KnowledgeOman.com's Behind The Scenes

"KnowledgeOman.com's behind the scenes" is a weekly series that will be published every Saturday on this Blog.
Since I am an active member of the KnowledgeOman.com (KO) executive team and a contributor of KO's Home Page Articles and since KO updates its Home Page every Saturday, I will be giving you the latest scoops on the work that goes into creating KO's content and some other related materials on this Blog every Saturday so you can look into how KO really works.


I only made this post this week to let you know that I was not active on the Home Page. If you have read my previous posts on this Blog you might know why. I had to go for a trip to Dubai for some college related stuff.

But I am going to give you a quick summary of what went on the Home Page based on my observation. It is not as exciting as being part of it but at least you will be getting it from a person who is "usually" part of it.

In the top of the page this week, you will find the 'Knowledge Lebre' segment instead of the usual "Hot News" segment which is managed by Timami which was also absent for the last two weeks. Last week, my segment, 'CityTalks', was on the top. Qusai (in charge of 'Knowledge Lebre') has continued with his series on copyleft. This time, it's on visual arts.

Second article that comes under 'Knowledge Lebre' is a little different than usual because it is written by someone who doesn't usually write for the Home Page. Sahara, who is also very active in the forum, has written about Robots. She shows the pros and cons of having robots and what things would be like with or without them. I found it very interesting because there are two sides of what robots can do for humanity and so, I predict a good discussion will be going on that topic.
I hope Sahara will write more for the Home Page because she has just proven that she is very capable.

Last but not least, the very famous 'Product Review' by our very own Tommy Bosco.
He writes in this week about a gadget that every youth would dream to have put in their car, a CD player with a full 7" LCD touch screen that comes out once you press the open button.
I don't want to give out much because, naturally, I want you to go over there and read it yourself. It is worth reading through because the information presented there is not only the specs and pros & cons of the gadget which you can even find anywhere else on the internet but also the local pricing of it and where it could be found. All up-to-date information for every local who is looking to get his/her car a little pimpin'.

That's it for this week's series. I hope to make it on the Home Page next week and write more about it but I can't promise anything yet since things are still a little hectic at the moment.
But no worries, I will still be talking about it again next week so, keep on coming back.

KnowledgeOman.com's Behind The Scenes

"KnowledgeOman.com's behind the scenes" is a weekly series that will be published every Saturday on this Blog.
Since I am an active member of the KnowledgeOman.com (KO) executive team and a contributor of KO's Home Page Articles and since KO updates its Home Page every Saturday, I will be giving you the latest scoops on the work that goes into creating KO's content and some other related materials on this Blog every Saturday so you can look into how KO really works.


Before I start with each segment, I wanted to talk about something that a couple of people asked about last week's 'behind the scenes' series. I had people ask me whether it is a good idea or not to raise the problems that we are facing at KO. And my answer to that is, yes!
KO is a community of people from every field helping out each other and solving problems. We want our administration to be a transparent one, one that everybody could be a part in shaping and building to the better. If all our problems were internal and within our selves, nothing would ever be done differently and creatively and no real improvements will ever be made. And so, I say it again, yes! I do think it is a good idea to share some of the problem that we are facing at KO.
And for your information, the post timing problem which I talked about last week... it has been solved. Now, instead of having everyone post in one place (one forum) and having them post in a certain order to keep the Home Page articles in the order that we want, we have each person's segment posted in a different place (different forums) and the modules in the Home Page are organized according to our preference. So, we don't really have to worry about who posts first and who comes next since the modules are organized in our preferred order.
This is just an example of how problems could be mended by sharing them.

I will start from the bottom of the Home Page this week. Tomy, also known as Kubu, has published his product review a little after midnight today. After talking to him before midnight, I found out that he was still at work and that he got some information related to his review a little late in the week.
A person asked me about the discipline of people who don't deliver before deadline in the comment section last week. And like I told him, the people who work for KO are doing it out of good will and are not being payed. And besides, we only choose the best to work for our Home Page and Kubu is, without doubt, one of the best.
Him being a little off deadline doesn't really harm us much as long as he delivers soon after that, which he always does.

