Twittering social media expands!

The new social media tool that has witnessed a high rate of penetration is also attracting new ways of branding and marketing. According to the Time magazine ‘Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app’ and according an independent estimate, its growth rate is 1382%.

Twitter, the micro-blogging platform is a free networking website where people answer one simple question: What are you doing now. The popularity of this tool in a social and commercial context has even called for a conference on this theme. The 140 Characters Conference, a two-day conference exploring topics related to Twitter in New York, scheduled in June this year.


What it twitter

Twitter is a social networking website where one can register free and connects to other similar tweeters. It is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers called posts or tweets. Interestingly you can post any number tweets each day but each tweet must be only 140 characters long. Twitter is a free micro-blogging service more like the online counterpart of SMS communications.


Jack Dorsey was inspired by implementations of instant messaging and developed twitter in 2006. Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams co-founded the company Obvious which later spun off Twitter Incorporations with Evan being the CEO. Making twitter accessible through mobile phones is a main reason behind its explosive adoption.


All your tweets can be read by anyone in your network and they can even reply back to your tweets. A word or phrase can be prefixed with a #, for e.g. #travel to hashtag twitter messages. These tags are useful to surf up in searches based a key words. A nice way to start is to watch a video about Twitter at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o. Once you register, find who else from your family and friends are on twitter (other than the author of course). Many sites like thewww.twitterImage.com provide twitter background images to begin creating your branded page.


According Nielsen Online, over 10 million users are on Twitter as of Feb2009 with about 5-9 thousand new accounts being opened every day. Out of these over 70% are active and the remaining are relatively new or unengaged users. Interestingly 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008 and the network is constantly widening. Although on an average each user has about 70 followers, only 35% of twitter users have less than 10 followers revealing that it is very closely and widely networked community.


Tweeting software


It is possible to post tweets via the http://www.twitter.com/ website or use mobile phone clients such as TweetDeck or PocketTweets . Twitter also provides easy-to-learn APIs for developers to build their own applications for twitter. The Google desktop widget also sports a Twitter gadget. Tweets can be displayed on most blogs and websites using plugin code. Being sleek and simple twittering is everyone’s cup of tea both to read and to post.


An application named StreamGraph shows the latest 1000 tweets which contain the search word typed into the text box at the top. You can also enter a Twitter ID preceded by the '@' symbol to see the latest tweets from that user. Newbie on twitter are recommended to read the Twitter dictionary at http://twictionary.pbworks.com/ to understand tweet culture and learn the language of this micro-community.


What you can with twitter


Now with just 140 words, the users of the twitter community have managed to keep in touch on the go and have managed to use it more innovatively too. You can respond to your friend’s tweets in real time and all this is visible to users who follow your account.


Users can also search for other twitter users from the same community or with a common interest and follow them. Users can also be blocked and this happens when spammers use twitter accounts to widen their distribution. According to a review, web interfaced applications of twitter are more popular with 48.1% of user using it. This is followed by desktop clients of 21.8% and mobile interface users of about 17.9%.


Twitter as a personalised communication platform continues to inspire business community andn the new solution named Twibs is a basically a directory of businesses using Twitter to communicate with consumers, peers, and tastemakers. The transformation of branding and marketing using this social media cannot be ignored by businesses who are looking at online media with budget constraints. Twibs is currently tracking roughly 4,500 brands on Twitter as well as associated promotions that they're running within the popular micro community.

Who uses twitter


Twitter universe includes not only common users but also business organisations, marketers, colleges / universities, broadcasters, news services, radio stations, weather bureaus and even some government organisations. Professionals like writers, photographers, musicians, music groups and some celebrities have also been bitten by the twitter bug.



Celebrity clones, fakers and minor celebrities seem more active on this platform for obvious reasons. The government of US, UK and Australia use twitter while celebrities like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, 10 DowningStreet, Shashi Tharoor, Neil Diamond, Demi Moore, Queen Rania are also on twitter. In Oman, several bloggers use twitter and the community is fast expanding with blackberry users who tweet via mobile clients.
Interesting applications


Deskptop clients such as Tweetdeck feature twitter functionality right on the desktop. It helps to upload pics to Twitpic and shortens your URLs (via bit.ly). Through blip.fm which is like Twitter for music, and you can share tracks with other users in real time.


