The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
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ICOMM2012: International Communications and Electronics Fair
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/icomm-2012-report
<b>The seventh India International Communications and Electronics Fair (ICOMM2012) organized by CMAI Association of India was held at the NSIC Expo Grounds in New Delhi from September 14 to 15, 2012. Jadine Lannon attended the event, and shares us with some interesting and exciting new developments in ICT.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For the last seven years, the ICOMM event has been conducted by the Communication Multimedia Applications Infrastructure (CMAI) Association of India.<a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> Since its first installment in 2006, ICOMM has grown to be a significant international tradeshow that showcases the latest products and technologies from a wide array of Asian mobile, tablets and consumer electronics manufacturers. Over the years, the event has also grown to include various participants from related industries, like service providers, application and software designers, and producers of equipment, components, parts and accessories.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While past ICOMM events had a strict B2B (business to business) structure, ICOMM2012 was the first year that the tradeshow was open to the public, making it India’s first consumer mobile and tablet exhibition. This B2B/C2B strategy appeared to be largely successful—the event received a high amount of traffic, especially from young people, and plans for the 8th ICOMM in 2013 involve an increase in event scale through integration with the India Telecom 2013 tradeshow.<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The main themes of ICOMM2012 were mobiles, tablets, and consumer electronics, though applications, accessories, and various related technologies and industries were also featured. The event hosted a large diversity of participants, from leading Indian brands like Micromax, Lava International, Karbonn and Maxx Mobile to smaller Indian and international brands such as GlobyTalky, Skymobiles, Gionee, Ivio, Belphone and Signal. A huge array of devices and innovations were featured at ICOMM2012, many of which are still prototypes. Here are some of the innovations and booths that caught my eye:</p>
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<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/ubslife.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Datawind" /></th>
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<p>Datawind Ltd. occupied a popular booth with the release of four new 7-inch UbiSlate tablets<a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a> UbiSlate 7Ci, 7C+, 7Ri and 7R+. These sophisticated Android devices function as both tablets and smartphones, support WiFi and GPRS connections, and are the only Android devices on the Indian market to feature Datawind’sUbiSurfer browser. The UbiSlate 7+ devices can now be pre-ordered for between Rs. 3,499 and Rs. 4,799.</p>
<p>I was able to interview Mr. Jasjit Singh, the Executive Vice President of Datawind, on the UbiSlate tablets. A link to this interview will be provided in the near future.</p>
<p>ICOMM2012 actually saw the launch of fair number of new devices onto the Indian market. One of the most prominent launches was SMSInfosys’<a href="#fn4" name="fr4">[4]</a> new product line of mobile, tablet, and computer devices under the brand GlobyTalky.<a href="#fn5" name="fr5">[5]</a> This “GlobyTalky” brand originally began as a mobile application called “GlobyTalky – Connected Life”, a multi-platform RCSe application that boasts multiple communication and sharing features. The application, brand and devices are the brainchildren of Imtiaz Ahmed, the founder of SMSInfosys.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The GlobyTalky launch was distinguished by the wide array of devices that were released. The brand features a good selection of feature phones, smartphones and tablets, as well as two laptops (I was unable to get a picture of the laptops). Each of the GlobyTalky mobile and tablet devices feature the GlobyTalky – Connected Life application. Two phones are of particular interest in the photo below—the thin light blue phone with the long blue strap and the dark blue candy bar-style phone on the right.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/LightBlue.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Light Blue" /></p>
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<td style="text-align: justify; ">The light blue phone is about the size of a credit card and 5.6 mm thick. It was advertised as a “back-up” phone that one could keep in their wallet and use when their main phone failed, and was priced at Rs. 1000-1200. The dark blue phone, called the G-Aqua, is completely waterproof—it can function perfectly while submerged in water, and can survive submersion of up to 1.5 meters without taking any damage. It can even receive calls, play music, and take pictures while underwater. It can be seen again in white in the picture below.</td>
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<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Whitephone.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="White Phone" /></p>
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<td>According to Mr. Ahmed, 60 per cent of the mobile devices that are brought into services centers in India have water damage, which is what motivated him to create a completely waterproof phone for the Indian market. He estimates that it will be priced between Rs. 4,200 and Rs. 4,500.</td>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">GlobyTalky was not the only participant that showcased a waterproof phone, though. IVIO, a mobile brand owned by the Indonesian company PT. Intersys, was also giving demonstrations on their waterproof smartphone, the <a href="https://cis-india.org/home-images/water.png" class="internal-link">DG68</a>. With its sleek design, 4.1-inch high-resolution screen, 3G and Wifi capabilities, capacitate touch and Android 4.0 OS, the DG68 is a much more sophisticated phone than the G-Aqua. However, IVIO has yet to release any of its devices onto the Indian market, and the DG68 is still a prototype.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The ShenZhen BLEPHONE Technology Co., Ltd., the company that owns the popular mobile brands Lesun and Lephone (the latter of which is available on the Indian market), also had a popular booth. Aside from their large presentation of feature phones and smartphones, BLEPHONE also showcased some interesting innovations and accessories. In particular, I was quite impressed by their Lephone mobile USB charging devices, called the CooMax, and their Lesun digital recorder-cum-mobile phone, the Gift I.</p>
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<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/lephone.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Lephone" /></th> <th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Lesun.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Lesun" /></th>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">ICOMM2012 was a hugely successful exhibition. Aside from showcasing many of the most interesting and significant innovations and actors in the Asian ICT sectors, and possibly the wider world, the event was able to attract more than 21,500 delegates over a two-day period.<a href="#fn6" name="fr6">[6]</a> Further, according to NK Goyal, the president of the CMAI Association of India, the fair was able to generate business leads worth USD 154 million.<a href="#fn7" name="fr7">[7]</a> I highly encourage anyone interested in the exciting and ever-changing world of ICT to attend ICOMM2013, as it is sure to continue to grow and attract more and more exciting and fascinating technologies and devices.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Given below is a gallery of the photos taken at the event and of various other booths and devices.</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15447679" width="476"></iframe></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. The CMAI Association of India is a prominent trade association that works to promote growth in the Indian IT and telecom sector domestically and internationally through activities such as investing in industry services and promotion, education, training and market research. Through consultation, events, advocacy, research and promotion, the CMAI now boasts a substantial amount of members and international partners, as well as multiple international offices. More information can be found on the CMAI Association of India at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.cmai.asia/association.php">http://www.cmai.asia/association.php</a><br />[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” <i>EFYTimes.com</i>, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, <a href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770">http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770</a>. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.<br />[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. The UbiSlate tablet is the commercial version of Datawind Ltd.’s Aakask tablet, a high-functioning low-cost tablet device that was developed in collaboration with the Indian government as part of the country’s endeavor to supply Indian college and university students with a low-cost computer device. This project was part of the government’s aim to provide an e-learning service to 25,000 colleges and 500 universities across India (this figure was retrieved from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817</a>). More data on this device can be found at: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.akashtablet.com/">http://www.akashtablet.com/</a><br />[<a href="#fr4" name="fn4">4</a>]. SMSInfosys is a mobile phone testing company with offices in India, Hong Kong and China. They perform quality assurance/quality control inspection, certification verification and IMEI services to mobile phone producers. More information about the company can be found here: <a class="external-link" href="http://smsinfosys.com/">http://smsinfosys.com/</a><br />[<a href="#fr5" name="fn5">5</a>]. More information on this brand and product line can be found here: <a class="external-link" href="http://globytalky.com/">http://globytalky.com/</a><br />[<a href="#fr6" name="fn6">6</a>].See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” <i>EFYTimes.com</i>, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, <a href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770">http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770</a>. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.<br />[<a href="#fr7" name="fn7">7</a>]. See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” <i>EFYTimes.com</i>, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, <a href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770">http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770</a>. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/icomm-2012-report'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/icomm-2012-report</a>
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No publisherjdineAccess to Knowledge2012-12-04T06:37:05ZBlog EntryTranscripts of Discussions at WIPO SCCR 25
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr25-discussions-transcripts
<b>We are providing archival copies of the transcripts of the 25th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, which is being held in Geneva from November 19, 2012 to November 23, 2012.
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<p>This is an unedited rough transcript of the discussions at SCCR 25 which is live-streamed and made available by WIPO at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.streamtext.net/player/carttranscript?Event=WIPO">http://www.streamtext.net/player/carttranscript?Event=WIPO</a> and <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.streamtext.net/player?event=WIPO">http://www.streamtext.net/player?event=WIPO</a>. We are hosting the live-streamed text for archival purposes:</p>
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<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-1-november-19-2012.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 25 Day 1, November 19, 2012</a> (Full Text)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-2-november-20-2012.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 25 Day 2, November 20, 2012</a> (Full Text)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-3-november-21-2012.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 25 Day 3, November 21, 2012</a> (Full Text)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-4-november-22-2012.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 25 Day 4, November 22, 2012</a> (Full Text)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-5-november-23-2012.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 25 Day 5, November 23, 2012</a> (Full Text)</li>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr25-discussions-transcripts'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr25-discussions-transcripts</a>
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No publishersmitaLive BlogCopyrightAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-12-05T00:58:55ZBlog EntryPervasive Mobile Technologies: Meet Our Mobile Devices!
