Centre for Internet and Society

The Impact of Regulation: FOSS and Enterprise

praskrishna — 2011-09-22T10:53:49Z

The workshop seeks to elaborate the impact of regulation, between Free and Open Source Software and Enterprise. It will look at the following key areas:

Education,
Software development,
Digital Content,
Empowering persons with disability,
FOSS for disaster preparedness etc.

If time allows, we will explore, if cloud computing is an open Source adjacent?

This lively discussion, is meant to bring into perspective the real picture in the market and broaden the minds of participants to realize the options available and come up with recommendations on what needs to be considered to have a fair playing ground, more especially for the developing countries.

Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?

Access and Diversity

Have you organized an IGF workshop before? Yes

If so, please provide the link to the report:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?%20chronoformname=Workshopsreports2009View&curr=1&wr=43

Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:

Mr.Samer Azmy- ICT Manager / Solution Integration Consultant, Huawei(Moderator)
Mr. Satish Babu -ICFOSS,India
Mr. Yves Miezan Ezo- Smile Training, Manager, (France)
Mr. Sunil Abraham,Executive Director, Center for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India
Mr. Evans Ikua- FOSS Certification Manager in the ict@innovation program
Dorothy Gordon- Director General, AITI-KACE
Ms. Judy Okite (Remote Moderator)

Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:

Mr. Samer Azmy- FOSSFA(Pan-African)
Mr. Satish Babu -ICFOSS,(India)
Mr. Yves Miezan Ezo - Smile Training Centre(France)

Organization: FOSSFA, ICFOSS

Contact Person: Mr. Samer Azmy, Mr. Satish Babu

Workshop Number: 211

See the event details on the IGF website

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/foss-instrument-for-accessible-development

Putting Users First: How Can Privacy be Protected in Today’s Complex Mobile Ecosystem?

praskrishna — 2011-09-22T10:03:58Z

Traditional approaches to ‘online privacy’ are often based on ‘compliance’ with a patchwork of local laws (where they exist). However, as new mobile services, applications and data flows become increasingly global, geo-graphically-bound laws appear unable to keep pace. Self-regulation has an important role to play in ensuring that mobile users’ privacy is treated consistently irrespective of the location of companies, the technologies and business models involved. A key challenge for industry is (a) to identify mobile-friendly ways of helping users make informed decisions about their information and privacy; and (b) to ensure user privacy is respected and protected by those designing and building the services and applications of tomorrow.

The aim of this proposed workshop is to foster a constructive conversation around three key issues:

Are privacy challenges on the mobile platform different to the fixed-pc environment? [Particularly in the context of:
Location privacy
Behavioural Advertising
Applications and related services
To what extent is mobile users’ privacy protected across technological and legal boundaries?
What are different stakeholders doing, what can they do and what should they be doing to address these challenges?

Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?

Security, Openness and Privacy

Have you organized an IGF workshop before? No

If so, please provide the link to the report:

No link to this report

Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:

The GSMA is working to address these privacy related challenges and is also committed to helping establish and shape a culture of privacy that respects and protects the privacy of users across the mobile ecosystem. Its work is coordinated through the GSMA Mobile Privacy Initiative. Through this Initiative the GSMA has been working closely with Industry stakeholders, Regulators, Governments and NGOs globally. For this workshop, we would propose to invite a panel of 7-8 participants (including the moderator) which could represent the following stakeholder categories:

A Representative from GSMA (Pat Walshe, Director of Privacy)
One mobile operator: Jeff Brueggeman (Vice President-Publiy Policy AT&T)
A rep from the online industry: (i) Patrick Ryan, Policy Counsel, Open Internet for Google Inc
A rep from an open source software developer: Ms Juliana Rotich, Executive Director of Ushahidi Inc

Two Civil Society/ NGO representatives:

Sunil Abraham, executive director, The Centre for Internet and Society (India)
An academic (Ian Brown, co-director of Oxford University's Information Security and Privacy Programme )

Panel Moderator: Ambassador David Gross, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP

Remote panel moderator: Yiannis Theodorou, Regulatory Policy Manager, GSMA

Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:

Natasha Jackson: Head of Content, GSMA and Board member of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI)
Pat Walshe: Director of Privacy, GSMA, Member British Computer Society, International Association of Privacy Professionals

The GSMA and its members actively participated in previous IGF workshops. GSMA has proven expertise and capacity to organise multi-stakeholder workshops and conferences – including the Mobile World Congress, Mobile Asia Congress, Government Mobile Forum every year, attended by tens of thousands of delegates and also organised a roundtable on mobile privacy at the 32nd International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners held in Israel in October 2010.

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations.

Organization:GSM Association

Contact Person: Yiannis Theodorou, Regulatory Policy Manager, GSMA

Workshop Number: 75

See the event details on the IGF website.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/how-can-privacy-be-protected

Privacy, Security, and Access to Rights: A Technical and Policy Analyses

praskrishna — 2011-09-22T09:28:56Z

Privacy and security are often presented as zero-sum outcomes with respect to issues affecting Internet governance. This dichotomous treatment often results in policy outcomes that directly limit access and rights. The meanings of privacy and security, however, are not used uniformly and often vary with the regards to the issue at hand (i.e. financial crimes, copyright enforcement) as well as cultural and political context.

