Centre for Internet and Society

Regional Open Data Agenda-Setting Workshop 2015

praskrishna — 2015-02-07T10:14:12Z

Open Data Lab Jakarta Web Foundation hosted this workshop from February 4 to 6, 2015. Sunil Abraham was a speaker.

Priorities, opportunities and challenges for securing developmental outcomes from (open) data driven approaches vary across continents. It is important for the agenda for research and development in each region to be set, owned and driven from within that region. We are therefore convening a meeting of 1520 regional stakeholders with either strong open data, T/A and/or sectoral expertise.

Through an Outcome Mapping approach, the workshop will identify key issues to be addressed, and changes sought, both at a highlevel of creating solid foundations for open data impacts in the region, and at a practical level in particular sectors and countries. The workshop will emphasise the importance of an inclusive agenda for open data, and on ensuring the distribution of benefits from open data is equitable, and prodevelopment. It will also contribute to one of the Project’s overall goals of building towards the strengthening of a network of selfsustaining and southernowned organizations working on open data research and development, supported and coordinated by the Web Foundation’s Open Data Labs under the Open Data for Development Network.

The Regional Agenda Setting Workshop is conducted as part of the IDRC funded Harnessing Open Data to Achieve Development Results in Africa and Asia project and organized by the Web Foundation’s Open Data Lab Jakarta.

Objectives

Refine the selection of sectors to engage in and key issues to be addressed for creating solid foundations for open data impacts in the region, and at a practical level in particular sectors and countries.
Shape the design of CfPs, including sectors, countries and specific challenges, for a) sectoral scoping studies and b) labs action research projects to be conducted throughout the duration of the Project.
Build and foster relationships with strategic partners to expand and strengthen the network of organizations working on open data in the region4) Ensure that the agenda for open data research and development in each region is set, owned and driven from within that region.
Engage with stakeholders to act as mentors and advisors in the development and implementation of studies and action research projects conducted by partners with the support of the Jakarta Lab.

The outcomes of these workshops will also be fed into the Open Government Partnership Open Data Working Group, and where appropriate we will broker support for emerging leaders from Africa and Asia to engage in global open data conversations and action.

See more on the Open Data Labs website.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/region-open-data-workshop-2015

Winners of the Opensource.com 2015 Community Awards

praskrishna — 2015-02-12T01:23:44Z

Every year, Opensource.com awards people from our community who have excelled in contributing and sharing stories about open source.

These stories are about open source as we use it in our everyday lives as well as how it helps to build a better world and future in technology. This year, we present to you the 2015 Opensource.com Community Awards in the following categories.

People's Choice Awards

Subhashish Panigrahi

An educator and open source activist, based in Bangalore, India.

Reader's Choice Awards

Recognizes the community's favorite articles from 2014. Voted on by the community.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/opensource-2015-award-winners

Telugu Wikimedia Hackathon 2014

rahim — 2015-02-10T17:17:03Z

Telugu Wikimedia (including their projects Telugu Wikipedia, Telugu Wikisource etc.) is one of the largest and most powerful Indian language Wikimedia projects, and it is growing and expanding everyday. In the last half of 2014, Telugu Wikimedia community members contacted CIS-A2K team with a request to organize a MediaWiki tutorial workshop for them. Following their request, on 28 December 2014, CIS-A2K team organized a MediaWiki hackathon event for Telugu Wikimedia community members to enhance their skills and understanding of technical matters related to MediaWiki usage. The theme of the workshop was “Mediawiki, its extensions and tools to work around” and it aimed at allowing Wikipedians to use MediaWiki tools more effectively.

This one day workshop was organized at Golden Threshold, Hyderabad. 25 Telugu Wikimedia community members participated in this workshop. In the Hackathon, there were knowledge transferring sessions on various MediaWiki related technicalities and the participants got an opportunity to engage and communicate with each other and some of the MediaWiki expert users. Advanced MediaWiki users Rahmanuddin Shaik, Veeven and Kasyap were the speakers who gave short but eloquent speeches.

Discussion topics of this Hackathon event included:

Understanding of MediaWiki software
Basic understanding of MediaWiki extensions
Typing Telugu in English keyboard
Creating, using and managing templates
Adding and managing references, reference formats, tables, images, audios and videos following Wikipedia format
Using Wikidata
Categorization process
Geo-tagging

Some of these topics are comparatively more difficult than others. Wikidata is an addition to the Wikimedia projects that replaced Interwiki linking procedure.Typing Telugu in an English keyboard has been confusing to some users too. Using, specially creating and managing templates, categories, infoboxes, scripts require some training. In this workshop CIS-A2K attempted to teach and discuss all these topics. There was a doubt-clearing session as well, where participants were allowed to ask their questions and discuss their doubts.

CIS-A2K believes that the participants were benefited from this workshop and they will use and apply their learnings in editing and improving Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

See also

Official event page (in Telugu)
Free images and media related to Hackathon 2014 (Wikimedia Commons)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/telugu-wikimedia-hackathon-2014

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ଅନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ

subha — 2015-01-31T04:51:15Z

This is an op-ed I authored for Odia newspaper the "Samaja" that got published on January 30, 2015. Through this post I intend to highlight the needs for taking the Odia language to international fora instead of keeping it confined within the books. I have covered the focus area of 3 free and open source projects: Odia Wikipedia, Odia Wikisource and Global Voices Odia in the column highlighting the need for more people to contribute.

The Unicode version of the post is below. Interestingly 10 new accounts got created on Odia Wikipedia so far which seem to be an impact of the portion explaining about Wikipedia.

