Via: Shekhar Krishnan
Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use web browser extension to
help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It has been
developed by the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason
University http://chnm.gmu.edu and is now in use by thousands of
historians, anthropologists, journalists, lawyers and other
researchers.
Zotero is an open source alternative to citation tools like Endnote, and
lives inside of your browser, allowing you to automatically capture and
manage sources and citations in online catalogues, archives, and other
repositories, as well as taking notes, tagging these materials, and
exporting bibliographies in various formats. For more information and to
download and install Zotero, go to http://www.zotero.org
Zotero requires use of Firefox 2.0, the latest version of the popular
open source web browser from the Mozilla Corporation. If you don't
already use Firefox or haven't yet upgraded to the new version 2.0, go
to http://www.getfirefox.com to download it. Once you've installed it or
upgraded your earlier version, go to the Zotero site to download and
install the extension for Firefox 2.0.
Best,
S.K.
Via: "Tasveer Ghar"
Dear Friends
We are delighted to announce the launch of Tasveer Ghar: A Digital
Network of South Asian Popular Visual Culture. Tasveer Ghar is a
trans-national virtual "home" for collecting, digitizing, and
documenting various materials produced by South Asia's exciting
popular visual sphere including posters, calendar art, pilgrimage maps
and paraphernalia, cinema hoardings, advertisements, and other forms
of street and bazaar art.
Tasveer Ghar invites proposals for its first short-term fellowship
involving the collection and documentation of popular visual arts with
a focus on "Gender, Nation and Spaces for the Everyday", resulting in
the digitization of the collected specimens and their virtual
exhibition on the website of Tasveer Ghar at the end of the
fellowship.
This fellowship is ideally meant for individuals or groups who already
have an important collection of popular arts that needs to be
archived, digitized, or restored, but may not have the resources or
know-how to go about doing that. We are also open to proposals that
seek to start a new collection or document/photograph something that
is available in a public space and needs urgent attention (say, some
unique political graffiti on the streets of Kolkata!). Currently we
offer this fellowship to individuals or groups based in India only. In
exceptional cases, we may consider projects from outside India, but
the subject of research/documentation would have to be Indian and the
artwork needs to be sent to New Delhi, India.
The Tasveer Ghar Fellowship 2007 is a meant for a period of 6 months,
starting June 2007. The last date for the submission of proposals is
April 30, 2007.
For more information on what we mean by popular visual culture, who is
eligible to apply to this fellowship, and what one is expected to do
during this fellowship, kindly visit our website www.tasveerghar.net,
or write to us at tasveerghar@gmail.com
We invite you—as friend, colleague, and partner—to join this
initiative in whatever capacity that you are comfortable with. Kindly
see our detailed Call for Proposals on the website. We also request to
kindly forward this message to many more friends and inststitutions
that maybe interested in such an initiative.
Looking forward to hearing from you all.
Christiane Brosius
Sumathi Ramaswamy
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
Yousuf Saeed
http://www.tasveerghar.net
Via: Rahul Asthana
Shuddha,
Suggesting to ignore the posting of someone is
condescensionintolerance in my book.It may not be to
you,and I do realize that making that ad hominem
remark displayed my intolerance,so I apologise for
that Anyway this is the last I have to say on this
account.
My more pertinent point was that Islamophobes (I am
using this word instead of your Hindutva vadis,
because one may not always be the other and vice
versa) are not aliens. Some of them may be your
family members,close friends,colleagues etc. They just
should not be labelled and ignored, but engaged. If Ms
Jogi is on this list, it is because she wants to have
a dialogue, whatever the tone of that interaction may
be.
But anyway, to each their own, I guess.
Thanks
Rahul
--- Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote:
> Dear Rahul, Vedavati, Abhik (and everyone else on
> this list)
>
> 1. Every list member is free to express their views
> on this list. This
> list does not have a policy of banning any member,
> or censoring content.
> This is not going to change. I think that the value
> of the freedom of
> expression on this list is far greater than the
> consequences of having
> to deal occasionally with the excesses of some of
> our fellow members. If
> we ban Vedavati for something that she may have
> said, then we will set
> an unfortunate precedent by which people may keep
> calling for bans on
> people they do not agree with, eventually, this will
> lead to the death
> of debate and dissent on this list. I would not like
> things to come to
> such a pass.
>
> 2. I have never suggested that Vedavati be banned,
> or that her posts be
> censored, neither now, nor on earlier occasions. So,
> I do not quite see
> how 'fake and hollow...the liberalism and tolerance'
> that I 'wear on
> (my) sleeve is in the face of handling Vedavati's
> posts' actually is.
