IIT websites in 'hall of shame' list

New Delhi: It is called the "hall of shame". Within its cyber walls are pilloried a long list of websites, Internet service providers and websites which do not treat all their visitors fairly.

There is a method to the madness. Sites listed in the New Delhi-based "hall of shame" are carefully selected and only put 'in the dock' if they deserve to be there.

Run by the free software and open source network here, this site -delhi.org/wiki/HallOfShame/ - explains that it lists sites which "force consumers" to use proprietary software or technologies.

The goal of the campaign is to ensure that sites remain accessible, to people regardless of what software they use, as long as the software performs the same function.

Says the wiki-based site: "We will especially be targeting government websites in this exercise which have absolutely no business to discriminate against the technology used by their citizens to access public content."

It points out that some sites, by using only non-free or proprietary technologies, "force consumers to use proprietary software or technologies, or otherwise perpetuate vendor lock-in".

Among the sites currently listed in the "hall of shame" are the MBA section of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur and sites linked with the Anna University of Chennai and IIT, Guwahati.

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Others include banking sites, airlines, major national companies, publications and even the Tirumala Thirupathi Devasthanams.

At least 14 government-linked websites are listed: MTNL's New Customer Care Help site, ministry of company affairs, Indian Airlines, Food Corp of India, ministry of finance, All India Radio, ministry of law and justice, department of official language, government of Delhi, government of Madhya Pradesh, official site for prime minister of India, ministry of coal, directorate general of foreign trade and the Indian Railways train enquiry.

This list gets updated from time to time as changes are made in making sites more accessible, or when new sites are added.

There are many complaints coming in from websurfers, stuck because of a range of problems - unusable java script menus, proprietary Hindi fonts, proprietary drivers, sites which force users to access them via the proprietorial Internet Explorer browser, and more.

Some of these are government-run ventures.