Centre for Internet and Society

A Guide to the Proposed India-European Union FTA

glover — 2011-08-22T13:22:50Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/CIS%20Open%20Data%20Case%20Studies%20Proposal.pdf

A Guide to Key IPR Provisions of the Proposed India-European Union Free Trade Agreement

glover — 2011-08-30T13:06:03Z

The Centre for Internet and Society presents a guide for policymakers and other stakeholders to the latest draft of the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement, which likely will be concluded by the end of the year and may hold serious ramifications for Indian businesses and consumers.

In its ongoing negotiation for a FTA with the EU, a process that began in 2007 and is expected to end sometime this year, India has won several signicant IP-related concessions. But there remain several IP issues critical to the maintenance of its developing economy, including its robust entrepreneurial environment, that India should contest further before ratifying the treaty. This guide covers the FTA's IP provisions that are within the scope of CIS' policy agenda and on which India has negotiated favorable language, as well as those provisions that it should re-negotiate or oppose.

Download the guide here, and please feel free to comment below.

You may also download a chart comparing the language proposed by India and the EU respectively with that included in the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Following is a summary of CIS' findings:

India has become a de facto leader of developing countries at the WTO, and an India-EU FTA seems likely to provide a model for FTAs between developed and developing states well into the future.
The EU has proposed articles on reproduction, communication, and broadcasting rights which could seriously undermine India's authority to regulate the use of works under copyright as currently provided for in the Berne Convention, as well as narrowing exceptions and limitations to rights under copyright.
The EU asserts that copyright includes "copyright in computer programs and in databases," without indicating whether such copyright exceeds that provided for in the Berne Convention. Moreover, by asserting that copyright "includes copyright in computer programs and in databases," the EU has left open the door for the extension of copyright to non-original databases.
India should explicitly obligate the EU to promote and encourage technology transfer -- an obligation compatible with and derived from TRIPS -- as well as propose a clear definition of technology transfer.
The EU has demanded India's accession to the WIPO Internet Treaties, the merits of which are currently under debate as India moves towards amending its Copyright Act, as well as several other international treaties that India either does not explicitly enforce or to which it is not a contracting party.
In general, the EU's provisions would extend terms of protection for material under copyright, within certain constraints, further endangering India's consumer-friendly copyright regime.
An agreement to establish arrangements between national organizations charged with collecting and distributing royalty payments may obligate such organizations in India collect royalty payments for EU rights holders on the same basis as they do for Indian rights holders, and vice versa in the EU, but more heavily burden India.
The EU has proposed a series of radical provisions on the enforcement of IPRs that are tailored almost exclusively to serve the interests of rights holders, at the expense of providing safety mechanisms for those accused of infringing or enabling infringers.
The EU has proposed, under cover of protecting intermediate service providers from liability for infringement by their users, to increase and/or place the burden on such providers of policing user activity.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-guide-to-the-proposed-india-european-union-free-trade-agreement

A four year, action-packed experience with Wikipedia

Sailesh Patnaik — 2016-06-18T16:20:54Z

I consider myself to be an Odia Wikimedian. I contribute Odia knowledge (the predominant language of the Indian state of Odisha) to many Wikimedia projects, like Wikipedia and Wikisource, by writing articles and correcting mistakes in articles. I also contribute to Hindi and English Wikipedia articles.

The article was published in OpenSource.com on April 15, 2016.

My love for Wikimedia started while I was reading an article about the Bangladesh Liberation war on the English Wikipedia after my 10th board exam (like, an annual exam for 10th grade students in America). By mistake I clicked on a link that took me to an India Wikipedia article, and I started reading. Something was written in Odia on the lefthand side of the article, so I clicked on that, and reached a ଭାରତ/Bhārat article on the Odia Wikipedia. I was excited to find a Wikipedia article in my native language!

A banner inviting readers to be part of the 2nd Bhubaneswar workshop on April 1, 2012 sparked my curiousity. I had never contributed to Wikipedia before, only used it for research, and I wasn't familiar with open source and the community contribution process. Plus, I was only 15 years old. I registered. There were many language enthusiasts at the workshop, and all older than me. My father encouraged me to the participate despite my fear; he has played an important role—he's not a Wikimedian, like me, but his encouragement has helped me change Odia Wikipedia and participate in community activities.

I believe that knowledge about Odia language and literature needs to improve—there are many misconceptions and knowledge gaps—so, I help organize events and workshops for Odia Wikipedia. On my accomplished list at the point, I have:

initiated three major edit-a-thons in Odia Wikipedia: Women's Day 2015, Women's Day 2016, abd Nabakalebara edit-a-thon 2015

initiated a photograph contest to get more Rathyatra images from all over the India

represented Odia Wikipedia during two events by Google (Google I/O extended and Google Dev Fest)

spoke at Perception 2015 and the first Open Access India meetup

I was just an editor to Wikipedia projects until last year, in January 2015, when I attended Bengali Wikipedia's 10th anniversary conference and Vishnu, the director of the Center for Internet and Society at the time, invited me to attend the Train the Trainer Program. I was inspired to start doing outreach for Odia Wikipedia and hosting meetups for GLAM activities and training new Wikimedians. These experience taught me how to work with a community of contributors.

Ravi, the director of Wikimedia India at the time, also played an important role in my journey. He trusted me and made me a part of Wiki Loves Food, a public photo competition on Wikimedia Commons, and the organizing committee of Wikiconference India 2016. During Wiki Loves Food 2015, my team helped add 10,000+ CC BY-SA images on Wikimedia Commons. Ravi further solidified my commitment by sharing a lot of information with me about the Wikimedia movement, and his own journey, during Odia Wikipedia's 13th anniversary.

Less than a year later, in December 2015, I became a Program Associate at the Center for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge program (CIS-A2K). One of my proud moments was at a workshop in Puri, India where we helped bring 20 new Wikimedian editors to the Odia Wikimedia community. Now, I mentor Wikimedians during an informal meetup called WikiTungi Puri. I am working with this group to make Odia Wikiquotes a live project. I am also dedicated to bridging the gender gap in Odia Wikipedia. Eight female editors are now helping to organize meetups and workshops, and participate in the Women's History month edit-a-thon.

During my brief but action-packed journey during the four years since, I have also been involved in the Wikipedia Education Program, the newsletter team, and two global edit-a-thons: Art and Feminsim and Menu Challenge. I look forward to the many more to come!

I would also like to thank Sameer and Anna (both previous members of the Wikipedia Education Program).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-april-15-2016-a-four-year-action-packed-experience-with-wikipedia

A Feature on Wikipedia and Telugu Wikipedians on HMTV

praskrishna — 2013-08-21T04:46:47Z

Based on the Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam, HMTV (one of the leading Telugu News channels in Andhra Pradesh) has produced a half an hour feature on Wikipedia and Telugu Wikipedians.

This feature gives a concise history of the growth of Wikipedia and the efforts being put in developing Indian Language Wikipedias. Done in collaboration with Telugu Wikipeidans, this feature also showcases some of the key Telugu Wikipedians who have attended Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam — a community event supported by CIS-A2K and WMI Chapter. This feature was broadcast on May 30 and was repeated on May 31.

Video

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/hmtv-may-30-2013-wikipedia-and-telugu-wikipedians

A Feature on Telugu Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2013-12-30T06:01:59Z

Namaste Telangana newspaper has done a Sunday magazine feature on Telugu Wikipedia on the occasion of the 10th anniversary.

Click to download the file.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/feature-on-telugu-wikipedia

A Comparative Study of Article Creation Campaigns on Wikipedia - Part I

Nitesh Gill and Suswetha Kolluru — 2021-06-11T10:56:40Z

This is a short report on a comparative analysis of two prominent Wikimedia initiatives, Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger, to understand prevailing challenges and opportunities, and strategies to address the same. The report has been authored by Nitesh Gill with inputs from Suswetha Kolluru, and editorial oversight and support by Puthiya Purayil Sneha. This is part of a series of short-term studies undertaken by the CIS-A2K team in 2019–2020.

