governance, key players, key issues, funding, science advisory mechanisms, etc. Led by experts in science policy, the workshop will underscore the importance of scientists’ understanding the impacts of science in the policy-making process and the impacts of policy-making on the research enterprise.

Part II: Career Development Workshop: So You Want to do Science Policy...
Potentially interested in science policy but not sure where to turn? Join us to explore career opportunities and job-seeking strategies at the intersection of science and policy. You'll hear from and interact with a variety of science policy professionals at various stages of their careers and who have walked quite different paths to get to where they are. The workshop will explore skills needed to succeed in science policy and describe several avenues for learning more about science policy. Whether your background is in the sciences, engineering, public policy or whatever, if you have an interest in working in science policy this is an excellent opportunity to expand your professional network. The workshop will also be your opportunity to suggest how the Canadian Science Policy Centre can best support your career development needs and aspirations in science policy.

Jeff Kinder, Ph.D
Manager, S&T Strategy - Innovation and Energy Technology Sector
Natural Resources Canada
Jeff Kinder has over twenty years of experience in government science and in science and technology (S&T) policy in the U.S. and Canada. His experience in the U.S. includes work at the National Science Foundation, the National Academies' Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy, and research in applied ocean acoustics at the Naval Research Laboratory. In Canada, Jeff has worked as Senior Policy Advisor in Science and Innovation at Industry Canada and in support of the Council of Science and Technology Advisors (CSTA), the external board that advised Cabinet on the management of federal S&T from 1998-2007. He is currently Manager, S&T Strategy, at Natural Resources Canada. Jeff’s research and teaching focuses on S&T policy, government laboratories, innovation systems and science advisory mechanisms. He is the co-author with Bruce Doern of Strategic Science in the Public Interest: Canada's Government Laboratories and Science-Based Agencies (University of Toronto Press, 2007) and is working on a history of the Science Council of Canada. He holds a PhD in Public Policy, an M.A. in Science, Technology and Public Policy and a B.S. in Physics.

Jason Blackstock, Ph.D
Senior Fellow CIGI & Research Scholar
IIASA Austria
With a unique background in physics, technology and international affairs, Dr Jason J Blackstock is a leading international policy adviser and scholar on both emerging geoengineering technologies, and the interface between science and global governance institutions. A physicist by training (PhD) and trade (PPhys), as well as a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School (MPA), Jason is the Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at CIGI (the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Canada) and a Research Scholar at IIASA (the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria), where he leads several international research projects evaluating the scientific, political and global governance implications of climate change, energy transitions, and emerging geoengineering technologies. Jason has also been elected Associate Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science, and is an adjunct member of faculty at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE).

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
CSPC Supporter’s Caf (by invitation only, open to supporters and community partners)

3:30 pm - 5:15 pm
Science and Humanitarian Efforts - POSTPONED TILL 2012

Challenges for Young Researchers: Insights from the 2011 PAGSE Symposium
Fuelling Science Policy – new leaders speak out. Young scientists and engineers comprise a critically important, mobile pool of talent that stands to change the geography of knowledge in fundamental ways. Join a discussion with outstanding early career researchers from across Canada, as they present provocative views on the challenges and opportunities they face in driving the science agenda in this country over the next 25 years.
Your panelists for this session will come from the top-tier of young Canadian researchers. Prior to the conference this select group will be working together to develop the specific challenges that will be discussed. Members of this group will be identified during the session.

Moderator
Rees Kassen, Ph.D.
University Research Chair in Experimental Evolution
University of Ottawa
Despite being less than a decade into his career, Dr. Rees Kassen has quickly developed an international reputation. To the astonishment of more established colleagues, he has already published an impressive four papers in the field’s most prestigious journal, Nature. During his time at the University of Ottawa he has developed a strong independent research program and attracted more than $500,000 in research funding. In the process he has proved his strengths in designing and executing microbial experiments to test theory in ecology and evolution. Dr. Kassen manages to serve on a number of committees both at the university and in the community. His work has also attracted considerable media attention, and has been highlighted in the popular press such as CBC-Radio, the Toronto Star, Danish daily newspapers a podcast for the American Society of Microbiologists.

Arctic and Northern Science Policy and International Diplomacy
Canada’s share of the Earth’s arctic region is perhaps the largest in the world, but given the shared nature of arctic sovereignty, environmental stewardship and scientific research in this region must proceed within a spirit of international collaboration. Following on the heels of the third International Polar Year (2007-2009), this panel invites commentary from various international arctic stakeholders on the way that science and diplomacy interact and support one another in the process of researching Earth’s northern regions.

Moderator
Anita Dey Nuttall, Ph.D
Associate Director ( Research Advancement)
Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta
Dey Nuttall's research focuses on the interface between science and politics in the Polar Regions, and in particular how a nation’s science policy and strategic interests influence and determine the development of its national Antarctic programs. She is currently developing new research on Canada’s strategy for polar science and development of the Canadian Antarctic Research Program.

David Hik, Ph.D
Professor - University of Alberta
President - International Arctic Science Committee
David Hik, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Northern Ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, and President of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). From 2004-2009 he was also Executive Director of the Canadian International Polar Year (IPY) Secretariat.

His research program is focused on experimental and long-term studies of plant-herbivore dynamics and interactions in Arctic and alpine environments. For the past 20 years, most of this work has been conducted in the mountains of the southwest Yukon.

Stephanie Meakin
Science Advisor
Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada
Stephanie Meakin has a background in biology with more than 20 years experience as a policy and science advisor to various government and non-governmental organizations, including Inuit organizations at the national and international levels. She is currently the Science Advisor for the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada and has spent eight years as lead researcher with ArcticNet on various research programs and projects.

Russel Shearer
Chair - Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP)
& Director - Northern Science and Contaminants Research Directorate
Aboringal Affairs and Northern Development Canada
Russel Shearer is the Director of the Northern Science and Contaminants Research Directorate within Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (formerly Indian and Northern Affairs Canada). Mr. Shearer is also the Chair of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) working group, which is one of six working groups that carry out the work of the Arctic Council. Additionally, Mr. Shearer serves as the Chair of the Research Management Committee for ArcticNet, which is a network of Centres of Excellence, focussed on studying the impacts of climate change within the costal Canadian Arctic. Mr. Shearer has published a number of papers on the presence and impact of contaminants within the North and works primarily under the auspices of the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP).

Roberta Burns
US Arctic Officer
US State Department
Jenkins R&D Review Panel Report Recommendations - Implications for Canadian Business
The Jenkins Report on the effectiveness of $6.5 Billion spent annually in federal programs to support business R&D and innovation, calls for a “rebalancing” away from R&D tax credits - in favour of the increased use if “direct” funding for business. It also recommends a centralization of program delivery, a dismantling and transition of key NRC Institutes and programs such as IRAP, and enhanced roles for the Business Development Bank of Canada and government procurement in supporting Canadian SMEs. Would these recommendations assist Canadian business to conduct more research and innovation activity? The panel will explore these issues.

Moderator
David B. Watters
President
Global Advantage Consulting Group Inc.
David Watters worked for 30 years in the federal government as a senior executive and Assistant Deputy Minister in a variety of Economic Ministries including Industry Canada, Treasury Board and Finance Canada. He was the Assistant Deputy Minister in Finance Canada for Economic Development and Corporate Finance, where he helped to shape the economic and innovation investments in five federal Budgets. David then established the Global Advantage Consulting Group Inc. (Ottawa) and is the President of this strategic management consulting firm. The firm provides advice to corporate, association, and government clients in Canada and abroad about strategy development, innovative business models, the design and management of commercial networks, and enhanced decision-making, particularly in the areas of new technology investments, innovation/commercialization, trade, and energy/climate change projects, programs and policy.

David holds an Economics degree from Queen’s University as well as a Law degree in corporate, commercial and tax law from Queen’s Law School. He was also an adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa Management School for seven years teaching International Negotiation to MBA students.

Celine Bak
Partner
Russel Mitchel Group
Céline Bak is an internationally recognized author, speaker and consultant on clean technology and on innovation and commercialization. She published and authored a ground-breaking national report on clean technology and on commercialization – the 2010 SDTC Cleantech Growth & Go-to-Market Report. Also published by her firm, the 2011 Canadian Clean Technology Industry Report builds on the 2010 baseline data set for Canada’s multibillion dollar clean technology industry that Analytica Advisors projects has the potential to attain $60 billion in annual revenues by 2020.

She is the co-founder of the Canadian Clean Technology Coalition that was struck to create the conditions required to make Canada’s clean technology industry an driver of Canada’s economic and energy productivity as well as an enabler for Canada’s green house gas reduction targets. Céline sits on the Clean Tech Advisory Board for the Department of Foreign Affairs and is a technical advisor to the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy for Climate Prosperity. She was the co-chair of the 2011 Canadian Cleantech Summit and sits on the nominations committee for the Canada Clean50. She is the chair of the Canada-Brazil Working Group for Clean Technology and Green Energy. She resides in Ottawa with her husband and three daughters.

Michael Turner
Vice President, System Strategies
Wesley Clover International
Wesley Clover International, based in Ottawa, Canada, is an investment & management firm with interests in leading edge information technology & communications companies, digital media, real estate and resort properties. As a member of the executive team Michael Turner provides strategic advice and support on technology issues and government innovation policy. In addition to his work with Wesley Clover, Michael also provides consulting services in these domains as well as in the use of Information & Communications Technologies within government, in Canada and internationally. Prior to joining Wesley Clover, Michael spent much of his career with the Canadian Federal Government, most recently as a senior official accountable for executive leadership and management of ICT operations for the Canadian Federal Government’s common services agency, Public Works and Government Services (PWGSC). He also served for a time as the Departmental CIO. During this period, Mr. Turner was a key member of the team responsible for Canada’s success in implementing Internet based e-Government services for its citizens and businesses.

Mr. Turner spent 25 years with the Canadian Coast Guard prior to his responsibilities at PWGSC. While with the Coast Guard. Michael served in a series of engineering and management positions of increasing responsibility. This included representing Canada for several years on various technical committees and then the Governing Council of the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization, based in London. For several years, Mr. Turner was the Deputy Commissioner - Canadian Coast Guard. Since leaving the public service, his consulting and advisory work has included projects, workshops and presentations in Australia, S.E. Asia, Africa, Europe, India and Ottawa. He has also participated in the development and delivery of an ICT and e-Government management training program for developing country governments. In 2008, Mr. Turner was a member of the City of Ottawa’s ‘Mayor’s Task Force on e-Government’, the recommendations from which are currently being implemented.

Dan Clow, Ph.D
Director Policy, Advocacy and Alliances Development
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Dr. Dan Clow leads the internal Policy Team at GSK focusing on health, industrial, pharmaceutical and biologics policy at the National level and through cross-functional efforts at the Federal, Provincial and Territorial levels. He also oversees a national field-based team serving as GSK’s point of contact for patient advocacy groups and professional organizations (including medical associations and societies). Dan completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Queen’s University, graduating with his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 1988. His neuroscience research interests led him to subsequently complete a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Upon returning to Canada in 1990 he joined the pharmaceutical industry in a medical affairs capacity. Dan joined Glaxo Wellcome (now GSK) in 1996 and spent 10 years in the Government Affairs and Private Payer arena. In 2006, he joined the Medical Division where he managed the respiratory business serving as a strategic scientific partner to the marketing division and managing the respiratory collaborative research trials with Canadian scientists and clinicians. In late 2008, he returned to the Public Affairs Division to take on the policy assignment. In 2011 his role and team was expanded to include the mandate for managing relationships with patient advocacy groups and professional organizations.

Dan is a founding member and past chair of the Group Insurance Pharmaceutical Collaborative (GIPC) and recipient of the Rogers Who’s Who in Healthcare for his work in private sector and employer-based health management. He is currently a member of both the Policy and Stakeholder Relations Committees at Rx&D.

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Opening Ceremonies
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Keynote Panel - Big Picture Perspective on Science & Innovation Policy
With continuing uncertainty about the global economy and with persistent public policy challenges that respect no borders, science and innovation policy is of increasing importance for governments and organizations across Canada and around the world. How do leaders from various perspectives view the "big picture"? What are the key challenges and opportunities in the decade ahead and how can science, technology and innovation help to address them? How can states improve the performance of their science, technology and innovation systems to ensure better health outcomes, a safe and secure environment, and sustainable prosperity for their citizens? How are macro-decisions on the state of science and innovation policy being made, and what foundations can support efficient national innovation systems.

Introductions
Dr. Suzanne Fortier
President
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Dr. Suzanne Fortier has served as President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) since January 2006. She was re-appointed to this position in November 2010. During her first five years, Dr. Fortier brought a renewed focus on excellence to the agency. Changes to NSERC’s funding structure ensure that the best researchers receive the funding they need to conduct world-class research. NSERC now engages more closely with industries to initiate research and development projects with academic partners. Dr. Fortier has also forged stronger relationships with other federal granting agencies and organizations to increase the number and scope of joint initiatives available to researchers. For example, a collaboration between National Research Council Canada, Business Development Bank of Canada and NSERC resulted in an ambitious new national initiative in nanotechnology.

Before her appointment to this position, Dr. Fortier held a number of senior research and administrative positions at Queen’s University. She joined Queen's University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry in 1982 after holding research positions at the Medical Foundation of Buffalo and National Research Council Canada. She then served as Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, Acting Vice-Principal (Research), and Associate Dean in the School of Graduate Studies and Research before being appointed Vice-Principal (Research) in 1995. Most recently (2000-05), she was Vice-Principal (Academic).

Moderator
Véronique Morin
Science Journalist
Tele-Quebec
Véronique Morin is a journalist in both print and television with over 20 years experience who believes strongly that Science should have an important place in daily newscasts. She is currently working as science journalist for the science magazine program « Le Code Chastenay » on the public network Tele-Quebec, writing freelance magazine articles, as well as developing a documentary project. Recently (idea and research) her documentary “Time Bombs”, about Canadian veterans who have participated in atomic bomb tests, received the awards of « Best documentary” from the New York International Independent Film and Video festival, « Best Documentary » from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, and Veronique was nominated for “Best research” at the Gemeaux awards 2008. Veronique Morin was president of the Canadian Science Writers' Association (CSWA) from 2001-2005.

She was elected the first president of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) from 2002-2004. She also serves as a judge on numerous awards recognizing excellence in journalism.

Rémi Quirion, OC, Ph.D., CQ, FRSC
Chief Scientist & Chariman of the Board
Fonds de recherche du Québec
On September 1, 2011, Rémi Quirion, OC, PhD, CQ, FRSC, became Québec's first chief scientist. As such, he chairs the boards of directors of the three Fonds de recherche du Québec and advises the Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade on research and scientific development issues. Until his appointment as chief scientist, Rémi Quirion was the vice-dean for science and strategic initiatives in the faculty of medicine at McGill University and senior university advisor on health sciences research. He was the scientific director of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Research Centre, a full professor in the department of psychiatry at McGill University and the executive director of the International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer's Disease of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Professor Quirion was the first scientific director of the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA), one of Canada's 13 health research institutes.

His work helped to elucidate the roles of the cholinergic system in Alzheimer's disease, of neuropeptide Y in depression and memory and of the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in pain and opiate tolerance. Rémi Quirion earned his PhD in pharmacology from Université de Sherbrooke in 1980 and carried out his postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States in 1983. He has over 650 publications in prominent scientific journals and is one of the most extensively cited neuroscientists in the world. He has received several awards and honours, including the Ordre national du Québec (Chevalier du Québec, CQ) in 2003, the Prix Wilder-Penfield (Prix du Québec) in 2004 and the Order of Canada (OC) in 2007. Mr. Quirion is also a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

Ian Chubb
Chief Scientist
Australian Government
Professor Ian Chubb was appointed to the position of Chief Scientist on 19 April 2011 and commenced the role on 23 May 2011. Prior to his appointment as Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb was Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University from January 2001 to February 2011. He was Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University of South Australia for six years and the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Monash University for two years while simultaneously the Foundation Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics for 16 months.

In 1999 Professor Chubb was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “service to the development of higher education policy and its implementation at state, national and international levels, as an administrator in the tertiary education sector, and to research particularly in the field of neuroscience”. In 2006 he was made a Companion (AC) in the order for “service to higher education, including research and development policy in the pursuit of advancing the national interest socially, economically, culturally and environmentally, and to the facilitation of a knowledge-based global economy”. In 2000, Professor Chubb was awarded a Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from Flinders University. He was made the ACT’s Australian of the Year in 2011 for his contribution to higher education.

R. Peter MacKinnon
President, University of Saskatchewan
& member of the STIC State of the Nation Working Group
Originally from Prince Edward Island, Peter MacKinnon has lived in Saskatoon since 1975. He previously served the University of Saskatchewan as Dean of Law and Acting Vice-President (Academic) and was appointed President of the University in July, 1999. Educated at the University of Saskatchewan, Queen's and Dalhousie, Mr. MacKinnon articled in Kingston and was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1975 and to the Law Society of Saskatchewan in 1979. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1990. He is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service; a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council of Canada; a member of the Board of the Saskatoon Airport Authority; a former Chair of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and has been a Chair or member of several public service boards, councils and committees since his appointment as president.

Recent awards include honorary degrees from the Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Regina and the Canadian Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award in Saskatchewan (2005). Peter MacKinnon is currently serving his third term as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan.

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Mingling Politics and Science Reception
9:00 pm - 10:00 pm
DUST

Thursday, November 17, 2011

7:30 am - 8:30 am
Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:30 am - 8:40 am
Welcome Address
Jim Roche
President & Chief Executive Officer
CANARIE Inc.
Jim was appointed President and CEO of CANARIE in February 2010. He is a successful entrepreneur with over twenty-five years of leadership experience, having been a founding member and General Manager at Newbridge Networks Corporation (now Alcatel-Lucent), a co-founder and CEO of Tundra Semiconductor (now IDT), the CEO of CMC Microsystems and the founder and CEO of Stratford Managers, a company he continues to lead. In addition to his corporate duties, he also serves on numerous boards and committees including the ICT Advisory Board for DFAIT, the Committee of Research Partnerships for NSERC, the Expert Panel on Business Innovation for CCA and others. He is also an Executive-in-Residence at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa and is frequently called on to speak about entrepreneurship, commercialization of innovation, and strategy development.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University, where he graduated at the top of his class and won multiple scholarships. He has added to his management skills through intensive programs at Stanford, Ivey, Queen’s and elsewhere.

8:40 am - 10:10 am
Building Stronger Communities Through Innovation
How do we build innovative communities? This is a central challenge for Canada in the 21st century since innovative communities form the foundation of a prosperous country. As more than a decade of research on industry clusters has shown, a robust innovation system can have a profoundly positive impact on local communities when it translates into high quality jobs, industrial growth, new enterprises, improved public infrastructure and services and a cleaner, healthier environment. But building innovation into our communities takes the involvement of individuals and institutions across the spectrum of society. Universities, colleges, research hospitals, private companies, governments and non-profit agencies, along with the talented, creative people that work in these organizations, must be free to work together and share their knowledge and ideas. Yet fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange between different organizations, with different interests and capacities can be challenging. Successful collaboration requires time, resources, communication, shared goals, commitment and risk-taking.

A panel of leading Canadian thinkers in inter-sectoral and inter-organizational collaboration will discuss how university and college researchers can work with local businesses to translate new knowledge into new creative products and beneficial services. They will look at the role of research hospitals in contributing to both the health and wealth of local communities. And they will discuss best practices in overcoming the institutional and cultural barriers to collaboration.

Chair
Gilles G. Patry, Ph.D
President and CEO
Canada Foundation for Innovation
On August 1, 2010, Dr. Gilles G. Patry became the fourth President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Following a long and distinguished career as a consultant, a researcher, and a university administrator, Dr. Patry brings to the CFI a wealth of experience from both the private and academic sector .

Dr. Patry holds a B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. in civil engineering from the University of Ottawa, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in environmental engineering. He was an environmental engineering consultant (1971-78) before becoming professor of civil engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal (1978-83) and then at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. (1983-93). Dr. Patry’s research program at McMaster led him to develop an innovative modelling concept for the simulation of wastewater treatment plant dynamics, and ultimately, to launch a Hamilton-based consulting company, Hydromantis, Inc. His research focuses on modelling, simulation and control of environmental systems.

Chair
Marie Carter, FEC, P.Eng
Chief Operating Officer
Engineers Canada
Marie is the chief operating officer of Engineers Canada. For seven years, she was the organization’s director of professional and international affairs and secretary to its Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board and International Committee. Her work includes ensuring the implementation of Engineers Canada’s Strategic Plan, which includes activities related to the development and maintenance of national qualification standards for admission to, and the practice of, professional engineering in Canada international activities to enhance the mobility of Canadian engineers. Marie also ensures proper management of resources, distribution of products and services to Engineers Canada’s members and that business operations run smoothly. Marie has also been responsible for projects to increase the recognition of foreign credentials for internationally-educated engineering graduates.

Prior to joining Engineers Canada in April 2001, Marie worked for 13 years in transportation engineering consulting and carried out various environmental assessment studies. Marie graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1989.

Respondent and Facilitator
Chad Gaffield, Ph.D
President
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Chad Gaffield, one of Canada’s foremost historians, was appointed president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) on September 18, 2006. Gaffield came to SSHRC from the University of Ottawa, where he held a University Research Chair and was the founding director of the Institute of Canadian Studies. During his 20-year University of Ottawa career, he also served as vice-dean of graduate studies and on the executive committee of the board of governors. He is a former president of the Canadian Historical Association and the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Dr. Kevin Smith
President and CEO
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
& St Joseph's Lifecare Centre Brantford
Dr. Smith is President and CEO of St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and St Joseph's Lifecare Centre Brantford since 2009; and CEO of St Mary's General Hospital Kitchener-all members of the St Joseph's Health System. He is also Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine - Faculty of Health Sciences of McMaster University. Dr. Smith's experience also includes work and training in the areas of medical curricula development, management training for academic health professionals, performance and incentives models for enhanced creativity and productivity and numerous roles in both University and Teaching Hospitals. Dr. Smith is currently co-leading the Government's Emergency Department and Alternate Level of Care initiative, and is also playing a leadership role in the Premier's delegations to China. Dr. Smith also contributes as chair or member of various Provincial and National bodies as well as various private and philanthropic Boards.

Fred Morley
Executive VP & Chief Economist
Greater Halifax Partnership
Fred Morley is Executive Vice-President and Chief Economist of the Greater Halifax Partnership since 2002, an organization focused on retaining and expanding existing business and bringing new investment to Halifax. A former professor at Saint Mary’s University, Fred Morley has also served as senior economic advisor to the Government of Nova Scotia, senior policy analyst at the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, and as senior manager at Nova Scotia Business Inc. He serves as a member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the boards of the International Economic Development Council in Washington DC, the Acadia Centre for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Saint Mary’s Business Development Centre. He holds undergraduate degrees in chemistry and economics from Dalhousie University and did graduate work at Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s University.

Fassi Kafyeke
Director, Strategic Technology
Bombardier Aerospace
Fassi Kafyeke joined Bombardier Aerospace in 1982. In 1996, he became Manager of Advanced Aerodynamics. As Chief Aerodynamicist, he was responsible for aerodynamic design and development wind tunnel testing for all Bombardier Jets (Global Express, CRJ-700, 900 and 1000, Challenger 300, C-Series. In 2007, he became Director of Strategic Technology, in charge of all engineering research and development activities of the company. He has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings and is the author of a book on Computational Fluid Dynamics. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Grand Prix d’Excellence of the Order of Engineers of Québec. In 1980, Dr. Kafyeke graduated from the University of Liege (Belgium) with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. The following year he completed his Master’s degree in Air Transport Engineering at the Cranfield Institute of Technology (England) and in 1994, he received his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering (Aerodynamics) from École Polytechnique de Montréal.

Hon. Mike Harcourt
Lawyer, Community Activist, and former BC Premier
Mike Harcourt is a former Premier of British Columbia, Mayor of Vancouver and City Councillor. He is a passionate believer in the power of cities and communities to improve the human condition. As such, as a speaker, author and advisor internationally on sustainable cities, he was appointed to serve on numerous committees, namely as Chair of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee for Cities and Communities, Co-chair the National Advisory Committee on the UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum, and as a member of the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy. Mr. Harcourt’s exemplary career as Lawyer, Community Activist, and Politician has been honoured, with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service, the Canadian Urban Institute’s Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award and the UBC Alumni Achievement Award of Distinction for contributions to British Columbia, Canada and the global community.

10:10 am - 10:30 am
Coffee Break
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
The Role of K* in Strengthening Science-Policy Integration
This fast-paced and interactive session will begin with short (~3-minute) presentations by each panelist, followed by two sets of round-table discussions among participants and each of the six panelists, and a short wrap-up segment. Knowledge translation and brokering (KT-KB) are part of an increasingly-recognized spectrum of knowledge transfer approaches that can significantly contribute to strengthened science-policy integration. The “K*” concept was first discussed at Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC) 2010 in Montreal and encapsulates the variety of terms used by practitioners in this field, including Knowledge Translation, Brokering, Management, Mobilization, Transfer, Adoption etc. These K* approaches recognize the need for active engagement across the science-policy spectrum, and for careful consideration of users’ information needs, preferred format, time frame and communication mechanisms. K* approaches are increasingly being adopted in a variety of fields, including health, environmental sustainability, education, agriculture and international development. Building on the successful one-day KT-KB workshop held during CSPC 2010, this year’s panel will engage the broader CSPC community and:

Provide insight into this active, emerging field;
Showcase practical and tangible examples of the value and power of KT-KB and other K* approaches in Canada and internationally;
Develop the theme of demonstrating the impacts of Knowledge Mobilization activities;
Be a waypoint for the first international K* Summit in 2012, and subsequent development of a multi-sectoral forum and White Paper for K* issues nationally and internationally.

Convenor
Alex T. Bielak, Ph.D
Senior Fellow and Knowledge Broker
United Nations University
Dr. Alex Bielak is a member of the faculty at the United Nations University and also serves as Senior Advisor to the Chair of UN-Water. As Senior Research Fellow and Knowledge Broker in the freshwater programme at the UNU’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH, the U.N. Think Tank on Water) Alex also leads a new Knowledge Management and Mobilization (K*) initiative for the Institute. Previously Alex was Environment Canada’s first-ever Director, Science and Technology Liaison with a mission of communicating science knowledge to targeted audiences and linking science with policy development. Before that he spent over a year as A/Director General, S&T Strategies Directorate, where he set up the Directorate and led the team developing EC's new Science Plan. A NATO Scholar, he has also held senior positions with Canada’s National Water Research Institute, NGOs, and other federal and provincial government departments.

Alex holds a PhD degree in Freshwater Biology from the University of Waterloo and has served on numerous National and International Boards and Committees. Recently appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Multi-Media at McMaster University, recognition of his professional and volunteer activities includes a UW Science Faculty “Distinguished Alumni Award” on the occasion of UW’s 50th Anniversary and appointment as the first Honorary Member of the Canadian Rivers Institute in 2011.

Convenor
Shannon deGraaf
Senior Science Policy Analyst, S&T Liaison
Environment Canada
Shannon joined Environment Canada’s S&T Liaison team as a Science-Policy Analyst in January 2009. Shannon’s work with S&T Liaison has focused on communicating science activities and results to various decision-making audiences including senior management, practitioners and policy communities; contributing to best practices in science-policy linkages through the development of the Strengthening Science-Policy Linkages Study Series; and highlighting the role of knowledge translation and brokering tools in federal science-based departments and agencies through the development of an Interdepartmental Compendium of KT-KB Tools. Prior to joining S&T Liaison Shannon has had more than ten years of experience in Environment Canada’s Great Lakes Program with a focus on outreach. Shannon has a degree in Environmental Studies from Brock University.

Amanda Cooper
KNAER Program Manager, Research & Knowledge Mobilization
and RSPE Research & Program Coordinator
Amanda Cooper specializes in research-practice-policy relationships. Her interests professionally and academically revolve around improving research use in public services. Currently, she is managing the Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research (KNAER), www.knaer-recrae.ca, an ambitious effort to improve knowledge mobilization in education across Ontario. Amanda has also been the coordinator for the Research Supporting Practice in Education program at OISE, www.oise.utoronto.ca/rspe, since its inception in 2007. There is growing awareness that research mediation by intermediary organizations is integral to knowledge mobilization. Amanda’s doctoral research analyzes efforts made by 44 knowledge mobilization intermediaries (third party, research brokering organizations) that facilitate linkages between research producing contexts and research using contexts to increase research use and its impact in education across Canada. She provides talks, workshops and consulting on knowledge mobilization for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, intermediaries and other organizations across sectors.

Katrina Hitchman, Ph.D
Manager of Strategic Programs
Canadian Water Network
After finishing her Honours Bachelor of Arts degree at Mount Allison University, Katrina completed her master’s and PhD degrees in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Waterloo. Katrina joined the Canadian Water Network in February 2009 to assist in the development and management of CWN partnership-based programs, particularly the evolving research consortia. Katrina conducted a comparative organizational analysis examining the organizational structure and functions of Canadian and international organizations that share CWN’s mandate of using research to inform practice and policy. As CWN continues to explore consortia-based models for putting its research to work, she will focus on the development of knowledge translation tools for researchers and research users, evaluating the success of CWN programs, and pursing opportunities to enhance CWN’s profile as a leading knowledge translation and brokering organization.

David Phipps, Ph.D
Director, Research Services & Knowledge Exchange
York University/ResearchImpact
ResearchImpact

David is responsible for the management and support of research services (research grants and contracts, research ethics, technology and knowledge transfer); participates in strategic planning; negotiates research contracts and grants, manages research data and develops research performance measurements; ensures compliance with government policies and the University mandate.

Louise Shaxson
Senior Research Fellow, RAPID
Overseas Development Institute (UK)
& Associate, Delta Partnership
Louise is a senior research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, UK’s leading think tank on international development; and an associate of Delta Partnership, an international management consultancy company based in London. Her particular area of interest is evidence-based policymaking and the links between knowledge and policy. She has authored and provided guidance on the provision of expert scientific advice to senior policy officials, what constitutes robust evidence for policy making, advised on horizon scanning projects and has published several journal articles and book chapters relating to evidence-based policy making. She has co-authored a forthcoming book on Knowledge, policy and power in international development: a practical guide which will be published by The Policy Press/University of Chicago Press in 2012.

Over the past few years, Louise became acquainted with a group of Canadians who shared her interested in evidence-based policy and, in particular, knowledge translation and brokering. Most recently, she was involved with CSPC where she gave a presentation on the distribution of responsibility in policy delivery and relating issues at the Canadian Science Policy Conference in Montreal last October.

Global Implications of Open and Inclusive Innovation
The context of innovation is being transformed by the growing ubiquity of affordable technologies, such as mobiles, even in the most remote parts of the world. In a June 4 2011 New York Times article, Thomas Friedman indicated that “Carlson’s Law” was an important consequence of these changes: “In a world where so many people now have access to education and cheap tools of innovation, innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart. Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb,” observes Curtis Carlson, the CEO of SRI International. As a result, he says, the sweet spot for innovation today is “moving down,” closer to the people, not up, because all the people together are smarter than anyone alone and all the people now have the tools to invent and collaborate.” In emerging economies, new business models and innovative forms of entrepreneurship are flourishing, particularly in the informal sectors. What can Canada learn from these innovations? How should science policies respond? This panel will attempt to inform debates about the relationship between science policy, intellectual property regimes, changing technological platforms and private sector innovation. To do so, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the organizer of this panel will bring together experts from Canada, Brazil, South Africa and India to discuss emerging evidence on these issues, as well as recommendations for decision-makers.
Moderator

Matthew Smith
Program Officer
International Development Research Centre, Canada
Matthew Smith oversees research on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to foster sustainable development and socio- economic equity at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian crown corporation. Before joining IDRC, Smith did postgraduate research on the interaction between technology and society, in particular the impact of e-government systems on citizens’ trust in the government of Chile. He has published on this subject and others, including the concept of openness to broaden access and inclusion. Smith holds a PhD in information systems and an MSc in development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (England), as well as an MSc in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland).

