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Know your Users, Match their Needs!
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/know-your-users
<b>As Free Access to Law initiatives in the Global South enter into a new stage of maturity, they must be certain not to lose sight of their users’ needs. The following post gives a summary of the “Good Practices Handbook”, a research output of the collaborative project Free Access to Law — Is it Here to Stay? undertaken by LexUM (Canada) and the South African Legal Institute in partnership with the Centre for Internet and Society.</b>
<p></p>
<p>Almost ten years have passed since the Montreal Declaration on
Free Access to Law (FAL) was signed by eight legal information institutes and other
FAL initiatives. Today, the Free Access to Law Movement (FALM) is growing with over 30 initiatives having signed onto the Declaration and providing free, online
access to legal information. While the movement continues to gain momentum, the
big question no longer remains <em>why</em> we need
free access to law, but instead <em>how</em> FAL initiatives can continue to do so sustainably in the long-term. The principles of access
and justice underpinning the FALM have been well-argued and few would dispute the
notion that citizens ought to have access to the laws under which they are
governed. As the Montreal Declaration states: "Public legal information from
all countries and international institutions is part of the common heritage of
humanity…Maximizing access to his information promotes justice and the rule of
law" (2002).</p>
<p>Regardless of legal system or political context, the
importance of securing free online access to the law has been recognized from a
variety of perspectives. Whether FAL is considered a critical democratic
function or simply an essential efficiency within any legal system, it is
difficult to contest that the internet has increased the accessibility of and
ease with which legal information is being published and shared online. Setting
the ideological and practical foundations of the movement aside, effectively
demonstrating the impact of FAL initiatives and to secure their sustainability in
the long-term remains the next big challenge for the FALM. Today, there is a
growing necessity for grounded and realistic indicators that can validate some
of the long-held assumptions around the impacts and outcomes of FAL initiatives.
Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, there is also a need for a more
nuanced understanding of the factors that influence the sustainability of FAL
initiatives— particularly in resource-scarce and often nebulous legal systems of
the Global South.</p>
<p>This blog post provides some insight into the questions
above through a brief summary of the results of the study <a class="external-link" href="http://crdi.org/ar/ev-139395-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html">Free Access to Law—Is
it Here to Stay?</a> This global comparative study was carried out by LexUM (Canada)
and the South African Legal Institute in partnership with the Centre for
Internet and Society. The project set out to begin providing answers to some of
these critical questions around the impacts and sustainability of the FALM. It
was initially hypothesized in the study that the sustainability of a FAL
initiative rests upon a particular string of contingent factors. To begin, a particular
condition would incentivize the creation of the FAL initiative — more often than
not meeting the unmet needs of those requiring access to legal information. Next, if the FAL initiative is able to provide
the service within a favourable context, it was suspected that it would produce
favourable outcomes for both users and society at large. In turn, if the FAL
initiative was able to provide benefits to users, it was theorized that these benefits
would then stimulate reinvestment into the FAL initiative — forming a positive
and sustainable feedback loop. </p>
<p>As the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.informationjuridique.ca/docs/a2k/Best%20Practices%20Hand%20Book_03sept11.pdf">Good Practices Handbook</a> highlights, the research
hypothesis provided an accurate reading of what the sustainability chain of a
FAL initiative might look like in<em> practice</em>.
If unable to keep up with the evolving information requirements of their users,
this study suggests that FAL initiatives run the risk of FAL becoming outdated
and even outperformed by either government-based or private sector
initiatives. This is why FAL initiatives
must continue to be innovative and find new ways to meet users’ needs. Approaches take my include keeping their
collections up to date, fine-tuning their services or even reinventing
themselves through the provision of value-added services. Gathered from the
experiences of the eleven countries across Africa and Asia examined in this
study, the following is a brief summary of the nine “Good Practices” that emerging
FAL initiatives can consider:</p>
<ol><li><strong>The FAL initiative
should establish clear objectives</strong>: Before doing anything, the FAL initiative
should decide what exactly it’s setting out to do…critical components such as
content selection, targeted audience, expected reach, search functionalities
and other website features help determine priorities and evaluate capacity to
achieve these objectives.</li><li><strong>How to be small and
do big things</strong>: Most of the FAL initiatives studied as part of this project
were formed of small teams (often less than five individuals). Initially, this may
appear to pose a risk for sustainability. However, we saw a number of ways in
which small teams have proven to be innovative, flexible, and able to thrive in
environments of scarcity. However, as much as small teams can be seen as a
source of innovation, they may also pose a risk in the medium to long-term. </li><li><strong>FAL initiatives
require expertise in both IT and legal information</strong>: Legal information management
experts understand how the law is applied, how different texts and parts of
texts speak to one another, and how these documents are used. IT experts can
imagine a variety of ways to address these needs. If both forms of expertise is
not available within the team of a FAL initiative, institutional partnerships
provide promising sites for collaborative support. For example, the FALM
constitutes a rich source of expertise and has proven to be a site of
collaboration between established and emerging FAL initiatives. Further,
universities have proven to be a significant source of human and financial
resources for several FAL initiatives.</li><li><strong>FAL initiatives
should look to where they are headed (but not too far ahead)</strong>: Because the
purpose of a FAL initiative is to provide free online access to the law, it
must secure access to this data for regular publication. How will legal
information be received and organized by the initiative? In what format will it
be published in? Early on, FAL initiatives need to develop both internal and
external workflow processes to ensure that the initiative is able to provide regular
access to updated information. Furthermore, an important finding of the study
suggests that context plays a much larger role in a project’s sustainability. Consideration
should be given to a country’s ICT infrastructure, the transparency of a
government and their access to information regimes, and the nature of the legal
information market when designing the workflows of an FAL initiative.</li><li><strong>FAL initiatives
should work with the ICT infrastructure in place</strong>: The quality and
consistency of internet access varies across countries in the Global South. FAL
initiatives should remain aware of how stakeholders and users are accessing the
internet and develop their service accordingly. Considering the often
intermittent nature of internet connectivity in the Global South, providing
users with offline access to databases is a practical alternative.</li><li><strong>FAL initiatives
should use Free and Open Source Software</strong>: FAL initiatives should maximise
their use of FLOSS. All FAL initiatives use FLOSS to some extent and without
these flexible and cost-effective alternatives, it would be safe to infer that
the FALM would have grown as quickly as it has.</li><li><strong>FAL initiatives
should be sensitive to culture</strong>: FAL initiatives rely on stakeholders and
communities of users. Staying mindful of the professional and organizational
cultures within a country may provide the initiative with a source of community
support which may become a sustainability strategy. Further, integrated or parallel social
networking platforms can play an essential role in community-building around
the FAL initiatives and can also serve as another source of content in
resource-scarce environments.</li><li><strong>Find your users,
match their needs</strong>: Project goals and appropriate strategies should be based
on an in-depth understanding of the needs of those using the FAL initiative. As
the sustainability chain suggests, when FAL initiatives produce positive
outputs and outcomes, stakeholders will reinvest in the initiative to ensure
its sustainability. If a user’s needs are effectively met by an FAL initiative,
this group can provide either the resources or impetus for its continued
success. Identifying who your users are and staying aware of their needs is a
good way to secure reinvestment into the project.</li><li><strong>FAL initiatives
should diversify funding sources</strong>: This may be easier said than
done — reinvestment can be the most challenging aspect of sustaining a FAL
initiative. Early on, initiatives that receive donor-based funding benefit
substantially upon investment. However, these initiatives are put at
significant risk once initial seed funding has been depleted. Similarly, FAL
initiatives that partnerships with other during their start up phase face
similar fates as securing long-term service delivery can become a challenge.
Possible funding sources included throughout the study include, among others:
government, international development agencies or NGOs, the judiciary, law
societies and the sale of value-added services.</li></ol>
<p> </p>
<p>In addition to these good practices, this study has emphasized
the role the that the FALM has played in helping redefine online legal information as a public good. Each
of the case studies demonstrates in a unique way the value openness plays in a
legal information ecosystem, and how a robust digital legal information commons can be of
benefit to users. Traditionally, the legal information market has been dominated by a select
number of commercial players. In response, the FALM has created an important
transnational space within which conversations around the provision of and
access to legal information as a political right <em>rather</em> than a commodity to be bought and sold
can take place. Encouragingly, governments in the Global South are catching and FAL initiatives from the South have proven to be immense sources of innovation in their own right. In Indonesia, for example, FAL initiatives have laid the
groundwork for emerging government initiatives that are now prioritizing the provision of free, online access to legal and other government information. Today, I believe that we are witnessing an important paradigm
shift as governments are beginning to recognize that “access” to legal information is a
right to be held by the public.</p>
<p>Despite such headway, it is needless to say that FAL initiatives in the Global South
continue to face immense sustainability challenges. However, it is hoped that this
study can provide some practical insights for emerging initiatives
and partnerships. However, as more FAL initiatives begin entering into the next
stage of maturity and growth, it is more important than ever that they are
able to adapt to adverse environmental changes and form
long-lasting partnerships with information sources within government. Most
importantly, FAL initiatives must remain dynamic and responsive to users’
needs. To do so, they must be able to tailor and expand their services, offerings
and user-base. To secure their sustainability and relevance in the long term, they must also be continuously strengthening their ties and maintain open communication flows with
users. If FAL initiatives are able to successfully make the
transition from being supply side initiatives to becoming demand driven services,
the FALM will be well-positioned for another decade of sustainable growth. </p>
<p>Download the collection below:</p>
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20Chain%20-%20Volume%20I%20issue%20I.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Links in The Chain - Volume I"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/pdf.png" title="Know your Users, Match their Needs!" height="16" width="16" alt="" class="subMenuTitle" /></a><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/good-practices.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Good Practices Handbook">Good Practices
Handbook </a>(426 kb)<br /><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20Chain%20-%20Volume%20I%20issue%20I.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Links in The Chain - Volume I"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/pdf.png" title="Know your Users, Match their Needs!" height="16" width="16" alt="" class="subMenuTitle" /></a><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/environmental-scan.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Environmental Scan Report">Environmental Scan Report</a> (860 kb)<br /><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/publications/Links%20in%20the%20Chain%20-%20Volume%20I%20issue%20I.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Links in The Chain - Volume I"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/pdf.png" title="Know your Users, Match their Needs!" height="16" width="16" alt="" class="subMenuTitle" /></a><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/local-researchers-methodology-guide.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Local Researcher's Methodology Guide">Local Researcher's Methodology Guide</a> (1225 kb)</p>
<p>The full collection of case studies and the Good Practices
Handbook was originally published on the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.informationjuridique.ca/cij/acces-libre-au-droit/resultats">Project Website</a>. The Centre for Internet and Society oversaw the following case studies: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.informationjuridique.ca/docs/a2k/resultats/indiafinaljul11.pdf">India</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.informationjuridique.ca/docs/a2k/resultats/hongkongfinaljul11.pdf">Hong Kong</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.informationjuridique.ca/docs/a2k/resultats/indonesiafinaljul11.pdf">Indonesia</a> and <a class="external-link" href="http://www.informationjuridique.ca/docs/a2k/resultats/Berne_Final_2011_July.pdf">Philippines</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/know-your-users'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/know-your-users</a>
</p>
No publisherrebeccaResearchFeaturedOpen AccessOpennessPublications2012-02-27T15:06:14ZBlog EntryJune 2012 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the newsletter issue of June 2012. The present issue features an updated version of the Unlicensed Spectrum Policy brief for Government of India and a report of the Privacy Matters series organised in Ahmedabad on June 16, 2012.</b>
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/bots-got-some-votes-home">The Bots That Got Some Votes Home</a> by Nilofar Ansher: The author gives us some startling updates on the "Digital Natives Video Contest" voting results declared in May 2012.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/hyper-connected-hyper-lonely">Hyper-connected, Hyper-lonely?</a> by Nilofar Ansher.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Digital Natives Newsletter</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/dn-newsletter-volume-10-issue-1.pdf">Home Alone</a>: Volume 10, Issue 1, April 2012 of the Digital Natives with a Cause newsletter features Hyper-connected, yet Hyper-lonely. It puts the spotlight on an emerging trope in society and media: the more connected we are to our gadgets, peer network and social media, the lonelier we feel.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3>Op-ed in the Hindu</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/work-of-art-in-age-of-mechanical-injunctions">The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Injunctions</a> (Lawrence Liang, The Hindu, May 23, 2012): “The same ‘Ashok Kumar,' now restrained from infringing the copyright of the film, ‘3,' helped its signature song, ‘Kolaveri,’ go viral by downloading and copying it without any restraints.”</li>
</ul>
<h3>Columns / Articles</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/digital-restrictions-management">ಡಿಜಿಟಲ್ ನಿರ್ಬಂಧಗಳ ನಿರ್ವಹಣೆ</a> (Sunil Abraham, Prajavani, June 9, 2012): Read the English translation <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/digital-restrictions-management">here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/pros-and-cons-of-copyright-act">ಸೃಜನಶೀಲತೆಗೆ ಸಂದ ಗೌರವ</a> (Lawrence Liang, Prajavani, June 9, 2012): Read the English translation <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/pros-and-cons-of-copyright-act">here</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/copyright-amendment">Copyright Amendment: Bad, but Could Have Been Much Worse</a> (Sunil Abraham, Business Standard, June 10, 2012): The changes to the Copyright Act protect the disabled — but are restrictive about cover versions and web freedom.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/a-ludicrous-ban">A Ludicrous Ban</a> (Achal Prabhala and Lawrence Liang, Open Magazine, June 2, 2012): Our courts cannot be used as quack-houses to buy pills for imaginary problems. The copyright industry is not a sick patient; it’s just a hypochondriac. Films don’t fail because of piracy; they fail because they’re not worth watching. The most popular films in this country are also the most pirated, and yet they remain money-spinners. The real problem is the unbending inability of this industry to adjust to the world; to the Internet; to the life-changing technologies that human beings have witnessed and embraced and prospered by over the past two decades.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Content, Open Standards, Open Access to Law, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/oral-citations-project-on-wikimedia">Wiki goes the oral citation way</a> (Cyber Media, Chokkapan S, June 11, 2012): Achal Prabhala who serves on the board of CIS speaks about the Oral Citations Project.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3>Announcements</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/window-on-the-world">Window on the World</a>: Subsequent to the publishing of a peer reviewed essay titled <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/resisting-revolutions">Resisting Revolutions: Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action</a>, CIS has been listed as one of the global organisations working on issues of participation, citizenship and new technologies along with a list of partner organisations. <a href="http://www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v55/n2/full/dev201217a.html">This was published by Palgrave Macmillan</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-freedom-fellows">2012 Internet Freedom Fellows</a>: The names of the 2012 Internet Freedom Fellows were announced on June 19, 2012. This was published by the <a href="http://www.state.gov/p/io/rls/othr/193375.htm">US Department of State</a>. Pranesh Prakash was selected as a Fellow.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Press Coverage of the Internet Freedom Fellows Event</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/defense-of-fundamental-freedoms-online">Internet Freedom Fellows Program Emphasizes Defense of Fundamental Freedoms Online</a> (by Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe in DipNote, June 25, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-freedom-at-home">Internet Freedom At Home: Governments, Companies Need Accountability, Speakers Say</a> (by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch, June 22, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Peer Forum</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/peer-forum-on-internet-freedom-and-human-rights">Global Networks, Individual Freedoms: A Peer Forum on Internet Freedom and Human Rights</a>: In Connection with the 2012 Internet Freedom Fellows Program, the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva invited Pranesh Prakash to a peer forum. The event was held on June 21, 2012, from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Upcoming & Ongoing Events</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/consumer-privacy-delhi">Privacy Matters — Consumer Privacy</a> (India International Centre, New Delhi, July 7, 2012): Privacy India, in partnership with the Centre for Internet & Society, International Development Research Centre, Society in Action Group and Privacy International, invite you to a public conference focused on discussing the challenges and concerns to consumer privacy in India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/has-geek-presents-the-fifth-elephant">The Fifth Elephant</a> (NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bangalore, July 27 and 28, 2012): The event was organised by HasGeek and CIS. The first day covered the technology track and talks from business and industry were held on the following day.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/medical-privacy">Privacy Mattes — Medical Privacy</a> (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration, Rajbhavan Complex, Baner Road, Pune, June 30, 2012): Privacy India in partnership with the Indian Network for People living with HIV/AIDS, Centre for Internet & Society, IDRC, Society in Action Group and Privacy International organised this event. The discussions explored the various types of medical privacy including informational privacy, physical privacy, proprietary privacy and decisional privacy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/geek-up-with-alan-knott-craig">GeekUp with Alan Knott-Craig</a> (CIS, Bangalore, June 30, 2012): Alan Knott-Craig, founder of World of Avatar and CEO of Mxit, Africa’s largest social network gave a lecture.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/events/freedom-of-expression-privacy-roundtable-discussion-goa-june-2nd">Freedom of Expression & Privacy Roundtable Discussion</a> (University of Goa, June 2, 2012): Lawrence Liang and Chinmayi Arun were participants in the discussion.</li>
</ul>
<h3><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/connecting-people-apart">Connecting People Apart - Events Series</a></h3>
<p>Post-Media Lab organised this events series at Lüneburg/Berlin from June 20 to June 23, 2012. Nishant Shah participated in the event series as a speaker:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cpa-talktome-eorg.eventbrite.com/">Opening presentation – ‘Talk to Me’</a> (Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, June 20, 2012): Nishant Shah along with Rasa Smite & Raitis Smits made a presentation.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cpa-what-would-community-say-eorg.eventbrite.co.uk/?ebtv=C">‘What Would the Community Say?’</a> (Freiraum, Lüneburg, June 21, 2012): Nishant Shah in cooperation with DialogN reflected on the experiences about the changing face of citizen action in a post-mediatised world.</li>
<li><a href="http://cpa-community-complex.eventbrite.co.uk/">The Community Complex, A Post-Media Lab conference</a> (Denkerei, Berlin, June 22, 2012): Nishant Shah was one of the participants.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Other Events Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/india-privacy-meet">India Privacy Meet</a> (Hotel LeMeridien, New Delhi, June 29, 2012): The event was organised by Microsoft, DSCI and Greyhead. Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session on Citizen Privacy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/meeting-of-two-sub-groups-in-delhi">Meeting of the two Sub-Groups on Privacy Issues under the Chairmanship of Justice AP Shah</a> (Yojana Bhawan, Planning Commission, June 27, 2012). Sunil Abraham participated in this meeting. The report of the committee will be used in drafting of the new privacy bill.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/censorship-2020">CENSORSHIP 2020: The Future of Free Speech Online</a> (Communication, Culture and Technology Program of Georgetown University 2nd Floor, Car Barn, 3520 Prospect St., N.W., Washington, DC, June 25, 2012): Pranesh Prakash participated in this event organised by the Internet Society. See the original published by Communication, Culture & Technology <a href="http://cct.georgetown.edu/300237.html">here</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/internet-rights-accessibility-regulation-ethics">Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on ‘Internet Rights, Accessibility, Regulation & Ethics’</a> (Mirza Ghalib Hall, SCOPE Complex, New Delhi, May 3, 2012): Pranesh Prakash was a speaker in this event organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation, Association for Progressive Communications, Department of Information Technology and National Internet Exchange of India. <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/internet-rights-accessibility-regulation-ethics">Watch the video here</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/dangerous-doodles-googles-internet-at-liberty-2012">Internet at Liberty 2012</a> (Washington D.C., May 23 and 24, 2012): Sunil Abraham was a speaker in Plenary IV along with Cynthia Wong, Mohamed El Dahshan and Dunja Mijatović. Watch the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-liberty-2012">video here</a>. The event was organised by Google.</li>
