The structure of cyber cafe under cyber law

INTROCTION

Now a day’s electronic communication is playing a big role in India. Due to fast growing of IT sector there is demand for these types of cyber cafés for sending communication for various destinations. These types of cafes can be set up in district head quarters and Block headquarters. This facility can be utilised by educated people,govt offices, Setting up a cyber café requires careful and thoughtful planning, because the quality of services it can offer are directly related to planning. Careful attention in the beginning will help eliminate problems in the long run.

Of course, flexibility is also important. Make the café accessible both as to location and to hours of operation. For example, if the audience is in school youth, evening and weekend hours are important so these young people can actually use the cyber café as intended by the initiative. If the target audience is out of school youth or street youth, then avoiding regular school hours may be less important. Once a specific group of youth has been identified, be sure they can get to the cyber café easily and without problems. For example, for a target audience of urban street youth, the cyber café should be located centrally to areas where most street youth hang out. Remember that distances between the cyber café and the target audience can deter youth from using the service, especially if there is no reliable source of public transportation. For example, if the target audience is rural youth, a creative solution could be a mobile cyber café—operating from a bus or Truck that could reach youth in villages located at a distance from the organization..

It is not only today’s leading companies and organizations that have come to accept the important role of information. Education is also fast tapping from the Internet technology, to achieve the desired objectives. The emergence of Internet concepts and relevant services obtainable over the Internet, have created awareness for strategic use of information for education and research by individuals, corporate bodies, governmental and non-government organizations (NGOs)

Internet services have swept the communications and information world during the past decade, providing instantaneous global information and data exchange. Researchers and scientists who make use of Internet resources/service - the amorphous network that links computers via telecommunications technologies - can correspond with academics 10,000 miles away speedily, cheaply and efficiently...

Cybercafés are also called Internet browsing canters, Internet kiosks, Internet Browsing clubs, Internet Hubs, chat canters, Cyber mails, cyber pubs, cyber parks, cyber plazas and so on. The Internet is worldwide network of networks. It is a conglomeration of smaller networks and other connected machines spanning the entire globe. Internet the growing concept connecting people to people from continent to continent. Have fun of chatting; get world wide information, wonderful speed of communication useful for commercial and personal work. Information available on Education, Products, Profession, Trade Science & Technology, Religion, Culture, Entertainment, News, Policies, Directories, Yellow Pages, Website of major companies (world wide) country information, Govt. Department, Jobs, Business opportunities Export Import overseas etc. or just key in the name and have information.

Objectives

1- Choose an Internet service provider (ISP) for your café's Internet connection

2- Design the layout to fit the space, and if possible, use a professional designer

3- Purchase all the necessary equipment according to your plan such as computers, network cable, routers, printers, crimping tools and RJ-45 jacks

4- Explain the topologies for connecting inter connect the computer system

5- Explain the rules for internet access by costumers according of cyber law....

6-Rules and Regulations for setting up Cyber Cafe CSC and ecommerce Service Retailer ship in India

Internet service provider (ISP) for your café's Internet connection

An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides access to the Internet

BSNL - servicing all of India except Mumbai and Delhi. Triple-play Broadband Services provided by ADSL and VDSL. Also providing internet services over GPRS, 3G, as well as WiMax

MTNL - servicing Mumbai and Delhi. Triple-play Broadband Services provided by ADSL under the "Tri-Band" brand. Also providing GPRS and 3G internet services
Airtel- ADSL, GPRS & 3G Bharti Infotel Ltd, a renowned telecommunications and Internet service provider in India, is a part of Bharti Enterprises. In the site, you can look for information on the various services provided by Bharti Infotel Ltd. Check out the section that covers the services like voice services, mobile services, satellite services, managed data & Internet services, managed e-business services and so on. All these services are provided under the brand name Airtel.
Sify - Broadband over cable..When you talk about Internet, networking and e-commerce services, Sify Ltd in India is a pioneer in this field. They have made the Internet work for you by setting up cyber-cafes across India, providing dial-up Internet connections and broadband services. The site of Sify Ltd. gives you a detailed idea of their venture in corporate, consumer and international services.
Tata Indicom - ADSL, CDMA/EV-DO, Metro-Ethernet, WiMax..Tata Internet Services Ltd. provides hi-class internet services and IT based solutions to the Indian mass. Visit their site to find out more about their vast range of services. Check out the links on broadband internet, wireless service that are most suitable for your personal and business requirements. Also know about the service canters and comprehensive customer care network of Tata Internet Services Ltd.
HCL Infinet Ltd HCL Infinet Ltd, the Internet infrastructure initiative of the HCL group, is one of the major IT service providers in India. Search for the range of services offered by HCL Infinet Ltd, that include broadband Internet access, hosting and co-location services, virtual private networks, application services and many more. Know about the latest happenings and go the corporate site of the company
Spectranet - Broadband over cable
Tata DoCoMo - GPRS & 3G
Aircel - GPRS & 3G
Hathway - Broadband over Cable
Idea - GPRS & 3G
MTS India - CDMA/EV-DO
O-Zone Networks Private Limited - Pan - India Public Wi-Fi hotspot provider
Reliance Communications - ADSL, GPRS & 3G, Metro-Ethernet, CDMA/EV-DO, Wimax
Reliance Industries - LTE (to be launched)
Tikona DigitalNetworks-Wireless 4GBroadband(OFDM)
Vodafone - GPRS & 3G
YOU Broadband & Cable India Limited (formerly YOU Telecom) - Broadband over cable

Design the layout to fit the space, and if possible, use a professional designer

Work with the designer so that they understand the special requirements of an Internet café such as keeping food and beverage preparation and consumption from damaging computer equipment. Include an electrician in the design process to ensure that the infrastructure will be able to handle the load of all the electronic devices in your café.

The necessary equipment for cyber cafe

Setting up of Internet (Cyber) Cafe and the cost of it depends on a number of client computers and services you plan to offer to your customers. To start Internet Cafe business, you will need: internet connection (ADSL, Cable etc.), client computers, server computer that controls the clients and networking hardware. In the most cases networking hardware is not very expensive; however everything depends on a type of network. If you plan to have wired network type, switch or router, and networking cables will be necessary. If you plan wireless network you will need to have wireless access point or router and wireless network cards for your client computers. Of course, if required, you can make a combination of wired and wireless network. For Internet Cafes that offers only Internet access office programs there is no need to buy very expensive computers. However, if you attempt to offer computer gaming, it is largely recommended to buy high-end graphic cards and processors.

1. High-speed Internet access

2. Easy accessibility to network

3. Knowledgeable staff

4. Net/email kiosks readily available

5. State-of-the-art A-V equipment and knowledgeable staff

6. Fiber optic network infrastructure

7. Excellent lighting and controls

8. Excellent sound system, accessible controls

9. 24/7 tech support

10. Acoustical design

11. High-speed, quality printers

12. Laptop ports in public areas

13. Plenty of electrical power/outlets

14. Satellite uplinks/downlinks

15. Chip/card readers throughout facility

16. Computer rentals (especially laptops)

17. Controllable display signage

18. Repeaters for cell phones

19. Web cast production services

20. Ergonomic chairs and other equipment

21. Event TV monitors and kiosks

22. Internal interpretation services

23. Internet cafes (turnkey pricing)

24. High-tech look and feel in facility

25. Rigging issues well-placed

26. Staff vision for the future

27. User customizable applications

28. Video conferencing

The following sections discuss the physical topologies used in net works and other related topics.

Linear Bus

A linear bus topology consists of a main run of cable with a terminator at each. All nodes (file server, workstations, and peripherals) are connected to the linear cable.

1. Linear Bus topology

Advantages of a Linear Bus Topology

Easy to connect a computer or peripheral to a linear bus.
Requires less cable length than a star topology.

Disadvantages of a Linear Bus Topology

Entire network shuts down if there is a break in the main cable.
Terminators are required at both ends of the backbone cable.
Difficult to identify the problem if the entire network shuts down.
Not meant to be used as a stand-alone solution in a large building.

Star Topology

A star topology is designed with each node file server, workstations, and peripherals connected directly to a central network hub, switch, or concentrator

Data on a star network passes through the hub, switch, or concentrator before continuing to its destination. The hub, switch, or concentrator manages and controls all functions of the network. It also acts as a repeater for the data flow. This configuration is common with twisted pair cable; however, it can also be used with coaxial cable or fiber optic cable.

2. Star topology

Advantages of a Star Topology

Easy to install and wire.
No disruptions to the network when connecting or removing devices.
Easy to detect faults and to remove parts.

Disadvantages of a Star Topology

Requires more cable length than a linear topology.
If the hub, switch, or concentrator fails, nodes attached are disabled.
More expensive than linear bus topologies because of the cost of the hubs, etc.

Tree or Expanded Star

Tree Topology integrates the characteristics of Star and Bus Topology. Earlier we saw how in Physical Star network Topology, computers (nodes) are connected by each other through central hub. And we also saw in Bus Topology, work station devices are connected by the common cable called Bus. After understanding these two network configurations, we can understand tree topology better. In Tree Topology, the number of Star networks are connected using Bus. This main cable seems like a main stem of a tree, and other star networks as the branches. It is also called Expanded Star Topology. Ethernet protocol is commonly used in this type of topology. The diagram below will make it clear.

Tree Topology

Advantages of a Tree Topology

1. It is an extension of Star and bus Topologies, so in networks where these topologies can't be implemented individually for reasons related to scalability, tree topology is the best alternative.
2. Expansion of Network is possible and easy.
3. Here, we divide the whole network into segments (star networks), which can be easily managed and maintained.
4. Error detection and correction is easy.
5. Each segment is provided with dedicated point-to-point wiring to the central hub.
6. If one segment is damaged, other segments are not affected.

Disadvantages of a Tree Topology

Overall length of each segment is limited by the type of cabling used.
If the backbone line breaks, the entire segment goes down.
More difficult to configure and wire than other topologies.

Ring Topology

In Ring Topology, all the nodes are connected to each-other in such a way that they make a closed loop. Each workstation is connected to two other components on either side, and it communicates with these two adjacent neighbours. Data travels around the network, in one direction. Sending and receiving of data takes place by the help of TOKEN.

Token Passing (in brief) : Token contains a piece of information which along with data is sent by the source computer. This token then passes to next node, which checks if the signal is intended to it. If yes, it receives it and passes the empty to into the network, otherwise passes token along with the data to next node. This process continues until the signal reaches its intended destination.
The nodes with token are the ones only allowed to send data. Other nodes have to wait for an empty token to reach them. This network is usually found in offices, schools and small buildings.

Advantages of Ring Topology
1) This type of network topology is very organized. Each node gets to send the data when it receives an empty token. This helps to reduces chances of collision. Also in ring topology all the traffic flows in only one direction at very high speed.
2) Even when the load on the network increases, its performance is better than that of Bus topology.
3) There is no need for network server to control the connectivity between workstations.
4) Additional components do not affect the performance of network.
5) Each computer has equal access to resources.

Disadvantages of Ring Topology
1) Each packet of data must pass through all the computers between source and destination. This makes it slower than Star topology.
2) If one workstation or port goes down, the entire network gets affected.
3) Network is highly dependent on the wire which connects different components.
4) MAU’s and network cards are expensive as compared to Ethernet cards and hubs.

