The Centre for Internet and Society
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Dont hang up on this one
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/dont-hang-up
<b>Is 3G the next twist in the mobile phone growth story? </b>
<p>The ubiquitous mobile phone is the story of the decade that just passed us by. Now with the superfast 3G technology set to storm the market, consumers are eagerly awaiting faster data access and multimedia services, and it isn't time to hang up on the Indian telecom story.</p>
<p>From a clunky walkie-talkie like device that was nearly as exclusive as the landline, to an “anywhere, anytime” device that doubles as your computer, browser, map or even digital cash, the mobile phone has taken rapid strides in recent years.</p>
<p>In early 2000, Karnataka and Maharashtra led the mobile phone growth. However, experts often differ on when exactly the cellphone “explosion” began and what triggered it. Is it low-cost, mass market handsets that made it possible for just about anyone to “be connected” or the sophisticated smart phone that brought hitherto unforeseen experiences onto the mobile? Further, like mobile phone manufacturers, service providers too have been involved in a fierce price war to woo customers.</p>
<h3>Sustained growth</h3>
<p>According to an April 2010 TRAI report, there are 601.22 million wireless phone connections in the country and a teledensity (phones per 100 people) of over 50.98.</p>
<p>While wireless connections are growing by nearly three per cent every
month, wireless connections declined by 0.4 per cent in April.</p>
<p>So what will 3G do that will change the way we connect to our devices?</p>
<p>Currently, our mobile phones are devices that we use to talk, stay connected — even feel safe in this instant connectivity — click or transfer pictures, listen to music or capture videos. “The future will be about livelihood applications.</p>
<p>Services, which have thus far focussed on how to get money from consumers' pockets, will move towards evolving ways to put money back in their pockets,” says S.R. Raja, president and co-founder of Mobile Monday.</p>
<p>Mr. Raja alludes to services in the agricultural sector or existing commerce-based applications that will get a boost once 3G enters.</p>
<p>For instance, he points to a Sasken Technologies pilot initiative in rural Tamil Nadu which helps women's self-help groups sell their produce by providing access to pricing details, thereby eliminating middlemen.</p>
<p>While larger services and societal applications in the field of e-learning and telemedicine are likely to pick up, for the common user it means access to live video and multimedia content. The 3G rollout will transform the way we use our cellphone, experts say.</p>
<p>Scepticism</p>
<p>However, others are sceptical and far less optimistic about this “radical change” and believe that the 3G take-off may not be as smooth as people would like to believe.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“3G may not deliver in the short-term for the ordinary Indian. Smart phones are still expensive. Data services will be expensive as telecom operators will try to recoup what they spent on the spectrum auction,” says Sunil Abraham, researcher and director of the Centre for Internet and Society.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The Government should start considering spectrum a public good and additionally consider open or shared spectrum to lower costs for projects run by public institutions or non-governmental organisations. Only then will the poor of India transcend SMS, he adds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Read the original article in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/2010/06/15/stories/2010061565420300.htm">Hindu</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/dont-hang-up'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/dont-hang-up</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-04-02T11:42:41ZNews ItemPeeping Toms In Your Inbox
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/peeping-toms-in-inbox
<b>Nothing’s safe any more—not your mobile number, nor your e-mail—as they’re put on offer for the benefit of telemarketers, writes Namrata Joshi and Neha Bhatt in an article published in the Outlook.</b>
<p>It was Saturday morning and Sneha Gupta wanted to book a table for dinner at a Delhi restaurant called Rodeo. So she called up a telephone directory service and procured the restaurant’s phone number, firmly nixing the operator’s seemingly casual offer to also provide numbers of similar restaurants. But that wasn’t the end of the story. The next day, Sunday brunch with her extended family was interrupted by calls from sundry restaurants enquiring if she’d be interested in hosting parties and events—at a discount.</p>
<p>“Instead of enjoying the food, the company and the conversation, I was busy ticking off these guys. Why were they assuming I wanted to organise a party? How did they get my mobile number to blatantly infringe on my private family time?” asks Sneha. She got no answers from them, but the sequence of events is clear: the telephone directory service sold Sneha’s contact details to marketers who broadly assumed, from her Rodeo outing, that she was a party animal, and decided to bombard her with similar offers.</p>
<p>Something similar happened to media professional Raghav Agarwal. He paid off his bank loan for a car in two-and-a-half years instead of the stipulated five, happy to stop living off credit. But from the next day, he was inundated with calls offering him bigger and better credit for everything—from house to car to education. “It was awfully distracting to deal with this while trying to meet deadlines,” he recounts. The fact that he had paid back the loan ahead of time had, by hook or by crook, reached financial outfits who used the information to serenade what they saw as an attractive catch.</p>
<p>For Kuhu Tanvir, these attentions come laced with a hint of menace. The film student was startled to find herself receiving unsolicited calls from unknown vendors offering to maintain the water purifier installed in the recesses of her kitchen. “It’s scary to think,” she says, “that there are people out there who even know which products you’ve bought for your house.” It was equally unnerving for film producer Gaurang Jalan to have his personal details passed on to data-miners by none other than a prominent Calcutta club (“strangers now call you on your birthday, offering schemes”). All those out there accosted by calls offering car insurance just at the time their policy is up for renewal will know exactly how they felt....</p>
<h3>8 Ways In Which You’re Being Intruded Upon</h3>
<ol><li>Privacy is being redefined in India, with the lines between the public and the private blurring not just for celebrities but also for ordinary citizens...</li><li>Personal details like your phone number, date of birth, credit history, bank loans, insurance policies, white goods purchases, favourite restaurants and nightclubs are bought and sold among cellphone operators, banks, shops, telephone directory services, credit card companies, hospitals, hotels, elite clubs and even your locality’s residents’ welfare association.</li><li>Unsolicited telemarketing calls, spam SMSes and e-mails intrude incessantly on your private space, time</li><li>Your online purchases and searches, archived e-mails and documents are being tracked for marketing purposes. Social networking groups and search engines stand accused of sharing user information and contact details.</li><li>Personal pictures, information about relationships on social networking sites are being misused by online predators and molesters.</li><li>Identity theft is fast emerging as a threat.</li><li>Surveillance cameras and intrusive frisking have become a way of life, at airports, cinema halls, malls, hospitals, hotels, etc.</li><li>TV cameras and sting operations blur the line between individual privacy and public interest.</li><li>People encouraged and offered inducements to bare all about their lives on TV. Shows like Emotional Atyachar, Splitsvilla, Truth Love Cash play out individual dating rituals and infidelity games for the masses.</li></ol>
<h3>7 Steps You Can Take To Protect Yourself</h3>
<ol><li>Give out your mobile number cautiously, if at all; don’t print it on the visiting cards you hand out generously. Give only your landline number if you have to, to avoid being constantly disturbed.</li><li>Be wary of filling in random forms at retail stores and restaurants, or the gift voucher you’re offered in return for your friends’ names and phone numbers.</li><li>Be alert while shopping with your debit or credit card. The retailer may be also swiping the card on his computer to feed your contact information into it.</li><li>Even though the Do Not Call facility has not worked for a majority of users, you lose nothing by registering for it on www.donotcall.gov. You can’t complain about unsolicited calls unless you register.</li><li>Online, be cautious of the personal information you reveal, such as your date of birth and photographs, which make you especially vulnerable to identity theft. Use Google dashboard and the new Facebook privacy settings to protect yourself.</li><li>Get the latest browser that allows you to delete cookies-as-you-go, delete your browsing history regularly, learn to encrypt your e-mail.</li><li>Always read privacy clauses in bank and other forms, and on websites carefully, and remember to tick opt-out boxes if you don’t want to be besieged with new product information.</li></ol>
<p>For celebrities, the lines between the private and the public have always been blurred. But in a transforming India, ordinary people like Sneha, Raghav, Kuhu and Gaurang are finding themselves intruded upon in newer ways—from the trivial to the serious—and across varied platforms, from the mobile phone to the internet, TV to the surveillance camera. And, with citizens like them mostly dimly aware of how to safeguard, renegotiate or fight for their right to privacy—enshrined in the Constitution, but vaguely defined—in a changing world, and no effective laws to rein in those who violate it, the infringements and threats are set to increase.</p>
