Centre for Internet and Society

Institute on Internet and Society

praskrishna — 2014-02-16T03:00:17Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore is pleased to announce the second "Institute on Internet and Society" to be held in Yashada, Pune from February 11 to 17, 2014.

With financial support from the Ford Foundation, this initiative represents an important opportunity to bring together various stakeholders in a neutral forum and share ideas.

This is a week-long residential institute which will cover topics surrounding and exploring the gamut of internet and society. Various topics that explore the ambit and the intersection between Internet and Society will be explored with guest speakers and experts in these fields anchoring the sessions. The lectures will be insightful and few, with interesting case studies and interactive modes of teaching. There will be breakout sessions where participants will get the chance to partake in interactive technology sessions and instructive demonstrations.

There will be off-site experiences where the participants can go on field trips and view the actual spaces that will be discussed.

The institute will feature:

Guest lectures by experts and CIS staff.
Interactive panel discussions.
Case studies.
Breakout sessions.
Interactive demonstrations.
Networking opportunities, field trips/off-site experience and much more...

At the end of the course, attendees will have:

Acquisition of knowledge on internet in the Indian society.
Appreciation of the role of community and other stakeholders in issues surrounding the internet.
Creation of a starting point for improved communication of research findings, innovations, information and new technologies in internet to evolve a community comprising academicians and policy makers.
Appreciation of the need to bridge the gap between policy and implementation.

Who can apply?

Any members from the civil society (students, research scholars, academicians, scientists, legal professionals, etc.) who engage in issues concerning Internet and Society.

How to apply?

The application form available at http://internet-institute.in/form needs to completed in all respects and uploaded along with a brief bio and a 250-300 word abstract on why the applicant feels he/she must attend the Institute on Internet and Society.

Selection criteria

Originality of application.
Evidence of interest and/or prior engagement in Internet and Society related research and policies.
Gender, regional and stakeholder representation.

Twenty participants shall be chosen to attend the Institute on a first come, first served basis. Please ensure that your applications are submitted to CIS well before the closing date.

Attendance

Attendance for the full duration of the Institute (February 11 to February 17, 2014) is mandatory. Please provide assurance that you will be able to commit to the full duration of the institute.

What costs will be covered?

CIS has a number of scholarships that will cover the course fees, travel, accommodation and food. Please note that scholarships will be given on a first come first serve basis to deserving applicants and is available for persons based within India.

Important Dates

Registrations Open: November 15, 2013

Registrations Close: December 15, 2013

Draft Agenda

Time	Detail
Day 1 (February 11, 2014)
09.30 09.40	Introduction: Sunil Abraham, Executive Director Centre for Internet and Society / Ravina Aggarwal, Program Officer, Ford Foundation
09.30 09.40	Introduction of Participants
10.00 12.00	Internet Governance and Privacy: Sunil Abraham
12.00 12.30	Tea-break
12.30 13.00	Keynote: Bishakha Datta, Filmmaker and Activist, and Board Member, Wikimedia Foundation
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 16.00	Pecha Kucha sessions
16.00 17.30	Histories, Bodies and Debates around the Internet: Nishant Shah, Director-Research, Centre for Internet and Society and International Tandem Partner at the Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University, Germany
Day 2 (February 12, 2014)
Time	Detail
09.30 11.00	Wireless Technology: Ravikiran Annaswamy, CEO and Co-founder at Teritree Technologies
11.00 11.30	Tea-break
11.30 13.00	Wired Technology: Ravikiran Annaswamy
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 15.00	Network, Threats and Securing Yourself: Kingsley John, Independent Consultant
15.00 15.15	Break
15.15 16.15	Practical Lab: Kingsley John
16.15 16.30	Tea-break
16.30 17.00	Wrap-up Session: Sunil Abraham
Day 3 (February 13, 2014)
Time	Detail
09.30 11.00	Free Software: Prof. G. Nagarjuna, Chairperson, Free Software Foundation
11.00 11.30	Tea-break
11.30 13.00	Open Data: Nisha Thompson, Independent Consultant
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 16.00	Freedom of Expression: Bhairav Acharya, Advocate and Adviser, Centre for Internet and Society
16.00 16.30	Tea-break
16.30 17.30	Copyright: Nehaa Chaudhari, Program Officer, Centre for Internet and Society
Day 4 (February 14, 2014)
Time	Detail
09.30 11.00	E-Accessibility and Inclusion: Prashant Naik, Union Bank
11.00 11.30	Tea-break
11.30 13.00	Patents: Nehaa Chaudhari
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 17.00	Field Trip
Day 5 (February 15, 2014)
Time	Detail
09.30 11.00	E-Governance: Manu Srivastav, Vice President, eGovernments Foundation
11.00 11.30	Tea-break
11.30 13.00	Market Concerns: Payal Malik, Economic Adviser, Competition Commission of India
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 15.30	Domestic and International Bodies: Chinmayi Arun, Research Director, Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi and Fellow, Centre for Internet and Society
15.30 16.00	Tea-break
16.00 17.30	Digital Natives: Nishant Shah
Day 6 (February 16, 2014)
Time	Detail
09.30 11.00	Wikipedia: Dr. Abhijeet Safai
11.00 11.30	Tea-break
11.30 13.00	Open Access: Muthu Madhan
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 15.00	Activity / Mock Conference
15.00 15.30	Tea-break
15.30 17.30	Activity / Mock Conference
Day 7 (February 17, 2014)
Time	Detail
09.30 11.00	Internet Activism: Laura Stein, Associate Professor, University of Texas and Fulbright Fellow, Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia
11.00 11.30	Tea-break
11.30 13.00	Digital Humanities: Nishant Shah
13.00 14.00	Lunch
14.00 15.00	Participant Presentations
15.00 15.30	Tea-break
15.30 16.30	Final Exercise: Mapping Learning Feedback