Mesh Topology

In a mesh network topology, each of the network node, computer and other devices, are interconnected with one another. Every node not only sends its own signals but also relays data from other nodes. In fact a true mesh topology is the one where every node is connected to every other node in the network. This type of topology is very expensive as there are many redundant connections, thus it is not mostly used in computer networks. It is commonly used in wireless networks. Flooding or routing technique is used in mesh topology.

1)Full Mesh Topology:-

In this, like a true mesh, each component is connected to every other component. Even after considering the redundancy factor and cost of this network, its main advantage is that the network traffic can be redirected to other nodes if one of the nodes goes down. Full mesh topology is used only for backbone networks.

2) Partial Mesh Topology:-

This is far more practical as compared to full mesh topology. Here, some of the systems are connected in similar fashion as in mesh topology while rests of the systems are only connected to 1 or 2 devices. It can be said that in partial mesh, the workstations are ‘indirectly’ connected to other devices. This one is less costly and also reduces redundancy.

Advantages of Mesh topology

1) Data can be transmitted from different devices simultaneously. This topology can withstand high traffic.
2) Even if one of the components fails there is always an alternative present. So data transfer doesn’t get affected.
3) Expansion and modification in topology can be done without disrupting other nodes.

Disadvantages of Mesh topology

1) There are high chances of redundancy in many of the network connections.
2) Overall cost of this network is way too high as compared to other network topologies.
3) Set-up and maintenance of this topology is very difficult. Even administration of the network is tough

Hybrid Topology

Before starting about Hybrid topology, we saw that a network topology is a connection of various links and nodes, communicating with each other for transfer of data. We also saw various advantages and disadvantages of Star, Bus, Ring, Mesh and Tree topologies.
Now lets discuss what Hybrid Network topology is and why it finds its application in Wide Area Networks. Hybrid, as the name suggests, is mixture of two different things. Similarly in this type of topology we integrate two or more different topologies to form a resultant topology which has good points(as well as weaknesses) of all the constituent basic topologies rather than having characteristics of one specific topology. This combination of topologies is done according to the requirements of the organization.

For example, if there exists a ring topology in one office department while a bus topology in another department, connecting these two will result in Hybrid topology. Remember connecting two similar topologies cannot be termed as Hybrid topology. Star-Ring and Star-Bus networks are most common examples of hybrid network.

Let's see the benefits and drawbacks of this networking architecture

Hybrid Network Topology Image

Advantages of Hybrid Network Topology

1) Reliable : Unlike other networks, fault detection and troubleshooting is easy in this type of topology. The part in which fault is detected can be isolated from the rest of network and required corrective measures can be taken, WITHOUT affecting the functioning of rest of the network.
2) Scalable: It’s easy to increase the size of network by adding new components, without disturbing existing architecture.
3) Flexible: Hybrid Network can be designed according to the requirements of the organization and by optimizing the available resources. Special care can be given to nodes where traffic is high as well as where chances of fault are high.
4) Effective: Hybrid topology is the combination of two or more topologies, so we can design it in such a way that strengths of constituent topologies are maximized while there weaknesses are neutralized. For example we saw Ring Topology has good data reliability (achieved by use of tokens) and Star topology has high tolerance capability (as each node is not directly connected to other but through central device), so these two can be used effectively in hybrid star-ring topology.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Topology

1) Complexity of Design: One of the biggest drawback of hybrid topology is its design. Its not easy to design this type of architecture and its a tough job for designers. Configuration and installation process needs to be very efficient.
2) Costly Hub: The hubs used to connect two distinct networks, are very expensive. These hubs are different from usual hubs as they need to be intelligent enough to work with different architectures and should be function even if a part of network is down.
3) Costly Infrastructure: As hybrid architectures are usually larger in scale, they require a lot of cables, cooling systems, sophisticate network devices, etc.

5-4-3 Rule A consideration in setting up a tree topology using Ethernet protocol is the 5-4-3 rule. One aspect of the Ethernet protocol requires that a signal sent out on the network cable reach every part of the network within a specified length of time. Each concentrator or repeater that a signal goes through adds a small amount of time. This leads to the rule that between any two nodes on the network there can only be a maximum of 5 segments, connected through 4 repeaters/concentrators. In addition, only 3 of the segments may be populated (trunk) segments if they are made of coaxial cable. A populated segment is one that has one or more nodes attached to it . In Figure 4, the 5-4-3 rule is adhered to. The furthest two nodes on the network have 4 segments and 3 repeaters/concentrators between them.

NOTE: This rule does not apply to other network protocols or Ethernet networks where all fiber optic cabling or a combination of a fiber backbone with UTP cabling is used. If there is a combination of fiber optic backbone and UTP cabling, the rule would translate to a 7-6-5 rule. The speed of networking switches is vastly improved over older technologies, and while every effort should be made to limit network segment traversal, efficient switching can allow much larger numbers of segments to be traversed with little or no impact to the network.

Considerations When Choosing a Topology

Money. A linear bus network may be the least expensive way to install a network; you do not have to purchase concentrators.
Length of cable needed. The linear bus network uses shorter lengths of cable.
Future growth. With a star topology, expanding a network is easily done by adding another concentrator.
Cable type. The most common cable in cyber cafe is unshielded twisted pair, which is most often used with star topologies.

The rules for internet access by costumers according of cyber law

The Ministry of Information Technology have come out with Fresh Guidelines and Amendments for Cyber Cafe’s in India And it seems that Govt. is getting quite severe with what and how the data is consumed in Cyber Cafe’s.

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In last couple of years there have been many instances where Cyber Cafe’s have been a safe haven to carry out illegal activities most of which have been for acts of terrorism. The fresh guidelines released by the ministry clearly put in place rules & regulations to put brakes on such incidences.

Additionally, Cyber Cafe’s is have been favourite joints to view pornography Going forward, it will be illegal to view pornography in Cyber Cafes!

Here are some of the important points released in the amendments to IT Technology Act. (I have simplified the language for benefit of readers in some cases)

Identification of User

Every member will have give an identification like

Such document may include any of the following:

(i) Identity card issued by any School or College;

(ii) Photo Credit Card or debit card issued by a Bank or Post

Office;

(iii) Passport;

(iv) Voters Identity Card;

(v) Permanent Account Number (PAN) card issued by

Income-Tax Authority;

(vi) Photo Identity Card issued by the employer or any

Government agency;

(vi) Driving License issued by the appropriate government

If he does not have one – Cyber Cafe owner will have take a digital picture using a Webcam. And the log register will have information about every individual visiting the cyber cafe. Those who refuse to give any form of identity, will not be allowed inside the Cyber Cafe

Log Register

Every Cyber Cafe will have a Date-wise Log register of all the cyber cafe visitors – The owner will have to submit a hard and soft copy of the same to the person or agency as directed by the licensing agency by 5th day of next month.

The Cyber Cafe Owner needs to log the following

History of websites accessed using computer resource at cyber cafe
Logs of proxy server installed at cyber café
Mail server logs
Logs of network devices such as router, switches, systems etc. installed at cyber café
Logs of firewall or Intrusion Prevention/Detection systems, if installed.

Physical Layout of Cyber Cafe

Partitions of Cubicles inside the Cyber Café should not exceed four and half feet in height from the floor level. The screen of all computers shall face the common open space of the Cyber Café.

Minors are not allowed to access any computers in Cyber Cafe unless they are accompanied by guardians or parents!

Pornography / illegal Content Access

Cyber Cafe owner must ensure that all the computers are equipped with safety / filtering software so as to the avoid access to the websites relating to pornography, obscenity, terrorism and other objectionable materials. Cyber Café shall take sufficient precautions to ensure that their computer resource is not utilized for any illegal activity.

Cyber Café shall display a board, clearly visible to the users, prohibiting them from viewing pornographic sites. Cyber Café shall incorporate sufficient preventive measures to disallow the user from tampering with the computer system settings.

Inspection of Cyber Café: An officer, not below the rank of Police Inspector as authorised by the licensing agency, is authorized to check or inspect cyber café and the computer resource or network established therein at any time for the compliance of these rules. The cyber café owner shall provide every related document, registers and any necessary information to the inspecting officer on demand

Rules and Regulations for setting up Cyber Cafe, CSC and ecommerce Service Retailer ship in India

G.S.R. 316(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (ca) of sub-section (2) of section 87, read with sub-section (2) of section 6A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely:-

1. Short title and commencement.- (1) These rules may be called the information Technology (Electronic Service Delivery) Rules, 2011.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Definitions.- In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) "Act" means the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000);

(b)"Appropriate Government" means the Central Government or the state Government or an Union Territory Administration;

(c) "Authorised agent" means an agent of the appropriate Government or service provider and includes an operator of an electronically enabled kiosk who is permitted under these rules to deliver public services to the users with the help of a computer resource or any communication device, by following the procedure specified in the rules;

(d) "certificate" means a certificate required to be issued by a statutory authority empowered under any Act, rule, regulation or Order of the appropriate Government to issue a certificate

to confirm the status, right or responsibility of a person, either natural or artificial, and includes a certificate in electronic form printed and delivered in such form as may be specified by the appropriate authority;

(e) "Certifying Authority" means certifying authority as defined in clause (g) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(f) "Communication device" means the communication device as defined in clause (ha) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(g) "Computer resource" means the computer resource as defined in clause (k) of sub-section

(1) of section 2 of the Act;

(h) "Electronically enabled kiosk" means the cyber cafe as defined in clause (na) of subsection

(1) of section 2 of the Act;

(i) "Electronic Service Delivery" means the delivery of public services in the form of filing receipt of forms and applications, issue or grant of any license, permit, certificate, sanction or approval and the receipt or payment of money by electronic means by following the procedure specified under rule 3;

(j) "electronic signature" means the electronic signature as defined in clause (ta) of subsection

(1) of section 2 of the Act;

(k) "Electronic Signature Certificate" means the electronic signature certificate as defined in clause (tb) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(l) "Repository of Electronically Signed Electronic Records" means a collection of all electronically signed electronic records, stored and managed in accordance with these rules;

(m) "Service provider" means a service provider as referred to in Explanation to sub-section

(1) of section 6A of the Act;

(n) "Signing authority " means an authority empowered under any Act, rules, regulations or Order of the appropriate Government to issue a certificate.

3. System of Electronic Service Delivery.-

(1) The appropriate Government may on its own or through an agency authorised by it, deliver public services through electronically- enabled kiosks or any other electronic service delivery mechanism.

(2) The appropriate Government or its agencies may specify the form and the manner of Electronic Service Delivery.

(3) The appropriate Government may determine the manner of encrypting sensitive electronic records requiring confidentiality, white they are electronically signed.

(4) The appropriate Government shall notify the service providers and their agents authorised for Electronic Service Delivery.

(5) The appropriate Government may allow receipt of payments made by adopting the Electronic Service Delivery System to be a deemed receipt of payment effected in compliance with the financial code and treasury code of such Government.

(6) The appropriate Government may authorise service providers or their authorised agents to collect, retain and appropriate such service charges as may be specified by the

appropriate Government for the purpose of providing such services from the person availing such services:

Provided that the apportioned service charges shall be clearly indicated on the receipt to be given to the person availing the services.

(7) The appropriate Government shall by notification specify the scale of service charges which may be charged and collected by the service providers and their authorised agents

for various kinds of services.

(8) The appropriate Government may also determine the norms on service levels to be complied with by the Service Provider and the authorised agents.

4. Notification of Electronic Service Delivery.-

(1) The appropriate Government may notify the services that shall be delivered electronically from time to time.

