The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 111 to 125.
Thematic Edit-a-thon at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara
https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara
<b></b>
<p align="center"><br /></p>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia
edit-a-thon was held at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science,
Satara. The aim of the workshop was to edit and improve articles on
Marathi Wikipedia under the theme "Environment and Local
Biodiveristy". Participants were given an orientation on how to
contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The
Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science is housed under the <a href="http://www.erayat.org/" target="_blank">Rayat
Shikshan Sanstha</a>, a century-old organization with the largest
network of schools and colleges across Maharashtra. The management
and local environmental group, Drongo, took the initiative to organize this thematic workshop in Satara, an area rich in terms of
biodiversity in the Western Ghats. Noted ecologist and scientist Prof. Madhavrao Gadgil addressed the workshop as a resource person along with Prof. V.Y. Deshpande of the Institute. A total of 23 members from various
like-minded organizations participated in the workshop.</p>
<p> </p>
<div align="center">
<ul><li><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Nv-B5Uxu4VSIKSzWhDMzqJfy-hp7UUIQ_1sLss5IzaE7EzMBbCYyrm1vrdqDb4bNT57TafnROLvtMhLT7ojevVOT2qJVcY9tEB8XCA8svORZQamsl1Bc5QQj-TmNiu12ilYYqsM" alt="YCIS4.jpg" height="401" width="602" /></span></li></ul>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p>Image by <a title="User:सुबोध कुलकर्णी" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A7_%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80">सुबोध कुलकर्णी</a>/ CC-BY-SA 4.0<br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-07-11T09:35:13ZBlog EntryCourse Packs for Education Ruled Legal in India
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/eifl-anubha-sinha-july-12-2017-course-packs-for-education-ruled-legal-in-india
<b>On 9 May 2017, a five year court battle between publishers and universities finally came to an end when the Supreme Court of India dismissed an appeal by the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) challenging an earlier judgment of Delhi High Court that ruled course packs in India legal for educational purposes.</b>
<p>The article was published by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.eifl.net/blogs/course-packs-education-ruled-legal-india">EIFL</a> on July 12, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>In a case that gained wide international attention, issues such as the cost of textbooks in India were raised, students agitated for fair access to educational materials, and the jurisprudence on copyright in India has taken a leap forward. In this guest blog, <b>Anubha Sinha, Programme Officer on Openness and Access to Knowledge at the Centre for Internet and Society India</b>, discusses the judgment in the case known as the ‘Delhi University photocopy’ case, and what it means for access to educational materials in India.</i></p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">The facts of the case</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In 2012, three academic publishers, Oxford University Press (OUP), Cambridge University Press (CUP) and Taylor & Francis, sued the University of Delhi (DU) and Rameshwari Photocopy Service (based at the university) for copyright infringement for photocopying parts of their textbooks and distributing them in course packs - collections of assigned reading materials – exclusively to students for a fee.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The publishers sought to compel Delhi University to enter into a licensing agreement with the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO), that manages certain rights on behalf publishers and other rightsholders in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The course packs in question comprised excerpts from textbooks on course syllabi at Delhi School of Economics (part of the University of Delhi). The court analyzed the content of four packs that included works such as Transforming India: Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy (OUP), New Cambridge History of India (CUP) and Political Philosophy (Routledge/Taylor & Francis).</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court found that on average 8.8% of the textbooks, that each cost on average 39 USD (2,500 INR), were used in the course packs. Students and faculty were charged a nominal fee of one US cent (40 paise) per page to buy the course pack.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">The court’s judgment – no infringement, no licence required</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In an interim order in 2012, the court issued a temporary injunction restraining the sale of course packs by Rameshwari. However, the order was overturned when in subsequent judgments (in September 2016 and an appeal judgment in December 2016) the court ruled in favour of the University.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">On whether the making of the course packs was a copyright infringement, the court found no infringement because the activities fell under the education exception in Indian copyright law (specifically section 52(1)(i)).</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Section 52(1)(i) of the Indian Copyright Act (1957) allows any work to be reproduced by a teacher or pupil for the purposes of instruction. In a liberal interpretation of the provision, the court held that the reproduction of a work is not limited to reproduction by an individual teacher or pupil, it also extends to the action of multiple teachers and students. Further, the court held that the phrase ‘course of instruction’ embraces any instruction for the duration of an entire course or teaching programme, it is not limited only to teaching in the classroom.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">On whether the university must obtain a licence to photocopy from IRRO, the court held that no licence is required because the activities are covered by Section 52(1)(i).</p>
<p dir="ltr">The court also found there to be no commercial exploitation of copyright in the works.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">During the case, the publishers tried to impute a profit motive on the part of the defendants. They argued that by selling chapters of the books, the defendants were in direct competition with publishers thereby creating an adverse effect on the publishers’ market.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court rejected the argument holding that students are hardly potential customers for multiple books used in the course packs. For example, post-graduate students might have 35-40 reading assignments per subject.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Without the course packs, students would simply look elsewhere for the material, including the university library. In fact, the court noted that increased access to education has the potential to expand the customer base for such books in the future.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Primacy of purpose</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Importantly, the court said fairness of use is to be judged only by its intended purpose i.e. education, and not from any qualitative or quantitative uses (such as which parts of the text are used or the number of copies made).</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court’s judgment on appeal, that references case law from Canada, the USA the UK and New Zealand, emphasizes that the determination of ‘fairness’ of a use rests solely on the “touchstone of the purpose of the use and/or other limitations expressly built in each of these clauses”. Thus there is no requirement to introduce other tests or factors when applying Section 52(1)(i) and so a general fair use principle is to be read into all such provisions in the law.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">The case concludes</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The High Court remained undecided on two points of fact: whether the works included in the course packs were necessary for educational instruction, and whether the photocopying of entire books is allowed under Indian law. It decided to refer these issues for determination to a trial court.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">However, the trial court hearing never proceeded because in March 2017 the publishers decided to withdraw from the case, in a move that surprised observers. A <a href="http://fdslive.oup.com/asiaed/News%20Items%20and%20Images/Joint%20Public%20Statement.pdf">joint statement issued by OUP, CUP and Taylor & Francis</a> acknowledged the important role that course packs play in education, and looked forward to working “even more closely with academic institutions, teachers and students to understand and address their needs”.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In a further twist in April 2017, the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) filed an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s judgment.</p>
<p dir="ltr">On 9 May 2017, the Supreme Court summarily dismissed IRRO’s appeal.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Impact of the Delhi University case</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The ruling in the Delhi University case is a huge triumph for access to educational materials in India over the interests of private copyright holders.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The case shone a light on the socio-economic context of university level education in India, in particular the cost of textbooks. Students became advocates for access to knowledge, and the law on access to educational materials in India has been advanced.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Book prices in India are an issue</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">A<a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/exceptions-limitations-education"> study submitted to the court</a> showed that consumers in the global South often have to commit significantly higher proportions of their income to buy books because absolute book prices are far higher than in the global North. For example, if consumers in the US had to pay the same proportion of their income to purchase the Oxford English Dictionary, it would cost a ludicrous 941.20 USD!</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Not even university libraries can afford these prices. While libraries do purchase multiple copies of textbooks, they cannot cater for the entire student population that can ran into hundreds of students enrolled on an individual course.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In addition, the latest editions are not always available to purchase in India. So the absence of course packs would seriously compromise access to education.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><i>“While foreign publishers claim that almost all educational titles have lower priced Indian editions, our empirical research shows this to be false. The vast majority of legal and social science titles that we surveyed had no equivalent Indian editions, and had to be purchased at prices equivalent to or higher than in the West. The lower priced Indian editions were often older and outdated.” - </i><a href="https://spicyip.com/2012/09/a-fair-education-in-copyright-world.html">Shamnad Basheer, writing in SpicyIP</a>, one of India’s leading blogs/repositories on intellectual property (IP) and innovation law/policy.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Students, faculty and authors mobilized</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The case resonated strongly with the student and academic communities. Two new groups were formed, the Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK) and the Society for Promotion of Equitable Access to Knowledge (SPEAK). Both groups were admitted as interveners in the case in support of the defendants.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Student engagement has continued, increasing awareness among the next generation for fair access to knowledge.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In addition, over three hundred academics from all over the world, including 33 authors whose works were listed in court documents as being included in the course packs,<a href="https://spicyip.com/2013/03/du-photocopy-case-academicians-and.html"> wrote to the three publishers asking them to withdraw the lawsuit.</a> The letter was submitted to the court in pleadings by the defendant.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Copyright jurisprudence advanced</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The case has advanced copyright jurisprudence in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The making of course packs for educational purposes is allowed by law.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court’s reasoning in the judgments was based on the socio-economic context of India, the realities of the education system, and the progress afforded by modern technology. These are welcome developments that will enable the law to adapt to new situations and current needs of Indian society.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Timeline</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">August 2012: Oxford University Press (OUP), Cambridge University Press (CUP) and Taylor & Francis issue legal proceedings against Delhi University and Rameshwari Photocopy Service</p>
<p dir="ltr">October 2012: Interim injunction issued against Rameshwari Photocopy Service restraining sale of course packs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">March 2013: 33 authors of works cited in court documents write to publishers asking them to withdraw the case.</p>
<p dir="ltr">September 2016: j<a href="http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/dhc/RSE/judgement/16-09-2016/RSE16092016S24392012.pdf">udgment</a> issued by Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, Delhi High Court; injunction on Rameshwari Photocopy Service lifted.</p>
<p dir="ltr">October 2016:<a href="https://spicyip.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/RFAOS.pdf"> Publishers file appeal</a> against Justice Endlaw’s decision.</p>
<p dir="ltr">December 2016:<a href="http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/dhc/PNJ/judgement/09-12-2016/PNJ09122016RFAOS812016.pdf"> Appeal rejected</a> by Delhi High Court Division Bench Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna.</p>
<p dir="ltr">January 2017:<a href="https://spicyip.com/2017/01/oxford-university-students-and-others-urge-oup-to-not-appeal-to-the-supreme-court-in-the-du-copyright-case.html"> Oxford students and academics urge OUP not to appeal to the Supreme Court.</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">March 2017:<a href="http://fdslive.oup.com/asiaed/News%20Items%20and%20Images/Joint%20Public%20Statement.pdf"> Publishers announce their withdrawal from the case.</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">April 2017: Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) (that intervened in the lower case)<a href="https://spicyip.com/2017/04/breaking-news-irro-challenges-del-hcs-du-photocopy-judgment-before-the-supreme-court.html"> files appeal to the Supreme Court.</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">May 2017:<a href="https://spicyip.com/2017/05/breaking-news-supreme-court-refuses-to-admit-irro-appeal.html"> IRRO appeal dismissed by the Supreme Court.</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/eifl-anubha-sinha-july-12-2017-course-packs-for-education-ruled-legal-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/eifl-anubha-sinha-july-12-2017-course-packs-for-education-ruled-legal-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaAccess to Knowledge2017-07-14T04:05:00ZBlog EntryChrist University Wikipedia Education Program Faculty Orientation Report
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-faculty-orientation-report
<b>Christ University faculty were given an orientation for the upcoming year on the Wikipedia Education Program</b>
<p>Report on Christ University Wikipedia Education Program Faculty Orientation</p>
<p>Participants:</p>
<ul><li>Rathi MT<br /></li><li>Shivaprasad</li><li> Sebastian K A</li><li>Naga Lakshmi</li><li>George Joseph<br /></li></ul>
<p>This <span id="DWT141" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT179" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> training aimed to get more involvement of <span id="DWT143" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT181" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span>
in Wikipedia and teach them how to use the Dashboard tool for evaluation
and monitoring of the work done by the students. The following things
which are required for the students to complete their assignments weretaught to the <span id="DWT145" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT183" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> during the orientation; so that students' doubts could be immediately resolved by the faculty: <span id="DWT147" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT185" class="ZmSearchResult"></span></span></p>
<ul><li>Google forms and sending confirmation emails.</li><li>Linking of email to Wikipedia account( helps to recover the password). <br /></li><li>Basic editing of Wikipedia and Wikisource.</li><li>Enabling of the keyboard if students have disabled in preferences.<br /></li><li>Usage of Visual editor.</li><li>Usage of referencing tool.</li><li>Editing toolbar.</li><li>Dashboard tool.<br /><br /></li></ul>
<p>After the orientation, we were discussing the possible events which we can do for the current year and the <span id="DWT149" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT187" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> was interested in doing the following:</p>
<ul><li> Wikipedia Edit-a-thon for the language <span id="DWT151" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT189" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> of different colleges in Karnataka.</li><li>Hack-a thon with help of computer science department at Christ University.</li><li>Photo walk/Photo contest with the help of media studies Christ University.</li><li>WEP review.</li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-faculty-orientation-report'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-faculty-orientation-report</a>
</p>
No publisherAnanth SubrayAccess to KnowledgeWikipedia Education ProgramWikimediaWikipediaOpenness2017-08-03T04:45:38ZBlog EntryAccess to Knowledge Bulletin — October 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-october-2012-bulletin
<b>This is the second bulletin from the Access to Knowledge team of CIS in Delhi. This issue features education program updates of the Assamese, Malayalam and Gujarati Wiki communities, a hackathon held at BITS, Hyderabad, press coverage of the Odia Wikipedia workshop in Pune, and reports of workshops organised in Bangalore, Ghaziabad and Pune during the month of October.</b>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Education Program Updates</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/launch-of-assamese-wikipedia-education-program">Launch of Assamese Wikipedia Education Program at Guwahati University</a> (by Nitika Tandon, October 22, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/malayalam-wikipedia-education-program-august-october-update">Malayalam Wikipedia Education Program: August to October Updates</a> (by Shiju Alex, October 29, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/gujarati-wikipedia-education-program-rajkot">Gujarat Wikipedia Education Program: Rajkot</a> (by Noopur Raval, October 31, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/gujarati-wikipedia-article-competition">Gujarati Wikipedia Article Competition – 10 schools, 200 students, 20 articles on Gujarati Wikipedia</a> (by Noopur Raval, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Workshop Reports</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/bengaluru-a-hub-for-kannada-and-sanskrit-wikipedia">Bengaluru: A Hub for Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, October 16, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-workshop-ghaziabad">Wikipedia workshop @ Inmantec College, Ghaziabad</a> (by Nitika Tandon, October 19, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wiki-women-day-2012-pune">Bridging Gender Gap in Pune: WikiWomenDay 2012 Celebrated with Success!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, PAI International Learning Solutions, Azam Campus, Pune, October 28, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/first-pune-odia-wikipedia-organized">First Pune Odia Wikipedia Organized!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Event Organised</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-hackathon-bits-hyderabad">Wikipedia Hackathon at BITS Hyderabad</a> (organized by CIS - A2K team and BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad, October 26 – 27, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Press Coverage</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowEvents.asp?id=37463">Odisha: Odia Wikipedia workshop organized in Pune to promote Odia language</a> (OdishaDiary.com, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Team Updates</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge/Team" title="Access To Knowledge/Team">A2K team</a> consists of three members based in Delhi: <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Nitika Tandon</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Subhashish Panigrahi</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Noopur Raval</a>.</li>
<li>We are seeking applications for the post of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-for-programme-director">Programme Director</a> (Access to Knowledge) for New Delhi office.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Shiju Alex</a>, Programme Manager, Access to Knowledge is leaving the organisation. November 16, 2012 will be his last working day. We wish him success in all his future endeavours. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a>, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i> </i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Follow us elsewhere</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="https://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-october-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-october-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessNewsletter2012-12-14T08:19:52ZPageA Comparative Study of Article Creation Campaigns on Wikipedia - Part II
