<nettime> INDIA, India, Wireless [3x]

["Frederick Noronha" <fred@bytesforall.org>]

Table of Contents:

   INDIA: Endangered: Wildlife Films                                               
     "Frederick Noronha" <fred@bytesforall.org>                                      

   India joins Creative Commons camp of building sharable knowledge                
     "Frederick Noronha" <fred@bytesforall.org>                                      

   Wireless networking for the 'developing' world...                               
     "Frederick Noronha" <fred@bytesforall.org>                                      



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Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:28:46 +0530
From: "Frederick Noronha" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: INDIA: Endangered: Wildlife Films

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main26.asp?filename=hub012707Endangered.asp

Endangered: Wildlife Films

With Wildscreen arriving in India, Shekhar Dattatri lays out the
pitfalls of Indian environment filmmaking

Wildscreen, arguably the world's most prestigious wildlife and
environmental film festival, is coming to India. Synonym-ous with
excellence in wildlife filmmaking, the mission of the 25-year-old
festival is to use the power of the moving image to promote the
appreciation and conservation of our living planet. Its Panda Awards
are to wildlife filmmakers what the Oscars are to the makers of
feature films. In the past, most entries for the awards tended to
be of the straight natural history variety, highly expensive 'blue
chip' films that were the virtual monopoly of the UK and the US. More
recently, however, a host of new categories have been introduced,
where content takes precedence over production values. This has opened
the field for filmmakers from countries like India, places where
there's enormous talent but where resources are slim.

Long Vigil: A still from the Animal Planet documentary, Meerkat
Manor, on at the festival The success of a few Indian films at recent
Wildscreens has made Indian filmmakers more aware of this festival. In
the early 90s, there were usually just two or three Indian faces in
the crowd. In 2004, India had the fourth largest number of delegates
of all the countries represented.

This increase in numbers, however, belies the sorry state of wildlife
filmmaking in the country. Not only are there no incentives for it
at all, there are a vast number of obstacles that make its survival
virtually impossible.

Unlike it or biotechnology, which generate thousands of jobs, bring
in huge foreign investment and provide valuable services cheap to
global markets, Indian wildlife filmmaking will do none of the
above, and is therefore of little or no interest to the government.
Indigenous television channels too are unlikely to venture into this
specialised segment, given the cost and time involved in producing
such programmes. But without local outlets that pay for and broadcast
fledgling productions, aspiring wildlife filmmakers don't have a
chance to hone their skills. Lacking experience, they will not be
able to compete with filmmakers from the West, who have a far greater
degree of access to knowledge, techniques, equipment and funding.
Wildscreen is entirely welcome, but its impact on filmmaking here is
debatable

The other great obstacle faced by Indian wildlife filmmakers is the
crippling cost of access to wildlife. All national parks and wildlife
sanctuaries in India are under the control of the respective state
governments, and special permits are required for filming in them.
Apart from the red tape that is enough to quell most ambitions,
there is no uniform policy or fee structure for filming. With the
enlightened exception of one or two states, Indian wildlife filmmakers
do not enjoy preferential rates for filming and have to pay the same
exorbitant fees as foreign crews. A good wildlife film can take over
a year to shoot, but with fees being what they are, Indian wildlife
filmmakers cannot afford to spend the time needed to gather footage.

Until a few years ago, a really determined Indian filmmaker could
just about scrape together enough money to buy a new or used 16mm or
Digi-Beta camera and a few lenses, and either independently produce
a film or get commissioned by a Western broadcaster. That era has
now passed into history, with the world firmly set on the path to
Hi-Definition broadcasting. To protect their considerable investments
in these programmes, most Western broadcasters now only accept films
shot with incredibly expensive Hi-Definition equipment, the kind most
Indian filmmakers can only fantasise about owning. Yet, without one's
own camera and specialised accessories, it is almost impossible to
make wildlife films. Hiring equipment from commercial rental houses
is highly expensive and impractical, given the uncertain durations of
shooting schedules and the hostile field conditions in which one has
to operate.

In the past, a few of us managed to 'make it' in the highly
competitive world of international television through a combination of
grit, native ingenuity, talent and, often, secondhand equipment. Could
I do it again if I had to start from scratch? I seriously doubt I have
the financial muscle it would take.

While the Wildscreen Festival in India is extremely welcome, its
potential impact on wildlife filmmaking in the country is debatable,
given the general lack of interest in this genre. The most unfortunate
thing is that even if the festival manages to enthuse a whole lot of
young people, nothing will change until India relaxes its restrictive
policies toward those producing documentaries.

Dattatri is an award-winning wildlife filmmaker. He served on the 2004
Wildscreen jury.
- --
FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please)
http://fn.goa-india.org  http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com



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Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 01:19:54 +0530
From: "Frederick Noronha" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: India joins Creative Commons camp of building sharable knowledge

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/24432.html

India joins Creative Commons camp of building sharable knowledge
Posted on : Sat, 27 Jan 2007 06:01:00 GMT

Mumbai, Jan 27 India's entry into the global Creative Commons network
that works to expand the range of creative work available for others
to build upon and share has been welcomed by Joichi Ito, chair of the
non-profit organisation.

