Centre for Internet and Society

Stand up for Digital Rights

praskrishna — 2016-07-25T15:29:41Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) invites you to a discussion on a set of Recommendations for Ethical Research, a report on human rights and private online intermediaries which describes key areas where such actors have responsibilities. The discussion is on coming Friday, July 29, 2016 at the Centre for Internet & Society's Delhi office from 3.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.

The discussion intends to launch a report on human rights and private online intermediaries, which describes key areas where such actors have responsibilities and provides a detailed set of Recommendations for Ethical Tech. This work is the culmination of a year-long research project led by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), in collaboration with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Open Net Korea, the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information at the University of Palermo (CELE) and researchers with the University of Ottawa and the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. The key themes for discussion would include:

General Human Rights Responsibilities and Private Online Intermediaries
Expanding Access
Net Neutrality
Content Moderation
Privacy
Transparency and Informed Consent
Responding to State Interferences

We look forward to meeting you and making this a forum for knowledge exchange a success.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/stand-up-for-digital-rights-1

Wikipedia WikiMeetup at Bangalore

praskrishna — 2016-08-12T13:31:04Z

Bangalore based Wikipedians will gather for a meeting at the Centre for Internet and Society on Sunday, August 14, 2016 at 3.00 p.m.

Anyone interested in Wikipedia (user, contributor or curious about it). Wikipedians from any part of India or the world and anyone who is interested in Wikipedia! Meetup is open to members of all Wikimedia projects and Wikipedians from all languages. All are welcome, and we are especially interested in seeing newcomers to join the experienced Wikipedians/Wikimedians.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikipedia-wikimeetup-at-bangalore

Wikiwomen’s Meetup at St. Agnes College Explores Potentials and Plans of Women Editors in Mangalore, Karnataka

ting — 2016-09-01T14:39:53Z

Karnataka is known for its diverse linguistic cultures. Aside from Kannada, many are native speakers of Konkani, Tulu, and other languages. A small Wikiwomen's meetup was held on Saturday, August 27th at St. Agnes College, Mangalore, to invite female Wikipedians from the region. Many of them were new to the online encyclopedia but demonstrated strong interest in learning and contributing more Indic language content online.

A Wikiwomen’s meetup was held at St. Agnes College on August 27^th in the hope to strengthen the bonding and communication between female Wikipedians in Mangalore. Attendees of the meetup on Saturday included five Kannada Wikipedian, one Konkani Wikipedian, one from the recently gone live Tulu Wikipedia, and Ting-Yi Chang from the CIS A2K team. Two of the Kannada Wikipedians are staff and faculty members of the College’s library and Department of Kannada respectively. Both were brought into Wikipedia by edit-a-thons held on the college campus in the last few months

The meetup started off with a round of brief self-introduction and an inspiring introductory presentation by Dhanalakshimi K T, a St. Agnes commerce student who had successfully organized the last two women’s edit-a-thons on her campus.

“Wikipedia is a great tool for knowledge sharing. When we edit in our own languages, people from outside of the city who don’t speak English can learn things more easily online.... It is the respect and passion I have for my language."

The presentation also touched upon some feasible benefits that editors gains through participating in Wikipedia/media projects: improvement in writing and research skills, nurturing a critical thinking habit when reading texts and doing research, learnings from collaborative work experience, improvement in language and communication skills, etc. One of the participants later mentioned that with the hobby of editing Wikipedia, she began actively researching in her interested topics. Even in occasions when she had no time to actually update the content onto Wikipedia, the knowledge she gained throughout the research process has already enriched her and broadened her horizon of the subject.

The second half of the presentation consists of an introduction to the 5 pillars rules and some other advice of Wikipedia editing. Participants who were newcomers showed great interest and actively raised questions surrounding the use of different editing tools including the infobox templates, translation tools, useful markups, and personal sandboxes.

