The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
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Meeting on National Policy for e-Access for All
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/meeting-on-national-policy-for-e-access-for-all
<b>The world over, there is a move towards making the internet more accessible for persons with visual and print disabilities and for elderly persons. Many countries like the USA and UK have adopted legislation to make adherence to web accessibility standards mandatory. In India we are still relatively unaware of the importance of web accessibility. On Nov 7, 2008 at 11:00 am, the Centre for Internet and Society will host a meeting at the CIS office to discuss strategies and a plan of action to launch a campaign for making web content accessibility standards mandatory in India.</b>
<p>The internet has has breathed fresh life and energy into the situations of disabled persons throughout the world. It has enabled and liberated them in the most complete sense of the word and succeeded in elevating levels of independence, competence and confidence. Like any other technology however this comes with its share of problems, related to accessibility. Thankfully, many of these problems can be solved by merely setting some minimum standards in place at no extra cost or effort.</p>
<p>For any technology to be completely useful, it has to meet the criteria of utility, usability, affordability, acceptance and accessibility. Unfortunately, while the internet can surmount most of obstacles that are faced by disabled persons in relation to access to information, navigation or comprehension problems are equally severe barriers to visually and print disabled persons effectively using it. To help better understand the issue, explained below are some features which are quite problematic for persons with visual and reading disabilities. They are accompanied by some simple solutions which can be easily incorporated by web page creators.</p>
<p>Web pages often contain images and graphics which cannot be discerned by screen readers; text descriptions and explanations can be provided for these. Creation of links to skip to content can provide a huge relief for persons using screen readers, instead of them having to listen to unrelated or confusing content. There should be keyboard alternatives for every function that has to be executed with a mouse. Links without references such as “click here” or links without any specific destination should be avoided. Creators of web pages should not rely upon colours to convey meanings. Finally, since screen readers read content as it is in the code, web page creators should ensure that content is read correctly on the page as well as in the code.</p>
<p>Adherence to web accessibility standards can help avoid these problems. Countries like the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia have enacted legislations to make it mandatory for creators of web pages to follow their minimum standards for web page accessibility. India has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in October 2007. Unfortunately however, no move, has been made till date to adopt web accessibility guidelines or make such guidelines mandatory in our country. Consequently, a lot of government and private web sites are inaccessible for persons with disabilities, defeating the very purpose of ICT for development.</p>
<p>Considering these factors, we think it is time we make a concerted effort towards enabling a more inclusive online environment for all. Adopting a web accessibility standard does not merely make the web more accessible to disabled persons, it makes navigation and operation easier for everyone. The W3C has come out with a web accessibility standard called the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) which has been adopted by many countries. This makes the tasks of the countries easier in the sense that they already have a ready framework and guidelines available to work with.</p>
<p>We solicit your active support and presence in this movement for enabling mandatory adherence to web accessibility standards in India. You are invited to join the Google group for a national policy for e-Access (http://groups.google.com/group/e-access). We are planning to have a meeting of all interested parties and organizations who are committed to supporting this cause on the date and venue given below. We request you to attend along with other supporters. </p>
<h3>Meeting Details<br /></h3>
<p>Date: 7th Nov, 2008 (Friday)<br />Time: 11:00 am<br />Venue:<br />Centre for Internet and Society<br />No. D2, 3rd Floor, Shariff Chambers<br />14 Cunningham Road,<br />Bangalore - 560 052</p>
<p>Map: http://bit.ly/cis-map<br />Phone: +91 80 4092 6283</p>
<p>Please communicate your participation to us, by sending an email to<br />nirmita AT cis-india DOT org <br />M: +91 9845868078</p>
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/agenda for Nov 7th meeting.doc.htm" class="internal-link" title="Agenda for e-Access Meeting">Download meeting agenda</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/meeting-on-national-policy-for-e-access-for-all'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/meeting-on-national-policy-for-e-access-for-all</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaConferenceMeetingAccessibility2011-08-26T05:13:44ZBlog EntryFirst Meeting on a National Policy for Web Accessibility
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/first-meeting-on-a-national-policy-for-web-access-for-all
