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'Privacy Matters', Ahmedabad: Conference Report
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/privacy-matters-report-from-ahmedabad
<b>On 26 March 2011, civil society, lawyers, judges, students and NGO’s, gathered together at the Ahmedabad Management Association to take part in 'Privacy Matters' – a public conference organised by Privacy India in partnership with IDRC and Research Foundation for Governance in India (RFGI) — to discuss the challenges of privacy in India, with an emphasis on national security and privacy. The conference was opened by Prashant Iyengar, head researcher at Privacy India and Kanan Drhu, director of RFGI. Mr. Iyengar explained Privacy India’s mandate to raise awareness of privacy, spark civil action, and promote democratic dialogue around privacy challenges and violations in India. RFGI is a think tank established in 2009 which aims to research, promote, and implement various reforms to improve the legal and political process in Gujarat and across India. ‘Privacy Matters – Ahmedabad’ is the third conference out of the eight that Privacy India will be hosting across India. The next conference will take place in Hyderabad on 9 April 2011. It will focus on human rights and privacy.</b>
<h2>The keynote speech, delivered by Usha Ramanathan, focused on links not often made between privacy and social phenomenon.<br /></h2>
<p></p>
<p align="left"><img class="image-left" src="../it-act/usha.jpg/image_preview" alt="Usha Ramanathan " />Ms. Usha Ramanathan opened the conference by examining the links not often made between privacy and personal security, between databases and national security, and the centrality of dislodging privacy in projects of social control. In her presentation she spoke about the inverse relationship between national and personal security, making the point that an important part of privacy is the ability of an individual to secure their own person. Today, because national security follows a policy of ubiquitous surveillance, it is almost impossible for an individual to secure their person from the state. Ms. Ramanathan also traced the beginnings of ubiquitous surveillance to the increasing global fear of terrorism, and the national break down of the criminal justice system in India. Instead of looking to the roots of terrorism and the roots of failure in the criminal justice system, the Indian State has responded to both these factors by superimposing a system of surveillance on top of the existing rule. Consequently, the state has become pan-optical — closely following the movement of its entire population. The state has been able to achieve this level of surveillance through technology, which it has used to create identifiers for its population. The use of technology by the state mediates a link between corporate interest and state interest. Thus, by facilitating the easy and ubiquitous creation of identifiers and surveillance, technology is changing the idea and the nature of privacy. For example, it is now important that a privacy law allows for individuals to protect and secure their identity, something that every individual has and every individual controls, while regulating the creation and external use of identifiers — something that is used by another (not you) to distinguish a person from the rest of the population. </p>
<h3>Questions to Consider</h3>
<ul><li>How can privacy legislation work to positively regulate the use of technology by the government, so that invasion of privacy does not consequently become state policy? </li></ul>
<ul><li>How can privacy legislation distinguish between and work to protect an identity while regulating the creation and use of personal information as identifiers?</li></ul>
<h2>Session I of the Conference featured a Judicial Perspective of Privacy and a Presentation on the Connections between Privacy and the Federal Income Tax Regime in India.</h2>
<h3>Privacy and the Constitution</h3>
<img class="image-right" src="../it-act/judge.jpg/image_preview" alt="Justice Bhatt" />
<p><strong> J N Bhatt</strong>, the former Chief Justice of Gujarat and Bihar, and currently the head of the Gujarat State Law Commission, spoke about privacy as a fundamental right that has been written into articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. Important points from his presentation include:</p>
<ul><li>
<p> As privacy is already a recognized fundamental right, the question at hand is not if there is a right to privacy, but instead how can the right to privacy be best proliferated. </p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li>
<p>Within the question of how a privacy can best be proliferated, is a question about rights and duties. Wherever there is a right to privacy there is also a corresponding duty to privacy — as rights and duties are interdependent.</p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li>
<p>Though privacy has been recognized as a fundamental right in India, when looking at the actual assertion of the right, it is important to be aware of the cultural realities of India. India is a country with 39 per cent of her population living below the poverty line, with an even lower literacy rate, and there is a direct connection between the assertion of civil liberties, an individual’s civic sense, and education.</p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li>
<p>When looking at how to best proliferate the right to privacy, governance and common law, a methodology to reach the poorest of the poor should be laid out first.</p>
</li></ul>
<h3>Questions to Consider</h3>
<ul><li>
<p>What is the best way to proliferate the right to privacy ?</p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li>
<p>What legal structures need to be in place to ensure that the poor can assert their right to privacy?</p>
</li><li>
<p>What social structures need to be in place to ensure that the poor can assert their right to privacy?</p>
</li></ul>
<h3><img class="image-left" src="../it-act/profdrhu.jpg/image_preview" alt="Prof. Drhu" /> Privacy and the Indian Tax Regime<br /></h3>
<p><strong>Professor Amal Dhru</strong>, visiting professor from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a practicing Chartered Accountant spoke on the connections between privacy and the federal income tax regime in India. In his presentation he explained how the information collected by the federal income tax regime in India can be both useful in holding a citizen accountable, and invasive of one’s personal privacy if mis-used. Important points from his presentation include:</p>
<ul><li>The Indian tax regime highlights the tension between public interest as tax evasion is considered an exception to the right to privacy as it is a matter of public interest.</li></ul>
<ul><li> There is a lack of confidence in the existing banking and tax system in India. For example in the business sector, Indian investors have deposited over 700 billion dollars abroad as they are given complete privacy and security over their money. </li></ul>
<ul><li>Though there is a lack of confidence in the current banking and tax system, a tighter law is not necessarily the solution. For example, studies have found that tighter tax regimes lead to greater evasion, while looser tax regimes have higher compliance rates.</li></ul>
<ul><li>On April 1, 2011 the new tax codes for India will be implemented. The reform will give enormous power to tax offices, and as the tax authorities will become equipped to do taxes smarter – this will come at a cost to citizen’s privacy. </li></ul>
<h3>Questions to Consider</h3>
<ul><li> Just as a tighter tax law leads to a higher percentage of tax evasion, will a tight privacy law simply lead to greater numbers of privacy violations?</li></ul>
<ul><li>What creates public confidence in a law?</li></ul>
<ul><li>Should a privacy legislation be responsible for defining the public good?</li></ul>
<ul><li>Should privacy protection of tax-related information be incorporated into a privacy legislation or contained only in tax law?</li></ul>
<ul><li>To what extent should tax authorities be allowed to investigate potential tax evasion i.e., one’s computer, house or e-mail? </li></ul>
<ul><li>How does one balance the private vs. the public good? </li></ul>
<h2> Session II of the Conference focused on National Security and Privacy, and Cultural Conceptions of Privacy <br /></h2>
<h3>National Security and Privacy<img class="image-right" src="../it-act/mathew.jpg/image_preview" alt="Mr. Thomas " /></h3>
<p style="text-align: left;">In the second session on Privacy and National Security, Colonel Mathew Thomas spoke on privacy and national security. Colonel Thomas is a management consultant and activity leader for development centers and has held top positions in the Indian Army, and the Defence Research and Development Organisation, where he headed the missile manufacturing facility. Sharing his personal experiences in the army he explained the connection between privacy and national security. Important points from his presentation include: </p>
<ul><li> National Security is often not an internal threat, but instead an external threat. </li></ul>
<ul><li>There is a connection between the increase in surveillance and liberalization of Government. </li></ul>
<ul><li>More surveillance does not bring more security. </li></ul>
<ul><li>Foreign software poses as a threat to national security.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Greater security is gained through intelligent use and analysis of data. </li></ul>
<ul><li>A strong national security plan should not rely solely on surveillance of its citizens. Instead national security should be brought about through strong economic policies, non-reliance on foreign software, neutrality in foreign policy, fair trade policies, rural development and prevention of migration to cities, and having a politically honest and accountable governance.</li></ul>
<h3>Questions to Consider</h3>
<ul><li>Is it effective for privacy to be compromised in the name of anti- terror laws?</li><li> Can the development and distribution of indigenous software protect national privacy?</li><li> How can strong economic policies indirectly protect an individual's privacy?</li><li> How can a strong foreign policy protect an Indian citizen's privacy when it is stored or sent abroad?</li></ul>
<h3> <img class="image-left" src="../it-act/gagan.jpg/image_preview" alt="Gagan Sethi" />Privacy as a Cultural Construct<br /></h3>
<p>Gagan Sethi from the Centre for Social Justice, Ahmedabad shared his opinion on privacy. Important points from his presentation include:</p>
<ul><li>
<p>Privacy is a cultural construct that changes with context, perspective, and time.</p>
</li><li>
<p>When considering a privacy policy it is important to create a policy that does not strictly define what privacy is and what it is not, but instead create a policy that defines and promotes a common respect for human dignity.</p>
</li></ul>
<h3>Questions to Consider</h3>
<ul><li> If a privacy policy is developed to promote a common respect for human dignity – will it be effective?</li></ul>
<ul><li>
<p>Can you develop a policy that has a loose definition and mandate, but has strong legal teeth?</p>
</li></ul>
<h2>Session III of the Conference focused on Minority Identities and Privacy, Prisoner Rights, and Cyber Security.</h2>
<h3>Privacy and Minority Identities<img class="image-right" src="../it-act/copy_of_bobby.jpg/image_preview" alt="Bobby Kuhnu " /><br /></h3>
<p><strong>Bobby Kuhnu</strong>, a lawyer and activist, presented in the third session on Privacy, Minority Identities, and Security. In his talk Mr. Kuhnu through the use of three examples examined the ideological underpinnings of the discourse on privacy and its bearings on socially marginalized identities in the context of the Indian State and the constitutional right to privacy. Important points from his presentation include:</p>
<ul><li>
<p>In India, names can be sensitive and personal information like one’s religion, family, caste, and background can all be known through a name.</p>
</li><li>
<p>Because of the sensitivity of a person’s name, many people do not feel safe or comfortable in their own identity.</p>
</li><li>
<p>Reservation lists and public postings of information, can and have been used to discriminate and violate another’s privacy.</p>
</li></ul>
<h3>Questions to Consider</h3>
<ul><li>
<p>Should a privacy legislation requirement throughout institutions and government bodies that names should not be publicly displayed to the point of identification?</p>
</li><li>