ଭାଷାଟି ଆମର ଏ ଦେଶର ମୋଟ ୬୦୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଭାଷା ଓ ତହିଁରୁ ୬ଟି ପୁରୁଣା ଭାଷା ଭିତରୁ ଗୋଟିଏ ବୋଲି ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇଲା । ଆମ ଭାଷା ମୂଳ ବିଶାଳ କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଭୂଖଣ୍ଡର ସତ୍ତାକୁ ଧରି ରଖିଥିବା ବୋଧେ ଏକଇ ଭାଷା । ଏତେ ସବୁ ପରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଆମ ଭାଷା ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତିକ ସ୍ତରରେ କେତେ ପରିଚିତ, ତାହା ନକହିବା ଭଲ । ଯେଉଁଠି ନିଜ ରାଜ୍ୟର ଲୋକେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କଥା ହେବାକୁ ନାରାଜ ସେଠି ଦେଶବିଦେଶରେ ପତିଆରା କଥା କହିବା ତୁଚ୍ଛା ପାଗଳାମି ବୋଲି ପାଠକେ ହୁଏତ ଭାବୁଥିବେ । ତେବେ ଏ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଆଲୋଚନା କରିବା ପଛରେ ରହିଛି ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଜାତିର ମାନସିକତା ବିଦେଶରୁ ଆସିଥିବା ଲୋକଟେ ଅଧିକ ଆଦର ପାଏ, ନିଜ ଲୋକେ ବିଦେଶ ଯାଇ ବାହୁଡ଼ିଲେ ଅଧିକ ସମ୍ମାନର ଅଧିକାରୀ ହୁଅନ୍ତି, ଏମିତି ଲୋକେ ମଦ ପିଇଲେ ବିଦେଶୀ ଭାଷାରେ ବକନ୍ତି ବୋଲି ଶୁଣାଯାଏ! ଏଣୁ ନିଜ ରାଇଜ ଆଉ ଦେଶରେ ଯେବେ ଆମ ଭାଷାଟି ଗାଁ କନିଆଁ, କାଳେ ବିଦେଶରେ କାଟ୍‍ତି ବଢ଼ିଲେ, ଭାଷାଟି ଏକ ଅନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ଭାଷା ବୋଲି ବିଖ୍ୟାତ ହେବ ଆଉ ନିଜ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ତା' ପ୍ରତି ଆଦର ବଢ଼ି ।ରେ ବୋଲି ବିଚାରିବା । କେଇଦିନ ତଳେ ଇଟାଲିରୁ ଜଣେ ସାଙ୍ଗ ଜଣାଇଲେ "ଓଡ଼ିଆ' ଶବ୍ଦଟି (ସେମାନେ, ପର୍ତ୍ତୁଗୀଜ ଓ ସ୍ପାନିସ ଭାଷାଏ "ଓଦିଆ' ବୋଲି ଉଚ୍ଚାରଣ କରନ୍ତି) ଘୃଣା କରିବା ପାଇଁ ବ୍ୟବହାର ହୁଏ । ମୁହଁରେ କହିଲି ନାହିଁ, ହେଲେ ମନରେ ଭାଜିଲି ଆମ ଲୋକେ ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୁ କ'ଣ କମ ହୀନିମାନ କରନ୍ତି! ଯଦି ଆମ ଭାଷା ଜଗତର ଛାମୁଆଁ ଭାଷା ଭିତରୁ ଗୋଟେ ହୋଇପାରନ୍ତା ତା'ହେଲେ ଏ "ଘୃଣାର ଭାଷା' ହୋଇ ଆଉ ରହନ୍ତା ନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ଆମ ଭିତରୁ କେତେଜଣ ଜଗତର ଆଉ ଭାଷା ଗବେଷାଳିଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ନିଜ ଭାଷା କଥା ପକାଉଛୁ? ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସୀମା ଡେଇଁଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆମାନେ ଏତେ ଅନର୍ଗଳ ହିନ୍ଦୀ କହିବେ ଆପଣଙ୍କୁ ବୋଧ ହେବ ବୋଧେ ଏମାନେ ମାଆ ପେଟରୁ ହିନ୍ଦୀ ଶିଖିଥିଲେ । ଅଧିକ ଭାଷା ଶିଖିଲେ ଭଲ, କାମରେ ଆସେ । ହେଲେ ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୁ ତୁଚ୍ଛକରି କିଏ ନୂଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଏତେ ପାରଙ୍ଗମ ହୁଏନା । ଆଜି ଯାଏ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଏତେ ସାହିତ୍ୟ ଯେ ଗଢ଼ା, ତା'ଭିତରୁ କେତେ ଅନ୍ୟ ଭାଷାରେ ଅନୁବାଦ ହୋଇଛି? ଯେଉଁମାନେ ଆମ ସାହିତ୍ୟର ମୁଖିଆ ବୋଲାଇ କାଳକାଳ ଧରି ଗାଦି ମାଡ଼ି ବସିଛନ୍ତି, ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ପୁଚ୍ଛିବାର ବେଳ ଆସିଛି କାହିଁକି ଆମେ ଖାଲି ଅନ୍ୟ ଭାଷାରୁ ଅନୁବାଦ କରୁଛୁ, କାହିଁକି ଆମର କାଳଜୟୀ ଲେଖାମାନ ଦେଶ ଓ ଦେଶ ବାହାରେ ପଢ଼ାଯାଉନାହିଁ? ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷା ଭିତରୁ କେବଳ ତାମିଲ ଭାଷା କଥା ଚର୍ଚ୍ଚା ହୁଏ ଦେଶବିଦେଶରେ । କାରଣ କ'ଣ ଜାଣନ୍ତି? ବାକିସବୁ କାରଣ ବାଦ୍‍ ସବୁଠୁ ବଡ଼ କାରଣଟି ହେଲା ସେ ଭାଷାର ପୁରୋଧାମାନେ ରାଜ୍ୟ କି ଦେଶ ଭିତରେ ବାନ୍ଧି ନହୋଇ ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୁ ସାରା ଜଗତକୁ ନେଇଛନ୍ତି । ଖାଲି ପଇସାର ଟାଣରେ ଏ କାମ ହୋଇନାହିଁ, ଏଥିରେ ଧନ, ରାଜନୀତି ଆଉ କୂଟନୀତି ଲାଗିଛି । ଆମ ସାହିତ୍ୟିକମାନେ ଥରୁଟେ ବିଦେଶ ଗଲେ ସେଠି ନିଜ ଭାଷା, ରାଇଜ କଥା କେତେ ଯେ ଗପନ୍ତି ତା ମା' ଗଙ୍ଗେଇଙ୍କି ଜଣା । ଗପୁଥିଲେ ତାଙ୍କ ପରିଚିତ ମହଲରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ବାବଦରେ ମଞ୍ଜିଟିଏ ପୋତା ହୋଇଥାନ୍ତା, ଅନ୍ତତଃ କିଛି ଭାଷାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହି ଅନୁଦିତ ହୋଇଥାନ୍ତା, ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ପୁରୁଣାପଣ ବାବଦରେ ବିଦେଶୀ ବ୍ଲଗରେ, ଖବରକାଗଜରେ, ଟେଲିଭିଜନରେ ଚର୍ଚ୍ଚା ହୋଇଥାନ୍ତା । ହୋଇଛି କି ଏଥିରୁ କାଣିଚାଏ? ଆଜିର ପିଢ଼ି ଯାହାଦେଇ ଶିଖୁଛନ୍ତି, ତାଙ୍କୁ ସେଇ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଶିଖାଇପାରିଲେ ସିନା ସେମାନେ ଶିଖିବେ । ଖାଲି ଏବର ପିଢ଼ିକୁ ଦୋଷ ଦେଇ ଭାଷା ମରିଯାଉଛି ବୋଲି କୁମ୍ଭୀର କାନ୍ଦଣା କାନ୍ଦିଲେ କି ହେବ କି ଆମେ ନିଜ ଭାଷାର ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ କଥା ବିଚାରୁଛୁ, ହେଲେ ଆକାଶ କଇଆଁ ସ୍ୱରୂପ "ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା କେନ୍ଦ୍ର ଅନୁଦାନ ରାଶି' ଆସିବାକୁ ନଚାହିଁ ବିଦେଶରୁ ରାଶି କେମିତି ଆସି ଏ କାମରେ ଲାଗିବ ତା ପାଇଁ ବାଟ ତିଆରୁଛୁ କି? ତେବେ ଏ ଦୁଃଖ ବଖାଣିଲେ ନସରେ । ଚୋରକୁ ମାନ ମାରି ଖପରାରେ ଖାଇଲେ ଏଠି ଘରବୁଡ଼ି ଆଣ୍ଠୁଏ ହେବ । ତେଣୁ ବେଳ ଥାଉଁଥାଉଁ କିଛି ନିଅଁ ପୋତା ଚାଲୁ, ତେଣିକି ଘର ଯେବେ ଗଢ଼ାଯିବ ଏ ସାହା ହେବ । ଓଡ଼ିଆର ପରିଚିତି ଦେଶବିଦେଶରେ ଯେତିକି ଉଣା, ଜଗତର ବାକି ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିବା ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଜ୍ଞାନର ଭଣ୍ଡାରରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ସେତିକି ଅଜଣା । ଇଂରାଜୀ ବାଦ୍‍ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ଭାଷାର ଲେଖାର ପ୍ରକାଶନ ପାଇଁ ଅନେକ ସ୍ଥାନ ରହିଛି । ତେବେ ଏମିତି କେତୋଟି ଜାଗତିକ ସ୍ଥାନରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆର ଚିହ୍ନଟେ ଯେ ରହିବା ଲୋଡ଼ା ତା କହିବା ବାହୁଲ୍ୟ । କାନ୍ଦିବୋବାଳି ରାମମୋହନ ଲାଇବ୍ରେରି ସକାଶେ କେଇଶହ ବହି ଛାପି ଯେଉଁମାନେ ନିଜର ବା ଭାଷାର ଉନ୍ନତି କରିବେ ବୋଲି ସାଧି ବସିଥିବେ ତାଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନାକରା ଖବର- ଆଉ ପିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପଢ଼ୁନାହାନ୍ତି । ଓଡ଼ିଆ କଥା ଛାଡ଼ନ୍ତୁ, ପିଲେ ବହି ପଢ଼ୁନାହାନ୍ତି । ତାଙ୍କୁ ଆଜିକାଲି ଲୋଡ଼ା ଭଳିକି ଭଳି ଗେମ, ଆନିମେସନ ଆଉ ଗ୍ରାଫିକ୍‍ ନଭେଲ (କମିକ୍ସ ଭଳି ଛବି ସମ୍ବଳିତ ବହି) । ପୁଣି ପିଲାଏ ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଉ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜି ବସିୁଛନ୍ତି ନୂଆନୂଆ କଥା । ଆଜିର ପିଢ଼ି ଯାହା ଦେଇ ଶିଖୁଛନ୍ତି ତାଙ୍କୁ ସେଇ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଶିଖାଇପାରିଲେ ସିନା ସେମାନେ ଶିଖିବେ । ଖାଲି ଏବର ପିଢ଼ିକୁ ଦୋଷ ଦେଇ ଭାଷା ମରିଯାଉଛି ବୋଲି କୁମ୍ଭୀର କାନ୍ଦଣା କାନ୍ଦିଲେ କି ହେବ? ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ପହଞ୍ଚôଲେ କୌଣସି ବିଷୟ ଖୋଜିବାକୁ ପ୍ରଥମେ ଖୋଲାହୁଏ ଗୁଗୁଲ କି ୟାହୁ ଭଳି ସର୍ଚ୍ଚ ଇଞ୍ଜିନ । ଖୋଜିଲାପରେ ଯାହା ପ୍ରଥମ ଲିଙ୍କ୍‍ରେ ଆସେ ସେ ହେଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ । ଏଇଟି ଜଗତର ବିଶାଳତମ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ । ୨୦୦୧ରେ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ପରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷା ଭାବେ ପଞ୍ଜାବୀ ଓ ଅହମିୟା ସହ ଯେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଏଥିରେ ସ୍ଥାନ ପାଇଲା ତା' ଅନେକ ଜାଣିନଥିବେ । ୨୦୦୨ରେ ତିଆରି ସିନା ହୋଇଗଲା । ହେଲେ ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖିବ କିଏ? ଇଂରାଜୀର ପାଠକ ଓ ଲେଖକ ଅଧିକ । ଆଉ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିଲେ କଉଡ଼ିଟିଏ ମିଳେନାହିଁ । ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାରେ ଲେଖିବାକୁ ବିଦେଶରେ ଯେମିତି ଲୋକ ବାହାରନ୍ତି ଆମର ସେ ଅବସ୍ଥା ନାହିଁ । ତଥାପି ୨୦୧୧ ବେଳକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରେ ଥିବା କିଛି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଏ ତିମିରରେ କିଛି ଆଲୁଅ ଜଳାଇଲେ । ଧୀରେଧୀରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆମାନେ ମଧ୍ୟ ସେଥିରେ ଯୋଡ଼ିହେଲେ । ଆଉ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ବିଶାଳତମ ଅନଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ । or.wikipedia.org ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ସୀମିତ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ସମ୍ପାଦିତ ହେଉଥିବାରୁ ସେତେ ବିଶାଳ ନୁହେଁ ସତ, କିନ୍ତୁ ଏହା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ବିଶାଳତମ ୱେବସାଇଟ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ମାସିକ ପାଠକ ୫ ଲକ୍ଷରୁ ଅଧିକ । ବହିର ପାଠ ବହି ବାହାରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ହେବାରେ ପୁଣି ଟାଇପ କରିବାର ଯେଉଁ ବାଧକ ତା' ଏଥିରେ ନାହିଁ । ମଜାର କଥା ଯେ ଅନେକ ସମୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଉଇକିଆଳିଗଣ (ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ସମ୍ପାଦକ) ବେଳେବେଳେ ଆପୋଷରେ ଏକ ଆଉଜଣଙ୍କ ଦେଶ-ଭାଷା-ଚଳଣି-ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିତ୍ୱଙ୍କ ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ଲେଖିବା ଦେଖାଯାଏ । ୨୮୮ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଏମିତି ଅଗଣିତ ଲୋକ ଯେଉଁଠି ମିଶି ଲେଖନ୍ତି ସେଠି ଭାଷାଟିଏ ଯୋଜନଯୋଜନ ଡେଇଁ ଜଗତର କୋଣ ଅନୁକୋଣ କେଡ଼େ ସହଜରେ ପହଞ୍ଚିପାରେ ଏ ତା'ର ଏକ ଉଦାହରଣ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର: ଆମ ଭାଷାରେ ଏଯାବତ୍‍ କେଇ ଲକ୍ଷ ବହି ଛପାଯାଇସାରିବଣି । ହେଲେ ଏ ସବୁ ବହି କ'ଣ ସଭିଁଏ ପଢ଼ିବାର ସୁଯୋଗ ପାଆନ୍ତି? କାହାପାଖରେ ପାଠାଗାର ଯିବାପାଇଁ ବେଳ ନାହିଁ ତ ହାତପାହାନ୍ତାରେ ବହି ନଥିବାରୁ କିଏ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଛାଡ଼ି ବାକି ଭାଷାର ଲେଖାପଢ଼ା ଆଦରୁଛି । ଆମ ଭାଷାର ପାଠକ କମିକମି ଯାଉଛନ୍ତି । ସମାଧାନର ପନ୍ଥା କ'ଣ ହୋଇପାରେ? ଆମ ଭାଷା ଖାଲି କ'ଣ ସାହିତ୍ୟ ଆଉ ସାହିତ୍ୟକଙ୍କ ଭାଷା କି ଲୋକମୁଖର କଥିତ ଭାଷା ହୋଇ ରହିଯିବ? ଆଜିର ପିଢ଼ି ପାଖରେ ପହଞ୍ଚôବାଲାଗି ତାକୁ ମନ ପଢ଼ିବାକୁ, ଜିଣିବାକୁ ହେବ । ଏଥି ।ଇଁ ପ୍ରାଥମିକ କାମଟି ହେଲା ବିରଳ ଓ ଛପା ହେଉନଥିବା ଅନେକ ପୁରାତନ ବହି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଜରିଆରେ ପାଠକମାନଙ୍କ ନିକଟକୁ ନେବା । ଯଦି ପାଠାଗାରରୁ କୌଣସି କାରଣରୁ ବହିଟି ଚୋରିହୁଏ କି ପୋକ ଖାଇଯାଏ ତା'ହେଲେ ଲେଖକର ଶ୍ରମର ଦେଉଳ ଭୁଶୁଡ଼ି ଡ଼େ । ତାକୁ ସାଇତିବାର ସବୁଠୁ ବଡ଼ ବାଟ ହେଉଛି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ୍‍ । ପୁରୁଣା ଓ ବିରଳ ବହିମାନ ଛପାଇବାରେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର ସୃଜନିକା ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନର କାମ ଏକ ଐତିହାସିକ ପଦକ୍ଷେପ । ୧୮୪୦- ୧୯୪୦ ଭିତରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ପତି୍ରକା, ୨୫ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଅଭିଧାନ ତଥା ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ଭାଷାକୋଷ ଭଳି ପୋଥିକୁ ମିଶାଇ ୭୪୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ବହିକୁ ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂ ଦେବାରେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଅବଦାନ କାହିଁରେ କେତେ । ହେଲେ ଏ ବହିର ଲେଖାସବୁ ଆଉଥରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ହେବା, ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ୍‍ରେ ଖୋଜିପାଇବା ତଥା ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଦିରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ପାଇଁ ଆଉଥରେ ଟାଇପ ହେବା ଜରୁରୀ । ସବୁଯାକ ବହିକୁ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ସମ୍ଭବ ନୁହେଁ, ହେଲେ କିଛିକିଛି ବହି ଧୀରେଧୀରେ ଟାଇପ ହୋଇପାରିବ । ସେ କାମଟି ଅଧୁନା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିାଠାଗାରରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଛି । ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ or.wikisosurce.org ରେ ପାଠକେ ଏହାକୁ ଖୋଲି ପଢ଼ିପାରିବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ଭଞ୍ଜ ସାହିତ୍ୟ ଏବଂ ଗୋପବନ୍ଧୁଙ୍କ ପରି ଏ ଯୁଗର ମହାନ ସାହିତ୍ୟିକଙ୍କ ରଚନାବଳୀ । ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପଟି ଅଣଲାଭକାରୀ, ଆଉ କପିରାଇଟ ନଥିବାରୁ ବହି ସବୁ ଖୋଲାରେ ପାଠକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ।

