Centre for Internet and Society

Konkan Corridor Project — A Lecture by Vasant Gangavane

praskrishna — 2012-04-13T13:49:32Z

Well known social worker Vasant Gangavane will be giving a public lecture on the Konkan Corridor Project at Ashoka Innovators for the Public in Bangalore on April 16, 2012. The lecture will focus on the role of Information & Communication Technology for total rural transformation by inclusive integrated development with no change of land ownerships. The event is co-organized by Ashoka Innovators for the Public and the Centre for Internet and Society.

Citing examples from the 117 village clusters in the regions of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurga districts of Maharashtra the lecture hopes to throw light on questions like what is a village cluster, what does it mean to urbanize one village cluster and what do we need to do to urbanize one village cluster, how will we organize and coordinate the project. This apart the vision, status and action plans of the Konkan Corridor Project, the skills development in each cluster, intensive agriculture in each cluster, farm produce processing, water conservation in the project area, rivers in the project area, energy, transportation, industry, science communication, and self administration in each clusters will also be discussed.

Vasant Gangavane

In the 1970s Vasant Gangavane, a management graduate from Indian Institute of Management and Wharton, returned to his village in Konkan, Maharashtra, to give his people what he felt they needed most — the knowledge to manage their natural resources. In the process, he set up several models of rural development. Gangavane found that the rate at which people migrated out of the Konkan was very high, despite the fact that the area was rich in natural resources. He studied the area and realised that land improvement and watershed development were key issues. He conducted a series of experiments in agriculture, dairy and poultry farming before setting up the Gokul Prakalp Pratishthan (GPP) in 1978. With the Maharashtra government's comprehensive watershed management programme (COWDEP), Gangavane's Pratishthan afforested 400 hectares of land in Vilye village with mango and cashew trees. Gangavane then acquired 40 acres of wasteland in the village and built water conservation structures called Gokul bandharas. This resulted in the wells in the area being recharged and ensured enough drinking water for 25 families.This model was later adopted by the Indo-German Watershed Programme.

When Gangavane's project began, the village of Vilye was bereft of young people. Its young had migrated. Now there is reverse migration and 3,000 people have benefited from the programme. The village has been transformed — water runoff has been arrested and afforestation has changed the look of the village.

After the watershed programme, Gangavane formulated a theoretical plan for model villages called the Gokul project. The aim was communication and knowledgesharing. A participatory rural appraisal is also done to explore natural resource availability, potential and use. The awareness is meant to empower people and convince them that watershed programmes can address problems of poverty and inequity. Gangavane believes that with this knowledge, and with the resources available, a small family in the area can live sustainably.

Gangavane's Pratishthan has set up an Ashramshaala at Laanja, Ratnagiri district, which is a tribal residential school, where 300 children are provided free boarding and lodging up to the secondary level. GPP has also introduced computer education in schools. For his work Gangavane was awarded the Vanashree award, Vasantrao Naik Pratisthan award and the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award.

Download the presentation here [PDF, 228 KB]

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/talk-by-vasant-gangavane

Government washes hands of Google's new privacy policy

praskrishna — 2012-04-10T09:40:55Z

The government has more or less washed its hands of internet giant Google's new privacy policy that is being criticised in Europe and elsewhere, but wants Indian residents to watch out for themselves, writes Jayadevan in this article published in the Economic Times on April 10, 2012.

Google's new privacy policy provides information on how personal information is collected, processed and secured, as required by relevant Indian laws. "The end users, however, need to fully understand the privacy policy of Google, the consequences of sharing their personal information and their privacy rights before they start using online services," Sachin Pilot, India's minister for information technology, stated in Rajya Sabha on March 30.

Ever since Google came out with a unified privacy policy in January, it has been facing criticism from many users and privacy advocates, especially in Europe where privacy is a fundamental right. The new policy unified separate privacy polices relating to nearly 60 of Google's services.

The new policy also lets the separate Google services, such as Gmail, Google Search or Youtube, share data among each other. In Europe, Google is facing potential sanctions or even fine over its new privacy policy.

Section 43A of the India's amended Information Technology Act (2000) has established a legal framework for data privacy protection in the country. The rules notified last year explain security practices to be followed and the need for guarding sensitive personal information. The Act also requires Indian corporations to publish a privacy policy.

"Google has published a Privacy Policy on their website," said the minister. "Any change in the privacy policy is not within the purview of amended Information Technology Act 2000," Pilot added. Venkatesh Hariharan (Venky), head of public policy and government affairs at Google India, has left the company last month and did not want to comment.

According to the Pilot, while France's independent privacy watchdog, the CNIL (nationale de I'informatique et des libertes) has said that the changes to Google's privacy policy do not comply with the European law, rectification of conflict between Google, an American company and European directive on data protection is not within the purview of the Indian government.

CNIL, the data protection watchdog in France had asked Google to answer 69 questions including what it does with the data collected from users and how long it is retained to better understand the consequences of the new policy for Google users.

Experts agree Google privacy policy is in compliance with Sec 43A of IT Act but cautioned that it may not be enough. "Section 43A does not have all the privacy safeguards that exist for citizen in developed countries," said Sunil Abraham, executive director at the Centre for Internet and Society.

Abraham advocates the creation of a privacy commissioner. "It is important to have a independent and autonomous regulator who can respond on a proactive basis when confronted with evidence of abusive practices," he said.

Legal provisions will have to enable the creation of such a regulator, says cyber law expert Vakul Sharma. "You can not create a regulator out of thin air. You should have legislation for privacy. In India we do not have any such legislation," said Sharma.

The IT act classifies information into two - personal information and sensitive personal information. Safeguards under the section 43A and rules apply to sensitive personal information which includes biometric information, information related to health, passwords, sexual orientation and financial information among others.

"Users must be aware that Google's new policy does not have room for categorization according to Indian laws," says Sharma. "It is a plain vanilla document. The users need more," he added.

Read the original published in the Economic Times on April 10, 2012. Sunil Abraham is quoted in it.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/govt-washes-hands-of-google-privacy-policy

Look Who’s Chasing... The Twitter God

praskrishna — 2012-04-10T09:24:52Z

The celebrity isn’t the known face, it’s the Twitter handle that gets the following, writes Arpita Basu in this article published in Outlook's April 2012 issue. Sunil Abraham is quoted in this article.

If Abhishek Asthana felt the jitters as he prepared to face an internship interview on his B-school campus, this 35-character nugget of information would have lifted his spirits: He had a fan on the interview panel. “One of the panelists asked me, ‘Are you the same @GabbbarSingh from Twitter? I’ve been following you for a long time’!” recalls Abhishek, still chuffed. At 25, and in just over two years on Twitter, this Gabbbar Singh’s answer to ‘Kitne aadmi the?’ would be a formidable 19,540. That’s his follower count: people who hang on to his every word, retweeting, replying and generally relishing the irreverence that has made stars out of tweeters like Abhishek.

