Centre for Internet and Society

Wiki Academy

radha — 2009-09-17T10:56:47Z

More information on press coverage on the workshop held in Mangalore on Wiki Academy

Pre-event:

Press Coverage:

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article6940.ece - “You can edit Wikipedia in your own language”
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article6904.ece - “Learn Wikipedia today in Mangalore”

http://deccanheraldepaper.com//svww_showarticle.php?art=20090822q_003100017 – Deccan Herald

Post-event:

Press Coverage, Blogs:

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article6904.ece – The Hindu (“Tale of another Mangalore on Wikipedia”)
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article7437.ece?viewImage=1 – release of St. Aloysius media booklet/mag.
http://staloysiuscollege.wordpress.com/2009/08/22/ - St. Aloysius wrap up.
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=64564&n_tit=Manglore%3A+State-level+%27Wiki+Academy%27+Daylong+Seminar+at+St+Aloysius – Daiji World
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/21128/information-should-allowed-travel-freely.html

Translation of press account:

ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯಾ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ
(ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದಲ್ಲೂ ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಉಂಟು!)
ತುಂಬಿದ ಸಭೆಯ ನಡುವಿನಿಂದ ಒಬ್ಬ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ ಕೇಳಿದ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನೂ ಚಕಿತಗೊಳಿಸಿತು. 'ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಅಂತ ನೀವು ಹೇಳೋದು ಯಾವ ಊರಿನ ಬಗ್ಗೆ? ಅದು ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಕಡಲನಗರಿ ಮಂಗಳೂರಾ ಅಥವಾ ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದ ಪಟ್ಟಣದ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯಾ?'
ವೇದಿಕೆ ಮೇಲಿದ್ದ ಸಂಪನ್ಮೂಲ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗಳಾದ ಹರಿ ಪ್ರಸಾದ ನಾಡಿಗ್‌ ಮತ್ತು ಜಿ.ಎನ್‌. ಪ್ರಶಾಂತ್ ಸೇರಿದಂತೆ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಅರೆಕ್ಷಣ ಅವಾಕ್ಕಾದರು.
ಆಗಸ್ಟ್‌ ೨೧ ಹಾಗೂ ೨೨ರಂದು ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಸೇಂಟ್‌ ಅಲೋಷಿಯಸ್‌ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಹಮ್ಮಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಗಿದ್ದ ವಿಕಿ ಮೀಡಿಯಾ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ ಶುರುವಾಗಿದ್ದು ಹೀಗೆ. ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂವನಹ ವಿಭಾಗ, ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ವಿಕಿ ಮೀಡಿಯಾ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆ ಜಂಟಿಯಾಗಿ ಹಮ್ಮಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದ ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಕುತೂಹಲ ಕೆರಳಿಸಿತ್ತು. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ, ಸಭೆ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾಗುತ್ತಲೇ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳು ಶುರುವಾದವು.
'ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ ಹಮ್ಮಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ತುಂಬ ಸಂತಸವಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ' ಎಂದು ಮಾತು ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದ ಪ್ರಶಾಂತ್, ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ವಿಶೇಷತೆಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿವರಿಸಿದರು. 'ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರು ಬೇಕಾದರೂ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೇರಿಸಬಹುದು, ಎಡಿಟ್ ಮಾಡಬಹುದು, ಇದು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಕೋಶ ಇದ್ದಂತೆ. ನಿತ್ಯ, ಹೊಸ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೇರ್ಪಡೆಯಾಗುತ್ತಲೇ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ' ಎಂದೆಲ್ಲ ಹೇಳಿದರು. 'ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಕುರಿತು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಮಾರು ೨೫ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪ ಇದೆ' ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದಂತೆ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆ, ರೋಮಾಂಚನ.
ಆಗ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇ ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನೂ ಚಕಿತಗೊಳಿಸಿದ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ: ಸಭೆಯ ನಡುವಿನಿಂದ ಎದ್ದು ನಿಂತ ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕರೊಬ್ಬರು, 'ನೀವು ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವುದು ಯಾವ ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಬಗ್ಗೆ? ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಮಂಗಳೂರಾ ಅಥವಾ ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದ ವಿಕ್ಟೋರಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಮಂಗಳೂರಾ?' ಎಂದು ಪ್ರಶ್ನಿಸಿದಾಗ, ಸಂಪನ್ಮೂಲ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗಳಾದ ಹರಿ ಪ್ರಸಾದ್ ನಾಡಿಗ್‌ ಮತ್ತು ಜಿ.ಎನ್‌. ಪ್ರಶಾಂತ್ ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ, ವೇದಿಕೆಯ ಮೇಲಿದ್ದ ಪ್ರಾಚಾರ್ಯರಾದ ಸ್ವೆಬೆರ್ಟ್‌ ಡಿಸಿಲ್ವಾ, ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮ ವಿಭಾಗದ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥ ರಿಚರ್ಡ್‌ ರೇಗೊ ಕೂಡ ಚಕಿತರಾದರು.
ತಕ್ಷಣ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಶಬ್ದ ಟೈಪಿಸಿ ಶೋಧ ನಡೆಸಲಾಯಿತು. ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಇದ್ದರೂ, ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದ ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಎಂಬ ಪಟ್ಟಣದ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯೂ ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪವಿರುವ ಅಂಶ ಬೆಳಕಿಗೆ ಬಂತು. ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ, ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದ ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ರೈಲ್ವೇ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ ಮತ್ತು ವಿಮಾನ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣವೂ ಇದೆ ಎಂಬ ವಿಷಯ ಗೊತ್ತಾಯಿತು. ಅದನ್ನು ನೋಡಿ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯ. ನಮ್ಮೂರಿನ ಹೆಸರಿನದೇ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಊರು ದೂರದ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಎಂಬ ಅಂಶ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಂಡ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ.
ಇಂಥ ಹಲವಾರು ವಿಷಯಗಳಿಗೆ ಎರಡು ದಿನದ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯಾ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿಯಾಯಿತು. 'ಒಂದೇ ಹೆಸರಿನ ಎರಡು ಸ್ಥಳಗಳ ವಿಷಯ ಬಂದಾಗ, ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಅದನ್ನು ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟವಾಗಿ ಗುರುತಿಸಿ ನಿಮ್ಮೆದುರು ಆಯ್ಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಇರಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ನಿಮಗೆ ಬೇಕಾದ ಸ್ಥಳದ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯನ್ನು ನೀವಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿ ಪಡೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದು' ಎಂದರು ಪ್ರಶಾಂತ್ ಮತ್ತು ನಾಡಿಗ್. ವಿವಾದಾತ್ಮ,ಕ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಕುರಿತಂತೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟ ನಿಲುವು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ. 'ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ ಬರಹ ಪೂರ್ಣವಲ್ಲ, ಈ ಕುರಿತಂತೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯನ್ನು ಅಥವಾ ಇನ್ನೂ ನಿಖರವಾದ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯನ್ನು ಒದಗಿಸಬಹುದು ಎಂದು ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟಪಡಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಎಷ್ಟೋ ವಿಷಯಗಳಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ, ಇಲ್ಲಿಯ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯಾ ಒಪ್ಪಿದ ಮಾದರಿಯಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನೀವದನ್ನು ಸೂಕ್ತವಾಗಿ ಬದಲಾಯಿಸಬಹುದು ಎಂಬ ಸೂಚನೆ ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ, ಇದು ನಿತ್ಯ ಬದಲಾಗುವ, ಸಮೃದ್ಧವಾಗುವ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ' ಎಂದರು ಅವರು.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭದ ದಿನದಿಂದ ಸಕ್ರಿಯವಾಗಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡಿರುವ ಹರಿ ಪ್ರಸಾದ್‌ ನಾಡಿಗ್‌ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಹುಟ್ಟು, ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ, ನೀತಿ, ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಳ್ಳುವಿಕೆ ಮುಂತಾದವನ್ನು ವಿವರಿಸಿದರು. ವಿಷಯವನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸುವುದು ಹೇಗೆ? ಎಡಿಟ್‌ ಹೇಗೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕು? ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾಯೋಗಿಕವಾಗಿ ತೋರಿಸಿದರು. ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಂದಲೇ ಎಡಿಟ್ ಮಾಡಿಸಿದರು. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಬರಹಗಳಲ್ಲಾದ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ಬರವಣಿಗೆಯನ್ನೂ ನಿರ್ವಾಹಕರಾಗಿ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುವ ಸ್ವಯಂ ಸೇವಕರು ಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ, ಗುಣಮಟ್ಟ ಕಾಪಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬರಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಿದೆ ಎಂದು ನಾಡಿಗ್ ವಿವರಿಸಿದರು.
ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳಕಿಗೆ ಬಂದ ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಮಹತ್ವದ ವಿಷಯವೆಂದರೆ, ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಯೊಬ್ಬ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಹಲವಾರು ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿರುವುದು. ಮಿಲಿಟರಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ತಾನು ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಆತ ತೋರಿಸಿದಾಗ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯ. ಜೊತೆಗೆ, ತಾವು ಕೂಡಾ ಈ ರೀತಿ ಸಕ್ರಿಯರಾಗಬಹುದು ಎಂಬ ಖುಷಿ.
ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಹಲವಾರು ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆಗಳ ಕುರಿತೂ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿವರಿಸಲಾಯ್ತು. 'ಯಾರು, ಯಾವ ವಿಷಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯೂ ಲೇಖನ ಬರೆಯಬಹುದು, ಬರೆದಿದ್ದನ್ನು ಎಡಿಟ್ ಮಾಡಬಹುದು, ಅಲ್ಲಿ ವ್ಯಕ್ತವಾದ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಗಳನ್ನು ಪ್ರಶ್ನಿಸಬಹುದು, ಚರ್ಚೆ ನಡೆಸಬಹುದು. ಈ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕೆಲಸದಿಂದ ಸಿಗುವ ಲಾಭವೆಂದರೆ, ತೃಪ್ತಿ' ಎಂದರು ಪ್ರಶಾಂತ್ ಮತ್ತು ಹರಿ ಪ್ರಸಾದ ನಾಡಿಗ್‌.
ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ೬,೫೦೦ಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಲೇಖನಗಳಿವೆ. ನಿತ್ಯ ಹೊಸ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಸೇರ್ಪಡೆಯಾಗುವುದರ ಜೊತೆಗೆ, ಹಲವಾರು ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಪುನರ್ ಸಂಪಾದನೆಯಾಗುತ್ತಲೇ ಇವೆ. ಇದೊಂದು ಚಲನಶೀಲ ತಾಣ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ ಬಿಂಬಿಸಿತು. ಹಲವಾರು ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಕೆಲಸದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಯಮಿತವಾಗಿ ತೊಡಗುವ ಉತ್ಸಾಹ ತೋರಿದರು.
ಎರಡು ದಿನಗಳ ಅವಧಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರ ಪಾಲಿಗೆ ಹೊಸ ಜಗತ್ತೊಂದು ತೆರೆದುಕೊಂಡಿತ್ತು.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/wiki-academy

