Centre for Internet and Society

Access to Knowledge Bulletin — November 2013

praskrishna — 2014-02-25T13:41:04Z

The Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia) newsletter for the month of November 2013:

CIS-A2K Narrative ReportThis narrative report captures the work done by the A2K program during the period of September 2012 to June 2013. It examines projects and activities and its impact and outcomes over a period of the initial Ten months of the Grant. This report will also inform CIS-A2K program’s strategy for the next one year to achieve the goals set out by its donor, Wikimedia Foundation, and goals listed in our Work Plans (which were developed in consultation with the Wikimedia community in India). Importantly, this Narrative Report is critical for the Wikimedia community in India, Global Wikimedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation to get a comprehensive overview of A2K’s work and to critically assess the A2K program’s eligibility for further support. The report compiled by by T. Vishnu Vardhan, Nitika Tandon and Subhashish Panigrahi can be accessed at http://bit.ly/1dFyjpO.
► Announcements

CIS Signs MoU with Christ University, Bangalore (November 20, 2013): The Access to Knowledge team signed a MoU as part of which CIS-A2K and Christ University will impart Wikipedia education in Indian classrooms: http://bit.ly/1ehr8kz.
We are happy to share with you that Rahmanuddin Shaik has been selected for the role of "Community Communications Consultant" at CIS-A2K! Rahmanuddin is an active contributor on Wikimedia Commons, Telugu Wikipedia and Telugu Wikisource: http://bit.ly/1bwrEu3.

►Articles

ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಟ್ಟ ಸಸಿಗೆ ಈಗ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷ (by Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Kannada Prabha, November 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/17LOw4O. The article highlights 10 years of Kannada Wikipedia, the current status of the Kannada Wikipedia vis-a-vis number of articles, number of editors, active editors, and page views per month.
Train The Trainer Programme for Wikipedians (by Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, November 14, 2013):http://bit.ly/ILwLMr. The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane of DNA.

►Blog Entries

Train the Trainer Program (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/18hjw0n.
Konkani Vishwakosh Under CC-BY-SA (by Nitika Tandon, November 26, 2013): http://bit.ly/1gnVV2z.

► Events Organised

Wikipedia Orientation Programme for MA Students (Christ University, Bangalore, November 12, 2013): http://bit.ly/ItxAtu. Syed Muzammiluddin was the trainer. Twenty students participated.

Wikipedia Orientation Programme for the Second Language Students (Christ University, Bangalore, November 12, 13, 16 and 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bxsOYF. T. Vishnu Vardhan, Syed Muzammiluddin and Dr. U.B.Pavanaja were the trainers. About 1200 second language students participated in the programme.
Documentation and Wikipedia Contribution — A One Day Workshop (Kalinga Institute of Social Studies, Bhubaneswar, November 14, 2013). The workshop was conducted by Subhashish Panigrahi: http://bit.ly/1fSvl1v.
Documentation and Wikipedia Workshop (Kalinga School of Management, Bhubaneswar, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/Imf0DV. Subhashish Panigrahi conducted the workshop.
Konknni Wikipedia Workshop (organised by Dalgado Konknni Akademi and CIS-A2K, Goa Central State Library, November 16 and 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSwiH5.
Tenth Anniversary of Wikipedia (H N Multimedia Hall, National College, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1eJ6da9. Dr. U R Ananthamurthy, Prof. G. Venkatasubbiah and Ravi Hegde were the guests of honour. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
First Phase of Odia Wikipedia Workshop (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Bhubaneswar, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/18doDer. Subhashish Panigrahi conducted the workshop.
Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (Nirmala Institute of Education, Goa, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSAUwT. Nitika Tandon conducted the event.
Konkani Vishwakosh: Doubt Solving Session I (Goa Central State Library, November 26, 2013): http://bit.ly/1gnVV2z. Nitika Tandon conducted the session.
Konkani Vishwakosh: Doubt Solving Session II (Goa Central State Library, November 28, 2013): http://bit.ly/1gnVV2z. Nitika Tandon conducted the session.
Editing Sprint for Vishwakosh (Goa Central, State Library, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1gnVV2z. Nitika Tandon conducted the event.

► Event Co-organised

The Relaunch of Creative Commons India (co-organised by Wikimedia India, Acharya Narendra Dev College and CIS, India Islamic Cultural Centre, November 12, 2013): http://bit.ly/HPxrAO. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development was the chief guest at the event.

► Event Participated In

Wikimedia Diversity Conference (organized by German Wikipedia Community, GLS Campus, Berlin): http://bit.ly/Ixr9W8. T. Vishnu Vardhan was a speaker at this event and made a presentation on the challenges and opportunities for the Wikimedia movement in India.

► Media Coverage CIS gave its inputs for the following media coverage:

Kannada Wikipedia and its Tenth Anniversary (RadioCity, November 2, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dHEwBI.
Indian Govt to Build Machine Translation System for 22 Indic Languages (by Brindaalakshmi, Medianama, November 14, 2013): http://bit.ly/J4qg7V. CIS MoU with Goa University is mentioned.
10th anniversary of Kannada wikipedia (by ND Shiva Kumar, The Times of India, November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/IxqDr7.
Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia (Udayavani, November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/1aFwqF1.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ. ಅದರ ಪ್ರಯುಕ್ತ ಒಂದು ಆಚರಣೆ (Avadhi Website, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/ImiBSy.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗೆ 10, ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಸಾಲದು: ಪ್ರೊ .ಜಿವಿ (OneindiaKannada, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/19blS17.
Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia (Vijayavani, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1b7exSa.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ (Prajavani, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hWtt9v.
ಕನ್ನಡದ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ದುರ್ಬಲ (Vijaya Karnataka, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hWtsCy.
Panaji: DKA organizes two day Konkani Wikipedia workshop (Daijiworld, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1inoi03.

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-november-2013

When the virtual world wakes up the real one

praskrishna — 2013-11-30T09:35:06Z

The unprecedented wave of voices speaking up against sexual harassment in recent times has as much to do with technology as the determination to seek justice. From Twitter to Tumblr, and blogs to pastebin, the internet's anonymity, reach and speed allow small, personal stories of abuse to swell into big stories.

The article by Malini Nair was published in the Times of India on November 24. Nishant Shah is quoted.

The outrage over the Tehelka case started with a post on pastebin, an anonymous document sharing site, on Wednesday evening. It contained the email managing editor Shoma Chaudhury had sent to the Tehelka staff with editor Tarun Tejpal's "atonement" letter appended below. A few hours later, the story had ballooned into a heated debate, and the outpouring forced what was being dismissed as an "internal matter" to be treated as a criminal case.

The two women who recently spoke up against harassment at the hands of a retired Supreme Court judge also used Facebook and the blogosphere to tell their stories, ensuring that the real world was actually moved into taking action. "The social web's biggest comfort is that we are no longer alone," says Nishant Shah, director, Research at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. "No matter what has happened to us, it has happened to somebody else. The possibility of finding credulous and empathetic audiences who but share our pain, understand it, and respond to it is unprecedented." Retweets and comments have often been described as the digital equivalent of holding hands.