Sunil Abraham
Executive Director
Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India
Sunil Abraham is the Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore India. He founded Mahiti in 1998 which aims to reduce the cost and complexity of Information and Communication Technology for the Voluntary Sector by using Free Software. Today, Mahiti employs more than 50 engineers and Sunil continues to serve on the board. Between June 2004 and June 2007, 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.

Jeremy De Beer
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law
University of Ottawa
Jeremy is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law. His expertise is in the area of technology and intellectual property law. He has a graduate degree in law from the University of Oxford, and degrees in business and in law from the University of Saskatchewan. His research and recent publications address topics ranging from digital copyrights to biotechnology patents, with particular emphasis on the intersection of technology, intellectual property and international development.

Pria Chetty
Associate Director
Technology and Innovation Law, PricewaterhouseCoopers, South Africa
Pria Chetty is the Associate Director, Technology and Innovation Law at PricewaterhouseCoopers in South Africa. She completed her law degree in 2000 and went on to specialise in Electronic and Intellectual Property Law . She is the founder of Technology and Innovation Law Firm, Chetty Law, in South Africa, which has provided legal and strategic advisory services to a wide range of clients including public sector agencies, NGO’s, local and internationally listed companies and South Africa’s most innovative entrepreneurs. She was identified as one of the Brightest Young Minds in South Africa and later, in 2006, featured in Maverick magazine as one of five young attorneys making their mark in legal practice in South Africa.

Science Culture, Organized and Prioritized: Three National and International Initiatives
Culture is big: annually, some 290 million citizens actively participate in the exhibitions, programs, events and outreach initiatives organized by 2,400 science centres worldwide. Other types of institutions, radio, internet, and film build further on that reach. This session will examine three recent initiatives that seek to organize, define, and take strategic advantage of the work of hundreds of diverse science engagement and knowledge creation organisations nationally and internationally. Increasingly, strategic focus among this diverse set of content and communication partners is bringing new attention to science engagement for the benefit of national and global society.
This session will examine Inspiring Australia, an initiative of the Australian government to create regional networks of diverse engagement organizations and connect them effectively with the science knowledge creators in order to better execute science engagement in that country. We will also examine a initiative to benchmark "science culture" in order to better measure future progress . And finally we will examine a global initiative by science centres to use science engagement in a truly global context.

Moderator
Tracy Ross
Executive Director
Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC)
Tracy Ross is the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Science Centres, the national network that serves more than 45 charitable science centres, science museums and similar organisations that inspire 8 million people annually with learning experiences in science. The association is a national platform for collaboration, networking and tackling common issues. In May 2012, the association will be holding its 10th annual conference in Ottawa hosted by the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation. Tracy graduated from Queen’s University at Kingston in 1996 with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Environmental Chemistry, and from the University of Toronto in 2000 with a Master’s degree in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. She got her start with science centres as a host at the Ontario Science Centre where she delivered a variety of lively demonstrations, developed a new tabletop experience, and facilitated learning with visitors of all ages. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Science and Technology Awareness Network and the steering committee for National Science and Technology Week. She lives in Ottawa, where, as an avid sailor, she also serves on the Board of Directors of the Nepean Sailing Club.

Lesley Lewis
Chief Executive Officer
Ontario Science Centre
Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Science Centre since 1998, Lesley Lewis has led a major evolution of the landmark cultural attraction. Under Ms Lewis’ leadership over the past decade, the Science Centre has significantly renewed two thirds of its public spaces focusing on embracing new audiences, engaging visitors of all ages with science, scientists and innovation as well as incorporating current science news into daily offerings. From 2000 to 2006. Ms. Lewis spearheaded the Centre’s $47.5 million Agents of Change transformation.

As CEO, Ms. Lewis has sharpened the organization’s focus on extending its brand, audience reach and relevance. The Science Centre introduced an array of programs designed to ensure accessibility to all members of the community.

She is a respected member of the international science centre community, and has been active in global forums describing the Ontario Science Centre’s evolution into a new model for public engagement with science.

Ms Lewis is an invited member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Committee on Science and Technology Engagement with the Public. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors of Tourism Toronto. From 2007 to 2009, she was President of the global Association of Science Technology Centers based in Washington D.C. She was a member of the China Association for Science and Technology’s international advisory committee for a new science and technology museum in Beijing that opened in 2009 and Chair of the Fifth Science Centre World Congress which was hosted by the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto in 2008. In that capacity she led the development of the Toronto Declaration, the science centre field’s first-ever shared global statement of beliefs and goals.

Prior to joining the Ontario Science Centre, Ms. Lewis was the Executive Director of the Ontario Heritage Foundation for six years and for three years Executive Director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Denise Amyot
President and CEO
Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
Denise Amyot is currently, President and CEO of the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation whose mandate is to foster scientific and technological literacy throughout the country. The Corporation and its three museums – the Canada Agriculture Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum – tell the stories of Canadian ingenuity and achievement in science and technology.

She has worked both in National Headquarters and in regions in several federal departments including central agencies, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, National Defense, Natural Resources Canada, and Canadian Heritage. In her former three roles as Assistant Deputy Minister, she was respectively responsible for leading and managing leadership development programs and developing policies for employees and executives throughout the public Service of Canada, the corporate management services, as well as public affairs and ministerial services. She has worked extensively in policy and line operations in the context of programs and service delivery, in social, economic, and cultural areas. She also worked for few years with the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Ms Amyot is the former President of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, Vice-President of the Head of Federal Agencies Steering Committee, and member of the Board of Governors at the Ottawa University and at the Algonquin College. She is the former President of the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada and former President of the Communications Community Office. Ms Amyot has obtained a Master's degree in Education and three Bachelor degrees in Biology, in Arts and in Education.

11:30 am - 1:30 pm
CANARIE Showcase & Exhibitor Tours
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Lunch
12:45 pm - 1:15 pm
Special Keynote Address by the Minister of State (Science and Technology)
Join the The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Member of Parliament for Cambridge & North Dumfries, and Minister of State (Science and Technology).

Hon. Gary Goodyear
Minister of State (Science and Technology)
Member of Parliament for Cambridge & North Dumfries
1:20 pm - 2:50 pm
Funding Innovation, Measuring Societal Impacts and Informing Science Policy
A major challenge for Canadian science policy is related to what areas of science to invest in, how best to make budget allocations that will address the needs of society while benefiting the Canadian economy, and then assessing the impact of those investments. As health care costs continue to rise, there are ongoing efforts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health system. Research is recognized as a valuable investment to optimize the delivery and provision of health care, with nearly one quarter of Canada’s R&D spend, but is an incremental and iterative endeavor. The pathway from research to improved health and systems is neither linear nor simple. The complexity is amplified by the multitude of players involved; researchers, industry health care providers, policy makers, and the public. Research funders recognize the need for greater collaboration in providing innovative solutions to understanding how investments in health research make a difference to the health and wellbeing of Canadians. Consequently, this symposium brings together presenters from three Canadian research funding organizations, an academic Institution and one non-profit think tank.
Our panel examines methodologies used to analyze and demonstrate research impact. These methodologies are helping to elucidate and clarify the various pathways through which health research leads to societal wellbeing. The panel moderator will engage participants in the discussion with an aim to advance the science of impact assessment such that it will meet the needs of science policy and justify science spending to the public.

Moderator
Pierre Therrien
Director Market Structure & Framework Policy Analysis
Industry Canada
Pierre Therrien is Director, Market Structure and Framework Policy Analysis at Industry Canada within the Economic Research and Policy Analysis (ERPA) Branch. Prior to join ERPA, Pierre worked for several years in another sector within Industry Canada in the Science and Innovation Sector, where he led several projects related to the measurement science and innovation impact measures. Pierre also spent two years at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, France, where he coordinated several projects to develop new policy-relevant indicators related to government public support to R&D.

Laura McAuley
Manager, Impact Assessment Unit
Canadian Institutes for Health Research
Laura McAuley, MSc. is the Manager of the Impact Assessment Unit at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She led the initial implementation of the CIHR impact assessment framework and now continues to lead the ongoing refinement and methodological development in this area at CIHR. Laura has worked in the area of health research evaluation for the past seven years building on previous experience working in academic health research spanning the four pillars.

Kathryn E. Graham
Director, Performance Management
Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions
Kathryn E. Graham, Ph.D. is the Director of the Performance Management Department at Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions located in Alberta. Her experience is in the development, implementation and management of evaluation frameworks and conducting evaluations of health and research at the level of the program, organization and at multi-sites. She has a Ph.D. in applied psychology from the University of Cranfield, England with a specialization in occupational psychology, measurement, evaluation and human factors.

Ghislaine Tremblay
Director of Evaluation and Outcome Assessment
Canada Foundation for Innovation
Ghislaine Tremblay is the Director of Evaluation and Outcome Assessment at the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Over more than a decade she has held a variety of leadership roles in managing S&T funding programs and brings this broad expertise to the evaluation team that she leads. In her current role, Ms Tremblay has overseen the development of the Performance, Evaluation, Risk and Audit Framework, the Overall Performance and Value for Money Audit and outcome measurement study methodology and implementation.

Eddy Nason
Director, Toronto Office
IOG
Eddy Nason is the Director of the IOG’s Toronto office and their lead on health and innovation policy work. He specializes in research evaluation, particularly focusing on ROI approaches, and research impact framework and indicator development. He has advised research funders in the UK, Netherlands, Ireland, Australia and Canada on impact evaluation.

Education and Training of Scientists
Over the past 15 years, there has been an enormous shift in the human resources performing scientific research. The training period has lengthened significantly and adjustments must be made to address the growing concerns of young scientists. Many individuals, who do not have permanent positions, share a unique set of experiences and challenges that need to be better addressed in order to avoid wasting the substantial resources invested in their education and training.
This panel aims to address two main themes:
1. Are we producing too many biomedical research trainees?
2. What careers will the large majority of highly specialized PhDs undertake and who should facilitate these transitions?
Presentations and discussion from Alan Bernstein (Founding Director of CIHR), Angela Crawley (Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars), Suzanne Fortier (President of NSERC), and Olga Stachova (COO, MITACS) will be introduced and moderated by David Kent (University of Cambridge and founder of http://scienceadvocacy.org).

Moderator
David Kent , Ph.D
CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Cambridge
Dr. David Kent is a CIHR postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. He currently sits on the executive of the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars and created the website The Black Hole which provides information on and analysis of issues related to science trainees in Canada. Previously, Dr. Kent served as joint coordinator for the UBC branch of the Let’s Talk Science Partnership Program (2004-07), an award winning national science outreach program. Dr. Kent grew up in St. John’s, NL, obtained a B.Sc. in Genetics and English Literature at the University of Western Ontario and completed his Ph.D. in blood stem cell biology at the University of British Columbia. He has been awarded scholarships or fellowships from the CIHR, NSERC, the Canadian Stem Cell Network, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and the Lady Tata Memorial Trust. His current laboratory research focuses on normal blood stem cells and how changes in their regulation lead to cancers.

Dr. Angela Crawley
Vice-Chair of Operations
Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars
Dr. Angela M. Crawley received a B.Sc. in Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University (’99) and then earned a Ph.D.in the Dept. of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph. Her doctorate addressed the regulation of immune responses in pigs, for the eventual improvement of vaccination strategies. In 2004, Angela moved to Ottawa to work as postdoctoral fellow (PDF) in Dr. Jonathan B. Angel’s laboratory at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), partnered with the University of Ottawa. Angela is researching anti-viral mechanisms of human immune response in the context of HIV infection. Dr. Crawley held a postdoctoral fellowship award from the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN). She will begin her appointment as an Assistant Scientist at the OHRI and an Assistant Professor in April 2012 (to be funded by an OHTN Junior Investigator Development Award). While a postdoc, Angela was one of the founders of the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Postdoc Association (2006, president 2007-09) and she also founded the uOttawa Postdoc Association (2009, president 2009-10). Angela was awarded a Postdoctoral Award of Excellence by uOttawa’s Faculty of Medicine (2007) recognizing scientific achievement and community involvement. Angela is also a member of a National Postdoc Stakeholders Working Group compiling recommended policies for the fair and equitable treatment of postdocs across Canada. She has attended some postdoc-related conferences including the 7th Annual Meeting of the National Postdoctoral Association (Houston, TX, USA, 2009) and, as a former president of the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS), was an invited speaker for at the Annual Canadian Association of Graduate Studies meeting (Toronto, Nov. 2010). Angela is currently the Vice-Chair of Operations for CAPS.

Olga Stachova
Chief Operating Officer
Mitacs
Olga Stachova joined Mitacs in October 2000 and plays a key role in the organization's success. As Chief Operating Officer, her responsibilities include oversight of the overall operations and management, responsibility for delivery strategy for all Mitacs programs, their implementation, ongoing evaluation and monitoring, as well as allocation of Mitacs resources, human resources management and oversight of budgetary expenditures.

Olga has a Master’s Degree in English and Philosophy from the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra, Slovakia. Prior to emigrating to Canada, she was Senior Project Manager at Management Partners, the leading company in the Slovak HR market. She was highly successful in her role of recruiting personnel for international organizations opening subsidiaries in Slovakia.

Olga is the recipient of the 2009 Business in Vancouver Forty under 40 Award.

Dr. Alan Bernstein
Founding President
CIHR 2000-2007
Dr. Alan Bernstein is the former executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, an international alliance of researchers and funders charged with accelerating the search for an HIV vaccine. Previously, he served as the founding president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2000-2007), Canada’s national agency for the support of health research. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and following postdoctoral work at the ICRF in London, Dr. Bernstein joined the Ontario Cancer Institute (1974-1985). In 1985, he joined the new Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto, was named its Associate Director in 1988 and then its Director of Research (1994-2000). Author of over 200 scientific publications, Dr. Bernstein has made extensive contributions to the study of stem cells, hematopoiesis and cancer. He chairs or is a member of advisory and review boards in Canada, the US, UK, and Australia. Dr. Bernstein has received numerous awards and honourary degrees for his contributions to science, including the 2007 Medaille du merite from the Institut de Recherche Clinique de Montreal, the 2008 Gairdner Wightman Award and the Order of Canada in 2002.

Dr. Suzanne Fortier
President
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Dr. Suzanne Fortier has served as President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) since January 2006. She was re-appointed to this position in November 2010. During her first five years, Dr. Fortier brought a renewed focus on excellence to the agency. Changes to NSERC’s funding structure ensure that the best researchers receive the funding they need to conduct world-class research. NSERC now engages more closely with industries to initiate research and development projects with academic partners. Dr. Fortier has also forged stronger relationships with other federal granting agencies and organizations to increase the number and scope of joint initiatives available to researchers. For example, a collaboration between National Research Council Canada, Business Development Bank of Canada and NSERC resulted in an ambitious new national initiative in nanotechnology.

Before her appointment to this position, Dr. Fortier held a number of senior research and administrative positions at Queen’s University. She joined Queen's University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry in 1982 after holding research positions at the Medical Foundation of Buffalo and National Research Council Canada. She then served as Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, Acting Vice-Principal (Research), and Associate Dean in the School of Graduate Studies and Research before being appointed Vice-Principal (Research) in 1995. Most recently (2000-05), she was Vice-Principal (Academic).

Putting the Social in Canada’s Innovation Policy
The social sciences and human sciences matter. All of the big, "wicked" problems such as poverty, housing, immigration, security, diversity, climate change, at risk kids, Aboriginal issues, social determinants of health, to name a few, embrace issues related to social and human sciences. New solutions that address these issues are social innovations. But what's the role of social and human science research in fostering social innovations? How can the public, private, community and academic sectors collaborate on social innovation to benefit Canadians and Canadian communities?

Moderator
Graham Carr
President
Canadian Foundation of Humanities and Social Sciences
Graham Carr is President of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS). Representing more than 85,000 faculty and students at 79 Canadian universities and 80 scholarly associations CFHSS is the national voice for university research and training in HSS disciplines. Carr is also Professor of History and Dean of Graduate Studies at Concordia University. He was previously Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Trained at Queen's University in Kingston and the University of Maine at Orono, Carr is a specialist in North American cultural and public history. He has published in the fields of literary and music history, popular culture, cultural policy, cultural diplomacy and social memory studies. His current research focuses on Cold War cultural exchanges involving the United States, Canada and the Soviet Union.

A member of the executive of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools, Carr also serves on the Advisory Committee on Communications, Marketing and Programming for Canada's National Capital Commission.

Claudia Krywiak, Ph.D
Director, Partnership Development and Corporate Planning
Ontario Centres of Excellence
Claudia Krywiak is Director, Partnership Development and Corporate Planning, for the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). OCE drives economic development by advancing the commercialization of publically-funded research outcomes, building industry-academic collaborations, and fostering the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. Claudia brings experience in developing successful partnerships to facilitate innovation and is interested in the development of new strategies that foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and build partnerships between the private and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to joining OCE, Claudia held the position of Vice-President, Business Development (Ontario) at Mitacs, a national organization linking academia, industry and the public sectors to develop new tools to support the growth of Canada’s knowledge economy.

Claudia received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 2003 and worked for Bruker BioSpin, a world leader in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technology, where she supported the customer base in the Canadian market and developed working relationships with industrial and academic researchers in chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceuticals, and materials science.

Allyson Hewitt
Advisor, Social Innovation & Director, Social Entrepreneurship
Social Innovation Generation
Allyson leads the social innovation programs at MaRS including the Ontario node of the national initiative, Social Innovation Generation (SiG@MaRS). This program supports social entrepreneurs and promotes social innovation under the headings Advise! Convene! Accelerate! SiG@MaRS has also recently announced a groundbreaking Centre for Impact Investing and is working of a series of Innovation Solutions Labs to tackle complex challenges. A life long social innovator, she most recently worked at SickKids where she led Safe Kids Canada and was a passionate advocate for children. She was also the Executive Director of Community Information Toronto where she initiated 211, providing streamlined access to human service information. For this work she received the Head of the Public Service Award and several other prestigious awards for meritorious public service.

Allyson has been leading and volunteering in not-for-profit organizations for over 25 years. Her academic background is in Criminology, Law, Public Affairs, Voluntary Sector Management and Organizational development including Leading Change.

David Phipps, Ph.D
Director, Research Services & Knowledge Exchange
York University/ResearchImpact
ResearchImpact
David is responsible for the management and support of research services (research grants and contracts, research ethics, technology and knowledge transfer); participates in strategic planning; negotiates research contracts and grants, manages research data and develops research performance measurements; ensures compliance with government policies and the University mandate.

2:50 pm - 3:10 pm
Coffee Break
3:10 pm - 4:40 pm

GPS Genome Canada - Genomics and Regulatory Science
This panel is the final event in Genome Canada’s 2011 GPS series: Where Genomics, Public Policy and Society Meet, dedicated to facilitating a dialogue between federal policymakers and researchers exploring issues at the interface of genomics and its ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social aspects (or GE3LS). Under the overarching theme of “Translational Genomics,” ad the range of activities that help “move genomics out of the laboratory and into the market, the clinic, or society at large,” the 2011 series previously considered intellectual property, as well as other means to optimize the impact of genomic research beyond commercialization.

This panel will turn its attention to “regulatory science” and the policy questions that arise at the interface of science and regulations when assessing scientific and technological applications that result from advances in genomics, from a safety, efficacy or quality lens and from the perspective of other relevant considerations. The panel discussion will begin with the presentation of a draft policy brief commissioned by Genome Canada and prepared Drs. Bruce Doern and Peter Phillips, two leading Canadian science policy scholars, followed by invited commentaries from policy-makers and private sector representatives. The audience will be invited to participate in a plenary discussion to help refine the policy brief.

Moderator
Karine Morin
Director, National GE3LS Program
Genome Canada

As Genome Canada’s Director, National GE3LS Program, Karine Morin oversees activities related to the ethical, economic, environmental, legal and social (GE3LS) aspects of genomics research. Prior to joining Genome Canada, Karine was a Senior Ethics Policy Advisor at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). She also conducted research on ethical, legal and social issues related to genomics at the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Science, Society and Policy.

Karine worked in the US for several years as the Director of Ethics Policy at the American Medical Association, and previously as an Ethics and Health Policy Associate at the American College of Physicians. Before leaving Canada, she worked for the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (Krever Commission). Karine holds a Masters in Law (LLM) from the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of McGill University School of Law, where she obtained a joint degree in civil (B.C.L.) and common law (LL.B). Over the years, she has published widely in bioethics and law, and has taught as an adjunct at several universities in the US and Canada.

Bruce G. Doern, Ph.D
Professor, Researcher, Author, Consultant
Carleton University, School of Public Policy and Administration (retired)
Dr. Bruce Doern is the author of over 70 books and monographs and numerous other articles and studies on Canadian and comparative public policy and regulatory governance in areas such as food and health, biotechnology, science and innovation policy, government labs; environmental policy; energy policy; and consumer policy. He has recently completed a book (with Prof. Michael Prince) on Three Bio-Realms: Biotechnology and the Governance of Food, Health and Life in Canada (University of Toronto Press, in press). He is presently the co-editor of How Ottawa Spends, the Carleton University School of Public Policy and Administration’s annual review of national priorities and fiscal policy (McGill-Queen’s University Press). He recently served as the CIBC Scholar-in-Residence at the Conference Board of Canada. He also served as Director of the Carleton Research Unit on Innovation, Science and Innovation (CRUISE) at Carleton University.

He is a consultant and advisor to numerous federal and provincial departments and to international bodies such as the OECD on innovation, science, regulatory and other governance issues. He was an advisor to the 2004 federal External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation. As Emeritus Professor, he teaches global governance in the Politics Department at the University of Exeter in the UK and he is Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University.

Peter W.B. Phillips
Professor of Public Policy
Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School
University of Saskatchewan
Dr. Peter Phillips is Professor of Public Policy in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, Canada. He earned his Ph.D. in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and practiced for 13 years as a professional economist and senior policy advisor in Canadian industry and government. At the University of Saskatchewan, he has held the Van Vliet Research Chair, created and held an NSERC-SSHRC Chair in Managing Technological Change, was a founding member and director of the virtual College of Biotechnology and was founding director of the graduate school of public policy.

He has had visiting appointments at the LSE, the OECD, the European University Institute and the University of Western Australia, is associate editor of AgBioForum, a leading on-line journal, was a member of the NAFTA Chapter 13 expert panel on GM maize in Mexico and was a founding member of the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute, the Estey Centre for the Study of Trade, Law and the Economy, and Ag West Bio Inc., which operates a biotech venture fund.

His current research focuses on governing transformative innovation, including regulation and policy, innovation systems, intellectual property management, trade policy and decision systems. He is co-lead and principal investigator of a $5.4 million Genome Canada project entitled Value Addition through Genomics and GE3LS (VALGEN) which runs 2009-13 and has been an applicant and investigator on more than 15 peer reviewed grants worth more than $150 million. He has been author or editor of eight books—his latest, Governing Transformative Technological Innovation: Who’s in charge? was published by Edward Elgar in 2007—and more than 70 journal articles and book chapters.

Dr. Vratislav Hadrava, Ph.D
Director, Regulatory Affairs
Pfizer Canada inc.
Vratislav Hadrava obtained his MD diploma at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic and PhD degree from Department of Medicine, Division of Experimental Medicine at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He completed his postgraduate research training at the Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit at Department of Psychiatry, McGill University. He has published articles in peer reviewed journals in the domain of hypertension, vascular smooth cell proliferation, mechanism of action of antidepressants and anxiolytics and clinical psychopharmacology.

Vratislav Hadrava initiated his career in pharmaceutical industry in 1995 at Pfizer Canada and has held positions of increasing responsibilities in areas of Medical Affairs, Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs.
He is currently Director, Regulatory Affairs at Pfizer Canada.

Vratislav Hadrava collaborated in numerous projects with clinical researchers from academia and Pfizer international, mainly in the area of mental health disorders. He acquired broad experience in clinical development and commercialization of new medicines and has developed a particular interest in the regulatory and pharmacovigilance aspects of pharmaceutical medicine.

Over the last years he has participated in several initiatives such as Health Canada/CIHR sponsored National Placebo Working Committee (2002-2004), Expert Advisory Committee on the Vigilance of Health Products (2007-2009) and Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network Advisory Committee (2009-2010).

Kwasi Nyarko, Ph.D
Regulatory Science Advisor
OFFICE OF POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Health Canada
Kwasi A. Nyarko, Ph.D, is currently Regulatory Science Advisor, Office of Policy and International Collaboration, Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate, Health Canada. At Health Canada he has also worked with the Marketed Health Products Directorate with a unit responsible for post-market surveillance for biological products, including blood. Dr. Nyarko obtained his doctorate in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Kwasi has extensive experience in the development of science-based policies, guidance documents for industry, as well as development of national standards and regulations related to biologic and genetic therapies for human use. Dr. Nyarko is actively involved in the development of regulatory frameworks for a wide range of biological products regulated by BGTD such as the regulatory frameworks for vaccines, radiopharmaceuticals, pharmacogenomics, and plant molecular farming products. Dr. Nyarko has been involved in projects at the national and international levels and was instrumental in the development of the regulatory framework for subsequent entry biologics (biosimilars).

Erika van Neste
Innovation and Growth Policy Division
Strategic Policy Branch
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

The Impact of Investments in Innovation Intermediaries
Governments and businesses around the world invest in innovation intermediaries that help a diverse range of firms of different ages, sizes, and endowments innovate and succeed. Heightened concern for transparency and accountability has meant that these enabling organizations and programs report on a range of metrics, possibly including their impact on client and member firms. In this panel we explore the state of the art of the assessment of innovation intermediary impact from a range of perspectives: Canadian and European, practitioner and academic, ICT and biopharmaceutical industries. Panel members will consider what is proven, possible, desirable, and to be avoided in terms of impact assessment methodologies, and the degree to which different constituencies seek, avoid, are provided with, ignore, and use assessments of intermediary impact. The objective is an improved understanding of an issue that is central to innovation intermediary purpose and the ability of intermediaries to contribute to the innovation systems of which they are a part.

Moderator
Nobina Robinson
CEO
Polytechnics Canada
Nobina Robinson was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Polytechnics Canada in May 2009. Polytechnics Canada is a national alliance of Canada’s leading research-intensive, publicly funded colleges and institutes of technology. Mrs. Robinson held progressive appointments in the federal government and non-profit sectors since 1990. She began her public service career in 1990 when she joined the Treasury Board Secretariat as a management trainee. Two years later, she became a Foreign Service Officer and was posted as a political officer to the Canadian Embassy in Havana from 1994 to 1997. From 1998 to 2002, Mrs. Robinson led FOCAL, a policy institute on Canada’s relations with the Americas. Before joining Polytechnics Canada, Mrs. Robinson was the Ottawa-based Senior Government Relations Advisor for Seneca College, responsible for federal advocacy for one of Canada's largest colleges. Mrs. Robinson has a B.A. from Amherst College, an M.A. from Oxford University (Commonwealth Scholar 1985-1988) and has pursued post-graduate studies at Yale University. In October 2010, Mrs. Robinson was named to the Expert Panel undertaking the Review of Federal Support to Research and Development.

Mario Thomas, Ph.D
Senior Vice President
Ontario Centres of Excellence
Dr. Mario Thomas is an accomplished senior executive with impressive international credentials in the management of innovation. With over 30 years in leadership roles directing corporate development and commercialization, he creates remarkable value for all stakeholders. Mario Thomas brings extensive experience filled with achievements driving successful development collaborations and financial ventures. Dr. Thomas was promoted to Senior Vice-President, Ontario Centres of Excellence in June 2010. Before being appointed Managing Director of the Centre for Commercialization of Research at the Ontario Centres of Excellence in April 2009, Dr. Thomas was Partner in the venture firm T2C2 Capital. His previous experiences include CEO and co-founders of two start-up companies; senior level positions in business development, marketing and scientist. He is the founding chairman of the International Commercialization Alliance. He holds a PhD in chemistry and a BSc from Université Laval in Quebec City, as well as a diploma in business administration from École des Hautes Études Commerciales of Université de Montréal. He is also a Chartered Director with the ASC designation in board governance. Dr. Thomas brings an in-depth background in board level functions both as a board member and in managing board relations as an executive.

Margaret Dalziel
Associate Professor, School of Managment, University of Ottawa
& VP Research of The Evidence Network
Margaret Dalziel is an associate professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Telfer School of Management of the University of Ottawa, and VP Research of The Evidence Network. Margaret joined the University of Ottawa in 2001 with 15 years experience in technology development and research management at McGill University and the Canadian Space Agency. Her current research focuses on the assessment of interventions to promote innovation, and on describing the architecture of the economy in terms of inter-industry relations. With generous support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, her research has resulted in some 60 articles including publications in academic journals such as Research Policy, the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, and the British Journal of Management. During 2008-2009 Margaret was a visiting professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

Raine Hermans, Ph.D
Head, Unit for Strategic Intelligence
Tekes (Finland)
Raine Hermans is the Head of Unit for Strategic Intelligence since January 2010. He started with Tekes as a Director of Regional Networks at Tekes in September 2007. The Regional Networks consist of 14 technology development departments all over in Finland. One of his most important future challenges is to coordinate synchronizing the distinctive regional strategies together and with the one of Tekes’. Raine acted as the visiting professor (managerial economics of biotechnology) at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Illinois USA, from 2006 to 2007. Raine has also led a group of multidisciplinary corporate and industry analysts for several years with Etlatieto Ltd and ETLA, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy. Raine has a Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering and management (Helsinki University of Technology) and a master’s degree in economics (University of Helsinki). He has published several articles in international journals and edited academic books. The most recent articles are related to technology management and economic forecasting.

Natalie E. Dakers
CEO
Centre for Drug Research and Development
Natalie E. Dakers is a leading figure in the Canadian biotechnology industry and currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), an innovative organization in British Columbia with a mandate to address the commercialization gap between early-stage technologies arising out of university-based research and investment opportunities. Under Ms. Dakers’ leadership, CDRD has signed affiliation agreements with major research institutions in Canada and forged important strategic relationships with Pfizer Canada and Genome British Columbia. With its over 20,000 square feet in specialized lab space and more than $12 million invested in state-of-the-art equipment, CDRD has attracted over 70 employees and 260 investigators. To date, CDRD has raised and secured approximately $74 million in funding and was named a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). Ms. Dakers is active in a number of business and scientific organizations, including Past Chair of BC Biotech (now LifeSciences British Columbia), the association supporting and representing the province’s biotech, medical device and life sciences community. Currently, Ms. Dakers is a board member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), BIOTECanada and the International Science and Technology Partnership Canada (ISTP Canada). Previously, Ms. Dakers also served on the Boards of Genome Canada, Genome BC, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Ms. Dakers is an Adjunct Professor in UBC’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and a member of the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Business Innovation. Ms. Dakers received a Peak Award for Performance and Excellence in 2004. In 2009, Ms. Dakers was the recipient of BIOTECanada’s Gold Leaf Award for Industry Leadership.

