The Centre for Internet and Society
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October 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the newsletter of October 2012 from the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS). The present issue features an analysis by Ujwala Uppaluri of the Delhi High Court’s judgment in Super Cassettes v. MySpace, announcement of public call for comments for reports on “Banking and Accessibility in India” and “Making TV Accessible in India”, and updates on Indic languages.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Jobs</b><br />CIS is seeking applications the posts of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/research-manager">Research Manager</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-internet-governance">Programme Officer – Internet Governance</a>. To apply send your resume to <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies:</p>
<h3>Public Call for Comments</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/banking-and-accessibility-in-india">Banking and Accessibility in India: A Study on Banking Accessibility in India</a> (by Vrinda Maheshwari, October 30, 2012). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/making-tv-accessible-in-india">Making TV Accessible in India</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, October 8, 2012). </li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/hathitrust-judgment-and-its-impact-on-tvi-negotiations-at-wipo">The HathiTrust Judgment and its impact on TVI negotiations at WIPO</a> (by Rahul Cherian, October 30, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-approves-road-map-on-tv">WIPO General Assemblies Approve Road Map on Treaty for the Visually Impaired</a> (by Rahul Cherian, October 11, 2012).</li>
</ul>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3>Analysis</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/super-cassettes-v-my-space">Super Cassettes v. MySpace</a> (by Ujwala Uppaluri, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/icomm-2012-report">ICOMM2012: International Communications and Electronics Fair</a> (by Jadine Lannon, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/workshop-exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-technologies-1">A Workshop on "Exploring the Internals of Mobile Technologies"</a> (TERI Southern Regional Centre 4th Main, Domlur II Stage Bangalore, October 27, 2012).</li>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/openness">Openness</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<h3>Wikipedia Education Programs</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/launch-of-assamese-wikipedia-education-program">Launch of Assamese Wikipedia Education Program at Guwahati University</a> (by Nitika Tandon, October 22, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/malayalam-wikipedia-education-program-august-october-update">Malayalam Wikipedia Education Program: August to October Updates</a> (by Shiju Alex, October 29, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/gujarati-wikipedia-education-program-rajkot">Gujarat Wikipedia Education Program: Rajkot</a> (by Noopur Raval, October 31, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/gujarati-wikipedia-article-competition">Gujarati Wikipedia Article Competition – 10 schools, 200 students, 20 articles on Gujarati Wikipedia</a> (by Noopur Raval, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Wikipedia Workshops</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: left; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/bengaluru-a-hub-for-kannada-and-sanskrit-wikipedia">Bengaluru: A Hub for Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, October 16, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-workshop-ghaziabad">Wikipedia workshop @ Inmantec College, Ghaziabad</a> (by Nitika Tandon, October 19, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wiki-women-day-2012-pune">Bridging Gender Gap in Pune: WikiWomenDay 2012 Celebrated with Success!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, PAI International Learning Solutions, Azam Campus, Pune, October 28, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/first-pune-odia-wikipedia-organized">First Pune Odia Wikipedia Organized!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Wikipedia Event</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-hackathon-bits-hyderabad">Wikipedia Hackathon at BITS</a> Hyderabad (organized by CIS - A2K team and BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad, October 26 – 27, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Wikipedia Press Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowEvents.asp?id=37463">Odisha: Odia Wikipedia workshop organized in Pune to promote Odia language</a> (OdishaDiary.com, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Wikipedia Team Updates</h3>
<ul>
<li>The <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge/Team" title="Access To Knowledge/Team">A2K team</a> consists of three members based in Delhi: <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Nitika Tandon</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Subhashish Panigrahi</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Noopur Raval</a>.</li>
<li>We are seeking applications for the post of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-for-programme-director">Programme Director</a> (Access to Knowledge) for the New Delhi office.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Shiju Alex</a>, Program Manager, Access to Knowledge is leaving the organisation. November 16, 2012 will be his last working day. We wish him success in all his future endeavours. </li>
</ul>
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<p><b>HasGeek</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">HasGeek creates discussion spaces for geeks and has organised conferences like the <a href="http://fifthelephant.in/2012/">Fifth Elephant</a>, <a href="http://droidcon.in/2011">Droidcon India 2011</a>, <a href="http://androidcamp.hasgeek.com/">Android Camp</a>, etc. HasGeek is supported by CIS and works out from CIS office in Bengaluru. The following event was organised by HasGeek in the month of October:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://hacknight.in/droidconin/2012">Droidcon 2012</a> (CIS, Bangalore, October 27 – 28, 2012).</li>
</ul>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3>Column</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/epw-web-exclusives-oct-27-2012-elonnai-hickok-rethinking-dna-profiling-india">Rethinking DNA Profiling in India</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol - XLVII No. 43, October 27, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Analysis</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-perspectives-on-the-2012-2013-goa-beach-shack-policy">Privacy Perspectives on the 2012 -2013 Goa Beach Shack Policy</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, October 25, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Upcoming IGF Events</h3>
<p>At the seventh annual IGF meeting to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2012, CIS is organising one workshop:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/national-ig-mechanisms">National IG Mechanisms – Looking at Some Key Design Issues</a> (co-organising with Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, Institute for System Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences, et.al., November 8, 2012 from 2.30 p.m. to 4.00 p.m).</li>
</ul>
<p>Pranesh Prakash is a panelist in the following workshop:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/new-trends-in-industry-self-governance">New Trends in Industry Self-Governance</a> (organised by Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK and Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ, University of Zurich, Switzerland and Nominet, UK, November 7, 2012 from 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m).</li>
</ul>
<p>CIS fellow Malavika Jayaram is a panelist for these workshops:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/intgovforum-cms-w2012-proposals">Civil rights in the digital age, about the impact the Internet has on civil rights</a> (organised by ECP on behalf of the IGF-NL, November 7, 2012, 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/intgovforum-cms-w2012-proposals-governing-identity-on-the-internet">Governing Identity on the Internet</a> (organised by Brenden Kuerbis, Citizen Lab and Christine Runnegar, Internet Society, November 8, 2012, 11.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Other Upcoming Event</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/dml-conference-2013">DML Conference 2013</a> (Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers - Chicago, Illinois, March 14 – 16, 2012): CIS and Digital Media & Learning Research Hub Central are jointly organizing the DML Conference 2013 in Chicago.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/privacy-rights-are-a-global-challenge">The Public Voice: Privacy Rights are a Global Challenge</a> (Punta del Este, Uruguay, October 21, 2012): Malavika Jayaram was a speaker at this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">3rd Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit (organised by EastWest Institute in partnership with NASSCOM and FICCI, Federation House, New Delhi, October 30-31, 2012): Sunil Abraham and Elonnai Hickok participated in this event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Fourth Annual Legal Services Conference in India (organised by US India Business Council, New Delhi, October 11, 2012): Pranesh Prakash was a panelist in the session on “Censorship and Content Restrictions: The Future of Internet Speech in India”.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Meeting on Lawful Access by Law Enforcement (Brussels, October 3 – 5, 2012): Elonnai Hickok participated in the meeting.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Video</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ndtv-news-oct-31-2012-arrested-for-tweeting-legitimate-or-curbing-free-speech">Arrested for tweeting: Legitimate or Curbing Free Speech?</a> (NDTV, October 31, 2012): Sunil Abraham participated in this discussion aired on NDTV along with Shivam Vij, SB Mishra and Sanjay Pinto.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/hindustan-times-specials-coverage-gujarat-assembly-elections-2012-zia-haq-oct-26-2012-on-social-media-modi-goes-soft">On social media, Modi goes soft</a> (by Zia Haq, Hindustan Times, October 26, 2012): Sunil Abraham is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/daily-pioneer-columnists-oct-29-2012-apar-gupta-bolstering-right-to-remain-private">Bolstering right to remain private</a> (by Apar Gupta, The Pioneer, October 29, 2012): Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS was part of the expert committee even though not explicitly mentioned in these</i>: <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/newstrackindia-october-18-2012-suggests-law-to-protect-individual-privacy">Panel suggests law to protect individual privacy</a> (Newstrack India, October 18, 2012), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/business-standard-october-18-2012-privacy-law-mooted-to-protect-people-against-misuse-of-info">Privacy law mooted to protect people against misuse of info</a> (Business Standard, October 18, 2012), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/dna-india-october-19-2012-saikat-datta-experts-committee-moots-law-to-protect-privacy">Experts' committee moots law to protect privacy</a> (by Saikat Datta, Daily News & Analysis, October 19, 2012), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/times-of-india-october-19-2012-govt-panel-wants-curbs-on-phone-taps">Govt panel wants curbs on phone taps</a> (The Times of India, October 19, 2012), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/indianexpress-amitabh-sinha-october-19-2012-privacy-act-should-not-circumscribe-rti-expert-group">Privacy Act should not circumscribe RTI: expert group</a> (by Amitabh Sinha, Indian Express, October 19, 2012), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-business-line-oct-18-2012-nine-point-code-set-out-to-safeguard-personal-information">Nine-point code set out to safeguard personal information</a> (Hindu Business Line, October 18, 2012), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/zee-news-october-22-2012-privacy-law-mooted-to-protect-people-against-misuse-of-info">Privacy law mooted to protect people against misuse of info</a> (Zee News, October 18, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/livemint-october-18-2012-surabhi-agarwal-courts-approval-needed-to-tap-phones">Court’s approval needed to tap phones: Panel</a> (by Surabhi Agarwal, LiveMint, October 18, 2012): Sunil Abraham is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/first-post-pallavi-polanki-oct-11-2012-could-better-dna-testing-facilities-in-india-have-saved-the-talwars">Could better DNA testing facilities in India have saved the Talwars?</a> (by Pallavi Polanki, October 11, 2012): CIS press statement is mentioned.</li>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<h3><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/knowledge-and-capacity-around-telecom-policy">Building Knowledge and Capacity around Telecommunication Policy in India</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS and Ford Foundation joined hands to build expertise in the area of telecommunications in India. Dr. Surendra Pal, Satya N Gupta, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Payal Malik, Dr. Rakesh Mehrotra and Dr. Nadeem Akhtar are the expert reviewers. The following are the new outputs:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/spectrum-management">Spectrum Management</a> (by Snehashish Ghosh, October 31, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/home-1/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/cable-tv">Cable Television</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, October 16, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Column in Business Standard</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-october-11-2012-shyam-ponappa-the-supreme-court-delivers">The Supreme Court Delivers</a> (by Shyam Ponappa in <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappasupreme-court-delivers/488420/">Business Standard</a>, October 4, 2012 and <a href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2012/10/the-supreme-court-delivers.html">Organizing India Blogspot</a>, October 11, 2012).</li>
</ul>
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<h3><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Newspaper Column</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/india-express-news-nishant-shah-oct-29-2012-the-rules-of-engagement">The Rules of Engagement</a> (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, October 29, 2012).</li>
</ul>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS organised the Habits of Living Workshop in Bangalore from September 26 to 29, 2012. Three columns by Nishant Shah arising from these workshops were published in the month of October:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/dml-central-blog-oct-22-2012-nishant-shah-habits-living-being-human-networked-society">Habits of Living: Being Human in a Networked Society</a> (DML, Central, October 22, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/first-post-tech-oct-12-2012-nishant-shah-digital-habits-how-and-why-we-tweet-share-and-like">Digital Habits: How and Why We Tweet, Share and Like</a> (FirstPost, October 12, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/financial-express-october-23-2012-nishant-shah-who-s-that-friend">Who’s that Friend?</a> (Indian Express, October 23, 2012).</li>
</ul>
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<h2>*<a href="https://cis-india.org/about/">About CIS</a>*</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> with ITU and G3ict, and <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a></span>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos, etc. We conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill">NIA Bill</a>, etc. CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO, and has given policy briefs to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-award">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a> from the Government of India and also received the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/nirmita-nivh-award">NIVH Excellence Award</a></span>.</p>
<p><b>*Follow us elsewhere*</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter</li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2012-11-08T11:42:01ZPageApril 2014 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2014-bulletin
<b>The newsletter for the month of April can be accessed below:</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcome you to the fourth issue of the newsletter (April) for the year 2014. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed at: <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a></p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Highlights</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We have published a compilation of the various central government schemes in a blog post as part of our National Resource Kit project.</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The 27<sup>th</sup> session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (WIPO-SCCR) was held in Geneva from April 28 to May 2, 2014. Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event. CIS made its statements on Technological Measures of Protection on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives, Orphan Works, Retracted and Withdrawn Works, and Works out of Commerce on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives, and on the WIPO Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. </li>
<li>CIS signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mysore University for converting to Unicode and re-releasing their encyclopaedia under Creative Commons License. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja on behalf of the CIS-A2K team signed the MoU.</li>
<li>A two-day global stakeholder meeting on future of internet governance (NETmundial) was organized by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee in partnership with /1Net at Sao Paulo in Brazil on April 23 and 24, 2014. Achal Prabhala participated in the event. As part of its research to enable productive discussions of the critical internet governance issues at the meeting and elsewhere CIS published a total of 16 blog entries. </li>
