Oman Collective Intelligence - MPiRe

The first flash mob in Oman - behind the scenes

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sun, 27 May 2012 14:23:00 +0000

During the last Comex exhibition we have seen the first flash mob in Oman.
It was nearly perfect, if you have not seen it yet watch it here.

So how do you make a flash mob? It is not an easy job as usually they happen in public place and therefore you have not control of all elements. Lots of practicing and planning is involved. Here are a few points to remember when doing a flash mob.

Do some research and watch some flash mobs done in the past. There are lots of YouTube and just by watching them you’ll learn a lot.
A flash mob success depends on the originality, liveliness and attractiveness of the event. If you ‘steal’ an idea elsewhere make sure you adapt it perfectly to your event. Also, don't forget the surprise element which is key for the final success.
Have a leader; this person should be a professional dancer/singer/artist. Then you will need several other performers who don’t need to be professionals but they will all follow the leader. Once you have all team members make them practice, practice and practice.
Choose a song that is very popular and ideally means something to people.
Some flash mobs need performers to wear costumes, so make sure you get them in time.
Know the location inside out. Ideally you should be able to perform on the location where the flash mob will take place but in most cases it is not possible. The location is important also for the video-crew as all cameras should be hidden in strategic places. Lastly, not all public places will allow you to organise such events so always double check on that.
High quality video. The better the video the more exposure you might get. Let’s not forget that a video will help the event go viral and if you can get in touch with influential bloggers, tweeps and all your friends on Facebook they will help you sharing the message.
The event should end with a big ‘bang’ usually revealing something unexpected.
Once the event is done just leave as nothing had ever happened.

So here I’m posting the Oman flash mob behind the scenes video. A lot can be learnt from here as so many people and elements are involved.

And well done to all those involved once again!

The coolest logos ever

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 19 May 2012 06:36:00 +0000

According to Wikipedia a logo is a "graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization."

Designing a good logo is not a simple task and requires a lot of time and creativity in formulating a concept, doing initial sketch, finalizing the logo concept, deciding the theme colors and format, etc.

To me logos need to be eye-catchy and smartly designed, just as these ones which all have a hidden meaning:

The yellow arrow is a smiley but also suggests that you can buy everything A to Z on Amazon.

Baskin Robbins offers 31 different flavours of ice cream and the number 31 is hidden in the logo.

The FedEx logo has an arrow hidden between the letters E and X. Very smart considering the industry they're in.

Toblerone chocolate company comes from Bern, Switzerland, which is called "The City of bears". If you look carefully you'll find the hidden silhouette of a bear in the mountain.

Eight is the name of this company and the entire logo is created with only one number; the number 8. Very cool.

The feathers of the peacock represent the 6 different divisions of NBC. The head is visible suggesting the peacock is looking toward the viewer.

Unilever produces thousands of different products; the letter U is made up of symbols representing some of the products and what they mean to their consumers.

Looks like a map of Africa but if you take a closer look you will see a woman and a child facing each other.

Smart play with positive and negative spaces by the Bronx Zoo.

Last one...I'm sure you can guess this logo :)

(Probably) The best viral video ever! (2)

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:05:00 +0000

Sometime ago I posted about the best viral video ever from Tipp-ex, remember it?

That video was very successful with more than 20 million views on YouTube.

Very rarely in the past brands managed to repeat a viral success but Tipp-ex managed to do it for the 2012 birthday when the world is supposed to come to an end as it is about to get a hit by a huge meteorite, see in the pic below...

Have a look at the video and then enter any date to try and stop the meteorite. There is a total of 46 videos, I watched a few, some of them are hilarious. Enjoy!

The first Facebook commerce store in Oman

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:50:00 +0000

TOTEM, my favorite boutique in the whole world, recently launched its new online shop which I believe to be the first of its kind in Oman.

I’m sure many ‘fashionistas’ out there will be more than happy to shop in a secure way while they’re comfortably sitting on their couch.

TOTEM did not stop there though, and that is what i'd like to highlight; as today’s consumers spend lots of time on Facebook, TOTEM also launched the first Facebook commerce store in Oman. It makes complete sense since TOTEM has a good fan base on FB.

The application recreates a fully functional store within Facebook
maintaining the professional appearance and all its features.

