The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 791 to 805.
Watch what you read on that website
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/watch-what-you-read-on-that-website
<b>Google has decided to give newspapers better control over their content appearing on the search engine but netizens don’t seem too pleased about it, says an article by NT Balanarayan of DNA on December 9, 2009</b>
<p>While many newspaper heads are rejoicing Google's decision to provide more control over their content appearing on the search engine, netizens don't seem too pleased about it.</p>
<p>More than Murdoch's stand demanding visitors to pay for news, what surprised most was the fact that Google made it easier for them to do so. "Anyone who owns a website knows that they can add or remove their content from search engines by modifying the robots.txt file, and that's what newspapers like Wall Street Journal should have done. But instead, many newspapers kept blaming search engines for their falling readership. Now that Google's provided such a tool, they have no more reason to complain," Jayant M, a city-based blogger says.<br /><br />First Click Free, a tool from Google lets users view a limited number of articles on a website before being asked to register or to pay up to move ahead. But this tool again uses browser cache and cookies to keep track of how many stories a visitor has viewed. This can easily be overcome by clearing the cache or by using another browser. Google spoke out after an initial rumour of Microsoft holding talks with News Corp for exclusive indexing of the news sites on their Bing search engine gained traction. Microsoft later denied any such move.</p>
<p>"It's not like I'm not ready to pay a news website for news. But I wouldn't pay a news service for a few stories once in a while. I'll readily pay a local newspaper, if they demand a reasonable amount and provided it's not just agency news that's thrown my way," Suresh Nayak, a Bangalore-based techie says.</p>
<p>A few are ready to pay for content online, but a lot of people say they'll depend on other sources like blogs which provide news for free. "Mostly, in a newspaper, I don't read the full story because I get most of the information from the first few paragraphs. There are a lot of bloggers who post the most important news snippets on their blogs too. That is enough information most of the time," Jayant adds.</p>
<p>According to Sunil Abraham, executive director at Bangalore-based Centre of Internet and Society, every generation brings in disruptive new models which affect the existing ones. New business models are coming up and the ongoing discussions between search engines like Bing, Google and newspapers is just a part of it.</p>
<p>"As far as India is concerned, the question is not whether the media will provide their content for free or not, but if they come with a medium which can sustain them. It could be paid, ad-based or even based on a system where search engines pay for indexing them," he says.</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_watch-what-you-read-on-that-website_1321839">Link to the original article</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/watch-what-you-read-on-that-website'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/watch-what-you-read-on-that-website</a>
</p>
No publisherPrasadOpenness2011-04-02T14:10:54ZNews ItemMozilla Open Web Talks
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/mozilla-talks
<b>Give a talk, or just listen - On December 16 in Bangalore, Mozilla and The Centre for Internet and Society are holding an evening of talks about the future of the open internet.
</b>
<p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">We're inviting you to to give a 5 minute talk, or just to
come listen:</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Drumbeat/CIS-Bangalore">https://wiki.mozilla.org/Drumbeat/CIS-Bangalore</a></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Presentations will either:</p>
<ol><li>Explain the open web and
why it matters and<br /></li><li>Describe a concrete project idea that will make
the web better.</li></ol>
<p>If you're interesting in giving a talk, please sign up
here:</p>
<a href="http://fcroadshow.net/?page_id=7">http://fcroadshow.net/?page_id=7</a>
<p>If you'd like to simply attend and listen, please RSVP
here: </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="http://bit.ly/51OOXf">http://bit.ly/51OOXf</a></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><br /><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Mozilla%20Drumbeat.jpg/image_preview" alt="Mozilla Drumbeat" class="image-inline" title="Mozilla Drumbeat" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/mozilla-talks'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/mozilla-talks</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-05T04:19:15ZEventPresent, tense: Future classrooms
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/present-tense-future-classrooms
<b>An article by Nishant Shah in the December issue of Teacher Plus - the magazine for the contemporary teacher. </b>
<p>In the world of education, the emergence of Wikipedia – an online, user generated, knowledge production referencing system – has drawn strong battle lines. The divide is fairly well drawn between those who swear by Wikipedia and those who swear at it. On the one hand are the students and teachers (more students than teachers) who look upon the democratic modes of knowledge production, the easy access to information, and the multiple perspectives that get embedded in the global system of producing knowledge, as one of the most revolutionary moments in the history of teaching and research in the world. On the other hand are the teachers and students (more teachers than students) who grow green in the face, pointing out the errors and problems within Wikipedia, often layering their objections with much more complex problems of plagiarism, lack of research ethics and absence of rigour.</p>
<p>Especially in classrooms, where students often bring in information retrieved from Wikipedia to cope and engage with their curricula, there seems to be a strained sense of tension where the students are increasingly depending upon Wikipedia (or other such user generated knowledge production spaces) for their first introductions to different knowledges, and the teachers, used to the sacredness of books and library based research, feel a sense of despair at the click-copy-paste cultures that the students bring to the classrooms. This tension between the students and the teachers, and the concern over authenticity and accuracy, is symptomatic of a much larger changing relationship between students and teachers within academia in emerging information societies.</p>
<p>While it is possible to, almost infinitely, perpetuate these debates, there is a certain transformative moment which is being lost in the cacophony that emerges from both the sides trying to prove their points, and often delving into pointless, albeit intelligent, chatter. It is this moment that I am interested in articulating, because it captures, for me, a change in the learning-teaching environments in classrooms that is not very clearly articulated in the Wikipedia (or at a much larger level, Internet) and education debates.</p>
<p>The classroom, across cultures and geographies has been marked by a romantic imagination of being a hallowed space of elevated learning and knowledge. While this is indeed true, it is necessary to place the classroom in another more pragmatic context of Knowledge production industries and services. While there are often certain intangible and affective bonds of faith between the teacher and the students, it is necessary to remind ourselves that the classroom is essentially a site of knowledge industries, where certain information, knowledge and skills are transferred from the teacher – who serves as the access point to relevant data – to the students who need to be trained and taught into becoming possessors of knowledge.</p>
<p>And it is this particular relationship that the Internet technologies are changing – this hitherto accepted role of the teacher as the bearer of knowledge and the student as a recipient of the same. I want to look at three particular ways in which Wikipedia and other similar spaces have challenged our understanding of the classroom and the teacher-student relationship in the traditional classrooms.</p>
<p>Wikipedia, which is at the centre of the debates, is actually more demonstrative of this changing knowledge structure because of its contours as well as the larger aesthetics and politics it embodies. In the world of Wikipedia, there are no hierarchies of knowledge dependent upon personal credentials or antecedents. All contributors, are, instead, sorted on the basis of their skill for research, writing, and providing evidence. More often than not, an article on Wikipedia is a collaborative effort which plays on the strengths of many different collaborators. Each contributor is not expected to be a proficient scholar with all the required skills. Instead, different contributors take on different roles and help in producing collaborative knowledge. Such a system of knowledge production challenges the dominant understanding of knowledge production and contribution, especially in the school and university set-ups, which are contingent upon individual genius and comprehensive skills.</p>
<p> <img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Wikipedia.jpg/image_preview" alt="Wikipedia" class="image-inline" title="Wikipedia" /></p>
<p>A space like Wikipedia thus, produces not only a level field of learning, collaborating and sharing knowledge, which is often at logger-heads with the classrooms as we know them, it also leads to a new flow of knowledge. In traditional classroom conditions, the teacher is envisioned as an expert and the flow of information is meant to be one-way, imitating a broadcast model that earlier technologies like print and cinema have embraced. With Wikipedia, there is a shift from education to learning. Everybody on Wikipedia is imagined to be a valuable person who pools his/her skills into a common database, from which knowledge is now produced and perfected. This dismantling of the teacher figure, the placing of the teacher in a condition of learning rather than teaching is the source of much anxiety that internet technologies bring forth. The recognition that the experiences, the skills, and the information that the students have are equally, if not more valuable, in the process of knowledge production and dissemination, is a significant shift in our understanding of the classroom.</p>
<p>The last point that I want to touch upon is the way in which the accepted role of curricula is challenged with the emergence of such easy access to different knowledge systems. For younger users of technology, who are being exposed to alternative voices, politics of dissent and a wider horizon of theory and practice, the prescribed curriculum becomes often restrictive and sometimes redundant. Because information is now easily available, the premium is on knowledge – abilities to analyze, sift, research and thinking through questions – thus changing the role of teachers, especially in schools. Many teachers are often faced with situations where the students have more information at their finger tips than is in the text-book or indeed, is available to the teacher around a particular area. In such instances, new forms of coping with curriculum, novel ways of understanding classroom pedagogies, and creative ways of incorporating the students’ experiences and information in the teaching practices need to be developed.</p>
<p>There is no denying the fact that the emergence of internet technologies are leading to different crises in the classrooms. However, instead of formulating it in binaries – virtual classroom versus physical classroom, Wikipedia versus Encyclopaedia Britannica, Information versus Knowledge, etc. – it is more fruitful to examine the ways in which these technologies are helping us revisit the classroom as one of the most crucial sites of the knowledge industries, and questioning many concepts and ideas that we had taken for granted in our existing education and teaching systems.</p>
<p>The author is the Director – Research at The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. He is currently working with the Networked Higher Education Initiative on a project on technology and education on networked campuses in India. He can be reached at itsnishant@gmail.com.</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.teacherplus.org/2009/december-2009/present-tense-future-classrooms">Link to the original article</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/present-tense-future-classrooms'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/present-tense-future-classrooms</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T14:11:51ZNews ItemCreative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/creative-commons
<b>The Centre For Internet and Society and JAAGA organised a CC Salon on 02nd December, 2009 at 7.30pm. </b>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">CIS and JAAGA organised a CC Salon (<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon">http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon</a>)
by Jon Phillps on Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Venue: JAAGA<br />Time: 7.30pm</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">The aim of this get together was to share knowledge and
experiences of alternative copyright licensing.
