The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 111 to 125.
Train the Trainer — Four-day long Residential Training Workshop in Bangalore
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/train-the-trainer
<b>Train the Trainer is a four-day long residential training workshop to enable Indian Wikipedia community members conduct outreach sessions effectively and independently. It is being conducted by the CIS-A2K team in Bangalore in the first week of October.</b>
<hr />
<p>See the event on the <a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program">Wikipedia page here</a>. <i>Please note that the exact dates for this event hasn't been finalized. We will let you know once it is done</i>. See the Snippets from Wikimedia Train the Trainer <a class="external-link" href="https://storify.com/CISA2K/wikimedia-train-the-trainer-2015">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Why CIS-A2K is conducting this Program?</h3>
<p>Based on an internal needs assessment exercise undertaken by CIS-A2K, it has been realized that:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">bulk of the Indian population does not know about the existence of Indic Wikipedias and sister projects.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">there is a lot of potential to do outreach in India but it is hampered by community member's lack of time, lack of availability of support material and/or ability to do outreach.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">though many Indic Wikipedia community members have desire to undertake offline outreach they seldom receive support and guidance.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">there is a need to further build the capacity of interested community members to conduct effective outreach sessions.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Thus through this program, the CIS-A2K programme wants to support and enable community members who are interested to conduct Wikipedia outreach sessions in their own cities/languages and to spread the word about the Indic Wikipedias.</p>
<h3>Overview of the programme</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K is organising a 4 day Train the Trainer Program in Bangalore. The program will include:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">3 day sessions with interactive training run by professional consultants on how to conduct outreach in an effective manner – training on presentation skills, audience engagement, public speaking etc. It will include mock presentations, with video recording for feedback.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">4th day will be a field trip aiming to train the participants on how to organise an effective photothon; in addition, participants will also add pictures from the field trip to Wikimedia Commons for enhancing and improving articles on Indian language Wikipedias.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Selection Criterion</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K will conduct this program for approximately 20-25 interested community members from different Indian language communities. We want to make sure that there is equal participation from each language community. The CIS-A2K will use below mentioned parameters for selecting candidates.</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K's evaluation of <a class="text external" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1le9y8P4ojQTLvOm-L2vikfYUnpF_pfLhOTquPAnK7tU/viewform" rel="nofollow">Train the Trainer Program Application Form</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Motivation of the candidate to be a part of the program.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The applicant should have made minimum 200 edits on their respective Indian language Wikipedia.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The applicant should have created at least 5 new articles of start class (as defined by their language community) on their respective Indian language Wikipedia.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The applicant should have conducted at least 1 outreach session before the end of application date and shared the report with the community (via mailing list, village pump, event page, etc.)</li>
</ol>
<h3>Candidates' Deliverable</h3>
<p>There are certain deliverables that CIS-A2K expects out of selected candidates. These are:</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Take lead in translating outreach documents (including presentations, banners, FAQs, handouts) in their respective language and share it with their respective communities.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Organise at least 2 outreach sessions per month in their respective cities, for a minimum of 6 continuous months and share the report with the community (via mailing list, village pump, event page, etc.).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Take lead in organising at least 1 community meet up in their respective cities, where they would give a small talk/presentation about their experience in the Train the Trainer Program and share ideas and tips they picked from the program with their language community members.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Write a 1500-word report sharing their Train the Trainer Program experience with large emphasis on their learnings and take-aways to be shared with all Indian communities.</li>
</ol>
<h3>What's in it for you?</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get general training and presentation skills which you can apply not only during Wikipedia workshops, but also during delivering personal and professional talks.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Receive detailed feedback about your presentation and training skills from professional consultants.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Help design a training program that serves Wikimedia community in the long term.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Share your skills with others.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Meet fellow Wikimedia editors and have fun.</li>
</ol>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr style="text-align: justify; ">
<th>Dates</th><th>Number of days</th><th>Details</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">30th August to 13th September 2013</td>
<td>14 Days</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K accepts applications.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">13th September to 16th September 2013</td>
<td>3 Days</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K evaluates the applications and shares details of selected candidates.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">16th September to 23th September 2013</td>
<td>7 Days</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K co-ordinates with selected candidates to finalize their travel plans, make reservations etc.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">1st week of October 2013</td>
<td>4 Days</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K organises Train the trainer Program.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Call for Participation</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K is calling for applications for it's Train the Trainer Program. If you'd like to be part of this program please make sure that you meet the <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nitika.t/TTT#Selection_Criterion" title="User:Nitika.t/TTT">selection criterion</a> and fill in the <a class="text external" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1le9y8P4ojQTLvOm-L2vikfYUnpF_pfLhOTquPAnK7tU/viewform" rel="nofollow">Train the Trainer Program Application Form</a> by 13th September, 2013.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">FAQ</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>What is train the trainer program?</b><br /> Train the trainer is a 4 day program organised by CIS-A2K to build capacity and enable community members to conduct outreach sessions independently or with minimal support to introduce Wikipedia to prospective editors in their respective Indian languages. Participants will be trained on various aspects such as presenting with impact, engaging with the audience, significance of body language, outreach follow ups etc. Program will also include groups discussions on ideas, learnings, challenges faced during outreach sessions.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>When will train the trainer program run?</b><br /> Train the trainer program will take place in Bangalore for 4 continuous days in the 1st week of October 2013. Exact details of dates and venue will be communicated shortly.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Who can take part in the program?</b><br /> The event is open to all Wikimedia volunteers from India who can and want to support outreach events in the coming year.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>How can I apply?</b><br /> Please fill in <a class="text external" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1le9y8P4ojQTLvOm-L2vikfYUnpF_pfLhOTquPAnK7tU/viewform" rel="nofollow">Train the Trainer Program Application Form</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Who will take care of my travel and accommodation?</b><br /> CIS-A2K has a budget for Community Development and the team will be able to cover your travel and accommodation.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>What will be the timings each day?</b><br /> The timings of the program will be 9.00am to 7.30pm everyday with sufficient time for lunch, dinner, tea breaks and fun sessions.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Where will I eat?</b><br /> Light breakfast and lunch will be provided; together with social dinner. Arrangements will also be made for tea and coffee.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>What is expected out of me?</b></li>
</ol> <dl><dd> <dl><dd>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Each selected candidate will be given some pre-work. You're expected to come with completed pre-work.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Take lead in translating outreach documents (including presentations, banners, FAQs, handouts) in their respective language and share it with their respective communities.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Post the program, organize at least 2 outreach sessions per month in your respective cities, for a minimum of 6 continuous months and share the report with the community (via mailing list, village pump, event page, etc.).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Post the program, take lead in organising at least 1 community meet up in your respective cities, where you would give a small talk/presentation about your experience in the Train the Trainer Program and share ideas and tips you picked from the program with your language community members.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Write a 1500-word report sharing your Train the Trainer Program experience with large emphasis on learnings and take-aways to be shared with all Indian communities.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Contact</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For any further queries please mail at <a class="mail-link" href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a></p>
<ul>
</ul>
</dd></dl> </dd></dl><ol> </ol><ol> </ol><ol> </ol>
<ul>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/train-the-trainer'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/train-the-trainer</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaWorkshopOpennessEvent2015-09-27T09:59:00ZEventTime Out Bengaluru - Software Patenting
https://cis-india.org/news/time-out-software-patenting