Agriculture, ICT and Community

radha — 2011-04-05T04:29:16Z

Sampada Foundation in collaboration with Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and Institution of Agricultural Technologists present: 'Agriculture, ICT and Community'

Sampada Foundation in collaboration with Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and Institution of Agricultural Technologists present:
Agriculture, ICT and Community on the 21st of September, 2009 at 10am. The agenda for the day will be as follows:

Sampada Community - an overview (15 minutes)
Introduction: Krushi Sampada (15 minutes)
Launch of e-book - By Nagesh Hegde
Talk by Addoor Krishna Rao: “Transformations in Agricultural Sector”
Discussion: Agriculture, ICT and Community

There will be no entry or registration fees. All are invited and are welcome to bring their friends along.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/agriculture-ict-and-community

User generated content, citizen journalism and news

radha — 2011-04-05T04:28:42Z

Public Talk by Jamillah Knowles who is an online and radio journalist for the BBC on the 26th of September, Saturday at 16:00 hrs

Jamillah Knowles is an online and radio journalist for the BBC. She has 15 years experience working in the new business on many platforms. Starting in newspapers as a photographer she spent a great deal of time in print, moving on to radio for several years with BBC Radio Five Live and World Service before making a jump to online news.

Currently she works in the User Generated Content Hub at the BBC providing contacts, images, case studies and eyewitness accounts in multimedia form for all news outlets across the corporation.

In her spare time she makes the Pods and Blogs radio show for BBC Radio Five Live about digital life online. Over the past year she has been working on developing relationships with online citizen reporters and looking at how social networks can play a role in creative news making.

This talk is about how the BBC has embraced user generated content and how it has changed our news environment in the way we research and provide news for radio, television and online.

VIDEOS

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/user-generated-content-citizen-journalism-and-news

Wiki Academy

radha — 2011-08-18T05:01:57Z

An article by Hari Prasad Nadig on Wiki Academy, a workshop based on usage of Indian languages, editing and its applications in academics of Wikipedia - the free online encyclopedia, was held at Eric Mathias hall in St Aloysius College in Mangalore on Saturday, August 22.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free; - Rabindranath Tagore

ಜ್ಞಾನವೆಂಬುದು ಯಾರೊಬ್ಬರ ಸೊತ್ತಲ್ಲ. ಅದು ಎಲ್ಲರದೂ ಆಗಬೇಕು. ಮಾನವಕುಲದ ಒಟ್ಟು ಅರಿವು ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಬ್ಬರಿಗೂ ಸಿಗಬೇಕು, ಜ್ಞಾನವನ್ನು ಮುಚ್ಚಿಟ್ಟು ಅಥವ ಹಿಡಿದಿಟ್ಟು ಪ್ರಯೋಜನವಿಲ್ಲ. ಹಂಚಿಕೊಂಡ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ - ಇದು ಒಂದು ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಹಿಂದಿರುವ ಸಿದ್ಧಾಂತ.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಒಂದು ಮುಕ್ತ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ. ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತಮ್ಮ ಅರಿವು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದಾದ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ. ಯಾರೊಬ್ಬರೂ ಎಡಿಟ್ ಮಾಡಬಹುದಾದ ಪುಟಗಳ ಗುಚ್ಛ. ಇದನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವುದು ಜಗತ್ತಿನಾದ್ಯಂತ ತಮಗರಿವಿರುವ ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತ ತಾವೂ ಹೊಸ ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ಅರಿತುಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಉತ್ಸುಕರಾಗಿರುವ ಆಸಕ್ತರ ಸಮುದಾಯ. ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾದ ಕೆಲವೇ ವರ್ಷಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ವೆಬ್ಸೈಟುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದಾದ ಯೋಜನೆ ಇದು. ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂದು ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಬಳಕೆಯಾಗುವ ಮೊದಲ ಐದು ವೆಬ್ಸೈಟುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದೂ ಒಂದು.

