The Centre for Internet and Society
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Open Movement in India (2013-23): The Idea and Its Expressions
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-movement-in-india-idea-and-its-expressions
<b>This report identifies some broad patterns that have materialized in the Open Movement in the country in the last decade. The report is based on a reading of the available literature on selected projects and conversations with academicians and advocates of the Open. The rough outline of the Open initiatives is accompanied by reflections on the nature of the Open here and the need to envision it differently from what it currently is.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The report was prepared by Soni Wadhwa, and the visual elements of this study have been sourced by Joseph Francis. CIS’s Access to Knowledge team is grateful to Soni for embarking on the study and making the recommendations. The full report can be read <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/open-movement-india.pdf">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Open, as an idea, has not received systematic attention in India. Openness as a philosophy is rooted in the belief that sharing ideas and resources is healthy for the knowledge economy, especially in contemporary times. This sharing does not take anything away from any entity; rather, it enables collaboration and innovation for the larger social good. With the Internet and digital technology, one can see the faster spread of such innovation across the globe while also allowing for plenty of room for its adaptation to regional contexts. Anchored in the thought and efforts of individuals such as Richard Stallman (1992; 2002; 2006; 2009) and Tim Berners-Lee (Berners Lee, 2004; Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila, 2001; Berners-Lee et al 1992; Berners-Lee and Tim, 2010; Berners-Lee, Tim and Hendler, 2001; Berners-Lee, Tim and Shadbollt, 2011; Bizer, Heath and Berners-Lee 2011) who take a view contrary to that of keeping public funded research and innovation locked away under copyright and patent laws, the Open Movement originated in the Global North.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the West, specifically in the USA, with the support from the institutions such as the Hewlett Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the manifestation of the Open Movement through the push for OER (Open Educational Resources) translated into a greater uptake from educational institutions such as Rice University and the MIT (through MIT OCW – Open CourseWare)(Bliss and Smith, 2017). With prestigious universities offering MOOCs (massive open online courses) through platforms such as edX and Coursera, educational resources have come to be seen as a social good: keeping them available for mass access has been an intentional move towards equal access to quality educational materials. In addition to OER, Open Access (the idea that research funded by public funds need to be made available publicly rather than behind a paywall erected by commercial publishers), as an expression of the Open Movement, has also been present in institutional funding mechanisms in the West, again, especially in the USA. A lot of research emerging out of grants extended to individuals and institutions have space for allocation of funds towards the cost of Open Access publishing for dissemination of results. Several other initiatives such as the Creative Commons, and the Wikimedia Foundation have been working towards making Openness a reality by charting out various projects, pathways, and initiatives to keep knowledge accessible to all for learning as well as collaboration.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In India, the state of the Open Movement is thrown into stark relief by the much longer and much more engaged Western imagination and practice of Openness. Indeed, studying its contours here is equivalent to studying its absences and is therefore very challenging. Here, Open, as an idea, has come via the West and still seems to be struggling to be defined and accepted as an ideal to strive towards. It is an alien concept, deeply misunderstood by the stakeholders who control sharing of knowledge resources: policy makers, legislators, leaders of research and institutions, and researchers and academicians in general.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To suggest another example, a pilot survey of Indian faculty members’ attitudes towards use of Open Knowledge sources such as Wikipedia in Indian classrooms reveals that faculty members are very suspicious and skeptical of such sources. They see it as a source of misinformation and therefore, as unreliable.What gets missed is the idea that the content on these sources is not merely for consumption of information and knowledge but are also platforms for knowledge creation and collaboration. In contrast to the two scenarios of OER and Open Access mentioned above, India does not show a long history of organized effort towards making information and knowledge accessible to all, not just through earmarking funds or mechanisms for making publicly funded research available in the public domain via Open Access, but through nurturing a culture of the Open as the default mode of dissemination.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">What, then, are we to make of the direction in which the Open Movement is headed in India? Is it possible to shape its trajectory in India? Is it possible to ascertain the ways in which the ideas or benefits of the Open can be made to resonate with the Indian educational and research scenario? Can Indian educators and researchers afford to stay out of the Open ecosystem? What alternative modes of innovation do they champion? These are the questions that this study of the Open Movement in India in the last decade (2013-2023) seeks to explore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The study is not an exhaustive one: it looks at only some examples that engage with the idea of the Open. The selective nature of the study is informed by two rationales. One, an all-encompassing review would be impossible given the constraints on time and resources: indeed, such a review would be the task of a full-fledged tracking project (which is one of the futures that this report suggests at the end). Two, given that Open does not have a clear pathway or a central, strategic vision to drive it as a movement, the selection of projects themselves is a symptom of the disjointed ways in which the idea of Open struggles to take shape or survive in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The year 2013 has been chosen as a starting point for this exploration because it was the year the Wikimedia Foundation extended a grant to the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, to work with various Wikipedia communities in India towards the growth of the Open ecosystem in India. This last decade then is of grave importance to the CIS because it helps the organization reflect on their own work vis-a-vis that of other Open advocates CIS’s work, since then, is available on its website through details of its initiatives via its Access to Knowledge and Openness Programmes (see, for instance, their work on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/bridging-the-gender-gap-in-indian-language-wikimedia-communities">bridging gender gap</a> on Indian Wikimedia communities, apart from a host of other training and advocacy initiatives <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k">here</a>). This study is an aid to survey the idea and expressions of the Open as a broader movement and thus help CIS reflect on new directions and strategies to be pursued in the near future, to begin with.