Centre for Internet and Society

3rd Expert Committee Meeting

praskrishna — 2016-01-31T09:38:05Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/3rd-expert-committee-meeting

Facebook’s Fight to Be Free

praskrishna — 2016-01-31T09:11:52Z

In India, Mark Zuckerberg can’t give Internet access away.

The article by Adi Narayan and Bhuma Shrivastava was published in Bloomberg Businessweek on January 15, 2016. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

Thanks mostly to its mobile-ad profits, Facebook has had a great couple of years. According to its most recent earnings report, in November, the company’s quarterly ad revenue rose 45 percent, to $4.3 billion, from the same period in 2014. It has more than 1.5 billion monthly users, just over half of all the people online anywhere. Keeping up its rate of user growth—more than 100 million people each year—will only get tougher.

A big part of the problem is that a lot of potential new eyeballs are in places where Internet access is patchy at best. Some of Facebook’s grander projects anticipated that issue: It has satellites and giant solar-powered planes that beam Wi-Fi down to areas that don’t have it. And then there’s Free Basics, the two-year-old project Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has called an online 911. In about three dozen countries so far, Free Basics—also known as Internet.org—includes a stripped-down version of Facebook and a handful of sites that provide news, weather, nearby health-care options, and other info. One or two carriers in a given country offer the package for free at slow speeds, betting that it will help attract new customers who’ll later upgrade to pricier data plans.

Facebook says Free Basics is meant to make the world more open and connected, not to boost the company’s growth. Either way, online access is an especially big deal in India, where there are 130 million people using Facebook, 375 million people online, and an additional 800 million-plus who aren’t. (The social network remains blocked in China.) That may help explain why Zuckerberg spent part of the first few weeks of his paternity leave appealing personally to Indians to lobby for Free Basics. On Dec. 21 the Indian government suspended the program, offered in the country by carrier Reliance Communications, while it weighs public comments and arguments from Internet freedom advocates who say preferential treatment for Facebook’s services threatens to stifle competition.

“An emerging country like India needs to provide the consumer with incentives to get onto the Internet.” —Neha Dharia, an analyst at consulting firm Ovum

Since the government’s telecommunications regulator announced the suspension, Facebook has bought daily full-page ads in major newspapers and plastered billboards with pictures of happy farmers and schoolchildren it says would benefit from Free Basics. Zuckerberg has frequently made the case himself via phone or newspaper op-ed, asking that Indians petition the government to approve his service. “If we accept that everyone deserves access to the Internet, then we must surely support free basic Internet services,” the CEO wrote in a column published in the Times of India, the nation’s largest daily paper, shortly before the new year. “Who could possibly be against this?”

Opponents, including some journalists and businesspeople, say Free Basics is dangerous because it fundamentally changes the online economy. If companies are allowed to buy preferential treatment from carriers, the Internet is no longer a level playing field, says Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Indian mobile-payment company Paytm. A spokesman for Sharma confirmed that Zuckerberg called to discuss the matter but declined to comment further.

India’s Internet base will grow with or without Facebook’s help, says Nikhil Pahwa, a tech blogger and co-founder of the Save the Internet coalition, which opposes Free Basics. “We don’t see Free Basics as philanthropy. We see it as a land grab,” says Pahwa. When dealing with the famously protectionist Indian government, that’s a pretty good argument. An April attempt by India’s top mobile carrier to underwrite data costs for certain apps drew heavy criticism, and the carrier, Bharti Airtel, has put the program on hold.

None of that means Facebook can’t help get more Indians online, says Neha Dharia, an analyst at consulting firm Ovum. “An emerging country like India needs to provide the consumer with incentives to get onto the Internet,” she says. “What Facebook Free Basics is doing is a bit extreme, but what you do need is a bit of a middle path.”

Internet sampler packages such as Free Basics can also help carriers like Reliance, the fourth-largest in India, upgrade their often-struggling networks, Dharia says. That’s a symbiotic process, because customers may quickly grow frustrated with the bare-bones service and demand more. Free Basics doesn’t have Gmail, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, or Bollywood music streaming. (Video will account for 64 percent of India’s data traffic by March 2017, consulting firm Deloitte estimates.) It’s meant to be a steppingstone. Facebook says about 40 percent of Free Basics users start paying for data plans within a month.

But again, if Free Basics catches on in India, people may just keep paying for data to use more Facebook and forget about some of those other services, says Dharia. “Facebook is the Internet” to a lot of people in India, she says. Google, whose services are most conspicuously absent from the Free Basics roster, declined to comment.

India’s telecommunications regulator says Facebook’s advocates and opponents have until Jan. 14 to file public comments; it’s received about 2.4 million responses so far, most of them form letters supporting Free Basics. The government’s decision could also ripple beyond India, says Pranesh Prakash, a Free Basics opponent and the policy director at the nonprofit Centre for Internet & Society in Bengaluru. In the weeks since India suspended Free Basics, Egypt, which had done the same back in October, once again shut down the Facebook plan, though the government wouldn’t say why. The India fight “will be a reputational challenge for Facebook,” says Prakash. “It will set the tone for Free Basics debate in other countries.”

