Centre for Internet and Society

Their India has No Borders

anja — 2015-10-05T15:08:36Z

Bangalore felt far for them, they would mark it outside the country. India, for migrant labourers, is different from the India we know

To 30-year-old Shankar, a migrant worker in Bangalore who came from Jharkhand, Mumbai is near West Bengal and Bangalore is in the North-East. If someone were to travel to Mumbai by Shankar’s map of India, he would land up in Kolkata.

Shankar’s map was part of an installation art show that concluded in the city on Wednesday, showing the maps of India as seen by migrant workers in Bangalore. The installation was a 14ft-by-18ft space enclosed with asbestos sheets. Wires crisscrossed the tiny room, and from the wires hung maps of India, drawn according to the perceptions of the migrant workers.

Shankar is only one among thousands of migrant workers in Bangalore who have a very different perception of where the cities where they work are located. Their India is a world away from the maps of India that educated Indians know of. It has none of the directions, orientation or location of places as we know it.

Start Thinking

“We want Bangaloreans to stop and think about migrant workers, who live amongst us,” says Ekta. Along with Yashaswini and Paromita, she spoke to 70 migrant workers on Old Madras Road before tracking their journeys on the maps. While Ekta has founded Maraa, a collective that looks at art and culture in the public domain, Yashaswini and Paromita are independent film makers.

“Our perception of location is meaningless to migrant workers,” says Ekta. For them, locations, distances and directions are all very different from the true picture. Their ideas of places are all drawn from their lives, as they travel from city to city to earn their livelihoods, she adds.

For instance, if Assam was westwards from his home, a migrant worker would mark it in West India. And if Bangalore felt far for him, he would mark it outside the country. Borders hardly came in the way and distances are measured by the time spent in a journey, including train delays and stopovers at transit points, they say.

When the workers say long distances or far way, they mean places such as Jharkhand, Bihar, Nepal, Punjab, Andhra, and North Karnataka.

India in a Room

While they work here, their families are in villages back home, even as far away as Nepal. Many workers live in asbestos shanties that are as small as 10ft by 10ft. They live huddled within the small space, creating a mini India right here in Bangalore, says Ekta. Spluttering rai (mustard seeds) mingle with the smell of Andhra chutneys in a room adorned with photos of Amritsar’s Golden Temple in the same tiny space.

As the group spoke to the workers, the latter also shared their stories of the weather, people, smells, cultures, personal, nostalgic and fantastical, of places — by their memories of what they saw, felt and remembered. They go beyond the geo-political maps of India and present a new, spatial experience of places.

The project is part of a workshop called Maps for Making Change, which was started by Centre for Internet and Society, to examine ways of using maps to help social causes.

Read the original in Bangalore Mirror

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/their-india-has-no-borders

Scrap UID project, say people's organisations

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:26:57Z

The unique identification number project is executed without any legislative or parliamentary sanction.

Representatives of people's movements, mass organisations and institutions on Wednesday said the unique identification number (UID) project is being executed without any legislative or parliamentary sanction and demanded an end to it.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society told press persons here that neither the launch of the UID project nor the constitution of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had any legislative sanction. Nothing is known of how the chairperson of the authority is selected, while the project proposes finger-printing of the entire population and storing of biometric and personal data of every person throughout his life and thereafter.

“Although the scheme is to only provide verification of identity, it is unclear what safeguards would prevent third parties from handling, sharing and utilising the data for any purpose,” he said. The UIDAI has agreed to use the services of foreign companies, their software and hardware. It appears that no thought has been give to the perils of placing in the hands of foreign companies data pertaining to the entire population of the country, Mr. Abraham felt. About the claims that the UID project will save crores of rupees by preventing misuse of various welfare schemes, Mr. Abraham questioned whether any feasibility study had been made in this regard.

The UID, the National Population Registry and the NATGRID, once combined and connected, pose grave concerns pertaining to civil liberties and fundamental rights.

Read the original article in the Hindu

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/Scrap-UID-project

UID info can be misused

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:26:27Z

Public organisations, NGOs and concerned citizens feel UID may become an easy database for anti-social elements.

The Unique Identification number (UID) could become an easy database for anti-social elements, according to public organisations, NGOs and concerned citizens. They felt that the UID should be discouraged till more transparency and accountability was introduced in the system.

They were speaking during a discussion on the UID here on Wednesday.

"Including so many details of individuals into a Central database could be dangerous," said Sunil Abraham, executive director, the centre for internet and society. He said various users of the data such as banks, telecom companies, government departments could potentially make it dangerous.

There are concerns that this will also lead to a police raj in the state. "As it is now there are so many anti-establishment movements, it will become very easy for the cops to arrest people and put them behind bars on the pretext of biometric mismatch. And nobody can question the technology," said Jagadish Chandra.

See the original article in the Deccan Chronicle

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/uid-info-can-be-misused

UID project draws flak from civil rights activists

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:26:20Z

The unique identification project is drawing a flak from civil rights activists.

The unique identification project drew flak from civil liberties activists in the city on Wednesday. "Unique identification is an encroachment of privacy. With the new technology, it will be easy to track people," members of Citizens Against UID / Aashar, a forum floated by those opposing the project, including PUCL and SICHREM, said. They said the project should not be implemented until people's participation was ensured.

