Centre for Internet and Society

Open Knowledge Day at Mysore

praskrishna — 2014-07-14T09:41:39Z

Mysore University along with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team invites you to an Open Knowledge Day at the University of Mysore on July 15, 2014.

We signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Mysore earlier this year in January to re-release the first six volumes of their Kannada encyclopaedia under Creative Commons (CC) license.

CIS-A2K facilitated extracting the legacy text from the soft-copies, converting them to Unicode, distributing the files among volunteers and Christ University interns and uploading them to Kannada Wikisource. So far about 1200 articles have been added. These articles will feed to articles in Kannada Wikipedia.

To commemorate this, the University of Mysore and CIS-A2K is organizing this event. This will also coincide with the Open Knowledge Festival happening at Berlin from July 15 to 17, 2014.

The invitation for the Mysore program given below:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/open-knowledge-day-mysore

Privacy and Surveillance Roundtable

praskrishna — 2014-06-29T14:50:20Z

The Centre for Internet and Society and the Cellular Operators Association of India invite you to a roundtable at the India International Centre, New Delhi on July 4, 2014.

Background and Context to the Roundtables

In India, lawful interception of communications may be conducted by the state in three ways: firstly, intercepting telephone calls and other telecommunications may take place under powers listed in the Telegraph Act, 1885 and procedure set out in the Telegraph Rules, 1951; secondly, intercepting written communications transmitted through the postal service or by private couriers may occur under the Post Office Act, 1898; and, thirdly, intercepting, de-crypting, and monitoring email messages and other electronic communications may take place under the Information Technology Act, 1950 and two sets of Rules issued in 2008.

The government’s intention to create a Central Monitoring System to automate the existing process of telephone tapping is significant for a number of reasons. It will bypass private telephone service providers; currently the active cooperation of TSPs is required and compelled in order to intercept and monitor a telephone conversation. This creates an extra layer of compliance activity for TSPs which is cumbersome and expensive. Interception orders from the state often do not comply with the procedure required by law. This uncertainty is compounded by the lack of an indemnity for TSPs.

However, while the CMS will release TSPs from legal liability, it will leave the government free to conduct telephone interceptions in absolute secrecy and without a credible system of oversight and checks and balances. Amongst the world’s major democratic countries, India is alone in refusing to overhaul its telephone tapping regime. The legal requirements of probable cause, judicial sanction, and warrant-based interception – which are followed with exceptions in democracies around the world – are not adequately protected in India. The same principles also apply to the interception of postal and electronic communications.

There are several intelligence and police agencies in India that conduct interceptions of communications without central coordination. Previous cases in the Supreme Court of India and a few Indian High Courts reveal many cases of improper and even illegal surveillance. The sheer number of interested state agencies, the concerns of inadequate oversight, the lack of a credible legal regime, the constant leaks of private communications, and the poor legal protection given to TSPs and ISPs must be legally addressed.

Information about the Roundtables

The Privacy and Surveillance Roundtables are a CIS initiative, in partnership with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). From June 2014 – November 2014, CIS and COAI will host seven Privacy and Surveillance Roundtable discussions across multiple cities in India. The Roundtables will be closed-door deliberations involving multiple stakeholders. Through the course of these discussions we aim to deliberate upon the current legal framework for surveillance in India, and discuss possible frameworks for surveillance in India. The provisions of the draft CIS Privacy Bill 2013, the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance, and the Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy will be used as background material and entry points into the discussion. The recommendations and dialogue from each roundtable will be compiled and submitted to the Department of Personnel and training.

The Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy

In January 2012 Justice A.P. Shah formed a committee to create a report of recommendations for privacy legislation in India. The committee met seven times from January 2012 to September 2012. The Report is made up of six chapters and begins by reviewing the international best practices around privacy and the relevant Indian jurisprudence. The Report then recommends nine National Privacy Principles to be adopted by each sector in India. The Nine National Privacy Principles reflect international standards, as well as taking into consideration the Indian context. Along with the National Privacy Principles, the Report lays out a regulatory framework for privacy including privacy commissioners at the regional and national level, self regulating organizations at the industry level, and a system of complaints. Finally the report demonstrates how the National Privacy Principles could be used to harmonize existing legislation and practices.