The bottom line: Facebook’s free data plan in India faces strong opposition from local businesses and Internet freedom advocates.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bloomberg-businessweek-adi-narayan-bhuma-shrivastava

January 2016 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2016-02-05T14:47:28Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is happy to share the January 2016 issue of its newsletter.

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed at http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters.

Highlights
CIS in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India compiled the National Compendium of Laws, Policies, Programmes for Persons with Disabilities. Prasanna Kumar Pincha, Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities wrote the Foreword for the Compendium. The Patent Office had put the Guidelines on Computer Related Inventions, 2015 in abeyance last month. This step was taken after several stakeholders including CIS made representations to the Office about serious substantive legal issues in the document. The Controller General of Patents Design Trademarks invited submissions from stakeholders on specific examples on exclusions from patentability under section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970, for possible incorporation in the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions. CIS made its submissions. Rahmanuddin Shaik conducted an analysis of the growth of Odia Wikipedia and Konkani Wikipedia from a perspective based on Wikimedia statistics for the July to December 2015 period. The findings have been recorded in two separate blog entries. Nehaa Chaudhari made a presentation during the Global IP Congress held last month on the Curious Case of the CCI: Competition Law and SEP Regulation in India which discussed mobile phone patent litigation in India with competition law issues. Rohini Lakshané made a presentation on Patent landscaping in the sub-$100 mobile device market in India at the Global IP Congress. Anubha Sinha made a presentation on IP in Mobile Applications Development in India that discussed IP rights in mobile apps during the Global IP Congress. The Ministry of Finance held pre-budget consultations with different stakeholder groups in connection with the Union Budget 2016-17. CIS was invited to take part in the consultation for the IT (hardware and software) group organised on January 07, 2016, and submit a suggestion note. The submission was prepared and presented by Sumandro Chattapadhyay with contributions from Rohini Lakshané, Anubha Sinha and other members of CIS. CIS gave its comments on the failures of Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) draft proposal as well as the processes that it has followed. Tanvi Mani gave an analysis of Big Data in the Global South. She pointed out that appropriate analysis of the Big Data generated would provide a valuable insight into the key areas and inform policy makers with respect to important decisions. Eight key privacy events in India in the year 2015: August 11, 2015 order on Aadhaar not being compulsory; No Right to Privacy - Attorney General to SC; Shreya Singhal judgment and Section 69A, IT Act; Circulation and recall of Draft Encryption Policy; Privacy concerns raised about Digital India; Issues with Human DNA Profiling Bill, 2015; Impact of the Schrems ruling on India; and The definition of "unfair trade practices" in the Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 has been summarized in a blog entry by Amber Sinha. In an article published in the Deccan Herald on January 3, 2016, Sunil Abraham argued that "Internet" is not a human right in most jurisdictions in light of a survey conducted by Facebook which declared that Internet is a human right and Free Basics can help bring Internet to all of India. The first Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC16), organised around the theme of 'studying internet in India,' will be held on February 26-28, 2016, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF) is supporting the event. A consultation on 'digital futures of Indian languages' was held at the CIS office in Bangalore on December 12, 2015, to generate ideas and structure the Indian languages focus area of CDIF. The programme was led by Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana and Tanveer Hasan. The participants shared their digital Indian language experience at the meeting.

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Accessibility & Inclusion
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India has an estimated 70 million persons with disabilities who don't have access to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. As part of our endeavour to make available accessible content for persons with disabilities we are developing a text-to-speech software in 15 languages with support from the Hans Foundation. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed here.

►National Compendium

Note: This project with the Hans Foundation got over last year. We published the Compendium recently.

National Compendium of Laws, Policies, Programmes for Persons with Disabilities (Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India and CIS; January 3, 2016).

►Miscellaneous

News and Media Coverage

Global Charter: Promoting Global Digital Inclusion through ICT Procurement Policies & Accessibility Standards (G3ict; January 3, 2016). CIS was a signatory to this initiative.

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Access to Knowledge
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As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.

►Pervasive Technologies

Event Organized

The 4^th Global Congress 2015 was held in New Delhi from December 15 to 17, 2015. Pervasive Technologies team from CIS made the following presentations during the event:

Nehaa Chaudhari: The Curious Case of the CCI: Competition Law and SEP Regulation in India
Amba Uttara Kak and Maggie Huang: Rethinking Music Copyright Management in the Age of Digital Distribution: Business Models, Licensing Practices and Copyright Institutions in India
Rohini Lakshané: Patent Landscaping in the sub-$100 Mobile Device Market in India
Anubha Sinha: IP in Mobile Applications Development in India

Blog Entries

The following blog entries published last year and the year before were recently updated:

Litigation without injunction is a toothless tiger: Ericsson (Rohini Lakshané; January 15, 2016)
Joining the Dots in India's Big-Ticket Mobile Phone Patent Litigation (Rohini Lakshané; May 31, 2015). Last updated on January 21, 2016.
Literature Survey: Patent Landscaping in the Indian Marketplace (Rohini Lakshané; December 31, 2014). Last updated on January 22, 2016.

►Copyright and Patent

Submission

Examples of Excluded Patentable subject-matter under Section 3(k) for incorporation in the yet-to-be-released Guidelines for Computer Related Inventions (Anubha Sinha; January 28, 2016). You may view the Guidelines here. To read the letter sent to the PMO, click here. To read CIS' analysis of the Guidelines, click here.

