Today Gate2Play, an end-to-end payment and value-added services platform based in Amman, Jordan, announced a first-time partnership with social games developer Zynga to distribute Zynga Game Cards in 16 countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. As a result of the partnership, Zynga Game Cards will be available for purchase soon in thousands of outlets as both physical pre-paid cards as well as virtual e-PINs.

Zynga Game Cards provide an easy way for players to pay for virtual goods within most of their Zynga games including Empires & Allies, CityVille, FarmVille, and Mafia Wars. Available in values of US$2, US$5 and US$10, these smaller currency amounts will give players more choices for the amount they want to spend on virtual goods within the game.

The partnership represents a way to introduce Zynga Game Cards into a region that is embracing social games while validating Gate2Play’s strong position within the MENA region as a premier payment aggregator.
Muhannad Ebwini, Chief Executive of Gate2Play, states that very few online users in the MENA region use credit cards, with the majority preferring alternate payment methods such as pre-paid cards, bank transfers, and SMS / Mobile payment –especially if they are available in small currency values.

“The pace at which the Middle East’s social gaming market is growing represents a significant opportunity for both Gate2Play and Zynga,” Ebwini said.

Zynga Game Cards will be available for purchase soon in nationwide convenience stores as well as region-specific retail outlets and telco operators. Through the partnership, Gate2Play will be making Zynga Game Cards available for the first time in 16 countries within the region including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.

Zynga is the world’s leading social games developer with more than 230 million players playing its games each month. Its newest game Empires & Allies, was launched in 12 languages and is the company’s first combat strategy game.

Hacktivist groups Lulz Security and Anonymous have issued a statement  asking the public to boycott PayPal for refusing to release Wikileaks funds.

The statement also slammed the FBI for arrest raids against sympathizers and in not differentiating between “those who are involved in ethical, modern cyber operations.”

Lulz Security and Anonymous are asking the public close their account and use other alternatives and tweet pictures of your account closure.

Here is the full statement:

Dear PayPal, its customers, and our friends around the globe

3. This is an official communiqué from Anonymous and Lulz Security in the name of AntiSec.
4.
5. In recent weeks, we’ve found ourselves outraged at the FBI’s willingness to arrest and threaten those who are involved in ethical, modern cyber operations. Law enforcement continues to push its ridiculous rules upon us – Anonymous “suspects” may face a fine of up to 500,000 USD with the addition of 15 years’ jailtime, all for taking part in a historical activist movement. Many of the already-apprehended Anons are being charged with taking part in DDoS attacks against corrupt and greedy organizations, such as PayPal.
6.
7. What the FBI needs to learn is that there is a vast difference between adding one’s voice to a chorus and digital sit-in with Low Orbit Ion Cannon, and controlling a large botnet of infected computers. And yet both of these are punishable with exactly the same fine and sentence.
8.
9. In addition to this horrific law enforcement incompetence, PayPal continues to withhold funds from WikiLeaks, a beacon of truth in these dark times. By simply standing up for ourselves and uniting the people, PayPal still sees it fit to wash its hands of any blame, and instead encourages and assists law enforcement to hunt down participants in the AntiSec movement.
10.
11. Quite simply, we, the people, are disgusted with these injustices. We will not sit down and let ourselves be trampled upon by any corporation or government. We are not scared of you, and that is something for you to be scared of. We are not the terrorists here: you are.
12.
13. We encourage anyone using PayPal to immediately close their accounts and consider an alternative. The first step to being truly free is not putting one’s trust into a company that freezes accounts when it feels like, or when it is pressured by the U.S. government. PayPal’s willingness to fold to legislation should be proof enough that they don’t deserve the customers they get. They do not deserve your business, and they do not deserve your respect.
14.
15. Join us in our latest operation against PayPal – tweet pictures of your account closure, tell us on IRC, spread the word. Anonymous has become a powerful channel of information, and unlike the governments of the world, we are here to fight for you. Always.
16.
17. Signed, your allies,
18.
19. Lulz Security (unvanned)
20. Anonymous (unknown)
21. AntiSec (untouchable)

After many days of hard work, after over a year of full time dedication to help startups and techies like you, today AC reached a major milestone: ArabCrunch.NET First Online Social Platform in the Arab World focused on Startups & The Technology Industry. With this announcement, the social platform, was what you the passionate startup and tech community wanted AC to develop for you  and as I mentioned back on April that AC will do it! when I wrote about the ecosystem that we need to have in order to help grow the tech industry in this region and turn our economies into knowledge based economy. Today Our promise is delivered, Here is the ecosystem in one place

ArabCrunch.NET, Helping The Arab World Innovate

ArabCrunch Group Extends Technological Reach with First Social Network in the Arab World focused on the technology industry

Amman, Jordan and Silicon Valley, CA – Tuesday, November 10, 2009 – ArabCrunch Group announced today closing a round of funding and the launch of ArabCrunch.NET, the first social network dedicated to creating an environment that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and mentorship for Arab entrepreneurs throughout the world. ArabCrunch.NET offers a dynamic platform for collaboration amongst the various stakeholders within the technological ecosystem from Berkeley to Bahrain.

The launch came during a press conference held by Arab Crunch in cooperation with Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship at the headquarters of the Royal Scientific Society.

“ArabCrunch.NET will facilitate knowledge transfer and enable veterans from Silicon Valley to work with and mentor young talent from the MENA region,” said Bassel Yassine Ojjeh, a former Senior Vice President of Yahoo!, Inc. USA, a serial entrepreneur and Board Member of ArabCrunch Group, who led the round of funding. “We’ve built ArabCrunch.NET to fuel innovation, create a knowledge based society and an environment for job creation in the region that will serve high tech professionals throughout the 22 Arab countries and the western hemisphere.”

“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to be the first dedicated group that focuses on accelerating the innovation cycle both here in Amman and throughout the Arab world,” said Gaith Saqer, Founder of ArabCrunch Group. “Ever since we launched ArabCrunch.com in 2008, we have been committed to finding the most compelling technological innovations that impact the Arab world – this next chapter allows us to help foster collaboration on a scale never seen before in our region. We have built a social platform that connects participants and helps them find crucial resources, build strategic partnerships and promote services.”

Since it’s unveiling in 2008, ArabCrunch.com has grown to one of the most widely read technology blogs in the Arab world with over 30,000 monthly visits. Founded on the principle of “professional blogging,” ArabCrunch.com has become the primary source of information about the latest technological advancements relevant to the Arabic world. An Arabic version based on “citizen journalism” was launched last month and has met with great success.

- END-

About ArabCrunch Group:
ArabCrunch Group’s mission is to inform, impact, inspire and create an Arab centric technology ecosystem that delivers information, and connects Arab entrepreneurs both in the region and throughout the world via its properties, ArabCrunch.com, ArabCrunch.NET and ArabCrunch.com/ar. About

Arab Crunch.NET:

The mission of ArabCrunch.NET is to help accelerate entrepreneurship and technology innovation in the Arab world by delivering an online social platform that connects participants of the technology ecosystem.
ArabCrunch.NET is the first online social platform dedicated to connect and support technology companies, entrepreneurs, techies, scientists, academia and investors in the Arab world. ArabCrunch.NET is a project from ArabCrunch, the publisher of arabcrunch.com and ArabCrunch Arabic Edition.