<p>Take telemarketing, perhaps the most insistent manifestation today of this marauding culture. It started out as an irritant, became a nuisance and is now a virtually unchecked invasion. “In the West, telemarketing is an unobtrusive experience thanks to opt-in services by which users get calls only if they ask for them. Moreover, governments discourage telemarketers through strict regulations. In India, it’s a menace,” says Supreme Court advocate Harsh Pathak, who has litigated against telemarketing calls and the sale of personal data to companies.</p>
<p>Indeed, you can chart an entire day in your life with these intrusions as markers. You get woken up with the SMS: “Hare Krishna. Today is Ekadashi. Fasting from grains and beens (sic). Chant Hare Krishna mahamantra 25 rounds (sic) and be happy. Hari bol.” Through the day, they keep coming, both SMSes and human voices, trying to sell you everything from houses and farmland to hotel deals, sauna belts, equity tips and public speaking skills. And, if you happen to be even an occasional club-hopper, your phone could carry on beeping till two or three am, with SMSes announcing the next gig in town.</p>
<p>It’s clear from this virtually round-the-clock barrage that our personal lives are up for sale in an aggressive marketing-driven environment. Be it telecom companies, banks, shops, credit card firms, DVD rental libraries, insurance, auto dealers, clubs or hotels, they all profit from sharing personal information—phone numbers, credit history, spending patterns, shopping preferences and much else—about their customers. “The irony is that the corporate world has no accountability or transparency in India but the public has turned transparent for them,” says media analyst and columnist Sudheesh Pachauri.</p>
<p>Those often identified as the prime offenders in this game are quick to shrug off blame, or not respond, as Outlook found. ICICI Bank could not “participate in this story”, Airtel declined comment while Vodafone did not respond at all. Rajat Mukarji, chief corporate officer, Idea Cellular, who did respond, said phone companies were unfairly blamed for unsolicited calls. “Such data is available everywhere now, you can buy it off the Net for Rs 150,” he argued. HDFC Bank’s chief information security officer Vishal Salvi also stoutly denies that databases are sold, and when asked why existing customers are deluged with new product and service offers, says: “It only happens on a need-to-know, need-to-do-basis.” That’s the theory, but in practice, many customers find that the “need” seems to be defined by the banks, not their clients.</p>
<p>So where does that leave the consumer? Well, says Bangalore-based freelance writer and photographer Darshan Manakkal, “On a good day, I plead with the telemarketer to never call me again. With the more persistent ones, I try a different approach, like putting them on hold while I go for a bath. On really bad days, I just abuse them.” Others, like Chennai professional P.K. Pradeep, who shared with us pages upon pages of (extremely polite) e-mails to Airtel and Vodafone requesting them to halt unsolicited calls and SMSes, have been more persistent, but have achieved little beyond the robotic response, “We’re looking into it.”</p>
<p>Signing up, along with some 66 million souls, at the National Do Not Call (NDNC) Registry set up in October 2007, provided no protection to Pradeep, nor did changing phone numbers. “I got a new number from Vodafone recently, and would you believe it, the very next day I was bombarded with promotional messages. They had clearly passed on my number,” he says. The NDNC of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is now widely acknowledged as a failure. There was a brief dip in calls, but they resumed with renewed gusto. You could get lost in the maze of explanations for why NDNC doesn’t work; what’s clear, though, is that it has no capacity to deal with telemarketers who fail to register with it—like all those unknown real estate companies who bombard you with SMSes—and little teeth to deal with those who do. Fines are laughably minuscule—ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000—and the threat of disconnecting a telemarketer’s line is an empty one when it can quickly sign up and assault consumers from another connection. In view of its failure, a Do Call registry has been mooted, on the more consumer-friendly principle that those who want to be called should opt in rather than opt out. Consultations are on but its future shape is still unclear, with telecom companies (no surprise there) opposed to it. “We have gone far with dnc. To now backtrack and try something new doesn’t seem feasible,” says Mukarji.</p>
<p>“The whole problem of unregistered telemarketers will continue and telecom companies will go on blaming them,” S. Saroja, legal coordinator for the Chennai-based Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, predicts pessimistically. The group has tried, to no avail, to get phone companies to trace bulk SMSes, which she maintains are easily traceable. “Telemarketing is a Rs 50,000-crore industry and growing at 20 per cent every year. Nobody wants to upset it as everybody is making money out of it, including the government,” says Supreme Court advocate Nivedita Sharma, who has fought her own battles against the sale of privacy.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, an expanding online world is throwing up its own challenges. By 2013, according to some estimates, India will have the third-largest internet user base in the world. Already, with 50 million-plus users and growing, it is a magnet for marketers, who as we know—without perhaps fully internalising the fact—avidly follow the telltale digital pugmarks and trails we leave on the Net as we e-mail, search, shop and obsessively communicate with each other on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.</p>
<p>These spaces on the Net, and their counterparts on other media, seem to be drawing us into an open, sharing, even confessional, culture, without our being fully aware of our vulnerability. We occasionally get intimations of it—like when our e-mail account is hacked into and bizarre mail sent out on our behalf; our Facebook pictures downloaded and their obscene versions floated on Orkut, as happened to two Delhi airhostesses recently; or vicious, revealing comments on our personal lives posted amid the banter on our favourite chat sites.</p>
<p>However, as media analysts point out, there is little push in the Indian environment to do what Western users of Facebook did recently: forcing it to change privacy policies and settings by protesting against its inadequate privacy controls. Here too, as with telemarketing, the regulatory environment is missing.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“In India, there are no regulatory bodies related to online privacy concerns like in the US and Canada where there are privacy commissions which force corporations to make changes in their privacy policy in the interest of citizens,” says Sunil Abraham, executive director, the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.</p>
</blockquote>
<p> But individuals are to blame too. Saad Akhtar of naukri.com points out: “We don’t even read the fine print on privacy policies on websites, not realising that a lot of the data we upload even on Indian social networking websites becomes their property, which they can share with advertisers.”</p>
<p>Indeed, Akhila Sivadas of the Centre for Advocacy and Research, says that privacy issues are creating a cultural crisis of sorts, with no understanding of them, leave alone resolution. “Privacy is something that has been negotiated in a personal, intimate, micro universe. We have drawn our individual lakshman rekhas. But we have not debated on privacy norms as a society in a public space, which is very significant in the wake of how the mass media and social networking media is exploding in our country,” she says. It’s leading to an uneasy blend of the very closed and guarded, and the extremely open and no-holds-barred in our society. “There is no robust normative system in place, and corporate entities are exploiting that void,” she says. “The market is primed to take advantage and exploit existing conditions for profit. We are allowing the market to overreach itself,” agrees adman and social commentator Santosh Desai.</p>
<p>So what should be done? Obviously, the R-word—regulation—is critical, and hopefully, the cry for it from the ground will become stronger, as intrusions gather apace. But it would help for consumers to get smarter. Some of the questions to ask ourselves are: should I really be patronising a phone directory service, as Sneha did, that states that it shares information with third-party members and is not responsible for that information being misused by third parties? Should I hand out my visiting card, with my mobile number on it, to all and sundry? Should I reflexively press the “I agree to the terms & conditions” button while signing up for net services without reading the fine print? As Desai puts it, we need to be “mindful, suspicious and careful”. Without, of course, descending into paranoia. The irony, getting sharper and sharper in our lives, is that the very platforms that are used to invade our privacy also enrich our lives in manifold ways.</p>
<p>Read the original article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265792">Outlook</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/peeping-toms-in-inbox'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/peeping-toms-in-inbox</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:42:11ZNews ItemI don't want my fingerprints taken
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/fingerprints-taken
<b>Through this article published in Down to Earth, Nishant Shah looks at the role of the state as arbiter of our privacy.</b>
