Evoliuvo

As we are approaching the 1st Arab Social Media Forum next Saturday December 11th, here are few links and info on what is currently happening and who is already involved on twitter.

Earlier last week, as ambassador to the event, I added the event’s badge to my blog, along with useful links and the countdown; here they are are:

1st Arab Social Media Forum Website Register NOW! ASMF on Twitter ASMF on Facebook ASMF on LinkedIn Twitter Statistics of #ASMF2010 Agenda Speakers

While arabsocialmediaforum.com is the official website of the event, many blogs and pages have seen the sun during the last week, here is the list of the most tweeted ones (by the time this blog post is being written – 04/12/2010):

• http://www.nakhweh.com/opportunities/123-Volunteers-needed (14)
• http://sleeplessinamman.com/asmf-speakers/ (12)
• http://confessionsofachubby.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/forum-of-the-year/ (8)
• http://www.wamda.com/#!/content/204024/ (7)
• http://twurl.nl/1fwrci (7)
• http://farah-has-a-lot-to-say.blogspot.com/2010/11/social-media-for-social-change.html (5)
• http://twubs.com/asmf2010 (5)
• http://www.simply-communicate.com/1st-arab-social-media-forum-be-held-amman-jordan (5)
• http://etfpsi.posterous.com/pages/case-studies (5)

Based on the archive I created few weeks ago on twapper Keeper for the #ASMF2010 hashtag, this info -among others- is available here as well as a word cloud used in tweets containing the official hashtag “#ASMF2010″.
Follow the official twitter account for the event : @ASMFnews as well as speakers’:

• Ruba Abu Judeh ( @abujudeh )
• Duri Al Ajrami/OgilvyOne ( @duriajrami ) http://ca.linkedin.com/in/duriajrami
• Malik Shishtawi / Wunderman ( @maliksoft ) http://www.shishtawi.info
• Alexander McNabb ( @alexandermcnabb @spotonpr ) http://www.spotonpr.com
• Patrick Attallah / 90:10 France ( @BZPAT ) http://patrickattallah.com
• Sameer Issa / 4D Creative ( @sameerissa ) http://www.sameerissa.com
• Mark Comerford / Linköping Uni. ( @markmedia ) http://markmedia.blogs.com
• Silvia Cambié / Chanda Comm. ( @XCulture ) http://www.chandacom.com

Feel free to post any lacking names/twitter accounts for speakers, we will add them…

Last week as well I posted on my tumblr automatically updated statistics of the last 7 days on #ASMF2010; here they are as well:

I like the New Google Chrome Search Preview option, even though it’s a way to favour chrome over other browsers… Combine it with the instant search and you have a winner!

Almost a month ago, a New ICT e-transaction law was sent for approval by the Lebanese Parliament.
This law, which apparently has many flaws and inadequacies was drafted from a much complete version carefully crafted by professionals in policy making and law earlier in 2005. This law also contradicts with several other laws.
The law creates a body called the «Electronic Signatures and Services Authority» and grants this body unlimited powers which overpower related ministers, other official/public institutions and even Judicial system:

“Employees are entrusted inspection functions as a specialized judicial police within the scope of the Authority’s work.” (Article 82)

That is of course without consulting any Judge at any point of the inspection’s process.

Without going more into further details, many helpful articles are present at the bottom of this document including some other blog posts of friends and/or bloggers. You can also notice the initiative that directly and indirectly affected the postponement of the the approval of the law, without forgetting the twitter hashtag #StopThisLaw

The reason all this happened is the lack of multistakeholder approach within the policy making procedures in Lebanon. This multistakeholder approach means the inclusion of government (public sector) , business entities (private sector), civil society, academic and technical communities in the policy making processes of the country, region and/or globally. Several entities have adopted multistakeholderism during the last decade including countries(e.g: the recent Draft Bill Proposition on Civil Rights Framework for Internet in Brazil ), organizations (e.g: ISOC), corporations (e.g: ICANN) and unions (e.g:European Union); however, one of the primary multistakeholder innovators was the direct result of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) with regard to convening a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue – the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
During next September, the 5th Internet Governance Forum will be held in Lithuania. During these 5 years, the Lebanese participation in this major multistakeholder forum was slim and only limited to few individuals. No Government, private sector or civil society participation whatsoever. Such participation, its consequences and takings could make a revolution in a country where policy making is of great urgency.

