I was recently contacted by a journalist from one of the leading Sunday newspapers in Sri Lanka on the growing anti-Muslim hate campaigns in Sri Lanka. The journalist asked two questions (reproduced verbatim), Anti-Muslim/Anti-Buddhist sentiments are being spread around effectively by social media, how do you analyse this? How can social media be used to stop such conflicts between communities? ...
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 ...
We seek to remember more and more, by producing more and more. There’s no reason for any economy or careful framing in photography, when burst mode or a hundred different perspectives afforded by everyone present all can be uploaded, for free, in close to real time if need be. So much of remembering used to be linked to the joy ...
First posted on the ICT4Peace Foundation website. Features input given by me for Social Media companies and other key actors that fed into a document created for and tabled at the meeting held in Paris to launch the ‘Christchurch Call’. First published on 14 May 2019. ### The Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content ...
The USAID-UNDP Asia Regional Civil Society Experience Summit was to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, between May 27 and 29, 2014 but cancelled at the last minute by the organisers on account of the recent political unrest in the country. As noted in the invitation I got to represent civil society from Sri Lanka at the Summit, it would have ...
Reposted from the ICT4Peace Foundation website and published on 27 April 2019. ### On Easter Sunday, Sri Lanka was hit by devasting terrorist attacks across the country, claimed by ISIS some days later. The attacks killed over 250, and injured many hundreds more. Throughout the week, more arms caches, known associates of the suicide bombers and safe houses were ...
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 ...
Be Safe! You Are Being Watched! from Centre for Policy Alternatives on Vimeo. Be Safe! You Are Being Watched! (Sinhala) from Centre for Policy Alternatives on Vimeo. Be Safe! You Are Being Watched! (Tamil) from Centre for Policy Alternatives on Vimeo. See related posters on Flickr here. Filed under: ICT for Peacebuilding, ICTs in general
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. ...
On 24th April at the American Centre in Colombo, from 3pm to I guess around 5pm, I’ll be talking about the challenges around archiving digital content on the Internet and web. Titled Capturing the ephemeral: Archiving our digital present, the presentation will look at the ways information around contemporary events, issues and processes, in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, are being generated digitally and ...
I’ve been for a while a daily consumer of content through FlipBoard. I first downloaded it on to my iPad Mini around 3 years ago and have since found it an indispensable app to keep up with the information and news I want to follow. It helps that it’s also one of the best looking apps around for smartphones and ...
Cross-posted from the ICT4Peace Foundation’s blog. ### I March this year, Patrick Meier wrote to me and to Daniel Stauffacher, the head of the ICT4Peace Foundation, to give input into what at the time was a draft note around creating a global network of civilian UAV pilots to support humanitarian efforts. The draft concept note was a compelling call to ...
I was recently asked for my input to a submission to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) process around Sri Lanka’s Right to Information (RTI) framework. In the course of my research, I revisited the Government’s 1919 call centre and web based services, run by the Government Information Centre. When studying the 1919 framework, it was immediately evident that it could ...
Cross-posted from the ICT4Peace Foundation site. ### Framing In 2002, as an integral part of an official ceasefire negotiations processes in Sri Lanka after decades of war, commercial off-the-shelf-software (COTS) was adopted and adapted to support the process of mediation, anchored to a one-text process. The platform, co-architected and curated by Sanjana Hattotuwa, supported encrypted and asynchronous communications, multi-lingual, context ...
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 ...
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 ...
Reblogged from appvocacy: We've written before about the way political leaders use Twitter, and about Groundviews, the award-winning citizen journalism blog in Sri Lanka. Last week, UK Foreign Minister Alistair Burt held a live Twitter Q&A on Sri Lanka, in which Groundviews was one of the most engaged participants. After the event, Groundviews released a summary of the Q&A, ...
Reblogged from Moving Images, Moving People!: Along with dozens of tweeps, I took part in an interesting Twitter Q&A session with Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka, which unfolded from 14:30 to 16:00 Sri Lanka Time on 19 June 2013. Our questions were posed using the hashtag #AskLW: they are all displayed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23askLW ...
Just put out this press release on behalf of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. ### 3 September 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka: In late July 2012, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) released in Tamil, Sinhala and English, three short-form videos and informative posters on online freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. This content is now available on Flickr and ...
The creator of Groundviews Sanjana Hattotuwa and science writer Nalaka Gunawardene explore technology and innovation in the context of becoming ‘active’ citizens, and in the politics and the language of belonging. Advocate Priyanga Hettiarachi moderated this session. Filed under: ICTs in general