ನಾಲ್ಕಾರು ವರ್ಷಗಳೇ ಈ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಳೆದವರಿಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲರೊಡನೆ ಕುಳಿತು ಒಂದು ದಿನದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು ಬಹುದೊಡ್ಡ ಸವಾಲು. ಏಕೆಂದರೆ, ವಿಕಿ(ಪೀಡಿಯ) ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ನಮಲ್ಲಿರುವ ವಿಷಯಗಳು ನೂರಾರು. ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಜ್ಯಮಟ್ಟದ ಮೊಟ್ಟಮೊದಲ ವಿಕಿ ಅಕಾಡೆಮಿ ಆಯೋಜಿಸಿದಾಗ ನಮಗೆದುರಾದ ಸವಾಲು ಕೂಡ ಇದೇ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂದು ನೆರೆದಿದ್ದ ಇನ್ನೂರಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಜನ ಆಸಕ್ತರ ಸಮೂಹ ನಮಗಿದ್ದ ಸವಾಲನ್ನು ಇಮ್ಮಡಿಗೊಳಿಸಿತ್ತು.

"ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೂಡ ಇದೆ. ಅದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಲೇಖನ ಉಂಟೋ?" ಎಂದು ಸಭಿಕರೊಬ್ಬರು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಮುಂದಿಟ್ಟಾಗ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನಡೆಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟ ನಮಗೂ ಕುತೂಹಲ. ಅಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಆಂಗ್ಲ ವಿಕಿಯ 'ಮಂಗಳೂರು' ಪುಟ ತೆರೆದು ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯದಲ್ಲಿರುವ 'ಮಂಗಳೂರು' ಎಂಬ ಊರಿನ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯೂ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಓದಿ ಹೇಳುವಾಗ ಎಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲದ ಖುಷಿ. ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರ ನಡುವೆ ಇರುವ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯ ತುಣುಕುಗಳು ಒಟ್ಟಾದಾಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ಹೀಗಾಗಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯ ಅಲ್ವ? ಇಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೆ ವಿಕ್ಟೋರಿಯ, ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಮಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ರೈಲ್ವೇ ಸ್ಟೇಶನ್ ಕೂಡ ಇದೆ, ಒಂದು ಏರ್ಪೋರ್ಟ್ ಕೂಡ ಇದೆ ಎಂಬುದಿರಲಿ, ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಪರದೇಶವೊಂದರಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಎಂಬುದೂ ತಿಳಿದುಬರದು.

ಇದೇ ರೀತಿಯ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳು ಉತ್ಸಾಹದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನಾಗಿಸಿತು ಆ ದಿನ. ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ ವಿಕಿ ಅಕಾಡೆಮಿ ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಅಚ್ಚುಳಿಯುವಷ್ಟು.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಎಂದರೇನು, ಅದರ ಸಿದ್ಧಾಂತ ಏನು, ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರು ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಬಹುದು, ಹೇಗೆ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಬಹುದು? ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಲು ಬೇಕಾದದ್ದು ಏನು? ಇದೇ ಮೊದಲಾದ ವಿಷಯಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿದೆವು. ಸೇಂಟ್ ಅಲೋಶಿಯಸ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನೆರೆದಿದ್ದ ಆಸಕ್ತರು ನೆರೆದ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಒಡ್ಡಿದ ಸವಾಲು ನಮಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಉತ್ಸಾಹ ಮೂಡಿಸಿದ್ದು ಹೌದು. ಬಿಳಿಗಿರಿರಂಗನ ಬೆಟ್ಟವನ್ನು ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ಷೇತ್ರವಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಡಾಕ್ಟರರಾದ ಪ್ರಶಾಂತ್ ಎನ್ ಎಸ್ ನನ್ನ ಜೊತೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನಡೆಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟವರು. ಇವರ ನಿತ್ಯದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಎಡಿಟ್ಸ್ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಅದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಅವರಿಗಿರುವ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಸದೇ ಇರದು.

ಈ ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಜನಪ್ರಿಯತೆಗೆ ಕಾರಣವೇನು? ಇದು ಹೇಗೆ ಇಷ್ಟು ದೊಡ್ಡದಾಗಿ ಬೆಳದದ್ದು? ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಎಂಬುದೊಂದು ಇಷ್ಟು ಅದ್ಭುತವಾದ ಯೋಜನೆಯಾದದ್ದು ಹೇಗೆ - ಮುಂತಾದ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಾವು ಬೆಳಕು ಚೆಲ್ಲುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡಿದೆವು. ಸಹಯೋಗದಲ್ಲಿ (Collaboration) ಮಾಡಿದ ಕೆಲಸ ಹೇಗೆ ಜಗತ್ ಸ್ವರೂಪ ಪಡೆದು ಉತ್ತಮವಾಗುತ್ತ ಹೋಗುತ್ತದೆ ಹಾಗು ವಿಶ್ವ ಮಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದು ಹೇಗೆ ಕಾಣುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬುದರ ಕುರಿತು ಮಾತಾನಾಡಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನಿಸಿದೆವು. ರಾಜ್ಯಮಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸುವಾಗ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ನಾಲ್ಕು ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆಯೇ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾಗಿರುವ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ ಮರೆಯಲಾಗದು, ಅದರ ಕುರಿತು ಕೂಡ ಚರ್ಚೆ ಮಾಡಿದೆವು. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಹುಭಾಷಾ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ್ವವಾಗಿ ರೂಪುಗೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕುರಿತು, ಅದರ ಪ್ರಾಮುಖ್ಯತೆ ಕುರಿತು ಕೂಡ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದೆವು.

ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಸುವುದು ಹೇಗೆ, ಈ ಯೋಜನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಳ್ಳುವುದು ಹೇಗೆ ಎಂಬುದರ ಕುರಿತು ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರವಿತ್ತು. ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡವರು ಸ್ವತಃ ಮುಂದೆ ಬಂದು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ತಾವೂ ಒಂದು ಅಕೌಂಟು ತೆರೆದು ಎಡಿಟ್ ಮಾಡುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡಿದೆವು. ಇದು ಸಭೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನೆರೆದಿದ್ದ ಹಲವರಿಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಖುಷಿಕೊಟ್ಟ ವಿಷಯವೆಂದು ಈಗ ನಾನು ಹೇಳಬಲ್ಲೆ. ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ಯೋಜನೆಯಾಗಲಿ, ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನವಾಗಲಿ - ಅದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕೇಳುವುದು ಸುಲಭ, ಆದರೆ ಬಳಸಿ ನೋಡುವಾಗ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆ ಎದುರಾದಾಗ ಕಷ್ಟ! ನೇರ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡವರನ್ನೇ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಲು ಕೇಳುತ್ತ ಅವರ ಕೈಯಲ್ಲೇ ಅಕೌಂಟು ತೆರೆಯುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡುವುದು, ಪುಟವೊಂದನ್ನು ಎಡಿಟ್ ಮಾಡುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡುವುದು - ಸಭಿಕರಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳ ಸರಮಾಲೆಯನ್ನೇ ಹುಟ್ಟುಹಾಕಿತು! ನಮಗೂ ಅದೇ ಬೇಕಿದ್ದದ್ದು. ಎಲ್ಲರ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ನಮಗೆ ತಿಳಿದ ಉತ್ತರ ನೀಡುತ್ತ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಎದುರಾದ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳನ್ನು ಪರಿಹರಿಸುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡಿದೆವು. ಒಟ್ಟಾರೆ, ನಮಗದು ಬಹಳ ಖುಷಿಕೊಟ್ಟ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ!

ದಿನದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಮುಗಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು, ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸಕರು, ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತರು - ಎಲ್ಲ ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಅವರ ಅನುಭವ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತ ಕಳೆದ ಸಮಯವಂತೂ ಮರೆಯಲಾಗದ್ದು. ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞರಾಗಿ ನಾವು ಕಾಣುವ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ತನ್ನದೇ ಮುಖವನ್ನು ಕಾಣಿಸುತ್ತದೆಂಬ ಅರಿವು ಈ ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಸಮಗ್ರತೆಯ ಪರಿಚಯ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿಸಿತು. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಹತ್ತಿರವಾಯಿತು.

[ವಿಕಿ ಅಕಾಡೆಮಿಯನ್ನು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಸೆಂಟರ್ ಫಾರ್ ಇಂಟರ್ನೆಟ್ ಎಂಡ್ ಸೊಸೈಟಿಯವರಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಸಮುದಾಯದ ಪರವಾಗಿ ಅಭಿನಂದನೆಗಳು. ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನದೇನೂ ಅಪೇಕ್ಷೆಯಿಲ್ಲದೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಸ್ವಯಂಸೇವಕರಿಗೆ ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹ ನೀಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ವಿಕಿ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನದಲ್ಲಿ ಇವರ ಪಾತ್ರ, ಕೊಡುಗೆ ಗಣನೀಯವಾದದ್ದು.

ಮಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಆವೃತ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಆಯೋಜಿಸುವಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಪಾತ್ರವಹಿಸಿದ ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಆಕಾಶವಾಣಿಯ ಸಾತ್ವಿಕ್, ಸೇಂಟ್ ಅಲೋಶಿಯಸ್ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಉತ್ಸುಕ ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸಕರೂ, ಸರಳ ಜೀವಿಯೂ ಆದ ರೆವರೆಂಡ್ ಫಾದರ್ ರಿಚರ್ಡ್ ರೆಗೋ ಇವರಿಬ್ಬರಿಗೂ ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರ ಪರವಾಗಿ ಹೃತ್ಪೂರ್ವಕ ಅಭಿನಂದನೆಗಳು.

ಇದೆಲ್ಲದರ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ವಿಕಿ ಅಕಾಡೆಮಿಯನ್ನು ಕುತೂಹಲದಿಂದ, ವಿಶ್ವಾಸದಿಂದ ನೋಡುತ್ತ ವಿಕಿ ಕುರಿತು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಲ್ಲಿ ತಮ್ಮದೂ ಒಂದು ಪಾತ್ರವಿದೆ ಎಂಬಂತೆ ನಡೆದ ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರಿಗೆ ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ ಕೃತಜ್ಞರು. ಇವರಿಲ್ಲದೆ ನಾವು ಕೈಗೆತ್ತಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಅರಿವು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಅಭಿಯಾನ ಅಪೂರ್ಣ.

More information available here

Seminar held at Managlore - slides available here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wiki-academy

Information and Communication Technology For Improving Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods

radha — 2011-08-02T07:15:43Z

ಮೈಕೇಲ್, ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಮತ್ತು ಗ್ರಾಮೀಣ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿ (ಮೈಕೇಲ್ ರಿಗ್ಸ್ ಭಾಷಣ) - ಚಾಮರಾಜ ಸವಡಿ

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/information-and-communication-technology-for-improving-agriculture-and-rural-livelihoods

Manglore: State-level 'Wiki Academy' Daylong Seminar at St Aloysius

radha — 2011-04-02T14:58:06Z

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (RS/SB)

Mangalore, Aug 22: For the first time in India, Wiki Academy, a workshop based on usage of Indian languages, editing and its applications in academics of Wikipedia- the free online encyclopedia was held at Eric Mathias hall in St Aloysius College here on Saturday, August 22.
The daylong seminar based on talks and presentation was inaugurated by representatives from Wikipedia, Dr Prashanth and Hariprasad Nadig. Speaking after the inaugural, Dr Prashanth said that main feature of the Wikipedia is that the control is in the ends of end user and not seller. It is popular among the users for its style presenting information and accessibility that is user-friendly, he said.
The Wikipedia that started with a few hundred articles, now has over 13 million articles in over 100 languages including three million articles in English written voluntarily by college students, doctors and various professionals, he said. The Wikipedia also includes articles in Indian regional languages such Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu among others, he added.
Fr Swebert D Silva, principal, St Aloysius College said that Wikipedia plays a role that is very similar to the library which is that giving detailed information on the topic required. Students’ involvement with the Wikipedia helps improve their writing skills. The era of internet and blogging has helped students and youth express themselves more clearly, he said and called on students to improve their writing skill contributing to Wikipedia.
Fr Richard Rego, head, Journalism department, St Aloysius College said that it is a golden opportunity for students, professionals, teachers, scholars and librarians to be able to participate in the academy and also contribute and get information from Wikipedia.
Department of Mass Communication, Al-Madhyam, the media forum of St Aloysius College in association with Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore organized the workshop.

