Centre for Internet and Society

Workshop on Declaration on Patents Protection: Regulatory Sovereignty under TRIPS

praskrishna — 2016-08-03T15:14:12Z

To discuss the focus areas of the Patent Declaration with key stakeholders in India, the Inter-University Centre for IPR Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development organized a workshop at Conference Hall of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi on July 12 and 13, 2016. Sunil Abraham was a speaker.

The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, with the active participation of 40 international patent scholars from 25 countries, has drafted the “Declaration on Patents Protection: Regulatory Sovereignty under TRIPS” to clarify the regulatory options available for WTO members while they implement their obligations under TRIPS Agreement. The Declaration is an attempt to conceptualize the relationship between innovation,patent and competition and to explore the possibilities under the TRIPS agreement for WTO members to develop patent laws that suit their domestic imperatives of socio-economic development. By analyzing the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, the Declaration attempts to identify flexibilities member states have when interpreting these provisions in their national legislation.

The text contains 12 sections that take a detailed look at the options relating to subject matter, scope of protection, exhaustion, exceptions to the scope of protection, government use, undisclosed information, enforcement, transit and criminal measures. This document assumes much importance in the content where countries are more and more bound by regional and bilateral free trade agreements, which include TRIPS-plus provisions.

The Declaration was published to mark the 20th anniversary of the enforcement of the TRIPS Agreement. A large number of scholars have already signed on to this Declaration. After the publication of the Declaration, the Max Planck Institute has been taking steps to launch this in different parts of the world by engaging different stakeholders such us academics, executives, judges, lawyers, industry representatives and civil society members.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/workshop-on-declaration-on-patents-protection-regulatory-sovereignty-under-trips

Edit-a-thon at DSERT Bengaluru to improve Science-related articles in Kannada Wikipedia

Ananth Subray — 2016-08-16T08:31:50Z

We have been working with the Department of State Educational Research and Training of Karnataka (DSERT), a Government of Karnataka-run research and training institution headquartered in Bengaluru. With the hope of expanding the reach of Science-related content in Kannada Wikipedia, we organised an edit-a-thon spanning over three days from the 11th January through the 13th.

This edit-a-thon was part of many ongoing outreach programmes at DSERT and had engagement with faculty members from several schools and colleges in Karnataka, and help them contribute to the Science-related articles in Kannada Wikipedia. The edit-a-thon was organised by the Centre for Internet and Society’s Access to Knowledge programme and 12 educators participated in the programme. In total, 53 articles were created/improved during these three days. With six female educator-editors actively participating in this event, there was a fair balance in the gender demography. More details about the event can be read in the event page here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/edit-a-thon-at-dsert-bengaluru-to-improve-science-related-articles-in-kannada-wikipedia

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିଅଭିଧାନରେ ଏକ ଲକ୍ଷ ଶବ୍ଦ

praskrishna — 2016-07-09T08:17:07Z

A news article on Odia Wiktionary's 11th anniversary that got published in Odia-language daily Sambad on June 18.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/sambad-article-on-odia-wiktionary

The Digital Oxygen for Odia Language

praskrishna — 2016-07-09T07:52:18Z

The article was published in My City Links on July 4, 2016.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/my-city-links-july-4-2016-digital-oxygen-for-odia-language

୧୧ ବର୍ଷରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିଅଭିଧାନ, ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇଛି ଲକ୍ଷେରୁ ଅଧିକ ଶବ୍ଦ

praskrishna — 2016-07-09T07:38:46Z

Odia Wikisource turned 11 on June 16. A news article was published about the project and the contributor community in Odia-language daily Prameya on June 17.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/prameya-june-17-2016-article-on-odia-wikipedia

Sub$-100 Phones: Browser Compatibility Tests

rohini — 2017-02-16T16:47:02Z

This post documents the results of browser compatibility tests conducted on six out of eight specimen mobile phones being studied under the Pervasive Technologies project. These phones are Internet-enabled and cost the equivalent of USD 100 or less in India. Rohini Lakshané and CIS volunteer Dhananjay Balan carried out the tests. Intern Shreshth Wadhwa provided assistance.

Names and descriptions of mobile phones under study: Annexure 1
How the phones under study were chosen: Section 3.2: Criteria for choosing the mobile phones

Research Question:

What technical standards are browsers pre-installed in the eight test phones compatible with?

This question partially answers research question #2 in Methodology: Patent Landscaping in the Indian Mobile Device Market, that is, what patents pertain to [technical] capabilities commonly found in networked mobile devices sold in India for USD 100 or less?