Read the original article in DNA

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/UID-project-draws-flak

Citizens' forums want UID project scrapped

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:26:10Z

Citizens’ forums and groups have stepped up their attack on the Unique Identification Project calling for the complete scrapping of the project.

Addressing the media persons on Wednesday, Thomas Matthew of Citizens’ Action Forum said all the transactions undertaken by the UID project should be scrutinised under an accountable public body policy.

“The State government should make the financial and technological implications and costs incurred so far, including details of contracts awarded with respect to the UID project,” he said.

One of the main concerns of the groups has been the lack of public discussion on the feasibility or desirability of the project.

“It was launched as an ID card for citizens, but was later changed to a number for all citizens. UID claims that there are several benefits of possessing a number, but passes on the responsibility to Registrars,” Matthew said.

While UIDAI Chairperson Nandan Nilekani announced that the number was voluntary, the need to have such a number for obtaining any other form of service including bank accounts, would force a person to get an ID number, he added.

Executive Director of The Centre for Internet and Society, Sunil Abraham said even though the scheme is supposed to only provide verification of identity, there was no guarantee of safeguard against its misuse by potential third party users like telecom companies, banks and government departments.

“Though claims have been made of huge savings as the UID will stem leakages from welfare schemes, such as employment guarantee scheme, PDS and the LPG subsidy, but no feasibility studies have been conducted to assess the veracity of such a claim,” Sunil said.

Read the original article in the Deccan Herald

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/citizens-forums-want-UID-scrapped

Technological Protection Measures in the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010

pranesh — 2012-05-17T16:51:38Z

In this post Pranesh Prakash conducts a legal exegesis of section 65A of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, which deals with the stuff that enables 'Digital Rights/Restrictions Management', i.e., Technological Protection Measures. He notes that while the provision avoids some mistakes of the American law, it still poses grave problems to consumers, and that there are many uncertainties in it still.

Technological Protection Measures are sought to be introduced in India via the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010. This should be quite alarming for consumers for reasons that will be explained in a separate blog post on TPMs that will follow shortly.

In this post, I will restrict myself to a legal exegesis of section 65A of the Bill, which talks of "protection of technological measures". (Section 65B, which talks of Right Management Information will, similarly, be tackled in a later blog post.)

First off, this provision is quite unnecessary. There has been no public demand in India for TPMs to be introduced, and the pressure has come mostly from the United States in the form of the annual "Special 301" report prepared by the United States Trade Representative with input coming (often copied verbatim) from the International Intellectual Property Alliance. India is not a signatory to the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) which requires technological protection measures be safeguarded by law. That provision, interestingly, was pushed for by the United States in 1996 when even it did not give legal sanctity to TPMs via its copyright law (which was amended in 2000 by citing the need to comply with the WCT).

TPMs have been roundly criticised, have been shown to be harmful for consumers, creators, and publishers, and there is also evidence that TPMs do not really decrease copyright infringement (but instead, quite perversely through unintended consequences, end up increasing it). Why then would India wish to introduce it?

Leaving that question aside for now, what does the proposed law itself say?

65A. Protection of Technological Measures

    (1) Any person who circumvents an effective technological measure applied for the purpose of protecting any of the rights conferred by this Act, with the intention of infringing such rights, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years and shall also be liable to fine.

    (2) Nothing in sub-section (1) shall prevent any person from:

        (a) doing anything referred to therein for a purpose not expressly prohibited by this Act:

          Provided that any person facilitating circumvention by another person of a technological measure for such a purpose shall maintain a complete record of such other person including his name, address and all relevant particulars necessary to identify him and the purpose for which he has been facilitated; or

        (b) doing anything necessary to conduct encryption research using a lawfully obtained encrypted copy; or

        (c) conducting any lawful investigation; or

        (d) doing anything necessary for the purpose of testing the security of a computer system or a computer network with the authorisation of its owner; or

        (e) operator; or [sic]

        (f) doing anything necessary to circumvent technological measures intended for identification or surveillance of a user; or

        (g) taking measures necessary in the interest of national security.

Implications: The Good Part

This provision clearly takes care of two of the major problems with the way TPMs have been implemented by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States:

In s.65A(1) it aligns the protection offered by TPMs to that offered by copyright law itself (since it has to be "applied for the purpose of protecting any of the rights conferred by this Act"). Thus, presumably, TPMs could not be used to restrict access, only to restrict copying, communication to the public, and that gamut of rights.
In s.65A(1) and 65A(2) it aligns the exceptions granted by copyright law with the exceptions to the TPM provision. Section 65A(1) states that the act of circumvention has to be done "with the intention of infringing ... rights", and s.52(1) clearly states that those exceptions cannot be regarded as infringement of copyright. And s.65A(2)(a) states that circumventing for "a purpose not expressly prohibited by this Act" will be allowed.

A third important difference from the DMCA is that

It does not criminalise the manufacture and distribution of circumvention tools (including code, devices, etc.). (More on this below.)

