Centre for Internet and Society

Handy Origins of the winds of change

radha — 2011-04-02T14:59:01Z

A seminar in Bangalore revealed how mobile technology is being harnessed across India to bring about development and social change, reports Shrabonti Bagchi - DNA (6th Sept, 2009)

The Internet, for all the celebrated changes it has made in our lives, still had limited penetration in our country with about 80 million, largely urban and prosperous users. This severely limits its viability as a vehicle of development and social change. The mobile phone, on the other hand, has 400 million users in the country, and has undoubtedly become the first mode of communication in India to gain almost universal reach, cutting across barriers of location, region, community and social classes.
“The mobile phone has unprecedented penetration into classes of society that were largely unconnected with the outside world till now,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, which along with Mobile Monday Bangalore, the Bangalore chapter of a global community of wireless industry professionals, organised a seminar, “Mobile Technology 4 Social Change”, in the city recently.
The idea for the event came from one of the co-organizers, Mobileactive.org, which is a network of NGOs interested in taking advantage of the mobile telephony revolution to bring about changes, informed Abraham.
Attended by NGOs, non-profit organisations, researchers, donors, and of course, mobile application developers, the seminar intended to throw open doors of communication between these varied groups of people.
Take the case of IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), for instance. This farmers’ co-operative formed under the aegis of fertiliser manufacturer IFFCO has tied up with cellular service provider Airtel to develop a special SIM card which enables users to receive voice and text messages everyday containing nuggets of information about various farming practices. It has around 2,75,000 subscribers in Karnataka alone, informs IKSL state manager G Raghunatha, and has made a huge difference to the lives of farmers.
A similar case is related by Subbaih Arunachalam who is involved with the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, which has tied up with Tata Tele-services and Qualcomm and telecom developer Astute to create special GPS-enabled mobile phones (costing less than Rs.3, 000) that helps fishermen track weather reports, send out emergency messages in case they are lost at sea, etc., and also engage in price-point discussions with local wholesalers.
Several NGOs have also been quick to utilise the advantage of the versatility and ease-of-use of the mobile phone to disseminate vital information. Sreekanth Rameshaiah, director of Bangalore-based NGO Mahiti, spoke of an endeavour started by his group in Calcutta called My SME News which targets small and micro enterprises, sending out customised information for 11 micro-industries through text messages in the local language. They also plan to launch a voice platform soon.
Mobile payments brand mChek started an initiative on similar lines in Bangalore. The company uses its SMS-based mobile payment technology, which is embedded on all new Airtel and Docomo SIM cards, to enable slum dwellers to access banking and explore micro-finance options through micro-finance institution Grameen Koota.
Valerie Rozycki, head of strategic initiatives at mChek, said, “Access to low-cost banking over the mobile and being enabled with safe ways to save and convenient ways to make payments is life-changing for these customers. This is a sustainable business model to serve the un-banked and under-banked. So, these services will continue to thrive."

Let’s raise our mobile phones to that.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/handy-origins-of-the-winds-of-change

Highest wiki taker

radha — 2011-04-02T15:04:18Z

Bangaloreans are beginning to debate if Wikipedia is a reliable source of info, reports Shweta Taneja. TimeOut Bangalore, published an article on the upcoming WikiWars event that the Centre for Internet and Society is organising in January 2010. Nishant Shah, Director Research, was interviewed for his views and ideas about the event and the rise of Wikipedia as a global knowledge production system.

Link to the original article on the Time Out site.

“When we use the term Wikipedia, most of us mean the English version of it,” said Hari Prasad Nadig, a 26-year-old software professional. “It’s only in the last couple of years that even editors [of the popular online encyclopaedia] have started working on regional languages.” Nadig is one of several wiki editors who, much like the encyclopaedists in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, are dedicated to putting together unbiased and objective information about India in English and other languages. Authenticity and accuracy of information being a subject of serious contention, Wikipedia flags dubious-sounding articles and invites editors from across the world to ‘cleanup the article to meet its quality standards’.