Artists, lawyers dealing with copyright licensing and others are
encouraged to highlight their own work, experiences and queries about Creative
Commons and other alternative licenses.</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">An abstract of the presentation and the bio of Jon
is given below.</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">ABSTRACT:</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Creative Commons Casestudies, Featuring Status.Net</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Creative Commons is a well-known nonprofit
organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration. Its key tools
are six licenses that fit between public domain and complete control,
copyright, to give you control over how your work is shared with the world.
This presentation explores high level case studies that use Creative Commons
licenses to make a successful project. The key featured case study is
Status.Net, a new status updating hosted service and open source software that
uses Creative Commons licensing for content.</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon">http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon</a></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">BIO:</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Jon Phillips is a community and business
developer
contributing to society and building meaningful relationships. In 2002
he
helped launch the open source drawing tool, Inkscape and founded the
Open Clip
Art Library. From 2005 until 2008 he built Creative Commons’ community
and
business development projects and is currently a Creative Commons
Fellow.
Currently, he is growing the media company Fabricatorz with Cantocore
Art Exhibitions,
Laoban Open Soundsystems, and is recently assisting with an upcoming
re-launch
of Status.Net (Identi.ca). He is known for growing successful open
communities globally, leading international business development
in Asia (particularly China), and developing Open Marketing.</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="http://rejon.org/bio/#images">http://rejon.org/bio/#images</a></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"> <img class="image-inline" src="../../../../home-images/Evite%20GI-CC%20New.jpg/image_preview" alt="CC Salon" /></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"> </p>
<h3>Videos</h3>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/g_dIgbSACwA"></embed>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/g_dIgbSATAA"></embed>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/g_dIgbSBdQA"></embed>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/g_dIgbTbOwA"></embed>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/g_dIgbTcNQA"></embed>
<embed height="250" width="250" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/play/g_dIgbTcUQA"></embed>
<p class="MsoPlainText"> </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/creative-commons'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/creative-commons</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-08-18T05:08:58ZBlog EntryFree Culture Roadshow
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/free-culture-roadshow
<b>The Free Culture Roadshow from 07th December, 2009 to 22nd December, 2009: A presentation on The Right to Share and The Promise of Open Video.
</b>
<p>CIS in association with different institutions across India invites you to join in the Free Culture Roadshow: A presentation on The Right to Share and The Promise of Open Video.</p>
The Co-hosts, Dates and the Venues for the Talk are given below:
<ol><li>Co-Host: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay<br />Date: 07th December, 2009 from 10am to 2pm<br />Venue – IIT-B, Mumbai</li><li>Co-Host: Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay <br />Date: 07th December, 2009 from 4.30pm to 7pm<br />Venue – TISS, Mumbai</li><li>Co-Host: Department of Media Sciences, CEGC, Anna University, Chennai<br />Date: 08th December, 2009 from 9.30am<br />Venue – Seminar Hall, Dept. Of Media Sciences, Anna University, Chennai</li><li>Co-Host: Dept. Of Management Studies, IIT-M, and BodhBridge Espl. <br />Date: 09th December, 2009 from 9.30am to 01.30pm<br />Venue – Central Lecture Theatre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.</li><li>Co-Host: Dept. Of Journalism, Mount Carmel College, Bangalore <br />Date: 14th December, 2009 from 10am to 01pm<br />Venue – Golden Jubilee Hall, Bangalore</li><li>Co-Host: National Law School, Bangalore<br />Date: 17th December, 2009 from 2.30pm onwards<br />Venue – National Law School, Bangalore</li><li>Co-Host: Faculty of Architecture, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad<br />Date: 18th December, 2009 from 4pm to 7pm<br />Venue – Auditorium, CEPT</li><li>Co- Host: Magic Lantern Foundation<br />Date: 20th December, 2009 from 9am to 1pm<br />Venue - Conference Room 2, India International Centre, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi</li><li>Co-Host: The Media Lab, Jadavpur University, Kolkata<br />Date: 22nd December, 2009 from 11.30am to 3.30pm<br />Venue – Jadavpur University, Kolkata</li></ol>
<p>A Brief Abstract of the two discussions and the profile of the speakers are given below:</p>
<h3>The Right to Share: What Does Copying Have to Do with Freedom?</h3>
<p>The Internet has unleashed the potential to communicate and collaborate like never before, and the result has been an unprecedented flow of culture and information. Millions of individuals are now sharing and creating culture: copying, cutting, remixing, and participating in new and different ways.<br />Sometimes this activity is transformative. Sometimes it's straight copying. In either case, there is a clear connection between this sharing of culture and personal freedom.<br />This talk will explore how various conceptions of "freedom" have shaped the social movements for free software, free culture, and free knowledge, and how this ideology has manifested itself in real action. It will connect theory with practice, exploring the cultural innovations and political changes that have spawned forth from these movements. Lastly, it will make the case that the broad-based availability, accessibility, and abundance of culture is a good thing for our global society.</p>
<h3>Speaker Profile:</h3>
<p><strong>Elizabeth Stark</strong> is a leader in the global free culture movement. She is a Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project and a Lecturer in Computer Science at Yale University. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Stark founded the Harvard Free Culture Group and served on the board of directors of Students for Free Culture. While at Harvard, she was Editor-at-Large of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, and worked on using new media to promote human rights with the Harvard Advocates for Human Rights. Elizabeth has worked extensively with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and has taught courses in Cyberlaw, Digital Copyright, Technology and Politics, and Electronic Music. She recently produced the inaugural Open Video Conference in NYC, garnering over 8000 viewers across the web. Elizabeth regularly gives talks around the world on free culture, and has collaborated with myriad organizations on promoting shared knowledge and the open web.</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Elizabeth%20Stark.jpg/image_preview" alt="Elizabeth Stark" class="image-inline" title="Elizabeth Stark" /></p>
<h3>The Revolution Will Be Recorded, Remixed, and Redistributed: The Promise of Open Video</h3>
<p>Between news, cinema, television, and documentary film, we find ourselves swimming in a sea of moving images. This has been the story of the 20th century. Yet in this age, the tools for creating and sharing video are becoming widely distributed in the hands of millions of individuals. Desktop video editing software is pervasive; webcams and video-equipped mobile phones abound. Video now belongs to everyone. It is becoming a powerful medium for self-expression, a kind of cultural currency. <br />How will this phenomenon change the Internet? How will it change society? What questions persist for the architecture of the Internet, and how will public policy address this ultimately political transformation? This talk sets forth a vision of networked video as a truly participatory medium, one that will power the next 10 years of innovation on the web. Dean Jansen and Ben Moskowitz introduce some core technologies for open video, and the obstacles they face on the road to mass adoption.</p>
<h3>Speaker Profiles:</h3>
<p><strong>Dean Jansen</strong> is a Free Culture activist and guerrilla artist based in New York. He attended Harvard University and was a leader in the Harvard Free Culture Group. Dean assisted in teaching media studies and law courses at MIT and Harvard, and has organized numerous academic conferences. <br />He currently serves as outreach director at the non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation, makers of the Miro internet TV player. His art projects can be viewed at www.notthemessiah.net.</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/deanzo.jpg/image_preview" alt="Dean" class="image-inline" title="Dean" /><br /><br /><strong>Ben Moskowitz</strong> is general coordinator at the Open Video Alliance, a coalition to democratize the moving image. Ben co-founded the UC Berkeley chapter of Students for Free Culture and taught a seminar on the politics of piracy at Berkeley's School of Information. <br />He currently serves on the board of directors of the international organization Students for Free Culture, dedicated to promoting access to knowledge, technological freedom, and participatory culture.</p>
<p> <img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/benzo.jpg/image_preview" alt="Ben" class="image-inline" title="Ben" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/free-culture-roadshow'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/free-culture-roadshow</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-05T04:20:44ZEventOpen Standards Workshop at IGF '09