When being asked about the barriers they have faced so far in editing Wikipedia, most agreed that time issues do prevent them sometimes as their offline commitments (work, family, school) can take priority over it. However, most participants also concluded that “those who are truly interested will eventually find the time.” On the other hand, access to internet and facilities has not been reported as a barrier in their cases, but all agreed that it can be for many other women. Awareness was emphasized as a crucial factor when trying to bring in more women to Wikipedia. One of the student participants shared her experience,

“Some people may have never heard of Wikipedia before; some misunderstood its use and potential… when I talked about Kannada Wikipedia with my peers, first they thought it was some website for Kannada stories writing…. But when I explained to them what it is and how we can edit, they were all very excited and very much wanted to try."

In the latter discussion of the meetup, participants talked about the tentative event plans for the next few months. Two sessions were suggested to be held by November, 2016. One as a workshop for the newcomers and the other as an editing event for more experienced female Wikipedians. All participants, old and new, are really excited to strengthen the bonding between Wikiwomens in Mangalore. Some suggested there should be more casual meetups every few weeks to help them communicate more and plan upcoming community events, including an ongoing event that can be held in March, 2017 for the International Women’s Day and Wikiwomen’s History Month.

The meetup continued with more discussion on various language Wikipedias’ development. As an experienced Wikipedian and an actively outreaching community member, participant Harriet Vidyasagar explained the complexity in Konkani Wikipedia, which contains five scripts, and the importance of those scripts in Konkani language’s history and culture. All participants agreed that seeing their mother tongues’ scripts online and creating more content to make their culture and language visible are a great source of happiness and a motivation for them to continue editing. The session ended with exchange of contacts and group pictures.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikiwomen2019s-meetup-at-st-agnes-college-explores-potentials-and-plans-of-women-editors-in-mangalore-karnataka

CIS Cybersecurity Film Screening

purba — 2014-03-20T09:34:38Z

The Centre for Internet and Society invites you to a screening of Episode 1&2 of DesiSec: the first documentary film on cybersecurity in India. Hope you can join us on 26th March, at CIS, Domlur!

Early 2013, the Centre for Internet and Society began shooting its first documentary film project. After months of researching and interviewing activists and experts, CIS released the first episode on 11th December.

CIS is hosting a special screening of DesiSec: Episode 1&2 on 26th March, 2013, 5.30 pm and invites you to this event. The first episode is centered around the issue of privacy and surveillance in cyber space and how it affects Indian society. The second episode is focused on anonymity and free speech online.

We look forward to seeing you there!

RSVP: purba@cis-india.org

Venue: http://osm.org/go/yy4fIjrQL?m=

This work was carried out as part of the Cyber Stewards Network with aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/cis-cybersecurity-film-screening

An Open House Session with George Abraham

praskrishna — 2014-05-19T01:45:58Z

Ashoka India and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcome you to an open house session with George Abraham, CEO and Founder of the SCORE Foundation at Ashoka- Innovators for the Public in Domlur on Wednesday, May 21, 2014.

“Blindness or disability is not the real problem, it is the way we all think.” – Ashoka Fellow George Abraham

Made invisible in the public sphere, persons with disability are often overlooked by society as productive members of the community. Their families, friends and mainstream media too have done little to change the limited lens through which they, and ultimately individuals with disability see and define their role in their communities.

We believe that the time has come for us as a society, especially businesses, to break the barriers between different worlds. We need to create spaces that allow us to ‘step in’ to each other’s worlds and engage in meaningful dialogues that allow us to reflect, question and develop an empathetic lens to building a society that is more inclusive to persons with disability.

Join Ashoka India and the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) for an Open House Session on Wednesday, May 21, where we will be screening an episode of George Abraham’s new show on the visually impaired-“Nazar ya Nazariya”-followed by a Q&A with George, Ashoka and CIS on what it means to shift the perception and treatment of disability in society, media and big business.

