Centre for Internet and Society

Access to Knowledge Bulletin — April 2014

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T05:55:10Z

The Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia) newsletter for the month of April 2014:

CIS Signs MoU with Mysore University

CIS-A2K signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Mysore for converting to Unicode and re-releasing their encyclopaedia under Creative Commons License. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja on behalf of the CIS-A2K team signed the MoU. As part of the MoU CIS will convert and upload the encyclopaedia into Kannada Wikisource and then it will be moved to Kannada Wikipedia.

Articles

Vachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature (by Subhashish Panigrahi, April 3, 2014).
୭୯ ବର୍ଷରେ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଶା: ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବହାର (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Amalekha, April 4, 2014).
ଓଡ଼ିଅା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର (by Subhashish Panigrahi, The Kadambini, April 8, 2014).
Report from India: Relicensing books under CC (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Creative Commons Blog, April 19, 2014).
14 Odia books re-released under Creative Commons license (by Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, April 26, 2014). The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane.

Events Organized

Tulu Wikipedia Workshop (organized by CIS-A2K, Balmatta Computer Centre, Mangalore, April 5, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.

Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (co-organized by All India Konkani Writers Organization and CIS-A2K, Kalaangann Shaktinagar, April 6, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
Tulu Wikipedia Editathon (co-organized by Karnataka Theological College and CIS-A2K, Mangalore, April 19, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.

Participation in Events

Wikipedia Session for Trainee Journos (organized by Prajavani, Bangalore, April 28, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja took a session for the trainee journalists of Prajavani Kannada daily on Wikipedia.
World Book Day (organized by Karnataka Publishers’ Association, Indian Institute of World Culture, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, April 23, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was a speaker.
Relevance of Bhagabat Tungi in the evolution of Odia language from Buddha era to digital age (organized by The Intellects, Shree Jagannath Mandir and Odisha Art and Cultural Center, New Delhi, April 24, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.

Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

M'lore: Wikipedia Workshop held for Konkani writers (Daijiworld, April 6, 2014).
Odia Loves Wikipedia (Rising Voices, April 10, 2014). This was also published in Spanish and in Russian.
International Book Day (The Hindu, April 21, 2014).
Books are a bridge between generations (The Deccan Herald, April 23, 2014).
World Book Day Report (Vijaywani, April 23, 2014).
Seminar on Odia Language in New Delhi by the Intellects (Odisha Samachar, April 24, 2014).
Delhi meet focuses on Bhagabat Tungi revival (The Pionee

Wikimedia Foundation has funded A2K to anchor the growth of Wikimedia movement in India. The A2K team consists of six members, four based in Bangalore: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Subhashish Panigrahi and Muzammiluddin Syed, one member Nitika Tandon in Delhi and one Advisor Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed here (http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters). Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
CIS group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cis.india
Visit us at: https://cis-india.org

Support Us
Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.

Request for Collaboration:
We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

r, April 26, 2014).

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-april-2014

Developing Screen Reader and Text to Speech Synthesizer for Indian Languages: Quarterly Report (February 2014)

praskrishna — 2014-04-01T03:48:02Z

Report of the activities of the NVDA project from November 2013 to February 2014.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-quarterly-report-february-2014.pdf

Developing Screen Reader and Text to Speech Synthesizer for Indian Languages: Quarterly Report (November 2013)

praskrishna — 2016-09-29T13:16:32Z

Report of the activities of the NVDA and Espeak project between November 2012 and February 2013.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/developing-screen-reader-quarterly-report-november-2013.pdf

NVDA and Text-to-Speech Synthesizer Quarterly Report (November 2012)

praskrishna — 2014-04-01T03:33:50Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-e-speak-quarterly-report-2012.pdf

National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities

praskrishna — 2015-07-13T01:32:22Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) are working on a project titled “National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities”. The project is supported by The Hans Foundation and seeks to bring out a print compilation of all laws/ policies/ programmes/ circulars/ notifications/ orders etc. related to persons with disabilities in every state and union territory of India. We completed the initial draft for 35 states which will be eventually compiled as a book.

Chapters

Click on the links to access the draft chapters:

The Tamil Nadu Chapter (by Shruti Ramakrishnan, December 30, 2012).

