- Middle East

Social Arab Web 2.0 in Beirut

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:43:24 -0800

The Social Arab Web 2.0 event will be held in Beirut, Lebanon from 7-12 December.

A great group of bloggers and new media enthusiasts from all over the Arab world will gather for a week to exchange knowledge, share experiences and learn from each other about the emerging trends in new media and the social web, focusing primarily on relevance to the Arab region and the Arabic language.

During the event, I will be talking about how we have been working at Meedan to break the language barrier for access to knowledge and access to each other, and how the tools we have been developing can serve bloggers and social media professionals in the Arab region. You can check the event's program on the event's website.

Copyright Protection in the Digital Age workshop at the Library of Alexandria

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:57:49 -0700

I will be talking at the Copyright Protection in the Digital Age workshop at the Library of Alexandria from 29 September - 1 October 2009 in Alexandria, Egypt

This workshop will focus on copyright issues and the new tools to access and disseminate knowledge in the Arab countries.

The workshop will cover the following topics:

An introduction to copyright laws, definitions, international treaties and works protected by copyright
The World Intellectual Property Organization and its Development Agenda proposed by developing countries in 2004
New tools to access and disseminate knowledge: Creative Commons licenses, Free and Open Source Software and open access
Creative Commons licenses in the Arab world
Licensing in the digital age
The protection of software and databases

Meedan at the Arab Media Centre in the University of Westminster

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:17:25 -0700

My presentation at the Arab Media Centre in the University of Westminster, London

Knowledge Production and Dissemination in the Digital Era

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:54:13 -0800

My presentation at the "Intellectual Property in the Digital Era" Workshop at Bibliotheca Alexandrina

ICT4D Middle East Website Goes Live

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:31:36 -0800

The website for the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Middle East project is now available online on IDRC site. This website provides detailed information about the project strategy, its thematic areas and implementation modalities.

In a nutshell, the ICT4D Middle East project aims to contribute to the emergence of an inclusive knowledge society in the Middle East through the establishment of a network of researchers that would work collaboratively on action research projects to create and share knowledge on the use of ICT for human, social and economic development.

The project includes five countries in the region: Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen, and covers four main thematic areas:

Women’s Participation
Education and Employability
Governance
Community and Local Development

ICT for Development in the Middle East

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:17:27 -0800

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is embarking on a new project for the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Developments (something that is increasingly referred to as ICT4D) for the Middle East.

The project was designed following a consultative workshop conducted by IDRC in cooperation with the Network of Syrian Scientists, Technologists and Innovators Abroad (NOSSTIA) in Damascus, Syria in June, 2005. The consultation process, and the extensive research conducted afterwards, highlighted several needs for the region in its pursuit of building an inclusive knowledge society. To this end, the ICT4D project in the Middle East aims to contribute to the development of such equitable society by building the capacity for applied research and by promoting the creation and sharing of knowledge on the use of ICT for human social and economic development. The project will cover five countries in the region: Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen, and on which I will be working for the next year. Four major thematic areas are planned to be covered by the project:

Education and Employability
Women Participation
Governance
Community and Local Development

Arabic Digital Content

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:33:32 -0800

(Published on iCommons.org)

When I wrote “The Growth of Arab Commons” last month, my primary intent was to reflect on what we have achieved over the past year and to pinpoint any challenges or obstacles that may need to be overcome for the Commons to achieve its aimed for growth in the Arab world. Nevertheless, several trends seemed to have a prominent impact. The article concluded with a call to “combine the promotion of Creative Commons in the Arab world with the larger objective of increasing the development of digital content in the Arabic language”.

Well, it does not happen much (at least for me), but it seems that someone was listening!

During The International Symposium on Computers & Arabic Language (ISCAL), held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 10 to 12 November 2007, I delivered a keynote on Creative Commons and the strong link between their philosophical foundation and the sharing culture that dominates the social fabric in the Arab world. My aim was to attract attention to the urgent need to quickly embrace Creative Commons in the region and promote the development of open content in the Arabic language by emphasising the compatibility between Creative Commons and the belief and value systems in the Arab world.