Twitvid enables video sharing (upto 1GB or 20 mins) while Filetwt does the same for file sharing (up to 20 MB) with your friends. Twazzup let you query tweets and Tweetstats provides like, how often do you actually tweet, how often do you @reply, trends of individual accounts etc. and puts them into visual charts and graphs for better understanding.


Spy master is a twitter-based online social game, where you use your twitter account to sign up. All fellow spies in this game are your twitterers. Twitter notifications are the real keys to the game. For doing all of these various tasks, you get in-game fake money, points to level-up to become a better spymaster. On failing in assassination attempts or other tasks, you can get injured and lose money. The activities within the spymaster can set up to automatically tweet out when you do them. This game can get people addicted, annoyed or be overwhelmed.


TweetChannels

Twitter users can set up channels and members of this channels cann send tweets which will aggregate under the channel. Thematic channels have some interesting contents as users of these cahnnels have creative as well as a wider range of tweets of interest. Find your favourite channels and join the same or create one for your networked community. TweetChannel is another simple example of how something simple is creating or leading to increasingly complex behaviour.


TweetUp is an offline meeting of people who have met and organized on Twitter, and they’re a great way to both find local Twitter users. It’s time for readers to start tweeting and let’s meet at a Tweetup and take Twitter-based networking to the next level.

Demystifying CAPTCHA & RECAPTCHA

Human Interaction Proof: Captcha and reCaptcha

A common joke about the Internet goes on like this: “Anything can be anyone on the Internet” or like “On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog”. These seemingly humorous but realistic views are based on the fact that anyone can have an online identity that they wish to have, far apart from reality. An average aged man can pretend to be a teen interested in online games and enter a chat room where teens engage in candid conversations.

The same applies to obtaining profiles in social networking website and email addresses. There is no need to declare one’s real world identity and there are no verifications to whatever details are submitted.

Anonymity online

This has been used by Spammers who create false accounts top to send spam emails and some programmed software-bots can indulge in visits to increase site traffic artificially. Hackers may also tempt you with free malware to encourage you to download these and share your contacts.

Spam emails are operated software programs that login automatically without any human intervention and these accounts are increasingly misused. The only means to avert this situation is to restrict based on human interaction which requires a confirmed proof that it is a human sitting at the keyboard interacting.

Gotcha a Captcha

In order to avoid such automatic login by spurious methods, a simple text-based solution is commonly used. This system called the CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) displays specific set of a meaning less word rendered in a skewed graphic style as an image.

The most common form of CAPTCHA is an image of several distorted letters. The visitor identifies and types the correct series of letters in the form. If these letters match the ones in the distorted image, then the visitor has passed the test and proceeds to the requested service page. For visually impaired users, there are alternative versions that use audio versions of Captcha.

This method has been quite successful in eliminating malware programs in signing into thousands of accounts automatically. Certain techniques used to create CAPTCHA are complex, and so software is less likely to identify the characters or remove any background noise created purposefully.

Server-side programming

For those webmasters or web-developers who wish only legitimate humans to enter their login forms, scripts are available for download and they need to be installed in their web server. Once properly placed these scripts will activate the code and generate a Captcha before proceeding with the rendering of the web page or form. Only when the user correctly identifies the Captcha, the server presents the requested web form for further action in the website.

It is important for a webmaster to test his Captcha generating software in his server system randomly as the graphic rendered sometimes has too much noise or distortion that even humans find it difficult to decipher. Yet another common problem is that normally Captcha images come is smaller sizes and magnifying them is not possible. This makes it difficult for readers with short vision ailments.

Techniques such as overlapping characters or free-style connected characters are used to make Captcha harder to crack using software. Use of shades, background prints and other resizing distortion techniques are also sometimes implemented.

In the recent times, malwares are floating around the net misusing the Captcha. On infected machines they pop-up text saying something like “if you don't solve this captcha within three minutes then your machine will shut down” and reader are warned not to respond to such messages; just close the pop-up message box.

Microsoft’s Asirra

Microsoft has its own version of Captcha called the Asirra which implements HIP (Human Interactive Proof) using pets. ASIRRA stands for (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access) where images of animals are displayed and users are required to identify the species. To prevent brute-force attack on repeated images, Microsoft has partnered with a website (www.petfinder.com) for homeless pets containing over 2million images of pet animals. Here randomly selected animal pictures are presented to identify the species. Log on to http://tinyurl.com/ltch5w to test Asirra in your website.