The Karnataka Chapter (by Shruti Ramakrishnan, December 30, 2012).
The Kerala Chapter (by Anandi Vishwanathan, December 31, 2012).
The Andhra Chapter (by Anandi Vishwanathan, December 31, 2012).
The Haryana Chapter (by Anandi Viswanathan, January 31, 2012).
The Bihar Chapter (by Manojna Yeluri, February 14, 2013).
The West Bengal Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, February 28, 2013).
The Lakshadweep Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, March 25, 2013).
The Meghalaya Chapter (by Manojna Yeluri, March 25, 2013).
The Uttar Pradesh Chapter (by Manojna Yeluri, March 31, 2013).
The Himachal Pradesh Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, April 30, 2013).
Goa Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, April 30, 2013).
The Jammu & Kashmir Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, April 30, 2013).
The Rajasthan Chapter (by Manojna Yeluri, April 30, 2013).
The Sikkim Chapter (by Manojna Yeluri, May 30, 2013).
The Odisha Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, May 31, 2013).
The Jharkhand Chapter (by CLPR, June 30, 2013).
The Punjab Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, July 31, 2013).
The Uttarakhand Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, July 31, 2013).
The Chandigarh Chapter (by CLPR, July 31, 2013).
The Maharashtra Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, July 31, 2013).
The Assam Chapter (by CLPR, August 28, 2013)
The Manipur Chapter (by CLPR, August 29, 2013)
The Puducherry Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, August 31, 2013)
The Andaman and Nicobar Chapter (by CLPR, September 30, 2013).
The Daman and Diu Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, October 28, 2013).
The Arunachal Pradesh Chapter (by CLPR, October 29, 2013).
The Madhya Pradesh Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, October 30, 2013).
The Delhi Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, October 31, 2013).
The Tripura Chapter (by CLPR, November 13, 2013).
The Nagaland Chapter (by CLPR, November 13, 2013).
The Chhattisgarh Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, November 30, 2013).
The Gujarat Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, December 31, 2013).

Based on the feedback the above chapters were compiled in a new template. The full list can be accessed here.

Quarterly Reports

Click on the links below for the quarterly reports:

The Team

The profile of the team that worked for the National Compendium is available here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-project

National Resource Kit: Quarterly Programmatic Report (February 2014))

praskrishna — 2014-04-01T03:25:16Z

Report of the activities of the National Resource Kit from November 2013 to February 2014.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-project-quarterly-programmatic-report-february-2014.pdf

National Resource Kit: Quarterly Programmatic Report (August 2013)

praskrishna — 2014-04-01T03:20:02Z

Report of the activities of the National Resource Kit project from May to August 2013.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-project-quarterly-report-august-2013.pdf

National Resource Kit: Quarterly Programmatic Report (May 2013)

praskrishna — 2014-04-01T03:15:08Z

Report of the activities of the National Resource Kit project between February and May 2013.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-project-quarterly-report-may-2013.pdf

National Resource Kit: Quarterly Programmatic Report (November 2012)

praskrishna — 2014-04-01T03:10:13Z

Report of activities of the National Resource Kit project between August and November 2012.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-quarterly-report-november-2012.pdf

India's social media election battle

praskrishna — 2014-04-03T09:37:03Z

Ahead of the general elections, political parties in India are attempting to woo voters on social media for the first time.

The article by Atish Patel was published by BBC on March 31, 2014. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

Politicians are taking part in Google+ Hangouts, televised interviews organised by Facebook and using the Facebook-owned smart phone messaging app WhatsApp to connect with millions of tech-savvy urban voters.

India's 16th general election - to be held in nine phases over April and May - will be closely fought, with some observers saying social media will play a vital role in deciding which party wins the most seats.

According to a report published in April 2013 by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the Mumbai-based Iris Knowledge Foundation, Facebook users will "wield a tremendous influence" over the results of the polls in 160 of India's 543 constituencies.

It's a finding political parties have taken note of, with major contenders like the ruling Congress party and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earmarking 2-5% of their election budgets for social media, according to an October 2013 study by IAMAI and Mumbai-based market researcher IMRB International.

Big data

During the last general election in 2009, social media usage in India was minuscule.

Today, however, Facebook has 93 million users and Twitter has an estimated 33 million accounts in the country. Many political parties have beefed up their online presence as a result.

The main opposition BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, was among the first Indian politicians to set up a website and today is on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

His main rival, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party's undeclared candidate for PM, however, doesn't have a website and doesn't use any of the three major social networks.