<li>We conducted an empirical study of five separate and diverse banks (State Bank of India, Central Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank) to gain a practical perspective on the existing banking practices and policies in India, and published a Banking Policy Guide. </li>
<li>As part of the Making Change project Denisse Albornoz interviewed Tuhin Paul, an artist and storyteller behind Menstrupedia, an India-based social venture creating comics to shatter the myths and misunderstandings surrounding menstruation around the world. Denisse provides an analysis of ‘menstrual activism’ — a movement that despite its trajectory in feminism remains unnoticed in most accounts of traditional and digital activism.</li>
<li>Six research studies were commissioned by HEIRA-CSCS (over November 2013-March 2014) as part of the collaborative exercise with CIS to map the Digital Humanities within a broad rubric of exploring changes at the intersection of youth, technology and higher education in India. P.P.Sneha in her blog post presents a broad overview of some of the key learnings from these projects.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br /><b><a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs">Jobs<br /></a></b>CIS is seeking applications for the post of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-access-to-knowledge-and-openness">Programme Officer</a> (Access to Knowledge). There are two vacancies for this post one in Delhi and one in Bangalore. To apply, please send your resume to Sunil Abraham (<a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a>), Nirmita Narasimhan (<a href="mailto:nirmita@cis-india.org">nirmita@cis-india.org</a>) and Pranesh Prakash (<a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>) with three writing samples of which at least one demonstrates your analytic skills, and one that shows your ability to simplify complex policy issues.</p>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. We compiled the first draft of the kit (29 states and 6 union territories). The chapters along with the quarterly reports can be accessed on the <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-project">project page</a>. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<h3>NVDA</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Monthly Update</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">NVDA e-Speak Text-to-Speech Project Update</a> (by Suman Dogra, April 28, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">National Resource Kit</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/central-government-schemes">Central Government Schemes</a> (by Anandhi Viswanathan and CLPR, April 27, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<h3>Other</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/polling-pains">Polling Pains</a> (by Amba Salelkar, April 30, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-april-8-2014-papiya-bhattacharya-are-elections-fair-to-people-with-special-needs">Are Elections Fair to People With Special Needs?</a> (by Papiya Bhattacharya, New Indian Express, April 8, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/vijay-karnataka-april-9-2014-enabling-elections">Enabling Elections</a> (Vijay Karnataka, April 9, 2014). This was published in Kannada. </li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">WIPO SCCR</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li>Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights: Twenty-Seventh Session (organized by WIPO, Geneva, April 28 – May 2, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event. France, Greece, India and the European Union <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/france-greece-india-eu-sign-marrakesh-treaty">signed the Marrakesh Treaty</a>. CIS delivered statements on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-on-technological-measures-of-protection-27-sccr-on-limitations-exceptions-for-libraries-and-archives">Technological Measures of Protection on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-orphan-works-retracted-withdrawn-works-and-works-out-of-commerce-at-27-sccr-on-limitations-and-exceptions-for-libraries-and-archives">Orphan Works, Retracted and Withdrawn Works, and Works out of Commerce on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives</a>, and on the <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-27-sccr-on-wipo-proposed-treaty-for-protection-of-broadcasting-organizations">WIPO Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations</a>. Transcripts of the discussions can be <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wipo-sccr-27-discussions-transcripts">accessed here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-cpdip-2">Report on CDIP-12</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 22, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/signing-and-ratification-of-marrakesh-treaty-to-facilitate-access-to-published-works-for-persons-blind-visually-impaired-print-disabled">Signing and Ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled</a> (by Nehaa Chaudhari, April 25, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-wipo-director-general-meeting-with-ngos">Report on the WIPO Director General’s Meeting with NGO’s</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 30, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/knowledge-ecology-international-manon-ress-april-29-2014-is-wipo-treaty-for-broadcasters-moving-forward-at-sccr-27">Is the WIPO Treaty for Broadcasters Moving Forward at SCCR 27?</a> (by Manon Ress, Knowledge Ecology International, April 29, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ip-watch-catherine-saez-may-1-2014-wipo-authors-civil-society-watchful-of-rights-for-broadcasters">At WIPO, Authors, Civil Society Watchful of Rights for Broadcasters</a> (by Catherine Saez, IP Watch, May 1, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/nasa-international-space-apps-challenge-2014">NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014</a> (CIS, Bangalore, April 12 – 13, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/online-survey-for-indian-mobile-app-developer-enterprise">Online Survey for Indian Mobile App Developer Startups & Enterprises</a> (by Samantha Cassar, April 9, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/app-developers-series-services-products-dichotomy-ip-2013-part-i">App Developers Series: Services, Products, Dichotomy & IP – Part I</a> (by Samantha Cassar, April 10, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-cpdip-2">Report on CDIP-12</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 22, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-31-session-of-standing-committee-on-trademarks">Report on the 31st Session of the Standing Committee on Trademarks</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 29, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Wikipedia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following has been done under <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Announcement</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/cis-signs-mou-with-mysore-university">CIS Signs MoU with Mysore University</a> (by Dr. U.B.Pavanaja, April 16, 2014): for converting to Unicode and re-releasing their encyclopaedia under Creative Commons License. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja on behalf of the CIS-A2K team signed the MoU. The signing event took place earlier on February 22, 2014. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/openaccessweek-april-3-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-vachana-sanchaya">Vachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, April 3, 2014)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/subhashish-panigrahi-article-in-amalekha">୭୯ ବର୍ଷରେ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଶା: ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବହାର</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Amalekha, April 4, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/kadambini-april-8-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-language-and-development-in-digital-era">ଓଡ଼ିଅା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, The Kadambini, April 8, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/creative-commons-subhashish-panigrahi-april-18-2014-report-from-india-relicensing-books-under-creative-commons">Report from India: Relicensing books under CC</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Creative Commons Blog, April 19, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/dna-rohini-lakshane-april-26-2014-14-books-re-released-under-creative-commons-license">14 Odia books re-released under Creative Commons license</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, April 26, 2014). The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/tulu-wikipedia-workshop">Tulu Wikipedia Workshop</a> (organized by CIS-A2K, Balmatta Computer Centre, Mangalore, April 5, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop. </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/daijiworld-april-6-2014-mangalore-wikipedia-workshop-held-for-konkani-writers">Konkani Wikipedia Workshop</a> (co-organized by All India Konkani Writers Organization and CIS-A2K, Kalaangann Shaktinagar, April 6, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/tulu-wikipedia-editathon">Tulu Wikipedia Editathon</a> (co-organized by Karnataka Theological College and CIS-A2K, Mangalore, April 19, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/wiki-session-for-prajavani-journalists">Wikipedia Session for Trainee Journos</a> (organized by Prajavani, Bangalore, April 28, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja took a session for the trainee journalists of Prajavani Kannada daily on Wikipedia. </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/world-book-day">World Book Day</a> (organized by Karnataka Publishers’ Association, Indian Institute of World Culture, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, April 23, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was a speaker.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/relevance-of-bhagabat-tungi-in-evolution-of-odia-language?searchterm=Relevance+of+Bhagabat+Tungi+in+the+evolution+of+Odia+language+from+Buddha+era+to+digital+age">Relevance of Bhagabat Tungi in the evolution of Odia language from Buddha era to digital age</a> (organized by The Intellects, Shree Jagannath Mandir and Odisha Art and Cultural Center, New Delhi, April 24, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage<br /></b>CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/daijiworld-april-6-2014-mangalore-wikipedia-workshop-held-for-konkani-writers">M'lore: Wikipedia Workshop held for Konkani writers</a> (Daijiworld, April 6, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2014/04/10/odia-loves-wikipedia/">Odia Loves Wikipedia</a> (Rising Voices, April 10, 2014). This was also published in <a href="http://es.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/04/12/el-idioma-oriya-ama-a-wikipedia/">Spanish</a> and in <a href="http://ru.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/04/13/28775/">Russian</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/international-book-day/article5932673.ece">International Book Day</a> (The Hindu, April 21, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/deccan-herald-april-23-2014-books-are-a-bridge-between-generations">Books are a bridge between generations</a> (The Deccan Herald, April 23, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/vijayavani-april-23-2014-world-book-day">World Book Day Report</a> (Vijaywani, April 23, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/eodishasamacharseminar-on-odia-language-in-new-delhi-by-the-intellects">Seminar on Odia Language in New Delhi by the Intellects</a> (Odisha Samachar, April 24, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/delhi-meet-focuses-on-bhagabat-tungi-revival.html">Delhi meet focuses on Bhagabat Tungi revival</a> (The Pioneer, April 26, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">NETmundial</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of its participation in the NETmundial event organized in Brazil by Brazilian Internet Steering Committee in partnership with /1Net at Sao Paulo on April 23 and 24, 2014 CIS produced a total of 16 outputs:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Sumandro Chattapadhyay produced these visual representations: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-comparing-appearance-of-fifty-most-frequent-words">Comparing Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-contributions-by-countries-of-origin">Contributions by Countries of Origin</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-contributions-by-types-of-organisation">Contributions by Types of Organisation</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-which-countries-have-not-contributed-to-net-mundial">Which Countries Have Not Submitted Contributions to NETmundial?</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-which-governments-have-not-contributed-to-net-mundial">Which Governments Have Not Submitted Contributions to NETmundial?</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-word-clouds-of-contributions-by-types-of-organisation">Word Clouds of Contributions by Types of Organisation</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-tracking-multi-stakeholder-across-contributions">Tracking *Multistakeholder* across Contributions</a>. Achal Prabhala participated in the event and wrote these: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-0">Day 0</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-1">Day 1</a>, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-2">Day 2</a>. <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/netmundial-transcript-archive">Transcript of the NETmundial</a> for archival purposes was made available by Pranesh Prakash. Smarika Kumar produced two research outputs: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-and-suggestions-for-iana-administration">NETmundial and Suggestions for IANA Administration</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/accountability-of-icann">Accountability of ICANN</a>. Geetha Hariharan wrote two blog posts: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/marco-civil-da-internet">Marco Civil da Internet: Brazil’s ‘Internet Constitution’</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/brazil-passes-marco-civil-us-fcc-alters-stance-on-net-neutrality">Brazil passes Marco Civil; the US-FCC Alters its Stance on Net Neutrality</a>. Jyoti Panday wrote one blog post: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-roadmap-defining-roles-of-stakeholders-in-multistakeholderism">NETmundial Roadmap: Defining the Roles of Stakeholders in Multistakeholderism</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Privacy</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Analyses</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/report-of-group-of-experts-on-privacy-vs-leaked-2014-privacy-bill">Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy vs. The Leaked 2014 Privacy Bill</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/banking-policy-guide">Banking Policy Guide</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, April 22, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-embodiment-of-right-to-privacy-within-domestic-legislation">The Embodiment of the Right to Privacy within Domestic Legislation</a> (by Tanvi Mani, April 29, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/yojana-april-2014-sunil-abraham-who-governs-the-internet-implications-for-freedom-and-national-security">Who Governs the Internet? Implications for Freedom and National Security</a> (by Sunil Abraham, Yojana, April 4, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hoot-bhairav-acharya-april-15-2014-privacy-law-in-india-a-muddled-field-1">Privacy Law in India: A Muddled Field – I</a> (by Bhairav Acharya, The Hoot, April 15, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/council-for-responsible-genetics-april-2014-sunil-abraham-very-big-brother">Very Big Brother</a> (by Sunil Abraham, GeneWatch, January – April 2014 Issue).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/south-african-protection-personal-information-act-2013">South African Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013</a> (by Divij Joshi, April 16, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cgcs.asc.upenn.edu/fileLibrary/PDFs/MW_Updated_Agenda_for_Website.pdf">Milton Wolf Seminar on Media and Diplomacy: The Third Man Theme Revisited: Foreign Policies of the Internet in a Time Of Surveillance and Disclosure</a> (jointly organized by the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, the American Austrian Foundation (AAF), and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (DA), Vienna, March 30 – April 1, 2014). Nishant Shah participated in the event as a panelist.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/gsma-partners-meeting">GSMA Partners Meeting</a> (organized by Privacy International, London, April 9, 2014). Elonnai Hickok participated in this meeting.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/critical-life-of-information">The Critical Life of Information</a> (organized by Yale University, 100 Wall Street, April 11, 2014). Nishant Shah spoke in the panel on Big Data and Governance. Malavika Jayaram spoke in the panel on Big Data and the Arts.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/round-table-on-user-safety-on-internet">Round-table on User Safety on the Internet</a> (organized by Consumer Voice and Google, Infantry Road, Bangalore, April 24, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ssn-2014-sixth-biannual-surveillance-and-society-conference">6th Biannual Surveillance and Society Conference</a> (organized by Eticas Research and Consulting, University of Barcelona and CCCB, April 26 – 24, 2014). Malavika Jayaram gave a talk on “Biometrics in beta: experimenting on a nation (while normalising surveillance for 1.2 billion people)”.