This year will mark 20 years of the Internet inception in Sri Lanka. INET Colombo 2015 will celebrate this milestone, looking back on how the Internet came into being in Sri Lanka, investigating how it has affected the society and envisioning the future promises.
The event will recognize the pioneers who brought networking to Sri Lanka, and developed it over the past 20 years. The event will bring together bring together over 300 participants from the Government agencies, Internet service providers, mobile operators, academic institution, banks, ICT entrepreneurs, commercial companies and general public.
Was not able to attend the Conference? Watch the Webcast Here
Agenda
| 8 June 2015 | |
| Time | Title/Description |
| 18:00 to 20:00 | INET Colombo Opening Reception Welcome: Prof. Gihan Dias, President Internet Society Sri Lanka Chief Guest Speech: Mrs. Chitranganie Mubarak, Chairperson ICT Agency of Sri Lanka Key Note: Prof. Abhaya Induruwa, Canterbury Christ Church University Key Note: Mr. Hemantha Jayawardena, CEO Millennium IT (Pvt) Ltd. Cultural Performance Awards Distribution – Internet Pioneers in Sri Lanka |
| 20:00 to 22:00 | Cocktail Dinner |
| 9 June 2015 | |
| Time | Title/Description |
| 09:00 to 09:30 | Opening Session Registration Welcome Note: Gihan Dias, President, Internet Society Sri Lanka Opening Remarks: Rajnesh Singh, Regional Bureau Director, Internet Society |
| 09:30 to 10:30 | History, Growth and Evolution of Internet Dawn of the e-Sri Lanka Initiative: Eran Wickramaratne, Deputy Minister of Highways & Investment Promotion, Founding Chairman, ICTA Internet Past, Present and Future: Prof. Kilnam Chon, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology |
| 10:30 to 11:00 | Networking Break |
| 11:00 to 12:00 | Opportunities and Issues of Internet Development ICT in Sri Lanka – Past Perspectives and Future Propects Mohan Munasinghe, Founder Chairman, CINTEC Developing National Level Networks in Sri Lanka Nimal Ratnayake, University of Peradeniya Thai Internet: after 25 years? Kanchana Kanchansut, Director, intERLab Asian Institute of Technology |
| 12:00 to 12:30 | Opportunites and Challenges in Internet Governace Current Challenges in Internet Governance Raul Echeberria, Vice President for Global Engagement, Internet Society Net Neutrality: End-User Perspectives Satish Babu, Director, International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), India |
| 12:30 to 14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 to 15:30 | Promising a better Future, building the environment How the Sri Lanka Internet Works Asela Galappattige, Sri Lanka Telecom Building Sri Lankan Brand: Putting Sri Lanka on the Open Source Map Srinath Perera, WSO2 Inc. How the Internet is redefining Education Saman Amarasinghe, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology Singapore: Finding the Soul of a Smart Nation Harish Pillay, Global Head Community Architecture and Leadership, Red Hat Inc. |
| 15:30 to 16:00 | Networking Break |
| 16:00 to 17:30 | Panel Discussion: Internet and IT Innovation Moderatored by: Saman Amarasinghe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Panelists Thushan Shanmugarajah, Findmyfare.com Eric Wickramanayake, Lanka Century Investments Chandika Jayasundara, Cinergix Pty Ltd Shevaan Daniel, Capital Maharaja Organization Ltd. |
| 17:30 to 18:00 | Closing |
Speakers
Prof. Kanchana Kanchanasut
Director, InterLab, Asian Institue of Technology
Prof. Kanchana Kanchanasut brought the Internet to Thailand and was actively involved in many Internet connectivity initiatives in other Southeast Asian countries, championing the idea of email, and later the Internet, in that region in the 1980s. She directs the Internet Education and Research Laboratory at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand, where she is also a professor of Computer Science at its School of Engineering and Technology. She has also been Acting Vice President for Research at AIT since April 2013. She set up the first experimental domestic research and education network in her nation in 1988, connecting five universities in Thailand with dial-up connections to the Australian Academic and Research Network. She also registered the .TH domain name and has been its administrator since 1988.
Harish Pillay
Global head of Community Architecture and Leadership, Red Hat Inc.
Harish has been in the IT industry for over 25 years. He is currently with Red Hat heading up a team that engages with the global open source community. He holds a BS and MS in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering both from Oregon State University. He is a pioneer of Internet related activities in Singapore since 1991 and is also the founder of the Linux Users’ Group (Singapore) setup in 1993. Harish is a Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society and a Distinguished Partner awardee from SPRING Singapore. Presently, he is also serving as president of Internet Society Singapore Chapter. Read more.
Prof. Abhaya Induruwa
Principal Lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University
Professor Induruwa pioneered academic and research networking and Internet deployment in Sri Lanka. He served as prime mover, Principal Investigator and Project Leader of the Lanka Experimental Academic & Research Network (LEARN), to provide data communications throughout the island in 1989. Just as impressively, he convinced the Sri Lankan government, which in 1989 was fighting two civil wars, to support that network. With limited resources, Induruwa then introduced LEARNmail in 1990, deployed LEARN — the first IP Wide Area Network in Sri Lanka — and established Internet connectivity in 1995. He served as the administrative contact for the .LK domain until 1998. Today, LEARN connects all universities and research centers in the nation. His efforts paved the way for the later establishment of commercial Internet services in Sri Lanka.
Raúl Echeberría
Vice President for Global Engagement, Internet Society
After completing his term on Internet Society’s Board of Trustees (2008-2014), Raúl Echeberría joined the organization as Vice President of Global Engagement. Read more.
Prof. Kilnam Chon
Professor, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Professor Chon contributed to the Internet’s growth in Asia through his extensive work in advancing Internet initiatives, research, and development. He developed the first Internet in Asia, called SDN in 1982, and his pioneering work inspired many others to promote the Internet’s further growth in the region. Chon has worked on networking systems, including the Internet, since the early 1980s. He founded and is the current chair of various regional Internet organizations such as Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG), Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), and Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Name Forum (APTLD). He is also the co-chair of the Coordination Committee of Intercontinental Research Networking (CCIRN). Over teh past 5 years, Professor Chon is leading and working on “Asia Internet History Project”.
Prof. Saman Amarasinghe
Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Saman P. Amarasinghe is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research interests are in discovering novel approaches to improve the performance of modern computer systems without unduly increasing the complexity faced by either application developers, compiler writers, or computer architects. He is also interested in creating appropriate information technologies for emerging countries. In that, he co-founded Lanka Internet Services (the first ISP in Sri Lanka), developed the TEK low bandwidth search engine and is involved with the Swara voice portal for citizen news journalism project.
Rajnesh Singh
Regional Bureau Director for Asia-Pacific, Internet Society
Rajnesh Singh is Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau at the Internet Society where he oversees projects, initiatives and activities across the Internet Society’s functional and programmatic areas in the Asia and Pacific region, including Public Policy, Capacity Building and Internet Standards and Technology. Read more
Satish Babu
Director, International Centre for Free and Open Source Software
Satish Babu is the Director of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), an autonomous academic/research institution of the Government of Kerala, India. He is a former President of the Computer Society of India, assuming office for a year from 1 April 2012.[2] Prior to this, he was elected the Vice President and President-elect for 2011-12. He chairs the Special Interest Group on FOSS (SIG-FOSS) of CSI. Presently, he also serves as Chair of Internet Society India Trivandrum Chapter.