Anti-corruption campaigner-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal has amassed 1.5 million followers on Twitter since joining in November 2011, a year before he launched his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and over two years after Mr Modi, who has 3.6 million followers, opened his account.

"Now no serious politician is seen as being able to avoid social media altogether," said Congress government minister Shashi Tharoor, who until he was overtaken by Mr Modi last July, was the most followed Indian politician on Twitter.

"It does have a significant reach in certain segments of the population and as far as we're concerned, that's important enough to pay attention to and clearly the opposition is paying attention to it too," he added.

Taking a leaf from US President Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, India's parties are using tools to crunch the insurmountable amounts of information social media generates - what's known as big data analytics.


Rahul Gandhi doesn't have a website and doesn't use any of the three major social networks

Pinstorm, a digital marketing agency used by some of India's biggest companies to monitor what is being discussed online, now has political parties as clients.

From its Mumbai office, the agency has been collecting, storing and analysing tens of thousands of political statements from over 100 online platforms daily for the past six months to allow parties to find supporters and tweak their political message.

The agency is able to track conversations at national and local level, making it a useful tool for both national and regional parties.

The anti-corruption AAP, taking part in its first general election after an impressive debut in local polls in Delhi last year, uses Pinstorm to "compare how we are faring against others", said Ankit Lal, the party's social media strategist.

Professor Amit Sheth and a team of researchers at the Ohio Centre of Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing at Wright State University have also been tracking political sentiment online since July.

He says data collected from social media could in the future replace opinion polls, which many observers say are often rigged in India.

"With social media data, we can measure sentiments, for example, before a rally, during the rally, and post-analysis. It's much more frequent [than opinion polls]," Mr Sheth said.

'Dipstick of the elite'

There are some, however, who are doubtful about social media's expected effect.

Social media "is not a true dipstick. It really is only a dipstick of the elite," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society.

Sceptics believe with so many Indians illiterate and lacking internet access, particularly in rural swathes of the country, it is still essential for political leaders to hold rallies and spend on billboard and newspaper advertising to reach the majority of the 814 million-strong electorate.

Parties are also interacting with voters on their mobile devices and it makes sense.


Facebook has 93 million users in India

There are more mobile phones in India today than toilets, according to the latest census data, and just over half of the country's 1.2 billion population owns one.

"Mobile is very integral to our strategy," said Arvind Gupta, who heads the BJP's IT and social media cell.

One of the BJP's most unique electioneering tools allows potential voters to listen in on Mr Modi's rally speeches in real time on their phones from anywhere in India. "It's our own innovation," said Mr Gupta.

The number of smartphone users is growing in India and it's how most of the country's web users go online.

That's why WhatsApp, recently purchased by Facebook, is being used by the likes of the BJP and Congress to send photos, videos and messages to potential voters.

"No other medium gives as much mass, simultaneous reach as mobile phones in India today," said Milind Pathak from One97 Communications, a Delhi-based mobile marketing firm.

Political parties like AAP have signed up tens of thousands of members by urging people to give them a missed call for free - party officers then get in touch and formally enrol them as supporters.

"Looking forward, I think the medium will continue to be a heavily-invested area for a political party," Mr Pathak said.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/bbc-news-india-atish-patel-indias-social-media-election-battle

March 2014 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-05-30T12:12:33Z

We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcome you to the third issue of the newsletter (March) for the year 2014.

Highlights

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) published a report on making the 2014 General Elections in India participatory and accessible for voters with disabilities.
CIS also published a report of a test conducted to determine the accessibility of websites of the Election Commission of India, the Parliament and some key political parties in India.
Proceedings of the 26^th session of WIPO-SCCR are brought forth in a 3 part summary. Varun Baliga and Alexandra Bhattacharya of the Third World Network provided their inputs.
The Access to Knowledge team from CIS (CIS-A2K) published a detailed draft work plan. These include 7 language area plans, 3 community strengthening initiatives, 8 stand-alone Wikimedia projects, creating movement resources, publicity, research and documentation, and general support and service to the movement.
CIS received a leaked version of the draft Privacy Bill 2014 that the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India has drafted. Significant changes noted in the current bill when compared to the September 2011 Privacy Bill are analysed in a blog post.
As part of the Making Change project Denisse Albornoz has produced an analysis of the accessibility challenges for digital immigrants and the importance of behavioural science for the design of digital technologies in a blog post.
Dr. Nishant Shah was a panelist at an event on Digital Gender organized by HUMLAB and Umeå Centre for Gender Studies. He blogged about the event in HUMLAB Blog.