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dcos-workshop-09
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society co-organized a workshop on 'Open Standards: A Rights-Based Framework' at the fourth Internet Governance Forum, at Sharm el-Sheikh. The panel was chaired by Aslam Raffee of Sun Microsystems and the panellists were Sir Tim Berners-Lee of W3C, Renu Budhiraja of India's DIT, Sunil Abraham of CIS, Steve Mutkoski of Microsoft, and Rishab Ghosh of UNU-MERIT.</b>
<p>Sir Tim Berners-Lee started the session with an address on various rights. Rights, he noted can range from being things like the rights to air and water to the right not to have the data carrier you use determine which movie you watch. Then, there are tensions between rights: the right to anonymity can clash with the right to know who posted information on making a bomb. Berners-Lee stated that for 2009, he has chosen to pursue one particular right: the right to government-held data. This data can include everything from where schools are to emergency services such as locations of hospitals. Today, we are talking about standards. </p>
<p>The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a fifteen-year old body in which all kinds of people come together for purposes of setting standards around the World Wide Web. Thus, everything from HTML, which is used to write Web pages to WCAG, which are guidelines to enable people with disabilities access websites through assistive technologies. W3C conducts its discussions openly: anybody who has a good idea has a right to participate in its discussions -- it does not matter who one works for, who one represents -- what does matter are the ideas one brings to the table. The kinds of standards that W3C deals with are of interest to an immensely wide-ranging group of people. Even ten-year olds have actually expressed their opinions about standards like HTML. All this openness of participation must be guaranteed while ensuring that the processes move forward.</p>
<p>Next spoke Renu Budhiraja of the Department of Information and Technology, which is a part of the Indian government. She started off by hoping that this workshop would be not only a platform to share knowledge, but also to reach consensus on a few matters. Next, she laid out why open standards are extremely important for the Indian government. What citizens want in their interactions with the government are ease of interaction and efficiency. For them it is immaterial whether a certain service is provided by Department A or Department B. Thus we need to move towards a single-window government service for citizens, enabling them to interact easily with the government's various departments. While such an initiative must be centralized for it to be effective, it is crucial that its implementation be decentralized and suited to each district or localities' needs.</p>
<p>There is, understandably, a huge institutional mechanism behind ensuring that these systems are based on open standards. We have expert committees, consisting of academics and knowledgeable bureaucrats, and working groups, which include industry groups. Through these, we have evolved a National Policy on Open Standards, which is currently in a draft stage, but shall be notified soon. This policy outlines the principles based on which particular standards required for governmental functioning are to be chosen or evolved. This document will ensure long-term accessibility to public documents and information, and seamless interoperability of various governmental services and departments. It will also reduce the risk of vendor lock-in and reduce costs, and thus ensure long-term, sustainable, scalable and cost-effective solutions.</p>
<p>Ms. Budhiraja noted that there are a few aspects of the policy that bear discussion in a forum such as the IGF. First is the issue of whether royalty-free is the only choice for innovation. All other things equal, between royalty-free and reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) standards, of course royalty-free is to be preferred. But what if a superior technology (JPEG200 vs. JPEG) is RAND? What should the government's position be in such a case? Further, what should the government's position be when in a particular domain a RAND standard is the only option? </p>
<p>Next is the issue of single vs. multiple open standards. When interoperability is what we are aiming at, can multiple standards be recommended as some in the industry are asking us to do? And then is the issue of market maturity. The government sometimes finds itself in a situation where a standard is available, but well-developed products around that standard aren't and there aren't sufficient vendors using that standard. All these issues are of great practical importance when a government works on a policy document on standards.</p>
<p>Next up was Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society. His presentation was on open standards as citizens' and consumers' rights. He started off by citing the example of the Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application (SCOSTA) standard, and the implications that the SCOSTA story has on large-scale projects such as the National Unique ID project currently under way in India. SCOSTA, an open standard, was being written off as unimplementable by all the MNC smart card vendors who wished to push RAND standards. IIT Kanpur helped the government develop a working implementation. Within twenty days, the card manufacturers submitted modified cards for compliance testing by NIC. Because of SCOSTA being an open standard, local companies also joined the tender. The cost went down from Rs. 600 per card to Rs. 30 per card. This shows the benefits of open standards as a means of curbing oligopolistic pricing, and working for the benefit of consumers.</p>
<p>From a rights-based perspective, access to the state machinery is a primary right. Citizens should not be required to pirate or purchase software to interact with the state. If e-governance solutions are based on proprietary standards, not all citizens would be equal. The South African example or requiring a particular browser to access the election commission's website shows that in a rather drastic fashion. When intellectual property interferes with governmental needs, governments have not been shy of issuing compulsory licences. This was seen when during the Great War the United States government pooled various flight-related patents and compulsorily licensed them, as well as what we are currently seeing with many Aids-related drugs being compulsorily licensed in developing countries. Thus, there are precedents for such licensing, and governments should explore them in the realm of e-governance. Many countries now have statutes that guarantee the right to government-held information. Government Interoperability Frameworks should take these into account, and mandate all government-to-citizen (G2C) information be transacted via open standards. This must be backed up by a strong accessibility policy to ensure that the governments don't discriminate between their citizens.</p>
<p>Proprietary standards act like pseudo-intellectual property rights, just as DRMs do. They add a layer on top of rights such as copyright, and can prevent the exercise of fair use and fair dealing rights because of an inability to legally negotiate the standards in which the content is encoded in a cost-free manner. In guaranteeing this balance between copyrights and fair dealing rights, free software and alternative IP models play a crucial role. Because of software patents being recognized in a few countries, development of free software which allows citizens to exercise their fair use rights is harmed in all countries.</p>
<p>Steve Mutkoski of Microsoft spoke next and placed the standards debate in a large context. He noted that standards are a technicality that are only a small part of the large issue which is interoperability in e-governance and delivery to citizens. The real challenges are organizational and semantic interoperability. Frequently interoperability is not harmed by technical issues, but by legal and organizational issues. Governments used to work on paper; during the shift to electronic data, they didn't engage in any organizational changes. Thus they continue to function with electronic data the same way that they did with paper-based data. Governments often lack strong privacy policies regarding the data that each of their departments holds. This harms governmental functioning. Additionally, legacy hardware and software have to be catered to by the standards we are talking about: sometimes an open standard just will not work. </p>
<p>Standards don't guarantee interoperability, and there is significant work done on this by noted academics ("Why Standards Are Not Enough To Guarantee End-to-End Interoperability" Lewis et al.; "Difficulties Implementing Standards" Egyedi & Dahanayake; "Standards Compliant, But Incompatible?" Egyedi et al.). Mandated standards lists will not help address interoperability issues between different implementations of the same standard. What would help? Transparency of implementations; collaboration with community; active participation in maintenance of standards, etc., would help. There is a need for continued public sector reform, with a focus on citizen-centric e-governance, and a need to engage with the question of whether government-mandated standards lists lead the market or follow the market.</p>
