Mobile Monday launch, valuable step in Lanka becoming knowledge hub: ICTA COO

The launch of Mobile Monday Colombo (MoMo) is a valuable move helping Lanka to become the ‘knowledge hub ‘ envisaged in the Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekma, said ICT Agency of Sri Lanka Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura.

Mr. Dewapura said so while participating at the media conference held at Hotel Galadari, Colombo on Friday (23) after the launch of Mobile Monday Colombo . The Centre of Excellence for Telco and Mobile of the Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) in collaboration with Mobile Monday International organised the said launch of Mobile Monday Colombo.

Expressing his views further at the conference Mr. Dewapura said that the ICT A was pleased to be associated with Mobile Monday (MoMo) Colombo as it would greatly contribute to make the benefits of ICT accrue to the people. “More than four years ago President Mahinda Rajapaksa had paved the way for the speedy development of the country by taking steps to make ICT play a pivotal role in development. This has borne fruit. The ICT literacy rate which was only four per cent in 2004 will be 50 to 60 per cent in a few years. The ICT BPO industry is now Sri Lanka’s fifth largest foreign exchange earner. The mobile penetration in Sri Lanka has been astounding and on a par with the best mobile penetration in South Asia. With about 780 million mobile phones currently in use in neighbouing India there is hope that the billionth mobile user mark in South Asia will be reached this year warranting the setting up of the Billionth Award. We adopt a two-pronged approach towards ICT. One aspect is to use ICT as an enabler, the other is to develop ICT itself. Developing both these aspects will help Sri Lanka become the ‘knowledge hub serving as a key link between the East and the West’ and the Wonder of Asia parallel its central positions in the naval, aviation, commerce and energy sectors “, Mr. Dewapura said . Referring specifically to IT/Mobile Mr. Dewapura emphasised: “ IT/Mobile has a role both in generating employment / increasing exports as well as improving the living standards for all across the society”.

Mobile Monday (MoMo) Colombo Convenor CEO Sabre Technologies Chandima Cooray said that any one with interest in the mobile industry could attend the MoMo. “One of our aims is to make Sri Lanka possess all that the mobile industrialists look for when they want to hand over the turning out of a mobile phone industry product to some country/ company. Already about 90 Sri Lankan Companies export their software products. When Sri Lanka has all that the mobile industrialists look for they will turn to Sri Lanka as the location for the development of their products with Sri Lankan talents and skills. This will also give Sri Lanka the opportunity to have products turned out in a manner more suited to Sri Lankan requirements”.

MoMo’s Director of Research Dr. Madanmohan Rao explained that MoMo was flexible. Corroborating his statement Dr. Rao said that although in some countries MoMo is held for about two hours once a month, in India it was held on one Saturday in three months for a longer period. ‘People who spend a long time travelling to the venue of the MoMo caught up in the traffic do not want to spend only two hours on the MoMo”, Dr. Rao said. While Dr. Rao thus explained the Indian experience, MoMo Tokyo co-founder and expert of mobile in Japan Lars Cosh-ishii and MoMo Johannesburg/Africa co-founder and mobile learning expert Teemu Kiijarvi explained the experiences respectively in Tokyo and Johannesburg. SLASSCOM Chairman / CEO hSenid Dinesh Saparamadu said that SLASSCOM as an organisation would spearhead making Sri Lanka a place sought after for knowledge based services. Head of Mobile and Telco CoE of SLASSCOM / CEO Dinota Nayana Serasinghe Narayana Serasinghe said: ‘Sri Lanka has already made a mark in Telco and mobile space. We are now organised to establish Sri Lanka as the place of preference in mobile and telco”. All the above-mentioned speakers were members of the panel of speakers at the head table of this media conference and they all emphasized that it would be the farmers and knowledge workers that would take Sri Lanka to the next world. The website of Mobile Monday Colombo is www.mobilemonday.lk.

Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influential persons fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.

Mobile Monday has the following objectives:

• To encourage innovation within the mobile sector.
• To facilitate networking between small and large companies, and between local and foreign.
• To help local companies effectively participate in international initiatives through the import and export of visions, concepts, technologies, know-how and best practices.
• To present innovative visions, trends, studies and forecasts from the mobile marketplace.
• To facilitate and create partnerships.
• To contribute to the education of the broader public through its publications, online presence and media partnerships.

Mobile Monday is organised by a group of dedicated volunteers from around the world. Originating in Helsinki, Finland, in the year 2000, Mobile Monday has grown into the world’s leading mobile community.

The remarkable MobileMonday phenomenon began almost by accident in Helsinki, Finland during the autumn of 2000. A couple of well-known Finnish visionaries, invited the who’s who of the Finnish mobile industry to a pub for an informal get-together and perhaps a warming drink. The only suitable time? Monday evening.

After meeting many new faces and discussing the latest in mobility, the group decided to continue meeting on the first Monday of each month — and thus, MobileMonday was born. Towards the end of 2004, the movement started to spread to other areas of the world and new MoMo chapters were started in Tokyo, Japan, Silicon Valley, UsA as well as Rome and Milan, Italy. Since then, the number of MobileMonday chapters and members has dramatically increased making MobileMonday the world’s leading mobile community.

Caption :

ICTA COO Reshan Dewapura,Head of Mobile and Telco CoE of SLASSCOM Nayana Serasinghe, SLASSCOM Chairman Dinesh Saparamadu.Mobile Monday Research Director Dr. Madamohan Rao, Mobile Monday Co-founder Lars Cosh-ishii and Mobile Monday Johannersburg Co-founder Teemu Kiijarvi

http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/business/127-local/8951.html

The above article also appeared in the ‘Sunday Island’ of April 25, 2010 , ‘The Island’ and the ‘Daily News’ of April 27, 2010.
http://www.island.lk/2010/04/27/business10.html
http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/04/27/bus20.asp