The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 61 to 75.
Net cracker
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/net-cracker
<b>Is Facebook taking over our lives? And if it is, so what? In email interviews with new media researcher and user control advocate Marc Stumpel who is conducting a Facebook Resistance workshop this fortnight, and artist and communication designer Tobias Leingruber, the originator of the FB Resistance idea, Akhila Seetharaman attempts to answer these questions. This article was published in Time Out Bengaluru Vol. 3 Issue 19, April 1 - 14, 2011.</b>
<h3>There’s a lot said about the role of social media in fuelling political revolutions. What do you make of the role of Facebook, for instance, in the recent uprisings in the Arab world?</h3>
<p><strong>Marc Stumpel </strong>Clearly, social media has been utilised as instruments by citizens in the Middle East to organise and coordinate democratic protests. They have also proven to be important sources for real-time reporting and documenting political events. The use of networked communication in political protests, however, is nothing new. In my view, it’s wrong to assume there is a causal relationship between social media and “political revolutions”. You need “the people” to instigate a revolution; they will unquestionably use any media at hand.</p>
<p>My interest lies more with researching and exposing the political dimension of social media, rather than questioning its relationship with the politics that we are used to talking and writing about. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are sites of governance themselves, as the user activities, conditions and data distribution are maintained by a particular set of rules and constraints, embedded in the software.</p>
<h3>How do social media sites control people, while at the same time giving them more outlets for self expression and communication?</h3>
<p><strong>MS</strong> Proprietary social networking software like Facebook have many constraints, which means that users have to abide by the laws and strict limits as defined by the software. Where is our ‘freedom’? For example, why not let the users change their background colour or ‘dislike’ something?</p>
<h3>There have been many changes to Facebook that have met with widespread opposition and outrage. How does one make sense of these instances?</h3>
<p><strong>MS</strong> Facebook’s PR communication regarding its immediate software changes has been very deceptive. They’ve repeatedly used a particular vocabulary to create images of Facebook ‘apologising’ for or ‘justifying’ rigid changes. They say, ‘Look! We ‘simplified’ privacy controls, because we care about your privacy,’ while making them more complex instead.</p>
<h3>Can you tell us a few things that Facebook users should know but don’t, about the way Facebook uses their stuff?</h3>
<p>Tobias Leingruber Realise the nature of the company. Google is not a search engine. Google is an advertising network. Facebook is not a social network – it’s an advertising network. We are the product, ‘the sheeple’. We get to be in a herd, but we pay with our most private data. They shave our wool.</p>
<p><strong>MS</strong> Facebook is not transparent about its Web user-tracking activities. Via cookies it saves every website you visit outside of Facebook that has any FB social plugin implemented. We don’t exactly know what FB does with this tracking data.</p>
<h3>What is the Facebook Resistance?</h3>
<p><strong>MS</strong> Our attempt is to resist from within the system by slowly undermining and questioning it. This means we’re not leaving it and building a new one. We’re accepting the fact that Facebook has already ‘won’ for now, and we’re trying to make the best out of it by bending its rules.</p>
<h3>Critical talk about social media landscape often borrows from the lexicon of war – with online suicide, tactical media, resistance, etc. How much of a warzone is it?</h3>
<p>TL Nice observation! Actually ‘cyberwar’ has become very real this year, as US and Israeli militants created a worm that successfully attacked and physically destroyed parts of the Iranian nuclear research programme.</p>
<p>But more specifically on social media I think those extreme terms are very helpful to get people’s attention. We’re overwhelmed by information, so getting people’s attention is an art form itself.</p>
<p><strong>MS</strong> We are not at ‘war’ with Facebook; we are at “softwar”, fighting for internet freedom and the adoption of open standards.</p>
<h3>What is the potential of resistance to Facebook? What can be achieved?</h3>
<p>TL In theory we could undermine and replace their entire system. For example, the chat – to get rid of the tracking and censorship, the system behind Facebook’s chat interface could be replaced with something else, such as the Jabber protocol through an independent server.</p>
<p><strong>MS</strong> Expanding your freedom on Facebook by learning how to impose new rules and features onto the system through internet browser processing (thus, not changing any code on Facebook’s server) and spreading awareness about this possibility.</p>
<p><em>Photography by Tobias Leingruber</em></p>
<p>Read the original article <a class="external-link" href="http://www.timeoutbangalore.com/aroundtown/aroundtown_preview_details.asp?code=73">here</a></p>
<p>Download the article <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/facebook-resistance" class="internal-link" title="Facebook Resistance Article">here</a> [pdf 3.7 mb]</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/net-cracker'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/net-cracker</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaResearch2011-04-02T17:11:03ZNews ItemMyth/History/Irreverence: Flaneurs and Whores of Our Time
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/myth-history-irreverence
<b>As part of a longer discovery and reading of Walter Benjamin's work, Atreyee Majumder constructs an argument that the turgid notions of the new, the contemporary and the important are endless repetitions of nothing-new. Atreyee will give a lecture on this on 8 January 2011 at the Centre for Internet and Society.</b>
<p>Many epochs, many histories seem to collide in a transient yet euphoric sensation of the ‘new’, immediately turning into ash-like heap of nothing-new. This understanding of the historic contemporary as a shuffle of old cards, yields new lenses through which to interpret the turgidity of the 'new' and the 'novel' in our times — technologies, crises (climate change, political upheaval, etc.), Facebook. She revisits the notion of history as scaffolding — especially, through the Benjaminian point of view of the Flaneur and the Whore, albeit the ones of our time.</p>
<h3>Atreyee Majumder<br /></h3>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/atreyee.jpg/image_preview" title="Aitreyee Majumder" height="374" width="249" alt="Aitreyee Majumder" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p>Atreyee graduated from the National Law School of India University in 2006 and is a PhD student of Socio-cultural Anthropology at the Yale University, with keen interests in political anthropology, spatiality, historicity, the interaction of many planes of history which constitute the historical residue of the contemporary. She is doing a dissertation research on the making of political subjects on the peri-urban terrain in Howrah, West Bengal, in the shadows of socialisms, and everyday dialog with metropolitan norms of civicness from neighbouring Kolkata. She has worked as an activist and researcher in the fields of law, environment and development in Delhi.</p>
<p><strong>VIDEOS</strong></p>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/AYKojAcA"></embed>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/AYKoqHUA"></embed>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/myth-history-irreverence'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/myth-history-irreverence</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaResearch2011-04-04T07:22:36ZEventMultimedia Storytellers: Panel Discussion
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/multimedia-storytellers
<b>This post brings three storytellers together to find points of intersection between their methods. The format will be that of a panel discussion and it features: Arjun Srivathsa from Pocket Science India, Ameen Haque from the Storywallahs, and Ajay Dasgupta from The Kahani Project. They discuss technology, interpretation and action in storytelling. </b>
<pre>CHANGE-MAKERS: Arjun Srivathsa, Ameen Haque and Ajay Dasgupta
ORGANIZATIONS:Pocket Science India, The Storywallahs and The Kahani Project
METHOD OF CHANGE: Storytelling</pre>
<p align="justify">Over the last couple of weeks, I had the privilege of interviewing three storytellers. What struck me the most, besides from their fascinating ideas about storytelling, was how many of their ideas overlapped. As much as I would love to sit all of them in the same room and enjoy the fireworks, there are a number of logistical constraints that shut my storyteller reunion daydreams down; so for this post, I decided to be a self-appointed liaison between you and them. I will mimic this discussion by putting my conversations with them side by side, in the format of a panel discussion. Their interaction will have to happen in the realm of your imagination.</p>
<p align="justify">The questionnaire I used for my interviews was open-ended. I was curious to hear what they wanted to share about their work, as opposed to filtering and steering the conversation in a certain direction; so I let them take their own turn. While I clearly inquired about the relationship between storytelling and making change, it was fascinating to see each storyteller reach the question of ‘social impact' through different channels; testimony of the influence of their education and professional backgrounds in their work.</p>
<p align="justify">If I were to bring them together, the topic of the discussion would be: '<strong>Technology, Interpretation and Action in Storytelling</strong>'. We briefly discussed mediation and semiotics<strong><a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1]</a></strong> in the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance#pre-production">Pre-Production</a> section of the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance">Storytelling as Performance</a> post. We mentioned then:</p>
<p align="justify" class="callout"><em>"mediums are combined to enhance the visibility of the message and the power of the experience of stories. [...] Each medium: video, audio, text, music, etc.- becomes “a new literate space” or “symbolic tool” storytellers use to portray narratives about the self, community and society (Hull, 2006)”</em></p>
<em>
</em>
<p align="justify">These thoughts were triggered by the work of the French philosopher, <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ricoeur/">Paul Ricoeur</a>, who considers our self-identity a result of sign mediation and interpretation. Other themes in his work include: discourse and action, temporality, narrative and identity; also useful and relevant when exploring how storytelling and reality intersect. For example, how does building a narrative develop into a discourse that mirrors our context and existence? How does the medium chosen to carry this narrative define the language system of our discourse? Finally, let’s not forget this discussion is happening amid the digital question: how does the mediation of digital technologies enable or constrain our narratives of change?</p>
<p align="justify">Against this background, I would like to propose a discussion around five points of intersection that came up organically* during my conversations with them.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a)<strong> The power of storytelling</strong>: <br />What makes it a powerful vehicle of communication? How does this practice break from more traditional strategies of information dissemination?</p>
<p>b) <strong>Storytelling as a vehicle to make change: <br /></strong>How does the practice of storytelling intervene in the social imagination of its audience? Is it the experience or the content of stories what drives the message of change forward? Where does change happen: at the value, behavioral, community or macro level?</p>
<p>c)<strong> The role of technology in storytelling:</strong> <br />What is the part technology plays in storytelling vis-a-vis traditional storytelling? Is it a static infrastructure or does it shape the force and direction of the story? How does technology influence and impact their work</p>
<p>d) <strong>Translating awareness to action through stories: </strong><br />Can you guarantee the ideas and values imbued by the story will translate into action in the public space?</p>
<p>e)<strong> Influence of stories on citizenship and political participation:</strong> <br />Can the power of stories be leveraged to instill a sense of responsibility in the audience?</p>
<p align="justify" class="discreet">* With the exception of Arjun Srivathsa, who addressed these points in a conference I attended. He later responded to a questionnaire in which I inquired about the intersections specifically.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 align="justify">Introductions<br /></h2>
<p align="justify">We first have <strong>Arjun Srivathsa</strong>. He has a Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation and currently works as a Research Associate for the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS India). In tandem, he started Pocket Science India, an initiative that combines wildlife science with art and cartoons to promote conservation in India and disseminate information from scientific journal articles. He aims to bridge the gap between the work of scientists and people using art and humour.</p>
<p class="callout">
<strong>Arjun:</strong> I find the world of science and scientists very cool. Finding new things, discovering and inventing ways to understand the world better is an awesome way of life. I chose a career in science for this reason, second only to my love for nature and wildlife. But the essence of science, according to me, is not just to discover, but also to communicate. Even though wildlife research in India has progressed massively in the past few decades, the only notion people have is that of exaggerated scenes from television documentaries. When I discovered that most of the work by Indian scientists on wildlife and conservation of India is making no difference to people (mostly because they are unaware), I decided to use the easiest way to bridge the gap: through humour and art.</p>
<p align="justify">Second speaker<strong> </strong>is<strong> Ameen Haque</strong> from <a href="http://www.thestorywallahs.com/">The Storywallahs</a>. In what he calls his past life, he worked for 18 years in Advertising and Brand Strategy Consulting. Ameen also has a background in theatre and now works as as storyteller for The Storywallahs.</p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/F8U5HAI-0TI" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420">&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/center&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe></p>
<p align="justify">Finally, we have <strong>Ajay Dasgupta</strong>, the founder of <a href="http://thekahaniproject.org/">The Kahani Project</a>, who also has a background in theatre and believes listening to stories is a fundamental right of children. His team works to capture stories in audio format and make them accessible.</p>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/144633144&color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" height="166" width="100%"></iframe>
<p>I will now invite them to share their thoughts on the points described above. Each panelist will respond to the questions using<strong> a different medium</strong>: Arjun will comment with text and images, Ameen will comment with video and Ajay will comment using audiobytes. The idea is for each storyteller to use the medium and language they use for their own storytelling: cartoons, body language and audio respectively, as we explore how this choice mediates how they conceptualize change. I will act as a moderator and comment on common themes in the light of Paul Ricoeur’s characteristics of narratives.</p>
<h2>1. The Power of Storytelling<br /></h2>
<h3>What makes it a powerful vehicle of communication?</h3>
<p> </p>
<h2></h2>
<div class="pullquote"><span id="docs-internal-guid-10dcb36e-642b-76be-1e09-54a2a3103a5c">“narrative attains full significance when it becomes a condition of temporal existence” Time and Narrative<br /></span></div>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-10dcb36e-642b-76be-1e09-54a2a3103a5c"></span></div>
<p align="justify">The first characteristic of narratives according to Ricoeur is:<strong> the ability to bring independent elements and episodes together into a plot within a specific context and time</strong>. The relationship between time and narrative is addressed by the philosopher in his work <em>'Oneself as Another</em>,' in which he frames narratives as the most 'faithful articulations of human time'. This leads to an understanding of time as a framework where we can locate unique events and patterns, trajectories and sequences. Our three storytellers comment on how stories are an effective mean to communicate information, and how this information resonates because it can be located in the frame of our human existence.</p>
<p class="callout">
<strong>Arjun:</strong> Storytelling really is the nascence of any communication technique. As kids we were all told stories with bees and birds, which spoke and thought. The moral life lessons and similar “information” were served to us on these fascinating platters.</p>
<div align="center"> <img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/1524964_614398581930298_1037858013_n.jpg/image_preview" alt="Pocket Science 1" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Pocket Science 1" /></div>
<div align="center">
<div align="center"><span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption"><span class="hasCaption"><em>Dugongs are closely related to whales and dolphins. They are peaceful mammals that swim around gracefully and feed on sea grass. <br />They are categorized as “VULNERABLE” because there are not too many of them left in the world. </em>
</span></span></div>
<span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption"><span class="hasCaption">
<p align="center">Find full cartoon <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=614398581930298&set=a.614397888597034.1073741836.609687355734754&type=1&theater">here</a></p>
</span></span></div>
<p class="callout">At some point in life, we all seem to stop appreciating the power of storytelling. Plain reporting of information has been done to death. Even an amazing discovery written as a formal report will fail to excite audience. It is time we all get back to appreciating stories. They sell. Movies generally do better than documentaries don’t they?</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>Ameen:</strong></p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q5fphRoT-2k" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<p><strong>Ajay:</strong></p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/144633135&color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" height="166" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<h2>2. Storytelling as a vehicle to make change</h2>
<h3> How and where does change happen?</h3>
<p> </p>
<div class="pullquote">“All action is in principle interaction [...] change happens through interaction, as others are also encouraged to change” From Text to Action</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The second characteristic of narratives is how the <strong>episodes in our narratives involve contingencies that will be shaped and reformulated through the development of the story</strong>. The narratives are constructed in such a way that induce us to imagine possible events in the future and how we would act in said circumstances. This characteristic is supported by Ricoeur's understanding of the <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ricoeur/#3.2">'self' as an 'agent'</a>, who can act and influence causation by taking initiative or interfering<strong><a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[2]</a></strong> in the story. Even if the listener cannot necessarily influence the outcome of the story (unless it is participatory storytelling), it triggers thoughts about its capability to act and its ability to change future realities, as he imagines himself n the situation of its characters. This out-of-body experience is what turns story into experience.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Our storytellers comment on how stories can influence and activate our agency and enable listeners to act towards creating change.</p>
<p class="callout"><strong>Arjun: </strong>Of course! Like I said, it is easier to influence people when you are not being preachy. Storytelling sidesteps the moral high ground that change makers are often blamed to occupy and takes a pleasantly shrewd path, as silly as it may sound.</p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>
<div align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/PS.jpg/image_preview" alt="Pocket Science 4" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Pocket Science 4" /></div>
</th>
<th>
<div align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/PSI2.jpg/image_preview" alt="PSI2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="PSI2" /></div>
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<em> </em><em><span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption"><span class="hasCaption">#2:
Increase in wildlife tourism has been brought about by the increasing
population of the ‘Tourist’. This species is easy to recognize (see
figure). The species has created an ecosystem of its own. It eats any
kind of high or low profile food. Lives in resorts. Seeks charismatic
animals like the tiger. Its daily activity involves excessive use of its
camera. This species facilitates wildlife tourism </span></span></em></td>
<td><span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption"><span class="hasCaption"></span></span><em>#9: Wildlife tourism is an excellent way to
expose people of India and abroad to its rich natural heritage [...] We
definitely need to regulate the number of tourists to avoid crowding in
the forests, but we also need to educate tourists, especially the
first-timers, about wildlife and its conservation. The tourist can be an important tool in conservation –
let’s not let it go waste!</em>"<br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p align="center">Find full cartoon <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=609780439058779&set=pb.609687355734754.-2207520000.1396426793.&type=3&theater">here</a>.</p>
<p align="justify" class="callout">To the question of where we locate change, it depends on what this change is. Through my work, I often target <strong>individuals and smaller communities</strong> (say students, villagers etc.). I don't necessarily grab my paintbrush and declare that I will change the world. My idea of change is a tailored, targeted and therefore an efficient influence on individuals.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>Ameen:</strong></p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GJpeQMltaT4" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p align="justify"><strong>Ajay:</strong></p>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/144633137&color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" height="166" width="100%"></iframe>
