Infrastructure Manifest (v. 1.0)—Saumyaa Naidu—Chapter 16—“Online Feminist Publishing and Content Creation as Feminist Infrastructure in India”
Infrastructure Type Descriptiona

Control point for access to or useb

For example, identify the owner, regulator, manager, etc. as appropriate

Open Source, Open Access, or Public Resource/Utilityc Proprietaryc How heavily used?d Reliabilityd Satisfaction for Userd Ethical concerns (known or possible) Comments

Land infrastructure

For example, properties ceded, unceded, public, private, etc.

Include only principal land infrastructures.

  • The rented office space of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bengaluru, India was used for conceptualising the research, conducting the online and telephonic interviews, and analysing the conversations.
  • The book chapter was written and edited in a private rented residence in Bengaluru. The residence is part of an apartment complex.
  • Workshops for the study were held in privately owned cultural spaces.
  • The CIS office is rented from a private owner. The land is controlled by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), that conducts planning and developmental functions in the city.
  • The private residence is rented from a private owner. The apartment complex is managed by an apartment owners’ association. The land is managed by the BDA.
  • One of the workshop venues is a non-profit Institution registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960, another is owned and managed by a private entity.
Not Applicable Yes 10 9 10 The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the reliability of the office space as it had to be shut down during the lockdown periods.

Materials infrastructure

For example, notable common or rare extracted or other materials used in research, production, and communication.

Break down by notable materials used in devices or tools if appropriate.

Key materials used for working on this chapter include:

Materials in Laptops

The Macbook Air uses recycled aluminum in the enclosure, recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board, and recycled plastic in various components of the laptop. More details can be seen here: https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/notebooks/13-inch_MacBookAir_PER_Nov2020.pdf.

Materials in Mobile Phones

Some of the raw materials used in a smartphone are aluminium and polycarbonate plastic in the casing, copper in the circuitry, gold in connectors, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) for various structural components and accessories, Gorilla Glass for screens, neodymium in speakers, lithium in batteries, silicon in integrated circuits (chips), and ceramics. For further details, https://cacermdi.ca/2024/05/21787/.

Materials used for notetaking, research analysis, and visual conceptualization

Some of the materials used through notebooks, pens, pencils, sticky notes include wood, graphite, plastic, ink.

Materials in office furniture

This comprises of particle board and paint used in table, and a metal frame and foam cushions in chair, metal and plastic used in white board.

Not Applicable Yes 10 8 9 The ethical concerns include the environmental impact of materials and related processes being used. The extraction and manufacturing could also have a social impact in terms of labour.

Energy infrastructure

For example, principal energy sources and infrastructure used in research, production, and communication

  • Electricity consumed by devices in conducting the research and writing the chapter (approximately 8 months of 8 hour work days) would be around 2.1024e+8 Joules, based on monthly use of 7.3 kWh electricity by a 30W laptop, https://www.energysage.com/electricity/house-watts/how-many-watts-does-a-computer-use/.
    • Use level: 10
    • Reliability: 8
    • Satisfaction: 10
  • Fuel used in automobile transportation
    • Use level: 5
    • Reliability: 9
    • Satisfaction: 9
Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) Yes Yes 8 9 10 Environmental impact of energy consumption is the key ethical concern.

Transportation infrastructure

For example, private or public transportation needed for daily or research trips

Cabs were occasionally used for the commute to CIS office for meetings and discussions. Private owned ride-hailing companies Not Applicable Yes 5 9 9 The ethical concern again is the environmental impact of vehicular emissions. There are also social concerns related to labour in terms of fair pay and working conditions.

Architectural infrastructure

For example, buildings, labs, rooms

  • The Conference Room at the CIS office was used for conducting interviews along with a workstation.
    • Use level: 8
    • Reliability: 8
    • Satisfaction: 8
  • The workstation set up in a study room of the private residence was also used.
    • Use level: 9
    • Reliability: 9
    • Satisfaction: 8
Private owner of the rented property Not Applicable Yes 9 9 8

Civic, community, national, or regional infrastructure

For example, provided by cities, communities, governments, etc.

