Anyway, here are the slides and the video that was not shown.

I made a case for governments freeing up basic data on a non-discriminatory basis. That there should be data and freedom for m applications developers to use the data and develop innovative products and services. I also pointed out that ICT solutions had to be accompanied by complementary solutions. In case of the example I used, agricultural market information, these were cold storage (could be provided by the government or by the private sector) and forward/futures markets (possibly required the government to lead and shape the environment).

I was surprised by a comment made by the moderator, an employee of ICTA. He said that my statement about SLT exerting undue control over the cable station during the panel discussion was evidence that freedom of speech existed in Sri Lanka! Wow and wow again.

I have criticized the remnants of market power in the Sri Lanka telecom sector in multiple places on the record. I have even publicly criticized his own ICT agency. I do not need to exercise my freedom of speech to say what theory and evidence plainly says is wrong: continuing to allow an incumbent operator to control an essential facility and engage in discriminatory behavior against its competitors. I can only feel sorry for people make such silly statements at public events.

Sri Lanka’s information and communications technology workforce has doubled in the past four years as the island ramps up training and investment to make the sector a key export industry.

A new survey said the number of ICT sector jobs increased by 100 percent to over 62,000 this year from 30,120 in 2006. Over 50,000 people are estimated to have been employed in the IT sector in 2010.

The national ITC workforce survey by the state-run Information and Communication Technology Agency covered 80 state institutions, 325 private sector firms, 30 BPO (business processing outsourcing) firms, and 75 IT training institutes.

Cannot find the report on the Dept of Census and Statistics website nor at ICTA website. Hope it will be posted soon. Until then, a news report is all there is.

Why is there such a communication gap between persons with disabilities and the policy makers? Even in India, we come across projects where the government of India is spending precious funds developing technology which they feel is required for the blind, while the blind in fact are already using more advanced technology. For instance, there is a project of the government to develop a special browser for the blind, when the blind and visually impaired are already navigating the internet using screen readers like Jaws and NVDA. My meetings with the regulator and other agencies confirmed for me that persons with disabilities in Sri Lanka and India are facing similar problems. A severe challenge for persons with disabilities is to make policy makers and developers aware of their needs and new developments in technology so that appropriate initiatives are taken which are low cost, available in local languages, and scalable. Increasingly it seems important to involve the private sector as well in accessibility initiatives to increase variety, competition and solutions.

Full report.

Now, in the developed world, every part of a building must be accessible by wheelchair. Pedestrian crossing make a noise in addition to just the color signal. Not yet available in our part of the world, but the pressure is on.

When I was in charge of a graduate program at a US university, I admitted a blind student into the PhD program. It was a multi-year commitment on both sides, so I did a lot of asking questions before the final commitment was made. I was truly surprised how many resources had been developed for the blind using ICTs. That was 15 years ago. I am sure more is available now.

Capabilities in terminal devices must be matched by capabilities in the networks. That requires policy and regulatory involvement and action by operators. Ten years ago, we were struggling to get rid of massive waiting lists. Now we have 75 percent of Sri Lankan households connected, to illustrate from one country. It is time, it is beyond time, we address the needs of the differently abled.

Nirmita Narasimhan, a lawyer on the staff of the Center for Internet and Society, has been leading the charge. During her short visit to Sri Lanka at LIRNEasia’s invitation she will meet with the Telecom Regulatory Commission, the ICT Agency and the Jinasena Trust, in addition to giving a colloquium at LIRNEasia on the 8th of April. As we develop a new line of work tentatively entitled “Consumer rights in the connected society,” we will look to learn from Nirmita on how we can make the definition of consumer inclusive.

So I was more than a little surprised to receive an invitation for a live talk show during drive time from the government channel. I accepted, mostly out of curiosity as to why I had ceased to be persona non grata. I was even more surprised when I found the show was sponsored by the ICT Agency and that my introduction mentioned my role in setting up the agency. The moderator was well prepared and even tried to set up controversy by playing a segment from a previous show where a post modernist had said that I have no understanding of the cultural aspects of ICTs.

What I was most surprised by was the fact that they let through a caller who wanted me to make a critical evaluation of the progress made by e Sri Lanka since 2003, or the lack thereof.

I responded saying that good things had been done, but that more should be done. That the 1919 government information center that they kept advertising through the show was a great innovation, but that it did not attract enough calls and give enough information. That Sri Lanka had made absolute progress on the composite indices such as the ICT Development Index, but that we were falling behind in relative terms because others were running harder. The usual things that I say.