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cgcs-nishant-shah-april-1-2014-between-the-local-and-the-global">Between the Local and the Global: Notes Towards Thinking the Nature of Internet Policy</a> (by Nishant Shah, cgcsblog, April 1, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dml-central-april-17-2014-nishant-shah-networks-what-you-dont-see-is-what-you-for-get">Networks: What You Don’t See is What You (for)Get</a> (by Nishant Shah, April 17, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news">News & Media Coverage</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/outlook-april-1-2014-two-indians-in-global-commission-on-web-governance">Two Indians in Global Commission on Web Governance</a> (April 1, 2014): Sunil Abraham was named as one of the experts. This was published in <a href="http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=835007">Outlook</a>, <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-04-01/news/48767578_1_internet-governance-two-indians-general-dynamics">Economic Times</a>, and in <a href="http://mattersindia.com/two-indians-among-25-selected-for-internet-governance-network/">Matters India</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/newslaundry-april-1-2014-somi-das-the-take-down-of-free-speech-online">The Take Down of Free Speech Online</a> (Newslaundry, April 1, 2014): CIS research on Intermediary Liabilities is quoted.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/livemint-april-1-2014-shweta-taneja-the-politics-of-facebook">The politics of Facebook</a> (by Shweta Tiwari, April 1, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/business-standard-april-3-2014-surabhi-agarwal-new-privacy-bill-more-refined-has-wider-ambit-say-experts">New privacy Bill more refined & has wider ambit, say experts</a> (by Surabhi Agarwal, Business Standard, April 2, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/economic-times-april-3-2014-m-rajshekhar-should-nandan-nilekani-aadhar-project-for-identity-proof-and-welfare-delivery-exist">Should Nandan Nilekani's Aadhaar project, for identity proof and welfare delivery, exist at all?</a> (by M. Rajshekhar, April 3, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/economic-times-april-10-2014-varuni-khosla-lok-sabha-polls">Lok sabha polls: Social media companies launch special pages for polls</a> (by Varuni Khosla, Economic Times, April 10, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/governance-now-april-12-2014-pratap-vikram-singh-parties-give-short-shrift-to-privacy">Parties give short shrift to privacy</a> (by Pratap Vikram Singh, GovernanceNow.com, April 12, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/governance-now-april-13-2014-pratap-vikram-singh-no-party-has-got-clear-stand-aadhaar-fate-hangs-in-balance">No party's got a clear stand, Aadhaar's fate hangs in balance</a> (by Pratap Vikram Singh, GovernanceNow.com, April 13, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-april-24-2014-india-wants-core-internet-infrastructure">'India wants core internet infrastructure'</a> (by Indrani Bagchi, April 24, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-april-25-indrani-bagchi-india-for-inclusive-internet-governance">India for inclusive internet governance</a> (by Indrani Bagchi, April 25, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/dna-amrita-madhukalya-april-26-2014-facebook-launches-fb-newswire-for-journalists-loses-part-of-its-immunity-under-it-act-2000">Facebook launches FB Newswire for journalists; loses part of its immunity under IT Act 2000</a> (by Amrita Madhukalya, DNA, April 26, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities">Digital Humanities</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/confession-in-digital-age">Confession in the Digital Age</a> (by Rimi Nandy, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/animating-the-archive">Animating the Archive – A Survey of Printed Digitized Materials in Bengali and their Use in Higher Education</a> (by Saidul Haque, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/doing-digital-humanities">‘Doing’ Digital Humanities: Reflections on a project on Online Feminism in India</a> (by Sujatha Subramanian, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/the-machinistic-paradigm-collapse">The Machinistic Paradigm Collapse</a> (by Anirudh Sridhar, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/exploring-the-digital-landscape">Exploring the Digital Landscape: An Overview</a> (by P.P.Sneha, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-problem-of-definition">Digital Humanities and the Problem of Definition</a> (by P.P.Sneha, April 25, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h2>
<p>CIS is doing a research project titled “Making Change”. The project will explore new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, the project will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia:</p>
<h3>Making Change Project<b> </b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/multimedia-storytellers">Multimedia Storytellers: Panel Discussion</a> (by Denisse Albornoz, April 16, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful">From Taboo to Beautiful – Menstrupedia</a> (by Denisse Albornoz, April 30, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/tech-talk-landscape-of-wireless-communications-and-electromagnetic-spectrum">Tech Talk: Landscape of Wireless Communications & Electromagnetic Spectrum</a> (CIS, Bangalore, April 28, 2014). A. Radha Krishna gave a talk on wireless communication technologies.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Twitter:<a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K"> </a><a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Facebook group: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k">https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
<li>Visit us at:<a href="https://cis-india.org/"> </a><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge</a></li>
<li>E-mail: <a href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Support Us</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Request for Collaboration:<br />We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at <a href="mailto:nishant@cis-india.org">nishant@cis-india.org</a>. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at <a href="mailto:vishnu@cis-india.org">vishnu@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i> </i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2014-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2014-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpennessResearchers at Work2014-07-04T03:38:00ZPageOdia Wikipedia Turning 13 this June 3
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen
<b>The Odia Wikipedia is turning 13 this June 3. To celebrate this long time of the editor community's tireless effort to make it to the largest Odia-language online encyclopedia an event is being organised in Odisha' capital Bhubaneswar. Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) is proudly sponsoring for this event. Subhashish Panigrahi and Rahmanuddin Shaik are representing CIS at this event.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Over 20 Wikipedians from various corners of India are participating for a public gathering that is planned on June 3 at the Institute of Physics at 5 pm. A day-long internal meetup for the community in the presence of Wikimedia India and CIS-A2K has been planned that focuses on raising consensus for policy and guidelines for Odia Wikipedia, and planning for the activities ahead in the light of successes and learning from failures from the past.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Promotional Banner</h3>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/OdiaWikipedia13bannerCCbySA4.0.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Odia Wikipedia" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaEvent2016-06-18T18:19:22ZEventPriyadarshini Tadkodkar on Konkani language
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/priyadarshini-tadkodkar-konkani-language
<b>CIS-A2K team interviewed Priyadarshini Tadkodkar about Konkani language. She speaks how editing/contributing to Konkani Wikipedia would help students.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge <a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Programme_Plan">(CIS-A2K) team</a> was there in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.unigoa.ac.in/">Goa University</a> to conduct a four day long Konkani Wikipedia workshop for the MA Konkani students. During these days Subhashish Panigrahi of CIS-A2K caught up with Dr. Priyadarshini Tadkodkar, Head, Konkani department of Goa University and asked about the brief history of Konkani language. In this video Dr. Tadkodkar shares the origin and movements that has affected Konkani, influence of other languages on it and the documentation process of the language. The Census Department of India, 2001 figures put the number of Konkani speakers in India as 2,489,015. Out of these, around 6 lakh were in Goa, 7 lakh in Karnataka, 3 lakh in Maharashtra, 6 lakh in Kerala and rest live outside of India, either as expatriates or citizens of other countries (NRIs).</p>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Video</h3>
<table class="plain">
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<th><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZU67gw90EJo" width="520"></iframe></th>
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<td>Above: Video of Priyadarshini Tadkodkar speaking on Konkani language<br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/priyadarshini-tadkodkar-konkani-language'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/priyadarshini-tadkodkar-konkani-language</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaKonkani WikipediaVideoOpenness2014-01-31T06:20:11ZBlog EntryOdia waits for Google Translate debut - Nine Indian languages available
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-telepgrah-april-6-2015-anwesha-ambaly-odia-waits-for-google-translate-debut-nine-indian-languages-available
<b>Odia getting the "classical" status last year was certainly a proud moment for the people of the state, but, it is yet to feature among the languages available in Google's popular translation service.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Anwesha Ambaly was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150406/jsp/frontpage/story_12966.jsp#.VUwOXPB8ifU">published in the Telegraph</a> on April 6, 2015. Subhashish Panigrahi was quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Over 90 languages, including nine from India (Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu) are part of the service.<br /><br />Odia, which is spoken by over 45 million people globally, is yet to debut here.<br /><br />Techies working in the field attribute the reason to the lack of web presence of the language.<br /><br />"Google has set parameters on the basis of which translations are available. Only those languages that have a wide use on the Internet and have enough online content are included in the list. The online presence of Odia is quite insignificant," said Subhashish Panigrahi, programme officer at Centre for Internet and Society and a regular contributor to Odia Wikipedia.<br /><br />Among the limited data in Odia available online, Odia Wikipedia and Odia Wikisource have emerged as important reference sources for all kinds of information.<br /><br />The Odia Wikipedia serves as an online encyclopaedia that was initiated in 2002 and hosts over 8,000 articles in Odia. The Odia Wikisource was launched in the state last year and is run by volunteers and communities. It is a sister concern of Odia Wikipedia that makes rare Odia books available on the Internet.<br /><br />However, a Google spokesperson said: "We value all Indic languages and search and Gmail are available in 16 Indian languages with more languages to follow"<br /><br />Recently, the entire Odia Bhagbata by Jagannath Das was made available on Wikisource. Also, Bhubaneswar-based organisation Srujanika, in collaboration with NIT, Rourkela, has digitized over 750 books. But these apart, there are no major online portals available in Odia.<br /><br />Panigrahi and his contributor friends are presently working at promoting the Google Translate community, which is a platform for language enthusiasts and volunteers interested in improving translation quality for their language or help Google add it to translate.<br /><br />"To ensure more availability of online content, people should be encouraged to share information on the web. More Odia content on the web will get a wider reach," said the techie.<br /><br />"We are quite hopeful that the translator would be available in Odia soon."<br /><br />The universal web-compatible Unicode font for Odia language was developed in 2000. Despite the Unicode standard having been made available over a decade ago, Odia language is not used actively on the Internet.<br /><br />"We are still stuck to using outdated fonts such as Akruti and Sreelipi for typing text in Odia and most of these are not compatible for using on the Internet. There are thousands of book and articles available in these fonts. Most of the important content available on the government portals also uses the older fonts. Unless content is available in Unicode, it will not be searchable, sharable and reusable on the Internet," said Panigrahi.<br /><br />One of the earliest websites in Odia was developed by Ganesh Mishra in 1999 for a popular Odia daily. But the website was shut down after six years when the concept of e-paper came into being.<br /><br />"These days, most of the publishers of Odia newspapers and magazines have come up with e-papers which are nothing but the scanned images of the original pages. But an online search won't display them as results. Online content in Unicode is accessible through search engines," said the website developer.<br /><br />He said that people have so many alternatives on the Internet that the absence of Odia language is not felt. "Customers often initiate commercial websites in Odia but soon request us to change it to English because it was inconvenient for users," said Mishra.<br /><br />Some youngsters in the state are coming up with online portals to promote Odia literature. Jyoti Prasad Patnaik, a doctor by profession, has been running an online Odia literary magazine since 2006.<br /><br />"The Internet is the most powerful medium of communication these days and there could be no better way to popularise our language other than this. When I started out, there were hardly any readers. Today my website has around 5,000 visitors every month. The number is growing slowly and I hope it will increase in the future," said Patnaik.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-telepgrah-april-6-2015-anwesha-ambaly-odia-waits-for-google-translate-debut-nine-indian-languages-available'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-telepgrah-april-6-2015-anwesha-ambaly-odia-waits-for-google-translate-debut-nine-indian-languages-available</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2015-05-08T01:27:21ZNews ItemCIS-A2K, KIIT University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences sign MoUs
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/cis-a2k-kiit-university-kaling-institute-of-social-sciences-mou
<b>KIIT University, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoUs) for furthering Odia Wikipedia.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Dr.Achyuta Samanta, Founder-Chairman of KIIT and KISS inaugurated both the collaborations formally. Dr. Sasmitarani Samanta, Registrar, KIIT and Surjya Kanta Mohanty, Chief Operating Officer, KISS signed the MoUs of KIIT and KISS respectively whereas T. Vishnuvardhan, Programme Director, CIS-A2K was there to sign in both the MoUs on behalf of CIS along with Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CIS-A2K. Odia Wikipedians Dr. Subas Chandra Rout, Shitikantha Dash, Jnanaranjan Sahu and Sailesh Patnaik, senior faculty and management members; Prof. Parthosen Gupta, Professor-KIIT School of Management, Sucheta Priyabadini, Joint Registrar, KIIT Santosh K. Pani, Dean-KIIT School of Electrical Engineering and other staff members from KISS were there for this event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The event was held on January 11, 2014 from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/cis-a2k-kiit-university-kaling-institute-of-social-sciences-mou'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/cis-a2k-kiit-university-kaling-institute-of-social-sciences-mou</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaOpenness2014-02-03T06:24:18ZBlog EntryWhite Paper on Data Protection and Privacy
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/white-paper-on-data-protection-and-privacy
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/white-paper-on-data-protection-and-privacy'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/white-paper-on-data-protection-and-privacy</a>
</p>
No publisherAdmin2018-03-07T14:57:05ZFileOdia Wikipedia: Three Years of Active Contributions Gives Life to a Ten Year Old Project
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hastac-january-31-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-wikipedia