Jobs

CIS is seeking applications for the post of Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge): http://bit.ly/1fnydB0. There are two vacancies for this post one in Delhi and one in Bangalore. To apply, please send your resume to Sunil Abraham (sunil@cis-india.org), Nirmita Narasimhan (nirmita@cis-india.org) and Pranesh Prakash (pranesh@cis-india.org) with three writing samples of which at least one demonstrates your analytic skills, and one that shows your ability to simplify complex policy issues.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. We have completed compilation of draft chapters for 29 states and 6 union territories. The chapters along with the quarterly reports can be accessed on the project page available at: http://bit.ly/1e1FzgD. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed at: http://bit.ly/1hi1EI1.

NVDA

Blog Entry

NVDA e-Speak Text-to-Speech Project Update (March 2014): http://bit.ly/1hAR2OI.

Other Accessibility Updates

Publications

Enabling Elections (by CIS and CLPR, March 24, 2014): http://bit.ly/1qcRdqJ.
Accessibility of Political Parties Websites in India (by CIS March 24, 2014): http://bit.ly/1snN9G3.

Announcement

Constitution of the High Level Advisory Committee on National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility. CIS has been invited to serve on the high level committee on electronic accessibility policy constituted by the Indian government. This was communicated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology: http://bit.ly/1ieuNz3.

Media Coverage

Are Elections Fair to People With Special Needs? (by Papiya Bhattacharya, New Indian Express, April 8, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hrQ7WS.
Enabling Elections (Vijay Karnataka, April 9, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mXFpJM. This was published in Kannada language.

Access to Knowledge

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has funded CIS to do research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property and to use the research outputs to support intellectual property norms that encourage, not inhibit, the proliferation and further development of such technologies as a social good. Further, the Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers and human rights, and critically examines Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, and Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software.

Blog Entries

NGO Profile: Knowledge Ecology International (by Puneeth Nagraj, March 11, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fRFTNd.
004: A License to Share (by Devika Agarwal, March 17, 2014): http://bit.ly/PL85aJ
Broadcast Treaty: An Overview (by Varun Baliga, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e2Pli6.
WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) 26th Session- Consolidated Notes (Part 1 of 3) (by Nehaa Chaudhari, March 18, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fRH3s1.
WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) 26th Session- Consolidated Notes (Part 2 of 3) (by Nehaa Chaudhari, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1imQ3E0.
WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) 26th Session- Consolidated Notes (Part 3 of 3) (by Nehaa Chaudhari, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kfnI8o.
Cultural Interests vs. Modernization: Robert Shapiro on IPR & Innovation in India (by Samantha Cassar, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fRNStF.

Upcoming Event

NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014 (CIS, Bangalore, April 12 – 13, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mVy8tZ.

Participation in Events

9^th Session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (organized by WIPO, March 3 - 5, 2014, Geneva): http://bit.ly/1ifeS3p. Puneeth Nagraj participated in this event.
2nd International Conference Competition Law - Challenges in the Implementation (organized by ASSOCHAM, New Delhi, March 8, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event.
Design!Public (organized by Centre for Knowledge Societies in partnership with in partnership with Grameen Foundation India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNDP, et.al., New Delhi, March 14, 2014): http://bit.ly/1g1jyNj. Sunil Abraham was a speaker at the event.
Stakeholders meeting to discuss the NCAER Report on "Parallel Imports" (organized by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi, March 26, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event: http://bit.ly/1hkyN62.

The following has been done under grant from the Wikimedia Foundation (http://bit.ly/SPqFOl). As part this project (http://bit.ly/X80ELd), we organised 9 workshops in the month of March (http://bit.ly/1hvdUPE), wrote articles for DNA, Opensource.com, Global Voices, Foss Force, etc., and prepared a detailed work plan for July 2014 – June 2015:

Wikipedia

Draft Work Plan

India Access to Knowledge/Draft Work plan July 2014 - June 2015 (by T. Vishnu Vardhan, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hWE2Yh. A detailed work plan for languages like Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Odia and Telugu was prepared by the CIS-A2K team.

