The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 1 to 15.
International Telecommunication Union
https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/intnl-telecom-union
<b>The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is an intergovernmental organization which coordinates between governments and private sector bodies with respect to global telecommunication and information communication technology (ICT) services.</b>
<p>Note: Chart would be put up soon.</p>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Introduction</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The ITU is headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland, having been established as a successor to International Telegraph Union which was set up in 1865. Subsequently in 1947 the ITU became as specialized agency of the United Nations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This unit will deal with the ITU’s main areas of work and with special focus on review of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) during the World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012 (WCIT ’12) and its impact on the internet. It will also briefly touch upon the various functions of the ITU.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Amongst other functions<a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1] </a> the ITU is mainly responsible for management of radio spectrum globally and coordination and setting of technical standards related telecommunication/ICT. The ITU also has active involvement in the sectors of broadband internet, next generation wireless technologies, data, access, television broadcasting and convergence in mobile devices.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Composition of the International Telecommunication Union</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The ITU comprises of Member States, Sector Members and Associates.<br /><b>Member States</b><br />Member states have the right to vote in the ITU proceedings. Each member state nominates one member to represent the State in ITU proceedings. Currently, 193 member states participate in the ITU proceedings. For example, India, the United States of America, Sudan, etc.<br /><b>Sector Members<br /></b>Any interested organization can become a member of any of the sectors or all the sectors (ITU-T, ITU-R and ITU-D) for a payment of a fee. Sector members can be from industry, international or regional organizations. The rights and obligations of the Sector Members are laid down in Article 3 of the Constitution of the ITU.<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2] </a> The Internet Society is an ITU-D and ITU-T sector member. <br /><b>Associates and Academia<br /></b>Any interested industry, international or regional organization can become Associates on a payment of a fee. University and research organizations can also become members from academia. HMR Institute of Technology Management, New Delhi and Sinhgad Technical Education Society, Pune are academia members at ITU from India. The Associates can participate in Study Groups which will be explained below. Each sector convenes study groups in order to support and carry out research and study related to the three sectors of the ITU. They are also responsible for the formulation of the draft recommendations. Companies such as Ericsson and Samsung are associate members of the ITU.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Structure of the International Telecommunication Union</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The ITU has certain bodies which are convened as per the Constitution. The Plenipotentiary Conference is convened every four years which decides upon the future mandates of the ITU. Similarly the world conferences on international telecommunication are convened as decided upon in the Plenipotentiary Conference. Although these bodies are not permanent, they play a major role in functioning of the ITU.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The structure of the International Telecommunication Union is laid down under Article 7 of the Constitution of the ITU. According to Article 7, the ITU comprises of the following mechanisms/bodies:</p>
<h3>Other Bodies</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This acts as the platform for high level debate, networking and knowledge sharing for the global ICT community. It basically tries to drive industrial success and tackle socio-economic problems. The ITU telecom also hosts many annual events where these debates occur.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. Article 1(2), Constitution of the ITU, “...effect allocation of bands of the radio-frequency spectrum, the allotment of radio frequencies and the registration of radiofrequency assignments and, for space services, of any associated orbital position in the geostationary-satellite orbit or of any associated characteristics of satellites in other orbits, in order to avoid harmful interference between radio stations of different countries;<br />b) coordinate efforts to eliminate harmful interference between radio stations of different countries and to improve the use made of the radio-frequency spectrum for radiocommunication services and of the geostationary-satellite and other satellite orbits;<br />c) facilitate the worldwide standardization of telecommunications, with a satisfactory quality of service;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">d) foster international cooperation and solidarity in the delivery of technical assistance to the developing countries and the creation, development and improvement of telecommunication equipment and networks in developing countries by every means at its disposal, including through its participation in the relevant programmes of the United Nations and the use of its own resources, as appropriate;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>e) </i>coordinate efforts to harmonize the development of telecommunication facilities, notably those using space techniques, with a view to full advantage being taken of their possibilities;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>f) </i>foster collaboration among Member States and Sector Members with a view to the establishment of rates at levels as low as possible consistent with an efficient service and taking into account the necessity for maintaining independent financial administration of telecommunications on a sound basis;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>g) </i>promote the adoption of measures for ensuring the safety of life through the cooperation of telecommunication services;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>h) </i>undertake studies, make regulations, adopt resolutions, formulate recommendations and opinions, and collect and publish information concerning telecommunication matters;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>i) </i>promote, with international financial and development organizations, the establishment of preferential and favourable lines of credit to be used for the development of social projects aimed, <i>inter alia</i>, at extending telecommunication services to the most isolated areas in countries.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. Art. 3, Constitution of the ITU, “In respect of their participation in activities of the Union, Sector Members shall be entitled to participate fully in the activities of the Sector of which they are members, subject to relevant provisions of this Constitution and the Convention:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>a) </i>they may provide chairmen and vice-chairmen of Sector assemblies and meetings and world telecommunication development conferences;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>b) </i>they shall be entitled, subject to the relevant provisions of the Convention and relevant decisions adopted in this regard by the Plenipotentiary Conference, to take part in the adoption of Questions and Recommendations and in decisions relating to the working methods and procedures of the Sector concerned.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/intnl-telecom-union'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/intnl-telecom-union</a>
</p>
No publisherSnehashish Ghosha and Anirudh SridharInternet Studies2013-10-06T03:58:11ZPageInstitute on Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org/events/institute-on-internet-and-society-2
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore is pleased to announce the second "Institute on Internet and Society" to be held in Yashada, Pune from February 11 to 17, 2014. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With financial support from the Ford Foundation, this initiative represents an important opportunity to bring together various stakeholders in a neutral forum and share ideas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is a week-long residential institute which will cover topics surrounding and exploring the gamut of internet and society. Various topics that explore the ambit and the intersection between Internet and Society will be explored with guest speakers and experts in these fields anchoring the sessions. The lectures will be insightful and few, with interesting case studies and interactive modes of teaching. There will be breakout sessions where participants will get the chance to partake in interactive technology sessions and instructive demonstrations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There will be off-site experiences where the participants can go on field trips and view the actual spaces that will be discussed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The institute will feature:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Guest lectures by experts and CIS staff.</li>
<li>Interactive panel discussions.</li>
<li>Case studies.</li>
<li>Breakout sessions.</li>
<li>Interactive demonstrations.</li>
<li>Networking opportunities, field trips/off-site experience and much more...</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At the end of the course, attendees will have:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Acquisition of knowledge on internet in the Indian society.</li>
<li>Appreciation of the role of community and other stakeholders in issues surrounding the internet.</li>
<li>Creation of a starting point for improved communication of research findings, innovations, information and new technologies in internet to evolve a community comprising academicians and policy makers.</li>
<li>Appreciation of the need to bridge the gap between policy and implementation.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Who can apply?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Any members from the civil society (students, research scholars, academicians, scientists, legal professionals, etc.) who engage in issues concerning Internet and Society.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">How to apply?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The application form available at <b><a class="external-link" href="http://internet-institute.in/form">http://internet-institute.in/form</a></b> needs to completed in all respects and uploaded along with a brief bio and a 250-300 word abstract on why the applicant feels he/she must attend the Institute on Internet and Society.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Selection criteria</h3>
<ul>
<li>Originality of application.</li>
<li> Evidence of interest and/or prior engagement in Internet and Society related research and policies.</li>
<li> Gender, regional and stakeholder representation.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Twenty participants shall be chosen to attend the Institute on a first come, first served basis. Please ensure that your applications are submitted to CIS well before the closing date.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Attendance</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Attendance for the full duration of the Institute (February 11 to February 17, 2014) is mandatory. Please provide assurance that you will be able to commit to the full duration of the institute.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">What costs will be covered?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has a number of scholarships that will cover the course fees, travel, accommodation and food. Please note that scholarships will be given on a first come first serve basis to deserving applicants and <b>is available for persons based within India</b>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Important Dates</h3>
<ul>
<li>Registrations Open: November 15, 2013</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Registrations Close: December 15, 2013</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Draft Agenda</h2>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h3>Day 1 (February 11, 2014)</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Time</th><th class=" tt_icon_asc">Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />09.40<br /></td>
<td>Introduction: Sunil Abraham, <i>Executive Director Centre for Internet and Society</i> / Ravina Aggarwal, <i>Program Officer, Ford Foundation</i> <br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />09.40<br /></td>
<td>Introduction of Participants</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10.00<br />12.00<br /></td>
<td>Internet Governance and Privacy: Sunil Abraham</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12.00<br />12.30<br /></td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12.30<br />13.00<br /></td>
<td>Keynote: Bishakha Datta, <i>Filmmaker and Activist, and Board Member, Wikimedia Foundation</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13.00<br />14.00<br /></td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>14.00<br />16.00</p>
</td>
<td>Pecha Kucha sessions</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.00<br />17.30<br /></td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Histories, Bodies and Debates around the Internet: Nishant Shah, <i>Director-Research, Centre for Internet and Society</i> and <i>International Tandem Partner at the Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University, Germany</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h3>Day 2 (February 12, 2014)</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Time</th><th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />11.00</td>
<td>Wireless Technology: Ravikiran Annaswamy, <i>CEO and Co-founder at Teritree Technologies</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00<br />11.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30<br />13.00</td>
<td>Wired Technology: Ravikiran Annaswamy</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13.00<br />14.00</td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14.00<br />15.00</td>
<td>Network, Threats and Securing Yourself: Kingsley John, <i>Independent Consultant</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15.00<br />15.15</td>
<td>Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15.15<br />16.15</td>
<td>Practical Lab: Kingsley John</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.15<br />16.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.30<br />17.00</td>
<td>Wrap-up Session: Sunil Abraham</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h3>Day 3 (February 13, 2014)</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Time</th><th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />11.00</td>
<td>Free Software: Prof. G. Nagarjuna, <i>Chairperson, Free Software Foundation</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00<br />11.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30<br />13.00</td>
<td>Open Data: Nisha Thompson, <i>Independent Consultant</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13.00<br />14.00</td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14.00<br />16.00</td>
<td>Freedom of Expression: Bhairav Acharya, <i>Advocate and Adviser, Centre for Internet and Society</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.00<br />16.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.30<br />17.30</td>
<td>Copyright: Nehaa Chaudhari, <i>Program Officer, Centre for Internet and Society</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h3>Day 4 (February 14, 2014)</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Time</th><th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />11.00</td>
<td>E-Accessibility and Inclusion: Prashant Naik, <i>Union Bank</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00<br />11.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30<br />13.00</td>
<td>Patents: Nehaa Chaudhari</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13.00<br />14.00</td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14.00<br />17.00</td>
<td>Field Trip</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h3>Day 5 (February 15, 2014)</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Time</th><th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />11.00</td>
<td>E-Governance: Manu Srivastav, <i>Vice President, eGovernments Foundation</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00<br />11.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30<br />13.00</td>
<td>Market Concerns: Payal Malik, <i>Economic Adviser, Competition Commission of India</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13.00<br />14.00</td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14.00<br />15.30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Domestic and International Bodies: Chinmayi Arun, <i>Research Director, Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi </i>and <i>Fellow, Centre for Internet and Society</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15.30<br />16.00</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>16.00<br />17.30</p>
</td>
<td>Digital Natives: Nishant Shah<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h3>Day 6 (February 16, 2014)</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Time</th><th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />11.00</td>
<td>Wikipedia: Dr. Abhijeet Safai<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00<br />11.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30<br />13.00</td>
<td>Open Access: Muthu Madhan<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13.00<br />14.00</td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14.00<br />15.00</td>
<td>Activity / Mock Conference</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15.00<br />15.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15.30<br />17.30</td>
<td>Activity / Mock Conference</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h3>Day 7 (February 17, 2014)</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Time</th><th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09.30<br />11.00</td>
<td>Internet Activism: Laura Stein, <i>Associate Professor, University of Texas </i>and <i>Fulbright Fellow, Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00<br />11.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30<br />13.00</td>
<td>Digital Humanities: Nishant Shah</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13.00<br />14.00</td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14.00<br />15.00</td>
<td>Participant Presentations<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15.00<br />15.30</td>
<td>Tea-break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15.30<br />16.30</td>
<td>Final Exercise: Mapping Learning Feedback</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" rowspan="4"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" rowspan="4">
<h3></h3>
</td>
<td colspan="2" rowspan="5">
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
</tr>
<tr>
</tr>
<tr>
</tr>
<tr>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<h2>Speakers Profiles</h2>