<b>Odia Wikipedia has carved its mark as the largest online encyclopedia in Odia language that is edited by a volunteer editor community.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hastac.org/blogs/psubhashish/2014/01/31/odia-wikipedia-three-years-active-contributions-gives-life-ten-years-ol">published by HASTAC</a> on January 31, 2014.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">By 29th of January this year it is 10 year old and 5000 articles rich. Though this was started as one of the first four Indic language Wikipedias. In 2011 there were only 550 articles with practically no contributors. The initial Wikipedians struggled to reach out to more people. Luckily, with more people coming on the Internet – primarily on social media platforms, collaboration became easier. Odia Wikipedia’s facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OdiaWiki">page</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/OdiaWiki">group</a> became the social gateway to get used to working within the Odia language. This is one of the languages which has very little online presence when it comes to having content as Unicode text. Many people still struggle with the outdated pirated operating systems installed in their computers which added more hurdles in the way of all the community led Wikipedia outreach programs. There has been more developments in recent days in language input and online contribution in Odia. More people started searching for online content using Odia in Unicode. This is where Odia Wikipedia played a crucial role in promoting a massive growth in content which is reflected in the readership. Monthly page views which remained consistently low over the years started <a href="http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/SummaryOR.htm">growing from less than 1000 to more than 400,000</a> and at times hitting the 500,000 mark. This is the highest among all the websites that have Odia content. With a variety of new projects and more contributors than ever, Wikipedia Odia happily celebrated its its 10th anniversary over two days. Odia Wikipedians gathered in two different educational institutes; <a href="http://www.kiss.ac.in/">Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences</a> in Bhubaneswar on the 28th of January and <a href="http://www.iimc.nic.in/branches-dhenkanal.html">Indian Institute of Mass Communication</a> in Dhenkanal on the 29th.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Day 1</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">First day of Odia Wikipedia 10 began with the traditional <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhena_Poda">Chhena poda</a> by noted linguist Padmashree Dr. Debiprasanna Patnaik. Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) has recently collaborated with The Centre for Internet and Society for the resource gathering, documentation and archival of 62 tribal communities of Odisha and neighboring eastern Indian states and initiating Wikipedia projects in the indigenous tribal languages. The first few phase of the workshop brought about 15 students pursuing their masters in Arts, Science and Commerce disciplines and 10 faculty members.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This project also will also dovetail into the <a href="http://www.mle-india.net/search/label/Bernard%20van%20Leer%20Foundation">Mother Tongue based Multilingual Lab</a> that has been set up in the institute to foster educational materials in tribal languages. Dr. Patnaik spoke to these contributors about the native languages and the importance of documenting language and cultural heritage online. Subrat Prusty, General Secretary of Janasammilani and founding member of <a href="http://www.odiabiswabidyalaya.org/view-content/12/about-us.html">Odia Biswabidyalaya</a> gave a talk on the factors that have diminished the native languages and how collaborative efforts could revive dying languages through a 5000 word free-license dictionary in Odia. With the audio recording of Dr. Patnaik introducing himself, Odia Wikipedians inaugurated the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Voice_intro_project">Voice intro project</a> as the first Indic language project. Odia Wikipedians interacted with the students and teachers at KISS to get their inputs on the kind of knowledge imparted by introducing Wikipedia editing. Later these will streamline the process of writing to the linguistic team for pledging for the classical language status of Odia.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Day 2</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second day of Odia Wikipedia 10 was celebrated in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) Dhenkanal campus . Students who had participated in the <a href="https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:କର୍ମଶାଳା/ଢେଙ୍କାନାଳ/୪">series of Odia Wikipedia workshops</a> earlier in the year took part in this event. Sampad Mohapatra, a TV and print media journalist inaugurated the event by lighting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diya_%28light%29">Dipa</a> and cutting a birthday Chenapoda. Mohapatra shared his experiences on how the entire media industry relies on Wikipedia for collecting information and how contribution in regional languages will benefit the students through more job availability in the regional media. Professor Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee who heads the institution shared the way accessing knowledge is slowly moving to internet based search. He discussed strategies of how bringing more online content in regional languages will help the academia and the students. Usha Padhee, Secretary of Mass Education Department, Odisha Government distributed awards to the top Wikipedia contributors. She later presented on the role of media in educating society and Open Educational Resources in new tools of imparting knowledge.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hastac-january-31-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hastac-january-31-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2014-02-04T08:56:35ZBlog EntryBengaluru: A Hub for Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects!
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/bengaluru-a-hub-for-kannada-and-sanskrit-wikipedia
<b>Kannada Wikipedia is one of those Indic language wikipedias which has seen many readers coming up every month. Subhashish Panigrahi summarizes the experiences of some of the very active Kannada wikipedians from the recent Kannada Wikipedia meetup held in Bengaluru on October 7, 2012.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Seven Kannada wikipedians (a couple of them also contribute to Sanskrit Wikipedia) participated in this <a class="external-link" href="http://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B5%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%95%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%80%E0%B2%A1%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%AF:%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%AE%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AE%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%B2%E0%B2%A8/%E0%B3%AB">event</a>. Nitika Tandon and Subhashish Panigrahi from the Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet & Society and Jessie Wild from the Wikimedia Foundation also participated in the event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After a brief introduction about the theme of the meetup, Omshivaprakash, one of the active contributors for community building who also solves technical issues besides contributing articles explained the history and happenings of Kannada Wikipedia said “the only reason all of us joined together to contribute for Kannada Wikipedia is because we love our mother language, Kannada.” He explained how he reached out to a renowned Kannada writer asking him to document his own writings and books to become active on Kannada Wikipedia and start contributing. In the recent past Kannada community has organized many outreach events. The presentation for each outreach has been translated and customized for effective presentation. In the past they struggled for the six username creation barrier. Om also spoke about the scope of government partnership for including Kannada Wikipedia in the school syllabus (which worked out really well in Kerala) for which he is willing to meet the government officials. Additionally, he also shared the idea of recording an outreach session and presenting it to the government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another active wikipedian, Tejas emphasized the importance of having Kannada Wikipedia as part of the syllabus where lecturers and teachers will be learning to teach about Wikipedia in the classroom. As this will be mandatory, both students and teachers will take it seriously and it would be a sustainable practice. To show the results about 4-5 schools could be shortlisted for a pilot program. Tejas also proposed the idea of including Kannada typing in schools because that is something most people are not taught.</p>
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<p><i> </i></p>
<p><i> </i></p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/wkp2.jpg" alt="bengaluru wikipedia" class="image-inline" title="bengaluru wikipedia" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><i>The above picture shows some participants working on their laptops during the meetup.</i></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The wikipedians further discussed about Kannada Wiktionary and how collaborations will work to bridge the gap of wikipedians who contribute separately for Kannada Wikipedia and Wiktionary. Frequently Used Entries for Localization (FUEL) is a great project for creating content on Wiktionary, which will involve bringing new people to the community. In Bengaluru, CIS and <a href="http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsanchaya.net%2F2012%2F05%2Ffuel-kannada-workshop-on-kannada-computing-terminology%2F&ei=8L93UMrzD4iHrAfIsICQCg&usg=AFQjCNFfXFz-D48NPY27lCwY-cx_O4OoSw&sig2=_PkJ_65fL-q5XrczMchblg" target="_blank">Sanchaya</a><i> </i>co-hosted a two-day workshop for discussion regarding the same. Involving more wikimedians for such workshops would be helpful for both the projects, Wikipedia and Wiktionary. “I was always keen to do something for Kannada language on the web, being a software professional nothing leaves me a better chance to work for such a project like Wikipedia in my own language,” expresses Pavithra, another active Kannada Wikipedian who has supported many outreach events and translation projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedians, those who were a few weeks older, spoke about the problems they are facing when searching databases. Even the experienced wikipedians face the same problem. Options, such as having a central place, like a list of templates with little description and templates which could be standardized so that anyone could contribute to the translation and other things which need contribution, were discussed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Tejas, a long-term Kannada Wikipedian discussed about the non-standard nature of the South Asian language wiktionaries. If Wiktionary could be standardized it could be easier to ask other communities to collaborate and contribute in their respective languages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Discussion on Sanskrit Wiki projects:</b><br />Abhiram, another wikipedian who initially began with editing Sanskrit WikiSource and then started contributing to Kannada Wikipedia explained the hurdles they faced while spreading the word about Sanskrit WikiSource in Karnataka. Being closely associated to <a href="http://samskritabharati.in/" target="_blank">Samskrita Bharati</a> and contributing largely to the Kannada WikiSource project, Abhiram feels not many people can write in Sanskrit though they can speak because of their fluency in the Devanagari script. People who study Sanskrit lose their grip of it after they pass 10<sup>th</sup> or 12<sup>th</sup> grades. “As Sanskrit is rarely found as a spoken language a lot of ground work and motivation for the contributors are needed to cultivate a community. We could plan for 10 spoken Sanskrit sessions in a month to kick-start before we teach how to edit Sanskrit Wikipedia”, Abhiram added.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/bengaluru-a-hub-for-kannada-and-sanskrit-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/bengaluru-a-hub-for-kannada-and-sanskrit-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publisherSubhashish PanigrahiOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2012-11-04T14:03:49ZBlog EntrySeptember 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the newsletter of September 2012 from the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS). The present issue features a second analysis by Snehashish Ghosh on the latest list of sites blocked by the Indian government from August 18, 2012 to August 21, 2012, a research on the issues of internet governance by Smarika Kumar, publication of a report on Accessibility of Government websites in India by Nirmita Narasimhan, Mukesh Sharma and Dinesh Kaushal, the Access to Knowledge programme plan and updates from the Wikipedia community in India on Indic languages, updates from the Habits of Living workshop organised in Bengaluru, the events connected to the visits of international DNA experts, Helen Wallace and Jeremy Gruber in India, and introduce you to our Access to Knowledge team members. </b>
<hr />
<h3>Announcements</h3>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span class="visualHighlight"><b>Office in Delhi</b></span><br />CIS now has an office with a five-member team for the Access to Knowledge programme in Delhi at G 15, top floor, behind Hauz Khas G Block Market, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, Ph: + 91 11 26536425.</p>
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<p><span class="visualHighlight"><b>New Team Members</b></span></p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/staff/cis-staff">Nitika Tandon</a>: Nitika Tandon is a Program Officer with CIS. She has an MBA from Rotterdam School of Management, Netherlands and is a recipient of Dean's Fund Scholarship Program, Erasmus University.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/staff/cis-staff">Shiju Alex</a>: Shiju Alex is a Consultant. His background is technical writing and he is interested in Indic language computing and community building for Indic language Wiki projects. Presently he works out of CIS office in Bengaluru.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/staff/cis-staff">Subhashish Panigrahi</a>: Subhashish Panigrahi is a Programme Officer to CIS's Access to Knowledge programme and works out of CIS's Delhi office. His background is Business Development in Corporate Communications. He works on designing and implementing programs to provide on-wiki and off-wiki support for new editors.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/staff/cis-staff">Noopur Raval</a>: Noopur Raval is working as Consultant - Communications for the Access to Knowledge team at CIS. Having previously worked in the media, she is currently pursuing her M.Phil in Cinema Studies from JNU, New Delhi.</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Jobs</b><br />CIS is seeking applications from interested candidates for the posts of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/research-manager">Research Manager</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-for-researcher-accessibility">Researcher/Editor</a>, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-internet-governance">Programme Officer – Internet Governance</a>. To apply for these posts send your resume to Sunil Abraham (<a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a>) with three references. Archives of our bulletins can be <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/">found here</a>. Click to read the newsletter on our website.</p>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>
<hr />
<p>India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies:<br /><b>Featured Research</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/accessibility-of-government-websites-in-india">Accessibility of Government Websites in India: A Report</a> (by Nirmita Narasimhan, Mukesh Sharma and Dinesh Kaushal, September 26, 2012): This is a report on the accessibility of government websites in India. It was published in cooperation with the Hans Foundation. The report consists of an executive summary, introduction, methodology, findings and recommendations and interpretation and recommendations. Examples of errors are given as appendices. </li>
</ul>
<p><b>Project</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/creating-a-national-resource-kit-for-persons-with-disabilities">Creating a National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities: An Introduction</a> (by Anandhi Viswanathan, September 28, 2012): CIS is engaged in a two-and-a-half year project starting from August 2012 to create a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. This project is supported by the Hans Foundation. The Resource Kit will be brought out in both English and Hindi and disseminated to policy makers from panchayat to ministry levels throughout India. Anandhi gives an introduction to the project in this blog entry.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/wipo-treaty-for-the-visually-impaired">WIPO Treaty for the Visually Impaired — Moving from a Treaty on Paper to a Treaty that is Workable on the Ground</a> (by Rahul Cherian, September 28, 2012): After many years of hard lobbying by the World Blind Union, it appears that the WIPO Treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities (TVI) could become a reality next year. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/breaking-news-on-electronic-accessibility">Breaking News on Electronic Accessibility</a> (by Rahul Cherian, September 28, 2012): The Parliamentary Standing Committee constituted to study the Electronic Delivery of Services Bill has in its report explicitly recognized the concept of electronic accessibility and reasonable accommodation. This is the first time in the country that these two concepts have been reflected at the level of a Parliamentary Standing Committee in relation to a non-disability specific law.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<p><b>Submission</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/feedback-to-draft-copyright-rules-2012">Feedback to Draft Copyright Rules, 2012</a> (by Pranesh Prakash, September 29, 2012): submitted its written comments on the Draft Copyright Rules, 2012 to Mr. G.R. Raghavender, Registrar of Copyrights & Director (BP&CR), Ministry of Human Resource Development. Pranesh does a detailed analysis and provides recommendations on Rules 8,9,10, 29(6), 34(2), 37, 71(3), 72, 74(1), 74(6), 75, and 79 (3) and (4).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Projects</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">Access To Knowledge/Programme Plan</a>: Pursuant to the announcement made on July 30, 2012 of a 22 months ‘grant’ (beginning from September 1, 2012 to July 31, 2014) of upto INR 26,000,000 and as reflected in the FAQ accompanying the announcement, the Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program will become a project of the Access to Knowledge (A2K) program of CIS. The prime objective is to support the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects and supporting India-focused efforts to improve the quality of India-relevant content on Indic languages and English Wikimedia projects.