Mr. President, it is more important to protect yourself from the next fire than to put out the fire.
Like him, most people in this country do not know that the world’s best software system, the “Sahana” disaster management software system, was developed in Sri Lanka and was implemented by the Disaster Management Center in 2012 with the help of voluntary community support. (The destruction of that valuable system due to the incompetence of the DMC is a separate story).
The “Sahana” system, which was developed by the Lanka Software Foundation with the help of the Sri Lankan digital community to provide relief from the tsunami disaster in 2004, was used by other countries in the world for free because it was an open and free software system.
This excellent software system, which was developed by the digital community in Sri Lanka and used for DMC with the participation of that community, was used for disaster management by even developed countries like Japan until 2021, even though the DMC was not satisfied with it.
Although the Sahana Foundation is now in California, its two directors are Sri Lankan citizens living in Sri Lanka, Nuwan Waidyanath and Chamindra de Silva.
When I asked one of the directors today, he confirmed that even if “Sahana” remains slow after 2021, “Sahana” can be improved and used for DMC needs and early warning alerts in Sri Lanka. It is no secret that the support of the open and free software community in Sri Lanka can be obtained voluntarily for this.
If the President is really interested in this, he should speak to those two directors directly, without asking for directions through messengers.
If necessary, I can also provide their phone numbers.
“People who spend most of their time putting out fires are also the arsonists” – Dan Sulliva
A post by Wasantha Deshapriya, Chairman of ITRDA, Information Technology Resource Development Authority (for a short period), on his FB Wall.