Centre for Internet and Society

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ:ಸಂಪಾದನೋತ್ಸವಗಳು/ಸಂಪಾದನೋತ್ಸವ ತುಮಕೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾನಿಲಯ ೨೦೧೮

Admin — 2018-08-11T01:32:00Z

CIS-A2K team held a workshop in Tumakur University on 25 July 2018.

Read the full details on Wikipedia page

ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದ ವಿವರ

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಸಬರು: ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಪರಿಚಯ, ಖಾತೆ ತೆರೆಯುವುದು, ವಿಕಿ ಸಂಪಾದನೆ ಕಲಿಯುವುದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸುವುದು.

ದಿನಾಂಕ ಮತ್ತು ಸ್ಥಳ

ದಿನಾಂಕ: ಜುಲೈ ೨೫, ೨೦೧೮, ಬುಧವಾರ
ಸಮಯ: ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ೯:೩೦ ರಿಂದ ಸಾಯಂಕಾಲ ೫:೩೦ರ ತನಕ
ಸ್ಥಳ:ತುಮಕೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯ ಪದವಿ ಕಾಲೇಜು ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ ವಿಭಾಗ, ಗೂಗ್ಲ್ ಮ್ಯಾಪ್

ಸಂಪನ್ಮೂಲ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗಳು

ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದವರು

--Mangalapandith (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೪೪, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Vanitha YH (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೪೭, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Mdshreedevidevaraju (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೪೭, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Shashikalashivanna1 (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೪೮, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Varshitha govindaraju (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೪೯, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Soumya ravish (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೪೯, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Ganmanj (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೫೦, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Sowmyalatha.s (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೫೨, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Bindu Umesh (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೫೩, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Shashirekha V N (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೭:೫೪, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Girish.Nagappa (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೮:೪೪, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)
--Lokeshbag (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೦೮:೪೮, ೨೫ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC)

ವರದಿ

ತುಮಕೂರು ಸಂಪಾದನೋತ್ಸವ/ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ ೨೫ರಂದು ನಡೆಯಿತು. ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ತುಂಬಾ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ನಡೆಯಿತು. ಹೊಸ ೧೨ ಸದಸ್ಯರು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಖಾತೆ ಸೃಷ್ಠಿಸಿದರು. ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ೧೦ ಜನ ಹುಡುಗಿಯರು ಮತ್ತು ೨ ಹುಡುಗರು ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ಇವರು ತುಮಕೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದಯಾಲಯದ ಭೌತಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ ವಿಭಾಗದ ಪದವಿ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು. ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದವರಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಆಸಕ್ತಿಯಿಂದ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದರು. ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದವರಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ತಳಮಟ್ಟದ ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ತಿಳಿಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟೆವು. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಅಲ್ಲದೇ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯೂ ತಿಳಿಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟೆವು. ಅದಲ್ಲದೇ ವಿಕಿಯ ಇತರ ಪ್ರಾಜೆಕ್ಟುಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯೂ ಹೇಳಿದೆವು. ಸಮುದಾಯದಿಂದ ಲೋಕೇಶ ಕುಂಚಡ್ಕರು ಭಾಗವಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದವರು ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದರಿಂದ ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ ಪಠ್ಯ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸಿ ಈ ಯೋಜನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವಂತೆ ಕೇಳಿಕೊಂಡೆವು. --ಗೋಪಾಲಕೃಷ್ಣ (ಚರ್ಚೆ) ೧೭:೦೪, ೨೯ ಜುಲೈ ೨೦೧೮ (UTC) ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಪಟ್ಟ dashboard link ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tumakur%20university-workshop

వికీపీడియా:సమావేశం/హైదరాబాదు/మిసిమి పత్రిక భాగస్వామ్య సమావేశం, జూలై 2018

Admin — 2018-08-11T00:37:13Z

On 24 July 2018, CIS-A2K team held partnership discussions with Misimi Telugu monthly magazine.

Full details on Wikipedia page here

వికీపీడియా నుండి < వికీపీడియా:సమావేశం‎ | హైదరాబాదు Jump to navigation Jump to search

2018 జూలై 24న మిసిమి కార్యాలయ గ్రంథాలయంలో తెలుగు వికీపీడియా అభివృద్ధి కోసం భాగస్వామ్య అవకాశాలను గురించి జరిపిన చర్చల సారాంశం.

వివరాలు

తేదీ-సమయం: 2018 జూలై 24న మధ్యాహ్నం 12 నుంచి 2.30 వరకూ
ప్రదేశం: మిసిమి కార్యాలయ గ్రంథాలయం, ఆర్టీసీ క్రాస్ రోడ్స్ వద్ద, ముషీరాబాద్, హైదరాబాద్

పాల్గొన్న వ్యక్తులు

వల్లభనేని అశ్వినీ కుమార్, సంపాదకుడు, మిసిమి పత్రిక
కాండ్రేగుల నాగేశ్వరరావు, సహ సంపాదకుడు, మిసిమి పత్రిక
పవన్ సంతోష్, సీఐఎస్-ఎ2కె.

చర్చించిన అంశాలు

హైదరాబాద్ ఆర్టీసీ క్రాస్ రోడ్స్ వద్ద ఉన్న మిసిమి కార్యాలయ గ్రంథాలయంలో మన నెలవారీ సమావేశాలు నిర్వహించుకోవచ్చనీ, అక్కడే పుస్తకాలు తీసుకుని చదివి సమాచారం అభివృద్ధి చేసేలాంటి ఎడిటథాన్లు నిర్వహించుకోవచ్చని వారు అవకాశం ఇచ్చారు.
వచ్చే నెల అటువంటి కార్యక్రమం నిర్వహించుకుంటే పత్రిక రచయితలను ఆహ్వానిస్తానని పేర్కొన్నారు. తెలుగు వికీపీడియాలో అభివృద్ధి చేయదలిచిన కొన్ని ప్రధానమైన అంశాలు (తెలుగు ప్రముఖులు, తెలుగు గ్రామాలు, భారతదేశ చరిత్ర, వగైరా) తీసుకుని తెవికీపీడియన్లు, మిసిమి రచయితలూ కలిసి ఆయా అంశాల్లో అత్యంత ప్రామాణికమని ఎంచే పుస్తకాలను (ఓ 50-100) జాబితా వేస్తే ఆ జాబితా భవిష్యత్తులో మనం తెలుగు వికీపీడియన్లకు అందుబాటులోకి తీసుకురావడం, వికీసోర్సు పునర్విడుదలలో ప్రాధాన్యత ఇవ్వడం వంటి కార్యక్రమాలకు స్వీకరించేందుకు వీలుంటుంది.
మిసిమి పత్రికలో తెలుగు వికీపీడియా నిర్మాణం, అది ఎదుర్కొంటున్న సమస్యలు, సభ్యులు దాన్ని అధిగమించడానికి చేస్తున్న ప్రయత్నాలు వంటి అంశాలను కలిపి తెవికీపీడియన్లు వ్యాసం రాయవచ్చు, తద్వారా అత్యంత సీరియస్, పాండిత్య, పరిశోధన ప్రధానమైన మిసిమి పత్రికను చదివే పాఠకులకు తెవికీపీడియా గురించి విజ్ఞప్తి చేసినట్టవుతుంది.
పత్రికను కేవలం లాభాపేక్ష కోసం కాక ఉన్నతమైన లక్ష్యాల కోసం నడుపుతున్నట్టు కాబట్టి కాపీహక్కుల మీద తమకు పట్టింపులేదనీ, పత్రికలోని నాణ్యమైన సాహిత్యం ప్రజలకు చేరువ కావడం ముఖ్యమనీ వారు తెలిపారు. పత్రికలోని పలు వ్యాసాలను కానీ, సంచికలను కానీ ప్రస్తుతం పత్రికల కాపీహక్కుల పునర్విడుదల విషయమై ఉన్న సాంకేతిక సమస్యలు అధిగమించి ఎలా సీసీ-బై-ఎస్‌ఎలోకి తీసుకురావచ్చన్నది ఆలోచించాలి.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/partnership-discussions-with-misimi-telugu-monthly-magazine

How to write differently for different Telugu digital platforms - awareness session to Indu Gnana Vedika

pavan — 2018-07-19T14:56:45Z

Different digital platforms require a different style of writing based on nature, ethos, and audience of the platform. Without which writer and piece of writing can only find rejections and deletions.