Twitter, the microblogging site that turned six last month, has raised a smart brood of commentators who go from politics to policies to pop culture and back, riding on 140 characters, trailed by a few thousand followers. Neither netas nor abhinetas, they are rabble-rousers and opinion-makers in their own right. Executives, entrepreneurs, tech geeks, students and creative types, these are ordinary people who have found anything but ordinary fame on the strength of their one-liners alone.

Take @BollywoodGandu, a blockbuster of a Twitter handle with a 57,000-strong audience, including, till recently, big-ticket followers like Karan Johar and Abhishek Bachchan. “They unfollowed me for reasons only they know,” shrugs the man behind the tweets, who’s used to having celebs follow him and then dropping him when they “don’t like” what he writes (Here’s a teaser: “Aishwarya looks like a mannequin in #Robot posters. Oh wait, on second thought, that kinda makes sense”.) The 30-year-old tweet icon, an industry insider who swears by Amol Palekar comedies, relishes the effect he has on filmwallahs; film crews have been known to scroll through his timeline during shooting breaks. “It makes me want to storm in like Russell Crowe in Gladiator and yell ‘Are you not entertained?’!” he adds dramatically.

Entertained, yes. Enlightened? You bet. These new stars on the media horizon, explains Sunil Abraham, executive director, Centre for Internet and Society, “provide information, comments, and a sense of humour and cynicism that is missing from mainstream media”. With Twitter launching its Hindi version in September last year, language too is no longer a barrier. Again, on this turf, the threshold for entry is much lower. “Unlike TV,” Abraham elaborates, “where you have to look and dress a certain way and then say something interesting, these tweeters hold people’s attention sitting in their homes. We don’t even know what they look like.”

Which only makes them more relatable. After all, they are swimming in the same fish bowl as everyone else, right? And feeling the same fears when the water rises too high above the head. Only, they express it way better. Snappy, sharp and always questioning, their unforgiving, emperor-has-no-clothes approach scores with people fed up with what Twitter veteran Ramesh Srivats calls “curated mainstream media”.

Photograph by Amit Haralkar

Varun Grover @JayHind 11724 followers
Famous tweet Keep army busy. Give them an IPL team of their own.

It’s no wonder that popular media wants a piece of them too. Varun Grover, a 32-year-old engineer-turned-satirist whose witty observations made the Twitter handle @JayHind a hit, landed a TV deal: to script, along with his team, the spoofy The Late Night Show on Colors. “Tweets are my research; a scratchboard for the gags,” Varun reveals. The show, which carries forward JayHind TV’s online sketches, looks at current goings-on with a shovelful of salt. “Having grown up in Lucknow, analysing politics came naturally to me,” says Varun.

There’s more that comes naturally to the Tweet brigade—the art of getting Twitterverse’s 12 million inhabitants (that’s just counting India) to listen, for one. Writer and IT professional Arnab Ray @greatbong (see accompanying column) recalls how his legion of followers grew over three years, drawn in by his “funny, spontaneous, politically incorrect tweets that honour no holy cows”. “I am not a celebrity, so there was no opening day surge for me,” Arnab quips, conceding that his reputation as Greatbong the blogger preceded him on Twitter. For Rake$£ Jhunjhunwala ['Fake Jhunjhunwala'] @jhunjhunwala too, tweeting about blog posts got his foot in the door back in 2009, when very few had warmed to Twitter in India. Today, some 43,000-odd Tweeple prick up their ears to catch what this trader-investor, video-gamer and combat sports freak has to say during his “recreation hours”. Blogging also helped Priyanka Sachar @twilightfairy increase her tweet-worth. Priyanka passed up eleven-and-a-half years as a computer engineer to become a fine art wedding photographer, and regularly tweets links to her work. She hardly blogs now, having “lost patience with lengthy posts”, and can’t say enough about the mercurial nature of Twitter, though her strike rate of 70-plus tweets on a good day says enough.

Photograph by Narendra Bisht

Priyanka Sachar @twilightfairy 14913 followers
Famous tweet ...markets are full of Easter eggs already. On Navratre. That’s the way the Indian cookie crumbles.

“We have to stay in the moment. Or if possible, before the moment,” offers Utsav Chakraborty @SatanBhagat, who counts power-lister Anand Mahindra amongst his fans. The 21-year-old media grad, “bottom-tier stand-up comic” and er... not the biggest fan of Chetan Bhagat, distills the essence of a quality tweet: “A view is just a view without analogies and wordplay. No one likes raw chicken. You have to marinate, cook, season, garnish and serve it on a warm plate. We’re all assembly line gourmet chefs.”

Each, though, has perfected his or her own specialty dish, be it satire, humour, current affairs, business dos, boudoir don’ts.... Then there is Twitter’s tryst with literature—Twisters. Twitter stories penned, like their nomenclature, by Arjun Basu, a Montreal-based writer and publishing veteran in his 40s, whose Twitter readership stands at 1,46,895 and counting. “After my first tweet wishing I had ordered another vodka on a flight, I wrote a story, which came in at 140 characters with some editing. Within a day, I had written a few and then I became a bit obsessed.” That’s understating it: Arjun has written 5,000 Twisters since. One of them—“They tolerated the ennui of their jobs, bought off by promises of spectacular riches sometime in the future. At retirement, they bought guns”—has been made into an award-winning short film, Life. He hopes to compile his Twisters into a book—or at least put them on posters or coffee mugs.

Another compilation of tweets worth a shot—@Kweezzz trivia. Conscientiously hosting tweet-sized quizzes on everything from Guatemalan currency to the inventor of earmuffs to the actress whose “toothbrush fell in the toilet”, Kweezzz is instant food for the brain.

There’s grist for gossip mills too. Malini Agarwal @MissMalini has much to reveal about “Bollywood and the Bombay party circuit unplugged”. With tidbits from fashion shows, who-wore-it-best couture contests, and shirtless celeb twitpics (sample this: “Lean, mean and undressed Rana Daggubati”) she keeps her tweet wattage high. Devotees leave posts at her shrine on the hour.

Photograph by Nilotpal Baruah

Ramesh Srivats @rameshsrivats 35798 followers
Famous tweet Two weapons against corruption: Lokpal and Chappal

For Ramesh Srivats, it’s all in a day’s work to have fans come up to him to say hello. Characteristically, he makes light of it: “My bald head makes me easy to recognise!” Utsav’s celeb moment translates into “an occasional free meal or a job offer”. “Other than that, my ‘celebrity’ mostly extends to Linkedin and Google+ invites,” he says modestly.

