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May 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the newsletter issue of May 2012! In the current issue, we bring to you updates of our latest research, event reports, videos, and media coverage:
</b>
<h2>Access to Knowledge</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3>Copyright Amendment Bill</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">Analysis of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012</a><br />Pranesh Prakash<br />There are some welcome provisions in the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012, and some worrisome provisions. Pranesh Prakash examines five positive changes, four negative ones, and notes the several missed opportunities. The larger concern, though, is that many important issues have not been addressed by these amendments, and how copyright policy is made without evidence and often out of touch with contemporary realities of the digital era. <a href="http://infojustice.org/archives/26243">The analysis was reposted in infojustice.org on May 25, 2012</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Op-ed in Indian Express</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/copyright-madness">Copyright Madness</a> (Lawrence Liang and Achal Prabhala, Indian Express, May 22, 2012): India’s Copyright Act allows owners of content the right to prevent infringement through the use of injunctions, but these injunctions have to be narrowly construed and applied only to specific instances of infringement. This is to say, take down the infringing video, not the whole website, and don’t intimidate the host. When injunctions threaten freedom of speech and expression, then free speech should necessarily trump copyright claims — and the courts cannot be used as convenient shopping forums for maladies that don’t exist.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Call for Participation</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/global-congress-on-ip-call-for-participation">2012 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest: Call for Participation and Save the Date</a> (FGV Law School, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, December 15 – 17, 2012): We invite applications to attend the Congress, including proposals to chair workshops or deliver a paper or presentation related to the Congress’s theme.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/workshop-on-education-and-copyright">The International Copyright System and Access to Education: Challenges, New Access Models and Prospects for New Principles</a> (Max Planck Institute, Munich, Germany, May 14 and 15, 2012). The event was organised by the University of Minnesota and Max Planck Institute. Pranesh Prakash participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<h3>News & Media</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/will-copyright-help-starving-artist">Will the Copyright Law Help the Starving Artist?</a>:(by Margherita Stancati, Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2012): "The singers and producers of...unlicensed versions could be jailed under the current India Copyright Act, which allows even non-commercial copyright infringers to be put behind bars."<b><br />Pranesh Prakash</b> quoted in the Wall Street Journal.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/did-sibal-just-get-arm-twisted-by-book-publishers">Did Sibal just get arm-twisted by book publishers?</a> (FirstPost, May 25, 2012): Pranesh Prakash’s article on parallel importation of books is referred in this article.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Accessibility</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies:</p>
<h3>Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/copyright-amendments">Copyright Amendments – Empowering the Print Disabled</a> by Rahul Cherian.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/faq-on-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">An FAQ on the Copyright Amendment Bill, 2012, for the Benefit of Persons with Disabilities</a> by Dr. Sam Taraporevala and Rahul Cherian.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Openness</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<h3>Article in the Indian Express</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/cancel-the-subscription">Cancel the Subscription</a> (Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam, Indian Express, May 8, 2012): It has been a slow but steady move to make scholarship freely available... In India, though, there appears to be very little enthusiasm among the leaders of the science establishment. Neither the office of the principal scientific adviser nor the department of science and technology seems to have shown any interest in mandating open access to taxpayer-funded research. The National Knowledge Commission has recommended mandating open access to all publicly funded research, but it is not clear who will implement the recommendation. Right now, it is left to individuals to promote open access in India.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/design-public-delhi-event-report">Design!PubliC — Third Conclave in New Delhi</a> (National Museum, New Delhi, April 20, 2012): The event was organized by the Center for Knowledge Societies in collaboration with IBM, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google and the Centre for Internet and Society. Sunil Abraham was a panelist and spoke in the session on Participation, Collaboration and Innovation. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Internet Governance</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3>Google Policy Fellowship</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/google-policy-fellowship">Google Policy Fellowship Programme: Call for Applications</a>: CIS is inviting applications for the Google Policy Fellowship programme. Google is providing a USD 7,500 stipend to the India Fellow, who will be selected by August 15, 2012. The focus areas for the present fellowship programme include Access to Knowledge, Openness in India, Freedom of Expression, Privacy, and Telecom. The duration of the fellowship will be for about ten weeks starting from August 2012 upto October 2012. CIS will select the India Fellow. Send in your applications for the position by June 27, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/internet-at-liberty-2012">Internet at Liberty 2012: Promoting Progress and Freedom</a> (Newseum, Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest Washington, D.C., May 23 – 24, 2012): Sunil Abraham was a speaker in Plenary IV, Debate 3: In a world where nearly nine out of ten Internet users are not American, what is the responsibility of United States institutions in promoting internet freedom?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Meeting on Internet Governance (Conference Hall No. 4009, Dept. of Electronics & Information Technology, CGO Complex, New Delhi, May 9, 2012): Pranesh Prakash participated in this meeting.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Op-ed in Down to Earth</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/beyond-sharing">Beyond Sharing: Towards our Digital Futures</a> (Nishant Shah, Down to Earth, May 31, 2012): The battle is not about file sharing and a petty film producer wanting to rake in the box office earnings. It is about the law’s incapacity to deal with post-analogue practices and processes.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Columns by Nishant Shah</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/open-letter-to-kolaveri-di">Open letter to Kolaveri Di makers: How Dare You!</a> (Nishant Shah, FirstPost, May 22, 2012): When it comes to piracy, you are sure to have an opinion. You might either make a virtue out of it, talking about cultural commons and collaborative conditions of production. Or you might vilify it as the social fault-line that is destroying the very pillars of commerce and cultural negotiations.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/private-eye">The Private Eye</a> (Nishant Shah, Indian Express, May 14, 2012): As we move towards a data-driven future, we need to be more aware of the different kinds of data sets that we are making public and educate ourselves about the risks of this disclosure, without being carried away by the sway of meme-like behaviour and viral trends online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Video</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/do-it-rules-indirectly-lead-to-censorship-of-internet">Do IT Rules 2011 indirectly leads to Censorship of Internet</a>: Pranesh Prakash along with Dr. Arvind Gupta, National Convener, BJP IT Cell and Ms. Mishi Choudhary, Executive Director, SFLC participated in a panel discussion on censorship of the Internet on May 8, 2012. The discussion was broadcast on Yuva iTV and featured on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRIJRhpW-Bc">YouTube</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Letter</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/letter-for-civil-society-involvement">Letter for Civil Society Involvement in ITU’s WCIT</a> (by Center for Democracy and Technology): Academics and civil society groups wrote to the ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré regarding the lack of opportunity for civil society participation in the World Conference on International Telecommunications process.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/open-letter-to-hillary-clinton">Open letter to Hillary Clinton on Internet freedom</a> (by Sunil Abraham): This blog entry is based on a presentation made in the Internet at Liberty conference in Washington DC on May 24, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/why-this-blocking">Why this blocking di?</a> (by R Krishna, Daily News & Analysis, May 27, 2012): “<i>Unlike the Calcutta High Court order in March this year, which specified the 104 websites that should be blocked, a John Doe order doesn’t mention any specific website. In some cases, the websites are being blocked without any evidence (of copyright infringement). Courts need to be informed of what people with John Doe orders are doing. We need to be specific about what can be blocked and what can’t be.</i>”<b><br />Pranesh Prakash</b> quoted in Daily News & Analysis</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/withdraw-india-proposal-for-un-committee-on-internet-policy">Rajeev Chandrasekhar Urges PM To Withdraw India’s Proposal For UN Committee On Internet-Policy</a> (by Anupam Saxena, Medianama, May 16, 2012): An interview that Medianama had with Pranesh Prakash is cited in this blog post.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/mps-oppose-curbs-on-internet">MPs oppose curbs on internet; Sibal promises discussions</a> (Times of India, May 18, 2012): “<i>The IT minister has promised to hold consultations but the ideal way to do so would have been to scrap the rules and start from scratch...</i><i> </i><i>It's not only about language in these rules. There is a problem with provisions like the one that empowers intermediaries to remove content without notifying the user who had uploaded the content or giving users a chance to explain themselves.</i>”<b><br />Pranesh Prakash</b> quoted in the Times of India.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/sibal-shoot-down-motion-to-kill-it-rules">Kapil Sibal & Co shoot down motion to kill IT Rules: cite terrorism, drugs</a> (by Prachi Shrivastava, Legally India, May 18, 2012): “<i>Government is not censoring. It has created a system by which anyone can censor with impunity</i>.”<b><br />Pranesh Prakash</b> quoted in Legally India.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/vimeo-ban">Vimeo Ban: More Web Censorship</a> (by Preetika Rana, Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2012): “<i>Shutting websites merely on the basis of suspicion amounts to private crackdown on free speech of the web...Why didn’t the telecom ministry repeal or object to the move, knowing that the court didn’t spell out the websites to be blocked?</i>”<br /> <b>Pranesh Prakash </b>quoted in Wall Street Journal.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/taming-the-web">Taming the Web, are we?</a> (by Javed Anwer, Economic Times, May 13, 2012): "<i>During the revolutions in Arab countries last year, protesters mobilized themselves through Twitter and Facebook. Then there are Wikileaks and Anonymous. This has made governments and politicians jittery.</i>"<b><br />Sunil Abraham</b> quoted in the Economic Times.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/rajya-sabha-nod-to-harsh-it-rules">Cordon tightens: Rajya Sabha nod to harsh IT rules</a> (Anil Sharma and Aishhwariya Subramanian, Daily News & Analysis, May 18, 2012): "<i>The trouble with Indian government's proposal to address issues such as network neutrality, privacy and freedom of expression, is top-down. Unlike other countries where internet policies have always been developed with consultation with other stakeholders, here the government imposes its will.</i>"<b><br />Sunil Abraham</b> quoted in Daily News & Analysis.<br />"<i>It is an ironical situation where India is not following domestically what it is proposing internationally</i>."<b> Pranesh Prakash</b> quoted in the same article in Daily News & Analysis.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/individuals-in-search-of-society">Empires: Individuals in Search of Society</a> (Marc Lafia, Huffington Post, May 18, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/cyber-appellate-tribunal-bengaluru">Cyber Appellate Tribunal in Bengaluru</a> (Deccan Herald, May 9, 2012): “<i>The state IT secretary has passed more than 80 orders. They include both cases of phishing and orders against cyber cafes for not adhering to rules under the IT Act. The Adjudicator has held that ‘section 43 of IT Act is not applicable to a body or Corporate’, after the amended IT Act came into force in 2008</i>.”<b> Pranesh Prakash</b> quoted in the Deccan Herald.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Digital Natives</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a research inquiry that looks at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and 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>
<h3>Columns by Nishant Shah</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/digitally-analogue">Digitally Analogue</a> (Nishant Shah, Indian Express, May 27, 2012): While those of us who were not born digital natives — we still remember what an audio cassette looks like and the smell of screen printing — will negotiate with the form of our access to cultural objects, it is also time to realise that being non-digital is no longer an option.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/we-are-cyborgs">We Are All Cyborgs</a> (Nishant Shah, Indian Express, April 29, 2012): The cyborg reminds us that who we are as human beings is very closely linked with the technologies we use.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Citizen Action</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/resisting-revolutions">Resisting Revolutions: Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action</a> (Nishant Shah, Development, Volume 55, Issue 2, May 2012): In this peer reviewed journal article, Nishant Shah looks into the radical claims and potentials of citizen action that have emerged in the last few years. He seeks to show how citizen action is not necessarily a radical form of politics and that we need to make a distinction between Resistances and Revolutions. It locates resistance as an endemic condition of governmentality within a State–Citizen–Market relationship and shows how it often strengthens the status quo rather than radically undermining it. He examines a campaign against corruption in India to see how the dissonance between the claims of the future and the practices of the present is produced in citizen action.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Telecom</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>
<h3>Course</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/course/knowledge-and-capacity-around-telecom-policy">Building Knowledge and Capacity around Telecommunication Policy in India</a>: Ford Foundation has given a grant of $200,000 to CIS to build expertise in the area of telecommunications in India over a period of two years. The project involves creating a repository comprising information about telecommunications related issues and policies and online course materials designed for a multi-stakeholder audience, organising interactive public lectures and workshops around the country to disseminate information on telecom issues and using traditional and new forms of media to disseminate information to academia, civil society, policy makers and the general public.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Column in Business Standard</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/coming-telecom-monopoly">The Coming Telecom Monopoly</a> (Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, May 3, 2012): “The 2G judgment and Trai spectrum pricing recommendations have led to a policy that makes sense for only one survivor.”</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/ijlt-cis-lecture-series-nlsiu">3rd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series at NLSIU, Bangalore</a> (National Law School of India University, Bangalore, May 27, 2012): Organised by CIS in association with the Indian Journal of Law and Technology. Professor Rohan Samarajiva delivered a lecture on Tariff Regulation in South Asia.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/awesom-contracts-project">The Awesome Contracts Project</a> (Geekup @ CIS, May 18, 2012): CIS co-organised the event with Has Geek. Vivek Durai, co-founder at Awesome Contracts gave a public lecture. Amith Narayan participated through Skype.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>About CIS</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. Over the last four years our policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">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=1644&qid=165304" target="_blank">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1645&qid=165304" target="_blank">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1646&qid=165304" target="_blank">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos. With foreign governments we worked on National Enterprise Architecture and Government Interoperability Framework for Govt. of Iraq; Open Standards Policy for Govt. of Moldova; Free and Open Software Centre of Excellence project plan for Saudi Arabia; eGovernance Strategy Document for Govt. of Tajikistan. With the Government of India we have done policy research for 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=1647&qid=165304" target="_blank">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1648&qid=165304" target="_blank">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1649&qid=165304" target="_blank">Interoperability Framework in eGovernance</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1650&qid=165304" target="_blank">Privacy Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1651&qid=165304" target="_blank">NIA Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1652&qid=165304" target="_blank">National Policy on Electronics</a> and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1653&qid=165304" target="_blank">IT Act</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is an accredited NGO at WIPO and has given <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1654&qid=165304" target="_blank">policy briefs</a> to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1655&qid=165304" 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=1656&qid=165304" target="_blank">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Follow us elsewhere</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter</li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1657&qid=165304" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p><i>CIS is grateful to 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/may-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-07T06:59:29ZPageApril 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2012-bulletin