On June 9th, CIS-A2K Community advocate, and Telugu Wikipedia Admin Pavan Santhosh took a session which aimed to improve writing abilities on various digital platforms to members of Indu Gnana Vedika, who earlier collaborated with A2K to release and digitize their books in Wikisource. On 22 June 2014, CIS-A2K conducted an event to re-license 10 books into CC license and Training on Tewiki to members of Indu Gnana vedika. Later Indu Gnana Vedika members started digitizing those books in Telugu Wikisource & Creating articles about Indu Gnana Vedika books and other aspects in Telugu Wikipedia.

Telugu Wikipedia admins found many of those articles are not notable to be in Telugu Wikipedia, notified and discussed. Finally deleted majority of them. One of the users introduced to Tewiki during this project - Indusri Ushasri continued to contribute improving those 10 books in Telugu Wikisource and undeleted articles about Indu Gnana vedika in Telugu Wikipedia.This event intended to be respectful and good closure for the partnership. The event was designed to provide a better idea to interested members of the organization about varying styles of different digital platforms like Telugu Wikipedia, e-Magazines, Websites, etc., and help them to choose various platforms to contribute according to the subject they wanted to write.

Pavan demonstrated various aspects that needed to look into while writing such a piece like the ethos of the platform, target audience, etc., 5 participants from Indu gnana vedika along with Indusri Ushasri participated in this event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/how-to-write-differently-for-different-telugu-digital-platforms-awareness-session-to-indu-gnana-vedika

వికీపీడియా:సమావేశం/గుంటూరు/అన్నమయ్య గ్రంథాలయం - భాగస్వామ్య కార్యక్రమం జూలై 2018

Admin — 2018-08-11T00:43:35Z

CIS-A2K partnership activity in Annamayya Library, Guntur.

See the event details on Wikipedia page here

వికీపీడియా నుండి < వికీపీడియా:సమావేశం Jump to navigation Jump to search

2018 జూలై 10న గుంటూరు అన్నమయ్య గ్రంథాలయంలో భాగస్వామ్య అవకాశాలను గురించి జరిపిన చర్చలు, చేసిన చిరు శిక్షణల సారాంశం.

వివరాలు

తేదీ-సమయం: 2018 జూలై 10న ఉదయం 11 నుంచి సాయంత్రం 4 వరకూ
ప్రదేశం: అన్నమయ్య గ్రంథాలయం, వేంకటేశ్వరస్వామి ఆలయం ఎదురుగా, బృందావన కాలనీ, గుంటూరు

పాల్గొన్న వ్యక్తులు

వాడుకరి:Gopi.Mogili, అన్నమయ్య గ్రంథాలయం
లంకా సూర్యనారాయణ, అన్నమయ్య గ్రంథాలయ వ్యవస్థాపకుడు
పవన్ సంతోష్, సీఐఎస్-ఎ2కె.

చేపట్టిన పనులు, భాగస్వామ్య చర్చలు

అన్నమయ్య గ్రంథాలయానికి సంబంధించిన లక్షా మూడువేల పుస్తకాల కేటలాగును ఇప్పటికే వికీపీడియాలోకి కొంతమేరకు విశ్వనాథ్ గారు, కొంతమేరకు సీఐఎస్-ఎ2కె వారు, రహ్మానుద్దీన్ ప్రభృతులు పూర్తిచేశారు. అయితే ఆపైన నిరంతరం పుస్తకాలు చేరుతూ జాబితా అప్‌డేట్ అవుతూండడాన ఆ పుస్తకాలు చేర్చడానికి గ్రంథాలయ సిబ్బందికి శిక్షణనివ్వాల్సిందిగా ఆహ్వానించారు.
గ్రంథాలయ సిబ్బందిలో ఒకరైన గోపి మొగిలికి స్ప్రెడ్‌షీట్లలోని కాటలాగ్ వికీ మార్కప్ కోడ్‌లోకి తీసుకురావడానికి ఉపకరించే వెబ్‌సైట్ చూపి శిక్షణను ఇచ్చాం. తద్వారా భావి గ్రంథాలయ సూచికలన్నీ వికీపీడియాలోకి వచ్చేందుకు వీలవుతుంది.
గ్రంథాలయ వ్యవస్థాపకుడు లంకా సూర్యనారాయణ వికీపీడియాలో తమ కాటలాగ్ డిజిటైజ్ చేసి, తద్వారా పరిశోధకులకు గ్రంథాల అందుబాటుకు వీలుకల్పించిన వికీపీడియా వాలంటీర్లను, పాల్గొన్న సంస్థల ఉద్యోగులను ప్రశంసిస్తూ తమ గ్రంథాలయం ద్వారా తెలుగు వికీపీడియా సముదాయ అభివృద్ధికి ఏయే కార్యకలాపాలు చేపట్టవచ్చో ఆలోచించి ప్రతిపాదించమని కోరారు.
ఈ నేపథ్యంలో గుంటూరు సమీపంలోని వీవీఐటీ కళాశాలలో వాడుకరి:KCVelaga పలు కార్యకలాపాలు చేపడతున్నందను, వారి భాగస్వామ్యంతో గుంటూరులో గ్రంథాలయంలో నెలవారీ సమావేశాలు నిర్వహించడం ప్రారంభిద్దామని, గ్రంథాలయంలోని గ్రంథాలు స్కాన్ చేయడంలో వీవీఐటీ వికీ క్లబ్ సభ్యులకు శిక్షణనిచ్చి కాపీహక్కులు లేని గ్రంథాలు కొన్ని వికీమీడియా కామన్స్‌లోకి తీసుకురావచ్చనీ ఆలోచిస్తూ ఆయా ప్రతిపాదనలు గ్రంథాలయం ముందుంచనున్నాం.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/partnership-activity-in-annamayya-library-guntur

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ತರಬೇತಿ ೨೦೧೮ @ ರಾಂಚಿ

Vikas Hegde — 2018-07-04T17:02:46Z

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರಾದ ವಿಕಾಸ್ ಹೆಗಡೆ ಅವರು Wiki Advanced Training 2018ರ ತಮ್ಮ ಅನುಭವ ಮತ್ತು ಕಲಿತ ವಿಚಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಈ ಬ್ಲಾಗಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಈ ಬಾರಿ ಜಾರ್ಖಂಡ್ ರಾಜ್ಯದ ’ರಾಂಚಿ’ ನಗರದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ’ಮುಂದುವರೆದ ತರಬೇತಿ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ’ವನ್ನು (Wikipedia Advanced Training, 2018) ಆಯೋಜಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಒಂದು ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶವಾಗಿದ್ದು ನಾನು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಗೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ತುಂಬುವ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಹಲವು ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ವಿಕಿಗೆ ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ತುಂಬಿಸಲು ಬೇಸಿಕ್ ಮಟ್ಟದ ಎಡಿಟಿಂಗ್ ತಿಳುವಳಿಕೆ ಸಾಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಹಾಗೇ ಮುಂದುವರೆಯುತ್ತಾ ಹೋದಂತೆ ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿಯಲು ಮತ್ತು ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಬಹಳಷ್ಟಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಉತ್ತಮ ಗುಣಮಟ್ಟದ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು, ಪುಟಗಳನ್ನು ತಯಾರಿಸಲು ಹಲವು ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಂಡು ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ತಕ್ಕುದಾಗಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ತುಂಬಿಸಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಅನೇಕ ವಿಷಯಗಳಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ಮಟ್ಟದ ತಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಅಥವಾ ಅದನ್ನು ಅರ್ಥಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ಅಗತ್ಯ.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ತರಬೇತಿ, ಸಮುದಾಯ ಕಟ್ಟುವಿಕೆ ಮುಂತಾದ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬೆಂಬಲಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಸೆಂಟರ್ ಫಾರ್ ಇಂಟರ್ನೆಟ್ ಅಂಡ್ ಸೊಸೈಟಿ-A2K ವಿಭಾಗವು ಈ ಮುಂದುವರೆದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ತರಬೇತಿ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹಿಂದಿನ ತಿಂಗಳು ಘೋಷಣೆ ಮಾಡಿತ್ತು. ಇದು ಮೂರು ದಿನಗಳ ಕಾಲ ನಡೆಯುವ ತರಬೇತಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದು ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯರನ್ನ ಆಹ್ವಾನಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಹಿಂದೆ ಕೆಲಬಾರಿ ಬೇರೆಬೇರೆ ಸ್ಥಳಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಮುಂದುವರೆದ ತರಬೇತಿಗಳು ನಡೆದಿದ್ದರೂ ಸಹ ನನಗೆ ಹೋಗಲು ಆಗಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಈ ಬಾರಿ ತಾರೀಖುಗಳು ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆಯಾಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದುದರಿಂದ ನಾನು ಕೂಡ ಅರ್ಜಿ ಸಲ್ಲಿಸಿದ್ದೆ. ಅರ್ಜಿ ಸಲ್ಲಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಆಯ್ಕೆಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಗೆ ನಾವು ಮಾಡಿದ ಕೆಲಸಗಳಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ಕೆಲವು ಮಾನದಂಡಗಳಿದ್ದವು. ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಮುದಾಯದಿಂದ ನಾನು ಮತ್ತು ಮಲ್ಲಿಕಾರ್ಜುನ್ ಆಯ್ಕೆಯಾಗಿರುವುದಾಗಿ ಕೆಲದಿನಗಳ ನಂತರ ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು.

