Centre for Internet and Society

Focus on India—WikiConference produces new apps; state government adopts free licenses

praskrishna — 2016-08-22T03:15:22Z

WikiConference India and its productive hackathon

The second WikiConference India, held August 5–7 in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh, drew hundreds of new and experienced members from 20 language communities of various Wikimedia projects from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. This event was more thematic than the first WikiConference India (held in 2011), with numerous presentations, panel discussions and workshops on the gender gap, Wikipedia in education, Mediawiki, and state of the movement in India. The event was organized by the Community of Wikimedians in India, supported by Wikimedia India and the Centre for Internet and Society, and funded by the Wikimedia Foundation. The newly formed user group Punjabi Wikimedians hosted the event. WikiConference India's main goal was to build community and increase participation among Wikimedians in India. Interest in the event was strong: 452 Wikimedians from more than six countries applied for ~100 scholarships. Wikipedia's well known gender gap was evident: only 55 scholarship applicants were women, but a strong focus on diversity resulted in ~25% of scholarship recipients going to women, and the inclusion of speakers of ~20 languages. In all, about 250 people attended the conference. Several Foundation staff spoke at the event, including executive director Katherine Maher, Asaf Bartov, and Tighe Flanagan.

A highlight of the conference was the hackathon track, which spanned all three days of the conference. It proved highly productive, yielding seven apps that are expected to help Wikimedians in a variety of ways. I spoke with Santosh Shingare (Cherishsantosh), the Bangalore-based Wikimedian who organized the hackathon. Santosh had previously served as an organizer of the 2011 WikiConference, and has run hackathons annually since then. Santosh's primary motivation for holding such events is learning; he spoke of limited opportunities to learn about new areas of technology beyond his core skills in WebRTC and Android. He enjoys collaborating with other Wikimedians and sharing technical skills. This event was his first with an international draw, and he looks forward to opportunities to collaborate beyond India's borders in the future.

As Santosh outlined in a message to the Wikimania email list, the hackathon's 35 participants made substantial progress with the following projects:

WikiSpeak with native language (web and Android): Speaking the text of Wikipedia articles
Edit Tamil Wiktionary (Android)
Audio file upload to Wikidata (Android): Assists users in uploading small files that demonstrate the pronunciation of lexical items
A layer that shows local Wikipedia articles on a Google Map
Optical character recognition for Hindi and Malayalam
Communication platform [WebRTC] (Web Application): Santosh wrote this app himself; hackathon participants used it to communicate
Notifications: browser notifications for Wikipedia functions such as recent changes

Santosh highlights that the projects grew out of advance communication. To identify problems and generate ideas, the hackathon organizing team posted a survey ahead of the event. Requests from various language communities, including Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, and Malayalam, drove several of the projects. The software is all freely licensed, and there are no plans to generate revenue.

Santosh is not a prolific Wikipedia writer or editor, but rather sees value in his ability to communicate among Wikimedians who seek features from various language communities, including his native Marathi and other Indic languages in which he has varying degrees of fluency.

He plans to update the Wikimedia community shortly with further details on each of the seven projects. He is already planning the next of India's annual hackathons. Hackathon organizers worldwide might be interested in learning more about Indian Wikimedians' efforts, and Wikimedians around the world can expect to benefit from their projects.

The conference generated a number of media reports. P

Indian state of Tamil Nadu adopts Creative Commons license

The state of Tamil Nadu on the subcontinent

Last week brought a rare piece of good news in the world's uncertain progress towards the widespread free licensing of information on the Internet. Ravidreams announced on the Wikimedia India mailing list that the government of one of India's largest and most populous states—Tamil Nadu—has issued an instruction to Tamil University and "all other government departments and institutions to release all their publications, archives and collections under Creative Commons by Share-Alike license".

The move comes one year after the collaboration between the Global Tamil Wikimedia Community and the Tamil Virtual Academy, an independent institution set up by the state government in 2001 to provide online resources for Tamil-language communities around the world. TVA and the Tamil-language Wikimedia community collaborated to persuade the government to make the order. Wikimedia India (one of three Creative Commons affiliates in the country) served as an institutional partner, signing the initial agreement on behalf of the Indian Wikimedia community, and funding a Wikimedian in Residence at TVA.

Ravi, who also serves on the TVA committee for outreach, told the Signpost that the TVA is very keen to share its collection of encyclopedic resources with Tamil Wikimedia projects. The community contributed strategic knowledge of free-content licensing, providing precedents for free content release by other governments in India and other countries, and helped in the drafting of the actual order. "But it takes a lot of time, effort, high-profile connections to change how government institutions work", he said.

An example of the distinctive Tamil script

“

Almost 99% of the time it's about the right officer/minister who cares for our mission being in charge of the right department at the right time. It's very hard to bring change through a bottom-up approach. These precedents help when someone at the top gets interested in changing things. So, any community that expects to influence public policy should be prepared to do a lot of groundwork.

”

Tamil-language Wikipedian Thamizhpparithi Maari serves as Assistant Director, TVA and state coordinator of its computing outreach unit, which the government is funding to encourage students in the state to use open-source media and software; this program includes the development of mobile apps and the running of contests to enhance students' computing skills. He described to the Signpost the elaborate process of finally gaining legal and administrative approval for the CC-by-SA release order. Thamizhpparithi has already started a process of digitising books from the universities to share with the Tamil wiki community, involving between 400,000 and 500,000 pages in some 200 books, using Google optical character recognition (OCR).

"This is just the beginning; we expect millions of pages to be uploaded to Tamil Wikisource", Ravi said. Most of the content that will become available for uploading is in Tamil, although some will be in English and other Indian languages; this will present significant opportunities for the Tamil Wikimedia community.

A rare Tamil-language book in an archival exhibition

There are about 70 million native speakers of Tamil, and another eight million second-language speakers. It is an official language in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka (with which the state shares a maritime border), and Singapore, and is also used in Malaysia and the African island of Mauritius. The language, written in a distinctive curvilinear script, has a rich literature of poetry reaching back thousands of years, and of novels over the past few centuries; this is attested by a related category on the English Wikipedia that is already of impressive size.

The Open Policy Network, a project of Creative Commons, published an overview of the value of this kind of work in 2014; the Network advocates for governments around the world to adopt free content licenses. T

In brief

Mobile app provides offline access to 8,000 medical articles in Arabic, Chinese, Persian, and Spanish: The apps, which supplement a popular English language app, were announced by the WikiProject Med Foundation and Wikimedia Switzerland. More language editions are planned.
Wikimedia Foundation appoints five volunteers to its Board Governance Committee: Newly appointed trustee Nataliia Tymkiv announced the selection of the advisory group. Board governance issues have been the subject of much discussion since the tumultuous events at the WMF over the last year. The four members of the BGC are Tymkiv (chair), Kelly Battles, Christophe Henner, and Dariusz Jemielniak.
WikiConference North America will take place October 7–10, 2016 in San Diego. Scholarship applications are open until August 23; conference submissions until August 31.
WikiConvention Francophone will take place in Paris August 19–21.
New help page takes aim at common newbie obstacle: Many articles carry banners, to flag problems with the articles. New contributors often lack an understanding of how to go about removing the banners, if they address the underlying issues. In recent months, Fuhghettaboutit created a help page to explain the process, and advocated for linking to the page from the templates. The help page now gets several thousand views per day, suggesting that it is filling a significant gap.
Machine-assisted translation of Wikipedia articles, which has increased with the introduction of the Wikimedia Foundation's Content Translation Tool (covered by the Signpost in a June 2015 op-ed, in June 2016, and in various other pieces), has sparked a controversy in recent weeks. See here: Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/CXT.
Wikidata RfC on defining data quality underway: Alessandro Piscopo, a guest of Wikimedia Germany, asserts that: "to achieve high quality, it is important to define first what data quality is on this knowledge base." Join the discussion: Wikidata:Requests for comment/Data quality framework for Wikidata. P

Read the original here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-signpost-august-18-2016-pete-forsyth-and-tony-focus-on-india

Fixing Copyright for Education (SCCR34 Side Event)

praskrishna — 2017-06-07T00:48:42Z

This event, hosted by Communia, EIFL, Creative Commons, and PIJIP, provided an overview of legal trends and developments concerning education, and presented the reality of education today. Anubha Sinha was a speaker.

