Abstract
The e-tuktuk is a mobile information and communication centre located within a three-wheeled auto rickshaw. It operates out of the Kothmale Community Multimedia Centre in Central Province, Sri Lanka. In this paper, we examine this innovative use of new technology through drawing an analogy between the technology of irrigation and the technologies of information and communication. We argue that it is the particular context of Sri Lanka, and the culturally significant notion of reaching out to villages, that makes the e-tuktuk meaningful in this place at this time. We describe how a particularly Sri Lankan form of community media began in Sri Lanka in the early 1980s, and how it has since developed. The e-tuktuk is presented as a recent and interesting example of participatory community media that uses radio and mobile technologies to reach out to villages. It is, in this context, a highly meaningful set of social, cultural, political and symbolic behaviours that have clear modern and ancient precedents.
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