Centre for Internet and Society

Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum Workshop: Call for Participation

praskrishna — 2011-07-21T06:00:39Z

Deadline for submission: 26th July 2011-06-08; When: 19th - 22nd August, 2011; Where: Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Ahmedabad; Organised by: Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Please Note: Travel support is only available for domestic travel within India.

LOCATING INTERNETS is an innovative, multi-disciplinary, workshop that engages with some of the most crucial debates around Internet and Society within academic scholarship, discourse and practice in India. It explores Where, When, How and What has changed with the emergence of Internet and Digital Technologies in the country. The Internet is not a singular monolithic entity but is articulated in various forms – sometimes materially, through accessing the web; at others, through our experiences; and yet others through imaginations of policy and law. Internets have become a part of our everyday practice, from museums and archives, to school and university programmes, living rooms and public spaces, relationships and our bodily lived realities. It becomes necessary to reconfigure our existing concepts, frameworks and ideas to make sense of the rapidly digitising world around us. The Internet is no longer contained in niche disciplines or specialised everyday practices. LOCATING INTERNETS invites scholars, teachers, researchers, advanced research students and educationalists from any discipline to learn and discuss how to ask new questions and design innovative curricula in their discipline by introducing concepts and ideas from path-breaking research in India.

Comprised of training, public lectures, open discussion spaces, and hands-on curriculum building exercises, this workshop will introduce the participants to contemporary debates, help them articulate concerns and problems from their own research and practice, and build knowledge clusters to develop innovative and open curricula which can be implemented in interdisciplinary undergraduate spaces in the country. It showcases the research outputs produced by the Centre for Internet and Society’s Researchers @ Work Programme, and brings together nine researchers to talk about alternative histories, processes, and bodies of the Internets, and how they can be integrated into mainstream pedagogic practices and teaching environments.

Knowledge Clusters for the Workshop

LOCATING INTERNETS is designed innovatively to accommodate for various intellectual and practice based needs of the participants. While the aim is to introduce the participants to a wide interdisciplinary range of scholarship, we also hope to address particular disciplinary and scholarly concerns of the participants. The workshop is further divided into three knowledge clusters which help the participants to focus their energies and ideas in the course of the four days.

Bridging the Gap: This workshop seeks to break away from the utopian public discourse of the Internets as a-historical and completely dis-attached from existing technology ecologies in the country. This knowledge cluster intends to produce frameworks that help us contextualize the contemporary internet policy, discourse and practice within larger geo-political and socio-historical flows and continuities in Modern India. The first cluster chartsdifferent pre-histories of the Internets, mapping the continuities and ruptures through philosophy of techno-science, archiving practices, and electronifcation of governments,to develop new technology-society perspectives.
Paradigms of Practice:One of the biggest concerns about Internet studies in India and other similar developed contexts is the object oriented approach that looks largely at specific usages, access, infrastructure, etc. However, it is necessary to understand that the Internet is not merely a tool or a gadget. The growth of Internets produces systemic changes at the level of process and thought. The technologies often get appropriated for governance both by the state and the civil society, producing new processes and dissonances which need to be charted. The second cluster looks at certain contemporary processes that the digital and Internet technologies change drastically in order to recalibrate the relationship between the state, the market and the citizen.
Feet on the Ground: The third cluster looks at contemporary practices of the Internet to understand the recent histories of movements, activism and cultural practices online. It offers an innovative way of understanding the physical objects and bodies that undergo dramatic transitions as digital technologies become pervasive, persuasive and ubiquitous. It draws upon historical discourse, everyday practices and cultural performances to form new ways of formulating and articulating the shapes and forms of social and cultural structures.

Workshop Outcomes

The participants are expected to engage with issue of Internet and it various systemic processes through their own disciplinary interests. Apart from lectures and orientation sessions, the participants will actively work on their own project ideas during the period in groups and will be guided by experts. The final outcome of the workshops would be curriculum for undergraduate and graduate teaching space of various disciplines in the country.

Participation Guidelines

LOCATING INTERNETS is now accepting submissions from interested participants in the following format:

Name:
Institutional affiliation and title:
Address:
Email address:
Phone number:
A brief resume of work experience (max. 350 words)
Statement of interest (max. 350 words)
Key concerns you want to address in the Internet and Society field (max. 350 words)
Identification with one Knowledge-cluster of the workshop and a proposal for integrating it in your research/teaching practice (max. 500 words)
Current interface with technologies in your pedagogic practices (max. 350 words)
Additional information or relevant hyperlinks you might want to add (Max. 10 lines)

Notes:

Submissions will be accepted only from participants in India, as attachments in .doc, .docx or .odt formats at locatingInternets@cis-india.org
Submissions made beyond 26th July 2011 may not be considered for participation.
Submissions will be scrutinized by the organisers and selected participants will be informed by the 30th July 2011, about their participation.
Selected participants will be required to make their own travel arrangements to the workshop. A 2nd A.C. train return fare will be reimbursed to the participants. Shared accommodation and selected meals will be provided at the workshop.
A limited number of air-fare reimbursements will be available to participants in extraordinary circumstances. All travel support is only available for domestic travel in the country.

Chairs: Nishant Shah, Director-Research, Centre for Internet and Society Bangalore;

Pratyush Shankar, Associate Professor & Head of Undergraduate Program, Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University

Supported by: Kusuma Foundation, Hyderabad

Experts:Anja Kovacs, Arun Menon, Asha Achuthan, Ashish Rajadhykasha, Aparna Balachandran, Namita Malhotra, Nithin Manayath, Nithya Vasudevan, Pratyush Shankar, Rochelle Pinto and Zainab Bawa

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/workshop

Your cyber space is a hackers paradise

praskrishna — 2011-08-23T00:58:21Z

It Looks like hackers are having a ball targeting all kinds of websites — gaming, news, government, personal email and even those run by terror networks, writes Shayan Ghosh. The article was published in Mail Today on June 6, 2011.

After Sony PlayStation Network and Gmail breaches this week, the latest is an attack on Sony Pictures.

The hackers who broke into the Sony Pictures website have collected private information such as passwords and email identities.

"A group of criminal hackers known as LulzSec claimed to have breached some of our websites," CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Michael Lynton said.

LulzSec, involved in the hacking of several leading US media firms last month, however, has another story to tell. The group blamed Sony Pictures for carelessness.

"Every bit of data we took wasnt encrypted. Sony stored over 10 lakh passwords of its customers in plaintext, which means it is just a matter of taking it." "We broke into SonyPictures. com and compromised over 10 lakh users personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and all Sony data associated with their accounts.

Among other things, we also compromised all administration details of Sony Pictures ( including passwords) along with 75,000 music codes and 3.5 million coupons", the group said in a post on Pastebin. com . Google mail, too, was breached this week and the hackers gained access to email accounts of hundreds of people, including senior US government officials and journalists. Google confirmed that Gmail accounts were hacked." We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing,” the search, cloud and net tech giant said on its blog.

Asked about reports that Gmail accounts of some Indian diplomats based in China had been hacked, Google declined to comment, saying it had no data of any specific people whose accounts have been hacked.

But the company pointed fingers at China.

"This campaign, which appears to originate from Jinan in China, affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users, including senior US government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries ( predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists, among others," a posting on the companys official blog said.

Indian experts, too, blame Chinese hackers. "China poses a serious threat to our national security as these hacking issues dont just seem to stop," Ahmedabadbased cybercrime consultant Sunny Vaghela said.

The hackers probably targeted Gmail because of the number of users they have, Vaghela added.

All regimes have now started implementing surveillance mechanisms on the Internet. This is a disturbing trend all over the world.

China has supremacy on it mainly because they are an early adopter of Internet surveillance and content filtering mechanisms,” a software consultant based in Bangalore, Anivar Aravind, said.

"Its become more about proving a point. Hackers want to tell people that I can hack into your system and show its vulnerability," Center for Internet and Society director of research in Bangalore Nishant Shah said.