ಈ ಬಾರಿ ಈ ತರಬೇತಿಯನ್ನು ’ರಾಂಚಿ’ಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಸಲು ಕಾರಣವಿತ್ತು. ಮೊದಲನೆಯದಾಗಿ, ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಿ, ಭಾರತದ ಉತ್ತಮ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯನ್ ಎಂದು ಗುರುತಿಸಲ್ಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದ ’ಗಂಗಾಧರ ಭದಾನಿ’ಯವರು ರಾಂಚಿಯವರಾಗಿದ್ದು ಈ ವರ್ಷ ಜನವರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಧನರಾಗಿದ್ದರು. ಅವರ ಗೌರವಾರ್ಥವಾಗಿ ರಾಂಚಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಆಯೋಜನೆಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಎರಡನೆಯದಾಗಿ ಭಾರತದ ಪೂರ್ವಭಾಗದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವ ಉದ್ದೇಶವೂ ಇತ್ತು. ಜೂನ್ ೨೮ನೇ ತಾರೀಖು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಂದ ಹೊರಟು ರಾಂಚಿಯನ್ನು ತಲುಪಿದೆವು. ವಿಮಾನ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣದಿಂದ ಎಂಟು ಕಿಮೀ ದೂರದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ’ಲೇ ಲ್ಯಾಕ್ ಸರೋವರ್ ಪೋರ್ಟಿಕೊ’ ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ತಲುಪಿದೆವು. ತಮಿಳು, ತೆಲುಗು, ಮಲಯಾಳಂ, ಬೆಂಗಾಳಿ, ಹಿಂದಿ, ಮರಾಠಿ, ಪಂಜಾಬಿ, ಗುಜರಾತಿ, ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ, ಒಡಿಯಾ, ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರೂ ಸೇರಿ ಒಟ್ಟು ಮೂವತ್ತು ಜನ ಬಂದಿದ್ದರು. ಅಂದು ಸಂಜೆ ಪೂರ್ವಭಾವಿ ಸೆಶನ್ ಇತ್ತು. ಪರಸ್ಪರ ಪರಿಚಯ, ತರಬೇತಿ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ, ಕಾರ್ಯಸೂಚಿ ಇತ್ಯಾದಿಗಳನ್ನು ಕೊಡಲಾಯಿತು.

ಮಾರನೆಯ ದಿನ ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ ಹತ್ತು ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಶುರುವಾದ ತರಬೇತಿಯು ನಡುವಿನ ಚಹಾ ವಿರಾಮ ಮತ್ತು ಊಟದ ವಿರಾಮದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಸಂಜೆಯವರೆಗೂ ನಡೆಯಿತು. ವಿಕಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ಹಲವು ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ, ಟೂಲ್ ಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸಿಕೊಡಲಾಯಿತು. ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ಭಾಷೆಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರು ಅವರ ಭಾಷೆಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ, ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ, ಅನುಭವಗಳನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಂಡರು. ಹಿರಿಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರಾಗಿದ್ದ ಗಂಗಾಧರ ಬದಾನಿಯವರ ಕುಟುಂಬವನ್ನು ಸಂಜೆ ಆಹ್ವಾನಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಭದಾನಿಯವರ ಸ್ಮರಣಾರ್ಥವಾಗಿ ಒಂದು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಸಭೆ ನಡೆಸಿ ಗೌರವ ಸಲ್ಲಿಸಲಾಯಿತು. ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರು ಮಾಡಿದ ಎಡಿಟ್ ಎಣಿಕೆ ಎರಡೂವರೆ ಲಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೂ ಮೀರಿದ್ದು ಆ ವಯಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರು ಸಲ್ಲಿಸಿದ ಕಾಣಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಅನೇಕ ಕಿರಿಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರಿಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹಗಳನ್ನು ನೆನಪಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಯಿತು.

ಮೊದಲ ದಿನದ ತರಬೇತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಮಯದ ಅಭಾವದಿಂದ ಎರಡ್ಮೂರು ವಿಷಯಗಳು ಬಿಟ್ಟುಹೋದದ್ದರಿಂದ ಅನಂತರದ ದಿನ ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ ಒಂಬತ್ತು ಗಂಟೆಗೇ ಸೇರಿದೆವು. ಅಂದು ಕೂಡ ಹಲವು ತರಬೇತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೆಶನ್ ಗಳು ನಡೆದವು. ಆಯಾ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರು ತಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆಯ ವಿಕಿಗಾಗಿ ಮುಂದೆ ಯಾವ ರೀತಿ ಯೋಜನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಹಮ್ಮಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಬಯಸುತ್ತಾರೆ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟ್ ಮಾಡಲು ಹೇಳಲಾಯಿತು. ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಹಾಕಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದಾದ ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಾವು ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟ್ ಮಾಡಿದೆವು. ಕೆಲವು hands on activityಗಳು ನಡೆದವು.

ಕೊನೆಯ ದಿನದ ತರಬೇತಿ ಅರ್ಧ ದಿನಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸೀಮಿತವಾಗಿದ್ದು ಒಂದೆರಡು ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಹಂಚಿಕೆ ನಡೆಯಿತು. ಎರಡು ದಿನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ ತರಬೇತಿಯ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮೆಲುಕು, ಬೇಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಮಾಹಿತಿ, ಮುಂದಿನ ಯೋಜನೆಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾತುಕತೆ, ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ, ಹಿನ್ನುಣಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಯಿತು.

ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ರಾಜ್ಯಗಳಿಂದ ಬಂದಿದ್ದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರು ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನ ವಾಪಸ್ ಹೊರಟರು. ನಾವು ಕೂಡ ಎರಡು ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಹೊರಟು ನಾಲ್ಕೂ ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತರ ವಿಮಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂಜೆ ಆರೂವರೆ ವೇಳೆಗೆ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ವಿಮಾನ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ ತಲುಪಿದೆವು. ಭಾರತದ ವಿವಿಧ ಭಾಗಗಳ, ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ಭಾಷೆಗಳ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯರೊಡನೆ ಸಂವಾದ, ಹಲವು ಹೊಸ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು, ಕಲಿತುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು, ತೆಲುಗು, ತಮಿಳಿನ ಹಿರಿಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರ ಭೇಟಿಗಳು ಒಟ್ಟಾರೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಅನುಭವ, ಖುಷಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿತು. ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಯೋಜನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಲು ಈ ತರಬೇತಿ ಶಿಬಿರವು ಉತ್ಸಾಹ ತುಂಬಿತು.