Using Science Policy to Improve Health Outcomes in the North
The Canadian North has become a focus for politicians and researchers alike within recent years. This increased attention has not only helped to reignite Canadians’ awareness of the North, it has also shed light on certain disparities. Many Northerners, especially Aboriginal people, suffer from poorer health in comparison to other Canadians. This panel will explore the current health challenges in the North, and discuss how science policy can be used to help improve the situation. Overall, the goals of this panel are to:

Raise awareness about health issues in the North and the challenge of addressing those issues
Show how building up the scientific presence within the North will help to improve health outcomes among Northerners
Reiterate the notion that scientific work cannot take place in isolation – rather it must be a collaborative activity which is engaged in by many different, yet inter-connected, communities
Reaffirm the need for governments, communities, and academia to work together.

Moderator
Sandra Lister
Manager, Science Policy Coordination
Health Canada
Sandra Lister is the Manager of the Science Policy Coordination Unit (SPCU) within the Policy, Planning and Coordination Division of Health Canada's Strategic Policy Branch. The SPCU provides senior management with strategic analysis and advice on complex, horizontal and multi-dimensional S&T and science policy issues. Ms. Lister oversees the secretariat to the departmental Director General Science Committee and the Northern Health Evidence Sub-Working Group, which is responsible for leading the Health Portfolio’s contribution to the Northern Strategy. Additionally, Ms. Lister is an active member on several working groups which support the Federal S&T Strategy, the Federal Integrated Northern S&T Strategy (FINeST) and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS).

Dr. Pertice Moffitt
Nurse Educator
Aurora College
Dr. Pertice Moffitt is a nurse educator in the undergraduate program at Aurora College, Yellowknife Campus, Yellowknife, NT; an Adjunct Professor with Dalhousie University; and, as well, she also teaches graduates students at Athabasca University. Additionally, Dr. Moffitt is the Manager of the Health Research Programs for Aurora Research Institute at the North Slave Research Centre in Yellowknife. Dr. Moffitt's research interests are with Circumpolar Health, Cultural Diversity and Women's Health utilising the qualitative methods of ethnography, photovoice and fourth generation evaluation.

Dr. Kue Young
Professor
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Dr. Kue Young is a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and TransCanada Chair in Aboriginal Health & Well-being. He is President of the International Network for Circumpolar Health Research and a former co-chair of the Arctic Council’s Human Health Expert Group. Much of Dr. Young's professional career has been devoted to northern and Aboriginal health research, with a major focus on the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In 2010 he was appointed Member of the Order of Canada for "his contributions and commitment to advancing the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples, notably as a leading scholar in the field of Aboriginal health research.”

Christopher Cornish
Regional Director, Policy, Planning, and Evaluation
Health Canada - Northern Region
Christopher Cornish is the regional Director of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation for Health Canada’s Northern Region. Northern Region is responsible for delivering on Health Canada’s mandate in the three northern territories, managing and administering health promotion and disease prevention programs, the Non-Insured Health Benefits program for First Nations and Inuit, and the Territorial Health System Sustainability Initiative. Northern Region also serves as the departmental link on circumpolar health and research activities and plays an instrumental role in supporting the Government of Canada’s Northern Strategy. Prior to joining Health Canada, Mr. Cornish served in various policy roles at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

Sarah Kalhok Bourque
Manager, Northern Science and Contaminants Research
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada
Sarah Kalhok Bourque is the Manager of Northern Science and Contaminants Research with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. In this capacity, Sarah Kalhok Bourque manages the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP), established in 1991. Prior to this, Sarah Kalhok Bourque was part of the core team that developed Canada’s Program for the International Polar Year (IPY), which was designed along policy-relevant themes of “Climate change impacts and adaptation” and “Health and well-being of Northern communities”, and she was subsequently Manager and Science Manager of the Government of Canada Program for IPY. Now based in Ottawa, she used to call the North her home while working for the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Her perspective on northern/Arctic science and policy comes from program experience at the local, national and international level.

4:40 pm - 6:00 pm
Sponsor Showcase & Networking
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Keynote Panel - Science and Politics in Canada
This is a non-partisan and cross party discussion, among former scientists and current politicians, on the interface between science and government. The panel will discuss:

The barriers and potential solutions for greater interaction between the scientific and political communities in Canada
How to encourage and facilitate the greater participation of scientists in politics.

Introductions
Pierre Meulien, Ph.D
President and CEO
Genome Canada
Pierre Meulien was appointed President and CEO of Genome Canada in 2010. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Meulien served as Chief Scientific Officer for Genome British Columbia from 2007 to 2010 where he promoted the organization’s ongoing scientific strategy, focusing on the science of genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics within the larger realm of biotechnology and life sciences. Facilitating the translation of genome based technologies into end user communities across many life science sectors was also a key responsibility.

From 2002 to 2007, Dr. Meulien served as the founding CEO of the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre (now Molecular Medicine Ireland) which linked the three medical schools and six teaching hospitals in Dublin to build a critical mass in molecular medicine and translational research. The Centre managed the Euro 45 Million “Program for Human Genomics” financed by the Irish government and was responsible for coordinating the successful application for the first Wellcome Trust funded Clinical Research Centre to be set up in Ireland.

For over 20 years, Dr. Meulien has managed expert research teams with a number of organizations, including Aventis Pasteur in Toronto (Senior Vice President of R&D), and in Lyon, France (Director of Research). He also spent seven years with the French biotechnology company Transgene in Strasbourg, France as a research scientist and part of the management team. Dr. Meulien’s academic credentials include a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and a post-doctoral appointment at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

Marc Garneau
Former Astronaut
MP for Westmount Ville-Marie, Quebec
Marc Garneau has served his country his entire professional career, beginning with the Canadian Navy and then as an astronaut and President of the Canadian Space Agency , and now in political life. Garneau resigned from the Canadian Space Agency to run under the Liberal banner in Vaudreuil–Soulanges in 2006. After the last federal elections, he remained very involved in politics and played a determining role in the Liberal Renewal Commission by drafting its Science and Technology position paper. He also helped draft a number of resolutions aimed at clarifying the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, the resolution of fiscal unbalance and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.

Hon. Hélène LeBlanc
MP for LaSalle-Emard, Science and Technology Critic
Hélène is an agronomist and project manager for the Conseil d’assainissement et d’aménagement du ruisseau Lacorne.
Hélène has taught French in Vancouver and Ottawa and was an interpreter/guide for the Canada Museums of Science and Technology Corporation in Ottawa. She was also an assistant to persons suffering from Alzheimers for the organization Baluchon Alzheimer and an agro-environment officer with the Fédération de l’Union des producteurs agricoles de l’Outaouais-Laurentides.
Hélène has a Bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture and environment from McGill University.

Dr. Kellie Leitch
MP for Simcoe Grey
Dr. Kellie Leitch is the Member of Parliament for Simcoe-Grey and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, and to the Minister of Labour. Prior to her election on May 2, 2011, Dr. Leitch was an orthopaedic paediatric surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Dr. Leitch was also an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Chair of the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership, and Director of the Health Sector MBA program at the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario. Dr. Leitch received the Order of Ontario in 2010 for her work advocating for children. Dr. Leitch was selected as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 for her work in both medicine and business in 2005. Dr. Leitch previously served as Chair of the Expert Panel for the Children's Fitness Tax Credit in 2006, which made recommendations to the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, regarding the best ways to implement the tax credit designed to encourage health and fitness among Canadian children and youth. In 2008, Dr. Leitch authored the report entitled: "Reaching for the Top: A Report by the Advisor on Healthy Children & Youth". The report is a "call to action" for government and industry on key issues affecting Canadian children and youth.
Dr. Leitch earned her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1994, MBA from Dalhousie University in 1998, completed the Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program in 2001 at the University of Toronto, and became a Fellow of Paediatric Orthopaedics at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles/University of Southern California in 2002.

As a volunteer, Dr. Leitch served as a council member on the NRC (National Research Council of Canada), a Board member of Genome Canada, a Director on the YMCA (GTA) board of directors, Vice President of CANFAR (Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research), and is the founder of The Sandbox Project. In addition, Dr. Leitch hosts an annual golf tournament to raise funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Reza Moridi, Ph.D
Ontario MPP - Richmond Hill
An award-winning scientist, engineer, educator, business leader and community activist who has lived in Richmond Hill since 1991, Reza Moridi was first elected to the Ontario Legislative Assembly in 2007. Upon his election, Reza was appointed by Premier Dalton McGuinty as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. He was also appointed to the Cabinet Committee on Economy, Environment and Resources Policy. Prior to his election, Reza was the Vice-President and Chief Scientist of the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada. His 17 year career at this Institute provided him with a thorough understanding of the nuclear industry of Canada as well as the application of radiation and nuclear materials in a large variety of industry and health care sectors. Over the years, Reza has contributed significantly to the understanding of nuclear materials, radiation and radiation safety by the public, students, educators and workers in Canada. In recognition of his contributions, the Canadian Nuclear Society presented Reza with the Education and Communication Award in 2001.

In recognition of Reza’s outstanding contributions to the profession of Health Physics (radiation protection), the US Health Physics Society presented Reza with the Fellow Award in 2002. For his original contribution to physics and engineering, Reza was elected as Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics (1986) and Fellow of the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology (1992). Education, energy, innovation, environment, health and prosperity are key issues of interest to Reza.

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Genome Canada Reception - Induction of 2011 Members to the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame
Friday, November 18, 2011
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
8:30 am - 8:40 am
Opening Statement of the Day: International Year of Chemistry

Bernard West, Ph.D
President/Chair of the Board
Westworks Consulting/Ontario BioAuto Council
Bernard West holds a BSc and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Manchester where he also taught for 6 years. In 2008 he was President and CEO of CANSOLV Technologies of Montreal, and was previously President and COO, Canada Colors and Chemicals Limited. Prior to that, he had 30 years of experience in the chemical industry with Rhone-Poulenc, Imperial Oil [ Esso ] and Polymer Corporation.

Bernard has also been very active in industry associations and industry-government bodies; member of the Board of the Canada’s Chemical Producers Association (Chair 1995–1997), Chair of The Chemical Institute of Canada, Chair of the Society of Chemical Industry–Canadian Section, member of the Board of the National Association of Chemical Distributors (Washington, D.C.).

He is currently; Chair of the Board of Ontario BioAuto Council, Co-Chair of the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance, Co-Chair of the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network, and Chair of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technologies in the National Research Council of Canada. He is an associate member of the IUPAC Committee on Chemical Industry representing Canada and a member of the board of Life Sciences Ontario.

8:40 am - 10:10 am
Drivers of Innovation in the Chemical-Related Industry Sector
In its 2011 Brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE) states that “a highly skilled workforce is an essential component of the innovation pipeline. Canada has done well to improve its capacity to train the next generation of researchers and innovators. Clearly we are on our way to building the next generation of cutting-edge researchers that will fuel the innovation pipeline. However employment prospects for highly skilled workers are bleak. A large part of the problem is that businesses in Canada invest very little in research and development (R&D), so they have little need to hire highly skilled workers. Canadian graduates have trouble finding good jobs, especially R&D jobs in industry”.
This session will explore the factors that drive industrial research and development in several of Canada’s largest chemical-related trade sectors. What are the strengths and weaknesses of our national and provincial science, economic and other related policies and regulations that attract or hinder research investments in Canada? Does research have to be carried out in Canada, in all cases, in order for the country to benefit? Are our industry / academic partnerships and commercial centres working - and producing results?
Moderator

Avrim Lazar, Ph.D

CEO & President
Forest Products Association of Canada
Avrim Lazar is President & CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, since Jan. 1, 2002 and he is chair of the Advisory Committee on Paper and Wood Products (ACPWP) to the United Nations. Mr. Lazar has held senior policy positions in the government of Canada in the Ministries of Justice, Agriculture, Environment and Human Resource Development. During this period he was responsible for national policy in areas as diverse as climate change, biodiversity, child poverty, employment insurance and labor force training.

Mr. Lazar was Chair of the Committee of the Whole of the Second UN Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1995. He also chaired the National Business Association Roundtable and is the Past-President of the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA). Mr. Lazar taught high school in Vancouver and Zambia from 1969 to 1973. Over the years, Mr. Lazar has given many courses in the graduate studies programs at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Mr. Lazar holds degrees in science and education, including a B.Sc (1968) from McGill University, a B.Ed (1970) and a PhEd in Ed (1976) from the University of Ottawa.

Craig Crawford
President & CEO
Ontario BioAuto Council
Craig has served on numerous government and industry committees and non-profit boards that have advocated support for biobased industries in both Canada and the United States. He has acted as a consultant to the federal and Ontario governments on the bioeconomy and wrote a framework for developing biobased industries in Canada. He has been actively involved in identifying research and business opportunities in the new bioeconomy for more than a decade.

Craig is currently the President and CEO of the Ontario BioAuto Council. The Council’s vision is to make Ontario a global leader in the manufacture of automobile parts, construction materials and packaging from biological feedstocks. Its mission is to unite Ontario’s largest economic sectors (i.e. agriculture, forestry, oil, chemical, manufacturing and automotive), research community and government around viable strategies aimed at building a province-wide bioeconomy.

David Yake, Ph.D
Director - Corporate Process Innovation, Research & Business Development
DuPont Canada
David Yake has more than 31 years of global R&D, business, sales and marketing leadership with DuPont. He received his MS and Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University in 1980. He served six years with DuPont in Asia as regional business and marketing manager and director of the company’s Chemical Solutions business, leveraging broad based open innovation across the region to establish a sustainable growth platform. During the last five years David has lived in Canada and led the Research and Business Development Centre in Kingston, Ontario, and the DuPont Center for Process Innovation - a global corporate leveraged technology based business that specializes in developing and scaling-up technology solutions to commercial level. In Canada, the organization’s key role is to identify key growth opportunities and collaborate with global businesses to commercialize innovative solutions that meet market needs.

Dave Collyer
CEO & President
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
David Collyer was appointed President of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) on September 15th, 2008, after serving as President and Country Chair for Shell in Canada. In his current position, Mr. Collyer is responsible for leading CAPP’s activities in education, communications and policy / regulatory advocacy on behalf of its members representing over 90% of the upstream petroleum production in Canada.

During his 30 year career tenure with Shell, Mr. Collyer held a broad range of technical, business and senior leadership roles. These included positions in conventional oil and gas, oil sands, marketing and transportation and downstream commercial marketing, as well as cross-business roles such as strategy and planning, communications and sustainable development. He also participated in a two year Executive Exchange assignment with the federal government in Ottawa.

Mr. Collyer holds a petroleum engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Alberta, and belongs to a range of professional affiliations including the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA) as well as the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He has also been a member of a number of not-for-profit boards.

10:10 am - 10:30 am
Coffee Break
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
How do we build resilient communities in the face of climate change?
The science is complex, the picture is daunting, the impacts all too real. A global challenge, climate change is creating environmental, economic and social upheaval, particularly in coastal and northern communities.
What strategies are available to those communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change and its impact on their ecosystems? Are there governance and policy hurdles hindering the development and implementation of such strategies? Can and will local actions make a difference? As part of the conference’s “Exploring the True North Strong and Free: Reflections on Northern Science Policy” theme, this panel will engage in an inspiring conversation on community activism, sustainability and resilience in Canada’s northern communities.

Moderator
James Baxter
Founding Editor and Publisher
iPolitics
Over the past 25 years, Baxter has been an award-winning sportswriter, political journalist, bureau chief and editorial writer. A third-generation public affairs journalist, Baxter’s work covering politics, first in Ottawa and then in Alberta, earned him a prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2008, where his studies focused on the future of media businesses and the role of the press in democracy. Born and raised in Ottawa, he holds degrees in international relations, journalism, and media administration. He lives in Ottawa with his wife, Sarah, and three young children, coaches football and soccer, and is an exuberant skier.

Frances Abele
Academic Director of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation
Professor of the School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University
Dr. Abele has written widely on Canadian public policy and the northern political economy, publishing over 80 books, articles, book chapters and technical reports. With a northern research career stretching back thirty years, she is the author of an oft-consulted study of employment training in the Northwest Territories (Abele 1989) and numerous articles and technical reports on northern economic and political issues. She is an expert on federal northern policy, publishing regularly on this theme, and on the implications for the federation of governance innovations pursuant to the modern treaties. Abele is co-author and co-editor of the first comprehensive examination of northern development policy to include a balanced complement of authors from northern and southern Canada (Abele, Courchene, St-Hilaire and Seidle, 2009). As deputy director of research for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in the 1990s, Abele was responsible for the Commission's research on the North, and portions of the work on governance and economy. She has worked in partnership with northern organizations in Canada and abroad, ranging from the North-West Academy of Public Administration, Murmansk, Russia to community governments in Canada, where she currently collaborates with the Hamlet of Igloolik and community partners in Deline.

Gordon McBean
Professor, Joint Appointment with Geography and Political Science
& Research Chair at the Institute of Catastrophic Loss Reduction, University of Western Ontario
Professor, Joint Appointment with Geography and Political Science
Dr. Gordon McBean received his B.Sc. in Physics and Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of British Columbia and a M.Sc. in Meteorology from McGill University. He was a scientist in Environment Canada from 1970 to 1988 when he was appointed Professor and Chair of the Atmospheric Science Program at the University of British Columbia. In 1992, he was appointed Head, Department of Oceanography. From 1994 to 2000, he was Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for the Meteorological Service of Environment Canada. He was appointed to his present position in July 2000. Dr. McBean's research interests are in atmospheric and climate sciences, ranging in scope from the natural sciences of the phenomena to the policies of governments and responses of people to them. He is undertaking new research on the changing climate and weather systems in the Arctic, and investigating the role of science in changing government policies. An area of interest is the changing occurrence of extreme weather events with climate change, their influence on public systems and strategies for adaptation. In addition to his activities at UWO, Dr. McBean is active nationally and internationally. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences and a member of the scientific committee for the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska, the Board of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Northern S&T Committee, and the Canadian Committee for the International Polar Year. He was a lead author for the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Earlier in his career he participated in the first Polar Experiment planning meeting and as chair of the World Climate Research Programme helped create the Arctic Climate System Study (ACSYS). He has received the Patterson Medal for distinguish contributions to meteorology by a Canadian and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and the American Meteorological Society.

Ian Mauro
Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Environmental Change
Mount Allison University
Ian Mauro is a Canada Research Chair in "human dimensions of environmental change" at Mount Allison University, in New Brunswick. He is both a researcher and filmmaker, with a PhD in environmental science, and his work focuses on hunter, farmer and fisher knowledge regarding environmental change, specifically issues related to food security and global warming. As part of his doctorate, he co-directed "Seeds of Change" (www.seedsofchangefilm.org), a highly controversial film that was banned from being released by the University of Manitoba, and created one of the largest academic freedom battles in Canada. For his postdoctorate, Mauro teamed up with Zacharias Kunuk and Igloolik Isuma Productions to develop "Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change", the world's first Inuktitut language film on the topic. The film is available for free on our website (www.isuma.tv/ikcc). This upcoming year, Mauro will be collaborating with Sheila Watt-Cloutier - acclaimed Inuk climate change advocate and Nobel Prize nominee - who will be working on her forthcoming book as a Visiting Scholar at Mount Allison. Ian can be contacted through email at imauro@mta.ca.

Jamal Shirley
Manager, Research Design and Policy Development
Iqaluit Research Centre, Nunavut Research Institute
Jamal Shirley is Manager of Research Design at the Nunavut Research Institute in Iqaluit. He grew up in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, and has lived in Iqlauit since 1997. An advisor to researchers working in the social, natural and biological disciplines in Nunavut, Jamal contributes to research design, data collection, analysis, and public outreach for a wide range of studies. He has served on the advisory board for the Arctic Storm Studies Project, and as a member of Canada’s National Committee for International Polar Year. As a member of the Nunavut Government’s Sustainable Development Advisory Group Jamal contributes to the development of policy and strategies relating to resource development, climate change adaptation, land use planning, and wildlife management in Nunavut. Jamal also works directly with Nunavut community groups to develop research proposals and identify funding and partnerships.

What do some of the fastest growing S&T Firms in Canada think about Canada's Innovation Policy?
The policy community has no shortage of indicators and creative ideas to support more innovative economies and high quality services to and opportunities for Canadians. The challenge, rather, is to determine the right mix of indicators to monitor for a desired outcome in a particular sector, and the right approach to policy development and implementation for the same sector outcomes. This panel will set out to identify the most influential policies and gaps in policy for fast-growing S&T firms in Canada. The discussion would explore issues of incentives, trade, HQP, innovation strategy and partnerships as they are influenced by policy and implemented through management practice. The panelists will be invited to explore one or two of these issues to a greater depth that speaks to specific policy and management linkages.
The panelists represent some of the fastest growing S&T companies in Canada, moderated by Dr. Charles Davis, Research Chair in Media Management and Entrepreneurship at Ryerson University, and of the Innovation Systems Research Network.

Moderator
Charles Davis
Professor
Ryerson Unversity's School of Radio and Television Arts
Charles Davis is a professor in Ryerson Unversity's School of Radio and Television Arts (Faculty of Communication and Design) and is cross-appointed with the Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department in the Ted Rogers School of Management. He currently teaches and conducts research on management and policy in industries that produce experience goods - with special interest in innovation and new product development in the software and content layers of mediated creative industries. He is currently involved in research projects on media product innovation, media labour, media industry clusters, audience responses to media offerings, corporate governance of innovation, and digital entrepreneurship. His recent graduate and undergraduate teaching includes courses in media management, new product development, political economy of media industries, audience analysis, innovation in experience-producing industries, cultural economy, and media entrepreneurship. He teaches in Ryerson's MA in Media Production program, in the Ryerson/York MA/PhD program in Communication and Culture, and in Ryerson's MBA/MSc in Management of Technology and Innovation program.

David Arthurs
President
Hickling Arthurs Low
Dr. David Arthurs is the President of Hickling Arthurs Low (HAL). David specializes in economic analysis, policy development, and strategic planning for public sector science and technology organizations. David has a BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, an MBA from the University of Ottawa, and a PhD from the School of Business at Queen's University

Curtis VanWalleghem, MBA, BEng, PMP
Chief Executive Officer
Hydrostor Inc
Mr. VanWalleghem currently leads energy storage start-up Hydrostor Inc. Curtis has spent the last 10 years helping companies set and execute on their strategy. Prior to Hydrostor, he was Sr. Manger in Deloitte's Corporate Strategy Consulting Practice where he advised some of the top energy companies in Canada and around the globe. He has also held positions at Bruce Power, Celestica Inc, and CIBC.

Nicolas Morgan
Vice-President, Business Development and Marketing
Morgan Solar
Nicolas Morgan is a co-founder of Morgan Solar, and leads the company’s Business Development and Marketing efforts. He holds a Bachelor of Social Science in Anthropology and a post-graduate degree in Applied Information Technology. Before coming to Morgan Solar at the start of 2008, Nicolas spent two years in Spain as a senior manager for FON Technologies, a Web 2.0 start-up. At FON, Nicolas coordinated the activities of business development teams in Europe, North America and Asia. Prior to this, Nicolas worked at Ernst & Young as a risk management and business process advisor to the Ontario electricity sector.

Glen Martin
President and COO
Pod Generating Group
Glen has over 20 years experience in early-phase project development in space and high technology sectors. Most recently he served as co-founder and Senior Adviser in Business Development at ProtoStar Limited, a satellite operator focused on direct-to-home satellite television services in Asia. Prior to co-founding Pod Generating Group, Glen worked with NASA, Motorola, Hughes and Raytheon on advanced space systems and international business development. He previously worked for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company, Boeing Canada and Rolls-Royce Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Aerospace Engineering from Ryerson University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Reaching out with Big Science
The public often learns of developments in science in the media distilled from press offices at peer-reviewed journals or universities. In a few cases, research institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and CERN have also developed a reputation for being seen as authoritative sources of science news and information for the public. In recent years, the Canadian research landscape has grown to feature a number of ‘big science’ facilities. These institutions, such as TRIUMF, Ocean Networks Canada, the Canadian Light Source, SNOLab and the Perimeter Institute, conduct research at the forefront of science – often at the convergence of science disciplines and with a scope and scale that is larger than traditional research institutions in government or the academy. In addition to research, all of these laboratories also engage in a number of forms of public engagement and outreach, ranging from media relations to classroom education. In a media landscape where science reporting is becoming increasingly fractured, what role do Canada’s big science facilities have in being sources of science news, information and education?

Moderator
Matthew Dalzell
Communications Coordinator
Canadian Light
Matthew Dalzell is the Communications Coordinator and Staff Writer at the Canadian Light Source, Canada’s national synchrotron facility in Saskatoon. His role includes media relations, strategic communications and telling stories about the science done at the CLS as an embedded science writer. One of the items on his ‘bucket list’ was fulfilled soon after starting at the CLS in 2004: appearing on CBC radio’s Quirks and Quarks. Matt earned a M.Sc. in Geology, specializing in palaeontology, as well as bachelor degrees in Science and Education, all from the University of Saskatchewan. He taught high school in Saskatoon and rural Saskatchewan, and spent several years on full-time service with the Royal Canadian Navy as a reserve staff officer and instructor. Matt is also chair of lightsources.org, an international communications collaboration of synchrotrons and other high-energy light source facilities.

John Matlock
Director, External Relations & Public Affairs
Perimeter Institute
John Matlock is the Director of External Relations and Public Affairs, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical physics. John and his team are responsible for a wide range of Perimeter Institute's strategic communications and relationships. Since 2004, John has led a wide range of activities, including special events with Stephen Hawking, the award winning "Quantum Tamers" documentary (viewable in sixty countries), and the successful "Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future" festival, reaching over one million on-site, online and via television. Prior to joining Perimeter, John was an award winning news producer in both the CTV and CBC news organizations. In transferring his skills to science communications, he has guided others in a successful "rule of three" - tied to content, conversation and coordination.

Penny Park
Executive Director
Science Media Centre of Canada
Penny Park is the Executive Director of the Science Media Centre of Canada, with extensive hands-on experience in radio and television science journalism. From 1980 to 1995, she worked as a producer and senior producer with Quirks and Quarks, the award-winning weekly science program on CBC radio. Since 1995, Penny has been with the Discovery Channel, where she helped develop the show now called Daily Planet. Originally from Montreal, she first earned a BA from the University of New Brunswick, studying linguistics, followed by a B.Sc (honours) in biology from the University of Guelph, graduating there in 1980.

Tim Meyer, Ph.D
Head of Strategic Planning & Communications
TRIUMF
Dr. Timothy I. Meyer is Head of Strategic Planning and Communications at TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. He coordinates interactions with elected officials, stakeholders, the general public, and the media. Tim oversaw preparation and successful approval of the laboratory’s five-year plan 2010-2015 and played a role in Canada’s national discussions about producing medical isotopes using accelerators. He came to TRIUMF in late 2007 from the U.S. National Academies in Washington, D.C., where he served as an expert in science and public policy as a senior program officer at the Board on Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Meyer joined the U.S. National Academies after earning his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from Stanford University. Tim has been recognized for excellence in public-policy analysis and communication strategies. In 2010, he chaired a strategic communications review of the U.S. DOE’s premier plasma and fusion science laboratory managed by Princeton University. When not working, Tim reads pulp fiction on his Kindle, plays volleyball, and follows his gourmet-chef wife around the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Jay Ingram
Science Broadcaster and Writer
Jay Ingram was the host of Discovery Channel Canada’s Daily Planet from the first episode in January, 1995 to June, 2011. Daily Planet is the only hour-long, prime-time daily science show in the world. Prior to joining Discovery, Jay hosted CBC radio’s national science show, Quirks and Quarks, from 1979 to 1992. During that time he won two ACTRA awards, one for best host, and several Canadian Science Writers’ awards. He wrote and hosted two CBC radio documentary series and short radio and television science stories for a variety of programs. He was a contributing editor to Owl magazine for ten years, and wrote a weekly science column in the Toronto Star for twelve. Jay has also written eleven books - which have been translated into twelve languages - and is working on more.

Jay has received the Sandford Fleming medal from the Royal Canadian Institute for his efforts to popularize science, the Royal Society’s McNeil medal for the Public Awareness of Science and the Michael Smith award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Alberta, has received five honorary doctorates and is a member of the Order of Canada.

12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Lunch
12:45 pm - 12:55 pm
Luncheon Address - PIPSC

Gary Corbett
President
Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
Gary Corbett brings over 30 years of experience in the public and private sectors to his role as President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC). Mr. Corbett represents 60,000 members including more than 23,000 scientists, researchers and regulators who work in government departments, agencies and laboratories.

A former employee of Natural Resources Canada, Gary worked as a scientist conducting operational research in the coal mining industry in Cape Breton. Relocating his family to Ottawa following the close of the coal industry in 1998, he focused his attention on policy development as it pertains to the role of public science and evidence-based decision-making.

As National Vice-President and then President of the Institute, Gary Corbett has ensured that PIPSC is actively engaged in the search for solutions to the challenges facing Canadian science. He initiated and chaired successful Science Policy Symposiums in 2007 and 2010. Mr. Corbett is also strongly committed to advocating on behalf of Canada's public science and its public scientists.
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Keynote Luncheon Address
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Examining the Prospects of a Canadian Science Policy Centre

The original agenda was published in the CSPC website, follow it here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/canadian-science-policy-conference

The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series — A Post-event Report

praskrishna — 2011-11-17T10:25:56Z

The Indian Journal of Law and Technology (IJLT) and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), organised the 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series on the 21st and 22nd of May 2011 at the National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore. The main theme for this year was Emerging Issues in Privacy Law: Law, Policy and Practice.

Speakers and Topics

Spread over two days, the National Law School hosted six speakers who held forth on the different aspects of privacy law, speaking from perspectives that were grounded in theory and actual practice and some that were India-centric while others applied equally to any jurisdiction.

Vivek Durai, Partner, Atman Law Partners, addressed the gathering and gave the general introduction to the need for a discussion relating to privacy and the law. He spoke of technology and certain current events, including technological advances, have made privacy an issue with which serious engagement of the law has become imperative.

Usha Ramanathan, an independent law researcher, spoke of the Unique Identity Project (Aadhar) launched by the Government of India and its implications on the privacy and data relating to the citizens. Ms. Ramanathan was critical of the Government’s plans on the basis that an ill-planned and executed project that sought to collect data such as this could provide easy fodder for data-mining. The latest 2011 rules that outline the relationship between the citizen and the state and the extent of privacy the citizen has in respect of this relationship.

Hamish Fraser, a leading Australian practitioner in the field of technology law, addressed the gathering via video conference and spoke about cloud computing and privacy of parties using such facilities. He highlighted how technology such as cloud computing where the storage of data is almost fully virtual, with only the weakest of links to any physical storage space, were being increasingly widely used. He helped provide a practitioners perspective to the lecture as well by discussing how companies and individuals seeking to utilise cloud computing facilities, particularly for business purposes, must check for some essential legal provisions that would allow them to retain control over their data and prevent their data from being misappropriated by the provider of the virtual storage space in the cloud. He briefly also discussed the draft Australian privacy legislation.

