The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 11 to 25.
Open Equitable Access (PDF)
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-equitable-access
<b>file</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-equitable-access'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-equitable-access</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen AccessPublications2011-08-23T02:42:17ZFileOpen Access to Scholarly Literature in India - Status Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-access-scholarly-literature.pdf
<b>The draft report was prepared in April 2011 by Prof. Arunachalam and Madhan Muthu.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-access-scholarly-literature.pdf'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-access-scholarly-literature.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen AccessPublications2011-08-23T02:46:11ZFileOpen Access to Scholarly Literature in India — A Status Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-access-to-scholarly-literature.docx
<b>This report was prepared by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Madan Muthu on 9 April 2011.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-access-to-scholarly-literature.docx'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/publications/open-access-to-scholarly-literature.docx</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen AccessPublications2011-08-23T02:47:07ZFileHelping Institutions Embrace Open Access
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/manupriya-wire-november-17-2017-helping-institutions-embrace-open-access
<b>World over, a large number of universities and institutions are making way for open access repositories. Why have Indian researchers shied away from it?</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Manupriya was <a class="external-link" href="https://thewire.in/197872/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access/">published in the Wire</a> on November 17, 2017</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On October 28, 2017, a group of panelists in the faculty hall at <a href="https://indiabioscience.org/orgs/iisc" target="_blank" title="Indian Institute of Science (IISc),">Indian Institute of Science (IISc),</a> discussed the framework of policies that can help academic institutions embrace open access in letter, spirit and action. The discussion was a part of week-long activities organised by <span class="caps">DST </span>Centre for Policy Research (<span class="caps">DST</span>–<span class="caps">CPR</span>) at IISc to increase awareness and acceptability for open access publishing in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/OA.png/@@images/3939a474-dc8c-4f7b-b3ee-20b19b8f0e18.png" alt="OA" class="image-inline" title="OA" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The panel included Jayant Modak, deputy director, IISc, Satyajit Mayor, director of <a href="https://indiabioscience.org/orgs/ncbs" target="_blank" title="National Centre for Biological Sciences">National Centre for Biological Sciences</a> and <a href="https://indiabioscience.org/orgs/instem" target="_blank" title="inStem">inStem</a>, Padmini Ray Murray, vice-chair, <a href="http://www.globaloutlookdh.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Outlook: Digital Humanities">Global Outlook: Digital Humanities</a>, <span class="caps">N.V.</span> Sathyanarayana, chairman and managing director, <a href="http://www.informaticsglobal.com/" target="_blank" title="Informatics India Ltd">Informatics India Ltd</a> and Madan Muthu, visiting faculty at <a href="https://iiscdstcpr.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" title="DST-CPR at IISc."><span class="caps">DST</span>–<span class="caps">CPR</span> at IISc.</a> The discussion was anchored and moderated by Sunil Abraham, executive director, <a href="https://cis-india.org/" target="_blank" title="Centre for Internet and Society.">Centre for Internet and Society.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Open access is a form of publishing that makes the fruits of research, such as journal papers and other forms of data accessible to anyone interested in it, without a cost. World over, a large number of universities and institutions are beginning to give up the library subscription model of publishing to make way for open access, owing to the latter’s lower cost and higher visibility.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In India too, funding agencies like <span class="caps">DBT</span> and <span class="caps">DST</span> have laid out guidelines that require researchers to submit their research output in open access repositories. Ironically though, most researchers have shied away from submitting their work in the repositories. Which raises the question, why?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In fact, this was one of the first questions that the panelists debated upon. Abraham initiated the discussion by asking the panelists – What are the weaknesses of <span class="caps">DBT</span>–<span class="caps">DST</span> policy on open access? Why have a large number of scientists not followed the guidelines laid by the policy? Is it because the policy document does not talk about any punitive measures for scientists in the event of not depositing their work in the institutional repositories (IRs)? And, how can the policy be improved?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Modak opened the argument by saying that we as a nation are good at making provisions but bad with implementation. He agreed that scientists are yet to warm up to the idea of open access but was disinclined on using punitive measures to force scientists into submitting their work in IRs. Mayor, in agreement with Modak, said that the policy document is advisory in nature and sort of lacks ‘teeth’. However, he too was against the use of punitive measures.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Murray, the third academician on the panel said that though the policy talks about staying away from publisher-based metrics like impact factor to assess a scientist’s work, it does not provide any information about what alternative metrics can be used to measure it. She suggested that the accessibility of a scientist’s work and how much effort she has put in to make it easily available to non-scientists could be used as a metrics for measurement. She also drew attention to the fact that the policy completely bypasses the requirements of independent scholars and those working in languages other than English. “Which institutional repository should they deposit their work in?”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sathyanarayana, the fourth panelist and a strong advocate of open access said, the policy document “lacks an aggressive strategy” to drive a disruptive and “fundamentally voluntary model” of adopting open access. He asked the other panelists and the audience, “why have repositories like ResearchGate become so successful and attractive for researchers? Why can’t open access IRs be modelled along the lines of such repositories? His argument was that the IRs can be fashioned in a way to make them a ‘convenient step in the process of research’”. One suggestion that he offered was that IRs can be structured as a paper submission platform. So that anybody who is interested in publishing their work first puts it up in the <span class="caps">IR</span> and only after that the process of going to a journal begins.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Muthu, the fourth panelist and a long-time crusader for open access in India said that scientists in India have stayed away from the open access publishing because they don’t fully realise that in traditional models of publishing, you surrender all copyrights of your work to the publisher. He added that more scientists can be encouraged to adopt the open access model of publishing by making IRs institute-managed, easier to use and as a mandatory step in the process of publishing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mayor added to this argument by saying that the idea of submitting (unpublished) work in an <span class="caps">IR</span> is quite similar to the concept of pre-print archives which are fast becoming a powerful way of sharing work. Almost all top journals accept work that has been published in a pre-print archive. In fact, in the physical sciences, people have been using pre-print archives for a long time and now slowly, even the biology community is warming up to it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Murray emphasised on the need to talk to students about open access and making them aware of the ways to design their metadata so that it is amenable to open access repositories.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As the discussion inched closer to its final moments, it veered off towards the costs of open access publishing. Modak said that in the last year alone, the amount of money IISc has spent for publishing papers has doubled. If all researchers start opting for open access (<span class="caps">OA</span>) journals/hybrid-<span class="caps">OA</span> journals that charge the authors nearly double of what traditional journals do, then publishing papers will become unsustainable.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To this, Sathyanarayana said, it may appear that the cost of publishing in <span class="caps">OA</span> journals is high, but on a macro-level, when you consider the cost of publishing and accessing all the papers published in a year, then the <span class="caps">OA</span> model costs much lesser. He added that scientific publishing is the only business in the world where authors (creators of proprietary material) give away all their rights to publishers.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Backing up the points made by Sathyanarayana, Murray said that in traditional models of publishing the publishers make close to 400% profits. We need to think about, “how much labour we as academics put in for publishers’ profits?”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is authors’ inertia that is stopping open access from becoming the obvious model of publishing, said, Muthu.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In conclusion, Abraham summed up the arguments and acknowledged that there are many dimensions to open access and an institutional policy on <span class="caps">OA</span> cannot be framed in a vacuum. Common people need to participate in the debate to shape the direction the policy takes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Apart from the panel discussion a poster competition and a quiz competition were organised as part of the <span class="caps">OA</span>-week activities. <span class="caps">DST</span>–<span class="caps">CPR</span> was joined by the student’s council at IISc, Centre for Contemporary Studies, <span class="caps">JRD</span> Tata Library and IndiaBioscience in organising the activities.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>This article was originally published on </i><a href="https://indiabioscience.org/" target="_blank" title="IndiaBioscience">IndiaBioscience</a><i>. Read the original <a href="https://indiabioscience.org/news/2017/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access" target="_blank" title="here">here</a>. <br /></i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/manupriya-wire-november-17-2017-helping-institutions-embrace-open-access'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/manupriya-wire-november-17-2017-helping-institutions-embrace-open-access</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessOpen AccessAccess to Knowledge2017-11-27T15:11:34ZNews ItemThe Zen of Pad.ma: 10 Lessons Learned from Running Open Access Online Video Archives in India and beyond