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/pervasive-technologies-access-to-knowledge-in-the-market-place">Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 25, 2012): Jadine Lannon gives an introduction to the new A2K research initiative. Pervasive technologies have flooded the Indian market and are changing the ways in which the average Indian accesses knowledge but very little is understood about these technologies, particularly when it comes to their legality. CIS hopes to do a research that aims to understand how pervasive technologies interact with Intellectual Property laws and what can be done to protect these technologies from being labelled “illegal” and eradicated from the Asian market.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event Participated</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/info-justice-public-events-flexibility-network">Meeting of the Global Network on Flexible Limitations and Exceptions</a> (organised by American University Washington College of Law, Washington D.C., September 12 to 15, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Featured Research</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/issues-in-internet-governance">An Introduction to the Issues in Internet Governance</a> (by Smarika Kumar, September 23, 2012): Smarika provides a detailed analysis to the issues that we face in Internet Governance today. She tries to canvass the controversies in the areas of internet governance that broadly focus around the institutional structures to govern the internet, discusses the evolution of these models against the historical background of internet governance and then proceeds to present the criticisms of each of these models with an emphasis on the interests of the regular internet user.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/analyzing-the-latest-list-of-blocked-sites-communalism-and-rioting-edition-part-ii">Analyzing the Latest List of Blocked Sites (Communalism and Rioting Edition) Part II</a> (by Snehashish Ghosh, September 25, 2012): Snehashish Ghosh does a further analysis of the leaked list of the websites blocked by the Indian Government from August 18, 2012 till August 21, 2012 (“leaked list”). This analysis was <a href="http://www.medianama.com/2012/09/223-analyzing-the-latest-list-of-blocked-sites-communalism-rioting-edition-part-ii/">re-posted</a> by Medianama on September 26, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Columns</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/www-deccan-chronicle-sep-16-2012-sunil-abraham-the-five-monkeys-and-ice-cold-water">The Five Monkeys & Ice-cold Water</a> (by Sunil Abraham, Deccan Chronicle, September 16, 2012): “The Indian government provides leadership, both domestically and internationally, when it comes to access to knowledge.”</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/www-the-hindubusinessline-op-ed-sep-1-2012-chinmayi-arun-sms-block-as-threat-to-free-speech">SMS Block as Threat to Free Speech</a> (by Chinmayi Arun, Hindu Business Line, September 1, 2012): If you could text just one or two people in a day, who would you choose? Many of us have had to make this choice thanks to the order limiting us to five texts a day. Short Message Service (SMS) is not used primarily to send staccato messages like the telegraph was.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<ul>
<p class="callout"><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/dna-india-sep-27-2012-dilnaz-boga-censorship-makes-india-fall-two-places-on-global-internet-freedom-chart">Censorship makes India fall two places on global internet freedom chart</a> (by Dilnaz Boga, Daily News & Analysis, September 27, 2012). Pranesh Prakash’s analysis on blocked websites is quoted.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-livemint-september-25-2012-surabhi-agarwal-pitroda-seeks-to-put-govt-information-in-public-domain">Pitroda seeks to put govt information in public domain</a> (by Surabhi Agarwal, LiveMint, September 25, 2012): “One government bureaucrat available on Twitter for a fixed period doesn’t make up for the non-existence of the government on social media…they (government) should be available all the time.” — Sunil Abraham.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-livemint-com-sep-19-2012-surabhi-agarwal-govt-plans-inter-ministerial-panel-on-internet-policy">Govt plans inter-ministerial panel on Internet policy</a> (by Surabhi Agarwal, LiveMint, September 19, 2012): ““The thumb rule with governance, be it international or national, is that coordination policy formulation bodies is a good idea, but we can’t damn or praise them over the process...We have to see what coordination results out of the body.” — Sunil Abraham.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-times-of-india-sept-16-2012-atul-sethi-mind-of-the-millennium-teen">Mind of the millennium teen</a> (by Atul Sethi, The Times of India, September 16, 2012): “We live in accelerated times...The breathlessness of our times is evident in everything — from the kind of movies we make to the ways in which our news and information travel. At the end of the day, our younger generations are also products of our times.”— Nishant Shah.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-firstpost-com-sep-6-2012-china-outranks-india-in-worlds-first-ever-web-index">China outranks India in world’s first ever web index</a> (First Post, September 6, 2012): ““The Internet today doesn’t work according to the idealistic principles of openness, and democracy of information that Berners-Lee envisioned for it, and in India in particular, although the Internet has helped us rethink what the government can do, the attitude is that that Internet can only be used in ways that the government sees fit.” — Nishant Shah.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-livemint-com-surabhi-agarwal-sep-4-2012-need-a-strategy-to-deal-with-web-issues">Need a standard strategy to deal with Web issues: Chandrasekhar</a> (by Surabhi Agarwal, LiveMint, September 4, 2012). Pranesh Prakash’s analysis on blocked websites is quoted.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/cis-india.org/news/www-tehelka-com-kunal-majumder-tehelka-magazine-vol-9-issue-36-sep-8-2012-political-war-on-the-web">Political war on the web</a> (by Kunal Majumder, Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 36, September 8, 2012): “The fact remains none of the blockings were politically motivated.” — Pranesh Prakash.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-the-hindu-com-shalini-singh-sep-4-2012-govt-to-hold-talks-with-stakeholders-on-internet-censorship">Government to hold talks with stakeholders on Internet censorship</a> (by Shalini Singh, The Hindu, September 4, 2012). Pranesh Prakash’s analysis on blocked websites is quoted.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-tehelka-com-vol-9-issue-36-sep-8-2012-shougat-dasgupta-the-state-and-the-rage-of-the-cyber-demon">The state. And the rage of the cyber demon</a> (by Shougat Dasgupta, Tehelka, Vol 9, Issue 36, September 8, 2012): “While some people may see Twitter as akin to friends talking in the pub, others use the service as a bulletin board.” — Pranesh Prakash.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/www-business-standard-rohit-pradhan-sep-1-2012-watch-out-for-fettered-speech">Watch out for fettered speech</a> (by Rohit Pradhan, Business Standard, September 1, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</p>
</ul>
<p><b>Events Organised</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span class="visualHighlight">DNA Profiling Bill</span><br />International DNA experts Helen Wallace from GeneWatch UK, and Jeremy Gruber from the Council for Responsible Genetics from the United States visited Bengaluru and Delhi and shared their experience in DNA sampling and gave feedback to the DNA Profiling Bill. Meetings were conducted with lawyers and the plaintiff in the Pascal Mazurier's rape case and with VR Sudarshan and Hormis Tharakan. There was a coverage of the event in <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/cadcbecb0ca4caf-ca1cbfc8eca8ccdc8e-caaccdcb0cabcb2cbfc82c97ccd-caecb8cc2ca6cc6caf-cb8cb3cc1ca8c9f">Kannada media</a>. Public lectures were organised in Bengaluru and Delhi:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/uk-dna-database-and-european-court-of-human-rights-lessons-that-india-can-learn-from-mistakes">UK DNA Database and the European Court of Human Rights: Lessons that India can Learn from Its Mistakes</a> (organised by CIS and Alternative Law Forum, September 24, 2012): Helen Wallace from GeneWatch, UK and Jeremy Gruber from the Council for Responsible Genetics in the United States gave a public lecture.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/the-dna-profiling-bill-developing-best-practices">The DNA Profiling Bill: Developing Best Practices</a> (India International Centre, New Delhi, September 27, 2012): International experts Helen Wallace from GeneWatch UK, and Jeremy Gruber from the Council for Responsible Genetics from the United States gave a public lecture. Elonnai Hickok participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/public-meeting-on-dna-profiling-bill">A Public Meeting on DNA Profiling Bill in Delhi</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, September 29, 2012): Elonnai has blogged about the public lecture delivered by Dr. Helen Wallace, Jeremy Gruber and Dr. Anupuma Raina.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Upcoming IGF Events</b><br />At the seventh annual IGF meeting to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2012, CIS is organising one workshop:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/national-ig-mechanisms">National IG Mechanisms – Looking at Some Key Design Issues</a> (co-organising with Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, Institute for System Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences, et.al., November 8, 2012 from 2.30 p.m. to 4.00 p.m.</li>
</ul>
<p>Sunil Abraham will be a panelist in the following workshop:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/new-trends-in-industry-self-governance">New Trends in Industry Self-Governance</a> (organised by Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK and Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ, University of Zurich, Switzerland and Nominet, UK, November 7, 2012 from 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m).</li>
</ul>
<p>CIS fellow Malavika Jayaram is a panelist for these workshops:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/intgovforum-cms-w2012-proposals">Civil rights in the digital age, about the impact the Internet has on civil rights</a> (organised by ECP on behalf of the IGF-NL, November 7, 2012, 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/intgovforum-cms-w2012-proposals-governing-identity-on-the-internet">Governing Identity on the Internet</a> (organised by Brenden Kuerbis, Citizen Lab and Christine Runnegar, Internet Society, November 8, 2012, 11.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Events Participated</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/second-freedom-online-conference-in-nairobi">Second Freedom Online Conference</a> (organised by the Ministry of Information and Communications, Republic of Kenya in partnership with the government of Netherlands at UN complex in Gigiri, Nairobi, September 6 and 7, 2012). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist in the session on Access to Internet: Challenges and Opportunities. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/multi-stakeholder-discussion-on-indias-position-in-the-un-for-un-cirp">Multi-stakeholder Discussion on India’s Position in UN for Internet Governance UN Committee for Internet Related Policies</a> (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi, September 19, 2012): Sunil Abraham was a panelist.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/seventh-meeting-of-group-of-experts-sept-18-2012-under-chairmanship-of-justice-shah">Seventh Meeting of the Group of Experts on Privacy Issues under the Chairmanship of Justice AP Shah</a> (Committee Room No. 228, Yojana Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi): Sunil Abraham participated in this meeting. This was the final meeting of the series.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Talk</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Talk at Yale University (New Haven, September 19, 2012): Pranesh Prakash gave a talk on censorship, intermediary liability, and the way forward. </li>
</ul>
<p><b>Video</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/conference-apnic-net-aug-28-2012-internet-governance-plenary">Internet Governance Plenary</a> (August 28, Tokyo, Japan): Sunil Abraham was a panelist along with Ang Peng Hwa, Paul Wilson, Duangthip Chomprang and Raul Echeberria at this event organised by APNIC on August 28, 2012. Kuo Wei Wu, CEO, National Information Infrastructure Enterprise Promotion Association (NIIEPA) was the moderator. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/openness">Openness</a></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:<b><br />Featured Research</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/indic-language-wikipedias-statistical-report-jan-june-2012">Indic Language Wikipedias – Statistical Report</a> (January – June 2012) (by Shiju Alex, September 25, 2012): Shiju Alex provides a compilation of the statistical update of the Indic language Wikipedias from January to June 2012. He provides perspectives on the health of various Indic language communities as well as the state of various Indic language Wikipedias during the period.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Workshop Reports</b><br />Although most of the following workshops were conducted prior to the grant period, the report for all of these was written in the month of September, and hence, we are featuring these.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/first-punjabi-wikipedia-workshop">The First Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop</a> (by Shiju Alex and Subhashish Panigrahi, September 27, 2012): This post is about the first Punjabi Wikipedia workshop held in Ludhiana, Punjab on July 28, 2012. Surinder Wadhawan, a Mumbai based Wikipedian played an important role in designing this workshop and introducing Punjabi Wikipedia to the Punjabi speakers. Long-term Punjabi wikipedian G.S.Guglani also joined this workshop. The event was covered in the <a href="http://bit.ly/UMrDvs">Tribune</a>, <a href="http://bit.ly/UMrNTn">Hindustan Times</a>, <a href="http://bit.ly/UZhoT8">Punjab Infoline</a>, and <a href="http://bit.ly/OcMANc">YesPunjab.com</a>. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/punjabi-wikipedia-workshop-at-punjabi-university-patiala">Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop at Punjabi University, Patiala</a> (by Shiju Alex and Subhashish Panigrahi, September 28, 2012): A Wikipedia workshop was organized at the Punjabi University's Punjabi Department on August 16, 2012. Veteran Punjabi wikipedian G.S. Guglani came forward to spread the message of Punjabi Wikipedia among Punjabi speakers.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/punjabi-wikipedia-workshop-at-amritsar">Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop at Amritsar</a> (by Shiju Alex and Subhashish Panigrahi, September 30, 2012): The workshop was held at the Spring Dale Senior School, Amritsar on August 17, 2012. Nearly 50 participants including students and teachers from eight different schools apart from the students and teachers of Spring Dale School attended the workshop. One of the active and long-time Punjabi Wikipedian Guglani Gurdip Singh led the workshop with the active support from Shiju and Subhasish.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/report-of-the-wikipedia-workshop-in-british-library">Wikipedia Workshop in British Library, Chandigarh</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, September 27, 2012): A Wikipedia workshop was organized in Chandigarh by the British Library over two days on August 24 and 25, 2012. Bipin Kumar, Head of British Library and Christina, Deputy Manager had pivotal roles in designing this workshop with support from Piyush, a wikipedian. The session on Day 1 was conducted by Subhashish Panigrahi and the session on Day 2 was conducted by Subhashish and Piyush.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/kannada-wiki-workshop-tumkur-university">Kannada Wiki Workshop at Tumkur University</a> (Tumkur, Karnataka, September 15, 2012): This was the first Kannada Wikipedia workshop at Tumkur. Prof. Ashwin Kumar from the Department of English, Tumkur University and Kannada wikipedians, Om Shiva Prakash, Hareesh, Tejus and Pavithra played vital roles in organising this workshop. Shiju Alex participated in this workshop. About 30 participants including students and teachers participated in this workshop.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/editor-growth-and-contribution-on-telegu-wikipedia">Editor Growth & Contribution Program on Telugu Wikipedia</a> (by Nitika Tandon, September 29, 2012): Nitika Tandon tells us about the Editor Growth & Contribution Program on Telegu Wikipedia, how it will run, its necessity and the future steps.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-hyderabad-report">Wikipedia comes to Hyderabad!</a> (by Noopur Raval, September 30, 2012): A series of Wikipedia meetings were organized in Hyderabad on September 29 and 30, 2012. These workshops were a part of the larger effort to help Wikipedia contributors in the same city to meet each other and strengthen the local community. There was coverage about this event in the <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/drumming-session/article3943855.ece">Hindu</a> on September 28, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event Organised</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/thinking-with-data">Thinking with Data@CIS</a> (CIS, Bengaluru, September 16 – 18, 2012): The course offered at the National Institute of Advanced Studies was screened in CIS office.</li>
</ul>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>HasGeek</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">HasGeek creates discussion spaces for geeks and has organised conferences like the <a href="http://fifthelephant.in/2012/">Fifth Elephant</a>, <a href="http://droidcon.in/2011">Droidcon India 2011</a>, <a href="http://androidcamp.hasgeek.com/">Android Camp</a>, etc. HasGeek is supported by CIS and works out from CIS office in Bengaluru. The following event was organised by HasGeek in the month of September:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/cartonama-conference">Cartonama Conference</a> (TERI Complex, Bengaluru, September 22, 2012). The event was organised by HasGeek with support from CIS.</li>