For some Twitterati, think Pragmatic Desi, The Comic Project, Bombay Addict and C_gawker, it’s enough for just the pseudonyms to be recognised. They refuse to step out from behind their famous handles. Hear it from BollywoodGandu: “I never thought anonymity would be a criterion for popularity, but I was wrong. As Indians, our first response to anyone usually is ‘Tu kaun hai?’. And when you don’t know the answer, it adds to the mystery,” he says. It adds on immunity too, as you throw that virtual chappal. Anonymity and accountability are, after all, inversely linked. Social scientist Shiv Visvanathan insists that the freedom of expression which Twitter affords exists only up to a point: “If you keep making outrageous comments, there will come a quiet point when people will say ‘See you later’. The loudmouths disappear over time. What works best is self-policing.”

Photograph by Jignesh Mistry

Abhishek Asthana @GabbbarSingh 19540 followers
Famous tweet No. of hours you spend wearing shorts in a day/no. of hours wearing trousers = work/life balance index

Besides its obvious merit, the anonymous Twitter handle is also a great creative opportunity. No wonder the handles, alter-egos for their owners, are attention magnets themselves. Abhishek recalls how starting the Gabbbar Singh account to write a blogpost about a Twitter-savvy cast of Sholay, got him 50 followers in five minutes flat, and a thousand in 20 days.

Bollywood Gandu’s irresistible handle, he says, was inspired by a meeting with “a certain Bollywood star and his/her friends (read chamchas)”. He adds, “The irony is that the real ‘gaali’ in my handle is ‘Bollywood’.” Many in his Twitter circle would have noted that already. Twitter’s wit wagon, after all, is teeming with like-minded tweeple, befriending each other, following each other. Ashish Shakya, for instance, follows Gursimran Khamba and Overrated Outcast, who, in turn follow him; Ramesh Srivats and Lakshmipathy Bhat @bhatnaturally follow each other. Yes, it is a small world. But by no means a closed one. Most of them also follow those who could become potential ‘material’ for tweets. JayHind follows news sites to keep himself updated, just as diligently as he keeps up with “unintentionally funny people who falter almost daily” (read celebs).

With the variety and versatility on offer, it’s a goldmine out there for anyone who can keep pace with a tweet a minute. The format helps, of course, as Abraham points out: “It forces people to be brief. You don’t have to wade through too much information to find the next big thing.” Or star. After all, in the democratic republic of Twitter, all it takes to go from voice in the wilderness to vox popular is to say something worthwhile. And find people who’ll gladly repeat it after you.

Read the original in Outlook

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/look-who-s-chasing-twitter-god

International Space Apps Challenge

praskrishna — 2012-04-10T05:18:14Z

The International Space Apps Challenge is an international codeathon-style event that will take place over a 48 hour period in cities on all seven continents – and in space – on the weekend of April 21-22, 2012. The event embraces collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing solutions to global challenges. The Centre for Internet & Society is organising the event in Bangalore.

Background

On September 20, 2011, President Obama, together with other heads of state, endorsed the principles of the Open Government Partnership – a new multilateral initiative to promote transparency, participation and collaboration between governments and citizens. Since then, 52 countries have joined the global partnership.

NASA is working with organizations around the world on the International Space Apps Challenge as part of the United States’ domestic commitment to the Open Government Partnership.

How it Works?

Participants such as concerned citizens, discipline experts, engineers, scientists, and software code developers attend events hosted in cities around the world. At these events, individuals collaborate with others by forming teams focused on solving a particular challenge. The teams compete with other teams around the world to utilize publicly available data to design innovative “solutions” to a pre-determined series of global “challenges.” The challenges are collected prior to the event from supporting organizations.

Challenges

Challenges are grouped into four broad categories:

Software Development
Open Hardware
Citizen Science Platforms!
Data Visualization!

It’s not just about smart phone applications! The International Space Apps.

Challenge will provide solutions that:

Address strategic exploration needs!
Address strategic social needs (life on Earth)

To date, 50+ challenges have been submitted. These challenges are being vetted with development communities such as the Yahoo! Developer Network to refine them prior to the event.

Benefits

Some benefits of the International Space Apps Challenge include:

Visible demonstration of a government’s interest in using publicly available data, in partnership with others, to address global needs.
Opportunity for citizens in countries with little or no investment in space exploration to contribute to space exploration through open source, open data, and code development.
Promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education by encouraging students from around the world to utilize publicly available data for solutions to global challenges.
Encouragement of international partnership and mutual understanding.
Demonstration of commitment to the principles of the Open Government Partnership.

Sample Event Agenda

	Saturday, April 21
09:00	Registration
10:00	Schedule and logistics announcements
10:30	Subject Matter Expert briefing
11:00	Begin developing
12:30	Lunch break 13:30 Developing continued
16:30	Optional progress briefing, more developing
18:30	Dinner break
20:00	More developing
	Sunday, April 22
10:00	Logistics briefing & updates
10:15	Begin developing
12:00	Submission Deadline
12:00	Lunch break
13:30	Presentations
15:00	Judges Voting
15:30	Awards
16:00	Post event social

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the International Space Apps Challenge?
The International Space Apps Challenge is a 2 day technology development event during which citizens from around the world will work together to solve current challenges relevant to both space exploration and social need.
When will it take place?
The International Space Apps Challenge will take place on all seven continents – and in space - on 21-22 April 2012.
Who is leading the Challenge?
On September 20, 2011, President Obama, together with other heads of state, endorsed the principles of the Open Government Partnership – a new multilateral initiative to promote transparency, participation and collaboration between governments and citizens. Since then, 52 countries have joined the global partnership. NASA is working with other organizations around the world on the International Space Apps Challenge as part of the United States’ domestic commitments to the Open Government Partnership.
Who can participate in the Challenge?
Anyone can participate in the International Space Apps Challenge. It requires individuals with a broad range of skills. We are looking for engineers, technologists, scientists, designers, artists, educators, students, entrepreneurs – anyone who has a passion for changing the world and is willing to contribute.
Why should I participate in the Challenge?
You should participate in the Challenge because the toughest challenges of the world are not one nation’s alone, and this is a unique opportunity to develop technology to reach the human race and make the world a better place. Additionally, the Challenge is an opportunity to:
1. Demonstrate a commitment to the principles of the Open Government Partnership.
2. Exercise a government’s interest in using open data and technology, in partnership with others, to address global needs.
3. Engage citizens in countries with little or no investments in space exploration to contribute to space exploration through open source, open data, and code development.
4. Promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education by encouraging students from around the world to utilize open technology for solutions to global challenges.
5. Encourage international partnership and mutual understanding.
What challenges will be addressed at the event?
Challenges are in development from a wide variety of sources inside and outside of NASA. An initial set has been posted on the site and the community is invited to help develop them collaboratively there. New challenges will continue to be added on a weekly basis in anticipation of the event. To discuss contributing additional challenges or datasets, contact alicia.llewellyn-1@nasa.gov.
Where will the Challenge take place?
Locations in which events are currently planned to be held include San Francisco, US; Tokyo, Japan; Melbourne and Canberra, Australia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Exeter and Oxford, UK; Nairobi, Kenya; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and McMurdo Station, Antarctica. There will be additional events throughout the world and participation by astronauts on the International Space Station.
What is a codeathon?
A codeathon is a unique event that brings together citizens interested in collaborating on the development solutions that address critical challenges. A codeathon celebrates software development in its most positive context—using minimal resources and maximum brainpower to create outside- the-box solutions in response to interesting problems. Codathons are technology development marathons, drawing on the talents and initiative of the best and the brightest software developers, engineers, designers and technologists from around the world, who volunteer their time to respond to real- world problems with solutions than can have immediate impact. The International Space Apps Challenge is a “codeathon-style” event.
Is the event limited to just software development?
No! Participants in the event will collaborate to build software, open hardware, data visualization, and citizen science platform solutions that contribute to space exploration and solve global challenges that focus on improving life on earth.
What happens at the event?
At the events, individuals collaborate with others by forming teams focused on solving a particular challenge. The teams compete with other teams around the world to utilize publicly available space and data to design innovative “solutions” to a pre- determined series of global “challenges.”
What about licensing and IP rights?
All solutions built at the event must be submitted under a license that permits the free and open dissemination of the work. NASA and the other supporting organizations do not own the rights to nor are committed to utilize any solution developed during the event.
Who organizes the events in each city?
Each event is led as a collaboration between organizations who work together to host an event, mobilize the developer community and contribute to the overall success of the International Space Apps Challenge.
How can organizations get involved?
There is still an opportunity to participate in the International Space Apps Challenge and contribute to an event in your country. We are looking for organizations who are interested in supporting events in cities around the world, as well as for subject matter experts who can share their expertise at the event, either in person or remotely. To express interest in supporting an event in your country, contact elizabeth.sabet@secondmuse.com or kristen.m.painting@nasa.gov

