- http://livestream.com/internetsociety/inetcolombo2015/videos/89728458 To realize the promise and to grow beyond third world status, Sri Lanka need to explore new markets. Being a small country, we could not compete with more people, rather we need to compete on the quality. In other words, we need to build Sri Lanka brand. Talking about the brand, very few Sri Lankan's knows that Sri Lanka are well-known for open source contributions. Among key highlights are Apache Axis2 and other Apache Projects, first in the world in terms of google summer of code awards for 5 years, and Shahana Disaster recovery Project. In this talk, I will tell the story of those opensource projects, their impact, and how we should replicate those to seize the future.

1. Building Sri Lankan Brand:
Putting Sri Lanka on the Open
Source Map

2. Sri Lanka, where do we stand?
Positives
- High Human Development Index (73rd)
- Good education
- Good English
People 20m 8m
Land Area (km2) 65,000 41,000
GDP per capita ($) 4,000 80,000
Language Sinhala, English,
Tamil
French, German,
Italian

3. Role of S&M Businesses
 British empire 18-19th century wanted
control over trade. E.g. Opium wars. That is
due to 1/3 sales tax on all sales.
 Similarly to develop, we need businesses in
Sri Lanka
- They pay tax
- They pay salaries
- They bring in foreign exchange
 LK Market is not big enough for economics
of scale. Most businesses need to look
elsewhere for market.
it is just good business

4. Why SL Brand?
Sri Lanka cannot compete on services
( economics of scale works against us,
and we are not that poor).
- Service companies => revenue
proportional to number of people
We need product companies
- Product => brand
Ceylon Tea has brand, but before
Dilmah LK did not profit much
We do lot of textile, but do not own
the textile brands
Brand: people need to want
to consume your products
and services and prefer you
as a place to live and learn
--Country Brand Index (2014-15)

5. Quality over Quantity
Quality let you build a brand
Creative High Margin Pursuits
- Protected by Intellectual Property,
Barriers for Entry, High risk
80% of money comes from < 10%
of people
"The quality remains long after the
price is forgotten”
--Sir Henry Royce

6. Why IT and Opensource?
 IT is 3.5 trillion dollar industry with high
margins
 It touches on every aspect of our life, and
called the third pillar of science
 Opensource and businesses
- 78% of runs on open source
- 64% participates in open source projects
- 66% give priority to a open source option
( see Simon Phipps’s talk,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0D
m5W-8psI )

7. Success Stories
Sri Lanka has played a major role
in opensource in last 10 years
Two success stories
 Axis2 and other Apache Projects
 Sahana

8. Have you used Axis2 recently?
- Brought something in Web (e.g. Amazon or Ebay?)
- brought a Plane ticket
- Made an payment
- ..

9. History: Axis Mora
Axis, well known Web Service
framework
Four of us (Dimuthu, JK, Paven,
myself) were, first interns at LSF
Axis Mora
- 10X performance over Axis
- Enough to convince key Axis
players to start Axis2

10. Building Axis2
SEDA funding (2004)
- Team of 7 from LSF (Sanjiva, Eran, Ajith,
Deepal, Jaliya, Chathura, Srinath)
- Several Axis committers
- First F2F and Second F2F
40 committers from LSF, Unv of Moratuwa,
IBM, Sonic, WSO2 ..
1.0 release in 2005
WSO2 started in 2005 ( now a 500+ people
company)

11. Sahana
It originated in Sri Lanka after the
2004 Tsunami
Deployed in over 25 countries
Currently used by 9 different
organizations including Red Cross,
UN, national and local governments.
Free Software Foundation Award for
Social Benefit - March 2007
featured in BBC TV Documentary the
"Code Breakers"

12. Impact
Sri Lanka is well known in opensource
communities
10 apache members and 100+ committers,
most new gradates are now apache
committers.
Have about 20 finished PhDs and 40+
reading for PhDs at MIT, Princeton, UCSC,
Purdue, Georgia Tech etc. and 10+ going
every year (it was about 2/ year when I was
graduating)

13. Impact (Contd.)
MRT 1st on Gsoc in 7 years in row ( SL
265 students over 9 years)
Axis2 Broke speed barriers for Web
Services
Companies like WSO2 taking on top
brands
People who works for top brands
(Amazon, Microsoft .. )
People coming back, I talk to PhDs who
want to come back very often
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ana_carrington/5165645847

14. Onward Ho
Need to think long term and
make big bets
Need to find high impact projects
Need to think global
Need more companies, need
entrepreneurs and VC funding (
need to think about private sector
differently)
We need more from the cream of the nation!!

15. Questions?