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:

“ISRAEL don’t f*** with our army, we’ll sweep your ass.”(Note: This sentence was censored on our blog)

According to facebook:

You were disabled because you created or posted content (i.e., photos, groups, shares, etc.) that violated Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

Facebook explains more their policy by mentioning in their email:

Types of content that are prohibited from Facebook include, but are not restricted to the following:

• No nudity or other sexually explicit content
• No content that contains hate speech or directly attacks an individual or group
• No content that contains self harm or excessive violence
• No content that contains illegal drug use

What tops this is the fact that the decision is final and cannot be appealed:

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to reactivate your account or respond to your email directly. This decision is final and cannot be appealed. You can visit the Warnings section of the Help Center for more information: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=warnings

Obviously Fadi did violate these terms, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to definitively delete his account. They should have issued a warning, suspended the account for a while, and later on deleted it or something…

I leave this story to your comments…

“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