The Centre for Internet and Society
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February 2013 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/february-2013-bulletin
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) wishes you a great year ahead and welcomes you to the second issue of its newsletter for the year 2013. In this issue we bring you an overview of our research programs, updates of events organised by us, events we participated in, news and media coverage, and videos of some of our recent events.</b>
<h3>Memorial</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/fellow">Rahul Cherian</a>, an expert and policy activist in disability law, intellectual property and technology law passed away due to an illness while on a visit to Goa on February 7, 2013. Rahul was the founder of the Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability and Policy, and a fellow at CIS. He was also a partner at IndoJuris Law Offices in Chennai and was one of the experts who drafted the Treaty for the Visually Impaired currently being negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-february-8-2013-rahul-cherian-passes-away">Hindu</a> (February 8, 2013), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/first-post-feb-8-2013-rahul-cherian-founder-of-ngo-inclusive-planet-passes-away">First Post</a> (February 8, 2013), <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/legally-india-feb-7-2013-rip-rahul-cherian-human-rights-activist-inclusive-planet-co-founder">Legally India</a> (February 7, 2013), and <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/bar-and-bench-feb-8-2013-inclusive-planet-co-founder-disability-law-activist-and-cancer-survivor-rahul-cherian-passes-away">Bar & Bench</a> (February 8, 2013) covered this story. Lawrence Liang wrote an obituary page, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-hindu-op-ed-lawrence-liang-feb-9-a-lightness-of-spirit">A Lightness of Spirit</a> (The Hindu, February 9, 2013) and Nishant Shah wrote a column <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/indian-express-feb-17-2013-nishant-shah-one-for-all">One For All</a> (Indian Express, February 17, 2013).</p>
<p>CIS organised a <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/events/in-memoriam-of-rahul-cherian">memorial function</a> for Rahul Cherian at the TERI, Southern Regional Centre in Bangalore on February 28, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Jobs</b><br />CIS invites applications for the posts of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-for-developer">Developer</a> (NVDA Screen Reader Project), <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-access-to-knowledge-and-openness">Programme Officer</a> (Access to Knowledge and Openness), and <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-internet-governance">Programme Officer</a> (Internet Governance). To apply send your resume to <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> and <a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing two projects in partnership with the <b>Hans Foundation</b>. One of this is to create a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India and another is for developing a screen reader and text-to- speech synthesizer for Indian languages. CIS is also working with the World Blind Union and many other organisations to develop a Treaty for the Visually Impaired helped by the WIPO:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Anandhi Viswanathan from CIS and Manojna Yeluri from the Centre for Law and Policy Research are working in this project. Draft chapters have been published. Feedback and comments are invited from readers for the chapters on Bihar and West Bengal:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-bihar-chapter-call-for-comments">The Bihar Chapter</a> (by Manojna Yeluri, February 14, 2013): The state of Bihar is in the process of formulating a comprehensive state policy on disability. The Bihar State Policy on Disability is an extension of the National Policy for Persons with Disabilities and is currently in a draft form awaiting government approval and notification.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/the-west-bengal-chapter">The West Bengal Chapter</a> (by Anandhi Viswanathan, February 28, 2013): The state of West Bengal has issued the West Bengal Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Rules, 1999 to implement the provisions under the central Persons with Disabilities (Protection of Rights, Equal Opportunities and Full Participation) Act, 1995.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Media Coverage<br /></b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ip-watch-feb-16-2013-catherine-saez-indian-users-perspective-on-wipo-negotiations-on-treaty-for-visually-impaired">Indian Users’ Perspective On WIPO Negotiations On Treaty For Visually Impaired</a> (by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch, February 16, 2013). Nirmita Narasimhan is quoted.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Wikimedia Foundation <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">awarded</a> CIS a two year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop the growth of Indic language communities and projects by community collaborations and partnerships. This is being carried out by the Access to Knowledge team based in Delhi. CIS is also doing a project (Pervasive Technologies) on examining the relationship between production of pervasive technologies and intellectual property. The project researches upon the noteworthy opportunities of the new types of low cost mobile devices, content and services as available in the market.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">awarded</a> CIS a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge/Team" title="Access To Knowledge/Team">A2K team</a> consists of four members based in Delhi: <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">T. Vishnu Vardhan</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team">Nitika Tandon</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team">Subhashish Panigrahi</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team">Noopur Raval</a>, and one new team member <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Dr. U.B. Pavanaja</a> who works from Bangalore office.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>New Team Member<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Dr. U.B. Pavanaja</a> joined the A2K team as Programme Officer, India Language Initiatives on February 19, 2013. Dr. Pavanaja holds a Master’s degree from Mysore University and Ph.D. from Mumbai University. He was a scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, for about 15 years. He is one of the earliest editors of Kannada Wikipedia. He has to his credit many firsts, viz., first Kannada website, first Kannada online magazine, first Indian language (Kannada) website to receive Golden Web Award, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for Palm OS, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for WinCE device (HP Jornado 720), first Indian language version (Kannada) of universally popular Logo (programming language for children) software, etc. His Kannada logo won the Manthan Award for the year 2006. He was a member of the technical advisory committee setup by the Govt. of Karnataka for Standardization of Kannada on Computers (2000). He is also a member of the Kannada Software Committee of Govt. of Karnataka (2008-current).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Events Organised</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/knowledge-sharing-through-glam">Knowledge Sharing through GLAM at Bangalore</a> (Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad, Kumara Krupa Road, Bangalore, February 25, 2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Subhashish Panigrahi and Nitika Tandon participated in this event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikimedia-bangalore-meetup-at-iimb">Wikimedia Bangalore Meetup @ Indian Institute of Management</a> (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (organized in partnership with Wikispeed and NASSCOM). Vishnu Vardhan spoke on the Access to Knowledge project. Noopur Raval participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/creative-commons-comes-to-india">Creative Commons comes to India</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, February 28, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/fifty-fourth-bangalore-wikimedia-meetup">Fifty-fourth Bangalore Wikimedia Meet-up at IIM, Bangalore</a> (by Noopur Raval, February 28, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-wikipedia-education-program-iimc-dhenkanal">Odia Wikipedia Community Brings Wikipedia Education Program to IIMC, Dhenkanal</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, February 28, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/foss-wikimedia-under-one-roof-gnunify">FOSS, Wikimedia and Mozilla Under One Roof at GNUnify 2013, Pune</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, February 28, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Reports</b><br />CIS organised one Wiki workshop in the month of February 2013. We also bring you the report from an event organised in the month of January:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/celebrating-odia-wikipedias-ninth-anniversary">Celebrating Odia Wikipedia's Ninth Anniversary</a> (organized by the Odia Wiki Community with support from CIS and Academy for Media Learning, January 29, 2013, Bhubaneswar). Few glimpses of the event are available as audio podcasts.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/digital-literacy-workshop">Digital Literacy Workshop at Department of Arts, Delhi University</a> (by Nitika Tandon, February 5, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://odishan.com/?p=2534">ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ନବମ ଜନ୍ମତିଥି ଅବସରରେ କର୍ମଶାଳା: ଇମିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ପ୍ରୟୋଗ</a> (Odishan.com, February 4, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>ସମ୍ବାଦ:</b><a href="http://sambadepaper.com/Details.aspx?id=36615&boxid=23625437"><b><i> </i></b>ଲିପି ବ୍ୟାକରଣ ଓ ମାନକ ଭାଷାର ପ୍ରୟୋଗ ଜରୁରୀ</a>. (Sambad, February, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.eindiadiary.com/content/odisha-workshop-organized-9th-anniversary-odia-language-application-odia-language-e-media">Odisha: Workshop organized on 9th Anniversary of Odia language: Application of Odia language in e-media</a> (e India Bureau, March 2, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://news.fullorissa.com/odia-wikipedias-9th-anniversary/">Odia Wikipedia’s 9th anniversary</a> (fullOrissa News, February 13, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Orissa/Shownews.asp?newsid=19485">Odisha: Workshop organized on 9th Anniversary of Odia language: Application of Odia language in e-media</a> (India Education Diary.com, March 2, 2013). Subhashish Panigrahi is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.odishaviews.com/odia-language-workshop-organized-on-9th-anniversary-of-odia-wikipedia-application-of-odia-language-in-e-media/">Odia language workshop organized on 9th Anniversary of Odia Wikipedia: Application of Odia language in e-media</a> (Odishaviews.com, February 5, 2013). Subhashish Panigrahi is quoted.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p><b> Ongoing Events<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-workshop-bits-goa">Wikipedia Workshop @ BITS Goa</a> (BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, March 7, 2013, 5.30 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-editing-workshop-in-goa">A Wikipedia Editing Workshop in Goa</a> (Nirmala Institute of Education, Goa, March 8, 2013, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Announcement<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/sanskrit-wikiquote">Sanskrit Wikiquote — Now Available</a>: The Access to Knowledge team at CIS is happy to announce the availability of Sanskrit Wikiquote. Shiju Alex, an ex-team member played an active role in bringing this out. For more info see <a href="http://bit.ly/Y9OY9R">http://bit.ly/Y9OY9R</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Pervasive Technologies<b><br /></b></h3>
<p><b>Event Participated In<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/international-conference-on-contours-of-media">International Conference on Contours of Media Governance: Teaching, Disciplinarity, Methodology</a> (organised by Jamia Millia Islamia University with support from Ford Foundation and ICSSR, Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, February 25 – 27, 2013). Sunil Abraham presented preliminary findings from the Pervasive Technologies project.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Other <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a> Updates</h3>
<p><b>Announcements from Other Organizations<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://epublishingtrust.net/ept-2nd-annual-oa-award/">Iryna Kuchma wins the second EPT award</a>: The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development announced the winner of its 2nd Annual Award in recognition of the effort made by individuals working in the developing and emerging countries in the furtherance of Open Access (OA) to scholarly publications. Dr. Francis Jayakanth won the inaugural award last year. </li>
</ul>