> (as has been suggested by Rahul Asthana). If anyone
> else actually sees
> how 'fake and hollow' it is, I would be grateful if
> they could enlighten
> me, so that I can take measures to endow my
> liberality and tolerance
> with authenticity and depth. I had suggested that
> spats of this nature
> (as had occurred between Vedavati and Abhik) be
> ignored in the larger
> interests of the discursive life of this list. To
> advise fellow list
> members to ignore a provocation is not the same as
> asking for the
> provocator to be banned. Until and unless it can be
> demonstrated that I
> have asked for a gag order on Vedavati, it remains
> to be demonstrated as
> to how fake and hollow my liberality and tolerance
> actually are. I am
> willing to wait patiently for that to be
> demonstrated.
>
> 3. An aside : I find Sunandan's responses to
> 'Vedavatism' very
> appropriate, and I think that hindutva apologists
> are best disarmed with
> a refined sense of the absurd. Sunandan's response
> has a sophistication
> that I find it possible to learn from.
>
> 4. I prefer visible to invisible biases. My biases
> have never been
> invisible. I take special care to render them
> visible in everything I
> write. I think this makes for transparent and open
> debate.
>
> 5. The responsibility of being a participant in a
> free and uncensored
> list requires me occasionally to make my stand
> clear, in this case, I
> have only stated that I disagree with neither the
> content of Vedavati's
> interventions, nor the tenor of Abhik Samanta's
> response to those
> interventions. Failing to do so, would make me
> complicit in endorsing
> one or the other of these stances. I wish to do
> neither.
>
> 6. To fight what I think is secterian hatred with
> misogyny seems to me
> to betray a poverty of discursive imagination. I
> hope that the list can
> rise above this, and would welcome (if others so
> desire) a serious
> debate on issues of religion, nationalism and
> identity on the list. It
> would be preferable if such a debate could
> articulate a complex range of
> issues without getting stuck in the rut of the
> vocabulary of reciprocal
> abuse and name calling, so that we dont have to
> waste our time and
> limited attention spans in clearing the air in the
> wake of particularly
> offensive posts. At the risk of repetition, let me
> state that I would
> personally welcome a serious intervention from
> Vedavati, or from any
> person sympathetic to her positions, that can be
> debated seriously,
> without anyone having to deal with the detritus of
> personal and ad
> hominem attacks.
>
> 7. To do this, we (including Vedavati, or Abhik, or
> anyone else) do not
> necessarily have to descend to the level of
> references to the
> desirability of 'wrapping the bodies of muslim
> terrorists pigs' or to
> references to a fellow list member's personal life
> (or lack of it).
>
> 8. If anyone chooses to do so, it can only be seen
> as evidence of their
> propensity for grandstanding, their willingness to
> be trapped in a never
> ending game of reciprocal abuse, and a profound lack
> of seriousnes.
>
> 9.Finally, I think everyone's point of view, no
> matter how objectionable
> it may be to anyone else, deserves a fair hearing,
> but I also think that
> this does mean that a person who sort of keeps
> grinding away at
> monotonously offensive register riskes having
> themselves ignored by
> others on the list. Eventually they may well find
> themselves isolated.
> This list will never ban anyone, but a list that
> does not ban is also
> very good at ignoring, isolating and cornering
> posters who deliberately,
> and time and again make offensive postings. I would
> suggest that it be
> understood that being ignored, isolated, cornered
> and exposed is a fate
> far worse than being banned, because it does not
> come laden with the
> promise of the potential glamour of being identified
> as someone who is
> subject to censorship. Sometimes, to not be censored
> for what one says
> is far more damaging to the self than to be censored
> for what one says.
> I hope Vedavati and Abhik both understand this,
> because each callous
> statement that they (or anyone else) make(s) only
> exposes them further
> in the eyes of this entire discursive community.
>
> Enough said, now I would like to get back to work
> and get on with my life,
>
> thank you, and apologies in advance for any offence
> caused deliberately,
> or inadvertently to anyone on this list by this
> post. I mean that seriously.
>
> regards
>
> Shuddha
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Rahul Asthana wrote:
> > Shuddha,
> > For whatever its worth, I dont agree to your
> divisive
> > "us" and "them" labelling and tactics of
> promoting
> > exclusivity and discouraging dialogue;which is
> akin to
> > what our politicians want so that they have their
> own
> > constituenties of voters who vote on non issues
> > Precisely for the reason that I dont agree with
> > Vedavati, I hope she continues posting here and
> time
> > permitting I will try and have a dialogue with
> her,as
> > I have in the past.And your bias is clearly
> visible
> > when you somehow seem to understand Aviks post.