Speakers Profiles

Bishakha Datta
Bishakha is an Indian film maker and activist. She is a former journalist who also serves on the board of nonprofit organizations, such as Point of View, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action, and (as of 2013) the Wikimedia Foundation. In 1998, Datta edited And Who Will Make the Chapatis?, an overview of the all-women political panchayats formed in Maharashtra, India. In 2003, her documentary In the Flesh: three lives in prostitution was released.

Nishant Shah
Nishant is the founder and Director of Research for the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society. His doctoral work at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, examines the production of a Technosocial Subject at the intersections of law, Internet technologies and everyday cultural practices in India. As an Asia Scholarship Fellow (2008-2009), he also initiated a study that looks at what goes into the making of an IT City in India and China. He is the series editor for a three year collaborative project on “Histories of the Internet(s) in India” that maps nine alternative histories that promote new ways of understanding the technological revolution in the country.

Prof. G. Nagarjuna
Prof. Nagarjuna is the chairperson of the Free Software Foundation. He has been an activist for free knowledge and free softwares and has more than 20 publications on related issues. He is interested in understanding the structure and dynamics of knowledge (epistemology, knowledge organization, knowledge representation, biological roots of cognition, and education), nature of life and evolution. This interest is executed in the respective domains: Information Technology, History and Philosophy of Science, and Biology Education. The social, economic and political aspects of information technology also engages his serious attention.http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/people/academic/nagarjuna-g.

Sunil Abraham
Sunil is the Executive Director of Bangalore based research organisation, the Centre for Internet and Society. He founded Mahiti in 1998, a company committed to creating high impact technology and communications solutions. Sunil was elected an Ashoka fellow in 1999 to 'explore the democratic potential of the Internet' and was also granted a Sarai FLOSS fellowship in 2003. Between June 2004 and June 2007, Sunil also managed the International Open Source Network, a project of United Nations Development Programme's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme serving 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Nisha Thompson
Nisha Thompson: Nisha Thompson has a background in online community organisation. She has worked for the Sunlight Foundation in Washington DC, with online communities to use US government data to hold elected officials accountable. She moved to Bangalore, Karnataka in October 2010. She worked on an Open Government Data report for the Centre for Internet and Society and now works full-time with the Portal, on the Data Project. The Data Project aims to collect and open up water and related data, so that citizens and practitioners can use it to improve and keep track of projects and progress in the water sector.

Payal Malik
Payal Malik: Payal Malik is currently advisor to the Competition Commission of India. She had also done considerable research in the ICT sector. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2013727. In addition to teaching Microeconomics Theory at the University of Delhi she has several years of research experience in the areas of economic policy, competition and regulation in network/infrastructure industries and has been actively engaged in competition policy research. Her research and professional collaborations have been with National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi, Indicus Analytics, New Delhi, LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka, OECD, Orbicom, IDEI, University of Toulouse, University Of Québec at Montreal, CEPR, JRC, European Commission, IPTS Seville, ICEGEC, Hungary, Department of Information Technology, TRAI, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Planning Commission of India, Competition Commission of India, CSO, India, WSP-SA, World Bank and AFD, Paris.

Chinmayi Arun
Chinmayi Arun is the Research Director of the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi. She is also an Assistant Professor of law at the university and teaches specialised courses on Internet Governance, privacy and media policy. She is the research coordinator of the Oxford India Media Law Research Project, a member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group formed by the Government of India for the India Internet Governance Forum, and one of the academic experts for the Internet & Jurisdiction Project's Observatory. She works with media regulation and internet governance, particularly in the context of the rights to free speech and privacy. Chinmayi interacts with industry bodies and government officials and envisages the Centre for Communication Governance as a key contributor to policy in the years to come.

Laura Stein
Laura is an assistant Professor at the University of Texas in the College of Communication. Her research focuses upon alternative and public media and she has a course on communication technology and society. She is currently working on an edited collection, titled "Making Our Media: Global Initiatives Toward a Democratic Public Sphere," about grassroots attempts to transform the policy and practice of information and communication media around the world.

