Yahoo! Maktoob and the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) have announced that the 2011 People’s Choice Award will be hosted on Yahoo! Maktoob, reaching the sites’ 55 million users in the Middle East and North Africa.  The People’s Choice is the category in the AIB’s international media excellence awards which is open to online viewers everywhere who vote for their favorite entry, and each year attracts entries from broadcasters across the globe.

This year’s topic for the People’s Choice award is “Best Coverage of Democracy Uprisings” reflecting the momentous changes happening in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring and highlighting the impact that traditional and social broadcasting has had in enabling the movements for change.

The deadline for final entries is Friday September 16th, but already programmes have been submitted from Europe, Middle East, and Africa and include entries from Al Jazeera, Al Hurra, France24, NDTV, Press TV and The Doha Debates.  A short list of the six best will be selected from which online users from across the world can view and vote on Yahoo! Maktoob from the second half of October. The winner will be announced at the AIB’s ceremony on the 9th November.

Yahoo! Maktoob will be hosting the programmes on special pages in both English and Arabic versions, allowing a worldwide audience to participate in viewing and then choosing the one they like best.  Viewers can also use the power of Yahoo! Maktoob’s platform to comment on their choice and share their views and their votes with friends on Yahoo! Maktoob and other social media platforms.

Updated.
Aljazeera, the popular Arab TV Network and the only English TV station that is based from the Arab world has officially launched its blog network called Aljazeera Blogs .

Update: Aljazeera English TV station remains blocked by US cable operators with no reasonable justifications rather than being racists. was blocked, as it seems the blocking was lifted and AJ english is available via 5 Operators . ( Thanks for the notification Tom Garnier.)

Aljazeera blogs feature blog posts from its extensive global network of reporters. The blog network currently has several sub blogs: Africa blog, Asia Blog, Americas Blog, Europe Blog, Middle East blog and Business blog.

CNN, on the other hand,  has already an older, bigger and more extensive blog network also from its own staff. However, it is good to see more opinion in English, especially that it is coming from an Arab based TV network rather than only from a US network, even though most of Aljazeera’s current bloggers are westerners.

Another Interesting aspect about Aljazeera Blogs is that posts are licensed under a creative commons license , so people can reuse and republish. The same way Aljazeera was the first news broadcaster to do so early this year.

Aljazeera network’s web 2.0 team has been busy launching many useful social media applications. ArabCrunch was following Aljazeera, this link shows all the posts AC has published about Aljazeera work in the mobile and the Internet fields.

Updated.

Aljazeera Arabic the well known Qatar based TV network, has just added listeners tweets to its “ Minbar Aljazeera” talk show. This move makes Aljazeera the first Arab TV to integrate with twitter.

Minbara Aljazeera, (which mean Aljazeera Forum) is a weekly Arabic listeners live talk show, that tackles different issues and topics, where listeners call and say their opinion about the current show topic. Users have been previously able to send emails to the show’s email address and the show presenter would read them.

But now, users are able to tweet (via Twitter) their voices about the current program topic to twitter.com/minbaraljazeera , today’s topic was “new media and Iran”.  The presenter today, did read some of the users’ tweet. However she said she had difficulties in reading all tweets.

This is a nice move by Aljazeera, but it would be nicer if users’ tweets and their user names are displayed on the TV screen.

Aljazeera has been doing many new media projects via its new media department, they previously integrated twitter with a mashed up news mapping website for the coverage of the War On Gaza.

Twitter is not massively popular in the Arab world, but this move will help twitter become popular in the Arab world, especially if other Aljazeera Arabic shows follow steps.

I have suggsted before to the founder of WaWet to ask Alajzeera to do the same with WaWet.

Update: Aljazeera English TV channel which is blocked by Cable operators in North America has an online campaign to request the English version of the channel to be on-air in North America.

The Al Jazeera Network Consists of:

• Al Jazeera Satellite channel (Arabic)

• Al Jazeera English

• Al Jazeera Documentary

• Al Jazeera Sports

• Al Jazeera Mubasher (Live)

• Al Jazeera Media Training and Development Center

• Al Jazeera Center for Studies

• Al Jazeera Mobile

• Al Jazeera.net (the English and Arabic web sites)

Access to the Web via TV is gaining momentum, as a number of access devices with Web capabilities are gaining global household adoption with tens of millions of units being sold every year. These devices range from Set-Top Boxes like DreamBox, video gaming consoles such as Xbox, Playstation and WII, and new LCD TVs with Web and Bluetooth capabilities are being shipped, such as the new Sony Bravia.

Capitalizing on the growing TV to Web connectivity OpenCraft an Egyptian open-source software & outsourcing company is planning to launch a Web TV 2.0 code named (FooTV), though still under development, OpenCraft founders demonstrated FooTV demo to me in their office while I was visiting Egypt, but authorized me to disclose little information about it on AC.