<h2><br /></h2>
<h2>3. The role of technology in storytelling</h2>
<h3>How does technology influence and impact your work?</h3>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Ricoeur’s thoughts on the relationship between text and action, makes us reconsider how we think about ‘<em>text</em>’ and how this reading can be applied to technology. According to him, the distinction between text and action is not at the linguistic, but at the discursive level. This is how he differentiates language from discourse:</p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th><br /></th>
<th>Language<br /></th>
<th>Discourse<br /></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Structure</td>
<td>A system: timeless and static<br /></td>
<td>Located at a given time and moment<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Composition</td>
<td>A sequence of signs<br /></td>
<td>A sequence of events that describe, claim and represent the world<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Meaning</td>
<td>Refers to signs<br /></td>
<td>Refers to the world<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Communication</td>
<td>Provides codes for communication. <br />Necessary but not sufficient<br /></td>
<td>Communicates</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p align="justify">Using these working definitions, we can understand the medium as <strong>a language:</strong> a system that provides us with signs and codes for communication. A creative use of language and mediums will hence, enable us to create narratives and produce meaning (which will be generated and negotiated by the audience). Technology is in this case our language, and how each storyteller uses it determines new ways to create meaning: experiences, connections and associations with and within their stories. We now ask them if/how the use of this 'language' mediates and impacts their work.</p>
<p align="justify" class="callout"><strong>Arjun:</strong> Technology is the best facilitator in the realm of my science-art-communication. I depend on it extensively, to first educate myself. Then to create artwork (computer, tablet, smartphone). And then eventually I depend heavily on social media to broadcast my work. I will definitely credit the power of technology for fostering and enabling effective communication.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/PSI3.jpg/image_preview" alt="PSI3" class="image-inline image-inline" title="PSI3" /></div>
<p align="center"><em># 11: The story of Ajoba was carried far and wide in newspapers, television news and the internet</em>. Find full cartoon <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=610114332358723&set=pb.609687355734754.-2207520000.1396426793.&type=3&theater">here</a>.</p>
<p align="justify" class="callout">In my capacity, I feel most confident targeting students and urban youth. But thanks to the power of social media, putting my work out there has grabbed the attention of change-makers who are capable of things that is beyond my scope. This has led to collaborations through which the reach has become wider. Teachers use my art work in their classes, some organisations are using it in forest department buildings to educate visitors, some local groups have translated my work into regional languages.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>Ameen:</strong></p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/25EAnt1yi94" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p align="justify"><strong>Ajay:</strong></p>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/144633141&color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" height="166" width="100%"></iframe>
<h2><br /></h2>
<h2>4. Translating awareness into action through stories<br /></h2>
<h3>Can you guarantee the ideas and values imbued by the story translate into action in the public space?</h3>
<p> </p>
<div class="pullquote"> “what must be the nature of action...if it is to be read in terms of change in the world?” From Text to Action</div>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-10dcb36e-6935-a65e-1136-120c46ff2174" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">So far they have told us about the power and content of stories. However, we have yet to find out what is it in stories that make listeners translate fiction into real life action. Ricoeur's final characteristic of narratives points us in the direction of empathy and interpretation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Like discourse, action is open to interpretation. He posits t<strong>hat characters of our stories rise to the status of ‘persons’ when we evaluate their actions, including their doings and sufferings</strong>. This ethical verdict determines the identity of the character in the eyes of the audience (above any other physical or emotional characteristics) and this is what ultimately adds meaning to the events of the story, as it inspires the audience to emulate or reject this behavior through their actions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">We asked our storytellers their thoughts on how to translate stories' messages into meaningful action, or if it was even possible to guarantee this transition to begin with:</p>
<p align="justify" class="callout"><strong>Arjun:</strong> I don’t [know]. One never does, I feel. But a lot of good awareness programs have made me change little things in my life. The people or groups who initiated those campaigns don't know of this, do they? This is somewhat similar. I believe that even if ONE person in the thousand who view my work gets influenced into making little changes, then it was worth my time and effort.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>Ameen:</strong></p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/neFe7kj8dIc" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p align="left"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p align="left"><strong>Ajay: </strong>(Ajay commented on the impact of stories while we were discussing how to gauge the impact of his work. In our first conversation he said:<em> "Change is happening but there are no tests that can measure it and quantify it.</em>" and he elaborates on this idea below:)</p>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/144633138&color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" height="166" width="100%"></iframe>
<p align="left"> </p>
<h2 align="left">5. Influence of stories on citizenship and political participation<br /></h2>
<h3>Can the power of stories be leveraged to instill a sense of responsibility in the audience?</h3>
<div class="pullquote"><br />"You can only achieve power in common by including the opinions of as many people as possible in the discourse"</div>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<p align="justify">Finally, as stated in the brief of the project on methods for change, we are also interested in defining how political participation should be manifested in the public space. Ricoeur frames political action as a result of discourse and political deliberation.For a brief discussion of the relationship between storytelling and our political identity visit <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance-2">Part 2 of Storytelling as Performance</a>.)</p>
<p align="justify">This last section captures the storytellers' point of view on how stories may affect our sense of citizenship and political responsibility.</p>
<p align="left" class="callout"><strong>Arjun</strong>: We are living in a society which is becoming increasingly insensitive and arrogant. There seems to be no time to stop and see the big picture: what are we doing? are our demands and lifestyles sustainable? Is the future generation secure? Impacts of our actions on the natural world.</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/1511040_609776472392509_490391694_n.jpg/image_preview" alt="Pocket Science 2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Pocket Science 2" /></td>
<td><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_1533944_609777242392432_1081033930_n.jpg/image_preview" alt="Pocket Science 3" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Pocket Science 3" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption"><span class="hasCaption">#1: Most of us love seafood. And why shouldn't we? It tops the charts as some of the most delicious delicacies in the world! It so happens that we rarely think about what goes on
“behind-the-scenes” and take many things for granted. The story behind
how food reaches your plate is quite a scary one!</span></span></td>
<td> <span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption"><span class="hasCaption">#12: So next time you feel like a getting a seafood dinner, do it with some perspective.</span></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div align="center">Find full cartoon <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.609776052392551.1073741831.609687355734754&type=1">here</a></div>
<strong>Ameen:</strong>
<p> </p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lO0y0QZ3vhQ" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Ajay</strong>:</p>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/144633136&color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" height="166" width="100%"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<h2>Closing Remarks</h2>
<p align="justify">I hope you enjoyed reading, watching and listening these three wonderful storytellers share their ideas on technology, interpretation and action. The question that remains unresolved is whether the effect of the story is shaped by the use of technology or not. At the end of the day it is the interpretation of stories -more than what it is said and how it is being said- what will determine the sustainability of these intents for change. The answers of our storytellers reinforce the notion that technology is a system, a language, a medium that transports our messages and intentions, but that inherently lacks the ability to provide guarantees for action and sway users into a lifestyle of responsible citizenship the second they pull out from their cartoon, screen or mp3.</p>
<p> The box below includes a quick run through the main ideas discussed throughout the post:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>1. <strong>On the power of storytelling: </strong></p>
<ul><li>Arjun argues that storytelling is the origin of all communication techniques, and this makes it extremely attractive for the public. <br /></li><li>Both Ajay and Ameen bring up the ability to influence behavior, shape the minds of people and transmit experiences, values and beliefs.</li><li>Both also brought up how dominant religions, ideologies, markets governments use storytelling to build movements and sustain their support</li><li>Finally Ajay comments on the issue of access: stories are powerful yet only a small share of stories are being told Hence, the need for this method to become more pervasive.</li></ul>
<br />
<p>2. <strong>Storytelling as a vehicle for change:</strong><br />Each storyteller locates change in different yet complementary spaces:</p>
<ul><li>Arjun believes it must occur at the community level and hence the approach (stories) must be tailored and targeted in order to achieve an effective influence. His approach to change is very contextual.</li><li>Ameen locates it at the behavioral level; in our ability to make decisions and choices. His approach to change is based on how we use information from stories to interact with our surroundings.</li><li>Ajay locates it at the value level: He believes stories should influence us to adjust our values and only then, we will shape our behavior accordingly.</li></ul>
<br />
<p><strong>3. Role of technology:<br /></strong>We approached technology as a 'text' and as a 'language' that creates new possibilities for meaning and interpretation.</p>
<ul><li>For Arjun and Ajay, technology enabled them to connect with other organizations and increased possibilities for partnerships and collaborations. </li></ul>
<ul><li>The three of them believe technology is an accelerator of the journey of stories and that it enables them to reach a larger audience.</li><li>Ameen argued that each medium requires different fluencies, and that the language of each medium should be adapted for the story. For example, a story will be told in different ways if using body language, video, audio, etc. He uses the example of the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/Twitter">Twitter adaption of the Mahabharata.</a><br /></li><li>Ajay closes by noting that although technology enables, it cannot replace the storyteller. <br /></li></ul>
<br />
<p><strong>4. Translating awareness into action</strong></p>
<ul><li>Arjun and Ameen comment on the power of effectively and positively influencing <em>one</em> person. They believe the impact will exponentially spread and grow through that person's network or community.</li><li>Arjun believes you can guarantee it will turn into action.</li><li>Ameen believes you need to move them and inspire them through your characters to the point they feel they can be the hero of that story and act accordingly.</li><li>Ajay takes a more pragmatic approach towards action and shares some of the activities The Kahani Project uses to complement his storytelling sessions, such as: story-thons, story-booths and interactive storytelling, where they engage the audience in the production of their own stories.</li></ul>
<br />
<p><strong>5. Impact of storytelling on citizenship and political participation</strong></p>
<ul><li>Arun and Ajay believe this will come as a result of self-reflection and an evaluation of our impact in the world.</li><li>Ameen believes effective stories transmit the 'responsibility of action' through rhetoric. He uses the example of the popularity of India Against Corruption movement.</li><li>Ajay believes storytelling is a humanizing force that has the power of healing. He recommends institutions should utilize this method to spread confidence and inclusion among society and particularly with excluded groups. <br /></li></ul>
</blockquote>
<h2>Footnotes</h2>
<p align="justify">[<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/multimedia-storytellers#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] Semiotics is defined as the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. It is the study of making meaning and is essential to understand communication processes. While we will not look at any specific semiotics theory, we will focus on how stories create meaning through different signs and mediums, and how this meaning can be leveraged for making change.<br /><br />[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">2</a>] Refer to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ricoeur/">page on Paul Ricoeur</a> and the section on ‘Selves and Agents’ to learn more about how action is mediated by causation, interference and intervention. Some interesting thoughts that inspired the above post</p>
<p dir="ltr">“What must be the nature of the world … if human beings are able to introduce changes into it?. Ricoeur adopts the analysis of interference or intervention that G. H. von Wright gives in Explanation and Understanding, and shows that for there to be interference, there must be both: an ongoing anterior established order or course of things and a human doing that somehow intervenes in and disturbs that order. Moreover, interference is always purposeful. Hence an interference is not merely ascribable to an agent. It is also imputable to the agent as the one whose purpose motivates the interference.”</p>
<p>
“The second crucial question about action is “What must be the nature of action … if it is to be read in terms of a change in the world?” Ricoeur argues that every action involves initiative, i.e., “an intervention of the agent of action into the course of the world, an intervention that effectively causes changes in the world” (Oneself as Another, 109, translation modified). Initiative requires a bodily agent possessing specific capabilities and vulnerabilities who inhabits some concrete worldly situation.”</p>
<h2>Sources:</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>Dauenhauer, Bernard and Pellauer, David, "Paul Ricoeur", <em>The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy </em> (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/ricoeur/>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/multimedia-storytellers'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/multimedia-storytellers</a>
</p>
No publisherdenisseMaking ChangeNet CulturesResearchFeaturedResearchers at Work2015-10-24T14:26:51ZBlog EntryMetaphors of Work, from ‘Below’
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/springer-platformization-and-informality-chapter-metaphors-of-work-from-below
<b>Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon authored a chapter that describes platforms as more than technological interfaces. The chapter invokes some of the metaphors that gig workers use to make sense of platforms. This chapter was part of an edited volume published by Springer. This chapter forms part of the ‘Labour Futures’ research project, hosted at the Centre for Internet and Society, India, and supported by the Internet Society Foundation. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Various disciplines have produced literature on digital platforms—broadly categorised as technological interfaces enabling the exchange of goods and services — with little consensus on what platforms are and how they impact economic and labour systems. Features that are commonly associated with platforms include their role in increasing efficiency in supply chains, their deployment of cutting-edge technology, and their ability to ‘disrupt’ existing modes of provision of services and goods (Jarrahi & Sutherland, 2019). The use of metaphors and carefully curated taxonomy has been crucial in cementing this idea of the digital platform as a technological layer objectively matching supply and demand (Gillespie, 2017). This chapter seeks to document and understand how workers experience different types of digital platforms, and how workers’ imaginaries of platforms differ from popular and academic conceptions.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-11462-5_8">Click to read more</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/springer-platformization-and-informality-chapter-metaphors-of-work-from-below'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/springer-platformization-and-informality-chapter-metaphors-of-work-from-below</a>
</p>
No publisherAayush Rathi and Ambika TandonLabour FuturesRAW BlogResearchRAW PublicationsRAW ResearchResearchers at Work2023-07-03T12:29:29ZBlog EntryMay 2012 Bulletin
http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/copyright-amendments">Copyright Amendments – Empowering the Print Disabled</a> by Rahul Cherian.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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="http://editors.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='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2012-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-07T06:59:29ZPageMathematisation of the Urban and not Urbanisation of Mathematics: Smart Cities and the Primitive Accumulation of Data - Accepted Abstract
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/smart-cities-and-the-primitive-accumulation-of-data-abstract
<b>"Many accounts of smart cities recognise the historical coincidence of cybernetic control and neoliberal capital. Even where it is machines which process the vast amounts of data produced by the city so much so that the ruling and managerial classes disappear from view, it is usually the logic of capital that steers the flows of data, people and things. Yet what other futures of the city may be possible within the smart city, what collective intelligence may it bring forth?" The Fibreculture Journal has accepted an abstract of mine for its upcoming issue on 'Computing the City.'</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Speaking to Geert Lovink, Wolfgang Ernst explains that '[t]he coupling of machine and mathematics that enables computers occurs as a mathematization of machine, not as machinization of mathematics' <strong>[1]</strong>. In this paper, I propose that the idea of smart cities be understood not as 'urbanisation of mathematics' – as often described by industry documents, design fictions, and academic analyses – but as 'mathematisation of the urban.' By the notion of 'urbanisation of mathematics,' I indicate at those reports that conceptualise smart cities as data analytics, or civic mathematics, at an urban scale. I explain how this notion is shared by design visions of actors from the networking industry, such as IBM and Cisco, emerging academic practices in urban science and informatics, and calls for urbanising the technologies of regulation and governance, in the sense of making these technologies directly and bi-directionally interact with the urban citizens <strong>[2]</strong>. Conversely, the 'mathematisation of the urban' perspective foregrounds a specific transformation at hand in the production of urban space itself, which I argue is what is captured in the idea of smart cities. This transformation is not a new thing, and has been heralded by the coming of coded infrastructures and the transduction of urban space through them <strong>[3]</strong>. The process of 'mathematisation of the urban' refers to a fundamental reorganisation of the urban itself so as to make aspects of it available to mathematical manipulation, most often undertaken by software systems. This mathematisation takes place through the rebuilding of urban infrastructures so as to facilitate sensing and recording of parts of urban lives and processes as mathematical data, and the embedding of coded assemblages that can communicate and act upon the analysis of such data, and also through re-building the relations of property around this newly-obtained and continuously-generated resource of data about the urban.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I propose in this paper that production, circulation, and ownership of data must be considered as a central problematique in the discussions of smart cities. As writings on smart cities have often focused on the dyadic relationships between code and space on one hand, and co-evolution (and splintering) of networked infrastructures and the urban form, the figure of data has remained implicit yet subdued as as an entry point to study the idea of smart cities. Even for commentators who do focus on the implications of data, the category is often treated as a feature or a capacity of new technological assemblages. Instead, I argue in this paper that it is the concerns of production, circulation, and ownership of data that drive the conceptualisation and actual material forms of the visions of smart cities. These technological assemblages, materialisation of which constitute such visions, are implementations of exclusive data collection operations targeting various portions of urban lives and processes. The imagination of 'city 2.0' takes a particularly insightful colour when thought of as an analogy to the 'web 2.0' model of capture and monetisation of user behaviour data. Further, I employ the Marxian theory of 'primitive accumulation' to describe how the material infrastructures of networked sensors and embedded data capture systems create enclosed spaces for conversion of collectively-held-information into data-as-exchangable-and-interoperable-value, through which disparate and distributed knowledge and experiences of the urban is transformed into urban data, which can be centralised and queried, and hence value can be extracted from it.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Footnotes</h3>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Lovink, Geert. 2013. Interview with German Media Archeologist Wolfgang Ernst. Nettime-l. February 26. Accessed on April 20, 2015, from <a href="http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0302/msg00132.html" target="_blank">http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0302/msg00132.html</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> Sassen, Saskia. 2012. Urbanising Technology. LSE Cities. December. Accessed on April 20, 2015, from <a href="http://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/urbanising-technology/en-gb/" target="_blank">http://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/urbanising-technology/en-gb/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> Dodge, Martin, and Rob Kitchin. 2005. Code and the Transduction of Space. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 95: 01. Pp. 162-180.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/smart-cities-and-the-primitive-accumulation-of-data-abstract'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/smart-cities-and-the-primitive-accumulation-of-data-abstract</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroData SystemsSpaceResearchSmart CitiesResearchers at Work2015-11-13T05:47:13ZBlog EntryMaterial Cyborgs; Asserted Boundaries: Formulating the Cyborg as a Translator