<ul>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Bishakha Datta</b><br />Bishakha is an Indian film maker and activist. She is a former journalist who also serves on the board of nonprofit organizations, such as <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_View,_Mumbai" title="Point of View, Mumbai">Point of View</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creating_Resources_for_Empowerment_in_Action" title="Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action">Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action</a>, and (as of 2013) the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation" title="Wikimedia Foundation">Wikimedia Foundation</a>. In 1998, Datta edited <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Who_Will_Make_the_Chapatis%3F" title="And Who Will Make the Chapatis?">And Who Will Make the Chapatis?</a>, an overview of the all-women political panchayats formed in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra" title="Maharashtra">Maharashtra</a>, India. In 2003, her documentary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Flesh_%282003_film%29" title="In the Flesh (2003 film)">In the Flesh: three lives in prostitution</a> was released.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Nishant Shah</b><br />Nishant is the founder and Director of Research for the Bangalore-based <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/">Centre for Internet and Society</a>. His doctoral work at the<a href="http://cscs.res.in/"> Centre for the Study of Culture and Society</a>, examines the production of a Technosocial Subject at the intersections of law, Internet technologies and everyday cultural practices in India. As an <a href="http://www.asianscholarship.org/asf/index.php">Asia Scholarship Fellow (2008-2009)</a>, he also initiated a study that looks at what goes into the making of an <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/research/grants/the-promise-of-invisibility-technology-and-the-city">IT City in India and China</a>. He is the series editor for a three year collaborative project on <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet">“Histories of the Internet(s) in India”</a> that maps nine alternative histories that promote new ways of understanding the technological revolution in the country.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof. G. Nagarjuna</b><br />Prof. Nagarjuna is the chairperson of the Free Software Foundation. He has been an activist for free knowledge and free softwares and has more than 20 publications on related issues. He is interested in understanding the structure and dynamics of knowledge (epistemology, knowledge organization, knowledge representation, biological roots of cognition, and education), nature of life and evolution. This interest is executed in the respective domains: Information Technology, History and Philosophy of Science, and Biology Education. The social, economic and political aspects of information technology also engages his serious attention.<a href="http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/people/academic/nagarjuna-g">http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/people/academic/nagarjuna-g.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Sunil Abraham</b><br />Sunil is the Executive Director of Bangalore based research organisation, the Centre for Internet and Society. He founded Mahiti in 1998, a company committed to creating high impact technology and communications solutions. Sunil was elected an Ashoka fellow in 1999 to 'explore the democratic potential of the Internet' and was also granted a Sarai FLOSS fellowship in 2003. Between June 2004 and June 2007, Sunil also managed the International Open Source Network, a project of United Nations Development Programme's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme serving 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Nisha Thompson</b><br />Nisha Thompson: Nisha Thompson has a background in online community organisation. She has worked for the <a href="http://sunlightfoundation.com/" target="_blank" title="Sunlight Foundation">Sunlight Foundation</a> in Washington DC, with online communities to use US government data to hold elected officials accountable. She moved to Bangalore, Karnataka in October 2010. She worked on an Open Government Data report for the <a href="https://cis-india.org/" target="_blank" title="Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)">Centre for Internet and Society</a> and now works full-time with the Portal, on the Data Project. The Data Project aims to collect and open up water and related data, so that citizens and practitioners can use it to improve and keep track of projects and progress in the water sector.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Payal Malik</b><br />Payal Malik: Payal Malik is currently advisor to the Competition Commission of India. She had also done considerable research in the ICT sector. <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2013727">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2013727</a>. In addition to teaching Microeconomics Theory at the University of Delhi she has several years of research experience in the areas of economic policy, competition and regulation in network/infrastructure industries and has been actively engaged in competition policy research. Her research and professional collaborations have been with National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi, Indicus Analytics, New Delhi, LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka, OECD, Orbicom, IDEI, University of Toulouse, University Of Québec at Montreal, CEPR, JRC, European Commission, IPTS Seville, ICEGEC, Hungary, Department of Information Technology, TRAI, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Planning Commission of India, Competition Commission of India, CSO, India, WSP-SA, World Bank and AFD, Paris.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Chinmayi Arun</b><br />Chinmayi Arun is the Research Director of the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi. She is also an Assistant Professor of law at the university and teaches specialised courses on Internet Governance, privacy and media policy. She is the research coordinator of the Oxford India Media Law Research Project, a member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group formed by the Government of India for the India Internet Governance Forum, and one of the academic experts for the Internet & Jurisdiction Project's Observatory. She works with media regulation and internet governance, particularly in the context of the rights to free speech and privacy. Chinmayi interacts with industry bodies and government officials and envisages the Centre for Communication Governance as a key contributor to policy in the years to come.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Laura Stein<br /></b>Laura is an assistant Professor at the University of Texas in the College of Communication. Her research focuses upon alternative and public media and she has a course on communication technology and society. She is currently working on an edited collection, titled "Making Our Media: Global Initiatives Toward a Democratic Public Sphere," about grassroots attempts to transform the policy and practice of information and communication media around the world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prashant Naik</b><br />Prashant is working as an Assistant Manager with the Union Bank of India, one of the largest public sector banks in India. He is placed in the Alternate Channels and New Initiative Department. In his role with Union Bank of India, he has made a major contribution in developing a Truly Accessible Talking ATM, ‘First’ of its kind in India which has set a benchmark on accessible ATM for the blind. Since 2002 he is contributing on a large scale in the area of technology access for the visually impaired persons with his inputs in accessible content creation, access technologies training, accessibility and advocacy. Through his work with NGOs he undertook many accessibility testing and development projects. He received National Award as ROLE MODEL from Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on 6th February 2013. He holds a degree in computer applications and he is a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist. He has low vision since birth due to albinism condition.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Ravikiran Annaswamy</b><br />Ravikiran is the Co-founder and CEO of Teritree Technologies - a Social commerce technology venture. He also dedicates his time to startup ecosystem as Advisor, Mentor and Angel investor. He has over 17 years of business experience at Nokia Siemens Networks and Siemens AG. He was Business Head for Indian market, led Global Product Management and was General Manager for Asia Pacific Solutions. He championed Intrapreneurship by working as Innovation head for Bangalore site of over 1000 employees. He has vast experience of making successful Technology solutions for global markets, mainly in the area of Social commerce, Online Billing and Charging, Innovative 3G/4G applications, Multimedia and Security Solutions. He is an engaged Professional volunteer, currently the Vice Chairman for IEEE Bangalore section. He was the previous Chairman for IEEE Communication Society of Karnataka.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Manu Srivastava</b><br />Manu is a Vice President at the eGovernments Foundation. He brings 14 years of experience in web native product development and database applications. He worked at Oracle and GlobeTrades Inc on various internet based products before joining eGov. He has architected, developed and rolled out many of the eGov products which are running successfully in cities such as Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><b><span>Muthu Madhan</span></b><br />Muthu Madhan is a practicing librarian in India for about 15 years and is currently the Manager for ICRISAT Library and Information Services. Before joining </span><span><span>ICRISAT</span></span><span> in 2010, he worked for M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and the National Institute of Technology Rourkela. </span><span>Since 2004, he has been an advocate for open access movement in India. Apart from open access, his other interests are open data, open education, and open source software.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><b>Dr. Abhijeet Safai</b><br />Dr. Abhijeet is Medical Officer–Clinical Research at Symbiosis Centre of Health Care in Pune. He has been editing Wikipedia for more than 3 years, has edited more than 3700 articles and has created 30 new articles. He is interested in editing articles related to medicine and inspiring personalities. He was a speaker at IT expo in Pune in 2012 and has conducted workshops on Wikipedia Editing in GNUnify in 2013 and 2014 at Symbiosis Institute of Computer Science and Research, Pune. He likes to edit Wikipedia because of passion, for gaining the knowledge and as a social contribution. His user profile on Wikipedia can be accessed at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhijeet_Safai">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhijeet_Safai</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhijeet_Safai">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhijeet_Safai</a></span></p>
<hr />
<h2>About CIS India and Ford Foundation</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS critically engages with concerns of <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/substantive-areas/digital-pluralism" title="Digital Pluralism">digital pluralism</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/substantive-areas/public-accountability">public accountability</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/publications/curricula-and-teaching">pedagogic practices</a>, in the field of Internet and Society, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Through multidisciplinary research, intervention, and collaboration, we seek to explore, understand, and affect the shape and form of the internet, and its relationship with the political, cultural, and social milieu of our times.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Ford Foundation supports visionary leaders and organizations on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Their goals for more than half a century have been to:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Strengthen democratic values</li>
<li>Reduce poverty and injustice</li>
<li>Promote international cooperation</li>
<li>Advance human achievement</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Ford Foundation believes all people should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, contribute to society, and have voice in the decisions that affect them.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Contact</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan, Policy Director (<a href="mailto:nirmita@cis-india.org">nirmita@cis-india.org</a>) </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Ajoy Kumar, Administrator (<a href="mailto:ajoy@cis-india.org">ajoy@cis-india.org</a>)</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Anirudh Sridhar, Consultant (<a href="mailto:anirudh@cis-india.org">anirudh@cis-india.org</a>) </li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/events/institute-on-internet-and-society-2'>https://cis-india.org/events/institute-on-internet-and-society-2</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet StudiesEvent2014-02-16T03:00:17ZEventInstitute on Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/institute-on-internet-and-society
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore is pleased to announce the Institute for Internet and Society to be held in Bangalore from June 8 to June 14, 2013 at the Golden Palms Resort, Bangalore.</b>
<hr />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/institute-on-internet-and-society.pdf" class="internal-link">See the brochure on Institute on Internet & Society</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://internet-institute.in/repository/agenda-revised-by-sv">Download the Agenda</a> (PDF)</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">With financial support and visionary guidance from the Ford Foundation, this initiative represents an important opportunity to bring together various stakeholders in a neutral forum and share ideas. The week-long residential institute will cover topics surrounding the internet and society.</p>
<h3>Course Content</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>History of the Internet</b> (This session will cover brief history of the Internet, its early stages and growth. It will also cover origins of internet in India and its impact on the Indian GDP. It will also focus on hot topics/debates surrounding the Internet).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Internet Technologies and Infrastructure</b> (The session infrastructure, purpose and function of an ISP, advantages and disadvantages of different modes of Internet access).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>E-Governance</b> (This session will cover the various e-governance initiatives).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Principles and Values of the Internet</b> (This session will cover various principles that underpinned the creation of the Internet, the threats they face and the need for a truly “open internet”).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Ownership and Management</b> (This session will cover ownership and market distribution).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Internet Activism</b> (This session will deal with various initiatives which have successfully used the Internet to build movements and campaigns).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Institute Highlights</h3>
<ul>
<li>Guest Lectures by Experts & CIS Staff</li>
<li>Interactive Panel Discussions</li>
<li>Case Studies</li>
<li>Surveys</li>
<li>Breakout Sessions</li>
<li>Demonstrations</li>
<li>Product Walkthroughs</li>
<li>Networking Opportunities and much more…</li>
</ul>
<p>At the end of the week long residential course, attendees will have:</p>
<ul>
<li>Acquisition of knowledge on Internet in the Indian society.</li>
<li>Appreciation of the role of community and other stakeholders in issues surrounding the Internet.</li>
<li>Creation of a starting point for improved communication of research findings, innovations, information and new technologies in Internet to evolve a community comprising academicians and policy makers.</li>
<li>Appreciation of the need to bridge the gap between policy and implementation.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Agenda</h2>
<p><b>Saturday, June 8, 2013</b></p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timings</th> <th>Topics for Discussion</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09:30 11:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>INTRODUCTION </b><br />Dr. Ravina Aggarwal & Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:00 <br />11:30</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 <br />13:00</td>
<td><b>HISTORY AND GROWTH OF INTERNET IN INDIA</b> <br />Madan Mohan Rao<br />(This session will deal with the advent of the internet and its growth in India).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13:00 <br />14:00</td>
<td>Lunch Break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 <br />15:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>DOMESTIC BODIES AND MECHANISMS</b><br /> Pranesh Prakash<br />(This session will give an overview of the roles, which different government bodies play in regulating the Internet).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15:30 <br />16:00</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16:00 <br />17:30</td>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>EMERGING TRENDS IN INTERNET USAGE IN INDIA</b><br /> Nandini C and Vir Kamal Chopra<br />(This session will cover key trends and issues with regard to internet usage in India).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20:00 22:00</td>
<td><b>Dinner</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Sunday, June 9, 2013<br /></b></p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timings<br /></th> <th>Topics for Discussion<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09:30 11:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>WIRED TECHNOLOGIES </b><br /> Dr. Nadeem Akhtar<br />(This session will deal with the various technologies involved in establishing a wired connection to the internet).<br /><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:00 <br />11:30</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 <br />13:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES</b><br /> Michael Ginguld<br />(This session will deal with the various technologies involved in establishing a wireless connection to the internet).<br /><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13:00 <br />14:00</td>
<td>Lunch Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 <br />15:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>BUILDING KNOWLEDGE BASES AND PLATFORMS VIA MASS COLLABORATION ON THE INTERNET </b><br />Vishnu Vardhan T<br />(This session will deal with the various online knowledge bases and platforms with special emphasis on Wikipedia).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15:30 <br />16:00</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16:00 <br />17:30</td>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>AFFORDABLE DEVICES AND INTERNET ACCESS IN INDIA</b><br />Ravikiran Annaswamy<br />(This session will deal with affordable devices and their role in increasing internet access in India).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20:00 22:00</td>
<td><b>Dinner<br /></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Monday, June 10, 2013</b></p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timings<br /></th> <th>Topics for Discussion<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09:30 11:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>HOW INTERNET WORKS? </b><br /> Dr. Nadeem Akhtar<br />(This session will deal with various technologies related to the backbone of the internet). <br /><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:00 <br />11:30</td>
<td>Tea/Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 <br />13:00</td>
<td><b>ASSIGNMENT</b><br /> <br /><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>13.00<br />14.00</p>
</td>
<td>Lunch Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 <br />18:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>OFFSITE / FIELD VISIT</b><br /><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20:00 <br />22:00</td>
<td><b>Dinner</b><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Tuesday, June 11, 2013</b></p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timings<br /></th> <th>Topics for Discussion<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09:30 11:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>UNIVERSAL ACCESS</b><br /> Archana Gulati<br />(This session will cover an overview of universal access and universal service).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:00 <br />11:30</td>
<td>Tea/Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 <br />13:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>FREE AND OPEN INTERNET</b><br />Pranesh Prakash <br />(This session will cover fundamental rights to freedom of speech and expression, reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech in context of internet access in India).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>13.00<br />14.00</p>
</td>
<td>Lunch Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 <br />15:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>OPENNESS </b><br />Pranesh Prakash and Sunil Abraham<br />(This session will cover issues related to openness and access to the internet).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15:30 <br />16:00</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16:00 17:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>OPEN CONTENT </b><br />Professor Subbiah Arunahalam<br />(This session will discuss open access to content and its implications on internet access).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17:30 18:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>QUICK TALK: COPYRIGHT LAW AND ACCESS</b><br />Pranesh Prakash<br />(This short session will deal with implications of copyright law on internet access).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20.00<br />22.00</td>
<td>Dinner</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Wednesday, June 12, 2013</b></p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timings<br /></th> <th>Topics for Discussion<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09:30 11:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET IN INDIA</b><br />Elonnai Hickok and Sunil Abraham <br />(This session will discuss online privacy, data protection, use of encryption, value of anonymity online, UID, etc).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:00 <br />11:30</td>
<td>Tea/Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 <br />13:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>E-ACCESSIBILITY BASICS </b><br />Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan<br />(This session will deal with key requirements for making internet accessible for persons with disabilities).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>13.00<br />14.00</p>
</td>
<td>Lunch Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 <br />15:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>INTERNATIONAL BODIES AND MECHANISM </b><br />Tulika Pandey and Gaurab Raj Upadhyay<br />(This session will deal with various international bodies and multi-stakeholder processes involved in formulation of internet related policies).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>15:30<br />16:00</p>
</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>16:00<br />17:00</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>E-GOVERNANCE </b><br />Sunil Abraham<br />(This session will deal with e-Governance strategies and relevant initiatives).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20.00<br />22.00<br /></td>
<td><b>Dinner</b><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Thursday, June 13, 2013</b></p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timings<br /></th> <th>Topics for Discussion<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09:30 11:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>GLOBAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET</b> <br />Dr. Nishant Shah<br />(Inception of internet and the main events which led to the growth of the internet).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:00 <br />11:30</td>
<td>Tea/Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 <br />13:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>STRATEGIES FOR POLICY INTERVENTION </b><br /> Chakshu Roy<br />(This session will look at various ways in which policy intervention can be made and the various factors necessary to successfully engage in policy forums).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>13.00<br />14.00</p>