<h3>HasGeek</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">HasGeek creates discussion spaces for geeks and has organised conferences like the <a href="http://fifthelephant.in/2012/">Fifth Elephant</a>, <a href="http://droidcon.in/2011">Droidcon India 2011</a>, <a href="http://androidcamp.hasgeek.com/">Android Camp</a>, etc. HasGeek is supported by CIS and works from the CIS office in Bengaluru.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Report & Video<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/hasgeek-blog-zainab-bawa-feb-6-2013-report-of-aaron-swartz-memorial-hacknight">Report of Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight</a> (by Zainab Bawa, February 6, 2013). On January 19 and 20, 2013, HasGeek organized a hacknight to commemorate the life and work of Aaron Swartz. Zainab Bawa shares the developments.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has an agreement with <b>Privacy International</b>, London to facilitate the implementation of activities related to surveillance and freedom of speech and expression. We are also doing a project on examining the indicators of female economic empowerment in the IT industry in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Gender<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-indias-it-industry">Women in India’s IT Industry</a> (by Jadine Lannon, February 27, 2013)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-the-it-industry">Women in the IT Industry: Request for Data</a> (by Jadine Lannon, February 28, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p><b>Free Speech & Expression<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/analyzing-latest-list-of-blocked-urls-by-dot">Analyzing the Latest List of Blocked URLs by Department of Telecommunications (IIPM Edition)</a> (by Snehashish Ghosh, February 14, 2013). The analysis was quoted in <a href="https://cis-india.org/news/first-post-feb-19-2013-danish-raza-why-was-the-gwalior-court-in-such-a-hurry-to-block-iipm-urls">FirstPost</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/tehelka-sunil-abraham-feb-3-2013-dont-slap-free-speech">Don’t SLAPP free speech</a> (by Sunil Abraham with inputs from Snehashish Ghosh, Tehelka, February 3, 2013, Issue 9, Volume 10).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindubusinessline-feb-15-2013-chinmayi-arun-freedom-of-expression-gagged">Freedom of Expression Gagged</a> (by Chinmayi Arun, Hindu Business Line, February 15, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Media Coverage<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ndtv-video-the-social-network-feb-5-2013-hate-speech-ban-or-ignore">Hate speech: ban or ignore?</a> (NDTV, February 5, 2013). Pranesh Prakash, Shivam Vij, and Sanjay Rajoura gave their expert views on the impact of hate speech.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-national-feb-6-2013-samanth-subramanian-censorship-and-sensibility-in-india">Censorship and sensibility in India</a> (by Samanth Subramanian, February 6, 2013). Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ny-times-feb-8-2013-betwa-sharma-online-abuse-of-teen-girls-in-kashmir-leads-to-arrests">Online Abuse of Teen Girls in Kashmir Leads to Arrests</a> (by Betwa Sharma, New York Times, February 8, 2013). Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-feb-9-2013-t-ramachandran-indian-net-service-providers-too-play-censorship-tricks">Indian net service providers too play censorship tricks</a> (by T Ramachandran, The Hindu, February 9, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/economic-times-feb-12-2013-indu-nandakumar-anonymous-joins-protests-against-internet-shutdown-in-kashmir">Anonymous joins protests against Internet shutdown in Kashmir</a> (by Indu Nandakumar, Economic Times, February 12, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/first-post-feb-19-2013-danish-raza-why-was-the-gwalior-court-in-such-a-hurry-to-block-iipm-urls">Why was the Gwalior court in such a hurry to block IIPM URLs?</a> (by Danish Raza, FirstPost, February 19, 2013). Snehashish Ghosh’s analysis on blocked website is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/outlook-feb-22-2013-arindam-mukherjee-stop-press-counsel">Stop Press Carousel</a> (by Arindham Mukherjee, Outlook, February 22, 2013). Sunil Abraham is quoted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/computer-world-india-feature-shubra-rishi-feb-25-2013-all-indian-enterprises-should-be-very-worried">"All Indian Enterprises should Be Very Worried": Centre for Internet and Society</a> (by Shubhra Rishi, Computer World, February 25, 2013). Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Events Participated In<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/wilton-park-feb-13-15-2013-freedom-of-expression-online">Freedom of expression online: identifying and addressing challenges and developing a shared vision and a working partnership</a>: (organized by Wilton Park, Wiston House, Sussex, UK, February 13 – 15, 2013). Pranesh Prakash participated in the event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/itech-law-india-ninth-intl-asian-conference">9th International Asian Conference</a> (organized by ITech Law, Bangalore, February 14 -15, 2013). Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session on Censorship of Online Content. </li>
</ul>
<p><b>Privacy<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy-highlights-in-india">2012: Privacy Highlights in India</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, February 12, 2013): Elonnai summarizes the top privacy moments of 2012 in India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/eff-feb-13-2013-katitza-rodriguez-and-elonnai-hickok-surveillance-camp-iv-disproportionate-state-surveillance-a-violation-of-privacy">Surveillance Camp IV: Disproportionate State Surveillance - A Violation of Privacy</a> (by Elonnai Hickok and Katitza Rodriguez of Electronic Frontier Foundation February 19, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/big-dog-is-watching-you">BigDog is Watching You! The Sci-fi Future of Animal and Insect Drones</a> (by Maria Xynou, February 25, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Events Organized</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/analyzing-draft-human-dna-profiling-bill">Analyzing the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012</a> (March 1, 2013, CIS, Bangalore).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/uid-and-npr">Unique Identity Number (UID), National Population Register (NPR), and Governance</a> (March 2, 2013, TERI Southern Regional Centre, Bangalore).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event Participated In</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/omnishambles-of-uid-shrouded-in-its-rti-opacity">The Omnishambles of UID, shrouded in its RTI opacity</a>: CIS sponsored Colonel Mathew Thomas to hold a workshop at the fourth National Right to Information (RTI) organized by the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, held in Hyderabad from February 15 to 18, 2013.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Upcoming Event<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/dml-conference-2013">DML Conference 2013</a> (co-organised by CIS and Digital Media & Learning Research Hub Central, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers - Chicago, Illinois, March 14 – 16, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<h2>Internet Access – Knowledge Repository</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS in partnership with the Ford Foundation was executing the telecom knowledge repository project which included producing and disseminating modules on various aspects of telecommunications including policy, regulations, infrastructure and market. However, from November 2012 there was a change in the mandate of the project. The new repository will cover the history of the internet, technologies involved, principle and values of internet access, broadband market and universal access. It will also touch upon various polices and regulations which has an impact on internet access and bodies and mechanism which are responsible for formulation policies related to internet access. The blog posts and modules will be published in a new website: <a href="http://www.internet-institute.in">www.internet-institute.in</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Upcoming Event<br /></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are hosting an “Institute on Internet and Society” in collaboration with the Ford Foundation India, which is to be held from June 8, 2013 to June 14, 2013. Call for registration and relevant details will be announced soon on our website.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<p><b>Newspaper Column<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-shyam-ponappa-feb-14-2013-the-supreme-court-and-spectrum-management">The Supreme Court & Spectrum Management</a> (by Shyam Ponappa, Organizing India Blogspot, February 14, 2013, originally published in the Business Standard, February 6, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Blog Entry<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/who-minds-the-maxwells-demon">Who Minds the Maxwell's Demon: Revisiting Communication Networks through the Lens of the Intermediary</a> (by Sharath Chandra Ram, February 28, 2013).</li>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Participated In<br /></b></p>
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<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/humlab-umea-university-d-coding-digital-natives">D:coding Digital Natives - Seminar with Nishant Shah</a> (organized by HUMlab, February 26, 2013). Nishant Shah gave a talk on D:coding Digital Natives at Samhällsvetarhuset.</li>
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<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/video-vortex-9-net-re-assemblies-of-video">Video Vortex # 9 Re:assemblies of Video</a> (organized by the Institute of Network Cultures, Post Media Lab, Moving Image Lab, Leuphana, et.al, February 28 – March 2, 2013). Nishant Shah delivered a <a href="http://videovortex9.net/ai1ec_event/reassemblies/?instance_id=292">key note</a> at this event.</li>
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<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities">Digital Humanities</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">From 2012 to 2015, the Researchers At Work series is focusing on building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. We organised the first Habits of Living workshops in Bangalore last year. The next workshop is being held in Brown University.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Upcoming Event<br /></b></p>
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<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living-networked-affects-glocal-effects">Habits of Living: Networked Affects, Glocal Effects</a> (organised by CIS and Brown University, March 21 – 23, 2013, Brown University, Rhode Island). Nishant Shah will be speaking at this event.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> with ITU and G3ict, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos, etc. We have conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill">NIA Bill</a>, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO. CIS staff participates in the Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings regularly held in Geneva, and participate in the discussions and comments on them from a public interest perspective. Our Policy Director, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/accessibility/blog/national-award">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a> from the Government of India and also received the <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/news/nirmita-nivh-award">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</p>
<h3>Follow us elsewhere</h3>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="https://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Support Us</h3>
<p>Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.</p>
<h3>Request for Collaboration</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at <a href="mailto:nishant@cis-india.org">nishant@cis-india.org</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/february-2013-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/february-2013-bulletin</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpennessResearchers at Work2013-03-11T05:35:46ZPageCelebrating Odia Wikipedia's Ninth Anniversary
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/celebrating-odia-wikipedias-ninth-anniversary
<b>Odia Wikipedia saw its first edit on January 29, 2004. After a dormancy of many years it got revived in 2011. To commemorate the effort of many volunteer wikipedians, a celebratory event was organized on January 29, 2013 in Bhubaneswar. Subhashish Panigrahi participated in this event.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://or.wikipedia.org/">Odia Wikipedia</a> recently has celebrated its <a href="http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:ମେଳଣ/ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର/ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର୪">9</a><a href="http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:ମେଳଣ/ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର/ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର୪"><sup>th</sup></a><a href="http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:ମେଳଣ/ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର/ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର୪"> anniversary</a>. January 29 is considered to be that day when someone made a first edit on it. Communities from Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Nalconagar joined hands to celebrate this event with a panel discussion on "Application of Odia language in e-media". The discussion was coordinated by Nilambar Rath, Director of Academy for Media Learning. The event was organized by the Odia Wiki Community with support from <a href="https://cis-india.org/">The Centre for Internet and Society</a> in collaboration with <a href="http://www.aml.edu.in/">Academy for Media Learning</a>. Panelists who took part in the discussion were Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Director of "Odia Bhasa Pratisthan", Dr. Prafulla Tripathy, Odia linguist and writer, Dr. Dhanada Mishra, Academician and Director-Academics, <a href="http://www.kmbb.in/">KMBB College of Engineering</a>, Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society, Jatindra Das, Senior journalist and founder, <a href="http://Odisha.com/">Odisha.com</a> and Subhransu Panda, Senior journalist, <a href="http://www.orissasambad.com/">Sambad</a>. Wikipedians, students and journalists took active part in the discussion.</p>
<p>To celebrate the success of Odia Wikipedia, wikipedians joined the guest to cut a “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhena_Poda">Chhenapoda</a>” and light Deepam as an integral part of the Odia culture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The discussion began with Nilambar Rath speaking briefly about the agenda of the meeting and about the current scenario of the use of Odia language in media especially in the web. Prasanna Kumar Mohanty spoke about how the true form of the language should be taken to public via media. He also emphasized about the need to sacrifice our conventional way of approach and adopt new technologies like Wikipedia. Many such efforts are not rewarded because of the lack of support from the government even though funding is available for such development. Odia linguist Prafulla Tripathy explained about the lack of public interest to pledge for declaring Odia as a classical language even though Odia holds the 31<sup>st</sup> position among 6500 world languages. "The language of our personal lives, social interaction and verbal communication never gets documented. The confusion among various linguists is another obstacle to take Odia to a global level. If the script grammar is kept in focus and script and eventually the fonts are simplified then they would be easier to be used online", he expressed. Dr. Tripathy also shared his experience of his interaction with other Indian language experts at places where he worked such as on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition">OCR (Optical character reading)</a> software which could be a great tool to digitize many precious resources. He offered his support for helping with OCR in Odia. Few other aspects of simpler approaches of scripts discussed were glossary, Odia-English and English-Odia lexicon, spell check feature for typing and interactive e-learning which could boost the effort of the wikipedians.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prof. Dhanada Mishra took the audience through the free and open source culture and Linux and future role of Odia Wikipedia to tackle the problems of primary education. He thanked the wikipedians for their noble effort and showed his interest in promoting it more in academics. Subhashish Panigrahi discussed about the role of Odia Wikipedia in documenting various resources in Odia Wikipedia. He brought various technical problems that common men face while typing, contributing to Wikipedia and how they could be handled. He also proposed a plan for bringing more language experts and museum curators to the community which would increase the spectrum of resource and capacity for the Odia Wikimedia community.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Jatindra Das, founder of the first online Odia newspaper Odisha.com discussed about the hurdles of using Odia Unicode and acceptance level in the society for it. Senior journalist Subhransu Panda discussed about the usage of various fonts and how adopting Unicode could bring a lot of information to the public.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nilambar Rath, Director, Academy for Media Learning talked about the future efforts of Odia Wikipedia community. He elaborated how media could be used as an essential tool for taking Wikipedia to more people. Mrutyunjaya Kar, one of the very active Wikipedians closed the ceremony with a brief talk about the achievements, education program and impact of Odia Wikipedia in the recent past and community building plans.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There was a press meet in the afternoon. Wikipedians interacted with the media about future prospects of Odia Wikipedia and its current state.</p>