Prashant Naik
Prashant is working as an Assistant Manager with the Union Bank of India, one of the largest public sector banks in India. He is placed in the Alternate Channels and New Initiative Department. In his role with Union Bank of India, he has made a major contribution in developing a Truly Accessible Talking ATM, ‘First’ of its kind in India which has set a benchmark on accessible ATM for the blind. Since 2002 he is contributing on a large scale in the area of technology access for the visually impaired persons with his inputs in accessible content creation, access technologies training, accessibility and advocacy. Through his work with NGOs he undertook many accessibility testing and development projects. He received National Award as ROLE MODEL from Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on 6th February 2013. He holds a degree in computer applications and he is a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist. He has low vision since birth due to albinism condition.

Ravikiran Annaswamy
Ravikiran is the Co-founder and CEO of Teritree Technologies - a Social commerce technology venture. He also dedicates his time to startup ecosystem as Advisor, Mentor and Angel investor. He has over 17 years of business experience at Nokia Siemens Networks and Siemens AG. He was Business Head for Indian market, led Global Product Management and was General Manager for Asia Pacific Solutions. He championed Intrapreneurship by working as Innovation head for Bangalore site of over 1000 employees. He has vast experience of making successful Technology solutions for global markets, mainly in the area of Social commerce, Online Billing and Charging, Innovative 3G/4G applications, Multimedia and Security Solutions. He is an engaged Professional volunteer, currently the Vice Chairman for IEEE Bangalore section. He was the previous Chairman for IEEE Communication Society of Karnataka.

Manu Srivastava
Manu is a Vice President at the eGovernments Foundation. He brings 14 years of experience in web native product development and database applications. He worked at Oracle and GlobeTrades Inc on various internet based products before joining eGov. He has architected, developed and rolled out many of the eGov products which are running successfully in cities such as Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi.

Muthu Madhan
Muthu Madhan is a practicing librarian in India for about 15 years and is currently the Manager for ICRISAT Library and Information Services. Before joining ICRISAT in 2010, he worked for M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and the National Institute of Technology Rourkela. Since 2004, he has been an advocate for open access movement in India. Apart from open access, his other interests are open data, open education, and open source software.

Dr. Abhijeet Safai
Dr. Abhijeet is Medical Officer–Clinical Research at Symbiosis Centre of Health Care in Pune. He has been editing Wikipedia for more than 3 years, has edited more than 3700 articles and has created 30 new articles. He is interested in editing articles related to medicine and inspiring personalities. He was a speaker at IT expo in Pune in 2012 and has conducted workshops on Wikipedia Editing in GNUnify in 2013 and 2014 at Symbiosis Institute of Computer Science and Research, Pune. He likes to edit Wikipedia because of passion, for gaining the knowledge and as a social contribution. His user profile on Wikipedia can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhijeet_Safai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhijeet_Safai

About CIS India and Ford Foundation

CIS critically engages with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, in the field of Internet and Society, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.

Through multidisciplinary research, intervention, and collaboration, we seek to explore, understand, and affect the shape and form of the internet, and its relationship with the political, cultural, and social milieu of our times.

The Ford Foundation supports visionary leaders and organizations on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Their goals for more than half a century have been to:

Strengthen democratic values
Reduce poverty and injustice
Promote international cooperation
Advance human achievement

The Ford Foundation believes all people should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, contribute to society, and have voice in the decisions that affect them.

Contact

Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan, Policy Director (nirmita@cis-india.org)

Ajoy Kumar, Administrator (ajoy@cis-india.org)

Anirudh Sridhar, Consultant (anirudh@cis-india.org)

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/institute-on-internet-and-society-2

Panaji: DKA organizes two day Konkani Wikipedia workshop

praskrishna — 2013-11-18T08:33:09Z

In order to showcase Romi Konknni on a global platform, Dalgado Konknni Akademi (DKA) organized a two day Konkani Wikipedia workshop November 16 and November 17 for Romi Konknni writers in collaboration with Centre for Internet and Society’s Access to Knowledge Programme, Bangalore.

This was published in Daijiworld.com on November 18, 2013.

The workshop which was held at Krishnadas Shama Central Library was attended by 30 Romi Konknni writers including editors of Romi Konknni periodicals.

The workshop was conducted by enthusiastic Nitika Tandon, Goa incharge and Programme Manager of Centre for Internet and Society’s Access to Knowledge Programme.

Among those who attended the Romi Konknni Wikipedia Workshop were young writers Nevena Furtado, Frank Fernandes, Venisha Fernandes, Anselmo Fernandes, tiatrist Mario Menezes, Konkani scholar and researcher Fr Pratap Naik, besides editor of ‘Gulab’ and ‘The Goan Review’ Fausto V da Costa, newly appointed editor of ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ Fr Eusebio Gomes and editor of ‘Amcho Avaz’ weekly Tomazinho Cardozo.