ଗ୍ଲୋବାଲ ଭଏସେସ: ଉପର ଦୁଇ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ତ ଗଲା ବହିର ରକ୍ଷଣାବେକ୍ଷଣ ଆଉ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ବା ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ଗଢ଼ିବାର କଥା । ହେଲେ ଘଟୁଥିବା ଘଟଣା ଆଉ ଜନମତର ମହତ ମଧ୍ୟ ଊଣା ନୁହେଁ । ଘଟୁଥିବା ଘଟଣାବଳୀ ଓ ତହିଁରେ ଜନ-ଅଭିମତକୁ ଭରିବା ଲକ୍ଷ୍ୟରେ ଏକ ବିଶ୍ୱବ୍ୟାପୀ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ ହେଉଛି ଗ୍ଳୋବାଲ ଭଏସେସ । ସୌଭାଗ୍ୟର କଥା ଯେ ହିନ୍ଦୀ ଓ ବଙ୍ଗଳା ପରେ ଏଥିରେ ୩ୟ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷା ଭାବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସ୍ଥାନୀତ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପାଠକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖବର ବୋଲି ଯାହା ଖବରକାଗଜରେ ଆସେ ତା ବାହାରେ ଘଟୁଥିବା ଘଟଣା ସହ ପରିଚିତ ଲାଭ ପାଇଁ ଏ ଏକ ବଡ଼ ମାଧ୍ୟମ ହୋଇପାରେ । ଏହା or.globalvoicesonline.org ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । ଏ ମଧ୍ୟ ଏକ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ପରିଚାଳିତ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଯାହାର ଦୁଆର ଭାଷା ଦକ୍ଷତା ଥିବା ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖୋଲା ।