The speakers described legal challenges faced by educators using new technologies, and discussed how copyright limitations and exceptions can be adapted to be fit for education in the digital age. It was held in Geneva as a side event at WIPO’s 34th Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights

Speakers:

Sean Flynn, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, American University Washington College of Law. “Opening User Rights for Educational Uses.” Presentation | Data
Chichi Umesi, First Secretary, Mission Of Nigeria to the United Nations in Geneva. “The Importance of Education for Developing Countries.”
Teresa Nobre, Legal Expert on Copyright, Communia. “Mapping Obstacles to Educational Uses in Europe.” Final report | Infographic | Presentation
Delia Browne, Education Lead, Creative Commons Australia / Director, National Copyright Unit (Schools and TAFEs) Australia. “Tales from Australian Copyright Law Reform Debate.” Presentation | Background documents: Myth: Fair use would harm Australian authors | Myth: Fair use decimated educational publishing in Canada
Anubha Sinha, Centre for Internet and Society – India. “Access to Education Wins in Oxbridge Clash with Indian Photocopier.” Background document (by Lawrence Laing)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/fixing-copyright-for-education-sccr34-side-event

First Urdu Wikipedia Workshop at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad

syed — 2014-04-07T01:06:31Z

During the second week of February, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore received a call from Dr Faheemuddin, Assistant Professor, Department of Translation Studies, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad requesting an Urdu Wikipedia Workshop in University. We were informed of special interest of Dr Zafaruddin , Head, Department of Translation studies in holding the event as any effort aimed at expanding the Urdu Wikipedia will benefit the Urdu language community across the world.

The event was covered by Taemeer News, Aalami Akhbar, and Firokhabar on March 5, 2014.

During the course of discussion and further communication, CIS agreed to hold a day-long workshop for about 20-30 students. The day-long workshop was scheduled on March 4, 2013 for 28 students. These students came from different levels such as MA, M Phil and Ph D offered by the Department of Translation Studies. All the participating students had opened their accounts on Urdu Wikipedia prior to the event. They were well-versed in the Unicode typing for Urdu.

Prof. Mohammed Zafaruddin said during the inaugural session that the Dept. of Translation Studies wants its students to impart training for writing material for Urdu Wikipedia so that Urdu could be made compatible with the modern technology. Later, Mr. Vishnu Vardhan, Director, Access to Knowledge, addressed the students through Skype. He told that Wikipedia has become an important source of communicating information. Millions of people throughout the world are getting information through Wikipedia in 287 languages. Urdu is an important language of the world, the speakers of which are spread all over the world. In view of its importance, it is obligatory on the part of Urdu speakers to preserves their language and culture by using and contributing to Urdu Wikipedia.

The initial session of the workshop included a general introduction to Wikipedia, the encyclopaedic content it showcases and the ways in which the students can contribute. This was followed by a practical demonstration round. For this purpose, the students witnessed the creation of the article on the famous Urdu poet and Bollywood lyricist Kaif Bhopali. It was pointed out that while the English Wikipedia already had article on the poet, Urdu Wikipedia got its version only during the current workshop. The students were later surprised to see that in the context of many Urdu poets, more content was available on Wikipedia in English than in Urdu. In the case of some of the famous poets, even an article entry is missing in the Urdu Wikipeda while English Wikipedia has full length articles.

During the hands-on session, each of the students was given a bitly link of an Urdu Wikipedia article. The students were asked to edit the article and expand the content. The students enthusiastically participated in the event with some of them creating their own articles. They also asked questions pertaining to an advanced level of editing such as uploading images. A student named Mohammed Asif had taken pictures of the event which he later uploaded on Wikimedia Commons (http://bitly.com/urduworkshop).

The departmental staff present on the occasion included Dr. Mohammed Khaled Mubbashir-Uz-Zafar, Associate Professor, Dr. Mohammed Junaid Zakir, Dr. Khakashan Lateef (Asst. Professors), Prof. Syed Khwaja Moinuddin and Dr. Shaik Sadi Arshad (Translator). Convener of the workshop, Dr. Faheemuddin Ahmed, proposed vote of thanks.

Video

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/first-urdu-wikipedia-workshop-hyderabad

First Round-table on Innovation, IP and Competition

praskrishna — 2016-04-25T07:42:45Z

The First Annual Roundtable on Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition was organized by the recently established Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property & Competition (CIIPC) at the National Law University, Delhi. Dr. Arul George Scaria and Prof. Yogesh Pai are the co-directors of this Centre. The event was held on April 1 and 2, 2016 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha participated in the event.

The round-table offered a unique forum for academia, policy makers, industry stakeholders and academically-minded practitioners on emerging issues at the interface of innovation, intellectual property & competition law and policy. The attempt is to create a balanced and open discussion on some of the intensely debated issues across the world, while taking particular note of recent developments in India.

The full day round-table on April 2 deliberated on the following sub-themes in four different sessions:

Innovation Economics: What can it Teach IP Policy-making in India?
Assessing the Role of Patents and Competition Policy in Technology Markets: Perspectives from Business and Regulation
Intellectual Property and Competition Law in India: Issues of Jurisdiction & Role of Courts
DIPP Discussion Paper on SEPs: FRAND in India from a Comparative Perspective

Download the Programme Schedule

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/first-round-table-on-innovation-ip-and-competition

First Pune Odia Wikipedia Workshop Organized!

subha — 2012-11-30T12:44:44Z

The first Pune Odia Wikipedia workshop was organized in Pune on October 27, 2012. Subhashish Panigrahi recollects his experience about the events through this report.

Recently Odia Wikipedia (http://or.wikipedia.org) crossed 3000 articles. After being dormant for 8 long years, Odia Wikipedia emerged as one of the active South Asian wikipedias. I visited Pune on October 27, 2012 to participate in an Odia Wikipedia workshop celebrating this success with the wikipedians and also attend the WikiWomenDay 2012.

Over the last few months Odia Wikipedia has seen many active faces. One of them is Suratha Parhi, a very active Odia wikipedian. Suratha reached out to his friends, colleagues and existing wikipedians staying in Pune to celebrate the success with an Odia Wikipedia workshop. As it was after Durga Puja only a few Odia people in the city were there to attend. We saw a gathering of 10 people at PAI International Learning Center for this workshop. Abhishek Suryavanshi from Wikipedia Club Pune extended his support for organizing the venue for us.

Prior to the workshop I interacted with the participants to understand their interests and efficiency with Odia typing. To my surprise two of the participants were good in typing in phonetic and Inscript. Suratha took the audience through a presentation about Odia Wikipedia explaining the history of Odia language, importance of Wikipedia, how to contribute to Wikipedia, manual of style for writing articles, dos and do nots, rules and regulations and validating articles by adding sources. After the preliminary sessions participants started asking questions about numbers of readers, how to type in Odia, use of Odia Wikipedia and various such questions. Suratha answered their questions with examples and illustrations.