Implications: The Bad Part

This provision, despite the seeming fair-handed manner in which it has been drafted, still fails to maintain the balance that copyright seeks to promote:

TPM-placers (presumably, just copyright holders, because of point 1. above) have been given the ability to restrict the activities of consumers, but they have not been given any corresponding duties. Thus, copyright holders do not have to do anything to ensure that the Film & Telivision Institute of India professor who wishes to use a video clip from a Blu-Ray disc can actually do so. Or that the blind student who wishes to circumvent TPMs because she has no other way of making it work with her screen reader is actually enabled to take advantage of the leeway the law seeks to provide her through s.52(1)(a) (s.52(1)(zb) is another matter!). Thus, while there are many such exceptions that the law allows for, the technological locks themselves prevent the use of those exceptions. Another way of putting that would be to say:
The Bill presumes that every one has access to all circumvention technology. This is simply not true. In fact, Spanish law (in Article 161 of their law) expressly requires that copyright holders facilitate access to works protected by TPM to beneficiaries of limitations of copyright. Thus, copyright holders who employ TPMs should be required to:
- tell their customers how they can be contacted if the customer wishes to circumvent the TPM for a legitimate purpose
- upon being contacted, aid their customer in making use of their rights / the exceptions and limitations in copyright law
How seriously can you take a Bill that has been introduced in Parliament that includes a provision that states: "Nothing in sub-section (1) shall prevent any person from operator; or" (as s.65A(2)(e), read in its entirety, does)?

Uncertainties

As mentioned above, the provisions are not all that clear regarding manufacture and distribution of circumvention tools. Thus, the proviso to s.65A(2)(a) deserves a closer reading. What is clear is that there are no penalties mentioned for manufacture or dissemination of TPMs, and that only those who circumvent are penalised in 65A(1), and not those who produce the circumvention devices. However:

On "shall maintain" and penalties

In the proviso to s.65B(2)(a), there is an imperative ("shall maintain") requiring "any person facilitating circumvention" to keep records. It is unclear what the implications of not maintaining such records are.

The obvious one is that the exemption contained in s.65(1)(a) will not apply if one were facilitated without the facilitator keeping records. Thus, under this interpretation, there is no independent legal (albeit penalty-less) obligation on facilitators. This interpretation runs into the problem that if this was the intention, then the drafters would have written "Provided that any person facilitating circumvention ... for such a purpose maintain/maintained a complete record ...". Instead, shall maintain is used, and an independent legal obligation seems, thus, to be implied. But can a proviso create an independent legal obligation? And is there any way a penalty could possibly be attached to violation of this proviso despite it not coming within 65A(1)?

On "facilitating" and remoteness

The next question is who all can be said to "facilitate", and how remote can the connection be? Is the coder who broke the circumvention a facilitator? The distributor/trafficker? The website which provided you the software? Or is it (as is more likely) a more direct "the friend who sat at your computer and installed the circumvention software" / "the technician who unlocked your DVD player for you while installing it in your house"?

While such a record-keeping requirement is observable by people those who very directly help you (the last two examples above), it would be more difficult to do so the further up you get on the chain of remoteness. Importantly, such record-keeping is absolutely not possible in decentralized distribution models (such as those employed by most free/open source software), and could seriously harm fair and legitimate circumvention.

More uncertainties

It is slightly unclear which exception the bypassing of Sony's dangerous "Rootkit" copy protection technology would fall under if I wish to get rid of it simply because it makes my computer vulnerable to malicious attacks (and not to exercise one of the exceptions under s.52(1)). Will such circumvention come under s.65A(2)(a)? Because it does not quite fall under any of the others, including s.65(2)(b) or (f).

On "purpose" as a criterion in 65A(2)(a)

A last point, which is somewhat of an aside is that 65A(2)(a) states:

Nothing in sub-section (1) shall prevent any person from doing anything referred to therein for a purpose not expressly prohibited by this Act.

There's something curious about the wording, since the Copyright Act generally does not prohibit any acts based on purposes (i.e., the prohibitions by ss.14 r/w s.51 are not based on why someone reproduces, etc., but on the act of reproduction). In fact, it allows acts based on purposes (via s.52(1)). The correct way of reading 65A(2)(a) might then be:

Nothing in sub-section (1) shall prevent any person from doing anything referred to therein for a purpose expressly allowed by this Act.

But that might make it slightly redundant as s.65A(1) covers that by having the requirement of the circumvention being done "with the intention of infringing such right" (since the s.52(1) exceptions are clearly stated as not being infringements of the rights granted under the Act).

Conclusion

It would be interesting to note how leading copyright lawyers understand this provision, and we will be tracking such opinions. But it is clear that TPMs, as a private, non-human enforcement of copyright law, are harmful and that we should not introduce them in India. And we should be especially wary of doing so without introducing additional safeguards, such as duties on copyright holder to aid access to TPM'ed works for legitimate purposes, and remove burdensome record-keeping provisions.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tpm-copyright-amendment

Indian Copyright Act, 1957 (as amended by Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010)

pranesh — 2010-04-27T13:33:48Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/copyright-act-amendediframes

Digital Natives at Republica 2010

nishant — 2015-05-15T11:35:48Z

Nishant Shah from the Centre for Internet and Society, made a presentation at the Re:Publica 2010, in Berlin, about its collaborative project (with Hivos, Netherlands) "Digital Natives with a Cause?" The video for the presentation, along with an extensive abstract is now available here.

