The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 11 to 20.
Indian government includes open source in RFPs
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/open-source-subhashish-panigrahi-june-8-2015-indian-govt-includes-open-source-in-rfps
<b>The Government of India has implemented a remarkable new policy-level change for open source software (OSS) deployment.</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has asked that open source software-based applications be included in Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for all new procurements. Note there is not a plan at this time to replace existing proprietary systems with open source software.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As <a href="http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf" target="_blank">stated</a>, the policy will "adopt open standards and promote open source and open technologies" in order "to prepare India for a knowledge based transformation into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Three major objectives of the new policy for OSS:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>To provide a policy framework for rapid and effective adoption of OSS</li>
<li>To ensure strategic control in e-Governance applications and systems from a long-term perspective</li>
<li>To reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of projects</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to adopting open source and open standards, the Indian Government is also emphasizing on opening up the source code without any royalty for the community to use, modify and redistribute the original/modified software. This is compliant with the Creative Commons (CC) licenses.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Proprietary software (labeled as "closed source software" and "CSS" in the policy document) would only be permitted for demonstrated urgent/strategic need or lack of expertise or non-availability of open source software. The suppliers then are not bound to use open source software, though it is preferred over proprietary per this policy change. The policy document also mentions government collaborating with local and international open source communities for software development</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/open-source-subhashish-panigrahi-june-8-2015-indian-govt-includes-open-source-in-rfps'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/open-source-subhashish-panigrahi-june-8-2015-indian-govt-includes-open-source-in-rfps</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpennessOpen Source2016-06-18T18:18:54ZBlog EntryGurshabad Grover nominated to join advisory group on open source software for ISO/IEC JTC 1
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/gurshabad-grover-nominated-to-join-advisory-group-on-open-source-software-for-iso-iec-jtc-1
<b>Gurshabad Grover has been nominated through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to be a member of the Advisory Group AG) on Open Source Software for ISO/IEC JTC 1.</b>
<p> </p>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="text-align: justify; ">JTC 1 deals with international standards on information technology. This AG is currently documenting requirements and potential opportunities for <span>industry use of open source software for all work areas under the various committees of JTC 1.</span></div>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/gurshabad-grover-nominated-to-join-advisory-group-on-open-source-software-for-iso-iec-jtc-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/gurshabad-grover-nominated-to-join-advisory-group-on-open-source-software-for-iso-iec-jtc-1</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessOpen Source2019-11-02T05:17:24ZNews ItemFuel Gilt Conference 2016
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/fuel-gilt-conference-2016
<b>Fuel Gilt Conference 2016 was organized by the Fuel Project is being held in New Delhi on September 24 and 25, 2016. This is the fourth conference in series. Subhashish Panigrahi made a presentation at this event.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Technical and other interface strings that fall under the ambit of FUEL are actually a subset of several other localization projects. They can also be used for bettering the corpus of machine translation. And there is a need for collaboration between communities and institutions -- both free and open source, and the proprietary ones -- to help grow their corpus. More and more collaborations in place will help the volunteer localizers even more as the localization suggestions will increase drastically with partnerships are more. Two existing such partnerships could be Pontoon by Mozilla and Content Translation by the Wikimedia Foundation. When the former shows localized strings from memory as suggestion and even include translations by proprietary organizations like Microsoft, the latter helps Wikipedians create Wikipedia articles faster by translation suggestions sourced from the corpus of Apertium and Yandex. Bettering collaboration needs strengthening two major aspects; a) growing professional and mutual bonding with other communities/organizations that are there in the same domain, and b) creating technical infrastructure to address the aforementioned pluralism. In my talk, I will detail about my own experience and best practices from working with several communities beyond borders and lessons learned from from my own work and the work of many others. A larger discussion with other colleagues at the Conference will hopefully shape into creating a manual or a few Open Educational Resources of some kind to help the future localization leaders. For more info, <a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Presentation_by_Subhashish_Panigrahi_at_the_FUEL_GILT_Conference_2016,_New_Delhi.webm#.7B.7Bint:filedesc.7D.7D">click here</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Video</h3>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eJfnWodVvlo" width="500"></iframe></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/fuel-gilt-conference-2016'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/fuel-gilt-conference-2016</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaVideoOpennessOpen Source2016-09-25T03:27:38ZNews ItemFOSS & a Free, Open Internet: Synergies for Development
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/foss-a-free-open-internet-synergies-for-development
<b>Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2015 will be held at Jao Pessoa in Brazil from November 10 to 13, 2015. The theme of IGF 2015 is Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development. Civil Society is organizing a workshop on FOSS and a Free, Open Internet. The workshop will be held on November 13, 2015 from 2.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. Sunil Abraham and Pranesh Prakash will be speaking at this event.</b>
<p>This was published on the <a class="external-link" href="https://www.intgovforum.org/cms/wks2015/index.php/proposal/view_public/10">IGF website. </a></p>
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<p>The workshop will explore links between the Free and Open nature of the Internet and the Free and Open Source Software through a series of experience sharing among the speakers as well as audiences. The speakers have been selected on the basis of their wide exposure and geographical and occupational diversity.</p>
<hr />
<p>As ICTs permeate lives of people around the world, code is fast emerging as an instrument that can change lives. In many parts of the world, the 4Rs of primary education are Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and pRogramming, indicative of the role that ICTs will play in the future.<br /> <br /> Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is, inter alia, a mechanism whereby code, and consequently the ability to code, is being democratized. In contrast with centralized proprietary models, FOSS allows decentralized creation, distribution and maintenance of code. Such democratization enables grassroots level application of code to solve local problems, leading to more empowered communities. Free flow of code is therefore important to ensure that communities to stay 'plugged in' and current. Code also enables communities to side-step practices such as surveillance, censorship.<br /> <br /> A Free, Open, Unfragmented Internet is of critical importance to FOSS--without a free Internet, the FOSS-based peer-production methodologies for code would be infeasible. Interestingly, the Internet also needs the innovations of FOSS to remain free & open, thus forming a positive mutual dependency.<br /> <br /> Both FOSS and the Internet are at risk from forces that are seeking increasing control over content and fragmentation, challenging its openness. This would be inimical to the rights of present & future generations to use technology to improve their lives.<br /> <br /> The Round-table seeks to highlight perspectives from the participants about the future co-developemnt of FOSS and a free, open Internet; the threats that are emerging; and ways for communities to surmount these.</p>