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, there is more to the year 2013 than the happenstance of the grant to CIS per se: indeed, one can spot other organized efforts emerging in the Indian ecosystem since then. NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning), which was established in 2003, began to offer MOOCs on its platform in 2014. Coincidentally, 2013 was also the year the Bichitra Project (an online variorum of the work of the Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore), funded by the Ministry of Culture, went live. Together, the international foray into the Indian Open Movement and the governmental gravitas to strive towards making education and the literature of a great Indian author) accessible provide the rationale for this study’s focus on the examination of the nature of championing for the cause of the Open, its successes, failures, and potential for its growth in the next decade.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The approach or methodology to explore answers to these questions involved: analysis of primary as well as secondary research available on the different initiatives in India; interactions with experts working in the Open domain in India including some Indian academicians, especially on the discussion of Open Access which impacts their publishing record, and in turn, impacts their career advancement. The reading and the conversations supplemented each other in the process of investigation: the existing literature provided facts through texts (blogs, papers, documentation on websites and so on) while the interactions opened up more nuances of intersections through perspectives that do not always make it to the static texts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Any study on the Open Movement in India owes a huge debt to Arul George Scaria’s gargantuan <a href="https://osf.io/m3q4s">Open Science India Report (2019)</a>. At over 350 pages, it is a detailed study of Open Access projects and also includes a survey conducted among academic fraternity. It also offers concrete suggestions to strengthen access in research. It is remarkable for the larger view it takes of access to include access for persons with disabilities and access in terms of language, suggesting that research should also be accessible in Indian languages, and also in jargon-free English for wider audiences. Apart from Scaria’s study, there are journalistic pieces about Open Data in India, given the relevance it has for governance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This current study does not aspire to be monumental like Scaria’s. However, it is hoped that its relevance to the ongoing conversations about openness would be noted at at least two levels. One, between 2019 (when Scaria’s report was published) and 2023 (the end point of this study), socioeconomic changes such as COVID-19 and the resulting remote work, one expects, have highlighted the significance of openness. For instance, given the serious constraints it posed for travel, a lot of commercial publishers kept their resources open so that further research, within medicine and outside, could keep happening. Thus, it becomes imperative to understand if the Indian ecosystem displayed any stronger endeavor towards openness. To anticipate a couple of suggestions discussed in the report below, certain things such as Indian researchers’ apathy or disdain for Open Access has not quite changed in the span of these four years. However, Government of India’s open initiatives such as Anuvadini and Bhashini around tools for navigating and producing content in Indian languages have started to appear.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Two, Scaria’s study subsumed all knowledge under “science”: in other words, science, in his report, is a metonym for knowledge. This current study, in being inclusive of humanities and the arts, especially as relevant to Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums), engages with knowledge or movement in general irrespective of its disciplinary boundaries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With that statement on where this report is situated, some notes about its structure are in order. This study begins with an overview of the legal and policy environment in India. It then moves on to explore the nature of Open projects in India. There are many ways to organize the narrative around Openness, with the domain wise bifurcation of the different aspects of the Open (The OPEN Movements, 2023). In contrast, this goes on to organize the projects around positionalities, rather than the domains. That is, the different projects and initiatives are narrativised as:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Public funded projects: These are endeavors emerging from funds provided by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Culture and distributed via grants to Higher Education Institutes in India, especially the IITs. They stand out as one category in that they are characterized by:</p>
<ol> </ol>
<ul>
<li>The vision to provide basic infrastructure of education and archival material in the public domain</li>
<li>The capacity to think and execute in terms of massive impact and scale</li>
<li>A wide scope for aiming higher in terms of innovation, approach, and access</li>
</ul>
<p>Volunteer undertakings: These are projects undertaken by non governmental organizations such as the Sanchaya Foundation, SFLC (Software Freedom Law Centre) and FOSSUnited characterized by:</p>
<ol> </ol>
<ul>
<li>A niche focus on a language or a domain or an audience </li>
<li>A preoccupation with developing a community rather than delivering an output</li>
<li>A qualitative aspect to engagement and documentation, as opposed to impact in terms of numbers</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Within volunteer undertakings, the role of philanthropic foundations is very briefly touched upon. There are entities such as the SRTT (Sir Ratan Tata Trust) and SDTT (Sir Dorabji Tata Trust) that supported the cause of the Open in the initial stages via their investment in the larger educational and cultural cause. These foundations also seem to have discontinued their efforts in the long term perhaps given the scope of work involved. In addition to philanthropic foundations, mention is also made of international projects. The international Open Knowledge projects in India involve the Wikimedia Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation that have funded various initiatives in India and have continued to stay invested in the larger vision as well as execution of Openness through their grants.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The discussion of the above mentioned types of projects is followed by an examination of the attitudes of academicians teaching at Higher Education Institutes towards Open Access as a specific niche within the Open Movement. Conversation with faculty members in different institutions reveals that Open as an idea is not quite clear to the academia, or at least occupies a space of dissonance: while it is desired as an ideal, it is very strongly constrained by the judgments of fellow peers and employing institutions. In contrast, conversations with experts in Open Access reveals that Open Access deserves a much stronger effort: not just to push for policy changes but also to decolonize Indian academia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The study concludes with some threads that can be pursued from the projects the Open Movement in India has witnessed in the last decade. These points of engagement could become points of reflection for further initiatives in the next decade or two.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-movement-in-india-idea-and-its-expressions'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-movement-in-india-idea-and-its-expressions</a>
</p>
No publishersoniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaA2K ResearchOpenness2024-02-13T02:57:29ZBlog EntrySecurity of Open Source Software : A Survey of Technical Stakeholders’ Perceptions and Actions
https://cis-india.org/openness/security-of-open-source-software-a-survey-of-technical-stakeholders2019-perceptions-and-actions-1
<b></b>