<b>The first meeting to discuss having a national policy for web accessibility to ensure universal and inclusive participation was held at the Centre for Internet and Society's office on 7 November 2008. It was aimed at formulating an action plan to work with the government and other private and public bodies to ensure conformity to accessibility standards for web sites.</b>
<p>The first meeting to discuss making compliance with web accessibility standards a part of the national policy agenda was held today (7 November 2008) at the CIS office. Fifteen participants representing organizations from the disability sector, media and law firms came together to discuss the why, what and how of mandatory compliance with web accessibility standards for Indian government web sites.</p>
<p>The meeting started off with brief introductions of the participants, followed by a presentation by Rahul Gonsalves introducing the concept of and need for web accessibility standards amongst web developers. In his presentation, Rahul gave some examples of the kinds of problems faced by different users of the net and simple solutions to solve these problems. Speaking from the perspective of a web designer, he pointed out that while the total cost of creating an accessible web site is merely about 2-3% more than a normal web site, revamping an existing web site to make it conform to accessibility standards is a more complicated and expensive task. He further clarified that for a website to be accessible, it is not merely enough that it is created in accordance with accessibility standards; all future additions and modifications must be made with accessibility in mind. Hence, persons working on the web site should be initiated into creating accessible web pages.</p>
<p>The second presentation of the day was by Jayna Kothari of Ashira Law Services. Jayna, a lawyer who is well known for taking up disability related cases in Bangalore, talked about the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 (PWD Act) and highlighted provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which came into force in May 2008. She began by talking about the right to access information being a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 19 of our constitution and gave references to various sections in the PWD Act. The Act calls for the setting up of Central and State Co-ordination Committees to ensure that action is taken to give effect to the provisions of the PWD Act and that an accessible, barrier free and inclusive environment is created for persons with disabilities in all spheres such as health, education, employment, transportation, etc. Jayna also highlighted that article 9 of the UNCRPD called for persons with disabilities to have an equal right to access to information and communication. Hence the mandate was not restricted to government web sites only. She opined that we could potentially work with the State and Central Co-ordination Committees to include web accessibility on their agenda of urgent requirements.</p>
<p>Mr Ganesh of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled talked about intervention at the level of educational organizations and training institutes. He said that instead of merely discussing strategies which are designed to target the Government and get its attention, we also need to work on building awareness amongst the coming generation of web site developers and appeal to schools, training institutes like the NIIT and other educational organizations and centres of learning to disseminate awareness about accessibility right from the beginning. The approach, in other words, has to be both top-down and bottom-up. Ushajee Peri from the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) talked briefly about the Right to Information Act (2005) and said that since the right to information is a fundamental right, we need to carefully analyse provisions of the Act under which we could push for web accessibility.</p>
<p>Mr. L. Subramani from the Deccan Herald talked in brief about media strategy and about how publications could help in creating awareness and pressure. Finally, Meenu Bambani from MPhasiS talked about the 11th Five Year Plan and cited various provisions from it which called for specific measures for disabled persons. After an entire chapter devoted to disability, nothing has as yet been achieved in the year since the plan came into force, even though India has ratified the UNCRPD. Meenu called for immediate action to push the Government for implementation of the chapter on disability in the 11th Five Year Plan. As per the plan, each Government department was to allocate 3% of its funds for supporting disabled persons; this has not been done so far. Meenu believes that 3 December, which is usually celebrated as the World Disabilities Day, should this year be spent in introspection on what we have not achieved and on how we can push the state and government authorities to take their international and national commitments with respect to disabled persons seriously.</p>
<p>There was also a brief discussion on how laws in different countries accommodated web accessibility. For instance in the USA, Section 508 requires web sites of all federal agencies to comply with web accessibility guidelines. In the UK, the Code of Conduct which was brought out by the Disabilities Rights Commission (DRC) under the Disabilities Discrimination Act 2002 (DDA) mandates that persons with disabilities should have the right to access goods, services, facilities and premises on an equal basis as others. Section 2.14 lists the different kinds of services and 2.17 specifically says that a website is a provision of service and hence should be accessible. PAS 78 lays down guidelines for web developers for creating accessible web sites. While some participants expressed curiosity about the actual number of disabled persons using the internet in India, it was generally understood that only by making web sites more accessible could we widen the net of disabled users and enhance universal access and participation.</p>