Nadig started as an editor for English Wiki on topics related to Kannada and Karnataka five years ago, but soon saw the need for articles and pages in regional languages. While the new Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedias have been online for a few months now, Nadig also found himself making note of several problems that they had begun to face – the biggest being an affair commonly referred to as “WikiWars”, fought over the need to keep information accurate. To discuss such issues, and to present problems being faced by regional language Wiki groups like Nadig’s, the city’s Centre for Internet and Society, which has become a centre for Wikipedians to meet every month, has announced plans to host a conference called WikiWars in January 2010 (in association with the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam), for which the registrations open this fortnight.

“The open structure of Wikipedia has led to warring factions when it comes to the content on important issues,” explained Nishant Shah, Director-Research at CIS. For example, when Bangalore was renamed Bengaluru, there was a quick succession of edit-wars, he said, where the proponents and critiques of the move constantly kept editing and changing the information provided by other parties. “In the absence of an editorial board, these wars create the neutral point of view that assures objectivity in content,” he said.

The event WikiWars will aim to bring together perspectives, approaches, experiences and stories on such concerns, he added. “The platform is not only for active Wikipedians, but also for people who have the ability to critically examine Wikipedia.”

Nadig explained that several writers and administrators work to protect the Wiki pages, so that no unauthorised changes can be made. But many of these writers are yet closed to the ideas of online communities and concepts of user-generated content. “The subject should be open to changes by others – that is the democratic way,” he said. Like in any open system, there is a pressing need to look at Wikipedia holistically, and what it means for different groups of people. Shah agreed, “On one hand, people swear by this peer-to-peer system of knowledge production and sharing, looking at it as a symbol of the information revolution. On the other hand, people question the validity and authority of the Wikipedia to serve as a global system of referencing, questioning the lack of structure in the system.”

Nadig further explained that the concerns are most relevant to new initiatives like the regional language Wikis. “The numbers of articles on the Kannada Wiki have now crossed 6,000 pages,” he observed. But most of the problems that Nadig’s facing are because most regional language editors tend to treat the Wikipedia as a print medium rather than a dynamic online one. “People still do not understand how the Wikipedia works, and tend to treat a page like traditional media – where once printed, it cannot be changed, edited or questioned,” he explained. He added that there is a shortage of good editors as well, who can actively question and participate in projects: “Many people need the technological ability to edit, and understand how Kannada functions online.” To improve the technical skills of editors, Nadig also works offline, conducting hands-on training sessions. He now holds sessions for newbie Wikipedians, and trains them to use programs for editing and writing in regional languages.

But the main impediment for regional Wikis is that the community is broken into sub-groups, said Nadig. “If you want to work with the government and other organisations, you need a formal setup for Wikipedia, which can approach and actively engage them,” he said. Shah is hoping that the WikiWars conference will address this concern, including other issues like economic practices based around Wikipedia, the nature of freedom in usage, for instance in oral histories and unconfirmed information sources, and the space for dissent in the medium. He added that the event will aim to build a “knowledge network” that will start larger discussions, and also work to create public awareness.

Registrations for WikiWars are now open.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/highest-wiki-taker

Pushing the buttons for social change

radha — 2011-04-02T15:09:10Z

IMMENSE POTENTIAL: With its myriad applications, a mobile phone can be used as an instrument of social change. Meet on how mobile technology can be a power tool to this end - An article in The Hindu on 01st September 2009

BANGALORE: We have all seen the popular television advertisement that claims that mobile phone technology can be much more than a communication device and be used as a powerful tool for social change.

Here is a platform that brings together technology enthusiasts and non-governmental organisations, working in various social sectors, to drive this change.

The one-day camp, Mobile Tech 4 Social Change, to be held on September 4, aims at exploring the power of mobile technology to advance social change goals.

