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Comments on the Draft Rules under the Information Technology Act
The Centre for Internet and Society commissioned an advocate, Ananth Padmanabhan, to produce a comment on the Draft Rules that have been published by the government under the Information Technology Act. In his comments, Mr. Padmanabhan highlights the problems with each of the rules and presents specific recommendations on how they can be improved. These comments were sent to the Department of Information and Technology.
Letter to ICANN on NCSG
The Centre for Internet and Society sent the following mail to ICANN regarding their attempt to impose their own charter for a Noncommercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG), instead of accepting the one drafted by the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC).
Rewiring Bodies: Methodologies of Critique - Responses to technology in feminist and gender work in India
In this post, part of her CIS-RAW 'Rewiring Bodies' project, Asha Achuthan records the arguments within feminism and gender work that critique the use of technology in the Indian context, and attempts to show continuities between these arguments and postcolonial formulations. Overall, the post also records notions of the 'political' that inform the contour of these critiques.
Archive and Access: Digitisation and Private Records--The Case of the Regional Archive
This is the first in a series of posts by CIS-RAW researcher Aparna Balachandran on the Tamil Nadu Archives (TNA), looking at different aspects of their functioning in order to think about the issue of access in relation to regional archives in the country. More specifically, these posts will engage with the relationship of the TNA with the ways in which history is thought and written about in the Tamil region, both within the academy and outside. These posts are part of the CIS-RAW project 'Archive and Access'.
CPOV: Critical Point of View
The Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) and the Institute of Network Cultures (Amsterdam, Netherlands) seek to bring together ideas, experiences and scholarship about Wikipedia in a reader that charts out detailed user stories as well as empirical and analytical work to produce.. The organisations will jointly host two separate conferences aimed at building a Wikipedia Knowledge Network and charting scholarship and stories about The Wikipedia from around the world.
Second Response to Draft National Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance
The government is in the process of drafting a national policy on open standards for e-governance. The National Informatics Centre recently released draft version 2 of the policy, and CIS sent in its comments on the draft.
Round Table on Assessing the Efficacy of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Public Initiatives: A Report
Zainab Bawa reports on the Round Table on Assessing the Efficacy of Information and Communication Technologies for Public Initiatives, hosted by the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, on 17 June 2009, in collaboration with the Liberty Institute, New Delhi.
Using Social Media for Mobilisation: Discussion with Dina Mehta and Peter Griffin
Zainab Bawa reports on the discussion with Peter Griffin and Dina Mehta, hosted at CIS on 19 June 2009, on 'Using Social Media for Mobilisation'.
Emerging Bit Torrent Trends in India
Internet has been a revelation ever since its introduction. The writer in this blog examines how the progress made by Internet based technologies could never be reversed.
Report on Second National Workshop on Web Accessibility, 5-7 June 2009
Nirmita Narsimhan reports on the second National Workshop on Web Accessibility for web developers, hosted by CIS in Bangalore from 5 to 7 June 2009, and attended by 15 participants.
Follow-up Letter in Support of WIPO Treaty for Reading Disabled
CIS has sent another letter to the Department of Higher Education, Ministry for Human Resource Development, petitioning it to support the WIPO Treaty for the reading disabled.
Are you Game?
In a preview on the rise and expectations in the Gaming industry, this post looks at emerging trends in India.
Consumers International IP Watch List 2009
In response to the US Special 301 report, Consumers International brought out an IP Watch List. CIS contributed the India Country Report for the Watch List.
'Internet and Deliberative Democracy': Panel Discussion Featuring Sunil Abraham, Philippe Aigrain and Mario Losano
Sunil Abraham, Director (Policy), Centre for Internet and Society, attended the first edition of the Biennale Democrazia in Turin, 22-26 April 2009. He participated in a panel discussion on the topic 'Internet and Deliberative Democracy'. This blog entry links to a video of his contribution to the discussion.
Letter on South Africa's IPRs from Publicly Financed R&D Regulations
Being interested in legislations in developing nations styled after the United States' Bayh-Dole Act, CIS responded to the call issued by the South African Department of Science and Technology for comments to the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Regulations.
Of my struggle with a Broadband Connection
This is a reflection on my experiences with installing a broadband Internet connection at home. The closing post of an interview is delayed since Jamie and Peter are traveling.
WIPO Broadcast Treaty and Webcasting
On Friday, 8 May 2009, at Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting held a stakeholders' briefing meeting on the Broadcast Treaty that has been on the table at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). The purpose of that meeting was to inform the relevant stakeholders of the developments in Geneva, as well as to garner input from them regarding the stance to be adopted by India at the WIPO. Pranesh Prakash from the Centre for Internet and Society participated and made a presentation on webcasting, highlighting the differences between webcasting and broadcasting, and arguing that webcasting should not be part of the WIPO Broadcast Treaty.
Seminar on Exceptions and Limitations in Copyright
This is a report on a seminar organised by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, and Government of India on 14 and 15 May 2009, in Kochi, Kerala, to look at exceptions and limitations in copyright. Programme Manager Nirmita Narsimhan, of the Centre for Internet and Society, attended the seminar.
The Dark Fibre Files: 'Steal This Film' and the Pirate Bay Trial
In this posting, the fifth blog entry on the making of the film 'Dark Fibre' by Jamie King and Peter Mann, Siddharth Chadha discusses the Swedish trial of the Pirate Bay, which brought up some of the debates on intellectual property rights and piracy that were highlighted in 'Steal This Film'.
‘Housing the Democratic City’: Panel Discussion Featuring Bill Dunster, Cino Zucchi and Sunil Abraham
Sunil Abraham, Director (Policy), Centre for Internet and Society, attended the first edition of the Biennale Democrazia in Turin, 22-26 April 2009. He participated in a panel discussion on the topic 'Housing the Democratic City'. This blog entry links to videos of his contribution to the discussion and reproduces the promotional material on the event as a whole.
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