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india-part-ii
<b>This is a short report on a comparative analysis of two prominent Wikimedia initiatives, Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger, to understand prevailing challenges and opportunities, and strategies to address the same. The report has been authored by Nitesh Gill with inputs from Suswetha Kolluru, and editorial oversight and support by Puthiya Purayil Sneha. This is part of a series of short-term studies undertaken by the CIS-A2K team in 2019–2020. </b>
<p class="discreet"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india">Part </a>I of this report outlined the research questions and methods of this study. Part II presents some of the observations and learnings. </p>
<h3>Observations and Analysis</h3>
<p>Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger are pilot projects and both are equally popular among Indian communities. They are similar projects but also have some unique aspects. Communities connect with each-other but in different ways. For example, as noted by an organiser, Sailesh Patnaik, WAM has the following objectives: “ a) Supporting Small Wikipedia communities around the world (majorly Asian Language Wikipedias) b) Providing support to small local communities, to encourage growth and development c)Increase the cooperation among the Wikimedia communities and affiliates in Asia, d)Enriching Asian related culture, content, and enjoyment on Wikimedia projects.”</p>
<p>Meenakshi Nandini, a Malaylam Wikimedian notes, “The Project Tiger contest gave me some best experiences. Through this project, I got support in the form of laptop and Internet access. That is very useful for me. In my view, it is a competition between the communities rather than individuals. I saw that participants wrote more articles in the Project tiger contest than in any other events.But, WAM helped to create more relevant and high-quality content than Project tiger.”</p>
<p>Some common aspects for the both projects are below:</p>
<h3>Motivation</h3>
<p dir="ltr">WAM is one of the initial projects to give a boost to volunteers across the world. Most of the editors are focussed on initiatives in their own languages, and WAM offered a common platform for Asian communities to work together on a project. According to the interviews of community members, the love for their languages inspired them to participate as well as create content in regional languages, communicate to other community members etc. </p>
<p dir="ltr">As community member SangappaDyamani notes , “To enrich Kannada wiki articles, [I’m] happy to represent kn wiki in such an event, we can meet new editors, learn new tech used in other wiki etc.” </p>
<p dir="ltr">Communities or community members began to take part in WAM when they had less opportunities or less ideas to grow their local Wikipedias. After this project began, communities or individuals have been motivated for their Wikipedia’s growth, and engaging more with regional languages and knowing about Asia or Asian culture. Many Indic languages were searching for a platform and WAM gave them a common platform to engage and create content in their regional languages. All interviews indicated the same point that it was a new idea and as every Indic language was developing at the time, this idea influenced most of the languages.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As community member, Ramajit Tudu observes, “As our Santali Wikipedia [went live], we all had lots of excitement to cover all types of the article[s] but prior to that we had articles on the regional topic only. At that time some of the other community members suggested we should take part in this editathon (WAM) and we felt It was a very nice campaign, it is an exchange and sharing of information among the Wikipedians of Asia. Knowing about the person, place and subject about your own continent other than your own country and putting them in your own language is always an interesting job. In the year 2018, I was one of the coordinators and Jury for WAM - Santali language. As our community was growing in the year 2019 others were the co-ordinator and jury but still, I had contributed by participating in the editathon. Besides these, I support the editathon by creating the project page in Santali language.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Similarly,there are quite a number of motivational factors for volunteers who have been actively participating in Project Tiger. Firstly, it gives an opportunity to create several important and relevant articles that relate to their language Wikipedia that are presently missing. Secondly, in order to keep up the momentum among participants throughout the competition, it is designed in two phases and there is friendly competition between all the Indic communities that participated to secure the top position. The third and final motivational factor is cash prizes, in the form of Amazon vouchers, for top 3 individual contributors from each community and a three day <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Project_Tiger_Training_2018">offline Wiki workshop</a> for all the active and major contributors from top performing communities.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“When it comes to a competition (between communities), there is a different kind of zeal and there are cash prizes too for extra motivation” says User:Jagmit Brar from the Punjabi community who created more than 1000 articles under Project Tiger in both the iterations.</p>
<p dir="ltr">These motivation factors have definitely been a major reason why the contest witnessed immense engagement and reach among the Indian communities. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Communication and Collaboration</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Communication is an important aspect of running these long duration editathons. So, the model is to engage local organizers and participants with early invitations. The team started contacting Asian communities a month before the start of the campaign. </p>
<p dir="ltr">According to Rupika, the Communication and Media officer of WAM “One of the most difficult things about any project is when it is a new project and they are just trying to [let the] community know about the project. But for projects that are popular and well-established like Wikipedia Asian Month and Wiki Loves Monuments, they don’t have to work that much hard. But we do make sure that our efforts with local organisers are complete. So, we ask them to create a page a month or two before that project starts.” </p>
<p dir="ltr">The discussion started from the mailing lists. Thereafter, mass messages were dropped on all the village pumps and local organisers started discussion with their community members. A new meta page was designed for every iteration. After the notifying and instructions, interested communities add their names and make sure to participate in this project. The model of engaging the communities is through social media channels, emails or on-wiki. The central-notice is a more beneficial method for informing Wikimedia about WAM and also writing blogs for the updates on progress of the project. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Also Wikipedia Asian Month’s primary objective was to collaborate with all the Asian countries as well as others to increase content related to Asia on Wikipedia. It started after a proper discussion and this collaboration was a huge experiment for organisers as well editors. The volunteers interviewed in the course of this study expressed that they are glad with the collaboration of different communities across the world on this campaign.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Collaboration is one of the main features which defines the objective of WAM. It helps the small communities to grow systematically and do something for their regional Wikipedias and learn from other international and national communities.WAM started with 40 plus communities and at present, the number of participating communities is over 70 due to its collaborative nature. Through its five iterations, many Wikipedia communities have been linked to each other and know about each other’s histories and culture etc. ‘Mourya Biswas, a Bengali wikimedian notes’, “Personally, organising WAM was a great deal of a learning experience as well with regard to how to go about organising an editathon with so many people contributing from across different parts of the world. I had hitherto very little experience on organising online editathons. A few tools were absolutely new to me. In the subsequent editathons that I have organised since then, I've learnt to use a few tools to coordinate, support and manage the editathon even more efficiently.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Similarly communication engagement is an effective step of Project Tiger as well. Organisers announce the project on India mailing list then approach communities via village pumps so that they are aware of when the project will commence. Communities remain engaged with the project till three months. The communication channels include social media, emails and phone-calls. Jury members regularly remain in touch with organisers. Editors also communicate regularly with recipients of hardware support. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger, as a contest, needs collaborative efforts in order to be a successful engagement with the communities, and the emphasis was on regular communication and discussions that resulted in strengthening the community further.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We had Whatsapp groups with all the volunteers participating in the contest to strategise, resolve doubts, share ideas in order to create as many good quality articles as possible”, observes User:Parvathi Sridharan from Tamil Wiki community.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This contest/project not only saw engaging participation from existing and experienced volunteers, but also from many new ones. This contest has paved a way for new and enthusiastic people who were interested in contributing to Wikipedia. One way this happened is also through offline Wiki workshops conducted as part of outreach.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">“This contest was a good chance to show how people in India are improving the access to knowledge across India and to the world. Many communities which were unnoticed came out during this PT writing contest and showed their community strength.” notes User:Gnoeee, from the Malayalam community who had contributed to English and Malayalam Wikipedia during Project Tiger 1.0</p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Culture</h3>
<p>WAM encourages cultural exchange by mediating online connections between communities and helping them learn about unique aspects of their respective countries and languages. During this project, Asian communities generate articles/content on their local Wikipedias, and also have an opportunity to find their cultural interests and ways to understand other cultures.</p>
<p>As noted by Saliesh Patnaik, an Odia Wikipedian who is also the social media head for WAM, “This project also encourages cultural exchange within the community with the help of a month-long edit-a-thon which promotes the creation or improvement of the Wikipedia content about Asia except for their (the participant’s) own country.” </p>
<p dir="ltr">“Wikipedia Asian Month is the one of the first kinds of campaigns not just in Asia but in the entire movement to involve so many small communities in this wide level. That individually has allowed so many different communities to grow and help them to learn how to systematically and structurally work together. Project Tiger and other contests came [in the later stages] which really got communities involved. But when WAM started in 2015 it was the first contest where people participated internationally.” The editors’ enthusiasm towards WAM proves that they are interested in creating content across cultures and establishing their links with other non-Indian communities. </p>
<p>Just like WAM, Project Tiger also encourages cultural exchange and bridging cultural gaps. Through this project, Indic communities got a platform to connect with each other. During this contest, communities generate their own regional list regarding important articles for their local Wikipedias. Communities have the opportunity to contact other fellow Wikimedians from Indic languages. They talked to each other through existing groups to solve their issues which they faced during the contest. </p>
<p>During the training period for the winner and runner up community, there was a possibility to exchange their thoughts and ideas. Due to that on-ground activity, Wikimedians played their roles enthusiastically and got more motivated with other stories, experiences and cultural aspects like cuisine. This is the way cultural exchange happened via Project Tiger.</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3>Grant Process</h3>
<p>While projects under the Wikimedia movement are primarily run on the strength and interests of its volunteer community, there are specific aspects which require funding and support from collaborators such as the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). For major events, the Wikimedia project needs a grant, depending on time duration and objectives. Similarly, WAM, while not being a very high budget event, is supported by a <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid">rapid grant</a> from the foundation. This rapid grant supports the work on purchasing and sending postcards, certificates, T-shirts, stickers & pins, advertisements on social media (Facebook, Twitter), infrastructure (AirTable membership, G-Suite subscription, etc.), <a href="https://asianmonth.wiki/">domain</a>, and the time of volunteers who are engaged in this work. </p>
<p>For Project Tiger, CIS-A2K gets a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. Selected applicants from any Indic language get hardware support which covers chromebooks/laptops and internet connectivity. Apart from it, during the contest Amazon vouchers were also given to the participants from each community who got the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank for all the three months. These prizes are fixed for every month. There are also prizes for an overall winner community, and a runner up, which is in the form of a training session after the writing contest. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Appreciation</h3>
<p dir="ltr">A token of appreciation is provided to participants, which is important to aid efforts. Under WAM, this appreciation is divided into two parts : Postcards & Certificates and Brand Ambassador. Postcards are given to those participants who created at least five articles about an Asian country. The postcards are sent by the same countries in appreciation of the contributors’ participation. This is a way to encourage new leadership and new editors. Certificates are also part of this appreciation, as a recognition of active participation and the importance of their work. As Aliva Sahoo, Odia Wikimedia, notes “When I wrote articles in 2016 I created a good number of articles. And that time I was happier because I got 4 or 5 postcards from different countries. My other community members also received postcards. That time I felt motivated to get postcards and I decided to create more articles next time and will collect more postcards. I think this kind of appreciation encourages volunteers and makes them happy.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="text-align: center;">The second form of appreciation is the Wikipedia Asian Month Ambassador. This is an honour from WAM to a Wikipedian who creates the most number of articles on their respective Wikipedia. In every iteration of WAM, ambassadors are chosen depending on the number and quality of contributions. By adding an element of competition, and using a title that does not suggest the same, the ambassador initiative plays a very important role in the event to enable more contributions. In the end, we have Wikipedians who are willing to receive other postcards by contributing 30-50 articles (relatively high quality according to our rules), which makes this event very successful and effective” Rupika Sharma, notes.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">In Project Tiger as well, as a token of appreciation to all the top performing participants, prizes were given to the top 3 editors who created the most number of articles from each community, every month in the 3 month contest. Appreciation was given in the form of a cash prize during the first iteration of the Project. After receiving a lot of feedback about this, gift vouchers are given in the second iteration instead of cash prizes.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Apart from this, merchandise such as stickers and t-shirts to other top contributors is also a practice that’s followed. The overall winner, runner up communities and few other top contributors and juries from remaining communities later attend a three day workshop as part of the Project Tiger community prize, on the topics of their preference. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Fountain tool</h3>
<p dir="ltr">The Fountain tool was developed for reviewing the articles of Wikipedia Asian Month, and is used only when the contests are running. “I made the first prototype during the first Wikipedia Asian Month in 2015. We, the jury members, were flooded with articles that needed to be evaluated fairly quickly and so I thought that I can automate 90% of the jury workflow” notes fountain tool developer Le Loy. In this tool, bytes and words are fixed according to the project. For example, in the Wikipedia Asia Month a minimum of 3000 bytes are fixed as per the criteria of evaluation for WAM. This is therefore a useful tool for the contests. It is a tool which helps a lot to collect statistics of specific projects on Wikipedia. After talking to Le Loy, we can reach the conclusion that the tool is not limited to a particular language, and it can be used for any kind of event on Wikipedia. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger also uses the Fountain tool to review articles submitted in this contest. It was easy for the participants to submit the articles and also for the jury to pick up an unreviewed article and review it based on the number of bytes, or if the article was actually submitted in the time period mentioned in the contest rules and so on. This tool has definitely made the jury process more efficient and smooth.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<h3>Diversity and Bridging gaps</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Cultural diversity is an important aspect of the sustenance of the Wikimedia movement itself, and bridging different cultural gaps is an important aspect of this effort. </p>
<p dir="ltr">After checking all past statistics of WAM, we found that WAM focused on content related to Asia only but it didn't pay much attention to content by and about persons across diverse gender and sexual identities, including marginalised groups. Sailesh Patnaik & Rupika Shrama, WAM organiser notes that there have been some efforts in this area, saying “We work with more than 50 different language communities on Wikipedia, and have also collaborated with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red">Women in Red</a> to bridge the gender gap in our projects.” There is however a need for ongoing work in this space. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger has its own strategy behind diversity and bridging gaps. Both events maintain their diversity as per required rules and areas. One of the major reasons why volunteers find a hindrance in dedicating time for Wikimedia and its projects is the lack of facilities like a laptop or even a proper internet connection. This is why laptops and internet stipends provided during the first phase of the contest have a monumental effect on the contest and also in contributions to not just Project Tiger, but also many other Wiki projects in general. Several volunteers contribute articles via mobile phones in spite of the difficult/complex editing environment. Without this support, there is a chance that Wikipedia can lose some of its most promising volunteers.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger also tries to bridge a gender gap. For example, the criteria for hardware support also includes ensuring a certain percentage of women applicants are selected. The coordinators have also tried to specifically engage women participants during the contest. Before opening the applications for hardware support, PT core team set criteria for eligibility. On the other hand, one rule always highlighted that 33% women can get laptop or internet connectivity due to their past contribution. This is an effort to engage women in the Wikimedia movement. </p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3><span style="text-align: justify;">Limitations and Barriers </span></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Despite the success of these long running programmes, its true that there still remain some barriers and limitations, as illustrated below: </p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia Asian Month</span></p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">WAM has largely remained a stable programme, but it would be a good thing to see how new aspects could be introduced in the programme. The process is the same every year because after finishing the first iteration the core team didn’t take any feedback, suggestions or concerns from the individuals for the next step, which is a major barrier to growing and planning something new for the next level. As Odia Wikimedian Aliva Sahoo notes, “From 2016 to 2019, WAM was the same and there was nothing new, but I am not sure if during 2020, they changed something because I didn’t participate this year.” According to participant’s comments or WAM rules & guidelines changes in the structure could be introduced. “When the same project is happening again and again then the novelty will reduce. We should make some changes from time to time to engage the people” notes Punjabi Wikimedian, Satdeep Gill.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The project actively makes an effort in trying to work with more communities every year but also collaborate with other projects such as Women in Red, which is aimed at creating more content by and about women. WAM itself has not been able to promote women leaders and women content as well due to its design which focuses on promoting content. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Follow-up on receipt of appreciation postcards etc. should be done diligently.There have also been instances where appreciation postcards have been delayed or not sent which affects the motivations of contributors in engaging with the project further. A few contributors did not receive their appreciation from senders, which has led to some negativity. At least after two iterations of any project, contributors or Wiki projects demand for something new. For example, during the beginning of the project, participants got the Wikipedia Asian Month ambassador tags and that was an honour for them. But volunteers seem to be looking for a change and they want to look forward to the project. A Malayalm Wikimedian, Meenakshi Nandini, noted, “However the prizes are not getting to most of the participants, especially the WAM prizes. Even me also didn’t receive most of the event prizes. So we couldn’t tell the participants that you will definitely get these prizes. I won two times as a "Wikipedia Asian Ambassador". But is there any importance or benefit for that honor?”</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">During the WAM, the focus was only on article creation but not on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Content_assessment">quality of articles</a>. It is important therefore to accord more attention to the quality of the content being created, which would help in the long-term sustenance of the project and is better aligned with the larger objectives of the movement. </p>