Organised by the Centre for Internet and Studies, in collaboration with Women’s Learning Partnership, Mobile Monday and Mobile Active, it will include informative and interactive sessions on the subject.

It will be held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Mother Tekla Auditorium on Brunton Road.

Participating NGOs will discuss problems and different ways to use, deploy, develop and promote mobile technology in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, and citizen media to name a few areas.

According to the Cellular Operators’ Association of India, there has been a growth in the number of subscribers by 1.86 per cent in July 2009 in the metros alone.

“A report on the impact of mobile phones in India reveals that Indian States with high mobile penetration can be expected to grow faster than those with lower mobile penetration rates, namely, 1.2 percentage points for every 10 per cent increase in the penetration rate.

This conference is a step in understanding how this can be taken forward,” says Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Studies. Participants for Mobile Tech 4 Social Change bar camps will include nonprofits, mobile applications developers, researchers, donors, intermediary organisations, and mobile operators.

While NGOs can gain information on various mobile applications and collaborate with those working in the core field of mobile technologies, enterprises can align their social responsibilities and use this potentially powerful medium.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/pushing-the-buttons-for-social-change

Deconstructing ‘Internet addiction’

radha — 2011-04-02T15:09:28Z

An article by Sruthi Krishnan and Shyam Ranganathan in The Hindu on August 30th,'09

CHENNAI: Earlier this week, the first rehabilitation centre for ‘Internet addicts’ was opened in the United States. De-addiction camps in China were in the news recently for the death of a teenager because of the brutal methods used there to cure ‘Internet addiction.’

‘Internet addiction’ for now is a catch-all term that not only stands for addiction to specific activities such as gambling or gaming but also refers to longer hours devoted to the computer network at the expense of other activities.

Though the Internet is only a medium of communication and information transmission like the printed book or television, ‘addiction’ is being used in this case with concern because of a fundamental dialectic: ‘quantity becomes quality.’

“A whole new world is just a click away with the Internet. It is a medium just like books and TV, but the amount of interaction it makes possible with others, sometimes replacing the need for real world interaction, makes it vastly different,” says E.S. Krishnamoorthy, consultant neuropsychiatrist, Voluntary Health Services, Chennai.

Though chemical changes may not be induced by the broadly repetitive action involved in gaming and general ‘Internet addiction,’ social behavioural modifications do take place, including sleep deprivation and aggression towards the depriver of access to the Internet, he says.

“It is somewhat between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and addiction due to substance abuse. Substance abuse-led addiction focusses on gratification which this form of attachment provides, though there is no chemical ingestion. At the same time, the behavioural modifications are similar to those with OCD. It is almost like the ‘rush’ gamblers get out of a purely gratification-oriented repetitive action,” Dr. Krishnamoorthy adds.

Generational gap

Sunil Abraham, director-policy, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, says what constitutes ‘Internet addiction’ is sometimes misunderstood because of a generational gap between those who grew up immersed in technology and those who adopted technology later in their lives.

Can a teenager’s extensive use of social networking be categorised as ‘addiction’? Not necessarily. Social networking could lead to forging new relationships which could be beneficial.

For now, such activities may not be the norm, but it could be the way our society is configured in the future, says Mr. Abraham.

The Internet itself offers solutions to balance your real and virtual activities. For instance, ‘Freedom’ is an application that disables networking on an Apple computer for up to eight hours at a time. In the settings of Google mail, you can enable ‘Email addict’ (a Google Labs feature) that disables your screen and makes you invisible on chat for 15 minutes. There are many such timer software that let you set a period for which a certain activity would be banned.

Dr. Krishnamoorthy advocates counselling and concerted effort to increase real world social interactions for “treating” Internet addiction. He warns that the problem is larger in that we are creating an “inward-looking society.”

“There is a big problem on hand if many people replace the real world with the Internet instead of using it as a device to enhance interactions,” he says.