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-padma
<b>Sebastian Lütgert and Jan Gerber, the co-initiators of, and the artists/programmers behind the pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive) project will deliver a lecture at CIS on Wednesday, February 03, 6 pm, on their experiences of learnings from running open access online video archives in Germany, India, and Turkey. Please join us for coffee and vada at 5:30 pm.</b>
<p> </p>
<img src="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-pad-ma-10-lessons-learned-from-running-open-access-online-video-archives-in-india-and-beyond/leadImage" alt="The Zen of Pad.ma - Lecture by Sebastian Lütgert and Jan Gerber, Feb 03, 6 pm" />
<p> </p>
<h2>The Zen of Pad.ma</h2>
<p>Eight years after the launch of Pad.ma and three years since the inception of Indiancine.ma, Sebastian Lütgert will take a closer look at some of the strategies -- decisions and decision making processes, foundational principles and accidental discoveries -- that may have helped make these projects sustainable. While most of the lessons begin with concrete questions related to software and technology, most of them will end up pointing beyond that: towards a general theory of collaboration, towards strategies against premature separation of labor, and towards a few practical proposals for successful self-organization on the Internet.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Biographies</h2>
<p><strong>Sebastian Lütgert</strong>, media artist, programmer, filmmaker and writer, lives and works in Berlin. Co-founder of Bootlab, textz.com, Pirate Cinema Berlin, Pad.ma and Indiancine.ma. Lecturer at the Academy of the Sciences in Berlin, various publications on cinema, copyright, radical subcultures and the politics of technology.</p>
<p><strong>Jan Gerber</strong>, video artist and softwate developer, lives and works in Berlin. Co-initiator of Pirate Cinema Berlin, Pad.ma and Indiancine.ma, author of numerous Open Source software projects, most recently Open Media Library. Involved in a variety of open-access archive projects around the world.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-padma'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/the-zen-of-padma</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppPracticeDigital HumanitiesDigital MediaOpen AccessResearchers at WorkEventArchives2016-01-28T08:25:18ZEventInaugural EPT Award for Open Access
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ept-award-for-open-access
<b>The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development is pleased to announce the winners of a new annual award to be made to individuals working in developing countries who have made a significant personal contribution to advancing the cause of open access (OA) and the free exchange of research findings. </b>
<p>We received 30 proposals from organisations in 17 developing countries on four continents, naming individuals who have worked hard to promote OA and who have achieved substantial progress. The selection of a single winner was extremely difficult as we received nominations for so many individuals who have made impressive strides by any or all of the following means:</p>
<ul><li>establishing OA institutional repositories;</li></ul>
<ul><li>setting up or encouraging conversion to OA journals;</li><li>achieving establishment of OA mandates requiring research to be OA on publication, or other policy developments;</li><li>advocating OA via seminars, publications, workshops, videos;</li><li>training others in the technology of setting up IRs;</li><li>preparing and establishing e-learning projects;</li><li>working towards the acceptance of Creative Commons licensing arrangements for research publications;</li><li>developing software for use in OA practices.<br /></li></ul>
<p>Because of the high standard of the applicants, we have decided to name a single winner, but also to recognise three other individuals who were very close runners-up. All will receive a certificate and the winner will receive in addition an engraved plaque in the next few weeks.</p>
<p>We are very happy to announce that the winner of the inaugural award is Dr Francis Jayakanth of the National Centre for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Dr Jayakanth played a significant role in the establishment of India’s first institutional repository (IR) (<a class="external-link" href="http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/">http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in</a>). He now manages the IR and has provided technical support for establishing IRs in many other universities and institutes in India. He has been the key resource person at many events to train people in setting up IRs and OA journals. He has delivered presentations on IRs, OA journals, the OAI protocol, OAI compliance, the benefits of OA to authors and institutions and the role of libraries. He has developed a free and open source software tool (CDSOAI), which is widely used.</p>
<p>The Indian Institute of Science is the most prestigious institute in India and its IR now holds >31,400 records, making the century-old institute's research far more globally visible than before. The University Grants Commission in India has been impressed by the IISC’s IR and has directed all universities in India to replicate this effort.</p>
<p>Dr Francis Jayakanth can indeed be considered an OA ‘renaissance man’, an advocate and technical expert in all aspect of Open Access development and an inspiration to all, both at the research and policy level. <br />The EPT is proud to congratulate Dr Jayakanth as our first Award winner. We believe this Award and the example of our first winner will inspire many others and lead to similarly impressive nominations in 2012.</p>
<p>The runners-up for this award were (in alphabetical order): </p>
<ul><li>Ina Smith, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa;</li><li>Tatyan Zayseva, Khazar University, Azerbaijan; </li><li>Xiaolin Zhang, National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences.</li></ul>
<p>The EPT wishes to congratulate them and all who have been proposed, since without exception they have made a significant personal contribution to the sharing of research findings across the world. We will be sharing some of their stories and successes on our blog over the next few weeks.</p>
<h3>Electronic Publishing Trust for Development</h3>
<p>Web site <a class="external-link" href="http://www.epublishingtrust.org">http://www.epublishingtrust.org</a><br />EPT Blog <a class="external-link" href="http://www.epublishingtrust.blogspot.com">http://www.epublishingtrust.blogspot.com<br /></a></p>
<h3>What is Open Access?</h3>
<p>Open Access provides the means to maximize the visibility, and thus the uptake and use, of research outputs. Open Access is the immediate (upon or before publication), online, free availability of research outputs without any of the restrictions on use commonly imposed by publisher copyright agreements. It is definitely not vanity publishing or self-publishing, nor about the literature that scholars might normally expect to be paid for, such as books for which they hope to earn royalty payments. It concerns the outputs that scholars normally give away free to be published – journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds.</p>
<p>Not only scholars benefit from Open Access. They are the most obvious beneficiaries, perhaps, because their work gains instant worldwide visibility, and they also gain as readers if much more world research is available on an Open Access basis for them to access freely and read. But there are many other beneficiaries, too.</p>
<p>Research institutions benefit from having a management information tool that enables them to assess and monitor their research programmes, and they have a marketing tool that enables them to provide a shop window for their research efforts. The same advantages apply to external research funders who need to be able to access and keep track of outputs from their funding, and measure and assess how effectively their money has been spent. They also can ensure that the results of their spending have had the widest possible dissemination. </p>
<p>It is because Open Access is so much in the interest of research funders and employers that an increasing number of them around the world are introducing Open Access policies that require their funded researchers to provide Open Access to their work.</p>
<p>The advantages of Open Access for science and scholarship are, in brief:</p>
<ol><li>Open Access brings greater visibility and impact</li><li>Open Access moves research along faster</li><li>Open Access enables better management and assessment of research</li><li>Open Access provides the material on which the new semantic web tools for data-mining and text-mining can work, generating new knowledge from existing findings<br /></li></ol>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ept-award-for-open-access'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ept-award-for-open-access</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen Access2011-12-31T10:46:47ZNews ItemOpen access to government data on the cards
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-access-to-govt-data
<b>The way has been cleared for public access to the data collected by Union government ministries and departments, with official approval being accorded to the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP). T Ramachandran's article was published in the Hindu on March 25, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted in it.</b>