Sean Blagsvedt, founder of Baba Jobs, discussed the interplay between privacy and transparency and argued convincingly that under certain circumstances, transparency holds greater value than blind protection of privacy. He spoke of his experience in setting up Baba Jobs that seeks to act as a job portal-cum-social networking site for persons providing essential services such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, house painters, etc. Rather than seeking to strictly protect the details and identity of these persons, Blagsvedt found that one of the most important factors for future employers while considering hiring such service personnel were the details of their previous assignments and testimonials from previous employers – the transparency that Baba Jobs offered became its USP. Blagsvedt talked of how a misplaced over-emphasis on privacy could often lead to greater detriments than benefits and prevent trust due to a lack of information. He concluded by predicting that as people increasingly shifted social and commercial transactions to the online world, the demands for privacy online would soon be offset by demands for greater transparency.

Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Professor of Law at the Azim Premji University, Bangalore delivered a lecture on the state and privacy in India illustrating the development of the law on the matter. He also discussed about the balance that needs to be struck between the individual’s requirement for privacy and the state’s desire for secrecy. He also spoke about two manners in which to conceptualise privacy — recognising privacy as an inherent right that may be at times restricted to a certain extent, vis-a-vis seeing privacy as a right that the state grants to a citizen.

Abhayraj Naik, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, Sonepat, gave a lecture on informational privacy in comparative contexts. The discussion centred on information surveillance in different jurisdictions and how the values attached to the attribution of information reflects in the laws relating to privacy in those different jurisdictions. His approach included mathematical modelling of information attribution and provided an interdisciplinary approach.

Participation

The lecture series saw registration from over 50 people, including students from law schools all over the country, practitioners, and even educators. Since the lectures were streamed live online, and this was only the second event in NLS to use this facility apart from the Annual Convocation, many more people listened to the lectures online. The lectures were available online for a period of one week after the conclusion of the lecture series.

IJLT-CIS Lecture Series 2011 Registration

The following people participated in the event:

Adithya Banavar, Akanksha Arora, Anand VJ, Aniket Singhania, Ankit Verma, Anupama Kumar, Aparna Gokhale, Arjun Krishnamoorthy, Arjun Sharma, Arun Menon, Asif Ayaz, B. N. Vivek, Batool, Chirag Tanna, Deepakar Livingston.P., Deepthi R, Dheer Bhatnagar, Dinesh Subramany, Esha Goel, Gopalakrishnan R., J Suresh, Jamshed Ansari, Kanti Jadia, Khadeeja Nadeem, Khumtiya Debbarma, Mani Bhushan, Manish, Nayan Jain, Neha Baglani, Panduranga Acharya, Partha Chakravarty, Parul Bali, Prashanth Ramdas, Prateek Rath, Preyanka Sapru, Prianca Ravichander, Priytosh Singh, Purushotham.G, Ralph A, Ruhi Chanda, S. Badrinath, S. Bhushan, S. K. Mohanty, Sahana Manjesh, Sanjana Chappalli, Santosh Dindima, Shalini Iyengar, Shalini S, Sibani Saxena, Spoorthy M. S., Tarang Shashishekar, Tarun Kovvali, Tejaswini Rajkumar, Vaishali Kant, and Y. Shiva Santosh Kumar.

See the Letter of Agreement [PDF, 1 MB]

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/ijlt-cis-lecture-series-report

Netizen Report: Transparency Edition

praskrishna — 2011-11-09T04:31:48Z

Global Voices Online has carried a feature story, "Netizen Report: Transparency Edition". We at CIS had filed an RTI application about website blocking. This is reflected in this article by Rebecca MacKinnon which was posted online on 7 November 2011.

Here at Global Voices Advocacy we believe that transparency by governments and companies about how and when censorship and surveillance takes place is a base-line requirement if the Internet is ever to be governed in a manner that is compatible with free expression, dissent, and citizens' right to organize and assemble. Thus we applaud Google's latest Transparency Report - the company's fourth such report detailing government requests for user data and content removal, as well as the traffic flows (or lack thereof) to Google webistes across the world since July 2009. The new data for January-June 2011 contains more detail than in the past, including data on how Google responded to the requests and whether they were honored. The data comes with a list of caveats including that automated content removal is not logged and that some data cannot be released due to local law. Nonetheless, we hope that Google's data will provide an interesting snap shot of the state of Internet affairs and the data could be used to hold governments accountable to their censorship activities. We believe that if all Internet companies disclosed similar data, the world would be further on its way to being a better place. Many articles have been written analyzing the data. A few of them include:

TechPresident: Google Data Shows Government Internet Surveillance Far Outstrips Wiretap Requests
WIRED: U.S. Requests for Google User Data Spike 29 Percent in Six Months
Huffington Post:The 13 Countries That Request The Most User Data From Google
CNet: Google: Governments seek more about you than ever

Adding to the publicly available data about censorship around the world, the Open Net Initiative has released its research data on global Internet filtering, covering seventy-four countries.

Thuggery: Read the latest news on GVA about bloggers jailed in Egypt, Syria, and Kuwait and spread the word.

Surveillance: As GVA and others have recently reported, 13 Internet filtering devices produced by the California-based company Blue Coat have made their way to Syria. According to the Wall Street Journal, Blue Coat executives say that the company will not sell the devices to countries that are under embargo by the United States, and that the devices found in Syria had been sold to a dealer who claimed they were destined for Iraq.

The Wall Street Journal has had several other items related to the role of companies in global surveillance, including a report on how China's Huawei has been peddling its mobile phone tracking and censoring equipment to Iran.

In India, Research in Motion has set up a facility in Mumbai to help the Indian government carry out lawful surveillance of its BlackBerry services including the messenger chat service, but the WSJ reports that India still has no method to intercept and decode BlackBerry enterprise email.

In Russia, bloggers' influence has apparently made the Kremlin nervous. Reporters Without Borders has condemned plans by the Russian government to deploy new software to track “extremist” content on the web, highlighting concerns about an over-broad definition of “extremist,” and the arbitrary and disproportionate approach to punishment and sanctions against websites. For more on the Russian Internet be sure to follow Global Voices' Runet Echo Project.

Moving on the United States, The Guardian has a fascinating report on the super-secret Intelligence Support Systems World Americas conference held recently in Washington DC, at which surveillance professionals shared the latest surveillance technologies and innovations that they don't want you to know about. Hacktivist and friend of GVA Jacob Appelbaum managed to get in, but was thrown out.

On a more positive note in the United States, the Washington Post reports that since 2009 many Internet companies have been more assertive about challenging “national security letters” from the FBI requesting information about users.

The Guardian reports that Civil liberties and privacy groups in the United Kingdom have raised concerns about the deployment by the London Metropolitan Police of a "covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area."

Techdirt reports on the European Union's desire to have a “black box' built in to operating systems that would store a record of all of the computer's internet usage. The EU argues that this ability would be useful in cracking down on child pornography. The system that the EU is looking at as a possible candidate for role of ‘black box' is called LogBox. The developer of LogBox claims that the device is for preserving the freedoms and privacy of internet users, although Techdirt points out the fact that this device does little to ‘protect' the privacy of online users, it in fact, would make anonymous actions on the internet much more difficult and would provide governments and law enforcement a huge set of data on every internet user.

Censorship: The chief executives of China's 39 top Internet, telecom, and computer companies have agreed to “strengthen self-control, self-restraint and strict self-discipline” in order to “contain the tendency of spreading online rumours, pornography, fraud and other illegal, harmful information on the internet.” The move comes amidst a broader crackdown on the Internet and social media.

In India, the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society submitted a right to information request to the government's Department of Information Technology, asking for more information about website blocking. Based on DIT's response the Centre observes that “The data provided by the government seemingly conflicts with the data released by the likes of Google." Their conclusion: "Either the DIT is not providing us all the relevant information on blocking, or is not following the law."

Courts in Belgium and Finland have ordered ISPs to block the Pirate Bay.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has recently proposed a bill aimed at protecting intellectual property online that some critics describe as the beginning of a "Great Firewall of America". The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have detailed the bill's problems, including lack of due process, near certainty of over-blocking and abuse, imposition of excessive liability on Internet intermediaries, global legitimization of DNS censorship and potential fragmentation of the Internet, among other things. It is considered even worse than its evil fraternal twin in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act which is also opposed by many tech companies and non-profit groups. Despite such opposition, the bill draws relatively broad support from lawmakers.

Net Neutrality: South African technology journalist Jan Vermeulen ran the M-Lab's Glasnost Test on South African ISP's to see whether their stated bandwith shaping policies match up with reality.

The growth of bandwidth intensive internet applications in South Korea has made Net Neutrality an important issue there. South Korean ISP's are reporting that it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain neutral practices with content. The three largest telecommunications companies in Korea are worried by the rise of Smart TV's, which use Internet connections as opposed to traditional cable or satellite links to provide content. The ISP's want to charge companies varying amounts depending on the type and amount of content sent.

Internet Governance: ICANN held its 42nd public meeting in Dakar, Senegal late last month. Wendy Seltzer reported here on GVA why the seemingly arcane debates about domain name registrar accreditation is important. Konstantinos Komaitis, an active member of ICANN's Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (Global Voices is also a member), describes the struggle that is taking place took place between governments and other ICANN stakeholders over whether some stakeholders are more equal than others within ICANN's multi-stakeholder governance model. Kieren McCarthy at dotNext also has an in-depth report and analysis on the clash between governments and registrars over law enforcement regarding domain names. Over at the Internet Governance Project Milton Mueller takes an in-depth look at the politics surrounding the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group and related constituencies, and the fight for civil society representation at ICANN.

India has published a formal proposal to put the UN in charge of overseeing Internet governance. For different analyses by three Internet governance wonks see Kieren McCarthy, Milton Mueller, and Jeremy Malcolm.

The International Telecommunications Union has approved a new protocol for relaying biometric information. The protocol is intended to enable doctors to communicate data about patients safely and is geared towards developing countries where the access to medical care in rural areas is poor and communication between clinics and doctors would provide better patient care. You can read the full press release here.

Netizen Power: Lee Yoo Eun at Global Voices reports that the October 26th Seoul mayoral election was swayed by the use of twitter. Read the full article here.

African entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse gave a speech at the Tech 4 Africa conference highlighting what the rise of Internet Communication Technologies has done for Africa. A synopsis of his talk can be found on the Tech4Africa.

Sovereigns of Cyberspace: Facebook has introduced a new “guardian angel” feature to help users restore locked accounts.

The 13th Austrian Big Brother Awards were held on October 25th in Vienna. “Winners” included the CEO of Telekom Austria, the Ministers of Interior and Justice, and the head of the anti-terror police unit. Mark Zuckerberg received the “lifelong menace” award and a “Defender of Liberty” award went to the creators of the “Europe versus Facebook” campaign.

The Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference was held in San Francisco in late October (see GVA's report, Jillian York's report, and The Economist's) and released the Silicon Valley Standard, a set of 15 principles that technology companies should follow in order to protect human rights.

China's Weibo plans to launch an English version in partnership with Flipboard and Instagram. Will they agree to follow the Silicon Valley Standard?

Security Alert: The security researcher Barnaby Jack has found it possible to conduct a blind attack on insulin pumps. While there have been no reports of anyone being harmed by such an attack, this highlights how far behind security technologies are when it comes to wireless devices that are embedded in critical infrastructure and medicine.

Publications: Digital Cameras Reduce Electoral Corruption by Michael Callen and James Long.

Events: Check out this handy calendar of Internet-related events around the world, courtesy of Internews!

Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace, by the OpenNet Initiative, to be officially released in December. Part I of the book (including a chapter by yours truly) can be read online or downloaded here.

Note: This report was compiled with considerable help from Ted Eby and Weiping Li.

Read the original article here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/netizen-report

Material Cyborgs; Asserted Boundaries: Formulating the Cyborg as a Translator

nishant — 2015-10-25T05:57:08Z

In this peer reviewed article, Nishant Shah explores the possibility of formulating the cyborg as an author or translator who is able to navigate between the different binaries of ‘meat–machine’, ‘digital–physical’, and ‘body–self’, using the abilities and the capabilities learnt in one system in an efficient and effective understanding of the other. The article was published in the European Journal of English Studies, Volume 12, Issue 2, 2008. [1]

Download the paper here.

Read the original paper published by Taylor & Francis here.

I, the cyborg

The cyborg, a combination of hardware, software and wetware, stands as one of the most visible figures of the cybernetic age. A portmanteau of two words: cybernetic and organism, the term cyborg refers to a biological being with a kinetic state that can be transferred with ease from one environment to another, able to adapt to changing environments through technological augmentation. The first living Cyborg to find its way into the human family tree was a rat. Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline – two astrophysicists, in 1960, thought of a ‘hybrid-organism’ system (a rat with an osmotic pump) that provided biological stability to an organism in response to its constantly changing environment. In their paper in Astronautics they wrote:

For the exogenously extended organizational complex ... we propose the term ‘cyborg’. The Cyborg deliberately incorporates exogenous components extending the self-regulating control function of the organism in order to adapt it to new environments. (Clynes and Kline, 1960: 1)

Notwithstanding this, the cyborg is most commonly thought of in a futuristic vein, escaping the confines of the physical body and recreated through various digital forms like databases, networks and archives.

With the emergence of the WorldWide Web, the cyborg has strategically evolved in our imaginations as a metaphor of our times.We are already in the age where the ‘first living cyborg’ (Warwick, 2000: 15) has announced his arrival. In his autobiography I, Cyborg, Stephen Warwick, a professor of cybernetics and robotics, unveils how he became the first human cyborg through a series of path-breaking experiments. He begins his narrative by saying, ‘I was born human. But this was an accident of fate – a condition of time and place. I believe it’s something we have the power to change’ (Warwick, 2000: 5). Cybercultures theorist David Bell, on the other hand, especially with the proliferation of new digital technologies, in his preface to The Cybercultures Reader, locates the cyborg in ‘the crucial mechanics of urban survival’ (Bell, 2000: xxi) that produce everyday cyborgs through digital transactions and technologically augmented practices. Sherry Turkle, looking at the experiments in genetic engineering and reproductive practices, traces the processes of ‘cyborgification’ in the production of ‘techno-tots’ (Turkle, 1992: 154) – a new generation of designer babies who have been augmented by technology to have the perfect genetic composition.

In this paper, I seek to explore the possibility of formulating the cyborg as an author or translator, who is able to navigate between the different binaries of ‘meat– machine’, ‘digital–physical’, ‘body–self’, using the abilities and the capabilities learnt in one system in an efficient and effective understanding of the other. What does the cyborg as a translator add to our understanding of the processes of translation? If we were to examine the formation of a cyborg identity embedded in the digital circuits of the World Wide Web, what is the text of translation? What are the translated objects? Who performs these translations? Is the user the omnipotent translator who brings to this site, her special knowledge of distinct systems to make meaning? When inflected by technology, does the process of translation, performed by the cyborg, enter into realms of incomprehensibility which get translated as illegality? How does the figure of the translating cyborg enable an analysis of the cyborg as materially bound and geographically contained, rather than the earlier ideas of the cyborg as residing in a state of ‘universal placelessness’ (Sorkin, 1992: 217)?

Configuring the cyborg as a translator

The cyborg, as fashioned by science fiction narratives, cinema and cartoons, conjures images of human–machine hybrids and the physical merging of flesh and electronic circuitry. Different representations of the cyborg abound in science fiction narratives in print, film, animation and games, from reengineered human bodies showcasing fin de millennia nostalgia for large robotic machines of power and strength to sleek and suave microchip-implanted silicon-integrated human beings who work in their artificially mutated enhancements. The cyborg has covered a wide imaginative range from looking at a happy human–machine synthesis to a degenerate human body made grotesque by machinistic implants to a rise of a potent cyborg community that threatens to overcome the human world of biological certainty and mortality. Some of the most famous instances of cyborgs in popular narratives illustrate this wide spectrum; from Maria the robot in Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) to Lara Croft in the The Tomb Raider series (Toby Gard, 1996); from Case in William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) to Mr Anderson a.k.a. Neo in The Matrix Trilogy (The Wachowski Brothers, 1999–2003); from Johnny Quest (Hannah-Barbara Cartoons, 1996–7) in the eponymous animated series to avatars created on social networking sites and MMORPGs [2] like Second Life.

However, with the popularization and democratization of new digital technologies of information and communication (ICTs), we see a certain evolutionary production of the cyborg as an increasing number of people interact with digital spaces and sites and adopt mobile gadgets of computation and information dissemination as an extension of their bodies. The cyborg, as imagined within the digital realms of cyberspace, is imagined differently from the more hyper-real, hypervisible constructs within the fictional narratives.

Arjun Appadurai (1996), in his formulation of post-electronic modernity, explores how electronic media offer new everyday resources and disciplines for the imagination of the self and the world. He argues that the individual body and its ownership are wedded to the logic of capitalism and the notion of ownership that characterized most of the twentieth century. Appadurai suggests that the body becomes a site of critical inquiry and contestation because a capitalist state grants the individual the rights to his/her body and the choice to fashion that body through consumption patterns. When talking of Technoscapes [3], Appadurai posits the idea of a technologically enhanced sphere of activities and identity formation that defy the processes of capitalism and produce new instabilities in the creation of subjectivities.

Cyberspace has become such a site where the individual body, marked in its being (genetically, biologically, socially and culturally) and circumscribed by the (physical, reluctant and cumbersome) space, can free itself from the relentless materiality of a capitalist set of reference points, to create a truly global self and a universally accessible space. Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, in their comprehensive history of the origins of the web, mention how in 1968 Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider and Robert Taylor, who were research directors of the United States of America’s Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and who also set in place the first online community (ARPANET), prophesied that online interactive communities ‘will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location but of common interest’ (Hafner and Mathew, 1996: 44). This prophesy was realised by the end of the twentieth century, as scholars announce the construction of the ‘discontinuous, global agoras’ (Mitchell, 1996: 27) and the arrival of the new commons shaped within the technoscapes of the internet. The imagination of the internet as the new public sphere of communication, interaction and collaboration also brought into focus the skills that a cyborg requires in order to materially exist on the intersections of various domains. Donna Haraway, in her seminal essay ‘A cyborg manifesto’ (1991), posited one of the most influential imaginations of the cyborg as residing in the ‘optical illusion between social reality and science fiction’ (Haraway, 1991: 151) Haraway’s cyborg hints at the possibility of imagining the cyborg as a translator:

The cyborg is resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversity. It is oppositional, utopian and completely without innocence. No longer structured by the polarity of public and private, the cyborg defines a technological polis based partly on a revolution of social relations in the oikos, the household.
(Haraway, 1991: xxii)

This cyborg, in the blurring of the public and the private, in the diffusion of the physical and the virtual, and in the yoking together of economic practices and social identities, becomes an agential subjectivity that translates one system into another, using the referents of meaning making and processes of knowledge production in one system for deciphering and navigating through the other system. Haraway’s cyborg is a willing and conscious extension; an illustration of what Judith Butler, in Bodies That Matter (1993) calls the ‘performative’, thus infusing the figure of the cyborg with the ability to negotiate with its immediate environment and shape it through the material practices it engages with. The cyborg as a translator, thus has an interesting role as a mediator between the two systems. The cyborg no longer makes the distinction between an original and a translated text – the two systems occupy equal and often contesting zones of reality and authenticity for the cyborg.

Sandy Stone, in her anthropological study on technosociality – the technologised social order that emerges with ICTs and the social order of the technologised communities – emphasizes this very critical role of the cyborg:

In technosociality, the social world of virtual culture, technics is nature. When exploration, rationalisation, remaking, and control mean the same thing, then nature, technics, and the structure of meaning have become indistinguishable. The technosocial subject is able successfully to navigate through this treacherous new world. S/he is constituted as part of the evolution of communication and technology and of the human organism, in a time in which technology and organism are collapsing, imploding, into each other.
(Stone, 1991: 81)

Stone’s idea of the cyborg as collapsing the binary between the organism and technology is indicative of how the cyborg, in its processes of translation, reproduces both the worlds, and in fact allows for a dual process of translation between the two so that systems implode to form a complex set of references that determine the meanings of the text. This dual process of translation produces a critical episteme to revisit the notion of translation where the skills of the translator and the figure of the translator are generally looked upon as residing in a nuanced and close reading of the original text and the interpretative techniques by which it is reproduced in the ‘new’ or translated text, making sure that the original gets suffused with the meaning and ironies of the other language. Stone also adds to Haraway’s conception of the cyborg as she recognizes another distinction that the cyborg as a translator blurs in its being – the distinction between technique and the structure of meaning.

The cyborg as a translator, because it produces its identities through the same techniques that it produces the translated texts, internalizes the very techniques of translation. However, this process of internalization, instead of making the techniques invisible, foregrounds them as essential to the comprehension and understanding of the meanings which have been produced in this dual process of translation. The next section of this paper does a close reading of an instance of particular cyberspatial form – the social networking systems – to illustrate the dual processes of translation and the textuality of the texts involved.

Lost in translation

Both Haraway and Stone imagine the cyborg in a process of self-authorship through the interaction with the digital technologies. However, both of them only deal with the conceptual category of the cyborg and do not really examine the specific practices that this cyborg produces. Within cyberspaces, social networking systems, blogs, MMORPGs, multiple user dungeons (MUD), discussion boards, media sharing platforms, p2p networks [4], etc., all create different conditions within which the physical users, through their digital avatars, interact with each other and form complex models of social networking and personal narratives. In this section I look at the notion of this self-authoring cyborg, embedded in the social networking system of ‘Orkut’, to illustrate and examine the discussions in the preceding section.

Orkut, a Google project, is one of the most thriving social networking systems that allows people to reacquaint themselves with people they have known in the past – friends, colleagues, acquaintances, family – who might be distributed across geography and lifestyles. Orkut also enables people with similar interests to form communities and interact, network and form new relationships with strangers in an unprecedented fashion. Orkut follows the AmWay [5] Economic model for its social networking, whereby an individual person inherits the friends of friends, thus often connecting themselves down more than 50 levels of friendship. Such a connection, such possibilities of networking, and the overall feeling of belonging to a dynamic, ever-growing network, gives the users a heady rush of emotions, using Orkut for various personal and professional reasons – from dating to holding meetings, from public performances to professional networking.

Most users within Orkut find themselves members of communities which are created around themes, hobbies, issues, ideas, movies, heroes, idols, books, religions, universities and schools, organizations, institutions, subjects, disciplines and music. One of the pre-requisites for using the various services on Orkut to their full potential is the creation of a profile. The profile, unlike a personal ad, is a concentrated effort at translating the ‘physical’ self of the person into ‘digital’ avatars that refer to the ‘original’ user behind the profile. Because of the pseudonymous nature of cyberspatial interactions, there is also an extra effort at making these avatars more verifiable, more real and more trustworthy. As an increasing number of users use social networking systems to find friends, to connect with partners and form communities that often translate back into the physical world, they spend a lot of effort on their profiles, trying to simulate (or translate) their personal identities and ideas into the digital world.

Most users put pictures of their face, along with populating their own virtual photo album with pictures of their pets, partners, friends, family and places they have visited. Profiles often change, adding ‘new pictures uploaded’ as a caption, to invite friends to visit their space and find out what is new about their virtual lives. Users can also keep track of all the changes that the people in their networks are making to their profiles, thus giving the sense of a fluid and a changing persona rather than a static description. Applications which allow the users to track birthdays, special dates, online calendars and the important events in their friends’ lives, add to the nature of communication and interaction. Most profiles have a fairly detailed narrative, using poetic imagery, exaggerated style, witticisms and pop philosophy to translate the person behind the screen. The profiles are also filled with their favourite activities, TV shows, music and books. This process of mapping a virtual body and producing texts of the physical body is the first level of translation that the users perform. The model of cyborgs that Haraway and Stone posit look upon the possibility of role playing, of fantasy, of adaptation and of authoring the self, in this process of cyborgification, as extremely liberating and subversive.

The social networking system and the related profiles also draw our attention to the dynamic interactions of the translated self within the digital domains. Through a metonymic process, the digital profile – the translated self – comes to stand in for the bodies of the users who not only create the translated self but also mark it with desires and aspirations. The translated self is largely under the control of the physical body. And yet, there are several ways in which the translated self does not allow for the physical body to emerge as the original, the authentic or the primary self within the dynamics of this site. On the one hand, it is the physical body of the user that authors the digital self, and hence it should be looked upon as the primary or the authentic text. On the other hand, the interactions that happen within the social networking system are interactions of the authored/translated self. The responses that the profile receives, the way in which the self is represented, the techniques used to engage with more people or invite strangers to communicate, are all the practices of the digital self.

Within Orkut, the profile of the person is bound to the physical body of the user behind the profile. While it is of course necessary to invoke a virtual avatar, because of the nature of social networking with people one already knows or has known, there is a certain disinvestment of fantasy within Orkut. Several users select pseudonyms which allow them to remain totally anonymous, but most of them have a visible face which tries to approximate their real-life persona online. Unlike the circuits of blogging or role playing games, Orkut emphasizes the need to be a ‘real’ person, thus validating its unique feature of ‘scrapping’. By employing it, users are encouraged to publicly perform their intimacies and relationships, which can be easily documented and tracked by others outside the one-to-one interaction. Thus, there seems to be a specific need to narrativize the self though the profile and the various functionalities available on Orkut. Members of the Orkut community are encouraged to think of themselves as part of a larger database – transmutable, transferable sets of data which they have authored for themselves – and can mobilize their virtual self across different networks to enhance their sense of social interaction and networking.

Also, the digital self is not translated solely by the physical user. Orkut has a feature of testimonials where the people in the networks of the translated self, also author opinions, observations and endorsements for the profile. Moreover, the public nature of communication and the archiving of this, add to the meaning and the functioning of this translated self. This production of the meta-data introjects the translated self into a circuit of meaning making and producing narratives that is beyond the scope of the physical body. Thus, there is a strange tension between the physical body of the user and the translated self that the user produces, which leads to the emergence of a cyborg identity. The cyborg is neither the physical body nor the translated digital self. It resides in the interface between the two, each constantly referring to the other, creating an interminable loop of dependence. The cyborg, because it is produced by the very technologies of the two systems that it is straddling, makes these techniques or the technologisation of the self synonymous with the processes of producing the narratives or making meaning.

This production of narratives of the self through different multimedia environments is not simply a process of writing biography or making self-representations. The users on Orkut (as well as other social networking sites like MySpace or blogging communities like Livejournal) are authoring avatars or substitute selves which are intricately and extensively a part of who they are. These translated selves do not live independent lives, but are firmly entrenched in the physical body and practices of the users. While there is a certain flexibility in the scripting of the avatar, the projections are more often than not premised upon the possibility of a Real. The avatars are also scripted as engaging in extremely mundane and daily activities to create verisimilitude and to map the physical body on to the avatar. To leave status messages like ‘stepped out for lunch’ or ‘Working really hard’ or ‘I am bored, entertain me’ is common practice for the users. As increasingly more users stay connected but are not always present on these digital platforms, they also let the avatars ‘sleep’ or ‘eat’ or ‘go away for some time’, synchronizing the avatar’s actions with their own.

A look at many other similar sites like blogging communities on ‘Livejournal’, or dating communities like ‘Friendster’, can give us an idea that the first stage in authoring a cyborg rests in creating these profiles, or avatars. Users spend an incredible amount of time trying to create for themselves the best avatars, which will be continued projections of the self. These tend to rely mainly on the visual component, as in games like ‘Second Life’ and chatting platforms like ‘Yahoo!’, but they can also rely on a combination of visual and verbal elements. Thus, the cyborg starts a process of translation whereby both the physical body and the translated self are distilled into data sets that get distributed across different practices and platforms, changing continuously and feeding into each other. Thus, just the first step of translation – the translation of the physical body into the digital avatar – is already a complex state, where we it is not as if the cyborg exists ex-nihilo and then translates from one system to the other but that the cyborg is produced in this very process of translation. Moreover, the translated text is not simply the sole authorship of the cyborg but has other players, who are a part of either of the systems, adding meanings and layers to the text.

The second step in this process is a reverse translation. Even within role playing games, where the alienation of the avatar from the body reaches its highest levels, there is an invested effort on the part of the gamer to provide physical and material contexts to the imagined bodies which they have created. Mizuki Ito (1992), in her work about online gamers, looks at how, with an increased investment in the digital lives, users tend to shape their own physical selves around their projected avatars. Many chronic users of cyberspaces have their language, their social interaction and even the way they dress and behave affected by their practices online. Sherry Turkle, in her analysis of the MUD world in Life on the Screen (1996), points out that an increasing number of users start looking upon their screen lives as a constitutive part of their reality rather than an escape from it.

A computer’s ‘windows’ have become a potent metaphor for thinking about the self as a multiple and distributed system. The hypertext links have become a metaphor for a multiplicity of perspectives. On the internet, people who participate in virtual communities may be ‘logged on’ to several of them (open as several open-screen windows) as they pursue other activities. In this way, they may come to experience their lives as a ‘cycling through’ screen worlds in which they may be expressing different aspects of self.
(Turkle, 1996: 43)

In another essay, titled ‘Playblog: Pornography, Performance and Cyberspace’ (Shah, 2005), I illustrate how the process of ‘reverse embodiment’ takes place in the lifecycle of bloggers. This process entails a mapping of the translated avatar on to the physical body of the users. This process of reverse translation often leads to the users abandoning their avatars, cutting down on their public presence or sometimes actually committing ‘digital suicides’, killing their own selves to start new identities and networks. Julian Dibbell, in his celebrated essay, ‘A Rape Happened in Cyberspace’ (1994) looks at the dynamics of this reverse mapping or inverted translation as well. Dibbell was witness to one of the most popular cases of ‘digital violence’ in the late 1990s, when in an MUD, a particular user called Dr Bungle, devised a ‘voodoo doll’ on the Lambda MOO MUD, which gained control over two of the other users, making them enter into a series of involuntary sexual acts of deviousness and perversion, in a public ‘room’ where all the other users could see them. What might be looked upon as a simple gaming aesthetic of a more powerful player taking over the avatars of two players with lesser power became a topic of huge discussion as the physical users behind the translated avatars complained of feeling violated and ‘raped’. This claim had very serious consequences because it no longer allowed for a linear notion of the physical body being translated into a digital avatar but insisted that the translated avatar is always, because of the users’ emotional involvement but also because of the practices that the avatar initiates, mapped back on to the body of the physical user. This is a process of reverse embodiment where the presumed ‘original’ is now re-shaped and re-configured to suit the translated object. Such a phenomenon is perhaps possible only in the domains of the cyberspace. Also, the cyborg, generally presumed as residing in the physical body, is now relocated in this two-way process, at the borders where it not only facilitates meaning but also realizes itself in the process of facilitation.

The digital transactions in which the users within such spaces engage have huge social, economic and cultural purport. The authoring of these selves, of these digital avatars, leads to the idea of the cyborg as not simply a synthesis – a site upon which the synthesis happens – but as a dynamic situation in which all subjects participate, producing and supporting its own identity. The cyborg exists in the interstices of the different oppositions of the real and the virtual, the physical and the digital, the temporal and the spatial, the biological and the technological. Moreover, the cyborg does not reside simply within the digital domains but becomes and embodied technosocial being, with a material body that enters into other realms of authorship and subjectification. It is necessary to recognize that the cyborg is not simply a self authored identity but is also subject to various other realms of governance. These material cyborgs, then, assert the need for the body as central to their imagination.