<p>What is the most effective way of legally protecting an individual from discrimination based on their name?</p>
</li></ul>
<h3>Perspectives of Privacy <br /></h3>
<p><img class="image-left" src="../it-act/interns.jpg/image_preview" alt="Interns " />In the last portion of the day, Yash Sampat and Aditya Yagnik spoke on the origins of privacy and privacy in the cyber world. Vimmi Surti spoke on prisoner's rights and privacy and Ramswaroop Chaudhary presented on minority identities in South Asia and privacy. Important points from their presentation include:</p>
<ul><li>
<p> Internet has led to an increase in privacy violations.</p>
</li><li>
<p>The result of privacy infringements is often the deprivation of individuals from safe access to services availed to them.</p>
</li><li>
<p>When looking at privacy as the protection of human dignity, prisoner’s rights are violated through overcrowding in prisons, poor health, and poor sanitation.</p>
</li></ul>
<h3>Questions to Consider</h3>
<ul><li>
<p> Are there legal mechanisms that can be put in place to ensure the least amount of deprivation to services when an individual’s privacy is invaded?</p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li>
<p> To what extent should prisoners be availed the right to privacy?</p>
</li></ul>
<h2>The concluding session was a time for discussion and opinion sharing<img class="image-right" src="../it-act/kananandjudge.jpg/image_preview" alt="Kanan and the Judge " /></h2>
<p>From the closing session, and the above sessions many themes and questions pertaining to privacy came out that will need to be addressed when considering the way forward for a privacy legislation including:</p>
<ul><li>Regulation of ubiquitous surveillance in the name of national security</li><li>Regulation over public display of names and personal information</li><li>The need to distinguish between identity and identifier. </li><li>The need to protect an individual's identity while regulating the production and use of identifiers.</li><li>Privacy rights and prisoners: what does the right to privacy mean to a prisoner, i.e., clean facilities and health care. </li><li>Can the right to privacy be a platform for individuals to claim sanitary/safe working and living conditions. </li><li>Recognize the changing nature of privacy rights in a technological society.</li><li>Privacy implications of biometric usage.</li><li>Creation of a definition of when privacy rights will supersede identification needs.</li><li>How can government institutions, like the tax department, incorporate and protect the right to privacy with the collection of large amounts of data for more efficient services. </li><li>Privacy and the family</li></ul>
<strong>
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</strong>
<div class="pullquote"><strong>
Download the report and agenda <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-conference-ahmedabad.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Privacy Conference in Ahmedabad PDF">here</a> [pdf - 452kb]</strong></div>
<p class="callout"><strong>Also see Matthew's <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-ahmedabad-conference-presentation.pptx" class="internal-link" title="Privacy Conference in Ahmedabad Powerpoint Presentation">presentation</a> [powerpoint file 116kb]</strong></p>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/privacy-matters-report-from-ahmedabad'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/privacy-matters-report-from-ahmedabad</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaFeaturedPrivacy2011-04-04T04:45:49ZBlog EntryIndia's untapped potential: Are a billion people losing out because of spectrum?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/untapped-potential
<b>As one of the world’s fastest growing economies and with over 65% of its billion-plus population under 35, India has huge potential. But according to Shyam Ponappa of the Centre for Internet & Society, its spectrum management – the electromagnetic waves that are used from home appliances like microwaves and remote controls, to radios, cell phones, and of course, the internet – could be a huge barrier to the country’s economic and social development.</b>
<p>Until the global economic downturn that began about two years ago, the economic model for spectrum distribution in India and many developing countries was based on the free market. But Ponappa demonstrates in a <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/node/11864/">new report </a>for APC that spectrum is worth treating as a public utility the way we do roads, electricity and other basic infrastructure, which would allow for people in rural areas to access spectrum-dependant services like mobile phones and wifi and increase quality of services for all.</p>
<p>Currently in India, as in most other countries, spectrum is being treated as a property, where “chunks” of spectrum are sold to the mobile phone and telecommunications operators with the highest bid. Commonly there are 3 – 4 operators in a developed country; however, in India there are up to sixteen. The extreme competition has resulted in the Indian bidders paying outrageous fees that they are never able to recuperate. So while the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/353">government</a> makes a profit on the sale, this profit comes at a societal cost.</p>
<p>Ponappa proposes pooling spectrum and to have a set of network providers, who in turn serve operators for retail users. This effectively opens up the spectrum and could make costs ten or fifteen times cheaper than they are now.</p>
<p>“It is appropriate to push the concept of open spectrum in developed markets who underwent their development phase some 60 – 100 years ago and put in place basic infrastructure systems. But in countries like India and the Asian sub-continent, it does not make sense to do this because we are not at the same stage of economic development,” Ponappa told APCNews.</p>
<p>“When markets are well structured and organised,” he continues, “[<a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/353">government</a> control] can be less effective and efficient for society as a whole, compared with open competition. However developing economies don’t have the integrated systems in place that advanced economies do. India does not have an adequately developed network of copper, optical <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/293">fibre</a> or microwaves covering most of its population. And we are at a stage of development at which infrastructure is a fundamental determinant of productivity, as well as of a reasonable quality of life.”</p>
<p>Ponappa argues that in India’s case it would be advisable for governments to work with other stakeholders – corporations, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/354">state</a>-owned agencies, and civil society – on a collaborative solution. “It would be much more conducive to a sound economy to have either the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/353">government</a> step in and open up the commercial spectrum, or to have two to three main operators (possibly subsidised, but not necessarily) as we do with the provision of utilities,” he says. Yet, the free market mentality continues to reign, and a surfeit of operators is trying to make a profit in the telecommunications <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/taxonomy/term/325">wireless</a> sector.</p>
<h3>Everybody wants a piece of the pie</h3>
<p>In India, every operator is assigned a sliver of spectrum for their exclusive use and the rest is assigned to the government, the public sector and defence.</p>
<p>The result is high-cost infrastructure for operators (setting up networks with multiple sets of more advanced equipment because of the limited spectrum, with the capital constraints resulting in less extensive networks in rural areas) as well as for users (who have to pay for all this equipment).</p>
<p>“Too many operators make for increased capital costs for each operator, and cumulatively for all operators,” Ponappa explains.</p>
<p>And these higher costs are increasingly difficult to recover from consumer-generated revenue, as India undergoes huge price wars. Many operators may eventually go bankrupt. While no consumers ever complain about low costs –and India has some of the world’s lowest mobile rates– they will complain about poor quality and unreliable service. Consequently, consumers may not have to pay much to use mobile services, but they may not always be able to make or receive calls when they need to, and do not have access to broadband.</p>
<p>While most countries have moved on to 3G networks (which has more capacity for a given spectrum band than 2G, meaning better call quality) as many as four of India’s sixteen operators have not even developed their 2G networks. Making the switch to 3G seems like a good idea, but there are substantial costs associated with deploying these more advanced techniques to both operators (for network upgrades) and for end users (in terms of new handsets).</p>
<p>Too much competition in this case has made operators inefficient.</p>
<h3>Spectrum as a national common good</h3>
<p>If spectrum were treated as if it were a public utility, posits Ponappa, each operator would have access to a bigger chunk of spectrum, and the traffic-handling capacity of each would increase at a lower cost.</p>
<p>“With the current model the capacity of networks is suffering because networks cannot afford to expand or make technical improvements without economic losses. Other infrastructure services such as electricity and water supply are managed by utility companies, which are typically monopolies for a product-segment, or duopolies for purposes of competition. So why not treat spectrum the same way?” suggests Ponappa.</p>
<p>Ponappa suggests treating networks, and spectrum as a part of networks, as we would an oil pipeline, where everyone accesses the same one, and pays a fee for its use.</p>
<p>This would bring more people onto the network and increase revenues, since operating costs would be shared. The more revenue it can generate, the more efficient operators will be, using the same high-capacity circuits. The more revenue the main operators have, the more they could invest in up-to-date technology to extend their networks and provide a better service to clients. The better the technology, the more people could access the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/taxonomy/term/258">internet</a> and other now vital sources of information, as well as focus on broadband and infrastructure to the country’s isolated rural areas, which today have rudimentary communications infrastructure.</p>
<h3>India’s rural populations, the lost resource</h3>
<p>As a predominantly rural country, lack of basic IT infrastructure means that the largest segment of India’s population has no <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/taxonomy/term/300">access to information </a>and communications technologies.</p>
<p>Ponappa grew up on a farm in a rural area some 200 km from Bangalore where even fixed line phone networks were unreliable. “We have multiple telephone lines because we never know which one will work,” he says.</p>
<p>Given India’s massive rural population, this means that there are hundreds of millions of people that are unable to access the internet. Services like quality distance education are not even an option if basic infrastructure such as fixed telephone lines is not in place and the country itself is losing out on the incalculable potential of this untapped human resource.</p>
<p>Download the report <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/india-untapped-potential" class="internal-link">here</a> [pdf - 280 kb]</p>
<p>See the report in the APC <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/pubs/research/open-spectrum-development-india-case-study">website</a></p>
<p><i>This article was written as part of the APC’s project work on </i><a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/node/10445/"><i>Spectrum for development</i></a><i>, an initiative that aims to provide an understanding of spectrum regulation by examining the situation in Africa, Asia and Latin America.</i></p>
<p>Photo by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwanja/3170290086/">kiwanja</a>. Used with permission under Creative Content licensing.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/untapped-potential'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/untapped-potential</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecomFeatured2012-12-14T10:31:43ZBlog EntryDigital Natives Workshop in Taipei: Only a Few Seats Left!!!