<p>Following its recent approval by the Union Cabinet, the policy has been notified and is in the process of being gazetted, said R. Siva Kumar, CEO of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, and head of the Natural Resources Data Management System, Department of Science and Technology.<br /><br />The use of open data as a tool for promoting governmental transparency and efficiency has been gaining ground in some parts of the world. An Open Government Partnership was launched last year by the United States and seven other governments. Forty-three other governments have joined the partnership, which has endorsed an Open Government Declaration, expressing a commitment to better “efforts to systematically collect and publish data on government spending and performance for essential public services and activities.” It acknowledges the ‘right' of citizens to seek information on governmental activities.</p>
<p>India has not joined the partnership, but is collaborating with the U.S. in developing an open source version of software for a data portal.<br /><br />The NDSAP states that at least five ‘high value' data sets should be uploaded to a newly created portal, data.gov.in, in three months of the notification of the policy. Uploading of the remaining data sets should be completed within a year.<br /><br />The Department of Science and Technology will co-ordinate the effort and create the portal through the National Informatics Centre. The Department of Information Technology will work out the implementation guidelines, including those related to technology and data standards.<br /><br />Welcoming the approval for the NDSAP, Pranesh Prakash, programme manager at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a Bangalore-based NGO, said the removal of “a few good aspects” in an earlier draft of the policy — such as linkage with Sections 8 and 9 of the Right to Information Act that specify the kinds of information exempt from disclosure by the authorities — had weakened it “even further.” “None of the criticisms the CIS had sent in as part of the feedback requested on the draft have been addressed,” he said.<br /><br />The NDSAP seeks “to provide an enabling provision and platform for providing proactive and open access to the data generated through public funds available with various departments/organisations of the government of India.”<br /><br />However, the Ministries and Departments can draw up, within six months of the notification of the policy, a negative list of data-sets that will not be shared, subject to periodic review by an ‘oversight committee.'<br /><br />The policy envisages three types of access to data: open, registered and restricted. Access to data in the open category will be “easy, timely, user-friendly and web-based without any process of registration/authorisation.” But data in the registered access category will be accessible “only through a prescribed process of registration/authorisation by respective departments/organisations” and available to “recognised institutions/organisations/public users, through defined procedures.” Data categorised as restricted will be made available only “through and under authorisation.”<br /><br />The policy also provides for pricing, with the Ministries and Departments being asked to formulate their norms for data in the registered and restricted access categories within three months of the notification of the policy.</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/article3223645.ece">Read the original published in the Hindu </a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-access-to-govt-data'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-access-to-govt-data</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen DataOpen ContentOpen AccessOpenness2012-03-26T07:31:48ZNews ItemIndo - French Perspectives on Digital Studies
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/indo-french-perspectives-on-digital-studies
<b>Anubha Sinha was a speaker at the Indo-French workshop on Open Access at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on March 15, 2017. The event was organized by the Digital Studies Group. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Anubha Sinha broadly spoke on the state of open access in India, the features of the DBT-DST policy, ICAR policy, how to shape the future of open access movement in India and what are the obstacles in the same.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/talk-by-anubha-sinha-on-open-access-in-jnu">See the workshop schedule here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/indo-french-perspectives-on-digital-studies'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/indo-french-perspectives-on-digital-studies</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessOpen Access2017-03-29T05:17:33ZNews ItemAn Interview with Dr. Francis Jayakanth
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/interview-with-francis-jayakanth
<b>India has been losing out its best talents to the West, however, this trend could be reversed if we create adequate number of world-class institutions and research facilities, and our scientific productivity and quality of research will improve significantly, says Dr. Francis Jayakanth in an email interview with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. </b>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>First of all congratulations for winning the inaugural EPT Award for Open Access</b>.<br />Thank you very much.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>When did you first take an interest in Open Access and what are your research interests?</b><br />I have always been impressed with the electronic pre-print servers like the <a class="external-link" href="http://arxiv.org/">arXiv</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://cogprints.org/">Cogprints</a>, etc. I wanted to do something similar for IISc research publications.<br /><br />One of the important activities of the National Centre for Science (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/">NCSI</a>), Indian Institute of Science (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.iisc.ernet.in/">IISc</a>) has been the training programme. Till recently, NCSI was conducting an 18-month training course called Information and Knowledge Management. This was targeted primarily at students graduating from Indian library schools, with a view to providing them with classroom and practical training in the application of ICT. Essentially, the aim was to train the students in how to provide state-of-the-art, computer-based information services. I have been closely associated with this training programme by offering courses and overseeing projects.<br /><br />As part of the training programme the students are expected do a project. Around the year 2001, one of our students, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/madhureshsinghal">Mr. Madhuresh Singhal</a> carried out a project work in implementing GNU Eprints.org software developed by the University of Southampton. Incidentally, ePrints is the first professional <i>software</i> platform for building high quality OAI-compliant repositories. The student project successfully demonstrated the self-archiving concept through institutional repositories. The project work was later implemented to set up the country’s first institutional repository, <a class="external-link" href="http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/41239/1/Modeling.pdf">eprints@IISc</a> . Ever since, I have been an OA practitioner and an OA advocate.<br /><br />I’m not a hard-core researcher. My work interests lies in using free and open source software for providing web-based information services.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Why Open Access is important to science and particularly India?</b><br />When researchers publish their works in journals and conference proceedings, they would want their works to be read, cited, and built upon by as wide an audience as possible. Much of the scientific publications are being published by commercial publishers. Subscription costs of such publications are very high, constantly increasing, and beyond the means of most of the libraries. The high subscription costs create an access barrier to the scientific literature because of which the publications do not get the kind of visibility that the researchers would like to. The lack of adequate visibility will reduce the potential impact of the publications. This in turn could affect the advancement of knowledge. It is therefore imperative that the access barrier to scientific literature created because of high subscription costs should be overcome and this could be achieved through OA publishing.<br /><br />The problems with respect to research literature that India and other developing countries have always faced are two-fold:<br />
<ul>
<li>Not being able to access high quality scientific literature because of the high subscriptions costs, and</li>
<li>Research reported in the national journals does not reach the global audience because most of the journals published from the country are not indexed by Web of Science (<a class="external-link" href="http://isiknowledge.com/">WoS</a>) and/or <a class="external-link" href="http://www.scopus.com/">Scopus</a> databases, which are leading <a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation_indexing">citation indexing</a> databases.<br /><br /></li>
</ul>
