Horizon Lanka Website’s Second Edition in 2002

Horizon Lanka Website’s second edition in 2002

This was the homepage of the second edition of the Horizon Lanka http://www.horizonlanka.org website I created in February, 2002 – 14 years ago. It was this version of our website brought us both local and international fame. Many said it is clean and cute, but people could not say it was like Google home because Google was not this famous then. (People used Yahoo and AltaVista to search those days.) It was mainly due to unconditional support extended to me by my boss Dian Gomes and colleagues Ransith Fernando and Gamunu Wickramasingha of Slimline, a fully owned subsidiary of MAS Holding, that enabled me to enjoy unlimited and uninterrupted Internet – at a time it was a luxury limited to only for few people – that helped me design this website.

Horizon Lanka Website – Second Edition

I learnt web designing first in 2001 from Mr. Donald Gaminitillake – not to mention Mrs. Bhadra Gaminitillake’s hot milk coffees till late hours. Mr. Gaminitillake hates Windows and I was “forced to :-)” do the first version of the Horizon Lanka website in 2000 with an Apple Mac which had only Japanese operating system and the other software. I do not know any Japanese despite my two trips to Japan. The first Horizon Lanka website was designed with stubborn Netscape Composer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Composer given as part of Netscape Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Communicator. This second version of the Horizon Lanka website was designed (again with Mr. Gaminitillake’s guiding and Mrs. Gaminitllake’s hot milk coffee) with Adobe GoLive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_GoLive, another hot web designing tool those days but nobody else I met knew what this was. This was much easier than Adobe Dreamweaver but Adobe did away with GoLive after buying out Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Dream Computer Room

I can still remember what Ranjith Gunarathne, then a freelance journalist, wrote about us in the ICT monthly “.com” published by Shelton Manage, an entrepreneurial publisher who took a lot of risks to be part of the ICT field at a time only few dared to. Those who dared, people like Shelton and N. P. Wijerathna were fearlessly hustled by some up to a point that the former two was almost forced to leave the field.

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Computer Club

It was veteran journalist Gamini Akmeemana of Daily Mirror that wrote about Horizon Lanka first http://www.horizonlanka.org/in-the-media/ips-1999/ and Ranjith Gunarathne was the first http://www.horizonlanka.org/in-the-media/dotcom-2002/ to write about us in a Sinhala magazine. I adore both these articles to date and could ‘almost’ read both the reports by heart.

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Chootimenike

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Chootimahaththaya

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Butterflies

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Nanda Wanninayaka

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Parents

Horizon Lanka Website Second Edition 2002 – Courage

 

 

 

 

Computers for Horizon Lanka, Mahawilachchiya

Mahawilachchiya is a rural village 45 kilometers away from Anuradhapura town. It is situated in the boundary of the Wilpattu National Park. You would be surprised to hear that the children of this distant village excel in computers and English with the little resources they have with their educational institute, the Horizon Lanka.

Horizon Lanka Foundation www.horizonlanka.org has been serving the village of Mahawilachchiya, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka since its inception in 1998. It has been able to produce software engineers and other IT professionals, English teachers, other teachers, professionals in government and private sectors, BPO operators, etc. Scores of other Horizon Lanka students are studying in universities and other higher educational institutes. After a lapse of 3 ½ years Horizon Lanka was again started in July, 2014 to teach English, ICT, mathematics and science to the village children.

Though we have a computer lab, we do not have computers yet. We need PCs, furniture for the PCs, a laptop, multimedia projector and a screen, a laser printer, a scanner and a digital camera. If you can contribute to any of the items in the list please communicate with Mr. Wanni, the Founder of the Horizon Lanka on 077-7702678 or 071-9184005. Email is wanni@horizonlanka.org and nanda.wanninayaka@gmail.com. We welcome even the used items.

In the past, Horizon Lanka had an interesting and innovative approach to ICT teaching. Both local and foreign volunteers helped students by coming and teaching computers in workshops, camps, lectures, etc. You too can do the same. The output was a large number of computer enthusiastic students who excelled in their careers related to computers and English.