<li>Google Hangout with Ashoka Fellow Sunil Abraham: Ashoka Fellows are leading social entrepreneurs who have innovative solutions to social problems and the potential to change patterns across society. Sunil became an Ashoka Fellow in 1999. Watch the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/google-hangout-with-sunil">video</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/clear-and-present-danger">Clear and Present Danger: Attempts to Change Internet Governance and Implications for Press Freedom</a> (National Endowment for Democracy, Washington D.C., June 26, 2012): The event was organised by National Endowment for Democracy. Pranesh Prakash participated in it.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Overview of Google’s efforts to promote Internet Freedom and freedom of expression online, including its work on the following reports: “Google Transparency” and “Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information (California, June 28, 2012): The event was organised by Google. Pranesh Prakash participated in a meeting with Derek Slater from Google.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Stanford University Roundtable Discussion (California, June 28, 2012): IFF Fellows introduced themselves and briefly talked about their background and work in internet freedom and human rights issues. Pranesh Prakash was one of the participants.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">EFF’s legislative efforts to defend free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights (California, June 29, 2012): Pranesh Prakash participated in a meeting with Katitza Rodriguez, International Rights Director. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Overview of Twitter’s new censorship policies and its impact on human rights activists around the world (California, June 29, 2012): Pranesh Prakash participated in a meeting with Carolina Janssen, Localization Content Coordinator. This was organised by Twitter.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Best practices in utilizing Ustream’s live interactive broadcast platform to showcase human rights issues (June 29, 2012): Pranesh Prakash participated in this meeting organised by Ustream.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/securing-e-governance-event-report">Securing e-Governance: Ensuring Data Protection and Privacy</a> (Ahmedabad, Management Association, Ahmedabad, June 16, 2012): Privacy India in partnership with the Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore, International Development Research Centre, Canada, Privacy International, UK and the Society in Action Group, Gurgaon organised a public discussion. Prashant Iyengar and Nisha Thompson spoke at the event. A total of 30 people participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Columns in FirstPost</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/how-facebook-is-blatantly-abusing-our-trust">How Facebook is Blatantly Abusing our Trust</a> (Nishant Shah, FirstPost, June 27, 2012): ‘Don’t fix it, if it ain’t broken’ is not an adage Facebook seems to subscribe to... The million dollar question – or maybe a slightly reduced price, given its public listing status on the stock-exchange right now – is that while Facebook might keep us safe from other people using our data, will it also be able to keep us safe from itself?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/shit-people-say-on-internet-piracy">Beyond Anonymous: Shit people say on Internet piracy</a> (Nishant Shah, FirstPost, June 7, 2012): FirstPost published Nishant Shah's <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/tech/beyond-anonymous-shit-people-say-on-internet-piracy-335588.html">column</a> along with the video that CIS and ALF had made on 'shit people say about piracy' as a lead story. The post is a series of provocations around piracy, censorship and the state of Internet in India. Like all good tasting things, these observations need to be taken with a pinch of salt. But it is the hope of the author that this serves as a response to otherwise very persistent voices that have been demonizing file-sharing online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Article in the Times of India</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/the-web-of-our-strife">The Web of Our Strife</a> (Pranesh Prakash, The Times of India, June 2, 2012): Given the current trend of states individually wielding excessive powers over various aspects of how their citizens access and use the internet, a Committee on Internet-Related Policies may well be what is needed to safeguard democratic principles and innovation on the internet.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Podcast</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/interview-with-nishant-shah">An Interview with Nishant Shah</a> by Jamillah Knowles (Outriders, BBC Radio 5): “I think what we need to do is perhaps say that there is something happening with the internet in India and then maybe we can move on to figuring out what is happening to Anonymous because we had a series of challenges on freedom of speech and expression and online space in the country.”</li>
</ul>
<h3>New Fellow at CIS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/people/people/fellow">Chinmayi Arun</a>, former Assistant Professor of Law at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences joined CIS as a Fellow. Chinmayi’s research focus will include privacy, free speech and access to information.</li>
</ul>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS entered into a small collaboration with Tata Telecommunications in India to celebrate the IPv6 day on June 6. CIS agreed to write 5500 word vignettes which were sent to their global database consisting of more than 900,000 users in the Asia-Pacific:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/ip-v-6">IPv6: The First Steps</a></li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/ip-v-6-embrace-the-change">IPv6: Embrace The Change</a></li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/ip-v-6-the-transition-challenge">IPv6: The Transition Challenge</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>News & Media Coverage (International)</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/indias-struggle-for-online-freedom">India's struggle for online freedom</a> (by Rebecca MacKinnon, Sydney Morning Herald, June 9, 2012): “If you start the drenching early on, by the time you get to 50 per cent [internet penetration], everyone will be well-behaved monkeys.”—<b>Sunil Abraham</b>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hackers-take-protest-to-indian-streets-and-cyberspace">Hackers Take Protest to Indian Streets and Cyberspace</a> (by Shreya Shah, Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2012): “The group attacked the Web site of India’s Supreme Court even when it says it does not attack Web sites used by the common man.” — <b>Pranesh Prakash</b>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/war-of-india-internet">The War for India's Internet</a> (by Rebecca Mackinnon, Foreign Policy, June 6, 2012): “"On free speech I have high faith in the Indian judiciary...There is a good chance to launch a constitutional challenge.” — <b>Sunil Abraham</b>. </li>
</ul>
<h3>News & Media Coverage (National)</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/no-more-blocking-of-websites">No more blocking of entire websites?</a> (by Danish Sheikh, Business Standard, June 24, 2012): CIS research on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/chilling-effects-on-free-expression-on-internet">Intermediary Liability in India</a> is referred to in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/are-your-biometric-i-cards-stacked-against-you">UID: Are your biometric I-cards stacked against you?</a> (by M Rajashekhar, Economic Times, June 24, 2012): "If biometrics is used as authentication factor then it would be possible for a criminal to harvest your biometrics — such as using a glass to collect fingerprints — without your conscious cooperation. Or the registrar can cache your biometrics and duplicate transactions." — <b>Sunil Abraham</b>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/net-loss">Net Loss</a> (Abimanyu Nagarajan, The Telegraph, June 20, 2012): “We sent takedown notices to e-commerce, content hosting, and news media sites...in most cases, we found the intermediaries were very risk averse." — <b>Sunil Abraham</b>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/co-spying-on-competitors-staff">Cos spying on competitors, staff: Study</a> (The Statesman, June 19, 2012): “Whether or not surveillance is legal, depends on the type... There is some private information a person will expect to remain private, and some information that is expected to be public — like Twitter feeds.” — <b>Sunil Abraham</b>.<b> </b></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/recruitment-tracker-21-students-placed">Recruitment Tracker: 21 students placed out of the 49 who sat for recruitment in Christ University’s School of Law, Class of 2012</a> (Bar and Bench News Network, June 11, 2012): CIS recruited Snehashish Ghosh.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ppos-save-placement-record-as-christ-laws-2nd-graduating-batch-hosts-fewer-law-firms">PPOs save placement-record as Christ Law’s 2nd graduating batch hosts fewer law firms</a> (by Prachi Shrivastava in Legally India, June 10, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/india-the-new-front-line-in-the-global-struggle-for-internet-freedom">India: The New Front Line in the Global Struggle for Internet Freedom</a> (Atlantic, June 7, 2012): CIS report on Intermediary Liability in India is quoted.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/anonymous-hackers-to-protest-indian-internet-laws">'Anonymous' hackers to protest Indian Internet laws</a> (AFP, June 8, 2012): The news was also published in <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/anonymous-hackers-call-for-protests-across-india-today-against-internet-censorship-229238">NDTV</a>, <a href="http://post.jagran.com/anonymous-to-protest-internet-policing-1339243820">Jagran Post</a>, <a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-09/internet/32140515_1_internet-firms-websites-internet-companies">The Times of India</a>, <a href="http://www.livemint.com/2012/06/09185541/8216Anonymous8217-activi.html">LiveMint</a>, and <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-06-09/news/32140719_1_government-websites-anonymous-facebook-page">Economic Times</a> on June 9, 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-new-internet-watchdogs">The new Internet watchdogs</a> (Ronendra Singh, Hindu Business Line, June 12, 2012): “The Indian Government is not following the letter of the law and bypassing judicial safeguards in its crackdown on political speech...This aggressive enforcement is also having a chilling effect on access to knowledge and freedom of expression.” — <b>Sunil Abraham</b>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/concerns-raised-ahead-of-proposed-india-us-trade-treaty">Concerns raised ahead of proposed India-US trade treaty</a> (Hindu Business Line, June 13, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/attempts-to-censor-the-web-ill-advised">Attempts to censor the web ill-advised</a> (by Krishs Fernandes, The Times of India, June 3, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/poor-guarantee-of-online-freedom-in-india">Poor Guarantee of Online Freedom in India</a> (by Geeta Seshu, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol XLVII No. 24, June 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/tata-communications-embraces-the-change-to-ipv6">Tata Communications embraces the change to IPv6</a> (tech 2, June 7, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-opens-doors-to-trillions-more-net-addresses">Internet opens doors to trillions more Net addresses with IPv6</a> (by Aaron Tan, techgoondu): “Despite the larger load of information, IPv6 packets are easier to handle and route, just like postcards with pin codes in their addresses are easier to deliver than those without.” — <b>Nishant Shah</b>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/biz-moving-to-ip-v-6">Biz moving to IPv6 but lower costs, support needed</a> (intellasia.net, June 8, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/govt-websites-to-get-new-addresses">Govt websites to get new addresses</a> (The Telegraph, June 7, 2012): “The future of our connected networks is IPv6. Not only is it more efficient and faster than IPv4, which we are currently working with, it is also more reliable and secure.” —<b>Nishant Shah</b>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/anonymous-indias-takedowns-could-be-counterproductive">Anonymous India’s Takedowns Could Be Counterproductive</a> (by Nikhil Pahwa, Medianama, June 6, 2012).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/watch-out-for-cyber-bullies">Watch out for cyber bullies</a> (by KV Kurmanath, Hindu Business Line, June 4, 2012): “It would be very useful if both the government and civil society was more aggressive in awareness raising and triggering change in behaviour. Unfortunately this is a bit like smoking — even though people are aware of the issues — they engage in risky behaviour online.” — <b>Sunil Abraham</b>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/scared-by-a-spoof">Scared by a spoof? You’ve got to be kidding me!</a> (by Dhamini Ratnam, June 3, 2012). Pranesh Prakash is quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/protest-at-censorship">Protest@ censorship.com</a> (by Sandhya Soman, The Times of India, June 5, 2012): “There is corporate and private censorship of internet and it is being done without enough proof of who is violating the copyrights of moviemakers. If these protests create awareness about the larger issues and developments in the areas of e-governance, IT Act and copyright law, then they could be helpful.” —<b> Pranesh Prakash</b>.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<h3>Telecom Knowledge Repository</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Ford Foundation has given CIS a grant of USD 200,000 to build expertise in the area of Telecommunications in India over a period of two years. The programme outline, the modules covered and the profiles and bios of our expert reviewers can be <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/course">found here</a>:</p>
<h3>Broadcasting</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/course/contents/module-7">Module 7.2.3 (Mobile Television)</a> by Tina Mani</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/course/contents/module-7-faqs">Module 7.2.3 (FAQs)</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Emerging Topics</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/course/contents/contents/mobile-tv">Module 8.3 (Mobile Television)</a> by Tina Mani</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/course/contents/contents/mobile-tv-faq">Module 8.3 (Mobile Television FAQs)</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/unlicensed-spectrum-policy-brief-for-govt-of-india">Unlicensed Spectrum Policy Brief for Government of India</a> (Satya N Gupta, Sunil Abraham and Yelena Gyulkhandanyan): CIS and the Ford Foundation bring you the Unlicensed Spectrum Policy brief for Government of India. The research recommends unlicensed spectrum to the Government of India based on recent developments in wireless technology, community needs and international best practices. <i>(The present report is an updated version of the draft circulated earlier)</i>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Column in Business Standard</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/growth-highest-priority">Growth, India's Highest Priority</a> (Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, June 8, 2012): Telecom and spectrum reforms are overdue, as are energy reforms addressing the fuel supply-power generation and distribution-sustainable tariffs chain. In terms of sequence, the next significant effort could focus on the… telecom sector. The empowered group of ministers can decisively abandon short-term government revenues in favour of user benefits, leading in time to even more government revenues.</li>
</ul>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/national-telecom-policy-2012">National Telecom Policy 2012 — Issues and Concerns</a> by Snehashish Ghosh: The author throws light on some of the issues and concerns surrounding the recently passed National Telecom Policy 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/ijlt-cis-lecture-series-on-telecom-laws">3<sup>rd</sup> IJLT-CIS Lecture Series</a> (National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore, May 27, 2012): Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Chairman and CEO, LIRNEasia gave the inaugural lecture on “Tariff Regulation in South Asia”. The presentation slides can be accessed <a href="http://lirneasia.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Samarajiva_NLSI_May121.pdf">here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Foreign Press Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/telecom-success-story-turns-sour">India’s telecom success story turns sour</a> (by Simon Denyer, Washington Post, June 1, 2012): “"There are very strong economic reasons for not auctioning spectrum in developing countries.” — <b>Shyam Ponappa</b>.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>About CIS</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/">CIS</a> was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. Over the last four years our policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/front-page/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> with ITU and G3ict, and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report">Digital Natives with a Cause?</a> Report with Hivos. With foreign governments we worked on National Enterprise Architecture and Government Interoperability Framework for Govt. of Iraq; Open Standards Policy for Govt. of Moldova; Free and Open Software Centre of Excellence project plan for Saudi Arabia; eGovernance Strategy Document for Govt. of Tajikistan. With the Government of India we have done policy research for Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/front-page/blog/comments-ifeg-phase-1">Interoperability Framework in eGovernance</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/privacy-bill-2010">Privacy Bill</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill">NIA Bill</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/front-page/comments-draft-national-policy-on-electronics">National Policy on Electronics</a> and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/comments-draft-rules">IT Act</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is an accredited NGO at WIPO and has given <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities">policy briefs</a> to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <span><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-award">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a></span> from the Government of India and also received the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/nirmita-nivh-award">NIVH Excellence Award</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit our website <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/">here</a> </li>
</ul>
<p><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-2012-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecomResearch2012-07-25T04:56:23ZPageJanuary 2012 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the Centre for Internet and Society newsletter! In this issue we bring you the updates of our research, events, media coverage and videos of events organized by us during the month of January 2012!</b>
<h2>Digital Natives with a Cause?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS, India and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and internet technologies, in emerging information societies. The major outputs have been a four book collective asking questions about theory and practice around 'digital revolutions' in a post MENA (Middle East - North Africa) world, a position paper, a scouting study and three international workshops.</p>
<h3>Events Organised<b> </b> <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1038&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1038&qid=140996" target="_blank">Digital AlterNatives Video Contest: The Everyday Digital Native — To Be, To Think, To Act, To Connect</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1039&qid=140996" target="_blank">Digital AlterNatives Tweet-a-Review</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">'Digital Natives with a Cause?' project invites readers to review essays from the 'Digital AlterNatives with a Cause', a four-book collective published by Centre for Internet & Society and Hivos.<b> </b></p>
<h3>Digital AlterNatives: Book Reviews <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1040&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1040&qid=140996" target="_blank">Alternative Approaches to Social Change</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“<i>Observations about intangible aspects of a movement will keep a research from clinging to activism with a capital A, and start seeing a gradation in the social movement practices. It is constructive and opens the door to analyses of multi-dimensional movements such as the Blank Noise initiative (India). Drawing on methods of identifying new developments to the field of social movement, Maesy examines some aspects of it: the issue, strategy, site of action, and internal mode of organization</i>.”<br /><b>Nuraini Juliastuti</b>, Co-founder, KUNCI Cultural Studies Center</p>
<hr />
<h2>Accessibility</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. This includes persons with blindness, learning disabilities such as dyslexia, cerebral palsy and persons who do not have full control over their limbs. For these people, the material needs to be converted into alternate formats such as Braille, audio or video or electronic formats (text document, word document or PDF) which they can access using assistive technologies. Our key research has focused on a submission to amend the Indian Copyright to the HRD Ministry, publishing a policy handbook on e-accessibility, research on accessible mobile handsets in India and an analysis of the Working Draft of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2010.<b> </b></p>
<h3>Journal Article</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1041&qid=140996" target="_blank">Technology for Accessibility in Higher Education</a>, published in the Journal: Enabling Access for Persons with Disabilities to Higher Education and Workplace. Nirmita Narasimhan wrote an article.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1042&qid=140996" target="_blank">Making Mobile Phones and Services Accessible</a>. CIS researched, edited and published this report in partnership with G3ict and ITU. The report contains a foreword, eleven chapters, a bibliography and glossary with contributions from Deepti Bharthur, Nirmita Narasimhan and Axel Leblois.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Upcoming Event</h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1043&qid=140996" target="_blank">ITU Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility</a>, organized by the International Telecommunication Union, India International Centre, 14-15 March 2012. CIS is hosting the meeting. The Tutorial will be preceded by the fourth meeting of the Focus Group on Audio Visual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) on 13 March 2012. This meeting will take place at the same venue and will also be hosted by CIS, in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Access to Knowledge</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Access to Knowledge is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. We prepared the India report for the Consumers International IP Watchlist, made submission to the HRD Ministry on WIPO Broadcast Treaty, questioned the demonization of pirates, and advocated against laws (such as PUPFIP Bill) that privatize public funded knowledge.</p>
<h3>Event Organised <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1044&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1044&qid=140996" target="_blank">Gandhi, Freedom, and the Dilemmas of Copyright</a>: To commemorate Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary, CIS organised a public lecture. Prof. Shyamkrishna Balganesh of the University of Pennsylvania gave a lecture.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Openness</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The advent of the Internet has radically defined what it means to be open and collaborative. Even the Internet is built upon open standards and free/libre/open source software. CIS has been committed and actively campaigned for promotion of open standards, open access and free/libre/open source software.<b> </b></p>
<h3>Workshop Reports <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1045&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1045&qid=140996" target="_blank">Summary of the Minutes of the Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics</a>, organized by the Western Ghats Portal team to explore the contemporary state of biodiversity informatics at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bangalore on 25 November 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1046&qid=140996" target="_blank">Design!PubliC — Innovation and the Public Interest</a>: On the 14th of October, 2011, the Center for Knowledge Societies organized the second edition of the Design Public Conclave, a conversation on how innovation can serve the Public Interest. The conclave was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1047&qid=140996" target="_blank">Report on the 'Open Access to Academic Knowledge' workshop</a>: On Wednesday the 2nd of November, during Open Access Week, the Indian Institute of Science in conjunction with the Centre for Internet and Society held a workshop on Open Access at the National Centre for Science Information, in Bangalore. We recorded the meeting and published it online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1048&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1048&qid=140996" target="_blank">Geekup on Open Data in Bangalore</a>: Hapee de Groot, Hivos, Netherlands gave a talk on Open Data and its use for citizen engagement.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1049&qid=140996" target="_blank">Wikipedia turns 11 today</a>: The Bangalore event, open to all Wikipedia users, contributors and enthusiasts, is being held at the Centre for Internet and Society at Domlur.<br />The Hindu, 15 January 2012</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Internet Governance</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society has defined internet governance as the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the internet. CIS partnered with Privacy International and Society in Action Group which has produced outputs in banking, telecommunications, consumer rights, etc., submitted open letters to Parliamentary Committee on UID, feedbacks on NIA Bill, and IT Rules.</p>