If all the journals that are being published in the country could migrate to open access platform then the visibility of research works reported in the journals published from the country will automatically improve with time. This has been the experience of several of the OA journals published by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.medknow.com/">MedKnow</a> and others.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>In terms of the number of papers published in refereed journals, the number of citations to these papers, citations per paper, and the number of international awards and recognitions won, India’s record is poor. What needs to be done to improve this?</b><br />For a long time now, our country has been losing out the best of the talents to mostly western and other countries. If this trend could be countered by the creation of adequate number of world-class institutions and research facilities, our country's scientific productivity and also quality of research done in the country will improve significantly. This may also trigger reverse brain-drain.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Indian scientists lack access and visibility. They find it tough to access what other scientists have done, due to the high costs of access and libraries in India can’t afford to subscribe to key journals needed by users. Also other researchers are not able to access what Indian researchers are doing leading to low visibility. How can we overcome these deficits? Will adoption of Open Access within and outside India overcome the aforesaid handicaps?</b><br />Access to scientific literature in the country has improved significantly during the last decade or so. This is largely because of the several library consortia that have emerged in the country during that period. However, the existing consortia and the ones that are likely to emerge in the coming years, is not the solution for the access barrier to scientific literature that exists today. There has to be a world-wide adaptation of OA to overcome the access barrier.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Do you support the movement towards making scientific publications as freely accessible as possible and create an institutional repository? What steps are being taken by the Indian Institute of Science to maintain an open access archive?</b><br />Yes. Open Access Journals and Open Access Archives or Institutional Repositories (IRs) are the two ways to facilitate OA to scholarly literature. As per the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.doaj.org/">DOAJ</a> statistics, today, there are close to 7500 peer reviewed OA journals and as per the Directory of Open Access Repositories (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.opendoar.org/">DOAR</a>) there are more than 2770 institutional repositories across the world.<br /><br />In a recent <a class="external-link" href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0011273">study</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hanken.fi/staff/bjork/">Bo-Christer Bjork</a> estimated that the overall percentage of scientific literature currently available OA is about 20 per cent. This includes both papers published in OA journals and those deposited in institutional repositories and directly on the Web. So, still a long way to go in achieving 100 per cent OA to scholarly literature! If all the research institutions set up their IRs and ensure that copies of post-prints are placed in the IRs then 100 per cent OA to scholarly literature could be achieved, at least, from now onwards.<a class="external-link" href="http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/"><br /><br />ePrints@IISc</a>, the OA institutional repository of IISc was established by NCSI in 2002. The repository holds more than 32,400 publications of IISc making the century-old institute’s research far more globally visible than before. NCSI has also provided technical help and support to several other institutes and universities in setting up their repositories and OA journals.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>What are the key challenges of the scholarly publications in India?</b><br />Poor visibility and readership of many of the journals published from the country affects the citations of the articles published in such journals. This in turn affects the impact factors (<a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor">IF</a>) of the journals. No author would like to publish in very low IF journals. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>What message would you give to funding agencies, the government and policy makers particularly for implementing a nation-wide mandate for Open Access?</b><br />Most of the research projects in the country are being funded by the government agencies. It is therefore imperative that we should have a nation-wide OA mandate for research publications that emerge from research projects funded from tax payers’ money. Such a mandate will not only help in enhancing the visibility of research done in the country; it may also help in avoiding duplication of research projects carried out in the country. </li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/interview-with-francis-jayakanth'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/interview-with-francis-jayakanth</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInterviewOpennessOpen Access2012-11-24T06:09:54ZBlog EntryCIS brings Nadustunna Charithra magazine under by CC BY SA licence
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-under-by-cc-by-sa-licence
<b>As a part of its content donation initiative, the Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) has brought all issues of Nadustunna Charithra magazine under Creative Common Licence. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS-A2K has received 74 issues as of now from the Telugu Jaati foundation. These issues shall be published by A2K on a blog site under CC BY SA licence to make it a reliable reference resource and adhere Wikipedia guidelines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Nadustunna Charithra magazine has dealt extensively with Telugu semantics and Telugu Cultural history and we hope to upload all the issues to Telugu Wikisource. These magazines will also serve as handy reference guides for Telugu Wikipedians and shall act as a major referencing and citation resource.<br /><br />CIS-A2K has also been successful in acquiring 250 song books (booklets that have the lyrics of songs featured in a film) of Telugu movies for content donation. These song books serve as introduction to the film itself. They contain lyrics of the songs, poster of the movie, details of the cast and crew, a short synopsis both in Telugu and English along with photographs of the lead actors. As of now CIS-A2K has been able to locate song books for most of the films produced between 1930-1954.<br /><br />These resources shall also help the Telugu community in coming up with new/improved articles related to Telugu cinema. With most of the basic information regarding a film available in the song book, we expect that the Telugu community along with active cooperation from A2K shall create GA quality articles and this content donation will also help in improving stubs that were created earlier.<br /><br />CIS-A2K is extremely grateful for the support received by the Telugu community during this content donation initiative and would like to thank in person Mr. Bhaskarnaidu, Mr. Gullapalli Nageshwara Rao who have been part of these conversations and helped us identify the resources to be re-licensed.<br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-under-by-cc-by-sa-licence'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-under-by-cc-by-sa-licence</a>
</p>
No publisherhasanTelugu WikipediaCreative CommonsAccess to KnowledgeOpen Access2016-06-18T18:07:46ZBlog EntryOSOD 2013: International Workshop on Open Science and Open Data
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/international-workshop-open-science-and-open-data
<b>Nehaa Chaudhari was a panelist at the International Workshop on Open Science and Open Data, 2013, held on October 07, 2013 at the Indian Statistical Institute. She gave a presentation on "Government Copyright and the Open Access Conundrum" </b>
<p>Parts of this presentation draw from <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/yojana-august-2013-pranesh-prakash-copyrights-and-copywrongs-why-the-govt-should-embrace-the-public-domain" class="external-link">Pranesh Prakash's views on Government Copyright</a>. Special thanks to Bhairav Acharya for his valuable inputs and feedback.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute along with Creative Commons USA held this workshop. The main objective of this workshop was to bring together international experts, practitioners and advocates of Open Access to information to discuss and contemplate on key issues contributing to Open Science. The workshop also aimed to serve as a platform for institutions, academicians, scientists and researchers interested in Open Science to exchange thoughts and processes 'How To' create Open content within legal framework.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Key Speakers</h3>
<ol>
<li><span><b>Puneet Kishor</b> (Policy Coordinator for Science and Data, Creative Commons)</span></li>
<li><span> <b>ARD Prasad</b> (DRTC, Indian Statistical Institute, India)<br /></span></li>
<li><span><b>Devika P. Madalli</b> (DRTC, Indian Statistical Institute, India)</span><span><span><b> </b></span><span><b> </b></span></span></li>
<li><span><span><b>Giridhar Manepalli</b> (CNRI, USA)</span><span><span><b> </b></span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></li>
<li><span><span><span><b>Usha Munshi</b> (Indian Institute of Public Administartion, India)</span><span><span><b> </b></span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span><span><span><span><b>Subbiah Arunachalam </b>(Information Scientist, India)</span><span><span><b> </b></span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span><span><span><span><span><b>Sridhar Parishetty</b> (</span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span>Centre for Inclusive Governance, Bangalore)</span><span><span><b> </b></span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span><span><span><span><span><span><b>Nehaa Chaudhari</b> (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore)</span><span><span><b> </b></span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><b>R. Prabhakar</b> (India Biodiversity Portal, Bangalore)<span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><b>Nisha Thompson</b> (Arghyam)<span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li> <span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><b>Yashas Shetty</b> (Srishti, Centre For Experimental Media Arts, Bangalore) </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
</ol> <ol> </ol>
<hr />
<ul>
<li> <a class="external-link" href="http://drtc.isibang.ac.in/osod/programme">Read the agenda here</a></li>
<li>Download Nehaa's presentation titled <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/osod-2013.ppt" class="internal-link">Government Accessibility and Copyright Conundrum here</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/international-workshop-open-science-and-open-data'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/international-workshop-open-science-and-open-data</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessOpen ContentOpen AccessAccess to Knowledge2013-10-22T11:02:49ZNews ItemResearch Publishing: Is ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ Pragmatic Reform for India?
