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Maldives on the web.
Written by talkinelf, 24 weeks ago (2008-03-08 20:09:54)

Internet came to Maldives in the early days of 1996. At that time the internet tariff was above reach for the average end users. A Decade later as the internet tariffs dropped to packages as low as RF299 a month, we can now state that every household has an internet connection in the capital male’. Even the remotely distributed island communities have easy access to internet connections now.


Statistics of Telecommunication Authority of Maldives records 8575 internet connections distributed throughout the Maldives at the end of January 2008. This is 2494 counts increase since I last checked these stats a year back. The 8265 connections is further distributed to several computer hence my guess is the client computer connected to the World Wide Web would increase a lot more than this amount.


The first website to be published on the internet in Dhivehi language was Haveeru online. Since then several websites of the government sectors has been published on the web both in Dhivehi and English Language. One of the most recent to join this chain is the website of the High Court.


At the increased rate of daily web browsing the news about Maldives, rules and regulations and statistical reports availability on the web increased day by day. Without hesitation I can say that if someone requires information about Maldives it can be easily seen on the web today. Likewise there is a magnitude of information for; Government or Cooperate firms, university students or tourists seeking information of Maldives or a certain sector of Maldives for research purpose or of any other.


Through my deep digging in to the web specifically that of Maldives I came to discover there are more than 900 downloadable Documents on Rules, Regulations, Guidelines, Statistics and forms for different services. Amongst which I would highlight certain documents or information which I was amused to see on the web and which I would describe as no Maldivian would look for on the web. The Census and other such statistical data of past and its graphical charts, Monthly review of the macroeconomy of maldives, Booking details and online booking of Dharubaaruge and other such seminar and reception halls, Listing of Senior Government Staffs above the level of Assistant under secretary to the level of president of the republic of Maldives, 2008 book list of all grades, Academic calendar of the year 2008, Daily statistics of Fisheries and Agricultural sector, Nearly Every details of resort, hotels and Guest house, live-aboard in Maldives ,Reports of bid evaluations, The constitution of the Republic of Maldives, details of all the International declaration treaties and conventions Maldives is a part, Regulations governed in different sectors of Maldives, And etc. these are just a small amount of data.


It is quite difficult with lots of bureaucracy to pass in order to acquire some of the above mentioned information and it is mostly unlikely to be given such information in most circumstances. The most surprising part is that staffs would not be able to direct us to the web URL which is a much hassle free path to obtain these data. I myself have experienced such scenarios.


Apart from those websites owned by the Government of Maldives, Commercial firms or organizations there are quite a lot of nonprofit websites of individuals or youth communities. There came an age of Discussion and photo forums, Blogging, Social Networking and several web applications for the Maldivian community exists. At the peak days of Discussion and photo forums there were approximately 13,000 registered members on around 9 active forums with countless amounts of posts. The participation on discussion forum was most active at the end of 2005 and the 2006. Then came a hit on blogging. There are around 1100+ listed Maldivian bloggers with an average of 200 blog posts per week. Some of these bloggers make around 2 blog post within a week totaling up to a 25 – 30 blog posts per day. There are topics ranging from personal thoughts and view to political opinions and comments on actions by the government or individuals, personal advices, poetry, technical, informational, gossips and some blogs of professional thoughts, advice and training.


Pictures say a thousand words hence the photography of Maldives play a major role in portraying Maldives on the web. There are approximately 900 users on Unique Maldives group the most active Maldivian flickr user group. Maldivian photographers publish an average of 25 photographs daily to flickr. Most of which are viewed hundreds of times and favorite by many. Pictures of some talented photographers of Maldives has been seen on flickr explore on several occasions.

Another area Maldives is most popular on the WWW is the political sector. The daily happenings and most up to date news and coverage of the Maldives politics is brought to us from a political website rather than the state run Voice of Maldives or the Television Maldives. These websites are either affiliated with or supporting the government, Websites owned by political parties, hates website of some political figures, Anti government websites, or some website promoting a specific political figure. A lot of mid aged citizens, and youth visit these websites routinely to view and obtain live video, photo and news updates.


Social Networking has been a great hit at all times. Different applications gain popularity and are adapted in to daily routines of many. Most Social Networking applications of which Maldivians are a part of have been the internationally renowned ones. Due to the small Maldivian community social network websites targeted to our community has not gained much popularity up to date. However there are several web applications developed and targeted to Maldivian communities and generating hits relevant to its targeted audience. Some of these applications will be featured on MWD in a near future.

All statistics unless stated so are collected by my personal research on the web. And all statistics are true as of 01st March 2008.

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