The good news is that more and more awareness is spreading within the Lebanese community especially after the recent activities related to the new ICT Law and the awareness it has created towards ICT policy making and its importance. I would like to mention 2 very important elements which hold lots of promises in this context:

• The newly incorporated ISOC Lebanon Chapter
  

  CONGRATULATIONS LEBANON! The Lebanese ISOC Chapter has been incorporated. To join ISOC Lebanon Chapter, please complete and submit the online membership form or (http://www.isoc.org.lb/member.htm) or send an e-mail to membership@isoc.org.lb

• The National Democratic Institute’s Public Policy Initiative (NDI PPI):
  

  NDI is working with the Youth Shadow Government (YSG) of Nahar al-Shabab to assist them in drafting and presenting evidence-based policy reform plans to relevant Cabinet Ministers. The Policy Development Program draws on NDI’s extensive local and international practitioner network, as well as in-house expertise, to train and support participants in developing policy papers and communicating them strategically and effectively to decision-makers. Through an intensive and focused training and consultancy process, the program aims to increase civil society’s participation in the policy-making process.

  Here is a link (in Arabic) to a followup on this: متابعة قانون تكنولوجيا المعلومات

At the end, I would like to address all Lebanese stakeholders to get more and more engaged in Internet Governance Processes especially policy making.
All the best,
Bernard.

Resources and helpful articles:

• Very helpful translation of some articles of the law: https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddjmntbp_110dcr8tmds
• Arabic Report on OTV Lebanese TV Channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVIbRVmvPRc
• BBC Arabic جدل في لبنان بشأن تنظيم تكنولوجيا المعلومات

List of related blogposts(you can add your post):

• ACT NOW: Postpone the Vote on the E-Transactions Law – SMEXBeirut
• Major Pain points in the e-Transaction Law – Gabriel Deek
• Missed Call Nation – Qifa Nabki
• مجنون يحكي وعاقل يفهم… – عماد بزي
• Internet joke – Maya Zankoul
• قانون تكنولوجيا المعلوم مات – خربشات بيروتية
• Lebanese E-transactions Law Dilemma – The Identity Chef
• Stop the new Lebanese Internet Law – Independence05
• Lebanese Bloggers Are Furious Over Proposed Internet Bill – Beirut Spring
• Stop this law, and start working on something else – Sarah Hilal
• Lebanon’s Internet to Get Worse Unless You Stop It –Jad Aoun
• Lebanese E-Transaction Law - Riham Berjaoui
• ESSA proposed costume – STOP THIS LAW-   ARCHANGELUS
• A stand againt ESSA and the new Lebanese E-Transaction law-   PLUS961
• Stop This Law – Lebanese NightS
• علم وخبر – Dany Awad
• قانون يعزف ألحان، قانون يقمع أفكار – سليم اللوزي
• Gino’s Blog
• Lebanon: Outrage over Blocking of VoIP – Global Voices
• Lets make the Streets our Public TimeLine – Abir Ghattas
• قانون تنظيم الإنترنت في لبنان: نحو نظام بوليسي Hanibaael
• Stop this law! This is Beirut!
• المعركة على قانون الانترنت في لبنان: حصيلة الجولة الأولى مدونة نينار
• Corruption spreads as Government blames People Blogging Beirut

Following an earlier post we posted involving the regional twitter trends in the Arab/MENA region, and the fact that this regional trends do not exist, #ArabNetME Just broke the trends and is currently globally trending!

Keep the good work Flowing!

Lets swim with the Twitter wale!

In less then 4 hours, the biggest arab web event ever to happen is taking place in Beirut: ArabNet.