DKA President Premanand A Lotlikar while welcoming the participants explained the importance of building up Romi Konknni Wikipedia. Treasurer Walter Menezes proposed the vote of thanks, and secretary Jose Salvador Fernandes co-ordinated the two days workshop.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/daijiworld-november-18-2013-dka-organizes-two-day-konkani-wikipedia-workshop

National Conference on: Harnessing technology for the empowerment for the persons with visual impairments

praskrishna — 2014-02-03T10:38:53Z

Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan participates as a speaker at this event. The event is organized by NIVH.

Click to read the complete agenda published by NAB Centre for Blind Women & Disability Studies

Background Note

As we all are aware, Assistive Technolgy has played an unprecedented role in equalizing opportunities and in improving the quality of life of people with disabilities in last few years, with solutions helping in the elimination of barriers in all kinds of environments.

However, inspite of the advanced development, the Assistive technology for the VI has been confined to special devices leading mostly to disparate solutions. These devices also are most often rendered incompatible with the quickly changing technological landscape interfacing with all sectors of development, making it unaffordable or obsolete for people with disabilities to communicate with the highly digital and networked society in the contemporary world. This disparity further isolates the disabled population calling out for a more holistic approach to make the mainstream technology accessible from the designing stage.

Moreover, increasingly all services in every sphere of life, be it employment, education, communication, entertainment, civic participation, or government functions are moving either primarily or exclusively online worldwide.

While for PWDs, the Internet has a great potential to enhance their freedom to access goods, services and information independently through online services; a sizeable population of people especially with visual impairment are increasingly finding it difficult to access online services and information due to design barriers. This is becoming an alarmingly serious issue in the near future, considering the engagement of vital sectors like banking and publications with technology.

We already face a rate of unemployment that is more than 3 times as high as the rest of the population and experience similar gaps in educational achievement. High levels of inaccessibility on the Web and Internet-enabled mobile technologies are threatening to exclude people with visual impairment even further, who experience disability from the information society.

The potential of an accessible Internet is immense which could not only increase the inclusion of people with disabilities and facilitate online education, telework, participation in e-government, but also would enable social relationships that overcome barriers and challenges presented by the physical world.

We are, therefore, in a situation of necessity, to harness the enormous prospects of technology to create an empowering, economically progressive and inclusive society, with a new approach to implement the public policy to eliminate the virtual barriers that are in place, ensuring that people with disabilities are not marginalized.

The need of the hour is to develop an accessible technology plan to

Define the accessible technology strategy,
Identify requirements,
Design, develop, and purchase technology,
Implement and Train in a timely manner

The national conference on ` Harnessing technology for the empowerment for the persons with visual impairments’ being organised by the NIVH, a premier Institute of Government of India in the field of visual disability functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment to be held on 19th Nov 2013 aims to create opportunities of exploring the potential of inclusive solutions which are designed to serve all people regardless of their physical abilities.

The conference would bring together best practices models from India and abroad. It would facilitate interaction between the inclusive design experts for online services & accessible information and the officials from all levels of government and PSUs. The conference will in particular address the problems and potential solutions with reference to access to banking services, web and online services, access to documents and publications in digital, Braille and audio formats, and access to Digital Television
On the sidelines of the conference, a small exhibition will display a range of products hardware and software rendering possible solutions.

It is understood that all the participants invited to this conference have a critical role in the implementation of legal commitments and policy decisions for creating an accessible, enabling and empowering environment in which people can access all the services and information intended to benefit all citizens of the country.

Draft agenda

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.: Registration
9:30 a.m.- 10:20 a.m.: Inaugural Session
9:30 a.m.: Felicitations
9:36 a.m.: Lighting of Lamp followed by a devotional song
9:40 a.m.: Welcome address by J.S. DDA and objectives of the Conference
9:45 a.m.: Address by Secy. DDA
9:55 a.m.: Key Note address
10:15 a.m.: Vote of Thanks by Director NIVH
10:20-10:40 a.m.: Tea Break
10.40 a.m.: Plenary Session 1
11.40 a.m.: Plenary Session 2
2.15 p.m.: Plenary Session 3
4.00 p.m.: Plenary Session 4

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/nabcentreforwomen-november-19-2013-national-conference-on-harnessing-technology-for-the-empowerment-for-the-persons-with-visual-impairments

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ. ಅದರ ಪ್ರಯುಕ್ತ ಒಂದು ಆಚರಣೆ

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T08:58:30Z

Coverage of the ten years of celebrations in Kannada Wikipedia on Avadhi website.

