Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Jordanians: Proud Geeky-techies, acquiring other skills fast!

Attending any regional conference provides insights into Middle Eastern trends, but one of the most striking facts at ArabNet in Beirut last week was that Jordanians made up 40 percent of attendees - it actually looked like more than that- and made up the majority of start-up entries in the event competitions.

It’s not a surprise to us, but it is indeed another affirmation to the whole region that there’s something special about Jordan. It cannot just be a coincidence that category leading regional arab digital businesses like Maktoob, Jeeran, Info2Cell and so many others happen to come out of Jordan!

People always ask me: “What is it about Jordan that makes it a fertile ground for technology and web entrepreneurs?”

My answer has evolved over the years, and until recently it was the following: “Well, we have a good education system, people have to find ways to ‘make it in life’ and the open market economy atmosphere for several decades has helped!”.

Now, I am adding to it an annex as follows: “Also, the rise of private-public sector initiatives and NGOs to boost entreprenuership, coupled with the efforts of many generous and forward thinking mentors is making Jordan the place to be as an entrepreneur.”

Let’s all thank these organizations (Queen Rania Fund for Entrepreneurship, Endeavor Jordan, PSUT Incubator, YEA and others) and people (Fadi Ghandour, Maher Qadoura, Fawaz AlZoubi and others). The biggest contribution they make is to invest/incubate and provide skill-sets, such as management and marketing support.

On another note, I also feel success can be due to national characteristics and stereo-types which contribute to directions youth take in building businesses.

Our typically ‘serious’, ‘detail oriented’ and ‘stubborn’ characters means we are ideally suited to be ‘geeky techies’; and when our tech-media start-up has the potential for regional success, we usually need the help of our ‘more flexible’ Arab brethren to market it!

These stereo-types are changing, of course, as the region becomes a ‘common market’, and all Arabs are professionally trained to excel in various fields; but don’t underestimate our special talents, coupled with Jordan’s social stability, economic openness and our hunger to succeed.

Some say we’ve got the makings of ‘Silicon Valley Arabia’, I agree but feel we need to do more to truly earn that reputation and hold on to it by ‘breeding’, ‘retaining’ and ‘rewarding’ the talented Jordanians who drive it. Let’s capitalize on this organic success and truly become a powerhouse.

zanasser@gmail.com

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Arab Net 2010, a success

Attending Arab Net 2010 (arabnet.me) was quite an experience, as over 600 delegates came to Beirut from 25 to 26 March to discuss Arab web business ventures and the opportunities in this emerging industry.

Apart from the conference sessions, the event aimed to identify and award start-ups that can gain support from investors. In fact, all the "Ideathon" 10 finalists were approached by investors and all start-up finalists were approached by investors.

The event also showcased the power of social media, with live-tweeting in the hall, making the hashtag #arabnetme trend globally on Twitter in 4th place. Overall, there were more than 10,000 tweets.

Arab Net was also streamed live, generating over 200 simultaneous UStream viewers, and getting over 2,500 virtual attendees at live.arabnet.me.

More details on the conference content, panels and activities coming up soon.

Fadi Ghandour, ARAMEX founder & CEO, addresses the Arab Net delegates

Social Networking Panel

Online Advertising Panel

Arab Net 2010 winning start-ups

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Sunday, March 21, 2010

A war on VoIP in Arabia

For many years now, telecommunications operators have been losing revenue to free voice over IP (VoIP) services, like Skype, and local regulatory authorities have stepped up their battle against such services, deeming them as illegal.

Although this is a relatively grey area in many Arab countries, several have now clearly crafted regulations to outlaw VoIP.

Apart from the now common-place crackdown on Internet cafes, regulation is crackdown covers both VoIP telephony through PCs and now through mobiles too.

In fact, last week, the Egyptian government declared mobile VoIP as officially illegal, unless provided by the licensed state telecom operator, which means a block on Skype and other known international SIP providers.

At the moment, it’s not clear which mobile operators have actually implemented the ban.