</li></ul>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p>
<h3><span style="text-align: justify;">Project Tiger</span></h3>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Project Tiger happened only in two iterations, but has its limitations and challenges as well. The participants or volunteers who participated in Project Tiger had some concerns on the Google article lists. Contributors felt Google should suggest only those articles which are important for their Wikipedias as priority. The PT core team was not properly able to convince participants as to why the Google list is important and editors were also not fully aware of the same, which led to some mismatch in expectations from the project.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Due to hardware support and gift vouchers, most participants are motivated to contribute more, But on the other hand, it changes the whole process of contribution in the Wikimedia movement. Cash prizes or gift vouchers showed a less than satisfactory result, thereby leading to a rethinking of how best to motivate contributors.. But for a few editors hardware support and prizes are a lot. A few users who were editing from phones got laptops just because of the project which has helped their contributions. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The manner of addressing the gender gap in the project has also been a point of contention. The possibility is, some participants feel that women only get laptops or internet support due to their gender identity. The process of such quotas may be debatable going forward, and so a clear rationale and process may be developed to encourage participation by women and individuals across the spectrum of gender and sexual identities. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">One major concern from jury members was that participants did not work on quality but quantity. Reviewers and readers are facing problems with machine translated articles submitted during Project Tiger. The PT team tried to solve the issue of quality during the second iteration, but did not work well, and jury members faced the same difficulty this time as well. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">A common challenge noted by Satdeep Gill (for both projects) is that “Contributors focus mainly on increasing the article count and the maintenance work lags behind. We need to focus on this as well.”</p>
</li></ul>
<h3><strong><br /></strong>Learnings</h3>
<p>Both projects have had more than one iteration so far, and have managed to create interest and engagement within Indian language communities in working collaboratively and building content. They have also had a fair number of challenges and limitations as well, as illustrated by the interviews. For instance, there has been a difficulty in measuring the quality of articles, the way that quantity is tracked. So there is a need to develop metrics to capture and work on quality of content. A related point is with reference to a lack of capacity building within communities, which would enable them to collaborate and contribute better. There have also been some challenges with logistics, and ensuring that participants receive their prizes during Wikipedia Asian Month. This would need more communication and careful coordination of efforts. There is also a need to keep participants engaged over a long time, and repeating the same structure of the project every year may also lead to a lack of interest or innovation. The project actively makes an effort in trying to work with more communities every year but also collaborate with other projects such as Women in Red, which is aimed at creating more content by and about women. WAM itself has not been able to promote women leaders and women content as well due to its design which focuses on promoting content. The projects therefore need to work in a progressive manner, building on feedback from participants and adapting to the evolving needs and interests of the communities. </p>
<p>These difficulties are also faced by Project Tiger. Google should focus on lists according to the needs of communities, in discussion with the PT team.For example, the core team should track volunteers' contributions after getting the support because anyone can make 500 or 1000 edits for getting a laptop. The core team should find people from the communities who need this support and will contribute proactively. Project Tiger’s process transparency is appreciated, but with the same transparency the infrastructure distribution process should be different from now. Also it should encourage or discuss with communities about proactive women’s participation during the project. PT should run a Bridging Gender Gap campaign, where communities should play a role to engage women as organisers from each community and should make a strategy for the same. This project needs to work on a strategy for building and sustaining quality as well which is important for growth of Indic Wikipedias.</p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">So, not every project is perfect, every project has some achievements and some limitations. Therefore, WAM and Project Tiger are also the same, it achieves its goals but also carries some failures. But there is a possibility to make changes to both projects.</span></p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Conclusion </h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Wikipedia Asian Month is an International project which started in 2015. It is a low budget project, and gives a common platform to Asian as well as Non-Asian communities to participate over the course of a month. When WAM started most of the communities were excited to do something for their languages, and this was a big initial motivation for the project. The communities want to continue with WAM because they feel like this is one of the projects which started at that time when communities wanted something to engage themselves with Wikipedias. Every year most of the communities participate in it for sure, although the people who work on the projects may differ. Project Tiger is a pilot project which is a three-month-long contest. This project provides an opportunity to communities to work together. After the success of the Indic languages contest [Project Tiger] in 2018, two more countries, (<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proyek_Saraswati/Kompetisi">Project Saraswati</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Project_GLOW/Project_Al-Ma%27refa">Project Al-Ma'refa</a>), also organised a similar project under different names. Due to Project Tiger, thousands of articles were created or developed by volunteers about important, most searched for topics suggested by Google, as well as those important to respective Indic language Wikipedias. Infra-structure support pays attention to volunteers' hard work and encourages them to work to share free knowledge. These projects therefore go a long way in enriching local language content, and keeping volunteer communities interested and engaged with their respective Wikipedias. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">You may also read the full report on Wikimedia Meta-Wiki<a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Article_Creation_Campaigns_on_Wikipedia"> here. </a></p>
<p><strong><br /><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india-part-ii'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india-part-ii</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppA2K ResearchAccess to Knowledge2021-06-11T10:54:37ZBlog EntryFueling the Affordable Smartphone Revolution in India
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digital-asia-hub-the-good-life-in-asias-21-st-century-anubha-sinha-fueling-the-affordable-smartphone-revolution-in-india
<b>Smartphones have emerged as the exemplar of mankind's quest for shrinking technologies. They embody the realization of a simple premise – that computing devices would do more and cost less. This realization has been responsible for modern society's profound transformations in communication, governance, and knowledge distribution.</b>
<p>The essay was published as part of the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.digitalasiahub.org/thegoodlife/">The Good Life in Asia's Digital 21st Century essay collection</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The launch of the iPhone in 2007 is often credited with ushering in an era of smartphones. Ever since, the world's best tech R&D has focused on increasing the capabilities of these devices. And as a result, less than a decade later, we have sub-hundred dollar smartphones. The low-cost smartphone has found an enthusiastic and insatiable market in developing countries, especially Asia. India is no exception to the Asian narrative – Micromax, Spice, and Lava (low cost smartphone manufacturers) are household names in the Indian smartphone market, which accounted for 65% of internet traffic in 2014 (Meeker, 2015).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian Prime Minister, carrying the twin aspirations of catalyzing the growth of indigenous manufacturing and bridging the digital divide, launched the “Digital India” and “Make in India” campaigns last year. During his US visit, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook extended their support to the campaigns' vision (Guynn, 2011). The campaigns outline the government's elaborate initiatives to, inter alia, bridge the digital divide and build indigenous manufacturing capacity. While all these developments bode well for the indigenous smartphone, there remain some serious concerns affecting the growth of the industry – for instance, patent infringement litigations and the absence of clear legal and regulatory solutions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">From the state of the industry and its implications, it can be concluded that: first, growing access to smartphones has been influenced by their phenomenal affordability; second, smartphones are an excellent example of technology for development (UNDP, 2001) and a facilitator of access to knowledge; and third, domestic smartphone production has occurred in an imprecise legal and regulatory environment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This essay attempts to build an appreciation for the role that smartphones are playing in development, specifically, by fostering Access to Knowledge. Conversations around development by public-interest groups and emerging industries often espouse Access to Knowledge to address concerns in international development, communications, technology, education, and intellectual property policy. Whereas the principle can be regarded as in-theworks, two theories inform us about the role of mobile phones in fostering Access to Knowledge. Lea Sheaver's theory classifies mobile as an Access-toKnowledge good. Lea enumerates the five key components of a robust Access to Knowledge framework, viz., education for information literacy, access to the global knowledge commons, access to knowledge goods, an enabling legal framework, and effective innovation systems (Sheaver, 2007). According to her, affordability of the good is the ultimate indicator of its efficacy as an access to knowledge good. Furthermore, inventions in microchip technology, electronics manufacturing, and software need to be supported by enabling legal and policy frameworks coupled with effective innovation systems.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Yochai Benkler's framework classifies mobile-devices as both informationembedded goods and information-embedded tools (Benkler, 2006). He says, “Information-embedded goods are those goods which are ‘better, more plentiful or cheaper because of some technological advance embedded in them or associated with their production,’ such as medicines, movies, and improved crop seed. Information-embedded tools, in turn, are those technologies necessary for research, innovation, and communication of knowledge” (Benkler, 2006). A smartphone qualifies as both because it can be used to obtain knowledge, and it depends on discoveries in microchip technology, electronics manufacturing, and software to function.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To date, there has been no formal, theoretical or evidentiary investigation on the emergence of smartphones as an Access-to-Knowledge good. In the following sections, I will attempt to explain the smartphone’s dependence on an enabling legal framework and effective innovation systems (Lea's components). It must be borne in mind that globally, discussions affecting access to knowledge have aimed at creating balanced and inclusive systems related to intellectual property (Kapczynski & Krikorian, 2010). Therefore, the essay will focus on: first, the relationship between constituent mobile technologies and intellectual property as a function of production/deployment of smartphones in India; and second, the relationship between innovation and access.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Creating an Enabling Legal Framework to Foster Access to Knowledge</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The adage “the only lesson you can learn from history is that it repeats itself” is worth bearing in our narrative. The emergence of the smartphones industry in Asia has commonalities with the flourishing Asian piracy trade – which remains an essential access solution for low-income societies constantly barraged by expensive western media goods. The prohibitive cost of acquiring brand-name devices (e.g. Apple, HTC, Samsung, Sony) drove local production to imitate and innovate cheaper substitutes (WIPO, 2010). This occurred within the lenient and flexible intellectual property regimes prevalent in Asian countries, which continue to be constantly criticized for their failure to enact stricter intellectual property law. The hubs of smartphone production – China, Taiwan, and India – have flexible intellectual property protection law and lax enforcement measures (Centre for Internet and Society, 2012).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Concerns of intellectual property center around patent and copyright legislation, which have yet to be fully developed to address intellectual property in high-tech industries (since trademark issues remain unchanged, they will not be discussed in the essay.) As a result, constituent smartphone technologies have been shaped and governed by a blend of formal and informal rules and legal and illegal practices. This is why they are often referred to as “gray market” technologies. A smartphone in terms of constituent intellectual property can be broadly divided into hardware and software technologies. This piece will first deal with hardware, followed by software technologies.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Hardware Technologies and Their Relationship with IP Law</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Presently, most Indian manufacturers import hardware from China and Taiwan, and assemble the phones in India. A few key Indian domestic players are Maxx Mobile, Intex, Spice, and Lava, whose dominance have not gone unnoticed by foreign manufacturers. A couple of these domestic manufacturers are now embroiled in patent litigation threats or infringement suits. And as litigation piles up in Indian courts, the judiciary is slowly waking up to mobile patent litigation, but is yet to rule comprehensively. To make matters worse, the jurisdiction of the Indian antitrust regulator remains unclear, and to a certain extent overlaps with the judiciary, adding to the ambiguity. For instance, when an appellate court ruled in favor of the Swedish tech-giant Ericsson, it ordered Micromax to pay a flat 1.25 – 2% of its devices' selling price to Ericsson (Lakshane, 2015). The ruling was devoid of a more rational and reasoned approach developed by courts of other jurisdictions in similar matters, which prescribed that the infringers pay damages based on the price of the patented components only, and not the retail price of the phones. This decision risks causing a significant increase in the price of phones and potentially threatens local innovation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian government's Make in India and Digital India campaigns aim to fulfill the vision of a digitally empowered India, and the 2015 Indian Union budget also targets boosting the electronics manufacturing industry. Despite these broad initiatives, there needs to be a more focused policy in place to ensure domestic companies do not get weighed down by patent related concerns. The root cause of litigation is the vesting of a majority of critical mobile patents (Standard Essential Patents, or SEPs) by a handful tech-giants. For instance, Qualcomm owns 5700 patents around CDMA technology (qualcomm.com). In another instance, the DVD format constitutes 311 SEPs for DVD players and 272 SEPs for DVD recorders (CIS, 2012). Such a dense concentration of patents around SEPs creates a patent thicket and thereby compels Smartphone manufacturers to acquire multiple licenses, and to pay high transaction costs and huge royalties to the owner. To reduce conflict and protect domestic players from being arm-twisted into paying high royalties, the government can potentially identify critical technologies and initiate the formation of a patent pool of such technologies. The concept of a patent pool mandates that the patent holders issue licenses on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory basis to interested parties. However, a nuanced and cautious approach to setting up such pools is necessary (Shapiro, 2001).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There are interesting lessons in China's steps to encourage local innovation of Smartphone hardware as well, specifically in the form of standardized technologies. The Chinese government has actively supported the development of indigenous standards to shield domestic manufacturers from royalty exposure. In fact, the China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) standard was built as an alternative to the Blu-ray disc and was duly adopted by the Chinese government, which reportedly caused the royalty rates for the Blu-ray format to dip. Much later, Warner Bros, Paramount, and other motion picture producers adopted the CBHD standard as well for distribution in China.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Software Technologies and Their Relationship with IP Law</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Unlike hardware technology, where India is struggling to build manufacturing capacity, the success of the Indian software industry has already been realized. The software-as-a-service (SaAS) industry is led by Infosys, TCS, and Wipro in software exports. The prevailing trend in the industry since the 1980s was to assign ownership of their products to offshore clients. However, in the past decade, there has been a conscious shift by the Indian software development workforce to build products for Smartphone platforms. This is in response to the shift in local populations to accessing content and services online. Reports indicate that India has the second largest population of mobile applications developers (approx. 3 million) in the world, second only to the US (Livemint, 2015). The Indian government has recognized the potential of mobile application-based ventures and created funds to encourage app development in India (IAMAI, 2015).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Intellectual property protection around software is fairly ambiguous. A piece of code is potentially capable of gaining both patent and copyright protection. In the area of mobile application development, preliminary research findings indicate that coding occurs with an agnostic attitude towards intellectual property laws (Cassar, 2014). One of the reasons is ambiguity on a multitude of issues around the protection of software because Indian legislation on patent and copyright is frustratingly insufficient. There is a growing discontentment about long-term patent protection over software code, which could be detrimental to innovation – particularly, to the start-up segment of software industry. In more technologically advanced economies, software patenting has emerged as a scourge – last year, the US Supreme Court in Alice Corporation Pty Ltd v. CLS Bank International Et Al narrowed the eligibility of software inventions to gain patent protection. The activist discourse has shifted in favor of eliminating software patenting because of the incremental and obsolescent nature of a software invention, inter alia (Lapowsky, 2015). However, in a recent disappointing move, the Indian patent office widened the scope of patent-eligible subject matter for software-related inventions – a move that was decried by free software activists and industry alike. This widening of scope can only benefit tech-giants in building bigger patent portfolios, which is unnecessary and unhealthy for innovation by small and mid-tier entities (Sinha, 2015).</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Effective Innovation Systems</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Innovation ensures fresh creation of knowledge. A society cannot premise itself on the mere importation of knowledge; it must also strive to use the knowledge to meet its own local needs and environment. Innovation depends on a variety of factors – there is no singular path or factor to build an innovative and enterprising society. The patent system is often incorrectly credited with “promoting” innovation. The discourse around innovation was extremely patent-centric until studies disproved the assumptive correlation between high patenting activity and innovation. Continuing in the same vein, Lea states, “From the A2K perspective, however, relying on patents – which represent the right to exclude others from access to the innovation – is particularly problematic. Patents likely represent the segment of innovation of least value for expanding access to knowledge: improvements in the knowledge stock whose application is limited by exclusive property rights” (Shaver, 2007).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In this framework, it is also important to shed light on the growing movement of openness. Openness as a movement has been captured by various fields - Big data, software, education, media, etc. Free and Open Source Software has emerged as a key agent in information technology policy-making in India, with the Indian government adopting an open standards policy and an open software policy for its own purposes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the context of smartphone technologies, preliminary findings also support the shift towards openness (Huang, 2014). Industry participants have observed that openness will lead to greater benefits in private production of hardware technologies. Similarly, mobile applications developers have also voiced support of open source software (Cassar, 2014).</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Conclusion</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The discussion above identified a limited set of legal and regulatory concerns affecting the state of production/deployment of smartphones in India. These issues and findings are backed by preliminary research, and purport to sustain the emergence of the smartphone as an enabler of access to knowledge. The proposed solutions direct industry and the government alike to take immediate steps to fix problems impeding pervasive access to this knowledge good.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The experience of the smartphone industry with an imprecise legal and regulatory environment, akin to piracy, has thus far been a success story of affordability, quality substitution, and innovation. However, this narrative is now threatened by messy litigation, jurisdictional uncertainties between the anti-trust regulator and judicial system, SEP licensing issues, rise of software patents, inter alia. Despite these issues, the industry continues to grow. The future of access to knowledge is therefore bright, provided that stakeholders make efforts to meet the needs of this emerging industry and the public, including development and consumer interests.</p>
