Dear Udhay & other friends (I'm not on silklist), > >I think it is abundantly clear now that we need a lobbying front for > >the rights of internet users in India, somewhat akin to the EFF.
> I've had this conversation multiple times over the past > decade, including with a couple of the original EFF founders > (Barlow and Gilmore). And as I indicated to you during our > chat a few days ago, I think that there needs to be *at > least* one FULL-TIME person doing this stuff, in order for > the effort not to peter out. I agree! That was the core idea behind the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI, www.internetpolicy.net). > I've copied Eric Johnson of Internews on this. Eric was > setting up something in Delhi to do activism, inter alia. > could you update us on what the status of your > India efforts are? I hired Rishi Chawla some (five?) years ago to "do" GIPI in India (www.gipi.or.in) and he's been working on it since then. You'd have to check with him to see what he's accomplished--we financed him for a couple years and then he started his own IT policy advocacy NGO, the Centre for Communications Law & Policy Research (CCLPR). Last I heard, he had a grant from ISOC to do Indian internet policy advocacy. A couple months ago he was at [EMAIL PROTECTED] My impression was he was good but he was primarily a lawyer, not a PR person. Best, Eric