This follows a statement last week from The United Arab Emirates Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), saying that voice calls provided by popular VoIP client Skype are considered a 'regulated activity' and that anyone using the software will be 'legally liable'.

Basically, this means that Etisalat and Du can offer a range of VoIP services in the country, while unlicensed entities cannot.

This seems to be a more open approach, but it clearly bans Internet telephony operators like Skype. In fact, Skype.com is blocked in the UAE but people use it through their iPhone. The TRA says that anyone using the software will be "legally liable".

So, that means a partial-ban on VoIP services, but a total ban of unlicensed and usually free services.

The question is how can millions of users, in Egypt or UAE or anyone else, be monitored or penalized.

Surely, there has be another approach to solve this issue. Maybe some form of cooperation with VoIP providers whereby they agree to pay taxes or fees of some sort to local governments.

The war against voice over IP is just another chapter in the Internet era’s story, which requires a complete rethink on the part of ill prepared businesses and governments.

It appears that there is a realization that Internet driven communications cannot be stopped, but tactical decisions for now aim to ‘freeze’ the problem till a viable solution is found, but will there really be any solution other than accepting the new reality and embracing a complete ‘rethink’ of business models and government regulation.

Any chance of that happening soon? Any enlightened initiatives on the way? Most of us sincerely hope so.

zanasser@gmail.com

Monday, March 15, 2010

.com domain turns 25 years today, first domain registration was 15 March 1985

On 15 March 1985, the first company to add dotcom to its name was a computer maker named Symbolics.

Today, 100,000 dotcom sites are registered every day and there are nearly 86m active sites. And the man behind the company looking after the dotcom domain is predicting changes in the way we use the internet.

For most of the late 1980s and early 1990s hardly anyone knew what a dotcom was, yet today it is part of the fabric of our lives and is regarded as the hallmark of the commercial internet.

In 1985, a total of six dotcom domain names were registered. Now, as well as the millions of active sites currently operational, there have been another 113m that have come and gone over the last quarter of a century.

Today, people go online to dotcom sites to shop, connect with people, engage with government, be entertained, learn new things, exchange ideas and plan holidays.

The million mark for dotcom domains was not achieved until 1997, well into the internet boom. And then came the dotcom explosion with nearly 20m names registered in the following two years.

But what of Symbolics, the first company to claim the dotcom domain? It went bust and was bought in 2009 by a company that buys and sells dotcoms for a living.

Read more.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Jordan on the virus map!

Kaspersky Lab, the well-known anti-virus company, has published a report which reveals that a total of 17 per cent of Jordan’s computers were infiltrated by a variant of the Kido malware.

To quote the statement, “Kido has been mostly successful in Jordan at wreaking havoc in large corporation networks, due to its advanced network worm replication functions, that make it a nightmare for system administrators,” said Costin Raiu, Senior Anti Virus Expert, Head of Kaspersky EEMEA Virus Lab.
Well, although I have not heard complaints, and though one has to understand that such statements are motivated by selling more anti-virus products, we need to take a look at this alarming percentage!

The Kaspersky official goes on to say that Kido has been active in other Middle Eastern countries as well, and the most successful variant is Kido.ih.
What is surprising is that, according to Kaspersky, Kido’s authors have stopped active development of this family of malware, which makes this variant the last available, yet it continues to spread in Jordan!

What does that say about how up-to-date our software security is?

Kaspersky says “It is still spreading in the wild and causing problems for users,” which means Jordan is truly in the ‘wild and untamed’ virus zone.

And that’s not all, the malware report for Jordan also shows a proliferation of Sality, a virus that affects 14.32 per cent of all the country’s affected systems. This malware mainly attacks home PC users. It is passed through infected software, or it piggybacks on other malware. This makes its detection more difficult. It also has worm capabilities, which means it can spread through networks, by copying itself to other computers directly, taking advantage of the Windows Autorun feature.

Because of all these things, Sality is not only hard to catch once it infects a system, but also hard to disinfect.