Mr. Abraham says controls should come from a more open and informed discussion, of which even children are a part. Dubbing an activity not fully understood an “addiction” and imposing old-fashioned controls are not the right approach, he adds.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/deconstructing-2018internet-addiction2019

Value Added Services of Information & Communication Technology- Mobile Telephony for Farmers Benefit

radha — 2011-08-02T07:15:28Z

Mr. G Raghunatha, State Manager, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd., Bangalore and Secretary, Institution of Agricultural Technologists, Bangalore has written an article on how ICT - Mobile Technology can be used for the farmers' benefit.

The rural areas are suffering with extreme poverty and isolation. Such isolation has led to many miseries and tragic consequences in many families. This trend is more evident due to the absence of joint family system, which has deprived the supportive role of family members. It is seen that mobile phones have to some extent end isolation and therefore proved to be most transformative technology of economic development in recent times. The mobile phone technology has been so powerful and costs so little that it has now proved possible to sell mobile phone access to the poor.

The rural poor have access to wireless banking and payment systems. The mobile revolution is creating logistics revolution in farm to retail marketing connecting farmers to food retailers enabling them to sell the produce at high farm gate prices without delay.

Mobile telephony has become a part of everybody’s of life. This has also become a symbol of progress. If rural telephony grows by 1% there will be an increase of 0.6% in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showing the impact of growth of rural mobile telephony on Indian economy. 70% of the population of the country is still left behind so far as mobile telephone connectivity is concerned. This indicates that there is an excellent potential for growth in rural areas.

The rural population deserves to shift to mobile telephones in view of the delipitated, ancient and almost useless fixed line infrastructure. They have proved to be an effective instrument of empowerment of rural masses. It is a welcome sign that mobile operators have now shifted their focus to service the rural areas. The once neglected, non profitable areas with high operating costs with low income subscribers is now seen as a proverbial pot of gold with technological advancement and better network management.

Karnataka being in the forefront of Information technology revolution has not lagged behind to harness the Information and communication technology for strengthening the rural masses. Communication is a major challenge and serious impediment in taking the fruits of development to our farmers in the country. IFFCO has realized that a reliable and economical communication medium, as well as, useful services of relevance over this channel have the potential to transform the quality of living in our villages. The need of the hour is to take valuable information inputs to farmers- directly to their ‘ears’ & ‘eyes’ using latest information media like mobile technologies, in addition, rural friendly technologies which are simple, affordable and can address the basic needs of our farmers need to be designed, developed and supplied in all the villages of our country. IFFCO was amongst the first in India to realize the importance and benefits of information and communication technology (ICT) for the development of rural India and applied the technology under 'ICT Initiatives for Farmers & Cooperatives'.

As the country witnessed a boom in Communication in the past decades, most of the developments had been limited to urban areas. It is well known that communication plays a vital role in overall growth in country. It has been proved that mobile telephony has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. But communication infrastructure is still lacking in rural areas.

'IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL)' is IFFCO's initiative tying up with telecom giant “Airtel”to take further the application of ICT to the benefit of Rural India through a mandate to design, develop, source and supply state of the art, economical & environmentally friendly rural communication & other technologies with value additions of content & services. The focus is to empower people living in villages by taking advantage of appropriate technology to address issues relating to farmers who are in need of communication, access to input from experts and services of reliable quality.

IFFCO has always been in the forefront in spreading the benefits of latest in science and technology for the upliftment of quality of life in rural India. Service to farmers is an integral part of the marketing in gaining trust of rural masses. IFFCO has distinction of floating institutions with focus on rural India like IFFCO- TOKIO General Insurance (ITGI), CORDET, IFFCO Foundation, Kisan Sewa Trust and IFFDC. Unique initiatives of ITGI like 'Sankat Haran Bima Yojna' and ‘Barish Bima Yojana’ have become very popular

IKSL is harnessing domain strength of vast resources of expertise both within and outside IKSL by leveraging organizations engaged in communications & rural friendly technologies. Partnerships have been forged with giant companies like Airtel and Freeplay. Innovation, dynamism & sense of purpose guide IKSL in its journey towards harnessing technology for the betterment of life in rural India.

