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Works of Government Belong to the People: Making Big Data Available in the Internet Age

Mr. Carl Malamud, an American technologist, author, and public domain advocate, known for his foundation Public.Resource.Org gave a talk on Works of Government Belong To The People: Making Big Data Available in the Internet Age on 14 August. Carl discussed the India collections he has made available on the Internet and the challenges he faced in finding and posting this information. He also discussed the untapped potential of many of these collections and the opportunities available for citizens and researchers in India and abroad to make the information more useful and accessible. Malamud also spoke about his 30-year record of questioning authority, changing the way government distributes information in the US and in India, and the lessons he has learned from that experience.

He has been active in making information in India and from India available on the Internet. With his co-petitioners Srinivas Kodali and Sushant Sinha, Malamud is engaged in Public Interest Litigation before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi to make all Indian Standards (such as the National Building Code) freely available to all. The Public Library of India collection on the Internet Archive he maintains is now up to 4 lakh books and 10,000 videos and audio. The Hind Swaraj collection contains high-quality scans of government publications such as the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi and the most complete collection of the Selected Works of Nehru.

The event was organised by Swecha – a non-profit organization committed to promote Free Software Movement in Telugu States.