First business and computer

As a kid at S.Thomas College, Bandarawela, selling handmade bookmarks with creative quotes at Rs5 was my first business. Twenty years ago, entrepreneurship and startup were words unheard of. We just called it a business.

While most of my classmates went for extra classes after school hours, I spent my time at a computer training facility in Bandarawela- Micro Computers. Was owned by a distant relative of mine – Eben Samuel. I learnt about computers, Windows 95, DOS, played super Mario and got my hands on Sinclair, CZ – ZX Spectrum and Timex1000 machines. I remember exploring vacuum tube electronics and computers but never fixed it back.

Vacuum tubes and Sinclair

November 20, 2000, was the release day of the Pentium 4 computer. In late 2001 Sri Lanka had it available through PC house and Kobian Technologies (Computer retail shops that are no more). I was thrilled. It was unbelievably fast and appealing.

2002 Sep 16th I had my own  Pentium 4 computer given to me by my mother. Computer parts were ordered from PC house, and I was taught how to assemble a computer using the ordered parts at the training facility. With Windows XP operating system installed it took 6 hours for the whole process.

Evolving from handmade cards, digital designing and printing became my new business. I named it Splash Creations.

Nenasala and the internet

With Sri Lanka Telecom’s nationwide campaign for telephones in 1999. With the computer, we got connected to the internet at 128kbps speed. Yahoo and MSN on snail internet along with Encyclopedia Britannica CD’s helped in assignments and to learn Abobe Photoshop.

With the launch of Nenasala (Wisdom Outlet) – a telecentre project by the Government in 2005, Bandarawela got a super-fast satellite-connected internet cafe. Ratnayake, who ran the place became my friend. I spent hours and hours free browsing. I fell in love with the web and wanted to learn how web pages work. I signed up for a course at IDM Bandarawela, which was next to the Nenasala.

GIT at school

While learning the Web development, GIT (General Information technology) subject was introduced to the school syllabus as an optional subject. S.Thomas College wasn’t behind. It had a fully equipped computer laboratory. We were the first batch of students to follow the curriculum. The curriculum was fun and a playground for me.

Learning how to design a website

Towards the last module of the web designing course at IDM,  I had a new lecturer; Hilme Azeez. He introduced me to a whole new world of animation, graphics and web designing. He spent immeasurable hours introducing me to new software and coding techniques beyond class hours. I asked him where he learned these to which he replied APIIT, Colombo.

Impressed by Hilme, I had set my mind on continuing my higher studies at APIIT. I had no idea where APIIT was or what it had to offer, but I knew they taught web modules.

First web site myitbox.info

In 2005  for a project, we were asked to do an individual project of our choice. My idea was to digitise the entire ICT syllabus with model and interactive past papers with instant scores. After contemplating between a compact disk a program made on Adobe Flash to a website, I settled to do a website. Roshan Jacob, who was an administrative staff at the school office, gave free web hosting for the project.

Joomla, a content management platform, was introduced in 2005 and was still in beta mode. Considering its instability, I decided to code the pages manually. And the end of the project it had over 1000 pages with model ICT / GIT subject papers and a help desk for students, along with the digitised version of the whole syllabus.

Sajesh Kanna; instructor at our College computer lab, Laksiri; computer instructor at the Little Flower Convent, Bandarawela and Ratnayake who was in charge of the Bandarawela Nenasala helped the project on technical input. Roshan Jacob and Hilmee Azeez were on my continuous meeting and call list for help on the technicalities.

Launched on April 25th 2005 the project gained attention. We had support from Dr Tara De Mel chairman of ICTA, and the website was included in the SchoolNet program with the help of Mr Neil Gunadasa from the Ministry of Education.

As MyItBox was growing, I also was in touch with Sri Lankan’s only English print IT magazine iTimes. Published by Wijeya newspapers, and its editor Indi Samarajeewa.  In 2010 this lead me to get my first short stay corporate job at Wijeya, and later Indi helped with ReadMe. MYITBOX had an IT news section too!

The College website

One year after building MyITBox. Roshan Jaco had a project to work on. It was the website for S.Thomas College Bandarawela. He put together a team of students which included, graphic designers, coders, students who would like to learn web designing and me.

The website was built on Joomla, and I was glad to be a part of the founding team of the School website.

Second business

By this time, the designing market had got crowded. Mastering graphics and animation which could be applied on print and online and learning how to build websites I had a new three-person business named Web Wizard, which built websites.

Degree at APIIT

2007 joining APIIT Sri Lanka was a complete game-changer for me. Even, Bandarawela to Colombo was a complete change, weather, traffic, people and time to travel. In Bandarawela I could walk a 15KM distance from S.Thomas College – home little more than an hour. Colombo took me two hours to travel 11Km distance!

I continued developing websites and projects for clients. While we developed in-house projects such as Plaintea – a website about Sri Lanka tea; Huntlanka was a business directory and a website promoting Sri Lanka. Plaintea website was sold while Huntlanka was retired.

I also joined the APIIT technical team as a part-time job while on the degree, which taught me servers, networking and Linux, plus it gave me a salary.

Learning how servers work we upgraded our business. We bought server space and offered web hosting, apart from web development.

I learnt lessons on business, personal development, implementing ideas and serious development, which a degree won’t teach. Mentors; Dr Syed Rehan, Dr Kaluarachi, Jaliya Bandara, a visiting lecturer from SLT, and Gamindu Hemachandra were on my endless meeting list and had never refused to help.

APIIT had a strict rule on the dressing – corporate. As a fresher, this harsh rule sounded bizarre. What it taught was to be professionally presentable at any given time. I could walk out anytime to meet a client and be back at APIIT and do a presentation without worrying about the dress code.

APIIT was more than a degree programme for me. It gave me the courage and a thirst for learning new things, business, people and culture.

There’s more!

After APIIT I went on to co-found Adopt a dog in Sri Lanka with Oshadie Korale and Megali Nanayakkara a fun non-profit organization for dogs, ReadMe – an online IT magazine in Sri Lanka, and later Sri Lanka Holiday Guru. Blog posts on those to follow.