Agenda

Time	Detail
15.00 15.30	Screening of Nazar Ya Nazariya
15.30 16.00	Q&A with George Abraham
16.00 17.00	An open dialogue with experts and audience members on Stepping into Disability: How can we begin to change the paradigm on the inclusion of persons with disability into mainstream society, with a special focus on corporates and business enterprise?
17.00 17.30	Connect and Share (Networking space)

RSVP

RSVP: Olina Banerji (9480826557) - obanerji@ashoka.org
Rajesh Varghese (9008998414) - rvarghese@ashoka.org
Anandhi Visvanathan (8197177080) - anandhi@cis-india.org

The Team

George Abraham

Based on his own experiences and those of hundreds of visually impaired people, George has developed a program whose combination of clinical and non-clinical components will help the seeing impaired stand on their own feet and realize their full potentials. George has designed the Vision Enhancement Center (VEC) to institutionalize comprehensive, non-medical eye care services. Like counseling, equipment, training, medical referrals, information, and rehabilitation services. George's goal is to build the first world-class institution for the visually impaired in the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) region to be an example that will inspire widespread reform in the way the blind and other people with disabilities are treated, cared for, educated, and employed. To garner support for his work, George is partnering with civil society organizations, medical professionals, the government, and corporations. His latest venture has been a collaboration with Doordarshan to create a 13-episode television series called Nazar Ya Nazariya, that highlights and celebrates visually impaired individuals who have overcome both physical and mental barriers to integrate successfully into the mainstream.

CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

Ashoka

Ashoka is the world’s leading network of social entrepreneurs — men and women who are creating new institutions to implement system-changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1980, Ashoka has pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship, electing and connecting more than 3,000 Fellows with innovative, sustainable solutions in a variety of fields such as civic engagement, economic development, health, human rights, environment, and learning/education in over 70 countries. As the largest association of leading social entrepreneurs in the world, Ashoka has started and supported movements that have brought about widespread social change, and has developed a keen understanding of what individuals need to make change happen. Ashoka has been engaged in learning from and serving this historical movement across the globe for 25 years.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/open-house-session-with-george-abraham

The Relaunch of Creative Commons India

praskrishna — 2013-12-11T08:12:50Z

Wikimedia India, the Centre for Internet and Society, and Acharya Narendra Dev College invite you to the Relaunch of Creative Commons India in New Delhi on November 12, 2013 with the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. Shashi Tharoor as the Chief Guest.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States, devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.

In simple words, Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world.

Some more facts about Internet licenses

Ever wondered what "Some Rights Reserved" means?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include the right to reproduce, distribute, display, make adaptations, perform, sell and so on. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rightsholder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call "Some Rights Reserved."

Is Creative Commons against copyright?

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rightsholders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

Relaunch

Dr. Savithri Singh, Principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College will be the Master of Ceremony and the Moderator for the sessions:

Time	Detail
16.00 16.30	Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India: Initiatives of MHRD around Openly Licensed Content
16.30 16.45	Question and Answer Session
16.45 17.00	Sam Pitroda (TBC), Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations: Creative Commons and Open Government Data
17.00 17.05	Question and Answer Session
17.05 17.25	Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson, Pratham Books: Creative Commons and Pratham Books Case Study (Including Question and Answer Session)
17.25 17.40	Moksh Juneja, President, Executive Committee, Wikimedia India Chapter: Creative Commons and Wikipedia (Including Question and Answer Session)
17.40 18.00	Lawrence Liang, Co-founder of Alternative Law Forum: Creative Commons and Open Access to Scholarly Journals (Including Question and Answer Session)
18.00	Tea

VIDEO

Registration

Please register here to attend the event: http://ccindia.doattend.com/ Registration is free.
Please carry a soft or hard copy of the confirmation email to the venue.
Seating will be on first come first served basis.

Invite to the Relaunch of Creative Commons India

Link to the meta page on Wiki: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Creative_Commons_India_launch

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/relaunch-of-creative-commons-india

Exposing the Invisible - Tactical Tech films screening at CIS

purba — 2013-12-02T07:37:21Z

Exposing the Invisible is Tactical Tech's series of short films examining some inspiring and provocative investigative cases, those that go beyond traditional journalistic investigations. CIS is pleased to invite you to a special screening of two of the films on 9th December, 6pm, at the CIS venue.