ಸ್ಥಳ: ಎಚ್.ಎನ್. ಮಲ್ಟಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಹಾಲ್, ನ್ಯಾಶನಲ್ ಕಾಲೇಜು, ಬಸವನಗುಡಿ

ದಿನಾಂಕ: ನವಂಬರ್ ೧೭, ೨೦೧೩

ಸಮಯ: ೦೯:೩೦ ರಿಂದ ೧೩:೦೦

ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ವಿವರ :

೯:೩೦-೧೦:೦೦ ನೋಂದಣಿ

೧೦:೦೦ ರಿಂದ ೧೧:೦೦ ಸಭಾ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ

ಸ್ವಾಗತ ಗೀತೆ – ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ ಚೈತನ್ಯ

ಸ್ವಾಗತ ಮತ್ತು ನಿರ್ವಹಣೆ – ಡಾ. ಎ. ಸತ್ಯನಾರಾಯಣ

ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾವನೆ – ಡಾ. ಯು. ಬಿ. ಪವನಜ

ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಗಳ ಮಾತು

ಡಾ. ಯು. ಆರ್. ಅನಂತಮೂರ್ತಿ

ನಾಡೋಜ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ

ರವಿ ಹೆಗಡೆ, ಸಮೂಹ ಸಂಪಾದಕ, ಉದಯವಾಣಿ

ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷದಲ್ಲಿ ಉತ್ತಮ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಿದ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರುಗಳಿಗೆ ಮತ್ತು

ನಿರ್ವಾಹಕರುಗಳಿಗೆ ಸ್ಮರಣಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿಕೆ

ಧನ್ಯವಾದ ಸಮರ್ಪಣೆ

೧೧:೦೦ – ೧೧:೧೫ – ಚಹಾ

೧೧:೧೫-೧೨:೦೦

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಪ್ರಾತ್ಯಕ್ಷಿಕೆ – ಓಂಶಿವಪ್ರಕಾಶ

ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ – ಕಿರಣ್ ರವಿಕುಮಾರ

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರುಗಳ ಮಾತು

೧೨:೦೦-೧೩:೦೦ – ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದನೋತ್ಸವ (edit-a-thon)

ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸಿದ್ಧ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದು ಲೇಖನ ಸೇರಿಸುವುದು.

ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಬರುತ್ತೀರಿ ತಾನೆ? ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿದ್ದವರು ಲ್ಯಾಪ್‌ಟಾಪ್, ಇಂಟರ್‌ನೆಟ್

ಡಾಂಗಲ್ ಮತ್ತು ಒಂದು ಸಿದ್ಧಪಡಿಸಿದ ಲೇಖನ ತಂದು ಕೊನೆಯ ಸಂಪಾದನೋತ್ಸವದಲ್ಲಿ

ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕಾಗಿ ವಿನಂತಿ.

ಬರುವವರು ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಈ ಪುಟದಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಂದಾಯಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಿ -

https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ:ಸಮ್ಮಿಲನ/ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/avadhi-website-november-16-2013-kannada-wikipedia-10-years-celebration

10th anniversary of Kannada wikipedia

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T09:03:30Z

Kannada wikipedia is celebrating its 10th anniversary on November 17.

The article by ND Shiva Kumar was published in the Times of India on November 15, 2013. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja is quoted.

Kannada wikipedia has 15,369 articles (as of September 2013) and attracts 14 lakh visitors a month. It undergoes 2,000 edits a month.

The wikipedia boom among the Indian languages started in 2003. Initially, the growth was very slow and it reached 1,000 articles only by 2006. Even today, the situation isn't great.

Among the Indian languages, Hindi tops the list with one lakh articles, Tamil has 56,000, Telugu 53,000 and Marathi 40,000. Kannada is ahead of only Oriya and Punjabi.

Kannada has a total of 400 editors, of which 41 are active and 7 very active. The two highest contributors are non-techies and they are around 80 years - H R Lakshmivenkatesh from Mumbai and B S Chandrashekar from Sagar.

Wikipedian U B Pavanaja says it has gained momentum recently and the future looks bright.

The 10th anniversary programme on November 17 will be held from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm at H N Multimedia Hall, National College, Basavanagudi, Bangalore. Guests of honour will be Dr U R Ananthamurthy and Prof G Venkatasubbaiah.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-november-15-2013-nd-shiva-kumar-tenth-anniversary-of-kannada-wikipedia

Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia: Udayavani Coverage

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T07:25:08Z

Udayavani, on November 15, 2013 published about the upcoming tenth anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia.

See the original published by Udayavani here.

ನ.17ರಂದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ

ಕನ್ನಡ ನೆಟ್ಟಿಗರ ಜ್ಞಾನದಾಹವನ್ನು ತಣಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ 10 ವಸಂತಗಳನ್ನು ಪೂರೈಸಿರುವ ಸಂತಸವನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಇದೇ ಭಾನುವಾರ, ನವೆಂಬರ್ 17, 2013ರಂದು ಡಾ. ಎಚ್. ನರಸಿಂಹಯ್ಯ ಸಭಾಂಗಣ, ನ್ಯಾಶನಲ್ ಕಾಲೇಜು, ಬಸವನಗುಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಮಾರಂಭವನ್ನು ಆಯೋಜಿಸಿದೆ.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಮುಖಾಂತರವೇ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ವಿನಿಮಯ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರು ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿ, ತಾವು ಬರೆದ ಲೇಖನ, ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮುಖತಃ ಚರ್ಚಿಸುವ ಅವಕಾಶವನ್ನು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಒದಗಿಸಿದೆ. ಜೊತೆಗೆ, ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಪರಿಚಯ, ಸಂಪಾದಕ ಆಗುವ ವಿಧಾನ, ಲೇಖನ ಬರೆಯುವ ಬಗೆ, ಚಿತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸುವ ವಿವರಗಳನ್ನು ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಳಿಸಿಕೊಡಲಾಗುವುದು.