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=64564&n_tit=Manglore%

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/manglore-state-level-wiki-academy-daylong-seminar-at-st-aloysius

Class attendance rises after restriction on Internet use

radha — 2011-04-02T14:58:35Z

by Neha Bhayana, Hindustan Times (Mumbai, September 06, 2009)

When IIT-Bombay restricted Internet use on campus in March 2007, the decision created a furore.
The premier engineering institute was accused of taking students to the Dark Ages and likened with Chinese clinics that use shock therapy to ‘cure’ Internet addicts.
The American Psychiatric Association is now considering including Internet Addiction Disorder as a formal diagnosis.
Experts around the world are debating whether governments should monitor Internet use so that people don’t become addicted to the Web.
IIT-Bombay’s student welfare dean Prakash Gopalan is glad they had the foresight to keep a check on Internet use. “The attendance in morning classes has gone up, more students are participating in sporting and cultural activities and they are seen socialising in the common rooms,” he said.
IITians are not allowed to use the Net between midnight and 7 am. The institute had restricted its use after two suicides in 2005-06 were linked to it.
Nishant Shah from The Centre for Internet and Society at Bangalore, however, said the regulations were unnecessary.
“Internet is just a gateway. There is nothing wrong with the technology. We should educate people to make their engagement with the Internet more productive,” he said.
Reformed Net addicts Ramya (30), and Moksh Juneja (27) said there is no need to have regulations. “Adults should be allowed to decide what is best for them. It is not fair to govern Internet use,” said Ramya, who restricted her Internet use because of neck pain.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/class-attendance-rises-after-restriction-on-internet-use

Now, online books for disabled persons

radha — 2011-04-02T14:58:42Z

An article by L Subramani – Deccan Herald (6th Sept, 2009)

Bangalore: DAISY Forum of India (DFI), who promote talking books in DAISY (Digitally Accessible Information System) format for persons with disability, has provided an accessible consolidated list of DAISY books online for disabled persons across the country to browse.
“At the moment, we have catalogues from Saksham Trust (Delhi), NAB, Mitra Jyoti (Bangalore), BPA (Ahmedabad), Blind Persons Association (Calcutta) and Discipleship Centre. We would get more catalogues in the near future,” said Dipendra Manocha, President DSI, in an email announcement.
Bookbole.com, an online portal designed for persons with disability, is hosting the catalogue. “We have about 600 books in total,” said Nirmita Narasimhan, Project Manager with city-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), who have partnered in creating bookbole.
“Accessibility, especially books and printed materials has been a problem for persons with vision challenge. Daisy Talking Books (DTB) have been created to address the dearth of information in accessible format,” Nirmita said. Persons who access the catalogue at bookbole.com can contact the concerned organisation directly and get the book from them.
“On receiving the request for books, we would burn it on a CD (in DAISY format) and post it to the concerned individual. This is the first time we have a consolidated list of DAISY books in the country, which is good for both people looking for books and organisations like us who have been developing them,” Madhu Singhal, Managing Trustee of Bangalore-based Mitra Jyothi.
DAISY format allows readers to access the books both in text and audio format. It is also easier for the readers to understand certain finer aspects of the book such as page numbers. “If someone wants to re-read a particular page in a book, it is entirely not possible in traditional audio format. Whereas, DAISY format lets them know exactly the place they are reading and let them go back and forth quite the same way as an able-bodied person would do with the printed page,” Madhu said.

-DH News Service

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/now-online-books-for-disabled-persons

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

Negative of porn

namita — 2011-08-02T08:35:34Z

The post deals with what has been written about Savita Bhabhi in an attempt to make sense of her peccadiloes and with the seeming futility of Porn studies located in America to our different reality. I take the liberty of exploring my own experiential account of pornography since I feel that in that account (mine and others) when done seriously, certain aspects of pornography emerge that address questions that are about cinema, images, sex, philosophy and how desire works. The title is mischeviously inspired from Dr. Pek Van Andel's recent video of MRI images of people having sex.

Jonathan James McCreadie Lillie in his article “Cyberporn, Sexuality and the Net Apparatus” while talking about academic engagement with pornography (by Kipnis, Hunt, Waugh, Kendrick) points to how they share “a common concern with analysing pornography within the various cultural constructs and social spaces in which it appears, and in which people encounter it”. He says that a new agenda for cyberporn research has to acknowledge that “people have produced pornography in many different forms for many different purposes, and the reasons why people use it or do not use it, and what meanings they make of it, are equally diverse”. (1)

Lillie points towards cyberporn reception studies – the home/office terminal as a site of cyberporn reception – as a possible starting point of further work on cyberporn. My interest is located in how does one understand your own consumption of internet porn, located as it is in the context that is not the global North and more specifically not male and not heterosexual. Attempting to do that through the readings in porn studies (Porn studies, edited by Linda Williams) (2), or specifically net porn studies (C’lick me – Net Porn Reader) (3), has not been entirely fruitful though what is talked about is highly interesting. One of the problems perhaps lies in what Lillie says about the need for analyzing pornography within the various cultural constructs and social spaces in which it appears, rather than separate or floating above them. The Internet does not entirely make protean beings (cyborgs?) of us after all, and the relevance of porn studies elsewhere can only be partially relevant to a study here.

[Curiously though the debates within feminism and the women’s movement around pornography in the global North – the familiar rhetoric of the causal links between pornography and violence, do have a resonance in similar debates in the women’s movement here. At a roundtable discussion on the role of media at the recent Courts of Women organized by Vimochana (4), many of the sentiments expressed by activists and organizations see a causal link between explicit sexual material, violence and its direct negative impact on morals, attitudes and behaviour of people.]

Linda Williams begins the volume on Porn Studies by stating that there has been a movement from the deadlock of pro-censorship and sex positive feminist discourse on pornography, to a stage where there is a veritable explosion of sexual material that is crying out for analysis, and that sexually explicit imagery is a fixture in popular culture today (obviously referring to America but to some extent true for other contexts as well). In some ways there is an attempt amongst academics, intellectuals, journalists and other writers here to make sense of the pornographic material that has crept into our media saturated cities. Many recent articles spawned by the ban on Savita Bhabhi attempt to understand the unleashing of desire around Savita Bhabhi (from a rock song to unashamed fandom) and to analyse the reasons for the ban or rather what makes Savita Bhabhi threatening.

Savita Bhabhi, the [porn] [toon] [star]

Itty Abraham undertakes a fairly detailed analysis of what is happening in twelve episodes of Savita Bhabhi and perhaps unconvincingly places the crux of the story of Savita Bhabhi on her cuckolded husband, Ashok (5). He says “Their family life is relentless modern, nuclear, bourgeois, if also gendered in familiar ways. The couple eats together (and at the same time), they watch TV together in the evenings, and sleep in the same bed.” For Abraham, the comic is about “these new sexual possibilities.. that begin from a new kind of freedom to which the modern urban woman has access”. The article suggests that we seem to be faced with a choice between the free untrammeled Savita and her easy occupation of urban spaces protected by an aura of class and her husband Ashok who is the hard worker earning enough to keep alive her/our illusion of abundant urban neoliberal existence. Interestingly the article is not attempting to make a point about pornography in relation to ideas of culture, tradition, vulgarity or other familiar motifs in the debate on obscenity.

Shohini Ghosh’s article takes on the task to find out what precisely is so transgressive about Savita Bhabhi (6). Savita Bhabhi is poised between the family and husband and illegitimate desires (similar to themes in Charulata, Hum aapke hain kaun). She points that the pleasure of the comic is not just that there are hard core sexual scenes as much as that the husband or a similar character cannot look at what you look at. The Indian erotica (or pornographic text) scene too is replete with tales of incest and transgressions with domestic workers or servants|maids as they are called in the stories. Ghosh while acknowledging the harm-violence debate within feminism on pornography, states that she is anti-censorship – that although it is obvious that media, images have an impact (otherwise why would they be cause of study) there is no neat causal link between porn and sexual violence. She ends by saying that “pornography then is a phantasmatic arena. It does not reflect people’s ‘real’ sex lives so much as it articulates the desires and aspirations for imagined ones.”

