Centre for Internet and Society

Google survey: 37% of urban Indian voters are online

praskrishna — 2013-11-07T10:41:46Z

Almost four out of every 10 urban voters (or 37%) in India are online, just a little less than the number (42%) that are undecided about whom they will vote for in the 2014 general elections, according to a survey by Google India and research agency TNS released on Tuesday.

This article by Anuja and Moulishree Srivastava was published in Livemint on October 8, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

To be sure, the two sets needn’t necessarily be mutually exclusive.

The Google-TNS survey said the biggest consideration for online urban voters is the political party (36%), followed by candidates (35%) with party leadership coming in a distant third at 17%. Only 11% of those surveyed said they would vote for a party based on its prime ministerial candidate.

The Election Commission estimates the total number of voters to be 725 million. According to provisional census data, out of India’s 1.21 billion population, 833 million live in rural India and 377 million in urban areas, Mint reported on 7 September.

Using the same proportions, the number of urban voters is around 225 million. And the number of those online, around 83 million.

However, there is no certainty that all these voters can be reached through digital media and be influenced to cast their votes for a party or a candidate. First-time voters, estimated from census data and adjusting for the fact that the survey was conducted in 2011, account for 149.36 million of the electorate.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already declared Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

While 45% of those surveyed said they would want to see more information on the Internet to help them make up their minds, 65% said they do not share their political views online.

According to Rajan Anandan, vice-president and managing director of Google India, while in the beginning of this year there were 150 million Internet users in the country, it is set to reach 200 million mark by year end.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already declared Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

While 45% of those surveyed said they would want to see more information on the Internet to help them make up their minds, 65% said they do not share their political views online.

	The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already declared Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. While 45% of those surveyed said they would want to see more information on the Internet to help them make up their minds, 65% said they do not share their political views online. According to Rajan Anandan, vice-president and managing director of Google India, while in the beginning of this year there were 150 million Internet users in the country, it is set to reach 200 million mark by year end.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already declared Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

While 45% of those surveyed said they would want to see more information on the Internet to help them make up their minds, 65% said they do not share their political views online.

According to Rajan Anandan, vice-president and managing director of Google India, while in the beginning of this year there were 150 million Internet users in the country, it is set to reach 200 million mark by year end.

Modi remains the most Google-searched politician in India, and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is second on the list. The BJP is the most searched political party, followed by the Congress.

The survey was carried out between March and September this year, covering 65 constituencies, 59 cities and 7,042 respondents—all registered voters who use the Internet.

Also on Tuesday, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) released a report showing that increasing spending on social media campaigns can swing 3%–4% of votes in 24 states where Internet usage is sizeable. Social media marketing can play a decisive role as a swing over 1% can change the outcome of elections, it claimed.

The number of social media users in urban India is set to reach 86 million in October this year, and 91 million by the end of this year, according to IAMAI. Political experts are, however, sceptical about the impact of the Internet and social media on the general elections next year. “There would be a little impact but to say that there would be a major effect of it would be a little difficult,” Abhay Kumar Dubey, a political analyst and fellow at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, a Delhi-based think tank, said.

“We have seen social media’s impact as a mobilizing instrument for agitational purposes but it cannot be said whether it can play a role in voting preference.” Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), too was sceptical about the impact of Internet usage on elections.

“Urban voters who are online make a small percentage of the voter base. It is not clear whether the sample size of the study was big enough to draw any significant conclusions. So far we have been told that the young urban voter does not always vote and he or she prioritizes a weekend getaway over participating in the general elections,” he said.

Abraham also said that the younger voting population does not vote according to any one trend. “Young people online are a representative subset of the general population divided across political preferences and ideologies. There is no evidence that they will vote as a block and will be extremely susceptible to social media based propaganda,” he added.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/livemint-october-8-2013-anuja-moulishree-srivastava-google-survey-indian-voters-online

Alliance aimed at reducing internet cost launched

praskrishna — 2013-10-29T09:08:10Z

A number of government bodies, non-government organizations and private players have joined hands to create a coalition aimed at reducing the cost of internet access worldwide. The coalition -- Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) -- will advocate policy and regulatory reforms to push down the cost of bandwidth in developing and poor countries, where cost of internet access remains very high.

This article was published in the Times of India on October 7, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

"By advocating for open, competitive and innovative broadband markets, A4AI aims to help access prices fall to below 5% of monthly income worldwide, a target set by the UN Broadband Commission. Reaching this goal can help to connect the two-thirds of the world that is presently not connected to the internet and make universal access a reality," the alliance said in a press note, citing figures provided International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

According to ITU, by 2012, fixed-broadband prices represented 1.7% of monthly gross national income in developed countries. In developing countries, the cost of broadband connection accounts for 30.1% of average monthly income.

The A4AI has the backing of World Wide Web Foundation, which was started by the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee. Sonia Jorge, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Internet told TOI, "The Web Foundation hosts the A4AI's secretariat and both teams collaborate to benefit from natural synergies among the programmes."

Berners-Lee explained, "The reason for the alliance is simple - the majority of the world's people are still not online, usually because they can't afford to be. In Mozambique, for example, a recent study showed that using just 1GB of data can cost well over two months' wages for the average citizen... The real bottleneck now is anti-competitive policies that keep prices unaffordable. The alliance is about removing that barrier and helping as many as possible get online at reasonable cost."

The global sponsors of the A4AI are Google, UK Department for International Development, US Agency for International Development and Omidyar Network, an firm that often invests in non-profit entities. But Intel, Microsoft, Facebook, Cisco, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, the US State Department and several other regional and international bodies are also members of A4AI.

From India, Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is part of the alliance. Sunil Abraham, director of CIS, told TOI his group "hopes to learn from policy work carried out by the alliance and apply the lessons in India where access to good quality broadband services remains prohibitively expensive".

For now there are not many details on how the A4AI is going to achieve its goals. Sonia said it had two telecom companies -- Digicel and Main One - as its members and talks were going on with some other telecom firms for their involvement.

The alliance will begin in-country engagements with three to four countries by the end of 2013, expanding to at least 12 countries by the end of 2015. "We would be very glad to have the opportunity to engage and work in collaboration with the government of India," said Sonia.

A4AI will also produce an annual 'affordability report'. The first edition is expected to come out in December 2013.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/times-of-india-october-7-2013-alliance-aimed-at-reducing-internet-cost-launched

Privacy Meet

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T05:13:57Z

Bhairav Acharya was invited by Yahoo's Director of International Privacy, Laura Juanes Micas, to a dinner meeting on privacy at the Oberoi in New Delhi.

The meeting was attended by Justice A.P. Shah, Dr. Gulshan Rai, Dr. Kamlesh Bajaj and others. At this event, Bhairav spoke about the need to develop laws to regulate surveillance and personal data in India. Bhairav further spoke about both the commercial benefits that will accrue from data protection law as well as the national benefit from surveillance regulation and security law. Bhairav also spoke of the need to create a procedure that is just, fair and reasonable and, he highlighted the point that these laws would have to survive constitutional scrutiny by the Supreme Court of India. He also pointed out that meaningful protections lay in creating procedural law that allowed individuals the protection of natural justice and identified magistrates to authorise data collections and interceptions. He further made it clear that India's distinct security situation, both internal and external, warranted a robust surveillance framework that enables law enforcement and strengthens the criminal justice system in manner consistent with the rule of law.

Timings	Agenda
19.00 19.25	Handshakes and Introduction
19.25 19.30	Welcome Remarks by Laura Juanes Micas, Director – International Privacy, Yahoo Inc
19.30 19.35	Address by Manoj Joshi, Joint Secretary, Deptt of Personnel and Training
19.35 19.40	Address by Dr. Gulshan Rai, Director General, CERT-IN
19.40 19.45	Address by Dr. Kamlesh Bajaj, CEO – Data Security Council of India (DSCI)
19.45 19.50	Address by Bhairav Acharya, Legal Adviser, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)
19.50 19.55	Address by Rajan Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)
19.55 20.00	Address by Justice A P Shah, Former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court and Chairman, Group of Experts
20.00 20.05	Address by Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court
20.05 20.10	Address by Chinmayi Arun, Research Director – Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University - Delhi
20.10 20.15	Address by Prasanth Sugathan, Counsel, Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.IN)
20.15 20.20	Address by Dr. Subho Ray, President, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)
20.20	Discussions (Along with Sit – Down Dinner)

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/privacy-meet-october-7-2013

GFM 2013

praskrishna — 2013-10-06T07:58:06Z

Nishant Shah participated in a panel discussion with Wendy Chun, Tom Levine and Geert Lovink , around 'The End of Bibliographies: New Media and Research'. Nishant also participated as a panelist in a panel discussion on 'Open Up: Pragmatism and Politics of Open Access'. The programme was held at the University of Luneberg in Germany from October 3 to 5, 2013.

