Centre for Internet and Society

Factsheet

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:01:46Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/indian-language-factsheet.pdf

Bangalore + Social Good

praskrishna — 2013-09-25T07:43:58Z

In conjunction with The Social Good Summit held in New York City on September 22 - 24, Ashoka India, IDEX + Green Lungi are partnering to host the Bangalore + Sustainability event! The Social Good Summit aims to explore creative ways that technology can be leveraged for positive social change. Green Lungi in collaboration with IDEX and Ashoka is holding the event at CIS, Bangalore on September 21.

Sharath Chandra Ram, a researcher at CIS is one of the panelists. A brief abstract of his talk is given below:

"Are digital networked technologies adopted or used in the same way globally across all communities? Were social networks and apps across Twitter or Facebook really that pivotal in the mass citizen uprisings of the recent past? In this session, we shall see how it is essential to consider cultural specificities while designing technological interventions. Furthermore, I shall discuss how an effective strategy for citizen activism is not that which relies solely on virtual networks, but one that bridges networks, across different mediums, to engage offline citizens as much as the online. There will be a few live demonstrations of solutions we developed at the Centre for Internet and Society which embrace openness in pervasive technologies that enable us to bridge this crucial trans-medial interface."

The Bangalore + Sustainability event will focus on devising creative applications of technologies to confront sustainability challenges. We believe that young people have the power to affect change, and its time that we provide them with more opportunities to solve the challenges they see around them. This event is a first step in the direction of developing these problem-solving skills in our young people. Through an innovative Make-a-thon format, participants will engage in developing creative tech-based solutions to everyday challenges like road safety, waste management, water management, improving green cover and safer spaces for women.

Event Format and Details

1:45 - 2:00 -- Registration + Welcome

2:00 - 2:45 -- Panel Discussion + Q&A

Panelists will give a brief talk (5 - 7 minutes), posing questions for participants to consider around the intersection of technology + behavioral change + sustainability + youth engagement. A panelist from each of these sectors will set the context for the Jam to follow:

Sustainability
Communications/Design
Technology
Young Changemakers

Click to download the event brochure for details on the panelists/speakers

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-social-good

Bangalore + Social Good

praskrishna — 2013-09-25T07:41:41Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/bangalore-social-good.pdf

Indian Languages Mela 2013 in Mumbai

praskrishna — 2013-10-17T05:04:13Z

Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education is organizing The Indian Languages Mela in Mumbai. Tejaswini Niranjana will participate in the event.

The Indian Languages Mela organized by the recently-established CILHE at TISS aims to celebrate the linguistic diversity of our daily experience and show how our cognitive capacities are tied to that diversity.

The CILHE is interested in strengthening Indian-language resources in higher education. It will do so by undertaking research training, incubating research projects, supporting the production of new curricular materials, and providing opportunities to make the teaching-learning experience more diverse.

The programme for the Mela includes a two-part seminar - Interrogating Pedagogic Practice, and Interrogating Translation Practice; an exhibition showcasing Indian-language scripts, visual and sound artefacts, and new digital interfaces; and cultural events involving theatre and music. The theme languages of this year will be Marathi, Gujarati and Hindi, although other languages will be brought in wherever relevant.

As part of the Mela, the CILHE is calling all TISS students (Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tuljapur campuses) to send in entries for two competitions:

A two- or three-minute audio recording made on any digital device of your choice – the recording could be in a railway station, a bazaar, a street corner, a cafeteria or any other everyday location. Capture an interaction between two or more persons speaking in different languages about any topic. Prepare a poster interpreting what happens in your audio recording. Do remember to add an English translation of the interaction in your recording. Students are encouraged to use free editing software available for both Windows and Linux platforms. Posters can be in English or in any of the three theme languages. Group submissions are encouraged. Submissions over email are accepted.

Creation of a new article on any Indian language Wikipedia (preference will be given this time to Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati entries, but other languages will also be considered). Training workshops on editing Wikipedia will be held at each TISS campus during August 2013. Send us details of your Wikipedia entries and mention your Wikipedia UserName in your email.