Click to read a copy of the original article published by the Samaja here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/op-ed-samaja-jan-2015

Citizen Media Summit 2015

praskrishna — 2015-02-08T14:57:29Z

The Citizen Media Summit 2015 was held in Cebu City, Philippines on January 24 and 25, 2015. Subhashish Panigrahi was a speaker at the event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/citizen-media-summit-2015

Code As Communication

praskrishna — 2015-01-23T03:12:15Z

Gene Kogan will give a talk at the Centre for Internet & Society's Bangalore office on February 2, 2015. The talk will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Gene's talk will draw analogies between software, communication, creativity, and expressivity. Programming has a long history of comparison to other written media, with inevitable consequences on our legal policy over authorship and ownership.

With the emergence of free "creative coding" and "live coding" platforms like Processing, OpenFrameworks, PureData, vvvv, and SuperCollider, the boundaries between code and creative expression have further eroded, initiating inquiry as to its overlap with "traditional" creative writing. We are confronted with old questions within new contexts. As existing institutions incorporate emerging technologies into their creative programs and new ones take root and solidify, how do we make an infrastructure which most effectively and transparently fosters the development of creative technology? How do we ensure that this process is fair and democratic, and at greatest benefit and lowest cost to the public? What rights should users and developers receive? As the distinction between art and technology becomes blurry, what relevance does the FOSS movement have in cultivating cultural production?

Gene Kogan

Gene Kogan is a programmer and artist who writes free software for new and emerging technologies. He creates tools for live music, dance, theatre, and performance art. He contributes to numerous open-source software projects, and frequently gives workshops and demonstrations on topics related to code and art.

Follow Gene Kogan elsewhere:

Website: http://www.genekogan.com

Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/genekogan

Soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/genekogan

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/genekogan

Github: http://www.github.com/genekogan

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/genekogan

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/code-as-communication

Musician donates Gwalior Gharana songs to free e-library

praskrishna — 2015-01-22T15:25:49Z

A few years ago, Mumbai-based musician Neela Bhagwat realized that her old notebooks filled with lyrics and notations of age-old 'bandishes' were in tatters. Afraid that she might lose them forever, Bhagwat decided to make fresh copies.

The article by Sandhya Soman was published in the Times of India on January 20, 2015. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.

Once she wrote it all down, Bhagwat handed over the notebooks to a team to upload her collection of around 330 bandishes of the Gwalior gharana to a free, online library.

"I was always keen on sharing the compositions with others. Digitization is the way to go as it can be accessed from anywhere," says Bhagwat. Based on her notebooks, around 337 bandishes have been converted to PDF format by student and music researcher Tejaswini Niranjana. "I will be uploading them soon to Wikisource, which is one of the platforms of Wikipedia," says Niranjana.

Bhagwat and a few other music-lovers like her are taking up digital archiving projects to preserve India's cultural heritage without any institutional support or grant. "I have about 337 bandishes, my guru had more than 1,000 and his guru would've had still more. So much has got lost now," says Bhagwat. Even if she is willing to teach, few are able to understand, internalize and work on these classical compositions. "No student of mine has learnt all of it. So I thought it best to keep them in the public domain," says Bhagwat.

Along with music students, scholars also find these projects helpful.

For example, Andhra Pradesh-based lexicographer Peddi Sambasiva Rao has created a master index of all the compositions of Annamacharya for Telugu Wikisource recently. Now, he is in the process of digitizing the lyrics of all the 15,000 songs of the 15th century composer along with a fellow enthusiast. "Carnatic music lovers find it difficult to locate individual songs as there are 29 volumes of Annamacharya's works. Instead of publishing the index as a book, I thought of approaching Wikipedia, which is known to everyone," says Rao.

As the index is in Unicode, the standard text encoding format, the Telugu kirtanas will soon come up on search engines, says T Vishnu Vardhan, programme director, Access to Knowledge, CIS, which helped host these projects. "By June, we hope to have the entire Annamacharya kirtanas at a single source and eventually do the same for the songs of the Gwalior Gharana. This is the only way to make our cultural heritage accessible to future generations," says Vardhan.