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<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/OdiaWikipediansbeingfelicitated.JPG/@@images/dda743db-d287-4a02-9525-7376d44934f1.jpeg" title="Odia Wikipedians being felicitated" height="204" width="622" alt="Odia Wikipedians being felicitated" class="image-inline" /></p>
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<td style="text-align: center; "><i>Odia wikipedians being felicitated by the guests</i></td>
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<th style="text-align: center; ">Few glimpses of the event<br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="253" src="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bhubaneswar_Odia_Meetup_2013Jan29-32.webm?embedplayer=yes" width="450"></iframe><br />Audio Podcast<br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="23" src="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prafulla_Tripathy_on_Odia_script_and_Odia_Wikipedia.ogg?embedplayer=yes" width="300"></iframe></th>
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<p><b><br />Press coverage:</b></p>
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<li><span></span><span><b>ଓଡ଼ିଶାନ୍:</b></span><a href="http://odishan.com/?p=2534"><span><span><span><b> </b>ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ନବମ ଜନ୍ମତିଥି ଅବସରରେ କର୍ମଶାଳା</span></span></span></a><a href="http://odishan.com/?p=2534"><span><span><span>: </span></span></span></a><a href="http://odishan.com/?p=2534"><span><span><span>ଇମିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ପ୍ରୟୋଗ</span></span></span></a><span><span>.</span></span><span><b> </b></span><span><b></b></span></li>
<li> <span><b>ସମ୍ବାଦ:</b></span><a href="http://sambadepaper.com/Details.aspx?id=36615&boxid=23625437"><span><i><span><b> </b>ଲିପି ବ୍ୟାକରଣ ଓ ମାନକ ଭାଷାର ପ୍ରୟୋଗ ଜରୁରୀ</span></i></span></a><span><span>.</span></span><span><b> </b></span></li>
<li> <span>eindiadiary.com:</span><a href="http://www.eindiadiary.com/content/odisha-workshop-organized-9th-anniversary-odia-language-application-odia-language-e-media"><span><span>Odisha: Workshop organized on 9th Anniversary of Odia language: Application of Odia language in e-media</span></span></a><span><span>.</span></span></li>
<li> <span>Fullorissa.com:</span><a href="http://news.fullorissa.com/odia-wikipedias-9th-anniversary/"><span> Odia Wikipedia’s 9th anniversary</span></a><span><b>. </b></span><span>Fullorissa.com</span></li>
<li> <span>orissadiary.com:</span><a href="http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowEvents.asp?id=3924"><span><span>Odisha: Workshop organized on 9th Anniversary of Odia language: Application of Odia language in e-media</span></span></a><span><span>.</span></span></li>
<li> <span><span>In</span></span><span>diaeducationdiary.in:</span><a href="http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Orissa/Shownews.asp?newsid=19485"><span><span>Odisha: Workshop organized on 9th Anniversary of Odia language: Application of Odia language in e-media</span></span></a><span><span>. </span></span><span></span></li>
<li> <span>Odishaviews.com:</span><a href="http://www.odishaviews.com/odia-language-workshop-organized-on-9th-anniversary-of-odia-wikipedia-application-of-odia-language-in-e-media/">Odia language workshop organized on 9th Anniversary of Odia Wikipedia: Application of Odia language in e-media</a><i>. </i>Subhashish Panigrahi is quoted.<i><br /></i></li>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/celebrating-odia-wikipedias-ninth-anniversary'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/celebrating-odia-wikipedias-ninth-anniversary</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpennessFeaturedWikipediaWikimedia2013-02-28T04:32:29ZBlog EntryKnowledge Sharing through GLAM at Bangalore
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/knowledge-sharing-through-glam
<b>A seminar for GLAM institutions (GLAM stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) will be held in Bangalore on February 25, 2013, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The program is supported by Wikimedia, Creative Commons and the Centre for Internet & Society.</b>
<h2>Sponsors</h2>
<p>This program is sponsored by:</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Wikimedia Chapter, (WMIN), Bengaluru, a non profit society and the India Chapter of Wikimedia Foundation,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Center for Internet and Studies, (CIS), Bengaluru, an independent NGO, operating the Access to Knowledge program for Wikimedia Foundation,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Creative Commons, USA, a nonprofit organization that enables people to share their knowledge and creativity through free legal tools, <br />in partnership with</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad, Bengaluru, an autonomous institution promoting Art, and Education. Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath was first established as “Chitrakala Vidyalaya”, under the aegis of Chitrakala Parishath in 1964. The founder secretary Late Prof. M.S. Nanjunda Rao was instrumental in establishing and developing the institute, which has grown to the current international status. The Institution offers Post- Graduate and Post- Diploma courses, and proposes to begin a PhD programme [Research Centre] in the near future. Presently the Institution has been accredited and functioning as an Autonomous Institution as set by the U.G.C. and Bangalore University.</li>
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<h3>What is GLAM and what does it have to do with Wikimedia and Creative Commons?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>GLAM</b> is an acronym for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. It also incorporates other cultural institutions such as theatres, zoos, botanical gardens, public broadcasters, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <b>GLAM-WIKI</b> project supports GLAMs and other institutions who want to work with Wikimedia to produce open-access, freely-reusable content for the public.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Why contribute?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Every cultural institution has an abundance of resources to share. A partnership with Wikimedia is a low cost, high-impact way for them to disseminate their resources to a global audience.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">How to contribute?</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Wikipedia</b> - Contributions can include article creation or expansion, reference correction and expansion, and institutional research/text donations.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Wikimedia Commons</b> - Contributions can include images, video, and other media as well as descriptions and metadata for already-existing files in the repository.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Wikisource</b> - As a collection of free and open content texts of original sources, appropriate contributions include out-of-copyright books and documents.</li>
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<h3>How does it help the GLAM institution?</h3>
<p>Here are a few reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>It fits in closely with the core mission of the cultural institution of preserving heritage and history.</li>
<li>It step jumps the GLAM institution’s reach by increasing potential audiences.</li>
<li>Footfalls to the GLAM institution are likely to increase through greater awareness of the institute’s collection and knowledge.</li>
<li>It will provide a well-tested platform for the digitization efforts of the GLAM institution. Staff will find it satisfying given its global reach and impact.</li>
<li>There is a strong likelihood of higher public relations coverage of the GLAM institute because of Wikipedia’s goodwill.</li>
<li>Wikimedia Foundation and Creative Commons are nonprofit organizations.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Different GLAMs have different needs and goals for their projects, and this seminar will educate the audience on how GLAM-WIKI fits these with Wikimedia's goals of free knowledge. From existing partnership programs Wikimedia India will present a few global projects, and examples on how they've worked in practice and benefited every one including the GLAM institutions.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Creative Commons</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables users to share their knowledge and creativity through free legal tools. They develop, support, and steward legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Copyright laws were developed in a previous era where in protection was given to artists, authors, and other creators as a default. In this situation sharing requires a deliberate prior permission. In the internet era, so much of sharing of digital media is happening online, and these require tools that ensure prior permission, and control the level of use. The legal tools of Creative Commons enable controlled sharing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable users to modify their copyright terms to best suit their needs.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">What will users learn?</h3>
<p>In this part of the seminar users will learn about:</p>
<ul>
<li>Creative Commons as an organization</li>
<li>How the Creative Commons licenses work</li>
<li>How they relate to Open GLAM, and Wikimedia</li>
<li>What are the tools? How to choose them and use them</li>
<li>How can people selectively retain rights, while releasing some of it for free public use</li>
<li>Examples of how GLAM institutions are using CC</li>
<li>New business models and online communities</li>
<li>Other applications of CC</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The speakers from Creative Commons have a long experience of discussing CC with GLAM institutions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CC licensing also works for many other applications such as music, video, writing, and many other creative works. Open Education Resources, and Public Data are also some of the domains. The focus of the presentation will be on GLAM. However, people interested in other applications may also be able to take the opportunity to have discussions after the main presentation.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Who should attend the seminar?</h3>
<p>The seminar would be of interests to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Administrators of Public policy</li>
<li>Administrators of GLAM institutions</li>
<li>Art historians, Artists, Photographers, and Sculptors</li>
<li>Legal professionals</li>
<li>Bloggers, Authors, Editors, and Publishers.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Admission:</h2>
<p>Admission is free to the public who register. <b>Please bring a print copy of this registration page for admission</b>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Please visit the link to register: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/VZ8yIE">http://bit.ly/VZ8yIE</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Location map of venue: <a class="external-link" href="http://goo.gl/maps/sYsxI">http://goo.gl/maps/sYsxI</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/knowledge-sharing-through-glam'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/knowledge-sharing-through-glam</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaWorkshopOpennessEvent2013-02-18T05:37:46ZEventWikimedia Bangalore Meetup @ Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikimedia-bangalore-meetup-at-iimb
<b>The Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet & Society in partnership with Wikispeed and NASSCOM is organizing meetup at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore on February 25, 2013 at 2.00 p.m. Vishnu Vardhan will speak on the Access to Knowledge program.</b>
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<p>Register for the event <a class="external-link" href="http://wpmbl54.doattend.com">here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikimedia-bangalore-meetup-at-iimb'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikimedia-bangalore-meetup-at-iimb</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessEvent2013-02-14T06:01:28ZEventWiki Meet-up in Bangalore: Talk by Vishnu Vardhan
https://cis-india.org/news/wiki-meet-up-bangalore
<b>Vishnu Vardhan, Director of Access to Knowledge team at CIS has been invited by the Bangalore SIG Chair. Vishnu will speak on the Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia) project. The talk is scheduled for February 25, 2013 at 2.00 p.m. in Bangalore.</b>
<h2>Agenda</h2>
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<li> Wikimedia Projects </li>
<li> Access to Knowledge by Mr.Vishnu Vardhan, Director A2K, CIS </li>
<li> Guest Talk by Mr.Joe Justice, Founder WikiSpeed & Mr.Vibhu Srinivasan, MD, Solutions IQ </li>
<li> Audience address by Chief Guest, Mr.KS Viswanath, Vice President, Industry Initiatives, NASSCOM </li>
<li> Networking </li>
