In the last quarter of 2017, pushback over Twitter to content Groundviews pushed out over the same platform came from sources not encountered or interacted with before. This piqued the interest of the site’s founding editor, Sanjana Hattotuwa, for one key reason. All the accounts publishing content against Groundviews were overwhelmingly promoting and partial to Namal Rajapaksa, a Member ...
I was invited to take part, over Skype video, in a panel on social media, viral news and the future of peace negotiations at Build Peace 2017, held early December in Bogota, Colombia. My great disappointment at not being able to attend in person was somewhat offset by what was a great conversation with Juanita León, Director, La Silla Vacía moderated ...
In early 2012, Patrick Meier emailed me (and I think a few others) asking the following questions: If you had some of the most cutting edge software developers at your disposal and funding were not an issue, what major software/computing innovations would have the greatest impact on disaster affected communities and humanitarian response? What are the most important gaps in humanitarian technology? What ...
Was invited by out-going Director General of the Government Information Department Ranga Kalansooriya late Sunday night to give a presentation the next day on social media and its importance for government officials, at a workshop organised by him with representatives from Facebook (coming in from India) present. Incoming / acting DG of the Government Information Department Sudharshana Gunawardene was also ...
This level of demographic targeting, increasingly possible even in a small country like Sri Lanka along with more conventional means of propaganda, circumnavigates the labour intensive electoral system and the problems therein of mass scale vote rigging. What could in the past be achieved by more traditional means of violence and intimidation can now, on a daily basis, be engineered ...
The Zentrum für Internationale Friedenseinsätze gGmbH (Centre for International Peace Operations) based in Berlin, Germany, invited me to talk on social media and peace as part of an event to celebrate 15 years since its inception. I’ve worked with ZIF for a number of years, starting with pioneering training programs on leveraging open source intelligence and social media to strengthen ...
Compiled for the Centre for Policy Alternatives a list of websites around communications campaigns, advertisements, projects, websites and various other initiatives I’ve designed, developed or gave input into over the past couple of years. The sites feature award-winning and critically acclaimed content, and the voices of dear friends and renowned activists, who are no longer with us. Presented in alphabetical ...
I couldn’t make it to Paris, but managed despite some technical hiccups to be present virtually at the Online Dispute Resolution 2017 Forum through Skype Video. The agenda can be downloaded as a PDF from here. I made a few overarching observations in the prescribed time that I had, which wasn’t much. I noted that human rights and business ...
An article published by renowned journalist Amantha Perera on IRIN today triggered a series of tweets over @groundviews around how officials in successive governments have lied to citizens around investments in life-saving technologies. Amantha’s article notes, Lalith Chandrapala, director general of the Meteorological Department, said the department doesn’t have Doppler radar capability, which allows for the accurate forecasting of the ...
I was invited to give a presentation of around 20 – 25 minutes to Amnesty International’s 2017 Chairs Assembly & Directors Forum (CADF) meeting, held for the first time in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Focussed on the work done through Groundviews at the Centre for Policy Alternatives to use information and communications technologies (ICTs), for over ten years, to bear witness ...
I was invited to deliver a short-talk, as part of a public discussion looking at ‘Cross Cutting Dynamics of Online Democracy: Mainstreaming Internet Freedom and the Right to Privacy in Sri Lanka”, at the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) on 21 March 2017. Blurred lines: Surveillance and ethics from Sanjana Hattotuwa The programme can be downloaded here. The panel ...
‘Corridors of Power’, a path-breaking project marrying constitutional reform and theory with architecture, is a finalist in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas 2017 awards, under the Urban Design category. As noted online, “Fast Company sifted through more than 1,000 truly impressive entries to find the ones our panel of judges thought were the best combination of creative problem solving and ...
I was recently asked to put together a presentation on the fake news phenomenon for discussions with leading journalists and media institutions in a developing country, with extremely poor media literacy but strong growth around social media use, on how to both identify misleading content and also stem its flow, reach and influence. Fake news and how to combat it ...
Delivered a short presentation today to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom office in Colombo on ‘Corridors of Power’, an exhibition I curated with Channa Daswatta and Asanga Welikala that explores Sri Lanka’s constitutional evolution through architecture. The exhibition was first shown late 2015, and in 2016, was again shown in Colombo, in addition to Jaffna, Kandy, Batticaloa and Galle. ...
Cross-posted from the ICT4Peace Foundation website. ### An informal workshop on verifying news and information spread across social media was held recently at Phandeeyar in Yangon, Burma, led by the Foundation’s Special Advisor, Sanjana Hattotuwa. Amongst the confirmed participants were: Media and Media Support Organizations Irrawaddy BBC Media Action Kumudra and Modern Journal Democratic Voice of Burma Myanmar Journalism Institute Civil Society Organizations ...
Created a new Google custom search engine (after the reception to the first made yesterday) covering key government websites. Access it here. The search engine indexes everything on: President’s Media Division – http://www.pmdnews.lk Official Website of the President – http://www.president.gov.lk Presidential Secretariat – http://www.presidentsoffice.gov.lk President’s Fund – http://www.presidentsfund.gov.lk President’s Wikipedia entry – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maithripa
Sri Lanka’s Department of Government Printing website is a trilingual resource for Gazettes, Extra Gazettes, Bills, Acts and other information, including official Tenders, since 2004. A major site redesign in 2016 made the site easier on the eye, but seriously impacted discoverability of information on the site. There is also no search functionality of any sort on the website. ...
The event was aimed at journalists from the programme and also from outside, including the Sri Lanka College of Journalism, mainstream media, freelance journalists and civic media, around the ethical, rights based use of drones for journalism, also in compliance with the Civil Aviation Authority’s regulations from February 2016. Drone journalism: Where to now? from Sanjana Hattotuwa The Q&A session ...
The Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit Regional office South Asia organized a regional seminar on “Promoting Liberty Digitally” in Sri Lanka from 15th to 17th October 2016. I was asked to speak on “Digital transformation and the role of Civil Society in Sri Lanka” and to be present at a group discussion on “Civil rights and the Internet”. My presentation ...
I was invited by the WEF GlobalShapers Colombo Hub (see Facebook page here) to showcase the ‘Corridors of Power‘ exhibition again and also to speak on it. The exhibition, first held in 2015 at the JDA Perera Gallery, was unlike any other project combining design, architecture and constitutional theory. It occupied a very large floor space, which wasn’t available at the GlobalShaper’s ...