I had to give it a go; I clicked on the ‘buy online’ tab and downloaded the shop application. I then browsed through several items, selected a t-shirt and provided my credit card details. A few minutes later I received the transaction confirmation...

…and the shipping confirmation from DHL.

Within 24 hours I received my banana-girl t-shirt...

I’ve always been skeptical about buying online from Facebook but my overall shopping experience within TOTEM’s Facebook store was top-notch! Neat, fast and professional.

TOTEM has made perfect use of social technology in the context of commerce. Hats off!

Beat the heat! Refresh Your Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:08:00 +0000

What’s better than a refreshing shower to beat the hot weather?

The latest initiative by Sprite Brazil, part of the long-running "Refresh Your Ideas" campaign, is a brilliantly thought and executed ambient marketing campaign which took place on a beach in Rio de Janeiro.

People love it!

TEDxMuscat 2012 - Passion for Creation.

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:54:00 +0000

TEDxMuscat is back. The 1012 edition will take place again at the Millennium Resort Mussanah on May 16 and it promises to be bigger and better.

Last year, the first ever TEDxMuscat, was a great success and exceeded all expectations. Leaders, innovators, artists and entertainers from several parts of the world came together to share their ideas and visions. Below a few pics...

This year the theme is 'Passion for Creation' and there will be again a great mix of impressive keynote speakers both from Oman and the rest of the world. I will do a separate post on them next week once they’ll be officially announced.

In order to expand its reach, and for more like-minded people to benefit, TEDxMuscat during the event will also offer a simulcast with several colleges; MECIT College, Modern College, Majan College, Muscat College, Waljat College, Caledonian College, and Sultan Qaboos University.

You can find more info, as well as how to register, here. Remember, as there are only a limited number of sits make sure you fill in all fields in the application and be very creative! Only the most original and creative applications will be selected.

You can also like/follow TEDxMuscat on Facebook and Twitter.

Where to spend your advertising budget

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:28:00 +0000

According to Nielsen 92% percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.

On a global level in the past two years confidence towards traditional media like TV, magazines and newspaper ads decreased respectively by 24%, 20% and 25%. Despite the decline though, the majority of advertising budgets are still spent on traditional or paid media, such as TV.

The growth in trust for online search and display ads over the past years has given marketers increased confidence in putting more of their ad dollars into online media where 70% of consumers rely on opinions and feedback posted online by others and 58% trust messages found on company websites.

Emails and sponsorship are still widely used and recognised with 50% and 47% of preferences.

Using mobile devices with display and SMS ads don’t seem to work, they are both at the bottom with 33% and 29%.

In this part of the world, Middle East and Africa, consumers’ confidence goes towards ‘word of mouth’ (90%), ‘websites’ (71%), ‘online feedback’ (69%), ‘editorial content’ (67%) and ‘sponsorship’ (62%).

Also outdoor advertising and display/text ads on mobile phones surprisingly seem to be trusted with nearly 60% of preferences, while TV and radio advertising are down with respectively 52% and 50%.

You can view and download the full Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey here.

Google is looking for the new Doodler

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:13:00 +0000

What is a doodle? According to Wikipedia a doodle is an unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied.

The very first doodle appeared on Google in 1998 but, more formally, doodles really came of age in 2000, when Page and Brin, Google founders, asked current webmaster Dennis Hwang, an intern at the time, to produce a doodle for Bastille Day.

The very first doodle

Since then the team has created over 1,000, static or animated, doodles, here are some:

So if you’re a graphic designer here is the chance to land your dream job. You should have a minimum four years experience and a wide range of artistic styles. See the full details and apply for position here.

Review of the automotive industry in Oman on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:52:00 +0000

One of the most competitive markets in the world today is the auto industry with its many car brands competing fiercely against each other. In Oman is no difference.

Automakers and dealers are chasing millions of customers who spend an increasing amount of time each day on social-media sites especially Facebook.

As an old saying in the automotive industry states that every dollar spent on marketing should earn you three...how much efforts brands should make then? And what kind of content is appropriate to put on a Facebook page? And will it really help sell cars?

Most brands in Oman have recently started so don't expect huge numbers in terms of fans / interaction.

Kia Oman has the biggest fan base with currently 3345 fans. The page is very well customised with games, videos, photos and info and I really like their current contest, Kia Young Artist. Very well done.

In second place we find Toyota Oman with 1889 fans. Again, plenty of games, videos, photos and updates.

