Monthly Archives: August 2009

Sri Lankan Cabinet

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The Cabinet of Sri Lanka is as follows:

Hon. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake – Prime Minister & Minister of Internal Administration
Hon. Milinda Moragoda – Minister of Justice and Law Reforms
Hon. Dr. Sarath Amunugama – Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs
Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena – Minister of Urban Development and Sacred Area Development
Hon. Arumugan Thondaman – Minister of Youth Empowerment & Socio Economic Development
Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe – Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights
Hon. Douglas Devananda – Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare
Hon. Nimal Siripala De Silva – Minister of Healthcare and Nutrition
Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena – Minister of Cultural Affairs
Hon. Champika Ranawaka – Minister of Environment and Natural Resources
Hon. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa – Minister of Enterprise Development & Investment Promotion
Hon. Tissa Karalliyadde – Minister of Indigenous Medicine
Hon. Rajitha Senaratne – Minister of Construction and Engineering Services
Hon. Rohitha Bogollagama – Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hon. (Mrs.) Ferial Ashraff – Minister of Housing and Common Amenities
Hon. Prof. G. L. Peiris – Minister of Export Development & International Trade and Acting Minister of Posts and Telecommunication
Hon. Maithripala Sirisena – Minister of Agricultural Development & Agrarian Services Development
Hon. A. H. M. Fowzie – Minister of Petroleum & Petroleum Resources Development
Hon. D. M. Jayaratne – Minister of Plantation Industries
Hon. Susil Premajayantha – Minister of Education
Hon. P.Chandrasekeran – Minister of Community Development and Social Inequity Eradication
Hon. A. L. M. Athaullah – Minister of Water Supply and Drainage
Hon. Prof. Tissa Vitharana – Minister of Science and Technology
Hon. D. E. W. Gunasekera – Minister of Constitutional Affairs & National Integration
Hon. Abdul Risath Bathiyutheen – Minister of Resettlement & Disaster Relief Services
Hon. P. Dayaratne – Minister of Plan Implementation
Hon. R. M. Dharmadasa Banda – Minister of Supplementary Crops Development
Hon. M.H. Mohomed – Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
Hon. John Seneviratne – Minister of Power & Energy
Hon. (Mrs.) Sumedha Jayasena – Minister of Child Development and Women’s Affairs
Hon. Milroy Fernando – Minister of Public Estate Management & Development
Hon. Jeewan Kumaranatunga – Minister of Land and Land Development
Hon. Dullas Alahaperuma – Minister of Transport
Hon. Pavithra Wanniarachchi – Minister of Youth Affairs
Hon. Athauda Seneviratne – Minister of Labour Relations and Manpower
Hon. Gamini Lokuge – Minister of Sports and Public Recreation
Hon. Bandula Gunawardena – Minister of Trade, Marketing Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs
Hon. Keheliya Rambukwelle – Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare
Hon. Piyasena Gamage – Minister of Vocational and Technical Training
Hon. R. M. S. B. Navinne – Minister of Rural Industries & Self-Employment Promotion
Hon. Janaka Bandara Tennekoon – Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils
Hon. Felix Perera – Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Hon. R. M. C. B. Rathnayake – Minister of Livestock Development
Hon. Prof. Wiswa Warnapala – Minister of Higher Education
Hon. Chamal Rajapaksa – Minister of Irrigation, Water Management & Minister of Ports and Aviation
Hon. Kumara Welgama – Minister of Industrial Development
Hon. Nandana Gunatilake – Minister of Tourism

According to above list, there are two Ministers responsible for trade in Sri Lanka, Professor Peiris and Bandula Gunawardena. The Minister visiting Manchester on 1st Septemeber 2009 is Professor Peiris who is responsible for Export Development and International Trade, a significant responsibility, yet I cannot find a website dedicated to his Ministry. I will be meeting the Minister during his visit, and plans to have discussions with Trade Commissioner of Sri Lankan High Commission in London about setting up UK Sri Lankan Business Council, which may learn from UK India Business Council, which I am a Board Member of (the North West of Next Gen).

Interesting times lay ahead. Now is the time to get behind the Sri Lankan government to rebuild the whole country not just the affected areas due to terrorism in the past.

Kings of Leon – Closer

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Stranded in this spooky town
Stoplight is swaying and the phone lines are down
Snow is crackling cold
She took my heart, I think she took my soul
With the moon I run
Far from the carnage of the fiery sun

Driven by the strangle of vein
Showing no mercy I’d do it again
Open up your eyes
You keep on crying
Baby I’ll bleed you dry
Skies are blinking at me
I see a storm bubbling up from the sea

And it’s coming closer
And it’s coming closer

You shimmy-shook my boat
Leaving me stranded all in love on my own
Do you think of me
Where am I now
Baby where do I sleep
Feels so good but I’m old
2000 years of chasing taking its toll

And it’s coming closer
And it’s coming closer
And it’s coming closer
And it’s coming closer

My Response to Andrew Scott on Customer Service

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This is my response to customer service post written by Andrew Scott, CEO of Rummble, mentor of Tech Mission London 09 and alum of Webmission08

Hey Andrew, interesting thought provoking article.

What most of us would love to hear is how you scale Rummble’s own customer service.

At http://edocr.com, most queries comes through “contact us”. We also use Twitter heavily, experimented with UserVoice and restarted using GetSatisfaction. Our FAQs are incomplete and we do not have a forum at present.

There is a further distinction that need due attention. I assume this is true with most tech companies. Our queries are classed into (not systematically, I must admit):

- Spam – don’t ignore this
- Visitors – those who drops in from time to time without registering
- Users – those who does not pay us
- Customers (those who pay us)

I assume everyone will appreciate the order in which each query type is handled. We also call this aspect of http://edocr.com, simply Service (not Customer Service).

Scaling Service will no doubt be a massive problem as we grow. One of the companies who excelled in this area is plus.net, and ISP sold to BT few years back. They automated this aspect as much as possible to ensure queries found responses easily and quickly. More than anything, those responses made it easier for the problems to be fixed by customers themselves as much as possible. Of course, escalation levels need to be in place.

Another thought on this issue is that the buck should stop at the CEO.

Wonder whether you may be willing to share more insight to how you handle these issues within Rummble.

By the way, let’s add this aspect to our Tech Mission London 09 Part II in October. We love you to return as a mentor.

Best regards
Manoj

Response to TechCrunch article on Scribd

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Below is my response to comments posted against above blog post

I am struggling to understand why people seems to be against Scribd so much. Given Scribd’s popularity, I can only assume these comments are from the minority.

Scribd opened the document publishing, distribution and interactivity market, and for that reason alone, we should all be thanking them. No one is forcing anyone to use Scribd. We all have the choice to use or not to use. The level of criticism here is uncalled for.

They have used various tactics to gain the level of success they are demonstrating today. Yes, some of us, will never use those tactics, but end of the day, it is business.

Personally, I was surprised at the commercial route Scribd took by going after Amazon.com’s market. This is something we also thought about at early stages, but decided against it due to our own reasoning.

Our mission is about making documents work harder for your business. Even for us, it took such a long time to come up with a viable commercial model.

There are two camps in web 2.0 arena. Those who build a great product and work out a commercial model after few years of collecting users. Other model is the old model, which is to generate revenues. First model requires significant VC funding, and that is exactly what Scribd has done.

In my opinion, Scribd is in a great place where they can almost pick couple of commercial models to follow.

I for one, is keen to see Scribd grow from strength to strength. Competition will only help the customers – so be thankful instead of complaining.