<p>Open-source software (OSS) components are largely assumed to be secure due to their open nature. However, that is not always the case. Of late, there has been an increased incidence of software supply-chain issues, with some industry reports estimating a 300% increase in attacks that exploit existing vulnerabilities between 2020 and 2021.<br />This report by Centre for Internet and Society surveys technical stakeholders to determine how they select OSS components to use in their projects and how they think broadly about the security of the projects they create.</p>
<p>Highlights:</p>
<ul><li>90% of respondents work in companies with a dedicated team responsible for the security of software. 80% of them do not carry out any further security checks on an OSS once it has been approved for use by their security teams.</li><li>80% of respondents see comprehensive documentation as an important factor when selecting an OSS for use.</li><li>70% of respondents report validating dependencies in their selected open-source software component.</li><li>50% of respondents consider how actively an open-source software is maintained before selecting it for their projects.</li><li>40% of respondents do not anticipate accidental exploitation of vulnerabilities or expect malice from bad actors when they create software.</li><li>30% of respondents report not doing any post-release maintenance on the OSS component used and deployed.</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<hr />
<p>Click to download the <strong><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/security-of-open-source-software-a-survey-of-technical-stakeholders2019-perceptions-and-actions/at_download/file">full report</a></strong></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/security-of-open-source-software-a-survey-of-technical-stakeholders2019-perceptions-and-actions-1'>https://cis-india.org/openness/security-of-open-source-software-a-survey-of-technical-stakeholders2019-perceptions-and-actions-1</a>
</p>
No publisherDivyansha SehgalOpenness2023-04-13T06:01:31ZBlog EntrySecuring Our Dependence on Code Reuse in Software
https://cis-india.org/openness/securing-our-dependence-on-code-reuse-in-software
<b>Dividing and breaking up a software project into smaller modules with functionality that can be reused to build other software is an increasingly common practice in software development today. We examine our infrastructural dependence on reuse of open-source software (OSS) components, examine the unique security risks posed by the widespread reuse of code, and survey systemic solutions to securing code reuse. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Dividing and breaking up a software project into smaller modules with functionality that can be reused to build other software is an increasingly common practice in software development today. Much of this reuse happens in the form of open-source software (OSS) packages, i.e. software whose source code is openly available on the internet with a permissive licence which allows for its reuse and modification. A study that analysed the composition of over 2400 commercial software applications from seventeen industries found that, on average, 78% of the code used to build them was open-source software – indicating that code reuse is not merely supplemental, but foundational to software development processes today. Relying on domain experts to build and maintain the functionality that is ancillary to a software application’s primary purpose saves effort and allows application developers to focus on their own work domains. For instance, a developer building a video conferencing application – such as Zoom – may reuse an open-source library called ffmpeg to encode and decode video streams, or another open-source component, OpenSSL, to encrypt and decrypt the encoded streams as they are transmitted over the internet, rather than reimplementing this functionality from scratch.<br /><br />Despite the well-known practical benefits of code reuse and its prevalence in all of the digital products and services our society relies on, several security incidents in widely used OSS projects have shown that such projects are often underfunded and under-maintained. The ‘Heartbleed’ vulnerability most clearly illustrates this. In 2014, a security vulnerability in the OpenSSL software library – which is widely used to encrypt web traffic – affected about one-fifth of the servers on the internet. Malicious actors could have exploited this vulnerability to decrypt all of the data that these servers handled and even impersonated them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In this report, we examine our infrastructural dependence on reuse of OSS components and develop an understanding of the security risks posed by the widespread reuse of code that is developed and maintained by untrusted individuals and organisations that have no obligation to provide these services or any subsequent support.<br /> <br />We present an analysis of common security issues in OSS packages, with a focus on the unique security issues that arise in the tooling and processes used to store, distribute and operate reused code. Finally, we survey solutions and frameworks which seek to address some of these issues on a systemic level.<br /> <br />This report is primarily aimed at regulators, technical decision-makers and organisations invested in furthering research in this area. It can also serve as a starting point for software developers who want to learn about the common security pitfalls of using OSS components and how they can avoid them.</p>
<hr />
<p>Click to download the <strong><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/Securing%20Our%20Dependence%20on%20Code%20Reuse.pdf/at_download/file">full report</a></strong></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/securing-our-dependence-on-code-reuse-in-software'>https://cis-india.org/openness/securing-our-dependence-on-code-reuse-in-software</a>
</p>
No publisherdivyankOpenness2023-04-13T05:47:00ZBlog EntryDigitisation of O Bharat, a bilingual biweekly published in Goa from 1912 to 1949
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digitisation-of-o-bharat
<b>The digitization project of O Bharat, a historic biweekly published between 1912 to 1949 in Goa was completed through collaboration of different organizations. The trustees of Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust initiated the project in collaboration with Marathi department of Goa University, Bhakti Dnyan Marg Sanstha and Goa Central Library. The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge Programme facilitated the project with technical and financial assistance. Two local students scanned 12000 pages in 8 days. The year wise volumes of O Bharat are now freely available on Wikimedia Commons in the form of archive.</b>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/OBharatPortuguese.jpg" alt="O Bharat Portuguese" class="image-inline" title="O Bharat Portuguese" /></th><th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_OBharatMarathi.jpg" alt="O Bharat Marathi" class="image-inline" title="O Bharat Marathi" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Above: Front page of O Bharat in Portuguese</td>