FooTV will bring TV experience to the world of online videos, a conversion of the Web and the TV, with Web 2.0 features. FooTV will be also tailored to the TV handset. According to Abdel Karim co-founder of OpenCraft.

OpenCraft is building FooTV based on their past experience in developing Set-Top Boxes. In 2007 they won and completed a contract from Intel to build a media center appliance (Intel HelioCreek STB) using Intel hardware for the Arab regional market. The appliance is a home entertainment center with Web browsing, DVD, PC capabilities and Music player, it was not commercialized by Intel but only for R&D purposes!( Something I do not understand why Intel did not commercialize it!)

In (Intel HelioCreek STB) project, OpenCraft used current open-source software to cut down development time, they used and customized MythTV an open-source media center, customized and trimmed-down Ubuntu Linux distribution to support the appliance, and Arabaized MythTV theme among other things that include using C++ and Qt.

One of the other interesting projects OpenCraft did, was the American University in Cairo migration to Google Apps, using Django, Python, jQuery, MySQL, Apache, Linux, and Google Data API to build the Google Apps self-service migration wizard, which is an easy to use self-service wizard-style portal to facilitate migration of various IT services such as email and contacts to the Google Apps platform. The resulting code base has been released under an open-source license.
OpenCraft was founded in 2004 as an open-source software firm that specializes in Web 2.0 information architecture and system integration using PHP, Python, SugarCRM and Drupal along with providing custom software development. The Company is backed by Hermes-TDF an Egyptian venture capital firm. The cofounders are Rady Fahmy as CEO, Abdel-Karim Mardini as software delivery manager, and Karim Ratib as Tech. Director. The company has 25 employees and is based in Dukki, Cairo, Egypt.

As the crisis continues in Gaza, Aljazeera Labs is continuing their innovation. This time they recently beta launched crowdsource mapping mashup “Mapping the War on Gaza” service, in collaboration with Ushahidi who  have successfully used their platform to crowdsource information during recent crisis in Kenya and South Africa.

The platform allows people around the world to submit news related to Gaza to the service as it happens, via the web, twitter or mobile, which in turn after some fact checking gets displayed on the interactive map along a time line.

“Mapping the War on Gaza” displays incidents on a map that are Mashedup with Microsoft Virtual Earth, you can click the dots on the  map to view the reports.  Incidents can be filtered into many categories such as Twitter Reports, Deaths, Israeli Ground Forces, Civilians, Air Strikes, Palestinian Causalities, Rocket Attacks, etc.  For example a recent report says “Death toll in Gaza rises to 763 after  50 more bodies were discovered”, as one the Israeli casualties a recent report says “Israeli Army says three Israeli soldiers were killed in attacks in the Gaza Strip”.

On any report, users can help verify if the report is credible or not by voting it up or down. Moreover users can comment and discuses each report and view additional reports and related mainstream News of Incident.

Reporting an incident to “Mapping the War on Gaza” via Text Message (SMS) in Palestine using the Jawwal network, you can send a text message(starting with the word GAZA) to the number: 37191. Anywhere else in the world, you can send a text message (starting with the word GAZA) to the number: +45609910303 or via Twitter by replying to the service official twitter account.  If you have Video or Images of breaking news events, you can submit the content via the YourViews (Aljzeera English version of Sharek)  or via the email to: yourviews@aljazeera.net

There are other services on the web the caters to the war on Gaza one of them is Aljazeera new area widget that you can add to your blog or website. The widget displays recent Palestinian and Israeli casualties. Though ArabCrunch could not verify if this is a service form Aljazeera. The other one I was notified of is Support Gaza which displays graphical images and vidoes of the recent casualties in Gaza, if you came across a new website that utilizes web 2.0 for the war on Gaza please mention them in your comment.

Aljazeera Labs, has recently launched a number of Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 tools and application that goes from crowdsourcing into delivering both Aljazeera English and Arabic news anywhere @ anytime.

The newly launched services include a Podcast, where you can subscribe to Al Jazeera podcasts and have your favorite Al Jazeera programmes delivered straight to you. “Listening Post” is the first podcast available in English, and there are around 5 Arabic podcast shows such as the popular show “AlItijah Al Makas”.

On the Mobile side, Al Jazeera Network have partnered with Sony Ericsson, where several Sony Ericsson handheld devices on the market today in the MENA region will have an Al Jazeera RSS feed already installed.  While Al Jazeera Arabic and English Mobile websites will be released very soon in beta versions. According to the Aljazeera Labs website: “The first stage of development has been completed and we are currently in the final stages of internal testing.”

On the IM side Al Jazeera Labs has beta launched IM Bot where you can get breaking news sent to your email or IM client. Currently it works with gtalk.