Value added services are designed to disseminate through mobile channel five voice messages of current importance to farmers in local languages every day free of cost. The broad areas covered are: recommendation on best agricultural practices, nutrient management, animal husbandry, problems & possible solutions for the specific location, information on mandies, weather & climate and several other areas. In Karnataka IKSL is entering into an MOU with University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore & Dharwad for developing content in the form of message bank and helpline services which is enhanced and updated on a continuous basis.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/value-added-services-of-information-communication-technology-mobile-telephony-for-farmers-benefit

Change is coming, thanks to the mobile

radha — 2011-04-02T15:09:50Z

An article by NT Balanarayan in the DNA on August 27th,'09

Bangalore: A simple mobile can do much more than all your friends or send you cricket alerts, this is not me saying it, this is what a bunch of mobile enthusiasts organised under the banner of different societies are trying to say with the upcoming unconference Mobile tech for Social Change.

The event which will be held in unconference style - read: casual atmosphere - will try to focus on mobile technology and applications which can help not just connect human beings, but also improve their lives. The event is being organised by Centre for Internet Society (CIS) in collaboration with Women's Learning Partnership, Mobile Monday Bangalore and MobileActive.org and will be held on September 1.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of CIS says that the event will bring together two groups of people and provide them a platform to interact and work on ideas.

"On one side, there are the NGOs and social entrepreneurs and on the other side there are the people who develop technology for mobile phones, the geeks and the hackers etc. So if this event works out like expected, there may be a mailing list in the future so that these people can keep in touch and help develop mobile technology that will help uplift the lives of people," he says.

So how important are mobile phones as a technology? According to Abraham, it might be the easiest way for an Indian to access the internet. "There are around 400 million mobile users in India against 80 million people who have occasional access to the internet. The mobile users end up using internet technology a lot in India through GRPS, EDGE and at times indirectly through SMS gateway. This platform however, needs more work so that much more can be provided to mobile users," he says.

The Mobile Monday initiative headed by Kesav Reddy, will be helping CIS to organise the event. "We are expecting not just NGOs and developers, but also, researchers, donors, intermediary organisations and mobile operators; all in all we are expecting 100-200 participants," he says.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/change-is-coming-thanks-to-the-mobile

Internet, first source of credible information about A(H1N1) virus

radha — 2011-04-02T15:10:40Z

An article was publised in The Hindu, 16th August '09 on how the internet has evolved as a de facto information system around the world and in India. Nishant Shah, Director- Research, CIS, has provided inputs for the article.

The internet evolved as de facto information system around the world and in India. Dedicated users put out hourly updates.

There was no missing it. Anywhere you turned these past few weeks, the pig was all over the place. At least the virus, once born of swine, now mutated into the A(H1N1) influenza was painting the towns a feverish red.

There was information, and misinformation, about the virus via the TV, newspapers and internet. For much of the community in the cities, at least, the net-enabled community, the www has been a huge source of information. While it cannot be denied that it has contributed to some of the panic that has defined this epidemic or near-epidemic, it has oftentimes also been the first source of credible, scientific information on how to prevent an A(H1N1) infection and to handle it.

The internet has now evolved as the de facto information system for a significant and growing population around the world and in India, says Nishant Shah, Director of research, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.

He says that in the last two decades internet technologies have played an important role, both in creating safety havens for people to come, discuss, voice their fears and get responses to their queries, as well as in initiating rumour mills which sometimes create great panic attacks.