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/open-call
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society in collaboration with the Frontier Foundation is holding a three day Digital Natives workshop in Taipei from 16 to 18 August, 2010. The three day workshop will serve as an ideal platform for the young users of technology to share their knowledge and experience of the digital and Internet world and help them learn from each other’s individual experiences.</b>
<p>Everybody has a story to tell, and with the Internet, it is possible to tell the story and be heard. Young people around the world use digital technologies to find a voice, an expression, a creative output and a space for dialogue. Gone are the days when the young were only to be seen and not heard. In the Web 2.0 world, the young are seen, heard and are making a dramatic change in the world that we live in.</p>
<p>As Internet and digital technologies become more widespread, the world is shrinking, time is replaced by Internet time, we are constantly connected and intricately linked to our contexts, our people, our cultures and our networks. And you, yes YOU are a part of this change. In fact, as <a class="external-link" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz4KoL3jzi0">Digital Natives</a> – people who have found technologies as central to their lives – you are directly affecting the lives of many, sometimes even without knowing about it.</p>
<h3>An Open Call for Participation<br /></h3>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) in collaboration with the Frontier Foundation (Taipei, Taiwan) are calling out to young technology users to share stories about how they have tried to change things around them with the use of digital and Internet technologies. Conversely, if you feel that the presence of these technologies has significantly changed you in some way, we want to hear about that too! These can be stories where you have made a significant impact by initiating campaigns or movements for a particular cause, stories where you have used technologies to cope with problems in your personal and social life through your online persona in the virtual World Wide Web or stories where a small blog you started, or a facebook group you created, or a plurk network that you started, or a discussion group that you participated in, led to a change that has a story to tell. </p>
<p>The three day workshop will select 20 participants from all around Asia and in the Middle East to come and share these stories, to interact with facilitators and scholars who have worked in different countries and areas, and to form a network of collaboration and support. We will give your stories a face, a voice and a platform where they can be heard in your own voice, in your own style and in your own formats. Participants can fill in an application form (as given below) and forward it to digitalnatives@cis-india.org by 15th July 2010.</p>
<p>Simultaneously a website will also be hosted online where the Digital Natives will contribute to the content. Selected participants will be encouraged to document in it. Expenses relevant to the project will be granted to the selected participants.</p>
<h3>Application Form<br /></h3>
<ul><li>Name:</li><li>Gender:</li><li>Age:</li><li>Primary language of communication:</li><li>Other languages you can read and write:</li><li>Email:</li><li>Postal address:</li><li>Describe your Internet related experience / initiative(s) in 300 words. Furnish with URLs where necessary. Optionally, if images and videos are part of the description, then upload them in a high resolution version to a secure website and provide the URL.</li><li>Write in a few sentences about your expectation from the workshop.</li><li>I declare that the above information is true to the best of my knowledge.</li><li>I agree that Digital Natives will use the material I have provided for public use.</li></ul>
<p>
Please note that the information you provide will be kept for purposes
of the Digital Natives project. Materials which you submit will be used
for reporting to sponsors and for public use relevant to the project.</p>
<p>Dates: 16, 17 and 18 August, 2010<br />Venue: Taipei (Taiwan)</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/open-call'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/open-call</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital ActivismCyberculturesFeaturedDigital Natives2011-08-04T10:29:26ZBlog EntryDigital Natives : Talking Back
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talkingback
<b>One of the most significant transitions in the landscape of social and political movements, is how younger users of technology, in their interaction with new and innovative technologised platforms have taken up responsibility to respond to crises in their local and immediate environments, relying upon their digital networks, virtual communities and platforms. In the last decade or so, the digital natives, in universities as well as in work spaces, as they experimented with the potentials of internet technologies, have launched successful socio-political campaigns which have worked unexpectedly and often without precedent, in the way they mobilised local contexts and global outreach to address issues of deep political and social concern. But what do we really know about this Digital Natives revolution? </b>
<p><strong>Press Release</strong></p>
<p> Youth are often seen as potential agents of change for reshaping
their own societies. By 2010, the global youth population is expected
reach almost 1.2 billion of which 85% reside in developing countries.
Unleashing the potential of even a part of this group in developing
countries promises a substantially impact on societies. Especially now
when youths thriving on digital technologies flood universities, work
forces, and governments and could facilitate radical restructuring of
the world we live in. So, it’s time we start listening to them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> Because of the age bias and the dependence of a large section of
Digital Natives around the world, on structures of authority, there has
always been a problem of power that has restricted or reduced the scope
of their practice and intervention. For younger Digital Natives,
Parental authority and the regulation from schools often becomes a
hindrance that thwarts their ambitions or ideas. Even when they take the
initiative towards change, they are often stopped and at other times
their practices are dismissed as insignificant. In other contexts,
because of existing laws and policies around Internet usage and freedom
of expression, the voices of Digital Natives get obliterated or
chastised by government authorities and legal apparatuses which monitor
and regulate their practices. The workshop organised at the Academia
Sinica brings in 28 participants from contested contexts – be it the
micro level of the family or the paradigmatic level of governance – to
discuss the politics, implications and processes of ‘Talking Back’.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> What does it mean to Talk Back? Who do we Talk Back against? Are we
alone in our attempts or a part of a larger community? How do we use
digital technologies to find other peers and stake-holders? What is the
language and vocabulary we use to successfully articulate our problems?
How do we negotiate with structures of power to fight for our rights?
These are the kind of questions that the workshop poses. The workshop
focuses on uncovering the circuitous routes and ways by which Digital
Natives have managed to circumvent authorities in order to make
themselves heard. The workshop also dwells on what kind of support
structures need to be developed at global levels for Digital Natives to
engage more fruitfully, with their heads held high and minds without
fear, with their immediate environments.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The proceedings of the first workshop in Taipei, 16-18th August, 2010 are available at <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/">http://digitalnatives.in/</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talkingback'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talkingback</a>
</p>
No publishernishantDigital ActivismDigital NativesYouthFeaturedWorkshopDigital subjectivitiesResearchers at Work2015-05-15T11:50:19ZBlog EntryPolitical is as Political does
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/political
<b>The Talking Back workshop has been an extraordinary experience for me. The questions that I posed for others attending the workshop have hounded me as they went through the course of discussion, analysis and dissection. Strange nuances have emerged, certain presumptions have been questioned, new legacies have been discovered, novel ideas are still playing ping-pong in my mind, and a strange restless excitement – the kind that keeps me awake till dawning morn – has taken over me, as I try and figure out the wherefore and howfore of things. I began the research project on Digital Natives in a condition of not knowing, almost two years ago. Since then, I have taken many detours, rambled on strange paths, discovered unknown territories and reached a mile-stone where I still don’t know, but don’t know what I don’t know, and that is a good beginning.</b>
<p> <strong>The researcher in his heaven, all well with the world</strong></p>
<p> This first workshop is not merely a training lab. For me, it was the
extension of the research inquiry, and collaboratively producing some
frames of reference, some conditions of knowing, and some ways of
thinking about this strange, ambiguous and ambivalent category of
Digital Natives. The people who have assembled at this workshop have
identified themselves as Digital Natives as a response to the open call.
They all have practices which are startlingly unique and simultaneously
surprisingly similar. Despite the great dissonance in their
geo-political contexts and socio-cultural orientations, they seem to be
bound together by things beyond the technological.</p>
<p> Each one chose a definition for him/herself that straddles so many
different ideas of how technologies interact with us; there are writers
who offer a subjective position and affective relation to technologies
and the world around them; there are artists who seek to change the
world, one barcode at a time; there are optimist warriors who have waged
battles against injustice and discrimination in the worlds they occupy;
there are explorers who have made meaning out of socio-cultural
terrains that they live in; there are leaders who have mobilized
communities; there are adventurers who have taken on responsibilities
way beyond their young years; there are researchers who have sought
higher grounds and epistemes in the quest of knowledge. The varied
practice is further informed by their own positions as well as their
relationship with the different realities they engage with.</p>
<p> How, then, does one make sense of this babble of diversity? How does
one even begin to articulate a collective identity for people who are
so unique that sometimes they are the only ones in their contexts to
initiate these interventions? Where do I find a legacy or a context that
makes sense of these diversities without conflating or coercing their
uniqueness? This is not an easy task for a researcher, and I have
struggled over the two days to figure out a way in which I can start
develop a knowledge framework through which I can not only bring
coherence to this group but also do it without imposing my questions,
suggestions or agendas on you. And it is only now, at a quarter to dawn,
as I think and interact more with the different digital natives that
things get shapes for me – shapes that are not yet clear, probably
obscured by the blurriness of sleep and the rushed time that we have
been living in the last few days – and I now attempt to trace the
contours if not the details of these shapes.</p>
<p> <strong>Questioning the Question</strong></p>
<p> The first insight for me came from the fact that the Digital Natives
in the workshop talked back – not only to the structures that their
practice engages with, but also the questions that I posed to them.