Articles / Blog Entries

Open Education Week: Interview with Subhashish Panigrahi (by Noopur Raval, March 14, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e3KwFr.
Open Source Project Brings 11th Century Kannada Verses Online (by Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash H L and Subhashish Panigrahi, March 19, 2014): http://bit.ly/POf9TW.
Vachana Sanchaya: 11th century Kannada literature to enrich Wikisource (by by Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash H L and Subhashish Panigrahi, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kgYiaw.
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ତିନି ବର୍ଷର ସକ୍ରିୟ ଅବଦାନ ୧୦ ବର୍ଷର ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପକୁ ପୁନର୍ଜୀବନ ଦେଲା (by Subhashish Panigrahi, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gB9qa8.
Digitize any Book in the Public Domain (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Opensource.com, March 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/1iqXgDb.

Events Organized

First Urdu Wikipedia Workshop (Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ihqPpj. Syed Muzamiluddin conducted the workshop. The event was covered by Taemeer News, Aalami Akhbar, and Firokhabar on March 5, 2014. A video of the event was published by Ruby News.
Telugu Wikipedia Women’s Day (Hyderabad, March 8, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e3NvO8. The event was covered by Andhra Prabha Telugu daily and Andhra Bhoomi.
Wiki Women’s Day (International Center Goa, March 9, 2014): http://bit.ly/MRRJLy. Frederick Noronha conducted the workshop. The event was organized as part of the commemoration of the International Women's Day.
Wikipedia Editathon on India Women's History (Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT), Hyderabad, March 8, 2014). The event was covered by Andhra Prabha and Andhra Bhoomi on March 8, 2014. Syed Muzamiluddin participated in the event.
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (SDM College, Ujire, March 23, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a workshop. Renuka Phadnis wrote a report of the event in the Hindu on March 24, 2014: http://bit.ly/1ekkf0m.
Community Capacity Building Workshop (KIIT University, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1haLAaf. Subhashish Panigrahi along with experienced Wikipedians mentored the Odia Wikipedia community about community building strategies and outreach.

Events Co-organized

Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (organized by Kannada Times Sagara and co-sponsored by CIS-A2K, Sagara, March 1-2, 2014). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja conducted a Kannada Wikipedia workshop on March 1, followed a by edit-a-thon on Mar 2, 2014. The event was covered by Suvarna Prabha (March 1, 2014, http://bit.ly/1hjLbTL) and Vijaya Karnataka (March 2, 2014, http://bit.ly/1jmRMLA).
Odisha Day 2014 (organized by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikipedia community, Jayadev Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e6Lwsg. About 70 people participated in the event. The event was featured in the media about 14 times.

Participation in Events

Sessions on Kannada Wikipedia (organized by Tumkur University, March 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kB7It8. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a session on Kannada Wikipedia for students of M.Sc. Library and Information Sciences followed by an advanced Kannada Wikipedia session for students of M.A. Literature.
The Dynamics of Education to Employment Journey: Opportunities and Challenges (organized by KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, February 21-22, 2014). T. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk: http://bit.ly/1ePwqHc.

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Media Coverage

Integrating Urdu with Modern Technology the Need of Hour (Daily Taskeen, March 6, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fZgcH6.
ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଦିବସ: ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଭିତ୍ତିରେ ରାଜ୍ୟ ଗଠନର ୭୯ ବର୍ଷ (Odishan.com, March 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/OvTLCb.
Odia Wikipedia (The Telegraph, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1qihWAb. Subhashish Panigrahi spoke about Odia Wikipedia plan.
Odia Wikimedia community celebrated Odisha day, bringing 14 copyright free Odia books (Odishadiary, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1lJJ4ur.
Odia Wikipedia Brings 14 Copyright Free Odia Books and a Free Odia Font (Odishabarta, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mRHzI2. Subhashish Panigrahi shared the vision of the Wikimedia movement.
‘Digitisation only way to preserve valuable literature for posterity’ (Odisha Sun Times, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1lF3Pok.
Odia Wikipedia to Digitise 14 Books (The Pioneer, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ec4Rsp.
ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ ଓ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର: ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପୁସ୍ତକ ଏଣିକି ମୁକ୍ତରେ ମିଳିବ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ (Odishan, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mVfeU1. Subhashish Panigrahi read out the annual report.
Odisha Day 2014 (Odisha Samay, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1haQtzS.
Odisha Day 2014 (Sambad, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1irzOWf.