To demonstrate editing on Odia Wikipedia we invited one of the participants. We helped her to create her user account and others also created their user accounts on Odia Wikipedia. Then we invited Sudhir Patel, a type designer and technologist working with CDAC, Pune to introduce Odia typing and how to type easily in Odia. After a small hands-on training for typing, all of the participants were able to start searching for articles they wanted to edit. Some of them created new articles and some edited existing articles. At the end of the session we shared our contacts to stay in touch. We also showed them Chatasabha, a friendly desk on Odia Wikipedia and demonstrated how they can ask questions and see the answered questions. New wikipedians will be also connected to the facebook group to be updated about events and activities. New Wikipedians have decided to meet once again in November for a Odia Wikipedia meetup. Sudhir and Suratha are also planning to organize a introductory session on Odia Wikipedia during the cultural gathering organized by Odia communities.

Above is a picture of participants from the Orissa Wikipedia workshop held on October 27, 2012

More pictures on WikiCommons.

Press Coverage:
OdishaDiary.com, Odisha: Odia Wikipedia workshop organized in Pune to promote Odia language (October 31, 2012)

Videos

Suratha Parhi explaining about Odia Wikipedia

Sudhir Patel explaining about Odia Typing

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/first-pune-odia-wikipedia-organized

First Post-Bilski Decision - Software Patent Rejected

praskrishna — 2011-08-23T03:24:25Z

In the first decision post-Bilski, the Board of Patents Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) rejected a software patent claimed by Hewlett-Packard. The ruling in this case has buttressed the fact that the Bilski decision furthered the cause of narrowing the patentability of software even though the Supreme Court of the United States totally avoided mentioning software patents or the applicability of the machine or transformation test for software patents in its decision.

As eagerly as it was awaited, the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos (2010) was a dampener as far as its impact (or the lack of it) on patentability of software was concerned. The Supreme Court totally avoided even mentioning software patents or the applicability of the machine or transformation test for software patents in its decision and while many claimed that it was status quo maintained, a few of us found a silver lining in the Court’s ruling of abstract ideas as unpatentable and its admission of an argument that patents do not necessarily promote innovation and may, sometimes result in limiting competition and stifling innovation. Our hope that the Bilski case furthered the cause of narrowing the patentability of software was not misplaced is evident from the first decision post-Bilski, of the BPAI, which rejected a software patent claimed by Hewlett-Packard. The BPAI, in In Re Proudler, rejected a patent claim for software made by Hewlett Packard on the ground that software, being an abstract idea, is not patentable. The BPAI relied on, among others, the Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos in holding that an abstract idea was not patentable.

The case before the BPAI was on appeal from the decision of the patent examiner who refused patent for the claim on the ground that it was obvious (on basis of prior art analysis) and therefore, “barred at the threshold” for patentability under US patent law. The patent was claimed for “a method of controlling the processing of data” comprising “defining security controls for a plurality of data items, and applying individualised security rules to each of the data items based on a measurement of integrity of a computing entity to which the data items are to be made available”. It was essentially a claim for software facilitation data processing and involving security controls for several data items. The BPAI refused patent for the claim but differed from the patent examiner in its reasoning. The BPAI held that all claims related to non-patentable subject matter and hence, could not be granted patent.

In coming to this conclusion, the BPAI relied on previous decisions including In Re Nuijten which held that Section 35 of the US Code of Patents which allows patents for a machine, a manufacture, a process or a composition of matter constitutes “the exclusive reach of patentable subject matter”. In ruling that HP’s claim was not patentable, BPAI also held that software, being an abstract idea, was not patentable. The line of argument relied on by the BPAI was something like this – “[A] machine, a manufacture, a process or a composition of matter” constitutes the exclusive reach of patentable subject matter. Thus, laws of nature, abstract ideas, and natural phenomena are excluded from patent protection as held in the well known case of Diamond v. Diehr. The Federal Circuit in its decision in In re Warmerdam has held that an abstraction is not a patentable subject matter. In other words, a claim that recites no more than software, logic or a data structure (that is, an abstraction) does not fall within any statutory category. It has been held in Microsoft Corp. v. AT & T Corp. that an abstract software code is an idea without physical embodiment. Finally, and most significantly, the Bilski case has put the nail in the coffin by ruling that abstract ideas are not patentable. Against the background of these precedents, BPAI has confirmed the unpatentability of software on the ground that it is an abstract idea.

It is interesting that the BPAI also mentioned that “no true hardware structure is recited” in the claims to buttress its conclusion that the idea claimed was an abstract one. This means that the BPAI took note of the fact that although a hardware structure may have been essential to implement the abstract idea forming the claim such structure itself was not claimed for patent. The innovation claimed lay in the software alone and not in the hardware and therefore, did not merit patent protection. Thus, a claimed invention which is a combination of hardware (required to implement the software) and software may not be patentable as long as there is no ingenuity in the hardware as software alone, being a mere algorithm and an abstraction, falls outside the scope of patentable subject matter.

The first post-Bilski decision gives us more than one reason to cheer about –

It refused patent for software on the ground that it was an abstract idea and hence, did not fall under patentable subject matter. Acceptance of software as merely an abstract idea is catching up and is thus, good news for those who challenge the patentability of software.
The BPAI, in ruling software as an abstraction and thus, unpatentable relied directly on the Bilski decision and therefore, provided a clear, much-needed guideline for conclusively interpreting the Bilski decision as one restricting the patentability of software.
The decision supported the argument that any combination of hardware and software, to be patentable, must demonstrate ingenuity in the hardware component. As long as there is no claim for hardware, the software itself, being an abstraction, cannot be patented. This brings about greater clarity in the definition of software to be limited to an algorithm (and thus, abstract) and to be looked at in isolation from a hardware component which is solely used to implement the software and no more.

It will be interesting to follow the developments in this case and in other future claims for software which may rely on the Bilski decision. In Re Proudler is certainly encouraging for limiting software patents especially in the aftermath of Bilski. As far as patentability of software is concerned, the Bilski decision may not be that insignificant after all.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/post-bilski

First Odia Wikipedia Education Program to be Rolled Out

subha — 2012-12-14T12:17:04Z

Odia Wikipedians gathered at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal on November 8, 2012 to start the first Odia Wikipedia Education Program. This program aims to bring students edit articles on Odia Wikipedia through a series of assessments by professors. The local community members from Nalconagar would be supporting the four month program.

Since March 2011, Odia Wikipedia has started growing in terms of readers, editors and content. Last few months have seen many new faces added to the community who are willing to take part in both offline and online outreach. Though many of the community members are staying out of state, there are community clusters in three different places: Cuttack, Nalconagar and Bhubaneswar. We approached many institutions from these three places and some of them showed interest for an Odia Wikipedia workshop to assess and evaluate students for the education program. We conducted workshops in some of those institutions in the initial level. After successive workshops and meeting with the faculty members, some of the potential institutions were chosen for the education program. One of those colleges was the IIMC in Dhenkanal. We had a meeting with the professor of this organization along with teaching associates and a visiting professor and a full day workshop on editing wikipedia. Odia wikipedians, Mrutyunjaya Kar, Manoranjan Mallick, Srikant Kedia and Kamalakanta Nayak supported for organizing the event.

IIMC, Dhenkanal is one of the six IIMCs of India and a pioneer in the field of Mass Communication. We met Professor Mrinal Chaterjee along with teaching associates, Sucharita and Bhagaban Sahu, retired professor of Revenshaw University and visiting professor of IIMC. The college is home to 83 students across India. Students enroll for a one year diploma program for Journalism and Mass communication in Odia and English.

