05.20.06
Practicing Global Thinking
GLOBAL:
glob·al
Pronunciation: ‘glO-b&l
Function: adjective
Def: of, relating to, or applying to a whole
THINKING:
Pronunciation: ‘thi[ng]k
Function: verb
transitive senses
to form or have in the mind
intransitive senses
to have concern — usually used with of
A Concept?
What we do does not go without influencing others and what others do does in some ways influence us. If we are an influence then we strive to better what is around us. Thinking globally does not just extend to world peace and courtesy in congested traffic. Global thinking can be practiced by a host of ICT companies. Imagine if each ICT company were to integrate their technologies or even interlock their platforms. This would not only benefit the companies but also individuals who use the various technologies. If the top names in information, communication and technology were to integrate alot of what they have in their R&D sections a global product at a lower cost would be born. Ofcourse one might argue why a company that spent 5 years of capital and man power should share its knowledge with another company. If that is the case then every company keeping its technology and only selling to the highest bidder will finally drive prices up for the consumer. Funding will ALWAYS be an issue.
Practicing global thinking can be also applied to standards. Usually when standards are designed there are strong clashes of opinion. Sometimes the standards are never finished leaving both the businesses and consumers at a complete loss. Sometimes the standards take such a long time that by the time they are out some other technology has taken its place.
Is global thinking possible in today’s ICT world?
05.15.06
E-commerce sites in Sri Lanka (a quick look)
Here are some e- commerce sites in Sri Lanka. Some have been there for a while the others are relatively new. Either way most have been established more recently. Though I have not used any special criteria to evaluate them I have mentioned a few points about each.
kaputa — nice vesak cards/ integrated classifieds
srilankabusiness.com — fixed subscription cost
wow – wow theres alot of stuff.
Lanka.info – site cannot be accessed from sri lanka
boutiquesrilanka — tourist site for sri lanka quite well laid out
autolandvehicles — car site
autolanka– very very nice car site covers a lot of areas of interest and reservation possible
carsaleslk – nice menus and nice interface – no payment
aitken spence hotels — a nice site but online reservations not integrated
sri lanka.com – super hotel reservation and tourist site. Nice layout and the mini sites are very well integrated. Booking request is an excellent idea.
sri lankan airlines – sri lankan airlines online booking and confirmation (only in English) — imagine if we could do this for train and bus tickets
Jobsnet – jobsite/ multilingual / very nice
E-channelling — fantastic site / multilingual/ easy to use/ well maintained and integrated payment gateway. I was told by a friend (who rarely uses computers) about the site.
Kaddai.com — sales and auctions platform — very functional site, sms integration, a lot of features such as intrasite messaging, transaction status, feedback and reliability status to mention a few.
Please let me know if there are more e-commerce sites out there ……….
Possibilities for E-commerce … with mobile networks
So here I am in the hill country. No computer just me and nature. Suddenly I realise that I need to check my mail. I dash to my hotel and ask them about their rates. I’m sure they figured that I was not going to use their internet when they saw my jaw drop. So what next ? Pulled out my cell phone configured my pop settings and connected up to my provider’s gprs. I expected to be drumming my fingers for a good ten minutes. A few seconds later my phone does a small chirp and voila there is the email that I’ve been waiting for! Later on in the day as I traveled around I noticed that there was a strong penetration of mobile phones in the region. Every 4th person seemed to have a unit. While everyone talks about penetration and last mile connectivity why not use whats available? Why not use gprs, edge or EV DO modems for connectivity in there areas ? One could use their present mobile phone sim with these modems. Of course you wouldn’t do huge downloads but one could facilitate E commerce transactions such as ordering spare parts, up loading pictures of products or even checking their bank balance. Maybe I’m being naive but if its there why not use it, right ?
05.08.06
E-commerce in Sri Lanka
Let's talk about e-comerce in Sri Lanka. Its practically non existent. What we see mostly are either sites that started out with a good intention and then their customer base just lost interest. There is the other group of sites that initally start off with a strong approach but due to lack of foresight, follow up or general mismanagement have to shut down. Why is it so difficult here to be e-commerce friendly? Does it have to do with the general cost of using the internet ? Is it the technichal side of things that irk us over here. At the recent E- Carnival in Hambalantotta we noticed that there was a high degree of interest. They saw that e commerce could cut out the middle man effectively increasing their revenue. Also the fact that they would be connected to an international market almost immediately. So why has it still taken time to catch on ?