This bounded cyborg is also subject to the territories that it resides within. The last section of the paper looks at the State as a critical part of the production of these material cyborg identities and analyses how the incomprehensibility of this particular identity reproduces it in a condition of illegality, rescuing it from the boundless universal imagination and reasserting the geographical and the territorial boundaries that the cyborg exists within. In this particular analysis, because of my own familiarity with the context and also because new digital technologies are still emerging and unfolding into new forms in India, I shall speak specifically of the Indian State but hope that the particular case that I analyse shall have resonances for other geo-cultural and socio-political contexts as well.

The state of the cyborg

The cyborg, thus residing on the interstices of so many different paradigms, can no longer be limited to aesthetized representations and narratives, but is becoming a part of everyday practices of global urbanism. The range of human–machine relationships is diverse and increasingly varied. We might not be complete cyborgs but we do deal with ‘intimate machines’ (Turkle, 1996: 142) and live in ‘cyborg societies’ (Haraway, 1991: 179). The cities where we we live constantly remind us of the machinations we are dependent on; sometimes they blind us of our dependence on the technology, sometimes they make it starkly visible. Different organizations like the Military, Space Studies, Medicine, Human Research and Education are using new forms of organism–technology interactions in the increasingly urbanised world. Just like the interactions of the translated avatara and the physical users, David Bell and Barbara Kennedy, in their introduction to The Cybercultures Reader, look at the interactions with various different technologies of communication and transport, and posit the notion of an ‘Everyday Cyborg’ that gets produced in everyday practices:

Taking Viagra, or [using] a pacemaker, or riding a bike, or withdrawing cash from an ATM, or acting out [our] fantasies as Lara Croft in the latest Tomb Raider game or as a Nato bomber pilot blitzing Kosovo, or anyone watching footage from Kosovo live on the late-night news.
(Bell, 2000: ix)

In their list, the authors are more interested in looking at human–machine interaction and making historical continuities to the production of a technosocial identity or a cyborg self. This ‘naturalized’ cyborg robs the cyborg of its criticality or importance. It seems to posit the cyborg as simply a coupling of organism and machine, and hence a benign cultural formulation which can now be decontextualized and analysed in the digital domains. The cyborg as a translator – initiating a complex and intricate set of relationships between the different systems of meaning making that it

straddles – questions this trvialization of the cyborg and instead helps produce the cyborg identity as an epistemological category which needs to be analysed to see the processes that produce it and the crises it produces in the pre-digital understanding of text and textuality.

It is with these questions that I begin the analysis of what has popularly been dubbed as the ‘Lucknow Gay Scandal’ in India. In India, under the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, as a part of larger ‘Unnatural Sex Acts’, homosexual activity is a punishable offence [6]. However, the reading of this particular act has always been invoked in dealing with the act of same-sex sexual behaviour and not to punish a particular identity. However, when the queer rights and gay collectives started gaining momentum because of the rise of digital technologies (Singh, 2007), the production of the queer cyborg produced an anxiety about the fantasies, the digital avatars and the material practices of the users behind the avatars. In January 2006, policemen in the city of Lucknow, masquerading as gay men, registered with a popular queer dating website called ‘Guys4men’. Explicitly a gay dating site, it allows users to create their profiles, add pictures and text, translate their personal data in a scripted space, exchange messages and chat. Like the earlier discussed social networking sites, Guys4men also allows users to search and befriend each other, encouraging public discussions and arranging for physical encounters at a personal or a collective level.

These policemen created profiles and listed themselves as gay men, to start interacting with the members of the site. They solicited sex and meetings and finally invited five men to come and meet them in a public garden in Lucknow. When four of the five men turned up for the rendezvous, they were arrested on charges of obscenity, of soliciting sex in public and engaging in homosexual fantasies. The media reported this as ‘Gay Club Running on the Net Unearthed’ (The Times of India, 5 January 2006). The website was looked upon as a physical space where people indulged in ‘unnatural sex acts’.

The four men were punished, not for anything that they did in public or in the physical world but for their projected fantasies online. They were publicly humiliated, exhibited to the media as a ‘homosexual coup’ and put under arrest by the police. While a large part of the political society in India erupted in fury at the gross violation of the human rights and the punishment of fantasies, leading to a raging court case which still has not found resolution, what this paper hopes to glean from this particular case are four interesting points. Firstly, three of the four men, in their physical existence, were married and had children. They were not suspected to have homosexual inclinations by their family or friends, to whom this came as a huge shock. The evidence of the material practices of their physical bodies was not looked upon as strong enough to acquit them. Secondly, the policemen who were luring these men towards a homosexual encounter were themselves projecting similar fantasies. However, as theirs were sanctioned by some high authority, they gained validity and were not to be punished. It was almost as if the fantasies and the avatars that the policemen had were legitimate, sanctified translations of their selves, which made them different. Thirdly, while the men were caught in the physical meeting space, the charges against them were all based on their online activities. What was being produced was not even the act of translating their physical bodies into digital avatars. What was at stake in the particular case was the fact that, in the processes of translation, a reverse translation was also set into place, where the digital avatars and the circuits of consumption and interaction that these avatars entered into were mapped on to the physical bodies, reconfiguring them and marking them as queer. The men were punished not because they claimed a queer identity or because they had fantasies online which did not subscribe to the State’s directive. These men were being punished for the production of a cyborg self – a self which on the one hand was contained by the physical bodies of the users, thus subject to the processes of governance and administration applicable in the geography that they are located in, and on the other hand produced by the imagined selves – the translated avatars which reside outside of the geo-territorial regimes. It is this production of the queer cyborg, residing on the boundaries of sexuality, of nationality and subjectivity that was sought to be punished in this particular case.

On the whole, this case seems to prove that there is a very definite move, on the part of the State, towards the recognition of online avatars as not only extensions of the self but as more powerful identities than the physical self. The State imagines the users of cyberspace as ‘real’ cyborgs and conceives their online activities, fantasies and role-plays as punishable offences. The State also recognizes their translated selves – their datasets that they authored – as verifiable proof of their existence and actions online. The story of the Lucknow incident brings to the fore the possibility that there might also be reluctant cyborgs. The notion of the translator is always somebody who is in a conscious condition of deploying knowledge in order to bridge the gap between different paradigms. However, as the digital world becomes more democratic and becomes a part of our daily transactions, an increasing number of users enter into conditions of translation which they might not recognize as translation. It is also imaginable that a large number of users might resort to the cyberspace to reach a particular aim, without wishing to produce any elaborate narratives of themselves. They might be completely unaware of the processes of reverse translation which follow. However, because of the State’s investment in digital technologies and its infrastructures, individuals get authored as cyborgs, having to take responsibility for their actions and fantasies online, against their will and outside of their knowledge.

The implication of the State or other State-like bodies in the production of these cyborg identities and texts makes us aware of the fact that processes of translation are not simply about the intention and the effort of the translator, but are also severely embedded in the techniques used for translation and the contexts within which the translator and the translated identities are produced. In earlier discussions of testimonials and scraps on Orkut or commentating and editing on blogging platforms, we had already looked upon how the translated text, even when it is a self-narrative, on the digital interfaces, is already a product of multiple authorships and can no longer be attributed to a single individual translator. Similarly, the cyborg identity that is produced in the processes of translation – the cyborg as a translator – is also not a product of individual desire or intention but is often brought into being through the various other players within the internet as well as within the physical contexts of the users.

Why cyborg?

The everyday embodied cyberspace cyborg thus becomes subject to the state as well as the technology. People who enter the digital matrices are made accountable for their actions and travels in cyberspaces. There is an increased anxiety around monitoring these processes of translation, of reverse translation and production of translated cyborg identities that are becoming such an integral part of cyberspatial platforms.

The virtual avatars are re-mapped onto the body of the user, thus reconfiguring the notion of the self and the body. The state, through its efforts, becomes a major player in the authoring of the cyberspace cyborg. Other surveillance technologies like Close Circuit Television (CCTV) for instance, also produce unwilling or unwitting technologized narratives of the users caught under the camera. It is possible to use CCTV in public spaces and capture users in different actions which they can be held responsible for later. However, the cyberspace cyborg differs significantly from this model because the users of cyberspace are willing participants of the spaces which they occupy.

The positing of the cyborg as a translator and as an identity that emerges out of translation practices defines a clearer role for translation and a larger definition for translation as it gets inflected by digital technologies. Instead of the universal hyperreal agent, the cyborg as a translator emphasizes one of the fundamental principles of understanding translation – the context of the translator, the agential negotiations of the translator with the original text, the processes by which the self of the translator get produced and the importance of the technologies within which the translation occurs. The collaborative nature of digital technologies and cyberspatial forms illustrates how the process of translation is not singular and that the relationship between the presumed original and the translated text also need to be re-visited. However, more that anything else, the cyborg as a translator makes it clear that the translated text is not produced in isolation or by a single author. There are various contributions that emerge from the networks within which the cyborg translator operates and from the different technologies of governance that the cyborg translators as well as the translated texts are subject to. On the other hand, to the body of cybercultures which has sustained interest in the production and imagination of the cyborg, the cyborg as a translator offers a different way of locating the cyborg identity – not as an identity produced through cyberspaces, but as an embodied cyborg that emerges as an epistemological category to explain the processes of collaboration, sharing, collective authoring and possession of the new digital spaces.

Notes

[1] This paper owes huge intellectual and emotional debt to Rita Kothari who first invited me to contribute to this issue, helping me formulate the germ of the idea and to Elena Di Giovanni who has been an extremely patient editor, guiding me through the many drafts that gave shape to this final version.

[2] MMORPG – Massively Multiple Online Role – playing game is a genre of gaming in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. The MUDs that Sherry Turkle studied can be looked upon as the direct antecedents to MMORPGs like Second Life and War of Warcraft – two of the most popular gaming platforms in current times.

[3] Technoscapes are the landscapes of technology. They refer to technology as both high and low, informational and mechanical, and the speed at which it travels between previously impassible boundaries. Appadurai uses the idea of Technoscape to imagine a fluid and transmittable topography of technology, where the different transactions and the identities formed online have material consequences in economic flows and societal formations. The cyborg thus produced actively chooses and negotiates its identity. Identities are no longer solid, but become fractured, in that we no longer have to choose the identities or accept the ideas of the local community. We are actively choosing our programming based on that which is available to us. While the cyborg may choose to act in a manner most appropriate or relative to the cultures and geographies it is embedded within, that is no longer the only programming option available to it and many are choosing to look beyond their own cultural arenas.

[4] P2P networks – peer-to-peer networks – inherit the cyberspatial aesthetics of decentralized networks; of nodes being distributed across the circuits of the internet and talking to each other, collaborating in projects, sharing information and exchanging digital material. The p2p networks have been under severe focus because they allow for unmonitored piracy and exchange of information

[5] AmWay emerged in the 1960s as the first of its kind of multi-level marketing company where the individuals inherit each other’s customers and profits through a simple system of multi-directional networking.

[6] The Wikipedia entry for IPC Section 377 reads: ‘Homosexual relations are technically still a crime in India under an old British era statute dating from 1860 called Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises ‘‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature.’’ Since this is deliberately vague in the past it has been used against oral sex (heterosexual and homosexual), sodomy, bestiality, etc. The punishment ranges from ten years to lifelong imprisonment’. The relevant section reads: ‘Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine’.

References

Appadurai, Arjun (1996). Modernity At Large. New Delhi: Oxford UP.

Bell, David (2000). ‘Introduction I Cybercultures Reader: a User’s Guide’. The Cybercultures Reader. Eds David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy. London and New York; Routledge.

Butler, Judith (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge.

Clynes, Manfred and Nathan Kline (1960). ‘Cyborgs in Outerspace’ 20 November 2002. http://search.nytimes.com/library/cyber/surf/022697surf-cyborg.html.

Dibbell, Julian (1994). ‘A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitan Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society’. The Village Voice.

‘Gay Club Running on Net Unearthed’. The Times of India. 5 January 2006. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Lucknow/Gay_club_running_on_Net_unearthed/articleshow/msid-1359203,curpg-2.cms.

Gibson, William (1994). Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books.

Hafner, Katie and Mathew Lyon (1996). Where Wizards Stay up Late: The Origins of the Internet. New York: Simon and Shuster.

Haraway, Donna (1991). ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century’. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. New York: Routledge, 149–81.

Ito, Mizuko (1992). ‘Inhabiting Multiple Worlds: Making Sense of SimCity2000TM in the Fifth Dimension’. Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots. Eds Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit. New York: Routledge.

Licklider, C. R. and Robert Taylor (1968) ‘The Computer as Communication Device’. Science and Technology, 21–31 April. http://www.cc.utexas.edu/ogs/alumni/events/taylor/licklider-taylor.pdf. Accessed 5 November 2005.

Mitchell, William (1996). City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. Cambridge: MIT.

Shah, Nishant (2005). ‘Playblog: Pornography, Performance and Cyberspace’. http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/the-art-and-politics-of-netporn/.

Singh, Pawan Deep (2007). ‘Inside Virtual Queer Subcultures’. MA Thesis. Hyderabad Central University.

Sorkin, Michael (1992). ‘See you in Disneyland’. Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space. New York: Noonday Press.

Stone, Sandy (1991). Cyberspace: First Steps. Ed. Michael Benedikt. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 81–118.

Turkle, Sherry (1992). ‘Cyborg Babies and Cy-dough-plasm’. Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots. Eds Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit. New York: Routledge.

Turkle, Sherry (1996). Life on the Screen: Identity in the age of the internet. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Warwick, Stephen (2000). I, Cyborg. London: University of Reading Press.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/material-cyborgs-asserted-boundaries-formulating-the-cyborg-as-a-translator

Once Upon A Flash

nishant — 2012-12-14T10:23:52Z

It was a dark and stormy evening. A young man in a dark blue Adidas jacket, collar turned up, eyes under green-black shades, hopped off a motorbike, tucked his thumbs into the front pockets of his low-slung retro jeans and surreptitiously made his way through a road thronging with rush-hour traffic and irate pedestrians yelping on their cellphones. He skipped across death traps with skilled ease: leaping over potholes, jumping over halfdug trenches, avoiding the occasional pair of doggy jaws that longed to mate with his ankles, ignoring the bikers who were using the pavements as new lanes for driving towards a honking traffic jam bathed in an orange and red neon that made the road look like a piece of burnt toast with dollops of vicious jam on it.

After five minutes of brisk walking, he slowed down as if he had reached just where he wanted to be – nowhere in particular. On his left were the large Acropolis buildings, towering over the world from their gated existence, structured in pompous Greek columns and facades of granite, stone and marble. On his right, on the other side of the road, if you looked over the metal head of the traffic, you could see the small roadside restaurant that announced fresh fish at cheap rates, sitting cosily under a starved-looking tree, happily encroaching upon the pavement, forcing the pedestrians to disembark, navigate the traffic and then come back to the relative safety of the footpath.

Caught between these two ironies, he stayed put for a while, glancing at his chor bazaar Rado model that flashed on his left wrist. He headed towards the mall that rose in glass and neon, false curves and studious lines across the quickly staining sky of a Saturday evening. As he walked into the mall, the automatic doors that sensed his corporeal presence opened up for him and the girl in a polka-dotted blue-and-red dress threw him the smile that desk attendants save for strangers. The gush of cold airconditioned air and the noises of window shoppers greeted him to ease; mannequins in windows, draped in the latest fashions and various states of undress, winked at him; the smell of freshly brewed coffee came and enveloped him. He headed with ungrim determination towards the round performance area in the mall centre. Like many other hangers-out he too loitered without apparent intent around it, just another boy out on a Saturday evening.

Suddenly his cell phone buzzed. His alarm sounded in loud tones to blend with the Britney Spears playing on the mall sound system. He fished out a bright bumblebee-yellow bandana and tied it to his head. As he did that, the performance area turned into a sea of people wearing varied shades of yellow, blasting their cell phone alarms at full volume till all you could hear was a grating disharmony that would have caused comment on a railway station in India. The phones soon faded and a group of about 70 people formed a human ring, holding hands, their heads swathed in yellow, and sang at the top of their voices the first two stanzas of Hum Honge Kamyaab – the Hindi rendering of the famous song We Shall Overcome. Once the song sank into a bewildered silence, the people in yellow bandanas fell on their knees, raised their hands towards heaven and roared with laughter before quickly pulling off their headgear and dispersing, leaving an empty space and a gawking audience who just had their first dose of a ‘flashmob’ – a group of people who assemble together, suddenly, in a public place, perform an unexpected sets of choreographed actions and disperse without as much as a by your leave or with your leave.

Flashmobs trace their history to the early 18th century industrialisation, when a group of women working in the labour shops[1]in Australia used coded messages to meet and discuss the problems they had in their workplaces. These meetings were organised at random, and the women used the very technologies of production that they engaged with at work on a daily basis to fight the oppression and the injustice of the people at the top. The first modern flashmob, however, is attributed to Bill Wasik, editor of Harper’s Magazine, who, after the first failed attempt (May, 2003), managed to pull a successful flashmob where 200 people swarmed over the mezzanine floor of the Manhattan departmental store Macy’s, pretending to buy a ‘love rug’ for their commune where they supposedly all lived together; they left a bewildered audience and a bemused store staff behind them (3rd June, 2003).

Organise, congregate, act, disperse – that is the anatomy of a flash mob. A polymorphous set of people are brought together through the commonality of subscribing to similar technological interfaces or gadgetry. Random e-mails, short messages (sms) on cell phones, discrete messages embedded in public works of art or media, blogs and wikis have now been successfully used to conjure these tenuous group formations that temporarily transform the space that they arrive at – flash sites – into something that neither the audience they perform to nor the state can comprehend, thus producing that space in a condition of social and physical illegality.

In The Name of Fun

One of the most overarching icons of a globalised economy has been the credit card – virtual money that has changed the way we think of money, capital and transactions. Visa Power, as the advertisement goes, is looked upon as the quintessential rhetoric of economic globalisation, where the power to change and to create is manifested through the processes of consumption. While technology has been heavily implicated in the creation of this new invisible money, it has remained on the background. The swiping of the card – the physical act of buying without ‘paying’ has become such a naturalised event that the technology it adopts or the networks it creates are not very visible... Flash mobs, in their construction, execution and ramifications, foreground technology as one of the most powerful tools of creating new formations of grouping and networking that, through their deliberately devised unintelligibility, transform the spaces they occupy.

This is the story of the first flashmob in India, and how it can be understood through the tropes of illegality, enchantment and transformation. The story starts a little before the flashmob itself. In the year 2000, a shopping mall in Mumbai created a furore amongst the public. It was the first ‘genuine’ shopping mall in India. The first space that claimed mallhood was in Bangalore – Kemp Fort, but it was more a large shopping store rather than a mall. This first all American shopping mall – Crossroads, with its promises of unlimited pleasure and brand-tagged shopping – attracted the largest crowd in its opening week. Everybody wanted to see what the mall was like. Everybody was curious about this space. Everybody wanted to be a part of this exclusive zone that clearly demonstrated that modernity and progress had finally come to us. Then everybody found out that they were not allowed to enter the mall. As the director of the mall pointed out in his interview with The Times of India, (23rd August, 2000), “Crossroads is not meant for everybody".

In those days when cell phones were still a novelty and definitely a curio for the upper classes, and when pagers were still struggling for a mass market, Crossroads passed a stipulation which restricted people not carrying a cell phone or a credit card from entering the mall. If you were still eager to enter the space, you paid extra fees of Rs 50 per head and thus made amends for not carrying a cell phone or a credit card. This was the first time a ‘public’ space made it very clear that the public it was looking for and attempting to effectively create was not “everybody”. The issue was talked about, shouted about, screamed at and criticised by all wings of the media, who passionately analysed this instance of discriminatory practices based on socioeconomics. Later, a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) was filed against the mall; it lost, and had to throw its doors open to “everybody” who had been clamouring to get in ever since they found out they were not allowed to enter.

On 4 October 2003, the mall again came into limelight in a manner it had not accounted for. This time it was initiated by an e-mail. About 5,000 original mailers went off to people all around Mumbai and even beyond the city, asking them to have a look at a new blog for Mumbai flashmobs. The blog posted a form asking for name, e-mail address and mobile number. On 3 October several cell phones rang, asking people who had submitted their details in the form to check their inboxes. The eager participants glided to their accounts to find a mail that agonisingly chalked out the time and space of the meeting venue – a flash site. The information was also sent by sms to all members who had volunteered. And then at exactly 5 pm a group of about a hundred participants entered Crossroads. They screamed at the top of their voices and sold imaginary shares belonging to Reliance India. They performed the garba. In the middle of dancing they all froze. And then without so much as a word, after two minutes of historic histrionics, they opened their umbrellas and dispersed, leaving a trail of bewilderment and confusion, as an audience of over a thousand watched with their jaws on the floor.

This was India’s first recorded flashmob. A large crowd of people who did not know each other, did not have any largely political purpose in mind and did not really intend to extend the flashmob contact into relationships, got together to perform a set of ridiculous actions at Crossroads, thus marking it as the first flash site in India. Ironically, the group that converted the mall into mayhem consisted of whom Anne Balsamo calls the hyperreal people – people whose identities are created by the hypervisual and extra physical aesthetics of the digital technologies that they deploy - who were once the only legitimate owners of the space of that mall. This first flashmob sparked off many others all around the nation – most of them marking out spaces such as multiplexes, shopping malls, gaming parlours, body shops, large commercial roads and shopping complexes as their flashsite.

Bill Wasik, the creator of the first flashmob in Manhattan, in a recent interview,[2] looked upon the flashmob experiment as a study in behavioural psychology of people he called “hipsters” – people who would join ‘new’ or ‘cool’ things for no reason or investment but to be visible in the new trends and social fads. To a large extent, Wasik’s surface analysis seems to hold true. While flashmobs have been used as a political weapon by several groups and activists in many areas of human rights, queer rights, feminism, political democracy, etc., flashmobs fundamentally exist, like pre-Raphaelite art, for a solipsist reason. Bijoy Venugopal, who produced one of the most celebrated accounts of the Crossroads flashmob[3], mentions how it was all about having some “serious fun”. Increasingly, the flashmob organisers in and around the country have disavowed any ideological moorings for the gathering, and forcibly shelve it into the realms of entertainment or leisure. Following the banning of flashmobs in cities like Mumbai and Bangalore (Mid-day, 9th oct. 2003), even though they have invoked the right to freedom of speech and expression, the organisers and the participants have largely produced justifications by claiming to have no political agenda or inclinations in the construction or execution of flashmobs.

In this repeated disavowal of the political, one can read the desire for re-enchantment that flashmobs and mobsters bring with them. Flashsites, defined by the organising of the flashmobs, are usually sites of globalised consumption – an enchanted world of brand names and designer lifestyles that can make you feel as perpetually disoriented as Alice in Wonderland. These sites serve as the symbols of enchantment in the logic of the city.[4] The new urban enchantment and mode of fantasy is located in the circuits of consumerism where, with plastic money and unlimited credit, the consuming citizen can buy all that the heart desires. However, flashmobs, outside these networks of consumption, and constituted by the same people who fit the bill of the citizen as imagined and promoted by the state and the market as they embrace globalisation and its technologies, demand a re-enchantment of the city. They force us to acknowledge the need for such public spaces to be accessible to all, and provide a strong critique of the easily accepted globalised dream in which the state is so heavily investing. Flashmobs become a manifestation of how tenuously networked, fragile communities, their collaboration inspired and enabled by cyberspatial technologies, can contest the very forces that promote and proliferate these technologies. Flashmobs become a site upon which the drama of globalisation, consumption, state and space is discursively and recursively enacted.

In The Name of The Law

That flashmobs are in a condition of illegality is perhaps one of the easiest claims to prove. The very fact that the Mumbai Police, after the first series of flashmobs, invoked Section 37(1) of the Bombay Police Act in the name of security and safety, clearly states how flashmobs are considered outside the law in the most literal sense of the word. The then Mumbai Police Deputy Commissioner of Police, Amitabh Gupta, contacted Rohit Tikmany, organiser of the first flashmob and moderator of the flashmob blogging community (http://www.mumbaimobs.org/), asking him to shut down the site and stop all further attempts at organising flashmobs. Following the ban in Mumbai, cities such as Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Delhi have enacted similar bans within the city limits. These censoring forces look at flashmobs as potentially destabilising elements that can be ‘misused’ for violent acts such as riots and bombings by fundamentalist organisations.

However, of greater interest is the way in which flashmobs manage to reproduce flashsites in conditions of social and physical illegality by creative deliberate structures of transient unintelligibility. The leisure infrastructure of malls and multiplexes, cafes and large shopping complexes, gaming zones and commercial roads of consumption, are all aimed at the new citizenry that comes into being with these new urban economies falling into place. These spaces are not only legitimate spaces of self-expression through consumption, but also authorised spaces of public assembly and gathering. They promote an ethos of incessant consumption where the individual is also installed as a consumable product that relates to others in the processes of consumption. They are the locations where brands, accessories and lifestyles all come together as the figureheads of a sanitised economy which strives to make opaque the surrounding subcultures of piracy, theft, copying and distributing that emerge around such nodal points.[5] To belong to the space of a mall or a shopping complex, one needs to almost automatically endorse the original, the authentic, the expensive, as a way of making a conscious statement of style and lifestyle. These potential flashsites become the spaces that the state legitimises as the most visible and sanitised form of urbanisation in contemporary cities.

However, flashmobs definitely subvert the sanctity or the sanity of such spaces by compelling them to suddenly introject disruptive conditions of unintelligibility. Flashmobs force the other participants of the space to enter into a narrative of confusion and chaos; of turbulence, thus rendering the space of consumption incomprehensible for the short time that the flashmob unfolds. Moreover, flashmobs do not fall under globalisation’s rhetoric of consumption, and do not require any special access powers or consumption rites, thus defying the discriminatory protocols that such spaces put in motion under the uneasily hovering sign “Rights of Admission Reserved”. Flashmobs, by rejecting the very use and expectation of the space, in spite of the heavy surveillance, state opposition and hi-tech policing, are able to distort the formulaic narratives of the space, thus creating alternative structures of resistance, of transformation, of transition. State apparatus gets completely paralysed when faced with such a radical reconfiguring, and thus goes out of its way to put a special ban upon flashmobs in a city where even a small defeat in a cricket match, or various emotional events such a public mourning or celebration, bring together crowds much louder, more aggressive, tenuous and destructive than conventional flashmobs. The transient illegality that flashmobs produce is not only at the level of the law but also at the level of legibility and comprehension.

"What do the mobsters do when they come together for a flashmob?" is a wrong question to ask. While the actions of the mobsters might be bizarre and lacking in meaning, often uninformed by any obvious ideology, flashmobs do produce new modes of signification and networking patterns, unprecedented in modern history. The ephemeral nature of the flashmobs, the improbably pseudonymous identities of the participants, the technologically mediated communication and networking patterns, all hint towards a certain notion of technosociality, where the social world around us is profoundly affected by the technologies that we adopt. In these unexpected eruptions, flashmobs create a new relationship between actors, audience and the spaces that they inhabit, including all the three into the circuits of digital technologies. As a form of radical localised performance, flashmobs offer a way to question the hierarchical intentionality of the spaces that they transform; they embody new ways in which technologies interface with our daily life, producing new forms of technosocial living.

This paper was published in Academia.edu. Click here to read the original. Download the file here. [PDF, 129 kb]

[1].These were probably the precedents to the modern day sweat shops that have characterized Globalisation in the 21st century. The ‘labour shops’ were large stone and concrete buildings which housed workers working around the clock towards incessant production. Women and children were often preferred because they were given lesser wages than men and considered more easily malleable.

[2].The transcript of the interview is available at http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/37/features-bemis.php

[3].Venugopal, himself a prolific blogger, blogged about the flashmobs at http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/37/features-bemis.php http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/37/features-bemis.php

[4]. Po Bronson, in his spectacular analysis of the Silicon Valley in The Nudist on the Late Shift, talks about how in a post-industrial city, the quantifiable icons of enchantment and progress – large factories, smoke spewing chimneys and huge barricaded stone and iron constructions have given way to small and homelike offices which are almost human and hence negligible. In his search for the new symbols of enchantment, Bronson conjures the figure of the nudist on the late shift – an eccentric double billionaire who works and lives in a cubicle and rides on the crest of the IT boom. In the case of third world countries like India, these symbols might well be these new sites of consumption that have come with globalization.

[5].One of the more exciting facets of digital technologies and globalization has been the debate over property, ownership and theft. Easy duplication of brands and bypassing the traditional circuits of distribution or sale of property have created the glorified figure of the pirate who straddles the worlds of the legal and the illegal, the digital and the physical, the ephemeral and the tactical with great ease. Within the sanctuarised spaces of malls and shopping complexes, these referents to the other world of cheap duplicates and mobile consumables hang uneasily. There is a constant attempt at establishing the original and the legitimate over the fake or copied replicas which are available in the grey markets that emerge around them.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/once-a-flash

Privacy & Sexual Minorities

Danish Sheikh — 2013-09-20T09:22:44Z

Danish Sheikh examines the status of sexual minorities in the light of privacy framework in India. Culling out some real life examples based on various studies, media reports and judgments from the Supreme Court and the High Courts of Delhi and Allahabad, the research brings to light the privacy violations being committed by both individuals as well as state authorities. The research concludes by saying that privacy doesn’t necessarily encompass a one-size-fits-all approach, and can raise as many questions as it answers.

Defining Privacy

In examining the status of sexual minorities vis-à-vis the privacy framework in India, this research takes into account a definition of privacy that encompasses protection against physical interference with a person and their property as well as the state of being free from intrusion in one’s private life or affairs.[1] This involves an understanding of privacy violations being committed by both an individual as well as the State. On the one hand is the extent to which a private individual is entitled to personal information about another individual and on the other is the extent to which government authorities can intrude into the private life of a citizen to keep watch over his or her movements or exercise control over personal choices.[2]

No mention of sexuality and privacy in India can stand without a nod to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In 1860, with the institution of the IPC by Lord Macaulay, section 377 criminalized homosexuality by putting forth that, "carnal intercourse against the order of nature"[3] was to be punishable by law. While this archaic law stands even today, it was read down significantly in a landmark Delhi High Court judgment in 2009[4] which will be referred to later. As stated in an open letter by Vikram Seth and a host of others and endorsed by Amartya Sen, the law has been used to "systematically arrest, prosecute, terrorize and blackmail sexual minorities. It has spawned public intolerance and abuse, forcing tens of millions of gay and bisexual men and women to live in fear and secrecy at tragic cost to themselves and their families."[5] When understood in its conception as non-interference by the State, as the right to be left alone,[6] privacy isn’t necessarily an empowering right for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. For one, the claim to privacy when it comes to same-sex acts tends to get construed as a claim for secrecy: it is to carry out purportedly "clandestine" acts that the sexual minority community wants refuge from the State. The same strategy can further backfire when claims for heightened scrutiny might in fact be requested, such as in discrimination actions.[7] A zonal understanding of privacy also subverts the fact that many instances of expression of identity happen in the public sphere.[8]

For a while, privacy jurisprudence hinged on this idea of privacy as a negative right by disallowing infringement of a person’s right to a private life by the State. This understanding may be located in an international regime which has for a while insisted on dividing civil and political rights at one side, and social and economic rights on the other. With this split, what was institutionalized was the idea that civil and political rights were as such "negative" rights, while social and economic rights were "positive" in their content. In effect, the presumption that stood was that while states needed to expand resources to uphold social and economic rights, no such correlative obligation required observance in respect of civil and political rights.[9] Recent human rights conventions such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities acknowledge the flaw in this understanding, based on the reasoning that both civil and political rights and social and economic rights give rise to positive and negative duties.[10] The Naz Foundation[11] judgment propels the understanding of privacy as a positive right. It’s easy enough to split the analysis in this study neatly with the judgment which, in the course of declaring unconstitutional the aforementioned IPC provision, discussed at length the right to privacy, exploring it as a function of dignity. To divide what the Delhi High Court said about the right into three parts — first, they discussed privacy as dealing with persons and not places,[12] implying that the right to privacy is not only a claim to space from state intervention but that it protects the autonomy of the private will and a person’s freedom of choice and action, second, they tied it in with dignity and connected it with the value and worth of all individuals,[13] and third, they talked of the right to privacy as being based on one’s autonomous identity. In the context of privacy, this means that it is "the inner sanctum of the person such as his/her family life, sexual preference and home environment which is shielded from erosion by conflicting rights of the community."