Read the original posted on GFM Blogspot

Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, ab 10:00 Uhr - Registrierung im Hörsaalgang

Begrüßung | Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, 12:00 Uhr–13:30 Uhr in C HS1
Grußworte und Eröffnungsvortrag von Hans Jörg Rheinberger (Berlin) Wissenschaftsgeschichte und das Wissen der Medien

Mittagessen | Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, 13:30 Uhr–14:30 Uhr in der Mensa

Session 1 | Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, 14:30 Uhr–16:30 Uhr
Panel 1.1 | Maß und Medium – Medien der Messung in C HS3
Elektrisierte Zeit. Mediale Strategien in Helmholtz’ Messung der Nervenleitgeschwindigkeit von Henning Schmidgen (Regensburg)

Nachhall: Schallmessung im elektroakustischen Zeitalter von Roland Wittje (Regensburg)

Measuring with moving images in Albert Michotte’s perception experiments von Sigrid Leyssen (Paris | Regensburg)

Understanding Television: TV – als Meßgerätegeschichte von Bernhard Dotzler (Regensburg)

Moderation: Markus Krajewski (Lüneburg | Weimar)

Panel 1.2 | Medienanthropologische Szenarien. Wie situieren sich die Medien der Psychophysik und Psychologie? in C HS4

Intensität und Infinitesimales. Grenzen der Messbarkeit bei Hermann Cohen und Gilles Deleuze von Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky (Bochum)

Empfindung, Wahrnehmbarkeit, Medialität. Historische Psychologie und ihre Medien von Anna Tuschling (Bochum)

Was Zahlen in der sozialpsychologischen Medienwirkungsforschung erzählen. Das Problem der »Gewaltmedien«
von Estrid Sørensen (Bochum)

Moderation: Christoph Engemann (Lüneburg)

Panel 1.3 | Mediale Bedingungen von Behinderung in C HS5

Die (Re-)Sozialisierung technischer Objekte in Patientennetzwerken. Ein Fallbeispiel zur Herstellung des Cochlea-Implantats von Markus Spöhrer (Konstanz)

Netzhautimplantate und Eyeborgs. Visualisierungstechniken zwischen Prothese und Human Enhancement von Robert Stock (Konstanz)

Zur Produktion von Behinderung im Fotoarchiv von Anna Grebe (Konstanz)

Zur Um/Bildung von Gemeinschaften. Das Cochlea-Implantat und die »Sourds en colère« von Beate Ochsner (Konstanz)

Moderation: Anne Ganzert (Konstanz)

Panel 1.4 | (Film-)Wissen als Modus der Kinoerfahrung in C 14.027

Transnationale Filmgeschichte(n) schreiben von Wolfgang Fuhrmann (Zürich)

Filmwissenschaft und ihre Quellen. Historisches Wissen und digitale Repräsentationsformen von Film und Kino von Franziska Heller (Zürich)

Filmwissen/Erfahrungswissen/Kinoerfahrung. Anmerkungen zum Verhältnis von Kinoerfahrung und Wissenserwerb von Florian Mundhenke (Leipzig)

Moderation: Florian Mundhenke (Leipzig)

Panel 1.5 | Was vom Leben bleibt in C 14.001

Vom täglichen Kampf gegen das ›Gestaltsehen‹ und der Hartnäckigkeit von Bildtraditionen. Biologisches Wissen auf der Schwelle eines Medienwandels von Nina Samuel (New York | Berlin)

Über zwei Arten des Gebrauchs von Datenbanken in der Molekularbiologie von Robert Meunier (Berlin)

Moderation: Janina Wellmann (Lüneburg)

Workshop 1.6 | Fakturen in C 14.006

In der Ausstellung »Fakturen – Medien der Wissenschaften«, die anlässlich der GfM–Tagung an der Leuphana stattfindet, reflektieren Künstler_innen wie Martin John Callanan (UK), Driessens & Verstappen (NL), Sabrina Raaf (US), Jan Peter E.R. Sonntag (D) und Herwig Turk (A|PT) über die Ästhetik wissenschaftlicher Instrumentarien, Modelle und Methoden.

In diesem Workshop stellen die Künstler_innen ihre Projekte vor und diskutieren mit den Teilnehmer_innen die spezifischen Erkenntnismöglichkeiten künstlerischer Forschung und Darstellung.

Organisiert vom Leuphana Arts Program (Andreas Broeckmann, Alexandra Waligorski) mit freundlicher Unterstützung des Kunstraum der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg.

AG-Treffen 1.7 | Comicforschung in C 12.001

AG-Treffen 1.8 | Auditive Kultur und Sound Studies in C 12.006

Kaffeepause | Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, 16:30 Uhr–17:00 Uhr im Hörsaalgang

Session 2 | Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, 17:00 Uhr–19:00 Uhr
Panel 2.1 | Medien der Philologie – Philologie der Medien in C HS3

Was ist eine medienphilologische Frage? von Rupert Gaderer (Bochum)

Ist Medienphilologie reaktionär? von Friedrich Balke (Bochum)

Medienphilologie als Verfahren von Natalie Binczek (Bochum)

Braucht die Medienwissenschaft Philologie? von Harun Maye (Weimar)

Moderation: Daniel Eschkötter (Weimar)

Panel 2.2 | Kosmotechnologie in C HS4

Freischwebende Sterne im Stereokomparator von Kohei Suzuki (Berlin)

Nomos, Physis, Techné. Zum Konzept der Kosmotechnologie bei Walter Benjamin von Hans-Christian von Herrmann (Berlin)

Vektorkosmologie. Buckminster Fullers Ausdehnungslehre von Christina Vagt (Berlin)

Das Projektionsplanetarium als Medium kosmologischer Weltbilder von Julian Furrer (Berlin)

Moderation: Isabell Schrickel (Lüneburg)

Panel 2.3 | Akustische Medien als Werkzeuge wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis in C HS5

Stimmgabeln. Vom Lernen über das Hören und der Verwissenschaftlichung des Gehörs am Beispiel der Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane (1890–1915) von Heiner Stahl (Erfurt)

Geschulte Ohren und akustische Repräsentation. Zur Geschichte der auditiven Kultur der Naturwissenschaften von Axel Volmar (Siegen)

Tiere, Töne: Tatsachen? Zur Rolle von Medientechnologien in bioakustischer Feldforschung von Judith Willkomm (Siegen)

Insect Noise in Stored Foodstuff. Zur Interferenz von Wissenschaft und Kunst im Feld der Radiophonie von Ania Mauruschat (Basel)

Moderation: Ute Holl (Basel)

Panel 2.4 | Wissenschaft und Audiovision. Vom Denken in und mit bewegten Bildern in C 14.027

Filmmaterial, Fühlbarkeit und Diskurs von Naomi Rolef (Berlin)

What you see is what you get. Zur Rhetorik wissenschaftlicher Vorträge von Christina Schmitt (Berlin) | Sarah Greifenstein (Berlin)

Animierte Filmwissenschaft. Multimediale Publikation und analytische Zugänge zur Ästhetik audiovisueller Medien
von Jan-Hendrik Bakels (Berlin) | Cilli Poggoda (Berlin)

Das Gehirn als Kosmos. Neurowissenschaftliche Bilder und ihre Präsentation in populärwissenschaftlichen audiovisuellen Formaten von Regina Brückner (Berlin) | Sarah Greifenstein (Berlin)

Moderation: Andreas Kirchner (Lüneburg)

Panel 2.5 | Experimentelle Anordnungen zur Erforschung des Medialen in C 14.001

Stil, Experiment und Medium – die epistemische Dimension des Stilbegriffs in Wissenschaft und Kunst von Veronika Pöhnl (Konstanz)

Experimental Television: Versuchsanordnungen der Fernsehkunst von Samantha Schramm (Konstanz)

Die Erkundung des »videospace« in der Arbeit des National Center for Experiments in Television (1967–1975)
von Barbara Filser (Karlsruhe)

Wenn das Wohnzimmer zum Labor wird von Matthias Wieser (Klagenfurt)

Moderation: Isabell Otto (Konstanz)

Panel 2.6 | Medien im Maßstab. Wie sich Feld- und Laborforschung als situierte Medienpraxis untersuchen lassen in C 14.006

Sammeln, Ordnen, Vergleichen. Über die Domestizierung fremder Dinge von Anna Brus (Siegen)

Andere Medien? Anderes Wissen? Anderes Streiten? Weblogs als Formen der internen Wissenschaftskommunikation von Matthias Meiler (Siegen)

Wissenschaftsmedien in »freier Wildbahn«. Computersimulationen und gesellschaftliches Zukunftswissen in Wirtschaft und Politik von Cornelius Schubert (Siegen)

Fliegen, Fotografieren und Wettermachen. Zur Relevanz fotografischer Praktiken im Cloud Seeding von Nadine Taha (Siegen)

Moderation: Gabriele Schabacher (Siegen)

AG-Treffen 2.7 | Medienkultur und Bildung in C 12.001 AG-Treffen 2.8 | Medienwissenschaft und politische Theorie in C 12.006

Abendessen | Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, 19:00 Uhr–20:30 Uhr in der Mensa