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<h2>KS Viswanath</h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mr. K.S. Viswanathan, Vice President, Industry Initiatives, NASSCOM, has around 32 years of general management and leadership experience in the Indian business context, building key executive relationships and a strong customer capital in diverse business environment. His extensive work experience in the IT industry and social sector comprises of developing and executing operational strategies, managing customer engagement programs, and establishing models for customer acquisition and retention. Over the span of his career, Mr. Viswanathan has held strategic & leadership positions at Wipro, Dell, Azim Premji Foundation and Hilleman Laboratories. As the Head for India geography at Wipro Infotech (2003-2008), he led the positive transformation of and business landscape for Wipro in India. He was the first country manager for Dell in India in 2000 and was instrumental in establishing Dell’s direct business model in India. Mr. Viswanathan is a graduate from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (1979 batch). He holds a MBA in marketing from PSG College of Technology (1981 batch).</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Vishnu Vardhan</h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Vishnu Vardhan is the Programme Director-Access to Knowledge at CIS since February 2013. His experience spans across academics, industry (media) and not-for-profit sectors. Over the last 11 years he has worked in various capacities as researcher, grant manager, teacher, project consultant, information architect and translator. Prior to joining CIS, Vishnu managed the Art, Crafts and Culture portfolio of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT); where had spent 5 years in project conceptualization, management and assessment of quality and impact in the not-for-profit sector. Vishnu managed more than 30 projects and funds to the tune of Rs. 160 million. He also anchored SRTT’s automation and knowledge management activities. Vishnu worked as Research Coordinator at Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore where he a) coordinated the online M.A. in Cultural Studies; b) managed the Library Fellowship programme; c) conceptualized and coordinated national and international workshops and short-term courses in Media and Cultural Studies; and d) helped in building academic institutional partnerships. Vishnu is a superannuated doctoral candidate at the Centre for Media Research, University of Ulster and CSCS, Bangalore.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Joe Justice</h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Joe Justice (@WIKISPEED) Founder, CEO, WikiSpeed Joe's team tied for 10th place in the mainstream class of the 2010 Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, a $10 million challenge for 100+ MPG automobiles. WIKISPEED now uses agile processes to solve problems for social good. Joe has spoken to audiences at TEDx, Denver University, University of California Berkley, Google, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary International, and others about social web application development, project methodology, and agile best practices. He is CEO of WIKISPEED and works at SolutionsIQ, a leading provider of Agile consulting, certified training, coaching, development, and Agile talent services, where he helps clients leverage Agile project management and team development methods to deliver solutions more reliably.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Vibhu Srinivasan</h2>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Vibhu Srinivasan (@vibhu_s) Managing Director, SolutionsIQ India Vibhu Srinivasan is an Entrepreneur, Agile Coach, Technologist and currently heads SolutionsIQ India. Vibhu has an extensive technology, process, and consulting background allowing him to work with a diverse set of clients and teams. Vibhu has been practicing agile practices since 1997 (officially called Agile only in 2001).He brings to his consulting, deep rooted passion and practices gained by working in the trenches with hundreds of developers on real projects. He is very passionate about software development and can code in multiple languages. He has helped many teams in their quest for agility. He is a CTO of a early stage start up in Seattle and has an MBA in strategic management from school of business Madison. He has a very solid understanding of building large scale scalable systems having participated in various roles over the years, most recently chief architect for a game, Lead for virtualization product at Microsoft and CTO of his own start-up. He has worked in financial, gaming, visualization domains to name a few. An entrepreneur by choice he is always busy building a company/product and is currently in India heading Solutions IQ a premier provider of Agile consulting and development services in the US.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Participants</h2>
<hr />
<h3>Intended Audience</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Anyone interested in Wikipedia (user, contributor or curious about it). Wikipedians from any part of India or the world and anyone who is interested in Wikipedia! Meetup is open to members of all Wikimedia projects and Wikipedians from all languages. All are welcome, and we are especially interested in seeing newcomers to join the experienced Wikipedians/Wikimedians. If you are interested in coming, please add your name below.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The full details can be accessed on the <a class="external-link" href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiMeetups/Bangalore/Bangalore54#Vishnu_Vardhan">Wikipedia page</a></p>
<ul>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/wiki-meet-up-bangalore'>https://cis-india.org/news/wiki-meet-up-bangalore</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2013-02-11T06:22:56ZNews ItemSanskrit Wikiquote — Now Available!
https://cis-india.org/news/sanskrit-wikiquote
<b>The Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is happy to celebrate the availability of Sanskrit wikiquote. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"The project is a store house of Subhashitas extracted from different scriptures like the Vedas, Upanishads Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharatam, etc., categorised and based on the topics with explanations. It contains idioms and phrases, witty puzzles, sayings of great people, Chitrakaavyam, etc., everything in Samskrit. It is to be noted that all these, in a single webpage is not available anywhere else in such an easily available form." says Dr. Sumana, Wikipedia Wing, Samskrita Bharati.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shiju Alex, an ex-team member of CIS played an active role in bringing this out. It has about 1260 pages under various categories, for a ready review.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For more information, visit <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Y9OY9R">http://bit.ly/Y9OY9R</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/sanskrit-wikiquote'>https://cis-india.org/news/sanskrit-wikiquote</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2013-03-01T05:07:38ZNews ItemReport of Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hasgeek-blog-zainab-bawa-feb-6-2013-report-of-aaron-swartz-memorial-hacknight
<b>On 19th and 20th January, HasGeek organized a hacknight to commemorate the life and works of Aaron Swartz. Zainab Bawa from HasGeek shares with us the developments.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Why host an Aaron Swartz memorial hacknight?</b> In the aftermath of Aaron’s death, some people began expressing <a href="http://hackerstreet.in/item?id=23160" target="_blank">doubts, uncertanties and misinformed opinions</a> about his activist causes. They questioned whether Aaron committed a ’crime’ by downloading articles from JSTOR and whether the means he used for liberating data were wrong in the first place. It was important to dispel these doubts and provide people with a better understanding about issues such as IT laws, copyright rules and access to information, and how these are implemented in different parts of the world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Aaron had initiated several coding projects during his lifetime. <a href="http://anandology.com/" target="_blank">Anand Chitipothu</a>, who collaborated with Aaron at the <a href="http://archive.org/index.php" target="_blank">Internet Archive</a> and maintains his <a href="http://webpy.org/" target="_blank">web.py framework</a>, suggested that the hacknight could also be an opportunity where people get familiar with Aaron’s coding projects and work on some of them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>The hacknight:</b> 87 people registered for the hacknight. Approximately 40 people turned up. Some participants proposed projects to <a href="http://hacknight.in/hasgeek/aaronsw-memorial/projects/5-liberate-some-public-data" target="_blank">liberate different kinds of public data</a> such as <a href="http://hacknight.in/hasgeek/aaronsw-memorial/projects/7-liberate-electoral-data" target="_blank">electoral data</a>, <a href="http://hacknight.in/hasgeek/aaronsw-memorial/projects/5-liberate-some-public-data" target="_blank">weather data, information about train timetables</a> and <a href="http://hacknight.in/hasgeek/aaronsw-memorial/projects/8-investigate-the-gloomy-world-of-india-gov-websites" target="_blank">crawling data from government and NIC websites</a>. Developers worked on these projects to make the data searchable and usable.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Discussions during the hacknight:</b> The hacknight started at 3 PM with <a href="http://hasgeek.tv/hasgeek/stream/351-what-did-aaron-do" target="_blank">a discussion about the life of Aaron Swartz and the political and legal implications of his coding projects and activism</a>.</p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KwMYKJpcZk8" width="320"></iframe></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This discussion was led by Anand and <a href="https://twitter.com/jackerhack">Kiran Jonnalagadda</a> of HasGeek.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kiran gave an elaborate background about Aaron’s life starting with how he established RSS 1.0 as a standard and the collaboration between Aaron and Lawrence Lessig on using the RDF format for Creative Commons licensing, leading to Aaron’s work with Reddit and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2006/10/31/breaking-news-conde-nastwired-acquires-reddit/" target="_blank">its acquisition by Condé Nast</a>. Shortly after Reddit’s acquisition, Aaron left Reddit and began a career in activism. In this period, he started freeing data funded by public money which constitutionally belonged in the public domain. He published data from the catalogue of the Library of Congress and the US case law archives on the Internet Archive. Later, Aaron downloaded articles from JSTOR to release academic papers whose research was funded with public money. Before he could sift through the downloads, Aaron was caught by the police. He returned the hard disk containing the downloads. JSTOR and MIT did not pursue cases against him, but the United States government charged Aaron for breaking into the MIT campus and faking identity by changing the MAC address of his computer.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At the end of Kiran’s presentation, participants asked several questions about activism, what constitutes offensive speech, framework of IT laws in India, and the process of law-making.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At 5 PM, <a href="https://cis-india.org/publications-automated/cis/sunil" target="_blank">Sunil Abraham</a> of the <a href="https://cis-india.org/" target="_blank">Centre for Internet and Society</a> (CIS) joined the hacknight. He made a <a href="http://hasgeek.tv/hasgeek/aaronsw-hacknight/350-sunil-abraham-what-did-aaron-do">presentation about copyright laws, the Indian IT Act and Aaron’s work</a>.</p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZtJ_dZ4-ZVA" width="320"></iframe></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sunil explained how Aaron believed in the importance of access to information by releasing data from copyright and thereby enabling freedom of expression. According to Sunil, Aaron Swartz is a very troublesome hero because his data liberation projects do not fall into one neat category. Moreover, the means he used for his activism are questioned by different activist groups. This makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly what one must credit Aaron for and what category of activism his work falls under.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After Sunil’s presentation, there was a half hour discussion about the scope of copyright laws in India, copyright exemptions and what constitutes copyright infringement. Participants agreed that the trouble lies with the broad interpretations of copyright and IT laws. This enables the state and private parties to target and harass a person, often on frivolous grounds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Discussion about hacknight projects:</b> At 6 PM, participants with project ideas and those who wanted to join projects gathered in the garden. Over tea and snacks, groups / pairs were formed. Participants reported two difficulties here:</p>
<ol>
<li>There weren’t enough projects to choose from i.e., fewer problems to solve</li>
<li>Not everyone who proposed projects could break the problem down into tasks for individual team members to work on.</li>
</ol>
<p>This affected participants’ motivation to stay through the night.</p>
<p><b>Web.py workshop:</b> After the tea break, <a href="http://hasgeek.tv/hasgeek/aaronsw-hacknight/352-web-py-workshop" target="_blank">Anand conducted a workshop on web.py</a>.</p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hzgxCAmDiVI" width="320"></iframe></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some participants came to the hacknight mainly to attend this workshop. The code used in this workshop is available on <a href="http://github.com/anandology/webpy-workshop" target="_blank">github.com/anandology/webpy-workshop</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Anand also worked on the database module of web.py to decouple it and make it into a separate python module. This project requires more work before it is completed. The code is available at: <a href="http://github.com/anandology/sqlpy" target="_blank">http://github.com/anandology/sqlpy</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Projects at the hacknight:</b> A complete list of projects that participants worked on during the hacknight are available on the <a href="http://hacknight.in/hasgeek/aaronsw-memorial" target="_blank">hacknight website</a>. We talked with some of the teams and individual participants to understand their projects, the process they followed for solving the problems, and outcomes at the end of the hacknight.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Liberating electoral data:</b> Arun Raghavan, an open source enthusiast, and four other participants (Arun K, Praveen, Mikul and Sumant) worked on scraping electorial data from <a href="http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in/" target="_blank">http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in/</a>. They planned to build a frontend which will make it easy for users to search their names and polling booth information. Currently, the electoral roll is published as a PDF document for each polling station along with a search form (which is unreliable and fails often) for individuals to find their names on the roll and the location of their polling station.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It was difficult to parse the data because the PDFs were not designed for machine readability. Hence, the team had to spend time understanding how to extract the text. The other problem was that the person’s name was written above the father’s name, but if the person’s name was very long, it overlapped the father’s name. This made it difficult to determine where the person’s name ended and where the father’s name began. The team managed to come up with a heuristic to distinguish between the person’s name and father’s name based on slight differences in the way the text was printed on each sheet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Arun Raghavan and other team members used Python to parse data from the PDFs. They also tried extracting data by using the search form and saving results whenever it returned them (since it failed often). The search form required a JavaScript submit, so Praveen Kumar and Arun K learned to use casper.js to emulate a browser and extract data. Praveen also used casper.js to liberate his friend Aram Bhusal’s blog from Sulekha.com. Aram made a <a href="http://hasgeek.tv/bangalorejs/4/374-flash-talk" target="_blank">presentation</a> about this at the <a href="http://hasgeek.tv/bangalorejs/4/" target="_blank">January edition of the Bangalore JS meet</a>.</p>