(2) The appropriate Government may identify and notify, from time to time, the list or signing authorities in respect of different classes of licenses, permits, certificates, sanctions,

payment receipt approvals and local limits of their respective jurisdictions.

(3) The notification shall specify the nature of certificate, the names of the signing authorities, as approved by the appropriate Government, the period of effectiveness of

the authority and the extent of their jurisdiction.

(4) The appropriate Government may notify changes to the list of signing authorities from time to time, taking into consideration the terms and conditions of the services of

employees holding positions of signing authorities.

5. Creation of repository of electronically signed electronic records by Government

Authorities.-

(1) All authorities that issue any license, permit, certificate, sanction or approval electronically, shall create, archive and maintain a repository of electronically signed electronic records of such licenses, permits, certificates, sanctions or approvals, as the case may be, online with due timestamps of creation of these individual electronic records.

(2) The appropriate Government may specify the manner of creating, establishing, archiving and maintaining the repository of electronically signed electronic records referred to in sub-rule (1).

(3) The authorities may electronically sign the electronic records of such licenses, permits, certificates, sanctions or approvals for each record or as a whole for a specific duration

and shall be responsible in administering them online.

(4) The appropriate Government may specify the security procedures in respect of the electronic data, information, applications, repository of digitally signed electronic records

and information technology assets under their respective control and that security procedures shall be followed by the Head of the Department and the signing authorities.

Explanation.- The expression "security procedures" referred to in sub-rule (4) shall include requirements for the storage and management of

Cryptographic keys, restrictions for downloading the certificates on to browsers, and of complying with the requirements of certifying authorities.

6. Procedure for making changes in a repository of electronically signed electronic records.-

(1) The appropriate Government may either suo moto or after receiving an application from an interested party, make or order to make an appropriate change in a

repository of electronically signed electronic records along with recording the reasons for making such a change.

(2) Any change effected to any record in a repository of electronically signed electronic records and any addition or deletion of a record from such repository shall be electronically signed by the person who is authorised to make such changes along with the time stamps of original creation and modification times.

(3) The appropriate Government may determine the manner of electronically signing the event of deletion of a record from the repository of electronically signed electronic records.

(4) The appropriate Government may also determine the manner of provisioning secure access to the repository of digitally signed electronic records.

(5) The appropriate Government may also determine the requirements for maintaining audit trails of all changes made to repository of digitally signed electronic records.

7. Responsibility of service provider and authorised agents for financial management and

accounting.- The appropriate Government may direct every service provider and authorised agent to keep an updated and accurate account of the transactions, receipts, vouchers and

specify the formats for maintaining accounts of transactions and receipt of payment in respect of the electronic services delivered and the said records shall be produced for inspection and audit before an agency or person nominated by the appropriate Government.

8. Audit of the Information System and Accounts of service provider and authorised agents.-

(1)The appropriate Government may cause an audit to be conducted of the affairs of the service providers and authorised agents in the State at such intervals as deemed

necessary by nominating such audit agencies.

(2) The audit may cover aspects such as the security, confidentiality and the privacy of information, the functionality and performance of any software application used in the electronic service delivery and the accuracy of accounts kept by the service providers and authorised agents.

(3) The service providers and the authorised agents shall provide such information and assistance to the audit agencies nominated by the appropriate authority, to comply, with

the directions given by the audit agencies and to rectify the defects and deficiencies pointed out by the audit agencies within the time limit specified by the audit agency.

(4) All service providers and the authorised agents shall submit a due declaration for protecting the data of every individual transaction and citizen and any unauthorised

disclosure to anyone without the written consent of either the individual or the appropriate Government shall be debarred from providing such a service any further and the provisions of section 45 of the Act shall be applicable in such cases.

9. Use of special stationery in electronic service delivery.- The appropriate Government may specify different types of special stationery, with accompanying security features for forms, applications, licenses, permits, certificates, receipts of payment and such other documents as part of Electronic Service Delivery.

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(Department of Information Technology)

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 11th April, 2011

G.S.R. 313(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (ob) of subsection

(2) of section 87 read with section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely.--

1. Short title and commencement — (1) These rules may be called the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Definitions — (1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,--

(a) "Act" means the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000);

(b) "Biometrics" means the technologies that measure and analyse human body characteristics, such as 'fingerprints', 'eye retinas and irises', 'voice patterns',"facial patterns', 'hand measurements' and 'DNA' for authentication

purposes;

(d) "Cyber incidents" means any real or suspected adverse event in relation to cyber security that violates an explicitly or implicitly applicable security policy resulting in unauthorised access, denial of service or disruption, unauthorised use of a computer resource for processing or storage of information or changes to data, information without authorisation;

(e) "Data" means data as defined in clause (o) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(f) "Information" means information as defined in clause (v) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(g) "Intermediary" means an intermediary as defined in clause (w) of sub-section

(1) of section 2 of the Act;

(h) "Password" means a secret word or phrase or code or passphrase or secret key,or encryption or decryption keys that one uses to gain admittance or access to information;

(i) "Personal information" means any information that relates to a natural person,which, either directly or indirectly, in combination with other information available or likely to be available with a body corporate, is capable of identifying such person.

(2) All other words and expressions used and not defined in these rules but defined in the Act shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Act.

3. Sensitive personal data or information.— Sensitive personal data or information of a person means such personal information which consists of information relating to;—

(i) password;

(ii) financial information such as Bank account or credit card or debit card or other payment instrument details ;

(iii) physical, physiological and mental health condition;

(iv) sexual orientation;

(v) medical records and history;

(vi) Biometric information;

(vii) any detail relating to the above clauses as provided to body corporate for providing service; and

(viii) any of the information received under above clauses by body corporate for processing, stored or processed under lawful contract or otherwise: provided that, any information that is freely available or accessible in public domain

or furnished under the Right to Information Act, 2005 or any other law for the time being in force shall not be regarded as sensitive personal data or information for the purposes of

these rules.

4. Body corporate to provide policy for privacy and disclosure of information.— (1)

The body corporate or any person who on behalf of body corporate collects, receives,possess, stores, deals or handle information of provider of information, shall provide a

privacy policy for handling of or dealing in personal information including sensitive personal data or information and ensure that the same are available for view by such

providers of information who has provided such information under lawful contract. Such policy shall be published on website of body corporate or any person on its behalf and

shall provide for—

(i) Clear and easily accessible statements of its practices and policies;

(ii) type of personal or sensitive personal data or information collected under rule 3;

(iii) Purpose of collection and usage of such information;

(iv) Disclosure of information including sensitive personal data or information as provided in rule 6;

(v) Reasonable security practices and procedures as provided under rule 8.

5. Collection of information.— (1) Body corporate or any person on its behalf shall

obtain consent in writing through letter or Fax or email from the provider of the sensitive personal data or information regarding purpose of usage before collection of such information.

(2) Body corporate or any person on its behalf shall not collect sensitive personal data or information unless —

(a) the information is collected for a lawful purpose connected with a function or activity of the body corporate or any person on its behalf; and

(b) the collection of the sensitive personal data or information is considered necessary for that purpose.

(3) While collecting information directly from the person concerned, the body corporate or any person on its behalf snail take such steps as are, in the

circumstances, reasonable to ensure that the person concerned is having the knowledge of —

(a) The fact that the information is being collected;

(b) The purpose for which the information is being collected;

(d) The name and address of —

(i) The agency that is collecting the information; and

(ii) The agency that will retain the information.

(4) Body corporate or any person on its behalf holding sensitive personal data or information shall not retain that information for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used or is otherwise required under any other law for the time being in force..

(5) The information collected shall be used for the purpose for which it has been collected.

(6) Body corporate or any person on its behalf permit the providers of information, as and when requested by them, to review the information they had provided and ensure that any personal information or sensitive personal data or information found to be inaccurate or deficient shall be corrected or amended as feasible:

Provided that a body corporate shall not be responsible for the authenticity of the personal information or sensitive personal data or information supplied by the provider of information to such boy corporate or any other person acting on behalf of such body corporate.

(7) Body corporate or any person on its behalf shall, prior to the collection of information including sensitive personal data or information, provide an option to the provider of the information to not to provide the data or information sought to be collected. The provider of information shall, at any time while availing the services or otherwise, also have an option to withdraw its consent given earlier to the body corporate. Such withdrawal of the consent shall be sent in writing to the body corporate. In the case of provider of information not providing or later on withdrawing his consent, the body corporate shall have the option not to provide goods or services for which the said information was sought.

(8) Body corporate or any person on its behalf shall keep the information secure as provided in rule 8.

(9) Body corporate shall address any discrepancies and grievances of their provider of the information with respect to processing of information in a time bound manner. For this purpose, the body corporate shall designate a Grievance Officer and publish his name and contact details on its website. The Grievance Officer shall redress the grievances or provider of information expeditiously but within one month ' from the date of receipt of grievance.

6. Disclosure of information.— (1) Disclosure of sensitive personal data or information

by body corporate to any third party shall require prior permission from the provider of such information, who has provided such information under lawful contract or otherwise,

unless such disclosure has been agreed to in the contract between the body corporateand provider of information, or where the disclosure is necessary for compliance of a

legal obligation:

Provided that the information shall be shared, without obtaining prior consent from provider of information, with Government agencies mandated under the law to obtain information including sensitive personal data or information for the purpose of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation including cyber incidents, prosecution, and punishment of offences. The Government agency shall send a request in writing to the body corporate possessing the sensitive personal

data or information stating clearly the purpose of seeking such information. The Government agency shall also state that the information so obtained shall not be published or shared with any other person.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contain in sub-rule (1), any sensitive personal data on Information shall be disclosed to any third party by an order under the law for the time being in force.

(3) The body corporate or any person on its behalf shall not publish the sensitive personal data or information.

(4 The third party receiving the sensitive personal data or information from body corporate or any person on its behalf under sub-rule (1) shall not disclose it further.

7. Transfer of information.-A body corporate or any person on its behalf may transfer sensitive personal data or information including any information, to any other body

corporate or a person in India, or located in any other country, that ensures the same level of data protection that is adhered to by the body corporate as provided for under these

Rules. The transfer may be allowed only if it is necessary for the performance of the lawful contract between the body corporate or any person on its behalf and provider of

information or where such person has consented to data transfer.

8. Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures.— (1) A body corporate or a person on its behalf shall be considered to have complied with reasonable security practices and procedures, if they have implemented such security practices and standards and have a comprehensive documented information security programme and information security

policies that contain managerial, technical, operational and physical security control measures that are commensurate with the information assets being protected with the

nature of business. In the event of an information security breach, the body corporate or a person on its behalf shall be required to demonstrate, as and when called upon to do so by

the agency mandated under the law, that they have implemented security control measures as per their documented information security programme and information

security policies.

(2) The international Standard IS/ISO/IEC 27001 on "Information Technology - Security

Techniques - Information Security Management System - Requirements" is one such standard referred to in sub-rule (1).

(3) Any industry association or an entity formed by such an association, whose members are self-regulating by following other than IS/ISO/IEC codes of best practices for data

protection as per sub-rule(1), shall get its codes of best practices duly approved and notified by the Central Government for effective implementation.

(4) The body corporate or a person on its behalf who have implemented either IS/ISO/IEC 27001 standard or the codes of best practices for data protection as approved and notified

under sub-rule (3) shall be deemed to have complied with reasonable security practices and procedures provided that such standard or the codes of best practices have been

certified or audited on a regular basis by entities through independent auditor, duly approved by the Central Government. The audit of reasonable security practices and

procedures shall be carried cut by an auditor at least once a year or as and when the body corporate or a person on its behalf undertake significant upgradation of its process and

computer resource.