The Draft CIS Citizens Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013

The Centre for Internet and Society has been researching privacy in India since 2010 with the objective of raising public awareness, completing in depth research, and driving a privacy legislation in India. As part of this work, the Centre for Internet and Society has drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013. The Citizens Privacy Protection Bill contains provisions that speak to data protection, interception, and surveillance. The Bill also establishes the powers and functions of the privacy commissioner, and lays out offenses and penalties for contravention of the Act. The Bill represents a citizens’ version of a privacy legislation, and will be shared with civil society, industry, and government. It is hoped that the review and revision of the Bill will be a participatory process, and thus comments and feedback to it’s’ provisions will be included as annex’s to the Bill.

The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance

These principles were defined in 2013 in response to rapidly changing technologies and surveillance practices. The principles are the outcome of a global consultation with civil society groups, industry and international experts in communications surveillance law, policy and technology, spearheaded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation US and Privacy International UK. As technologies that facilitate State surveillance of communications advance, States are failing to ensure that laws and regulations related to communications surveillance adhere to international human rights and adequately protect the rights to privacy and freedom of expression. These principles attempt to explain how international human rights law applies in the current digital environment, particularly in light of the increase in and changes to communications surveillance technologies and techniques. These principles can provide civil society groups, industry, States and others with a framework to evaluate whether current or proposed surveillance laws and practices are consistent with human rights.

Tentative Agenda

Time	Detail
10.00 11.00	Introduction
11.00 11.30	Tea
11.30 13.00	Discussion
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 16.00	Discussion
16.00 16.15	Tea

Resources

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/privacy-and-surveillance-roundtable-new-delhi

Privacy and Surveillance Roundtable

praskrishna — 2014-06-20T05:26:10Z

The Centre for Internet and Society and the Cellular Operators Association of India in collaboration with the Council for Fair Business Practices invite you to a "Privacy Roundtable" at IMC Building, IMC Marg, Churchgate, Mumbai on June 28, 2014, 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

Time	Details
10:00 – 11:00	Introduction
11:00 - 11:30	Tea
11:30 - 13:00	Discussion
13:00 - 14:00	Lunch
14.00 - 16.00	Discussion
16.00 - 16.15	Tea

Background and Context to the Roundtables

Information about the Roundtables

The Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy

The Draft CIS Citizens Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013

The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance

Tentative schedule for the Roundtables:

Mumbai – June 28th
New Delhi – July 4th
Ahmedabad/Hyderabad – August 1st
Bangalore – September 5th
New Delhi – October 3rd
Chennai – October 24th
New Delhi – November 7th

Resources

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/privacy-surveillance-roundtable

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T11:28:34Z

Andhra Loyola College and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team invite you to a two-day national workshop on knowledge and openness in the digital era.

Instructions for Participants

Each participant attending the Workshop should register themselves on Wikipedia. Please note that once you register on a Wikipedia project, you can use that 'Username' (i.e. same log-in details) across all Wikipedias and Wikimedia platforms. This should be done by June 22, 2014. Please note that you will not be able to register more than 5 Usernames from a single IP address within 24 hours (a security feature of Wikipedia). This tutorial will help you with Registration on Wikipedia http://sh.st/r9zc (click on this link).
Once registered the participants must enroll here http://bit.ly/U4Zxhp using an on-line registration form.
All the participants are expected to do take part in production sprints on Wikipedia. We will choose Telugu Language Wikipedia as a site to do some editing.

For this workshop each participant should come with three full-fledged articles (at least of 1200 words each) in Telugu. This should be typed and be available in a soft copy form and could be carried in a thumb drive or any other storage media which should be easily accessible to them during the training programme. Please check www.te.wikipedia.org to see if an article already exists on the topic that you are planning to write. You can even choose the expand the existing article on Telugu Wikipedia with your knowledge.

Suggested topics: a) Concepts/topics that you teach often; b) A famous theorist/thinker in your discipline; c) Any other notable topic that you feel should be in your language Wikipedia.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/knowledge-and-openness-in-digital-era

Production Sprint — A Public Exhibition at CIS

praskrishna — 2015-10-24T14:23:30Z

The Making Change project invites you for a public exhibition of stories of change from all over Asia, where the first of its Production Sprints will take place. The exhibition will be held at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) office in Bangalore on June 7, 2014 between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Download the event flier [PDF, 402 Kb]

What does 'Making Change' mean to you? What are the processes of change? The infrastructure of change? The actors of change? A round-table discussion and exhibition by 23 change makers from 15 countries in Asia, at the Centre for Internet & Society, Saturday, 7th June, 5 - 7 p.m. Please do come.

The Making Change project questions traditional understandings of change –where change is employed in the name of power, reduced to a ‘spectacle’ by global media and goes largely unquestioned in the public discourse- and aims to build more adequate frameworks to address the idea of change in the context of common knowledge, networked media and information societies.