<p>At the end of the hacknight, the group almost managed to get a dump of an entire electoral roll. The project repositories:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://github.com/arunk/ceoscraper" target="_blank">https://github.com/arunk/ceoscraper</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/ford-prefect/ceo-kar-roll-scraper" target="_blank">https://github.com/ford-prefect/ceo-kar-roll-scraper</a></li>
</ol>
<p><b>Other data liberation projects: </b></p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Indexing Government websites by category of information:</b> Elvis D’souza worked on crawling government websites and indexing them by category, for e.g., education, import-export trade, science and technology, etc. According to him, government websites contain lots of information including documents and spreadsheets. At the hacknight, Elvis completed the indexing process and ran some statistics about information contained in these websites. He eventually wants to build a portal where people can access this index and the documents. </li>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Railway timetable data: </b>Anand scraped data from the IRCTC website. Supreeth Srinivasmurthy worked with this data to plot a map. Bibhas Debnath also worked on the timetable data to build an API. A demo of this API is yet to be released.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Parsing weather data:</b> Asok Padda converted weather data from HTML format to Excel sheets. Hourly weather data for all weather stations in India during 2012 is parsed and uploaded to Internet Archive: <a href="http://archive.org/details/www.imdaws.com-2012" target="_blank">http://archive.org/details/www.imdaws.com-2012</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Other projects:</b> Kashyap Kondamundi started building an app which will help people to calculate the current values of their mutual funds. He built 70% of this app at the hacknight.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>HasGeek has requested participants to post updates about their projects and share links to their code.</p>
<p><b>Overall achievements from the hacknight:</b> Participants reported the following outcomes from the hacknight:</p>
<ol> </ol><ol>
<li>Learning about new libraries and their applications</li>
<li>Awareness about IT laws and copyright frameworks in India</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Opportunity to meet and network with other coders who have an interest in data-related projects or working on new project ideas.</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Participants appreciated Anand’s presence as a mentor during the hacknight. He interacted with the teams and helped them when they were stuck with their projects, either with his expertise in Python or by suggesting alternative ways of approaching the problem.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">HasGeek thanks <a href="https://cis-india.org/" target="_blank">CIS</a> for sponsoring the venue and providing logistical support during the hacknight.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hasgeek-blog-zainab-bawa-feb-6-2013-report-of-aaron-swartz-memorial-hacknight'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hasgeek-blog-zainab-bawa-feb-6-2013-report-of-aaron-swartz-memorial-hacknight</a>
</p>
No publisherzainabOpennessVideo2013-03-02T13:32:25ZBlog EntryDigital Literacy Workshop at Department of Arts, Delhi University
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/digital-literacy-workshop
<b>A digital literacy workshop was organised at the Department of Arts, Delhi University for students pursuing their masters in Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies on February 5, 2013. Nitika Tandon shares the developments.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">About 30 students and 4 faculty members attended the three hour long workshop. Surprisingly most participants had a clear understanding of how Wikipedia works, who writes the content, who are the Wikipedia editors, where do these editors come from, availability of Wikipedia in different Indian languages and many other aspects that participants are usually not aware of before most wikipedia outreach sessions. I was stunned and pleasantly surprised at the same time. I was then told that many of their fellow colleagues from Hindi department had already attended a session sometime last year and had briefed them about workings with Wikipedia. The main reason to organise this particular session was the curiosity to understand how does one actually 'edit' Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mid way into the session we moved to the computer lab where all participants had access to computers, laptops and internet. A computer was shared by 2-3 participants because there were'nt enough machines. To begin with students were taught how to do basic and minor editing such as correcting spelling, grammar, punctuations, the importance of show preview button and writing an edit summary. Participants were then taught wiki mark up, adding references, adding inter-wiki links.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Towards the end of the session students filled in feedback forms with their contact information so that we could keep them updated on upcoming events and meetups that are being organised in the city. Many participants had questions about how to add table of contents, pictures and info box but there wasn't enough time to cover it all.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/digital-literacy-workshop'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/digital-literacy-workshop</a>
</p>
No publishernitikaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2013-03-05T01:03:05ZBlog EntryAccess to Knowledge Report — September to December 2012
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/access-2-knowledge-report-2012
<b>This post provides an overview of the activities done by the Access to Knowledge team under the grant provided by the Wikimedia Foundation from September 2012 to December 2012.</b>
<hr />
<p>The information provided in this post can also be viewed in form of a presentation <a class="external-link" href="http://www.slideshare.net/noopurraval/a2-k-september-january-16234882">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The activities done by the Access to Knowledge team have been listed under events, meetups and programs. Here, events indicate workshops conducted and outreach activities supported for people outside the existing community while meetups indicate the meetings with existing community members and programs refer to education programs and competitions across different language Wikipedias. A detailed list of these events and meetups can be found in the presentation.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">During this period of four months, a total of 22 events were conducted in 7 languages across 14 cities reaching out to a total of 2,250 participants between the ages of 15 and 52. There were 27 meetups where approximately 150 community members participated. To list briefly, these were in the cities of Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Anugul, Dhenkanal, Hyderabad, Panjim, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Karkala and Delhi.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">The focus of the Access to Knowledge team has significantly shifted in terms of concentrating on Indian language projects as well as limiting the scale of initiatives to ensure more engagement. We conducted and supported 5 programs including the Malayalam education program, Gujarati Wikipedia article competition, Assamese education program, Odia education program, supporting Konkani Wikipedia incubator project and Wikipedia takes Pune. In line with the Wikimedia Foundation’s narrowed focus which includes promoting technical volunteer initiatives, the Access to Knowledge team has been helping with filing bugs for Punjabi, Assamese, Odiya, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi communities. We conducted two hackathons at BITS-Pilani Hyderabad and in Delhi and have been helping connect interested volunteers across the country including initiatives like MediaWiki groups.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Including all the activities listed above, we reached out to a total of approximately 2,050 people and have connected with about 49 per cent of them who continue to receive updates on Wikipedia activities in India through our newsletters, mails, etc. Of these, approximately 387 participants (37.9 per cent) created usernames and made edits. The total number of female participants were 288 approximately which is about 28.2 per cent of the total people engaged. However, we are yet to generate a list of articles edited and the list of current active users. One useful way of tracking active editors on different Wikipedia projects is being developed by WMF Labs. <a class="external-link" href="http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/graphs/guwp_editors">Here</a> is an example of the increase/decrease in editor count on Gujarati Wikipedia. We feel that more work needs to be done around studying editor retention.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">From the team’s experience with outreach in these months, I want to share a few qualitative insights. For instance, we do think that there is great enthusiasm and potential among engineering students to contribute to MediaWiki and more initiatives need to be planned in order to welcome them and utilize their potential to the benefit of Indian language Wikipedias. Similarly, in terms of gender gap, while the initial barrier of participation can be overcome with outreach, a systematic strategy needs to be developed in order to make female editors feel a part of the existing community and ensure they continue contributing to topics that interest them. Also, right now the team conducts outreach sessions and workshops in all institutions that invite us with no specific approach based on subjects, gender or other parameters. Currently, the Access to Knowledge team has been sharing reports and blog posts with the community via mail, newsletters, tweets and social media fora. We hope to start monthly IRC meets with the community to improve communication and brainstorm together on what challenges each community faces.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/access-2-knowledge-report-2012'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/access-2-knowledge-report-2012</a>
</p>
No publishernoopurOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2013-01-31T10:14:26ZBlog EntryJanuary 2013 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2013-bulletin
<b>We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) wish you all a great year ahead and welcome you to the first issue of our newsletter for the year 2013. This issue brings you an overview of our research programs, events organised and participated, news and media coverage, and videos of recent events.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Jobs</b></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is seeking applications for the posts of <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2675&qid=263491" target="_blank">Programme Officer</a> (Access to Knowledge — Indic Language Initiatives), <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2676&qid=263491" target="_blank">Developer</a> (NVDA Project), <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2677&qid=263491" target="_blank">Programme Officer</a> (Access to Knowledge and Openness), and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2678&qid=263491" target="_blank">Programme Officer</a> (Internet Governance). To apply send your resume to <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> and <a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>. For our Privacy project, we are seeking applications for the post of Researcher, Technology/Security Expert, Graphic Designer as well as for internships. To apply for these posts, please send in your resume to Elonnai Hickok (<a href="mailto:elonnai@cis-india.org">elonnai@cis-india.org</a>).</p>
<h2><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2679&qid=263491" target="_blank">Accessibility</a></h2>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">CIS is carrying out two projects in partnership with the <b>Hans Foundation</b>. The first one is to create a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India and the second one is for developing a screen reader and text to speech synthesizer for Indian languages. We are also working with the World Blind Union to develop the Treaty for Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons, and assisting in the negotiations at WIPO:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities</h3>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">Anandhi Viswanathan from CIS and Manojna Yeluri from the Centre for Law and Policy Research are working in this project. Shruti Ramakrishnan has left the project. Draft chapters have been published. Feedback and comments are invited from readers for the chapter on Haryana:</p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-haryana-chapter-call-for-comments" class="external-link">The Haryana Chapter</a> (by Anandi Viswanathan, January 31, 2012): The state implements the provisions under the central laws, particularly the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 and the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act 1999.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Submission / Notification</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2681&qid=263491" target="_blank">Making Public Libraries Accessible to People with Disabilities</a> (by Rahul Cherian, January 23, 2013): CIS was one of the 20 disability rights groups that wrote to the Ministry of Culture.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2682&qid=263491" target="_blank">Government of Madhya Pradesh initiates ICT Accessibility in Public Communication</a> (by Nirmita Narasimhan, January 31, 2013): CIS with Daisy Forum of India member Arushi in Bhopal submitted a request for a notification mandating that all communication by the Government of Madhya Pradesh should be accessible to persons with disabilities.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Report</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2683&qid=263491" target="_blank">Accessible Broadcasting in India</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, January 11, 2013): The abridged version of ITU’s report "Making Television Accessible" which was initially put up for comments last year has been updated once again.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2684&qid=263491" target="_blank">Linking Commercial Availability and Exceptions in the Treaty for Visually Impaired/Persons with Disabilities</a> (by Rahul Cherian, January 23, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2685&qid=263491" target="_blank">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">In partnership with the <b>International Development Research Centre</b> we are doing a project on Pervasive Technologies examining the relationship between production of pervasive technologies and intellectual property. The <b>Wikimedia Foundation</b>’s India Program to support and develop free knowledge in India is now being executed by us. We are also supporting the Iraq government in developing an eGovernment Interoperability Framework:</p>
