Centre for Internet and Society

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Sakshi

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T11:31:57Z

Sakshi covered the Vijaywada event on June 25, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan and Rahmanuddin Shaik gave their inputs.

Given below is a scanned version of the coverage published in the district edition:

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/coverage-of-event-in-vijaywada-june-25-2014-sakshi

Loyola Faculty Enlightened About Open Edn Resources

praskrishna — 2014-07-02T04:50:48Z

“The tremendous changes in the digital technology have introduced the newage faculty to certain open and collaborative tools like Wiki, termed as open educational resources (OER),” Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) progarmme director T Vishnu Vardhan has said.

The article published in the New Indian Express on June 25, 2014 can be read here. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.

Adressing a two-day national workshop on ‘“Openness of Knowledge in Digital Era’ at Andhra Loyola College here Tuesday, Vishnu Vardhan stressed that within this context of digital era, openness and transparency gained newer significance, which creates a pre-condition for the transformation of society into knowledge society.

Pointing out that many of the websites were offering opportunity to access the information in almost all Indian languages and with everyone making use of Wikipedia as an OER tool, he explained the changes in the digital technology and also introduced the faculty to certain open and collaborative tools like Wikipedia.

Besides to giving a historical overview of the free and open source software movement, mass collaboration on the internet, details about Wikipedia authors and users, the participants were educated about using the simple technological tools like QR code to create increased and seamless access to knowledge using pervasive technologies like mobile phones.

Graduate and postgraduate teaching faculty from various streams partcipated in the workshop meant to discuss and learn new development in the fields of knowledge sharing and access in digital era.

CIS programme officer Rahimanuddin Shaik, jounalist Malladi Kameswara Rao, ALC principal Fr Kishore, college vice-principal Fr Anil kumaralso participated.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-new-indian-express-june-25-2014-loyola-faculty-enlightened-about-open-edn-resources

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Enadu

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T11:32:16Z

Eenadu covered the event on June 25, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan and Rahmanuddin Shaik are quoted.

A scanned version of the event published in the district edition is below:

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/eenadu-june-25-2014-coverage-of-vijaywada-event

NRK May 2014 Report

praskrishna — 2014-06-24T11:32:52Z

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

NVDA and eSpeak (May 2014) Quarterly Report

praskrishna — 2014-06-24T11:24:24Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/nvda-e-speak-may-2014.pdf

NVDA & eSpeak Team Members

praskrishna — 2015-01-22T01:13:57Z

Listed below are profiles of the team members working on the NVDA and eSpeak project.

NVDA Team Members

Dipendra Manocha

Dipendra Manocha is working with the DAISY Consortium which is working in the area of providing publications in accessible formats to persons who cannot read normal print. He is the lead of training and technical support and coordinates DAISY Consortium’s projects in developing countries. He is member of the Executive Committee of the World Blind Union and is managing trustee of Saksham. He is the president of the DAISY Forum of India which is a network of 92 organisations in India serving the persons with blindness and low vision. .

Since 1993, he has been working for the mission of providing technology solutions to limit the limitations of persons with blindness. Key areas of his contribution include computer training to open new areas in education and employment, Indian Language braille translation and screen reading software, DAISY standards for production and distribution of digital talking, braille and e-text books in South Asian Countries.

Awards

National Award by Government of India
Lakshmipat Singhania National Leadership award by IIM Lucknow
IBN-7 Super Idal award
Sitaram Jindal Foundation award

Manish Aggarwal

Manish has over 14 years of extensive software industry experience successfully leading large teams to design and implement complex business-critical information technology solutions. In his last 12 years at Sapient, Manish has worked for various clients in the Automotive, Healthcare, finance and Insurance industries. Manish also works with CIS on the open source NVDA screen reader project. The purpose of this project is to improve the free NVDA screen reader considering the specific requirements of Indian users and Indian language speaking blind users.

Siddharth Gupta

Siddharth strives to make a difference to the lives of the Visually Impaired persons by making data and information accessible to them. In NVDA, he has made contribution towards Indian Language Phonetics , Unicode Symbols like Mathematical Symbols, Symbols used in Physics, Chemistry, Emoticons and other frequently used Symbols. He has also tried to improve the accessibility of MS Excel. Siddhartha hails from Uttarakhand. He is a graduate in Computer Science Engg. Currently, he is a Project Associate at IIT Delhi. Prior to this, he was SAP ABAP developer at Infosys.

Dinesh Kaushal

Dinesh is currently working for the development of NVDA, an open source screen reader. He has more than 10 year’s experience in assistive technology development and accessibility implementation. Dinesh pioneered development of Hindi screen reader in India allowing persons with blindness to read / write in Hindi independently. He also spearheaded Braille development for Mobile devices for Code Factory and helped many people with blindness all over the world to communicate with other people without significant barriers. Dinesh successfully lead more than 100 accessibility projects in Wipro and helped Wipro win many awards including National Award for the best accessible website.

Suman Dogra

Suman Dogra has experience in accessibility testing on various accessibility products such as screen reader, PACMate, Open Book, MAGic etc. She has involved in non-profit management working in teams to provide various facilities related to technologies and employment to the differently abled persons. In NVDA project, she is involved in testing, training and coordinating the language testing.

eSpeak Team Members

Mahesh Inder Singh Khosla

Mahesh is a resident of Punjab, heading the Digitizing Programme for the Reference Library with Punjab Government. His deep interest in language and technology made him study Masters in Punjabi and to understand the ancient language base he studied Religious scriptures and did his Masters in Religious Science too. Having lost his vision at an early age Mahesh had to struggle hard to learn computers. He has created Punjabi Unicode based Keyboard Layout for the benefit of his community. With all his acquired knowledge on languages and strong technical interest, he worked on Punjabi TTS and in the year 2013, joined as a developer in CIS to contribute in the development of other Indian languages. He is now working on Gujarati, Marathi, Kashmiri and Kannada. He is making the software named espeak for Indian languages for the whole team and its users. Apart from language development and building the programme, he is giving technical support to the language team and is also involved in managing the bug tracking system.

Mahesh is an active Social Worker. He is the Secretary of Navchetna Institute for the Blind which is working to support visually challenged children providing free boarding and lodging along with free education. He is also the Chief Organising Secretary of Welfare Association for the Visually Challenged Employees giving technical support for the benefit of the visually challenged employees so that they are able to perform well in their workplace. He has been honoured by a lot of local Societies for his contribution in different fields. (Lions Club, Dedicated Brothers, Rainbow Club, Triveni, Sahitya kalash, Bharat Netraheen Samaj, Welfare Association for the Visually Challenged Employees).

