BuzzCity's mobile Internet community myGamma.com (www.mygamma.com) is the mobile equivalent of mySpace, letting members post personal profiles and blogs, contact old friends and meet new people across the mobile universe. However, it is not a MySpace rip-off.

"While we were working with paid mobile content in 2003, we noticed that users were responding positively to community features that allowed them to interact with one another," recalled BuzzCity’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Lai Kok Fung. "We began exploring the idea of bringing social networking features into mobile phones. We gradually developed community tools like group discussions, private message boards, blogging, photo sharing, testimonials, virtual gifting and marriage over the years."

These features, he noted, are similar to those in social networking sites like MySpace, but there is one important difference. While they have to retain the emotional appeal of allowing users to connect and share with each other, the features have to work with the small and text-heavy screen of mobile phones.

Dr Lai (centre) receives the Best Mobile Social Networking Service Award from Dr Paul E. Jacobs (left), CEO of Qualcomm. On the right is Global Mobile Awards 2008 host Graham Norton.

Having identified their target market as users of mobile Internet, BuzzCity designed myGamma to appeal specifically to this segment, which mainly comprised the emerging middle class in the developing world and blue-collar workers in the developed world. "If we had followed the conventional wisdom of going after well-heeled people in the developed countries (that is, the knowledge workers), then our service would have reflected this bias," observed Dr Lai.

This would have been fatal, as the bulk of mobile Internet users tend to access the Internet exclusively through their phones, while fixed-line Internet users mostly prefer their PCs or laptops to the phone's small screen. "There is very little overlap between fixed-line Internet and mobile Internet users," said Dr Lai, "and companies that pursue the intersect are very likely to fail."

So far, their marketing, via mobile Internet, has been spot on, with 2.5 million members from 66 countries taking up their free registration. "Our biggest markets are South Africa, India, Indonesia and Thailand. We are now seeing great growth from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Traffic from UK, the Baltic
countries and some Eastern European countries such as Romania is very encouraging, too."

In awarding the prize, the judges commented, "Let the people speak. Rapidly growing social network site spanning borders, cultures and languages. The world just got a lot smaller – and smarter."

Singapore infocomm companies are taking their expertise to the Middle East, and the latest result of their engagement with the region is the launch of Hukoomi – a new one-stop portal for the Government of Qatar by NCS and the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based Qatar Services Platform that enables the efficient sharing of common services by EcQuaria.

Commissioned by ictQATAR (www.ictQATAR.qa), the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology of the State of Qatar, Hukoomi marks a milestone in the Qatar Government’s commitment to deliver world-class government services to the people who visit, live and work in Qatar.

Currently, the portal links and hosts 48 government entities, providing the necessary information and online services. Designed and built with the users in mind, it provides a one-stop experience for citizens, residents, visitors and businesses, giving them easy and convenient access to government information and services at any time of the day.

NCS and Ecquaria worked closely with ictQATAR to develop the e-government portal and services platform.

To ensure the successful implementation of the new portal, Singapore systems integrator NCS (www.ncs.com.sg) worked closely with ictQATAR on Portal Content and Infrastructure, which cover consultation and development of the IT architecture, content development
and customisation.

In a separate project, platform provider Ecquaria Technologies (www.ecquaria.com) has developed a new set of commercial registration e-services which are also available on the portal. The services allow individuals and businesses to register new businesses and manage existing commercial registration processes online. The services are powered by the Qatar Service Platform (QSP), which was developed on the Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform (Ecquaria SOP).

With the commercial registration e-services, business users can now transact online and make e-payments for a set of pilot e-services, saving themselves numerous visits to government entities. Available in both English and Arabic, the e-services allow individuals and businesses to set up a new business online – from registration, to approvals, to required documentation, to payments – through the one-stop shop. They also allow current businesses to renew their commercial registration, change company details and reserve or change a business name.

The underlying QSP provides the central integrated and hosting enterprise infrastructure that enables the efficient sharing of common services such as user authentication, e-payment and data services from various agencies. Ecquaria worked closely with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and ictQATAR to launch the pilot e-services through the seamless backend integration with other agencies such as Qatar’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, National Health Authority, Publication Department and Ministry of Interior. With a common service gateway along with the common standards and interface provided via QSP, agencies also have the flexibility to develop and host their e-services centrally.