</td>
<td>Lunch Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 <br />15:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>PROFILE OF INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS </b><br />Satyen Gupta<br />(This session will discuss profiles of various ISPs and their share in the market).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15:30 <br />16:00</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16:00 17:30<br /></td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>COMPETITION IN THE MARKET </b><br />Helani Galpaya<br />(This session will discuss structure and competition in the broadband market, wireless market, etc).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20.00<br />22.00<br /></td>
<td><b>Dinner</b><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Friday, June 14, 2013</b></p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timings<br /></th> <th>Topics for Discussion<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>09:30 11:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>LEVERAGING INTERNET FOR ACTIVISM </b><br />Ananth Guruswamy<br />(This session will look at various initiatives which have used the internet to build successful movements and campaigns).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:00 <br />11:30</td>
<td>Tea/Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 <br />13:00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>“INTERNET ACCESS” ACTIVISM </b><br />Parminder Jeet Singh<br />(This session will discuss how people can contribute to initiatives for improving internet access).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>13.00<br />14.00</p>
</td>
<td>Lunch Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 <br />15:30</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>ENSURING ACCESS TO THE INTERNET </b><br />A K Bharghava<br />(This session will discuss strategies to enhance access to the internet in India with special focus on National Optical Fibre Network).<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15:30 <br />16:00</td>
<td>Tea / Coffee Break<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16:00 <br />17:30<br /></td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Winding Up</b><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul>
</ul>
<div id="_mcePaste"> </div>
<hr />
<h3>Speakers</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>A.K Bhargava</b><br />A. K. Bhargava is a Telecom Engineer with more than 35 yrs of experience in various fields of Telecommunication, Installation, Operation, Maintenance, Software and Management. Prior to joining BBNL as Director (Operations), he was working as Executive Director (Wireless Services) with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) Delhi.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Ananth Guruswamy</b><br />Ananth Guruswamy is the director of Amnesty International India. Previouly, he was the Programme Director at Green Peace. Ananth joined Greenpeace India in 2001 at its very beginning and played a key role in moulding Greenpeace India into one of the leading stakeholders in the NGO sector in India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Archana Gulati</b><br />An Indian Civil Service Officer, she has worked as a Universal Service Policy Expert with respect to Access to ICTs for Persons with Disabilities for the International Telecommunications Union. She also successfully pioneered the e-government system in her previous posting as Joint Controller Communication Accounts, Department of Telecommunications (DoT). At present she is posted as the Financial Advisor with the National Disaster Management Authority of India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Chakshu Roy</b><br />Chakshu Roy heads technology initiatives at PRS Legislative Research (PRS), New Delhi. PRS is a unique initiative that provides non-partisan analysis to all Members of Parliament in India. Chakshu is developing a comprehensive technology strategy to engage large sections of the population in the policy process. He has conceptualised and developed India’s only online database of all state laws. Chakshu has conducted capacity-building workshops for over 1000 journalists on tracking the work of legislators.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Elonnai Hickok</b><br />Elonnai Hickok works as a Programme Manager at the Centre for Internet and Society. Her main areas of work are Privacy and Data Security.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Gaurab Raj Upadhaya</b><br />Gaurab has a long record of volunteerism and commitment to the Asia Pacific Internet Community. Gaurab is one of the 14 global Trusted Community Representatives who cryptographically sign the root of the domain name system in ICANN Root DNSSEC Key ceremonies. In 2001, he was the founder of the Nepal Internet Exchange (NPIX), the first IX in the South-Asian region.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Helani Galpaya</b><br />Helani Galpaya is the Chief Executive Officer at LIRNEasia. She holds a Masters in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Mount Holyoke College, USA.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr. Madan Mohan Rao</b><br />Dr. Madan Mohan Rao is the research director at the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre. He is the editor of a three book series: “The Asia Pacific Internet Handbook”, “The Knowledge Management Chronicles” and “AfroDotEdu”.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Michael Ginguld</b><br />Michael Ginguld is the Chief Executive Officer at AirJaldi. He has more than 15 years of experience working with ICT, community and rural development projects in India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, and Israel.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr. Nadeem Akhtar</b><br />Dr. Nadeem Akhtar is currently working as Principal Research Engineer at the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT). He leads the network layer research team at CEWiT and also represents CEWiT at 3GPP Radio Access Networks Working Group meetings. His research interests lie in the field of mobile and broadband wireless access technologies. Dr. Akhtar is a member of IEEE Standards Association and ITU-APT Foundation of India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Nandini. C</b><br />Nandini. C is a Research Associate with IT for Change (<a href="http://www.itforchange.net/">www.itforchange.net</a>), and is part of a team that is engaged in research studies in the area of gender and ICTs, democratic governance and ICTs, and the political economy of the information society. She holds a Masters in Urban and Rural Community Development from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan</b><br />Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan is a Policy Director at Centre for Internet and Society and works on policy research and advocacy related to IP reform and technology access for persons with disabilities.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr. Nishant Shah</b><br />Dr. Nishant Shah is the Director-Research at CIS. He is a recipient of the <a href="http://www.asianscholarship.org/asf/">Asia Scholarship Foundation's</a> fellowship for comparative research at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/intern/www.shu.edu.cn/en/indexEn.htm">Shanghai University</a>, Shanghai, China. Nishant is a regular columnist with the Sunday Eye, the national edition of Indian Express, Delhi, GQ India and DML Central. He has authored/co-authored many peer-reviewed articles in several journals<b>.</b></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Parminder Jeet Singh</b><br />Parminder Jeet Singh is Executive Director of IT for Change. He was recently appointed as a member of Task Force set up by the Indian government on implementation of proactive disclosures provisions of the Right to Information Act. He was also associated with Department of IT's Sub-group on e-governance for the 12<sup>th</sup> Five Year Plan. He recently authored a report on 'Community Knowledge Centers' for the Karnataka Knowledge Commission.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Pranesh Prakash</b><br />Pranesh Prakash is a Policy Director at CIS and works on policy research and advocacy around intersections of technology and law focusing on access to knowledge (primarily copyright reforms), promoting 'openness' (including open government data, open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software), freedom of expression, privacy, and internet governance.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Ravikiran Annaswamy</b><br />Ravikiran Annaswamy is an entrepreneur learning to create the next big business. He is very excited about the opportunities at the cusp of social media, mobile Internet and Big Data. Currently, He is nurturing a unique concept called Teritree, which brings social shopping into mainstream business.He has vast experience of making successful telecom solutions for global markets, mainly in the area of Online Billing and Charging, OSS, Innovative 3G/4G applications, Media and Security Solutions.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr. Ravina Aggarwal</b><br />Dr. Ravina Aggarwal works on media issues in India from the Ford Foundation's New Delhi office. Her grant making advances issues of democratic expression and media access among marginalized communities. She holds the position of Programme Officer in Ford Foundation, India</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Satyen Gupta</b><br />Satyen Gupta is a veteran in the field of telecommunications, drawing from his vast experience in telecom regulation as well as industry. Among other accomplishments, he was a member of the NGN Regulation review group of ITU and also worked as advisor with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India at the level of Additional Secretary and is heading the Converged Network Division dealing with regulatory, technical and economic aspects of Data Networks and Services.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr. Subbiah Arunachalam</b><br />Dr. Subbiah Arunachalam is a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society. Improving information access both for scientists and for the rural poor; scientometrics, ICT-enabled development and open access are among his current research interests.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Sunil Abraham</b><br />Sunil Abraham is the Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society. He is also a social entrepreneur and Free Software advocate.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Tulika Pandey</b><br />Tulika Pandey is an Electronics and Telecommunications Engineer. She has been with the Government of India since 1992 and is currently Director with the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India. She is involved in implementation strategy and action plan formulations for wider reach of ICT facilitated benefits; Integration of appropriate technology interfaces between human and cyber world; Steering of Research and Development projects for development of contextual ICT technology, tool, applications and content.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Vir Kamal Chopra</b><br />Vir Kamal Chopra is currently the Sr. General Manager (QA) with BSNL at New Delhi. He started his career in teaching. He has played a vital role in providing telecommunication facilities and shaping BSNL and is also responsible for finalization of high value products which are purchased at the central level of BSNL. He is credited with introducing e-tendering for the first time at BSNL.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Vishnu Vardhan</b><br />Vishnu Vardhan is the Programme Director of the CIS-A2K Team which works with Wikipedians and also conducts workshops and meetups in order to build Wikipedia community for Indic languages. </li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/institute-on-internet-and-society'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/institute-on-internet-and-society</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet StudiesEvent2013-11-20T05:52:02ZEventIRC22 - Proposed Session - #DigitisingCrisesRemakingHome
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-digitisingcrisesremakinghome
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022- #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 </strong>- # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Session Type:</strong> Panel Discussion</p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The session is planned as a panel discussion between three scholars on three distinct, interconnected notions of home – specifically the home as a dwelling unit, an administrative unit (such as a municipality, a city, or a state), and a country (or a nation state) in the context of India. We intend to parse these ideas within the context of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic to discuss notions of ‘safety’, ‘trust’, ‘support’, and ‘access’ by examining the digital turn in all three kinds of ‘home’. The session will open with the scholars speaking to each other, and laying out the central ideas. The conversation between the three scholars will act as provocations to enable a larger discussion with other attendees.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, when the first Covid-19 lockdowns began, the internet was discussed as a space of solidarity, of meeting, entertainment, work, and of support. But soon it became evident that access to such spaces of solidarity or support was not necessarily equal. While for some it was almost non-existent, for many others it was limited or regulated. In the Indian context these differences only stood out further due to unequal access to infrastructure, healthcare, and even basic necessities such as food that was starkly apparent in the long march of several thousand migrant workers from cities back to their ‘homes’ in rural areas at the height of the Indian summer.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">At the national level, the digital response to the pandemic was most palpable. The use of contact tracing through apps such as <em>Aarogya Setu, </em>the <em>CoWin</em> portal for vaccinations, and the often arbitrary use of drones, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence have raised questions about surveillance, inclusion, and how useful technology can be in assisting a public health crisis. Often such responses reflected a law and order response to what has been a public health crisis. On the other hand, the establishment of<em> Vande Bharat </em>missions to bring stranded Indians from around the world ‘back home to India’ presented a very different idea of home.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Administrative units at the state and local levels had differing procedures and interventions. Many attempted to follow the guidelines and interventions laid out by the central government, others introduced their own digital solutions but soon found that these were not enough to actually deliver governance during the pandemic.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This session will explore the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the digital becoming the default mode of managing the pandemic–or any sort of threat. We ask if the idea of ‘home’ as a ‘safe space’ had ever really been so and whether the pandemic exacerbated existing exploitative mechanisms within a ‘home’ – be it the dwelling, the city, or even one’s country. We also intend to discuss issues of access, surveillance, privacy, vulnerability, the burdens of care-work, the exploitative extraction of data, and divergent understandings of consent frameworks within these three axes of the idea of the ‘home’.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Team </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Vidya Subramanian </strong>is Raghunathan Family Fellow, South Asia Institute, Harvard University. She is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research interests lie at the intersection of technologies and societies. Her current research investigates the changing nature of citizenship in the technological society we now inhabit. Focusing on India, her research is loosely framed by two large issues: the first is the colonisation of the everyday so-called real world by the digital; and the second is how power permeates and is implicated in such technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Kalindi Kokal</strong> is Post Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay. She has a doctorate in law from the Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Her doctoral work centred on understanding how non-state actors in dispute processing engage with state law. Her dissertation is an ethnographic study of dispute-processing mechanisms in two rural communities in the states of Maharashtra and Uttarakhand in India. She works on understanding how the manner in which people actually experience state law coupled with their perceptions of dispute resolution and state courts underscore the need to explore broader understandings of law and dispute resolution.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Uttara Purandare </strong>is PhD Researcher, IITB-Monash Research Academy. She is pursuing her PhD in Public Policy under a joint programme offered by IIT Bombay and Monash University. Her area of research is smart cities. Looking specifically at the intersection of technology, gender, and governance, Uttara’s research focuses on how safety and surveillance are constructed by the smart city rhetoric and the role of private sector firms in governing the smart city. The COVID-19 pandemic and the technologies that have been introduced by national governments and smart cities purportedly to curb the spread of the virus have raised interesting questions about privacy and citizens’ rights during a crisis. Uttara is presently exploring some of these questions within the Indian context.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-digitisingcrisesremakinghome'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-digitisingcrisesremakinghome</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T12:23:42ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #LetsMoveIn
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022</strong> - # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Type:</strong> Workshop/Collaborative Working Session</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is a collaborative session designed in the form of a workshop to understand the implications on social movements because of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Movements of many kinds have moved geographies from public spaces to within the private space of the home. Not only has the nature of movements changed because of this, but we have seen the idea of home being transformed and gaining novel meanings like never before on a global scale. This metamorphosis had to undergo the collapse of inside and outside of home as two separate spaces which we often used to refer to. We were forced to shift most of our ‘outside’ lives to ‘inside’ breakout rooms. We want to collectively understand through this workshop, the different manifestations that movements have taken through digital media devices and its implications on the idea of home. This session seeks to understand the implications of ‘reterritorialized’ home from an entry point of movements through a participatory dialogue which we hope will bring the multifaceted experiences to the forefront of discussion. In doing so, we would like to engage with broader questions of what transformations have happened to movements when we had to navigate ourselves mostly in the digital arena, how people reciprocate to this transformation, how gender, caste, class etc. shape the digital movements landscape, how digital [dis]enable the possibility of protesting in and from home, etc. Some of the concepts that we want to explore through the activities are spaciality, materiality, agency, public/private dichotomy, sociality, mediation, etc. We would like to use storytelling and role playing as activities to engage with these concepts and find more personal meanings to them. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div><strong>Session Team </strong></div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Arathy Salimkumar</strong> is a research scholar in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Calicut University Campus. She is engaged in a research project mapping the emergence and furtherance of Identity politics in Indian Cinema. She is interested in the questions of political identity and the movements and struggles emerging in association with it in contemporary India.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Faheem Muhammed </strong>is a research scholar in the Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication, Pondicherry University. His work explores the role of digital technologies in resolving as well as exacerbating the status quo. His research interests include critical media studies, techno-culture, and social theories and policies, with an insight into theories of race, gender, colonialism, and social inclusion and exclusion.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Hazeena T</strong> is a research scholar in the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad. Her research interests include social change communication and politics of knowledge. She is interested in understanding the dynamics of knowledge politics in grassroots initiatives and its implications for communities involved. </div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Manisha Madapathi </strong>is a research scholar in the department of communication, in the University of Hyderabad. Her thesis project focuses on the phenomenon of internet shutdowns in India and the implications it has on the several stakeholders involved. She is interested in the processes of congregation and assembly during movements, and what channels enable it. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T14:54:24ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #MetaverseInquilab
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-metaverseinquilab