Prasenjit Sen

Prasenjit is associated with Mahiti. He has 20 years of experience. He manages many projects. Mahiti has worked with numerous organisations since 1998 making a social impact from local to global level. To support them, Mahiti has produced websites, web portals, mobile applications, management information systems, print and online communication material including appeals and short films. Mahiti.org is integrated with Mahiti Infotech that's known to provide end-to-end IT solutions to businesses around the world. Together Mahiti a group of 50+ technocrats and sociologists committed to support social change through imaginative use of technology and creative communication.

Mahiti is strong advocate of principles for free and open source and it actively contributes to the FOSS movement.

Dr. Homiyar Mobedji

Dr. Homiyar is the CEO of National Association for the Blind, New Delhi. He is the training coordinator for NVDA project. He has extensive experience in the non government social work sector. He has worked for Enable India Bangalore, Technical Training Institute of the Pune and Blind Men’s Association, Gujarat. He also worked for physiotherapy college for the blind, Mumbai.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-e-speak-team-profiles

Commonwealth Domain Name System Forum 2014

praskrishna — 2014-07-03T09:27:08Z

This event took place on 19 June 2014 from 09:00-17:30 BST at ICANN50 | London in the Viscount room. It was organized by the CTO, hosted by ICANN, and supported by Nominet and the Public Interest Registry.

Pranesh Prakash was a panelist for this event. The detailed brochure of the event can be downloaded here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/common-wealth-domain-name-system-forum-2014

Privacy and Surveillance Roundtable

praskrishna — 2014-06-20T05:26:10Z

The Centre for Internet and Society and the Cellular Operators Association of India in collaboration with the Council for Fair Business Practices invite you to a "Privacy Roundtable" at IMC Building, IMC Marg, Churchgate, Mumbai on June 28, 2014, 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

Time	Details
10:00 – 11:00	Introduction
11:00 - 11:30	Tea
11:30 - 13:00	Discussion
13:00 - 14:00	Lunch
14.00 - 16.00	Discussion
16.00 - 16.15	Tea

Background and Context to the Roundtables

In India, lawful interception of communications may be conducted by the state in three ways: firstly, intercepting telephone calls and other telecommunications may take place under powers listed in the Telegraph Act, 1885 and procedure set out in the Telegraph Rules, 1951; secondly, intercepting written communications transmitted through the postal service or by private couriers may occur under the Post Office Act, 1898; and, thirdly, intercepting, de-crypting, and monitoring email messages and other electronic communications may take place under the Information Technology Act, 1950 and two sets of Rules issued in 2008.

The government’s intention to create a Central Monitoring System to automate the existing process of telephone tapping is significant for a number of reasons. It will bypass private telephone service providers; currently the active cooperation of TSPs is required and compelled in order to intercept and monitor a telephone conversation. This creates an extra layer of compliance activity for TSPs which is cumbersome and expensive. Interception orders from the state often do not comply with the procedure required by law. This uncertainty is compounded by the lack of an indemnity for TSPs.

However, while the CMS will release TSPs from legal liability, it will leave the government free to conduct telephone interceptions in absolute secrecy and without a credible system of oversight and checks and balances. Amongst the world’s major democratic countries, India is alone in refusing to overhaul its telephone tapping regime. The legal requirements of probable cause, judicial sanction, and warrant-based interception – which are followed with exceptions in democracies around the world – are not adequately protected in India. The same principles also apply to the interception of postal and electronic communications.

There are several intelligence and police agencies in India that conduct interceptions of communications without central coordination. Previous cases in the Supreme Court of India and a few Indian High Courts reveal many cases of improper and even illegal surveillance. The sheer number of interested state agencies, the concerns of inadequate oversight, the lack of a credible legal regime, the constant leaks of private communications, and the poor legal protection given to TSPs and ISPs must be legally addressed.

Information about the Roundtables

The Privacy and Surveillance Roundtables are a CIS initiative, in partnership with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). From June 2014 – November 2014, CIS and COAI will host seven Privacy and Surveillance Roundtable discussions across multiple cities in India. The Roundtables will be closed-door deliberations involving multiple stakeholders. Through the course of these discussions we aim to deliberate upon the current legal framework for surveillance in India, and discuss possible frameworks for surveillance in India. The provisions of the draft CIS Privacy Bill 2013, the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance, and the Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy will be used as background material and entry points into the discussion. The recommendations and dialogue from each roundtable will be compiled and submitted to the Department of Personnel and training.

The Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy

In January 2012 Justice A.P. Shah formed a committee to create a report of recommendations for privacy legislation in India. The committee met seven times from January 2012 to September 2012. The Report is made up of six chapters and begins by reviewing the international best practices around privacy and the relevant Indian jurisprudence. The Report then recommends nine National Privacy Principles to be adopted by each sector in India. The Nine National Privacy Principles reflect international standards, as well as taking into consideration the Indian context. Along with the National Privacy Principles, the Report lays out a regulatory framework for privacy including privacy commissioners at the regional and national level, self regulating organizations at the industry level, and a system of complaints. Finally the report demonstrates how the National Privacy Principles could be used to harmonize existing legislation and practices.

The Draft CIS Citizens Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013

The Centre for Internet and Society has been researching privacy in India since 2010 with the objective of raising public awareness, completing in depth research, and driving a privacy legislation in India. As part of this work, the Centre for Internet and Society has drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013. The Citizens Privacy Protection Bill contains provisions that speak to data protection, interception, and surveillance. The Bill also establishes the powers and functions of the privacy commissioner, and lays out offenses and penalties for contravention of the Act. The Bill represents a citizens’ version of a privacy legislation, and will be shared with civil society, industry, and government. It is hoped that the review and revision of the Bill will be a participatory process, and thus comments and feedback to it’s’ provisions will be included as annex’s to the Bill.

The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance

These principles were defined in 2013 in response to rapidly changing technologies and surveillance practices. The principles are the outcome of a global consultation with civil society groups, industry and international experts in communications surveillance law, policy and technology, spearheaded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation US and Privacy International UK. As technologies that facilitate State surveillance of communications advance, States are failing to ensure that laws and regulations related to communications surveillance adhere to international human rights and adequately protect the rights to privacy and freedom of expression. These principles attempt to explain how international human rights law applies in the current digital environment, particularly in light of the increase in and changes to communications surveillance technologies and techniques. These principles can provide civil society groups, industry, States and others with a framework to evaluate whether current or proposed surveillance laws and practices are consistent with human rights.

