Harsha Wijayawardhana delivered the welcome speech at the first INET Colombo conference in May 2011 under his stewardship as founding President of the Internet Society Sri Lanka Chapter. The conference was opened by Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka.
Watch “INET Colombo 2011 – WelcomeSpeech” on YouTube
The address placed Sri Lanka’s Internet development within the wider work of the Internet Society and considered the responsibilities accompanying the network’s growing influence. Its themes included Internet governance and regulation, the national importance of country-code top-level domains, the role of the Internet Society, and the need to develop an open and inclusive Internet community in Sri Lanka.
Leadership of ISOC Sri Lanka
From 2009 to 2010, Harsha was given the mandate to bring together the founding community, coordinate the Chapter’s governance documents, organize meetings and complete the formal establishment process. The Internet Society formally recognized the Sri Lanka Chapter on 24 March 2011. INET Colombo followed in May as the Chapter’s first major conference.
During his presidency, Harsha promoted IPv6 migration, multilingual Internet access and stronger participation by Sri Lankan technical and professional communities in global Internet governance.
Contemporary press record
The Daily FT reported on the conference on 28 May 2011 in “President caused best benefits of ICT reach all” – Secy. Weeratunga. The report records the opening of the Internet Society Sri Lanka Chapter’s conference and provides contemporary context for the event. Read the locally preserved publication record →
A related article titled Internet regulation, country domains and ISOC identified Harsha Wijayawardhana as President of the Internet Society Sri Lanka Chapter and was published by the Daily News on 24 May 2011.
This page preserves an independent historical account and embeds the available conference recording. The account is based on Harsha Wijayawardhana’s professional history and contemporary press records; it is not presented as a verbatim transcript.