Abstract:

As a growing population in emerging Information Societies, particularly in Asia, experience a lifestyle mediated by digital technologies, there is also a correlated concern about the young digital natives constructing their identities and expressions through a world of incessant consumption, while remaining apathetic to the immediate political and social needs of their times. Governments, educators, civil society theorists and practitioners, have all expressed alarm at how the digital natives across the globe are so entrenched in practices of incessant consumption that they have a disconnect with the larger external reality and contained within digital deliriums. They discard the emergent communication and expression trends, mobilisation and participation platforms, and processes of cultural production as trivial or unimportant. Such a perspective is embedded in a non-changing view of the political landscape and do not take into account that the Digital Natives are engaging in practices which might not necessarily subscribe to the earlier notions of political revolution, but offer possibilities for great social transformation and participation.

The oldest Digital Native in the world – if popular definitions of Digital Natives are accepted – turned 30 this year, whereas the youngest is not yet born. In the last three decades, a population has been growing up born in technologies, and mediated their sense of self and their interactions with external reality through digital and internet technologies. These interactions lead to significant transitions in the landscape of the social and political movements as the Digital Natives engage and innovate with new technologies to respond to crises in their local and immediate environments. However, more often than not, these experiments remain invisible to the mainstream discourses. The mechanics, aesthetics and manifestation of these localised and contextual practices hold the potentials for social transformation and political participation for the future. This presentation looks at three different case studies to look at how, through processes and productions which have largely been neglected as self indulgent or frivolous, Digital Natives around the world are actively participating in the politics of their times, and also changing the way in which we understand the political processes of mobilisation, participation and transformation.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnrepub

Disability rights groups oppose changes to Copyright Act

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:26:01Z

Disability rights groups are up in arms against a Bill proposing an amendment to the Copyright Act, 1952, reports Aarti Dhar in an article published in the Hindu on April 23, 2010.

Disability rights groups are up in arms against a Bill proposing an amendment to the Copyright Act, 1952, that prevents non-governmental organisations, educational institutions and persons with disabilities from converting reading material including textbooks and reference material into audio, digital and other formats that can be used by differently-abled persons.

The amendment Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha this week, if passed in its current form, will prevent over 70 million people with disabilities in India, including persons with visual impairment, dyslexia, and cerebral palsy, from exercising their Right to Education and other fundamental rights, according to the National Access Alliance, a group of organisations and leading professionals working for the benefit of the print-disabled in India.

Licensing procedure

The extremely “cumbersome, restrictive and lengthy” licensing procedure proposed by the government for conversion to these formats will mean that students with print disabilities will be deprived of their Right to Education which has now become a fundamental right.

Members of the Alliance have been campaigning for the amendment to be re-worded to ensure that the conversion of books into all formats is allowed, all stakeholders, including organisations, educational institutions and persons with disabilities, are allowed to undertake the conversion; and the conversion should not be subject to red tape which will lead to delay. The campaigners had met Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal who assured them that the interests of persons with disabilities would be addressed. However, the amendment proposed by the Minister does more harm than good, Rahul Cherian and Nirmita Narasimhan, both members of the Alliance, told The Hindu.

Seeking support

The Alliance is now meeting members of Parliament from across the political parties to seek support. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left parties and the Nationalist Congress Party have already extended support to them and assured that their cause would be taken up.

According to CPI (M) MP Brinda Karat, the present amendment lacked concern for the disabled people. “Their cause is genuine and it needs to be addressed,” she told The Hindu, adding that the matter would be taken up once the Bill comes to the Standing Committee.

Members of the Alliance will continue their nationwide mass mobilisation for the cause to bring more attention to the plight of persons with print disabilities in relation to the lack of reading material in accessible formats.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/disability-groups-oppose-copyright-amendments

Centre for Study of Culture and Society seeks Programme Associate

praskrishna — 2010-04-26T06:22:35Z

The Higher Education Cell, Centre for Study of Culture and Society is looking for a Programme Associate to help develop e-content and conduct training programmes for projects under its Social Justice and Networked Higher Education Initiatives.

The job profile is as follows:

Coordinating activities for the generation of e-content ( in the form of digital course modules) to be offered at the Master’s level;
Liaising with partner institutions, universities and/or research centres to set up structures for e-tutoring and dissemination of courseware;
Working closely with colleges in three states, helping to conduct training workshops in web and multimedia technologies for undergraduate students and teachers;
Building and sustaining e-learning communities.

The candidate should be under 35 years of age and have good knowledge of computer applications and web technologies. Ability to communicate effectively with undergraduate students is a pre-requisite. The job is based in Bangalore but involves a fair amount of travel within the country. Experience in teaching/research in the higher education sector would be an additional qualification.

Consolidated honorarium will be in the range of 18,000-20,000 per month commensurate with experience. Send in applications in soft copy and hard copy along with an updated CV to:

Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana
Higher Education Cell
CSCS
827, 29th Main
Poornaprajna Layout
Uttarahalli
Bangalore 560061

Deadline: April 30, 2010. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in person. Those who have applied earlier need not apply

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/position-announcement

Public Event: Exploring Maps for Making Change

anja — 2015-10-24T14:19:32Z

The Centre for Internet and Society, in collaboration with Tactical Tech, would like to invite you to 'A Conversation on Maps for Making Change - Using Geographical Mapping Techniques to Support Struggles for Social Justice in India', at the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore.