Tentative schedule for the Roundtables:

Mumbai – June 28th
New Delhi – July 4th
Ahmedabad/Hyderabad – August 1st
Bangalore – September 5th
New Delhi – October 3rd
Chennai – October 24th
New Delhi – November 7th

Resources

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/privacy-surveillance-roundtable

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T11:28:34Z

Andhra Loyola College and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team invite you to a two-day national workshop on knowledge and openness in the digital era.

Instructions for Participants

Each participant attending the Workshop should register themselves on Wikipedia. Please note that once you register on a Wikipedia project, you can use that 'Username' (i.e. same log-in details) across all Wikipedias and Wikimedia platforms. This should be done by June 22, 2014. Please note that you will not be able to register more than 5 Usernames from a single IP address within 24 hours (a security feature of Wikipedia). This tutorial will help you with Registration on Wikipedia http://sh.st/r9zc (click on this link).
Once registered the participants must enroll here http://bit.ly/U4Zxhp using an on-line registration form.
All the participants are expected to do take part in production sprints on Wikipedia. We will choose Telugu Language Wikipedia as a site to do some editing.

For this workshop each participant should come with three full-fledged articles (at least of 1200 words each) in Telugu. This should be typed and be available in a soft copy form and could be carried in a thumb drive or any other storage media which should be easily accessible to them during the training programme. Please check www.te.wikipedia.org to see if an article already exists on the topic that you are planning to write. You can even choose the expand the existing article on Telugu Wikipedia with your knowledge.

Suggested topics: a) Concepts/topics that you teach often; b) A famous theorist/thinker in your discipline; c) Any other notable topic that you feel should be in your language Wikipedia.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/knowledge-and-openness-in-digital-era

Research Advisory Network Meeting

praskrishna — 2014-07-03T06:39:38Z

All sessions will take place at the OECD Headquarters, located at 2 Rue André Pascal, 75016, Paris, France. Sunil Abraham is participating in the event.

For agenda and other details, click here.

Hosting of the Event

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has agreed to host this meeting of the Global Commission on Internet Governance’s Research Advisory Network (RAN). The OECD will provide meeting space and logistical support, and is committed to engaging the project in the development of evidence-based policy recommendations for the future of Internet governance.

Meeting Participant List

Special Guests

James Kaplan
Bill Woodcock

OECD Staff

Aaron Martin
Anne Carblanc
Sam Paltridge
Alexia Gonzalez Fanfalone
Lorrayne Porciuncula

Commission Secretariat

Caroline Baylon
Eric Jardine
Mark Raymond
Aaron Shull
Brenda Woods

Research Advisory Network Biographies

Sunil Abraham / @sunil_abraham

Sunil Abraham is the executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). CIS is a five year old policy and academic research organization focusing on accessibility, access to knowledge, Internet governance, telecom, digital natives and digital humanities. He founded Mahiti in 1998, a social enterprise that provides technology to civil society for which he was elected an Ashoka fellow in 1999. Between June 2004 and June 2007, Sunil also managed the International Open Source Network, a project of UNDP serving 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Subimal Bhattacharjee / @subimal

Subimal Bhattacharjee is an independent consultant on defence and cyber issues, working primarily with government and private sector advisory panels in India. He is the former India country director for General Dynamics International Corporation. Subimal is a columnist and internationally respected speaker on issues of Internet governance and cyber security.

Bertrand de La Chapelle / @bdelachapelle

Bertrand de La Chapelle is the Director of the Internet & Jurisdiction Project, a global multistakeholder dialogue process developing a due process framework to handle the diversity of national laws in cross-border online spaces. He served as a Director on the ICANN Board from 2010 to 2013. From 2006 to 2010, he was France’s Thematic Ambassador and Special Envoy for the Information Society, participating in all WSIS follow-up activities and Internet governance processes, including in particular the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and was a Vice-Chair of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). Bertrand is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, Sciences Po Paris and Ecole Nationale d’Administration.

Laura DeNardis / @LauraDeNardis

A scholar of Internet architecture and governance, Dr. Laura DeNardis is a CIGI senior fellow and professor at American University. She is an affiliated fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project and previously served as its Executive Director. She is the Director of Research for the Global Commission on Internet Governance and is the author of The Global War for Internet Governance (Yale University Press 2014).

Patrik Fältström / @patrikhson

Patrik Fältström is head of research and development at Netnod. Previously, he was a distinguished engineer at Cisco, technical specialist at Tele2, systems manager at the Royal Institute of Technology, researcher at Bunyip Information Systems and a programmer in the Royal Swedish Navy. He has been a member of numerous advisory groups and investigations related to the Internet, both public and private sector. Patrik holds an M.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Stockholm.

Paul Fehlinger / @PaulFehlinger

Paul Fehlinger is the co-founder and manager of the Internet & Jurisdiction Project, a global multi-stakeholder dialogue process developing a due process framework to enable the coexistence of diverse national laws in cross-border online spaces. He started working on Internet governance at Sciences Po Paris and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. He is since actively engaged in the UN Internet Governance Forum, EuroDIG and other global Internet fora.

Fen Hampson

Fen Osler Hampson is a distinguished fellow and director of the Global Security & Politics Program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He has served as director of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and is concurrently chancellor’s professor at Carleton University. He is the recipient of various awards and honours and is a frequent commentator and contributor to international media.

Clem Herman / @clemherman

Clem Herman is a senior lecturer in the Department of Computing and Communications at the UK Open University, and was previously director of the Manchester Women’s Electronic Village Hall (WEVH) pioneering the use of ICTs to empower women. She has published widely on gender issues in technology and is the founder and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Gender Science and Technology.

Konstantinos Komaitis / @kkomaitis

Konstantinos Komaitis is a policy advisor at the Internet Society, focusing primarily on the field of digital content and intellectual property. Before joining the Internet Society in July 2012, he was a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Konstantinos holds a Ph.D. in law and his thesis focused on issues of intellectual property and the Internet, with particular focus on the intersection of trademarks and domain names. He is the author of The Current State of Domain Name Regulation.

Young-eum Lee

Young-eum Lee is a professor in the Department of Media Arts and Sciences at Korea National Open University. She has been involved in various Internet governance policy making processes of the Korean domain name .kr at KISA (KRNIC), and has also been involved in global Internet governance activities at ICANN. Since 2003, she has been a council member of the ccNSO representing .kr in the Asia-Pacific region. Young-eum received her M.A. in Communication Science at Northwestern University and her doctorate in Communication from the University of Michigan.