Melissa Davies wrote in Nielsen Online (http://blog.nielsen.com) in May 2009 .. the buzz volume about swine flu in the blogosphere was still on its meteoric climb, far surpassing discussion levels for the peanut butter/salmonella scare that happened earlier this year…

She adds that a measure of the extent of Internet engagement regarding swine flu is Wikipedia. The sites page on swine influenza has been updated hundreds of times this week. Wikipedia created a separate page focused on the 2009 swine flu outbreak for current information that page has been updated 119 times as of early on May 1.

Not to leave the social networking sites out of the picture, she mentions that there were more than 500 Facebook groups dedicated to Swine Flu as early as May 1. On Twitter, Swine Flu mentions topped out at a rate of more than 10,000 tweets per hour earlier in the week. Dedicated users such as @Swine_Flu_Vrus, and @CDCemergency put out nearly hourly updates from across the world.

Social networking

Social networking fora also became a sort of platform for those who were quivering with fear to seek advice. G-chat and Facebook status messages were in the flu vein: Have cough. Need Mask? ... I have fever and cold. Is it the S.flu?

Apart from lists of symptoms and helplines, many What to do if you have the Swine Flu kind of advisories cropped up online in no time, some culled from information put out by the World Health Organisation and the CDC. This seemed to have assuaged some in a tizzy about the flu.

Keywords: Internet, A (H1N1), credible information, swine flu, Centre for Internet and Society.

More information is available on the following url: http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article3572.ece

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/internet-first-source-of-credible-information-about-a-h1n1-virus

Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities

radha — 2011-04-02T15:16:04Z

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) jointly with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and in partnerships with the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict), the National Telecommunications Commission of Thailand (NTC), the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), Australian Government, and National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) Thailand are organising the "Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities" to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 25 to 27 August 2009. The Forum is hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) Thailand, Government of Kingdom of Thailand. Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan, Programme Manager, Centre for Internet and Society, India will be giving a presentation on Policy Formulation for Internet and Electronic Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities.

With 139 countries having signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ("CRPD"), and 51 having ratified it as of October 2008, legislative and regulatory activities related to the implementation of its digital accessibility agenda will be a priority among ITU Member States. Yet, few references and guidelines are available for country regulatorys and legislators to implement such measures or foster national programmes supporting the digital accessibility agenda of the CRPD.

In order to address this challenge, G3ict and ITU organised a joint global forum on 21 April 2008 on Digital Accessibility standards in relation to the CRPD. At this occasion, ITU-D and G3ict launched a "Toolkit for Policy Makers", an online tool designed to provide practical references and case studies to support implementation of the digital accessibility agenda of the CRPD at country level. G3ict also released Version 1 of its self-evaluation methodology and is currently collecting country data for is benchmarking programme, the "Digital Accessibility Index" in cooperation with Disabled People's International and the support of the law firm Powers, Pyle, Sutter and Veryille.

The upcoming Asia-Pacific Regional Forum aims to:

Bring together policy makers, regulators, operators, industry, NGOs and international organisations involved with persons with disabilities, as well as experts and ICT professionals including disabled persons from across the region and beyond;
Discuss the global online "Toolkit for Policy Makers" that will support stakeholders in developing policies and strategies to address ICT accessibility and service needs from persons with disabilities to meet the dispositions of the CRPD;
Ensure proper publicity and generate momentum in support of the implementation of the Digital Accessibility Agenda of the CRPD focusing on practical implementation at country level; and,
Exchange country experiences and case studies among participants as well as learn about innovations of accessibility and assistive technologies and applications.

URL: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/asp/CMS/Events/2009/PwDs/programme.asp

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/asia-pacific-regional-forum-on-mainstreaming-ict-accessibility-for-persons-with-disabilities-1

Wikipedia Academy in Mangalore

radha — 2011-04-02T15:20:23Z

The one-day workshop will focus on the use of Indian languages in Wikipedia, editing and its application in academics.

Department of Mass Communications and Al Madhyam of the St. Aloysius College, Mangalore in collaboration with Centre for Internet and
Society, Bangalore are holding a State-level Wiki-Academy in Mangalore on 22nd August, 2009. The one-day workshop will focus on the use of
Indian languages in Wikipedia, editing and its application in academics.

