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Digital native: Snap out of outrage mode

Rage at the inequality of the digital world is good. But why stop at the Snapchat CEO?

Digital native: Are You Still Having Fun?

Before you accept a fun app into your digital ecosystem, prepare yourself for the data you will be giving away.

Digital native: You can check out, you can never leave

Aadhaar is not something you define and opt into, it is something that defines you.

Exploring Big Data for Development: An Electricity Sector Case Study from India

This working paper by Ritam Sengupta, Dr. Richard Heeks, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, and Dr. Christopher Foster draws from the field study undertaken by Ritam Sengupta, and is published by the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. The field study was commissioned by the CIS, with support from the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield.

Evaluating Safety Buttons on Mobile Devices: Preview

Much technological innovation for women is aimed at addressing violence against women. One such ubiquitous intervention is mobile device-based safety applications, also known as emergency applications. Several police departments in India, public transport services, and commercial services such as taxi-hailing apps deploy a mobile device-based “panic button” for the safety of citizens or customers, especially women. However, the proliferation of safety apps through both public and private players raises several concerns, which will be studied through this study by Rohini Lakshané of the CIS and Chinmayi S.K. of The Bachchao Project. Research assistance for this report was provided by CIS intern Harish R.S.K. Visualisations by Saumyaa Naidu.

Digital native: Lie Me a River

The sea of social media around us often drowns the truth, exchanging misinformation for facts.

Digital native: Who will watch the watchman?

The state mining its citizens as data and suspending rights to privacy under the rhetoric of national security is alarming.

Digital Native: Do not go Gently into the Good Night

If there’s a lesson to be learned from the resistance to the Trump administration, it is this — patriotism is not a feeling, it is an action.

Digital native: Back at it Again

The Indian digital landscape has put us in a loop of hashtags and outrage, a space where we have mastered the art of shame.

Internet Researchers' Conference 2017 (IRC17) - Selected Sessions

With great pleasure we announce the eleven sessions selected for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2017 (IRC17) to be held at the IIIT Bangalore campus during March 03-05. The Conference is being organised by the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP) at IIIT Bangalore and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS).

Digital transitions in the newsroom: How are Indian language papers adapting differently?

In a new report published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Centre for Internet and Society, Zeenab Aneez explores how Indian newsrooms are adapting their workflow and processes to cater to an increasing digital audience and the implications these changes have on how journalists produce news.

Digital Native: The Dream of the Cyborg

We have arrived at hybrid realities, where the technological and the human cannot be separated. The digital future we had once imagined is already here.

Digital Native: People Like Us

How the algorithm decides what you see on your timeline. If you have been hanging out on social media, there is one thing you can’t have escaped — a filter bubble. Be it demonetisation and its discontents, the fake news stories that seem to have ruined the US election, or the eternal conflict about the nature of Indian politics, your timeline must have been filled largely by people who think like you.

Indian Newspapers' Digital Transition

This report examines the digital transition underway at three leading newspapers in India, the Dainik Jagran in Hindi, English-language Hindustan Times, and Malayala Manorama in Malayalam. Our focus is on how they are changing their newsroom organisation and journalistic work to expand their digital presence and adapt to a changing media environment. The report comes out of a collaboration between the CIS and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, and was supported by the latter. The research was undertaken by Zeenab Aneez, with contributions from Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Vibodh Parthasarathi, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay.

Digital native: The View from My Bubble

In the digital world, the privileged have the power to deny a devastating crisis for the poor.

Digital native: The Voices in Our Heads

What if our phones were to go silent? Would you be able to deal with the silence?

Internet Researchers' Conference 2017 (IRC17) - Selection of Sessions

We have a wonderful range of session proposals for the second Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC17) to take place in Bengaluru on March 03-05, 2017. From the 23 submitted session proposals, we will now select 10 to be part of the final Conference agenda. The selection will be done through votes casted by the teams that have proposed the sessions. This will take place in December 2016. Before that, we invite the session teams and other contributors to share their comments and suggestions on the submitted sessions. Please share your comments by December 14, either on session pages directly, or via email (sent to raw at cis-india dot org).

Digital Native: Mind Your Language

The lack of localisation on the Internet is a symptom of a larger problem. It has been a festive season. Greetings are in the air. Well, realistically speaking, smoke-filled smog is in the air and greetings are all on social media. In a flood of messages — gifs, animated icons, poetic snippets, messages written in a script that looks vaguely Devanagari, and quotations that bestow glee and gladness upon all — that made their way into my social media feed, there was one that stood out.

Digital Native: The Future is Now

The digital is not just an addition but the new norm in our lives, and it might not be all good. There used to be a popular joke among technology geeks when Bluetooth arrived on our mobile devices — everything becomes better with Bluetooth.