Making Change is hosting focused, intensive, and production-oriented workshops called Production Sprints to facilitate the convergence of actors and ideas.These will be spaces of knowledge exchange between change-makers around processes, narratives and experiences of change and of experimentation with multi-modal forms and formats of knowledge production (text, image, sound, etc). Participants will be asked to group around four topics: concepts, crises ecologies and networks of change. These visions and practices, we hope will produce new ways of thinking about change.

During the Bangalore production sprint, we will document the various knowledges acquired through the pre-production stage and the 5 day intensive sessions on formats, storytelling and visual presentation modes; and we will close with an exhibition of the resulting narratives of change. We invite you to come and participate in the exhibition.

Date: June 7th, 2014
Time: 5pm- 7pm
Location: The Center for Internet and Society

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/events/production-sprint-public-exhibition-at-cis

Tulu Wikipedia Workshop at Udupi

praskrishna — 2014-06-02T08:11:56Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS-A2K) and the Regional Research Centre, MGM College, Udupi invites you to a workshop on Tulu Wikipedia in Udupi on May 25. Anyone interested in contributing to Tulu Wikipedia is welcome to join the workshop.

Tulu Wikipedia is in incubation stage. Pictures of the event can be downloaded here.


Above: Participants at the Tulu Wikipedia Workshop. Pictured by Dr. U.B. Pavanaja under CC-BY-3.0 Share Alike License

The venue was sponsored by Regional Research Centre, MGM College, Udupi. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja from CIS-A2K conducted the workshop. There were 13 participants for this workshop.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/tulu-wikipedia-workshop-udupi

An Open House Session with George Abraham

praskrishna — 2014-05-19T01:45:58Z

Ashoka India and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcome you to an open house session with George Abraham, CEO and Founder of the SCORE Foundation at Ashoka- Innovators for the Public in Domlur on Wednesday, May 21, 2014.

“Blindness or disability is not the real problem, it is the way we all think.” – Ashoka Fellow George Abraham

Made invisible in the public sphere, persons with disability are often overlooked by society as productive members of the community. Their families, friends and mainstream media too have done little to change the limited lens through which they, and ultimately individuals with disability see and define their role in their communities.

We believe that the time has come for us as a society, especially businesses, to break the barriers between different worlds. We need to create spaces that allow us to ‘step in’ to each other’s worlds and engage in meaningful dialogues that allow us to reflect, question and develop an empathetic lens to building a society that is more inclusive to persons with disability.

Join Ashoka India and the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) for an Open House Session on Wednesday, May 21, where we will be screening an episode of George Abraham’s new show on the visually impaired-“Nazar ya Nazariya”-followed by a Q&A with George, Ashoka and CIS on what it means to shift the perception and treatment of disability in society, media and big business.

Agenda

Time	Detail
15.00 15.30	Screening of Nazar Ya Nazariya
15.30 16.00	Q&A with George Abraham
16.00 17.00	An open dialogue with experts and audience members on Stepping into Disability: How can we begin to change the paradigm on the inclusion of persons with disability into mainstream society, with a special focus on corporates and business enterprise?
17.00 17.30	Connect and Share (Networking space)

RSVP

RSVP: Olina Banerji (9480826557) - obanerji@ashoka.org
Rajesh Varghese (9008998414) - rvarghese@ashoka.org
Anandhi Visvanathan (8197177080) - anandhi@cis-india.org

The Team

George Abraham

Based on his own experiences and those of hundreds of visually impaired people, George has developed a program whose combination of clinical and non-clinical components will help the seeing impaired stand on their own feet and realize their full potentials. George has designed the Vision Enhancement Center (VEC) to institutionalize comprehensive, non-medical eye care services. Like counseling, equipment, training, medical referrals, information, and rehabilitation services. George's goal is to build the first world-class institution for the visually impaired in the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) region to be an example that will inspire widespread reform in the way the blind and other people with disabilities are treated, cared for, educated, and employed. To garner support for his work, George is partnering with civil society organizations, medical professionals, the government, and corporations. His latest venture has been a collaboration with Doordarshan to create a 13-episode television series called Nazar Ya Nazariya, that highlights and celebrates visually impaired individuals who have overcome both physical and mental barriers to integrate successfully into the mainstream.

CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

Ashoka

Ashoka is the world’s leading network of social entrepreneurs — men and women who are creating new institutions to implement system-changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1980, Ashoka has pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship, electing and connecting more than 3,000 Fellows with innovative, sustainable solutions in a variety of fields such as civic engagement, economic development, health, human rights, environment, and learning/education in over 70 countries. As the largest association of leading social entrepreneurs in the world, Ashoka has started and supported movements that have brought about widespread social change, and has developed a keen understanding of what individuals need to make change happen. Ashoka has been engaged in learning from and serving this historical movement across the globe for 25 years.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/open-house-session-with-george-abraham

Tech Talk: Landscape of Wireless Communications & Electromagnetic Spectrum

praskrishna — 2014-05-07T08:12:54Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcomes you to a talk by A. Radha Krishna on April 28, 2014, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at its office in Bangalore.

Radha Krishna's talk will focus on:

The various wireless communication technologies like Bluetooth, Zigbee, Zwave, WiFi, IoT, HomeRF, RFid, NFC, RuBee, connected car, V2V, V2I, V2R, 2G, 3G, 4G, x10, Insteon, JenNetIP, Wireless USB, microwave communication, satellite communication, Iridium, ameture radio, DVB-T, H/NGH, SH, AM, FM, NTSC, TV-Band Devices, cordless phones, RC toys, remote door lock of cars, etc.
Touch upon lasers and fiber optic communications.
Discuss licensed/unlicensed/reserved bands of electromagnetic spectrum.
Some of the challenges to use other frequencies of electromagnetic spectrum.

A. Radha Krishna

A. Radha Krishna is an Architect working in Alcatel-Lucent with 15 years of experience in embedded, consumer electronics, and telecom domains. He is also a long time Wikimedian and acted as Wikimedia Bangalore SIG chair for about 1.5 years. He is also part of NASSCOM initiative to reduce the gap of skills of Engineering students to Industry need. He is working on a Telecom course which could be part of curriculum in Engineering colleges all over India from 2015.

Presentation Material

View more presentations by Radha Krishna here.

Snacks and high tea will be served at 5.00 p.m.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/tech-talk-landscape-of-wireless-communications-and-electromagnetic-spectrum

Tulu Wikipedia Editathon

praskrishna — 2014-05-06T05:12:18Z

The Access to Knowledge team from the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore is organizing a Tulu Wikipedia Editathon on April 19, 2014 at Balmatta Computer Centre, Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja is conducting the workshop.


Above: Photo from Tulu Wikipedia editathon program at Mangalore on Apr 19, 2014 (by U.B.Pavanaja, CC-BY-3.0 S.A.)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/tulu-wikipedia-editathon

NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T16:49:48Z

As part of the NASA Open Government Plan , the NASA International Space Apps Challenge have brought together citizen scientists, FOSS enthusiasts , Data Scientists, Open Hardware hackers and students throughout the world for collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing relevant open-source solutions to address global needs applicable to both life on Earth and life in Space.

Event Flier

And once again on April 12th and 13th, 2014, the event will be organized by the Centre for Internet and Society, with a special focus on Open Data, Open Science and Citizen Science, in collaboration with Team Indus, one of 3 teams to be selected globally amidst thousands, to launch a moon rover for the Google Lunar X-Prize 2015.

The event shall start on Saturday, 12th of April, with the following morning talks:

Keynote Speaker: Dr.Jayant Murthy, Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, will be addressing the gathering on Open Science, Open Data and Computing within the Indian context.
Title of Talk : Open Data , Open Science and Computing in the Indian Context: 10:30 a.m.
Abstract: As Big Science gets bigger and yields massive amounts of data, we are left with a host of insurmountable problems from the physical - How do we store and access so much data? - to the computational - How do we process the data with increasingly complex models? - to the sociological - How do we change our paradigm so that we efficiently use the data with a limited pool of skilled manpower. I will also touch on some philosophical aspects of this problem - Should all data be free and what are the implications of this on policy and on individuals.
Speaker : Narayan Prasad, Co-Founder, Dhruva Space: 11:30 a.m.
Abstract: Narayan will talk about issues surrounding Open Data, Citizen Science and Governance whilst taking us on a journey of Bangalore based Dhruva Space, one of the world's few start-ups, looking at solutions ranging from small satellite development (CUBESAT, ARDUSAT), near space environmental design, high altitude balloon imaging and internet -- many of these using open source hardware devices like the Arduino.

We will then get into break out sessions to review and sign-up for existing challenges or propose new ones amongst those listed at : https://2014.spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/

The hackathon will end on Sunday, April 13, 2014 by 6 p.m.