<p>Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, a senior researcher at UN University, Maastricht, spoke next. He started by noting that technical standards are left to technical experts. That needs to change, which is why discussing open standards at the IGF is important. He next set off a hypothetical: imagine you go to the city council office in Sharm el Sheik, and at the parking lot there it says that your car has to be a Ford if you are to park there; or if the Dutch government insists that you have a Philips TV if you are to receive the national broadcaster's signal. While these might seem absurd, situations like this arise all the time when it comes to the realm of software. Thus, the social effects of open standards are of utmost importance, and not just their technical qualities. Analysing the social effects of open standards takes us back to the economics of technology and technological standards. Technological standards exhibit network externalities: their inherent value is less than the value of others using them. Being the only person in the world with a telephone won't be very useful. Technological standards also exhibit path dependence: once you go with one technological format, it is difficult to change over to another even if that other format is superior to the first. Thus, clearly, standards benefit when there is a 'natural monopoly'. The challenge really arises when faced with the question of how to ensure a monopoly in a technology without the supplier of that technology exhibiting monopolistic tendencies. This can only be done when the technology is open and developed openly, of which the web standards and the W3C are excellent examples. If the technology or the process are semi-open, then because of the few intellectual property rights attached to the technology, some would be better off than others. Just as governments cannot insist on driving a particular make of cars as a prerequisite for access to them, they cannot insist on using a particular proprietary standard as a means of accessing them.</p>
<p>Many interesting questions arose when the floor was thrown open to the audience. "Should governments only mandate a particular standard when it is certain that market maturity exists?" Not really, since governmental decisions also give signals to the market and help direct attention to those standards. It would be best if roadmaps were provided, with particular under-mature standards being designated as "preferred standards", thus helping push industry in a particular direction. Examples where this strategy has borne fruit abound. This is also the strategy found in the Australian GIF. On the issue of multiplicity of standards, Sir Tim was very clear that they have to be avoided at all costs. He gave the example of XSLT and CSS, which are both stylesheet formats. He noted that their domain of operation was very different (with one being for servers and the other for clients), so having two standards with similar functions but different domains of operation does not make them multiple standards. Multiple standards defeat the purpose of the standardization process.</p>
<p>It was noted that governmental choices are of practical importance to citizens. During the Hurricane Katrina emergency, the federal emergency website only worked properly if Internet Explorer was used. How do we move forward? We must move forward by having policies that strike a balance between allowing for the natural evolution of standards and stability. The Government Interoperability Frameworks must be dynamic documents, allowing for categorization between standards and having clear roadmaps to enable industry to provide solutions to the government in a timely fashion. Governments must be strong in order to push industry towards openness, for the sake of its citizens, and not let industry dictate proprietary standards as the solution. Some opined that since there are dozens of domains that governments function in, maintaining lists of standards is a time-consuming process that is not justified, but others rebutted that by noting that for enterprise architectures to work, governments have to maintain such lists internally. Opening up that list to citizens and service providers would not entail greater overheads.</p>
<p><strong>Sunil Abraham talking Open Standards at IGF09</strong></p>
<p>(Video added on December 30, 2009)<br /><br /><br /><a title="<OBJECT>, shockwave-flash@http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" class="__noscriptPlaceholder__" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1">
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<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dcos-workshop-09'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dcos-workshop-09</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshOpen StandardsConsumer RightsDigital GovernanceFair DealingsFLOSSWorkshopOpenness2011-08-23T02:54:03ZBlog EntryAsia Source 3 Meeting
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/asia-source-3-meeting
<b>The Asia Source 3 Meeting Reinforces Asian Free and Open Source Software Movement -
More than 150 Asian Open Source activists met in the Philippines from 07th November to 12th November to discuss the latest IT-tools for NGOs and SMEs and this time the Main Theme of Asia Source 3 was: Building Capacities and Empowering Humanity through FOSS</b>
<p>Asia Source 3 Meeting Reinforces Asian Free and Open Source Software Movement</p>
<ul><li>More than 150 Asian Open Source activists discuss latest IT-tools for NGOs and SMEs in the Philippines</li><li>Gathering ends with knowledge sharing and plans to migrate to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)</li><li>Main Theme of Asia Source 3: Building Capacities and Empowering Humanity through FOSS</li></ul>
<p>Silang, Cavite - While most technology conferences happen as swanky, slick, and well-rehearsed events, the recently concluded Asia Source 3 took the opposite track and ran a camp that was spartan yet spontaneous. From November 7 to 12, 2009, Asia Source 3 gathered 150 representatives in the Yen Center to discuss developments in open source. For those six days, the campers lived in a communal environment that married fun and relaxation with exchange of ideas.<br />Asia Source 3 campers represented a large cross section of non-governmental organizations, small businesses, youth networks, and technology entrepreneurs from 15 countries (see full list below). While technology issues permeated the discussions, it took place with an emphasis on the economic and social context of cooperation among developing countries.</p>
<p>This is the third such event in the region, organized by the International Open Source Network (IOSN) and InWEnt - Capacity Building International of Germany ; earlier camps took place in Bangalore, India in 2005 and Sukabumi, Indonesia in 2007. It is based on the source camp template of the Tactical Technology Collective, an NGO that consults for other NGOs on technology. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), the ASEAN Foundation and the Open Society Institute funded Asia Source 3, with the aim to increasing awareness and adoption of free and open source software.</p>
<p>"We believe that the continuous strengthening of the Free Software community through source camps like this contribute to a more open collaborative environment," said Dr. Alvin Marcelo, Director of IOSN for ASEAN+3. "While the rising popularity and relevance of open source software is now unstoppable, the challenge is to harness the many activities into a coherent whole. And we are able to achieve this through community building."</p>
<p>Asia Source 3 also marked the official highlight of five years of regional FOSS support by InWEnt in Southeast Asia. "We are honored to be part of this movement through our training and network program it@foss" said Balthas Seibold, Senior Project Manager of InWEnt. InWEnt has trained and connected more than 1000 experts from Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines in more than 30 training courses under its it@foss program.</p>
<p>In the tradition of previous camps, Asia Source 3 emphasized spontaneity over rigid planning. “We try to create an environment of collaboration and community," said Allen Gunn, the event's head facilitator. "No keynote speakers, no panels, no powerpoint slides. Instead, we set-up mini-discussions."</p>
<p>This approach makes the exchange of knowledge and development of relationships more organic and natural. It creates opportunities to broaden expertise, and forge new ideas and connections. Asia Source 3’s theme dwelt on building capacity among technical experts and organizational practitioners. It dealt with the topics of managing and broadcasting information through free and open source software and migration from proprietary alternatives.</p>
<p>Asia Source 3 was jointly organized by UNDP-International Open Source Network (UNDP-IOSN) through its ASEAN+3 Centre of Excellence (based at the University of the Philippines Manila) and InWEnt - Capacity Building International Germany, together with the Tactical Technology Collective, Aspiration (USA) and the Centre for Internet and Society (India). Funders include the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), the ASEAN Foundation and the Open Society Institute.</p>
<p>Asian countries represented in Asia Source III include Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vietnam.</p>
<p><strong>PRESS CONFERENCE</strong><br />Asia Source 3 held a press conference last November 13, 2009, 12:00 pm, at the Yen Center, International Institute for Rural Reconstruction in Silang, Cavite. Press pictures and video footage can be found at http://asiasource3.net/blogs.</p>
<p><strong>MORE INFORMATION</strong><br /><a class="external-link" href="http://www.asiasource3.net">More information on Asia Source 3, and information on all organizers and funders</a><br /><a class="external-link" href="http://www.as3community.iosnasean.net">To join the community</a><br /><a class="external-link" href="http://www.iosn.net">More information on the International Open Source Network (UNDP-IOSN)</a></p>
<p><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/asia-source-3-meeting'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/asia-source-3-meeting</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T14:27:11ZNews ItemImagining the Internet – A History and Forecast