Tim Maurer

Tim Maurer is a research fellow at the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. He focuses on cyberspace and international affairs, namely Internet governance, cyber-security, and human rights online. In October 2013 and February 2014, he spoke about cyber-warfare at the United Nations. Tim’s research has been published and featured by national and international print, radio and television media, including Harvard University, Foreign Policy, CNN and Slate among others. He conducts academic research as a non-resident research fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.

Emily Taylor / @etaylaw

Emily Taylor is a renowned expert in the field of Internet law and governance, and provides research services in areas including security, IPv6 deployment, internationalised domain names, the domain name industry, and global policy development. Her roles in the Internet sphere include chair of the WhoIs Review Committee for ICANN 2012, member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group to the IGF (2006-2012), director of Synetergy (providing Sunrise Dispute resolution services to the largest gTLD applicant, Donuts), and several ongoing non-executive directorships.

Rolf H. Weber

Rolf H. Weber is professor for civil, commercial and European law at the University of Zurich Law School. Since 2008, he is the director of the Information and Communication Law Center at the University of Zurich, a member (now Vice-Chairman) of the Steering Committee of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) as well as a member of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG). Since 2009, he has been a member of the High-level Panel of Advisers of the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID) and author of frequent publications on Internet Governance.

Andrew Wyckoff

Andrew W. Wyckoff is the director of the OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry. Prior to the OECD, he was a program manager of the Information, Telecommunications and Commerce program of the US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, an economist at the US National Science Foundation and a programmer at the Brookings Institution. Andrew holds a Master of Public Policy from the JFK School of Government, Harvard University.

Special Guest Biographies

James M. Kaplan

James M. Kaplan is a partner at McKinsey & Company in New York. He convenes McKinsey's global practices in IT infrastructure and cyber-security. He has assisted leading institutions in implementing cyber-security strategies, conducting cyber-war games, optimizing enterprise infrastructure environments and exploiting cloud technologies. James led McKinsey's collaboration with the World Economic Forum on "Risk & Responsibility in a Hyper-Connected World," which was presented at the Forum's recent Annual Meeting in Davos. He published on a variety of technology topics in the McKinsey Quarterly, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.

Bill Woodcock

Bill Woodcock is the executive director of Packet Clearing House, the international non-governmental organization that builds and supports critical Internet infrastructure, including Internet exchange points and the core of the domain name system. Since entering the Internet industry in 1985, Bill has helped establish more than one hundred and fifty Internet exchange points. In the early 1990s, Bill developed the anycast routing technique that now protects the domain name system. In 2002 he co-founded INOC-DBA, the security-coordination hotline system that interconnects the network operations centers of more than three thousand ISPs around the world. And in 2007, Bill was one of the two international liaisons deployed by NSP-Sec to the Estonian CERT during the Russian cyber-attack.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/research-advisory-network-meeting

Stay connected even when you go underground

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T15:15:11Z

CMRL may soon start making arrangements to ensure good mobile connectivity on the underground stretch.

The article by Sunita Sekhar was published in the Hindu on June 12, 2014. Nishant Shah gave his inputs.

A really erratic mobile network connection is something all of us have probably experienced, while on the move, every now and then.

If your mobile phone signal can fail you on the road, have you thought what it will be like when you ride underground?

Perhaps it is time to put that thought into your head. Not very many years from now, it is likely you will be riding the Chennai Metro underground.

Folks at Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) have, however, already thought of this, to their credit.

CMRL may soon start making arrangements to ensure good mobile connectivity on the underground stretch.

“We are considering various options to boost mobile network underground. It is important we provide such a service,” says a CMRL official. Chennai Metro, built at a cost of Rs. 14,600 crore, 45 km across the city, will have 24 km underground. Of the 32 stations, 19 will be underground.

CMRL has drawn the idea from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), a principal consultant. Sometime back, Delhi Metro Rail had installed additional cellular towers at its underground stations to improve mobile connectivity.

The value of such a facility will surface especially during a crisis, according to Nishant Shah of Centre for Internet and Society.

“Connectivity becomes crucial when something untoward — be it breakdown of infrastructure or even sexual harassment — occurs on the underground stretch. It needs to be recorded or documented immediately,” he says.

Janaki Pillai of Ability Foundation says connectivity is particularly critical for the hearing impaired, who often use the messaging and WhatsApp services.

“But the question of them using the underground stations and the need for mobile connectivity arises only when the stations are accessible. Whether I choose to use it or not is different, but the service should be available and the choice should be mine,” she says.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-june-11-2014-sunita-sekhar-stay-connected-even-when-you-go-underground

May 2014 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T04:59:03Z

Our newsletter for the month of May is below:

We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcome you to the fifth issue of the newsletter (May) for the year 2014. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed at: http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters

Highlights

We have published a summary of the various landmark judgments given by the Supreme Court and some of the high courts in a blog post as part of our National Resource Kit project.
CIS submitted its comments on the Open Licensing Policy Guidelines to the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
The Access to Knowledge team from CIS has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) College to introduce “Indian Language Wikipedias in the Indian Under Graduate and Post Graduate Classroom”.
Sunil Abraham wrote an article “Net Freedom Campaign Loses its Way” in the Hindu Businessline which analyses the recently concluded NETMundial.
Divij Joshi gives a comparative analysis of the United States of America and India with regards to search and seizure and the right to privacy in digital age.
Anirudh Sridhar has produced an essay “Binary Code Invades the Universal Problematic” looks at language as an archive and posits, through a reading of Foucault, Derrida, Saussure and Jakobson that the means of perceiving language in the digital has changed.
As part of its Making Change project CIS is holding a public exhibition of stories of change from all over Asia, where the first of its Production Sprints will take place. The exhibition will be held at CIS office in Bangalore on June 7, 2014.
Earlier this year (February 11 – 17) we organized the second Institute on Internet in Pune. A draft of the Knowledge Repository on Internet Access was presented at the event. We are uploading digital versions of the repository for archival purposes. Three units (The Body in Cyberspace, Access to Knowledge and Openness) have been published.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. We compiled the first draft of the kit (29 states and 6 union territories). The chapters along with the quarterly reports can be accessed on the project page. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed here.

NVDA and eSpeak

Monthly Update

Work Report for May (by Suman Dogra, May 31, 2014).

