Development and history of the ICT sector in Sri Lanka
Development and History of the ICT sector in Sri Lanka.
Where it all began.
Computers were first introduced to Sri Lanka in the 1960’s, about 20 years after the first computer ENIAC was developed in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania, USA . It came for a very large government sector of institutes. During the period of 1970 - 1977 there wasn’t much development in computers in the private sector due to import restrictions. It started developing in 1977 with the introduction of the open economy thus improving the usage of computers in the private sector. With this, the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) was established in 1976 for the purpose of promoting and developing the ICT sector in Sri Lanka.
National Computer policy of Sri Lanka (COMPOL)
The committee on national computer policy (COMPOL) guidelines was founded by the request of H.E. the President J.R. Jayawardene (1977 - 1989), by the Natural Resources, Energy and Science Authority (NARESA). The policy document was approved by the Cabinet in 1983. For more than 20 years It was the only Cabinet approved ICT policy in Sri Lanka until in 2009 the e-government policy was approved by the government of the time. At the time no other country had a well-defined computer policy like COMPOL.
The Computer and Information Technology Council of Sri Lanka (CINTEC)
The Computer and Information Technology Council of Sri Lanka or CINTEC was founded in 1984 as a government body of the IT industry in Sri Lanka. The CINTEC was divided into three main elements. The CINTEC also supported the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL). It became a role model in developing countries and became a very good example that computer-driven development could develop a whole country. CINTEC even had a chance of collaborating with the world-leading Science academies, The United States National Academy of Science (USNAS) in Washington DC and The Third World Academy of Science (TWAS) conducting multiple International seminars and publishing a joint book, CINTEC-USNAS in 1985 and CINTEC-TWAS in 1989.
Introducing Personal Computers
The personal computer (PC) was introduced to Sri Lanka in the late 1980s. Part of the telecommunication sector was separated into the Department of Postal and Telecommunications in the 1980s. A scaled-up development occurred in the telecommunication industry during this period.
Introducing the Internet
In 1986 a group of computer engineers and scholars demonstrated the possibility of connecting to a remote computer by logging into an old TRS 80 model at the University of Colombo from a similar model in the University of Moratuwa using UUCP over a telephone line connected to modems with 300 bytes per second speed. This is the very first time two computers, in different locations, got connected in Sri Lanka. The Internet was introduced to Sri Lanka with the launch of the Lanka Education and Research Network or LEARN in 1989, 6 years after the modern Internet was developed in 1983. At the time the network was only available for the education and research communities. LEARNmail was introduced in 1990, the very first Internet email service in Sri Lanka made for the Academic and Research Institutions in Sri Lanka.
In 1992, Prof. Abhaya Induruwa made a proposal to make LEARN an IP network within Sri Lanka, thus giving even more connectivity. The University Grants Commission (UGC) granted LKR 3 million to obtain connectivity through Sri Lanka Telecom. Fiber optic connections weren't avalable then so Prof. Induruwa and his team were avable to obtain 64 Kbps wireless (radio) links through SLT. After the installment of these links LEARN bacame the very first IP wide area network (WAN) in Sri Lanka.
In 1995, LEARN and LEARNmail were very popular among University academics and students. The first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) that was available in Sri Lanka was Lanka Internet and SLT was able to connect Sri Lanka to the global Internet using a dedicated leased line. After LEARN was also given a dedicated connection, in 1995 LEARN was also connected to the global Internet.
The registration of.LK domain name became the next milestone after connecting LEAR to the global internet. Prof. Gihan Dias of the University of Moratuwa and Prof. Abhaya Induruwa became the administrators of the domain. An email-addressing scheme for institutions was followed. Domain names under.LK is presently being registered by the.LK Domain Registry (www.nic.lk) Internet Society.
Coming to the next millennium
The Ministry of Information Technology was established in 2000 and the Telecom Ministry was merged into the IT Ministry. This was another milestone in the ICT history of Sri Lanka. IT education in Schools started in late 2001. A committee to formulate a national ICT policy was launched in 2002. E-Sri Lanka, the ICT development road map of Sri Lanka was
declared at the end of 2002.
Sources
http://dl.lib.mrt.ac.lk/bitstream/handle/123/1989/Chapter01
https://www.ict-history.lk/en/prof-abhaya-induruwa/
- Inuka Batawala
WELL CREATED BRO
ReplyDeleteHI I AM DULINA
ReplyDelete