Internet Governance

As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government. As part of our research we bring you an analysis highlighting the differences between the leaked version of the Privacy Bill and the September 2011 Privacy Bill.

Articles

Privacy worries cloud Facebook's WhatsApp Deal (by Sunil Abraham, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1inIU6z.
The Age of Shame (by Dr. Nishant Shah, Indian Express, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/PD10ZW.

Blog Entries

Comparison of Section 35(1) of the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill and Section 4 of the Identification Act Revised Statute of Canada (by Elonnai Hickok, March 3, 2014): http://bit.ly/1jmTWuI.
New Standard Operating Procedures for Lawful Interception and Monitoring (by Divij Joshi, March 13, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mRRIo4.
NTIA to give up control of the Internet's root (by Pranesh Prakash, March 18, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hRVA7R.
Net Neutrality and Privacy (by Divij Joshi, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khi1GQ.
European Union Draft Report Admonishes Mass Surveillance, Calls for Stricter Data Protection and Privacy Laws (by Elonnai Hickok, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1h5Hksm.
Leaked Privacy Bill: 2014 vs. 2011 (by Elonnai Hickok, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/QV0Y0w.
Intermediary Liability Resources (by Elonnai Hickok, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hRT8OD. This blog post will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Event Co-organized

Counter Surveillance Panel: DiscoTech & Hackathon (co-organized by CIS, MIT Centre for Civic Media Co-Design Lab, Tactical Technology Collective, Hackteria.org and Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, March 1, 2014): http://bit.ly/NCGMyH.

Participation in Events

RightsCon Silicon Valley 2014 (organized by RightsCon, San Francisco, March 3 and 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kBluvP. Pranesh Prakash and Malavika Jayaram were speakers at this event.
Internet Governance Round-table (hosted by British High Commission, New Delhi, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kBljAJ. Geetha Hariharan participated in the round-table conference.
“The Internet and Controls: A Disturbing Scenario” (organized by Bangalore International Centre, TERI, Bangalore, March 7, 2014): http://bit.ly/QVc2ea. Sunil Abraham chaired and moderated the session.
How to Engage in Broadband Policy and Regulatory Processes (organized by LIRNEasia with the support of the Ford Foundation, Gurgaon, March 9, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fUgUZQ. Sunil Abraham taught Surveillance and Privacy.
International Conference on Cyberlaw & Cybercrime (organized by Cyberlaws.net and Pawan Duggal Associates, New Delhi, March 13, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fUgliD. Sunil Abraham was a panelist.
ICANN and Global Internet Governance: The Road to São Paulo, and Beyond (organized by the NonCommercial Users Constituency and ICANN, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore, March 21, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hjT0J5. Pranesh Prakash was a speaker. Geetha Hariharan participated in the event.
Panel Discussion – Intermediary Liability & Freedom of Expression in India (organized by the Centre for Communication Governance at NLU Delhi in association with the Global Network Initiative, Washington D.C., India International Centre Annex, New Delhi, March 26, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hjRlU1. Bhairav Acharya participated in the event.
Governance issues for private data stores (co-hosted by Harvard Faculty Club and Web Science Trust, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, March 28, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gBtjOk. Malavika Jayaram was a speaker at this event.
Cyber Dialogue 2014 (organized by the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, March 30 – 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/QZBTSg. Malavika Jayaram participated in the event.

News & Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following recent media coverage:

India: Privacy Bill will likely reflect EU Directive (DataGuidance, March 3, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fUirPp.
India’s ballot battle will also run through Facebook (by Zia Haq, Hindustan Times, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1oFyjeM.
‘Mobile’ voters may sway polls (by Avantika Chilkoti, BDlive, March 5, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mTB0HK.
Girls just wanna have... a voice (The Telegraph, March 8, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e3Y57y.
When politics gets social (by Chanpreet Khurana, Livemint, March 11, 2014): http://bit.ly/QVaSPW.
The Internet Will Be Everywhere In 2025, For Better Or Worse (WCAI Cape and Islands NPR, March 12, 2014): http://bit.ly/1qbxkyj.
C-DoT's surveillance system making enemies on internet (by Krishna Bahirwani, DNA, March 21, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mS3q1P.
No to homosexuals, yes to their vote (by Yogesh Pawar, DNA, March 21, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gBwoO9.
India's social media election battle (by Atish Patel, BBC, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khoH7Z.