This workshop aims to explore the nuances in the relationship between privacy and security through a series of technical demonstrations alongside policy analyses from different regions to determine how rights and access can be best protected.

The Workshop Agenda is as follows:

Introduction - Workshop Agenda, Issues, and Panelists (5 minutes)
Regional Perspectives - Cultural and Policy Understandings of Privacy and Security, and the implications for access and rights (20 min)
Technical Perspectives - Designing privacy and security through technology (20 min)
Policy Opportunities and Challenges (10 min)
Question and Answer (30 min)

Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?

Security, Openness and Privacy

Have you organized an IGF workshop before? No

If so, please provide the link to the report:

No link to this report

Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:
Invited Panelists:

Karen Reilly, Tor Project (United States)
Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza, Centro de Technologica e Socieda (Brazil)
Smari McCarthy, International Modern Media Initiative (Iceland)
Christopher Soghoian, Indiana University (United States)
Bob Pepper, Cisco (United States)*
Sunil Abraham (India)

Remote Moderator:

Cameran Ashraf, University of California, Los Angeles

Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:

Kim Pham, Expression Technologies, Civil Society
Karen Reilly, Tor Project, Technical/Civil Society

Organization: Expression Technologies

Contact Person: Kim Pham

See the event details on the IGF website

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/privacy-security-access-to-rights

Archives and Access

praskrishna — 2015-04-17T11:06:20Z

The monograph by Aparna Balachandran and Rochelle Pinto, is a material history of the Internet archives. It examines the role of the archivist and the changing relationship between the state and private archives for looking at the politics of subversion, preservation and value of archiving. By examining the Tamil Nadu and Goa state archives, along with the larger public and state archives in the country, the monograph looks at the materiality of archiving, the ambitions and aspirations of an archive, and why it is necessary to preserve archives, not as historical artefacts but as living interactive spaces of memory and remembrance. The findings have direct implications on various government and market impulses to digitise archives and show a clear link between opening up archives and other knowledge sources for breathing life into local and alternative histories.

Download the Monograph

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/archives-and-access/archives-and-access

Digital (Alter)Natives with a Cause? — Book Review by Maarten van den Berg

praskrishna — 2015-05-15T11:30:47Z

‘Digital (Alter)Natives with a cause?’ is a collection of four books with essays published by the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, India, and the Dutch NGO Hivos. The books come in a beautifully designed cassette and are accompanied by a funky yellow package in the shape of a floppy disk containing the booklet ‘D:coding Digital Natives’, a corresponding DVD, and a pack of postcards portraying the evolution of writing - in the sentence ‘I love you’, written with a goose feather in 1734, to the character set ‘i<3u’ entered on a mobile device in 2011.

Digital Natives

The publication is the outcome of a programme initiated by the two organizations to investigate the potentials for social change and political participation in emerging societies through the use of internet and communication technologies (ICTs). The programme is particularly interested in the strategic use of ICTs among young people, those who are born and have grown up with ‘things digital’ – hence, the ‘digital natives’, a term coined by Marc Prensky in 2001.

But in the preface of the collection and the introduction to the first book, entitled ‘To Be’, the editors Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen are quick to stress that by naming digital natives, they do not want to exclude any position whether defined by age, gender, class, language or location. Still, ‘we continue with the name’, they say, ‘because we believe that replacing this name with another is only going to be an epistemic change which tries to disown the earlier legacies and baggage that the name carries’. I am not quite sure what that means. I take it they just like the hashtag #DigitalNatives – and I can’t blame them.

Testimonies

So who are these digital natives or how have they become? The booklet ‘D:coding Digital Natives’ portrays some of them. For instance, there is Frank Odaongkara from Uganda. He says that already in primary school he had the feeling that computers would change his life. Now Facebook is his homepage, and he has 1000 ebooks on his laptop, of which he’s read 350 already. Or there is Leandra Flor from the Philippines who says she became more dynamic and in touch with her surroundings because of the ‘wonders of technology in communication’. She has built her social life around it.

What emerges from these testimonies, what many of the digital natives share is the sense of empowerment. They feel empowered by ICTs to connect to others, to learn something, to engage with the world and build social lives. Contrary perhaps to the aspirations of the editors, I do find that the digital natives in emerging societies portrayed in the publication tend to come from relatively well-to-do families. The digital divide is still very real, when it comes to access to ICTs and their life-changing potentials.

Personal > political

That digital natives feel empowered by ICTs to build a social life does of course not necessarily entail that they bring about social change or pursue political goals. But one thing can lead to the other, even accidentally. Take the story of Manal Hassan, an Egyptian woman who found herself trapped in Saudi Arabia when her family went to live there. She started a blog to write about her problem and got in contact with other Egyptian bloggers and digital activists. Women rights organizations adopted her cause, a lawyer took up her case, and she made news in the mainstream media. She had become a political actor.

There are more such stories in the publication. In the digital age, it seems, social change has gone viral. Digital natives can become political actors by sheer coincidence. I believe there is an important lesson to learn from that for sociologists and political scientists. We have to come to terms with the serendipity of collective action.

