Sun Microsystems' senior thought leader to discuss Oman's Knowledge Economy Initiative

As part of Sun Microsystems' outreach to the public sector throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Gage shared his decades of expertise in building technology literacy and creating Internet-enabled governments. The discussions also touched on the potential for leveraging technology in the education sector, creating collaborative learning platforms and fostering creativity in the technology leaders of tomorrow.

Based in California, Gage is also Sun's Director of the Science Office, and is responsible for the company's relationships with world scientific and technical organizations, for international public policy and governmental relations in the areas of scientific and technical policy, and for alliances with the world's leading research institutions.

The executive visit is part of Sun Microsystems' ongoing collaboration with regional governments to foster relationships between the private and public sector, as well as citizens. "John Gage brings with him a set of global best practices in e-government, which can be of great value to Oman as the country's own initiative develops," said Marc Heger, General Manager of Sun Microsystems for the Gulf Region.

"The government of Oman is making a significant effort to create a knowledge society that would enable better public services to people, resulting in a meaningful information flow between the government and citizens. Sun's longstanding partnerships within the public sector and through our partners across the region mean that we are able to provide both the firsthand expertise from around the world as well as the technology solutions required to achieve this objective."

Sun Microsystems' leadership in the e-Government space has been proven through the number of successful public sector partnerships around the world. Sun products deliver the ability to register, discover and govern Web services, as well as centralized control and access for up to hundreds of web services under a unified framework, which are key concerns for eGovernment projects.

As well as meeting with senior government officials, Gage will also look at advising decision-makers within Oman's education sector about their technology initiatives. In 1995, Gage created NetDay, a volunteer project to bring the resources of the world's high-technology companies to all schools and libraries by connecting them to the Internet.

He is a member of the Mathematical Association of America, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society (ISOC).