Exposing the Invisible is Tactical Tech's series of short films examining some inspiring and provocative investigative cases, those that go beyond traditional journalistic investigations.

In the past decade, the work of investigators has undergone a significant transformation due to the rapid development of new technologies, the ubiquity of the Internet, and new possibilities in working with evidence, data and visualisation. The stories in the film illustrate this evolution as activists take advantage of this new wave of opportunities, while remaining aware of the dangers they expose themselves to.

Episode one, Our Currency is Information, introduces the work of a team of investigators led by Romanian reporter Paul Radu, investigating organised crime. The film takes you to the heart of Radu’s investigations, where the power of criminals, corporations and governments overlap in chilling cases.

Episode two, From Our Point of View, profiles three individuals from the UK, Lebanon and Israel, non-specialists who have taken it upon themselves to use information in innovative and varies ways to shed light on Syria's 'YouTube conflict', the theft of Lebanon's seashore, and house demolitions in East Jerusalem.

Episode three, Unseen War, touches on the issues of US drone strikes in Pakistan.

More about the project here:

https://exposingtheinvisible.org/

CIS is very excited to participate in the week-long global films festival and will be organizing screenings of Episode one and Episode three on December 9, 2013. The screening of the films will be followed by an interactive discussion on the cases shown in the film, how activism is transforming in India, and how it effects us.

We look forward to your participation in making this event a success!

Venue: http://osm.org/go/yy4fIjrQL?m=

Tactical Tech Hompage: https://www.tacticaltech.org/

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/exposing-the-invisible-tactical-tech-films-screening-at-cis

CPDP 2014 Reforming Data Protection: The Global Perspective

praskrishna — 2013-12-11T03:39:50Z

Already in its 7th edition, the annual Computer Privacy and Data Protection conference (organised by CPDP) is being held in Brussels from January 22 to 24, 2014. Malavika Jayaram will be speaking at this event.

The Centre for Internet and Society is one of the sponsors for this event. Click here to read the full programme.

CPDP is a non-profit platform originally founded in 2007 by research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université de Namur and Tilburg University, which has now grown significantly and incorporates a consortium of 21 conference partners.

CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. In an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP gathers academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, computer scientists and civil society from all over the world to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. This unique multidisciplinary formula has served to make CPDP one of the leading data protection and privacy conferences in Europe and around the world.

CPDP2014 has become truly global: it is co-organized by conference partners from Europe and the United States, and devotes panels to Latin-America and India. Moreover, CPDP is reaching out to the Asia-Pacific with speakers coming from all over the region.

The progressive growth of CPDP will culminate in an unprecedented 7^th edition. A terrific programme will include more than 60 panels held over three consecutive days. The panels will focus on key issues that cover all current debates: The data protection reform in the European Union, PRISM, big data, cybercrime, data retention, cloud computing, enforcement by Data Protection Authorities, biometrics, e-health, privacy by design, and much, much more. In addition, there will be a day event on the ethical issues of data collection on minorities, and the use of technology to advance the status of Roma.

CPDP will offer valuable contributions from the leading names in the field, including key representatives from all the major European institutions - the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Data Protection Supervisor, and the Council of Europe.

In addition to the well-known classic Pecha Kucha side event, there will be several public debates held in the evenings – both in Dutch and English.

CDP2014 will continue to pay particular attention to high-level and innovative research from PhD Students and outstanding junior researchers by organizing sessions completely devoted to their work. CPDP2014 will also remain home to several award ceremonies, such as the award for the best Multidisciplinary Privacy Paper and the EPIC International Champion of Freedom Award.

Whether you are involved in the Conference as a sponsor, supporter, partner or participant or not, CPDP2014 welcomes you to join the event and contribute to the debate on emerging privacy and data protection issues.