That is what I have to say to ICTA about the commendable effort to spark public discourse about ICTs and their social, economic and cultural effects. You’re doing good work, but you can do much better.

Good that you invite people like me and the postmodernist, both people who speak their minds. But surely, you can do better in terms of media channels. I do not know the exact ratings position of the government channel, but I suspect it is not the channel of choice in public transport during drive time. If you want to communicate, you need to use the channels that have large audiences. You need to go outside the frame of government money being given to other government agencies, to getting the most bang for the buck.

e government was central to the design of e Sri Lanka and is perhaps the program area that has absorbed most of the USD 83 million funds. Therefore, the UN e gov rankings are very important. Sadly, the 2010 rankings indicate that Sri Lanka’s position has deteriorated in relative and absolute terms. It has dropped from 101st place in 2009 to 111th. The Index value has dropped from 0.4244 in 2009 to 0.3995. Iran, which was behind Sri Lanka in 2009 has now overtaken Sri Lanka. In addition to Iran, the only country that seems to have made progress is Bangladesh. Neither country has a USD 83 million project dedicated to improving e performance.

Appears I was impressed too soon.

Multiple dishes is a common sight at many Nenasalas – the ‘telecentres’ set up under the e-Sri Lanka program, funded by the World Bank. Some of them are huge – with diameters little less than 2m. Having not done a design recently, I cannot tell the prices offhand, but I do know they are expensive – one such dish (with equipment) costs few times more than the aggregate cost of the PCs and peripherals in the centre.

Why a telecenter is equipped with multiple dishes?

The reason is, sadly, poor planning. ICTA, the implementation agency changes the communication services provider frequently. Few years have elapsed since the services from the initial provider have been discontinued, but he has never bothered to remove the dishes. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. The capital expenditure has been fully included within the Rs. 90 million (US$ 900,000) amount charged to provide VSAT services to then 200 odd Nenasalas for a period of one year.

The sadder part is even with such a substantial expense these centres are not provided broadband. What they receive is 128 kbps – something not too different from dial-up.

That is when some of these centers are already within the 3G coverage areas. Out of the three above two centers receive 3G signals. Not too great, but adequate for a telecenter and certainly better than a 128 kbps link.

We will be glad to learn what Udaya Gammanpila, ex-Chairman Central Environmental Authority, (who was once worried about used mobile phones creating an e-waste issue) thinks about the environmental damage created by these non-functional dishes, even if we ignore the huge sunk cost.

On January 16, 2008 a bus bomb went off killing 25 and injuring more than 60, in a remote area of Moneragala, arguably the least connected district in the island. Within less than two hours, the international news channels were up with clips. Nuwan Sameera (inset) FTPed them from his Nenasala telecenter in Bibile town – about one hour journey away.

Nuwan operates just within 200 m from a telecom tower (see photo) but bureaucracy is bureaucracy. Spending World Bank money generously, ICTA, the implementation agency of Nenasala telecenter network under the e-Sri Lanka program, first provided a VSAT link from a different operator. (Perhaps the tower came later and fortunately, and Nuwan does not have to foot the bill, about US$ 750 per month, in the first year) Then came the 128 kbps link that every centre gets. It costs about USD 100 per month.

FTPing is one of Nuwan’s main business lines. Narrowband 128 kbps would not have FTPed the video clips of the bus bomb so fast. Nuwan was lucky to have a telecom tower in his vicinity. Now another 1 Mbps links him to the world. That is the best he can wish for. With excellent Line of Sight (see photo) his quality of service issues are addressed. When tested he got 75%. (Not by LIRNEasia’s AT-Tester, which he is keen to use; please wait for the test results soon)

The glitch: In Bibile, 128 kbps costs TWICE MORE than 1 Mbps. You guessed it! From the same operator! 1 Mpbs is from open market. 128 kbps is ‘resold’ thru ICTA that buys in bulk.

Should we be surprised in a country where government sells Petrol at Rs. 22 more than the private sector?

Lalith Weeratunga at LIRNEasia launch in Sept 2004

Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka, was recently elected to the chair of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Committee of ESCAP – the Economic & Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Speaking to Sandeshaya Weeratunga said that “during the past three years computer literacy in the country has increased from 5 per cent to over 20 per cent”

He elaborated that the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ initiative has enabled people to obtain authenticated copies of Death, Marriage and Birth Certificates – essential documents within a few minutes.

Responding to a question that some rural tele centers have been dysfunctional Weeratunga said there are about 600 Telecenters and it’s not unusual for a few to fall behind.

“However we will relocate them if necessary”, he said.