When a migrant labourer draws a map of India, what does it look like? Can maps prove a correlation between corporate investment and Operation Green Hunt in Chhattisgarh?

For the past five months, twenty five activists, researchers, artists and techies have explored together, as part of the Maps for Making Change project, the potential of geographical mapping techniques to support struggles for social justice in India. As Maps for Making Change comes to an end, they would like to share with you their journey, their thoughts and their work, and to enter into a conversation with a much wider group of people about the potential and challenges of mapping for social justice now that new technologies can in theory be mobilised to fight for social justice by anyone with an interest in maps, but in practice remain confined to the hands of a privileged few.

Join us:

from 4 pm onwards, for an exhibition that allows you to explore the work of Maps for Making Change participants through installations, websites, conversations, information, video, ... and maps.

from 5 pm to 5.30 pm, for refreshments.

from 5.30 pm onwards, for a panel discusion which our panelists will kick off by sharing some of their own reflections and comments on mapping for social justice, to open up the conversation to a much broader discussion with all those present in the audience.

Panelists:

Reuben Jacob, Inclusive Planet

Shakun Mohini, Vimochana

Shubhranshu Choudhary, Knight International Journalism Fellow and Community Media Activist

For more information, please contact Anja Kovacs, Centre for Internet and Society: 98 11 74 72 12, anja@cis-india.org. Or check out the Maps for Making Change wiki: maps4change.cis-india.org.

Looking forward to seeing you at CIS on 28 April!

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/public-event-exploring-maps-for-making-change

Third Maps for Making Change Workshop: Using Geographical Mapping Techniques to Support Struggles for Social Justice in India

anja — 2015-10-05T15:10:23Z

The third and final workshop in the Maps for Making Change project will take place at Visthar, in Bangalore, from 26 until 28 April. During this workshop, participants will fine-tune and polish their maps; explore ways to connect with broader movements and disseminate their maps among target audiences; and reflect on their own experiences so as to distill learnings that can help us decide where to go from here. While participation in the workshop is closed, the workshop will end with a public event at the CIS office on 28 April, from 4 pm onwards, open to everybody (more information to follow soon). If you, too, share our interest in mapping for social change, then do join us there.

The aims of the workshop are to:

give participants an opportunity to fine-tune and polish their maps, with the assistance of others where needed, so that they can be shared with a wider audience;
explore campaigning tools and strategies for disseminating the maps produced among target audiences, including other movements and activists;
distill the learnings participants have made from this project, both individually and as a group, and prepare a plan to build upon these in the future.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

make informed decisions about every step of the design and implementation process of a mapping project.

Also, participants and organisers will be able to:

identify the political and ethical challenges of mapping, in particular as they apply for social justice in India;
understand better the particularities of online activism and ways in which it can connect better with activism on the ground in the country;
apply their knowledge of mapping to other campaigns and movements in India and function as a point of contact for other activists for a network of activists using maps for making change.

The preliminary schedule of the workshop is as follows:

Monday 26 April

Time	Session
9.00-10.00	Registration at Visthar
10.00-11.00	Welcome and introductions (icebreaker)
11.00-1.00	90 Seconds: Where are we with our projects (and what do we need to achieve during this workshop)?
1.00-2.00	Lunch
2.00-3.30	Building partnerships between techies and activists: what is required? (debate and discussion)
3.30-3.45	Tea/coffee Break
3.45-5.00	Project time as per participants' needs (which can relate to technical issues, design, hosting, ...)
5.00-6.15	Afternoon 'Lab' Sessions (CHOOSE ONE): Elective 1. Hosting and creating websites and embedding maps Elective 2. Technology and Security Concerns for Activists
6.15-6.30	Evening Circle
6.30-7.30	Free Time
7.30-8.30	Dinner
8.30-10.00	Screening of Swagat Sen's film on the second workshop and social gathering

Tuesday 27 April

Time	Session
8.00-9.00	Breakfast
9.00-9.30	Morning Circle
9.30-11.00	Maps as agents of change – uses and challenges (including in terms of how to connect with movements on the ground)
11.00-11.30	Tea/coffee Break
11.30-1.00	Communication and campaigning strategies to take mapping outcomes forward to broader audience, both online and offline (poss. Incl. Use of creative media)
1.00-2.15	Lunch
2.15-4.00	Project time as per participants needs
4.00-4.30	Tea/coffee break
4.30-5.15	Evaluating Maps for Making Change
5.15-6.15	What next?
6.15-6.30	Evening Circle
6.30-7.30	Free Time
7.30-8.30	Dinner
8.30-...	Social evening

Wednesday 28 April

Time	Session
8.00 – 9.00	Breakfast
9.00 – 9.30	Morning Circle
9.30-12.30	Finalise preparations for public event (project work or other, eg slides on loop etc)
10.30-11.00	Tea/coffee Break
11.00-12.30	Finalise preparations for public event (cont.)
12.30-1.30	Lunch
1.30-2.00	Travel to CIS
2.00-4.00	Set up the public event
4.00-7.30	Public event (with a discussion from 5.30 onwards)
7.30-9.00	Dinner (venue to be decided) + workshop evaluation
9.00-9.30	Return to Visthar
9.30-...	Great-working-with-you-guys Party at Visthar

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/third-maps-for-making-change-workshop

When Copyright Goes Bad

praskrishna — 2011-08-04T04:37:21Z

A part of the Access to Knowledge Project, this short film by Consumers International is available on DVD and online at A2Knetwork.org/film.

