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Indian surveillance laws & practices far worse than US
Explosive would be just the word to describe the revelations by National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden.
India Subject to NSA Dragnet Surveillance! No Longer a Hypothesis — It is Now Officially Confirmed
As of last week, it is officially confirmed that the metadata of everyone´s communications is under the NSA´s microscope. In fact, the leaked data shows that India is one of the countries which is under NSA surveillance the most!
A suggested set of values for the digital humanities
In a prior blog entry the CIS has started mapping out the field of digital humanities. Subsequent to these first thoughts follows a review in several parts of an alternative publishing project edited by Matthew K. Gold of New Yorks Technology College. It is presented online as a hybrid print/digital publication stream, enabling viewers and readers to comment and highlight sections as they please. In the introductory passage, Matthew Gold addresses questions burning at the back of the research communities mind: Does digital humanities even need theory? Does it have politics?Is it more accessible than other scholarly fields? Does new media usage trivialize the professionalism of DH research?
Mapping the field of digital humanities
This blog is the first in a series of blog entries evolving around digital humanities. As the research proceeds, arising questions will be addressed and attempted to map out, so that we are left with an annotated bibliography of the field which will help create parameters on how to approach research in that sector. In this first episode of the blog series, the introductory volume simply called Digital_Humanities (Anne Burdick, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner, Jeffrey Schnapp) will be combined with Patrik Svensson's Landscape of Digital Humanities, so as to assert what it is, we're dealing with, when talking about digital humanities.
A Telugu Wiki Meetup @ CIS, Bangalore
On June 2, 2013, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) hosted a Telugu wiki meetup in its Bangalore office. Updates from the meetup is shared in this blog post.
Law & Order through Traffic Systems
A TV white space system for traffic management may induce us to observe discipline and law-abiding behaviour, writes Shyam Ponappa in an article published in the Business Standard on June 5, 2013.
National Resource Kit: The Odisha Chapter (Call for Comments)
The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Odisha.
CIS Signs MOU with TISS, Mumbai
The Access to Knowledge (A2K) team from the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has signed a MOU with the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai.
Wikipedia Introductory Session organized for Data and India portal consultants
On May 13, 2013, the Access to Knowledge team led by Subhashish Panigrahi conducted a Wikipedia Introductory Session at the National Informatics Centre in New Delhi for the consultants working for Data and India portal. This session was aimed to emphasize how these portals and their useful data could be used on Wikipedia to create good quality articles.
Survey on Banking Accessibility
The Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict) is launching a survey on the accessibility of financial services in banks for persons with disabilities around the world. The survey is looking at the kind of accommodations being made by different banks and assessing best practices for accessibility to financial services for persons with disabilities.
National Resource Kit: The Sikkim Chapter (Call for Comments)
The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Sikkim.
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 1) - Christopher Soghoian
CIS interviews Christopher Soghoian, cybersecurity researcher and activist, as part of the Cybersecurity Series
Use made of Open Access Journals by Indian Researchers to Publish their Findings
Most of the papers published in the more than 360 Indian open access journals are by Indian researchers. But how many papers do they publish in high impact international open access journals? We have looked at India’s contribution to all seven Public Library of Science (PLoS) journals, 10 BioMed Central (BMC) ournals and Acta Crystallographica Section E: Structure Reports. Indian crystallographers have published more than 2,000 structure reports in Acta Crystallographica, second only to China in number of papers, but have a much better citations per paper average than USA, Britain, Germany and France, China and South Korea. India’s contribution to BMC and PLoS journals, on the other hand, is modest at best. We suggest that the better option for India is institutional self-archiving.
Comments on the Draft ICAR Open Access Policy
The following comments were submitted to the Indian Council for Agricultural Research on May 23, 2013.
A Technological Solution to the Challenges of Online Defamation
When people are insulted or humiliated on the Internet and decide to take legal action, their cases often follow a similar trajectory.
On the Unfortunate Rise of the Indian SLAPP Suit
It is not news in this country when the law or other institutions of the state, are used as tools by which to threaten or intimidate citizens into submission to a particular course of action or to a particular point of view. Unfortunate as that is, today’s post will deal with the rising incidence of SLAPP suits, an abuse of the adjudicatory process that is also a feature in a number of jurisdictions elsewhere.
Use of Open Access Journals by Indian Researchers
Indian researchers have published more than 43,400 papers in over 4,600 journals in 2009 as seen from Science Citation Index (SCI) – Expanded. Of these, over 6,900 (or one in six) papers are published in 445 open access (OA) journals. The proportion of papers published by Indian researchers in OA journals is considerably higher than the world average, which is estimated to be 8.5–10.0%. Although India publishes well over a thousand journals, including about 360 OA journals, SCI Expanded indexed in 2009 only 101 Indian S&T journals including 46 OA journals. It is likely that the percentage of Indian papers in OA journals as seen from SCI will be higher if more Indian journals are indexed in SCI Expanded.
Comparative Analysis of DNA Profiling Legislations from Across the World
With the growing importance of forensic data in law enforcement and research, many countries have recognized the need to regulate the collection and use of forensic data and maintain DNA databases. Across the world around 60 countries maintain DNA databases which are generally regulated by specific legislations. Srinivas Atreya provides a broad overview of the important provisions of four different legislations which can be compared and contrasted with the Indian draft bill.
It’s Common Practice
Technologies are no longer abstract. They're habits. What constitutes a habit? The gestures that you make as you read this, the way your eyes flick when you encounter somebody you like, the way you stroke your chin in a moment of reflection, or the split second decisions that you make in times of crises — these are all habits. They are pre-thought, visceral, depending upon biological, social and collective memories that do not need rational thinking. Habits are the customised programming of human life.
Report on the 3rd Privacy Round Table meeting
This report entails an overview of the discussions and recommendations of the third Privacy Round Table meeting in Chennai, on 18th May 2013.
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