Blog Entries

Job Michael Mathew was an intern at CIS. He conducted a series of interviews as a lead up to the Global Congress. All these posts were published on Global Congress website and mirrored on CIS website recently. Mathew conducted interviews withMichael Geist,Zakir Thomas,Susan K. Sell,Shamnad Basheer, and Jayashree Watal.

Intellectual Property Rights & TRIPS: An Overview (Job Michael Mathew; December 12, 2015).

Participation in Events

3rd Expert Committee Meeting on reference of secretary, MHRD on representation of Internet and Mobile Association of India (Organized by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting; New Delhi; January 11, 2016). Anubha Sinha and Nehaa Chaudhari attended the meeting.
Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (CRIs) (Organized by the Office of The Controller General, Patents, Designs & Trade Marks; Mumbai; January 12, 2016). Anubha Sinha attended the meeting.

►Wikipedia

As part of the project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).

Articles

କେତେ ମାଗଣା "ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ (Subhashish Panigrahi; Samaja; January 4, 2016). Sunil Abraham and Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.
ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନିରାପତ୍ତା ଓ ଗୋପନୀୟତାର କୋକୁଆ ଆଣିବ ଫେସବୁକର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ (Subhashish Panigrahi; Your Story; January 5, 2016).
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର: ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଡିଜିଟାଲ ପାଠାଗାର ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନର ନୂଆ ମୁହଁ (Subhashish Panigrahi; Your Story; January 12, 2016).
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ କିଛି ଅନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ ପ (Subhashish Panigrahi; Your Story; January 14, 2016).
Why It's Essential To Grow Indian-Language Wikipedias (Subhashish Panigrahi; Huffington Post; January 25, 2016).
This Multilingual Edit-a-thon wants to Improve Indian Content on Wikipedia (Subhashish Panigrahi; DNA; January 26, 2016).
କେତେ ମାଗଣା ଫେସବୁକର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ? (Subhashish Panigrahi; Odisha.com; January 27, 2016).

Blog Entries

Odia Wikipedia progress from July to December, 2015 (Rahmanuddin Shaik; January 1, 2016).
Report of Konkani Wikipedia's progress (July - December 2015) (Rahmanuddin Shaik; January 1, 2016).
WikipediansSpeak: Odia Wikisourcer Shares her Journey and Goals (Subhashish Panigrahi and Nasim Ali; January 30, 2016).

Events Organized

Telugu Wikipedia Education Program (Co-organized by CIS-A2K and Andhra Loyola College; Vijaywada; January 12 - 13, 2016). CIS is opening up a Wikipedia Digital Centre in the college so that students and local Wikimedians could grow Wikipedia and other Wikimedia content in Telugu and other Indian languages.
Geographical Indications in India Edit-a-thon (Organized by CIS-A2K; India; January 25 - 31, 2016). The goal of this edit-a-thon was to create and improve Geographical Indications articles.

Participation in Events

Editathon at Mysore (Organized by Kannada Wikipedia community; Centre for Proficiency Development and Placement Services (CPDPS), Manasa Gangotri, University of Mysore; January 11 - 13, 2016). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was the key resource person. Prajavani published a report.
Padartha Chintamani - Pada Kammata Program (Organized by Padartha Chintamani (ಪದಾರ್ಥ ಚಿಂತಾಮಣಿ); Indian Institute of World Culture, Bangalore; January 17, 2016). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja is one of the active members of this group.

Media Coverage

CIS-A2K gave its inputs towards the following media coverage:

Books at a Click (New Indian Express; January 9, 2016).
Read Bengali, Malayalam classics online as free Wiki libraries grow (Sandhya Soman; The Times of India; January 10, 2016).
Youth is responsible for protecting Telugu (Eenadu; January 14, 2016).
Wikipedia Digital Centre now at Andhra Loyola College (Hans India; January 14, 2016).
Kannada Wikipedia not on top of the charts (Muralidhara Khajane; Hindu; January 19, 2016).
GI-tagged products to get Wiki pages (S. Anandan; Hindu; January 26, 2016).
Wikipedia initiative - Celebrating legacy of Bangalore Blue grapes online (The Times of India; January 27, 2016).

►Openness

Submission

Pre-Budget Consultation 2016 - Submission to the IT Group of the Ministry of Finance (Sumandro Chattapadhyay, with contributions from Rohini Lakshané, Anubha Sinha, and other members of CIS; January 12, 2016).

Blog Entries

Approaching Open Research via Open Data - Presentation at TERI, December 22, 2015 (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; January 12, 2016). Sumandro Chattapadhyay delivered a special address.

Upcoming Events

The Zen of Pad.ma: 10 Lessons Learned from Running Open Access Online Video Archives in India and beyond (Organized by CIS; Bangalore; February 3, 2016). Sebastian Lütgert and Jan Gerber, the co-initiators of, and the artists/programmers behind the pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive) project will deliver a lecture at CIS office in Bangalore.
OER16: Open Culture (Organized by Association for Learning Technology; University of Edinburg; April 19 - 20, 2016). As a part of the programme committee, Subhashish Panigrahi is currently reviewing the submissions for the 7th Open Educational Resources Conference, "OER16: Open Culture".

