Blog posts
3,108 items.
14 Feb 2016
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There is No Such Thing as Free BasicsIndia would not see the rain of Free Basics advertisements on billboards with images of farmers and common people explaining how much they could benefit from this Firefox project. Because the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has …
14 Feb 2016
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The Aakash Tablet and Technological Imaginaries of Mass Education in Contemporary India (Excerpt)In a recently published paper, Jahnavi Phalkey and Sumandro Chattapadhyay explore public initiatives in technological solutions for educating the poor and the disadvantaged in independent India. Here is an edited excerpt from the paper that …
14 Feb 2016
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A Case for Greater Privacy Paternalism?This is the second part of a series of three articles exploring the issues with the privacy self management framework and potential alternatives.
12 Feb 2016
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India Electronics Week 2016 & the IoT ShowThe India Electronics Week 2016 was held at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre from 11th-13th January 2016, along with Bangalore's biggest IoT Exhibition and Conference, bringing the global electronics industry together. The …
11 Feb 2016
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Facebook's Fall from Grace: Arab Spring to Indian WinterFacebook’s Free Basics has been permanently banned in India! The Indian telecom regulator, TRAI has issued the world’s most stringent net neutrality regulation! To be more accurate, there is more to come from TRAI in terms of net neutrality …
11 Feb 2016
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Database on Big Data and Smart Cities International StandardsThe Centre for Internet and Society is in the process of mapping international standards specifically around Big Data, IoT and Smart Cities. Here is a living document containing a database of some of these key globally accepted standards.
9 Feb 2016
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RAW Lectures #02: Anil Menon on 'Speculative Fiction and Freedom' - VideoAnil Menon spoke on 'Undermining the Tyrant’s Protocols: Speculative Fiction and Freedom' at the second event of the RAW Lectures series in Bangalore on January 13, 2016. Here is the video recording of the talk and the discussion that …
5 Feb 2016
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Open Data Hackathons are Great, but Address Privacy and License ConcernsThis is to cross-publish a blog post from DataMeet website regarding a letter shared with the organisers of Urban Hack 2015, Bangalore, in response to a set of privacy and license concerns identified and voiced during the hackathon by …
5 Feb 2016
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Bottled-Up National AssetsApply electronic toll collection systems to roads, and adapt road network concepts in organizing and managing communications networks.
3 Feb 2016
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This little innovation is bringing a revolution in the Odia languageDepicting human language within computing environments has always been a challenge: a given language's script and alphabet needs to be mapped to a coding system that a computer can process digitally. This is done by way of an encoding …
30 Jan 2016
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WikipediansSpeak: Odia Wikisourcer Shares her Journey and GoalsThe most active editor on the Odia Wikisource is Pankajmala Sarangi, a native of Odisha who now lives in New Delhi, where she works at a non-profit. As a leader in a broad community that is dominated by males—indeed, she is the most active …
30 Jan 2016
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The Internet Has a New Standard for CensorshipThe introduction of the new 451 HTTP Error Status Code for blocked websites is a big step forward in cataloguing online censorship, especially in a country like India where access to information is routinely restricted.
29 Jan 2016
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CIS's Comments on the CCWG-Accountability Draft ProposalThe Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) gave its comments on the failures of the CCWG-Accountability draft proposal as well as the processes that it has followed.
28 Jan 2016
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Summary of the Public Consultation by Vigyan Foundation, Oxfam India and G.B. Pant Institute, AllahabadOn December 22nd and 23rd a public consultation was organized by the Vigyan Foundation, Oxfam India and G.B. Pant Institute, Allahabad at the GB Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad to discuss the issues related to making Allahabad into …
28 Jan 2016
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CIS' submission to Indian Patent Office on Examples of Excluded Patentable subject-matter under Section 3(k) for incorporation in the yet-to-be-released Guidelines for Computer Related InventionsThe Patent Office had put the Guidelines on Computer Related Inventions, 2015 in abeyance last month. This step was taken after several stakeholders including CIS made representations to the Office about serious substantive legal issues in …
27 Jan 2016
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ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନିରାପତ୍ତା ଓ ଗୋପନୀୟତାର କୋକୁଆ ଆଣିବ ଫେସବୁକର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସThis opinion piece in Odia on Facebook's Free Basics App was published in Your Story. The post highlights several user security and privacy that Free Basics is violating apart from violating net neutrality. It also brings the parallel of …
27 Jan 2016
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କେତେ ମାଗଣା ଫେସବୁକର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ?This opinion piece in Odia on Facebook's Free Basics App was published in Odisha.com. The post highlights several user security and privacy that Free Basics is violating apart from violating net neutrality. It also brings the parallel of …
27 Jan 2016
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This Multilingual Edit-a-thon wants to Improve Indian Content on WikipediaEver wondered how many articles the Kannada Wikipedia or the Hindi Wikipedia have relating to India, its social history, literary and cultural heritage and the journey of over 1600 languages?
26 Jan 2016
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Why It's Essential To Grow Indian-Language WikipediasOn 15 January, Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia celebrated its 15th birthday, meeting this milestone with 36 million articles in more than 290 languages (the English-language Wikipedia alone has crossed the 5-million article mark). …
23 Jan 2016
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Transparency in SurveillanceTransparency is an essential need for any democracy to function effectively. It may not be the only requirement for the effective functioning of a democracy, but it is one of the most important principles which need to be adhered to in a …
20 Jan 2016
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Pervasive Technologies Project Presentations at the 4th Global Congress, 2015These are the presentations made by the members of the PT Project team at the 4th Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, 2015 at National Law University, New Delhi.
19 Jan 2016
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NASSCOM-DSCI Annual Information Security Summit 2015 - NotesNASSCOM-DSCI organised the 10th Annual Information Security Summit (AISS) 2015 in Delhi during December 16-17. Sumandro Chattapadhyay participated in this engaging Summit. He shares a collection of his notes and various tweets from the …
15 Jan 2016
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The two-faced FRAND: Licensing and injunctive relief in ICTsImportant takeaways from the Indo-Europe Conference on Building a Sustainable IPR-ICT Ecosystem for Promoting Innovation, held in Bangalore in November 2015. Ericsson and the Indian Cellular Association presented an interesting set of views …
15 Jan 2016
14 Jan 2016
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ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ କିଛି ଅନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପWith more free and open software coming in, more people are coming together and collaborating. The ownership of various projects are coming from bigger corporations to the hands of people. It is essential to learn about the global, …
14 Jan 2016
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Internet Researchers' Conference 2016 (IRC16) - Selected SessionsWe are proud to announce that the first Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC16), organised around the theme of 'studying internet in India,' will be held on February 26-28, 2016, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. We are …
13 Jan 2016
12 Jan 2016
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ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର: ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଡିଜିଟାଲ ପାଠାଗାର ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନର ନୂଆ ମୁହଁMany would be searching for Odia-language books on the internet. Many would feel like correcting typos and other mistakes when found while reading a book, even online. Odia Wikisource is as a platform all those book lovers who want to read …
12 Jan 2016
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Pre-Budget Consultation 2016 - Submission to the IT Group of the Ministry of FinanceThe Ministry of Finance has recently held pre-budget consultations with different stakeholder groups in connection with the Union Budget 2016-17. We were invited to take part in the consultation for the IT (hardware and software) group …
12 Jan 2016
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Digital Futures of Indian Languages - Notes from the ConsultationA consultation on 'digital futures of Indian languages' was held at the CIS office in Bangalore on December 12, 2015, to generate ideas and structure the Indian languages focus area of the CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF). It was led by …