“What does it mean to be Political?” I has asked on the first day,
knowing well that this wasn’t going to be an easy dialogue. Even after
years of thinking about the Political as necessarily the Personal (and
vice versa), it still is sometimes difficult to actually articulate the
process or the imagination of the Political. It is no wonder that so
many people take the easy recourse of talking about governments,
judiciaries, democracies and the related paraphernalia to talk about
Politics.</p>
<p> I knew, even before I posed the question, that this was going to
lead to confusion, to conditions of being lost, to processes of
destabilising comfort zones. However, what I was not ready for was a
schizophrenic moment of epiphany where I tried to ask myself what I
understood as the Political. And as I tried to explain it to myself, to
explain it to others, to push my own knowledge of it, to understand
others’ ideas and imaginations, I came up with a formulation which goes
beyond my own earlier knowledges. There are five different articulations
of the legacies and processes of the Political that I take with me from
the discussions (some were suggested by other people, some are my
flights of fancy based on our conversations), and it is time to reflect
on them:</p>
<p> <em><strong>Political as dialogue</strong></em></p>
<p> This was perhaps, the easiest to digest because it sounds like a
familiar formulation. To be political is to be in a condition of
dialogue. Which means that Talking Back was suddenly not about Talking
Against or Being Talked To. It was about Talking With. It was a
conversation. Sometimes with strangers. Sometimes with people made
familiar with time. Sometimes with people who we know but have not
realised we know. Sometimes with the self. The power of names, the
strength of being in a conversation – to talk and also to listen is a
condition of the Political. In dialogue (as opposed to a babble) is the
genesis of being political. Because when we enter a dialogue, we are no
longer just us. We are able to detach ourselves from US and offer a
point of engagement to the person who was, till now, only outside of us.</p>
<p> <em><strong>Political as concern</strong></em></p>
<p> This particular idea of the political as being concerned was a
surprise to me. I have, through discourses and practice within gender
and sexuality fields, understood affective relationships as sustaining
political concerns and subjectivities. However, I had overlooked the
fact that the very act of being concerned, what a young digital native
called ‘being burned’ about something that we notice in our immediate
(or extended) environments is already a political subjectivity
formation. To be concerned, to develop an empathetic link to the
problems that we identify, is a political act. It doesn’t always have to
take on the mantle of public action or intervention. Sometimes, just to
care enough, is enough.</p>
<p> <em><strong>Political as change</strong></em></p>
<p> This is a debate that needs more conversations for me. Politics,
Knowledge, Change, Transformation – these are the four keywords (further
complicated by self-society binaries) that have strange permutations
and combination. To Know is to be political because it produces a
subjectivity that has now found a new way of thinking about itself and
how it relates to the external reality. This act of Knowing, thus
produces a change in our self. However, this change is not always a
change that leads to transformation. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake can
often be indulgent. Even when the knowledge produces a significant and
dramatic change, often this change is restricted to the self.</p>
<p> When does this knowing self, which is in a condition of change,
become a catalyst for transformation? When does this knowing-changing
translate into a transformation for the world outside of us? Just to be
in a condition of knowing does not grant the agency required for the
social transformation that we are trying to understand. Where does this
agency come from? How do we understand the genesis and dissemination of
this agency? And what are the processes of change that embody and foster
the Political?</p>
<p> <em><strong>Political as Freedom</strong></em></p>
<p> On the first thought, the imagination of Political as Freedom seemed
to obvious; commonsense and perhaps commonplace. However, I decided put
the two in an epistemological dialogue and realised that there are many
prismatic relationships I had not talked about before I was privy to
these conversations. Here is a non-exhaustive list: Political Freedom,
Politics of Freedom, Free to be Political, Political as Freedom, Freedom
as Political... is it possible to be political without the quest of
freedom? Is the freedom we achieve, at the expense of somebody else’s
Political stance? How does the business of being Political come to be?
Not Why? But How? If Digital Natives are changing the state of being
political what are they replacing? What are they inventing? Where, in
all these possibilities lies Freedom?</p>
<p> <a href="http://northeastwestsouth.net/brief-treatise-despair-meaning-or-pointlessness-everything#comment-2131"><em><strong>Political as Reticence</strong></em></a></p>
<p> We all talked about voice – whose, where, for whom, etc. It was a
given that to give voice, to have voice, to speak, to talk, to talk back
were conditions of political dialogue and subversion, of intervention
and exchange. So many of us – participants or facilitators – talked
about how to speak, what technologies of speech, how to build conditions
of interaction... and then, like the noise in an otherwise seamless
fabric of empowerment came the idea of reticence. Is it possible to be
silent and still be political? If I do not speak, is it always only
because I cannot? What about my agency to choose not to speak? As
technologies – of governance, of self, and of the social constantly
force us to produce data and information, through ledgers and censuses
and identification cards – make speech a normative way of engagement,
isn’t the right of Refusal to Speak, political?</p>
<p> Sometimes, it is necessary to exercise silence as a tool or a weapon
of political resistance. The non-speaking subject holds back and
refuses to succumb to pressures and expectations of a dominant
erstwhile, and in his/her silence, produces such a cacophony of meaning
that it asks questions that the loudest voices would not have managed to
ask.</p>
<p> <strong>The Beginning of a Start; Perhaps also the other way round</strong></p>
<p> These are my first reflections on the conversations we have had over
the two days. I feel excited, inspired, moved and exhilarated as I
carry myself on these flights of ideation, thought and
conceptualisation. It is important for me that these are questions that I
did not think of in a vacuum but in conversation and dialogue with this
varied pool of people who have spent so much of their time and effort
to not only make their work intelligible but also to reflect on the
processes by which we paint ourselves political. I have learned to
sharpen questions of the political that I came with and I have learned
to ask new questions of Digital Natives practice. I don’t have a
definition that explains the work that these Digital Natives do. But I
now have a framework of what is their understanding of the political and
what are the various points of engagement and investment.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/political'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/political</a>
</p>
No publishernishantDigital ActivismDigital NativesPoliticalYouthFeaturedCyberculturesDigital subjectivitiesWorkshop2011-08-04T10:30:51ZBlog EntryOn Talking Back: A Report on the Taiwan Workshop
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talking-back
<b>What does it mean to Talk Back? Who do we Talk Back against? Are we alone in our attempts or a part of a larger community? How do we use digital technologies to find other peers and stake-holders? What is the language and vocabulary we use to successfully articulate our problems? How do we negotiate with structures of power to fight for our rights? These were the kind of questions that the Talking Back workshop held in the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica in Taiwan from 16 to 18 August 2010 posed.</b>
<p>Twenty-two Digital Natives were selected from regions as varied as Kyrgyztan, Pakistan, Vietnam, Jakarta, India, China, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Moldova and Thailand to come together and share their stories at the 'Talking Back' workshop. While we already began pinging everyone on the phone, and online through emails and chat, the participants themselves were encouraged to fraternise digitally before they even met IRL (in real life). </p>
<h2>The Great Fire Wall</h2>
<p>Two participants were lost to border authorities as they not only disallowed their entry into Taiwan from China but also permanently blocked their movement out of China. Another one from Burma missed out on being present at the workshop as much as we missed not having her with us. </p>
<p>Though admittedly on the first day of the workshop we did have them in on our secret group chat that we infamously termed as a coup d'état. A facilitator also on her way from Egypt was unable to make it through to us. Our Taipei team learned that a certain Chinese Airlines had omitted clearing the visa on arrival for a number of our invitees to the connecting airlines. While some we did insistently manage to pull across, the aforementioned were lost to the borderlines. </p>
<h2>In Academia Sinica <span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></h2>
<div>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>So were we all in Academia Sinica, Taipei and under one roof by the night before the workshop? No, not yet. As mentioned above, three participants and a facilitator were unable to make it. On the Monday morning of 16 August 2010, Ritika Arya, a 20 year old Indian national had not yet arrived. She was to come as a participant and had on the previous day arranged for an event by her NGO, My India Empowered, Mumbai, India (MIE). She had already intimated us about her meticulous plans for Independence Day. However, it was Monday and she wasn’t yet there in the workshop! A call made it known that she was in fact at the Taipei airport with luggage transfer issue to be resolved. Ritika shared with us later how she grappled with the thought of losing her luggage and also spending a lot on the taxi fare instead of getting on a bus from the airport to Academia Sinica. Ritika, founder of MIE came in the nick of time really. Kudos to Ritika for the grand success of her event on India's Independence Day and for her landing smack on Day One; just in time for the Birsds of a Feather (BoF) meetings.</p>
</td>
<td><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/BoF1.jpg/image_preview" alt="Birds of Feather 1" title="Birds of Feather 1" /><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<h2>The First Day</h2>
<p>On the first day of the workshop many presentations were made in quick succession. At end of presentations by facilitators and participants it was apparent that there was a language issue. We had Som Monorum from Vietnam who'd write down in English what he had to say and then say it out aloud to us. He continued adding all his responses to the group at large this way. Pichate from Thailand not only heard out every single presentation from start to end but also shared instances from his country with relevance to topics mentioned. For instance, when Seema Nair spoke of the Pink Chaddi Campaign, India, Pichate was quick to share links to the union labourers who were members of Triumph Employee's Union </p>
<p>An impromptu wake up call for some who were in jetlag daze was the coup de tat which was but a group chat initiated by most of us on whom no amounts of coffee could shake off jet lag. Hardly were we five minutes into the <em>coup d'état</em> when chat members being refreshed from it, one by one returned to 'workshop mode' and slipping out of the group chat resumed focus on the workshop. The smileys and lols remaining in the group chat RAM.</p>
<h2>Same Same - But Different</h2>
<p>As per the workshop schedule the first day we worked in BoF format. BoF is a type of un-conference model wherein members are grouped by what they share in common, be it the use of technology or the topics of work, each group of participants being assigned one guide.</p>
<p>Later the participants were assigned partners to discuss </p>