Tentative Schedule

September 20

11 am to 5 pm – Exhibition (4^th Floor, Library Building, new section, Main Campus)

2 pm - Inauguration of the Mela by Kiran Nagarkar, eminent Marathi/English author

2.30 to 6.00 pm – Seminar on Interrogating Pedagogic Practice

6.00 pm - Presentation of awards to winners of student competitions

6.45 pm – Introduction to the play

7 pm to 9 pm – Play directed by Sunil Shanbag: Stories in a Song

9 pm - Dinner for invited speakers, TISS faculty and members of the theatre troupe (TISS Guest House)

September 21

11 am to 5 pm – Exhibition (4^th Floor, Library Building, new section, Main Campus)

2 pm to 5.30 pm – Seminar on Interrogating Translation Practice

Also read the report published by IBN here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/indian-languages-mela-2013-mumbai

'Help Konkani Wikipedia come out of incubation'

praskrishna — 2013-09-17T10:10:38Z

The functioning of the free online encyclopedia, ‘Wikipedia,’ is like a true democracy. It is for the people and by the people, said The Centre for Internet and Society Programme Officer (Indian Languages) Pavanaja U B.

The article was published in the Deccan Herald on September 13, 2013. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was quoted.

He was speaking after inaugurating, "Wikipedia Editing Workshop," organised by Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT) in association with The Centre for Internet and Society in Mangalore on Friday.

Stressing on the need for more Wikipedia contributors and editors from India, he explained to students the simplicity of creating a account in Wikipedia and editing articles.

Wikipedia has 50 crore unique visitors and three crore are from India. There are 6,000 editors registered from India, of which, around 2000 people edit in Indian vernacular languages, and only 450 are very active, he said.

There are around 98,000 odd articles in Hindi, 14,600 odd articles in Kannada. However, Konkani Wikipedia is in incubation for the last seven years, as there are only 133 articles and very few registered editors. “To get it out of incubation, many should write Konkani articles for Wikipedia,” he said and added that out of 133 Konkani articles in Wikipedia, over 100 are in Devnagari script, 31 in Roman and just two in Kannada script and none in Malayalam.

Pavanaja added that being a contributor and editor of Wikipedia, will be a positive add on to ones resume. "Today's IT companies need logical thinkers and problem solvers. Writing for Wikipedia, enables one to think and research, hence benefiting one’s personally," he said.

He also regretted that some people try to vandalise Wikipedia, with disruptive editing and deleting articles. Though, this will be corrected by other Wikipedia users instantly, it wastes precious time. Everyone benefits from Wikipedia, hence the contributor should have a positive outlook with regard to helping people and sharing knowledge, he said

He further added, that maintaining a neutral point of view, giving significant coverage and writing on notable topics is important. One should give opposing views and no personal views should be reflected, he added.

St Aloysius College Rector Fr Denzil Lobo said that the present generation is lucky to have knowledge at their finger tips, and they should make the best use of it.

AIMIT Director Rev Fr Pradeep Sequeira, Wikpedia Volunteer Harriet Vidhyasagar among others were present.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/deccan-herald-september-13-2013-help-konkani-wikipedia-come-out-of-incubation

Privacy and Surveillance in India

praskrishna — 2013-09-13T09:49:25Z

Sunil Abraham, Executive Director from the Centre for Internet and Society will give a talk on privacy and surveillance in India at this event organised by the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia on September 18, 2013. The talk will be held at Network Governance Lab, CCMG, Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi at 11.30 a.m.

Click to read the brochure

Abstract

The talk will cover the development of privacy policy in India over the last 3 years, particularly in relation to projects such as NATGRID, CMS and UID. Special attention will be paid to the Justice A.P. Shah committee report, the last leak of the privacy bill from the DoPT and also the citizen draft of the privacy bill developed by the Centre for Internet and Society. International experiences such as Snowden's disclosures and the development of communication surveillance principles developed by EFF and others will be compared and contrasted with the Indian context.

About the Speaker

Sunil is the executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore. CIS is a 4 year old policy and academic research organisation that focuses on accessibility by the disabled, intellectual property rights policy reform, openness [Free/Open Source Software, Open Standards, Open Content, Open Access and Open Educational Resources], internet governance, telecom, digital natives and digital humanities.