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - </strong># <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Session Type:</strong> Presentation and Panel Discussion </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This session will begin with a general overview of various social movements during the pandemic and how they were affected by it. For instance, the Farmer’s Protests and Anti-CAA Protests in India, BLM in America and other environmental, anti-globalization and LGBTQ global movements.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A cursory Google search on the term ‘Social Movements’ suggests -</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">“A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out, resist or undo a social change. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations or both.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The broad objectives of this session are -</p>
<ol>
<li>To reimagine the idea of social movements, not just as flash points but consistent, collective, coordinated efforts for effective social transformation over time and,</li>
<li>To broaden its ambit by reimagining spaces for protests, borrowing from “Yunus Berndt’s people-less protests”.</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If geographically distributed work environments are now possible (courtesy of COVID), why not virtually launched DAO based social movements? We are living in unprecedented times. Today, the internet is not just facilitating social movements from home but also allowing many possibilities for more inclusive and democratic participation of communities, collaborative mobilizing and transparent funding mechanisms. The internet has made it possible for all of us to become citizen-activists and imagine create better future(s).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The metaverse is a 3D immersive participatory internet experience that makes use of AR and VR technologies. Combined with the blockchain and DAOs, this trifecta could potentially show the way for everlasting high-impact citizen-led social movements. The advantages of meta-activism include:</p>
<ol>
<li>Transparency - traceable trail of docs</li>
<li>Greater Reach - beyond borders - greater collabs</li>
<li>Efficient - low mobilization cost</li>
<li>Harder to Censor by Govts - cannot delete info on the blockchain</li>
<li>Liberating - use of avatars and pseudonymized identities (free from pre-existing structural inequalities and traditional markers individual, offering a clean slate)</li>
<li>An opportunity to Build New Decentralized Worlds with different (direct) governance structures - shifting human behaviour towards better outcomes</li>
<li>No Hierarchy - shared responsibilities, leaderless movements - reimaging leadership</li>
<li>Egalitarian Decision Making - Decision making occurs when conversations turn into proposals that are voted upon by members of the collective. No action is taken without recorded collective consent.</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> However, new technology by itself cannot fix all societal problems. We will need to put in place consensual principles that enable us to do so. It is precisely this area that excites both of us. How do we create meaningful digital publics? How do we ensure greater inclusion, participation and voice in such digital political spaces? Thus, in the session, we will elucidate on the ways in which citizen-activists can launch and lead sustained future movements on the metaverse:</p>
<ol>
<li>Hacks</li>
<li>Mass Migration from the State’s Central Registries</li>
<li>Social movements as Repositories of Truth - Ex: Farmer NFT & Museum</li>
<li>DAOs to Redeploy Cooperative Wealth</li>
<li>Peace Initiatives that Obliterate Borders - Ex: Aghaz-e-Dosti</li>
<li>Funding Mechanisms for Transparency - Ex: CryptoRelief</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> Regarding session format, we’d like to present the key points from our joint paper followed by a panel discussion with the members of prominent social movements cited above, ending with a Q&A with the audience. Additionally, our paper will exist in the metaverse for people to come and read and engage with us further. We are in touch with the organizers of the Farmer’s Protests and founding members of Aghaz-e-Dosti. We will be contacting members from other social movements as well if our proposal is selected.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-metaverseinquilab'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-metaverseinquilab</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-03-18T13:01:11ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #LockdownsAndShutdowns
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 -</strong> # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type:</strong> Workshop or Collaborative Working Session<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Internet shutdowns are a form of censorship which can have substantial economic and human rights implications. Despite the potential negative consequences, shutdowns are still used across the globe, and many social perspectives on shutdowns remain under-researched and poorly understood. For example, the relationship between internet shutdowns and one’s sense of safety and freedom at home. This connection is pertinent given the COVID19 pandemic and government recommendations to work from home, which emphasised the importance of the internet and the ability to connect with others freely. By connecting with others online, we create a sense of digital community. While many are spending more time at home, shutdowns continued despite the increasing need for online communication. This session aims to understand community perspectives surrounding shutdowns and other forms of censorship, specifically focusing on one’s “home”. Shutdowns are a common tool to curb forms of collective action (such as protests), and some public spaces have had reduced availability due to COVID19. Therefore, the importance of the internet in enabling social movements, like protests, cannot be understated. Thus, this session will touch upon many essential topics and encourage others to think about shutdowns and the increased importance of the internet in allowing social movements from within one’s home.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The session will last a total of 60 minutes. The first 5 minutes will provide an overview of the session’s structure and why this topic is important. We will then move into a semi-structured format consisting of 3 x 15-minute mini-sessions, with each mini-session touching upon a different question. Example questions may cover topics such as the unique role of the internet in enabling online social movements in times of a lockdown or if shutdowns during lockdowns merit a different moral threshold. The prompt questions will encourage interdisciplinary discussion so that participants from diverse backgrounds can make meaningful contributions. We envisage that this session will be organic and open in a large roundtable format. The last 10 minutes of the session will consist of an open-style discussion so that any remaining thoughts, opinions, and reflections from participants may be shared.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Session Team </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Michael Collyer</strong> is an OTF Senior Fellow in Information Controls and a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Oxford. His research interests are information controls, Bayesian statistics, machine learning, and natural language processing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Joss Wright </strong>is the Co-Director of the Oxford EPSRC Cybersecurity Doctoral Training Centre; Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade; and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. His work focuses on computational approaches to social science questions, with a particular focus on technologies that exert, resist, or subvert control over information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Andreas Tsamados i</strong>s a doctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute focusing on human control over AI/ML applications within national security and defence. He is also developing the Algorithmic Resistance Cookbook, a guide to using data-driven tools and techniques to practice resistance against intrusive and repressive aspects of present-day algorithmic culture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Marianne Díaz Hernández </strong>is a #KeepItOn Fellow at Access Now. Marianne is a Venezuelan lawyer, digital rights activist, and fiction writer, currently based in Santiago, Chile. Her work focuses mainly on issues regarding online freedom of speech, privacy, web filtering, internet infrastructure and digital security. She founded the digital rights NGO Acceso Libre, a volunteer-based organization that documents threats to human rights in the online environment in Venezuela. Before joining Access Now, Marianne worked as a public policy analyst for the Latin American NGO Derechos Digitales. She’s volunteered for Global Voices, particularly for the Advox project, since 2010. She has also published several fiction books, and co-founded the small press Casajena Editoras. In 2019, she was recognized with the “Human Rights Hero” award, granted by Access Now, for her “research and leading advocacy efforts against invasive measures taken by the Maduro government in Venezuela. She’s currently working towards a Master’s Degree in Narrative Writing at Alberto Hurtado University.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Nathan Dobson </strong>is a Postdoc at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford. He has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine. His current research is on internet shutdowns in relation to elections and violence in Africa. He has a background in African Studies and has worked at the University of Florida, USA, and the University of Birmingham, UK. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T15:05:42ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - # ActFromHome
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-actfromhome
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type:</strong> Workshop or Collaborative Working Session<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objectives of the Session</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, nations across the world instituted a range of public health measures that limited mobility in many areas, while confining families to homes for indefinite periods of time. Poverty, unemployment and other forms of inequality rose - both within and outside the home. Further, angst against various issues rose- worsening climate injustices, racial violence, gender discrimination, arbitrary layoffs across workplaces, and silencing of minority voices. In a pre-pandemic era, such issues would have elicited physical protest movements by the groups concerned, but with limited mobility - the digital space has become an arena for home-based protests and movements.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This workshop seeks to answer a fundamental question: “Can democracies under crisis survive the home based protests across digital platforms?” It will highlight the role of emerging technologies in shaping the role of home-based digital protests across nations and cultures, with a specific focus on perspectives from Israel and India. Further, it will analyse the immense opportunities and pitfalls of driving home-based social movements on digital platforms. Moreover, the workshop will investigate the ambiguous positioning of online government surveillance and content moderation on collective human rights, with a specific focus on human rights within the home. In addition, it will examine the impact of digital home-based protests upon the aptness and scope of modern democratic regimes.</p>
<p><strong>Course of the Session and Work Division</strong></p>
<ol><li>Overview on the role of digital spaces and emerging technologies in promoting the role of the home as a space for protest</li><li>Thought exercise involving participants in analysing the merits and demerits of digitising home-based social movements.</li><li>Discussion on government surveillance and content moderation </li><li>Discussion on the impact of digital home-based protests </li><li>Group work involving participants in designing a digital social movement for a given cause (from a range of causes including climate action, gender equality, vaccine nationalism etc.) </li></ol>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>Session Team </strong></div>
<div><strong>Maya Sherman</strong> is an Israeli Weidenfeld-Hoffmann leadership Scholar and MSc student of Social Sciences of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute, exploring the aptness of digital surveillance policies in democratic regimes. At Oxford, she was selected to represent the university in the Europaeum Policy Seminar, discussing data governance and stargu in the EU, as well as serving as one of 100 promising young leaders in the Global Leadership Challenge 2021. Maya is currently leading several research and policy projects and teams of AI for Good, cooperating with big tech companies as Dell and Microsoft in the UK.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>Rai Sengupta</strong> is currently pursuing an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at the University of Oxford. She is the recipient of the prestigious Weidenfeld Hoffmann Scholarship, a</div>
<div>prestigious full scholarship to Oxford which is granted to 35 scholars globally, in a bid to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow. While at Oxford, Rai is working as a consultant with the Asian Development Bank, helping to</div>
<div>integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations across the national statistical infrastructure of 5 Asian nations.</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-actfromhome'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-actfromhome</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T12:46:10ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #SocialMediaActivism
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 </strong>- # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Individual Presentation/Demonstration of Research Outputs and Methods</p>
<p><br /><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-de385f6c-7fff-07a0-15d4-2ae85ecdbd7c"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The said session is based upon the author’s original study on social media as a means of protest in the new digital age. Based on the study “Social Media and Protest: A Case Study on Anti CAA Protest in India” and updating it to “Social Media and Protest: A Case Study of Protest in India during COVID-19” through this session the aim is to bring in light the new ways how dissent or movements of resistance are being navigated. “Home” as being the theme of the conference becomes central point of view in this study and to understand how resistance movement can be participated from home and the impact it makes. This study can be beneficial to understand the socio-political movements in India and usage of digital technologies in mass participation in these movements – these range from amplification of resources, organizing gatherings etc. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The theme social media and modern activism has recently taken the limelight in study of liberal arts. Researchers and universities are now taking social media as a tool to understand modern activism. The proposed study was originally presented in the International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences, Oxford, United Kingdom. The session aims to discuss the findings of the said paper vis-à-vis Anti CAA protest in India as the case study. However, in regards to new developments around global and national politics, the author would also like to bring in perspective new case studies. And highlight the role of social media for dissent in India since 2019, followed in the Farmer’s Protest and much more. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Social Media and Protest: A Case Study of Protest in India during COVID-19 </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The study aims to understand the role of social media in the current chain of events of various activist protests that have happened in the 21st Century or are going around the world. It specifically focuses on the role of social media in mitigating the protest in India. Role of social media thus was recognized as one of the major influences in organizing and facilitating these protests across the country. A special emphasis has been levied upon how the role of social media and how it was changed during the COVID-19 timeline. Understanding how physical interaction was limited how did people still participate in the resistance movement and helped in amplifying the cause. For instance, the Farmers Protest of 2020 is an example of Pandemic, resistance and social media – using this as an example an attempt is being made to understand how the pandemic has severely use of social media among young audience. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In this study we unfold the active role of Social Media Apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram into creating awareness about the issue, advocating for one’s rights and organizing protests. Thus, looking at a new narrative of activism through online means or to say emergence of “Online Activism" and shift in resistance movements to digital spaces. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Keywords</strong>: social media, Activist Protest, COVID-19, Farmers Protest 2020, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Resistance, Digital Spaces, Online Activism </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Presenter </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ms. Anushka Bhilwar </strong>(pronouns: they/she) are a student of MPP (Masters in Public Policy) at the University of Stirling, Scotland and an alumnus of Ambedkar University, New Delhi. Their research expands to AI and tech-policies to contemporary political thought and conflict studies. Currently, she works as a freelance writer and storyteller for Glasgow Women’s Library, Glasgow, United Kingdom and a contributing writer at People’s History of South Asia. In their previous endeavours they have worked within the capacity of a Research Associate and Technical Writer with United Nations Development Programme, New Delhi and Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T13:01:47ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #“Going Home”: Constructions of a Digital-Urban Platform Interface in Delhi-NCR
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022</strong> - # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type:</strong> Individual Paper Presentation<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">My ongoing fieldwork with taxi drivers in Delhi-NCR suggests that the “go-home” feature and its equivalent in platform apps such as Uber and Ola have generated a lot of interest. This feature matches drivers with rides to their preferred destinations – usually allowing drivers to choose one or two destinations of their choice in a working day (Uber India Help nd). In an environment of algorithmic governance where drivers feel a considerable loss of control and autonomy, this feature offers a semblance of control over their conditions of survival and mobility. Departing from the enthusiasm generated among platform taxi drivers, this paper explores what “home” signifies for platform cultures with specific attention to the social and material infrastructures that enable and contest “going home.” The “home,” as in other instances, conveys familiarity, comfort and (intimate) knowledges. How and why (if so) do platforms as an urban-digital-labour-capital interface rely on or negate these constructions? Does this arrangement offer an incremental step of negotiating interlocking conflicts and if so, how? In summary, this paper provisionally suggests that “home,” as a feature and as an idea, may have been introduced by platform companies but its possibilities are not circumscribed by their designs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Cited</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Uber India (nd): “Set a Driver Destination,” Uber India Help, viewed on 9 March 2022, <a href="https://help.uber.com/driving-and-delivering/article/set-a-driver-destination?nodeId=f3df375b-5bd4-4460-a5e9-afd84ba439b9">https://help.uber.com/driving-and-delivering/article/set-a-driver-destination?nodeId=f3df375b-5bd4-4460-a5e9-afd84ba439b9</a> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Presenter </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Anurag Mazumdar</strong> is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Geography & GIS, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. </p>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T13:04:02ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #TransActandWhatFollowed - Access to care for transgender persons during the COVID-19 pandemic
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 -</strong> #<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Individual Presentation</p>