Both articles make important linkages to other and pre-existing debates on neo-liberal agendas, occupation of urban spaces, feminism and obscenity. Ghosh seems to also be referring to a broader category of Indian porn and the problems posed by it. She also gestures towards the problems that might be posed if Savita Bhabhi were a real person and not a comic, but by and large most journalistic writing/analysis of Savita Bhabhi flattens out the field – asking questions as if comic characters were real persons, and not taking into account aesthetics, technology (mode of delivery) or where and how it is viewed (reception) by people. There is a difference in the way I respond to a comic about sex than to an MMS or hidden camera porn where I am aware of the ‘realness’ of atleast some aspects of the image I’m looking at.

The ‘realness’ raises certain dilemmas – the anxiety is not as severe and troubled as in the case of Mysore Mallige which is haunted by urban legends of the couples or only the woman committing suicide, forced marriage at a police station etc. Nonetheless to encounter the MMS video, when the woman is looking directly at the camera often so it does not seem like a hidden camera or non-consensual video, is to acknowledge the taking of pleasure at the expense of someone else which may or may not bother you, but does render the activity far more illicit and scary. My feeling of fear|anxiety|secrecy|aloneness when surfing pornography, whether in the office, home or anywhere where I can be discovered, is an added layer to the experience even if the various aspects of violation of privacy, vulnerability of the woman in the video or the existence of a pornography industry are not uppermost in the mind when actually viewing the clips. One of the few works done that do address this complicated set of affects that circulate and attach themselves to pornography is Bharath Murthy’s film on Mysore Mallige ( the next post will be on this film and interview with Bharath Murthy). (7)

This is why I would insist that the comic is a different space for a viewer – some things such as anxieties about who this person I’m looking at is and what happened to her do disappear, while others such as a comic is bright, colourful and highly visible on my computer screen (for instance) become more important. It is harder to hide surfing Savita Bhabhi in an office than reading erotica or even downloading and discreetly watching a small video. The aspect of how Savita Bhabhi being a comic/drawn character changes how a viewer relates to the material is an area of study that needs to be looked at more closely, perhaps with the help of existing work that looks at the manga, anime, hentaii phenomenon in Japan and parts of South East Asia.

The makers of Savita Bhabhi were anonymous till the ban and after what seemed like a rather brief struggle with authority (SaveSavita campaign on twitter and a blog) they vacated the public scene. As a consequence of no real contest, the ban persists. But perhaps what is admirable is that many people have learnt to use tools that allow them to still view Savita (and to expose them here would be just foolhardy). In an interview online the makers of Savita Bhabhi state .. “For one, it (comic) is a unique medium in the context of Indian porn. We’ve had MMS’s, videos, stories, etc, but no porn comics. Also a comic allows us to explore the fantasy in a much more vivid way than any other medium.” This fantasy life however cannot be dismissed, as it is indeed very real, or as they say – “based on real life fantasies of our authors and fans. They are all something that a normal full blooded Indian male or female would be fantasizing about on their commute to work or a lazy evening at home.” In a short interview with the makers of the comic more recently and subsequent to the ban they said that probably it was Savita Bhabhi’s popularity that led to her downfall and that they set out to explore Indian sexuality, which “obviously is a big No”.

To return to Lillie’s call for a cyberporn reception studies perhaps it is time in relation to looking at such material that we step away, even if briefly, from these debates on feminism, vulgarity and obscenity in Indian culture and others. In an interview dated 5th September, 2009, Ratheesh Radhakrishnan says that what needs to be looked at when studying pornography, is not the questions of Indian culture, religion, roles of women and gender (as for questions related to obscenity) but the aesthetics of pornography. In his own work Radhakrishnan deals precisely with this question in relation to the category of ‘soft porn’ and how Shakeela becomes a star through soft porn cinema – a star not entirely governed by the narrative of the film but seemingly existing beyond the limit of the film itself. (8) By doing this, his work deals with the question of how desire works in such films, which perhaps is one of the more important question to ask about pornography. In the same interview, he states that there is “something that takes place between the text and the person watching” and that is what he is interested in.

Anti-porn

Radhakrishnan’s position is interesting in relation to this project as it opens up questions that are beyond the feminist deadlock on pornography and also goes beyond rhetoric of the liberating potential of the explosion of the polymorphous perverse online. The latter is where a lot of porn studies undertaken in the global North seems to get lost. The breathless recounting of the pornographic in the everyday, does not help since it becomes very obvious that any analysis would not be relevant to a vastly different context in India. (9)

Walter Metz in his article on Open Water (10) challenges the ethics of porn studies – though he acknowledges that pornography is more a symptom rather than a cause of anti-social behaviours that it is often linked to (violent rape, aggressive behaviour, sexism etc.), but still raises the question as to whether there are significant reasons to put the brakes on a rabid, radical celebration of the liberating potential of pornography. Metz talks about the need, within porn studies, to look at the positive and negative impact of pornography (possibly he would extend that to looking at violent martial arts film and other strands of cinema/new media).

Metz’s paper as such deals with Open Water as an anti-pornographic film (here referring to the generic practice of pornography rather than political positions) and this might be an interesting productive mode to understand the affect produced by pornography. Though Metz qualifies that he’s not using pornography as a genre, but rather “as a reading frame. If one keeps thinking about pornography while watching a non-pornographic film, what is the resulting interpretation?” Since I haven’t seen the film Open Water perhaps my interest in such an analysis is misfounded. Metz describes the frustration depicted in the film Open Water between the audience expectations for a reasonably good looking, tanned, blonde couple to get-it-on and what happens to their bodies instead in the open water of the sea and prey to sharks, is similar to the disjuncture that takes place in one of the films part of the Destricted project. (11)

Destricted is an interesting artistic|intellectual|new media|film experiments in the global North around pornography. It is a series of short films that resulted from an invitation to seven well known artists and filmmakers to try to respond to sex and especially the phenomenon of pornography in the contemporary. One of the films Death Valley by Sam Taylor-Wood borrows from the Biblical tale of Onan and places a man masturbating in the heaving, throbbing landscape of the Death Valley (the hottest place in the Western hemisphere where the earth’s crust is constantly changing and shifting). For precisely 7 minutes and 58 seconds, the protagonist of the film masturbates uncomfortably without reaching ejaculation and/or release. The painful un-release of this film, perhaps is meant to be juxtaposed with the assumed ease of pornography’s answer to desire. However peculiarly it actually is probably an accurate description of the experiential account of pornography – of looking, searching, finding, downloading on painfully low speeds, watching short clips that are blurred, shot only from one angle, badly drawn comics or looking at largely uninspiring material which is not acquired or found easily.

In some ways the experience of watching either of these films sounds similar to watching certain kinds of MMS video porn. For instance, one video was of a couple doing oral sex in a toilet cubicle. The angle of the camera was from the top and perhaps the intention behind this was to obscure the faces of the two persons, since only the top of their heads are visible. It did not seem like the couple were unaware of the video camera, as much as performing for it almost unwillingly and only if the anonymity was preserved. The video was low quality and highly blurred, to the point of any features being indistinct beyond blackness of hair (maybe) and generic skin tone which could be Indian, Iranian or generic South Asian. The resemblance to the Destricted video is because again of the time it takes to reach ejaculation – there is a painfully long uninspiring blowjob sequence. The video remains scary and leaves one with a feeling of claustrophobia, discomfort and peculiarly boredom or distance from what is happening. Yet perhaps it is here that the question of realness and the affect it produces enters again. The question that intrigues me is whether the affect produced by the video is because there are certain gestures of the woman that seem recognizable, because she seems like you (ethnically, racially ofcourse but also in sexual spaces she occupies and behaviour). After having accomplished the task of coaxing semen out of the uninspiring penis she is faced with, she folds her legs and speaks indistinctly. In that moment she seems uncomfortably familiar, like watching a friend having sex or maybe an aspect of yourself.