Introduction

The motive of the Wikimedia movement is to aid growth and access to free knowledge across the world. Over the last several years, apart from the online encyclopedia, Wikimedia has also developed and supported many projects, campaigns, events or edit-a-thons simultaneously on its various sister projects such as Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikisource and others. Campaigns and contests such as Art & Feminism (2014), Women in Red (2015), Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki loves Butterfly, Wikipedia Asian Month (2015), #1Lib1Ref, Project Tiger (2018) etc. play a crucial role in motivating communities to create new content while working together in an organized manner.

The objective of this study is to undertake a comparative analysis of two projects/article creation campaigns on Wikipedia, which are Wikipedia Asian Month (WAM) and Project Tiger. They are both primarily online writing contests. WAM has been organised every year in November since 2015. It is an international edit-a-thon. Project Tiger is a contest which is organised in India. Several Indian language communities take part in this actively. The first iteration of Project Tiger was organized in 2018 and two iterations have taken place till date. While different in terms of the region or area of focus, both campaigns have a common goal of content creation in regional languages. The Indian Wikipedia communities’ contributions are extensive in both projects. It would be interesting to learn from both of them and also understand what works and what needs to be improved in the future.

Research Questions

As suggested by the title, the aim of this study is primarily to better understand the motivation behind long-term edit-a-thons with the help of WAM and PT. Through a comparative analysis, it will attempt to understand the participants' perspective on contributing to these types of projects, prevailing challenges and opportunities, and the knowledge gaps in content creation as well as in participation.

The objectives of this study are to :

Understand the key motivations for volunteers to contribute to article creation campaigns/contests.
Outline the unique aspects of Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger for content creation on Wikipedia, challenges and opportunities and ways to build on the same.

Background

The objective of the Wikimedia movement is to facilitate the growth of free knowledge, through its various projects and platforms. Before starting Wikipedia, in 2000 Nupedia was launched and on 15 January 2001 Wikipedia was set up as a free encyclopedia. All the Wikimedia projects such as Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary, etc. are central knowledge hubs. These are the platforms where knowledge from around the world can be found but this means it also requires participation from an active volunteer community across numerous languages. There are many ways to contribute to these platforms as a volunteer. One way is participating in an edit-a-thon, where several volunteers can actively work together on the same platform. Edit-a-thons started just after a few years of Wikipedia’s existence. In the beginning, the main objective of the edit-a-thons was content creation; this remains the primary objective, although now they also focus on expanding/adding to existing content, thus contributing towards increasing the number of articles on Wikipedia. A prominent feature of these types of events is the interaction among experienced and new editors. The edit-a-thons can happen online as well as at physical, offline locations. In September 2004, Jimmy Wales proposed the Editing weekends’ concept which was a starting point of edit-a-thons. He started a discussion about spending the holidays in a common space where editors could edit or learn about Wikipedia. The event itself was not very prominent but managed to start discussions about similar events among volunteers. A few years later, in March 2009 in Sydney, the first GLAM edit-a-thon was organised at the Powerhouse Museum. According to English Wikipedia, in 2011, an edit-a-thon was organized on cultural partnerships, mainly with the British Library, with a second series taking place later that same year. After that, it became a popular event among volunteers and every community started to organize these types of events. Gradually, Wikimedians also thought about more such campaigns in the form of edit-a-thons; these events were successful and helped achieve the stated agenda of content creation on Wikipedia. In 2013, a research study was conducted about the edit-a-thon as part of the Wikimedia Programme Evaluation report, which noted its history, statistics, budget, inputs, resources and outputs etc. But so far little research has been done on particular edit-a-thons such as Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger and their impact on the growth of content on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia Asian Month

Wikipedia Asian Month is a long-duration edit-a-thon structured around specific topics. The discussion about this edit-a-thon started in 2015 during Wikimania. A separate meeting was held for all the Asian language communities where the WAM proposal was presented by User:Addis Wang, and endorsed by all members present. Before WAM, similar events were already being conducted but this was the first attempt to establish collaboration on a broader level with the Asian language communities. Also before this project, local Wikipedias had only a little content regarding Asia.

The aim of this project was to create more content related to Asia on the regional Wikipedias, with a focus only on new content. Diversification of content, collaboration and cultural exchange are the main objectives of the project. Small incentives like receiving postcards from countries that participants added content about were introduced to encourage more participation. Postcards and the badge of ‘Wikipedia Brand Ambassador’ were added to motivate the contributors. The Wikipedia Asian Month took initiative to encourage and expand participants and communities. As a member from the Punjabi community, Gaurav, notes, “Wikipedia Asian Month was a boost for the communities or Wikipedians. The prize was just a postcard, although this prize gave positive energy to participants and they created articles just for getting appreciation.” In the first iteration, there were around 42 participating communities out of which 11 were Indian language communities. After the first iteration of WAM, when asked about Indian language communities' participation in 2015, Addis Wang replied, “Yes! As one of the largest Wikimedia communities in Asia, and maybe the most diverse community in the world, the Indic community is highly involved in the Wikipedia Asian Month since the idea was proposed during Wikimania 2015. In last year’s edition, India is the country that received the most postcards sent by Wikipedia Asian Month. Also, Wikipedian Asian Ambassadors of English Wikipedia, who created most articles during the Asian Month, are from India.” As noted in 2019 by the campaign coordinators , “In the past three years, over 20,500 high-quality articles have been added in more than 50 language-specific Wikipedias by more than 2,000 Wikipedia editors”, (excluding 2019). In 2020, WAM also happened in the same month, November, just like every year.

Project Tiger

Some years ago Google initiated efforts to bridge a gap in Indian language content online . They partnered with the Wikimedia Foundation who in turn collaborated with CIS-A2K and started a pilot project named Project Tiger, in 2018. Also called Supporting Indian language Wikipedias in 2018, Project Tiger did well and received good participation from all the communities, which led to its second iteration in 2019. Project Tiger is a unique and recent initiative that is aimed at creating locally relevant content on Indic Wikipedias that is most searched for by users online. It is distinct from other contests because it is one of the longest running Wiki edit-a-thons, considering it runs for over 3 months with several Indic communities competing with each other. It is an online writing contest which is organised in India. Several Indian language communities take part in this actively. The project is conducted in two phases i.e, the contest includes hardware support distribution to promising volunteers and a 3-month online writing contest on Indian language Wikipedias.The first phase of the contest is the distribution of hardware support, through which 50 Laptops by Google and internet stipends are offered to 100 experienced and promising Wikimedians, who need infrastructure support to increase contributions on Wikipedia. Once the distribution is done, communities start creating articles from the list of topics provided by Google. Other than the list, the community is encouraged to come up with their own set of articles that is relevant to Wikipedia in their own language. Project Tiger, as the name suggests, is inspired by, and named after, an environmental project in India to save tigers. Similarly, Wikipedia’s Project Tiger aims at nurturing locally relevant content on Indic language Wikipedias.

Methods

The primary method for this study consisted of interviews with community members who participated in either of the projects or who knew about both. These interviews were conducted via phone calls as well as in written form via a questionnaire/survey. The observations from the study are descriptive and include direct quotations (with the permission) of the participant. Due to a shortage of time and availability of community members, only a limited number of interviews have been conducted for the study. These interviewees were selected primarily based on their active participation or their contributions in their regional language Wikipedia. The interviews were conducted with participants from Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Santali, Tamil language communities from India. These interviewees also include the main organizers of WAM. The fountain tool developer was also interviewed as part of the study because the tool is a common factor in both the projects. Questionnaires varied depending on the category of respondents, such as participants, contributors, local and international organisers, developer etc. A total of 17 interviews were conducted for both projects. 9 interviews were conducted with the WAM international team, local organisers and participants and 7 interviews with PT organisers and contributors, and one with the fountain tool developer. The interviews were conducted in English, Hindi, Punjabi and Telugu. A consent form was shared with all the interviewees, including permission for recording the interviews.