ಕನ್ನಡದ ಖ್ಯಾತ ಲೇಖಕ ಡಾ. ಯು.ಆರ್. ಅನಂತಮೂರ್ತಿ, ಸಂಶೋಧಕ ಡಾ. ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತ ರವಿ ಹೆಗಡೆ ಅವರ ಮಾತುಗಳನ್ನು ಕೇಳುವ ಸುಯೋಗ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರಿಗೆ ಲಭಿಸಲಿದೆ. ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಲಿಚ್ಛಿಸುವವರು ಮೊದಲೇ ನೋಂದಾಯಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು.

ಸ್ಥಳ : ಎಚ್.ಎನ್. ಮಲ್ಟಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಹಾಲ್, ನ್ಯಾಶನಲ್ ಕಾಲೇಜು, ಬಸವನಗುಡಿ

ದಿನಾಂಕ : ನವಂಬರ್ 17, 2013
ಸಮಯ : 9:30ರಿಂದ 13:00

ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ವಿವರ:

9:30-10:00 ನೋಂದಣಿ
10:00 ರಿಂದ 11:00 ಸಭಾ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ
ಸ್ವಾಗತ ಗೀತೆ - ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ ಚೈತನ್ಯ
ಸ್ವಾಗತ ಮತ್ತು ನಿರ್ವಹಣೆ - ಡಾ. ಎ. ಸತ್ಯನಾರಾಯಣ
ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾವನೆ - ಡಾ. ಯು. ಬಿ. ಪವನಜ

ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಗಳ ಮಾತು

ಡಾ. ಯು. ಆರ್. ಅನಂತಮೂರ್ತಿ
ನಾಡೋಜ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ
ರವಿ ಹೆಗಡೆ, ಸಮೂಹ ಸಂಪಾದಕ, ಉದಯವಾಣಿ

ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷದಲ್ಲಿ ಉತ್ತಮ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಿದ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರುಗಳಿಗೆ ಮತ್ತು ನಿರ್ವಾಹಕರುಗಳಿಗೆ ಸ್ಮರಣಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿಕೆ
ಧನ್ಯವಾದ ಸಮರ್ಪಣೆ
11:00 - 11:15 - ಚಹಾ

11:15 - 12:00

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಪ್ರಾತ್ಯಕ್ಷಿಕೆ - ಓಂಶಿವಪ್ರಕಾಶ
ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ - ಕಿರಣ್ ರವಿಕುಮಾರ
ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯನ್ನರುಗಳ ಮಾತು

12:00-13:00 - ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದನೋತ್ಸವ (edit-a-thon)
ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸಿದ್ಧ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದು ಲೇಖನ ಸೇರಿಸುವುದು.

ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿದ್ದವರು ಲ್ಯಾಪ್‌ಟಾಪ್, ಇಂಟರ್‌ನೆಟ್ ಡಾಂಗಲ್ ಮತ್ತು ಒಂದು ಸಿದ್ಧಪಡಿಸಿದ ಲೇಖನ ತಂದು ಕೊನೆಯ ಸಂಪಾದನೋತ್ಸವದಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದು. ಬರುವವರು ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಈ ಪುಟದಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಂದಾಯಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಿ - https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ:ಸಮ್ಮಿಲನ/ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ

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/kannada-wikipedia-tenth-anniversary-udayavani-november-15

Volume 4 of Konkani Vishwakosh

praskrishna — 2013-11-15T08:15:42Z

Fourth volume of the Konkani Viswakosh which is released under free license.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/konkani-vishwakosh-vol-4.pdf

Konknni Wikipedia Workshop

praskrishna — 2013-11-15T08:19:50Z

Dalgado Konknni Akademi in collaboration with Centre for Internet & Society’s Access to Knowledge Programme is organsing a 2 day Wikipedia editing workshop at the Goa Central State Library on November 16 and 17, 2013 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

This workshop is free and open for anyone to attend. Please feel free to join hands in the campaign to promote free access to knowledge in one’s mother tongue – Konknni in Romi! This is a brilliant opportunity to showcase Konkani language in Roman script on a global platform such as Konknni Wikipedia!

