The Internet: a case of `founders keepers? / Ravishing charm of the Ravi Varmas /

The Internet: a case of `founders keepers?
Anand Parthasarathy
The second World Summit on the Information Society that opens in Tunis on
November 16 will see a renewed effort by developing nations, with U.N.
backing, to transfer `control' of the Internet from the U.S. to an
independent body.

THE WORD "cyber space" was coined long before the Internet was born. In fact
it is the creation of American novelist William Gibson who used it in his
novel Neuromancer a good ten years before the World Wide Web gradually
became a reality.
At the turn of the century, Gibson, asked to comment on the shape taken by
his unintended brainchild said perceptively: "The Internet is extra national
and post geographical. It is happening largely outside the jurisdiction of
politicians. It is truly one of the strangest things we have done as a
species. and we have done it inadvertently. If we take care of it, it may be
a step towards a better world." His instinct was right in one important
aspect: the relative freedom from political control that Internet enjoyed.
Indeed its origins lay in a network called DARPANet, a creation of the U.S.
government's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was initially
handed over to a consortium of American academic institutions, then grew and
grew... to become today's Internet.
By late 1980s the number of Internet users - and hence addresses - became
unmanageable without some regulation. The U.S. Department of Commerce and
the Post and Telecommunications Department established the Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority (IANA), which in 1998 became the Internet Corporation of
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private corporation that includes a
number of stakeholders.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/14/stories/2005111407501100.htm

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Ravishing charm of the Ravi Varmas
The song, `Pinakkamano..' showcases the grandeur of Ravi Varma paintings in
cinematic style. PREMA MANMADHAN speaks to the crew that created it

PHOTOS OF KAVYA: HARI THIRUMALA

HISTORY VERSUS THE PRESENT The three Ravi Varma paintings juxtaposed with
the poses that Kavya Madhavan strikes in the song, `Pinakkamano..' in the
movie, `Ananthabhadram'
Raja Ravi Varma was once dubbed the creator of `calendar art' and `kitsch'.
Detractors took a back seat before long and the royal artist's works are
today one of the most sought after in the international art world. That he
made art accessible to people through reprints in those days is what puts
him above most others. All the gods and goddesses who adorned pooja rooms in
Kerala in the best part of the last century were certainly Ravi Varma
reprints.
The song, `Pinakkamano... ', penned by Gireesh Puthencherry and composed by
M.G. Radhakrishnan in `Ananthabhadram', is a celebration of Ravi Varma
works, a tribute to the Raja, as Santosh Sivan, director and
cinematographer, puts it. The song, sung by M.G.Sreekumar and Manjari, with
orchestration by Kannan, appeals for a specific reason.
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/11/19/stories/2005111902870100.htm

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