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-mobile-technologies-meet-our-grey-market-devices
<b>As a part of the Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace research project, the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is researching 12 mobile phone devices to generate a better understanding of the intellectual property (IP) implications of pervasive mobile technologies available in the Indian market. This post is an introduction to our 12 mobile phones.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As detailed in my introductory blog on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/pervasive-technologies-access-to-knowledge-in-the-market-place">Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace Research Initiative</a>, CIS will be conducting research on mobile technologies as a small off-shoot of the overall project. Pervasive technologies that can be purchased for less than USD 100 play an integral role in bringing access to knowledge to those that routinely face barriers to the consumption of information. However, their legality, particularly in terms of their use of IP, is unclear. In order to better understand the legal environment in which these technologies exist, CIS purchased 12 mobile phones to study the patent implications of their hardware, software and content.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Through examination, research, interviews and consultancies, we hope to create an in-depth documentation of each device, an extensive database or account of the patents implicated, and a number of narrower research avenues on topics related to IP, patents, and mobile technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This blog post will serve as a brief introduction to our mobile devices. The information that I have compiled was discovered through shallow interaction with the phones — turning a device on and exploring the interface and content — which is why the documentation is not particularly extensive at this point. I have had difficulty identifying certain features of some of the phones, like which media formats they support or whether or not they are EDGE<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a> — enable, but I am confident that I will be able to ascertain these specifications in the near future; however, certain features, like what OS (operating system) they run on and what chip set they are using, will require collaboration with experts to identify. The exploration is on-going, and more information will be posted as it is discovered.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Aside from all of the usual functions of a mobile phone (making calls, receiving calls, saving numbers, etc.), each of our mobiles devices possess what I have termed the "basics": dual GSM SIM capabilities with dual standby, the ability to connect to 2G networks, GPRS, a WAP browser (except device 011), bluetooth capabilities, a microSD slot, a dual camera (a camera that takes still photos and records video), an FM radio receiver and the ability to play .mp3 audio files and .mp4 video files, record audio and view .jpg images. Each phone also has a handful of various "utilities" and "extras" applications (such as an alarm, a calculator, a calendar, etc.) as well as at least one game. The full specifications of each phone will be provided in the near future, along with further pictures of each device.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As much of the research in this project pertains to the IP implications of the devices, we have decided to withhold the make and model of each device to shield the producers from any negative repercussions that could be the result of our research inquiries. They have been assigned the numeric code names 001 to 012.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to our mobile phones:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">001 - The Classroom in a Box</h3>
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<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 6,300.00 / $113.00</p>
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<p><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Pico-Projector</li>
<li>Analog TV Receiver</li>
<li>MS Office Document Viewer</li>
</ul>
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<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/001Front.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="001Front" /></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">This bar-design feature phone has all of the basics with a few added bonuses: an analog TV receiver, viewer, and a built-in pico-projector that projects the mobile's screen onto any surface. Though this phone does not technically fall into our definition of pervasive technologies because of its price, it was the first mobile phone with a built-in pico-projector as well as an analog TV receiver available on the Indian market for less than Rs. 10,000 when it was purchased more than a year ago. Since then, other sub-USD100 pico-projector mobile devices have made an appearance on the Indian market, but each of those devices appear to have been discontinued and 001 continues to be the cheapest pico-projector mobile phone available for purchase.</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">002 - The Supercharger</h3>
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<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,499.00 / $45.00</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
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<ul>
<li>Solar Panel </li>
<li>Hindi Keyboard</li>
</ul>
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<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/002Front.jpg" alt="null" style="float: left; " class="image-inline" title="002Front" /></p>
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<td style="text-align: justify; ">002 is a sleek candybar feature phone with a particularly interesting innovation. While it uses a standard lithium-ion battery that can be recharged via connection to a wall socket or electrical device (such as a laptop), it also has a built-in solar panel that can generate some charge as well. The solar panel technology is not yet very efficient—the panel would have to be placed in direct sunlight for multiple hours to fully charge the battery—but it represents an important step towards untethering mobile phones and mobile phone users from costly electricity infrastructure, a development that would have significant implications for rural populations who have unreliable access to electricity.</td>
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<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/002Back.jpg" alt="null" style="float: right; " class="image-inline" title="002Back" /></p>
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<h3></h3>
<h3>003 - The Networker</h3>
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<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,250.00 / $22.00</p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Wi-Fi</li>
<li>Optical Trackpad</li>
<li>Secondary Forward-facing Camera</li>
<li>Support for 8 Languages</li>
</ul>
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<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/003Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="003Front" /></p>
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<p>With a boxy, QWERTY-keyboard design and relatively small screen, 003 does not appear, at first glance, to be anymore than an average feature phone — but appearances can be deceiving. With a highly responsive optical trackpad, an analog TV receiver, BlackBerry-esque interface and WiFi capabilities, this mobile device packs some sophisticated technologies and features. Further, it is the only phone in our collection that can connect to the internet using WLAN networks.</p>
<p>Considering that some of the other devices are much more complex — and expensive — than 003, the wide-spread exclusion of WiFi capabilities in our collection is intriguing. Is the choice to include or exclude mobile technology a matter of economics? Are cellular WiFi components expensive, and producers are choosing to exclude WiFi as a method of cutting costs? Is it simply a response to patterns of consumer demand? The WiFi questions will be explored in more depth in up-coming blog posts.</p>
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<h3>004 - The Linguist</h3>
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<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,250.00 / $40.00</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="s1"> </span>Android-like OS</li>
<li>Support for 14 Languages</li>
<li>Secondary Forward-facing Camera</li>
<li>Large Number of Pre-loaded Apps</li>
</ul>
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<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/004Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="004Front" /></p>
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<td style="text-align: justify; ">Though it may be hard to believe at first glance, this mobile device was purchased for less than Rs. 2500. With its large internal memory, support for 14 different languages (including Tamil, Bengali and Hindi), and its large array of pre-loaded games and social media applications already set it apart from the less sophisticated mobiles in our collection, 004 also runs on a mysterious Android-like operating system similar to the popular MIUI Android ROM developed by the Chinese-based company Xiaomi Tech. This give it a very sophisticated interface with the look and feel of a smartphone, though the device itself lacks many of the capabilities that are often considered as smartphone criteria (GPS, high-speed internet access, push/pull email, Wi-Fi, an app store, etc.). Because this device, and others like it in our collection, have more sophisticated hardware, software and content than a generic feature phone, but are not as capable as a smartphone, I have taken to calling these devices "semi-smart". <br /></td>
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<h3>005 - TV on the Go</h3>
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<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,450.00 / $26.00</p>
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<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="s1"> </span>Analog TV receiver</li>
<li>Arabic Keyboard</li>
<li>Secondary Forward-facing Camera</li>
</ul>
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<th style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/005Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="005Front" /></th>
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<td style="text-align: justify; ">Though it doesn't have any particular innovation that sets it apart from the other devices, 005 is a hardy QWERTY-design feature phone with all of the basics as well as a good collection of social media applications and an analog TV receiver. Though its keyboard can be programmed to write in English, Tamil, Arabic and Hindi script, the buttons have the Arabic <i>abjad</i> on them, which brings up the question of which market this mobile was originally designed for. <br /></td>
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<h3>006 - The Spy</h3>
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<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,680.00 / $30.00</p>
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<p><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES:</b></span></p>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Secondary “Spy” Camera</li>
<li>Ability to behave as a modem via USB connection</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/006Camera.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="006Camera" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">006 is an interesting candy bar feature phone. On initial examination, this mobile appears to be a completely generic feature phones with all of the basics, but nothing auxiliary. However, a more careful inspection will reveal a secondary camera with an unusual placement — instead of being place at the top of the screen like all of the other secondary cameras found on our devices, this camera is situated on the right hand side of the phone. <br /></td>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_006Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="006Front" /></th>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The manufacturer of this device actually refers to this secondary camera as a "spy" camera, and it is truly an appropriate name; from a distance, it looks more like a headphone jack than a camera, and its placement allows for photo and video to be taken without any suspicious movement or positioning by the user. The secondary camera has 1.3 megapixels and can take relatively high resolution photos and videos.</p>
<h3>007 - The Semi-Smartphone</h3>
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<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,150.00 / $39.00</p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Android-like OS (maybe MIUI)</li>