But LulzSec has its own logic: "Our goal here is not to come across as master hackers… Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?"

Online Safety Measures

Secure your Email:

Change passwords often
Use the Gmail feature to check your “ last account activity”. It shows the IP address ( denoting a specific computer) used to access your email
Do not open unknown email attachments
Do not store sensitive and personal data in email accounts

Things to Avoid

Do not visit unknown sites; Use different passwords for different accounts
Do not divulge credit card numbers over emails or on social networks
Keep track of your credit/ debit card account
For online transactions use encrypted websites. Look for SSL certificate or padlock icon

Read the original published by Mail Today here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/cyber-space-hackers-paradise

Technology, Transparency and Accountability: A Bar-Camp in Delhi

praskrishna — 2011-06-06T06:30:09Z

Accountability Initiative (AI) held a bar-camp on “Technology, Transparency and Accountability” on 5th June at Google office in Gurgaon. Pranesh Prakash participated in this bar-camp.

The camp brought together technology enthusiasts, coders, hackers and policy-thinkers together in a collaborative environment to develop innovative solutions to accountability and transparency challenges in India.

Agenda

10:00 AM - Introduction
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Combined sessions at the cafe
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM - Breakout sessions in the various rooms and demo sessions in the cafe
1:30 PM - Lunch
2:30 - 5:30 PM - Breakout sessions in the various rooms and demo session in the cafe
5:30 - 6:30 PM - Deciding the future of the camp and creating blueprints for further collaboration
6:30 PM - Ending session

Some of the topics being talked about thus far

Social accountability tools and how can technology be used for this?

Public finance tracking and PAISA
Participatory budgeting
Participatory research for tracking outcomes
Citizen report cards
Social audits

Open Data and why it is important for transparency

Where can you find government data
Scraping government data using Needle Base
Why is visualization important?
Some examples of how open Data is changing the world
Akshara's work at the Karnataka Learning Partnership and the need for open educational data.
Data-mashups
The draft policy on open data in India
One stop govt ports

Technology innovations for improving the Right to Information

A wishlist
Shouldn't the replies to RTI be in the public domain?
Filing an RTI: Problems and Prospects
RTI Question and Answer Portal
How do you file an RTI though an SMS?

Egovernance initiatives that are leading to greater accountability and transparency

Mahima Kaul - Digital Empowerment Foundation

Making the links between politics and businesses transparent

Rohit Chandra

Electoral accountability

‘Improving and Strengthening Democracy in India’ - Lessons from Election Watch Process

Crowd-sourcing actionable data

An example of crowd-sourcing - Powercuts.in

Transparency in diplomacy

Using online tools to engage and be engaged by the public.

How should we look at technology when dealing with grassroots situations?

How can programmers help in making governance more transparent?

Perspectives from the Government

Perspectives from the NIC
Perspectives from the NEGP
Perspectives from the Office of Mr Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations.

Making conversation: citizens and their government

Making visual sense of Data and Policy

Policy to Practice: From the lab and to the people

How can legislators and parliamentarians and MPs be tracked by citizens?

Research Tools to work with large amounts of data

Other interesting ideas that have come up

Panini Keypad - Mr Abhijit Bhattacharjee
How Ashok Leyland dealt with its problems of too many layers between the customer on the ground and the top management - Its implications for the government

The Speakers

Nikhil Dey - Nikhil Dey has done more to fight for the rights of people than he will ever allow the world to find out. Always far from the spotlight, he has worked quietly to shape legislation, lobby governments and politicians and build grassroots campaigns.Born in 1963 in the city of Bangalore, Nikhil was educated in India and the US. Before the formal completion of his graduate course at the George Mason University, he left to ‘follow his bliss' and came to India. His initial work was with the Kheduth Mazdoor Chetna Sangathan in Madhya Pradesh. He then joined Aruna Roy and Shankar Singh in 1987 to go to a village called Devdungri in Rajsamand district, Rajasthan. Devdungri was soon to become the head office of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), a peasants-workers-women organisation founded by the trio in 1990. He currently is the Convener of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information.

Shri Sailesh Gandhi - Shailesh Gandhi is one among the handful of people whose dogged perseverance has demonstrated that the Right to Information Act is a valuable tool that can be used by ordinary people to resolve issues and to clean up public life. Currently one of the Information Commissioners of India, Mr Gandhi is a graduate from IIT-Mumbai and first-generation entrepreneur.

Prof Trilochan Sastry - Prof Trilochan Sastry has a Bachelors in Technology from IIT, Delhi, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) USA. He taught for several years at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad after which he moved to IIM, Bangalore. He is currently Dean at IIM Bangalore. He has taught in other Universities in India, Japan, Hong Kong and United States and has published several academic papers in Indian and International journals. Has received national award for research and teaching. He was part of the cofounding team of ADR India in 1999.

GVL Narasimha Rao: Rao is a well known Psephologist who has been predicting Indian elections for two decades for various leading media organisations in the country. He is the founder of Development & Research Services Pvt. Ltd., a leading research organisation offering professional research services for various governmental, international and commercial organisations. Formerly, he was a Columnist for MINT newspaper and regularly writes in various newspapers on politics and elections.

Rao is presently Media Adviser to Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in the rank of a state minister. He is also a member of the BJP’s National Committee on Electoral Reforms under the guidance of BJP’s senior Leader Mr. L.K. Advani.

Rao is President of VeTA (Citizens for Verifiability, Transparency and Accountability) and has organised various efforts in highlighting the lack of transparency and verifiability in Indian EVMs. He has authored a book titled “Democracy at Risk! Can We Trust Our EVMs?” which became the intellectual basis for the campaign for EVM reform. He had highlighted the vulnerabilities of India’s EVMs in a round table international Electronic Voting Workshop in Washington D.C. last year which was also attended by the Election Commission of India. Rao has blogged extensively on the vulnerabilities of EVMs at www.indianEVM.com which exerted huge pressure on the Election Commission of India and even served as an eye opener for laying bare hitherto unknown vulnerabilities (brought out by the research of Hari Prasad et al.) and raising uncomfortable questions regarding the pitfalls in EVM procurement, storage and field administration.

Mahima Kaul - Mahima Kaul is a writer/journalist and has worked with different formats - print, video and online. She has written for The Indian Express, Sunday Guardian, PBS World Focus and also worked on video programming for Al Jazeera and PBS. She was the India producer for PBS's special coverage on the Mumbai Terror Attacks, which was nominated for an Emmy Award. She has a blog that has been picked up by (among others) OpenDemocracy, Global Voices, Huffington Post and Ground Report.

She is deeply involved in ICT4D -- Information and Communication Technologies for Development -- sector. She has worked with Video Volunteers, a community media organization, and helped launch India's first community TV channel, India Unheard. She is a consultant with the Digital Empowerment Foundation where she manages the Digital Knowledge Center, the first information portal in India on best practices in ICT4D. Mahima has also established The Open Communication Foundation as a multidisciplinary platform devoted to ICT4D.

Rohit Chandra - Rohit Chandra is an engineering graduate currently doing research in the areas of power, energy and natural resources at the Centre for Policy Research. He will be discussing a nascent idea at the Accountability Initiative which hopes to map the links between businesses and politicians.

Sukhman Randhawa - Sukhman has completed her Masters in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK and has obtained a BA in English Literature (Hons.) from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. She is also an honorary fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. She has worked as a Research Associate at the National Knowledge Commission (NKC), a high level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, on the focus areas of Higher Education, Libraries, National Portal for Teachers, National Environment Portal, National Biodiversity Portal, Quality of Life, and worked on compiling the final report of the Commission. At NKC, she also worked with State Governments for implementation of NKC recommendations and preparing blueprints for action. She has also worked with IL&FS Education and Technology Services Ltd in Delhi. Currently she is working at the Office of Mr Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations.