He is also the founder of Mahiti, a social enterprise aiming to reduce the cost and complexity of information and communication technology for the voluntary sector by using free software. Sunil continues to serve on the board of Mahiti. He is an Ashoka fellow and was elected for a Sarai FLOSS Fellowship. For three years, Sunil also managed the International Open Source Network, a project of United Nations Development Programme's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, serving 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Sunil currently serves on the advisory boards of Open Society Foundations - Information Programme, Mahiti, Samvada and International Centre for Free/Open Source Software.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/jamia-millia-islamia-new-delhi-september-18-2013-privacy-and-surveillance-in-india

Privacy and Surveillance Talk by Sunil Abraham

praskrishna — 2013-09-13T09:47:09Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-surveillance.pdf

A dangerous trend: social media adds fire to Muzaffarnagar clashes

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T10:50:26Z

As access to the Internet grows, especially in small Indian towns and cities, social media has revealed a darker side as a hatred-mongering tool capable of setting off serious violence.

This article by Zia Haq was published in the Hindustan Times on September 9, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

Malicious content, such as fake YouTube videos and morphed photographs, are usually spread rapidly to trigger rioting.

In UP’s Muzzafarnagar, a video clip purportedly showing a Muslim mob lynching two boys, which police now suspect is from neighboring Pakistan or Afghanistan, was used to stir unease, deepening hatred between Muslims and Hindus.

A series of rioting in western UP district has left at least 41 dead. The circulation of the video had led to violence spreading to new areas. The fake video that escalated clashes portends a new trend in India’s discordant politics.

“From word of mouth, communal polarization, especially by Hindutva organisations, is now moving online. This is a dangerous trend since the Internet is very potent,” said Prof Badri Narayan of the GB Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad.

Research shows social media sites, including sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are more persuasive than television ads. Nearly 100 million Indians use the Internet each day, more than Germany’s population. Of this, 40 million have assured broadband, the ones who mostly subscribe to social-media accounts.

The country also has about 87 million mobile-Internet users, according to Internet and Mobile Association of India.

UP’s police have blocked the video, invoking sections under 420 (forgery), 153-A (promoting enmity on religious grounds) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, along with section 66 of the Information Technology Act.

Section 66, however, is the heart of a free-speech debate. Activists say section 66 has been used at the drop of a hat.

Last November, two Mumbai girls faced arrests for questioning the city’s shutdown for Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s funeral. The arrests were declared illegal after being roundly criticised, including by the Supreme Court.

“In this case, the government has a legitimate reason to censor speech. However, this requires the authorities to very focused and action should be targeted, rather than sweeping,” said Sunil Abraham of the Bangalore-based The Centre for Internet and Society.

The government’s action, Abraham said, tended to be broad-based. He said in such situations, the government could use public-service messaging to present the alternate view.

“Legal provisions could be made whereby Twitter users from India, for example, (compulsorily) see the public service message by default when they log in,” Abraham said.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hindustan-times-september-9-2013-zia-haq-a-dangerous-trend

Privacy Meeting Brussels - Bangalore Slides

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T07:55:14Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-meeting-brussels-bangalore.pdf

Kannada Wikipedia Workshop at SDM

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T06:16:36Z

The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, SDM College, Ujire is holding a wiki workshop on September 15, 2013. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja from CIS-A2K team is participating in this workshop.

The workshop is being held to teach post-graduate students studying Journalism and Mass Communication on contributing and editing Wikipedia. The students will be particularly trained to edit Kannada Wikipedia.

More about SDM College, Ujire here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/kannada-wiki-workshop-sdm

Konkani Wikipedia workshop at AIMIT, St Aloysius College

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T06:09:42Z

St. Aloysius College is organizing a Konkani Wikipedia workshop at AIMIT, St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Beeri, Mangalore on September 13, 2013. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja from the CIS-A2K team will participate in the event.

The workshop is aimed at people who want to edit Konkani Wikipedia using Kannada script. Konkani Wikipedia is in incubator at present. Konkani speaking people want to bring this out of incubator. Adding enough content to the Konkani Wikipedia will enable that. Those interested in adding content to Konkani Wikipedia will be trained in the workshop. This will be a full day event.