Next we have 'Knowledge Lebre' by Qusai, also known as Aquafox. This is his third series in the topic of 'copyleft' and in this week's series, he tackles copyleft in the video and animation industry.
I also spoke to Qusai prior to deadline and he didn't have any trouble writing the article. He was very much comfortable about getting it done and therefor, making me very comfortable.
I urge you all to go read his articles, it is very interesting. You would be surprised on the difference between copyright and copylef.

Now with 'CityTalks', the segment I am in charge in. In the beginning of the week, my article was supposed to be about Edutex which was a Higher Education related exhibition. I had it all figured out and wanted to make a huge coverage. But after I attended and saw how small it was, I was not impressed and thought it didn't deserve much attention.
Earlier last week, I also attended the first 'Show Your Potential' workshop (visit KO to learn more about it) and I took a few recordings of the people who attended.
And I also got my high school scores last week which I am sure you already know about.
So what I did in my segment is, instead of writing one full article on a certain topic, I made several mini articles of different topics and put them as one. And so, I wrote about the three things above.
I talked about the workshop and presented the audio file which didn't take much time to edit, upload and publish. I then talked about how the high school scores were released and the difference in the way it used to be released in the past. And finally, I talked about Edutex but tried not to put much emphasis in it because it wasn't worth it.

This is pretty much it for this week. It wasn't much of a hard week (comparing to others). Come back for more next Saturday and don't forget to visit knowledgeoman.com.

You Care: Creative Learning Center

This is a re-post of what has already been posted by me on KnowledgeOman's Home Page for good reason. I want to spread the word as much as I can because this is very important. So, if you read the post already then please bear with me.

This was a story that was published earlier last month in a very popular newspaper but the response that it got as described by Kawthar Al Hathrami; Managing Director of Creative Learning Center (CLC), "We only got two donations and some other people have called and asked us for our bank account number but we didn't receive anything".

It is a very sad situation. It is sad how we stopped caring for the needy and stopped thinking about their dreams and their future. It is sad how people with mental diseases are no longer considered human beings and worthy of our time and money. It is sad how people with special needs are not active members of our society. But why?

Some might even argue that people with mental illnesses and retardation are better off, not knowing what is going on around them and nothing to worry about. But are they really? Don't they have dreams, aspirations and goals?
What about the parents? Parents who have to bare all the hardships of seeing their kids grow against their imagination and behaving in ways that they don't understand and can not deal with. Don't the parents deserve the the joy of seeing their kids' achievements in life? Don't the parents deserve some time for themselves? It is true that they love their kids but we all deserve a break.
These are question that could all be answered by watching the video and by us holding hands and making this happen one way or another.

I paid a visit to CLC and had a long hard talk with Mrs. Kawthar about this topic and how her center is dieing is debts and hopelessness. We spoke about the issue and the ways that we could all fix them. And it is only with your help that this could ever be done.



Be part of the solution. It really doesn't take much.
Here is all that you need to start helping out:

To Sponsor a child:

Download and fill this PDF form then send the form in person or to this address:
PO Box 1364
Al-Athabia, Post Code 130
Sultanate of Oman


To send your donations:

Number:
(968)24475055 - (968)95307344

Address:
PO Box 1364
Al-Athabia, Post Code 130
Sultanate of Oman

Bank Information:
Bank: Bank Muscat
Account name: Creative Learning Center
Account number: 142-402680081012
Branch: Al-Khuwair 33
Swift Code: BMVSOMRX.

For more information, visit CLC's website at www.clc-om.com.

KnowledgeOman.com's behind the scenes

"KnowledgeOman.com's behind the scenes" is a weekly series that will be published every Saturday on this Blog.
Since I am an active member of the KnowledgeOman.com (KO) executive team and a contributor of KO's Home Page Articles and since KO updates its Home Page every Saturday, I will be giving you the latest scoops on the work that goes into creating KO's content and some other related materials on this Blog every Saturday so you can look into how KO really works.

In this week's behind the scenes we are going to start with the first column that you see when you first enter the Home Page which is about the 'Show Your Potential' initiative by Microsoft (MS). For you who don't know, KO and MS have joined hand to come up with a program to help people pass Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) exams all for free. Read the article in KO to know more about it.
Anyway, we finally are starting the workshops and if have already joined the program, you should have already received an email by today.
A lot of work went into organizing this workshop and a lot have things had to be agreed on in order to get the newsletter out. Unfortunately, I can not reveal anything more than that. Just make sure you attend the workshop on the date specified.