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/imagining-the-internet-2013-a-history-and-forecast
<b>Workshop: A Rights-Based Framework - Open Standards - A report on the workshop by Senior segment producer, Janna Anderson - IGF 2009 – Egypt – Sharm El Sheikh (Nov 15th, 2009)</b>
<h3>Workshop description: <br /></h3>
This workshop tackled the open-standards issues being faced now and those that are likely to be encountered in the
<p>future by governments, consumers and the public. It addressed portability and interoperability, which affect everything from personal identities to communications protocols, documents, multimedia, databases and hardware.</p>
<h3>Workshop participants included: <br /></h3>
<p>Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web Consortium, Web Foundation; Steve Mutkoski, director of standards and interoperability for Microsoft; Rishab Ghosh, Open Source Initiative board member, program leader of FLOSS (Free/Libre and<br />Open-Source Software) UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands; Renu Budhiraja, director of E-Governance Group in the government of India's Department of Information Technology; Sunil Abraham, director of policy for the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India.</p>
<p>November 15, 2009 - The public's right to knowledge generated by their governments was a key focus of this discussion of standards and interoperability, kicked off with an opening statement by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee. "This year, in 2009, I have been asking governments to put their information online," he said, referring to a talk he gave earlier in the year at TED (the annual Technology, Entertainment, Design conference). He said citizens deserve to have access to the valuable data being produced by and for their governments.</p>
<p>Berners-Lee was busy on Day One of IGF 2009. He had spoken at an earlier session on the mobile Internet, and he later delivered an opening keynote at which he whipped out his smartphone and said he was going online to Twitter to officially announce the creation of the World Wide Web Foundation.</p>
<p>Many democratic governments have begun to publish much more detailed and complete sets of public data online over the past year. It has been one of the hallmarks of the first year of the Obama Administration in the U.S.</p>
<p>Renu Budhiraja, director of e-Governance in the government of India's Department of Information Technology, was enthusiastic about her government's work to share knowledge.</p>
<p>"National policy should be based on open standards," she said, urging that all government services should be equally accessible. "Objectives are to take a holistic view, avoid duplication of effort, build solutions that are scalable and make them replicable. The ideal is to provide a window to government for citizens to make it available in an open, accessible way."</p>
<p>"We must consider citizens' rights when we consider open standards," said Sunil Abraham, director of policy for the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India. He was critical of proprietary software and hardware, saying they constrain access and the rights of citizens to access information. Abraham founded Mahiti, which aims to reduce the cost and complexity of information and communication technology for the non-profit organizations and the voluntary sector by using free software. He said that in many developing countries people are not able to shift to use of free software because of practical barriers of<br />politics and economics tied to intellectual property rules.</p>
<p>Steve Mutkoski, director of standards and interoperability for Microsoft, said improving the process of making government data transparent and accessible is complex, and it goes beyond challenging the royalties charged by IP owners. "Technical aspects are a very small part of the issue," he said, ticking off examples of typical difficulties originating in political and legal realms. "The bigger issues include the 'file cabinet mentality' of governments, and then there are the problems with legacy software and hardware."</p>
<p>Mutkoski said applications and devices for which standards have already been established also suffer from a lack of interoperability in implementation. "There are gaps in standards, ambiguities," he said. "Not every standard comes fully baked and ready to go. Looking back at WiFi, that certainly wasn't the case." He said he has studied the processes behind the establishment of thousands of standards, and his work has shown that the best standards are produced in a transparent ongoing process in which they are allowed to evolve as needed.</p>
<p>Mutkoski noted that there many tough issues still to be addressed in the reform of public-information systems. "It's a better approach to focus on the broader architectural framework," he said, suggesting governments go back to square one to consider information delivery that is people-centered. "The focus should be on citizen-centric government. What if they want to use Twitter, what if they want to use Facebook to access their information? Those are things we are going to have to take into account."</p>
<p>Rishab Ghosh, program leader of FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open-Source Software) at UNU-MERIT, said intellectual property laws and monopolies impact interoperability and standards and thus they impact access to knowledge. He talked enthusiastically about the smart-card system developed by the Indian government, noting it "will save billions of dollars," and adding that with interoperability there are cost savings as well. He noted that intellectual property regulations can interfere<br />with the delivery of information.</p>
<p>"Information technology is now so universal that even the poorest subsistence farmer is impacted, because the Internet is driving and providing a basis for everything that goes on today," he said. "We are all being impacted by Internet standards. Imagine if you to go a city office in Cairo or Sharm El Sheikh and you want to register the birth of your baby or your marriage or something like that, and there's a parking lot there and the government says your car has to be a Ford or you can't<br />park there. This sort of thing would never happen in other realms of technology or procurement - if it does, it is seen as corrupt practice, but in software it happens all the time. Software has a tendency toward natural monpolies, and there is also a tendency to focus on the engineering of it rather than the social effects. The choices made in the technology has an impact on millions or billions of people today... We should ensure the citizens shouldn't have to buy software from anyone<br />in particular to be able to get access to that data."</p>
<p>Related documents:</p>
<p>Steve Mutkoski PowerPoint on Interoperability
and Standards</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.flosspols.org/research.php">Free/Libre/OpenSource Software Research</a></p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/igf_egypt/rights.xhtml">Link to original article</a><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/imagining-the-internet-2013-a-history-and-forecast'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/imagining-the-internet-2013-a-history-and-forecast</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T14:26:36ZNews ItemDCOS workshop at IGF Egypt 2009
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/dcos-workshop-at-igf-egypt-2009
<b>CIS along with Knowledge Ecology International is co-organising a workshop on Open Standards: A rights-based framework at the Internet Governance Forum,2009 that is being held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. </b>
<h3>Workshop 361: Open Standards: A rights-based framework <br /></h3>
<h3>Concise description</h3>
<p>The workshop will help bring out the issues that are currently being faced and likely to be encountered in the future by governments, consumers and the public, addressing specific areas such as the needs of the disabled community and perspectives of developing countries, and the possible solutions that governments and vendors can offer through<br />implementation of open standards. The discussion would primarily revolve around issues of governmental procurement of software, open e-governance, portability, and interoperability, which affect everything from communications protocols, documents, multimedia, and databases, to hardware.</p>
<h3>Agenda</h3>
<p>11:30-11:45<br />Opening remarks: Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web Consortium / Web Foundation</p>
<p>11:45-12:35<br />Chair: Aslam Raffee, Sun Microsystems, South Africa (TBC)</p>
<h3>Panel:</h3>
<p> James Love, Knowledge Ecology International, "Collaborative Strategies to use Procurement to promote Open Standards"</p>
<p>Steve Mutkoski, Microsoft, USA, portability, "Implementing Portability with Open Standards"</p>
<p>Rishab Ghosh, UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands, "Open standards and Government Procurement: In search of a level playing field"</p>
<p>Dr. Govind, Department of Information Technology, Government of India, "Governments' Role in Promoting Inclusive Societies: Open Standards, Accessibility and Development"</p>
<p>Sunil Abraham, Centre for Internet and Society, India, "Open Standards: Rethinking Citizens' and Consumers' Rights"<br /><br />12:35pm-1:00pm<br />Q&A</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/dcos-workshop-at-igf-egypt-2009'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/dcos-workshop-at-igf-egypt-2009</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-05T04:27:46ZEventOpen Debate
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-debate
<b>Deepa Kurup's article in Frontline on the battle over open standards in e-governance.</b>
