Blue Chi’s

Just typed a long post about the ITA event on my phone and th thing
timed out so I can't post through the same page, I can't copy and
paste so it's gone!!! Urgh!

Will post again in two days, I'm in Muscat tonight and going to dubai tomorrow.

–
Riyadh Al-Balushi

I like the ita, i mean, I really do, but we just had a flame dancers
session half way througi a government event. That was so random and
unnecessary!!

–
Riyadh Al-Balushi

The World is Flat is an analysis by Thomas Friedman into the current state of globalization that was caused by some ten flatteners: The fall of the berlin wall, Netscape, workflow software, open sourcing and uploading, outsouring, offshoring, supply-chaining, insourcing, informating and the steriods (mobile phones and PDAs).

This new state of flatness caused by these flatteners make it possible for people from all around the world to innovate and collaborate in new ways that were never possible ten years ago and this has changed everything from politics, business, education, and even our daily lives. And they continue to change everything in new ways history has not seen before. Friendman explains in detail how this will effect America, developing counties, companies, and individuals.

The book is a great insight into the new forces in the world and I really believe that the world is flat even all the way here in Oman.

Though usually placed in the business section of bookshops, I think that The World is Flat is for anyone interested in learning about the new state of globalization.

Yesterday was my last day at work. My study leave to do the Masters degree starts officially today (even though I won’t actually be traveling until the last week of September or so).

The feeling of not having to care at all about work is amazing. I even removed the scheduled alarm on my phone completely. I moved all my things from Muscat to Sohar (most important item was my chair – for those who know about it!).

I still have to go back to Muscat a couple of times at least before I travel, so I’m not really going to enjoy ALL of this break at home.

I got my visa and sorted most of the university stuff, I still have not booked my flight yet nor have finalised the accommodation stuff – I’m guaranteed to get a place at the university accommodation, but they still need to give me the accommodation offer.

Should be making more frequent updates now that I’m at home!

Crazy people at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry made a press release today saying that they have warned tailor shops not to get too creative with dishdashas (traditional robes worn by Omani men). Here is the article that was put on the FRONT PAGE of Alwatan newspaper in Arabic and Oman Tribune in English:

Warning against dishdasha tampering By Khalfan Al Rahbi

MUSCAT The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has warned tailor shops not to tamper with specified design of the Omani traditional dishdasha.

The warning comes after many tailor shops introduced novel designs which have changed the main features of the Omani dishdasha.

In a statement, the ministry asked the tailor shops to abide by the specific designs of the Omani dishdasha, which is a part of the history and culture of the Sultanate.

Do they REALLY think they can tell us WHAT TO WEAR?! Number 1, SINCE WHEN WAS HISTORY AND CULTURE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY! Number 2, even though of course they cannot enforce this in anyway, it is just crazy to realise that they even think they can tell us what to wear. What’s next, you can only have only up to two colours in your kummah (Omani head cap)?

I think that I’ve seen some weird people wearing tight-waist dishdashas and I don’t think that that they looks nice at all. However, I think that they have the right to wear whatever clothes they want. It is very natural for clothes to change and transform with time, the dishadashas we wear now were not exactly the same as what people wore a 150 years ago.

I don’t think that any of these new trends is going to catch on, but this is obviously NOT the government’s business.

Someone made a comment on the last post I made about Salah Al Zadjali asking about my “we-are-not-related” disclaimer whenever I post about someone Balushi. Well, I’m making this disclaimer just to tell you that WE ARE NOT RELATED. I am getting more paranoid lately because I’ve been posting about a lot of Balushi people (MoodyGamer’s Mohammed Al Balushi, OLZ’s Rozalin Al Balushi, and now Salah Al Zadjali) and I am afraid some people are thinking that I’m just pimping my cousins. I’ve seen it happen elsewhere and I don’t want you guys to think that I’m doing the same.

I am posting about the websites of these people because I believe that they are worth talking about. They are not my cousins, my second cousins, my brother’s wife’s cousins, or even my friend’s father’s uncle’s second cousin. (I think that you guys get the idea!)

I discovered that the Omani singer Salah Al Zadjali [in Arabic: صلاح الزدجالي](we are not related and we never met) has a proper website AND A BLOG last month when Amjad posted about it. I was really impressed by the mere fact that an Omani singer was making such use of the internet and blogging to promote reach out for his fans and further promote his brand and music.

The fact that this Omani singer is bloggin-savvy is just amusing in itself, but Salah is so good at it he is super cool. Since the launch of his blog, Salah has posted about a trip for an interview in Bahrain, the death of one of his friends (a media personality), and his new video.

The post that Salah made today about the new video is really what the blog is all about. Unlike other music artists who see the web as a threat to their music, Salah uploaded the video of his new song himself onto YouTube for all people to see it. It is obvious that teenagers and young adults in OMan spend more time watching YouTube than watching OmanTV (if they EVER do). It is so logical to release the video on YouTube if you want to get more exposure! In addition to the clip also posted a small trivia about its background, where it was shot, who the director was and how he found him.Really, who needs a press release when you can just write something from a first person perspective and then just publish it on your blog? Fans can (and they do) respond to him on his blog – and Salah replies back!

