'IT can play a different role in an economic crisis'
In an economic crisis IT can play a different role and organisations
can use IT to make the economy survive, said the President of the
Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) Chrisantha Silva.
'Change requires from both sides the corporate sector and the IT
companies. IT companies should come up with different solutions during a
period of a crisis', he said in an interview with the Sunday Observer.
IT industry depends on the demand of the IT services from other
industries. At a time of a crisis most organisations operate with
minimum resources and in most instances cut investment on IT. Therefore,
demand for IT services could come down.
However, at the same time organisations look for cost reductions,
alternatives to maintain profits, process re-engineering, outsourcing
options and retain their existing customers.
Therefore, IT solutions can assist organisations and help
organisations to survive at a crisis situation, he said.
CSSL the main national organisation of the IT professionals in Sri
Lanka plays a leading role in the promotion of IT across the country and
improve professionalism among those in the IT field. Established in 1976
CSSL, today, has over 500 professional members, around 1000 associate
members and a large number of student members.
Silva said that CSSL has designed various programs to promote IT in
the country. Some of this year's programs are going parallel to the
government initiative 2009 the year of IT and English, he said. He said
that the main annual event of the CSSL is the national IT conference.
The 27th national IT conference will be held this year on September 8 at
Galadari Hotel Colombo.
The theme of the conference is "Integration, Innovation and Impact of
an e-enabled society".
The keynote speakers of the conference are Prof.K.K. Aggarwala, Vice
chancellor of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi,
India, Prof.
Sead Muftic of the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and the
research professor at the George Washington University, USA, Chris
Levanes, Platform Strategy Lead, Microsoft Asia Pacific region, Sanjaya
Karunasena, Chief Software Architect of the ICT Agency and Suren J.
Amarasekara, CEO of Mobitel.
CSSL organises IT promotion campaigns in the rural areas where the
people do not have opportunity to access IT services.
The objective is to introduce the technology and encourage them to
use available resources provided under various government programs.
Silva said that this year two programs were held in Buttala and
Medawachchiya. In Medawachchiya there is a Nenasala centre and by the
time we held the workshop this centre was not used by the people because
they do not know how to use it.
We train students and encourage them to use IT.
CSSL has launched series of programs targeting the schools.
The School Network Project of the CSSL establishes IT clubs in
schools and network them to share the resources and knowledge.
The National School Software Competition is another main event that
has design to improve IT skills in schoolchildren.
From this year the first round of the competition will be held in
provincial level in nine centres under three age groups; under 15, under
17 and under 19.
The final round the national competition will be held in Colombo in
mid September. The international software competition is another new
initiative of the CSSL.
It will be held in October and Silva said that this year two teams
will participate from India and Australia. Many of the regional
countries have informed that this year they are not ready due to various
issues and will participate in the future.
Silva said that this competition will enable our students to develop
their skills to international standard.
At the competition a three member group will get four questions to
develop a software by using C/C++, C#, Visual Basic, Net and Java
programming languages.
They have to develop the software within two hours and the
competition is open for under 17 students.
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