Sarai I-Fellowship Posting 3.0

The summarized form of my third Sarai Independent Fellowship post (uploaded onto the Sarai Reader List on 23rd June, 2007) is given below. Note that this is essentially an intro to the detailed sub-posts that I'm publishing here on this blog subsequently, which will be up in a day (apologies for the delay; I've had to travel somewhere urgently on short notice).

"Hello all,

I'm extremely sorry for the considerable delay on my part in putting up this third post of mine. I've set up a blog at http://stateoftheweb.blogspot.com where I've put up an expanded write-up on this post. I've decided to only post summaries here on the Readers-List in order to cut down on the amount of material you all have to read at one go here. I'll post a summary of each entry here on the list so you all know when I make a new post there along with an idea of what the expansive post is about. The expansive notes for this post will be up on my blog in a day or so. But without further adieu, let me give you a summarized update on what I've been doing. I've got several books examining the subject of how the Internet is regulated, and specifically how the nation state relates to this.

I've currently read "Who Controls the Internet" by Goldsmith and Wu, whose essential argument supported by their research is that the Internet is well within the ambit of regulation by national governments. This is a counter to a very widespread view among the initial users, developers, and entrepreneurs of the Internet that it was an essentially libertarian space which couldn't be subject to regulation, especially that of traditional nation states. There are other writers dealing with this subject that I'm currently reading, these being Lessig in "Code 2.0", and Giacomello in "National Governments and Control of the Internet". You'll find a detailed look at all of this in my blog. I've also put up a rough chronology of the known "active" attempts by the Indian State to regulate speech and expression on the Internet across the years till now on my blog as well.

An interesting glance into the Indian psyche concerning speech and the Internet was presented by a recent episode of "We the People" on NDTV. The striking feature about all of that was the absolute lack of any clear mention of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression with relation to Internet activity. I've posted a detailed look on it on my blog, and I'm trying to obtain a copy of the programme along with any research and production note to add to the archival material that I'll submit. I'd appreciate any help on how to go about to obtain this from NDTV if anyone has experience on how such things work.

I'm currently planning on interviewing people next week in Delhi. The person that I'm meeting first is Dr Gulshan Rai, who's with the Department of IT and a name most people know in relation to the blocking of certain blogs last year by the Government of India. I also try meeting heads of Internet Service Providers in Delhi. What I want to do though is survey these providers along with local establishments such as Internet cafes in order to see how they are subject to regulation by the local administration and police."