Gautam John - Gautam used to be a lawyer with a focus on copyright laws and has also been an entrepreneur. He is passionate about education, equality and equity and focuses on 'access' as a way to achieve these. Gautam was a TED India Fellow in 2009 and is a Creative Commons supporter. He works with the Akshara Foundation where he manages the Karnataka Learning Partnership project, Pratham Books and is an advisor to Inclusive Planet. He is a founder member of Wikimedia Chapter (India) and currently serves as Secretary on the Executive Committee.

The Karnataka Learning Partnership is a multi-party, multi-stakeholder platform to bring transparency in the public preschool and primary education space. Karnataka Learning Partnership is also a public space where citizens can contribute to the cause of ensuring better schools and schooling for our children.

Raman Jit Singh Chima - is a senior analyst, Public Policy and Government Affairs at Google, India.

Pranesh Prakash - Pranesh Prakash is a programme manager with the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-based non-profit research and advocacy organization. He is a lawyer by training who's comfortable at a bash prompt. He works mostly around issues of intellectual property rights reform, promoting IP alternatives and transparency through different kinds of 'opennesses'—open standards, free/open source software, open government data, open access to law—as well as issues of freedom of speech and expression and privacy that relate to the Internet.

Last year, Pranesh along with Glover Wright, Sunil Abraham and Nishant Shah, prepared a report around open government data (OGD) in India as part of a series of studies commissioned by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative . In that report they looked at the existing ecosystem in terms of data practices, the policy environment (RTI, copyright, standards, NeGP, NKC's recommendations, etc.) , and specific OGD case studies of governmental organizations, civil society organizations, public-private partnerships, and civic hackers. The report then charts out challenges any campaign for OGD in India must address, as well as observations on how the very conceptualization of OGD must be different in India, and strategic recommendations on how to grow the OGD movement in India.

Rishabh Verma - A Python enthusiast, FOSS contributor,loves data mining and is always upto finding unusual patterns in large datasets. Organizer of Tech & Entrepreneurial events, he digs data-contextualization books when he should rather be preparing for his board exams.

Thejesh N - Thejesh GN is a Technologist. His area of interests are web, Open Data and Open Source technologies. He moonlights visualizing public data. He loves blogging and hacking open source software. You can find more about him here.

Chakshu Roy - Chakshu is a lawyer who specialised in real estate law and commercial agreements before joining PRS. He has earlier worked in corporate law with the Chamber of Law, New Delhi. He holds bachelors degrees in Commerce and Law from Delhi University. Chakshu Roy heads technology initiatives at PRS Legislative research, developing a comprehensive technology strategy to engage large sections of the Indian population in policy making.

Vinay Kumar - Vinay Kumar is the chief strategist at Digital Greens. He currently manage operations of Digital Green and contribute to its organizational development. He is also a consultant to Translational Health Science & Technology Institute (THSTI) at Department of Biotechnology. Prior to this he was at India Operations Director at PATH and Regional Operations Manager for Asia / Near East with IntraHealth International. Earlier he was with the Reserve Bank of India. I have an MA in Political Science and M. Phil. in International Relations from JNU and MBA from FMS.

Manu Srivastava - Manu Srivastava works as Vice President - Delivery at eGovernment Foundation, a not-for-profit trust that was founded in Feb 2003 by Nandan Nilekani & Srikanth Nadhamuni with a goal of creating an eGovernance system to improve the functioning of City Municipalities leading to better delivery of services to their citizens. He has been in the field of Municipal Governance for the last 7 years and focusses on supply side, with the Municipal Governments, to create sustainable, efficient, transparent and accountable Municipalities. eGovernments Solutions have been deployed in more than 250 municipalities across the country.

Dinesh Shenoy - Dinesh Shenoy is a business developer at Palantir. Palantir is a firm believer in the fact that well-informed citizens lead to better government, and making government data available is certainly an important first step. In practice, however, information is scattered across countless domains, and combining such widely dispersed knowledge in a meaningful way is a technical challenge beyond any private citizen's capabilities. Palantir has eliminated this barrier, democratizing the data and providing the tools to place a new world of analysis at your fingertips.

Palantir has developed AnalyzeThe.US which allows anyone to to explore vast amounts of data, including key datasets from www.data.gov. It brings critical knowledge together on a single stage, while providing rich analytical applications that enable anyone to develop an intuitive picture of the complex flow of resources, money, and influence that affect how our government functions. Ultimately, by allowing citizens to analyze our democracy, AnalyzeThe.US democratizes analysis.

Paul Culmsee - Paul Culmsee is a dialog mapper based in Perth, Australia. He has faciliated a number of meetings and done lot of dialog mapping particularly for the public sector in the areas of urban planning and health. He is the only certified dialog-mapper in the Southern hemisphere. He has also dialog-mapped politicians. His work has culminated in soon to be released book called "Beyond Best Practices", which outlines IBIS based techniques - a radically inclusive approach to knowledge management that allows groups to capture and make sense of unstructured knowledge during project meetings. and case studies. The book goes beyond the tool of mapping and the concept of wicked problems to look at what is needed to create and maintain a "holding environment".

Frederick Noronha - Frederick Noronha is a journalist, writer, publisher and photographer from Goa, India. He is known for online community building, and for promoting the cause of Free Software in India. Among the other campaigns he has been actively associated with are the successful community radio campaign, right to information initiatives, sharable content (including the information commons, Creative Commons, Wikipedia). He has been active in mailing lists within India, and has undertaken blogging assignments in Uganda, Malaysia and Thailand. He is on twitter at @fn and shares his links via Facebook and del.icio.us (fredericknoronha)

Nikhil Pahwa - Nikhil Pahwa is a media junkie, journalist and a blogger. He has covered the digital media business for more than 3 years. He has helped bringing a pan-media perspective to digital media reportage, highlighting industry issues, identifying opportunities and problems, and questioning the efficacy of decisions being made by some large media companies. Nikhil Pahwa undoubtedly is one of the popular names in the business of digital media coverage. Companies referMedianama for the latest breaking news in the digital media industry.

Kohl Singh Gill - Dr. Kohl S. Gill is the President and founder of LaborVoices, Inc. Dr. Gill served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow for the U.S. Departments of Energy and State, most recently as the South Asia and Middle East Labor Affairs Officer for the Office of International Labor and Corporate Social Responsibility in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Prior to federal service, Dr. Gill was an Indicorps Fellow in the slum areas of Delhi, India, serving as a volunteer paralegal with local residents, using transparency legislation to fight both petty and grand corruption at the local level. Dr. Gill is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, for his work in quantum computing and semiconductor physics.

Aaditya Dar, Dhruv Suri and Ritwik Agrawal - Aaditya, Dhruv and Ritwik are interested in exploring and evolving innovative interventions to improve governance in India. They have varied backgrounds - economics, policy research, law, advocacy [and even math!] and have worked together in the past on education and governance related issues as part of United Students.

Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya is a development professional with hands-on experience in institution development, development research, communication systems and grassroots networking. He has considerable experience in developing systems and platforms for enabling enterprise support. Vijay is an Electrical Engineering Graduate with a Post-Graduation in Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, M.P., India. Vijay is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ekgaon.

The other speakers were:

Vivek Joshi
Siddhant
Mudit Tuli
Ankit Rastogi
Nirmesh Singh
Manish Shekhar
Shashank S
Mandira
Tonushree
Shomikho Raha

The rationale behind the camp

Founded in 2008, AI is a research initiative that aims to improve the quality of public services in India by promoting informed and accountable governance. To this end, one of AI's key efforts is to develop innovative models for tracking government led social sector programs in India. The Centre for Policy Research, an independent and non-partisan research institute and think-tank, is the institutional anchor for this initiative.

It is now widely accepted that greater transparency – access to information and data on the day to day functioning of government – is key to creating accountable and effective governance systems. The Right to Information Act (2005) has played a significant role in strengthening transparency by committing the government to both proactively providing citizens with information and also responding to specific information requests. While the Act has met much success – RTI applications are growing by the day - there remain concerns related to quality, and reliability of information and data provided. Moreover, there are still many gaps in the Government’s efforts to proactively disclose information and data of public relevance.