Shah's pick of web campaigns that highlighted the problems include Blank Noise which calls women to talk of small, everyday stories of harassment, the Pink Chaddi drive and Why We Need Feminism, a web venture across American universities.

The other reason why the net encourages victims of abuse who might otherwise have stayed quiet to speak out is its "pseudonymity", as Shah terms it. In societies where there is shame attached to talking about sexual assault, the online space saves women from having to put themselves out in the "physical space" while ensuring that the perpetrator is exposed, he points out.

A plus for social web is that it gets other victims to speak up as well, gathering force and magnitude in the process. This happened in the instance of the legal interns. Another instance that surfaced just a month ago was of two American women science bloggers Danielle Lee and Monica Byrne. When Lee refused to write a piece for free for Biology Online, she was called "urban whore" by an enraged editor. She blogged about it and the ensuing storm over social media got her huge support. After Lee's expose, Byrne blogged about an acutely sexual conversation a powerful science writer inflicted on her. The outrage this provoked abated only after he made amends.

As an article in Gender and Culture blog project puts it: "( The digital world provided) a forum for these victims to document their abuse, and a courtroom where the abusers have been judged and found guilty by public opinion".

Of course there are problems with the internet's version of justice — it tends to play judge, jury and executioner with giddy recklessness. In the Tehelka case, the first questionable moment came when the survivor's email was tweeted and re-tweeted with no concern for her requests for anonymity. "The problem with Twitter and Facebook is the incredible and gross violations of privacy of the survivor. And otherwise responsible adults join lynch mobs calling either the survivor or the accused names, making ridiculous allegations, desperately looking for an easy narrative to hang everything on," says author Nisha Susan, who led the Pink Chaddi campaign.

Commentator Santosh Desai says that it is tough to choose between an unbridled but powerful social web and one that is cautious and governed by norms. "Earlier, there were receivers and broadcasters who were few and governed by licenses and a code of behaviour. Now everyone is a broadcaster, everyone is a circulator and everyone is an aggregator. Having no oversight here could be problematic," he says.

Susan says communities need to go beyond social media in such situations. "It should also be a time for us to reflect. On what we would do in such a situation, how we could perhaps prevent it, on the sense of entitlement powerful men have all over the world, on the awful pressures young women face. We should all be reflecting. Instead we are just re-tweeting."

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-malini-nair-november-24-2013-when-the-virtual-world-wakes-up-the-real-one

Chances and Risks of Social Participation

praskrishna — 2013-11-30T09:13:59Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/chances-risks-social-participation.pdf

November 2013 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-01-04T04:38:08Z

Our newsletter for the month of November 2013 can be accessed below.

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcomes you to the eleventh issue of its newsletter (November) for the year 2013:

Highlights

CIS is pleased to announce the second "Institute on Internet and Society" to be held in Yashada, Pune from February 11 to 17, 2014. Any members from the civil society (students, research scholars, academicians, scientists, legal professionals, etc.) who engage in issues concerning Internet and Society are encouraged to apply.
The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research for the states of Tripura, Nagaland and Chattisgarh.
CIS-A2K team signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Christ University in Bangalore to introduce Wikipedia in classrooms.
The Access to Knowledge narrative report capturing the work done by CIS-A2K team in the first ten months of the grant along with its strategy for the next 1 year is published.
Last month we organised the Seventh Privacy Round-table in collaboration with FICCI, DSCI, and Privacy International in Delhi. The developments are captured in a report by Elonnai Hickok.
Along with Wikimedia India and Acharya Narendra Dev College, we organised the Relaunch of Creative Commons in India. Dr. Shashi Tharoor was the chief guest.

Accessibility and Inclusion

As part of our project (under a grant from the Hans Foundation) on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India, we bring you draft chapters for the states of Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, and the union territory of Daman and Diu. With this we have completed compilation of draft chapters for 27 states and 5 union territories. Feedback and comments are invited from readers for the following chapters:

► National Resource Kit Chapter

The Tripura Chapter (by CLPR, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bCFPwq.
The Nagaland Chapter (by CLPR, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cmKzq0.
The Chattisgarh Chapter (by Anandhi Viswanathan, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cSczSt.

Note: All of these are early drafts and will be reviewed and updated.

► Other Accessibility Update

# Events Participated In

E-Accessibility Workshop 2013 (organised by Directorate of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra, Mahaonline Limited and National Internet Exchange of India, November 19-20, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cQ0wd8. CIS was one of the trainer organisations for the event.
National Conference on Harnessing Technology for the Empowerment for Persons with Visual Impairments (organized by NAB Centre for Blind Women & Disability Studies, Indian Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi, November 19, 2013). Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan participated as a speaker: http://bit.ly/IzLOty.

Access to Knowledge

The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers and human rights, and critically examines Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, and Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software.

The following has been done under grant from the Wikimedia Foundation (http://bit.ly/SPqFOl). As part this project (http://bit.ly/X80ELd), we held 8 workshops, signed a MoU with Christ University for teaching Wikipedia to students, published a detailed narrative report of activities done during the initial period of the Wikimedia grant.

►Wikipedia

# Articles

ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಟ್ಟ ಸಸಿಗೆ ಈಗ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷ (by Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Kannada Prabha, November 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/17LOw4O. The article highlights 10 years of Kannada Wikipedia, the current status of the Kannada Wikipedia vis-a-vis number of articles, number of editors, active editors, and page views per month.
Train The Trainer Programme for Wikipedians (by Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, November 14, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ehr8kz. The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane of DNA.

# Announcement

CIS Signs MoU with Christ University, Bangalore (November 20, 2013): The Access to Knowledge team signed a MoU as part of which CIS-A2K and Christ University will impart Wikipedia education in Indian classrooms: http://bit.ly/1ehr8kz.

# Report

CIS-A2K Narrative Report (September 2012 – June 2013) (by T. Vishnu Vardhan, Nitika Tandon and Subhashish Panigrahi, November 29, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dFyjpO. The report throws some light on the CIS-A2K program strategy in the next one year.

# Blog Entries

Note: A couple of the below blog entries were carried in the Access to Knowledge newsletter last month.

Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project (by Nitika Tandon, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dodyuK.
Konkani Vishwakosh Under CC-BY-SA (by Nitika Tandon, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cm9wBH.
Train the Trainer Program (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/18hjw0n.

# Event Co-organised

The Relaunch of Creative Commons India (co-organised by Wikimedia India, Acharya Narendra Dev College and CIS, India Islamic Cultural Centre, November 12, 2013): http://bit.ly/HPxrAO. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development was the chief guest at the event.

