Financial Times

Local disaster management solution applauded
A local collaborative open-source solution by Virtusa, Lanka Software Foundation (LSF) and other IT companies for disaster management has received mention in the prestigious Wall Street Journal for their efforts.

The Wall Street Journal in a feature article on the 3rd February by Elizabeth Weinstein has commended the system saying: "In Colombo Sri Lanka, engineers working for Massachusetts information technology services firm Virtusa Corp., built a web based application called 'Sahana' that served several pressing needs, registering displaced people including those in camps and coordinating the logistics and supply needs of the scores of aid groups on the ground".

The 'Sahana' portal (named for the Sinhala meaning of the word) was developed to help agencies, individuals, NGOs and others who are involved in disaster relief to target, coordinate and track relief efforts, resources and centralize the disaster relief management process to ensure utmost efficiency. 'Sahana' currently supports a database of information pertaining to organizations, a registry of missing, displaced and deceased people, a registry of refugee camps, a registry on burial sites, information on damages and a transport logistics management system.

The mention signifies the popularity for the usage of open source technology and the country's skill in software development. Open source development enables other programmers and organizations to download, revise and update existing software. As an open source solution, the disaster relief system is currently available for download on the popular open source portal SourceForge website (www.sourceforge.net) and can be deployed by any country or organization for their usage.

The first release of the system took place a mere five days after the start of development. Currently, teams continue to work with commitment and dedication, volunteering their core competencies for this human and national cause.

Virtusa, a global software developer that grew from Sri Lankan soil is the largest contributor with a total of more than 60 Virtusans volunteering their spare time and effort whenever possible. The company headquartered in Massachusetts has a 700+ development centre in Sri Lanka.

The journal further said: "Today, Sri Lanka's Center for National Operations, the office established by the country's President to manage the disaster response , uses 'Sahana' to coordinate relief. More than 200 aid groups are registered in the system which is linked to government computers as well as local police databases , and more than 15,000 displaced families are listed . Currently Virtusa is working on separate registries for deceased people and those buried in makeshift graves. The software is available through the Open Source Foundation to anyone who wants to download it, so Virtusa won’t profit from the project".

Other contributors to the development project launched by Lanka Software Foundation (LSF) include volunteers from Eurocenter, Finder2000, hSenid, IBM, Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), John Keells Computer Services, Kingslake, Lanka Linux User Group (LKLUG), Sri Lanka Telecom, TCC, University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) and the University of Moratuwa.

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