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/material-cyborgs-asserted-boundaries-formulating-the-cyborg-as-a-translator
<b>In this peer reviewed article, Nishant Shah explores the possibility of formulating the cyborg as an author or translator who is able to navigate between the different binaries of ‘meat–machine’, ‘digital–physical’, and ‘body–self’, using the abilities and the capabilities learnt in one system in an efficient and effective understanding of the other. The article was published in the European Journal of English Studies, Volume 12, Issue 2, 2008. [1]</b>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Download the paper <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/publications-automated/cis/nishant/material%20cyborgs%20ejes.pdf/at_download/file" class="external-link">here</a></em>.</p>
<p><em>Read the original paper published by Taylor & Francis <a class="external-link" href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13825570802151504">here</a></em>.</p>
<hr />
<h2>I, the cyborg</h2>
<p>The cyborg, a combination of hardware, software and wetware, stands as one of the most visible figures of the cybernetic age. A portmanteau of two words: cybernetic and organism, the term cyborg refers to a biological being with a kinetic state that can be transferred with ease from one environment to another, able to adapt to changing environments through technological augmentation. The first living Cyborg to find its way into the human family tree was a rat. Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline – two astrophysicists, in 1960, thought of a ‘hybrid-organism’ system (a rat with an osmotic pump) that provided biological stability to an organism in response to its constantly changing environment. In their paper in Astronautics they wrote:</p>
<blockquote>For the exogenously extended organizational complex ... we propose the term ‘cyborg’. The Cyborg deliberately incorporates exogenous components extending the self-regulating control function of the organism in order to adapt it to new environments. (Clynes and Kline, 1960: 1)</blockquote>
<p>Notwithstanding this, the cyborg is most commonly thought of in a futuristic vein, escaping the confines of the physical body and recreated through various digital forms like databases, networks and archives.</p>
<p>With the emergence of the WorldWide Web, the cyborg has strategically evolved in our imaginations as a metaphor of our times.We are already in the age where the ‘first living cyborg’ (Warwick, 2000: 15) has announced his arrival. In his autobiography I, Cyborg, Stephen Warwick, a professor of cybernetics and robotics, unveils how he became the first human cyborg through a series of path-breaking experiments. He begins his narrative by saying, ‘I was born human. But this was an accident of fate – a condition of time and place. I believe it’s something we have the power to change’ (Warwick, 2000: 5). Cybercultures theorist David Bell, on the other hand, especially with the proliferation of new digital technologies, in his preface to The Cybercultures Reader, locates the cyborg in ‘the crucial mechanics of urban survival’ (Bell, 2000: xxi) that produce everyday cyborgs through digital transactions and technologically augmented practices. Sherry Turkle, looking at the experiments in genetic engineering and reproductive practices, traces the processes of ‘cyborgification’ in the production of ‘techno-tots’ (Turkle, 1992: 154) – a new generation of designer babies who have been augmented by technology to have the perfect genetic composition.</p>
<p>In this paper, I seek to explore the possibility of formulating the cyborg as an author or translator, who is able to navigate between the different binaries of ‘meat– machine’, ‘digital–physical’, ‘body–self’, using the abilities and the capabilities learnt in one system in an efficient and effective understanding of the other. What does the cyborg as a translator add to our understanding of the processes of translation? If we were to examine the formation of a cyborg identity embedded in the digital circuits of the World Wide Web, what is the text of translation? What are the translated objects? Who performs these translations? Is the user the omnipotent translator who brings to this site, her special knowledge of distinct systems to make meaning? When inflected by technology, does the process of translation, performed by the cyborg, enter into realms of incomprehensibility which get translated as illegality? How does the figure of the translating cyborg enable an analysis of the cyborg as materially bound and geographically contained, rather than the earlier ideas of the cyborg as residing in a state of ‘universal placelessness’ (Sorkin, 1992: 217)?</p>
<h2>Configuring the cyborg as a translator</h2>
<p>The cyborg, as fashioned by science fiction narratives, cinema and cartoons, conjures images of human–machine hybrids and the physical merging of flesh and electronic circuitry. Different representations of the cyborg abound in science fiction narratives in print, film, animation and games, from reengineered human bodies showcasing fin de millennia nostalgia for large robotic machines of power and strength to sleek and suave microchip-implanted silicon-integrated human beings who work in their artificially mutated enhancements. The cyborg has covered a wide imaginative range from looking at a happy human–machine synthesis to a degenerate human body made grotesque by machinistic implants to a rise of a potent cyborg community that threatens to overcome the human world of biological certainty and mortality. Some of the most famous instances of cyborgs in popular narratives illustrate this wide spectrum; from Maria the robot in Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) to Lara Croft in the The Tomb Raider series (Toby Gard, 1996); from Case in William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) to Mr Anderson a.k.a. Neo in The Matrix Trilogy (The Wachowski Brothers, 1999–2003); from Johnny Quest (Hannah-Barbara Cartoons, 1996–7) in the eponymous animated series to avatars created on social networking sites and MMORPGs <a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2]</a> like Second Life.</p>
<p>However, with the popularization and democratization of new digital technologies of information and communication (ICTs), we see a certain evolutionary production of the cyborg as an increasing number of people interact with digital spaces and sites and adopt mobile gadgets of computation and information dissemination as an extension of their bodies. The cyborg, as imagined within the digital realms of cyberspace, is imagined differently from the more hyper-real, hypervisible constructs within the fictional narratives.</p>
<p>Arjun Appadurai (1996), in his formulation of post-electronic modernity, explores how electronic media offer new everyday resources and disciplines for the imagination of the self and the world. He argues that the individual body and its ownership are wedded to the logic of capitalism and the notion of ownership that characterized most of the twentieth century. Appadurai suggests that the body becomes a site of critical inquiry and contestation because a capitalist state grants the individual the rights to his/her body and the choice to fashion that body through consumption patterns. When talking of Technoscapes <a name="fr3" href="#fn3">[3]</a>, Appadurai posits the idea of a technologically enhanced sphere of activities and identity formation that defy the processes of capitalism and produce new instabilities in the creation of subjectivities.</p>
<p>Cyberspace has become such a site where the individual body, marked in its being (genetically, biologically, socially and culturally) and circumscribed by the (physical, reluctant and cumbersome) space, can free itself from the relentless materiality of a capitalist set of reference points, to create a truly global self and a universally accessible space. Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, in their comprehensive history of the origins of the web, mention how in 1968 Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider and Robert Taylor, who were research directors of the United States of America’s Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and who also set in place the first online community (ARPANET), prophesied that online interactive communities ‘will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location but of common interest’ (Hafner and Mathew, 1996: 44). This prophesy was realised by the end of the twentieth century, as scholars announce the construction of the ‘discontinuous, global agoras’ (Mitchell, 1996: 27) and the arrival of the new commons shaped within the technoscapes of the internet. The imagination of the internet as the new public sphere of communication, interaction and collaboration also brought into focus the skills that a cyborg requires in order to materially exist on the intersections of various domains. Donna Haraway, in her seminal essay ‘A cyborg manifesto’ (1991), posited one of the most influential imaginations of the cyborg as residing in the ‘optical illusion between social reality and science fiction’ (Haraway, 1991: 151) Haraway’s cyborg hints at the possibility of imagining the cyborg as a translator:</p>
<blockquote>The cyborg is resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversity. It is oppositional, utopian and completely without innocence. No longer structured by the polarity of public and private, the cyborg defines a technological polis based partly on a revolution of social relations in the oikos, the household.<br />(Haraway, 1991: xxii)</blockquote>
<p>This cyborg, in the blurring of the public and the private, in the diffusion of the physical and the virtual, and in the yoking together of economic practices and social identities, becomes an agential subjectivity that translates one system into another, using the referents of meaning making and processes of knowledge production in one system for deciphering and navigating through the other system. Haraway’s cyborg is a willing and conscious extension; an illustration of what Judith Butler, in Bodies That Matter (1993) calls the ‘performative’, thus infusing the figure of the cyborg with the ability to negotiate with its immediate environment and shape it through the material practices it engages with. The cyborg as a translator, thus has an interesting role as a mediator between the two systems. The cyborg no longer makes the distinction between an original and a translated text – the two systems occupy equal and often contesting zones of reality and authenticity for the cyborg.</p>
<p>Sandy Stone, in her anthropological study on technosociality – the technologised social order that emerges with ICTs and the social order of the technologised communities – emphasizes this very critical role of the cyborg:</p>
<blockquote>In technosociality, the social world of virtual culture, technics is nature. When exploration, rationalisation, remaking, and control mean the same thing, then nature, technics, and the structure of meaning have become indistinguishable. The technosocial subject is able successfully to navigate through this treacherous new world. S/he is constituted as part of the evolution of communication and technology and of the human organism, in a time in which technology and organism are collapsing, imploding, into each other.<br />(Stone, 1991: 81)</blockquote>
<p>Stone’s idea of the cyborg as collapsing the binary between the organism and technology is indicative of how the cyborg, in its processes of translation, reproduces both the worlds, and in fact allows for a dual process of translation between the two so that systems implode to form a complex set of references that determine the meanings of the text. This dual process of translation produces a critical episteme to revisit the notion of translation where the skills of the translator and the figure of the translator are generally looked upon as residing in a nuanced and close reading of the original text and the interpretative techniques by which it is reproduced in the ‘new’ or translated text, making sure that the original gets suffused with the meaning and ironies of the other language. Stone also adds to Haraway’s conception of the cyborg as she recognizes another distinction that the cyborg as a translator blurs in its being – the distinction between technique and the structure of meaning.</p>
<p>The cyborg as a translator, because it produces its identities through the same techniques that it produces the translated texts, internalizes the very techniques of translation. However, this process of internalization, instead of making the techniques invisible, foregrounds them as essential to the comprehension and understanding of the meanings which have been produced in this dual process of translation. The next section of this paper does a close reading of an instance of particular cyberspatial form – the social networking systems – to illustrate the dual processes of translation and the textuality of the texts involved.</p>
<h2>Lost in translation</h2>
<p>Both Haraway and Stone imagine the cyborg in a process of self-authorship through the interaction with the digital technologies. However, both of them only deal with the conceptual category of the cyborg and do not really examine the specific practices that this cyborg produces. Within cyberspaces, social networking systems, blogs, MMORPGs, multiple user dungeons (MUD), discussion boards, media sharing platforms, p2p networks <a name="fr4" href="#fn4">[4]</a>, etc., all create different conditions within which the physical users, through their digital avatars, interact with each other and form complex models of social networking and personal narratives. In this section I look at the notion of this self-authoring cyborg, embedded in the social networking system of ‘Orkut’, to illustrate and examine the discussions in the preceding section.</p>
<p>Orkut, a Google project, is one of the most thriving social networking systems that allows people to reacquaint themselves with people they have known in the past – friends, colleagues, acquaintances, family – who might be distributed across geography and lifestyles. Orkut also enables people with similar interests to form communities and interact, network and form new relationships with strangers in an unprecedented fashion. Orkut follows the AmWay <a name="fr5" href="#fn5">[5]</a> Economic model for its social networking, whereby an individual person inherits the friends of friends, thus often connecting themselves down more than 50 levels of friendship. Such a connection, such possibilities of networking, and the overall feeling of belonging to a dynamic, ever-growing network, gives the users a heady rush of emotions, using Orkut for various personal and professional reasons – from dating to holding meetings, from public performances to professional networking.</p>
<p>Most users within Orkut find themselves members of communities which are created around themes, hobbies, issues, ideas, movies, heroes, idols, books, religions, universities and schools, organizations, institutions, subjects, disciplines and music. One of the pre-requisites for using the various services on Orkut to their full potential is the creation of a profile. The profile, unlike a personal ad, is a concentrated effort at translating the ‘physical’ self of the person into ‘digital’ avatars that refer to the ‘original’ user behind the profile. Because of the pseudonymous nature of cyberspatial interactions, there is also an extra effort at making these avatars more verifiable, more real and more trustworthy. As an increasing number of users use social networking systems to find friends, to connect with partners and form communities that often translate back into the physical world, they spend a lot of effort on their profiles, trying to simulate (or translate) their personal identities and ideas into the digital world.</p>
<p>Most users put pictures of their face, along with populating their own virtual photo album with pictures of their pets, partners, friends, family and places they have visited. Profiles often change, adding ‘new pictures uploaded’ as a caption, to invite friends to visit their space and find out what is new about their virtual lives. Users can also keep track of all the changes that the people in their networks are making to their profiles, thus giving the sense of a fluid and a changing persona rather than a static description. Applications which allow the users to track birthdays, special dates, online calendars and the important events in their friends’ lives, add to the nature of communication and interaction. Most profiles have a fairly detailed narrative, using poetic imagery, exaggerated style, witticisms and pop philosophy to translate the person behind the screen. The profiles are also filled with their favourite activities, TV shows, music and books. This process of mapping a virtual body and producing texts of the physical body is the first level of translation that the users perform. The model of cyborgs that Haraway and Stone posit look upon the possibility of role playing, of fantasy, of adaptation and of authoring the self, in this process of cyborgification, as extremely liberating and subversive.</p>
<p>The social networking system and the related profiles also draw our attention to the dynamic interactions of the translated self within the digital domains. Through a metonymic process, the digital profile – the translated self – comes to stand in for the bodies of the users who not only create the translated self but also mark it with desires and aspirations. The translated self is largely under the control of the physical body. And yet, there are several ways in which the translated self does not allow for the physical body to emerge as the original, the authentic or the primary self within the dynamics of this site. On the one hand, it is the physical body of the user that authors the digital self, and hence it should be looked upon as the primary or the authentic text. On the other hand, the interactions that happen within the social networking system are interactions of the authored/translated self. The responses that the profile receives, the way in which the self is represented, the techniques used to engage with more people or invite strangers to communicate, are all the practices of the digital self.</p>
<p>Within Orkut, the profile of the person is bound to the physical body of the user behind the profile. While it is of course necessary to invoke a virtual avatar, because of the nature of social networking with people one already knows or has known, there is a certain disinvestment of fantasy within Orkut. Several users select pseudonyms which allow them to remain totally anonymous, but most of them have a visible face which tries to approximate their real-life persona online. Unlike the circuits of blogging or role playing games, Orkut emphasizes the need to be a ‘real’ person, thus validating its unique feature of ‘scrapping’. By employing it, users are encouraged to publicly perform their intimacies and relationships, which can be easily documented and tracked by others outside the one-to-one interaction. Thus, there seems to be a specific need to narrativize the self though the profile and the various functionalities available on Orkut. Members of the Orkut community are encouraged to think of themselves as part of a larger database – transmutable, transferable sets of data which they have authored for themselves – and can mobilize their virtual self across different networks to enhance their sense of social interaction and networking.</p>
<p>Also, the digital self is not translated solely by the physical user. Orkut has a feature of testimonials where the people in the networks of the translated self, also author opinions, observations and endorsements for the profile. Moreover, the public nature of communication and the archiving of this, add to the meaning and the functioning of this translated self. This production of the meta-data introjects the translated self into a circuit of meaning making and producing narratives that is beyond the scope of the physical body. Thus, there is a strange tension between the physical body of the user and the translated self that the user produces, which leads to the emergence of a cyborg identity. The cyborg is neither the physical body nor the translated digital self. It resides in the interface between the two, each constantly referring to the other, creating an interminable loop of dependence. The cyborg, because it is produced by the very technologies of the two systems that it is straddling, makes these techniques or the technologisation of the self synonymous with the processes of producing the narratives or making meaning.</p>
<p>This production of narratives of the self through different multimedia environments is not simply a process of writing biography or making self-representations. The users on Orkut (as well as other social networking sites like MySpace or blogging communities like Livejournal) are authoring avatars or substitute selves which are intricately and extensively a part of who they are. These translated selves do not live independent lives, but are firmly entrenched in the physical body and practices of the users. While there is a certain flexibility in the scripting of the avatar, the projections are more often than not premised upon the possibility of a Real. The avatars are also scripted as engaging in extremely mundane and daily activities to create verisimilitude and to map the physical body on to the avatar. To leave status messages like ‘stepped out for lunch’ or ‘Working really hard’ or ‘I am bored, entertain me’ is common practice for the users. As increasingly more users stay connected but are not always present on these digital platforms, they also let the avatars ‘sleep’ or ‘eat’ or ‘go away for some time’, synchronizing the avatar’s actions with their own.</p>