Digital methodology

For social scientists, there is more to be learned from the publication. In the introduction to the essays brought together in the chapter ‘To Think’ the editors pose that the rise and spread of digital and online technologies elicit new methods of understanding and research. And they are quite right. In the essay ‘Digital methods to study digital natives with a cause’, Esther Weltevrede uses Twitter as a platform to study digital natives and their practices. And because the retweet is a practice adopted by digital natives to forward, or give voice to a message, she proposes that for the researcher the retweet becomes a way to quantify those messages that have ‘pass-along value’.

Mob rule 2.0

As many of the authors are themselves digital natives and activists of sorts, most of them cannot hide their excitement about the opportunities that ICTs afford. But there is some room for skepticism too. Thus, essayist Yi Ping Zou rightly observes that ‘the newly imagined communities that we call digital natives […] may not be all progressive, liberal and striving to make a change for the better’. In her contribution she warns us for ‘mob rule 2.0’ as the very digital technologies that allow us ‘to create processes of change for a just and equitable world’ are also technologies that ‘enable massively regressive and vigilante acts that exercise a mob-based notion of justice’.

That vision thing

And as is the case with any form of collective action, digitally mediated or not, there is the question of purpose. In an essay that compares the youth-led ‘revolution’ of 1968 and the Arab Spring of 2011, David Sasaki observes that both are essentially anti-establishment movements and that, so far, the latter has prioritized the removal of the current political class without offering a concrete vision of what ought to come next. As far as this author is concerned, the digital natives have yet to develop a vision of their own future – and the future of their governments.

I believe that we should not expect from today’s youth what yesterday’s young ones did not accomplish. Let us consider the digital natives and the technologies they employ for what they do, not for what they ought to be doing. And after reading some of the testimonies of digital natives in this publication, I cannot but conclude – as Eddie Avila does in the last book – that what brings them together is “a vision that the everyday technologies in their lives can help them make changes in their immediate environments”. Such is not a vision about politics writ large. It is about change at the personal level, the ability to connect and engage with others, and, from there, the possibility to act collectively – and give it a larger direction.

'Digital (Alter)Natives with a cause?', Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen (eds), is available for download in four parts at the website of the Hivos Knowledge Programme.

The review by Maarten van den Berg was published in "The Broker" on September 19, 2011. Please click here to read the original review.

About the author

A political scientist by training (University of Amsterdam, York University, Canada), Maarten van den Berg is senior editor of The Broker,an independent magazine on globalization and development. Before he joined The Broker in 2011, Maarten worked as a communication and knowledgement professional for a variety of international organizations, and still has his own consultancy, RISQ. After work, Maarten loves to cook and shares in the care of his son Titus.

Photo credit main picture: Postcard 'Digital Natives' designed by Jonathan Remulla.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/book-review-digital-alternatives

Planning Commission, Census 2011 and India Post using social media to understand people's pulse better

praskrishna — 2011-09-21T08:07:43Z

Even as the Centre is drawing up guidelines to encourage government bodies to use social media, a handful of entities are showing how they can use Facebook, Twitter and more to connect with citizens better.

The Planning Commission, Census 2011, department of posts, and the ministry of external affairs have, over the past year, established a functional and active presence on social media: from inviting suggestions to answering questions, from creating awareness to initiating debates. "It is inevitable because the government should go where the people are," says Sunil Abraham, executive director at the Centre for Internet and Society, a policy research organisation.

For the past six months, Gopi Kumar Bulusu, the CEO of Sankhya Technologies, an IT products company in Visakhapatnam, has been a regular contributor on the plan panel's Facebook page for the upcoming 12th Plan. "It gives you an opportunity to talk economics and contribute based on the knowledge you have," says Bulusu, a serial blogger. Arun Maira, member, Planning Commission, says its Facebook page, set up in February, works as a sounding board for ideas that emerge from offline consultations held by its 160 working groups. "The reach of Facebook is immense but the richness of communication is not much," says Maira. "It gives you a sense of the crowd but you don't expect great nuggets of advice." Yet, the Commission intends to make this engagement an ongoing one. "We want to create a new way of planning that's not episodic," says Maira.

The article by Vikas Kumar was published in the Economic Times on September 20, 2011. The original story can be read here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/using-social-media-to-understand-peoples-pulse

Open Spectrum for Development in the Context of the Digital Migration

praskrishna — 2011-10-13T01:14:26Z

Concise Description:

While the communication technologies that use the radio spectrum continue to develop at a brisk pace, our general approach to regulating the spectrum has not changed much since the 1930s when the spectrum was regulated to a very high degree in order to assure that interference between signals would not occur. For this reason, frequencies are assigned for specific uses and overseen quite closely by national regulators as well as an international system of governance. However, as technology rapidly changes, approaches to managing the spectrum should change as well.

Around the world, countries are migrating their broadcast systems –in particular, television- from analogue transmitters and receivers to digital ones. Digital broadcasting utilises the spectrum more efficiently, generally allowing for more channels in the space where one analogue channel could exist. This provides opportunity for other uses of the freed spectrum.

This digital migration creates the opportunity for improving how spectrum can be used and regulated. In particular, for expanding internet access. For this opportunity to realise, new means should be built into all spectrum allocation regimes. Open spectrum is one approach to spectrum management that would allow various users to utilise parts of the spectrum that are available. Sharing the spectrum in such a way would create a “spectrum commons” and would require a simple set of rules for communicating with one another and making decisions. But even if some frequencies are set aside as commons, more transparent and clear ways to regulate the spectrum being used by all stakeholders -including broadcasters, mobile companies and the military- need to be set.