Link to Vikas Hegde's blogpost

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cb5cbfc95cbfcaaca1cbfcaf-ca4cb0cacca4cbf-ce8ce6ce7cee-cb0cbec82c9acbf-1

June 2018 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-08-11T02:52:10Z

CIS newsletter for the month of June 2018.

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights

Balbharati – the Maharashtra state bureau of textbook production and curriculum research – has issued a copyright policy that forces all publishers, digital educational-content creators, and coaching classes to obtain expensive licenses for developing material directly or indirectly relating to Balbharati’s content. This is an alarming development for Indian students reported Anubha Sinha in an article in the Asian Times on June 20, 2018.
CIS-A2K has started dialogue with the publishers for the last 6 months regarding FOSS, Open knowledge and content donation to Wikimedia Projects. As a result Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Prakashak Sangh, an apex body of publishers at all India level invited us for a orientation session at their annual gathering in Pune.
Submitted comments on the Draft Digital Communications Policy which was released to the public by the Department of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Communications on 1st May 2018 for comments and views.
Submitted comments on the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations which was released to the public by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 29th May 2018 for comments and views.
The Task Force on Artificial Intelligence was established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to leverage AI for economic benefits, and provide policy recommendations on the deployment of AI for India. Elonnai Hickok, Shweta Mohandas and Swaraj Paul Barooah wrote a blog entry on the artificial intelligence task force. The blog entry was edited by Swagam Dasgupta.
The world’s oldest networked infrastructure, money, is increasingly dematerialising and fusing with the world’s latest networked infrastructure, the Internet, wrote Sunil Abraham in an article published in the Economic Times on June 10, 2018.
An essay by P.P. Sneha was published in Summer Hill, a journal published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study. In the essay, edited by Dr. Bindu Menon, Sneha draws upon excerpts from a study on the field of digital humanities and related practices in India, to outline the diverse contexts of humanities practice with the advent of the digital and explore the developing discourse around digital humanities in the Indian context.
The inaugural conference of the Digital Humanities Alliance of India (DHAI) was held at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore on June 1-2, 2018. P.P. Sneha was a keynote speaker at the event. Her talk was titled ‘New Contexts and Sites of Humanities Practice in the Digital’.

Articles

Why NPCI and Facebook need urgent regulatory attention (Sunil Abraham; Economic Times; June 10, 2018).
Digital Native: Cause an Effect (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; June 17, 2018).
Maharashtra's Copyright Policy Makes Education Unaffordable (Anubha Sinha; Asia Times; June 20, 2018).

CIS in the News

Allow admins to add users to online group chats only after permission: SFLC.in (Times of India; June 1, 2018).
EC disables easy access to electoral data across states (Akshatha M; Economic Times; June 5, 2018).
Draft bill proposes Rs 1 crore fine, 3 year jail for data privacy violation (Vidhi Choudhury; Hindustan Times; June 8, 2018).
Citizens’ Draft Privacy Bill Seeks To Revolutionise Data Collection, Storage In India (Arpan Chaturvedi; Bloomberg Quint; June 9, 2018).
Police to counter fake news on WhatsApp (Nilesh Christopher and Naveen Menezes; Times of India; June 14, 2018).
'Full belief in fake texts shows cops not trusted' (Times of India; June 18, 2018).
Anushka finds support for her anti-litter tirade (Nina C. George; Deccan Herald; June 19, 2018).
Jindal varsity's international affairs students shine in job market (Economic Times; June 19, 2018).
Data Privacy: Footprints on the Web (Sujit Bhar; IndiaLegal; June 21, 2018).
Death By WhatsApp (News18.com, June 25, 2018).
Tech transformation: how agriculture is being redefined through digital innovation and startups (Your Story; June 29, 2018).

Access to Knowledge

Access to Knowledge (A2K) is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. Our A2K program comprises 2 projects: Pervasive Technologies done under a grant from International Development Research Centre examining interplay between cost-effective pervasive technologies and intellectual property and encouraging development of such technologies for social good, and Wikipedia under a grant from Wikimedia Foundation to enable the growth of Indic language communities and cultivate new editors in different Indian languages.

Wikipedia

Event Organized

Marathi Publishers' orientation session on FOSS,Open knowledge & Wikimedia Projects (Co-organized by Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Prakashak Sangh and CIS-A2K; Maratha Chamber of Commerce, Tilak Road, Pune; June 17, 2018).

Internet Governance

The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society has defined internet governance as the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles of shared principles, norms, rules, decision making procedures and programs that shape the evolution and use of the internet. CIS is engaged in 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.

Privacy

Blog Entries

NITI Aayog Discussion Paper: An aspirational step towards India’s AI policy (Sunil Abraham, Elonnai Hickok, Amber Sinha, Swaraj Barooah, Shweta Mohandas, Pranav M Bidare, Swagam Dasgupta, Vishnu Ramachandran and Senthil Kumar; June 13, 2018).
The AI Task Force Report - The first steps towards India’s AI framework (Authored by Elonnai Hickok, Shweta Mohandas and Swaraj Paul Barooah and Edited by Swagam Dasgupta; June 27, 2018).

Submissions

Comments on the Draft National Policy on Official Statistics (Gurshabad Grover and Sandeep Kumar; June 7, 2018).
Comments on the Draft Digital Communications Policy (Anubha Sinha, Gurshabad Grover and Swaraj Barooah; June 14, 2018).

Participation in Event

Is Privacy Obsolete? (Organized by TERI; Bangalore; June 22, 2018). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist.

Free Speech & Expression

Blog Entry

Network Disruptions Report by Global Network Initiative (Akriti Bopanna; June 12, 2018).

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:

Submission

Comments on the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (Sandeep Kumar, Torsha Sarkar, Swaraj Barooah, and Gurshabad Grover; June 22, 2018).

Researchers at Work

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:

Participation in Event

Digital Humanities Alliance of India - Inagural Conference 2018 (Co-organized by IIM and IIT, Indore with support from CIS; IIM, Indore; June 1 - 2, 2018). P.P. Sneha was a speaker and gave the keynote address.

Essay

New Contexts and Sites of Humanities Practice in the Digital (Paper) (P.P. Sneha; June 25, 2018).

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.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cis_india
Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
Facebook - Access to Knowledge: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
E-Mail - Researchers at Work: raw@cis-india.org
List - Researchers at Work: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers

► 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/june-2018-newsletter

Maharashtra's Copyright Policy Makes Education Unaffordable

sinha — 2018-06-26T14:22:30Z

In an alarming development for Indian students, Balbharati – the Maharashtra state bureau of textbook production and curriculum research – has issued a copyright policy that forces all publishers, digital educational-content creators, and coaching classes to obtain expensive licenses for developing material directly or indirectly relating to Balbharati’s content.

The article was published in Asia Times on June 20, 2018.

The stated object of the policy is to prevent commercialization of Balbharati’s physical and digital material.

Balbharati is responsible for setting curriculum and content for Classes 1-10, which is followed by Maharashtra state board schools. It is estimated that that around 85,000 schools in Maharashtra follow Balbharati’s prescribed content and syllabus, and the policy is set to affect students’ access to affordable supplementary material in state board schools, especially – most of which belong to the vernacular-rural section of society.

The government faced a backlash from various groups after the policy was released last week.

Parents have expressed serious concerns about the impending increase in the prices of educational material; publisher groups have already declared that the burden will be passed on to students. Some booksellers have stopped selling material altogether until the issue is resolved.

Digital and print publishers, booksellers and coaching classes are the ones directly affected, apart from the students, some of whom have lodged appeals with the state education minister, Vinod Tawde, to roll back the policy. Faced with the ire of multiple groups, the state government released a revised policy with a new license-fee structure. The new structure is based on “Balbharati Specific Turnover” slabs (defined as turnover of an entity from Balbharati related content), which depends on the nature of content produced – physical, digital, or tuition classes content.

A license is required of any person involved in the business of developing educational material such as guides, reference books, questions or tests, chapter summaries, model practice question papers, interactive digital content and software, with fees chargeable on a per subject, per medium, per grade basis.