<li>USB Tethering</li>
<li>Push Email</li>
</ul>
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<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/007Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="007Front" /></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Device 007 is a semi-smart touchscreen phone, and by far the most sophisticated device in our collection. We believe that it uses MIUI OS, which gives it a very similar look to Android and a functionality that is reminiscent of iOSx. While it doesn't have an app store, 007 is jam-packed with pre-loaded applications and can support a wide variety of file formats. Further, while the phone cannot connect to WLAN networks on its own; it can connect to WiFi by tethering to a networked device via USB connection.</p>
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<h3>008 - The Trendy</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,350.00 / $42.00</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Android-like OS</li>
<li>Support for 9 languages</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
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<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/008Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="008Front" /></p>
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<td style="text-align: justify; ">Another mainstream look-alike, 008 runs the same unidentified OS as device 004 and has similar capabilities. Its plastic casing is a bit flimsy, but its "back", "home" and "list" buttons are touch sensitive. Its sophisticated OS and pre-loaded applications make it a semi-smart device.</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
<h3>009 - The Boombox</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,420.00 / $26.00</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Huge built-in speaker</li>
<li>Android-like OS</li>
</ul>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/009.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="009Front" /></p>
</th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Though it is less recognizable than some of the other devices, this mobile may have one of the significant smartphone qualifiers that our other devices lack: an app store — or what appears to be an app store. The app store icon itself is actually the icon for the Android app store, but the interface is completely different, and the only thing available for download is a handful of games. Interestingly enough, many of these games also make appearances on some of the other mobile devices (like fishing joy and tear clothes). Further, I would not call this phone semi-smart, as its interface is not particularly any more sophisticated than some of the other feature phones in our collection.</td>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/009Back.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="009Back" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>009 also features a large built-in speaker, the Opera Mini mobile browser and an Android-like OS, though this OS is less sophisticated than that of 004 and 008.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>010 - 3D</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,440.00 / $26.00</p>
</div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Android-like OS</li>
<li>Pre-loaded Stereoscopic (3D) videos</li>
<li>Support for 13 languages</li>
</ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/0010Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="0010Front" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">This semi-smart touchscreen phone also has an Android-like operating system. Though it lacks an app store and push-email, it comes pre-loaded with a veritable smorgasbord of games and social media applications and supports 13 different languages. It also comes with a pair of 3D glasses and two short, very basic pre-loaded stereoscopic videos.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>011 - The Mighty Mini</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 750.00 / $14.00</p>
<p class="p1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Dual GSM SIM support</li>
<li>Best bang-for-your-buck for a basic mobile phone</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/011.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="011" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At Rs. 750, this little feature phone was the least expensive phone we could find that still had almost all of the basics. Even without any extra features, it is still almost Rs. 200 cheaper than the majority of the most basic GSM dual SIM mobiles available on the formal Indian market<a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a>— and, in most cases, 011 has more capabilities than most of those devices. With .mp3 and .mp4 file playback, a dual camera, colour display, a WAP browser, MMS messaging support, two charging ports and Urdu and Hindi language support, this mobile phone personifies affordable accessibility to knowledge and media.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>012 - The Pianist</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,550.00 / $28.00</p>
<p class="p1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Touch piano</li>
<li>Two charging ports</li>
<li>Support for a multitude of audio, video and image formats</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/012.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="012" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p> </p>
<p>012 is a basic candy bar feature phone with a particularly novel innovation: a touch piano. It is quite sensitive to touch and has a one octave range.</p>
</td>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/012Back.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="012Back" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<h3></h3>
<h3>013 - The Indian Experience</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,100.00 / $38.00</p>
</div>
<p><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>India<b> </b>specific content</li>
<li>Proprietary App Store</li>
</ul>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/013Front.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="013Front" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>This little touchscreen mobile is chockfull of “Indian-specific” content, including an application that links directly to an online portal where consumers can download “Hungama” videos, music and movies onto the phone—for a price. Many of the games also charge a monthly user fee, though interestingly enough, Angry Birds and Talking Tom Cat are pre-loaded and free to play. This phone also has a proprietary app store with a limited amount of mBounce<a href="#fn4" name="fr4">4]</a> applications and games available for purchase. I am not yet sure if this app store can be remotely updated with new apps, but the device can receive data vis USB connection, so it is possible that new applications can be added through direct file transfer.</p>
<p>It also has keyboard support for English, Hindi and Tamil, but the interface cannot be set it appear in anything other than English.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, also known as Enchanced GPRS (EGPRS) is a mobile phone technology that also improved data transmission on GSM networks. It is considered a pre-3G radio technology. Read more about it here: <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution</a><br />[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. Information retrieved from <a href="http://www.flipkart.com/">www.flipkart.com</a>. The prices shown here have been verified as being the same or very similar (though never more expensive) to the prices offered by each brand's official distributors. See Flipkart search links:</p>
<ul>
<li>Mircomax: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/UW3q0U">http://bit.ly/UW3q0U</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Spice Mobility: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/V0DK9i">http://bit.ly/V0DK9i</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Karbonn: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/10DKKbz">http://bit.ly/10DKKbz</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Lava: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/TSxUzQ">http://bit.ly/TSxUzQ</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#fn4" name="fr4">[4]</a> mBounce Ltd is a Hong Kong-based company that performs a variety of mobile phone application support services like proprietary in-house billing infrastructure for app stores, the pre-loading of applications and app stores, and application creation. They are MediaTek-nominated key partner in providing MRE (Maui Runtime Environment) App Store Solutions, but mBounce applications and software can also be placed on other mobile operating systems. You can read more about mBounce here: <a href="http://www.mbounce.com/?lang=eng&module=ltrbox&menu=m1&content=home">http://www.mbounce.com/?lang=eng&module=ltrbox&menu=m1&content=home</a> and here: http://developer.mediatek.com/mre/en/partner/335</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-mobile-technologies-meet-our-grey-market-devices'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-mobile-technologies-meet-our-grey-market-devices</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineFeaturedAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2012-12-21T07:48:40ZBlog EntryExploring the Internals of Mobile Devices — Report from a One-day Workshop at TERI
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-devices
<b>On October 27, 2012, the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) organised a one-day workshop on exploring the internals of mobile technologies at the TERI Southern Regional Centre in Bangalore. The workshop received more than 140 registrants, of which approximately 40 attended. In this post, Jadine Lannon explores the discussions and the developments that took place at the workshop.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The event brought together professional and non-professional individuals and communities interested in exploring mobile technologies. The aim of the workshop was the provide participants with the knowledge and tools to better understand the internals of mobile technologies as well as familiarize the attendees with CIS's "Pervasive Technologies" research project.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Anil Kumar Pugalia, Sudar Muthu and Pankaj Bharadiya were the expert speakers. The event was supported by the well-established online security, hardware and software domain communities NULL, SecurityXploaded, Computer Club India and Bangalore Android User Group.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Sudar Muthu: Capabilities of Arduino</h3>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/14911204" width="427"> </iframe></p>
<div style="text-align: center; "><b><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Sudar/capabilities-of-arduino-including-due" target="_blank" title="Capabilities of Arduino (including Due)">Capabilities of Arduino (including Due)</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Sudar" target="_blank">Sudar Muthu</a></b></div>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>Sudar Muthu began the workshop with a talk on the capabilities of Arduino and the ways in which Arduino can be used to interface with different external devices.</p>
<p>He discussed with us different types of Arduino, the technical specifications of Arduino, the ways that Arduino can be used to interface with external boards and the interfacing that he has been able to accomplish using Arduino and various devices.</p>
<p>The slides from his Powerpoint presentation are viewable on the left.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Anil Kumar Pugalia: Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers</h3>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p> </p>
<p>Anil Kumar Pugalia followed Sudar's presentation with an exploration of methods of mobile hacking using Linux drivers.</p>
<p>He discussed various Linux kernel hacking techniques as well as tools that can be used to perform reverse-engineering on a mobile device.</p>
<p>The slides from Anil's presentation can be accessed on the right.</p>
</td>
<th><iframe frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/14917053" width="427"> </iframe>
<div style="text-align: center; "><b><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/anil_pugalia/mobile-hacking" target="_blank" title="Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers">Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/anil_pugalia" target="_blank">Anil Kumar Pugalia</a></b></div>