<b>In this issue of our newsletter, we bring you updates of our latest research, event reports, videos, news and media coverage during the month of April 2012:</b>
<h2>Internet Governance</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3>Google Policy Fellowship</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/chilling-effects-on-free-expression-on-internet">Intermediary Liability in India: Chilling Effects on Free Expression on the Internet</a><br />Rishabh Dara, Google Policy Fellow<br />CIS in partnership with Google India conducted the Google Policy Fellowship 2011. This was offered for the first time in Asia Pacific as well as in India. Rishabh Dara was selected as a fellow. He researched upon issues relating to freedom of expression. The results of the paper demonstrate that the ‘Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011’ notified by the Government of India on April 11, 2011 have a chilling effect on free expression.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Announcement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/cis-joins-gni">The Centre for Internet & Society Joins the Global Network Initiative</a><br />CIS officially joined the Global Network Initiative. CIS would bring to GNI in-depth expertise on global internet governance as well as online freedom of expression and privacy in India. GNI Executive Director Susan Morgan said “<i>We are delighted to add our first member based in India and welcome CIS’s engagement in support of transparency and accountability in technology</i>.”</li>
</ul>
<h3>Op-ed in the Hindu</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/chilling-effects-frozen-words">Chilling Effects and Frozen Words</a> (Lawrence Liang, Hindu, April 30, 2012): “What if the real danger is not that we lose our freedom of speech and expression but our sense of humour as a nation?...One hopes that our lawmakers, even if they are averse to reading the Indian Constitution, will be slightly more open to the poetic licence granted by Kautilya.” </li>
</ul>
<h3>Columns in the Indian Express</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/idea-of-the-book">The Idea of the Book</a> (Nishant Shah, Indian Express, April 8, 2012): “Its future lies in a trans-media format that is ever evolving... The form of the book is going to change as it has over the last 500 years. However, the idea of the book — a receptacle that contains and records collective wisdom, information, ideas, knowledge, experiences and imagination of humankind – is here to stay.”</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/india-broken-internet-law-multistakeholderism">India's Broken Internet Laws Need a Shot of Multi-stakeholderism</a> by Pranesh Prakash. (An edited version of this article was published in the Indian Express as <a href="http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/941491/">"Practise what you preach"</a> on Thursday, April 26, 2012.)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Reports</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/all-india-privacy-delhi-report">The All India Privacy Symposium</a> (India International Centre, New Delhi, February 4, 2012): The symposium was organised around five thematic panel discussions: privacy and transparency, privacy and e-governance initiatives, privacy and national security, privacy and banking and health privacy. Privacy India in partnership with CIS, International Development Research Centre, Privacy International, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Society in Action Group organised this event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/high-level-privacy-report">The High Level Privacy Conclave</a> (Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place Greens, New Delhi, February 3, 2012): The conclave was organised around two panels: national Security and privacy and internet and privacy. Malavika Jayaram moderated the first panel discussion on national Security and privacy. Sunil Abraham moderated the second panel discussion on internet and privacy. Privacy India in partnership with CIS, International Development Research Centre, Privacy International, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Society in Action Group organised this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resisting-internet-censorship">Resisting Internet Censorship: Strategies for Furthering Freedom of Expression in India</a> (Bangalore International Centre, TERI Complex, Domlur, April 21, 2012): CIS co-organised this event with the Foundation for Media Professionals. Members of Parliament, P. Rajeeve and Rajeev Chandrashekar and Member of Legislative Council, Karnataka, V.R. Sudarshan participated in the event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/talk-by-vasant-gangavane">Konkan Corridor Project — A Lecture by Vasant Gangavane</a> (Ashoka Innovators for the Public, Bangalore, April 16, 2012): Well known social worker Vasant Gangavane gave a lecture.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/cybernetic-vehicles">Braitenberg Cybernetic Vehicles: Workshop, Film Screening & Discussion</a> (Metaculture Media Lab, CIS, Bangalore, April 14, 2012): There was a short presentation about Braitenberg vehicles.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/giga-conference">GIGA International Conference Series - 1</a> (NALSAR University of Law, Justice City Campus, Shameerpet, Hyderabad, April 5 and 6, 2012): The Institute of Global Internet Governance and Advocacy and Department of Electronics and Information Technology organised the conference. Sunil Abraham gave a lecture on <i>Digital Natives vs. Digital Naivety</i> in the session on Internet Governance & Society.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Expert-Group on Privacy Issues (New Delhi, April 13 and 14, 2012): The Planning Commission constituted this expert group under the chairmanship of Justice AP Shah. Sunil Abraham participated in the first meeting of the sub-group on privacy issues.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Video</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/privacy-internationals-trip-to-asia">Privacy International's Trip to Asia</a> (by Emma Draper in Privacy International blog): In February 2012, the Privacy International team travelled to India, Bangladesh and Hong Kong to meet with local partners in the region and speak at four conferences they had organized. The team got a chance to interview its partners in India and Bangladesh on the privacy issues facing them at the moment. This is captured in a video about contemporary privacy issues in India and Bangladesh. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/mainstream-vs-social">It’s mainstream vs social</a> (Guest column by Mahima Kaul, Sunday Guardian, April 30, 2012): “<i>If the video is judged to be 'obscene', then under s.67 of the Information Technology Act, 'causing [obscenity] to be transmitted', is also a crime</i>,”...Sunil Abraham quoted in the Sunday Guardian.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/from-cyber-india-to-censor-india">From Cyber India to Censor India: Groups challenge didactic govt</a> (by Satarupa Paul, Sunday Guardian, April 29, 2012): “<i>Instead of a court deciding what makes content illegal, private intermediaries get to decide. And there is no penalty for anyone abusing the take-down notice system,</i>”...Sunil Abraham quoted in the Sunday Guardian.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/social-media-indian-govt">Social Media 1, Indian Government 0</a> (by Heather Timmons, New York Times, April 26, 2012): “<i>Because India does not have a bilateral cyber-crime agreement with the United States (as the European Union does), getting American companies like Facebook and Google to take down or investigate the source of content that offends Indian government officials can be a slow and cumbersome process</i>,”...Sunil Abraham quoted in the New York Times. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/private-sector-censors">Private sector censors</a> (by Salil Tripathi, LiveMint, April 25, 2012): “<i>Companies which have no interest in free speech are now taking these decisions. They have the power to do so and they are using it without any sense of responsibility</i>,”...Sunil Abraham quoted in LiveMint. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/left-may-for-once-be-right">Views | Why the Left may for once be right</a> (by Pramit Bhattacharya, LiveMint, April 23, 2012): “<i>It has become much easier in India to ban an e-book than a book</i>,”...Pranesh Prakash quoted in LiveMint. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/campaign-against-curbs-on-websites">Campaign against curbs on websites gathers steam</a> (by Arpan Daniel Varghese, IBN Live, April 23, 2012): “<i>If a company wants to target your organization’s social media network, they can keep sending fraudulent emails to you and you will have to keep deleting it unless you are ready to face litigation or government action.</i>..Sunil Abraham quoted in IBN Live.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/anti-net-censorship-echo-in-house">Expect anti-net censorship echo in house</a> (by Arpan Daniel Varghese, IBN Live, April 25, 2012): “<i>why should freedom of speech and expression be any different on the Internet?</i>”...Sunil Abraham quoted in IBN Live.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/mobilising-support-for-freedom-on-web">Mobilising support for freedom on the Web</a> (by Deepa Kurup Hindu, April 22, 2012): Rishabh Dara’s research published as part of the Google Policy Fellowship is quoted. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/draconian-it-rules">MPs to be taught ‘draconian’ IT Act Rules as India.net support galvanises for annul motion</a> (by Prachi Shrivastava, Legally India, April 23, 2012): Prachi has blogged about the Resisting Internet Censorship co-organised by CIS and the Foundation for Media Professionals in Bangalore.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/india-arrests-professor-over-cartoon">India arrests professor over political cartoon</a> (by Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post, April 13, 2012): “<i>The state’s new-found aversion to non-believers has gone a bit too far</i>,”...Pranesh Prakash quoted in Washington Post.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/beauty-blog-creates-furore">A beauty’s blog creates furore</a> (by Lakshmi Krupa, Deccan Chronicle, April 10, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Digital Natives</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a research inquiry that looks at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and 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>
<h3>Public Lecture</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ignite-talks">5 Challenges for the Future of Learning: Digital Natives and How We Shall Teach Them</a> (Wyndham Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, California, March 1, 2012): Nishant Shah gave a ignite talk. The video is now online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Book Review...a few excerpts</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/media-coverage/immigrants-not-natives">Immigrants not Natives</a>: “<i>‘To Be’, ‘To Think’, ‘To Act’ and ‘To Connect’ provides many fascinating and thought-provoking insights into the possibilities for reflection, action and interaction</i>,”... Sally Wyatt, eHumanities Group, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences/Maastricht University.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Accessibility</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies:</p>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/itu-tutorial-event-report">ITU Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility</a> (India International Centre, New Delhi, March 14 – 15, 2012): CIS in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India organised a two-day tutorial on Audio-Visual Media Accessibility. Sunil Abraham was the Master of Ceremony on Day 1. Ravi Shanker, Administrator, Universal Service Obligation Fund, Dr. Govind, CEO, National Internet Exchange of India, Swaran Lata, Director and Head of Department, TDIL Programme, DIT, R.N. Jha, Deputy Director General (International Relations), Department of Telecommunications and Archana Gulati, Financial Advisor, National Disaster Management Authority participated in this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3>New Fellow at CIS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/people/fellow">Rahul Cherian joins CIS</a>: Disability policy activist, lawyer and co-founder of Inclusive Planet, Rahul Cherian has joined CIS as a Fellow. Rahul will be working on disability policy reform and advocacy. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Access to Knowledge</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3>New Event</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/global-congress-on-ip">2012 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest</a> (FGV Law School, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, December 15 – 17, 2012): We are pleased to announce the Second Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. The theme for this year’s Congress will be “Setting the positive agenda in motion,” and will have a special focus on developments and opportunities in the so-called “BRICS” group of emerging economies. <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/global-congress-on-ip-call-for-participation">CIS is one of the six members of the Global Congress Planning Committee</a>..</li>
</ul>
<h3>News & Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/hacking-modding-making">Hacking, Modding & Making</a> (by Brendan Shanahan): “<i>If something has been made technologically possible, we cannot make it illegal and hope that everyone will now pretend that this is no longer technologically possible...We can't have the government checking everyone's iPod and laptop. The better move is to change the model</i>,”...Sunil Abraham quoted in GQ.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Openness</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<h3>Event Reports and Video</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/arduino-workshop-report">Arduino Workshop at CIS</a> (CIS, Bangalore, March 3, 2012). Video is now online.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/hejje-2014-together-with-kannada-technology-2">Hejje — Together with Kannada & Technology</a> (Bangalore, January 22, 2012): The event marked the first step to bring everyone working in Kannada in the IT field to brainstorm the ideas for future steps, and create a space for technological collaboration in Kannada. CIS co-organised the event with Sanchaya.net, Vishwakannada.com and Chanda Pustaka. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-government-partnership-brasilia-bangalore-meetup">Bangalore Meet-up for the Open Government Partnership Brasilia</a> (CIS, Bangalore, April 17, 2012): Ananya Panda and Pranesh Prakash participated in the first annual meeting of Open Government Partnership remotely.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/design-public-delhi">Design!PubliC – Event in Delhi</a> (New Delhi, April 19 and 20, 2012): The event was co-organised by Centre for Knowledge Societies in partnership with IBM, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, HeadStart, India@75, LiveMint and CIS.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/international-space-apps-challenge">International Space Apps Challenge</a> (CIS, Bangalore, April 21 and 22, 2012): An international codeathon-style event took place in seven continents, CIS organised the event in Bangalore.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Telecom</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>