Project Gutenberg

While the Captcha project aims to test humans and computers apart, scientific research at the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA uses this simple human effort in recognising letters in totally different context. Some of you readers would remember reading about project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/.

Project Gutenberg aims to produce free electronic books through digitisation of old books by tens of thousands of volunteers. Thousand of books and newspapers are being scanned using robotic devices and using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, their electronic text-based versions have been created. Currently this project site at has a collection of over 28,000 free books as per their Online Book Catalogue and a grand total of over 100,000 titles available through Project Gutenberg Partners, Affiliates and Resources.

CMU’s ReCaptcha

For the newer books, the OCR technique is about 90% accurate, but this drops to as low as 60% for older texts, which often contain fonts that are blurry and less uniform. Again robotic suction cups flip pages for scanning and this sometimes induces letter distortions.

CMU’s ReCaptcha project takes words from old books and newspapers that optical character reading software has marked as unreadable by computers. By deciphering these words, users are helping to complete the conversion of old texts to digital form. As millions of Captcha are correctly recognised by real humans worldwide, valuable knowledge is being created for free exchange worldwide.

ReCaptcha for your websites

CMU’s ReCaptcha can also help digitize the text of books while protecting websites from bots attempting to access restricted areas. Recaptcha supplies subscribing websites with images of words that optical character recognition (OCR) software has been unable to read. The subscribing websites (whose purposes are generally unrelated to the book digitization project) present these images for humans to decipher as CAPTCHA words, as part of their normal validation procedures.

They then return the results to the ten-second increments, millions of hours of a most precious resource: human brain cycles. service, which sends the results to the digitization projects. This provides about the equivalent of 160 books per day, or 12,000 man-hours per day of free labour for a valuable cause to the global community.

ReCaptcha is acclaimed to deliver over 30 million images every day and currently in the process of digitizing text from the Internet Archive and the archives of the New York Times. Apart from free mail-service sites, even social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon support this project.

For users who wish to protect their email addresses from being captured by spammers, a mail ID hide ReCaptcha comes to rescue. Using this utility your sent emails are encrypted and shielded with a Mailhide API key. Anyone wishing to see your mail Id is challenged with a Captcha which can be only solved by humans and not automated programs of spammers. For more details log on to http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/. This is the miracle of harvesting in ten-second increments, millions of hours of a most precious resource: human brain cycles and using for a more worthy cause.

What a COVER!

What makes the cover of the New Yorker magazine dated 1st June 2009 so very special?

This cover image is drawn using 'Brushes' software entirely on the iPhone: of course using his fingers!!!

Jorge Colombo did this fete standing outside Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Times Square, Newyork.








Here is also a video how he used his finger to get the touches. Another interesting application 'Brushes Viewer' enables one to record the entire drawing process as seen in this video. iLove... iPhone ........ now iDraw!

Summer splash - Google Wave

Thanks 'TimesMan' for this hot tip! Heard of the Google Wave?

A whole new wave to aggregate content and network community and ride the communication waves: This new product from the Google stable after 2yrs of secret brewing is out for developers to taste.

According to the developers, "A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more".

Google Wave keynote presentation



11th Commandment for Google Fraternity:

There shall be one more addiction: to aggregate Contacts, Mails, Feeds, Chats, Pictures all in a single platform!!! {{:-)

Read more about the wave on their blog!

Hot Technologies for Digital Lifestyle - Part 1

Digital Lifestyle has transcended beyond the phones, television and computers and has entered our daily lifestyle gadgets and applications. These are extracts from my guest speech this weekend for ISACA (Information System Audit and Control Association).

Some of you might look at these technologies with awe, while other skeptics might scorn....but experiments across the world will go on driven by human curiosity and creativity! As I always quote "Technology is a double edged sword: Learn to balance it".