<ul><li>What is my political legacy?</li><li>Who are the people I engage with?</li><li>Who are the others that I am engaging in this?</li></ul>
<div>and make a presentation of the other's work.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Some initial responses briefly in the beginning: <br /><span class="Apple-style-span">
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote">"What do you mean my political legacy? I am apolitical."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote">
<div>“My work is very much so in the realm of the 'political'. I report on politics so of course I understand that I am engaging citizens reporting via mobile tools and the Internet. This is my legacy.” </div>
<div> </div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span">
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote">
<div>“But I tell stories and I teach people to depict their own stories using such and such software and the Internet yes. These are any stories and lie in the creative realm and not political really. So how is my work political?”</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote">
<div>“I organise teaching slum children and we enroll them into government schools. I do this to help them and have always wanted to help them. What do you mean by my legacy?”</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote">
<div>“I feel strongly especially for women’s rights and I research into the changing face of political feminist activism.” </div>
</blockquote>
</span></div>
</blockquote>
The intense ice breaking BoF meetings were certainly fruitful. </span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/BoF5.jpg/image_preview" style="float: none;" title="Birds of Feather 5" class="image-inline image-inline" alt="Birds of Feather 5" /></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p> </p>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><br /></th>
<th><br /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>On the second day an impromptu exercise which took us briefly away from the scheduled Barcamp model of conferencing. We were made into random groups and assigned one Global Crisis to each group. We were to plan a solution via campaigning for the crisis with a plan which we were to present at end. The topics assigned varied from Violence to Global Warming. </td>
<td><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/BoF6.jpg/image_preview" alt="Birds of Feather 6" class="image-inline" title="Birds of Feather 6" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The last day had a flurry of activities from participant Prabhas Pokharel's birthday to more Barcamped discussions, presentations of our campaigns to solve Global Warming et al. At the end after the vote of thanks we had an open feedback session. Here most importantly was brought to the table the need for sensitivity to language and vocabulary hindrances. </p>
<div>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><span class="Apple-style-span">
<h2>Chips Ahoy!</h2>
</span></th>
<th><br /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Buddhikafirm.jpg/image_preview" style="float: none;" title="Buddhikafirm" class="image-inline image-inline" alt="Buddhikafirm" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td>
<td>Over the three days of discussions, presentations and reflections also at the end, the Taipei team organised visits to the 101 – the tallest building in the world to date, the night market and the participants themselves explored a lot of it on their own.
<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/maesytemple.jpg/image_preview" style="float: none;" title="Maesytemple" class="image-inline image-inline" alt="Maesytemple" /></span></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>Travellers who plan to travel to places with cuisines unacquired by their own palate came prepared with a 'Help! What can I eat!' and 'OMG I need a Burger!' and 'Where's the closest Starbucks?' Well we all did dive into the hot pot outlets, mama-papa set meal restaurants and iced oolong tea shops with broad grins. Taiwan has been spoken well of for its Taiwanese cuisine and being an Indian-Chinese I must say even I can’t label it as Chinese food, for it honestly has a style of its own. <em>Parathas</em> on the streets!</p>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span">
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>The Taipei Team were as attentive to the dietary preferences as anyone could be. On Prabhas's birthday for instance, Miss Mengshan Lee got us three cakes! She said, “We wouldn't want anyone to be left out and to celebrate altogether. With everyone's needs met; eggless and with the egg we made a pretty picture.<span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></p>
<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/markettaipeishilinmkt.jpg/image_preview" style="float: none;" title="Markettaipei" class="image-inline image-inline" alt="Markettaipei" /></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</span></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talking-back'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talking-back</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaFeaturedDigital Natives2012-01-03T10:35:34ZBlog EntryDigital Natives Workshop in South Africa - Call for Participation
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/workshop-in-south-africa
<b>The African Commons Project, Hivos and the Centre for Internet and Society have joined hands for organising the second international workshop "My Bubble, My Space, My Voice" in Johannesburg from 07 to 09 November 2010. Send in your applications now! </b>
<h2>An Open Call for Participation</h2>
<p>As the Internet and
digital technologies become more widespread, the world is shrinking: we are
constantly connected to our contexts, our people, our cultures and our
networks. And you, yes YOU are a part of this change. In fact, as a Digital
Native – someone to whom digital technology is central to life – you are
directly affecting the lives of many, sometimes even without knowing about it.</p>
<p>The organisers are calling out to young users of technology to join this global conversation. The three-day workshop will focus on how the young people use the tools and
platforms at their disposal to create social change in their
environments. We want to hear from you: If you have used digital technologies
to respond to problems, crises, or needs in your community or social
circles, we want to hear your story. These can be stories where you have made a
significant impact by initiating campaigns or
movements for a particular cause, stories where you have used technologies for
learning, sharing, exchanging and disseminating information, stories where you
have either organized or been part of a digitally organized event (online or
offline) such as a petition or campaign, or stories where you used social
media like blogs, social networks, discussion group, etc., which led to an
interesting social outcome. </p>
<p>We invite you to share your perspectives in an
informal conversation with people having a similar approach from the neighbouring
community. The workshop will involve participants from around Africa, who
will be guided by facilitators in an interactive and engaging dialogue. Results
from the workshop will be used to establish a network of collaboration and
support for Digital Natives.</p>
<p>Participants
can register by filling in an online <a class="external-link" href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KLNMXGW">application</a> form by 12 October 2010.</p>
<p>Expenses relevant to the project will be granted to
the selected participants. For any questions, concerns or comments please
contact <a href="mailto:digitalnatives@cis-india.org">digitalnatives@cis-india.org</a>.<br />
<br /><strong>
Dates</strong>: November 07 to 09, 2010<br /><strong>
Venue</strong>: Johannesburg, South Africa</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/workshop-in-south-africa'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/workshop-in-south-africa</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerDigital ActivismFeaturedDigital Natives2011-08-04T10:31:05ZBlog EntryDigital Natives with a Cause?— Workshop in South Africa—FAQs
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-natives-workshop-faqs
<b>The second international Digital Natives Workshop "My Bubble, My Space, My Voice" will be held in Johannesburg from 7 to 9 November 2010. Some frequently asked questions regarding the upcoming workshop are answered in this blog entry.</b>
<p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong>1. </strong><strong>When and where is the workshop going to be
held? </strong></p>
<p>The workshop will take place over three days from 7 to 9 November 2010, in Johannesburg, South Africa.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong>2. </strong><strong>Who should apply? </strong></p>
<p>The organizers, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.africancommons.org/">The African Commons Project</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hivos.nl/english">Hivos</a> and the Centre for Internet and Society are interested in
hearing from <strong>young people</strong>, who
utilize <strong>digital technologies</strong> to
create <strong>social change </strong>in their
societies or social circles.</p>
<p>Further, the regional focus of the
workshop is on <strong>Africa</strong>, hence, only
African citizens or those in an African setting should apply.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong>3. </strong><strong>How can I apply? </strong></p>
<p>You can fill an online <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KLNMXGW">application</a>. Alternatively,
you can email <a href="mailto:digitalnatives@cis-india.org">digitalnatives@cis-india.org</a>
and ask for an email application.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong>4. </strong><strong>What is Digital Natives with a Cause?</strong></p>
<p>"Digital Natives with a Cause?" is an international, collaborative research project which aims to increase the current understanding of Digital Natives (there is not one single definition, that’s why we’re doing this project! – but it could be understood as people who interact naturally with digital technologies) and their role in their particular societies.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong>5. </strong><strong>What are the objectives of Digital Natives
with a Cause? How does this workshop fit in?</strong></p>
<p>"Digital Natives with a Cause?" aims to incorporate a first-person narrative of the use of technology by youth for social change into the ongoing dialogue. To do this, several case studies of varying cultural backgrounds and diverse methodologies will be compiled into a book. The case studies will be the result of three-day workshop conducted across the developing world. Last summer the Asian workshop happened in Taiwan. Next spring the South American workshop will take place in Chile.</p>
<p>"Digital Natives with a Cause?" also aims to incorporate the participants into a broad network of Digital Natives from around the world, with similar methodology and approach. Through this network, Digital Natives will be able to express concerns, share resources, stay connected with peers and learn from each other.</p>
<p>You can read a report on "Digital
Natives with a Cause?" <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/uploads/dnrep1">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>6. OK, so what can I expect from this workshop?</strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">You can expect an informal setting where interactive methods of communication help you gain a better understanding of the context of your project. For example, you will get to meet and interact with the participants of the previous workshop in Taipei. You can expect to reflect about your project: Your motivation, methodology, focus, and context, to name a few, and to draw parallels into other projects in the region. You can expect to interact with a varied and diverse group of young people from around Africa, who like you, use technology for social causes. Overall, you can expect to gain a new perspective about yourself, and the importance of your work.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><strong>7. </strong><strong>Will I learn any new skills in this
workshop?</strong></p>