About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship:
The QRCE is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in October 2004 and is now a complement of El Hassan Science City. The center’s mission is to support economic development through offering a package of services to promote excellence and market technology. The centre particularly targets college students, researchers, inventors and initiators to enhance and build their personal capacities. QRCE offers this group consultation and works to develop their sense of excellence and initiative through a set of programs including Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Excellence Competition, Technology Commercialization Program, Connect Jordan and Princess Sumaya University for Technology’s Entrepreneurship Society (DART).

A new Arab Advisors online survey of Jordan Internet users revealed that international web email providers are the most popular amongst Internet users where 79.1% of respondents use Yahoo and 69.5% use Hotmail as their email account provider. When asked about which chatting software/website they use, 61.6% of respondents reported using MSN Messenger. Yahoo Messenger ranked second with 54.6% of respondents.

Arab Advisors said in a press release that survey respondents were randomly targeted by receiving an email shot in their inbox to ask them to fill the survey in cooperation with major online players in the region. To entice respondents to fill the survey, there was a prize of 300 US$ in a raffle. The survey results encompass answers from 555 respondents and yields a confidence level of 99% with a margin of error of less than 6%.

“Arabic was the preferred language for reading and listening on the Internet amongst respondents. However, English was the preferred language for writing on the Internet. Preferences for languages other than Arabic and English lag far behind.” Noura Abdulhadi, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst said in the press release.

Updates 1,2 and 3 below.

Nokia just announced that its Ramadan applications for 2009 have now become available on Ovi Store. The updated free mobile applications tailored for the Holy Month of Ramadan can now be downloaded on the compatible Nokia devices directly from Nokia’s Ovi Store.

“Last year’s applications were very well received, as we saw over 2.4 million Ramadan applications downloaded. And based on the feedback we had received from Nokia consumers, we have further enhanced the offering this year to include additional applications as well as upgrades to some of the existing features. The applications this year also support a wider range of devices, to include both touch and non-touch Nokia devices,” said Chris Braam, Vice President, Sales, Nokia Middle East and Africa.

Nokia 2009 Ramadan Applications include the following:

• The Holy Quran: allows users to read, search, bookmark and listen to Quran recitation
• Prayer Times: provides prayer timings and Qibla direction for 1000 cities in 200 countries, along with the ability to add, remove, update and edit any location using the GPS.
• Hadeeth: gives an easy and convenient way to read the Honorable Hadeeth from Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Riyad us-Saliheen, Holy Hadeeths and Arba’in An Nawawi.
• Zakah Calculator: helps Muslims calculate Zakah on different kinds of income
• Hajj and Umrah: offers a mobile guide with multimedia content and the most famous places that people can visit during Hajj and Umrah.
• Mozzaker: allows mobile users to listen, search and translate a large collection of of daily Azkar and selected supplications. People can also download more Azkar and share via SMS and MMS with friends and family.
• Cards: helps users create their own Mobile Greeting Cards for different occasions and send them to family and friends via SMS or MMS.

New features of this year Ramadan’s apps include Quran recitation from multiple recitors, which users can choose to download based on their preference and in MP3 form. Prayer timings and Qibla direction are provided for 1000 cities in 200 countries, along with the ability to add, remove, update and edit any location using the GPS. The new Zakah Calculator helps Muslims calculate Zakah based on their income.
The Ramadan applications are developed by ASGATech, a Forum Nokia Premium Partner in the Middle East, with all content reviewed and approved by Al Azhar Al Shareef.

Ramadan applications for 2009 are compatible with a range of Nokia devices including Nokia N97, Nokia N86, Nokia E75, Nokia E66, Nokia 7210, Nokia Nokia 6730c, 6720c, , Nokia 6303, Nokia 6300, Nokia 6120c, Nokia 5800XpressMusic and Nokia 5130, . The user interface for the applications is in English, Arabic, French and Urdu.

Users can launch Ovi Store from the Download folder on the main menu on their Nokia device or access nokia.com/Ramadan on the PC. However when I tried searching for one of Nokia’s Ramadan apps on the Ovi the search turned a null result. To make it easy for users to find the app, I recommend Nokia to feature them on the Ovi store to users in the Arab world.

I have managed to test quickly 2 apps “Hadeeth”  and “Zakah Calculator “ on my Nokia 5800 that uses S60 OS, it comes at 1.2 MB size. The Hadeeth app is read only and you have to connect to the Internet to download the content of each of its sections,  (Update1: this is the case with the other Ramadan apps.) you can also bookmark any Hadith and share it via  SMS. While the Zakah Calculator seems perfectly inline with Islamic rollings, as it displays many info regarding Zakah from its types to Nessab.
Great step by Nokia and I hope that other International Brands will follow the path. Last Ramadan  Google launched special gadgets for the holly month but with mistakes about the understanding of what Zakah is in Islam. (At that time Google was forming its Arabic team, so for this year if they launch Ramadan Gadgets I think it won’t include the same mistakes.)

Update 2: The apps are free, but there are problems in finding them, look over Ovi store via your mobile. I downloaded them for free!

Update 3:
I talked to Mohamed El Sheakh, Service Manager Nokia Middle East and Africa, and he explained few things, the Ramadan apps are not available on Ovi store for free outside Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Outside MENA they are available on sale via ASGATech , Nokia MENA is focusing on MENA for the Ramadan apps.

He also said that this Ramadan apps are based on the consumer feedback of Last Ramadan apps, so for example they made the core features included when you first download the app while the bigger files such as Quran recitation audio whether complete or each Sura alone can be downloaded later, so it would be easier for user to use the apps, in this case if someone do not have a good or affordable Internet connotation they can still use the main features of apps in this example read the Quran.

New research has shown how the mobile handset market is becoming increasingly polarised between low cost handsets for emerging markets and high-end smartphones for developed regions – with the mid-range handset market being squeezed.

Low-cost handsets and Smartphones will together account for almost 79% of all new mobile phones by 2014, or just over 1 billion units in all. Operators and vendors are preparing to deal with a massive influx of new users from low-income socio-economic groups in developing markets and a rising demand for complex ‘smart’ devices from affluent users in developed markets.

Vendors such as Nokia, Apple and RIM (makers of Blackberry) are well positioned to benefit from these trends whilst players operating more in the mid range market such as Sony Ericsson and Motorola are having to rethink their strategy.

According to Low-cost handsets report author Andrew Kitson: “Low-cost handset shipments will number more than 700 million in 2014, up by 31% from levels seen in 2008, albeit down slightly from a peak of 716 million in 2012 as some users begin to upgrade to costlier devices. At the same time, smartphone shipment volumes will grow continuously across the forecast period, reaching almost 360 million by the end of the period. We therefore expect that mid-range device sales volumes will fall by more than 41% over the period”.

Other findings from the Low cost handsets research include:

· In 2008, the Indian Sub Continent region accounted for the majority (23%) of low-cost handset sales, due to efforts by operators such as Vodafone to meet low-income users’ needs in markets such as India: by 2014, the region will account for 22% of sales

· Take-up in emerging markets will be boosted by the availability of low-cost, highly targeted localised information services, such as Nokia’s Life Tools offering.

#image by sean dreilinger.

10 angel investors have attended the pitching presentations of preselected startups last week as part of the first match-making event for the newly launched investors’ network in Jordan “Bedaya”.

The entrepreneurs were given 20 minutes to present their project and explain why they were willing to welcome external investors in their company. They were then facing a 20 minutes question time from the business angels who were interested in better understanding their concept, their business development strategy, their market and most importantly, what the money they could invest would be using at.

