The biggest user of mDubai was Dubai Police which used it to deliver over 125,000 SMS messages to members of the public. The Department of Health and Medical Services (DOHMS) came second with 45,000 messages, followed by the Dubai Civil Defence (43,000). Dubai eGovernment launched mDubai in September 2003 to offer a brand-new platform to government departments to deliver information, alerts and other communication to citizens through mobile phones and other mobile devices such as PDAs (personal digital assistants).
'mDubai reflects Dubai eGovernment's commitment to explore innovative channels for interaction between the public and government departments. The milestone achievement of half a million messages sent by 25 participating departments in just three months demonstrates the efficacy of the new service and also reflects the departments' commitment to Dubai eGovernment,' said Salem Al Shair, Director eServices, Dubai eGovernment.
'mDubai is a project that leverages the increasing popularity of mobile phones to building communication channels with citizens. SMS is today one of the most effective ways of communication in both business and personal life. The ultimate aim of mDubai is to allow government departments to communicate with their customers through mobile phones, PDAs and the Web, using advanced technology. The response from the departments indicates that we are on the right track as we move towards an advanced stage of e-governance,' added Al Shair.
mDubai offers government departments a powerful new channel to deliver messages to their target audience within seconds. In the first stage, the service will concentrate on SMS via mobile phones. Each participating government has been given a user name and a password to allow them to send SMS to their database of customers using special software, through a new portal www.mdubai.ae.
'mDubai is a direct response to the growing popularity of mobile messaging,' said Al Shair. 'Market research studies indicate that the number of mobile phone users is set to multiply several times in the near future. Furthermore, messaging is becoming more sophisticated with the MMS (multimedia message service) technology. For Dubai eGovernment this is yet another powerful channel to achieve its goal of providing public services electronically. Following the success of the first phase, we expect many more government departments to join the mDubai platform in order to deliver messages instantly and cost-effectively.'
Quelle: AME Info,