The data collection was followed by a comparative analysis of Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger. These both are pilot contests which have some similarities, but also some unique aspects. We compared the objectives, scope, process, communication, communities, languages, content, and achievements of these two projects. Data for this was primarily collected through the interviews mentioned above, but also a review of the event pages, and a random sampling of talk pages, reports and statistics on these projects available on Wikipedia. These two projects have similarities, differences as well as some limitations. This comparison would help in understanding the importance and need for these types of contests. The motive for the comparison is to better understand the strategies of both projects which focus on increasing the content in local languages. These learnings may inform the process of working on the next iteration of these projects.

Part II of this post will look at some of the observations and learnings from this report.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india

A Comparative Study of Article Creation Campaigns on Wikipedia - Part II

sneha-pp — 2021-06-11T10:54:37Z

Part I of this report outlined the research questions and methods of this study. Part II presents some of the observations and learnings.

Observations and Analysis

Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger are pilot projects and both are equally popular among Indian communities. They are similar projects but also have some unique aspects. Communities connect with each-other but in different ways. For example, as noted by an organiser, Sailesh Patnaik, WAM has the following objectives: “ a) Supporting Small Wikipedia communities around the world (majorly Asian Language Wikipedias) b) Providing support to small local communities, to encourage growth and development c)Increase the cooperation among the Wikimedia communities and affiliates in Asia, d)Enriching Asian related culture, content, and enjoyment on Wikimedia projects.”

Meenakshi Nandini, a Malaylam Wikimedian notes, “The Project Tiger contest gave me some best experiences. Through this project, I got support in the form of laptop and Internet access. That is very useful for me. In my view, it is a competition between the communities rather than individuals. I saw that participants wrote more articles in the Project tiger contest than in any other events.But, WAM helped to create more relevant and high-quality content than Project tiger.”

Some common aspects for the both projects are below:

Motivation

WAM is one of the initial projects to give a boost to volunteers across the world. Most of the editors are focussed on initiatives in their own languages, and WAM offered a common platform for Asian communities to work together on a project. According to the interviews of community members, the love for their languages inspired them to participate as well as create content in regional languages, communicate to other community members etc.

As community member SangappaDyamani notes , “To enrich Kannada wiki articles, [I’m] happy to represent kn wiki in such an event, we can meet new editors, learn new tech used in other wiki etc.”

Communities or community members began to take part in WAM when they had less opportunities or less ideas to grow their local Wikipedias. After this project began, communities or individuals have been motivated for their Wikipedia’s growth, and engaging more with regional languages and knowing about Asia or Asian culture. Many Indic languages were searching for a platform and WAM gave them a common platform to engage and create content in their regional languages. All interviews indicated the same point that it was a new idea and as every Indic language was developing at the time, this idea influenced most of the languages.

As community member, Ramajit Tudu observes, “As our Santali Wikipedia [went live], we all had lots of excitement to cover all types of the article[s] but prior to that we had articles on the regional topic only. At that time some of the other community members suggested we should take part in this editathon (WAM) and we felt It was a very nice campaign, it is an exchange and sharing of information among the Wikipedians of Asia. Knowing about the person, place and subject about your own continent other than your own country and putting them in your own language is always an interesting job. In the year 2018, I was one of the coordinators and Jury for WAM - Santali language. As our community was growing in the year 2019 others were the co-ordinator and jury but still, I had contributed by participating in the editathon. Besides these, I support the editathon by creating the project page in Santali language.”

Similarly,there are quite a number of motivational factors for volunteers who have been actively participating in Project Tiger. Firstly, it gives an opportunity to create several important and relevant articles that relate to their language Wikipedia that are presently missing. Secondly, in order to keep up the momentum among participants throughout the competition, it is designed in two phases and there is friendly competition between all the Indic communities that participated to secure the top position. The third and final motivational factor is cash prizes, in the form of Amazon vouchers, for top 3 individual contributors from each community and a three day offline Wiki workshop for all the active and major contributors from top performing communities.

“When it comes to a competition (between communities), there is a different kind of zeal and there are cash prizes too for extra motivation” says User:Jagmit Brar from the Punjabi community who created more than 1000 articles under Project Tiger in both the iterations.

These motivation factors have definitely been a major reason why the contest witnessed immense engagement and reach among the Indian communities.

Communication and Collaboration

Communication is an important aspect of running these long duration editathons. So, the model is to engage local organizers and participants with early invitations. The team started contacting Asian communities a month before the start of the campaign.

According to Rupika, the Communication and Media officer of WAM “One of the most difficult things about any project is when it is a new project and they are just trying to [let the] community know about the project. But for projects that are popular and well-established like Wikipedia Asian Month and Wiki Loves Monuments, they don’t have to work that much hard. But we do make sure that our efforts with local organisers are complete. So, we ask them to create a page a month or two before that project starts.”

The discussion started from the mailing lists. Thereafter, mass messages were dropped on all the village pumps and local organisers started discussion with their community members. A new meta page was designed for every iteration. After the notifying and instructions, interested communities add their names and make sure to participate in this project. The model of engaging the communities is through social media channels, emails or on-wiki. The central-notice is a more beneficial method for informing Wikimedia about WAM and also writing blogs for the updates on progress of the project.

Also Wikipedia Asian Month’s primary objective was to collaborate with all the Asian countries as well as others to increase content related to Asia on Wikipedia. It started after a proper discussion and this collaboration was a huge experiment for organisers as well editors. The volunteers interviewed in the course of this study expressed that they are glad with the collaboration of different communities across the world on this campaign.

Collaboration is one of the main features which defines the objective of WAM. It helps the small communities to grow systematically and do something for their regional Wikipedias and learn from other international and national communities.WAM started with 40 plus communities and at present, the number of participating communities is over 70 due to its collaborative nature. Through its five iterations, many Wikipedia communities have been linked to each other and know about each other’s histories and culture etc. ‘Mourya Biswas, a Bengali wikimedian notes’, “Personally, organising WAM was a great deal of a learning experience as well with regard to how to go about organising an editathon with so many people contributing from across different parts of the world. I had hitherto very little experience on organising online editathons. A few tools were absolutely new to me. In the subsequent editathons that I have organised since then, I've learnt to use a few tools to coordinate, support and manage the editathon even more efficiently.”

Similarly communication engagement is an effective step of Project Tiger as well. Organisers announce the project on India mailing list then approach communities via village pumps so that they are aware of when the project will commence. Communities remain engaged with the project till three months. The communication channels include social media, emails and phone-calls. Jury members regularly remain in touch with organisers. Editors also communicate regularly with recipients of hardware support.

Project Tiger, as a contest, needs collaborative efforts in order to be a successful engagement with the communities, and the emphasis was on regular communication and discussions that resulted in strengthening the community further.

“We had Whatsapp groups with all the volunteers participating in the contest to strategise, resolve doubts, share ideas in order to create as many good quality articles as possible”, observes User:Parvathi Sridharan from Tamil Wiki community.

This contest/project not only saw engaging participation from existing and experienced volunteers, but also from many new ones. This contest has paved a way for new and enthusiastic people who were interested in contributing to Wikipedia. One way this happened is also through offline Wiki workshops conducted as part of outreach.

“This contest was a good chance to show how people in India are improving the access to knowledge across India and to the world. Many communities which were unnoticed came out during this PT writing contest and showed their community strength.” notes User:Gnoeee, from the Malayalam community who had contributed to English and Malayalam Wikipedia during Project Tiger 1.0

Culture

WAM encourages cultural exchange by mediating online connections between communities and helping them learn about unique aspects of their respective countries and languages. During this project, Asian communities generate articles/content on their local Wikipedias, and also have an opportunity to find their cultural interests and ways to understand other cultures.

As noted by Saliesh Patnaik, an Odia Wikipedian who is also the social media head for WAM, “This project also encourages cultural exchange within the community with the help of a month-long edit-a-thon which promotes the creation or improvement of the Wikipedia content about Asia except for their (the participant’s) own country.”

“Wikipedia Asian Month is the one of the first kinds of campaigns not just in Asia but in the entire movement to involve so many small communities in this wide level. That individually has allowed so many different communities to grow and help them to learn how to systematically and structurally work together. Project Tiger and other contests came [in the later stages] which really got communities involved. But when WAM started in 2015 it was the first contest where people participated internationally.” The editors’ enthusiasm towards WAM proves that they are interested in creating content across cultures and establishing their links with other non-Indian communities.