<p>A look at many other similar sites like blogging communities on ‘Livejournal’, or dating communities like ‘Friendster’, can give us an idea that the first stage in authoring a cyborg rests in creating these profiles, or avatars. Users spend an incredible amount of time trying to create for themselves the best avatars, which will be continued projections of the self. These tend to rely mainly on the visual component, as in games like ‘Second Life’ and chatting platforms like ‘Yahoo!’, but they can also rely on a combination of visual and verbal elements. Thus, the cyborg starts a process of translation whereby both the physical body and the translated self are distilled into data sets that get distributed across different practices and platforms, changing continuously and feeding into each other. Thus, just the first step of translation – the translation of the physical body into the digital avatar – is already a complex state, where we it is not as if the cyborg exists ex-nihilo and then translates from one system to the other but that the cyborg is produced in this very process of translation. Moreover, the translated text is not simply the sole authorship of the cyborg but has other players, who are a part of either of the systems, adding meanings and layers to the text.</p>
<p>The second step in this process is a reverse translation. Even within role playing games, where the alienation of the avatar from the body reaches its highest levels, there is an invested effort on the part of the gamer to provide physical and material contexts to the imagined bodies which they have created. Mizuki Ito (1992), in her work about online gamers, looks at how, with an increased investment in the digital lives, users tend to shape their own physical selves around their projected avatars. Many chronic users of cyberspaces have their language, their social interaction and even the way they dress and behave affected by their practices online. Sherry Turkle, in her analysis of the MUD world in Life on the Screen (1996), points out that an increasing number of users start looking upon their screen lives as a constitutive part of their reality rather than an escape from it.</p>
<blockquote>A computer’s ‘windows’ have become a potent metaphor for thinking about the self as a multiple and distributed system. The hypertext links have become a metaphor for a multiplicity of perspectives. On the internet, people who participate in virtual communities may be ‘logged on’ to several of them (open as several open-screen windows) as they pursue other activities. In this way, they may come to experience their lives as a ‘cycling through’ screen worlds in which they may be expressing different aspects of self.<br />(Turkle, 1996: 43)</blockquote>
<p>In another essay, titled ‘Playblog: Pornography, Performance and Cyberspace’ (Shah, 2005), I illustrate how the process of ‘reverse embodiment’ takes place in the lifecycle of bloggers. This process entails a mapping of the translated avatar on to the physical body of the users. This process of reverse translation often leads to the users abandoning their avatars, cutting down on their public presence or sometimes actually committing ‘digital suicides’, killing their own selves to start new identities and networks. Julian Dibbell, in his celebrated essay, ‘A Rape Happened in Cyberspace’ (1994) looks at the dynamics of this reverse mapping or inverted translation as well. Dibbell was witness to one of the most popular cases of ‘digital violence’ in the late 1990s, when in an MUD, a particular user called Dr Bungle, devised a ‘voodoo doll’ on the Lambda MOO MUD, which gained control over two of the other users, making them enter into a series of involuntary sexual acts of deviousness and perversion, in a public ‘room’ where all the other users could see them. What might be looked upon as a simple gaming aesthetic of a more powerful player taking over the avatars of two players with lesser power became a topic of huge discussion as the physical users behind the translated avatars complained of feeling violated and ‘raped’. This claim had very serious consequences because it no longer allowed for a linear notion of the physical body being translated into a digital avatar but insisted that the translated avatar is always, because of the users’ emotional involvement but also because of the practices that the avatar initiates, mapped back on to the body of the physical user. This is a process of reverse embodiment where the presumed ‘original’ is now re-shaped and re-configured to suit the translated object. Such a phenomenon is perhaps possible only in the domains of the cyberspace. Also, the cyborg, generally presumed as residing in the physical body, is now relocated in this two-way process, at the borders where it not only facilitates meaning but also realizes itself in the process of facilitation.</p>
<p>The digital transactions in which the users within such spaces engage have huge social, economic and cultural purport. The authoring of these selves, of these digital avatars, leads to the idea of the cyborg as not simply a synthesis – a site upon which the synthesis happens – but as a dynamic situation in which all subjects participate, producing and supporting its own identity. The cyborg exists in the interstices of the different oppositions of the real and the virtual, the physical and the digital, the temporal and the spatial, the biological and the technological. Moreover, the cyborg does not reside simply within the digital domains but becomes and embodied technosocial being, with a material body that enters into other realms of authorship and subjectification. It is necessary to recognize that the cyborg is not simply a self authored identity but is also subject to various other realms of governance. These material cyborgs, then, assert the need for the body as central to their imagination.</p>
<p>This bounded cyborg is also subject to the territories that it resides within. The last section of the paper looks at the State as a critical part of the production of these material cyborg identities and analyses how the incomprehensibility of this particular identity reproduces it in a condition of illegality, rescuing it from the boundless universal imagination and reasserting the geographical and the territorial boundaries that the cyborg exists within. In this particular analysis, because of my own familiarity with the context and also because new digital technologies are still emerging and unfolding into new forms in India, I shall speak specifically of the Indian State but hope that the particular case that I analyse shall have resonances for other geo-cultural and socio-political contexts as well.</p>
<h2>The state of the cyborg</h2>
<p>The cyborg, thus residing on the interstices of so many different paradigms, can no longer be limited to aesthetized representations and narratives, but is becoming a part of everyday practices of global urbanism. The range of human–machine relationships is diverse and increasingly varied. We might not be complete cyborgs but we do deal with ‘intimate machines’ (Turkle, 1996: 142) and live in ‘cyborg societies’ (Haraway, 1991: 179). The cities where we we live constantly remind us of the machinations we are dependent on; sometimes they blind us of our dependence on the technology, sometimes they make it starkly visible. Different organizations like the Military, Space Studies, Medicine, Human Research and Education are using new forms of organism–technology interactions in the increasingly urbanised world. Just like the interactions of the translated avatara and the physical users, David Bell and Barbara Kennedy, in their introduction to The Cybercultures Reader, look at the interactions with various different technologies of communication and transport, and posit the notion of an ‘Everyday Cyborg’ that gets produced in everyday practices:</p>
<blockquote>Taking Viagra, or [using] a pacemaker, or riding a bike, or withdrawing cash from an ATM, or acting out [our] fantasies as Lara Croft in the latest Tomb Raider game or as a Nato bomber pilot blitzing Kosovo, or anyone watching footage from Kosovo live on the late-night news.<br />(Bell, 2000: ix)</blockquote>
<p>In their list, the authors are more interested in looking at human–machine interaction and making historical continuities to the production of a technosocial identity or a cyborg self. This ‘naturalized’ cyborg robs the cyborg of its criticality or importance. It seems to posit the cyborg as simply a coupling of organism and machine, and hence a benign cultural formulation which can now be decontextualized and analysed in the digital domains. The cyborg as a translator – initiating a complex and intricate set of relationships between the different systems of meaning making that it</p>
<p>straddles – questions this trvialization of the cyborg and instead helps produce the cyborg identity as an epistemological category which needs to be analysed to see the processes that produce it and the crises it produces in the pre-digital understanding of text and textuality.</p>
<p>It is with these questions that I begin the analysis of what has popularly been dubbed as the ‘Lucknow Gay Scandal’ in India. In India, under the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, as a part of larger ‘Unnatural Sex Acts’, homosexual activity is a punishable offence <a name="fr6" href="#fn6">[6]</a>. However, the reading of this particular act has always been invoked in dealing with the act of same-sex sexual behaviour and not to punish a particular identity. However, when the queer rights and gay collectives started gaining momentum because of the rise of digital technologies (Singh, 2007), the production of the queer cyborg produced an anxiety about the fantasies, the digital avatars and the material practices of the users behind the avatars. In January 2006, policemen in the city of Lucknow, masquerading as gay men, registered with a popular queer dating website called ‘Guys4men’. Explicitly a gay dating site, it allows users to create their profiles, add pictures and text, translate their personal data in a scripted space, exchange messages and chat. Like the earlier discussed social networking sites, Guys4men also allows users to search and befriend each other, encouraging public discussions and arranging for physical encounters at a personal or a collective level.</p>
<p>These policemen created profiles and listed themselves as gay men, to start interacting with the members of the site. They solicited sex and meetings and finally invited five men to come and meet them in a public garden in Lucknow. When four of the five men turned up for the rendezvous, they were arrested on charges of obscenity, of soliciting sex in public and engaging in homosexual fantasies. The media reported this as ‘Gay Club Running on the Net Unearthed’ (The Times of India, 5 January 2006). The website was looked upon as a physical space where people indulged in ‘unnatural sex acts’.</p>
<p>The four men were punished, not for anything that they did in public or in the physical world but for their projected fantasies online. They were publicly humiliated, exhibited to the media as a ‘homosexual coup’ and put under arrest by the police. While a large part of the political society in India erupted in fury at the gross violation of the human rights and the punishment of fantasies, leading to a raging court case which still has not found resolution, what this paper hopes to glean from this particular case are four interesting points. Firstly, three of the four men, in their physical existence, were married and had children. They were not suspected to have homosexual inclinations by their family or friends, to whom this came as a huge shock. The evidence of the material practices of their physical bodies was not looked upon as strong enough to acquit them. Secondly, the policemen who were luring these men towards a homosexual encounter were themselves projecting similar fantasies. However, as theirs were sanctioned by some high authority, they gained validity and were not to be punished. It was almost as if the fantasies and the avatars that the policemen had were legitimate, sanctified translations of their selves, which made them different. Thirdly, while the men were caught in the physical meeting space, the charges against them were all based on their online activities. What was being produced was not even the act of translating their physical bodies into digital avatars. What was at stake in the particular case was the fact that, in the processes of translation, a reverse translation was also set into place, where the digital avatars and the circuits of consumption and interaction that these avatars entered into were mapped on to the physical bodies, reconfiguring them and marking them as queer. The men were punished not because they claimed a queer identity or because they had fantasies online which did not subscribe to the State’s directive. These men were being punished for the production of a cyborg self – a self which on the one hand was contained by the physical bodies of the users, thus subject to the processes of governance and administration applicable in the geography that they are located in, and on the other hand produced by the imagined selves – the translated avatars which reside outside of the geo-territorial regimes. It is this production of the queer cyborg, residing on the boundaries of sexuality, of nationality and subjectivity that was sought to be punished in this particular case.</p>
<p>On the whole, this case seems to prove that there is a very definite move, on the part of the State, towards the recognition of online avatars as not only extensions of the self but as more powerful identities than the physical self. The State imagines the users of cyberspace as ‘real’ cyborgs and conceives their online activities, fantasies and role-plays as punishable offences. The State also recognizes their translated selves – their datasets that they authored – as verifiable proof of their existence and actions online. The story of the Lucknow incident brings to the fore the possibility that there might also be reluctant cyborgs. The notion of the translator is always somebody who is in a conscious condition of deploying knowledge in order to bridge the gap between different paradigms. However, as the digital world becomes more democratic and becomes a part of our daily transactions, an increasing number of users enter into conditions of translation which they might not recognize as translation. It is also imaginable that a large number of users might resort to the cyberspace to reach a particular aim, without wishing to produce any elaborate narratives of themselves. They might be completely unaware of the processes of reverse translation which follow. However, because of the State’s investment in digital technologies and its infrastructures, individuals get authored as cyborgs, having to take responsibility for their actions and fantasies online, against their will and outside of their knowledge.</p>
<p>The implication of the State or other State-like bodies in the production of these cyborg identities and texts makes us aware of the fact that processes of translation are not simply about the intention and the effort of the translator, but are also severely embedded in the techniques used for translation and the contexts within which the translator and the translated identities are produced. In earlier discussions of testimonials and scraps on Orkut or commentating and editing on blogging platforms, we had already looked upon how the translated text, even when it is a self-narrative, on the digital interfaces, is already a product of multiple authorships and can no longer be attributed to a single individual translator. Similarly, the cyborg identity that is produced in the processes of translation – the cyborg as a translator – is also not a product of individual desire or intention but is often brought into being through the various other players within the internet as well as within the physical contexts of the users.</p>
<h2>Why cyborg?</h2>
<p>The everyday embodied cyberspace cyborg thus becomes subject to the state as well as the technology. People who enter the digital matrices are made accountable for their actions and travels in cyberspaces. There is an increased anxiety around monitoring these processes of translation, of reverse translation and production of translated cyborg identities that are becoming such an integral part of cyberspatial platforms.</p>
<p>The virtual avatars are re-mapped onto the body of the user, thus reconfiguring the notion of the self and the body. The state, through its efforts, becomes a major player in the authoring of the cyberspace cyborg. Other surveillance technologies like Close Circuit Television (CCTV) for instance, also produce unwilling or unwitting technologized narratives of the users caught under the camera. It is possible to use CCTV in public spaces and capture users in different actions which they can be held responsible for later. However, the cyberspace cyborg differs significantly from this model because the users of cyberspace are willing participants of the spaces which they occupy.</p>
<p>The positing of the cyborg as a translator and as an identity that emerges out of translation practices defines a clearer role for translation and a larger definition for translation as it gets inflected by digital technologies. Instead of the universal hyperreal agent, the cyborg as a translator emphasizes one of the fundamental principles of understanding translation – the context of the translator, the agential negotiations of the translator with the original text, the processes by which the self of the translator get produced and the importance of the technologies within which the translation occurs. The collaborative nature of digital technologies and cyberspatial forms illustrates how the process of translation is not singular and that the relationship between the presumed original and the translated text also need to be re-visited. However, more that anything else, the cyborg as a translator makes it clear that the translated text is not produced in isolation or by a single author. There are various contributions that emerge from the networks within which the cyborg translator operates and from the different technologies of governance that the cyborg translators as well as the translated texts are subject to. On the other hand, to the body of cybercultures which has sustained interest in the production and imagination of the cyborg, the cyborg as a translator offers a different way of locating the cyborg identity – not as an identity produced through cyberspaces, but as an embodied cyborg that emerges as an epistemological category to explain the processes of collaboration, sharing, collective authoring and possession of the new digital spaces.</p>
<h2>Notes</h2>
<p>[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">1</a>] This paper owes huge intellectual and emotional debt to Rita Kothari who first invited me to contribute to this issue, helping me formulate the germ of the idea and to Elena Di Giovanni who has been an extremely patient editor, guiding me through the many drafts that gave shape to this final version.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn2" href="#fr2">2</a>] MMORPG – Massively Multiple Online Role – playing game is a genre of gaming in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. The MUDs that Sherry Turkle studied can be looked upon as the direct antecedents to MMORPGs like Second Life and War of Warcraft – two of the most popular gaming platforms in current times.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn3" href="#fr3">3</a>] Technoscapes are the landscapes of technology. They refer to technology as both high and low, informational and mechanical, and the speed at which it travels between previously impassible boundaries. Appadurai uses the idea of Technoscape to imagine a fluid and transmittable topography of technology, where the different transactions and the identities formed online have material consequences in economic flows and societal formations. The cyborg thus produced actively chooses and negotiates its identity. Identities are no longer solid, but become fractured, in that we no longer have to choose the identities or accept the ideas of the local community. We are actively choosing our programming based on that which is available to us. While the cyborg may choose to act in a manner most appropriate or relative to the cultures and geographies it is embedded within, that is no longer the only programming option available to it and many are choosing to look beyond their own cultural arenas.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn4" href="#fr4">4</a>] P2P networks – peer-to-peer networks – inherit the cyberspatial aesthetics of decentralized networks; of nodes being distributed across the circuits of the internet and talking to each other, collaborating in projects, sharing information and exchanging digital material. The p2p networks have been under severe focus because they allow for unmonitored piracy and exchange of information</p>
<p>[<a name="fn5" href="#fr5">5</a>] AmWay emerged in the 1960s as the first of its kind of multi-level marketing company where the individuals inherit each other’s customers and profits through a simple system of multi-directional networking.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn6" href="#fr6">6</a>] The Wikipedia entry for IPC Section 377 reads: ‘Homosexual relations are technically still a crime in India under an old British era statute dating from 1860 called Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises ‘‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature.’’ Since this is deliberately vague in the past it has been used against oral sex (heterosexual and homosexual), sodomy, bestiality, etc. The punishment ranges from ten years to lifelong imprisonment’. The relevant section reads: ‘Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine’.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p>Appadurai, Arjun (1996). <em>Modernity At Large</em>. New Delhi: Oxford UP.</p>
<p>Bell, David (2000). ‘Introduction I Cybercultures Reader: a User’s Guide’. <em>The Cybercultures Reader</em>. Eds David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy. London and New York; Routledge.</p>
<p>Butler, Judith (1993).<em> Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex</em>’. New York: Routledge.</p>
<p>Clynes, Manfred and Nathan Kline (1960). ‘Cyborgs in Outerspace’ 20 November 2002. <a href="http://search.nytimes.com/library/cyber/surf/022697surf-cyborg.html">http://search.nytimes.com/library/cyber/surf/022697surf-cyborg.html</a>.</p>
<p>Dibbell, Julian (1994). ‘A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitan Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society’.<em> The Village Voice</em>.</p>
<p>‘Gay Club Running on Net Unearthed’. <em>The Times of India</em>. 5 January 2006. <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Lucknow/Gay_club_running_on_Net_unearthed/articleshow/msid-1359203,curpg-2.cms">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Lucknow/Gay_club_running_on_Net_unearthed/articleshow/msid-1359203,curpg-2.cms</a>.</p>
<p>Gibson, William (1994). <em>Neuromancer</em>. New York: Ace Books.</p>
<p>Hafner, Katie and Mathew Lyon (1996). <em>Where Wizards Stay up Late: The Origins of the Internet</em>. New York: Simon and Shuster.</p>
<p>Haraway, Donna (1991). ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century’. <em>Simians, Cyborgs, and Women</em>. New York: Routledge, 149–81.</p>
<p>Ito, Mizuko (1992). ‘Inhabiting Multiple Worlds: Making Sense of SimCity2000TM in the Fifth Dimension’. <em>Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots</em>. Eds Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit. New York: Routledge.</p>
