Soft-skills Training and Cultural Sensitization of Indian BPO workers: A Qualitative Study

This paper describes a study of soft-skills training at a large Business Process Outsourcing Firm located in Bangalore, India. Soft-skills training pertains to social and customer handling skills in addition to cultural sensitization of Indians to other cultures. Soft-skills are very important for the success of BPO firms, yet there is not much in the literature that addresses soft-skills training of BPO workers. This study attempts to bridge the gap. It adopts a qualitative approach using a combination of methods such as the long interview, secondary sources research and actual observation. The results are used to develop a framework for future studies in this area

Internet Governance: A Developing Country Perspective

As the Internet gains an almost ubiquitous status in much of today’s world, the governance of the Internet has become an important subject of study. Internet governance affects various critical issues such as open access, freedom of expression, innovation and new applications, commerce, development, and security. To date much of the discourse on Internet governance has been within the ranks of politicians, political analysts, as well as I-School and Communications School researchers. Internet governance discussions are often dictated by geopolitical issues. The perceived hegemony of the developed West regarding the governance of the Internet is increasingly facing challenges from developing countries. Some of these developing countries have even sought to exercise control over the Internet within their countries. All of these issues make Internet governance a potentially important area of study for Information Systems researchers and academics. In this paper, I briefly trace the history of Internet governance, and using that as the basis, explore more deeply the issue of Internet governance from a developing country – namely India’s perspective. The paper examines various issues and their genesis, and then provides some potential approaches for dealing with global Internet governance

The State of Cryptocurrencies, Their Issues and Policy Interactions

This paper focuses on the evolution of cryptocurrencies. It traces the history of early cryptography, the ‘cypherpunk’ movement, and how the work of some cyber libertarians and cryptographers enabled the emergence of popular cryptocurrencies. The paper then focuses on Bitcoin. It delves into the technology behind the Bitcoin architecture and shows how exactly this technology works. The paper then does an analysis of security and regulatory considerations that affect the growth of Bitcoin-based businesses. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future work in the area

The Growth of Global Internet Censorship and Circumvention: A Survey

The Internet has, within a period of twenty years, become the primary medium of information exchange in the world. It is also arguably the primary source of information in the world. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo have made the vast trove of information available and accessible to everybody. Email and social network applications such as Facebook and Twitter have enabled people all over the world to meet, collaborate and participate in joint activities. The Internet has also gradually become a tool of dissidence in repressed nations all over the world - to spread information, plan and organize activists and conduct protests. Not surprisingly, repressive regimes see the Internet as a threat. Under the guise of protecting their citizens from the negative effects of the Internet (such as pornography and hate speech), they have, and are, actively curbed Internet use by their citizens by adopting various censorship measures and blockades. In this paper I have surveyed the history of Internet censorship by various countries, starting from 1991. Governments all over the world use various means – legal, political, technical, and coercive – to control and restrict Internet content. Cataloging all such efforts by all the countries would be beyond the scope of this paper. Despite that, I have tried to focus on the various methods of censorship and blockades used by various countries around the world. I have also provided a brief description of recent attempts by Myanmar and Egypt to completely block the Internet, with a discussion of the technique and methods involved. Finally, I have also briefly discussed the push-back efforts by citizens of the world, who are actively and innovatively finding ways to circumvent the most pernicious of these censorship efforts and blockades

The (Continuing) Evolution of India’s Telecom Policy

This paper traces the evolution of India’s Telecommunications policies from its colonial days to the present time. The policies have undergone major shifts. During the British rule of India, the policies were strictly motivated by the colonizer’s need to control the native population. After independence, the policies were dictated by the need for self-sufficient development and Fabian socialism, which led to other problems that curtailed telecommunications growth in India. In the last decades of the twentieth century, sheer economic survival imperatives led to the gradual opening up of India to market economies. This gave impetus to accelerated growth in the telecom sector. However, while the growth of India’s telecom sector, especially the cellular telecom sector has been spectacular in the last decade, the basic question of whether it has actually achieved the avowed developmental policy objectives of the government remains in doubt. This paper seeks to critically focus on evolution of telecommunications policies in India, discuss the philosophy behind the policies, their successes and failures over the years, current trends and the future outlook for telecommunications in India

Rural Development through Village Knowledge Centers in India

Information and Communications technologies (ICTs) have played a major role in the development of societies. For the past several years, India has experimented with extending the reach of ICTs to rural areas with a view to bringing development to these areas. Several projects are currently underway. This paper examines the implementation of Village knowledge Centers in rural Southern India. We first describe the developmental disparity that exists between urban and rural areas in India, and justify the implementation of rural projects that extend ICTs to rural areas. We examine prior work, and then describe in detail the Village knowledge Center Project, conceived, developed and implemented by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) located in Chennai, India. We describe our field visits and observations, and conclude with an analysis of the role and benefits of such projects, unresolved questions and issues, and possible directions for future work in this area

Are Cybercrime Laws Keeping up with the Triple Convergence of Information, Innovation and Technology?

This paper analyzes the emergence and development of cyberlaws. In many coimtries aroxmd the world, cyberlaws are being enacted in order to curb or prosecute cybercriminals. Cybercriminals have very rapidly adlapted to developments in technology, specifically Internet technology, and use its characteristics of transience, anonymity, speed and vast spread to perpetrate various types of crimes. Thus the triple convergence of information, innovation and technology has also aided criminals to practice their nefarious trade. The paper analyzes how various countries are taking counter measures by enacting cyberlaws. These actions are often slow and reactive rather than proactive. In addition, the laws often have several gaps which are further manipulated by criminals. The paper analyzes the cyberlaws of the US and EU. Points of confusion, complexity and differences between the US and EU laws are discussed. The paper concludes with some ideas to be considered in enacting such laws, as well as directions for future research

The Ethics of BI with Private and Public Entities

The Internet plays a vital role in data collection, information creation, and business intelligence (BI). The nature of information collected on the Internet, and the degree to which such information is collected, both have ethical ramifications. What data can be collected is very different from what data should be collected. Disregarding the latter question can be more profitable, but doing so can often involve unethical practices and more importantly, compromise the privacy of individuals. It has become widely known that private enterprises collect all manner of (BI) data about individuals, causing ethical concerns. The ethics of privacy do not affect private enterprises alone. In recent times the development and implementation of public information systems by public agencies have also resulted privacy breaches, both overt and inadvertent. This is despite the fact that governments have a responsibility to protect private data from external parties. While some privacy laws have been enacted, paradoxically, other governmental legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has actually eased restrictions on the very information that the privacy laws have sought to protect. In this context, it is useful to compare US privacy regulations other countries, e.g. Canada. It is also useful to contrast federal regulations with those in States, e.g. Connecticut. Ethical concerns regarding private information have also spawned various “solutions” whose motives and success can be widely interpreted. It can be argued that the protection of privacy and private information are the responsibility of both private and public entities, who should take concrete steps to classify and protect private informatio