The Bedaya network has been launched in a special event last May under the patronage of Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan at El Hassan Science City in Amman, Jordan. The launch has attracted over 30 prominent Jordanian investors, business leaders and others representing organizations that cultivate economic growth. The founding institutions of the Bedaya are: the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship, the iPark business incubator and the Arab Science and Technology Foundation. Noteworthy, It has been supported by the European program Medibtikar.

As part of the members of the network is Dr. Usama Fayyad – the ex-board member of Yahoo and world class serial entrepreneur- who has emphasized on the necessity of establishing such network, by saying: “This is the right time to establish such network due to the huge need for startup funding in this part of the world”.

The impetus of the creation of Bedaya is to offer national financing vehicles in Jordan for innovative business start-ups as part of the El Hassan Science City’s mandate to foster knowledge-based enterprises with a promising potential for growth. The network will offer investments for early stage start-ups with a focus on science and technology.

The process starts by selecting entrepreneurs who are looking for funding and presenting the most ready ones every two months during pitching sessions to an audience of business angels.

Business angels are private individual willing to investing their own money into high growth potential starting companies. Moreover, business angels do not offer only money to the entrepreneurs. Since these investors are usually successful entrepreneurs themselves, they will bring their experience and personal business network to the companies they invest in, which is an invaluable asset and success guarantee for the entrepreneur.

Before pitching to investors, the entrepreneurs have received special full-day training and coaching by Mr. Nelson Grey, a seasonal expert on business angel investments. He stressed on the importance of designing such infrastructure in Jordan in order to pave the way for a strong knowledge-based economy.

ArabCrunch was present during the first day session led by Grey, were he coached entrepreneurs in how to pitch for investors, he mentioned many useful tips that are useful to any entrepreneur looking to get funded:
- Investors invest in entrepreneurs with dedications and guts.
- Entrepreneurs should know what this round of investment will bring them to: more rounds? Or no more rounds and the startup is heading to profitability.
- Investors invest in startups that  have unfair competitive advantage.
- Returns should be at least 5 times the investments.
- Before presenting. know who you are presenting to, in order to customize your presentations: to Phd holder make it more technical, to Investors focus on finance and marketing.
- When pitching, pitch the plan not the science behind it.

The next Bedaya pitching session is planned to happen during October. Interested business angel investors and entrepreneurs are welcome to contact the network to participate.

For more information about What Type of Company Do Venture Capitalists you can check this guest post at ArabCrunch by Laila Kassis.

MMOG – Massively Multiplayer Online Games are hot in the world, the Worldwide MMOG market is estimated to yield USD13bn by 2013 and games such as World-of-Warcraft has 11m subscribers and USD 1bn of annual revenue and valuation of USD 9bn. And because MMOG market is hot, many regional players are jumping in. The recent one is Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) with its announcement yesterday of a joint venture agreement with San Mateo, California, Gazillion Entertainment.

Abu Dhabi, UAE based Abu Dhabi Media Company is huge Arab media company that owns and operates a range of Television channels (ex: Abu Dhabi Al Emarat,), Radio stations, a number of publications (ex: The National Newspaper) and a number of other media related businesses.

Under the partnership Abu Dhabi Media Company along with Gazillion Entertainment will create a Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) Studio in Abu Dhabi.

According to a press release delivered to ArabCrunch the 50:50 JV agreement with Gazillion Entertainment, is intended to develop the path towards creating content in Arabic for the Arabic gaming market.
To me I do not know what the wisdom is for a regional Media company full of cash like Abu Dhabi Media to partner with an International company to localize its games?

Some might argue that Gazillion has the experience and that will speed up the localization process, but some others will argue that developing MMOG is not a rocket sciences, if you hire the right people, you can do it in-house. While others would say that Abu Dhabi Media should have acquired or partnered with the regional startup that is developing games in that sector whether for the International or the regional market! (I will profile some them very soon on AC inshallah. )
However, some of the good points of the deal that Emirati students and graduates will be able to generate games content which is meaningful to the Arab world. Students from Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) in Abu Dhabi will benefit from employment and on-the-job internship programmes at the JV in Abu Dhabi, a direct result of the collaboration begun earlier this year between ADMC and HCT. Internship and employment schemes will begin in Abu Dhabi in 2010 which include the opportunity for training placements overseas at Gazillion offices.

The Joint Venture is part of ADMC’s digital media expansion strategy. “Abu Dhabi Media Company continues to evolve and maximize the potential of its incredible portfolio of brands, on a global scale, well beyond traditional media outlets. We believe this is the right time for us to take the next step into this and other new digital platforms”, explained Edward Borgerding, CEO of ADMC.
The digital media arm of ADMC established in 2008 , has embarked on numerous online projects. Such as football and music arenas ‘Goalarabia.com’ and ‘Getmoarabia.com /’ respectively.

The first game from the new studio in Abu Dhabi is the development of an Arabic language MMOG, based on the popular character ‘Majid’.  Majid is also a very popular magazine for kids that I used to be a fan of when I was a young.

PS: Massive multiplayer online game (MMOG or MMO)  is a type video games which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously and played over the Internet.

Updated:

d1g.com the Jordanian Arab video photo sharing and general Portal startup has announced via a press release that it has completed its first round of financial investments. The press releases states that the first round has attracted a number of regional businessmen and international experts in the internet industry to join the site’s management. Numbers were not disclosed, though some sources said have told me that the company has previously raised 1 million USD in seed funding. Other sources told me that the company has been in financial troubles but I was not able to verify the claim. (I will contact d1g.com today and get you their answer.)

Update:

—I called Abdul-Majid Qasem d1g.com Executive Director yesterday, and explained to me that the company was doing ok before the funding in fact he said this month they expect to break even, he added that they fired few employee in late 2008 and went back to hiring in 3-2009.—–

In the press release Abdul-Majid Qasem, d1g.com Executive Director, said that d1g.com has succeeded in attracting a number of big investors who are expected to accelerate d1g.com growth and increase its base. The full list of Investors were not disclosed in the press release. He also added that d1g.com is still in negotiations with more private equity firms in the region.

d1g.com, was launched in 2007 as a video and photo sharing Arabic site, and later added more services such as Arabic Q&As, via acquisitions or in-house development.

The company claims more than 3 million visits per month, who generate more than 20 million impressions with of 15 million online monthly videos, the web site also claims it has grown its user base 100% during the first half of 2009 alone.  D1g.com competes head to head with the largest Arab community online : Maktoob (based in Jordan) the Jordanian based video and photo sharing startup, Ikbis (part of Toot Corp which also owns WatWet.) and Jordan based Arab blogging and social network site Jeeran.

In September 2008, d1g.com recruited Dr. Usama Fayyad, Yahoo!’s Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President, who became a member of d1g.com board of directors. Dr. Fayyad took on the role of Executive Chairman of d1g.com in early 2009.

d1g.com was again able to attract Jordanian Angel Investor Karim Kawar to become an active advisor on Board of Directors. Karim Kawar, was video interviewed last May by the founder of ArabCrunch here. He had previously served as Jordan’s Ambassador to the United States of America in Washington, DC, and is currently an adviser to a number of regional capital and technology companies.

The company also hinted in the press release that it will continue to consider several acquisitions.