Method:

We conducted tests on all browsers pre-installed, that is, installed by the manufacturer, on six mobile phones to understand their extent of compliance with technical standards for the web. All browsers were tuned to their default settings and no plugins or extensions were installed in them. The tests could not be run on two phones for reasons stated in "Limitations".

For Android v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and higher versions, we set up a local host and automated all the tests by using a script. The local host was set up to expose sample HTTP endpoints. We tested all browsers through this server.

A Shell script was used to acquire screenshots of the results of the tests:
#!/bin/bash

adb shell screencap -p $1
adb pull $1

We collected screenshots of devices with Android versions below v4.0 by capturing the framebuffer since the shell command was introduced in v4.0.

Script: Github - https://gist.github.com/dbalan/e58f51b713bfd6d711fd02061e27ca90 or Download as .zip.

Android version numbers, where applicable, can be found in the “User Agent” row of the test results. We took photos of the screens for the rest of the devices.

Standards and capabilities tested:

Browser Network Support

HTTP/1.1
HTTP/2
SSL

Acid Tests

Acid tests 1, 2, and 3 (http://www.acidtests.org) were run on all phones.

Acid 1 tests for compliance to the CSS 1.0 standard; Acid 2 for HTML 4, CSS 2.1, PNG, and data URLs. Acid 3 for SVG, HTML, SMIL, Unicode, DOM, ECMAScript (Javascript), and CSS 3, among other parameters. Here is the full list of specifications tested by Acid 3: http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid3/x

Image Formats

JPEG
GIF
PNG

Results

View as .ods; View as .xls

Reading the results:

User-agent string

Example 1: Micromax Canvas Engage A091
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.4.2; Micromax A091 Build/A091) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/34.0.1847.114 Mobile Safari/537.36

Mozilla/5.0: Mozilla Firefox browser, version number
This is a user-agent token.

Linux: Linux kernel

Android 4.4.2: Operating system, version number

Micromax A091: Device ID

Build/A091: Build number.

This is a customised Android build by Micromax. (Build numbers of stock Android 4.4.2 are KOT49H and KVT49L).

AppleWebKit/537.36: WebKit, version number. WebKit by Apple is a component of a layout engine that renders web pages in browsers. It is based on KHTML.KHTML: HTML layout engine developed by KDE. Licensed LGPL.

like Gecko: A browser that behaves like a Gecko browser

Chrome/34.0.1847.114: Chrome for Android browser, version number

Mobile: Either mobile browser or mobile device, or both

Safari/537.36: Apple Safari browser, version number

Example 2: Opal Cyher-Shot NX900
User-agent: Dorado WAP-Browser/1.0.0/powerplay/2

Dorado WAP-Browser/1.0.0: User agent key, version

This is a WAP browser for mobile phones based on a Java engine.

Observations:

Browsers pre-installed on phones of Indian brands comply with all technical standards and capabilities tested for. All of these phones -- Intex, Lava and Micromax -- also run on the Android operating system. In the case of failed tests, the results are the same or similar for most mobile phones. For example, Opera Mini 7.5 on Intex Aqua N15 and on Micromax Canvas Engage A091 scored 97/100 in the Acid3 test. This is in line with the results released by Acid for Opera Mini 7.5 and also by the Browserscope project for profiling web browsers.

Awang, Yestel and Opal are brands from China or Hong Kong. The only pre-installed browser on Awang A808, an Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) phone, also cleared all tests but one. It scored 95/100 in the acid3 test, which is the case for the Firefox browser on most Gingerbread phones. The browsers on non-Android phones Yestel and Opal failed the tests for Acid1, Acid2, Acid3 and HTTP2, which indicates that while these phones are technically Internet-enabled, their users do not enjoy many of the benefits of the modern web.

Screenshots or photos of results:

View photos and screenshots
The name of the file is in the format: <name of browser>_<name of format/ acid test with number>.<file extension>
In the case of default browsers, <name of browser> appears as “android”.

Limitations:

Eight phones were under study. However, one of the phones (HiBro) did not contain a pre-installed browser. The only way to access the Internet on this phone was through pre-installed apps such as Facebook.

The operating system of Kechaoda K16, which was Java-based, did not yield to the script used for running the tests. It had one pre-installed WAP browser. Both these phones were excluded from the tests.

Screenshots could not be obtained for the results of tests of two phones, Opal Cyher-Shot NX900 and Yestel Q5S+. We took photos of their screens instead.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sub-100-phones-browser-compatibility-tests

Community celebrates birthday of Odia Wikipedia and Odia Wiktionary

subha — 2016-07-09T03:25:02Z

This June, Odia Wikipedia turned 14 and Odia Wiktionary turned 11. Odia Wikimedia community member Chinmayee Mishra, CIS-A2K Programme Associate Sailesh Patnaik and I co-authored this blog in the Wikimedia Blog. The blog chronicles several major activities of the community and features quotes from many old and new community members.