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Internet Governance
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As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.

►Freedom of Expression

Articles

Free Basics: Negating net parity (Sunil Abraham; Deccan Herald; January 3, 2016).
Facebook Free Basics: Gatekeeping Powers Extend to Manipulating Public Discourse (Vidushi Marda; Catchnews; January 6, 2016).
The Internet Has a New Standard for Censorship (Jyoti Panday; The Wire; January 29, 2016).

Submission

Comments on the CCWG-Accountability Draft Proposal (Pranesh Prakash; January 29, 2016). CIS gave its comments on the failures of the CCWG-Accountability draft proposal as well as the processes that it has followed.

Events Organized

Network Neutrality Regulation across South Asia: A Roundtable on Aspects of Differential Pricing (The Energy Resources Institute; Bangalore; January 22, 2016).
Public Debate on 'Differential Pricing': Series 1 (Organized by CIS; ICRIER and the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai; at CIS, Bangalore; February 1, 2016).
Public Debate on 'Differential Pricing': Series 2 (Organized by CIS; ICRIER and the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai; Pherozeshah Mehta Bhavan, Vidyanagari, Kalina, Mumbai; February 3, 2016).
Public Debate on 'Differential Pricing': Series 3 (Organized by CIS; ICRIER and the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai; (Maple Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road near Air Force Bal Bharti School, New Delhi; February 5, 2016).

Participation in Events

Mobile India 2016 (Organized by COMSNETS in association with Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Digital India, et.al.; Bangalore; January 5 - 9, 2016). Sunil Abraham participated as a speaker in Session 4: Law, Regulation and Policy of App Economy.
#NetNeutrality and Data Protection Laws (Organized by ITechLaw India International Conference; January 27 - 29, 2016). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist.

►Privacy

Blog Entries

Reply to RTI Application under RTI Act of 2005 from Vanya Rakesh (Vanya Rakesh; January 3, 2016).
Eight Key Privacy Events in India in the Year 2015 (Amber Sinha; January 3, 2016).
Human Rights in the Age of Digital Technology: A Conference to Discuss the Evolution of Privacy and Surveillance (Amber Sinha; January 11, 2016).
A Critique of Consent in Information Privacy (Amber Sinha and Scott Mason; January 11, 2016).
NASSCOM-DSCI Annual Information Security Summit 2015 - Notes (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; January 19, 2016).
Transparency in Surveillance (Vipul Kharbanda; January 23, 2016).

Participation in Events

Data Privacy Day 2016 (Organized by Data Security Council of India; January 28, 2016; Bangalore). Sunil Abraham was a panelist.

►Big Data

Blog Entries

Nature of Knowledge (Scott Mason; January 11, 2016).
Big Data in the Global South - An Analysis (Tanvi Mani; January 15, 2016).

Event Organized

Big Data and Governance in India (CIS; Bangalore; January 23, 2016).

►Miscellaneous

Blog Entries

The Creation of a Network for the Global South - A Literature Review (Tanvi Mani; January 13, 2016).
Summary of the Public Consultation by Vigyan Foundation, Oxfam India and G.B. Pant Institute, Allahabad (Vipul Kharbanda; January 28, 2016).

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Telecom
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CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Participation in Event

TV White Space Trials & The TRAI (Meeting convened by Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India; November 26, 2015; New Delhi). Shyam Ponappa participated in the meeting. This was published recently on CIS website.

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Researchers at Work
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The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:

Upcoming Event

First Edition of Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC) 2016 - Studying Internet in India: Call for Sessions (Organized by CIS; New Delhi; February 25 - 27, 2016). We have announced the selected sessions for the Conference.

Events Organized

RAW Lectures #02: Anil Menon on 'Undermining the Tyrant's Protocols: Speculative Fiction and Freedom' (CIS, Bangalore; January 13, 2016). Anil Menon gave a talk.
A.I. Hype Cycles and Artistic Subversions (CIS, Bangalore; January 22, 2016). Gene Kogan gave a talk.

Blog Entry

Digital Futures of Indian Languages - Notes from the Consultation (Tejaswini Niranjana; January 12, 2016).

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News & Media Coverage
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CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Facebook's Free Basics Shuts Down In Egypt, Continuing Troubled Run (TV Newsroom; January 1, 2016).
Zuckerberg's India Backlash Imperils Free Global Web Vision (Bhuma Shrivastava; NDTV; January 4, 2016).
Will India win net neutrality battle? (Pratap Vikram Singh and Taru Bhatia; Governance Now; January 5, 2016).
Nasscom wants board to protect Net neutrality, regulate pricing (Shadma Shaikh; Asian Age; January 7, 2016).
Facebook is no charity, and the 'free' in Free Basics comes at a price (The Conversation; January 11, 2016 and The Register; January 18, 2016).
Why Indians are turning down Facebook's free internet (Nimisha Jaiswal; Global Post; January 13, 2016).
A billion mobile users: new startup profiles and innovation insights from Mobile India 2016 (Sneha Maselkar and Madanmohan Rao; Your Story; January 14, 2016).
Facebook's Fight to Be Free (Adi Narayan and Bhuma Shrivastava; January 15, 2016).
Trai promises final call on differential pricing by month-end after 'lively' open house (Economic Times; January 22, 2016).
India, Egypt say no thanks to free Internet from Facebook (Annie Gowen with contributions from Farheen Fatima and Subuhi Parvez; Washington Post; January 28, 2016).

