'How smart are our smartphones?'

The question whether smartphones are making us smart or dumb can be a tricky one but the fact is that this device is making the world smarter.

Smart devices are needed for smart governance and the upcoming Majlis Ashura elections are a pointer towards this direction.

While the elections will be conducted via smartphones, all ROP services and bank transactions are too being done mostly through e-services – making use of technology that is completely customisable now.

As our phones may be preloaded with apps to help us perform our day-to-day activities efficiently, their increased use has been evident in Oman’s government services.

The new high-accuracy application for the Majlis Ashura elections was launched recently ensuring both secrecy and cybersecurity. This process is fully reliant on artificial intelligence accessible via smartphones to enable the voters from Oman and abroad alike to elect their preferred candidates.

The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology had earlier announced that the digital transformation programme included launching of the first phase of the National Unified e-Government Services Portal, unrolling e-services rendered to citizens and businesses, and streamlining procedures and re-engineering of basic e-government services.

In the context of the Royal Directives to continue boosting digital competence and preparedness and to accelerate the pace of e-government transformation, His Majesty the Sultan during his one of the meeting with the Council of Ministers reaffirmed his constant follow-up of the efforts exerted by the government.

During the meeting, His Majesty directed the speedy implementation of the National Unified e-Government Services Portal to serve as a composite platform incorporating all government services.

According to experts, smart technology augments decision making skills that we would be hard pressed to accomplish on our own.

Supplemented by technology, we are actually capable of accomplishing much more complex tasks than we could with our abilities.

With e-governance increasingly becoming helpful in the growth story, the concerns of naysayers about ‘too much application’ of technology are found to be not based on reality.

So far, there is no proof that digital technology or our phones harm our biological cognitive abilities.

Well for some, life is getting easier because of technology instead. Previously phones were dumb but now they are becoming smarter and things are getting easier because of their functionalities. Till next ...

BLURB

With e-governance increasingly becoming helpful in the growth story, the concerns of naysayers about ‘too much application’ of technology are found to be not based on reality. So far, there is no proof that digital technology or our phones harm our biological cognitive abilities.