Kapil Sibal - Internet Censorship in India

Until the last week, he was more famous as the man who brought to the world, the $35 laptop. And today, he is a laughing stock, not only amongst us Indians, but also in tech blogs worldwide. Even Engadget (Link) is reporting this as a shameful initiative. And if we go by the trending hashtags of Twitter in India, you will find the top 5 to be pointing towards Mr. Kapil Sibal’s idiocy. This is a Harvard and St.Tephen’s alumni we’re talking about, who is now the Minster of Communications and IT in India. What made Mr.Sibal turn on his own head to become Mr.Scissorshands with the Internet?

I cannot decide if the initiative announced by Mr.Sibal to censor “the internet” is more stupid, or is it the incident which triggered this initiative which deserves a place on the stupid-er throne. He picked a post that targeted Sonia Gandhi, to be the reason why he wants the internet in India to be screened, censored and then released for the public. Now, I am not speaking in favour of anyone’s motive to malign a public figure. But across the world, we have a lot of “I hate abc” and “I love abc” clubs. The fact that a public figure like Sonia Gandhi has been picked on, and Mr.Sibal feels the need to censor the entire fucking internet in India is beyond me (well, I know his motive, well, sort of). So, here is my open letter to Mr Sibal.

@Mr Kapil Sibal :

I will try to keep it simple, and for your understanding, will present it to you in the form of bullet points.

#1.  The internet, as they showed in the IT Crowd, is not a simple box. So, if you want an initiative to scan through the whole internet, please get a reality check. Here are some stats for a starter.

There are 48 hours of YouTube video uploaded every minute, and 250 million tweets are generated per day. (Source: Labnol).

And that is just two websites. We are forgetting user generated forums, blogs, self hosted websites, Facebook, YouTube alternatives etc. etc. And oh, there are also proxy servers, and VPN networks to allow people to access anything from anywhere. Is this getting too technical for your liking? Good!

And the fact that you want, not algorithms to scan them through, but actual humans to do it for you is in itself worthy of an applause (sarcasm, check)! Best of luck with that. Perhaps, this might be your new Yuva Naukri Yojna (Youth Employment Scheme).

#2. Censor the internet you say? Why does it give me a deja-vú of what happened in Egypt and Libya? Oh yeah, they did it there, didn’t they? Speaking of blanket filtering of content, isn’t that reminiscent of China’s Internet filters. So, in the largest democracy in the world, are we now opting *that* as a role model?

#3. I would like to point you Mr.Sibal, towards a recently premiered TV series called Black Mirror – it is an interesting watch (review with spoilers here). The premise, is of a YouTube viral video released to the nation (UK). The video features a kidnapped Princess, who is faced with a death threat, and in ransom demand, the PM has to perform an obscene act involving a pig.

Now I know the UK is a different nation altogether, with different political and national sensibilities. But it is still similar in some respects. Like, the UK has its Royal family, and the Congress would like to believe the Gandhi family is India’s political royalty. But there is more to take in from this TV series.

The government tries to take down the ransom video from YouTube, but with every single video taken down, 6 clones would be uploaded the very next minute. This goes to show, that unlike traditional media, the internet is beyond territorial regulations, and can be made available from ​anywhere across the world. So, if you think that you can censor the internet with India, how are you going to control the millions of Pravasi Bhartiyas from creating another Facebook page?

#4. Last but not the least, Sonia Gandhi is a public figure. She might be an icon to the Congress, but she is just another democratically elected Member of the Parliament for me and the 1.2 billion Indians. So the whole objective of censoring internet to be triggered by this so called “I Hate abc” page, just goes to show the seriousness of your concern towards the Indian democracy.

I hope you read this, and I hope that you release an apology letter soon. I also hope that your trending hashtag finishes its innings sooner than Rakhi Sawant’s last breaking news. I miss Chetan Bhagat on my twitter hashtag.

Sincerely,

An online Indian.

The Finnish Mobile Giant is inviting innovators from all over the world to take part in the Innovators Contest 2008. Visit the Official Website here, to enter and apply for the contest.