<h3>Newspaper / Magazine Articles <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1050&qid=140996" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1050&qid=140996" target="_blank">Keeping it Private</a><br />As we disclose more information online, we must ask who might access it and why, writes Nishant Shah in the Indian Express, 15 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1051&qid=140996" target="_blank">Click to Change</a><br />From organising political protests and flash mobs to uploading their versions of Kolaveri Di, people brought about change with the help of the internet, Nishant Shah, Indian Express, 1 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1052&qid=140996" target="_blank">The Quixotic Fight to Clean up the Web</a><br />The ongoing attempt to pre-screen online content won’t change anything. It will only drive netizens into the arms of criminals, writes Sunil Abraham, Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 04, 28 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1053&qid=140996" target="_blank">Sense and Censorship</a><br />The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills, at the US House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, appear to enforce property rights, but are, in fact, trade bills, Sunil Abraham in the Indian Express, 20 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Interview</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1054&qid=140996" target="_blank">Our Internet and the Law</a><br />Nishant Shah was interviewed by the BBC Channel 5 (Radio) for its Outriders section. Jamillah Knowles reports this. Listen to the podcast online, BBC Radio, 24 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Event Reports</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1055&qid=140996" target="_blank">Privacy Matters — Analyzing the Right to "Privacy Bill"</a><br />On January 21, 2012 a public conference “Privacy Matters” was held at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. It was the sixth conference organised in the series of regional consultations held as “Privacy Matters”. The present conference analyzed the Draft Privacy Bill and the participants discussed the challenges and concerns of privacy in India.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1056&qid=140996" target="_blank">Future of Integrated Science Education in Higher Education in India</a><br />The Higher Education Innovation and Research Application (HEIRA) at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) and the Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS) at the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) hosted a two day workshop on 2 and 3 January 2012 on the Future of Integrated Science Education in Higher Education in India at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc. Nishant Shah participated in the workshop.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Media Coverage</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1057&qid=140996" target="_blank">Twitter’s Censorship Move Aimed at Regaining China?</a><br />"<i>The region-specific blocking was already being used on video hosting websites like YouTube and Hulu, where due to the wishes of copyright owners many videos are not available in India. Twitter is extending this technology to its tweets</i>.”<br />Pranesh Prakash in International Business Times, 28 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/google2019s-privacy-policy-raises-hackles" class="external-link">Google's privacy policy raises hackles</a> (Times of India, January 26, 2012)<br />“<i>Storing data makes it prone to misuse by authorities as well as corporations... I don't want my bakery shop owner to know what kind of medicines I buy from the nearby medical store</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Times of India, 26 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1059&qid=140996" target="_blank">Google to change privacy policy to use personal info of users</a><br />“<i>New changes are not good for a consumer's privacy</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in Punjab Newsline, 27 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/tangled-web" class="external-link">Tangled Web</a><br />“<i>We did a policy sting operation wherein we sent fraudulent notices to big web sites...in one case where we asked for the removal of three comments, they removed all 13. So there is already a private censorship underway.</i>”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Week, 21 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1061&qid=140996" target="_blank">POV: Should user-generated content be monitored?</a><br />“<i>We should not fool ourselves into thinking that private sector companies like Google will defend our fundamental rights. The next Parliament session is the last opportunity for parliamentarians to ask for the revocation of the rules for intermediaries, cyber-cafes and reasonable security practices</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in afaqs, 19 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1062&qid=140996" target="_blank">Indian Internet Lawsuit Puts Spotlight on Freedom of Expression</a><br />“<i>These rules have the potential to curtail debate and discussion on the net... They allow for all sorts of subjective tests by private parties and we predicted they would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression online</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Voice of America, 19 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1063&qid=140996" target="_blank">India: obscene pics of gods require massive human censorship of Google, Facebook</a><br /> “<i>It’s difficult to establish exactly what is anti-religious: for example, the Hindu profession of belief in multiple gods is blasphemous to Muslims, Christians and Jews</i>.”<br /> Sunil Abraham in ars technica, 14 January 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/is-india-ignoring-its-own-internet-protections" class="external-link">Is India Ignoring its own Internet Protections? </a><br />“<i>The I.T. Act provides immunity to (Internet companies) and that should be the default starting position</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Wall Street, 16 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1065&qid=140996" target="_blank">India internet: clean-up or censorship?</a><br />Sunil Abraham was quoted in Financial Time’s beyondbrics, 13 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1066&qid=140996" target="_blank">Twists and turns of the SOPA opera</a><br />“<i>In terms of infrastructure, the U.S. controls critical web resources. Contrasting this to the Chinese firewall that blocks content for users within its jurisdiction, the U.S. decision to redirect a link can act as a ‘global block’</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Hindu, 15 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1067&qid=140996" target="_blank">Activists cry foul against Aadhaar</a><br />Sunil Abraham participated in the meet on Aadhaar convened by the Indian Social Action Forum.<br />The Telegraph, 12 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1068&qid=140996" target="_blank">NGO questions people's privacy in UID scheme</a><br />“<i>The UID project was allowed to march on without any protection being put in place</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Times of India, 11 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1069&qid=140996" target="_blank">Revealed: Bangalore’s Basic Instincts</a><br />“<i>If you look at the Google trend or any other website, Bangalore does not figure among the top 10 cities that surfs for porn. But that does not mean that Bangalore does not surf porn. It only means that we have a very sophisticated surfer with a very specific type. They don’t go through Google or other websites. They know how to go about it. But whether it affects their personal lives is lot more complicated</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in the Bangalore Mirror, 8 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/facebook-google-face-censorship-in-india" class="external-link">Facebook, Google face censorship in India</a><br />“<i>Traditional intellectual property rights holders like movie studios, music companies and software vendors are trying to protect their obsolete business models by pushing for the adoption of blanket surveillance and filtering technologies</i>.”<br />Sunil Abraham in SmartPlanet, 5 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1070&qid=140996" target="_blank">Trail of the Trolls</a><br />“<i>Trolling provokes a non-productive argument and as of now it is not considered a criminal offence anywhere in the world</i>.”<br />The Telegraph, 4 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1071&qid=140996" target="_blank">Constitution of Group of Experts to Deliberate on Privacy Issues</a><br />It has been decided to constitute a Small Group of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice A.P. Shah, Former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court, to identify the privacy issues and prepare a paper to facilitate authoring the Privacy Bill. Pranesh Prakash is one of the members.<br />Published by the Planning Commission, New Delhi.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1072&qid=140996" target="_blank">2011: The year India began to harness social media</a><br />“<i>We saw an increased sharing of digital content whether photos, videos, songs, news or blogs pointing to the Why This Kolaveri Di video, which went viral on YouTube with over 1.3 million views within a week of its release</i>.”<br />Nishant Shah in the Sunday Guardian, 1 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h3><b>Blog Posts</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1073&qid=140996" target="_blank">Section 79 of the Information Technology Act</a> by Pranesh Prakash</li>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1074&qid=140996" target="_blank">How India Makes E-books Easier to Ban than Books</a> (And How We Can Change That) by Pranesh Prakash. This was reproduced in <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1075&qid=140996" target="_blank">Medianama</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Upcoming Events</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1076&qid=140996" target="_blank">The High Level Privacy Conclave</a><br />Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Society in Action Group, Gurgaon and Privacy International, UK is organizing the High Level Privacy Conclave at the Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place Greens in New Delhi on Friday, 3 February 2012.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1077&qid=140996" target="_blank">All India Privacy Symposium</a><br />Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon, Privacy International, UK and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is organizing the All India Privacy Symposium at the India International Centre, New Delhi on Saturday, 4 February 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Events Organised</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1078&qid=140996" target="_blank">Workshop on the Standardization of Kannada Computing Terminology</a>, 28-29 January 2012, Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1079&qid=140996" target="_blank">The Curious Case of Whose Data is it Anyway?</a> The second round of discussions of the Exposing Data Series was co-organized by Tactical Tech and CIS. Siddharth Hande and Hapee de Groot gave lectures.</li>
<li>"ಕನ್ನಡ ಮತ್ತು ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಜೊತೆ ಜೊತೆಗೆ..." organised in TERI, Bangalore, 22 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Telecom</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. In this connection, Shyam Ponappa continues to write his monthly column for the Business Standard.</p>
<h3><b> Article by Shyam Ponappa</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=1081&qid=140996" target="_blank">Reversing India's Downward Trajectory</a><br />The country can regain growth momentum with rate cuts and telecom reforms, writes Shyam Ponappa in this column published in the Business Standard on 5 January 2012.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=456&qid=46981" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Follow CIS on <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=457&qid=46981" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=458&qid=46981" target="_blank">Facebook</a>\</li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=459&qid=46981" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2012-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-09T09:36:46ZPageJanuary 2011 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! It gives us immense pleasure to present regular updates on the progress of our research on the mainstream Internet media. In this issue of we bring our latest project updates, news and media coverage:</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Monographs finalised from these projects have been published on the CIS website for public review:</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>Digital Natives</b></h2>
<p>CIS has interest in developing Digital Identities as a core research area and looks at practices, policies and scholarships in the field to explore relationships between Internet, technology and identity.</p>
<h3>Column on Digital Natives</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A fortnightly column on ‘Digital Natives’ authored by Nishant Shah is featured in the Sunday Eye, the national edition of Indian Express, Delhi, from 19 September 2010 onwards. The following article was published in the Indian Express recently:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/h2E3Jd">Is That a Friend on Your Wall?</a> [published in the Indian Express on 9 January 2010]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Workshop</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The third and final workshop in the Digital Natives with a Cause? research project will take place in Santiago, Chile, from the 8 to 10 February. Open Call and FAQs for the workshop are online:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/emKslL">Digital Natives with a Cause? Workshop in Santiago – An Open Call</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eCu2it">Digital Natives with a Cause? Workshop in Santiago – Some FAQs</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entry by Maesey Angelina</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Maesy Angelina is a MA candidate on International Development, specializing in Children and Youth Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She is working on her research on the activism of digital natives under the Hivos-CIS Digital Natives Knowledge Programme. She spent a month at CIS, working on her dissertation, exploring the Blank Noise Project under the Digital Natives with a Cause framework. She writes a series of blog entries. The latest is:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hjbzB0">The Digital Tipping Point</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Announcement</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/h92qtI">Rising Voices Seeks Micro-Grant Proposals for Citizen Media Outreach</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fgOaHa">Accessibility in Telecommunications</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Intellectual Property</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Copyright, patents and trademarks are the most important components on the Internet. CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime. Our latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/igNQMW">New Release of IPR Chapter of India-EU Free Trade Agreement</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although there may not be one centralised authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cybercrime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 defined Internet governance as “the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” Within the larger field of Internet governance, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue forum that was instituted by the WSIS processes and that is their only formal outcome, has fast emerged as one of the key institutions. As the definition quoted above indicates, a unique feature of the field of Internet governance is that, unlike many other governance spheres, it does not only involve governments. Historically, not only governments but also the technical community and private players have played a crucial role in the development of the Internet. In the context of the IGF, that role is not only explicitly acknowledged but also institutionalised as the IGF formally brings together governments, private players and civil society actors from all areas of and organisations involved in Internet governance. Moreover, now that the open and egalitarian potential of the Internet is increasingly under attack, this unique nature of the IGF, in addition to its WSIS roots, has made it a prime venue to remind stakeholders in all areas of Internet governance of the commitment they have made earlier to building a “people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society” (WSIS Geneva Principles, Para 1). CIS involvement in the field of Internet governance has the following shape:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
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<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fOB4sL">Jurisdictional Issues in Cyberspace</a><b> </b></li>
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<h3><b>Privacy</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has undertaken many new and exciting projects. One of these, "Privacy in Asia", is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and is being completed in collaboration with Society and Action Group. "Privacy in Asia" is a two-year project that commenced on 24 March 2010 and will complete within two years from the commencement date, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties. The project was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around privacy challenges and violations in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote an over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from "Privacy in Asia" CIS is also participating in the " Privacy and Identity" project, which is funded by the Ford Foundation and managed by the Centre for Study of Culture and Society. The project is a research inquiry into the history of Privacy in India and how it shapes the contemporary debates around technology mediated identity projects like <i>Aadhaar</i>. The "Privacy and Identity" project started in August 2010.</p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
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<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/privacy-UIDdec17">Does the UID Reflect India?</a></li>
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<h3>Staff Update</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prashant Iyengar is a lawyer and legal scholar who has worked extensively on intellectual property issues particularly focusing on copyright reform and open access. He is a past recipient of an Open Society Institute fellowship for research into Open Information Policy, and has been affiliated with the Alternative Law Forum – a collective of lawyers in Bangalore engaged in human rights practice.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prashant joined the Centre for Internet and Society as a lead researcher in the Privacy India project recently.</p>
<h2><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this.</p>
<h3>Column</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.</p>
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<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/grwFzq">The policy langurs</a> [published on 6 January 2011]</li>
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<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
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<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hcNWgX">Civic hackers seek to find their feet in India</a> (Livemint, 24 January 2011) and (IndiaInfoline, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/ihsya0">A Tweet and a poke from the CEO</a> (Livemint, 24 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/g19Yrv">Clicktivism & a brave new world order</a> (Mail Today, 2 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eiyWsT">Would it be a unique identity crisis</a>? (Bangalore Mirror, 2 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/gnJNzc">Nel suk dei nativi digitali. Perché gli studenti 2.0 hanno bisogno di una bussola per orientarsi</a> (Il Sore24 ORE, 2 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fvn4Fw">A Refreshing Start!</a> (Verveonline, Volume 19, Issue 1, January, 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/glcDk1">Getting Connected</a> (Livemint, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eN0Njz">Knowledge Warriors</a> (Il Sore24 ORE, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/f5m3fg">Nishant Shah Quoted in Livemint 2011 Tweet-out</a> (Livemint, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eti5N2">Digital Natives with a Cause? - Workshop in Chile seeks participants</a> (Bahama islands info, 30 December 2010)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/h1YBgf">Mothers discuss kids, music, fashions, on Net</a> (The Hindu, 26 December 2010)</li>
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No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomIntellectual Property RightsAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-30T11:25:44ZPageIs India's Digital Health System Foolproof?
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/is-indias-digital-health-system-foolproof
<b>This contribution by Aayush Rathi builds on "Data Infrastructures and Inequities: Why Does Reproductive Health Surveillance in India Need Our Urgent Attention?" (by Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon, EPW Engage, Vol. 54, Issue No. 6, 09 Feb, 2019) and seeks to understand the role that state-run reproductive health portals such as the Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) and the Reproductive and Child Health will play going forward. The article critically outlines the overall digitised health information ecosystem being envisioned by the Indian state.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>This article was first published in <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/indias-digital-health-paradigm-foolproof" target="_blank">EPW Engage, Vol. 54, Issue No. 47</a>, on November 30, 2019</h4>
<hr />
<p>Introduced in 2013 and subsequently updated in 2016, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) published a document laying out the standards for electronic health records (EHRs). While there exist varying interpretations of what constitutes as EHRs, some of its characteristics include electronic medical records (EMRs) of individual patients, arrangement of these records in a time series, and inter-operable linkages of the EMRs across various healthcare settings (Häyrinen et al 2008; OECD 2013).</p>
<p>To work effectively, EHRs are required to be highly interoperable so that they can facilitate exchange among health information systems (HIS) across participating hospitals. For this, the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) is being developed so as to assimilate data from various registries across India and provide real-time information on health surveillance (Krishnamurthy 2018).</p>
<h3><strong>EHR Implementation: Unpacking the (Dis)incentive Structure</strong></h3>
<p>As the implementation of EHR standards is voluntary, anecdotal evidence indicates that their uptake in the Indian healthcare sector has been very slow. Here, the opposition of the Indian Medical Association to the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, resulting in nationwide protests and subsequent legal challenges to the act, is instructive. To start with, the act prescribes the minimum standards that have to be maintained by clinical establishments which are registered or seeking registration (itself mandatory to run a clinic under the act) <strong>[1]</strong>. Further, Rule 9(ii) of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Rules, 2012, drafted under the act, requires clinical establishments to maintain EMRs or EHRs for every patient. However, with health being a state subject in India, the act has only been enforced in 11 states and all union territories except the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Jyoti 2018). The resistance to the act is largely due to protests by stakeholders from within the medical fraternity regarding its adverse impact on small- and medium-sized hospitals (Jyoti 2018).</p>
<h3><strong>Contextualising Clinicians' Inertia</strong></h3>
<p>Another major impediment to the adoption of EHRs by health service providers is reluctance on the part of individual physicians to transition to an EHR system. This is because compliance with EHR standards requires physicians to input clinical notes themselves.</p>
<p>Comparing the greater patient load faced by doctors in India vis-à-vis the United States (US), the chief medical officer of an EHR vendor in India estimates that the average Indian doctor sees about 40–60 patients a day, whereas in the US it may be around 18–20 patients (Kandhari 2017). This is suggestive of the wide disparity in the number of physicians per 1,000 citizens in both countries (World Bank nd). Given this, doctors in India tend to be more problem-oriented, time-strapped, and pay less attention to clinical notes (Kandhari 2017). Thus, clinicians will consider a system to be efficient only if the system reduces their documentation time, even if the time savings do not translate into better patient care (Allan and Englebright 2000). The inability of EHRs to help reduce documentation time deters clinicians from supporting their implementation (Poon et al 2004). Additionally, research done in the United States indicates that there is no evidence to suggest that an information system helps save time expended by clinicians on documentation (Daly et al 2002). Moreover, the use of an information system is stated to have had no impact on patient care, but doctors have acknowledged its use for research purposes (Holzemer and Henry 1992).</p>
<h3><strong>Prohibitive Costs of Implementation</strong></h3>
<p>While national-level EHRs have been adopted globally, their distribution across countries is telling. In a survey published in 2016 by the World Health Organization, wealthier countries were over-represented, with two-thirds from the upper-middle-income group and roughly half from the high-income countries having introduced EHR systems. On the other hand, only a third of lower-middle-income countries and 15% of low-income countries reported having implemented EHRs (World Health Organization 2016). A major reason for the slow uptake of EHRs in poorer countries is likely to be funding as EHR implementation requires considerable investment, with most projects averaging several million dollars (US) (Kuperman and Gibson 2003). Although various funding models for EHR implementation are being utilised globally, it is unclear what model will be adopted in India to bring in private healthcare service providers within its ambit (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2007). This absence of funding direction for private actors poses to be a significant impediment in the integration of private databases with other public ones.</p>
<p>In general, poorer countries are also more likely to have less developed infrastructure and health Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to support EHR systems. Besides this, they not only lack the capacity and human resources required to develop and maintain such complex systems (Tierney et al 2010; McGinn et al 2011), but training periods have also been found to be long and more costly than expected (Kovener et al 1997).</p>
<h3><strong>Socio-economic Exclusions and Cross-cultural Barriers</strong></h3>