<p>Another area for intervention was presented by Sunil Abraham in the form of a discussion on the national policy for Open Standards. Sunil said that CIS had given an addendum to the response to the draft national policy on open standards which specifically dealt with web accessibility for disabled and elderly persons. By ensuring that WCAG compliance is inserted in the presentation layer of the Government Interoperability Framework (GIF), which the Government is shortly expected to release, we could make a definite and substantial intervention.</p>
<p>The final conclusions of the meeting were that there were different areas and scopes for intervention and they all had to be simultaneously pursued by different groups. Everyone agreed that we should try and work with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to make all government web sites accessible. Almost all participants felt that while it was not possible to impose web accessibility standards on private entities, we need not restrict ourselves to government web sites in our recommendations and should include at least public listed companies as well. Mr. Subramani felt that working with NASSCOM might be useful for that. Finally it was also decided that an appeal for web accessibility would be put out by CIS at the Walkathon to be organized by Samarthanam on 6 December, since it would be a good platform for spreading awareness and gaining support amongst disabled users, public authorities, organizations and the public at large.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/first-meeting-on-a-national-policy-for-web-access-for-all'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/first-meeting-on-a-national-policy-for-web-access-for-all</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaConferenceMeetingAccessibility2011-08-25T08:38:03ZBlog EntryReport on the Internet Governance Forum
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/igf-report-1
<b>CIS attended the UN Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, December 3-7, 2008. </b>
<p>As an outcome of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which took place in Hyderabad from December 3-7, 2008,</p>
<p>(a) CIS entered into an agreement with the W3C to make translations of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines into some Indian languages; and </p>
<p>(b) CIS, the UN Solutions Exchange group and the Daisy Forum of India (DFI) decided to work together on the web accessibility issue and form a core group of organizations across the disability sector for this purpose. </p>
<p>(c) CIS joined the Dynamic Coalition for Accessibility and Disability in the IGF. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/igf-report-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/igf-report-1</a>
</p>
No publishersachiaConferenceAccessibility2011-08-23T04:51:55ZBlog EntryScience, Technology and Society International Conference – Some Afterthoughts
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/science-technology-and-society-conference-in-indore-march-12-13
<b>An international conference on Science, Technology and Society was held at the Indore Christian College on March 12 and 13. It was sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology, Bhopal and organized by the Indore Christian College. Samuel Tettner, Digital Natives Coordinator from the Centre for Internet and Society attended this conference and is sharing his experience about the workshop.</b>
<p>This past weekend I attended the “Science, Technology and Society International Conference”. The experience was one of learning, more so on the idiosyncrasies and social particularities of academic research than on the subject matters presented at the conference. </p>
<p>I arrived in Indore late on Friday night; my plan was to just check into the hotel and watch some Tom and Jerry before falling asleep. Then I met the conference organizer, the head of the Department of Sociology at the Indore Christian College, who informed me that I would be one of the key-note speakers the next day and that I had around 40 minutes of speaking time. My presentation at that time was around 20 minutes, so there was less Tom and Jerry than expected. This was the first indication of the interesting cultural experience I was about to have.</p>
<p>As I navigated the rather austere streets of Indore, I realized that this was really a modest city. Not in population of course, because Indian cities are huge compared to pretty much anywhere else in the world, but in its aspirations. I quickly noticed I was the only white person on the streets. “I made the conference international”, I thought, but I was wrong: There was one more white person, a middle aged man from Hungary named Laszlo who had come to present his research on population. And so as the first day of the conference rolled on, Laszlo and I got a taste of some bizarre reverence that continued throughout the two days. I can’t say for sure if it’s the result of some colonial baggage, the Indian tradition of treating guests like gods, may be a combination of both, the truth is that we got treated with way too much respect and an uncanny humility that was at times a bit embarrassing. Laszlo and I got to sit on the stage, next to the former Indian ambassador to Fiji, the head of the college, and other conference organizers. </p>