<p><br /><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This session will be an individual presentation by Brindaalakshmi.K. Transgender persons were among the most severely affected during COVID-19 pandemic. The government of India made no special efforts to address the concerns of the transgender community during the lockdowns. Further hampering the access to their rights, the Government of India issued the rules for the new law, Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 while the world was under a global lockdown. Transgender persons have had to go back to living in severely transphobic and abusive environments with their natal families. Access to healthcare and COVID-19 vaccination has also been a challenge for many transgender persons due to the lack of valid identification documents. Digitisation of the process to change the name and gender on identification documents has made the situation worse for a historically silenced population group. The digital process has widened the gap in accessing healthcare and other support systems during the pandemic. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Under the theme of violence and care, this paper will explore the systemic violence faced by the transgender community during the COVID-19 pandemic and their struggles and challenges in accessing healthcare and other relief. The intent is to explore the role of technology in both enabling better access and also widening the access gap for transgender persons and also the data gap further perpetuating the erasure of transgender persons. The widening access gap will be understood by focusing on the digital process to change ID documents while the positive aspects of the use of technology will be explored by looking at some of the community driven online campaigns to raise funds and other support for transgender persons during the lockdowns. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This session will be based on the initial findings from the qualitative research study, Gendering of Development Data in India: Post-Trans Act 2019 by Brindaalakshmi.K for the Centre for Internet & Society as part of the Our Voices, Our Future project supported by Association for Progressive Communications. For the purpose of this study, qualitative interviews were conducted with NGOs, activists and lawyers to cover the rights related challenges faced by transgender persons. Apart from gender, different intersections of their identity such as caste, religion, urban/rural and disability were also covered in these interviews. Some of the findings will be shared during this presentation. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Presenter </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Brindaalakshmi. K</strong> is Co-Lead, Queer & Digital at Point of View. They are authoring the study, Gendering of Development Data in India: Post-Trans Act 2019 for the Centre for Internet & Society, India as part of the Our Voices Our Future project supported by Association for Progressive Communications. They previously authored the study, Gendering of Development Data in India: Beyond the Binary for the Centre for Internet & Society, India as part of the Big Data for Development Network (2020). They are a queer rights activist and peer supporter working with the LGBTIQA+ community in India. </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T15:12:46ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #CovidConfessions: An internet art project
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covidconfessions
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022</strong> - #<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Session Type:</strong> Online Interactive Exhibit/Individual Presentation/<span style="text-align: justify;">Demonstration of research outputs and methods</span></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<div> </div>
<div>Featuring anonymous stories of resilience, wisdom, and joy, in Kannada, Hindi, & English</div>
<div> </div>
<ol>
<li dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Background: </strong>Over the past 2 years, digital infrastructures have played an intensified role in the meaning making of the home. As the internet offers up access to work, play, and social contact it also mediates our relationships with our own identities, our successes, and failures. In the anonymity of the online community (for those who are privileged enough to have access to the internet and personal hardware like a smartphone or laptop), physical markers of belonging, material signifiers of social status can become irrelevant. For many who don’t have stable home environments, online communities can become a home that their own physical dwellings cannot.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Questions: </strong>How can anonymity construct a stable and safe space? How can sharing anonymously via digital technologies help overcome mental health stresses caused by prolonged isolation? Can one find refuge and comfort in the stories and experiences of others? How can online safe spaces be curated as a tool for healing?</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">#<strong>CovidConfessions: </strong>This session is an internet art experiment. The goal is to create an archive of anonymous covid confessions to share in the form of illustrations, voice overs, and animation, with the world. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JzIidOwfMdz_vJCjUfnfCjEYNIogLjw2/view?usp=sharing">Here is a reference to the art style</a>. This is a long-form story, but I’m looking to create long-form, as well as single-slide bitesized multi-media pieces for social media. I know that there are similar confession style online spaces like <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-confessions-share-your-anonymous-stories-time-covid-19-n1166556">this one</a> but I’m looking to take these words one step further and create art that can be a healing.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Accessibility:</strong> In order to be accessible to non-English speakers, I’d like to gather and include stories in Hindi and Kannada: #कोविडकहानी #CovidKahani #ಕನ್ನಡಕಥೆ #CovidKatha</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Gathering Stories</strong>: Stories will be collected through digital platforms like LinkedIn/Twitter/Instagram and personal networks like WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram, via <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y3Lo_zd-PlddKfbbemKPHCrSKzblUDSOpFXmjclGjBE/edit">a google sheet like this one</a>. I will need this translated into Hindi and Kannada. I will reach Kannada speakers through Telegram and WhatsApp, English speakers through instagram, and Hindi speakers through Instagram and WhatsApp. Would love inputs on how to do this better.</p>
</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Marginalised Voices: The internet is inherently a privileged space, and given that online confessions are given anonymously and without physical intervention, I don't see how I can reach out to non-internet users for stories at this point without compromising their anonymity <span style="text-align: justify;">— including them is out of the scope of this project. I acknowledge that it's very difficult to centre marginalised voices in this project <span style="text-align: justify;">— would love inputs on how to tackle that.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Type</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">An asynchronous online interactive exhibit, running from April 27 to May 27. <br />The internet is asynchronous, so we should make space for exhibit style projects which are not tied down to particular live “session.” This is an ongoing project that everyone can participate in. This project will be hosted on a microsite, linked to the IRC website, and shared on the instagram handle: @covid.confessions.project.<br />However, if I were hard pressed to choose one of the four formats, I would pick format 3 “Demonstration of research outputs and methods.” I can speak about what has been successful and what hasn’t worked with the project, what the reach and impact has been, and whether it answered any of the questions I began with.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Presenter</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Indumathi Manohar </strong> came to a career in design via theatre, dance, and scuba diving. Currently Communications Designer at CIS, she works on making research publications, annual reports, podcasts, events, and op-eds, more accessible to a larger audience through visual design— whether it be through layout design, infographics, social media creatives or web banners. You can find her work here.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covidconfessions'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covidconfessions</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T13:16:53ZBlog EntryThe Internet in the Indian Judicial Imagination
https://cis-india.org/raw/blog_the-internet-in-the-indian-judicial-imagination
<b>This post by Divij Joshi is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. Divij is a final year student at the National Law
School of India University, Bangalore and is a keen observer and researcher on issues of law, policy and technology. In this essay, he traces the history of the Internet in India through the lens of judicial trends, and looks at how the judiciary has defined its own role in relation to the Internet.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>On the 14th of August, 1995, the eve of the 48th anniversary of Indian Independence, India began a new, and wholly unanticipated tryst with destiny - Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) launched India's first full Internet service for public access [1]. In 1998, just a few years after VSNL introduced dial-up Internet, around 0.5% of India’s population had regular Internet access. By 2013, the latest estimate, 15% of the country was connected to the Internet, and the number is growing exponentially [2]. As the influence of the Internet grew, the law and the courts began to take notice. In 1998, there were four mentions of the Internet in the higher judiciary (the High Courts in States and the Supreme Court of India), by 2015, it was referred to in hundreds of judgements and orders of the higher judiciary [3].</p>
<p>The revolutionary capacity of the Internet cannot be understated. It has played a critical part in displacing, creating and enhancing social structures and institutions – from the market, to ideas of community – and its potential still remains unexplored. The Internet has also unsettled legal systems around the world, because of its massive potential to create very new forms of social and legal relationships and paradigms which extant law was unequipped for. The dynamism of the Internet means that legislation and statutory law, being static and rigid, is inherently ill suited for the governance of the Internet, and much of this role is ultimately ceded to the judiciary. In a widely unregulated policy background, the role played by this institution in identifying and dealing with the peculiar nature of regulatory issues on the Internet – such as the central role of intermediaries, the challenges of intellectual property rights concerns, the conflicts of law between different jurisdictions, and the courts’ own role in being a regulator – is tremendously important. In this article, an attempt is made to weave a thread through judicial decisions as well as judicial <em>obiter</em> (or peripheral text) regarding the Internet, to explain how the judiciary has captured and defined the Internet and its capacities, potentials and actors, and what effects this has on the Internet and on society. Inter alia, this article examines how judicial disputes have shaped internet policy in India.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>The Internet and the Role of the Courts</h2>
<p>The relationship between the law and technology is reminiscent of the famous paradox posed by the greek philosopher Zeno – Achilles and a tortoise agree to race. The tortoise has a head start, and, by the logic of the paradox, Achilles is never able to catch up to him. Every time Achilles covers the distance between himself and the tortoise at any point, the tortoise has moved ahead some distance, which need to be covered once again. As Achilles covers that distance, the tortoise has once again moved a distance away, and so on, to infinite progression, proving that Achilles can never catch up to the tortoise [4].</p>
<p>The legal regulation of the Internet follows a similar path. The Internet was not an immediate concern for law and policy, which meant that its evolution was largely determined in a space free from centralized governmental regulation. By the time parliaments and courts began to understand the implications of Internet regulation, it was apparent that such regulation would be constrained by the very features of the Internet. The core feature of the Internet is decentralization of control, which is necessarily antithetical to creating a centralized legal regulation with. Moreover, the constant mutation in the function and use of the technology renders statutory law incredibly ineffective in being an adequate regulator. Even where legislatures determined a need to step in and draw special regulations for the Internet, they need to be either so broad or vague that they cede much of the regulatory space to interpreters – the courts – or be so specific that much of the regulation quickly becomes obsolete. Most importantly, the final authority to determine matters of constitutional import such as the content and scope of fundamental rights rests with the higher judiciary. In this scenario, the courts become the <em>de facto</em> policy makers for regulating technology. In light of our current political and social context, where the level of legislative debate on issues of public importance and constitutional import is negligible, the judiciary’s analysis of Internet regulation becomes even more important [5].</p>
<p>The judiciary is thus in a unique position to decide Internet policy and governance. The preliminary question is whether there is even a need to talk about the Internet as a special system with distinct policy concerns. The regulation of the Internet is certainly fundamental to the development of knowledge and education in societies, but do its unique features merit a departure from traditional law? The second and connected question is whether the law can actually play a role in determining how the Internet is shaped, i.e. how does technology respond to the law? The architecture of the system that defines the functionality of the Internet – like the TCP/IP protocol – has embodied certain values such as decentralization, autonomy, openness and privacy [6], which have to a large extent underlined the social and ethical implications of the Internet – the way it is used, the way it functions and the way it grows. These were the values explicitly introduced into the systems we use today to communicate and interact on the Internet [7]. However, there is no <em>a priori</em>, fixed nature of the Internet. The form the technologies that make up the Internet take, depend upon its architecture and its design, which are malleable, and to which laws contribute by incentivizing certain values and encumbering others. The legal regulation of the Internet, therefore critically affects the architecture of the system, and promotes and secures certain values.</p>
<p>Recognizing the effect of law upon the architecture of the Internet is critical to any balancing exercise that the judiciary has to conduct when it decides disputes about the Internet. The Internet is a unique public resource, in that its participants are (mostly) private actors pursuing a vareity of goals and interests. The values outlined above emerged in this context, where control was decetnralized and regulation depended to a large extent upon how these disparate parties act. However, the same values also disturb existing structures to control information for legitimate causes - such as protecting intellectual property rights or preventing hate speech. Adjudicating these values, often in the absence of any explicit social or political moral framework (with respect to lack of legislative or constitutional guidance on these values), the judicial responses end up as policy directions that shape the Internet. Seen outside a broader, progressive social context, which takes into account the impact of shaping technologies to reflect values, interests on the Internet are generally adjudicated and enforced as proprietary rights between private actors, which ultimately results in changing the dynamics and relative distribution of control over the technologies that make up the Internet. This proprietory conception of interests on the Internet is highly insular, and tends to undermine the intersts of the public as a stakeholder in the regulation of the Internet. This can play out in many ways – from regulation being overwhelmingly determined according to private interests like restricting new technologies in order to protect intellectual property; or with private actors imputed as the focal point of regulation, and therefore given massive control over the Internet. However, the courts can take a different approach to regulating the Internet. The judiciary, especially the Indian Supreme Court, has a generally activist trend, especially in environmental matters [8]. One of the most elegant principles invoked by the courts for the protection of the common environment, has been the public trust doctrine, which postulates that certain (environmental) resources exist for the public benefit and can only be eroded upon to ensure that they develop in the most beneficial way for the common resources [9]. A commons approach to the Internet would require a comprehensive evaluation of the roles played by different actors across different layers of the Internet and how to regulate them [10], but would be principally similar, in that rules of private property would be constrained by potential spillover effects on intellectual information resources.</p>
<p>As a prelude to examining the judicial analysis of the Internet, it is interesting to examine the judiciary’s own perception of its role in Internet regulation. Courts are constrained in their exercise of power by rules of jurisdiction, which become incredibly convoluted on the Internet. A broad assertion of state power over the net can potentially fragment it, which is an obvious problem. At the same time, state sovereignty and protection of the interests of its citizens and laws has to be balanced with the above concerns [11]. The judiciary in India first attempted to grapple with the problem by exercising ‘universal jurisdiction’ over all actions on the Internet, which allowed the Court to claim jurisdiction over a defendant as long as the website or service could be accessed from within its jurisdiction [12]. This broad-reaching standard was antithetical to the development of a harmonized, unfragmented Internet and created problems of jurisdictional and sovereign conflict. As the implications of such a direction became clear, the court evolved different standards for jurisdiction which were based on whether the Internet service had some connection with the territorial jurisdiction of the court in question. The judiciary began to develop caution in its approach towards exercising personal jurisdiction in Internet cases, first applying the ‘interactivity test’ and then the ‘specific targeting’ standards for questions of jurisdiction [13]. However, the judiciary continues to adhere to a ‘long-arm’ standard for copyright and trademark violations, which allows it to extend its jurisdiction extra-territorially under those laws, through rather specious analogies with pre-internet technologies. For example, in <em>WWE v Reshma</em> [14], the Court explicitly analogized sale of services or goods on the Internet with contracts concluded over the telephone. Although analogies provide a comfortable framework for analysis, they also shield important distinctions between technologies from legal analysis. Problems arising from Internet cases – where many actors across many jurisdictions are involved in varying degrees – are unique to Internet technologies and such analogies ignore these important distinctions. Morever, in all the above cases, the judiciary’s assertions of power over the Internet seems to be restricted only by pragmatic regulatory concerns (such as whether personal obedience of the defendant can be secured) and its evolving understanding of questions of jurisdiction are explicitly linked to changes in the use and perception of the Internet and an understanding of interactivity and communication on the Internet.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>The Early Internet and Judicial Perceptions</h2>
<p>The Internet crept into the judicial vocabulary in 1996; a year after public access was made available, when the Supreme Court first took cognizance of ‘Internet’ as a means of interlinking countries and gathering information instantaneously [15]. Several other cases in the High Courts also spoke of the ‘Information Highway’ [16] and the various services that companies were offering, which could be availed by individuals on the Internet [17]. This corresponded with the popular understanding of the ‘first wave’ of the Internet, mostly relating to business providing services and information to users on the World Wide Web or as a space for limited personal interaction (such as through email) [18].</p>
<p>Some of the earliest cases where the Courts had the opportunity to examine the nature of the Internet were related to Intellectual Property on the Internet, specifically trademark and copyright in the online world. The Domain Name System, which serve to identify devices accessible on the Internet, was one of the first regulatory challenges on the Internet. Domain name disputes were unprecedented in the analog world of intellectual property, since domain names were uniquely scarce goods due to the limitations of the DNS technology. In India, the Delhi High Court in the case of <em>Yahoo v Akash Arora</em> first took cognizance of regulatory challenges of the DNS system on the Internet, a space which it conceptualized as a large public network of computers, and held that domain names serve the same functions on the Internet as trademarks. This case saw the recognition of the Internet as a separate, regulable space, which the Court defined as <em>“a global collection of computer networks linking millions of public and private computers around the world.”</em> The Court recognized some of the core, democratic features of the Internet: <em>“The Internet is now recognized as an international system, a communication medium that allows anyone from any part of the lobe with access to the Internet to freely exchange information and share data.”</em> In this case, the Court upheld traditional trademark rights in the case of use of domain names. The Court’s first recognition of trademark on the Internet heralded the imputation of proprietary interests on the decentralized, shared network that was the Internet, and was a precursor to the many such cases, which mostly focused on private commercial concerns. Even as the Court understood the importance of the Internet commons, i.e. the information and architecture that makes up the Internet, it chose to ignore concerns of public interest in the openness of those commons, in its balancing of proprietary rights for trademark cases. The commercial significance of the Internet was echoed in the <em>Rediff</em> case, where the Bombay High Court opined that <em>“Undoubtedly the Internet is one of the important features of the Information Revolution. It is increasingly used by commercial organisations to promote themselves and their product and in some cases to buy and sell”</em> [19]. Moreover, in these early cases, the law of the analog age was applied wholesale to the Internet, without examining in-depth the possible differences in principle and approach, providing no precedent for the development of an ‘internet law’ [20]. Overly focussed on the proprietary nature of Internet interests, the conception of the Internet as a non-commercial space for collaboration at a decentralized or an individual level is absent from the judicial vocabulary at this stage.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Private Actors and Public Interest</h2>