While there will be a bit of a before-Naz/after-Naz tint to the analysis, it is important to appreciate that the nature of privacy discourse when it comes to sexual minorities remains somewhat murky even after the grand affirmation that the judgment provided. A large part of this of course is concerned with society struggling to catch up with the developments in the law.

Before moving on to the next chapter, I’ll unpack the term "sexual minority" to delineate the different communities that will feature in the course of this paper, whilst also attempting to renegotiate the idea of privacy contextually. Using Arvind Narrain’s seminal monograph Queer as a template,[14] the term gay will be employed to describe a man who is attracted to another man emotionally, sexually or physically; a lesbian woman is attracted to women emotionally, sexually or romantically; while someone who is bisexual maintains that attraction towards members of both sexes. A transgender person assumes the gender identity of the opposite sex; within Indian discourse they are called as hijras, constituted of a transgender person who is biologically male and takes on the gender role of a female. The hijra community in India maintains a unique form of social organization within its parallel society. We then have the term "eunuch", used in a more derogatory fashion, which medically refers to a castrated male, and is sometimes employed in India to refer to the hijras. Another South Asian constructed identity is that of the kothi — a male homosexual who is feminized and takes a passive/receptive role in sex.

The next section of this study will look at a string of privacy concerns of sexual minorities in India as sourced from various studies and media reports. The analysis pauses at the interplay of rights surrounding the transgender community in particular: how do issues of recognition of their particular category impact members of the community? The subsequent section jumps past the timeline of the Naz Foundation judgment to understand the kind of changes – if at all – that the high court’s words have effected when it comes to this idea of privacy.

Privacy Rights and Wrongs

The incidents highlighted in this chapter took place before the Delhi High Court altered the way we conceived of queer rights in general and privacy in particular. Two issues permeate this analysis: one, the notion of criminality hovering above queer identity, and two, the somewhat one-dimensional idea of privacy that existed then. A third, more complex issue in the context of the hijra community becomes the idea that one conception of privacy may not always be the most empowering for a community, and the subsequent negotiations that have to be made in that sphere.

Entrapment: The Lucknow Incidents

In July of 2001, a set of raids: first on a public park frequented by the men who have sex with men (MSM)[15] community, and next on the offices of two NGOs working on safe sex issues led to the arrests of ten people. The operation was conducted on the basis of an FIR filed with a Lucknow police station wherein it was alleged that a certain Suresh had sodomized the complainant. Notable in the incident was the climate of homophobia stoked by the media which indulged in sensationalizing headlines,[16] with the magistrate concerned further refusing bail to the men. In denial of bail, instead of siding with the relevant law, the magistrate clearly proceeded on the basis of his perceptions regarding homosexuality: "they…are polluting the entire society by encouraging the young persons and abetting them for committing the offence of sodomy."[17]

If we were to extend the Supreme Court’s reasoning in the catena of surveillance cases vis-a-vis privacy starting from Kharak Singh v. State of U.P., [18] it is clear that the NGO members’ right to privacy was violated by the way of unwarranted search and seizure operations carried out by the police. As the court said in Govind v. State of M.P.,[19] domiciliary visits and picketing by the police should be reduced to the clearest cases of danger to community security. While the judges were referring to matters relating to follow-up from a conviction/release from prison, it seems evident that a higher standard should be given to cases where such prior conviction itself hasn’t taken place.

As for the accused, Narrain notes how the response of the State and media ended up harming them, regardless of the final judicial decision. [20] The public hearings meant that in Lucknow, their sexual identities became public, with a definite impact on their future prospects and present perceptions. The question, as Narrain poses, is the issue of the suitability of the courts to protect the rights of people who are still in the closet. If approaching the courts means compulsory 'outing' with all its attendant negative outcomes, how does one articulate the rights of such a minority?[21]

There are thus three major facets of privacy violation here: the police’s lawlessness resulting in the primary intrusion; the media’s sensationalization which harshly exposed the accused to the public glare; and finally, the magistrate’s bias which legitimized these privacy violations.

Yet another set of arrests took place in the city, this time in 2006, with the police in Lucknow arresting four men under section 377 for allegedly having sex in a public park. News reports revealed pictures of all the four men with their names and home addresses.[22]

The first information report (FIR) here contradicted the investigation of a fact finding team of activists and lawyers: it emerged that none of the men were actually involved having public sex, with the story by the police being a completely fabricated one. It turned out that one of the men had been arrested by the police on their knowledge about his homosexuality, following which his contacts were tapped to stage an entrapment of the other three men.[23]

This notion of raiding homosexual gatherings was taken to its extreme by a police raid on a gay party in the outskirts of Mumbai in 2008, in the course of which six persons were detained. "…. neither was he able to give a satisfactory explanation for organizing the party," said the API on questioning the event organizer.[24]

In these instances of interplay between criminal procedure, media ethics and judicial process, it is worth questioning whether general reforms in those areas will positively affect privacy rights of sexual minorities in particular. Unwarranted searches and arrests are barely an uncommon occurrence in the country, neither is the fact of accounts of people’s sexual behaviour finding themselves very publicly outed in the media, and nor, again, are accounts of judges overlooking police excesses rare. It’s a bit difficult to make an exact value judgment over what kinds of privacy violations is more damning, in a society that takes its sexual mores quite seriously, be they with regard to hetero or homosexual sex. More than anything though, that just makes the need for across the board reforms in these areas more urgent, and sharpens the kind of alliances across communities that would be required to effect change. Of course, this kind of advocacy can only happen in an atmosphere where homosexuality continues to be decriminalized – the fate of the Naz Foundation appeal before the Supreme Court is of paramount importance.

Gender Identity and Transgender Issues

A survey of the situation regarding the transgender community in India throws up a fascinating picture of instances where seemingly positive sounding regulation doesn't always serve its intended effects – when such "positive sounding" regulation does happen at all. To start with, there is the question of the status of the transgender community in India itself – a PUCL report[25] notably documented, and numerous reports and articles[26] have affirmed, the reality of the transgender community today as one of harassment, abuse, and sexual violence. These accounts reveal a deep-rooted fear inculcated by mainstream society of sexual and gender non-conformity, which manifests itself in the refusal of basic citizenship rights to these communities.

The PUCL report gives a detailed account of harassment by the police in public places, at home, in police stations, and instances of entrapment similar to the Lucknow cases. Instead of reiterating that aspect which would simply involve repeating the above analysis, this section will look into other gender-specific issues that arise with respect to the community and the multiple questions these give rise to:

Transgender Toilets

The first example relates to efforts by the Chennai Municipal Corporation to build toilets specifically for the transgender population,[27] in a move stated as being part of a pilot project to recognize the considerable community in South and Central Chennai. Each lavatory in these toilets was to contain male, as well as female urinals. In the words of the municipal commissioner, the scheme was aimed at "extending recognition to the community and mainstreaming them", and more facilities could be built if the public responded well to the idea.

The reaction from the community was mixed at best: sure, it was regarded as a positive move to the extent that not every person who identified themselves as transgender had undergone sex change; simultaneously, the city saw one section of the community fearing the move as a step towards discrimination and isolation. "I don’t agree with this. We want to mingle with the mainstream. We don’t want to be separated like this," said Aasha Bharati, president of the Aravanigal Association. The idea of privacy here is at odds with something else the community is striving for: inclusion. The fear then was of one kind of recognition trumping another. What would a policy maker then privilege? Would this possibly be a better short-term move, as we move towards a future understanding of not being disabled by difference, or would the ideal of privacy trump even that?

The way this issue has played out in the Indian context stands in interesting contrast to cases in America. A bill in Maine which would allow restroom owners in business establishments and institutions from mandating what gender persons would use what washroom was met with sharp opposition from the transgender community on claims of dignity and privacy.[28] For a person who, say, externally had strongly masculine features, but identified as a woman, two options existed: either break the law and walk discreetly into the male compartment – or risk the outrage of other women as she walked into their compartment and was faced with their indignation of having a "man" use their toilet. In such an instance, there stand two rival conceptions of privacy: one in which respecting privacy would, somewhat ironically, stand as a transgender person’s right to assert their distinct identity in public without fear, versus a conception of privacy as anonymity – their right not to be compelled to make a political statement in the course of going about their daily lives.

Now that kind of issue wouldn’t come up in the Indian context for a large section of the transgender community simply owing to the hyper-visibility of the hijras. For all its contemporary stigmatization, the hijra community is a discernible one in public with an acknowledged history. Hijras have won elections in India, and are very much an acknowledged part of public space.[29] To that extent, privacy isn’t quite the overriding concern here in the way that it might be in the West – one might even say that the lack of such a conception can in this particular case be somewhat empowering.

Passport Forms

The next example concerns gender-sensitivity when it comes to passport forms.[30] The Ministry of External Affairs moved to allow for the option of entering a person's sex as "E" instead of either "M" or "F", the "E" then standing for "Eunuch". At the time of introduction of this category there was a degree of ambivalence: it was not available on the form itself, instead being listed as an option only in the rules. As activists noted however, it was a victory in the sense of being the first official recognition of the community. The particular category of recognition was problematic: for one the term "eunuch" would only reasonably represent one part of the transgender population; for another, large sections of the community would consider that term insulting. The government subsequently made an ameliorative measure by changing the category to "Other".[31] Again, the logical privacy question that would arise here would be regarding one's desire to be identified as transgendered in the first place. Similar to the toilets example, the issue would play out differently in India in many cases, given the hyper-visibility of the hijra community which provides an instant marker for a hijra, and subsequently ensures that there isn’t really a privacy violation when it comes to such kind of identification.

Of course, this declaration of otherness leads to issues for someone uncomfortable with disclosing transgender identity as such, and wanting to perform maleness or femaleness specifically. Would marking either the "M" or "F" column be considered an illegality?

Recognition – and Resolving Privacy

Where official recognition is clearly ameliorative, it doesn't always stay. Following years of struggle, the community was given recognition in Andhra Pradesh under the Minorities Welfare Department. It was short-lived, however: protests by religious minority groups forced the government to go back on its decision.[32] The kind of privacy violations that the hijra community suffers in India are thus in stark contrast to the kinds suffered by members of the gay and lesbian community: where one side deals with its invisibility, the other contends with the problems of its hyper-visibility. Hijras walk about as constant targets of police intrusion. A gay man or lesbian woman wouldn’t necessarily face those issues at the same level, except in instances where public sex is involved. The exceptions to even that are incidents of entrapment such as the Lucknow case, but it is evident that it is the hijra community which deals with such police action much more than the others. What is also uniquely empowering for the community is this very aspect of their identity, this ever-present identification. The kind of fears of disclosure and blackmail that someone who fears outing might face fizzle out in the case of the hijras.

The discourse gets complicated when you take up the identities of non-hijra transgendered persons: there are the female-to-male transgendered identities of Thirunambigal in Tamil Nadu, Magaraidu in Andhra Pradesh and Gandabasaka in Karnataka – as well as male to female identities such as the Jogappas in Northern Karnataka, and Jogathas in Andhra Pradesh.[33] The idea of hyper-visibility which is so crucial to locating a sense of empowerment for the hijra community in their lack of loss of privacy disappears here. The discussion here then springs back to the U.S. example of transgender toilets, and the complications that arise when external identity doesn’t necessarily match the internal one.

The Medical Establishment[34]

Relevant to this section of the study is the understanding of privacy under the ambit of autonomy. Referring to Naz Foundation, instead of using liberty to describe and support privacy as under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the court refers to autonomy holding that "exercise of autonomy enables an individual to attain fulfillment, grow in self-esteem and form relationships of his or her choice and fulfill all legitimate goals that he/she may set."[35];

The medical establishment in India constantly undermines that autonomy by its treatment of homosexuality as a disease, and of LGBT persons as "others". LGBTs in India have often been detained in clinics against their will and subjected to treatment including shock therapy aimed at curing them.[36]

In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) admitted a complaint from a patient at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, alleging psychiatric abuse at the hands of the consulting doctor, having been put on a four year course of drugs and told he had to be "cured" of his homosexuality. The NHRC finally chose to reject the complaint, with informal conversations with the chairman showing his belief that till section 377 was read down, nothing could be done. [37]

According to Vinay Chandran, Executive Director of the Swabhava Trust, medicine in India continues to be obsessed with curing homosexuality, with health professionals in many places still offering behavioural therapy including electric shock treatment as well as psychiatric drugs and hormones in order to "cure" patients of homosexual desire. Vinay reports that a couple of psychiatrists in Bangalore mentioned that there were possibilities of discovering which gene determines sexual preference and scientifically suppressing it.[38]

Of course quacks exist across the spectrum, and medicinal malpractice is barely limited to serving disastrous advice/ treatment to persons "afflicted" with homosexuality. For understanding how the debate moves beyond merely unqualified doctors, we have to factor in the category of ego-dystonic homosexuality, which is endorsed by the WHO. Here, the gender identity or sexual preference of the individual is not in doubt, but the individual wishes it were different and seeks treatment.[39]

The way a number of psychiatrists’ engage with the situation is summed up by the statement: "it’s not my job to tell him that it’s okay to be gay." No, the psychiatrist’s job it seems is to attempt to "cure" the oft-acknowledged incurable.

The fundamental factor not taken into account is that it is very often the environment that surrounds expression of homosexual identity that the patient is concerned about, as opposed to merely the idea of being LGBT. The relationship between patient and doctor is a fiduciary one, premised on absolute trust. In consulting a doctor, the patient entrusts fundamental decision making powers to the practitioner. The medical professional is often unable to comprehend the question of choice. This in turn results in effectively infringing the patient’s autonomy: the component of attaining fulfillment, the growth in self-esteem that the Delhi High Court elaborated on is robbed in the process of stifling sexuality, even when it is something the patient specifically requests the doctor for.

Lesbian Unions

Maya Sharma, in her book Loving Women locates the stories of a number of working-class lesbian women struggling to be with each other against the odds.[40] In a vein that parallels the reaction elicited to inter-religious or inter-caste marriages in a number of regions, it is often the honour of a family/village that is invoked in opposition to the demands of two people who want to be each other. One incident involves a woman who "dares" to elope with another being beaten and stripped, having her face blackened and being paraded around a village with a garland of shoes on her neck. Sahayatrika, a lesbian women's collective in Kerala has documented 24 cases of lesbian couple suicides in Kerala during the period between 1996 and 2004.[41] Earlier this year, two sets of lesbian couples committed suicide within a month of each – one in Sonarpur,.[42] and the other in Nandigram.[43]

Sexuality has often been used as a means for controlling women. The immoral/ tainted woman when placed in contrast with the idealized image of the model Indian woman is an image played out in various daily social interactions. In carrying out the agenda of control, the act of agency displayed by women who choose to step out of the heterosexual woodwork is a direct threat to that very system. The acts of family members in attempting to separate lesbian unions display a lack of respect for autonomy and for the private decisions of the women concerned. The feelings of fear, shame and isolation experienced by women who dare to explore their sexuality are compounded by instances of persecution by the family. The state is further complicit in numerous documented instances with the police often working with the family to track down the runaway brides and get them back home to familial watch under lock and key.

Privacy again battles with privacy in this realm: an oft-heard feminist critique of privacy hinges on the idea that privacy can be dangerous for women when it is used to cover up repression and physical harm to them by creation of the public/private divide.[44] The private realm is premised on non-intervention by the State. In this instance however, it is another aspect of privacy that needs to be valued, and one that even calls for state intervention: the aforementioned act of autonomy.

Privacy in the Time of Naz

The examples up until now have been coloured with a pre-Naz conception of privacy and queer rights – this chapter takes up two incidents post the judgment that captured the public imagination. First is the sting operation carried out on an Allahabad Muslim University professor that began a chain of events leading to his death; the second is an "expose" on the gay community carried by TV9. In both incidents, the "Spectre of Naz" [45] looms in the background, in many ways acting as an empowering, legitimizing force.

The Allahabad Muslim University Sting Operation

In February 2010, newspapers widely reported the story of Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras a 64 year-old Reader & Chairman, Department of Modern Indian Languages, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) being filmed having consensual sex with another adult male. When the video was made public, AMU suspended Siras for immoral sexual activity.[46] The implications of the suspension both in terms of the perception of homosexuality as immoral despite the judgment of the Delhi High Court as well as the disturbing nature of the occurrence of the filming of Dr. Siras in the privacy of his home prompted a nationwide outrage.[47]

On April 1 of the same year, the Allahabad High Court ordered AMU to reinstate Siras, holding that his right to privacy had been violated, stating "the right of privacy is a fundamental right, needs to be protected and that unless the conduct of a person, even if he is a teacher is going to affect and has substantial nexus with his employment, it may not be treated as misconduct."[48]

Then comes the news that Uttar Pradesh police had arrested two of those who broke into Siras’ house and filmed him. Many university officials were also charged with criminal offences. As Vinay Sitapati notes, none of this could have happened in a context where gay sex was illegal. In that context, it would have been Siras who was the criminal, and the additional wrongs done simply irrelevant – "this is not how the story was supposed to pan out. Those who broke into Siras’s house and AMU (and there are allegations that they are one and the same) assumed that Siras’s transgressions were so repellent, that their own would be forgiven." The judicial narrative — of a victimized Siras, a callous administration and criminal house-breakers — owes much to the Delhi High Court’s view that Siras’s sexual choice was legitimate.[49]

Going back to the understanding that the right to privacy is integrally linked to the notion of autonomy and the right to live with dignity ‒ it is this most fundamental of Constitutional safeguards that the AMU authorities clearly colluded in negating by being complicit in the sting operation and subsequently suspending Dr. Siras. A press release by the AMU authorities demonstrated a continuing disrespect for privacy: "the university respects the privacy of a teacher living in its premises but it also expects everyone to behave in a respectful manner giving due regard to its valued cultural ethos and the campus sensitivity including their neighbours concerns and to the great moral credentials that AMU has been nurturing since its inception."[50]

The TV9 “Expose”

In February of 2011, the news channel TV9 aired what it called an expose on the Hyderabad gay community titled "Gay Culture in Hyderabad". The video starts by worrying about how gay culture in Hyderabad is "increasing drastically". Following this, footage of a gay club is shown, without any attempt to blank out faces. The show then puts itself in the mode of investigative journalism, as TV9 sets itself the target of exposing the "truth" about gay culture in the city.

Next, viewers are informed about gay dating websites, with the anchor taking special care to inform viewers that it is software employees and students who mostly "fall prey" to this gay culture. Then, in an astonishingly blunt violation of privacy, pictures of men on one dating site are flashed on the screen, accompanied by conversations between the concerned man and a TV9 journalist soliciting sex. "While some do it for new pleasures, some get spoilt by friends, others do it for the crave of money and the remaining are vowed by the lust some of them have changed it into a business by capturing teenager's mind and get them into hell."

The video recording of the telecast on YouTube was taken off the site following a sustained protest from users of the site. Notices for legal action were sent to TV9 offices, including a detailed petition from Adhikaar, a Delhi based NGO. Two questions were primarily asked on LGBT mailing lists across the country[51]: first, regarding how safe establishing one’s homosexual identity online, or attending gay parties would be anymore, and secondly, whether a protest should take place, and what the nature of the same should be.

As highlighted by the petition drafted by Adhikaar, a Delhi-based NGO, this act of TV9 was violative of Code 6 of the News Broadcasters Association Code which deals with matters of privacy, and states:[52]

"As a rule channels must not intrude on private lives, or personal affairs of individuals, unless there is a clearly established larger and identifiable public interest for such a broadcast. The underlying principle that news channels abide by is that the intrusion of the private spaces, records, transcripts, telephone conversations and any other material will not be for salacious interest, but only when warranted in the public interest."

By way of entrapping a set of gay men through calling them and asking them pointed personal questions about their sexual lives, TV9 was further in violation of Code 9 (Self-Regulation Section) of the News Broadcasters Association which deals with sting operations and which states:[53]

"As a guiding principle, sting and undercover operations should be a last resort of news channels in an attempt to give the viewer comprehensive coverage of any news story. News channels will not allow sex and sleaze as a means to carry out sting operations, the use of narcotics and psychotropic substances or any act of violence, intimidation, or discrimination as a justifiable means in the recording of any sting operation."

A month later, the News Broadcasting Standards Authority, New Delhi censured TV9 and ordered it to pay a fine of Rs.1,00,000 and broadcast an apology in prime time both in English and in Telugu. The Authority determined that TV9 has violated the codes of ethics and broadcasting standards.[54]

Justice JS Verma called the story a sensationalized depiction of gay culture in Hyderabad and the story needlessly violated the privacy of individuals, with possible alternate sexual orientation. He also pointed out that alternate sexual orientation is no longer considered as a taboo or a criminal act. The channel was directed to run an apology for three consecutive days beginning the Monday next, in prime time with the following text:

"TV9 apologizes for the story “Gay Culture Rampant in Hyderabad” telecast on this channel on 22 February, 2011 from3.11 p.m. to 3.17 p.m. particularly since the story invaded the privacy of certain persons and was in violation of the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards of the News Broadcasters Association. Any hurt or harm caused to any person thereby is sincerely regretted."

Again, it must be noted that the order of the NBSA would not have been possible in a context where gay sex was illegal: it is that very notion that allowed the Authority to move past the issue of homosexuality and instead delve into the merits of the actual harm done here.

Conclusion

It is possible to mount an argument that nothing has really changed post-Naz. The AMU’s attitude even in the face of the flak it received after the sting operation was phlegmatic at best: a summary statement saying that while it respected his privacy, it also expected a certain degree of behavior keeping in line with its "valued cultural ethos". Reactions like this threaten to lock the idea of privacy into a closed epistemic loop of judicial discourse: the courts might go hoarse extolling the significance of privacy, but it is for nought if the AMU decides it can still walk away with its flagrant violation of basic civil liberties. Or perhaps the frenzy generated by the incident will work as a deterrent factor to future institutions fixing their moral gaze upon their members. The strength of an incident as precedent can only be gauged effectively by how its future echoes use it as a reference point.

Meanwhile, what do these stories tell us about privacy?

The issues faced by the transgender community tell us that privacy doesn’t necessarily encompass a one-size-fits-all approach, and can raise as many questions as it answers. The issues faced by the Lucknow NGOs narrate a tale of institutionalized disrespect for privacy that has marginally more devastating consequences for the homosexual community by the spectre of outing. The issues faced by lesbian women evidence yet another need for breaching the public/private divide, demonstrating how the protection of the law might be welcome in the family sphere regardless of the bull-in-a-china-shop[55] prophecies of doom. Alternate sexual orientation and gender identity might bring the community under a common rubric, but distilling the components of that rubric is essential for engaging in any kind of useful understanding of the community and the kind of privacy violations it suffers – or engage with situations when the lack of privacy is empowering.

Selected incidents reported from 2001-2011

1	NGO charged with running gay club	8 July 2001	Times of India	http://goo.gl/MNHzw
2	Homosexuality okay if practiced in private	14 September 2011	Sify News	http://goo.gl/iF3PQ
3	Male callers harass lesbian helpline	26 October 2003	Mid Day Mumbai	http://goo.gl/Xf0fj
4	Lesbian marriages, born of a legal loophole, stir debate in India	4 February 2005	DesPardes	http://goo.gl/O30Hf
5	Third sex finds a place on Indian passport forms	10 March 2005	Telegraph	http://goo.gl/nBQIt
6	Lesbian couple sparks debate in Uttar Pradesh state	9 April 2005	Sify News	http://goo.gl/9GxuF
7	The Indian city of Chennai is set to build toilets for trans people	July 2005	Pink News	http://goo.gl/52Llq
8	Homosexual gangs	3 January 2006	Pioneer	http://goo.gl/NX2NP
9	Nihal was used to homosexual sex since 1986	4 January 2006	Dainik Jagran	http://goo.gl/NX2NP
10	Ain’t no cure for love	6 June 2006	India Together	http://goo.gl/V9Vjn
11	Police bust gay party	4 February 2008	Times of India	http://goo.gl/n2nyz
12	Aligarh Muslim University professor suspended for being gay	18 February 2010	Times of India	http://goo.gl/D8LuD
13	Class monitors	8 March 2010	Outlook	http://goo.gl/Q2dkV
14	Aligarh gay professor found dead, may have killed self	8 April 2010	Times of India	http://goo.gl/FyeIz
15	AMU professor a victim of clash between ‘tradition’ and privacy	25 February 2010	The Hindu	http://goo.gl/AtiJW
16	Criminal case registered against six in gay professor case	10 April 2010	India Today	http://goo.gl/LfwDI
17	AMU Prof promised money for sex: Rickshaw-puller	19 April 2010	Times of India	http://goo.gl/aXmBz
18	Varsity paid for sting on gay professor	19 February 2010	India Today	http://goo.gl/cyQxL
19	TV channel outs gay men, women in Hyderabad	24 February 2010	NDTV	http://goo.gl/w6NG4
20	News Broadcasting Standards Authority censures TV9 over privacy violations	25 March 2011	Privacy India	http://goo.gl/rY7bT
21	In a first, Gurgaon Court recognizes lesbian marriage	29 July 2011	Times of India	http://goo.gl/70KPr

Notes

[1].Madhavi Goradia Divan, Facets of Media Law, Eastern Book Company, Lucknow, 2006.

[2].For instance, an HIV positive man’s right to marry as discussed in Mr. X v. Hospital Z, 1998 (8) SCC 296.

[3].Section 377, Indian Penal Code.

[4].(2009) 160 DLT 277.

[5].http://www.openletter377.com/, last accessed 20 October 2007.

[6].Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).

[7].Cathy Harris, Outing Privacy Litigation: Towards a Contextual Strategy for Lesbian and Gay Rights, 65 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 248.

[8].Ibid.

[9].Amita Dhanda, Constructing a New Human Rights Lexicon : Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Year 5 No. 8 Sao Paulo June 2008.

[10].See Henry Shue, Basic Rights Subsistence Affluence and US Foreign Policy, Princeton University Press, 2nd ed. 1996.

[11].Naz Foundation v. Government of NCT, Delhi, 160 (2009) DLT 277.

[12].Ibid., 47.

[13].Ibid., 26, 83, 113.

[14].Arvind Narrain, Queer: Law and Despised Sexualities in India, Books for Change, 2004.

[15].Men who have sex with men.

[16]."Gay Club Supplied Boys to Politicians"; "Gay Culture Started in UP in 1998 Itself", The Times of India.

[17].Criminal Misc. Case No. 2054/2001, as taken from Arvind Narrain, Queer: Law and Despised Sexualities in India.

[18].AIR 1963 SC 1295; it was Justice Subba Rao’s minority decision here that laid the foundation for the right to privacy in India.

[19].1975 (2) SCC 148.

[20]. Arvind Narrain, Queer: Law and Despised Sexualities in India, Books for Change, 2004.

[21].Ibid.

[21].Alok Gupta, Section 377 and the Dignity of Indian Homosexuals, http://www.iglhrc.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/15-1.pdf, last accessed on 9 August 2011.

[22].Ibid.

[23].http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Police_bust_gay_party/articleshow/2753740.cms, last accessed on 8 August 2011.

[24].Human Rights Violations in the Transgender Community: A Report by PUCL-K, 2nd ed. 2005.

[25].http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/04/india-gender, last accessed on 9 August 2011.

[26].http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11518.html, last accessed on 10 August 2011.

[27].Transgender people deserve privacy, dignity, in public bathrooms, Maine Opinion, available at http://bangordailynews.com/2011/05/17/opinion/transgender-people-deserve-privacy-dignity-in-public-bathrooms/, last accessed on 20 August 2011.

[28].Transgender people deserve privacy, dignity, in public bathrooms, Maine Opinion, available at http://bangordailynews.com/2011/05/17/opinion/transgender-people-deserve-privacy-dignity-in-public-bathrooms/, last accessed on 20 August 2011.

[29].Siddharth Narrain, Being a Eunuch, available at http://www.countercurrents.org/gen-narrain141003.htm, last accessed on 20 August 2011.

[30].http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gLqrElQbWboJ:infochangeindia.org/human-rights/news/-third-sex-finds-a-place-on-indian-passport-forms.html+PASSPORT+APPLICATION+INDIA+gender&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in&source=www.google.co.in, last accessed on 9 August 2011.

[31].http://passport.gov.in/cpv/ppapp1.pdf, last accessed on 9 August 2011.

[32].http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/andhra-pradesh-government-gives-in-to-sexuality-bias-71454, last accessed on 8 August 2011.

[33].Gee Ameena Suleiman, Non-Hijra Transgenders Struggle for Identity, Daily News and Analysis, available at http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_non-hijra-transgenders-struggle-for-identity_1588421, last accessed on 25 August 2011.

[34].Arvind Narrain and Vinay Chandran, It’s Not My Job to tell you It’s okay to be Gay – Medicalisation of Homosexuality: A Queer Critique, available at http://www.altlawforum.org/gender-and-sexuality/publications/medicalizationfinal.rtf/at_download/filehttp://www.altlawforum.org/gender-and-sexuality/publications/medicalizationfinal.rtf/at_download/file, last accessed on 20 August 2011.

[35].160 (2009) DLT 277.

[36].http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/4b6fe2110.pdf, last accessed 9 August 2011.

[37].Arvind Narrain. and Tarunabh Khaitan, Medicalisation of Homosexuality : A Human Rights Approach, as taken from Bina Fernandez (ed.), Humjinsi: A Resource Book on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights in India (New Delhi : India Centre for Human Rights and the Law, 2002).

[38].Vinay Chandran, Ain’t no cure for love, India Together, last accessed on 8 August 2011.

[39].Supra n. 32.

[40].Maya Sharma, Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged India, Yoda Press, 2006.

[41].India: Second NGO Shadow Report on CEDAW, November 2006, available at http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/pdf/India%20Shadow%20report.pdf, last accessed on 10 September 2011.

[42].http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-24/kolkata/28367047_1_girls-suicide-lesbian-couple, last accessed on 10 September 2011.

[43].http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-22/kolkata/28624865_1_lesbian-couple-suicide-field, last accessed on 10 September 2011.

[44].Saptarshi Mandal, Right to Privacy in Naz Foundation: A Counter-Heteronormative Critique, 3 NUJS L. Rev. 2009.

[45].Vinay Sitapati, The Spectre of Naz, as available at http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-spectre-of-naz/609695/0, last accessed on 9 August 2011.

[46].http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-18/india/28118769_1_shrinivas-ramchandra-siras-rickshaw-puller-amu-campus, last accessed on 11 August 2011.

[47]. Arvind Narrain, et al, Policing Morality at AMU: An Independent Fact-Finding Report, available at http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/2010/03/10/9724.policing-morality-at-amu-an-independent-fact-finding-report?n=sea&nm=amu, last accessed on 11 August 2011.