Only joined Facebook last January Hyundai Oman managed to gather so far 1332 fans. Not much happening in terms of games and contests but the page is constantly updated with news, photos and videos which is what people look for.

Been on Facebook since 2010 Mazda Oman has not managed to gathered many fans, 761 as of today. It seems though that this year they're putting a bigger effort and the Mazda Dream Date Contest was a success. Keep it up now.

Been on Facebook for about a year GMC Oman seems to have slowed down a little in the past months as updates are not as frequent as before and interaction is really low. Number of fans 668.

When the Aston Martin Oman page opened in 2010 there used to be plenty of news and photos on local events, recently it is more of a global page but still worth a visit. Number of fans 568.

Suzuki Oman is very similar to GMC i mentioned above. Must be managed by the same people as many identical photos and updates are used in both pages. Still interesting if you're a Suzuki fan. Number of fans 376.

Mercedes-Benz Oman joined Facebook in September 2011 and has 119 fans. They had a nice photo contest early in February, let's see if they can come up with other interesting activities in the future and grow their fan base.

Nissan Oman joined Facebook about a year ago, in April 2011, however nothing was really posted a part from copies of print ads. On the page now you can request a test drive, get a quote, download a brochure and also have the chance to win Nissan wrist watch. Number of fans 75.

Honda Oman is the latest entry as it joined Facebook in March 2012 and has 40 fans. With their current contest you may win a plasma TV.

If you love cars a few other pages worth checking out are:

The Oman Cars Club, very popular, with its 9381 fans.

Muscat Buy or Sell Cars, 3065 fans.

The Oman Karting Team, 858 fans.

The Ford Focus Raba'a Rally - Oman, 142 fans.

Not the official page but Jeep Oman will entertain you with lots of action videos and photos. Number of fans 101.

And lastly, the Porsche Club Oman, with 81 fans.

Got any enemies?

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 07:59:00 +0000

Most social networks try to connect people based on affinities; you like something, I like it too, and therefore we should be friends.

But people are also connected and motivated by things they dislike...that’s the idea behind EnemyGraph.

EnemyGraph is a Facebook application that allows you to list your enemies. The project was developed principally by graduate student Bradley Griffith with help from his mate Harrison Massey.

This new platform has about 25,000 users but because of its sudden popularity it is currently struggling with some technical problems.

Anyone on Facebook can be your enemy; people, Pages, Places and Groups. At the moment the person with most declared enemies is Justin Bieber with 872 enemies.

Not sure this is the way to go. Do we really need to spread any more bad feelings? A simple ‘Dislike’ button would have been enough.

Dumbest QR codes

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:36:00 +0000

QR codes can do a lot. They can take you to a website, they can contain SMS messages, plain text, contact info, event invites, Google Maps locations, YouTube videos, social content and much more.

QR codes need to be scanned therefore they should only be in locations where they can be easily and safely used. They should also be big enough and clear enough that even a lower-quality phone can scan it.

With QR codes if you’re creative sky is the limit. If you’re not creative this is the result..

How are you supposed to scan this?!?!

And this?

Not sure many phones would read this...

They could have made it a little smaller?

This is on Facebook HQ roof!

I'm sure many would love to scan this.

And last one, my favourite...

No comment!

For more weird and funny QR codes check this site.

Hi magazine. An online mystery.

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 05:57:00 +0000

Every week I read, like many of you, Hi magazine. Something caught my attention in the past weeks. In each issue, usually in the first pages, there is a section dedicated to the readers, with their letters to the editor as well as the messages they send through Facebook and Twitter. Nothing strange here really as most papers do it, here are a couple of scanned images from past issues:

According to what it says above the Facebook and Twitter URLs are facebook.com/hi_oman and @hi_oman. I visited both so that i could become a fan/follower too but I discovered that they don’t exist! I've asked around and found out that both Facebook and Twitter have different addresses; check them out here...Hi on Facebook and Hi on Twitter. Both have been updated once, or maybe twice, since December 2011 and there's pretty much zero interaction.

Strange, isn't it?

It got me more intrigued...I checked on the people who left comments on Hi’s wall and, guess what, they also don’t exist. The various people named in the above images like Mahindra PP, Rachel Parns, Fannyfast, Khalid76ar do not seem to be on Facebook. And the same applies for the tweeps like @hallook, @grongii, @Mefreak, @sophiebaby, etc.