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/international-space-apps-challenge

Hacking, Modding & Making

praskrishna — 2012-04-09T09:51:41Z

Seeber's electronics laboratory is a room in a unit he shares with his mother. Every available space is taken up with teetering towers of electronic parts, writes Brendan Shanahan for GQ.

Like subprime lending or the line at the motor registry, patent and copyright laws control all our lives but no one really understands them. In the world of DIY Tech, however, it is not a subject that can be ignored.

" If they are infringing on patents then it's a question you have to ask within the individual jurisdiction," says Abraham. "In many jurisdictions design many not have protection. Whether it's legal or illegal is an open question."

At its heart Abraham's argument is pragmatic: the developing world, especially China, is too big to stop. Companies can fight patent wars in every world territory, hire private detectives, pressure governments and prosecute consumers who buy rip-off products, but, ultimately, they won't win. The genie is out of the bottle.

"If something has been made technologically possible, we cannot make it illegal and hope that everyone will now pretend that this is no longer technologically possible," says Abraham. "We can't have the government checking everyone's iPod and laptop. The better move is to change the model."

Abraham has many suggestions for making copyright law more flexible to benefit manufacturers and consumers. One thing is certain: in a world in which Amazon, not even five years after the launch of the Kindle, is now selling more e-books than all hard copy books combined, and technology such as 3D printing will soon be standard, it would be unwise to cling to old certainities. The music industry may come to be regarded as merely the canary in a digital coalmine of failed industries.

Read the full post here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hacking-modding-making

Water Data Consultation

praskrishna — 2012-04-04T06:24:33Z

Pranesh Prakash spoke on Policy Issues and Developments around Open Data at an event organized by Arghyam in Bangalore on March 23, 2012.

Agenda

10:00 a.m.	Welcome Address
10:05 a.m.	Introduction by participants about themselves and their organizations
10:45 a.m.	Context Setting and Data Project Pranesh/ Nisha *
11:30 a.m.	Tea Break
11:45 to 1:15 p.m.	Planning Commission Report Presentation and Q&A
1:15-2:00 p.m.	Lunch
2:00-4:00 p.m.	Discussion: Role of Civil Society Actors for Data
4:00-5:00 p.m.	Road Ahead ( including 15 minute consensus of Summary )
5:00 p.m.	Vote of Thanks
5:05 p.m.	High Tea

Venue: Evoma Hotel, # 14, Bhattarahalli, Near Garden City College, Old Madras Road, K.R Puram, Bangalore
Date: March 23, 2012

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/water-data-consultation

Digital Natives and the Myth of the Revolution: Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action

praskrishna — 2012-04-03T08:36:19Z

Nishant Shah made a presentation on 'Questioning the radical potential for citizen action' at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of South California on March 8, 2012.

The event was organised by the Annenberg Research Network in International Communication (ARNIC) and the Civic Paths research group.

This talk is a thought-in-progress inquiry into the radical claims and potentials of citizen action which has emerged in the last few years in several parts of the world. It seeks to show how citizen action is not necessarily a radical form of politics and that we need to make a distinction between Resistances and Revolutions. It locates Resistance as an endemic condition of governmentality within a State-Citizen-Market relationship and shows how it often strengthens the status-quo rather than radically undermining it. Looking at one particular instance of a campaign against corruption in India, to build a framework that can be deployed to understand the dissonance between the claims of the future and the practices of the present that gets produced in such instances of citizen action.

Nishant Shah is the co-founder and Director-Research at the Bangalore based research organisation Centre for Internet and Society. His interest is in questions of governance, identity, planning and body at the intersections of digital technologies, law and everyday cultural practice. He recently co-edited a 4 volume book titled 'Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?' that explores the relationships between youth-technology-change in emerging ICT contexts of the Global South.

Venue: University of South California
Date: March 8, 2012
Time: 4.00 p.m to 5.30 p.m.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/digital-natives-and-the-myth-of-revolution

5 Challenges for the Future of Learning: Digital Natives and How We Shall Teach Them

praskrishna — 2012-04-30T13:04:26Z

At the Digital Media and Learning Conference on beyond education technologies, Nishant Shah gave a ignite talk on 5 Challenges for the Future of Learning: Digital Natives and How We Shall Teach Them on March 1, 2012. There was an author's table where he presented and shared the Digital AlterNatives books and info-kits.

Thursday, March 1, 2012 – 4:30-5:45 (Cyril Magnin Ballroom)

Kea Anderson from SRI International
How do you know it's working?: The U.S. Dept. of Education's new Evidence Framework

Doug Belshaw, Purpos/ed
Why we need a debate about the purpose(s) of education

Tessa Joseph-Nicholas, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Zombies and the Revolution: Making Science Fiction Matter in the Digital Culture Classroom

Peter Kittle, Cal State Univ., Chico
Good Memes, Bad Teaching

Crystle Martin, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Interest-Based Crap Detecting

David Cooper Moore, Temple University
What Did Rebecca Black's "Friday" Teach Us About Media Literacy?