<h3>Column in Business Standard</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/build-comprehensive-ecosystems">China 3: Build Comprehensive Ecosystems</a> (Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, April 5, 2012): “Failures in electricity, transport and broadband have common strands. China's approach offers a possible alternative.”</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>About CIS</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. Over the last four years our policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities with International Telecommunications Union, and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1644&qid=165304" target="_blank">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1645&qid=165304" target="_blank">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1646&qid=165304" target="_blank">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos. With foreign governments we worked on National Enterprise Architecture and Government Interoperability Framework for Govt. of Iraq; Open Standards Policy for Govt. of Moldova; Free and Open Software Centre of Excellence project plan for Saudi Arabia; eGovernance Strategy Document for Govt. of Tajikistan. With the Government of India we have done policy research for 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=1647&qid=165304" target="_blank">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1648&qid=165304" target="_blank">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1649&qid=165304" target="_blank">Interoperability Framework in eGovernance</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1650&qid=165304" target="_blank">Privacy Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1651&qid=165304" target="_blank">NIA Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1652&qid=165304" target="_blank">National Policy on Electronics</a> and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1653&qid=165304" target="_blank">IT Act</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is an accredited NGO at WIPO and has given <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1654&qid=165304" target="_blank">policy briefs</a> to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1655&qid=165304" 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=1656&qid=165304" target="_blank">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Follow us elsewhere</h3>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter</li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1657&qid=165304" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at www.cis-india.org</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to 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/april-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-07T06:26:40ZPageFebruary 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/feb-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the Centre for Internet and Society newsletter! In this issue we bring you the updates of our research, events, media coverage and videos of the events organized by us during the month of February 2012!</b>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Around 70 million disabled persons in India are unable to participate in information societies as lack of compliance with accessibility standards make interfaces impossible to use, and retrograde copyright and patent policies make it impossible to access knowledge. Accessibility is denied in banking services, web and mobile interfaces, etc. Material for the disabled therefore needs to be converted into accessible formats. The programme has resulted in outputs such as <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1497&qid=150688" target="_blank">Web Accessibility Policy Making</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1498&qid=150688" target="_blank">Making Mobile Phones and Services Accessible for Persons with Disabilities</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1499&qid=150688" target="_blank">Accessibility Policy Making: An International Perspective</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1500&qid=150688" target="_blank">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1501&qid=150688" target="_blank">Universal Service for Persons with Disabilities: A Global Survey of Policy Interventions and Good Practices</a>, etc.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Featured Research</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1497&qid=150688" target="_blank">Web Accessibility Policy Making: An International Perspective</a>: G3ict and the Centre for Internet and Society are pleased to announce the publication of a new, improved edition of the Web Accessibility Policy Making: An International Perspective. The report published in cooperation with the Hans Foundation provides an updated synopsis of the many policies that governments have implemented around the world to ensure that the Internet and websites are accessible to persons with disabilities.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Event</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1502&qid=150688" target="_blank">ITU Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility</a> (India International Centre,New Delhi, March 14 to 15, 2012): At the invitation of the Centre for Internet and Society, in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India, International Telecommunication Union is organizing a two-day Tutorial on Audio Visual Media Accessibility. The Tutorial will be preceded by the fourth meeting of the Focus Group on Audio Visual Media Accessibility on March 13, 2012. The meeting will take place in the same venue and will be hosted by the Centre for Internet and Society in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Access to Knowledge</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With the emergence of digital technologies and the unprecedented growth of the Internet and other related technologies, intellectual property rights (IPRs) the questions of ownership and control of information have become crucial. The programme focuses on the inequitable distribution of IPR, royalty, outflows, and beneficiaries of intellectual property regimes, the lack of balance in current IPR regimes [local, national and international] between consumer rights and IPR-owners’/corporation’s rights. The programme has produced analyses such as <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1503&qid=150688" target="_blank">WIPO Treaty for the Print Disabled</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1504&qid=150688" target="_blank">WIPO Broadcast Treaty</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1505&qid=150688" target="_blank">Copyright Amendment Bill</a> and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1506&qid=150688" target="_blank">Parallel Importation of Books</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Blog Entry</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1507&qid=150688" target="_blank">Analysis of Copyright Expansion in the India-EU FTA</a> (July 2010) by Snehashish Ghosh.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Video</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, the Centre for Internet and Society organised a public lecture in its office, the video is now online.</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1508&qid=150688" target="_blank">Gandhi, Freedom, and the Dilemmas of Copyright</a>: (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, January 30, 2012). Prof. Shyamkrishna Balganesh from the University of Pennsylvania gave a lecture on Gandhi, Freedom, and the Dilemmas of Copyright.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Openness</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The advent of the Internet has radically defined what it means to be open and collaborative. Even the Internet is built upon open standards and free/libre/open source software. The broad rubric of the ‘Openness’ programme focuses to provide evidence based research that will help inform policy and practice of the local, national, regional, bilateral and international policies and practices around Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Video, Open Standards and Free/Libre/Open Source Software. The programme has resulted in reports such as <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1509&qid=150688" target="_blank">Open Government Data Study</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1510&qid=150688" target="_blank">Online Video Environment in India</a>, a reader on the Wikipedia titled <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1511&qid=150688" target="_blank">Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader</a> and a film titled <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1512&qid=150688" target="_blank">People are Knowledge – Experimenting with Oral Citations on Wikipedia</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Comments<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1513&qid=150688" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1513&qid=150688" target="_blank">Comments on Technical Standards for Interoperability Framework for E-Governance in India</a> (Phase II), submitted to the e-Governance Standards Division.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Event Report<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1514&qid=150688" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1514&qid=150688" target="_blank">Francis Bags EPT Award for Open Access in Developing World</a>, (Sambasivan Auditorium, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, February 14, 2012). The award function was organized by the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development and the Centre for Internet and Society. Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam gave the welcome address. <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1515&qid=150688" target="_blank">View the video of the award function</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Interview<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1516&qid=150688" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1516&qid=150688" target="_blank">An Interview with Dr. Francis Jayakanth</a>: The Centre for Internet and Society conducted an email interview with Dr. Francis Jayakanth, recipient of the inaugural EPT Award for Open Access in Developing World.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Events<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1517&qid=150688" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1517&qid=150688" target="_blank">Free Arduino Workshop (For Beginners)</a>: (Centre for Internet and Society,Bangalore, March 3, 2012). The Centre for Internet and Society organised the Arduino workshop in Bangalore.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Governments and private corporations are engaging in human rights violations online. Many different rights are impacted by internet governance policy changes. The growing phenomenon of illegal electronic surveillance by state and non-state actors and censorship of speech online are some specific problems that the Internet Governance programme seeks to address by providing evidence based research that will help inform policy and practice of the local, national, regional, bilateral and international privacy regime in the interests of the public in sectors key to information societies with a particular focus on information technology, privacy and freedom of expression. The programme has resulted in outputs such as <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1518&qid=150688" target="_blank">Banking</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1519&qid=150688" target="_blank">Telecommunications</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1520&qid=150688" target="_blank">Consumer Protection</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1521&qid=150688" target="_blank">IT Act</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1522&qid=150688" target="_blank">Limitations</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1523&qid=150688" target="_blank">Copyright</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1524&qid=150688" target="_blank">Internet Protocol</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1525&qid=150688" target="_blank">Media</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1526&qid=150688" target="_blank">Sexual Minorities</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1527&qid=150688" target="_blank">UID</a> and policy submissions such as, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1528&qid=150688" target="_blank">NIA Bill</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1529&qid=150688" target="_blank">IT Act</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1530&qid=150688" target="_blank">National Policy on Electronics</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1531&qid=150688" target="_blank">Cyber Café Rules</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1532&qid=150688" target="_blank">Security Practices Rules</a>, and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1533&qid=150688" target="_blank">Intermediary Due Diligence Rules</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Featured Research</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Privacy India in partnership with Privacy International, UK, the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon is pleased to bring you the draft chapters of its book on Privacy in India. These include the Country Report, Telecommunication and Internet Privacy, E-Governance Identity and Privacy, Finance and Privacy, Health and Privacy, Transparency and Privacy. The chapters are an <b>early draft</b> which is in the process of being reviewed and updated. We greatly appreciate your comments and feedback:<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1534&qid=150688" target="_blank"></a></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1534&qid=150688" target="_blank">Privacy in India — An Early Draft</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Media Coverage<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1535&qid=150688" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1535&qid=150688" target="_blank">Personal Data, Public Profile</a>: “Whether we like it or not, we live in a world that is rapidly being Googlised”, writes Nishant Shah in the Financial Express, February 13, 2012.</li>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1536&qid=150688" target="_blank">Do we need the Aadhar scheme?</a>: “Decentralisation and privacy are preconditions for security. Digital signatures don’t require centralised storage and are much more resilient in terms of security”, writes Sunil Abraham in the Business Standard, February 1, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Event Reports</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1537&qid=150688" target="_blank">The High Level Privacy Conclave</a> (Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place Greens, New Delhi, February 3, 2012): India is in dire need of privacy law; experts say government is ironically creating huge national security risks in attempts to prevent crime and terrorism. The <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1538&qid=150688" target="_blank">event was organized</a> by Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Privacy International, UK and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon. Sunil Abraham was a Conclave Advisor and the moderator for the session on Internet and Privacy, Malavika Jayaram moderated in the panel on National Security and Privacy, and Elonnai Hickok spoke in the session "The Way Forward".</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1539&qid=150688" target="_blank">All India Privacy Symposium</a>: (India International Centre, New Delhi, February 4, 2012): Experts gathered in Delhi for a public symposium on privacy, transparency, e-governance and national security in India. The <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1540&qid=150688" target="_blank">event was organized</a> by Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Privacy International, UK, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon. The <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1541&qid=150688" target="_blank">webcast</a> of the event is online. Sunil Abraham was a Symposium Advisor and moderated in the panel on Privacy and Transparency. Elonnai Hickok gave the welcome address and spoke in the session, “The Way Forward”. Prashant Iyengar was the moderator for the panel on Privacy and Banking. Malavika Jayaram spoke in this panel.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Event Hosted</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>GeekUp with Erica Hagen (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, March 1, 2012). HasGeek organized a GeekUp with Erica Hagen of the GroundTruth Initiative. Erica gave a lecture on the theme: "<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1542&qid=150688" target="_blank">From Information to Empowerment: Unpacking the Equation</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Blog Entry</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1543&qid=150688" target="_blank">Unique ID System: Pros and Cons</a>, by Natasha Vaz.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other Events</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1544&qid=150688" target="_blank">Cartonama Workshop</a> (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, March 2 and 3, 2012). HasGeek organized a hands-on training for managing and building location based services. The Centre for Internet and Society was a partner for this event.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1545&qid=150688" target="_blank">Climate Change and Controversy Mapping</a> (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, March 19 to 21, 2012). The workshop is being organised in collaboration with the Devechia Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Bruno Latour, Dean for Research at Sciences Po, Paris will speak in this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Videos</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">View the videos of some of the recent events organised by us:<a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1540&qid=150688" target="_blank"></a></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1540&qid=150688" target="_blank">All India Privacy Symposium</a>, (India International Centre, New Delhi, February 4, 2012). Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Privacy International, UK, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon, organized the event.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1546&qid=150688" target="_blank">Whose Data is it Anyway?</a>, (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, January 24, 2012). Centre for Internet and Society and Tactical Tech co-organised the second round of discussions of the Exposing Data series. Siddharth Hande and Hapee de Groot spoke in the event.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1547&qid=150688" target="_blank">Privacy Matters — Analyzing the "Right to Privacy Bill"</a>, (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay). Privacy India in partnership with International Development Research Centre, Canada, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the Godrej Culture Lab, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the Centre for Internet and Society organised this event.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1548&qid=150688" target="_blank">Free Speech Online in India under Attack?</a>, (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, December 22, 2011). The event was co-organised with the Internet Democracy Project. Achal Prabhala, Lawrence Liang and Anja Kovacs gave a lecture on freedom of expression online in India.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. The programme has resulted in reports such as <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1549&qid=150688" target="_blank">India's untapped potential: Are a billion people losing out because of spectrum?