This was published on Wikimedia Blog on June 23, 2016.

With the Odia Wikipedia and its sister projects, a handful of dedicated volunteer editors are taking the Odia language to the world outside. The editor community that has recently celebrated Odia Wikipedia’s 14th anniversary in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India is collectively growing two more projects; Odia Wikisource, an online library that already has over 300 volumes of text, and Odia Wiktionary, an online dictionary that has over 100,000 entries. With these live projects and more projects in the pipeline, this community is bringing a digital revolution in Odia by sharing valuable content online and creating many language tools inside and outside the Wikimedia projects.

The Odia Wikipedia community had gathered in the city for a two-day long event to celebrate the anniversary. These two days were spent in intensive capacity building activities as the community is quite dispersed in many places in Odisha and outside, and are all volunteers. Odia Wikipedia, the flagship project was started as one of the first four Indian language Wikipedias along with Assamese, Malayalam and Punjabi Wikipedia in 2002, a year after the English Wikipedia was made live. The project was quite dormant for more than nine years and got revived by a group of editors in Bangalore during 2011. Then the project became much of a household name when more Odia speakers living in Odisha and outside joined contributed in writing and editing articles of several different subject areas. Odia Wikipedia is part of the 292 language Wikipedia family and a larger global family of hundreds of other free knowledge projects that are collectively known as Wikimedia projects. “Odia Wikipedia is officially available online at https://or.wikipedia.org and is free for anyone to create articles on notable topics, and edit and enhance those articles”, says Mrutyunjaya Kar, one of the administrators of the project. Aliva Sahoo, one of the active editors, shares, “being a student of Odia-language I was seeking information on musical instruments and could not find much. So I started translating from English and now it is one of the longest articles on Odia Wikipedia.” As part of the WikipediansSpeak project, we have tried to capture the voice of the community of Aliva and a few other contributors.

Subhashish Panigrahi (SP): How did the two-day long capacity building activity go? What was the outcome of the different sessions?
Jnanaranjan Sahu: This event was useful in bringing most of the active contributors under one roof as we are working online. This event helped us learn from each other and impart knowledge so that everyone can go back and use them.

SP: What are the problems you faced before coming to this event and how these sessions are going to help you in future?
Abha Pradhan: I was not sure of the copyright part while uploading images on Wikimedia Commons. A lot many pictures got deleted because of my own ignorance. Similarly, I got to learn a lot about linking multiple language entries using Wikidata. These two are my biggest lessons of all that I learned from the sessions taken by other experienced Wikipedians.

SP: What did you learn from these sessions?
Rajalaxmi Mishra: I got to learn about basics of Wikipedia editing, rules and guidelines, several technical aspects like using templates, uploading and adding images to articles and dealing with copyright issues on Wikipedia.

Subas Chandra Rout, one of the long time active Wikimedians has been the single most contributor to grow the medical science-related articles on Odia Wikipedia. Subas is the only Wikimedian who has translated all the medical science-related article from Wikimedia Medical Project run by the Wiki Project Med.

“We have several subject areas covered on Odia Wikipedia – from the elaborate rituals of Jagannatha temple to medical science. Interestingly, almost all the articles on medical science are written by a retired assistant professor Dr. Subas Chandra Rout and needless to say those articles are of really high quality”, explains Pritiranjan Tripathy, an editor who is based in the Indian city of Kolkata.

It was like a “Catch me if you can” challenge when I started to translate medical topics into the Odia language as part of Wiki Project Med on March 5, 2015 with my first article on African trypanosomiasis. There were more than 150 articles in the project. Gradually the number of topics in the project increased and so did my translated article on Odia Wikipedia. After completion of the 345th article (Marfan syndrome, on May 6, 2016), I looked at the Wikipedia project dashboard, and I saw that I was the only person to complete all the articles in the project among all the world’s contributors.

“The next big goal is to enhance the quality of the existing articles by adding more images, references from external sources and expanding small articles by adding more information”, said long-time contributor Shitikantha Dash. Shitikantha, who is also an administrator of Odia Wiktionary, says, “it is important that more people contribute to the Odia Wiktionary so that words of all times and all genres, especially the technical and loan words make their way to this free multilingual dictionary. A 10 day-long campaign is going to be organised to celebrate the 11th anniversary of Odia Wiktionary so that every Wikipedia editor adds at least one word. And we are also using these words to create a spell check that will be freely available for anyone to use”.