GPS-enabled inhaler

•Asthma inhaler with built-in GPS tracking
•It features Assisted GPS, a GSM modem, integral antennas, an embedded microprocessor, and an internal rechargeable lithium ion battery.
•Reports data from anywhere in the U.S. to the research center using 3G GPRS
•Track possible danger zones that trigger asthma attacks

Tech fashion

•Vibe necklace picks up a variety of biometric signals that can be picked up by other wearers of the necklace

•Wireless, stick-on sensors as part of jewelry in the second picture

•Touch her to reveal her Tattoos, the longer and warmer, the more bold is her tattoo!

Women empowerment in a Digital Society

A Digital Society is one which is economically strengthened with digital products, technologies, solutions and capabilities, nurtured by a thick matrix of digital technologies for communication and collaboration.

This society laden with tools and devices to break the barriers of distance and time has given a panacea to women who seek to reach out and utilize their knowledge and skills without compromising their privacy and security.

Information and Communication Technologies have benefitted women in many ways. Vast archives of information available on the Internet are now at a click’s reach and in some countries at very affordable prices. The number of IT professionals and users has been growing over the years, and increasingly women have taken serious interest in IT-enabled services. It is more common to see women working in banks, airline reservation systems, call centers, software development centers, etc.

One of the Millennium Development Goals of the UN is to promote gender equality and empower women. This can be achieved by increasing literacy rate among women especially through primary and secondary education. This target also addresses issues related to empowerment of women in rural areas and increase job opportunities for women who are more commonly found to be trapped in insecure and low-paid positions. Progress in achieving these goals varies largely between different regions and technology can serve as an effective facilitator in achieving this target. Technology can spread the cause of education wider through modern communication means and it can get engagingly interactive through multimedia.

In the academic scenario of Oman, the enrolment of girls is equally balanced in computing and information technology related higher education programs. The acumen of women in logic can be effectively applied to computing profession and more specifically software and system development. There are quite a few pioneering IT teachers / lecturers as well as programmers and operators in Oman. Yet the numbers significantly low. Women are as well suited as men, and on some aspects more suited, to work in the new organizational and IT environment where the emphasis is on building relationships and on seeing different connections between people and technology. In countries like Singapore where the government’s focus is on using IT for national development, over 55% of the workers in the IT sector are women. This is indicative of the potentials of women in technology as a national skilled work force contributing actively economically and socially.

The next few decades will see a large number of women on the Internet, creating content as well as exchanging expertise. Women power is yet to be tapped in this context and several educational institutions and training centers have a key role to play in this direction. The government of Oman in its part has recognized this as a focus group and is putting in plans targeting women for IT training as well as provision of computing equipments with a subsidy.

There are efforts taken through the Omani Woman’s Association, to empower Omani women with hands on skill in IT through formal training. The Women in Technology (WIT) program organised by the Omani Women’s Association - Muscat (OWAM) for MENA region, funded by the US Department of State and managed by IIE through the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), aims to promote economic reforms and the empowerment of women in the region. WIT program aims to train 10,000 women by 2010 and induct them into mainstream workforce.

The program delivers IT training through Microsoft's Unlimited Potential (UP) curriculum along with Professional Development workshops to improve women’s standard of living and quality of life by building their knowledge and skills and to eliminate illiteracy in information technology (IT). Microsoft's Unlimited Potential (UP) curriculum is designed to narrow the digital divide and aid global workforce development by providing access and training opportunities for communities underserved by technology including women.

The WIT program project centers of OWAM at Muscat, Musanna, Sohar, Ibra, Ibri, Taqa, Salalah, Rustaq, Saham, Buraimi and Khaburah are equipped with computers, some of which have been donated through the Microsoft Authorised Refurbishment program and about 40,000 RO worth Microsoft software has been donated to the OWAM. Through cooperative efforts, about 1350 Omani women have commendably been certified as IT literates through the WIT program in just 2yrs. The WIT program gives preference to young unemployed graduates and members of low-income families and includes scholarships to deserving students.

Omani women have been pursuing higher levels of IT literacy through formal training programs offered at educational centers and through private study. Many of them own prestigious vendor certifications and are placed in highly specialized technical positions. But there is much more to invest in terms of faith, time and resources to bring the true potential of women in the field of technology. Women in general are creative and with the imaginative mind can engage successfully in the field of web design, graphics and multimedia as well as education technology. Very limited opportunities are currently available in such exclusive studies or vocational training and they are also unaffordable for many.

