Elakiri is a virtual collaborative community launched by a group of Sri Lankans in March 2006, which is aimed at creating a platform for members to share knowledge covering a large number of topics. Primarily for the convenience of members, these topics have been categorized under different forums. Members are required to ask questions, answer other users’ questions and share their knowledge in the specific forums that have been designated. Under each forum heading, the topics in discussion are sub-categorized into “threads”, each consisting of a series of messages followed by a main topic. As of November 2007, the site held 47,855 threads and 898,447 posts.
Elakiri’s membership base is largely concentrated on Sri Lankan users, including a large number of Sri Lankans living abroad. Elakiri, with its Sri Lankan meaning of “being excellent” is governed by a set of community guidelines influenced mainly by the Sri Lankan cultural values and the violation of which may lead to the automatic cancellation of membership. The site allows any user to open an account upon presenting a valid email address. To encourage active participation, Elakiri recognizes its members with various levels of seniority depending on the number of posts that each user has made. While the default language of communication is English, users are also allowed to use their national language, “Sinhalese”, in sharing their views and knowledge.
Apart from its stated objective of creating a virtual Sri Lankan community, Elakiri also makes arrangements for its members to meet in real community gatherings. Its membership base, as of November 2007 was around 53,000.
