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The Malta Independent | Thursday 10 September 2015
If you dislike traffic, like Malta traffic updates in hosting these cameras for us, and amazingly we have found more than 100 members who were ready to offer us their internet and a location at their premises to install them. We have installed a total of 10 cameras, but as time went by, five of them have been damaged.
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he MITA ICT feature interviewed Malcolm, the individual behind the popular Facebook group Malta Traffic Updates. A 33 year old and a technician by profession turned to technology and social media to fulfil a civil duty by creating a functional network to help Maltese drivers let loose of their frustrations. When did you come up with the idea of creating Malta Traffic updates? How did it all start? The idea started back at April 2011. I was stuck in traffic at Regional road going to Paceville, and there was a minor accident. The traffic was huge. At that point, I thought that if only I knew about it, I would have passed from somewhere else. Whilst thinking this, I look into the rear mirror, and thought that if only someone had the capacity to inform all the people in the traffic about the accident, they would have avoided all the waiting and frustration. It was there and then when it clicked – Facebook. We all know its power, so without hesitation I created a Facebook group and included all my friends. They just loved the idea. Eventually, my friends included their friends and their friends included their friends, so on and so forth. The
Do authorities co-operate with your team? Which are the Authorities you deal most with and how? Yes, we did have calls from authorities to meet them. As yet, we had meetings with the Malta Police and Transport Malta. We had discussions and we are open to more. Contact with Transport Malta has been continuous and hopefully there might be a positive outcome soon.
group had about 500 people. After seeing the positive impact, I turned the group into a page, because it was more dynamic. Today, the page boasts of having 50k members. Who is the team made up of? Is this your full-time job? Initially, the team was made up of three members: these being the creator of the group, Malcolm, and another two moderators of the page, Claudio and Darren. As the page grew, we needed more assistance, and so we continued adding our family members to help us out. The perception out there is that this is our full time job and that we earn money out of it. Reality is that we all do this voluntary and we earn nothing from it. Commitment to society as civil servants is what kept us all going. What technology/ies are you using for your idea? In order to run our page, we use Facebook, a website and an app, we use a PC, tablet and a laptop. All this from our homes. You have a Facebook page, Twitter, a website and a mobile app. What amount of work and effort is needed to keep up with all of them? We spend an average of three to
four hours a day. We try to find time to keep the page current and updated. Sometimes we do receive updates and we see them an hour later. To avoid this happening and not to lose any updates, we try to constantly monitor round the clock our services for any last updates. We do our best to keep all members up to date and there’s ample effort involved. Many believe that we are either a Government entity or that we are employees and this brings them to expect more from us. Out of the mentioned sources, can you give us the amount of followers of each? Which do you deem is most successful? We started with Facebook, and this brought us to build our own website htp://www.maltesetraffic.com, which includes different traffic cameras. This was a first in Malta. We linked Twitter with
our Facebook page, to serve as a mirror to Facebook. Then we created the website and the app. Without any doubt Facebook is the most successful source. An average post is seen roughly by 25K to 30K members. Sometimes an important post is seen by over 60K Facebook users. You took the initiative to install cameras in certain areas of Malta. Did you have specific requests to do this or was it yet again your initiative? The idea of the cameras started fully as my own initiative. I was experimenting with some cameras, and thought it will be a great idea to install these around Malta to monitor traffic continuously on the internet, since the only traffic updates occur on television only in the peak early morning. To do this, I had asked our members, if anyone is interested
What are the most common posts you’ve received since the beginning of your page? Most common posts are post traffic related – to help you avoid traffic. Then there are posts about the Maltese drivers – how badly they drive, posts about the state of our roads, about campaigns of awareness etc. How can your followers help Malta Traffic Updates? Our followers are what made Malta Traffic Updates successful. They send us an update from different angles. Just for the newbies, members can mainly communicate with us direct via Facebook, the easiest method to both our members and us, our via our app – which can be downloaded from -http://www.maltesetraffic.com/app.php . Users can update the app’s map themselves.