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<p class="title">Name, stakeholder group, and organizational affiliation of workshop proposal co-organizer(s)</p>
<p>Civil Society<br /> Technical Community<br /> Private Sector</p>
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<p class="title">Has the proposer, or any of the co-organizers, organized an IGF workshop before?</p>
<p>yes</p>
<p class="title">The link to the workshop report</p>
<p>http://wsms1.intgovforum.org/content/no80-steady-stepsfoss-and-mdgs</p>
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<p class="title">Subject matter #tags that describe the workshop</p>
<p>#openInternet #foss #codefordev</p>
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<p class="title">Description of the plan to facilitate discussion amongst speakers, audience members and remote participants</p>
<p>Besides specially identified resource persons, the Roundtable will invite IGF participants who are part of FOSS communities around the world (particularly Brazil, which has a vibrant FOSS community). Participation will include real-time remote participation from FOSS communities around the world, as well as Twitter and email-based submission of ideas and thoughts.<br /> <br /> The Round-table format has been chosen for many-to-many interactions so as to generate a wealth of ideas. No speaker shall speak for more than 5 minutes. Two moderators will guide discussions, and a rapporteur will ensure that ideas are captured. The report of the Roundtable would be posted to all participating communities so as to stimulate grassroots-level action.</p>
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<p class="title">Names and affiliations (stakeholder group, organization) of the participants in the proposed workshop</p>
<p>Mr.Satish Babu, Technical Community, Director, International Centre for FOSS, Trivandrum, India, who shall provide technical inputs of FOSS and its relevance, particularly to emerging economies, Confirmed<br /> <br /> Ms. Judy Okite, Civil Society, FOSS Foundation for Africa, is an experienced activist who has been promoting the use of FOSS in Africa. Seeking funding at present.<br /> <br /> Ms. Mishi Choudhary, Private Sector, Software Freedom Law Centre, New York, is a lawyer working with FOSS and its legal implications for over two decades. Confirmed<br /> <br /> Mr. Fernando Botelho, Private Sector, heads F123 Systems, Brazil, a FOSS-centric company that provides accessibility solutions to visually impaired people. Confirmed<br /> <br /> Mr. Sunil Abraham, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore, a civil society organization working on Internet and public policy. Confirmed<br /> <br /> Mr. Pranesh Prakash, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore, a civil society organization working on Internet and public policy. Confirmed<br /> <br /> Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma- WWW.Foundation, a Civil Society organization working in Africa on a broad range of areas including FOSS. Confirmed<br /> <br /> Mr. Yves MIEZAN EZO, Open Source strategy consultant, Private Sector. Seeking funding for participation. <br /> <br /> Mr. Harish Pillay, Private Sector, RedHat Asia-Pacific. Seeking funding for participation. <br /> <br /> Corinto Meffe, Advisor to the President and Directors, SERPRO, Brazil. Confirmed<br /> <br /> Frank Coelho de Alcantara, Professor, Universidade Positivo, Brazil, Confirmed<br /> <br /> Ms. Caroline Burle, Institutional and International Relations, W3C Brazil Office and Center of Studies on Web Technologies - CeWeb.br (a CGI.br/NIC.br initiative). Confirmed</p>
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<p class="title">Name of in-person Moderator(s)</p>
<p>Satish Babu, Mishi Choudhary</p>
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<p class="title">Name of Remote Moderator(s)</p>
<p>Judy Okite</p>
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<p class="title">Name of Rapporteur(s)</p>
<p>Pranesh Prakash</p>
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<p class="title">Description of the proposer's plans for remote participation</p>
<p>Besides around 30 persons at the IGF, we will be providing wide publicity for the workshop through FOSS communities and networks. Besides live audio/video participation, Twitter shall be a key resource for real-time participation. There shall be a Twitter co-ordinator identified whose role will be to tweet the salient points at the Roundtable periodically for the benefit of documenting and informing interested communities.<br /> <br /> For those that have either technical difficulties or time-zone problems, ideas and comments can be submitted by email before the workshop to the moderators.</p>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/foss-a-free-open-internet-synergies-for-development'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/foss-a-free-open-internet-synergies-for-development</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaFOSSOpen SourceInternet GovernanceInternet Governance Forum2016-06-18T17:57:53ZNews ItemDevFest'19
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/devfest19
<b>Bhuvana Meenakshi was a speaker at the event organised by Google Developers Groups at Coimbatore on September 14, 2019.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">She spoke on WebXR: The journey to the centre of Reality. The audience were all beginners and they were amused to see her works on Mixed Reality. They also learnt to kickstart with the easiest ways of developing the most cool applications using Firefox's framework.</p>
<div>Website: <a href="https://devfest19.gdgcbe.com/" target="_blank">https://devfest19.gdgcbe.com/</a></div>
<div>Blog: <a href="https://kbmtechie.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/speaker-experience-at-devfest19/" target="_blank">https://kbmtechie.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/speaker-experience-at-devfest19/</a></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/devfest19'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/devfest19</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpennessOpen Source2019-10-14T14:50:33ZNews ItemComments on the Draft Outcome Document of the UN General Assembly’s Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (WSIS+10)
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-outcome-document-of-the-un-general-assembly2019s-overall-review-of-the-implementation-of-wsis-outcomes-wsis-10
<b>Following the comment-period on the Zero Draft, the Draft Outcome Document of the UN General Assembly's Overall Review of implementation of WSIS Outcomes was released on 4 November 2015. Comments were sought on the Draft Outcome Document from diverse stakeholders. The Centre for Internet & Society's response to the call for comments is below.</b>
<p class="Normal1" style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p class="Normal1" style="text-align: justify; ">The WSIS+10 Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes, scheduled for December 2015, comes as a review of the WSIS process initiated in 2003-05. At the December summit of the UN General Assembly, the WSIS vision and mandate of the IGF are to be discussed. The Draft Outcome Document, released on 4 November 2015, is towards an outcome document for the summit. Comments were sought on the Draft Outcome Document. Our comments are below.</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The Draft Outcome Document of the UN General Assembly’s Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (“<i>the current Draft</i>”) stands considerably altered from the Zero Draft. With references to development-related challenges, the Zero Draft covered areas of growth and challenges of the WSIS. It noted the persisting digital divide, the importance of innovation and investment, and of conducive legal and regulatory environments, and the inadequacy of financial mechanisms. Issues crucial to Internet governance such as net neutrality, privacy and the mandate of the IGF found mention in the Zero Draft.</li>
<li>The current Draft retains these, and adds to them. Some previously-omitted issues such as surveillance, the centrality of human rights and the intricate relationship of ICTs to the Sustainable Development Goals, now stand incorporated in the current Draft. This is most commendable. However, the current Draft still lacks teeth with regard to some of these issues, and fails to address several others. </li>
<li>In our comments to the Zero Draft, CIS had called for these issues to be addressed. We reiterate our call in the following paragraphs.</li>
</ol>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(1) </strong><strong>ICT for Development</strong></h2>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>In the current Draft, paragraphs 14-36 deal with ICTs for development. While the draft contains rubrics like ‘Bridging the digital divide’, ‘Enabling environment’, and ‘Financial mechanisms’, the following issues are unaddressed:</li>
<li>Equitable development for all;</li>