Podiumsdiskussion | Donnerstag, 03. Oktober 2013, 20:30 Uhr–21:30 Uhr
Am Ende der Bibliographien. Vom neuen (medialen) Selbstverständnis wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens in C HS 1
mit: Wendy Chun (Providence | Lüneburg), Ute Holl (Basel), Thomas Y. Levin (Princeton | Lüneburg), Geert Lovink (Amsterdam | Lüneburg), Nishant Shah (Bangalore | Lüneburg), Frank Schirrmacher (Frankfurt)

Moderation: Wolfgang Hagen (Lüneburg)

Session 3 | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 9:30 Uhr–11:30 Uhr
Panel 3.1 | Dokumentarischer Film zwischen wissenschaftlicher Forschung und populärer Wissensvermittlung in C HS 3

Die Welt mit dem Röntgenblick sehen von Kay Hoffmann (Stuttgart)

Körperpolitik zwischen den Trümmern: Gesundheitsfilme aus der Besatzungszeit 1946 bis 1949 von Ursula von Keitz (Konstanz)

Die Encyclopaedia Cinematographica – ein analoger Computer von Eva Knopf (Berlin)

Dokumentarische Langzeitstudien als Gegenstand und Verfahren sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschung von Britta Hartmann (Bonn)

Moderation: Thomas Weber (Hamburg)

Panel 3.2 | Informationsumwelten in C HS 4
Record and Erase: Magnettonbandtechnik und die Historiographie des Kalten Kriegs von Monika Dommann (Zürich)

What you see is what you get? Grafische Benutzeroberflächen als infrastrukturelle Bildsysteme von Margarete Pratschke (Zürich)

Die Grenzen der Cyborgmetaphorik. Zur Rolle des fliegerischen Gefühls im Zeitalter der Flugautomation von Christian Kehrt (Hamburg)

Psychologie und Schalttafel. Oder, Informationszeitalter »from below« von Max Stadler (Zürich)

Moderation: Cornelius Borck (Lübeck)

Panel 3.3 | Aperture Sciences. Spielen im Labor des Spielens in C HS 5

»The Cake is a Lie«. Das Portal-Labor als Verhaltensexperiment von Rolf F. Nohr (Braunschweig)

Von sprechenden Kartoffeln und anderen (epistemischen) Dingen. Portal als Experimentalensemble von Markus Rautzenberg (Berlin)

Laborgeschichten von Benjamin Beil (Köln)

»Know your paradoxes!« Das Computerspiel als multistabiles Bild von Thomas Hensel (Siegen)

Moderation: Panelteilnehmer

Panel 3.4 | Szenariotechniken des Anthropozäns. Daten, Kosmogramme, Simulationen in C 14.027
Analoge Signale. Das Anthropozän im geohistorischen Rauschen von Christoph Rosol (Berlin)

Welt – Bild – Technik. Zum Begriff des Visineerings von Isabell Schrickel (Berlin)

Burning Planets – Kosmogramm des Anthropozäns? Eine Medienkritik der Klimavisualisierung von Birgit Schneider (Potsdam)

Vernetzte Daten – Webbasierte Datenbanken in der Klimafolgenforschung von Christine Hanke (Potsdam)

Moderation: Sebastian Vehlken (Lüneburg)

Panel 3.5 | Vor Augen führen in C 14.001

Von Bildern, die »freylich noch vollkommener seyn könnten«. Vetreter der frühen Hirnforschung als Bildkritiker von Wibke Larink (Hamburg)

Orpheus im Atlas oder: Das epistemische Bild bei Aby Warburg von Eva Frey (Lüneburg)

Aufzeichnen. Transformieren. Verzeichnen. Medien der Geschichtsschreibung ephemerer Kunstformen (Performance und Aufführungen) von Barbara Büscher (Leipzig | Köln)

Medien der Medienwissenschaft. Zwischen Gebrauchs- und Diskursgeschichte von Martina Leeker (Lüneburg)

Moderation: Wolfgang Hagen (Lüneburg)

Workshop 3.6 | Das Wissen der Instrumente in C 14.006

Der Workshop »Das Wissen der Instrumente« präsentiert konkrete (medien-)instrumentale Settings als Materialisierungen ästhetischen Wissens. Dabei wird sensorische Medienarbeit mit akademischen Diskursen kurzgeschlossen. Dafür werden die Settings nicht nur in theoretischen Statements vorgestellt, sondern auch von den Teilnehmenden praktisch erprobt.

Organisiert vom Schwerpunktbereich audio^[+] Ästhetische Strategien des Instituts für Kultur und Ästhetik Digitaler Medien, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg (Rolf Großmann, Sarah-Indriyati Hardjowirogo, Andreas Otto, Malte Pelleter) und der Forschungsstelle Musik und Medientechnologie der Universität Osnabrück (Arne Bense).

AG-Treffen 3.7 | Medien und Kunst / Kunst und Medien in C 12.001

AG-Treffen 3.8 | Daten und Netzwerke in C 12.006

Kaffeepause | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 11:30 Uhr–12:00 Uhr im Hörsaalgang

Session 4 | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 12:00 Uhr–13:30 Uhr
Panel 4.1 | Wissensmedium Patent – Kulturtechnik Patentieren in C HS 3

Patentstörungen. Sollbruchstörungen im Medium des Patents von Christian Kassung (Berlin)

Be it known that I ... - Digitalisierte historische Patente als Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Forschung von Marius Hug (Berlin)

Was erzählt ein Patent? Casellis bildtelegraphische Patente als Medien der Wissenschaften von Julia Zons (Konstanz)

Moderation: Thomas Brandstetter (Basel)

Panel 4.2 | Verhalten bilden in C HS 4

Wahnsinnige Bilder. Zu einer medialen Wissensgeschichte des Irrationalen um 1900 von Veronika Rall (Zürich)

Familien-stellen. Zur Medialität der systemischen Therapie von Katja Rothe (Berlin)

Fotografie, vergleichende Verhaltensforschung und Evolutionslehre am Moskauer Darwin Museum von Margarete Vöhringer (Berlin)

Moderation: Christoph Windgaetter (Berlin)

Panel 4.3 | Programme verstehen - Verstehen programmieren in C HS 5

Source Code als Quelle. Arbeiten mit Friedrich Kittlers Programmierwerk von Paul Feigelfeld (Berlin) | Peter Berz (Berlin)

»Digital Humanities« und das neue Wissen der Bilder. Über Praxis, Theorie und Geschichte der apparativen Bildsortierung von Matthias Wannhoff (Berlin)

Intermedialitätsbegriff und Sinnverstehen im Kontext alternativer Arbeitstechnik von Miklas Schulz (Lüneburg)

Moderation: Martin Warnke (Lüneburg)

Panel 4.4 | Diagramme als Medien des Wissens in C 14.027

Information als Konfiguration. Zum Verhältnis von Gestalt und Gehalt in Diagrammen von Matthias Bauer (Flensburg)

Diagramme als Generatoren wissenschaftlicher Autorität von Christoph Ernst (Erlangen | Nürnberg)

Konfiguration, Leib und Geometrie. Merleau-Pontys Philosophie der Mathematik von Jan Wöbking (Berlin)

Moderation: Gottfried Schnödl (Lüneburg)

Panel 4.5 | HIV|AIDS als visuelles Wissen in C 14.001

Der AIDS-Atlas. AIDS als klinisches Krankheitsbild von Lukas Engelmann (Berlin)

Toxische Körper. Medien der Ansteckung und Affektpolitiken zur Zeit der frühen AIDS-Krise von Katrin Köppert (Berlin)

»Art about AIDS«. Über die Konstruktion von Wissen über Menschen mit AIDS von Sophie Junge (Zürich)

Moderation: Brigitte Weingart (Bonn)

Panel 4.6 | Wissenschaft in Serie. Fernsehen als Versuchsanordnung in C 14.006

Serielle Epidemiologie von Daniela Wentz (Weimar)

Situationen, Labor, Experiment. Die Sitcom als Medium der Wissenschaft des Menschen von Herbert Schwaab (Regensburg)

Die Physik der Serie. Modell und Motiv der Tafel in »The Big Bang Theory« von Dominik Maeder (Siegen)

Moderation: Thomas Waitz (Wien)

AG-Treffen 4.7 | Genre Studies in C 12.001

AG-Treffen 4.8 | Games in C 12.006

Mittagessen | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 13:30 Uhr–14:30 Uhr in der Mensa

Session 5 | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 14:30 Uhr–16:30 Uhr
Panel 5.1 | Medien(Affekt)Wissen in C HS 3

»Von uns schweigen wir...«. Narrative Affektmodulationen in Philosophie und Wissenschaft von Bernd Bösel (Köln)

Affektenlehre, Sonic Warfare und die Medienschriften der auditiven Affizierung von Rolf Großmann (Lüneburg)

Verdrahtete und durchleuchtete Gehirne. Zur Verwendung von Videospielen in neurologischer und psychologischer Forschung von Serjoscha Wiemer (Paderborn)