Click to read about St.Aloysius Institute of Management

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/konkani-wiki-workshop-aimit-september-13-2013

Digital Resources in Telugu: A Workshop for Research Scholars

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T10:30:45Z

The Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Languages University and the CIS-A2K invite you to a workshop for research scholars on September 13, 2013.

Note to Participant:
As you may know, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and is the 5th most-visited website in the world! It's completely free to use and re-use, it has no advertising, and is available in more than 286 different languages - including 20+ Indian languages. Wikipedia articles are written by ordinary people who volunteer to share their knowledge with the world.

What students gain from Wikipedia editing:
It improves writing skills. Wikipedia provides students a platform to hone their writing skills. Writing on Wikipedia enhances critical thinking and the ability to see all sides of a story. Students will find this incredibility useful in both their personal and professional lives while evaluating the pros and cons of different situations, projects, assignments etc. Wikipedia editing also strengthens research skills. A Wikipedia editor has to provide credible references by looking up books, journals and online materials. Writing on Wikipedia is good practice for those who will also work on a thesis or a research project.

Your articles will be read by thousands of people across the globe. If you edit a Wikipedia article, it is there *forever* and the audience can be any number from the 500 million who read Wikipedia every month!

It teaches students how to collaborate! Editing Wikipedia is magical. You add some content and someone from some other part of the class or school or town or country or somewhere else in the world adds a little bit more and makes the contribution that much better. Wikipedia helps one learn how to work productively with other people, even those you don’t know and may never actually meet.

The workshop will cover the following:

Essential Information Literacy for Researcher in Digital Era
Changing trends in knowledge production post digital turn
What exactly is Wikipedia and how does it work?
How do I edit Wikipedia?
What can I edit?
How can I input text in Indian languages?
How do I insert images?
How do I find and add references?
Do’s and Don’ts

Schedule:
10 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. (Discussion and demonstration)
2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. (Practical session)

Important Instructions for Interested Participants

Each student attending the workshop should register themselves on Wikipedia. Please note that once you register on a Wikipedia project, you can use that 'Username' (i.e. same log-in details) across all Wikipedias and Wikimedia platforms. This should be done by September 12, 2013 (before the workshop commences). Please note that you will not be able to register more than 5 Usernames from a single IP address within 24 hours (a security feature of Wikipedia). This tutorial will help you with Registration on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial/Registration
Once registered the students must furnish their details on the google doc. I have already entered my data just as sample. Please circulate this link to all the students at the earliest. This should be done by September 12, 2013 before the commencement of the Workshop https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AshSF7ZKRBR5dEY0N0tlZTcxRDktSHdaOERWeGhuRUE&usp=sharing
All the students are expected to do editing on Wikipedia. We will choose Telugu Wikipedia as a site to do some editing. Please be assured that we will also show how to use English Wikipedia. For this workshop each student should come up with one article at least in Telugu. This should be typed and be available in a soft copy form and could be carried in a thumb drive or any other storage media which should be easily accessible to them during the training programme. If you are not able to type, please bring the write-up in your note book. Check if the topic you are writing on is already available on Telugu Wikipedia (www.te.wikipedia.org).

Suggested topics: a) About a key Theorist in your field of research; b) About a critical concept that you use in your Research; c) Your Research Object; d) Any other notable topic that you feel should be in your language Wikipedia.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/digital-resources-in-telugu

Young Scholar Tutorials

praskrishna — 2013-09-30T11:21:25Z

Communication Policy Research South organised this workshop on September 3 and 4, 2013. Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event organised by CPR South.

Rohan Samarajiva, Christoph Stork, Marcio Aranha, Ang Peng Hwa, and Sujata Gamage were the speakers. Unedited notes from the workshop can be accessed by clicking on the links below:

CPR South Tutorial Note (1)
CPR South Tutorial Note (2)

Click to read the original here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/young-scholar-tutorials

The Law and Economics of Copyright Users Rights

praskrishna — 2013-09-06T06:25:35Z

Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, American University Washington College of Law is organizing a conference on law and economics of copyright users at Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington DC, on September 26, 2013. Sunil Abraham will present an update on the Pervasive Technologies project as keynote at this meeting.

Click to read the original announcement published by the Washington College of Law here.