Chad Sansing, Central Virginia Writing Project
I used to be a middle school teacher like you until I took an arrow in the knee

Rafi Santo, Indiana University
Why Kids Need to Know How to Hack: Technological Citizenship and the New Civic Education

Nishant Shah, Centre for Internet and Society
5 Challenges for the future of learning: Digital Natives and how we shall teach them

Saturday, March 3, 2012 – 3:30-4:30 (Cyril Magnin Ballroom)

Heather Braum, Northeast Kansas Library System
Learning from Birth to the Grave @ Your Library

Mel Chua, Purdue University, and Sebastian Dziallas, Olin College
Teaching Open Source: Productively Lost For Great Justice

Ben Chun, Galileo Academy of Science & Technology
Programming for Every Subject

Jane Crayton, UNM, CU Boulder, STEM-A
iSTEMart

Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine
Occupy Learning

Henry Jenkins, USC
The Samba School Revisited: Play, Performance, and Participation in Education

Chris Lawrence, Hive Learning Network, NYC
Throw a learning party!

Heather Mallak, Girls, Math & Science Partnership, Click! Spy School
Opening things with your teeth

Jesse Pickard, MindSnacks
How to Make Your Educational Game Not Suck

Philipp Schmidt, Peer 2 Peer University
How to make an online course in 5 minutes

Jeff Sturges, Mt Elliott Makerspace
Makerspaces

Hsing Wei, Eyebeam and New Visions
DTC Lab = teachers + technologists + designers = digital prototypes in 3 months

Venue: Wyndham Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA 94102

Click on the original here

Video

The video is also featured in YouTube

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ignite-talks

GIGA International Conference Series - 1

praskrishna — 2012-04-03T06:18:28Z

The Institute of Global Internet Governance and Advocacy (GIGA) at NALSAR University will hold the first International Conference in association with Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEIT) of Government of India on the theme "Revisiting Internet Governance - Lessons Learnt and Road Ahead" at NALSAR University of Law, Justice City Campus, Shameerpet on April 5 & 6 of 2012.

Lex Witness, India's first magazine on legal and corporate affairs is the media partner for the conference, Sunil Abraham will be speaking in this conference,

The first International Conference on Internet Governance of GIGA aims to:

To map the emergence of Internet Governance globally in the last two decades and to analyse its high points and low points in terms of its development, dynamism, diversity, divide and deficit.
To map the multiple definitions of Internet Governance and its rapid evolutionary trajectory of consolidating convergence and confronting challenges of divergence.
To critically evaluate the creative disruption of processes of accountability, empowerment and governance processes.
To levitate the legislative landscape for connecting the real life citizens and virtual life netizens.
To reshape the emergent issues of privacy vs. social responsibility, freedom of expression vs.social & cultural harmony, self conduct vs. legislative intervention, adolescence vs. adult behavior.
To reconcile the sovereign principles with Universal principles.

Conference Schedule

Day 1, April 5, 2012

S.No.	Time	Inaugural
	9.00-10.15	Welcome Address by	Prof. V. C. Vivekanandan Director, GIGA
		Address by	Prof. Faizan Mustafa Vice Chancellor, NALSAR
		Address by	Mr. N. Ravi Shanker Additional Secretary, DOT, Govt. of India
		Address by	Dr. Ajay Kumar Jt. Secretary DEIT, Govt. of India
		Key Note Address by	Mr. J. Satyanarayana Secretary, DEIT Govt. of India (to be confirmed)
		Vote of Thanks by	Prof. M. Sridhar Faculty, GIGA

	10.15-10.45	Coffee Confluence
		Theme	Chair / Speaker
1.		Internet-Comparative Perspective Opening Remarks from the Chair	Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan Chairman-Board of Governors, IIM Calcutta & CEO-Rediff.com
		A. Internet as key to development-an African perspective	Mr. Jean Jacques SUBRENAT ALAC Member, ICANN
		B. Adding a Billion-Challenges in Asia Pacific world	Dr. Katim Seringe Touray Former Board Member, ICANN
		C. Indian policy response to Internet Governance	Prof. Hong Xue Director- IIPL- Beijing
		Netizen speak	Dr. Govind Sr.Director, DEIT, CEO-NIXI
		Closing remarks of the Chair
		Theme	Chair / Speaker
2.		Internet Governance & Technology Opening Remarks from the Chair	Mr. Sanjay Jaju Secretary (IT) AP Govt. (to be confirmed)
		Key Note Address gTLDs- Managing the genie out of the bottle-Techno-Legal issues	Mr. N. Ravi Shanker Additional Secretary, DOT
		A. The business of gTLDS-Roses & Thorns	Prof.V.C.Vivekanandan Director, GIGA
		B. IDN Challenges – Unity in Diversity- Indian Response	Mr. Akshat Joshi GIST, CDAC-Pune
		Closing remarks of the Chair

		Lunch
		Theme	Chair / Speaker
3.		Internet Governance & Society Opening Remarks from the Chair	Prof. Ranbir Singh Vice Chancellor, NLU, Delhi
		Key Note Address Balancing the Privacy-Transparency Conundrum in Internet Governance	Mr. Carlton A. Samuels ALAC Member, ICANN
		A. Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva- Trinity as the State	Mr.U.Ramamohan SP, Cyber Crimes, A.P.
		B. Digital Natives Vs. Digital Naivety	Mr. Sunil Abraham Executive Director, CIS
		C. A development agenda for global Internet governance	Mr. Parminder Jeet Singh Executive Director, IT for Change
		Netizen Speak
		Closing remarks of the Chair

		Coffee Confluence
		Theme	Chair / Panelist
4.		Panel Panorama - Internet Governance - Crossroads or crossing the Road Opening Remarks from the Chair
		Panelists - 15 minutes each	Prof. Amita Dhanda Professor of Law, NALSAR Dr. Anindya Sircar AVP & Head IP , Infosys Prof. Srividhya Ragavan Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law Prof. S. Matilal RGSOIPL-IIT, Kharagpur
		Netizen Speak
		Closing Remarks of the Chair

Day 2, April 6, 2012

1.	9.00-9.05	Internet Governance & Law Opening Remarks from the Chair	Prof. R. Venkata Rao Vice Chancellor NLSIU, Bangalore
	9.05-9.25	Key Note Address Whose Privacy is it Anyway?	Prof. Graham Greenleaf Co-Director, Aust LII
	9.25-9.40	A. Netizen vs. Citizen-the Sumo Game	Prof.Izumi AIZU TAMA University,Japan
	9.40-9.55	B. Number or Name- Shift in Domain Names	Dr. V. K. Unni Associate Prof., IIM,Calcutta
	9.55-10.10	C. Dial M for Internet Governance	Mr. Pavan Duggal Advocate, Supreme Court of India
	10.10-10.25	D. Chartering rights in Unchartered waters	Mr.Na.Vijaya Shankar Cyber Law Consultant
	10.25-10.35	Netizen Speak
	10.35-10.45	Closing Remarks of the Chair