Affektmedialisierung im diskursiven und sozialen Bereich von Michaela Ott (Hamburg)

Moderation: Marie-Luise Angerer (Köln)

Panel 5.2 | Geteilte Bilder. Fotografieforschung im Internet in C HS 4

Digitale Bildbestände als Grundlage neuer Visualisierungskulturen von Winfried Gerling (Potsdam)

Die Wiederkehr des Analogen. Rezeptionsweisen von Fundfotografien von Susanne Holschbach (Berlin)

Collective Collections. Wissensordnung digitaler Bildersammlungen von Petra Löffler (Berlin)

Neue Bilder, alte Orte. Räume der Bildberichterstattung von Kathrin Peters (Oldenburg)

Moderation: Katja Müller-Helle (Berlin)

Panel 5.3 | Das Wissen der Oberfläche in C HS 5
Oberflächenmoderne von Stefan Rieger (Bochum)

Das Display. Am Beispiel akustischer Texte von Natalie Binczek (Bochum)

Oberflächen und Ränder des Urbanen. Photodokumentarische Forschungen um 1970 von Christoph Eggersglüß (Weimar)

Vom Grund zur Oberfläche. Messung, Behandlung und Beschreibung von Oberflächen in volkssprachlichen Fachtexten der Frühen Neuzeit von Christina Lechtermann (Bochum)

Moderation: Claus Pias (Lüneburg)

Panel 5.4 | Passt schon! in C 14.027

»Pi mal Daumen«. Medien der Ingenieurswissenschaft zwischen »Applied Sciences« und »reiner« Wissenschaft von Florian Hoof (Frankfurt)

Siegesversuchskörper. Planen, Prüfen, Erinnern von Ingo Landwehr (Berlin)

Bilder von antizipierten Ruinen als Orte der Identitätsformation von Sibylle Machat (Flensburg)

Messen ohne Skalen. Warum der Geigerzähler kein Messgerät ist von Marc-Robin Wendt (Berlin)

Moderation: Peter Berz (Berlin)

Panel 5.5 | Weltfrieden. Medien und Methoden möglicher Zukünfte in C 14.001

Nash Equilibrium von Ana Teixera Pinto (Berlin)

Der globale Körper. Heinz von Foerster und Noa Eshkol am Biological Computer Laboratory von Eva Wilson (Berlin)

Unzeitgenössische Welt von Ana Ofak (Berlin)

Moderation: Isabell Schrickel (Lüneburg)

Panel 5.6 | Mediamorphosen der Wissenschaft. Zwischen Unsinn und Eigensinn in C 14.006

»Wenn Sie mir dies einmal beschreiben würden…«. »Medien der Wissenschaften« in audiovisuellen Essays von Alexander Kluge von Florian Wobser (Rostock)

Philosophie diesseits der Wende zur Bildlichkeit. Der Buch-Bausatz Kant für die Hand als mediale Herausforderung
von Hanno Depner (Rostock)

Paranoische Decodierung. Zur Intermedialität einer Pseudowissenschaft von John Seidler (Rostock)

Die Quantifizierung von Reputation in den Sozialwissenschaften. Zitationsindizes und Zeitschriftenrankings – reflexive oder vorreflexive Beziehung zur eigenen Medialität? von Dennis Wutzke (Rostock)

Moderation: Elizabeth Prommer (Rostock)

AG-Treffen 5.7 | Filmwissenschaft in C 12.001

AG-Treffen 5.8 | Medienphilosophie in C 12.006

Kaffeepause | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 16:30 Uhr–17:00 Uhr im Hörsaalgang

Session 6 | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 17:00 Uhr–19:00 Uhr
Panel 6.1 | Medien der Universität in C HS 3

Die Medialität wissenschaftlicher Zeitschriften von Martina Franzen (Bielefeld)

Medienreflektionen im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert: »Massenmedien im gelehrten Diskurs« von Kai Lohsträter (Hamburg)

Entwürfe der Grenzüberschreitung. Interdisziplinarität und die mediale Konstitution von Epistemologien (1960 – 1980) von Susanne Schregel (Weimar)

Das technische und das ökonomische Regime der Universität. Effekte der Ökonomisierung und des Internets auf Wissen und Lehre von Stefan Heidenreich (Lüneburg)

Moderation: Claus Pias (Lüneburg)

Panel 6.2 | Mit/in/durch Medien? Praktiken der Medientheorie in C HS 4

Trennen und Verbinden von Peter Bexte (Köln)

Revidieren von Manuela Klaut (Weimar)

Reflektieren von Katerina Krtilova (Weimar)

Re-make von Katharina Wloszczynska (Weimar)

Moderation: Lorenz Engell (Weimar)

Workshop 6.3 | Open Up! The Politics and Pragmatics of Open Access in C HS 5
Our academic landscape adapted fast to the disruption of Open Access: commercial publishers have started several successful Open Access platforms, and Open Access is by now the EU's official funding guideline. But there remain open questions. What modes of openness are called for in knowledge production and dissemination? Does the take-up of Open Access fully satisfy the drive towards openness stirred up by digital media? How is Open Access challenging academic research practices or even our understanding of knowledge? What are the limits to openness? The Hybrid Publishing Lab and its international guests will present their research.

The workshop is also open to short example-oriented presentations of participants who want to engage in the discussion. Please email us beforehand at hybridpublishing@inkubator.leuphana.de

Organisiert vom Hybrid Publishing Lab der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg mit Janneke Adema (Coventry University) und Nishant Shah (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore).

Panel 6.4 | Wissenschaftsdiskursivierung im Medium Comic in C 14.027
Comic als Medium der Wissenschaft von Jens Meinrenken (Berlin)

Selbstreflexive Wissensvermittlungen im Comic. Wenn Comics Comics erklären von Simon Klingler (Hamburg) | Andreas Veits (Hamburg)

Die Szenographie der Alltagsnavigation: Manga-Grafiken zur Darstellung von Wirkungszusammenhängen im öffentlichen Raum von Lukas Wilde (Tübingen)

Ikonizität und Zeugenschaft. Dokumentarische Comics über den israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikt von Roman Mauer (Mainz)

Moderation: Véronique Sina (Bochum)

Panel 6.5 | Modelle als Medien in C 14.001

Fragile Netzwerke, zerbrechliche Schönheiten. Die Harvard Glass Flowers als Medien zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst von Florian Huber (Wien)

Von Modell zu Modell von Jan Müggenburg (Lüneburg)

Modell-Licht-Bild. Medien im Mathematikunterricht 1910 bis 1920 von Anja Sattelmacher (Berlin)

Drogulus. Ein mechanisches Modell maschinischen Lebens um 1960 von Thomas Brandstetter (Basel)

Moderation: Stefan Rieger (Bochum)

Panel 6.6 | Wissenschaftskulturen der Bio- und Öko-Medialität in C 14.006
Conways »Game of Life« zwischen Unterhaltungsspiel und epistemischem Werkzeug von Serjoscha Wiemer (Paderborn)

»What I cannot create, I do not understand«. Synthetische Biologie, Biopolitik, Biomedialität von Martin Müller (Paderborn)

Für eine kleine Ökologie von Maren Schwieger (Bochum)

Leben im Kreis. Uexkülls Medien von Christoph Neubert (Paderborn)

Moderation: Marie-Luise Angerer (Köln)

AG-Treffen 6.7 | Treffen in C 12.001

17:00 Uhr–18:00 Uhr: AG »Medienindustrien«
18:00 Uhr–19:00 Uhr: AG »Fotografieforschung«

AG-Treffen 6.8 | Gender Studies und Medienwissenschaft in C 12.006

Abendessen | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 19:00 Uhr–20:30 Uhr

Buffet mit Weinempfang im Hörsaalgang

Keynote | Freitag, 04. Oktober 2013, 20:30 Uhr–21:30 Uhr in C HS 1

Feierliche Eröffnung des Digital Cultures Research Lab der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

Festvortrag von Bernard Stiegler (London)

Digital studies as an organology of mind
anschließend Party im Salon Hansen

Session 7 | Samstag, 05. Oktober 2013, 9:30 Uhr–11:30 Uhr

Panel 7.1 | KonferenzWissen in C HS 3

Do’s and Don’ts and How to Break Them: Conferences and the Mediated Performance of Knowledge von Kristoffer Gansing (Berlin)

Das Wissen der Versammlung. Vorschlag zur Einrichtung eines experimentellen Lecture Theatre von Sybille Peters (Gießen)

Stammbücher als Medien der methodischen Orientierung von Anna Echterhölter (Berlin)

Ethos, Pathos, Logos – Über Digitales Präsentieren von Wolfgang Hagen (Lüneburg)

Moderation: Oliver Lerone-Schultz (Lüneburg)

Panel 7.2 | Medienbildung und Digital Humanities. Die Medienvergessenheit technisierter Geisteswissenschaften in C HS 4