For up to date information, registration and the programme, please visit http://www.cpdpconferences.org/ and follow CPDP on Facebook (cpdpconferences) and Twitter (@cpdpconferences).

If you have any questions please contact: info@cpdpconferences.org

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/cpdp-2014-reforming-data-protection-global-perspective

Legal Issues pertaining to Cloud Computing

praskrishna — 2022-02-07T15:29:00Z

The Law and Technology Society of National Law School of India University, Bangalore is organizing the 6th edition of its flagship conference ‘Consilience’ on December 14 and 15, 2013 at NLSIU Campus, Bangalore. The Centre for Internet and Society is supporting this event.

The Conference will see some of the best lawyers, jurists and industry leaders in India speak on different issues surrounding the theme. The Conference is co- branded with ‘Salesforce.com’, ‘International Technology Law Association’ and the Centre for Internet and Society (http://www.cis-india.org/). Apart from making an effective contribution towards greater understanding of the subject, the Conference will lead to a recommendatory policy paper to the government of India.

Key speakers for the Conference include:

Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan (Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Infosys & President, CII )
Pavan Duggal (Advocate, Supreme Court)
Abhishek Malhotra (Founding Partner, TMT Law Practice)
Azmul Haque (Partner, Shook Lin & Bok, Singapore)
Chris Edwards (Senior Associate, DLA Piper, Singapore)
Prof. Rahul De (IIM Bangalore)
Pamela Kumar (Chair, Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India)
Suhaan Mukherji (Expert advisor, Office of Adviser to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations)

Registrations for the Conference are open and fee for the same is as follows:

Students: Rs. 500/-
Professionals: Rs. 750/-

Please find attached the concept note, programme schedule and speakers’ profiles. To register, visit http://www.consilience.co.in/index.php/consilience-2013/register-for-the-conference. For any other queries, please write to ltech.nls@gmail.com .

or contact

Shivam Singla (Ph: +91-9916708701)
Ayushi Sutaria (Ph: +91-8123925725)

Conference Programme

Saturday, December 14th, 2013
Venue: Conference Hall, Academic Block, NLSIU

Lunch
08.30 09.30	Breakfast and Registration
09.45 10.00	Inauguration
10.00 10.30	Keynote Address
10.30 12.30	SESSION 1: INTRODUCTION TO CLOUD COMPUTING How does cloud computing work? - An overview of the basic technical features The current legal regime related to cloud computing in India- Main issues and challenges
13.15 15.15	SESSION 2: THE RELATION BETWEEN PARTIES TO CLOUD COMPUTING- USERS, INTERMEDIARIES AND GOVERNMENT BODIES Legal obligations of the intermediaries towards (i) the government and (ii) the users Cyber security concerns Standards of data protection Government's surveillance powers and privacy issues
Tea Break
15.30 17.30	SESSION 3: REGULATION AND MONITORING OF DATA CONTENT Current data control monitoring systems by intermediaries Data ownership and intellectual property issues- Possible threats and need for regulation Sensitive or critical data- Security concerns relating to their storage
High Tea/Networking Session

Sunday, December 15th, 2013
Venue: Conference Hall, Academic Block, NLSIU

Tea Break
09.00 10.00	Breakfast and Registration
10.00 12.00	SESSION 4: THE INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON CLOUD COMPUTING Jurisdiction and choice of law issues- how do we counter the confusion? International laws applicable to cloud computing Need for a comprehensive international framework to simplify the situation?
12.15 14.15	SESSION 5: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH LEGAL FRAMEWORKS IN OTHER COUNTRIES Legal frameworks in UK and Singapore Beneficial features of these legal regimes and their suitability in the Indian context Lessons to be learnt for India
Lunch
15.00 17.00	SESSION 6: THE WAY FORWARD – SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Overview of the important challenges and suggestions Possible Policy and Legislative steps to improve the Cloud Computing regime in India
High Tea/Networking Session

Click to read the sub tracks for discussion
Access the speakers' profiles here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/legal-issues-on-cloud-computing

Biometrics or Bust? Implications of the UID for Participation and Inclusion

praskrishna — 2014-01-06T08:56:51Z

Malavika Jayaram will give a talk on biometrics and the implications of UID for participation and inclusion at the office of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore on January 10, 2014 at 6.00 p.m.

