Creative Omanis Program that was organized by the Office of Information and Public Relations inaugurated the opening of its activities hosting today Tariq bin Hilal Al-Barwani, Founder and President of Knowledge-Oman.com and the Online Manager at Nawras Telecom, to present a session on ‘Information Technology (IT) :- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,' according to a press release. In this session, Tariq shared his experiences in the field with students who are specialized in Computer Sciences and people who are interested in the field. He also talked about his steps of success and steps that lead others to be successful.

The Creative Omanis Program encourages of creativity that HM Sultan Qaboos always directs us to seek. This program aims at discovering young Omani talents and showing them to students as successful modules. “Creativity is one of the DU new stage features that confirm the university's mission to achieve excellence in teaching, research and community service, in an open environment conducive to creativity and innovation and to the acquisition of cutting-edge professional knowledge. It also aims at making students know some Creative Omani experiences to enable them to explore their capabilities and take full advantage of the educational opportunities offered at DU in order to develop their full intellectual potential”, said Layla Mubarak Al-Shahri , Public Relations Officer. Layla added that the program accomplished the university's commitment of producing morally responsible individuals who are highly competent in their fields of specialization and well-prepared to succeed in life.

The session began with Tariq introducing himself and then talking about his journey in the field. Tariq has over 11 years of professional experience in IT, where he served as a programmer, instructor, manager, consultant and IT presenter in TV/ Radio programs. He has been actively presenting various IT related topics to both private and public institutions locally and internationally throughout the years. He holds a diploma in Information Systems, Bachelors with Honors in Computer Science, and Masters Degree in IT. He is currently a PhD candidate in Management of Organizations. Then he talked about Communication yesterday, today and tomorrow. He also talked about the role of IT in our lives. Tariq discussed the merits and demerits of using technology. He said that one of the merits is Information such as business, customers, marketing research, competitors, plans, etc which can be stored on computers and Internet, which makes it easy to access information, anywhere and anytime. As a result, this saves the user's time and cost of paper, mailing, reproduction, customer reach, customer request for information from one place, calls, etc. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages such as information will be available to the entire world. Tariq defined IT, as “It's a one big fat world that drives us today. Whether your computer fanatic or not, let us not deny it, our world is driven by computers today. You are required to have some basic computing skills to survive at your workplace, business or even at home to some extent”. After that, he talked about the different dimensions of technology, as he explained how we could specify what we need of technology, which benefited students in the field. Students were very delighted that Tariq helped them have a clear vision of IT future in Oman . Then he talked about his website (Knowledge-Oman.com) and then opened the way for questions by students and teachers.

Tariq said about his participation in the Creative Omani Program: “I'm honored to be the first guest in this distinguished program and I'm very enthusiastic to share my experiences in the field with students of computer science and IT and those who are interested. I'm honored too to be a creative Omani module”.