<td>Above: Front page of O Bharat in Marathi</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Context</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It all started like this. During the Wikimedia session at Goa University in October 2021, it was realised that there is very little documentation about the ‘Goa Liberation Struggle’ on Wikimedia projects. So, in the meeting Prof. Vinay Madgaonkar from the Marathi language department took the lead to develop a project around this theme.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The exhaustive list of freedom fighters, major incidents in history, the places related with struggle, monuments and memorials was prepared. The next day, to have a glimpse of the situation on ground, we toured a few places and <a class="text external" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Monuments_and_memorials_in_Goa">monuments in South Goa</a>. As we were shocked to see the sorry state of the memorials, we came across a monument of Govind Pundalik Hegde Desai known as Bharatkar (an editor of O Bharat), in a lush green forest near Quepem village. Being curious to know about the history of O Bharat publication, Prof. Vinay introduced us to the grandson of Bharatkar, Adv. Khagendra Desai who founded <a class="text external" href="http://www.bharatkar.info/" rel="nofollow">Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust</a>, non-profit organisation in Goa to archive the works of Bharatkar.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As both of us share the same vision, CIS-A2K partnered with Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust, to relicense and digitise freedom fighter Bharatkar’s ‘O Bharat,’ a Marathi-Portuguese bilingual weekly, currently housed at <a class="text external" href="http://centrallibrary.goa.gov.in/" rel="nofollow">Goa Central Public Library</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">About the 36 Year Run of ‘O Bharat’ upto India’s Independence</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Freedom fighter, social reformer and journalist 'Bharat'kar Govind Pundalik Hegde Desai, (7th Nov 1885 - 15th Aug 1949), started 'O Bharat' (in Portuguese) or 'Bharat' (in Marathi) on 6th November 1912. For 36 years thereafter, Bharatkar courageously protested the Portuguese occupation, relentlessly advocated radical and progressive social reforms and doggedly championed the cause of an independent and sovereign Indian Goa.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Partnerships</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The partnerships with various stakeholders were developed after a <a class="text external" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Digitisation_review_and_partnerships_in_Goa">series of discussions</a> and official communications. The Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust obtained official permissions from the State Government departments for the access of O Bharat volumes in the library. Goa Central Public Library provided access to the bound volumes of O Bharat and permission to scan them. Another local organisation, Bhakti Dnyan Marg Sanstha in association with Goa University Marathi Department identified few students for the digitisation.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Digitisation process and launch on Wikimedia Commons</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The trustees of Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust relicensed the two volumes of selected editorials published in 2018 and the whole O Bharat issues into CC-BY-SA 4.0. We conducted digitisation training with Prof. Vinay Madgaonkar and students, Shravani Parab and Shridhar Raut, from Goa University to scan 12000 pages in 8 days. The officials of Goa Central Public Library cooperated in access to original volumes and in the process of digitisation. The Chief Minister of Goa inaugurated the <a class="text external" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:O_Bharat">project on Wikimedia Commons</a> on India’s 75th Independence day, 15 August 2022. The year wise volumes of ‘O Bharat’ are now freely accessible to anyone in the world at any time anywhere. The uploading of the volumes is in progress.</p>
<h3>Media links</h3>
<p>The event of launching digitised content on Wikimedia was very well received by the people in Goa. The researchers, students, readers and journalists will have this reference value content while exploring the history of Goa. Various national and local media published the news covering all the aspects of this archive. The links are given below -</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="text external" href="https://epaper.dainikgomantak.com/FlashClient/Show_Story_IPad.aspx?storySrc=http://epaper-sakal-application.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/DainikGomantakEpaperData/DainikGomantak/GOA/2022/08/18/Main/DainikGomantak_Goa_2022_08_18_Main_DA_013/588_1306_1362_2406.jpg&uname=" rel="nofollow">News in Gomantak</a></li>
<li><a class="text external" href="https://epaper.navhindtimes.in/" rel="nofollow">News in Navhind Times</a></li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://epaper.thegoan.net/m5/3564268/Goan-Varta/Goan-Varta#page/3/1" rel="nofollow">News in Goan Varta</a></li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://epaper.navprabha.com/" rel="nofollow">News in Navprabha</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>This was originally published on <a class="external-link" href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/September_2022/Contents/India_report">Wikimedia Blog</a> in September 2022</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digitisation-of-o-bharat'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digitisation-of-o-bharat</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaGLAMWikipediaA2K ResearchOpen ContentOpenness2022-10-11T14:53:58ZBlog EntryDigitisation of O Bharat, a bilingual biweekly published in Goa from 1912 to 1949
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digitisation-o-bharat
<b>It all started like this. During the Wikimedia session at Goa University in October 2021, it was realised that there is very little documentation about the ‘Goa Liberation Struggle’ on Wikimedia projects. So, in the meeting Prof. Vinay Madgaonkar from the Marathi language department took the lead to develop a project around this theme.</b>
<h3><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Bharat.png" alt="Bharat" class="image-inline" title="Bharat" /></h3>
<h3>Context</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The exhaustive list of freedom fighters, major incidents in history, the places related with struggle, monuments and memorials was prepared. The next day, to have a glimpse of the situation on ground, we toured a few places and </span><a class="text external" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Monuments_and_memorials_in_Goa">monuments in South Goa</a><span>. As we were shocked to see the sorry state of the memorials, we came across a monument of Govind Pundalik Hegde Desai known as Bharatkar (an editor of O Bharat), in a lush green forest near Quepem village. Being curious to know about the history of O Bharat publication, Prof. Vinay introduced us to the grandson of Bharatkar, Adv. Khagendra Desai who founded </span><a class="text external" href="http://www.bharatkar.info/" rel="nofollow">Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust</a><span>, non-profit organisation in Goa to archive the works of Bharatkar.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As both of us share the same vision, CIS-A2K partnered with Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust, to relicense and digitise freedom fighter Bharatkar’s ‘O Bharat,’ a Marathi-Portuguese bilingual weekly, currently housed at <a class="text external" href="http://centrallibrary.goa.gov.in/" rel="nofollow">Goa Central Public Library</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">About the 36 Year Run of ‘O Bharat’ upto India’s Independence</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Freedom fighter, social reformer and journalist 'Bharat'kar Govind Pundalik Hegde Desai, (7th Nov 1885 - 15th Aug 1949), started 'O Bharat' (in Portuguese) or 'Bharat' (in Marathi) on 6th November 1912. For 36 years thereafter, Bharatkar courageously protested the Portuguese occupation, relentlessly advocated radical and progressive social reforms and doggedly championed the cause of an independent and sovereign Indian Goa.