<p>Licklider, C. R. and Robert Taylor (1968) ‘The Computer as Communication Device’. <em>Science and Technology</em>, 21–31 April. <a href="http://www.cc.utexas.edu/ogs/alumni/events/taylor/licklider-taylor.pdf">http://www.cc.utexas.edu/ogs/alumni/events/taylor/licklider-taylor.pdf</a>. Accessed 5 November 2005.</p>
<p>Mitchell, William (1996). <em>City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn</em>. Cambridge: MIT.</p>
<p>Shah, Nishant (2005). ‘Playblog: Pornography, Performance and Cyberspace’. <a href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/the-art-and-politics-of-netporn/">http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/the-art-and-politics-of-netporn/</a>.</p>
<p>Singh, Pawan Deep (2007). ‘Inside Virtual Queer Subcultures’. MA Thesis. Hyderabad Central University.</p>
<p>Sorkin, Michael (1992). ‘See you in Disneyland’. <em>Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space</em>. New York: Noonday Press.</p>
<p>Stone, Sandy (1991). Cyberspace: First Steps. Ed. Michael Benedikt. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 81–118.</p>
<p>Turkle, Sherry (1992). ‘Cyborg Babies and Cy-dough-plasm’. <em>Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots</em>. Eds Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit. New York: Routledge.</p>
<p>Turkle, Sherry (1996). <em>Life on the Screen: Identity in the age of the internet</em>. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.</p>
<p>Warwick, Stephen (2000). <em>I, Cyborg</em>. London: University of Reading Press.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/material-cyborgs-asserted-boundaries-formulating-the-cyborg-as-a-translator'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/material-cyborgs-asserted-boundaries-formulating-the-cyborg-as-a-translator</a>
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No publishernishantBodyResearchCyborgsNet CulturesPublicationsResearchers at Work2015-10-25T05:57:08ZBlog EntryMarch 2012 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2012-bulletin
<b>In this month we announced the new clusters from Researchers at Work: Locating the Mobile, Interface Intimacies and Habits of Living. </b>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Research</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">New series from RAW, new Clusters now Online!</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">From 2012 to 2015, the RAW series will build research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. We hope to build knowledge networks and production of new knowledge around questions of body, governance and cultural production in the digital times that we live in. Spearheaded by experts in the field of science, technology, society and culture the clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia. <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-main/blogs/locating-mobile/locating-the-mobile" target="_blank"></a></p>
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<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-main/blogs/locating-mobile/locating-the-mobile" target="_blank">Locating the Mobile: An Ethnographic Investigation into Locative Media in Melbourne, Bangalore and Shanghai</a><br />Larissa Hjorth (RMIT University, Melbourne), Genevieve Bell (Intel, Shanghai)<br />As yet we know little about the impact locative media is having, and will have upon people’s livelihoods and identity, or on public policy around privacy, identity, security and cultural production. Discourse in the field has opened up questions of art, innovation and experimentation. But there is a dearth of nuanced research on locative media that provides in-depth, contextual accounts of its socio-cultural and political dimensions. Not much work has been conducted into locative media as it migrates from art to the ‘messy’ area of everyday. The project seeks to address this knowledge gap by studying locative media in Bangalore, Melbourne and Shanghai.</li>
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</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-main/blogs/interface-intimacies/interface-intimacies" target="_blank">Interface Intimacies</a><br />Audrey Yue (Melbourne University) and Namita Malhotra (ALF)<br />Users of technologies often express their engagement with technologies in affective terms. The interfaces that we see all around us constantly deflect our attention, emotions and desires on to different surfaces, creating flattened universes with the promises of deep immersion. Digging deep into interfaces, to examine peoples’ relationships with the digital interfaces around them the research cluster examines: What are the affective relationships that people have with their interfaces? What goes into anthropomorphising an interface? What are the larger politics of labour, performance and ownership that surround interface design? What are the ways in which people simulate presence and connections through their interfaces? How is the human presumed in computer-human interface design? What aesthetic and political moves are we witnessing with the rise of interface mediated publics? What and who is made opaque when interfaces become transparent? When interfaces get distributed, what are the possibilities and potential for art, theory and practice to move into new forms of politics?</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/habits-of-living/habits-of-living" target="_blank">Habits of Living: Global Networks, Local Affects</a><br />Wendy Chun (Professor, Brown University), Kelly Dobson, (Chair, Digital + Media, RISD, Providence), Matthew Fuller, David Gee (Reader in Digital Media, Center for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London) and Eivind Rossaak, (Associate Professor, Department of Research, National Library of Norway, Oslo).<br />This is a global collaborative project to renew the conceptual power of networks. It concentrates on changing the habits of living. The Department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University will be an important locus. Habits are crucial to understanding networks not simply as broad organizational structures but also as structures created through constant actions that are both voluntary and involuntary.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Video Contest</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/vote-for-digital-natives" target="_blank">Who’s the Everyday Digital Native? A global video contest finds the answer!</a><br /> CIS and Hivos are excited to announce the top five videos. The finalists will each win EUR 500. According to Nishant Shah, the 12 video proposals show that the everyday digital native does not wake up in the morning and think, ‘today I will change the world’. 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.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Public Lectures</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/d-coding-digital-natives" target="_blank">D:Coding Digital Natives</a> (Nishant Shah, University of California, Los Angeles, March 9, 2012)<br />"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." The lecture is featured in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvY__z3jN7M" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/digital-natives-and-the-myth-of-revolution" target="_blank">Digital Natives and the Myth of the Revolution: Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action</a> (Nishant Shah, Annenberg School of Communication, University of South California, March 8, 2012): Nishant Shah made a presentation on 'Questioning the Radical Potential for Citizen Action'.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ignite-talks" target="_blank">5 Challenges for the Future of Learning: Digital Natives and How We Shall Teach Them</a> (Digital Media and Learning Conference on Beyond Education Technologies, Wyndham Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, March 1, 2012). Nishant Shah gave a ignite talk.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/questioning-the-radical-potential-of-citizen-action" target="_blank">Digital Natives and the Myth of the Revolution: Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action</a> (UC Santa Cruz, Monday, March 5, 2012). Nishant Shah gave a lecture. The lecture focused more on the India against Corruption case-study rather than the theoretical framework to understanding revolutions.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Column in Indian Express</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/pinning-the-badge" target="_blank">Pinning the Badge</a><br />Nishant Shah, March 18, 2012<br />In a world of competition, badging provides a holistic way of grading and learning, where individual talents are realized and the knowledge of the group is used. A peer-2-peer system of badging, which enables learners to be critically aware not only of their own interaction with knowledge but also recognises the ways in which larger communities of knowledge — including the peers and teachers — opens up an extraordinary way of thinking about education.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Book Review...A Few Excerpts<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/media-coverage/an-experiment-in-social-engineering" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/media-coverage/an-experiment-in-social-engineering" target="_blank">An Experiment in Social Engineering: The Cultural Context of an Avatar</a><i><br />‘Engineering a cyber twin’ is an attempt to inventory the ontological features of an avatar... Ansher’s essay… eschews a simplistic binary of offline/online, preferring to focus on the domain of interaction between the two ‘personae’ of the same self</i>.<br />Pramod K. Nayar reviews Nilofar Shamim Ansher’s essay ‘Engineering a Cyber Twin’ from Digital Alternatives with a Cause? Book One: To Be.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Accessibility</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Analysis</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/analysis-of-comments" target="_blank">Analysis of Comments by WBU & IPA</a><br />Rahul Cherian provides an analysis of the comments by the World Blind Union and the International Publishers Association after the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of Copyright and Related Rights.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Event Organised</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/itu-tutorial-delhi" 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 organized a two-day Tutorial on Audio Visual Media Accessibility. The Tutorial was preceded by the fourth meeting of the Focus Group on Audio Visual Media Accessibility on March 13, 2012. Sunil Abraham participated in the event and was the Master of Ceremony on Day 1, March 14, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Access to Knowledge</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Op-ed in Economic Times</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/patented-games" target="_blank">Patented Games</a>, Sunil Abraham, March 8, 2012<br />Some prefer Steve Jobs, patron saint of perfection, others prefer Nicholas Negroponte, messiah of the masses. While Mr. Jobs may be guilty of contributing to the digital divide, Mr. Negroponte may have contributed to bridging it with his innovation: the One Laptop per Child, also known as the $100 laptop or XO.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Events Participated</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/consumers-international-meeting-2012" target="_blank">Consumers International Global Meeting 2012</a> (Kuala Lumpur, March 8 and 9, 2012): Pranesh Prakash participated in the global meeting organised by Consumers International and spoke on UN Consumer Guidelines. Robin Brown, Tobias Schönwetter and Guilherme Varella were the other speakers in the session.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/freedom-of-expression-and-ipr-meeting" target="_blank">Expert Meeting on Freedom of Expression and Intellectual Property Rights</a> (London, November 18, 2011): The meeting was organized by ARTICLE 19. Nineteen international scholars, experts and human rights activists met to explore the antagonistic relationship between Intellectual Property (IP) and the rights to freedom of expression and information. Pranesh Prakash was one of the participants.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Openness</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Events Organised</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><span><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/open-data-camp" target="_blank">Open DataCamp — 2012</a></span> (Google, Old Madras Road, Bangalore, March 24, 2012): This was a one-day unconference for people working with data from various sectors to come together and share their projects and ideas. It was organised by the DataMeet group. Pranesh Prakash participated in the event. Google, India Water Portal, Gramener, Microsoft Research, Akshara Foundation, DataMeet, HasGeek and CIS were the sponsors.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/free-arduino-workshop" target="_blank">Free Arduino Workshop (For Beginners)</a>: (CIS, Bangalore, March 3, 2012). The workshop drew participants such as interaction designers, artists and those enthusiastic to get started with creative projects but didn’t have prior experience with electronics. About 20 people participated in the workshop.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Events Participated</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/water-data-consultation" target="_blank">Water Data Consultation</a> (Evoma Hotel, Bangalore, March 23, 2012). Pranesh Prakash spoke on Policy Issues and Developments around Open Data. The event was organized by Arghyam.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Internet Governance</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Column in FirstPost</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/facebook-stalker-is-not-real-problem" target="_blank">Why your Facebook Stalker is Not the Real Problem</a>, Nishant Shah, March 20, 2012:We live in networked conditions. This is a statement that can now be taken at face-value, and immediately explains our highly connected, inter-meshed environments…We need to start looking at larger invasive policies exercises by the different invisible actors like the ISP, ICT ministries, corporate policies, design choices and architecture of interception that sustain the networks we so gladly embrace.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Blog Entries</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><span><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/statutory-motion-against-intermediary-guidelines-rules" target="_blank">Statutory Motion against Intermediary Guidelines Rules</a></span>, Pranesh Prakash:A <a href="http://164.100.47.5/newsite/bulletin2/Bull_No.aspx?number=49472" target="_blank">motion to annul</a> the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/intermediary-guidelines-rules" target="_blank">Intermediary Guidelines Rules</a> was moved on March 23, 2012, by <a href="http://india.gov.in/govt/rajyasabhampbiodata.php?mpcode=2106" target="_blank">Shri P. Rajeeve</a>, CPI (M) MP in the Rajya Sabha from Thrissur, Kerala. We are very glad that Shri Rajeeve has moved this motion, and we hope that it gets adopted in the Lok Sabha as well, and that the Rules get defeated, notes Pranesh Prakash.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Events Organised</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>India Explores the Balance Points between Freedom of Expression, Privacy, National Security and Law Enforcement (New Delhi, March 5, 2012). Sunil Abraham participated in this closed-door meeting jointly organised with the Global Network Initiative. Issues relating to freedom of expression and privacy were discussed in the meeting. </li>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1627&qid=160620" target="_blank">Climate Change and Controversy Mapping</a> (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, March 19 to 21, 2012). The Devechia Centre for Climate Change, the Indian Institute of Science and CIS organized a three-day workshop with Professor Bruno Latour. Doctorate students doing empirical work in various types of ecological crisis participated in the event and experimented with some of the digital tools and methods developed within the "mapping controversies" consortium.</li>
<li>GeekUp with Erica Hagen (CIS, 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=1628&qid=160620" target="_blank">From Information to Empowerment: Unpacking the Equation</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1629&qid=160620" target="_blank">Cartonama Workshop</a> (CIS, Bangalore, March 2 and 3, 2012). HasGeek organized a hands-on training for managing and building location based services. Twenty-two participants attended the workshop.</li>
<li><span><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1630&qid=160620" target="_blank">Global Censorship Conference</a></span></li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Events Participated</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression at Yale Law School is holding a conference on global censorship from March 30 to April 1, 2012, at Yale Law School. The programme is sponsored by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and Thomson Reuters. Rishabh Dara, Google Policy Fellow who worked at CIS office in Bangalore on freedom of expression and internet-related policy issues is participating in the event as a speaker in the panel on Case Studies of Censorship.</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1631&qid=160620" target="_blank">What is Stewardship in Cyberspace?</a> (Innis Townhall, University of Toronto, Canada, March 18 and 19, 2012): Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session “Plenary Panel and Discussions” at the second annual Cyber Dialogue.</li>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1632&qid=160620" target="_blank">Secure IT 2012 — Securing Citizens through Technology</a> (Claridges, New Delhi, March 1, 2012): The event was co-organised by DST and NSDI, Govt. of India in partnership with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. Sunil Abraham was a panelist. The <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1632&qid=160620" target="_blank">video is now online</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1633&qid=160620" target="_blank">International Conference on Mobile Law</a> (ASSOCHAM House, New Delhi, March 1, 2012): Pranesh Prakash spoke in the panel on Mobiles - Privacy and Social Media on March 1, 2012.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/data-protection-experts-slam-state-for-sending-mass-smses" target="_blank">Data protection experts slam state for sending mass SMSes</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Media Coverage</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/data-protection-experts-slam-state-for-sending-mass-smses" target="_blank">Data protection experts slam state for sending mass SMSes</a><br />"<i>The state government's use of unsolicited SMS a “clear abuse of the powers afforded by elected office... elected representatives would be justified in such measures, and in utilising public funds, in the event of a disaster, or when public order, public health or national security are compromised</i>."<br />Sunil Abraham, The Statesman, March 25, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-access-to-govt-data" target="_blank">Open access to government data on the cards</a><br />"<i>Welcoming the approval for the NDSAP, Pranesh Prakash, said, “None of the criticisms ... CIS had sent in as part of the feedback requested on the draft have been addressed</i>."<br />Pranesh Prakash, The Hindu, March 25, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/facebook-page-mini-resume" target="_blank">Is your facebook page your mini resume?</a><br />"<i>Background checks are common as some companies deal with sensitive information. So it’s not illegal, but intrusive. I think some power relationships can be abused if they cross the social networking barrier — like a boss-employee and teacher-student relationship</i>."<br />Sunil Abraham, IBN Live, March 26, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/click-play-watch" target="_blank">Click, Play, Watch</a><br />"<i>Earlier, creative artistes depended on intermediaries like studios, TV channels and theatres to screen their work and connect with viewers. Now, they are looking at the online medium to connect with the audience directly.</i>"<br />Sunil Abraham, MidDay, March 18, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/save-your-voice-2014-a-movement-against-web-censorship" target="_blank">Save Your Voice — A movement against Web censorship</a><br />"<i>Private sector does not protect the freedom of expression</i>."<br />Daily News & Analysis, March 13, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/big-bet-on-identity" target="_blank">India’s Big Bet on Identity</a><br />"<i>There are obviously both privacy and security concerns when you’re collecting personal data from more than a billion people. “You can’t change your biometrics,”… so if they become compromised, it’s a difficult problem to fix</i>."<br />Ieeespectrum. March 2012 edition.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Telecom</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Columns in Business Standard</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/2-g-supreme-court-judgement-1" target="_blank">The 2G Supreme Court Judgment</a><br />Shyam Ponappa, March 1 and March 4, 2012<br />The Business Standard published Shyam Ponappa's two-part article deconstructing the assumptions in the Supreme Court's 2G judgment, and suggesting possible ways forward. The first one was published on March 1, 2012, and the second on March 4, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Blog Entry</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/convergence-india-2012" target="_blank">Convergence India 2012</a><br /> Yelena Gyulkhandanyan<br /> Yelena attended an event organised by the Exhibitions India Group from March 21 to 23, 2012. She shares her experiences.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">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://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook" target="_blank">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers" target="_blank">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report" 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://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/front-page/blog/wipo-broadcast-treaty-comments-march-2011" target="_blank">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/front-page/blog/copyright-bill-analysis" target="_blank">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/front-page/blog/comments-ifeg-phase-1" target="_blank">Interoperability Framework in eGovernance</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/privacy-bill-2010" target="_blank">Privacy Bill</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill" target="_blank">NIA Bill</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/front-page/comments-draft-national-policy-on-electronics" target="_blank">National Policy on Electronics</a> and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/comments-draft-rules" target="_blank">IT Act</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is an accredited NGO at WIPO and has given <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities" target="_blank">policy briefs</a> to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-award" target="_blank">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a> from the Government of India and also received the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/nirmita-nivh-award" target="_blank">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Follow us Elsewhere</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=456&qid=46981" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/groups/28535315687/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=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='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2012-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-09T07:33:44ZPageMarch 2011 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march%20-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage.</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Monographs finalised from these projects are online for peer review.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">New Blog Entry by Zainab Bawa in Transparency and Politics</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/transparency/transparency-politics-it-in-india" target="_blank">A History of Transparency, Politics and Information Technologies in India</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS 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. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.</p>