</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following two talks were delivered by Pankaj Bharadiya from Texas Instruments. In his first presentation, he explored hardware hacking and board/chips capabilities. His second talk was on porting open software on hardware. In addition to his discussions, he also covered porting Android on open hardware. The slides from his presentations will be posted shortly.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After all the presentations, the participants were invited to handle and open up the 12 mobile devices that CIS purchased for our Pervasive Mobile Technologies research project. The participants worked in teams of two to five members to open up the mobile devices and observe their internals. We asked the participants to record any information about the internals of the mobiles that they were able to find, including the make, model, and serial numbers of the components. Pictures from this part of the workshop will be posted shortly.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">All of the collected information was recorded and distributed among the participants so that the group could continue to work on identifying the mobile internals and the various data sheets associated with each component. This data will be added to the specifications of each mobile device as it is collected. CIS hopes to continue to collaborate with the individuals and communities who participated in this workshop as well as other interested individuals who may have been unable to attend the one-day workshop to proceed with this process of identification. We also hope to hold a second event, a one- to two-day hackathon, sometime in December to continue the exploration of our mobile devices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS would like to thank Anil Kumar Pagalia, Sudar Muthu, Pankaj Bharadiya, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Akash Mahajan (NULL representative), Amit Malik (SecurityXploaded representative), the NULL, SecurityXploaded, Bangalore Android User Group and Computer Club India communities, and all of the participants for making the workshop a huge success and aiding us in our ongoing research project!</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">You can reach participating communities at following links:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/11uCKM">http://bit.ly/11uCKM</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/dByU6N">http://bit.ly/dByU6N</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For any further information on the past workshop or future events, please connect with us:</p>
<ol>
<li>Jadine Lannon (<a href="mailto:jadine@cis-india.org">jadine@cis-india.org</a>), research intern for the A2K programme</li>
<li>Amarjit Singh (<a href="mailto:amarjitlife@gmail.com">amarjitlife@gmail.com</a>), the Workshop Manager.</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<p><i>Click below for a slideshow of the pictures from the workshop</i>:</p>
<ol>
<hr />
<p>Photos<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15437161" width="476"></iframe></p>
<hr />
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-devices'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-devices</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2012-12-01T05:57:53ZBlog EntryComments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-science-technology-and-innovation-policy-draft
<b>The Department of Science and Technology invited public comments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft). Accordingly, the Centre for Internet and Society has made the following comments on the draft policy document.</b>
<p>Department of Science and Technology,<br />Ministry of Science and Technology,<br />Government of India</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Subject: Comments on the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (Draft)</span></p>
<p>Dear Sir/Madam,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We at the Centre for Internet and Society commend the drafting of the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.dst.gov.in/sti-policy.pdf">Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013 (Draft)</a>. It is a well rounded policy which will pave the way for further informed policy decisions on innovation and research and development in the country.</p>
<p>Few of the notable and welcome policy statements are:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Policy aims at ‘inclusive innovation’ and takes into consideration the “need to ensure access, availability and affordability of solutions to as large a population as possible”. It also aims at building a conducive environment for research and development by modifying the IPR policy to include marching rights with respect to social goods funded by public. This in line with the aim of the policy to provide access new technologies. The use of government funding in commercially viable research would not only assure better access to medicine and other technological innovations but also ensure knowledge transfer.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The policy decision to "foster data sharing and access" is most welcome and will act as a catalyst for further research and development through open and collaborative research and development.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Policy also lays emphasis on open source discoveries for "public and social good" and it is indeed a pleasure to note that the Policy wishes to build knowledge commons by collaborative generation of IPR. This will definitely go a long way in encouraging further innovation in the country.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is also appreciated that the policy will aim at "increasing accessibility, availability and affordability of innovations" and will establish a fund for innovation in this direction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Policy also states that the "people" and "decision makers" should be made aware of the implications of emerging technologies, including their ethical, social and economic dimensions. Implementation of such policy is a necessity and will enable the government to make informed policy decisions in the future.</p>
<p><b>Suggestion</b>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is submitted that the policy document should take into account that in order ensure ‘inclusive innovation’ and accessibility, the policy should specifically include mandates to encourage and foster innovation in technology related to accessibility tools for persons with disabilities.<a class="external-link" href="http://www.dst.gov.in/sti-policy.pdf">www.dst.gov.in/sti-policy.pdf</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-science-technology-and-innovation-policy-draft'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-science-technology-and-innovation-policy-draft</a>
</p>
No publishersnehashishIntellectual Property RightsAccess to Knowledge2012-12-01T15:36:38ZBlog EntryComments on the Broadcast Treaty and Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-broadcast-treaty-and-exceptions-and-limitations-for-libraries-and-archives
<b>This November at WIPO the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was witness to a tough negotiation on the proposed Treaty providing access to copyrighted materials to visually impaired persons. In between these discussions, the SCCR also found time to have two short plenary sessions on the proposed broadcast treaty as well as working documents on exceptions for libraries and archives.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although we were unable to make a statement at the SCCR due to logistical constraints, CIS had the following comments prepared on both these issues:</p>
<h3>Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations:</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society would like to reiterate the statement on principles provided in the 22nd SCCR by many civil society non-governmental organizations, cable casters and technology companies opposing a rights-based Broadcast Treaty. While we are encouraged by the inclusion of more suitable alternatives in many of the areas that civil society organizations had expressed concern, it is important that these alternatives be considered carefully. Some of the alternatives in the working document are not in keeping with the mandate of this Committee and we need to ensure that any new treaty provides a balanced protection to broadcast organizations.</p>
<p>We wish to enumerate a few key areas that need to be emphasized once again in this regard –</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To begin with, the definition of ‘broadcast’ itself should not be too broad. The treaty needs a clear and precise definition that limits the protection to signals and does not extend to retransmissions or transmissions over computer networks.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Similarly, it is essential that the protection granted to a broadcasting organization should be limited to broadcast signals. The current working document extends this protection to public accessibility/performance of the broadcast signal and such restrictions might not be feasible in developing and least developed countries. One alternative even extends the protection available to fixations of the broadcasts and this is entirely unacceptable in a signals based treaty. The obligations with regard to technological protection measures, if any, should also be limited to protect only those broadcasts that are lawful.</p>
<p>Limitations and exceptions to the protections granted by this treaty are also of great importance, especially so in light of the Development Agenda. These exceptions and limitations should be made mandatory and be expanded to include issues of national interest and for free-to-air broadcast signals (such as the laws governing broadcast of cricket games in India).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Lastly, as pointed out many times already, we are of the opinion that a fixed term of protection, whether 20 or 50 years, is inconsistent with the idea of a signals based approach to the treaty.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Proposed Legal Instruments on Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives and Educational, Teaching and Research Institutions and Persons with Other Disabilities:</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society would like to thank the Secretariat and the entire Committee for the hard work being put in this week at the SCCR.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">International instruments that govern exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives as well as educational, teaching and research instruments and persons with other disabilities is key to ensure a balanced global copyright system that protects both right holders and users. Such instruments will not only allow the preservation of copyrighted works, but also provide greater access to these materials, especially in developing countries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The working documents before us cover a number of issues and we would like to address a few of them today.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">First, the three-step test. This has been a contentious issue with regard to all three instruments that are being discussed here this week. We would like to reiterate that a narrow interpretation of the three-step test should not be adopted, it is important that any and all flexibilities that can be made available to libraries and archives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Second, libraries, archives, educational, research and teaching institutions should definitely be allowed to import and export copyrighted works and parallel trade in these works should be allowed. The language used in the current working document (SCCR/24/8) needs to be improved upon (Article 14, under 4.1 on page 12). This provision should indicate that as long as the copy of the work is lawfully produced, an educational institution, library, research organization or student is free to acquire, sell, import, export or otherwise dispose of that copy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Thirdly, we wish to emphasize once again, the importance of protecting works that are in a digital format, as well as online libraries and archives. Additionally, the transmission of these works in a digital form as well as any internet service providers engaged in facilitating access to materials under this treaty should also be granted protection.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-broadcast-treaty-and-exceptions-and-limitations-for-libraries-and-archives'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-broadcast-treaty-and-exceptions-and-limitations-for-libraries-and-archives</a>
</p>
No publishersmitaIntellectual Property RightsCopyrightAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-12-04T23:11:34ZBlog EntryWIPO SCCR 25 Day 1, November 19, 2012 (Full Text)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-1-november-19-2012.txt