As the saying goes, ‘when we educate a girl, we educate her whole family' is a clue to the realization of the Digital Society of Oman.

The Art & Science of Emails - Continued

Most corporate communications have shifted to the electronic highway and emails are fast replacing the traditional snail mails and faxes. Digital Oman explains the art of science of email communications in an effort to maximise efficiency without having unforeseen encounters with those at the receiving end.

Last week we touched upon the importance of simplicity of email addresses as well as the content of the emails. The etiquette of when to ‘Cc’ (Courtesy Copy), ‘Bcc’ (Blind Copy) and when not to was also discussed briefly. This week lets talk about de-cluttering and re-structuring content.

Cut the clutter

Email can never be heard and so avoid using pun / abbreviations that you expect your receiver to understand readily. Even if there is no instant solution, it is a courtesy to acknowledge the email and agree on a reasonable time to respond. Hold on to your emotions and stressful life style but avoid emotionally charged statements and stick to the facts. Do not add a smily J as punctuation if you don’t mean fun. Instead of piling up emails, it is interesting to respond in a timely manner and gain positive reputation.

Fonts and size

Most email clients have a default font size and style which can be customised. Use it well and set your signature as a template with appropriate contact details to avoid typing it each time. Again use font colours, bold and italics with discretion only if absolutely necessary. Adding a background banners loads the size of the email and so this can be avoided. Instead a small image say the corporate logo, can be added to the signature template.

Effective responses

Compose your response only after re-reading the entire thread in your incoming email and sometimes related responses from others as well. This way you can seal several issues concerned with a single response. Sort the inbox by title when addressing a message with a lot of responses. It is also possible to slot out email sorting time so that it doesn’t interrupt normal work.

Detach attachment

As a god practice save your attachment in the hard disk and delete it from the email and now you have a very thin email sitting in your inbox. This way you can store your emails and still keep a lean mail box. While forwarding emails, think twice about keeping the original attachment or altering it. The same applies for forwarded mail subject lines. Certainly no one likes to see FW: FW: FW:………… trails.

Security alert

Never record any personal or login information in your emails as they are transmitted without encryption and may land up in the wrong hands. Under no circumstances, open any unexpected attachment from unknown sender. Curb cyber world traffic by not forwarding any chain mails or spam emails. The same applies to hoax emails, which might cause misunderstanding or panic.

Never click on a link in a spam or hoax email or respond from your email address. This way, you are inadvertently signing into the spam mail generator’s mailing list. Just delete the spam emails and don’t even bother to ‘Unsubscribe’. For those spam emails not filtered by your server, add the email address to ‘block sender’ list.

Greeting vs. marketing

Emails sent as greetings on special occasions or as congratulatory notes must never carry any marketing message in it. The prudent customer is aware of the business proposition mixing up in the message and doesn’t take it as a well-intended greet. An employee on leaving a company sends a general email from a new email address wishing all business contacts good luck and leaving a very nice thanks note along with the key message the he/she has moved on to a new job. This is indeed a good idea to keep the contact lists alive. Use of words ‘thanks’, ‘please’, ‘enjoy’, ‘appreciate’ are known to have that magical touch of willing support. Again review your emails whether they deserve the ‘High Priority’ or ‘Low Priority’ flags being set along with appropriately.

Summarise

Often business meetings tend to be lengthy testing people’s attention spans. In such cases all points agreed for action in the meeting can be effectively summarised with expected date of action in a simple follow-up email to all attendees. This could also be used for the next meeting call as a check list of progress.

Hidden cues

To address a person correctly, see how they sign their email and use the same name; do not create your own abbreviations or friendly version to avoid annoying the receiver. Email etiquette applies not only to your clients but your colleagues as well. Even if you boiling with rage, tone down and send a ‘gentle reminder’ calling for immediate action.

Confirmations

Most often we are left clueless whether our email has reached its destination. Many a times these emails may sit in the inbox or the Spam filter without being read by the receiver while we awaits responses. To save us from these hazels there are a few automated setting like the ‘Delivery receipt’ and ‘read receipt’.

For example when you compose your email in the Microsoft Outlook, click on Message Option and activate these settings requesting a confirmation for delivery/read. So once the activity is completed, a confirmation message is displayed automatically in your email client window. Interestingly the replies to this particular email message can also be redirected to another alternative email address.