<p><strong>Original report <a class="external-link" href="http://www.frontline.in/stories/20091120262309100.htm">in Frontline</a>.<br /></strong></p>
<h2>Open Debate</h2>
<p>With substantial public funding committed to e-governance projects, the issue of technological standards generates much heat.</p>
<p>by Deepa Kurup<br />(from Volume 26, Issue 23, dated November 07-20, 2009)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>THE information technology (IT) industry in India is bitterly divided over the issue of technological standards to be adopted in e-governance processes. This problem stems from the fact that large, state-funded e-governance projects in the pipeline present the recession-hit IT sector with substantial business opportunities.<br /><br />With the guidelines for setting these standards being finalised by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) under the National Policy on Open Standards for E-Governance, the debate on the nature of the standards – critical to the effective delivery of public e-services – is hotting up. Intense lobbying is on by those in favour of proprietary standards and by the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement, which is against it.<br /><br />When the draft policy was tabled at the meeting of the apex committee of standards for e-governance in June, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) pushed for two modifications to it: the replacement of open and free standards with royalty-based ones, and allowing multiple standards in the same technological domain.<br /><br />The FOSS community and open source technology firms have opposed these demands strongly. Fosscomm, a FOSS community network, wrote to the DIT seeking the withdrawal of both clauses. Leading open source technology firms such as Sun Microsystems, IBM and Red Hat have pointed out that the NASSCOM-MAIT position is at divergence with theirs and, therefore, does not reflect a unified “industry” perspective.<br /><br />The DIT, which made public the first draft of the policy in June 2008, has not placed subsequent drafts for public review. Fosscomm has protested against the “unparticipatory nature” of this policymaking process, which has considerable public-interest implications, not to mention an outlay of over Rs.5,000 crore for 27 national e-governance projects.<br /><br />The FOSS community believes that for a standard to be truly open, its specifications must be unconditionally accessible and royalty-free in perpetuity. This includes associated patents and extensions. NASSCOM, on the other hand, has sought standards that are open but tied to royalties, on what in policy parlance is called RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing terms.<br /><br />However, RAND standards are inextricably linked to intellectual property right (IPR) regimes. The government may have to pay royalties to patent holders throughout the lifetime of the standards. Further, the FOSS community argues that “reasonable/non-discriminatory” is a loose term that can be interpreted to the advantage of the patent holder. And with licence confidentiality being what it is, violations will be hard to monitor, it feels.<br /><br />Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum believes that the policy, if implemented in its current form, will create an “anomalous position” for the government. “That would imply that India still does not legally recognise software patents, yet is willing to accept patent protection in its standards.”</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Standards diluted<br /></h3>
<p>The first draft of the policy unambiguously states that the open standard chosen must be royalty-free for its lifetime, but subsequent drafts allowed for RAND terms to be invoked in the absence of an existing open standard. This loophole, FOSS supporters fear, may allow powerful lobbies to hijack these standards in a non-transparent environment inside committee rooms.<br /><br />If, as the proprietary camp wishes, open standards are redefined as RAND exclusively, a substantial portion of the taxpayers’ money will go towards royalties and software monopolies will be entrenched into this growing segment.<br /><br />Leading Indian IT companies have supported proprietary software; this was evident from the debate on India’s vote at the International Standards Organisation (ISO) on the Open Document Format versus Microsoft’s OOXML controversy.</p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Open standards</h3>
<p>“If we do not pay for using weights and measures in the physical world, why should we in the digital world?” asks Venkatesh Hariharan, corporate affairs director, Red Hat. “It’s a trap. Proprietary formats are controlled by monopolistic outfits that drive adoption of a technology, file a thicket of patents, and litigate if royalties aren’t paid.”<br /><br />The Internet, built on several open standards, is the best example of how open standards form the basis of major technological innovations. It allows for a level playing field, particularly in developing economies. By framing a purely open standards policy, India can show the way for the developing world.<br /><br />Developed countries (such as those of the European Union) are moving towards mandating open standards in government departments, processes and interactions. However, it is developing countries that stand to gain most from open standards. “Proprietary standards place a larger burden on developing economies than developed as they have a greater need to participate in the global network by using standards, but do have lesser capabilities than developed economies in terms of paying for royalties,” writes Pranesh Prakash, Centre for Internet and Society, in his letter to the DIT. The “industry view” is not in the interests of small- and medium-size enterprises.<br /><br />An Indian case study of how open standards can cut costs, foster monopoly-free competition and provide interoperability is the Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications (SCOSTA). A standard for smart card-based driving licences and vehicle registration projects handled by different State governments, SCOSTA was developed by the National Informatics Centre with help from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.<br /><br />The number of vendors providing cards and card readers increased after an open standard was adopted and specifications were made freely available on a website.<br /><br />While four foreign companies were marketing smart cards earlier, over a dozen Indian companies are doing the same now, according to a United Nations Development Programme report on e-government interoperability. More significantly, IPR rents dropped and the market price of a card came down from Rs.300 to Rs.30.<br /><br />On the second issue – that of allowing multiple standards in a single technological domain – the policy allows adopting additional standards “in national interest”.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Multiple standards</h3>
<p>Public data, like land records, lie at the core of every e-governance process; multiple standards create interoperability issues and increase the cost of conversion from one format to another. In fact, if a standard is truly open, and hence developed in a participative manner, it will automatically grow to incorporate any reasonable requirement of the community.<br /><br />Although this tussle appears to be restricted to the e-governance space, much more is really at stake. In a developing economy such as India, open and royalty-free technological standards are critical because they enable domestic industries to grow and compete in a fair and monopoly-free market. And, by enabling access to technology, they foster an innovation-friendly environment.<br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-debate'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-debate</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshOpenness2011-04-02T14:34:00ZNews ItemOpen Source Peluang tidak Terbatas Industri TIK (GCOS 2009)
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-source-peluang-tidak-terbatas-industri-tik-gcos-2009
<b>JAKARTA--MI: Perangkat lunak Open Source membuka peluang tak terbatas untuk mengembangkan industri di bidang teknologi informasi dan komunikasi (TIK) dalam negeri sekaligus sumber daya manusia di sektor TIK.
GCOS '09 was organized by AOSI (Asosiasi open Source Indonesia) and was supported by the State Ministry of Research and Technology and the Ministry Communication Information Technology. The Global Conference on Open Source was held on 26th and 27th of October, 2009 at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia.</b>
<p>Hal itu dinyatakan Menteri Komunikasi dan Informatika Tifatul Sembiring saat memberi sambutan pada Global Conference on Open Source (GCOS) yang dihadiri sejumlah pakar open source dari berbagai negara di Jakarta, Senin (26/10).</p>
<p>Menurut Tifatul, Free Open Source Software (FOSS) diadopsi dan dimanfaatan pemerintah bukan saja karena model bisnis alami FOSS yang gratis untuk digunakan, bebas sumber kode-nya untuk dimodifikasi dan disebarkan tetapi juga karena kemandirian yang ditawarkan FOSS.</p>
<p>Bagi pemerintah, FOSS juga mengalihkan masyarakat Indonesia dari masalah pembajakan software (perangkat lunak) karena sifatnya yang gratis, sementara software berlisensi (proprietary) seringkali tak terjangkau masyarakat.</p>
<p>Ia menyatakan bangga bahwa perangkat lunak sumber kode terbuka ini tumbuh sangat cepat meskipun sempat mengalami banyak hambatan dalam implementasinya. Banyaknya pakar dari berbagai negara yang hadir dan bertukar pengalaman dalam GCOS ini, lanjut dia, diharapkan mampu menghilangkan segala hambatan dalam implementasi FOSS di Indonesia.</p>
<p>Sementara itu, Ketua Asosiasi Open Source Indonesia (AOSI) Betti Alisjahbana mengharapkan FOSS bisa sukses diimplementasikan di Indonesia dengan memperkuat komunitas open source.</p>