<h3><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2686&qid=263491" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></h3>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation has <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2686&qid=263491" target="_blank">awarded</a> CIS a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2687&qid=263491" target="_blank" title="Access To<br ></a><br /> <br /> Knowledge/Team">A2K team</a> consists of four members based in Delhi: <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2688&qid=263491" target="_blank">T. Vishnu Vardhan</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2689&qid=263491" target="_blank">Nitika Tandon</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2689&qid=263491" target="_blank">Subhashish Panigrahi</a> and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2689&qid=263491" target="_blank">Noopur Raval</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>New Project Director</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2688&qid=263491" target="_blank">T. Vishnu Vardhan</a> is the new Programme Director-Access to Knowledge at CIS. Vishnu has over the last 11 years worked in various capacities as researcher, grant manager, teacher, project consultant, information architect and translator. Vishnu managed the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2690&qid=263491" target="_blank">Art, Crafts and Culture</a> portfolio of <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2691&qid=263491" target="_blank">Sir Ratan Tata Trust</a> and also worked as Research Coordinator at the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2692&qid=263491" target="_blank">Centre for the Study of Culture and Society</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>New Distinguished Fellow at CIS</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2693&qid=263491" target="_blank">Tejaswini Niranjana</a>, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore, and Visiting Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai is joining our team as an Adviser to the 'Access to Knowledge' project. She will guide the A2K team in expanding the Indian language Wikipedias and in increasing the number of active editors through strategic partnerships with Higher Education institutions across India.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Reports</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2694&qid=263491" target="_blank">Access to Knowledge Report — September to December 2012</a> (by Noopur Raval, January 31, 2013): The report covers an overview of the activities done by the Access to Knowledge team under the grant provided by the Wikimedia Foundation from September 2012 to December 2012.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2695&qid=263491" target="_blank">Indic Language Wikipedias — Statistical Report — 2012</a> (by Shiju Alex, January 21, 2013): A statistical update of the Indic language Wikipedias for the year 2012 providing perspectives on the health of various Indic language communities as well as the state of various Indic language wikipedias.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Wiki Event Reports<br /> </b>CIS organised a series of Wiki workshops in Goa in the month of December 2012, we bring you the reports from those events.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><i>Note: The workshops were held in the month of December 2012 but the reports were published only in the month of January.</i></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2696&qid=263491" target="_blank">Two-day Wiki Workshop in Goa University: An Introduction</a> (by Nitika Tandon, January 15, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2697&qid=263491" target="_blank">Wikipedia in St. Xavier's College, Mapusa, Goa</a> (by Nitika Tandon, January 19, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2698&qid=263491" target="_blank">Bringing Konkani Encyclopedia in Public Domain</a> (by Nitika Tandon, January 22, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2699&qid=263491" target="_blank">Promoting GLAM in Goa</a> (by Nitika Tandon, January 24, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2700&qid=263491" target="_blank">Konkani in Wikipedia Incubator — Taking it to the Next Level</a> (by Nitika Tandon, January 25, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">CIS also organised a Wiki workshop in Ghaziabad:</p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2701&qid=263491" target="_blank">A Wiki Workshop at Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad</a> (RKGIT, Ghaziabad, January 17, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Wiki Event Participated</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2702&qid=263491" target="_blank">Celebrating the success of Wikipedia in Wikipedia Summit Pune 2013</a> (organized by Wikipedia Club, Pune, January 12 – 13, 2013). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Wikipedia News Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2703&qid=263491" target="_blank">First Odia Wikipedia Education Program concludes at IIMC, Dhenkanal</a> (Odisha Diary Bureau, Dhenkanal, January 27, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2704&qid=263491" target="_blank">Odia Wikipedia's 9th Anniversary and Workshop on Application of Odia in Media</a> (Sambad, January 30, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Wiki Events Organised</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2705&qid=263491" target="_blank">Odia Education Program</a> (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, Orissa, January 26, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2706&qid=263491" target="_blank">Odia Wikipedia 9th Anniversary Celebration</a> (Academy of Media Learning, Samantha Vihar, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, January 29, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Pervasive Technologies</h3>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">The Pervasive Technologies project carries out research on the intellectual property implicated in the hardware, software and content available in low-cost mobile devices.The long-term outcome of this project is to create a legitimate, legal space for these technologies to exist on the Indian market.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Events Participated</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2707&qid=263491" target="_blank">Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Market Place — A Presentation by Sunil Abraham</a> (FGV Law School, Rio de Janeiro, December 15, 2012).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2708&qid=263491" target="_blank">Fifth International IPR Conference</a> (GIPC 2013) (organised by ITAG Business Solutions, Hotel Lalit Ashok, Bangalore, January 30, 2013): Snehashish Ghosh made a presentation on the Pervasive Technologies Project.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2709&qid=263491" target="_blank">Openness</a> Updates<b> </b></h3>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Blog Posts / Columns</b></p>
<p><i> </i></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<i> </i>
<li><i> </i><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2710&qid=263491" target="_blank">The Violence of Knowledge Cartels</a> (by Nishant Shah, Hybrid Publishing Lab, January 17, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2711&qid=263491" target="_blank">Remembering Aaron Swartz, Taking Up the Fight</a> (by Nishant Shah, DML Central, January 24, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Interview </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2712&qid=263491" target="_blank">Aaron Swartz: The First Martyr of the Free Information Movement</a>: Prabir Purkayastha interviewed Lawrence Liang on Newsclick, January 19, 2013. The video is published.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2713&qid=263491" target="_blank">Bangalore hackers write code as tribute to Aaron Swartz</a> (by Deepa Kurup, Hindu, January 21, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.</li>
</ul>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">HasGeek</h3>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>HasGeek creates discussion spaces for geeks and has organised conferences like the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2714&qid=263491" target="_blank">Fifth Elephant</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2715&qid=263491" target="_blank">Droidcon India 2011</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2716&qid=263491" target="_blank">Android Camp</a>, etc. HasGeek is supported by CIS and works out from CIS office in Bengaluru.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">Event Organized</p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2717&qid=263491" target="_blank">Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight</a> (CIS, Bangalore, January 19 – 20, 2013): Aaron’s collaborators such as <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2718&qid=263491" target="_blank">Anand Chitipothu</a> and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2719&qid=263491" target="_blank">A S L Devi</a> participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2720&qid=263491" target="_blank">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">With <b>Privacy International</b>, London we signed an agreement to facilitate the implementation of activities related to surveillance and freedom of speech and expression. In this month we have blog posts on data retention, international principles of surveillance and human rights and comparitive analysis of Indian legislation vis-à-vis draft of the International Principles on Surveillance of Communications by Ellonai Hickok, and columns by Sunil Abraham and Nishant Shah:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Privacy Research</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2721&qid=263491" target="_blank">Data Retention in India</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, January 30, 2013): The post provides an insight into the data retention mandates from the Government of India and data retention practices by service providers.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2722&qid=263491" target="_blank">Draft International Principles on Communications Surveillance and Human Rights</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, January 16, 2013): These principles were developed by Privacy International and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and seek to define an international standard for the surveillance of communications.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2723&qid=263491" target="_blank">A Comparison of Indian Legislation to Draft International Principles on Surveillance of Communications</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, January 31, 2013): The principles, first drafted in October 2012 and developed subsequently seek to establish an international standard for surveillance of communications in the context of human rights. CIS is contributing feedback to the drafting of the principles.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Columns/Op-eds</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2724&qid=263491" target="_blank">Web of Sameness</a> (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, January 18, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2725&qid=263491" target="_blank">TV versus Social Media: The Rights and Wrongs</a> (by Sunil Abraham, The Tribune, January 20, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Statement</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2726&qid=263491" target="_blank">Statement of Solidarity on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Internet Users in Bangladesh</a> (by Pranesh Prakash, January 15, 2013): This is a statement on the violent attack on blogger Asif Mohiuddin by the participants to the Third South Asian Meeting on the Internet and Freedom of Expression.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2727&qid=263491" target="_blank">No Civil Society Members in the Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee</a> (by Pranesh Prakash, January 10, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2728&qid=263491" target="_blank">Five Frequently Asked Questions about the Amended ITRs</a> (by Chinmayi Arun, January 28, 2013): The author discusses the five major questions that have been the subject of debate after the World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012 (WCIT).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Upcoming Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2729&qid=263491" target="_blank">DML Conference 2013</a> (co-organised by CIS and Digital Media & Learning Research Hub Central, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers - Chicago, Illinois, March 14 – 16, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2730&qid=263491" target="_blank">An Introduction to Bitfilm and Bitcoin – A Discussion by Aaron Koenig</a> (CIS, Bangalore, January 23, 2013): Aaron Koenig, Managing Director, Bitfilm Networks of Hamburg, Germany gave a talk.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Events Participated</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2731&qid=263491" target="_blank">Panel Discussion on E-Commerce at NLSIU</a> (organised by National Law School of India University, Bangalore, January 7, 2013). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2732&qid=263491" target="_blank">Mobile Broadband: Leveraging for Business Transformation</a> (Chancery Pavilion, Bangalore, January 9, 2013): Sunil Abraham was a panelist in this event.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2733&qid=263491" target="_blank">Third South Asian Meeting on the Internet and Freedom of Expression</a> (organized by Internet Democracy Project, Voices for Interactive Choice & Empowerment and Global Partners & Associates, Dhaka, January 14 – 15, 2013): Pranesh Prakash moderated the session on "Understanding cyber security and surveillance in South Asia”.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2734&qid=263491" target="_blank">Is Freedom of Expression under Threat in the Digital Age?</a> (organized by Editors Guild of India, Index on Censorship and Sage, India International Centre, New Delhi, January 15, 2013): Sunil Abraham was a panelist at this event.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2735&qid=263491" target="_blank">7th India Digital Summit 2013</a> (organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India, Lalit Hotel, New Delhi, January 16 – 17, 2013): Sunil Abraham was the moderator for Plenary Session 3: Discussion on Social Media – Freedom, Moderation or Regulation.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Upcoming Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2736&qid=263491" target="_blank">9th International Asian Conference</a> (organised by ITechLaw, February 14 – 15, 2013): Sunil Abraham will be participating as a panelist in the session on “Censorship of Online Content”.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2737&qid=263491" target="_blank">2012 in Review: Biometric ID Systems Grew Internationally...and So Did Concerns about Privacy</a> (by Rebecca Bowe, Right Side News, January 1, 2013)</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2738&qid=263491" target="_blank">Cool Jobs | Parmesh Shahani, Head, Godrej India Culture Lab</a> (LiveMint, January 4, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2739&qid=263491" target="_blank">Clash of the cyberworlds</a> (by Latha Jishnu, Dinsa Sachan and Moyna, Down to Earth, January 15, 2013 issue). Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2740&qid=263491" target="_blank">Is freedom of expression under threat in digital age?</a> (originally published by<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2741&qid=263491" target="_blank"> Indo Asian News Service</a>, January 16, 2013 and also covered in the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2742&qid=263491" target="_blank">Business Standard</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2743&qid=263491" target="_blank">Vancouver Desi</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2744&qid=263491" target="_blank">DNA</a>, and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2745&qid=263491" target="_blank">Tech2</a>). Sunil Abraham is quoted.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2746&qid=263491" target="_blank">Is freedom of expression under threat in the digital age?</a> (by Mahima Kaul, Index on Censorship, January 18, 2013).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2747&qid=263491" target="_blank">Internet Freedom in India – Open to Debate</a> (by Kirsty Hughes, Index on Censorship, January 22, 2013). CIS research on censorship is quoted.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2748&qid=263491" target="_blank">Cyber security, surveillance and the right to privacy: country perspectives</a> (by Richa Kaul Padte, Internet Democracy Project).</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2749&qid=263491" target="_blank">Surveillance Camp: Privatized State Surveillance</a> (by Katitza Rodriguez, Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 28, 2013). Elonnai Hickok is quoted.</li>
