Book on HM’s personal website ready to be launched

MUSCAT: After the launch of His Majesty’s globally acclaimed personal website, Hamoud Al Azri, the general supervisor of the website is ready to launch a book which showcases the journey from the initial idea to create the website, to the final product.

Published in English and Arabic, the 165 page book will display picture captions describing each stage of development of the website and explaining how it was created.

The book is entitled, ‘Scenes from a Journey - Oman Qaboos’ and will be available in December. According to Hamoud, 5,000 copies of the book will be published, illustrating the journey from start to finish. “It is not easy to publish a website about the head of a coun- try, as there are several aspects involved in the development. A lot of people ask me how you came up with this idea, as well as questions about the whole process. This book will show the people how the entire initiative started, and how I started the process, and final stages of the journey, to create this successful website,” he said.

“People also ask me how the website was translated into 30 different languages. The book shows that I had the translations done at the respective embassies of every country, even though I was approached by many independent translators,” Hamoud added.

His Majesty’s personal website, which is available in 30 languages, has received praise from Heads of state of many countries, including Pranab Mukherjee, president of India, Queen Beatrix of Netherlands, Benigno Aquino III, former president of Philippines, and South Korean President Park Geun Hye.

One of the website’s initiatives was to allow people from any part of the world to express their greetings to His Majesty in 30 languag- es. More than 46,000 greetings have been received and will be published by the end of December.

Hamoud also noted that the website will be accessible to the deaf and blind by early next year, so that His Majesty’s biography could be read by more people.

The development plans are underway to have a new edition of the website, with a new design, by next year. The content of the website, in 30 languages, is to be compiled in a 600 page book which will be published next year, after careful approval of embassies. “The design and content is 99 per cent ready. We are only waiting for the approval,” Hamoud said.