	10.45-11.15	Coffee Confluence
		Theme	Chair / Speaker
2.	11.15-11.20	Internet Governance & Media Opening Remarks from the Chair	Prof.V.Vijaya Kumar Vice Chancellor, TNDALU-Chennai
	11.20-11.40	Keynote Address Social Media- a New Wine in a New Bottle	Prof. Ang Peng Hwa NTU, Singapore
	11.40-11.55	A. The Republic of Facebook –The Bill of Frights	Prof.V.C.Vivekanandan Director, GIGA
	11.55-12.10	B. Objecting the Objectionable-the chronicles of criminology	Dr.K.V.K.Santhy Co-investigator, GIGA
	12.10-12.25	C. Street Talk vs. Social Talk-Loud Decibels	Prof. M. Sridhar Co-investigator, GIGA
	12.25-12.35	Netizen Speak
	12.35-12.45	Closing remarks from the Chair

	12.45 -2.00	Lunch
		Theme
3.	2.00-2.05	Wrap Up – Internet dreams & delusions – Setting the agenda for the new decade Opening remarks from the Chair	Prof. S. Sivakumar Director In-charge, Indian Law Institute
	2.05 – 3.20	Panelists -15 minutes each	Mr.G.R.Raghavender Registrar of Copyrights Copyright office Ms. Ankhi Das Head of Public Policy, Facebook India Ms. Tulika Pandey Addl.Director- DEIT Mr.R.Muralidharan Advocate- Bangalore Mr. Raman Jit Singh Chima Policy Analyst , Google India Pvt Ltd
	3.20 –3.30	Netizen Speak
	3.30 – 3.40	Closing remarks of the Chair
	3.40 – 4.00	Summing Up - The Hyderabad Declaration	Prof.V.C.Vivekanandan Director, GIGA

	4.00	Coffee Musings & Farewell

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/giga-conference

Open DataCamp — 2012

praskrishna — 2012-03-30T14:49:14Z

A one-day unconference for people working with data from various sectors to come together and share their projects and ideas was organised in Bangalore on March 24, 2012. It was organised by the DataMeet group. Pranesh Prakash participated in the event.

Sessions

9:00am - 10:00am	Registration
10:00am - 10:10am	Introduction to OpenDataCamp Team DataMeet
10:15am - 10.55am	Panel Discussion: State of Open Data in India Data in India in general is in a state for much improvement. What does that mean for open data? How can open data help improve the data situation? What are the drawbacks of opening up data? Anand S (Gramener), Zainab Bawa (HasGeek), Nithya Raman (Transparent Chennai), Moderator Nisha Thompson
11:00am - 11.25am	Pictures through numbers Anand, Chief Data Scientist, Gramener
11.25am - 11.40pm	Tea
11:45pm - 12.10pm	Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Sridhar Pabbisetty, COO, Centre for Public Policy
12:15pm - 12.40pm	Open Data & Free Maps Shekhar Krishnan
12.45am - 1.10pm	Introduction Aadhaar(UID) Data Pramod Varma & Sanjay Jain
1.10am - 2.15pm	Lunch

	Main Hall	Meeting Room (small)	Food Court
2:15pm - 2:40pm	Drawing By Numbers by Tactical Technology Collective Kaustubh Srikanth	Why Big data and why should you bother? Mohan S,CEO, TrendWise Analytics	Karnataka Learning Partnership Data Practices and a Call for collaboration. Megha Vishwanath
2:45pm - 3:10pm	ISB's visualisation of migration in India. ISB & Gramener	The State of Climate Data in India - Open and Closed. Pavan Srinath	Anatomy of NSSO Data sumandro
3.15pm - 3:40pm	Water Data Nisha Thompson, India Water Portal	Mobile as a Data Collection Device Thejesh GN	Open data API and the challenges Karthik B. R

3.40pm - 4.15pm

Tea

4.15pm - 4.40pm

Modelling car insurance pricing
Gaurav Vohra, Jigsaw Academy

Free slot

What is Data?
Mrinal Wadhwa

4.45pm - 6.00pm

Feedback, etc

The sponsors included Google, India Water Portal, Gramener, Microsoft Research, Akshara Foundation, DataMeet, HasGeek and the Centre for Internet & Society.

Venue:Google, 3rd, 4th and 5th floors,RMZ infinity, Tower ENo.3, Old Madras Road, Bennigana Halli, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560 016

For more info, click here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/open-data-camp

D:Coding Digital Natives

praskrishna — 2015-05-08T12:30:14Z

Nishant Shah was invited for a public talk at the University of California, Los Angeles. He presented the work done on Digital Natives and spoke about questions of participation and resistance. The talk has been featured in the YouTube channel.

Nishant spoke about the ways by which technology revolution and change has been characterised through the question of voice (how technology has enabled for alternative voices to emerge as ways by which they can be heard), question of amplification (what 10 years ago might have been local phenomena are becoming global spectacles) and the question of power (what really happens when voice and amplification comes to an end).

Nishant said that in the last three years of revolutions we have also now witnessed this extraordinary thing where lot of promises were made of different kinds of revolution but which never materialised in terms of what they intended to. Citizen action happens but it doesn’t lead into anything concrete. One of the examples from India was the Anna Hazare’s campaign or India’s fight against corruption. There was this immense amount of campaign on the corruption in Indian bureaucracy and political society... the only instance of mass mobilisation that we saw in India in recent times apart from the cricket series...and how the campaign in seven short months has totally disappeared from public discourse.

For more, watch the video now:

Date: March 9, 2012
Time: 12 to 1 p.m.
Venue: Library Conference Center Presentation Room, University of California

Follow the video on YouTube

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/d-coding-digital-natives

Global Censorship Conference

praskrishna — 2012-03-30T11:34:07Z

The Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression at Yale Law School is holding a conference on global censorship from March 30 to April 1, 2012, at Yale Law School. The programme is sponsored by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and Thomson Reuters.

"This conference is the first major event for the Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression, and it brings together an exciting group of thinkers from law, political science, computer science, business and the non-profit sector to discuss the lessons of the past few years,” explained Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin, director of the Abrams Institute and the Information Society Project. “We think the study of free expression in the digital age should be international and interdisciplinary."[1]

Rishabh Dara, Google Policy Fellow who worked at CIS office in Bangalore on freedom of expression and internet-related policy issues is participating in the event as a speaker in the panel on Case Studies of Censorship. The panel will explore recent instances of censorship in the United States, Egypt, Syria, Brazil, and India and the common themes and important differences that emerged.

This conference will consider how censorship has changed in a networked world, exploring how networks have altered the practices of both governments and their citizens. Panels will include discussions of how governments can and do censor and how speakers can command technical and legal tools to preserve their ability to speak. The conference will conclude with a discussion of new controversies in censorship, including laws designed to prevent online bullying and intellectual property infringement.