Click to download the invite here. (PDF, 64 Kb)

Read more on Dalgado Konknni Akademi here
Read more on the Centre for Internet and Society here
Read more on Goa Central State Library here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/konknni-wikipedia-workshop-nov-16-17-2013

Konknni Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2013-11-15T07:10:25Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/konknni-wikipedia-event.pdf

Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia: Vijayavani Coverage

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T07:16:23Z

Vijayavani published a report of the forthcoming tenth anniversary celebration of Kannada Wikipedia on November 17.

The details of the event can be found here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/tenth-anniversary-kannada-wikipedia-vijayavani-report

Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2013-11-14T10:17:23Z

Kannada Wikipedia has completed 10 years. The Kannada Wikipedia community will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of Kannada Wikpedia on Nov 17, 2013 from 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. at H N Multimedia Hall, National College, Basavanagudi, Bangalore. CIS-A2K is a co-sponsor for the program.

The guests of honour will be Dr. U R Ananthamurthy, Prof. G. Venkatasubbiah and Ravi Hegde. There will be speeches by the chief guests from 10.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja. This will be followed by a talk by some Kannada Wikipedians. At the end there will be a edit-a-thon where Wikipedians will add some articles to Kannada Wikipedia.

Register for the event here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/tenth-anniversary-of-kannada-wikipedia

IDEX Impact Assessment Workshop

praskrishna — 2013-11-14T05:48:51Z

The Centre for Internet and Society is hosting a workshop organised by IDEX at its office in Bangalore on Saturday, November 16, 2013 from 11.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.

The IDEX Impact Assessment Workshop will provide a comprehensive and interactive intro and overview of all facets of Impact Assessment, with a specific focus on the Social Enterprise sector. The workshop will be conducted by Andy Bhanot of WeStat (bio below) and will be divided into two portions:

11.30 - 14.30: Impact Assessment Crash Course (Intro to IA, Types of IA, Designing IA, etc)

15.30 - 18.30: Interactive Group Projects + Presentations (Applying IA to Specific Sectors / Projects)*

*The focus of this group work will be based upon projects that the IDEX fellows have been working on over the past few months, across various sectors (Water, Livelihoods, Youth, etc)

Andy Bhanot, MBA

Andy Bhanot is a communications and marketing research expert with extensive experience in both the private and development sectors. Mr. Bhanot's areas of expertise include market research analysis and strategy formulation, business development, and leadership and team management.

Mr. Bhanot is an expert in conducting knowledge, attitude, and practice surveys, formative research, pretesting studies, and monitoring and impact evaluation studies. These studies have ranged from HIV/AIDS prevention and care, condom promotion, maternal and child health and governance to gender empowerment, water and environmental sanitation, education, and disaster risk reduction.

He is well versed in both quantitative and qualitative research methods having directed large national surveys, telephonic interviews, rapid feedback studies, focus group discussions, in-depth and key informant interviews, observations, participatory rural appraisals, and ethnographic immersions with urban and rural audiences. Studies included many difficult-to-reach populations: commercial sex workers, men having sex with men, hijras/ transgenders, injecting drug users, truck drivers, migrant workers, gate keepers in the commercial sex trade, employers of bonded labourers, and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Mr. Bhanot has conducted numerous usage and attitude studies, brand health trackers, and concept and new product tests. He also has expertise in segmentation and positioning studies, advertising and media studies, customer satisfaction studies, and distribution studies for a wide range of clients (Pfizer, Colgate, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Barclays Bank, Shell, BAT, Wrigley's, Glaxo Smithkline, Cadburys, Nestle, Delmonte, East Africa Breweries, and Tetra Pac).

Mr. Bhanot has worked and travelled extensively across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland, and South Africa. He has presented and published research papers, and has contributed marketing research case studies to books by prominent authors.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/idex-impact-assessment-workshop

Social media promotions can backfire, too

praskrishna — 2013-11-14T05:24:44Z

Social media is a highly effective marketing tool for companies but its very ubiquity and the speed with which messaging goes viral has meant that it can hurt them badly as well, especially since platforms are not always moderated and can be hacked or misused.

The article by Ratna Bhushan and Varuni Khosla was published in the Times of India on November 11, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

It's not just bad language and racially or socially insensitive messages seemingly originating from official Twitter handles, some companies are guilty of poorly judged promotions resulting in consumer backlash.

On the eve of the country's largest broadcaster Star India rebranding its sport channels last week, the Star Sports Twitter handle posted abusive language. Star India said the account had had been hacked, but by then the tweet had gone viral.

Just before that, the Board of Control for Cricket in India Twitter handle had cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar's digital autograph along with bad language on the eve of his retirement from the sports.

Two days before Diwali, beverage and snacks maker PepsiCo ran a contest on Twitter asking contestants to tweet their version of the Ramayana. That caused outrage on social media, led by writer Chetan Bhagat.

PepsiCo quickly apologised and removed the promotion but not before it got flooded by tweets from those who were upset by the move. While Star and BCCI blamed hackers and PepsiCo's scored an own goal, social media experts say companies need to be more responsible.

