Syed Jafar Naqvi

M-Government Services Initiatives in Oman

Introduction Mobile devices are now becoming part of our daily and business life. At the end of year 2001, approximately 14% of the world population--850 Million people--were mobile phone users. This growth has been spectacular especially in Europe after the telecom industry de-regulation and adoption of Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications (Sadeh, 2002). Now, mobile phones are no longer used only for voice communication but are a convenient way of connecting to the Internet and are used for transferring data, exchanging e-mails, and doing small scale business transactions (Sadeh, 2002). Mobile phone penetration is well above the home PCs usage in Europe and it seems that the trend will continue (Varshney, 2000). Mobile or wireless devices are widely used not only by developed countries but also commonly used by many other developing nations of the world and Oman is not an exception. Mobiles technologies with the introduction of internet enabled mobile phones, PDAs, WiFi and wireless networks have offered their users to enjoy all the benefits of telephones, information accessing, text messaging such as SMS (Clark, 2001; Donegan, 2000; May, 2001). A recent estimate indicated that over half of the Omani populations have mobile devices, while the mobile infrastructure in Oman is currently covering 95% of the country (Ministry of National Economy, 2007). The volume of penetration of mobile devices in the country is paving the path for more offering of m-government services accessible from anywhere and at any time. This lead to mobile government activities reaching a larger base in a more convenient manner. Thus, several organizations in Oman have started to utilize this to open mobile channels with their clients. Muscat Municipality developed an m-parking system which enables motorists to pay parking fees via SMS. In addition, higher secondary school students can now retrieve their end of semester grades (via SMS) by messaging their student seat numbers to a phone number designated by ministry of education. Many other organizations are now sending bulk SMS messages to citizens to inform them about different activities. Despite its early stage, m-government seems to have a substantial influence on the current m-government services initiatives in Oman, which are further needed to be explored. Purpose of the study: In this paper, an attempt is made to review the current m-government services initiatives in Oman and to understand the key factors to its adoption and diffusion. Background to the Study The Sultanate of Oman is a developing country, which is located on the south east of the Arabian Peninsula. Oman occupies an area of 309,500 square kilometers (Ministry of Information--Oman, 2008b). It shares borders with United Arab Emirates to the north-west, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the west, the Republic of Yemen to the south and the Arabian Sea lies eastwards. Oman is divided into five regions i.e. Ad-Dakhliyah, Adh-Dhahirah, Al-Batinah, Al-Wusta and Ash-Sharqiyah and four governorates i.e. Al Buraymi, Dhofar, Musandam and Muscat. The total adult literacy in Oman is 81% which is very high in the region and per capita income reaching to US

Mobile Services in Oman: A Feedback on SMS-Parking Service

9070. Omans real renaissance began with the accession of His Majesty; Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said to the throne on 23 July 1970 (Ministry of Information--Oman, 2008a). Omans government system is monarchy (Ministry of Information--Oman, 2008a). According to the latest estimates (Ministry of National Economy--Oman, 2007), in 2006 Oman had a population of 2.677 million people. However, nearly 693,000 residents, 25.9 per cent of the population, were expatriates. Omans currency is the Rial (OMR) which is about USA

Attitudes toward WebCT and Learning: An Omani Perspective

2.60 per unit. The countrys main revenue comes from oil and natural gas. According to the Ministry of National Economy--Oman (April 2008), Omans 2006 GDP reached OMR 13,737 million (provisional), compared to OMR 104 million in 1970. …

M-services Adoption in Oman Using Technology Acceptance Modeling Approach

Mobile technology has evolved quite rapidly over the past few years. Many experts argue that the future computer technology rests in mobile or wireless computing. As the number of mobile phone users is increasing worldwide, different organizations are offering their services using these mobile devices Oman is a developing country that strives to adapt M-services. The emerging mobile technology is impacting and becoming the main element that moves Oman forward and helps in its national development process. Internet penetration in most developing countries like Oman is still low as opposed to mobile dissemination. Despite the government plans and strategies to enhance internet diffusion, Internet subscribers comprise about 2.5% of the general population of Oman. In contrast, the number of mobile phones holders increased substantially since the launch of these services in 1996. Prepaid mobile services and SMS were introduced in 2001 and both are currently popular with subscribers. Such fine appeal influenced many government organizations to go mobile with their services. This paper reviews the current m-government initiatives in Oman and the feedback of the users on the SMS-Parking Service, introduced recently by a joint venture of the Muscat Municipality and the Oman Mobile company offering mobile services to its citizens. This study shows that in spite of all these initiatives still the users of mobile are cautiously adapting to M-services as reported on SMS-Parking System.