</ul>
</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<p><b>Newspaper Column</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/www-indianexpress-com-one-zero">One. Zero.</a> (Nishant Shah, Indian Express, September 16, 2012): “The digital world is the world of twos. All our complex interactions, emotional negotiations, business transactions, social communication and political subscriptions online can be reduced to a string of 1s and 0s, as machines create the networks for the human beings to speak.”</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways">Pathways to Higher Education</a></h3>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Pathways Project to Higher Education is a collaboration between the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society and CIS. The project is supported by the Ford Foundation and works with disadvantaged students in nine undergraduate colleges in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, to explore relationships between Technologies, Higher Education and the new forms of social justice in India. Training workshops were organised in the month of September at Xaviers in Mumbai on September 6, 2012 and in Newman College, Thodupuzha from September 17 to 20, 2012. Each workshop had 25-30 undergraduate students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. They were trained to use digital technologies in order to think through problems of social justice.</p>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">From 2012 to 2015, the RAW series will build research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Habits of Living: Global Networks, Local Affects is a global collaborative project to renew the conceptual power of networks. It concentrates on changing the habits of living. The Department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University is an important locus.</p>
<p>CIS organised the Habits of Living Workshop in Bangalore from September 26 to 29, 2012. Jadine Lannon and Alok Vaid-Menon live blogged about the event:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-live-blog-introduction" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 1 Live Blog: Introduction</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 26, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-day-1-pecha-kucha" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 1 Live Blog: PechaKucha</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 27, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-globalising-lady-gaga" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 1 Live Blog: Globalising Lady GaGa</a> (by Alok Vaid-Menon, September 27, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-day-2-water-in-india" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 2 Live Blog: Deepak Menon on Water in India</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 27, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-day-2-technology-and-feminism" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 2 Live Blog: On Technology and Affective Indian Feminism(s)</a> (by Alok Vaid-Menon, September 27, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-radhika-gajjala-lectures-on-e-philanthropy" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 2 Live Blog: Radhika Gajjala Lectures on e-Philanthropy</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 27, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/habits-of-living-thinkathon-day-3-live-blog-joshua-neeves-on-media-archipelagos">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 3 Live Blog: Joshua Neves on Media Archipelagos</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 26, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-day-4-finding-and-funding-the-masses" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 4 Live Blog: Finding and Funding the Masses</a> (by Alok Vaid-Menon, September 26, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-day-3-exhibition-space" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 3 Live Blog: Akansha Rastogi's Performance on Exhibition Space</a> <br />(by Jadine Lannon, September 30, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-day-4-wendy-chun-on-friends" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 4 Live Blog: Wendy Chun on Friends</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 30, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-day-4-amateur-photography" class="external-link">Habits of Living Thinkathon - Day 4 Live Blog: Namita Malhotra on Amateur Pornography</a> (by Jadine Lannon, September 30, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<h3><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/knowledge-and-capacity-around-telecom-policy">Building Knowledge and Capacity around Telecommunication Policy in India</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Ford Foundation has given a grant of USD 2,00,000 to CIS to build expertise in the area of telecommunications in India. The knowledge repository deals with these modules: Introduction to Telecommunications, Telecommunications Infrastructure and Technologies, Government of India Regulatory Framework for Telecom, Telecommunication and the Market, Universal Access and Accessibility, The International Telecommunications Union and other international bodies, Broadcasting, Emerging Topics and Way Forward. Dr. Surendra Pal, Satya N Gupta, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Payal Malik, Dr. Rakesh Mehrotra and Dr. Nadeem Akhtar are the expert reviewers.</p>
<p><span class="visualHighlight">The following are the new outputs:</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/associations-regulating-broadcasting-in-india">Associations Regulating Broadcasting in India</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, September 11, 2012): Broadcast regulation in India is currently an intricate web, with multiple agencies involved in formulating and implementing policy, drafting and enforcing legislation.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/home-1/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/optical-fibre">Optical Fibre</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, September 11, 2012): This unit tells us what is optical fibre, the types of optical fibres, how does an optical fibre work, fibre-optic relay system, and why are optical fibres uses in telecommunication systems.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/home-1/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/direct-to-home">Direct to Home</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, September 18, 2012): This unit tells us about Direct to home television, its history, how it works, the programming, its advantages and disadvantages are discussed in this module.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/home-1/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/cable-tv">Cable Television</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, September 18, 2012): This unit brings you the history and evolution of cable television in India, talks about other cable based services, cable television digitization rule and the end consumer in India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/home-1/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/private-fm">Private FMs</a> (Commercial, Campus and Community Radios) (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, September 24, 2012): This unit introduces us to AM and FM, tells us the role of private FMs including what is a community radio and what is a campus radio.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/types-of-radio-broadcasting-in-india">Types of Radio Broadcasting in India</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, September 28, 2012): This unit tells us what is radio broadcasting, takes us through the history of radio broadcasting in India, explains what is AM and FM in the Indian context.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/home-1/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/air-and-its-operations">A History of All India Radio and Its Operations</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, September 29, 2012): This module gives us a picture of the history of All India Radio and its operations. </li>
</ul>
<p><b>Newspaper Column</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/organizing-india-blogspot-in-shyam-ponappa-sep-5-2012-changing-our-game">Changing Our Game</a> (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, September 5, 2012): “Adopting 'co-ordination models' like the Stag Hunt could reduce contention and improve outcomes.” This was re-posted in <a href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2012/09/changing-our-game.html">Organizing India blogspot</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event Participated</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.mach.com/en/News-Events/Events/Insights/Insights-India-2012">Insights India 2012</a> (organised by MACH, Bangalore, September 26 – 28, 2012): Snehashish Ghosh and Srividya Vaidyanathan participated in this event.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/">About CIS</a></h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. Over the last four years our policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> with ITU and G3ict, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos. With the Government of India we have done policy research for Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill">NIA Bill</a>, etc.</p>
<p>CIS is an accredited NGO at WIPO and has given policy briefs to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-award">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a> from the Government of India and also received the <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/nirmita-nivh-award">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p><b>*Follow us elsewhere*</b></p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter</li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<hr />
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAWOpenness2012-10-09T06:48:33ZPageChanging the typographic landscape of a country: one letter at a time
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/story-weaver-december-1-2016-pooja-saxena-changing-the-typographic-landscape-of-a-country
<b>My interest in designing typefaces in Indian scripts grew out of years of disappointment with the way most Hindi books I came across looked. Apart from a few exceptions, they looked like poor cousins of English books. Whether it was a children’s story book or a novel or magazine, there was usually the same drab typeface. </b>
<p>The blog post by Pooja Saxena was <a class="external-link" href="https://storyweaver.org.in/blog_posts/95-changing-the-typographic-landscape-of-a-country-one-letter-at-a-time">published in Storyweaver</a> on December 1, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some letters didn’t look like what we were taught in school, on others the matras (vowel marks) didn’t arch at the right places. Overall, the books and the letters inside them had an air of neglect. They looked old and completely unexciting. When I first learned that designing typefaces was a real job, I thought here was the opportunity to change all that.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/story-weaver-e2e-production/ckeditor_assets/pictures/254/content/cambay.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>Cambay, Devanagari typeface designed by Pooja Saxena for Google Fonts </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Changing the typographic landscape of a country as diverse as India is not a one-woman job, but every now and then a project comes by that has the potential to make a small difference. Two years ago, as a result of a conversation with <a href="http://psubhashish.com/">Subhashish Panigrahi</a>, the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> programme at the <a href="http://cis-india.org">Centre for Internet and Society</a> commissioned a Ol Chiki typeface family. The Ol Chiki script, about which I knew precious little at the time, is used to write the language Santali, which is spoken by over six million people in India and its neighbouring countries. At the time that we started working on this project, there was no Unicode compliant typeface available in the script, making it impossible for it to be used on computers and cellphones, and online in a consistent and future-proof way. We hoped to change that by designing a small, but useful typeface family (it comes in regular, bold and italics) along with input methods and keyboard layouts that would allow a person to type Ol Chiki text easily.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/story-weaver-e2e-production/ckeditor_assets/pictures/256/content/gurugomke.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>Guru Gomke, Ol Chiki typeface designed by Pooja Saxena with research inputs from Shubhashish Panigrahi,for the A2K Programme at the Centre for Internet and Society. </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This project was especially challenging because not only was Ol Chiki a completely unfamiliar script to me and Subhashish, but there was limited material available for us to consult. While designing a typeface in a script one reads and/or writes, or is at least familiar with, one’s experience with those letters can act as a guide. By writing them and seeing them printed in different fonts, in many people’s handwriting — some good, some bad — and on hand painted signs, one develops an instinct for identifying which parts of a letter make it recognisable. That way we know what parts of the letter can be exaggerated, and what others can be played down without compromising legibility. For an unfamiliar script, this visual vocabulary and the traditionally correct way of writing letters must be learned. Manuscripts, printed documents, handwriting manuals and samples, metal type, linguistic information about the script, feedback from native readers — all form parts of a puzzle that needs to be put together to design a competent typeface.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The story of Ol Chiki script is fascinating. The script is less than a century old, and was devised by Pandit Raghunath Murmu, who wanted to create a script that could accommodate all the features of the Santali language — something that the scripts used to write Santali so far had failed to do. Legend has it that he based the design of the letters on objects commonly found in the everyday environment of the Santals. Even though the script was created between 1920 – 1940, the Santal community has many myths about how it was created. One says that the script came to be at the time when the Earth itself was created, another says that the script was given as a divine gift to a learned man, Pandit Raghunath Murmu. It is after Pandit Raghunath Murmu, who is reverentially called Guru Gomke, that the Ol Chiki typeface that I designed was named. You can find out more about the Ol Chiki typeface and input methods project <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project_Ol_chiki">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/story-weaver-e2e-production/ckeditor_assets/pictures/255/content/coovumartfestival.jpg" /></p>
<p><b>Custom lettering for the Tamil branding of the Coovum Art Festival, designed by Pooja Saxena </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If you’re interested in Indian type design and le ering, consider following the work of these exceptional designers — Noopur Datye, one of the co-founders of type design collective, <a href="https://ektype.in">Ek Type</a>, who has designed custom typefaces TV channels like LifeOK; <a href="https://kimyagandhi.wordpress.com/">Kimya Gandhi</a>, who is partner at Mota Italic, and recently designed an inventive Devanagari handwriting font; or <a href="https://twitter.com/lipopsicle">Lipi Raval</a>, whose flamboyant Gujarati typeface <a href="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Mogra?sort=date">Mogra</a> is a complete head-turner.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/story-weaver-december-1-2016-pooja-saxena-changing-the-typographic-landscape-of-a-country'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/story-weaver-december-1-2016-pooja-saxena-changing-the-typographic-landscape-of-a-country</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-12-20T16:06:51ZNews ItemDecember 2015 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin
<b>Our newsletter for the month of December 2015 is below.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is happy to share the twelfth issue of CIS newsletter (December 2015). Previous editions of the newsletter can be accessed at <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<h3>Highlights</h3>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/press-release-india-to-host-4th-global-congress-on-intellectual-property-and-the-public-interest">4th edition of the Global Congress</a> themed around "Three Decades of Openness, Two Decades of TRIPS" was organized in New Delhi from December 15 - 17, 2015. The largest ever in Asia, the Congress was jointly organised by CIS, NLU-D, Open A.I.R., CREATe, Columbia University and American University.</li>
<li>Nehaa Chaudhari <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/4th-global-congress-on-ip-and-the-public-interest-statement-of-conclusion-for-the-ip-and-development-track">summarized the developments of the 4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest in a blog post</a> that was originally published on the Global Congress blog.</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham wrote a blog entry stating the <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality">institutional position of CIS on the Net Neutrality</a> discussion going on in India.</li>
<li>Catch News interviewed Sunil Abraham about the recent advertisement by Facebook titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-shares-10-key-facts-about-free-basics-heres-whats-wrong-with-all-10-of-them"> "What Net Neutrality Activists won't Tell You or, the Top 10 Facts about Free Basics" </a> . Sunil argued against the validity of all the 'top 10 facts'.</li>