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2750&qid=263491" target="_blank">An innovative concept comes to the fore</a> (Deccan Herald, January 29, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<h3>Internet Access – Knowledge Repository</h3>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">In partnership with Ford Foundation, CIS was tasked to produce and disseminate modules on various aspects of telecommunications including policy, regulations, infrastructure and market. However, as on November 9, 2012 there was a change in the mandate of the project. Currently, we are working on building a knowledge repository on “Internet Access”. This new repository will cover the history of the internet, technologies involved, principle and values of internet access, broadband market and universal access. It will also touch upon various polices and regulations which has an impact on internet access and bodies and mechanism which are responsible for such policy formulation. For this purpose we will be hosting a new website:<span class="visualHighlight"> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2751&qid=263491" target="_blank">www.internet-institute.in</a></span>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">We are also organizing an “Institute on Internet and Society” in collaboration with the Ford Foundation India, which is to be held from June 8, 2013 to June 14, 2013. Call for registrations and relevant details will be soon announced on our website.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2752&qid=263491" target="_blank">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum.:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Column by Shyam Ponappa</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2753&qid=263491" target="_blank">What's Needed Is User-Centric Design, Not Good Intentions</a> (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, January 3, 2013 and Organizing India Blogpost, January 6, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event(s) Participated </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b>21<sup>st</sup> Convergence Conference Conference India 2013 (organized by Exhibitions India Group, January 16 – 17, 2013, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi). Snehashish Ghosh participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2754&qid=263491" target="_blank">Digital Humanities</a></h2>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">From 2012 to 2015, the Researchers At Work series is focusing on building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. We organised the first Habits of Living workshops in Bangalore last year. The next workshop is being held in Brown University:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><b>Habits of Living Workshop</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2755&qid=263491" target="_blank">Habits of Living: Networked Affects, Glocal Effects</a> (organised by CIS and Brown University, March 21 – 23, 2013, Brown University, Rhode Island). Nishant Shah will be speaking at this event.</li>
</ul>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2756&qid=263491" target="_blank">About CIS</a></h2>
<hr />
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2757&qid=263491" target="_blank">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> with ITU and G3ict, and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2758&qid=263491" target="_blank">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2759&qid=263491" target="_blank">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2760&qid=263491" target="_blank">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos, etc. We have conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2761&qid=263491" target="_blank">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2762&qid=263491" target="_blank">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2763&qid=263491" target="_blank">NIA Bill</a>, etc.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO. CIS staff participates in the Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings regularly held in Geneva, and participate in the discussions and comments on them from a public interest perspective. Our Policy Director, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2764&qid=263491" target="_blank">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a> from the Government of India and also received the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2765&qid=263491" target="_blank">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
</ul>
<h3>Follow us elsewhere</h3>
<ul style="text-align:justify; ">
<li> Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2766&qid=263491" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li> Join the CIS group on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2767&qid=263491" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li> Visit us at <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=2768&qid=263491" target="_blank">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Support Us</h3>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Request for Collaboration</h3>
<p style="text-align:justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at <a href="mailto:nishant@cis-india.org">nishant@cis-india.org</a></p>
<p style="text-align:justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2013-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2013-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpennessResearchers at Work2013-06-11T11:56:35ZPageOdia Wikipedia's 9th Anniversary and Workshop on Application of Odia in Media
https://cis-india.org/news/sambad-e-paper-january-30-2013-odia-wikipedia-workshop-coverage
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society in collaboration with Odia-Wikipedia and Academy for Media Learning organized a workshop on January 29, 2013. This was covered in Sambad on January 30, 2013.</b>
<hr />
<p>This was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://sambadepaper.com/epapermain.aspx?edcode=10&eddate=1/30/2013%2012:00:00%20AM&querypage=19">Sambad</a> on January 30, 2013.</p>
<hr />
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Odia.png/@@images/4c970c5f-75ad-435c-8bd7-28554c6d62eb.png" alt="Odia Wikipedia Coverage" class="image-inline" title="Odia Wikipedia Coverage" /><br /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/sambad-e-paper-january-30-2013-odia-wikipedia-workshop-coverage'>https://cis-india.org/news/sambad-e-paper-january-30-2013-odia-wikipedia-workshop-coverage</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessWorkshopWikipediaWikimedia2013-01-31T03:10:05ZNews ItemFirst Odia Wikipedia Education Program concludes at IIMC, Dhenkanal
https://cis-india.org/news/orissa-diary-january-27-2013-first-odia-wikipedia-education-program-concludes-at-iimc
<b> The first Odia Wikipedia Education program ended yesterday at Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal with distribution of certificates to the participants. </b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This <a class="external-link" href="http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowEvents.asp?id=39095">report by OdishaDiary bureau, Dhenkanal </a>was published on Sunday, January 27, 2013.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Odia Wikipedia (or.wikipedia.org) is a free online encyclopedia in Odia language which everyone can edit. It is an open source project and the content is available online for free. This three month education program included three workshops to educate students of IIMC about typing in Odia, collecting sources to write articles, writing the articles on Odia Wikipedia and then geting them evaluated by faculty members and wikipedians.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The program was initiated in November and run until January end. During this time 16 students took part and wrote about 12 articles on various topics, starting from the articles of local importance to eminent personalities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are very keen on getting more students on board to edit Wikipedia which they read and use everyday. This could be one opportunity for them to showcase their writing abilities and documentation skill. I'd like to invite the Wikipedia team to help us install Odia Unicode fonts and continue such a program for the students again”, says Professor Mrinal Chatterjee.</p>
<p>This program was supported by Centre for Internet and Society, a grantee of Wikimedia Foundation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“This was the first pilot Education Program ever done for Odia Wikipedia and I'm overwhelmed with the kind of support from the college faculty and the enthusiasm of the students will bring us back soon,” expresses Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer , Centre for Internet and Society. “This was a great learning experience for us and I'd surely continue contributing to Odia Wikipedia. Had it been little longer I could have contributed more on Mass Communication and Journalism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Odia Wikipedian Mrutyunjya Kar who took a central part in organizing the project and conducting workshops in the institute calls it a great start and a stepping stone for a long term program. Odia Wikipedians Manoranjan Behera, Srikant Kedia and Dr. Subas Rout were part of the education programme as resource persons.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/orissa-diary-january-27-2013-first-odia-wikipedia-education-program-concludes-at-iimc'>https://cis-india.org/news/orissa-diary-january-27-2013-first-odia-wikipedia-education-program-concludes-at-iimc</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessWikipediaWikimedia2013-01-29T06:42:53ZNews ItemRemembering Aaron Swartz, Taking Up the Fight
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dml-central-jan-24-2013-nishant-shah-remembering-aaron-swartz-taking-up-the-fight
<b>I encountered the Aaron Swartz memorial the other day that helps ‘liberate’ a randomly selected article from JSTOR, as an act of civil disobedience, to commemorate both the legacy that Swartz leaves behind, but also the high-profile witch-hunt case which was a crucial factor in him taking his own life.</b>
<hr />
<p>Nishant Shah's blog post was <a class="external-link" href="http://dmlcentral.net/blog/nishant-shah/remembering-aaron-swartz-taking-fight">published by DML Central</a> on January 24, 2013.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Much has been said about Swartz and much more will have to be said about him, and about his work, to make sure that the good that men do does not get interred with their bones. And there are people more articulate, closer to him in personal and professional capacities who will do a better job at making sure we have an archive of memories to fill up the ‘Aaron sized-hole’ that his untimely death has introduced into our lives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">So instead of attempting to write a eulogy I am ill-equipped for, I want to mark the tragic loss of Aaron Swartz by talking about causes and everyday politics. And I might have to do it through a mode of collective self-flagellation because it is a point that needs to be driven home. I am sure that almost everybody would agree that the ideals that Swartz held were unimpeachable, even though they might not always agree with his tactics. There would be a general consensus that in our rapidly growing information societies free knowledge leads to better, stronger, and more equitable societies. In fact, there is a whole generation of younger users who are so used to having unlimited and unrestricted access to digital information that they often get frustrated and infuriated when they encounter media cartels and Intellectual Property Regimes that insist on locking up knowledge -- especially publicly funded academic resources -- behind paywalls.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We have all grumbled, at different points, about the essay we wanted to teach in class, the book we needed for a research paper, the movie we wanted to remix, or the song we wanted to sample, locked up behind (often) unaffordable access systems. We recognise that in the building of this gated knowledge landscape, we are creating uneven, corrupt and corrupting hierarchies of information control and access. And yet, when it comes to actually responding to these questions of closed intellectual property, restricted information access and media monopolies exerted by information cartels, we generally have a comfortable sense of distance. These are other peoples’ problems. These are battles somebody else will fight.