My segment on KO, which is 'CityTalks', is for a good cause this week. I talk about a learning center for children with mental diseases and retardation. I interviewed the Directing Manager, Mr. Kawthar Al Hathrami, of the center and it is all caught on video.
I personally really felt for the woman who is doing this all for a good cause and she is getting no support from the government just because she is a "private" institution and the public is not much helpful even.
I paid her a visit at the center last Tuesday at Al Khuwair (Creative Learning Center) and she kindly gave me a tour of the place after the end of the interview. I was not able, however, to get an interview with any of the parents or the children partly because the center is during its holidays at the moment and also because the parents tend to get a little Private about things like this which is understandable.
All went well until I was able to get a hold of a woman who was willing to have an interview with me and we agreed on meeting up on Friday. Keep in mind that the video has to be ready on Friday in order for us to publish at midnight. It didn't matter because the woman canceled at the last moment and I quickly started editing the video.
It usually takes me a couple of days to edit a video but yesterday, I had less than half a day to do it, not to mention how hard it is to upload a video with our Internet speeds.
Luckily, I was able to finish the video, upload it and write a short article on the topic all before the deadline.

The 'Knowledge Lebre' which is managed by Qusai Al Shidi was done on time and was created perfectly. Actually, the article was ready since Wednesday which was great. We should all follow this guy's lead because this is how things should be done.

The 'Product Review' segment which is managed by Tommy Bosco, AKA KUBU, was pretty much the opposite if the 'Knowledge Lebre' segment. It was already 11pm and nobody was bale to get in touch with him. He was no where to be found. Until about 12am and that's when we were finally able to find him. He started writing his article at the time and took him about 20 minutes to do so.
I had a look at his article and it looks great. I don't believe it only took this guy 20 minutes to create it all. I am sure he had his reasons for not being on time but things like these always happen. I am just glad that the article turned out to be great.

You see, how we publish our content is first, we post it in a test forum which nobody other than us have access to then, when we are all ready, the moderator just pushes the publish bottom and adds them all to the front page.
Now, there is a problem with this system. I like the whole idea but, we want whoever to publish an article, to publish it under their own names which means, I couldn't publish an article for KUBU because it is going to be published under my name. So, everyone publishes their article under their own name. Another thing is, we want the Home Page segment to be in a certain order.
So where is the problem? Well, with VBullitine (the software that we are using for KO) when you publish an article in a forum, the latest article will be on top and the earlier ones will be under and there is no way to manipulate that. We can organize things on our own and we can only work the way the system wants us. So we have to make KUBU publish first, Qusai second then me and finally Mohammed. And so, if KUBU is not around, we all can't publish.
We are still trying to figure out a better way to fix this problem. If you have any suggestions, please go ahead.

That's it for this week. Please come back for more in next week's issue.

KnowledgeOman.com's Behind The Scenes

Last weekend was very hectic, I was working, alongside the other columnists and executives of KnowledgeOman.com (KO), on the Homepage Update and also working on the Articles that I am supposed to publish. Thursday and Friday was spent on nothing but that and that's why I didn't post anything here in the last couple of days (not that I am using it as an excuse).

In the past, I used to write about the posts that I was personally involved in publishing on KO's Home Page but I thought I would start a new thing here in BeInOman.com. Every Saturday, I am going to share with you some of KO's Home Page articles and the effort that went behind it, behind the scenes, if you will.

This week was a bit different than others because this week, Tariq left for vacation and he is no longer responsible of making sure that all of the Home Page updates are ready to be published and all. Instead, this week, Mohammed Al Tamami who is the content strategist for KnowledgeOman.com was fully in charge. Tamami had the content team, which includes me, to come over his place in order to brainstorm and sort things out. We did that on Thursday at about 3pm and I went back home at about 12:30am. During that time, we've discussed the content for the coming weeks and we also came up with this new concept on the Home Page.

