The 29th Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree coinciding with  Sri Lanka’s Scouting centenary  celebrations at the D. S. Senanayaka Vidyalaya in Kandalama,  Dambulla  from tomorrow till 6th  will feature several  ICT activities.

According to the Information and Communication Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) these activities will include several seminars aimed at informing the participants about the latest methods of cyber security. 

According to the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team | Coordinating Centre (Sri Lanka CERT|CC) the information thus shared will even include basic tips for personal security in cyber space like ‘Never publish personally identifiable information on social sites (exact birthdays, home address);  Never provide sensitive information like user name, password and credit card information on a non-secure page; Use security settings provided for  Facebook, web mail services like Yahoo and blog sites like Twitter to protect your  account ( Visit http://www.cert.gov.lk/kb.html)’ 

The first ‘Nenasala’ -  wisdom outlet - outside Sri Lanka was set up in the United Arab Emirates recently.
The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) said that this Nenasala was set up at the UAE embassy in Sri Lanka located in Abu Dhabi. ICTA said that this wisdom outlet was set up for the benefit of Sri Lankans  in  UAE. It enables them to communicate with their relatives in Sri Lanka with greater ease and minimum cost.  Run by the staff and  volunteers at the embassy this first ever overseas ‘Nenasala’  lays special attention  on imparting free training to expatriates to improve their IT and English language skills. According to embassy sources the number of Sri Lankan nationals currently in the UAE is  more than 300,000. About 45 per cent of them have white-collar jobs and the rest middle and lower rung jobs.
Currently there are 665 ‘Nenasalas’ set up under  the project that implements the 1000 Nenasala concept of His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The  goal of  the project is to take  the computer to the village and make the benefits of ICT reach every citizen. Modern ICT facilities are available in these ‘Nenasalas’.
These ‘Nenasalas’ empower the rural community with ICT. The project is implemented by  ICTA. A ‘Nenasala’ outlet or “wisdom outlet” is a centre that provides multiple Information Communication Technology (ICT) based services to the community.  It acts as a hub of local, national and global information resources that has a catalytic effect on rural communities in poverty reduction, social and economic development and peace building.
The e-Sri Lanka Development Project initiated by the Government of Sri Lanka aims to provide access to “diverse and unrestricted sources of information and means of communication” to all citizens. The ‘Nenasala’ does just this under the e-Sri Lanka initiative.
 The objective of the ‘Nenasala’ Project is to upgrade the living standards of all rural communities across Sri Lanka with equal affordable access to ICT based services.