Technology is one of many tools that can help address these gaps. There are some incredible initiatives taking place across the world on opening government data and on getting data to work for ordinary citizens. [See below for a sample of initiatives] Through the bar camp, we hope to create a platform for technologists to share these technologies and contribute to the debate on strengthening accountability and transparency.

Equally, we believe that technology solutions can be significantly enhanced if they are developed in consultation with people working on the ground, people who deal with the challenges of our current governance systems in India. By organizing a bar camp, we at AI want to initiate a conversation between technology specialists and people working on the ground. Through the bar camp, we intend to create a space where people can share their knowledge about how best to use new technologies to make our government really work for the people.

Online conversations

To faciliate conversations between interested people and for people who are interested in being a part of the planning process, we created a Google-Group. To send in your suggestions for the camp, both on what you would like to hear, and on what sessions you would like to take, you can use the google-group or send in your entries through our Facebookpage, our Twitter handle or through comments on this blog post. Our entry on the official bar-camp page is here. To tweet about us please use the hash-tag #TAC1.

Do you need more ideas?

To spark your thought processes, we consolidated a list of websites which deal with "Technology, Accountabilty and Transparency". Have fun!

A compendium of ideas from across the world can be found here.
The Sunlight Foundation does some excellent work on technology and transparency issues.
The technology for transparency network maps technology initiatives across the world.
Code for America brings together techies from across the world to use their skills for the greater common good.
Civics Common is another organization working on using technology for common good, and this involves a lot of transparent data.

For any other information, please contact lemmanuel @ accountabilityindia.org.

See the entire details on the Accountability Initiative website.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/notices/technology-transparency-accountability

India Weighing Looser Web Rules

praskrishna — 2011-05-31T12:23:22Z

Indian authorities are considering revisions to new Internet regulations after criticism from free-speech advocates and companies like Google Inc. that fear they could be exposed to liability under the regime. This article by Amol Sharma was published in the Wall Street Journal on May 30, 2011.

The rules, which took effect in April, require Internet companies to remove objectionable content from their sites, including anything "grossly harmful" or "harassing," within 36 hours of being notified by authorities. Executives could thereafter face penalties, including stiff fines or even jail time, say lawyers who have reviewed the regulations.

The rules may soon be revised to add greater liability protections for Internet companies, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal said in an interview.

Mr. Sibal said it is fair for the government to ask Internet companies to put in place codes of conduct that restrain users from posting certain material online, as the regulations do. But he said it is "relatively unfair" to expect Internet companies—which are referred to in the rules as "intermediaries"—to be responsible for third-party content. "To make the intermediary liable for the user violating that code would, I think, not serve the larger interests of the market," Mr. Sibal said.The backlash after the rules were enacted has been growing. Civil-liberties groups are expressing fears the rules are too open to interpretation and could be used by the government to restrict free speech on the Web. The regulations represent an effort by India to get a grip on the Web without the kind of direct censorship or website-blocking practiced in countries like Iran, China and Saudi Arabia.

He said ministry officials are trying to "apply our minds and see if the regime can be made more rational."

In its defense earlier this month, India's ministry said the restrictions rightly require that Internet companies observe due diligence in order to enjoy exemption from liability for content posted by third parties. "These due diligence practices are the best practices followed internationally by well-known mega corporations operating on the Internet," the statement said.

Google was among the companies and nonprofit organizations that offered feedback on the rules before they went into effect. The Web giant unsuccessfully sought changes to limit its potential liability for third-party content and to scale back a list of banned material that it said was "too prescriptive."

The rules also require removal of content that is "ethnically objectionable," "disparaging," or that "harm[s] minors in any way."

On Monday, a Google India spokeswoman referred to a previously issued statement on the matter. "If Internet platforms are held liable for third party content, it would lead to self-censorship and reduce the free flow of information. The regulatory framework should ideally help protect Internet platforms and people's abilities to access information," the statement said. Google has faced requests in many countries to take down content including social-networking profiles and YouTube videos that foreign governments or users find objectionable.

India is one of the world's largest Internet markets, with a user base estimated at more than 80 million. That represents only a slice of its 1.2 billion-strong population, leaving room for growth.

Mr. Sibal, who wasn't the telecom minister when the act was passed, is trying various efforts to boost Web usage. He plans to bring 500,000 villages online within a few years by laying a massive fiber-optic backbone and using wireless devices to let Web traffic travel the "last mile" to rural households.

He said the government has to be careful not to get in the way of Internet companies trying to build up the market. "We need to ensure that we don't put conditions which are adverse to the efficient functioning of the intermediaries," he said. Despite his interest in relaxing the new rules, however, Mr. Sibal said Internet companies must "take into account the sensitivities of the countries in which they're operating."

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, said his organization and other civil liberties groups are preparing legal challenges to the regulations on constitutional grounds.

He said the groups will broadly argue that the rules have put in place arbitrary and unclear restrictions on speech and have gone beyond the scope of the Information Technology Act of 2008, the law on which they are based.

Mr. Abraham welcomed Mr. Sibal's interest in potentially revising the regulations. "If Kapil Sibal gives this his personal time...there's a good chance the next version would be more robust in terms of constitutionality," he said.

Read the original published by the Wall Street Journal here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/looser-web-rules

May 2011 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2012-07-30T10:23:01Z

Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage.

Digital Natives with a Cause?

Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.

New Blog Entry by Samuel Tettner

Samuel Tettner is a Digital Natives Coordinator in CIS. He has written the following blog entry:

What Scare a Digital Native Blogathon?

Accessibility

Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.

New Blog Entry

Universal Service — An Instrument for Accessibility

Openness

CIS believes that innovation and creativity should be fostered through openness and collaboration and is committed towards promotion of open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software. Its latest endeavour has resulted into these:

Internet Governance

Although there may not be one centralized authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cyber crime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 defined Internet governance as “the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” Its latest endeavour has resulted into these:

Column in Indian Express

Nishant Shah, Director-Research will be writing a series of columns on Internet and Society issues. His first column on transparency, technology and NGOs in India came out on Sunday:

Power to the People [Indian Express, May 15, 2011]

New Blog Entries

Killing the Internet Softly with Its Rules [By Pranesh Prakash in Indian Express, May 9, 2011]
Rebuttal of DIT's Misleading Statements on New Internet Rules
CDT Provides Answers to Questions on Internet Neutrality

CIS is doing a project, ‘Privacy in Asia’. It is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada and is being administered in collaboration with the Society and Action Group, Gurgaon. The two-year project commenced on 24 March 2010 and will be completed as agreed to by the stakeholders. It was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around challenges and violations of privacy in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.

Featured Research

Limits to Privacy

Conference Report

Privacy By Design — Conference Report

Workshop

Second IJLT-CIS Lecture Series, National Law School [National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore, May 21-22, 2011]

Upcoming Conferences

Panel Discussion on UID – Its Feasibility, Utility and Legality [May 26, 2011]
Privacy Matters - A Public Conference in Hyderabad [The English and Foreign Languages University (TBC), Hyderabad, June 18, 2011]

Telecom

The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this:

Column

Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.