Just like WAM, Project Tiger also encourages cultural exchange and bridging cultural gaps. Through this project, Indic communities got a platform to connect with each other. During this contest, communities generate their own regional list regarding important articles for their local Wikipedias. Communities have the opportunity to contact other fellow Wikimedians from Indic languages. They talked to each other through existing groups to solve their issues which they faced during the contest.

During the training period for the winner and runner up community, there was a possibility to exchange their thoughts and ideas. Due to that on-ground activity, Wikimedians played their roles enthusiastically and got more motivated with other stories, experiences and cultural aspects like cuisine. This is the way cultural exchange happened via Project Tiger.

Grant Process

While projects under the Wikimedia movement are primarily run on the strength and interests of its volunteer community, there are specific aspects which require funding and support from collaborators such as the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). For major events, the Wikimedia project needs a grant, depending on time duration and objectives. Similarly, WAM, while not being a very high budget event, is supported by a rapid grant from the foundation. This rapid grant supports the work on purchasing and sending postcards, certificates, T-shirts, stickers & pins, advertisements on social media (Facebook, Twitter), infrastructure (AirTable membership, G-Suite subscription, etc.), domain, and the time of volunteers who are engaged in this work.

For Project Tiger, CIS-A2K gets a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. Selected applicants from any Indic language get hardware support which covers chromebooks/laptops and internet connectivity. Apart from it, during the contest Amazon vouchers were also given to the participants from each community who got the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank for all the three months. These prizes are fixed for every month. There are also prizes for an overall winner community, and a runner up, which is in the form of a training session after the writing contest.

Appreciation

A token of appreciation is provided to participants, which is important to aid efforts. Under WAM, this appreciation is divided into two parts : Postcards & Certificates and Brand Ambassador. Postcards are given to those participants who created at least five articles about an Asian country. The postcards are sent by the same countries in appreciation of the contributors’ participation. This is a way to encourage new leadership and new editors. Certificates are also part of this appreciation, as a recognition of active participation and the importance of their work. As Aliva Sahoo, Odia Wikimedia, notes “When I wrote articles in 2016 I created a good number of articles. And that time I was happier because I got 4 or 5 postcards from different countries. My other community members also received postcards. That time I felt motivated to get postcards and I decided to create more articles next time and will collect more postcards. I think this kind of appreciation encourages volunteers and makes them happy.

The second form of appreciation is the Wikipedia Asian Month Ambassador. This is an honour from WAM to a Wikipedian who creates the most number of articles on their respective Wikipedia. In every iteration of WAM, ambassadors are chosen depending on the number and quality of contributions. By adding an element of competition, and using a title that does not suggest the same, the ambassador initiative plays a very important role in the event to enable more contributions. In the end, we have Wikipedians who are willing to receive other postcards by contributing 30-50 articles (relatively high quality according to our rules), which makes this event very successful and effective” Rupika Sharma, notes.

In Project Tiger as well, as a token of appreciation to all the top performing participants, prizes were given to the top 3 editors who created the most number of articles from each community, every month in the 3 month contest. Appreciation was given in the form of a cash prize during the first iteration of the Project. After receiving a lot of feedback about this, gift vouchers are given in the second iteration instead of cash prizes.

Apart from this, merchandise such as stickers and t-shirts to other top contributors is also a practice that’s followed. The overall winner, runner up communities and few other top contributors and juries from remaining communities later attend a three day workshop as part of the Project Tiger community prize, on the topics of their preference.

Fountain tool

The Fountain tool was developed for reviewing the articles of Wikipedia Asian Month, and is used only when the contests are running. “I made the first prototype during the first Wikipedia Asian Month in 2015. We, the jury members, were flooded with articles that needed to be evaluated fairly quickly and so I thought that I can automate 90% of the jury workflow” notes fountain tool developer Le Loy. In this tool, bytes and words are fixed according to the project. For example, in the Wikipedia Asia Month a minimum of 3000 bytes are fixed as per the criteria of evaluation for WAM. This is therefore a useful tool for the contests. It is a tool which helps a lot to collect statistics of specific projects on Wikipedia. After talking to Le Loy, we can reach the conclusion that the tool is not limited to a particular language, and it can be used for any kind of event on Wikipedia.

Project Tiger also uses the Fountain tool to review articles submitted in this contest. It was easy for the participants to submit the articles and also for the jury to pick up an unreviewed article and review it based on the number of bytes, or if the article was actually submitted in the time period mentioned in the contest rules and so on. This tool has definitely made the jury process more efficient and smooth.

Diversity and Bridging gaps

Cultural diversity is an important aspect of the sustenance of the Wikimedia movement itself, and bridging different cultural gaps is an important aspect of this effort.

After checking all past statistics of WAM, we found that WAM focused on content related to Asia only but it didn't pay much attention to content by and about persons across diverse gender and sexual identities, including marginalised groups. Sailesh Patnaik & Rupika Shrama, WAM organiser notes that there have been some efforts in this area, saying “We work with more than 50 different language communities on Wikipedia, and have also collaborated with Women in Red to bridge the gender gap in our projects.” There is however a need for ongoing work in this space.

Project Tiger has its own strategy behind diversity and bridging gaps. Both events maintain their diversity as per required rules and areas. One of the major reasons why volunteers find a hindrance in dedicating time for Wikimedia and its projects is the lack of facilities like a laptop or even a proper internet connection. This is why laptops and internet stipends provided during the first phase of the contest have a monumental effect on the contest and also in contributions to not just Project Tiger, but also many other Wiki projects in general. Several volunteers contribute articles via mobile phones in spite of the difficult/complex editing environment. Without this support, there is a chance that Wikipedia can lose some of its most promising volunteers.

Project Tiger also tries to bridge a gender gap. For example, the criteria for hardware support also includes ensuring a certain percentage of women applicants are selected. The coordinators have also tried to specifically engage women participants during the contest. Before opening the applications for hardware support, PT core team set criteria for eligibility. On the other hand, one rule always highlighted that 33% women can get laptop or internet connectivity due to their past contribution. This is an effort to engage women in the Wikimedia movement.

Limitations and Barriers

Despite the success of these long running programmes, its true that there still remain some barriers and limitations, as illustrated below:

Wikipedia Asian Month

WAM has largely remained a stable programme, but it would be a good thing to see how new aspects could be introduced in the programme. The process is the same every year because after finishing the first iteration the core team didn’t take any feedback, suggestions or concerns from the individuals for the next step, which is a major barrier to growing and planning something new for the next level. As Odia Wikimedian Aliva Sahoo notes, “From 2016 to 2019, WAM was the same and there was nothing new, but I am not sure if during 2020, they changed something because I didn’t participate this year.” According to participant’s comments or WAM rules & guidelines changes in the structure could be introduced. “When the same project is happening again and again then the novelty will reduce. We should make some changes from time to time to engage the people” notes Punjabi Wikimedian, Satdeep Gill.
The project actively makes an effort in trying to work with more communities every year but also collaborate with other projects such as Women in Red, which is aimed at creating more content by and about women. WAM itself has not been able to promote women leaders and women content as well due to its design which focuses on promoting content.
Follow-up on receipt of appreciation postcards etc. should be done diligently.There have also been instances where appreciation postcards have been delayed or not sent which affects the motivations of contributors in engaging with the project further. A few contributors did not receive their appreciation from senders, which has led to some negativity. At least after two iterations of any project, contributors or Wiki projects demand for something new. For example, during the beginning of the project, participants got the Wikipedia Asian Month ambassador tags and that was an honour for them. But volunteers seem to be looking for a change and they want to look forward to the project. A Malayalm Wikimedian, Meenakshi Nandini, noted, “However the prizes are not getting to most of the participants, especially the WAM prizes. Even me also didn’t receive most of the event prizes. So we couldn’t tell the participants that you will definitely get these prizes. I won two times as a "Wikipedia Asian Ambassador". But is there any importance or benefit for that honor?”
During the WAM, the focus was only on article creation but not on the quality of articles. It is important therefore to accord more attention to the quality of the content being created, which would help in the long-term sustenance of the project and is better aligned with the larger objectives of the movement.