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Partnerships</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The partnerships with various stakeholders were developed after a <a class="text external" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Digitisation_review_and_partnerships_in_Goa">series of discussions</a> and official communications. The Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust obtained official permissions from the State Government departments for the access of O Bharat volumes in the library. Goa Central Public Library provided access to the bound volumes of O Bharat and permission to scan them. Another local organisation, Bhakti Dnyan Marg Sanstha in association with Goa University Marathi Department identified few students for the digitisation.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Digitisation process and launch on Wikimedia Commons</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The trustees of Bharatkar Hegde Desai Trust relicensed the two volumes of selected editorials published in 2018 and the whole O Bharat issues into CC-BY-SA 4.0. We conducted digitisation training with Prof. Vinay Madgaonkar and students, Shravani Parab and Shridhar Raut, from Goa University to scan 12000 pages in 8 days. The officials of Goa Central Public Library cooperated in access to original volumes and in the process of digitisation. <span>The Chief Minister of Goa inaugurated the </span><a class="text external" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:O_Bharat">project on Wikimedia Commons</a><span> on India’s 75th Independence day, 15 August 2022. The year wise volumes of ‘O Bharat’ are now freely accessible to anyone in the world at any time anywhere. The uploading of the volumes is in progress.</span></p>
<h3>Media links</h3>
<p>The event of launching digitised content on Wikimedia was very well received by the people in Goa. The researchers, students, readers and journalists will have this reference value content while exploring the history of Goa. Various national and local media published the news covering all the aspects of this archive. The links are given below -</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="text external" href="https://epaper.dainikgomantak.com/FlashClient/Show_Story_IPad.aspx?storySrc=http://epaper-sakal-application.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/DainikGomantakEpaperData/DainikGomantak/GOA/2022/08/18/Main/DainikGomantak_Goa_2022_08_18_Main_DA_013/588_1306_1362_2406.jpg&uname=" rel="nofollow">News in Gomantak</a></li>
<li><a class="text external" href="https://epaper.navhindtimes.in/" rel="nofollow">News in Navhind Times</a></li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://epaper.thegoan.net/m5/3564268/Goan-Varta/Goan-Varta#page/3/1" rel="nofollow">News in Goan Varta</a></li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://epaper.navprabha.com/" rel="nofollow">News in Navprabha</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p><span>This was originally published on </span><a class="external-link" href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/September_2022/Contents/India_report">Wikimedia Blog</a><span> in September 2022</span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digitisation-o-bharat'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digitisation-o-bharat</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaA2K ResearchOpen ContentOpenness2022-10-11T13:11:15ZBlog EntryCall for Survey Responses: Security Perceptions of Open Source Software Among Practitioners
https://cis-india.org/openness/call-for-survey-responses-security-perceptions-of-open-source-software-among-practitioners
<b>Most software projects today contain open source components. Some industry estimates put the number at 500+ OSS components per app. Centre for Internet and Society is studying the security impact of the widespread use of these (often under-maintained) projects. </b>
<p>The survey for this study <a class="external-link" href="https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/single/251cdd1e9cebe7f89a03c117d6504d42">here</a></p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/OpenSource.png" alt="Open Source" class="image-inline" title="Open Source" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If you use any open source components for your job, your input around how you select components to use would help us understand industry standards around the use of OSS.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Even if you’re not a part of the security teams in your organization, please take this survey! It will help us understand how you select OSS components and you may learn ways to vet your own dependencies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The survey should take around 30 minutes to complete. As a token of our gratitude for your time and your survey contributions, we would like to send you an Amazon India Gift Card for Rs. 250. Please be sure to include your email address since it will be used to send the Gift Card at the end of the week.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/call-for-survey-responses-security-perceptions-of-open-source-software-among-practitioners'>https://cis-india.org/openness/call-for-survey-responses-security-perceptions-of-open-source-software-among-practitioners</a>
</p>
No publisherDivyansha SehgalOpennessOpen Source2021-11-30T05:14:46ZPageGurshabad Grover nominated to join advisory group on open source software for ISO/IEC JTC 1
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/gurshabad-grover-nominated-to-join-advisory-group-on-open-source-software-for-iso-iec-jtc-1
<b>Gurshabad Grover has been nominated through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to be a member of the Advisory Group AG) on Open Source Software for ISO/IEC JTC 1.</b>
<p> </p>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="text-align: justify; ">JTC 1 deals with international standards on information technology. This AG is currently documenting requirements and potential opportunities for <span>industry use of open source software for all work areas under the various committees of JTC 1.</span></div>
<div></div>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/gurshabad-grover-nominated-to-join-advisory-group-on-open-source-software-for-iso-iec-jtc-1'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/gurshabad-grover-nominated-to-join-advisory-group-on-open-source-software-for-iso-iec-jtc-1</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessOpen Source2019-11-02T05:17:24ZNews ItemReact India 2019
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/react-india-2019
<b>Bhuvana Meenakshi was a speaker at an International conference, 'React India 2019" which was the first beach conference and which was hosted at Goa on 26-28, September 2019. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It was her very first talk on how to make WebVR experiences using A-frame React which is a framework developed by Mozilla. The topic she chose was unique and also many attendees gave a positive feedback about how this was essential for them to know. For more information about the event, <a class="external-link" href="https://www.reactindia.io/">click here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/react-india-2019'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/react-india-2019</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpenness2019-10-14T14:56:52ZNews ItemDevFest'19
https://cis-india.org/openness/devfest19
<b>Bhuvana Meenakshi was a speaker at the event organised by Google Developers Groups at Coimbatore on September 14, 2019.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">She spoke on WebXR: The journey to the centre of Reality. The audience were all beginners and they were amused to see her works on Mixed Reality. They also learnt to kickstart with the easiest ways of developing the most cool applications using Firefox's framework.</p>
<div>Website: <a href="https://devfest19.gdgcbe.com/" target="_blank">https://devfest19.gdgcbe.com/</a></div>
<div>Blog: <a href="https://kbmtechie.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/speaker-experience-at-devfest19/" target="_blank">https://kbmtechie.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/speaker-experience-at-devfest19/</a></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/devfest19'>https://cis-india.org/openness/devfest19</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessOpen Source2019-10-14T14:50:33ZNews ItemFOSSCON India 2019
