Blogs
An analysis of the draft National Policy of ICTs in School Education (NPISE)
Early this year, the Ministry of Human Resources Development initiated a process of formulating a National Policy of ICTs in School Education (NPISE). However, the draft policy as it stands, has several issues which need to be addressed. This posting looks at those issues and ways to address them:
Critical Internet Resources – What are the issues surrounding it
The meaning of Critical Internet resources as seen in the context of the Internet governance is not a well known phenomenon. In this blog, Parminder Jeet Singh dwells on the concept of Critical Internet resources and looks at the issues which make Critical Internet Resources what it is.
ICTs and Education – Can we afford to miss the bus?
There is a perception amongst certain quarters of the education fraternity that the introduction of ICTs in education is not very meaningful for a variety of reasons. These reasons may extend from lack of electricity to operate the ICT devices or the dominance of corporate led models which seem to be the only providers of ICT content in education thereby making it expensive and unaffordable. However while all the arguments mentioned above may be true, what is equally compelling and what needs to be answered is whether one can really afford to ignore this opportunity and what are those conditions which need to be encouraged to create an inclusive environment for ICTs in education.
Marketing Mobiles for Development?
This posting comes in response to a query on a leading list serving calling for solutions/experiences that can address issues of community participation in e-governance projects and the positive role that mobile telephony can play in this regard.
Why and how is ICANN an exclusionary space?
The role of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has been much debated over the past few years for various reasons. While ICANN claims itself to be an organisation which is purely into technical oversight of the Internet, there are several instances which prove that issues which are passed off as ‘technical’ clearly have a political hue to it, which brings it in the domain for public policy. By denying that it is the de facto institution which makes public policy and yet indulging in decisions which affect the lives of the entire world community, ICANN has clearly proved that there is an urgent need of an alternative governance framework which will address issues of Internet Governance.
Community Radio as a shared infrastructure
This is a response to an email on the community radio forum, seeking reasons for slow take up of community radio among NGOs.
Excerpts from the original e-mail in response to which this posting has been written have been reproduced below.
The case of IT policy and civil society non-engagement
This musing is in response to an article on Internet censorship which I read today morning. ( The article is posted below ). The article talks about the fact that a man who was arrested for allegedly tainting the image of 'Shivaji' - a prominent Maratha(Hindu) ruler, over Orkut was finally released after 50 days because they had got the wrong guy and he in fact was innocent.
What is disturbing is the fact that this person was behind bars for 50 days. I mean we know that there are probably hundreds of thousands of people in India and all over the world even who are behind bars for donkeys years without facing any kind of trail/not knowing why there are in there in the first place, however there are 2 aspects to this story which appals me
Arguments for FOSS - from political, economic social perspectives
The debate on Free and Open Source software versus proprietary software has often got bogged down in 'its free' versus 'it is not free' arguments. However there are other critical aspects that need to be considered. The argument for FOSS is looked at from different perspectives in this note.