National Resource Kit

Blog Entry

Summary of Judgements on Disability Rights (by CLPR, May 15, 2014).

Other

Blog Entries

The Road to Financial Inclusion (by Amba Salelkar, May 12, 2014).
Open House with George Abraham: Mainstreaming Persons with Disabilities (by Anandhi Viswanathan, May 22, 2014).

Event Organized

An Open House Session with George Abraham (co-organized by Ashoka India and CIS, Ashoka-Innovators for the Public, Bangalore, May 21, 2014).

Access to Knowledge

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.

Submission

Comments on the Open Licensing Policy Guidelines of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (by Sunil Abraham and Nehaa Chaudhari, May 28, 2014). The comments were submitted to the NMEICT, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

Blog Entry

France, Greece, India and the European Union Sign the Marrakesh Treaty (by Nehaa Chaudhari, May 2, 2014).

Participation in Event

OGP Asia Pacific Regional Conference (co-organized by Web Foundation, World Bank, and UKP-PPP, Bali, May 6 – 7, 2014). Sunil Abraham was a speaker in the session on “Open Data in Asia-Pacific: a Cross-Country Learning Discussion”.

Media Coverage

WIPO: Scope and rights of potential broadcasting treaty clarified (by Alexandra Bhattacharya, SUNS – South-North Development Monitor, May 5, 2014 and cross-posted in Third World Network, May 6, 2014).
At WIPO, Authors, Civil Society Watchful of Rights for Broadcasters (by Catherin Saez, IP Watch, May 1, 2014).
Pushing the Boundaries in Open Governance: Insights from OGP Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Bali, Indonesia (Day 1) (by Michael Canares, Open Government Partnership, May 6, 2014 and cross-posted in Open Data Research Network, May 27, 2014).

Wikipedia

The following has been done under grant from the Wikimedia Foundation:

Announcement

CIS Signs MoU with Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College (by Dr. U.B.Pavanaja, May 27, 2014): to introduce “Indian Language Wikipedias in the Indian Under Graduate and Post Graduate Classroom”. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja on behalf of the CIS-A2K team signed the MoU. The signing event took place earlier on April 21, 2014.

Articles

Books and More are Relicensed to Creative Commons (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Opensource.com, May 2, 2014).
GLAM in India: 10 tips for successful GLAM projects (by Subhashish Panigrahi, OpenGLAM, May 27, 2014).
Indic Language Wikipedias as Open Educational Resources (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Open Education Working Group, May 27, 2014).

Event Organized

Tulu Wikipedia Workshop (co-organized by CIS-A2K and the Regional Research Centre, MGM College, Udupi, May 25, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.

News and Media Coverage

Wikipedia in UG Education program at Christ University (Prajavani, May 15, 2014).
Subhashish Panigrahi joins Open GLAM Working Group: Subhashish recently joined the OpenGLAM Working Group (a global network of people who work to open up cultural data and content.) as a member and OpenGLAM Local (a local affiliate of OKFN's OpenGLAM project) as an ambassador for India. Both the positions will be voluntary.

Internet Governance

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

FOEX Live

As part of our MacArthur project on free speech and expression we are posting a selection of news from across India implicating online freedom of expression and use of digital technology:

News Compilation

May 26-27, 2014; May 28-29, 2014

Articles

Net Freedom Campaign Loses its Way (by Sunil Abraham, Hindu Businessline, May 10, 2014).
Networks: What You Don’t See is What You (for)Get (by Nishant Shah, DML Central, April 17, 2014 and cross-posted in Hybrid Publishing Lab, May 13, 2014).

Blog Entries

European Court of Justice rules Internet Search Engine Operator responsible for Processing Personal Data Published by Third Parties (by Jyoti Panday, May 14, 2014).
Net Neutrality, Free Speech and the Indian Constitution – III: Conceptions of Free Speech and Democracy (by Gautam Bhatia, May 18, 2014).

Participation in Events

Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference 2 (organized by Yale Law School, May 2-4, 2014). Pranesh Prakash participated as a discussant in the session “Speech and Safety Laboratories”.
Re:publica 2014: Looking for Freedom (organized by Re:publica in partnership with DAIMLER, Global Innovation Gathering, Microsoft and Science: Lab, Berlin, May 6 – 8, 2014). Pranesh Prakash was a speaker at the session “The Architecture of Invisible Censorship: How Digital and Meatspace Censorship Differ”.
Does Size Matter? A Tale of Performing Welfare, Producing Bodies and Faking Identity (organized by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University, May 13, 2014). Malavika Jayaram gave a talk on “Does Size Matter? A Tale of Performing Welfare, Producing Bodies and Faking Identity”.
The Future of Cyber Governance (organized by Hague Institute for Global Justice in association with the Observer Research Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands, and the Netherlands Institute for International Relations – Clingendael, The Hague, May 13 – 15, 2014). Sunil Abraham was a speaker in the session “Do users of major social media platforms have adequate protection of their rights to privacy and freedom of expression?” and “Expert Panel on the Future of Cyber Governance”.
WSIS+10 High-Level Event: Open Consultation Process (organized by ITU, UNESCO, United Nations and UNDP, WIPO Conference Room, Geneva, May 28 – 31, 2014). Jyoti Panday participated in this event.

Event Organized

National Elections 2014: How Technology Powered Campaigns (organized by HasGeek and CIS, Bangalore, May 23, 2014). Vijay Grover, founder of Bangalore Media Foundation, Viral Shah, part of Nandan Nilekani's campaign management team, and BG Mahesh, founder and managing director at Oneindia.in, made presentations.

Privacy

Articles

Filtering content on the internet (by Chinmayi Arun, The Hindu, May 6, 2014).
Legislating for Privacy - Part II (by Bhairav Acharya, The Hoot, May 20, 2014).

Blog Entry

Search and Seizure and the Right to Privacy in the Digital Age: A Comparison of US and India (by Divij Joshi, May 31, 2014).

News & Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Civil Society Pushes for Privacy Panel (by Laxmi Ajai Prasanna, The Times of India, May 6, 2014).
Students lead the way with apps for ideas (by Sruthy Susan Ullas, The Times of India, May 21, 2014).
India needs better cyber police (by Surabhi Agarwal, Business Standard, May 23, 2014).
Digital death: Log off in peace (by Purnima Sharma, The Times of India, May 25, 2014).

Digital Humanities

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

Blog Entry

Binary Code Invades the Universal Problematic (by Anirudh Sridhar, May 26, 2014).