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<p><strong> References / Links / Resources</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth Of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets And Freedom. Retrieved from http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php?title=Chapter_9%2C_section_3.</li>
<li>Cassar, S. (2014). Interviews with App Developers: Open Source, Community, and Contradictions – Part III. Retrieved from: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/interviews-with-app-developers-open-sourcecommunity-and-contradictions-iii</li>
<li>Cassar, S. (2014) Ambiguity in the App Store: Understanding India’s emerging IT sector in light of IP. Retrieved from http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ambiguity-in-the-app-store</li>
<li>Centre for Internet and Society, Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace(2012, September). Retrieved from http://cis-india.org/a2k/pervasive-technologies-research-proposal.pdf/view</li>
<li>Guynn, J. (2015, September 28). Facebook, Silicon Valley like Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/09/27/narendra-modi-india-facebook-markzuckerberg-google-sundar-pichai-silicon-valley/72936544/</li>
<li>Huang, M. (2014). [Open] Innovation and Expertise > Patent Protection & Trolls in a Broken Patent Regime (Interviews with Semiconductor Industry - Part 3). Retrieved from: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ interviews-with-semi-conductor-industry-part-3</li>
<li>IAMAI (2015). An inquiry into India's app economy.</li>
<li>Kapczynski, A., Krikorian, G., (2010). Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property. Retrieved from: https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9781890951962_Access_to_ Knowledge_in_the_Age_of_Intellectual_Property.pdf</li>
<li>Lakshane, R. (2015, September). FAQ: CIS Proposal for Compulsory Licensing of Critical Mobile Technologies. Retrieved from: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/faq-cis-proposal-for-compulsory-licensing-ofcritical-mobile-technologies</li>
<li>Lakshane, R. (2015, February). Open Letter to Prime Minister Modi. Retrieved from: http://cis-india.org/ a2k/blogs/open-letter-to-prime-minister-modi</li>
<li>Lapowsky, I. (2015, February). If You Want to Fix Software Patents, Eliminate Software Patents. Retrieved from https://www.eff.org/mention/follow-wired-twitter-facebook-rss-eff-if-you-want-fix-software-patentseliminate-software</li>
<li>Meeker, M. (2015). 2015 Internet Trends. Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/partner/mary-meeker</li>
<li>PTI (2015). Google aims to make India a hub for app development. Livemint. Retrieved from: http:// www.livemint.com/Industry/rwWUfp30YezONe0WnM1TIO/Google-aims-to-make-India-a-hub-for-appdevelopment.html</li>
<li>Qualcomm Enters Into CDMA Modem Card License Agreement with Seiko Instruments Incorporated. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2015, from https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2000/06/20/ qualcomm-enters-cdma-modem-card-license-agreement-seiko-instruments</li>
<li>Shapiro, C. (2001). Navigating the Patent Thicket: Cross Licenses, Patent Pools, and Standard Setting. Innovation Policy and the Economy, 1, 119-150. Retrieved from: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c10778.pdf</li>
<li>Shaver, L. (2007). Defining and Measuring Access to Knowledge: Towards an A2K Index. Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 22. retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/22</li>
<li>Sinha, A. (2015). Comments on the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (CRIs). Retrieved from http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-the-guidelines-for-examination-of-computerrelated-inventions-cris</li>
<li>United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2001: Making New Technologies Work for Human Development (2001). Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2001/en/</li>
<li>World Intellectual Property Organisation. (2010, Dec 1-2). Media Piracy in Emerging Economies: Price, Market Structure and Consumer Behavior. Retrieved from the WIPO website: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/ mdocs/enforcement/en/wipo_ace_6/wipo_ace_6_5.pdf</li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digital-asia-hub-the-good-life-in-asias-21-st-century-anubha-sinha-fueling-the-affordable-smartphone-revolution-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digital-asia-hub-the-good-life-in-asias-21-st-century-anubha-sinha-fueling-the-affordable-smartphone-revolution-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaFeaturedIntellectual Property RightsAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2016-03-16T15:23:43ZBlog EntryFAQ: CIS' Proposal for Compulsory Licensing of Critical Mobile Technologies
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/faq-cis-proposal-for-compulsory-licensing-of-critical-mobile-technologies
<b>Earlier this year, the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) had proposed that the Government of India (GoI) initiate the formation of a patent pool of critical mobile technologies and mandate a five percent compulsory license. The proposal was made in light of ongoing litigation in India over standard essential patents pertaining to mobile technology, and the government's own “Make in India” and “Digital India” programmes.</b>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Read CIS' proposal to the Government of India regarding the formation of a patent pool <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-letter-to-prime-minister-modi">here</a>. To read about ongoing litigation in India over standard essential patents pertaining to mobile technology, click <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/compilation-of-mobile-phone-patent-litigation-cases-in-india">here</a>.</p>
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<p>1. <b>How did CIS arrive upon the figure of 5 percent as the compulsory licensing fee for the patent pool?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of foreign technology agreements, the Department of Industrial Development (DID) introduced a ceiling of 5 percent on the royalty rates charged for domestic sale and 8 percent for export of goods pertaining to "high priority industries" in the year 1991. Royalties higher than 5 percent or 8 percent, as the case may be, required securing approval from the government<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a>. While 1991 was too early for the mobile device manufacturing industry to be listed among high priority industries, the public announcement by the government covered computer software, consumer electronics, and electrical and electronic appliances for home use<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a>. In 2009, another department under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion, revoked the cap on royalty rates<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a>. Sanjana Govil throws some light on why government regulation on intellectual property was introduced in the early 90s and how it succeeded in reducing the flow of money out of India: <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">Putting</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows"> a </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">Lid </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">on </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">Royalty </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">Outflows</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows"> — </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">How </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">the </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">RBI </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">can </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">Help </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">Reduce </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">India</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">'</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">s </a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows">IP</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/lid-on-royalty-outflows"> Costs</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The situation in 1991 is somewhat analogous to the current one where most of the patent holders in the mobile device technology domain are multinational corporations, which results in large royalty amounts leaving India. At the same time, litigation over patent infringement in India has thwarted the manufacture and sale of mobile devices of homegrown brands. Additionally, these developments are detrimental to the Modi government’s aim of encouraging local manufacturing as well as strengthening India’s intellectual property regime.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">2. <b>How would royalties be distributed among patent holders in a patent pool where a single fee of 5 percent is being charged? </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A patent pool formed for the purpose of compulsorily licensing the patents contained in it can be managed by combining government intervention with the governance structure of a voluntary patent pool. Vikrant Narayan Vasudeva enumerates the different approaches to setting royalty rates in a patent pool once a “royalty base” has been established<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4">[4]</a>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Rule of Thumb</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Numerical Proportionality</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Industry Standards / Market or Comparable Technology Method</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Discounted Cash Flow</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Ranking</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Cost-based Rate Setting</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Surrogate Measures</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Disaggregation Methods</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Option Methods</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● Competitive Advantage Valuation (R)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>3. The letter implicitly suggests that litigation intended to protect the interests of patent holders could potentially have a chilling effect on government initiatives, local innovation and the interests of consumers. Is there evidence to support this?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Though there is a thin line between legitimate application of legal remedies and chilling effects, the ramifications of the acitivies of non-practising entities (NPEs), of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP suits), and of frivolous lawsuits provide plenty of evidence to support making such a proposal.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some indicative examples:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://gigaom.com/2014/10/08/patent-trolling-pays-since-2010-trolls-have-made-3-times-as-much-money-in-court-as-real-companies/">Patent trolling pays: Since 2010, trolls have made 3 times as much money in court as real companies</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://www.fosspatents.com/2011/07/kootol-india-based-troll-with-us-and.html">Kootol (India-based troll with US and European patent applications) sends notices to many companies regarding Twitter/Facebook-style feeds</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://legalnewsline.com/stories/510627684-alleged-troll-that-sued-ebay-over-pto-reexamination-dismisses-lawsuit">Alleged troll that sued eBay over PTO reexamination dismisses lawsuit</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/patent-troll-lodsys-settles-nothing-avoid-trial">Patent Troll Lodsys Settles for Nothing to Avoid Trial</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://toddmoore.com/2013/07/02/why-im-not-paying-the-troll-toll/">Why I’m not paying the Troll Toll</a></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Press Note No. 12 (1991 Series), Procedures in respect of foreign technology agreement, <a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">http</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">://</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">eaindustry</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">.</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">nic</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">.</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">in</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">/</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">handbk</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">/</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">chap</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">003.</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap003.pdf">pdf</a>, Last accessed September 16, 2015.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> Press Note No. 10 (1992 Series), Revised List of Annex-III items, <a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">http</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">://</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">eaindustry</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">.</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">nic</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">.</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">in</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">/</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">handbk</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">/</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">chap</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">005.</a><a href="http://eaindustry.nic.in/handbk/chap005.pdf">pdf</a>, Last accessed September 16, 2015.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> Press Note No.8 of 2009, Liberalization of Foreign Technology Agreement policy, <a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">http</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">://</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">dipp</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">.</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">gov</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">.</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">in</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">/</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">English</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">/</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">acts</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">_</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">rules</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">/</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">Press</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">_</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">Notes</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">/</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">pn</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">8_2009.</a><a href="http://dipp.gov.in/English/acts_rules/Press_Notes/pn8_2009.pdf">pdf</a>, Last accessed September 16, 2015.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> <i>B. Setting Royalty Rates, </i>Patent Valuation and License Fee Determination in Context of Patent Pools, Vikrant Narayan Vasudeva, <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">http</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">://</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">cis</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">india</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">.</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">org</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">/</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">a</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">2</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">k</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">/</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">blogs</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">/</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">patent</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">valuation</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">and</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">license</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">fee</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">determination</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">in</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">context</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">of</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">patent</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">-</a><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-valuation-and-license-fee-determination-in-context-of-patent-pools">pools</a>, Last accessed September 16, 2015.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/faq-cis-proposal-for-compulsory-licensing-of-critical-mobile-technologies'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/faq-cis-proposal-for-compulsory-licensing-of-critical-mobile-technologies</a>
</p>
No publisherrohiniAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2016-02-14T04:40:29ZBlog EntrySoftware Freedom Pledge
https://cis-india.org/openness/software-freedom-pledge-2015
<b>On September 19, 2015, celebrated globally as Software Freedom Day, a number of enthusiasts got together and collectively took a pledge.</b>
<br />
<p>We, who have gathered together for <a href="http://softwarefreedomday.org/">Software Freedom Day 2015</a>, believe that software freedom is both a matter of ethical principle as well as a matter of pragmatism, and is necessary for a democratic, open society.</p>
<p>We believe that it is desirable that all people, but especially governments, use, contribute to, and spread open standards, free/libre/open source software, open APIs, openly-licensed content (including open data, open access, and open education resources), leading to a vibrant public domain, and ensure that all of the above are accessible for all, including persons with disabilities and other marginalised sections of society.</p>
<p>Given that, we pledge to:</p>
<ul>
<li>use and spread free software amongst our family, friends, and neighbours, both in person and virtually.</li>
<li>demand that services we use in turn use open standards and open APIs, and thus be available for all using free/libre/open source software, without the payment of any royalties.</li>
<li>raise the issue of software freedom with our democratic representatives, to seek that they in turn respect and promote these principles.</li>
<li>as far as possible, making our own work openly available, and seek to convince our employers, publishers, producers, and other persons who might be in a position to restrict </li>
<li>work against any laws, policies — corporate or governmental — or technical restrictions that seek to prevent people from full exercise of their rights, and which are contrary to the above principles.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<p>Signed by:</p>
<p>Abhaya Agarwal <br />
Ananth Subray <br />
Asutosha Sarangi <br />
Chirag Sarthi J <br />
Prakash Hebballi <br />
Pranesh Prakash <br />
Ralph Andrade <br />
Subhashish Panigrahi <br />
Tito Dutta <br />
Veethika Mishra</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/software-freedom-pledge-2015'>https://cis-india.org/openness/software-freedom-pledge-2015</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshOpen StandardsOpen SourceAccess to KnowledgeFLOSSOpen ContentFOSSEventTechnological Protection Measures2015-09-25T12:26:09ZBlog EntryAs Odia Wikipedia turns 13, what happens next?