Project Tiger

Project Tiger happened only in two iterations, but has its limitations and challenges as well. The participants or volunteers who participated in Project Tiger had some concerns on the Google article lists. Contributors felt Google should suggest only those articles which are important for their Wikipedias as priority. The PT core team was not properly able to convince participants as to why the Google list is important and editors were also not fully aware of the same, which led to some mismatch in expectations from the project.
Due to hardware support and gift vouchers, most participants are motivated to contribute more, But on the other hand, it changes the whole process of contribution in the Wikimedia movement. Cash prizes or gift vouchers showed a less than satisfactory result, thereby leading to a rethinking of how best to motivate contributors.. But for a few editors hardware support and prizes are a lot. A few users who were editing from phones got laptops just because of the project which has helped their contributions.
The manner of addressing the gender gap in the project has also been a point of contention. The possibility is, some participants feel that women only get laptops or internet support due to their gender identity. The process of such quotas may be debatable going forward, and so a clear rationale and process may be developed to encourage participation by women and individuals across the spectrum of gender and sexual identities.
One major concern from jury members was that participants did not work on quality but quantity. Reviewers and readers are facing problems with machine translated articles submitted during Project Tiger. The PT team tried to solve the issue of quality during the second iteration, but did not work well, and jury members faced the same difficulty this time as well.
A common challenge noted by Satdeep Gill (for both projects) is that “Contributors focus mainly on increasing the article count and the maintenance work lags behind. We need to focus on this as well.”

Learnings

Both projects have had more than one iteration so far, and have managed to create interest and engagement within Indian language communities in working collaboratively and building content. They have also had a fair number of challenges and limitations as well, as illustrated by the interviews. For instance, there has been a difficulty in measuring the quality of articles, the way that quantity is tracked. So there is a need to develop metrics to capture and work on quality of content. A related point is with reference to a lack of capacity building within communities, which would enable them to collaborate and contribute better. There have also been some challenges with logistics, and ensuring that participants receive their prizes during Wikipedia Asian Month. This would need more communication and careful coordination of efforts. There is also a need to keep participants engaged over a long time, and repeating the same structure of the project every year may also lead to a lack of interest or innovation. The project actively makes an effort in trying to work with more communities every year but also collaborate with other projects such as Women in Red, which is aimed at creating more content by and about women. WAM itself has not been able to promote women leaders and women content as well due to its design which focuses on promoting content. The projects therefore need to work in a progressive manner, building on feedback from participants and adapting to the evolving needs and interests of the communities.

These difficulties are also faced by Project Tiger. Google should focus on lists according to the needs of communities, in discussion with the PT team.For example, the core team should track volunteers' contributions after getting the support because anyone can make 500 or 1000 edits for getting a laptop. The core team should find people from the communities who need this support and will contribute proactively. Project Tiger’s process transparency is appreciated, but with the same transparency the infrastructure distribution process should be different from now. Also it should encourage or discuss with communities about proactive women’s participation during the project. PT should run a Bridging Gender Gap campaign, where communities should play a role to engage women as organisers from each community and should make a strategy for the same. This project needs to work on a strategy for building and sustaining quality as well which is important for growth of Indic Wikipedias.

So, not every project is perfect, every project has some achievements and some limitations. Therefore, WAM and Project Tiger are also the same, it achieves its goals but also carries some failures. But there is a possibility to make changes to both projects.

Conclusion

Wikipedia Asian Month is an International project which started in 2015. It is a low budget project, and gives a common platform to Asian as well as Non-Asian communities to participate over the course of a month. When WAM started most of the communities were excited to do something for their languages, and this was a big initial motivation for the project. The communities want to continue with WAM because they feel like this is one of the projects which started at that time when communities wanted something to engage themselves with Wikipedias. Every year most of the communities participate in it for sure, although the people who work on the projects may differ. Project Tiger is a pilot project which is a three-month-long contest. This project provides an opportunity to communities to work together. After the success of the Indic languages contest [Project Tiger] in 2018, two more countries, (Project Saraswati and Project Al-Ma'refa), also organised a similar project under different names. Due to Project Tiger, thousands of articles were created or developed by volunteers about important, most searched for topics suggested by Google, as well as those important to respective Indic language Wikipedias. Infra-structure support pays attention to volunteers' hard work and encourages them to work to share free knowledge. These projects therefore go a long way in enriching local language content, and keeping volunteer communities interested and engaged with their respective Wikipedias.

You may also read the full report on Wikimedia Meta-Wiki here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india-part-ii

A 'Kannada' Wikipedia Workshop for Bloggers

pavanaja — 2013-07-03T10:19:56Z

On Sunday, June 23, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Suchitra, Bengaluru for Kannada bloggers by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team. This blog post gives a report on the workshop.

There was a demand from Kannada bloggers that they need some orientation on editing Kannada Wikipedia. There were informal talks on this since the last 2-3 months on when and how the event should be organised. CIS-A2K collaborated with Suchitra Film and Cultural Society, Bengaluru and Avadhi. G N Mohan of Avadhi and Prakash Belavadi of Suchitra helped in getting the conference room of Suchitra available for the workshop.

Announcement was made in the KannadaWikipedia group of Facebook. This group has more than 2000 members. One member even sent a message questioning the wisdom of inviting everyone for the workshop. He asked, "can we accommodate all the people if they turn up?" However, I was quite sure that not more than 25 will turn up. The reason being the condition that participants should come with their own laptops and internet connections. As the workshop date neared, more and more people began registering for participation. The number reached 56 on the previous night. I sent a message requesting people to reconfirm the participation as the conference room could accommodate 25 people only. Few people withdrew and only 13 persons reconfirmed.

June 23, being a Sunday, the personnel at Suchitra came to open the room only at 9.50 a.m. Myself and some participants were there at 9.20 a.m. itself. Once everyone settled down, there was an issue with the projector. My ultrabook has only a mini HDMI port. I keep an HDMI-to-VGA converter and have been using it from the last 2-3 workshops. It worked well at those places. But on June 23, it refused to work. I then exchanged my ultrabook with another participant and the presentation and workshop begun. I had sent some tutorial files to all those who confirmed participation. All of them came and surprisingly, there were two more participants, who hadn't confirmed their participation. That accelerated the participation by them. This itself was very encouraging. That means the participants who came that day were really serious of editing Wikipedia.

The workshop was conducted intermixing presentation and hands-on. By evening everyone had learnt how to edit Wikipedia, how to create headings, sub-headings, bulleted lists, text, numbered text, how to insert Wiki links as well as external links, etc. People picked up inserting reference as well quite quickly. Since majority of them were bloggers, they already knew the concepts but wanted to know the Wiki syntax which they picked up by the end of the workshop.

Harish M G, who is an admin with Kannada Wikipedia joined the workshop and helped in clearing many advanced doubts.

The result of the workshop is quite encouraging. Most of them have added contents and edited some existing pages as well. Thanks are due to Suchitra for sponsoring the venue and to Avadhi for co-organising this event.

Additional photos are here - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kannada_Wikipedia_workshop_for_bloggers_at_Suchitra

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-bloggers

[Updated] Exclusive: OnePlus 5T’s Face Unlock feature may have infringed upon SensibleVision’s face recognition patents

Admin — 2018-01-17T01:07:51Z

The blog post by Nachiket Mhatre was published by mysmartprice on December 22, 2017.

Update

We had reached out to OnePlus early in the morning yesterday (that is, December 22) for an official statement prior to publishing the post later in the evening. Even a day later, as of this update, OnePlus hasn’t issued any clarifying statement either confirming or denying the patent infringement claim made by SensibleVision.