Agenda

Friday March 30, 2012

2:00	Begin Registration
3:15 – 4:45	The Means of Change, Familiar and New (co-sponsored by Sponsored by the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights) In the popular story of the political upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa, information technology stands out as the new factor that was critical to rapid mass mobilization for demanding change. The media have been credited with making popular demands for change contagious. Enthusiasts for the potential of technology to foster progressive change have labeled these apparently sudden developments a Facebook revolution. Governments responded by seeking to curtail the use of mobile phones and the Internet. What role has technology played in igniting, sustaining and shaping recent political changes in the Arab world? Anupam Chander, Professor of Law, University of California, Davis and Director, California International Law Center Rebecca MacKinnon, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation John Pollock, journalist
5:00– 6:30	Keynote Lecture (co-sponsored by Sponsored by the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights) Irwin Cotler, Canadian Parliament, former Attorney General of Canada
6:30– 9:00	Reception for Panelists of the Global Censorship Conference

Saturday March 31, 2012

9:00 – 10:00	Registration and Breakfast
10:00– 11:30	Panel One: Old and New Forms of Censorship Years ago, activists met in person to plan protests and quietly shared subversive texts. Now, events can be planned over social networking sites, and arguments for change are posted online. How have governments responded to these changes? How have activist practices and governments’ reactions changed the way we conceptualize censorship? Jack Balkin, Yale Law School Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School Navid Hassanpour, Yale Political Science Deptartment Rebecca MacKinnon, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
11:45 – 1:15	Panel Two: Technical Architectures of Censorship There are a number of choke points across the Internet and a number of different censorship mechanisms that can be deployed at various points across the network. Censorship can be executed at the router level, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) level, the Internet Content Provider (ICP) level, or the device level. Additionally, countries can employ a number of different technologies at each level. This panel will explore the many technical options for censorship and the strategic value of different choices. Laura DeNardis, Associate Professor of Communication at American University, and Affiliated Fellow, Information Society Project at Yale Law School Nagla Rizk, American University in Cairo Hal Roberts, Fellow at Berkman Center for Internet & Technology Ashkan Soltani, Independent Researcher and Consultant on Privacy and Security
1:15 – 2:15	Lunch
2:15 – 3:45	Panel Three: Case Studies of Censorship In the wake of censorship both domestically and abroad, many questions emerged about how the censorship was executed, what effects it had, if and how activists were able to route around the it, and how, if it all, it was eventually stopped. This panel will explore recent instances of censorship in the United States, Egypt, Syria, Brazil, and India and the common themes and important differences that emerged. Sherwin Siy, Deputy Legal Director and the Kahle/Austin Promise Fellow at Public Knowledge Lina Attalah, Journalist, Managing Editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm Anas Qtiesh, Blogger, Editor of Global Voices Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza, Vice-Coordinator of the Center for Technology & Society (CTS) at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Law School Rishabh Dara, Researcher at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
4:00 – 5:30	Panel Four: Technical Methods of Circumventing Censorship New technology may provide governments with new tools to censor, but it also creates opportunities for speakers and “hactivists” everywhere. How can individuals evade identification online and access blocked content? Can activists circumvent attempts to shut down the internet during periods of political unrest? What new methods are being developed to preserve free speech online? Roger Dingledine, The Tor Project Peter Fein, Telecomix Alex Halderman, University of Michigan, Dept. of Computer Science Sascha Meinrath, Open Technology Initiative Director, New America Foundation Wendy Seltzer, Senior Fellow, Information Society Project at Yale Law School
6:00 – 9:00	Dinner for Speakers

Sunday, April 1, 2012

9:00 – 9:30	Breakfast
9:30 – 11:00	Panel Five: Legal Solutions to Censorship Given the way censorship technologies have slowly crept into acceptable use because of concerns like piracy, child pornography, or national security, there is much debate about the role and capacity of law in combatting these new, digital forms of government censorship, domestically and internationally. This panel will discuss if and how legal solutions to censorship can be deployed most effectively. Derek Bambauer, Brooklyn Law School Jim Dempsey, Vice President of Public Policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology Molly Land, New York Law School Linda Lye, ACLU Northern California Jillian York, Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
11:15 – 12:45	Panel Six: New Controversies in Censorship Does new technology change the appropriate scope of free expression rights? Can policing intellectual property infringement burden free speech interests? Does surveillance ever have a censoring effect? This panel will wrestle with whether a variety of government activities constitutes inappropriate censorship or necessary actions to protect the public interest. Rebecca Bolin, Fellow at Information Society Project, Yale Law School Mark MacCarthy, Vice President for Public Policy, Software and Information Industry Association; Adjunct Professor, Communication, Culture and Technology Program, Georgetown University Preston Padden, Senior Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center and an Adjunct Professor at the University Of Colorado's Law School and Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program David Post, Temple University, Beasley School of Law Christopher Soghoian, Graduate Fellow, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University
12:45	Bagged Lunch Available

[1].Global Censorship Conference to be Held March 30-April 1 at Yale Law School | Yale Law School, last accessed on March 30, 2012, http://www.law.yale.edu/news/15140.htm

Read the original posted in Yale Law School website

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/global-censorship-conference

Data protection experts slam state for sending mass SMSes

praskrishna — 2012-03-27T03:46:00Z

Experts in the field of data protection, privacy law and media have criticised the West Bengal government's mass SMS sent to individuals, companies and media houses through private mobile networks last Friday. Lara Choksey reports this in an article published in the Statesman on March 25, 2012.

The government's use of private data in order to spread political messages is ethically dubious and dangerous, say some. The SMS indirectly refers to The Telegraph's publication of the Poonam Pandey tweet, warning against the transmission of “provocative and indecent photographs for hurting the religious sentiments of people and disrupting communal harmony.” It urges recipients to “frustrate the designs of … unscrupulous people and maintain peace and communal harmony,” and is signed by “Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister”.

Speaking to The Statesman on Saturday, Mumbai-based media lecturer Ms Geeta Seshu identified two issues with the government sending out political messages through mobile phone networks.

Firstly, from an ethical standpoint, the unchecked freedom of mobile phone companies to hand out private data is “completely wrong”, she said.

Secondly, the use of government funds for such dissemination needs to be transparent. If the state government has used public funds to distribute its message through a mobile phone network, then this information should be readily available, said Ms Seshu.

The Telecom Regulation Authority of India's (Trai) unsolicited commercial communications regulations allow unsolicited advertising through mobile phone networks.

Mr Apar Gupta, partner of Delhi-based law firm Advani and Co., explained, “The regulations are not wide enough to prohibit communications from a political party.” He observed, “Using SMS messages is a very efficient propaganda tool because so many people have access to mobile phones.”

Mobile phone networks such as Vodafone make it clear in their privacy policies that the personal data of its customers “may be used for inclusion in any telephone or similar directory or directory enquiry service provided or operated by us or by a third party” (source Vodafone website).