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-turns-13-what-happens-next
<b>Odia Wikipedia, one of several Indian-language Wikipedia projects, celebrated thirteen years of free knowledge contribution on June 3.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This was originally <a class="external-link" href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/08/21/odia-wikipedia-celebrates-13/">published on the Wikimedia Blog</a> on August 21. The post was shared on Wikipedia's official <a class="external-link" href="https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10153481749053346">Facebook page</a>, and on Twitter handles [<a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/Wikipedia/status/635838494187913216">1</a> and <a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/635838494200438784">2</a>]</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">Launched in 2002—just a year after the English Wikipedia was launched—Odia Wikipedia has grown to be the largest content repository in the <a title="w:Oriya language" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriya_language">Odia language</a> available in Unicode on the Internet. With over 8,900 articles and about <a href="http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaOR.htm">17 active editors</a> (also known as “uikiali”) spread across various parts of India and abroad, the project has become more than just an encyclopedia. The voluntary editor community has put its efforts into <a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/10/18/more-than-40-million-people-await-the-launch-of-odia-wikisource/">acquiring</a> valuable content, re-licensing them under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/">Creative Commons (CC)</a> licenses, and <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/06/03/odia-wikipedia/">building tools</a> for acquiring more encyclopedic content from various sources.</p>
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<p>The community has also engaged over 2,500 people through various outreach programs, such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_program">Wikipedia Education Program</a>. For its thirteenth anniversary, the community released a <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/06/03/odia-wikipedia/">character-encoding converter</a> that promises to unlock massive amounts of content—from government portals to journals, newspapers and magazines that have their content in various legacy encoding systems other than Unicode. This has been a major roadblock in the search for and reuse of digital content in the Odia language.</p>
<p>During our thirteenth anniversary celebrations, the community spent a day assessing community needs, addressing issues, and identifying priority areas to focus on in the future. This was arguably the first time almost the entire community gathered in a physical space. This allowed Odia Wikipedia administrator, and the most active Odia Wikimedian, <a title="User:MKar" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MKar">Mrutyunjaya Kar</a> and I to design a <a title="w:or:ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:ଜନ୍ମତିଥି/୧୩/ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ମତାମତ" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%AA%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%86:%E0%AC%9C%E0%AC%A8%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%AE%E0%AC%A4%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A5%E0%AC%BF/%E0%AD%A7%E0%AD%A9/%E0%AC%93%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%86_%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%86%E0%AC%B3%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%99%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%95_%E0%AC%AE%E0%AC%A4%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%AE%E0%AC%A4">needs assessment survey</a>. Participating Wikimedians were asked to brainstorm various problems they face in two major areas: editing and outreach.</p>
</td>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Odia_Wikipedia_stats_FebJuly_2015.svg.png" title="Odia Wikipedia Stats" height="269" width="224" alt="null" class="image-inline" /></th>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
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<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Odia_Wikipedia_stats_FebJuly_2015.svg.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Editing Odia Wikipedia" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify;">
<p>Two-fifths of participants said that problems with the rendering of Odia characters in different operating systems, ignorance or lack of more documentation about enabling encoding for Odia, input methods and keyboard layouts, and other font- and keyboard-related issues as the major reason for low readership and contribution on Wikipedia.</p>
<p>More than a third instead blamed the lack of good quality content on Wikipedia and the Internet as a whole in the Odia language, in English related to Odia language, and in Odisha on the Internet. A quarter blamed other technical issues, including the lack of mobile input in Odia, for low editorship, while low interest for contributing in Odia language by native language speakers was blamed by eight percent of survey participants.</p>
</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a title="w:or:User:User:Aditya Mahar" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:User:User:Aditya_Mahar">Aditya Mahar</a>, the second-most active editor on the Odia Wikipedia, feels that the biggest setback for the Odia Wikipedia is a lack of interest in contributing in Odia language. He says many Odia speakers feel that Odia is not needed to acquire and share knowledge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“Like many others, I have been very eager to learn and share more about my home state and culture,” he says. “That’s why I started to contribute to the Odia Wikipedia, to tell my people about our rich cultural heritage in my language.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">He adds that he is concerned by the way many have been alienating Odia with the excuse of learning English to connect to the rest of the world. “I want my future generation to find everything they want to learn in Odia—from the history of Odisha, our art, architecture, Odia language and people, and our cultural extravaganza,” he says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a title="en:or:User:MKar" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:User:MKar">Mrutyunjaya Kar</a>, an administrator on the Odia Wikipedia and the most active contributor, feels that Wikipedia is like a marathon and there is a great need for fresh blood in the community. Asked if the community will ever die out, Mrutyunjaya feels that even with a small community, the Odia Wikipedia community is always going to thrive, even if, in the worst case, only one active Wikipedian remains. So, we badly need new users to pass the baton. For him, community support and bonding with the fellow editors is the most important thing to lead a community.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Mrutyunjaya adds that creating many short articles, known as “stubs”, is a necessary evil and essential for a project like the Odia Wikipedia, as they are drafted as a by-product of collaborative editing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“It takes little longer for a small community like Odia to expand and enhance quality of stubs though,” he says. “Many-a-times, new editors learn about Wikipedia editing while creating stubs. However, all the active Wikipedians agreed during the thirteenth anniversary not to create or promote many stubs.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><a title="User:Saileshpat" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Saileshpat">Sailesh Patnaik</a>, Odia Wikimedian</em><br /> <a title="User:Psubhashish" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Psubhashish"><em>Subhashish Panigrahi</em></a><em>, Odia Wikimedian and Programme Officer, <a title="m:India Access To Knowledge" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">Access To Knowledge</a> (CIS-A2K)</em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-turns-13-what-happens-next'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-turns-13-what-happens-next</a>
</p>
No publisherSubhashish Panigrahi and Sailesh PatnaikOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T17:08:41ZBlog Entry Google's Optical Character Recognition Software Now Works with All South Asian Languages
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages
<b>The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software by Google now works for more than 248 world languages, including all the major South Asian languages, and it's easy to use and works with over 90 percent accuracy for most languages.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://globalvoices.org/2015/08/29/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages/">Global Voices</a> on August 29, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692" target="_blank">Optical Character Recognition</a> (OCR) software by Google <a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/google-drives-ocr-capabilities-expanded-to-over-200-languages-690194">now works</a> for more than 248 world languages, including all the major <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_South_Asia" target="_blank">South Asian languages</a>, and it's easy to use and works with over 90 percent accuracy for most languages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition" target="_blank">OCR</a> software has been extremely beneficial for the study of language, helping to extract text from images of virtually any printed text—and sometimes even handwriting, which opens the door to old texts, manuscripts, and more.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/google-drives-ocr-capabilities-expanded-to-over-200-languages-690194">Ketan Pratap</a> at <i>NDTV Gadgets</i> writes:</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>Users can start using the OCR capabilities in Drive by uploading scanned document in PDF or image form after which they can right-click on the document in Drive to open with Google Docs. After choosing the option, a document with the original image alongside extracted text opens, which can be edited. Google notes that users will not be required to specify the language of the document as the OCR in Drive will automatically determine it. The OCR capability in Google Drive is also available in Drive for Android.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On Twitter, many users have welcomed and even celebrated this new feature from Google:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" style="text-align: justify; ">
<p dir="ltr">Optical Character Recognition <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OCR?src=hash">#OCR</a> in Google Drive recongnizes many indic languages including <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kannada?src=hash">#Kannada</a> give it a try <a href="http://t.co/99UkCJQ6gb">http://t.co/99UkCJQ6gb</a></p>
<p>— Omshivaprakash (@omshivaprakash) <a href="https://twitter.com/omshivaprakash/status/637222750785011713">August 28, 2015</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" style="text-align: justify; ">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/shylobisnett">@shylobisnett</a> if you have access to a scanner, you can do OCR through google drive. works a bit faster.</p>
<p>— Whet Moser (@whet) <a href="https://twitter.com/whet/status/636922445971197952">August 27, 2015</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" style="text-align: justify; ">
<p dir="ltr">Wow. Searching Google Drive for a keyword also returns results for images containing that keyword in the image. Didn't realise it did OCR.</p>
<p>— Mark Osborne (@mosborne01) <a href="https://twitter.com/mosborne01/status/636285805154078720">August 25, 2015</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Typically OCR software has difficulty reading the text on old documents or pages with blemishes and ink marks, spitting out gibberish instead of legible text.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Google's <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692" target="_blank">support page</a> on this project shares additional details about character formatting, like its ability to preserve bold and italicized fonts in the output text:</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>When processing your document, we attempt to preserve basic text formatting such as bold and italic text, font size and type, and line breaks. However, detecting these elements is difficult and we may not always succeed. Other text formatting and structuring elements such as bulleted and numbered lists, tables, text columns, and footnotes or endnotes are likely to get lost.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For some of the languages, like Malayalam and Tamil, the OCR works with almost 100 percent accuracy, and includes support for formatting things like like auto-cropping, separating text by discarding images, and ignoring color backgrounds, explains Tamil user and Wikimedian Ravishankar Ayyakkannu on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ravidreams/posts/10154278945453569" target="_blank">Facebook</a>:</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>[…] Google Tamil OCR works with 100% accuracy ! Keep testing with various samples and comment here. Performance has been the same for many other Indic languages too. […] A<span><span><span class="UFICommentBody"><span>uto crops, discards images and colored background. Recognizes different layouts. I could find only 1 mistake in whole page. Testing latest Vikatan – </span><a dir="ltr" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OXre4-phQOayE0wyGTttQq-eD3Djt_alsuhkmS8BeRI/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/…/1OXre4…/edit..</a> […]</span></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(Bangla, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu-language users have commented in the same post with feedback after testing the updated OCR software. For a few scripts, like Gurmukhi (used to write Punjabi), it turns out that the output after OCR is quite poor, resulting largely in gibberish, when testing a screenshot image from <a href="http://pa.wikipedia.org/" target="_blank">Punjabi Wikipedia</a>.)</p>
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<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img alt="Issues with Gurmukhi script after OCR using Google's OCR" class="size-medium wp-image-537788" height="285" src="https://globalvoicesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Issues-with-Punjabi-400x285.jpg" width="400" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Issues with Gurmukhi script after OCR using Google's OCR. Screenshot from <a href="http://pa.wikipedia.org/" target="_blank">Punjabi Wikipedia</a>.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="alignleft wp-caption" id="attachment_537788" style="text-align: justify; "></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is quite a large leap for the languages with lots of old texts that are not yet digitized. Old and valuable texts in many languages could now be digitized and shared over the internet using platforms like <a href="https://wikisource.org" target="_blank">Wikisource</a> and could be preserved and made available for sharing knowledge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Google's OCR partly uses <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract_%28software%29" target="_blank">Tesseract—</a>an OCR engine released as freeware. Developed as a community project between 1995 and 2006 (and later taken over by <a href="https://code.google.com/archive/p/tesseract-ocr/" target="_blank">Google</a>), Tesseract is considered to be one of the world's most accurate OCR engines and works for over 60 languages. The source code is now hosted at <a href="https://github.com/tesseract-ocr" target="_blank">https://github.com/tesseract-ocr</a>. Check <a href="https://goo.gl/3X75iR" target="_blank">this link</a> for the OCR outputs in various South Asian scripts.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaWikipediaAccessibilityAccess to Knowledge2015-09-26T14:31:15ZBlog EntryWikimedia contributor shares his Linux story
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-september-3-2015-subhashish-panigrahi-wikimedia-contributor-shares-his-linux-story
<b>Computers have fascinated me since childhood, but my first encounter—like many others—was not with Linux. For me, it was with Microsoft Paint. Then, many years later in 2011, it was my Wikipedia mentor, Shiju Alex, who introduced me to Linux. Since then, it's been my life!</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If I recall correctly, Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS (<a href="http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/" target="_blank">Lucid Lynx</a>) was my first distro. It was different, light, and fun. And, I would often switch back to Windows for something, then back to Ubuntu. The smoothness—and having a virus-free environment—was wonderful and enticed me to continue on with Linux. Unlike today, Ubuntu was not a graphic-rich distro at the time. I was coding less than I am today, so I was working more with editing images using <a href="http://www.gimp.org/" target="_blank">GIMP</a> and <a href="https://inkscape.org/en/" target="_blank">Inkscape</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Later in 2011, I was in Mumbai for the <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/India_Hackathon_2011" target="_blank">Wiki Conference India hackathon</a> and got stuck on some jQuery code. I asked someone to help, so he picked up my Windows-based office notebook to look at the code. That person was noted academician and Wikipedian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BobCummings" target="_blank">Bob Cummings</a>. After a minute, he looked at me and said, "You are in the wrong OS, boy." On my personal laptop, I was using Linux to create the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2-or.svg" target="_blank">logo</a> for Odia Wikipedia v.2.0, which is used for <a href="http://or.wikipedia.org/" target="_blank">Odia Wikipedia</a>, so I defended myself saying, "This is my work computer." He quickly responded, "Well you're in the wrong job, my dear friend."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">That conversation stuck with me, and is one I'll never forget because Bob shook me with a feeling that that there exists a better world outside mine. If I am not a part of that, then I am missing something big.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">So, in 2012, I joined the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/old" target="_blank">Wikimedia Foundation's India Program</a> and moved to New Delhi. That exposed me to more free software activists, and of course Linux advocates. My job demanded me to meet more people; both virtually and in real spaces. I would often bump into someone talking about free software and Linux or someone recommending a specific software program to better do a job without bothering much if a Mac or Windows version is available or not. And slowly, that black window with white text, of the Linux terminal, became home. I worked on fixing bugs with an <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector/Input_methods/or-transliteration" target="_blank">input method</a>, and I was already working under the guidance of fellow Wikimedian Junain PV, which helped me create a<a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector/Input_methods/or-lekhani" target="_blank"> fresh new input method</a> on MediaWiki. While designing manuals and handouts for new contributors, though Adobe tools were favorite because of the easiness in use, I enjoyed the perfect rendering of South Asian language scripts in Linux based tools.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">My Wikipedia mentor, Shiju Alex, was part of my transformation. He is a great free software enthusiast and encouraged me to use Linux again when I had lost the desire! Then, I installed Virtual Box on my Macbook and a lot of free and open source software like LibreOffice, <a href="http://www.gimp.org/" target="_blank">GIMP</a>, <a href="https://inkscape.org/en/" target="_blank">Inkscape</a>, and my favorite, <a href="http://audacityteam.org/" target="_blank">Audacity</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Today, I use Ubuntu 14.04.2. At work, my colleagues Sunil Abraham and Rahimanuddin Shaik are a resorvoir of inspiration. The difference with Linux is there is a feeling of contributing something back to the hand that feeds you.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" />