Spectrum reforms - Good & Bad news [published in the Business Standard on May 5, 2011]

Miscellaneous

Public Lecture

The Task of the Translator after Google [CIS, April 30, 2011]

News & Media Coverage

Sunil Abraham, CIS : "Avec l’e-G8, Nicolas Sarkozy veut promouvoir de nouvelles restrictions à la liberté d’expression" [LE MAG IT, May 24, 2011]
As Simple as a Tweet [Deccan Chronicle, May 24, 2011]
A Network of Chains [Outlook, Issue of May 30, 2011]
Bangalore-based NGO files RTI query asking list of websites blocked by Indian govt [Daily News & Analysis, May 18, 2011]
IT Act if enforced will leave internet use in India no freer than in China [Daily News & Analysis, May 15, 2011]
Your Privacy is Public Property [Mail Today, May 15, 2011]
Point By Point Rebuttal Of Indian Government’s Statement On Internet Control Rules [Medianama, May 13, 2011]
New rules to ensure due diligence: IT dept [Times of India, May 11, 2011]
Indian civil liberties groups are now geared to fight the draconian IT Rules [Weekend Leader.com, Vol 2 Issue 18, 6 - 12 May, 2011]
New Internet rule: 'Objectionable' content can be removed without notifying users [dailybhaskar.com, May 11, 2011]
India Chills Online Speech [digitalcommunities, May 3, 2011]
Consumers International World Congress - Day 3 roundup [Consumer's International Blog, May 5, 2011]
Digerati See Censorship in New Web Rules [Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2011]
Free expression [Watertown Daily Times, May 2, 2011]
India curbs on Bloggers and Internet [TruthDrive, April 29, 2011]
Bright lights, geek city [Hindu, April 28, 2011]
India Cracks Down on Internet Free Speech [April 28, 2011]
India's cyber cafes going porn-free [msnbc.com, April 28, 2011]
Thousands queue for iPad 2 across Asia [AFP, April 28, 2011] [News hosted by Google]
New internet rules open to arbitrary interpretation [Times of India, April 27, 2011]
India Puts Tight Leash on Internet Free Speech [New York Times, April 27, 2011]
India Can Restrict 'Objectionable' Web Content under New Rules [TMCnet Legal, April 27, 2011]
Iraqi Minister meets Secretary, Indian Ministry of Panchayat Raj [Karnataka News Network, April 27, 2011]
The world is your oyster, by invitation only [Livemint, April 26, 2011]
No access to pornography in cyber cafes, declare new rules [Times of India, April 26, 2011]
India Proposes Restrictions on Tapping Telephone Calls [PC World, TechWorld and CIO, April 26, 2011]

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CIS is grateful to 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.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2011-bulletin

Public data on the Web leaves much to be desired

praskrishna — 2011-05-30T07:38:04Z

Making government data accessible to all is a vital challenge, says Deepa Kurup in her article published in the Hindu on May 28, 2011.

Tim Berners-Lee, chief architect and inventor of the World Wide Web and an ardent advocate of open data, said, earlier this year, that countries should be judged on their willingness to open up public data to their citizens. This, along with 'network neutrality', he considered as important as free speech, he had emphasised, adding that this was particularly critical for developing nations.

In January 2011, the British Government, led by Mr. Berners-Lee, launched www.data.gov.uk, a site aimed at creating a platform for disclosing data to citizens, civil society organisations and even private institutions from a wide range of government departments and processes.

In India, while ‘civic hackers' and non-governmental organisations are coming up with interesting initiatives that attempt to put government data in the form of mash-ups and easily readable content online, government data on the Web leaves much to be desired. Half a decade after the powerful and progressive Right to Information Act was implemented, accessing government data online is still a challenge. Given the huge amount of public information that has been generated this year through Census 2011, and some sections of these even being GIS mapped, it is imperative that government data be ‘set free', researchers say. They believe that this could not only aid governance and public planning but also increase citizen engagement in public processes.

Technology aid

A recent study by a research team at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-based research organisation, finds that despite challenges, the Government and bureaucrats in India are receptive to using technology to open up more data to the public. Speaking to policymakers across the country, the report records various impediments and accessibility barriers, and surveys existing open data initiatives in the Government.

Drawing from these, the report presents a set of recommendations to help the Government move towards an open data ecosystem. These include re-examining the end goals and the end users of this data, involving volunteers and citizens in putting out the data in accessible forms, and seeking support from pre-existing ‘open content' communities such as Wikipedia editors or open street mappers, to name a few.

For a start

Nishant Shah, researcher at CIS, says it is heartening to see that governments, and policymakers, are already thinking along the lines of open government data. There are several initiatives, such as the Bhoomi project or Nemmadi of the Karnataka Government, that may not look at themselves as open data initiatives, but are certainly going that way, Mr. Shah points out. There are several critical infrastructure changes that are happening such as the use of computers at different levels of governance, setting up of community Internet centres in villages and various e-governance programmes; so there is a lot of hope that data will be accessible to more people, he adds.

Challenges

However, Mr. Shah points out that while there is talk about taking government data into the public domain, the larger ecosystem for this has not been worked out. The report points out that there is insufficient standardisation, while e-governance, to a large degree, has been far from perfect. System interoperability issues and the larger issues of privacy (in the absence of any existing law) are both challenges.

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior official from the department of e-governance said it was indeed on the Government's agenda to open up more data, and offer it in more accessible formats. He pointed out that interoperability of formats is a huge problem, one that he hopes the recently enforced National Policy on Open Standards will accurately address.

"However, it is a gargantuan process to get departments across the country, at different levels of governance, to comply. This may take time and effort. Another problem is that the input formats are not standardised, which means a lot of vital data is being offered in cumbersome formats that are barely useable," he says. However, a bigger concern is to provide the information ecosystem to take this to the millions that are left out of the Internet loop. That is a greater challenge, he points out.

Read the original story published by the Hindu here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/public-data-on-web

What documents will you need, to get UID?

praskrishna — 2011-05-30T10:18:29Z

UID or Aadhaar will roll out in Bengaluru in June. Here are the various documents one can use to make the enrolment easier. This news was published in CitizenMatters.in on May 28, 2011.

During enrolment, residents have to fill an enrolment form which will have basic details such as name, address etc. Evidence of Proof of Identity (PoI), Proof of Address (PoA) and Date of Birth (DoB) should be produced. If original documents are not available, copies attested by a notary/gazetted officer will be accepted. Additionally, biometric details - which include scanning of 10 fingerprints and iris, and photograph - will be taken. For children under 15, biometric details won't be taken; their UID will be linked to their parent's after verification.

As per the UID website, here are the documents which will be accepted as proof:

Passport
PAN Card
Ration/ PDS Photo Card
Voter ID
Driving License
Government Photo ID Cards
NREGS Job Card
Photo ID issued by Recognized Educational Institution
Arms License
Photo Bank ATM Card
Photo Credit Card
Pensioner Photo Card
Freedom Fighter Photo Card
Kissan Photo Passbook
CGHS / ECHS Photo Card
Address Card having Name and Photo issued by Department of Posts
Certificate of Identify having photo issued by Group A Gazetted Officer on letterhead
Documents without photos will not be accepted. Older photos are acceptable.

For PoA (containing name and address):

Passport
Bank Statement/ Passbook
Post Office Account Statement/Passbook
Ration Card
Voter ID
Driving License
Government Photo ID cards
Electricity Bill (not older than 3 months)
Water bill (not older than 3 months)
Telephone Landline Bill (not older than 3 months)
Property Tax Receipt (not older than 3 months)
Credit Card Statement (not older than 3 months)
Insurance Policy
Signed Letter having Photo from Bank on letterhead
Signed Letter having Photo issued by registered Company on letterhead
Signed Letter having Photo issued by Recognized Educational Instruction on letterhead
NREGS Job Card
Arms License
Pensioner Card
Freedom Fighter Card
Kissan Passbook
CGHS / ECHS Card
Certificate of Address having photo issued by MP or MLA or Group A Gazetted Officer on letterhead
Certificate of Address issued by Village Panchayat head or its equivalent authority (for rural areas)
Income Tax Assessment Order
Vehicle Registration Certificate
Registered Sale / Lease / Rent Agreement
Address Card having Photo issued by Department of Posts
Caste and Domicile Certificate having photo issued by the state government.

For DoB proof (having name and DoB):

Birth Certificate
SSLC Book/Certificate
Passport
Certificate of Date of Birth issued by Group A Gazetted Officer on letterhead

Copies of documents will be verified against the original and stored by Registrar for audit later. After registering, an enrolment number will be given. The 12-digit Aadhaar number will be issued within 20-30 days by Speed Post.