<li>Odia author and cultural historian Jagannath Prasad Das <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource"> has recently permitted 30 volumes of his notable works to be re-license under an open license (Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0) </a> . Subhashish Panigrahi wrote a blog post on this in Discover Bhubaneswar, a web portal in Odisha.</li>
<li>CIS has established institutional partnerships with University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs for furthering Wikipedia growth. Tanveer Hasan <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab">analyses the developments and lists out the possible future plans</a> in this regard.</li>
<li>CIS along with Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and Internet Policy Observatory <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/net-neutrality-across-south-asia"> organized an event in New Delhi on Net Neutrality across South Asia </a> .</li>
<li>Today the quantity of data being generated is expanding at an exponential rate. From smartphones and televisions, trains and airplanes, sensor-equipped buildings and even the infrastructures of our cities, data now streams constantly from almost every sector and function of daily life, <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/benefits-and-harms-of-big-data">stated Scott Mason in a blog post</a>.</li>
<li>The Government of India is in the process of developing 100 smart cities in India which it sees as the key to the country's economic and social growth. Vanya Rakesh <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/smart-cities-in-india-an-overview">gave an overview of the Smart Cities project currently underway in India in a blog post</a>.</li>
<li>For the second part of the Smart City podcast series, Sruthi Krishnan and Harsha K from Fields of View spoke with Sumandro Chattapadhyay on data, people, and smart cities. <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/fov-podcast-data-people-and-smart-cities">Fields of View has produced and shared the recording</a>.</li>
<li>An extended survey of digital initiatives in arts and humanities practices in India was undertaken last year. The 'mapping digital humanities in India' enquiry began with the term 'digital humanities' itself, as a 'found' name for which one needs to excavate some meaning, context, and location in India at the present moment. P.P Sneha published the <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/reading-from-a-distance-data-as-text">third</a>,<a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-infrastructure-turn-in-the-humanities">fourth</a>, and <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/living-in-the-archival-moment">fifth</a> sections of the study this month.</li>
<li>The RAW programme has initiated a new annual conference series titled Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC). The <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">first edition of the Conference</a>, organised around the theme of "studying internet in India" will be held in Delhi in February 2016</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>----------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion<br /></a>----------------------------------------------</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing a project on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Monthly Updates</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/december-2015-report">December 2015 Report</a> (Suman Dogra; December 31, 2015).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>-----------------------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge<br /></a>-----------------------------------------------------------</b><br />As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Copyright and Patent</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/abuse-of-dominant-position-in-indian-competition-law-a-brief-guide">Abuse of Dominant Position in Indian Competition Law: A Brief Guide </a> (Sarthak Sood; December 9, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip2015-notes-from-the-inaugural-session">GCIP2015: Notes from the Inaugural Session</a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip-day-1-session-3-challenges-in-re-articulating-public-interest">GCIP Day 1 Session 3: Challenges in Re-Articulating Public Interest </a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip-15-day-2-discussions-on-health-technology-innovation-and-access">GCIP 15 Day 2: Discussions on Health Technology, Innovation and Access </a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-in-abeyance">Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions in abeyance </a> (Anubha Sinha; Anubha Sinha; December 21, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/4th-global-congress-on-ip-and-the-public-interest-statement-of-conclusion-for-the-ip-and-development-track">4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest: Statement of Conclusion for the IP and Development track </a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 25, 2015). <i>This was also published on the Global Congress Blog</i>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/call-for-participation-global-congress-on-intellectual-property-and-the-public-interest">Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest </a> (Organized by National Law University, Delhi, American Assembly, Columbia University, Open A.I.R., American University, and CIS; New Delhi, December 15 - 17, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/code-session">CODE Session</a> (Organized by IDRC; December 17, 2015; New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/nlsiu-conference-on-access-to-copyrighted-works-for-persons-with-disability-an-enriching-experience">NLSIU Conference on Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability: An enriching experience </a> (Abolee Vaidya and Nuhar Bansal; SINAPSE; December 14, 2015). <i> This is an event report on a one-day national conference on the 'Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability' for which Pranesh Prakash was a speaker </i> .</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource">30 Books of Odia Author and Historian Jagannath Prasad Das to Come Online on Odia Wikisource </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Discover Bhubaneswar; December 4, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource">ଓଡ଼ିଆ</a> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource"> </a> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource"> ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Sambad; December 6, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-subhashish-panigrahi-december-3-open-access-in-marathi-language-expands-by-thousand-books">Open access in the Marathi language expands by a thousand books </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi and Abhinav Garule; December 3, 2015). <i>This was published on Wikimedia Blog</i>.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guru-g-learning-labs-and-cis-a2k-institutional-partnership">Guru-G Learning Labs and CIS A2K Institutional Partnership </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/community-prioritisation-content-donation-kannada-wikisource">Community Prioritisation of Content Donation: Kannada Wikisource </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab">Analysis of Institutional Partnerships: University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/department-of-tourism-studies-christ-university-st-aloysius-college">Touch Point Report: Department of Tourism Studies, Christ University and St. Aloysius College, Mangalore </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ttt-2015">TTT 2015</a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-at-mangaluru">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon at Mangaluru</a> (Dr. U.B. Pavanaja; December 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/discussion-on-bringing-peshwa-culture-on-marathi-wikipedia">Talk on bringing 1000 books about the culture of Maharashtra on Marathi Wikipedia </a> (The Energy and Resources Institute; Bangalore; December 1, 2015). Avinash Chaphekar, Joint Secretary, Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha gave a talk.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/odia-wikimedia-community-meetup-at-cuttack">Odia Wikimedia community meetup</a> (Organized by Odia Wikipedia Community and CIS; Cuttack; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/events/sau-dhuni-teen-project-december-edit-a-thon-at-womens-studies-centre-university-of-pune">Sau Dhuni Teen Project: December Edit-a-thon </a> (Women's Studies Centre, University of Pune; December 3, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-photo-walk">Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015, Photo Walk</a> (Organized by Telugu Wikipedians; Dr. YSR State Archaeological Museum, Hyderabad; December 13, 2015). Pavan Santhosh attended the event. One of the popular Telugu news channel TV9 covered the event and telecasted the same. <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-eenadu-coverage">Eenadu published a special item on photo walk</a> on December 13, 2015.</li>
<li>English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon (Organized by Wikipedia community; Golden Threshold, Hyderabad; December 20, 2015). The event was covered in<a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-sakshi">Sakshi</a> and <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-andhra-jyoti">Andhra Jyoti</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/post-more-articles-on-kannada-wikipedia">Post More Articles on Kannada Wikipedia</a> (Indian Express; Mangaluru edition; December 12, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p>A Kannada Wikipedia Editathon was conducted in Mangalore on December 10, 2015. The following are the media coverage for the same:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-udayavani-coverage">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Udayavani; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijayavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Vijayavani; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijaya-karnataka">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Vijaya Karnataka; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-mangalore-udayavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Udayavani; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-prajavani-mangal">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Prajavani; December 10, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-prajavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Prajavani; December 13, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>-----------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance<br /></a>-----------------------------------------------</b><br />As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Free Speech and Expression</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Interview</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-shares-10-key-facts-about-free-basics-heres-whats-wrong-with-all-10-of-them">Facebook shares 10 key facts about Free Basics. Here's what's wrong with all 10 of them </a> (Shweta Sengar; Catch News; December 24, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality">CIS's Position on Net Neutrality</a> (Sunil Abraham; December 4, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/net-neutrality-across-south-asia">Net Neutrality across South Asia</a> (Organized by Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Internet Policy Observatory and CIS; New Delhi; December 12, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/consultation-on-understanding-the-freedom-of-expression-online-and-offline">Consultation on "Understanding the Freedom of Expression Online and Offline" </a> (Organized by Digital Empowerment Foundation and Association for Progressive Communications; YMCA, New Delhi; December 10, 2015). Jyoti Panday was a speaker at this event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Big Data</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/benefits-and-harms-of-big-data">Benefits and Harms of "Big Data"</a> (Scott Mason; December 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Cyber Security</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ground-zero-summit">Ground Zero Summit</a> (Amber Sinha; December 22, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/news/second-regional-conference-on-connectivity-for-all-future-technologies-markets-and-regulation">Second Regional Conference on Connectivity for All: Future Technologies, Markets and Regulation </a> (Organized by International Telecommunications Society, IIMA IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; New Delhi; December 13 - 15, 2015). Sunil Abraham was a panelist.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-chapter-meet-dsci">Bangalore Chapter Meet - DSCI</a> (CIS, Bangalore; December 1, 2015). CIS hosted the Bangalore Chapter Meet of DSCI. Pronab Mohanty, Inspector General of Police gave a talk on Cybercrimes. Sunil Abraham presented the outcome of his study "Anonymity in Cyberspace".</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Privacy</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid-research">UID Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-research">DNA Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-policy-research">Privacy Policy Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sectoral-privacy-research">Sectoral Privacy Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-research">Security Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/eight-key-privacy-events-in-india-in-the-year-2015">Eight Key Privacy Events in India in the Year 2015 </a> (Amber Sinha; December 31, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/kick-off-meeting-for-the-politics-of-data-project">Kick Off Meeting for the Politics of Data Project</a> (Organized by Tactical Tech; Phnom Penh; December 7-8, 2015). Amber Sinha participated in the event.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/unbundling-issues-of-privacy-data-security-identity-matrics-for-financial-inclusion">Unbundling Issues of Privacy, Data Security, Identity Matrics, for Financial Inclusion </a> (Organized by Indicus Foundation and MicroSave; December 10, 2015; Metropolitan Hotel and Spa, New Delhi). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Miscellaneous</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/smart-cities-in-india-an-overview">Smart Cities in India: An Overview</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p><br /><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/elite-capture-of-governance-in-bangalore">Elite Capture of Governance</a> (Organized by Forum for Urban Governance and Commons; December 16, 2015; Bangalore). Vanya Rakesh participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>--------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a><br />--------------------------------</b><br />CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/the-free-basics-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-net-neutrality">The Free Basics debate: Trai has a point in imposing temporary ban on net neutrality </a> (Sunil Abraham; FirstPost; December 24, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app">Millions of Indians Slam Facebook's 'Free Basics' App </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; December 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>--------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a><br />--------------------------------</b><br />The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Upcoming Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/ai-hype-cycles-and-artistic-subversions">A.I. Hype Cycles and Artistic Subversions</a> (CIS, Bangalore; January 22, 2016). Gene Kogan will give a talk.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">First Edition of Internet Researchers' Conference</a> (IRC) 2016 - Studying Internet in India: Call for Sessions (Organized by CIS; New Delhi; February 25 - 27, 2016).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/raw-lecture-01-nishant-shah-video">RAW Lecture #01: Nishant Shah on 'Stories and Histories of Internet in India' - Video </a> (P.P. Sneha; December 1, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/fov-podcast-data-people-and-smart-cities">FOV Podcast - Data, People, and Smart Cities</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/reading-from-a-distance-data-as-text">Reading from a Distance - Data as Text</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-infrastructure-turn-in-the-humanities">The Infrastructure Turn in the Humanities</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/living-in-the-archival-moment">Living in the Archival Moment</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 14, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>---------------------------------<a href="http://cis-india.org/news"><br />News & Media Coverage<br /></a>---------------------------------</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india2019s-net-neutrality-debate-is-unique-and-complex">India's net neutrality debate is unique and complex </a> (Pratap Vikram Singh; Governance Now; December 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-anita-babu-december-23-2015-start-up-india-turns-the-heat-on-facebook-free-basics">Start-up India turns the heat on Facebook Free Basics </a> (Anita Babu; Business Standard; December 22, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/a-scam-masquerading-as-santa">A Scam Masquerading as Santa</a> (Apurva Venkat & Vandana Kamath; Bangalore Mirror; December 25, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-goes-out-all-guns-blazing-in-push-for-free-basics-net-neutrality-advocates-cry-foul">Facebook goes out all guns blazing in push for Free Basics, Net neutrality advocates cry foul </a> (IBN Live; December 29, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-bhuma-shrivastava-december-30-2015-foreign-media-on-zukerberg-india-backlash">Foreign Media on Zuckerberg's India Backlash </a> (Bhuma Shrivastava; NDTV; December 30, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/mark-zuckerberg2019s-india-backlash-imperils-vision-for-free-global-web">Mark Zuckerberg's India backlash imperils vision for free global web </a> (Bhuma Shrivastava; Livemint; December 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>---------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS<br /></a>---------------------------------</b><br />The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Offices</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Bengaluru - No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071. <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Centre+for+Internet+and+Society/@12.9644512,77.6374907,19z/data=%214m6%211m3%213m2%211s0x3bae141bb474ca25:0xe88eda6c81771517%212sDomlur+Bus+Stop%213m1%211s0x0000000000000000:0x88cd9bce9a1aa4d8?hl=en"> </a> <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Centre+for+Internet+and+Society/@12.9644512,77.6374907,19z/data=%214m6%211m3%213m2%211s0x3bae141bb474ca25:0xe88eda6c81771517%212sDomlur+Bus+Stop%213m1%211s0x0000000000000000:0x88cd9bce9a1aa4d8?hl=en"> Location on Google Map </a> .</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Delhi - First floor, B 1/8, Hauz Khas, near G Block market, after Crunch, New Delhi, 110016.<a href="http://j.mp/cis-delhi"> </a> <a href="http://j.mp/cis-delhi">Location on Google Map</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow Us</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K"> https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: <a href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a></li>