The full day session was made to two separate sessions: an introductory session and one hands-on training on editing. Prof. Chaterjee introduced the agenda of the session and why it is needed for the students from a student's point of view. I continued the discussion and presented the key points of wikipedia editing and details of the education program, why and how we are going to start it focussing on the key roles of students and the institution and how it will help them. We announced about the hands on training session post lunch for the interested students. Twenty one students gathered for the second session. Interestingly all of the Odia department students were present and there was one student from English department. Students were briefed about editing. During the workshop we found that majority of them knew a typing layout called "Modular layout" which is used by non-unicode ISCII/ASCII typing softwares like Leap office, I-Lipi, Shreelipi, etc. As this layout is yet to be enabled for Odia we continued explaining about typing using the default typing scheme.

"The Reporter", a bilingual daily published by students on college notice board	Odia education program proposal IIMC on Slideshare

"The Reporter", a bilingual daily published by students on college notice board

Odia education program proposal IIMC on Slideshare

After the end of the workshop we had another meeting with the professor and other faculty members to assess and discuss about the further steps. IIMC has a very close student-teacher relation which we observed from the beginning of the workshop. Students were really keen and patient to learn and all of the students who attended the hands-on training session stayed back till the end of the session. Apart from their regular assignments and projects, students also publish a daily bilingual newspaper, "The Reporter".

"Writing is a part of their their study and we emphasize much on getting the most of their short program. If Wikipedia could give them a global platform to and larger audience for their work to be read, reviewed and enhanced then why not adding it to their task list?", expresses Prof. Chatterjee. The only hurdle which students are going to face in the initial phase is typing in Odia. So, modular layout needs to be added in "Narayam", the typing tool integrated in Odia Wikipedia. To begin with this program an Odia Wikipedia club was formed at Nalconagar which would primarily support this program at the ground level.

Video

Read a detailed four month work plan for this program on Odia Wikipedia: Read in English | Read in Odia

Presentation for Odia Education Program: On Commons | Source file

Commons picture gallery: See here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/first-odia-wikipedia-education-program-to-be-rolled-out-at-iimc-dhenkanal

First ever Train-the-Trainer Program in India

nitika — 2013-12-31T12:18:48Z

Access to Knowledge Programme at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) organized the first ever Train the Trainer Program in India. 20 Wikimedians from 8 different language communities and 10 different cities across India attended CIS-A2K’s Train the Trainer (TTT).

Read the post originally published on Wikipedia here.

The residency program was spread over four days. The event was represented by Wikimedia communities including Bengali, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Odia. The event was organized to help build capacity amongst Wikimedia volunteers to conduct effective and efficient outreach programs in their respective regions in an effort to expand the Wikimedia movement to reach the nooks and crannies of a large nation like India. CIS-A2K realizes that with a small team of five it cannot cover all communities. This program would create leadership, which in turn will hopefully take the movement forward.

Hari Prasad Nadig, one of TTT’s resource persons and sysop on both Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedia, said, “I think the training program was in the right direction. In fact I thought it was a very good idea.

It falls in-line with what is needed to be done with utmost importance for the Indian Wikipedia community – creating more trainers/mentors who can bring in editors to Wikipedia or guide the existing ones.”

Post-Event Survey & Report

CIS-A2K conducted a post-event survey to evaluate TTT program and also review individual training and development activities organized during the four-day workshop. The main aim of the survey was to understand how the attendees perceived the event and help CIS-A2K plan a more successful and well-attended event in the future.

Including a variety of questions ranging from likert scale questions, drag and drop list, paragraph text, multiple choices, provided an interactive and systematic way to gather participant’s feedback. The survey questions were also designed to cover different aspects of the event including attendee’s opinions of the sessions, as well as what they learned. Results and findings will be used to refine and improve the next TTT program.

CIS-A2K’s Findings I

Overall Rating – The event scored an average of 8.3 when participants were asked to rank the overall effectiveness of TTT on a scale of 1 to 10. Survey respondents found value in the program and felt the event met their expectations. A vast majority (83 percent) said they would recommend TTT to fellow Wikipedians. “The overall experience of the TTT program was quite satisfactory. What I liked about it was the timely flow of the entire planned schedule and the preparedness of CIS – A2K team,” said Rangilo Gujarati, a Gujarati Wikipedian.

Inspirational Factor – One of the questions: “After the workshop, how inspired do you feel to strengthen your Wikipedia community and project?” received an anonymous reply: “It was really a nice time with you all. I got to learn many new things. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to attend this workshop. I’m inspired and looking forward to using my skills and conduct an edit-a-thon in my language community soon.”

“The overall experience of TTT program was quite uniquely satisfactory.” said Rangilo Gujarati.

Participants gave an above average rating of 8.25 on a scale of 10. We believe this high number indicates that CIS-A2K’s was able to inspire more volunteers to conduct online and offline outreach activities to grow their Wikimedia communities.

New Learnings – “It was a good experience for me. I learned a lot of things by interacting with so many TTT participants from different communities. The sessions were extremely useful and informative”, said Pranayraj1985, an active Telugu Wikipedian. Most participants got to learn new things during the course of four day workshop. The question ‘Do you feel you got to learn new things from TTT workshops?’ got an average rating 8.58.

Feedback on various sessions – One of the participants said “All workshops were excellent. The event managed to cover different aspects such as crowdsourcing, copyright, social media, digitization, media wiki etc. There was bit of everything to match everyone’s taste. Each one of the sessions gave a lot of energy to Wikipedians. These types of programs should be conducted often. Thanks for giving us the opportunity.”

Presenting with Impact I & II was the most liked session according to feedback. DIY digitization led by Malayalam Wikipedian Vishwa Prabha and Odia Wikipedian Subhashish Panagrahi also received a high ranking. This was followed by Copyright CC and Wikimedia led by Achal Prabhala.

Sessions such as Spectogram, Accessing Media Wiki Data, Wikimedia India Chapter – History & Present were found to be less useful. This could be due to the fact that some of the participants already had sufficient knowledge about the topic or were simply not interested in the topic.

“It was a good experience for me. The sessions were extremely useful and informative”, said Pranayraj1985

Follow up Session – 92 percent of the participants recommend CIS-A2K organize a follow-up session for them in the coming months. Eight percent of them did not think it’s required. One of the resource persons from Malayalam community, Vishwa Prabha, offered to organize the follow-up meet in Kerala. He said, “December would be a good time for a follow-up meet, I would like to suggest Alappuzha (Kerala) as a venue. This could be scheduled just before or just after the WikiSangamotsavam, which is being planned by the ML community. This could also be a great opportunity for TTT members to interact with the ML community, one of the most vibrant wiki communities in Asia.”
Recommendation to other Wikimedians – 83 percent of the participants said that if another TTT program was t be organized they will recommend it to their fellow Wikimedian volunteers; while 17 percent of them won’t.

CIS-A2K’s Findings II

All participants unanimously suggested that CIS-A2K continue this program in the future and offered suggestions to improve it next time:

Organize more ice-breaking activities – Even after a four day workshop a lot of participants thought they didn’t get enough time to get to know volunteers from other language communities. This was owing to the fact that participants had relatively little free time. Communication in a multilingual environment was also rather difficult for some.

Provide longer breaks – Some participants complained that the length of breaks were too short. “While trying to stuff in so many topics (all of them being quite essential and worthy) within such a short time, the breaks seemed too short,” said one participant.

Organize parallel and optional sessions – There were some participants who were not interested in technical aspects of Wikimedia projects such as Python or MediaWiki and would have liked the option of attending a parallel non-technical session. One of the participants said “Let us say for example, not everyone is interested in knowing how to access media wiki data using XML, so why force the participants to attend, even if they don’t want to. What could have been done is, some other kind of session/talk or extension of any previous session in parallel so folks uninterested in XML can attend that.” If scale permits, CIS-A2K will aim to organize parallel sessions so that the participants can choose the session they’d like to attend.

