Analysing Wikipedia: An Introduction

jace — 2011-08-04T06:11:46Z

Kiran Jonnalagadda and Hans Varghese Matthews introduce their project, aimed at producing tools that will allow anyone to analyse editing behaviour on Wikipedia. This is the first in a series of posts documenting their work.

There used to be a time, only a few years ago, when the typical savvy internet user, in seeking an understanding of some new concept, would look it up on a Google search. Today, for an increasing number of users, the first reference likely to be looked at is Wikipedia. It is also usually the last.

Wikipedia’s prominence has grown phenomenally over the last few years, and that has made it important for anyone seeking acceptance of their version of facts. Vandalism is commonplace. Most of it is quickly removed and cleaned up, but some slips through, and the tools for fighting such vandalism remain relatively behind the curve.

We at the Centre for Internet and Society wondered if there was a way to detect pack editing behaviour, when a group of users edit together to push their agenda, across pages. The tools for fighting one vandal at a time are increasingly improving. Pack editing is harder to deal with. We don’t know if we have a solution, but we did think we should try.

I’m Kiran Jonnalagadda, your collaborator on this blog. I’m working with Hans Varghese Matthews, our resident statistician, who’s attempting to build mathematical models of pack behaviour. I write the code to pull the data from Wikipedia’s edit history that Hans needs and will later implement his algorithms in a set of tools that anyone can use to analyse Wikipedia.

We started a month ago with some initial experiments that I’ll describe in subsequent posts. Do let us know what you’d like to see come out of this project.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/wiki-analysis-and-assist/analysing-wikipedia

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