Bhagwat says cultural and educations institutions should take the lead in digital archiving as the benefits are multi-fold. Once the bandishes are online, Bhagwat's students abroad will have the text along with the DVDs that she has brought out. "By the second or third Skype lesson, they would've learnt it," says Bhagwat.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-times-of-india-january-20-2015-sandhya-soman-musician-donates-gwalior-gharana-songs-to-free-e-library

Centre should partner local communities in 'Digital India': Expert

praskrishna — 2015-01-16T02:34:54Z

The central government needs to partner communities at the grassroots level and integrate the country's vernacular component to make the Digital India initiative a success, an expert said here Friday.

The blog entry originally published by IANS was mirrored in Zee News on January 9, 2015. T.Vishnu Vardhan was quoted.

"Whatever money it (Centre) is spending on culture, heritage conservation and preservation etc., it is always a very centralised activity.

"It is very, very essential to partner local communities," T. Vishnu Vardhan, programme director (Access to Knowledge), The Centre For Internet and Society, Bengaluru, told IANS here.

Vardhan was attending the 10th anniversary celebrations of Athe Bengali Wikimedia community at the Jadavpur University here.

Aiming to turn the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy, the Narendra Modi government has envisaged the Rs.1 lakh crore Digital India project.

Global IT giant Microsoft and Google have offered to help with the programme.

Vardhan said that while going forward with the project, the Centre must integrate the vernacular components. Else it will be restricted to Delhi and metro cities. Access to culture on digitised platforms should not be limited, he observed.

"The current government talks about Digital India. But when you talk about digital India, the key thing that one needs to take into consideration is not the India but the Bharat -- the vernacular imagination of India, the regional imagination of India.

"Otherwise whatever grand plans they have will only be limited to Delhi and other metropolitan cities," said Vardhan.

He suggested that the central government take note of examples like Wikipedia's regional language domains to further the Digital India project.

"Wikipedia or wikisource where you put up the original prints source in digitised form and make it searchable... these are the examples that the government should look at because these are done with the help of local volunteers who come from the remotest regions," said Vardhan.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/zee-news-january-9-2015-centre-should-partner-local-communities-in-digital-india

January 2015 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2015-02-26T17:02:23Z

Our newsletter for the month of January can be accessed below.

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcomes you to the first issue of the newsletter (January 2015). Archives of our newsletters can be accessed at: http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters.

Highlights

Forbes India in an article titled “Minds that (should) matter” names Sunil Abraham as one of the Thinkers who best explain a rapidly-changing India to the world (and the world to India).

Subhashish Panigrahi won the 2015 Opensource.com Community Awards under the category 'People's Choice Awards'.
Sumandro Chattapadhyay has joined CIS team as Research Director. Sumandro has replaces Nishant Shah who stepped down from the position.
Rishika on behalf of CIS prepared an analysis of the disability exceptions in Copyright Legislations . The blog post provides in detail the country-wise exceptions in copyright legislations.
NVDA team conducted a training programme on Malayalam eSpeak with NVDA in Thiruvananthapuram on January 24 and 25, 2015. Chakshumathi's main trainer Akhil M. took eSpeak Malayalam classes and Dr. Homiyar took classes on NVDA and accessible equipment.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India invited comments on the First Draft of India's National IPR Policy. CIS made its submission.
As part of the Pervasive Technologies project, Nehaa Chaudhari has produced a research methodology document which maps the existing literature around questions of competition law intersecting with intellectual property law on the specific issue of enabling access to sub hundred dollar mobile devices .
Maggie Huang, an intern at CIS as part of the Pervasive Technologies project has written a blog entry which documents, synthesizes, and analyses learnings from attending various music industry trade conferences.

CIS-A2K team on December 28, 2014 organized a MediaWiki hackathon event for Telugu Wikimedia community members to enhance their skills and understanding of technical matters related to MediaWiki usage. The theme of the workshop was “Mediawiki, its extensions and tools to work around” and it aimed at allowing Wikipedians to use MediaWiki tools more effectively.

Subhashish Panigrahi authored an op-ed that highlights the need for taking Odia language to the international fora instead of keeping it confined in the books. The op-ed was published in the Samaja on January 30, 2015.

A journal article by Subbiah Arunachalam, Perumal Ramamoorthi and Subbiah Gunasekaran the steps taken by scientists and librarians in the West to reclaim ease of access to research findings with what is happening in India along with a few suggestions was published by the Indian National Science Academy Journals.
The Supreme Court, in Sabu George v. Union of India and Ors. (WP (C) 341/2008), is looking into the presence of material regarding pre-natal sex determination on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo that has been falling foul of section 22 of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 as amended in 2002. Geeta Hariharan and Balaji Subramanian analyse this in their blog post.
As part of its Making Methods for Digital Humanities project, CIS-RAW organized two consultations on new figures of learning in the digital context. For a proposed journal issue on the theme of 'bodies of knowledge' which draws upon these conversations, participants were invited to write short sketches on these figures of learning. Tejas Pande wrote an abstract which examines the figure of the visual designer, and emerging practices of mapmaking.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. CIS in partnership with CLPR (Centre for Law and Policy Research) compiled the National Compendium of Policies, Programmes and Schemes for Persons with Disabilities (29 states and 6 union territories). The publication has been finalised and is being printed. The draft chapters and the quarterly reports can be accessed on the project page. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed here.

NVDA and eSpeak

Monthly Update

January 2015 Report (Suman Dogra; January 31, 2015).

Event Organized

Training of Malayalam eSpeak with NVDA (Co-organized by CIS, DAISY Forum of India and Chakshumathi Assistive Technology Centre; Thiruvananthapuram; January 24-25, 2015).

Other

Blog Entries

Disability Exceptions in Copyright Legislations (Rishika; January 12, 2015).
Response to RTI Applications from Different States on Accessibility (Anandhi Viswanathan; January 31, 2015).

Access to Knowledge

As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) 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.

Pervasive Technologies

As part of the Pervasive Technologies project, Maggie Huang conducted interviews with fabless semiconductor industry professionals in Taiwan. The findings from the samples are highlighted in four part series. The third and fourth parts have been published:

Blog Entries

Pervasive Technologies Project Working Document Series: Document 2 Literature Review on Competition Law + IPR + Access to < $100 Mobile Devices (Nehaa Chaudhari; January 1, 2015).
Relationship between App Developers and App Platforms: An Intellectual Property Perspective (Anubha Sinha; January 7, 2015).
Beyond Alcohol and Angel Investors: Building Business Models in an Age of Mobile Music Streaming (Conference Learnings) (Maggie Huang; January 20, 2015).
National IPR Policy Series: The Development of the National IPR Policy (Nehaa Chaudhari; January 22, 2015).
RTI Responses - MHRD IP Chairs: Details of Funding & Expenditure (Nehaa Chaudhari; January 31, 2015).
National IPR Policy Series: CIS Comments to the First Draft of the National IP Policy (Nehaa Chaudhari; January 31, 2015).

Participation in Events

Global Intellectual Property Convention (Organized by ITAG Solutions; Mumbai; January 15 - 17, 2015). Rohini Lakshané attended the event.
Library and Information Professionals Summit (LIPS) 2015 (Organized by Society for Library Professionals, National Law University Delhi with UN Information Centre for India & Bhutan and Special Library Association (USA), Asian Chapter; January 23 - 24, 2015; New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari was on a panel discussing Internet Technology and Challenges for Libraries in IPR Regime. She made a presentation on Technology (Internet?), Libraries and the Law (?).