The contest is looking for innovators to develop mobile applications which solve or tackle problems in three major areas. They are:-

Eco-Challenge: This is a challenge for innovators to develop mobile applications which have direct or indirect connection with keeping the environment safe and working towards a greener earth. So be it from from reminding of battery charging, or energy conservation applications or recycling tips, this section of applications will be something to look forward to.

Emerging Markets: This set of applications are supposed to be aimed at the next billion mobile users. The mobile phone is never the same old black and white screened thing which used to make just calls on the go. It is a PMP, a Camera, a Personal Organizer, a Calculator and so much more. And with emerging competition (read Apple and other smartphones) what would/should the Mobile Giant’s next generation of Billion phones possess to carry on the legacy of being the world leader. This section will definitely see the peak of innovation explored and exploited.

Technology Showcase: The name says it all. The criteria here would be-How Cool you could get! That’s it.

Check out the official rules and regulations here on the Nokia Page. And Happy innovating.

An early morning dose of 440 volts ran down my spine when I dragged my drowsy eyes on the front page of TimeofIndia. The headline read-CAT to be held online from November 2009: IIM. And I said to myself -nothing. So finally it has happened. At par with the other global examinations for graduates applying for B-Schools, in India CAT is synonymous to GMAT multiplied a million times in terms of difficulty, prestige and desire. I know it because I have appeared for it twice, both attempts failed miserably. However, this year the exam goes ahead to adapt the online format being followed by other well known tests like GRE, GMAT , IELTS and TOEFL.The problem however is the format that is being speculated. Unlike GMAT or GRE, CAT used to be a one day in a year affair (more like a annual festival for veterans like me). But with the current scenario, it will be impossible for CAT to be held on a single date. Primarily because every year hundreds of thousands aspirants appear for it. The numbers speak for themselves. 2007-2.3 lakh (230k)appeared and this year the estimated figure will be almost 3 lakhs (300k).

With that many students hopeful to appear online simultaneously, the immediate pressure is on the infrastructure required to conduct an online test of that proportion. Not only providing enough machines for the examinees spread across different centres in the country, but also the subsequent evaluation process. In case the test has to be made available on the same day, at the same time, the servers have to be robust enough to support the procedure(given the fame that IIM servers hold during the results announcement time that sounds a huge task to do). And as predicted, this procedure is going to be outsourced to a third party vendor, however IIM will have the supreme authority.

Consequently CAT will no longer be a one-day affair and shall now span across a set of dates in a month or months. Yet another addition to the format is the single paper format is now being modified into different papers similar to GMAT( which actually boils down to the same stuff coz there were different sections previously, now it’s papers.) But unlike GMAT, the results here will not be announced instantly. So there’s still the scenario of the almost two months of dreaded wait.

Other issues facing the exam’s new format might be Security. The stringent security policy which has been synonymous with CAT for so long, might face a big question mark now that the test arrangements are being done by a third party vendor. Not only tha, how secure would be the online security is another question. Seems like all coaching classes are soon gonna install computers and start simulating online mock CATs and come November, we might actually get to see the very first online CAT. Meowww!!

Image Source:inthebag.golf

It seems to me now that Tech News is in desperate need of something on the lines of tabloids or the P3 Glitterati; of course Porn being one of its Paris Hiltons. No one can doubt about the online traffic and revenue that porn generates, especially because of its paid nature and ahem! because of its nature as well. Until well, Ning.com came up with the new in-thing-sub-domain parking of the porn kind, and well,shockingly, the entire web world stood up and took notice, like it never had been done before. In some way or the other, sub-domain hosting of pornography has always existed, well since Blogger or even WordPress days. Would love to know the statistics, as this is is going to be much larger than Ning’s.

Or just consider, the living room of Internet-MySpace where almost everyone has his/her presence felt, which again includes yummy profiles. So what exactly is the fuss about the Naughty Ning? I can see Google’s orkut feeling embarrassed now crying out loud, ” Me too,..I also host online sluts , but where is my coverage ? “. Playboy University Social Network is built on Ning platform. Surprisingly here, nudity is strictly prohibited. Now that’s the news which should take center-stage.

As far as people into PORN are concerned, I guess there’s no stopping for them. If NING is going to get busted, there are a million others who are getting spawned as we speak. Do we need a Techmeme front page coverage for the other available options?

Sources:CPM Advisors; Mashable; CenterNetworks.