Die Digitalisierung der Medienwissenschaft? Computergestützte audiovisuelle Analyse und Software Studies – Methoden zur rechnergestützten medienwissenschaftlichen Forschung und Lehre von Petra Missomelius (Innsbruck)

Unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten und die Grenzen der Möglichkeiten. Das Web 2.0 und seine Erkenntnispotentiale von Katja Grashöfer (Bochum)

Digital (Media) Studies zwischen Datenbank und Narration von Roberto Simanowski (Basel)

Algorithmische Kritik oder Kritik der Algorithmen? von Till Andreas Heilmann (Basel)

Moderation: Petra Missomelius (Innsbruck)

Panel 7.3 | Aus dem Rahmen fallen in C HS 5

Wuchernde Milieus. Meeresbiologische Medien um 1900 von Christina Wessely (Berlin)

»The Breaking of the Second Frame«. Transgressive Denkfiguren der Avantgarde von Katja Müller-Helle (Berlin)

Die Kinoleinwand als Ausstellungsobjekt von Dennis Göttel (Braunschweig)

Touristische Selbst- und Fremdbeobachtung. Film, Reise und Reflexivität von Thomas Morsch (Berlin)

Moderation: Gloria Meynen (Friedrichshafen)

Panel 7.4 | Spielend wissen in C 14.027

Robot Challenges. Zur Performanz künstlicher Intelligenz von Ulf Otto (Hildesheim)

Welt spielen. Sim Earth als Grenzfall zwischen Spiel und wissenschaftlicher Simulation von Niklas Schrape (Lüneburg)

Spielprototypen als Form spielanalytischer Wissensproduktion von Stefan Werning (Bayreuth)

Potentiality and Actuality of Computer-based Simulation Environments von Sabine Thürmel (München)

Moderation: Jan Müggenburg (Lüneburg)

Panel 7.5 | Medienwissenschaft ohne Gedächtnis? Hindernisse und Lösungswege beim Zugang zum audiovisuellen Medienerbe in C 14.001

Sind Rundfunkarchive immer noch Geheimarchive? Oder bewegen Sie sich doch?
von Michael Crone (Darmstadt)

Vom Geheimschatz zum Allgemeingut? Strategien der audiovisuellen Medienerbe-Verwaltung im internationalen Vergleich
von Leif Kramp (Bremen)

Das Recht als Schranke. Juristische Perspektiven beim Umgang mit dem audiovisuellen Medienerbe in Deutschland
von Paul Klimpel (Berlin)

Digitale Archive der »zweiten Öffentlichkeit«. Forschungsmethoden und »participatory research« von Katalin Cseh (Wien)

Moderation: Christoph Classen (Potsdam)

AG-Treffen 7.6 | Treffen in C 12.001
9:30 Uhr–10:30 Uhr: AG »Populärkultur und Medien«
10:30 Uhr–11:30 Uhr: AG »Animation«

AG-Treffen 7.7 | Medienwissenschaft und Wissenschaftsforschung in C 12.006

Kaffeepause | Samstag, 05. Oktober 2013, 11:30 Uhr–12:00 Uhr im Hörsaalgang

Session 8 | Samstag, 05. Oktober 2013, 12:00 Uhr–13:30 Uhr
Panel 8.1 | Eingeräumt: Darstellen in 3-D in C HS 3

Das Bild des Raumorgans. Zur historischen Epistemologie der Dreidimensionalität von Stephan Günzel (Berlin)

Dreidimensionale Bilder als Medien der Teilchenphysik von Jens Schröter (Siegen)

Vom Raum im Raum. Mutmassungen über die Anfänge menschlicher Raumbildungen im Tanz von Walter Siegfried (München)

Moderation: Inge Hinterwaldner (Lüneburg | Basel)

Panel 8.2 | The Revolution Will Not Be Televised in C HS 4
Netzkritik revisited! Eine Diskursgeschichte der Medienwissenschaft von Clemens Apprich (Lüneburg)

Die Aporie des Neuen. Medienwissenschaftliche Deutungsmuster des Internets von Linda Groß (Hamburg) | Lisa Wiedemann (Hamburg)

Moderation: Andreas Broeckmann (Lüneburg)

Panel 8.3 | Licht – Glas – Kälte. Zum Tempus »wohltemperierter« Bilder der Wissenschaft in C HS 5
-273 °C – Eine Reise in die Tiefe der Temperaturskala. Die Exploration der Kälte im populären Wissenschaftsfilm von Claudia Pinkas–Thompson (Karlsruhe)

Gläserne Gebilde. Zur Transparenz der Medien und Symbolik des Wissensdurstes von Szilvia Gellai (Karlsruhe)

Spiegelplaneten und kosmische Archive. Eine medienarchäologische Perspektive auf die Popularisierung astronomischen Wissens im 19. Jahrhundert von Dominik Schrey (Karlsruhe)

Moderation: Andreas Böhn (Karlsruhe)

Panel 8.4 | Populäre Wissenschaftskulissen. Wissen(schafts)formate in populären Medienkulturen in C 14.027
Wissen(schaft) für die Masse. Die »Urania-gesellschaft« und die Popularisierung wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse im 19. Jahrhundert von Thomas Wilke (Halle)

Philosophie im/des Fernsehens. Metamorphosen philosophischen Wissens in den Fernsehformaten »Das philosophische Quartett« und »Precht« von Marcus S. Kleiner (Siegen)

Folksonomies. Wissensaggregate im Social Web von Ramón Reichert (Wien)

Moderation: Holger Schulze (Berlin)

Filmvorführung 8.5 | »Odyssee und Nahverkehr« (2012) in C 14.006

Ein Film von Martin Schlesinger (Bochum) und Marius Boettcher (Weimar)

AG-Treffen 8.6 | Fernsehgeschichte und Television Studies in C 12.001

Kommissionstreffen 8.7 | Lehre in C 12.006

Kommissionstreffen 8.8 | Medien/Recht in C 12.006

Mittagessen | Samstag, 05. Oktober 2013, 13:30 Uhr–14:30 Uhr in der Mensa

Mitgliederversammlung | Samstag, 05. Oktober 2013, 14:30 Uhr–16:30 Uhr in HS 3
Verleihung des Best Publication Award der AG Gender Studies und Medienwissenschaft
Verleihung des Karsten-Witte-Preis der AG Film
anschließend Mitgliederversammlung der GfM

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/gfm-2013

Inclusive Disaster and Emergency Management for Persons with Disabilities

praskrishna — 2013-10-04T06:55:59Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/emergency-services-report.pdf

Decline in web freedom steepest in India: Report

praskrishna — 2013-10-24T03:50:51Z

In a report on the state of internet in 60 countries, Freedom House, a US-based organization, said that in 2013 India saw the "most significant year-on-year decline" in terms of the web freedom.

The article by Javed Anwer was published in the Times of India on October 3, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

The report said that that the internet in India was "partly free". This is the same status that India had in 2012. But the country's score is now 47 points (higher means more censorship) in 2013 compared to 39 in 2012. The 8-point fall is the steepest Freedom House found among all 60 countries that the group surveyed. Freedom House said it recorded 5-point fall in Brazil, Venezuela and the US.

Despite mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for National Security Agency in the US, Freedom House calls the web in the country "free".

The Freedom House report said that in 2013 India "suffered from deliberate interruptions of mobile and internet service to limit unrest, excessive blocks on content during rioting in northeastern states, and an uptick in the filing of criminal charges against ordinary users for posts of social media sites".

In 2013, India's commitment to the web freedom has not only been worse than developed countries but has also been inferior to countries like Malawi, Tunisia and Mexico.

In the case of India, Freedom House particularly singles out Central Monitoring System, which Indian government is putting in place to regulate and monitor the web usage within the country. "Surveillance (under CMS) requires no judicial oversight. While some of this activity might be justifiable, the lack of transparency surrounding the system, which was never reviewed by Parliament, is concerning," it notes in the report. "The system's potential for abuse is also disquieting, as is its inadequate legal framework.

The report cites the case of the girl who was arrested for liking a Facebook post in Maharashtra, blocking of some Twitter accounts belonging to Indian users, overly broad court directives that have resulted in blocking of websites and a general lack of transparency in how Indian government blocks or filters content reach a conclusion that Indians now have less freedom on how they use the web.

Sunil Abraham, director at Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, says that Freedom House reports are not very accurate because they don't factor in censorship by copyright holders. But he agreed with its basic premise that in India conditions for web users are getting more difficult.

"The report is absolutely right in pointing out that censorship and surveillance in India is increasing. Despite protests from many quarters, it is a real pity that the government is not taking steps to amend the IT act and has joined other nation states in the global race to the bottom of the internet freedom," said Abraham.

Anja Kovacs, founder of Delhi-based Internet Democracy Project, agrees. "I have some issues with Freedom House reports due to how they are prepared and their methodologies. But yes I can say that last year has been very eventful and difficult," said. "But at the same time, there has also been a lot of push back from web users and activists. There have been conversations around the issue of web censorship, which is good."