Upcoming Event

Announcing the Institutional Partner for the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest 2015 (Organized by the National Law School of India University; New Delhi; December 2015).

Wikipedia

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).

Op-ed

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ଅନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ (Subhashish Panigrahi; The Samaja, January 31, 2015).

Blog Entries

Telugu Wikimedia Hackathon 2014 (Rahmanuddin Shaik; January 31, 2015).

Telugu Wikimedia Hackathon 2014 (Rahmanuddin Shaik; January 31, 2015). The event was conducted on December 28, 2014. However, the blog post was published in January 2015.

News and Media Coverage

CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Works of Veerasalingam Pantulu on web (Hans India; January 1, 2015).
Centre should partner local communities in 'Digital India': Expert (IANS and mirrored in Zee News; January 9, 2015).
Musician donates Gwalior Gharana songs to free e-library (Times of India; January 20, 2015).

Announcement

2015 Opensource.com Community Awards : Every year, Opensource.com awards people from our community who have excelled in contributing and sharing stories about open source. Subhashish Panigrahi from the CIS-A2K team won the award under the category 'People's Choice Awards'.
CIS-A2K team also published the Telugu Wikipedia Stats tables. Most metrics have been collected from a partial dump (aka stub dump), which contains all revisions of every article, meta data, but no page content.

Participation in Event

Citizen Media Summit 2015 (Organized by Global Voices; January 24 - 25, 2015). Subhashish Panigrahi was a speaker.

Openness

Journal Article

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The Intransigenc of STM Publishers (Subbiah Arunachalam, Perumal Ramamoorthi and Subbiah Gunasekaran; Indian National Science Academy Journals, Proc Indian Natn SciAcad 80 No. 5 December 2014 pp. 919-929).

Internet Governance

Articles and Blog Entries

Indians Plead for #NetNeutrality as Airtel Raises Data Charges (Subhashish Panigrahi; Global Voices; December 30, 2014). The article was published in the month of December but mirrored on CIS website in January.
Indian Netizens Criticize Online Censorship of 'Jihadi' Content (Subhashish Panigrahi; Global Voices; January 6, 2015).
Security and Surveillance - Optimizing Security while Safeguarding Human Rights (Elonnai Hickok; January 19, 2015).
Search Engine and Prenatal Sex Determination: Walking the Tight Rope of the Law (Geetha Hariharan and Balaji Subramanian; January 29, 2015).

Event Co-organized

Security, Governments, and Data: Technology and Policy (Organized by CIS and Observer Research Foundation; January 8, 2015, New Delhi). Sunil Abraham, Pranesh Prakash, Elonnai Hickok, Bhairav Acharya and Nehaa Chaudhari participated in this event.

Participation in Events

Symposium on Human Rights and the Internet in India (Organized by the Center for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Communication and Information at the University of Hamburg; New Delhi; January 17, 2015). Bhairav Acharya was a panelist.
Winter School on Privacy, Surveillance and Data Protection (Organized by the Centre for Communication Governance (CCG) in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Communication and Information at the University of Hamburg and the Hans Bredow; Delhi; January 19 - 23, 2015). Bhairav Acharya was a facilitator.
ASSOCHAM National Council on IT / ITes (Organized by ASSOCHAM; New Delhi; January 30, 2015). Geetha Hariharan participated in the event.

Blog Entries

Overview of the Constitutional Challenges to the IT Act (Pranesh Prakash; December 15, 2014).
Reply to RTI filed with BSNL regarding Network Neutrality and Throttling (Tarun Krishnakumar; December 22, 2014).

News & Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Government blocks 32 websites to check ISIS propaganda (Kim Arora; The Times of India; January 1, 2015).
Internet users fume as govt blocks 32 sites (Jaison Lewis; Mumbai Mirror; January 1, 2015).
India 'jihadi' web blocking causes anger (BBC; January 2, 2015). This was also mirrored in Puffington Post.
Govt cracks down on cyber jehad network, blocks access to 32 websites (India Today, January 1, 2015).
Indian Government still blocks 20+ websites - Indian Censorship on Internet (Times of Assam; January 2, 2015).
350% surge in Cyber crimes in last 3 years (Devanik Saha & Indiaspend.org; Hindustan Times; January 20, 2015).
TOI literary festival kicks off today (The Times of India; January 31, 2015).

Digital Humanities

CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:

Staff Movement

Sumandro Chattapadhyay has joined CIS as Research Director. His academic interests span over topics of history and politics of informatics in India, new media and technology studies, and data infrastructures and economies. He is also keenly interested in questions and techniques of digital humanities. Recently, Sumandro has completed a study on policy and practices of open data in India as part of the Open Data Research Network managed by the World Wide Web Foundation. He is an involved member of DataMeet, a leading community of open data and data science enthusiasts from India. Sumandro studied economics in Visva-Bharati, Shantiniketan, and in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has variously worked on topics of urban development, information technology in governance, data visualisation, and early electronic governance in India with MOD Institute, Azim Premji University and the Sarai Programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

Blog Entry

Figures of Learning: The Visual Designer (Tejas Pande; January 30, 2015).

About 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.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer / 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, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@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/january-2015-bulletin

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The Intransigenc of STM Publishers

subbiah — 2015-02-12T00:28:14Z

A few commercial publishers dominate provision of access to scientific and technical information sought after by researchers around the world. Increasing subscription prices of journals at rates higher than general inflation caused librarians to think of forming consortia, but publishers started selling online journals as bundles, and libraries ended up with many journals their researchers have very little use for. Scientists and librarians adopted open access, but publishers came up with hybrid journals and article processing charges to beat any adverse effect on their profits caused by the fast-spreading open access movement. We compare the steps taken by scientists and librarians in the West to reclaim ease of access to research findings with what is happening in India. We end with a few suggestions.

The article by Subbiah Arunachalam, Perumal Ramamoorthi and Subbiah Gunasekaran was published in the Indian National Science Academy Journals, Proc Indian Natn SciAcad 80 No. 5 December 2014 pp. 919-929.

Introduction

Scientists in India, as elsewhere, will be happy if their libraries provide them access to thousands of journals. Librarians, even in the most affluent institutions, have only limited budgets and they have to balance between journals on the one hand and books, monographs and reference material on the other, and can subscribe to only a limited number of journals. In the past decade and a half, thanks to generous funding by several government agencies (e.g., UGC, CSIR), librarians formed consortia so they could access online journals at more attractive prices and in large numbers. Also, during the same period, many open access (OA) journals became available and some subscription journals came forward to make articles OA if the authors paid a fee. There also came up a large number of repositories, both institutional (such as the ones at Indian Institute of Science and Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute) and subject-based central repositories (such as PubMed Central). As a result, scientists now have much easier access to a much larger volume of current literature. But, it appears that publishers seem to profit far more than scientists. They keep increasing the subscription prices at a rate higher than general inflation. Even affluent institutions like Harvard University are forced to cut down the number of journals they subscribe. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), a group of about 125 research libraries in North America, is concerned about this crisis in scholarly communication (or ‘serials crisis’ as they call it) and is working to promote open access as one way to counter it. The publishers continue to make their unusually large profits unmindful of the hardship researchers are put to. In business circles, publishing scientific, technical and medical (STM) journals is considered to be one of the most profitable businesses. Efforts made by groups of researchers to make scholarly communication more cost effective have not met with expected success levels. For example, entire editorial boards of a few commercial journals resigned and started new journals in the same field. But this happened only in a handful of cases and not all of them succeeded. In this paper, we look at what is happening currently in India in the context of the unusually large influence wielded by journal publishers.