This workshop will be aimed at identifying current practices that are contributing to build the spectrum commons, as well as debating different perspectives on policy and regulatory issues involved in spectrum management and its impacts on development.

In this workshop we will explore alternative regulatory frameworks in different contexts and regions, considering how technological developments can shape the future of spectrum-based communication. Considering, in particular, the opportunities brought by the transition to digital broadcasting systems.

Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?

Emerging Issues

Have you organized an IGF workshop before? Yes

If so, please provide the link to the report:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposalsReports2010View&wspid=110

Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:

Moderator:

- Claire Sibthorpe, Maple Consulting Services, UK

Panelists:

Steve Song, Village Telco, South Africa
Muriuki Mureithi, Researcher, Summit Strategies ltd, Kenya
Carlos Afonso, Instituto NUPEF, Brazil
Willie Currie, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, South Africa
Giacomo Mazzone, European Broadcasting Union, Switzerland
Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation, USA
Paul Mitchell, Microsoft Corporation, USA

Remote moderator:

Henrik Almström, APC, South Africa

Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) (civil society)

KictaNet (multistakeholder network)

Balancing Act (private sector)

Centre for Internet and Society (civil society)

Organization:Association for Progressive Communications

Contact Person: Pablo Accuosto

Workshop Number 121

See the background paper here

See the details on IGF website here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/open-spectrum-for-development-in-the-context-of-the-digital-migration

The Power of Information: New Technologies for Philanthropy and Development

praskrishna — 2011-09-23T11:16:18Z

The Indigo Trust working with The Institute for Philanthropy and The Omidyar Network will be hosting a conference: “The Power of Information: New Technologies for Philanthropy and Development” on September 15th 2011. The conference, which will be held in central London will be invitation only.

The conference will explore the ways in which innovative developments in information and computer technology can aid development, improve service delivery, enhance communication and enable critical information to reach the most excluded communities in the developing world.

This conference will enable philanthropists and the donor community to gain an insight into the ways in which the emerging field of Information Computer Technology for Development (ICT4D) has the potential to enhance interventions in all sectors across the developed and developing world.

The conference will include an opportunity to meet with donors already funding in the field and to break out into the following sector specific break-out panels, where philanthropists and practitioners can explore how ICT can enhance their current work:

Transparency, Accountability and Democracy
Health
Finance and Rural Development
Youth empowerment and education
Human Rights
Fostering Innovation and Enterprise

We are delighted to announce that Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia will be our special dinner speaker.

Richard Allan (Facebook) is our morning Keynote Speaker.

Confirmed speakers include:

Amy Sample Ward (Independent)
Anna Kydd (SHM Foundation)
Ashifi Gogo (Sproxil)
Bill Zimmerman (ActivSpaces – AfriLabs – VC4Africa)
Bosun Tijani (Co-creation hub)
Chris Locke (GSMA)
David Edelstein (Grameen Foundation)
Erica Hagen (Map Kibera)
Erik Hersman (Ushahidi/ihub)
Francesca Perrin (Indigo Trust)
Gustav Praekelt (Praekelt Foundation)
Ida Jooste (Internews)
John Kipchumbah (Sodnet)
Jon Gosier (HiveColab)
Ken Banks (FrontlineSMS)
Laura Walker Hudson (FrontlineSMS)
Loren Treisman (Indigo Trust)
Marjan Besuijen (Hivos)
Martin Tisne (Transparency and Accountability Initiative)
Matt Berg (Millennium Villages)
Owen Barder (Aid Info)
Patrick Meier (Crisis Mappers/Ushahidi)
Philip Thigo (Sodnet)
Rodrigo Baggio (CDI Brazil)
Rose Goslinga (Syngenta)
Rose Shuman (Question Box)
Sameer Padania (Macroscope)
Stephanie Hankey (Tactical Tech)
Stephen King (Omidyar)
Su Kahambu (iCow)
Sunil Abraham (Centre for Internet and Society)
Susan Kariuki (Youth Agenda)
Tom Steinberg (mySociety)
Uju Ofomata (One World)
William Perrin (Indigo Trust)

There will also be a video message by Pierre Omidyar, Founder of eBay.

About the Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $383 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including microfinance, entrepreneurship, property rights, consumer Internet, mobile technology and government transparency. To learn more about Omidyar Network, please visit www.omidyar.com.

About The Institute for Philanthropy

Established in 2000, the Institute for Philanthropy is one of the world’s leading organisations providing international donor education; its staff brings more than 50 years of experience at the highest level in strategic philanthropy. With offices in London and New York, we work closely with a global network of wealthy individuals and families, and in partnership with private companies, trusts, foundations and schools. We work to increase effective philanthropy in the United Kingdom and internationally. We do this by (1) providing donor education; (2) building donor networks; and (3) raising the awareness and understanding of philanthropy.

This was announced on the Indigo Trust website on 15 September 2011, the original can be read here.

Sunil Abraham participated in this event, a video of his speech is now available on YouTube.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/power-of-information

Copyrights Amendment Bill to Be Tabled in Indian Parliament – Parallel Import provisions have Been Removed

praskrishna — 2011-09-14T11:47:37Z

This week, the Indian government’s Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) will debate the Copyright Amendments Act.