<p>The census, or the collection of citizen data, has been a fundamental aspect of governance for most modern nations. It reminds us that modern governance has been wedded to information, even before it became fashionable to talk of the information age after the digital explosion. Different governments have sought mechanisms to gather and centralize citizen data to effectively administer public services, equity and justice. We have appointed the state as a repository of this data and also the trustee of privacy of this data.</p>
<p>However, lately, in India as well as other countries, there has been a growing anxiety about the role of the state as the arbiter of our privacy.</p>
<p>As public-private-partnerships become a desirable norm for many governments, the citizen data is available to private players who can exploit it for vested interest. In everyday life, this proliferation of citizen data can manifest itself from spam calls by product bearing companies that all of us experience on a regular basis to shattering violence inflicted on selective communities as was seen in Gujarat in the aftermath of the communal conflict in Godhra. While we have, reluctantly, invested our faith in the government in offering our personal data, it comes as a shock that the data has been compromised in the government’s partnerships with the market.</p>
<p>We have always known that even in its physical form, the citizen data often travels through insurance companies, private healthcare systems, financial databases and opens us to invasive surveillance by their operators. But the data is not immediately linked to our bodies. It is possible to deny the data related to our name, sex, occupation and class, or escape it, if necessary. The data resides in large databases, so huge that they fail to make sense to anybody who has to browse through the records.</p>
<p>With the digital data gathering—the kinds that the Unique Identity Project (now known as Aadhar) uses—these safety nets were already weakened. In its digital form, the data suddenly became vulnerable to algorithmic searches and queries that allow for extremely customized and selective data to be made available to operators who are not accountable to us.</p>
<p>Moreover, the digital data can now travel easily across fault lines and previously accepted boundaries to mark citizens in ways that make survival precarious. The anxieties that have surrounded the Aadhar project have been fuelled by the lack of transparent accountability about citizen data usage.</p>
<p>These anxieties around digital data collection get aggravated by the introduction of the biometric protocols into the system. Even with digital data, there was a certain amount of autonomy and agency available to the citizen, to either morph or escape the data production that the system required. Like in earlier times, the relationship of the data was not with the individual citizen’s body but with the citizen as a representative of the larger population. There was no undeniable link that would bind the data on the physiological presence of the citizen.</p>
<p>Biometric system makes the citizen data personal—they tie it up with our inalienable self and body. The data once gathered offers no escape from the information webs, and the possibilities of abuse and violence in such a link between citizen data and the individual citizen’s presence are mind-boggling. We are talking about a dystopian sci-fi vision where each individual has a unique relationship through his/her unique identity with systems of justice, regulation, consumption and production. Everything from what you wear to what you eat to who you are friends with and what you do in your spare time can be tied to your physical body and self. This posits a fundamental threat to the human rights, dignity and security offered by the Constitution.</p>
<p>The census promises the safety of the citizen through anonymity. The biometric data collection violates this safety and suddenly makes us vulnerable to being single, unique and alone in our identity which can be exploited by anybody. The biometric fixity of our identity identifies us, marks us and ties us down to the mass abuse that any information system is always susceptible to. There will be no escape.</p>
<p>Read the article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20100615&filename=croc&sec_id=10&sid=1">Down to Earth</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/fingerprints-taken'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/fingerprints-taken</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:41:46ZNews ItemAn Artist's Hunt for Lost Stepwells
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hunt-for-lost-stepwells
<b>As part of the Maps for Making Change project, Kakoli Sen has brought to light some facts which she stumbled upon while mapping the stepwells in Vadodara. She mapped these and also discovered 14 such architectural heritage structures. The news was covered in the Times of India.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hunt-for-lost-stepwells'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hunt-for-lost-stepwells</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaPracticeResearchers at WorkMaps for Making Change2015-10-05T15:05:26ZNews ItemThe Internet, Culture, and Society - Looking at Past, Present, and Future Worldwide
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/Internet-Culture-Society
<b>It is now well known that with 4.5 billion mobile phone owners in the world and increased Internet penetration, global cultures and communities have experienced shifts in their economic, political, and social well-being due to the digital revolution. As a scholar and consultant who works worldwide, Prof Ramesh Srinivasan will illustrate how new media technologies have been used creatively to enable political movements in Kyrgyzstan, literacy and educational reform in India, and economic development across the developing world. In addition to this, he will discuss some of digital culture's biggest challenges, including considering how the Web can start to empower different types of cultural perspectives and knowledges. The talk will be live streamed.</b>
<h3>Prof. Ramesh Srinivasan</h3>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Ramesh.jpg/image_preview" alt="Ramesh Srinivasan 1" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Ramesh Srinivasan 1" /></p>
<p>Ramesh Srinivasan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Studies and Design|Media Arts at the University of California Los Angeles. He is a hybrid of an engineer, designer, social scientist, and ethnographer. His research and consultancy work focuses on the interaction between new media technologies and global cultures and communities. This involves studying the ways in which information technology shapes global education, health, economics, politics, governance, and social movements. He works in such diverse parts of the world as Kyrgyzstan, India, Native America, and more. Ramesh earned a doctorate in design from Harvard University, a Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT Media Laboratory and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.</p>
<p>For more information on <a class="external-link" href="http://rameshsrinivasan.org/about/">Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan</a></p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://rameshsrinivasan.org/about/"><strong>video</strong><br /></a></p>
<iframe src="http://blip.tv/play/AYLJtiQA.html" frameborder="0" height="250" width="250"></iframe><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://a.blip.tv/api.swf#AYLJtiQA" style="display:none"></embed>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/Internet-Culture-Society'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/Internet-Culture-Society</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-10-21T10:13:23ZEventAPC starts research into spectrum regulation in Brazil, India, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/research-into-spectrum-regulation
<b>Communication infrastructure is the foundation of the knowledge-based economy and while there has been a boom in the construction of undersea cables bringing potentially terabits of capacity to the African continent, the ability to deliver broadband to consumers is hampered by inefficient telecommunications markets and policies. Wireless connectivity offers tremendous potential to deliver affordable broadband to developing countries but inefficient spectrum policy and regulation means the opportunity to seize the advantages brought about by improvements in wireless broadband technologies are extremely limited. </b>
<h3>Spectrum policy in a nutshell</h3>
<p>Television, mobile phones, wireless networking and amateur radio all transmit their data using radio waves. Different parts of the radio spectrum are used for different radio transmission technologies and applications and ranges of allocated frequencies are often referred to by their provisioned use (for example, wireless spectrum or television spectrum). Spectrum policy around the world focuses on three factors – allocation, assignment and enforcement. </p>
<ul><li>Allocation sets aside spectrum for specific uses such as cell phones at 1.9 GHz, and broadcast TV at 500 Mhz.</li><li>Assignment is most widely carried out through spectrum auctions. In a spectrum auction, those who make the highest bid secure use of the spectrum. </li><li>Enforcement (within nations) is usually split between two institutions – a governmental/ministerial one that overseas spectrum relating to and reserved for national security and a regulatory one for the enforcement of spectrum that fulfils commercial and/or socio-economic objectives.</li></ul>