The contributor community that is collaboratively building these projects has been also creating many tools and technical resources like editor manuals. The script encoding converters that the community has built is helping a lot of online users to be able to share their writings on blogs and social media. “Before the onset of these converters, a vast majority of the people working in press and media were stuck with outdated encoding systems like Shreelipi and Akruti. Mrutyunjaya Kar, a long time contributor and administrator of two projects; Odia Wikipedia and Wikisource explains, “Odia Wikipedia is available at https://or.wikipedia.org and we encourage more people to join us in this movement.”

“This is a way to bring digital freedom for everyone and share the world’s knowledge in our own language.”

Chinmayee Mishra, Odia Wikimedian
Subhashish Panigrahi, Odia Wikimedian, and Programme Officer, Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K), Centre for Internet and Society
Sailesh Patnaik, Odia Wikimedian, and Programme Associate, Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K), Centre for Internet and Society

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-july-7-2016-community-celebrates-birthday-of-odia-wikipedia-and-odia-wiktionary

Open source effort gives indigenous language an official typeface

subha — 2016-08-03T02:00:36Z

Santali, an aboriginal South Asian language, has a brand new freely licensed font and set of cross-platform open source input tools on the way.

The article was published by Opensource.com on July 8, 2016.

More than 6.2 million people in four South Asian countries (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan) speak Santali. In India, it is one of the 22 major languages as mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Indian constitution. However, Santali is not the official language in regions where it is largely spoken, nor is it widely taught in schools. A large segment of the native speakers are socially and economically disadvantaged, which doesn't help either.

When it comes to mainstream media and the Internet, use of the native Santali alphabet, Ol Chiki, is limited. Right now there exists no single, fully Unicode-compliant website with Santali content. The Indian government's Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which is set up for the development of many aboriginal groups in the country, does not have its web portal in Santali or any other indigenous language. However, the government announced last year that it would make native Indian language input mandatory in mobile phones.

The need for a typeface, especially in a universal encoding standard like Unicode, became apparent during a three-month digitization project on Odia Wikisource, an Odia-language online library and sister project of Wikipedia. Many of the students who were part of the digitization project were native speakers. The students shared how they couldn't opt for education in their own language, thus affecting their knowledge and understanding of the written language.

The question whether digital activism can help revive indigenous languages was discussed at the 2015 Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Cebu City, Philippines. After the event, a pilot project was started within the Center for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge program to create a freely licensed font and input methods so that anyone can easily type in their native language.

The typeface family was designed by type designer Pooja Saxena and went through several rounds of review by language experts. However, the typeface is still one step away from reality. Because of this, two input methods will be made available along with the typeface; Sarjom Baha, a phonetic input method so that every common user can easily type the they pronounce the words, and InScript, a keyboard layout standard for Indian scripts. Even though the original plan was to create a editor community to contribute to the Santali Wikipedia and bring it live from Incubator, outputs will just be distributed for the users to use them.

The input method will also be available on Mediawiki so that the input methods will be available on Wikipedia and all its sister projects. Hopefully in the future, a group of contributors will use the tools, contribute, and bring the Santali Wikipedia live!

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/opensource.com-subhashish-panigrahi-july-8-2016-open-source-effort-gives-indigenous-language-an-official-typeface

ತರಬೇತಿ ಮಾಡಲು ತರಬೇತಿಗೊಂಡಾಗ.... CIS-A2K TTT 2016

Dhanalakshmi K.T. — 2016-08-03T01:19:18Z

Dhanalakshmi, a student from St Agnes College, Mangaluru, who was a participant of TTT 2016 has blogged her experience at Train-the-Trainer 2016 event organized by the Centre for Internet & Society earlier this year.

ದಿ ಸೆಂಟರ್ ಫಾರ್ ಇಂಟರ್‌ನೆಟ್ ಆಂಡ್ ಸೊಸೈಟಿಯವರು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಜೂನ್ ೧೫ ರಿಂದ ೧೭, ೨೦೧೬ ರ ತನಕ ತರಬೇತುದಾರರ ತರಬೇತಿ (Train The Trainer) ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ಹಮ್ಮಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದರು. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವ ಅವಕಾಶ ನನಗೆ ಲಭಿಸಿತ್ತು. ನನ್ನ ಅನುಭವವನ್ನು ಚಿಕ್ಕದಾಗಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ದಾಖಲಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ

ಗೂಡಿನಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ನನ್ನನ್ನು ಒಮ್ಮೆಯೇ ಹೊರ ಜಗತ್ತನ್ನು ಕಾಣಲು ಬಿಟ್ಟಂಥಹ ಅನುಭವ. ಖುಷಿ, ಭಯ, ಅಳುಕು, ಮುಜುಗರ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಒಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಬಂದಂತಿತ್ತು. ಹೊಸ ಜಾಗ ಹೊಸ ಜನ. ಎಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿದರೂ ಗುರುತಿಲ್ಲದವರು. ಅಬ್ಬಾ.... ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು...... ಎಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿದರು ಟ್ರಾಫಿಕ್. ನಾನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ತಲುಪುವಾಗ ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ 5.45 ಆ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆಯೇ ನನಗೆ ಟ್ರಾಫಿಕ್ ನ ಅನುಭವ ಶುರುವಾಯಿತು. ಸೇರಬೇಕಾದ ಜಾಗ ಸೇರುವಾಗ ಗಂಟೆ ಎಂಟಾಗಿತ್ತು.

ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದ ಹಿಂದಿನ ದಿನವೇ ಬರಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಸಂದೇಶವಿತ್ತು. ಅದರಂತೆಯೇ ನಾನು ಬೇಗ ಹೋದೆ. ಉಳಿಯುವ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಸಿದ್ಧವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಮೊದಲನೇಯ ದಿನಕ್ಕೆ ತಯಾರಾಗಲು ಅವಕಾಶ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿತು. ರಾತ್ರಿ ಊಟಕ್ಕೆ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗುವುದು ಎಂದಾಗ ಡಾ. ಪವನಜರು ಹಲವಾರು ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ಗಳ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟರು. ಅಂತೂ ರಾಜಧಾನಿಗೆ ಹೋಗೋಣವೆಂದು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸಿದೆ. ಆಹಾ... ಎಷ್ಟು ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿದೆ ಊಟ ಎನ್ನಿಸಿತು. ಅಲ್ಲಿಯವರು ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಬರಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡ ರೀತಿ ಬಹಳ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿತ್ತು. ತನ್ನ ಮನೆಯವರೇ ಬಂದಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂಬ ಭಾವನೆ ವ್ಯಕ್ತವಾಗುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಊಟದ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಅವರ ಅಥಿತಿ ಸತ್ಕಾರ, ಉಪಚಾರ ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ತೃಪ್ತಿಕೊಟ್ಟಿತು.

ಅಂತೂ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದ ಮೊದಲನೆ ದಿನ ಬಂತು. ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ 6 ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಎದ್ದುಬಿಟ್ಟೆ. ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್ ತಯಾರು ಮಾಡುವಂತೆ ಸೂಚಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಅದನ್ನು ಡಾ. ಪವನಜರ ಸಹಾಯದಿಂದ ಮೊದಲೇ ರೆಡಿಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆ. ತಿಂಡಿ ಮುಗಿಸಿ ಆಫೀಸ್ ಗೆ ಹೊರೆಟೆವು. ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ 9.30ಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಶುರುವಾಯಿತು. ಭಾರತದ ಹಲವು ಪ್ರದೇಶದಿಂದಲ್ಲದೇ ನೇಪಾಳ ಹಾಗು ಶ್ರೀಲಂಕಾದಿಂದ ಸಹಾ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವವರಿದ್ದರು. ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನು ಒಮ್ಮೆ ನೋಡಿದೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಹೊಸ ಮುಖಗಳು. ಆದರೂ ಕೆಲವರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕೇಳಿಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೆ. ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವು ತನ್ವೀರ್ ಹಸನ್ ಹಾಗು ಟೀಟೋ ಇವರಿಂದ ಹಮ್ಮಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವು ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥಿತವಾಗಿ ನಡೆಯಿತು.

ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವವರ ಪರಿಚಯ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಟ್ಟ ರೀತಿ ನನಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಸಂತೋಷಕೊಟ್ಟಿತು. ಸುಮಾರು 30 ಜನರು ನೆರೆದಿದ್ದರು. ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರನ್ನು ಗುಂಪುಗಳಾಗಿ ವಿಂಗಡಿಸಲಾಯಿತು. ನನ್ನ ಗುಂಪಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದವರು- ಪಂಜಾಬಿ ಹುಡುಗಿ ನಿತೇಶ್, ಶ್ರೀಲಂಕಾದ ಶಿವ, ಒರಿಸ್ಸಾದ ಶೈಲೇಶ್, ಕರ್ನಾಟದ ಗೋಪಾಲ್ ಕೃಷ್ಣ. ಇದೊಂದು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಅನುಭವ ಎನಿಸಿತು. ಅವರ ಅನುಭವ ಕೇಳುವಾಗ ನಾನು ಸಹ ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಇರಬೇಕು ಎಂದೆನಿಸಿತು. ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನನ್ನು ಮೊದಲ ಗುಂಪಿನಿಂದ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಲಾಯಿತು. ಗ್ಲೋಬಲ್ ಮಾಟ್ರಿಕ್ಸ್ ನ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು. ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನದ ಊಟ ಬಹಳ ಅದ್ಭುತವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಊಟದ ನಂತರ ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೆಲಸ ಮುಂದುವರೆಸಿದೆವು. ಸುಮಾರು 5 ಗಂಟೆಯವರೆಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನಡೆಯಿತು.

