# LGM 2021 Colombo Sri Lanka - Proposal

## 26—30 MAY 2021

[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka)

The [Libre Graphics Meeting](https://libregraphicsmeeting.org/) (LGM) is an annual international convention for the discussion of free and open source software used with graphics. The first Libre Graphics Meeting was held in March 2006.

For 2021, Danishka, Lohan and Pathum from the Hanthana Linux Project with Sumanthri from Universirty of Moratuwa would like to propose LGM come to [Colombo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo), the largest city in [Sri Lanka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka).


> Colombo has most of the amenities that a modern city has. Compared to other parts of the country, Colombo has the highest degree of infrastructure. Electricity, water and transport to street lamps, phone booths, etc. have a considerably good standard. The majority of the major shopping malls in Sri Lanka are in the city, of which all are wi-fi enabled. Apart from that, many luxurious hotels, clubs and restaurants are in the city. In recent times there has been an outpour of high rise condominiums, mainly due to the very high land prices

– [Colombo Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo)

### Team and contacts

- Pathum Egodawatta (Primary contact in the proposal stage)
- Danishka Navin
- Lohan Guneweera
- Sumanthri Samarawickrama

## Dates

26—30 May 2021

## Venue

The primary venue location is [University of Moratuwa (UoM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Moratuwa). There are two departments that may be interested to host the LGM, and the local team has established connections with staff in these departments.
- [Department of Intergrated Design (DID)](http://www.design.mrt.ac.lk/)
- [Centre for Natural Language Processing (CNLP)](https://www.mrt.ac.lk/web/nlp)

UoM holds and hosts international conferences, symposiums and events regulraly and has everything you would expect from a Governemnt run University. We can look at specific buildings and venues at the next stage of the discussion.

The DID is onbaord with the programme and requiers a MoU to formalise the collaboration.

## Accommodation

**Lodging:** Lodging is cheap here in Sri Lanka compared to Europe, but as not cheap as can be found in India or South East Asia. UoM is 30 minutes drive outside the very center of Colombo, but there are many hotels on the beach nearer to the UoM. (A taxi from those would typically cost 2-3 EUR to get around.) [Wikitravel Colombo](https://wikitravel.org/en/Colombo) has a comprehensive list of options.

**Food:** If you want usual Western cuisine during the day, that may be difficult. Since the UoM campus is not in the city center, there are no cafes or restaurants nearby who provide high quality Western cuisine - including a lack of good coffee shops... However, the development of the city is happening rapidly and there is a chance that by 2020 this might change, and also it is possible to arrange on-site catering with a predetermined menu.

**Transportation:** Getting around Columbo is easy, with street hailing of the local the three-wheeler rikshaws possible on every major street, which cost around 0.30EUR/km. There is also a popular Uber-like rikshaw hailing app, PickMe, and Uber itself and a few other apps for air conditioned cab services. While there are public transportation options that are safe, they are not that efficent. And again, we might be able to arrange a minibus to pick-up and drop-off groups from the University campus on a predetermined schedule.

## Accessibility

Sri Lanka has one of the [easist Visas in the world](https://www.lonelyplanet.com/sri-lanka/visas) for people with a European or North American passport, and for almost all other countries it is usually very easy to obtain a tourist visa.

Colombo International Airport (CMB) has direct flights from London and few other European cities, and there are many 1-stop connections via Mumbai, Singapore, and other regional hubs.

[ TODO: Air fare details ]

## Areas of difficulty

Sri Lanka is a developing country, which means there is a typical amount of general chaos in the street and in national politics. However, SL is politically stable and secure. Some Western tourists call it "India Light," and if you have been to India you will undrstand Sri Lanka as similar but a bit more organised and Westernised due to a longer British colonial period.

The social culture is safe and friendly. Some online tourist resources still provide warnings for women against traveling alone at night or on public transportation, but this was an issue during the civil war period (1983 - 2008) and immediatly after that, but is no longer generally applicable in the country, and is not an issue in the capital of Colombo, and the UoM area today, at all.

## Local participation & attendance

Sadly, the local FLOSS scene is not very strong at the moment compared to Europe. Once RMS visited Sri Lanka when the [Lanka Linux User Group](http://www.readme.lk/suchetha-wijenayake-rise-fall-lankan-linux/) was more popular.

Today, the tech scene is dominated by meetups around web and mobile technologies and start-up culture, although this often has many "open source" aspects.