Even stranger isn't it?

Another Facebook (and this time Twitter too) mystery!

Mercedes-Benz turns into…invisible!

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:03:00 +0000

As part of a marketing plan to call attention and promote its zero-emissions F-Cell model, the German brand covered the entire side of the car in LED panels and mounted on the opposite side of the vehicle a digital camera.

The F-Cell model got the ultimate camouflage...invisible for the environment.

The stunt, costed about 265,000 US$, involves the “invisible” Mercedes B-Class F-Cell car around the streets of Hamburg using the same trick that was used in one of James Bond movies “Die Another Day”. Passersby all looked quite amused.

If you want to have a look at the fastest non-moving car then click here.

Take off to Bollywood

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:30:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, February 26, it was the Republic Day of India and lots of celebrations took place all around the world.

Finnish airline Finnair did something quite simple but original and entertaining. On the January 17th Finnair flight AY201 from Helsinki to Dehli a dance crew wearing traditional clothes surprised passengers by dancing and singing “Deewangi Deewangi” from the Bollywood blockbuster “Om Shanti Om.” Most passengers seemed to enjoy it while some others look a little...lost!

Indians might be separated by the various languages and culinary traditions, but something they all have in common is their warm and kind hospitality; probably that is the message that Finnair wanted to convey.

The video went viral and as of today it was seen by more than 4.5 million people. A very good result if you think that Finland has a population of 5.5 million people. Check it out.

Quick guide to the new Facebook Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:29:00 +0000

If you hang out on Facebook you must have heard of the big change for Pages...the new layout and timeline. The change was implemented several days ago and until March 30, 2012, everyone can still use the current design. The new change in design is already well known among the Facebook community as personal Profiles look pretty much the same.

What are the changes then? There are many but the most important are:

A big Cover Photo (851 x 315px) with your Profile Picture, see an example below from Muscat's coolest boutique TOTEM.

Please note: you cannot use the big photo as an advert, it cannot contain calls to action, cannot include any contact information, including web address, products prices, or any references to Facebook features like “Like our Page”, copyrighted info, etc.

The applications you previously had as tabs on the left hand side of your page will now appear as boxes just under the cover pic. You can choose what order to put the boxes, I suggest your arrange them based on importance. This is an example from Kia Oman.

Please Note: the size of customised tabs has been increased to 810px wide but you will still be able to keep them as they are, i.e. 520px. This change will give a greater design freedom.

When posting new updates you will now be able to:

"Highlight" updates to give them more prominence by extending them to 2 columns.
"Pin" your status update: You can “pin” status updates to keep them at the top of your updates for up to 7 days.

Please note: Pin and Highlight will be very useful for brands as they can drive visitors to a specific tab with a link in the post.

Pages can add milestones with images, to any point on their timeline. Brands can use this to highlight important date in history and events. This is a great opportunity to educate the public, humanise the brand and remove a perception of corporate anonymity.

The last big change is that you can now send private messages to Pages. When on a Page, click the “Message” button below the Cover Photo to write and send your message. This is something to watch out for as spammers could take advantage.

There are a few negative aspects too in my opinion such as not having the choice of setting a default landing tab and not being able to date an object in the ‘Timeline’ prior to 1905. Having also a 2-column layout will fragment conversations.

Let’s see if these changes will improve engagement and interaction between brands and their fans.

There are many other changes such as the Activity Log and the New Admin Panel; you can find them all in details here as well as a nice video tutorial here.

Need help paying your mortgage?

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:26:00 +0000

American marketing company Brainiacs From Mars is using houses as an advertising channel hoping their original idea will convince companies to hire them to run their advertising campaigns.

What’s so unique about their idea? In southern California 44% of homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. So Brainiacs From Mars’s CEO Romeo Mendoza’s ingenious idea is to advertise his company's name and services on the front of people's homes in exchange for paying their mortgages every month for as long as the houses remain painted.

“It’s definitely a two-way street,” Mendoza said. “We are able to help the homeowners and the homeowners are able to help us.”

The firm has only painted one house so far but the campaign has already surpassed the BFM’s wildest expectations after receiving more than 38,000 applications!

On Facebook their page is becoming quite popular and more and more people are sending pics of their houses.

I think it’s a good idea if it stays within the city codes. I wouldn’t like to have my house painted though.