<b>Rough transcript of proceedings from WIPO SCCR on Day 1, November 19, 2012.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-1-november-19-2012.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-1-november-19-2012.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-12-05T00:35:56ZFileWIPO SCCR 25 Day 2, November 20, 2012 (Full Text)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-2-november-20-2012.txt
<b>Rough transcript of proceedings from WIPO SCCR on Day 1, November 20, 2012.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-2-november-20-2012.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-2-november-20-2012.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-12-05T00:46:53ZFileWIPO SCCR 25 Day 3, November 21, 2012 (Full Text)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-3-november-21-2012.txt
<b>Rough transcript of proceedings from WIPO SCCR on Day 3, November 21, 2012.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-3-november-21-2012.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-25-day-3-november-21-2012.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-12-05T00:45:51ZFileWomen's Day Edit-a-thon at Jeewan Jyoti Women's Empowerment Centre, Pune
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-in-pune
<b>Sterlite Tech Foundation and Jnana Prabodhini joined hands with the Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team to hold a Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Jeewan Jyoti Women's Empowerment Centre, Ambawane in Pune on March 10, 2017. Subodh Kulkarni was one of the trainers. The edit-a-thon was attended by 28 students.</b>
<h3><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/PuneEditathon.jpg" alt="Pune Editathon" class="image-inline" title="Pune Editathon" /></h3>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sterlite Tech Foundation and Jnana Prabodhini are the organisations working for Women's Empowerment in Velhe Block of Pune District Maharashtra. Jeewan Jyoti - Sterlite’s flagship initiative aims to address these issues by empowering the under privileged sections of society, especially rural women with equal learning opportunities and with professional training courses in their formative years; thereby providing them with sustainable income opportunities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On the occasion of World Women's Day, Women's Wikipedia edit-a-thon week is arranged across the world. The organisers collaborated with The Centre for Internet & Society-Access to Knowledge Program to conduct this workshop for rural women.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Project Goal</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The goal of this Wikipedia Workshop is to build resources in the field of rural development & women empowerment on Marathi Wikipedia and equip its participants with the process of contributing to Wikipedia, and to introduce it as a concept to them. Another focus of the workshop will be on village articles.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Primary Goals</b></p>
<ul>
<li>To introduce Wikipedia as an encyclopedia for research and a concept to new editors.</li>
<li>To Promote Marathi Wikipedia Community & promote the use of regional languages in Wikipedia.</li>
<li>To have an open interaction within the editors, existing as well as new.</li>
<li>To spread the awareness of Wikipedia as a powerful tool.</li>
<li>To develop articles on gender & environment related issues</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Day_Edit-a-thon_at_Jeewan_Jyoti_Women%27s_Empowerment_Centre,_Ambawane,Dist.Pune">More info on Wikimedia Blog</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-in-pune'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-in-pune</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-04-10T16:04:03ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Environment Management
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management
<b>A Wikipedia edit-a-thon was organized by CSIBER College and the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) in Kolhapur on March 30, 2017. Subodh Kulkarni was a trainer. The edit-a-thon was attended by 32 students.</b>
<h3>Project Scope</h3>
<p>The goal of Wikipedia Workshop is to build resources in the field of Environmental Science & Management on Marathi Wikipedia and equip its participants with the process of contributing to Wikipedia, and to introduce it as a concept to them. Another focus of the workshop will be on ‘Women & Environment’ and village articles.</p>
<ol>
<li>To introduce Wikipedia as an encyclopedia for research and a concept to new editors.</li>
<li>To Promote Marathi Wikipedia Community & promote the use of regional languages in Wikipedia.</li>
<li>To have an open interaction within the editors, existing as well as new.</li>
<li>To spread the awareness of Wikipedia as a powerful tool.</li>
<li>To develop articles on environment related issues & villages</li>
</ol>
<h3>Output</h3>
<p>The edit-a-thon was aimed at creating/editing wikipedia pages of women activists and environmental issues in India. Extensive discussion on the issues was conducted to develop the theme and basic concepts. Participants were completely unaware about Marathi Wikipedia and editing. They were trained in basic editing skills and search for the concerned articles, categorisation and translation from other language wikipedias.</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Edit-a-thon_on_Environment_Management_at_CSIBER,_Kolhapur,_India">More info on Wikimedia Blog</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-04-10T16:58:31ZBlog EntryShould India adopt Plan S to realise Open Access to Public-funded Scientific Research?
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research
<b>Timely and affordable access to scientific research remains a problem in this digital day and age. Around three decades ago, the radical response that emerged was making public-funded scientific research “open access”, i.e. publishing it on the Web without any legal, technical or financial barriers to access and use such research. Several Indian public research institutions also adopted open access mandates and built self-archiving digital tools, however, the efforts haven’t yielded much. Most countries including India, continue to struggle with implementing open access. The latest international initiative (created in Europe) to remedy this problem is Plan S. Plan S is has been positioned as a strategy to implement immediate open access to scientific publications from 2021 – which India is considering adopting.
This article unpacks the disorderly growth of open access in India, and discusses the gap between the Plan's vision and current Indian scenario in some respects. </b>
<p></p>
<p><em>Note: This blog entry was first published on May 29, 2019, and later updated on June 5, 2019 to accommodate the revisions to Plan S (released on May 31, 2019 after their public feedback exercise).<br /></em></p>
<h2>Introduction<em><br /></em></h2>
<p>In 2017, scientific
researchers in India produced 1.4 lakh pieces of peer-reviewed literature, of
which approximately 27,000 were open access publications (SCImago 2018). This
means that only 27,000 pieces were available to the public to freely read and
share, despite the fact that Indian tax-payers had funded half of the annual
expenditure on R&D that year. The remaining items were largely stuck behind
expensive paywalls and subscription systems, doing a huge disservice to the
scientific ecosystem as well as the public interest.</p>
<p>Open Access is
a movement to make both scientific research and data accessible to everyone in
society, and a key tenet of Open Science. It emerged in response to rising
costs and barriers to timely access and sharing of research, as well as a
crisis of epistemic injustice in science. With the advent of the Internet and World
Wide Web, it was expected that costs of publishing and disseminating scholarly
research would decrease leading to a more equitable research environment. The
principal idea was “<em>to make copies of all
the papers they published in scholarly journals freely available on the
internet</em>.”(Harnad S 1995). Two principal ways of implementing OA that initially
emerged were: publishing on online institutional repositories (of the research
institute/ funder) and/or paying the journal to make the paper OA online (i.e.
author pays upfront instead of public paying subscription charges to read that
research).</p>
<p>Since
Harnad’s first call, numerous international conventions, mandates, calls have
been issued in support of OA. The latest international response to the problem is
<a class="external-link" href="https://www.coalition-s.org/">Plan S</a>. With its origins in Europe, Plan S was initially positioned as a clarion
call to provoke a global flip to OA, and then transformed to achieving the goal of "scientific publications that result from research funded by public
grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms" from 2021. Plan S invites research funding
organisations to become members of cOAlition S, who in turn are expected to
abide by the ten principles articulated under the Plan. Crucially, it holds
funders responsible for enforcing OA policies and sanction
non-compliance.</p>
<p>The Principal
Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India announced in February 2019 that
India will join Plan S. That could make India the second country in the global
south to adopt Plan S (Zambia (via National Science and Technology Council of
Zambia) was the first one). Although it must be noted that the announcement was made with respect to an earlier version of the current plan. It remains to be confirmed if India will still abide by its commitment. Even so, at first glance the key tenets underlying the plan remain the same to a large extent. Regardless it is a huge step for India, and perhaps bears the promise
of pulling together the various strands of a diffused OA movement in India. Presently,
cOAlition S is dominated by European entities. Majority of the entities provide
marginal funding support to Indian scientific research, with the exception of
two members - the UK based biomedical charity Wellcome Trust and the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. Wellcome Trust has been a longstanding global
advocate of OA, and also played a crucial role in shaping a key institutional OA
mandate in India. Apart from the European Commission and European Research
Council, China’s largest funding agency has also made strong statements to
support Plan S.</p>
<p>Plan S’ principles
prescribe that research should be only published in those journals and on
platforms which enable authors to publish articles under a Creative Commons
Attribution license (CC- BY; alternatively, CC Attribution Share-alike or CC Public
Domain licenses); authors should retain copyright in their articles; have a “solid
system” in place for peer-review as per the standards in the relevant research
discipline; provide subsidies/ waivers in Article Processing Charges (APCs); and
do not operate under the hybrid model. More importantly, the Plan prioritises
publishing in journals over institutional repositories (IRs) – and requires
funding organisations to pay APCs. Further, all kinds of self-archiving
platforms (including IRs) should also meet certain registration requirements.</p>
<h2>Key aspects of Indian scientific research</h2>
<h3>Funding of research<br /></h3>
<p>Currently, scientific
research is significantly funded by both government and private sector in India.
During 2017-18, the national investment on R&D activities in scientific
research was estimated to be approximately one lakh crores, with majority (45%)
being met by central government, and approximately 38% from private sector
industries (and 7% from state and 5% from public sector organisations). The
highest R&D expenditure is incurred by Defence Research and Development
Organisation at INR 13,000 crores, followed by Department of Space at 5000
crores, Department of Atomic Energy at under 4000 crores. Indian Council for
Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific and Agricultural Research
(CSIR), Department of Science and Technology (DST) find themselves in the same
bracket of 2000-4000 crores roughly, whereas Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) trail with under 1000 crores (Department
of Science 2018). Of these institutions, only ICAR, CSIR, DST and DBT have OA
mandates.</p>
<h3>Indian institutional OA initiatives<br /></h3>
<p>The earliest OA
efforts in India led to the creation of IRs to support self-archiving in
scientific research institutions (Arunachalam 2004). Recommendations presented
at the 93<sup>rd</sup> Indian Science Congress in 2006 said that an optimal national
OA policy should mandate research papers produced either by partial or full government
funding to be deposited into IRs immediately upon publication; encouraged such
grant holders to retain copyright; and suggested that the government should
commit to cover costs for publication in OA journals (i.e. cover APCs). These
recommendations found support in a 2007 report by the erstwhile National
Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India.