The bad news does not stop there. Other malware affecting Jordanian users includes Mabezat, infecting 8.84 per cent of computers. It’s a tricky worm which operates by attaching itself to executables, while being polymorphic and spreading through network drives.

The report, which also covers other countries, is based on a study during December 2009.

The question is what kind of results would we be getting in a study of February 2010. Would it be better or worse?

Do enough people care to check their systems and update their anti-virus? They should. Let’s each start with ourselves, and maybe the frightening statistics above will drop.

zanasser@gmail.com

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Google say that fastest growing operations are in MENA

Speaking at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed the Middle East and North Africa region is the company's fastest growing region in the world, in terms of the number of users and revenue generated.

His keynote at the event focused on innovation in the media, stating that the future of the internet will be driven by mobile devices. While answering a question posed from an Emirati who asked why the company didn't have a presence in the UAE, Schmidt answered by saying that the country had the fastest growing operations for the company in the world.

Schmidt also said in his keynote address that half of all new internet connections are for mobile devices. "If you want to understand the future of internet don't think of it as pipes and tubes, think of it as a mobile device...," he told delegates at the event.

Explaining that the "new model is going to be in the inversion of the model we grew up with", he says that the strategy for media going forward will be 'internet first', where content producers, for example, will use the medium of the internet to build traction and get real numbers to then approach partners to raise additional funding.

But despite his obvious preference for online, Schmidt said he does not believe that the internet-based media will replace existing mediums and that it should instead be used a part of a broader strategy.

The Middle East only ‘graduated' in 2009, which is a term Google uses internally to signify that the infrastructure has been laid out and that it is now possible to start pursuing their mission here, which involves organising the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful.

Via [ ITP.net ]

Sunday, March 07, 2010

3G arrives, what it means

Orange Jordan has announced the country’s first third generation mobile network, called 3G+. This is a significant turning point for the evolution of mobile Internet access and content distribution in Jordan. Video calling, mobile TV viewing and Internet browsing at speeds of up to 14.4Mbps are now possible.

In an interview with a regional publication, several months ago, Orange CEO Nayla Khawam said that she hoped “that being able to offer 3G services would inject some value into a market completely and exclusively price driven".

So, the first thing worth looking at is Orange’s pricing strategy for the 3G service.

And here it is. Pay-As-You-Go customers can get one of three bundles. 100MB for JD3, 200MB for JD5 and 1GB for JD15. Not bad.

Pre-paid subscribers have a choice of a JD20 or JD40 package, both with unlimited mobile Internet, but varying call minutes and SMS offerings. The maximum offer for pre-paid subscribers is JD80 for unlimited ‘everything’, except international. That’s good, considering many people’s bill, without Internet, exceeds that.

To use 3G, you’ll need to get a new SIM card and your handset should also support the service.

The investment Orange made to introduce 3G was significant. Orange was awarded a 15-year license, in August 2009, for JD50 million (US$70 million), following a long process that started in 2008. 3G coverage will begin in Amman and some governorates, reaching full coverage of the country by August 2010.

For one year, starting at the date of introducing the service, Orange users will exclusively enjoy this 3G service. Afterwards, Zain and Umniah may obtain a 3G license if they meet the required criteria. So, if you’re not an Orange customer, you’ll have to wait.

It’s another exclusive for Orange, following the exclusive Apple iPhone deal. This evolving, differentiated offering by Orange is clearly giving the telecom operator more market penetration, probably at the expense of the current mobile market leader, Zain.

It’s worth noting that there’s a relatively slow uptake of 3G services in regional markets, although it’s been available for a few years.

For 3G to gain critical mass, and become a mainstream service, it’s prices will have to come down, and competitors will have to enter the 3G service market. However, maybe now the time is right and the thirst for high-speed mobile data services will surprise market watchers, at this early stage and even with only one operator delivering a 3G service.