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/research-publishing-is-2018one-nation-one-subscription2019-pragmatic-reform-for-india
<b>Anubha Sinha examines the feasibility of the proposed 'One Nation, One Subscription' approach in the draft national Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (2020) on access to scientific literature. This article was first published in The Wire Science on October 23, 2020.</b>
<p>The story of open access (OA) publishing in India has been a chequered
one. While we have had some progress with institutional initiatives, the
landscape remains fractured without a national OA mandate. And now <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02708-4">some reports</a>
suggest that the Indian government is considering striking a ‘one
nation, one subscription’ deal with scholarly publishers for access to
paywalled research for all of India’s citizens. Only last year, India
had <a href="https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/plan-s-open-access-scientific-publishing-article-processing-charge-insa-k-vijayraghavan/">decided against joining Plan S</a>. K. VijayRaghavan has been at the helm of these decisions, as the principal scientific advisor to the Government of India.</p>
<p>OA refers to the level of access different people have to a published
paper, like a scientific paper. Typically, a researcher submits their
manuscript to a journal to consider for publication. If the paper passes
peer-review, the journal publishes the paper in its pages, and online.
In the ‘conventional’ research publishing model, a reader who wishes to
read the paper pays a fee to the journal to do so. In the (gold) OA
model, the journal makes its money by having the researcher – or their
funder – pay to have their paper published.</p>
<p>While it is heartening to see the momentum towards settling on a
suitable OA approach, the ‘one nation, one subscription’ scheme is a
curious proposition for India. A consortium of Indian science academies
had <a href="http://insaindia.res.in/pdf/Publication_of_Literature.pdf">recommended it</a>
last year. The scheme entails the Government of India to negotiate for
and purchase a single, unified subscription from a consortium of
publishers of scientific books and journals, after which the books and
papers will be available to all government-funded institutions as well
as all tax-payers.</p>
<p>Around the world, this scheme has been implemented in Uruguay and Egypt,
while some European countries have adopted versions of it. Experts
around the world <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/03/06/plan-s-and-the-global-south-what-do-countries-in-the-global-south-stand-to-gain-from-signing-up-to-europes-open-access-strategy/">have suggested</a>
that the model could be a feasible interim solution for developing
countries. Note that both Egypt and Uruguay obtained financial
assistance from the World Bank to secure their deals.</p>
<p>In Uruguay, since 2009, citizens have enjoyed free access to (otherwise)
paywalled scientific and technological journals and platforms via the
online platform <a href="https://foco.timbo.org.uy/home">Portal Timbó</a>. However, some content remains <a href="https://gospin.unesco.org/frontend/full-info/view.php?id=1853&table=operational&action=search&order=general.country">available only</a> to scientific, academic, and educational institutions and researchers. The 2019 budget for Portal Timbó was <a href="https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Plan_S.pdf">$2.3 million</a> (Rs 16.94 crore).</p>
<p>Egypt launched its Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) initiative in 2015. EKB
provides a population of 92 million people access to journals, e-books
and archives from multiple publishers across the sciences, humanities
and cultural disciplines, and has certainly benefited society. However,
the question remains whether incurring an annual expense of <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cihe/pdf/Korber%20bk%20PDF.pdf">$64 million</a>,
in 2017 (Rs 416.47 crore), in subscription costs is justified. In both
Egypt and Uruguay, it is not clear if all material is readable
immediately upon publication or whether there is a delay.</p>
<p>So what could a ‘one nation, one subscription’ deal look like for India?</p>
<p>Currently, India spends <a href="https://thewire.in/the-sciences/plan-s-open-access-scientific-publishing-article-processing-charge-insa-k-vijayraghavan">Rs 1,500 crore a year</a>
to read research via journal subscriptions (about $205 million). So
while a shift to nationwide subscription could yield a low per capita
cost of access, our limited ICT infrastructure and digital divide remain
barriers to unlocking the full potential of the deal. It is equally
crucial to ensure that the deal covers <a href="https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/bitstream/handle/1912/4587/Cristiani%20PANEL_iamslic%202010.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">key journals and databases</a> – which may have to be negotiated with publishers with different types of collections across multiple disciplines.</p>
<p>Further, and perhaps more importantly, a nationwide subscription deal
will not solve for an uneven OA publishing culture among Indian
researchers. A <a href="https://thewire.in/the-sciences/plan-s-open-access-scientific-publishing-article-processing-charge-insa-k-vijayraghavan">rough calculation</a>
suggests India’s annual publishing spend is Rs 985 crore ($134.5
million), including article-processing charges (APCs) for both OA and
hybrid-OA journals (which have a mix of OA and ‘conventional’ publishing
policies). While a common national subscription could potentially lower
the cost of reading research, we don’t know if authors will still have
to pay APCs to publish their papers in publications covered by the deal.</p>
<p>Irrespective of how the deal plays out, the Indian research community is
currently divided over the issue of paying to publish. Some researchers
and disciplines argue that APCs should not be the basis for ruling out
publication in a journal – the choice should rather be balanced against
the journal’s disciplinary relevance and its ‘prestige’ factor (captured
in a controversial metric known as the <a href="https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/impact-factors-fail-in-evaluating-scientists-why-does-the-ugc-still-use-it/">journal impact factor</a>). In India, publishing charges are typically fronted by government grants and private funders, and it costs <a href="https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/112/04/0703.pdf">Rs 70,000</a> on average to publish in OA journals.</p>
<p>On the other hand, OA supporters and several institutional initiatives
advocate ‘green’ OA – which requires posting the preprint version of
papers in an open online repository, often immediately after
publication. It remains to be seen whether India will unanimously decide
to adopt green OA.</p>
<p>We also need to deliberate further as to what a nationwide subscription
would mean for the country’s and the world’s OA movement. While a ‘one
national, one subscription’ plan would appear to temporarily alleviate
the financial problem of access, how far can it really go towards
solving for legal and technical barriers of access? For example, the
reader may still not have legal permissions to reuse the article, or
reuse may be prevented technically by anti-copy measures. Or should we
brush these concerns aside since the deal is somewhat of an incremental
reform for India?</p>
<p>The OA movement was conceived to address global inequality in accessing
scientific research. Would India’s position and contribution to the
movement – as a large consumer and producer of scientific research – get
sidelined? It appears that the nationwide subscription deal could
feature in India’s upcoming ‘Science, Technology and Innovation Policy’
as well. Then, to address the gaps, it is necessary to add other policy
solutions to complement the deal’s impact. The goal for a national
science policy should be to create a sustainable, longer term
environment that improves the quality of access and production of
scientific research, and does so in alignment with the values of OA.</p>
<p>Access this article on The Wire Science <a class="external-link" href="https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/india-research-publishing-open-access-one-nation-one-subscription-k-vijayraghavan/">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/research-publishing-is-2018one-nation-one-subscription2019-pragmatic-reform-for-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/research-publishing-is-2018one-nation-one-subscription2019-pragmatic-reform-for-india</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaOpen AccessAccess to Knowledge2021-04-28T17:09:14ZBlog EntryThe STI Policy Proposes a Transformative Open Access Approach for India
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-sti-policy-proposes-a-transformative-open-access-approach-for-india
<b>Anubha Sinha explains what the draft national Science, Technology and Innovation policy means for open access to scientific literature for Indians. This article was first published in The Wire Science on January 21, 2021.</b>
<p>Indians may soon be able to read scientific papers for free.</p>
<p>Reading scientific papers is currently an expensive affair. Many
scientific journals charge a couple of hundred dollars for a single
article. Under a proposed ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ plan of India’s
fifth (draft) Science, Technology and Innovation (<a href="https://dst.gov.in/draft-5th-national-science-technology-and-innovation-policy-public-consultation">STI</a>)
Policy, the government will negotiate with journal publishers to enable
access for everyone. The policy also suggests that research produced in
Indian publicly funded institutions be made freely accessible to
everyone, at the time of publication.</p>
<p>These proposals are a big shift in how we learn and do science, as a country. The previous edition of the policy (<a href="https://icar.org.in/files/sti-policy-eng-07-01-2013.pdf">2013</a>)
did not even recognise affordability or availability of scientific
literature as problems. While ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ could
alleviate this issue partly, its success will depend largely on how
negotiations with publishers materialise. The approach is uncommon: it
has been tried in two countries, with limited success, as I <a href="https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/india-research-publishing-open-access-one-nation-one-subscription-k-vijayraghavan/">discussed here</a>, in an analysis of the idea’s feasibility.</p>
<p>While it is crucial for people to be able to access locked-in research,
it is equally important to address the practices that prevent research
from being openly accessible in the first place.</p>
<p>The STI policy prescribes a green open access (OA) approach to ensure
that research output and data produced with public funds are immediately
accessible to the people – as opposed to taxpayers funding the research
and paying again to access the results. Under green OA, researchers
will be obligated to place their publications and data in online
repositories, without any restrictions on how the output may be used.</p>
<p>Individual research and funding agencies, such as the Departments of
Science & Technology and of Biotechnology, the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research and the Wellcome Trust adopted green OA a while
ago. A national STI policy stands to provide an extra impetus to adopt
and enforce it.</p>
<p>These promising shifts come at a time when the biggest research publishers have launched a <a href="https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/academic-publishing-access-elsevier-sci-hub-alexandra-elbakyan-libgen-copyright-claims-delhi-high-court/">copyright infringement lawsuit</a>
in India to block Sci-Hub and LibGen on the Indian web. Sci-Hub and
LibGen host copyrighted and paywalled research articles and ebooks.