Abstract

Privacy is often portrayed as a luxury, as the intellectual preoccupation of nerdy privileged liberals, and an issue of salience only to the elite. This ignores the reality of the most marginalized sections of a society being disproportionately impacted by privacy intrusive technologies. The collusion of public and private agendas towards implementing large welfare projects is generally seen as progressive and neutral, yet the consequences of even well-intentioned efforts that trade privacy for convenience, welfare, security or a host of other compelling goals is troubling. The use of biometric technologies further complicates matters: the assumption that bodies can be rendered into infallible verifiers, as repositories of unchanging truth, is not without its catalogue of failures. This talk will examine the notion of biometric representations as a kind of capital, the possibility that failures are endemic to their functioning, and the implications of systemic errors on equality, participation and democracy.

Malavika Jayaram

Malavika is a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, focusing on privacy, identity and free expression. She is also a Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, and the author of the India chapter for the Data Protection & Privacy volume in the Getting the Deal Done series.  Malavika is one of 10 Indian lawyers in The International Who's Who of Internet e-Commerce & Data Protection Lawyers directory. In August 2013, she was voted one of India’s leading lawyers and one of only 8 women to be featured in the “40 under 45” survey conducted by Law Business Research, London. In a different life, she spent 8 years in London, practicing law with global firm Allen & Overy in the Communications, Media & Technology group, and as VP and Technology Counsel at Citigroup. During 2012-2013, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. She is working on completing her PhD at the National Law School.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/biometrics-or-bust-implications-of-uid-for-participation-and-inclusion

An Introduction to Bitfilm and Bitcoin – A Discussion by Aaron Koenig

praskrishna — 2013-02-05T10:14:54Z

The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore invites you to a talk by Aaron Koenig, Managing Director, Bitfilm Networks of Hamburg, Germany on January 23, 2013, from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

The Talk

Aaron Koenig will give a talk on the creation and use of Bitcoin, a new digital currency and payment system designed for the voting process of the Bitfilm Festival for Digital Film. Since the year 2000, the Bitfilm Festival has been showcasing films that use digital technology in a creative and innovative way. It takes place on the Internet. However, physical screenings of the films will be held in Bangalore and in Hamburg. Each of the 59 nominated digital animations has its own Bitcoin account, and users worldwide may vote by donating Bitcoins to the films they like anonymously and without any transfer costs. The donated money will be divided among the most popular films (the films with the most votes/Bitcoins).

Aaron will also present an animated short about Bitcoin which he has produced with an animation team based in Bangalore. Of course, the animators were paid in Bitcoin.

More info on the Bitfilm Festival: http://www.bitfilm.com/festival
More info on Bitcoin: http://blink.li/current-issue

VIDEO

Aaron Koenig

Aaron is the Managing Director of Bitfilm. He has run the organization since 1999. He is a vibrant member of art and film societies and an Entrepreneur. Currently engaged with Bitfilm.com, Aaron also publishes a political magazine called BLINK.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bitfilm-and-bitcoin-a-discussion-by-aaron-koenig

Emerging Issues in the Internet of Things

Admin — 2017-10-03T01:53:25Z

Andrew Rens will give a talk about research that he is doing at the Internet Governance Lab on October 23, 2017 at the Centre for Internet & Society in Bengaluru.