If Orange provide market feedback and sales data in a few months, we’ll gladly report on it. It will be interesting to see if, finally, a significant number of Jordanians enter the world of high-speed mobile Internet.

zanasser@gmail.com

Saturday, March 06, 2010

BlackBerry Messenger faces closure in Saudi Arabia, due to possible 'non-compliance'

Saudi Arabia’s Communication and Information Technology Commission has asked Canada-based Research In Motion, the company that owns BlackBerry Messenger, to allow the telecoms regulator access to monitor messages sent by the mobile device, according to media reports.

The Arab News daily quoted the Al Watan newspaper as saying that the CITC wants to have access in order to monitor the messages in the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) network, threatening to shut down the service for noncompliance.

BBM is a special messaging service for BlackBerry phone users. For a monthly flat fee, BlackBerry owners can share messages, IM and multimedia with other BlackBerry owners, Arab News said.

There have been rumours that the BBM service will stop today (Saturday 6 March). The CITC was unavailable for comment on Friday.

Meanwhile, BBM maker Research in Motion (RIM) on Friday said it is investigating reports in the Arab press that Saudi regulators have asked the company for access to its unique messaging service for its BlackBerry devices.

"RIM operates in more than 170 countries around the world and respects the regulatory requirements of governments," the company said in a statement issued to Arab News.

"RIM is investigating the reported matter in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and will provide an update once further information is available to share," the statement added.

Via [Arab News ]

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Skype becomes available on Nokia smartphones


Skype, the popular and free Internet telephony service, is now available for Nokia smartphones running the Symbian operating system. It can be downloaded at the Ovi Store.

‘Skype for Symbian' will can be used by more than 200 million Nokia smartphone users. It will run on any Nokia smartphone using Symbian 1, the latest version of the Symbian platform available on over 20 models so far including the N97, N97 mini, X6, 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530, E72, E71, E90, E63, E66, E51, N96, N95, N95 8Gb, N85, N82, N81, N81 8 Gb, N79, N78, 6220 classic, 6210 Navigator and 5320.

Skype will soon introduce this client to Symbian mobile devices from other manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson.

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Monday, March 01, 2010

An ‘Outlook’ for Arab media between 2009-2013

The Arab Media Outlook 2009-2013 published by the Dubai Press Club provides interesting predictions and an analysis of the region’s Internet landscape.
First, there’s the sobering fact that the range of broadband penetration across Arab countries is extremely disparate. It ranges from 0-1 percent in emerging markets like Syria and Sudan and to up to 84 percent in Qatar.

Imagine that. What a huge digital divide!

However, the report also shows that broadband penetration across the board is likely to rapidly grow in every Arab country and this growth will be driven by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two of the largest countries in the region, who together will make up 70 percent of total broadband subscriptions by 2013.
The fact our region is one of the youngest in the world is a principal factor driving this growth, and is resulting in an explosion in the use of online platforms.

Still, though, businesses are trying to catchup with this massive uptake, and are not following consumers online as they should. Online advertising expenditure is still around 1 percent, which is disproportional to the time spent online by the average consumer, but there are some encouraging signs. Newspapers have woken up to the new realities and the majority have plans to monetize online content and it appears that around 2 percent of their revenues are now derived from their websites.

The report covers 15 Arab countries (including Jordan) in detail, in addition to in-depth market research on media consumption habits in several of these markets. Jordan is well represented in this report, not just as a consumer market, but proudly as an online publishing leader with Maktoob and Jeeran both featured prominently as the leading Middle East portals being compared to international giants like Facebook and Baidu.

The information in the report, overall, is quite encouraging indeed. Although, the slow pace of broadband penetration still remains the major impediment for online growth, the chairperson of Dubai Press Club makes a positive statement saying “The growth in the popularity of social media, as analyzed in detail in the report, goes to show that a healthy balance between conventional media and the digital media is already struck by the Arab media consumers.”

This is a sign that our region maybe entering the maturity phase in digital media faster than anyone expected. It’s people who are driving the change, and surprising governments, businesses and analysts.

So, the media ‘outlook’ seems favorable. After all, for now and with these numbers, the only way is up!

Download it here.



zanasser@gmail.com

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