</a>, <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1550&qid=150688" target="_blank">India Study Tour - Report: The South African Telecommunications Sector: Poised for Change</a> and the <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1551&qid=150688" target="_blank">Unlicensed Spectrum-Policy Brief for Government of India NTP '11</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Featured Research</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1551&qid=150688" target="_blank">Unlicensed Spectrum-Policy Brief for Government of India NTP '11</a> by Satyen Gupta, Sunil Abraham and Yelena Gyulkhandanyan: The research paper aims to recommend unlicensed spectrum policy to the Government of India based on recent developments in wireless technology, community needs and international best practices, and seeks to demonstrate the need for and importance of unlicensed spectrum as a medium for inexpensive connectivity in rural/remote areas, as well as catalyzing innovation by being a barrier-free and cost-effective platform for the testing and implementing of new technologies.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Interview</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1552&qid=150688" target="_blank">An Interview with Stephen Song</a>: Yelena Gyulkhandanyan interviewed Stephen Song, the founder of Village Telco, an initiative to bring practical and inexpensive communication network infrastructure to rural and remote areas. He spoke about factors that catalyzed the initiative, the benefits of the network, some challenges, and the Mesh Potato.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Job Announcement</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1553&qid=150688" target="_blank">Content Developers/Trainers</a>: The Centre for Internet and Society is looking for a content developer/trainer to work on an upcoming project Building Knowledge and Capacity around Telecommunication Policies in India. This is a full-time position. To apply, please email your curriculum vitae along with three writing samples to <a href="mailto:yelena@cis-india.org">yelena@cis-india.org</a>. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by the Centre for Internet and Society, India and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and internet technologies, in emerging information societies. The programme has resulted in a four-book collective titled <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1554&qid=150688" target="_blank">Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?</a> and reports such as <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1555&qid=150688" target="_blank">Digital Natives with a Cause? A Report</a> and <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1556&qid=150688" target="_blank">Digital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon: Position Papers</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Events</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1557&qid=150688" target="_blank">Digital Natives Video Contest</a>: Twenty-one candidates have been shortlisted, videos will be online soon. Voting begins from March 10, 2012. The Centre for Internet and Society is co-organising the video contest with Hivos, Netherlands.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1558&qid=150688" target="_blank">Essay Review: Digital AlterNatives with a Cause</a>: The monthly essay review for the four book collective of Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? was held from February 17 to February 26, 2012. The Centre for Internet and Society co-organized the “Essay Review” with Hivos, Netherlands.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Book Review</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1559&qid=150688" target="_blank">How to Put Up a Facebook Resistance</a>: “<i>The current discussion about Facebook's timeline is only the tip of the iceberg, a symptom of a larger conflict that lurks behind it: how much direct marketing are Facebook users willing to take? How many drastic top-down changes of the user's Facebook experience are possible unless they understand that their presence on this site and what they do there is in tension with the company's goals that provides this digital environment?</i>”, Oliver Leistert reviews Marc Stumpel’s essay, "Mapping the Politics of Web 2.0: Facebook Resistance", in Digital Alternatives with a Cause Book 2: To Think, pp.24-31.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Newsletter</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1560&qid=150688" target="_blank">Privacy, Piracy and the Wiki Way of Web</a>: “<i>Privacy is about having more control over the personal information that we have disclosed. As we disclose more information online, we must ask who might access it and why.</i>” Nishant Shah in the Digital Natives Newsletter, volume 9, issue 2.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; "><b>News and Media Coverage</b></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1561&qid=150688" target="_blank">What is Stewardship in Cyberspace?</a>: The second annual Cyber Dialogue forum takes place March 18-19, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. Sunil Abraham is a panelist in the session on Plenary Panel and Discussions.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1562&qid=150688" target="_blank">Secure IT 2012</a> — Securing Citizens through Technology: The event was co-organised by DST and NSDI, Govt. of India in partnership with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. on March 1, 2012 at Claridges in New Delhi. Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the event.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1563&qid=150688" target="_blank">Digitisation is making e-learning simple</a>: “<i>Learning should not be restricted to the Internet and interactive classroom sessions but should be made available on mobile phones through audio files as mobile penetration is much higher compared to Internet reach</i>”, Sunil Abraham in Deccan Herald, February 13, 2012. The article was written by Shayan Ghosh.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1564&qid=150688" target="_blank">India debates limits to freedom of expression</a>: “<i>The government’s proposals on Web censorship would kill the vibrancy of the Internet in India</i>”, Sunil Abraham in the Washington Post, February 13, 2012. The article was written by Simon Denyer.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1565&qid=150688" target="_blank">Developing location-based services</a>, Hindu, February 26, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1566&qid=150688" target="_blank">Grooming the geek</a>: “<i>Children have to learn fine motor and social skills; tablets and other technology hinder the development of these skills</i>”, Sunil Abraham in LiveMint, February 24, 2012. The article was written by Gopal Sathe.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1567&qid=150688" target="_blank">FUEL Kannada - Workshop on Kannada Computing Terminology</a>: A two days workshop on the standardization of Kannada computing terminologies was organized on January 28 and 29, 2012 at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore under the FUEL project. The workshop was organised by Sanchaya and sponsored by Red Hat.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1568&qid=150688" target="_blank">Will open access replace costly commercial publishing models?</a>: “<i>Most scientists in India are forced to work in a situation of information poverty. Others are unable to access what Indian researchers are doing, leading to low visibility and low use of their work. Thus, Indian work is hardly cited. Both these handicaps can be overcome to a considerable extent if open access is adopted widely, both within and outside the country</i>”, Subbiah Arunachalam in the Hindu, February 19, 2012. The article was written by Vasudha Venugopal.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1569&qid=150688" target="_blank">Research papers will be available in public domain</a>: “<i>A research produced by the Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai which would be of great relevance to researchers, say in a university in Maharashtra, may not be even noticed by the scientists there. Both groups receive funds from the same source - Government of India - and yet what one does is not easily accessible to the other. Open Access would bridge that gap and make information available to everyone</i>”, Subbiah Arunachalam in the Hindu, February 15, 2012. The article was written by Vasudha Venugopal.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1570&qid=150688" target="_blank">OurSay: how India’s technology is cutting into corruption</a>: “<i>Print and cinema reflected the views of citizens and informed them of the visions and changes that the country was going through</i>”, Nishant Shah in Crikey, February 17, 2012. The blog post was written by Gautam Raju, co-founder and creative director, OurSayAustralia.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1571&qid=150688" target="_blank">India won't censor social media: Telecom Minister</a>: “<i>Glad that Sibal does not believe in censorship and that companies operating in India should follow local laws.” “But on the other hand he has asked them to evolve new guidelines and actively monitor user content which is not legally sanctioned. This makes him look two-faced</i>”, Pranesh Prakash in the Tribune. The article written by Salil Panchal was originally published by <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1572&qid=150688" target="_blank">AFP</a> and reproduced in the Tribune on February 14, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1573&qid=150688" target="_blank">Govt set to gain ‘back-door’ access to corporate email</a>: “<i>There are no allegations of terrorists using BES or any indication that any of the 5,000 enterprises have any links to terrorists or other banned outfits in India</i>”, Pranesh Prakash in LiveMint, February 14, 2012. The article was written by Shauvik Ghosh.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1574&qid=150688" target="_blank">Indian law caught in web</a>: “<i>The Internet needs regulation but it cannot be treated as a gigantic newspaper or media channel”</i>, Pranesh Prakash; <i>“In liberal democracies like India and the US, information was taken for granted and not perceived as central to the understanding of society</i>”, Nishant Shah. Nishant and Pranesh are quoted in an article by Moyna published by Down to Earth magazine.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1575&qid=150688" target="_blank">Prometheus bound and gagged</a>: The article by Adarsh Matham was published in the New Indian Express on 20 January 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted in this article.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1576&qid=150688" target="_blank">Internet Curbs</a>: Sunil Abraham’s article “The Quixotic Fight to Clean Up the Web” which was published in Tehelka is referred to by Rishi Majumder in this article also published in Tehelka, Vol. 9, Issue 07, February 18, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1577&qid=150688" target="_blank">Tweeple say it pithily with hash tags</a>: “<i>Our social networking sites and writing platforms are performances of a certain kind... they allow us to convert our everyday lives into games — with rewards, actions, punishments or rules</i>”, Nishant Shah in the Hindu, February 11, 2012. The article was written by Deepa Kurup.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1578&qid=150688" target="_blank">New Bill to decide on individual’s right to privacy</a>: “<i>Tesco, a major retail chain in England, is now into E-banking… There are numerous examples of such private banking entities sharing customer information with insurance policy firms. These details are often used as markers for the kind of premium that will be set for a person</i>”, Malavika Jayaram in Tehelka, February 6, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1579&qid=150688" target="_blank">A new domain name, but concerns remain the same</a>: “<i>The rhetoric is that the Internet is global, but we've been seeing [governments say] how this information has to be regulated</i>”, Nishant Shah in the Hindu, February 5, 2012. The article was written by Karunya Keshav.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1580&qid=150688" target="_blank">Common man as crusader</a>: “<i>The movement targeted at the middle-class for whom corruption is a big issue was also the first middle-class movement in a long time.</i>” Nishant Shah in the Hindustan Times, February 4, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1581&qid=150688" target="_blank">5 things you need to know about online privacy policies</a>: “<i>India needs to have a broad and horizontal law that establishes online privacy as a right. Unlike in European countries, India doesn't have a privacy commissioner who can state the principles, interpret the data and question the online providers</i>”, Sunil Abraham in the Economic Times on February 6, 2012. The article was written by Indu Nandakumar.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1582&qid=150688" target="_blank">India needs an independent privacy law, says NGO Privacy India</a>: “<i>India doesn't have a privacy law, but there are provisions for it in different laws. During the course of the research, we found that the Indian judiciary has not been very strict in overseeing the implementation of the privacy clauses in various laws,</i>”,<i> </i>Prashant Iyengar in the Economic Times, February 2, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/privacy-speech-at-stake-in-cyberspace-1" class="external-link">Privacy, speech at stake in cyberspace</a>: “<i>The clampdown on online free speech and the roll-out of a multi-tiered blanket surveillance regime via the draconian IT Act and its associated rules in India is part of a global trend</i>”, Sunil Abraham in LiveMint, February 3, 2012. The article was written by Leslie D’Monte.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1584&qid=150688" target="_blank">Freedom of Expression in Community Media and on the Internet Understanding Connections, Finding Common Ground</a>: A meeting co-organised by the Internet Democracy Project (Delhi) and Maraa (Bangalore) with the support of the Community Radio Forum in New Delhi on 3 February 2012. Pranesh Prakash participated in this event. Anja Kovacs gave the welcome address and spoke in the session on “The Internet and Freedom of Expression.”</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1585&qid=150688" target="_blank">Google move is not good for netizens, say experts</a>: “<i>Google is doing what is good for shareholders. This is not positive for netizens</i>,” Sunil Abraham in the Hindu Business Line, January 31, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=456&qid=46981" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1586&qid=150688" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=459&qid=46981" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to 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/feb-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/feb-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-09T07:48:11ZPageJanuary 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the Centre for Internet and Society newsletter! In this issue we bring you the updates of our research, events, media coverage and videos of events organized by us during the month of January 2012!</b>
<h2>Digital Natives with a Cause?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS, India and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and internet technologies, in emerging information societies. The major outputs have been a four book collective asking questions about theory and practice around 'digital revolutions' in a post MENA (Middle East - North Africa) world, a position paper, a scouting study and three international workshops.</p>
<h3>Events Organised<b> </b> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1038&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1038&qid=140996" target="_blank">Digital AlterNatives Video Contest: The Everyday Digital Native — To Be, To Think, To Act, To Connect</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1039&qid=140996" target="_blank">Digital AlterNatives Tweet-a-Review</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">'Digital Natives with a Cause?' project invites readers to review essays from the 'Digital AlterNatives with a Cause', a four-book collective published by Centre for Internet & Society and Hivos.<b> </b></p>
<h3>Digital AlterNatives: Book Reviews <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1040&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1040&qid=140996" target="_blank">Alternative Approaches to Social Change</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“<i>Observations about intangible aspects of a movement will keep a research from clinging to activism with a capital A, and start seeing a gradation in the social movement practices. It is constructive and opens the door to analyses of multi-dimensional movements such as the Blank Noise initiative (India). Drawing on methods of identifying new developments to the field of social movement, Maesy examines some aspects of it: the issue, strategy, site of action, and internal mode of organization</i>.”<br /><b>Nuraini Juliastuti</b>, Co-founder, KUNCI Cultural Studies Center</p>
<hr />
<h2>Accessibility</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. This includes persons with blindness, learning disabilities such as dyslexia, cerebral palsy and persons who do not have full control over their limbs. For these people, the material needs to be converted into alternate formats such as Braille, audio or video or electronic formats (text document, word document or PDF) which they can access using assistive technologies. Our key research has focused on a submission to amend the Indian Copyright to the HRD Ministry, publishing a policy handbook on e-accessibility, research on accessible mobile handsets in India and an analysis of the Working Draft of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2010.<b> </b></p>
