ICTA facilitates disaster management with ICT solutions

Thursday, 19 June 2014 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A networking opportunity for all local and overseas participants at the Indian Ocean Tsunami X (IOTX) will be held at Waters Edge, 316 Battaramulla today from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will be an opportunity to extend some of Sri Lankan culture and hospitality to the overseas guests. Of IOTX, the organisers said. The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) is a Strategic Partner in the event. Nearly a decade since the tsunami of 26 December 2004, the Indian Ocean Tsunami X (IOTX) recalls the disaster with a positive note offering several ICT solutions. The interaction on ICT-based solutions has taken the form of a convention comprising focus on several ICT measures for the prevention of similar calamities in the future. Held mainly in Colombo and Negombo the interactive exercise consists in a series of events that is a sharing of knowledge. The commemoration aptly focuses on ‘10 years of tsunami recovery and the role of ICTs in building disaster resilience’. A large number of Government and private sector organisations including the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Centre and the Sri Lanka Meteorology Department and experts from over 30 different countries participate in the convention. The Learning Initiative on Reforms for Network Economies Asia (LIRNEasia) is organising the event and the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) is a Strategic Partner in the event.       IOTX events Some of the IOTX events to be held today (19) are the following: CAP Codfest: Common Alert Protocol (CAP) Codefest from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Orion City IT Park, 752 Baseline Road, Colombo. Public lecture: LIRNEasia is also taking the lead in organising the Disaster Risk Reduction Public Lecture held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute today (19) from 3:30 to 6 p.m. The lecture is open to all. Sri Lanka: (http://lirneasia.net/projects/icts-early-warning/ladrr/2014-regional-readiness/). The keynote is by Dr. Stuart Weinstein (Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, USA) on the ‘advances of tsunami warning’. Stuart was the one who detected the 2004 signal and desperately tried to warn Sri Lanka. He will be flanked by other regional speakers from Japan Ministry of Communication, Axiata Malaysia, and Sarvodaya Sri Lanka. The panellists and the topics of their addresses are as follows: (1) Koichi Katagiri, Director, Global ICT Strategy, Ministry of Internal Affairs/Communications Japan – ‘Disaster Management and ICT in Japan’ (2) Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, CEO Dialog Axiata and COO Axiata Group PLC, Malaysia – ‘Robustness of the Axiata telecomm networks and business continuity’ (3) Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary, Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka – ‘Are the communities prepared to respond appropriately?’ IOTX events schedule for 20, 21 and 22 June: ISCRAM-Asia 2014: Friday, 20 June at 8 a.m. IST to Saturday, 21 June 5:30 p.m. IST University of Colombo School Computing, UCSC Building Complex, 35 Reid Avenue, Colombo 7. Sahana Conference: Friday, 20 June 8:30 a.m. IST to Sunday, 22 June 5:30 p.m. IST WSO2, Colpetty, Colombo 6. ISCRAM Asia 2014 academic conference: 20-22 June, University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC, Colombo) – Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) Asia 2014 is an academic conference with panel and plenary sessions. Peer reviewed papers, from several parts of the world, will be presented on the topic of information systems for crisis response and management, the organisers said. All events are free to attend: http://www.iotxconvention.org/registration.       Sahana software, a flagship ICT solution for disaster management Sahana is a free and open source project that was built originally to handle the large scale disaster management challenges in response to the tsunami for the Government of Sri Lanka. Since then it was rebuilt as a generic open source disaster management platform and made free to the world and has been configured used to manage disaster around the world including US Sandy Disaster, China Landslides, Pakistan Earthquake, Haiti Earthquake, Philippine Landslides, etc. It has also been deployed for NGOs such as the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), US National Library of Medicine, UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction for different purposes, such as disaster risk reduction, logistics and finding missing people, to name a few capabilities. The Sahana Project, that originated in Sri Lanka, is now a global community working together to enhance the platform with leading contributors from US, UK, Germany, India and Sri Lanka, by students, academics, partitions and the IT Industry and is managed by a 501(c)3 non-profit organisation.

COMMENTS