Wikipedians during at the CIS-A2K Train-the-Trainer Program Digitization workshop (by Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Provide ideas and action points – Providing a report and case study on how TTT participants can infuse the lessons learned into their outreach and community activities would have been helpful. CIS-A2K was informed that the participants were highly encouraged and motivated to strengthen their language communities but didn’t know where to start or whom to reach out for help.

Create Wiki Projects for TTT participants – One of the attendees suggested that we should initiate some intra-community collaboration projects (like railway network, Bibliography database, taxonomy database, reusable standard templates among Indic communities etc) and ask participants to volunteer on these projects with a common goal. This will help break barriers as well as help volunteers get to know each other better. Another attendee said, “Another way could be to ask them to work towards creating a repository of outreach material (coursebooks, presentation modules, standards/workflows, PR, media, publicity and courses) for each Indian language community.”
Organize advanced technical sessions – A few participants would have liked more technical sessions such as bat running, edit tools, web linkups etc. CIS-A2K got requests to invite experts and organize more advanced technical sessions.

Participants during Information literacy and Internet research techniques for Wikipedia editors (by Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Conclusion

Overall, the participants and resource persons were satisfied with India’s first ever Wikimedia Train the Trainer Program. A special thanks to all the participants and the resource persons who gave their time and energy to make this program a success. A list of all participants and resource persons can be found on program meta page.

CIS-A2K will definitely try to incorporate these ideas and suggestions a the second annual TTT program. Please stay tuned to learn more about when and where it will take place!

A group photo on the last day (by Pranayraj, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Copyright notes: "HPN" by HPNadig, under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons, "Photograph of Rangilo Gujarati" by Rangilo Gujarati, under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons, "My Photo", "CIS A2K - Train the Trainer Programme.jpg" by Pranayraj1985, under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons, "CIS-A2K Train-the-Trainer Program11.jpg", "CIS-A2K Train-the-Trainer Program2.jpg" by Subhashish Panigrahi, under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/train-the-trainer-program-in-india

First Asia Pacific Workshop on Empirical Methods in Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition

praskrishna — 2017-03-14T14:14:12Z

Rohini Lakshané took part in a workshop organized by Centre for Innovation Intellectual Property & Competition in New Delhi from March 9 to 11, 2017.

The workshop was open for legal academicians (who are working in the areas of intellectual property law and/or competition law) and regulators working with intellectual property law and competition law issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Click here for the Agenda. More details on Spicy IP Blog here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/first-asia-pacific-workshop-on-empirical-methods-in-innovation-intellectual-property-and-competition

Fifty-fourth Bangalore Wikimedia Meet-up at IIM, Bangalore

noopur — 2013-03-06T09:09:03Z

The 54th Wikimedia meet-up in Bangalore was held at the Indian Institute of Management on February 25, 2013. The event was planned and organized by Radhakrishna Arvapally, SIG (Special Interest Group) Chair, Bangalore (a part of the Wikimedia India Chapter) with support from Solutions IQ, Wikimedia India Chapter and CIS.

The proposed agenda was as follows: an introduction to Wikimedia projects by Sudhanwa Jogalekar, President of Wikimedia India Chapter, a talk on accessibility and knowledge by T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, Access to Knowledge, followed by a session on WikiSpeed – extreme manufacturing of high speed cars by Joe Justice and Vibhu Srinivasan from Solutions IQ. Mr K S Viswanathan, Vice President (NASSCOM) was the chief guest. He spoke to the participants about the importance of developing a digital hub of free knowledge.

Sudhanwa gave a brief introduction to the world of Wikimedia including projects like Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Incubator, MediaWiki and more. He also explained how one could contribute to each of these projects. He mentioned two upcoming projects – Wikivoyage and Wikidata. He answered a few questions after his session and encouraged participants to become members of the Wikimedia India Chapter and get involved in Wikimedia activities in India. Here are the details to become a member.

Vishnu’s talk was about understanding why Wikipedia and what is the importance of enabling access to knowledge resources. He took the example of older technologies and what propelled their invention. In the interactive session, we explored our relationship with knowledge resources, how happy we are with the knowledge we get and how we can make the access better and wider. The discussion also touched upon knowledge resources in Indian languages in the digital domain and the problems associated with them. Participants noted some challenges like affordability, awareness, fonts, low visibility in search etc. They also agreed that given the multilingualism, machine translations are not the solution to knowledge gaps in Indian languages in the digital domain. Another question was about awareness versus access to existing knowledge.

We also discussed how audio technologies could help the cause of Indian languages in education. Radhakrishna coordinated the sessions and answered questions related to content on Wikipedia, authenticity of knowledge on Wikipedia.


Participants seen in the classroom during the Wiki meetup at IIM, Bangalore

In the next session, Joe Justice and Vibhu Srinivasan spoke about WikiSpeed cars, a DIY project to make high-speed cars by harnessing work methods from the Open Source movement. Joe spoke of Kanban and agile engineering. He also explained how the car uses Arduino circuit boards and this project is being scaled so that people across the world can make functional cars collaboratively. He also invited the participants to WikiSpeed event in Bangalore.

Mr Viswanathan then spoke about TEQIP (Technical education and Skill Development Cycle), a program devised to ensure industry exposure and experience to students in technical fields. He also mentioned how the curriculum would be freely available online for all to use. Radhakrishna made the concluding remarks and thanked all the participants and guests for attending.

The meetup ended with questions and more interaction. Details of upcoming Wikimedia meetups in Bangalore can be found here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/fifty-fourth-bangalore-wikimedia-meetup

Fifth International IPR Conference (GIPC 2013)

praskrishna — 2013-02-03T02:04:49Z

ITAG Business Solutions is organizing its Fifth International IPR conference "GIPC 2013" at Hotel LaLit Ashok, Bangalore, India on the theme "IPR: The Powerhouse of Tomorrow". Snehashish Ghosh is participating in the event and will speak on Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Market Place.

The Institute of International Trade and Sughrue are the co-organisers of this event. Full details of the event can be seen here.

The conference shall deal with specific technology in various industries, World leaders and the various IPR solutions.

The subjects to be covered in the conference are from idea to asset encompassing all relevant topics including valuation, commercialization, technology transfer, litigation, counterfeiting, analyzing the techno, legal and commercial solution to all associated problems in the field of intellectual property. The conference will deal with complex issues in simple manner about patentability of business methods, software and emerging field of technologies namely electronics, telecommunications, green technologies, nanotechnologies and pharmaceuticals. The emerging BRICS economies need to provide IP competitiveness to the Western Nations through innovation and creativity.

Click to see the agenda.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/fifth-intl-ipr-conference-gipc-2013

Fifth Annual IP Teaching Workshop

praskrishna — 2016-04-02T06:53:16Z

The V Annual IP Teaching Workshop- 2016 was organised by the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC), at National Law University Delhi in association with National Academy of Law Teaching, NLU-D, on March 31 and April 1, 2016 in Delhi. Nehaa Chaudhari was a speaker.

Concept Note

The annual IP teaching workshops have previously been hosted in association with University of Washington School of Law, Seattle. In 2012, the first such workshop identified several broad challenges faced by teachers of intellectual property law in India. In 2013, the second IP teaching workshop focussed was on IP teaching techniques, use of information and communications technology in IP teaching, research and publication. The third workshop in 2014 discussed various issues initiating IP clinics in India. In 2015, the IV annual IP Teaching workshop focused on diverse issues involving curriculum development, student participation in IP activities, empirical research in IP, academic contributions to IP policy-making, and IP teaching beyond law schools. All workshops have had key speakers and resource persons from India and abroad.