<li>Accessibility to ICTs for persons with disabilities;</li>
<li>Access to knowledge and open data.</li>
</ol>
<h3><i><span>Equitable development</span></i></h3>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>In the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs/geneva/official/dop.html">Geneva Declaration of Principles</a> (2003), two goals are set forth as the Declaration’s “ambitious goal”: (a) the bridging of the digital divide; and (b) equitable development for all (¶ 17). The current Draft speaks in detail about the bridging of the digital divide, but the goal of equitable development is conspicuously absent. At WSIS+10, when the WSIS vision evolves to the creation of inclusive ‘knowledge societies’, equitable development should be both a key principle and a goal to stand by.</li>
<li>Indeed, inequitable development underscores the persistence of the digital divide. The current Draft itself refers to several instances of inequitable development; for ex., the uneven production capabilities and deployment of ICT infrastructure and technology in developing countries, landlocked countries, small island developing states, countries under occupation or suffering natural disasters, and other vulnerable states; lack of adequate financial mechanisms in vulnerable parts of the world; variably affordable (or in many cases, unaffordable) spread of ICT devices, technology and connectivity, etc. </li>
<li>What underscores these challenges is the inequitable and uneven spread of ICTs across states and communities, including in their production, capacity-building, technology transfers, gender-concentrated adoption of technology, and inclusiveness. </li>
<li>As such, it is essential that the WSIS+10 Draft Outcome Document reaffirm our commitment to equitable development for all peoples, communities and states.</li>
<li>We suggest the following inclusion to <strong>paragraph 5 of the current Draft</strong>:</li>
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<th style="text-align: justify; "><span><span style="text-align: justify; ">“5. We reaffirm our common desire and commitment to the WSIS vision to build </span><i style="text-align: justify; "><span>an equitable,</span></i><span style="text-align: justify; "> people-centred, inclusive, and development-oriented Information Society…”</span></span></th>
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<h3><i><span>Accessibility for persons with disabilities</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">10. Paragraph 13 of the Geneva Declaration of Principles (2003) pledges to “pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups of society” in the forging of an Information Society. Particularly, ¶ 13 recognises the special needs of older persons and persons with disabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">11. Moreover, ¶ 31 of the Geneva Declaration of Principles calls for the special needs of persons with disabilities, and also of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, to be taken into account while promoting the use of ICTs for capacity-building. Accessibility for persons with disabilities is thus core to bridging the digital divide – as important as bridging the gender divide in access to ICTs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">12. Not only this, but the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/implementation/2014/forum/inc/doc/outcome/362828V2E.pdf">WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes</a> (June 2014) also reaffirms the commitment to “provide equitable access to information and knowledge for all… including… people with disabilities”, recognizing that it is “crucial to increase the participation of vulnerable people in the building process of Information Society…” (¶8).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">13. In our previous submission, CIS had suggested language drawing attention to this. Now, the current Draft only acknowledges that “particular attention should be paid to the specific ICT challenges facing… persons with disabilities…” (paragraph 11). It acknowledges also that now, accessibility for persons with disabilities constitutes one of the core elements of quality (paragraph 22). However, there is a glaring omission of a call to action, or a reaffirmation of our commitment to bridging the divide experienced by persons with disabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">14. We suggest, therefore, the addition of the following language the addition of <strong>paragraph 24A to the current Draft</strong>. Sections of this suggestion are drawn from ¶8, WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes.</p>
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<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"24A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">Recalling the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities, the Geneva principles paragraph 11, 13, 14 and 15, Tunis Commitment paras 20, 22 and 24, and reaffirming the commitment to providing equitable access to information and knowledge for all, building ICT capacity for all and confidence in the use of ICTs by all, including youth, older persons, women, indigenous and nomadic peoples, people with disabilities, the unemployed, the poor, migrants, refugees and internally displaced people and remote and rural communities, it is crucial to increase the participation of vulnerable people in the building process of information Society and to make their voice heard by stakeholders and policy-makers at different levels. It can allow the most fragile groups of citizens worldwide to become an integrated part of their economies and also raise awareness of the target actors on the existing ICTs solution (such as tolls as e- participation, e-government, e-learning applications, etc.) designed to make their everyday life better. We recognise need for continued extension of access for people with disabilities and vulnerable people to ICTs, especially in developing countries and among marginalized communities, and reaffirm our commitment to promoting and ensuring accessibility for persons with disabilities. In particular, we call upon all stakeholders to honour and meet the targets set out in Target 2.5.B of the Connect 2020 Agenda that enabling environments ensuring accessible telecommunication/ICT for persons with disabilities should be established in all countries by 2020.”</span></span></th>
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<h3><i><span>Access to knowledge and open data</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">15. The Geneva Declaration of Principles dedicates a section to access to information and knowledge (B.3). It notes, in ¶26, that a “rich public domain” is essential to the growth of Information Society. It urges that public institutions be strengthened to ensure free and equitable access to information (¶26), and also that assistive technologies and universal design can remove barriers to access to information and knowledge (¶25). Particularly, the Geneva Declaration advocates the use of free and open source software, in addition to proprietary software, to meet these ends (¶27).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">16. It was also recognized in the WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (‘Challenges-during implementation of Action Lines and new challenges that have emerged’) that there is a need to promote access to all information and knowledge, and to encourage open access to publications and information (C, ¶¶9 and 12).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">17. In our previous submission, CIS had highlighted the importance of open access to knowledge thus: “…the implications of open access to data and knowledge (including open government data), and responsible collection and dissemination of data are much larger in light of the importance of ICTs in today’s world. As Para 7 of the Zero Draft indicates, ICTs are now becoming an indicator of development itself, as well as being a key facilitator for achieving other developmental goals. As Para 56 of the Zero Draft recognizes, in order to measure the impact of ICTs on the ground – undoubtedly within the mandate of WSIS – it is necessary that there be an enabling environment to collect and analyse reliable data. Efforts towards the same have already been undertaken by the United Nations in the form of ‘Data Revolution for Sustainable Development’. In this light, the Zero Draft rightly calls for enhancement of regional, national and local capacity to collect and conduct analyses of development and ICT statistics (Para 56). Achieving the central goals of the WSIS process requires that such data is collected and disseminated under open standards and open licenses, leading to creation of global open data on the ICT indicators concerned.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">18. This crucial element is missing from the current Draft of the WSIS+10 Outcome Document. Of course, the current Draft notes the importance of access to information and free flow of data. But it stops short of endorsing and advocating the importance of access to knowledge and free and open source software, which are essential to fostering competition and innovation, diversity of consumer/ user choice and ensuring universal access.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">19. We suggest the following addition – of <strong>paragraph 23A to the current Draft</strong>:</p>