Sri Lanka also produces a [high number of GSoC](http://digit.lk/sri-lanka-tops-list-at-google-summer-of-code-for-7th-consecutive-year/) participants and [UoM](https://opensource.googleblog.com/2017/09/the-mentors-of-google-summer-of-code.html) students are at the forefront of this. We hope that LGM in 2021 would give us ample time to develop community interest and educate people about Libre Graphics software in general. The team has already started mobilising the community and the first event was celebrating of Software Freedom Day in September 2018.

__Orgnisers and partners__

- [Hanthana Linux community](http://www.hanthana.org/) ; Community around the homegrown GNU/Linux distro

- [Akuru Collective](typography.lk) is a local intiative around typography and design that was co-founded by the local team members, and the collective will be promoting this event in their schedule.

- [TODO: Add more collaborations, as we get confirmations]
> [name=Pathum Egodawatta] Hope to collaborate with the following orgs;
> - [Opensource.lk](http://ltrl.ucsc.lk/)
> - [LSF](http://ltrl.ucsc.lk/) - Lanka Software Foundation
> - [LTRL](http://ltrl.ucsc.lk/) - Language Technology Research Laboratory
> - [FARU](http://) - Faculty of Architecture Research Unit at University of Moratuwa.
>- [INTECS](http://intecs.itfac.mrt.ac.lk/) - Information Technology Society is a student community at University of Moratuwa.
>- [FOSS.lk](https://) was orignally run by Lanka Linux User Group and is being revied by the community and a project run by FOSS community and Lanka Software Foundation.

## Programming

Considering LGM is moving out of the usual regions, we suggest that identifying issuess and specifics related to the region. Language technologies and text technologies in FLOSS Graphics software is special interest that could attract relevent local and regional participants.

### Language support and text technologies

A section of the schedule dedicated to Libre Graphics international language support, text processing, and font rendering would be a plus for the UoM - DID and CNLP. Could _LGM 2020 Sri Lanka_ have a loose theme around **supporting global languages**, and a hack sprint where projects aim to resolve language-related bugs and make improvemnts in that area?

### Special programmes and workshops leading to LGM

The DID has expressed interest in pormoting and intergrating free software and free culture in their curriculam. Local team will assit the DID faculty with introducing free software, open culture and libre graphics tools to the students of all three departments under DID; Media and Communication Design, Fashion and Lifestyle Design and Product Design)

## Tourism and holidays

[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka)

A trip outside the city could also be fun for everyone. Sri Lanka is small and you can travel around easily. Local team can make suggestions on what to do in Sri Lanka (sightseeing and etc. ) for atendees who would like to mkae the most out of thier stay in Sri Lanka. Local team can help with arrangements as well.

## Local team
This proposal is prepared by Pathum Egodawatta, Danishka Navin and Lohan Gunaweera representing various FOSS related communities in Sri Lanka in collaboration with UoM DID.

### Community team
- Pathum Egodawatta: Typographer and researcher with MA Type Design from University of Reading (UK)
- Experience

- [ATypI Working Seminar Colombo](https://workingseminars.atypi.org/) organiser
- [Akurucon 2018](https://akurucon.com/) organiser
- [Typoday 2016](http://www.typoday.in/2016) organiser
- _Design Educators Forum in Sri Lanka_ lead organiser (2017)
- Contributing to TruFont, Fontforge since 2014
- Regular user of GIMP
- Presented at LGM 2015 (remote) and LGM 2016

- Lohan Gunaweera: Visual artist, writer, translator, performance artist and actor.
- Experience
- _Colombo International Theatre Festival_ committee member (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
- _Colombo International Theatre Festival_ workshop moderator (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
- Regular user of Inkscape, GIMP

- [Danishka Navin](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Snavin): Systems Engineer. activist
- Experince
- Founder, [_Hanthana Linux Project_](http://www.hanthana.org/)
- Organizer, [_Fedora FAD Singapore_ ](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD_Singapore_2015)
- Organised [_Mozilla hackathons in Sri Lanka_](https://blog.mozilla.org/l10n/2015/03/11/localization-hackathons-in-india-and-sri-lanka/)

### University of Moratuwa team

- [Dr Sumanthri Samarawickrama](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumanthri-samarawickrama-54041915/): Director, FARU (Faculty of Architecture Reserch Unit) University of Moratuwa / Senior Lecturer, Department of Intergrated Design, University of Moratuwa

- Buddhika Rodrigo : Lecturer, Department of Intergrated Design, University of Moratuwa

- UoM non-academic staff: UoM will assign a few non-academic staff members during the conferecne.

## VISA

[Electronic Travel Authorization System.](https://www.eta.gov.lk/slvisa)

## Budget

[ TODO: Later ]

## Local sponsors

[ TODO: Later ]

## Thank you

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