If you haven't noticed yet, the Home Page now has more columnists and is divided by segments. Each segment has it's own banner with a picture of the person in charge of that segment. These segments are 'Hot News' which will cover some of the latest IT news covered by the media and Tamami himself will be in charge of it, 'City Talks' which will be covering all of the latest events in town and will have interviews with people who are making a difference in the Sultanate and I will be in charge of that, 'Knowledge Lebre' which will talk about some of the IT related concepts that many of us is not too familiar about and Qusai Al Shidi will be in charge of that and last but not least, 'Product Review' which by the name of it suggests that we will be talking about some of the hottest gadgets and reviewing it and Tommy Bosco is in charge of that.

Luckily, most of the content was ready by that time but we didn't have the banners ready yet and so we spent lots of time on it still didn't get the results that we wanted. This might mean that the banners will be changing next week.
Another problem was that we had a KO gathering the day before and I was supposed to be the one who creates the video and guess what, it wasn't created. I thought I would come back home and start working on it but it was too late and I was too tired so I went to sleep. I woke up the next morning at about 10am and started working on it until about 7pm, that's when I finished it, but after trying to upload it, I started facing some trouble. I spent the next 4 hours trying to upload it until about 11:30 and that's when I was officially ready to publish.
All of the publishing took place at 12am, Saturday. And we are set to go.

I must admit, the Home Page looks much better than it did before. It is much more colorful, filled with content and has some really interesting topics. I can only say that, we all put in some serious effort and we should all be proud.

For your pleasure, here is the video created from the gathering:

Arabic Section of KnowledgeOman Launched

KnowledgeOman.com (KO), the first online portal focused on developing the ICT sector in Oman, has finally launched it's Arabic section which could be accessed through this web address: www.knowledgeoman.com/arabic.


"We have a new dedicated team specifically created for the Arabic KO" said the president of KO, Tariq bin Hilal Al Barwani. The team is being managed by Maryam Al Tamami, being the project manager of the Arabic KO. "Maryam and I have been working closely for the past month to bring the website up and running. Now it is full under her turf, with close supervision from my side" added Tariq.

The Arabic KO is considered an extension of the English one but they are under two different managements, the Arabic managed by Maryam and English by Muddasir, with reports directly to the President.

What do you think of this initiative from KO's side? Will the Arabic section come to be as successful and as big as the English section is? And most importantly, how could they make it easier for the users to know that there are two different sections available in KO when they enter their website on www.knowledgeoman.com? Anything else you want to add on this subject?

A KnowledgeOman Video

This is a video which KnowledgeOman.com has created to show the variety of its users.



What do you think?

Ask Microsoft Oman

Ever had questions related to Microsoft and always wanted to ask the people who are directly in charge of it, in the Sultanate at least? Wouldn't it just be great if you could get quick and accurate answers from the source? Now, this is possible.

KnowledgeOman.com has started a new forum that is titled "Ask Microsoft Oman" where anybody can go and ask Microsoft related questions and get answers from the people from Microsoft themselves. That's right, you can finally go there and ask them those questions which you always wanted to ask like what were they thinking by coming up with Vista and what are they thinking with not supporting XP anymore. You can also more specific questions.
The point is, you may finally get answers which only people who work for Microsoft can provide.

It is easy, all you got to do is become a member of KnowledgeOman.com, go to the forums and find the "Ask Microsoft Oman" forum. Create a new thread with your question and you should get your answer soon. Here is the direct link to the Microsoft forum.

KnowledgeOman always tries to insure that they connect the people to the major industries in Oman. If you have any suggestion or any ideas that you would like to offer to KnowledgeOman, join , go to the "Suggestion Box" forum and create a new thread with your ideas and suggestions.

KnowledgeOman featured in "Al Usbo'a"

They did it again! KnowledgeOman (kO!) is in this week's edition of the Arabic edition of "The Week" newspaper (Al Usbo'a). The article naturally talked about kO! and its president, Tariq Al Barwani.

Although I was happy for the fact that they were, yet again, talked about in a popular weekly newspaper, the article had some mistakes and failed to mention a really important information.

First, it's true that Tariq is our president and sure, he will be mentioned the most, other than the fact that he is a local celebrity of course but the person who mostly spoke to the reporter was Maryam Al-Tamami who her name was only mentioned once at the end of the article along with everybody else's names from our team.
I think that it's not fair to her and that she deserves but I spoke to her and she was really happy about the article.