Ito, chair of Creative Commons (CC), a 2001-founded non-profit
organisation, told IANS:

'India was probably the most significant country we had left out
(so far). It is important (for us) from an IT perspective and from
a growth perspective. It is a large country, with a significant
intellectual community, and a potential economic power.'

On Friday, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay saw the
launch of the Creative Commons (India) licenses and project.

CC has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons
licenses, the latest being one suited to Indian legal requirements.
These licenses, depending on the one chosen, restrict only certain
rights (or none) of the work.

I think India is not yet polluted with bad intellectual property
thinking. Young people are more open to the possibility of accepting
Open Source (in the software world) here. Like Brazil, he said.

Said the US-educated Japanese campaigner, venture capitalist and Net
entrepreneur: In the US even the kids think in terms of mainstream
media metaphors. They say they have to 'steal' music. The words they
use also assumes they are committing some crime.

He stressed to see the Creative Commons license as something more than
an act of rebellion.

Said Ito: Four years after its launch, Creative Commons has become
more mainstream, getting acceptance from (huge) companies like
Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. (Google and Yahoo allow users to search
for text, music, video that can be shared with the Creative Commons
licenses.)

In India, we'd like to see (this easy-to-share) license being used
for a very broad range of uses, whether it's university producers and
courseware, villagers with local content, or even Bollywood, he told
IANS minutes prior to the launch of the project for India.

We have spent a lot of time discussing about the needs of professional
producers to mass-produce content. But one of the main businesses on
the Internet today is to create opportunity to share their own work.
It's a multibillion dollar market even today. It's growing, said Ito.

Ito is himself also the general manager (international operations)
for the Internet search-engine for blogs Technorati, chairman of
Six Apart Japan, and Socialtext. He is the founder and CEO of the
venture capital firm Neoteny Co., Ltd. He is on the board of ICANN
(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the Open Source
Initiative, and Mozilla Foundation.

Later he called on Creative Commons supporters to help make it
ubiquitous. We don't win the argument until your grandmother can use
Creative Commons (licenses) without having to install some fancy thing
(on their computer), he said.

He argued that even commercially-driven Bollywood, India's mainstream
films sector, could gain a lot from Creative Commons licenses.

- --
FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please)
http://fn.goa-india.org  http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com



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Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 01:48:47 +0530
From: "Frederick Noronha" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: Wireless networking for the 'developing' world...

http://wndw.net/

The project

The massive popularity of wireless networking has caused equipment
costs to continually plummet, while equipment capabilities continue
to increase. By applying this technology in areas that are badly in
need of critical communications infrastructure, more people can be
brought online than ever before, in less time, for very little cost.
We hope to not only convince you that this is possible, but also show
how we have made such networks work, and to give you the information
and tools you need to start a network project in your local community.

The book

This book was created by a team of individuals who each, in their own
field, are actively participating in the ever-expanding Internet by
pushing its reach farther than ever before. Over a period of a few
months, we have produced a complete book that documents our efforts to
build wireless networks in the developing world.

We hope that you find these materials and this website useful. Please
feel free to contribute your own experiences on the wiki and mailing
list, and help make the next edition even better.

You can download the book in PDF form as a single file (2.0 MB), or in
chapters. The printed book

You can order a printed and bound copy of the book from Lulu.com, a
print-on-demand service. The PDF will be updated periodically, and
ordering from the print-on-demand service ensures that you will always
receive the latest revision. Resources

There are currently several volunteer translation projects underway.
Our readers have also contributed their own case studies and links
to useful sites. Please feel free to submit your own resources and
experiences on the wiki. More information

You can join our mailing list for discussion about the book. We also
host a wiki for ideas, corrections, and contributions to the book.

* * * * *

The Wireless Networking in the Developing World book can be freely
downloaded as pdf files as a whole or in single chapters. Complete
Book

Download the complete book for screen viewing (2.0 MB)

Download the complete book for print (9.4 MB) Chapters

Cover Download the Cover (252 KB)

About this Book Download the Introduction (96 KB)

Where to Begin Download the first chapter (84 KB)

A Practical Introduction to Radio Physics Download the second chapter
(184 KB)

Network Design Download the third chapter (508 KB)

Antennas & Transmission Lines Download the fourth chapter (976 KB)

Networking Hardware Download the fifth chapter (300 KB)

Security Download the sixth chapter (264 KB)

Building an Outdoor Node Download the seventh chapter (452 KB)

Troubleshooting Download the eighth chapter (168 KB)

Case Studies Download the ninth chapter (252 KB)

Appendices Download Appendix A and B (72 KB)

Please contact us if you have trouble downloading the book:
info@wndw.net

{Thanks to Monica Narula of Sarai.net for the link. --FN}
- --
FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please)
http://fn.goa-india.org  http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com





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