<p>There exists scant research investigating the existing use of EHRs in India, though preliminary work is being undertaken to assess EHR implementation in other developing countries (Tierney et al 2010; Fraser et al 2005). Even in the context of developed countries, where widespread adoption of EHRs has been gaining traction for some time now, very little data exists around implementation and efficacy in underserved regions and communities. This is further problematised as clinical information systems and user populations also vary in their characteristics and, for this reason, individual studies are unable to identify common trends that would predict EHR implementation success.</p>
<p>Underserved settings may lack the infrastructure needed to support EHRs. The risk of exclusion already exists in parts such as difficulties inherent in delivering care to remote locations, barriers related to cross-cultural communication, and the pervasive problem of providing care in the setting of severe resource constraints. Equally important is the fact that health workers who already report significant existing impediments in their delivery of routine care in these settings do not necessarily see EHRs as being useful in catering to the specific needs of their patient population (Bach et al 2004). Moreover, experience with EHRs also reveals that there are cultural barriers to capturing accurate data (Miklin et al 2019). What this could mean is that stigma associated with the diagnosis of conditions such as HIV/AIDS or induced abortions will result in their under-reporting even within EHR systems.</p>
<h3><strong>Stick or Twist?</strong></h3>
<p>Other modalities have been devised to nudge healthcare providers into adopting EHR standards voluntarily. The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), India, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (a public–private initiative), has been reported to have incorporated the EHR standards within its accreditation matrix. NABH accreditation, considered an indicator of high quality patient care, is highly sought–after by hospitals in India in order to attract medical tourists as well as insurance companies: two prominent sources of income for hospitals (Kandhari 2017). Additionally, NABH accreditation is valid for a term of three years, thus requiring hospitals seeking to renew their accreditation to adopt EHR standards as well.</p>
<p>Another commercial use of EHR has been in health insurance. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) have both voiced their support for expediting the implementation of the EHR standards (EMR Standards Committee 2013). Both, the FICCI and IRDAI have placed emphasis on adopting EHRs, seeing it as a necessary move for formalising the health insurance industry (FICCI 2015). They have also had representation on the committee that sent recommendations to the MHFW on the first version of the EHR standards in 2013 (FICCI 2015). FICCI had additionally played a coordination role in having the recommendations framed for the 2013 EHR standards.</p>
<h3><strong>Fluid Data Objectives</strong></h3>
<p>The push for EHR implementation is emblematic of a larger shift in the healthcare approach of the Indian state, that of an indirect targeting of demand-side financing by plugging data inefficiencies in health insurance.</p>
<p>The draft National Health Policy (NHP), published in 2015, reflected the mandate of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to strengthen the public health system by creating a right to healthcare legislation and reaching a public spend of 2.5% of the gross domestic product by 2018. The final version of the NHP, published in 2017, however, codified a shift in healthcare policy by focusing on strategic purchasing of secondary and tertiary care services from the private sector and a publicly funded health insurance model.</p>
<p>In line with the vision of the NHP 2017, in February 2018, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley, announced two major initiatives as a part of the government’s Ayushman Bharat programme (Ministry of Finance 2018). Administered under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, these initiatives are intended to improve access to primary healthcare through the creation of 150,000 health and wellness centres as envisioned under the NHP 2017, and improve access to secondary and tertiary healthcare for over 100 million vulnerable families by providing insurance cover of up to ₹ 500,000 per family per year under the Pradhan Mantri–Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission/National Health Protection Scheme (PM–RSSM/NHPS) (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare 2018). The NHPS, modelled along the lines of the Affordable Care Act in the US, was later rebranded as the Pradhan Mantri–Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) at the time of its launch in September 2018. It is claimed to be the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme and is intentioned to provide health insurance coverage for vulnerable sections in lieu of the Sustainable Development Goal-3 (National Health Authority nd).</p>
<p>To enable the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat programme, the NITI Aayog then proposed the creation of a supply-side digital infrastructure called National Health Stack (NHS) (NITI Aayog 2018). As outlined in the consultation and strategy paper, the NHS is “built for NHPS, but beyond NHPS.” The NHS seeks to leverage the digitisation push through IndiaStack, which seeks to digitalise “any large-scale health insurance program, in particular, any government-funded health care programs.” The synergy is clear, with the NHPS scheme also aiming to be “cashless and paperless at public hospitals and empanelled private hospitals" (National Health Authority nd) <strong>[2]</strong>.</p>
<p>The NHS is also closely aligned with the NHP 2017, which draws attention to leveraging technologies such as big data analytics on data stored in universal registries. The Vision document for the NHS emphasises the fragmented nature of health data as an impediment to reducing inequities in healthcare provision. The NHS, then, also seeks to be the master repository of health data akin to the IHIP. By creating a base layer of registries containing information about various actors involved in the healthcare supply chain (providers such as hospitals, beneficiaries, doctors, insurers and Accredited Social Health Activists), it potentially allows for recording of data from both public and private sector entities, plugging a significant gap in the coverage of the HIS currently implemented in India. With the provision of open, pullable APIs, the NHS also shares the motivations of the IndiaStack to monetise health data.</p>
<p>A key component of the proposed NHS is the Coverage and Claims platform, which the vision document describes as “provid[ing] the building blocks required to implement any large-scale health insurance program, in particular, any government-funded healthcare programs. This platform has the transformative vision of enabling both public and private actors to implement insurance schemes in an automated, data-driven manner through open APIs " (NITI Aayog2018). A post on the iSPIRT website further explains the centrality of this Coverage and Claims platform in enabling a highly personalised medical insurance market in India: “This component will not only bring down the cost of processing a claim but ... increased access to information about an individual’s health and claims history ... will also enable the creation of personalised, sachet-sized insurance policies." These data-driven customised insurance policies are expected to generate “care policies that are not only personalized in nature but that also incentivize good healthcare practices amongst consumers and providers … [and] use of techniques from microeconomics to manage incentives for care providers, and those from behavioural economics to incentivise consumers" (Productnation Network 2019). The Coverage and Claims platform, and especially the Policy (generation) Engine that it will contain, is aimed at intensive financialisation of personal healthcare expenses, and extensive experiments with designing personalised nudges to shape the demand behaviour of consumers.</p>
<p>The imagination of healthcare the NHS demonstrates is one where broadening health insurance coverage is equated to providing equitable healthcare and as a panacea for the public healthcare sector. The first phase of this push towards better healthcare provision is to focus on contextualising the historical socio-economic divide. The next phase is characterised by digitalisation: the introduction of ICT to bridge the socio-economic divide in healthcare provision. In this process, the resulting data divide has been invisibilised in reframing better healthcare as an insurance problem for which data needs to be generated. Each policy innovation is then characterised by further marginalisation of those that were originally identified as underserved. This is a result of increasing repercussions of the data-divide, with access to benefits increasingly being mediated by technology.</p>
<h3><strong>Concluding Remarks</strong></h3>
<blockquote>The idea that any person in India can go to any health service provider/ practitioner, any diagnostic center or any pharmacy and yet be able to access and have fully integrated and always available health records in an electronic format is not only empowering but also the vision for efficient 21st century healthcare delivery.<br />
— Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Electronic Health Record Standards For India (2013)</blockquote>
<p>The objective of health data collection has evolved over the course of the institution of the HIS in 2011, to the development of the NHPS and National Health Policy in 2017. What began as a solution to measure and address gaps in access and quality in healthcare provisioning through data analysis has morphed into data centralisation and insurance coverage. Shifting goalposts can also be found in the objectives behind introducing digital systems to collect data.</p>
<p>In recent iterations of the healthcare imaginary, such as the IHIP and the NHS, data ownership by the beneficiaries is stressed upon. In the absence of a rights-based framework dictating the use of data, the role of ownership should be interrogated, especially in the context of a prevalent data divide (Tisne 2019). The legitimisation of data capture can be seen in the emergence of opt-in models of consent, data fiduciaries managing consent on the data subject’s behalf, etc. (Zuboff 2019).</p>
<p>This framing forecloses a discussion about the quality and kind of data being used. The push towards datafication needs to be questioned for its re-indexing of categorical meaning away from the complexities of narrative, context and history (Cheney-Lippold 2018). Instead, the proposed solution is one that stores datafied elements within a closed set (reproductive health= [abortion, aids, contraceptive,...vaccination, womb]). While this set may be editable, so new interpretations can be codified, it inherently remains stable, assuming a static relationship between words and meaning. Health is then treated as having an empirically definable meaning, thus losing the dynamism of what the health and wellness discourse could entail.</p>
<p>It has been historically demonstrated in the Indian context that multiple tools and databases for health data management are a barrier to an efficient HIS. However, generating centralised or federated databases without addressing concerns in data flows, quality, uses in existing data structures, and the digital divide across health workers and beneficiaries alike will lead to the amplification of existing exclusions in data and, consequently, service provisioning.</p>
<h3><strong>Acknowledgements</strong></h3>
<p>The author would like to express his gratitude to Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Ambika Tandon for their inputs and editorial work on this contribution. This work was supported by the Big Data for Development Network established by International Development Research Centre (Canada).</p>
<h3><strong>Notes</strong></h3>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Section 2 (a) of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010: A hospital, maternity home, nursing home, dispensary, clinic, sanatorium or institution by whatever name called that offers services, facilities requiring diagnosis, treatment or care for illness, injury, deformity, abnormality or pregnancy in any recognised system of medicine established and administered or maintained by any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> The National Health Stack, then, is the latest manifestation of the Indian government’s push for a “Digital India.” A key component of Digital India has been e-governance, financial inclusion, and digitisation of transaction services. The nudge towards cashless modes of transaction and delivery, also accelerated by India’s demonetisation drive in November 2016, has led to rapid uptake of digital payment services in particular, and that of the IndiaStack initiative in general. Developed by iSPIRT, IndiaStack (https://indiastack.org/) aspires to transform service delivery by public and private actors alike through its “presence-less, paperless, and cashless” mandate.</p>
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<p>Bach, Peter, Hoangmai Pham, Deborah Schrag, Ramsey Tate and J Lee Hargraves (2004): “Primary Care Physicians Who Treat Blacks and Whites,” New England Journal of Medicine, Vol 351, pp 575–84.</p>
<p>Cheney-Lippold, John (2018): We Are Data: Algorithms and the Making of Our Digital Selves, New Delhi: Sage.</p>
<p>Daly, Jeanette, Buckwalter Kathleen and Meridean Maas (2002): “Written and Computerized Care Plans,” Journal of Gerontological Nursing, Vol 28, No 9, pp 14–23.</p>
<p>EMR Standards Committee (2013): “Recommendations on Electronic Medical Records Standards in India,” Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi, https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/24539108839988920051EHR%20Standards-v5%20Apr%202013.pdf.</p>
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<p>Miklin, Daniel, Sameera Vangara, Alan Delamater and Kenneth Goodman (2019): “Understanding of and Barriers to Electronic Health Record Patient Portal Access in a Culturally Diverse Pediatric Population,” JMIR Medical Informatics, Vol 7, No 2.</p>
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<p>Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (2017): Request for Proposal: Development and Implementation of Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP), Centre for Health Informatics, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, https://nhp.gov.in/NHPfiles/IHIP_RFP%20.pdf.</p>
<p>Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (2018): “IDSP Segment of Integrated Health Information Platform,” New Delhi, https://idsp.nic.in/index4.php?lang=1&level=0&linkid=454&lid=3977.</p>
<p>National Health Authority (nd): “About Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) | Ayushmaan Bharat,” https://www.pmjay.gov.in/about-pmjay.</p>
<p>NITI Aayog (2018): “National Health Stack- Strategy and Approach,” NITI Aayog, New Delhi, http://www.niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/NHS-Strategy-and-Approach-Document-for-consultation.pdf.</p>
<p>Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2013): “Strengthening Health Information Infrastructure for Health Care Quality Governance: Good Practices, New Opportunities and Data Privacy Protection Challenges,” OECD Health Policy Studies, Paris, OECD Publishing, https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/strengthening-health-information-infrastructure-for-health-care-quality-governance_9789264193505-en.</p>
<p>Poon, Eric, David Blumenthal, Tonushree Jaggi, Melissa Honour, David Bates and Rainu Kaushal (2004): “Overcoming Barriers to Adopting and Implementing Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in U.S. Hospitals,” Health Affairs, Vol 23 No 4, pp 184–90.</p>
<p>Productnation Network (2019): “India’s Health Leapfrog–Towards A Holistic Healthcare Ecosystem,” iSpirt, https://pn.ispirt.in/towards-a-holistic-healthcare-ecosystem/.</p>
<p>Rathi, Aayush and Ambika Tandon (2019): “Data Infrastructures and Inequities: Why Does Reproductive Health Surveillance in India Need Our Urgent Attention?” EPW Engage, https://www.epw.in/engage/article/data-infrastructures-inequities-why-does-reproductive-health-surveillance-india-need-urgent-attention.</p>
<p>Sequist, Thomas, Theresa Cullen, Howard Hays, Maile Taualii, Steven Simon, and David Bates (2007): “Implementation and Use of an Electronic Health Record Within the Indian Health Service,” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Vol 14, No 2, pp 191–97.</p>
<p>World Bank (nd): Physicians (per 1,000 people) | Data, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS.</p>
<p>Tierney, William et al. (2010): “Experience Implementing Electronic Health Records in Three East African Countries,” Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Vol 160, No 1, pp 371–75.</p>
<p>Tisne, Martin (2018): “It’s Time for a Bill of Data Rights,” MIT Technology Review, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612588/its-time-for-a-bill-of-data-rights/.</p>
<p>World Health Organization (2016): “Global Diffusion of eHealth: Making Universal Health Coverage Achievable,” https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/252529/9789241511780-eng.pdf;jsessionid=9DD5F8603C67EEF35549799B928F3541?sequence=1.</p>
<p>Zuboff, Soshana (2019): The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, New York: PublicAffairs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/is-indias-digital-health-system-foolproof'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/is-indias-digital-health-system-foolproof</a>
</p>
No publisheraayushEHRBig DataBig Data for DevelopmentResearchBD4DHealthcareResearchers at Work2019-12-30T17:58:00ZBlog EntryInterviews with App Developers: [dis]regard towards IPR vs. Patent Hype – Part II
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/interviews-with-app-developers-dis-regard-towards-ipr-vs-patent-hype-2013-part-ii
<b>The following is a second post within a series reporting on interviews conducted with 10 of Bangalore's mobile app developers and other industry stakeholders. Within this research, CIS attempts to understand how they engage with the law within their practice, particularly with respect to IP. Here we examine how these developers responded to a question on legal protection for their works.</b>
<p align="justify">Before one can identify the solution, one must first identify the problem. Yet, in order to understand the problem, we must first understand the individuals involved and the how the problem affects these individuals. We hope that the findings of this preliminary research initiative will provide sufficient groundwork to understand the problems that exist and the different ways of approaching them before determining the most suitable prospective option in changes at the policy level. In this case, the individuals under study are the key contributors to the mobile app space within India; and the problem, being those faced by them as they attempt to navigate an emerging and ambiguous ecosystem.</p>
<p align="justify">Previously, we looked at responses that were given across these mobile app developers interviewed which revealed how they orient notions of intellectual property within their practice and own products, specifically. Findings that were made included deductions that the majority of those interviewed developed mobile app products for clients, and in turn assigned ownership of their products to their clients. Just as well, they commonly shared an interest in leaving the services sector to create products of their own, with some of them already having made the transition within their business model.</p>
<h3><b>Question 2: “How is your IP protected?”</b></h3>
<p align="justify">Next, we asked how they go about protecting their intellectual property to get a feel of who is protecting their apps and who is not. In asking this question, we hoped to learn how they go about protecting their work via legal means. Across their various responses, we observed many patterns and contradictions which are conveyed here with reference to comments made across interviews. It is important to note, however, that no causal relations intend for be argued for, only suggested correlations.</p>
<p><b>How they responded</b></p>
<p align="justify">When asked, those interviewed responded with a variance in answers. Some simply stated that their work is not protected, while a few mentioned that they acquired trademark or intend to apply for trademark protection. One interviewee had a patent pending in India and the US, as well. In many of our conversations, developers mentioned that their code for their apps is under open source licenses, and a couple others entailed sharing that the content is under creative commons licenses, “individual licenses,” or joint copyright. Additionally, within one interview, one mentioned the use of encryption tools as a technical means of protection for their work.</p>
<div class="pullquote" style="text-align: justify; ">“The concept of securing IP is relatively new within the Indian context... it becomes a question of priority between innovation and protection" — Aravind Krishnaswamy, Levitum</div>
<p align="justify">Of the developers interviewed, many exhibited some sort of confusion or misunderstanding related to the protection of their works by means of intellectual property rights (IPR). Those interviewed seemed to either express an interest to acquire IPR in the future for their products in the forms of patent or trademark protection, or expressed their appreciation for openness source licensing—or both! Beneath these immediate responses, however, many repeated patterns, as well as contradictions, are revealed. Conversations that followed within these interviewed entailed the opportunity to hear from personal experiences and opinions on different areas within their practice intersecting IPR.</p>
<p><b>Reasons for IPR protection</b></p>
<p align="justify">If a startup or SME is bootstrapped with very little cash flow to begin with, what would provoke or inspire one to pursue the process of acquiring patent protection then? Aravind Krishnaswamy of startup, <a class="external-link" href="http://levitum.in/">Levitum</a>, considers “the concept of securing IP is relatively new within the Indian context.” So if this is the case, why did so many developers interviewed express an interest in IPR?</p>
<p align="justify">For those who did express interest in acquiring IPR as protection for their mobile app products, most seemed to express an interest in proving ownership over their work, or preventing problems in the future. One developer's commented on how the mobile app market is a “new and potentially volatile area for software development.” For this reason, it was imperative that he and his team attempted to avoid trouble in the future, and ensure that they going about mobile app development the right and moral way.</p>
<p align="justify">Within another interview, developer, John Paul of mobile app SME, Plackal, explains his motives for seeking to acquire patent protection, the application for which is currently pending in India and the US: "For us, applying for a patent is primarily defensive. And if it does get infringed upon, it would give us a good opportunity to generate revenue from it." For the company's trademark, they sought to be able to enforce their ownership over their product's brand: “As a precautionary, we've trademarked the app so that should there be a situation where the app is pirated, we can claim ownership for that app.”</p>
<p><b>Security not so easily attainable</b></p>
<div class="pullquote">“To some extent, IPR law is only accessible after moving away from the startup phase."—John Paul, Plackal</div>
<p align="justify">However, for the startup especially, such protection does not come without a cost. For this reason, IPR is generally perceived as a gamble or tradeoff. It becomes a “question of priority between innovation and protection,” says Krishnaswamy. He continues in saying that, "I feel like even if it’s a great idea if someone else copies it, that’s some level of validation, but as a small company I’d rather be nimble in terms of how we build it up and get it to a certain point. We're trying to move fast and get something going, and then figure it out.” For Krishnaswamy and his team, securing a patent on an area where they feel they feel they have unique work is on their list of things to do, “It's something for us to revisit in the future.”</p>
<p align="justify">Paul explains that he and his team didn't always have IPR within reach: “To some extent, IPR law is only accessible after moving away from the startup phase.” So what discourages startups from acquiring IPR, or simply seeking it out?</p>
<p align="justify">Patent attorney and IP consultant, Arjun Bala explains that “there is a lot to figure out. One aspect is filling it out, the other is how you write it so that it is easily granted and gives you the right sort of patent protection you are looking for. It is a very complex process that requires a lot of technical and legal expertise.” But even if one successfully manoeuvres the IPR system, is protection guaranteed?</p>
<p align="justify">Business Financial Strategist of Out Sourced CFO & Business Advisory Services, Jayant Tewari, illustrates the lack of security for the SME in the patent system, specifically, in saying, “Since a patent becomes public domain on filing, it can be effectively infringed based on the filing, even before it is granted.” Tewari continues in stressing the irrelevance of patents for SMEs due to the difficulty of enforcement: “the infringement will be adjudicated after 2 years at an immense cost to the SME patent-holder, who will go commercially belly-up due to the infringement. The regime does not protect the SME at all.”</p>
<div class="pullquote" style="text-align: justify; ">“It is easy to say 'this is the method and no once can copy', but unless the look and feel is the same, it is very hard to demonstrate that you have been infringed on.” <br />—Samuel Mani, Mani Chengappa & Mathur</div>
<p><b>Nevermind enforcement...</b></p>
<p align="justify">Not only did our interviews shed light on the difficulty for a startup developer to apply for and be granted protection for their intellectual property, but also for the enforcement of such. Partnering Lawyer, Samuel Mani, of technology-focused law firm, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/www.mcmlaw.in" class="external-link">Mani Chengappa & Mathur</a>, speaks to us about the extensive procedure required to prove one's ownership over their IP: “To demonstrate copyright infringement, it requires going into millions of lines of code—unless it is the interface that is copied, which is easily visible.” Mani continues on the enforcement of patent protection by saying, “For a patent, the scope is even wider. It is easy to say 'this is the method and no once can copy', but unless the look and feel is the same, it is very hard to demonstrate that you have been infringed on.”</p>
<p><b>Planting the initial seed</b></p>
<p align="justify">If there is arguably so much risk associated with applying for IPR protection, as well with enforcement, what specifically gets startups thinking about IPR initially within their practice? What experiences help them formulate their opinions on the matter, and which forms of IPR do they seek out?</p>