<p>The influence of Hinduism in more rural areas is very visible, on the stage next to the podium was a huge representation of Saraswati (goddess of wisdom) and there was a constant puja being offered to her. I thought of the academia, the temple of rationality, the house of reason, surely cannot co-exist with the world of religion. It can, if anyone in the world can make it happen, it’s the Indians. There were floral offerings, and introductions, and dedications. It seemed the organizers were very concerned with decorum and pomp and circumstance, pleasing local government officials (I recognized them because they were fat and everyone smiled at them awkwardly) and maintaining a tradition I got the feeling they didn’t understand properly. This whole exercise was ironic to me, as the building was almost in ruins, there was no proper ventilation, and the restrooms were a complete mess with no proper running water, and so on. </p>
<p>Finally I got to speak. I only got 15 minutes because one local man (maybe a friend of one of the local politicians) took his sweet time delivering his speech. This was definitely not my crowd. I was presenting a small paper I wrote called “iCare: Emergent Forms of Technology-mediated Activism” which was basically a summary of two of the findings of “Digital Natives with a Cause?”: One was a concept of activism which moves away from one time campaigns and looks at the practice of activism as an every-day activity, which can be valued without the need of an issue nor a community. The other was an observation about the language of activism and how it relates to different communities, through the use of voice, terminology, literary devices, and context. These were not the topics most attendees were familiar with, for example at the beginning of the talk I asked how many people in the audience used Facebook, and about 15 of out 150 people raised their hands. Relating to the issues of people who use technology incessantly was difficult for this crowd, who were not familiar with terms like “Slacktivism” and “Digital Native”, and who generally held the view that modern society and its overuse of technology were chipping away at traditional Hindu family values. </p>
<p>I tried my best in those 15 minutes, to illuminate some of the basic conceptual bases of the kind of work we’re doing with “Digital Natives with a Cause?”. They enjoyed the presentation, or at least I gathered that from several people who came up to me afterwards and told me so. Many people came up to me and asked me where I was from, and I started saying “USA” after a while, because “Venezuela” does exist in their mind, and “South America” just means the south of the United States.</p>
<p>I got to learn a lot about academic life in more rural traditional social spaces. I am generally completely ignorant of rural life, as I was born in the capital of Venezuela, and have in general lived in very cosmopolitan and metropolitan cities all my life. However what little slices of rural life I had encountered while backpacking through India, were concentrated in the work around the house and the fields. I was under the impression that research, that academic pursuit, and that critical thinking, were activities reserved for the urban, the middle class, the English speaking. Attending this conference opened my view a bit in this respect. People in rural areas have their own academic culture, with their own research interests, views and perspectives, and in most cases, reliable data backing them. Granted, in many cases these cultures are reflections or copies of what comes out of the cities, (and the west to a certain extend) but many times they are not, and getting to experience the complexity of it was a great experience. For example, there were many papers presented which dealt with the politics of caste, which is a concept I have barely come in contact with while being in Bangalore. A lot of people also talked about sustainable development, the impact of technology on agriculture, how new chemical fertilizers are changing the lives of farmers, and one teacher talked about the exiting potential uses for the novel technology called the podcast. </p>
<p>It was then that it dawned on me: “Science, Technology and Society” meant a completely different thing to my audience than it did to me. My presentation about how people conversing on Facebook can be viewed as activism must have seemed so alien and disconnected to them. I left the place very pensive about the whole experience. After taking pictures with some children, I went to a mall, and stood in front of a McDonalds and wondered how globalization is allowing for encounters like this one: A Venezuelan young man speaking at a local college in Indore, in the cultural and geographical centre of India. I’d like to think I was breaking barriers, participating in inter-cultural dialogue, exemplifying the exchange of intellectual and cultural capital that I hope takes places in the following years after our markets have gone global. Then again, I might not have been, I might have confirmed their perception of the well-dressed Westerner, who gracefully does them the favour of speaking at their college, and then talks in an accent about some random and obscure topic no one has any idea about. I’m still trying to decipher what happened. Eventually I went back to my hotel and experienced possibly the one and only truly cross-cultural and global thing in today’s world: Tom and Jerry.</p>
<p>See the agenda <a class="external-link" href="http://www.indorechristiancollege.com/sts/schedule.html">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/science-technology-and-society-conference-in-indore-march-12-13'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/science-technology-and-society-conference-in-indore-march-12-13</a>