The Commission envisaged a national academic OA portal for sharing research
articles, and highlighted the need for the government to allocate funds for
digitisation of books and periodicals in the public domain (material outside
the scope of copyright protection). Additionally, it recognised the digital
divide as an impediment to access to scientific knowledge. More importantly, it
required the government and research institutions to bear the cost of
publishing in OA journals, instead of passing the financial burden to authors/
scientists.</p>
<p>Soon key public-funded
institutions such as the <a href="http://www.csircentral.net/mandate.pdf">Council of Scientific and Agricultural
Research</a> (CSIR), <a href="http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/APPROVED-OPEN-ACCESS-POLICY-DBTDST12.12.2014.pdf">Department of Science and Technology
and Department of Biotechnology</a>
(DST-DBT), <a href="https://krishi.icar.gov.in/PDF/ICAR_Open_Access_Policy.pdf">Indian Council of Agricultural
Research</a>, Institute of
Mathematical Sciences adopted OA mandates. However, the thrust of all policies happened
to be on IR deposits and not financial support for APCs. The concept of IRs
took root to a considerable extent, although many IRs later ran into issues for
various reasons and stopped functioning (Das 2014). A few initiatives such as
the <a href="http://www.urdip.res.in/#/aboutus">CSIR-URDIP</a>
(which developed a centralised IR to make OA journals discoverable across
institutions funded by CSIR and DST-DBT) remain under-populated despite being
stably maintained. This is either due to absence of or uneven implementation of
OA mandates – for example, only some institutional beneficiaries (approximately
20) have implemented the DST-DBT mandate, and a meagre 3000 papers have been
made open thus far in various IRs. Problems cited for under-populating of
repositories include disinterest by administrators in implementing the mandates
(DST Centre for Policy Research 2018).</p>
<h2>Plan S' vision and current Indian scenario<br /></h2>
<h3>Mandatory copyright retention by authors</h3>
<p>If India
signs up for Plan S, IRs under Indian OA mandates will be required to publish
articles under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY; alternatively CC BY
SA or CC0, and CC BY ND in exceptional cases), wherein the copyright shall be retained by the author without any
restrictions. Unfortunately, “copyright retention by authors” hardly finds support
in Indian OA mandates as a fundamental principle. None of the institutions with
OA mandates (mentioned previously) provide a clear stance on copyright
retention, thereby implicitly leaving it to individual authors to negotiate
their own arrangements with publishers. For example, the DST-DBT OA policy
states that “<em>It is not the intent of this
policy to violate copyright or other agreements entered into by the researcher,
institution or funding agency...</em>” Individual arrangements largely take the
shape of mandatory copyright transfers in favour of the publishers (with an
embargo condition on author’s freedom to re-publish). Mandatory copyright
transfers harm the agency of authors to publish/ share their works in other
places of their choice. This is the primary reason for legacy works to remain
locked up with the publishers until the copyright term expires; and in many
cases even after the work has become a part of the public domain, publishers are
loathe to release such works.</p>
<p>This happens
despite two things: firstly, in most cases in India, authors’/ researchers’
institutional employment contracts require that all IP vests with the
institutions; secondly, as per the applicable law - Indian Copyright Act, 1957,
copyright in such works in ordinary circumstances vests with the employer. Thus, if public institutions so desired, they should be able to
retain the copyright in the work produced under their aegis (and transfer it to
the authors).</p>
<h3>Removal of embargoes<br /></h3>
<p>Both OA and closed
access journals routinely impose embargoes averaging a year for peer-reviewed
outputs to be made open. Presently, most Indian OA mandates accommodate an
embargo of six months to one year, and accept both post-prints and pre-prints
(the two terms roughly refer to the version of author’s manuscripts before and
after peer-review) for publication in IRs. Such conditions again run contrary
to the Plan’s requirement of making the final peer-reviewed published version
of articles (post-print version) to be made open immediately upon publication–
i.e. without an embargo period.</p>
<h3>Addressing the menace of predatory publishing<br /></h3>
<p>Separately, another
thorn in the side of OA’s reputation has been the rise of predatory journals. Predatory
journals are outfits that dress themselves as a genuine OA journal, often
charging unsuspecting authors high APCs, but conduct abysmal peer-reviews and
provide poor editorial services and exhibit such conduct amounting to fraud. Such
outfits have irreparably damaged many researchers’ reputations and careers, especially for vulnerable authors in the global south, with
their unchecked manuscripts getting published without requisite quality
checks (Sinha 2016). While this is an issue that requires special immediate measures; Plan S can potentially check the growth of such journals since it requires all publication venues to be completely transparent about their editorial policies and editorial board members, and also prohibits them from using APCs as bait to guarantee publication. </p>
<h3>Publishing in 'prestigious venues' cannot be a criterion for evaluating scientific merit<br /></h3>
<p>The growth of
OA has further been hindered due to a misguided tendency amongst authors to
publish only in select prestigious journals, many of which are closed access.
Such select journals have cultivated a brand of reputability and prestige over
decades, they demonstrate as much by their high JIF (Journal Impact Factor)
credentials. Traditionally, JIF has been the measure of a journal’s prestige –
a proxy for the impact and influence of a journal’s publications. Despite
having been discredited as wholly inaccurate (Kiermer 2016), many funding
agencies continue to consider a publication’s worth in terms of the JIF of the
journal it was published in, in hiring, promotional and other career
advancement decisions. So long as we continue to judge the worth of research by
the venue of its publication (assuming a uniform high quality of peer review
and other checks) and not by its actual contribution to science, OA publishing
is bound to be a less favourable option, because most OA journals are new and
have not raked up a high impact factor score. Yet Indian funding
agencies continue to use and promote JIF metrics, for a lack of awareness or
wanton dis-interestedness in improving the system. Another reason for an
immediate need to break the religiosity surrounding JIF is that many journals (both
OA and closed access) in the global south enjoy good reputations but do not
carry a high JIF as they are newer and their citation metric pales in comparison
to their more dominant western counterparts. This disparity is starker for
fields wholly situated in the global south. In this respect, the Plan clearly requires funders to only evaluate a publication on the basis of its intrinsic merit, and not factor in publication channels, impact factors or the publisher.</p>
<h3>Recent steps by Indian government and agencies<br /></h3>
<p>Indian agencies’
approach to addressing these issues has been chequered, and does more harm than
good. In 2017, the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) released a pre-determined
list of journals that researchers should publish in, and linked researchers’ career
advancement to publishing in the select listed journals (Pushkar 2016). This
approved list contains approximately 39,000 journals that are indexed in Web of
Science, SCOPUS and Indian Citation Index (Universities Grant Commission 2018). UGC’s
step was seen as an attack on academic freedom with serious doubts about its competence
to create a credible exclusionary list of journals in multiple disciplines –
and it has indeed been shown that the procedure of making the list is flawed
(Patwardhan et al. 2018). Separately, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development notified to
National Institutes of Technology (NITs) that papers published in journals
levying APCs will not earn career advancement credits (Mukunth 2017). MHRD’s notification dismisses <em>all </em>paid journals irrespective of their
quality. This has the effect of placing genuine high-quality OA journals on the
same pedestal as predatory journals, and ultimately dents the growth of OA business
models looking for modest support via APCs that are helpful in covering
operational costs (software platform and an editorial team), and do not come
close to unreasonable APCs levied by the biggest commercial players in the
field. The reality is that most OA journals charge authors to publish (Bastian
2018).</p>
<p>These
steps led to much consternation amongst the Indian research community. Another government central committee has proposed to award cash bonuses
for publications (with a higher bonus for publishing in international journals
over national journals). This has been criticised by Indian scientists on two
grounds: firstly, that the scheme may lead to a spike in predatory or
sub-standard journals; secondly, it devalues national journals, and reinforces
the prestige factor to favour international journals (Vaidyanathan 2019). A
2011 study has shown that cash incentives appear to encourage submission of
research that has low regard for quality (Franzoni et. al 2011). In fact in 2010,
UGC introduced APIs (Academic Performance Indicators), which was essentially a
system of reward points against number of publications for researchers and
faculty members ostensibly to improve scientific publishing. However, this ended
up triggering a race to publish poor quality research in fake journals (<a href="https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud">Pushkar</a>
2016), and the UGC recently changed the scheme to in order to do damage-control.</p>
<h3>Government will have to foot APC bill</h3>
<p>Crucially, the
Plan requires funding organisations to commit to funding APCs, in addition to
research grants. The PSA in his announcement on Twitter (relating to Plan S)
has said that, “We will negotiate for APCs normalised to India.” The Plan also
emphasises on waivers and discounts for low and middle income countries. Studies
show that Indian authors spend anywhere between INR 500 to 3 lakhs per article
on APCs, and during 2010-14 the estimated payment to open access journals (the
immediate OA kind) was INR 16 crores per year, on an average costing INR 76,000
per paper (Madhan et al. 2016). It has been estimated that Plan S will cost India
INR 616.46 crores per year (Mukunth 2019). The estimate is more than half of the
annual investment in public institutions such as DBT and ICMR.</p>
<h3>Imperfect competition in the scholarly publishing market</h3>
<p>Does the
academic publishing market have any justifications for exorbitant APCs? A European University Association study highlighted the
oligopolistic structure in this market sector, which functions with an absolute
lack in pricing transparency (through strict confidentiality agreements with
institutions), large profiteering through public funds and asymmetry in
negotiating power (European Universities Association 2018). In 2015, five
companies controlled more than half of the market for academic publishing: RELX