<h3>Journal Article</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1041&qid=140996" target="_blank">Technology for Accessibility in Higher Education</a>, published in the Journal: Enabling Access for Persons with Disabilities to Higher Education and Workplace. Nirmita Narasimhan wrote an article.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1042&qid=140996" target="_blank">Making Mobile Phones and Services Accessible</a>. CIS researched, edited and published this report in partnership with G3ict and ITU. The report contains a foreword, eleven chapters, a bibliography and glossary with contributions from Deepti Bharthur, Nirmita Narasimhan and Axel Leblois.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Upcoming Event</h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1043&qid=140996" target="_blank">ITU Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility</a>, organized by the International Telecommunication Union, India International Centre, 14-15 March 2012. CIS is hosting the meeting. The Tutorial will be preceded by the fourth meeting of the Focus Group on Audio Visual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) on 13 March 2012. This meeting will take place at the same venue and will also be hosted by CIS, in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Access to Knowledge</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Access to Knowledge is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. We prepared the India report for the Consumers International IP Watchlist, made submission to the HRD Ministry on WIPO Broadcast Treaty, questioned the demonization of pirates, and advocated against laws (such as PUPFIP Bill) that privatize public funded knowledge.</p>
<h3>Event Organised <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1044&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1044&qid=140996" target="_blank">Gandhi, Freedom, and the Dilemmas of Copyright</a>: To commemorate Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary, CIS organised a public lecture. Prof. Shyamkrishna Balganesh of the University of Pennsylvania gave a lecture.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Openness</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The advent of the Internet has radically defined what it means to be open and collaborative. Even the Internet is built upon open standards and free/libre/open source software. CIS has been committed and actively campaigned for promotion of open standards, open access and free/libre/open source software.<b> </b></p>
<h3>Workshop Reports <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1045&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1045&qid=140996" target="_blank">Summary of the Minutes of the Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics</a>, organized by the Western Ghats Portal team to explore the contemporary state of biodiversity informatics at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bangalore on 25 November 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1046&qid=140996" target="_blank">Design!PubliC — Innovation and the Public Interest</a>: On the 14th of October, 2011, the Center for Knowledge Societies organized the second edition of the Design Public Conclave, a conversation on how innovation can serve the Public Interest. The conclave was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1047&qid=140996" target="_blank">Report on the 'Open Access to Academic Knowledge' workshop</a>: On Wednesday the 2nd of November, during Open Access Week, the Indian Institute of Science in conjunction with the Centre for Internet and Society held a workshop on Open Access at the National Centre for Science Information, in Bangalore. We recorded the meeting and published it online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1048&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1048&qid=140996" target="_blank">Geekup on Open Data in Bangalore</a>: Hapee de Groot, Hivos, Netherlands gave a talk on Open Data and its use for citizen engagement.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1049&qid=140996" target="_blank">Wikipedia turns 11 today</a>: The Bangalore event, open to all Wikipedia users, contributors and enthusiasts, is being held at the Centre for Internet and Society at Domlur.<br />The Hindu, 15 January 2012</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Internet Governance</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society has defined internet governance as the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the internet. CIS partnered with Privacy International and Society in Action Group which has produced outputs in banking, telecommunications, consumer rights, etc., submitted open letters to Parliamentary Committee on UID, feedbacks on NIA Bill, and IT Rules.</p>
<h3>Newspaper / Magazine Articles <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1050&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1050&qid=140996" target="_blank">Keeping it Private</a><br />As we disclose more information online, we must ask who might access it and why, writes Nishant Shah in the Indian Express, 15 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1051&qid=140996" target="_blank">Click to Change</a><br />From organising political protests and flash mobs to uploading their versions of Kolaveri Di, people brought about change with the help of the internet, Nishant Shah, Indian Express, 1 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1052&qid=140996" target="_blank">The Quixotic Fight to Clean up the Web</a><br />The ongoing attempt to pre-screen online content won’t change anything. It will only drive netizens into the arms of criminals, writes Sunil Abraham, Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 04, 28 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1053&qid=140996" target="_blank">Sense and Censorship</a><br />The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills, at the US House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, appear to enforce property rights, but are, in fact, trade bills, Sunil Abraham in the Indian Express, 20 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Interview</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1054&qid=140996" target="_blank">Our Internet and the Law</a><br />Nishant Shah was interviewed by the BBC Channel 5 (Radio) for its Outriders section. Jamillah Knowles reports this. Listen to the podcast online, BBC Radio, 24 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Event Reports</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1055&qid=140996" target="_blank">Privacy Matters — Analyzing the Right to "Privacy Bill"</a><br />On January 21, 2012 a public conference “Privacy Matters” was held at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. It was the sixth conference organised in the series of regional consultations held as “Privacy Matters”. The present conference analyzed the Draft Privacy Bill and the participants discussed the challenges and concerns of privacy in India.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1056&qid=140996" target="_blank">Future of Integrated Science Education in Higher Education in India</a><br />The Higher Education Innovation and Research Application (HEIRA) at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) and the Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS) at the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) hosted a two day workshop on 2 and 3 January 2012 on the Future of Integrated Science Education in Higher Education in India at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc. Nishant Shah participated in the workshop.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Media Coverage</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1057&qid=140996" target="_blank">Twitter’s Censorship Move Aimed at Regaining China?</a><br />"<i>The region-specific blocking was already being used on video hosting websites like YouTube and Hulu, where due to the wishes of copyright owners many videos are not available in India. Twitter is extending this technology to its tweets</i>.”<br />Pranesh Prakash in International Business Times, 28 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/google2019s-privacy-policy-raises-hackles" class="external-link">Google's privacy policy raises hackles</a> (Times of India, January 26, 2012)<br />“<i>Storing data makes it prone to misuse by authorities as well as corporations... I don't want my bakery shop owner to know what kind of medicines I buy from the nearby medical store</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Times of India, 26 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1059&qid=140996" target="_blank">Google to change privacy policy to use personal info of users</a><br />“<i>New changes are not good for a consumer's privacy</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in Punjab Newsline, 27 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/tangled-web" class="external-link">Tangled Web</a><br />“<i>We did a policy sting operation wherein we sent fraudulent notices to big web sites...in one case where we asked for the removal of three comments, they removed all 13. So there is already a private censorship underway.</i>”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Week, 21 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1061&qid=140996" target="_blank">POV: Should user-generated content be monitored?</a><br />“<i>We should not fool ourselves into thinking that private sector companies like Google will defend our fundamental rights. The next Parliament session is the last opportunity for parliamentarians to ask for the revocation of the rules for intermediaries, cyber-cafes and reasonable security practices</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in afaqs, 19 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1062&qid=140996" target="_blank">Indian Internet Lawsuit Puts Spotlight on Freedom of Expression</a><br />“<i>These rules have the potential to curtail debate and discussion on the net... They allow for all sorts of subjective tests by private parties and we predicted they would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression online</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Voice of America, 19 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1063&qid=140996" target="_blank">India: obscene pics of gods require massive human censorship of Google, Facebook</a><br /> “<i>It’s difficult to establish exactly what is anti-religious: for example, the Hindu profession of belief in multiple gods is blasphemous to Muslims, Christians and Jews</i>.”<br /> Sunil Abraham in ars technica, 14 January 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/is-india-ignoring-its-own-internet-protections" class="external-link">Is India Ignoring its own Internet Protections? </a><br />“<i>The I.T. Act provides immunity to (Internet companies) and that should be the default starting position</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Wall Street, 16 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1065&qid=140996" target="_blank">India internet: clean-up or censorship?</a><br />Sunil Abraham was quoted in Financial Time’s beyondbrics, 13 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1066&qid=140996" target="_blank">Twists and turns of the SOPA opera</a><br />“<i>In terms of infrastructure, the U.S. controls critical web resources. Contrasting this to the Chinese firewall that blocks content for users within its jurisdiction, the U.S. decision to redirect a link can act as a ‘global block’</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Hindu, 15 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1067&qid=140996" target="_blank">Activists cry foul against Aadhaar</a><br />Sunil Abraham participated in the meet on Aadhaar convened by the Indian Social Action Forum.<br />The Telegraph, 12 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1068&qid=140996" target="_blank">NGO questions people's privacy in UID scheme</a><br />“<i>The UID project was allowed to march on without any protection being put in place</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Times of India, 11 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1069&qid=140996" target="_blank">Revealed: Bangalore’s Basic Instincts</a><br />“<i>If you look at the Google trend or any other website, Bangalore does not figure among the top 10 cities that surfs for porn. But that does not mean that Bangalore does not surf porn. It only means that we have a very sophisticated surfer with a very specific type. They don’t go through Google or other websites. They know how to go about it. But whether it affects their personal lives is lot more complicated</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Bangalore Mirror, 8 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/facebook-google-face-censorship-in-india" class="external-link">Facebook, Google face censorship in India</a><br />“<i>Traditional intellectual property rights holders like movie studios, music companies and software vendors are trying to protect their obsolete business models by pushing for the adoption of blanket surveillance and filtering technologies</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in SmartPlanet, 5 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1070&qid=140996" target="_blank">Trail of the Trolls</a><br />“<i>Trolling provokes a non-productive argument and as of now it is not considered a criminal offence anywhere in the world</i>.”<br />The Telegraph, 4 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1071&qid=140996" target="_blank">Constitution of Group of Experts to Deliberate on Privacy Issues</a><br />It has been decided to constitute a Small Group of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice A.P. Shah, Former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court, to identify the privacy issues and prepare a paper to facilitate authoring the Privacy Bill. Pranesh Prakash is one of the members.<br />Published by the Planning Commission, New Delhi.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1072&qid=140996" target="_blank">2011: The year India began to harness social media</a><br />“<i>We saw an increased sharing of digital content whether photos, videos, songs, news or blogs pointing to the Why This Kolaveri Di video, which went viral on YouTube with over 1.3 million views within a week of its release</i>.”<br />Nishant Shah in the Sunday Guardian, 1 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h3><b>Blog Posts</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1073&qid=140996" target="_blank">Section 79 of the Information Technology Act</a> by Pranesh Prakash</li>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1074&qid=140996" target="_blank">How India Makes E-books Easier to Ban than Books</a> (And How We Can Change That) by Pranesh Prakash. This was reproduced in <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1075&qid=140996" target="_blank">Medianama</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Upcoming Events</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1076&qid=140996" target="_blank">The High Level Privacy Conclave</a><br />Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Society in Action Group, Gurgaon and Privacy International, UK is organizing the High Level Privacy Conclave at the Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place Greens in New Delhi on Friday, 3 February 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1077&qid=140996" target="_blank">All India Privacy Symposium</a><br />Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon, Privacy International, UK and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is organizing the All India Privacy Symposium at the India International Centre, New Delhi on Saturday, 4 February 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Events Organised</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1078&qid=140996" target="_blank">Workshop on the Standardization of Kannada Computing Terminology</a>, 28-29 January 2012, Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1079&qid=140996" target="_blank">The Curious Case of Whose Data is it Anyway?</a> The second round of discussions of the Exposing Data Series was co-organized by Tactical Tech and CIS. Siddharth Hande and Hapee de Groot gave lectures.</li>
<li>"ಕನ್ನಡ ಮತ್ತು ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಜೊತೆ ಜೊತೆಗೆ..." organised in TERI, Bangalore, 22 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Telecom</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. In this connection, Shyam Ponappa continues to write his monthly column for the Business Standard.</p>
<h3><b> Article by Shyam Ponappa</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1081&qid=140996" target="_blank">Reversing India's Downward Trajectory</a><br />The country can regain growth momentum with rate cuts and telecom reforms, writes Shyam Ponappa in this column published in the Business Standard on 5 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=456&qid=46981" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Follow CIS on <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=457&qid=46981" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=458&qid=46981" target="_blank">Facebook</a>\</li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=459&qid=46981" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to 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-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-09T09:36:46ZPageThe Bots That Got Some Votes Home
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/bots-got-some-votes-home
<b>Nilofar Ansher gives us some startling updates on the "Digital Natives Video Contest" voting results declared in May 2012, in this blog post.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It was a hint of suspicion raised by one of our colleagues at the Centre for Internet & Society that spurred our Web Analytics team to check into the voting activity of the contest that was all about the ‘<a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/vote-for-digital-natives" class="external-link">Everyday Digital Native</a>’. And while we acknowledged and celebrated the ‘digital’ in the native (users of technology), we forgot the human part that the digital has to engage with. Following weeks of deliberations, we now have conclusive evidence that points to irregularities in voting numbers of the Top 10 contestants. We are now staring at the elephant in the room: those innocuous little automated scripts we sweetly nicknamed, ‘bots’.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Internet bots, also known as web robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyzes and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Each server can have a file called robots.txt, containing rules for the spidering of that server that the bot is supposed to obey. In addition to their uses outlined above, bots may also be implemented where a response speed faster than that of humans is required (e.g., gaming bots and auction-site robots) or less commonly in situations where the emulation of human activity is required, for example chat bots (Source: Wikipedia).</p>