<b>An article by Akhila Seetharaman published as a precursor to the national public meeting on software patents held on 4th in Bangalore. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://www.timeoutbengaluru.com/aroundtown/aroundtown_feature_details.asp?code=14">Original article on Time Out Bengaluru website</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In August this year, the US Patents and Trademarks Office granted Microsoft ownership of “page up” and “page down”. So in theory, no other company can scroll without permission and acknowledgement to Microsoft in monetary terms.<br /> <br />A number of seemingly ubiquitous software ideas have been patented: the use of tabs to shift from one hyperlink to another on a web page, the “Add to Shopping Cart” function that appears on every online store, automated online loan requests, and even reducing image size to make a webpage load faster.<br /> <br />“Most companies register defensive patents to protect themselves, not offensive ones,” said Sunil Abraham of Centre for Internet and Society. “Not many actively pursue patent infringement, but it is still very scary for a small-time entrepreneur.”<br /> <br />At a time when the Indian Patent Office is in the process of putting together a new Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure, the Centre for Internet and Society is holding a one-day consultation on the issue of software patenting in the city. Participants include the Delhi Science Forum, RedHat, IT for Change, Open Space, as well as the Alternative Law Forum.<br /> <br />From mobile phone technology to pacemakers in healthcare, everybody is dependent on software. “Each software patent is a 17-year monopoly on an idea,” said Anivar Aravind of the Free Software User Group Bangalore.<br /> <br />“If formulaic Hindi films were protected by patent laws, we would be able to make only one film,” joked Abraham. The system of software patenting wipes out smaller businesses and innovation, he said. “Software, like poetry and literary works, is already protected by copyright. After all, Bill Gates made his fortunes from copyright and not patents. But many software companies are trying to get additional protection.”<br /> <br />Copyright and patents are both part of intellectual property rights, but copyright restricts the expression of an idea while patents restrict the idea itself, according to Abraham. Under a patenting regime, even before a kid writes one line of code he has to read many patents.”<br /> <br />Kiran Patil of Turtle Linux Lab agreed. “If every little thing is patented, there’s nothing a developer can do.” He cited Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Movement and the GNU (a recursive acronym for GNU’s Not Unix) Project, who likened patents to explosive devices: “Software patents are the software project’s equivalent of land mines: each design-decision carries a risk of stepping on a patent, which can destroy your project.”<br /> <br />Worst of all, the world sees those with patents as the innovators, said Patil, which, according to him, is a big misconception.<br /><br />While corporate giants like Microsoft and IBM fix exchange deals through cross-licensing, smaller companies get left out of the loop entirely. Despite not having many patents of their own, several Indian software companies support software patenting because they have huge contracts with the large software companies in the United States and Europe who do.<br /> <br />The Indian Patent Act of 1970 did not allow for software patents until 2002 when an amendment, which ironically excluded “computer programmes per se” from the scope of patenting, was introduced.<br /> <br />The amendment implied that while computer programmes themselves were not eligible for patents, programmes used in combination with hardware were. The Act was further amended through an ordinance in 2005 to narrow the scope of software excluded, but the ordinance was rejected by the Indian<br /> <br />Parliament and the Act effectively reverted to what it was after the 2002 amendment. “The law has left it somewhat ambiguous,” said Abraham. “Nobody is sure what can or cannot be patented. Many people are using the clause “computer programmes per se” to get pure software patents.”<br /> <br />This occurs either due to incompetence among patent officers or by accident, he said. “While many of the patent officers have expertise in the area of industrial inventions or medical inventions, very few know enough about software patents at the moment.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">-- Akhila Seetharaman</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/time-out-software-patenting'>https://cis-india.org/news/time-out-software-patenting</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshOpennessSoftware PatentsAccess to Knowledge2013-01-16T06:39:27ZNews ItemThis Twitter Account Puts a Face to the Unsung Volunteer Editors Behind Wikipedia
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-online-june-18-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia
<b>The life of a Wikipedia editor is an interesting one. Globally, about 100,000 editors edit the collaborative online encyclopedia's 30 million articles in 287 languages, including over 4.5 million in the English Wikipedia.</b>
<p>Click to read the post published on <a class="external-link" href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/06/18/this-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-the-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia/">Global Voices here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/WikiEditors.png" alt="Wiki Editors" class="image-inline" title="Wiki Editors" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">They dedicate a tremendous amount of their time to contribute and edit articles, but for no pay (editors work as volunteers) and for little public recognition – their work is credited via their usernames tucked away in the entry's edit history.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Now, one initiative is trying to shine the spotlight on these hard-working “Wikipedians.” <a href="http://wearewikipedia.wordpress.com/author/wearewikipedia/">WeAreWikipedia</a> is an unofficial project that brings on a different editor each week to curate information regarding their favorite Wikipedia pages and tweet them using the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia">@WeAreWikipedia</a>. So far, 19 people representing 17 different language Wikipedias have curated the account.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">WeAreWikipedia explains on its blog that it was inspired by a weekly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_Curation">rotation curation</a> handle <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreBangalore" target="_blank">@WeAreBangalore</a> created by social media strategists from the Indian city of Bangalore in October 2013 to create a space for Bangaloreans to tell their stories, give their opinions or simple connect with other active social media users in the area.</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">Admin: Most of u r not aware that, one of our previous curators @psubhashish was inspired by us and started global #RoCur @WeAreWikipedia :)<br /> — Bangalore/Rajeev (@WeAreBangalore) June 17, 2014</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">@WeAreBangalore in turn took its cue from the highly successful @sweden, which turns over the Twitter handle to a different Swede every week as a sort of citizen ambassador program.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The WeAreWikipedia <a href="http://wearewikipedia.wordpress.com/curators/">curators</a> also tell personal stories and <a href="https://twitter.com/FloydKellyMusic/statuses/474769259021627393">explain the technicalities</a> of publishing and editing Wikipedia to any readers who ask.</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">Wherever I go, local Wikipedians are so welcoming and so open to collaboration. I have made friends all around the globe.<br />— WeAreWikipedia (@WeAreWikipedia) <a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia/statuses/478904734758490113">junio 17, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Curators often focus tweets on their Wikipedia language community and country. Two women editors from India, Noopur Raval and Netha Hussain, dedicated many of their publications to facts about women’s rights, issues and development in India while curating the handle during <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_History_Month" target="_blank">Women’s History Month</a> in March. They also drew attention to an <a href="http://wikiwomen.in/" target="_blank">edit-a-thon</a> held in Bangalore that brought <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/indian-wiki-women-history-month">90 women to write about 77 articles</a> related to women in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mariona Aragay, an editor for the Catalan Wikipedia, made a related call for more women editors while she was at the helm of @WeAreWikipedia:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>As a wikipedian, it concernes me the low ratio of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23woman&src=hash">#woman</a> editors: if you’re a wiki-girl, let us know your experience! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23gendergap&src=hash">#gendergap</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WikiWomen">@wikiwomen</a></p>
<p>— WeAreWikipedia (@WeAreWikipedia) <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia/statuses/474257031621533696">June 4, 2014</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Curators also highlight community events, such as <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/08/odisha-dibasa-2014-14-books-released-under-cc-license/">Odisha Dibasa 2014,</a> a gathering at the end of March 2014 of the Odia-language Wikipedia community in the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, where the language is predominantly spoken.</p>
<p>Diptiman Panigrahi, an Odia editor who curated @WeAreWikipedia during the event, talked about his week in a <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/twitter-weekly-curation-wearewikipedia-brings-one-wikipedian-every-week">blog post</a> for The Centre for Internet and Society in India:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted">It was a wonderful experience curating WeAreWikipedia without even much time. Meeting the entire Wikimedia global community was even more fun when I was telling happenings of my own community. I hope to take part in more of such collaborative global issues like this.</blockquote>
<p>You can follow WeAreWikipedia on <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WeAreWikipediaProject">Facebook</a> and on their <a href="http://wearewikipedia.wordpress.com/">blog</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-online-june-18-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-online-june-18-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2014-07-03T06:17:56ZBlog EntryThematic Edit-a-thon at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara
https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara
<b></b>
<p align="center"><br /></p>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia
edit-a-thon was held at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science,
Satara. The aim of the workshop was to edit and improve articles on
Marathi Wikipedia under the theme "Environment and Local
Biodiveristy". Participants were given an orientation on how to
contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The
Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science is housed under the <a href="http://www.erayat.org/" target="_blank">Rayat
Shikshan Sanstha</a>, a century-old organization with the largest
network of schools and colleges across Maharashtra. The management
and local environmental group, Drongo, took the initiative to organize this thematic workshop in Satara, an area rich in terms of
biodiversity in the Western Ghats. Noted ecologist and scientist Prof. Madhavrao Gadgil addressed the workshop as a resource person along with Prof. V.Y. Deshpande of the Institute. A total of 23 members from various
like-minded organizations participated in the workshop.</p>
<p> </p>
<div align="center">
<ul><li><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Nv-B5Uxu4VSIKSzWhDMzqJfy-hp7UUIQ_1sLss5IzaE7EzMBbCYyrm1vrdqDb4bNT57TafnROLvtMhLT7ojevVOT2qJVcY9tEB8XCA8svORZQamsl1Bc5QQj-TmNiu12ilYYqsM" alt="YCIS4.jpg" height="401" width="602" /></span></li></ul>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p>Image by <a title="User:सुबोध कुलकर्णी" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A7_%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80">सुबोध कुलकर्णी</a>/ CC-BY-SA 4.0<br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-07-11T09:35:13ZBlog EntryThematic Edit-a-thon at J.P.Naik Centre for Education & Development, Pune
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-j-p-naik-centre-for-education-development-pune
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was held at the J.P. Naik Centre for Education and Development in Pune recently. </b>
<div>A
Marathi Wikipedia workshop was conducted in conjunction with VIgyan
Ashram, a social work organization on 9 May, 2017. This was held at the
J.P. Naik Centre for Education and Development. <a class="external gmail-text" href="http://vigyanashram.com/InnerPages/RDES_IBT.aspx" rel="nofollow">Vigyan Ashram</a>
conducts courses on Introduction to Basic Technology (IBT) or Multi
Skill
Foundation Course in various schools for integrating socially
useful productive work with school curriculum. The goal of Wikipedia
edit-a-thon was to attempt to integrate these objectives with
Wikipedia Education Program and develop long term strategies. It also
aims to build resources in the field of appropriate rural technologies
on Marathi Wikipedia and equip its participants with the skills
necessary to contribute to Wikipedia.</div>
<p> </p>
A total of 23 IBT coordinators from 18 schools(of 9 districts) participated in the workshop.