# Events Organised

Wikipedia Orientation Programme for MA Students (Christ University, Bangalore, November 12, 2013): http://bit.ly/ItxAtu. Syed Muzammiluddin was the trainer. Twenty students participated.
Wikipedia Orientation Programme for the Second Language Students (Christ University, Bangalore, November 12, 13, 16 and 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bxsOYF. T. Vishnu Vardhan, Syed Muzammiluddin and Dr. U.B.Pavanaja were the trainers. About 1200 second language students participated in the programme.
Documentation and Wikipedia Contribution — A One Day Workshop (Kalinga Institute of Social Studies, Bhubaneswar, November 14, 2013). The workshop was conducted by Subhashish Panigrahi: http://bit.ly/1fSvl1v.
Documentation and Wikipedia Workshop (Kalinga School of Management, Bhubaneswar, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/Imf0DV. Subhashish Panigrahi conducted the workshop.
Konknni Wikipedia Workshop (organised by Dalgado Konknni Akademi and CIS-A2K, Goa Central State Library, November 16 and 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSwiH5.
Tenth Anniversary of Wikipedia (H N Multimedia Hall, National College, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1eJ6da9. Dr. U R Ananthamurthy, Prof. G. Venkatasubbiah and Ravi Hegde were the guests of honour. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
First Phase of Odia Wikipedia Workshop (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Bhubaneswar, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/18doDer. Subhashish Panigrahi conducted the workshop.
Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (Nirmala Institute of Education, Goa, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSAUwT. Nitika Tandon conducted the event.

# Event Participated In

Wikimedia Diversity Conference (organized by German Wikipedia Community, GLS Campus, Berlin): http://bit.ly/Ixr9W8.

# Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs for the following media coverage:

Kannada Wikipedia and its Tenth Anniversary (RadioCity, November 2, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dHEwBI.
10th anniversary of Kannada wikipedia (The Times of India, November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/IxqDr7.
Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia (Udayavani, November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/1aFwqF1.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ. ಅದರ ಪ್ರಯುಕ್ತ ಒಂದು ಆಚರಣೆ (Avadhi Website, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/ImiBSy.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗೆ 10, ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಸಾಲದು : ಪ್ರೊ .ಜಿವಿ (OneindiaKannada, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fSAUwT.
Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia (Vijayavani, November 17, 2013): http://bit.ly/1b7exSa.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ (Prajavani, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hWtt9v.
ಕನ್ನಡದ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ದುರ್ಬಲ (Vijaya Karnataka, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hWtsCy.
Panaji: DKA organizes two day Konkani Wikipedia workshop (Daijiworld, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1inoi03.

Note: The following are not a part of the Wikimedia Grant:

► Other

# Blog Entries

History of Creative Commons in India (by Priyank Dwivedi, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/17txcH7.
How Can We Make Open Education Truly Open? (by Dr. Nishant Shah, DML Central, November 22, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ezsAyj.

# Events Participated In

Conference on e-Governance for India: Opportunities, Challenges and Policy Alternatives (organised by OECD Korea Policy Centre in partnership with the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad, November 6-7, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cGP13c. Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session on OECD Principles on eGovernment and their applicability to the developing world and India.
Indo-European Conference on the Role of the Patent System in Fostering Innovation and Technology Transfer (organized by European Patent Office, FICCI and European Business & Technology Centre, November 29, 2013, New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in this conference.

Internet Governance

CIS is doing a project (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) on conducting research on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). So far we have organised seven privacy round-tables and drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill. This month we bring you a report from the seventh privacy round-table held in Delhi, and an analysis on why Facebook is more dangerous than government spying. As part of its project (funded by Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and support from the IDRC) on mapping cyber security actors in South Asia and South East Asia we did an interview with Namita A Malhotra, a researcher and lawyer from Alternative Law Forum. With this we have completed a total of 12 video interviews:

►Privacy

# Event Report

Seventh Privacy Round-table (organised by FICCI, DSCI, Privacy International and CIS, October 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/187pFOO. The report was published in the month of November.

# Newspaper Columns

Open Secrets (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, October 27, 2013): http://bit.ly/1b5uvK0.
I Just Pinged to Say Hello (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, November 24, 2013): http://bit.ly/183H34t.

# Blog Entries

An Interview with Caspar Bowden (by Maria Xynou, November 6, 2013): http://bit.ly/17LQqFX.
India's Response to WGEC Questionnaire (by Snehashish Ghosh, November 13, 2013): http://bit.ly/HX0r96.
Why 'Facebook' is More Dangerous than the Government Spying on You (by Maria Xynou, November 19, 2013): http://bit.ly/HWLFzi.
CIS Supports the UN Resolution on “The Right to Privacy in the Digital age” (by Elonnai Hickok, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1c2A89q.

# Events Organised

IDEX Impact Assessment Workshop (organised by IDEX, CIS, Bangalore, November 16, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bxRfFm.
The Evolving Cyber Threat and How to Address It (CIS, Bangalore, November 22, 2013): http://bit.ly/1cEkUZY.
Panel on Privacy, Surveillance & the UID in the post-Snowden era (Institution of Agricultural Technologists, Bangalore, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ctSHW3.

# Events Participated In

Chances and Risks of Social Participation (organised by Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Berlin, November 22, 2013). Dr. Nishant Shah gave the keynote: http://bit.ly/18PcMXN.
Expert Committee Meeting on Human DNA Profiling Bill (organised by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, New Delhi). Sunil Abraham participated in the meeting: http://bit.ly/19CpDbD.

# Upcoming Event

Big Democracy: Big Surveillance - A Talk by Maria Xynou (CIS, Bangalore, December 3, 2013): http://bit.ly/1j4mzgu.

► Cyber Security

Laird Brown, a strategic planner and writer with core competencies on brand analysis, public relations and resource management and Purba Sarkar who in the past worked as a strategic advisor in the field of SAP Retail are working in this project:

# Video Interview

Part 12: An Interview with Namita A. Malhotra (November 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/1j8MCjN.

# Documentary Film

First Look: Cyber Security Film (by Purba Sarkar, November 18, 2013): http://bit.ly/1alHhVu. The trailer was presented by Laird Brown recently at the IGF.

# Upcoming Event

DesiSec: Episode 1 - Film Release and Screening (December 11, 2013): Screening of the first documentary film on cyber security in India.

News & Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

EC guidelines on social media: Welcome move, but not enough (by Shruti Dhapola, FirstPost, November 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/1c3fNkt.
NSA leaks helping India become 'Big Brother' state? (British Broadcasting Corporation, November 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/1b7ftDG.
Spy agencies, IB and RAW, put spanner in proposed privacy law (by Nagender Sharma and Aloke Tikku, Hindustan Times, November 2, 2013): http://bit.ly/1aox4HP.
India must support UN's e-snooping move: Human rights activists (by Indu Nandakumar, Economic Times, November 11, 2013): http://bit.ly/18LrI5s.
Social media promotions can backfire, too (by Ratna Bhushan and Varuni Khosla, The Times of India, November 11, 2013): http://bit.ly/1gMj7rg.
YouTube is the answer to what has changed in India (by Moulishree Srivastava, Livemint, November 20, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fg214A.
When the virtual world wakes up the real one (by Malini Nair, November 24, 2013): http://bit.ly/1hovyd3.

