Arab News March 25, 2003
Information Sources out of Control Are Worthless
By Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Arab News Staff
ALKHOBAR, 25 March 2003 - The start of the war in Iraq has increased the demand for news. People are looking to traditional and non-traditional sources to meet their thirst for up to the minute knowledge. I read Arab News every morning, but then as a terrible news junkie, I need to get further information from TV and the Internet throughout the day. With the crisis on, I hated to go anywhere because I worried that I might miss a piece of information vital to my personal safety. This was wreaking havoc with my life. I felt like I was chained to technology. My friends weren't doing very well either. Those who didn't have an Internet connection at work kept phoning to get the latest bad news. In the interest of time management, I probably should have just updated my answering machine every couple of hours to give out the most recent headlines.
I'd been receiving SMS communications from around the world since the start of the conflict. My favorite was, "Is it a coincidence that the war started on the 3rd day of the 3rd week of the 3rd month of the 3rd year of the 3rd millennium? Is this the start of the 3rd World War?"
Since the short messages were getting through, even during times of peak demand, I decided to harness this technology for a useful purpose. I subscribed to a news service that would send text messages to my phone.
"Breaking News" is an offering from Maktoob.com. The purpose of Breaking News is to bring the latest local, regional, and international news headlines directly to mobile phones. The best thing about Breaking News is that it enables you to be informed wherever you are. While common in the US and parts of Europe and Asia, mobile services have just started to become available in the Arab world.
To subscribe to the service, first you must have a free e-mail account with Maktoob.com. It takes a few minutes to sign up if you don't have an account. Users pay for a Breaking News subscription with something called CashU points (cashucard.com). To get CashU points, a CashUcard is needed. In the Kingdom, CashU cards are available in various denominations from the offices of Aramex courier service. Note that CashU cards are sold in varying point values. For example, a 500 point CashU card is purchased for SR42 at Aramex and is worth $10.
To pay with CashU points, the points must first be deposited in a CashU account. It takes about three minutes to set up a CashU account at cashucard.com. The only thing a bit ugly about the process is the demand on the online form for an e-mail to "tell friends about CashU." Make sure you have some sort of e-mail address to put in that space.
Once the account is set up, scratch the film off the back of the CashU card and type the hidden code into the space indicated for refilling the account. Make sure you type the code exactly as it appears. That task completed, the CashU account is credited with the amount and it's time to start spending the CashU points.
To get the SMS news service, go to Maktoob.com and click on "Breaking News." Follow the instructions making sure you correctly type in the mobile phone number where you want the messages sent. Choose to have the news headlines texted in English or Arabic. To pay for the service, provide your CashU details. It's $3.50 or 175 CashU points for a one-month subscription; $10 or 500 points for three months.
I started getting headlines within a couple of hours after subscribing to the service. The number of headlines coming in daily varies depending on the number of significant events taking place. The information is good but there have been a few glitches. Sometimes the same message arrives twice. Once the last word of a headline was missing. Yesterday, a message stating that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was about to deliver a speech, arrived about 1 hour after the speech had been given.
I contacted Samih Toukan, managing director, Maktoob to clarify a few points.
"To provide Breaking News, Maktoob is working with a company in the UAE called Allo Emirates," said Toukan. "They are furnishing the news headlines. Allo Emirates believes that headlines coming in late are delayed by the SMS network and it is a problem they are working to solve."
Despite the glitches in the service, I'm still happy with it. Breaking News allows me to do my work and other business without taking time out to frequently check the news. If a significant event happens, the message comes in to the mobile phone. It takes just a moment to read the headline and then I can decide if I need to know more immediately or if I should just keep on with what I'm doing. This has allowed me to manage the overwhelming flood of information resulting from this crisis and it has reduced my stress level.
Another thing I have done to keep my stress level down, in regards to reports coming out of the war in Iraq, is to better understand the background of the situation. To do this I have in part turned to specific websites. For questions about anything military, globalsecurity.org is first-rate. At this website are posted full transcripts of many press conferences, speeches and briefings. There are also summaries about troop deployments and weapons systems. Maps, satellite photos, documents - it seems everything having to do with the war in Iraq is available.
For tech fans, there are good articles such as, "When a gun is more than a gun," and "Faster, better weapons."
GlobalSecurity.org does have a very pro-war bias, so balance the news stories at the site with those being posted at the Independent Media Center (indymedia.org).
To find information about the threats war brings to ordinary souls, I read dozens of the documents linked through twotigersonline.com/resources.html. This knowledgebase makes it possible to learn about many potential menaces in a very straightforward manner.
Don't be put off at first glance by the hundreds of articles listed in the knowledgebase. The articles are grouped into sections.
The early sections about US Homeland Security aren't of much interest in the Middle East. Scroll down a bit and skim through the titles in sections on nuclear, chemical and biological threats as well as a section on hazardous devices, bombs and explosive ordinance emergencies. Reading this stuff might sound like recreation for a serious pessimist but it actually helps to squash the hype put out by talking heads on TV.
Managing and understanding the information spewing out everywhere in regards to this crisis is essential when making your important decisions. A feeling of control is also imperative in reducing the level of stress in your life and allowing you to make the most of each day.
Information technology resources can bring value to your life only when they are used to your advantage.
Copyright © 2003, Arab News