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>This article is part of a series called <a title="My Linux Story" href="https://opensource.com/tags/my-linux-story" target="_blank">My Linux Story</a>. To participate and share your Linux story, contact us at: <a href="mailto:open@opensource.com">open@opensource.com</a>. Read the original published by <a class="external-link" href="https://opensource.com/life/15/9/my-linux-story-subhashish-panigrahi">Opensource.com</a> on September 3, 2015.<br /></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" rel="license"> </a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-september-3-2015-subhashish-panigrahi-wikimedia-contributor-shares-his-linux-story'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-september-3-2015-subhashish-panigrahi-wikimedia-contributor-shares-his-linux-story</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaWikimediaWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T17:08:19ZBlog EntryOCR and OER – update
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/education-okfn-subhashish-panigrahi-september-25-2015-ocr-and-oer-update
<b>We welcome this short posting from Subhashish Panigrahi which updates a 2014 posting of his on Indic Language Wikipedias as Open Educational Resources at http://education.okfn.org/indic-language-wikipedias-as-open-educational-resources/</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">To read the blog post published by Open Education Working Group, see <a class="external-link" href="http://education.okfn.org/ocr-and-oer-update/">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">Subhashish Panigrahi (<a href="http://twitter.com/subhapa">@subhapa</a>) is an educator, author, blogger, Wikimedian, language activist and free knowledge evangelist based in Bengaluru (often called Bangalore), India. After working for a while at the Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program he is currently at the <a href="https://cis-india.org">Centre for Internet and Society</a>‘s <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">Access To Knowledge program</a>. He works primarily in building partnership with universities, language research and GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive and Museums) organizations for bringing more scholarly and encyclopedic content under free licenses, designs outreach programs for South Asian language Wikipedia/Wikimedia projects and communities. He wears many other hats: Editor for Global Voices Odia, Community Moderator of Opensource.com, and Ambassador for India in OpenGLAM Local. Subhashish is the author of a piece “Rising Voices: Indigenous language Digital Activism” in the book <a href="http://meson.press/books/digital-activism-in-asia-reader" target="_blank">Digital Activism in Asia Reader</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Google’s OCR and its use by Wikimedians in South Asia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Some time back on the <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692" target="_blank">OCR project support</a> network, Google had announced that the Google drive could be used for <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692" target="_blank">Optical Character Recognition</a> (OCR). The software now works for over 248 world languages (including all the major South Asian languages). Though the exact pattern of development of the software is not clear, some of the Wikimedians reported that there is improvement over time in the recognition of their native languages Malayalam and Tamil. The recent encounter has been with a simple, easy to to use and robust software that can detect most languages with over 90% accuracy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The OCR technology extracts text from images, scans of printed text, and even handwriting to some extent, which means that the text can be extracted pretty much from any old book, manuscript, or image. This certainly brings hope to most Indian languages as there is a lot to digitize. Most of the major Indian languages have plenty of non-digitized literature and the existing OCR systems are not as good as Google when so many languages are concerned as a whole.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Google’s OCR engine is probably using aspects of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract_%28software%29" target="_blank">Tesseract</a>, an OCR engine released as free software, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCRopus" target="_blank">OCRopus</a>, a free document analysis and optical character recognition (OCR) system that is primarily used in <a href="https://books.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Books</a>. Developed as a community project during 1995-2006 and later <a href="https://code.google.com/archive/p/tesseract-ocr/" target="_blank">taken over by Google</a>, Tesseract is considered one of the most accurate OCR engines and works for over 60 languages. The source code is available <a href="https://github.com/tesseract-ocr" target="_blank">on GitHub</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692" target="_blank">OCR project support page</a> offers additional details on preserving character formatting for things like bold and italics after OCR in the output text.</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">
<p>When processing your document, we attempt to preserve basic text formatting such as bold and italic text, font size and type, and line breaks. However, detecting these elements is difficult and we may not always succeed. Other text formatting and structuring elements such as bulleted and numbered lists, tables, text columns, and footnotes or endnotes are likely to get lost.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The user-end interaction of the OCR software currently is rather simple. The user has to upload an image of the scan in any image format (.jpg, .png, .gif, etc.) or PDF to the Google Drive. Upon completion of the uploading, opening the file in Google Drive shows both the image and the converted text in the same document.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One of the most popular free and open digitization platforms, <a href="https://wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">Wikisource</a> currently hosts hundreds or thousands of free books which are either out of copyright or under Creative Commons licenses (CC-by or CC-by-SA) allowing users to digitize.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While OCR works quite well for Latin based languages, many other scripts do not get OCRed perfectly. So, the Wikisourcers (Wikisource contributors) often have to type the text.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Thus the new Google OCR might be useful both for the Wikisource community and many others who are in the mission of digitizing old text and archiving them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The image below shows a screen from a tutorial to convert text in the <a title="Odia language" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odia_language" target="_blank">Odia language</a> from a scanned image using Google’s OCR.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/education-okfn-subhashish-panigrahi-september-25-2015-ocr-and-oer-update'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/education-okfn-subhashish-panigrahi-september-25-2015-ocr-and-oer-update</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpen Educational ResourcesOpennessAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T17:09:22ZBlog EntryNational Conference: WTO, FTAs and Investment Treaties: Implications for development policy space
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/national-conference-wto-ftas-and-investment-treaties-implications-for-development-policy-space
<b>The conference was jointly organized by Focus on the Global South, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), Madhyam, MSF Access Campaign, National Working Group on Patent Laws and WTO (NWGPL), Public Services International (PSI) – South Asia, South Solidarity Initiative – ActionAid, Third Word Network (TWN), and Forum against FTAs. Nehaa Chaudhari attended the event.</b>
<p>Nehaa Chaudhari made a presentation on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/copyright-access-to-knowledge-in-fta.pdf" class="internal-link">Copyright: Access to Knowledge in Free Trade Agreements?</a></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Day 1:</b><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>9.00 to 9.30 : Registration</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>9.30 to 10.00: Welcome and Introduction, </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof Murthy, ISID</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Shri. TN Chaturvedi, President of ISID </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof Goyal, ISID </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof. Dinesh Abrol, ISID </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Shalini Bhutani, Legal researcher </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">( The session will cover objectives of the meeting, meeting schedule with purpose why people need to come forward and strategize and brief self-introduction by participants and state the introduction to the conference in very brief (2Mins to participants))</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>10.00 to 11.30: Session 1: Trade and Investment regimes: An overview of implications for development policy space</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(The session will provide overview of macro-economic framework with the critical perspective over current state of play on WTO, FTAs and bilateral investment treaties (BITs)).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Chair</b>: <b>Shri</b>. <b>Muchkund Dubey, Centre for Social Development (CSD) </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Panel of speakers</b>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof. Biswajit Dhar, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – Current dynamics of trade and investment negotiations: Issues and options.</b> (Synthesis of our views and what India should do – presentation of the background paper to the conference- Speech will cover elements of trade negotiations scenario, update on WTO, FTAs, BITs</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Shri. Rajiv Kher, Former Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India - WTO negotiations: Challenges Ahead, </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Deborah James, Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS) network: Overview of recent developments in WTO negotiations and Challenges Ahead</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Followed by <b>Discussion</b>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>11.30 to 11.45 Tea</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>11.45 to 1.30: </b><b>Manufacturing sector and Challenges for policy space</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(The session will provide an overview of challenges for employment and development emerging from proposed trade agreements such as NAMA, Information technology agreement (ITA), Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), and impact of FTAs. It will also critically analyze Global Value Chain arguments, Make in India initiative, protecting policy space, employment and trade union rights issues)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Chair: Prof. Biswajit Dhar, </b><b>Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Panel of speakers</b>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Smitha Francis, ISID – FTAs, NAMA, ITA and EGA – Implications for Manufacturing sector</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Amb. Jayant Das Gupta, Former Ambassador of India to the WTO - Issues and options in Non-Agricultural Market Access negotiations in WTO </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Respondents</b>: 5 to 7 Mins</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Amitava Guha, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) / FMRI (TBC)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Gautam Mody, New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Saji Narayanan, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>1.30 PM to 2.30 PM: Lunch</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>2.30 PM to 4.00 PM: Services Liberalization and Privatization – Part 1</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(The session will focus on RCEP, TPP and TISA highlighting the corporate agenda in services liberalization. The session will then look at key sectors evaluating the extent of liberalization that has taken place and routes through which development policy is being lost.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Moderator:</b> Benny Kuruvilla, South Solidarity Initiative</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Services liberalization: The Corporate Agenda: Deborah James, CEPR</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Banking and insurance sector liberalization</b>: Prof. C.P.Chandra Sekhar</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Responses</b>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Banking sector Unions: Thomas Franko, All India State Bank Officers Association (TBC)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Insurance sector Union: V Narasimhan, All India National Life Insurance Employees Federation (AINLIEF)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>4.00 to 4.15 Tea Break</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>4.15 to 6.00: Services Liberalisation – Part 2: Impacts on essential services</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(The session will focus on key essential services and assess the extent of liberalisation achieved through different routes and the challenges posed by the TISA agenda).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Moderator</b>: PSI</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Panel of speakers</b>: Health system: privatization and challenges to domestic regulation: Amit Sengupta, People’s Health Movement (PHM) – Challenges from autonomous liberalization and TISA, (Presentation will also cover the issue of Movement of health professional - debunking Mode 4.).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Privatization of education: Anil Sadagopal, All India Right to Education Forum Anil Sadagopal/ or JJ Thilak, National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) (presentation will focus on Foreign universities) (TBC)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Privatisation of electricity: EAS Sharma (TBC)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Responses:</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Water sector: Jammu Anand, National Platform against water privatization / or someone from Karnataka</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Day 2</b><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>9.30 AM to 11.30 AM: </b><b>Trade policies and Agriculture: Challenges to food sovereignty and local communities </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(The session will discuss challenges emerging from trade policies in the agriculture sector with the focus on WTO negotiations and India’s FTAs. It will also include views from representatives of farmers’ organizations)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Chair: </b><b> Ranja Sengupta, TWN</b> (We will say we are looking forward to strategy related suggestions)<b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Panel</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof. Abhjit Das, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT): Agriculture and challenges emerging from trade negotiations / Ranja in case of </b>(Speech will cover key agriculture issues in WTO Agreement on Agriculture and FTAs)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Afsar Jafri, Focus on the Global South – Food sovereignty, Peasant livelihood and free trade</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Shalini Bhutani, Legal Researcher – Seeds and Intellectual Property Rights – implications for local communities</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Responses (5 to 7 min.)- </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sridhar - ASHA</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Biraj Patnaik - Right to Food Campaign -</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Yudhvir Singh - Via Campasina</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kannaiyan - Via Campasina</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Vijoo Krishnan - All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>11.30 am to 11.45: Tea Break</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Discussion</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>11.45 to 1.15</b><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Investment regime and Challenges for Development: </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Moderator: Prof. Chimni, JNU </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kavaljit Singh, Madhyam: Investment regimes and challenges for development (20 min)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prof. Chalapaty Rao, ISID: FDI and Development demystifying foreign investments' contribution to development (10 min)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kajal Bharadwaj, ISDS case studies (health, mining and environment cases)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>(The session will demystify issues around BIPAs and Foreign Direct investment. It will cover issues emerging from FTAs through BIPA, and review of BIPA with example of ISDS cases)</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Responses</b>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">FDI in Retail: Dharmendra Kumar / Praveen</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Natural resources and Infrastructure Investment: NAPM – Madhuresh /Forest Workers</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Infrastructure Investment in North East: Ramananda Wangkheirakpam, North East Peoples’ Alliance (NEPA) <b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>1.15 to 2.15 Lunch Break</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>2.15 to 3.15: Session on Intellectual Property</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Chair: Prof. Dinesh Abrol, ISID</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Medicines - </b>MSF Access Campaign</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“TRIPS – State of Play in WTO negotiations” By Gopakumar, Third World Network (TWN)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Copy rights: Access to knowledge” by Neha Chowdhury (CIS)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>3.15 to 5.15 The Way Forward</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(Starts with presentation from moderators on key issues raised in sectoral sessions. From each section draw a broad conclusion and arrange them towards a declaration or statement of unity)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Chair: Prof. Deepak Nayyar</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Moderators: Prof. Dinesh Abrol </b>and<b> Shalini Bhutani</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Valedictory address by Shri. S P Shukla </b>(TBC)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Creating a Time line of key moments </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>4.00 to 4.15 Tea Break</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>4.15 to 5.45 Conclusion</b><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>5.45 to 6.00: Vote of Thanks</b></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/national-conference-wto-ftas-and-investment-treaties-implications-for-development-policy-space'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/national-conference-wto-ftas-and-investment-treaties-implications-for-development-policy-space</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to Knowledge2015-10-02T03:41:00ZNews ItemPervasive Technologies: Working Document Series – Updated Research Methodology – Applying the Actor Network Theory to Competition Law and Standard Essential Patent Litigation in India