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<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"23A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We recognize the need to promote access for all to information and knowledge, open data, and open, affordable, and reliable technologies and services, while respecting individual privacy, and to encourage open access to publications and information, including scientific information and in the research sector, and particularly in developing and least developed countries.”</span></span></th>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(2) </strong><strong>Human Rights in Information Society</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">20. The current Draft recognizes that human rights have been central to the WSIS vision, and reaffirms that rights offline must be protected online as well. However, the current Draft omits to recognise the role played by corporations and intermediaries in facilitating access to and use of the Internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">21. In our previous submission, CIS had noted that “the Internet is led largely by the private sector in the development and distribution of devices, protocols and content-platforms, corporations play a major role in facilitating – and sometimes, in restricting – human rights online”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">22. We reiterate our suggestion for the inclusion of <strong>paragraph 43A to the current Draft</strong>:</p>
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<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"43A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We recognize the critical role played by corporations and the private sector in facilitating human rights online. We affirm, in this regard, the responsibilities of the private sector set out in the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, A/HRC/17/31 (21 March 2011), and encourage policies and commitments towards respect and remedies for human rights.”</span></span></th>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(3) </strong><strong>Internet</strong> <strong>Governance</strong></h2>
<h3><i><span>The support for multilateral governance of the Internet</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">23. While the section on Internet governance is not considerably altered from the zero draft, there is a large substantive change in the current Draft. The current Draft states that the governance of the Internet should be “multilateral, transparent and democratic, with full involvement of all stakeholders” (¶50). Previously, the zero draft recognized the “the general agreement that the governance of the Internet should be open, inclusive, and transparent”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">24. A return to purely ‘multilateral’ Internet governance would be regressive. Governments are, without doubt, crucial in Internet governance. As scholarship and experience have both shown, governments have played a substantial role in shaping the Internet as it is today: whether this concerns the availability of content, spread of infrastructure, licensing and regulation, etc. However, these were and continue to remain contentious spaces.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">25. As such, it is essential to recognize that a plurality of governance models serve the Internet, in which the private sector, civil society, the technical community and academia play important roles. <strong>We recommend returning to the language of the zero draft in ¶32: “open, inclusive and transparent governance of the Internet”.</strong></p>
<h3><i><span>Governance of Critical Internet Resources</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">26. It is curious that the section on Internet governance<strong> </strong>in both the zero and the current Draft makes no reference to ICANN, and in particular, to the ongoing transition of IANA stewardship and the discussions surrounding the accountability of ICANN and the IANA operator. The stewardship of critical Internet resources, such as the root, is crucial to the evolution and functioning of the Internet. Today, ICANN and a few other institutions have a monopoly over the management and policy-formulation of several critical Internet resources.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">27. While the WSIS in 2003-05 considered this a troubling issue, this focus seems to have shifted entirely. Open, inclusive, transparent and <i>global</i> Internet are misnomer-principles when ICANN – and in effect, the United States – continues to have monopoly over critical Internet resources. The allocation and administration of these resources should be decentralized and distributed, and should not be within the disproportionate control of any one jurisdiction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">28. Therefore, we reiterate our suggestion to add <strong><span>paragraph 53A</span></strong> after Para 53:</p>
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<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"53A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We affirm that the allocation, administration and policy involving critical Internet resources must be inclusive and decentralized, and call upon all stakeholders and in particular, states and organizations responsible for essential tasks associated with the Internet, to take immediate measures to create an environment that facilitates this development.”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3><i><span>Inclusiveness and Diversity in Internet Governance</span></i></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">29. The current Draft, in ¶52, recognizes that there is a need to “promote greater participation and engagement in Internet governance of all stakeholders…”, and calls for “stable, transparent and voluntary funding mechanisms to this end.” This is most commendable.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">30. The issue of inclusiveness and diversity in Internet governance is crucial: today, Internet governance organisations and platforms suffer from a lack of inclusiveness and diversity, extending across representation, participation and operations of these organisations. As CIS submitted previously, the mention of inclusiveness and diversity becomes tokenism or formal (but not operational) principle in many cases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">31. As we submitted before, the developing world is pitifully represented in standards organisations and in ICANN, and policy discussions in organisations like ISOC occur largely in cities like Geneva and New York. For ex., 307 out of 672 registries listed in ICANN’s registry directory are based in the United States, while 624 of the 1010 ICANN-accredited registrars are US-based.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">32. Not only this, but 80% of the responses received by ICANN during the ICG’s call for proposals were male. A truly global and open, inclusive and transparent governance of the Internet must not be so skewed. Representation must include not only those from developing countries, but must also extend across gender and communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">33. We propose, therefore, the addition of a <strong><span>paragraph 51A</span></strong> after Para 51:</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: justify; "><span>"51A. <span style="text-align: justify; ">We draw attention to the challenges surrounding diversity and inclusiveness in organisations involved in Internet governance, including in their representation, participation and operations. We note with concern that the representation of developing countries, of women, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, is far from equitable and adequate. We call upon organisations involved in Internet governance to take immediate measures to ensure diversity and inclusiveness in a substantive manner.”</span></span></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<hr size="1" style="text-align: justify; " width="33%" />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prepared by Geetha Hariharan, with inputs from Sunil Abraham and Japreet Grewal. All comments submitted towards the Draft Outcome Document may be found <a class="external-link" href="http://unpan3.un.org/wsis10/Preparatory-Process-Roadmap/Comments-on-Draft-Outcome-Document">at this link</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-outcome-document-of-the-un-general-assembly2019s-overall-review-of-the-implementation-of-wsis-outcomes-wsis-10'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-outcome-document-of-the-un-general-assembly2019s-overall-review-of-the-implementation-of-wsis-outcomes-wsis-10</a>
