With my browsing of the newspaper “Al -Watan”, whose topics touched the citizen’s daily life, the article of Professor Sawsan Al -Shaer, entitled “Unfortunately … the reason is only 6 thousand dinars annually.” I was reading and drowning in its details until my mind flew away, to put in the old “Ferjan” of Muharraq, when the hypothesis and the sound of the sailor, and they were preparing for the diving season, and a pearl that may have fallen from the hand of time, and did not find its way to the digital archiving yet.
A strange story suddenly floated in my memory, returning to 2005 when I was walking in a cold street of Scotland, as smart devices had not yet invaded people’s pockets. In the middle of the street, a man appeared in his traditional Scottish outfit with a traditional music. She approached him, and she asked very politely to take pictures of him from several sides, with the aim of converting the scene later into a three -dimensional image. What really surprised me, that after the filming ended, he simply took out his pocket (Business Card), and for wonder, it has a link for his own website! I could not resist my curiosity, and as soon as I returned to housing, I rushed to enter the site to find his pictures, his autobiography, his daily and places of his presence! At that time, I felt that this man had previously era, despite being a simple street musician.
After many years of this story, and despite all the developments that we have seen in the digital world, I am still whenever you talk to some parties in Bahrain about the need to own an official website, they respond to me with a sarcastic smile: «Who needs a site now? Instagram and Twitter are enough for us! ” It seems that the concept of official digital presence has not yet reached the full awareness of some of our institutions, which prefer to leave its history, data and stories scattered in temporary publications that fade within days.
The article of Professor Sawsan Al -Shaer, despite her focus on the National Library and the absence of her digital platform due to only 6 thousand dinars, is in fact a small part of a larger and deeper problem. The absence of these platforms from our institutions simply means that we leave our history and the memory of our society is subject to loss and forgetfulness. At a time when artificial intelligence has become devouring every information that he finds on the web, and turns it into knowledge that serves humanity, we are the victory of our cultural treasures behind the walls of digital silence.
Perhaps like me, when you use artificial intelligence techniques for deep research, you are surprised that many of the results come from reports and news published in the newspaper “Al -Watan” itself! Is this not a simple practical evidence that what we grow today digitally will win tomorrow as a reliable reference and an indispensable source?
Building a strong digital presence is not a luxury or “fascism”, but rather a necessity that is no less important than documenting our heritage and history, and preserving our national memory from being lost. Every information, image, or document that we publish electronically is a pearl that we add to the Bahrain History necklace, in which our future generations will decorate.
So, next time, when you find yourself smiling with a slightness of the idea of owning an official website, remember that Scottish, who preceded you in many steps in a cold street twenty years ago, then remember that history does not have mercy on those who are late. Who knows? Perhaps this same article becomes one day a source of research in the future!
* Technical expert
