Centre for Internet and Society

International Collaborations

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:32:53Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/international-collaborations.pdf

National Resource Kit

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:30:13Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit.pdf

NVDA

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:27:24Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/nvda-espeak.pdf

Achievements

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:25:01Z

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

Visualization

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:21:15Z

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

Press Coverage

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:19:31Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/press-coverage.pdf

Bridging Gender Gap

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:16:05Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/bridging-gender-gap.pdf

Education Programmes

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:11:29Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/education-programmes.pdf

Outreach

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:07:48Z

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

Reaching Out

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:05:35Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/reaching-out.pdf

Factsheet

praskrishna — 2013-09-23T07:01:46Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/indian-language-factsheet.pdf

Bangalore + Social Good

praskrishna — 2013-09-25T07:43:58Z

In conjunction with The Social Good Summit held in New York City on September 22 - 24, Ashoka India, IDEX + Green Lungi are partnering to host the Bangalore + Sustainability event! The Social Good Summit aims to explore creative ways that technology can be leveraged for positive social change. Green Lungi in collaboration with IDEX and Ashoka is holding the event at CIS, Bangalore on September 21.

Sharath Chandra Ram, a researcher at CIS is one of the panelists. A brief abstract of his talk is given below:

"Are digital networked technologies adopted or used in the same way globally across all communities? Were social networks and apps across Twitter or Facebook really that pivotal in the mass citizen uprisings of the recent past? In this session, we shall see how it is essential to consider cultural specificities while designing technological interventions. Furthermore, I shall discuss how an effective strategy for citizen activism is not that which relies solely on virtual networks, but one that bridges networks, across different mediums, to engage offline citizens as much as the online. There will be a few live demonstrations of solutions we developed at the Centre for Internet and Society which embrace openness in pervasive technologies that enable us to bridge this crucial trans-medial interface."

The Bangalore + Sustainability event will focus on devising creative applications of technologies to confront sustainability challenges. We believe that young people have the power to affect change, and its time that we provide them with more opportunities to solve the challenges they see around them. This event is a first step in the direction of developing these problem-solving skills in our young people. Through an innovative Make-a-thon format, participants will engage in developing creative tech-based solutions to everyday challenges like road safety, waste management, water management, improving green cover and safer spaces for women.

Event Format and Details

1:45 - 2:00 -- Registration + Welcome

2:00 - 2:45 -- Panel Discussion + Q&A

Panelists will give a brief talk (5 - 7 minutes), posing questions for participants to consider around the intersection of technology + behavioral change + sustainability + youth engagement. A panelist from each of these sectors will set the context for the Jam to follow:

Sustainability
Communications/Design
Technology
Young Changemakers

Click to download the event brochure for details on the panelists/speakers

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-social-good

Bangalore + Social Good

praskrishna — 2013-09-25T07:41:41Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/bangalore-social-good.pdf

Indian Languages Mela 2013 in Mumbai

praskrishna — 2013-10-17T05:04:13Z

Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education is organizing The Indian Languages Mela in Mumbai. Tejaswini Niranjana will participate in the event.

The Indian Languages Mela organized by the recently-established CILHE at TISS aims to celebrate the linguistic diversity of our daily experience and show how our cognitive capacities are tied to that diversity.

The CILHE is interested in strengthening Indian-language resources in higher education. It will do so by undertaking research training, incubating research projects, supporting the production of new curricular materials, and providing opportunities to make the teaching-learning experience more diverse.

The programme for the Mela includes a two-part seminar - Interrogating Pedagogic Practice, and Interrogating Translation Practice; an exhibition showcasing Indian-language scripts, visual and sound artefacts, and new digital interfaces; and cultural events involving theatre and music. The theme languages of this year will be Marathi, Gujarati and Hindi, although other languages will be brought in wherever relevant.