More than half of the region’s employers (52%) have said that using top jobsites is their preferred method of sourcing talent, according to the results of a recent online poll series conducted by the Middle East’s number one jobsite, Bayt.com.

Traditional methods of recruitment have now been relegated according to the results: just 11% of recruiters favor newspaper adverts, 9% prefer talent recommendations via word of mouth and 7% prefer finding talent via their own career website. Interestingly, careers fairs, seen as the mainstay method for finding employees in the region, was the preferred method by just 5% of those surveyed.
The ‘Using Online Job Sites’ June poll series conducted by Bayt.com sought to understand from employers just how significant a role online recruitment plays in their organisations and what they consider the benefits of online recruitment to be.

When it came to employers’ opinions on what the main advantages of online recruitment are, it was felt that there was a combination of advantages, but most pertinently was the fact that it is faster than other recruitment methods to which 21% of employers agreed.

Another advantage that 10% of employers found is that it is easier than other methods, while 9% agreed it was more far reaching than other methods of recruitment. A further 5% felt it was the cheapest method for recruitment, while 4% considered it more efficient. Unsurprisingly, many of those that participated in the poll (40%) considered that there wasn’t one main advantage to online recruitment – its advantage lay in a combination of factors.

When asked how many professionals they have managed to source online in the past year, the employers had varying levels of success. A quarter of those that participated in the poll said that they have managed to source between one to five professionals, while 23% said they had managed to source more than 15 professionals. Additionally, 6% of employers sourced between six and fifteen employees.

“The fact that the vast majority of employers surveyed have successfully recruited online, suggests that it has so far been a very beneficial method for finding top talent” commented Amer Zureikat, Bayt.com.
Furthermore, employers were asked how many professionals they aim to recruit online over the next year. More than three quarters of employers that participated in the poll answered they were going to recruit online: 30% stated they aim to recruit between one and five professionals, 12% aim to recruit between six and ten professionals, 7% between 11 and 15 and 29% more than 15 professionals.

“That so many are planning to recruit online this year makes it very clear that organisations trust it as a method for sourcing talent, and that it will likely have an increasingly fundamental role to play in the recruitment strategies of HR departments across the region. It would be interesting to see over the course of the next couple of years how these figures change: the trend of online recruitment is currently gaining momentum for all kinds of reasons – including greater internet penetration and literacy in the region – and it is likely that soon the vast majority of organisations will use online recruitment for some, if not all, of their talent-sourcing requirements,” said Amer Zureikat.

In terms of how recruitment practices have changed between this year and the last, most organisations have made some adjustments, perhaps as a result of the economic downturn.

A total of 16% said they were using the most cost effective hiring methods, 13% said they have hiring freezes and another 13% said they were only replacing staff that leave. Surprisingly however, another 16% said they were hiring more staff than last year, suggesting some organisations are thriving, even during these challenging economic times.

“The data that we glean from polls such as these, which take the pulse of the region’s employers, provides very real and up to the minute insights into the region’s business environment and the current trends in recruitment. Not only is this of great interest to businesses around the region, but it can serve as a tool for HR professionals and other industry stakeholders to understand how recruitment practices can be improved – to secure the best talent for greater competitive advantage,” concluded Amer Zureikat.

Data for the ‘Using Online Job Sites’ employer poll series was collected online between the period of 31st May and 13th July 2009, with a total of 564 employers across the Middle East. This and other Middle East human resources research is available online at www.bayt.com.

The number of LTE next generation networks is set to grow significantly with the number of subscribers exceeding 100 million by 2014, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The LTE report found that these market numbers will be buoyed by the embedding of broadband capabilities within consumer electronics devices such as MP3 players, Netbooks and digital cameras.

If you do not know what LTE (Long Term Evolution)is? Well it is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and is based on 3GPP standards.  LTE is a continued evolution of GSM/CDMA/WCDMA/TD-SCDMA (i.e. 2G and 3G). LTE provides downlink peak rates of at least 100Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s in the uplink and RAN (Radio Access Network) round-trip times of less than 10ms. LTE supports flexible carrier bandwidths, from 1.4MHz up to 20MHz as well as both FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) according to Wikipedia.

Market Momentum

Juniper Research forecast that whilst subscribers will largely use handsets such as smart phones, and laptops, consumers will be motivated to connect devices in the home by LTE.

Report author Howard Wilcox commented: “There is intense activity in the LTE market right now, with in excess of 30 network operator commitments. Operators and vendors alike are moving rapidly to jump on the road to LTE, attracted by the connectivity-based opportunities that the technology offers. Sony, for example, announced that network connectivity is one of 3 top priority actions.”

Uncertainties Ahead

However, the report determined that there are still several open issues that need addressing before the market takes off. One of these is the issue of device convergence: what will a smart phone look like, and be capable of, in three years’ time?

Further report findings include:

•        Whilst early LTE adopters will be enterprise subscribers, consumers will begin to take up LTE based services towards 2012/2013.

•        There will be multiple millions of LTE subscribers as early as 2011.

•        Embedded LTE chipsets will become the second most popular means of access behind SIM cards by 2014.

LTE Whitepaper and further details of the study, “LTE Mobile Broadband Strategies: Consumer & Enterprise Markets; Devices & Chipsets 2009-2014” can be freely downloaded from the Juniper Research website.

In August 2008, Juniper Research forecasted that Service Provider revenues, derived from mobile money transfer services and remittances, will exceed $5bn globally by 2013. While the research firm Informa, predicts that by the same year, more than 424 million mobile users will be sending money to other mobile users in the same country via their mobile phone, and 73 million will be sending money internationally via their mobile phones. Africa and Middle East are predicted to be one of the top regions of the global international mobile money transfer gross transaction value.

Traditional money transfer and credit card companies are trying to be part of the mobile payment loop in order not to lose their business, while mobile operators and software vendors across the world are deploying different schemes to capitalize into this opportunity. Putting ideas into action, Kuwait based Zain, which is considered the fourth largest mobile network in the world in terms of geographic presence, with a footprint in 22 countries spread across the Middle East and Africa with over 60 million active customers, and Western Union, a global leader in money transfer, recently announced that they will work together to deliver mobile money transfer services in countries in Africa and the Middle East through Zain’s new Zap platform.

The Zap service provides Zain customers access to a wide range of transactional services from their mobile phones. Customers can interact with select bank accounts, top-up or transfer airtime, and move money to businesses, friends and family. The service allows customers to pay bills such as electricity, and can even be used to settle grocery bills in the supermarket. Zap has been operational in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for several months, making mobile banking services available to more than 100 million people in East Africa. Zain has also announced plans to introduce Zap in 22 markets. (ArabCrunch will do a follow-up story about when Zain will launch Zap in Middle East, by next week, inshallah.)

As Zain’s Zap is only available for Zain Mobile subscribers, this agreement with Western Union will enable Zain’s Zap to reach far beyond its members; Because Western Union has a global agent network of more than 334,000 locations in 200 countries and territories.

When the service is launched, consumers will be able to send cash money transfers from participating Western Union locations around the globe in the same way they do today. Zap customers who are enrolled in the service in select countries will be able to choose whether they want to receive their money in cash at a Western Union Agent location or in accounts tied to their mobile phones (their “mobile wallets.”)

Money-transfer receivers who receive funds in their mobile wallets will be able to pay bills, buy airtime or cash out through the Zap service at more than 12,000 Zap agent locations in East Africa.