THE GAZETTE OF INDIA :

NOTIFICATION NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 11th April, 2011 New Delhi, the 11th April, 2011

G.S.R. 314(E).— In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (zg) of subsection (2)

of section 87 read with sub-section (2) of section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely.-

1. Short title and commencement — (1) These rules may be called the Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the OfficialGazette

2. Definitions — (1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,--

(a) "Act" means the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000);

(b) "Communication link” means a connection between a hyperlink or graphical element (button, drawing, image) and one or more such items in the same or different electronic document wherein upon clicking on a hyperlinked item, the user is automatically transferred to the other end of the hyperlink which could be another document website or graphical element.

(1) of section 2 of the Act;

(d) "Cyber security incidnt” means any real or suspected adverse event in relation to cyber security that violates an explicity or implicity applicable security policy resulting in

unauthotrised access, denial of service or disruption, unauthorised use of a computer resource for processing or storage of information or changes to data, information

without authorisation;

(e) "Data" means data as defined in clause (o) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(f) "Electronic Signature" means electronic signature as defined in clause (ta) of sub-

section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(g) "Indian Computer Emergency Response Team” means the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team appointed under sub section (1) section 70 (B) of the Act;

(h) “Information” means information as defined in clause (v) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(i) “Intermediary” means an intermediary as defined in clause (w) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(j) "User" means any person who access or avail any computer resource of intermediary for the purpose of hosting, publishing, sharing, transacting, displaying or uploading

information or views and includes other persons jointly participating in using the computer resource of an intermediary.

(2) Ail other words and expressions used and not defined in these rules but defined in the Act shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Act.

3. Due diligence to he observed by intermediary — The intermediary shall observe following due diligence while discharging his duties, namely : —

(1) The intermediary shall publish the rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement for access-or usage of the intermediary's computer resource by any person.

(2) Such rules and regulations, terms and conditions or user agreement shall inform the users of computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information that —

(a) belongs to another person and to which the user does not have any right to;

(b) is grossly harmful, harassing, blasphemous defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically objectionable, disparaging, relating or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or otherwise unlawful in any

manner whatever;

(d) infringes any patent, trademark, copyright or other proprietary rights;

(e) violates any law for the time being in force;

(f) deceives or misleads the addressee about the origin of such messages or communicates any information which is grossly offensive or menacing in nature;

(g) impersonate another person;

(h) contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer resource;

(i) threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order or causes incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence or prevents investigation of any offence or

is insulting any other nation

(3) The intermediary shall not knowingly host or publish any information or shall not initiate the transmission, select the receiver of transmission, and select or modify the information contained in the transmission as specified in sub-rule (2):

provided that the following actions by an intermediary shall not amount to hosing,publishing, editing or storing of any such information as specified in

sub-rule: (2) —

(a) temporary or transient or intermediate storage of information automatically within the computer resource as an intrinsic feature of such computer resource, involving no exercise of any human editorial control, for onward transmission or communication to another computer resource;

(b) removal of access to any information, data or communication link by an intermediary after such information, data or communication link comes to the actual

knowledge of a person authorised by the intermediary pursuant to any order or direction as per the provisions of the Act;

(4) The intermediary, on whose computer system the information is stored or hosted or

published, upon obtaining knowledge by itself or been brought to actual knowledge by an affected person in writing or through email signed with electronic signature about any

such information as mentioned in sub-rule (2) above, shall act within thirty six hours and where applicable, work with user or owner of such information to disable such information

that is in contravention of sub-rule (2). Further the intermediary shall preserve such information and associated records for at least ninety days for investigation purposes,

(5) The Intermediary shall inform its users that in case of non-compliance with rules and regulations, user agreement and privacy policy for access or usage of intermediary computer resource, the Intermediary has the right to immediately terminate the access or usage lights of the users to the computer resource of Intermediary and remove noncompliant

information..

(6) The intermediary shall strictly follow the provisions of the Act or any other laws for the time being in force.

(7) When required by lawful order, the intermediary shall provide information or any such assistance to Government Agencies who are lawfully authorised for

investigative, protective, cyber security activity. The information or any such assistance shall be provided for the purpose of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, cyber security incidents and punishment of offences under any law for the time

being in force, on a request in writing staling clearly the purpose of seeking such information or any such assistance.

(8) The intermediary shall take all reasonable measures to secure its computer resource and information contained therein following the reasonable security practices and procedures as prescribed in the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal Information) Rules, 2011.

(9) The intermediary shall report cyber security incidents and also share cyber security incidents related information with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team.

(10) The intermediary shall not knowingly deploy or install or modify the technical configuration of computer resource or become party to any such act which may change or has

the potential to change the normal course of operation of the computer resource than what it is supposed to "perform thereby circumventing any law for the time being in force:

provided that the intermediary may develop, produce, distribute or employ technological means for the sole purpose of performing the acts of securing the computer resource and information contained therein.

(11) The intermediary shall publish on its website the name of the Grievance Officer and his contact details as well as mechanism by which users or any victim who suffers as a result of access or usage of computer resource by any person in violation of rule 3 can notify their complaints against such access or usage of computer resource of the intermediary or other matters pertaining to the computer resources made available by it. The Grievance Officer shall redress the complaints within one month from the date of receipt of complaint.

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 11th April, 2011

G.S.R. 315(E).— In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (zg) of subsection

(2) Of section 87 read with sub-section

(2) Of section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000), the Central Government hereby makes the following

rules, namely:—

1. Short title and commencement.— (1) These rules may be called the Information Technology (Guidelines for Cyber Cafe) Rules, 2011.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Definitions — (1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,--

(a) "Act" means the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000);

(b) "Appropriate Government" means the Central Government or the State Government or an Union TerritoryAdministration;

(d) "computer resource" means a computer resource as defined in clause (k) of sub-

section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(e) "Data" means data as defined in clause (o) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(f) "Information" means information as defined in clause (v) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;

(g) "Intermediary" means an intermediary as defined in clause (w) of sub-section (1)of section 2 of the Act;

(h) "Registration Agency" means an agency designated by the Appropriate

Government to register cyber cafe for their operation;

(i) "Log Register" - means a register maintained by the Cyber Cafe for access and use of computer resource;

(j) "User" means a person who avails or access the computer resource and includes other persons jointly participating in availing or accessing the computer resource in a cyber cafe.

(2) All other words and expressions used and not defined in these rules but defined in the Act shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Act.

3. Agency for registration of cyber cafe.— (1) All cyber cafes shall be registered with a unique registration number with an agency called as registration agency as notified by the Appropriate Government in this regard. The broad terms of registration shall include:

(i) Name of establishment;

(ii) Address with contact details including email address;

(iii) Whether individual or partnership or sole proprietorship or society or company;

(iv) Date of incorporation;

(v) Name of owner/partner/proprietor/director;

(vi)Whether registered or not (if yes, copy of registration with Registrar of Firms or Registrar of Companies or Societies); and

(vii) Type of service to be provided from cyber cafe

Registration of cyber cafe may be followed up with a physical visit by an officer from the registration agency.

(2) The details of registration of cyber cafe shall be published on the website of the registration agency.

(3) The Appropriate Government shall make an endeavour to set up on-line registration facility to enable cyber cafe to register on-line.

(4) The detailed process of registration to be mandatorily followed by each Registration Agency notified by the Appropriate Government shall be separately notified under these rules by the central Government.

4. Identification of User.— (1) The Cyber Cafe shall not allow any user to use its computer resource without the identity of the user being established. The intending user may establish his identify by producing a document which shall identify the users to the satisfaction of the Cyber Cafe. Such document may include any of the following :—

(i) Identity card issued by any School or College; or

(ii) Photo Credit Card or debit card issued by a Bank or Post Office; or

(iii) Passport; or

(iv) Voter Identity Card; or

(v) Permanent Account Number (PAN) card issued by Income-Tax Authority; or

(vi) Photo Identity Card issued by the employer or any Government Agency; or

(vi) Driving License issued by the Appropriate Government; or

(vii) Unique Identification (UID) Number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

(2) The Cyber Cafe shall keep a record of the user identification document by either storing a photocopy or a scanned copy of the document duly authenticated by the user and authorised representative of cyber cafe. Such record shall be securely maintained for a period of at least one year.

(3) In addition to the identity established by an user under sub-rule (1), he may be photographed by the Cyber Cafe using a web camera installed on one of the computers in the

Cyber Cafe for establishing the identity of the user. Such web camera photographs, duly authenticated by the user and authorised representative of cyber cafe, shall be part of the log

(4) A minor without photo Identity card shall be accompanied by an adult with any of the documents as required under sub-rule (1).

(5) A person accompanying a user shall be allowed to enter cyber cafe after he has established his identity by producing a document listed in sub-rule(1) and record of same shall

be kept in accordance with sub-rule (2).

(6) The Cyber cafe shall immediately report to the concerned police, if they have reasonable doubt or suspicion regarding any user.

5. Log Register.— (1) After the identity of the user and any person accompanied with him has been established as per sub-rule (1) of rule 4, the Cyber Cafe shall record and maintain the required information of each user as well as accompanying person, if any, in the log register for a minimum period of one year.

(2) The Cyber Cafe may maintain an online version of the log register. Such online version of log register shall be authenticated by using digital or electronic signature. The log register shall contain at least the following details of the user,

namely : —

(ii) Name

(iii) Address

(iv) Gender

(v) Contact Number

(vi) Type and detail of identification document

(vii) Date

(vii) Computer terminal identification

(viii) Log in Time

(ix) Log out Time

(3) Cyber Cafe shall prepare a monthly report of the log register showing date- wise details on the usage of the computer resource and submit a hard and soft copy of the same to the person or agency as directed by the registration agency by the 5th day of next month.

(4) The cyber cafe owner shall be responsible for storing and maintaining backups of following log records for each access or login by any user of its computer resource for at least one year:—

(i) History of websites accessed using computer resource al cyber cafe;

(ii) Logs of proxy server installed at cyber cafe. Cyber Cafe may refer to "Guidelines for auditing and logging - CISG-2008-01" prepared and updated from time to time by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-ln) for any

assistance related to logs. This document is available at

www.cert-in.org.in

(5) Cyber cafe shall ensure that log register is not altered and maintained in a secure manner for a period of at least one year.

6. Management of Physical Layout and computer resource.— (1) Partitions of Cubicles built or installed if any, inside the Cyber Cafe, shall not exceed four and half feet in height from the floor level.

(2) The screen of all computers installed other than in Partitions or Cubicles shall face ‘outward’, i.e. they shall face the common open space of the Cyber Cafe.

(3) Any Cyber Cafe having cubicles or partitions shall not allow minors to use any computer resource in cubicles or partitions except when they are accompanied by their guardians or parents.

(4) All time clocks of the computer systems and servers installed in the Cyber Cafe shall be synchronised with the Indian Standard Time.

(5) All the computers in the cyber cafe may be equipped with the commercially available safety or filtering software so as to avoid as far as possible, access to the websites relating to

pornography including child pornography or obscene information.

(6) Cyber Cafe shall take sufficient precautions to ensure that their computer resource are not utilised for any illegal activity.

(7) Cyber Cafe shall display a board, clearly visible to the users, prohibiting them from viewing pornographic sites as well as copying or downloading information which is prohibited under the law.