Anyone can download this material for free from their servers. As such,
these ‘shadow libraries’ serve a vital function for everyone, and the
Delhi high court <a href="https://spicyip.com/2021/01/issues-in-scihub-case-a-matter-of-public-importance.html">has already deemed</a>
this litigation to be one of public importance. The Indian scientific
research community will be intervening as well. While the case will
proceed at its own pace, it would definitely be in the public interest
for the STI policy to implement green OA as a mandatory requirement.</p>
<p>It is also notable that the policymaking process was a <a href="https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/sti-policy-2020-dst-psa-ease-of-doing-research">collaborative effort</a>
by academics, scientists and policymakers. There were multiple thematic
consultative rounds with stakeholders. It has been heartening to see
the results of a democratic consultation reflected in our national open
access approach.</p>
<div>However, as is the case with high-level policies, bringing meaningful
implementation often requires more operational and committed work at
all levels. It would be a shame to not capitalise on the direction and
vision of OA as described in the policy.</div>
<div> </div>
<p>Access this article on The Wire Science <a class="external-link" href="https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/the-sti-policy-proposes-a-transformative-open-access-approach-for-india/">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-sti-policy-proposes-a-transformative-open-access-approach-for-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-sti-policy-proposes-a-transformative-open-access-approach-for-india</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaOpen AccessAccess to Knowledge2021-04-28T17:22:43ZBlog EntryComments on the Draft Outcome Document of the UN General Assembly’s Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (WSIS+10)
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-outcome-document-of-the-un-general-assembly2019s-overall-review-of-the-implementation-of-wsis-outcomes-wsis-10
<b>Following the comment-period on the Zero Draft, the Draft Outcome Document of the UN General Assembly's Overall Review of implementation of WSIS Outcomes was released on 4 November 2015. Comments were sought on the Draft Outcome Document from diverse stakeholders. The Centre for Internet & Society's response to the call for comments is below.</b>
<p class="Normal1" style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p class="Normal1" style="text-align: justify; ">The WSIS+10 Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes, scheduled for December 2015, comes as a review of the WSIS process initiated in 2003-05. At the December summit of the UN General Assembly, the WSIS vision and mandate of the IGF are to be discussed. The Draft Outcome Document, released on 4 November 2015, is towards an outcome document for the summit. Comments were sought on the Draft Outcome Document. Our comments are below.</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The Draft Outcome Document of the UN General Assembly’s Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (“<i>the current Draft</i>”) stands considerably altered from the Zero Draft. With references to development-related challenges, the Zero Draft covered areas of growth and challenges of the WSIS. It noted the persisting digital divide, the importance of innovation and investment, and of conducive legal and regulatory environments, and the inadequacy of financial mechanisms. Issues crucial to Internet governance such as net neutrality, privacy and the mandate of the IGF found mention in the Zero Draft.</li>
<li>The current Draft retains these, and adds to them. Some previously-omitted issues such as surveillance, the centrality of human rights and the intricate relationship of ICTs to the Sustainable Development Goals, now stand incorporated in the current Draft. This is most commendable. However, the current Draft still lacks teeth with regard to some of these issues, and fails to address several others. </li>
<li>In our comments to the Zero Draft, CIS had called for these issues to be addressed. We reiterate our call in the following paragraphs.</li>
</ol>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(1) </strong><strong>ICT for Development</strong></h2>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>In the current Draft, paragraphs 14-36 deal with ICTs for development. While the draft contains rubrics like ‘Bridging the digital divide’, ‘Enabling environment’, and ‘Financial mechanisms’, the following issues are unaddressed:</li>
<li>Equitable development for all;</li>
<li>Accessibility to ICTs for persons with disabilities;</li>
<li>Access to knowledge and open data.</li>
</ol>
<h3><i><span>Equitable development</span></i></h3>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>In the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs/geneva/official/dop.html">Geneva Declaration of Principles</a> (2003), two goals are set forth as the Declaration’s “ambitious goal”: (a) the bridging of the digital divide; and (b) equitable development for all (¶ 17). The current Draft speaks in detail about the bridging of the digital divide, but the goal of equitable development is conspicuously absent. At WSIS+10, when the WSIS vision evolves to the creation of inclusive ‘knowledge societies’, equitable development should be both a key principle and a goal to stand by.</li>
<li>Indeed, inequitable development underscores the persistence of the digital divide. The current Draft itself refers to several instances of inequitable development; for ex., the uneven production capabilities and deployment of ICT infrastructure and technology in developing countries, landlocked countries, small island developing states, countries under occupation or suffering natural disasters, and other vulnerable states; lack of adequate financial mechanisms in vulnerable parts of the world; variably affordable (or in many cases, unaffordable) spread of ICT devices, technology and connectivity, etc. </li>
<li>What underscores these challenges is the inequitable and uneven spread of ICTs across states and communities, including in their production, capacity-building, technology transfers, gender-concentrated adoption of technology, and inclusiveness. </li>
<li>As such, it is essential that the WSIS+10 Draft Outcome Document reaffirm our commitment to equitable development for all peoples, communities and states.</li>
<li>We suggest the following inclusion to <strong>paragraph 5 of the current Draft</strong>:</li>
</ol>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span><span style="text-align: justify; ">“5. We reaffirm our common desire and commitment to the WSIS vision to build </span><i style="text-align: justify; "><span>an equitable,</span></i><span style="text-align: justify; "> people-centred, inclusive, and development-oriented Information Society…”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3><i><span>Accessibility for persons with disabilities</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">10. Paragraph 13 of the Geneva Declaration of Principles (2003) pledges to “pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups of society” in the forging of an Information Society. Particularly, ¶ 13 recognises the special needs of older persons and persons with disabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">11. Moreover, ¶ 31 of the Geneva Declaration of Principles calls for the special needs of persons with disabilities, and also of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, to be taken into account while promoting the use of ICTs for capacity-building. Accessibility for persons with disabilities is thus core to bridging the digital divide – as important as bridging the gender divide in access to ICTs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">12. Not only this, but the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/implementation/2014/forum/inc/doc/outcome/362828V2E.pdf">WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes</a> (June 2014) also reaffirms the commitment to “provide equitable access to information and knowledge for all… including… people with disabilities”, recognizing that it is “crucial to increase the participation of vulnerable people in the building process of Information Society…” (¶8).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">13. In our previous submission, CIS had suggested language drawing attention to this. Now, the current Draft only acknowledges that “particular attention should be paid to the specific ICT challenges facing… persons with disabilities…” (paragraph 11). It acknowledges also that now, accessibility for persons with disabilities constitutes one of the core elements of quality (paragraph 22). However, there is a glaring omission of a call to action, or a reaffirmation of our commitment to bridging the divide experienced by persons with disabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">14. We suggest, therefore, the addition of the following language the addition of <strong>paragraph 24A to the current Draft</strong>. Sections of this suggestion are drawn from ¶8, WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes.</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"24A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">Recalling the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities, the Geneva principles paragraph 11, 13, 14 and 15, Tunis Commitment paras 20, 22 and 24, and reaffirming the commitment to providing equitable access to information and knowledge for all, building ICT capacity for all and confidence in the use of ICTs by all, including youth, older persons, women, indigenous and nomadic peoples, people with disabilities, the unemployed, the poor, migrants, refugees and internally displaced people and remote and rural communities, it is crucial to increase the participation of vulnerable people in the building process of information Society and to make their voice heard by stakeholders and policy-makers at different levels. It can allow the most fragile groups of citizens worldwide to become an integrated part of their economies and also raise awareness of the target actors on the existing ICTs solution (such as tolls as e- participation, e-government, e-learning applications, etc.) designed to make their everyday life better. We recognise need for continued extension of access for people with disabilities and vulnerable people to ICTs, especially in developing countries and among marginalized communities, and reaffirm our commitment to promoting and ensuring accessibility for persons with disabilities. In particular, we call upon all stakeholders to honour and meet the targets set out in Target 2.5.B of the Connect 2020 Agenda that enabling environments ensuring accessible telecommunication/ICT for persons with disabilities should be established in all countries by 2020.”