Telecom

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:

Newspaper Column

An Infrastructure Road Map (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, April 30, 2014 and Organizing India Blogspot, May 1, 2014).

Knowledge Repository on Internet Access

As part of our research (with Ford Foundation) on the origins of the Internet in India, its impact on the Indian GDP and topics and debates surrounding the Internet in today's world we published the following units:

The Body in Cyberspace (by Nishant Shah, May 13, 2014).
Access to Knowledge (by Anirudh Sridhar, May 22, 2014).
Openness (by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Anirudh Sridhar, May 30, 2014).

About CIS

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

► Follow us elsewhere

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

► Support Us

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

► Request for Collaboration

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

CIS is grateful to its 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/may-2014-bulletin

Yogyakarta Meeting on Open Culture and Critical Making

praskrishna — 2014-07-03T08:57:07Z

Sharath Chandra Ram will be part of the ASIA LABS theme panel and will also be doing community FOSS/FOSH workshops at the Maker events at the event organized by HONF Foundation, Catec, and r0g from June 12 to 15, 2014.

Venues : Langgeng Art Foundation (LAF) , Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University

side event:
03.00pm – 05.30pm (FABLAB_OD24h):
Opening Workshop at HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)
DrawDio Workshop by Helmi Hardian (WAFT, SBY)

OPENING | 12 June 2014
07.00 PM at Langgeng Art Foundation (LAF) Yogyakarta

07.00pm – 07.15pm :
Opening Performance, by Dream Orchestra

07.15pm – 07.45pm: Welcome Speech and Outline:
- Ilham Habibie (The Habibie Center, CATEC)
- Stephen Kovats (r0g_)
- Venzha Christ (HONF Foundation) and presents:
- Bapak Muchsan. (Rector of Widya Mataram Univ.)
- Bapak. J. Eka Prijatma (Rector of Sanata Dharma Univ.)
- Gregorius Subanar (Sanata Dharma University)

08.00pm – 08.30pm:
Screening Movie “DO TIMI MAKE SINDI”
Speech: Gentur Suria (Movie Director)

Opening Exhibition “DO! MAKE!”
Speech: Irene Agrivina (Exhibition Curator)

08.30pm – 10.00pm:
Collaborative Visual and Sound Performance by:
- Felix Deufel and Friends (DE)
- DJ Wok The Rock (YK)
- DJ Haman & DJ Ones (YK)

Welcoming Dinner

10.00pm – 12.00pm:
Critical Cocktail Session 1.0
Introduction-get together

———————–
Side Event:
(FABLAB_OD24h):
12 June 2014 | 11.00pm – 12.00pm
Midnight Workshop at HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)
Intelligent Furniture Workshop by DORXLab
———————–

CONFERENCE DAY#01 | 13 June 2014
at Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University

Side Event:
(FABLAB_OD24h):
13 June 2014 | 09.00am – 11.00am
Morning Workshop at HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)
Edible Book Workshop by Saad Chinoy
———————–

09.00am – 09.15am:
15 mins Body and Mind Excercise
short meditation by Craig Warren Smith

09.30am – 10.00am:
[proto:type] A
Opening Speech
Introduction to [proto:type] Y2014 Yogyakarta Meeting of Open Culture and Critical Making
Technology and Society
by Ilham Habibie (The Habibie Center, CATEC)

10.00am – 11.30:
[proto:type] B Session I
“Open System and Critical ICT4D”
Moderator: Gregorius Subanar
Panelist:
- Craig Warren Smith
- Etiene Turpin
- Eku Wand
- Sanata Dharma ICT4D
- Yantisa Akhadi

11.45am – 12.30pm:
Break | Friday Prayer

12.30pm – 01.15pm:
Open Cultures/P2P Intro & Lunch

side event:
10.00am – 01.30pm:
Open Workshop at Makers Booth, Limasan Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University
Sticthing on Plywood session I by Maken Living Indonesia

01.30pm – 03.00pm:
[proto:type] B Session II
“Open Design and Critical Making”
Moderator: Bertha Bintari
Panelist:
- Deanna Herst
- Steve McCoy
- Jean Nöel Montagne
- Stefania Druga
- Yoyok Wahyudi Subroto
- Enda Nasution
- Matt Rato (live stream)

side event:
02.00pm – 04.00pm:
Open Workshop at Makers Booth, Limasan Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University
Fun with Arduino Workshop by Yudianto Asmoro 03.00pm – 05.30pm:
(FABLAB_OD24h):
Afternoon Workshop at HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)
Noise2Noise Workshop by Felix Deufel

03.00pm – 03.30pm:
Critical Cocktail Break

04.00pm – 05.00pm:
[proto:type] C Session III
“Asia Labs”
Moderator: Argha Mahendra
Panelist:
- Tommy Surya (Fablab Asia Network)
- Jay Fajardo (Launch Garage – SEA Labs)
- Irene Agrivina (HONF)

———————–
side event:
04.00pm – 05.30pm:
Open Workshop at Makers Booth, Limasan Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University
Make! with 3D Printer workshop by Weissa Adhiprasetya
———————–

05.00pm – 05.30pm:
[proto:type] D Session IV
“Community Development Forum”
05.00pm – 05.30pm: Session 4.1 “Open Ecology and Sustainable”
10 mins presentation for each presenter:
- Performance Klub
- Rumah Kardus
- DORXLab

05.30pm: Break | Maghrib | Dawn Pray

06.00pm – 06.30pm: Session 4.2 “(H)acktivism as an open solution
10 mins presentation for each presenter:
- XXLab
- WAFT
- LPTI Pelataran Mataram

06.30pm – 07.00pm: Session 4.3: Citizen participation for social change
10 mins presentation for each presenter:
- Hysteria
- C2O
- Explainer Maker

07.00pm – 07.45pm: Session 4.4: Development at the Entrepreneurial & Grassroots Level
10 mins presentation for each presenter:
- House The House
- Klub Makan Siang
- Jalan Emas
- Technonatura

07.45pm: Jalan Emas Documentation

08.00pm – 09.30pm:
[proto:type] DINNER: MEET & GREET
Venue: Ndalem Kaneman, Widya Mataram University
Gamelan and performance by Among Bekso Dance

———————–
09.00pm – 11.30pm:
(FABLAB_OD24h):
Midnight Workshop at HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)
Fun with Electronics Workshop by Satya Anindita
———————–

10.00pm – 12.00pm:
FAB BAR
venue: HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)