For centuries, copyright law has existed to protect creative production whilst promoting public access. But the digital age is challenging this balance and fundamentally changing how we produce, access and distribute content. Suddenly, copyright rules no longer do what they are supposed to do. They have gone bad.

This is a film about how copyright has become one of the most important consumer issues of the digital age; why corporate lobbying risks criminalising the actions of hundreds of thousands of people; and what the future holds for the fight for fairer copyright laws.

When Copyright Goes Bad is an introduction to the renegotiation of copyright and is for anyone interested in how copyright is affecting consumers. It features some of the key players in the copyright debate, including: Fred Von Lohmann - Electronic Frontier Foundation; Michael Geist - University of Ottawa Law School; Jim Killock - Open Rights Group; and Hank Shocklee - Co-founder of Public Enemy.

Quotes from When Copyright Goes Bad

“People have realised that copyright affects them every day and the direction that we’ve seen over the last few years really troubles them. That’s why so many people are speaking out.” Michael Geist

“In the U.S, over 35,000 Americans were targeted for lawsuits for downloading music. In ten years time, everyone will look back at that as incredibly unjust and ridiculous. No-one thinks that suing music fans one at a time is the business model of the future.” Fred Von Lohmann

“The industry is trying to demonise consumer behaviour. They’re trying to create the idea that it’s a moral debate: is downloading something wrong or right? Is it theft or not? These are the wrong questions and they will only ever produce the wrong answers.” Jim Killock

Making copyright, right

When Copyright Goes Bad is being released under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, which means it’s free to copy and adapt, as long as content is attributed and the same CC licence is used.
We will also be making available extended interviews with all the contributors, as well as with other experts not featured in the film, under the same CC licence at A2Knetwork.org/film. By providing access in this way we are allowing others to go on and create further work around the issue.

View it on youtube

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/when-copyright-goes-bad

The Right Ring Tone

Shyam Ponappa — 2012-05-10T10:39:51Z

Focus on improving service quality with a strong partner, and not on one-shot stake sales, says Shyam Ponappa in his article published in the Business Standard on April 1, 2010.

Just five years ago, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) was India’s second most profitable company, with net profit of nearly Rs 6,000 crore — nearly equal to Hindustan Unilever’s revenues — with over Rs 36,000 crore in revenues. By March 31, 2010, BSNL expects a big loss, while a competitor, Bharti, with revenues of only Rs 8,000 crore then, has caught up in revenues and is far more profitable. Mahaganar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), too, is struggling to stay profitable.

While these public sector giants are in a graveyard spiral, they still have valuable assets in their reach and their networks of hundreds of thousands of kilometres. They also have a corps of technical professionals, with unmet user needs burgeoning in cities, towns, and all over India’s hinterland.

How can BSNL/MTNL be extricated from their predicament, and built up to become more like a State Bank of India, instead of a moribund Air India and the once-dominant Indian Airlines? Consider the present and future possibilities.

The pertinent facts are:

The network and capacity are valuable assets for operations, provided services are rationalised and extended in commercially sound ways.
Neither BSNL nor MTNL has been able to successfully capitalise on its headstart in WiMAX and 3G.
Given present trends, both will run up mounting losses.

All management and employees, including the Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officers, will have to engage in radical changes voluntarily. This is why all stakeholders, including the government, have to seek collaborative solutions, to resolve anachronistic legacy situations that cannot continue on terms as fair as possible, including a VRS, and possibly pay cuts for deferred profit-sharing. The alternative is losing a strategic backbone network-operating capability, something India needs, with the associated hardship for so many employees.

Dire prospects

The outlook for both BSNL and MTNL shows in their performance (Figures 1 and 2).

For BSNL and MTNL, increased employee costs after the Pay Commission recommendations, together with declining fixed-line revenues, led to deteriorating profits. Meanwhile, years of stalled procurement, decreasing earnings and a recommendation to divest 30 per cent have all led to a stand-off at BSNL, with a threatened strike. Whether in public or private sector, there have to be good services with good profits; otherwise, competitors will devour them.

Doing the unthinkable

Are there ways out? Can these investments in equipment and people be resuscitated by some miracle of management and IT engineering to be at the heart of the country’s expanding communications services? Can their personnel pull together?

That magic could come about if individuals and interest groups rise above themselves, avoiding opportunistic self-enrichment, and approach problems collaboratively instead of antagonistically, and if the government can abjure misguided fiscal zeal.