(8) Cyber Cafe shall incorporate reasonable preventive measures to disallow the user from tampering with the computer system settings.

(9) Cyber cafe shall maintain the user identity information and the log register in a secure manner.

(10) Cyber cafe shall also maintain a record of its stafr for a period of one year

(11) Cyber cafe shall not misuse or alter the information in the log register.

7. Inspection of Cyber Cafe : (1) An officer autnorised by the registration agency, is authorised to check or inspect cyber cafe and the computer resource of network established therein, at any time for the compliance of these rules. The cyber cafe owner shall provide every related document, registers and any necessary information to the inspecting officer on demand.

Research Methodology

Internet and computer addiction has been a popular research area since the 90s. Studies on Internet and computer addiction have usually been conducted in the US, and the investigation of computer and Internet addiction at different countries is an interesting area of research. This study investigates computer and Internet addiction among teenagers and Internet cafe visitors in Turkey. We applied a survey to 983 visitors in the Internet cafes. The results show that the Internet cafe visitors are usually teenagers, mostly middle and high-school students and usually are busy with computer and Internet applications like chat, e-mail, browsing and games. The teenagers come to the Internet cafe to spend time with friends and the computers. In addition, about 30% of cafe visitors admit to having an Internet addiction, and about 20% specifically mention the problems that they are having with the Internet. It is rather alarming to consider the types of activities that the teenagers are performing in an Internet cafe, their reasons for being there, the percentage of self-awareness about Internet addiction, and the lack of control of applications in the cafe.

Internet Cafés are places that provide access to computers and the Internet for many people for inexpensive prices. This is particularly notable in developing countries where few people have the privilege of possessing a computer. Thus, Internet Cafés might be instrumental in bridging the digital divide by providing ample opportunities for teenagers to develop their computer literacy skills and keep up with the needs of the 21st century. However, Internet Cafés are used in many different ways. The empirical evidence from Internet Café users in Indian suggest that the existence of hardware, software, and social interaction with more knowledgeable others needed for developing computer literacy skills does not necessarily lead to high computer literacy skills. This paper reports a phenomenological study of Indian teenagers' experiences of Internet Cafés and formulates some propositions for administrators and educators for utilizing the resources of Internet Cafés for the education of the young.

ANALYSIS

Cyber cafes are growing in the country with its users. The various trends, the growth and the different players in the market mark its prominence. Who said cyber cafés are an endangered species? Look at this math: There are about 1,80,000 cyber cafés in India, which have seven PCs on an average, and these are available for around 12 hours every single day. In fact they serve more than 72 million strong English speaking populations in the country. With the availability of tools that helps translate English language content into the local languages, the cyber cafés, in fact, are empowering the population in remote locations across the country. Naresh Ajwani, President, Consumer Infrastructure and Operations, Sify Technologies points out, "As people in different places become more used to using the internet there has also been a growing requirement for public internet access." He believes that the Internet café has a bright future and says consumer demand remains as high as ever.

Two common scenarios in today’s cyber cafés

Scenario 1: "Shoot him, knock him down", shouts a 12 year old boy to his friend sitting at the other end of a room. It is not a physical fight. The scene is in a cyber café where five boys, between 12 and 15, are crowding around a PC, the keyboard of which is getting tapped not only by the one sitting on a rickety old plastic chair, but by all the boys around him who are emotionally worked up by what is happening on the screen. Their eyes are glued to the screen, on what looks like a violent game. Around them, the other surfers are quietly engrossed in their business. They’ve been here before.

Scenario 2: A 60-year-old woman walks into Net City, a small cyber café in an alley in a crowded residential locality of Bangalore. She does not even know how to switch the computer on. The boy in the café sets up the system and puts her before her son who is on the other side of the globe, through a webcam. They are able to see each other. She doesn't touch the system, but talks to her son loudly and sincerely complains how thin he has grown and advises him to take care of his health. After talking for half an hour she walks out paying the money, brimming with the happiness of having 'seen' her son. Proliferation and evolving uses of the cyber cafénce upon a time, the cyber café was a place for surfing the Web and sending emails to friends. Very few people had access to the net and yet everyone was fascinated by the idea of getting online. But with the internet access so widely available now, paying for the privilege to go online just doesn't seem worth it. More and more of us can log on at home and many have free access in the workplace. Although not everyone is benefiting from this yet, it is still a complete change from how we were a few years ago. Thus, for those wanting their Internet café business to thrive, adapting to more sophisticated demands become crucial. The decreasing revenues from internet browsing, high rental charges, declining customer base, and other factors have prompted the providers to transform cyber cafés into a hub for a variety of e-services, going beyond vanilla web browsing and chat, which were hitherto the mainstay of the business. While the major ones went for re-branding initiatives and adding a host of sophisticated services, the street corner cafés went for value added and personalized services. The two scenarios explained above prove this fact.Sify technologies, which runs iway outlets across the country, is attempting to shift from the concept of cyber cafés to e-stores. The new model will address the need for multiple online services. More services will be available at Internet cafés, which have for the last eight years been primarily a place for net surfing. Sify iWays, now offer a range of online services such as ticketing, bill payments and shopping in addition to Internet access, online games and international voice calls over the Internet. "Our intention is to make them the most convenient place for a host of online services that will make life simpler and add to the quality of life of users" explains Ajwani.

Sify hopes the additional services and re-branding could improve the viability of the cafés. Once the new ePort outlets go on stream, users can conduct e-business using the café owner's card and pay cash to him. "Today, for example, you need your own credit card to book tickets at our outlets. But with the new outlets, the café owner can pay and accept cash from the customers," Ajwani said. Reliance Communications is able to make better use of its outlets where it not only provides broadband services but also uses them for billing and collection, sales of telecom hardware and services, and serves coffee and snacks through an exclusive arrangement with Java Green. Gaming is also a major attraction for the kids to visit the Reliance cyber cafés known as Reliance Web World.

The branded cafés are also offering other services like e-learning, e-ticketing, and online tests (like the NSE and BSE tests). These cafés also have tie ups with companies for conducting recruitment processes. However, according to a CII-IMRB Broadband report, the number of cyber cafés, which was growing at almost 60 percent in 2004 and 2005, has fallen to almost 20 percent in 2008. Reasons for the slow growth rate It is surprising to note that in a country with as many as 1,80,000 cyber cafés there are no laws to protect the interests of the stakeholders. In fact, the existing law says that only an internet service provider has the right to sell internet to the end user. Major players attribute this sorry state of affairs to lack of subsidy and support from the government, coupled with increased security concerns and harassment of cyber café owners. Higher rentals for commercial spaces and a rise in other operational costs also are forcing the owners to close down the cafes

It sounds ridiculous that in a city like Pune, to open a cyber café one has to take permission from the municipal health department, just because 'cyber' has got a 'café' suffixed to it. (The literal meaning of 'café' is 'a place to have coffee and snacks'). Moreover, across the country, the local police have to provide a no objection certificate to open a cyber café. Experts say that drastic decline of cyber cafés is due to harassment that owners face at the hands of the local police. There are many security challenges faced by the café owners; for instance, if someone called from a PCO and threatened an individual no action is taken against the PCO owner, but if a threatening email has been sent from a PC in a cyber café, action is taken against the café’s owner."The reason many cafés close down is also due to the extra-strict laws. Maintaining a log of all sites visited by a customer along with a copy of his or her id proof is one of them," says Biju Joseph, Proprietor, Net City. Joseph points out that the economic downturn has in fact turned out to be a blessing in disguise for him, since youths flock into his café to surf the job sites. Like many of the new age cafés his café also offers value added services like printing, scanning, typing services, and even travel bookings. Even now, cyber cafés emerge as the most popular access point for internet at 36 percent, followed by home (30 percent) and office (25 percent). But, the lackadaisical attitude of the government towards the growth of cyber cafés is impeding the growth. “For the growth of cyber cafés, the government should bring about a centralized framework of regulatory laws and the discriminatory approach towards cyber cafés vis-à-vis PCOs should be rectified, adds Ajwani. These measures along with the redefining and transforming measures taken by the owners of the cyber cafés will ensure a steady growth for the cyber cafés.

The scale of the Internet café phenomenon in India is due in part to India’s massive population. India’s huge population is packed into comparatively much higher urban densities than in the US. Further the trend toward dense urbanization in India is increasing. These are important considerations that influence the day-to-day lives of the population including their living spaces, how they eat, commute, work, communicate and play. For example “mass transit” serves the majority of the on-the-go population in India, not personal cars. Personal cars are popular. To many they represent a level of distinctive achievement and status; however, by in large that is because they are still beyond the means of the majority of the population. The majority of the population still needs to commute and compute without personal vehicles and computers. The least costly, most efficient and culturally accepted means for the majority of the large population clustering into dense urban spaces to fill these needs are mass transit and Internet cafés.

Existing Internet cafés in India include a large range of quality and size businesses. The majority of the 110,000 plus Internet cafés in India today are small operation businesses, and many operate without the proper licenses. The largest Internet café offers 3,000 computer-stations. The smallest Internet cafés offer as few as 6 computer-stations. The National Ministry of Culture has difficulty monitoring these small café owners and prefers Café chain owner/operators. The National Ministry of Culture has established that the number of Internet cafés permitted in India is not to exceed 1 Internet café business for every 10,000 in population. The smaller operations are destined for replacement with licensed Internet cafés averaging around 200 to 300 computer-stations.

In other words we are witnessing a consolidation period in the CICI and Digital Station intends to be a part of it. Each Internet café now has a very specific barrier to entry. First each Internet café must have an Internet café license granted by the local and regional governments and second there shall be no more than one Internet cafés business for every ten thousand in population. Additional barriers to entry include the capital cost, operating complexities and sophistication of acquiring and operating multiple cafés. The time and cost of acquiring an appropriate strategic partner in India, and that partner’s familiarity with the ICIC and their status in it are other noteworthy considerations

Case Study

Our on-going research in urban Western Indian regions, cyber cafés reported untenablility of stand alone business. Initial enthusiasm and excitement around internet cafés have waned to accommodate these as secondary business. At least 6 out of the 10 cafés we looked at ran a small PC assemblage and maintenance attached to café business, while 2 had mobile retail services. These businessmen viewed the twin engagements as complimentary bringing steady clients and easy propaganda for selling PC’s via the internet clientele. Bhaskar Sharma, who runs a OCEAN Cyber Cafe, assembles PC’s for a small neighbourhood market said, “Definitely it is unviable…. Only a cyber café is not a revenue earner. You have to have another business in place. If you want to earn good money, difficult. Yes, you can break even. It will over come cost. But just a cyber café is not a good revenue earner. You have to have some other business in parallel. For example, in my case hardware would bring me profit and café earnings would manage the expenses…”. Bhaskar Sharma added “Café is more like a supplementary business apart from my hardware business and would be an additional source of revenue. In the sales phase I can do hardware selling, sales, plus café …” Bhaskar Sharma articulates reasons, “….. People are becoming more internet savvy. Schools introduce computers at a very early grade…. They all want a home PC. In a city like Delhi where connectivity is good and broad band rates are crashing cyber cafés are loosing out. I switched to assembling PC’s and that is doing better business. I sold 50 the last year… and my browsing rates have come down by 30 % ...”