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-j-p-naik-centre-for-education-development-pune'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-j-p-naik-centre-for-education-development-pune</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-06-07T08:59:43ZBlog EntryThe Wikimedia India Program Trust
https://cis-india.org/news/announcement-of-wikimedia-india-program-trust
<b>A new entity, the “Wikimedia India Program Trust”, has now been formed and registered (in Delhi.) This will be the organization that will eventually drive India programs and house the team in India.</b>
<p>For some time, efforts have gone into creating an organization that would provide an appropriate structure to support Wikimedia program activities in India. Aspects such as the current regulatory framework (regarding funding, taxation, etc.) as well as the legal protection for the India team have been considered to determine this structure. In this context, a host of options (e.g. subsidiary, branch, Section 25) were evaluated and a determination was made towards an independent non-profit public trust. Legal advice has been taken at every stage in this decision. </p>
<h3>Why an Independent Public Trust?</h3>
<p>The Trust will provide an effective vehicle within India to marshal resources to support programs and partner with local institutions. The objective of the Trust is to promote the objectives of the Wikimedia movement and work closely with the Wikimedia community on various projects with an India focus. It is important to understand that the Trust will not have any editorial control over content on any of the Wikimedia projects. The Trust is a not for profit organization.</p>
<h3>Introduction of Trustees</h3>
<p>Trustees have been identified based upon their support for Wikimedia movement's principles and plans in addition to having reputations for good governance and management. Sunil Abraham and Rahul Matthan have been requested to be the initial Trustees. Both are friends of Wikipedia and have extensive experience.</p>
<p>Sunil is Executive Director of the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), is a long term advocate of free software and IP reform and has been supporting the Wikimedia community and movement for some time now.</p>
<p>Rahul is a partner and heads the technology practice at Trilegal. He brings deep expertise and relationships that will be valuable for the Trust.</p>
<p>These initial Trustees will serve for a term of three years at the maximum. All additional or subsequent Trustees will serve on rotation in accordance with a trustee selection plan that will be prepared.</p>
<p>Trustees will not be compensated for their services. Governance, Funding, Financial Standards & Communications of the Trust. The Trust will be governed by Trustees who will provide oversight and guidance regarding the operations and governance of the Trust. Since the Trust is an independent organization, it will require funding for its operations which is in compliance with the legal and regulatory framework in India. It will seek funding from private donors within India as well as external sources.</p>
<p>The Trust has the support of the Wikimedia Foundation which is a United States based non-profit foundation. However, in India all non-profit organizations need to be in existence for 3 years before they can receive funding from sources outside India. In the interim, they can apply for prior-permission under the FCRA regulations to help expedite the process. As a result, the Trust will shortly be applying for approval to receive funds from the Wikimedia Foundation in the future.</p>
<p>As a Trust, we are required to have an independent external auditor. We have appointed KPMG. KPMG is experienced in auditing non-profit companies and are also auditors for the Wikimedia Foundation. Annually, the Trust will publicly disclose it's independently audited financial statements.</p>
<p>The Trust will publish a monthly newsletter outlining its current activities and future plans. This will commence in December 2011.</p>
<h3>Operations of the Trust</h3>
<p>The trust deed under which the Trust must operate clearly states that the purpose of the Trust is to independently promote the growth of volunteer activities within India in support of effective and unrestricted dissemination of free knowledge to the public. Hisham will serve as the Executive Director of the Trust. Once it is possible, additional employees will be brought on to the Trust. The Trust will eventually have an office in Delhi. In the interim, a temporary office space has been set up to facilitate establishing the Trust and its mission. It is located at Top Floor, G-15, Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016. It's a couple of minutes walk away from IIT Flyover and Hauz Khas Metro. Do drop in! It's a small but cozy place and we'd love to have you over!</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>We continue to make progress in setting up program activities to support the growth of Wikimedia in India. We have a long way to go, but are glad that we are starting to build a solid foundation. The following link is for FAQs on this (and related) topics: <br /><a class="external-link" href="http://goo.gl/8Rdr2">http://goo.gl/8Rdr2</a></p>
<p>As always, do reach out if you have any comments or questions.</p>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/announcement-of-wikimedia-india-program-trust'>https://cis-india.org/news/announcement-of-wikimedia-india-program-trust</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpenness2011-11-13T07:58:38ZNews ItemThe Violence of Knowledge Cartels
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hybridpublishing-nishant-shah-january-17-2013-the-violence-of-knowledge-cartels
<b>We are all struck with a sense of loss, grief and shock since we heard of the death of Aaron Swartz, by suicide. People who have been his friends have written heart-felt obituaries, saluting his dreams and visions and unwavering commitment to a larger social good. </b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post was <a class="external-link" href="http://hybridpublishing.org/2013/01/the-violence-of-knowledge-cartels/">published in the Hybrid Publishing Lab</a> on January 17, 2013.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://hybridpublishing.org/">Colleagues</a> who have worked with him and have been inspired by his achievements have documented the quirky intelligence and the whimsical genius that Swartz was. <a href="http://hybridpublishing.org/2013/01/the-violence-of-knowledge-cartels/#disqus_thread">His fellow crusaders</a>, who have stood by him in his impassioned battle against the piracy centred witch-hunt have helped spell out the legal and political conditions, which might not have directly led to this sorry end, but definitely have to be factored in his own negotiations with depression. All these voices have enshrined Aaron Swartz, the 26 year old boy-wonder who was just trying to make the world a better place where information is free and everybody has unobstructed access to knowledge. They have shown us that there is an ‘Aaron sized hole’ in the world, which is going to be difficult to fill. These are voices that need to be heard, remembered, and revisited beyond the urgency of the current tragedy and it is good to know that this archive of grief and outpouring of emotional support will stay as a living memory to the legend that Swartz had already become in his life-time.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, I want to take this opportunity to not talk about Aaron Swartz. I am afraid that if I do, I will end up either factualising him – converting him into a string of data sets, adding to the already burgeoning details about his life, his achievements, and of course the gory court case that has already been the centre of so much rage and debate. I am also afraid that if I do talk about Aaron Swartz, I will end up making him into a creature of fictions – talking about his dreams and his visions and his outlook and making him a martyr for a cause, forgetting to make the distinction that Aaron died, not for a cause, but believing in it. I, like many people who were affected, in many degrees of separation and distance, am taking the moment to mourn the death of somebody who should have lived longer. But I want to take the moment of Aaron’s death to talk about heroisms and sacrifices and everyday politics of what he believed in.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Let me talk about Shyam Singh, who is as far removed from Swartz as possible. Shyam Singh is a 74 year-old-man in India, who runs a corner photocopying shop on the Delhi School of Economics campus in New Delhi. Singh is not your young, charismatic, educated, tech-savvy oracle. He spent a large part of his life – 3 decades – working at the University’s Central Research Library and the Ratan Tata Library, operating unwieldy machines that were panting to keep up with new innovations in technologies of digital reproduction. It took him thirty years of work to muster enough savings so that he could buy a couple of photocopying machines and start a small photocopying shop at Ramjas College in New Delhi. After his retirement, the Delhi School of Economics actually invited him to come and set up the Rameshwari Photocopying shop on the campus, for the students at the school. He had an official license from the University, for which he paid a sum of 10,000 Indian Rupees, to work on a profit model that depended on high volume and low costs. The shop was more or less a landmark for students and professors alike, who would come to get their course material photocopied out of books that they could almost never afford to buy and were not easily available in public lending libraries. The shop keeper also compiled course-packs, which allowed students to buy all the texts prescribed for their curricula (but not necessarily available in multiple or digital copies in the library), at affordable rates.