As part of the Mela, the CILHE is calling all TISS students (Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tuljapur campuses) to send in entries for two competitions:

A two- or three-minute audio recording made on any digital device of your choice – the recording could be in a railway station, a bazaar, a street corner, a cafeteria or any other everyday location. Capture an interaction between two or more persons speaking in different languages about any topic. Prepare a poster interpreting what happens in your audio recording. Do remember to add an English translation of the interaction in your recording. Students are encouraged to use free editing software available for both Windows and Linux platforms. Posters can be in English or in any of the three theme languages. Group submissions are encouraged. Submissions over email are accepted.

Creation of a new article on any Indian language Wikipedia (preference will be given this time to Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati entries, but other languages will also be considered). Training workshops on editing Wikipedia will be held at each TISS campus during August 2013. Send us details of your Wikipedia entries and mention your Wikipedia UserName in your email.

Tentative Schedule

September 20

11 am to 5 pm – Exhibition (4^th Floor, Library Building, new section, Main Campus)

2 pm - Inauguration of the Mela by Kiran Nagarkar, eminent Marathi/English author

2.30 to 6.00 pm – Seminar on Interrogating Pedagogic Practice

6.00 pm - Presentation of awards to winners of student competitions

6.45 pm – Introduction to the play

7 pm to 9 pm – Play directed by Sunil Shanbag: Stories in a Song

9 pm - Dinner for invited speakers, TISS faculty and members of the theatre troupe (TISS Guest House)

September 21

11 am to 5 pm – Exhibition (4^th Floor, Library Building, new section, Main Campus)

2 pm to 5.30 pm – Seminar on Interrogating Translation Practice

Also read the report published by IBN here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/indian-languages-mela-2013-mumbai

'Help Konkani Wikipedia come out of incubation'

praskrishna — 2013-09-17T10:10:38Z

The functioning of the free online encyclopedia, ‘Wikipedia,’ is like a true democracy. It is for the people and by the people, said The Centre for Internet and Society Programme Officer (Indian Languages) Pavanaja U B.

The article was published in the Deccan Herald on September 13, 2013. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was quoted.

He was speaking after inaugurating, "Wikipedia Editing Workshop," organised by Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT) in association with The Centre for Internet and Society in Mangalore on Friday.

Stressing on the need for more Wikipedia contributors and editors from India, he explained to students the simplicity of creating a account in Wikipedia and editing articles.

Wikipedia has 50 crore unique visitors and three crore are from India. There are 6,000 editors registered from India, of which, around 2000 people edit in Indian vernacular languages, and only 450 are very active, he said.

There are around 98,000 odd articles in Hindi, 14,600 odd articles in Kannada. However, Konkani Wikipedia is in incubation for the last seven years, as there are only 133 articles and very few registered editors. “To get it out of incubation, many should write Konkani articles for Wikipedia,” he said and added that out of 133 Konkani articles in Wikipedia, over 100 are in Devnagari script, 31 in Roman and just two in Kannada script and none in Malayalam.

Pavanaja added that being a contributor and editor of Wikipedia, will be a positive add on to ones resume. "Today's IT companies need logical thinkers and problem solvers. Writing for Wikipedia, enables one to think and research, hence benefiting one’s personally," he said.

He also regretted that some people try to vandalise Wikipedia, with disruptive editing and deleting articles. Though, this will be corrected by other Wikipedia users instantly, it wastes precious time. Everyone benefits from Wikipedia, hence the contributor should have a positive outlook with regard to helping people and sharing knowledge, he said

He further added, that maintaining a neutral point of view, giving significant coverage and writing on notable topics is important. One should give opposing views and no personal views should be reflected, he added.

St Aloysius College Rector Fr Denzil Lobo said that the present generation is lucky to have knowledge at their finger tips, and they should make the best use of it.

AIMIT Director Rev Fr Pradeep Sequeira, Wikpedia Volunteer Harriet Vidhyasagar among others were present.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/deccan-herald-september-13-2013-help-konkani-wikipedia-come-out-of-incubation