The Centre for Internet and Society has raised a number of concerns – including the removal of parallel import provisions that would allowed universities and libraries to access foreign works more cheaply, the extension of copyright terms beyond those required by the TRIPS Agreement, and the introduction of technological protection measures (with stiff penalties for circumventing them).

CIS describes other provisions in the bill: Fair dealing exceptions have been extended “to all works except computer programs;” the “scope of compulsory licensing under sec 31 has been expanded from ‘any Indian work’ to ‘any work’;” and two provisions have been introduced to allow for the conversion, reproduction, and distribution of works for people with disabilities.

According to Prashant Reddy from the National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on that reviewed the original legislation had strongly supported parallel imports of books. In a blog post on Spicy IP, he noted that “publishers routinely introduce old versions of books in India,” and that parallel imports would allow students to obtain newer copies at reasonable prices.

However, a news story in Live Mint reports that the publishing industry “had strongly opposed the amendments.”

This article by Mike Palmedo was published in infojustice.org on September 5, 2011. Read the original story here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/copyright-amendment-bill-in-indian-parliament

Stakeholders Meeting of the USOF on Facilitating ICT Access to Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas

praskrishna — 2011-11-08T05:55:39Z

The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), a fund set up to provide universal access to telegraph services to rural and remote areas in India organized a stakeholders meeting on 7th September in New Delhi to launch a new scheme for supporting pilot projects for facilitating access to persons with disabilities in rural areas. Nirmita Narasimhan participated in this meeting and made a presentation.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the associations of service providers and manufacturers like Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) and Sasken Communication Technologies, civil society organizations working for the disabled like Accenture on "ICT Initiatives for Connecting Persons with Disabilities" (AICB), Saksham, Equal Opportunities Cell from Delhi University, technology companies like Intel, educational institutions like NIOS and representatives from other ministries and departments such as MHRD.

The meeting began with a key note from the Administrator, USOF and a presentation from the Joint Administrator (Finance), USOF, introducing the scheme. This was followed by presentations from various stakeholders. It was agreed that the first step towards inviting projects would be the identification of problems by disability organizations to ensure that project ideas would be in line with the needs of persons with disabilities. Importantly, the Joint Administrator stressed that although projects could only be submitted by service providers, it would be important for each project to have a strong partnership of service providers, content developers and disability organizations to ensure that the solutions sought to be achieved through the projects would be a holistic one. The USOF has not yet settled on any upper ceiling for the projects: this will be determined once the projects start coming in. Projects will be evaluated by a select committee on a qualitative basis. The size of the pilot projects is to be small, possibly at a district level. Based on the success of the projects, these would then be considered for scaling up.

Download Nirmita's presentation here [Powerpoint file, 227 kb]
For agenda, click here
For more info about the event, see the USOF website

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/usof-meeting

IBSA Seminar on Global Internet Governance

praskrishna — 2011-09-13T09:53:41Z

The seminar will take place at Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 1-2, 2011.

Day 1: September, 1

08.30 - 09.00: Arrival and Accreditation of Participants

09.00 - 10.00: Opening Session

Carlos Ivan Simonsen Leal - President of FGV
Ambassador Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Undersecretary-General of Environment, Energy, Science and Technology, MRE, Brazil
Ambassador Gilberto Fonseca Guimaraes de Moura, Director of the Department of Inter-regional Mechanisms, MRE, Brazil
Representative of the Government of India - Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) or Department of Information Technology (DIT)
Mr. Moseamo Sebola - Director of Bilateral Relations - Department of Communications (DoC)
Prof. Hartmut Glaser - Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br)
Viviana Munoz - South Centre

10.00 - 10.15: Coffee Break

10.15 - 11.15: Session 1: A Diagnosis of the Main Challenges for Developing Countries on the Global Internet Governance Regime (10 Minutes to Each Speaker)

Moderation: Ambassador Benedicto Fonseca Filho, MRE, Brazil

Government of India
DIRCO South Africa
Secretary Romulo Neves, Head of the Division for the Information Society, MRE
Parminder Jeet Singh - IT for Change, India
Carlos Afonso - NUPEF, Brazil
Mark Weinberg - Alternative Information Development Centre, South Africa

11.15 - 12.30: Discussion

12.30 - 14.00 Lunch

14.00 - 1530: Session 2: A Development Agenda for IG: Infrastructure and Critical Internet Resources (10 Minutes to Each Speaker)

Goal: reach a more round understanding about: a) which topics are priority for developing countries; b) what are the policy issues related to them; and c) what could be a future strategy for action.