In the case of people who do not have documents for proof, there is an introducer system. The Registrar for enrolment can designate individuals who can vouch for the validity of a person's information. Introducers can be government agencies, banks, teachers, village postmen, elected representatives and NGOs. Introducers will be enrolled first and given training. Their UID will be mentioned among the details of the person who gets enrolled.

While UID enrolment is going to start in Bangalore in June, civil society organisations are raising concerns about security, feasibility and usefulness of UID. In a panel discussion organised by the Centre for Internet and Society on May 26, these concerns were raised. Congress MLA Narendra Babu, who was one of the panelists, said that the concerns were valid and that they should be considered.

Read the original story here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/aadhar-coming-to-bengaluru

Mobile education comes to villages

praskrishna — 2011-05-30T05:49:27Z

PEOPLE living in remote villages, trekking many miles to schools and colleges before dropping out, can now look forward to a tech option — mobile education. Education over mobile phones is vital in India, where the literacy rate according to 2011 census is 74.04 per cent, observers note. This article by Shayan Ghosh was published in Mail Today on May 27, 2011.

India has 791 million mobile subscribers according to regulatory body TRAI with a significant share in villages. That is the target group several start- ups and educational institutions are looking at.

Indira Gandhi National Open University ( IGNOU) based in New Delhi, is taking a lead in the matter. “ The technology is pretty new in India and we are planning to implement things like SMS alerts to students and coursespecific databases,” K. R. Srivathsan, pro vice- chancellor, IGNOU, said.

"It will definitely change the scenario of education in rural India," noted Srivathsan.

"All possible components required in a learning cycle including auditory, visual, reading, writing, collaboration, interaction, recording and computing," Amit Zaveri, CEO, EnableM, a company that delivers education through mobile devices, said.

"In rural areas the challenges for delivery of learning content & services are many including physical distances ( to institutes etc.), lack of teachers, no or limited access to standardised & branded content, time & cost constraints, limited capability for peer assessments, lack of skills development facilities for employability," Zaveri added.

Mig33, a Singapore- based mobile social network is hopeful that the mobile revolution could actually mean impart education to all.

"Mobile phones have moved from being phone devices to communication devices. With the advent of 3G, this is going to become bigger and better.

Also tablets are expected to play very effective role in this," Mohit Gundecha, India operations head, Mig33, said.

"With 3G the video clips can help educate, smart apps can help people learn, good sms apps can engage audiences about education concepts. We already see a host of companies coming in to take care of the hardware aspects and digital content to match the need," Gundecha explained.

According to Vikram Nagaich, director and founder, InnovateEdu, on one side, with mobile phones the content the reach of the content could be very wide. However, the efficacy would have to be delivered through extremely innovative and sophisticated content.

"Mobiles can penetrate better as they have things in favour like better battery life and people do not need any training to operate it. This gives it an upper hand over computers," Sunil Abraham, ED, Center for Internet and Society, said.

The Tech Option

Education over mobile phones is vital in India, where the literacy rate according to the 2011 census is 74.04 per cent, observers note.

With a significant share in villages, this is the target group several start- ups and educational institutions are looking at Indira Gandhi National Open University ( IGNOU) based in New Delhi, is taking a lead in the matter.

In rural areas, challenges regarding delivery of learning content & services are many and include physical distances, lack of teachers, limited access to standardised content.

Mobile phones have moved from being phone devices to communication devices. With 3G, this is going to become better.

Read the original story here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/mobile-education-villages

Google now stalks your street

praskrishna — 2011-05-31T06:20:18Z

Bangalore is the first city in the country to be mapped for Street View. This news was published by the Hindu on May 27, 2011.

Not too long from now, Google Map will allow you a sneak peak into the smallest cul-de-sac in the city, zoom into the most popular restaurant on the block, or even check out a home you want to rent.

Google on Thursday announced it will begin collecting images in Bangalore for its controversial Street View service, which will be offered on Google Maps. The service will allow you to explore places through its 360-degree, street-level imagery.

This, it intends to do by using cars and "trikes" (three-wheel pedicab) fitted with a camera system on top. The vehicles "will start gathering images from select locations in and around Bangalore, such as the Nrityagram Dance Village over the next few weeks," Google said in a communiqué.

"We decided to start driving in Bangalore because it is the IT capital of India and feel that the IT-savvy users will be able to leverage the benefits of the product to the fullest," said Vinay Goel, Product Head, Google India. Street View, introduced in May 2007 in the U.S., has since expanded to 27 countries. "It is useful for urban development planners, law enforcement agencies, house-hunters, and travellers," Mr. Goel said.

Privacy issues

But is Google venturing too close for comfort? The service has begun to draw criticism over a host of privacy issues here, just as it has done in several countries where it is in use. This despite Google assurance that it will blur people's faces and licence plates so they are not identified.

However, in the absence of a broad privacy law, there is no mechanism by which the Indian Government can hold Google and its service accountable, explains Sunil Abraham, Director of the Centre for Internet and Society.

"For example, the Japanese Government found that Google's footage was recording the insides of people's homes," he pointed out. Subsequently, the Japanese Government decided to reduce the height of the camera by 16 inches.

Individual concepts

"Every country has a different concept of privacy and any project by Google has to adhere to the local sensibility. But India lacks the mechanism to do so." Further, Mr. Abraham said, given the fact that 90 per cent of the population is offline, and a third illiterate, a Google logo on the van may not serve as implicit consent (unlike in the U.S. where it is a widely recognised brand).

Not real time

According to Google, it protects privacy because Street View images are not real time, but are between a few months to a few years old. There are "easily accessible tools that [allow] users to request further blurring of any image that features the user, their family, their car or their home," says the Google Maps website. "Users can also request the removal of images that feature inappropriate content (for example, nudity or violence)."

Read the original news published in the Hindu here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/google-stalks-street

Women in love with Facebook

praskrishna — 2011-05-27T11:35:51Z

There’s one thing these days that determines the passion of the modern Indian woman: their ever-growing love affair with the internet. The article by L Subramani was published in the Deccan Herald on May 27, 2011.

The sight of women updating their Facebook status, tweeting or checking their emails on the move makes it apparently clear that women, more than men, take to internet and in particular to social networking.

Global researches have lent credence to the phenomena that women are either obsessed or even addicted to Facebook and other social networking sites, suggesting that a third of women aged 18 to 34 check their Facebook pages when they wake up in the morning before even going to the toilet, while 21 per cent of those in the same age group check the social networking site before going to bed.

Alarmingly, the same study, by UK-based Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research-also suggest that 42 per cent from the same age group have no problems posting pictures of them drunk on Facebook.

"I’ve been on Facebook for about a year and a half,” admitted 26-year-old Kate who doesn’t like to tell her real name. “It has sort of become a regular thing. Apart from attending meetings or on important work, I quite naturally check the posts others have made and regularly update my status on FB."

Personal space

She denies that Facebook has gradually crawled into her personal life or could have even contributed to her remaining single. "It’s ridiculous (to say that FB has an impact on my life). I think it’s the best way to catch up with friends and family."

Smartphones with Facebook apps and growing usage of the internet on mobile phones have also opened up the possibility of logging on to social networking sites often and on the move and quite naturally, tech savvy urban women are taken into it, according to cyber researchers.

A cursory glance at many of the dating sites also suggest that women of all ages use the relative anonymity to reach out to new friends or to talk their minds out. Surprisingly, a few of them are also from small towns and places not on the radar for prolific internet usage.

A recent study by Google to understand the profiles of people using various internet browsers suggested that nearly 36 per cent of Indian women are using Chrome — Google’s own browser — for its seemingly faster performance that would make updating Facebook status or accessing videos and photos much easier.