The service will be introduced in select countries when regulatory approval has been secured. The service with Zain will be operational in countries with significant international and intra-Africa remittance activity.

Dr Saad Al Barrak, Zain Group CEO, said in a press release,

“This service will enable the millions of people who are abroad to send money home swiftly to their friends and families not only in the cities but also directly to the villages across these countries.”

Western Union has established cross-border Mobile Money Transfer pilots in a variety of corridors around the globe. The Western Union service currently allows mobile subscribers in the Philippines to receive funds sent from select Western Union Agent locations directly into their mobile wallets. In the future, Western Union will also offer consumers the option to send funds directly from their mobile phones for pickup at Western Union Agent locations globally or directly to another mobile subscriber. Western Union is extending its global distribution network through alliances with mobile network operators.

Zain brand is wholly owned by Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC, which is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Stock ticker: ZAIN). Zain is listed in the Financial Times’ Global 500 Index which ranks the world’s largest companies based on market capitalization.

In 2008 , Zain Group recorded all time high consolidated revenues of US$ 7.44 billion, an increase of 26% compared to 2007 and net profits of US$ 1.2 billion, an increase of 6% on 2007. Year on year customer growth across the two continents in which Zain operates was 50% with the Zain Group serving 63.54 million managed active customers at 31 December, 2008.

Zain operates in the following countries: Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine (currently operating as Paltel Group), Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In Lebanon, the company manages ‘mtc-touch’ on behalf of the government. In Morocco, Zain owns 31% of Wana Telecom through a joint venture.

A study run by online business networking service MeettheBoss shows that Middle East executives are spending an extra 11 hours a month online sharing their professional experiences and learning from their peers. MeettheBoss surveyed 6,000 of its 27,000 Middle East members to understand more about what effect Web 2.0 has had on the region’s business world. The survey asked its executive users what direct value they gained from spending time running blogs, writing tweets and connecting with other executives on sites such as LinkedIn (the company that currently blocks users from Sudan,) Xing, MeettheBoss, Ryze, Facebook and Twitter.

The answers revealed that executives proficient with online activities are spending an average of 11 hours more per month online than this time last year – and over 90% of respondents said they felt their time online was ‘very valuable’ to their daily role. Professionals are rushing to the Web for immediate answers to their most pressing questions. “Online business networking is growing at a fast rate in our region,” says MTB member Abdul Rashid, Project Director at Gulf One Bank. “Sites like MeettheBoss and LinkedIn are a great help as they can gather all the information I need on a daily basis. I can create and join discussions to establish new contacts with like-minded professionals.”

Finding answers for your business is one thing, but most Middle East executives have spotted more ‘individual’ advantages to this new phenomenon. Reports show that a higher percentage of Middle East participants are using online networking sites more than any other region. They are being used as a tool for the Middle East to communicate with the rest of the world, in order to create more business, build their brand and ultimately grow.

“Everyone knows that building contacts in the industry can strengthen your career prospects, but sharing your knowledge with the world is a very effective personal branding exercise,” says Adam Burns, Editor-in-Chief of online business channel, MeettheBoss.TV. Many thought leaders agree with him. Michael Noble, VP for Exploration at Jura Energy, Ibraheem Assaadan, VP for Exploration at Saudi Aramco, Manfred Fitzgerald, Director of Brand & Design at Lamborghini, and Vinton Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google have all shared their expertise on the site.

Though most experts agree there is no substitute for face-to-face networking, using social media tools correctly can bring substantial return on your time investment. You can become a thought leader in your niche environment overnight and even pull business to your door. 

Note: This report was published by MeettheBoss a website that competes with Linkedin, the lesson learned here for startups, is that you can manage to get International coverage if you release reports and research about your industry in general.   

#Photo by Ed Mitchell.

Seven service providers in six countries in the Arab World offer commercial IPTV services in May 2009, up from four service providers in three countries offering IPTV in August 2007. As broadband adoption increases in the region, several operators in the Arab World have plans to implement IPTV in the near future, according to a new report published by the Arab Advisors Group.

IPTV is in its initial stage of penetration in the Arab World, and is still developing. Seven service providers in six countries in the MENA region offer commercial IPTV services. These are: Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar and UAE. Reportedly, there are ongoing or planned projects by service providers and/or governments in seven other countries, which will, in the future, enable offering local IPTV services. These are: Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Tunisia, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.  

Senior industry executives debated the IPTV issue at the Arab Advisors 6th annual media and telecoms convergence conference held in Amman on June 1 and 2, 2009. They pointed to the massive supply of FTA channels and the widespread piracy of DVDs and Pay TV as obstacles facing IPTV providers. They also noted that ongoing FTTH projects in some countries should enhance the fortunes of future IPTV uptake as media broadcasters leverage its interactivity. 

The new report, “An Overview of IPTV in the Arab World” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Media Strategic Research Service subscribers on May 13, 2009. The report provides an overview of IPTV in the Arab World. The report includes details of IPTV services that the above mentioned operators offer; furthermore, the report includes fiber optics projects of the other operators in the region that are preparing to launch the service in the future. 

“Internet Protocol TV also called TV over IP (IPTV); delivers scheduled TV programs and video-on-demand (VoD) via the IP protocol and digital streaming techniques used to watch video on the Internet.,” Faten Bader, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst wrote in the report. She aded “The IP-based platform offers significant advantages such as: Video on Demand (VoD), the advantage of triple play, the automatic archiving of the Video broadcast in Real Media format, making the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized, the opportunity for integration and convergence, and it allows the operator to report statistics of programs/channels/adverts watched.” which also represents a significant privacy risk for the average user.  

#Photo by YLE Uudet.

Social Networking and video portal site d1g.com, which allows users to share, discuss, and distribute rich online content, has tapped into the knowledge and expertise of online data mining and data strategist, Dr. Usama Fayyad, appintement is a big win for D1g.com. 

Dr. Usama Fayyad served as Yahoo!’s Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Research & Strategic Data Solution.  Dr. Fayyad was responsible for Yahoo!’s overall data strategy, architecting Yahoos data policies and systems, prioritizing data investments, and managing Yahoos data process infrastructure which processed and mined over 25 Terabytes of data per day resulting from Yahoo!’s over 500 million users globally.   

Dr. Fayyad was also responsible for the advanced technology arm of Yahoo! in Yahoo! Research — the group that is driving innovation in social systems is Search Technology, in Microeconomics and in monetization technologies. He was also responsible for user targeting and grew ad targeting at Yahoo! by 20-fold from when his company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2004 till he left Yahoo! in later 2008. 

Dr. Fayyad invested into d1g.com, and has become the company’s new Executive Chairman. But the amount of investment has not been disclosed.  With d1g.com growing regional audience of more than 3 million unique monthly visitors viewing more than 20 million monthly pages and an excess of 15 million online monthly videos — making it the leading video streaming site in the Middle East, Dr. Fayyad’s entry into the company provides great value in helping scale the company’s infrastructure to accommodate the increased users’ activity and to grow the business to the next level   

“Arab audiences are really thirsty for new-generation rich content and social media represented by the Web 2.0 offerings of d1g.com. I am very excited about d1g.com.  I have been informally advising the firm since its early days, and I am very bullish about their potential to grow and provide some of the most dynamic experiences for their audiences and marketers alike.” said Dr. Fayyad.  “Since my departure from Yahoo! in the autumn of 2008, I have been evaluating various investment opportunities in the regional online space, and I was very impressed with the skills, expertise and dedication of the company’s leadership.” added Dr. Fayyad.  