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About CIS
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The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cis_india
Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook - Access to Knowledge: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
E-Mail - Researchers at Work: raw@cis-india.org
List - Researchers at Work: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers

► Support Us

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

► Request for Collaboration

We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at tanveer@cis-india.org.

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

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2016-bulletin

Wikipedia Digital Centre now at Andhra Loyola College

praskrishna — 2016-02-05T20:49:22Z

Access to Knowledge programme (CIS-A2K) of the Centre for Internet and Society has opened up a Wikipedia Digital Centre at Andhra Loyola College in the city on Wednesday. The centre, which has trained a couple of students in contributing to Wikipedia earlier, has now set up a lab called ‘Wikipedia Digital Centre’ to continue the activity.

Under the programme, organisers of Access to Knowledge train the students from each department such as botany, statistics, physics and Telugu to become Wikimedians so that they offer content in Telugu and other regional languages.

A two-day-long programme trained nearly 40 students from the college to enable them update the information. The students, as a part of training would work on their respective subjects in languages and will update their works on articles in Wikipedia.

The lab is equipped with 10 computers and will be managed by Andhra Loyola College and CIS together, said one of the organisers Rahmanuddin Shaik. College management and respective faculty were present during the programme.

Read the article published by Hans India on January 14, 2016 here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-hans-india-january-14-2016-wikipedia-digital-centre-now-at-andhra-loyola-college

Facebook is no charity, and the ‘free’ in Free Basics comes at a price

praskrishna — 2016-01-30T11:32:47Z

Who could possibly be against free internet access? This is the question that Mark Zuckerberg asks in a piece for the Times of India in which he claims Facebook’s Free Basics service “protects net neutrality”.

Free Basics is the rebranded Internet.org, a Facebook operation where by partnering with local telecoms firms in the developing world the firm offers free internet access – limited only to Facebook, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, and a few other carefully selected sites and services.

Zuckerberg was responding to the strong backlash that Free Basics has faced in India, where the country’s Telecom Regulatory Authority recently pulled the plug on the operation while it debates whether telecoms operators should be allowed to offer different services with variable pricing, or whether a principle of network neutrality should be enforced.

Not content to await the regulator’s verdict, Facebook has come out swinging. It has paid for billboards, full-page newspaper ads and television ad campaigns to try to enforce the point that Free Basics is good for India’s poor. In his Times piece, Zuckerberg goes one step further – implying that those opposing Free Basics are actually hurting the poor.

He argued that “for every ten people connected to the internet, roughly one is lifted out of poverty”. Without reference to supporting research, he instead offers an anecdote about a farmer called Ganesh from Maharashtra state. Ganesh apparently used Free Basics to double his crop yields and get a better deal for his crops.

Zuckerberg stressed that “critics of free basic internet services should remember that everything we’re doing is about serving people like Ganesh. This isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests”.

Zuckerberg’s indignation illustrates either how little he understands about the internet, or that he’s willing to say anything to anyone listening.

This is not a charity

First, despite his claims to the contrary Free Basics clearly runs against the idea of net neutrality by offering access to some sites and not others. While the service is claimed to be open to any app, site or service, in practice the submission guidelines forbid JavaScript, video, large images, and Flash, and effectively rule out secure connections using HTTPS. This means that Free Basics is able to read all data passing through the platform. The same rules don’t apply to Facebook itself, ensuring that it can be the only social network, and (Facebook-owned) WhatsApp the only messaging service, provided.

Yes, Free Basics is free. But how appealing is a taxi company that will only take you to certain destinations, or an electricity provider that will only power certain home electrical devices? There are alternative models: in Bangladesh, Grameenphone gives users free data after they watch an advert. In some African countries, users get free data after buying a handset.

Second, there is no convincing body of peer-reviewed evidence to suggest internet access lifts the world’s poor out of poverty. Should we really base telecommunications policy on an anecdote and a self-serving industry report sponsored by the firm that stands to benefit? India has a literacy rate of 74%, of which a much smaller proportion speak English well enough to read it. Literate English speakers and readers tend not to be India’s poorest citizens, yet it’s English that is the predominant language on the web. This suggests Free Basics isn’t suited for India’s poorest, who’d be better served by more voice and video services.

Third, the claim that Free Basics isn’t in Facebook’s commercial interest is the most outrageous. In much the same way that Nestlé offered free baby formula in the 1970s as development assistance to low-income countries – leaving nursing mothers unable to produce sufficient milk themselves – Free Basics is likely to impede commercial alternatives.

By offering free access Free Basics disrupts the market, allowing Facebook to gain a monopoly that can benefit from the network effects of a growing user base. Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, in India, has aptly noted that expanding audience and consumer bases have long been as important as revenues for internet firms. Against Facebook’s immensely deep pockets and established user-base, homegrown competitors are thwarted before they even begin.