CONFERENCE DAY#02 | 14 June 2014
at Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University

09.00am – 09.15am:
15 mins Body and Mind Excercise
short meditation by Craig Warren Smith

———————–
side event:
09.00am – 10.30am:
(FABLAB_OD24h):
Morning Workshop at HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)
Explainer Maker by Andre Takdare
10.00am – 01.30pm:
Open Workshop at Makers Booth, Limasan Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University
Sticthing on Plywood session II by Maken Living Indonesia
———————–

09.30am – 10.30am:
[proto:type] E Session V
“Y2014 to Y2015 Summit of Critical Making 2015″
Introduction to [proto:type] Y2014 and toward Y2015 by Stephen Kovats

09.30am – 10.30am:
[proto:type] F Session VI
“Open Knowledge as a Platform of Sharing”
Moderator: Wan Zaleha Radzi
Panelist:
- Elisa Anggraeni
- Yuka Narendra
- Saad Chinoy
- Edin Khoo
- Tia Pamungkas
- Inasanti Susanto

12.00pm – 01.00pm:
Lunch

———————–
side event:
12.00pm – 02.30:
(FABLAB_OD24h):
Closing FABLAB_OD24h Workshop at HONFablab (Fablab Yogyakarta)
Introduction to Raspberry Pi by Tommy Surya
————————

01.30pm – 03.00pm
[proto:type] F Session VII
”Maker Culture: Of Fields and Labs”
Moderator: Venzha Christ
Panelist:
- Jeong ok Jeon
- Amrin Hakim
- Marton Kocsev
- Gustaff Hariman Iskandar
- Diyanto Imam

———————–

side event:
02.00pm – 03.30pm:
Open Workshop at Makers Booth, Limasan Ndalem Mangkubumen, Widya Mataram University
DIY BioPlastic Workshop by Irene Agrivina

———————–

03.30pm:
[proto:type] G Session VIII
Closing speech by Venzha Christ

–move to Makers Camp–

MAKERS CAMP DAY#01
Venue: Tembi Village Yogyakarta
02.00pm – 03.30pm:
Workshop#01
Hackidemia Workshop by Stefania Druga

04.00pm – 05.00pm:
Break
Traditional Music Performance
by Tembi Village

06.00pm – 08.00pm:
Workshop#02
DIY Organic Subs Workshop by Blah!

08.00pm – 10.00pm:
Workshop#03
How to Make Ceramics Workshop by Tembi Village

———————–
side event:
03.00pm – 01.00am +1
cellsDISCO!
DJ Session
DJ Line-up:
DJ Hamam (JKT). DJ Ones (YK). DJ Navis (YK). DJ Latex (YK). DJ Noor (YK). DJ TIM (YK). DJ Metzdub (YK). DJ Lintang Egha (YK). DJ Felix (DE). DJ Adit (YK). DJ NDA (YK).
———————–

09.00pm – 10.00pm:
Makers Dinner
Dinner is served in traditional way of Tembi Village

MAKERS CAMP DAY#02
Venue: Tembi Village Yogyakarta

07.00am – 09.00am:
Breakfast
Breakfast is served in traditional way of Tembi

11.00am – 01.00pm:
Workshops:
Workshop#03: DIY Batik by Tembi Village

Workshop#04: Open Source Hardware by Yudianto Asmoro

Workshop#05: Body Hacking by Iwan Wijono

*workshops are happening on the same time in different spot/space. Participants registration are required

01.00pm – 02.00pm:
Lunch Break

02.00pm – 04.00pm:
Workshops:
Workshop#06: OS Wash Workshop by Jean Nöel Montagne

Workshop#07: DIY Greenhouse with Automatic Light by Irene Agrivina

Workshop#08: DIY Holographic Microscope by Irene Agrivina

*workshops are happening on the same time in different spot/space. Participants registration are required

07.00pm – 08.00pm:
Makers Dinner
Dinner is served in traditional way of Tembi Village

———————–
side event:
02.00pm – 02.00am +1
cellSONIC!
Bands Performance & DJ Session
Bands Line-up:
- - Seek Six Sick – Belkastrelka – Cangkang Serigala – Skandal – Talking Coasty – Summer in Vienna – Luise Najib - Chika and The Pistol Air – Distorsi Liar – AHAA – Dinosaur Youth – Fashion Statement (YK)
DJ Line-up:
DJ Hamam (JKT). DJ Ones (YK). DJ Navis (YK). DJ Latex (YK). DJ Noor (YK). DJ TIM (YK). DJ Metzdub (YK). DJ Lintang Egha (YK). DJ Felix (DE). DJ Adit (YK). DJ NDA (YK).
———————–

02.00am – the next morning:
please, have a rest!

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/yogyakarta-meeting-on-open-culture-and-critical-making

Open Data in Cultural Heritage – OpenGLAM in Germany

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T09:49:50Z

Subhashish Panigrahi took part in this event as a member of the OpenGLAM Working Group.

Read the details on the OpenGLAM website here. Images from the event can be seen at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:OpenGLAM_2014

Are you working in a cultural heritage institution, or interested in opening up cultural heritage data for wider reuse? On the morning prior to the start of the Open Knowledge Festival, the OpenGLAM initiative, DM2E project, Open Knowledge Germany and Wikimedia Deutschland are organising a half day workshop on open cultural data, with a special focus on German cultural heritage institutions.

During the OpenGLAM workshop, we will investigate and discuss the possibilities and obstacles of opening up your cultural data as an institution. After a round of inspiring presentation from initiatives like Europeana, Wikidata, the German Digital Library and Coding da Vinci we will continue the discussion how to overcome the barriers to opening up data in the cultural heritage sector.

Finally, we will hear from the successful local OpenGLAM groups currently active in Switzerland and Finland, and kickstart a local OpenGLAM network for German memory institutions interested in open cultural content and open access. We invite everyone to join and help think about the focus points for such a German OpenGLAM group for the future, and look forward to start up a fruitful collaboration!