There is a second example of internet cafés transforming to residuary business. A café in south Mumbai, close to the stock exchange hub, is run by Pankaj, another IT engineer who opened the café to trade stocks “…. Our prime business is trading with the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange (NSC, BSE). And the cyber café is actually part time business. ….it is not just the cyber café that we operate here… the 4-5 PC’s are idle after 4 PM, because the market is open for trading up to the time,… so to utilize the PC’s we started the cyber café. …This is a market place. In this locality you won’t find any cyber café. At least around 5 to 10 meters. So we expect income, though it’s just a month old café...”

A third and prominent scenario is the cyber café cum gaming centre making business from individual or networked PC gaming. Kapil Pathak , who manages and owns an internet café in a small town Vrindavan speaks about his business maneuvers “…, I started a communication centre, PCO/STD/ISD and thought of beginning internet. We got 8 PC’s. …. Not much came by way of income from internet. We still made money only from telephony, especially long-distance….The space opposite our house is occupied by a coin operated gaming parlor with a huge rush for games from local children and youth. I thought of the potential for LAN based games. Now we have lots of children and youth coming to play games. This is a lower middle class neighbourhood with the University situated close by and we keep charges low for both gaming and internet. We are finding clients only for games…The odd client comes for internet…”

Observation

“India Model” for internet has value for money and works effectively on “what-is-used-shall-onlybe-paid-for” basis as disposable income is in accordance only. Cybercafés/Common Service Centers in India are true examples of “Access to Internet within India-Pricing-model” i.e.,Rs.10/15/20 per hour.

However, the common perception today is that Cyber Cafes are on the verge of decline and this business has no future.

This fact is further substantiated by slow growth of Internet in India, the falling customer base, shrinking revenue and apathy of the Government towards this sector.

Despite all these challenges, more than 36% of Indians still access internet from Cyber Cafes thereby, making them a crucial stakeholder in the Internet Ecosystem of India.

Studies also indicate that Cyber Cafes are regularly frequented by people between the age

group of 15-24 years and about 40% of the Cyber café users are working professionals.

Moreover, being open for long hours, seven days a week and their convenient location in the neighbourhood makes Cyber Cafes easily accessible to one and all.

All these aspects present a silver lining to this industry. With a bit of vision, focus on eGovernance-27 Mission Mode Projects, customer insight, support and guidance, Cyber Cafes can easily transform from a mere browsing point to the most happening place in the neighbourhood where people of all ages and walks of life come in to avail the services – be it birth certificates.. Education.. Travel.. Utility.. Entertainment.. Financial products or other Civic amenities.

Providing a comfortable ambience, installing Café Management Software, security system, legal software etc. will help to make the Café ‘Safe and Secure’, reduce pilferage, make it easier to manage the Café and most importantly, legal.

Increasing the service offerings of the café by introducing education services (Computer

learning, English speaking, Tutorial services, distance learning), e-Governance services, Travel Services, Utility services (bill payments), Drop and Pick Service (courier services) etc., will help in increasing the café walk–ins, ARPU per user and PC utilization.

We at CCAOI are committed in our endeavour to provide the Cyber Café/CSC fraternity with a platform where information and solutions on the latest developments, services and best

practices for the Cyber Cafes are available, thus helping the fraternity to grow and prosper and thereby, helping to increase internet penetration in India.

How to Run a Successful Cyber Café

The best way to make your business successful is to deliver value to your customers while reducing your operating costs, which would increase your profitability potential. By focusing on the needs of your customers and consistently meeting their expectations, you can ensure that your customers choose to return to you again and again.

We would be sharing a few aspects which are important for your Cyber Café to be successful.

A. Café Hygiene

First and foremost, as a Cyber Café owner you need to take care of the Café Hygiene. A neat, clean and comfortable café would attract more customers. Ensuring proper cooling, comfortable chairs and good lighting inside the café will ensure that your customers stay there for a longer duration and your earn more.

The café exterior should be well maintained and must present an air of safe and secured environment where anyone can walk in.

B. Hardware Hygiene

Every customer walking into your Café expects that the computers and the Internet connection should be up and running without any disconnections. If either goes down, you not only lose money but also perhaps an existing/potential customer. Thus, the success of your café depends, to a great extent, on fully functioning PC’s along with a reliable Internet connection.

Hardware Protection

It is necessary for you to ensure that your hardware is resilient to viruses, malware threats, spam, spyware, phishing attacks and other intrusions. Having genuine software on your

systems can help you get the latest updates and supports.

You can further protect your hardware by:

• Installing a firewall, antivirus and antispyware program on all your computers.

• Configuring your computers to automatic download and installing updated security software.

• Regularly removing temporary files and scanning all your systems for viruses.

• Blocking malicious Web sites from your systems.

• Periodically deleting the history and cookies from all your machines.

Providing proper software, hardware and accessories in the Cafe

Your budget definitely determines the set up of your business, but there are some standard basic requirements (of hardware, software and accessories) for running a café.

Ideally each computer in the café should be equipped with the following:

Software

• A genuine Operating System Software like MS Windows would provide you security and reliability.

• Having the commonly used software like Licensed Microsoft Office or any equivalent open software helps you to attract more customers and cater to their different needs.

Hardware

• Microprocessor: A faster processor in your computers will ensure faster speed and your customers will be able to run applications, load Web pages and download files faster.

1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processors will normally give your customers a good experience. Alternatively, you could choose modern processors (at least 800 MHz).

• Hard disk drive: Your computers should have adequate hard disk storage space to store the wide variety of software programs installed. Apart from that, there should be space for your customers.

• Memory: Today customers want speed and the more memory your PC has, the faster your customers will be able to retrieve files or open programs. Another advantage is that it also makes the loading time shorter and more consistent. Ideally, each PC should have a minimum

512 MB memory.

• Monitors: If possible, you could opt for flat screens. In most cases the preferred monitor size is 17-19 inches, though there are some instances where high-end gaming customers may be willing to pay a premium for a bigger screen.

CRT displays are a cost-effective option but they do not carry any cache, take up more room and convey less of an experience.

• 100 Mbps network card: The network cards provide fast Ethernet speeds for your premium-grade computers. They assist in smooth file sharing, printers, e-mail and promoting

Voice over IP (VoIP) as a service so that customers can call their friends or relatives at a far economical rate.

• Video card: The visual experience when looking at pictures, playing games or watching

videos is controlled by the video card. You should choose the option that provides the best experience for your customers.

• Sound card: Even though you would not want to have speakers in your Cafe, having

sound cards in the machines will allow customers to plug into the computer so that games, movies and music come alive or they can use VoIP to call friends or family.

Accessories

Multimedia keyboard and optical mouse: The optical mouse will make the performance more responsive and the multimedia keyboard will allow customers to access common music and video controls from their keyboard.

C. Café Management

Your Cyber Café needs to be managed in a systematic manner and for that, you need reliable café management software to track your day-to-day productivity, ensure secure billing and system security, and manage daily records. A good café management software will help in reducing pilferage, better management of café and instilling a feeling of trust amongst the customers that they are not being cheated.

A good Billing System should provide you with:

• Flexible billing and rental rate set-up and overrides.

• Quick updates on all computers through an administrative dashboard.

• Preinstalled reporting to facilitate better business decisions.

D. Café Surveillance/Security System

In the wake of national security, nowadays it is essential to have a robust Café security/vigilance system. A good Café vigilance system would help to easily manage and maintain records of all the customers walking in to the Cafe which in turn would help to sieve out unwanted people from the café and focus on genuine customers and give them a feeling of walking into a secured area.

Important Points to Remember

• Try to ensure that you have the same hardware configuration on all work stations as it will make maintenance and upkeep much easier and also, give a sense of uniformity.

• Keep your computers up-to-date and update the frequently used programs regularly.

• The Basic accessory requirements of a Cyber café include:

o Printer

o Scanner

o Webcam

o Headphone and microphone

o USB memory card readers and different data cables

o CD-RW or DVD burner

o Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)

o Comfortable chairs

o High-quality lighting

o Proper Café Cooling inside the Cafe

E. Café Promotion

The success of any marketing strategy lies in detailed planning and execution. To promote your business, apart from attracting new customers, you first and foremost need to have a solid plan to retain and reward your existing loyal customers which, on one hand, would help in retaining them and on the other, help in creating a good word of mouth, much needed to attract customers—and differentiate yourself from your competition.

Before undertaking any kind of promotional activity, the primary task is to have a comprehensive idea of your catchment area (the area around the café from where you get your customers) and customers.

Having a detailed understanding of your catchment area (how many residential complexes, colleges, schools, hospitals, parks, markets etc.) will help you to understand and choose the exact marketing activity for the target audience and make your efforts successful.

Knowing your customers well and profiling (regulars, occasional customers, heavy users etc.) them, will help you in planning and implementing specific activities for specific profile categories and thus, increasing the success rate of your campaign.

Depending on your catchment area and customers, you can plan a strategy to promote your business. We are discussing below a few ways to promote the business:

• Offers: You can run customized promotional offers for customers based on different customer profiles like special student offers, senior citizen discounts, housewife discounts etc.

• Membership Programs: You can launch various membership programs such as free trial memberships or family memberships for the existing customers. This will increase the loyalty of your customers and reduce churn.

• Cross-promotional advertising with other local businesses will help to get in new customers.

• Creating customized mailers, flyers and pamphlets and distributing them properly will help to bring in fresh walk-ins.

• Advertising through local media outlets — radio, local newspapers, cable and community magazines can increase your visibility.

• Offer discounts or coupons to frequent customers. You can also arrange competitions or rewards (e.g., contests like “Best Customer of the Month”) or create membership clubs for the frequent customers.

F. Great Customer Experience

A customer will keep coming to you again and again when he has a great customer experience in your café. There are various practices you can adopt to create a great customer experience.

Among them the most important is to ensure that your customer feels appreciated and ensuring that they can easily find and avail the services they need and at the time they need.

A few suggestions:

• Extend your support to troubleshoot common problems with using computers and the Internet.

• Create a list of favorites on every computer’s Internet Explorer browser—categorized by keywords, such as news, sports, music, films, education etc.

• List online job search engines.

• Provide a mobile charging station.

• Ensure your washrooms are clean and well kept.

• You could also provide for food and beverages in your café.

The basic idea is that by giving your customers everything they need to feel comfortable, they’ll stay longer and spend more money.

How to create New Earning Opportunities

To run a successful Cyber café, you need to expand your offerings beyond just providing Internet access to your customers and ensuring that your customers will spend more money with you.

By selling more products and attracting new customers throughout the day, you will be better positioned to bring in revenue from a variety of sources.

A. Increase your service offerings-Value Added Services

The more variety of services and products you offer, the more customers you would be able to attract and retain. The idea is that there should be adequate services to cater to everyone’s needs. The customers coming into your café can range from first time users to gamers to media enthusiasts to students to entrepreneurs to housewives and more. More customers in the door will give you more opportunities to generate potential revenue through access fees, business products and other value-added services.

Suggested below are a few examples of revenue-generating opportunities for your business:

• Create Password-protected Wi-Fi Zone and Hot Spots for Laptop Users:

Providing Wi-Fi services will attract a wide range of users, from students to professionals, especially in major metros or Cafes located in high street locations who want to use their own machines.

Create a welcoming and warm atmosphere for regular customers and make them feel comfortable so that they keep coming back. You could also provide value-added benefits like software applications and encourage repeat customers by offering special daily, weekly and monthly rates/ plans.

• Offer Computer Support:

Besides running and maintaining your own systems, consider offering a variety of computing and consulting services for customers who have home computers or are looking to buy new ones. These services can deliver higher-margin opportunities and could include updating, data recovery, installations and configuration.