<h3>What irregularities?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">You would see how a script or bot would have played a role in ‘automating’ the votes for a video. The Top 10 videos received a combined voting number of 20,000+. The discrepancy occurs at the juncture where the votes polled on the front end (the webpage where the contestant video was visible to the public) did not match with the number of hits the page received on the backend (this is the analytics part). For instance, the top polled video has some few thousand votes more than the number of people who actually visited our CIS website in the same duration. This prompted a review of the logs and the possible “hand” of a nonhuman agent acting on its human creator’s command to drive up the votes.</p>
<h3>How was this done? The Technicalities</h3>
<p>The following graph shows the extremely high level of voting requests just before the closing date (March 31, 2012). This would not be extraordinary except for the fact that two or three entries had an exceptionally higher vote count relative to their page views as per the analytics statistics.</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/scripted-voting-report/quickhist_march_april.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Voting requests by date" /></p>
<h3>Analysis of the voting against the http requests for the voting link against page views</h3>
<div>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr style="text-align: center;">
<th>
<p>Entry</p>
</th>
<th>Actual Votes Recorded (1)<br /></th>
<th>Direct http requests to votes (2)<br /></th>
<th>http requests for normal page view access (3)<br /></th>
<th>Recommended adjusted vote count (4)<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/digital-media-dance" class="internal-link">Digital Dance</a></p>
</td>
<td>268</td>
<td>448</td>
<td>198</td>
<td><span class="visualHighlight">198</span></td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/big-stories-small-towns" class="internal-link">Big Stories, Small Town</a></p>
</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>10</td>
<td>112</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/digital-natives-contest/entries/connecting-souls-bridging-dreams" class="internal-link">Connecting Souls, Bridging Dreams</a></p>
</td>
<td>1113</td>
<td>2018</td>
<td>1685</td>
<td>1113</td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/finalist-summary/deployed" class="internal-link">Deployed</a></p>
</td>
<td>191</td>
<td>479</td>
<td>195</td>
<td>191</td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p class="internal-link"><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/from-the-wild-into-the-digital-world" class="internal-link">From The Wild Into The Digital World</a></p>
</td>
<td>10317</td>
<td>11880</td>
<td>810</td>
<td><span class="visualHighlight">810</span></td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/i-am-a-ghetto-digital-native" class="internal-link">I Am A Ghetto Digital Native</a></p>
</td>
<td>321</td>
<td>365</td>
<td>844</td>
<td>321</td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/life-in-the-city-slums" class="internal-link">Life in the City Slums</a></p>
</td>
<td>13</td>
<td>18</td>
<td>94</td>
<td>13</td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/who-is-a-digital-native" class="internal-link">Digital Natives</a></p>
</td>
<td>111</td>
<td>328</td>
<td>102</td>
<td><span class="visualHighlight">102</span></td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/with-no-distinction" class="internal-link">With No Distinction</a></p>
</td>
<td>369</td>
<td>557</td>
<td>1232</td>
<td>369</td>
</tr>
<tr style="text-align: right;">
<td>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/entries/digital-coverage-in-a-digital-world" class="internal-link">Digital Coverage in a Digital World</a></p>
</td>
<td>9622</td>
<td>13650</td>
<td>181</td>
<td><span class="visualHighlight">181</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3></h3>
<span class="internal-link"> </span>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">These are the public votes displayed on the contestant’s page through the thumbs up icon</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">These are http requests to the voting link against each video when the user clicked on the thumbs up icon.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">These are http requests which are collectively related to the video page (page view). A normal human user would browse through a page first, which downloads some other urls, such as the HTML for the page, JavaScript, images, and so on. A normal vote request would be included collectively. A direct http request to the voting link on the other hand does not do this, and only makes a specific request to vote without downloading the other parts that make up the page.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A normal human vote count should be the same or less than the number of page views. Only three videos highlighted show abnormal behaviour and it is recommended these be adjusted to the page view counts.</li></ol>
<h3>Are you saying contestants cheated?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While the use of programming scripts to accrue votes is no new tactic and we should, in fact, have a more robust mechanism to monitor such activity during a contest, we cannot prove the culpability of the human agents. The contestants might be innocent actors with overzealous friends or colleagues who ran the voting scripts. As of now, since there is no way to ascertain their part in this irregularity, it’s best we give them the benefit of the doubt. What comes through loud and clear is that once you do away with the scripted votes, four contestants still manage to have enough votes to maintain their positions in the final five. In the fifth position, we now have a contestant from the top ten finalists, who has secured the requisite votes (after vote adjustment) to propel him into the final five.</p>
<h3>Recommendation</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">‘Digital Dance’ (Cijo Abraham), ‘From the Wild into the Digital World’ (John Musila) and ‘Digital Coverage in a Digital World’ (T.J. Burks) had additional vote url counts than page views. It is recommended that the total votes for these videos be adjusted to the page view counts, and not the actual vote counts as displayed on their individual web pages (thumbs up icon) during the voting period.</p>
<p>The rankings of the adjusted voting would now read as:</p>
<ol>
<li>Connecting Souls, Bridging Dreams – Marie Jude Bendiola (1113)</li>
<li>From The Wild Into The Digital World - John Musila (810)</li>
<li>With No Distinction - T.J. K. M. (369)</li>
<li>I Am A Ghetto Digital Native – MJ (321)</li>
<li>Digital Dance – Cijo Abraham (198)</li></ol>
<h3>Transparency at CIS</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">‘The Digital Natives with a Cause?’ research inquiry is shaped around concerns of transparency, equity and community accountability. In our research methods as well as in outputs of the different activities, we have always maintained a complete transparency of decision making processes as well as in depending upon the incredible people we work with to help us learn, grow and reflect openly on the concerns that we have been engaged with. We strive to follow this method and in publishing these statistics, we want to ensure that there is complete transparency about the votes that were accrued and how the final winners were selected. We also take this opportunity as a learning experience to re-think the question of the non-human actors in our networks and further about the nature of participation and reputation online. We hope that the publishing of these results will help answer any inquiries on how the process unfolded.</p>
<h3>View Logs and Source Code</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/scripted-voting-report/logs-during-voting-period" class="external-link">All logs from the web server for this period</a> (24.7MB) Identical IPs are from caching server.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest/scripted-voting-report/main.R">R script to evaluate data for table</a></li></ul>
<h3>What next?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Since we spotted the error in time, we haven’t disbursed the prize money of EUR 500 to each of the Top 5 contestants. They will now receive the prize along with a chance to participate in the Digital Native workshop-cum-Webinar, slated to be held in July 2012. The top 10 videos will be showcased in this event.</p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/bots-got-some-votes-home'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/bots-got-some-votes-home</a>
</p>
No publisherNilofar AnsherFeaturedResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-04-24T11:56:10ZBlog EntryHyper-connected, Hyper-lonely?
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/hyper-connected-hyper-lonely
<b>The Digital Natives newsletter, part of the 'Digital Natives with a Cause?' project, invites contributions to its April-May 2012 double issue. </b>
<p>The April issue puts the spotlight on an emerging trope in society and media: the more connected we are to our gadgets, peer network and social media, the lonelier we feel. The debate, which traces its opening volley to Sherry Turkle's book 'Alone Together', will look at the recurrent media commentary that points to pop-surveys, anecdotes from psychologists, and conscientious academics who talk about increasing isolation among heavy gadget users. Since our gadgets are more often than not net enabled, it doesn't take a giant leap to infer that people who spend a lot of time online count themselves as part of the Lonely Hearts Club. Is loneliness a peculiarly modern phenomenon? <br />Editor: Shobha Vadrevu </p>
<p>In the May issue, we look at a technology that was considered sci-fi a decade ago, but is now the next best thing since our Smartphones: Augmented Reality. How do scientists and geeks go about augmenting our reality? How inspirational have movies (remember Minority Report) been in engaging imagination with what is commonplace and common sense? Does Google Glass excite you or scare you senseless? Would you still make distinctions between the virtual world and the real one? <br />Editor: Nilofar Ansher </p>
<p>We invite short pieces, lengthy reflections, haikus and verses, cartoons, graphics, videos, and other forms of creative expressions for both the issues. Deadline: June 21, 2012. For more information, email: <a class="external-link" href="mailto:nilofar.ansh@gmail.com">nilofar.ansh@gmail.com</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/hyper-connected-hyper-lonely'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/hyper-connected-hyper-lonely</a>
</p>
No publisherNilofar AnsherFeaturedResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-04-24T11:57:46ZBlog EntryDigitally Analogue
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/digitally-analogue
<b>Why there is nothing strictly analogue anymore, examines Nishant Shah in this column that he wrote for the Indian Express.</b>
<p>It is a given, that in the fight between the digital and the analogue, you have a certain perspective or an opinion. If you are a bibliophile and crave for the smell of second-hand books and the feel of freshly uncut pages, you probably object to e-readers and tablets which give you a book-like experience that is not quite the same. If you enjoy photography, you still value old film rolls, techniques of complex editing, and the sepia-coloured flatness that the film has to offer. If you are a cinegoer, you cherish a secret fondness for those days when the camera attempted to capture a realism which was stark and more believable than reality. You might miss receiving and writing letters, might get annoyed by the lightning fast expectations of communication, and are horror struck at the idea of buying clothes online, foregoing the pleasures of window shopping.</p>
<p>For each argument that is made in favour of the analogue, there will be an equally strong and strident voice that elucidates the joys and possibilities that the digital has to offer. The techno-savant will point out that the easy availability of digital technologies has democratised the realms of cultural production, granting more access and diversity to expressions from different cultures. It should be mentioned that the huge possibilities of manipulating, reproducing and transferring digital data, without any loss to the original has resulted in new forms of intricate and subversive cultural production. The speed of access and communication has mobilised resources and people in unprecedented ways, to make changes in their environments, empowering the citizen as an agent of change rather than a beneficiary of change.</p>
<p>In all these debates, there will be valid and contradictory arguments that will coexist, each extolling the virtues of their analogue or digital positions. While there is no correct position to take in this debate, there is something else that I want to draw our attention to. In both these debates, which seem to be about technologies, there is a presumed focus only on consumption of technology products. Or, in other words, in this over-emphasis about whether the final product should be consumed using digital or other technologies, there is a complete and total neglect of technologies of production that shape these cultural objects. This betrays two things for us to ponder over.</p>
<p>The first is about our relationship with the technologies that we use. As technologies, especially digital technologies become ubiquitous, easily affordable and available to us on mobile interfaces, and emphasises ease of access, there also seems to be an alienation of the user from conditions and modes of production. We seem to position ourselves only as consumers of tech products — often reducing our interaction with these technologies as spectators, or audiences or users. This is ironical because, it seems to perpetuate the schism between the digital and the analogue, while actually hiding the fact that most of our so-called analogue products have undergone dramatic change in their modes of production, which are facilitated and shaped almost entirely by digital technologies. You might enjoy the tactical experience of picking up a print book, but it might be good to realise that the entire book was put together by using digital interfaces. And while the book might seem to be a non-digital object, even the way it reaches the last mile — through e-commerce websites like Flipkart, or even your local stores, where it gets stored, sorted, and indexed — is also through a digital environment.</p>
<p>The second thing that this faux debate exposes to us is the futuristic dream of convergence. Convergence as a concept has been bandied around for about a decade now, where all our existing modes of living, facilitated by different technologies, are to be translated into the digital, thus seamlessly available through a single device which can perform everything. Convergence is the Holy Grail that marks our aspirations of the future. And debates of the analogue versus the technological sustain that illusion that it hasn’t really been achieved yet. However, as you look around you, you quickly realise that the analogue networks that we fantasise about very rarely exist. The analogue-digital divide is often reduced to the physical-virtual dichotomy and this is a false one. Analogue referred to certain kinds of technological practices where the human agent, by using the technological network could perform certain functions. So the older telephone networks, for instance, were electronic but analogue. However, our telecommunication went digital way before the phone became smart.</p>
<p>While those of us who were not born digital natives — we still remember what an audio cassette looks like and the smell of screen printing — will negotiate with the form of our access to cultural objects, it is also time to realise that being non-digital is no longer an option. And that what we think of as analogue, is often only a form, because the mode of production, design and distribution has gone digital when we were not looking. So it is good that you are reading this in print, as a part of a newspaper, but this column (like all other items in this publication) was conceived, written, delivered and printed entirely using digital interfaces. These are objects which now need to be thought of as digitally analogue. </p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.indianexpress.com/news/digitally-analogue/953982/0">Read the original published by the Indian Express on May 27, 2012</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/digitally-analogue'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/digitally-analogue</a>
</p>
No publishernishantcyberspacesResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-04-24T12:00:09ZBlog EntryWe Are All Cyborgs
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/we-are-cyborgs
<b>The cyborg reminds us that who we are as human beings is very closely linked with the technologies we use.</b>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.indianexpress.com/news/we-are-all-cyborgs/942874/0">Nishant Shah's article was published in the Indian Express on April 29, 2012</a></p>
<p>If you look at any illustrated
history of human civilisation, you will quickly realise that it is also a
history of technology. From the discovery of fire by Homo sapiens to
the contemporary homo digitalis, there is no escaping that technologies
of different kinds have not only changed the way we live but also helped
us realise what it means to be human. Often, we treat these
technologies as external to us, thinking of them as tools that we deploy
to perform a particular task. However, as our technologies become more
transparent, intimate and customised, we realise that we are developing
relationships with the technological devices that surround us. So, if
your laptop crashes, you feel crippled. There are people who proclaim
that they feel amputated without their cellphone. It is quite reasonable
to feel lost without the information compass of the internet.</p>
<p>This
relationship between human beings and technologies has been very
concisely defined in the idea of a cyborg. A cyborg is a
human-technology synthesis which enhances our capacities to live as
human beings. While it might seem like a slightly new idea, once you
realise that we constantly live with technologies and often internalise
them in our bodies, it is not difficult to wrap our head around it.