<h3>Column on Digital Natives</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A fortnightly column on ‘Digital Natives’ authored by Nishant Shah is featured in the Sunday Eye, the national edition of Indian Express, Delhi, from 19 September 2010 onwards. The following was published recently:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/dn/watson-knows" target="_blank">Watson knows the Question</a> [Indian Express, March 6, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entries by Maesey Angelina</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Maesey Angelina works as a programme officer at Hivos, Jakarta on gender, women and development while exploring research initiatives on Digital Natives in Indonesia. She spent one month in CIS, working on her dissertation, exploring the Blank Noise project under the Digital Natives with a Cause framework. She writes a series of blog entries. The new ones are:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/dn/reflecting-from-the-beyond" target="_blank">Reflecting from the Beyond</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/dn/activism-unraveling-the-term" target="_blank">Activism: Unraveling the Term</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/dn/the-many-faces-within" target="_blank">The Many Faces Within</a> </li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entries by Samuel Tettner</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Samuel Tettner is a Digital Natives Coordinator in CIS. He has written the following blog entries:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/dn/i-believe-that-______-should-be-a-right-in-the-digital-age" target="_blank">I Believe that .......... should be a Right in the Digital Age</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/dn/science-technology-and-society-conference-in-indore-march-12-13" target="_blank">Science, Technology and Society International Conference – Some Afterthoughts</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/accessible-mobile-handsets" target="_blank">Accessible Mobile Handsets in India: An Overview</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/rights-of-persons-with-disabilities" target="_blank">Note on the Authorities under the Working Draft of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2011 (9th February 2011)</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Intellectual Property</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime. Its latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/plagiarism-in-indian-academia" target="_blank">Pirates, Plagiarisers, Publishers</a> [ Written by Prashant Iyengar and originally published in the Economic & Political Weekly, February 26, 2011, Vol XLVI No 9]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Submission</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/wipo-broadcast-treaty-comments-march-2011" target="_blank">Comments to the Ministry on WIPO Broadcast Treaty</a> (March 2011)</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Openness</b></h2>
<h3>Workshops organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/design-public" target="_blank">Design!publiC</a> [Taj Vivanta, New Delhi, March 18, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/open-access" target="_blank">Open Access to Scientific Information Indian International Centre</a> [New Delhi, March 16, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although there may not be one centralized authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cyber crime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 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 involvement in the field of Internet governance has taken the following shape:</p>
<h3>Submissions</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/electronic-delivery-of-services-comments" target="_blank">The Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011 – Comments by CIS</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/policy-for-governments-presence-in-social-media-recommendations" target="_blank">Policy for Government's Presence in Social Media - Recommendations</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/rtis-on-website-blocking" target="_blank">RTI Applications on Blocking of Websites</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing a project, ‘Privacy in Asia’. <i>It is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada and is being administered in collaboration with the Society and Action Group, Gurgaon</i>. The two-year project commenced on 24 March 2010 and will be completed as agreed to by the stakeholders. It was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around challenges and violations of privacy in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.</p>
<h3>Submission</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/privacy_govdatabase" target="_blank">Privacy and Governmental Database</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>Workshops organized</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/privacy-matters-ahmedabad" target="_blank">Privacy Matters - A Public Conference in Ahmedabad</a> [Ahmedabad, March 26, 2011]</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/ian" target="_blank">Public Talk by Dr. Ian Brown on Privacy, Trust and Biometrics</a> [Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc, Bangalore, March 21, 2011]</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/electronication" target="_blank">Electronication: Ragas and the Future</a> [Jaaga, Bangalore, March 6, 2011]</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/fostering-freedom-of-expression" target="_blank">Role of the Internet in Fostering Freedom of Expression and Strengthening Activism in India - A Workshop in Delhi</a> [Constitution Club, New Delhi, March 4, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/global-freedom-expression" target="_blank">Global Challenges to Freedom of Expression</a> [Constitution Club, New Delhi, March 4, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2><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. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this:</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/untapped-potential" target="_blank">India's untapped potential: Are a billion people losing out because of spectrum?</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Column</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/big-bang-budgets" target="_blank">Big-Bang Budgets?</a> [published in the Business Standard on March 3, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Forthcoming Events</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is organising some conferences/workshops in the month of March/April:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/w3c-conference-hyderabad" target="_blank">Web Sites Accessibility Evaluation Methodologies: A New Imperative for State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities</a>[Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/shadow-search-in-cis" target="_blank">Shadow Search Project (SSP) in CIS</a> [CIS, Bangalore]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/facebook-resistance" target="_blank">Facebook Resistance Workshop</a> [CIS, Bangalore]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/networking-better-governance" target="_blank">Networking its way to better governance</a> (Hindu, March 28, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/failed-uk-nir-project" target="_blank">‘Learn from failed UK NIR project’</a> (Deccan Chronicle, March 22, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/design-public-livemint-coverage" target="_blank">Design!publiC - News from Livemint</a> (Livemint, March 18, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/muzzling-internet" target="_blank">Muzzling the Internet</a> (Outlook, March 17, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/battle-internet" target="_blank">Battle for the Internet</a> (Down to Earth, Issue: March 15, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/cause-and-effect" target="_blank">Cause and effect Facebook-style</a> (Hindustan Times, March 13, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/catch-all" target="_blank">Catch-all approach to Net freedom draws activist ire</a> (Sunday Guardian, March 13, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/suspended-in-web" target="_blank">Lives suspended in the Web</a> (Indian Express, March 11, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/it-guidelines-gag-internet-freedom" target="_blank">Draft IT guidelines may gag internet freedom</a> (Times of India, March 11, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/govt-proposal" target="_blank">Govt proposal to muzzle bloggers sparks outcry</a> (Times of India, March 10, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/online-censorship" target="_blank">New Indian Rules May Make Online Censorship Easier</a> (Yahoo News, March 7, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/anti-social-network" target="_blank">Anti-Social Network</a> (Mail Today, February 27, 2011)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Follow us elsewhere</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Follow CIS on <a href="http://identi.ca/main/remote?nickname=cis" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28535315687" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Visit us at <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/" 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='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march%20-2011-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march%20-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-30T10:59:46ZPageMapping Digital Humanities in India - Concluding Thoughts
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/mapping-digital-humanities-in-india-concluding-thoughts
<b>This final blog post on the mapping exercise undertaken by CIS-RAW summarises some of the key concepts and terms that have emerged as significant in the discourse around Digital Humanities in India. </b>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The present exercise in mapping Digital Humanities (henceforth DH) in India has brought to the fore several learnings, and challenges in trying to locate the domain of enquiry even as our understanding of what constitutes new objects, methods and forms of research and pedagogy constantly undergo change and redefinition. Even as we wrap up this study, some of the key questions or problems of definition, ontology and method remain with us, as the 'field' as such is incipient in India, as with other parts of the world and the term itself is yet to find a resonance in many quarters, other than a few institutions and a number of individuals. However, what it does do for us immediately, is throw open several questions about how we understand the idea of the 'digital', and what may be the new areas of enquiry for the humanities at large.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We began with the understanding that DH is a new space of interdisciplinary research, scholarship and practice with several possibilities for thinking about the nature of the intersection of the humanities and technology. The term was a little more than a found name of sorts, which since then has taken on various meanings and undergone some form of creative re-appropriation. The ubiquitous history of the term in humanities computing in the Anglo-American context has helped in locating and defining the field globally within the ambit of certain kinds of practices and scholarship in the contemporary moment. As most of the literature around DH even globally has pointed out, the problem with arriving at a definition is ontological, more than epistemological. The conditions of its emergence and existence are yet to be completely understood, although if one is to take into account the larger history of science and technology studies or even cyber/digital culture studies, these 'epistemic shifts' have been in the making for some time now. In India particularly, where a clear picture of the 'field' as such is still to emerge in the form of a theorisation of its key concerns, areas of focus or object of enquiry, it is only through a practice-mapping that one may locate what are at best certain discursive shifts in the way we understand content, structures and methods in the humanities, within the context of the digital. The fundamental premise of the nature of the digital and its relation to the human subject still lacks adequate exploration which would be required to define the contours of the field. The inherited separation of humanities and technology further makes this a complex space to negotiate, when the term may now actually indicate the need to decode the rather tenuous relationship between the two supposedly separate domains.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The question of methodology then comes in as the next most important aspect here, as the method of DH is yet to be clearly defined. At present it looks like a combination and creative appropriation of methodologies drawn from different disciplines and creative practices. The change in the methodology of the humanities and social sciences itself as now longer remaining discipline-specific has been a contributory factor to the evolving methodology of DH. The practice itself is still evolving, and while DH in the Anglo-American context can trace a history in humanities computing, with now an active interest in other spaces where the digital is an inherent part of the discourse, in India there has been little work in mainstream academic spaces such as universities or research centres, and some interest from the information and technology sector. As such the skills and infrastructure needed to work with large data sets and new technologised processes of interpretation and visualisation still remain outside the ambit of the mainstream humanities. This mapping exercise largely relied on interviews as part of its methodology, without any engagement with the actual practice, mainly because of a lack of consensus on what constitutes DH practice. However, through an exploration of allied fields such as media, archival practice, design and education technology, the study tries to locate how certain practices in these areas inform what we understand of DH today.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The archive, media and now to a certain extent art and design have become the sites for most of the discussions around DH in India, primarily because of the nature of institutions and people who have engaged with the question so far. Archival practice has seen a vast change with the onset of digitisation, and the growth of more public and collaborative archival spaces will also bring forth new questions and concepts around the nature of the archive and its imagination as a dynamic space of knowledge production. At a more abstract level, the nature of the text as an unstable object itself, now increasingly being mediated and negotiated in different ways through digital spaces, tools and methods would be one way of locating an object of enquiry in DH and tracing its connection to the humanities, which are essentially still seen as 'text-based disciplines'. What has been a definite shift is the emphasis on process which has become an important point of enquiry, and one of the many axes around which the discourse around DH is constructed. The rethinking of existing processes of knowledge production, including traditional methods of teaching-learning, and the emergence of new tools and methods such as visualisation, data mapping, distant reading and design-thinking at a larger level would be some of the interesting prospects of enquiry in the field. The method of DH is however, necessarily collaborative and distributed at the same time, as evidenced by its practice in these various areas and disciplines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While in the Anglo-American context the predominant narrative or <em>raison d'etre</em> of DH seems to be the so-called 'crisis' in the humanities, it may after all be just one of reasons, and not a primary cause, at least in the Indian context. Moreover, in a paradoxical sense the emergence of DH has been seen as endangering the future of the traditional humanities, in terms of a move away from certain conventional methods and forms of research and pedagogy. While this may be relevant to our understanding of the emergence of DH, understanding the emergence of the field as resolving a crisis also renders the discourse into a uni-dimensional, problem-solving approach, thus making invisible other factors, such as the technologised history of the humanities or several other factors that have contributed to these changes. The complex and somewhere problematic history of science and technology in India and the growth of the IT sector also forms part of this context, and will inform the manner in which DH grows as a concept, area of enquiry or even as a discipline. DH is yet another manifestation of changes that we have seen in the existing objects, processes, spaces and figures of learning, particularly the open, collaborative and participatory nature of knowledge production and dissemination that has come about with the advent of the internet and digital technologies. More importantly, they also point towards the larger changes in what where earlier considered unifying notions for the university, namely that of reason and culture, which have now moved towards an idea of excellence based on a certain techno-bureaucratic impulse, as noted by Bill Readings in his work on the rise of the post-modern university<a name="_ftnref1" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If one may try to locate within this the debates around DH, the subject of this new discourse around the digital is also now rather unclear. One could explore the notion of the digital humanist, or in a more abstract manner the digital subject as one example of this lack of clarity or the distance between the practice and the subject, which is also why it has been of much concern for several scholars. As Prof. Amlan Dasgupta, with English Department at the University of Jadavpur says, it is difficult to identify such a category of scholars, although a person who is able to situate his work in the digital space with the same kind of ease and confidence that people of a different generation could do in manuscripts and books would perhaps fit this description, and he is sure that such a person may be found. For example someone who knows Shakespeare well and can write a programme, and he is sure a day will come when this is a possibility. It is a familiarity in which the inherent distance between these two pursuits becomes lesser - DH is at that moment - a composite of these two approaches rather than the difference.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While many scholars concur with this explanation, others find the term misleading - humanities scholars do not call themselves 'humanists'. Also, by virtue of being a digital subject, anybody engaged with some form of digital practice is already a digital humanist of some sort. The problem also is in the rather unclear nature of the practice, all of which is not unanimously identified as DH, as a result of which not many scholars would want to identify with the term. As Patrik Svensson (2010) points out "The individual term digital humanist may be problematic because it may seem both too general in not relating to a specific discipline or competence (thus deemphasizing the discipline-specific or professional) and too specific in emphasizing the "digital" part of the scholarly identity (if you are scholar) or giving too much prominence to the humanities part of your professional identity (if you are a digital humanities programmer or a system architect). The more general and non-personal term digital humanities is more inclusive, but somewhat limited because of its lack of specificity and relatively weak disciplinary anchorage. For both variants, there is also a question of whether "the digital" needs to be specified at all, and it is not uncommon <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/4/1/000080/000080.html#N10309">[9]</a> to encounter the argument that technology and the digital are part or will be part of any academic area, and hence the denotation "digital" is not required" <a name="_ftnref2" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a>. Svensson further points out that since the term, like digital humanities, has proliferated so much in academic spaces, through publishing and funding initiatives that it has become a term of self-identification, but it could be a reference to the digital as 'tool' rather that the object of study itself. However, he also speculates that given digital humanists work across several disciplines, their understanding of humanities as a construct is stronger as the identity is linked to it at large. <a name="_ftnref3" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This debate is importantly, symptomatic of a larger conflict over the authority of knowledge, because of what seems to be a move away from the university to alternate spaces and modes of knowledge production. As Immanuel Wallerstein (1996) suggests, such a conflict of authority has already been documented earlier, in terms of the displacement of theology first and then Newtonian mechanics as dominant sources of knowledge, and the now in the manner in which the separation of disciplines is being challenged. The potential of technology in general and the internet in particular in democratising knowledge has been explored in several cases, with many such online spaces now becoming a suitable 'alternate' to the university mode of teaching and learning. What they have also given rise to are questions about the authenticity of knowledge produced and disseminated and who are the stakeholders in the process. The debates over MOOC's and the Wikipedia, and at some level the criticism that DH and certain methods like distant reading have attracted from traditional humanities scholars are a case in point. However, many of these alternate or liminal spaces have always existed; they are perhaps becoming more visible and acknowledged now. DH, with its emphasis on interdisciplinarity and different kinds of knowledge drawn from a diverse set of practices definitely opens up space for a new mode of questioning; whether all of these different modes of questioning can coalesce as a new discipline or interdisciplinary field in itself will remain to be seen.</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>References</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Patrik, Svensson, "The Landscape of Digital Humanities". <em>Digital Humanities Quarterly</em>,4:1 <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/4/1/000080/000080.html">http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/4/1/000080/000080.html</a> 2010.</li>