2012. We're ready.

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:24:00 +0000

Cool ad campaign by British Airways in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The advert, known as “The Race” and part of a bigger campaign called “2012. We're ready. To Fly. To Serve”, was recently launched on Facebook followed by Google+ before making its TV debut. Outdoor, print and online adverts also formed part of the campaign.

The 60-second TV ad features a little girl's luggage racing with other luggage from other nations to the arrivals hall. It’s a way of showing the great spirit of teamwork needed by British Airways staff to deliver hundreds of flights a day, all over the world.

Well done BA.

Pinterest, what is it really?

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:01:00 +0000

You must have heard of it. Pinterest, launched in March 2010, became the fastest website ever to hit 10m unique users. At the very beginning the site proceeded to operate by invitation-only while now registration is possible after an email request.

But what is Pinterest and why is it growing so fast? Pinterest is a content curation platform which allows users to organize and share beautiful and interesting content, such as photos and videos, they find on the web. Just like a bookmarking site.

Content is organised in "Boards" that work as categories. Each piece of content is called a "Pin". People can "like" your pins and/or they can "repin" them on to their boards, comment on them and share on Facebook and Twitter. It looks like this:

Like Twitter, there are no privacy restrictions, so anyone can see your posts whether they follow you or not. But in order to interact with another user, you have to follow them and vice versa.

Pinterest does have its challenges though.

Copyright is a major issue for Pinterest to deal with. The vast majority of pictures on Pinterest are pinned by people who don't have any copyright permission to do so. No one is really sure yet whether that is permitted.

Users have also complained about the overly-basic format for comments. Your caption will appear as one long line of text, regardless of how many words you use. There is no option for paragraph breaks, bullets or subheads, so lengthy descriptions get really clunky.

Lastly, much like other services that experienced rapid growth (Twitter for example), the company will have to quickly boost its infrastructure and achieve the capacity to host millions of videos, pictures and graphics.

I'm still testing Pinterest and i think it that it can be a terrific tool for sharing content virally especially if you’re into arts, jewellery, clothing, décor, etc. as it’s a powerful and easy tool to showcase your work.

I'm not sure though whether i can think of it as "social media" since it isn't really about interactions as much as it is finding unique ideas and information. In this ever evolving social media world some things are cool and will stay while most others are just passing-by and are simply part of an evolutionary process. I think Pinterest is part of that process. What do you think?

Twitter, a nice story from Kenya

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:14:00 +0000

Chief Francis Kariuki

Chief Francis Kariuki very recently said: “Twitter has helped save time and money. I no longer have to write letters or print posters which take time to distribute and are expensive.
Thanks to social media, crime rate in Kariuki’s area has dropped significantly to nearly zero, compared to prior periods where break-ins were reported on a daily basis.”

Francis is a Chief Officer who lives in Lanet Umoja, Kenya, and started to use Twitter in June 2011 to help his Kenyan village maintain peace and order.
Where he lives the majority of residents doesn't have access to computers and Internet, apart from a few cyber cafes, however almost every household has a mobile phone and SMS are a major form of communication in the nation.

Kariuki's official Twitter page currently has a little more than 1,000 followers (apparently even the thieves in his village follow him!) but he manages to reach some of the 28,000 residents in his area with the help of his followers who forward his tweets via text messages.

Twitter has been associated with bolstering uprisings and anti-government protests in Africa several times, this time it’s all good news as Chief Francis’ tweets have helped to fight crime, organize logistic matters, and locate missing children and farm animals. Well done Chief :)

If you want to see how the Indian Police is using Twitter click here.

Social seating by KLM

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000

The nightmare of all solo passengers: who will sit next to me on the nine hour flight across the Ocean? Someone boring, someone cool, someone that snores?

According to the Times, a recent poll showed 45% of respondents confessed to flirting on a flight, one-third of them met up with a fellow traveler after a flight and 8% said the encounters led to a relationship.

So last year the Royal Dutch Airline KLM announced the launch its social seating service in 2012 which is now live. The new service is called Meet & Seat and the whole point is to give passengers a better travelling experience by let them decide who they want to sit with. Very simple.

Here’s how it works:

Go to KLM.com and log in to Manage my Booking.
Go to the ‘Seating’ tab and click ‘Meet & Seat’ on the right.
Log in to your Facebook or LinkedIn account.
Select the profile details you want to share with other passengers and add your travel details.