"Women mostly use the internet for accessing entertainment and would like it to be fast,” Nikhil Rungta, country marketing head, Google India said. “It became clear that most of them use Chrome either for social networking or accessing multimedia or entertainment content."

However, Nishant Shah, a researcher on cyber behaviour and director of research at Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Research, is sceptical about the numbers. "There aren’t any specific studies to suggest that Indian women are on social networking more than men," he said.

"This doesn’t look possible when researches have shown that men outnumber women in overall internet usage. It may even be possible that many men are posing as women in social networking sites."

Bangalore-based writer and social commentator Vaasanthi feels that social networking provides the space women always look for. “It may be called ‘Facebook’, but you aren’t talking to a real face. This gives the freedom and the courage for women to freely express themselves,” she said.

"Given that most women today come from nuclear families, they actually don’t have that many people to talk to in real world. The virtual world provides them what they can’t get in real world."

She also said there is no need to feel alarmed about the Facebook phenomenon. "Facebook or social networking phenomenon is a new change and any change would initially cause concerns. But surely this would fade away," she said.

Read the original here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/women-love-facebook

Announcing the Asia Pacific Google Policy Fellows

praskrishna — 2011-05-30T09:26:19Z

Posted by Ross LaJeunesse, Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs, Asia Pacific

There are now more than 2 billion people online, with approximately 850 million of them in Asia Pacific.

Given Asia Pacific’s importance, we're excited to announce the extension of the Google Policy Fellowship program to this part of the world. The goal of the program is to assist public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on important Internet policy issues, and to support talented young advocates and scholars. Since its inception in 2007, the Google Policy Fellowship has provided a platform for students interested in technology policy to contribute to the public dialogue on these issues, and to explore future academic and professional interests.

The Asia Pacific program for 2011 includes one Fellow each in Australia, Hong Kong and India. The University of New South Wales, the City University of Hong Kong, and the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore will be serving as the respective host institutions.

In this region, we see many policy challenges concerning access to information online. The 2011 Asia Pacific Fellows will therefore focus on legal and policy issues related to the open Internet.

Congratulations to our first class of Asia Pacific Google Policy Fellows:

Lauren Loz, University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law Australia
Henry Hu Ling, University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law, Hong Kong
Rishabh Dara, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India

We extend our sincere thanks to everyone who applied. If this pilot program proves to be a success, we hope to expand the Policy Fellowship for 2012.

Cross-posted from the Google Public Policy Blog

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/asia-pacific-google-policy-fellows

Google Unveils Controversial Street View Mapping in B’lore

praskrishna — 2011-05-30T09:48:29Z

Mapping service, under criticism in Europe because of security reasons, allows users to view pedestrian-level photos of streets, houses. This news was published in the Economic Times, Mumbai on May 27, 2011.

Amid concerns of privacy in Europe and several western countries, Google launched its popular but controversial mapping service Street View in India’s technology hub Bangalore, which will allow users to view pedestrian-level photos of streets and houses.

Google said on Thursday that it has started capturing images of Indian streets which will later allow users to view panoramic images of streets across the country through its popular yet controversial “street view” feature on Google Maps. For starters, cars and three-wheelers, mounted with high resolution cameras will begin driving and taking street level photographs of public locations around Bangalore, top Google executive said at a press conference here on Thursday.

"We are announcing the street view in India. You will start seeing Google cars on the streets collecting imagery and then over time, it will be launched online on Google maps," said Vinay Goel, product head, Google India. Street View is a popular feature of Google Maps which is now used in more than 27 countries. With Street View, users can virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images. Besides cars, specially designed three-wheel pedi-cabs, called Google Trike, with a camera system mounted on top — will start gathering images from selected locations in the area such as the Nrityagram Dance Village over the next few weeks. The company’s move comes at a time when the Indian government is becoming more and more conscious of privacy laws. In a recent amendment to the existing Information Technology Act, India has added many clauses that protects sensitive information of the citizen. Privacy advocates criticised the feature in the US where it was first launched in 2007. After Google admitted that it collected wi-fi payload data by mistake using the street view cars, lot of bad press and protests followed. Google has stopped collecting wi-fi data.The feature met with opposition on similar grounds in Europe when it was launched. Opponents said that people did not want to be pictured going to places — like bars and strip clubs — they did not want to reveal publicly. They also did not want a private company to capitalise on public data. Google Street View was temporarily banned in Austria and Czech Republic due to privacy concerns.

Goel said, that the company has addressed privacy concerns and is continuously monitoring reports of privacy violations.

"Google will collect only public data. We have also improved the process so that faces and identifiable details like number plates will be blurred out of the images. We have permissions from local authorities and are open to discussions," he added. Users can also report problems to Google directly using the "report a problem" button on Google Maps.

Says Nishant Shah, director, research, Centre for Internet and Society, "Street View has been contested in many other countries on three counts. Private companies should not be allowed to capitalise on public data. This is a serious problem. Another nuanced argument is, if you formalise and regulate space in a particular space, it reduces the possibility of grey areas and diversity. It is also difficult to ensure total privacy. People invariably figure in many of the images captured. Even if you blur faces, there are certain identifiable characteristics of a person and can be misused."

Vinay Goel, product head Google India, launches Street View in Bangalore

Read the original here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/google-unveils-controversial-street-view

NGOs say eG8 report must stress internet rights

praskrishna — 2011-06-22T04:17:55Z

More than 35 NGOs from around the world signed a joint declaration requesting that issues concerning freedom of speech be included in the report set to be presented to G8 heads of government by the organisers and participants of the eG8 Forum held in Paris. The news was published in TELECOMPAPER on May 26, 2011.

Read the full story in TELECOMPAPER

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/e-g-8-report-internet-rights

Panel Discussion on UID – Its Feasibility, Utility and Legality

praskrishna — 2011-05-25T04:11:48Z

A panel discussion on "UID, its feasibility, utility and legality" is being organised by Citizen’s Action Forum, Grahak Shakti and the Centre for Internet and Society. It would be held at The Energy and Resources Institute (at TERI auditorium) in Domlur, Bangalore (near Domlur Club) on Thursday, May 26, 2011. The program commences with lunch at 1 p.m. and ends at 5.30 p.m. You are cordially invited to attend this program.

The panel members would include Mr. Rama Jois (former Chief Justice of Chattisgarh High Court and present Member of Parliament), Mr. Moinul Hassan (Member of Parliament), Mr. Narendra Babu (Member, Legislative Assembly, Karnataka), Mr. V P Sudarshan (former Chairman, Legislative Council of Karnataka and present speaker of Congress party) and Mr. Venkatesh Baberjung, Advocate, High Court of Karnataka.

The National Identity Authority of India Bill, 2010 has been placed before the Parliament by the Government. This Bill has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. Mr. Moinul Hassan is a member of this committee. The committee has held one sitting where the Chairman, UIDAI, Mr. Nandan Nilenkani was asked for certain clarifications on the Bill.

The UID project is now under implementation at Mysore. It is scheduled to be launched in Bangalore in June 2011. The Central Government has decided to include caste and religious data in the census. The linkages between UID and the census could come up for discussion among panel members.

UIDAI officials and government officials from the Department of E-Governance, Government of Karnataka have been invited as panel members.

The subject of the discussion is thus topical and of high public interest and importance. We cordially invite you to the lunch and to cover the event so that the public could become aware of issues concerning the same.