<p>"Kami berharap Indonesia bisa mengambil manfaat maksimum dari FOSS yang semakin berkembang di dunia untuk kemajuan TIK Indonesia dan pertumbuhan ekonomi umumnya," kata Betti. Menurutnya, sejak Indonesia Go Open Source (IGOS) dideklarasikan pada 30 Juni 2004 Indonesia sudah muncul menjadi pemimpin dalam gerakan open source.</p>
<p>Sejumlah pakar dan praktisi dunia TIK khususnya open source yang hadir dalam konferensi ini antara lain: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/people/staff/staff#sunil-abraham" class="internal-link" title="Staff">Sunil Abraham</a> dari India, Krich Nasingkun dari Thailand, Muh Rosli bin Abd Razak dari Malaysia, Ko Hong Eng dari Sun Micro System, Ray Davies dari IBM, Matthias Merkle dari IntWEnt hingga Campbell O Webb dari Harvard University.</p>
<p>Selain itu sejumlah pakar open source Indonesia juga hadir seperti Onno W Purbo, I Made Wiryana, juga Indra Utoyo dari Telkom, Dr Aswin Sasongko dari Depkominfo.(Ant/OL-04)</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.mediaindonesia.com/read/2009/10/26/102234/45/7/Open-Source-Peluang-Tak-Terbatas-Industri-TIK">Link to original article</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-source-peluang-tidak-terbatas-industri-tik-gcos-2009'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-source-peluang-tidak-terbatas-industri-tik-gcos-2009</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T14:45:13ZNews ItemGCOS 2009
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/gcos-2009
<b>The Global Conference on Open Source, held on 26th and 27th of October, 2009 at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia was organized by AOSI (Asosiasi open Source Indonesia) and was supported by the State Ministry of Research and Technology and the Ministry Communication Information Technology.</b>
<p>Open Source Cegah Pembajakan Dorong Kemandirian</p>
<p>KabarIndonesia - Free Open Source Sofware-FOSS akan menghapus jejak Indonesia dari ranah pembajakan software propriety yang dari pengguna komputer di Indonesia diperkirakan hanya 4% menggunakan software legal. </p>
<p>"Dari kreatifitas para pengembang software, tak hanya kebutuhan office dan grafis saja, namun kedepan akan sangat memungkinkan bahwa hanya dengan FOSS keseluruhan pekerjaan bidang multimedia dan animasi bisa dikerjakan dengan berkualitas" kata Andi S. Boediman, pendiri International Design School sambil memberikan contoh bahwa film animasi<br />Big Bug Bunny adalah salah satu animasi yang dibuat dengan software open source blender.</p>
<p>Senada dengan Andi S. Boediman, adalah Gustaff Hariman Iskandar, pendiri komunitas kreatif Commonroom Bandung, Open source adalah solusi bagi pembajakan software propriety. Meskipun Gustaff juga memberikan catatan, bahwa jika open source mau jadi tuan rumah di Indonesia, maka harus ada peningkatan kecepatan akses internet, karena dalam pemakaian software open source, dibutuhkan koneksi internet yang stabil untuk mengupdate program yang dipakai.</p>
<p>Gustaff memberikan pandangan, bahwa di kalangan komunitas kreatif di Bandung, pemakaian software bajakan sudah lumrah terjadi meskipun kini sudah banyak yang menggunakan sofware asli ataupun memanfaatkan FOSS. Dan ajang global Conference on Open Source-GCOS adalah salah satu program yang menurutnya harus menjadi momentum untuk 'membebaskan' masyarakat dari 'penjajahan' dominasi software berlicensi yang tentunya mahal bagi UKM. </p>
<p>GCOS-Global Conference on Open Source yang digelar 26-27 Oktober lalu, mendapat apresiasi laur biasa dengan mendatangkan tamu dan pembicara dari berbagai negara. <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/people/staff/staff#sunil-abraham" class="internal-link" title="Staff">Sunil Abraham</a> misalnya, pembicara pada asal India untuk sesi Making Opensource The Driver for Development, merasa terkesan dengan sambutan masyarakat dan pemerintah Indonesia yang luar biasa, bahkan telah terbentuk komunitas open source di Indonesia yang cukup besar sehingga dapat menyelenggarakan GCOS. Sunil, juga bangga dapat berbicara di forum internasional bersama pembicara lain yang menurutnya seperti berbicara di India, karena disini juga berhadapan dengan problem dan karakteristik masyarakat yang hampir sama, butuh software murah untuk saving cost. </p>
<p>Open Source adalah sebuah fenomena, yang menurut Direktur Aptel ICT Depkominfo, Amalia Abdulah, bukan lagi alternative tapi pilihan. Dan kepentingan pemerintah adalah memfasilitasi, mendorong pemakaian software legal yang sesuai kemampuan daya beli masyarakat, bahkan gratis seperti free opensource software-FOSS.</p>
<p>Pasca surat edaran Menpan bulan maret 2009 lalu, sudah ada sekitar 100 lebih pemerintah daerah yang mengajukan permohonan untuk menggunakan open source dan Depkominfo Bersama KNRT [Kementerian Negara Riset dan<br />Teknologi] mengadakan pelatihan SDM mulai dari mengoperasikan software untuk perkantoran, sesuai kebutuhan administrative pemerintahan. </p>
<p>Apa yang dilakukan dalam sinergi Depkominfo, KNRT, Depdiknas, Men PAN adalah sebuah komitmen, bahkan tertuang dalam program dimana pada Desember 2011 ditargetkan pengaplikasian open source di seluruh jajaran instansi dapat terwujud. Keinginan pemerintah tersebut bukan pula tanpa dasar, dengan isu utama dalam open source adalah low cost, mencegah<br />terjadinya pembajakan software, dan mampu memberikan keuntungan bagi Negara. KNRT misalnya yang secara bertahap mengaplikasikan open source sejak 2005, telah menghemat biaya pembelian licensi sebesar 40% dan bisa ditingkatkan menjadi 60%. </p>
<p>Ternyata tak hanya menjawab kebutuhan kalangan UKM yang ingin berhemat memangkas biaya operasional namun tetap berada pada jalur legal, ternyata juga memberikan kontribusi penghematan anggaran bagi pemerintah Negara berkembang seperti Indonesia. </p>
<p>Dengan memanfaatkan software open source yang bersifat terbuka dan bebas untuk dikembangkan, seharusnya juga menjadi motivasi bagi bangsa indonesia untuk menjadi pemain utama dalam pengembangan software yang dibutuhkan dunia teknologi informasi, yang apada akhirnya dapat mencerdaskan kehidupan bangsa. </p>
<p>Pemerintah yang telah memulai aplikasi open source meski hanya berbekal surat edaran Men PAN, mungkin perlu meningkatkan komitmen dan dedikasinya dengan penerbitan regulasi lebih mengikat dan ’memaksa’ yang didalamnya tak hanya berisi himbauan, namun juga proteksi. </p>
<p>Dan jika Depkominfo dan Depdiknas dapat bersinergi melalui program pendidikan open source, akan menjadi awal yang baik memperkenalkan dan mengajarkan open source sebagai sebuah wujud kemandirian bangsa yang tak lagi terjajah secara teknologi. </p>
<p>Betty Alisjahbana dari AOSI [Asosisi Open Source Indonesia] dan Lolly Amalia selaku Direktur Sistem Informasi Ditjen Aptel Depkominfo, kedua belah pihak telah saling bertemu visi dengan 'keroyokan' melaksanakan GCOS secara bersama-sama, diantara kedua pihak telah ada kesepakatan saling membantu aplikasi Open Source di seluruh Indonesia. </p>
<p>Untuk mengatasi kendala profesionalitas AOSI dalam memberikan layanan sebagaimana tuntutan kebutuhan saat ini, Betty bahkan sedang dalam proses mengorganisir kekuatan-kekuatan di dalam AOSI untuk bernaung didalam sebuah payung badan usaha profesional, jadi bukan lagi komunitas penghobi open source saja. </p>
<p>Lebih jauh pandangan Onno W Purbo, penggiat open source, free open source software [FOSS] harus menjadikan Indonesia sebagai 'Knowledge Based Society', menggunakan pengetahuannya untuk bisa berkarya. Dari pihak pemerintah, telah dicontohkan oleh Kementrian Riset dan Teknologi (KNRT) dalam penerapan eGovernment secara menyeluruh dalam rangka<br />meningkatkan kualitas layanan publik secara efektif dan efisien untuk meminimalisir korupsi di lingkungan pemerintahan. </p>
<p>Dalam bincang-bincang dengan Ditjen Aplikasi dan Telematika Depkominfo Ashwin Sasongko, ia mengandaikan Free Open Source Software seperti air mineral yang bisa diambil gratis dari pegunungan, tapi distribusi dan pengemasannya bayar.</p>
<p>Sun Microsystems melaporkan perkembangan potensi pengguna FOSS, sejak tahun 2008 telah terjaring komunitas OSS dari Java dengan lebih dari 15.000 pengguna dan hampir 10.000 pengadopsi pemula penggunaan OSS dari 150 perguruan tinggi serta 70 sekolah menengah. Tampaknya, aktifitas AOSI yang menyebarkan ribuan komputer dengan aplikasi FOSS ke<br />sekolah-sekolah mulai terlihat hasilnya. </p>
<p>FOSS hadir menjadi solusi di tengah upaya menekan pembajakan software proprietary dengan memasyarakatkan software legal ,di sisi lain juga membangun susasana kompetitif di tengah usaha untuk membangun kemandirian bangsa. </p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.kabarindonesia.com/berita.php?pil=11&jd=Open+Source+Cegah +Pembajakan+Dorong+Kemandirian&dn=20091029153013">Link to original article</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/gcos-2009'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/gcos-2009</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T14:44:10ZNews ItemQuantifying India's research output - Public Lecture by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/quantifying-indias-research-output-public-lecture-by-prof.-subbiah-arunachalam
<b>International Strategic and Security Studies Programme, IISc. Bangalore, is organizing a Public lecture by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam on Friday, Sept 25th, on Quantifying India's research output.</b>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><strong>International Strategic and Security Studies Programme</strong></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><strong>National Institute of Advanced Studies</strong></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Indian Institute of Science Campus,Bangalore -12</strong></p>
<div align="center"><strong></strong><strong><br /></strong></div>
<p><strong>Public Lecture</strong></p>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: Friday, September
25, 2009</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Speaker: Prof.