ಎರಡನೆ ದಿನವು ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್ ನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಶುರುವಾಯಿತು. ನಂತರ ಡಾ. ಪವನಜರ ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್, ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್ ಹೇಗಿರಬೇಕು ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು. ಉತ್ತಮ ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್ ಮಾಡಲು ಬೇಕಾದ ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಂಡೆ. ಅಭಿನವ್ ಹಾಗೂ ರೆಹಮಾನ್ ರವರು ಸರ್ವೆ ಇಮ್ಪಾಕ್ಟ್ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೇಳಿದರು. ಒಂದು ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನಡೆಸಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಂಚೆಯೇ ಹೇಗೆಲ್ಲಾ ತಯಾರಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಟ್ಟರು. ನಂತರ ಶುಭಾಷಿಶ್ ಹಾಗೂ ಪವನ್ ರ ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್. ಯಾವುದೇ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನಡೆಸಿದ ನಂತರ ಅದರ ವರಿದಿಯನ್ನು ಹೇಗೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು. ಎಲ್ಲರು ಸಹಾ ಲವಲವಿಕೆಯಿಂದ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡಿದ್ದರು. ಕೊನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ CISನ ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಾಹಕ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರಾದ ಸುನಿಲ್ ಅವರ ಅನುಭವವನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿದರು.

ಮೂರನೆಯ ದಿನ ಬಂತು. ಇದು TTT 2016ಯ ಕೊನೆಯ ದಿನವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಅಂದು ನಾನು ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್ ಮಾಡಬೇಕಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಮೊದಲ ಬಾರಿಗೆ ಮಾಡಿದ ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್ ಆಗಿತ್ತು. ನಾನು ಬಹಳ ಹೆದರಿದ್ದೆ. ನನ್ನ ಗುಂಪಿನವರು ಹಾಗು ಅಲ್ಲಿದ್ದವರು ನನ್ನನ್ನು ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹಿಸಿದರು. ಹೇಗೋ ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನ್ ಮುಗಿಸಿದೆ. ಒಂದು ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಅನುಭವ ಪಡೆದೆ. ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರೆಸೆಂಟೇಶನನ್ನು ಮೆಚ್ಚಿದರು. ಅದನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ಸಂತೋಷವಾಯಿತು, ಆದರೂ ಇನ್ನೂ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಬಹುದು ಎನ್ನಿಸಿತು. ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನದ ನಂತರ TTTಯಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದವರು ಹಾಗೂ MWTಯಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವವರನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಗುಂಪು ಮಾಡಲಾಯಿತು. ನಮ್ಮ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗೆ ಯಾವ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಲಾವಣೆ ಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ ಎಂದು ಹುಡುಕಿ ಚರ್ಚಿಸಿದೆವು. ಇದರ ಬದಲಾವಣೆ ಮಾಡಲು ಸಲಹೆ ನೀಡಿದೆವು. ಕೊನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲರು ತಮ್ಮ ತಮ್ಮ ಅನುಭವವನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಂಡರು.

ದಿನದಿಂದ ದಿನಕ್ಕೆ ನಾನು ಹಲವಾರು ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ಕಲಿಯುತ್ತಾ ಸಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವೆ. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ವಿಕಿಸೋರ್ಸ್ ಹಾಗೂ ವಿಕಿಡಾಟದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಂಡೆ. ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿತ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ವಿಷಯವು ನನಗೆ ಒಂದಲ್ಲ ಒಂದು ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಹಾಯ ಆಗೇ ಆಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಬಹಳ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಅನುಭವವಾಯಿತು. ಇದನ್ನು ಎಂದಿಗೂ ಮರೆಯಲಾಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಷ್ಟಕ್ಕೆ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರಯಾಣನ್ನು ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸದೇ ಮುಂದುವರಿಸಬೇಕೆಂಬುದೆ ನನ್ನ ಆಸೆ.