It is perhaps interesting that it is amateur pornography these days that seems to inspire the most complicated set of affects (unlike the schooled|disciplined and predictable response to cinema) – shocked recognition of yourself and desire to see it again, titillation, boredom but yet unwilling to look away, love for celebrities, pleasure of viewing a body like yours and even sometimes a recognition that this is what you look like during sex, fear about your own privacy, disgust for what seems unacceptable and provokes the moral|visual|auditory sensibilities and contempt for the material and the people who possibly are genuinely engaged with it. The article on Pam and Tommy’s video in Porn Studies infact displays these varied affects and underlines William’s assertion that this bracket of material, behaviour and practices that get termed pornography/pornographic does indeed deserve analysis, otherwise a potentially unique and interesting way of understanding the contemporary would be lost for squeamishness.

There are many aspects of the Minette Hillyer’s analysis (12) that are specifically relevant only to the American contexts – the notoriety of both the stars, the pre-existence and glorification of home videos in most families and the acknowledgement of amateur couple porn as even a healthy practice, perhaps suggested for couples with dull sex lives. In India, it was infact unknown people who were catapulted into the public eye with the circulation of their video, online and offline that was later titled Mysore Mallige ; not just the private spaces, holidays and fucking habits of already-celebrities like Pam and Tommy.

What might be relevant here from Hillyer’s analysis is the pre occupation with the realness of amateur pornography. The article follows the travels of the Pam and Tommy home video between different categories/genres, depending on different aspects of its realness. The video as such, contains scenes from the normal domestic lives of the stars and a eight minute sequence of sex in an almost fifty minute length video. So the questions of realness are answered not by the sex in the video, but the mundane recording of their lives, holidays, house and other details. This question of what exactly it is – home video or pornography (domestic/private or pornographic/public) is relevant to questions of legality (for damages upto 90 million dollars), how it circulates (a pornographic video of Pam and Tommy without the domestic padding perhaps would not be considered real and saleable) and genre which relates to some aspects of how people respond to the work. Ever since the advent of (cheap) video technology, pornography is rendered less cinematic and more concerned with the presentational act (of sex) than its representation (ibid). With MMS videos and hidden camera porn, though questions may no longer be about representation, they are still complicated questions about the aesthetics, reception of pornography and our relation to the technology that delivers it and for me viewing pornography today as only presentational does not help to understand the affects that surround and attach to it. Perhaps many strands of what is explored in this article can be explored in relation to Mysore Mallige in the next blog post.

Just as I finish this piece, after an interview with Nishant Shah at Center for Internet and Society, another question enters the frame in relation to pleasure, moving it beyond those raised above. Is pleasure now a question that is less about finding the corporeal thrill through pornography online, as much as pleasure that comes from simulation and the added rush of simulating cities, lives, personalities online. And is that pleasure, pornographic?

End notes:

1. Jonathan James McCreadie Lillie, “Cyberporn, Sexuality, and the Net Apparatus”, Convergence 2004; 10; 43

2. Williams Linda (ed), Porn Studies, Duke University Press, London and Durham, 2004.

3. Katrien Jacobs, Marije Janssen, Matteo Pasquinelli (eds), C’lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2007.

4. Courts of Women, Vimochana Bangalore, 27-29 July, 2009.

5. Itty Abraham, Sex in the Neo-liberal City: On Savita Bhabhi, Available at The Fish Pond at http://thefishpond.in/itty/2009/on-savita-bhabhi/#comments

6. Shohini Ghosh, The politics of porn, Himal South Asian Magazine, September 2009, Vol 22, No. 9.

7. Bharath Murthy (director), Mysore Mallige, 2007.

8. Ratheesh Radhakrishnan, “‘The Mis-en-scene of desire’: Stardom and the case of soft porn cinema in Kerala!” Unpublished work. Contact author for copy.

9. Bloomingdale's now sells Tom of Finland shirts and trousers, housewives celebrate their birthdays by piercing their geni- tals, college students dance naked instead of waiting tables to pay their tuition, and middle-level managers schedule a session with a dominatrix in their favorite dungeon after a game of racquetball at their regular health club. From Joseph W. Slade, Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.

10. Walter Metz, “Shark Porn: Film Genre, Reception Studies, and Chris Kentis' Open Water” Film Criticism, March 22, 2007

11 Destricted: explicit films, Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé, Richard Prince, Sam Taylor Wood (directors), 2006.

12 Minnette Hillyer, “Sex in the suburban: Porn, Home movies and the Live Action Perofmance of Love in Pam and Tommy: Hardcore and uncensored”, Porn Studies, Duke University Press, London and Durham, 2004, p.50.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/law-video-technology/looking-closer-at-porn-with-x-ray-spectacles-savita-bhabhi-mms-video-and-others

the new MRI sex image by Dr. Pek Van Andel

namita — 2009-09-12T06:46:38Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/law-video-technology/topic_images/mri%20sex.jpg

An Introduction to the Chinese Wikipedia

pranesh — 2011-04-05T04:32:09Z

A talk at CIS by Ting Chen, a Trustee on the Wikimedia Board, about the Chinese edition of Wikipedia

Ting Chen was born in Shanghai, China in 1968. He grew up in Harbin, China, in the northeast corner of the country, where he attended elementary school and middle school. In 1989 he went to Braunschweig, Germany and began his study of Electrical engineering. He was especially interested in semiconductors and their physics. He graduated in 1993 with a diploma and now he works as an IT specialist in Mainz, Germany.

His first experience with a virtual community were during his university time in the German Fido-Net, where he moderated a forum about science and knowledge for many years. He learned of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects through a news article about the German Wikipedia achieving a milestone in 2003. From then on Wikipedia became a new hobby of his. He started on the German Wikipedia and changed soon to the young Chinese Wikipedia, which was at that time still starting. Ting Chen attended the first Wikimania (Wikimania 2005) in Frankfurt, where he took part on a panel discussion and introduced the Chinese community. He also helped organize the third Wikimania (Wikimania 2007) in Taipei.

Ting Chen was elected a Trustee by the Wikimedia Community in June 2008 and his term started officially in July 2008. He was re-elected in August 2009. His term on the board would end at July 2011.

Vidoes

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/chinese-wikipedia

World IT Forum 2009

pranesh — 2011-08-04T04:44:33Z

At the World IT Forum, Pranesh Prakash made a brief presentation on intellectual property rights, how ill-suited they are to be considered "property" rights, and how they have been foisted upon the developing world.