<li>Readings, Bill, <em>The University in Ruins</em> Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997, pp 1-20.</li>
<li>Wallerstein, Immanuel, "The Structures of Knowledge, or How Many Ways May We Know?" Presentation at "Which Sciences for Tomorrow? Dialogue on the Gulbenkian Report: <em>Open the Social Sciences</em>," Stanford University, June 2-3, 1996 http://www.binghamton.edu/fbc/archive/iwstanfo.htm </li></ol>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em> The author would like to thank the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) programme at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore for support towards the fieldwork conducted as part of this mapping exercise, and colleagues at CIS and CSCS for their feedback and inputs<strong>. </strong> </em></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Concepts/Glossary of terms </strong></p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> Ontology - A lot of the work being done to define DH is in fact to understand its ontological status, the nature of its being and existence. As pointed out in the part of this section, the difficulty in arriving at a consensus on a definition is largely due to a lack of clarity over the ontological basis of such a field, rather than its epistemological stake, which one may already be able to discern in a few years. There is a slippage due to a lack of connection between the history of the term and its practice, particularly in India, where DH is still a 'found term' of sorts. See <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/a-question-of-digital-humanities"> http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/a-question-of-digital-humanities</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Humanities - The predominant discourse in the Anglo-American context on DH seems to have set it up in a conflict with or as a threat to the traditional humanities disciplines, the causal link here being the 'crisis' of the disciplines. While there is such a narrative of crisis in the Indian con text as well, anything 'digital' is understood in terms of a problem-solving approach, and at another level seeks to further existing concerns of the humanities themselves, such as around the text. The important shift that DH may open up here is in terms of thinking about the inherited separation of technology and the humanities, and if it indeed possible now to think of a technologised history of the humanities.See <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/a-question-of-digital-humanities"> http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/a-question-of-digital-humanities</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Digital - the debate around and interest in DH has reinforced the need for a larger and more elaborate exploration of the 'digital' itself, and as mentioned in an earlier post, deciphering the nuances of the current state of digitality we inhabit will be key to understanding the field of DH much better. This is challenging because India is a mutli-layered technological landscape, which is also quite dynamic, ever-changing and in a period of transition to the digital. Taking this back to more fundamental questions of technology and its relation to the subject would also provide more insights into DH.See <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-problem-of-definition"> http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-problem-of-definition</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Subject - DH is a manifestation of the relationship between technology and the human subject, and provides different ways to negotiate the same. The 'digital humanist' as the likely subject of this discourse has remained largely undefined in this series of explorations, partly because of the lack of resonance with the term among humanities scholars and the fact that everybody at some level is already a digital subject, and therefore a digital humanist. An exploration of how the digital constitutes or constructs a subject position is likely to reveal better the nuances of this term and the reason for its relation to or distance from the practice.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Method - the methodology of a discipline is the connection between theory and field of practice, and the method of DH is still being developed. Whether it is data mining, distant reading, cultural informatics, sentiment analysis or creative visualisations of data sets drawing from aspects of media, art and design, the methodology and interests of DH are necessarily diverse and interdisciplinary. In many a case the distinction among methods, content and forms do blur as newer modes or approaches to DH come into being. This becomes a particular problem in understanding DH in the context of pedagogy and curricular resources, and would therefore require a rethinking of the understanding of a singular methodology itself.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Archive - A large part of the DH work in India seems to be focussed around the archive - both as a concept and practice. With the digital becoming in a sense the default mode of documentation across the humanities disciplines, and the opening up of the archive due to more public and digital archival efforts, the concept of the archive and archival practice have undergone several changes in terms of becoming now more networked and accessible. As mentioned earlier, we are living in an archival moment where there is a transition from analogue to digital, and it is in this moment of transition that a lot of new questions around data and knowledge will emerge. See http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/living-in-the-archival-moment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Text - the text has been one of significant aspects of the DH debate, given that the academic discourse on DH in the West and now in India is primarily located in English departments. The understanding of the text as object, method and practice as mediated through digital spaces and tools is an important part of the discourse around DH, and has implications for how we understand changes in the nature of the text, and reading and writing as technologised processes in the digital context. See http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/reading-from-a-distance.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Process: An important point of emphasis in DH has been that of process, perhaps even more than content or outcomes. Given that the method of DH is collaborative and peer-to-peer, the processes of doing, making or teaching-learning etc become increasingly visible and important to understanding the nature of the field and knowledge production itself. More importantly, it also seeks to bring in the practitioner's experience into the realm of research and pedagogy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Liminal : DH is a good example of a liminal space; which is a space that is on both sides of a threshold or boundary, and is therefore at some level undefined and transitional. The liminal space is often located at the margin of a body of knowledge or discipline, and it is at the margins of disciplines that new knowledge is produced. The discourse and even criticism around DH highlights the difficulties with defining the present nebulous nature of these liminal spaces and what they could transform into in the future. See http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-and-alt-academy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Interdisciplinarity - Closely tied to the notion of liminal spaces is the notion of interdisciplinarity. DH by nature is interdisciplinary, given that it draws upon methods and concerns from the other disciplines, but instead of limiting the definition to just this, it also provides a space to understand the challenges of negotiating and using an interdisciplinary approach to the humanities and other disciplines and develop these questions further. See http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-and-alt-academy. </li></ol>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="100%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> See Bill Readings, <em>The University in Ruins</em> Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997, pp 1-20.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p><a name="_ftn2" href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> See Patrik Svensson. "The Landscape of Digital Humanities". <em>Digital Humanities Quarterly</em>,4:1 <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/4/1/000080/000080.html">http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/4/1/000080/000080.html</a></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p><a name="_ftn3" href="#_ftnref3">[3]</a> <em> Ibid.</em></p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/mapping-digital-humanities-in-india-concluding-thoughts'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/mapping-digital-humanities-in-india-concluding-thoughts</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppDigital KnowledgeMapping Digital Humanities in IndiaResearchFeaturedDigital HumanitiesResearchers at Work2015-11-13T05:36:10ZBlog EntryMaking Voices Heard: Privacy, Inclusivity, and Accessibility of Voice Interfaces in India
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-voices-heard-project-announcement
<b>We believe that voice interfaces have the potential to democratise the use of internet by addressing barriers such as accessibility concerns, lack of abilities of reading and writing on digital text interfaces, and lack of options for people to interact with digital devices in their own languages. Through the Making Voice Heard Project supported by Mozilla Corporation, we will examine the current landscape of voice interfaces in India.</b>
<p> </p>
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/CIS_Mozilla_MakingVoicesHeard_ProjectAnnouncement_01.jpg" alt="null" width="30%" /> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/CIS_Mozilla_MakingVoicesHeard_ProjectAnnouncement_02.jpg" alt="null" width="30%" /> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/CIS_Mozilla_MakingVoicesHeard_ProjectAnnouncement_03.jpg" alt="null" width="30%" />
<p> </p>
<h4>Download the project announcement cards (shown above): <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/CIS_Mozilla_MakingVoicesHeard_ProjectAnnouncement_01.jpg" target="_blank">Card 01</a>, <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/CIS_Mozilla_MakingVoicesHeard_ProjectAnnouncement_02.jpg" target="_blank">Card 02</a>, and <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cis-india/website/master/img/CIS_Mozilla_MakingVoicesHeard_ProjectAnnouncement_03.jpg" target="_blank">Card 03</a></h4>
<hr />
<h3>Making Voices Heard: Project Announcement</h3>
<p>Although voice enabled interfaces are being deployed there is a need to understand how they are beneficial, and what have been important knowledge gaps and challenges in their development, adoption, use, and regulation. Through the Making Voice Heard Project <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/07/05/mozillas-latest-research-grants-prioritizing-research-for-the-internet/" target="_blank">supported by Mozilla Corporation</a>, we will be examining the current landscape of voice interfaces in India, and seek to address the following questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>What is the broad (sectoral and functional) typology of available voice interfaces in Indian languages? How widely are these voice interfaces (in Indian languages) used, and what barriers prevent their further adoption and use?<br /><br /></li>
<li>What are concerns related to privacy and data protection that emerge with the growth of voice interfaces? What kind of protocols for data processing may need to be built into the design of these interfaces?<br /><br /></li>
<li>How accessible are these interfaces for persons with disabilities (PWDs)? What kinds of accessibility features, especially for Indian languages, may need to be developed to ensure effective use of voice technologies by PWDs?<br /><br /></li>
<li>Where do challenges in these three areas intersect? For instance, is compromising on users’ privacy, including weak or missing data protection regulations, required to create comprehensive speech datasets that may help develop better accessibility features, and address linguistic barriers?</li></ul>
<p>In order to approach these questions we have begun mapping the various developers and users of voice interfaces in India. In the next stage of the process we will be looking at these interfaces through the lens of privacy, language, accessibility, and design. In order to add to the mapping and questions, we will be conducting interviews and workshops with users, developers, designers and researchers of voice interfaces in India, including the <a href="https://voice.mozilla.org/en" target="_blank">Common Voice</a> team at Mozilla.</p>
<p>We hereby invite researchers, developers and designers of voice interfaces to speak to us and help inform the study. You may contact Shweta Mohandas at shweta@cis-india.org.</p>
<p><em>- Shweta Mohandas, Saumyaa Naidu, Puthiya Purayil Sneha, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay (project team)</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-voices-heard-project-announcement'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-voices-heard-project-announcement</a>
</p>
No publishershwetaVoice User InterfaceLanguagePrivacyAccessibilityResearchVoice Assisted InterfaceFeaturedResearchers at WorkMaking Voices Heard2019-12-18T12:10:05ZBlog EntryMaking Voices Heard
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/making-voices-heard
<b>We are happy to announce the launch of our final report on the study ‘Making Voices Heard: Privacy, Inclusivity, and Accessibility of Voice Interfaces in India. The study was undertaken with support from the Mozilla Corporation.</b>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/WebsiteHeader.jpg/@@images/8d8ed2a0-f0e4-44d7-8938-493b186402c5.jpeg" alt="Making Voices Heard" class="image-inline" title="Making Voices Heard" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We believe that voice interfaces have the potential to democratise the use of the internet by addressing limitations related to reading and writing on digital text-only platforms and devices. This report examines the current landscape of voice interfaces in India, with a focus on concerns related to privacy and data protection, linguistic barriers, and accessibility for persons with disabilities (PwDs).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The report features a visual mapping of 23 voice interfaces and technologies publicly available in India, along with a literature survey, a policy brief towards development and use of voice interfaces and a design brief documenting best practices and users’ needs, both with a focus on privacy, languages, and accessibility considerations, and a set of case studies on three voice technology platforms. <span>Read and download the full report <a class="external-link" href="http://voice.cis-india.org/">here</a></span></p>
<hr />
<h3>Credits</h3>
<p><strong>Research</strong>: Shweta Mohandas, Saumyaa Naidu, Deepika Nandagudi Srinivasa, Divya Pinheiro, and Sweta Bisht.</p>
<p><strong>Conceptualisation, Planning, and Research Inputs</strong>: Sumandro Chattapadhyay, and Puthiya Purayil Sneha.</p>
<p><strong>Illustration</strong>: Kruthika NS (Instagram @theworkplacedoodler). Website Design Saumyaa Naidu. Website Development Sumandro Chattapadhyay, and Pranav M Bidare.</p>
<p><strong>Review and Editing</strong>: Puthiya Purayil Sneha, Divyank Katira, Pranav M Bidare, Torsha Sarkar, Pallavi Bedi, and Divya Pinheiro.</p>
<p><strong>Copy Editing</strong>: The Clean Copy</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/making-voices-heard'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/making-voices-heard</a>
</p>
No publishershwetaVoice User InterfacePrivacyAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchFeaturedHomepage2022-06-27T16:18:36ZBlog EntryMaking in the Humanities – Some Questions and Conflicts
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-in-the-humanities-2013-some-questions-and-conflicts
<b>The following is an abstract for a proposed chapter on 'making' in the humanities, which has been accepted for publication in a volume titled 'Making Humanities Matter'. This is part of a new book series titled 'Debates in the Digital Humanities 2015' to be published by University of Minnesota Press (http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/cfps/cfp_2015_mhm). The first draft of the chapter will be shared by mid-August 2015.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>The object of enquiry in the humanities has traditionally been defined in the form of text, audio-visual or other kinds of ‘objects’ or cultural artifacts. With the growth of information and communication technologies, and the advent of the digital, the emergence of a ‘digital object’, as ambiguous as the term may sound, in the last couple of decades, has led to a rethinking of the conventional notion of research objects as well as modes of questioning, with larger consequences for the production and dissemination of knowledge. The rise of fields like ‘humanities computing’, ‘digital humanities’ and ‘cultural analytics’, suggest a combining of two separate domains, or polarized binaries (such as old and new media), and point to the availability of new objects of study, and therefore the need for new methods to study them. A large part of the discourse around these objects however, in trying to read them closely, obfuscates the processes by which they are constituted, which are often as novel and innovative as the artifacts themselves.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This paper will attempt to explore the processes of ‘making’ of these digital objects in the context of several sites of recent humanities scholarship in India that mobilise digital techniques as key methods. These will include two online video archival initiatives (Indiancine.ma and Pad.ma), a digital variorum of Rabindranath Tagore's literary works (Bichitra) developed at the University of Jadavpur, Kolkata, and curatorial work undertaken by the Centre for Public History, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru. Film, text and archival objects acquire several nuances as they are ‘made’ into digital objects, which are also reflected in the methods of working with and studying them. At the same time, problems of authorship, authenticity, accessibility, and a lack of adequate methods to study these objects are some challenges faced across disciplines. The objective of the study is to outline some of the questions related to form and methods that emerge with the digital object, and in the process undertake a critical reading of the politics of making in the humanities. What is the role of ‘making’ in the humanities? Where does humanities research using digital technologies intersect with art and creative practices? How is this research manifested in new forms or objects and methods, and to what effects on the humanities? The paper will aim to respond to some of these questions through a discussion of the initiatives mentioned above.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-in-the-humanities-2013-some-questions-and-conflicts'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-in-the-humanities-2013-some-questions-and-conflicts</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppDigital KnowledgeMapping Digital Humanities in IndiaResearchFeaturedDigital HumanitiesResearchers at Work2015-11-13T05:46:32ZBlog EntryMaking Humanities in the Digital: Embodiment and Framing in Bichitra and Indiancine.ma
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-humanities-in-the-digital-embodiment-and-framing-in-bichitra-and-indiancine.ma
<b>The growth of the internet and digital technologies in the last couple of decades, and the emergence of new ‘digital objects’ of enquiry has led to a rethinking of research methods across disciplines as well as innovative modes of creative practice. This chapter authored by Puthiya Purayil Sneha (published in 'Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities' edited by Jentery Sayers) discusses some of the questions that arise around the processes by which digital objects are ‘made’ and made available for arts and humanities research and practice, by drawing on recent work in text and film archival initiatives in India.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Through an exploration of an online film archive, Indiancine.ma, and a digital variorum of Rabindranath Tagore’s works, Bichitra, developed at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, the chapter engages with the processes of making and studying digital objects as creative and analytical, affective, and embodied. Drawing also on observations from a study on mapping digital humanities work in India, the chapter explores conceptual and material processes of the digital to understand how they affect research and practice in the humanities. These also allow for a new perspectives to understand the condition of digitality we inhabit today, as well as the possibilities it offers for the humanities.</p>
<hr />
<p>This chapter authored by Puthiya Purayil Sneha was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/making-things-and-drawing-boundaries"><strong>Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities</strong></a> (2017), edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-humanities-in-the-digital-embodiment-and-framing-in-bichitra-and-indiancine.ma'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/making-humanities-in-the-digital-embodiment-and-framing-in-bichitra-and-indiancine.ma</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppResearchFeaturedPublicationsDigital HumanitiesResearchers at Work2018-06-25T12:50:36ZBlog EntryLocating the Mobile: An Ethnographic Investigation into Locative Media in Melbourne, Bangalore and Shanghai
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/locating-mobile/locating-the-mobile
<b>From Google maps, geoweb, GPS (Global Positioning System), geotagging, Foursquare and Jie Pang, locative media is becoming an integral part of the smartphone (and shanzhai or copy) phenomenon. For a growing generation of users, locative media is already an everyday practice. </b>
<div id="parent-fieldname-text" class="plain kssattr-atfieldname-text kssattr-templateId-blogentry_view.pt kssattr-macro-text-field-view">
<p>The transition from the analogue to the digital, from dial-up to
broadband internet access was dramatic in how it changed our notions of
space, catalysing new ways of thought and practice. In the case of
locative media the uptake is more accelerated with it already engaging
more than ten times those involved in the analogue-digital transition.