<p>The Internet permits decentralization in the hands of several private actors, which makes control of information over it so difficult. However, the information and technology that makes up the Internet are also highly centralized at certain nodal points, such as the services which provide the physical infrastructure of the Internet (like ISPs) or intermediaries which create platforms for distribution of information. Since the Internet has no centralized architecture to enable governmental control, these private intermediaries fall squarely in the crosshairs of regulatory concerns, specifically concerning their liability as facilitators of offensive or illegal content and actions. Facebook, Ebay, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube and Google are examples of private actors that have emerged as dominant service providers that host, index or otherwise facilitate access to user-generated content. Other forms of intermediaries, such as software like Napster or torrent databases like The Pirate Bay, are responsible for driving the growth of Internet-based technologies, like new modes of information sharing and communication. These services have emerged as the most important platform for sharing of information and free speech on the Internet. Most of the interaction and communication on the Internet takes place through these intermediaries and therefore they are in a position to control much of the speech that takes place online. The implications of regulating such actors are quite enormous, and its context is unique to the Internet. These private actors now control the bulk of the information that is shared online, and many of them have almost monopolistic control over certain unique forms of information sharing – think Google in the case of search engines. Developing an adequate regulatory mechanism for them is therefore critical to the future of the net. If the laws do not adequately protect their ability to host content without being liable for the same, it is likely that these actors will lean towards collateral censorship of speech beyond that which is prohibited by law, simply to protect against liability. Secondly, such liability would tend to disincentivise the creation of new platforms and services that increase access to knowledge, which have been integral to innovation on the Internet [21]. The issue of intermediary liability at this scale is unique to the Internet. The court has to adequately frame policy considerations which strike at the fundamental nature of the Internet, such as intellectual property and access to information. At the same time, concerns about legal accountability need to also be addressed. The approach that courts have taken towards the role of intermediaries is therefore critical towards any examination of Internet regulation [22].</p>
<p>In India, the first court to explicitly examine the public importance in issues of online intermediary liability was in the context of regulation of pornography, specifically child pornography, which has been a mainstay of regulatory concerns on the Internet. The case prompted legislative action in the form of creating rules to secure intermediary immunity. In this case the Court imputed liability for the listings of certain offensive content upon the owners of the website, Bazzee.com. Hard cases make bad law, and the same was true of this case. Referring to the challenges of regulating content on the Internet, due to the <em>inability</em> of methods to screen and filter such content, the Court held that intermediaries must be strictly liable for all offensive content on their site. The Court held that:</p>
<blockquote>The proliferation of the internet and the possibility of a widespread use through instant transmission of pornographic material, calls for a strict standard having to be insisted upon. Owners or operators of websites that offer space for listings might have to employ content filters if they want to prove that they did not knowingly permit the use of their website for sale of pornographic material…even if for some reason the filters fail, the presumption that the owner of the website had the knowledge that the product being offered for sale was obscene would get attracted.</blockquote>
<p>Intermediaries, therefore, were imputed with the liability of controlling ‘obscene’ speech – a vague and over-broad standard which did not account for the realities of online speech [23]. The above analysis reflects the judiciary’s refusal to take into account the technical concerns on the Internet which ultimately shape its architecture – and the limitations of the judiciary in reflecting upon their own role in policy making on the internet. Ultimately, the decision was overturned by a legislative act, which invoked different standards of liability for intermediaries.</p>
<p>In <em>Consim Info Pvt. Ltd vs Google India Pvt. Ltd</em> [24], the Madras High Court considered “Keyword Advertising” and the liability of search engines and competitors for ‘meta-tags’ that resulted in search engine results which may divert a trademark holder’s traffic. Google’s AdWord programme, which allows purchase of certain ‘keywords’ for the search engine results, and can potentially enable certain forms of trademark infringement, was at issue [25]. Trademarks as AdWords or search terms fulfil and important social utility of information access [26]. However, the Court’s reasoning was conspicuously missing an analysis of the public interest in protecting and promoting search engines, which were important concerns taken into account when these issues were deliberated in other forums [27]. The Court saw this dispute only taking into account private property interests and not public interest considerations, such as the general public benefit of technology which enables new forms of searching and indexing. In fact, an argument by the defendant based on the fundamental right to free (commercial) speech was raised and ignored by the court. The Court therefore ignored the public importance of search engines in favour of protecting proprietary interests which arose in a different context.</p>
<p>Copyright law also has tremendous implications on the Internet. As the Internet became the primary mode for the distribution of different kinds of information and creative content, the very ease of sharing that contributed to its popularity made it prone to violations of copyright, and this created a conflict between the interests of traditional rights holders and the development of the Internet as a means of better sharing of information and knowledge. The problem of holding intermediaries liable for conduct has been compounded in cases where the Court ordered ex-parte ‘John Doe’ orders against unknown defendants likely to be infringing copyright, and imputed the liability for removal of such content on the intermediaries or ISP’s, effectively issuing wide blocking orders without considering their implications or even providing a fair hearing [28]. In <em>RK Productions</em> [29], for instance, when holding that ISPs could be liable for failure to follow blocking orders against infringing content, the Madras High Court described the role of ISPs, such as Airtel and VSNL, as <em>“vessels for others to use their services to infringe third party works.”</em> Once again, the court took a particularly pessimistic view of the Internet’s capabilities, limiting its analysis to the ISP’s function in facilitating infringement and holding that <em>“Without the ISPs, no person would be in a position to access the pirated contents nor would the unknown persons be in a position to upload the pirated version of the film.”</em> In <em>Myspace</em>, the Delhi High Court held that no different standard for secondary infringement (by intermediaries) applied on the Internet, and imputed the same standard as in the 1957 Copyright Act. (In fact, it explicitly compared Myspace to brick and mortar shops selling infringing DVD’s or CD’s) [30]. The Court held that the principles of immunity under the IT Act were overridden by the provisions of the Copyright Act, and then went on to impute a strict standard for intermediaries seeking safe harbor for infringing material, including, inexplicably, that provision of some means to tackle infringement would be sufficient proof of knowledge of actual infringement, and therefore implicating mere passive platforms as infringers. Further, the Court expressly rejected a post-hoc solution for the same, and held that the intermediaries must ensure prior restraint of infringing works to escape liability. The claims that arise in cases of infringement of intellectual property on the Internet, specifically in the liability of intermediaries, are unique, and have unique implications. The inability or refusal of the judiciary to identify claims of freedom of speech and freedom of information of the larger public within the internet commons, in response to broad censorship orders for preventing infringement means that implicitly, policy takes a direction that favours private interests.</p>
<p>An analysis of the above cases shows that important implications of intermediary liability such as the effect on the public’s access to information and the freedom of speech in the context of the Internet did not play a role in the Courts decisions. In particular, the examination of cases above shows that private disputes are now at the forefront of issues of public importance. The Courts have unfortunately taken an insular view of these disputes, adjudicating them as inter-party, without considering the public function that private players on the Internet provide, and how their decisions should factor in these considerations.</p>
<p>However, the recent case of <em>Shreya Singhal v Union of India</em> [31], decided by the Supreme Court this March, hopefully announces a departure from this insular examination of the Internet towards a constitutional analysis, where framing an appropriate public policy for the Internet is at the forefront of the Court’s analysis.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Shreya Singhal and Constitutionalizing the Internet</h2>
<p>In March, 2015, the Supreme Court of India struck down the notoriously abused Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which criminalized certain classes of speech, and hopefully heralded a new phase of Internet jurisprudence in India, which imports constitutionalism into matters of cyberspace. Section 66A, premised on the pervasiveness of the Internet, criminalized online speech on vague grounds such as ‘grossly offensive’ or ‘menacing’. The Court’s examination of the nature of the Internet is particularly important. While dismissing a challenge that speech on the Internet should not be treated as distinct from other speech, the Supreme Court opined that <em>“the internet gives any individual a platform which requires very little or no payment through which to air his views”</em>, and by this reasoning concluded that to a limited extent, specific offences could be drawn for online speech. However, this understanding of the features of the Internet – the democratization of knowledge sharing by making it cheap and expansive, was implicit throughout the Court’s judgement, which upheld the idea of the Internet as a ‘marketplace of ideas’ and a space for free and democratic exchange, and struck down the impugned restrictive provisions as unconstitutional, in part because of their vagueness and likelihood to censor legitimate speech, bearing no relation to the constitutional restrictions on free speech under Article 19(2). Moreover, the Court understood the importance of collateral censorship and intermediary safe harbor, although only briefly examined, and read down expansive intermediary liability terms under the IT Rules to include prior judicial review of takedown notices [32].</p>
<p>Hopefully, the Shreya Singhal judgement marks the beginning of constitutional engagement of the judiciary with the Internet. At this moment itself, the Supreme Court is grappling with questions of limitations of online pornography [33]; search engine liability for hate speech [34]; intermediary liability for defamation [35]; and liability for mass surveillance. How the Supreme Court takes cognizance of these cases, how they ultimately proceed, and how they take into account the principles sounded by the <em>Shreya Singhal</em> court, will have a tremendous impact on the internet and society in India.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>This article was an attempt to study the Internet in India, and look at the relationship between the judiciary and the Internet. But ‘the Internet’ is not some fixed, immutable space, and any study has to take this into account. The function of the Internet depends upon the values built in to it. These values can be in favor of free speech, or enable censorship. They can protect privacy, or enable mass surveillance. The growth of the Internet as a medium of free speech and expression has been fuelled to a large extent in the spaces free of legal regulation, but the law is perhaps the most important regulator of the Internet, in its ability to use state power to create incentives for certain values, and to change the nature of the Internet. This study, therefore, charted the dynamic relationship between judicial law and other factors responsible for the regulation of the Internet.</p>
<p>For a technology which is so pervasive in our daily lives, and growing in importance day by day, it is surprising that the Supreme Court of India has only recently taken cognizance of constitutional issues on the Internet. While important internet-specific issues have arisen in disputes before the judiciary, judicial examination has generally ignored technical nuances of the new technology, and furthermore ignored the wider implications of framing Internet policy by applying rules that applied in other contexts, such as for copyright or trademark. Without a clear articulation of political and moral bases to guide Internet policy, a clear policy-driven approach to the Internet remains absent, and the regulatory space has been captured by fragmented interest groups without an assessment of larger interests in maintaining the Internet commons, such as allowing peer-based production and sharing of information.</p>
<p>There is, however, reason to be optimistic about the courts and the Internet. The Supreme Courts reaffirmation and identification of the freedom of speech on the Internet in <em>Shreya Singhal</em>, will, hopefully, resonate in the policy decisions of both the courts and legislators, and the internet can be reformulated as a space deserving constitutional scrutiny and protection.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p>[1] VSNL Starts India's First Internet Service Today, The Indian Technomist, (14th August, 1995), available at <a href="http://dxm.org/techonomist/news/vsnlnow.html">http://dxm.org/techonomist/news/vsnlnow.html</a>.</p>
<p>[2] Internet Statistics by Country, International Telecommunication Union, available at <a>http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx</a>.</p>
<p>[3] Source: <a href="http://manupatra.com/">http://manupatra.com/</a>.</p>
<p>[4] Nick Huggett, Zeno's Paradoxes, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), available at <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/paradox-zeno/">http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/paradox-zeno/</a>.</p>
<p>[5] See: <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/a-little-reminder-no-one-in-house-debated-section-66a-congress-brought-it-and-bjp-backed-it/">http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/a-little-reminder-no-one-in-house-debated-section-66a-congress-brought-it-and-bjp-backed-it/</a>; Publicly available records of Lok Sabha debates also show no mention of this controversial law.</p>
<p>[6] I take values to mean certain desirable goals and methods, which could be both intrinsically good to pursue and whose pursuit allows other instrumental goods to be achieved. See Michael J. Zimmerman, Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Value, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), available at <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/">http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/</a>.</p>
<p>[7] Hellen Nissenbaum, How Computer Systems Embody Values, Computer Magazine, 118, (March 2001), available at <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/papers/embodyvalues.pdf">https://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/papers/embodyvalues.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[8] S.P. Sathe, Judicial Activism: The Indian Experience, 6 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, 29, (2001).</p>
<p>[9] M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath and Ors., 2000(5) SCALE 69.</p>
<p>[10] Yochai Benkler, From Consumers to Users: Shifting the Deeper Structures of Regulation Toward Sustainable Commons and User Access, 52(3) Federal Communications Law Journal, 561, (2000).</p>
<p>[11] Thomas Shultz, Carving up the Internet: Jurisdiction, Legal Orders, and the Private/Public International Law Interface, 19(4) European Journal Of International Law, 799, (2008); Wendy A. Adams, Intellectual Property Infringement in Global Networks: The Implications of Protection Ahead of the Curve, 10 Int’l J.L. & Info. Tech, 71, (2002).</p>
<p>[12] Casio India Co. Limited v. Ashita Tele Systems Pvt. Limited, 2003 (27) P.T.C. 265 (Del.) (India).</p>
<p>[13] Banyan Tree Holding (P) Ltd. v. A. Murali Krishna Reddy & Anr., CS(OS) 894/2008.</p>
<p>[14] World Wrestling Entertainment v. Reshma Collection (FAO (OS) 506/2013 (Delhi).</p>
<p>[15] Dr. Ashok v. Union of India and Ors., AIR 1997 SC 2298.</p>
<p>[16] Rajan Johnsonbhai Christy vs State Of Gujarat, (1997) 2 GLR 1077.</p>
<p>[17] Union Of India And Ors. Vs. Motion Picture Association And Ors, 1999 (3) SCR 875; Yahoo!, Inc. vs Akash Arora & Anr., 1999 IIAD Delhi 229 – “The Internet provides information about various corporations, products as also on various subjects like educational, entertainment, commercial, government activities and services.”</p>
<p>[18] Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks.</p>
<p>[19] Rediff Communication Limited vs Cyberbooth & Another, 1999 (4) Bom CR 278.</p>
<p>[20] Even when the Supreme Court finally recognized these concerns a few years later, when the Internet had morphed into a massive commercial platform and an important forum for free speech, in the Satyam Infotech case (2004(3)AWC 2366 SC), it discussed the unique problem of domain name identifiers and scarcity of domain names, yet went on to hold that an even higher standard of passing off for trademarks should apply in domain names, disregarding the prior standard of an ‘honest concurrent user’.</p>
<p>[21] Jack Balkin, The Future of Free Expression in a Digital Age, 36 Pepperdine Law Review, (2008)</p>
<p>[22] Id.</p>
<p>[23] Avnish Bajaj v. State (NCT of Delhi), 3 Comp. L.J. 364 (2005).</p>
<p>[24] 2013 (54) PTC 578 (Mad)</p>
<p>[25] The judgement also reveals the predominance of Google’s search engine service. The Court defines the operation of “search engines” as synonymous with Google’s particular service – including adding elements like the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ option as defining elements of search engines.</p>
<p>[26] David J. Franklyn & David A. Hyman, Trademarks As Search Engine Keywords: Much Ado About Something?, 26(2) Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, 540, (2013).</p>
<p>[27] Id.</p>
<p>[28] Reliance Big Entertainment v. Multivision Network and Ors, Delhi High Court, available at <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/john-doe-order-reliance-entertainment-v-multivision-network-and-ors.-movie-singham">http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/john-doe-order-reliance-entertainment-v-multivision-network-and-ors.-movie-singham</a>; Sagarika Music Pvt. Ltd. v. Dishnet Wireless Ltd., C.S. No. 23/2012, G.A. No. 187/2012 (Calcutta High Court Jan. 27, 2012) (order); See Generally, Ananth Padmanabhan, Give Me My Space and Take Down His, 9 Indian Journal of Law and Technology, (2013).</p>
<p>[29] R.K. Productions v. BSNL Ltd and Ors. O.A.No.230 of 2012, Madras High Court.</p>
<p>[30] Super Cassetes Industries Ltd. v. Myspace Inc. and Anr., 2011 (47) P.T.C. 49 (Del.)</p>
<p>[31] Shreya Singhal and Ors. V Union of India and Ors., W.P.(Crl).No. 167 of 2012, Supreme Court, (2015).</p>
<p>[32] The courts refusal to address important questions of intermediary responsibility has also been criticized, see Jyoti Pandey, The Supreme Court Judgment in Shreya Singhal and What It Does for Intermediary Liability in India?, Centre for Internet and Society, available at <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sc-judgment-in-shreya-singhal-what-it-means-for-intermediary-liability">http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sc-judgment-in-shreya-singhal-what-it-means-for-intermediary-liability</a>.</p>
<p>[33] See: <a href="http://sflc.in/kamlesh-vaswani-v-uoi-w-p-c-no-177-of-2103/">http://sflc.in/kamlesh-vaswani-v-uoi-w-p-c-no-177-of-2103/</a>.</p>
<p>[34] See: <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/search-engine-and-prenatal-sex-determination">http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/search-engine-and-prenatal-sex-determination</a>.</p>
<p>[35] See: <a href="https://indiancaselaws.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/google-india-pvt-ltd-vs-visaka-industries-limited/">https://indiancaselaws.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/google-india-pvt-ltd-vs-visaka-industries-limited/</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<em>The post is published under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International</a> license, and copyright is retained by the author.</em>
<p> </p>
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No publisherDivij JoshiInternet StudiesInternet LawJudiciaryRAW BlogResearchers at Work2015-09-09T05:26:50ZBlog EntryEssays on #List — Selected Abstracts
https://cis-india.org/raw/essays-on-list-selected-abstracts