You can watch his new video below, it was directed by the Omani film director Aamir Al Rawas.

You entire song can be downloaded in MP3 format by going through the Media section of Salah’s website.

Salah’s website is not too bad. It was made in Flash, but does not provide the user with any way out if you do not have the Flash plug-in. His blog also does not have any link back to the website, so if you somehow end up first on his blog (For example through a search engine) there is no way to go the main section of it.

It is still pretty exciting to see a local artist make use of blogging and the internet this way. I have great passion for those who work in the music industry. More power to Salah!

*Blue Chi stands right next to a bunch of dumb-18-years-old-omani-girls and shouts along with them: “WE LOVE YOU SALAH!”.*

I recently bumped into the latest new Omani website on the Internet: Oman Legal Zone. OLZ is a website founded by Rozalin Al Bulushi (her real name, we are not related and we never met). Rozalin is a legal advisor at the Telecommunication Regulation Authority (TRA) and has very recently launched this website with the goal of providing the public with affordable legal service online at affordable prices. According to its founders, the launch of the OLZ was not actually influenced by the recent passing of the Eletronic Transactions Law, but the general trend in Oman of moving towards e-commerce made this seem like the right time to launch such a website.

Services currently offered at OLZ include legal advice services, contract drafting services, IP registration services, and a free find-a-lawyer service. OLZ will also provide in the future online training services and legal book order services. The book delivery service should be up within 2 to 3 months and its rate will vary depending on the delivery method.

All the currently available services of OLZ may be requested by filling an online form that lets you upload all the documents and materials relevant to your case or contract and submitting your request. An OLZ staff will presumably respond to your request with the details on how to move forward. Currently, the website does not provide any actual rates nor does it actually specify the payment methods, however, I have contacted OLZ and I was informed that OLZ accepts Paypal and direct bank deposit. It is worth noting that you cannot use Paypal to send money online from a Omani bank yet, so the only real method for making payment to OLZ is through direct bank deposit if you are in Oman.

I think that OLZ is a great idea, we do not have any Omani legal resource in the English language in Oman and having an online portal for receiving legal requests is cool. However, I feel that OLZ has several major flaws that will prevent it from being a major success:

1. OLZ appears anonymous and untrustworthy: Even though you now know the person behind it, it is not actually written anywhere on the website, we do not know who is on the ‘claimed’ team of OLZ. The legal business is heavely based on trust and you cannot trust somebody you do not know. You need to dig down and read the fine print of the terms of conditions of the website to learn that OLZ is NOT a law firm nor does it seem to be registerd in any shape or form. Who is going to dare submit his confidential information whether regarding a legal advice, a contract, or even a description of his intellectual property to an anonymous website?

2. OLZ is not registered: Beside the trust issue mentioned above, to my understanding of the law, providing legal services such as legal advice and contract drafting requires a license as stipulated by the Advocacy Law. I contacted OLZ and asked them the following:
   

   BC: The terms of the website state Oman Legal Zone is not a law firm. However, the services offered by the website are the same as those mentioned in Article 2 of the Advocacy Law (108/96) and offering these services can arguably be said to require an Advocacy License in accordance with that law. Article 6 of the same law also prohibits an employee of any government authority from performing any of the advocacy services while they are in service. Any comments on this?

   OLZ’s responsded with the following:
   

   OLZ: Our website is run by a team. There are two lawyers in the team. Thus, we have no problem of conflict with that Act. Furthermore, what we are trying to do in Oman Legal Zone is to assist individuals to advice them in the minor legal issues and we draft simple contracts to them. However, if they need a registered lawyer or we think that they need one we directly forward their inquires to one after inform the customer and in this case we do not charge him/ her anything. In addition, all that mentioned in our Terms of Services “right”.

   In my opinion, the fact that the service is provided by more than one person is not relevant to the issue of the license requirement. Legal advice and contract drafting are both explicitly mentioned in the Law as activities which can only be carried a licensed lawyer. You can read the law yourself here [PDF - Arabic], and its amendments can be found here, here, here, and here.

3. OLZ is not making any significant use of technology: the current OLZ website does not provide any functionality for registering as a client with a unique log-in name and a private request status portal. In fact, the website provides a mere mail form that is not even delivered using any secure transfer protocol or encryption.
4. Unfortunately, I also discovered that the privacy statement of OLZ has been copied off Yahoo!’s privacy policy. OLZ privacy policy talks about services offered by Yahoo and even links to pages on Yahoo about deleting user accounts, cookies, web beacons, and advertisements. OLZ also has a section in which copied articles from local and regional newspapers are pasted. This use obviously exceeds fair-use and consititutes a copyright violation. Attributing the source is not a defence under copyright.

OLZ surely can improve on many of the things mentioned above. The trust issue can be overcome by being more open about what OLZ is and providing profile pages for the team members behind OLZ. OLZ must also make sure that they own service is not illegal. Once these things are established OLZ can further improve its website by using functionality that ehances their offering and provides clients with the security they need to transmit their information on the web.

The Omani web is obviously still not mature enough, but I think that we are going through an interesting phase as we see more content websites popping up all the time, especially websites that serve a specific purpose and have a focused goal such as OLZ. I still wish OLZ the best of luck and hope that they clean up their act and succeed.