Emailing culture is here to stay and grow and being literate in this aspect helps to maintain good relationships utilising the swiftness of email communications. If readers have any pleasant or even unpleasant email experiences, you are welcome to share them with me. Etiquette is an ever evolving practice and the art of refining this culture can be mastered over time with a little bit of effort.

The art and science of email

The knowledge era includes exchange of communications through electronic media including the telephones, Internet, Emails, Instant messaging systems and video/voice conferences. Personal and corporate communications are increasingly shifting from the fax mode to the email mode and many individuals have been drawn into the email-culture without induction or formal training.

In result, unforeseen incidents create a recoil effect without the offender realising his mistakes and the resulting damage spoils relationships not only between individuals but also their organisations. Digital Oman walks through the art and science of email communications bringing out the various etiquettes involved.

It’s your choice
In no way can emails replace a face-to-face communication, if the task on hand is to communicate clearly and get the receiver’s acknowledgment. So if you choose to email, then reconsider your choice or complement your email with a supplementary follow-up phone call later.

Email address
To begin with email address can be friendly and easily memorable. In the excitement of associating every name and location details, some email addresses are as complicated as the passwords are meant to be. The idea is ‘Keep it Simple and Short’. It is possible to group certain emails, to avoid selecting or typing the address individually. Grouping could be based on close family, friends, colleagues or even department staff. To avoid sending the email accidentally before completing / reviewing it, enter the address after you have satisfactorily read through the email.

Copying
Considering the flood of text on the digital highway, trim your emails in length and certainly avoid trailing messages in the case of forwarded emails. In a corporate scenario, this is more important because the trail of email messages at the end reveal the inside story and internal discussions to the recipient who may be your client.

Again when you receive an email copied to others, use your discretion to click ‘Reply to All’ only when you think others need to know of your email response. If you want someone to be aware of the discrete email exchanges then use the ‘Bcc’ option (Blind copy) instead of carrying a whole bunch of addresses in the ‘To’ or the ‘Cc’ section (Courtesy copy). In general parlance ‘To’ address indicates action while the ‘Cc’ denotes for information. In case you receive an email not meant for you reply back courteously to the sender that you received it by mistake and it is needless to copy anyone one else in this message.

Subject line
The subject can be effectively used to highlight the context or even the purpose or main intent of action. When replying to emails, do not alter the subject as most email clients archive them into threads based on this line. Indicate action response required for the email. For example it could Info (meaning for information), review, approve, attend, request, invite, etc. The priority setting as ‘High’ or ‘Low’ can be combined for timely responses.

Tone
Creativity is for arts and linguistic articulacy is for literature and so email as an effective communication can be written in simple straightforward language. Do run a spell check before you click the ‘send’ button or else you will miss reading some unintended jokes made by your very own spelling mistakes. When you email a friend, if it on business then do include a formal salutation, greeting and a note of thanks. Use of capital letters indicates shouting and so avoid using them.

In case you need to catch the reader’s attention on certain text use highlight, bold or underline aesthetically. Even change of fonts colours can be useful to retain the info in the reader’s mind say for example in an email invite, date, place and time can be shown in a different font colour / size.

Auto-responder
Most email services have a auto-response setting to respond to your inbox messages. While it is not necessary to respond to every incoming email with a received-confirmation, planning vacations and long-absence certainly means indicating this with an auto-responder message.

Matter matters
The content of the email must be succinct and preferably on only a single main issue. If there are different messages, then choose to send them in different emails with an appropriate subject line. Emails need not be essays and longer emails are normally postponed for action later due to people’s psychology. Grammar and spellings must be followed and email clients can be set to automatic ‘spell check’ mode before sending an email.

In general the main subject content could be kept within 60% of the right side window frame to avoid scrolling (when Preview pane is activated). So take up one matter and express it in a couple of lines including expected action from the receiver. Use bullet list if there are several issues for action or response. Numbering these can make it easy for people to respond based the action items and in replies you can also use highlights.

According to research reading from screen is more difficult than reading from paper and so structure your content into short paragraphs with spaces in between. Some details can be listed out or tabulated.