</p>
No publishertettnerConferenceDigital ActivismResearchers at WorkDigital Natives2015-05-14T12:22:08ZBlog EntryDigital Natives at Republica 2010
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnrepub
<b>Nishant Shah from the Centre for Internet and Society, made a presentation at the Re:Publica 2010, in Berlin, about its collaborative project (with Hivos, Netherlands) "Digital Natives with a Cause?" The video for the presentation, along with an extensive abstract is now available here.</b>
<p align="center"><object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="about:blank"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed height="364" width="445" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cz4KoL3jzi0&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Abstract:</strong></p>
<p>As a growing population in
emerging Information Societies, particularly in Asia, experience a
lifestyle mediated by digital technologies, there is also a correlated
concern about the young digital natives constructing their identities
and expressions through a world of incessant consumption, while
remaining apathetic to the immediate political and social needs of
their times. Governments, educators, civil society theorists and
practitioners, have all expressed alarm at how the digital natives
across the globe are so entrenched in practices of incessant
consumption that they have a disconnect with the larger external
reality and contained within digital deliriums.<img title="Weiterlesen..." src="http://re-publica.de/10/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif" alt="" /> They discard the emergent communication and expression trends,
mobilisation and participation platforms, and processes of cultural
production as trivial or unimportant. Such a perspective is embedded in
a non-changing view of the political landscape and do not take into
account that the Digital Natives are engaging in practices which might
not necessarily subscribe to the earlier notions of political
revolution, but offer possibilities for great social transformation and
participation.</p>
<p>The oldest Digital Native in the world – if popular definitions of
Digital Natives are accepted – turned 30 this year, whereas the youngest
is not yet born. In the last three decades, a population has been
growing up born in technologies, and mediated their sense of self and
their interactions with external reality through digital and internet
technologies. These interactions lead to significant transitions in the
landscape of the social and political movements as the Digital Natives
engage and innovate with new technologies to respond to crises in their
local and immediate environments. However, more often than not, these
experiments remain invisible to the mainstream discourses. The
mechanics, aesthetics and manifestation of these localised and
contextual practices hold the potentials for social transformation and
political participation for the future. This presentation looks at three
different case studies to look at how, through processes and
productions which have largely been neglected as self indulgent or
frivolous, Digital Natives around the world are actively participating
in the politics of their times, and also changing the way in which we
understand the political processes of mobilisation, participation and
transformation.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnrepub'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnrepub</a>
</p>
No publishernishantConferenceDigital ActivismDigital NativesCyberculturesDigital subjectivitiesResearchers at Work2015-05-15T11:35:48ZBlog EntryIndia Game Developer Summit Bangalore 2010
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010
<b>The India Game Developer Conference held at Nimhans Convention Centre on the 27th of February, 2010 was attended by Arun Menon who is working on The Gaming and Gold Project at The Centre for Internet and Society. The Developer forum brought together game developers from different sectors of the Game Production Cycle, with hardware manufacturers like Nvidia demonstrating their latest 3d technology and Software developers like Crytek and Adobe demonstrating the latest in developer tools for creating and editing games on multiple platforms.</b>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The India Game Developer Summit
Lite was sufficiently provocative in showcasing the developer community in
India and the latest advancements made by the corporate sponsors. The presentations
did not appropriately address creative development and management except for a few
made by Keita Iida, Carl Jones, and possibly Varun Nair which stood out for the
specific focus on creativity. The overall focus was on PC gaming with inroads
into Web, mobile, and a smattering of social games. Console Gaming was present in a few statistics presented but did not figure elsewhere at the conference.</p>
<p><strong>On Presentations</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One key feature found in the
presentations made by Carl Jones, Keita Iida, and Varun Nair at IGDS was the
focus on creating immersive environments and naturally all the three took
different approaches suiting their areas of specialization. The other
presentations bordered on marketing and sales pitches, promoting the presenters'
products, and were not sufficiently detailed other than pushing the presenter’s
products and services. These three presentations stand out for their focus on
creativity in game development, design, and research with data pertaining to