2:00	Welcome by PIJIP Director Michael Carroll
2:15	Copyright Flexibilities and Social and Economic Development: Current State of Knowledge Moderator: Walter Park, American University Department of Economics (Bio) Christian Handke, Erasmus University Rotterdam (Bio) Joost Poort, University of Amersterdam (Bio) Piotr Stryszowski, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (Bio) Rokia Alavi, International Islamic University of Malaysia (C.V.)
4:00	Break
4:15	Roundtable: Copyright Users Rights in Law Reform Moderator: Sean Flynn, American University Washington College of Law Jeremy Debeer, University of Ottawa, Canada (Bio) Rebecca Giblin, Monash University, Australia (Bio) Caroline Ncube, University of Cape Town, South Africa (Bio) Alberto Cerda, Georgetown University and Universidad de Chile (Bio) Martin Senftleben, University of Amsterdam (Bio)
6:00	Break
6:15	Keynote: Sunil Abraham, Center for the Internet and Society – India (Bio) Users Rights and Innovation in the ICT Industries in India
7:00	Reception (Room 600)

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/pijip-september-26-2013-the-law-and-economics-of-copyright-users-rights

Wikipedia Training in Telugu for Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad

praskrishna — 2013-09-06T05:51:49Z

CIS-A2K is conducting a Wikipedia training programme in Telugu for the faculty of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open University (Dr. BRAOU) in Hyderabad on September 5 and 6, 2013.

This is done as part of the "ICT and eContent" workshop organized by the Centre for Staff Training and Development of Dr. BRAOU for their faculty. T. Vishnu Vardhan Program Director, CIS-A2K has been invited to teach a module on "Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era" as part of which this Wikipedia training programme was also organized.

Details in Telugu originally published in the metapage on Wikipedia is reproduced below:

వికీపీడియా:శిక్షణ శిబిరం/హైదరాబాద్/హైదరాబాద్2

--14.139.86.130 05:32, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)పరాంకుశం వెంకట రమణ==తేదీ - స్థలం== సెప్టెంబరు, 5 2013; డాక్టర్ బి.ఆర్. అంబేద్కర్ సార్వత్రిక విశ్వవిద్యాలయం

సమయం
పొ. 10.00 నుండి మ. 1.00 వరకు

నిర్వహణ సంస్థ/లు

CISA2K డాక్టర్ బి.ఆర్. అంబేద్కర్ సార్వత్రిక విశ్వవిద్యాలయం, హైదరబాద్ వారి సంస్థాగత భాగస్వామ్యంతో. ఈ శిబిరం Centre for Staff Training and Development (Dr. BRAOU) వారు 10 రోజులపాటు విశ్వవిద్యాలయం యొక్క ఉపాధ్యాయుల కొరకు నిర్వహించిన ‘ICT and e-Content Development’ Workshop లో భాగంగా నిర్వహించబడినది.

నిర్వాహకులు

విష్ణు (చర్చ)

--Elkasudharani (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)==Dr.BRAOU లోని కార్యక్రమ సంధానకర్తలు==

ఘంటా చక్రపాణి (డైరెక్టర్, Centre for Staff Training and Development, డాక్టర్ బి.ఆర్. అంబేద్కర్ సార్వత్రిక విశ్వవిద్యాలయం)

--14.139.86.130 05:35, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

శిక్షణ శిబిరానికి హజరైన సభ్యులు

--Pallavisudheer (చర్చ) 05:31, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

సరోజ --Drgsaroja (చర్చ) 05:27, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Rajani nellutla (చర్చ) 05:29, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Kiranmayi.ys (చర్చ) 05:30, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Vasuvaddanam (చర్చ) 05:31, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

--Gpushpa (చర్చ) 05:32, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC) --Drgsaroja (చర్చ) 05:34, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

--Boju srinivas (చర్చ) 05:36, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Shridhevie (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

పై వరసలో పేరు చేర్చండి లేక సంతకం చేయండి>

--[[--14.139.86.130 05:35, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)]]
--Elkasudharani (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Pvramana24 (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

నివేదిక

చిత్రమాలిక

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-training-in-telugu-for-b-r-ambedkar-open-university