The revisions to the policy only allow for a reduction in licensing fees, and it is likely that the government is still in ignorance of serious legal defects in it. Drafted with support from global consulting firm KPMG, the policy uses copyright as an instrument to justify the collection of license fees by making two fallacious assumptions: first, that all material produced by Balbharati is copyrightable; and second, that any dealing in Balbharati’s material, directly or indirectly, amounts to copyright infringement.

For example, the English Kumarbharati for Class 10 uses Tagore’s historic poem “Where the mind is held without fear…,” which is a work in the public domain now, and then proceeds to provide certain academic exercises for the reader.

Similarly, for science and mathematics syllabi, where basic facts and fundamental principles are provided and explained, is the Maharashtra government trying to establish copyright over such material, implying that this is creative material that has been developed by Balbharati’s staff?

Much of the content in Balbharati books deals with subjects that have been known to mankind for hundreds of years. Copyright law protects only expression of ideas, and not the ideas per se. Any supplementary material developed by another publisher over Balbharati’s syllabi should not amount to infringement, provided it is not a substantial copy-paste of Balbharati’s own expression in the books – and this is a conservative view of the scenario.

Indian copyright law

In fact, the Indian Supreme Court in the Eastern Book Company vs Modak (2008) case held that, “to establish copyright, the creativity standard applied is not that something must be novel or non-obvious, but some amount of creativity in the work to claim a copyright is required. Selection and arrangement can be viewed as typical and at best result of the labor, skill and investment of capital lacking even minimal creativity, which does not as a whole display sufficient originality so as to amount to an original work of the author.

“To claim copyright, there must be some substantive variation and not just a trivial variation, not the variation of the type where limited ways of expression available and author selects one of them.”

Thus the policy fails to appreciate fundamental developments in Indian law and places a barrier to creation of all kinds of educational material – without distinguishing between various kinds of supplementary material and showing precisely as to what nature and quantum of use as per Balbharati would qualify as infringing.

Interestingly, the previous version of the policy contained an FAQ (frequently asked questions) section that elaborated principles of copyright law. However, this section has been removed in the latest version. In any case, the FAQs presented incomplete explanations of Indian copyright jurisprudence, making references to outdated case law.

As noted earlier, publishers and digital content development companies are already suffering from the ramifications. In places where the quality of classroom teaching and learning is sub-par, it is unacceptable to deprive students access to affordable guides, reference books, digital content, and so on by unreasonably deeming indirect usage of Balbharati’s content as infringing activity.

Given India’s socio-economic conditions, it would be fatal to implement policies that seek to create a self-serving market of educational licenses for the state, very much at the expense of ensuring quality and affordable education. At the very least, the Maharashtra government should have conducted a proper public-consultation exercise before arriving at such a policy that stands to affect students and other stakeholders in the education system adversely.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/asia-times-june-20-anubha-sinha-maharastras-copyright-policy-makes-education-unaffordable

May 2018 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-06-12T14:03:24Z

CIS newsletter for the month of May 2018.

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) has published a collection of stories of the impact of internet shutdowns on people's lives in the country. The stories were provided by 101 Reporters. The project was funded by Facebook and MacArthur Foundation. The report edited by Debasmita Haldar, Ambika Tandon and Swaraj Barooah can be accessed here. Anubha Sinha on behalf of CIS participated in the 36th Session of WIPO SCCR at Geneva from May 28 to June 1, 2018. CIS made statements on Draft Action Plan for Educational and Research Institutions and Persons with Other Disabilities, Draft Action Plan for Libraries, Archives and Museums, Limitations and Exceptions Agenda, and Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. CIS was one among the 14 NGOs which circulated a letter that raised concerns about the draft Broadcasting Treaty. India's Department of Telecommunications released a draft new telecom policy, titled ‘Draft National Digital Communications Policy 2018’. Anubha Sinha wrote an analysis on this in the Wire on May 6, 2018. Singapore based Asian Business Law Institute published a compendium on “Regulation of cross-border transfer of personal data in Asia”. The compendium contains 14 detailed reports. The chapter titled Jurisdictional Report India was authored by Amber Sinha and Elonnai Hickok. The purpose of privacy notices and choice mechanisms is to notify users of the data practices of a system, so they can make informed privacy decisions, wrote Saumyaa Naidu in a blog post which was edited by Elonnai Hickok. Divij Joshi wrote a report that assesses the compliance of the Indian intermediary liability framework with the Manila Principles on Intermediary Liability, and recommends substantive legislative changes to bring the legal framework in line with the Manila Principles. The report was edited by Elonnai Hickok and Swaraj Barooah. Data is potentially a toxic asset, if it is not collected, processed, secured and shared in the appropriate way wrote Amber Sinha in an article published in the Economic & Political Weekly. Saman Goudarzi, Elonnai Hickok and Amber Sinha wrote a report titled AI in the Banking and Finance Industry in India which seeks to map the present state of use of AI in the banking and financial sector in India. The report was edited by Shyam Ponappa. Mapping was done by Shweta Mohandas. Pranav M Bidare, Sidharth Ray, and Aayush Rathi provided research assistance in preparing this report. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam focuses on updating the list of Indian citizens in the state. Khetrimayum Monish Singh and Nazifa Ahmed wrote a research paper that has provided a discourse analysis of media content and user opinions on Facebook, and media responses on the NRC official website. All posts related to this study can be found here.

Highlights

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) has published a collection of stories of the impact of internet shutdowns on people's lives in the country. The stories were provided by 101 Reporters. The project was funded by Facebook and MacArthur Foundation. The report edited by Debasmita Haldar, Ambika Tandon and Swaraj Barooah can be accessed here.
Anubha Sinha on behalf of CIS participated in the 36th Session of WIPO SCCR at Geneva from May 28 to June 1, 2018. CIS made statements on Draft Action Plan for Educational and Research Institutions and Persons with Other Disabilities, Draft Action Plan for Libraries, Archives and Museums, Limitations and Exceptions Agenda, and Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. CIS was one among the 14 NGOs which circulated a letter that raised concerns about the draft Broadcasting Treaty.
India's Department of Telecommunications released a draft new telecom policy, titled ‘Draft National Digital Communications Policy 2018’. Anubha Sinha wrote an analysis on this in the Wire on May 6, 2018.
Singapore based Asian Business Law Institute published a compendium on “Regulation of cross-border transfer of personal data in Asia”. The compendium contains 14 detailed reports. The chapter titled Jurisdictional Report India was authored by Amber Sinha and Elonnai Hickok.
The purpose of privacy notices and choice mechanisms is to notify users of the data practices of a system, so they can make informed privacy decisions, wrote Saumyaa Naidu in a blog post which was edited by Elonnai Hickok.
Divij Joshi wrote a report that assesses the compliance of the Indian intermediary liability framework with the Manila Principles on Intermediary Liability, and recommends substantive legislative changes to bring the legal framework in line with the Manila Principles. The report was edited by Elonnai Hickok and Swaraj Barooah.
Data is potentially a toxic asset, if it is not collected, processed, secured and shared in the appropriate way wrote Amber Sinha in an article published in the Economic & Political Weekly.
Saman Goudarzi, Elonnai Hickok and Amber Sinha wrote a report titled AI in the Banking and Finance Industry in India which seeks to map the present state of use of AI in the banking and financial sector in India. The report was edited by Shyam Ponappa. Mapping was done by Shweta Mohandas. Pranav M Bidare, Sidharth Ray, and Aayush Rathi provided research assistance in preparing this report.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam focuses on updating the list of Indian citizens in the state. Khetrimayum Monish Singh and Nazifa Ahmed wrote a research paper that has provided a discourse analysis of media content and user opinions on Facebook, and media responses on the NRC official website. All posts related to this study can be found here.

Articles:

The Huawei pointer (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard and Organizing India Blogspot; May 3, 2018).

India's Draft Telecom Policy Needs to Bridge the Gap Between Intent and Execution (Anubha Sinha; Wire; May 6, 2018).
India's Data Protection Framework Will Need to Treat Privacy as a Social and Not Just an Individual Good (Amber Sinha; Economic & Political Weekly, Volume 53, Issue No. 18, 05 May, 2018).
Digital Native: Web of Wander (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; May 20, 2018).