Poverty consists of more than just no internet

India will not always have low levels of internet access, this is not the issue – in fact Indian internet penetration growth rates are relatively high. Instead the company sees Free Basics as a means to establish a bridgehead into the country, establishing a monopoly before other firms move in.

There is decades of research about how best to help farmers like Ganesh: access to good quality education, healthcare, and water all could go a long way. But even if we see internet access as one of the key needs to be met, why would we then offer a restricted version?

In presenting Free Basics as an act of altruism Zuckerberg tries to silence criticism. “Who could possibly be against this?”, he asks:

What reason is there for denying people free access to vital services for communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming and women’s rights?

That is the right question, but Free Basics is the wrong answer. Let’s call a spade a spade and see Free Basics as an important part of the business strategy of one of the world’s largest internet corporations, rather than as a selfless act of charity.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-conversation-january-11-2016-facebook-is-no-charity

#NetNeutrality, Data Protection Laws among topics at ITechLaw Conference

praskrishna — 2016-01-30T09:21:20Z

The who’s-who of the technology law sector convened at the ITechLaw India International Conference held from January 27-29 in Bangalore.

The last three days saw panel discussions being held on a varied set of topics related to technology law. The debates were led by a number of Indian and international legal professionals from law firms, companies and policy houses.

On Day 2, some of the panel discussions included Commercialization of Data, Aggregator Model – Licensing and Regulatory Issues Faced by Shared Economy Models, Digital Underworld, and Legal Challenges faced in New Media and Entertainment, among others.

The speakers present at these sessions included lawyers like Talha Salaria, Founder of Lawyers at Work; JSA Partner Sajai Singh; Trilegal Partner Rahul Matthan; MCM Law Partner Samuel Mani, apart from a host of In-House counsel from Intel, Amazon, IBM, Cognizant et al.

The highlight of Day 3 was a debate on Net Neutrality; Deepali Liberhan from Facebook, Pranesh Prakash from Centre for Internet and Society and Rohan George from Samvad Partners were among the panelists.

For more info, click here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/netneutrality-data-protection-laws-among-topics-at-itechlaw-conference

OER16: Open Culture

praskrishna — 2016-01-30T06:53:26Z

The 7th Open Educational Resources Conference, OER16: Open Culture, will be held on April 19 and 20, 2016 at the University of Edinburgh. The event is organized by Association for Learning Technology.

As a part of the programme committee, Subhashish Panigrahi is currently reviewing the submissions for the 7th Open Educational Resources Conference, "OER16: Open Culture" that is being organised during April 19 and 20, 2016 at University of Edinburgh, UK. See the details of the Programme Committee here. Download a PDF of the flyer for OER16.

The vision for the conference is to focus on the value proposition of embedding open culture in the context of institutional strategies for learning, teaching and research. The conference will be chaired by Melissa Highton, Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Services at the University of Edinburgh, and Lorna Campbell, OER Liaison at the University of Edinburgh and EDINA Digital Education Manager.

OER16 will focus on:

The strategic advantage of open and creating a culture of openness.
Converging and competing cultures of open knowledge, open source, open content, open practice, open data and open access.
Hacking, making and sharing.
The reputational challenges of openwashing.
Openness and public engagement.
Innovative approaches to opening up cultural heritage collections for education.

Follow #oer16 to keep up to date with all conference news. Register for the event Now.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/oer16-open-culture

Books at a Click

praskrishna — 2016-06-18T17:52:06Z

The OdiaWikimedia community and Bhubaneswar-based Srujanika have come together to make rare science books available online for readers, students & science educators.

The article by Diana Sahu was published in the New Indian Express on January 9, 2016.

Readers can now access rare science books in Odia language at Odia Wikisource, an online library of popular books in the language. The Odia Wikimedia community and Bhubaneswar-based Srujanika have come together to make these books available online for readers, students and science educators. This apart, books of Sahitya Akademi award winning writer Jagannath Prasad Das have been added to the library. Srujanika's co-founder Puspashree Pattnaik recently provided 700 popular science books that were published by the organisation to the Wikimedia community for digitisation. “These books were appreciated by many and even in demand after going out of print. Hence, we thought if these can be shared under free licence then they can reach a wider population. Wikipedia contributors can use these as resources and enhance science content in Odia Wikipedia as well", says Puspashree, a former teacher. She along with her husband Nikhil Pattnaik, a former scientist with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, had published several science books as part of their project to popularise the subject among children. With support from Vigyan Prasar in New Delhi, the couple had also documented rare works of science published in books, magazines, periodicals and newspapers from 1850 to 1950 in electronic format, a few years back. Around science 765 articles written over a century have been put on CDs and DVDs according to the names of authors and year of publication. The science books have been digitised by volunteers of the Odia Wikimedia community and the Centre for Internet and Society, a non-profit working for supporting Indian language Wikipedia projects and the communities.