The programme schedule is as follows:

1.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m. - Lunch
2.00 p.m. to 2. 15 p.m. - Welcome and introduction by sponsoring organisations and moderator
2.15 p.m. to 3.00 p.m. - Opening statements by panel members
3.00 p.m. to 4 p.m. - Panel discussions
4.00 p.m. to 4.15 p.m. - Tea
4.15 p.m. to 4.45 p.m. - Panel discussions and questions to panel from audience
4.45 p.m. to 5.15 p.m. - Open House for Audience views
5.15 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. - Concluding remarks by panel members

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/uid-panel-discussion

Sunil Abraham, CIS : "Avec l’e-G8, Nicolas Sarkozy veut promouvoir de nouvelles restrictions à la liberté d’expression"

praskrishna — 2011-05-25T11:54:51Z

Le débat continue de faire rage en Inde au sujet d’une nouvelle législation posant des limites floues et, selon certains, potentiellement dangereuses, à la liberté d’expression sur Internet. Et alors que s’ouvre à Paris l’e-G8, sur fond de polémiques autour des intentions de son principal supporteur, le président de la République Française, Nicolas Sarkozy, Sunil Abraham, directeur exécutif de l’ONG Center for Internet & Societies, a accepté de partager son regard sur l’événement, depuis Bangalore. This news was published in LE MAG IT on May 24, 2011.

LeMagIT: L’Inde vient de se doter d’une nouvelle législation relative aux technologies de l’information et de la communication. Que dénoncez-vous dans cette législation ?

Sunil Abraham: Il y a trois principales préoccupations, pour la société civile. Tout d’abord, cette nouvelle législation va au-delà de son périmètre légitime et définit des limites vagues et inconstitutionnelles à la liberté d’expression sur Internet. Par exemple, un discours dénigrant, relevant du harcèlement, blasphématoire ou haineux n’a jamais été criminel ou considéré comme tel par la justice indienne. Mais du fait de cette nouvelle législation, cela peut être puni de 3 ans de prison. Ensuite, ces règles introduisent un biais contre la participation citoyenne à toute forme de publication en ligne, en particulier dans les médias sociaux ou la production de contenus collective. Ainsi, une fois qu’un ordre de retrait a été notifié, le contenu contestable visé doit être supprimé dans un délai de 36 heures. Ou c’est l’intermédiaire concerné qui est susceptible de voir engagée sa responsabilité. De grandes entreprises telles que Google seront en mesure de gérer de telles injections et d’engager des procédures en justice mais de simples individus seront écrasés par la censure privée sans application équitable de la loi. En outre, les individus ne seront pas notifiés de l’application d’une telle censure et aucune pénalité n’est prévue pour ceux qui abuseraient du système en émettant des ordres de retrait de contenu en masse de manière automatisée. Enfin, l’État a créé un système de surveillance à plusieurs niveaux impliquant cyber-cafés, FAI et fournisseurs de services en ligne. Les garde-fous sur les réquisitions judiciaires émises par les agences de renseignement ont été dilués. La rétention de logs redondante à plusieurs niveaux fournit en outre des cibles multiples avec des vulnérabilités multiples aux criminels à la fois au sein et en dehors de ces institutions. Les violations de la vie privée vont se multiplier et ne feront que distraire les agents du renseignement de leurs missions de fond pour lutter contre la criminalité et le terrorisme.

En clair, nous pensons que ces nouvelles règles vont réfréner la liberté d’expression sur Internet en Inde en stimulant l’auto-censure, la censure privée et la surveillance. Cela va nuire à l’exercice démocratique, à la liberté des médias, et à la transparence des institutions publiques, à la culture et à la créativité, à la recherche et au développement, et enfin - mais ce n’est pas rien - à l’entrepreneuriat.

LeMagIT: Dans un contexte de suspicion sur les objectifs du forum e-G8, et avec la perspective de la nouvelle législation indienne, quel regard portez-vous sur le sommet international qui s’ouvre ce mardi 24 mai en France ?

Sunil Abraham: Nicolas Sarkozy et les nations développées de l’Ouest ont complètement perdu leur légitimité morale dans le débat sur la liberté sur Internet. Leur duplicité et leur double-langage ont été mis en lumière - d’un côté, ils critiquent la Birmanie, l’Arabie Saoudite et la Chine mais, dans le même temps, à l’intérieur de leurs frontières, ces nations ont courbé l’échine pour satisfaire aux demandes des ayants-droits. Rétention de données, exigence de justification d’identité dans les cyber-cafés, riposte graduée, investigations transnationales, etc... sont en train de devenir la norme. Nicolas Sarkozy semble avoir oublié que l’accès au savoir est le prérequis de la liberté d’expression. Le partage de l’information est une composante essentielle des activités quotidiennes des citoyens du Net. Criminaliser ces actes afin de soutenir les modèles économiques moribonds des éditeurs de logiciels et des sociétés de production de médias ne fera que réduire Internet à une télévision interactive.

En tant que personne mariée à un ayant-droit en quête de rente, Nicolas Sarkozy n’a naturellement que peu de sympathie pour l’accès [libre] à la connaissance et peut ainsi se faire le champion vocal des régimes de riposte graduée. Il serait bien capable d’interdire à quelqu’un de lire sous un livre prétexte que cette personne aurait partagé les photocopies de ce livre avec trois de ses amis. Il n’y a aucune proportionnalité entre le préjudice et la punition.

Avec l’e-G8, Nicolas Sarkozy essaie de pousser d’autres restrictions à la liberté d’expression avec son concept “d’Internet civilisé” - les régimes répressifs du monde entier ont de quoi se réjouir. Leur régulation draconienne a été importée par le pays de “liberté, égalité, fraternité.” J’espère que le peuple français se joindra aux sociétés civiles du monde entier pour rejeter les propositions de Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sunil's original response in English

What is wrong with the latest IT Rules 2011 [Intermediary Due Diligence, Cyber Cafe and Reasonable Security Measures) under the IT Act [Amendment 2008]

There are 3 broad concerns that civil society has with the latest IT rules. One, they go beyond the the scope of the IT Act and place unconstitutional and vague limits on freedom of expression online. For example speech that is harmful, harassing, disparaging, blasphemous or hateful has never been criminal or defined by Indian courts. But thanks to the latest rules, they are punishable with 3 years of imprisonment. Two, the rules are biased against citizen participation in online publication especially in the form of social media and commons based peer production. Once a take down notice is received the objectionable content has to be deleted within 36 hour otherwise the intermediary looses immunity. Large corporations like Google will be able to manage due diligence and also fight court battles but individual users will becrushed by private censorship sans due process of law. This individuals will not be notified when such censorship occurs and there is no penalty for those who abuse the system by sending bulk machine generated take-downs. Three, the state has mandated a multi-tier blanket surveillance regime - by cyber-cafes, ISPs and application service providers. Safeguards for information requests by intelligence agencies have been diluted. Redundant multi-level retention of logs provides multiple targets with multiple vulnerabilities to criminals both inside and outside these institutions. Privacy violations will multiply only serving a big distraction from the real intelligence work required to stop criminals and terrorists.

In brief - we believe the latest rules have a chilling effect on online freedom of expression in India via self-censorship, private censorship and blanket surveillance. This will undermine - democratic governance, free media, transparency and accountability in public institutions, culture and creativity, research and development and last but not least entrepreneurship.

What is wrong with Sarkozy's agenda at the e-G8

Sarkozy and developed western nations have completely lost their higher moral ground on net freedom. Their duplicity and double-speak has been exposed - on the one hand they criticise Burma, Saudi Arabia and China. But simultaneously at home these nations have bent backwards to please rights-holders. Blanket data retention, real ID requirements at cyber-cafes, three strikes regime, cross-border searches, etc are becoming the norm. Sarkozy appears to have forgotten that access to knowledge is the precondition for freedom of expression. Sharing of information is an essential component of the everyday Internet use of ordinary netizens. Criminalising these acts in order to prop up extinct business models of media houses and software companies will only reduce the Internet to interactive television.

Read the original published by LeMagIT here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/avec-i-e-g-8

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Sunil Abraham, CIS : "Avec l’e-G8, Nicolas Sarkozy veut promouvoir de nouvelles restrictions à la liberté d’expression"

Sunil's original response in English

What is wrong with the latest IT Rules 2011 [Intermediary Due Diligence, Cyber Cafe and Reasonable Security Measures) under the IT Act [Amendment 2008]

What is wrong with Sarkozy's agenda at the e-G8