<p>We are seeing accelerated change in the capacity of wireless technologies to deliver affordable access. According to wireless pioneer Martin Cooper, “every 30 months the amount of information that can be transmitted over a given amount of radio spectrum doubles”. However, without forward-looking policy and regulation that can embrace the rapid change in wireless technologies, African, Asian and Latin American countries will miss the opportunity to allow affordable, pervasive wireless broadband infrastructure to develop in their countries.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, one of the biggest barriers to utilising this opportunity is simply a lack of awareness of global trends and of what policy and regulatory processes exist to manage spectrum.</p>
<p>APC’s new research: Understanding spectrum regulation<br />The overall goal of APC’s new research project is to provide an understanding of spectrum regulation in several countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, not just in terms of making information available, or how spectrum is assigned, but who deals with spectrum and what policy or regulatory framework is currently in use.</p>
<p>The procedures governing spectrum allocation and assignment are often opaque, highly technical and governed by an inner circle of technical experts in the regulators, operators and equipment suppliers in each country. An important dimension of the research will lie in decoding some of this complexity and making the information as transparent and accessible as possible. The research will also seek to examine arguments that proclaim the scarcity of spectrum1.</p>
<p>The research is timely as the rapid growth of wireless and mobile in Asia, Africa and Latin America is raising fresh questions about the use of spectrum and the policies that govern it. Civil society-based alliances such as the Open Spectrum Alliance in South Africa2 and the national broadband campaigns in South Africa3, Ghana and Nigeria are raising spectrum issues. Digital migration and the opportunity it creates to make use of white spaces in frequencies currently allocated for broadcasting for broadband wireless networks has renewed interest by governments in auctioning off blocks of spectrum as a revenue-generating mechanism. The research will feed into this dynamic context of debate and dialogue on spectrum regulation and wireless broadband.</p>
<h3>Indians look beyond the present</h3>
<p>In India the research will go beyond the current status of spectrum regulation and and also will look at the current and potential use of pooled spectrum and infrastructure sharing by mobile operators. Pooled spectrum is an alternative to the open spectrum approach with licensed network/facilities providers and regulated rates/tariffs (because of the rationale of network economies). The Indian study will also explore two additional areas which could also be of value in other parts of the world:</p>
<ul><li>Whether spectrum rights can remain publicly owned/operated by the government, while usage rights are made available for a fee; and, the costs and benefits of larger bands of open spectrum versus the experience-curve benefits of legacy systems, with indicative time frames. <br /></li></ul>
<ul><li>The APC open spectrum for development initiative will be implemented in partnership with the Open Society Institute (OSI), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Shuttleworth Foundation in South Africa and the Centre for Internet and Society in India. OSI is supporting the research in Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria and IDRC the research in Brazil and India. <br /></li></ul>
<p> Read more about the APC’s <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/projects/open-spectrum-development">Open spectrum project</a></p>
<a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/news/apc-starts-research-spectrum-regulation-brazil-ind">Click here</a> for the original article in APC
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/research-into-spectrum-regulation'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/research-into-spectrum-regulation</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-04-02T11:56:04ZNews ItemWIPO Proposals Would Open Cross-Border Access To Materials For Print Disabled
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/WIPO-Proposals-for-Disabled
<b>The print disabled feel that the possible UN recommendations being negotiated upon may come up short, reports Kaitlin Mara in this article.</b>
<p>Negotiators trying to find a solution for the world’s print disabled, who have said copyright law is limiting their access to an already meagre supply of reading material in usable formats, began discussing a possible UN recommendation this week. But the print disabled and their strongest supporters have said such a recommendation – which would not be legally binding – would fall short of meeting their needs.</p>
<p>The critical issue is the ability to trade accessibly formatted books across country borders, which is currently restricted by copyright law. The World Blind Union drafted a <a class="external-link" href="http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=133353">treaty text</a>, which was submitted a year ago to the World Intellectual Property Organization by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay.</p>
<p>The United States this week submitted <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/US-proposal-consensus-instrument.pdf">draft proposal for a consensus instrument</a> [pdf] to WIPO, where these discussions are being held. This instrument has a list of recommendations for governments on national laws to aid the import and export of accessible books.</p>
<p>The US delegation told Intellectual Property Watch that their consensus instrument was intended to be a “faster” solution, and is not mutually exclusive with – and indeed could be a step towards – the treaty that has been called for.</p>
<p>At the last meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights in December 2009, some delegations – notably the European Union – refused to discuss a possible treaty, saying more facts were needed (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/12/22/big-step-forward-on-treaty-for-the-visually-impaired-at-wipo/">IPW, WIPO, 22 December 2009</a>).</p>
<p>At the December meeting, it was decided to hold an open consultation on the issues – the 27 May meeting – before the next SCCR meeting, scheduled for 21-24 June. Also, on 28 May, WIPO is discussing aspects of a proposed treaty to protect audiovisual performances.</p>
<p>But the governments behind the treaty proposal and civil society representatives of the print-disabled community expressed their doubts about the US’s intermediary solution.</p>
<p>“Our initial reaction… is that [the US proposal] falls short of our objectives, at least in a vital element – the format – for it is not a legally binding instrument,” Brazil, on behalf of these countries, said in a statement, available here <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Statement-Brazil-VIP.doc">Statement Brazil VIP</a> [doc]. They added they needed more time to fully analyse it.</p>
<p>The US proposal fails in several ways, Brazil said. Among them: it does not create a legal obligation for countries to make exceptions, meaning if either an exporting or importing country lacks an exception, the transfer cannot be made; it discriminates against different kinds of media and does not seem to cover works shared online, it does not address the potential need to circumvent technological protection measures or contractual restrictions on needed exceptions, and doesn’t express the specific needs of developing countries.</p>
<p>“This is far from what we need,” Chris Friend, chair of the World Blind Union Global Right to Read Campaign told Intellectual Property Watch, saying it would just lead to “more procrastination” rather than more speed.</p>
<p>Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Paraguay also submitted this week a proposed timetable, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/treaty-timetable-ecuador-brazil-mex-paraguay.pdf">available here</a>[pdf], for the adoption of a treaty for the visually-impaired that would see its completion in the spring of 2012. </p>
<p>If speed is desired, members might support this timetable proposal, said Dan Pescod, vice chair of the Right to Read Campaign.</p>
<p>Voluntary processes are unacceptable, said Jace Nair, the National Executive Director of the South African National Council for the Blind. “We have been depending on a voluntary process from rights holders for decades… it hasn’t helped.”</p>
<p>Pescod added that the World Blind Union respects the needs of rights holders and the copyright system, but added a “similar level of seriousness” is needed “to address this issue.” If rights holder’s needs are immediately moved to a treaty, why when it comes to disabled people’s needs are we not able to talk about the same thing, he asked. There is not an ACTA-style [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement] recommendation; it is a treaty, he said.</p>
<p>But some were pleased the US proposal. “We welcome the [United States] recommendation,” said Jens Bammel of the International Publishers Association in a later interview with Intellectual Property Watch, adding that there had not yet been a chance to digest it in detail.</p>
<p>The element of the US proposal that has the “greatest potential” to resolve the issue, Bammel said, is that it “recognises the value of trusted intermediaries.” These intermediaries can bring together rights holders and the visually impaired to find practical solutions on all issues of access to literary content, “not just the tiny sliver that is copyright.” Other issues include technical and practical matters, for example figuring out what accessible works already exist or creating a network to transfer files from one place to another.</p>
<p>Background to the Issue</p>
<p>The organisations that translate books into accessible formats are often under-funded nonprofits serving in general the needs of the blind.according to? As a result, the budget that can be allocated to translating books is small, and of particular concern in developing countries or in cases where there is a group of print-disabled people that speak a language uncommon in their country.</p>