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It came as quite a shock to Singh, when one day, he was told that a consortium of publishers – Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Taylor and Francis Group – had filed a case in the high court of New Delhi against him, claiming damages of 6 million Indian Rupees for wilful copyright infringement for commercial gains. Singh did not have the ideological apparatus that was available to Swartz, nor the competence to talk about the unfairness of the legal claim. He did, in several interviews, talk about India’s avowed policy on universal education and how he had always thought of himself as helping in that process of equal access to students who would otherwise have been unable to afford the education. The case against Singh is already in the courts, and the High Court has issued an injunction restraining him from providing copies of chapters from textbooks published by the three international publishers who have moved the court. And while he has found support from the academic, legal and student community from around the country, there is no denying that he is going to be fighting an expensive battle against a large Intellectual Property protection conglomeration of publishers who are all ready to make a ‘scapegoat’ and an ‘example’ of this small photocopy shop, in their efforts at enforcing paid access to scholarly and academic material in the country.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I desperately hope that Singh shall not find himself as persecuted as Swartz did, by the publishers, by the public prosecutors, and by an indifferent citizenry who is quite happy to benefit from the fruits that might fall out of this case about loosened Intellectual Property and symbolically support the idea that knowledge should be free, but do not think that this is a problem that affects them in particular. True, in both these instances, we have seen people oscillating between rue and rage, expressing their dissatisfaction with these market driven information cartels which refuse to unleash the information and knowledge that we all believe should be made free. But in those expressions of anger and shock, is also a denial of the fact that we have all been complicit in building, supporting and sustaining these worlds because doing otherwise would inconvenience our schedules, lives and careers. Swartz and Singh, in their own way, had to become the poster-children, the martyrs, for us to take notice about a battle that affects us uniformly but doesn’t feature in our everyday practices and conviction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/">Intellectual Property and Openness</a> are seen as legal battles for somebody else to fight. Even with academia and research, which is the most complicit in building these exploitative knowledge industries, there is very little discussion or even recognition of the untenable behemoths that we have been feeding in our quest for tenures, publications and popularity. For an everyday person, as you can imagine, this is even more removed from their quotidian life practices. The distancing and alienation gets even more acerbated by the fact that these battles are often fought silently. We have legal stalwarts fighting it out in court rooms. Academic scholars and researchers are drawing their pens and swords in academic journals. Political activists are championing their causes in conferences and summits. And in all of this, we have produced a gated activism, where the threshold of engagement and investment is so high that unless there are these dying and the wounded to hold out for public scrutiny, the world moves on, grumbling slightly at the restriction on torrent downloads or the unavailability of its favourite book in the local markets, but thinking that it has nothing to do with them. They are not even an audience to these battles. And if indeed, they are audiences, they are the kinds that go to a play, eat loudly out of crinkly wrappers, talk on their cellphones in the middle of the denouement and leave before the play ends, because they don’t want to miss their favourite TV show about dancing animals back at home.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I do not want to hyperbolise and so I will not endorse the often suggested idea that knowledge should be as free as air and water – for a lot of us who have been looking at the private-public nexus in developing globalised countries already know that free air and water are a myth and that there are heavy prices to be paid for them. But I do want to suggest that it is time to think of the knowledge wars as human wars, as deeply implicated in our understanding of who we are, what kind of societies we want to live in, and what worlds we want to build for the future generations to inherit. These are fights that are not only about getting things for free – they are about understanding what is sacred and central to our civilization impulse and disallowing a small clutch of private bodies to make their profits by selling it to us.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is time to maybe look around and see how manipulations of power and the algebra of survival has made us support corrupt and corrupting systems that restrict free information and knowledge. It is time to learn about the issues at stake – from providing cheap drugs to those in underprivileged areas to offering conditions of affordable education for the masses – when we talk about intellectual property regimes. It is time to organize, question, re-evaluate our own everyday practices, and realise that the fights against intellectual property are not battles that are fought once-every-heroic-death. That these are things that we need to strive for on a daily basis, without the need of an external catalyst or a dramatic death of somebody who died believing in a cause that was supposed to make the world a better place for those in the audience.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The next time, let us not wait for shame, guilt, horror, or surprise to catalyse us in taking note of the growing restrictions on information and knowledge in our world. Let us not wait for the emergence of another Swartz or Singh, persecuted by exploitative knowledge cartels that do untold harm to our sense of being human and being free in information societies. And let us keep our fingers crossed, that wherever he is, Swartz has found peace, solace, and the freedom that he was fighting for, and that Singh does not suffer a fate that might denude him of his livelihood and life’s savings.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Nishant Shah (<a href="https://twitter.com/latelyontime" title="latelyontime">@latelyontime</a> / <a href="mailto:nishant.shah@inkubator.leuphana.de">nishant.shah@inkubator.leuphana.de</a> )is an International Tandem Partner at the Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, and Director-Research at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hybridpublishing-nishant-shah-january-17-2013-the-violence-of-knowledge-cartels'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hybridpublishing-nishant-shah-january-17-2013-the-violence-of-knowledge-cartels</a>
</p>
No publishernishantOpennessOpen Access2013-01-18T07:33:53ZBlog EntryThe Relaunch of Creative Commons India
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/relaunch-of-creative-commons-india
<b>Wikimedia India, the Centre for Internet and Society, and Acharya Narendra Dev College invite you to the Relaunch of Creative Commons India in New Delhi on November 12, 2013 with the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. Shashi Tharoor as the Chief Guest.</b>
<h2>What is Creative Commons?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States, devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In simple words, Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Some more facts about Internet licenses</h2>
<h3>Ever wondered what "Some Rights Reserved" means?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include the right to reproduce, distribute, display, make adaptations, perform, sell and so on. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rightsholder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call "Some Rights Reserved."</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Is Creative Commons against copyright?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rightsholders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Relaunch</h2>
<p>Dr. Savithri Singh, <em>Principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College</em> will be the Master of Ceremony and the Moderator for the sessions:</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Detail</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.00<br />16.30</td>
<td>Shashi Tharoor, <em>Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India</em>: Initiatives of MHRD around Openly Licensed Content</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.30<br />16.45</td>
<td>Question and Answer Session</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16.45<br />17.00</td>
<td>Sam Pitroda <strong>(TBC)</strong>, <em>Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations</em>: Creative Commons and Open Government Data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17.00<br />17.05</td>
<td>Question and Answer Session</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17.05<br />17.25</td>
<td style="text-align: justify;">Rohini Nilekani, <em>Chairperson, Pratham Books</em>: Creative Commons and Pratham Books Case Study (Including Question and Answer Session)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17.25<br />17.40</td>
<td>Moksh Juneja, <em>President, Executive Committee, Wikimedia India Chapter</em>: Creative Commons and Wikipedia (Including Question and Answer Session)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17.40<br />18.00</td>
<td style="text-align: justify;">Lawrence Liang, <em>Co-founder of Alternative Law Forum</em>: Creative Commons and Open Access to Scholarly Journals (Including Question and Answer Session)<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>18.00</td>
<td>Tea</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">VIDEO</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;"> <iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kl6TOXbxqxI" frameborder="0" height="250" width="250"></iframe></h2>
<p> </p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Registration</h2>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>Please register here to attend the event: <a class="free external" href="http://ccindia.doattend.com/" rel="nofollow">http://ccindia.doattend.com/</a><strong> Registration is free.</strong></li>
<li>Please carry a soft or hard copy of the confirmation email to the venue.</li>