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/fosscon-india-2019-1
<b>Bhuvana Meenakshi gave a talk on "The revolution of WebXR" at FOSSCON India 2019 organized by KLS Gogte Institute of Technology in Belgaum from August 29 - 31, 2019, where she discussed about the tools used for development and demos.</b>
<p>The Chief patrons included:</p>
<div id="_mcePaste">
<ul>
<li>Dr. A S Deshpande, Registrar, VTU, Belagavi</li>
<li>Dr. Satish Annigeri, Registrar(Evaluation), VTU, Belagavi</li>
<li>Shri M R Kulkarni, Chairman, Karnatak Law Society</li>
<li>Shri U N Kalkundrikar, Chairman , Governing Council, KLS Gogte Institute of Technology, Belagavi.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="_mcePaste"></div>
<div id="_mcePaste"></div>
<div id="_mcePaste"></div>
<h3 class="gmail-schedule-slot-title">
<ul>
<p> </p>
</ul>
</h3>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/fosscon-india-2019-1'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/fosscon-india-2019-1</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessFOSS2019-09-25T22:59:38ZNews ItemIndia’s top science institution is trying hard to fix its “manel” problem
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/quartz-india-august-16-2019-india-s-top-science-institution-is-trying-hard-to-fix-its-manel-problem
<b>B Chagun Basha is a science, technology and innovation policy fellow at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Centre for Policy Research established by the department of science & technology (DST-CPR).</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://qz.com/india/1687242/no-manels-at-iisc-bengaluru-women-mandatory-in-panel-discussions/">Quartz India</a> on August 16, 2019. Sunil Abraham was quoted. <em>This piece was originally published on <a class="m_-1130724999584095261OWAAutoLink" href="https://connect.iisc.ac.in/2019/06/we-learned-the-hard-way-not-to-have-manels/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Connect</a> under the headline, “We Learned (The Hard Way) Not to Have Manels.”</em></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While organising an event at IISc, he and his colleagues realised they hadn’t paid much thought to gender inclusivity until it was explicitly pointed out to them that there were no women in their event. That sparked some introspection, as well as actions to ensure that this wasn’t repeated. In this interview, he talks about the incident and important lessons from it.</p>
<h3 class="india a1dbe">How did you first hear of the term manel?</h3>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">It was when I was organising my first event of an academic nature. Every year, DST-CPR marks International Open Access Week by planning activities for the entire week, and having a panel discussion is a major part of it. We bring in experts to sensitise people about topics related to open access and how we can incorporate it in our institute through a bottom-up approach.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe">In October 2017, when International Open Access Week came round, we collaborated with six other groups to organise it. We had a poster competition, a panel discussion, and a few other activities like engaging with the student community about open access and how they could play a role in promoting it.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">A week before the panel discussion was scheduled, we had confirmed the participation of all our speakers—five male speakers and one female speaker. The female speaker had not been included out of a conscious effort to ensure gender diversity—she happened to be on the list of names we came up with, we had written to all of them, and they had agreed to come. But a few days before the panel discussion, we received an email from her saying that she would not be able to join us.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe">We didn’t think it was a big deal. Instead of six participants we would have five, one of whom would be the moderator. Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) had already confirmed that he would be the moderator. He sent us an email asking for details of the panelists, so that he could communicate with them and plan and structure the discussion. But when we sent him the details, he immediately got back to us saying that he wouldn’t be able to participate in this panel discussion.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">I was a little shocked—you can replace a panelist at the last minute, but finding a new moderator to curate a discussion is harder as doing so requires in-depth knowledge of this space and familiarity with open access policies at different levels. I asked Sunil what had happened—why did he have to pull out? He said that CIS had a written policy that was followed strictly: members could not participate in “manels”—a word I was hearing for the very first time. I didn’t even catch it properly when we spoke on the phone. Then he explained to me that if there was a panel on which there were only men and no women panelists—which are called “manels”—then people from his organisation avoided them completely.</p>
<h3 class="india a1dbe">What happened next?</h3>
<blockquote class="pullquote">I realised that as an organiser of an event, I wasn’t even thinking about being inclusive.</blockquote>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">I realised that as an organiser of an event, I wasn’t even thinking about being inclusive. So we requested Sunil to suggest names of women speakers whom we could approach. I realise now that it was not a good thing to do—when somebody points out that there are no women on your panel, and for those reasons they are not going to participate, you should try harder to rectify this at your end, and not dump the responsibility for this on the person who pointed it out in the first place.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">We should have put in genuine effort from our end to learn more about other women in the field whom we could approach for the panel. But at the time Sunil generously agreed and gave us a list with 12 names. We contacted all of them: two people responded, one of whom—Padmini Ray Murray, who was a faculty member at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology—happened to be in Bengaluru and agreed to participate at short notice. We were really thankful for that.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">The panel discussion went off smoothly, and at the end we gave a vote of thanks, where we acknowledged our goof-up, thanked Sunil for bringing it to our notice, and we promised the audience sitting in Faculty Hall, which included the Director of NCBS and the Deputy Director of IISc, that we wouldn’t run any more manels. We said we would consciously include more women in all events we organised from then on—not just panel discussions but talks, workshops and so on. That’s more or less an official decision we took for CPR.</p>
<h3 class="india a1dbe">Did you feel like you were being put on the spot at the time?</h3>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">We would often ask our superiors to suggest names for events or scout for people on our own, but actively thinking about including people of all genders was something we never really did. Now it feels like something that is really important.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">And an interesting thing happened after the vote of thanks that year: other people who had been in the audience and worked in other institutes or other departments at IISc came up to talk to us during the tea break. Like us, previously they thought it wasn’t important to think about who was being invited as panelists, but they began to see it was important too.</p>