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Even within academia, where we have been the most active in questioning and contesting the notions of power and knowledge, there is also the highest complicity in creating these monstrous behemoths that we feed regularly with research that is more often than not, publicly funded. In our quest for tenures, careers and popularity, we have voluntarily given up our rights to private and closed access journals that in return give us the symbolic capital to gain power in the system. In the 1980s, when the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_%28postcolonialism%29">Subaltern</a> school was writing against colonial legacies and cultural imperialism, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homi_K._Bhabha">Homi Bhabha</a> had described this condition of granted agency and borrowed power as mimicry. In his own hyphenated way, he had suggested that the new subaltern, who is often seen as engaged in critically responding to the colonial masters and their legacies, only exists in a structure of mimicry -- where he emptily gestures towards the problems of colonial inheritance, without any power to actually overthrow or challenge it. Within South Asian feminisms, <a href="http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/english/people/faculty/sangari.cfm">Kumkum Sangari</a> has described this status of granted agency within patriarchy -- a condition that gives us a sense of power and a space of negotiation, as long as we uphold the very structure that oppresses us in the name of our empowerment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is time to realise that within academia, and the social sciences and arts based academia in particular, we have now perfected the art of mimicry. Where we pull our pens instead of our swords and talk (often indecipherably) about conditions of power and geographies of inequality and the need to do something about it. We attend conferences where proceedings go into closed access journals, and publish books with publishing houses that charge us and our students exorbitant sums of money to access the knowledge in those books. We publish not to be heard but to be cited, not to create open publics but closed communities of interlocked interests. And we feel smug about being politically committed, separating the conditions of our knowledge production from the content of our knowledge, as if the two have nothing to do with each other.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In other sectors that I dabble with but am not such a rank (and hence equally complicit) insider, I see similar distances. This alienation of our intellectual work from its political content is just one of the separations we make. The other separation is between our discursive communities and everyday practice. So embedded is our description, explanation and analysis of the world, in languages inaccessible to any but the privileged few who are trained to understand it. The advice we give our students -- follow the grandmother rule: write clearly so that your grandmother will be able to understand it -- is a standard we rarely practice in our academic writing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">These are symptoms I see in other sectors that are also committed to political questioning and change, working towards building better worlds and societies. Specialised lawyers fight their battles in closed court-rooms and write in obscure law journals which are not accessible or intelligible to the common public. Activists often get bogged down into appropriating the same language to be taken seriously. Advocates of causes fear over-simplification of the complex issues, keeping the everyday person outside of these battles around information and knowledge. We have built gated politics where the threshold of investment and engagement is so high, that the only response to that is detachment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This brings me back to talking about Swartz and his dream of liberating information from the clutches of exploitative information houses. Swartz’s crime was not that he broke the law -- I wonder if the public prosecutor has never pirated material online; statistics would suggest otherwise -- but that he didn’t find allies in spaces which profess political commitment but then mimic it in their content rather than in practice. It is not surprising that even when JSTOR, the affected party, refused to push for criminal or civil charges, the University where the ‘crime’ occurred and the federal authorities decided to pursue him as a felon. Many people have wondered about why a well-loved and popular cult figure like Swartz would feel so lonely as to take this drastic step to end his life, and we now have to take responsibility that this separation of what he believed as the central tenet to life is something that his natural allies have separated out from their work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Swartz is a folk-hero and he shall live as an icon for the groups working around internet freedom and information openness. But maybe it is time to stop waiting for another martyr to the cause. Maybe it is time to recognise that these battles around knowledge and information are not specialised fights to be played out in sombre tones by zealots on opposite sides. These are human wars, and they affect not only our everyday sense of who we are and the societies we live in, but also who we want to become and the worlds we want to create for future generations to inherit. Swartz embodies a whole generation of digital natives who fail to understand why the ethically wrong and morally reprehensible practice of protected intellectual property, that goes against the very grain of building information societies, continues to find silent supporters rather than vocal protestors. The grief and sense of loss we have with Swartz's passing is not easy to remedy. But Swartz will also be a moniker that every digital native will have to wear, as they traverse a treacherous terrain, persecuted by IP watchdogs and punished for what seems to be a natural order of things in their information worlds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There is a lot of <a href="http://storify.com/kegill/commentary-on-aaron-swartz-and-our-legal-system">growing commentary</a> with people expressing anger, shock, and sadness for the 26 year old man who died fighting a battle that we did not even become an audience to. And that commentary is necessary because we need to cope with the fact that we live in a world where somebody who believed in the most beautiful idea of a world that has free knowledge was persecuted to an early death. But at some point, we also need to stop talking and realise that we don’t have to come to arms for a moment only once-every-heroic-death. That the last disservice we will do to this everyday battle against intellectual property regime is to wait for the next icon to be trapped in this Greek tragedy structure of being punished for doing what he felt was right. It is time to start thinking of these questions of knowledge and information in our everyday life, negotiate with them beyond the narratives of convenience, and hope that there will be no more need to produce martyrs for a cause that is not just about books and music, but about being human.</p>
<hr />
<p><i>Banner image credit: Maria Jesus V <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/favina/8377387022/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/favina/8377387022/</a></i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dml-central-jan-24-2013-nishant-shah-remembering-aaron-swartz-taking-up-the-fight'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dml-central-jan-24-2013-nishant-shah-remembering-aaron-swartz-taking-up-the-fight</a>
</p>
No publishernishantOpenness2013-01-28T04:51:58ZBlog EntryBangalore hackers write code as tribute to Aaron Swartz
https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-deepa-kurup-january-21-2013-bangalore-hackers-write-code-as-tribute-to-aaron-swartz
<b>A small crowd gathered here on Saturday afternoon in the basement of the Centre for Internet and Society to participate in the Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight, organised by HasGeek.</b>
<hr />
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">Deepa Kurup's article was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/bangalore-hackers-write-code-as-tribute-to-aaron-swartz/article4326382.ece">published in the Hindu</a> on January 21, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">Hackers have been coming together the world over to hold memorial services to pay tribute to the work, and the technological and political ideas that are the legacy of Aaron Swartz, who ended his life last Saturday.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">A small crowd gathered here on Saturday afternoon in the basement of the Centre for Internet and Society to participate in the Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight, organised by HasGeek, a company that hosts technology events in the city.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">For the first few hours, before getting down to the technological brass tacks of writing code and contributing to open data projects, they discussed the legacy of the young programming genius; right from co-writing the RSS standard at the age of 14 (which created a standard format for getting feeds of changing web content) to his advocacy against regressive copyright legislations and closed data regimes.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">The hacknight, which commenced at 2 p.m., went on till early Sunday morning. It was meant to take forward the legacy of Swartz by coming up with projects that liberate data in the Indian context, as well as working on some of the projects and code that Swartz left unfinished.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">“Besides these unfinished projects, there are a lot of ideas on political activism and running campaigns that we need to record and learn from. We also want to maintain some of the tech projects he ran,” says Kiran Jonnalagadda of HasGeek.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">This motivated him, and a few others who have collaborated with Swartz on OpenLibrary.org and Internet Archive, to organise this tribute.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">Most of the projects that are being worked on at the hacknight have at the core the idea that public data must be accessible and should be used for public good. For instance, one of the groups here proposed to build an interface that can extract data from the electoral rolls so that it becomes easier for citizens to check their names and coordinates on the voter ID list. Another group is working on writing code to extract simple data on passenger reservation and ticket availability to create a database that can then be used to chart simple trends. Yet another team is working on creating a similar web interface that can extract weather data using the weekly updates uploaded by the weather department.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">These projects, Mr. Jonnalagadda points out, are all attempts to liberate data, much like what each of the projects Swartz initiated.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">Speaking at the event, he said: “Swartz’s death bothered me quite a bit. A guy way ahead of his time, his political activism is an inspiration for many of us here who are working with open data. And we need to preserve this.”</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">Sunil Abraham, director, CIS, spoke about Swartz and the ethical landmines he stumbled into with the JSTOR case, where he was charged for hacking into and downloading millions of academic papers from the subscription database of JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) in 2011. He put this in the context of American foreign policy rhetoric based on Internet freedom, which restricts itself to freedom of expression and doesn’t include access to knowledge.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">“This isn’t the case in India, where the Supreme Court has on various occasions spoken in favour of access to knowledge for example in the Cricket Association Of Bengal decision in 1995 where it was determined that the right to watch cricket cannot be restricted by private broadcasters or channels. This difference was why Swartz, who believed Internet freedom includes access to knowledge, was not defended by Hillary Clinton, who identifies herself as an advocate for Internet freedom.”</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-deepa-kurup-january-21-2013-bangalore-hackers-write-code-as-tribute-to-aaron-swartz'>https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-deepa-kurup-january-21-2013-bangalore-hackers-write-code-as-tribute-to-aaron-swartz</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpenness2013-01-25T11:41:05ZNews ItemKonkani in Wikipedia Incubator — Taking it to the Next Level
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/konkani-in-wikipedia-incubator
<b>An introductory session on Konkani in Wikipedia was organized by the Centre for Internet and Society, Delhi in the Konkani Department at Goa University on December 12, 2012. About 30 participants took part in the event. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Konkani staff and students were exhilarated to learn about Konkani in the Wikipedia incubation. They showed a keen interest to kick-start the project and get the translations done from all the following scripts: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari" title="Devanagari">Devanagari</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_script" title="Latin script">Roman</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada_script" title="Kannada script">Kannada</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam_script" title="Malayalam script">Malayalam</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perso-Arabic_script" title="Perso-Arabic script">Perso-Arabic</a> for Konkani Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are in touch with Ms. Madhavi Sardesai, Director of Konkani Department and are also examining the possibility of organising a follow up meeting sometime in January or February, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Frederick Noronha, one of the Wikimedia incubator members contributing to Konkani Wikipedia, has been helpful in introducing us with more Konkani writers and in organizing a common meeting sometime in early 2013 to take this project to the next level.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Also see:</p>
<ol>
<li>Konkani in Wikipedia incubator (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/14bTwAi">http://bit.ly/14bTwAi</a>)</li>
<li>Some pages contributed already - much work needs to be done to improve quality (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Tv5iUh">http://bit.ly/Tv5iUh</a>)</li>
<li>List of tasks as viewed by volunteers (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/10Vxwus">http://bit.ly/10Vxwus</a>)</li>
<li>An example of a well-translated article, on the "Pinto's Revolt" by Isidore Dantas (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/XAmliz">http://bit.ly/XAmliz</a>)</li>
</ol>
<hr />
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<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/GoaParticipants.png" alt="Goa Participants" class="image-inline" title="Goa Participants" /></th>
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<td>Above is a picture of the faculty and students at the inaugural talk in Goa University.</td>
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</tbody>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/konkani-in-wikipedia-incubator'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/konkani-in-wikipedia-incubator</a>
</p>
No publishernitikaOpennessWikipediaWikimedia2013-01-25T07:34:34ZBlog Entry