<b>In response to a recent call for essays that social, economic, cultural, political, infrastructural, or aesthetic dimensions of the #List, we received 11 abstracts. Out of these, we have selected 4 pieces to be published as part of a series titled #List on the r@w blog. Please find below the details of the selected abstracts. The call for essays on #List remains open, and we are accepting and assessing the incoming abstracts on a rolling basis.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>1. <a href="#manisha">Manisha Chachra</a></h4>
<h4>2. <a href="#meghna">Meghna Yadav</a></h4>
<h4>3. <a href="#sarita">Sarita Bose</a></h4>
<h4>4. <a href="#shambhavi">Shambhavi Madan</a></h4>
<hr />
<h3 id="manisha"><strong>Manisha Chachra</strong></h3>
<h4><em>MeToo in Indian journalism: Questioning access to internet among intersectional women and idea of rehabilitative justice in digital spaces</em></h4>
<p>The advent of LoSHA and MeToo era witnessed an intriguing intersection of technology, politics and gender. The list and name-shame culture of social media has not only displayed changing power dynamics in digital space but an increasing movement towards engendering of internet spaces. The social, political and economic matrix defined by power relationships -- a patriarchy reflected in internet spaces, percolating in our interactions confronted a major challenge when women rose up to claim the same space. Internet space cannot be called a virtual reality as it is a sharp mirror into what is going in the power dynamics of society and politics. My paper broadly seeks to examine this engendering of spatial reality of digital space by looking at various conversations that took place on Twitter around MeToo in Indian journalism. MeToo has been widely understood as narration of one’s tale and how that experiential reality is connected with other women. However, a universalisation of such an experience often neglects intersectional reality attached to women’s experiences -- belonging to different caste, class, ethnicity and other
kinds of differences. My paper attempts to question how far MeToo in digital space accommodated the differential aspects of woman as a heterogeneous category. The spatial realities of technological spaces function like a double edged sword-- liberating as well as mobility paralysing. I use the term mobility paralysis to denote a contradiction in digital space-- which might be equally available to all sections of women but not fairly accessible. The accessibility is often a reflection of deep rooted patriarchies and kinship relationships that bind women in same
voiceless zone. MeToo in Indian journalism is a case study of how women of different backgrounds access digital spaces in questioning this mobility paralysis and inch towards a certain kind of emancipatory politics. Examining MeToo from the perspective of a social movement emerging on Twitter and Facebook, I aim to scrutinise scope of rehabilitative justice for the accused. The emergence of lists, and claiming of spaces is attached to the question of justice and being guilty or innocent of allegations. Online spaces in the recent times have also emerged as platforms of e-khaps (online khap panchayats with certain gatekeepers of the movement) where screenshot circulation, photoshop technology could be used to garner a public response against a particular person. It is interesting how after MeToo the question was not whether the person is guilty or accused rather how they should abandon their social media accounts and probably go absent virtually. In such a context, it is crucial to question the relationship between justice, one’s digital identity and who owns this identity. If rehabilitative justice is not an option, and apology-seeking is not available, what are we hoping from MeToo? The aim of any name-shame movement must be to reclaim digital space, narrate experiences and also to leave scope for others to respond, and seek justice. The question of justice is also closely linked with how women from intersectional backgrounds access internet, and emancipate
themselves.</p>
<h3 id="meghna"><strong>Meghna Yadav</strong></h3>
<p>For most people, the Internet is now synonymous with social media. Likewise, consumption of content on the Internet has shifted. We’ve moved from an earlier design of explicitly going to content-specific websites, to now, simply “logging in” and being presented with curated content spanning multiple areas. The infrastructure for consuming this content, however, remains predominantly screen based, implying a space constraint. Websites must, hence, decide what content users are to be presented with and in what order. In other words, social media must
generate itself as a ranked list of content.</p>
<p>In the classical theory of social choice, a set of voters is called to rank a set of alternatives and a social ranking of the alternatives is generated. In this essay, I propose to look at ranking of content as a social choice problem. Ranking rules of different social media platforms can be studied as social welfare functions for how they aggregate the preferences of their voters (i.e. users). Current listings of content could be modelled as the results of previously held rounds of voting. Taking examples, Reddit is built on a structure of outward voting, visceral through ‘upvotes’ and ‘downvotes’, constantly displaying to users the choice they have to alter content ranks on the website. TikTok, on the other hand, relies on taking away most of the voting power of its users.</p>
<p>As the Internet tends towards centralisation, studying how different list ranking rules aggregate our choices and in turn, alter the choices presented to us, becomes important to design a more democratic Internet.</p>
<h3 id="sarita"><strong>Sarita Bose</strong></h3>
<h4><em>Mapping goes local: A study of how Google Maps tracks user’s footprints and creates a ‘For You’ list</em></h4>
<p>The ‘Explore Nearby’ feature in Google Maps has three sections – Explore, Commute and For You. Of this, ‘For You’ section contains ‘Lists based on your local history’ as mentioned by Google itself. The Google Maps auto tracks a user’s movements and creates a digital footprint map and lists up events, programmes, restaurants, shops etc for the user. This research will focus on the ‘For You’ feature of Google Maps and its cultural and social dimensions. The work will focus on how the mapping is done and the logic behind drawing up the list. It will try to find out how the economy of Google Maps works. Why some lists shows up while some doesn’t. What kind of ‘algorithm – economy – user’ matrix is used to make up the list? The work will also try to understand cultural dimensions based on mind mapping techniques of Google. This research will follow three dimensions. The first is the mapping of user’s footprints itself and how the distance covered by a user becomes the user’s own digital existence. The Google Maps automatically asks for reviews of places the user might have visited or passed. The question is what algorithm is Google using to ask for the review? Is it pre-pointed or post-pointed? Thus, we come to the second part. Is Google only listing places that paid it or is it trying to digitally map a user’s area of geographical reach in general. If so, why? This brings us to the third dimension of the research work. What kind of cultural mapping is done of the user? The list the user gets is based on his own history and as more data is added, the more mapping is done. These three dimensions are intricately woven with each other and the work will try to establish this relationship.</p>
<h3 id="shambhavi"><strong>Shambhavi Madan</strong></h3>
<h4><em>List of lists of lists: Technologies of power, infrastructures of memory</em></h4>
<p>Lists make infinities comprehensible, and thus controllable. By virtue of the ubiquity of cyberspace and the digitized information infrastructures curating reality within these infinities, we are increasingly subjected to curatorial efforts of individuals as well as codes – algorithmic and architectural.</p>
<p>Statistical lists are Foucauldian technologies of power in modern societies; tools for the functioning of governmentality – not just in terms of state control over population phenomena but the governmentality of groups or individuals over themselves. The framework of biopolitics identifies a bureaucracy imposed by determining social classifications through listing and categorizing, within which people must situate themselves and their actions (Foucault, 2008). Thus, the authorship of lists is often reflective of power that allows for the perpetuation of hegemonic constructions of social reality, making the lists themselves sites of struggle.</p>
<p>This paper seeks to contextualize (public-oriented) lists as forms of biopolitical curation that often lie at points of intersection between collective consciousness and social order, through an approach that problematizes the socio-technics of agency and the subjective objectivity of authorship. Although list-making acts such as the National Population Register, NRC, #LoSHA, the electoral roll, the census, and Vivek Agnihotri’s call for a list of “Urban Naxals” all differ in terms of content, intent, and impact, and contain different asymmetries of power, the lowest common denominator lies in their role as producers of public knowledge and consequently, infrastructures of public memory. This approach allows for a reinterpretation of the fundamental duality of lists of and within publics: <em>the functionality of enforcing/maintaining social order, and the phenomenological practise of publicly self-presenting with a (semi-material) manifestation of a collective identity</em>. The former sees the use of lists as tools of population management, enacting citizenship and belonging through forms of inclusion and exclusion; the latter is reflective of the workings of self-autonomy – redefining the authorship of justice and punishment – in networked societies. Thus, a secondary theme in this paper would be to question the change and significance in the role of authorship through a phenomenological comparative of lists that are institutionalised practice versus those that are open and collaborative.</p>
<p>Both the act of list-making and the lists themselves are framed as coalescences of material and imaginary, by juxtaposing the idea of infrastructures as primarily relationalities – i.e. they can’t be theorized in terms of the object alone (Larkin, 2013) – with Latour’s relational ontology of human and non-human actors. The list itself is a non-human object/actant that after emerging as a product of co-construction, takes on an agential role of its own (Latour, 2005). Each of these lists can be considered as a quasi-object, a complex convergence of the technological and the social. Both #LoSHA and the NRC are not mere placeholders being ‘acted upon’, but real and meaningful actors acting as cultural mediators and not intermediaries. The integration of a socio-technical, infrastructural approach with one that emphasizes upon the aesthetics of authorship and public memory allows the subject to be seen as constitutive of an embodied, relational experience as opposed to just existing as a dissociative (re)presentation.</p>
<p><strong>References:</strong></p>
<p>Foucault, M. 2008. <em>The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France 1978-1979</em>. Trans. G. Burchell. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.</p>
<p>Larkin, B. 2013. "The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructural." <em>Annual Review of Anthropology</em>. 42:327-343.</p>
<p>Latour, B. 2005. <em>Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory</em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/essays-on-list-selected-abstracts'>https://cis-india.org/raw/essays-on-list-selected-abstracts</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppResearchers at WorkListRAW BlogFeaturedInternet Studies2019-09-03T13:38:12ZBlog EntryMobilizing Online Consensus: Net Neutrality and the India Subreddit
https://cis-india.org/raw/blog_mobilizing-online-consensus-net-neutrality-and-the-india-subreddit
<b>This essay by Sujeet George is part of the 'Studying Internet in India' series. The author offers a preliminary gesture towards understanding reddit’s usage and breadth in the Indian context. Through an analysis of the “India” subreddit and examining the manner and context in which information and ideas are shared, proposed, and debunked, the paper aspires to formulate a methodology for interrogating sites like reddit that offer the possibilities of social mediation, even as users maintain a limited amount of privacy. At the same time, to what extent can such news aggregator sites direct the ways in which opinions and news flows change course as a true marker of information generation responding to user inputs.</b>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Introduction</strong></h3>
<p>It is almost an Internet truism that the comments section on any website is the cesspool that festers the basest of human instincts. Insults and abuses abound, users ‘call out’ each other’s opinions, their choice of words and, on a <del>bad</del> regular day, even each other’s parentage. The spectre of online anonymity, it has been suggested, affords the possibility of channelling opinion without being accountable for it. This is the more cynical outlook on how online opinion forums function; a viewpoint which although credible is limited as it sidelines the more engaging aspects of these forums. Such an interface dynamic has historically offered two modes of checks and balances: the original content to which users commented on was determined (and often written) by the administrators of the website, and in many cases the comments were moderated by those who ran the website.</p>
<p>Social news websites in the age of Web 2.0 have radically altered the means of production of content. By handing over to web-users the keys to the content generation storehouse, news aggregator websites like 4chan and Reddit have supposedly democratized the volume and direction of news flow. Users create (and recycle) content on which other users comment and add more content through memes, sharing of links, pictures and videos. Somewhere along the line, the original post (op) may trigger more specific discussions.</p>
<p>The content generated on a news aggregating website like Reddit can thus, theoretically, range across a broad spectrum. From discussions on current technology and sharing of world news to more specific conversations on gardening or anime, the website brings together diverse interests under a singular platform. Topic-based posts and discussions are categorised into subreddits, subcommunities which converge around similar interests. Thus, a subreddit like /r/cricket may serve as a platform for cricket enthusiasts to share news and views on the game. These subreddits together constitute Reddit as a whole. Only registered users can post submissions or comment on other posts, although unregistered users can access the submissions without being able to comment on them. Registered users can upvote and downvote both the posts submitted and the comments posted by other users.</p>
<p>Any registered Reddit user can create a subreddit to initiate submissions and discussions on a particular area of interest. Reddit has a series of default subreddits, including /r/AskReddit, /r/books, /r/history among others. When an unregistered user accesses the website they are likely to see the current top-voted posts from a combination of the default subreddits. The voting system is inextricably linked to visibility: the more the upvotes a post receives, the more likely it is to be top of the list on the self-proclaimed front page of the internet. The posts are thus sorted as a combination of top-voted submissions from an assortment of default subreddits. Comments on specific posts also follow a similar voting logic whereby users can upvote/downvote a specific comment based on how useful or relevant they find it to the original post. Registered users can curate their own page by subscribing to subreddits of their own interest, and unsubscribing from the default ones.</p>
<p>Being a registered user entails choosing a username under which a user’s submissions and comments are collated. Every user comment receives an aggregate score which is the sum of the upvotes and downvotes the comment has received. The cumulative comment scores for every user, called karma, is visible to every other user, and is often an indicator of the level of (in)activity of a specific user. Karma scores are the veritable fiat currency of the reddit space, with prolific users being visible on multiple popular threads attempting to scale their karma aggregate through comments that employ a combination of wit, hyperbole, cliché and outrage.</p>
<p>Reddit with its two-way dynamism—the users are the creators of content and the very people who comment on it—seemingly throws open the spectrum for content to be self-generated and moderated. Every subreddit has a set of moderators who attempt to maintain a modicum of direction amidst the chaos. Moderators are often users who are active on that particular subreddit, or have volunteered (or have been chosen by the subreddit community) to take up the task of maintaining the decorum and coherence of the subreddit. Reddit’s voting system, where users upvote and downvote submitted content, purports to ensure that the cream can constantly float above the morass. The infrastructural logic of Reddit—an algorithm that ensures that posts do not stagnate on the front page and get regularly refreshed by newer content—seeks to instill a participatory ethos where content created/submitted by users gains traction based on the extent of discussion that it generates among other users <strong>[1]</strong>.</p>
<p>A characteristic of the reddit platform is the Ask Me Anything feature where notable individuals set a pre-determined time slot to answer questions raised by users of a subreddit community. The AMA format offers an interesting take on the possibilities of public engagement and publicity in the virtual domain. A unique feature of reddit, the popular AMAs are held on the default /r/IAMA subreddit. The earliest AMAs were coordinated by the founders as well as employees of the website; to an extent this is true even today although in recent times the public relations team of various celebrities have coordinated AMAs for their clients. It remains one of the most popular modes of user engagement, ironically functioning through external, mediated mechanisms. Most AMAs serve a dual purpose: celebrities offer to answer questions when they are ‘in the news’ or when they wish to publicize a new venture, which also serves as an endorsement of the popularity of the reddit platform in reaching out to a wide, primarily North American, audience. An early instance of an acknowledgement of the reach of the reddit platform was an AMA conducted by/for Barack Obama as he sought to be re-elected during the 2012 U.S. Presidential elections. Other notable ‘celebrity’ AMA sessions include those by Bill Gates, Madonna, and Edward Snowden. While celebrity AMAs remain a popular feature, the AMA format itself is utilised even by relatively less established personalities who have their own unique story to share. While /r/IAMA remains the default subreddit used to reach out to the reddit community, specific subreddits often conduct their own AMAs with personalities relevant to the group.</p>
<p>The India subreddit /r/India, the forum for content “directly about India and Indians,” has been a part of Reddit since 2008. At the time of writing this essay there are over 55000 registered Reddit users (including this writer) who subscribe to submissions posted on /r/India. Of course, there may be many more who ‘lurk’ around, a term for those who may not have subscribed but view submissions posted on the subreddit by visiting the subreddit page. /r/India typically draws in over 2 million page views every month. Over time the community has developed a vocabulary of its own, which is often self-referential and draws on submissions and comments that have been made at an earlier time. Many prolific users with characteristic usernames are recognized by fellow users, the sociality perhaps further strengthened through the annual city-based meet-ups that are planned as part of a larger Reddit tradition.</p>
<p>This essay looks at the mobilization of community opinion on /r/India on the issue of net neutrality, the efforts made by some of the users to raise awareness about it, and the ways in which the community responded and reacted to a wider online movement that sought to maintain a more egalitarian approach to Internet access and availability. Drawing on an analysis of a few posts submitted during a period that witnessed a flurry of activity in connection with the debates around net neutrality in India, the essay attempts to sketch out the contours of the debate around the axis of online activity and participation. It seeks to ponder on the extent to which a forum like the India subreddit offers the possibilities of a civic participation, of mobilizing public opinion and contributing to the decisions undertaken by policy makers. How do purportedly diverse online communities interact, draw consensus and stake a claim to the decision-making processes that involve multiple stakeholders often with conflicting interests?</p>
<h3><strong>The Social in the Virtual Rear-view Mirror</strong></h3>
<p>The form of any subreddit, with its defined purpose and rules of submission, ensures a certain coherence even amidst the cornucopia of memes, images and other web links that may be shared and commented upon. The governing logic of a particular subreddit accords it a certain hue, which most users attempt to conform to or occasionally subvert. The specificity of any subreddit, thus, is a mutually constitutive process where the original tech-interface guidelines are negotiated by the content submitted by users of the subreddit.</p>
<img src="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/img/cis-raw_blog_sujeet-george_01.jpeg" alt="Tragedy of India" />
<h6>Source: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/4s5bpn/tragedy_of_india/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/4s5bpn/tragedy_of_india/</a>.</h6>
