By Thina Mazulu
Dubai now easily holds its own amongst the world’s most opulent cities. It is also a testament to what a city can achieve with a vision and a solid long-term plan of action. In the last fifty years the booming desert kingdom has risen from the dust, and successfully forged an identity for itself as the jewel of the Middle East. Boasting infrastructure firsts such as their iconic Burj Al Arab – the only 7 Star hotel in the world; the Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world, to innovations such as the man-made islands plus a wealth of technological advancements. Dubai is on a fast track towards being one of the best cities in the world.
Aside from the international accolades, the world-renowned landmarks & the jet setters who make it their playground, not much is known about the average day-to-day life of the Dubai nationals.Who are these individuals behind this Mecca of leisure? Google says they’re a population of 2.1 million, comprising of over 200 nationalities, but that’s about it.
What do they do outside of their jobs, where do they dine, relax or party hard after working hard all week to keep the industry machine well oiled? This lack of visibility by everyday Dubai nationals is the inspiration behind the project by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, fondly known as Prince Fazza.
The World’s first autobiography by a city is a campaign that invites ordinary people of the desert kingdom to contribute photographs of their daily lives via Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #MyDubai. So far the campaign has been wildly successful with its first week resulting in more than 27,000 Twitter mentions, and creating 198 million Twitter impressions. Of course it helps to have the weight of the prince’s 630 487 strong twitter following as a starting base. The prince himself contributes to the campaign through his own submissions and continuously encourages his people to participate as well. In spite of their royal position, which opens them to all sorts of unfiltered criticism, the Dubai royal family seems to have embraced new age communications technology. The Prince’s father has recently been named the 7th most engaging World Leader on Twitter and has a following of over a million.
As the year progresses, the campaign will be expanded to various multi-media platforms. Submissions from the ongoing crowdsourcing exercise will inspire art installations, films, books, and other creative projects, which together will be combined to create the autobiography. For a city that’s positioned itself to be at the forefront of technology and innovation, implementing a campaign with digital at the core of its strategy is the best way to let the world know that Dubai is on the express way to the future, leaving everyone in the dust.
Pic from: www.letstravelsomewhere.com