Click to download the full text article.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/indian-national-academy-journals-december-2014-subbiah-arunachalam-perumal-ramamoorthi-subbiah-gunasekaran-heads-i-win-tails-you-lose

Works of Veerasalingam Pantulu on web

praskrishna — 2015-01-01T14:49:05Z

Andhra Loyola College in association with Centre for Internet and Society (CIS- A2K) is conducting a six-day camp titled ‘Wiki Winter’ at Wikipedia Lab in the campus.

Click to read the PDF of the original article published by Hans India here.

The camp will conclude on Wednesday. Around 45 volunteers from BSc (Physics) and BA (Telugu) streams are attending the camp. The students are being trained to be the contributors for Wikipedia and they are authorised to add, edit and delete articles in Wikipedia using validated user ids.

The articles in the field of Physics which are not in Telugu language are being prepared by the students. The articles are scrutinised by experts from other parts of the world and are accepted on permanent basis. The students of BA (Telugu) are preparing the classical works of Kandukuri Veerasalingam. His works are being digitalised and are made available to people.

Kola Sekhar of Department of Telugu and the organising secretary said that Kandukuri Veerasalingam is a well-known social activist and a writer. His works reflected the social evils prevailing in the society which are still relevant today. The solutions Veerasalingam showcased through his works are not available to current generation. This camp aims to put his works online. Sekhar said that they would strive hard to add more and more classical works in Telugu to the Wikipedia.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hans-india-december-31-2014-works-of-veerasalingam-pantulu-on-web

Wiki Winter Camp - Coverage in Sakshi

praskrishna — 2015-01-01T16:58:23Z

Media coverage for the Wiki winter camp held at Andhra Loyola College.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/sakshi-december-31-2014-wiki-winter-camp

Wiki Winter Camp - Coverage in Eenadu

praskrishna — 2015-01-01T17:17:42Z

Media coverage of Wiki Winter Camp held at Andhra Loyola College.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/eenadu-december-31-wiki-winter-camp

December 2014 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2015-01-12T16:56:54Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) wishes you a very happy new year and welcomes you to the twelfth issue of the newsletter (December 2014).

Highlights

CIS prepared a policy brief that identifies the problem areas with the current work flow being used to publish documents and proposes suitable modifications to make them easy to locate, authentic and accessible.
NVDA team conducted two workshops. The first one was held at the Hyderabad Central University for reading and writing in Telugu. The second one was held at the Blind Empowerment Foundation in Kolkata for reading and writing in Bangla.

Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the 29^th WIPO-SCCR held in Geneva from December 8 to 12, 2014 and on behalf of CIS gave statements on the Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations , Limitations and Exceptions for Education, Teaching, Research Institutions and Persons with Disabilities , made a brief pointed intervention on the Broadcast Treaty , and briefly interviewed Prof. Crews on his Updated Study on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives .
Nehaa Chaudhari analyses the broadening of definitions/concepts in the Proposed Broadcast Treaty versus those in pre-existing international instruments.
Maggie Huang, an intern at CIS as part of the Pervasive Technologies projects conducted interviews with fabless semiconductor industry professionals in Taiwan. The findings are highlighted in two separate blog entries. The first one explores some of their views on the current intellectual property system and the second explores the tension between market forces and governmental intervention in providing access to mobile technology .
Tejaswini Niranjana, a distinguished fellow at CIS wrote an op-ed in the Hindu telling readers to see the ongoing Sanskrit versus German controversy as a welcome opportunity to discuss the real and persistent problems of our education system.
Vidushi Marda and Bhairav Acharya have co-authored a white paper that seeks to identify aspects of privacy in Islamic Law and demonstrate that the notion of privacy was recognized and protected in traditional Islamic law.
Ashna Ashesh and Bhairav Acharya have produced a white paper seeks to locate privacy in Classical Hindu Law, and by doing so, displace the notion that privacy is an inherently 'Western' concept that is the product of a modernist legal system.
Vipul Kharbanda authored a white paper establishing the relationship between privacy and confidentiality.
Geetha Hariharan in a blog entry examines the constitutional validity of Section 69A and the Blocking Rules.
Shyam Ponappa in an article published by the Business Standard writes that India's current policies for telecommunications don't serve our interests and tells readers what must change.

Accessibility and Inclusion

►NVDA and eSpeak

Monthly Update

December 2014 Report (Suman Dogra; December 30, 2014).

Events Organized

Telugu eSpeak Training with NVDA (Organized by NVDA team; Hyderabad Central University, Hyderabad; December 1-2, 2014).
Bangla eSpeak training with NVDA (Organized by NVDA team; Blind Empowerment Foundation, Kolkata; December 19-20, 2014).

Upcoming Event

Training in Use of eSpeak with Malayalam (Co-organized by CIS, DAISY Forum of India and Chakshumathi Assistive Technology Centre; Trivandrum; January 24 - 25, 2015, Trivandrum).

►Other

Blog Entry

Availability and Accessibility of Government Information in Public Domain (Sunil Abraham, Nirmita Narasimhan, Beliappa, and Anandhi Viswanathan; December 9, 2014).

Participation in Event

First meeting of the high level committee on National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility (Organized by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology; December 30, 2014; New Delhi). Sunil Abraham participated in this meeting.

Media Coverage

When technology is able but the mindset is not (Governance Now; December 1-15 issue). Sunil Abraham and Nirmita Narasimhan gave their inputs.

Access to Knowledge

►Pervasive Technologies

Blog Entries

[Open] Innovation and Expertise > Patent Protection & Trolls in a Broken Patent Regime (Maggie Huang; December 26, 2014).
"Copyright Management in the Age of Mobile Music" - Living Methodology Document (Maggie Huang; December 26, 2014).

►Other

Blog Entries

Nehaa Chaudhari attended the 29^th WIPO-SCCR held in Geneva from December 8 to 12. The following are the outputs:

29th Session of the WIPO SCCR: CIS Intervention on the Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 9, 2014).
29th Session of the WIPO SCCR: CIS- 2nd (brief) Intervention on the Broadcast Treaty (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 11, 2014).
The Broadening of Definitions in the Proposed Broadcast Treaty Compared to Other International Conventions (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 11, 2014).
29th Session of the WIPO SCCR: CIS Intervention: Questions to Prof. Kenneth Crews on his Updated Study on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 14, 2014).
29th Session of the WIPO SCCR: Statement on the Limitations and Exceptions for Education, Teaching, Research Institutions and Persons with Disabilities (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 20, 2014).
Protection of Broadcasting Organisations under the Proposed Treaty as Compared to Other International Conventions (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 21, 2014).

Participation in Event

Save the Date - 10 December 2014: The Broadcasting Treaty: A Solution in Search of a Problem? (Organized at WIPO; December 10, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari was a speaker at this side event. The details were originally published by Knowledge Ecology International.

Media Coverage

SCCR 29: Public Interest Organizations Statements regarding the Broadcasting Treaty (Knowledge Ecology International; December 9, 2014).
SCCR 29 Libraries, Archives and Public Interest NGOs in Q&A with Dr. Crews (Knowledge Ecology International; December 11, 2014).
At WIPO, Study On Copyright Exceptions Stimulates Broad Discussion With Author (Catherine Saez; December 18, 2014).
WIPO Delegates Hear Concerns of NGOs on Exceptions for Libraries (Catherine Saez; IP Watch ; December 19, 2014).

►Wikipedia

Newspaper Article

Beyond the Language Tussle (Tejaswini Niranjana; The Samaja, November 17, 2014).