Link to the blogpost here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ca4cb0cacca4cbf-caecbeca1cb2cc1-ca4cb0cacca4cbfc97c82ca1cbec97-cis-a2k-ttt-2016

NGOs tell Modi not to succumb to US pressure on intellectual property

praskrishna — 2016-07-02T05:14:48Z

A group of NGOs have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to succumb to pressure from the US on the issue of intellectual property regime (IPR).

The article by Rinku Patel was published in India Tribune on June 7, 2016.

The NGOs are Forum Against FTAs, Lawyers Collective, All Indian Drug Action Network, Initiative for Health & Equity in Society, Third World Network, National Working Group on Patent Laws, Gene Campaign, New Trade Union Initiative, Navdanya, Software Freedom Law Centre, and Centre for Internet and Society.

The NGOs also urged Modi to ensure transparency and accountability in the engagements with the US on IP issues by tabling a White Paper in Parliament.

They alleged that the IP maximalist agenda in the policy fully ignores the socio-economic needs of people of India and serves the profit motives of Multi National Corporations

“We understand the primary intent of the policy is to respond to the aggressive demands of US government, backed by the corporate interests especially the pharmaceutical companies, to amend India’s IP laws that include several safeguards to protect the public interest,” it said.

“The government of India should remain committed to the welfare of its people’s interest and should not succumb to the pressures that it is being subjected to. Above all, the government must fulfill its obligation to protect the rights of the citizens that have been guaranteed by the constitution, in particular, right to health, right to education, and right to food,” they said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/india-tribune-rinku-patel-june-7-2016-ngos-tell-modi-not-to-succumb-to-us-pressure-on-intellectual-property

Climate change will be a priority in talks with Modi: U.S.

praskrishna — 2016-07-02T05:08:51Z

Mr. Modi will have a bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday and address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

The article was published in Hindu on June 6, 2016

“Advancing the ambitious climate change and clean energy agenda” and “further enhancing our security and diplomatic cooperation across the Indo-Pacific region,” would be the focus of discussions between India and the U.S during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit this week, a State Department official told The Hindu.

Mr. Modi is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Monday evening on a three-day tour.

Mr. Modi will have a bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama, to be followed by a lunch at the White House on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he will address a joint session of Congress, which will be a demonstration of the bipartisan support that the India-US relationship has acquired.

“Since 2014, there have been six meetings and countless phone calls between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi, and this visit reflects the significance that the two leaders place on our natural alliance,” the official said.

Wooing investors

Mr. Modi will interact with U.S CEOs and investors at the annual meeting of the U.S – India Business Council (USIBC) on Tuesday. USIBC President Mukesh Aghi said the meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Obama, “a PM who has not even completed half his term and a President who has only a few months left in office will be to strengthen the foundations of the relationship further and ensure continuity.”

Mr. Modi is visiting the U.S - the fourth time since he took over as PM in 2014 – at Mr Obama’s behest.

Mr. Aghi said the USIBC event would have CEOs of 25 Fortune 500 companies attending it. The event will also honour Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and Founder and Managing Director of Sun Pharmaceuticals Dilip Shanghvi with the Global Leadership Awards. “The PM’s interactions with U.S business leaders will be aimed to get more investment and technology to India,” Mr. Aghi said.

USIBC is also lobbying with the U.S and Indian governments to restart the negotiations for a bilateral investment treaty (BIT). In a letter to the U.S government last week, Mr. Aghi said: "While both governments took a break from the negotiations on account of revising the model BITs, it is important for us to come back to the negotiating table to develop a way-forward on concluding a high-quality BIT.” USIBC also sought U.S initiative to nominate India for membership of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

IPR, Human Rights

Mr. Modi is facing protests from groups in India on the intellectual property rights policy that his government announced recently. The government has claimed the new policy does not compromise the country’s ability to ensure affordable drugs, but several campaign groups believe the Modi government is coming under U.S pressure on the issue.

Seeking a White Paper in parliament on the government’s engagement with the U.S on IPR issues, 11 civil society groups in India urged Mr. Modi “to withstand the pressure from the US government and corporations and to defend the people’s interests,” during his talks in Washington.

“We understand the primary intent of the (recent) policy is to respond to the aggressive demands of United States government, backed by the corporate interests especially the pharmaceutical companies, to amend India’s IP laws that include several safeguards to protect the public interest. The government of India should remain committed to the welfare of its people’s interest and should not succumb to the pressures that it is being subjected to,” the groups said, demanding to reconsider the “implementation of the National IPR Policy and send the policy back to the drawing board.” The statement was signed by Forum Against FTAs, Lawyers Collective, All Indian Drug Action Network, Initiative for Health & Equity in Society, Third World Network, National Working Group on Patent Laws, Gene Campaign, New Trade Union Initiative, Navdanya, Software Freedom Law Centre and Centre for Internet and Society.