Quoting the website:

“ArabNet 2010 is the first international conference for the Arab web industry, bringing together leaders from across the MENA, Europe and Silicon Valley to discuss cutting-edge trends and emerging opportunities.“

The event will be covered by all media and will embrace all sorts of live coverage; from live video stream, to TV, interviews, and last but not least social media including live blogging, microblogging and illustrated blogging.

An event this big is a certain trend, however while investigating twitter trends, we just noticed that there are no trends convering the Arab or MENA Region:

Weird no? For a number of countries that have heavy users, and for a big amount of trending trends and web industry boom, it is strange how we can’t even know what is trending on twitter in the Arab World or MENA region.

Will twitter find its way to work this around?

Will #ArabNetME ring the bell for the twitter geeks and awaken them from the stupidity of not doing this?

Will #ArabNetME hit the charts in the next couple of days?

Lets see if we, the Online Arabs, could send a direct message to twitter and maybe swim with their famous overload wale…

See you at ArabNetME, the best event, the best team and the best trend!

Bernard Sadaka (@sdkaaa) @ArabNetME Ambassador

ArabNetME Useful Links:

• Website
• Registration
• LinkedIn Group
• Facebook fan page
• @ArabNetME(Twitter)
• Official Hashtag #ArabNetME

In collaboration with its supporting partners and media partners, ArabNet organized groundbreaking pre-conference workshops in 7 MENA countries to foster a sense of community, and instill continuity and longevity in the ArabNet experience.

Register now to ArabNetME at: http://arabnet.me/rform.php

Ways to interact with ArabNetME on:

ArabNetME Website is http://arabnet.me (All you need to know about ArabNetME)

ArabNetME Blog is http://blog.arabnet.me/

ArabNetME LinkedIn group is her here (Great discussions there about event’s sessions)

ArabNetME facebook is here (Fan page and great place to network)

ArabNetME twitter is @ArabNetME (Official Twitter Account- Use Hashtag #ArabNetME)

I have shared with the online community this coveritlive session where we all track #ArabNetME; Enjoy!
To view this is mobile version go this link.

If you can’t post from coveritlive, or if the session is on standby, simply go to twitter and post a status from there with the Hashtag #ArabNetME, it will automatically appear here.

“The official website for Lebanese Elections” is not compatible with Firefox!”الموقع الرسمي للإنتخابات اللبنانية”!!

Well, I’m glad they are using some open source “php”, but not being compatible with Firefox is a big issue.

What do you think?

Check the irritating picture… lol

So what is all the Buzz about?

Few hours ago, Google announced the launch of Google buzz…

It is supposed to show under your Inbox!!

If you want to activate your Google Buzz, here is what you have to do:

First, you should have a Google account.

Second, you should at least be subscribed to 2 google services, such as gmail and reader for example.

Third, you should have an online photo Gallery, like Picasa or Flickr (Your DropBox Pictures would work too).

Fourth, you have to go to http://www.google.com/profiles and register with your google account.

Fifth, fill in as much info as you can until it tells you your profile is now eligible to be searched.

Sixth and last, go to google reader and click on “Your stuff”;

“Have some thoughts to share?” Share something and it will come up as a Google buzz status…

All you have to do now in order to see your buzz, is to go to your profile, you will see a tab for Buzz!!

Congrats, you are on Google Buzz!!!

…

Few hours or days later on you will notice the buzz under your inbox!!

It is helpful to follow people the way of twitter…

P.S: Remember the secret to get rid of several email notifications from buzzes you buzzed earlier: The magic mute key “m” from your Gmail inbox!

Evoliuvo! Evolve to Help

Twitter is currently giving Beta access for twitterers for the retweet option:

Twitter Beta welcome message

What is also remarkable about this new beta version is that Retweets from people you follow appear in your timeline:

Retweets from people you follow appear in your timeline

Twitter explains it:

Twitter Explains this new feature

Also mark the “Handy icon for spotting a retweet” .

Maybe these options are old to some people by now, but they are new to me; I also like the new automatic update of tweets count, which also shows in the title (on the top of the browser):

Tweet Update