Digital Natives

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

► Making Change

# Blog Entries

Methods to Conceive and Condense Social Change (by Denisse Albornoz, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ezrBhw.
Blank Noise and the Active Citizen Dissonance (by Denisse Albornoz, November 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/IwOHu9.

► Other

# Blog Entry

Digitally Enhanced Civil Resistance (by Denisse Albornoz, November 20, 2013): http://bit.ly/18ndc7p.

Telecom

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

► Newspaper Column

Predictability in Infrastructure (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, November 6, 2013 and Observer India Blogspot, November 10, 2013): http://bit.ly/1dLZ0Fp.

Knowledge Repository on Internet Access

CIS in partnership with the Ford Foundation is executing a project to create a knowledge repository on Internet and society. This repository will comprise content targeted primarily at civil society with a view to enabling their informed participation in the Indian Internet and ICT policy space. The repository is available at the Internet Institute website: http://bit.ly/1iQT2UB.

►Upcoming Event

Institute on Internet and Society (organised by Ford Foundation and CIS, Yashada, Pune, February 11-17, 2014): http://bit.ly/180mQi9. The application form is available at http://internet-institute.in/form. Registrations close on December 15, 2013.

► Modules

Internet Engineering Task Force (by Anirudh Sridhar, November 30, 2013). The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an open standards body with no requirements for membership and does not have a formal membership process either: http://bit.ly/1c4aOQr.
World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) (by Anirudh Sridhar, November 30, 2013). The World Summit on Information Society was first proposed by the International Telecommunication Union in 1998. The main focus of the WSIS was to address issues related to the global digital divide. However, the scope of the WSIS was broadened later to include internet related public policy issues: http://bit.ly/186dbnV.

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:

► Event Participated In

From Seemingly Transparent to Definitely Opaque (organised by University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, November 4-7, 2013): http://bit.ly/19b6IW1. Nishant Shah taught this course and also presented on a panel on 'Secrets of Digital Culture'.

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

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2013-bulletin

Election Commission to monitor conduct of political parties on Facebook, Twitter and Google

praskrishna — 2013-12-30T07:02:06Z

With Congress and BJP hammering away at each other in the ongoing assembly contests that will set the stage for national polls next year, the Election Commission wants to make sure social media and online platforms run by Google, Facebook and Twitter are not used to breach the code of conduct that governs candidates and parties. The commission's key concerns relate to malicious content and exceeding the campaign expense limit.

The article by Ajmer Singh was published in the Economic Times on November 25, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

The Election Commission, which summoned the social media companies to a meeting last Monday, directed them to cooperate in monitoring content. They were asked to set up a mechanism that would help prevent posting of material that could vitiate the election atmosphere, according to Election Commission officials who are aware of the development and didn't want to be named. If such content is posted, the mechanism should also allow for its speedy removal, they said.

"It is difficult to monitor and track content on social media or Internet sites, since the servers are based out of the US," said one of the officials cited above. "EC has asked social media giants to cooperate for compliance with the code of conduct, pre-certification of advertisement on the web and monitoring malicious content."

The companies declined to comment and referred ET to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) for a response. "It was a sensitising meeting on the code of conduct with some legal and corporate affairs representatives of Internet firms which are members of IAMAI," said Subho Roy, president of the grouping.

"The Election Commission representatives explained to us the model code of conduct, its importance during the last 48 hours of the election, the pre-certified advertisements and why they were important in accounting of the candidate's expenses. They also wanted to understand from us what are the current methods of removing illegal content from websites under existing laws. The Election Commission also assured us that at no point there would be any attempt to censor social media," said Subho Roy, IAMAI president and one of those present at the November 18 meeting.

The commission has classified social media into five types - collaborative projects such as Wikipedia; blogs and micro blogs such as Twitter; content communities such as Google-owned YouTube; social networking sites such as Facebook; and games and apps.

"We have received many complaints about misuse of social media platforms, and it is becoming unmanageable. So all these sites shall now be strictly monitored and asked to comply with EC's instructions," an official said.

According to Election Commission guidelines, "Legal provisions relating to election campaigning apply to social media in the same manner in which they apply to any other form of election campaigning using any other media."

The social media companies will also need to make sure that any advertising they carry conforms to the rules.

An official said social media companies have been asked to "keep an eye on any breach of model code of conduct, in respect of any party or candidate who posts hate messages or creates hatred or tension between different castes, communities, religions, etc. The social media giants have been directed to ensure pre-certification of advertisement on web/social media (clearance of political advertisement by a committee before being displayed in social media/web by any registered party or by any group or association)".

An executive at one of the companies said it would be difficult to keep a check on what was being posted as this may count as a breach of privacy, besides being impinging on other rules.
"It is a highly contentious issue and (it's) impossible to monitor malicious content," said this person who didn't want to be named. "The diktat issued by EC can't be implemented since it overrides the Information Technology Act. We all comply with the IT Act, and the model code of conduct is not for us but for political parties and candidates."

A privacy advocate pointed out the difficulties that the social media companies may face when it comes to implementing the Election Commission guidelines.

"This is what we call proactive censorship or proactive monitoring and may interfere with the intermediary's immunity from liability, when they have no actual knowledge of content. It may be in conflict with provisions of the IT Act (Section 79) and could have serious privacy implications," said Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet Society, and an expert on privacy laws. "Pre-censorship is required by Indian law and courts only for cinema that is exhibited in theatres. In the case of books, this type of censorship has been held to be unconstitutional. This case is worse because it is private pre-censorship of user-generated content that is not subject to judicial review."

The Election Commission had, on October 25, asked candidates to provide information about social media accounts and expenditure on online campaigns. It had clarified that the provisions of the code of conduct would apply to the Internet, including social media websites.

A Congress member said social media accounts would be difficult to police as these may be in the name of individuals and have no direct links to parties or candidates.

"The biggest problem is that candidates or political parties may not be operating their Twitter handles or posting advertisements on Facebook or the web, but (through) an unknown Internet army, which builds up a social media campaign and posts hate messages," the person said. A senior Congress MP, who didn't want to be named, suggested that such efforts were extensive on behalf of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat.

"More than 90% of Twitter traffic is emanating from Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Baroda, all in Gujarat," this person said. "Who are these people, campaigning and managing an obnoxious campaign?"

BJP denied that its Internet campaigns were in violation of any Election Commission guidelines.
"There is no truth in these allegations and Congress has little understanding of this," said Arvind Gupta, who heads BJP's IT cell. "Narendra Modi has a pan-India presence and is a popular leader, they are just jealous of him. We have a social media cell, which acts responsibly and complies with guidelines."

Election Commission officials said social media companies have been asked to resolve issues related to malicious content and provide details of serious infringements. The ministry of communications and information technology has also been asked to suggest ways of tackling the matter.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/economic-times-november-25-2013-ajmer-singh-election-commission-to-monitor-conduct-of-political-parties-on-facebook-twitter-google

Panel on Privacy, Surveillance & the UID in the post-Snowden era

praskrishna — 2013-11-26T19:05:54Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and the Say No to UID campaign invite you to a discussion on the UID and on the implications of the world's largest biometric data collection scheme in a post-Snowden era. The panel will take place on November 30th at the Institution of Agricultural Technologists in Bangalore.