<p>This is a particular problem for developing countries, where about 80 percent of the print disabled live, Nirmita Narasimhan, programme manager of the Centre for Internet and Society in India, said at a press conference Wednesday.</p>
<p>Any formatting that takes place in India is done by nonprofits with no support of the government, she said. And these nonprofits “spend a lot of time recreating work done globally and nationally” and often have to push conversion activities to a lower priority because they also need to work on food or shelter for the visually impaired. There are approximately 100,000 books printed in India every year, she added, but barely 600-700 of these are in accessible formats.</p>
<p>High level texts are particularly hard to find, said Narasimhan, who is a lawyer. Studying in law school often meant having a family member read to her when books were unavailable in the right formats.</p>
<p>An example that illustrates the problem, said Chris Friend of the World Blind Union, is a book in the popular children’s series Harry Potter. It had to be re-engineered in five different English Braille editions and eight different English audio versions around the world, because sharing across borders was not permitted. These cost about US$ 5,000 a piece. The situation becomes even more difficult with communities in a linguistic minority in a country – for example Hindi communities residing in Canada.</p>
<p>This is also a matter of human rights, argued several of the civil society groups representing the print disabled, citing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 30, which requires states “to ensure that laws protecting intellectual property rights do not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to access by persons with disabilities to cultural materials.”</p>
<p>Follow the original article on <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/05/28/wipo-proposals-would-open-cross-border-access-for-print-disabled/">IP Watch</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/WIPO-Proposals-for-Disabled'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/WIPO-Proposals-for-Disabled</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2011-04-02T11:56:47ZNews ItemThe Potential of Open Development for Canada and Abroad
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/idrc-panel-discussion
<b>IDRC held a panel discussion on 'The Potential of Open Development for Canada and Abroad' on May 5, 2010 in Ottawa.</b>
<p>The panel discussion was hosted by Jesse Brown of TVO and the panelists examined the possibilities of more 'open' future and looked at ways to manage the potential risks while harnessing the opportunities for social benefits. The panelists included:</p>
<ul><li>Sunil Abraham (Centre for Internet and Society, India)</li><li>Michael Geist (University of Ottawa)</li><li>Anita Gurumurthy (IT for Change, India)</li><li>Ron Deibert (Citizen Lab, University of Toronto)</li><li>Yochai Benkler (Berkman Center, Harvard University)</li></ul>
<p> </p>
Click here for a <a class="external-link" href="http://www.idrc.ca/events-OpenDevelopment/ev-131099-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html">video</a> of the panel discussion
<p>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/idrc-panel-discussion'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/idrc-panel-discussion</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpenness2011-04-02T11:56:58ZNews ItemConsilience 2010
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/consilience-2010-bangalore
<b>The National Law School of India University, Bangalore is hosting a conference on May 29 and 30 at the Taj Residency in Bangalore.</b>
<p>The Law and Technology Committee (elTek) of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore is hosting ‘Consilience’, a conference, where, as the name suggests, a multi-disciplinary approach is adopted to tackle and discuss a topic of contemporary relevance. Past editions of the conference have brought together luminaries like Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission), Mr. R. Ramraj (MD and CEO, Sify Technologies Ltd.,), Mr. Richard Stallman (Founder – GNU Project), Hon’ble Justice Yatindra Singh (Allahabad High Court, India), Mr. Rahul Matthan (Partner, Trilegal ) and discussed contemporary issues such as “Legal Aspects of Business Process Outsourcing”, “Biotechnology and the Law” and“Free and Open Source Software".</p>
<p>The use of the Internet has proliferated in the past few years, and the positive side is clear to see. However, there is also a huge negative associated with this growth in use of the Internet. With the free dissemination of information, there is also dissemination of illegal and immoral materials. For instance, copyright protected songs and movies are found easily on the internet, sometimes even before they are officially released. The Internet has also made obscene materials like child pornography easily accessible at the click of a button. All of this has a marked negative impact on society and therefore, due to the overriding social interest at stake, the State steps in to regulate and punish the offenders. Internet intermediary liability affects everyone who uses the Internet in numerous ways, both directly and indirectly. Internet intermediary liability could shape the very future of the Internet, yet it surprising how little it has been discussed in India. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/consilience-2010-bangalore'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/consilience-2010-bangalore</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaIntellectual Property Rights2011-04-05T04:06:51ZEventMay 2010 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2010-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet & Society. We bring you updates of our research, news and media coverage and information on our events in this bulletin of May 2010</b>
<h3><b>News Updates</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">India slowly gets to grips with ecommerce<br />Growth in computer use and Internet penetration will help e-commerce.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/India-gets-to-grips-with-ecommerce" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/India-gets-to-grips-with-ecommerce</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">World Wide Web Consortium for All<br />Indian web designers have long ignored needs of people with different disabilities but a new dedicated wiki aspires to change that, writes Malvika Tegta<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/www-for-all" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/www-for-all</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Biometry Is Watching<br />In its first steps, the UID drive encounters practical problems, raises ethical questions, reports Sugata Srinivasaraju in Outlook.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/biometry-is-watching" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/biometry-is-watching</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What Women Want: The ability debates<br />In this article published in the Hindu, Deepa Alexander argues that the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act (1957) are restrictive and discriminatory.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/what-women-want" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/what-women-want</a></li>
<li>CIS – Internet is neither good nor bad<br />This post is also available in: French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil)<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/Internet-not-good-not-bad" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/Internet-not-good-not-bad</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Right to Read event in Brussels<br />A 'Right to Read' event is being held at the European Parliament, Brussels on 4 May 2010.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/right-to-read-brussels" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/right-to-read-brussels</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Mapping the things that affect us<br />'Map for making change' is a project using geographical mapping techniques to support struggles for social justice in India<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/mapping-the-things" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/mapping-the-things</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">'UID is being forced'<br />CIS feels that the UID project is forced on the citizens.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/UID-is-forced" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/UID-is-forced</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">ID programme faces first challenge over privacy, data<br />The government is looking to the ID programme to help ensure that various welfare programmes reach the poor<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/id-programe-faces-challenge" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/id-programe-faces-challenge</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Their India has no borders<br />Bangalore felt far for them, they would mark it outside the country. India, for migrant labourers, is different from the India we know<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/their-india-has-no-borders" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/their-india-has-no-borders</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Scrap UID project, say people's organisations<br />The unique identification number project is executed without any legislative or parliamentary sanction.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/Scrap-UID-project" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/Scrap-UID-project</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">UID info can be misused<br />Public organisations, NGOs and concerned citizens feel UID may become an easy database for anti-social elements.