Centre for Internet and Society

RAW Lectures #02: Anil Menon on 'Undermining the Tyrant’s Protocols: Speculative Fiction and Freedom'

sumandro — 2016-02-09T08:43:57Z

Anil Menon will give a talk on 'Undermining the Tyrant’s Protocols: Speculative Fiction and Freedom' at the Centre for Internet and Society's office in Bangalore on Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at 6 pm. Please join us for tea and coffee before the lecture at 5.30 pm.

Update: The video recording of the lecture can be accessed here.

The RAW Lectures series was initiated by the Researchers at Work (RAW) programme to take stock, reflect, and chart courses into the studies of Internet in/from India. The lectures address the experiences and practices of Internet in India as plural and intertwined with longer-duration processes. The lectures also critically respond to the questions around the methods of studying Internet in/from India, and the opportunities and challenges of studying Indian society on/through the Internet.

It gives us great pleasure to announce that Anil Menon will present the second lecture of the series on Wednesday, January 13, 2016, at 6 pm.

Undermining the Tyrant’s Protocols: Speculative Fiction and Freedom

Story-telling, like the internet, depends on the existence of fixed protocols between the sender and the receiver. However, by manipulating ambiguity and contexts, speculative fiction constantly creates new and ever-changing protocols of reading. This makes it hard to define what exactly speculative fiction is. Spec-fic may be described as a catch-all term to describe genres such as magic-realism, fabulist fiction, slipstream, science-fiction, fantasy and various fusions thereof. In my talk, I will outline the history of spec-fic on the subcontinent, and show how it was used by authors such as Kylas Chundar Dutt to undermine imperialist narratives. In the last decade, the internet, which may be conceived as a speculative network, has emerged as another such tool. Internet access in India is growing at an extraordinary rate, but less well-known is the fact that Indian spec-fic is also undergoing a rather remarkable renaissance. I will show that these two threads of development are related, mutually reinforcing, and point to an interesting metaphor of speculative sovereignity, perhaps unique to India, and that serves to undermine any would-be tyrant’s protocols.

Anil Menon

Anil Menon’s research work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Intl J. of Neural Networks, Neural Proc. Letters, IEEE Trans On Evolutionary Computation, Foundations of Genetic Algorithms, British J. of the History of Science, and Small Business Economics. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies including Interzone, Interfictions, Strange Horizons, Jaggery Lit Review, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. His stories have been translated into German, French, Chinese, Romanian and Hebrew. His debut novel The Beast With Nine Billion Feet (Zubaan Books, 2010) was short-listed for the 2010 Vodafone-Crossword award and the Carl Brandon Society's 2011 Parallax Award. Along with Vandana Singh, he co-edited Breaking the Bow (Zubaan Books 2012), an international anthology of speculative fiction inspired by the Ramayana epic. His most recent work is the novel Half Of What I Say (Bloomsbury, 2015).

Website: http://anilmenon.com/.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/raw-lectures-02-anil-menon

Odia Wikipedia Turning 13 this June 3

subha — 2016-06-18T18:19:22Z

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.

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.

Promotional Banner

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen

Telugu Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Annamacharya library to preserve rare Telugu literature text

rahim — 2016-06-18T18:12:24Z

Telugu Wikipedia Community and the Centre for Internet & Society are conducting the Annamaya Library edit-a-thon on August 6, 2015 at Andhra Loyola College, Vijaywada.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource

Train the Trainer 2016

praskrishna — 2016-05-28T07:29:23Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) team is organizing the Train the Trainer programme at its office in Bengaluru from June 15 to 17, 2016.

After two successful iterations of Train the Trainer in 2013 and 2015, CIS-A2K is planning to organize the third iteration of the program. The exact dates and venue of the event have not been decided still, but like our previous iterations, this year also be a 3-days' residential program.

What's new in TTT 2016

Extensive feedback gathering: The planning of TTT 2016 started in mid-April when we started contacting TTT 2015 participants for their ideas and suggestions to design this year's Train-the-Trainer program. We asked them a number of questions such as "what could be improved in the last TTT?, how can be improve this year's TTT etc." We'll reach mailing lists and village pumps for for further inputs. Based on all these suggestions and feedback, this year's TTT will be designed.
MWT session: Based on the feedback we have received, it seems the participants are interested to learn some topics which were previously discussed during MWT. So, MWT sessions many be included in this year's program.

Registration

Note: Participants will be selected based on their on wiki and off wiki activities and their responses to the questions asked in the Google form. In order to fulfil this objectives, preference will be given to Wikimedians who are applying for the first time.

Please fill this form to apply to join this year's Train-the-Trainer event. Please write your answers in details. We may contact you if we need further details.

Clarification

In the Google form above you'll find these terms

Pre-event works: The exact pre-event work has not been fixed yet, but it may something like preparing presentation or draft-plan to improve your Wikiprojects.
Post-event works: Post-TTT you'll work to execute your plans, and conduct outreach activities. You will be in touch with CIS-A2K and share your progress and activities.

Program schedule has not been prepared yet. We expect to announce the program schedule at least 7 days before the event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2016

Stand up for Digital Rights

elonnai — 2016-06-13T15:30:12Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) invites you to a discussion on a set of recommendations for Ethical Tech, a report on human rights and private online intermediaries which describes key areas where such actors have responsibilities. The event will be held at CIS office in Bangalore on June 15, 2016 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The discussion intends to launch a report on human rights and private online intermediaries, which describes key areas where such actors have responsibilities and provides a detailed set of recommendations for Ethical Tech. This work is the culmination of a year long research project led by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), in collaboration with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Open Net Korea, the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information at the University of Palermo (CELE) and researchers with the University of Ottawa and the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. The key themes for discussion would include:

General Human Rights Responsibilities and Private Online Intermediaries
Expanding Access
Net Neutrality
Content Moderation
Privacy
Transparency and Informed Consent
Responding to State Interferences

We look forward to meeting you and making this forum for knowledge exchange a success.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/stand-up-for-digital-rights

Workshop on Set-top Boxes

sinha — 2016-06-24T15:13:22Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is organising a one-day workshop in Delhi on Tuesday, July 12 on the evolution and state of the set-top box as an access device in India.

The workshop will be conducted by Dr. Rakesh Mehrotra who is a professor at Sharda University. It will be supported by an advisor from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to cover the aspect of regulation. The workshop will focus on the expanding functionality and innovations in set-top box (STB) technologies. It will also include an exposition on the regulatory regime applicable to STBs, around issues of interoperability, competition and privacy, and conclude with an outlook on the future of STBs.

We will initiate research collaborations with suitable participants to produce papers after the workshop. Certificates of participation will be provided.

Apply

There are limited spots for participants. Please state your interest by filling out this form here- http://goo.gl/forms/Mj77h0nkeVBJgHJn2 The deadline for filling application is July 5, 2016.

Fee and Funding

There is no registration fee for the workshop. Participants will be served lunch and refreshments at the venue. Please note that there is no funding for travel and accommodation.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/events/workshop-set-top-boxes