CIS in the News:

India's National ID Project Brings Pain to Those it Aims to Help (Aayush Soni; Ozy.com; May 11, 2018).
Aadhaar Remains an Unending Security Nightmare for a Billion Indians (Karan Saini; Wire; May 11, 2018).
More errors in Aadhaar data in Andhra Pradesh than in voter database (U Sudhakar Reddy; Times of India; May 18, 2018).
Putting women human rights activists on the world map (Sarumathi K.; Hindu; May 19, 2018).
An open data ecosystem can boost India's GDP by $22 B and double farmer income (Sohini Mitter; Your Story; May 23, 2018).
Complying with Europe’s GDPR will be a “matter of survival” for Indian IT firms (Ananya Bhattacharya; Quartz India; May 24, 2018).
Don't blindly forward WhatsApp messages. You could be sued (Rajitha Menon and Surupasree Sarmmah; Deccan Herald; May 29, 2018).
Alexa’s recording leak in US ‘echoes’ privacy issues here (Mugdha Variyar; Economic Times; May 29, 2018).
Election Experiment Proves Facebook Just Doesn't Care About Fake News In India (Visvak; Huffington Post; May 30, 2018).
India Proposes Law to Give Indians Complete Control of their Digital Health Data (Madhur Singh; India Spend; May 31, 2018).
Patanjali's Kimbho swiftly retreats over security scare, ripped on Twitter (Alnoor Peermohamed and Manavi Kapur; Business Standard; May 31, 2018).

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Access to Knowledge
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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.

►Copyright and Patent

Blog Entries

CIS participated in the 36th SCCR held in Geneva from May 28 to June 1, 2018 and made the following statements:

Statement on the Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (Anubha Sinha; May 28, 2018).
NGOs circulate letter at WIPO SCCR/36 raising serious concerns about draft Broadcasting Treaty (Anubha Sinha; May 29, 2018).
Draft Action Plan for Educational and Research Institutions and Persons with Other Disabilities (Anubha Sinha; May 31, 2018).
Statement on the Draft Action Plan for Libraries, Archives and Museums (Anubha Sinha; May 31, 2018).
Statement on Limitations and Exceptions Agenda (Anubha Sinha; May 31, 2018).

Participation in Event

RightsCon Toronto 2018 (Organized by RightsCon; Beanfield Centre at Exhibition Place, Toronto; May 17, 2018). Maggie Huang, Amba Kak, Rohini Lakshané, Vidushi Marda, Elonnai Hickok and Anubha Sinha were among the speakers at the event. Amber Sinha remotely participated in a private meeting on 'Strategizing Civil Society Roles in the Artificial Intelligence Debate'. Anubha Sinha, Maggie Huang, Rohini Lakshané and Vidushi Marda presented their findings from the Pervasive Technologies project in a panel titled "Cheap and Chipper: IP in India's Affordable Smartphones". Prof Michael Geist moderated the session. Anubha Sinha and Vidushi Marda participated remotely. Elonnai Hickok participated in these sessions: IDRC cyber policy meeting; GNI board meeting; GNI learning session on MLATs; FOC-AN meeting; GNI session on Intermediary Liability.

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Internet Governance
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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.

►Privacy

Reports

Methods workshop on researching Future of Work in India (Natallia Khaniejo and Aayush Rathi; May 10, 2018).
AI in the Banking and Finance Industry in India (Saman Goudarzi, Elonnai Hickok and Amber Sinha; May 14, 2018)
Indian Intermediary Liability Regime: Compliance with the Manila Principles on Intermediary Liability (Divij Joshi; May 20, 2018). The report was edited by Elonnai Hickok and Swaraj Barooah.
Jurisdictional Report India (Compendium on Regulation of Cross-Border Transfers of Personal Data in Asia; Amber Sinha and Elonnai Hickok; May 31, 2018).

Blog Entry

Design Concerns in Creating Privacy Notices (Saumyaa Naidu; May 29, 2018). The blog post was edited by Elonnai Hickok.

Participation in Events

Meeting of Coalition for an Inclusive Approach on the Trafficking Bill (Organized by Alternative Law Forum; Bengaluru; May 3, 2018).
Fairness, Transparency and Accountable AI (Organized by DeepMind; London; May 10, 2018). Amber Sinha participated remotely in the inaugural meeting.
Rootconf 2018 (Organized by HasGeek; Bengaluru; May 11 - 12, 2018). Gurshabad Grover, Natallia Khaniejo and Aayush Rathi attended the event.
Inter Movements Open Forum: Trafficking Bill (Organized by Sangram, Naz Foundation, NNSW, Tarshi and VAMP; India International Centre, New Delhi; May 18, 2018).
IETF Indian Community Meetup: RFCs We Love (IoT edition) (Organized by Indian IETF Community; Zoomcar's office; Bengaluru; May 19, 2018). Gurshabad Grover and Sandeep Kumar attended 'RFCs We Love Meetup'.
Emerging Technologies: Issues & Way Forward (Organized by Technology Policy team at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; Bengaluru; May 23 - 24, 2018).
Privacy in the Digital Age: Addressing Common Challenges, Seizing Opportunities (Organized by DG Justice and Consumers and European Union; New Delhi; May 25, 2018).

►Free Speech and Expression

Report

Internet Shutdown Stories (Edited by Debasmita Haldar, Ambika Tandon and Swaraj Barooah; Foreword by Sunil Abraham; May 17, 2018). Case studies from the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Telangana, West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, and Uttar Pradesh have been highlighted in this compilation.

Blog Entry

DIDP Request #30 - Enquiry about the employee pay structure at ICANN (Paul Kurian and Akriti Bopanna; May 26, 2018).

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Telecom
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Articles

The Huawei pointer (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard and Organizing India Blogspot; May 3, 2018).
India's Draft Telecom Policy Needs to Bridge the Gap Between Intent and Execution (Anubha Sinha; Wire; May 6, 2018).

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Researchers at Work
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Draft Research Paper

Infrastructure as Digital Politics: Media Practices and the Assam NRC Citizen Identification Project (Khetrimayum Monish Singh and Nafiza Ahmed; May 15, 2018).

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About CIS
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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.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cis_india
Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
Facebook - Access to Knowledge: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
E-Mail - Researchers at Work: raw@cis-india.org
List - Researchers at Work: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers

► Support Us

► Request for Collaboration

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2018-newsletter-1

36th SCCR: CIS Statement on Draft Action Plan for Educational and Research Institutions and Persons with Other Disabilities

sinha — 2018-05-31T09:46:45Z

Anubha Sinha, attending the 36th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (“SCCR”) at Geneva from May 28, 2018 to June 1, 2018, made this statement on the Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations on behalf of CIS on Day 4, May 31.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I’m speaking on behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society, India.

We have concerns about the plan’s focus on MOOCs and distance learning initiatives. Although they are related to increasing access to education, these initiatives are hardly a substitute for classroom learning – and the primary objective of the treaty should be to improve such classroom teaching, especially for developing countries where ICT penetration remains quite low. Unless the plan also chooses to develop Open Educational Resources as a priority in connection with MOOCs and distance learning initiatives, we suggest that this item in the plan be re-examined in light of other more beneficial action items.

Thank you.

Note: Please find the Draft Action Plan here (SCCR/36/3).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/36th-sccr-cis-statement-on-draft-action-plan-for-educational-and-research-institutions-and-persons-with-other-disabilities

36th SCCR: CIS Statement on the Draft Action Plan for Libraries, Archives and Museums

sinha — 2018-05-31T09:47:15Z

Anubha Sinha, attending the 36th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (“SCCR”) at Geneva from May 28, 2018 to June 1, 2018, made this statement on the Draft Action Plan on advancing limitations and exceptions for libraries, archives and Museums on behalf of CIS on Day 3, May 30.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I’m speaking on behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society, India.

Very recently we concluded a qualitative study on archives in India to examine how limitations and exceptions help them in achieving their mission.

We found that the Indian Act goes to the extent of making an exception for preservation for libraries. To make up for unintended gaps in this clause, Indian archives and museums owing to overlapping functions with libraries use this exception within limits – which counts as an ‘implied’ application of the exception, as reported by the ex- registar of the Indian Copyright Office in 2010 to WIPO. Undeniably, an institutional approach has created unintended barriers for other institutions performing the exact same function.