> > I personally dont give a damn who said what to
> > whom..(people have abused me in the past) but
> perhaps
> > some of you who wear your liberalism and tolerance
> on
> > your sleeve would realise how fake and hollow it
> is
=== message truncated ===
Via: Irina Aristarkhova
There has been moderately active Linux community in Russia, with
availability of cheap hardware and good programming skills. However,
there has been little government or institutional support, and a lack
of understanding of why one would want not to use Windows. But not
anymore.
Runet and Russian official media have been flooded with discussions
and instructions on open source, and what it would take to drop
Microsoft 'soft' altogether. All this has been prompted by the recent
legal case of 'Microsoft versus Ponosov'. Alexander Ponosov is a
school director from a Perm' region (Ural mountains), who does not
seem to be an 'advanced' Windows user himself (which in Russia
usually means word, exel and powerpoint). However, he was charged
with violating Microsoft copyright, and under the current legal
provision could be sentenced for 5 years in jail. Plus Micrisoft side
demanded 266.593.63 roubles (presumably calculated to equal 10.000
dollars, but the dollar is falling), from a school director whose
salary is probably 200-300 dollars per month (at best!).
What is it all about? 20 computers in his school computer lab, with
illegal copies of Windows, claims Microsoft side, that violates
piracy law and its IP.
It started as a quiet case, but gradually became a matter of national
concern. It became about "American multi-national mammoth
corporation" against "a little man" of our own. The fact that Ponosov
(whose name, curiously, might be translated both as related to 'nose'
as well as 'diarrhea' that is widely referred to in Runet) looked
like he had no clue what it is all about, was an 'ordinary' man,
making very little money in a remote secondary school, unconnected to
IT sector, showed how unwise Microsoft actions were. Until then
Russia was demonstratively trying hard to fit Western IP laws. But 5
years in jail for 20 computers in a school lab?
First, Russian bloggers started flooding Microsoft with letters that
they all use pirated Windows, and that they are ready to go to jail
for Ponosov. He had no idea what was on those computers, while they,
real programmers and IT geeks, know what they are doing. Take me!
Leave a poor school teacher alone! they were typing and e-mailing off.
Second, Russian television and press jumped on this out of control,
pressing local authorities to think further (at first it seemed as if
Microsoft surely had the case, and would win it. Ponosov was visibly
worried that he would lose).
Microsoft corporation still had no comment, saying it is handled by
its office in Moscow.
Third, Gorbachev wrote an open letter to Bill Gates, asking him to
personally interfere, and stop the case. Putin called the case "dog's
rubbish".
It was becoming an international scandal for Microsoft. And Bill
Gates in his reply to Gorbachev distanced himself and his corporation
from this case, arguing that it was started by Russians against
Russians, and Microsoft had nothing to do with it.
Meanwhile, Ponosov was becoming more and more visible and vocal,
giving interviews to BBC and other major media.
About two weeks ago a judge ruled that this case should be dismissed,
since the charges (10,000 dollars and 5 years in jail) were
unreasonable.
Ponosov is unhappy and plans to appeal, he wants to be declared
'innocent'. Microsoft lost a very important case, made more important
by its own making. And Russian officials, schools and Runet are busy
discussing what it would take NOT to use Windows. They are not sure
yet, and they feel it is a difficult task (Office price is about 5
dollars for a pirated copy). But they've started discussing it. For
the first time so seriously and openly.
Irina Aristarkhova
PS. This is a short extract from one of the letters to Moscow
Microsoft head Olga Dergunova:
"Respected and Dear Olga,
My name is Sasha, I live in Mitischi (near Moscow), and I am 30 years
old. I have never - you hear me? never - bought any licensed
software. And I never will. Let me know if you want my passport
number, my address, and go ahead, sue me. I'd be only happy. I have
about 15 unlicensed Microsoft products installed on my laptop. All of
it - pirated. I am not ashamed, and please do not tell me about
programmers who want to eat. ... Sue me, not Ponosov. And sue another
one million people like me. It is not about love: that we do not love
you personally, or Bill Gates - abstractly. We love everybody. It is
you who hate us." (translated from a full letter and a blog at
http://forum.msk.ru/material/news/19486.html)
Via: Iram Ghufran
Dear Friends (all members of the Reader List in Delhi),
You are cordially invited to an illustrated lecture by Shuddhabrata
Sengupta - (see below) - this is an attempt to to mark one year of
reflection on the 'Danish Cartoon Controversy' that came to a head
across the world around this time last year.
