My last column in the Sunday Leader enumerated some ideas post-war government and the ICT Agency could champion to strengthen media freedom and e-governance respectively. One blueprint worth emulating in post-war Sri Lanka for more open, accountable government comes from Vivek Kundra, the new federal chief information officer in the US under the Obama administration. [...]
Archive | May, 2009
Negotiating ethnic hatred in Sri Lanka
Can we End this Cycle of Hatred? an article published on Groundviews, a citizen journalism site I edit in Sri Lanka, elicited this comment from someone called Ramanan: Nice article. I see a lot of parents infesting the young minds in western world. I am a Tamil, living in the US for a long time. [...]
The most read story on the BBC News website
The story on the killing of LTTE Supremo Prabhakaran is generating the most traffic on the BBC News website at the time of writing.
Radios vs. Mobile
One of the most frequent responses I hear, generally from the likes of media experts at UNESCO, when I submit with growing evidence that mobile phones are the first and only device used by millions of people to get information and increasingly access email and the web, is that radios by far outnumber mobile phones [...]
Turning to the web for news on the war
Associated Press has an interesting story on how news, information and analysis of the on-going war in Sri Lanka for those in the diaspora is served by various websites and the Internet. As the report notes, The Web posts accuse the government of shelling populated areas and blocking the delivery of food and medicine. They [...]
Bearing witness to carnage from space
Recent and raging controversies over the on-going shelling of civilians brings to the fore the use of satellite imagery in Sri Lanka to flag possible crimes against humanity. The most recent imagery comes from commercial satellites, with image analysis by Human Rights Watch that clearly indicates that shelling is taking place unabated. The full report [...]
The great leveller: Mobile phones in India flag potential for m-gov elsewhere too
The NY Times has a great story on mobiles in India. From 1997 to 2000 I experienced as a student how the introduction of cybercafes in Delhi – at the time far more expensive then their Sri Lankan counterparts per hour – changed the way I communicated with family back home and Indians communicated with [...]
Is the LTTE really finished and the War over? videos watched over 37,000 times
Is the LTTE really finished and the War over? is a series of short videos in English, Sinhala and Tamil featuring promiment politicians, former LTTE members, academics and civil society activists. The 24 videos in this series have been viewed, just a few days after they were uploaded, well over 37,000 times collectively. Some videos [...]
ICT: Peace 2.0
The Chairman of the ICT4Peace Foundation has a great interview with the International Relations and Security Network on the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in peacebuilding. The podcast is available here.
Vikalpa YouTube Channel in Top 100 list again
For the 3rd time since its launch, Vikalpa’s YouTube video channel has hit the Top 100 list. At the time of writing, it’s #31, though earlier this morning it was #29, the highest rank globally Vikalpa has attained to date. Earlier this year, Vikalpa was on the Top 100 list for its coverage of Lasantha [...]