Globally, the web surveillance is on the rise. "Broad surveillance, new laws controlling web content, and growing arrests of social-media users drove a worldwide decline in internet freedom in the past year," noted Freedom House.

Overall, 34 out of 60 countries part of the report saw a decline in the web freedom. "Vietnam and Ethiopia continued on a worsening cycle of repression; Venezuela stepped up censorship during presidential elections; and three democracies—India, the United States, and Brazil—saw troubling declines," noted the report.

Iceland and Estonia topped the list of countries with the greatest degree of internet freedom. China, Cuba, and Iran were found to be the most repressive countries.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/times-of-india-october-3-2013-javed-anwer-decline-in-web-freedom-steepest-in-india

Mangalore: Konkani writers resolve to form all-India forum at JKS conference

praskrishna — 2013-10-14T01:36:04Z

Jagotik Konknni Songhotton (JKS) organized an All-India Konkani Writers’ Conference on Sunday, September 29 at Kalaangann.

This was published in Daijiworld on October 1, 2013. Nitika Tandon is quoted.

As many as 78 Konkani writers from Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and various regions of Karnataka, attended the conference.

The conference was organized with the intention of bringing together writers of all the five scripts of Konkani and also to probe the possibilities of forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum.

Roy Castelino, treasurer, JKS, welcomed the gathering. The secretary general of JKS, Eric Ozario, explained the purpose of the conference and the need for forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum. Tomazinho Cardozo, ex-speaker of the Goa Assembly and president, JKS, spoke about the injustices done to writers in the Roman script.

Dr Pratap Naik, Konkani activist, spoke of the progress in the writ petition filed in the Goa bench of the Mumbai high court, seeking rectification of the Official Language Act of Goa, to include the Roman script.

Valerian D’Souza, Marcel D’souza and Eric Ozario explained the progress in the writ petition filed in the high court of Karnataka against the Sahitya Akademi, seeking equal treatment to all scripts of Konkani.

Nitika Tandon, programme manager, The Centre for Internet & Society, spoke about Konkani Wikipedia and the need for the participation of the Roman and the Kannada script writers.

The conference resolved to form an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum, which would protect the interest of Konkani literature and Konkani writers of all scripts. An ad-hoc committee was formed to discuss and decide upon the immediate steps to be taken towards the formation of the Forum.

A book compiling short stories written by Kevin D’Mello, Karkala, titled ‘Chondda ani Gorbh’, was also released on the occasion.

Victor Mathias conducted the proceedings of the conference.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/daijiworld-october-14-2013-mangalore-konkani-writers-resolve-to-form-all-india-forum-at-jks-conference

Konkani Vishwakosh (PDF)

praskrishna — 2013-10-01T12:04:41Z

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

Odisha: Wikipedia workshop at IIMC, Dhenkanal

praskrishna — 2013-10-03T10:15:25Z

Wikipedia workshop was held at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, on Monday. The workshop was inaugurated by Head of IIMC, Dhenkanal, Dr Mrinal Chatterjee.

This post was published in Odisha Diary on September 30, 2013.

Inaugurating the workshop, Dr Chatterjee said, “We are always sourcing knowledge from Wikipedia. So now it becomes our duty to enrich it by writing articles for Wikipedia.”

He specifically asked Odiya Journalism students to write more in Odia Wikipedia as there is less content in Odia as compared to other Indian languages.

Subhashish Panigrahi, Program Officer, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society, coordinated the entire event along with members of Odia Wikipedia, Dr Subas Chandra Rout, Mrutyunjaya Kar and Sasanka Sekhar Das. They provided hands-on training about editing, styles and techniques of writing on Wikipedia to the students.

“Anybody can write and edit available articles on Wikipedia,” Panigrahi said while encouraging students to volunteer for Wikipedia.

Not only Odiya and English, students were also encouraged to contribute articles in various other Indian languages. Students of both Odiya and English Journalism were present during the day-long workshop.

Odiya Wikipedia team are planning to organise a series of workshop with IIMC, Dhenkanal in coming months.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/odisha-diary-september-30-2013-odisha-wikipedia-workshop-at-iimc

Goa University Partners CIS India To Build Konkani Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2013-10-03T09:44:21Z

The Goa university has entered into a three year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building the Konkani Wikipedia, reports navhindtimes.

This blog post by Apurva Chaudhary was published by Medianama on September 30, 2013.

As part of this partnership, Goa University will be uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopedia and the Konkani wikipedia is expected to be available in six months. It appears that the partnership with CIS India includes processes such as scanning, digitization, and creating articles as per requirement of Wikipedia. CIS India has also called out for volunteers for a period of three months to help them digitizing the Konkani encyclopedia.

This is quite notable since most of the development in digitizing documents in Indian language did not include Konkani language, which is spoken in western coast of India. Besides, since the university will upload the Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia, it will allow users to search through texts. Most of the digitization projects just scan the books and upload the pages in image format, which makes it difficult to search or perform any kind of data related query.

Last year in May, Wikipedians were digitizing Indian language, out-of-copyright texts online, trying to address the comparative paucity of Indic language texts online. Wikisource is a repository of documents and archived material that serves as a reference source for Wikipedia, and a means of improving access to information sources. Of the 64 languages Wikisource is available in, 8 are Indian: Tamil (stats), Malayalam (stats),Telugu (stats), Kannada (stats), Sanskrit (stats), Marathi (stats), Bengali (stats) and Gujarati (stats). Note that most of these Indian language Wikipedia’s receive active contribution from CIS India under its CIS-A2K program.

Wikipedia had recorded 43.5 million pageviews in Indian language wikis, as of October 2011. In June 2013, the Hindi language Wikipedia had received monthly pageviews of 7.8 million, Tamil language Wikipedia had received 5.2 million pageviews, among others. So there’s clearly a demand to access information in local languages.

That said, while more languages are being added to the list, it should be seen that the articles in these languages do not contain just one or two sentences. According to an analysis by Shijualex.in, many articles posted under Indian language Wikipedia were under 2kb, indicating that it contained only couple of sentences.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/medianama-september-30-2013-apurva-chaudhary-goa-university-partners-cis-to-build-konkani-wikipedia

September 2013 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2013-10-24T06:48:33Z

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

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcomes you to the ninth issue of its newsletter for the year 2013. During this month we signed an MoU with the Goa University to enhance digital literacy in Konkani language, submitted a report on Inclusive Disaster and Emergency Management for persons with disabilities to the National Disaster Management Authority, published an updated version of the Privacy Protection Bill, 2013 based on feedback collected from the Privacy Round Table held on August 24, and published an analysis of the Crucifixion Protests in Paraguay. Further, updates on our upcoming events and media coverage are brought in this newsletter.

Our policies on Ethical Research Guidelines, Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunities, Privacy, Terms of Website Use, and Travel can be accessed here.

Accessibility

As part of our project on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India with the Hans Foundation, we bring you a new draft chapter on the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar. With this we have completed compilation of draft chapters for 21 states and 4 union territories. Feedback and comments are invited from readers for this chapter:

National Resource Kit Chapter

The Andaman and Nicobar Chapter (by CLPR, September 30, 2013).

Reports

Inclusive Disaster and Emergency Management for Persons with Disabilities (by Deepti Samant Raja and Nirmita Narasimhan, September 17, 2013). It was submitted to the National Disaster Management Authority of India (NDMA) on September 17 for their action.
The ICT Opportunity for a Disability-Inclusive Development Framework (by leading international organisations such as G3ict, ITU, Microsoft, UNESCO, et.al.) was released on September 24. CIS gave its inputs to this report.

Access to Knowledge and Openness

The Access to Knowledge team at CIS is working on expanding the Indic language Wikipedia in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation . As part this project, we held seven Wikipedia workshops. Our project on Pervasive Technologies examines the relationship between production of pervasive technologies and intellectual property and we have produced a column in EuroScientist as part of our efforts of promoting openness including open government data, open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software:

Open Access
Column

Open Access: An Opportunity for Scientists around the Globe (by Subbiah Arunachalam, Euro Scientist, September 25, 2013).

Blog Entries

e - DIRAP Google+ Hangout: Open Government (by Christine Apikul, September 18, 2013).
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research Adopts an Open Access Policy (by Nehaa Chaudhari, September 30, 2013).

Wikipedia
Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programmes, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications here.

Announcements

CIS Signs MoU with Goa University: The A2K team at CIS has signed an MoU with the Goa University to digitize the “Konkani Vishwakosh” under the Creative Commons license and build a digital knowledge partnership to enhance digital literacy in Konkani language. See here for more details.

Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project: The Centre for Internet and Society in collaboration with the University of Goa invites you to a two-month project on digitization of Konkani Vishwakosh. Please send in your applications by October 5, 2013.

Video

Wikipedians Speak: Piotr Konieczny: This episode brings you a conversation with Piotr Konieczny, a veteran Wikipedian from Poland. He has contributed to over 514 DYK articles on Wikipedia.