• Business Correspondence and Presentation Services:

You can provide easy-to-use templates and clip art to help your customers create professional looking marketing materials such as business letters, presentations, certificates, flyers, banners, business Cards etc.You could also provide the service of creating such presentations for customers and thus, opening a new earning avenue.

• Printing, Faxing and Scanning:

You could sell a wide range of office supplies from your café while providing basic business and consumer services such as printing, laminating, binding, photocopying, faxing, photo editing and scanning.

• Resume/Curriculum Vitae (CV) and Covering Letter Services:

Many job seekers visit Cyber Cafes to access job portals. You can facilitate job searches by providing resume and cover letter templates and professional services. You can also partner with local writers or business people to offer these services (and split the potential revenue), or hire someone on your staff who can help create these documents.

• Event Passes and Concert Tickets:

Sell passes or coupons for city events or concerts or even movies.

• Food, Beverages, Magazines and Newspapers:

These additional items create an inviting atmosphere, encouraging customers to stay for longer periods of time.

• Drop Boxes and Courier Services:

You can partner with courier services and provide drop boxes at your Internet café to extend the business services you provide.

• Entertainment Services:

You can facilitate music downloads, CD burning and photo and video sharing. Sell the latest,most popular games and components along with CDs and DVDs, pen drives, memory cards and card readers.

Important Tip: Online Value Added Services (VAS) – Relationship with One VAS

Aggregator for simplified Accounting and long term relationship is important.

• Provide Utility Services, Travel Ticket booking services:

Services like mobile recharge, bill payment, rail/air ticket booking can help to attract a lot of people to the Cafes/CSC and increase footfalls.

• Provide Online Education Services

Online education is another killer service which can help to increase the PC usage and take care of the café/CSC lean hours besides bringing in new students.

• Provide Financial Products:

Credit Card/Insurance Leads, Share Applications’ facilitation etc. make the café/CSC to have more footfalls and incremental revenue opportunity.

B. Increase Your Customer Base

For increasing your customer base, you have to ensure that your existing customers keep coming back and you are successful in attracting new customers with new services and offerings.

Expanding your customer base is a great way to open doors to new potential revenue opportunities. By examining different types of customer segments that you could serve, you’ll be able to identify additional services you can add to help make your business more successful.

We would be discussing below a few such segments:

First-time users:

First-time users are customers who are new to computers and Internet. They would be interested to use the Cyber café to communicate with friends and family through e-mail and to access online resources. This segment is very huge and presents immense potential. You can help your first time customers develop the essential skills they need to begin computing with confidence by providing computer training and support. Doing this will benefit your business in multiple ways. Firstly, you would be able to increase your PC occupancy during weekdays when a majority of these potential customers would visit your café. Secondly, you will be viewed in the locality as a trusted advisor for these customers, capturing their loyalty and business.

You could attract the first time-users by providing:

• A comfortable, friendly environment - Many people are intimidated while learning new skills and computers can be stressful especially for the first-time users. Going out of your way to make these customers feel comfortable will motivate them to return.

• Basic computer training – learning how to use the computer and finding the basic information on Internet can help the first-time users to get started with computers.

• You can hold specific Internet training that will help the customers in taking advantage of all the services offered by Internet—being able to job hunt, communicate, pay bills, make reservations and much more.

• You could provide on-site support, with knowledgeable staff members on hand to answer questions and provide tips.

• An “A to Z” Internet café glossary of terms including abbreviations, shortcuts, Internet etiquette, applicable Cyber laws and dos and don’ts pasted before the PCs can help customers.

• You could provide your customers with a full range of online courses that teach basic computer concepts and skills.

Useful Tip:

You can organize various innovative activities to attract new comers e.g.:

• You can organize a special Internet Learning Course especially for housewives during the afternoons and show them the recipe sites or sites which would help them to assist their children for homework etc.

• You could call in the elderly people of the locality for discussions on how internet can be beneficial for them. Have a special senior citizen batch where you teach them on sites for information or of their use/interest.

Entrepreneurs & Professionals:

Today many professionals are running their businesses from their homes and corresponding through Cyber cafés. Such people require high speed constant internet service. This customer segment can use Cyber cafés to manage all aspects of their business, whether for making business plans, communicating with clients, creating marketing materials, or carrying out a variety of business tasks such as printing, copying and faxing.

You could attract the professionals and entrepreneurs by:

• Services for professionals could include effectively setting up an office area, including high-speed Internet access and wireless printing in your Cafe.

• Provide password-protected Wi-Fi Internet connectivity that can be accessed from hot spots in your café or even from nearby home offices.

• Arrange for a professional environment where these customers can work, meet with clients and manage their business.

• Provide easy-to-use templates and clip art to help your customers create professional looking marketing materials such as business letters, presentations, certificates, flyers, Banners and business cards.

• Provide certification programs so that they and their employees can become proficient on productivity software.

• Offer printing, faxing, and photocopying, laminating, binding, scanning, and other business services.

• Offer office supplies including CDs and DVDs, pen drives, memory cards and card readers.

Useful Tip:

In case needed, you could always rent laptops equipped with the latest software and Internet capabilities to help local and travelling professionals fulfil their business requirements.

Entertainment Seekers:

This segment of customers use Cyber Cafes purely for entertainment - to watch movies, download music, surf the Internet, scan-edit-share photos, e-mail friends and family, use blogs, live chat, social networking groups and video conferencing. Such customers prefer fast machines and high speed internet that enables them to quickly download a wide variety of media.

You could attract the entertainment seekers by providing:

• Access to download of popular songs, movies, videos, ring tones, wallpapers, screen savers and software for their mobile devices.

• Easy-to-use, step-by-step instructions on signing up and using e-mail and instant messaging.

• You could always provide a collection of pre-downloaded material that you can charge the customers for, to transfer to their handsets.

• A quiet space for audio and video conferencing

• Help with photo editing, scanning and sending.

Certain resources you could provide in the café for this category of customers are:

Downloads: USB port, data cables, card reader, mobile software

Audio and Video Conferencing: Webcam, Messengers, Live services.

Photo Editing: Audio/video cables and converters, editing tools, Media Player, Real Player, or any other software like Picture Manager, Movie Maker, Visual Studio etc.

Useful Tip:

To attract freelance Journalists and Media persons, you could create a space for photo and video journalists by dedicating an area for photo editing and scanning. You can offer video editing and sending software to help aspiring journalists and filmmakers.

Gamers:

Gamers frequent Cyber cafés to play games alone or online with friends. A comfortable ambience and fast machines will induce them to stay in the café for longer hours playing games chatting live, mailing or watching media. These customers are often gizmo freaks having the latest gadgets. Gamers are motivated by entertainment but also love the social value provided at Cyber cafés.

You could attract the gamers by providing:

• Access to popular gaming titles.

• A separate “game zone” space where gamers can get together with their friends and enjoy fast-paced gaming. This would also help in not disturbing your regular customers as the gamers are normally noisy.

• Have gaming competitions like Multiplayer Gaming Tournaments where teams can compete for prizes. Put a winner’s board up so that all can see the winners, encouraging more competition.

• Games, wallpaper themes, ring tones and screen savers of popular games that can be easily downloaded (if possible) to their mobile devices.

• Gaming workshops showcasing the latest products. You can invite local gaming software developers to come and demonstrate their products to your customers.

Resources:

Gaming Machines, Gaming devices (if there is a heavy demand)

Useful Tips:

If there is a demand in your area, you could create a space by equipping your game zone with theater effects - a large-screen TV, high-quality sound system and dedicated gaming hardware and software.

Hold gaming tournaments or competitions during late nights especially on weekends.

Ideal Gaming Machine Configuration should be:

• At least a Pentium 4 or AMD 1.8 GHz processor with 1 GB / 2 GB hard drive.

• 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 graphics card and 22-inch monitor.

• Headphones and microphones.

Students:

Students of all ages frequently come to Cyber Cafes to communicate, share ideas, research, write reports, learn new skills and search for jobs. They also access internet to keep in touch, socialize, for entertainment and to download music and movies.

You could attract the students by providing:

• Downloads of popular songs, movies, videos, ring tones, wallpapers, screen savers and software for their mobile devices.

• Resume and cover letter templates, as well as links to online job providers to help facilitate job searches.

• Access to educational software and quick links to educational Web sites.

• Offering after school Online educational/tuition courses in various subjects.

• Student discounts during off-peak hours.

• Various language interface packs (like vernacular language options) on your computers, giving students the option to learn in different languages.

Useful Tips:

You could tie–up with nearby schools to offer basic internet course or online tuition courses for their students. This would help students, without a home computer, complete homework

assignments as well as learn computers.

You could bookmark educational web sites to help students find the required resources faster.

Developers:

Developers use Cyber Cafes to access the tools they need to develop comprehensive web solutions, rich interactive multimedia applications and more.

You could attract the developers by providing:

• Access to the latest developer applications, tools and updates.

• Systems and software that is supported and protected.

• Hosted community groups that bring local developers together. come in and offer software development classes.

This would help you to attract new and more customers.

Useful Tips:

You could advertise Web design and maintenance services by enlisting local developers to offer their services to your customers. By facilitating this valuable service, you will be helping (and attracting) your business customers while providing revenue for your developer customers.

You could also invite the local developers to

The Indian Internet Café Industry (CICI) is one of the fastest growing businesses in India. The demand for Internet access is growing rapidly and is forecasted to exceed the 210 Million Internet users in the United States within 2 years. The difference between the US Internet user and the Indian Internet user is that in the USA most users have access at home typically with their own PC. In India most users do not own their own PC and do not have access to the Internet at home.

Internet cafés are a low cost way for many Indian to get on the Web with Broadband connections. Personal Computers (PC) are for the majority of India’s vast population a pricey long-term investment consideration. The price of a PC is an even greater consideration for competitive gamers that are driven to up-to-date PC gaming machines with high bandwidth in a social environment. Internet cafés in India are similar to the Gaming Arcades we are familiar with in America with one major difference and that is the extreme popularity of the Internet cafés.

The scale of the Internet café phenomenon in India is due in part to India’s massive population. India’s huge population is packed into comparatively much higher urban densities than in the US. Further the trend toward dense urbanization in India is increasing. These are important considerations that influence the day-to-day lives of the population including their living spaces, how they eat, commute, work, communicate and play. For example “mass transit” serves the majority of the on-the-go population in India, not personal cars. Personal cars are popular. To many they represent a level of distinctive achievement and status, however, by in large that is because they are still beyond the means of the majority of the population. The majority of the population still needs to commute and compute without personal vehicles and computers. The least costly, most efficient and culturally accepted means for the majority of the large population clustering into dense urban spaces to fill these needs are mass transit and Internet cafés.

The demand for Internet access creates a business environment that allows Internet café owners to set rates with reasonably high margins. The ceiling the government is establishing (1 Internet café per population of 10,000) provides a measure of assurance that the industry will remain commercially viable.

Internet cafés are service-oriented businesses. Primary marketing decisions for these service-oriented operations revolve around facility location, size, equipment, bandwidth and pricing. Secondary tier considerations relating to products and services provide conveniences and enhance the customer experience, provide another reason for patrons to come on premise, or stay on premise, and produce ancillary income. Examples of miscellaneous ancillary products and services include soft drinks and food support, t-shirts and umbrellas or cigarette lighters and special programs and events.