The lecture is tomorrow (28th February, at 4:30 p.m.) at Sarai-CSDS
Best
Iram
Via: "Shivam Vij"
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Via: Jeebesh Bagchi
This debate has a very ambivalent undercurrent.
The ambivalence is around the "assumed critical consensus" of the
list members.
Most "critical" writing mounts its position or analysis on such a
consensus . Usually the consensus is guessed or approximated ("anuman
lagate hain") and we carry on with the work of "critique". But given
the fractious nature of contemporary intellectual life, consensus is
much more fragile and breaks down with a little provocation (thus
deliberate provocations work well as a tactics.)
The problem is how to think about the "zone of breakdown".
(we are surrounded by this point of breakdown and I am sure in our
love lives we have learnt a few lessons about it :-)
What breaks down? Is there a fear associated with this breakdown?
What is the nature of this fear?
Responses of exasperation or abuse or rage or moral righteousness or
a defense of oneself do not address this question. The interesting
question is how do we listen when faced with this "breakdown"? Do we
act as if nothing has happened? Or hurriedly act to rectify thinking
that something (wrong or bad) can happen? Or find a way to think what
is at stake when faced with the uncertain and nameless terrain opened
up by the breakdown?
Is it possible to have a free and transparent mode of writing? Isn't
all writing an attempt to grapple with multiple and contradictory
impulses, and thus lists can best survive as a mass of chaotic
utterances, rather than a affirmative and comforting space?
I would think this ambivalence could be seen as productive and
creative. Was discussing an audio recording of a PR person of a
security industry with my colleague Iram, and both of us were
surprised how much of the text of this PR persuasion exercise was
based of an assumed consensus around security and thus making
possible the speech act of the PR agent. The PR agent needed our
fear, our sense of threat, our fascination with technology and our
surrender to bounded space. (to unpack this is really difficult
intellectual exercise as we realized over a few days.)
warmly
jeebesh
On 27-Feb-07, at 1:39 PM, Aman Sethi wrote:
> Rahul,
>
> I think (at the risk of mixing my metaphors) that you seem to be
> missing the woods for the trees while jumping the gun. While your
> willingness to engage with whoever you want is entirely your own
> decision, vedavati's posts don't seem to have much to engage with -
> they seem to be rather poorly wrought attempts at provocation.
> Your idea seems more an attempt to show her the error of her ways -
> something that you are free to do.
>
> What i would like to engage with is something that i have noticed
> in a huge number of posts on this list - particularly on subjects
> such as this one - the "pseudo-secularist", "hollow liberal",
> "supposed intellectual" label that is bandied abt with much
> freedom. The idea behind such labels seems to be to prove to
> people that they arent really who they think they are - but are
> infact imposters masquerading as "liberals", "secularists", or
> "intellectuals". Why? Why the urge to a) affix a label onto the
> object of ure ire- and b) to try and tear from them any ideas they
> might have of themselves - it is indeed a disturbing practice.
>
> Best
> A.
>
> On 2/27/07, Rahul Asthana wrote: Shuddha,
> For whatever its worth, I dont agree to your divisive
> "us" and "them" labelling and tactics of promoting
> exclusivity and discouraging dialogue;which is akin to
> what our politicians want so that they have their own
> constituenties of voters who vote on non issues
> Precisely for the reason that I dont agree with
> Vedavati, I hope she continues posting here and time
> permitting I will try and have a dialogue with her,as
> I have in the past.And your bias is clearly visible
> when you somehow seem to understand Aviks post.
> I personally dont give a damn who said what to
> whom..(people have abused me in the past) but perhaps
> some of you who wear your liberalism and tolerance on
> your sleeve would realise how fake and hollow it is in
> the face of handling Vedavati's posts.
> Regards
> Rahul
> --- Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote:
>
> > Dear All,
> >
> > Let me clarify at the very beginning that I find the
> > contents of the
> > exchange between Vedavati and Abhit (which we have
> > all been subjected to
> > because of Vedavati's forward, with comment, of
> > Abhik's off list email
> > to her) sad and deplorable. While Abhik's language
> > betrays an
> > unfortunate misogyny, Vedavati's postings and
> > responses are not exactly
> > exemplars of liberality and tolerance.