(formerly Reed Elsevier, UK), Taylor and Francis (UK), Wiley-Blackwell (UK),
Springer Nature (Germany), SAGE (US). Majority of the most important closed-access
journals continue to be owned by these publishers (Larivière et. al 2015). It
does not help that many of the top OA journals are also owned by the same
publishers (who are responsible for charging the highest APCs). It will be
interesting to see which journals will change their model to comply with Plan S
requirements.</p>
<h2>Conclusion<br /></h2>
<p>Nonetheless,
after many years of piecemeal OA reforms within Indian institutions, the PSA’s
announcement indicates a renewed interest in OA. Elimination of copyright
transfer agreements and embargoes will give authors surely more control over
their works – steps that should have been implemented and strictly enforced by
Indian institutions long ago.</p>
<p>However, it
makes little sense for developing countries to spend an enormous amount on APCs
demanded by a foreign publishing oligopoly. Latin America continues to be
opposed to Plan S as a matter of its principled position against APCs. If India
signs up for Plan S, it is could be the case that we will find ourselves
in a situation where our public institutions will be paying for subscriptions
as well as APCs for a long time to come. One of the plan's principles does say that "<em>... When Open Access publication fees are applied, they must be commensurate with
the publication services delivered and the structure of such fees must
be transparent to inform the market and funders potential
standardisation and capping of payments of fees.</em>" Since the coalition is currently overwhelmingly
Eurocentric, it remains to be seen how a fair and reasonable analysis will be
worked out across geographies. In this sense, Plan S is not exactly a
breakthrough plan for the global south as it does not sufficiently undercut the
market power of the oligopoly.</p>
<p>There is
plenty that can be done in the interim to realise the vision of OA, as we
continue to ponder and debate the feasibility of Plan S in the global scheme of
scientific publishing as well as India. For starters, it would be ideal to
conduct a nationwide consultation with the research community in India. Strengthening
the infrastructure underlying institutional repositories – in terms of
developing more powerful search tools for IRs, linking IRs, making deposited
articles more discoverable over the Web are steps that do not require
relatively large funds (vis-à-vis APCs), yet stand to contribute to improving
visibility of our research. The government must also look out for authors’ interests
by actively negotiating stricter terms with publishers, so that authors aren’t
coerced into signing away their copyright (or by fait accompli). Transparency
of commercial agreements should become a non-negotiable principle in institutions’/ libraries’ dealings
with publishers, which is also reiterated as a key principle of the Plan. Such steps may not result in an immediate shift to OA, if implemented strictly and uniformly can perhaps be more radical
and fruitful than anything that the Indian research community has seen in decades. </p>
<p></p>
<h2><strong>References</strong></h2>
<p>Arunachalam,
Subbiah (2004): “India’s March Towards Open Access,” <em>SciDevNet,</em> <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/opinion/indias-march-towards-open-access.html">https://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/opinion/indias-march-towards-open-access.html</a></p>
<p>Bastian Hilda
(2018): “A Reality Check on Author Access to Open Access Publishing” <a href="https://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2018/04/02/a-reality-check-on-author-access-to-open-access-publishing/">https://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2018/04/02/a-reality-check-on-author-access-to-open-access-publishing/</a></p>
<p>Das, Anup
Kumar (2014): “Open Access to Scientific Knowledge: Policy Perspectives and
National Initiatives,” <em>CSIR –NISTADS
(ed): India - Science and Technology</em>, Vol 3, pp. 292-299</p>
<p>Department of
Science and Technology (2018): “Annual Report 2017-2018” <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPKUdbSx0Da2Zi_ufzC4u-T3jCFzPred/view">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPKUdbSx0Da2Zi_ufzC4u-T3jCFzPred/view</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"></span></p>
<p>DST Centre
for Policy Research (2018): “Panel Discussion on Equitable Access to Knowledge,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_kjoFRjAQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_kjoFRjAQ</a></p>
<p>European
Universities Association (2018): “The lack of transparency and competition in
the academic publishing market in Europe and beyond” <a href="https://eua.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?task=attachment&id=1691">https://eua.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?task=attachment&id=1691</a></p>
<p>Harnad, Stevan
(1995): “Universal FTP Archives for Esoteric Science and Scholarship: A
Subversive Proposal”, <em>Scholarly Journal
at the Crossroads</em>, Washington DC: Association of Research Libraries</p>
<p>Kiermer,
Veronique (2016): “Measuring Up: Impact Factors Do Not Reflect Article Citation
Rates,” <em>PLOS Blogs,</em> <a href="https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2016/07/impact-factors-do-not-reflect-citation-rates/">https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2016/07/impact-factors-do-not-reflect-citation-rates/</a></p>
<p>Franzoni,
Chiara & Scellato, Giuseppe &Stephan, Paula (2011): “Changing
Incentives to Publish,” Science, <a href="http://www.utstat.utoronto.ca/reid/sta2201s/2012/Science-2011-Franzoni-702-3.pdf">http://www.utstat.utoronto.ca/reid/sta2201s/2012/Science-2011-Franzoni-702-3.pdf</a></p>
<p>Larivière,
Vincent & Haustein, Stefanie & Mongeon, Philippe (2015): “The Oligopoly
of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era,”<em>
PLoS One</em>. 10 (6), p. 1-15.DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502</a></p>
<p>Madhan, Muthu
& Kimidi, Siva Shankar & Gunasekaran, Subbiah & Arunachalam,
Subbiah (2016): “Should Indian researchers pay to get their work published?,”
Current Science <a href="http://dst.sciencecentral.in/17/1/Current_Science_Sept2016.pdf">http://dst.sciencecentral.in/17/1/Current_Science_Sept2016.pdf</a></p>
<p>Manupriya
(2017): “Helping institutions embrace open access,” <em>IndiaBioscience</em>, <a href="https://indiabioscience.org/news/2017/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access">https://indiabioscience.org/news/2017/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access</a></p>
<p>Mukunth,
Vasudevan (2017):“<em>Scientists in the Lurch
After Imprecise MHRD Notice About 'Paid Journals</em>'”, <em>The Wire</em>,<strong> </strong><a href="https://thewire.in/education/mhrd-open-access-nit-predatory-journals-career-advancement-impact-factor">https://thewire.in/education/mhrd-open-access-nit-predatory-journals-career-advancement-impact-factor</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>Mukunth
Vasudevan (2019): “Six Concerns Over India Joining the Plan S Coalition for
Science Journals”, <em>The Wire</em>, <a href="https://thewire.in/the-sciences/six-concerns-over-india-joining-the-plan-s-coalition-for-science-journals">https://thewire.in/the-sciences/six-concerns-over-india-joining-the-plan-s-coalition-for-science-journals</a></p>
<p>Patwardhan,
Bhushan & Nagarkar, Shubhada & Gadre, Shridhar & Lakhotia, Subhash
& Mohan Katoch, Vishwa & Moher, David. (2018): “A Critical Analysis of
the ‘UGC-Approved List of Journals’”. <em>Current
science</em>. pp 114.</p>
<p>Poynder,
Richard (2019): “Plan S: What strategy now for the Global South?” <a href="https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Plan_S.pdf">https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Plan_S.pdf</a></p>
<p>Pushkar (2016):
“<em>The UGC Deserves Applause for Trying to
Do Something About Research Fraud</em>,” <em>The
Wire</em>, <a href="https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud">https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>SCImago
(2018): “SJR – SCImago Journal and Country Rank” viewed on 2 April 2019 (<a href="https://www.scimagojr.com/countrysearch.php?country=in">https://www.scimagojr.com/countrysearch.php?country=in</a> )</p>
<p>Sinha, Anubha
(2016): “Why Open Access Has To Look Up For Academic Publishing To Look Up”, <em>The Centre for Internet and Society</em>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/the-wire-anubha-sinha-october-12-2016-why-open-access-has-to-look-up-for-academic-publishing-to-look-up">https://cis-india.org/openness/the-wire-anubha-sinha-october-12-2016-why-open-access-has-to-look-up-for-academic-publishing-to-look-up</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>Universities
Grants Commission (2018): “Annual Report 2017-2018” <a href="https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5595965_UGC-ANNUAL-REPORT-English-2017-18.pdf">https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5595965_UGC-ANNUAL-REPORT-English-2017-18.pdf</a></p>
<p>Vaidyanathan,
Gayatri (2019): “Indian payment-for-papers proposal rattles scientists,” <em>Nature India, </em><a href="https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2019.18?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureInd#.XGlrKLpUnPU.twitter"><em>https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2019.18?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureInd#.XGlrKLpUnPU.twitter</em></a><em>
</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaOpen AccessAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T13:19:28ZBlog EntryMoU between PAH Solapur University & CIS-A2K
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis
<b>CIS-A2K is working in collaboration with PAH Solapur University, Solapur in Maharashtra on Wikimedia projects. The Mass Communication and Journalism departments are involved in content generation on Marathi Wikipedia & Commons. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2019, the students completed assignments in the form of Wikipedia articles. Looking at the interest of students and knowledge creation process, other departments also expressed their willingness to adopt this methodology in academics. Vice Chancellor Dr. Mrunalini Fadnavis took initiative to conduct introductory meeting to discuss the larger collaboration with University courses. The department heads agreed on working in Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Commons and other Wikimedia projects to enhance the skills of students. As a result, principle level MoU to accommodate Wiki programs in academics as policy for the next academic year was signed between University and Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) on 15th May at Solapur. On this occasion, Program Manager Tito Dutta was present to sign on behalf of CIS. From University, VC, Registrar, Prof. Ravindra Chincholkar- Coordinator and HoD's of 4 departments were present. The summary of MoU is given below:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Terms of Collaboration</h3>
<div id="_mcePaste">