We had also contacted George Brostoff, the CEO and Co-Founder of SensibleVision, regarding the legal ramifications of his claim and if SensibleVision is contemplating legal action against OnePlus. Brostoff issued the following statement in response:

“Actually the comment by the patent expert quoted in the linked article is spot on,” noted Brostoff before issuing additional clarifying statement. “Legal process is always SensibleVision’s last resort. We pursue legal patent infringement only with companies that we have approached first through non-legal means and if they choose to then use our patented technology in the markets that our patents cover. Some of our patents are US only. We see companies like OnePlus as our possible customers. Our technology, both patented and proprietary, provides them with the possibility of better performance and more secure solutions. When companies license our solutions, they get the benefits of our broad patent portfolio and SensibleVision’s early entry into the market, something that helps minimize other companies claiming patent infringement against them. Unlike India, OnePlus currently has little to no US sales presence. So while they are on our partnership ‘radar’, they are not on our ‘legal’ radar for infringement.”

The gist of SensibleVision’s statement is that it probably won’t file a patent infringement lawsuit, but instead approach OnePlus to settle the matter amicably — say, by forging a Global Patent License Agreement (GPLA) — wherein OnePlus could be expected to pay to licence SensibleVision patents that are allegedly being employed in the OnePlus 5T’s Face Unlock system.

What’s interesting is Brostoff admitting that some of SensibleVision’s patents are valid only in the US, with him further insinuating that OnePlus’s sales volumes in the USA cannot justify prohibitive patent litigation costs.

We asked our resident patent expert, Rohini Lakshane, for her opinion on this statement and she confirmed that, in some cases, patent infringement settlements awarded by the US courts are in proportion to sales value and volume of the infringing products. In short, SensibleVision might not be too keen on taking the legal route against OnePlus, because the potential settlement payout might not be enough to cover the excessive cost of litigation in US patent courts.

The original story continues…

The OnePlus 5T’s Face Unlock technology has been critically acclaimed across the board, with our personal experience too pegging the biometric security system as one of the fastest face recognition implementations available in the market today, while being seemingly secure and impenetrable to simple workarounds. Even as technology critics and consumers wonder if this piece of biometric security is too good to be true, there could be a patent war brewing on the horizon for OnePlus.

Speaking in an interview with MySmartPrice, the CEO and Co-Founder of SensibleVision, George Brostoff, claimed that OnePlus might have infringed upon at least one of the patents belonging to the biometric security solutions provider. He also revealed that, in addition to other unspecified face recognition patents, OnePlus may have employed SensibleVision’s patent pertaining to the use of the screen as an illuminator. In fact, Brostoff claims to have notified “several companies” about their infringement of that particular patent.

“This is nothing new. We have been doing this for years. It even appears that they may be using several patented technologies,” said George Brostoff when asked what he made of OnePlus 5T’s Face Unlock implementation. “We have not licensed our patents to OnePlus or their supplier. From the video on Forbes, they are likely infringing at the very least on our illumination patent.”

Analysis from a patent and IP expert

Brostoff refused to divulge further details citing that SensibleVision has since handed the matter over to its legal firm, which probably means that we might hear more about this in the near future. Patent infringement claims in particular are extremely difficult to verify, so we spoke with Rohini Lakshane, who’s a Public Policy Researcher with extensive experience on patent and intellectual property regulation for more insight into the matter and an expert analysis on what this potential patent spat could entail.

“SensibleVision is a US company. Patents are valid only in the jurisdiction where they have been granted. Unless the company has registered a patent application or was awarded one for face recognition in China, there is no infringement. That is with respect to sale of the devices in China. With respect to sale in India, again, SensibleVision needs to have registered the patents in India,” explains Lakshane. “The way licensing works is the companies that hold many patents for a particular technology often license entire patent portfolios for use anywhere in the world. This is called Global Patent Licence Agreement (GPLA). This is usually confidential. What patents and how many are in the portfolio and what are the licensing terms [Editor’s note: in other words, how much money changes hands, among other things] is also confidential.”

From what Brostoff has revealed to us during the course of the interview, there seems to be no patent sharing agreement between OnePlus and SensibleVision to our knowledge. While it’s not easy to file and win patent lawsuits against Chinese companies in China, Lakshane suggests that SensibleVision can at least potentially begin patent infringement proceedings in the USA, where it has filed for the aforementioned patent.

However, all of this is conjecture from an expert in the field, as there’s no concrete corroborating proof legitimising SensibleVision’s patent infringement claims against OnePlus either. We have contacted OnePlus for its response on the matter, and will update this article with the official statement, so keep watching this space.

Read the original story here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/nachiket-mhatre-december-22-2017-exclusive-oneplus-5ts-face-unlock-feature-may-infringed-upon-sensiblevisions-face-recognition-patents

[OpenGLAM] Nominate an OpenGLAM project today for the 2015 Muse Awards

praskrishna — 2015-05-27T14:08:55Z

It's that time of the year again to nominate projects for the Muse Awards! This is like the Oscar of GLAM awards in the USA and welcomes international submissions.

Our esteemed jury comprises of:

Glen Barnes, Founder/CEO of MyTours and co-founder of Open New Zealand
Dominic McDevitt-Parks, Digital Content Specialist, National Archives and Records Administration
Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society
Jane Park, Project Manager, Creative Commons
Lieke Ploeger, Community Manager, Open Knowledge Foundation
Merete Sanderhoff, Curator, National Gallery of Denmark

Submissions are due Feb 23.

Please submit your OpenGLAM projects!!! This is a volunteer driven process, and we throw a big award ceremony with lots of champagne at the annual AAM conference.

More details here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/open-glam-nominate-open-glam-project-today-for-2015-muse-awards

[Open] Innovation and Expertise > Patent Protection & Trolls in a Broken Patent Regime (Interviews with Semiconductor Industry - Part 3)

maggie — 2014-12-26T13:19:46Z

This is the third of a four-part blog series1 highlighting findings from a small sample of interviews with fabless semiconductor industry professionals in Taiwan. These industry insiders was approached for the intent of understanding expert knowledge on the process of integrated circuit design. However, the conversations resulted in leanings far beyond that scope. This post explores some of their views on the current intellectual property system.

The intellectual property framework is meant to provide a temporary monopoly so those taking the risk to invest time, money, and resources into research and development can reap the returns for that investment without having to worry about others undercutting their price and competing for market share. Registration of patents supposedly encourages the dissemination of ideas and overall greater knowledge contribution for public access and eventual public domain. The interviewees were asked about their thoughts on this system of protection, incentivization, and knowledge-share, resulting in five broad themes:

1) Expertise trumps patent ownership

Particularly today in a digital world where innovative ideas and concepts can be easily shared, the first thing many people think about when discussing innovation, is the need to protect via patents. A vast amount of literature attempts to review the implications of patents' on technological innovation and economic development.

However, one interviewee noted that this emphasis on patent protection often overshadows what is much vital to the success of a technology business or industry - the people: the expertise and experience of the companies, their engineers, and their management. A lot of knowledge and 'intellectual property' lies in the procedures and processes which have resulted in effective application of standards and high level of performance for ones' products. The value of these skills and intelligence of human resources far outweigh the importance of protecting and owning patents.

2) Broken patent system

There was a clear consensus that the number one intellectual property concern is the need to revamp the current patent regime, with all interviewees agreeing that "useless patents" were being filed. Some suggestions for improvement included international standardization regarding the definition of a patent, the process of patent applications, and the scope of what a patent should cover. One interviewee believed that currently, the patent system actually prevents technological innovation, because one single patent can cover many ways of achieving something. The Apple patent entitled ' Method for providing human input into computer' which patents nearly every single possible human-computer interaction is an example of this.

"Patents today are trivial, and don't contain information regarding HOW to make something; there are too many process and design patents, and not enough functional patents...merely competitive differentiations rather than fundamental technological changes" .

This quote expressed the perception that only inventions that affect functionality in a fundamental way should be patented. A patent should not be claimed for something you cannot do, or does not show any kind of knowledge for how to solve a problem. One interviewee suggested that if a patent is granted without use for 3 years either by the owner or through licensing, the patent should be considered invalid.

Another industry expert explained that numerous patent applications are entered into the system without enough resources and competencies in the government to review them well. Albeit suggested in a joking manner, there may be truth to his claim that a knowledgeable intellectual property tech expert would opt to work for the more lucrative law firm over the government. He observed over the years a cycle where patents are easily approved, in which if a lawsuit arose, the patents are assessed more carefully again, resulting in massive inefficiencies for the system.