Columns and Blog Entries

Recap on Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Startup Goa Blog, September 9, 2013).
ଅବସର ପରର ଦ୍ବିତୀୟ ଜୀବନ, ଅବସର ପରେ ସକ୍ରିୟ ଭାବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖାଲେଖି ଜାରୀ ରଖିଥିବା ଜଣେ ଡାକ୍ତରଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ଭାବାଲୋଚନା (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Odiapua, September 10, 2013).
Selection of Programme Officer — Pilot Projects, CIS-A2K (by Nitika Tandon, September 10, 2013).
Wikipedia reaches Classrooms in Hyderabad (by Syed Muzammiluddin, September 20, 2013).

Events Organised

A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop in Mysore (University of Mysore, August 6, 2013): This is a report of the workshop conducted last month. Dr. Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
Wikipedia Introductory Workshop (Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Goa, September 28, 2013). Nitika Tandon conducted this workshop. The details will be posted soon.
Train the Trainer — Four-day long Residential Training Workshop in Bangalore (organised by CIS-A2K, Bangalore, October 3 – 6, 2013).

Events Co-organised

Digital Resources in Telugu: A Workshop for Research Scholars (co-organised by CIS-A2K and the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, September 13, 2013). T. Vishnu Vardhan participated in this event.
Re-releasing Konkani Vishwakosh & Building Konkani Wikipedia (organised by CIS-A2K and the University of Goa, Conference Hall, Goa University, Taleigao, September 26, 2013).
Wikipedia Introductory Workshop (co-organised by CIS-A2K and wikipedians John Noronha and Supriya Kankumbikar, September 27, 2013). Nitika Tandon participated in this workshop.
Odisha: Wikipedia workshop at IIMC, Dhenkanal (co-organised by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikimedia community, September 30, 2013). Subhashish Panigrahi coordinated the entire event along with members of Odia Wikipedia, Dr Subas Chandra Rout, Mrutyunjaya Kar and Sasanka Sekhar Das. This was covered by Odisha Diary (http://bit.ly/1bna9zd), and eOdisha Samachar (http://bit.ly/1aNJvv4).

Events Participated In

Workshop on e-Content Development (organised by Centre for Staff Training and Development, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, September 4 – 6, 2013). Vishnu Vardhan gave a guest lecture on Open Source to Open Knowledge, Building Knowledge Bases and Platforms via Mass Collaboration on the Internet, e-Content in Indian languages – History, Challenges and Opportunities, Wikipedia Users to Wikipedia Authors – Exploring Wikipedia as an OER Tool, and e-Content, e-Student, e-Faculty – Reimagining classroom in the digital Age.
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (organised by Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, SDM College, Ujire, September 15, 2013). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja participated in this workshop.
Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (organised by St. Aloysius College, AIMIT, St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Beeri, Mangalore, September 13, 2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja participated in this.

Media Coverage

'Help Konkani Wikipedia come out of incubation' (Deccan Herald, September 13, 2013): The article talks about the relative lack of content in Konkani Wikipedia. “To get it out of incubation, many should write Konkani articles for Wikipedia,” Dr. Pavanaja was quoted as having said.
Konkani Vishwakosh relaunch tomorrow (The Hindu, September 26, 2013). A coverage of the re-release of the Konkani encyclopaedia under Creative Commons license.
Goa university re-releasing Konkani encyclopaedia on Sept 26 (The Times of India, September 24, 2013): Goa University and CIS-A2K re-released the four volume 3632 page Konkani Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia) in Goa.
Goa University announces plan to upload Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia (Navhind Times, September 27, 2013).
Konkani Wikipedia from Goa University in 6 months (The Times of India, September 27, 2013): Goa University becomes the first varsity in India to allow data produced and copyrighted by an Indian university to be used by internet users. Professors, students and anyone with expertise or love for Konkani can come forward to help with the project for which training will be provided, says Vishnu Vardhan.
Konkani Wikipedia in the making (by Prakash Kamat, The Hindu, September 29, 2013): Goa University re-launched a four-volume Konkani encyclopaedia and will upload it on Wikipedia. The process will be completed in six months times, says Vishnu Vardhan.
For the love of Konkani: Preserving Goa's official language (by Joanna Lobo, DNA, September 29, 2013): Konkani has 24 lakh speakers as per the Census Department of India 2001 but online documentation is limited. CIS-A2K wants to strengthen the Konkani Wikipedia, says Nitika Tandon.
Goa University to make available online Konkani Wikipedia, within 6 months (by Jagran Josh, September 30, 2013).
Goa University Partners CIS India to Build Konkani Wikipedia (by Apurva Chaudhary, Medianama, September 30, 2013).

Access to Knowledge (Copyright and Pervasive Technologies)

The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:

Event Participated In

The Law and Economics of Copyright Users Rights (organised by the American University Washington College of Law, Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington DC, September 26, 2013). Sunil Abraham presented the Pervasive Technologies project.

Internet Governance

We are doing a project on conducting research on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS) with Privacy International and IDRC. So far we have organised six privacy round tables and drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill. This month we bring you the latest version of the Privacy (Protection) Bill and an analysis of the six privacy round tables. We are also doing a project on mapping cyber security actors in South Asia and South East Asia with the Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and IDRC. We did an interview with Lawrence Liang on privacy and free speech:

SAFEGUARDS Project
Bill

Privacy (Protection) Bill, 2013: Updated Third Draft (by Bhairav Acharya, September 30, 2013): CIS has been researching privacy in India since 2010 with the objective of raising public awareness around privacy, completing in depth research, and driving a privacy legislation in India. As part of this work, we drafted the Privacy (Protection) Bill, 2013. This is the latest version with changes based on feedback from the Privacy Round Table held on August 24.

Event Reports

A Privacy Meeting with the Federal Trade Commission (co-organised by CIS and the Federal Trade Commission, Imperial Hotel, Janpath, New Delhi, September 20, 2013). Elonnai Hickok participated in this meeting.
The National Privacy Roundtable Meetings (by Bhairav Acharya, September 19, 2013). Bhairav provides an analysis of the six round table meetings held in the cities of New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

Interview

An Interview with Suresh Ramasubramanian (by Elonnai Hickok, September 6, 2013): Suresh Ramasubramanian from IBM speaks about cyber security and issues in the cloud.

Articles and Blog Entries

India: Privacy in Peril (by Bhairav Acharya, Frontline, July 12, 2013). The article was published in Frontline in July but was mirrored only recently on our website.
Privacy Law Must Fit the Bill (by Sunil Abraham, Deccan Chronicle, September 9, 2013).
Transparency Reports — A Glance on What Google and Facebook Tell about Government Data Requests (by Prachi Arya, September 12, 2013).
The National Cyber Security Policy: Not a Real Policy (by Bhairav Acharya, Observer Research Foundation's Cyber Security Monitor Vol. I, Issue.1, August 2013).
The Central Monitoring System: Some Questions to be Raised in Parliament (by Bhairav Acharya, September 19, 2013).
CIS and International Coalition Calls upon Governments to Protect Privacy (by Elonnai Hickok, September 25, 2013).
An Analysis of the Cases Filed under Section 46 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 for Adjudication in the State of Maharashtra (by Bhairav Acharya, September 30, 2013): This is a brief review of some of the cases related to privacy filed under section 46 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 seeking adjudication for alleged contraventions of the Act in the State of Maharashtra.

Media Coverage

Gmail ban looms for Indian gov't workers (by Beatrice Thomas, Arabian Business.com, September 1, 2013): The article says that government would ban Gmail for official communication in light of cyber spying by the US. Sunil Abraham agrees with the ban.
Indien: Regierung will Nutzung von US-Mailprovidern in Verwaltungen verbieten (Netzpolitik, September 3, 2013). Sunil Abraham was quoted in this German newspaper.
A dangerous trend: social media adds fire to Muzaffarnagar clashes (by Zia Haq, The Hindustan Times, September 9, 2013). The article speaks about censorship in wake of publication of malicious content. In such cases the government has a legitimate reason to censor speech, says Sunil Abraham.
Three Years Later, IPaidABribe.com Pays Off (by Jessica McKenzie, TechPresident, September 23, 2013): The article talks about IPaidABribe.com, an online portal focusing on civic engagement and improving governance. But the real problem in India is “high ticket bribes...at the top of the pyramid,” Sunil Abraham was quoted as having said.
Indian biometric ID plan faces court hurdle (by John Ribeiro, Computer World, September 25, 2013): The article talks about Aadhar (India’s biometric system). The Aadhaar number now allows different agencies including private organizations to collect and exchange data between them, says Pranesh Prakash.

Upcoming Event

Privacy Round Table, New Delhi (co-organised by FICCI, DSCI and CIS, FICCI Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi, October 19, 2013).

Event Organised

Public Law and Jurisprudential Issues of Privacy (CIS, Bangalore, September 27, 2013): Abhayraj Naik, a graduate from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and the Yale Law School gave a talk on public law and jurisprudential issues related to privacy.