<p>The short answer is no. The "Digital Natives with a Cause?" project does not aim to train or to build existing capacities among youth users of technology. That said, you will definitely gain a lot of perspective on your individual project and you will learn how it relates to ongoing development processes in the region. You will also meet, interact and hopefully befriend other young users of technology like yourself, enlarging your scope and enriching your experience.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong>8. </strong><strong>Will expenses be covered?</strong></p>
<p>Yes. Expenses associated with the workshop
(travel and accommodation) will be provided for selected participants.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><strong>9. </strong><strong>When is the last date to apply? </strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><strong> </strong>The last day to apply is Tuesday, 12 October 2010.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><strong>10. </strong><strong>Where can I get more information?</strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> Do check out <a href="http://www.digitalnatives.in/">www.digitalnatives.in</a> for more
information, and please email <a href="mailto:digitalnatives@cis-india.org">digitalnatives@cis-india.org</a>
for questions and concerns.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-natives-workshop-faqs'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-natives-workshop-faqs</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerRAW EventsDigital NativesFeaturedWorkshopResearchers at WorkEvent2015-05-15T11:35:11ZBlog EntryMy Bubble, My Space, My Voice workshop - Perspective and future
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/my-bubble-my-space-my-voice-workshop-perspective-and-future
<b>The second workshop for the “Digital Natives with a Cause?” research project named “My Bubble, My Space, My Voice” took place at the Link Center of Wits University, in Johannesburg, South Africa from 6 November 2010 to 9 November 2010. Samuel Tettner, Digital Natives Co-cordinator shares his perspective on the workshop.</b>
<p></p>
The workshop was organized by the <a href="https://cis-india.org/" class="external-link">Center for Internet
and Society, Bangalore</a> in partnership with <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hivos.nl/english">Hivos</a>, Netherlands and put together with indispensable help from <a class="external-link" href="http://www.africancommons.org">The African Commons Project</a>
<p>. The
workshop saw the coming together of 21 people, in the age bracket of 20 to 35, from eight African
countries, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Morocco, Egypt and Kenya.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They came in answer to a call; they came because they all felt they
were represented in some way or manner by one term whose simple nature hides a
myriad of socio-cultural nuances: <strong>Digital Native</strong>. They came thinking these
nuances were going to be explained to them, and they were wrong. The spirit of
the workshop can be summarized in one moment, where one Kenyan participant <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/users/mtotowajirani">Simeon
Oriko</a> commented after a bar camp session: “I have more questions than I came in
with!” Some of these questions were: "Who is a Digital Native?" "What is a cause" " What is the difference between information and knowledge" "How can a globalized world account for questions of indigenous cultural productions" " What are the necessary skills to use the internet" " How can the effects of an online campaign be assessed" and "is the information age a revolution"? </p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/jozi2.JPG/image_preview" alt="Joburg2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Joburg2" /></p>
<p>They,
who at first so adamantly claimed to be digital natives, found themselves
question their assumptions and the labels assigned to them externally. Through
a series of informal and unconference style engagements, participants were able
to reflect on their ideology and practice. These engagements were facilitated
by a team of more experienced practitioners, Marlon Parker, Shafika Isaacs and
Adam Haupt, who offered their insight and perspective to elicit relevant ideas
and conversations.</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/jozi3.JPG/image_preview" alt="joburg3" class="image-inline image-inline" title="joburg3" /></p>
<p>The
conversations centered around inquires on three focus areas: practice, politics and
ideology. Through the practice of Marlon at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.rlabs.org/about/">Rlabs</a> we learned about the key role
of “champions”, or people who have a vested interest in the organization and
are instrumental in crafting progress. Marlon also facilitated a group activity
in which participants broke into small sub-groups and had discussions around five
process-related keywords: Mobilization, Representation, Awareness, Campaign, and
Network Building.</p>
<p>We discussed politics with <a class="external-link" href="http://www.cfms.uct.ac.za/faculty/staff-directory/Adam">Adam Haupt</a> who made us aware
that the use of technology for social change is not a practice which originates
in the information age, as exemplified by South African hip-hop artists who
utilized mix tapes to spread socially conscious messages. Adam's presentations inspired participants to think of words that described their perspective and then break into groups, in an activity called "birds of a feather". In these groups, participants were able to discuss back and for about common ideas and identify differences in practice.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lastly, we discussed
ideology and the power of having strongly strucutred convictions, dreams and ideals with Shafika Isaacs who invited us to frame our journey with technology in our respective projects through a 2-2 Matrix: Dream, Design, Discover and Destiny. James Mlambo, one of the participants from
Zimbabwe, has written an inclusive account of the day to day events <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/mlambo/blogs/digital-natives-workshop-sa-was-eyeopener">here</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/jozi5.JPG/image_preview" alt="joburg5" class="image-inline image-inline" title="joburg5" /></p>
<p>Post the workshop,
participants have started pouring their perspectives, stories
and anecdotes on the <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/">website</a>. At the time of this writing, they have already started pouring all this new knowledge onto the website: congealing new perspectives derived
not only from their own practice but also form shared lessons, within this workshop and
as connected with the Asian workshop which took place in Taiwan. Some of these new
perspectives will help us to better understand many questions about digital
natives, many others will provide insight into the knowledge gaps
identified by Sunil Abraham and Nishant Shah.</p>
<p>If I have learned something from
my experience with the Digital Natives project so far is that the idea that
young people who utilize technology are doing so for self-gratifying reasons, are
selfish and immature, and are disengaged from the political context is not
simplistic but plain wrong. At least some considerable portion is motivated and engaged with their respective social and
political context. Through their practice they are challenging previously
established conceptions and are creating their own definitions of engagement. I
now see it as crucial to the future of our information society to listen to
these people and provide them with the necessary platforms and support so that
they can have the positive impact they so want to achieve and strive for.</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/jozi6.JPG/image_preview" alt="joburg6" class="image-inline image-inline" title="joburg6" /></p>
<p>Proceedings from the workshop are available <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/africa">online</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/my-bubble-my-space-my-voice-workshop-perspective-and-future'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/my-bubble-my-space-my-voice-workshop-perspective-and-future</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerFeaturedDigital Natives2012-01-03T10:32:41ZBlog EntryDigital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon: Position Papers
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/position-papers
<b>The Digital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon conference co-organised by Hivos and the Centre for Internet and Society is being held from 6 to 8 December at the Hague Museum for Communication. The position papers are now available online.</b>
<p>The emergence of digital and Internet technologies have changed the world as we know it. Processes of interpersonal relationships, social communication, economic expansion, political protocols and governmental mediation are all undergoing a significant translation, across the world, in developed and emerging Information and Knowledge societies. These processes also affect the ways in which social transformation, political participation and interventions for development take place.</p>
<p>The Digital Natives with a Cause? research inquiry seeks to look at the potentials of social change and political participation through technology practices of people in emerging ICT contexts. It particularly aims to address knowledge gaps that exist in the scholarship, practice and popular discourse around an increasing usage, adoption and integration of digital and Internet technologies in social transformation processes.</p>
<p>The programme has three main components. The first is to incorporate the users (often young, but not always so) as stakeholders in the construction of policies and discourse which affect their lives in very material ways. The second is to capture, with a special emphasis on change, different relationships with and deployment of technologies in different parts of the world. The third is to further extend the network of knowledge stakeholders where scholars,practitioners, policy makers and the Digital Natives themselves, come together in dialogue to identify the needs and interventions in this field.</p>
<p>In the late summer of 2010 two workshops, in Taiwan and South Africa, brought together 50 Digital Natives from Asia and Africa to place their practice in larger social and political legacies and frameworks. The ‘<a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/talkingback/?searchterm=talking%20back" class="external-link">Talking Back</a>’ workshop in Taiwan looked at the politics, implications and processes of talking back and being political and the ‘<a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/my-bubble-my-space-my-voice-workshop-perspective-and-future" class="external-link">My Bubble, My Voice and My Space</a>’ workshop in Johannesburg looked at change, change processes and the role of Digital Natives in it.</p>
<p>For the Digital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon that will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands from 6 to 8 December 2010, Digital Natives from the workshops in Taipei and Johannesburg have provided us with their take on social change and political participation in the following position papers. They look at issues of: what does it mean to be a Digital Native? What is the relationship of people growing up with new technologies and change? What are the processes by which change is produced? Can you institutionalize Digital Natives with a Cause Activities? How do you make it sustainable in each context?</p>
<p>We hope you will find the Digital Natives with a Cause? position papers inspiring, thought-provoking and challenging.</p>
<p><img alt="" /> Download the position papers <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/position-papers.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Thinkathon Position Papers">here </a>[PDF, 1173 KB] <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/position-papers.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Thinkathon Position Papers"><br /></a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/position-papers'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/position-papers</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital ActivismRAW PublicationsDigital NativesFeaturedPublicationsResearchers at Work2015-05-15T11:34:35ZBlog EntryDigital Natives with a Cause?