Educational games tried and tested by students
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n just a couple of weeks two educational games will be launched and available for use in schools, however these could not be set to launch without being tried and tested right? It is for this reason that on Saturday 29th August the MITA Innovation Hub (MIH) organised the ‘Gamify-IT’ play-testing event during which 22 students aged 13-15 play-tested two digital serious games being developed by two startups, Oddingo and SquareScope. Oddingo’s ‘Staterra’ is a game about the gamification of predator-prey relationships where the players build their own habitat, influence the interactions between the different species and observe the outcomes to try to reach a balance. SquareScope’s game called ‘To the Bastions!’ is about the Great Siege of 1565 where players learn about the events that occurred during the Great Siege 1565 between the Ottoman Empire and the Knights of Malta. The strategy games allows the player to deploy the army in order to defend the bastions. After playing both games, the
particularly through the pleasant graphics and sound. Oddingo’s task is now to continue working for perfection and refine the game goals. Some other feedback given by the students was that it would be nice to have more planets to explore and particular scenarios that the player can solve. They also wished to feel that during the game there would be a sense of progression for the player. The fascinating part of this project is that these games are being created by a young team for students gave rich feedback, comments and suggestions to help make the games as user-focused and game-friendly as possible. The feedback given by the youngsters is now being analysed and taken care of by the respective startups. Some feedback given about the game To the Bastions! was that it would be better to have more information on the story through videos or photographs. This was a good observation especially since the main aim of the game is that students learn about the
Great Siege through this game. Students found the game to be engaging and that it gives you the feeling that the Ottomans were outnumbering the Knights, their militia and the Maltese. As highlighted earlier, Staterra is about students creating their own habitat, with various type of species. It seems that students enjoyed the fact that they could control which creatures to place on their world. Needless say that having various options of zoom in and out, rotation and other features, kept the students at ball,
younger fellows. Both teams are on the right track to make these games a success among Maltese and Gozitan students and start using them as their new educational medium. The games are thought to be launched by October. These games aimed for secondary students will be available to them on their home computer. Games can be soon donwloaded from the MITA Innovation Hub website: https://mitainnovationhub.gov. mt/projects
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The Malta Independent | Thursday 10 September 2015
MITA Communications and PR Team
The Malta Independent ICT Feature
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Facebook page called Malta Traffic Updates was set up just a few years ago with the intent to ease frustration in our streets. Administrators of the page were interviewed by the ICT feature team where they were questioned about the impact the
page leaves on its users and how in their view social media can be helpful to reduce traffic in our streets. This week’s feature gives an update about the two games which shall be launched in the next couple of weeks these being To the Bastions! And Staterra. These games are targetted for
secondary school students and the games will be downloadable from the MITA Innovation Hub website. Another article in this issue gives an overview on the amount of job seekers and employers which use the Employment Training Centre’s (ETC) website etc.gov.mt to seek employment
or look for potential employees. All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature
Over 14,000 job submissions per month through ETC website
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uring the first 5 months of this year, the Employent Training Cente (ETC) recieved over 70,000 job submissions through its website etc.gov.mt. This means that ETC recieved around 14,000 CV per month for the various jobs advertised on their website. Internet use keeps being on the rise and an interesting factor is that even those from elder generations are surfing the internet more frequently. Having smartphones and tablets at hand makes internet access simpler and faster. Statistics by Eurostat which were released earlier this year show that today, in Malta every household contains internet which is accessed at least once a week. Courses are also being offered by different entities including the Malta Information
Technology Agency MITA, to continue strengthening the use of internet even by the elderly. It is for the above reasons that ETC decided to extend its current services online through its website etc.gov.mt where services are offered both to employers, employees and those seeking for a job. Over 2,000 companies already make use of online ETC services where they have a registered account within the site. This is described as a very convenient service to them since it lessens bureacracy and limits wasted time. Offered services include the engagment and termination form. From the beginning of the year up to May, around 30,000 forms were completed via the web service. The ETC website is also useful to those who have never built a
CV. In fact one of the services on etc.gov.mt is to help an individual build a proper CV to please the requirements of potential employers. A striking 335 people per month make use of this service. During the first five months of this year, the etc portal offered over 1,000 job posts to those who are either looking for employment, or who are interested in changing jobs. The amount of job vacancies is expected to be increased in the coming months as ETC intends to further increase opportunities for those who are unemployed. Both employers and employees are therefore encouraged to make more use of the services offered on etc.gov.mt as a quicker service is guaranteed. MITA in collaboration with various
Ministries currently embarking on an educational campaign to create further awareness on Govrnment’s online services. Public Services Online is a
campaign partially funded by the European Union – the European Social Fund and it is aimed at increasing the use of online Government services.