It seems almost anything can be connected to the Internet: 3D printers, cars, traffic lights and even toasters. This proliferation of Internet enabled devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), raises a cloud of complex problems, of ownership and control, privacy and surveillance, ubiquity and network fragility. IoT doesn't just promise efficiency; cheap sensors and printers might put scientific research and customized manufacturing in the hands of millions more people. The governance of the IoT, exhibits the same super complexity as Internet governance generally; with multiple sites of governance and actors operating across legal borders. Legal regulation, standards and the architecture of technology determine how the IoT is configured and how it will be reconfigured in response to these problems. Where is the technology governance of the IoT currently taking shape? What forces will likely bear on the governance of the IoT? What role will permissionless innovation play, and what its limits? How will intellectual property laws complicate the IoT?"

The event, overall, is expected to be a thought provoking one for discussion on things related to IoT.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/emerging-issues-in-the-internet-of-things

Community Capacity Building Workshop at KIIT University

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T05:22:17Z

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team is organizing a workshop for community capacity building at KIIT University on March 30, 2014.

Experienced Wikimedians and Subhashish Panigrahi from CIS-A2K mentored the community about community building strategies and outreach. They had a discussion about the further steps with students (graduating batch) of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal who took part in the Odia Wikipedia Education program. Finally there was a discussion on CIS-A2K's Odia language work plan for Wikipedia and WikiSource.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/community-capacity-building-workshop-at-kiit

NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T16:49:48Z

As part of the NASA Open Government Plan , the NASA International Space Apps Challenge have brought together citizen scientists, FOSS enthusiasts , Data Scientists, Open Hardware hackers and students throughout the world for collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing relevant open-source solutions to address global needs applicable to both life on Earth and life in Space.

Event Flier

And once again on April 12th and 13th, 2014, the event will be organized by the Centre for Internet and Society, with a special focus on Open Data, Open Science and Citizen Science, in collaboration with Team Indus, one of 3 teams to be selected globally amidst thousands, to launch a moon rover for the Google Lunar X-Prize 2015.

The event shall start on Saturday, 12th of April, with the following morning talks:

Keynote Speaker: Dr.Jayant Murthy, Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, will be addressing the gathering on Open Science, Open Data and Computing within the Indian context.
Title of Talk : Open Data , Open Science and Computing in the Indian Context: 10:30 a.m.
Abstract: As Big Science gets bigger and yields massive amounts of data, we are left with a host of insurmountable problems from the physical - How do we store and access so much data? - to the computational - How do we process the data with increasingly complex models? - to the sociological - How do we change our paradigm so that we efficiently use the data with a limited pool of skilled manpower. I will also touch on some philosophical aspects of this problem - Should all data be free and what are the implications of this on policy and on individuals.
Speaker : Narayan Prasad, Co-Founder, Dhruva Space: 11:30 a.m.
Abstract: Narayan will talk about issues surrounding Open Data, Citizen Science and Governance whilst taking us on a journey of Bangalore based Dhruva Space, one of the world's few start-ups, looking at solutions ranging from small satellite development (CUBESAT, ARDUSAT), near space environmental design, high altitude balloon imaging and internet -- many of these using open source hardware devices like the Arduino.

We will then get into break out sessions to review and sign-up for existing challenges or propose new ones amongst those listed at : https://2014.spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/

The hackathon will end on Sunday, April 13, 2014 by 6 p.m.

Registration is free and you are requested to confirm your participation for the event here : https://2014.spaceappschallenge.org/location/bangalore/

Participants are requested to bring their own laptops.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/nasa-international-space-apps-challenge-2014

Odia WikiMeetup

praskrishna — 2014-02-03T06:46:33Z

CIS-A2K organized an Odia Wiki meetup in Bhubaneswar on January 11.

The event was attended by Odia Wikipedians Dr. Subas Chandra Rout, Shitikantha Dash, Jnanaranjan Sahu and Sailesh Patnaik. T. Vishnuvardhan, Programme Director and Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CIS-A2K met Odia Wikipedians to discuss about various ongoing projects in Odia Wikipedia, potential projects and incubator projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/odia-wiki-meetup-january-11-2014