"Our intent was to involve young Indians in one of India's most loved festivals. We took immediate action and withdrew the contest," the beverage maker's spokesperson said.

AStar Sports spokesperson also said the firm had apologised for the offensive tweet. "We have investigated the issue. A thirdparty vendor had abused his privileged access to the account. We are in the process of taking necessary action and will ensure that no such event recurs."

But ensuring third-party quality control may be easier said than done. "Many companies are unable to handle their social media operations because they usually outsource these to companies that don't get paid well enough (say Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per month).

Hence the people handling the accounts could be anyone from an untrained 22-year-old fresh out of college or someone who has no skill set in the social media space," said Gaba.

Sometimes humour can turn offensive too. In the middle of last year, when Sachin Tendulkar made his eagerly awaited 100th international century, a tweet from insurance services firm Bajaj Allianz went: Congrats to Sachin for his long awaited 100th ton. Now don't delay your retirement planning. #RetireRich #JiyoBefikar.

That caused much offence to Tendulkar's fans. Or take the case of Fortis, which sought to promote breast feeding week last year with the hashtag AgarMaKaDudhPia-HaiTo. Predictably, this one too ran into trouble.

"Social media by definition, unlike broadcast media, cannot be controlled. Therefore, even if you take all conceivable precautions there can be unintended consequences. But India is culturally as complicated as a continent — therefore, it requires a very sophisticated understanding and nuance to pull off humour that is universally appealing and does not offend anyone," said Abraham. Last week, the seven-year-old Twitter's stock rose 73% on its debut, with a market value of $31 billion, making it one of the most successful IPOs of the year and beating even its own expectations. Globally, examples abound of companies or institutions making on Twitter bloopers.

"Companies shouldn't always come up with the excuse that their account was hacked... they need to be accountable. A senior member of the team should always oversee tweets before they're sent out," said Ankita Gaba, co-founder of socialsamosa.com, an Indian social media knowledge storehouse.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, a non-profit research organisation that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression and privacy, said, "The BCCI disaster is because they have taken automation too far. Automation of social media interactions can be useful but without careful human oversight, it can very easily be gamed by rogue elements online."

A PepsiCo India spokesman said the firm's #Ramayana140 Twitter contest "unintentionally caused some concern to consumers".

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/economic-times-november-11-2013-ratna-bhushan-varuni-khosla-social-media-promotions-can-backfire-too

Wikipedia Orientation Programme for the Second Language Students of Christ University

praskrishna — 2013-11-14T05:16:07Z

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team will organize an Orientation Workshop entitled on Wikipedia for the undergraduate language students of the Christ University, Bangalore on November 16, 2013.

Trainers

T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society

Syed Muzammiluddin, Programme Officer, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society

Dr Pavanaja,Programme Officer, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society

Interested Participants

The three days of the orientation programme will cover 1200 second language students of the Christ University, Bangalore.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikipedia-orientation-programme-for-second-language-students

Indian Govt to Build Machine Translation System for 22 Indic Languages

praskrishna — 2013-12-11T07:14:35Z

National Translation Mission is preparing a Machine Translation System (MTS) to instantly translate texts from vernacular Indian languages to English, reports New Indian Express.

Brindaalakshmi's article was published by Medianaama on November 14, 2013. CIS memorandum of understanding with Goa University is mentioned.

The report states that scientific and technical terminologies are being developed in 69 disciplines of study in 22 languages as part of this project. Apparently, 25,000 to 30,000 lexicons have been identified in each subject to create the MTS.

Speaking at a media event, Prof V Saratchandran Nair, Director of National Translation Mission said that the project is being initiated to help students who have done their schooling in vernacular languages but have to study in English during college. He also added that only Tamil currently has translated materials in all 69 disciplines, while Oriya has it in 49 disciplines. In contrast, there is no science material available in Santhali, Manipuri and Konkani languages.

National Translation Mission is a Government of India initiative that intends to establish translation as an industry and facilitate higher education by making available translated study material for students. The program also trains translators in different languages. Interestingly, the website states that it will not replicate the efforts of other organisations like C-DAC, TDIL that are also involved in creating indic support for computers and services. However, it seeks to build technology to directly translate a sentence typed in English into an Indian language. When we checked, we noticed that the website also offers dictionaries and other resources for translators.

Other efforts to provide indic support: In September 2013, the Goa university had entered into a three year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building the Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this partnership, Goa University will be uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopedia. This could be a good start to building a repository of translated works for science in Konkani.

In July 2013, Technology Development for Indian Languages Programme (TDIL) of DeitY (Department of Electronics and IT) had developed Urdu language fonts and keyboard drivers for Windows and Android.

In June 2013, DeitY had also created a repository of fonts for all 22 constitutionally recognized languages through TDIL. These fonts are available as a CD that can be procured from TDIL or the entire suite can also be downloaded from the TDIL website.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/medianama-november-14-2013-brindaalakshmi-indian-govt-to-build-machine-translation-system-for-22-indic-languages