<li>Seating will be on first come first served basis.</li></ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Invite to the Relaunch of Creative Commons India<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/INVITE_Relaunch.jpg" alt="" class="image-inline" title="Invite Relaunch" /><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Link to the meta page on Wiki: <a class="external-link" href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Creative_Commons_India_launch">http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Creative_Commons_India_launch</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/relaunch-of-creative-commons-india'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/relaunch-of-creative-commons-india</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessEvent2013-12-11T08:12:50ZEventThe Potential of Open Development for Canada and Abroad
https://cis-india.org/news/idrc-panel-discussion
<b>IDRC held a panel discussion on 'The Potential of Open Development for Canada and Abroad' on May 5, 2010 in Ottawa.</b>
<p>The panel discussion was hosted by Jesse Brown of TVO and the panelists examined the possibilities of more 'open' future and looked at ways to manage the potential risks while harnessing the opportunities for social benefits. The panelists included:</p>
<ul><li>Sunil Abraham (Centre for Internet and Society, India)</li><li>Michael Geist (University of Ottawa)</li><li>Anita Gurumurthy (IT for Change, India)</li><li>Ron Deibert (Citizen Lab, University of Toronto)</li><li>Yochai Benkler (Berkman Center, Harvard University)</li></ul>
<p> </p>
Click here for a <a class="external-link" href="http://www.idrc.ca/events-OpenDevelopment/ev-131099-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html">video</a> of the panel discussion
<p>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/idrc-panel-discussion'>https://cis-india.org/news/idrc-panel-discussion</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpenness2011-04-02T11:56:58ZNews ItemThe Online Video Environment in India - A Survey Report
https://cis-india.org/openness/online-video-environment-in-india
<b>iCOMMONS, the OPEN VIDEO ALLIANCE, and the CENTRE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY have initiated a research project which seeks to survey the online video environment in India and the opportunities this new medium presents for creative expression and civic engagement. This report seeks to define key issues in the Indian context and begins to develop a short-term policy framework to address them.</b>
<p>The basic assumption of this paper is that the online video medium should support creative and technical innovation, competition, and public participation, and that open source technology can help develop these traits. These assumptions are not elaborated upon here. Instead, this report looks at questions of “openness” that are not strictly technological; that are specific to video in India; and that provide points of entry to a simple policy framework.</p>
<p>The paper is organized in the following parts:</p>
<ul><li>The first chapter, <strong>THE NATIONAL CHARACTER OF INDIAN VIDEO</strong>, provides a brief historical timeline of events from the first screening of the Lumiere Brothers films in India in 1896, through the beginning of the twenty-first century. This chapter traces the traditional channels of dissemination of video content in India, and establishes the close and unique bond that the visual medium has formed with Indian society.</li><li>The second chapter, <strong>DIGITAL MEDIA AND NETWORK TRANSFORMATIONS</strong>, looks at recent media transformations like the rise of the Internet and peer-to-peer networking, the proliferation of telecommunications, and other developments which form the backbone of the emerging online video medium. Peer-to-peer and associative networking provides a new means of content circulation throughout the country.</li><li>The third chapter, <strong>MAPPING CONTENT ON THE INTERNET</strong>, traces the various types of visual content visible over these new networks, exploring case studies of videos circulating on the Internet which have raised new questions of censorship, freedom of speech, and the openness of the medium.</li><li>The fourth chapter, <strong>THE ‘OPEN VIDEO’ QUESTION</strong>, creates a judgment-based framework to assess the openness of the medium. This chapter lays out a series of questions around the broad spectrum of openness, viewed from various perspectives of access, participation, open source technology, and availability, with the intent of mapping the circumstances under which online video operates in India. Moreover, the chapter focuses on the structural limitations to video which can be addressed by policy, or even an absence of policy.</li></ul>
<p><em>Whereas the report consciously makes an effort to explore not only transitory web videos but also films, the terms ‘video’ and ‘film’, in many parts are treated interchangeably. Although films and videos represent different traditional mediums of recording, the interest of this report in examining the ‘online video’ content in India, consists of both types of material—accessed perhaps with little distinction</em>.</p>
<p>The scope of this paper is extremely broad and touches upon a wide variety of issues in India, where each area has a peculiar specificity of its situation—urban or rural, geographic, and so on. Links and references have been provided in the footnotes for background readings of these issues.</p>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/publications/content-access/online-video-india-survey-v1" class="internal-link" title="The Online Video Environment in India: A Survey Report">Click here</a> to download the report. [PDF, 1.22 MB]</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/online-video-environment-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/openness/online-video-environment-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshOpennessOpen ContentPublicationsOpen Video2011-10-03T09:31:30ZBlog EntryThe National Public Meeting on Software Patents
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/the-national-public-meeting-on-software-patents
<b>On Saturday, October 4, 2008, the Centre for Internet and Society, with the support of eighteen other organization, held a meeting on the National Public Meeting on Software Patents in the United Theological College campus. The aim of the event was to explore various issues surrounding software patents, especially from the perspective of the draft Patent Manual.</b>
<p>After introductions by <a href="https://cis-india.org/../../about-us/people/staff/staff#sunil-abraham" class="external-link">Sunil Abraham</a> of CIS, the discussions were kicked off by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.nls.ac.in/faculty_sudhir.html">Sudhir Krishnaswamy</a> (an Assistant Professor at National Law School), who spoke about typology of laws; principle-based arguments for excluding software from patenting; policy-based arguments for the same; and lastly, strategies for combating the patent manual. About the rationale behind excepting software ("computer programmes <em>per se</em>") from patentability, he theorised that given the location of "computer programmes <em>per se</em>" in section 3(k) of the Act, surrounded as it is by "mathematical or business method" and "algorithms", the exception seems to be a principle-based one and not a policy-based one. He also talked about what he saw as the practical realities of the Patent Office, and questioned the role the Draft Manual would actually play in the decisions of Patent Examiners.<br /><br />He listed out economic arguments as:</p>
<ol><li>Inapplicability of the incentive arguments. The software industry does not need patents since copyright covers software, and even if incentives are required, that is incentive enough;</li><li>Return on investment. Short shelf-life, and hence 17-year patent terms are irrelevant when the shelf-life is so small;</li><li>New intermediaries are created, who are neither producers nor consumers of software. These intermediaries who help in price-discovery. They discover value in patents which were previously thought neglected by the process known as patent trolling. </li></ol>
<p><br />Apart from these, he also briefly talked of the legal arguments around software patents, and argued that the question is not only about copyright vs. patent, but also about property vs. contract. He asked questions such as: "What role does copyright play in the software industry, or is contract more important?", and pointed out that while this might have been addressed around a decade ago, those questions need to be revisited given the current scenario. Further, he proposed that the strategies should not revolve solely around the Patent Act and Draft Manual, but around pre- and post-grant oppositions as well.<br /><br /><img class="image-right" src="../NMoSP%20005.jpg/image_mini" alt="Prabir Purkayastha" />Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum and Knowledge Commons spoke next, giving a quick run-through of the history, both legal and philosophical, surrounding software patents in India and in the U.S. and Europe (pointing out that most of the wordings of Draft Manual on this point are borrowed from a similar document in the U.K.). He asked the question of why people are opposing software patents. Is it because it is damaging to 'public interest', because it bad for Indian domestic software industry, or because it is an abstract idea which is sought to be patented in the guise of something else? He concluded that ultimately it is not the manual that groups are opposing, but the notion of software patents themselves. Thus, he focussed on how the phrase <em>"per se</em>" used in the Act ought to be interpreted by the Patent Office so as to give credence to the Indian Parliament's rejection (in 2005) of the 2004 patent ordinance (in which section 3(k) read: "a computer programme <em>per se</em> other than its technical application to industry or a combination with hardware"). Lastly, he talked about the various strategies to be employed in the fight against software patents, including pre- and post-grant oppositions.<br /><br /><a class="external-link" href="http://www.gnu.org.in/about-fsf-india/whos-who">Dr. Nagarjuna G.</a> of the Free Software Foundation of India focussed on what he termed "the absurdity of software patents". He emphasised how software requires an interpreter or hardware, and hence talk of "software <em>per se</em>" often becomes meaningless. Further, he underlined how embedding software in hardware was not innovation in itself, and stressed ont he changing notions of software and hardware as we evolve technologically. His equation of software with abstract ideas gives us a glimpse into the foundation of his objection to software patents.