Some of the relatively older services Aljazeera labs has launched were mentioned by ArabCrunch here, which include an iPhone App, Facebook app, YouTube Channels, and Twitter channels for Arabic and English content.  The most recent Twitter additions are:
*Al Jazeera’s Breaking News channel on Twitter.
* Twitter Channels  to interact directly with Aljazeera English presenters and shows.

Citizen journalism takes more uptime on hot news, remember London bombings? The first images were shot by mobile camera, and today the first reports of Mumbai bombing came from citizen journalism via twitter and images on flickr.

So Aljazeera launching of Sharek (an Arabic word which means participate) is smart way to get breaking news and exclusive content for the channel from people who were on site. But those people have to know Arabic as for the time being Sharek is only in Arabic. 

Aljazeera’s Sharek is part of the new redesign of Aljazeera Arabic homepage, which is half way to full customization of Aljazeera’s news.

With Sharek users can upload news videos and/or pic through the web site, or send it via mobile phone or email to sharek@aljazeera.net. Where Aljazeera may publish it on the site or on TV.

Citizen journalism has been around for years now, in the Arab world Maktoob has a section in its news website that allows anyone to publish news. International news station CNN has iReporter , but unlike both of them Sharik uploaded content is handpicked by Aljazeera’s editors to make sure the story is true before it is published, which is a good policy to keep real news from lies. As One of iReporter’s user once published that the CEO of Apple has a cancer which led to depreciation of Apple’s stock value, and put CNN in an embarrassing situation.

Maktoob’s news is full of non news worthy content, but its use of citizen journalism has been kind of successful in its sport channel.( see Editor’s note on the comparison with Wikeez here.)

The first company to use Citizen journalism years ago was the south Korean company OhmyNews , another company is NowPublic the Canadian company that bought Trumors from Guy Kawasaki. 

HAMPSHIRE, UK — The increasing availability of mobile handsets capable of receiving free-to-air analogue and digital terrestrial TV signals will adversely impact the prospects for dedicated mobile broadcast TV networks, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

While the report says that more than 330m mobile users worldwide will own broadcast TV-enabled handsets by 2013, less than 14% will opt for mobile pay TV services. Although mobile broadcast TV will generate global annual end-user revenues of $2.7 billion by 2013, this level is markedly lower than previously forecast.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden,

The development of terrestrial TV-capable receivers with comparatively low power consumption, and the availability of these receivers in mass market handsets, throws into question the business case for the deployment of a dedicated network in many markets.

The report notes that operator decisions to offer DVB-T handsets in Germany has effectively closed the door for DVB-H in Germany, and argues that the strong take-up of analogue TV handsets in China – and of one-seg handsets in Japan – indicates that free-to-air services will continue to predominate.
However, the report also notes that this trend in turn has created a further opportunity for streamed TV services.

Holden continued:

There will always be a market for some form of premium TV service on the mobile handset, and with broadcast TV in many markets likely to consist simply of the free-to-air terrestrial signals, the gap in the market is likely to be filled by streamed video-on-demand services over the 3G network.

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile TV market based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile TV industry.

Other findings from the report include:
•    In terms of end-user revenues, the US will be the largest single market for mobile broadcast TV services in 2013, followed by South Korea and China.
•    MediaFLO services are likely to be deployed in parts of Asia and in the UK by the end of 2010.
•    Adoption levels for streamed TV packages are higher than previously envisaged, reflecting the reduction in anticipated deployment of dedicated mobile broadcast TV networks.

Whitepaper, ‘TV on the Go’ and further details of the study ‘Mobile TV: Opportunities for Streamed & Broadcast Services, 2008-2013 (Fourth Edition) can be freely downloaded from here.

Part of its new media initiatives, Aljazeerea launch of an iPhone app is aimed at  growing the reach of the English version of the channel, which is mostly banned by US cable operators.

The iPhone app is the English version of the network’s content. The default page pulls 9 headlines, and has a topic button that are categorized into: Aljazeera on YouTube, Top stories, America, Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, Middle East, Business and sports. ( I do not have an iPhone   so I tested the app on a PC’s browser)

Aljazeera has a new media team who overseas its’ new media initiative, they launched last year a facebook application which currently pulls the top 5 headlines including top 3 YouTube videos. More features to be added to the app in the future, according to the New Media – Aljazeera Network official facebook group, but until now I did not see any new features!

Aljazeera has 2 channels streaming their Arabic and English programs on YouTube:

1-AlJazeera Arabic Programs/News clips:  Which Joined YouTube on March 26, 2007. And most recently Aljazeera Arabic welcomes their viewers to post video opinions in Arabic about today’s hot issues and Aljazeera TV editorial team selects which posts to run on the network Arabic  TV channel news program.

