Super Silicon Kid by BusinesToday Magazine
Call him the computer whiz-kid or the youngest Website artist. Tariq Hilal al
Barwani needs no introduction. This barely out of his teens internet manager
with OHI telecommunications has been in the news for years – be it for writing
a computer program while in school, creating the first IT portal in Oman or
for running a regular news paper column on information technology.
But 20 years old Barwani, who describes himself as “hard working and
ambitious”, is modest about all the publicity and hype surrounding him: I feel
I have a lot to learn yet. I am merely at the right place at the right time.”
His most recent success came last month, when he made sure that he was at the
right place at the perfect time by developing a vaccine for the deadly ‘I Love
You’ virus. The vaccine can be downloaded free from the Website –
www.ohitariq.com.
Corporate move
Barwani’s big breakthrough came while he was still at college. The advertising
company, United Media Services, e-mailed him and offered him work. It had been
keeping an eye on him ever since he had created and launched his personal
Website while still at high school.
So Barwani was hired as a part-time IT consultant. Suddenly the teenaged boy,
used to a monthly allowance of RO20, found himself drawing a salary of RO250
for working three hours a day.
“The stint at UMS was very useful. It taught me a lot of skills and gave me
the valuable experience of working in an organization,” he says. With the UMS
team, Barwani created many Websites for the company and its clients, including
the well-known Omanaccess.com portal.
Ï set the Internet ball rolling at UMS and even though I have switched jobs, I
am happy to see it grows,” he comments.
He had also created the Happy99 virus-cleaner at the time and put it on the
Omanaccess as well as the Omantel Website for free downloading.
The most exciting time for me was when Omantel – then called GTO – changed all
its user’s-mail addresses and requested them to adjust the settings on their
computers, “Barwani recalls. “that was not a simple task for ordinary users.
I took the opportunity and created a program to change the users’ settings
with just a click of the mouse. The program was officially approved by Omantel
and helped every Internet user in Oman.”
Portal Ideas
Another turn in Barwani’s career came when, he hit upon the idea of creating
his own IT portal. “But I couldn’t do it while working for UMS, as competition
even though the portal I wanted was very different from Omanaccess.com,” he
says.
So he resigned from UMS and created www.tari.net. “The launch of the portal
surprised many companies and they wondered why they had not thought of the
idea before “Barwani comments.
Within a month of the launch, the portal became one of the leading Omani
Websites. Ï have had great feed back on the sight. So many CEOs and Government
officials have appreciated it “says Tariq.”
Two month after the launch on January 23rd this year, however, the Website was
unlawfully accessed. Someone replaced its home page with a cartoon boasting
that the site would remain hacked for seventy two hours. Barwani managed to
reclaim the site within six and half hours.
“The success of the portal created many admirers but a few enemies as
well.
A company in Oman hired an International hacker for the job. I would have
managed to free the site within two hours if the hacker had not been supported
locally,” Barwani claims. He has almost finished writing a book on the hacking
of the portal and who was behind it. “It is going to be a best seller here
when it is released, “he says refusing to offer details.
Three months after the launch of the portal, OHI offered to acquire it by
giving up front amount. Once Barwani accepted, he was made the Internet
Manager at OHI – looking after the site as well as marketing of OHI’s IT
activities. The site was renamed www.ohitariq.net in March 2000. Barwani now
looks after the internet – related activities of the company and intends to
turn the new site into an e-commerce one soon
The whiz is born
Barwani’s computing story began when he was five years old. His father had
brought home a computer called ZX Spectrum and Barwani was hooked at the first
sight.
“I was the younger son, and my fathers first choice for the computer was my
elder brother, I have persuaded him to give it to me as I wanted to actually
learn about the machine and not just fool around with it, “he says. “After
some years, I started learning programming and found it very interesting. When
I was eleven, I created some simple programs, including one for my father
which helped him in his office work.”
Realizing his potential, his father hired a part-time tutor to train him on
computer and programming skills.
Soon the news of the expertise of this young boy in the new world of computers
spread far and wide. In 1992, when he was 12, Barwani was nominated to
represent Oman in an all-GCC even in Bahrain where children had to develop
their own computer program. He was the youngest of the lot.
He also appeared on Oman TV for 15 minutes to present to the viewers the
program he had created.
When Barwani finished school, his father enrolled him in a number of
institutes such as the Modern College of Business and Science and also the
Indian computer education companies, APTECH and NIIT. ‘’Apart from subjects
like business studies, I learned various computer skills,” Barwani recalls.
In addition to teaching himself computer skills like dBase, FoxBASE, Fox Plus,
W-BASIC and DOS batch files, Barwani also learned Java scripts, GIF
animations, Macromedia Flash, Microsoft FrontPage, CGI scripts, multimedia on
the Web and Internet security.
He also took a diploma course in advanced subjects like Oracle 7.0, Developer
2000 and Unix Shell Scripts.
“I liked this field so much and used to do so much self-study that I was not
only ahead of the other students but some of the instructors as well!” he
remembers.
“I developed an interest in the Internet even before it was introduced in the
country. I persuaded my father to connect to CompuServe in the US before GTO
introduced the Net locally, “Barwani reveals.
Behind the success
Barwani attributes his success to his father, who gave him the encouragement
needed to achieve his full potential. “My dad is my hero. He is not only a
role model, but also a friend,” he says. “I have always wanted to be like
him.”
In his spare time, which he admits is a scarce commodity; Barwani likes to
visit his friends. “I rarely watch movies as I feel they are a waste of time.
“He says.
His other interest is to give free trouble shooting advice and other
IT-related assistance to anyone in Oman through the e-mail and often through
the mobile phone.
“I am a good listener, I care for my time and I work hard, “he says, wrapping
up his recipe for success. He plans to build on this by going to the US to do
a Masters degree with two majors: management information systems (MIS) and
business administration.
What would he like to achieve in life? Barwani says modestly:”At some point in
life, I would like to become a CEO by opening my own IT Company. I would
definitely like to go to the USA to imbibe the latest knowledge in the field
of IT, but I want to come back to my county to make a difference and put Omani
firmly on the world IT map.”