[48].Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras & Ors v. The Aligarh Muslim University & Ors, Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.17549 of 2010.

[49].Vinay Sitapati, The Spectre of Naz, as available at http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-spectre-of-naz/609695/0, last accessed on 9 August 2011.

[50]. Supra n. 32

[51].Lgbt-india@yahoogroups.com. This is possibly the most prolific mailing list for LGBT persons in the country, and is constantly active with atleast 4-5 mails being exchanged per day.

[52].Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards of the News Broadcasters Association.

[53].Code 9, Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards of the News Broadcasters Association.

[54].TV9 Ordered to Air Apology for Sting available at http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_tv9-ordered-to-air-apology-for-sting_1527622, last accessed on 10 September 2011.

[55].“Introduction of constitutional law in the home … is like introducing a bull in a china shop. It will prove to be a ruthless destroyer of the marriage institution”, Rohatgi, J. in Harvinder Kaur v. Harmander Singh Choudhry, AIR 1984 Del 66.

* The author, Danish Sheikh works with the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, India.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy-sexual-minorities

September 2011 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2012-07-30T06:34:19Z

Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage that happened in the month of September 2011.

Researchers@Work

RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organizations and individuals in order to focus on its two year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Five monographs were recently launched at a workshop, Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum held in Ahmedabad from 19 to 22 August 2011.

Re:Wiring Bodies by Asha Achuthan
The Last Cultural Mile by Ashish Rajadhyaksha
Porn: Law, Video, Technology by Namita A Malhotra
Archives and Access by Aparna Balachandran and Rochelle Pinto
Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities by Pratyush Shankar

Digital Natives with a Cause?

Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS, India and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and 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 want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.

Featured Publication

Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? - This collaboratively produced collective, edited by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen, asks critical and pertinent questions about theory and practice around ‘digital revolutions’ in a post MENA (Middle East - North Africa) world. It works with multiple vocabularies and frameworks and produces dialogues and conversations between digital natives, academic and research scholars, practitioners, development agencies and corporate structures to examine the nature and practice of digital natives in emerging contexts from the Global South.

Book Review

Digital (Alter)Natives with a Cause? — Book Review by Maarten van den Berg - The books come in a beautifully designed cassette and are accompanied by a funky yellow package in the shape of a floppy disk containing the booklet ‘D:coding Digital Natives’, a corresponding DVD, and a pack of postcards portraying the evolution of writing - in the sentence ‘I love you’, written with a goose feather in 1734, to the character set ‘i<3u’ entered on a mobile device in 2011, writes Maarten van den Berg. The review was published in "The Broker" on 19 September 2011.

Event Organised

Digital AlterNatives book launch – CIS and Hivos launched this book at the Museum for Communication, Hague on 16 September 2011.

Accessibility

Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.

Event Participated

Stakeholders Meeting of the USOF on Facilitating ICT Access to Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas, on 7 September 2011. Nirmita Narasimhan made a presentation.

Access to Knowledge

Access to Knowledge is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents, and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential, and such access promotes creativity and innovation, and helps bridge the differences between the developing and developed worlds in a positive manner. Towards this end, CIS is campaigning for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-challenged people, advocating against laws (such as the PUPFIP Bill) that privatize public-funded knowledge, call for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, question the demonization of 'pirates', and support endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime.

New Blog Entries

Copyright Amendment Bill in Parliament by Nirmita Narasimhan, 30 August 2011.
Photocopying the past by Sunil Abraham in the Indian Express, 2 September 2011.
Calling Out the BSA on Its BS by Pranesh Prakash, 9 September 2011.

Internet Governance

Internet technologies have fundamentally questioned the notion of governance, not only at the level of administration but also at the level of mechanisms of control, regulation and shaping of the individual. e-Governance initiatives, in combination with other regimes of surveillance, control and censorship, are redefining what it means to be a citizen, a subject, and an individual. We look at questions of governance — at the micro level of the individual and the private (family, relationships, community structures, etc.) as well as the level of governmentality — at the macro level of nation state, citizenship, market economies, and the public (spaces of consumption, work, leisure, political engagement, etc.) under the umbrella of digital governance.

New Blog Entry

Understanding the Right to Information by Elonnai Hickok, 28 September 2011.

Events Organised

Using the Internet as a Tool for Political Change: Lessons Learned and Way Forward, IGF, Nairobi, 27 September 2011.

Telecom

The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers.

Articles by Shyam Ponappa

Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website.

Reviving Growth, published in the Business Standard on 1 September 2011.

Event Organised

Open Spectrum for Development in the Context of the Digital Migration, IGF, Nairobi, 29 September 2011.

Miscellaneous

Film Screening

Screening of Partners in Crime, Vikalp@Smriti Nandan along with CIS screened the film and followed it with a discussion with the director of the film, Paromita Vohra, Smriti Nandan Cultural Centre, 9 September 2011.
Prime Security: The Mathematics of RSA Encryption, a one-day workshop with Rohit Gupta, a leading Mathematician.

News & Media Coverage

India's social media "spring" masks forgotten protests [Alistair Scrutton in Reuters, 25 August 2011].
Social media holds the key to Hazare's campaign success [Alistair Scrutton in NEWS.scotsman.com, 26 August 2011].
Digital divide: Why Irom Sharmila can’t do an Anna [FirstPost.Ideas, 25 August 2011].
When revolutions go viral [Times of India (Crescent Edition), 27 August 2011].
IBSA Seminar on Global Internet Governance, organised by the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations, with support from the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) and the Center for Technology & Society (CTS/FGV) and governmental and non- governmental actors from India, Brazil and South Africa, 1 to 2 September 2011, Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pranesh Prakash participated in this event.
Copyrights Amendment Bill to Be Tabled in Indian Parliament – Parallel Import provisions have Been Removed [Mike Palmedo in infojustice.org, 5 September 2011]
The Power of Information: New Technologies for Philanthropy and Development [Indigo Trust, 15 September 2011]. Sunil Abraham participated in this event. A video of his speech is now available on YouTube.
Planning Commission, Census 2011 and India Post using social media to understand people's pulse better [Vikas Kumar in the Economic Times, 20 September 2011]
The Impact of Regulation: FOSS and Enterprise, organised by FOSSFA and ICFOSS, IGF, Nairobi, 28 September 2011.
Privacy, Security, and Access to Rights: A Technical and Policy Analyses, organised by Expression Technologies, IGF, Nairobi, 29 September 2011.
Putting Users First: How Can Privacy be Protected in Today’s Complex Mobile Ecosystem?, organised by GSM Association, 29 September 2011.
The Truman Show, in Kerala [Times of India, posted on CIS website on 23 September 2011].
Making a difference, online and offline [LiveMint, 27 September 2011].

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CIS is grateful to 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/september-2011-bulletin

IISc students boycott UID, don’t want Big Brother to keep watch

praskrishna — 2011-08-23T08:24:14Z

The programme doesn’t have statutory backing. It is still in parliament

Nandan Nilekani may be Bangalore’s blue-eyed boy making waves at the national level with his Unique Identification Number (UID), but there’s one part of the city that’s not impressed: A section of students and faculty of Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

While many Bangaloreans have started enrolling for UID, the students are in boycott mode and say they will never do so.

Professor Shiv Sethi, astrophysics department, Raman Research Institute, said, “They (the authorities) have moved faster than us by starting the enrolment. It was during the discussion phase that we tried to impress upon them the loopholes of UID. Now that they have started the enrolment, it’s our turn to protest. We will meet and discuss with other like-minded people.”

IIScians say they don’t want to be under surveillance and that they are not comfortable with giving away their personal details since studies have proved how unsafe electronic data can be. The programme has been scrapped in the UK, they said.

In fact, when Nilekani visited IISc a few months back to deliver a lecture, the anti-UID group protested with placards and banners that read, ‘Beware, Big Brother is watching you’ and ‘Secure electronic archive is a myth’.

And now, apart from not signing up, some students are even considering burning copies of UID forms, a la team Anna burning copies of the draft Lokpal bill.

Prathamesh, a scholar, said: “UID is not going to solve problems of leakages. The government should universalise the PDS system to control misuse of subsidised foodgrain that find their way to restaurants. The project is fraught with loopholes and doesn’t have statutory backing. I will burn copies of the forms.”

Prathamesh added that the UID project was the brainwave of software companies who do not have a regular stream of revenue.

Even IISc alumni are putting up a fight. One of them who participated in the protest said, “I will not register. The programme does not have statutory backing. It is still in parliament. First, they said it was voluntary. Now, they are trying to link it to banks, LPG connections and other utilities.”

Sethi added, “A few people have approached the court. We will decide the next course of action.”

There are others who have doubts. Consumer activist Chandrasekhar of Malle-swaram feels that he needs to clarify all his doubts before enrolling. “I spoke with the officials. They told me it was voluntary. But now, it looks like they are linking it with other utilities.”

Nishant Shah, director, research, Centre for Internet Society, said, "We need to check for three issues: data retention, data protection and data privacy. Only after these issues are resolved can we have a UID for every citizen."

This article by Sameer Ranjan Bakshi was published in the Bangalore Mirror on August 23, 2011. The original story can be read here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/iisc-students-boycott-uid

IP Addresses and Expeditious Disclosure of Identity in India

Prashant Iyengar — 2012-12-14T10:20:59Z

In this research, Prashant Iyengar reviews the statutory mechanism regulating the retention and disclosure of IP addresses by Internet companies in India. Prashant provides a compilation of anecdotes on how law enforcement authorities in India have used IP address information to trace individuals responsible for particular crimes.

Over the past decade, with the rise in numbers of users, the internet has become an extremely fraught site that has been frequently used in India for the perpetration of a range of 'cyber crimes' — from extortion to defamation to financial fraud. In a revealing statistic, in 2010, the Mumbai police reportedly "received 771 complaints about internet-related offences, 319 of which were from women who were the victims of fake profiles, online upload of private photographs and obscene emails."[1]

Law enforcement authorities in India have not exactly lagged behind in bringing these new age cyber criminals to book, and have installed special ‘Cyber crime cells’ in different cities to combat crimes on the internet. These cells have been particularly adept at using IP Addresses information to trace individuals responsible for crimes. Very briefly, an Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numeric label – a set of four numbers (Eg. 202.54.30.1) - that is assigned to every device (e.g., computer, printer) participating on the internet. [2] Website operators and ISPs typically maintain data logs that track the online activity of each IP address that accesses their services. Although IP Addresses refer to particular computers – not necessarily individual users – it is possible to trace these addresses backwards to expose the individual behind the computer. [3] As even a casual Google search with the phrase “IP, police, India” would reveal, police authorities in different cities in India have been quite successful in employing this technology to trace culprits.

However, along with its utility in the detection of crime, the tracking of persons by their IP addresses is potentially invasive of individuals’ privacy. In the absence of a culture of strict adherence to the ‘rule of law’ by the police apparatus in India, the unbridled ability to track persons through IP addresses has the potential of becoming an extremely oppressive tool of surveillance.

In this short note, we review the statutory mechanism regulating the retention and disclosure of IP addresses by internet companies in India. In order to provide context, we begin with a compilation of anecdotes on how various law enforcement authorities in India have used IP address information to trace individuals responsible for particular crimes.

Examples of use and abuse by Indian authorities

As mentioned above, the online media has been humming with stories which indicate the extent to which IP Addresses has become a useful and frequently deployed weapon in the arsenal of law enforcement agencies:

In May 2010, an Army officer stationed in Mumbai was arrested for distributing child pornography from his computer. [4] He was traced by the Mumbai Police after the German Federal Police alerted Interpol that objectionable pictures were being uploaded from the IP address he was using.
In February 2011, Cyber Crime Police in Mumbai sought IP address details of a user who had posted ‘Anti Ambedkarite’ content on Facebook – the popular social networking site. [5]
In February 2008, internet search company Google was ordered by the Bombay High Court to reveal "particulars, names and the address of the person" who had posted defamatory content against a company on Google’s blogging service Blogger.[6]
In September 2009, a man was arrested by the Delhi Police in Mumbai for blackmailing classical musician Anoushka Shankar. The culprit had allegedly hacked into her email account and downloaded copies of personal photographs. He was traced by using his IP address.[7]
In April 2010, Gurgaon Police arrested a teenage boy for allegedly posting obscene messages about an actress on Facebook. The newspaper account reports that "During investigations, the police browsed through several service providers and finally zeroed in on BSNL, which helped them trace the sender's IP address to someone called 'Manoj Gupta' in Gurgaon. A team of policemen were sent to Gurgaon but the personnel found out that Manoj Gupta was fictitious name which the teenager was using in his IP address. The police arrested the accused as well as seized the hardisk of his personal computer." [8]
In February 2011, the police traced a missing boy who had run away from home, by following the IP address trail he left when he updated his Facebook profile status. [9]

What is clearly evident from these accounts is a growing awareness and enthusiasm on the part of Indian law enforcement agencies to use IP address trails as a routine part of their criminal investigative process. While this is not unwelcome, considering the kinds of grievances listed above and the backdrop a dismal record of criminal enforcement in India, there is also a flip side. In a shocking incident in August 2007, Lakshmana Kailash. a techie from Bangalore was arrested on the suspicion of having posted insulting images of Chhatrapati Shivaji, a major historical figure in the state of Maharashtra, on the social-networking site Orkut. [10] The police identified him based on IP address details obtained from Google and Airtel – Lakshmana’s ISP. He was brought to Pune and jailed for 50 days before it was discovered that the IP address provided by Airtel was erroneous. The mistake was evidently due to the fact that while requesting information from Airtel, the police had not properly specified whether the suspect had posted the content at 1:15 p.m. or a.m.

Taking cognizance of his plight from newspaper accounts, the State Human Rights Commission subsequently ordered the company to pay Rs 2 lakh to Lakshmana as damages.[11] This incident sounds a cautionary note, amidst so many celebratory accounts, signalling that grave human rights abuses could result from the unchecked use of this technology.

These are just seven out of scores of instances of Indian investigative authorities tracing culprits using IP addresses. The crimes range from blackmail to impersonation, to defamation to planning terror attacks. Seldom in these cases has a court order actually been required by the agency that discloses the IP address of the individual.[12] Clearly there seems to be a very easy relation between law enforcement agencies in India one the one hand, and Internet Service Providers and online services such as Google and Facebook on the other.

Google’s own ‘Transparency Report’[13] which provides statistics on the number of instances where Governments agencies have approached the company demanding information or take-down, states that that it received close to 1700 ‘data requests’ from Indian authorities between January to June 2010 – ranking India 3rd globally in terms of such requests behind the United States and Brazil. That a high percentage – 79% - of these requests have been complied with indicate that within a short span of time, ‘Indian authorities’ have discovered in Google, a reliable and pliable ally in seeking information about their subjects. In 2007, Orkut -a social-networking site owned by Google- even entered into a co-operation agreement with the Mumbai police in terms of which “'forums' and 'communities'” which contained “defamatory or inflammatory content” would be blocked and the IP addresses from which such content has been generated would be disclosed to the police. [15]

Although similar transparency reports are not forthcoming from the other Internet giants such as Yahoo or Facebook, one may presume that this co-operation has not been withheld by them. [16]

In the sections that follow, we outline the legal framework that facilitates this co-operation between law enforcement authorities and web service providers.

Lawful disclosure of IP Addresses

In this section, we are seeking a legal source for the compulsion of ISPs and intermediaries (including websites) to disclose IP Address data. Are there guidelines in Indian law on how much information must be disclosed, under what circumstances and for how long?

Broadly, there are four sources to which we may trace this regime of disclosure and co-operation. Firstly, ISPs are required, under the operating license they are issued under the Telegraph Act, to provide assistance to law enforcement authorities. Secondly, the Information Technology Act contains provisions which empower law enforcement authorities to compel information from those in charge of any ‘computer resources’. Reciprocally, ‘intermediaries’ – including ISPs and websites - are charged under new Rules under the IT Act with co-operating with government agencies on pain of exposure to financial liability. Thirdly, the Code of Criminal Procedure defines the scope of police powers of investigation which include powers to interrogate and summon information and Fourthly, individual subscribers enter into contracts with ISPs and web services which do not offer any stiff assurances of privacy with regard to the IP Address details.

The sections that follow offer greater detail on each of these areas of the law.

Monitoring of internet users under the ISP licenses

ISPs are regulated and operate under a license issued under the Telegraph Act 1885. Section 5 of the Telegraph Act empowers the Government to take possession of ‘licensed telegraphs’ and to order interception of messages in cases of ‘public emergency’ or ‘in the interest of the public safety’. Interception may only be carried out pursuant to a written order by an officer specifically empowered for this purpose by the State/Central Government. The officer must be satisfied that “it is necessary or expedient so to do in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence."

Although the statute governs the actions of ISPs in a general way, more detailed guidelines regulating their behaviour are contained in the terms of the licenses issued to them which set out the conditions under which they are permitted to conduct business. The Internet Services License Agreement (which authorizes ISPs to function in India) contains provisions requiring telecom operators to safeguard the privacy of their consumers or to co-operate with government agencies when required to do so. Some of the important clauses in this agreement are:

Part VI of the License Agreement gives the Government the right to inspect/monitor the ISPs systems. The ISP is responsible for making facilities available for such interception.
Clause 32 under Part VI contains provisions mandating the confidentiality of information held by ISPs. These provisions hold ISPs responsible for the protection of privacy of communication, and to ensure that unauthorised interception of message does not take place. Towards this, ISPs are required:

to take all necessary steps to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of any information about a third party and their business to whom they provide service and from whom they have acquired such information by virtue of those service and shall use their best endeavours to secure that :
to ensure that no person acting on behalf of the ISPs divulge or uses any such information except as may be necessary in the course of providing such service to the Third Party; and
This safeguard however does not apply where (i) The information relates to a specific party and that party has consented in writing to such information being divulged or used, and such information is divulged or used in accordance with the terms of that consent; or (ii) The information is already open to the public and otherwise known.
To take necessary steps to ensure that any person(s) acting on their behalf observe confidentiality of customer information.

Clause 33.4 makes it the responsibility of the ISP to trace nuisance, obnoxious or malicious calls, messages or communications transported through its equipment.
Clause 34.8 requires ISPs to maintain a log of all users connected and the service they are using (mail, telnet, http etc.). The ISPs must also log every outward login or telnet through their computers. These logs, as well as copies of all the packets originating from the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) of the ISP, must be available in REAL TIME to Telecom Authority. The Clause forbids logins where the identity of the logged-in user is not known.
Clause 34.12 and 34.13 requires the ISP to make available a list of all subscribers to its services on a password protected website for easy access by Government authorities.
Clause 34.16 requires the ISP to activate services only after verifying the bonafides of the subscribers and collecting supporting documentation. There is no regulation governing how long this information is to be retained.
Clause 34.22 makes it mandatory for the Licensee to make available “details of the subscribers using the service” to the Government or its representatives “at any prescribed instant”.
Clause 34.23 mandates that the ISP maintain "all commercial records with regard to the communications exchanged on the network” for a period of “at least one year for scrutiny by the Licensor for security reasons and may be destroyed thereafter unless directed otherwise by the licensor".
Clause 34.28 (viii) forbids the ISP from transferring the following information to any person/place outside India:

Any accounting information relating to subscriber (except for international roaming/billing) (Note: it does not restrict a statutorily required disclosure of financial nature) ; and
User information (except pertaining to foreign subscribers using Indian Operator’s network while roaming).

Clause 34.28(ix) and (x) require the ISP to provide traceable identity of their subscribers and on request by the Government must be able to provide the geographical location of any subscriber at any given time.
Clause 34.28(xix) stipulates that “in order to maintain the privacy of voice and data, monitoring shall only be upon authorisation by the Union Home Secretary or Home Secretaries of the States/Union Territories”. (It is unclear whether this is to operate as an overriding provision governing all other clauses as well).

From the list above, it is very clear that by the terms of their licenses, ISPs are required to maintain extensive logs of user activity for unspecified periods. However, it is unclear, in practice, to what extent these requirements are being followed by ISPs. For instance, an article in the Economic Times in December 2010 [18] reports:

"The Intelligence Bureau wants internet service providers, or ISPs, to keep a record of all online activities of customers for a minimum of six months. Currently, mobile phone companies and internet service providers do not keep online logs that track the web usage pattern of their customers. They selectively monitor online activities of only those customers as required by intelligence and security agencies, explained an executive with a telecom company." (emphasis added)

The news report goes on to disclose the ambitious plans of the Intelligence Bureau to “put in place a system that can uniquely identify any person using the internet across the country” through “a technology platform where users will have to mandatorily submit some form of an online identification or password to access the internet every time they go online, irrespective of the service provider.” Worryingly, the report goes on to discuss the setting up by the telecommunications department of “India's indigenously-built Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), which can track all communication traffic—wireless and fixed line, satellite, internet, e-mails and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls—and gather intelligence inputs. The centralised system, modeled on similar set-ups in several Western countries, aims to be a one-stop solution as against the current practice of running several decentralised monitoring agencies under various ministries, where each one has contrasting processing systems, technology platforms and clearance levels.” Although as of this writing, this CMS is not yet fully functional, its launch seems to be imminent and will inaugurate with it, an era of constant and continuous surveillance of all internet users.

Provisions under the IT Act 2000

The IT Act enables government agencies to obtain IP Address details from intermediaries, including ISPs, by following a stipulated procedure. In addition, it enjoins intermediaries to co-operate with law enforcement agencies as a part of their due-diligence behaviour.

In a parallel, seemingly conflicting move, the IT Act also requires intermediaries to observe stiff Data Protection norms. In the sub-sections that follow, we look at each of these various provisions under the IT Act.

Interception and Monitoring of computer resources

There are two regimes of interception and monitoring information under separate sections the Information Technology Act. Both would seem capable of authorising access of IP Addresses, among other information to government agencies.

Section 69 deals with “Power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource”.

In addition, the Government has been given a more generalised monitoring power under Section 69B to “monitor and collect traffic data or information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource”. This monitoring power may be used to aid a range of “purposes related to cyber security.”[19] “Traffic data” has been defined in the section to mean “any data identifying or purporting to identify any person, computer system or computer network or any location to or from which communication is or may be transmitted.”

Rules have been issued by the Central Government under both these sections which are similar, although with important distinctions. These rules stipulate the manner in which the powers conferred by the sections may be exercised.

The important difference between the two sections is that while Section 69 provides a mechanism whereby specific computer resources can be monitored in order to learn the contents of communications that pass through such resource, Section 69B by contrast provides a mechanism for obtaining ‘meta-data’ about all communications transacted using a computer resource over a period of time – their sources, destinations, routes, duration, time etc without actually learning the content of the messages involved. The latter type of monitoring is specifically in order to combat threats to ‘cyber security’, while the former can be invoked for a number of purposes such as the securing of public order and criminal investigation. [21]

However, this distinction is not very sharp – an interception order under Section 69 directed at a computer resource located in an ISP can yield traffic data in addition to the content of all communications. Thus for instance, if a direction was passed ordering my ISP to intercept “all communications sent or received by Prashant Iyengar”, the information obtained by such interception would include a resume of all emails exchanged, websites visited, files downloaded etc. In such a case, a separate order under Section 69B would be unnecessary. An important clue about their relative importance may lie in the different purposes for which each section may be invoked coupled with the fact that while directions under Section 69 can be issued by officers both at the central and state level, directions under Section 69B can only be issued by the Secretary of the Department of Information Technology under the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. [22] This indicates that the collection of traffic data by the government under Section 69B is intended to facilitate the securing of India’s ‘cyber security’ from possible external threats – a Defence function – while the interception powers under Section 69 are to be exercised for more domestic purposes as aids to Police functions.

The rules framed under Section 69 and Section 69B contain important safeguards stipulating, inter alia, to a) Who may issue directions b) How are the directions to be executed c) The duration they remain in operation d) to whom data may be disclosed e) Confidentiality obligations of intermediaries f) Periodic oversight of interception directions by a Review Committee under the Telegraph Act g)maintenance of records of interception by intermediaries h) Mandatory destruction of information in appropriate cases.

Although these sections provide powerful tools of surveillance in the hands of the state, these powers may only be exercised by observing the rather tedious procedures laid down. In the absence of any data on interception orders, it is unclear to what extent these powers are in fact being used in the manner laid down. Certainly, from the instances cited in the beginning of this paper, the police departments in the various states do not seem to need to invoke these powers in order to obtain IP Address information from ISPs or websites. This information appears to be available to them merely for the asking. How do we account for this unquestioning pliancy on the part of the ISPs?

In February 2011, Reliance Communications, a large telecom service provider disclosed to the Supreme Court that over a hundred and fifty thousand telephones had been tapped by it between 2006 and 2010 – almost 30,000 a year. A majority of these interceptions were conducted based on orders issued from state police departments whose legal authority to issue them is suspect. New rules framed under the Telegraph Act in 2007 required such orders to be issued only by a high-ranking Secretary in the Department/Ministry of Home Affairs. [23] The willing compliance by Reliance with the police’s requests indicates both their own as well as the police’s blithe unawareness about the change in the regime governing tapping. Things seem to have continued just as before through pure inertia.

To return to the question about why ISPs comply with police requests, it is conceivable that this same inertia, and an intuitive confidence both on the part of the police and the ISPs that they would not be made to answer for their disclosures, is what explains the ready and expeditious access that ISPs give police departments to IP Address details. In the next sub-section we examine intermediary liability rules which require intermediaries to positively disclose personal information to law enforcement authorities.

Data Protection Rules

Section 43A of the IT Act obliges corporate bodies who ‘possess, deal or handle’ any ‘sensitive personal data’ to implement and maintain ‘reasonable’ security practices, failing which, they would be liable to compensate those affected by any negligence attributable to this failure.

In April 2011, the Central Government notified rules under section 43A of the Information Technology Act in order to define “sensitive personal information” and to prescribe “reasonable security practices” that body corporates must observe in relation to the information they hold. Since traffic data including IP Address data is one kind of personal information that ISPs hold, and since all ISPs are ‘body corporates’, these rules apply to them equally and define the terms on which they may deal with such information.

Rule 3 of these Rules designates various types of information as ‘sensitive personal information’ including passwords, medical records etc.[25] Significantly, for the purposes of this paper, IP address details are not included in this list.

Body Corporates are forbidden from collecting any information without prior consent in writing for the proposed usage. Further, Sensitive personal information may not be collected unless - (a) the information is collected for a lawful purpose connected with a function or activity of the agency; and (b) the collection of the information is necessary for that purpose. [Rule 5]

Rule 4 enjoins a body corporate or its representative who “collects, receives, possess, stores, deals or handles” data to provide a privacy policy “for handling of or dealing in user information including sensitive personal information”. This policy is to be made available for view by such “providers of information” including on a website. The policy must provide the following details:

Clear and easily accessible statements of its practices and policies;
Type of personal or sensitive information collected;
Purpose of collection and usage of such information;
Disclosure of such information as provided in rule 6 [27]
Reasonable security practices and procedures as provided under rule 8.

Rule 6 enacts as a general rule that disclosure of information “by the body corporate to any third party shall require prior permission from the provider of such information”. Consent is, however, not required, “where disclosure is necessary for compliance of a legal obligation”. This is further fortified by a proviso to the rule which stipulates the mandatory sharing of information “without obtaining prior consent from provider of information, with Government agencies mandated under the law to obtain information including sensitive personal data or information for the purpose of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation including cyber incidents, prosecution, and punishment of offences.” In such a case, the Government agency is required to “send a request in writing to the body corporate possessing the sensitive personal data or information stating clearly the purpose of seeking such information.” The government agency is also required to “state that the information thus obtained will not be published or shared with any other person.” [28]

Sub Rule (2) of Rule 6 requires “any Information including sensitive information” to be “disclosed to any third party by an order under the law for the time being in force.” This sub-rule does not distinguish between orders issued by a court and those issued by an administrative/quasi-judicial body.

Rule 8 requires body corporates to implement documented security standards such as the international Standard IS/ISO/IEC 27001 on "Information Technology - Security Techniques - Information Security Management System”.

What is curious about these rules is that its provisions, particularly those relating to lawful disclosure, appear to go much further than the limited purpose authorised by section 43A under which they are framed. Section 43A is intended only to fix liability for the negligent disclosure of information by body corporates which results in wrongful loss. It is not intended to inaugurate a regime of mandatory disclosure, as the Rules attempt to do. In positively requiring, body corporates to disclose information upon a mere request by any ‘government agency’, these rules attempt to create a parallel, much softer mechanism by which the same information that is dealt with under Sections 69 and 69A and rules framed under them can be accessed by a far wider range of governmental actors.

Even more curious is the fact that the only legal consequence to the ISP for its negligence in disclosing information to government agencies as stipulated in the rules is that it exposes itself to possible civil liability from the ‘person affected’. [29] Thus, conceivably, if an ISP failed to disclose IP Address data of its users to the police at the instance of, say, targets of online financial fraud, they can be sued by the victims of such fraud. With no incentive to assume this ridiculous burden, it is foreseeable that ISPs would hasten to comply with every request for information from a government agency– however whimsically issued.

Intermediary Due Diligence

Section 79 of the IT Act makes intermediaries, including ISPs liable for third party content hosted or made available by them unless they observe ‘due diligence’, follow prescribed guidelines and disable access to any unlawful content that is brought to their attention. Rules were notified under this section in April 2011 which defined the ‘due diligence’ measures they were required to observe. [30]

Accordingly, ISPs are required to forbid users from publishing, uploading or sharing any information that:

belongs to another person and to which the user does not have any right to;
is grossly harmful, harassing, blasphemous defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically objectionable, disparaging, relating or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or otherwise unlawful in any manner whatever;
harm minors in any way;
infringes any patent, trademark, copyright or other proprietary rights;
violates any law for the time being in force;
deceives or misleads the addressee about the origin of such messages or communicates any information which is grossly offensive or menacing in nature;
impersonates another person;
contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer resource;
threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order or causes incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence or prevents investigation of any offence or is insulting any other nation

Upon being notified by any ‘affected person’ who objects to such information in writing, the ISP is required to “act within thirty six hours and where applicable, work with user or owner of such information to disable such information”. [31]

Further, “when required by lawful order”, the ISP, website or any other intermediary “shall provide information or any such assistance to Government Agencies who are lawfully authorised for investigative, protective, cyber security activity. The information or any such assistance shall be provided for the purpose of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, cyber security incidents and punishment of offences under any law for the time being in force, on a request in writing staling clearly the purpose of seeking such information or any such assistance.”

Visible here is the same attempt at subversion of Sections 69 and 69B as discussed in the previous section under the Data Protection Rules. Failure to observe these ‘due diligence’ measures – including disclosure of IP Address details – would expose ISPs and web-services like Google and Facebook to civil liability under Section 79, a risk they would not likely or lightly wish to assume.

Police powers of investigation

Apart from the provisions under the IT Act, to what extent are the police in India empowered under the Criminal Procedure Code to simply requisition information - including IP Addresses of suspects - from ISPs and Websites? In the course of routine investigation into other offences, the police have wide powers to summon witnesses, interrogate them and compel production of documents. Can these powers be invoked to obtain IP Address information? Are ISPs and Websites somehow immune from complying with these requirements?

Section 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure empowers courts or police officers to call for, by written order, the production of documents or other things that are “necessary or desirable” for the purpose of “any investigation, inquiry, trial or other proceeding under the Code”.