<p>User behaviour on new media platforms can be understood as a virtual manifestation of traits that are exhibited in the domain of the social in real life. Consider the discussion sparked off by a post that was submitted about 4 weeks back, and which has catapulted to the top of the all time top voted submissions on the subreddit <strong>[2]</strong>. It contrasts the shoddy construction by the Maharashtra government in 2013 of a section of a fort staircase, with the more stable lasting section built by Shivaji in the 17th century. The user who posted the image commented on the dubious nature of infrastructural work in the present day, blaming corruption for the disparity in the quality of work. Juxtaposing historical nostalgia with an apathy about the present state-of-affairs, the comments and discussions around the post veered from questions of the feasibility of implementing older construction methods, to the widespread nepotism and corruption prevalent in public work contracts in the present day. One user remarked, “I'm guessing Shivaji didn't hand out the contracts for building his forts to the lowest bidder.” Another chimed in that “[no] tender is clean. It's often created, mapped, prepared and executed by the company and middleman willing to shell out the most to the bureaucrats and politicians.”</p>
<p>A popular motif on many submissions on /r/India is a lamentation on the tangled mess between the bureaucracy and legislature. It extends the generic urban middle class antipathy towards governance and its deep suspicion of the probity of the administrative processes of the Indian State. One user-comment tried to explain the popularity of the submitted post—a common indicator of content popularity on Reddit is the number of upvotes it receives and the extent of user participation through comments—to the highly ‘relatable’ nature of the submission.</p>
<p>The character of an online forum, while being shaped by diverse user behaviour, is invariably crystallized by the more dominant modes of representation. The anonymity afforded by the online medium and the potential infinitude of the range of submissions should theoretically stretch the spectrum of representations. Yet user behaviour often conforms in a bid to confirm its own shared identity within the group. What is then understood as relatable is not necessarily a universal, but merely an accommodation of difference through consensus. In the following sections I attempt to make sense of the processes through which such a consensus is drawn by considering the trajectory of discussions on posts pertaining to debates on net neutrality <strong>[3]</strong>.</p>
<h3><strong>The Anatomy of an Online Mobilization</strong></h3>
<p>The discussions around questions of net neutrality, Facebook’s Free Basics, differential data pricing, and restricted access to OTT services have captured the Indian public imagination in the last 18-odd months. Multiple consultation papers shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have served as a rallying point for domain experts, media policy analysts and the general public. The series of consultation papers and the questions that have arisen over specific practices of telecom companies are imagined through the essay as a single event punctuated by temporal fissures. It has its own prehistory, a call to arms, and the eventual (fleeting) redemption. The differing discourse around the issue is contextually singular even if separated by chronology.</p>
<p>On February 8 this year, an /r/India user shared a news report about TRAI declaring zero-rated products as illegal <strong>[4]</strong>. Months of collaboration among faceless internet users had managed a key victory in what was repeatedly termed a battle to save the Internet. User comments highlighted the scale of the task accomplished as “a bunch of folks on the Internet [stopped] a $300 billion market cap corporation [Facebook] and a bunch of telecoms with strong lobbying capabilities.” Some users could not see past the irony of the Internet itself serving as a means for the public to halt rapacious tech companies in their stride. The David v/s Goliath analogy seemed apt. The task, though, had just begun, as one user presciently noted: “Mobilizing people is hard. Mobilizing people against a better funded lobby, and on a dry technical topic ? really hard. We are probably going to need a dedicated NGO, mailing lists, donations and members for this and similar issues.”</p>
<p>The debates surrounding net neutrality have sparked a diverse range of questions related to Internet access, differential pricing, restraints on technology, impediments to freedom of expression and questions of consumer choice. The range of issues and stakeholders encompassed within the policy regulation has simultaneously atomised and collectivised the problematic of Internet. As an increasingly everyday technology for many urban Indians, Internet usage has carried the possibility of innovative and easy access to a range of services and information while circumventing hitherto static structures of the administrative machinery. Internet usage in the Indian context can be regarded as both a symbol of egalitarianism and privilege; a conflation of the larger ideal of enterprise espoused by the technological boom and a reluctantly understated reflection of the very technology being of limited wider accessibility. The debates on Internet usage through the very medium thus contains some of the tensions that were echoed in the responses to the questions on net neutrality that were raised on the Indian subreddit.</p>
<p>These debates, circulating across news mediums both print and digital, found their way into the /r/India cosmos through efforts to raise awareness about the issue and to bring about a greater collective bargaining momentum to the efforts in the digital space. A post on December 25, 2014 announced the efforts being undertaken by various media practitioners through the creation of the website <a href="http://netneutrality.in/">http://netneutrality.in/</a> which later became <a href="http://www.savetheinternet.in/">http://www.savetheinternet.in/</a> <strong>[5]</strong>. As a submission in the early life of the net neutrality event the post garnered enough attention to find its way into the vocabulary of the subreddit.</p>
<p>It was, however, not until three months later that perhaps the most comprehensive early exhortation came through a post titled Let's fight for Net Neutrality before it becomes necessary. E-Mail the TRAI now <strong>[6]</strong>. submitted on March 28, 2015 by one of the subreddit moderators. The post called for users to mail the TRAI and join in the efforts to influence upon policy makers on the need for a neutral Internet. User comments ranged from a creating email templates to a brief primer on the meaning and scope of net neutrality. That the public counter fight was still in the planning stage is evident in the numerous user comments volunteering to craft an email template to be sent.</p>
<p>The possibilities of a collaborative enterprise were much more evident in another mod-post, submitted on April 8, 2015 titled <em>Fight for Net Neutrality: The way forward</em> <strong>[7]</strong>. The post assembled the increasing momentum that the net neutrality movement had garnered in the Indian virtual space. Varying email templates to be shared among peer groups were presented, enterprising users created memes and infographics, while more sinister minds listed out companies that openly flouted net neutrality rules. The aim was not just to organise, but to also synchronize the efforts of a purportedly disparate group of users.</p>
<p>Even as user efforts were directed towards raising awareness about net neutrality among a wider audience, the sheer scale of the task and improbable hurdles on the road where highlighted by some. One post speculated on the connection between the timing of TRAI’s consultation paper and the fact that the Director of TRAI was due to retire in May 2015 <strong>[8]</strong>. The user feared that “the decision on TRAI proposal has already been made. The public is asked to comment on the OTT proposal because it is required by norm (not sure about law). They are waiting for Mr Khullar to retire, so they can blame him for the colossal backlash that will happen when the proposal is ratified.”</p>
<p>In the next few months the momentum of the movement ebbed and flowed, with diligent users posting regular updates on the progress. Even as the Internet rights discourse on the forum sought to be balanced with the logic of the market, there emerged a series of reactionary submissions that seemed to combine a distrust of large telecoms with the emancipatory spirit of a virtual civil disobedience.</p>
<h3><strong>Zero Rating the Zero-Rated Apps</strong></h3>
<p>Concurrent with the efforts at the level of governance, /r/India users employed creative means to show their displeasure towards companies who seemed to oppose the tenets of net neutrality. One such instance was when a user galvanised forum opinion to down-rate the Flipkart and Airtel apps on their phones. Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal’s justification for zero-rated apps as sound business practice was turned inside-out as users gave a zero rating to the Flipkart app on their phones. The impact was ostensibly evident as the daily average ratings for the app saw a sharp fall <strong>[9]</strong>.</p>
<p>Diatribes against telecom companies and their profit-driven enterprise have now become a regular feature on the forum. The mobile network Airtel, which has been at the forefront of the anti-net neutrality lobby, has faced its share of the community ire. Branded Chortel—an (un)imaginative coinage characterizing the supposed thieving policies of the company—the company along with Flipkart has been subject to a series of memes that invoke ridicule and hint at the sense of disconnect between consumers and the products on offer. The image shown above contrasts a popular biscuit brand Parle-G with the recently launched Airtel 4G Internet <strong>[10]</strong>. It employs Parle’s long unblemished reputation as a brand of reliability; its iconicity a signifier of a purported business of ethics that feels anachronistic in comparison to the business practices of the telecom companies.</p>
<img src="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/img/cis-raw_blog_sujeet-george_02.jpeg" alt="Chortel Four-G" />
<h6>Source: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/3r25gr/chortel_four_g/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/3r25gr/chortel_four_g/</a>.</h6>
<p>The movement to generate awareness about Internet policy also sought to initiate dialogues with administrators who are in a position to ensure that the community’s voices are heard. Thus Independent Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar did an AMA at the height of the net neutrality discussions <strong>[11]</strong>. Since the person doing the AMA can choose to answer or ignore from the range of questions posed by the community, the supposed mutuality of participation is often minimal. Nevertheless, Chandrasekhar’s AMA not just points to the interactive (propagandist) possibilities of reddit or any other social media platform but it also asserts the relevance of the medium as a significant domain where policy regulation impacts people whose voices need to be acknowledged. As an entrepreneur who has previously worked in the technology sector, Chandrasekhar symbolizes /r/India’s imagined ideal scenario of a ‘rule of experts’ in matters of governance. That a sitting MP would seek a dialogue with an online forum also hints at the relevance of such mobilizations, where enterprising tech-savvy politicians understand the potential to stir public action through the domain of the virtual.</p>
<h3><strong>Consensus in/and New Media</strong></h3>
<p>At one level, it could be suggested that the discussions which emerged on the India subreddit around the debates on net neutrality hint at the potentials of virtual mobilization of the public. Social media, the Internet and social networking forums like Reddit could potentially widen the level of information access and dissemination where the early groundwork has been laid by the RTI Act. But at stake in the whole discussion is not merely the extent to which an online community can modify the direction of a policy discourse. Even as the development of a ‘networked public sphere’ has transformed the means of consensus building, the elements of its discontent are difficult to ignore. The formation of a public sphere in a virtual environment presents the possibilities of conformity as much as of consensus.</p>
<p>The discourse around net neutrality on /r/India forum is notable for the wide-ranging consensus that it managed to appropriate from the community. Such a consensus could be interpreted in at least two ways. The form of any subreddit as a forum for all things related to a specific context—be it a common activity, nationality, gender identity—contains within itself the language of adequate acceptance and rebuttal. At the same time, the algorithmic technique of determining the visibility of a post through upvotes and downvotes renders real the possibility of consensus through conformity.</p>
<p>It is more interesting to look beyond the veneer of consensus and question the supposed diversity of the group and its implications, rather than infer collective action as a signifier of the rightness of the action. One could suggest that the terms of the debate, of limiting the control that mega-telecos wield over internet policy in India, offered an easy medium to galvanise opinion on the subreddit. Any nuanced stance will however need to read collective action in relation to the (im)possibility of individual opinion-making in a structured environment of an online forum.</p>
<p>An online platform with a voting system linked to visibility offers a peculiar type of consensus. A majority of the top-voted submissions and comments pertaining to the net neutrality debate on /r/India fall within a broad overlap of consensus linked to a participatory, egalitarian technological ethos which is characteristic of the post-liberalization Indian milieu. The possibility of dissent, or even voicing differing viewpoints, is structured in a limited spectrum since what will be shared/read is inextricably linked to what users understand as acceptable within the forum. Such an understanding can inadvertently suggest a consensus, or worse offer a monochromatic presentation of an issue. This is not to discount the possibility of informed discussion, or exaggerate the ‘hive mind’ of reddit. But the link between visibility and popularity of content often ensures that the nuances of a debate get sidelined and unidimensional. Thus, even though aspects of differential pricing may be understood as a means to wider access, or as a way to open Internet services to the vagaries of the market rather than State whims, such viewpoints find less credibility when articulated within a forum like /r/India <strong>[12]</strong>. While discussions may emerge which consider the issue beyond the limited rhetoric of free speech and consumer choice, they often get presented in the ‘anti net neutrality’ garb or as afterthoughts to a debate the terms of which have ostensibly been settled <strong>[13]</strong>.</p>
<p>Communicative technologies, as Lisa Gitelman notes, often converge around an overlapping mental landscape that seeks to make sense of an act/event through synchronized ontologies of representation. Consensus in such an instance is not to be seen as a final validation of the community’s stance on an issue. It should prompt us to be wary of the pitfalls of online mobilization that could be travelling in an echo chamber. The task then would not be to debunk actions drawn on consensus, but to be aware of the limits of inclusivity of such online forums <strong>[14]</strong>.
Further research has to consider ways in which individual users negotiate the possibility of presenting an individual stance to the community within interface-induced limitations to the possibility of such an enunciation. This would involve interviews with a pool of /r/India users, examine the types of news outlets and viewpoints that gain credence within the community, look at voting patterns, and perhaps undertake a more thorough examination of a wider range of concerns relevant to the community. This essay has attempted a preliminary gesture towards such an endeavour by picking a particular event and the community’s response to it. Reddit, in contrast to Facebook for instance, offers the possibility of peering into an online space where anonymity commingles with community enterprise and the meaning of accountability is extended beyond individual motive of mere sociality or recognition. As such, it could potentially offer an understanding of online behaviour beyond the limits of the individual-liberal paradigm of action orientation and widen the debate on the functioning of social news websites by being acutely aware of the thin line between the individual and the social.</p>
<h3><strong>Disclaimer</strong></h3>
<p>The writer has been a frequent lurker on Reddit, and the India subreddit since 2011. Beyond voraciously consuming the submissions on /r/India he does not claim to have contributed in any meaningful manner to the online discussions referred to in the essay.</p>
<h3><strong>Endnotes</strong></h3>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> The literature on reddit is a fast growing domain, with innovative research looking at Reddit’s voting patterns, user behaviour, and news outlets linked to glean an understanding of the news aggregating website. For an examination of questions of identity and anonymity on Reddit see, Shelton, M., Lo, K., Nardi, B. (2015). Online Media Forums as Separate Social Lives: A Qualitative Study of Disclosure Within and Beyond Reddit. In iConference 2015 Proceedings. For an engagement with questions on what motivates Reddit user to contribute see, Bogers, T., & Nordenhoff Wernersen, R. (2014). How 'Social' are Social News Sites? Exploring the Motivations for Using Reddit.com. In Proceedings of the iConference 2014. (pp. 329-344). IDEALS: iSchools.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/4s5bpn/tragedy_of_india/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/4s5bpn/tragedy_of_india/</a>. Last accessed on August 2, 2016. Unless stated otherwise, all links posted hereafter have also been accessed on the same day.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> My understanding of social media and the social dimension of new media has been shaped from my reading of Dijck, José Van. <em>The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media</em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. For an examination of social media practices see, Ellison, N. B. & boyd, d. (2013). Sociality through Social Network Sites. In Dutton, W. H. (Ed.), <em>The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies</em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 151–172.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> See: <a>https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/44qddb/trai_to_make_zero_rated_products_illegal/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[5]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/2qcvhp/i_created_a_site_to_educate_people_about_airtel/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/2qcvhp/i_created_a_site_to_educate_people_about_airtel/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[6]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/30lz1p/lets_fight_for_net_neutrality_before_it_becomes/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/30lz1p/lets_fight_for_net_neutrality_before_it_becomes/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[7]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/31vvf2/fight_for_net_neutrality_the_way_forward/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/31vvf2/fight_for_net_neutrality_the_way_forward/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[8]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/322iv8/trai_asking_for_feedback_on_their_proposal_is_a/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/322iv8/trai_asking_for_feedback_on_their_proposal_is_a/</a>. For Kullar’s own views on the issue, see: <a href="http://thewire.in/1624/lets-be-practical-about-net-neutrality/">http://thewire.in/1624/lets-be-practical-about-net-neutrality/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[9]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/31ykxj/flipkart_and_airtel_are_fucking_with_your/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/31ykxj/flipkart_and_airtel_are_fucking_with_your/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[10]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/3r25gr/chortel_four_g/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/3r25gr/chortel_four_g/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[11]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/387req/hi_rindia_i_am_rajeev_chandrasekhar_member_of/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/387req/hi_rindia_i_am_rajeev_chandrasekhar_member_of/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[12]</strong> CIS’s note on its position on net neutrality points to the multilayered nature of the policy: <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality'>http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality</a>. Last accessed on September 9, 2016. For a contrarian voice, see: <a href=">http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/net-neutrality-war-is-not-just-facebook-versus-internet-mullahs/story-s9eZpZnomaaiz4De8fYfaK.html</a>. Last accessed on September 9, 2016.</p>
<p><strong>[13]</strong> Consider the discussions that emerged in two separate posts: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/31peb4/lets_respond_to_this_anti_net_neutrality_piece/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/31peb4/lets_respond_to_this_anti_net_neutrality_piece/</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/336u8f/woke_up_to_this_pro_internetorg_article_in/">https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/336u8f/woke_up_to_this_pro_internetorg_article_in/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[14]</strong> Gitelman, Lisa. <em>Always Already New: Media, History and the Data of Culture</em>. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. Especially chapter 3.</p>
<h3><strong>Author Profile</strong></h3>
<p>Sujeet George has an M.Phil from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. His research interests are in histories of science and commodities, and new media and digital humanities. He has previously worked with the Mumbai City Museum and The Southasia Trust.</p>
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No publisherSujeet GeorgeRedditInternet StudiesRAW BlogNet NeutralityResearchers at Work2016-09-27T04:52:35ZBlog Entry