<p align="justify">Across interviews conducted, one particular observation entailed the tendency for developers to have worked in the past for corporate employers that have dealt with cases of infringement or have acquired IP protection. Almost half of those interviewed shared the fact that they worked for a corporate employer and became better familiar with different notions of intellectual property through that experience. It may not be too farfetched to suggest, then, that for the developer the idea of acquiring IPR protection is one that may be reinforced from previous employers or other successful development companies with IPR of their own.</p>
<p align="justify">Cofounder and developer for a medium-sized software development enterprise, Anoop[1] explained that it wasn't until after the success of his enterprise's first application with $1 million in sales, that they started thinking about intellectual property and began to understand the value of it. This newly attained understanding, however, had not been enough to sufficiently equip his team with the knowledge to properly secure protection. For them, going after patent protection turned out to be a pursuit in vain.</p>
<p><b>Loss of faith in patents for SMEs</b></p>
<p align="justify">Anoop shares his disappointing experience after attempting to secure a patent for one of their mobile apps:</p>
<p class="callout"><i>“We burned our fingers with patents. We spent a lot of money for a game we invented about 3 years ago. We had a law firm in the US to help us. We applied for it, and it went through 3-4 revisions, costing us $25-30,000. We finally closed the file when we could not get it due to an existing patent. We were really surprised." </i></p>
<p>After much disappointment from not being successful in their attempts to acquire patent protection, however, Anoop came out of the experience with a new outlook on patents and their role for SMEs:</p>
<p class="callout"><i>“They're meant for large companies as means to bully your competitor. Only big players with the capacity to file for a patent as soon as it takes off benefit. The existing system doesn’t really work for startup companies. In India and anywhere. It’s an expensive process. If you’re a startup who’s just bootstrapping, there’s no guarantee that you will get it. It’s going to take you years.”</i></p>
<p align="justify"><b>Patent hype</b><br />Anoop is a prime example of developers in the startup space that fall victim to the promises of the patent system—only to be spat back out having exhausted their time and earnings. Already being aware of the probability for failure, Mani strongly discourages going after patent protection as a means of staying in the race. “With people spending millions on litigation, it is a recipe for disaster, especially considering the inherent delay of the Indian system.” For this reason, Mani stresses the importance of applying for the <i>right </i>protection.</p>
<p align="justify">Mani also suggests that the patent debate is driven by self-interest—people who simply make money off of application filing, regardless of whether or not the case succeeds. As a lawyer in the IT space, Mani claims to have turned away several prospective clients looking to patent their products when he insisted that such means of protection was not suitable for their product and interests...which brings us to an additional area of heated debate: the patentability of mobile apps.</p>
<p><b>Can mobile apps be patented?</b>[2]</p>
<p align="justify">One concept that seemed to receive contested responses across interviews is that of the patentability of mobile apps in the first place. When asked if mobile apps could be patented, former lawyer and startup founder, Vivek Durai, of HumblePaper, put it blatantly in responding, “absolutely not.” Others offered explanations of the Indian Patent Law nuances regarding when a mobile app is patentable and when one is not.</p>
<p align="justify">While consulting a SME with their own patent application, Bala explains their approach to ensure the mobile app's eligibility for patent protection, while providing some insight into the Indian patent system:</p>
<p class="callout"><i>“One approach that we've taken to getting a patent in India is it's not just a pure software, but a software plus a hardware—as in it requires a specific hardware to function. If [the software] makes the hardware perform better, then it has a technical effect... In which case, we have a better chance of getting a patent in India. If your software is agnostic to hardware, however, it is much more difficult to receive a patent in India.” </i></p>
<p align="justify"><b>To patent or not to patent? (or any IPR for that matter)</b><br />To Tewari, on the other hand, the question of whether a mobile app can be patented is one entirely irrelevant. The question Tewari introduces into the developer's market strategy is not 'can I patent my app?' but instead, '<i>should </i>I do so?' In response to which; he would predominantly reply: <i>No</i>.</p>
<p align="justify">“How [startup] mobile app developers regard IP laws—or better yet, disregard—is fine for their sake,” argues Tewari. Alternatively, he suggests developers learn how to maneuver the laws, to prevent themselves from arriving at any sticky situations after unknowingly using another's code. To his clients who have mobile apps of their own, he advises to use an open source equivalent of a piece of code if they do not have the rights to it. Doing so will help keep infringement upon others at a minimal and prevent litigation against oneself.</p>
<div class="pullquote" style="text-align: justify; ">“How [startup] mobile app developers regard IP laws—or better yet, disregard—is fine for their sake."—Jayant Tewari, Out Sourced CFO & Business Advisory Services</div>
<p align="justify">Not all developers interviewed, however, aspired to acquiring patent protection. In fact, some strongly opposed software patents, while expressing their appreciation for openness across the developer community. The other side to the IPR-Open Source dichotomy will be examined in the blog post to follow, after which, we will then look at accounts of infringement and threats of litigation across mobile app developers interviewed.</p>
<p><b>To recap<br /></b></p>
<p align="justify">By looking closely at the individual experiences across mobile app developers interviewed, we hope to begin to map out the mobile app ecosystem and the ways in which industry players engage with each other regarding their IPR. We also hope to begin to shed light on the different attitudes towards the law within one's practice, and how they shape their decisions related to their work. Only after doing so, may we be able to sufficiently assess how India's current IP laws govern this landscape.</p>
<p align="justify">Stay tuned for the next in this blog series! We hope that you may benefit from our findings in your own practice as a mobile app industry player or enthusiast, as well.</p>
<p align="justify"><b>Notes:</b><br />[1] <i>Name changed to protect the interviewee's identity</i></p>
<p align="justify">[2] In conducting interviews, our goal was not to test the legitimacy of responses, but instead, to map them out across various industry stakeholders. For this reason, this blog series will not be able to sufficiently respond to legal question, such as whether or not mobile apps are patentable to begin with. We intend to, however, undergo legal analysis of the Indian IPR system at its intersection with the mobile app space in India at a later stage in this project.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/interviews-with-app-developers-dis-regard-towards-ipr-vs-patent-hype-2013-part-ii'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/interviews-with-app-developers-dis-regard-towards-ipr-vs-patent-hype-2013-part-ii</a>
</p>
No publishersamanthaAccess to KnowledgeCopyrightPervasive TechnologiesResearchPatents2014-08-19T03:51:39ZBlog EntryInternet, Society & Space in Indian Cities - A Call for Peer Review
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/internet-society-and-space-in-indian-cities/city-and-space
<b>Pratyush Shankar's research project on "Internet, Society & Space in Indian Cities" is a part of the Researchers @ Work Programme at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. His monograph explores the trajectories of transformation and perception of cities in India in context with the rise of Information Technologies for communication and presence of an active digital space.</b>
<p>There has been, in the fields of design and architecture, a close link between the shape and imagination of the city spaces and the dominant technologies of the time. The study of space (architecture, public places and city form) can lead to very interesting insights into the expression of the society with respect to the dominant technologies. Manuel Castells argues that space is not a mere photo¬copy (reflection) of the society but it is an important expression (Castells, 2009). Fredric Jameson, in his identification of the condition of post-modernity demonstrates how the transition into new technologies is perhaps first and most visibly reflected in the architecture, as physical spaces get materially reconstructed, not only to house the needs and peripheries of the emerging technologies but also to embody their aesthetics in their design and built form (Jameson, 1991).</p>
<p>Earlier technologies have led to new understandings of the notions of the public and commons. Jurgen Habermas argues on how the emergence of print cultures and technologies led to a structural transformation of the public sphere by creating new and novel forms of participation and political engagement for the print readers. Within cinema studies in India, Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Madhav Prasad have looked at the 'cinematic city' — how material conditions of the city transform to house the cinema technologies, and how the imagination of certain cities is affected by the cinematic representations of these spaces (Rajadhyaksha, 2009). Mike Davis' formulations of an 'Ecology of Fear'(Davis, 1999) and Sean Cubbit's idea of 'The Cinema Effect' (Cubitt, 2005) also show the integral relationship that technologies have with the imagination and materiality of urban spaces.</p>
<p>I wish to explore the trajectories of transformation and perception of cities in India in context with the rise of Information Technologies for communication and presence of an active digital space. The issue of imagination is an important one here as much as the material realities of our cities. However, to begin with one needs to look at the very idea of cities in the Indian context. The fundamental idea of a city and that of a space becomes important here and has been explored in the chapter on cities. The issue of representation as related to ideas of 'social space' and 'abstract space' (Lefebvre, 1992) has been used as a methodological framework while analyzing cities. The social space of a city here refers to the production of space that is biomorphic and anthropological. From this perspective people and history and memory along with social economic processes play a strong role in its definition. Hence, city spaces cannot be understood as a collection of building and other material production alone but rather as an act of social production involving people over a long period of time. The appropriation and representation of cities is another important concern as it creates an imagination structure and often justifies the material transformation.</p>
<p>The research is primarily concerned with first creating an understanding of the cities in Indian context from the point of view of their social, technological and material productions. The ideas and representations of space therefore, become critical issues of exploration to understand the nature of imagination of space with reference to Indian cities. An empirical study of issues of spatial transformation was conducted in Bangalore and Gurgaon to find certain patterns and its correlation with the present discourses on the technology and the city. The issue of perception of lived in space, cartography and myth became important issues to understand the nature of the imagination of space and positioning of the digital space. The contradiction of a networked geography with the present spatial arrangement of cities that is the centre of a larger territory becomes important shifts to be accounted for while understanding the new geography. The patterns and possibilities in these new geographies of information technologies have been understood by studying three building programmes in the city. The question of transformation and future of cities and the position of digital space in these times then became an important one to answer. The initial study concerns with laying out a framework for examining the techno-spatial discourses in cities in general while establishing the key characteristics of its narration in the Indian context.</p>
<p>The Researchers At Work Programme, at the Centre for Internet and Society, advocates an Open and transparent process of knowledge production. We recognise peer review as an essential and an extremely important part of original research, and invite you, with the greatest of pleasures, to participate in our research, and help us in making our arguments and methods stronger. The first draft of the monograph is now available for public review and feedback. Please click on the links below to choose your own format for accessing the document.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/internet-city.doc" class="internal-link" title="Internet and City Word File">Word</a></li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/internet-city.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Internet and City PDF file">PDF</a></li>
</ul>
<p>We appreciate your time, engagement and feedback that will help us to bring out the monograph in a published form. Please send all comments or feedback by April 5, 2011 to nishant@cis-india.org or you can use your Open ID to login to the website and leave comments to this post.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/internet-society-and-space-in-indian-cities/city-and-space'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/internet-society-and-space-in-indian-cities/city-and-space</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnahistories of internet in IndiaResearch2012-12-14T10:32:32ZBlog EntryInternet, first source of credible information about A(H1N1) virus
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-first-source-of-credible-information-about-a-h1n1-virus
<b>An article was publised in The Hindu, 16th August '09 on how the internet has evolved as a de facto information system around the world and in India. Nishant Shah, Director- Research, CIS, has provided inputs for the article.</b>
<p>The internet evolved as de facto information system around the world and in India. Dedicated users put out hourly updates.</p>
<p>There was no missing it. Anywhere you turned these past few weeks, the pig was all over the place. At least the virus, once born of swine, now mutated into the A(H1N1) influenza was painting the towns a feverish red.</p>
<p>There was information, and misinformation, about the virus via the TV, newspapers and internet. For much of the community in the cities, at least, the net-enabled community, the www has been a huge source of information. While it cannot be denied that it has contributed to some of the panic that has defined this epidemic or near-epidemic, it has oftentimes also been the first source of credible, scientific information on how to prevent an A(H1N1) infection and to handle it.</p>
<p>The internet has now evolved as the de facto information system for a significant and growing population around the world and in India, says Nishant Shah, Director of research, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.</p>
<p>He says that in the last two decades internet technologies have played an important role, both in creating safety havens for people to come, discuss, voice their fears and get responses to their queries, as well as in initiating rumour mills which sometimes create great panic attacks.</p>
<p>Melissa Davies wrote in Nielsen Online (<a href="http://blog.nielsen.com/">http://blog.nielsen.com</a>) in May 2009 .. the buzz volume about swine flu in the blogosphere was still on its meteoric climb, far surpassing discussion levels for the peanut butter/salmonella scare that happened earlier this year…</p>
<p>She adds that a measure of the extent of Internet engagement regarding swine flu is Wikipedia. The sites page on swine influenza has been updated hundreds of times this week. Wikipedia created a separate page focused on the 2009 swine flu outbreak for current information that page has been updated 119 times as of early on May 1.</p>
<p>Not to leave the social networking sites out of the picture, she mentions that there were more than 500 Facebook groups dedicated to Swine Flu as early as May 1. On Twitter, Swine Flu mentions topped out at a rate of more than 10,000 tweets per hour earlier in the week. Dedicated users such as @Swine_Flu_Vrus, and @CDCemergency put out nearly hourly updates from across the world.</p>
<p>Social networking</p>
<p>Social networking fora also became a sort of platform for those who were quivering with fear to seek advice. G-chat and Facebook status messages were in the flu vein: Have cough. Need Mask? ... I have fever and cold. Is it the S.flu?</p>
<p>Apart from lists of symptoms and helplines, many What to do if you have the Swine Flu kind of advisories cropped up online in no time, some culled from information put out by the World Health Organisation and the CDC. This seemed to have assuaged some in a tizzy about the flu.</p>
<p>Keywords: Internet, A (H1N1), credible information, swine flu, Centre for Internet and Society.</p>
<p>More information is available on the following url: <a href="http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article3572.ece"><u>http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article3572.ece</u></a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-first-source-of-credible-information-about-a-h1n1-virus'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-first-source-of-credible-information-about-a-h1n1-virus</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaResearch2011-04-02T15:10:40ZNews ItemInternet and Society in Asia: Challenges and Next Steps
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/internet-society-challenges-next-steps
<b>The ubiquitous presence of internet technologies, in our age of digital revolution, has demanded the attention of various disciplines of study and movements for change around the globe. As more of our environment gets connected to the circuits of the World Wide Web, we witness a significant transformation in the way we understand the politics, mechanics and aesthetics of the world we live in, says Nishant Shah in this peer reviewed essay published in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 11, Number 1, March 2010.</b>
<p>Traces of digital environments and internet technologies are all
around us – we can see them in the rise of Digital Natives who are
increasingly experiencing and living their lives mediated by digital
technologies; we can see them in new forms of social interactions, such
as blogs, peer-to-peer networks, internet relay chat, podcasts and so
on, which are progressively becoming the primary points of information
dissemination and production; we experience them in the tools and
techniques of political mobilisation in large scale democratic elections
and also in sub-cultural and smaller phenomena, such as flash-mobs and
viral networking; we are incessantly reminded of them in the discourse
around questions of safety and danger, especially with reference to
activities such as internet pornography, child sexual abuse, piracy,
identity theft, etc.</p>
<p>Internet technologies have become so intricately entwined with our
daily practices and experiences that it is necessary to seriously look
at these technologised circuits and the technology mediated identities
thus produced. Increasingly, we see many different disciplines extending
their methodologies and perspectives to include cyberspaces and digital
behaviour in their purview. We already have a new breed of
cyber-psychologists who are looking at the interaction between the human
mind, the sense of the self and digital environments. The law, perhaps
most concerned with questions of property, trade and commerce, is also
examining questions of what it means to be human, with the emergence of
post-human categories like cyborgs, cybrids, and genetically modified
life forms. Anthropologists and sociologists have discovered cyberspace
as a site that significantly influences the behaviour and thought of
individuals as well as communities that come into being in the digital
deliriums of the networked world. Feminism and Gender and Sexuality
Studies have found great theoretical and political interest in the ways
in which the internet technologies change the way we understand our
bodies and practices. New disciplines like Robotics, Artificial
Intelligence, Cybernetiques, Cyborg Studies, etc. are slowly garnering
importance and evolving as the spread of digital technologies increases
exponentially. Cybercultures, a discipline (or perhaps, rather, a
combination of various disciplines interested in studying cyberspaces)
that comes into being because of the rise of Internet Technologies, is
now already institutionalised in many universities and research spaces,
concentrating on understanding the complex forms of interaction,
representation and negotiation that happen in the fluid and rapidly
changing landscape of digital cyberspaces.</p>
<p>As Internet Technologies continue to grow and become a more integral
part of our lifestyles, cultural production, and forms of social
transformation and political mobilisation, there are a few challenges
that we face, especially when writing from and about Asia.</p>
<p>Following the trajectory of the development and spread of internet
technologies, academic attention and research has primarily emerged in
the North-West and slowly penetrated through disciplines and contexts in
other parts of the world. It was only after the 1990s, once the digital
revolution reached the ‘rest of the world’, that interest in and
research on the phenomenon started to feature in studies in Asia.
However, the initial research on and the major interest in the
relationship between internet technologies and society has been
dependent upon the theoretical categories, examples or ideas produced in
primarily Western contexts. This has led to the production of a
narrative where the digital technologies of information and
communication (like the internet) are looked at as being seamlessly
exported from the West to the East, without any attention given to the
geo-political contexts and socio-cultural changes that accompany this
penetration of technologies. There has been a blindsiding of the role
that the State, educational institutions and globalised economic powers
have played in the introduction, the proliferation and the acceptance of
the internet technologies and digitally mediated lifestyles that have
become so commonplace in developing Asia today. Research is oblivious to
the context within which these technologies emerge and the kind of
negotiations and interactions they have with the larger social and
cultural fabric of the region.</p>
<p>One of the main reasons why such a narrative gains currency is that
we have no vocabulary but that granted by Western scholars and
practitioners to talk of the technologies and the technologised
socio-cultural productions that emerge in our own local and regional
contexts. With the rhetoric of globalisation and homogenisation on the
one hand and the logic of the universalising nature of internet
technologies on the other, there has been an un-reflexive theorising of
digital identities, productions and interactions; this makes Asia more
an exemplar for the existing Western ideas and hypotheses than a site
where the drama of these technologies is still unfolding. This process
is aided and abetted by the accelerated urbanisation that seeks to
create nondescript and sterile spaces of consumption and lifestyle that
subscribe to the idea of ‘Global’ or ‘Mega’ cities. Hence, across Asia,
we see the mushrooming of cities and city-states – Singapore, Tokyo,
Shanghai, Taipei, Bangalore – that work at actively erasing histories
and producing these bubbles of consumption and globalisation that are
disturbingly similar to each other.</p>
<p>Such theorising also reinforces the disconnect that Western
Cybercultures has been encouraging between the networked worlds and
‘reality’, which, though affected and changed by the rise of these
technologies, still remains strangely continuous and coherent in the
midst of transformations. Moreover, it contains most theoretical and
political interventions within the zones of urban consumption and
change, thus producing a certain middle-class, self-referential work
that concentrates on these areas, forgetting other crises and problems
that still need attention. It also encourages a view of Asia as a
docile, non-agential site upon which technologies are mapped, despite
the fact that every year in this new century has seen Asian countries
emerging as substantial stake-holders and players in production,
proliferation and consumption of internet technologies. Along with the
liberalisation of markets, the global digital revolution has also seen
boundaries in social norms, cultural mores and political processes being
pushed. We have been witness to formerly closed governments attempting
to restructure themselves in the global world and to an unprecedented
inflation and consumption in the developing Asian countries. We are in
the middle of radical reconstruction of academic processes and market
economies as public private partnerships become the norm. However, these
landmark changes are often ignored or explored from a West-centric
view-point, producing extreme and polarised reactions to the spread of
Internet Technologies and the changes it entails.</p>
<h3>Beyond Euphoria and Fear</h3>
<p>Most responses to the widespread reach of internet technologies and
digital forms have been grounded in euphoria or fear. There is a certain
boundless celebration on the one hand, that proclaims the internet as
forming the new public sphere, heralding the democratic potential and
transparent structures that these networks have within them. The gurus
have looked upon the internet in a ‘convergence theory’ mode where they
announce, severally and variously, the death of earlier cultural
productions like books, movies and music. The ability of digital
technologies to aid innovation and creativity, as well as new forms of
employment and entrepreneurship, has spurred the writing of many books
and essays documenting the process. The roles that internet technologies
have played in granting voice, visibility, and expression to many
underprivileged communities, and the way they offer social and economic
mobility in developing countries, have been unabashedly celebrated.