<h3 class="india a1dbe">Has that changed how you planned subsequent events?</h3>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">Two months after that panel discussion, we organised a workshop. On the final day of the workshop, we presented information on how many male and female participants applied, and how many of each we selected (women formed a little over 50% of those selected). That was our indirect way of letting people know that we took gender into consideration during our selection process.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">In October 2018, when International Open Access Week came around again, we organised a panel discussion as well as an event called the Global Equity Forum for librarians, because they play a key role in making open access a reality at the institutional level. We consciously included women for both events, and not just because they were women. We realised that if you put in a little effort, you can easily find competent people of all genders without having to select people only for representation’s sake.</p>
<h3 class="india a1dbe">What about the people you mentioned earlier, who came up after the panel to ask you about including more women—do you know if they ever followed up on it?</h3>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">Since the 2017 panel, others have made an effort to have equal numbers on men and women in panels too. It’s been like a chain reaction—some of those who attended our panel discussion took notice and kept it in mind when they organised events themselves. For now, though, ensuring gender diversity has depended on the efforts of the individual organisers. What happens when they leave and others take their place?</p>
<p class="india a1dbe">I think we need to put forth a policy at an IISc-wide level for events organised on campus so that we can ensure balanced representation of women—not just on stage, but among participants of events like seminars and workshops as well. Leaving it up to personal decisions means that it may not be a sustained process, and that’s why we need to work towards having it as a departmental policy or as an institutional policy. Of course we need to push for this as individuals, but we also need the leadership on board in order for this to materialise.</p>
<blockquote class="pullquote">Ensuring equal representation for men and women in public events may seem like a small issue, but it drives bigger issues.</blockquote>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">Ensuring equal representation for men and women in public events may seem like a small issue, but it drives bigger issues. Everybody is supportive of gender equality and inclusion of women at some abstract level, but if we really want that to happen, it has to start at small levels and at different stages. That’s a key thing we learned from organising the 2017 panel—that it had to start with us. Inclusion in panel discussions and events is just one of the stages at which it can happen.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">In an academic set-up, dialogue is one way of engaging with a larger audience. You also have events, exams, student participation, and many other such avenues at which it happens, right? We have to address inclusion at all levels. If we have a policy about gender inclusion in events on campus, it could pave the way for policies on gender inclusion in other areas like intake of students, picking members of faculty, picking members of decision-making committees, and so on.</p>
<p class="india a1dbe" style="text-align: justify; ">We have to start somewhere, and we can’t rely on easy excuses not to act. It’s a fundamental issue that really needs to be addressed—and maybe then it will become the norm, and open our eyes to the need for other kinds of inclusion as well.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/quartz-india-august-16-2019-india-s-top-science-institution-is-trying-hard-to-fix-its-manel-problem'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/quartz-india-august-16-2019-india-s-top-science-institution-is-trying-hard-to-fix-its-manel-problem</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessOpen Access2019-08-19T13:58:51ZNews ItemLearning and Understanding the Frameworks of Rights at Work
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/learning-and-understanding-the-frameworks-of-rights-at-work
<b>On July 13, 2019, Torsha and Mira attended the 'Learning and understanding the frameworks of rights at work' workshop held by Kai Hsin Hung at IT For change in Bangalore.</b>
<p class="moz-quote-pre" style="text-align: justify; ">It was a workshop for tech workers and researchers to explore and understand the social and legal frameworks to help assess their working conditions with an introduction to key concepts and simple tools. One of the key concepts that was introduced here were the standards laid down by the Fairwork Foundation on minimum pay,improving working conditions, approachable management, understandable contracts and equal representation. The second concept introduced was the multidimensional model of unacceptable forms of work. We were also involved in two sets of activities where we explored what these dimensions of work mean to us.</p>
<p class="moz-quote-pre" style="text-align: justify; ">For more info, see the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/learning-and-understanding-the-frameworks-of-rights-at-work">brochure</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/learning-and-understanding-the-frameworks-of-rights-at-work'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/learning-and-understanding-the-frameworks-of-rights-at-work</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpenness2019-07-21T15:19:00ZNews ItemMozilla is funding a way to support Julia in Firefox
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/zd-net-july-8-2019-catalin-cimpanu-mozilla-is-funding-a-way-to-support-julia-in-firefox
<b>Mozilla is funding a project for bringing the Julia programming language to Firefox and the general browser environment.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post by Catalin Cimpanu was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-is-funding-a-way-to-support-julia-in-firefox/">published in ZD Net</a> on July 8, 2019.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The project received funding part of the Mozilla Research Grants for the first half of 2019, which the browser maker announced on Friday.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In April, <a href="https://mozilla-research.forms.fm/mozilla-research-grants-2019h1/forms/6510" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">when Mozilla opened this year's submissions period</a> for research grants, the organization said it was looking for a way to bring data science and scientific computing tools to the web.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It said it was specifically interested in receiving submissions about supporting R or Julia at the browser level. Both R and Julia are programming languages designed for high-performance numerical, statistical, and computational science.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mozilla engineers have worked in previous years to port data science tools at the browser level, as part of Project Iodide.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Previously, as part of this project, Mozilla engineers ported the Python interpreter to run in the browser using WebAssembly.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"This project, Pyodide, has demonstrated the practicality of running language interpreters in WebAssembly," Mozilla engineers said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In April, Mozilla said it was willing to use a research grant to fund a team of developers to port either R or Julia to the browser via WebAssembly as well.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The end result <a href="https://iodide-project.github.io/docs/language_plugins/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">should be a Firefox plugin</a>, similar to how Pyodide works.