the industry and not limited to their products or companies.</p>
<p><strong>Carl Jones –
Envision, Enable, Achieve.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Carl Jones from Crytek made an
excellent keynote speech with a focus on their latest advancement; the CRYENGINE
3.0. A demonstration video showcased synchronous editing capabilities for
multiple platforms as well as real time 'edit and play' functionality. What you
see is [truly] what you get. Their engine is currently not set for a public
release but can handle textures and fluid rendering with amazing ease on a
standard 500$ machine. The detailed and fluid real-time editing cuts
development time from weeks to a matter of days, not a possibility a few months earlier. The technology targets low end machines and has a higher
market but both Nvidia and Crytek made it clear that their focus for
development is going to be high end devices and technology for high end
machines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Crytek’s entire focus is on the
development and sustainability of creativity, so that new technology could
provide better rendering at better speeds and visuals. Cryengine 3.0’s capabilities
in developing a truly interactive, immersive, and realistic environment were
demonstrated at the keynote speech. The destructive environments and
fluid/texture rendering made designing and editing seem as simple as using a
brush (convinced of its capabilities as an engine but still skeptic about its
simplicity in user interactivity). The dynamic lighting, downward light shafts,
ocean rendering, view distance, soft shadows and particle rendering (fog, etc)
and its real-time synchronous editing capabilities left no doubt as to
Cryengine 3.0’s superiority in the competitive game developer market.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The keynote speech recognized one
main deficiency in game development, there is a problem incorporating graphics
and realistic physics. Jones showcased how at Crytek, the motto ‘the difficult
takes a day and impossible takes a week’ works. Looking at the developer tools
demonstrated at the summit that motto is quite realistic. Crytek’s focus is to
make everything interactive and the CryEngine 3.0 demonstrates that focus. As a
matter of fact Crytek has incorporated Star Data from NASA into their games.
Star navigation based on the digitally (re)created skies in their games is
possibility. The elements they bring in to build in realism to gaming will be interesting to
follow, since realism often meant higher graphics requirements.</p>
<p><strong>Keita Iida –
Technology and Market Trends in the PC game Industry</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The focused session by Keita Iida
of Nvidia placed the growth of Indian markets in perspective including online markets (and digital releases) and offline growth plotted through hardware sales. The numbers and
statistics presented showcased the strength of the growing gaming market particularly
in Asia. The revenues of the Asia segment in the entire MMOG revenues is 76.6
percent globally, the United States and the West is lagging in terms of revenue
generation in the MMOG segment but their recent growth is set to shoot up to
1.3-1.5 billion USD by 2013. Similar numbers in the social gaming segment was
also reiterated by Sumit Gupta (the CEO and founder of BitRhymes). What they
both articulated differently was that there was tremendous money in gaming both
online and offline and India had sufficient infrastructure to capitalize on the
gaming markets for online as well as offline products and releases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Keita Iida argued that the online
gaming market in India was in excess of 60 million USD assuming that these
games were serviced locally. This still leaves out contribution from the Indian segment globally, such figures are also hard to plot out. Some of the numbers that Nvidia made available
were from their own sales and marketing statistics. The DX10 capable computers
globally were 171 Million as of 2009 and DX9 capable machines around
102million, which had a Geforce installed base. Keita Iida's statistics pointed
to one thing - the Asian markets were far ahead of the other markets both in online and offline releases. Nvidia as an organization and developer would provide an ideal
space for game developers to reach out to a larger global market provided they
were Nvidia technology compatible. Keita Iida made an effective marketing pitch
for Nvidia and provided enough data and statistics globally and locally as well
as company specific data that made the presentation more accessible. This
presentation was one of the few that involved industry movements and statistics
with a focus on creative development.</p>
<p><strong>Varun Nair - Quality Asset Creation & Sound as a
Storyteller</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The most creative presentation
was perhaps the one made by Varun Nair on 'Sound as Storytelling and Quality Asset
creation'. We had interacted prior to the conference as well as during the
presentation and he provided a lot of information on the pre- and post-production cycles where sound design and incorporation was most effective. His
presentation was remarkably different and stood out from the others largely
because his focus was not on pushing his own projects or company agenda, rather
he attempted to place the relevance of the sound design industry in the
creative processes of the game’s design stages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The session focused on the
relevance of sound and visuals and the effective placement and modulation of
