At a very desperate attempt to reignite attention to the sad misanthropic episodes that my blog posts are, I am reblogging a post I wrote entitled "Under A Rock" which briefly discusses themes relevant to Publication in Oman, and New Media.
I haven't posted it here, only because it starts off being slightly personal.
For the faintly interested of you. The post can be found here. I will take comments both here and there.
Thanks.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 1:23:29 AM Oman Time
MUSCAT — The noted IT expert, Tariq Hilal Al Barwani, yesterday announced the first of its kind initiative in the Sultanate branded as “ITA Journey Across the Sultanate”.
This Information Technology Awareness journey across the country is a move set to digitise and promote the use, benefit and career of technology in the community.
In a statement here, Tariq said: “The Information and Communication Technology medium is a potential engine to empower everyone from poor to rich, student to professional, and private to government sector as well as to increase their access to quality education. Everybody should know what this rich medium holds in store”.
The main objective of the “ITA Journey Across the Sultanate” initiative is to educate the public, nourish the innovation to the community and promote digital literacy across the country.
The project will be carried out in two phases, starting from Muscat and then the next in Salalah. The initiative is being sponsored and supported by Tariq’s father who has been coaching and guiding him since childhood.
Tariq will be travelling with his father’s 4WD throughout the Sultanate during his annual leave at work in Nawras. Initially, he will be visiting Nizwa College of Technology to conduct a presentation on IT Security, Careers and the Future on December 16.
He is also scheduled to visit Musannah College of Technology and Sohar Unversity in January to discuss about the several aspects of software development and innovation, Oman German University of Technology in February and the Middle East College of Technology in Rusayl.
Tariq was invited by several schools, colleges and companies several times to conduct presentations and seminars at Deslie Training Institute, Oman Training Institute, Indian School Al Ghubra, Muscat Private School, Muscat College and Shatti Qurum School for Girls, on different topics under the umbrella of ICT. His last presentation on IT careers and technologies at the Sultan Qaboos University two weeks ago had received tremendous response from the audience which triggered the idea of “ITA Journey Across Oman”.
“The ITA initiative that I am set to embark on this week is from the northern most region to the southernmost region of the Sultanate, ensuring that I solidify His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s Progressive Vision to transform the Sultanate into a Knowledge Society and build a knowledge-based economy,” said Tariq.
Oman has all the root stocks to become the Gulf ICT (information and communication technology) hub, Tariq said.
Apart from this initiative, Tariq has also introduced, along with the Ministry of Information, the first and only information technology programme called ‘CyberTalk’ for the Oman Radio FM 90.4. The programme is aired live every Thursday from 4-6pm where it presents the latest local and international IT news, best of breed topics, quizzes and question and answers session. A similar programme called ‘Raqmyaat’ for the Oman TV Channel 2 was also introduced for the local TV.
Tariq is currently pursuing his doctorate of management of organisation with specialisation in Information Technology.
Sorry for having two posts in a row just being copied/pasted from a daily newspaper, but this one is also an interesting news, and actually I'm expecting to hear similar news in the coming days; about Oman Air launching more daily flights to more destinations.
According to this article on Times of Oman newspaper, Oman Air will launch seven flights a week to London starting from November of this year.
MUSCAT — Oman’s national carrier, Oman Air, will launch its maiden flight to London this November. The daily non-stop — seven flights a week — scheduled between Muscat and London Gatwick will be a milestone in the history of Oman Air.
The carrier can now offer passengers seven flights a week between Muscat and London.
Full story
From Times of Oman newspaper:
"... Nawras has bagged the prestigious Middle East Mobile Operator of the Year award at the CommsMEA Awards 2007 in Dubai recently.To be honest, I have no single idea about Nawras services and network, because simply I'm not a Nawras subscriber. However, I can tell that Nawras is doing pretty well because all of those whom I know using Nawras are quite happy with their provider. Having a Telecommunication company in Oman getting this recognition is something great I suppose. Maybe I will switch to Nawras soon! :-p
...
Nawras was chosen out of 40 mobile operators from across the Middle East and Africa by a team of specialists and experts who judged the service providers on various parameters. Nawras was applauded for enriching the lives of people in Oman through better communication and at the same time being a catalyst for mobile growth, with the rapid development of its market share being one of the fastest recorded by any mobile operator in the entire Middle East... "
Full story
Azzamn (their spelling, not mine), is a new daily Arabic newspaper that recently launched in Oman with very little fanfare. It quietly slipped onto the news stands without a publicity campaign on August 12th. I read the first issue because they came and gave out free issues in our office that day, but that was that. I haven't heard anyone talk about it since.