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<li>List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Support Us</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560 071.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Request for Collaboration</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a href="mailto:tanveer@cis-india.org">tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2016-01-13T14:07:01ZPageAccess to Knowledge Bulletin — April 2013
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-april-2013
<b>In the third issue of our newsletter for 2013, we are pleased to bring you updates from the Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project, reports of events organised in Kolkata, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikimedia Foundation, beginning from September 1, 2012, awarded the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. Consequently, Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program became the <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan" target="_blank">Access to Knowledge (A2K) program</a> of CIS. In the third issue of our newsletter for 2013, we are pleased to bring you updates from the Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project, reports of events organised in Goa, and press coverage of the Kannada Wikipedia Workshop held in Mysore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge/Team" target="_blank" title="Access To Knowledge/Team">A2K team</a> consists of three members based in Delhi: <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team" target="_blank">T. Vishnu Vardhan</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team" target="_blank">Nitika Tandon</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team" target="_blank">Subhashish Panigrahi</a> and one member <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team" target="_blank">Dr. U.B. Pavanaja</a> who is working from Bangalore office. <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team" target="_blank">Noopur Raval</a>, Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge) has resigned. April 24, 2013 was her last working day. Archives of our newsletters are <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at <a href="http://bit.ly/TOcXId" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/TOcXId</a>.</p>
<p><b>Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/indic-wikipedia-visualisation-project-visualising-page-views-and-project-pages">Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project #2: Visualising Page Views and Project Pages</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Guest Blog</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/indian-wiki-women-history-month">Indian WikiWomen celebrate Women’s History Month</a> (by Netha Hussain, April 29, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event Organised</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-udupi-april-29-2013">Kannada Wikipedia Workshop</a> (April 29, 2013, Govinda Pai Research Centre, MGM College Udupi). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja led the workshop and gave a talk on Kannada Wikipedia.</li>
</ul>
<p>Events Co-organised</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following events were organised in the month of March but reports were written during the month of April. Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi held meetings with wikipedians:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/wiki-meet-up-kolkata">Kolkata Wiki Community Meetup</a> (organised by CIS and Kolkata Wiki Community, March 14, 2013). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-wikipedia-cuttack-community-meetup-march-16-2013">Odia Wikipedia - Cuttack Community Meetup</a> (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Cuttack, March 16, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-wikipedia-meet-up-bhubaneswar-march-17-2013">Odia Wikipedia – Bhubaneswar Community Meetup</a> (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Bhubaneswar, March 17, 2013). </li>
</ul>
<p>The following event was organised in the month of April. We will be publishing the report soon:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/telegu-wiki-mahotsavam-2013">Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam 2013</a> (organised by Telugu Wikipedia Community and CIS, Hyderabad, April 9 – 11, 2013). Vishnu Vardhan was one of the trainers at the Wikipedia Academy at Centre for Good Governance on April 9, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan spoke about the Access to Knowledge work in one of the sessions of Wikimedia Meeting with Media Heads on April 10, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk on A2K’s plans for the growth of Telegu Wikipedia in 2013-14 at the Telegu Wikipedia general meeting on April 11, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan also gave a talk about Access to Knowledge in the digital era at the Wiki Chaitanya Vedika on April 11, 2013.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> with ITU and G3ict, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos, etc. We have conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill">NIA Bill</a>, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO. CIS staff participates in the Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings regularly held in Geneva, and participate in the discussions and comments on them from a public interest perspective. Our Policy Director, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/accessibility/blog/national-award">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a> from the Government of India and also received the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/news/nirmita-nivh-award">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</p>
<p><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="https://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Support Us</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Request for Collaboration</b><br />We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at <a href="mailto:nishant@cis-india.org">nishant@cis-india.org</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-april-2013'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-april-2013</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2013-05-29T10:57:49ZPageOdisha: Wikipedia workshop at IIMC, Dhenkanal
https://cis-india.org/news/odisha-diary-september-30-2013-odisha-wikipedia-workshop-at-iimc
<b>Wikipedia workshop was held at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, on Monday. The workshop was inaugurated by Head of IIMC, Dhenkanal, Dr Mrinal Chatterjee. </b>
<p id="stcpDiv" style="text-align: justify; ">This post was <a class="external-link" href="http://orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=44498">published in Odisha Diary</a> on September 30, 2013.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Inaugurating the workshop, Dr Chatterjee said, “We are always sourcing knowledge from Wikipedia. So now it becomes our duty to enrich it by writing articles for Wikipedia.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He specifically asked Odiya Journalism students to write more in Odia Wikipedia as there is less content in Odia as compared to other Indian languages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Subhashish Panigrahi, Program Officer, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society, coordinated the entire event along with members of Odia Wikipedia, Dr Subas Chandra Rout, Mrutyunjaya Kar and Sasanka Sekhar Das. They provided hands-on training about editing, styles and techniques of writing on Wikipedia to the students.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Anybody can write and edit available articles on Wikipedia,” Panigrahi said while encouraging students to volunteer for Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Not only Odiya and English, students were also encouraged to contribute articles in various other Indian languages. Students of both Odiya and English Journalism were present during the day-long workshop.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Odiya Wikipedia team are planning to organise a series of workshop with IIMC, Dhenkanal in coming months.<br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/odisha-diary-september-30-2013-odisha-wikipedia-workshop-at-iimc'>https://cis-india.org/news/odisha-diary-september-30-2013-odisha-wikipedia-workshop-at-iimc</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaOpenness2013-10-03T10:15:25ZNews Item8 Challenges for Improving Indian Language Wikipedias
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-march-28-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-for-improving-indian-language-wikipedias
<b>After more than 10 years in existence, the Indian-language Wikipedias still are not known to many Indian language speakers. Wikipedia became the largest encyclopedia in history as a result of thousands of volunteer editors.</b>
<p>The article was originally published in <a class="external-link" href="http://thewire.in/2016/03/17/eight-challenges-that-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome-25062/">the Wire</a> on March 17, 2016 and later mirrored on <a class="external-link" href="https://opensource.com/life/16/3/8-challenges-improving-indian-language-wikipedias">Opensource.com </a>on March 28, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">Whereas native-language Wikipedias are becoming game changers in other corners of the world, the scenario in India is skewed. While speaking at the "<a href="http://indianlanguagefestival.com/2016/#event-agenda">BHASHA: Indian Languages Digital Festival</a>," a day-long discourse at New Delhi on Indian languages and their state in the new media (especially on the digital platforms), I <a href="https://soundcloud.com/psubhashish/bhasha-indian-languages-digital-festival">shared</a> challenges that Indian language Wikipedias are facing.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">1. Language communities</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Many native Indian language speakers do not know how to search online using language typed in their script. Because Google's home page does not display their language script as an option, people often think that their language does not exist on the Internet. Google now has nine Indian languages. But this does not stop a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santali_language">Santali</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meithei_language">Manipuri</a> speaker from searching in Unicode <a href="http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/ol-chiki.html">Ol chiki</a> (script for Santali) or in <a href="http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Meithei_script">Unicode Meithei</a> (script for Manipuri). Google and other search engines will display content in any script on the Internet, but not knowing this keeps many people off the Internet, which also means off of Wikipedia.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">2. Wikipedia's editor community</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia is created by people like you and me. From writing to editing, everything happens voluntarily. Many people do not understand that they can correct mistakes and help improve Wikipedia articles. The Wikipedia editor communities for several Indian languages are really small. Although these languages are spoken by millions of people, only a <a href="https://opensource.com/life/16/2/why-its-essential-grow-indian-language-wikipedias">handful of editors</a> contribute in editing the Wikipedia in these languages. As of January 2016, the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hindi_Wikipedia_stats_January_2016.png">Hindi Wikipedia</a> had only 89 editors, whereas Hindi falls right behind English on the list of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers">top languages by number of native speakers</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">3. Language input in computer</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A majority of people in India <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-01-17/news/30635792_1_indian-languages-indic-computer">do not</a> know <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector">how to type</a> in their own language. Also, there is little documentation for users to learn about language input. Even though many government-run schools in India are seeing more computers and have Internet access, native language input and several other <a href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/Government-Schools-Fail-to-Log-into-Computers/2015/11/17/article3132258.ece">basic computer training</a> are not widely taught in schools in all states. Free software for language input is available, and the <a href="https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W/W11/W11-3501.pdf">challenges of typing in Indian languages</a> (PDF) that existed in the past are mostly resolved.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">4. Language input in mobile devices</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With more than <a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PressRealease/Document/PR-TeleSubData_Oct_2015.pdf">1 billion people in India</a> (PDF) with mobile phones, the 15% Internet penetration rate will soon grow at a faster pace. This growth and tough competition is compelling telecom service providers to <a href="http://www.mobiletor.com/bsnl-to-drop-3g-internet-rates-by-50-percent-the-tariff-wars-continue/">drop data charges</a>, which will help more Indians get access to the Internet. If these people are not educated about native language input, then they will be <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/Nz7KxIkmUJdacebMwzzcOJ/English-the-Web-and-digital-caste.html">stuck inside an English-centric Internet</a> rather than being able to navigate in their own languages. Many Indians who have smartphones need full Indian language support—and especially built-in input methods—to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">5. Low availability of Indian-language content on the Internet</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/02/13-digital-divide-developing-world-west/west_internet-access.pdf">Lack of native language content on the Internet</a> is a barrier to accessing knowledge. For example, let's look at my state Odisha. The Kerala (Indian state) government's <a href="https://www.keralatourism.org/languages/">official tourism portal</a> is available in Odia and other Indian languages, but the Odisha government's tourism portal has <a href="http://www.odishatourism.gov.in/">no information</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odia_language">Odia language</a> today. Our languages are largely neglected <em>in our own states</em>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">6. Mismatch of conventional and new media</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Many conventional media houses still use non-standard variants of ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems instead of adopting the <a href="http://unicode.org/faq/indic.html">Unicode</a> standard. As a global standard, Unicode can help unify the world and has been available for Indian languages for almost 25 years. But many of our print media have failed to adopt this, and many popular Indian-language newspapers still aren't available in Unicode.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">7. Lack of open access</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Much information online, including content created by the government, is under copyright licensing. The pay-wall gardens and copyright restrictions keep information closed and prevents people from sharing content. Wikipedia content, on the other hand, is available under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License">Creative Commons Share-Alike licensing</a>, which allows anyone to use the content (and even distribute commercial copies of it). The idea of opening up content under free licenses can help information reach countless additional people.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">8. Accessibility</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">India has more than <a href="http://www.entwb.com/public-patients/general-information/deafness">60-million people</a> with hearing impairments. Many people with physical disabilities need good <a href="http://www.nvaccess.org/">text-to-speech</a> and speech-to-text engines. And these software solutions must be free, so that anyone, regardless of their finances, can contribute to Wikipedia in their own languages.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-march-28-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-for-improving-indian-language-wikipedias'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-march-28-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-for-improving-indian-language-wikipedias</a>
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No publishersubhaWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-03-29T17:05:15ZBlog Entry