Governments, civil society practitioners and theoreticians have all
looked upon the internet as the panacea that will help level the
landscape of social justice and political participation around the
world.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, there has also been a construction of ‘ecology of
fear’ around the rise and spread of internet technologies. Massive
global alarm exists around questions of easy access to pornography and
other sexual behaviours online, not only for young adults but also for
mature audiences of potential behaviour addicts. Online gambling has
emerged as a huge concern and has been at the centre of much debate.
Cyber-bullying on social networking systems, and cyber-terrorism on a
much larger scale, have shocked us as new technologies get implicated in
actions that have disastrous results both at the individual and the
community level. With the tightening Intellectual Property regimes,
there has also been great debate around digital piracy and the ability
of the internet peer-to-peer networks to encourage acts of theft and
copyright infringement. As the world becomes more digitised, attacks on
sensitive information by crackers and scammers are also on the increase
in various forms. The internet has been looked at with growing concern
and alarm by parents, educators, policy-makers and corporate entities,
who are all deeply involved in assuring safety, creating opportunities
and catering to the needs of citizens and consumers.</p>
<p>This simultaneously celebratory and pathologised approach often
cripples research in the field of Internet and Society, because it
constructs technology mediated practices and identities as at once
universal (hence general) and unique (hence particular). Research that
emerges is, consequently, confined to producing case-studies explaining
what happens in each particular incident online and is unable to examine
either the conditions within which the technologies emerge or the
contexts that circumscribe certain socio-cultural behaviour. Such
research, instead of examining the aesthetics and politics of technology
mediated identities and practices, keeps on documenting the extremely
fluid and rapidly changing landscape of the digital world – documenting
fads, evolutions, innovations and the smaller changes therein – thus
missing the forest for the leaf; the research ends up in concentrating
on the ‘what happened’ rather than treating these happenings as
symptomatic of larger paradigmatic changes that they often hint at.</p>
<h3>Internet and the Convergence Theory</h3>
<p>This is further complicated by the fact that many theorists and
analysts seem to treat the internet more as a platform for convergence
of old media forms in new digital packages. Such a view of internet
technologies and digital cyberspaces leads to the populist descriptions
of blogs as extensions of personal diaries, of digital cinema as a
continuation of the celluloid image, of digitally morphed pictures as
more sophisticated versions of earlier experiments with still images, of
social networking systems as evolution of pre-existing social
structures, of MMORPGs (Massive Multiple Online Role Playing Games) as
merely complex forms of gaming. These descriptions fail to take into
account that internet technologies, especially digital cyberspaces,
while indeed affecting and transforming existing forms of media and
cultural production, also lead to the emergence of new and interesting
forms of expression, consumption and interaction.</p>
<p>Just as the field of Cybercultures has only a vocabulary granted by
the West, it also lacks a vocabulary that is its own – most research in
Cybercultures, especially in emerging information societies, relies on
categories, concepts and ideas that were relevant for earlier popular
cultural forms like books and movies. Transplanting categories of
authorship, production, consumption, distribution, etc., and trying to
map them onto the digital world leads to severe confusion and is a
futile exercise. For example, if we look at the discourse around the
online user generated encyclopaedia – Wikipedia - and use the earlier
existing categories of an author, a reader, an editor and an
institutional structure of producing knowledge, we immediately realise
that the discussion cannot be sustained; the categories presuppose other
forms of writing and production which are not as relevant in the
digital worlds. Similarly, legal categories like possession, ownership,
labour and copying are also being made redundant by the advent of the
internet. As these categories fail to capture the new digital worlds,
they also fail to explain the human-technology relationship that the
field of Internet and Society seeks to explore. Despite investment in
terms of efforts, time and money, much of the research becomes redundant
because it does not have the vocabulary or the idea that analysis of
these new digital spaces entails.</p>
<p>The imagination of the convergent multimedia internet distracts from
the fact that what appear to be earlier historic forms like text and
moving images are, in the context of cyberspace and the Web 2.0
revolution, actually new forms that need their own vocabulary that does
not carry the baggage of earlier popular technologies. It is time to
move away from talking about the Internet and its effects in analogies
and to seek and create an independent and effective language that takes
into account the mechanics and the potentials of the Internet
revolution.</p>
<h3>Institutional Spaces: Internet & Society</h3>
<p>It is within such contexts and to address questions like these that
institutional spaces emerge in the field of Internet and Society. As
more and more disciplines start focusing on internet technologies and
their intersections with areas as diverse as identity, sexuality,
governance, cultural production, political mobilisation and social
transformation, institutions in this space are faced with the daunting
question of what to concentrate on and how to define the scope of their
activities. Many global organisations and interventions narrowly define
the field through their own disciplinary positions and perspectives. The
Berkman Centre of Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School, for
example, examines the law and its intersections with the new internet
technologies and practices. Sarai - a new media organisation in India -
concentrates on art and cultural production as affected by digital
technologies and practices. The Association of Internet Researchers
builds a network of multi-disciplinary researchers and practitioners
across the globe to meet annually for workshops and conferences and also
share ideas through a mailing list, concentrating on existing phenomena
on the World Wide Web. Several Communications and Media Studies schools
also have established labs and workshops that focus on the internet
technologies from their disciplinary grounding.</p>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society, a newly established research and
advocacy centre founded in Bangalore, India, makes a shift from these
discipline-bound approaches to Internet and Society, and inaugurates a
multi-disciplinary, interactive space for theorists, researchers,
students, practitioners, activists, artists and the larger public to
initiate a dialogue in the field of Internet and Society. Rather than
adopting a disciplinary framework, it takes the model of Asian Cultural
Studies, seeking to produce a sustainable scholarship and methodology to
talk of the relationship between emergent Internet technologies and the
changes they produce in the Global South. It sets out to critically
engage with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and new
pedagogic practices through multidisciplinary research, intervention
and collaboration, to understand and affect the shape and form of the
internet and its relationship with the political, cultural, and social
milieu of our times.</p>
<p>At CIS, we recognise the contexts within which this field has
developed and emerged and have initiated many programmes, projects and
structures to deal with the questions that this essay has charted.
Drawing from the pedagogy and frameworks developed within Cultural
Studies in Asia, the research at CIS investigates the local, the
contextual, the emergent and the negotiated nature of digital spaces and
internet technologies at three levels – At the national level, looking
to produce models of research by examining the history, the politics,
the growth and the significance of internet technologies in the context
of globalised India; At the regional level, focusing on the similarities
that global urbanisation and digitisation are bringing to the emerging
information societies in Asia and the acknowledging the dissimilarities
that need to be addressed in each of these societies; At the global
level, engaging with a much larger South-South discourse that
strengthens the move to approach internet technologies as integral to
our ways of living rather than of foreign import. Such an approach
allows us to escape the often restrictive constraints of cybercultures
discourse that stays within the domains of internet technologies and
produces disconnect between Internet and Society. Instead, we expand the
scope of internet technologies to see their relationships with larger
political, social and cultural economies, lifestyles and consumption
patterns, and identity and transformation structures in the rapidly
changing world. In the first two years, for example, we are investing a
large part of our research energies into producing the Histories of the
Internets in India – inviting different disciplines and standpoints to
trace the diverse historically important and culturally significant
growth of Internet Technologies in India, thus de-homogenising the
internet as well as the discourse within cybercultures.</p>
<p>The policy and advocacy work at the Centre for Internet and Society,
also contributes hugely to this localisation and narrativisation of the
internet in India, by recognising the law and the State as the largest
stakeholders in the growth and proliferation of these technologies. We
have initiated campaigns and projects examining national laws regarding
intellectual property rights regimes, piracy, e-commerce and security,
accessibility and disability, to see how they are subject to
modification with the growth of digital technologies. Original field
work and ethnography with the consumers, practitioners, stakeholders and
law enforcers about the nature of technology, its role in the larger
imagination of the globalised Indian State, and the need to make
sensitive and informed decisions, has already been initiated, along with
dissemination platforms like workshops, seminars, meetings and
conferences.</p>
<p>Keeping in tune with our model of collaboration and consultation, the
Society Members have also helped us generate a healthy momentum by
representing us and helping us find resources around the globe. Prof.
Subbiah Arunachalam has been travelling across Asia, Europe and North
America, at international policy and activist forums, promoting Open
Access to information and knowledge. Lawrence Liang has been involved in
teaching both at the local and international levels, apart from
presenting original and influential research examining the relationship
that internet technologies have with questions of knowledge production,
ownership and the law. Achal Prabala has been actively working with the
Wikimedia foundation to facilitate user participation in knowledge
production online. Atul Ramachandran has been working on developing
mobile internet platforms for sharing news and information within the
underprivileged communities in India. Vibodh Parthsarthy has been
designing academic courses and encouraging research in the fields of
internet technologies, governance and democracy.</p>
<p>Because these questions have a much larger regional relevance – with
the increasing description of Asia as the Mecca of piracy and digital
infractions – we are also in the process of starting projects that do a
survey of the laws around intellectual property rights, innovation and
access in the Asian region, with Sunil Abraham (Director – Policy)
guiding a team of in-house researchers and external collaborators.
Cross-boundary research and analysis has also been initiated in terms of
dialogues and comparative study of technology, space and globalisation,
initiated by my seven month residential project in Shanghai, where we
are examining the conditions of technologisation that make global spaces
possible, in countries like China and India. Apart from these, the team
of seven people has been making interventions in international
workshops, conferences and forums, to start dialogues and discussions in
the field of Internet and Society.</p>
<p>A significant effort has been spent in starting awareness for the
public – from the first documentation on our website of work in progress
by our research and policy collaborators to regular contributions to
local media sources to organisation of public talks and events – which
is aimed at demystifying the internet technologies and giving more
ownership and assurance to a larger public. Jimmy Wales, the founder of
Wikipedia, gave a public talk on freedom, expression and the internet,
citing anecdotes and examples from the phenomenal success and growth of
Wikipedia. In a different media, independent film maker Jamie King
screened his movies on the piracy cultures and innovation, in Bangalore,
sparking conversations and debates about copyright, creative commons
and the domain of cultural expression. Students and visiting artists
from different countries, through the Shrishti School of Art Design and
the efforts of Zeenath Hassan, came together at CIS for a discussion on
fear and gender in public space and how digital technologies contribute
to it. The discussion feels timely because only a month later, India saw
the right wing cultural police tyrannising Bangalore and other parts of
Karnataka, by perpetrating acts of brutal violence against women who
they saw as progressive or in defiance of the right wing codes of
decorum and behaviour. CIS was an active part of the ‘Pink Chaddi’ and
‘Reclaim the Night’ campaigneering, mobilising and participation at a
local and national level, as a response to these acts of regressive
violence, using digital environments and platforms to garner support and
‘recruit’ people into showing their protest against such fundamental
ideas and practices.</p>
<p>Moreover, in order to develop and establish a more accessible
vocabulary and understanding both within research, higher education and
practice of internet and society questions, CIS has been investing in
building national and regional networks of scholars, students and
theorists in different disciplines to come and discuss the area. Courses
have been designed and administered for undergraduate, post graduate
and research students, in the disciplines of social sciences, management
and media studies, journalism and communication studies, cultural
studies etc. Networking with institutional and university spaces like
the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance at the Jamia Millia Islamia
in Delhi, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, Centre for the
Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, Christ University, Bangalore,
Centre for Media and Culture Studies, at the Tata Institute of Social
Sciences in Mumbai. We are also in conversation with regional spaces
like the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the Shanghai
University, The Open Source Initiative, International Development
Research Centre, Hivos and the Asia Scholarship Foundation in Thailand,
for extending our regional and global networks.</p>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, is less than a year
old and has already embarked upon so many different projects, found a
wide range of collaborations, initiated diverse enquiries and has
received the support and interest of a varied and credible list of
organisations. This warm reception and enthused interest, is as much a
sign of the evolving and dynamic nature of collaboration and
consultation in Asia, as it is of the need for interdisciplinary spaces
like The Centre for Internet and Society, in our times. We see our rapid
progress as symptomatic of a much larger need to establish more
institutional spaces that can cater to the widely expanding horizon of
the field of Internet and Society. While it is indeed laudable that
different disciplines have already started showing interest in studying
and analysing these often invisible links between Internet and Society,
it is also now time, to start looking at technology as more than just an
object or platform of study. We can already see how, in the foreseeable
future, the internet technologies are only going to become more
ubiquitous and central to the crucial mechanics of survival and living.
Spaces like CIS help us look at technologies like the internet, as not
merely tools and techniques, but as entwined in the politics, aesthetics
and economies of the time and spaces we live in.</p>
<h3>About the Author</h3>
<p>Nishant Shah is the co-founder and Director for Research at the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.cis-india.org">Centre for Internet and Society</a>, Bangalore. Nishant’s doctoral work examines the construction of
technosocial subjectivities in India, at the intersections of digital
technology, cyborg identities and globalised spaces. Nishant is the
recipient of the Asia Scholarship Foundation’s grant which places him in
Shanghai for a project on IT and the globalisation of Asian cities.</p>
<p>Read the original published by Inter-Asia Cultural Studies <a class="external-link" href="http://www.meworks.net/meworksv2a/meworks/page1.aspx?no=202672&step=1&newsno=19396">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/internet-society-challenges-next-steps'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/internet-society-challenges-next-steps</a>
</p>
No publishernishantInternet GovernanceResearch2011-12-23T05:56:15ZBlog EntryIntermediary Liability in India: Chilling Effects on Free Expression on the Internet
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/chilling-effects-on-free-expression-on-internet
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society in partnership with Google India conducted the Google Policy Fellowship 2011. This was offered for the first time in Asia Pacific as well as in India. Rishabh Dara was selected as a Fellow and researched upon issues relating to freedom of expression. The results of the paper demonstrate that the ‘Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011’ notified by the Government of India on April 11, 2011 have a chilling effect on free expression.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Intermediaries are widely recognised as essential cogs in the wheel of exercising the right to freedom of expression on the Internet. Most major jurisdictions around the world have introduced legislations for limiting intermediary liability in order to ensure that this wheel does not stop spinning. With the 2008 amendment of the Information Technology Act 2000, India joined the bandwagon and established a ‘notice and takedown’ regime for limiting intermediary liability.<br /><br />On the 11th of April 2011, the Government of India notified the ‘Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011’ that prescribe, amongst other things, guidelines for administration of takedowns by intermediaries. The Rules have been criticised extensively by both the national and the international media. The media has projected that the Rules, contrary to the objective of promoting free expression, seem to encourage privately administered injunctions to censor and chill free expression. On the other hand, the Government has responded through press releases and assured that the Rules in their current form do not violate the principle of freedom of expression or allow the government to regulate content.<br /><br />This study has been conducted with the objective of determining whether the criteria, procedure and safeguards for administration of the takedowns as prescribed by the Rules lead to a chilling effect on online free expression. In the course of the study, takedown notices were sent to a sample comprising of 7 prominent intermediaries and their response to the notices was documented. Different policy factors were permuted in the takedown notices in order to understand at what points in the process of takedown, free expression is being chilled.<br /><br />The results of the paper clearly demonstrate that the Rules indeed have a chilling effect on free expression. Specifically, the Rules create uncertainty in the criteria and procedure for administering the takedown thereby inducing the intermediaries to err on the side of caution and over-comply with takedown notices in order to limit their liability; and as a result suppress legitimate expressions. Additionally, the Rules do not establish sufficient safeguards to prevent misuse and abuse of the takedown process to suppress legitimate expressions.<br /><br />Of the 7 intermediaries to which takedown notices were sent, 6 intermediaries over-complied with the notices, despite the apparent flaws in them. From the responses to the takedown notices, it can be reasonably presumed that not all intermediaries have sufficient legal competence or resources to deliberate on the legality of an expression. Even if such intermediary has sufficient legal competence, it has a tendency to prioritize the allocation of its legal resources according to the commercial importance of impugned expressions. Further, if such subjective determination is required to be done in a limited timeframe and in the absence of adequate facts and circumstances, the intermediary mechanically (without application of mind or proper judgement) complies with the takedown notice.<br /><br />The results also demonstrate that the Rules are procedurally flawed as they ignore all elements of natural justice. The third party provider of information whose expression is censored is not informed about the takedown, let alone given an opportunity to be heard before or after the takedown. There is also no recourse to have the removed information put-back or restored. The intermediary is under no obligation to provide a reasoned decision for rejecting or accepting a takedown notice.</p>
<p>The Rules in their current form clearly tilt the takedown mechanism in favour of the complainant and adversely against the creator of expression.</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>The research highlights the need to:<br />
<ul>
<li> increase the safeguards against misuse of the privately administered takedown regime</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>reduce the uncertainty in the criteria for administering the takedown</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> reduce the uncertainty in the procedure for administering the takedown</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> include various elements of natural justice in the procedure for administering the takedown</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>replace the requirement for subjective legal determination by intermediaries with an objective test</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/intermediary-liability-in-india.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Intermediary Liability in India">Click</a> to download the report [PDF, 406 Kb]</p>
<hr />
<h3>Appendix 2</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/intermediary-liability-and-foe-executive-summary.pdf" class="internal-link">Intermediary Liability and Freedom of Expression — Executive Summary</a> (PDF, 263 Kb)</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/counter-proposal-by-cis-draft-it-intermediary-due-diligence-and-information-removal-rules-2012.odt" class="internal-link">Counter-proposal by the Centre for Internet and Society: Draft Information Technology (Intermediary Due Diligence and Information Removal) Rules, 2012</a> (Open Office Document, 231 Kb)</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/counter-proposal-by-cis-draft-it-intermediary-due-diligence-and-information-removal-rules-2012.pdf" class="internal-link">Counter-proposal by the Centre for Internet and Society: Draft Information Technology (Intermediary Due Diligence and Information Removal) Rules, 2012</a> (PDF, 422 Kb)</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>The above documents have been sent to:</p>
<ol>
<li>Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development and Minister of Communications and Information Technology</li>
<li>Shri Milind Murli Deora, Minister of State of Communications and Information Technology</li>
<li>Shri Sachin Pilot, Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology</li>
<li>Dr. Anita Bhatnagar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology</li>
<li>Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology</li>
<li>Dr. Gulshan Rai, Scientist G & Group Coordinator, Director General, ICERT, Controller Of Certifying, Authorities and Head of Division, Cyber Appellate Tribunal </li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/chilling-effects-on-free-expression-on-internet'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/chilling-effects-on-free-expression-on-internet</a>
</p>
No publisherRishabh DaraFreedom of Speech and ExpressionPublic AccountabilityInternet GovernanceResearchFeaturedIntermediary LiabilityCensorship2012-12-14T10:22:24ZBlog EntryInterface Intimacies
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/interface-intimacies/interface-intimacies
<b>Sherry Turkle, in her book Alone Together, talked about how the digital technologies, replacing interface time with face-time, are slowly alienating us from our social networks. There has been an increasing amount of anxiety around how people in immersive and ubiquitous computing and web environments are living lives which are connected online but not connected with their social and political contexts.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>While there are instances and examples of mobilisation, social networking meets, group formations, etc. there is a growing worry that on an everyday basis, we live our lives more in the company of gadgets, ambience technologies and digital platforms than with people.</p>
<p>At the same time, users of technologies often express their engagement with technologies in affective terms, where they seem to form intimate relationships with their technologies. The interfaces that we see all around us, constantly deflect our attention, emotions and desires on to different surfaces, creating flattened universes with the promises of deep immersion. Especially as the internet becomes mobile and digital interfaces become ubiquitous – from large scale billboards to small wearable devices; from sites of work to spaces of pleasure – there is a new form of intimacy which is shaped, designed, experienced, and lived through interfaces.</p>
<p>The digital interfaces become polymorphous sites of affection, love, desire, aspiration, seduction, transgression and stability. The interface is growing so integral to our everyday lives, that we start thinking of them as metaphors through which we understand ourselves and the world that we connect to. We talk about ourselves as systems that need to be ‘upgraded’ or ‘connected’. We think of the world as a network through which we ‘recycle’ our lives and ‘connect’ to our ‘peers’. The interfaces, are simultaneously opaque and transparent – They allow us to connect to the digital other, crossing boundaries of geography and time, and they also deny us access to the actually mechanics which bring the interfaces to life.</p>