<br /><br /><img class="image-left" src="../PrashantIyengar.jpg/image_mini" alt="Prashant Iyengar" />First up in the second session (which was more focussed on the manual, and the law in India) was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.altlawforum.org/OUR_TEAM/profile">Prashant Iyengar</a> of the Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum. He first listed out the different kinds of objections to software patents, including the point that there are only limited ways of thinking about programming, as Donald Knuth's <em><a class="external-link" href="http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html">The Art of Computer Programming</a> </em>shows. Then he went on to go through the history of software patents in India, from the first software patent, granted in 1996, through the 2002 Amendment, the 2004 Ordinance, the 2005 Amendment, and the 2005 and 2008 Draft Manuals. He looked at the vocabulary surrounding software patents, including the words "<em>per se</em>" and "as such", and the cases and legislations from which the language used in the Draft Manual might have been borrowed. He also started a fruitful debate on the different ways to attack the implicit inclusion of that which is not "computer programmes <em>per se</em>" within the scope of patentable subject matter.<br /><br />After Prashant was Venkatesh Hariharan of Red Hat. He spoke on the practical benefits and harms of software patents, and spoke at length about the difference between legal protection of software in the form of patents and via copyright. He pointed to data showing that lawyers are the ones who benefit most from software patents, and that software developers were the ones who suffered most. Pointing to such practical issues such as how does one go about coding a simple e-commerce transaction when more than 4000 patents have already been granted in that area, he brought down the level of discussion from abstract notions of laws and legalities to practical experiences of software programmers.<br /><br />Next, Pranesh Prakash of the Centre for Internet and Society made a presentation on a small sample of software patents that have been applied for in India, and pointed out the infirmities in both the patents that have been applied for, as well as the problems in uncovering these patents because of various errors on the Indian Patent Office website. Going through a few of the patent applications, he showed how a great number applications have very badly worded abstracts, filled with weasel words, whose sole purpose is obfuscating the fact that what is being applied for is a software patent. This, he pointed out, made it difficult to both determine the scope of the applications (subject matter) as well as the innovations contained in the invention (novelty and non-obviousness), and thus difficult to examine from the perspective of pre-grant oppositions.<br /><br />After these presentations, the meeting continued with the Open House session which had many people making presentations, including Abhas Abhinav of <a class="external-link" href="http://www.deeproot.co.in/">DeepRoot Linux</a>, Arun M. of <a class="external-link" href="http://www.gnu.org.in">FSF India</a>, and Joseph C. Matthew, who is the IT Adviser to the Chief Minister, Kerala. With the wrapping up of this session, the proceedings for the day came to a close.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Coverage in the press<br /></h3>
<ul><li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/world-day-against-software-patents" class="internal-link" title="World Day Against Software Patents">The Hindu (September 25, 2008) - World Day Against Software Patents</a></li><li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/time-out-bengaluru-software-patenting" class="internal-link" title="Time Out Bengaluru - Software Patenting">Time Out Bengaluru (October 3, 2008) - Software Patenting</a></li><li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/software-patenting-will-harm-industry-consumer" class="internal-link" title="Software patenting will harm industry, consumer">The Hindu (October 5, 2008) - Software patenting will harm industry, consumer</a><br /></li></ul>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
<h3>Audio Recordings and Slides<br /></h3>
<div>
<ul>
<li>The Principles of Patent Law and Introduction to Software Patents</li>
<ul><li>Sudhir Krishnaswamy (National Law School) | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/02.%20Sudhir%20Krishnaswamy.mp3" class="internal-link" title="The Principles of Patent Law and Introduction to Software Patents">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/02.%20Sudhir%20Krishnaswamy.ogg" class="internal-link" title="The Principles of Patent Law and Introduction to Software Patents">ogg</a></li><li>Prabir Purkayastha(Delhi Sience Forum) (Knowledge Commons) |<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/03.%20Prabir%20Purkayastha.mp3" class="internal-link" title="The Principles of Patent Law and Introduction to Software Patents">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/03.%20Prabir%20Purkayastha.ogg" class="internal-link" title="The Principles of Patent Law and Introduction to Software Patents">ogg</a></li><li>Nagarjuna G.(Free Software Foundation of India) | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/04.%20Nagarjuna%20G..mp3" class="internal-link" title="The Principles of Patent Law and Introduction to Software Patents">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/04.%20Nagarjuna%20G..ogg" class="internal-link" title="The Principles of Patent Law and Introduction to Software Patents">ogg</a></li></ul>
<li>Software Patents in India: The Indian Patent Act and the Draft Patent Manual</li>
<ul><li>Prashant Iyengar(Alternative Law Forum) | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/05.%20Prashant%20Iyengar.mp3" class="internal-link" title="Software Patents in India - The Indian Patent Act and the Draft Patent Manual">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/05.%20Prashant%20Iyengar.ogg" class="internal-link" title="Software Patents in India - The Indian Patent Act and the Draft Patent Manual">ogg</a></li><li style="text-align: left;">Venkatesh Hariharan(Red Hat) | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/06.%20Venkatesh%20Hariharan.mp3" class="internal-link" title="Software Patents in India - The Indian Patent Act and the Draft Patent Manual">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/06.%20Venkatesh%20Hariharan.ogg" class="internal-link" title="Software Patents in India - The Indian Patent Act and the Draft Patent Manual">ogg</a></li></ul>
<li>Software Patent Applications in India</li>
<ul><li>Pranesh Prakash (Centre for Internet and Society) | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/07.%20Pranesh%20Prakash.mp3" class="internal-link" title="Presentation on Software Patents Applied for in India">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/07.%20Pranesh%20Prakash.ogg" class="internal-link" title="Presentation on Software Patents Applied for in India">ogg</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/pranesh-software-patents-draft.ppt" class="internal-link" title="software patent draft pranesh">ppt</a><br /></li></ul>
<li>Open House <br /></li>
<ul><li>Abhas Abhinav (DeepRoot Linux) | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/08.%20Abhas%20Abhinav.mp3" class="internal-link" title="Open House">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/09.%20Arun%20M..mp3" class="internal-link" title="Open House">ogg</a></li></ul>
<ul><li>Arun M.(Free Software Foundation of India)| <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/09.%20Arun%20M..mp3" class="internal-link" title="Open House">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/09.%20Arun%20M..ogg" class="internal-link" title="Open House">ogg</a></li><li>Joseph Mathew (IT Adviser to the Chief Minister, Kerala)| <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/10.%20Joseph%20Mathew.mp3" class="internal-link" title="Open House">mp3</a> | <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/uploads/10.%20Joseph%20Mathew.ogg" class="internal-link" title="Open House">ogg</a></li></ul>
</ul>
</div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/the-national-public-meeting-on-software-patents'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/the-national-public-meeting-on-software-patents</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshConferenceCampaignSoftware PatentsFLOSSOpennessMeeting2011-08-23T03:02:56ZBlog EntryThe joys of being a Wikipedian
https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-july-29-2014-svetlana-lasrado
<b>Radha Krishna, an engineer, had always wanted to share information online so that people who wanted to learn more could just log in and benefit by reading his articles. Eight years ago he started his own website for this very purpose. But he found it hard to maintain the site. He then chanced upon Wikipedia, the largest open-source encyclopedia, which was then just becoming popular in the country. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Svetlana Lasrado was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bangalore/The-joys-of-being-a-Wikipedian/2014/07/29/article2354196.ece">published in the New Indian Express</a> on July 29, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He registered an account on the website and started contributing to it by editing articles and adding references. Krishna, who has contributed over 4000 articles so far, prides himself on being one of the first few Wiki editors from Bangalore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Komal Khatokar, on the other hand, has not spent as much time on the site as Krishna.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This 19-year-old B Com student of Christ University had to contribute one article to the Indian language Wikipedia last year as part of her assignment in a language of her choice, Sanskrit. She says, “I wrote an article on G V Iyer, who was the first person to direct a movie in Sanskrit.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But it did not stop there. Last May, she took up an internship project with The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), which acts as a catalyst for the Wikipedia movement in India. She wanted to explore the world of Wiki writing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“I took part in a project to add articles from the Kannada encyclopedia online. We uploaded over 1200 articles, which will go live on the main website in October.” Komal now edits copies on the site and despite her hectic college schedule, wants to continue contributing to Wikipedia in any way that she can.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Anybody with an Internet access can edit an article on Wikipedia. Globally, the English Wikipedia has over 4 million articles and there are over a million registered users.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">And in Bangalore, from just 10 members five years ago, there are now over 100 registered volunteers who contribute to the website on a daily basis, says Vishnu Vardhan, from CIS and adds, “Now, the maximum number of Wikipedians from India are from Bangalore and majority of the founding members of the Wikimedia India Chapter are also from here.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from English content, world over Wikipedia has many regional chapters covering over 200 languages to increase representation of region-specific content. In India, the Access to Knowledge programme developed by CIS works towards the growth of Indian language Wikipedias. In this regard, Vishnu states that Bangalore has a majority of active Kannada Wikipedia volunteers and is the single largest location for active Malayalam Wikipedians. Bangalore is also the second largest location for Telugu Wikipedia community after Hyderabad, he observes. The strong volunteer community is involved in the Wiki movement in ways more than one.</p>