Dr. Fayyad will play a particularly crucial role in helping the d1g.com management team better monetize the company’s inventory through more targeted ad offerings that allows marketers to dynamically generate ads that target various audience criteria such as geography, demography, and browsing behaviour. He will also help expand the offering to our rapidly growing user base across the entire Arabic speaking world. 

“We are very excited to have Dr. Fayyad on board.  His hands-on approach to the company and the team has already proved to be of enormous value to the business.”  said Majied Qasem, d1g.com Co-founder, “Dr. Fayyad will be instrumental in helping us capture a larger share of the rapidly growing on-line advertising market as all companies realize the effectiveness and value of this new medium, especially in reaching the youth and high-value audiences across the Middle East, including especially the GCC and North Africa.” 

Rudain Kawar, d1g.com Co-founder and primary investor so far added “I am looking forward to working with Dr. Fayyad.  His involvement will put d1g.com in the forefront of online innovation and provide globally and regionally relevant insights into the industry.”  

Under the patronage of Princess Sumaya Bint El-Hassan, the Emirati Al-Ahli Holding Group has launched, in partnership with the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), the second version of the Global Business Opportunities program. The program aims to train a group of young entrepreneurs of various nationalities in order to prepare them for the launch of global companies. The opening ceremony was attended by a number of businesspeople, ambassadors and participating delegations from Jordan, Argentina and South Africa, 

There are 25 young men and women participating in this program from Jordan, Argentina and South Africa. They will undergo intensive training for three weeks, during which they will be introduced to administrative, marketing, financing, financial and human resources skills, along with others, presented by the Cisco Entrepreneurship Institute at the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship. Participants will be divided into a number of groups that include different nationalities who will provide a complete business project in which the skills and ideas acquired throughout the program will emerge.  

In her opening speech Princess Sumaya Bint El-Hassan who is a strong supporter to entrepreneurs in Jordan and beyond, expressed her pride in the regional and global initiatives launched by the Center with various institutions and companies, such as Al-Ahli Holding Group. Her Highness said: “The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship, as a primary component in El Hassan Science City, has succeeded in playing an important role in the proliferation of entrepreneurship culture and training business entrepreneurs within a number of regional and global initiatives. It has also succeeded in launching the ‘Google Award for the Best Online Business Plan’ and is expanding its geographical scope to include numerous nations and continents.”  

In a speech delivered by Mr. Mohammed Khammas, the CEO of Al-Ahli Holding Group, he stated: “The efforts in this program and other specific programs have the effect of offering a better tomorrow for youth who will lead the development process in their countries. As a private sector, it is our duty to cooperate with our governments, NGOs and various training and educational institutions to train and enable youth.” 

Khammas added: “It is our duty to prepare the youth for the future. We must trust their ability to be creative and to develop. We must arm them with the tools and skills needed to launch their own projects and therefore enhance national economies and investment opportunities while creating more job opportunities as well.” 

The ceremony included the participation of Joi Ito, the CEO of Creative Commons, who presented a motivational speech for participants in which he emphasized the role of entrepreneurship in achieving comprehensive development and the significance of creativity in the success of companies starting up and increasing their ability to compete in global markets. 

The Director of Business Development for Google in the United Arab Emirates, Hosni Al-Khufash, provided a detailed presentation on the challenges facing entrepreneurs in their endeavors to establish global corporations, and offered solutions for these challenges. 

Princess Sumaya concluded the ceremony by thanking the volunteers including trainers and counselors, and honoring the speakers and representatives of delegations participating from Argentina and South Africa. She urged participants to move forward in competition and working with a team spirit to create successful global entrepreneurial companies. 

It is worth noting that the first version of the program took place in Argentina with the participation of 20 young men and women from the United Arab Emirates and Argentina. Preparations are underway to implement the program in Brazil and South Africa in an expanded capacity and with a larger participation of youth.   

 Bayt.com, the Middle East’s number one job site, announced today that JobSeekers can now benefit from a job search that is 40 400 percent faster on the Bayt.com site, following the replacement of Bayt.com’s existing job search engine, with a new one. The new search technology designed for job seekers is a complement to Bayt.com’s InstantMatch technology for employers to find the most suited persons to their specified vacancies, quickly while minimizing time-to-hire.

Once on the Bayt.com site, job seekers will still encounter the same user interface, but they will now receive the results of their search in a much faster time, with the search technology alone, stripped of its appendices, operating at a minimum 40 400 percent faster speed according the Bayt.com. 

Akram Assaf, Chief Technology Officer at Bayt.com commented; “Amidst the current economic downturn in the region, Middle East employment markets are in a state of flux. What we are seeing is that many professionals who were settled and secure in their jobs until very recently, are finding themselves in a position where they now need to find new work. 

At Bayt.com, it is our commitment to constantly innovate and develop new services and technologies to help all of the region’s job seekers to find their ideal position. With the launch of this new search technology, we are demonstrating this commitment; through making the job search process work better for them and perform at unprecedented effectiveness and speed.” 

A significant feature to the technology is that now, job seekers can use a variety of different terms and keywords to look for jobs that couldn’t be used before. Specific key words and symbols such as C++ and R11, and two-letter abbreviations such as HR or IT can now be entered into the search box. The ability to use these search terms gives higher precision to the actual keywords used, over the stemmed version.

 The technology therefore gives greater weight to the keyword if it shows in the job title, followed by the company name, before searching across the whole job description. The result is that the process is even more straightforward and quicker for the JobSeeker without sacrificing simplicity or user-friendliness.

 Once the new technology has completed the search – in seconds – the relevant results will be presented to the JobSeeker, in a descending order of importance, based on the JobSeeker’s specified keywords. 

Under the kind consecutive patronage of  Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE)  is organizing the Fifth Annual Conference on Technology Commercialization , that will take place tomorrow at El Hassan Science City, in Amman, Jordan. The Conference will be part of the 14th Jordan Scientific Week (May 3rd – 6th, 2009). This conference is organized as part of QRCE’s continued efforts in commemorating the developing and dynamic process of generating intellectual property (IP), research and development (R&D) patentability, and commercialization.

The fifth conference will focus on how to generate patents through systematic innovation in technology and business domains; it will highlight an approach in systematic innovation known as TRIZ (Theory of Solving Inventive Problems), which has been recognized as a mean of generating considerable impact of innovations worldwide -especially by leading companies which apply it to solve both problems and produce concepts of new products and services based on more than 50 years of scientific studies. Also, TRIZ is considered as a tool that drastically accelerates innovation process by offering tools and techniques for systematic situation analysis, problem solving and new ideas development by combining system thinking and creativity.

During the opening session, a keynote speech by Mr. Valeri Souchkov -the co-founder of The European TRIZ Association and the owner of ICG Training & Consulting based in Netherlands- will highlight on TRIZ knowledge in a structured way to solve existing problems and develop innovative products and technologies. The opening will be followed by two technical sessions one for innovation in engineering & technology and another one for business & management innovation.

Within the conference, the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship will announce the launching of “TRIZmatic”; the specialized Institute for Systematic Innovation, which will focus on companies in the MENA region which are welling to increase their competitiveness in the global economy by innovating in their products, services, business models, systems and processes. in coinciding with the conference, TRIZmatic will conduct a special 3-day public training workshop about TRIZ-based systematic innovation in business and management

Topping all other the category websites in the of  Social Networking Category, fameego.com was awarded the Gold Award at the fifth annual Pan Arab Web Awards. The regional award ceremony was recently held at the Burj Arab – Dubai, UAE. The ceremony was attended by key players in the Middle East web design and development arenas.