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation. To organise awareness programs and training workshops to achieve this. For consistent and dedicated efforts, mechanism of subject experts and coordinators will be developed. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To integrate the academic assignments, projects etc. with knowledge building in Wikimedia projects e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate content donation in the form of published thesis, University publications to free library - Wikisource. To write well referenced articles based on these research work. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To develop platform in University for outreach programs on Digital knowledge, Language & technologies, FOSS, Unicode etc. To involve other stakeholders in knowledge business like publishers, writers, printers, designers in these programs. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To take lead in accommodating open knowledge concepts, locally relevant content generation practices while designing the courses. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation. To organise awareness programs and training workshops to achieve this. For consistent and dedicated efforts, mechanism of subject experts and coordinators will be developed. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To integrate the academic assignments, projects etc. with knowledge building in Wikimedia projects e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate content donation in the form of published thesis, University publications to free library - Wikisource. To write well referenced articles based on these research work. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To develop platform in University for outreach programs on Digital knowledge, Language & technologies, FOSS, Unicode etc. To involve other stakeholders in knowledge business like publishers, writers, printers, designers in these programs. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To take lead in accommodating open knowledge concepts, locally relevant content generation practices while designing the courses.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Plan of Execution</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">A core team shall be constituted by representatives of this MoU for realization of the objectives of this MoU. This core team will be constituted by 10 June 2019.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The core team shall prepare an action plan with specific goals for achieving the objectives of MoU. They shall take into consideration the academic, commercial and legal aspects of this co-operation.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The proposed action plan shall be reviewed and approved by representatives of both parties.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The core team shall be supported and authorised to take all necessary actions to implement the action plan in an effective, speedy and dynamic manner.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>Revenue sharing shall be decided on case to case basis by core team.</span></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<p>The news of this event was published by major media houses:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522051544/http://epaperlokmat.in/Archive/epapernew.php?articleid=LOK_SOLK_20190516_2_10&arted=Solapur%20Main&width=367px">Lok Mat</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522052258/http://newspaper.pudhari.co.in/archive/viewpage.php?edn=Solapur&date=2019-05-16&edid=PUDHARI_SOL&pid=PUDHARI_SOL&pn=5#Page/5/Article/PUDHARI_SOL_20190516_05_5/359px/10EF1A6">Pudhari</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522053215/http://124.30.219.86/EpaperData/Sakal/Solapur/2019/05/16/Main/Sakal_Solapur_2019_05_16_Main_DA_005/44_1606_494_2310.jpg">Sakal</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522054429/http://www.dainiksurajya.com/2019/05/16/city/page05.jpg">Surajya</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T06:21:47ZBlog EntryProject Tiger: Wikipedia ropes in locals to contribute articles in Indian languages
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger
<b>The project has generated content in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Odiya and Gujarati. </b>
<p>The article by Tushar Kaushik was <a class="external-link" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/project-tiger-wikipedia-ropes-in-locals-to-contribute-articles-in-indian-languages/articleshow/69531673.cms">published in Economic Times</a> on May 29, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Hundreds of people from across the country are generating online content in local Indian languages and are even competing in ‘editathons’ that pit contributors of different languages against each other.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While online encyclopedia Wikipedia’s content might be exhaustive in English, its content in Indian languages is limited. Keeping this in mind, Wikipedia’s parent organization Wikimedia Foundation, and Google, roped in Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) - Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K), Wikimedia India Chapter in 2017 and started ‘Project Tiger’ aimed at generating more content in Indian languages. <span>A pilot project was held from December 2017 to May 2018 and another phase of the competition is set to begin next month. The project has generated content in major languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Odia and Gujarati.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The contributors are from varied age groups, some are also from remote, rural areas and they worked from different cities across the country. Two years ago, Durga Prasanna, a journalism student at Alva’s college in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, joined a group of contributors to Wikipedia as part of a requirement from the college. She got an opportunity to participate in ‘Project Tiger’ last year. She generated Wikipedia entries in Kannada and also in the regional languages of Tulu and Konkani. Apart from Durga, seven other students of her college together contributed over 70 articles in Kannada, and a few in Tulu and Konkani, during the ‘editathon’. “We were provided a long list of topics on which not much literature existed in the local languages and among them, we chose topics based on our interests. For example, I wrote articles on ‘psychologist’ and ‘medicinal plants’,” she said.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Another participant, Charan Gill, a 65-year-old former social worker from Patiala, Punjab, was the top contributor in Punjabi. “I wrote 432 articles in a span of two-and-a-half months.However, contributing is not new to me as I have written over 10,000 Wikipedia entries in Punjabi since 2012,” he says. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Gill now works with another Wikimedia project, translating literary classics into Punjabi. He is currently translating some works of 19th century Russian author Ivan Turgenev. Thanksto Gill’s contributions, the Punjabi community of contributors won the prize for producing the most articles — 1,320. In Tamil, 1,241 articles were contributed. A total of 78 articleswere produced in Kannada by eight members. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Gopalakrishna A, community advocate for Kannada language, CIS-A2K, said all written articles were evaluated by a Wikimedia team jury to check if they fulfilled all criteria beforebeing uploaded on Wikipedia set for the contest. Once they fulfil the criteria, the articles are eligible for the prizes. “The main idea was to create content in Indian languages. Thethings most Indian contributors required were internet and hardware support. So participants who had made significant contributions prior to the competition Wikimediaprojects were provided internet connections or laptops Chromebooks,” he said.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T06:37:55ZNews ItemWhat is Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference?
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1
<b>The Wikimedia Education SAARC conference is on 20th June 2019. A conference for Wikimedians, Wikimedia education leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement.</b>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_Association_for_Regional_Cooperation">South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation</a> (SAARC) is the regional union of nations in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia">South Asia</a>. Wikimedians belonging to these nations share several common challenges and many of them are emerging communities within the Wikimedia movement. The community members to attend the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference</a> are involved in Indic language Wikimedia projects.</p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-536ddd6b-7fff-541e-6101-49c29d2c07f8"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference will be the first of its kind conference in SAARC countries which will engage Wikimedians, education program leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement. We believe that the students of all ages should not only consume the knowledge available on the Internet but also be a part of the larger Open Internet movement, and help in creating open knowledge resources.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The event will be organised in and by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_University">Christ (Deemed to be University)</a> in Bengaluru from 20th June 2019 to 22nd June 2019. CIS-A2K team has <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University">been</a> working with the department of languages in this university from <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University/CUWEP2013">2013</a>, where students of the university are contributing to multiple Wikimedia projects. Our education activity at this university has inspired us to plan this event. To know more about this university, Please see <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University">here</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This conference will allow us to understand the different efforts made by the SAARC communities involved in the Wikimedia Education movement. This will help us to create models, templates and documents that can be replicated in by other institutions or programs.</p>
<p>Conference Goals:</p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">To know the Wikimedia Education activities happening in South Asia by different community members/Languages.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Sharing the knowledge and best practices of how to build "trust relationship" with new partners/teachers and how to improve trust in Wikimedia projects.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Challenges on student retention and how to engage them in the broader Wikimedia movement.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The best method to evaluate and measure the quality of the work done by the students.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">To introduce tools like the dashboard, not in your language, and other tools which will be useful for the tracking, assessment, allocation of the topics and others.</p>
</li></ul>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Programme">program structure</a> for Wikimedia Education SAARC conference has been developed by keeping the general and specific challenges and opportunities in South Asia, and the submission selected from the participants.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Follow the hashtag #EduWikiSAARC19 for more updates.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1</a>
</p>
No publishersaileshWikimedia EducationAccess to KnowledgeWikipedia Education ProgramWikimediaWikipediaChrist University2019-06-22T09:37:23ZBlog Entry