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/uid-info-can-be-misused" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/uid-info-can-be-misused</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">UID project draws flak from civil rights activists<br />The unique identification project is drawing a flak from civil rights activists.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/UID-project-draws-flak" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/UID-project-draws-flak</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Citizens' forums want UID project scrapped<br />Citizens' forums and groups have stepped up their attack on the Unique Identification Project calling for the complete scrapping of the project.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/citizens-forums-want-UID-scrapped" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/citizens-forums-want-UID-scrapped</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Disability rights groups oppose changes to Copyright Act<br />Disability rights groups are up in arms against a Bill proposing an amendment to the Copyright Act, 1952, reports Aarti Dhar in an article published in the Hindu on April 23, 2010.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/disability-groups-oppose-copyright-amendments" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/disability-groups-oppose-copyright-amendments</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Centre for Study of Culture and Society seeks Programme Associate<br />The Higher Education Cell, Centre for Study of Culture and Society is looking for a Programme Associate to help develop e-content and conduct training programmes for projects under its Social Justice and Networked Higher Education Initiatives.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/position-announcement" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/news/position-announcement</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><b>Research</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives at Republica 2010<br />Nishant Shah from the Centre for Internet and Society, made a presentation at the Re:Publica 2010, in Berlin, about its collaborative project (with Hivos, Netherlands) "Digital Natives with a Cause?" The video for the presentation, along with an extensive abstract is online.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/research/dn/dnrepub" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/research/dn/dnrepub</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><b>Accessibility</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Right to Read in the European Parliament: A Report</b><br />The European Blind Union and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue supported an event sponsored by seven MEPs in the European Parliament to discuss the way forward for EU to support the Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Other Reading Disabled which has been proposed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation by Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador and Paraguay.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/right-to-read-europe" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/right-to-read-europe</a></p>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Intellectual Property</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 2010 Special 301 Report Is More of the Same, Slightly Less Shrill Pranesh Prakash examines the numerous flaws in the Special 301 from the Indian perspective, to come to the conclusion that the Indian government should openly refuse to acknowledge such a flawed report. He notes that the Consumers International survey, to which CIS contributed the India report, serves as an effective counter to the Special 301 report.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/2010-special-301" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/2010-special-301</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Exceptions and Limitations in Indian Copyright Law for Education: An Assessment<br /></b>This paper examines the nature of exceptions and limitations in copyright law for the purposes of the use of copyrighted materials for education. It looks at the existing national and international regime, and argues for why there is a need for greater exceptions and limitations to address the needs of developing countries. The paper contextualizes the debate by looking at the high costs of learning materials and the impediment caused to e-learning and distance education by strong copyright regimes.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/exceptions-and-limitations" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/exceptions-and-limitations</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Technological Protection Measures in the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010<br /></b>In this post Pranesh Prakash conducts a legal exegesis of section 65A of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, which deals with the stuff that enables 'Digital Rights/Restrictions Management', i.e., Technological Protection Measures. He notes that while the provision avoids some mistakes of the American law, it still poses grave problems to consumers, and that there are many uncertainties in it still.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/tpm-copyright-amendment" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/tpm-copyright-amendment</a></p>
<hr />
<h3>Telecom</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>China Club instead of Bombay Club?<br /></b>Emulate China's coordinated policies for strategic sectors, and we'll rely less on commodity exports, says Shyam Ponappa in his article in the Business Standard on May 13, 2010.<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club" target="_blank"><br />http://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2010-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2010-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAWOpenness2012-08-10T10:00:54ZPageIndia slowly gets to grips with ecommerce
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/India-gets-to-grips-with-ecommerce
<b>Growth in computer use and Internet penetration will help e-commerce. </b>
<p>Vipul Modi is a busy high court lawyer in India's financial capital Mumbai. Like many people, he uses the Internet to buy rail and airline tickets as well as pay his utility bills. Yet when it comes to buying other products online, the 44-year-old has misgivings, particularly about the security of his bank account details and other personal data.<br /><br />"Online shopping is not something that we feel comfortable with... because the responsibility of something being misused is on the consumer compared with the United States, where it's on the credit card companies," he told AFP.<br /><br />"And I'd still not buy some things online because I still like to go and see what it is."<br /><br />From books to groceries, Internet shopping has become popular in many Western countries for people with disposable income, busy lifestyles and unpredictable working hours.<br /><br />As Indian society, particularly in big cities such as Mumbai and the capital New Delhi, changes along similar lines on the back of the country's economic expansion, retailers are now looking to follow suit.<br /><br />Gift shop chain The Bombay Store last month became the latest outlet to launch an online facility, following in the footsteps of major retailers such as Big Bazaar, Pantaloons and shopping portals on websites like www.rediff.com.<br /><br />"Online shopping in India is on the cusp of taking off," said Deepa Thomas, a senior manager at the online auction site www.ebay.in, which has 2.5 million registered users in nearly 2,500 locations across the country.<br /><br />"But when it comes to things like product shopping there's still a fairly long way to go."<br /><br />For a country with 1.1 billion people, India's use of computers and the Internet is still low, despite being a major player in global information technology and outsourcing.<br /><br />At present only eight percent of Indian households have access to a personal computer, the country's IT and communications minister, Sachin Pilot, said on a visit to Washington in March.<br /><br />Of India's estimated 60 million Internet users, about six million shop online, with the ecommerce market thought to be worth about 100 billion rupees (2.2 billion dollars) and expanding at about 30 percent a year, Thomas said.<br /><br />At present, social networking, email and accessing news and sports sites remain the mainstay of computer use for most Indians.<br /><br />Pilot has predicted an "exponential growth" in computer use and Internet penetration in the coming years, as the government works to extend broadband access into 250,000 out of India's more than 600,000 villages.<br /><br />Industry analysts such as Nishant Shah, director of research at the Centre for Internet and Society in the southern city of Bangalore, India's IT hub, said that can only help develop ecommerce.<br /><br />"The countries where Internet shopping has been on the upswing are countries with highly developed broadband infrastructure which allows for quick, easy and secure connections," Shah said in an email interview.<br /><br />"The lack of strong digital infrastructure means that the Internet is still used by a large majority of people for 'functional' things - jobs, retrieving information, communication, social networking."<br /><br />Unlike other countries, India's half-a-billion mobile phone subscribers could drive the sector's expansion, he added.<br /><br />The government is currently auctioning 3G licences, which would enable more users to access data at high-speed, instead of having to rely on slow, dial-up connections at places such as public cyber cafes, making transactions easier.<br /><br />Thomas said eBay was launching a mobile phone application for buying and selling by the end of June, predicting that "mobile web is going to become a big part of developing the market".<br /><br />For Asim Dalal, managing director of The Bombay Store, going online makes business sense in the global economy as it expands the company's reach beyond India's borders.<br /><br />"International visitors comprise approximately 25 percent of our sales," he said in a statement. "Since they mostly are on visit or tour to India, their repeat purchases for gifting or home were restricted."<br /><br />But if and how quickly Indian consumers will change habits is hard to tell, with a preference for cash transactions and personal contact with suppliers, particularly for food and clothing at bustling markets.</p>