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnrep
<b>Digital Natives With A Cause? - a product of the Hivos-CIS collaboration charts the scholarship and practice of youth and technology with a specific attention for developing countries to create a framework that consolidates existing paradigms and informs further research and intervention within diverse contexts and cultures.</b>
<p></p>
<p><img class="image-left" src="../dnr/image_preview" alt="Digital Natives Report" /><a href="https://cis-india.org/" class="external-link">The Centre for Internet and Society</a>, Bangalore and <a class="external-link" href="http://http://www.hivos.net/">Hivos</a> have assessed
the state of knowledge on the potential impact of youth for social
transformation and political engagement in the South. This report ‘<em>Digital Natives with a Cause?’</em>
charts the scholarship and practice of youth and technology and informs
further research and intervention within diverse contexts and cultures.</p>
<p>
The report displays that digital natives have a potential impact as
agents of change. It concludes that multidisciplinary theoretical
approaches venturing beyond the cause-and-effect model and providing
the necessary vocabulary and sensitivity are crucial to understanding
Digital Natives. The lament that youths are apolitical is a result of
insufficient attention to activities that do not conform to existing
notions of political and civil society formation. Digital Natives are
sensitive and thoughtful. It is time to listen to them and their ideas,
and to focus on their development as responsible and active citizens
rather than on their digital exploits or technologised interests.</p>
<p>The report specifically focuses on youth as e-agents of change within emerging information societies to explore questions of technology mediated identities, embedded conditions of social transformation and political participation, as well as potentials for sustained livelihood and education. It identifies the knowledge gaps and networks and further areas of intervention in the field of Digital Natives.</p>
<p>As a first step in working towards enabling Digital Natives for
social transformation and political engagement, Hivos and CIS will
organize a Multistakeholder Conference Fall 2010.</p>
<p>A summary of the report, as well as the detailed narrative are now available for discussion, debate, suggestions and ideas.</p>
<p class="Inleiding"> </p>
<p class="Inleiding">Digital Natives with a Cause? - Report Download Pdf document <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/uploads/dnrep1" class="internal-link" title="Digital Natives with a Cause? - Report">Here</a></p>
<p class="Inleiding">Digital Natives with a Cause? - Report Summary Download Pdf document<a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/uploads/dnsum" class="internal-link" title="Digital Natives with a Cause? - Summary of Report"> Here</a></p>
<p class="Inleiding"> </p>
<p class="Inleiding">The report is also available at <a class="external-link" href="http://http://www.hivos.net/Hivos-Knowledge-Programme/Themes/Digital-Natives-with-a-Cause/News/New-Publication-on-Digital-Natives">http://http://www.hivos.net/Hivos-Knowledge-Programme/Themes/Digital-Natives-with-a-Cause/News/New-Publication-on-Digital-Natives</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnrep'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnrep</a>
</p>
No publishernishantRAW PublicationsDigital NativesWeb PoliticsFeaturedBooksDigital subjectivitiesResearchers at Work2015-05-15T11:31:14ZBlog EntrySurvey : Digital Natives with a cause?
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/survey-digital-natives-with-a-cause
<b>This survey seeks to consolidate information about how young people who have grown up with networked technologies use and experience online platforms and tools. It is also one of the first steps we have taken to interact with Digital Natives from around the world — especially in emerging information societies — to learn, understand and explore the possibilities of change via technology that lie before the Digital Natives. The findings from the survey will be presented at a multi-stakeholder conference later this year in The Netherlands.
</b>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society, in collaboration with Hivos' Knowledge Programme, launched the "Digital Natives with a Cause?" Programme in 2008. After the initial study (<a href="https://cis-india.org/publications/cis/nishant/dnrep.pdf/view" class="external-link">click here for a free download</a>), we are now gathering responses from young users of technology to help us understand, document and support different practices aimed at social transformation and political participation more efficiently.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>We believe that the world is changing very fast and that the rise of Internet technologies has a lot to do with it. As young users of technology (as opposed to young users who use technology) adopt, adapt and use these new technologised tools to interact with their environment, new ways of effecting change emerge. This survey is an attempt to capture some of the information which gives us an insight into who the people are, using these technologies, the ways in which they use them and what their perceptions and experiences are.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The survey will not take more than 7 minutes of your time but it will help us get a better sense of the way things are.</p>
<p> </p>
<strong>Please click here so start the
<a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dG9reUVvQ0w4d1ZER3lKOUtFanZMUnc6MA" target="_blank"> survey</a>.</strong>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/survey-digital-natives-with-a-cause'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/survey-digital-natives-with-a-cause</a>
</p>
No publisherpushpaSocial mediaDigital NativesYouthFeaturedDigital subjectivitiesSocial Networking2011-08-04T10:35:43ZBlog EntryDigital Natives with a Cause? - workshop in Santiago Open Call
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-workshop-in-santiago-open-call
<b>The third and final workshop in the Digital Natives with a Cause? research project will take place in Santiago, Chile, from the 8 to 10 February. An open call for participation follows. </b>
<p style="text-align: center; ">An Open Call for Participation</p>
<p>As the Internet and digital technologies become more widespread, the world is shrinking: we are constantly connected to our contexts, our people, our cultures and our networks. And you, yes YOU are a part of this change. In fact, as a digital native– someone to whom digital technologies are central to life – you are directly affecting the lives of many, sometimes even without knowing about it.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/">Centre for Internet and Society </a>and <a href="http://www.hivos.nl/english/Knowledge-programme">Hivos</a> in collaboration with <a href="http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/">Rising Voices</a> is calling out to young users of technology to join a global conversation. The 3-day workshop titled “From Face to Interface” will focus on how youth utilize new platforms, media and spaces of communication and expression in the digital age. If you have used digital technologies to make your voice heard, to express your opinion in creative ways or to create new knowledge online, we want to hear from you. These can be stories where you have used a mobile phone, GPS or PDA to access the Internet and reduce the online-offline divide, stories where you accessed interactive platforms like user-generated content websites, stories where the use of technology has become part of your identity, or stories where you have been part of a collaborative method of research, production, shared learning process, participation network etc.</p>
<p>We invite you to share your perspectives in an informal conversation along people with similar approaches from neighboring communities. The workshop is open to applicants from, in and around Latin America and the Caribbean who are interested in an interactive and engaging dialogue that marks the beginning of the “Digital Natives with a Cause?” research inquiry into the region. “From Face to Interface” is part of a greater international research project with aims to produce a book in the English language, consolidating Digital Natives knowledge from the Global South. Moreover, the workshop aims at building a Knowledge Network in collaboration with the other participants and partners at previous workshops in <a href="http://www.digitalnatives.in/">Taipei and Johannesburg</a>. Hence, a good working knowledge of English is necessary. This workshop will include the organizers based in India and the Netherlands, and participants will also come from countries where Spanish is not the primary language. Hence, a good working knowledge of English is necessary.Communication during the workshop will be English with Spanish language translations made available in selected parts of the workshop.</p>
<p>Participants can register by filling in an online <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/fromfacetointerface">application</a></p>
<p>form by January 4th, 2011.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Selected participants will be contacted by 8th January 2011. Travel expenses and accommodation will be provided to the selected participants. For more information do check out the frequently asked questions (FAQ) <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-workshop-in-santiago" class="external-link">here</a>. For any questions, concerns or comments please contact <a href="mailto:digitalnatives@cis-india.org">digitalnatives@cis-india.org</a></p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Dates: February 8-10th, 2011</p>
<p>Venue: Central Library of Chile, Santiago, Chile</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-workshop-in-santiago-open-call'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-workshop-in-santiago-open-call</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerFeaturedDigital Natives2011-09-22T11:40:12ZBlog EntryDigital Natives with a Cause? —Workshop in Santiago — an Afterthought
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/santiago-workshop-an-after-thought
<b>The Digital Natives had their third and final workshop in Santiago, Chile from 8 to 10 February 2011. Once again CIS and Hivos joined hands to organise the event. Samuel Tettner, Digital Natives Coordinator from CIS narrates his experiences from the workshop in this blog post. </b>
<p></p>
<p>For three days, from 8 to 10 February, I spent most of the days and almost one full night at the Digital Natives with a Cause? Workshop. The day before the workshop, I met the facilitators: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.karaandrade.com">Kara</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.twitter.com/markun">Pedro</a> and <a class="external-link" href="http://mx.linkedin.com/in/jmcasanueva">Juan-Manuel</a>. All three of them were quite enthusiastic with each one specializing on an aspect of the research objectives. That night, I had my first formal meeting with the participants in the conference room of Hotel Windsor in Santiago. It is always fascinating to meet a large group of people, especially since you have been corresponding with them for a couple of weeks, have read about them and their projects, made images in your head of how they look, how they act, how they will get along with each other and so on. </p>
<p>I was particularly excited about the workshop in Santiago since it presented itself to me an opportunity to re-connect with a side of Latin America that I had not experienced. I moved from Venezuela to the United States at the age of 15. I don’t know about everyone else, but when I was 15, I was mostly interested in music, movies, my friends, fast cars, video games, and a whole lot of the nonsense stuff. Meeting these highly motivated young men and women from all over the American continent and the Caribbean islands allowed me to connect with the more nuanced and matured side of my identity— a side that had only heard English spoken to it.</p>
<p>The
actual workshop took place at the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.bibliotecasantiago.cl">Biblioteca de Santiago</a>, a library in Santiago, a beautiful modern building, with an architecture that rivalled the best libraries I ever saw in the world. Our local partner <a class="external-link" href="http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/">Rising Voices</a>, had done an incredible job of organizing the logistics. The workshop opened with an ice-breaking exercise that unlike most ice-breaking exercises required some neural movement. Participants were asked to come up with a word that described their practice, politics or ideology. You see the workshop participants were young people who engage with digital technologies to create social and political change. I chose my word ‘innovation’ mainly because it’s an idea that’s been hunting my day-dreams lately, but also because I knew it would elicit interesting responses. I briefly sat down with Luis Carlos from Peru and Joan from the Dominican Republic, whose words were ‘stories’ and also ‘creative’. A blog post about that experience can be found <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/fitoria/blogs/sharing-common-knowledge-freedom">here</a>.</p>
<p>Afterwards we had the pleasure of hearing from Juan-Manuel, the facilitator from Mexico. Juan-Manuel talked about issues of participation, motivation to do social change, impact of our engagements and other social change related processes. He left us with three big questions that stayed with us for the rest of the afternoon:</p>
<ul><li>What is our motivation to do social work? Where does it come from? Where does it end? How did it start? Can it be replicated?</li><li>What is incidence / impact? How can one measure impact?</li><li>What does one need to know to create social impact?</li></ul>
<p>I got in a group with Adolfo from Nicaragua, Maria Del Mar from Paraguay, Karl from Haiti and Julio from Chile. Kara was our facilitator for the discussion. A blog post about that experience by Maria Del Mar can be found <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/marzavala/blogs/motivation-incidence-knowledge-0">here</a>.