<h3>Different ways to contribute</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Jeph Paul is not a Wikipedian in the traditional sense of the word. Why? Because he doesn't contribute or edit articles on the website. What he does is very technical. He develops tools and gadgets for Wikipedia in India to enhance user experience. Jeph got involved when Wikipedia started providing grants of up to $30000 to people who wanted to improve the usability and functionality of the website. Jeph applied and received $500 for his project. His project was simple -- he created a visual representation of how an article evolved. He explains, “There are over 100 editors who pore over just one article and modify it — the edits can be a sentence that is rewritten, a reference link added or citations made. But the changes are a lot and minute. I created a tool where people could see what changes are made and how the article evolves over a period of time.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Besides developing tools and software, Jeph points out that users can generate visual content. For instance, there are some topics such as historical monuments which require visual documentation. Users can submit their visual repository to Wikipedia to enhance text content.</p>
<h3>Wikipedia Caveats</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedia, globally ranked sixth among all the websites based on web traffic, has laid down a list of rules and guidelines which users are required to follow. For instance, when one edits articles, one should avoid personal opinions. Komal cites a recent furore when there were slanderous remarks made against actor Ambarish.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Such personal opinions should be reserved for blogs. Wikipedia is a public domain website. Hence, when you become a contributor, you have a certain responsibility. You should refrain from portraying biased sentiments through your articles,” she observes. Contemplating on this, Komal adds that Wikipedians should not fabricate content. "They should only include what’s already published and authenticate it using a credible source," she adds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another rule that is of utmost importance is compliance with copyright. Radha Krishna explains, “If you want to include information from a website or article, you can't copy the text verbatim. You have to analyse the content and paraphrase it based on your own understanding, citing legitimate references.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When in doubt, the Wikipedians assert, it is always best to take help from other editors and collaborators through the ‘Talk’ option on the website or through monthly meetings.</p>
<p>It's easy to be a Wikipedia contributor:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Register: Although a visitor can edit articles, it is good to register to keep a record of your edits. You will also get an access to Wikipedia’s enhanced editing features.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Start with editing: Click the ‘Edit’ tab on the article’s page to modify the copy -- check typos, grammar, sentence structure and add an explanation. For example, if it is a spelling correction, add 'Typo'. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Preview: After editing, see a preview of the modifications by clicking ‘Show Preview’. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Save: Then save the changes by clicking the ‘Save Page’ tab.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Format: Wiki uses a markup language called wikitext to format text. Acquaint yourself with this language by reading the online tutorial. For instance, you can change a text to bold or italics by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Link: You can add inline citations by linking a word to another Wikipedia page. To do so, put the word in double square brackets. You can also change the display text.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Categorise: Add categories near the bottom of the article by typing the topic using
<span id="text-e20ef4784efe4cdfb79fa179410b228e">
<a class="link-wiki" href="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Category.jpg">Category:</a>
</span>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Add footnotes: You can add reference tags around your source using <ref>Your Source</ref>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Add external links: To add a link to an external credible website, type the URL inside a single set of brackets, followed by a space and the text to be displayed.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Talk to other editors: Use talk pages to discuss articles or any issues with other Wikipedians. </li>
</ul>
<p>For a detailed tutorial on how to edit an article, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wiki meets and awareness programmes: Since 2010, the Bangalore Wikipedia community has conducted over 40 meet-ups, according to Vishnu. “This helps increase participation among all volunteers, improves engagement and understanding of the work that is being done on an ongoing basis,” he opines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from this, their main focus is to get more people to join the fray through ‘Wiki Academy’ which travels to different organisations in the country to get people acquainted to the website and give them hands-on training on editing articles. Radha Krishna explains, “We recently conducted a workshop at C-DOT and Don Bosco Engineering College.” He adds, “Wikipedia has a lot of sister projects too like Wikiversity, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wiktionary, which people are not aware of. We want people to make use of these tools too.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Rules every Wikipedian should follow:</p>
<ul>
<li>Register an account</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Don't share unpublished results</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Don't expound your personal theories or start debates</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Respect other editors</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>If you spot an error, correct it</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Write without using jargons</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Do not violate copyright and attribute statements</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Do not promote yourself</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Do not be biased in your tone of writing. Always cover significant point of views</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Don't be afraid to ask for help</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-july-29-2014-svetlana-lasrado'>https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-july-29-2014-svetlana-lasrado</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2014-07-30T05:19:16ZNews ItemThe Indian Council of Agricultural Research Adopts an Open Access Policy
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/icar-adopts-open-access-policy
<b>In this blogpost, Nehaa Chaudhari discusses the newly adopted Open Access Policy of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Earlier this month, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) adopted an Open Access Policy. <i>Inter alia, </i>this policy requires each ICAR institute to set up an Open Access Institutional Repository (OAIR), with the ICAR to set up a central harvester to harvest the meta data and full text of all the records from the Open Access (OA) repositories so set up. What is interesting from the IPR perspective is that the meta-data and other information of these repositories is copyrighted with the ICAR and has been licensed for research and academic purposes, for using, re-using and sharing. Commercial and other reuse would require the written permission of the ICAR. In a nod to the increasing importance of social media, ICAR’s Open Access Policy encourages its institutes to share their works on public repositories and social networking sites, besides adopting the mandate to have all publications, including its journals placed under Open Access. What might be harder to realize, however, is the publication of their research by scientists and other researchers across ICAR institutes or elsewhere, with publishers that allow self archiving Open Access Institutional Repositories. The ICAR Open Access Policy is available <a href="http://icar.org.in/en/node/6609">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In May, earlier this year, the ICAR had released a <a href="http://www.icar.org.in/files/Draft%20ICAR%20Open%20Access%20Policy%20for%20Comments.pdf">draft version</a> of this policy, inviting comments. <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/comments-on-draft-icar-open-access-policy">CIS’ comments</a> had lauded the Policy as being comprehensive, detailed, and as being a positive step in the right direction, and had suggested some possible changes to the same.