Instead of divesting a stake as a one-shot, revenue-raising deal, induct a strong partner to build services and revenues.
Serve user needs, instead of offering “products” with some internal geographic or technological definitions that are not easily understood.
Rationalise services like EVDO cards (broadband data cards) that are not customer-centric, because if they work in the rest of the country, they don’t in Delhi and Mumbai, and vice versa.
BSNL and MTNL could go for collaborative data-streaming with 2.4 Mbps EVDO cards usable everywhere, offered with a service level and style that can only come with a hands-on partner changing the off-putting way BSNL and MTNL treat customers.
Get politicians out of procurement, and induct technology like wireless corDECT at 512 Kbps for rural areas if appropriate, even if it is “old” and not state-of-the-art, instead of waiting for years for alternatives that aren’t there of 3G or LTE (Long-Term Evolution or 4G), and will cost much more.
Move up to 3G/LTE after some years of generating profits.
Work with India’s technology companies to build local equivalents of Huwaei and ZTE, with India’s assured markets. (This requires policies far beyond the ambit of the DOT, as in the way China has nurtured Huawei/ZTE for years.)

Put the whole package together, end-to-end, and BSNL/MTNL could be winners, as would the public.* Private operators will face competition if this happens, but they can gain from the rise in business levels. These are big issues for immediate consideration and action. Such challenges are best addressed collaboratively.

Although collaboration seems far removed, notable exceptions like Amul, Operation Flood, the Sirmour farmers’ cooperatives for irrigation, SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) and Infosys prove that it is feasible.

Problem-solving vs confrontation and attrition

Thinking and acting in our collective interests require making hard choices after cost-benefit analyses. From this perspective, we should address BSNL and MTNL from an assessment of India’s needs and available alternatives, rather than only as a historical mess. True, the mess has to be dealt with, but with forward-looking considerations of public benefits for the common good. Employees need to recognise this, juxtaposed with the consequences of unyielding self-interest. We need problem-solving, not battles of attrition from hardened, silo positions of unions, government, and management, or ITS versus the rest, or any entrenched interest group. These legacy positions are “dug in”, and perpetual confrontation leads to desecration: of service capability, of competitive staying power, productivity and of sheer employability. There is so much more they could do for a potential one billion users.

It isn’t that self-improvement is not being attempted, like the Sanchar Nigam Executives Association (SNEA) addressing processes such as Call Detail Record (CDR) systems for customer care and billing, or Managed Services and Managed Capacity, Bharti’s innovations in outsourcing not only development and maintenance, but even procurement to Ericsson, as recommended by the Pitroda committee.** The change that is required is for all groups to pull together, however simplistic it may sound. Then, these national assets — the networks and human resources — can be leveraged to compete effectively with private operators.

Read the original article in Business Standard

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/ring-tone

April 2010 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2012-08-13T04:51:19Z

Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! We bring you updates of our research, events and news for the month of April 2010.

News Updates

Worries voiced over ID Project
The Government of India's Unique Identification (UID) Project came under flak at a workshop organised jointly by the Citizen Action Forum (CAF), the People's Union of Civil Liberties - Karnataka, the Alternative Law Forum and the Centre for Internet and Society - An article in The Hindu - 17th April.
http://cis-india.org/news/worries-voiced-over-id-project

UID: A debate on the Fundamental Rights
UID: A debate on the Fundamental Rights - was jointly organized by the Citizen Action Forum, People's Union for Civil Liberties - Karnataka, Alternative Law Forum and the Centre for Internet and Society on April 16th at IAT, Queens Road, Bangalore - An article in the Prajavani news paper - April 17th.
http://cis-india.org/news/uid-a-debate-on-fundamental-rights

UID is an invasion of Privacy: Experts
The Nandan Nilekani headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) came in for much criricism at the first of a series of debates on the issue organised in the city on Friday - Deccan Chronicle, April 17th.
http://cis-india.org/news/uid-is-an-invasion-of-privacy-experts

Experts debate on UID and rights
Bangalore, Apr 16, DHNS: A debate on ‘UID and Fundamental Rights’ organised by several city-based organisations, discussed the social, ethical issues, economic and legal issues that accompanies the UID.
http://cis-india.org/news/experts-debate-on-uid-and-rights

Amendment to Copyright Act opposed
A report on the press conference held on 15th April, at the Press Club, Bangalore: The Hindu
http://cis-india.org/news/amendment-to-copyright-act-opposed

They fight for the visually challenged
Times News Network - A report on the press conference held at the Press Club, Bangalore on 15th April, 2010.
http://cis-india.org/news/they-fight-for-the-visually-challenged

Digital Natives Research Project Coordinator
The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, in collaboration with Hivos Netherlands, is looking for a Research Project Coordinator to help develop a knowledge network and coordinate international workshops for the project "Digital Natives with a Cause?"
http://cis-india.org/news/research-coordinator

Expel or not? That is the question
The decision of an international school to expel 14 students for their alleged ‘promiscuous’ behaviour has led to much debate and discussion.
http://cis-india.org/news/expel-or-not

Nokia eyes GeNext to tap mobile email mkt
Finnish handset giant banks on youth to be in the technology race
http://cis-india.org/news/nokia-eyes-genNext

Research

Critical Point of View: Videos
The Second event for the Critical Point of View reader on Wikipedia was held in Amsterdam, by the Institute of Network Cultures and the Centre for Internet and Society. A wide range of scholars, academics, researchers, practitioners, artists and users came together to discuss questions on design, analytics, access, education, theory, art, history and processes of knowledge production. The videos for the full event are now available for free viewing and dissemination.