After discussing for about one hour, we made a white paper that visually illustrated` our discussion. We decided to make a word / concept cloud and mix it with a collage. That was it. With a lot of anticipation and nervousness the first day of our workshop ended.</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/chile3.JPG/image_preview" alt="Chile3" class="image-inline" title="Chile3" /></p>
<p><br />Oh wait! I forgot to add a small detail, that day Nishant also taught us how to do a Bollywood dance. I didn’t take any pictures, but I hope someone did!</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Chileworkshop2.jpg/image_preview" alt="Chile4" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Chile4" /></p>
<p>On the second day, Pedro Markun from Brazil opened the floor with a thought-provoking presentation. Unfortunately, I missed most of the presentation, but if one is to judge by the tweets, it was very inspiring. After the presentation, we participated in a bar camp. During this activity participants proposed the topics for discussion, out of which we selected five to focus on. I decided to join the conversation about ‘digital rights’, a topic proposed by Andres from Venezuela. Brendon from Trinidad and Tobago, Luis Carlos and Roberto from Peru, and Joan from the DR also participated in this discussion. I wrote a small blog about my opinion on this conversation <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/tettner/blogs/discussion-about-digital-rights">here</a>.</p>
<p>During the second half of the day, the process was reversed and instead of us participants writing down concepts we wanted to talk about, five words were written on the board: mobilization, network building, awareness, campaigns, and representation. This activity, called HOW DO YOU SPELL PROCESS? asked us to choose the word with which we identify the most; it could be the word we know the most about, or the least about, or the word we’re most interested in implementing in our practice. I joined the mobilization group, because part of the job as the community manager for the Digital Natives project involved motivating the members, involving them in other’s ideas, helping them connect with greater initiatives – all ideas that I think connect with mobilization issues. I sat down with Maria Carmelita from Argentina, Brendon from T&B and Francisco from Chile.</p>
<p>After we were all settled in the group plenary after this activity, Fieke had a dictatorial proclamation to make: we then had around 12 hours to make a visual presentation (a video, a play, a sketch and others) about our discussions during HOW DO YOU SPELL PROCESS?</p>
<p>I met Brendon, Francisco, and Carmelita shortly after for dinner and the planning of our video. We decided to have an Indian night, which is ironic since I now live in India, yet the experience was very interesting: I tried ‘curry’ for the first time in my life! For our video, we decided to make a cheesy, 1984-esque “how to” video to change the world through mobilization. The video can be found <a class="external-link" href="http://digitalnatives.in/mariacarmelita/videos/mobilisation-three-steps-program-0">here</a>. Check out the other videos as well, they all are quite interesting and thought-provoking.</p>
<p>Finally, on the third day after a showing of the videos and plays, the last facilitator, Kara from Guatemala, shared with us her personal journey into her social commitment. From growing up in a banana plantation in Guatemala, to her use of digital technologies to raise funds to build a house for her uncle, Kara’s story inspired all in attendance. Kara told her story through a specific framework, which was named the Matrix. The Matrix consisted of re-framing one’s story through four lenses: dream, discovery, design and destiny. We then broke into groups and reflected into our own journeys with technology using the same framework.</p>
<p>In the end, we all went to a nice restaurant and had a common dinner. I love those tables of over 20+people; you can switch seats and change conversations instantly. Overall, the workshop was a huge learning experience. I was able to meet some similar people from Latin America, and better understand the cultural context of the intersection of technology and the social and the political spheres. With the last workshop now over, we have collected a plethora of research materials which we will analyze during the second phase of the Digital Natives with a Cause? project. The journey still continues.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you who made the
experience Possible!.</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Chileworkshop1.jpg/image_preview" alt="chile2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="chile2" /></p>
<p>For info on schedule of events, organisers and participants, click <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/workshop-schedule/at_download/file" class="internal-link" title="Digital Natives Santiago Workshop Schedule">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/santiago-workshop-an-after-thought'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/santiago-workshop-an-after-thought</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerFeaturedWorkshopDigital Natives2012-01-03T10:16:18ZBlog EntryCall for Essays — #List
https://cis-india.org/raw/call-for-essays-list
<b>The researchers@work programme at CIS invites abstracts for essays that explore social, economic, cultural, political, infrastructural, or aesthetic dimensions of the ‘list’. We have selected 4 abstracts among those received before August 31, 2019, and are now accepting and evaluating further submissions on a rolling basis.</b>
<p> </p>
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/CIS_r%40w_CallForEssays_List_Open.png" alt="Call for essays on #List, abstracts are considered on a rolling basis" />
<p> </p>
<p>For the last several years, #MeToo and #LoSHA have set the course for rousing debates within feminist praxis and contemporary global politics. It also foregrounded the ubiquitous presence of the list in its various forms, not only on the internet but across diverse aspects of media culture. Much debate has emerged about specificities and implications of the list as an information artefact, especially in the case of #LoSHA and NRC - its role in creation and curation of information, in building solidarities and communities of practice, its dependencies on networked media infrastructures, its deployment by hegemonic entities and in turn for countering dominant discourses.</p>
<p>From Mailing Lists to WhatsApp Broadcast Lists, lists have been the very basis of multi-casting capabilities of the early and the recent internets. The list - in terms of list of people receiving a message, list of machines connecting to a router or a tower, list of ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ ‘added’ to your social media persona - structures the open-ended multi-directional information flow possibilities of the internet. It simultaneously engenders networks of connected machines and bodies, topographies of media circulation, and social graphs of affective connections and consumptions.</p>
<p>As a media format that is easy to create, circulate, and access (as seen in the number of rescue and relief lists that flood the web during national disasters) or one that is essential in classification and cross-referencing (such as public records and memory institutions), the list becomes an essential trope to understand new media forms today, as the skeletal frame on which much digital content and design is structured and also consumed through.</p>
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<li>What new subjectivities - indicative of different asymmetries of power/knowledge - do list-making, and being listed, engender? How are they hegemonic or intersectional?</li>
<li>What new modes of questioning and meaning-making have manifested today in various practices of list-making?
What modalities of creation and circulation of lists affords their authority; what makes them legitimate information artefacts, or contentious forms of knowledge?</li>
<li>How and when do lists became digital, where are lists on paper? How do we understand their ephemerality or robustness; are they medium or message?</li>
<li>Are there cultural economies of lists, list-making, and getting listed? Who decides, and who gets invisibilized on lists?</li></ul>
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<h2>Call for Essays</h2>
<p>We invite abstracts for essays that explore social, economic, cultural, political, infrastructural, or aesthetic dimensions of the ‘list’.</p>
<p>Please submit the abstracts by <strong>Friday, August 23, 2019</strong>.</p>
<p>We will select 10 abstracts and announce them on Friday, August 30. The selected authors are expected to submit a full draft of the essay (of 2000-3000 words) by Monday, September 30. We will share editorial suggestions with the authors, and the final versions of the essays will be published on the <a href="https://medium.com/rawblog" target="_blank">researchers@work blog</a> from November onwards. We will offer Rs. 5,000 as honorarium to all selected authors.</p>
<p>Please submit the abstract (300-500 words), and a short biographic note, in a single text file with the title of the essay and your name via email sent to <a href="mailto:raw@cis-india.org">raw@cis-india.org</a>, with the subject line of ‘List’.</p>
<p>Authors are very much welcome to work with text, images, sounds, videos, code, and other mediatic forms that the internet offers.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/call-for-essays-list'>https://cis-india.org/raw/call-for-essays-list</a>
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No publishersneha-ppResearchers at WorkListRAW BlogResearchFeaturedCall for EssaysInternet Studies2019-10-11T17:07:26ZBlog Entry