Demand for Internet access is high and the established licensing ceiling, availability of desirable leases and front-end capital requirements limit supply. Word of the existence of a new Internet café spreads quickly and easily in neighbourhoods where they are located. As word of an Internet café travels along the street, so does the messengers opinion of the Internet café’s fundamental characteristics (convenient, large, modern, helpful staff and reasonably priced or not). In this way Internet cafés quickly establish themselves as neighbourhood destinations, (local, and social and entertainment hubs) and by and large to date these hubs are established with little or no advertising or consideration to a corporate or chain-store persona.

Conclusion

Internet Cafe, often called Cyber Cafe, is a place that offers customers hi-speed internet access, other computer services and variety of PC games. It deals with internet time that a customer buys and it can be sold per hour or minute and sometimes longer. Internet Cafe is the most popular in the world of business people, travelers and tourists, but it also finds good and frequent customers in teenagers and adults who spend a lot of time playing computer games. This place is simply a must for webmail, instant messaging and the best way to keep in touch both in private and professional field. Internet Café is a place where food and drinks are also usually served.

Internet Cafe Equipment – Necessary and Additional

Setting up of Internet (Cyber) Cafe and the cost of it depends on a number of client computers and services you plan to offer to your customers. To start Internet Cafe business, you will need: internet connection (ADSL, Cable etc.), client computers, server computer that controls the clients and networking hardware. In the most cases networking hardware is not very expensive, however everything depends on a type of network. If you plan to have wired network type, switch or router, and networking cables will be necessary. If you plan wireless network you will need to have wireless access point or router and wireless network cards for your client computers. Of course, if required, you can make a combination of wired and wireless network. For Internet Cafes that offers only Internet access office programs there is no need to buy very expensive computers. However, if you attempt to offer computer gaming, it is largely recommended to buy high-end graphic cards and processors.

Controlling Computers

Beside required hardware for successful Internet Cafe business, it is fully recommended to use Internet Cafe management software. Internet Cafe software is a server / client based application, used to manage customer accounts, security setup, charge POS items and get the latest statistics, logs and detailed reports. With Internet Cafe software, client computers are fully protected and no one cannot use for free the services offered by your Cafe. Client computers are protected with the log-in page that requires pre-paid account to start work, or it demands to wait for a person to open the client computer from server computer. When customers pre-paid account expires or customer finishes the job, client computer is automatically protected again with the login page and waits for the next customer.

Suggestions

Advice 1 – Give discounts for selling more login tickets in your Internet café

Make your special pricing plans for your members. Give discounted prices to your regular members and they will always come back to your Internet Cafe for your services. Attract new members with discounted pre-paid login accounts. Sell more pre-paid time for lower price (Example: sell 3 hours ticket with 10% discount, 5 hour ticket with 25% discount etc.)

Advice 2 – Protect and keep fresh client computers for your next user

Don’t allow file saving anywhere on client computer hard disk. For this it is advised to use Internet Cafe software to block ‘Save’ command completely or just allow ‘Save’ in one hard drive partition and make all other partitions invisible for the customer. After client computer is once used, Internet Cafe software has the ability to close all previously opened programs or automatically restarts the client computer. In this way it always keeps it fresh for your next customer

Advice 3 – Extra-charging for special and additional services

Some people come to Internet Cafes to use external hardware offered there, since they are not well equipped at home or simply do not have these electronic privileges (example: to print and scan documents, burn cd and dvd, for faxing service etc.). If you have an Internet Cafe in a place attractive for tourists or a holiday resort, it is fully recommended to allow transferring data from digital camera to cd or flash drive and charge additionally for these services.

Advice 4 – Share PC game license on your computers to reduce expenses

All companies, Internet Cafes, even home users are obliged by EULA (end user license agreements) to use only the licensed games or programs on their computers. This is not so big problem if you have small Internet Cafe with few client computers. But if your case is `bigger` Internet, so you need to buy 50 licenses in the same game, this is will be a huge expense for your business. Here comes License Key Management option that helps saving your money on purchasing license. License Key management service checks the network if there is a license key that is not used and transfer it to the client computer. In this way you can offer the same game to all your client computers in Internet Cafe only with few licensed copies.

Advice 5 – Allow multi-player games to increase your membership

Multi-playing is really popular and fashionable these days. Multi-player games can be played over the internet or in local networks. Teenagers and younger children mostly have computers at home and have ability to play these games over the net. But, it is much more interesting to play multi-player games with the friends at the same location. Allow multi-player games and customers will come to your cafe in groups.

Advice 6 – Make your own city network of Internet Cafes

Internet Cafe software provides you the ability to network all Internet Cafes via the Internet and share member account database. With this option, member accounts, created in any networked Internet Café, can be used in all other Internet Cafes. Open few Internet Cafes in different city areas and sell pre-paid tickets everywhere (in Internet cafe, newsagents`, hotel receptions etc.). In this way your Internet Cafe business will become very popular and citizens will be happy customers because of the possibility to use the same login ticket whenever and especially wherever they want.

Advice 7 – Sell various items to increase your profit

Internet access and computer gaming are the basic services that can be sold in Internet cafes. Beside basic services add items common in coffee and small computer shops. While surfing the web or playing games people would like to drink a coffee or have a juice. Customers will also appreciate full service like ordering drinks without leaving their seats. Have DVDs and flash drives in your sale, so your customer can save downloaded files in your Internet cafe. Internet Cafe software with it’s own integrated Point Of Sale system is here to make your sale easy both for you and your customers.

Future scope

Amid the neon, rush and hustle of Times Square, nestled right next to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on 42nd Street, is a unexpected sanctuary of quiet: the world's largest Internet cafe, a home to vagabond surfers from around the planet, 24 hours a day. It may also be a vision of the future of cyber cafes: a global grassroots phenomenon suddenly facing new challenges.

When I heard about a giant Internet cafe at the crossroads of the world, I instantly imagined a cyber version of the old Thorn Tree Cafe in Nairobi, a few decades ago. The Thorn Tree was built around an old acacia bearing a message board that every backpacker passing through town simply had to check. And while you usually didn't have any messages tacked up on the cork, in the course of checking, you'd meet lots of new people and end up with all sorts of new travel ideas. (The acacia tree, by the way, is no more, although the cafe is still there; fittingly, Lonely Planet borrowed the name for their travel Website's bulletin board.)

The Times Square easyInternetCafe, however, is the disembodied opposite of the noisy old Thorn Tree. The big, open, two-story space feels like a hushed university library, filled with dozens of rows of long wood grain laminate desktops. There are minimal dividers between stations: just one LCD monitor after another, with mouse and keyboard below--650 in all. Surfers sit two feet apart, utterly oblivious to those around them.

Ironically, the room is festooned with posters from online dating service Lavalife--big advertising banners hang from the ceilings depicting fetching guys and gals eyeing one another, although below no one is eyeing anything but their LCD. Soon, however, partitions will be built between stations: not for privacy but because the store was initially a magnet for pickpockets and purse-snatchers. "People sit down," says Andrew Croft, vice president of business development, "and completely lose all awareness."

EasyInternetCafe is the largest of what may be as many as fifteen thousand Internet cafes in at least 171 nations--no one knows for sure, since this constitutes unquestionably the most disorganized industry sector on the Internet. While there have been several efforts to start national or international Internet cafe organizations, none has really taken off. There are at least half a dozen companies selling software that lets cafe owners track usage and bill customers, but none of those is dominant.

Yet Internet cafe operators may soon wish they were organized, for the business is increasingly under attack. In Europe, Greece and Germany have led the way in efforts to require "gaming licenses" for Internet cafes, since it's possible to use computers for amusement and gambling. While the outcome remains uncertain, the cost of gaming licenses would almost certainly make cyber cafes a losing proposition-yet without a license, the proprietors could be arrested for tax evasion anytime a patron was discovered playing a game.

China shuttered 3,300 Internet cafes late last year for "safety reasons" after an arson fire killed 25 people in an underground Beijing joint called Blue Hyperspeed; the official position on Internet cafes remains murky. And earlier this month, a Los Angeles city councilman demanded a police investigation of cyber cafes after 300 incidents of violence--including a late-December brawl involving 100 teens--were linked to networked multiplayer combat games, when the online battles spilled offline.

Some of these challenges will sort themselves out--almost inevitably, locations that specialize in gaming will differentiate themselves from standard Internet cafes since multiplayer gaming requires more powerful hardware. As such game salons emerge they will become the lightning rods for licensing and crime concerns. Indeed, says Ernst Larsen, a Norwegian journalist who compiles a printed directory of Internet cafes (www.netcafeguide.com), some game-oriented cafes are already asking to be removed from his directory, as they don't want travelers dropping in.

But the quirky little coffee-and-broadband stands that supply access everywhere from Brooklyn to Belarus may soon face another threat: the technology at easyInternetCafe in Times Square. EasyInternetCafe is a subsidiary of easyGroup, run by a fleet-footed entrepreneur named Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Stelios has already parlayed a shipping fortune into easyJet, a wildly popular low-cost airline that is shaking up the European travel industry.

EasyGroup hopes to do the same with Internet cafes: the Times Square cafe has extremely low overhead and prices. At the front, customers line up to put cash into vending machines that give them credits for online usage. They then pick out any empty computer and log on. Depending on time of day, the price ranges from a maximum of $4 an hour down to-say, at 3:00 AM-twenty-five cents an hour, averaging about $1 an hour. In short, it's demand-based pricing that adjusts constantly, exactly the way airline seats are sold. You can even buy access, at a discount, for a date several months in the future.

EasyInternetCafe is also no-frills: no printers, for example. If you want to print, you email the document to yourself and visit a Kinko's. And no technical advice, either--while techs fix broken machines, no one will tell you how to insert a photo into your e-mail. But that doesn't seem to deter the cafe's 35,000 weekly customers. On a recent Friday night, the place was almost full, with everyone from men in business suits to European kids backpacking America. In my row sat a mother and two kids playing Sims online; a young woman examining a bartending school's site; a whiskered gent glaring at a game of online chess; a man copying a recipe for tofu soup; a teenager personalizing an online greeting card; and one elderly fellow typing away wildly in a Spanish language chat room.

Easy Group, having thoroughly field-tested its automated model in London and Manhattan, will now roll out fifteen-computer versions that fit in two hundred square feet-basically "Internet cafes in a box"-across the US. They're aiming to put automated Internet access inside existing establishments such as McDonald's or Burger King, and also to offer it as a franchise opportunity. And they're looking as well at the developing world, where low-cost public Internet access is increasingly crucial.

So even cyber cafes, the last untamed remnant of the Internet boom, may soon face corporate consolidation. Or then again, maybe not. Perhaps there's yet some blend of coffee, muffins, access and friendly advice that can still compete against no-frills efficiency. Maybe, for example, you could start by putting a message board on an old thorn tree.

ONLINE EDUCATION

Thursday, June 28, 2012

6-Rules and Regulations for setting up Cyber Cafe CSC and ecommerce Service Retailer ship in India

Ring Topology

1)Full Mesh Topology:-

2) Partial Mesh Topology:-

Advantages of Mesh topology

Disadvantages of Mesh topology

Advantages of Hybrid Network Topology

Disadvantages of Hybrid Topology

Identification of User

Log Register

The Cyber Cafe Owner needs to log the following

Physical Layout of Cyber Cafe

Pornography / illegal Content Access

Rules and Regulations for setting up Cyber Cafe, CSC and ecommerce Service Retailer ship in India