sound to the visuals to communicate the desired effect. The main example used was an
FPS where the ambient sounds and the player sounds had to be placed in
perspective with the enemy sounds to create an immersive environment. This translates into sounds being modulated and dynamic as gameplay progresses to effectively create immersive structures. The lack
of this immersive effect will create confusion and destroy the effect even if
the visuals are designed effectively. This is interesting largely because if
you hear gunfire not represented in your visuals - as a character - you’re able to react
effectively to the enemy based on sound alone. Quite a few games use this
strategy to provide and create an immersive structure. There was a good
emphasis on the development of sound particularly since it enables a certain
human emotional response to that sound and developers of successful AAA games
have used this strategy to create emotional engagement of the player with the game narratives. Varun Nair also pointed
out the relevance of sound in making connections and here he mentioned using
real world sounds and digitally created and re-engineered sounds. The effects he
demonstrated with a training exercise, where he played out real world sounds
and enhanced sounds to create a suitable environment. On making connections with
the ‘experiential residual narrative’ as the Videogame theorist Henry Jenkins
would put it, Varun Nair pointed out how sound design is created effectively to
cater to certain specific feelings encountered before. Artificial sounds are
specifically created to suit the artificiality of an environment and here he
used the example of ‘Transformers’, the movie to explain artificial sound
effects as well as information overload. The focus of designed sounds is
largely towards creating an environment in which the main focus is to reiterate
the environments artificiality largely used in Sci-Fi media and gaming.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Most sound designers only receive
images and they have to create sounds often from scratch to suit the
environment. In his demonstrations he showcased the kind of creativity that
sound designers and engineers are capable of in designing the environments we
hear and interact with in gaming simulations. Varun Nair also focused on
Information Overload and how the effective blend of sound and visuals would
form an ideal blend to counter this overload. He went has far as saying that at
certain points an underload was preferred since there was less player fatigue
due to overload. The design structures have to be suitably different
particularly for non linear media such as gaming. Varun Nair mentioned the
cocktail party effect where the human mind is able to focus on a few important
sounds and tune out the rest as well as the 2.5 theme rule. The 2.5 theme rule emphasizes the perfect Balance between Visuals, Audio, and Sound effects. Among
others were quality asset creation and the involvement of the sound designer in
the early stages of the game to capitalize on creative development.</p>
<p><strong>Sumit Gupta from
BitRhymes and Hemant Sharma from Adobe</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The presentation by Sumit Gupta
was very detailed, with a focus on audience interactivity. The data Sumit used
was excellent and placed the entire scenario in perspective; perhaps the
overwhelming response to his presentation may have overwhelmed him a little.
The data on social gaming in India and the lack of monetization in the current
market scenario and the possibilities of monetization was explored in detail.
The problem if any was in setting up these structures and infrastructure
backing in India which was lacking. Payment systems and methodologies would
ensure the creation and transaction of virtual goods. The data on the Chinese
and Japanese markets and the Asian and World trends was extremely detailed, so
much so that some of these statistics were scary. Most social gamers do not realize that data is being collected on them as they play and this was
demonstrated in some of the internal statistics that Sumit presented. The
information presented included age groups of the users, their purchasing power,
spending power, and the relationship between the users who trade is almost
totalitarian in terms of information collection. Privacy laws allow that
generic data are collected but the presentation of these data and statistics
reminds the viewer on just how much information is accessible to these
developers. Hemant Sharma’s presentation later was highly technical and
demonstrated the development of games for mobile devices on Adobe Flash CS5
which is currently only out on a beta release. The presentation there also
talked about the ways in which a mobile app could gain access to the OS
features to run better. Most of these features give undue access to the app
developer to geolocationary movement information. Along with access to other
apps which may store generic information which is user specific. This talk shed
light on the amount of access that a mobile app developer has to the
geolocationary and personal data stored on the phone. Although the perspective
was to showcase the functionality of Flash Professional CS5, currently released
as a beta version, details emerged on the kind of easy access a developer has
to change mobile app settings to gather data. The possibilities that a
malicious use of the data would compromise user security emerges strongly when
reflecting on this presentation.</p>
<p><strong>DSKs Presentation –
Sell your Game, Adopt a Game Designer!</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">DSK Supinfogame had a booth at
