ITA journey mission accomplished
MUSCAT— The interest level and development of the Information and
Communications Technology medium in the Sultanate is amazing, says Oman’s
popular IT expert and president of KnowledgeOman.com
“Our top priority is to follow our leader His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s
vision of transforming the Sultanate into a Knowlege Society. Innovation is
the way forward for the development of the digital economy. Technology is not
only a means of generating growth and enriching the lives of business and the
nation as whole, it is also an additional stream of income apart from oil and
a source of employment for Oman!”
Tariq has successfully accomplished his personal mission, “the ITA Journey”,
which he started from Muscat and completed in Dhofar. The initiative was
sponsored and supported by his father, Hilal Masoud Al Barwani. The main
objective of the Information Technology Awareness (ITA) Journey was to educate
the public, to take the innovation to the community, promote digital literacy,
education and career prospects in the field of Information and Communications
Technology.
Tariq said that the students, faculty members, the dean of the colleges and
universities in Muscat and Dhofar region realise the importance of education
and are consistently working hard to provide the best platform for the
necessary development of campus knowledge and IT skills . “I’m confident that
with the keen interest and support from both the private and government
sectors Oman could be the hub of the Gulf in technology”.
Tariq 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 Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30pm where it
presents the latest local and international IT news, best of breed topics,
quizzes and question-and-answer session. A similar programme called ‘Raqmyaat’
for the Oman TV Channel 2 was also introduced.
Recently, a knowledge community portal, www.knowledgeoman.com, was created for
the community to learn, exchange, and share knowledge across the Internet.
“Now that the ITA Journey Mission is accomplished, the next mission is to
bridge the gap between students, professionals and the industry sector to
further promote knowledge across the country”, stressed Tariq.