Think of people with pacemakers or prosthetic limbs or different
implants in their bodies, who experience technologies as an integral
part of their everyday life. Similarly, think of the wide range of
technology apparatus that you depend on to live a “regular” human life.
We have also seen iconic cyborg representations in popular movies — from
the absolutely unforgettable Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2 to
our very own dimpled Shah Rukh Khan as Ra.One — there has been a
persistent imagining of the human being as we know it, evolving to
become some sort of a super man, enhanced by advancements in digital
technologies of virtual reality.</p>
<p>There
has been a growing anxiety, almost a moral panic, about how
technologies are alienating us, replacing face-time with inter-face time
so that we are all growing “alone together”. There is also, across
generations and users, a growing separation of those who work with
technologies and those who don’t. There is much concern about the human
becoming corrupt because of the ubiquitous presence of the pervasive and
invasive technologies around us. In the face of these anxieties, the
cyborg stands as a culturally significant and timely reminder that we,
as human beings, are very closely linked with the technologies that we
use. And that we need to stop thinking of technologies as merely gadgets
and tools that surround us. The different objects that remind us of the
presence of technology are not the same thing as technology itself.
Technology is a way of thinking about things, a way of relating to the
world around us. The most intrinsic forms of technologies are the ones
that we don’t even recognise as a part of our innate mental make up.</p>
<p>Do
this simple experiment. Right now, while you are reading this, do not
look at any clock or time-measuring device and guess what time it is.
Chances are that you will be, give or take a few minutes, more or less
accurate. Even if you are temporally challenged, you will at least know
what part of the day it is, morning, afternoon, evening or night. The
point is that we are absolutely and completely creatures of time. We
cannot think of ourselves outside of it and even when we might be
dramatically wrong about it, there is no escaping the fact that we are
always thinking of ourselves and the world around us through time.</p>
<p>We
experience our lives and our relationships in cyclical notions of the
clock’s face, thinking of our actions as borrowed from the future, lived
in the present, and relegated to the archives of the past. It then,
must come as a bit of a shock (it certainly did to me, the first time I
was made to realise it) that time is not natural. Time is a human way of
measuring a passage of actions. Time is a technology which has now
become such a potent metaphor of life that we have forgotten to make the
separation of the human and the technological.</p>
<p>And
thus, whether you might be a tech-savvy digital native or a
byte-fearing luddite, there is no denying the idea that when it comes to
technologies of time, you are already a natural born cyborg. This
ability of technologies to become transparent and an inalienable part of
who we are forms cyborgs. The process through which they become
transparent is not easily accessible, but it does begin by an
internalisation of the technology’s processes in our everyday
vocabulary. So the next time you think of yourself as a system that
needs to be upgraded, or unable to pay attention because you don’t have
enough bandwidth, remember that you are engaging in a flirtatious
relationship with the digital. And slowly, but surely, we are all
turning into cyborgs, as the new technologies rearrange patterns of our
life and living.</p>
<p><em>digitalnative@expressindia.com</em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/we-are-cyborgs'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/we-are-cyborgs</a>
</p>
No publishernishantCyborgsResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-04-24T12:00:54ZBlog EntryImmigrants not Natives
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/media-coverage/immigrants-not-natives
<b>Sally Wyatt reviews the four-book collective, Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? edited by Nishant Shah & Fieke Jansen.</b>
<p>Review of Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? edited by Nishant Shah & Fieke Jansen, Bangalore: Centre for Internet and Society/The Hague: Hivos Knowledge Programme, 2011:</p>
<p>Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? (2011) is the product of a series of workshops held in 2010-11 in Taiwan, South Africa and Chile. The aim was to bring together a different cohort of ‘digital natives’ than that which had hitherto been assumed in the popular and academic literature, namely white, highly educated, (mostly) male elites largely to be found on and around US university campuses. The workshops brought together 80 people who identified themselves as ‘digital natives’ but with very different backgrounds, and who came from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The four booklets which have been produced on the themes of ‘To Be’, ‘To Think’, ‘To Act’ and ‘To Connect’ provide many fascinating and thought-provoking insights into the possibilities for reflection, action and interaction available to this group.</p>
<p>In my review, I focus on the editorial comments provided by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen in the Preface, the Introduction, and the sidebar text running alongside most of Book One, <em>To Be</em>, in which they provide the context for the workshops and the books, and in which they reflect on the concept of ‘digital native’. Shah and Jansen recognise many of the limits of the concept of ‘digital native’, and reflect upon those limits and possible alternatives. They and the contributors keep the term, while at the same time challenging it, refining it and reclaiming it. It is to this ongoing process of reflection and definition that I would like to contribute, and I do so by thinking about my own position as a user and an analyst of digital technologies and as a Canadian-born child of immigrants. </p>
<p>I was born in 1959 so there is no chance of me being mistaken for a ‘digital native’ (often defined as someone born after 1980). Yet I was programming when I was a student in the late 1970s, and I have lived in a house with a computer in it since 1984, though I didn’t acquire home internet access until 2002, relatively late for a person living in north-western Europe with my income and occupation. One feature of this life, not at all untypical for someone of my age and background, is that I experienced digital technology before it was black-boxed, when to operate a home computer required a certain level of engineering skill, and when the sleekness of today’s devices was still a dream. Maybe I am what the editors refer to (ironically and with affection they claim) as a ‘digital dinosaur’ (p.15). I would never claim to have been part of the cohort who created the internet, though maybe I am part of the group of social scientists who began analysing the social aspects of digital technologies, in both their production and their use, sooner rather than later.<a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1]</a></p>
<p>I’m also of a generation deeply affected by second-wave feminism. One of the most important books for us was The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, in which she wrote, ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’ (1949, p.267). This sentence, reproduced on countless posters, coffee mugs and t-shirts, neatly encapsulates the idea that gender is socially constructed, that there is nothing essential about the category of ‘woman’, nor of any other category. I would like to suggest that it also applies to digital natives – they are not born, they are made. Just because processes of socialisation are subtle and powerful, and one no longer has to poke the mother board with a paper clip to make the computer work, it does not mean that digital natives arrive fully formed as such in the world, nor that the identity will remain stable over time for them individually or as a group.</p>
<p>I read these volumes while in Canada in early 2012. I was born and grew up in Canada, though I have lived in Europe for all of my adult life. Canada and other settler societies use ‘native’ differently from Europeans. It was a term often used by colonisers to describe Indigenous communities such as the First Nations people in Canada, Aboriginal people in Australia, or the Māori in New Zealand. ‘Natives’ were not respected by the colonisers, and these groups continue to suffer disadvantage and discrimination. Moreover, the term ‘native’ is not used by Indigenous communities to describe themselves.</p>
<p>And because ‘native’ has different connotations, so does ‘immigrant’. I have lived for the past decade in the Netherlands, where to be an ‘immigrant’ is not comfortable, as attitudes and policies towards immigrants have become harsher, and the official definition of ‘native’ more exclusive. It is different in Canada, where the state of being an immigrant is almost the norm. Most people (except the First Nations people) are immigrants themselves, or have immigrants in their not too distant family histories. Canadians are comfortable with hybrid identities – there are not only French Canadians, but also Chinese Canadians, Greek Canadians and Chilean Canadians. I attended an international sporting event while visiting, and many of the spectators brought two flags with them to wave, depending on who was competing; or they had superimposed the maple leaf (the symbol of Canada that appears in the middle of the national flag) onto the flag of another country. There are many advantages to being an immigrant, apart from a wider choice of sporting heroes. One is that we know that identity is performance. Immigrants are constantly ‘becoming’ - legally, bureaucratically, linguistically and culturally.</p>
<p>Another advantage of being an immigrant comes from understanding the possibilities for re-invention. Many immigrants come for the promise of a better life for themselves and their children. It can be difficult and painful, but also exhilarating to start a new life, without the baggage of the past, whether one’s own youthful indiscretions or the burdens of expectation of the ‘old country’. I wonder whether ‘digital natives’ will ever experience the excitement of a new start. What will happen when they reach middle age, and the digital traces they have been creating since childhood cannot be erased and continue to follow them wherever they go? How will they cope when a younger generation arrives with a newer technology offering other possibilities for social transformation, because we can be certain that there will be newer technologies and that they will be accompanied by promises of social change?</p>
<p>It is too easy to assume that ‘native’ is a superior identity position to ‘immigrant’, or that natives always have advantages compared to immigrants because of their greater familiarity with the norms and codes of a way of life, digital or otherwise. In this volume, the project of reclaiming and expanding the reach of ‘digital native’ suggests that the editors and contributors see it as the preferred identity. Both ‘native’ and ‘immigrant’ are constructed categories, but ‘immigrant’ (from my particular historically located subject position) often feels like a more dynamic and reflexive identity position.</p>
<p>I will conclude by further performing my middle-aged curmudgeonly identity (and it is somewhat frightening how quickly one can slip into this as one passes 50). On many occasions in recent years, I have heard digital natives say – without shame – that they do not read anything that is not available online. Sometimes this is for understandable reasons, such as the cost and scarcity of printed versions, especially in countries where the workshops were held. But sometimes they seem genuinely unaware that many books and sources are not available digitally. One problem with only reading material that is born digital or has been digitised (sometimes badly) is that one becomes desensitised to grammatical niceties. Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen are the editors of these four volumes, and an executive editor is listed in the colophon. I am reluctant to criticise people who might not be native speakers of English, but there is at least one language mistake in almost every paragraph. The paper books of Digital (Alter)Natives with a Cause? are beautifully designed and produced. The production values of this project were high. It is unfortunate that more effort was not expended in language editing. Copy editors are in danger of suffering the same fate as the bison of the Great Plains, but this time not at the hands of settlers but at the hands and keyboards of digital natives.</p>
<hr />
<p>[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">1</a>].See Wyatt (2008) where I discuss at greater length the relationship between information society debates and feminist analyses of technology, and include elements of my personal relationship to those debates.</p>
<p><strong>References</strong></p>
<ol><li>de Beauvoir, Simone (1949/1989). <em>The Second Sex</em>, trans. H. M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books. </li><li>Wyatt, Sally (2008) ‘Feminism, technology and the information society: Learning from the past, imagining the future’ <em>Information, Communication & Society</em>, 11,1: 111-30.</li></ol>
<p>Sally Wyatt works with the eHumanities Group, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences/Maastricht University.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/media-coverage/immigrants-not-natives'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/media-coverage/immigrants-not-natives</a>
</p>
No publisherSally WyattBook ReviewDigital Natives2012-04-30T10:27:59ZNews ItemFraming the Digital AlterNatives
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/framing-the-digital-alternatives
<b>They effect social change through social media, place their communities on the global map, and share spiritual connections with the digital world - meet the everyday digital native. </b>
<p>The Everyday Digital Native video contest has got its pulse on what makes youths from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds connect with one another in the global community – it’s an affinity for digital technologies and Web 2.0-mediated platforms coupled with a drive to spearhead social change. The contest invited people from around the world to make a video that would answer the question, ‘Who is the Everyday Digital Native’? The final videos received more than <del>20,000</del> 3,000 votes from the public and our top five winners emerged from across three continents!</p>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/framing-digital-alternatives" class="internal-link" title="Framing the Digital Alternatives">The Digital AlterNatives Featurette </a>(PDF, 2847 KB) is a peek into the minds of digital natives as citizen activists. The 10 featured interviews of the Digital Natives video contest finalists don't fit the stereotype of the Globalized Digital Native: Young Geeks apathetic to 'Saving the Planet'. Rather, these are affirmative citizens, young, middle aged and senior, who consider digital technology as second nature for use in personal, professional or socio-political capacities.</p>