</p>
No publishergeethaICT4DCall for CommentsWSIS+10Access to KnowledgeAccessibilityHuman Rights OnlineInternet GovernanceICANNIANA TransitionOpen SourceOpen Access2015-11-18T06:33:13ZBlog EntryComments on the Draft National Policy on Software Products
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-draft-national-policy-on-software-products
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society submitted public comments to the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Information & Communications Technology, Govt. of India on the National Policy of Software
Products on December 9, 2016. </b>
<p> </p>
<h2>I. Preliminary</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>1.</strong> This submission presents comments by the Centre for Internet and Society, India (“<strong>CIS</strong>”) on the Draft National Policy on Software Products <a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1]</a> (“<strong>draft policy</strong>”), released by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (“<strong>MeitY</strong> ”).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>2.</strong> CIS commends MeitY on its initiative to present a draft policy, and is thankful for the opportunity to put forth its views in this public consultation period.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>3.</strong> This submission is divided into three main parts. The first part, ‘Preliminary’, introduces the document; the second part, ‘About CIS’, is an overview of the organization; and, the third part contains the comments by CIS on the Draft National Policy on Software Products.</p>
<h2>II. About CIS</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>4.</strong> CIS is a non-profit organisation <a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2]</a> that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, freedom of speech and expression, intermediary liability, digital privacy, and cyber security.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>5.</strong> CIS values the fundamental principles of justice, equality, freedom and economic development. This submission is consistent with CIS' commitment to these values, the safeguarding of general public interest and the protection of India's national interest at the international level. Accordingly, the comments in this submission aim to further these principles.</p>
<h2>III. Comments on the Draft National Policy on Software Products</h2>
<h3><strong>General Comments</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>6.</strong> CIS commends MeitY on its initiative to develop a consolidated National Policy on Software Products. We believe that there are certain salient points in the draft policy that deserve particular appreciation for being in the interest of all stakeholders, especially the public. An indicative list of such points include:</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;"><li>A focus on aiding digital inclusion via software, especially in the fields of finance, education and healthcare.</li>
<li>The recognition of the need for openness and application of open data principles in the private and public sector. Identifying the need for diversification of the information technology sector into regions outside the developed cities in India.</li>
<li>Identifying the need for innovation and original research in emerging fields such as Internet of Things and Big Data.</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>7.</strong> We observe that the draft policy weighs in the favour of creating a thriving digital economy, which indeed is a commendable objective per se. However, there are certain aspects which remain to be addressed by the draft policy, to ensure that the growth of our domestic software industry truly achieves the vision set out in Digital India for better delivery of government services and maximisation of the public interest.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>8.</strong> We submit that the proposed policy should include certain additional guiding principles to direct creation of software and its end-utilisation. These principles would ensure responsible, inclusive, judicious and secure software product life cycle by all the relevant stakeholders, including the industry, the government and especially the public. An indicative list of such principles that we believe should be explicitly included in the policy are:</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;"><li>Ensuring that internationally accepted principles of privacy are followed in software development and utilisation, including public awareness.</li>
<li>Requiring basic yet sufficient standards of information security to ensure protection of user data at all stages of the software product life cycle.</li>
<li>Enforcing lingual diversity in software to allow for India’s diverse population to operate indigenous software in an inclusive manner.</li>
<li>Mandating minimum standards on accessibility in software creation, procurement and implementation to ensure sustainable use by the differently-abled.</li>
<li>Focusing on transparency & accountability in software procurement for all public funded projects.</li>
<li>Implementing the utilisation of Free and Open Source Software (“<strong>FOSS</strong>”) in the execution of public funded projects as per the mandate of the Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India; thereby incentivising the creation of FOSS for use in both private and public sector.</li>
<li>For software to be truly inclusive of the goals of Digital India, it is essential that to provide supports to Indic languages and scripts without yielding an inferior experience or results for the end user in non-English interfaces. Software already deployed should be translated and localised.</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>9.</strong> The inclusion of these principles in substantive clauses of the policy will go a long way in ensuring the sustainable and transparent growth of domestic software product ecosystem.</p>
<h3><strong>Specific Comments</strong></h3>
<h4><strong>10.</strong> Development of a robust Electronic Payment Infrastructure</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>10.1.</strong> CIS observes that clauses 5.4 and 6.7 of the draft policy aim to establish a seamless electronic payment infrastructure. We submit that an electronic payment infrastructure should be designed with strong standards of information security, privacy and inclusivity (both accessibility and lingual).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>10.2.</strong> We recommend that the policy mandate minimum standards of information security, privacy and inclusivity in all payment systems across private and public sectors. The policy should, therefore, ideally specify the respective standards for these categories, for instance ISO 27001 and National Policy on Universal Electronics Accessibility <a name="fr3" href="#fn3">[3]</a>, alongside other industry standards for Electronic Payment Infrastructure.</p>
<h4>11. Government Procurement</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>11.1.</strong> CIS observes that clause 6.1 of the draft policy seeks to develop a framework for inclusion of Indian software in government procurement. It is commendable that the draft policy identifies the need for a better framework. CIS notes that the existing procurement procedure allows for usage of Indian software. In fact, the Government e-Marketplace(eGM) already has begun to incorporate some of these principles in general procurement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>11.2.</strong> Indeed, the presence of a transparent and accountable government procurement, which leverages technology and the internet, is key to ensuring a sustainable and fair market. CIS recommends that the policy refer to these guiding principles to enable the development of a viable cache of Indian software products by creating more avenues, including government procurement.</p>
<h4>12. Incentives for Digital India oriented software</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>12.1.</strong> CIS observes that clause 6.3 of the draft policy incentivises the creation of software addressing the action pillars of the commendable Digital India programme.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>12.2.</strong> For development of superior quality software which will ensure excellent success of the Digital India programme, CIS recommends that the incentives should be provided <em>contingent </em>to the incorporation of certain minimum standards of software development. Such products and services should, <em>inter alia</em>, adhere to the stipulations under National Policy on Universal Electronics Accessibility, the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites, Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011, etc. In the process, the software should be subjected to reviews by a neutral entity to gauge the compliance with the abovementioned minimum standards.</p>