Digital Humanities

CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:

Blog Entries

Digital Humanities: The Ecto-Parasite (by Anirudh Sridhar, March 12, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khz1Nl.
A Question of Digital Humanities (by Sneha PP, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mTCtOn.
Structure, Sign and Play in the Digital (by Anirudh Sridhar, March 28, 2014): http://bit.ly/QVgBoL.
Fishing is the New Black: Contemporary Art Imitates the Digital (by Anirudh Sridhar, March 28, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khzChU.
A Queer Digital Humanities Experience (by Ditilekha Sharma, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khzPSj.
The Digital Humanities Discourse: The Knowledge Question on the Wikipedia (by Sohnee Harshey, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kBocRW.

Participation in Event

Digital Gender: Theory, Methodology and Practice (co-organized by HUMlab and UCGS (Umeå Centre for Gender Studies), Umeå University, March 12 – 14, 2014). Dr. Nishant Shah was a panelist. He blogged about the event in HUMLAB Blog: http://bit.ly/1jmZSUD.

Digital Natives

CIS is doing a research project titled “Making Change”. The project will explore new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, the project will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia:

Making Change Project

Blog Entry

Digital Design: Human Behavior vs. Technology (by Denisse Albornoz, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hjV4Rn.

Telecom

Shyam Ponappa, a Distinguished Fellow at CIS is a regular columnist with the Business Standard. The articles published on his blog Organizing India Blogspot is mirrored on our website:

Newspaper Column

Extractive Charges on Spectrum & Petroleum (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, March 5, 2014, Observer India Blogspot, March 6, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khyMSz.

About CIS

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, IDRC and the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2014-bulletin

Odia Wikipedia to Digitise 14 Books

praskrishna — 2014-03-31T14:29:43Z

On the occasion of the 79th Odisha Day (Utkal Divas) on April 1, the Odia Wikipedia has decided to take up a new project for digitisation of 11 books of eminent Odia author Dr Jagannath Mohanty.

This article was published in the Pioneer on March 30, 2014. Subhashish Panigrahi is quoted.

According to Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge) of Centre for Internet and Society Bengaluru Subhasis Panigrahi, the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) would take up the digitisation project where KISS students would type them on WikiSource, a sister project of Wikipedia.

These books include children’s literature, travelogues and biographical essays penned by Dr Mohanty.Digitisation of three more books, two in Odia Jati, Jagruti O Pragati (on people and culture of Odisha) and Bhasa O Jatiyata in Odia (based on research on Odia language), and an English book Classical Odia (on the literary heritage of Odia) will be also be inaugurated on this day.

All these digitised books will be made available on the Internet with open access through free licences. More than 5,000 pages will be digitised in these two projects.Several public and private organisations have started making serious efforts after Odia got the classical language status recently.

To discuss the need for many new tools and technological advancement, a seminar will be held at Jayadev Bhawan here on March 29. Prof Udayanath Sahu and writers Asit Mohanty and Dr Lenin Mohanty will discuss about spell check for Odia, use of Odia language in the media and tools for typing in Odia.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/daily-pioneer-state-editions-bhubaneswar-odia-wikipedia-to-digitise-14-books

Dr. Nishant Shah

praskrishna — 2014-03-31T12:11:56Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dr-nishant-shah.pdf

An Article on Kannada Wikipedian H R Lakshmivenkatesh

praskrishna — 2014-07-03T08:28:04Z

Karnataka Sangha Mumbai published an article on Kannada Wikipedian H.R.Lakshmivenkatesh in its March 2014 edition.

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was instrumental in highlighting this fact and making people of Mumbai come to know about this. The article can be downloaded here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/an-article-on-kannada-wikipedian-hr-lakshmivenkatesh

Odisha Day 2014: Coverage in Sambad

praskrishna — 2014-04-11T12:32:39Z

Odia newspaper Sambad covered the Odisha Day 2014 and published a report on March 31, 2014.


Above: Scanned version of the report published in Sambad on March 31, 2014.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/sambad-march-31-2014-odisha-day-2014