Subbiah Arunachalam</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> Distinguished Fellow, Center For Internet & Society, Bangalore</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> Visiting Professor, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> Email: <a href="mailto:subbiah.arunachalam@gmail.com" target="_blank">subbiah.arunachalam@gmail.com</a></p>
<p><strong>Chairperson</strong>: Dr .Lalitha Sundareshan</p>
<p>
Visiting Professor</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Title</strong>: <strong>Quantifying India's
research output</strong><strong><br />
Time:</strong> 11:30 am<br /><strong>Venue</strong>: Conference Hall 2<br /><strong><br />Abstract:<em> </em></strong>Science policy makers around the world are keen to assess the research performed by different countries, institutions and even individuals. Much of such work is based on databases and is based on the premise that the literature of science is a mirror of science. A number of scientometricists have used Science Citation Index (Web of Science) and other (subject-based) databases for such studies. Often they depend on publication and citation counts. Unfortunately, many of them are not aware of the nuances involved in such studies. In this talk we will look at science indicators with special reference to India and the developing countries.<br /><br />All are invited to attend</p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><strong> </strong></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/quantifying-indias-research-output-public-lecture-by-prof.-subbiah-arunachalam'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/quantifying-indias-research-output-public-lecture-by-prof.-subbiah-arunachalam</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T14:54:51ZNews ItemManglore: State-level 'Wiki Academy' Daylong Seminar at St Aloysius
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/manglore-state-level-wiki-academy-daylong-seminar-at-st-aloysius
<b>Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (RS/SB) </b>
<p><strong>Mangalore, Aug 22:</strong> For the first time in India, Wiki Academy, a workshop based on usage of Indian languages, editing and its applications in academics of Wikipedia- the free online encyclopedia was held at Eric Mathias hall in St Aloysius College here on Saturday, August 22. <br />The daylong seminar based on talks and presentation was inaugurated by representatives from Wikipedia, Dr Prashanth and Hariprasad Nadig. Speaking after the inaugural, Dr Prashanth said that main feature of the Wikipedia is that the control is in the ends of end user and not seller. It is popular among the users for its style presenting information and accessibility that is user-friendly, he said. <br />The Wikipedia that started with a few hundred articles, now has over 13 million articles in over 100 languages including three million articles in English written voluntarily by college students, doctors and various professionals, he said. The Wikipedia also includes articles in Indian regional languages such Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu among others, he added. <br />Fr Swebert D Silva, principal, St Aloysius College said that Wikipedia plays a role that is very similar to the library which is that giving detailed information on the topic required. Students’ involvement with the Wikipedia helps improve their writing skills. The era of internet and blogging has helped students and youth express themselves more clearly, he said and called on students to improve their writing skill contributing to Wikipedia. <br />Fr Richard Rego, head, Journalism department, St Aloysius College said that it is a golden opportunity for students, professionals, teachers, scholars and librarians to be able to participate in the academy and also contribute and get information from Wikipedia. <br />Department of Mass Communication, Al-Madhyam, the media forum of St Aloysius College in association with Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore organized the workshop. </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><a href="http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=64564&n_tit=Manglore%25"><u>http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=64564&n_tit=Manglore%</u></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/manglore-state-level-wiki-academy-daylong-seminar-at-st-aloysius'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/manglore-state-level-wiki-academy-daylong-seminar-at-st-aloysius</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T14:58:06ZNews ItemHighest wiki taker
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/highest-wiki-taker
<b>Bangaloreans are beginning to debate if Wikipedia is a reliable source of info, reports Shweta Taneja.
TimeOut Bangalore, published an article on the upcoming WikiWars event that the Centre for Internet and Society is organising in January 2010. Nishant Shah, Director Research, was interviewed for his views and ideas about the event and the rise of Wikipedia as a global knowledge production system.
</b>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/aroundtown/aroundtown_preview_details.asp?code=31">Link to the original article on the Time Out site</a>.</p>
<p>“When we use the term Wikipedia, most of us mean the English version of it,” said Hari Prasad Nadig, a 26-year-old software professional. “It’s only in the last couple of years that even editors [of the popular online encyclopaedia] have started working on regional languages.” Nadig is one of several wiki editors who, much like the encyclopaedists in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, are dedicated to putting together unbiased and objective information about India in English and other languages. Authenticity and accuracy of information being a subject of serious contention, Wikipedia flags dubious-sounding articles and invites editors from across the world to ‘cleanup the article to meet its quality standards’. </p>
<p> Nadig started as an editor for English Wiki on topics related to Kannada and Karnataka five years ago, but soon saw the need for articles and pages in regional languages. While the new Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedias have been online for a few months now, Nadig also found himself making note of several problems that they had begun to face – the biggest being an affair commonly referred to as “WikiWars”, fought over the need to keep information accurate. To discuss such issues, and to present problems being faced by regional language Wiki groups like Nadig’s, the city’s Centre for Internet and Society, which has become a centre for Wikipedians to meet every month, has announced plans to host a conference called WikiWars in January 2010 (in association with the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam), for which the registrations open this fortnight.</p>
<p> “The open structure of Wikipedia has led to warring factions when it comes to the content on important issues,” explained Nishant Shah, Director-Research at CIS. For example, when Bangalore was renamed Bengaluru, there was a quick succession of edit-wars, he said, where the proponents and critiques of the move constantly kept editing and changing the information provided by other parties. “In the absence of an editorial board, these wars create the neutral point of view that assures objectivity in content,” he said. </p>
<p> The event WikiWars will aim to bring together perspectives, approaches, experiences and stories on such concerns, he added. “The platform is not only for active Wikipedians, but also for people who have the ability to critically examine Wikipedia.”</p>
<p> Nadig explained that several writers and administrators work to protect the Wiki pages, so that no unauthorised changes can be made. But many of these writers are yet closed to the ideas of online communities and concepts of user-generated content. “The subject should be open to changes by others – that is the democratic way,” he said. Like in any open system, there is a pressing need to look at Wikipedia holistically, and what it means for different groups of people. Shah agreed, “On one hand, people swear by this peer-to-peer system of knowledge production and sharing, looking at it as a symbol of the information revolution. On the other hand, people question the validity and authority of the Wikipedia to serve as a global system of referencing, questioning the lack of structure in the system.” </p>
<p>Nadig further explained that the concerns are most relevant to new initiatives like the regional language Wikis. “The numbers of articles on the Kannada Wiki have now crossed 6,000 pages,” he observed. But most of the problems that Nadig’s facing are because most regional language editors tend to treat the Wikipedia as a print medium rather than a dynamic online one. “People still do not understand how the Wikipedia works, and tend to treat a page like traditional media – where once printed, it cannot be changed, edited or questioned,” he explained. He added that there is a shortage of good editors as well, who can actively question and participate in projects: “Many people need the technological ability to edit, and understand how Kannada functions online.” To improve the technical skills of editors, Nadig also works offline, conducting hands-on training sessions. He now holds sessions for newbie Wikipedians, and trains them to use programs for editing and writing in regional languages.</p>
<p> But the main impediment for regional Wikis is that the community is broken into sub-groups, said Nadig. “If you want to work with the government and other organisations, you need a formal setup for Wikipedia, which can approach and actively engage them,” he said. Shah is hoping that the WikiWars conference will address this concern, including other issues like economic practices based around Wikipedia, the nature of freedom in usage, for instance in oral histories and unconfirmed information sources, and the space for dissent in the medium. He added that the event will aim to build a “knowledge network” that will start larger discussions, and also work to create public awareness. </p>
<p></p>
<p>Registrations for WikiWars are now open.</p>
<p><img class="image-inline" src="images/wikiwars/image_preview" alt="Highest Wiki Taker" height="400" width="312" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/highest-wiki-taker'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/highest-wiki-taker</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaOpenness2011-04-02T15:04:18ZNews Item