3. Patent Trolls

The poor execution of the patent system has resulted in the phenomenon of 'patent trolls', or what is more neutrally termed as non-practicing entities ("NPEs")[1] or patent assertion entities ("PAEs").[2] As explained by one interviewee, the business models of these entities often begin by conceiving of future technologies which may be necessary or foreseeable in the near future. Then, they seek to patent those ideas with no intention of actually producing producing or manufacturing the product. The main purpose is to profit through litigation and licensing. An example given of a patent trolling company was "Intellectual Ventures", which describes themselves as an "invention capital company" that "owns some of the world's largest and fastest growing intellectual property portfolios"[3]

The difficulty is that patent trolls are virtually indistinguishable from aspiring inventors and engineers, who may seek to manufacture and scale up their products through outsourcing and licensing. In addition, the lack of actual production makes valuation, legislation, and enforcement around this practice extremely difficult.

"The problem is, the guys who have patents think it's worth this much money… and the company that wants to license think it's worth another amount. From a regulatory or legal point of view, it's very difficult to legislate these things… you can't legislate a value right? In the end, it's how much the customer is willing to pay for it. It doesn't matter how many years someone's been working on it, if no one wants to buy it, it's not worth anything."

Robert L Stoll, former USPTO Commissioner of Patents says the most effective way to reduce predatory behavior is to ensure bad patents don't get issued in the first place, highlighting a legislation in the America Invests Act of 2011 which allows third parties to challenge granted patents on basis of former prior art, and non-technical financial or product patent.[4] Increased collaboration shown through standards and cross-licensing

The development of standards is very "fashionable" at the moment, according to one interviewee, who expressed his desire for his own company to be more involved in the process. However, another interviewee stated that more could be done to enhance collaboration within industry so that technologies could be provided free of licensing and ultimately benefit society at large through greater interoperability. Although there are signs of partnerships through cross-licensing agreements, particularly amongst larger firms, there are limitations because not everyone, including small firms, can afford it.

Most interviewees also expressed the need for greater emphasis on knowledge and research, rather than relying on proprietary technologies, which may actually hinder technological innovation. Examples given for companies doing this were Google and IBM, who both have more of a research background, and potentially have more research and development resources to engage in this kind of work.

5) Need for more openness

One interviewee who had extensive experience in the hackerspace community was an advocate for openness within the industry, and believed many companies had the option to become more open and effectively 'outsource' their research and development to the larger community.

Some successful projects he suggested was an open-sourced graphics processing unit ("GPU"), which does not exist even for the largely open Rasberry Pi. Even the development of a lower quality open sourced GPU in the market would result in tremendous demand, in his opinion. The ARM technology, the most popular CPU in the market is also currently semi-closed, and could in his opinion have benefited from more openness.

One interviewee expressed disappointment that all of the chips in his company was proprietary, even those that were no longer in production due to fear that competitors would be able to anticipate future developments from past projects. He suspected that many things were protected simply because the legal department assumed confidential and proprietary, without necessarily a coordinated long-term vision from head management. It is this normalized culture in industry that is, in his opinion a great hindrance to innovation, development, and accessibility of technology.

https://www.patentfreedom.com/about-npes/background/

http://www.ftc.gov/policy/studies/patent-assertion-entities-pae-study

http://www.intellectualventures.com/about

http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2014/02/article_0007.html

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/interviews-with-semi-conductor-industry-part-3

शंभर वर्षांपूर्वीच्या पुस्तकांचे होणार डिजिटायझेशन

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T07:47:20Z

Lokmat (newspaper) covered Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha's Project news.

Read the original article in Lokmat here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/93690292d930-93593094d93793e90292a94293094d93594091a94d92f93e-92a94193894d92491593e90291a947-93994b92393e930-92193f91c93f91f93e92f91d947936928

शंभर वर्षापूर्वीचे ग्रंथ मराठी विकिपीडियावर

praskrishna — 2016-06-22T14:53:03Z

The article was published in Maharashtra Times on June 15, 2016. Abhinav Garule and Tanveer Hasan have been quoted.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/maharashtra-times-june-15-cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-maharashtra-granthottejak-sanstha

तेसर फ्यूल कॉन्फरेंस आओर मोज़िला हैकाथन संपन्न

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T07:59:47Z

तेसरा फ़्यूल ज़िल्ट कॉन्फरेंस 2015 23 तारिख कए चेन्नई मे संपन्न भेल ।

The article was published by esamaad on November 19, 2015.

भाषाई कंप्यूटिंगक लेल मानक संसाधन बनेबा मे पिछला सात साल स लागल फ़्यूल परियोजना दिस स 2013 मे शुरू करल गेल एहि सम्मेलन क प्रायोजक आओर आयोजक दुनिया क जानल-मानल कंपनी मोज़िला, सी-डैक आओर रेड हैट छल। तीन दिवसीय इ सम्मेलन 20 नवंबर कए आरंभ भेल। एकर उद्घाटन सत्र कए मोज़िला क लोकलाइजेशन ड्राइवर एक्सेल हेच्ट, आईआईटी मद्रास क प्रोफ़ेसर हेमा मूर्ति, आईआईटी मद्रासे क हेमचंद्रण कराह आओर सीडैक क सहायक निदेशक जसजीत सिंह संबोधित केलथि‍। पहि‍ल दिन क सांझक पैनल डिसक्शन मे मोज़िला क पेइंग मो आओर आर्की आ अवाया क जी. करूणाकर आओर फ्यूल प्रोजेक्ट क संस्थापक राजेश रंजन क मॉडरेशन मे खुजल परिचर्चा भेल। पहि‍ल दिन क कार्यक्रम मे कैकटा जानल-मानल भाषाई कंप्यूटिंग पर काज करय बला विद्वान हिस्सा लेलथि‍ ।

तमिलनाडु क स्थानीय भाषाई तकनीकी विशेषज्ञ क अलावा एहि सम्मेलन मे भारत आओर नेपाल क विभिन्न भाषा-भाषाई हिस्सा क करीब पचास स बेसी लोग उपस्थित छलाह। तीन दिवसीय एहि सम्मेलन क पहि‍ल दिन सभ लेल खुलल छल जखनकि अगि‍ला दू दिन मोज़िला लोकलाइजेशन हैकाथन क कार्यक्रम चलल जेकरा लेल सहभागी ख़ास तौर पर आमंत्रित कैल गेल छलाह। लोकलाइजेशन कोनो स्रोत भाषा से स्थानीय भाषा मे कोनो उत्पाद कए बदलबा क पूरा प्रक्रिया कए कहल जाएत छल। एहिक अंतर्गत मोज़िलाक विभिन्न उत्पाद क लोकलाइजेशन यानी स्थानीयकरण क प्रक्रिया, ओहि मे सुधार आओर भविष्य क कार्ययोजना पर विस्तार स चर्चा भेल। पूरा कार्यक्रम क संचालन सी-डैक क तकनीकी अधिकारी चंद्रकांत धूताडमल केलथि‍।

उद्घाटन सत्र क आरंभ करैत फ़्यूल प्रोजेक्ट क संस्थापक राजेश रंजन फ़्यूल प्रोजेक्ट क बारे मे उपस्थित श्रोता क बतेलथि‍ – ओ बतेलथि‍ कि खालि सामुदायिक योगदान आओर कि‍छु संगठनक मदति क बदौलत भाषाई संसाधन क इ प्रोजेक्ट दुनिया क सबसे पैघ खुलल परियोजना बनि‍ गेल छल। मानक तकनीकी शब्दावली, स्टाइल गाइड, ट्रांसलेशन एसेसमेंट मैट्रिक्स सहित कैकटा महत्वपूर्ण संसाधन स लैस इ प्रोजेक्ट विश्वव्यापी भाषाई संदर्भ क बड़का अभिलेख बनि‍ गेल छल। गौरतलब अछि कि दुनिया क क़रीब 60 भाषा क भाषा समुदाय अखैन एहि परिजोयना स जुड़ल छल। मोज़िला क एक्सेल भारत मे बढ़ि‍ रहल इंटरनेट उपयोगकर्ताओं क महत्व कए रेखांकित करैत बतेलथि‍ कि मोज़िला आओर एकर खुलल मूल्य क उपस्थिति कतेक महत्वपूर्ण अछि। हेमा मू्र्ति क‍हलथि‍ कि अखनो भाषाई कंप्यूटिंग क स्थिति बेसी नीक नहि भेल है आओर एहि क्षेत्र मे आरो काज केनाय बाकी अछि। जसजीत सिंह कहलथि‍ कि कि‍छु आओर पैघ कंपनी क संग फ़्यूल क जुड़ाव भेनाय जरूरी अछि आओर उ कंपनी सब कए सामुदायिक रूप से तैयार कैल गेल संसाधन क महत्व कए बुझनाय चाही। समानता क चिह्न आओर डिजिटल मानविकी क विकास पर हेमचंद्रण क वक्तव्य बहुत उम्दा छल। ओ कहलथि‍ कि डिजिटल मानविकी पारंपरिक मानविकी कए हैक कए लेने अछि । ओ कहलथि‍ कि हमरा खाली इंटरफेस स्तरीय लोकलाइजेशन स ऊपर उठबा चाही।