Sub-section 3 of this section however limits the application of this power by exempting any “letter, postcard, telegram, or other document or any parcel or thing in the custody of the postal or telegraph authority.” Such documents can only be obtained under judicial scrutiny by following a more rigorous procedure laid down in Section 92. Under this section, it is only if a “District Magistrate, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Court of Session or High Court” is of the opinion that “any document, parcel or thing in the custody of a postal or telegraph authority is.. wanted for the purpose of any investigation, inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Code” that such document, parcel or thing can be required to be delivered to such Magistrate or Court.

However the same section empowers lesser courts and officers such as “any other Magistrate, whether Executive or Judicial, or of any Commissioner of Police or District Superintendent of Police” to require “the postal or telegraph authority, as the case may be .. to cause search to be made for and to detain such document, parcel or thing” pending the order of a higher court.

Section 175 makes it an offence for a person to intentionally omit to produce a document which he is legally bound to produce. In case the document was to be delivered to a public servant or police officer, such omission is punishable with simple imprisonment of up to one month, or with fine up to five hundred rupees or both. If the document was to be delivered to a Court of Justice, omission could invite simple imprisonment up to six with or without a fine of one thousand rupees.

In the context of our discussion on IP Addresses, the following questions emerge:

Are ISPs “telegraph authorities” so that the police are ordinarily prohibited from requisitioning information from them without obtaining orders from a court.
Similarly are Webmail and social networking sites “telegraph or postal authorities” so that securing information from them requires the following of the special procedure laid down in Section 92

Section 3(6) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 defines "telegraph authority" as “the Director General of [Posts and Telegraphs], and includes any officer empowered by him to perform all or any of the functions of the telegraph authority under this Act”. This would seem to exclude all private sector ISPs from the definition, presumably opening them up to ordinary summons issued under Section 91.

However, Section 3(2) defines a "telegraph officer" to mean “any person employed either permanently or temporarily in connection with a telegraph established, maintained or worked by [the Central Government] or by a person licensed under this Act;” Under this section, employees of private ISPs such as Airtel would also be regarded as “telegraph officers” and if we can extend this logic, with some interpretative work, the ISPs themselves might be regarded as “telegraph authorities”. In the absence of definite rulings by the judiciary on this question, however, the ordinary presumption would be that private ISPs are not “telegraph authorities” and are answerable, like all private companies, to requisitions made under Section 91.

This leaves open the question of whether a government company like BSNL would count as a ‘telegraph authority’. If it is, then it would put internet communications conducted through BSNL on a more secure footing than through other ISPs. As things stand, however, it appears that BSNL seems to be extending its co-operation to the police in tracking mischief online , in the same manner as other ISPs.

The second question is relatively more straightforward. The definition of “Post Office” in the Indian Post Office Act 1898 restricts its meaning to “the department, established for the purposes of carrying the provisions of this Act into effect and presided over by the Director General [of Posts and Telegraphs]” (Section 2k). Despite their primary functions as email providers, it seems unlikely that any magistrate would interpret webmail providers like Hotmail and Google as “postal authorities” so as to be immune from police summonses under Section 91. Such an interpretation would, nevertheless, be in keeping with the spirit of the postal exemptions, since these sections seem to be aimed at requiring judicial oversight before the privacy of communications may be disturbed. It would be fitting for an amendment to be introduced to the Code of Criminal Procedure to update these sections in line with new technological developments.

Before parting with this section, it must be asked whether the procedure under the IT Act or the CrPC must be followed. Section 81 of the Information Technology Act unequivocally declares that act to have “overriding effect” “notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force.” This seems to suggest that at least with respect to interception of electronic communications and obtaining traffic data, the provisions of the CrPC would be overridden by the procedure laid down by the rules under the IT Act. The evidence from the practice of the Indian police routinely obtaining IP Address from web service providers and ISPs seems to suggest that the IT Act has not been invoked in these transactions. This is a trend that is likely to continue until their legality is questioned in a court of law.

Subscriber Contracts with web service providers

In addition to statutory provisions mandating the disclosure of IP Address information, such disclosure may also be permissible by the terms under which individual websites provides their services. Two examples would suffice here:

Google’s privacy policy which governs its full range of services from its popular search service to Gmail, as well as the groups and blogging services, states that the company will disclose personal information inter alia if

"We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public as required or permitted by law."

Information collected by Google includes server logs which include the following information: "your web request, your interaction with a service, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser or your account." [34]

Similarly, social networking site Facebook contains an equally expansive ‘lawful disclosure’ clause in its Privacy Policy [35] which states that the company will disclose information:

"To respond to legal requests and prevent harm. We may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards. We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities."

Information collected by Facebook includes information about the device (computer, mobile phone, etc) about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages visited. [36]

Examples of such clauses abound and it would be fair to assume that almost every corporate website one visits has analogously worded terms of service permitting ‘lawful disclosure’. This contractual backdoor negatives any expectation of absolute privacy of IP Address details that one might mistakenly have harboured.

Conclusion

As indicated in the introduction, IP addresses have proven to be a dependable way for the police in India to track down a range of cyber-criminals – from financial frauds, to vengeful spurned-lovers, to blackmailers and terrorists. The novelty of ‘cyber crimes’, as well as the relative high-tech ease of their resolution makes for attractive press, and offers an inexpensive way for police departments to accrue some credibility and goodwill for themselves. So long as the police track down genuine culprits, the question of privacy violations will necessarily remain suppressed since, in the words of the Supreme Court “the protection [of privacy] is not for the guilty citizen against the efforts of the police to vindicate the law." [37] However it is the possibility of an increase in egregious cases such as those of Lakshmana Kailash, mentioned above, wrongfully jailed for 50 days on account of a technical error, that reveals the pathologies of the unchecked system of IP Address disclosure that prevails today.

Legal regimes in the West have largely been indecisive about whether to characterize the maintenance of IP Address logs as handmaids for Orwellian thought-policing, or merely as implements that aid the apprehension of cyber criminals who have no legitimate expectation of privacy. Their laws typically come with procedural safeguards such as mandatory notices to affected persons [38], and judicial review which greatly mitigate the severity of these disclosures when they do occur.

Far from incorporating such safeguards, the various layers of Indian law create an atmosphere that is intensely hostile to the withholding of such information by ISPs and intermediaries. Overlapping layers of regulation between the Telegraph Act and the IT Act, and the conflict among various rules under the IT Act have created a climate of such indeterminacy that immediate compliance with even the most capricious of information demands by any government agency is the only prudent recourse for ISPs and other intermediaries. The DoT has issued a circular requiring the registration of public and domestic wifi networks to facilitate greater precision in tracking individuals behind IP Addresses. [39] For the same purpose, new Cyber Café Rules under the IT Act require extensive registers and logs to be maintained that track the identity of every user and the websites they have visited. [40] And if the full ambitions of the Unique Identity Numbering Scheme and the Centralised Monitoring System are realized, we will shortly be headed for exactly the kind of persistent surveillance society that Orwell wrote so fondly about.

The Indian judiciary, which could have played a counterbalancing role to the legislature’s apathy towards privacy and the executive’s increasingly totalitarian tendencies, has so far not risen to the challenge. The Supreme Court has repeatedly condoned the obtaining of evidence through illegal means, [41] and this has rendered the requirement of adherence to procedural due process by the police merely optional. This guarantee of judicial inaction in the face of executive illegality will be the biggest stumbling block to the securing of privacy – despite the occasionally good intentions of the legislature.

So, in the absence of a general assurance of privacy of our internet communications, where does one look to for hope? I would venture to suggest that there are four sources of optimism:

Notwithstanding the iron determination of the Central Government to install a panoptic communication surveillance system, the realization and smooth functioning of these technocratic fantasies will depend on the reconfiguration of the relative powers of various ministries at the Central Level– chiefly the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Home Ministry – and between the Centre and the State. One can rely, one feels, on the unwillingness of various ministries to cede their powers to forestall or at least delay or diminish the execution of this project. The success of the technology, in other words, is not as much in doubt as the success of the politics. Privacy will triumph in this ‘failure’ of politics. I advance this point naively and with only the slightest sense of irony.
Another ironic point : I suggest the ingenious and very Indian phenomena of inefficiency and ignorance as robust privacy safeguards. How does one account for the fact that despite heavily worded and repeated invocations of disclosure requirements in the ISP licenses for almost a decade, it was not until December 2010 that the Home Ministry tentatively suggests to ISPs that IP records must be kept for a minimum of six months? This despite the fact that the ISP license itself requires that such records be kept for one year. How does one explain the unanimous blinking astonishment of the industry at this suggestion, other than they expected never to have to implement it? Or that the extensive logs that cyber café owners are required to maintain about their clientele are seldom checked? [43] In India it seems to be an unstated element of the business climate that one can reliably depend on the non-enforcement of contractual clauses. Sometimes this inefficiency on the part of the state has inadvertent privacy-preserving effects.
The power of the state to rely on IP Addresses depends on the availability of global internet behemoths such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo who are vulnerable to bullying in order to maintain their transnational empires. In each of the success stories mentioned at the start of this paper, IP Address details were obtained from one of the big companies named, from which the lesson that emerges is that our ability to retain our anonymity will depend on our ability to find smaller, non-Indian substitutes who have nothing to fear from Indian authorities. In June 2010, for instance, the Cyber Crime Police Station, Bangalore sent a notice under Section 91 of the CrPC to the manager of BloggerNews.Net (BNN) seeking the IP Address and details of a user who had allegedly posted “defamatory comments” on BNN about an Indian company called E2-Labs. The manager of BNN bluntly refused to comply stating: “our policy is not to give out that information, BNN holds peoples privacy in high esteem.”[44] The lesson here is that in the future, the ability of Indians to preserve their online ‘privacy’ and freedom of speech will depend on their being able to find sufficiently small overseas clients to host their speech. Conflict of Laws rather than domestic legislation is a more reliable guarantor of privacy.

Notes

[1].Hafeez, M., 2011. A tangled web of vengeance. Times Of India. Available at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-28/mumbai/29353669_1_boyfriend-social-networking-police-officer [Accessed June 21, 2011].

[2].Adapted from the Wikipedia entry on IP Address.

[3].McIntyre, Joshua J., Balancing Expectations of Online Privacy: Why Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses Should be Protected as Personally Identifiable Information (August 15, 2010). DePaul Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 3, 2011. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1621102 [Accessed June 21, 2011] .

[4].Anon, 2010. Army officer held in city for child porn -. Times Of India. Available at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-05-08/mumbai/28292650_1_hard-disks-obscene-clippings-downloading [Accessed June 15, 2011].

[5].Anon, 2011. Anti-Ambedkar page on Facebook blocked. Hindustan Times. Available at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Anti-Ambedkar-page-on-Facebook-blocked/Article1-663383.aspx [Accessed May 24, 2011].

[6].Sarokin, David. Google Ordered to Reveal Blogger Identity in Defamation Suit in India:Gremach Infrastructure vs Google India [Internet]. Version 5. Knol. 2008 Aug 15. Available from: http://knol.google.com/k/david-sarokin/google-ordered-to-reveal-blogger/l9cm7v116zcn/7.

[7].Anon, 2009. Mumbai: Man held for blackmailing Anoushka Shanka. Rediff.com. Available at: http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/sep/20/police-arrest-man-for-blackmailing-anoushka-shankar.htm [Accessed May 24, 2011].

[8].Anon, 2010. Cyber cell nets Delhi teen for lewd online posts - Times Of India. Times Of India. Available at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-04-29/mumbai/28116011_1_cyber-cell-cyber-police-abusive-messages [Accessed March 23, 2011].

[9].Hafeez, M., 2011. Police find runaway student “online” - Times Of India. Times Of India. Available at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-17/mumbai/28554314_1_social-networking-networking-site-sim-card [Accessed June 21, 2011].

[10].Holla, A., 2009. Wronged, techie gets justice 2 yrs after being jailed. Mumbai Mirror. Available at: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=200906252009062503144578681037483 [Accessed March 23, 2011].

[11].Ibid.

[12].This is not atypical. In the US, for instance, as Joshua McIntyre writes, “While various federal statutes protect similar data such as telephone numbers and mailing addresses as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), federal privacy law does not generally regard IP addresses as information worthy of protection. It has, therefore, become commonplace for litigants to subpoena ISPs to unmask online speakers. Many ISPs have no reason to fight these subpoenas and readily give up their subscribers’ names, addresses, telephone numbers, and other identifying data without demanding any court oversight or providing any notice to the subscriber. Even when courts become involved, a full consideration of the online speaker’s privacy interests is far from certain” Joshua McIntyre, supra note 3 at p.5.

[13].Anon, 2011. User Data Requests - India. Google Transparency Report. Available at: http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/IN/?p=2010-12&p=2010-12&t=USER_DATA_REQUEST&by=PRODUCT [Accessed June 29, 2011].

[14].Ibid.

[15].Anon, 2007. Orkut’s tell-all pact with cops. Economic Times. Available at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2007-05-01/news/28459689_1_orkut-ip-addresses-google-spokesperson [Accessed June 15, 2011].

[16].In June 2011, Hotmail supplied IP Address details which enabled Delhi Police to trace, with further assistance from Airtel, the sender of obscene emails to a noted actress. Sharma, M., 2011. Priyanka Chopra’s cousin harrassed in Delhi. Mid-Day. Available at: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/jun/100611-news-delhi-priyanka-chopra-cousin-Meera-Chopra-harrassed.htm [Accessed June 28, 2011].

[17]. In 1997, the Supreme Court of India held in PUCL v. Union of India that the interception of communications under this section was unlawful unless carried out according to procedure established by law. Since no Rules had been prescribed by the Government specifying the procedure to be followed, the Supreme Court framed guidelines to be followed before tapping of telephonic conversation. These guidelines have been substantially incorporated into the Indian Telegraph Rules in 2007. Rule 419A stipulates the authorities from whom permission must be obtained for tapping, the manner in which such permission is to be granted and the safeguards to be observed while tapping communication. The Rule stipulates that any order permitting tapping of communication would lapse (unless renewed) in two months. In no case would tapping be permissible beyond 180 days. The Rule further requires all records of tapping to be destroyed after a period of two months from the lapse of the period of interception.

[18].Thomas Philip, J., 2010. Intelligence Bureau wants ISPs to log all customer details. Economic Times. Available at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-12-30/news/27621627_1_online-privacy-internet-protocol-isps [Accessed June 28, 2011].

[19].The Monitoring Rules list 10 ‘cyber security’ concerns for which Monitoring may be ordered: (a) forecasting of imminent cyber incidents; (b) monitoring network application with traffic data or information on computer resource; (c) identification and determination of viruses/computer contaminant; (d) tracking cyber security breaches or cyber security incidents; (e) tracking computer resource breaching cyber security or spreading virus/computer contaminants; (f) identifying or tracking of any person who has contravened, or is suspected of having contravened or being likely to contravene cyber security; (g) undertaking forensic of the concerned computer resource as a part of investigation or internal audit of information security practices in the computer resource;(h) accessing a stored information for enforcement of any provisions of the laws relating to cyber security for the time being in force; (i) any other matter relating to cyber security.

[20].Respectively the INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (PROCEDURE AND SAFEGUARDS FOR INTERCEPTION, MONITORING AND DECRYPTION OF INFORMATION) RULES, 2009, G.S.R. 780(E) (2009), http://www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/downloads/itact2000/Itrules301009.pdf (last visited Jun 30, 2011). and INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (PROCEDURE AND SAFEGUARDS FOR MONITORING AND COLLECTING TRAFFIC DATA OR INFORMATION) RULES, 2009, G.S.R. 782(E) (2009), http://cca.gov.in/rw/resource/gsr782.pdf?download=true (last visited Jun 30, 2011).

[21].Section 69 lists the following grounds for which interception may be ordered : a) sovereignty or integrity of India, b) defense of India, c) security of the State, d)friendly relations with foreign States or e)public order or f)preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or g) for investigation of any offence.

[22].Rule 2(d) of the Monitoring and Collecting of Traffic Data Rules 2009.

[23].Telegraph (Amendment) Rules 2007, Available at: http://www.dot.gov.in/Acts/English.pdf [Accessed June 28, 2011].

[24].INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (REASONABLE SECURITY PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES AND SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA OR INFORMATION), (2011), www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR3_10511(1).pdf (last visited Jun 30, 2011).

[25].The full list under Rule 3 includes : password; financial information such as Bank account or credit card or debit card or other payment instrument details ; physical, physiological and mental health condition; sexual orientation; medical records and history; Biometric information; any detail relating to the above clauses as provided to body corporate for providing service; and any of the information received under above clauses by body corporate for processing, stored or processed under lawful contract or otherwise.

[26].“Provider of data” is not the same as individuals to whom the data pertains, and could possibly include intermediaries who have custody over the data. We feel this privacy policy should be made available for view generally – and not only to providers of information. In addition, it might be advisable to mandate registration of privacy policies with designated data controllers.

[27].This is well framed since it does not permit body corporates to frame privacy policies that detract from Rule 6..

[28].This is a curious insertion since it begs the question as to the utility of such a statement issued by the requesting agency. What are the sanctions under the IT Act that may be attached to a government agencies that betrays this statement? Why not instead, insert a peremptory prohibition on government agencies from disclosing such information (with the exception, perhaps, of securing conviction of offenders)?.

[29].The consequence of disobeying the rules is that the ‘body corporate’ is legally deemed not to have observed ‘reasonable security practices’. Section 43A penalizes such failure if it causes wrongful loss due to the disclosure.

[30].INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (INTERMEDIARIES GUIDELINES) RULES, (2011), www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR3_10511(1).pdf (last visited Jun 30, 2011).

[31].The easily-affronted have thus been provisioned with a cheaper, swifter and more decisive means of curtailing free speech, where courts in India might have dithered ponderously instead Or they might not have. As of this writing, an obscure court in a Silchar, Assam issued an ex-parte injunction prohibiting the online publication of a highly-acclaimed biopic about Arindam Chaudhuri – a self-proclaimed ‘management guru’ who has gained notoriety in India due the questionable nature of a management institute that he runs. The choice of this particular court as the venue to file the suit, rather than one in New Delhi where both the plaintiff and the publisher reside, coupled Chaudhuri’s consistent success in obtaining such plenary gag-orders from this judge against any content he deems unflattering to himself, strongly suggests foul-play. Although this is not a typical case, it does caution against placing too much optimism on supposed judicial restraint and conservativeness. Anon, 2011. IIPM’s Rs500-million lawsuit against The Caravan. The Caravan, 3(6). Available at: http://caravanmagazine.in/Story/950/IIPM-s-Rs500-million-lawsuit-against-The-Caravan.html [Accessed June 28, 2011].

[32].See Ali, S.A., 2010. Cyber cell nets Delhi teen for lewd online posts. Times Of India. Available at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-04-29/mumbai/28116011_1_cyber-cell-cyber-police-abusive-messages [Accessed March 23, 2011]. (“During investigations, the police browsed through several service providers and finally zeroed in on BSNL, which helped them trace the sender's IP address to someone called 'Manoj Gupta' in Gurgaon. A team of policemen were sent to Gurgaon but the personnel found out that Manoj Gupta was fictitious name which the teenager was using in his IP address. The police arrested the accused as well as seized the hardisk of his personal computer.”); See also Rehman, T., 2008. A Case For Fools? Tehelka. Available at: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ws181008case_fools.asp [Accessed June 30, 2011].(“ The state police reportedly traced the email to the cyber café through its IP address. “We traced the email to a BSNL line. The BSNL has a cell in Bangalore to track such details. They traced the number to that particular cyber café in Shillong,” S.B. Singh, IGP (special branch) Meghalaya police told TEHELKA”)..

[33].Anon, 2010. Privacy Policy. Google Privacy Center. Available at: http://www.google.com/privacy/privacy-policy.html [Accessed June 28, 2011].

[34].Ibid.

[35].Anon, 2010. Privacy Policy. Facebook. Available at: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php [Accessed June 28, 2011].

[36].Ibid.

[37].R. M. Malkani v State Of Maharashtra AIR 1973 SC 157, 1973 SCR (2) 417.

[38].Eg. Title 18 US Code § 2703 provides for mandatory notice in case of wiretapping with a provision of ‘delayed notice’ where an ‘adverse result’ is apprehended such as (A) endangering the life or physical safety of an individual; (B) flight from prosecution; (C) destruction of or tampering with evidence; (D) intimidation of potential witnesses; or (E) otherwise seriously jeopardizing an investigation or unduly delaying a trial. Title 18,2705., Available at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002705----000-.html [Accessed June 28, 2011].

[39].Ministry of Communications & IT. Letter to All Internet Service Providers. “Instructions under the ISP License regarding provisioning of Wi-Fi internet service under delicenced frequency band”, February 23, 2009. http://www.dot.gov.in/isp/Wi-%20fi%20Direction%20to%20ISP%2023%20Feb%2009.pdf (last visited Jun 30, 2011). Internationally, this does not appear to be an uncommon move. See Thompson, C., 2011. Innocent Man Accused Of Child Pornography After Neighbor Pirates His WiFi. Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/24/unsecured-wifi-child-pornography-innocent_n_852996.html [Accessed June 30, 2011]. (“In Germany, the country's top criminal court ruled last year that Internet users must secure their wireless connections to prevent others from illegally downloading data. The court said Internet users could be fined up to $126 if a third party takes advantage of their unprotected line, though it stopped short of holding the users responsible for illegal content downloaded by the third party.”).

[40].INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (GUIDELINES FOR CYBER CAFE) RULES, 2011., G.S.R. 315(E) (2011), www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR3_10511(1).pdf (last visited Jun 30, 2011).

[41].See State Of Maharashtra v. Natwarlal Damodardas Soni AIR 1980 SC 593 , 1980 SCR (2) 340.

[42].Supra note 15.

[43].Manocha, S., 2009. Cops no more interested in checking cyber cafes. Times Of India. Available at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-03/lucknow/28172232_1_cyber-cafe-proper-records-ip-address [Accessed June 28, 2011]. (The cyber cafe owners claim that the registers which they maintain are seldom checked by the police. "I maintained the records properly which included recording of the name and address of the visitors and a photocopy of their identification proofs but not even once any cop had checked my records," said Rajeev, a cyber cafe owner in Aliganj. "It is this carelessness on the part of cops that gives those not maintaining proper records to carry on their business without any fear of the law," he added).

[44].Barrett, S., 2010. Blogger News Censored In India. Blogger News Network. Available at: http://www.bloggernews.net/124890 [Accessed June 28, 2011].

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/ip-addresses-and-identity-disclosures

CCTV in Universities

merlin — 2011-09-01T09:50:09Z

Basic Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Infrastructure is used to observe movements from a central room, and consists of one or more video cameras that transmit video and audio images to a set of monitors or video recorders.

A Brief History of CCTV's

Video surveillance as a means of policing gained prominence in the 1950s when the UK police installed two pan-tilt cameras on traffic lights to monitor traffic near the Parliament. Since then the United Kingdom has become the country with the most number of surveillance cameras.[1]

The proliferation of CCTVs has been attributed to the growing radicalization of human behaviour wherein organized groups terrorized entire nations and threatened their internal security. The 1985 terror attack on the then Prime Minister of Britain by the IRA and many such instances thereafter have led many countries to adopt CCTV as a means of policing. In India, terror attacks on the Mumbai stock market and successive instances have pushed the Indian Government to install CCTVs in prominent public areas so that it is possible to monitor suspicious movements.[2]

CCTVs and Public Perspective

Since the 1950'sCCTVs have become ubiquitous and ever present, monitoring our daily movements, and infringing into our personal space. Though governments believe CCTVs are essential security instruments, the public is less convinced. The early anxiety to be safe from an unseen danger has given way to a new unease amongst the people, that of constantly being watched by an unseen eye.

CCTVs in Educational Institutions

CCTVs are typically used by the government or private agencies for surveillance in areas frequented by the public that need monitoring. Recently though, universities across the length and breadth of the country have resorted to the use of CCTVs for policing campus activities and to keep the students in check and under control. Huge budgets are set to wire campuses with CCTV infrastructure, t causing students to protest as well as laud the initiative by the administration. The debate on CCTVs has gained momentum in recent years with students staging huge rallies both in support of and against it.

Example 1:

The most prominent of the agitations against CCTVs was staged by the students of Jadavpur University in Kolkata on the administration’s decision to install 16 CCTVs on the four main exit points of the campus and other strategic locations.[3] The installation cost Rs.20 lakh. The students protested loudly against the decisions and ‘gheraoed’ the office of the vice chancellor for 52 hours. The students claimed that the administration was curbing their individual freedom and robbing the campus of it’s democratic atmosphere. The administration refused to remove the cameras, and claimed that the move was necessitated for the security of the students and to prevent any unforeseen incident.

Example 2:

The girl’s residing in the Women’s Hostel of The University of Pune protested against the setting up of CCTV cameras’ in the entrances of the hostel to check for unauthorized visits from boyfriends and friends. The girl’s vandalized the camera and claimed that they were an infringement to their privacy. The hostel authorities insisted that the cameras did not infringe on the privacy of the women, and were only installed at the entrance gates to keep a tab on visitors.[4] The authorities claimed that this step was taken in congruence with the hostel’s policy of not allowing visitors to stay the night.

Example 3:

The girls of the Churchgate’s Government Law College succeeded in getting the CCTV camera removed from the Girl’s Common Room, as it was seen as an infringement to their privacy. The MNS stepped up the agitation in favor of the students which led the college administration to finally take notice and remove the camera from the common room.[5]

The Flip Side

The issue of CCTVs in campuses takes an interesting turn when the students support the move to install cameras in campuses.

Example 1:

Delhi University installed CCTV cameras in their campuses after the Delhi Police issued an advisory for the same. They claimed that the advisory issued was to monitor the instances of on campus ragging. The Delhi Police also helped fund the setting up of CCTVs in the college. This move was lauded by the students, and the colleges took instant measures to wire their campuses.[6]

Example 2:

Recently, after the murder of a Delhi University student named Radhika Tanwar in broad day light, many student union groups assembled for a candle light vigil. They demanded CCTV cameras near the Satya Niketan bus stop where Radhika was killed which is an isolated stretch of a road. The massive agitation of almost a week brought the National Commission of Women into the foray who seconded the demand put forth by the student body.[7]

Example 3:

The recent instance of an RTI exposing inflated bills for setting up CCTVs in the Punjab University Campus also throws light on an interesting facet to this debate as the students do not mind the CCTVs in their campus. The student’s union of the university demanded the authorities to look into the discrepancies of the budget, and also expressed anger as the CCTVs installed did not work. The students claimed that the rising violence in the campus is because of disinterested security men and non working CCTV cameras.[8]

Conclusion

The decisions to use CCTVs as a means of surveillance evokes mixed responses. On one side of the debate they are seen as a deterrent to crime while on the other side of the debate they are seen as beinggross infringements on privacy. CCTV surveillance remains as a bone of contention amongst students. If they feel that their personal space is being invaded by these cameras then it needs to be addressed by the administration in a manner which appeases their fear. Universities randomly adopt the policy of CCTV surveillance, disregarding any voice of dissent. Kashmir University put up CCTVs in it’s campus to shoo away lovebirds and the Aligarh Muslim University has installed 57 CCTV cameras in it’s campus to keep a check on students. The rise of the CCTVs in colleges relates to not the actual crime but to the fear of crime. Therefore, CCTVs have become a tool of re-assurance [9]which feeds a notion of safety and security to the authority in charge.

There is no black and white regarding the implementation of CCTVs in universities. A policy can only benefit both sides when decisions are taken with the students, and not on behalf of them. Indian Universities have no guidelines and policies regarding the implementation of CCTVs and students remain unaware of any decisions in this regard. The Universities should clearly spell out their take on CCTVs including:

University policy regarding CCTVs policies
The reasons for introducing CCTVs
The proposed uses of CCTV infrastructure
Which areas in the campus will be kept under surveillance
How will the data collected be stored
How long will the data be retained
How will the data be deleted[10]

The Universities should address all these issues to dispel fear from the minds of the students, and the student unions should be included in the discussions regarding the implementation of CCTVs.

Notes

[1].Webster,William; CCTV policy in the UK: Reconsidering the evidence base; sueveillanceandsociety.org.

[2].Norris, Clive;MC Cahill, Mike;Wood, David; The Growth of CCTV: A Global Perspective on the international diffusion of video surveillance in publically accessible space; surveillance-and-society.org.

[3].Timesnow.tv/jadavpuruniversity, www.haata.com.

[4].http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/female-hostellers-damage-cctv-cameras-to-protect-privacy-83889, http://toostep.com/debate/is-it-right-to-install-a-cctv-in-girls-hostel-to-stop-unauth.

[5].http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=201101212011012104560935753ecb888, http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cctv-cameras-in-hostel-rob-pune-women-of-freedom/142681-3.html.

[6].http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/after-delhi-police-advisory-du-to-install-cctv-cameras/761421/.

[7].http://www.indianexpress.com/news/women-constables-cctv-cameras-in-girl-stude/766083/.

[8].http://www.punjabcolleges.com/5526999-itemdisplay-Misappropriation-of-funds-on-CCTV,-RTI-exposed-it-Chandigarh.htm.

[9].www.surveillance-and-society.org/ojs/index.php/journal/article/view/prozac/prozac.

[10].www.ucl.ac.uk/estates/security/documents/cctvpolicy.doc, http://www.wustl.edu/policies/cctv-monitoring-and-recording.html.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/cctv-in-universities

Centre for Internet and Society

Exposing Data: Art Slash Activism

Data Decay

Data Realities / Subjects

Data Values

Now Streaming on Your Nearest Screen

Contextualising new digital cinema through Kuso[1]

Knowing Miso from Kuso

Contexualising Kuso

Differentiating between parody and Kuso

Politicising Kuso

References

That’s the unkindest cut, Mr Sibal

Govt wants to scrub the Internet clean

Privacy Matters — Analyzing the "Right to Privacy Bill"

Agenda

Session I

Session II

Session III

Organizers

Partners

Speakers

3rd Canadian Science Policy Conference

Conference Objectives

Agenda

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series — A Post-event Report

Speakers and Topics

Participation

IJLT-CIS Lecture Series 2011 Registration

Netizen Report: Transparency Edition

Material Cyborgs; Asserted Boundaries: Formulating the Cyborg as a Translator

I, the cyborg

Configuring the cyborg as a translator

Lost in translation

The state of the cyborg

Why cyborg?

Notes

References

Once Upon A Flash

In The Name of Fun

In The Name of The Law

Privacy & Sexual Minorities

Defining Privacy

Privacy Rights and Wrongs

Entrapment: The Lucknow Incidents

Gender Identity and Transgender Issues

Privacy in the Time of Naz

Conclusion

Selected incidents reported from 2001-2011

September 2011 Bulletin

Researchers@Work

Digital Natives with a Cause?

Featured Publication

Book Review

Event Organised

Accessibility

Event Participated

Access to Knowledge

New Blog Entries

Internet Governance

New Blog Entry

Events Organised

Telecom

Articles by Shyam Ponappa

Event Organised

Miscellaneous

Film Screening

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Follow us elsewhere

IISc students boycott UID, don’t want Big Brother to keep watch

IP Addresses and Expeditious Disclosure of Identity in India

Examples of use and abuse by Indian authorities

Lawful disclosure of IP Addresses

Monitoring of internet users under the ISP licenses

Provisions under the IT Act 2000

Interception and Monitoring of computer resources

Data Protection Rules

Intermediary Due Diligence