The draft action plan adopts a similar institutional approach in its three different tracks for libraries, archives and museums. As many of the core functions of these institutions overlap, and indeed they may be an archive housed in a library or vice-a-versa, we must change our approach to focus on the functions and not the formal identification of such institutions.

Hence, I submit that the draft action plan be suitably amended to reflect a purposive approach to drafting this treaty, and not create artificial distinctions between institutions that do not reflect reality.

Thank you.

Note: Please find the Draft Action Plan here (SCCR/36/3).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/36th-sccr-cis-statement-on-the-draft-action-plan-for-libraries-archives-and-museums

36th SCCR: CIS Statement on Limitations and Exceptions Agenda

sinha — 2018-05-31T09:43:08Z

Anubha Sinha, attending the 36th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (“SCCR”) at Geneva from May 28, 2018 to June 1, 2018, made this statement on the Limitations and Exceptions agenda on behalf of CIS on Day 3, May 30.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I’m speaking on behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society, India.

As we move forward on this agenda, we believe that for a true balance to be realised, the rights of all users of copyrighted works will have to be treated on par with those of the rightholders for purposes of access to knowledge. We are disappointed with the state of the limitations and exceptions in the broadcast treaty, that made some progress yesterday (in terms of increasing rights).

Further, as we have submitted earlier, it is our belief that the present international legal framework does not sufficiently address the opportunities presented by new information and communication technologies. We reiterate the need for open ended exceptions and limitations in this area - which should also facilitate smooth cross border exchange of knowledge.

Thank you.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/36th-sccr-cis-statement-on-limitations-and-exceptions-agenda

NGOs circulate letter at WIPO SCCR/36 raising serious concerns about draft Broadcasting Treaty

sinha — 2018-05-29T10:42:48Z

At the 36th Meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), negotiations on the Broadcasting Treaty continue - this time with a sense of urgency to present results of the 20 year negotiations to the UN General Assembly, scheduled in September this year. There remain long-pending issues within the Treaty, which have largely been ignored or weakly acknowledged by the Committee. In view of the threats that this Treaty poses to Access to Knowledge and the mission of educators, archivists, researchers, libraries and creators, NGOs at WIPO (including CIS) have circulated the letter below.

Joint NGO letter on the proposed WIPO treaty on broadcasting

May 28, 2018

Dear Delegates to WIPO SCCR 36

We are concerned that negotiations on a broadcasting treaty have not clarified a number of important issues, nor addressed core concerns from civil society and copyright holders.

At the outset, we are supportive of measures to address the legitimate concerns of broadcasters as regards piracy of broadcast signals. We are looking forward to seeing appropriate measures to address such challenges, provided they are well defined and limited to solving those problems, and avoid unintended consequences to impede access to and use of works, or harm copyright holders.

Our primary concerns are the following:

Term of protection/post fixation.
Limitations and Exceptions.
Public Domain works or works freely licensed by creators.
Confusion over an ever-expanding definition of beneficiaries.
Streaming on demand.
Works originated on the Internet.
Role of large Internet companies in streaming video.
Non-discriminatory and reasonable licensing terms

Term of protection/post fixation

Chairman Daren Tang’s text (SCCR/35/12) proposes a 50 year term of protection for the rights, which is a proposal backed by some broadcast groups and countries supporting the broadcasters. [1] Clearly, this implies the broadcasters will obtain post fixation rights in works they did not create nor license. A 50 year term of protection makes a mockery of the notion that this is a signal based treaty or is only concerned with signal piracy, as it effectively extends the protection beyond the term of copyright, and is a recipe for disaster as regards orphan works (just as individual countries are in the process of trying to solve the orphan works problem). To protect against signal piracy, a short term of 24 hours would make more sense than 5 decades from the date of every broadcast.

Under no circumstances should post fixation rights apply to every mere re-transmission of a broadcast signal -- a policy that would in practice result in perpetual protection of the signal, and give broadcasters more durable protections than copyright holders.

Limitations and Exceptions

There have been a number of proposals as regard limitations and exceptions, but almost no debate in the SCCR has ensued on this crucial issue. The proposals for exceptions in the Chairman’s text are narrow, and give broadcasters more robust rights than copyright owners or performers themselves.

If the broadcasters’ right does not extend to post fixation rights, or has an extremely short term, the exceptions language may be less important. But since broadcasters are seeking rights that last for half a century, i.e. post fixation rights, the exceptions become extremely important.

For any treaty involving post fixation rights, the exceptions in the broadcast treaty should include both mandatory and permissive exceptions. Mandatory exceptions should include those in Berne (news of the day and quotation), as well as for education and training purposes, personal use and preservation and archiving. The agreement should also permit non-mandatory exceptions that address both specific uses and more general frameworks such as fair dealing or fair use. Compulsory licenses should not be prohibited. If the treaty creates a layer of rights for entities that do not create, own or license the underlying works, this layer should not be used to prevent legitimate reuses of the copyrighted works.

In no event should the exceptions for broadcasting rights be less enabling for users than the exceptions that apply to copyright.

Public Domain works or works freely licensed by creators

In no cases should the treaty give broadcasters post fixation rights in works that are in the public domain, or openly licensed.

Confusion over an ever-expanding definition of beneficiaries

There is confusion over who will be the beneficiaries of the treaty. The General Assembly mandate is to limit the treaty to broadcasting in the traditional sense (see page 57 of WIPO/GA/34/16), yet during the SCCR negotiations, BBC and several Spanish language broadcasters have pressed to include Internet streaming services, under the theory that WIPO would create special rights that television broadcasters would have, even when the context was delivered over the Internet, that other entities using the Internet would not have. This assumption needs to be examined critically, to ensure it is not a naive and unrealistic assumption that a right can be given to one set of businesses and denied to another doing the same thing. And, if the right ends up being given to everyone streaming anything on the Internet, how does this change the evaluation of the costs of managing the rights, and unintended consequences?

Streamed on demand

The BBC, the Spanish language broadcasters and some others have asked that the right extend not only to live broadcasts, but also to material later streamed on demand to individuals. If the treaty extends to materials streamed on demand to individuals, there is no longer a special case for broadcasters. Millions of entities and persons stream content on demand, without a special broadcaster right, often over platforms like YouTube. It’s absurd to create a special right for streaming works on demand over the Internet, just because the company doing the streaming is a broadcast company and the work was once broadcast.

Works originally streamed on the Internet

Even more expansive are the proposals by the same broadcasters to extend the broadcasters’ right to works originally streamed on the Internet, thereby eliminating any distinction between broadcasters and every other Internet user.

Role of large Internet companies in streaming video

While many delegates see this as a treaty that will benefit local broadcasters, that is likely only to be true in the short term. And even in the short term, the more ambitious versions of the treaty are also designed to create economics rights for large foreign corporations that “schedule the content” for cable and satellite channels, such as Disney, Vivendi, and Grupo Globo. In the longer run, the treaty appears to be creating a new legal regime that will create rights for the giant technology firms largely based in the United States, that are creating global platforms for video and sound recording content, including Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Google/YouTube Tv (https://tv.youTube.com/), Hulu tv (https://www.hulu.com/live-tv), Yahoo, Twitter, Sling TV, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/moviestv/), Spotify (Based in Sweden), Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Pandora, all companies that could qualify as broadcasters by owning a single broadcast station.[2]

The existing content on the YouTube platform is enormous and Google is hardly a struggling company, so it seems odd that WIPO is rushing to create a legal regime that appears to give Google even greater rights over works they never created or licensed that it already has.

Non-discriminatory and reasonable licensing terms

To the extent that a broadcast treaty creates rights of any kind that impact users outside of the robust limitations and exceptions we favor, member states should have the flexibility to require licensing on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, or remuneration rights regimes, as an alternative to exclusive rights,

Conclusion

The 2007 GA mandate asked the SCCR to consider “convening of a Diplomatic Conference only after agreement on objectives, specific scope and object of protection has been achieved.” The WIPO GA has asked the SCCR to “update the protection of broadcasting and cablecasting organizations in the traditional sense.” At the SCCR, the definition of “in the traditional sense” is now used less and less, and “future proofing” the protection more and more, without any real understanding of how a new WIPO treaty will upset the existing arranges and rights that copyright holders and users now enjoy. In particular, WIPO needs to discuss the role of giant largely U.S. based Internet platforms now delivering video or audio content, and how any new rights for companies that deliver third party owned content will redistribute income between right holders and platforms and between countries, and impede access to works.

