LBO reports today that the Telecom Regulatory Commission has begun investigations on broadband speeds advertised by telcos. “The Telecom Regulatory Commission is conducting its own investigations on mobile broadband speeds advertized by operators,” Priyantha Kariyapperuma, director general of the TRC said. ”If any mobile operator is found guilty of providing slower speeds than advertized, the TRC [...]
Archive | December, 2009
Some critical thoughts on New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: The Role of Information and Social Networks
New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: The Role of Information and Social Networks, co-authored by Diane Coyle and Patrick Meier and published by the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation in 2009 is a simple, yet useful introductory guide to the manner in which ICTs have dramatically changed the way in which we are [...]
Emergency Information Service (EIS) by Thomson Reuters Foundation
The Thomson Reuters Foundation adds another acronym to the disaster response alphabet soup via its newly launched Emergency Information Service (EIS). As its press release notes, Developed to respond to major natural disasters around the world, the new EIS will deploy expert Action-Units of journalists to scenes of major catastrophe where they will seek out, [...]
Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of hope
Of the plethora of content on the web dealing with the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and its aftermath, one of the latest comes from the Thomson Reuters Foundation called Surviving the Tsunami – Stories of Hope. Of the four stories on the site, framed by compelling photography, one is from a fellow Sri Lankan. This [...]
Dialog Telekom’s false claims of HSPA+ at 28.8Mbps
I am not alone in being extremely concerned over Dialog Telekom’s reprehensible lies about its wireless broadband quality of service. Perhaps in response to Mobitel’s announcement earlier this month of HSPA+ wireless broadband trials, Dialog’s Darley Road office, amongst others, now sport banners suggesting that the company offers HSPA+ at 28.8Mbps. The Daily Mirror report [...]
Groundviews wins a Manthan South Asia Award
I’m pretty pleased that Groundviews was awarded a prestigious Manthan Award South Asia under the e-news category. The grand jury’s evaluation of the site noted, “What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It’s a new age media for a new Sri Lanka… Free media at it’s very best!” This year, Groundviews was the only [...]
Keeping empathy alive: New media and storytelling on disasters
I delivered a presentation today at a workshop organized by South Asian Women in Media looking at media coverage of disasters. In the first part, heavily influenced by Nicholas Kristof’s Advice for Saving the World, I suggested story ideas and angles better able to generate and vitally, sustain, audience interest in disasters and their aftermath. [...]
New Tactics in Human Rights: A catalogue of ideas and resources
The one time I have participated in a discussion hosted by New Tactics in Human Rights was around a discussion on leverage mobile phones for advocacy and activism. This page alone is well worth a visit to the website. The group has now come out with New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners [...]
Visualizing a future President’s promises
As Sri Lanka heads into Presidential elections on 26th January 2010, we can expect both the incumbent Executive and former Army Commander Sarath Fosenka, the two leading candidates, make all manner of promises and statements through media interviews, speeches and their respective manifestos. It’s tough to make sense of this tsunami of words. It is [...]