Unified Threat Management System Approach for Securing SME's Network Infrastructure

This study investigated the students attitudes toward the use of World Wide Web Course Tools (WebCT) and its influence on learning taking a course Introduction to Computers in Business offered at the College of Commerce and Economics in Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. Sultan Qaboos University is a co-educational institution where in most computer classes the male and female students are equally distributed. Omani society is a segregated society where male and female students have some how different life style and have different attitudes towards learning Information Technology. This research is exploring the difference if any of their attitudes toward WebCT, where WebCT was introduced in their “Introduction to Computers in Business” course as a supplementary learning tool. The finding showed that though male students have little more exposure of WebCT at the beginning of the course than the females, but towards the end of the course the male and female students have appreciated almost equally the importance and the use of WebCT as it is easily accessible from any Internet enabled location and at any time in addition it helps them in better understanding and learning the course material.

Practicing M-Application Services Opportunities with Special Reference to Oman

M-services (Mobile services) and commerce are growing rapidly with the explosive growth of mobile devices, technologies and networks. Hence, many enterprises use them to grow revenue, reduce costs, maintain their competitive edge and achieve high performance. This advancement in mobile technologies has also influenced many government organizations to go mobile with their services and Oman is not an exception. Oman has just started to utilize mobile channels to offer Mservices to its citizens and clients. Although there were many services introduced, but it was hard to find evidence of any study conducted to determine their successes or failures. This study is an attempt to explore adoption issues of these services. This study used a survey questionnaire to collect data on users accessing the M-services, users’ attitudes and the users’ preferences to use these services. The results indicated that little over 50% of the users had positive attitudes towards the M-services and similar number of users indicated their preference to use them. This finding is in accordance to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which states that the attitudes determine the intention to use which lead to the actual usage of the system. There were many users having negative attitudes toward these services. This study also explored some possible reasons which might be contributing towards the users’ negative attitudes are the lack of users’ awareness of these services; their usefulness; mobile technology literacy, publicity and marketing, which are needed to be addressed by the service providers for a greater success of the M-service adoption in Oman.

Students' IT Confidence and Skills

For many smaller and larger entities over the last couple of decades, information systems and technologies have become an integral part of their operations and played a major role in drastically changing and often improving their business processes. As computers become more and more integrated into our business organizations, we end up leaving and storing confidential, vital business and sensitive information on them. In general, larger organizations have the technical expertise and resources to better secure computing services. The Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEâs), however, often lack the platforms, infrastructure, technical expertise, and the required financial resources to be able to utilize modern secure technologies for computing services. This paper discussed the importance of network security, analyzed different type of threats to network infrastructure, different methodologies that can be used to mitigate network infrastructure threats and have proposed an approach for securing SMEâs network infrastructure. This approach suggested Unified Threat Management (UTM) as the first line of protection to the network, based on the links between each distribution switch layers which offers a zone based monitoring and controlling system to prevent the network from any possible threats.

Impact of WebCT on learning: Oman experience

Mobile technologies are opening new channels of communication for people and organizations. According to a survey by the World Bank (2012), no other technology has been in the hands of so many people in so many countries in such a short period. Mobile phones have become a “musthave” electronic gadget for daily business. These devices are likely replacing the need for laptops and desktops. Mobile phones are used for social networking, location-based services, navigation/local search, instant messaging and many other applications. Mobile devices are widely used not only by developed countries but also used by developing nations like the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of which Oman is a member. A recent estimate indicated that over half of the Omani population has internet accessible mobile devices. The mobile devices are continuously getting more sophisticated and advanced; people are getting benefit of these devices in their everyday lives. This progression in mobile technologies has created opportunities and influenced various government organizations to go mobile with their services including Oman and its neighbouring countries. This research presents a synopsis of M-application services offered by many countries with special reference to Oman.

MBA Programs between Ensuring Quality and Retaining Applicants: The Case of Sultan Qaboos University.

This paper addresses the affects of Information Systems Approach on students’ IT confidence and their IT skills in comparison to a more Traditional Approach. The data was collected using questionnaires on IT skills, confidence and attitudes and analysed using Sign test and comparing the simple means of responses using pretest, posttest control group. design. The study found that the group following the Information Systems Approach were generally more confident and acquired more IT skills than the groups followed the Traditional Approach. The study suggest that the business students should be introduced IT following the Information Systems Approach in preference to the Traditional Approach.