<p>Read the original article in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/india-slowly-gets-to-grips-with-ecommerce-1975188.html">Independent</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/India-gets-to-grips-with-ecommerce'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/India-gets-to-grips-with-ecommerce</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-04T06:46:27ZNews ItemWorld Wide Web Consortium for All
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/www-for-all
<b>Indian web designers have long ignored needs of people with different disabilities but a new dedicated wiki aspires to change that, writes Malvika Tegta</b>
<p>Mobility can also mean being able to seamlessly steer through and negotiate one’s way in a jungle of online information to get work done. Any good website should enable that.Yet, not many Indian ones do. At least not for those who can’t see or hear or operate the mouse with ease.</p>
<p>For them, e-mobility or e-access remains as ignored an aspect as mobility in the physical space.</p>
<p>And to think that all it takes to fix this is to conform to the accessibility standards laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at minimal extra cost. Any good web designer should follow that. And any good government must put a policy in place to ensure that it happens, especially when it is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, which warrants such action.</p>
<p>Intent, however, isn’t the problem. But limited awareness about how information and services can be best delivered to persons with disabilities is. And for a country with close to 70 million people with disabilities, awareness can mean the difference between booking an e-ticket and buying one from the railways counter, between living independently and relying on others for things they can easily do for themselves.</p>
<p>Addressing this is the recently launched 125-article-rich wiki, being executed by the Centre of Internet and Society (CIS) Bangalore and funded by the National Internet Exchange of India, New Delhi. The wiki intends to be a comprehensive resource for users, caretakers, web developers, NGOs, teachers, and members of legal communities for information on what technology — hardware and software — and related legislations offer persons with disabilities.</p>
<p>Web standards prescribe that a description of a graphic or a visual be added for the benefit of visually impaired persons so that any screen-reader can read it. For someone with hearing disability, sound alerts should be accompanied by visual cues, and audios tagged. For those who cannot operate the mouse and hence rely on desk keyboards or onscreen keyboards, developers should incorporate built-in shortcut keys for efficient access.</p>
<p>“But the W3C standards are not binding; it is something countries adopt. In India, these guidelines have been made advisory for Government websites, not mandatory,” says Nirmita Narasimhan, programme manager, CIS, who is also working on drafting the accessibility policy for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.</p>
<p>Mumbai-based disability activist Nilesh Singlit, who has been working on access audits, accessibility and inclusive design, training and research for the past 12 years, says that the standards are simple enough to be used by anyone with basic grasp of HTML. “But some specialised website designers charge high amounts to make websites disabled-friendly. Yes, there are issues of extensive testing of websites to adhere to the standards required. However, there is no relation between the cost and the end product. More awareness needs to be created to break the myth that accessible websites are expensive,” he says.</p>
<p>The Government of India has made accessibility of its websites advisory. But as Singlit says, if they’re anything like the current railways website — which does little for persons with disability — then it remains to be seen how effective the implementation will be.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the government does not proactively share information with outsiders. “How is one to approach the government unless one knows about the incentives on procurement of assistive technologies, training and awareness camps and educational awareness. Unless this research is made available, you don’t have the base to build on,” says a researcher from the field.</p>
<p>Read the article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_world-wide-web-consortium-for-all_1383251">DNA</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/www-for-all'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/www-for-all</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2011-04-02T12:08:15ZNews ItemRight to Read in the European Parliament: A Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/right-to-read-europe
<b>The European Blind Union and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue supported an event sponsored by seven MEPs in the European Parliament to discuss the way forward for EU to support the Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Other Reading Disabled which has been proposed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation by Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador and Paraguay.</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Around 250-300 stakeholders, experts and EU officials came together to discuss the way forward for the EU to support a binding Treaty for the Blind. The half day event consisted of three panels. The first panel was titled 'how the blind read problems and solutions. The speakers were Rodolfo Catani (European Blind Union, Italy), Pete Osborne (Royal National Institute for the Blind, UK) and Nirmita Narasimhan (Centre for Internet and Society, India). The panel was moderated by Manon Ress (Knowledge Ecology International). The panelists focused on the technological developments which enabled reading, the lack of reading materials despite the availability of reading gadgets and the specific problems of developing countries which necessitate a Treaty. The second panel was titled Why a binding treaty for the visually impaired at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)? The speakers were Barbara Martin (Organización Nacional de Ciegos, Spain), James Love (Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, USA), Dan Pescod (Royal National Institute for the Blind, UK) and Tilman Lüder (DG Markt, Head of Unit). The panel was moderated by MEP Ska Keller. The panel spent a lot of time answering queries of member states as to why there was the need for a binding treaty and why a soft instrument would not work at this stage. The final panel was: What is the opinion of the EP and the Commission. The speakers were MEPs: Ska Keller, Thijs Berman, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Oriol Junqueras Vies and Eva Lichtenberger followed by a response from Tilman Lüder (DG Markt, Head of Unit). MEP Thijs Bermanwas moderator and gave his closing remarks for the panel. He concluded with a very strong message to the EU member states to support the Treaty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/right-to-read-europe-parliament" class="internal-link" title="Right to Read in the European Parliament">Read Nirmita's report on the event</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://www.theparliament.com/no_cache/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/eu-urged-to-support-treaty-for-blind-people/">Click here for the article in the Parliament</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://keionline.org/r2r">Click here for Knowledge Ecology International<br /> </a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/right-to-read-europe'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/right-to-read-europe</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2011-10-20T13:44:57ZBlog EntryBiometry Is Watching
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/biometry-is-watching
<b>In its first steps, the UID drive encounters practical problems, raises ethical questions, reports Sugata Srinivasaraju in Outlook.</b>
<p>Three women are fighting to take one chair in a classroom of a government school in Chelur village, in Gubbi taluka of Tumkur district. One sits on the lap of another and the third tries to push them both off the chair. What all three want is to be the first to be profiled under the Centre’s ambitious Aadhaar or unique identity number (UID) project. Their squabbling holds up the documentation by nearly 20 minutes, and the crowd outside, standing in line in the afternoon sun, grows restless. To calm them, the village revenue secretary orders the distribution of another round of buttermilk.</p>
<p>Chelur is one of four villages in the district picked for field trials before the 12-digit UIDs are assigned to people later in the year. Besides Tumkur, the pilot project is simultaneously running in seven villages of Mysore district. Each village has been given a target of 2,400-2,500 profiles to be completed in 20 days. This involves photographing the face, imaging the iris and scanning all ten digits of each person profiled and assigned a UID.</p>