By bringing together a select gathering of IP teachers and scholars from different corners of India, the 2016 workshop in its fifth edition aims to focus on developing a thematic research agenda on contemporary legal issues involving “IP interfaces”. The general approach to the study and teaching of intellectual property in India tends to look at intellectual property in isolation to other areas of law. However, many scholars and teachers of intellectual property have in the past and present eschewed such an approach since it fundamentally limits critical thinking and holistic appreciation of intellectual property law, both in theory and in practice. Recent scholarship has focussed on the overlapping nature of issues within intellectual property. However, teachers and scholars of intellectual property do regularly encounter deeper and intricate questions involving IP interfaces in terms of their symbiotic relationship shared by IP with other areas of law, both- domestic and international law.

IP interfaces looks into the complex web of legal relationships and contestations between intellectual property law in India and other areas of law viz., the law of property, constitutional law, law of contracts, tort law, criminal law, international trade law, international investment law, competition law, technology and regulatory laws. Briefly, these areas of law pose important challenges in the development of IP law, which often have specific legal consequences. Taking recourse to the study of interfaces shared by IP with other areas of law may help us in placing decisive legal limits or in advancing potential legal interpretations that may have teleological consequences for various stakeholders implicated by the IP system. These key areas of law identified above are only indicative, and hence non-exhaustive.

The academic community is invited to contemplate on the theme of the conference by framing specific and focused research questions in different areas of IP law that raise legal implications in their interaction with other areas of law. To specifically scope the thematic discussions during the workshop, we look forward to research proposals that avoid pure policy questions that may govern such interfaces. The workshop aims to focus on legal argumentation, articulation and outcome by working on specific legal questions on IP interfaces. The aim to develop a concrete research agenda in order to discern legal principles that guide such legal relationships in terms of their conflicts, complementarities and contestations of IP interfaces. This is with an exclusive focus on several key areas of Indian/international law in its interaction with intellectual property law in India, as governed by different statutes, case-law jurisprudence and common law principles.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/fifth-annual-ip-teaching-workshop

Feedback to Draft Copyright Rules, 2012

pranesh — 2012-10-04T04:53:47Z

The Centre for Internet & Society submitted its written comments on the Draft Copyright Rules, 2012 to Mr. G.R. Raghavender, Registrar of Copyrights & Director (BP&CR), Ministry of Human Resource Development.

G.R. Raghavender
Registrar of Copyrights & Director (BP&CR)
Copyright Office
Department of Higher Education
Ministry of Human Resource Development
4th floor, Jeevan Deep Building,
Parliament Street
New Delhi — 110001

Dear Sir,

This submission contains comments from the Centre for Internet and Society on the Draft Copyright Rules, 2012. I apologize for the slight delay in submitting these.

Yours sincerely,
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director
Centre for Internet and Society

Relinquishment of Copyright

Analysis

The law in India allows anonymously and pseudonymously created works to be copyrighted as well, as is clear from section 23 of the Copyright Act. However, rule 8 as it currently is does not allow such authors to relinquish copyright. Relinquishment of copyright is a very different kind of act from registration of copyright, and hence it is not necessary to seek the same categories of information from both. Certain categories of information sought during registration of copyright ("class of work", "language of the work", "nationality of author") are required not because they help identify a work, but because they help in indexing the work ("class of work", "language of work") or in ensuring that the work is copyrightable in India ("nationality of author"). Such considerations do not matter when it comes to relinquishment of copyright, i.e., when a work is allowed to pass into the public domain. Further, technological progress has made it difficult to determine the answer to a question like "country of first publication", "nationality of the publisher", etc. If a work has been uploaded by an author on to his blog, is the publisher the author or the person hosting the blog? If an Indian author residing in India first publishes a work on the server located in Argentina, is the country of first publication India or Argentina? The answer to these questions does not make a difference to the issue of relinquishment of copyright. The only information that is required for relinquishment of rights is a) what work is being put in the public domain, b) by whom, c) from when.

Furthermore, the current requirements of rule 8 cannot easily be satisfied by using most of the popular means of relinquishing copyright (such as the CC0 — Creative Commons Zero — licence).

Recommendations

Rule 8 be modified to read: A public notice issued by an author relinquishing his or her rights as per subsection (1) of section 21 of the Copyright Act, shall include the following details: (a) Title of the work (b) Full name, or pseudonym, in case the work has not been created anonymously (c) Date of issuance of the notice (d) If copyright in the work is registered under section 45, the registration number.

Rule 9 be modified to read: Any one of the following shall constitute public notice of relinquishment of copyright: i. Mentioning of the notice on the work, or cover of the work, or in the metadata of the work if the work is electronic; or ii. Publication in a newspaper; or iii. Publication by the author on a publicly-accessible website

Rule 10 be modified to add the following sentence: The author shall forward a copy of the public notice to the Registrar of Copyright if copyright in the work has been registered under section 45 and on receiving such notice, the Registrar of Copyright shall post the same on the website of the Copyright Office.

Statutory Licence for Cover Versions

Analysis

Rule 34(2) is redundant and does not contain any detail not already present in the existing proviso to section 31C(1) of the Copyright Act. Additionally, Rule 35 also does not contain any detail not already present in the existing parent provision, section 31C of the Copyright Act.

Recommendations

Rules 34(2) and 35 be deleted.
Rule 37 should be modified to add a sub-rule requiring maintenance of records online.

Indexes

Analysis

In rule 71(3), it requires that the indexes be maintained in the form of cards. These are presumably physical cards. It is unclear why the rule should not require the maintenance of these indexes online to facilitate search by the public. Further entries 13 and 14 of Schedule II are from a time when the transaction costs incurred by the Registrar of Copyright for providing extracts from an Index were non-negligible, and hence it would have been necessary to charge a person for such services. With the capabilities of electronic systems, such retrievals are almost costless, and can be done without the intervention of the Registrar of Copyright. Hence entries 13 and 14 should not be made applicable to online retrievals. If copyright societies can be required to provide information free of costs on their websites (as per rule 65), the Registrar of Copyright should be required to do so too.

Recommendation

Modify sub-rule (3) of rule 71 to read: "Every Index shall be available online as a downloadable database, with an online search facility."

Modify the second sentence in rule 72 to read: "The online search or inspection of the Register of Copyrights and Indexes can be utilised free of cost."

Storage of Transient or Incidental Copies of a Work

Analysis

It is not clear enough from the language of rule 74 that it applies only to s.52(1)(c) and not to s.52(1)(b). Since only s.52(1)(c) has a complaints mechanism, this should be made clear.

Importantly, to protect the interest of the public, the intermediaries should be asked to give public notice regarding the alleged infringing copy to ensure that the take-down mechanism is not abused, and secondly to ensure that the public can independently verify that intermediaries are following the requirement in rule 74(4) of restoring storage of the work if no court order is forthcoming within 21 days.

Lastly, there is no clear precedent in India to treat a uniform resource identifier (URI) as 'place' for purposes of section 51(a)(ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957. Therefore it is necessary to further clarify the meaning of the term 'place' as used in current Rule 74(2)(d). This would be best served by using the correct technological term ("URI") instead of the word "place".

Recommendation

Modify sub-rule (1) of rule 74 to: "Any owner of copyright may give a written complaint as per clause (c) of subsection (1) of section 52 of the Copyright Act to a person who has facilitated..."

Add sub-rule (6) to rule 74: "The person responsible for storage shall put up a public notice thereby notifying all persons requesting access to the alleged infringing copy by stating reasons for restraining such access whether during the period of 21 days from the complaint from the copyright owner, or pursuant to an order from a competent court."