This video explains it all:

KLM has a very strategic approach and it is more dedicated than many other brands to use social media and social technologies to add relevancy and meaningfulness to the lives of its customers. KLM President & CEO Erik Varwijk said that "KLM has always strived to be cutting edge in social media and its latest revolutionary initiative will be fun and useful for people with similar interests to connect."

KLM has also a great Facebook Page, check it out.

"The road is no place to socialise" campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:12:00 +0000

Nice and modern campaign by the Roads and Transport Authority in the UAE created by Livingroom, UAE.

I’m not sure though about the guy, who is supposed to represent...Facebook? Looks a bit creepy. Thumbs up though!

Local blogger detained

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

As reported by several sites and blogs including Dhofari Gucci, Global Voices Advocacy and Digital Rights Watch, and many others in Arabic, I was shocked to hear that Omani blogger Muawiya Alrawahi, known for his controversial ideas, has been taken into custody because of blog posts and tweets.

Now, I don’t read his blog (now closed) as it is in Arabic and most likely I wouldn't agree with what he writes BUT is this is the way to solve a problem? The news is rapidly expanding online...are we going to shut all those sites down too? What kind of image are we giving of ourselves?

I could not agree more with DG when she wrote “I think this is going to get ugly. You can't silence people. I can't say anymore.”

Hopefully it’ll be all over soon. If anyone has updates let us know.

UPDATE: I've just been told that Muawiya Alrawahi was taken in just for questioning and that he's fine. More later.

Online terms parents should know

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:31:00 +0000

There's an ever growing trend among teenagers using social media networks called l33tspeak, netspeak or just plain internet slang. Surely you must have came across at least some of them...lol, brb, 143 and many more.

If you have kids this could be an area of concern. I'm sure all smart parents have set up filters on their kids' PCs to block certain words and/or sites but this is not enough any longer. Today's kids are lazy when it comes to writing and use single letter words to communicate with each other in ways that most adults wouldn't understand: U replaces you, R replaces are, o replaces oh, m replaces am, etc.

And your filters won’t pick up any of it.

Social network monitoring service SocialShield a few days ago released a list of the “Top Terms Parents Need to Know.” The list was curated from an analysis of commonly flagged terms identified by SocialShield’s monitoring engines as somehow risky, dangerous or illicit.

SocialShield has split them up into six categories:

Warnings of parents in the room
Requests to meet up in person
Sexual
Cyberbullying
Depression
Drugs/drinking

Click to enlarge

While the Internet is an enormous resource and one of the major technological achievements of our lifetime, it is also used by adults who are seeking to exploit children. Protecting children from Internet predators and scam artists is a very serious responsibility which we all have.

I also found a useful site which translates slang and acronyms as well as giving plenty of info and resources, check it out here.

Remember; keep your children from getting into trouble online.

If my career fails...

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:13:00 +0000

...I’m going to be an actor!

Just kidding.

Muscat has been selected as the Capital of Arab Tourism for the year 2012 due to its natural beauty, rich topographical and historical diversity, many remarkable tourism features and its strategic location.

During the past decade the government has put a lot of efforts in promoting Oman which is now visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world every year.

If you want to know more about what Oman has to offer click here otherwise just relax and enjoy the following short clip:

PS: Thanks to the Ministry of Tourism and ProShots for the great and fun experience.

PS2: I’ll stick to my job, promised!

H&M faces a Facebook backlash

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:33:00 +0000

Retailer H&M is facing criticism on Facebook after the company was accused of stealing an American artist's design.

Artist Tori LaConsay back in 2008 painted a billboard in Atlanta with the message “You Look Nice Today” to make residents in her town feel good about themselves.

A few days ago she realised that H&M were selling towels, pillows and doormats with a similar design.

H&M's reply was that “We employ an independent team of over 100 designers. We can assure you that this design has not been influenced by your work and that no copyright has been infringed.”

Of course this ended up on H&M’s Facebook page where people started to voice their opinions, most of them attacking H&M. H&M, as often happens, started deleting comments, angering fans further.

This should make companies reflect that such things could only be done (well, not really) in the pre social media era when they could get away with it, nowadays people are merciless and companies get punished publicly for any mistake made, small or big.

H&M, you don’t look so nice today.