Ambuluwawa, about 1,100 m above sea level, is probably the highest point in the vicinity of Gampola. Not surprisingly, all telecom operators exploit the geography. Transmission stations/towers encircle the summit. (See above) That is what one calls infrastructure.

Just 10 km away, Sirimalwatte Ananda thero, a young and energetic Buddhist monk, runs a Nenasala, a telecenter established under the World Bank funded e-Sri Lanka program. He is not content with the Internet facilities. He pays Rs. 11,250 (about USD 100) per month for a 128 kbps link of inconsistent speed. This is twice more what a user in Colombo pay for her, not 128 k but 2 Mbps link – from the same operator.

Use simple maths. Ananda thero pays THIRTY TWO (32) times more per kbps than a user in Colombo. Why such a large gap? Don’t tell me lack of infrastructure is the culprit.

The press aide was briefing reporters after a cabinet meeting which passed the “National Broadband Policy 2008″.

Munaim said the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, in consultation with stakeholders, had finalised the policy with 11 clauses and guidelines for broadband to flourish in the country.

“The guidelines reveal that 30 percent of the country’s population will be brought under the internet by 2015. All universities, medical colleges, technical universities, research bodies, all ministries, autonomous and non-governmental organisations will have access to the net,” he said.

The press secretary also said e-governance facilities would reach Upazila levels by 2012 and all villages by 2015.

Read the full story in bdnews24.com here.

“I came more to learn from you; than to teach” was the message I passed before my two presentations with Sujata. Thanks Fusion/Telecentre.org for the opportunity. The three days spent with 200+ telecenter operators from eight provinces in Sri Lanka was a worthy investment. One does not interact with so many ground level ICT4D practitioners every day. It was a learning experience, for them; and for us.

From what I saw (and heard from others) the workshop, ‘weCAN: Social Enterprise with a Triple Bottom Line’ the second in the series of capacity building workshops of the Telecenter family of Sri Lanka was a grand success. Organized by Fusion/Telecentre.org (and funded by IDRC), we met at MIMT (MAS Institute of Management and Technology), Thulhiriya for four days (two batches). Plan was to amass 400 of telecenter operators from eight out of nine provinces of Sri Lanka but the recent floods in many parts of the island have stood in their way.

200+ participants was not bad. It was a mixed group gender and ethnically balanced. We had mainly ‘Nenasala’ and Sarvodaya multipurpose telecenter operators, but there were few odds too- like those who represented the telecenters at public libraries.

So what did I learn?

More will surely come when LIRNEasia survey results are analysed, but just Four Lessons, for the moment.

Lesson No. 1 (Good News!): GREAT THINGS HAPPEN AT GROUND LEVEL.

More than 50% of the crowd were newbies – either those who have started recently or who run more a ‘hand to mouth’ existence – but on the other hand, successful telecenter operators were not that rare a commodity, as many would think. I picked eight guys who are doing excellent. (Sadly no gender balance here, but things will surely change with many innovative ladies entering to telecenter space.)

Inter alia, we have heard the stories of Kathivan from Badulla whose telecenter earned LKR 300,000 (> USD 3,000) in one month; of U.M.G.Prasad from Sevanagala who uses Internet to link job seekers in his community with prospective employers (This clips tells more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqwU6k8Y35E); of Noel Tharmarathnam from Trocomalee who opens the doors of online IT exams to a post-conflict society (“I have to keep a low profile” he tells me over lunch, “…if I try to do too many things; I might not see tomorrow”); of Sanjeewa Kumarathunga from Nivithigala who told us about his efforts to help agriculture activities of the community and of Jayantha Wickramaratne from Panamura who runs a BPO operation. Congrats guys, and I hope the others have learnt from your experience.

Lesson No. 2 (Good News!): TELECENTER FAMILY OF SRI LANKA IS WELL CONNECTED THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING.

Try www.tcf.lk. Not everybody is there yet. Neither every member is a telecenter operator per se. (There are people like myself – who spend more time at our desks than at telecenters) Still, a good start. With this, Telecenter family becomes perhaps the first group in Sri Lanka to *officially* exploit the full features of Social Networking. Glad to see it happening in a place where many consider Social Networking is just for fun. I guess the credits go to Isura for creating this great platform.

Lesson No. 3 (Bad News!): NOT EVERYBODY IS CONNECTED.

This was a real eye opener. I thought Internet connectivity is central to telecenter operation. Without connectivity, a place with few computers does not become a ‘tele-center’. I was wrong. Some ‘telecenters’ in Sri Lanka have neither Internet nor e-mail. There are two groups – the recent additions who eagerly wait till ICTA responds to their numerous requests, and those who once had Internet facilities but now isolated because of an operator/technology transition. One can just forget it attributing to bureaucracy, poor planning and attitude problems. Can they too, who interact with communities on daily basis? What can a telecenter offer with no Internet? Are PCs only to learn inserting clipart on PowerPoint slides? I am not sure whether ICTA is aware that Internet is cut off from some telecenters for months. (Classic case was NINE months). Please do something, fast! Bits and Bytes are the food of net life and if deprived one can starve faster than we think.