Commenting on the Sri Lankan expertise of the diasporas, Weeratunga said that there are those who want to help but in actual fact most of them are really in search of jobs.

“We cant pay them the salaries they expect but if anyone wants to genuinely help they could log in to the ICTA web site (www.icta.lk)” said Weeratunga.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/11/081122_weeratuge.shtml

Here are the summarised results from the telecenter operator survey done by LIRNEasia at the weCan workshop in October 2008. Sample was not representative, but large enough to get a general idea about the telecenter operations in Sri Lanka.

Out of a total of 147 operators surveyed, the bulk, 101 were from Nenasalas, the 500 odd telecenter network created under the World Bank funded e-Sri Lanka programme. 10 were from Sarvodaya multi-purpose telecenters and 6 from others (eg. public libraries) 30 have not specified the type of the telecenter.

Do telecenters in Sri Lanka make money? Yes. They report an average monthly income of Rs. 22,119. (=USD 201) This is associated with a relatively large standard deviation of Rs. 21,714 (= USD 197) indicating a variation within a wide range. Not a surprise since some telecenters are running at a loss (presumably temporarily) and few reporting a monthly income of over Rs. 100,000 (= USD 900).

However, providing Internet services ranked only third among telecenter income components (16%). The key sources of income are education and training (43%) and providing fax, photocopy and printing series (21%). They also make money from VoIP (4.5%), bill payments (2.5%) telephone calls (2.5%) selling other goods (2%) and VCD/DVD rentals (1%).

Asked for the preferred income profile, the results were not too different. They still want 33% income from training, 21% from fax photocopy and print services and 17% from Internet services. Is this an indication of being more realistic or less ambitious? You decide.

Average monthly expenditure of a telecenter is Rs. 15,837. (USD 144) This may not reflect the real costs as the Internet charges for Nenasalas are borne by ICT Agency from the money comes from e-Sri Lanka programme. Salaries is the highest cost component (39%). Then comes electricity (25%). About 10% each for telephone and rent.

On average basis a telecenter has 5 PCs and employs four staff members – two permanent, two temporary. Correlation between the income and the permanent staff strength was 0.56; the income and the number of PCs, 0.62.

Do telecenters make a profit? Yes, but perhaps may not in real terms. They record a monthly average profit of Rs. 6,735 (=USD 61) with a large standard deviation of Rs. 9,504 (=USD 86). This indicates the loss incurred by some of them. This is again without considering the cost of the communication link. (The monthly average cost of a 2 Mbps business broadband connection is USD 46 in Colombo. This might be slightly high in rural areas.)

Telecenters operators are rewarded in different ways. Only 33% are salaried. 22% receive a share of profits. 13% receive an allowanced based on performance. 32% receive no personal income. How they prefer to be rewarded? 51% wants a monthly salary; 26% a share of profits and 18% a performance based allowance. Doesn’t sound too entrepreneurial but in Sri Lanka culture job security plays an important role.

Allocations were made in the 2006 Budget to connect rural villages in backward areas with the rest of the world and enable them to blend with the global community and economic trends, through Information Technology. This program has enabled online connectivity through around 500 Nana Sala Centres, between villages, schools and state and public institutions, and also facilitates to broaden the knowledge of English and Information Technology. I propose to name the year 2009 as an year dedicated to expand the knowledge of English and Information Technology and allocate Rs. 100 million to broaden the scope of this programme.

The questions are:
* The Budget contains no other allocations for ICT related activities, explained possibly by the existence of a USD 80 million or so e Sri Lanka program, funded primarily by a concessionary IDA credit and a Korean loan which has not been fully disbursed and is in danger of being cancelled. Why was it not possible to include the e village program (which appears on the face to be closely related to the Nena Salas) within the e Sri Lanka funding. Work will get done; disbursement will increase. Is there some opposition to e-villages within ICTA that causes this work to be outside?
* How much was allocated in 2006; how much has been spent so far; how many villages were converted to e villages and has an assessment been done before additional funds are spent? Original plan was for five villages in five provinces. Now what is the score?
* Why is it that it is schools that join the program, not villages? Is the program better described as e-schools?
* Does anyone see an irony in the same amount being allocated for celebrating the 50th anniversary of the organization that gave the President his first job? Or the insult of 60 times the allocation made to e villages being made for an airline that already lost over LKR 3 billion and is guaranteed to lose more in today’s aviation industry environment?
* What specific actions will be taken to expand knowledge of IT and English? Is this the year that the government will finally provide accreditation to the various IT courses being offered across the country?

Unlikely that we’ll get answers from the do-nothing Parliament; perhaps some readers with specialized knowledge will chip in.