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Valentin Churavy, an MIT Ph.D. student and a member of the official Julia team, has applied for a Mozilla research grant, which he subsequently received.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Julia programming language was created in 2009, publicly released in 2012, and has gained a huge following ever since. It has quickly <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/possible-python-rival-programming-language-julia-is-winning-over-developers/" target="_blank">climbed the ranks of the world's most popular languages</a> entering the Tiobe Top 50, has a huge following on GitHub, and was <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-julia-fastest-growing-new-programming-language-stats-chart-rapid-rise-in-2018/" target="_blank">one of 2018 biggest risers</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In April, Mozilla engineers also offered a grand for <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-offers-research-grant-for-a-way-to-embed-tor-inside-firefox/" target="_blank">porting Tor to work inside Firefox</a>, to power a Tor-powered Super Private Browsing (SPB) mode for Firefox.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While there was no grant for a project of sorts, Mozilla will be funding a research project that aims to study the performance and anonymity features of the HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 protocols on the Tor network.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The full Mozilla research grants for H1 2019 are as follow:</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: left; ">Lead Researchers</th><th style="text-align: left; ">Institution</th><th style="text-align: left; ">Project Title</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://julia.mit.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Valentin Churavy</a></td>
<td>MIT</td>
<td>Bringing Julia to the Browser</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jessica Outlaw</td>
<td>Concordia University of Portland</td>
<td>Studying the Unique Social and Spatial affordances of Hubs by Mozilla for Remote Participation in Live Events</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.nehakumar.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Neha Kumar</a></td>
<td>Georgia Tech</td>
<td>Missing Data: Health on the Internet for Internet Health</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://personalization.ccs.neu.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Piotr Sapiezynski, Alan Mislove, & Aleksandra Korolova</a></td>
<td>Northeastern University & University of Southern California</td>
<td>Understanding the impact of ad preference controls</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://cis-india.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sumandro Chattapadhyay</a></td>
<td>The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India</td>
<td>Making Voices Heard: Privacy, Inclusivity, and Accessibility of Voice Interfaces in India</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://weihang-wang.github.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Weihang Wang</a></td>
<td>State University of New York</td>
<td>Designing Access Control Interfaces for Wasmtime</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://escience.washington.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bernease Herman</a></td>
<td>University of Washington</td>
<td>Toward generalizable methods for measuring bias in crowdsourced speech datasets and validation processes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://haystack.csail.mit.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">David Karger</a></td>
<td>MIT</td>
<td>Tipsy: A Decentralized Open Standard for a Microdonation-Supported Web</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://songlh.github.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Linhai Song</a></td>
<td>Pennsylvania State University</td>
<td>Benchmarking Generic Functions in Rust</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.ucd.ie/ics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Leigh Clark</a></td>
<td>University College Dublin</td>
<td>Creating a trustworthy model for always-listening voice interfaces</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~zsw/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Steven Wu</a></td>
<td>University of Minnesota</td>
<td>DP-Fathom: Private, Accurate, and Communication-Efficient</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://hatswitch.org/~nikita/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nikita Borisov</a></td>
<td>University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign</td>
<td>Performance and Anonymity of HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 in Tor</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/zd-net-july-8-2019-catalin-cimpanu-mozilla-is-funding-a-way-to-support-julia-in-firefox'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/zd-net-july-8-2019-catalin-cimpanu-mozilla-is-funding-a-way-to-support-julia-in-firefox</a>
</p>
No publisherCatalin CimpanuOpenness2019-07-10T01:33:52ZNews ItemDiscussion on Open Standards with Bernd Erk and Jiten Vaidya
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/discussion-on-open-standards-with-bernd-erk-and-jiten-vaidya
<b>Rootconf organised a discussion on open standards at CIS Bangalore office. Zainab Bawa, Karan Saini and Anwesha Das coordinated and organised the event.</b>
<p>The discussions created awareness on:</p>
<ol>
<li>Consequences of building your applications around non-open standards.</li>
<li>Risks associated with non-open standards.</li>
<li>How to build your applications around open standards.</li>
</ol>
<p>Open standards are important for:</p>
<ol>
<li>Business</li>
<li>Application development</li>
<li>Communications</li>
<li>Open internet</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="text-align: justify; "><span>The event kicked off with Bernd Erk talking about how the convenience of availing services from a few 'cloud' providers is killing open standards in the space. </span>Jiten Vaidya then discussed his experience running a successful open source product and business, and the future of open standards in the space. Kiran Jonnalagadda and Gurshabad Grover contributed to and moderated the subsequent discussion.</div>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/discussion-on-open-standards-with-bernd-erk-and-jiten-vaidya'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/discussion-on-open-standards-with-bernd-erk-and-jiten-vaidya</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpen StandardsOpennessEvent2019-07-04T16:53:37ZEventRootconf 2019
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/rootconf-2019
<b>Karan Saini participated in the annual Rootconf conference held by HasGeek on June 21 and 22, 2019. This conference was held at the NIMHANS Convention Centre in Bangalore, India.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from being responsible for reviewing proposals for security-related talks for Rootconf, Karan also moderated a 'Birds of a Feather’ session with Vandana Verma and Shubham Mittal wherein participants discussed the various offensive and defensive security applications of open source intelligence. The conference schedule can be <a class="external-link" href="https://hasgeek.com/rootconf/2019/schedule">accessed here</a>. The abstract for the Birds of a Feather session on OSINT can be <a class="external-link" href="https://hasgeek.com/rootconf/2019/proposals/defensive-and-offensive-applications-of-open-sourc-owwNwhiToSrkP9VjvC3ev3">found here</a>. More information on the event can be <a class="external-link" href="https://hasgeek.com/rootconf/2019/">viewed here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/rootconf-2019'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/rootconf-2019</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessOpen Source2019-07-05T00:52:38ZNews Item