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3><i><span>Access to knowledge and open data</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">15. The Geneva Declaration of Principles dedicates a section to access to information and knowledge (B.3). It notes, in ¶26, that a “rich public domain” is essential to the growth of Information Society. It urges that public institutions be strengthened to ensure free and equitable access to information (¶26), and also that assistive technologies and universal design can remove barriers to access to information and knowledge (¶25). Particularly, the Geneva Declaration advocates the use of free and open source software, in addition to proprietary software, to meet these ends (¶27).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">16. It was also recognized in the WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (‘Challenges-during implementation of Action Lines and new challenges that have emerged’) that there is a need to promote access to all information and knowledge, and to encourage open access to publications and information (C, ¶¶9 and 12).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">17. In our previous submission, CIS had highlighted the importance of open access to knowledge thus: “…the implications of open access to data and knowledge (including open government data), and responsible collection and dissemination of data are much larger in light of the importance of ICTs in today’s world. As Para 7 of the Zero Draft indicates, ICTs are now becoming an indicator of development itself, as well as being a key facilitator for achieving other developmental goals. As Para 56 of the Zero Draft recognizes, in order to measure the impact of ICTs on the ground – undoubtedly within the mandate of WSIS – it is necessary that there be an enabling environment to collect and analyse reliable data. Efforts towards the same have already been undertaken by the United Nations in the form of ‘Data Revolution for Sustainable Development’. In this light, the Zero Draft rightly calls for enhancement of regional, national and local capacity to collect and conduct analyses of development and ICT statistics (Para 56). Achieving the central goals of the WSIS process requires that such data is collected and disseminated under open standards and open licenses, leading to creation of global open data on the ICT indicators concerned.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">18. This crucial element is missing from the current Draft of the WSIS+10 Outcome Document. Of course, the current Draft notes the importance of access to information and free flow of data. But it stops short of endorsing and advocating the importance of access to knowledge and free and open source software, which are essential to fostering competition and innovation, diversity of consumer/ user choice and ensuring universal access.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">19. We suggest the following addition – of <strong>paragraph 23A to the current Draft</strong>:</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"23A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We recognize the need to promote access for all to information and knowledge, open data, and open, affordable, and reliable technologies and services, while respecting individual privacy, and to encourage open access to publications and information, including scientific information and in the research sector, and particularly in developing and least developed countries.”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(2) </strong><strong>Human Rights in Information Society</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">20. The current Draft recognizes that human rights have been central to the WSIS vision, and reaffirms that rights offline must be protected online as well. However, the current Draft omits to recognise the role played by corporations and intermediaries in facilitating access to and use of the Internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">21. In our previous submission, CIS had noted that “the Internet is led largely by the private sector in the development and distribution of devices, protocols and content-platforms, corporations play a major role in facilitating – and sometimes, in restricting – human rights online”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">22. We reiterate our suggestion for the inclusion of <strong>paragraph 43A to the current Draft</strong>:</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"43A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We recognize the critical role played by corporations and the private sector in facilitating human rights online. We affirm, in this regard, the responsibilities of the private sector set out in the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, A/HRC/17/31 (21 March 2011), and encourage policies and commitments towards respect and remedies for human rights.”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(3) </strong><strong>Internet</strong> <strong>Governance</strong></h2>
<h3><i><span>The support for multilateral governance of the Internet</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">23. While the section on Internet governance is not considerably altered from the zero draft, there is a large substantive change in the current Draft. The current Draft states that the governance of the Internet should be “multilateral, transparent and democratic, with full involvement of all stakeholders” (¶50). Previously, the zero draft recognized the “the general agreement that the governance of the Internet should be open, inclusive, and transparent”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">24. A return to purely ‘multilateral’ Internet governance would be regressive. Governments are, without doubt, crucial in Internet governance. As scholarship and experience have both shown, governments have played a substantial role in shaping the Internet as it is today: whether this concerns the availability of content, spread of infrastructure, licensing and regulation, etc. However, these were and continue to remain contentious spaces.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">25. As such, it is essential to recognize that a plurality of governance models serve the Internet, in which the private sector, civil society, the technical community and academia play important roles. <strong>We recommend returning to the language of the zero draft in ¶32: “open, inclusive and transparent governance of the Internet”.</strong></p>
<h3><i><span>Governance of Critical Internet Resources</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">26. It is curious that the section on Internet governance<strong> </strong>in both the zero and the current Draft makes no reference to ICANN, and in particular, to the ongoing transition of IANA stewardship and the discussions surrounding the accountability of ICANN and the IANA operator. The stewardship of critical Internet resources, such as the root, is crucial to the evolution and functioning of the Internet. Today, ICANN and a few other institutions have a monopoly over the management and policy-formulation of several critical Internet resources.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">27. While the WSIS in 2003-05 considered this a troubling issue, this focus seems to have shifted entirely. Open, inclusive, transparent and <i>global</i> Internet are misnomer-principles when ICANN – and in effect, the United States – continues to have monopoly over critical Internet resources. The allocation and administration of these resources should be decentralized and distributed, and should not be within the disproportionate control of any one jurisdiction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">28. Therefore, we reiterate our suggestion to add <strong><span>paragraph 53A</span></strong> after Para 53:</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"53A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We affirm that the allocation, administration and policy involving critical Internet resources must be inclusive and decentralized, and call upon all stakeholders and in particular, states and organizations responsible for essential tasks associated with the Internet, to take immediate measures to create an environment that facilitates this development.”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3><i><span>Inclusiveness and Diversity in Internet Governance</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">29. The current Draft, in ¶52, recognizes that there is a need to “promote greater participation and engagement in Internet governance of all stakeholders…”, and calls for “stable, transparent and voluntary funding mechanisms to this end.” This is most commendable.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">30. The issue of inclusiveness and diversity in Internet governance is crucial: today, Internet governance organisations and platforms suffer from a lack of inclusiveness and diversity, extending across representation, participation and operations of these organisations. As CIS submitted previously, the mention of inclusiveness and diversity becomes tokenism or formal (but not operational) principle in many cases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">31. As we submitted before, the developing world is pitifully represented in standards organisations and in ICANN, and policy discussions in organisations like ISOC occur largely in cities like Geneva and New York. For ex., 307 out of 672 registries listed in ICANN’s registry directory are based in the United States, while 624 of the 1010 ICANN-accredited registrars are US-based.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">32. Not only this, but 80% of the responses received by ICANN during the ICG’s call for proposals were male. A truly global and open, inclusive and transparent governance of the Internet must not be so skewed. Representation must include not only those from developing countries, but must also extend across gender and communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">33. We propose, therefore, the addition of a <strong><span>paragraph 51A</span></strong> after Para 51:</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"51A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We draw attention to the challenges surrounding diversity and inclusiveness in organisations involved in Internet governance, including in their representation, participation and operations. We note with concern that the representation of developing countries, of women, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, is far from equitable and adequate. We call upon organisations involved in Internet governance to take immediate measures to ensure diversity and inclusiveness in a substantive manner.”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<hr size="1" style="text-align: justify; " width="33%" />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prepared by Geetha Hariharan, with inputs from Sunil Abraham and Japreet Grewal. All comments submitted towards the Draft Outcome Document may be found <a class="external-link" href="http://unpan3.un.org/wsis10/Preparatory-Process-Roadmap/Comments-on-Draft-Outcome-Document">at this link</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-outcome-document-of-the-un-general-assembly2019s-overall-review-of-the-implementation-of-wsis-outcomes-wsis-10'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-outcome-document-of-the-un-general-assembly2019s-overall-review-of-the-implementation-of-wsis-outcomes-wsis-10</a>