Modify rule 74(2) to read: "Details of the specific uniform resource identifier (URI) where transient or incidental storage of the work may be taking place."

Making or Adapting the Work by Organizations Working for the Benefit of Persons with Disabilities

Analysis

Rule 75 requires organizations making use of the exception granted under s.52(1)(zb) to maintain records. This could not have been the intention of the legislature in passing s.52(1)(zb), since that provision does not require any maintenance of records. Indeed, none of the exceptions ennume-rated in s.52(1) require the maintenance of records. This is in contrast with s.31B, which is also applicable to organizations working for the benefit of persons with disabilities, but only those that are doing so as a for-profit venture. Rule 29(6) already requires the Registrar of Copyright to notify the grant of a licence under s.31B in the Official Gazette. That provision may be modified to add that the Registrar of Copyright maintains these records in a centralized database that can be queried online.

Recommendations

Delete rule 75, and modify rule 29(6) to include a centralized database.

Technological Protection Measures

Analysis

Most experts seem to hold that s.65A of the Indian Copyright Act does not affect circumvention tools, as it only deals with the act of unauthorized circumvention and not with the tools, in sharp contrast with s.1201(a)(2) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US, which criminalises the "manufacture, import, offer to the public, provision, or otherwise trafficking in any [circumvention] technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof". The Indian law has conciously chosen not to emulate the DMCA in this respect, as the WIPO Copyright Treaty does not require it.

The broad understanding of "facilitation" contained the Copyright Rules unfortunately seem to undermine this clear distinction. If facilitation is understood to include offer to the public, provision, or distribution, as seems to be the case in Rule 79(3) and 79(4), then law becomes unworkable with each and every website that allows for the downloading of any software that can be used to play DVDs, etc., must specifically keep a register of downloaders from India. This is unnecessary, and goes beyond the intent of s.65A, which is to cover those who actively facilitate circumvention and not those who make available the tools to circumvent. This distinction should not be blurred.

Recommendation

Delete sub-rules (3) and (4) of rule 79.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/feedback-to-draft-copyright-rules-2012

Feedback on the Framework on OSS Adoption in E-Governance Systems

nehaa — 2013-10-28T10:35:04Z

CIS gave its feedback to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) on the Framework on Open Source Software Adoption in E-Governance Systems on October 26, 2013.

In September, 2013, the DeitY invited comments on the Framework on the proposed adoption of Open Source Software in E-Governance Systems (available at https://egovstandards.gov.in/Public_review_Framework_on_oss).

The Framework, published in September, 2013, provides a set of recommendations and procedures to encourage, manage and increase the adoption of Open Source Software in E-Governance systems. Further, the Framework goes on to discuss various important issues, including the deployment of unified software for all major devices, with the utilization of a standards based web browser, the integration of OSS with other on-going initiatives, and the development of an eco-system consisting of institutions, industry, academia and other key stakeholders to promote and adopt OSS. The envisaged Centre of Excellence on OSS to realize this Framework is noteworthy.

CIS commends the DeitY for this initiative, and appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback on the Framework.

The text of CIS Feedback is reproduced below:

PRELIMINARY

This submission presents comments from the Centre for Internet and Society[1] on the Framework on Open Source Software Adoption in ‘E-Governance’ (“Framework”), published by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India (DeitY).[2]

The Framework, published in September, 2013, provides a set of recommendations and procedures to encourage, manage and increase the adoption of Open Source Software in E-Governance systems.[3] Further, the Framework goes on to discuss various important issues, including the deployment of unified software for all major devices, with the utilization of a standards based web browser, the integration of OSS with other on-going initiatives, and the development of an eco-system consisting of institutions, industry, academia and other key stakeholders to promote and adopt OSS. The envisaged Centre of Excellence on OSS to realize this Framework is noteworthy.

CIS commends the DeitY for this initiative, and appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback on the Framework. CIS’ comments are as stated hereafter.

COMMENTS

Scope and Applicability

In the section pertaining to Scope and Applicability, the Recommendation proposed is to give priority to preferred areas for the adoption of this Framework.[4]

It is suggested that the preferred areas alluded to aforesaid be identified and disclosed. It is further suggested that the Framework identify a timeline for operationalization of all of the proposed recommendations, including the identification of the preferred areas and the adoption of the Framework in these areas. It is also suggested that a time frame be provided for the implementation of the Framework to all other areas, besides the preferred ones.

Preamble

In the section titled Preamble, the Recommendation proposed is to consider OSS along with Closed Source Software.[5] considering the socio- economic and strategic benefits provided by OSS.[6]

CIS appreciates the welcome measure in considering OSS alternatives along with CSS. While viewing this as indeed the first step in the right direction, CIS would suggest the development of a mechanism and the adoption of further measures in order to migrate entirely to an entirely OSS based system; with preference being given to OSS between OSS and CSS.

Factors Influencing the Adoption of OSS in Government

In the section dealing with Factors Influencing the Adoption of OSS in Government, the Framework states that the influencing factors are to be prioritized on the basis of feedback from managers/users.[7]

CIS proposes that it may be clarified who the managers/users being spoken of are, and what is the type and manner of feedback expected for the evaluation of influencing factors. CIS suggests that feedback also be sought in a more inclusive and holistic manner, after seeking consultation from other stakeholders as well.

Device Drivers

Under the section dealing with Device Drivers, the onus to ensure availability of device drivers for GNU Linux Operating Systems has been placed on the users.[8]

CIS strongly suggests that this be modified to state that the availability of device drivers for GNU Linux Operating Systems must be assured by vendors as a part of procurement requirements.

Procurement Guidelines

Under the section dealing with Procurement Guidelines, it has been recommended that vendors must provide justifications for excluding OSS in their response to proposals.[9]

CIS suggests that vendors be given a time frame within which to ensure compliance with the Framework, and thereafter be required to include OSS in their response to proposals, post which justifications ought not to be considered, as a matter of policy, but could be on an exceptional case to case basis.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

CIS welcomes the initiative of the DeitY towards the adoption of OSS in E-Governance Systems. This Framework, while indeed addressing the important issues associated towards the end of adoption of OSS in E- Governance, would be further strengthened by addressing the concerns enumerated above.
CIS is thankful to the DeitY for the opportunity to provide feedback on this Framework. As a non-governmental research organization working in the areas of Openness[10] and Access to Knowledge.[11] CIS appreciates this effort by the DeitY, and would be privileged to work with the Government on this and other matters in these areas.

[1]. See www.cis-india.org (last accessed 26 October, 2013).

[2]. See https://egovstandards.gov.in/system/files/PublicReviewDocument/Framework_on_OSS_Ver0.8.pdf (last accessed 26 October, 2013).

[3]. Hereafter referred to as OSS.

[4]. See Page 9 of the Framework.

[5]. Hereafter referred to as CSS.

[6].See Page 12 of the Framework.

[7].See Page 16 of the Framework.

[8].See Page 20 of the Framework.

[9].See Page 22 of the Framework.

[10].See http://cis-india.org/openness (last accessed 26 October, 2013)

[11].See http://cis-india.org/a2k (last accessed 26 October, 2013).See http://cis-india.org/a2k (last accessed 26 October, 2013).

This submission was prepared on behalf of CIS by Nehaa Chaudhari. Click to download the submission file here. For specific section wise review comments, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/feedback-on-framework-on-oss-adoption-in-e-governance-systems

February 2019 Newsletter

Admin — 2019-03-14T16:40:12Z

Our newsletter for February month below.