Pushpashree Pattnaik

Similarly, the Wikimedia community has re-licensed 30 books of Das under a free license CC-by-SA 4.0. His books can now be accessed at https://orwikisource.org and anyone can use them for academic or research work. “My tryst with internet started very late. I was introduced to digital books through Srujanika's online version of Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosha - comprising 9,500 pages in seven volumes- which was impossible to handle on the writing table. That made me think how convenient it would be to have Odia books avail. able on the internet. As a beginning. I decided to put my own writings on the internet", said Das. Prior to Das, eminent writers and litterateurs Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, Manoj Panda, Subrat Prusty, Bharat Majhi and organisations like 'Manik Biswanath Smrutinyasa' and Aama Odisha' had come forward to make their books available online for free using Odia Wikisource as a platform. At present, Odia Wikisource has 280 Odia books and all are either under Public Domain or Creative Commons Share Alike licences. A team of 10 active contributors, known as "Uikiali' in Odia, are digitising books of various genres ranging from science writing, fiction to 0dia classics. “Apart from the science writ. ings, we are also working on digitising the biography of Nandini Satpathy which has been published by Ashisa Ranjan Mohapatra of Srimati Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust,” says Mrutyunjaya Kar, administrator of Odia Wikisource and Odia Wikipedia who has been contributing to the Wikimedia projects in Odia, Hindi, Sanskrit and English for the last four years. Odia Wikisource is a sister project of Odia Wikipedia.

These books were appreciated by many and going out of print. If these can be shared under free licence then they can reach a wider population.
Pushpashree Pattnaik

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/new-indian-express-january-9-2016-diana-sahu-books-at-a-click

Wikipedia initiative - Celebrating legacy of Bangalore Blue grapes online

praskrishna — 2016-01-29T15:44:36Z

Black is beautiful, and it can go places if it is well researched. When HL Omshivaprakash wrote a Wikipedia article about Karnataka's bidriware, the metal handicraft where gleaming black bowls and hookahs are dotted with delicate silver strips, he didn't expect it to be picked up by the French and Swedes.

Read the article published in the Times of India here. Subhashish Panigrahi gave inputs.

His article has now been translated into their languages. Though it might not lead to more money for the struggling artists of Bidar, they might get an edge while marketing their wares, says Omshivaprakash. This is the advantage that a week-long editathon hopes to achieve. Editors of the online encyclopaedia are celebrating Republic Day by encouraging people to upgrade and contribute articles on those arts, crafts and goods unique to various parts of India. "People are already working on 15 products from Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal," says Subhashish Panigrahi, Wikipedian and language activist.

India has 213 goods and crafts with geographical indication (GIs) tags. The GI mark is a kind of trademark, which indicates that a product's reputation is linked to its origins in a particular area. Of 213 GI tags, only 70 have English entries. So while intricacies of Muga silk-making in Assam and cultivating Bangalore Blue grapes are explained in detail in English, Alleppey coir has only a sketchy Malayalam entry.

"People should know the history of each item. For example, they should know how Kondapalli toys from near Vijayawada are made,"says Nageswara Rao Gullapalli.

Omshivaprakash, who created a signboard outside Bidar Fort last year, with a QR code that allows users to read the relevant wiki entry on their mobile phones, says a change in design can make a difference."The QR code was etched in bidri to create a socio-economic link between readers and artisans. Though the art is expensive, the artists are not paid well,"he says.

It is this desire to unearth new facts that will see Santosh Shinga, an IIT-B researcher, delving deep into Nagpur oranges, Nashik grapes and Mahabaleshwar strawberries. "I am from Nagpur and interested in fruits,"says Shinga, who knows a bit of orange farming.The only exception in his list is Puneri pagadi, the elaborate headgear recently spotted on actor Ranveer Singh in Bollywood movie 'Bajirao Mastani'.

Panigrahi hopes to finish the edits in English by January 30, right in time when the event wraps up by January 31. Karnataka, which tops the list with 30 GI goods, has only a handful of articles and images, says Panigrahi.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/times-of-india-january-27-2016-wikipedia-initiative

Data Privacy Day 2016

praskrishna — 2016-01-29T15:34:18Z

The Bangalore chapter of Data Privacy Day was organized by Data Security Council of India on January 28, 2016 at Electronic City in Bangalore. Sunil Abraham was a panelist.

Agenda

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/data-privacy-day-2016

Invitation for Padartha Chintamani

praskrishna — 2016-01-28T14:49:30Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/padartha-chintamani.zip

Kannada Wikipedia not on top of the charts

praskrishna — 2016-06-18T16:23:37Z

It occupies the 10th place among Indian languages.

The article by Muralidhara Khajane was published in the Hindu on January 19, 2016. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was quoted.

Bengaluru being the IT capital of the country has made little difference to Kannada’s presence in the cyber world. Compare any major Indian language on Wikipedia with the 13-year-old Kannada language pages, and you are in for a surprise: Kannada occupies the 10th place among Indian languages, while Urdu occupies the first slot in terms of number of articles.

As on January 2016, the number of articles in Kannada Wikipedia is just 19,070, while Tamil (83,432), Telugu (64,451), and Malayalam (41,334) are way ahead. Urdu version occupies the first place with 1,10,367 articles and Hindi version follows with 1,00,912 articles.

As far as the world ranking of languages is concerned, Kannada stands 107th. It is interesting to note that Cebuano spoken by 21 million people and second most spoken language in the Philippines stands fourth in the list of global languages with 18,65,033 articles after English, Swedish, and German.