<h4>13. Increasing adoption of Open APIs and Open Data</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>13.1.</strong> CIS observes that clause 6.6 of the draft policy promotes the use of open APIs and open data in development of e-government services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>13.2.</strong> We strongly recommend that open APIs and open data principles be adopted by software used in all government organizations, and non-commercial software . Open Data and Open APIs can serve a vital role in ensuring transparent, accountable and efficient governance, which can be leveraged in a major way within the policy by the public and civil society.</p>
<h4>14. Creation of Enabling Environment for Innovation, R&D, and IP Creation and Protection</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>14.1.</strong> CIS observes that clause 8.1 of the draft policy seeks to create an enabling environment for innovation, R&D, and IP creation and protection.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>14.2.</strong> CIS submits that the existing TRIPS-compliant Indian intellectual property law regime is adequately designed to incentivise creativity and innovation in the area of software development. The Indian Patents Act, 1970 read with the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions, 2016 do not permit the patenting of <em>computer programmes per se</em>. Several Indian software developers, notably small and medium sized development companies have made evidence-based submissions to the government previously on the negative impact of software patenting on software innovation <a name="fr4" href="#fn4">[4]</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>14.3.</strong> CIS recommends that the proposed policy re-affirm the adequacy of the Indian intellectual property regime to protect software development, in compliance with the TRIPS Agreement.</p>
<h2>IV. Conclusion</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>15.</strong> CIS commends the MeitY on the development of the draft policy. We strongly urge MeitY to address the issues highlighted above, especially emphasising the incorporation of essential principles such as information security, privacy, accessibility, etc. Adoption of such measures will ensure a fair balance between commercial growth of domestic software industry and the maximisation of public interest.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" />
<p>[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">1</a>]. National Policy on Software Products (2016, Draft internal v1. 15) available at <a class="external-link" href="http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/National%20Policy%20on%20Software%20Products.pdf">http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/National%20Policy%20on%20Software%20Products.pdf</a></p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/National%20Policy%20on%20Software%20Products.pdf">[</a><a name="fn2" href="#fr2">2</a>]. See The Centre for Internet and Society, available at <a class="external-link" href="http://cis- india.org">http://cis- india.org</a> for details of the organization,and our work.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn3" href="#fr3">3</a>]. See <a class="external-link" href="http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Accessible-format-National%20Policy%20on%20Universal%20Electronics.pdf">http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Accessible-format-National%20Policy%20on%20Universal%20Electronics.pdf</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn4" href="#fr4">4</a>]. See <a class="external-link" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/52159304.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&amp;utm_me%20dium=text&amp;utm_campaign=cppst">http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/52159304.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_me dium=text&utm_campaign=cppst</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-draft-national-policy-on-software-products'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-draft-national-policy-on-software-products</a>
</p>
No publisherAnubha Sinha, Rohini Lakshané, and Udbhav TiwariOpen StandardsNational Software PolicyOpen SourceOpen DataInternet GovernanceOpenness2016-12-12T14:45:11ZBlog EntryCall for Survey Responses: Security Perceptions of Open Source Software Among Practitioners
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/call-for-survey-responses-security-perceptions-of-open-source-software-among-practitioners
<b>Most software projects today contain open source components. Some industry estimates put the number at 500+ OSS components per app. Centre for Internet and Society is studying the security impact of the widespread use of these (often under-maintained) projects. </b>
<p>The survey for this study <a class="external-link" href="https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/single/251cdd1e9cebe7f89a03c117d6504d42">here</a></p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/OpenSource.png" alt="Open Source" class="image-inline" title="Open Source" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If you use any open source components for your job, your input around how you select components to use would help us understand industry standards around the use of OSS.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Even if you’re not a part of the security teams in your organization, please take this survey! It will help us understand how you select OSS components and you may learn ways to vet your own dependencies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The survey should take around 30 minutes to complete. As a token of our gratitude for your time and your survey contributions, we would like to send you an Amazon India Gift Card for Rs. 250. Please be sure to include your email address since it will be used to send the Gift Card at the end of the week.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/call-for-survey-responses-security-perceptions-of-open-source-software-among-practitioners'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/call-for-survey-responses-security-perceptions-of-open-source-software-among-practitioners</a>
</p>
No publisherDivyansha SehgalOpennessOpen Source2021-11-30T05:14:46ZPage4 tips for DIY makers
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/opensource-november-18-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-4-tips-for-diy-makers
<b>I started learning stencil printing and hand lettering this year, and became quite enthralled with it. These age old techniques really add something special to postcards, which I usually send to myself, my wife, and my friends while traveling.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://opensource.com/article/16/11/4-tips-DIY-maker">Opensource.com </a>on November 18, 2016</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Of course, I started considering how I could make the artwork from these postcards open to others.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">First, I take a picture of the postcard and upload it to <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Linocuts_and_stencils_made_by_Subhashish_Panigrahi" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a> under a free license, usually <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 </a> or <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-SA 4.0 International</a>. These two licenses allow anyone to use the image of my artwork for both non-commercial and commercial purposes, modify and remix them. And uploading to Wikimedia Commons puts my artwork in a place where many people will see it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sometimes, I capture the postcard-making process as well, and upload those images to Wikimedia Commons.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If you're considering making your DIY project open, here are four main considerations:</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">1. To share or not to share?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Deciding whether to share your craft project or image might be an easy "sure, why not?" but you may be wondering "but, is it useful to others?"</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">My opinion is that yes, everything you make could be interesting to others, so why not make it open? There is certainly something in every maker activity that is worth sharing publicly. When I was making a stamp that was quite special and personal, and I did not want the whole world to see it because it was personal, but I did capture the stamp carving process for others to see. You might want to ask around friends and other people in any maker community you are part of. Also, try asking yourself what really would matter to other people so that you can share only useful outcomes and tips rather than sharing everything.