</p>
No publishergeethaICT4DCall for CommentsWSIS+10Access to KnowledgeAccessibilityHuman Rights OnlineInternet GovernanceICANNIANA TransitionOpen SourceOpen Access2015-11-18T06:33:13ZBlog EntryWhat Indian Language Wikipedias can do for Greater Open Access in India
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-subhashish-panigrahi-october-20-2016-what-indian-language-wikipedias-can-do-for-greater-open-access-in-india
<b>The number of internet users in India was expected to reach 460 million by 2015, as the growth in the previous year was 49 percent. The total number of users for Hindi content alone reached about 60 million last year.</b>
<p>This was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://yourstory.com/2016/10/indian-language-wikipedia/">Your Story</a> on October 20, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<h3>State of Indian languages on the internet</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Based on a study, Internet activist Anivar Aravind <a href="https://blog.smc.org.in/policy-brief-mobile-indian-lang/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mentioned</a> that in 2014, although 89 percent of Indian population used mobile phones, only 10 percent of the population used smartphones (contributing to 13 percent of total mobile users). This means we can safely assume that a large section of online activity in India is through mobile devices ‑ thanks to the <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/price-war-idea-vodafone-and-bharti-airtel-to-slash-tariffs-to-compete-with-reliance-jio/articleshow/53971250.cms" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">declining data charges</a> because of high competition. That said the mobile internet connectivity in <a href="http://qz.com/56259/language-is-the-key-to-winning-indias-mobile-market/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">rural India</a> is growing at a fast pace and vernacular content plays an important role in this great journey. With over <a href="https://yourstory.com/2015/11/news-aggregators-vernacular/" target="_blank">90 percent of the users</a> being comfortable in their own native languages, websites that are producing content in Indian languages are going to drive this bandwagon.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Why open access is important for Indian languages?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://legacy.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/overview.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Open access</a>, in a nutshell, would mean research outputs and other educational resources that are free from restriction of access and use. The former includes resources like journals that are not <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/jan/17/open-access-publishing-science-paywall-immoral" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">paywalled</a>, and the latter is freedom from copyright restriction. Open access as a movement encourages license migration ‑ a process of migrating from several copyrighted license terms to <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Creative Commons licenses</a> and <a href="https://opensource.com/education/16/8/3-copyright-tips-students-and-educators" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">several other licenses</a> that provide freedom to use, share and remix. In a country like India where there are only a handful of research journals available in vernacular languages, the need for open content becomes much more important. The more the restricted content, the less will be the access to knowledge. Creating more vernacular content with open licenses is like digging a well in a dessert.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Indian language Wikipedias as open access journals</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It’s been almost a decade since most largely spoken Indian languages started having a Wikipedia project of their own. Presently, there are <a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/List_of_Indian_language_wiki_projects" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">23 Indian language Wikipedias</a>, including newest entrants like <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/07/15/konkani-wikipedia-goes-live/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Konkani</a> and <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/08/24/digest-tulu-wikipedia/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tulu</a>. That said, these projects are growing with more and more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_an_encyclopedia" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">encyclopedic content</a> written with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">neutral point of view</a>, which any internet user will find useful. Wikipedia is considered as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Open_Textbook_of_Medicine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">people’s encyclopedia</a> and hence can have quite contrasting content ‑ some being poor because some volunteer editors lack expertise in high quality articles written by professionals. A great example of creating very high quality content in one particular subject area is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Open_Textbook_of_Medicine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Open Textbook of Medicine</a> ‑ an offline encyclopedia consisting of Wikipedia articles related to medicine that was created by a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Members" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">group of dedicated volunteer</a> medical professionals that happened to be Wikipedia editors. There is enormous potential to grow Wikipedia in multiple languages with high quality content.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">How to grow open access in Indian languages using Wikipedia as a tool</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/subhashish-panigrahi-/8-challenges-in-growing-indian-language-wikipedias/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">list of challenges</a> to grow Wikipedia-like projects with volunteer effort could be endless. And one of the biggest challenges is bringing self-motivated people who are willing to contribute as volunteers. Also, there are many such people who are not aware that they can contribute to Wikipedia. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_community" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikipedia community</a> has created an ecosystem by having several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikimedia_chapters" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikimedia chapters</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliates" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">other affiliates</a> that are run by both volunteers and paid staff ‑ the <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikimedia Foundation</a>, a paid staff-run organisation that is responsible for fundraising, major technological and some community support. In India, <a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikimedia India</a>, Centre for Internet and Society’s <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Access to Knowledge program</a> (CIS-A2K) and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_Wikimedians" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Punjabi Wikimedians</a> are three such official affiliates that are working on catalysing the growth of the content and the communities. Where the affiliate Punjabi Wikimedians focuses on Punjabi language (in both Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts), both Wikimedia India and CIS-A2K focus on all the Indian languages. CIS-A2K also specially focuses on five languages; Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Odia and Telugu. Indian language Wikipedia projects can only grow if people can edit their own language Wikipedias.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With the <a href="http://openaccessweek.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Open Access Week</a>—a week dedicated for promoting <a href="https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-access" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Open Access</a> globally—around the corner with “<a href="http://www.openaccessweek.org/profiles/blogs/theme-of-2016-international-open-access-week-to-be-open-in-action" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Open in Action</a>” as the theme of the year, there is no better time for anyone who can read and write in their native Indian language.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-subhashish-panigrahi-october-20-2016-what-indian-language-wikipedias-can-do-for-greater-open-access-in-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-subhashish-panigrahi-october-20-2016-what-indian-language-wikipedias-can-do-for-greater-open-access-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpen Access2016-10-22T04:12:40ZBlog Entry