> >
> > This is not the first time that Vedavati Jogi has
> > posted material on
> > this list that many on this list will find
> > objectionable, just as there
> > are many others on this list who post material that
> > Vedavati, and
> > perhaps some others on this list might have found
> > objectionable. We have
> > had other instances such as this in the past with
> > others as well. The
> > history of a list such as this grows to accommodate
> > all manner of
> > eccentricities, and that is a sign of the health and
> > robustness of a
> > free and open electronic space. It is in the nature
> > of an unmoderated
> > (that is uncensored) list such as this, that some
> > people will use the
> > platform to post material that many of us will
> > consider reprehensible.
> > However, I would suggest that one way to respond to
> > such provocation is
> > also to not necessarily dignify every such
> > provocation with a response.
> >
> > Abhik Samanta has written in his private capacity to
> > Vedavati, and not
> > on the list. So his post (no matter how
> > objectionable and misogynist its
> > content may be, which I think it is, even though I
> > can understand his
> > outrage at Vedavati's clear act of hate speech) is
> > not technically a
> > breach of list etiquette.
> >
> > Vedavati's reply to Abhik which is addressed both to
> > Abhik and to the
> > list is however a clear case of someone dragging
> > what is essentially a
> > private exchange between two people on to the public
> > space of the list.
> > Doing so,without asking for the permission of the
> > concerned persons (and
> > there is no indication that she has asked Abhik) is
> > a clear breach of
> > list eitquette.
> >
> > As a list member, I would advise all other list
> > members (including
> > Vedavati, and Abhik) to try and refrain from blowing
> > this issue out of
> > proportion. I personally find the sentiments that
> > Vedavati is asking us
> > to consider (in the blog whose url she has
> > forwarded) pathetic.
> >
> > I personally think that the real power of
> > Hindutva-vadis lies in their
> > ability to hog public attention. Just ignore what is
> > said by
> > Hindutva-vaids , be amused, at best by the sad level
> > of the arguments
> > and the rhetoric that they put forward, and see how
> > powerful your
> > unwillingness to pay attention to their agenda can
> > be.
> >
> > I hope this puts an end to what might become an
> > otherwise unpleasant
> > distraction on this busy list.
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > Shuddha
> >
> >
> >
> > Vedavati Jogi wrote:
> > > this shows your level mr. abhik!
> > >
> > > when you people curse hindutv forces especially
> > rss & family, we should not
> > > react
> > > but when we talk about muslim terrorism you can't
> > tolerate moreover you use
> > > such a dirty language ...is it democracy? is it
> > secularism?is it liberalism?
> > >
> > > vedavati
> > >
> > >
> > >>From: "Abhik Samanta" < abhikauliya@googlemail.com>
> > >>To: vedavati
> > >>Subject: Re: [Reader-list] vedavati thought you
> > would like "wrap the body
> > >>of muslim terrorist with pig skin"
> > >>Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:01:43 +0530
> > >>
> > >>depraved and poor deprived girl wats the use of
> > wasting time thinkin shit
> > >>dont u have anyone to fuck
> > >>
> > >>On 2/25/07, vedavati wrote:
> > >>
> > >>>
> > >>>vedavati wants you to check out "wrap the body of
> > muslim terrorist with
> > >>>pig skin", the latest post from "Scientific
> > Analysis".
> > >>>
> > >>>Scientific Analysis - Post:
> >
> >>>http://chritianitybreedspoverty.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?
> post_id=132180&hbx_camp=5
> > >>>
> >
> >>>----------------------------------------------------------
> > >>>
> > >>>........................
> > >>>
> >
> >>>----------------------------------------------------------
> > >>>
> > >>>--
> > >>>Powered by Blogsource
> > >>>http://www.blogsource.com/
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>Note: The personal information used to send this
> > email was not stored and
> > >>>will be used for any other purpose.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>_________________________________________
> > >>>reader-list: an open discussion list on media and
> > the city.
> > >>>Critiques & Collaborations
> > >>>To subscribe: send an email to
> > reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> > >>>subscribe in the subject header.
> > >>>To unsubscribe:
> > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > >>>List archive:
> > < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> _________________________________________________________________
> > > Crave for a healthier lifestyle? Ask an expert
> > >
> >
> http://content.msn.co.in/Lifestyle/AskExpert/Default07.htm
> > >
> > > _________________________________________
> > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and
> > the city.
> > > Critiques & Collaborations
> > > To subscribe: send an email to
> > reader-list-request@sarai.net with subscribe in the
> > subject header.
> > > To unsubscribe:
> > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > > List archive:
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and
> > the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to
> > reader-list-request@sarai.net with subscribe in the
> > subject header.
> > To unsubscribe:
> > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive:
> < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ______________
> Any questions? Get answers on any topic at www.Answers.yahoo.com.
> Try it now.
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