Simpler user Interface to technology

Had the keyboard not been as simple as the typewriter, very few elite scientists would be using the computers even now. The basic phones have their power packed applications which are activated through very few buttons and a minimal keyboard.

So ‘User Interface; defines how simple the system is easy to use and this in turn creates the momentum for the use this technology.

In a knowledge society, access to information and the tools required to manipulate it are made available to all. People who access this information are capable of putting to good use in an appropriate manner. In order for many people to use a technology, it must meet the demand and skill levels of a very average user.

The media used to process knowledge has gone way beyond the pen and paper era. Modern machines can receive their inputs through human-friendly interactive interfaces. When it comes to such interfaces, usability is the key feature to focus and this also combined with ‘ergonomic’ – the human factors engineering of how people using technology to do their work can be affected. Ergonomics stemming from the Greek word ‘ergon’ meaning work, and ‘nomoi’ meaning natural laws), is the science of refining the design of products / technologies to optimize them for human use.

As more and more computer related work load human lives, the products like the mouse, keyboards and even computer desks and tables are used for extended periods of time unlike before. Any of these products if not designed ergonomically, people using them can suffer from stress, musculoskeletal disorders or even injuries. This is the reason behind screens that can be tilted and chairs that can be angled to suit the user’s physical profile. Let us see how advancements in devices like mouse and keyboards to make them more ergonomic – the human factor.

Take the example of the time feature in the video recorders. Most VCRs display the time 12.00 blinking non-stop, revealing the fact that the system to set it to current time is often so complicated that the user chooses to ignore the setting and live with the blinks.

In a similar manner website of product literature or even devices if not designed with adequate consideration to human factor, they well not serve their purpose. In essence usability of a device means the following:
- how quick and effortlessly it is learnable
- how efficient it is in getting the work done
- how memorable is the process of using it
- how error-free it is in its interface
- how satisfied does the user feel after using it intuitively

Any system socially acceptable, physically and psychologically usable, develop widespread acceptance and increased usage. The innovative multi-touch screens just as in the Apple iPhone / iTouch and the Microsoft Surface - tabletop system are truly changing our old habits of mouse and keyboard clicks to more natural interactive experience with gestures, touch, grab and swipe. The question of affordable reach can be answered only as time goes on.

As the site of the week on the topic of usable interfaces, let us visit a website which you can navigate by just moving your mouse to the position but not necessarily clicking it. Try to use the flash website of the Institute of Interactive Research website at http://www.dontclick.it/ where you never have to click your mouse to browse as an experimental project. Don’t just stop at the home page; enter the experimental site and give you valuable feedback. Enjoy the mouse boot camps and the mouse movement recorder.

The next level of interactivity between humans and computer can become only more natural through natural language speech recognition engines and thought-activated menu of commands. Until then lets play with the mice, clickety-click our keyboards also practice healthy computing.

Smart world of Cards!

Just check your wallets to count how many plastic cards you carry ....................................I did a random check for a different purpose and that prompted me to write this.

One of the vital signs of a digital society is the de-materialisation of several components like text, music, photographs, stock and even money. The thought of carrying money loaded in to a simple plastic card and being able to swipe it at hotels, shopping malls, traffic booths, clinics, fuel-stations, phone kiosks, and of course the ATMs is perhaps the height of comfort.

Applications

Due to the fact that they are durable and less expensive, plastic cards have found their way in several applications such as phone cards, fuel cards, insurance policy validity cards, clinic registration cards, prepaid-parking fee cards, driving license, loyalty cards, identity cards and mostly importantly in bank credit/debit cards. These cards may embed a hologram to avoid counterfeiting as well build brand identity.

History of patents

In 1968, Jurgen Dethloff and Helmet Grotrupp of Germany filed a patent for using plastic as a carrier for microchips. In 1970, the Japanese inventor, Kunitake Arimura, applied for a similar patent and subsequently the cards were introduced in Japan. In 1974, Roland Moreno of France registered his smart card patent in France, and sometime during the mid-1980s, the French banks began to use them as retail debit cards and eventually rail and road transport systems started their applications.

