Comments for Hmm

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by T R Shankar Raman

T R Shankar Raman — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:37:33 +0000

Hi: Any further news on this?

Comment on … and Then The Dessert Arrived: Global Health Dichotomies by Arrogance « Shotgun Shack

Arrogance « Shotgun Shack — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:25:26 +0000

[...] poem is referred to in Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas‘ post* titled And then the dessert arrived: global health dichotomies, where Srinivas reflects on the official dinner at the First Global Symposium on Health Systems [...]

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by sunil kumar

sunil kumar — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:39:16 +0000

Hi Prashant,

In 1999 I happened to go to the ZSI in Alipore. I managed to see the insect collection as I knew a scientist there. As I am passionate about ants, I asked my friend if he could show me the ant collection – I assumed that I might get a glimpse of the ants found in the north east. To my horror, I could see many of the collections to be in a deplorable state. There were live ants crawling all over dusty specimens. Most of the ants had incomplete body structures or the specimens were missing. The incident left me bitter about such Institutes and their ability to serve Science.

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by Anush Shetty

Anush Shetty — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 08:34:01 +0000

I also even forming an interest group to address these issues might be helpful. While there are lot of interest/study groups mushrooming in various parts of the country working towards making a lot of govt data open, it might be interesting to have one for ecology too.

Comment on Learning online by Diljith

Diljith — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:57:28 +0000

Very nice one..

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas

Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:28:10 +0000

Absolutely. Much more is needed.

My idea of the RTI was to “test” its ability. In an ideal scenario, such information should be available on the website of these institutions. In fact, the RTI clearly says that the Act is only for information that is not already made available. It urges all government departments to put up all their internal procedures (rules, guidelines etc) as well as their outputs (in this case details of collections, surveys, research etc.) on the websites. I am here using RTI only to make them realise that this has not been done. Else, I am sure such information will never reach websites!

I would suggest the use of more and more RTI’s to government research institutions to wake them up. :)

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by Anush Shetty

Anush Shetty — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:18:14 +0000

Do RTIs really help in such situations? It might need more work in addition to RTIs.

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas

Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:37:56 +0000

For the record, since your comment here is no different from the one pasted on fb, I am pasting my responses from there too! :)

1) I am sure all researchers are with you on how publishing houses have a lion’s hold on access to information through journals. On this point, they are WITH you, but so are many researchers (if not most!)

2) Access to information on heritage collections of the country is a duty and responsibility of the State. And as merely a citizen (let alone as a researcher), it is both my right as well as one of the fundemental duty (to increase scientific temper, I believe it is called) to ask for such collections to be accessible.

I do not see any “crime” in researchers using public data and publishing in in accessible journals- this is public information already! What researchers do with this and where they share it and publish it is completely another issue. This information is as public as census data! If somebody analyses census data and publishes a paper in Nature, which is not accessible to public, then surely, it is not a crime, it is merely an unfair market practice that we should fight against.

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas

Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:32:52 +0000

Thanks for your comments. Noted the relevant observations made by the Gadgil Task Force. I would like to test the RTI on some more institutions (not only in forests). For example, the Registrar of Births and Deaths collects massive information through a pathway starting at each village (the village accountant), but the availabilty of such data is very poor. You can imagine the public health implications of such data made available easily.
So, together with some more RTI’s I think I will try to put together a letter to several authorities including IAS and will keep you posted.

Comment on “old and fragile records” in an age of RTI and computers: How our heritage collections are managed by ZSI by mbk

mbk — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:22:32 +0000

Just as a curiosity, should we as a nation waste so much of money on benefitting so few researchers, when the researchers themselves, using public money funded infrastructure and grants, transfer the copyright/IP rights of material which rightfully should have belonged in the public domain, to profit oriented societies/businesses/companies/publishers which print journals in the name of ‘papers’, and then charge exorbitant amounts on even a per view basis to all the citizens who have paid and paying taxes? People who publish in journals which charge money hardly have any moral right to question anybody else! According to law, to the best of my knowledge, the rights to commissioned work should, without a-priori contractual agreement, belong to the commissioning authority/agency/person and not to the service provider (in this case the researcher). If I recollect it properly, there are rulings of high courts on this, and even the AIR manual which lawyers use has citations to this. What are the views on this? So aren’t these researchers engaging in illegal activity, while the government agency displays apathy?

So as a further, would not the government agency be aiding and abetting a fraud if it provided material to a researcher who commits it?

I was told that a contractual agreement cannot take precedence over or nullify the conditions of an act or law of the country, or this is what I have understood it to be. So, much of the EULA that we are forced to accept (without a clear option for negotiation) would not be valid legally and is often, I am told, used for its threat value. Now given the law, can you put up on your blog or website, the papers of yours, irrespective of where it has been published, irrespective of the conditions the publisher imposes on you except that the publisher is credited with publishing it, up for free download by the citizens of India? Don’t I, as a taxpayer become an un-demarcated shareholder/investor in the infrastructure or funding of the state and as such am entitled to rights over the content and or intellectual property that accrues from it. Will you accept it? I as a citizen, need to see and examine the entire data that you have collected so far using any fellowship or stipend or resources of the state in any form, will you do that please?