the India Game Developer Summit along with AIGA the Asian Institute of Gaming
and Animation. DSK’s presentation was to be held by Philippe Vachey but a
change in schedule had another member from DSK make the presentation. Their
focus rested on Gamespot reviews and game journal rankings to showcase the
problems that arise due to the lack of relevant design in games that would
otherwise have been AAA releases. They had some really important points to
make. A 30million USD project is not going to have developers and designers
with one year experience and without a cohesive unit centered on design aspects
a game may as well not make an AAA rating let alone an A or a B rating.</p>
<p><strong>Networking @ IGDS</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Networking at the India Game Developer
Summit was one of the main benefits of the summit. The presentations, other
than the few mentioned here in detail, were largely oriented towards marketing
their own companies and products or sales pitches to this effect. I had already
talked to Varun Nair (from bluefrog presenting Sound as Storyteller and Quality
Asset Creation) prior to meeting him at the conference and discussed mutual
interests in gaming and narrative communication in gaming. Before his
presentation I had the opportunity to get a preview of his presentation and its
main focus on presenting the relevance of sound design and its ideal placement
to create an immersive environment which can be effective or confusing
depending on how the visuals and sounds interact with each other to create an
ideal immersive environment rather than information underload or worse overload
and player fatigue. The discussion also revolved around my current research
project and research interests in the Indian Gaming scene. Varun Nair is based
in Bombay and works for Bluefrog, a company which specialises in sound creation
for games.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Prior to the conference, Rev
Lebaredian and Simon Green from Nvidia Corporation were available at the Nvidia
booth and right after trying out Batman Arkham Asylum in 3D (with the Geforce
3D stereoscopic vision kit); Varun Nair joined us and we discussed my research
interests as well as my project at the Centre for Internet and Society and its
requirements. Rev and Simon were very accessible (not mobbed yet) and gave me a
lot of details on their partnership programs and their products and upcoming
releases. Being engineers they had very little data on the Indian market both
virtual and offline, and the approximate industry revenues. Rev and Simon
offered details on who might have access to the information I needed and told
me some information pertaining to Nvidia might be shared but large part is
internal and not for public access.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The interaction with Kiran was
the most productive and engaging we discussed games of mutual interest and the
goldfarming activities on his own server (one of the highest bids on eBay for
an account on his server was above 566 pounds [GBP]) he also focused on
goldfarming in India and how that is very little documentation of any sort on
these activities. His own research is on improving design in online games to
provide better retention, higher virality, and immersive environments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Post the key note session, the
opportunity to speak to Philippe Segard and Lionel Chaze from ‘DSK supinfogame’
presented itself. They were designers engaged with game design training and
also had modules that addressed the online gaming segment. On hearing about my
project they assumed that I was adopting a critical theory approach to a single
game and its content and examining only that (which is also something I am
doing as a part of my research read more on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/gaming">my blog</a>).
I explained some of my research interests and those of the project in examining
the gaming ecosystem in India both virtually and offline, this was more
appealing to both Philippe and Lionel who agreed to give feedback on the
project as it proceeds. Robin Alter from Kreeda Games was available after his
presentation and spoke to me about the future for the Indian markets and the
growth they were expecting in the online as well as offline game segments, as
publishers most of their focus was on offline products. Robin also spoke about
Gold farming in India and how most of it is undocumented and has very little
studies conducted on them particularly in the Indian context. Gold farming
itself is prevalent in India and is not as minor as thought earlier looking at
the responses by Online Server statistics only in India. Playdom’s Business
operations manager Nagabhushan Rao also reiterated that there are cases of gold
farming on their servers and few cases are logged in India as well. However, as
developers they have very few mechanisms to control this activity, largely
since their user base is approximately around 2.5 million (aggregate). He also
happened to mention how Zynga could afford to proactively target such practices
since their large user base would sustain these mitigating blocks. Playdom is
developing a few mechanisms to track such usage and abusage of their credit but
as of early 2010 they have very few mechanisms that would ban player activity
for these practices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The next Game Developer
Conference is expected around the latter part of this year or early next year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010</a>
</p>
No publisherarunConferenceGamingSocial mediaIGDSRPGGame Developer Conference2010-03-09T16:55:33ZBlog Entry