Registration is free. Register before 21st August for the workshop.Registration is open on the day of the event, as well.

Wikipedia editors will speak about the history of Wikipedia and its role in making information freely available to people in several languages.
They will also provide hands-on training on editing and improving articles on Wikipedia.

The talks for this edition will be presented by:
Prashanth N S (editor, English Wikipedia)
Hari Prasad Nadig (sysop, Kannada Wikipedia)

More details on the program is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Prashanthns/Wikiconference

http://hpnadig.net/sites/hpnadig.net/files/WikiAcademy.pdf

(Feel free to pass this on to your friends in Mangalore)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/wikipedia-academy-in-mangalore

Children's Forum on the Internet and New Media

radha — 2011-04-05T04:34:14Z

CIS, in association with Ranga Shankara and IT for Change, is conducting a workshop designed to give Voice to children's perspectives on the Internet and New Media

Ranga Shankara is having a Children’s Theatre Festival from Aug 26th to Sept 6th, called AHA! Theatre for Children – International Festival.

CIS, in association with Ranga Shankara and IT for Change, is inviting students from the 9th to 12th standards from the schools in Bangalore for a revolutionary new -

Children’s Forum on the Internet and New Media

This Forum is designed to give Voice to our youth’s perspectives on the Internet and New Media and aims:

To bring out our youth’s experiences not only as consumers, but also as producers and critical thinkers on the Internet
To bridge a communication gap between the youth and adults on young people’s internet use.

The participants will be the students, who will be the Voice of the Forum.

The workshop is scheduled for the students on Aug 28th @ 2.30pm.

At 7.30pm the auditorium doors at Ranga Shankara will be opened to the parents, teachers, public and media, who are invited to explore the outcomes of the forum.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/childrens-forum-on-the-internet-and-new-media

Piracy Boils Down to Convenience

radha — 2011-04-02T15:15:27Z

Commercial Piracy is on the rise. But how big a role does money have to play in the piracy game was the question we asked those seated on either side of the proverbial fence.

“What started out as cassette piracy, several decades ago, has now become a flourishing business, thanks to the invention of CDs and DVDs,” says Mohan Chabria, proprietor, Anand Audio who goes on to add that piracy has drastically increased over the past few years.

“In the earlier days, conducting a raid was easy. There were some professional pirates who could be easily tracked down. Now, the numbers are vast, and it seems like a no-win situation for us. This results in a tremendous loss for the companies,” adds Mohan.

Advertising professional and author Milan Vohra believes that piracy boils down to convenience. “Piracy is about making life easier, especially when it comes to downloading stuff off the net. Personally, I don’t think I have done anything wrong when I download songs from a public site on the Internet and then transfer it onto another portable device.”

Piracy has more to do with economics than convenience for Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society. “We must remember that the problem came about mainly because the originals were far too expensive for the average person. The common practice today is to download everything and it is tough to eradicate that mindset. Most are not even aware of the laws surrounding piracy,” says Sunil. “It’s not the law,” disagrees Mohan, adding, “My problem is only with commercial piracy. What people do on the net does not affect us too much. It’s those living in rural areas and small towns, who aren’t even aware that they are buying pirated copies that matter. Most of our revenue comes from them,” he elaborates.

Milan and Sunil both agree that original copies must be made affordable and only then can commercial piracy decrease. Though, Mohan feels that audio companies are doing their best in terms of making copies affordable for the public. “We compiled a CD comprising 50 songs of a famous actor which we priced at Rs.35 per copy. Despite this, people went ahead and bought pirated copies for Rs.50. It was only later that we found out that these copies had 150 songs of the same actor, which is why they got preference over ours,” recollects Mohan and adds that there is no support from law enforcers as well. Sunil responds to this by saying that law enforcers are under constant pressure by other companies, whether legal or illegal, and hence they do not support copyright laws, mainly because they get caught in the constant tug-of-war.

