Bridging digital divide in Sri Lanka : a community e-center approach

Abstract

Sri Lanka has the highest ICT infrastructure among South Asian countries. The country has very good human resources and education system, but the country``s ICT literacy rate and Internet penetration are very low. These are some of main failure issues in the country. In an attempt to increase Internet penetration and ICT literacy rate the government has started many ICT projects and the community e-center is one of the main projects for the issue. This report evaluates the current progress of that project and studies other countries`` similar successful projects. Furthermore, the report makes recommendations on future changes for community e-centers. The methodology like literature review and case study has been used to analyze similar projects of selected countries. As selected countries the report focuses on successful cases from India, Malaysia and South Korea. The results and discussions drawn in the report will be valuable for government and some NGOs (Non Government Organization) investors. As we know, high speed internet connectivity is very beneficial for the people. However, in the rural sector the majority of the people are not familiar with English. Local content, information and e-services in own languages are essential for community e-centers. Building network with other institutes or organizations is also useful to make successful network. Further, knowledgeable staff and an on-going monitoring and evaluation system makes successful. This study will be useful for an analysis and evaluation of future community e-center projects and for starting up of new community e-centers that would be more successful and effective for rural area people.