<p><em>Interface Intimacies</em> is a research cluster that is interested in digging deep into interfaces, to examine peoples’ relationships with the digital interfaces around them. What are the affective relationships that people have with their interfaces? What goes into anthropomorphising an interface? What are the larger politics of labour, performance and ownership that surround interface design? What are the ways in which people simulate presence and connections through their interfaces? How is the human presumed in Computer-Human interface design? What aesthetic and political moves are we witnessing with the rise of interface mediated publics? What and who is made opaque when interfaces become transparent? When interfaces get distributed, what are the possibilities and potential for art, theory and practice to move into new forms of politics?</p>
<p>These are the kind of questions that this research cluster seeks to address with a special focus on Asia. The intention is to build a knowledge network of researchers from different disciplines – Art, Architecture, Computer Human Interaction Design, Digital Humanities, New Media Theory, Urban Planning, Public Infrastructure Design, Software Studies, Interface Design etc. – to enter into a dialogue around Interfaces and how they define contemporary conditions of life in their contexts.</p>
<p>The project hopes to organise a workshop exploring these ideas leading to an edited anthology and a special journal issue of peer-reviewed academic scholarship. The project hopes to kick off in February 2012 and take about 18 months till completion.</p>
<p>Collaborators: Audrey Yue (Melbourne University), Namita Malhotra (ALF)</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/interface-intimacies/interface-intimacies'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/blogs/interface-intimacies/interface-intimacies</a>
</p>
No publisherAudrey Yue and Namita A MalhotraInterface IntimaciesNet CulturesResearchers at WorkResearch2015-10-24T13:40:18ZBlog EntryInquilab 2.0? Reflections on Online Activism in India*
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/revolution-2.0/digiactivprop
<b>Research and activism on the Internet in India remain fledgling in spite the media hype, says Anja Kovacs in her blog post that charts online activism in India as it has emerged. </b>
<p>Since the late 1990s when protesters against the WTO in Seattle used a variety of new technologies to revolutionize their ways of protesting so as to further their old goals in the information age, much has been made of the possibilities that new technologies seem to offer social movements. The emergence of Web 2.0 seems to have only multiplied the possibilities of building on the Internet's democratising potentials, so widely heralded since the rise of the commercial Internet in the 1990s, and since then, the use of social media for social change has received widespread media attention worldwide. From Spain to Mexico, activists used the Internet as a central tool in their efforts to organise and mobilise – be it to express their stand against a war in Iraq, against a Costa Rican Free Trade Agreement with the United States, to mobilise support for the Zapatistas of Chiapas, or more recently, to push for a change of guard in Iran.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In 2009, when Nisha Susan launched the Pink Chaddi campaign, the 'ICT for Revolution' buzz finally seemed to have reached India as well. Phenomenally successful in terms of the attention it generated for the issue it sought to address, the campaign sought to protest in a humorous fashion against attacks on women pub-goers in Karnataka by Hindu right wing elements. In only a matter of weeks, Facebook associated with the campaign – 'The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women', which gathered tens of thousands of members. It was ultimately killed off when Susan's Facebook account was cracked by rivals. The campaign was perhaps the singular most successful account of ‘digital activism’ in India so far, and an impressive one by all measures.</p>
<p>The creativity of the campaign should not come as a surprise to those familiar with the long and rich history of activism for social change in India. Organised social actors have been critical influences in the emergence of new social identities as well as on critical policy junctures from colonial times onwards, developing a fascinating and unmistakably Indian language of protest in the process (see Kumar 1997 and Zubaan 2006 for examples from feminist movement).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As Raka Ray and Mary Faizod Katzenstein (2006) have pointed out, in the post-independence period, such organised activism for long was connected by at least verbal – if not actual – commitment to the common master frame of poverty alleviation and the ending of inequality and injustice, and this irrespective of the particular issues groups were working on. Since the late 1980s, however, a number of far-reaching changes have taken place in India. This period has been marked by the definite demise of secular democratic socialism as the dominant script of the Indian state and its simultaneous replacement by neo-liberalism. Moreover, in the same period, Hindu nationalism as an ideology too has gone from strength to strength, with only in the last five years a slowdown in its ascendancy. While for many traditional social movements of the Left the commitment to social justice remains, in this context a space has undeniably been created for groups with a very different agenda. The considerable popularity of organisations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, both Hindu nationalist organisations, are prime indications of these transformations. However, the fragmentation of the activist space did not only benefit reactionary elements of society. The final emergence into visibility of a well-articulated middle class queer politics, for example, too, may well in many ways have been facilitated by the evolutions of the past 20 years. Although this point has been mostly elaborated in the context of the US (Hennessey 2000), in India, too, this seems to ring true at least in some senses.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The general shape-shifting of activism in India since the 1990s is not the only contextual factor that deserves obvious consideration in a study like this. In addition, since independence a close link has been forged in policy and people's imagination alike between science and technology on the one hand and development paradigms in India on the other. Not everyone agrees on the benefits of this association: all too frequently, the struggles of grassroots social movements are directed precisely against the outcomes or consequences of a supposedly 'scientifically' inspired development policy. The neo-liberal era is no exception to this: as Carol Upadhya (2004) has shown quite convincingly, the economic reform policies that are at the heart of neo-liberalism have been inspired first and foremost by the information technology sector in India, which has also in turn been their first beneficiary. And today as earlier, Asha Achuthan (2009) has pointed out, in the resistance to these policies, the subaltern who is the agent of grassroots social movements is frequently associated with a pre-technological purity that needs to be maintained in order to resist discourses and material consequences of technological change themselves. In popular discourses, at least, attitudes towards technology inevitably come in a binary mode.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Seeing the context in which digital activism in India has emerged, a number of pressing questions regarding the new forms that even progressive activism takes as it adopts new tools and methods, then, immediately offer themselves. Leaving aside the activities of right wing groups in India, who are the actors that occupy this space for activism and what are their relationship with offline activists groups? Which are the issues online activism seeks to address, and what are its master narratives, goals and audiences? Where does it locate problems in today's society, and what kind of solutions does it propose? How does it posit its relation to the global/international and to the offline-local; to dominant understandings of science and technology, development, or desirable social change? How are these understandings reflected in online activism, including in the choice and use of technologies but also in the discourses that are deployed and the audiences that are targeted? What are its methods, its strategies, its ways of organising? What role is played by organisations, collectives, networks, individuals? In what ways is the field marked by the conjuncture at which it emerged? Do those who first occupy (most of) it also set the parameters? Or do its tools fashion online activism's very conditions of existence?</p>
<p>The value of greater insight into these issues is not immediately apparent to all. For one thing, some would argue that, as connectivity in the emerging IT superpower remains limited, the importance of these questions to those concerned with social justice in India is really marginal. It is true that while commercial Internet services have been available in the country since 1995, for long the number of connections remained abysmally low. Even today, the number of subscriptions has only just crossed the 14 million mark, and barely half of these are broadband subscriptions, severely limiting the usefulness of a wide range of potential online activism tools (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India 2009 – figures are for the second quarter of 2009). According to I-Cube 2008 report (IMRB and Internet and Mobile Association of India 2008), there were an estimated 57 million claimed urban Internet users in the country in September 2008 and an estimated 42 million active urban Internet users. Corresponding figures for Internet users in rural areas in March 2008 were 5.5 million and 3.3 million respectively. Almost 88 million Indians were believed to be computer-literate at the time. Clearly, then, online activists are a tiny section of an already fairly small, privileged group, and at least in a direct sense, the availability of new tools is thus indeed unlikely to affect all activists or activism in the country.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Some of my own starting points while embarking on this study may seem to further give fuel to arguments against the value of this research. The idea of investigating online activism in India as it emerges followed from my observation – and a troubling one at that for me – that so far, and despite all the hype internationally, more traditional grassroots movements in India seem to have been slow to embrace the Internet as an integral part of their awareness raising and mobilisation strategies. Although they may attract the largest numbers of activists offline, the many so-called 'new' social movements that have emerged since the 1970s and that remain important actors pushing for social change seem most conspicuous by their relative absence online. This is especially true of those critical of current development paradigms and practices: movements fighting against dams, special economic zones or land acquisitions for “development” purposes seem visible only in relatively fragmented and generally marginal ways. Instead, middle-class actors addressing middle class audiences on middle class issues seem to be the flag bearers of Internet activism in India – the Pink Chaddi campaign or VoteReport India, a “collaborative citizen-driven election monitoring platform for the 2009 Indian general elections” (see votereport.in/blog/about) perhaps among the most well-known illustrations of this argument.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Both points are valid, and yet, while inquilab it may not be, to conclude from this that the study of online activism automatically is of only very limited value would be short-sighted. Indeed, even if the hypothesis that Internet activism is dominated by middle class actors who address middle class concerns is validated (note that in any case considerable segments of the leadership and cadre of grassroots movements, too, tend to come from middle class backgrounds), this is likely to affect all those interested in affecting social change, even if perhaps in varying degrees. For one thing, it would mean that as the public sphere is reshaped, important new quarters of its landscape are inhabited only be the elite, contradicting the still widely popular and even cherished belief (at least among those who are familiar with the Internet) that the Internet is a democratising force. Instead, the proportional visibility in the public sphere of dissenting viewpoints on development, science, neo-liberalism, progress, the state will only decrease. In addition, then, it may also indicate a further refracting of the activism landscape and its master narratives and methods, where different segments of activists increasingly need to vie with each other for recognition and validation of their respective understandings of political processes and of appropriate forms of engaging with these. As such battles intensify it is not too risky to make a prognosis on who will be the main losers. If, in an era in which the old activist master narrative of justice for all remains under strident attack, civil society has come to occupy at the expense of political society (a useful distinction first made by Parth Chatterjee in Chatterjee 2004) a whole arena of activism, this would indeed need to be a cause of concern for all. In order to gauge its ramifications, it is however, crucial to first of all understand in which ways and to what extent this statement rings true.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The current study may well not be able to fully develop all the above and other theoretical strands as they emerge in the course of this research. But what it does promise to do is to outline the breaks and continuities that mark the make-up, strategies, audiences and goals of those who embrace the new possibilities that the Internet provides at the same time as the information age so fundamentally reconstitutes our society. As a starting point for the analysis, this research will therefore, attempt to map the online activism that has taken place in India so far, focusing more specifically on the forms of activism that leave a public record on the Internet (a more extensive debate of various definitional issues is in order – I will take this up in a separate blog post, to follow later, however). At the core of the research will be the construction of a database pertaining to online activism in India with links to email lists, blogs, Facebook groups, popular hash tags and the like. Although much of the activism I will be looking at will be centred around what has come to be known as 'social media', my focus is thus broader than that, as older tools such as e-petitions, discussion boards and list servs, too, will be included in this study. The aim is to be as comprehensive as possible, although for the database to ever be complete will, of course, be an impossibility. Moreover, since only data available in the English language will be collected, the database will automatically have its limitations. The database will be further complemented by interviews with activists who have been involved in key online campaigns and, where appropriate, case studies. It is the data thus gathered that will form the basis of our analysis.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>While the scope of the study is thus admittedly ambitious, the fact that online activism in India is a fairly recent affair – little happened before 2002, and it has only really taken off in the past three years or so – makes this venture not an impossible one. The contribution I hope to make through this research is not simply to work on the Indian context, however. Despite the media hype surrounding the possibilities of the Internet for social change, research on the Internet and activism more generally remains limited so far. The paucity is perhaps particularly acute where activism and social media are concerned (Postill 2009). Moreover, the work that does exist, I argue, tends to look mostly at activists' use of one particular tool, for example YouTube, or Facebook. Sight is thus generally lost of the larger cyberecology of communication in which this use must be located, preventing an opportunity for genuine insight into the ways in which activism is reconfigured from materialising. By using a much wider lens, this research hopes to make a beginning to correcting this lacuna. It is in this way that the importance of the changes that are underway in the Indian activist landscape as elsewhere can be appropriately assessed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><em><strong>*
Inquilab means revolution</strong></em></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><strong>References</strong></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Achuthan, Asha (2009).
Re-Wiring Bodies. Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.
<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/rewiring/review">http://www.cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/rewiring/review</a>,
last accessed on 15 January 2010.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Chatterjee, Partha
(2004). <em>The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular
Politics in Most of the World</em>. Delhi: Permanent Black.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Hennessy, Rosemary
(2000). <em>Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism</em>.
London: Routledge.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">IMRB and Internet and
Mobile Association of India (2008). I-Cube 2008: Facilitating Citins,
Altins, Fortins (Faster, Higher, Stronger) Internet in India. IMRB
and Internet and Mobile Association of India, Mumbai. <a href="http://www.iamai.in/">www.iamai.in/</a>,
last accessed on 15 January 2010.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Kumar, Radha (1997). <em>The
History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's
Rights and Feminism in India 1800-1990</em>. New Delhi: Zubaan.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Postill, John (2009).
Thoughts on Anthropology and Social Media Activism.
<em>Media/Anthropology</em>,
<a href="http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/thoughts-on-anthropology-and-social-media-activism/">http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/thoughts-on-anthropology-and-social-media-activism/</a><a href="http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/thoughts-on-anthropology-and-social-media-activism/">,
</a>last accessed on 15 January 2010.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Ray, Raka and Mary
Fainsod Katzenstein (2006). Introduction: In the Beginning, There Was
the Nehruvian State. In Raka Ray and Mary Fainsod Katzenstein
(eds.). <em>Social Movements in India: Poverty, Power, and Politics.</em>
New Delhi: Oxford University Press.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (2009). The Indian Telecom Services Performance
Indicators, April-June 2009. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India,
New Delhi. <a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/">www.trai.gov.in</a><a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/">,
</a>last accessed on 15 January 2010.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Upadhya, Carol (2004). A
New Transnational Capitalist Class: Capital Flows, Business Networks
and Entrepreneurs in the Indian Software Industry. <em>Economic and
Political Weekly</em>, 39(48): 5141-5151.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Zubaan (2006). <em>Poster
Women: A Visual History of the Women's Movement in India</em>. New
Delhi: Zubaan.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/revolution-2.0/digiactivprop'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/revolution-2.0/digiactivprop</a>
</p>
No publishernishanthistories of internet in IndiaSocial mediaDigital ActivismCyberspaceAccess to Medicineinternet and societyResearchCybercultures2011-08-02T09:25:30ZBlog EntryInformation Structures for Citizen Participation - Janaagraha
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-structures-janaagraha
<b>In our efforts to understand how change is conceptualized in the digital era, we find a growing emphasis on the role of effective information structures to empower the citizen and the government. We interview Joylita Saldanha from Janaagraha to answer questions around information, participation and e-governance. </b>
<pre><strong>CHANGE-MAKER:</strong>Interview with Joylita Saldanha
<strong>ORGANIZATION</strong>: Janaagraha - I change my city
<strong>METHOD OF CHANGE: </strong>Online platforms to enable communication between the citizen and the government.
<strong>STRATEGY OF CHANGE:</strong>Empower the government -create resources to help them do what the citizens expect them to do.</pre>
<p align="justify">10 posts into the project, we are identifying the most outstanding patterns between processes of change. One of the themes that comes up often is<strong>: information management.</strong> How do we translate data to information, and information to knowledge? What is the best way to produce, consume and disseminate information? How does visible information lead to better mechanisms of participation in democracy? As the topic recurs in my conversations with change-makers, I have even reflected about the way that I display the research outputs of this project, and have adapted the format of these articles to make them as interactive and accessible as possible. Why? Because we believe this research is an entry point for a wider conversation around different ways to understand ‘making change’, and in order to produce this knowledge we need different actors to take part in the conversation. Hence, the format of our information must be (visually) persuasive enough to sway the readers into at least reading the article, and encourage their engagement, interaction and participation.</p>
<p align="justify">This is also the rationale behind digital information platforms, including <strong>e-governance.</strong> Governments, authorities and organizations are devising new ways of presenting their information and making their services more accessible and interactive for the public. According to the <strong>UNESCO’</strong>s <a href="http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3038&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html">definition</a>, e-governance is the public sector’s use of information and communication technology with the aim of:</p>
<ol><li>Improving information and service delivery</li><li>Encouraging citizen participation in decision-making processes</li><li>Making governments accountable, transparent and effective<br /></li></ol>
<div align="center"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9lk9SDji2kk" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">What is e-governance?<br />By the IDRC and IdeaCorp</div>
<p align="justify">India has its own <strong>National e-governance plan</strong> in place. It’s ambitious in scope:</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 align="center">“a massive country-wide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is evolving, and large-scale digitization of records is taking place to enable easy, reliable access over the internet. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to citizens”. </h3>
</blockquote>
<div align="center"> Read more on the plan <a href="http://india.gov.in/e-governance/national-e-governance-plan">here</a>.</div>
<p align="justify"><br />However most of the online services offered on this platform are focused on tax returns, citizenship/visa/PAN/TAN applications or train bookings. The communication direction remains uni-lateral, going strictly from <strong>government to citizen</strong>. They also host a portal for citizen grievances (link below), in an effort to also tackle<strong> citizen to government </strong>communication. While the portal has some fancy tools like a 4 colour palette to customize the theme of the site; the interface seems outdated and the ‘Guidelines for Redress of Public Grievances’ has not been updated since 2010.</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Communication</strong><br /></td>
<td align="center"><strong>Government to Citizen</strong></td>
<td align="center"><strong>Citizen to government<br /></strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><strong>Portal</strong><br /></td>
<td align="center">Aadhar Kiosk<br /></td>
<td align="center">Portal for Public Grievances<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><strong>Link</strong></td>
<td align="center">http://resident.uidai.net.in/</td>
<td align="center">http://pgportal.gov.in/</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><strong>Interface</strong></td>
<td><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/AdhaarKiosk2.jpg/image_preview" alt="ak2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="ak2" /></td>
<td><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/PublicGrievances2.jpg/image_preview" alt="pg2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="pg2" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p align="justify">At this point, I should probably add much needed disclaimers: my online search might not have been exhaustive enough. There might be other e-governance services (hosted by the government for citizens) I did not cover in my quick google run, or as a foreigner I might be unaware of the right places to look. Having said that, I have been trying to use my newbie experience throughout these posts, to explore the digital immigrant from a different angle. The digital immigrant is not only who was born before the 1990s, but also includes those of us who are technologically challenged and for whom the more complex sites are still wild, undiscovered territories. If these information structures are not accessible enough for someone who intentionally scouted for them for about an hour, it will not be for the user who does not have the time to spare and needs a more reliable and resilient bridge to connect with the government. This problem is at the core of civic participation and as a result, change actors are devising new modes to interfere, facilitate and engage with government information.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Information and Urban Governance<br /></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="discreet" dir="ltr">(This section will be revised)</p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The question on information management is key in the analysis of citizen action in emerging information societies. This project acknowledged from its inception that the information flow of networks is changing and shaping the dynamics of state-citizen-market relationships (Shah, 2014). I will refer to Yochai
Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks, to revisit the information economy, as it has been a recurrent reference in my analyses throughout the project, and it will be a useful benchmark to cross-reference findings in the future. On this opportunity, I would like to highlight his views on the role of information flow in democratic societies:</p>
<div align="center">
<blockquote>
<h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;">“The basic claim is that the diversity of ways of organizing information production and use, opens a range of possibilities for pursuing the core political values of liberal societies-individual freedom, a more genuinely participatory political system, a critical culture, and social
justice” Benkler, 2006<br /></h3>
</blockquote>
<p align="left">Enabling
a smoother and more transparent information flow, according to his work,
has the following effects on citizen’s participation:</p>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>1. Autonomy:
</strong>Access to information enables citizens to perceive a wider range of
possibilities and options against which they can gauge their choices.