Aljazeera Arabic YouTube channel videos  watched are: 10,048, Subscribers: 6,738,and Channel Views: 591,29.
The Channel Ranking on YouTube: 439 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Partners, 41 – Most Viewed (Today) – Partners 79 – Most Viewed (This Week) – Partners

2-Aljazeera English TV shows: Joined YouTube on November 23, 2006. The channel videos Watched are: 4,539, Subscribers: 24,949, and Channel Views: 1,367,774.
The channel ranking on YouTube :  69 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Directors, 69 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Directors 146 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Partners

The Qatar based media network has previously also setup 2 Twitter accounts:
1- Aljazeera English on Twitter has 451 followers, following : 80, and with 10,463 updates.

2- Aljazeera Arabic on Twitter has 495 Followers, Following : 4, and with 14,679 updates.




It is quite clear to any one that convergence between media and telecom is happening, we can add IT too.

The internet is a telecom medium but it is also a media medium, where a new bread of media company popped up years ago called New Media like yahoo, now the most notable trend is web 2.0: blogs, Wikis, social network, social media, etc. VoIP is changing the telecom game, Mobile 2.0: the linking the mobile to the internet with interactive apps, that some use your location and profile to customize services and ads to you. Skype for mobile, jaxter are some examples of how convergence is happening

While software applications are moving to the internet with SaaS (Software as a Service ) model: Where the software is a web application hosted online and you can access it from your browser with an internet connection.

All this convergence represents a threats and opportunities for traditional media and telecom companies.

In this them Arab Advisors group is hosting The Fifth Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference on June 2nd and 3rd 2008, with keynote speakers from 50 senior media and telecom senior executives in the Arab world, Asia and Europe.

The Conference will be held at Four Seasons Hotel, Amman, Jordan. I have covered the third conference for the Star newspaper where you can read the story here, but I did not get the chance to attend and cover the fourth one though.

Some of the regional media and telecom companies have embraced the convergence trend, for example: Aljazeera has formed a web 2.0 team, launched a channel on Youtube, an application on facebook, and you can now follow them on Twitter. Also my sources say they are planning to launch an e-commerce service in the near future.

Zain Jordan has been active with signing a deal with Javna for mobile ads called mobi ads, and partnering with iToot in its startup project watwet the new Arab social networking and mini-blogging platform, similar to Twitter, but with MMS capabilities.

MBC group introduced MBC mobile, and launched Movies in Motion, a Social Networking & Video Sharing website. Also the group started using DoubleClick the online Ad serving technology company that was acquired last year by Google for over a billion dollars.

According to the event’s website there will be over 450 telecoms and media industry delegates attending. The last conference was attended by Over 447 delegates representing major telecom, IT and media operators, vendors and regulators.

Some of the speaker will be:

· Dr. Saad Al-Barrak, MD and Deputy Chairman – Zain Group

· Mickael Ghossein, CEO, Jordan Telecom Group – Orange Jordan,

· Fayez Abu Awad, Business Development Manager – MEA, Nokia Interactive.

· Russell Merryman, Editor-in-Chief, Web & New Media, Al Jazeera English Channel.

· Massimo Migliuolo, Vice President Emerging Markets Service Provider, Cisco

· Mikkel Vinter, CEO FRiENDi mobile.

The conference sessions will tackle a lot of issues that relate to both media and telecom industry and how convergence is affecting them, some of the sessions are:

· Panel Discussion: How telecom operators and media companies envision cooperation / competition in the era of convergence and interactivity.

· Regional software suppliers’ capabilities and their importance to the regional landscape, by Nael Salah Managing Director and Founder, ESKADENIA Software.

· 3G terminal’s evolution and how it enables new market segments. By Mr. Luigi GasparolloV.P. Business Development MENA Region Qualcomm Europe Inc.

· The New Economy. Capturing the next growth phase in a convergent future. By Bo-Erik Dahlström, President and CEO, Ericsson Market Unit Middle East.

· Panel Discussion: The Broadcast industry’s strategy for new media delivery platforms (IPTV, Mobile TV)

· An Overview of the recent technology developments in the field of broadband wireless access and their impact on the Arab Markets By: Samer Taha, General Manager, Waseela for Integrated Telecommunications Company.

· Next Generation Media Consumption. By: Chris Forrester, Editorial Director, ‘Rapid TV News.

I noted that there was no dedicated session for mobile 2.0, It is relatively a new concept but is important to talk about, my advice to Arab Advisors to include this topic in the next conference.

The delegate fee is around US$ 990 per delegate, with discounts for groups. A hefty fee for some Arab startups, but something the big players can surly afford. We encourage Arab Advisors to give special discounts for some of the Arab web 2.0 startups to attend this event. But If you can afford you can register to the event here.

The event is a one of the best regionally and a great networking opportunity, I witnessed on the third conference delegates starting to negotiate deals, and according to ArabAdivsors’ Feedback from the delegates to the 2007 event shows that. 91.5% of the delegates said that the business development and networking value of the event was good, very good or excellent.