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">2. Choosing a license</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I wrote about <a href="https://opensource.com/education/16/8/3-copyright-tips-students-and-educators" target="_blank">three tips for sharing your work online</a>. And there are many other resources out there, including <a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a> and <a href="http://choosealicense.com/" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A simple rule of thumb is: Except content that clearly indicates the work is released under a free license, or that the copyright has lapsed and the work is in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain" target="_blank">Public Domain</a>, you can assume content is not freely/liberally licensed.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">3. Where to share</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There is almost a platform to share anything these days. Most popular multimedia platforms support Creative Commons-licensed works, like <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797468?hl=en" target="_blank"> YouTube</a> and <a href="https://vimeo.com/creativecommons" target="_blank"> Vimeo</a> for video, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/" target="_blank"> Flickr </a> for images, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/2015/05/06/medium-embraces-cc-licenses/" target="_blank"> Medium</a> for writing, <a href="https://www.jamendo.com/faq#q8" target="_blank"> Jamendo</a> for music, and many more. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Upload" target="_blank"> Wikimedia Commons</a>, mentioned above, is a sister project of Wikipedia and the world's largest multimedia repository; it allows original works to be uploaded and shared by <a href="https://tools.wmflabs.org/relgen/" target="_blank">Copyright holders and others</a> of works like images (.jpg, .png, .gif), presentations (.pdf), videos (.webm and .ogv), and audio files (.ogg).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Know of more places to share works? Let us know in the comments.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">4. Meet birds of feather and exchange ideas</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There are tons of global and local events that bring people of all maker interests under a single roof.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An event that I love is Mozilla's <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/tag/maker-party/" target="_blank"> Maker Party</a>. I have been to one in my city of <a href="http://blog.mozillaindia.org/24" target="_blank">Bengaluru</a>, India and can guarantee it is lots of fun!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Events like this help connect you with other makers who live nearby.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Tell us about your experience</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I hope these tips have helped. Do you have other tips to share? Leave us a comment.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/opensource-november-18-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-4-tips-for-diy-makers'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/opensource-november-18-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-4-tips-for-diy-makers</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpennessOpen SourceCreative CommonsWikimedia2016-11-22T02:36:39ZBlog Entry'We Need to Proactively Ensure that People Can't File Patents Representative of the Creativity of a FOSS Community'
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/we-need-to-proactively-ensure-that-people-cant-file-representatives-of-the-creativity-of-a-foss-community
<b>Rohini Lakshané attended “Open Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Our Digital Culture” in Bangalore on August 13, 2015. Major takeaways from the event are documented in this post.</b>
<p class="Textbody" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Speakers:</b> Prof. Eben Moglen, Keith Bergelt, and Mishi Choudhary; <b>Panel discussion moderator</b>: Venkatesh Hariharan. See the <a class="external-link" href="http://pn.ispirt.in/event/open-innovation-entrepreneurship-and-our-digital-future">event page here</a>. The organizers <a class="external-link" href="http://pn.ispirt.in/open-source-leaders-discuss-innovation-entrepreneurship-and-software-patents">republished Rohini's report on their website</a>.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p class="Textbody" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof. Eben Moglen on FOSS and entrepreneurship</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The culture of business in the 21<sup>st</sup> century needs open source software or free software because there is one Internet governed by one set of rules, protocols and APIs that make it possible for us to interact with each another. The Internet made everybody interdependent on everybody else. Startup culture needs free and open source software (FOSS) because startups are an insurgency, a guerrilla activity in business. The incumbents in a capitalistic world dislikes competition and detests that existing resources, such as FOSS, enable insurgents to circumvent some of the steep curve that they had to climb in order to become incumbents.</li>
<li>Hardware is developing in ways that make the idea of proprietary development of software obsolete. There is no large producer of proprietary software that isn't also dependent on FOSS. Microsoft Cloud is based on deployments that do not use Windows but are based on FOSS. The era of Android as a semi-closed, semi-proprietary form of FOSS is over. Big and small companies around the world are exploiting the open source nature of Android. </li>
<li><b>Free software is a renewable resource not a commodity. </b>Management is needed to avoid over-consumption or destruction of the FOSS ecosystem. Software is to the 21<sup>st</sup> century economic life what coal, steel, and rare earth metals were at the end of the previous century.</li>
<li>FOSS turned out to be about developing human brains. It turned out to be about using human intelligence in software better. Earlier universities, engineering colleges and research institutions were the greatest manufacturers and users of FOSS. Now businesses of all sizes are.</li>
<li>When Richard Stallman and Prof. Eben Moglen set out to make GPL free, they initiated a large public discussion process, the primary goal of which was to ensure that individual developers have as much right to talk and to be heard as loudly as the largest firms in the world. At the end of the negotiation process, 35 or 36 of the largest patent holders in the IT industry accepted the basic agreement to be a part of the commons. --- Incumbents like people to pay for a seat at the table. Paying to have an opinion is a pretty serious part of the landscape of the patent system.</li>
</ul>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof. Eben Moglen on Digital India</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><b>Every e-governance project that the Indian government buys should use FOSS.</b> The very nature of the way the citizens and governments interact can come to be mediated by software that people can read, understand, modify, and improve. An enormous ecosystem will come up -- a kind of public–private partnership (PPP) in the improvement of governance and government services, which is far more useful than most other forms of PPP conceptualised in the developed world in the 20<sup>th</sup> century.</li>
<li>Everybody has a stake in the success of this policy. Several corporations are working against this policy as they once stated that they do not need FOSS.</li>
<li>The biggest market for both making and consuming software in the world is in India, because the science done here will dominate global software making, which in turn will define how the Internet works, which in turn will define society. One can't develop the largest society on earth by reinventing the wheel. <b>The government is going to understand that only the sharing of knowledge and the sharing of forms of inventing would enable the largest society in the world to develop itself freely and take its place in the forefront of digital humanity.</b></li>
<li>If every state government's data centre across India is going to be turned into a cloud, one state might have VMWare, another might have AWS, and so on, it would be disastrous. To prevent this, <b>all e-governance activities of every state government and federal agency in India could be conducted in one, big, homogeneous Indian cloud. </b>This would enable utility computing across the country for all citizens, which would also make room for citizen computing to happen. When one moves towards architectures of omnipresent utility computing with large amounts of memory flatly available to everybody, one is going to be describing a national computing environment for a billion people. We can't even begin to model it until we start accomplishing it.</li>
<li>Prof. Eben Moglen's ambition is that there comes a time not very long from now when basic data science is taught in Indian secondary schools. The software is free and all the big data sets are public. A nation of a 100 million data scientists rules the world.</li>