Probably one of the most important things that we learnt following the Edward Snowden revelations is that our data has value. In fact, what we learnt is that our data has immense value...since it is clearly worth billions of dollars — to say the least.

However, not only does India lack privacy legislation which could safeguard our data from potential abuse, but it is also currently implementing some of the most controversial surveillance schemes in the world, in addition to the world's largest biometric data collection scheme. What's probably more alarming is that such schemes, such as the UID, lack legal backing, as well as public and parliamentary debate!

We aim to change that. As such, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and the Say No to UID campaign jointly invite you to attend a panel which will discuss all of these crucial topics.

Schedule of panel:

3.30pm - 4pm: Tea/Coffee/Refreshments & Registration

4pm - 5.30pm: Panel on Privacy, Surveillance & the UID in the post-Snowden era

5.30pm - 6pm: Q&A and Open Discussion

Panelists:

- Dr. Usha Ramanathan: Academic, Jurist and Activist

- K V Narendra: Director of Rezorce Research Foundation

- Vinay Baindur: Researcher on Urban Local Government & Decentralisation

- Maria Xynou: Policy Associate on the Privacy Project at the Centre for Internet & Society

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/panel-on-privacy-surveillance-uid-in-the-post-snowden-era

Chances and Risks of Social Participation

praskrishna — 2013-11-30T09:19:34Z

Participation is a key issue within Internet research and hence also for the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. For this reason the institute is going to host a thematically focused meeting on Chances and Risks of Social Participation in Berlin on 22 November 2013 in co-operation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Nishant Shah gave the keynote for this event.

Morning Session
by invitation only
International senior researchers from a broad field of disciplines are invited to join the discussion and contribute with their expertise to various sessions as well as a public panel discussion. Thereby, the institute aims to push ahead research and exchange of ideas around the field of participation ranging from encouragement in context of democracy to the impact on innovation management.

Public Afternoon: Online into Politics?
open to the public, registration required
In the afternoon, the meeting will be opened to the public. We are pleased to announce that Helen Margetts, director of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) has agreed to hold a keynote. We are also excited to be able to share first findings from a study on the e-petition platform of the German parliament, the Bundestag, with the attendants. Representatives of politics and society will reveal national perspectives on political participation within the concluding panel discussion.

Side Events

This meeting adds to the activities of the newly founded Network of Internet & Society Research Centers (NoC). Alongside the meeting on participation the annual Early Stage Researchers Colloquium and a meeting of participants of the Network of Centers will take place – guaranteeing fruitful and inspiring discourses across disciplines and research institutions.

Hosts and Co-Hosts

The event is hosted in co-operation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and serves as a Network of Centers (NoC) regional event. The event is furthermore supported by the British Embassy Berlin.

Click to download the brochure of the event.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/alexander-von-humbodt-institute-for-internet-november-22-chances-and-risks-of-social-participation

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗೆ 10, ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಸಾಲದು : ಪ್ರೊ .ಜಿವಿ

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T08:54:46Z

A post-event report of the program published in OneindiaKannada on November 17, 2013.

Read about the event published in Oneindia Kannada on November 17 here.

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು, ನ.17: ಕನ್ನಡ ನೆಟ್ಟಿಗರ ಜ್ಞಾನದಾಹವನ್ನು ತಣಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ 10 ವಸಂತಗಳನ್ನು ಪೂರೈಸಿರುವ ಸಂತಸವನ್ನು ನವೆಂಬರ್ 17 ರಂದು ನಗರದ ಬಸವನಗುಡಿಯ ನ್ಯಾಷನಲ್ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಡಾ. ಎಚ್ ನರಸಿಂಹಯ್ಯ ಸಭಾಂಗಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಯಿತು.

ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಮಾರಂಭಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದ ಡಾ. ಯುಆರ್ ಅನಂತಮೂರ್ತಿ ಹಾಗೂ ರವಿ ಹೆಗಡೆ ಅವರು ಕಾರಣಾಂತರದಿಂದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಕ್ಕೆ ಆಗಮಿಸಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಮತ್ತೊಬ್ಬ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಗಳಾದ ನಾಡೋಜ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ ಅವರು ಸಭೆಯನ್ನು ಉದ್ದೇಶಿಸಿ ಹೀಗೆ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದರು :

'ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಸಾಲದು. ನಾಡಿನ ಯುವ ಜನತೆ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಉತ್ಸುಕರಾಗಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಮಾಹಿತಿಯೋಗ್ಯ ತಾಣವಾಗಿ ಮಾರ್ಪಡಿಸಿ' ಎಂದು ನಾಡೋಜ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ ಯುವಜನತೆಗೆ ಕರೆ ನೀಡಿದರು.

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಬಸವನಗುಡಿಯ ನ್ಯಾಷನಲ್ ಕಾಲೇಜು ಸಭಾಂಗಣದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಯಾಗಿ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ ಅವರು, 'ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಹತ್ತು ಪೂರೈಸಿದ ಮಾತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಮುಂದುವರೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎನ್ನುವ ಭಾವನೆ ಬೇಡ. ಪ್ರೀತಿಯಿಂದ ಕಟ್ಟಿದ ಒಂದು ಸಂಸ್ಥೆ ಮುಂದುವರೆಯಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಬಹಳಷ್ಟು ಜನರ ಸಹಕಾರ ಬೇಕು. ಈ ಸಹಕಾರ ಈಗ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಅಗತ್ಯವಿದೆ. ನನಗೆ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ನೂರು ವರ್ಷವಾಗಿದೆ. ಆದರೂ ನನ್ನಿಂದಾಗುವ ಸಹಾಯವನ್ನು ನೀಡಲು ಸಿದ್ದ. ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ನನ್ನ ಬೆಂಬಲ ಯಾವತ್ತೂ ನಿರಂತರ' ಎಂದರು.

ಇಂದು ಇಂಟರ್ನೆಟ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ವಿಚಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ.ಇವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಖರವಾಗಿರುವ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ತಾಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಕಷ್ಟ. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ಅಯಾ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಧನೆ ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಸಾಧಕರು ತಮ್ಮ ಕರ್ತವ್ಯವೆಂದು ಭಾವಿಸಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೇರಿಸುವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಂದಾಗಬೇಕು' ಎಂದು ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಿ ಅನಂತರಾಮು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಪಟ್ಟರು.

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಸಂಪಾದಕ ಯು.ಬಿ. ಪವನಜ ಮಾತನಾಡಿ, 'ಪೆಟ್ರೋಲ್‌ ಉಳಿಸಲು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಪೆಟ್ರೋಲ್‌ ಬಳಸಿ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುತ್ತೇವೆ. ಆದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಸಲು ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕು ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಉತ್ತರ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಕಷ್ಟ. ಆದರೆ ವಿಶ್ವದ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದಾಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಸಬಹುದು. ಕಥೆ, ಕವನ ಇತ್ಯಾದಿ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಈಗ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯುವ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳ ಅಗತ್ಯವಿದೆ. ಈ ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತಮ ವೇದಿಕೆ.ಈ ವೇದಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಉತ್ತಮ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಕೋಶವನ್ನಾಗಿ ರೂಪಿಸಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ' ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದರು.

ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕ ಅಭಯ್ ಸಿಂಹ ಮಾತನಾಡಿ. 'ನನ್ನ ಅಜ್ಜ ಜಿ.ಟಿ ನಾರಾಯಣರಾಯರು ಬರೆದಿರುವ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿ ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಕ್ರಿಯೆಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್‌ ಲೈಸನ್ಸ್‌ನಿಂದಾಗಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಲಭ್ಯವಾಗಿದೆ.ಈ ಲೈಸನ್ಸ್‌ ಮೂಲಕ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಮುದ್ರಣಗೊಂಡಿರುವ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಲೇಖನಗಳು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರುವಂತಾಗಬೇಕು' ಎಂದು ಆಶಿಸಿದರು.

ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಅತಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸಂಪಾದನೆ ಮಾಡಿದ ಲೇಖಕರಿಗೆ ಸ್ಮರಣಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿ ಗೌರವಿಸಲಾಯಿತು. ಬಳಿಕ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಸ ಲೇಖನ ಸೇರಿಸುವ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಓಂ ಶಿವಪ್ರಕಾಶ ಪ್ರಾತ್ಯಕ್ಷಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿದರು. ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ವಿಚಾರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕಿರಣ್ ರವಿಕುಮಾರ ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸ ನೀಡಿದರು.

ಎಲ್ಲ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಸುದ್ದಿಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಒನ್ಇಂಡಿಯಾ ನೋಟ. ನಿರಂತರ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಪಡೆಯಲು Facebook ಮತ್ತು Twitter ಮೇಲೆ ಇರಲಿ ಕಣ್ಣು.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/one-india-november-17-2013-kannada-wikipedia-10th-anniversary-celebration-basavanagudi

10 years of Kannada Wikipedia: Many more miles to go!

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T07:40:24Z

Kannada Wikipedia community had a celebration that was introspective as well. Plans were chalked out on adding more content.

This blog post by Pavithra Hanchagaiah was published in CitizenMatters Bangalore on November 18, 2013.

Just two months away to welcome a New Year, Kannada Wikipedians celebrated the completion of 10 years of journey towards building a free encyclopedia for Kannada. Wikipedians from different part of the state gathered today at H Narasimhaiah Hall, National College, Basavanagudi to witness the event.

The stage was adorned by the father of the modern Kannada dictionary, Nadoja Prof G Venkatasubbaiah, the chief guest, along with T R Anantharamu, Senior Scientist (retd), Geological Survey of India, Abhaya Simha, National Award fame Cinema Director and U B Pavanaja from A2K (Access To Knowledge).


Prof Venkatasubbaiah handing out mementos to Wikipedia editors during the 10th anniversary celebrations of Kannada Wikipedia. Pic: Pavithra Hanchagaiah

Wikipedia has been the key source of knowledge for a kid to complete its assignments to a research activity for a scientist. It has been one of world’s 5th topmost accessed website. Various languages across the world made a way to emerge language-specific Wikipedias and Kannada has been one of them.

In the 10 years of its inception, Kannada Wikipedia has grown up to accumulate around 13000 articles and still a long way to go in terms of building a language which has around 2000 years of history. U B Pavanaja shared his opinions on importance of building Kannada Wikipedia along with his stands on upcoming areas for development. He said that informative articles are less at the moment and it should be the focus going forward.

Nadoja Prof G Venkatasubbaiah addressed the audience wishing Wikipedians and insisting youth to participate more with Kannada Wikipedia. He felt that completing 10 years isn’t sufficient but the growth should continue by participating more.

T R Ananthramu said being a scientist, he understands the challenges in research activities to dig the accurate information for a particular topic. He thinks the need for domain experts to actively participate in Kannada Wikipedia to add the right content which will in turn help everyone to get correct information.

Abhay Simha, Cinema Director, said that having his father Ashoka Vardhana who runs a book publication and a book stall and grandfather, GT Narayan Rao who was a science writer, he knows the need for timely updation with respect to reprinting science books. Realising the benefits of Creative Commons introduced by Omshivaprakash H L, SIG Chair, Kannada Wikipedia, Abhay has released the science-related books written by his Grandfather under CC License. He wished that all these books get added to Wikipedia and the knowledge is shared with everyone.

The celebration continued with demonstration on editing Wikipedia by Omshivapraksh followed by a session on Creative Commons licenses by Kiran Ravi Kumar, who is an engineering student from Mysore. The event was ended by an Edit-o-thon for the Wikipedians to add new articles.

On marking the 10th year completion, the active users of Kannada Wikipedia who have been editing and adding articles from years were given mementos as appreciation to acknowledge their contribution. Harish M G, Tejas Jain, Pramod R and a few of them recieved the token of appreciation during the event. A few of the Wikipedians shared their experience briefing difficulties that a user faces at the beginning and how to overcome all the barriers to involve in editing Wikipedia.

It was a fruitful event that made the participants understand and realise the need for exponential growth of Kannada Wikipedia and moving forward to make a rich and free Encyclopedia for the Kannada community.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/bangalore-citizenmatters-november-18-2013-10-years-of-kannada-wikipedia

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T07:34:14Z

A report of the Kannada Wikipedia tenth anniversary celebrations in Prajavani on November 18.

Read the online version published in Prajavani here.

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು: ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ. ಬಸವನಗುಡಿ ನ್ಯಾಷನಲ್‌ ಕಾಲೇಜು ಡಾ.ಎಚ್‌.ನರಸಿಂಹಯ್ಯ ಸಭಾಂಗಣ ದಲ್ಲಿ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಭಾನುವಾರ ನಡೆಯಿತು.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ. ಈ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಬಹುಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಲಭ್ಯ ಇದೆ. 2001ರಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಆರಂಭವಾಯಿತು. ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀ ಡಿಯಾ ಆರಂಭವಾದುದು 2003 ರಲ್ಲಿ. ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿಯು 15,369 ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಕುರಿತಾದ ಪುಟಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ. ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್‌ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ 44 ಲಕ್ಷ ವಿಷಯ ಗಳಿವೆ. ಹಿಂದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ 1 ಲಕ್ಷ, ತೆಲುಗು ವಿನಲ್ಲಿ 53,900, ತಮಿಳುನ ಭಾಷೆ ಯಲ್ಲಿ 56,000, ಮಲಯಾಳಂನಲ್ಲಿ 25,000 ವಿಷಯಗಳಿವೆ.

ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ 80,000 ಸಂಪಾ ದಕರು ಇದ್ದರೆ, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವುದು 403 ಮಂದಿ. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಸಕ್ರಿಯರಾ ಗಿರುವವರು 40 ಮಂದಿ.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ 2004 ರ ವರೆಗೂ ಒಂದೇ ಲೇಖನ ಇತ್ತು. 2004ರ ಅಂತ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ 176ಕ್ಕೆ, 2005ರಲ್ಲಿ 515ಕ್ಕೆ ತಲುಪಿತು. 2006ರ ಜೂನ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ 1,000 ಲೇಖನ ಗಡಿ ದಾಟಿತು. ಬಳಿಕ ಪ್ರಕ್ರಿಯೆಗೆ ವೇಗ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿತ್ತು. ಮತ್ತೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸಮಯ ಕಳೆಯುವಷ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಗತಿ ಕುಂಠಿತವಾಗಿದೆ.

‘ಮುಂಬೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಲೆಸಿರುವ ಎಚ್‌.ಆರ್‌.ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ ವೆಂಕಟೇಶ ಅವರು 10,000 ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ಹಾಗೂ ಬಿ.ಎಸ್‌.ಚಂದ್ರಶೇಖರ್‌ ಅವರು 4,000 ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ಪರಿಷ್ಕರಣೆ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇಬ್ಬರೂ 80 ವರ್ಷದ ಆಸುಪಾಸಿನವರು. ಇಂತಹ ಉತ್ಸಾಹ ಇತರರಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂಡಿದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಜಾಸ್ತಿ ಆಗಲಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಒದಗಿಸದಿದ್ದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆ ಉಳಿ ಯಲ್ಲ’ ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬರಾದ ಯು.ಬಿ.ಪವನಜ.

‘ಕನ್ನಡದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿಚಾರಸಂಕಿರಣ, ಕವಿಗೋಷ್ಠಿಗಳನ್ನು ನಡೆಸಿದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆ ಉಳಿಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬ ಭ್ರಮೆ ಬಿಡಬೇಕು. ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ವಿಕಿ ಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೇರಿಸಲು ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಅರಿವಿಲ್ಲವೆಂದು ಮೌನ ವಾಗುವುದು ಸರಿಯಲ್ಲ’ ಎಂದರು.
ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾತ್ಯಕ್ಷಿಕೆ, ಸಂವಾದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಗಳನ್ನು ಆಯೋಜಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/tenth-anniversary-kannada-wikipedia-prajavani-coverage-november-18

ಕನ್ನಡದ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ದುರ್ಬಲ

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T07:30:24Z

An article about the tenth Kannada Wikipedia published in Vijaya Karnataka on November 19.

Read the article published in Vijaya Karnataka on November 19, 2013.

-ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಹತ್ತು, ಸೋದರ ಭಾಷೆಗಳ ಮುಂದೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಹಿಂದೆ-

* ಎಸ್. ಕುಮಾರ್, ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು
ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬರಿ 14,202 ಲೇಖನಗಳು! ಇದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಸಾಧನೆ. ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯನ್ನು ಕಲೆಹಾಕುವ ಹುರುಪಿನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಆರಂಭವಾದ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಈಗ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೊನೆಯ ನಾಲ್ಕನೇ ಸ್ಥಾನದಲ್ಲಿದೆ.

ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷಿನ ಅತಿದೊಡ್ಡ ಆನ್‌ಲೈನ್ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶವಾಗಿ ಜನಪ್ರಿಯವಾದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲೂ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಆರಂಭಿಸಿತು. ಆದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಭಾರತದ ಇತರೆ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೋಲಿಸಿದರೆ ಇದು ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಬಡವಾಗಿರುವ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶವಾಗಿಯೇ ಉಳಿದಿದೆ. ತಮಿಳಿನ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ 56 ಸಾವಿರ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದ್ದರೆ, ತೆಲುಗು 53 ಸಾವಿರ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ. ಮಲಯಾಳಂ, ಮರಾಠಿ ಭಾಷೆಗಳು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಅಂದರೆ 40 ಸಾರ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಒಳಗೊಂಡಿವೆ. ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳ ಪೈಕಿ ಅತಿಹೆಚ್ಚು ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿರುವು ಹಿಂದಿ ಭಾಷೆಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ. ಸುಮಾರು ಒಂದು ಲಕ್ಷ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದ್ದು, ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಕ್ರಿಯಾಶೀಲವಾಗಿ ಸಂಪಾದನೆಗೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತದೆ.

ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕರೇ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಅಪ್‌ಲೋಡ್ ಮಾಡಬಹುದು ಹಾಗೂ ಸಂಪಾದಿಸಬಹುದು. ಕೆಲವು ಆಸಕ್ತರು ಜತೆಗೂಡಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಗಳನ್ನು ಕಲೆಹಾಕುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಸದ್ಯ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಕ್ಕೆ 400 ಒಟ್ಟು ಸಂಪಾದಕರಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಪೈಕಿ 41 ಮಂದಿ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸಕ್ರಿಯರು. ತಿಂಗಳಿಗೆ 2000 ಸಾರ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಸಂಪಾದನೆಯಾಗುತ್ತವೆ. ಆದರೆ ಸೇರ್ಪಡೆಯ ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ಕಡಿಮೆ. ಇಷ್ಟಾಗಿಯೂ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಕ್ಕೆ ತಿಂಗಳಿಗೆ 14 ಲಕ್ಷ ಭೇಟಿಗಳಿವೆ.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿ ತಂಡದಿಂದ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶವನ್ನು ಲೇಖನಗಳಿಂದ ಸಮೃದ್ಧಗೊಳಿಸುವ ನಡೆದಿದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ ನಿರಾಶೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸುವಂಥದ್ದು. ಕಳೆದ ಮಾರ್ಚ್ ನಿಂದ ಮತ್ತೆ ಅಭಿಯಾನ ಆರಂಭವಾಗಿದ್ದು ಆಸಕ್ತರನ್ನು ಸಂಪಾದಕರನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡುವ ಪ್ರೇರೇಪಿಸುವ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ತಂಡ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದೆ.

ಸಾಫ್ಟ್‌ವೇರ್ ವಲಯದ ಮಂದಿ ಒಂದಿಷ್ಟು ಸಮಯವನ್ನು ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ನೀಡುತ್ತಾರೆ ಹೊರತು, ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳು, ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸಕರು, ವಿವಿಧ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರಗಳ ತಜ್ಞರು ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ತೋರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಎನ್ನುತ್ತದೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ತಂಡ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಬರಹಗಾರರು ಒಂದಿಷ್ಟು ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ತೋರಿದರೂ ಲೇಖನಗಳ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಗಣನೀಯವಾಗಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚುತ್ತದೆ. ಪ್ರಕಟಿತ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಬಹುದು.ಅದಕ್ಕೂ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ತೋರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಎನ್ನುತ್ತದೆ ತಂಡ.

ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ ನಿರಾಸಕ್ತಿ
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಹಿರಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬರಾದ ಯು ಬಿ ಪವನಜ ಅವರು ''ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಿರಾಸಕ್ತಿ ಇದೆ ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳಾದರೂ ಅಷ್ಟೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಅಂದರೆ ಬರೀ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾತಾನಾಡುವುದು ಎನ್ನುವ ಭಾವನೆ ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅದರಾಚೆಗೂ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬೆಳೆಯಬೇಕಿದೆ. ಆಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ಭಾಷೆ ಜೀವಂತವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ,'' ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ.

''ಆರಂಭ ಹಂತದಲ್ಲಿ ತಂಡದಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಗುಂಪುಗಾರಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೆಚ್ಚುಗಾರಿಕೆಯೇ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಡವಾಗಲೂ ಕಾರಣ,'' ಎಂದು ತಂಡದ ಸದಸ್ಯರೊಬ್ಬರು ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ನಮಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿರುವುದನ್ನು ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇವೆ ಎಂಬ ಭಾವನೆಯಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ್ದ ತಂಡ ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬರನ್ನು ವಿಶ್ವಾಸಕ್ಕೆ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳದೇ ಇದ್ದದ್ದು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಹರಿದು ಬರಬಹುದಿದ್ದ ಲೇಖನಗಳ ಪ್ರಮಾಣವನ್ನು ತಗ್ಗಿಸಿತೇನೊ ಎಂದು ಅವರು ಅನುಮಾನ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ಅತಿ ಹಿರಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರು
ಎಚ್ ಆರ್ ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ ವೆಂಕಟೇಶ್, ಮುಂಬಯಿ
ಬಿ ಎಸ್ ಚಂದ್ರಶೇಖರ್, ಸಾಗರ

ಅತಿ ಕಿರಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕ
ಯಜ್ಞೇಶ್, 9ನೇ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ, ಮೈಸೂರು
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ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಮಗ್ರವಾಗಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇರುವ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಕೂಡ ತಪ್ಪಿನಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದೆ. ವಾಕ್ಯರಚನೆ ಸರಿ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಇದ್ದೂ ಇಲ್ಲದಂತೆ.
* ಎಚ್ ಎಂ ನಿರಂಜನ, ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸಕರು, ಹೊಸಪೇಟೆ

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಅನೇಕರಿಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಬರಹಗಾರರಿಗೆ ಈ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ಸಮೃದ್ಧವಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆಯಬಹುದಾಗಿದ್ದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಸೊರಗಿದೆ. ಈಗ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ನೀಡುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದೆ.
* ಟಿ. ಜಿ. ಶ್ರೀನಿಧಿ, ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕ

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/vijaya-karnataka-kannada-wikipedia-november-19-2013

YouTube is the answer to what has changed in India

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T07:00:48Z

Alternative Law Forum’s Lawrence Liang on relaunching Creative Commons, and how it changes the legal landscape of copyright issues.

The article by Moulishree Srivastava was published in Livemint on November 20, 2013. Lawrence Liang was quoted.

Creative Commons (CC), a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, US, which enables Internet users to share and use the creativity and knowledge of others, on Tuesday relaunched its India chapter after six years. CC provides free copyright licences that give creators a way to share their creative work, on conditions of their choice.

In India, for instance, Pratham Books, a not-for-profit publisher, licenses its content under a CC licence that allows others to use the content (on certain conditions). And the National Council of Educational Research and Training has created a portal where digital versions of its course material have been uploaded under a CC licence.

In an interview, Lawrence Liang , co-founder of Alternative Law Forum and chairman of the board at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, which is one of the CC affiliates in India, spoke about the re-launch, what went wrong the last time, what it means for the country and how it changes the legal landscape of copyright issues. Edited excerpts:

People all over the world are already using CC licences. What does this relaunch mean for India?

There are two things. One is the legal component. The licences have been tailor-made for Indian law. Tomorrow, if someone were to use CC licence and there were violations and it came up in court, this (the CC licence) would be in compliance with the Indian Copyright Act. The other is, we have a very large number of young people who are entering the space of making creative works. The CC means for them to be aware that there are options they have apart from traditional copyright licensing.

How does it impact the legal landscape of copyright issues?

In the US, you have something called derivative rights, which is conversion of one medium into another medium. In India, you don’t have that idea; you have the right of adaptation, which is a much more narrowly defined idea. It has the specific definition of what the adaptation is. There is the right to adaptation of a work from, say, literary into dramatic, but it doesn’t mean conversion of a work into any form.

The second is in terms of presumption of how you gain ownership over copyright, which is slightly different in India than it is in the US.

In India—section 17 (of the Constitution) lays out different classes of work—there are different presumptions of who the owner of copyright is, which becomes very important. For example, if a film-maker wants to license his work, now it has to be clear that he is the owner of the copyright in the first place, because the presumption in India would be that the producer is the owner of the work, whereas in Europe the producer is the first owner of the work. These are some of the small differences that CC attempts to clarify.

What went wrong the last time?

When it was first launched (in India) in 2007, perhaps there wasn’t the momentum. Last time CC was launched as a licence in India, but not as a community, which was the key issue. Second, it was institutionally housed in IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Bombay and it needed being pluralized. You can’t depend on CC being housed in one single institution. It should be in as many institutions as possible, which is what has happened this time. The crucial thing here is that we will be developing a community. A lot more people know about CC now than they did back in 2007.

Why do you think it will succeed?

One is the overall awareness about open source and alternatives. The other one, which is more crucial, is, when CC was launched in the US, it was in response to a very clear crisis. The crisis was that a large number of users were being prevented from using existing works. Lawrence Lessig (one of the co-founders of CC) felt that there was a need to create a legal alternative. There was already, in a way, a certain kind of environment which allowed CC to automatically speak to a number of people’s concerns. In India, we didn’t have that. Copyright was anyway not being enforced. That’s happening now. So once people could use YouTube, could create remixes, then they suddenly realized that they have used a film song and other copyrighted content. Then they suddenly realize a need of legal content as alternative. YouTube is the answer to what has changed.

What does it mean for the media?

It depends on whether you are looking at it from the perspective of a media producer or a user. From the perspective of a media producer, one of the big things that people assume is that everything is copyrighted until stated otherwise and that you can’t use it. There are a number of people who will be very happy to use it, but they may not want to use it commercially. With a CC licence, the boundaries are clear. What you are allowed to do and what you are not allowed to do is extremely clear. One of the biggest problems in the digital landscape at the moment is opacity. You are not sure. There is an image on a website, which seems to be used in many places. Am I allowed to reproduce it? What is the extent to which I can use the content? A lot of these will be rendered clear for media practitioners.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/livemint-november-12-2013-moulishree-srivastava-you-tube-is-answer-to-what-changed-in-india

Consilience 2013 Report

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T06:14:01Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/consilience-2013.pdf

Conference e-Governance

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T06:08:05Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/conference-e-governance-india.pdf

CV Booklet

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T04:34:46Z

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