It has been 13 years since a small group of tech-savvy Kannadigas got together to create the first few article stubs on Kannada. This resulted in starting the Kannada language edition of Wikipedia in 2003.

Though the articles in Wikipedia pages drew flak for their lack of depth and quality initially, the site showed signs of improvement only to fall back again. Initially, it was the issue of fonts that came in the way of developing Kannada pages and interestingly very few people knew that Wikipedia could be written in a regional language.

Omshivaprakash, one of the five administrators of Wikipedia’s Kannada version, blames laxity in community participation for Kannada version’s poor show. “Authors, publishers, government bodies don’t seem to be confident enough to use Wikipedia platform. Not many show interest to learn and contribute,” he says.

Awareness of Kannada Wikipedia, lack of awareness about Kannada typing tools, Internet accessibility issues, and lack of self-motivated volunteers who can drive the Wiki learning activities are reasons for the slowdown, he says.

Admitting that Kannada Wikipedia is lagging behind in terms of quantity (number of articles), U.B. Pavanaja, another administrator, argued that it was however good in terms of quality.

Attributing the rise in number of articles in other Indian language versions, especially in Tamil and Telugu, to uploading government data, he said, “But we have not done that. Our focus was mainly on quality, rather than quantity and the intention is to make the page more theme-based. We have deleted some 2,000 articles to provide the content in Encyclopaedia format.”

According to him, things are now moving in a positive direction with more people showing interest in this community attempt.

Kannada Development Authority chairperson L. Hanumanthaiah said he would immediately convene a meeting of administrators of the Kannada version of Wikipedia and discuss the mode of support Kannada bodies could expend in enriching Kannada pages.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-hindu-january-19-muralidhara-khajane-kannada-wikipedia-not-on-top-of-the-charts

Public Debates on Differential Pricing

praskrishna — 2016-01-28T13:48:40Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/public-debates-on-differential-pricing

GI-tagged products to get Wiki pages

praskrishna — 2016-01-27T16:33:47Z

Ever realised that the famous, red hot Naga Mirchi (a special variety of chilli from Nagaland) doesn’t have a Wikipedia page?

The article by S. Anandan was published in the Hindu on January 26, 2016.

And that Cannanore Home Furnishings — textile home furnishings from Kannur — is a brand with geographical indication (GI) registration? Wiki, which is an open and free repository of knowledge on the Internet, does not have pages, in English and other recognised Indian languages, on most GI-tagged Indian products.

The Centre for Internet and Society-Access to Knowledge — popular as CIS-A2K— which is a not-for-profit movement to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development, launched an India Edit-a-thon for seven days from January 25 to generate Wikimedia pages in English and Indian languages on Indian products recognised by the GI Registry of India.

“Kerala alone boasts 23 products, mostly agricultural, with the GI tag. But Malayalam Wiki doesn’t have information on all of them. Besides the Aranmula Kannadi, none of the other GI-tagged products from Kerala have Wiki pages in English. Nationally, there are about 213 GI-tagged products and we know nothing of most of them. There isn’t a single article on many of them even in English. It’s in this context that the Edit-a-thon becomes extremely relevant. It’s being held to celebrate the Republic Day,” says Wiki activist Manoj Karingamadathil.

13 pages already

The campaign, launched on Monday, has evoked enthusiastic response from Wiki activists who have begun to create pages on most of these products. At the time of going to press, 13 GI-tagged Kerala products have got Wiki pages and editors are at work to generate content for these products in English.

Apart from existing Wiki editors, freshers may also be part of the campaign. “All they have to do is to create a Wiki account before sending in researched content,” points out Mr. Manoj. The campaign will be on till January 31.

Seven-day India Edit-a-thon begins; Wiki activists begin creating pages.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-hindu-s-anandan-january-26-2016-gi-tagged-products-to-get-wiki-pages

Geographical Indications in India Edit-a-thon

praskrishna — 2016-01-26T15:19:56Z

Between 25 January and 31 January 2016, CIS-A2K is organizing an edit-a-thon to celebrate India's republic day. The goal of this edit-a-thon is to create and improve Geographical Indications articles.

Expectations

We expect that if you participate in this edit-a-thon, you'll create or expand at least 3 articles. However you may work on as many as articles you want.

Rules

For an article to be considered as part of this Geographical Indications in India Edit-a-thon, it must adhere to the following rules

The new article must be created between 0:00 UTC on 25 January 2016 and 23:59 UTC on 31 January 2016.
Creation/Expansion rule: If you are creating a new article the new article must have a size of at least 3,500 bytes and a minimum length of roughly 300 words (the word count excludes templates, infoboxes, references, etc.), If you are expanding an existing article, you need to expand this article by at least 3000 bytes, (the word count excludes templates, infoboxes, references, etc.)
The articles should not copyvio content and should follow verifiability and other important policies of Wikipedia.
The articles should have decent references;
The article must not be purely machine translated.
There should not be any maintenance tags in the articles
The article must have a direct relation to Geographical Indications in India (see Proposed articles).

Participants

Please add your username below. If you can not find your community name, please add a section using level 3 header (eg. === Ukrainian Wikipedia ===). We also encourage you to start an event page on your Wikipedia.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/geographical-indications-in-india-edit-a-thon