<p>The 'Digital Natives with a Cause?' is a collaborative research-inquiry between The Centre for Internet & Society, India and HIVOS Knowledge Programme, the Netherlands into the field of youth, change and technology in the context of the Global South. The three-year research project has resulted in the four-book collective, 'Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?' published in 2011. Read more about the project <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnbook" class="external-link">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/framing-the-digital-alternatives'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/framing-the-digital-alternatives</a>
</p>
No publisherNilofar AnsherFeaturedWeb PoliticsResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-05-08T12:28:03ZBlog EntryDigital Natives and the Myth of the Revolution: Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action
https://cis-india.org/news/digital-natives-and-the-myth-of-revolution
<b>Nishant Shah made a presentation on 'Questioning the radical potential for citizen action' at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of South California on March 8, 2012. </b>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/Events/2012/120308ARNICDigitalNatives.aspx">The event was organised by the Annenberg Research Network in International Communication (ARNIC) and the Civic Paths research group</a>.</p>
<p>This talk is a thought-in-progress inquiry into the radical claims and potentials of citizen action which has emerged in the last few years in several parts of the world. It seeks to show how citizen action is not necessarily a radical form of politics and that we need to make a distinction between Resistances and Revolutions. It locates Resistance as an endemic condition of governmentality within a State-Citizen-Market relationship and shows how it often strengthens the status-quo rather than radically undermining it. Looking at one particular instance of a campaign against corruption in India, to build a framework that can be deployed to understand the dissonance between the claims of the future and the practices of the present that gets produced in such instances of citizen action.</p>
<p>Nishant Shah is the co-founder and Director-Research at the Bangalore based research organisation Centre for Internet and Society. His interest is in questions of governance, identity, planning and body at the intersections of digital technologies, law and everyday cultural practice. He recently co-edited a 4 volume book titled 'Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?' that explores the relationships between youth-technology-change in emerging ICT contexts of the Global South.</p>
<p>Venue: University of South California<br />Date: March 8, 2012<br />Time: 4.00 p.m to 5.30 p.m.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/digital-natives-and-the-myth-of-revolution'>https://cis-india.org/news/digital-natives-and-the-myth-of-revolution</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital Natives2012-04-03T08:36:19ZNews Item5 Challenges for the Future of Learning: Digital Natives and How We Shall Teach Them
https://cis-india.org/news/ignite-talks
<b>At the Digital Media and Learning Conference on beyond education technologies, Nishant Shah gave a ignite talk on 5 Challenges for the Future of Learning: Digital Natives and How We Shall Teach Them on March 1, 2012. There was an author's table where he presented and shared the Digital AlterNatives books and info-kits.</b>
<p><strong>Thursday, March 1, 2012 – 4:30-5:45 </strong>(Cyril Magnin Ballroom)</p>
<p>Kea Anderson from SRI International<br /><em>How do you know it's working?: The U.S. Dept. of Education's new Evidence Framework</em><br /><br />Doug Belshaw, Purpos/ed<br /><em>Why we need a debate about the purpose(s) of education<br /></em><br />Tessa Joseph-Nicholas, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill<br /><em>The Zombies and the Revolution: Making Science Fiction Matter in the Digital Culture Classroom<br /></em><br />Peter Kittle, Cal State Univ., Chico<br /><em>Good Memes, Bad Teaching<br /></em><br />Crystle Martin, University of Wisconsin-Madison<br /><em>Interest-Based Crap Detecting<br /></em><br />David Cooper Moore, Temple University<br /><em>What Did Rebecca Black's "Friday" Teach Us About Media Literacy?<br /></em><br />Chad Sansing, Central Virginia Writing Project<br /><em>I used to be a middle school teacher like you until I took an arrow in the knee<br /></em><br />Rafi Santo, Indiana University<br /><em>Why Kids Need to Know How to Hack: Technological Citizenship and the New Civic Education<br /></em><br />Nishant Shah, Centre for Internet and Society<br /><em>5 Challenges for the future of learning: Digital Natives and how we shall teach them</em></p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Saturday, March 3, 2012 – 3:30-4:30 </strong>(Cyril Magnin Ballroom)</p>
<p>Heather Braum, Northeast Kansas Library System<br /><em>Learning from Birth to the Grave @ Your Library<br /></em><br />Mel Chua, Purdue University, and Sebastian Dziallas, Olin College<br /><em>Teaching Open Source: Productively Lost For Great Justice<br /></em><br />Ben Chun, Galileo Academy of Science & Technology<br /><em>Programming for Every Subject<br /></em><br />Jane Crayton, UNM, CU Boulder, STEM-A<br /><em>iSTEMart<br /></em><br />Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine<br /><em>Occupy Learning<br /></em><br />Henry Jenkins, USC<br /><em>The Samba School Revisited: Play, Performance, and Participation in Education<br /></em><br />Chris Lawrence, Hive Learning Network, NYC<br /><em>Throw a learning party!<br /></em><br />Heather Mallak, Girls, Math & Science Partnership, Click! Spy School<br /><em>Opening things with your teeth<br /></em></p>
<p>Jesse Pickard, MindSnacks<br /><em>How to Make Your Educational Game Not Suck<br /></em><br />Philipp Schmidt, Peer 2 Peer University<br /><em>How to make an online course in 5 minutes<br /></em><br />Jeff Sturges, Mt Elliott Makerspace<br /><em>Makerspaces<br /></em><br />Hsing Wei, Eyebeam and New Visions<br /><em>DTC Lab = teachers + technologists + designers = digital prototypes in 3 months <br /></em></p>
<hr />
<p>Venue:<em> </em>Wyndham Parc 55 Hotel<em>, </em>San Francisco, CA 94102</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://dml2012.dmlcentral.net/content/ignite-talks-1">Click on the original here</a></p>
<hr />
<h3> Video</h3>
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jMdFPqHtOvQ" frameborder="0" height="315" width="320"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<a class="external-link" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=IN&v=jMdFPqHtOvQ">The video is also featured in YouTube</a>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/ignite-talks'>https://cis-india.org/news/ignite-talks</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital Natives2012-04-30T13:04:26ZNews ItemD:Coding Digital Natives
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/d-coding-digital-natives
<b>Nishant Shah was invited for a public talk at the University of California, Los Angeles. He presented the work done on Digital Natives and spoke about questions of participation and resistance. The talk has been featured in the YouTube channel.</b>
<p>Nishant spoke about the ways by which technology revolution and change has been characterised through the question of voice (how technology has enabled for alternative voices to emerge as ways by which they can be heard), question of amplification (what 10 years ago might have been local phenomena are becoming global spectacles) and the question of power (what really happens when voice and amplification comes to an end). <br /><br />Nishant said that in the last three years of revolutions we have also now witnessed this extraordinary thing where lot of promises were made of different kinds of revolution but which never materialised in terms of what they intended to. Citizen action happens but it doesn’t lead into anything concrete. One of the examples from India was the Anna Hazare’s campaign or India’s fight against corruption. There was this immense amount of campaign on the corruption in Indian bureaucracy and political society... the only instance of mass mobilisation that we saw in India in recent times apart from the cricket series...and how the campaign in seven short months has totally disappeared from public discourse.</p>
<p>For more, watch the <strong>video</strong> now:</p>
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YvY__z3jN7M" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<p>Date: March 9, 2012<br />Time: 12 to 1 p.m.<br />Venue: Library Conference Center Presentation Room, University of California</p>
<a class="external-link" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvY__z3jN7M">Follow the video on YouTube</a>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/d-coding-digital-natives'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/d-coding-digital-natives</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaVideoResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-05-08T12:30:14ZBlog EntryWe Have the Answer for You. So, what's the Question?
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/answer-for-you-what-is-the-question
<b>The Everyday Digital Native Video Contest invited everyone to send in videos that answered the question: who's the everyday digital native? Participants from all parts of the globe now have the answers. </b>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/vote-for-digital-natives/video-contest" class="external-link">Click here</a> to view the videos and vote for your favorite! Voting ends March 31, 2012.</p>
<h2>Video<br /></h2>
<hr />
<iframe src="http://blip.tv/play/AYLwvSQA.html?p=1" frameborder="0" height="270" width="320"></iframe><embed style="display:none" src="http://a.blip.tv/api.swf#AYLwvSQA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/answer-for-you-what-is-the-question'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/answer-for-you-what-is-the-question</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-05-08T12:30:51ZBlog EntryVote for the Everyday Digital Native Video Contest!
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/vote-for-digital-natives
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society and Hivos are super excited to present the final videos in the Everyday Digital Native Video Contest. We invite readers to vote for the TOP 5 Videos. The finalists will each win EUR500! Voting closes March 31, 2012</b>
<h2>Who’s the Everyday Digital Native? This global video contest has the answer</h2>
<p><em>They effect social change through social media, place their
communities on the global map, and share a spiritual connection with the
digital world - Meet the Everyday Digital Native</em></p>
<p>The Everyday Digital Native video contest has got its pulse on what
makes youths from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds connect with one
another in the global community – it’s an affinity for digital
technologies and Web 2.0-mediated platforms coupled with a drive to
spearhead social change. The contest invited people from around the
world to make a video that would answer the question, ‘Who is the
Everyday Digital Native?’. Following a jury-based selection process, the
final videos are now online and open for public voting.</p>
<p>Run by the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet & Society (CIS)
with the support of Dutch NGO HIVOS, the contest will see the top five
videos with the most votes declared winners on April 1, 2012. The 12
finalists in the video, who come from different parts of the globe, are
each vying for the top prize of USD 500 and a chance to have their
shorts screened in a film screening and panel discussion hosted by CIS. <br /><br />Referring
to the theme of the contest, Dr Nishant Shah, Director of Research and
Co-founder of the Centre, says that the contest aims at highlighting the
alternative users of digital technologies. These are people who are
often not accounted for either in mainstream discourses of changemakers
or in academic biopics on digital natives. “The 12 video proposals show
that the everyday digital native does not wake up in the morning and
think, ‘hmmm today I will change the world’. And yet, in their everyday
lives, when they see the possibility of producing a change in their
immediate environments, they turn to the digital to find networks that
can start a change”, says Shah. <br /><br />Apart from the top five public
selections, the jury members will be instrumental in picking their two
favorites among the finalists. Talking about the range of ideas that
participants sent in jury member Leon Tan, a media-art historian,
cultural theorist and psychoanalyst based in Gothenburg, Sweden, says,
“The contest is an exciting project as it has the potential to portray
the lives of digital natives from different corners of the world. The
generosity of the contestants in creating video proposals is commendable
as is the range of ideas suggested. The ideas address both the
opportunities and risks of what we might call digital life.” <br /><br />Adds
Shashwati Talukdar, a filmmaker and jury member from India, “It was
really interesting to see how different all the proposals were. Some of
them were taking the notion of digital native as a personal one and some
were very clearly political and sought an intervention in the real
world. Dutch digital media artist and jury member Jeroen van Loon refers
to a proposal from the USA where the participant wanted to explore the
possibility of unplugging from his digital life. “It’s very interesting
how digital natives question their own world. The proposals are good
examples of how technology and culture constantly change each other. We
can learn a lot from the global digital natives.” </p>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/video-contest" class="external-link">Profiles of the finalists and their videos can be viewed here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/vote-for-digital-natives'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/vote-for-digital-natives</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaVideoFeaturedResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-05-08T12:32:00ZBlog Entry