Sincerely,

Centre for Internet and Society, India (CIS-India)

Civil Society Coalition (CSC)

COMMUNIA International Association on the Digital Public Domain

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL)

Fundación Karisma

Global Expert Network on Copyright User Rights

Innovarte

Instituto Proprietas

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)

Le Conseil international des Archives (CIA)/ International Council on Archives (ICA)

Public Knowledge (PK)

Third World Network (TWN)

[1] “The term of protection to be granted to broadcasting [or cablecasting] organizations under this Treaty shall last, at least until the end of a period of 50 years computed from the end of the year in which the programme-carrying signal was transmitted.”

[2] Christopher Harrison, Why Pandora bought an FM radio station, the Hill. June 11, 2013. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/304763-why-pandora-bought-an-fm-radio-station. Or be acquired by or merge with a broadcast or cable organization, such as Yahoo’s pending acquisition by Verizon.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ngos-circulate-letter-at-wipo-sccr-36-raising-serious-concerns-about-draft-broadcasting-treaty

36th SCCR: CIS Statement on the Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations

sinha — 2018-05-28T14:04:53Z

Thank you Mr. Chair

We would like to highlight that some of the existing alternatives to the text of the Broadcasting treaty have serious issues.

Some of the points that bear re-emphasizing are problems with watering down of limitations and exceptions, and the contemplation of a fifty year term of protection without any rationale or justifications.

If you look at the history of the Committee’s deliberations, the limitations and exceptions have been significantly diluted over the years. On the other hand, the ask for increased protections in terms of number of rights, scope and term has only increased.

Further, if the protection extends only to the signal and not to the programmes contained therein, it is not clear as to why a 50 year protection is needed for an ephemeral signal.

Reiterating the words of the Asia-Pacific Group - this matter requires proper balancing from a developmental perspective. I submit that in my opinion, it does not appear that we are anywhere close to achieving that.

Thank you.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/36th-sccr-cis-statement-on-the-proposed-treaty-for-the-protection-of-broadcasting-organizations

An open data ecosystem can boost India's GDP by $22 B and double farmer income

Admin — 2018-05-23T14:37:55Z

MeiTY says increased data transparency will drive growth and improve governance across key industry sectors in the time to come.

This was published in Your Story on May 22, 2018.

YES Bank in association with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released a study that says an ‘open data ecosystem’ can grow India’s GDP by $22 billion by 2020. It could impact critical sectors like agriculture and double farmer income by reducing wastage and system inefficiencies.

The report titled Open Government, Open Data – Re-imagining India observes that farmers’ income could be twice of what it is in less than five years from now. Universal Health coverage could be strengthened, and micro-loans could be disbursed to millions of MSMEs more effectively through a well-functioning open data ecosystem.

Empirical evidence shows that open data has aided agriculture world over. Combined with agricultural knowledge, remote sensing, and mapping, it helps create early warning systems for farmers. That enables them in “protecting crops from pests and extreme weather, increasing yields, monitoring water supplies, and anticipating changes brought on by climate change,” according to the World Bank.

While India was among the first countries in the world to set up an Open Government Data (OGD) platform that offered open and free access to data and information released by over 100 government departments, there have been loopholes in the project that has led to data being restricted in some cases. At present, OGD houses info-sets from 180,543 ministry resources and is presided over by a hundred-plus data officers.

YES Bank has recommended steps to eliminate the existing gaps and boost usage of OGD to improve governance across sectors. It has also said that emerging technologies like Blockchain, Machine Learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) would drive further efficiencies in the open data ecosystem, and lead to more tech-focused innovation.

One such innovation has been brought about by Silicon Valley agri startup, Harvesting, that recently launched its India operation. Harvesting uses remote sensing and geo-spatial imagery along with existing farmer data to monitor farmlands, assess them in real-time, and send out reports and analysis to all stakeholders, including farmers, agri lenders, rural banks, and so on.

Harvesting Founder-CEO Ruchit Garg told YourStory,

“There are over 500 million small farm-holders in emerging markets that feed 80 percent of the world. But there is a data asymmetry in the agricultural value chain. Most problems arise because of a massive data deficit. We started to look at how this could be solved by leveraging data and technology.”

Besides industries, the open data is available for citizen access too, and that is important.

Rana Kapoor, MD and CEO, Yes Bank, said,

“Data is collected from citizens for citizen welfare and should therefore be shared with them. Secondly, data like Government budget usage, welfare schemes and subsidies increases transparency, thereby building greater trust.”

YES Bank also recommends more public-private partnerships (PPP) for open data to be fully utilised. It proposes the formation of an Open Data Council comprising representatives from private and public sectors as well as technology service providers. The council would be chaired by MeitY and will work towards the identification of ‘priority sectors’ which require data digitisation.

But, merely having large amounts of open data sets is not enough. The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) sounds a word of caution.

In a separate report titled Open Government Data Study: India, the CIS states,

“To ensure the relevance of open government data, mechanisms have to be put in place to take its benefits to ordinary people and to marginalised communities. Simply putting up raw data will not suffice.”

The report notes that a richer open data ecosystem can be created by harnessing records and information from rural internet kiosks, community e-centres, e-healthcare, geographic information systems (GISs), dairy sector applications, teacher training programmes, online agricultural systems, wireless local loop solutions, databases of rural innovations, land property registrations, women and children’s services, and more.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/your-story-sohini-mitter-may-22-2-018-open-data-ecosystem-can-boost-indias-gdp-22-b-double-farmer-income

Putting women human rights activists on the world map

Admin — 2018-05-20T14:09:17Z

Birubala Rabha may be a household name in Assam, but her crusade against the practice of witch-hunting in her State has not got the attention it deserves from the nation or the world. Barring a handful of articles in print and online publications, little has been written about her fight that spans over two decades. There is no mention of her on Wikipedia.

The article by Sarumathi K. was published in the Hindu on May 19, 2018.

Like Ms. Rabha, India has seen many women human rights activists who have taken up cudgels on behalf of the marginalised and oppressed, but their stories have remained mostly muted. “Sadly women are marginalised even in the online space. There is no mention of these brave women in the more than five-and-a-half million English entries on the Wikipedia website. In fact, less than 20% of the biographies on Wikipedia are dedicated to women, with few devoted to the important work of human rights defenders, and even fewer to women human rights defenders,” said Leah Verghese, senior campaigner and researcher, Amnesty International India.

To take stories of such women to the world, Amnesty International, Bengaluru, is working in collaboration with Wikimedia Foundation to put out profiles of women human rights defenders in the country on Wikipedia. The technical support is being extended by Centre for Internet and Society. “A few women have a brief profile; we will be updating them. For those who have none, we will create new ones,” said Ms. Verghese.

The project, called Brave: EDIT, will take shape with the help of volunteers, mostly college students from Bengaluru, who will compile and upload profiles of women human rights defenders such as Tongam Rina, Jagmati Sangwan, Manjula Pradeep, Aruna Sanghapali, Pavitri Manji and Birubala Rabha, among others. This project is being simultaneously executed in 20 other countries.

“We have created a list of 24 such women activists who have worked in the field of human rights in India. Though the list was much longer, there are some Wikipedia criteria, including notability and verifiability of the people being written about, which led us to bring the number down to 24,” said Ms. Verghese.

The volunteers have been working on the project on weekends and the profiles are likely to be available on Wikipedia in a week.

Manuja Pradeep, Dalit human rights activist from Gujarat and executive director of Navsarjan Trust, who is on the list of women being profiled, said, “The visibility on the Internet is very important for activists, especially women activists. Most of us have spent over two decades on the ground, working for the marginalised community and this entry in Wikipedia is a big recognition for our work.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/hindu-sarumathi-k-may-19-2018-putting-women-human-rights-activists-on-the-world-map