Future foundation portal proves a big hit

Scientific platform offers latest developments in future technologies and innovations

An online Arab knowledge website launched by Dubai Future Foundation is welcoming 20,000 visitors daily who are looking to view the latest cuttingedge advances in science and technology, said organisers yesterday.

Mostaqbal Portal, a scientific platform touting the latest developments in future science and innovation in strategic sectors, has logged 114 million views of its online videos and reports that it now has four million followers through its social media channels.

The new portal was created as part of the Dubai Future Agenda which aims to support and strengthen the role of the future of individuals, organisations and sectors in the national economy.

Saif Al Aleeli, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation, said in a statement yesterday that the Mostaqbal Portal serves to support the Dubai Future Agenda, launched by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, VicePresident and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to help talented minds mould and shape their future.

The website also helps the public stay up to date on the latest scientific news and advancements.

Al Aleeli said that Shaikh Mohammad’s vision is focused on making the Dubai Future Foundation a platform for the revival of the ‘House of Wisdom’ — the centre of learning in the Golden Age of Islam — and the dissemination of science and knowledge, which supports UAE’s humanitarian efforts.

“The world is witnessing rapid and continuous change, driven by several variables — economic, social and technological — based on the fourth industrial revolution. The role of the portal is to instil a future-oriented culture among members of the community to help them understand the impact of these variables on their lifestyle by identifying challenges and opportunities,” he said.

The Dubai Future Foundation has recently added a page to the portal to encourage submissions from across the Arab region with a view to eventually including visual material and scientific research, all published on a single Arabic-language website.

‘Submissions rewritten’

One of the key draws of the new portal is that highly technical science and technology submissions shared on the website are then weighed and rewritten in “a simplified scientific language, more accessible to the general public”, the foundation said yesterday.

The format is working, judging by the increase in unique visitors to the website, the foundation said.

“The monthly audit of the portal and its social media channels revealed a marked increase in both the number of visitors and the level of interactions with the online audience. The platform has been uploading 90 videos per month — a rate of three per day — to its Facebook page. These videos have been viewed a total of 114,636,340 times, while the number of retweets on the portal’s Twitter account exceeded one million,” the foundation said.