At the recently-concluded World IT Forum, 2009, the Commission on Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues organized three sessions. One on 'Digital Intellectual Property Rights and Digitisation of Divides', a second on 'Employment of ICTs Toward Effective Realization of Millenium Development Goals' and a third on 'E-Governance and Biometrics: Evaluating Opportunities and Threats'. The individual sessions had K.M. Gopakumar of Third World Network ("Digital Technology and Access to Knowledge: Policy Space for the Third World), Naveen Thayyil ("Digital IPRs: Implications for Divides in New and Emerging Biotechnologies"), Anita Gurumurthy of IT for Change,("Reimagining the Digital Opportunity" ), Chat Garcia Ramilo of APC Women's Networking Support Programme ("Gender Dimensions of ICT Development"), Ajit Narayanan of AUT ("What Does Your Passport Say About You?"), Sohel Iqbal of Korea University ("Obligation and SWOT of E-Governance in Developing Countries") and Dinh Ngoc Vuong of the Institute of Lexicography and Encyclopedia of Vietnam ("Legal Aspects and Role of E-Governance in Vietnamese Reforms") speaking. As part of the first session, I spoke on how IPR as a property regime leads to mischaracterisation, and how IPR is a foreign system for developing countries.

Amongst the many reasons that IPR should not be regarded in the same light as property (even though that conceptual framework is supported by the likes of Eugene Volokh) are to be found in David Levine's rejoinder to Volokh that IPR are analogous to property, along with the two rejoinders by Larry Solum. Volokh's main point is that not only control of use and excludability, but incentives to create are also part of property law, for both tangible property and intangible "property". This is questioned not only by David Levine and Larry Solum, but by Mark Lemley, Wendy Gordon, and a host of other scholars. Three simple points to note: (1) IP deals with internalisation of positive externalities, which is not something we normally associate with property law -- thus, IP actually does not give me control over my 'property', but over yours; (2) IP deals with a truly non-exhaustable, non-rivalrous good -- ideas -- which, as shown in the articles linked above, are not suited to being governed by property regimes; (3) IP goes much beyond what property law does with tangible property, since it not only governs the sale of IP and exclusion of others from my IP, but also governs the subsequent usage of IP.

Another relevant consideration is the way that IP law has been spread through the globe through means like colonisation and modern-day unbalanced trade treaties.  India got its first copyright law in 1914 and signed the Berne Convention in 1928, much before its independence. The TRIPS Agreement of 1995 mandated things like product patents for pharma products for all countries, even though an industrialised Western country like Spain only started recognizing them in 1992, and even though Italy, which was then the fifth largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, was forced to introduce product patents by a petition of foreign pharma companies in 1978. The benefits of product patents for pharma products have not been empirically proved, but the harms caused by patents to production of newer medicines have been well documented. Given these, it is imperative that developing countries push back against IP expansionism that is knocking on their doors through instruments like Free Trade Agreements.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/witfor-2009

Rethinking the last mile Problem: A cultural argument

nishant — 2015-04-03T10:54:21Z

This research project, by Ashish Rajadhyaksha from the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, is mainly a conceptual-archival investigation into India’s history for what has in recent years come to be known as the ‘last mile’ problem. The term itself comes from communication theory, with in turn an ancestry in social anthropology, and concerns itself with (1) identifying the eventual recipient/beneficiary of any communication message, (2) discovering new ways by which messages can be delivered intact, i.e. without either distortion of decay. Exploring the intersection of government policy, technology intervention and the users' expectations, with a specific focus on Internet Technologies and their space in the good governance protocols in India, the project aims at revisiting the last mile problem as one of cultural practices and political contexts in India.

THE CULTURAL LAST MILE

Ashish Rajadhyaksha

The Argument:

Mapped onto developmental-democratic language since at least Independence, this concept, further mapping concrete benefits with the delivery of the message, has come to define the classic model by which the Indian state attempts to ensure that policy designed for local implementation actually reaches its intended beneficiaries without distortion. The immense link between communication theory and democracy thereby defines not only the Indian state’s historic dependence on technologies of communication – radio, terrestrial and satellite. It goes further, as the technological apparatus – and its variants of the classic ‘broadcast’ model of single sender-multiple receiver – comes to underpin the very definition of democratic development.

One consequence is an evolutionary definition of technology, with the last mile defined as a means of eternal purification of the message, combining content ‘corruption’ with socio-economic corruption, as newer generations of technology tirelessly eliminate distortion in both. This could well be the history of Indian state policy, from radio broadcasts representing the ‘voice of the State’ to the era of e-Governance. Such an authority is somewhat graphically in evidence in recent years in the deployment of ‘neutral’ technology such as computers within e-governance initiatives, which have, when successful , seen computer-illiterate farmers make wide use of ICT services where they ‘do not feel that there is a barrier to their obtaining information’, a ‘tribute to the grassroots staff and their training’, but also to ‘faith in the technology’ (Shaik, Jhamtani and Rao 2004: 9). The attribution of such ‘neutrality’ to modern ‘scientific’ technology has been in evidence from late nineteenth-century still photography to the use of technologies such as ‘First In–First Out (FIFO)’, a way that prevents queue-jumping, biometrics and double screens for users to view typed in matter, including touch screens (Parthasarathy 2005, VIII: 9).

The Research Project

This project assumes that, given the chronic historic failure in bridging the last mile, whether in communication theory or in the standard functioning of development projects (a key component of the relatively new discipline of disaster management) – a failure stemming from difficulties in both naming and accessing intended beneficiaries – it becomes necessary to reinvestigate the model itself, along with its historic failures.

The project is split into three parts:
(1) The conceptual argument: a historical trace of the theoretical origins of the concept ‘Last mile’ (even if not named as such), and key technical locations of its deployment: the telegraph, the ‘film trains’ in the 1920s, the radio (extended to transistorization in the 1960s), and the first experiments with terrestrial and satellite technology.
(2) It will then take three specific examples (perhaps but may be changed),(a) the SITE experiment of the 1970s with specific new field work on the well known Kheda experiment; (b) the Cable Television movements in India in the 1980s, and (c) Experiments with WLL in IIT Chennai in the 1990s.
(3) The concluding section will address locations where the last mile has in fact been bridged successfully, in the review’s estimation, and will inquire into how it came to be functional. It is at this point speculated that it worked mainly because (a) the original model was either tampered with or used contrary to stated intentions, and (b) when it worked, this happened with the connivance of the state. The project will therefore perhaps conclude with the following investigations: that historically significant occasions when alternative definitions were thrown up for the last mile worked mainly because they were dependent on error and accident (rather than seeing these as interruptions or distortions to the signal), and that they functioned more on both peer-to-peer and reverse broadcasting than on the single-sender-multiple-recipients model.

References:

Ashish Rajadhyaksha (1990), ‘Beaming Messages to the Nation’, Journal of Arts & Ideas, No. 19 (May): 33–52.

Ashish Rajadhyaksha (1999), ‘The Judgement: Re-Forming the Public’, Journal of Arts & Ideas, Nos. 32–33 (April)

N. Meera Shaik, Anita Jhamtani and D.U.M. Rao, ‘Information and Communication Technology in Agricultural Development: A Comparative Analysis of Three Projects from India’, Agricultural Research and Extension Network (AGREN), 2004.

Balaji Parthasarathy et al (ed), ‘Information and Communications Technologies for Development: A Comparative Analysis of Impacts and Costs from India’, Bangalore: International Institute of Information Technology, 2005.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/the-last-cultural-mile/post1

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