Receiving the award on behalf of fameego.com team were Tareq Kayyali, the site’s founder and co-owner along with a representative from the co-owners and development company perennialsys.com – Nilesh Bafna.

Accorrding to Fameego, its mission is “to provide users with a tangible set of tools that will allow them to easily CONNECT, SHARE and RELATE through the Internet in an innovative and powerful way. This “Connect, Share, & Relate” methodology, is the core business principle driving FAMEEGO’ uniqueness.”

Fameego.com is considered the first English-arabic social networksing website that is built entirely with  Adobe Flex technology that allows more control over the flexibility of the product and also giving the user a unique user experience, But the downside is that you do not get an instant access as you have to wait until the flash based website to load.

The complete list of Awards 2009 winners is here.

Dr. Abdallla Alnajjar, chairman of the Arab Sciences and Technology Foundation (ASTF), has stated that Cairo will be hosting the 6th Investing in Technology Forum for this year 2009. The forum will be held in the Fairmont Towers Hotel, on May 12-14 under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Ahmed Nazif, prime minister of Egypt. ASTF is organizing the forum in cooperation with the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), Nile University, Abdul Latif Jameel Community Services Programs, Islamic Development Bank, Vodafone-Egypt, Technology Development Fund (TDF), (WIPO), Schema Management Consultants.  

Dr. Najjar emphasized that the current economic conditions are critical and they create higher risk rates affecting investment decisions on all level. For that reason, ASTF is organizing the investing in technology forum to encourage investors in the MENA region by providing new investment opportunities in technology startups. Dr. Najjar referred to Canada’s latest decision of allocating 3.8 billion dollars to build two new research centers for technology innovation and commercialization. He also mentioned that a lot of multinational corporations have announced new programs to support technology investment in various countries such as Cisco which is investing 540 million in South Korea’s technology sector. Dr. Najjar said that part of our mission at ASTF is to provide Arab investors with such opportunities to keep wealth in the Arab World instead of investing in other countries.  

Dr. Najjar clarified that what they mean by technology in not only Information Technology, it also includes: biotechnology, energy, agriculture, water, environment, health care, electronics and all knowledge based sectors, and among the forum’s participants there are: angel and venture capital investors, CEOs of multinational and regional corporations, entrepreneurs, researchers, directors of technology incubators, and technology leaders.  

“Invited speakers will discuss various topics such as the role of multinational corporations in the global entrepreneurship development, the venture capital investment industry in the region, and the rule of angel investment networks in this ecosystem” said Dr. Wissam Rabadi, forum manager and ASTF-Jordan director.    

Dr. Rabadi added that this year’s forum will include startups exhibition and investors-entrepreneurs matchmaking sessions that is aimed to announce the top 10 Arab startups that are ready for investment. The forum, which was preceded by five other forums in Beirut, Jeddah, Manamah, Kuwait, and Amman, has attracted over five years 550 participants from 26 countries, 160 organization, and 80 speakers. The forum has created 59 investment opportunities of which 22 startups got a total of 15 million dollars investment.  

“The 6th forum has invited speakers from top tire international and regional companies such as: Motorola, IBM, Optimiza, Vodafone, and Mentor Graphics. We have also invited investors from Ideavelopers, Nile Capital, Catalyst Private Equity, MENA Ventures, Arab Seed Ventures, IV Holdings, Building Block Equity Fund, Berytech Fund, and Riyada Ventures” Dr. Wissam added.  

Eng. Mohamed Aboud, ASTF-Egypt director, explained that the forum comes to promote success startup companies that were selected among other hundreds of applicants in ASTF regional “Business Plan” competitions that were organized in cooperation with Intel, “Made in Arab World” competitions that were organized in cooperation with the League of Arab States, and “Abdul Latif Jameel Research Grants” that is managed by ASTF. 

For over five thousand years, from the dawn of the pharaohs to the modern era, Egyptian culture is one of the world’s richest -if not the richest – with historical wonders, which made it the touristic destination to millions of tourists every year.

 Even though the web is full of images about Egypt, the recent announcement of “Egypt Memory”, an Egyptian Heritage Online Shop of offering more than 2,000 free images, would provide the web venue for those who seek high quality and professional images that are hard to find elsewhere.

Egypt Memory is a result of a joint collaboration between Egyptian Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) of Alexandria Bibliotheca and with IBM ( which provided the grant and the technical expertise) .

“Egypt Memory” online shop includes complementary high-resolution images that cover all the Egyptian culture throughout different eras: Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic and Islamic. Though I hope they can add more detailed categories and tags such as artifacts, people, and places.  The website also shows different CULTNAT project publications such as the Atlas of Archeological Sites, Guide to the Plants of Ancient Egypt, Encyclopedia of Great Arab Music Figures, Thesaurus of Egyptian Folklore, and many other publications.  The free images available on the web site are periodically updated and can be easily saved and used without any restrictions.

Besides images, the website offers shopping for books,  CD’s and DVDs, Maps and Atlases, Postcards and Gift items.

The content of Egypt Memory online shop supports three languages (English, Arabic and French.)

The site provides several delivery and payment methods where users can choose between downloading their purchases electronically or through shipment. Users also have the choice to do their payments through bank transfers, credit cards, or upon cash on delivery (to Egyptian residents.)

Another interesting website about Egypt’s heritage is the awards winning Eternal Egypt web site ,which is also a product of IBM and CultNat partnership.

Eternal Egypt  has high-resolution images, three-dimensional reconstructions of Egyptian monuments and antiquities, as well as virtually-reconstructed environments, panoramic images, and panoramic views of present-day Egypt captured by robotic cameras located from the top of Karnak Temple to the streets of Old Cairo. It also has an Interactive map and timeline that guides Eternal Egypt visitors through Egypt’s cultural heritage, while a “context navigator” presents the complex relationships between objects, places and personalities of Egypt’s past in a unique, web-like display. It also uses IBM’s Text-to-Speech technology which generates spoken audio versions of any textual content in English, French, or Arabic

Eternal Egypt is also accessible by handheld digital guides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, by cell phone for visitors to the pyramids at Giza or the Luxor Temple in Upper Egypt.

Allot of effort has been put into these 2 projects, at cost of a couple of millions of dollars, thanks to IBM’s grant.

# Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and information technology & CULTNAT

Nokia Developer Summit, is a two-day event that will explore global application distribution through Nokia channels, web runtime and browser optimization, plus cross-platform development using latest Nokia technologies.

The  Summit will be held in Monte Carlo, Monaco from April 28-29, 2009. Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President, Nokia Services, will deliver the opening keynote, addressing leading software developers, network operators and content partners about Nokia business and development opportunities.

 Registration is now open at www.developersummit2009.com. Attendees from around the world will learn, share and explore the latest in application and content development, integration and distribution opportunities for Nokia devices and services.

 At the event, Ojanperä will deliver “Developing for the Era of Social Location,” affirming the exciting possibilities available to software developers interested in the convergence of social networking, physical location and mobility using Nokia platforms.

 Additional keynote speakers include Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, who will address the “Evolution of Open Mobile Platforms”; and Michael Halbherr, Vice President of Nokia Location Based Services, who will discuss “Unleashing Innovation for the World with Maps.”