Moderation: CGI.br

Government of India
DIRCO South Africa
Jeferson Nacif, National Agency of Telecommunications - ANATEL
Pranesh Prakash, Centre for Internet and Society, India
Shaun Pather, Faculty Informatics & Design, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Joao Brant, Intervozes, Brazil
Carlos Affonso - CTS/FGV, Brazil
Demi Getschko - CGI.br, Brazil

15.30 - 16.15: Discussion

16.15 - 16.30: Coffee Break

16.30 - 17.30: Session 3: Global Online Trade and Services from Developing Countries' Perspective (10 Minutes to Each Speaker)

Moderation: Civil Society Representative (Brazil, India or South Africa)

Government of India
DIRCO South Africa
Antenor Correa, MCTI - Brasil
Artur Coimbra - Ministry of Communications
Pranesh Prakash, Centre for Internet and Society, India
Mark Wienberg, Alternative Information Development, South Africa

17.30 - 18.30: Discussion

18.30 - 20.00: Free Meetings

Day 2: September 2

09.00 - 10.30: Session 4: A Development Agenda for IG: The New Global Information and Communications Systems - Its Rights and Principles (10 Minutes to Each Speaker)

Moderation: CTS/FGV Representative

DIRCO
Government of India
Viviana Munoz - South Centre
Anriette Estherhuysen, APC
Graciela Selaimen - Nupef
Joana Varon (CTS/FGV) - (Approach: Intellectual Property and Access to Knowledge)
Pranesh Prakash, Centre for Internet and Society, India

10.30 - 11.20: Discussion

11.30 - 12.30: Session 5: Institutional Arrangements for Internet Governance and Participation from Developing Countries (10 Minutes to Each Speaker)

Moderation: Ambassador Benedicto Fonseca Filho, MRE, Brazil

Government of India
DIRCO South Africa
Parminder Jeet Singh, IT for Change, India
Marilia Maciel, CTS/FGV, Brazil
Anriette Estherrhuysen, APC, South Africa
Secretary Romulo Neves, Head of the Division for the Information Society, MRE, Brazil

12.30 - 13.20: Discussion

13.20 - 14.30: Lunch

14.30 - 16.00: Taking Stocks and the Way Forward

16.00 - 18.00: Governmental Representatives Meeting - Separated

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ibsa-seminar

Digital AlterNatives book launch

praskrishna — 2012-01-04T06:56:41Z

On Friday the 16th of September Hivos will launch the Digital AlterNatives with a cause? book, which looks at the dynamics of a new generation that is growing up with digital technology. In 2011 the digital native generation has been all over the front pages of the major newspapers in the world. CNN, BBC, de Volkskrant and the NRC gave prominent coverage on the ‘digital’ revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa and dubbed them as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ revolutions. However, the recent events in the Middle East and North Africa, Spain, Greece, Israel, India, Chile and England show that there is more to this generation then just a nice tool. By framing it as Facebook actions we are simplifying the complex processes that are taking place and denying and underestimate the challenges and dynamics of this younger generation.

In this last year Hivos and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India have tried to shed some light on the actions, identities, networks and implications of the digital natives generation. We started by asking the basic questions: Who are they? Do they have a cause? What is their role in social and political processes? This exploration has resulted in new insights, reflections, anecdotes, case studies and opinion pieces by digital natives, academics and policy makers around the world, which have been synthesized in the Digital AlterNatives with a cause? collection.

We would like to invite you to the Museum for Communication in the Hague for the book launch of the Digital AlterNatives with a cause? collection. Here we will share our insights into the dynamics of this younger generation. Then Rebecca MacKinnon and Maarten van den Berg will give their opinion on our work which will be followed by an open debate. Please join us for the book launch on the 16th of September from 17.00 till 18.00.

See the information on the Hivos website here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/book-launch

India's social media "spring" masks forgotten protests

praskrishna — 2011-09-01T06:24:38Z

Irom Sharmila has been on hunger strike for 10 years to protest against military abuses, force-fed by tubes through her nose. But the tragedy for the world's longest hunger strike is that she is on the wrong side of India's digital divide.

Twitter, Facebook and aggressive private TV have helped rally India's biggest protests in decades to support civil activist Anna Hazare, a digital groundswell of a wired middle class that echoes the Arab Spring and has taken a Congress party-led government of elderly politicians by surprise.

But Sharmila, who has been on a hunger strike in Manipur to demand an end to the army's sweeping emergency powers there, has only managed a small following, a footnote in media coverage.

"We also once tried to take our fight to New Delhi ... but we did not get support from the rest of the nation," Sharmila told Tehelka magazine.

She must be frustrated. The Hazare phenomenon has rallied Indians from the start with social media. Hazare's India Against Corruption website says it has had 13 million phone calls of support. Its Facebook page has nearly 500,000 "likes".

Its leaders have tweeted each step of the whirlwind crisis, whether describing their arrests in real time or negotiations with the government, outmanoeuvring Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his ministers at every step.

"Protest at PM's residence: 35 people detained, taken to Tughlaq Rd. PS, hundreds still there, come if you can #Janlokpal," twitter user @janlokpal sent its followers in just one example of how the movement was rallying support.

Cases like Sharmila expose the digital divide of Asia's third largest economy and underscore how a growing urban middle class may be getting its political voice heard while millions of poor remain off the digital protest map.

"This is the first time digital social media has resonated with such a large number of people," said Nishant Shah, head of research at the Centre for Internet and Society think-tank.

"But this is far more of a middle class, urban movement, than a national movement. Many people in India are excluded from it."

Twitter and Facebook are barely used in many of India's social causes, including battles over land rights that are one of India's most pressing problems involving millions of farmers.

Huge social issues in India, from caste discrimination to high food prices, from the building of dams to protests by farmers against nuclear power plants, have failed to create the kind of digital mobilisation that Hazare enjoys.

A Digital Divide

India's internet users have grown 1,400 percent between 2000 and 2010, behind only China and Vietnam among Asian countries, according to a report by Burson-Marsteller, a consulting firm.