In the U.S Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations (FIACONA) has expressed “grave concerns about the increasing intolerance and violence against India's Christian communities.” Recalling President Obama’s statement in Delhi in January 2015 on religious freedoms, the group said “the concerns he raised in that speech are very important for the future of US-India relationship.” “While President Obama’s comments have raised the level of attention paid to this issue globally, there are several cases of Mr. Modi’s government officials continuing to protect local groups loyal to him from prosecution. The general socio-political environment created by Mr. Modi and his party has only caused greater damage to the Union of India,” John Prabhudoss, FIACONA president said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-hindu-varghese-k-george-june-6-2016-climate-change-will-be-a-priority-in-talks-with-modi-us

NGOs tell PM not to succumb to pressure from US on IPR

praskrishna — 2016-07-02T05:04:03Z

A group of NGOs have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to succumb to pressure from the US on the issue of intellectual property regime (IPR).

The article was published in the Economic Times on June 7, 2016

More than 10 eminent NGOs in a statement urged Modi to reconsider the implementation of the National IPR Policy and send the policy back to the drawing board.

It urged the Prime Minister to "withstand the pressure from the US government and corporations and to defend the people's interests" and to reject any demand to either initiate negotiation on free trade agreements and/or bilateral investment treaty with the US or joining the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The NGOs are Forum Against FTAs, Lawyers Collective, All Indian Drug Action Network, Initiative for Health & Equity in Society, Third World Network, National Working Group on Patent Laws, Gene Campaign, New Trade Union Initiative, Navdanya, Software Freedom Law Centre, and Centre for Internet and Society.

The NGOs also urged Modi to ensure transparency and accountability in the engagements with the US on IP issues by tabling a White Paper in Parliament.

"We are concerned that the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy adopted by the Cabinet ignores India's experience of implementing a regime of IP protection that balances the rights of the IP holders and public interest, by proposing an 'IP maximalist' agenda," the NGOs said.

They alleged that the IP maximalist agenda in the policy fully ignores the socio-economic needs of people of India and serves the profit motives of Multi National Corporations (MNCs) that own an overwhelming majority of the world's IP.

"We urge the government to reconsider this anti-people policy," the NGOs said.

"We understand the primary intent of the policy is to respond to the aggressive demands of US government, backed by the corporate interests especially the pharmaceutical companies, to amend India's IP laws that include several safeguards to protect the public interest," it said.

"The government of India should remain committed to the welfare of its people's interest and should not succumb to the pressures that it is being subjected to. Above all, the government must fulfill its obligation to protect the rights of the citizens that have been guaranteed by the constitution, in particular, right to health, right to education, and right to food," they said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/ngos-tell-pm-not-to-succumb-to-pressure-from-us-on-ipr

Mapping & Mobility

praskrishna — 2016-08-03T15:23:51Z

Carnegie India invited Anubha Sinha for an interaction with Brian McClendon, Vice-President of Technology at Uber on June 28, 2016 at Taj Palace Hotel, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi.

Seamless mobility in today's world is critically linked to how good the map on your mobile device is. Moving around in a car is no different from navigating your journey on a map. The creator of the ground breaking Google Maps, is now planning to change the future of new mobility. Brian heads the research centre for developing new products at Uber, the global behemoth that has disrupted traditional urban mobility. Uber’s need for advanced and accurate mapping of geographies is crucial to its business and Brian's thoughts on the future of Mapping & Mobility will provide valuable insight on smart and secure mobility, which is a core part of the proposed smart cities project initiated by the Government of India.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/mapping-mobility

शंभर वर्षापूर्वीचे ग्रंथ मराठी विकिपीडियावर

praskrishna — 2016-06-22T14:53:03Z

The article was published in Maharashtra Times on June 15, 2016. Abhinav Garule and Tanveer Hasan have been quoted.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/maharashtra-times-june-15-cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-maharashtra-granthottejak-sanstha

Wikipedia edit-a-thon at TEDSummit 2016, Banff, Canada

garule — 2016-06-13T06:44:49Z

The TEDSummit 2016, an annual conference of the TED community, is taking place during June 26-30, 2016 at Banff, Canada. Wikimedians Netha Hussain, Ayyappadas along with Abhinav Garule, Programme Associate, CIS-A2K will be conducting a 90-minute long workshop to educate the participants through Wikipedia's guidelines and help them write their first articles.

A list of articles have been suggested in the event page that participants can create. They can also play with a mock article. Please note, this is an invite-only event and only the conference participants that have registered beforehand can attend this edit-a-thon.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-tedsummit-2016-banff-canada