Secondly, they wrote one of the member's name wrong. Instead of writing Muddasir, they wrote Nasar. Man, that's not even close!

And last but not least, the biggest of them all, the whole purpose of publishing the article in the first place... they forgot to write the URL to kO! Yes, you read that right, they forgot!

I understand that even newspapers make mistakes but isn't this the kind of thing that you look into thoroughly?

(Article has been updated. Please look in comments for more detail)

More publicity for KnowledgeOman

This time, again in the Khaleej Times. The article was put in a mini magazine inside the news paper. The magazine seemed like it was made especially for Oman and to promote COMEX.

Here is an image of that article. Please Click on the image for a better view.

"The Week" Features KnowledgeOman

Yep, in this weeks edition you'll find a big picture of KnowledgeOman's (kO!) full team along with a description of what kO! is all about. You will also find many quotes from Tariq Al Barwani himself, the founder and president of kO!.

Not much was said about the other members of the kO! Team but I guess it's great to see such progress in kO!'s publicity in the Omani press along with some publicity in the international press.

And because I work with the kO! Team, you'll find my picture on that image too. For you who don't know how I look like, I am the second from the top right.

COMEX with kO!

President of Knowledge Oman (kO!), Tariq Al Barwani, is playing a role in this years COMEX exhibition.

COMEX the largest annual IT, Telecom & Technology show in the Sultanate of Oman, has gained the reputation of a leading platform showcasing the latest in technology and services to match the rising needs for telecommunication & information technology solutions in the region. COMEX carries great value for the country's fast growing industrial, corporate and consumer markets that are in continuous search of modern technology.

Here is an Image of today's Times of Oman news paper.

(Click Image to Read)

Khaleej Times features KnowledgeOman

Here is some good news for the website KnowledgeOman.com. An article about them was featured in the Khaleej Times newspaper.

(click on image for better view)

These are the first signs of KnowlwdgeOman (kO!) going international which is a great thing for everyone to benefit from, a great thing for Oman to be able to put its name on the world's IT map and especially great for me because I am part of kO!. Besides, I was the one who took that picture of Tariq Al Barwani (sorry Tariq).

Let's all be part of this great revaluation. It's not about who is best, it's about how we can make a difference. In short, Join kO!

Knowledge Oman: My Post

I will be sharing with you from time to time parts of the posts which I contribute on the Knowledge Oman Home Page.


Here is a part this week's post:

"I had a chance, on behalf of the kO! team, to talk to students from the Sultan School. These students were featured in a few newspapers for the fact that they are behind running a business. The idea of having students behind a business, sounds new, different, fresh and it sells. That probably explains why they are sponsored by a few businesses like MB Patrolium, Al Khamis Trading and a few more..." (More...)

To listen to the actual interview and to read the rest of my comments on the interview, please visit KnowledgeOman.com.
I know this looks like dirty advertising, well, it is!

More posts like this will be made on a weekly bases so that you can stay updated. Another thing you can do is to just visit Knowledge Oman. It's all up to you, really.

KnowledgeOman!

I know that I haven't posted for a very long time now but it was for good reason. And to make it up to you, here is an exclusive news!

A new website has been launched today by Tariq Al Barwani and his team of dedicated experts which is called Knowledge Oman (kO!).
So what is kO!?
"KnowledgeOman (kO!) is an online platform specifically engineered to create a knowledge based economy with a focus on developing the Information and Communication Technology Sector in Oman. kO! is managed by a team of dedicated professionals from various industries working together to share, exchange and promote knowledge across the Sultanate"

So, basically, kO! is where you can go to share the knowledge that you have on any IT related topic as well as going there to get feedback and answers to whatever you need in that field.

kO! also has many different competitions which you can participate in and win cash vouchers. There are three different competitions at the moment, "Master Mind", "Arts Commpetition" and "Most valuable Contributer" for more detail on these competitions, click here.

At the moment, the website is still in its early ages and still has much more to offer but it is very active and alive. So make sure to visit this amazing, first of its kind in the Sultanate, website to share and gain knowledge.

I will also keep you updated of the latest outcomes of the website...

PS, I am within Tariq's dedicated team.