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is observed that the adopted Open Access Policy (OAP) differs from the Draft Policy (DP) in certain respects, some of which are a cause for concern, whereas a few others expand the scope of the OAP. <i>First, </i>while the OAP requires that Institutional Repositories be established; the requirement contained in the DP to use Free and Open Source Software which was OAI-MHP compliant has been removed. Given that this is an endeavour to foster openness, requiring the use of Open Source Software was definitely a welcome step sought to be adopted by the ICAR, and its elimination renders the OAP lacking in the spirit of openness to its greatest realizable extent. Further, compliance with OAI-MHP would have ensured interoperability, as noted by us in our comments to the DP, and a failure to utilize this would reduce the accessibility and impact of archived materials. <i>Second, </i>the OAP requires that authors of scholarly articles deposit both, preprints and post-prints of their papers accepted for publication in the OAIR. This is a departure from the position in the DP, which required only preprints be deposited. Given that there is likely to be a difference in content and form of the article between the preprints and post-prints (which are after peer review), the inclusion of both preprints and post-prints in the OAIR is seen to be a beneficial move. <i>Third,</i> the period of embargo while signing copyright agreements with publishers had been envisaged to be six months in the DP, whereas the OAP extends the same to twelve months. It is felt that scientific writing is likely to be time sensitive, and twelve months might be an inordinate delay for its availability in the public domain, possibly reducing its applicability and relevance. Therefore, it is suggested that the earlier embargo period of six months might be the better alternative between the two. <i>Fourth, </i>the OAP incorporates an End Note, that was absent in the DP, which stipulates the time period of three years for compliance with the Open Access initiative, and recognizes the OAP as the first stage of a larger process. Both, the time period for compliance, and the recognition that the adoption of the OAP is but the first stage, are appreciated.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In sum, the OAP of the ICAR, while addressing some of the issues associated openness does leave room for desirability. Besides the suggestions that we had made <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/comments-on-draft-icar-open-access-policy">earlier</a>, other concerns include those reflected in this blog post, particularly regarding the departure from the DP in certain specific instances. Nonetheless, the adoption of the OAP by the ICAR is a welcome move- one that would hopefully be followed by other Government agencies such as the Department of Atomic Energy, the University Grants Commission, the Department of Biotechnology, etc.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/icar-adopts-open-access-policy'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/icar-adopts-open-access-policy</a>
</p>
No publishernehaaOpenness2013-09-30T15:03:04ZBlog EntryThe Impact of Regulation: FOSS and Enterprise
https://cis-india.org/news/foss-instrument-for-accessible-development
<b></b>
<p>The workshop seeks to elaborate the impact of regulation, between Free and Open Source Software and Enterprise. It will look at the following key areas:</p>
<ul><li>Education, </li><li>Software development,</li><li>Digital Content, </li><li>Empowering persons with disability, </li><li>FOSS for disaster preparedness etc.</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<div>If time allows, we will explore, if cloud computing is an open Source adjacent?</div>
<div><br />This lively discussion, is meant to bring into perspective the real picture in the market and broaden the minds of participants to realize the options available and come up with recommendations on what needs to be considered to have a fair playing ground, more especially for the developing countries. </div>
<div><br /><strong>Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?</strong></div>
<div>Access and Diversity</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>Have you organized an IGF workshop before?</strong> Yes</div>
<div><strong>If so, please provide the link to the report</strong>:</div>
</div>
<div><a class="external-link" href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?%20chronoformname=Workshopsreports2009View&curr=1&wr=43">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?%20chronoformname=Workshopsreports2009View&curr=1&wr=43</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:</div>
<div>
<div>
<ol><li>Mr.Samer Azmy- ICT Manager / Solution Integration Consultant, Huawei(Moderator)</li><li>Mr. Satish Babu -ICFOSS,India </li><li>Mr. Yves Miezan Ezo- Smile Training, Manager, (France)</li><li>Mr. Sunil Abraham,Executive Director, Center for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India</li><li>Mr. Evans Ikua- FOSS Certification Manager in the ict@innovation program</li><li>Dorothy Gordon- Director General, AITI-KACE</li><li>Ms. Judy Okite (Remote Moderator)</li></ol>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
<div>Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:</div>
<div>
<ul><li>Mr. Samer Azmy- FOSSFA(Pan-African)</li><li>Mr. Satish Babu -ICFOSS,(India)</li><li>Mr. Yves Miezan Ezo - Smile Training Centre(France)</li></ul>
<div><br /><strong>Organization</strong>: FOSSFA, ICFOSS</div>
</div>
<div><br /><strong>Contact Person</strong>: Mr. Samer Azmy, Mr. Satish Babu</div>
<div><br />Workshop Number: 211</div>
<div>See the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposals2011View&wspid=211">event details</a> on the IGF website</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/foss-instrument-for-accessible-development'>https://cis-india.org/news/foss-instrument-for-accessible-development</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpenness2011-09-22T10:53:49ZNews ItemThe First Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop
https://cis-india.org/openness/first-punjabi-wikipedia-workshop
<b>For those who might not be aware, Punjabi Wikipedia is one of the first Indic Wikipedias where community started editing way back in 2002. However, after the initial few edits all activities got stopped and it was inactive over the last decade. Recently we conducted a few workshops that led to the revival of Punjabi Wikipedia. This post is about the first Punjabi Wikipedia workshop held in Ludhiana, Punjab on July 28, 2012.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Surinder Wadhawan, a Mumbai based Wikipedian played an important role in designing this workshop and introducing Punjabi Wikipedia to the Punjabi speakers. The interest and enthusiam showed by Surinder encouraged long-time Punjabi wikipedian G.S.Guglani to join this workshop.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">About 25 participants came over for this workshop. The College of Computer and Information Technology (CCIT) supported in hosting this event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sarabjit Singh, CEO of the organization introduced the invited guests and explained briefly about the session. Surinder thereafter made a presentation explaining the basics of Wikipedia editing. Guglani, one of the old and active editors of Punjabi Wikipedia talked about the Punjabi Wikipedia and its present situation. He then invited one of the participants and helped her creating her user account and edit an article. Janmeja Singh, a Punjabi language researcher spoke about unicode standards and the importance of Wikipedia for Punjabi language. Gurjeet Singh, another new wikipedian demonstrated Punjabi typing using commonly used keyboards with Roman characters for those who were not aware of typing in Punjabi.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We then started the editing session. Out of them 15 new editors (of which 13 were female) edited various articles. We showed them the typing support page (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Uw8WaV">http://bit.ly/Uw8WaV</a>) on Punjabi Wikipedia and distributed the same in printed form (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Rk9wde">http://bit.ly/Rk9wde</a>). Guglani, Subhashish and Surinder helped editors with basic editing and referencing. New Wikipedians were also informed about the Punjabi Wikipedia Facebook page (<a class="external-link" href="http://on.fb.me/Pr7tBE">http://on.fb.me/Pr7tBE</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/PunjabiWikipedia" target="_blank"></a>).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img alt="File:1st Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop-9.jpg" height="600" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/1st_Punjabi_Wikipedia_Workshop-9.jpg/800px-1st_Punjabi_Wikipedia_Workshop-9.jpg" width="800" /></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center; ">Above is a picture of all the participants from the Punjabi Wikipedia workshop</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The workshop was covered in Signpost (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/SSvUYh">http://bit.ly/SSvUYh</a>). There was some media coverage as well:</p>
<ul>
<li>Daily Ajit: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/OWPozC">http://bit.ly/OWPozC</a></li>
<li>The Tribune: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/UMrDvs">http://bit.ly/UMrDvs</a></li>
<li>Hindustan Times: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/UMrNTn">http://bit.ly/UMrNTn</a></li>
<li>PunjabInfoline: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/UZhoT8">http://bit.ly/UZhoT8</a></li>
<li>YesPunjab.com: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/OcMANc">http://bit.ly/OcMANc</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Photos: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:First_Punjabi_Wikipedia_Workshop,_Ludhiana" target="_blank">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:First_Punjabi_Wikipedia_Workshop,_Ludhiana</a></p>
<p><b>Note:</b> Although the workshop was conducted prior to the grant period, the report was written in the month of September, and hence, we are featuring this.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/first-punjabi-wikipedia-workshop'>https://cis-india.org/openness/first-punjabi-wikipedia-workshop</a>
</p>
No publisherShiju Alex and Subhashish PanigrahiOpennessAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2012-10-04T12:16:44ZBlog Entry