Ministry of Education Portal Wins the Best Website of the Year

The third Oman Web Awards Competition Grand Finale was held at Intercontinental, Muscat on 8th March where the winners for the year 2007 were announced formally. The occasion was marked with the presence of H. E. Sheikh Al-Fadhel Al Harthy, Undersecretary of Development Affair, Ministry of National Economy and Deputy Chairman of ITA; Dr. Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO, Information Technology Authority; Mr. Pierre Moukarzel, President of the Pan Arab Awards Committee; Government Dignitaries and distinguished guests from various corporate in Oman.

The registrations for this year’s Awards competition closed with a breaking record of over 170 participants in 23 different categories and the event is held under the auspices of Information Technology Authority (ITA), the apex government body for Information Technology in the Sultanate.

The most valuable Diamond Award for the Best Website of the year was awarded to the Ministry of Education’s Education Portal. After a high air of excitement and anticipation the prestigious Best Web Designer of the Year Award went to TBWA/Zeenah, based on a scoring system which awards points to web designers based on the winning websites in each category. Due to large number of registrations, the competition this year was intense, compared to the last two years.

The main objectives of the Oman Web Awards are to promote the spirit of innovation and creativity, raise the standards of web design and websites, advocate growth & development of local talents, promote intellectual property awareness and encourage all sectors to become involved in the digital economy.

Mr. Pierre Moukarzel, President of the Pan Arab Awards Committee welcomed the guest for the evening, and Mr. Talal Al Rahbi, Chief of Information and Awareness Division; Information Technology Authority (ITA) spoke on behalf of ITA. He in his speech said, “The large number of registrations is a good sign which shows that Oman has excellent talents in web design and the Omani organisation are keen to improve their online identity through their websites. “

“ITA has taken all efforts to keep the entire process just and fair. We have made sure that jury members do not mark their own websites and where there is conflict of interest other jury members marked the websites. ITA has verified the calculations, scores and the awards with an independent third-party, he added”. “ITA will continue its support to increase the penetration of the digital culture through events such as the Oman Web Awards”, he assured.

Mr. Abdullah Lootah, Country Manager, Microsoft Oman and Mr. Jawad Al Redha, Co-Chairman, Business Software Alliance (BSA), Mr. Nick Smith, CEO, The Wave and Ms. Sangeetha Sridhar, Business Content Consultant of ITA also addressed the gathering.

Oman Arab Web Awards is an event that serves to inspire and reward creators for their skills so that they continue to improve it. It also promotes the innovative spirit of web designers to meet professional and international standards. Competition among national websites develops an interactive proactive and reactive community. Furthermore, Oman Arab Web Awards is an encouragement for all sectors to showcase their websites and be effective in promoting their online identity.

Through Oman Arab Web Awards, participants have the opportunity to widen contacts and networks, foster co-operation, enhance knowledge, build capabilities and exchange information. Oman Arab Web Awards is a platform for creative people to showcase their works and attain market recognition. This year’s jury panel consisted of experts from various fields including banking, government, education, Information technology, telecommunication, media & web design and web technology experts.

The presenting sponsor of the Oman Web Awards 2007 is Oman Telecommunications Company and The Wave, Muscat is the co-presenter. Category sponsors are, Oman Wastewater Services Company, Huawei Technology & Investment, Alargan Towell Investment Company and Omania E-commerce and the support sponsors are A'Saffa Poultry Farms Company, National Life & General and Port Services Corporation.

As the results of this competition reveal, the winning formula for websites seems to be that they have to look good, give informative content in a structure manner and interact with its visitors to provide services. This is very good from customer point of view because this is what makes them visit the website again and again. So the competition is just working as a catalyst for the digital world elevating every Omani website’s presence in the online world to a higher level of professionalism.