Lesson No. 4 (Bad News): MOST TELECENTERS IN SRI LANKA RUN PIRATED PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE.

This is sad, but true. Out of 200+ operators none claimed using original versions or FOSS. With pirated versions no longer publicly sold on CDs (as a result of recent raids) a telecenter operator has to be innovative in finding solutions. I met few ‘gurus of pirated software’ who know A-Z from best download sites to cracking codes. Many think these as ‘originals’.

When asked when or whether ICTA intends to provide licensed versions of these to them, all what its representative has to say was (a) this was an issue from the beginning; (b) ICTA has no solution yet and (c) he needs to talks to his boss, who he thinks may have an answer. (I doubt!)

My question is why donors spend millions of Dollars on Free and Open Source Software if they are not used at ground level. As we say in Sinhala, use a sword has if not for war?

Enough for now. More later, with figures. Please watch his space.

What is the correct computer literacy figure in Sri Lanka? Is there one figure? We ask this because we hear different answers.

According to HE the President of Sri Lanka it is pretty impressive at 25%. This what he said in the 60th Independence day speech as reported by Daily News the next day:

“We have given our nation every opportunity to link with the technologically developed world. We have been able to raise computer literacy in the country to 25% without trumpeting about it, in a country that did not attach much importance to it.”

(Relevant part of President speech is also available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7con4XljkSE)

The apex body for ICT related matters in Sri Lanka, Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) seems not in agreement with the President. It estimates Computer Literacy to be between 15%-20%. That was what ICTA Consultant J.K Perera told Daily News nearly one year ago. He also said once only the Western Province contributed to the country’s IT literacy level, but now there is a significant growth among rural communities.

20% should be the ‘official’ figure of ICTA because it is the figure also reported by Swarnawahini, covering the launch of Sinhalised Firefox, but one may not take it seriously because they also attributed development of Firefox to ICTA.

Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka tells a very different story. (See Graph above) Recently conducted Computer literacy survey put this figure at 16% in 2007 only a 6% improvement (from 10% to 16%) since 2004. (An online summary)

The survey also refutes the typical claim by ICTA that Computer Literacy has improved among rural communities because of its Nenasala network.

The Table 38 provides the percentages of the population (5-69 years) who cannot use Internet facilities (even with assistance). While this has dropped from 85.8% to 82% in Western province, there is hardly any improvement some of the other provinces like Central (*increased* from 86.4% to 91.9%), Southern (*increased* from 91.2 to 92.8), Sabaragamuwa (*increased from* 93.2% to 93.8%) Eastern (slightly dropped from 94.3% to 94.0%) and Uva (slightly dropped from 96.8% to 96.4%)

These statistics certainly do not reflect the characteristics of a country with high computer literacy.

Can somebody enlighten us please? What is the correct Computer Literacy rate in Sri Lanka? 25%, 20% or 16%?

30 January 2007

Internet facilities and 8,000 telephones cut off in Jaffna Peninsula

The Free Media Movement (FMM) is deeply disturbed to learn that basic communications facilities to the Jaffna Peninsula have been blocked from 28th January 2007. Internet facilities and around 8,000 landline telephones of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) are dysfunctional to date. SLT, jointly owned by the Sri Lankan Government and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation (NTT) of Japan, is the sole Internet provider in Jaffna Peninsula with a population of around 600,000 according to official statistics.

The FMM was told that there is no official decision by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority to block communications in this manner in the Peninsula.

However, a number of citizens in Jaffna and journalists confirm that there is no Internet access in Jaffna for the past 3 three days, when contacted through mobile phones. SLT Jaffna office told FMM that for security reasons SLT link to Jaffna has been disconnected form Anuradhapura, a north central city.

Two Tamil newspapers, Sudaroli and Thinankkural told FMM that they are unable to receive or send any news and photos to their other newspapers in their media group by email since Sunday. Freelance and independent journalists based in Jaffna also cannot send any photos by email or access Internet.

FMM notes that the freedom to receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers is enshrined as a fundamental right in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also note that given the context of uncertainty and fear, access to and the dissemination of accurate information through the media is of paramount importance in securing human rights and human security in the Peninsula.

Accordingly, the FMM strongly urges the relevant authorities to take immediate steps to reconnect the Jaffna peninsula by unblocking access to the Internet and facilitating unrestricted access to basic telephony in the region.

for more information – (+94) 777 315665 Spokesperson- S. Sivakumar 0777 315665

Convenor – Sunanda Deshapriya ( 0777 312457) – Secretary – Sunil Jayasekara ( 011 2851672/3)

No. 237/22, Wijeya Kumaratunga Road, Colombo – 05., Email : fmm@diamond.lanka.net,

www.freemediasrilanka.org