The CIS newsletter aims to highlight developments in copyright and patent, free speech and expression, privacy, cyber security, telecom, etc. as well as Industry 4.0, big data, additive manufacturing and so on which are revolutionizing and moving the digital world forward. Through this newsletter we look to engage you with our research and build a strong bond by bringing you insightful articles and blog posts which will be beneficial for you and your business. Throughout the year we will send you stories and insights from our board, staff and community leaders. We welcome your feedback, suggestions or comments regarding our newsletter or any other aspect of our research.

Highlights for February 2019

Maharashtra is a state which is rich in diversity in terms of language and culture seen in its various regions such as Konkan, Marathwada, Western Maharashtra, Northern Maharashtra and Vidarbha. Awareness needs to be created to make Wikimedia movement inclusive and diverse in these geographical regions as well as in their social strata. Keeping this in view CIS-A2K conducted five workshops in different parts of the state.
Marathi language department of Goa University has initiated the process to document the culture of Goa on Marathi Wikipedia and Commons. Subodh Kulkarni reports this in a blog entry.
Khetrimayum Monish Singh and Rajiv K. Mishra co-authored a research paper which was presented at the Young Scholars International Conference on “Margins and Connections,” organised by the Special Centre for the Study of North East India, Jawaharlal Nehru University, on February 7-8, 2019.
Following consultations with data protection, civil society, industry and others, during the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) meeting from 29 November 2018 onwards, the Cybercrime Convention Committee had sought additional contributions regarding the provisional draft text for a Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime (“Budapest Convention”). Vipul Kharbanda submitted comments on behalf of CIS.
CIS responded to the call for submissions from the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech and Expression. The submission was on the Surveillance Industry and Human Rights.
CIS and University of Munich, Germany are co-organizing an event 'Internet Speech: Perspectives on Regulation and Policy' at India Habitat Centre on April 5, 2019.
Akriti Bopanna on behalf of CIS provided comments on the proposed draft of ICANN’s FY20 Operating Plan and Budget along with their Five-Year Operating Plan Update.
Harsh Bajpai, Ambika Tandon, and Amber Sinha have co-authored a case study 'The Future of Work in the Automotive Sector in India'. The case study highlights the impact of technologies such as artificial intelligence, industry 4.0, internet of things, and so on at industry workplace. The case study was edited by Rakhi Sehgal. Manav Mehta provided research assistance.
In a response to the Draft of The Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018, CIS examined whether the draft rules meet tests of constitutionality and whether they are consistent with the parent Act. The submission also examined potential harms that may arise from the Rules as they are currently framed and make recommendations to the draft rules that may enable government to meet its objectives while remaining situated within the constitutional ambit.
A UN high-level panel on Digital Cooperation issued a call for inputs that called for responses to various questions. CIS responded to the call for inputs. The response was drafted by Aayush Rathi, Ambika Tandon, Arindrajit Basu and Elonnai Hickok.

CIS and the News

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

Data Infrastructures and Inequities: Why Does Reproductive Health Surveillance in India Need Our Urgent Attention? (Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon; EPW Engage , Vol. 54, Issue No. 6, February 9, 2019).
Intermediary liability law needs updating (Sunil Abraham; Business Standard; February 9, 2019).
Resurrecting the marketplace of ideas (Arindrajit Basu; Hindu Businessline; February 22, 2019).
What I learned from going offline for 48 hours (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; February 24, 2019).

CIS in the News

CIS was quoted in these news articles published elsewhere:

Civil Liberties Groups Warn Proposed EU 'Terrorist Content' Rule a Threat to Democratic Values (Jessica Corbett; Common Dreams; February 5, 2019).
‘Willing to participate, but need more time’: Twitter on parliamentary panel hearing (Smriti Kak Ramachandran and Vidhi Choudhary; February 10, 2019).
What the government's draft IT intermediary guidelines say (Abhijit Ahaskar; Livemint; February 12, 2019).
Make our digital backyard safe (Nilanjana Bhowmick; Economic Times; February 13, 2019).
Even years later, Twitter doesn't delete your direct messages (Zack Whittaker and Natasha Lomas; Tech Crunch; February 15, 2019).
Are RSS's fears about Tik Tok true? Here's what you should know (Economic TimZack Whittaker and Natasha Lomases; February 20, 2019). Also published in Moneycontrol News on the same day.
Risk integration is key to better cybersecurity management (Dr. R. Seetharaman; Gulf Times; February 24, 2019).
Any failure to resolve the Kashmir problem could lead the South Asia to a nuclear disaster (Kashmir Watch; February 25, 2019).
Over 30 organisations, industry bodies oppose proposal to ban vape content (Times of India; February 28, 2019).
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Access to Knowledge

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

Wikipdedia

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

Blog Entries

Marathi Wikipedia Workshop & 1lib1ref session at Goa University (Subodh Kulkarni; February 1, 2019).
Marathi Language Fortnight Workshops 2019 (Subodh Kulkarni February 26, 2019).

Media Coverage

Goa University students update ‘Goa’ Marathi articles on Wikipedia (Times of India; February 20, 2019).

Internet Governance

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

Cyber Security

Submission

Comments on the Draft Second Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) (Vipul Kharbanda; February 25, 2019).

Privacy

Submissions

CIS Submission to UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (Aayush Rathi, Ambika Tandon, Arindrajit Basu and Elonnai Hickok; February 7, 2019).
CIS Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech and Expression: Surveillance Industry and Human Rights (Elonnai Hickok, Arindrajit Basu, Gurshabad Grover, Akriti Bopanna, Shweta Mohandas and Martyna Kalvaityte; February 20, 2019).

Participation in Event

BIS LITD 17 (Organized by the Bureau of Indian Standards; February 26, 2019). Gurshabad Grover participated in the meeting conducted online.

Gender

Workshop Organized

Unbox Festival 2019: CIS organizes two Workshops (Organized by CIS; Bangalore; February 15 - 17, 2019). CIS organized two workshops on What is your Feminist Infrastructure Wishlist? and AI for Good.

Participation in Events

Imagine a Feminist Internet: Research, Practice and Policy in South Asia (Organized by Internet Democracy Project and Point of View; Sri Lanka; February 21 - 22, 2019). Ambika Tandon was a speaker and presented a paper 'Framing Reproductive Health as a Data Problem? Unpacking ‘Dataveillance’ in India' which was co-authored by herself and Aayush Rathi.
Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) Convening Design (Organized by Association for Progressive Communications; Malaysia; February 27 - March 1, 2019). Ambika Tandon attended the event.

Free Speech and Expression

Submissions

Response to the Draft of The Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018 (Gurshabad Grover, Elonnai Hickok, Arindrajit Basu and Akriti Bopanna; February 7, 2019).
CIS Comment on ICANN's Draft FY20 Operating Plan and Budget (Akriti Bopanna; February 12, 2019).

Upcoming Event

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

Participation in Event

Webinar on counter-comments to the draft Intermediary Guidelines (Organized by CCAOI and the ISOC Delhi Chapter; February 11, 2019). Gurshabad Grover attended the event.

Artificial Intelligence

Case Study

The Future of Work in the Automotive Sector in India (Harsh Bajpai, Ambika Tandon and Amber Sinha; February 8, 2019). Case study was edited by Rakhi Sehgal.

Participation in Event

2019 International Asia Conference (Organized by ITECHLAW; Bangalore; January 31 - February 1, 2019). Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session "Policy Making for the Emerging Tech in India".

Researchers at Work (RAW)

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

Research Paper

Media Infrastructures and Digital Practices: Case Studies from the North East of India (Khetrimayum Monish Singh; February 5, 2019).

About CIS

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

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

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

► Request for Collaboration

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

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

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