This is particularly important when the citizen participates in
decision-making processes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>2. Democracy</strong>: The
emergence of an information economy, creates information structures
that are not only an alternative to mass media, as Benkler states, but I
would like to add are also alternative to government-run e-governance platforms that cannot fully cater to citizens' need
for participation and debate. Creating an accessible and participatory
information structure also creates a space
that fosters public discussion, and hence, the expression of our
political nature. (Visit <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance-2">Storytelling as Performance Part 2</a> for a larger exploration of the political in the public space)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>3. Human justice</strong>: The
freedom to access basic resources and services, allows us to fulfil
our capabilities in society, including producing our own information, as
well as improving our well-being by accessing information about health,
education, public infrastructure, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">These three characteristics can be very well tied up with the three objectives of e-governance outlined above: wider information delivery, citizen participation and government accountability. Citizens aspire to access information that
enables them to make good choices and participate in conversations that
affect their livelihoods. For this reason, we find a
common goal among the change actors (interviewed in the series), is
devising new modes to engage with government-related information that complement or replace government-owned platforms.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Civil Society' and E-governance<br /></h2>
<p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">One
of the best known examples of these initiatives have been spearheaded by the Bangalore-based NGO: <strong><a href="http://www.janaagraha.org/">Janaagraha</a></strong>. the Centre for
Citizenship and Democracy.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Logohorizontal.png/image_preview" alt="logo h" class="image-inline image-inline" title="logo h" /></div>
<p align="center">Image courtesy of Duke University website</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The organization works to improve the quality
of life in Indian cities and towns, by improving the information around infrastructure and services; and citizenship. We
interviewed Joylita Saldanha, who works for the NGO’s leadership team to
learn more about Janaagraha’s views on the role of information for
urban governance, based on the experience of platforms such as <a href="http://ichangemycity.com/">I change my city</a>. Her perspective c
aught me off guard, as she framed the problem in urban governance from a
somewhat unconventional angle:</p>
<blockquote style="float: right;">
<h3 align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Joylita.jpg/image_preview" style="float: right;" title="Joylita" height="170" width="138" alt="Joylita" class="image-center image-inline" /><strong>Joylita Saldanha</strong></h3>
<div align="center"><strong>Janaagraha's Leadership Team</strong></div>
<br />
<ul><li>Experience conceptualizing and<br /> building Mobile and Web products in Los Angeles and Bangalore<br /></li></ul>
<ul><li>Believes technology is a great lever and enabler.</li><li>Sees potential in technology to drive community action at the ground level</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify">Whenever we talk about social change, participation and democracy, we root for the discourse that works to empower the citizen. Janaagraha finds this assumption incomplete. Saldanha suggests it is our role to find <strong>new ways to empower <em>the government </em>and help <em>them </em>do their job:<em> "</em></strong><em>One citizen cannot be always an agent of change so we need communities coming together [...] We want to look at how to get citizens involved, because we can’t keep blaming the government if we don’t participate. We need to help them do what they do".</em></p>
<p align="justify">Read this short interview to get a glimpse of the information structures Janaagraha is building to empower the government.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Interview:<br /></h2>
<p>In order to gauge the extent to which Janaagraha is empowering and enabling the government to make information accessible for the public, we will look at how their <em>online</em> platforms are improving e-governance, based on the three characteristics outlined in the <strong>UNESCO </strong>definition and the three characteristics of effective information economies outlined by Benkler.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy2_of_copy_of_egovernance2.jpg/image_preview" alt="e-gov" class="image-inline image-inline" title="e-gov" /></p>
<h3><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-f0a0d708-b685-3928-7ef6-460803e1d0da">Stage 1: Improving information delivery</span></strong></h3>
<p class="callout"><strong>How does I change my city tackle this information crisis?
</strong></p>
<p><strong>JS:</strong> Janaagraha wants to improve the quality of life in two ways:</p>
<ul><li>
Improving the quality of infrastructure. <br /></li><li>Improving the quality of citizenship and citizen engagement. <br /><br /></li></ul>
<p>We look at I change my city as something that enables citizens and governments to be more transparent for each other. Janaagraha can’t be everywhere, but technology crosscuts all the programs to allow us to roll it out to other cities.</p>
<p class="callout"><strong> How does Janaagraha know what information people need?
</strong></p>
<p><strong>JS:</strong>We have a<strong> Net Plus Roots</strong> approach:</p>
<table class="plain" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Stage<br /></th>
<th align="center">Roots: Information transactions at the grassroots level<br /></th>
<th align="center">Net: Information transactions through technology<br /></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Process<br /></td>
<td>
Reach out to communities and engage with them
<ul><li>Community outreach and advocacy teams contacts the government </li><li>Get the government and the citizen connected</li><li>Send out citizen reports to government<br /></li><li>Follow up with the government to get responses</li><li>Share responses with the citizens<br /></li></ul>
</td>
<td>We take all learnings from the grassroots and apply them to technology.<br />
<ul><li>The design/product team in place does customer
research.</li><li>Look at google keywords and try to understand what people are searching for <br /></li><li>Disseminate that content with citizens </li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> Example</td>
<td><strong>Crisis:</strong> Low voting turn out.<br /><strong>Roots intervention:<br /></strong>Look at where people go to enroll for voting and how we can clean up the electoral role at the grassroots level.<br /><strong>Net intervention:<br /></strong><a href="http://www.jaagteraho.net/">Jaagte Raho</a>: A portal People can register online to vote.<br /><br /><br /></td>
<td><strong>Crisis: </strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-f0a0d708-b69c-4271-222a-07b477f84d1b">How
to get a driving license in Bangalore.<br /><strong>Roots intervention: <br /></strong>People were not getting them
because they don’t know the correct process or what to do. They don’t
know the hows or the whys. <br />N<strong>et intervention<br /></strong>We created a section called How To and put
the process of<br />a) How to get a driving license<br />b) why do you go and get
a driving license<br />c) what are the documents you need to carry.</span><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Right now we are
playing the role of facilitator, but eventually we don’t want to be
those facilitators. We want these platforms to be bridges between the
citizen and the government.</p>
<p class="callout"><strong>My only problem with this is that an information structure based and reliant on digital technologies will only allow the interests of the middle class to permeate the system. How will information from other groups feed into the structure?</strong></p>
<p align="justify"><strong>JS:</strong> We definitely want to enable access for everyone, but we don’t want a duplication of efforts. If the road is broken; even if one person complains and gets that pothole fixed then the road will be good for everyone to use. At the end of the day what we want people is to participate. From then we can take it to the next level and ask: ok what are we really missing in terms of planning? where are we missing participatory budgeting? where can we involve everybody: not only the urban but everybody. That’s what it takes it to the next level.</p>
<h3>Stage 2: Encouraging citizen participation in decision-making processes</h3>
<p class="callout"><strong>How does access to information improve urban governance?
</strong></p>
<strong>JS: </strong>A very basic important aspect of where you live is to find which is your ward who is your electoral representative and what does he do. People don’t even know which ward they are living in, which is their assembly constituency, etc. Engaging with the electoral representative, then engaging with civic agencies. These are things you need to have in place before we start looking beyond this.
<strong><br /><br /></strong>
<p class="callout"><strong> And you are facilitating this information?</strong></p>
<strong>JS: </strong>Yes, we are trying to map out services in the neighborhood and give more information about this. We have Municipal Commissions in Bangalore, and most people don’t know where these agencies are located, so our survey team went out found the offices and mapped them.
<p> </p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/map2.jpg/image_preview" title="map 2" height="270" width="400" alt="map 2" class="image-inline image-inline" /> </p>
<p>We use maps a lot because we make a lot of emphasis in spatial data. We want people to participate: tell us where their the park or playground is, locate it and then we take this information and find out: what is the budget allocated for this park, when was the last clean up, what is the future of this park, etc. At the same time, we want the citizen to tell us about its state and their wish-lists for this park.</p>
<p class="callout"><strong>You mention spatial data. What is the best way to use it? and who should manage it?</strong></p>
<p align="justify">One thing we see when we interact with civic agencies or electoral, is that most of them don’t have a grasp of the analytics to understand what is the ground level situation, and that is where we come in. We have an information structure in place and we make data accessible. This helps representatives understand what are the patterns: a) what are the trends, b) where are their successes, c) where are their failures. Data needs to play a major role in how we take our decisions. It cannot be intuitively thought out.</p>
<h3>Stage 3: Making governments accountable and transparent</h3>
<p class="callout"><strong>How can these resources make the government more accountable?</strong></p>
<p align="justify">We need more [information] systems in place to identify what is accessible in terms of services and infrastructures. First step is making things transparent; and making elected representatives, civic agencies, citizens -all these people accountable. We believe that accountability and participation goes hand in hand. You need to participate in order to make it accountable. The process of engagement is empowering for the citizen once they realize they can bring about change."</p>
<p align="justify">It takes time to get things done; change happens very slowly. And we can’t keep blaming the government if we don’t participate. We don’t lend them a hand, and let’s be honest, we probably don’t have the resources. So, how do we enable the government? How do we empower them? That’s something Janaagraha works for: helping the government do what they need to do.</p>
<p>***********</p>
<p>The next interview will feature Surabhi HR from <a href="http://politicalquotient.in/">Political Quotient</a>, an organization working to redefine how youth engage with politics in the digital era. We will refer back to the characteristics about information economies and e-governance outlined on this post and use Janaagraha's experience as a backdrop, to explore the work PQ is doing: organizing spatial data, improving information structures for the government and bridging communication between citizens and their elected representatives.</p>
<p><strong>Sources:</strong></p>
<p>Benkler, Yochai. <em>The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom</em>. Yale University Press, 2006.</p>
<p><span class="reference-text"><span class="citation journal">Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways? Hivos Knowledge Program. April 30, 2013.</span></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-structures-janaagraha'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-structures-janaagraha</a>
</p>
No publisherdenisseResearchers at WorkNet CulturesMaking ChangeResearch2015-10-24T14:28:47ZBlog EntryIndian Newspapers' Digital Transition
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/indian-newspapers-digital-transition
<b>This report examines the digital transition underway at three leading newspapers in India, the Dainik Jagran in Hindi, English-language Hindustan Times, and Malayala Manorama in Malayalam. Our focus is on how they are changing their newsroom organisation and journalistic work to expand their digital presence and adapt to a changing media environment. The report comes out of a collaboration between the CIS and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, and was supported by the latter. The research was undertaken by Zeenab Aneez, with contributions from Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Vibodh Parthasarathi, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Download: <a href="http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Indian%20Newspapers%27%20Digital%20Transition.pdf">PDF</a>.</h4>
<p>Cross-posted from the <a href="http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/indian-newspapers-digital-transition">Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism</a> (December 08, 2016).</p>
<hr />
<h2>Executive Summary</h2>
<p>This report examines the digital transition underway at three leading newspapers in India, the <em>Dainik Jagran</em> in Hindi, English-language <em>Hindustan Times</em>, and <em>Malayala Manorama</em> in Malayalam. Our focus is on how they are changing their newsroom organisation and journalistic work to expand their digital presence and adapt to a changing media environment.</p>
<p>The background for the report is the rapid and continued growth in digital media use in India. Especially since 2010, internet use has grown at an explosive pace, driven by the spread of mobile web access, also outside large urban areas and the more affluent and highly educated English-language minority that have historically represented a large part of India’s internet users. Some analysts estimate more than 30% of Indians had some form of internet access by the end of 2015 (IAMAI-IMRB, 2015). With this growth has come a perceptible shift of audience attention and advertising investment away from legacy media like print and television and towards digital media. This shift has been accompanied by the launch of a number of new digital media start-ups in India and, especially, the growing role of large international technology companies investing in the Indian market.</p>
<p>These developments present Indian newspapers with new challenges and opportunities. Print circulation and advertising is still growing in India, but more slowly than in the past, and especially the English-language market
seems saturated and ripe for the shift towards digital media that has happened elsewhere. From 2014 to 2015, the Indian advertising market grew by 13%. Print grew 8%, but English-language newspaper advertising only half of that. Digital advertising, in contrast, grew by 38%, and is projected to continue to grow for years to come as digital media become more central to India’s overall media environment (KPMG-FICCI, 2016).</p>
<p>If they want to secure their long-term future and continued editorial and commercial success, Indian newspapers have to adapt to these changes. The three case studies in this report represent three different examples of how major newspapers are navigating this transition.</p>
<p>Based on over 30 interviews conducted with senior management, editors, and rank-and-file reporters from three major newspapers, as well as other senior journalists and researchers who have wider experience in the Indian
news industry, plus secondary sources including industry reports and academic research, we show the following.</p>
<ul><li>All three newspapers are proactively investing in digital media technology and expertise, and adapting their editorial priorities, parts of their daily workflow, distribution strategies, and business model to the
rise of digital media. Tools like Chartbeat are now commonplace; search engine optimisation, social media optimisation, and audience analytics are part of everyday work; and some are experimenting with new
formats (<em>Hindustan Times</em> was a launch partner for Facebook Instant Articles; <em>Manorama Online</em> has produced both Virtual Reality and 360 videos, an Apple watch app, and is on Amazon Echo).<br /><br /></li>
<li>Given that the print newspaper industry is still growing in India, especially in Indian-language markets, these newspapers are innovating from a position of relative strength in comparison to their North American and European counterparts. However, this is done with the awareness that that print is becoming a relatively less important part of the Indian media environment, and digital media more important. Short-term, reach and profits come from print, but longer term, all have to build a strong digital presence to succeed editorially and commercially.<br /><br /></li>
<li>All three newspapers aim to do this by building on the assets they have as legacy media organisations, and trying to leverage their brand reputation, audience reach, and editorial resources to maintain an edge over digital news start-ups and international news providers. Their legacy, however, offers not only assets, but also liabilities. As successful incumbents, all of them struggle with the inertia that comes from established organisational structures and professional cultures. To change their organisation and culture, and thus more effectively combine new technologies and skills with existing core competences, each newspaper is not only investing in digital media and personnel, but also trying to change at least parts of the existing newspaper to adapt to an increasingly digital media environment.<br /><br /></li>
<li>They do this in different ways. At <em>Dainik Jagran</em> and <em>Malayala Manorama</em>, the focus has been on building up separate digital operations at Jagran.com and Manorama Online, apart from the printed newspaper itself. At the <em>Hindustan Times</em>, in contrast, the aim has been to integrate print and digital in a joint operation working across platforms and channels. <em>Dainik Jagran</em> and <em>Malayala Manoroma</em> have thus focused mostly on building up new digital assets, whereas the <em>Hindustan Times</em> has been transforming existing assets to work across platforms. At <em>Dainik Jagran</em> and <em>Malayala Manorama</em>, much of the push for change has come from management, whereas there has been a stronger editorial involvement at the <em>Hindustan Times</em>, and a greater attempt to engage rank-and-file reporters through training sessions and other initiative designed to demonstrate not only the commercial importance, but also the editorial potential, of digital media.<br /><br /></li>
<li>All three newspapers have found that expanding their digital operations requires investment of money in new technologies and in staff with new skills. But it is also clear that this is not enough. Investment in technology has to be accompanied by a change in organisation and culture to effectively leverage existing assets in a digital media environment. In their attempts to do this, the most significant barriers have been a perceived cultural hierarchy, deeply ingrained especially in the newsroom, that print journalism is somehow inherently superior to
digital journalism, and a lack of effective synergy between editorial leaders and managers, often combined with a lack of technical know-how. Money can buy new tools and bring in new expertise, but it cannot on its own change culture, ensure synergy, or align the organisation with new priorities. This requires leadership and broad-based change. Long-term, senior editors, management, and rank-and-file reporters will have to work and change together to secure Indian newspapers’ role in an increasingly digital media environment.</li></ul>
<p>Digital media thus present Indian newspapers with challenges and opportunities similar to those newspapers have faced elsewhere. Only they face these from a position of greater strength, because of the continued growth in their print business, and with the benefit of having seen how things have developed in more technologically developed markets. We hope this report will help them navigate the digital transition ahead.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/indian-newspapers-digital-transition'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/indian-newspapers-digital-transition</a>
</p>
No publisherzeenabDigital NewsRAW PublicationsResearchers at WorkResearchDigital MediaFeaturedPublicationsHomepage2016-12-09T07:12:53ZBlog EntryIFAT and ITF - Protecting Workers in the Digital Platform Economy: Investigating Ola and Uber Drivers’ Occupational Health and Safety
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety
<b>Between July to November 2019, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi office, conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers. CIS is proud to publish the study report and the press release. Akash Sheshadri, Ambika Tandon, and Aayush Rathi of CIS supported post-production of this report.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-report/" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Press Release: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-press-release" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<h3>Press Release, August 25, 2020</h3>
<p><br />Between July to November 2019, IFAT and ITF conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers.</p>
<p>Some of the most startling findings from the survey are below:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is a complete absence of social security and protection—a glaring 95.3% claimed to have no form of insurance, accidental, health or medical. This reflects the inability of workers to invest in their own health. This partly is a result of declining wages—after paying off their EMIs, penalties and commission to the companies and having less than Rs. 20,000 left at the end of the month.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Only 0.15% of the respondents reported to have access to accidental insurance, which is the bare minimum companies like Ola and Uber should have provided to their drivers.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Uber and Ola provide no assistance with regard to harassment and violence while drivers are on the road. Ola or Uber for the most part do not intervene if there is any intimidation from traffic police or local authorities, incidents of road rage, violent attack by customers or criminal elements that endanger drivers’ lives, accidents while driving etc.<br /><br /></li>
<li>On average drivers spend close to 16-20 hours in their cars in a day. 39.8% of the respondents spent close to 20 hours in their vehicle in a day, and 72.8% of the respondents from Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad drive for close to 20 hours a day. Due to long hours, 89.8% of the respondents claim they get less than 6 hours of sleep.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Health issues arising directly as a result of conditions of work is affecting the day-to-day lives of workers. Backache, constipation, liver issues, waist pain and neck pain are the top five health ailments that app-based transport workers suffer from due to their work. 60.7% respondents identified backache as a major health issue.</li>
</ul>
<p>App-based drivers/driver partners work in a very toxic and isolated work environment. Drivers can’t exit their current occupational status even if they want to because they are shackled in debts and outstanding EMIs. As a result, they race every day to complete targets so that they may earn just enough to pay these liabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The work these drivers are engaged in cannot be considered to be within the ambit of decent work and in reality, is representative of modern slavery. The algorithm of the companies they work for, pits them against their peers in order to maximize profit, while at the same time denying them social security or protection and essentially refusing to acknowledge them as employees.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Drivers working in various cities and working for different app-based platforms have complained about the lack of transparency in how these app-based companies determine fares, promotional cost, surge pricing, incentives, penalties and bonuses. There is little to no information on how rides are being fixed or are being allocated. There also isn't any effective grievance redressal mechanism to resolve any of the issues faced by workers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The apathy of the state and the exploitation by app-based companies have brought the transport and delivery workers in a precipitous position across the globe. This is underlined and explained by the absence and lack of any social security or protection for the workforce, there are some other issues that the workforce is battling during the Covid-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Hear our voices and address our demands.</p>
<p>- <em>Shaik Salauddin</em></p>
<p>National General Secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT)<br /> Phone: +91 96424 24799</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</strong><br /> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/connectifat/" target="_blank">connectifat</a><br /> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/connect_ifat" target="_blank">@connect_ifat</a><br /> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1AxGq0Fb_A_O_Ey44eiPg" target="_blank">Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety</a>
</p>
No publisherIndian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi officeDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkDigital LabourCovid19ResearchPlatform-WorkFeaturedHomepage2021-06-29T06:53:47ZBlog Entry