 The latest Nokia Developer Summit agenda includes experts from the world of mobile technology.

 Attendees at the Nokia Developer Summit will receive the latest updates about publishing to the Ovi Store through www.publish.ovi.com, a self-service publishing tool that provides developers with an easy way to distribute and monetize their applications and content to millions of consumers using Nokia devices.

“The 2009 Nokia Developer Summit will gather developers from around the world to learn about the latest technologies and business opportunities that only Nokia can offer,” said Rob Taylor, Head of Forum Nokia. “The Summit brings developers, global network operators, business partners and Nokia experts together in a truly collaborative learning environment that explores how Nokia can help developers improve their business and tap into the growth in mobile application development opportunities worldwide.”

 In addition, software developers attending the 2009 Nokia Developer Summit will learn about:

 - Advanced technical information about Nokia technologies and development platforms, including Ovi, Flash Lite, Web Runtime, Qt, maemo and Nokia touch-screen interfaces;

- Partnership opportunities with Nokia, as well as funding opportunities for developers through Nokia’s venture capital arm, Nokia Growth Partners; and

- Marketing and promotional opportunites through Forum Nokia plus revenue sharing and pricing strategies for Ovi Store.

Developer attendees can also schedule one-on-one meetings at the Summit with Nokia technology and business experts to answer open questions. In addtion, attendees can participate in special hands-on lab exercises in the latest mobile technologies and platforms that promise to substantially broaden the software development and business horizons of mobile developers who attend the event.

 On Day Two of the Summit, attendees will have the opportunity to watch an elite group of developers selected by Forum Nokia, as they go face-to-face in a 24-hour “Hackathon” competition to complete Web Runtime widgets for the home screen of the new Nokia N97. The ideas for the “Hackathon” build upon the best widget ideas selected from more than 1,000 concepts submitted by consumers around the world for the Nokia N97 Widget Design Competition. The winning widgets created during the “Hackathon” will be distributed through the Ovi Store.  

Growth in user spend on mobile entertainment services will slow dramatically over the next two years unless key markets emerge from recession, according to a new report from Juniper Research. In addition, the report argued that slower deployment of content services meant that revenues were likely to be lower than previously forecast even after markets emerged from the downturn.

The Mobile Entertainment report found that, under a worst case scenario of a prolonged global recession, mobile entertainment revenues would increase by nearly $13 billion over the next five years, against a pre-downturn forecast of more than $26 billion. It argued that the decline in consumer discretionary spend was likely to lead to both reduced adoption of, and churn away from, subscription-based content, while the frequency of ad hoc, one-off downloads of games and music would also be adversely affected.

Furthermore, according to report author Dr Windsor Holden, other factors continue to constrain growth, notably ease of access and the cost of data services:

“While operators have made significant strides in reducing the costs of bundled data, the overwhelming majority of mobile users are prepaid customers who want to sample mobile Internet usage before committing to a bundle. And in most cases, data costs are so high that they act as a disincentive to such initial usage.”

Nevertheless, the Mobile Entertainment report notes that despite the downturn in growth, the revenues derived from Mobile Entertainment Services will still be significant. Andrew Bud, global chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum, said:

“We concur with this report’s identification of so many factors driving growth in mobile entertainment worldwide.  It is clearly positive that Juniper concludes this market will grow so substantially over the next few years despite the recession.”

Other findings from the report include:

·        Mobile TV is likely to be the most severely impact sector of mobile entertainment, followed by music and user-generated content.

·        The Far East & China region will generate the largest share of entertainment revenues.

WaTweT is a micro blogging, group messaging & social networking platform for Arabia (like Twitter). The Jordanian startup was initially reviewed on AC here and here.

ArabCrunch channel is now featured among few handpicked channels available on WaTweT to the public, where if you subscribe, you can receive the channels updates to your WaTweT account stream and your mobile via SMS. (Many Thanks to Waheed Barghouthi WatWets’ Ruby on Rails Developer and Karim Arafat CEO of WaTweT.)

If you are not in WaTweT make sure you sign up here, and then activate your mobile number. To subscribe to ArabCrunch Channel and receive our updates for Free you can earthier go to the channel page and click on subscribe, or if your mobile SMS is activated on WatWet all you have to do is send AC or ArabCrunch to:

• 97999 to subscribe to ArabCrunch channel (Zain Jordan only)
• 5740to subscribe to ArabCrunch channel (Mobily KSA only)
• +447781489826 to subscribe to ArabCrunch channel (Rest of the world’s mobile operators only)

You can also add ArabCrunch channel bagde to your website/blog by copying and pasting the following code:

<div id=”watwet_badge_wrapper”> <div id=”watwet_logo”><a href=”http://watwet.com/”>Watwet</a></div> <div id=”watwet_updates_list”> <ul id=”updates”> </ul> </div> <div id=”watwet_actions”><a href=”http://watwet.com/channel/ArabCrunch”>Subscribe to this channel on Watwet</a></div> </div> <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://watwet.com/javascripts/channel_badge.js”></script> <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://watwet.com/channel/ArabCrunch/badge”></script>

Note: remember if you are using wordpress, Add <code> before the script and then add </code>at the end to enable Javascript.

Here how the channel will look like in your blog/website (The badge is designed to be placed on the sidebar of your blog. The width of the badge in your blog/website will be 190px. this one is made to fit the post :




Arafat told me that WatWet team is currently testing and developing a desktop AIR based application, iPhone App, Symbian OS Apps (like S60), Twitter integration. And they will be released in around a month or so. With these apps you can receive and send WaWet updates in your desktop and your mobile via Internet connection (like: GPRS, EDGE, WiFi and 3G.)

Karim also said that after these releases they will launch their API to third party developers. Also he stated that the startup is currently in talks with more mobile operators in the region to enable local SMS numbers.

The Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) announced the launching of its current funding cycle (first half of 2009) of  ’The Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) Grant for Funding Scientific Research and Innovation in Technology in the Arab World’. 

This cycle is the eighth that has been managed so far by ASTF, under the sponsorship of Abdul Latif Jameel Community Services Programs which donated generously a yearly ONE MILLION US$ grant. And over the seven previous funding cycles, 69 research projects from 12 Arab countries were funded, with grants for each project in the range of $25,000-$50,000 US.

 The ALJ Grant program aims at enhancing civilian R&D activities inside the Arab world towards outputs that contribute to the sustained social and economic development. Emphases are placed on research proposals in medical, engineering, applied sciences, and other sciences that are meeting the following requirements:  

- Provide appropriate technologies for developing the Arab world communities   

- Develop affordable products through designs, materials and mechanisms whilst building a suitable business plans and strategies that benefit the Arab world communities.  

- Address target markets including, but not limited to, energy, medical care, water purification, environmental hazardous, telecommunication, food safety, plant improvement and breeding, household equipment, and others. 

Furthermore, one third of the ALJ Grant is to be utilized on proposals that specifically address the problems of the poor, as defined by one or more of the following requirements:  

- Aggressively improve the affordability of technology products such that the poor can use them.  

- Develop technologies that can be used by the poor to alleviate their current position. 

The application process should start by filling out the “Solicitation for Letter of Intent” , the deadline is on 25 April 2009.

For more detailed information about the guidelines, procedures, and applications; you can read the ALJ grant booklet, along with other documents and forms here.