Roads used for transportation, and pavements for walking to routinely commute to office. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in Bengaluru city, Karnataka state, and the government of Karnataka are the points of control. Yes Not Applicable 7 7 8

Institutional infrastructure

For example, equipment, services, and “overhead” or “indirect cost recovery” items for grants to universities

The CIS office internet, printer, stationery, utilities, and pantry were used in the process of producing this research. CIS, a non-profit organisation in Bengaluru, India. Yes Not Applicable 8 8 9

Labor infrastructure

For example, type and amount of labor from collaborators, staff, research assistants; include any attributes that seem important, such as unrecognized, unpaid, low-paid, outsourced, or other attributes of labor

  • The conceptualization, research, analysis, and writing in this study has been conducted with a co-author. The study also included an intern for research assistance in the initial phase of the research. The reviews and inputs have been provided by the editors and peers of this volume.
  • Further, this includes the background labour of the office staff at CIS, in terms of office maintenance, and IT infrastructure.
  • The workshops were hosted as part of larger events and thereby utilized the labour of the staff working at those events.
  • There was also unpaid labour and support from family, and labour by domestic workers at the private residence.
Not Applicable Not Applicable 6 10 10 Some of the ethical concerns here are the unfair pay and lack of benefits for domestic workers.

Research-content infrastructure

For example, physical libraries and archives, online research materials, shadow libraries, etc.

  • Search engines (primarily Google) and portals (Google Scholar) used for finding scholarly materials; search engines also used as finding aids for para-scholarly materials such as blogs and non-scholarly online materials.
  • Approximately 70 percent of the materials were open access, while the paywalled material was accessed through shadow libraries.
Point of control are publications, research aggregators. Yes Yes 9 7 7 The primary ethical concern was data collection by various portals and websites.

Tools infrastructure

For example, principal analog tools and digital tools, scripts, or protocols used for research, writing, communication, production (excluding high-performance computing, for which see below)

Analog tools
  • Notebook
  • pen
  • white-board
  • sticky notes
  • markers
    • Use level: 6
    • Reliability: 10
    • Satisfaction: 10
Computers

Used for interviews, recording, and internal communication

  • Personal laptop
  • Mobile phone
    • Use level: 10
    • Reliability: 9
    • Satisfaction: 9
Operating system
  • Macintosh 12.5 (laptop)
  • Google Andriod (phone)
    • Use level: 10
    • Reliability: 9
    • Satisfaction: 9
Word processors
  • Google Doc
  • Word
  • Pages
    • Use level: 10
    • Reliability: 9
    • Satisfaction: 9
Spreadsheet tools
  • Google Sheets
    • Use level: 5
    • Reliability: 8
    • Satisfaction: 8
Image and graphics editing tools
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Noun Project
    • Use level: 8
    • Reliability: 9
    • Satisfaction: 7
Email client
  • Zimbra
  • Mozilla Thunderbird
  • Gmail
    • Use level: 9
    • Reliability: 8
    • Satisfaction: 8
Chat Tool
  • WhatsApp
    • Use level: 9
    • Reliability: 8
    • Satisfaction: 8

Approximately 80% of the listed tools are proprietary.

Personal point of control and access. Not Applicable Yes 9 9 9

Networked Platforms infrastructure

For example, major networked or cloud platforms used for research, storage, analysis, sharing, communication, publication—Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS, etc. (excluding high-performance computing, for which see below)

Storage
  • Google Drive (personal and institutional accounts)
    • Use level: 8
    • Reliability: 10
    • Satisfaction: 9
Productivity software in cloud
  • Google Drive (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.)
    • Use level: 9
    • Reliability: 10
    • Satisfaction: 9
Collaboration platforms and services
  • WhatsApp
    • Use level: 9
    • Reliability: 8
    • Satisfaction: 8
Social media
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
    • Use level for this project: 4
    • Reliability: 6
    • Satisfaction: 7
Control points are with the platform providers. Intermediary control points for platforms used on institutional subscriptions are with the research institution. Not Applicable Yes 9 9 9

High-performance computing infrastructure

Here defined expansively to include the use not just of supercomputers and computer clusters or grids but any high-performance computing infrastructure or special GPU and other processors exceeding the capabilities of an individual workstation, laptop, or server.

None Not Applicable Not Applicable
Other infrastructure Not Applicable Not Applicable

This infrastructure manifest was completed by Saumyaa Naidu and reports on Chapter 16, “Online Feminist Publishing and Content Creation as Feminist Infrastructure in India.”