Programme

9.30: Welcome & introduction to OpenGLAM – Lieke Ploeger, Open Knowledge

9.40: Lightning talks on the value of open data for cultural heritage institutions

We opened up – now what? An analysis of the open data policy of the Rijksmuseum – Joris Pekel, Europeana
1 year in digital cultural heritage – what were the walls I ran into most often & how to tear them down – Stephan Bartholmei, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Wikidata – Making your data available and useful for everyone – Lydia Pintscher, Wikimedia Deutschland
How to use cultural heritage data: Coding Da Vinci results – Helene Hahn, Open Knowledge Foundation Germany
Experiences from German GLAM projects / GLAM-Wiki-Kollaborationen in der Wissenschaft - Daniel Mietchen, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin

10.30: Coffee Break

10.45: Debate on the current situation around openness in Germany

11.30: Forming a local German OpenGLAM group

With inspiring presentations of the OpenGLAM local groups from Switzerland & Finland

13.00: End

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-data-in-cultural-heritage

Right to be forgotten poses a legal dilemma in India

praskrishna — 2014-06-09T10:02:25Z

The “right to be forgotten” judgment has raised a controversy, while some argue that it upholds an individual’s privacy, others say it leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

The article by Leslie D' Monte was published in Livemint on June 5, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

Medianama.com has become perhaps the first Indian website to be asked by an individual to remove a link, failing which the user would approach Google Inc. to delete the link under the “right to be forgotten” provision granted by a European court. There’s one hitch: India doesn’t have any legal provision to entertain or process such request.

In his request to the media website, the individual cited a landmark 13 May judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU), which said users could ask search engines like Google or Bing to remove links to web pages that contain information about them.

According to the judgement, the user is also free to approach “the competent authorities in order to obtain, under certain conditions, the removal of that link from the list of results” if the search engines do not comply.

“...this individual told us of a plan to appeal to Google on the basis of the judgment of the European Court of Justice, and asked us to either convert the public post into a non-indexable post, such that it may not be surfaced by search engines, or to modify the individual’s name, place and any references to his/her employer in the post that we’ve written, so that it cannot be linked directly to the individual,” said Nikhil Pahwa, founder of medianama.com.

Pahwa did not reveal the identity of the individual, who made the request on 31 May. Medianama, according to Pahwa, had written about the individual “a few years ago, protesting against attacks on his/her freedom of speech.” It did not give details. The media website reported about the request on 2 June.

Under legal pressure, the individual eventually relented and retracted the request.

The individual, Pahwa said, requested medianama.com to retain only his last name on the web page, cautioning that if the website does not do so, he would submit the URL (uniform resource locator or address of that link) of that web page to Google in a “right to be forgotten” request.

This, Pahwa said, “might hurt our search ranking, or lead to a blanket removal of our website from Google’s search index.”

“This is a tricky one, and we’ve declined this request,” said Pahwa. He added that “the implications for media are immense, since digital data, which is a recording of online history, will be affected.”

The EU ruling came after a Spanish national complained in 2010 that searching his name in Google threw up links to two newspaper webpages which reported a property auction to recover social security debt he once owed, even though the information had become irrelevant since the proceedings had since been resolved.

Following the ruling, Google put up an online form (mintne.ws/1oYVP5Y), inviting users in Europe to submit their requests.

“...we will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information,” the form reads.

“When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials...”

A Google spokesman said on Tuesday that the company had received over 41,000 requests to be forgotten so far.

On the first day itself, Google had received 12,000 requests.

“Almost a third of the requests were in relation to accusations of fraud, 20% were in relation to violent/serious crimes, and around 12% regarded child pornography arrests. More than 1,500 of these requests are believed to have come from people in the UK. An ex-politician seeking re-election, a paedophile and a GP (general practitioner) were among the British applicants”, according to a 2 June report inThe Telegraph of London.

The “right to be forgotten” judgment has raised a controversy. While some argue that it upholds an individual’s privacy, others say it leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

In an interview to Mint on 26 May, Anupam Chander, director of the California International Law Center, reasoned that if a person could simply scrub all the bad information about him from being searchable on the Internet, she/he could do so by claiming that such information was “no longer relevant”.

“Do we want search engines to then judge whether information remains “relevant” or is somehow “inadequate” under the threat of liability for leaving information accessible? An Internet sanitized of accessible negative information will only tell half the truth,” he argued.

The ruling is not binding on India and applies only to EU countries.

According to legal experts, the country has no provision for a right to be forgotten, either in the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 (amended in 2008) or the IT Rules, 2011. India, for that matter, does not even have a privacy act as yet.

“In India, we do not have a concept of the right to be Forgotten. It’s a very Western concept,” said Pavan Duggal, a cyberlaw expert and Supreme Court advocate.

Still, intermediaries like search engines and Internet services providers, under the country’s IT Act and IT Rules, have the obligation to exercise due diligence if an aggrieved party sends them a written notice, he said.

According to Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, an Internet rights lobby group, “right to be forgotten” cases should pass the “public interest” test.

“Privacy protection should not have a chilling effect on transparency. The question is: Does the content (which a user wants to be removed) serve a public interest that outweighs the harm that it is doing to the individual concerned? If no public interest is being served, there is no point in knowing what the content is all about. The complication with the EU ruling is that it wants intermediaries and over-the-top providers to play the role of judges,” said Abraham.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/livemint-leslie-d-monte-june-5-2014-right-to-be-forgotten-poses-legal-dilemma-in-india

Centre for Internet and Society

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Sakshi

Loyola Faculty Enlightened About Open Edn Resources

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Enadu

NRK May 2014 Report

NVDA and eSpeak (May 2014) Quarterly Report

NVDA & eSpeak Team Members

NVDA Team Members

Dipendra Manocha

Manish Aggarwal

Siddharth Gupta

Dinesh Kaushal

Suman Dogra

eSpeak Team Members

Mahesh Inder Singh Khosla

Prasenjit Sen

Dr. Homiyar Mobedji

Commonwealth Domain Name System Forum 2014

Privacy and Surveillance Roundtable

Background and Context to the Roundtables

Information about the Roundtables

The Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy

The Draft CIS Citizens Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013

The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance

Tentative schedule for the Roundtables:

Resources

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era

Instructions for Participants

Research Advisory Network Meeting

Hosting of the Event

Meeting Participant List

Research Advisory Network Committees

Special Guests

OECD Staff

Commission Secretariat

Research Advisory Network Biographies

Stay connected even when you go underground

May 2014 Bulletin

Highlights

Accessibility and Inclusion

NVDA and eSpeak

National Resource Kit

Other

Access to Knowledge

Wikipedia

Internet Governance

FOEX Live

Privacy

News & Media Coverage

Digital Humanities

Telecom

Knowledge Repository on Internet Access

About CIS

Yogyakarta Meeting on Open Culture and Critical Making

Open Data in Cultural Heritage – OpenGLAM in Germany

Programme

Right to be forgotten poses a legal dilemma in India