कार्यक्रम मे लिब्रेऑफिस क इटालो विग्नोली, हमारा लिनक्स क विकास तारा, इतिहासकार रविकांत आओर जानल-मानल ब्लॉगर रवि रतलामी सेहो अपन वक्तव्य देलथि‍। भाषाई तकनीक विशेषज्ञ बिराज कर्माकर, प्रवीण ए, शुभाशीष पाणिग्रही, वीथिका मिश्रा, प्रवीण सतपुते, चंदन कुमार, राजू विंदाने सहित कैकटा लोग सेहो अपन वक्तव्य देलथि‍।

मोज़िलाक एक्सेल हेच्ट, पेइंग मो आओर आर्की क दिशा-निर्देश मे अंतिम दू दिन तक विभिन्न भाषा मे काज करय बला लोगक व्यापक परिचर्चा क दौरान कैकटा विषय पर बात भेल आओर उपस्थित लोग मोज़िला क स्वयंसेवी गतिविधियों क भविष्यक कार्ययोजना बनेलथ‍ि।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/esamaad-november-19-2015-third-fuel-conference-completed-in-chennai

तीसरा फ्यूल कॉन्फ्रेंस और मोज़िला हैकाथन संपन्न

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T08:00:16Z

तीसरा फ़्यूल ज़िल्ट कॉन्फ्रेंस 2015, 22 नवंबर को चेन्नई में संपन्न हुआ. भाषाई कंप्यूटिंग के लिए मानक संसाधन बनाने में पिछले सात सालों से जुटी फ़्यूल परियोजना के द्वारा 2013 में आरंभ किए गए इस सम्मेलन के प्रायोजक और आयोजक दुनिया की जानी-मानी कंपनिया मोज़िला, सी-डैक और रेड हैट हैं.

The article was published by Surkhiyan on November 23, 2015.

तीन दिवसीय यह सम्मेलन 20 नवंबर को आरंभ हुआ. इसके उद्घाटन सत्र को मोज़िला के लोकलाइजेशन ड्राइवर एक्सेल हेच्ट, आईआईटी मद्रास की प्रोफ़ेसर हेमा मूर्ति, आईआईटी मद्रास के ही हेमचंद्रण कराह और सीडैक के सहायक निदेशक जसजीत सिंह ने संबोधित किया.

पहले दिन के शाम के पैनल डिसक्शन में मोज़िला की पेइंग मो और आर्की तथा अवाया के जी. करूणाकर और फ्यूल प्रोजेक्ट के संस्थापक राजेश रंजन के मॉडरेशन में खुली परिचर्चा हुई. पहले दिन के कार्यक्रम में कई जाने-माने भाषाई कंप्यूटिंग पर काम करने वाले विद्वानों ने हिस्सा लिया.

तमिलनाडु के स्थानीय भाषाई तकनीक विशेषज्ञों के अलावा इस सम्मेलन में भारत और नेपाल के विभिन्न भाषा-भाषाई हिस्से के करीब पचास से अधिक लोग उपस्थित हुए. तीन दिवसीय इस सम्मेलन का पहला दिन सभी लोगों के लिए खुला था जबकि अगला दो दिन मोज़िला लोकलाइजेशन हैकाथन का कार्यक्रम चला जिसके लिए सहभागी ख़ास तौर पर आमंत्रित किए गए थे.

लोकलाइजेशन किसी स्रोत भाषा से स्थानीय भाषा में किसी उत्पाद को बदलने की पूरी प्रक्रिया को कहा जाता है. इसके अंतर्गत मोज़िला के विभिन्न उत्पादों के लोकलाइजेशन यानी स्थानीयकरण की प्रक्रिया, उसमें सुधार और भविष्य की कार्ययोजना पर विस्तार से चर्चा हुई. पूरे कार्यक्रम का संचालन सी-डैक के तकनीकी अधिकारी चंद्रकांत धूताडमल ने किया.

उद्घाटन सत्र का आरंभ करते हुए फ़्यूल प्रोजेक्ट के संस्थापक राजेश रंजन ने फ़्यूल प्रोजेक्ट के बारे में उपस्थित श्रोताओं को बताया. उन्होंने बताया कि महज सामुदायिक योगदान और कुछ संगठनों की मदद के बदौलत भाषाई संसाधन का यह प्रोजेक्ट दुनिया का सबसे बड़ी खुली परियोजना बन गई है. मानक तकनीकी शब्दावली, स्टाइल गाइड, ट्रांसलेशन एसेसमेंट मैट्रिक्स सहित कई महत्वपूर्ण संसाधनों से लैस यह प्रोजेक्ट विश्वव्यापी भाषाई संदर्भ का बड़ा अभिलेख बन गया है.

गौरतलब है कि दुनिया की क़रीब 60 भाषाओं के भाषा समुदाय अभी इस परिजोयना से जुड़ी हुई है. मोज़िला के एक्सेल ने भारत में बढ़ रहे इंटरनेट उपयोगकर्ताओं के महत्व को रेखांकित करते हुए बताया कि मोज़िला और इसके खुले मूल्यों की उपस्थिति कितनी महत्वपूर्ण है. हेमा मू्र्ति ने कहा कि अभी भी भाषाई कंप्यूटिंग की स्थिति काफी अच्छी नहीं हुई है और इस क्षेत्र में काफी काम किए जाने बाकी हैं.

जसजीत सिंह ने कहा कि कुछ और बड़ी कंपनियों के साथ फ़्यूल का जुड़ाव होना जरूरी है और उन कंपनियों को सामुदायिक रूप से तैयार किए गए संसाधन के महत्व को समझना चाहिए. समानता के चिह्न और डिजिटल मानविकी का विकास पर हेमचंद्रण का वक्तव्य बेहद उम्दा रहा. उन्होंने कहा कि डिजिटल मानविकी ने पारंपरिक मानविकी को हैक कर लिया है. उन्होंने कहा कि हमें महज इंटरफेस स्तरीय लोकलाइजेशन से ऊपर उठना चाहिए.

कार्यक्रम में लिब्रेऑफिस के इटालो विग्नोली, हमारा लिनक्स के विकास तारा, इतिहासकार रविकांत और जाने-माने ब्लॉगर रवि रतलामी ने भी अपना वक्तव्य दिया. भाषाई तकनीक विशेषज्ञ बिराज कर्माकर, प्रवीण ए, शुभाशीष पाणिग्रही, वीथिका मिश्रा, प्रवीण सतपुते, चंदन कुमार, राजू विंदाने सहित कई लोगों ने अपना वक्तव्य दिया.

मोज़िला के एक्सेल हेच्ट, पेइंग मो और आर्की के दिशा-निर्देश में अंतिम दो दिनों तक विभिन्न भाषाओं में काम करने वाले लोगों ने व्यापक परिचर्चा के दौरान कई विषयों पर बातें की और उपस्थित लोगों ने मोज़िला की स्वयंसेवी गतिविधियों के भविष्य की कार्ययोजना बनाई.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/surkhiyan-november-23-2015-fuel-gilt-conference