But that masks India's low base. Internet penetration is around 8 percent in India, the lowest among major Asian countries. That compares with nearly 40 percent in China.

Out of a population of 1.2 billion, there are only 29 million people active in digital social networks. A report by Maplecroft consultancy warned that India was lagging other BRICs, Brazil, China and Russia in "digital inclusion".

"India, for example, the wealthier, more affluent segment of the population, primarily based in urban areas, has embraced the use of modern communications technology," the report said.

"The vast majority of the population has, however, been excluded from this process."

Those statistics highlight that while the middle class has found a voice, electorally the centre-left Congress party will still need to pander to its traditional vote base of millions of farmers and poor Indians ahead of a 2014 general election.

Congress, in power for most of the life of independent India, has failed to use social media tools. One minister lost his job for tweeting too frankly, in a sign of government unease over the web, and the party lags behind an opposition that has embraced Twitter.

Libya Overshadowed

So far, private TV channels have provided 24-hour coverage of the protests -- the news from Libya is hardly to be seen. Urban Indians with mobile phones in hand have dominated rallies in the open grounds where Hazare was on his second week of fasting.

Small protests across the country, from demonstrations outside ministers' houses to rallies outside metro stations, have been organised through Twitter and Facebook.

An app that can be downloaded on to smartphones running the Android operating system gives users the latest news on the campaign for a tough "Jan lokpal", or anti-corruption bill, and details of the latest meetings.

"Social media has been huge for us, it has a life of its own," said Shazia Ilmi, in charge of Hazare media strategy.

Even before Hazare was arrested last week, organisers had prepared a pre-recorded video from him that went on YouTube.

The movement does have deep roots and social media has widened the protests, if not caused them. Many of Hazare's protests have also been through word of mouth. Corruption also affects the poor more than middle classes with endemic bribes, whether permission for street food stands or driving licences.

"It's not an up and down, national movement. It is largely a middle class cause," said Sagarika Ghose, a novelist and journalist at the CNN-IBN news television channel.

"But it's hugely important one. For a younger generation, corruption has become a catch-all phrase for the failure of development."

Some activists are already criticising Hazare as a hype of an elitist social media.

"Those thronging the Ramlila grounds or marching in support of Anna in the metros are not necessarily 'the people' of the country, and it is dangerous to take the two as identical," academic Prabhat Patnaik wrote in The Hindu newspaper.

(Editing by Paul de Bendern and Alex Richardson)

This article by Alistair Scrutton was published in Reuters on 25 August 2011.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/social-media-masks-forgotten-protests

Alistair Scrutton: Social media holds the key to Hazare's campaign success

praskrishna — 2011-09-01T06:09:38Z

IROM Sharmila has been on hunger strike for ten years to protest against military abuses, force-fed by tubes through her nose. But the tragedy for the world's most resolute hunger striker is that she is on the wrong side of India's digital divide.

Twitter, Facebook and aggressive private television coverage have helped rally India's biggest protests in decades to support social activist Anna Hazare, a digital groundswell of a wired middle class that echoes the Arab spring and has surprised a Congress party-led government of elderly politicians.

But Ms Sharmila, who has been on a hunger strike in the northeastern Manipur state to demand an end to the army's sweeping emergency powers there, has only managed a small following, a footnote in media coverage.

She must be frustrated. The Hazare phenomenon has rallied Indians from the start via social media. His India Against Corruption website says it has had 13 million phone calls of support. Its Facebook page has nearly 500,000 "likes".

Its leaders have tweeted each step of the whirlwind crisis, whether describing their arrests in real time or negotiations with the government, outmanoeuvring prime minister Manmohan Singh and his ministers at every step.

Cases like Ms Sharmila's expose the digital divide of Asia's third largest economy and underscore how a growing urban middle class may be getting its political voice heard while millions of poor remain off the digital protest map.

"This is the first time digital social media has resonated with such a large number of people," said Nishant Shah, head of research at the Centre for Internet and Society think-tank. "But this is far more of a middle class, urban movement, than a national movement. Many in India are excluded from it."

Twitter and Facebook are barely used in many of India's social causes, including battles over land rights that are one of India's most pressing problems involving millions of farmers.Huge social issues in India, from caste discrimination to high food prices, from the building of dams to protests by farmers against nuclear power, have failed to create the kind of digital mobilisation that Mr Hazare enjoys.

India's internet users grew 1,400 per cent between 2000 and 2010, behind only China and Vietnam in Asia, according to a report by consultant firm Burson-Marsteller. But that masks India's low base. Internet penetration is around 8 per cent there, the lowest among major Asian countries. That compares with nearly 40 per cent in China.

Out of a population of 1.2 billion, there are only 29 million people active in digital social networks.

Those statistics highlight that, while the middle class has found a voice, electorally the centre-left Congress party will still need to pander to its traditional base of millions of therural poor ahead of a 2014 general election. Congress, in power for most of the life of independent India, has failed to use social media tools. One minister lost his job for tweeting too frankly, in a sign of government unease over the web, and the party lags behind an opposition that has embraced Twitter.

So far, private TV channels have provided 24-hour coverage of the Hazare protests.