Registration is free and you are requested to confirm your participation for the event here : https://2014.spaceappschallenge.org/location/bangalore/

Participants are requested to bring their own laptops.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/nasa-international-space-apps-challenge-2014

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon workshop & Talks on Gender Gap in Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2014-04-04T07:33:32Z

Open Minds (a student group advocating free and open movement) in association with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team is holding a workshop at Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Science and Technology, Gandipet, Serilingampalle, Andhra Pradesh on March 8, 10.00 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.

Certificaton: All the participants will be awarded by "participation certificate from Wikipedia"
Come meet your fellow editors and help improve Wikipedia articles related to women. Don't know how to edit Wikipedia? That's ok, friendly, experienced editors will be here to help! Everyone is welcome to come edit Wikipedia with us at this event. New editors, those who want to learn how to edit or can teach others how.
Speakers :
T. Vishnu Vardhan,Programme Director, Access To Knowledge, Centre for Internet and Society,Wikipedia.
--Muzammi,Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge, Centre for Internet and Society, Wikipedia.
Shedule :
Timing Activity
10:00 to 10:30 am Registration
10:30 to 11:00 am The Politics of Gendered Knowledge . Production in the Age of Internet
11:00 t0 11:30 am Wikipedia demonstration + Basics of Wikipedia . Editing (hands on activity)
11.30 to 01:30 pm International Women's Day Edit-a-thon
01:30 to 02:15 pm Lunch Break
02:15 to 05:00 pm International Women's Day Edit-a-thon . . continues
What to Bring :
Anything! Bring your laptops, smart phones, tablets etc. but above all, your energy and your brains!
We’re trying to make this event very hands on, so feel free to bring all your wacky geektronics so that you can participate in all the fun.
==Don’t worry if you don’t bring anything since there will still be tons of stuff to do.==

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-workshop-talks-on-gender-gap-in-wikipedia

Community Capacity Building Workshop at KIIT University

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T05:22:17Z

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team is organizing a workshop for community capacity building at KIIT University on March 30, 2014.

Experienced Wikimedians and Subhashish Panigrahi from CIS-A2K mentored the community about community building strategies and outreach. They had a discussion about the further steps with students (graduating batch) of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal who took part in the Odia Wikipedia Education program. Finally there was a discussion on CIS-A2K's Odia language work plan for Wikipedia and WikiSource.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/community-capacity-building-workshop-at-kiit

Telugu Wikipedia at JNTUACEP

praskrishna — 2014-04-15T11:13:00Z

CIS along with the Department of Computer Science, JNTUACEP invite you to a Telugu Wikipedia workshop on March 28, 2014.

Rahmanuddin Shaik, Program Officer from CIS-A2K participates in the event as a speaker.

10.00 10.30	సుస్వాగతం మరియు పరిచయం
10.30 15.00	వికీపీడియా ఒక అవగాహన, వికీపీడియా ఎలాపనిచేస్తుంది ?
15.00 15.30	వికీపీడియా ప్రదర్శన+ వికీలో రాయడం (hands on activity)
15.30 15.45	తేనీటి విరామం
15.45 18.15	Basics of Wikipedia Editing (Hands on activity) – LAB SESSION- వికీలో రాయడం ఎలా మొదలుపెట్టాలి, వనరుల ఉపయోగం
18.15 18.30	Feedback and Closing Session

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/telugu-wiki-jntuacep

Odisha Day 2014

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T04:39:56Z

CIS-A2K in collaboration with the Odia Wikipedia community is organizing this event on March 29, 2014 at Jayadev Bhawan, Bhubaneswar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odisha-day-2014

CIS Cybersecurity Film Screening

purba — 2014-03-20T09:34:38Z

The Centre for Internet and Society invites you to a screening of Episode 1&2 of DesiSec: the first documentary film on cybersecurity in India. Hope you can join us on 26th March, at CIS, Domlur!

Early 2013, the Centre for Internet and Society began shooting its first documentary film project. After months of researching and interviewing activists and experts, CIS released the first episode on 11th December.

CIS is hosting a special screening of DesiSec: Episode 1&2 on 26th March, 2013, 5.30 pm and invites you to this event. The first episode is centered around the issue of privacy and surveillance in cyber space and how it affects Indian society. The second episode is focused on anonymity and free speech online.

We look forward to seeing you there!

RSVP: purba@cis-india.org

Venue: http://osm.org/go/yy4fIjrQL?m=

This work was carried out as part of the Cyber Stewards Network with aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/cis-cybersecurity-film-screening