Colour Me Political
What are the tools that Digital Natives use to mobilise groups towards a particular cause? How do they engage with crises in their immediate environments? Are they using their popular social networking sites and web 2.0 applications for merely entertainment? Or are these tools actually helping them to re-articulate the realm of the political? Nishant Shah looks at the recent Facebook Colour Meme to see how new forms of political participation and engagement are being initiated by young people across the world.
http://cis-india.org/research/dn/dn2

Meet the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
Digital Natives live their lives differently. But sometimes, they also die their lives differently! What happens when we die online? Can the digital avatar die? What is digital life? The Web 2.0 Suicide machine that has now popularly been called the 'anti-social-networking' application brings some of these questions to the fore. As a part of the Hivos-CIS "Digital Natives with a Cause?" research programme, Nishant Shah writes about how Life on the Screen is much more than just a series of games.
http://cis-india.org/research/dn/dn1

Digital Natives with a Cause?
Digital Natives With A Cause? - a product of the Hivos-CIS collaboration charts the scholarship and practice of youth and technology with a specific attention for developing countries to create a framework that consolidates existing paradigms and informs further research and intervention within diverse contexts and cultures.
http://cis-india.org/research/dn/dnrep

Advocacy

Accessibility

e-Accessibility: A Wiki Project
Envisaged and funded by the National Internet Exchange of India, and executed by the Centre for Internet and Society, a Wiki site pertaining to issues of disability and e-accessibility has recently been launched.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-a-wiki-project

Copyright Law as a tool for Inclusion
Can Copyright Law be used as a tool for Inclusion? Rahul Cherian examines this in his blog on copyright.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/copyright-law-as-tool-for-inclusion

Web Accessibility as a Government Mandate?
Is Web accessibility just a Government Mandate? Should private sites be ignored? Wesolowski examines this in light of the steps taken by ictQATAR to make its website accessible to W3C standards, and hopes that Qatar and eventually all other Arab nations will follow suit and make Web accessibility much more of a mandate.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/web-accessibility-government-mandate

Intellectual Property

When Copyright Goes Bad
A part of the Access to Knowledge Project, this short film by Consumers International is available on DVD and online at A2Knetwork.org/film.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/when-copyright-goes-bad

Openness

Research Project on Open Video in India
Open Video Alliance and the Centre for Internet and Society are calling for researchers for a project on open video in India, its potentials, limitations, and recommendations on policy interventions.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/open-video-research

Does the Social Web need a Googopoly?
While the utility of the new social tool Buzz is still under question, the bold move into social space taken last week by the Google Buzz team has Gmail users questioning privacy implications of the new feature. In this post, I posit that Buzz highlights two privacy challenges of the social web. First, the application has sidestepped the consensual and contextual qualities desirable of social spaces. Secondly, Google’s move highlights the increasingly competitive and convergent nature of the social media landscape.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/does-the-social-web-need-a-googopoly

The (in)Visible Subject: Power, Privacy and Social Networking
In this entry, I will argue that the interplay between privacy and power on social network sites works ultimately to subject individuals to the gaze of others, or to alternatively render them invisible. Individual choices concerning privacy preferences must, therefore, be informed by the intrinsic relationship which exists between publicness/privateness and subjectivity/obscurity.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/the-in-visible-subject-power-privacy-and-social-networking

Internet Governance

Does the Safe-Harbor Program Adequately Address Third Parties Online?
While many citizens outside of the US and EU benefit from the data privacy provisions the Safe Harbor Program, it remains unclear how successfully the program can govern privacy practices when third-parties continue to gain more rights over personal data. Using Facebook as a site of analysis, I will attempt to shed light on the deficiencies of the framework for addressing the complexity of data flows in the online ecosystem.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/does-the-safe-harbor-program-adequately-address-third-parties-online

Sense and censorship
Sunil Abraham examines Google's crusade against censorship in China in wake of the attacks on its servers in this article published in the Indian Express.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/sense-and-censorship

Report on the Fourth Internet Governance Forum for Commonwealth IGF
This report by Pranesh Prakash reflects on the question of how useful is the IGF in the light of meetings on the themes of intellectual property, freedom of speech and privacy.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/report-on-fourth-IGF

Telecom

The Right Ring Tone
Focus on improving service quality with a strong partner, and not on one-shot stake sales, says Shyam Ponappa in his article published in the Business Standard on April 1, 2010.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/ring-tone

Other Advocacy

Maps for Making Change Wiki Now Open to the Public
Since December 2009, CIS has been coordinating and nurturing the Maps for Making Change project, organised in collaboration with Tactical Tech. During the past four months, participants have been on a challenging yet fertile and inspiring journey that is now slowly coming to an end. Would you like to know more about what has happened in the time that has passed? The Maps for Making Change wiki is a good place to start.
http://cis-india.org/advocacy/others/maps-for-making-change-wiki-now-open-to-the-public

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2010-bulletin