<p>Villagers are enthusiastic about this rigorous profiling process even though there’s little awareness about the true purpose of the exercise. This is because of some falsehoods that have somehow spread in these areas. Nagamma, an elderly woman coming out after being profiled, thinks her eyes had been tested and found to be in perfect condition. Another middle-aged woman thought the exercise would bring her a new ration card—one that would entitle her family to an extra four kilos of rice. Some others were in a tizzy that if they didn’t undergo this “photography” their BPL cards would be taken away. Most, however, had queued up because they didn’t want to be left out of a sarkari exercise their neighbours were submitting to. Of the dozen people Outlook spoke to, only Muniswamy could tell us that this process would ensure that no one had more than one voter ID card or ration card—the way it should be, unlike some in his village who had illegally acquired two of each.</p>
<p>The village authorities have been doing little to counter the misinformation because their attention is focused on other compelling matters, like meeting the assigned target. This is an important issue because gram panchayat elections have been declared in Karnataka and lots of youngsters set off for campaigning early in the morning and would be difficult to locate for profiling.</p>
<p>According to official figures, Chelur has a population of 5,000, with 3,640 people above the age of 18. A random selection of 2,400 has been made from this to meet the UID target. The number seems small, but handling it at the village level can be demanding for the local authorities—there’s no police for crowd control, refreshments have to be distributed and the computerised work has to be done despite the power outages. Using generators has become inevitable, for the villages get hardly four or five hours’ power supply.</p>
<p>Another problem lies in obtaining the fingerprints of rural folk: most of them are engaged in manual labour or farm work and arrive with dirty palms that defeat the biometric reading machines. Pails of water, detergent and towels are provided for cleaning up. Much time is lost in such rescanning and it goes against the official estimate of five minutes for the young, nine for the elderly.</p>
<p>Prasanna Kumar, the village secretary, admits to the problems. “We did not make an open announcement for the UID pilot because we didn’t want to attract large crowds. We quietly prepared a random list of 2,400 people from the ration card database and went door-to-door to invite them,” he says. “We have left out people above the age of 80 and under 18. We told people this identity number will help them access various government schemes. Fingerprinting is the toughest problem. Initially people were reluctant, but suddenly they have become curious.”</p>
<p>H. Gnanesh, the tehsildar, says the ongoing step is only “concept testing”; the next will be rechecking, in which those already profiled will verify their identity details against what has been stored. Only after that will the UID be issued. In Chelur village, the concept testing ended on May 4; rechecking began the very next day.</p>
<p>Some NGOs observing the process have noted the lack of awareness in villagers. “They are clueless about what they are taking part in,” say Mahadev Prasad and Murthy, of the Basava Seva Trust. Murthy says fingerprinting is a big problem. He speaks of Hommaragalli, in Mysore district, where some foreign experts had to be called in to take a look at the scanning machines.</p>
<p>Then there are larger issues. Away from the surging crowds in Chelur, civil society organisations like the Centre for Internet & Society, the Alternative Law Forum and PUCL have been demanding greater dialogue. In fact, they have even suggested a review of the scheme. They argue there is no clarity on how the government proposes to store and secure personal and biometric data, given the fact that various agencies such as banks, telecom companies and government departments would potentially access it. Security is a huge concern also because the software, hardware and expertise of foreign companies is being used. These NGOs say the UID data, the National Population Registry and the NATGRID, when connected, could prove a grave threat to civil liberties.</p>
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<p>“First, a centralised database, like the UID will create, has never been safe,” says Sunil Abraham of CIS. “It needs to be decentralised like our various mail servers. Second, we feel the collection of biometric data is happening at the wrong end of the pyramid. Instead of putting the poor through the process first, why not start with those with financial dealings of Rs 1 crore and above. Third, one study says 48 per cent of our people cannot remember a 12-digit ID. Fourth, we need privacy laws in place before the UID regime sets in.”</p>
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<p>Those problems apart, even raising the level of the current exercise—from small samples of a few thousand each to profiling the billion-plus population of India—could place severe demands on our shaky administration. There’s a mountain to be moved.</p>
<p>Read the original article in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265326">Outlook</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/biometry-is-watching'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/biometry-is-watching</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T12:08:26ZNews ItemRick van Amersfoort to give a public lecture on his work at CIS on May 15
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/rick-van-amersfoort
<b>Rick van Amersfoort, researcher based in Amsterdam will describe his work at Buro Jansen & Janssen, in the Netherlands and Europe.</b>
<p>Reading, digging in archives, procedures under the freedom of Information Act, supporting people for access to their police and intelligence service records, describing mechanisms the state uses to monitor, control and discipline civilians, but also means to overcome eavesdropping, surveillance, arrest or jail is the daily practice of Jansen. Since 25 years it has been active on the edge of legality and illegality. No scientists, nor journalists, but active civilians in a constant battle with the state and its services. Not only the state is evaluated. ‘City of Discipline’ is a project that tries to explain the lack of public outrage against far-reaching laws, although the crime rate is going down and the effectiveness of more security is doubtful.</p>
<p>Buro Jansen & Janssen hosts a variety of websites, some of these are:</p>
<ul><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.burojansen.nl/">www.burojansen.nl</a> </li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.openbaarheid.nl/">www.openbaarheid.nl</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.openheid.nl/">www.openheid.nl</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.burojansen.nl/afluisteren/index.html">www.burojansen.nl/afluisteren/index.html</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.euronet.nl/~rembert/echelon/muren/index.html">www.euronet.nl/~rembert/echelon/muren/index.html</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.preventieffouilleren.nl/">www.preventieffouilleren.nl</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.burojansen.nl/traa/index.htm">www.burojansen.nl/traa/index.htm</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://www.identificatieplicht.nl/">www.identificatieplicht.nl/</a></li></ul>
<p>The NTRO (National Technical Research Organization) eavesdropping scandal with so-called IMSI-catchers; According to the magazin Outlook the Mata Hari (the Dutch woman Margaretha Geertruida) of India, Madhuri Gupta; Possible police and state operations against protesting farmers in for example Devanahalli and Doddaballapur; Threats from the Indian government towards people and organizations who have contacts with the CPI or other Maoist groups; The 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacker verdict of five death sentences; Destroyed archives on the 1971 war between India and Pakistan are just some news items from the last week that describe the work/research/ activities which Buro Jansen & Janssen is conducting in the Netherlands, Europe and abroad. Van Amersfoort will shed light on the work of Jansen & Janssen in the Netherlands and Europe in relation to the above mentioned news items in India.</p>
<h3 align="left">About Rick van Amersfoort</h3>
<p>The past 10 years Rick van Amersfoort (1964 NL) has been researcher at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.burojansen.nl/">Buro Janssen & Jansen</a>, an organisation that critically investigates police, justice, secret services and home affairs in Holland and the European Union. Buro Jansen and Janssen publish online the <em>Observant</em>, a bimonthly mailing informing subscribers of the latest governmental infringements and political lobbies within the Netherlands. Other websites include <a class="external-link" href="http://www.openheid.nl/">http://www.openheid.nl/</a> that gives legal advise for public access to people’s records held by police and security services, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.preventieffouilleren.nl/">http://www.preventieffouilleren.nl/</a>, deals with stop and search operations by police and http://www.identificatieplicht.nl that addresses mandatory identification regulation. In 2006 Amersfoort co-authored (Wil van der Schans) Under Pressure, antiterrorism in the Netherlands. Buro Jansen & Janssen regularly appear in the media, local and national newspapers, radio and internet interviews. Current projects include ‘City of Discipline’, a project that tries to explain the lack of public outrage against far-reaching laws, although the crime rate is going down and the effectiveness of more security is doubtful. Van Amersfoort is presently designing a website for public access in connection with the Freedom of Information Act. <a class="external-link" href="http://openbaarheid.nl/">http://openbaarheid.nl </a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/rick-van-amersfoort'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/rick-van-amersfoort</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaResearch2011-04-05T04:07:10ZEvent