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-2013-updated-research-methodology-2013-applying-the-actor-network-theory-to-competition-law-and-standard-essential-patent-litigation-in-india
<b>This document lays out the updated research methodology for the paper on competition law issues around standard essential patent litigation in India. </b>
<p>Read the earlier posts:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/methodology-sub-hundred-dollar-mobile-devices-and-competition-law">Pervasive Technologies Project Working Document Series: Document 1 - Research Methodology for a Paper on Competition Law + IPR + Access to < $100 Mobile Devices</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-research-questions-and-a-literature-review-on-actor-network-theory">Pervasive Technologies: Working Document Series - Research Questions and a Literature Review on the Actor-Network Theory</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>In New Delhi, as in Fascist Milan or Nazi Berlin, the individual is lost; the scale is not human but super human; not national, but super-national: it is, in a word, Imperial.</i><a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Twenty plus years later, written after he was awe-struck by the grandeur of the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, Dalrymple’s delightful choice of words on the similarities between Lutyen’s Delhi and Speer’s Nuremberg<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a> rather aptly describe today’s globalized narrative of intellectual property (“IP”) rights determination and ownership. The process of determination of standards applied in mobile devices, claims of IP ownership in these standards and the subsequent enforcement (globally) of these IP claims are all instances of this narrative.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The increasingly global nature of both – innovation and intellectual property has been well documented by researchers over the years and needs no further exploration in this article. This article will seek to examine how this narrative influences (either overtly or covertly) the application of competition law to the regulation of standard essential patents (SEPs) in India. More specifically, this article seeks to study the role of various human and non-human actors involved were competition law to be considered as a potential solution to the matter of SEP litigation in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This article examines four research questions. <i>First, </i>how does the globalized narrative of intellectual property influence the determination of standards around mobile devices, their IP protection, licensing and enforcement? <i>Second, </i>what are the important competition law issues in SEP litigation in the United States of America (“USA”) and the European Union (“EU”), and how have regulators (the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the European Commission (“EC”) respectively) and courts in these jurisdictions addressed these issues? <i>Third, </i>what are the critical issues in SEP litigation and competition law in India and how do they compare with similar questions in other jurisdictions? <i>Fourth, </i>could solutions and methodology from the FTC and the EC be applied to SEP competition law matters in India?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In this effort, this article will employ Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a> (“ANT”) as the primary research methodology, supplemented where needed by others including comparative research and case studies. A detailed approach into discussing the (above) research questions has been discussed below.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Question one - how does the globalized narrative of intellectual property influence the determination of standards around mobile devices, their IP protection, licensing and enforcement?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This question primarily seeks to explain the determination SEPs on standards through International Standard Setting Organizations (“SSOs”) and the subsequent obligation on members of the SSOs to licence these SEPs on a Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory (“FRAND”) basis.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Applying the ANT, this question will identify both human and non-human actors and that play a role internationally, in the determination of SEPs and their licensing. Illustratively, these actors include the SSOs, multinational corporations that are members of the SSOs, the FRAND licences and the contracts/terms of reference between the SSOs and their member corporations. In order to address this question, the author will refer to academic writing and other literature explaining the role of various actors and the international nature of the standard setting process. Networks that these actors share with each other and the possible influences to the determination of international standards will be studied. This question will explore the international IP environment, and the power of various actors that have an influence on IP norm setting, and attempt to locate the power of these various actors in their network setting.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Question two - what are the important competition law issues in SEP litigation in the USA and the EU, and how have regulators (the FTC and the EC respectively) and courts in these jurisdictions addressed these issues? </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This question will study the competition law issues arising from the international determination of standards and the cross-border assertion and enforcement of intellectual property rights discussed in the previous question. This question will also study how (first, whether) courts and regulators have attempted to address some of the competition law issues.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Also applying the ANT, this question will identify various actors involved in competition law litigation around SEPs before the FTC, EC and the courts in the USA and the EU. Illustratively, these include the parties to the litigation, the regulator (whether the FTC or the EC), the court and the legal principles employed. Further applying the ANT, this question will also study how the various actors relate to one another, as a result of their connections within this network, i.e., the litigation, and other connections in other networks (for instance, the position of the parties in certain markets).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under this research question, select a case study method will be employed to select cases from each jurisdiction. The most important cases pertaining to competition law questions will be studied. These are yet to be identified.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Question three - what are the critical issues in SEP litigation and competition law in India and how do they compare with similar questions in other jurisdictions? </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This research question will seek to map the global context around SEP litigation (discussed above) to specific cases in India. In doing so, the author will study the two SEP disputes in India with competition law implications – the Ericsson and Micromax dispute and the Ericsson and Intex dispute; based on information available in the public domain. While there are other pending disputes around SEPs in India, they do not involve the Competition Commission of India (India’s market regulator), and hence are outside the scope of this article. Through a study of these cases, questions of competition law will be identified. Such questions may be either those as a result of the direct application of the Competition Act, 2000 or certain actions taken by the courts with competition law implications (for instance, granting <i>ex-parte </i>interim injunctions).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Having identified competition law issues in SEP litigation in India, the author will then employ the comparative research methodology to trace similar issues in international SEP litigation, discussed under the previous research question. What the author is most interested in locating is the position of the actors in domestic as well as international SEP litigation. Specifically, it is submitted that characters in the domestic litigation also trace back to the context of global IP norm setting; some of them more directly than others. For instance, multinational corporations are directly involved in IP norm setting and are a party to domestic disputes. Further, domestic regulators may seek to draw inferences or apply commonly understood international legal principles, thus invoking more international actors. This phase will attempt to distill the uniqueness of India in the narrative of global IP ownership around SEP litigation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Question four- what are the challenges for competition regulation of SEPs in India; do principles and methodology from the FTC/ EU and courts present solutions to these challenges?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In this question, the author deliberates the challenge of competition regulation for SEPs in India and whether the approach of international regulators and courts could serve as a roadmap to address these issues.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In answering this question, the author will trace India’s specific location in global competition. The tensions between differently situated actors and the networks that they form will be examined. Some comparisons will be made to illustrate how the relationship of international jurisdictions (mainly the USA and the EU) with international multinational corporations that are a party to litigation differs from that of India. Legal traditions and institutions in India will be used to understand what legal possibilities are available for using competition regulation to regulate SEPs. This includes specifically the levers in competition law such as abuse of dominance as well as the nature of the competition regulator and the role that it identifies for itself. One might also consider the relative ‘youth’ of the competition regulator as a factor in laying down legal principles, the constraints it imposes on itself as well as a tension between the market regulator and the courts. This phase will also attempt to make a case for IP regulation within India’s existing culture of engaging with the public interest in intellectual property regulation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Having examined global IP norm setting in SEPs, international and domestic issues around SEP litigation and the network of actors involved in these proceedings, in concluding this article, the author seeks to illustrate how actors and networks in the SEP-competition set-up derive power from each other; and how the location of an actor within a network is likely to influence law and regulation. Tracing this location will then in turn be useful in determining what solutions would best address the matter of competition regulation for SEPs in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a>William Dalrymple, The City of Djinns – A Year in Delhi (rep. 2014, Penguin, India) at 83.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a>Id at 82.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a>Bruno Latour, Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor – Network Theorist, International Journal of Communication 5 (2011), 796- 810, http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewArticle/1094 (accessed 31 August, 2015).</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-2013-updated-research-methodology-2013-applying-the-actor-network-theory-to-competition-law-and-standard-essential-patent-litigation-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-2013-updated-research-methodology-2013-applying-the-actor-network-theory-to-competition-law-and-standard-essential-patent-litigation-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishernehaaAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2015-10-04T04:20:13ZBlog EntrySeptember 2015 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2015-bulletin
<b></b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are happy to share with you the ninth issue of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) newsletter (September 2015). It has been a significant month for public debates on the digital future of governance, citizenship, and economy in India, led by conversations around the draft National Encryption Policy, the Aadhaar number as a basis for provision of welfare services, the investigation of Google for potential abuse of market dominance by the Competition Commission of India, and the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions released by the Indian Patents Office. We were busy engaging with these issues, and more.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The past editions of the newsletter can be accessed at <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director</p>
<blockquote><b><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC) 2016 - Studying Internet in India</a></b><br /> With great excitement, we are announcing the beginning of an annual conference series titled Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC), the first edition of which is to take place in Delhi during February 25-27, 2016 (yet to be confirmed). We invite you to propose sessions for the conference by Sunday, November 15, 2015.</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Highlights</h2>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>CIS sent an <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-letter-on-intellectual-property-rights-issues-during-your-visit-to-the-united-states-of-america-in-september-2015">Open Letter</a> to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his US visit, requesting him to urge USA to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty.</li>
<li>During the month, NVDA team organized training programmes for the visually impaired at <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/espeak-training-in-hindi-language-1">Kullu</a>, <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-5-day-tot-for-training-in-use-of-espeak-kannada-with-nvda">Bangalore</a> and <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-the-training-in-the-use-of-espeak-hindi-with-nvda">Ranchi</a>.</li>
<li>Nehaa Chaudhari in a <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-research-questions-and-a-literature-review-on-actor-network-theory">blog post</a> laid out a series of research questions, potentially seeking to apply actor-network theory as a research methodology.</li>
<li>Recently, the Indian Patents Office released the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (“2015 Guidelines/ Guidelines”) in an attempt to clarify examination of software related patents in India. Anubha Sinha <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-the-guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-cris">analysed the 2015 Guidelines</a>. Read on to understand how the new guidelines will potentially lead to an increase in software patenting activity by expanding the scope of patentable subject matter – in negation of the legislative intent of section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970.</li>
<li>As a part of its content donation initiative, <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-under-by-cc-by-sa-licence">CIS has brought Nadustunna Charithra magazine under CC BY SA licence</a>. CIS-A2K has received 74 issues as of now from the Telugu Jaati foundation.</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham’s article titled Hits and Misses with the Draft Encryption Policy was published in <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-26-09-2015-sunil-abraham-hits-and-misses-with-draft-encryption-policy">The Wire</a> on September 26, 2015.</li>
<li>Vidushi Marda in a blog post titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/data-flow-in-unique-identification-scheme-of-india">Data Flow in the Unique Identification Scheme of India</a> analysed the data flow within the UID scheme and highlighted the vulnerabilities at each stage.</li>
<li>Vanya Rakesh in a blog post titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/human-dna-profiling-bill-2012-vs-2015">Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 v/s 2015 Bill</a> has analysed the Human DNA Profiling Bill introduced in 2012 with the provisions of the 2015 Bill.</li>
<li>CIS sought information from ICANN on their revenue streams by sending them a second request under their Documentary Information Disclosure Policy. This request and their response have been <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/didp-request-12-revenues">described in a blog post</a> by Aditya Garg.</li>
<li>CIS has <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/wheres-my-data-submission-for-knight-news-challenge-2015">submitted a joint proposal</a> with DataMeet and Oorvani for the Knight News Challenge 2015. We are proposing the development of "an application for users to search for locally-relevant data, discuss missing data, demand data, explore and respond to data demands by others, and start data crowd-sourcing exercises."</li>
<li>CIS made its submission on CCWG-Accountability 2nd Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations to ICANN's CCWG-Accountability.</li>
<li>Pranesh Prakash, on behalf of CIS, <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/comments-on-dot-panel-report-via-mygov">submitted comments</a> to the Department of Telecom Panel’s report on net neutrality via MyGov. Prakash states that the report displays a far better understanding of the underlying issues than the TRAI consultation paper did, and is overall a good effort at balancing the different sides.</li>
<li>Shyam Ponappa’s monthly column titled More on Those Dropped Calls was <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-september-3-2015-shyam-ponappa-more-on-those-dropped-calls">published by Business Standard</a>.</li>
</ul>