The spread and usage of locative media is fast and promises to produce
an even more dramatic transformation as the net becomes portable and
pervasive.</p>
<p>As yet we know little about the impact locative media is having, and
will have upon people’s livelihoods and identity, or on public policy
around privacy, identity, security and cultural production. Discourse in
the field has opened up questions of art, innovation and
experimentation (de Souza e Silva & Sutko 2009; Hjorth 2010, 2011).
However, there remains a dearth of nuanced research on locative media
that provides in-depth, contextual accounts of its socio-cultural and
political dimensions. Little work has been conducted into locative media
as it migrates from art and into the ‘messy’ (Dourish & Bell 2011)
area of the everyday.</p>
<p><em>Locating the Mobile</em> seeks to address this knowledge gap by
undertaking close studies of locative media in three
locations—Bangalore, Melbourne and Shanghai. We aim to capture and
analyse the multiplicities of locative media practice emerging in both
developed and developing contexts. </p>
<p>These three locations have relatively high smartphones (or copies
like shanzhai) usage and are indicative of twenty-first century
migration, diaspora and transnational practices. As one of the leading
regions for mobile media innovation (Hjorth 2009; Bell 2005; Miller
& Horst 2005), the various contested localities in the Asia-Pacific
provide a rich and complex case study for mobile media as it moves into
locative media. The three locations also show how the presence of
digital and internet technologies is ‘flattening’ the globalised
landscape and bringing about dramatic changes in the ways in which these
cities shape and develop (Shah 2010). We consider how place informs
locative media practices and how, in turn, these practices are shaping
new narratives of place. </p>
<p><em>Locating the Mobile</em> seeks to collect and analyse some of the
emergent, tacit, innovative and ‘making-do’ practices informing the
rise, and resistance to, locative media. Drawing on pertinent issues for
the present and future of locative media, Locating the Mobile aims to:</p>
<ol><li>Pioneer and develop models and templates for comprehending the implications of locative media.</li><li>Develop a nuanced and situated understanding of locative media as part of cultural practice.</li><li>Provide, through multi-site analysis, new insights into the impact of locative media upon narratives of place and belonging.</li><li>Develop socio-cultural understandings of the role locative media plays in notions of intimacy and privacy.</li></ol>
<p>By
bringing together an expert team that represent a commitment to probing
the social, cultural and community dimensions of technological
innovation, Locating the Mobile will develop methodologies that capture
the dynamic and mundane features of this emergent media practice. By
doing so, Locating the Mobile will move beyond binary debates about
surveillance and privacy or ‘parachute’ case studies of locative art
towards <strong>nuanced and complex understandings of locative media and its implication for future cultural practices</strong>.</p>
<h3>Significance and Innovation</h3>
<p>The nascent field of locative media is impacting upon cultural
practice, place-making and policy in ways we can only imagine. While
much analysis has been conducted in mobile media (Goggin & Hjorth
2009) and experimental forms of locative media/art (de Souza e Silva
& Sutko 2009), the increased ubiquity of locative media through
devices such as the smartphone will undoubtedly transform the way in
which place and mobility is articulated. Locating the Mobile seeks to
substantially expand and contextualise upon the burgeoning area of
locative media through a variety of innovative and significant ways.</p>
<p><em>Locating the Mobile</em> is<strong> original </strong>in its <strong>topic</strong>, <strong>method</strong>, <strong>outcomes</strong> and <strong>industry collaboration</strong>. <strong>Firstly</strong>,
it is significant in that it brings depth and innovation to the
emergent area of locative media, and its impact upon discourses around
mobile media in ideas of mobility and place-making. In the face of
parachute nature of many locative art research (de Souza e Silva &
Sutko 2009), Locating the Mobile is one of the first studies
internationally to explore locative media over time in specific
locations. <strong>Secondly</strong>, it deploys a variety of methods
(such as surveys, focus groups, interviews and diaries for scenario of
use, overlaid with data-mining) across different devices (mobile phone,
iPad) and platforms (Foursquare, Jie Pang) to analyse the local and
socio-cultural dimensions of use. With its team of experts in mobile
media (Hjorth, Bell and Horst), communication for development (C4D)
(Tacchi and Shah), gaming (Hjorth), social networking (Shah, Zhou and
Hjorth) as well as a range of methodologies, this three-year study will
investigate and contextualise locative media in Bangalore, Melbourne and
Shanghai. Despite its ubiquity in many locations in the Asia-Pacific
region, much of the locative media literature remains Anglophonic or
Eurocentric in focus.<strong> Thirdly</strong>, through multi-site
analysis of locative media practices we will provide innovative ways in
which to reflect upon narratives of place, belonging and
transnationalism. <strong>Fourthly</strong>, by pioneering the first
multi-site analysis of locative media over time, Locating the Mobile
will develop the much missing socio-cultural understandings of locative
media and how it impacts upon intimacy and privacy upon individual,
group and policy levels. We will now detail these four key areas of
significance and innovation. <strong>We will pioneer and develop models and templates for comprehending the implications of locative media</strong>.
In these models we actively address locative media in the transnational
context of contemporary feelings about belonging, possession, mobility,
migration, and dislocation. As locative media becomes more pervasive,
the power of its banality needs further understanding beyond ‘global’
generalisations (see www.pleaserobme.com). Like the rise of mobile media
that was accompanied by the ‘subversive user’ (Hjorth 2009), we need to
figure out the digital subject who is shaped—both historically and
socio-culturally—through the pervasive spread of locative media. As
Gabriella Coleman (2010) observes in her review of ethnographic
approaches to digital media, there are three main overlapping
categories: research on the relationship between digital media and the
cultural politics of media; the vernacular cultures of digital media;
the prosaics of digital media (and this attention to the commonplace,
the unromantic, the quotidian). In the case of locative media,
ethnographic approaches—emphasising the situated, vernacular and
prosaic—are needed in order to understand the relocations of mobility
across a variety notions: technological, electronic and psychological to
name a few. Moreover, given the relatively high proportion of Indian
and Chinese migrants in Melbourne—and migration in Bangalore and
Shanghai—exploring locative media can <strong>provide new models for conceptualising the impact of migration, diaspora, and transnationalism on place</strong>.</p>
<p><strong>We will develop a nuanced and situated understanding of locative media as part of cultural practice</strong>
through methods that deploy both qualitative (ethnographic) and
quantitative (datamining) approaches such as ‘ethno-mining’ (Anderson et
al. 2009). With the emergence of ethnomining approaches—that is,
data-based mining combined with ethnography—new models for analysing
media and mobility can be found. Locating the Mobile addresses this need
for innovative methodologies that capture the dynamic nature of
locative media by situating it within three legacies: social, cultural
and historical mediatisation. Further, Locating the Mobile seeks to
frame locative media as evolving through the cultural precepts informing
mobile media and urbanity LP120200829 (Submitted to RO) Dr Larissa
Hjorth PDF Created: 16/11/2011 Page 8 of 123 discourses. Drawing upon
case studies from a region renowned for divergent and innovative use of
mobile media (Hjorth 2009) and gaming (Hjorth & Chan 2009)—the
Asia-Pacific—Locating the Mobile seeks to understand the lived and local
dimensions of locative media and how it can inform emergent and older
forms of place-making, belonging and migration. By focusing upon this
nascent but burgeoning area in global mobile media practice—locative
media—Locating the Mobile not only places Australia as a forerunner in
innovative, original, and challenging methodologies for new media, but
also, by bringing together key industry partners, Intel, CIS and Fudan
University,<em><br /></em></p>
<p><em>Locating the Mobile</em> seeks to contextualise the research in
terms of industry and community outcomes. In this sense, Locating the
Mobile clearly addresses the National Priority 3, Frontier Technologies
(see below for more details).</p>
<p><strong>We will provide, through multi-site analysis, new insights
into the impact of locative media upon narratives of place and belonging</strong>
through our three case study locations—Melbourne, Bangalore and
Shanghai. Locative media can provide new models for conceptualising the
impact of migration, diaspora, and transnationalism on place. Although
place has always mattered to mobile media (Ito 2003; Bell 2005; Hjorth
2003), locative media both amplify, redirect and redefine practices
around place, community and a sense of belonging—phenomenon that impacts
upon cultural policy and media regulation (Goggin 2011). Along with the
digital interfaces that overlay our physical experiences as we enter
into a state of augmented reality (AR), the presence of these
cartographic, geospatial locative platforms also changes the ways in
which the cities and how we navigate with them (Shah 2010). With the
rise of locative media like Google maps we are seeing new ways to frame
and narrate a sense of place through various technological lenses
overlaying the social with the informational. This phenomenon is
especially the case with smartphones and their plethora of applications
(apps) drawing heavily upon locative media—even most photo apps come
with locative media. With locative media we see the arrival of increased
accessibility to augmented<br />reality (AR). Instead of replacing the
analogue with the digital, the physical with the virtual, they open up
‘hybrid realities’ (a term used by de Souza e Silva to describe AR
mobile games) that need new conceptual tools and located frameworks to
unravel the dynamics. We are no longer looking at just the technology
mediated hypervisual digitality but also exploring what these locative
media augment and simulate in everyday practices.</p>
<p><strong>We will develop socio-cultural understandings of the role locative media plays in notions of intimacy and privacy</strong>
and how we might comprehend locative media’s implications on individual
and cultural practices, and regulation. In the second generation of
locative media that sees it move increasingly into the mainstream,
questions about security, privacy and identity—and how these are shaped
by the local—come into focus (Dourish & Anderson 2006). For Dourish
and Anderson (2006) locative media can been viewed as a form of
‘Collective Information Practice’ that have social and cultural
implications upon how privacy and security are conceptualised. For
others such as Siva Vaidhyanathan (2011) locative media like Google maps
and street views are about a corporate surveillance. As a burgeoning
field of media practice intersecting daily life, there is a need for
in-depth situated accounts into locative media and their
cultural-economic dimensions to understand the impact they will have on
intimacy, privacy, identity and place-making. In Locating the Mobile, by
developing and implementing new hybrid models for analysing locative
media (Anderson et al. 2009), we consider the role locative media plays
in how place shapes, and is shaped by, these practices and the future
implications around cultural policy. The comparative dimension brings a
rich data-set to bear on our understanding of locative media and the
questions it may pose in the future. The outputs are significant not
only for Australian mobile communication, gaming and internet studies—by
providing a regional context for evaluating the socio-technologies—but
also demonstrates internationally Australia’s lead in ground-breaking
research into locative media (Priority 3, ‘frontier technologies’) in
arguably the most significant sites for global ICTs production and
consumption, the Asia-Pacific.</p>
<p><strong>National Research Priorities</strong>: With the rise of
smartphones becoming ubiquitous, location-based services have burgeoned.
And yet, little is known about this area and its impact upon
individuals, LP120200829 (Submitted to RO) Dr Larissa Hjorth PDF
Created: 16/11/2011 Page 9 of 123 organisations and governments. Given
this phenomenon, a comprehensive understanding of the impact upon
locative media upon notions of privacy, identity and place-making is
needed. In the twenty-first century, locative media will become an
increasingly important part of everyday life—for individuals,
communities, businesses and government agencies. Thus it is imperative
that we have a robust comparative understanding of locative media in
Australia and across the region. By conceptualising this impact within
the context of the region, Locating the Mobile ensures Australia is at
the frontier of new technologies and their impact upon future
technological practices and policies. Such an understanding is
fundamental to Australia’s technology and cultural sectors, thus
contributing to National Research Priority 3 through one of the
strongest currencies in twenty-first century global market, mobile
media, as well as contributing to the broader long-term project of
locating Australia in the region. By drawing on qualitative,
cross-cultural longitudinal research into locative media, Locating the
Mobile will document, analysis and provide future recommendations for
how locative media is impacting upon people’s experience of place and
identity. A study like this is important as it is innovative for not
only pioneering methodologies to evaluate this media phenomenon but also
to understand some of its long-term implications on how mobile media
intervenes and even reconfigures experiences and perceptions of place
which, in turn, impact upon cultural policy.</p>
<p>Collaborators: Larissa Hjorth (RMIT University, Melbourne), Genevieve Bell (Intel, Shanghai)</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/locating-mobile/locating-the-mobile'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/locating-mobile/locating-the-mobile</a>
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No publisherLarissa Hjorth and Genevieve BellNet CulturesResearchers at WorkResearch2015-10-24T13:41:47ZBlog Entry