Events Participated In

Young Scholar Tutorials (organised by Communication Policy Research South, September 3-4, 2013). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in this event.
Privacy and Surveillance in India (organised by the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, September 18, 2013). Sunil Abraham gave a talk.
Syllabus: “Policy and regulation conducive to rapid ICT sector growth in Myanmar: An introductory course” (organised by LIRNEasia in collaboration with Myanmar ICT Development Organization, and with support from the Open Society Foundation and the International Development Research Centre of Canada, September 28 – October 5, 2013). Sunil Abraham is supporting Prof. Samarajiva on the last optional day of this course in Yangon.
Congress on Privacy and Surveillance (organised by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, September 30, 2013). Maria Xynou participated in this event.

Cyber Security Project
Video Interview

Part 10: Interview with Lawrence Liang (September 10, 2013): In the ecology of online communication it is crucial for us to look at right to privacy and right to free speech as inseparable.

Forthcoming Events

11th India Knowledge Summit 2013 (organised by ASSOCHAM India, Hotel Shangri-La, New Delhi, October 14-15, 2013). CIS is one of the organisations supporting this event.
CYFY 2013: India Conference on Cyber Security and Cyber Governance (organised by Observer Research Foundation and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi, October 14-15, 2013). Sunil Abraham will participate in this event as a speaker.

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 www.internet-institute.in.

Modules

International Telecommunication Union (by Snehashish Ghosh and Anirudh Sridhar, September 30, 2013).
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) (by Snehashish Ghosh and Anirudh Sridhar, September 30, 2013).

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

Regrouping for Growth - Interest Rates – III (originally published in the Business Standard on September 4, 2013 and mirrored in Organizing India Blogspot on September 6, 2013).

Digital Natives

Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:
Event Report

Bangalore + Sustainability Summit (organized by Ashoka India, Green Lungi and IDEX, September 21, 2013, CIS, Bangalore): Denisse Albornoz has summarised the happenings in this report.

Media Coverage

Youths brainstorm at social summit (The Times of India, September 21, 2013): A coverage of the Bangalore + Sustainability Summit hosted at CIS.

Blog Entry + Video

Revealing Protesters on the Fringe: Crucifixion Protest in Paraguay (by Denisse Albornoz, September 20, 2013): Denisse provides an analysis of the crucifix protest in Paraguay in the light of Nishant Shah’s piece: Whose Change is it Anyway?.

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:

Interview

Thinking Digital Beyond Tools: Interview with Dr. Nishant Shah (by Noopur Raval, HASTAC, September 10, 2013): Nishant speaks about his interest in digital studies, the future of humanities, and his HASTAC experience.

Event Participated In

Reclaim Open Learning Symposium (organized by the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, University of California Humanities Research Institute, UC Irvine, September 26-27, 2013): Nishant Shah participated in this event as a panelist.

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/september-2013-bulletin

Goa University to make available online Konkani Wikipedia, within 6 months

praskrishna — 2013-10-03T09:35:55Z

Thick heaps of the four volumes of Konkani language ‘vishwakosh’ or encyclopedia , till now available only in hard copy, will now attain a modern access.

This blog post was published by Jagran Josh on September 30, 2013. CIS signed an MoU with Goa University for digitizing Konkani Vishwakosh under Creative Commons license.

The four volumes of encyclopaedia work, initially started by prominent Goan writer and academician late Manoharrai Sardessaiat of Goa University, will now be accessed in digitized format, alongside forming a base for a Konkani Wikipedia.

As mentioned by officials, the Konkani Wikipedia is to be ready to access within upcoming six months. With this, Goa University has turned out to be the first varsity in the nation to enter into a creative commons licence that will permit copyrighted produced data by an Indian university accessible to internet users and open to modification (wiki), making Goa University a victory of sorts of free information.

The university has signed a three-year MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge Programme. This centre represents Wikipedia in India, and now also the Konkani Wikipedia project.

After Google, Facebook and Yahoo, Wikipedia is the fourth most used asset on the internet which operates as an internet based encyclopaedia. Over Wikipedia, any of the users can upload new information and can also update or amend an existing topic. The Konkani Wikipedia is also planned to offer similar privileges to its users. GU's Konkani department and the centre will manage the development from the university campus.

"The Konkani vishwakosh covers all realms of knowledge like any other encyclopedia. The Konkani Wikipedia will act as a digitized repository of knowledge for future generations and Konkani speakers across the world. I look forward to the pleasure of going to the internet and clicking away to access a Konkani Wikipedia," GU vice-chancellor Satish Shetye said.

Shetye told, GU is delighted to relate with Wikipedia, which has become a global trend breaking the monopoly of publishers and transforming the way of sharing of knowledge into a democratic process.

GU registrar Vijayendra Kamat mentions, "At present, it takes time for a page with information in a regional language to download because they are usually found in the form of scanned pages, which are accessible as images and not text. The Konkani Wikipedia will make the text accessible as is the case of any English text on the internet”.

The Konkani vishwakosh, containing four large volumes of total of 3,632 pages, is a work of period of 14 years. It was edited by late Manoharrai Sardessai followed by the editor Tanaji Halarnkar. For the compilation process, GU Staff members, Ranjan Naik, Kalpana Naik, Kanchan Mordekar, Surekha Naik, Mukesh Thali and Shailendra Mehta contributed to it.

Konkani vishwakosh or encyclopedia covers, concisely presented world information with special weight given on information on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography etc. The Wikipedia is offered in 20 Indian languages that includes Telugu, Assamese, Marathi, but not in language Konkani so far.

Interested Students, Professors or anyone else could contribute to this Konkani Encyclopaedia project by enrolling online at bit.ly/konkanivishwakosh, before 05 October 2013.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/jagranjosh-september-30-2013-goa-university-to-make-available-online-konkani-wikipedia-within-6-months

CPR South 2

praskrishna — 2013-09-30T11:17:37Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cpr-south-2

CPR South 1

praskrishna — 2013-09-30T10:58:17Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cpr-south-1

Konkani Wikipedia in the making

praskrishna — 2013-09-30T09:11:09Z

Process of uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopaedia will be completed in six months’ time.

This article by Prakash Kamat was published in the Hindu on September 29, 2013. T. Vishnu Vardhan is quoted.

The Goa University has re-launched a four-volume Konkani Vishwakosh (Konkani encyclopaedia) and announced its plan to upload the same on Wikipedia so as to build the Konkani Wikipedia.

The project is seen as a major stride in Konkani learning, research and production of books. The project, which will involve 42 students of the Konkani Department of Goa University including four designated as Ambassadors of Konkani, will turn students into producers of knowledge rather than mere consumers of knowledge. The University has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building up the Konkani Wikipedia.

“Wikipedia is a global phenomenon and a platform to bring people together for making creative activities possible, which in fact, has challenged the monopoly of publishers and created a movement in order to put together knowledge, further making it accessible to public,” said Satish Shetye, Vice-Chancellor of Goa University, speaking at the launch of the project.

Narrating how the project began, Registrar of Goa University V. P. Kamat explained that Mr. Satish Shetye, who took over as Vice-Chancellor over a year ago, happened to notice the huge piles of hardbound volumes of the Konkani encyclopaedia stacked in the Goa University library and wished to digitise the manuscripts and re-launch the encyclopaedia. The idea to upload the whole content on Wikipedia was thus born.

The work for the Konkani encyclopaedia project was commissioned during the tenure of the first Vice-Chancellor B. Sheik Ali. The project was seen as a historical step to document the identity of the State and its people and the history of Goa for posterity. University insiders, however, said that no serious efforts were made to take the invaluable research work undertaken beyond the University. Secondly, because of the lack of human resource and funds, no initiative was taken so far to update these volumes.

Initiative

Prof. Shetye took a proactive initiative and tied up with Access to Knowledge Programme of the CIS. The four volumes of the 3,632 page Konkani encyclopaedia are being released under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0 to support the movement of open knowledge and open access.

Programme Director at CIS’s Access to Knowledge Programme Vishnu Vardhan said that the process of uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopa edia on Wikipedia would be completed in six months’ time. He also stressed on the need to rewrite some of the articles in the encyclopaedia so as to make the content more relevant.

Students of the University involved in digitisation work and rewriting the content see this as an opportunity to learn about digitisation and to write Konkani of global standard, said Madhavi Sardesai, Professor, Department of Konkani at the University. Mr. Vardhan also disclosed plans for a relevant training programme specially co-designed by the CIS as well as the University to put up the content on Wikipedia.

He said that the Goa University is the first in the country to re-license copyright of its content and hailed the initiative towards open knowledge. Though the MoU signed last month would be initially valid for three years, Mr. Vardhan is optimistic that it would go beyond the launch of the Vishwakosh volumes.

Mr. Halarnkar, associated with the Konkani literary movement, who was present at the launch as the editor of the original volumes, welcomed the process of digitisation as relevant, historical and need of the hour. However, he stressed on supervision over the accuracy and accountability while digitising original data and regular updating of the content in the context of the Konkani language, its history and movement.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-september-29-2013-prakash-kamat-konkani-wikipedia-in-the-making