</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing a project on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">NVDA and eSpeak</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Monthly Updates</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li>September 2015 Report (Suman Dogra; September 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Reports</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-the-training-in-the-use-of-espeak-hindi-with-nvda">Training in the use of eSpeak Hindi with NVDA</a> (Organized by CIS and Lakshay for the Differently Abled; September 29 – 30, 2015; Ranchi). The event was conducted online by Dr. Homiyar over skype, with local support from Mritunjay Kumar and Zainab.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-5-day-tot-for-training-in-use-of-espeak-kannada-with-nvda">5 day TOT for Training in Use of eSpeak Kannada with NVDA</a> (Organized by CIS, Mithra Jyoti, Enable India and NFB, Bangalore; September 21 – 25, 2015; Bangalore).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/espeak-training-in-hindi-language-1">eSpeak Training in Hindi Language</a> (Organized by CIS and National Association for the Blind; Kullu; September 3 – 4, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/training-in-espeak-marathi">Training in eSpeak Marathi</a> (Organized by CIS; Atmadepam Society; August 22 – 23, 2015). <i>The report was published in the month of September.</i></li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Pervasive Technologies</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-research-questions-and-a-literature-review-on-actor-network-theory">Pervasive Technologies: Working Document Series - Research Questions and a Literature Review on the Actor-Network Theory</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; September 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/faq-cis-proposal-for-compulsory-licensing-of-critical-mobile-technologies">FAQ: CIS Proposal for Compulsory Licensing of Critical Mobile Technologies</a> (Rohini Lakshané; September 25, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other (Copyright and Patent)</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-the-guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-cris">Comments on the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions</a> (CRIs) (Anubha Sinha; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-letter-on-intellectual-property-rights-issues-during-your-visit-to-the-united-states-of-america-in-september-2015">Open Letter to PM Modi on Intellectual Property Rights issues on His Visit to the United States of America in September 2015</a> (Pranesh Prakash and Nehaa Chaudhari; September 23, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li>National Conference: WTO, FTAs and Investment Treaties: Implications for development policy space (Organized by Focus on the Global South, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), Madhyam, MSF Access Campaign, National Working Group on Patent Laws and WTO (NWGPL), Public Services International (PSI) – South Asia, South Solidarity Initiative – ActionAid, Third Word Network (TWN), and Forum against FTAs; September 22 – 23, 2015; Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari made a presentation on <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/copyright-access-to-knowledge-in-fta.pdf">Copyright: Access to Knowledge in Free Trade Agreements?</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/ipex-2015">IPEX 2015</a> (Organized by Confederation of Indian Industry, APTDC and TDPC; September 25 - 26, 2015; Chennai). Rohini Lakshané attended the event. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/live-law-apoorva-mandhani-september-23-2015-open-letter-from-cis-to-pm-modi-on-intellectual-property-rights-issues-on-his-visit-to-us">Open letter from CIS to PM Modi on Intellectual Property Rights issues on his Visit to US</a> (Apoorva Mandhani; LiveLaw; September 23, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-under-by-cc-by-sa-licence">CIS brings Nadustunna Charithra magazine under CC BY SA licence</a> (Tanveer Hasan; September 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/education-okfn-subhashish-panigrahi-september-25-2015-ocr-and-oer-update">OCR and OER – update</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Open Education Working Group; September 25, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-turns-13-what-happens-next">As Odia Wikipedia turns 13, what happens next?</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; September 26, 2015). This was originally <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/08/21/odia-wikipedia-celebrates-13/">published on the Wikimedia Blog</a> on August 21. The post was shared on Wikipedia's official <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10153481749053346">Facebook page</a>, and on Twitter handles [<a href="https://twitter.com/Wikipedia/status/635838494187913216">1</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/635838494200438784">2</a>].</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages">Google's Optical Character Recognition Software Now Works with All South Asian Languages</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; September 26, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-september-3-2015-subhashish-panigrahi-wikimedia-contributor-shares-his-linux-story">Wikimedia contributor shares his Linux story</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; September 27, 2015). <i>This article is part of a series called </i><a href="https://opensource.com/tags/my-linux-story"><i>My Linux Story</i></a><i>. To participate and share your Linux story, contact us at: </i><a href="mailto:open@opensource.com"><i>open@opensource.com</i></a><i>. Read the original published by </i><a href="https://opensource.com/life/15/9/my-linux-story-subhashish-panigrahi"><i>Opensource.com</i></a><i> on September 3, 2015.</i></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Co-organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource">Annamaya Library edit-a-thon</a> (Organized by CIS-A2K and Telugu Wikipedia Community; August 6, 2015; Andhra Loyola College; Vijaywada).</li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/International_workshop_on_digitization_and_archiving,_Jadavpur_University">International Workshop on Digitization and Archiving</a> (Organized by CIS-A2K and Wikipedia Community; August 19 – 21, 2015). Rahmanuddin Shaik was one of the trainers.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-september-28-2015-ruby-nanda-unable-to-read-odia-on-your-android-device">Unable to read Odia on your android device? Don’t fret!</a> (Ruby Nanda; Odisha Sun Times; September 28, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The advent of the Internet has radically redefined what it means to be open and collaborative. The Internet itself is built upon open standards and free/libre/open source software. Our work in the Openness programme focuses on open data, especially open government data, open access, open education resources, open knowledge in Indic languages, open media, and open technologies and standards - hardware and software. We approach openness as a cross-cutting principle for knowledge production and distribution, and not as a thing-in-itself.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Open Data</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li>As one of the general stewards of the process, CIS was invited to take part in the final drafting meeting of the International Open Data Charter held before Con Datos 2015 in Santiago, Chile, but we could not take part in it. Apart from organising two public consultations on the draft Charter in Bengaluru and Delhi, we also submitted our <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/international-open-data-charter-comments-by-cis">detailed comments</a> on the document. The final version of the <a href="http://opendatacharter.net/" target="_blank">Charter document has been launched</a> at the United Nation General Assembly meeting, on September 27.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Free Software</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/software-freedom-pledge-2015">Software Freedom Pledge</a> (Pranesh Prakash; September 25, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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 International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Privacy</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Article</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-26-09-2015-sunil-abraham-hits-and-misses-with-draft-encryption-policy">Hits and Misses With the Draft Encryption Policy</a> (Sunil Abraham; The Wire; September 26, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/data-flow-in-unique-identification-scheme-of-india">Data Flow in the Unique Identification Scheme of India</a> (Vidushi Marda; September 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/human-dna-profiling-bill-2012-vs-2015">Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 v/s 2015 Bill</a> (Vanya Rakesh; September 6, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/open-governance-and-privacy-in-a-post-snowden-world-webinar">Open Governance and Privacy in a Post-Snowden World: Webinar</a> (Vanya Rakesh; September 26, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-changing-landscape-of-ict-governance-and-practice-convergence-and-big-data">The Changing Landscape of ICT Governance and Practice - Convergence and Big Data</a> (Co-organized by Innovation Center for Big Data and Digital Convergence, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan; August 24 – 25, 2015). Sharat Chandra Ram was granted the <a href="http://www.cprsouth.org/2015/02/call-for-applications-2015-young-scholar-awards/">Young Scholar Award 2015</a> to attend the <i>Young Scholar Workshop</i> followed by main <a href="http://www.cprsouth.org/"><i>CPRSouth2015 conference</i> (Communication Policy Research South) conference</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Free Speech and Expression</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-submission-on-ccwg-accountability-2nd-draft-proposal-on-work-stream-1-recommendations">CIS Submission on CCWG-Accountability 2nd Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations</a> (Pranesh Prakash; September 13, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/didp-request-11-netmundial-principles">DIDP Request #11: NETmundial Principles</a> (Aditya Garg; September 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/didp-request-12-revenues">DIDP Request #12: Revenues</a> (Aditya Garg; September 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/peering-behind-the-veil-of-icann2019s-didp">Peering behind the veil of ICANN’s DIDP</a> (Padmini Baruah; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/asian-regional-consultation-on-the-wsis-10-review">Asian Regional Consultation on the WSIS+10 Review</a> (Organized by The Internet Democracy Project, Bytes for All, APNIC, the Association for Progressive Communications, ISOC, Global Partners Digital and ICT Watch; September 3 – 5, 2015). Jyoti Panday attended the event.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">IGF</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The tenth annual IGF meeting will be held in João Pessoa, Brazil, on November 10 - 13, 2015. IGF's MAG has decided to retain the title “Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development” as the overarching theme. Sunil Abraham will be a panelist for the following workshops:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/understanding-and-mitigating-online-hate-speech-and-youth-radicalisation">Understanding and Mitigating Online Hate Speech and Youth Radicalisation</a> (Organized by Council of Europe, Oxford University, OHCHR, Google and ISOC; November 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/transnational-due-process-a-case-study-in-multi-stakeholder-cooperation">Transnational Due Process: A Case Study in Multi-stakeholder Cooperation</a> (Organized by the United Nations; November 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Cyber Security</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-chapter-meet-of-dsci-september-26-2015">Bangalore Chapter Meet of DSCI</a> (Co-organized by DSCI and CIS; September 26, 2015). Melissa Hathaway, Commissioner, Global Commission for Internet Governance and Sunil Abraham gave a talk at this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Miscellaneous</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sustainable-smart-cities-india-conference-2015-bangalore">Sustainable Smart Cities India Conference 2015, Bangalore</a> (Vanya Rakesh; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p>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:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/comments-on-dot-panel-report-via-mygov">Comments on the DoT Panel Report via MyGov</a> (Pranesh Prakash; September 26, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Op-ed</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-september-3-2015-shyam-ponappa-more-on-those-dropped-calls">More on those Dropped Calls</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; September 2, 2015 and Organizing India Blogspot; September 3, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a></h2>
<p>The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/wheres-my-data-submission-for-knight-news-challenge-2015">Where's My Data? Submission for Knight News Challenge 2015</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; September 30, 2015). <i>The text of the proposal was prepared by Nisha Thompson of DataMeet, Meera K of Oorvani, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay.</i></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_the-internet-in-the-indian-judicial-imagination">The Internet in the Indian Judicial Imagination</a> (Divij Joshi; September 9, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_the-many-lives-and-sites-of-internet-in-bhubaneswar">The Many Lives and Sites of Internet in Bhubaneswar</a> (Sailen Routray; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/news">News & Media Coverage</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-september-1-2015-parshathy-nath-does-this-click-with-you">Does this click with you?</a> (Parshathy J. Nath; The Hindu; September 1, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-september-3-2015-surabhi-agarwal-govt-tie-up-with-global-police-interpol-to-fight-child-pornography">Government may tieup with global police, Interpol to fight child pornography</a> (Surabhi Agarwal; September 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-september-3-2015-harjeet-inder-singh-sahi-hiding-behind-rules-on-naming-sites-it-banned-govt-reveals-fears">Hiding behind rules on naming sites it banned, govt reveals fears</a> (Harjeet Inder Singh Sahi; September 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-nikhil-varma-september-9-2015-outrage-before-sharing">Outrage before sharing</a> (Nikhil Verma; The Hindu; September 9, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-week-september-20-2015-shweta-t-nanda-faking-a-stand">Faking a stand</a> (Shweta T. Nanda; The Week; September 20, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/outlook-september-21-2015-arindam-mukherjee-some-key-words-are-missing">Some Key Words Are Missing</a> (Arindam Mukherjee; Outlook; September 21, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-september-22-2015-atul-kabra-open-sesame">Open sesame</a> (The Hindu; September 22, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-moulishree-srivastava-september-22-2015-india-encryption-policy-draft-faces-backlash">India encryption policy draft faces backlash</a> (Moulishree Srivastava; September 22, 2015)</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/first-post-naina-khedekar-september-23-2015-online-outcry-forces-government-to-withdraw-draft-encryption-policy">Online outcry forces government to withdraw draft encryption policy</a> (Naina Khedekar; First Post; September 23, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dna-september-23-2015-amrita-madhukalya-encryption-policy-would-have-affected-emails-operating-systems-wifi">Encryption policy would have affected emails, operating systems, WiFi</a> (Amrita Madhukalya; DNA; September 23, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-september-23-2015-govt-presses-undo-button-on-draft-encryption-policy">Govt presses 'undo' button on draft encryption policy</a> (Business Standard; September 23; 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/today-september-24-2015-huge-outcry-forces-india-backtrack-social-media-data-proposal">Huge outcry forces India to backtrack on social media data proposal</a> (Today; September 24, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/wsj-september-24-2015-newley-purnell-resty-woro-uniar-facebook-free-internet-access-program-in-developing-countries-provokes-backlash">Facebook’s Free Internet Access Program in Developing Countries Provokes Backlash</a> (Newley Purnell and Resty Woro Uniar; The Wall Street Journal; September 24, 2015).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-september-26-2015-ahead-of-hosting-modi-facebook-rebrands-internet-dot-org-as-free-basics">Ahead of hosting Modi, Facebook rebrands internet.org as Free Basics</a> (Business Standard; September 26, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/asian-age-september-27-2015-s-raghotham-and-mayukh-mukherjee-by-weakening-our-security-govt-is-putting-us-at-risk-of-espionage">‘By weakening our security, govt is putting us at risk of espionage’</a> (S. Raghotham and Mayukh Mukherjee; Asian Age; September 27, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/9ad9be9b09a49c7-9aa9be98199a9b69b0993-9ac9c79b69bf-9b89cd99f9c79b69a89c7-9ab9cd9b09bf-9939af9bc9be987-9ab9be987-99a9be9b29c1-9b99ac9c7">ভারতে পাঁচশোরও বেশি স্টেশনে ফ্রি ওয়াই-ফাই চালু হবে</a> (BBC; September 28, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-register-september-29-2015-kieren-mccurthy-do-you-agree-with-our-fee-hike">Do you agree with our fee hike? Press 1 to answer Yes; or 2 for Yes</a> (Kieren McCarthy; The Register; September 29, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-australian-amanda-hodge-september-29-2015-indian-pm-narendra-modi-digital-dream-gets-bad-reception">Indian PM Narendra Modi’s digital dream gets bad reception</a> (Amanda Hodge; September 29, 2015).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-maya-sharma-september-29-2015-what-bengaluru-thinks-of-big-tech-announcements-in-silicon-valley">What Bengaluru Thinks of the Big Tech Announcements in Silicon Valley</a> (Maya Sharma; NDTV; September 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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 diverse abilities, 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 mediation and reconfiguration of social and cultural processes and structures by the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>CIS - Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
<li>Access to Knowledge - Twitter:<a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K"> https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Access to Knowledge - Facebook:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
<li>Access to Knowledge - E-Mail: <a href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>Researchers at Work - E-Mail: <a href="mailto:raw@cis-india.org">raw@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>Researchers at Work - Mailing List: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Support Us</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Request for Collaboration</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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, Access to Knowledge, at <a href="mailto:tanveer@cis-india.org">tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>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.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2015-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2015-bulletin</a>
</p>
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