</ul>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Keith Bergelt on the Open Invention Network</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Over the past 10 years, Open Invention Network (OIN) has emerged as the largest patent non-aggression community in the history of technology. It has around 1,700 participants and is adding almost 2 participants every day. In the last quarter, OIN had approximately 200 licensees.</li>
<li>There is now a cultural transformation where companies are recognising that where OIN members collaborate, they shouldn't use patents to stop or slow down progress. Where members compete, they choose to invent while utilising defensive patents publications. What we are doing is a patent collaboration and a technical collaboration that exists in major projects around the world.</li>
<li>OIN has been making a major effort since January 2015 to spend more time in India and China to be able to ensure that the technological might and expertise represented in the two countries can be a part of the global community, and that global projects can start here. <i>“We can expect to leverage the expertise of the community to be able to drive innovation from here [India and China]. It's not about IBM investing a billion dollars a year since 1999 and having some birthright to driving the open source initiatives around the world or about Google or Red Hat or anyone else. You have the ability to impact major changes and we want to be able to support you in the name of freedom of action as participants.”</i></li>
</ul>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Panel Discussion</b></p>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Patent Wars and Innovation</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>In the past 5 to 7 years, patent wars in the handset segment of the information technology (IT) market have wasted tens of billions of dollars on litigation, and on raising the price of patent armaments. This patent litigation was purely an economic loss to the IT industry and it contributed nothing. If the patent system strangles invention, non-profit groups, non-commercial bodies, free software makers, and start-ups cannot invent freely.</li>
<li>Defensive patent publications, such as those made by IBM, lead to the gross underestimation of the inventive power and output of the company. People are struggling to find something to evaluate the productive output of an entity – startup, micro-industry or macro-industry. Patents are being used inappropriately and it's part of the corruption of the patent system. Any venture capitalist (VC) who believes that either the innovative capacities or the potential success factors of a start-up are tied to its patents should know that there are only a minuscule number of cases where patents are the differentiator. The differentiators required in order to sustain business are how smart the people are, how quickly they innovate, and how quickly they are able to adapt to complex situations. We see a trend in the US of not equating patents with innovation. The core-developer and hacker communities are largely anti-patent.</li>
<li>However, the flip side is that if the FOSS communities do not patent defensively, i.e., acquire and publish patents for their inventions in order to prevent others from getting patents in one jurisdiction or another, patent trolls will eventually encroach on the communities' inventive output. The only people making money out of this whole process are lawyers. It is slowing down the uptake of technology by creating fears and doubts in the system.</li>
<li>FOSS communities didn't qualify everything produced in the 23 years of (Linus') Linux, which would have let the service serve as stable prior art, preventing other people from filing patents. We can debate what is patentable subject matter in general or whether software should be patentable, but in the meantime <b>if we can be proactive and file everything that we have in defensive publications and make it accessible to the patent and trademark offices here and around the world, we will have far fewer patents.</b> <b>We need to be activists in making sure that people can't file patents that are representative of the creativity of a community.</b></li>
<li>The Chinese government has instituted a programme designed to produce defensive publications in order to capture all the inventiveness across their industries, to be able to ensure that the quality of what ultimately gets patented is at least as high.</li>
<li>The US has a massive repository called ip.com, which is with every patent examiner of the USPTO.</li>
<li>India does not grant software patents as per section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act, but that doesn't mean that no software patents are being granted. One of the empirical studies conducted by the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) in India shows that 98.3% of the [telecom and computing technology] patents granted till 2013 went to multinational corporations. Almost none of the assignees are Indian.</li>
<li>In the context of the ongoing patent infringement law suits filed in the Delhi High Court by Ericsson [<a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/compilation-of-mobile-phone-patent-litigation-cases-in-india">link</a>]: The Delhi High Court has had a reputation of being very pro-intellectual property from the beginning.</li>
<li>Also, there is pressure from trade organisations. In August 2015, Ericsson along with ASSOCHAM invited the Director General of the Competition Commission of India to present a paper about why patents are good. It is essential to determine how the rules of conflict of interest apply here. This is exactly what the pharmaceutical industry would do. The only bodies who would object are Doctors Without Borders (MSF) or some local organisations who realise that high priced patented drugs is not what India needs and that we do not need to have the same IP policy as the US or Japan. We only need a different policy.</li>
<li>The Special 301 Report of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is a big sham, and it suggests that India doesn't have strict enforcement of IP law. India does, unlike China.</li>
<li><b>Accenture has been granted a software patent in India.</b> The patent is about an expert present in a remote location transferring knowledge to somebody who is listening in another location. Universities offering MOOCs, BPOs, and many other services would fall under such a patent. SFLC spent four years trying to fight this patent. The first defence of Accenture's battery of lawyers was that they won't use the patent.</li>
<li><b>Patents of very low quality are being bought at very high prices. </b>The tax system or the subsidy system for innovation regards all patents as equal. This is a pricing failure and that should be corrected by other forms of intervention. The pendulum has already begun to swing the other way. Alice Corp was the third consecutive and unanimous ruling by the US Supreme Court that abstract ideas are not patentable. Patent applications pertaining to business methods and algorithms are increasingly being rejected by the USPTO after the ruling.</li>
</ul>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Prof. Eben Moglen on Facebook:</b></p>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook is a badly designed technology because there is one Man in the Middle who keeps all the logs. The privacy problem with Facebook is not just about what people post. It's about surveillance and data mining of web reading behaviour. It is a social danger that ought not to exist. I have said since 2010 is that we can't forbid it; let's replace it. It means bringing the web back as a writeable medium for people in an easy way. What I see as next-generation architecture could just as well be described as Tim Burners Lee's previous generation architecture.</p>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; ">You have to be able to trust the Internet. If you can't, you are going to be living in the shadow of govt surveillance, corporate surveillance, the fear of identity theft, and so on. We need to be able to explain to people what kind of software they can trust and what kind they can't. Distributed social networking will happen; it's not that difficult a problem.</p>
<p class="Standard" style="text-align: justify; ">An example of federated networking is <b>Freedombox</b>, a cheap hardware doing router jobs using free software in ways that encourage privacy. The pilot project for Freedombox has been deployed in little villages in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. These routers don't deliver logs to a thug in a hoodie in Menlo Park.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/we-need-to-proactively-ensure-that-people-cant-file-representatives-of-the-creativity-of-a-foss-community'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/we-need-to-proactively-ensure-that-people-cant-file-representatives-of-the-creativity-of-a-foss-community</a>
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No publisherrohiniOpen SourceAccess to KnowledgeOpen InnovationFOSSPatents2015-09-27T11:51:50ZBlog Entry