Any third party ~ governmental or corporate ~ can therefore access the company's directory of private mobile numbers at the discretion of the network in question.

It is not yet clear which government department coordinated the SMS, or what funds were used to cover the costs. Representatives from the ministry of information and cultural affairs were not able to shed a light on the matter. “I know that a message was sent out,” said the I & CA director Umapada Chatterjee, "But it was not sent from this department. I do not know that information.”

Some commentators did not condemn the government's SMS. Delhi High Court lawyer and cyber law expert, Mr Praveen Dalal, criticised the publication of the Poonam Pandey tweet on the grounds of it violating the due diligence guidelines of the Cyber Law of India. He commented, “If casual and careless publications … continue, there would be no other option left for the government but to regulate their affairs in a more intrusive manner.”

However, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, Mr Sunil Abraham, called the state government's use of unsolicited SMS a “clear abuse of the powers afforded by elected office.” Mr Abraham explained that elected representatives would be justified in such measures, and in utilising public funds, in the event of a disaster, or when public order, public health or national security are compromised.

“However in this case, the government is abusing the provisions of the law and using this incident as a pretext to threaten media professionals with surveillance and to intimidate for the purposes of reigning in free speech,” he told The Statesman. The chief minister was unavailable to make a comment on the matter.

Read the original published in the Statesman

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/data-protection-experts-slam-state-for-sending-mass-smses

Open access to government data on the cards

praskrishna — 2012-03-26T07:31:48Z

The way has been cleared for public access to the data collected by Union government ministries and departments, with official approval being accorded to the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP). T Ramachandran's article was published in the Hindu on March 25, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted in it.

Following its recent approval by the Union Cabinet, the policy has been notified and is in the process of being gazetted, said R. Siva Kumar, CEO of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, and head of the Natural Resources Data Management System, Department of Science and Technology.

The use of open data as a tool for promoting governmental transparency and efficiency has been gaining ground in some parts of the world. An Open Government Partnership was launched last year by the United States and seven other governments. Forty-three other governments have joined the partnership, which has endorsed an Open Government Declaration, expressing a commitment to better “efforts to systematically collect and publish data on government spending and performance for essential public services and activities.” It acknowledges the ‘right' of citizens to seek information on governmental activities.

India has not joined the partnership, but is collaborating with the U.S. in developing an open source version of software for a data portal.

The NDSAP states that at least five ‘high value' data sets should be uploaded to a newly created portal, data.gov.in, in three months of the notification of the policy. Uploading of the remaining data sets should be completed within a year.

The Department of Science and Technology will co-ordinate the effort and create the portal through the National Informatics Centre. The Department of Information Technology will work out the implementation guidelines, including those related to technology and data standards.

Welcoming the approval for the NDSAP, Pranesh Prakash, programme manager at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a Bangalore-based NGO, said the removal of “a few good aspects” in an earlier draft of the policy — such as linkage with Sections 8 and 9 of the Right to Information Act that specify the kinds of information exempt from disclosure by the authorities — had weakened it “even further.” “None of the criticisms the CIS had sent in as part of the feedback requested on the draft have been addressed,” he said.

The NDSAP seeks “to provide an enabling provision and platform for providing proactive and open access to the data generated through public funds available with various departments/organisations of the government of India.”

However, the Ministries and Departments can draw up, within six months of the notification of the policy, a negative list of data-sets that will not be shared, subject to periodic review by an ‘oversight committee.'

The policy envisages three types of access to data: open, registered and restricted. Access to data in the open category will be “easy, timely, user-friendly and web-based without any process of registration/authorisation.” But data in the registered access category will be accessible “only through a prescribed process of registration/authorisation by respective departments/organisations” and available to “recognised institutions/organisations/public users, through defined procedures.” Data categorised as restricted will be made available only “through and under authorisation.”

The policy also provides for pricing, with the Ministries and Departments being asked to formulate their norms for data in the registered and restricted access categories within three months of the notification of the policy.

Read the original published in the Hindu

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/open-access-to-govt-data

Is your facebook page your mini resume?

praskrishna — 2012-03-26T07:27:43Z

As privacy debates heat up across the world, Bangaloreans reveal the trend of employers asking job aspirants for their Facebook IDs and passwords has caught on here too. When Adil Pasha, 24, revealed at an advertising job interview that his main strength was creativity, his interviewers asked for his FB password to check his latest updates.

This was published in IBNLive on March 26, 2012 . Sunil Abraham is quoted in this.

They rejected him, as he was going through a break-up and had put up song lyrics as his status message. On the other hand, Sukanya Srinivasan, 19, got an internship chance at a leading IT firm solely based on her FB photo albums.

“A company recently rejected my application after looking at the number of people I’d blocked on my chat list. They thought I didn’t have good interpersonal skills. I might be a friendly, harmless flirt, but the company might think I could sexually harass women employees. If they see my photos at a party, they might think I’m an alcoholic,” said Kiran Giridhar (name changed), who has attended over 12 interviews in the last two months, where his social life mattered more.

Recently, Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan said they had seen a distressing increase in reports of employers seeking to gain access to people’s Facebook profiles or private information.

“The most alarming of these practices is the reported incidents of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords,” she wrote on the website’s privacy page. The controversy is now being fought on moral and ethical grounds.

"This is a privacy infringement but there is no provision in the law (IT Act-2008) that prohibits employers from asking for personal information. This is happening with the willingness of potential candidates. If a person finds it unacceptable, he/she shouldn’t share the password. Background checks are common as some companies deal with sensitive information. So it’s not illegal, but intrusive. I think some power relationships can be abused if they cross the social networking barrier — like a boss-employee and teacher-student relationship. Corporate policy should prevent such things," explained Sunil Abraham, executive director, Centre for Internet and Society.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/facebook-page-mini-resume

Centre for Internet and Society

Konkan Corridor Project — A Lecture by Vasant Gangavane

Vasant Gangavane

Government washes hands of Google's new privacy policy

Look Who’s Chasing... The Twitter God

International Space Apps Challenge

Background

How it Works?

Challenges

Benefits

Sample Event Agenda

Saturday, April 21

Sunday, April 22

Frequently Asked Questions

Hacking, Modding & Making

Water Data Consultation

Agenda

Digital Natives and the Myth of the Revolution: Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action

5 Challenges for the Future of Learning: Digital Natives and How We Shall Teach Them

Video

GIGA International Conference Series - 1

Conference Schedule

Day 1, April 5, 2012

Day 2, April 6, 2012

Open DataCamp — 2012

Sessions

D:Coding Digital Natives

Global Censorship Conference

Agenda

Friday March 30, 2012

Saturday March 31, 2012

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Data protection experts slam state for sending mass SMSes

Open access to government data on the cards

Is your facebook page your mini resume?