Blog Entries

Odia Wikisource campus project at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (Subhashish Panigrahi; December 3, 2014).
Several Publications Now Available under Creative Commons License (Subhashish Panigrahi; December 28, 2014).
Odia Wikisource workshop at New Delhi (Subhashish Panigrahi; December 30, 2014). The event was organized by CIS in collaboration with "The Intellects" on December 14.

News and Media Coverage

CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Odia Wikipedia (Dhatri; December 1, 2014).
Odia Wikipedia (Odiapua; December 1, 2014).
Access to Rare Books Made Easy (Diana Sahu; Indian Express; December 5, 2014).
Tulu Wikipedia gets some push (Hindu Businessline; December 13, 2014).
Tulu Wikipedia (Kannada Prabha; December 14, 2014).
Tulu Wikipedia (Vijaya Karnataka; December 15, 2014).
Tulu Wikipedia (VijayaVani; December 27, 2014).
Works of Veerasalingam Pantulu on web (Hans India; December 31, 2014).
Wiki Winter Camp - Coverage in Sakshi (Sakshi; December 31, 2014).
Wiki Winter Camp - Coverage in Eenadu (Eenadu; December 31, 2014).

Event Co-organized

Odia Wikisource Sabha 2014 (Co-organized by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikimedia Community; November 28, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.

Participation in Events

ICT for Development (Organized by Christ University; December 3, 2014). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was a speaker at this event.
Swatantra 2014: Fifth International Free Software Conference, Kerala (Organized by ICFOSS, Govt. of Kerala; Hotel Hycinth by Sparsa, Trivandrum; December 18 - 20, 2014). T. Vishnu Vardhan chaired a session on Wikimedia and Access to Knowledge in India and Rahimanuddin Shaik co-presented on Making DLI Accessible.

►Openness

Blog Entry

Department of Science and Technology & Department of Biotechnology adopt Open Access Policy (Anubha Sinha; December 29, 2014).

Participation in Events

Tech for Citizen Engagement 2014 (Organized by Omidyar Network; New Delhi; December 11, 2014). Sunil Abraham was a speaker in the session "Rules of Engagement: Emerging Trends in Citizen Outreach".
Swatantra 2014: Fifth International Free Software Conference, Kerala (Organized by ICFOSS, Govt. of Kerala; Hotel Hycinth by Sparsa, Trivandrum; December 18 - 20, 2014). Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam was a speaker and made a presentation on Open Science.

Internet Governance

►Privacy

As part of our Surveillance and Freedom: Global Understandings and Rights Development (SAFEGUARD) project with Privacy International we are engaged in enhancing respect for the right to privacy in developing countries. During the month we published the following blog entries:

White Papers

Locating Constructs of Privacy within Classical Hindu Law (Ashna Ashesh and Bhairav Acharya; December 29, 2014).
Relationship between Privacy and Confidentiality (Vipul Kharbanda; December 30, 2014).

Blog Entry

Identifying Aspects of Privacy in Islamic Law (Vidushi Marda and Bhairav Acharya; December 14, 2014).

Upcoming Events

Security, Governments, and Data: Technology and Policy (Co-organized by CIS and the Observer Research Foundation; January 8, 2015; New Delhi).
CPDP 2015 : The eighth international conference on computers, privacy and data protection will be held in Brussels from January 21 to 23, 2015. CIS is a moral supporter of CPDP.

Event Organized

Security and Surveillance: A public discussion on Optimizing Security while Safeguarding Human Rights (CIS; December 19, 2014).

►Free Speech

Under a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, CIS is doing research on the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government and contribute studies, reports and policy briefs to feed into the ongoing debates at the national as well as international level. As part of the project we bring you the following outputs:

Blog Entries

ICANN reveals hitherto undisclosed details of domain names revenues (Geetha Hariharan; December 8, 2014).
Revolving Door Analysis: IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (Lakshmi Venkataraman; December 10, 2014).
Is India's website-blocking law constitutional? - I. Law & procedure (Geetha Hariharan; December 11, 2014).

►Other

Participation in Event

National Seminar on Cyber Security & Cyber Laws - Issues and Concerns (Organized by the Advanced Centre for Research, Development & Training in Cyber Laws & Forensics; National Law School of India University, Bangalore; December 27 - 28, 2014). Sharath Chandra Ram was part of a plenary session on "Multi-Disciplinary Challenges in Ensuring Cyber Security".

Blog Entries

Overview of the Constitutional Challenges to the IT Act (Pranesh Prakash; December 15, 2014).
Reply to RTI filed with BSNL regarding Network Neutrality and Throttling (Tarun Krishnakumar; December 22, 2014).

---------------------------------
News & Media Coverage
---------------------------------
CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

India sees biggest improvement in Internet freedom, says report (Moulishree Srivastava; Livemint; December 5, 2014).
Are Cab Apps safe? (IBN Live; December 8, 2014).
FrndiNeed; an app for passengers' safety (Athira A. Nair; Economic Times; December 10, 2014).
Thank You To Our 2014 Sponsors (Medianama; December 22, 2014).
Why did India fail to discover the ISIS Twitter handle? (Anita Babu; Business Standard; December 26, 2014).
Targeting surveillance (Ajai Sreevatsan; The Hindu; December 28, 2014).
Centre blocks 32 websites for security reasons, restores some later (S. Ronendra Singh; Hindu Businessline; December 31, 2014).
DoT Reportedly Orders Blocking of 32 Websites Including GitHub, Archive.org, SourceForge (NDTV; December 31, 2014).
Govt blocks 32 websites, including Vimeo and Github (Moulishree Srivastava; Livemint; December 31, 2014).
Vimeo, DailyMotion, Pastebin Among Sites Blocked In India For 'Anti-India' Content From ISIS (Jeff Stone; IB Times; December 31, 2014).
Pastebin, Dailymotion, Github blocked after DoT order: Report (Anupam Saxena; The Times of India; December 31, 2014).

Telecom

CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Newspaper Column

A Road Map for Digital India (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; December 3, 2014 and Organizing India Blogspot; December 4, 2014).

Digital Humanities

Blog Entry

The Spaces of Digital (P.P.Sneha; December 30, 2014).

About CIS

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For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2014-bulletin

Odia Wikisource workshop at New Delhi

subha — 2014-12-30T01:08:00Z

The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team in collaboration with "The Intellects" organized a seminar in New Delhi on December 14, 2014. Subhashish Panigrahi gave a talk.

The seminar was on the Relevance of Bhagabat Tungi in the evolution of Odia language from Buddha era to digital age. After attending the event one of the participants Pankajmala Sarangi took great interest in Odia Wikisource which was then an incubator project. Since then she has digitized three books and is now proofreading Odia Bhagabata, an Odia language classic from the 14th century. Having the highest number of edits in Odia Wikisource, Ms. Sarangi took interest to build a community in Delhi. Another Odia Wikilibrarian Sitikantha Kheti also joined in to organise the first Odia Wikisource workshop in Delhi. These Wikimedians, a Delhi based group The Intellects and CIS-A2K collaboratively conducted a workshop.

The Intellect's president Debendra Rout addressed the participants and broadly spoke about the goal of the workshop and long term plans in Delhi. Both the Wikilibrarians shared their experience on Odia Wikisource. The workshop started with self introduction of the participants followed by screening of a documentary "Odia: Silalekharu Mobile".

Video

A handbook with details on the project, Odia input and keyboard layout was distributed among all. Subhashish Panigrahi demonstrated Odia input and the process of digitization of books on Wikisource. Plans for more workshops and digitization sprints were also charted out.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wikisource-workshop-new-delhi-december-14-2014