So, is there any solution to eradicate or, at the very least, to control commercial piracy in India? Milan opines that the government needs to adopt a vigilante approach. Like, for instance, by providing a toll free number where people can call when they come across an instance of commercial piracy. “The only way to deal with the matter is to convince a consumer of piracy that there is no end-value to what he’s getting. The aim of copyright owners must be to ensure that copies are available to a larger mass and across different forms of technology,” she says. Mohan echoes the sentiment saying, “We request the government to provide us with a separate court and law enforcement officers who have specialised knowledge. Else, we need to start a thought-provoking campaign among both rural and urban consumers to convince them.”

“I would aim for a more sustainable product. Instead of a thought-provoking campaign, there should be some sort of collaboration. For a consumer, a pirate is a friend and both the copyright owner as well as the consumer needs to be kept happy. In order for that to happen, business holders must stop looking at ancient methods to curb the menace and instead try to get revenues from the new technology,” concludes Sunil.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/piracy-boils-down-to-convenience

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change

radha — 2011-04-05T04:32:26Z

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change, Bangalore camp is a one-day event and is an exploration of mobile technology to advance social development and social change goals.

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camps are local events for people passionate about using mobile technology for social impact and to make the world a better place.

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp in Bangalore includes:

interactive discussions about mobile tech for social good,
hands-on-demos of mobile apps and tools,
collaborations about ways to use, deploy, develop and promote mobile technology in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, and citizen media

Participants for Mobile Tech 4 Social Change barcamps include nonprofits, mobile application developers, researchers, donors, intermediary organizations, and mobile operators.

In short, Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Bangalore Camp is:

A one-day event in Bangalore on September 4, 2009
An exploration of mobile technology to advance social development and social change goals
Participatory and interactive
Open to anyone with passion and interest in the topic

Participants

YOU - register today!

Cost

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change camps are grassroots events. We are charging a small fee for this event that is used to offset costs for breakfast and lunch as well as supplies for the camp. If this cost constitutes a huge barrier for you attending, please be in touch so that we can work something out!

Planners and Sponsors

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Bangalore is organized by the following organizations. We are very grateful for this collaboration and support.

India

If you want to be an angel and sponsor this community-supported event, we would love to hear from you!

videos

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/mobile-tech-4-social-change

ICTs for Improving Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods

radha — 2011-10-21T06:48:23Z

CIS is co-hosting a talk by Mr. Michael Riggs (FAO) covering the topic on Information and Communication Technology and e-Agriculutre and how Rural Livelihoods and Agriculture can benefit from ICTs.

CIS is co-hosting a lecture on ICT for improving Agriculture and Livelihood in the Rural areas, by Mr. Michael Riggs, who is currently an Officer (Knowledge and Information Management) with the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Rome.

Brief Introduction of Mr. Michael Riggs:
As FAO's Information and Knowledge Management Officer, Mr. Riggs is resposible for initiating and managing collaborations with partners around the Asia-Pacific region to improve sustainable development through the application of modern information and technology. Mr. Riggs has championed the regional e-Agriculture community (www.e-agriculture.org) and also manages the regional implementation of FAO's internal knowledge and information exchange strategies, particularly preserving institutional memory and adopting standards for digital information exchange.

Prior to his current post with the FAO, Mr. Riggs has held the following positions:

Information Management Specialist with FAO
Information Dissemination and Management consultant at APHCA
Director, New Business Development at Green Cross Corporation.

Mr. Riggs has advanced degrees in both economics and organizational management and specialises in:

Knowledge sharing methods and tools
Catalyzing communities of practice and international collaboration
Conceptualizing and communicating new ideas
Information surveys
Building individual and organizational capacity in ICT4D

VIDEO

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/icts-for-improving-agriculture-and-rural-livelihoods