Urban Indians with mobile phones in hand have dominated rallies in the grounds where Hazare was on his second week of fasting. Small protests, from demonstrations outside ministers' houses to rallies outside metro stations, have been organised through Twitter and Facebook.

An app downloadable to smartphones running Android gives users the latest news on the campaign for a tough "Jan lokpal", or anti-corruption bill, and details of meetings.

"Social media has been huge for us, it has a life of its own," said Shazia Ilmi, in charge of Hazare media strategy.

"It's not an up-and-down, national movement. It is largely a middle-class cause," said Sagarika Ghose, a journalist at the CNN-IBN TV news. "But it's hugely important one. For a younger generation, corruption has become a catch-all phrase for the failure of development."

This article by Alistair Scrutton was published in NEWS.scotsman.com on 26 August 2011. The original story can be read here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/social-media-key-to-hazare-success

Digital divide: Why Irom Sharmila can’t do an Anna

praskrishna — 2011-09-01T05:55:13Z

Irom Sharmila has been on hunger strike for 10 years to protest against military abuses, force-fed by tubes through her nose. But the tragedy for the world’s longest hunger strike is that she is on the wrong side of India’s digital divide.

Twitter, Facebook and aggressive private TV have helped rally India’s biggest protests in decades to support civil activist Anna Hazare, a digital groundswell of a wired middle class that echoes the Arab Spring and has taken a Congress party-led government of elderly politicians by surprise.

But Sharmila, who has been on a hunger strike in the northeastern Manipur state to demand an end to the army’s sweeping emergency powers there, has only managed a small following, a footnote in media coverage.

“We also once tried to take our fight to New Delhi … but we did not get support from the rest of the nation,” Sharmila told Tehelka magazine.

She must be frustrated. The Hazare phenomenon has rallied Indians from the start with social media. Hazare’s India Against Corruption website says it has had 13 million phone calls of support. Its Facebook page has nearly 500,000 “likes”.

“Protest at PM’s residence: 35 people detained, taken to Tughlaq Rd. PS, hundreds still there, come if you can #Janlokpal,” twitter user @janlokpal sent its followers in just one example of how the movement was rallying support.

Cases like Sharmila expose the digital divide of Asia’s third-largest economy and underscore how a growing urban middle class may be getting its political voice heard while millions of poor remain off the digital protest map.

In response to Anna’s invitiation to join the anti-corruption movement, Sharmila said "Please try to reach the concerned legislators (read authorities) to let me get free, like yours, to join your amazing crusade to root out corruption."

She added that ” I cannot get the advantage of exercising my non-violent protest for justice against my concerned authority as a democratic citizen of a democratic country, unlike your environment. This is the problem I cannot understand.”

"This is the first time digital social media has resonated with such a large number of people," said Nishant Shah, head of research at the Centre for Internet and Society think-tank.

"But this is far more of a middle class, urban movement, than a national movement. Many people in India are excluded from it."

Twitter and Facebook are barely used in many of India’s social causes, including battles over land rights that are one of India’s most pressing problems involving millions of farmers.

Digital Divide

India’s internet users have grown 1,400 percent between 2000 and 2010, behind only China and Vietnam among Asian countries, according to a report by Burson-Marsteller, a consulting firm. But that masks India’s low base. Internet penetration is around 8 percent in India, the lowest among major Asian countries.

That compares with nearly 40 percent in China. Out of a population of 1.2 billion, there are only 29 million people active in digital social networks. A report by Maplecroft consultancy warned that India was lagging other BRICs, Brazil, China and Russia in “digital inclusion”.

"India, for example, the wealthier, more affluent segment of the population, primarily based in urban areas, has embraced the use of modern communications technology,” the report said. “The vast majority of the population has, however, been excluded from this process."

Libya overshadowed

So far, private TV channels have provided 24-hour coverage of the protests— the news from Libya is hardly to be seen. Urban Indians with mobile phones in hand have dominated rallies in the open grounds where Hazare was on his second week of fasting.

Small protests across the country, from demonstrations outside ministers’ houses to rallies outside metro stations, have been organised through Twitter and Facebook.

An app that can be downloaded on to smartphones running the Android operating system gives users the latest news on the campaign for a tough “Jan lokpal”, or anti-corruption bill, and details of the latest meetings.

Watch video: A group of people who came together on facebook reached the Ramlila Maidan to show solidarity with Anna Hazare.

"Social media has been huge for us, it has a life of its own," said Shazia Ilmi, in charge of Hazare media strategy.

Even before Hazare was arrested last week, organisers had prepared a pre-recorded video from him that went on YouTube.

The movement does have deep roots and social media has widened the protests, if not caused them. Many of Hazare’s protests have also been through word of mouth. Corruption also affects the poor more than middle classes with endemic bribes, whether permission for street food stands or driving licences.

"It’s not an up and down, national movement. It is largely a middle class cause," said Sagarika Ghose, a novelist and journalist at the CNN-IBN news television channel. "But it’s hugely important one. For a younger generation, corruption has become a catch-all phrase for the failure of development."

Some activists are already criticising Hazare as a hype of an elitist social media.

You can view Irom Sharmila’s reply to Anna’s invitation below

Irom Sharmila Letter to Anna Hazare

This article was published in FirstPost.Ideas on 25 August 2011. The original story can be read here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/digital-divide