Security

In order to increase the misuse of these cards special readers are associated with them. But card-skimming devices can be bought off-the-shelf leading to unprecedented violation of privacy and fraud. Banks normally use credit / debit cards to effect transactions at ATMs or at Point-of-Sale terminals. Such operations require authorisation of PIN (Personal Identity Number) and/or signature verification. Until today most such cards use only a half-inch magnetic stripe to store this data that needs to be verified with online connectivity with the back-end systems of the banking institution. However the smart cards due to the presence of the IC chips are certainly safer for cash value transactions.

Smart cards

Smart cards are chip-based plastic cards with a basic processor and memory modules in an integrated electronic circuit. In addition they are capable of strong encryption using the crypto-processor module. Their 100 bytes to 128 Kilobytes memory can store the private key signature of the card holder.
On the whole the use of smart cards provides three-fold security that is appropriate for electronic fund transfer operations:
• Something that the user knows (Personal Identity Number – PIN)
• Something the user has (physical possession of the smart card)
• Something the user is (personal biometric sample say finger-prints)

As in the case of our National Identity cards issued by the Directorate general of Civil Status (http://www.civilstatus.gov.om/), which are capable of holding cash and serving as e-wallets, the facility depends on the payment gateway agreement among the banks and the secure application that has been placed within the smart chip.

In order to load electronic cash into his smart card, the user has to either the compatible ATM or other access device capable of loading currency value issued by authorized banking institution. As and when this value depletes due to subsequent swiping for shopping activities, the value can be topped-up again.

Smart card structure

With strong security options the Smart cards technology seems to sound the death knell for the magnetic strip cards. The magnetic strip-cards are now replaced with Integrated-Chip based (ICC) smart cards. These chips carry their own Chip Operating Systems (COS) software such as MPCOS, MultOS, JavaCard, CyberFlex and StarCOS.

The ICC card that is capable of storing electronic money like a wallet is called a Stored Value Card (SVC). Chip cards can perform various duties such as pocket change, paper money, debit and credit cards, means of identification, access, or even payment. A smart card can be a simple memory-only or a microchip embedded one with a wireless antenna as well.

Memory Card, Processor-chip card, Crypto-processor card and Contact-less card are the basic types of Smart cards. The first three types of smart cards take the form of either ‘contact-based’ card which are to be read by a card reader or contact-less cards that use radio frequency signals to operate.

Use of Smart Cards

OmanOil, Shell and Al Maha fuel cards, telephone cards, executive card, etc are all chip-based cards. These are all pre-paid value cards. But truly speaking Oman Arab Bank’s smart card is the first smart card in use in Oman. The Muscat Municipality, ministry of manpower, ministry of civil services, many other shopping centres, restaurants and clinics, accept it as a means of payment.

In the case telecom cards, the initial subscription for a service uses a plastic card embedded with chip section that is the actual Subscriber’s Identity Module (SIM). The user detached this from the card and places it inside the mobile phone to validate his connectivity. The rest of PIN numbers and PUK (Personal Unblocking Key) numbers remain printed for verification on the plastic cards. Recharge cards normally have a secretly printed activation code under a thin coat of paint that is scratched off to reveal the code.

In a digital society where most transactions and interaction for authentication are automated through machines, the presence of cards, more specifically smart cards is only expected to grow. Only innovative organisations and government bodies can strategically incorporate more than one application and we are left with few cards to carry in our wallets.

Design of Oman's Airports of the Future

Here is a preview of Oman’s Airports of the future designs as published by COWI - a leading northern European consulting group.

Muscat International Airport can be expanded to accommodate 48 million passengers annually.

Both Muscat and Salalah International Airports will be built with landing facilities that can handle the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airplane.

Designers have made sure the airports have room to accommodate the large welcoming parties common in Oman.

The detailed design studies include a high-tech automated baggage system.

The airports’ exteriors are inspired by traditional Omani architecture, but inside, the architecture reflects contemporary trends.

Automated walkways whisk passengers to their gate at Muscat International Airport.

National Ferries Company Website Up

The National Ferries Company Website has an update at http://www.nfcoman.com/.

Although the website seems to be currently under construction, the temporary homepage gives essential contact, schedules and tariff information. I notice a small concession for Khasab-residents one-way fare. Interesting!

They have a toll free number 800 72000 and email contact reservation@nfcoman.com which I remember being published in various media earlier.

We might have to wait a while to book online, but I found the folks very supportive and informative on my direct interactions for a sun-set cruise. Thanks.