KOM's blogging seminar on November 10

MUSCAT: As part of Knowledge Oasis Muscat's (KOM) quarterly Digital Nation program and in partnership with Omania e-Commerce; Nawras; United Media Services; and Infocomm, KOM will host a free seminar on blogging scheduled for 7:30pm, Tuesday, 10 November at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel. (more)

The panelists for the seminar:

1. Abdullah Al Jufaili (Intilaaqah)

2. Raed Dawood (Nawras)

3. Haitham Al Busafi (Sultan Qaboos University)

4. Zaid Zabanoot (German University of Technology in Oman)

New era for Fixed-lines in Oman

Oman’s Telecoms Regulatory Authority (TRA) has finally awarded the second fixed-line license tender to PCCW - Awaser Oman Consortium, and it’s coming to an end of monopoly for the majority state-owned Omantel. Pacific Century Cyber Works (PCCW), an Hong Kong-based telecom company joint venture with a Omani partner and Nawras, the 2nd mobile company had lost the bid tender.

That's means new job will be created soon for the Omani Market beside the five mobile reseller companies.

Representing Oman

Many represent Oman in something to be proud of, be it our national team, tennis players, musicians and the list goes on and on... but this way?

I seriously find this annoying and so downgrading, insulting and offending to Oman and its people..Pictures speak a thousand words..


What would your view be on an Omani who appears on TV modeling some Bikinis and other revealing dresses?

Blogger Back!

Quick one, Updating to say that as of last night, blogger appears to be working again.

The outage was due to Omantel Incompetence, I assume.

"Accidentally" Blocking blogger (for, um, like four days!!!!) was not a particularly good move, because it looks like something sinister, no matter what the actual reasons.

Anyway, We can all rejoice now because for the moment at least, blogger is up and runing again in Oman.

Blogger Blocked,

Either Deliberately, or through thier legendary incompetence Omantel has Blocked Blogger access. If you know me, you will already know what I think about this sort of behavior, but since this is a community blog, I'll leave it to your imagination.

I suspect the block will be a temporary, and extremely annoying experience. I am praying for the AP or Reuters to pick up on the story and rain hell down on whatever moron thought this would be a good idea. Accedental or deliberate, it makes Oman look backwards, and puts us in the same league as fabulous places like Saudi, China, North Korea. Oh, wait, we're already in the same league as them on issues like Human Trafficking, so why not freedom of speech as well?

Blue Chi, or others who write for global voices, now would be a great time to update with this news. Please???

Some bloggers have already circumnavigated the block, others will figure it out soon enough.

Kishore has suggested sending emails to Omantel and the TRA, you can read his post here I have sent emails, and it would be great is everyone near and far could be kind enough to do the same.

I am ranting and raving about over on my blog, which you can read about Here

Muscato has also noticed that google services are acting a little funny.

The Undercover Dragon, in a psychic turn of events, posted a list of good ways to get around Omantel's rather feeble attempts to block our access to the outside world. Read it Here, before they decide to block the page entirely.

I would ask for your comments and feedback on the matter, except that they have also managed to block commenting functions on the blogs. SO even if somebody knows what is going on, they would have almost no way of sharing it.

If you want to keep updating your blog despite thier rather pathetic attempts to block access, check with Kishore, Read the Dargon't blog, or drop me an email OtherOman At Gmail dot Com and I"ll let you know a few easy ways to circumvent the block.

You could also migrate your blog to somewhere like wordpress, but then everybody will have to update thier bookmarks.

If you wish to allow commenting on your blog to continue, you can use a programme called Haloscan to replace your standard comments. www.haloscan.com

Good luck guys. And don't forget to email Omantel and the TRA.