Arab cyberactivism

AFP, Arab cyberactivism faces 'unprecedented attack', 24 Jan 2014 "Today there is an unprecedented attack against activists in general and cyberactivists in particular," said Hisham al-Miraat, advocacy director at the Global Voices, an international network of bloggers, translators and citizen journalists.

Arab Bloggers Forum

Middle East Online, Arab bloggers to boost cyberactivism after Internet-fuelled revolts, 21 Jan 2014 "Arab bloggers on Monday discussed ways to boost cyberactivism at a meeting in the Jordanian capital, faced with new challenges three years after the start of Internet-fuelled revolts in their region." Full details of the meeting are here: Arab Bloggers Forum

Egypt bloggers

BBC News, Egyptian Blog Review, 22 Nov 2011

'Blogging the revolution from the al-Jazeera forum in Doha'

Guardian, Media Talk podcast: Blogging the revolution from the al-Jazeera forum in Doha, 16 Mar 2011 "This week, Media Talk comes from the al-Jazeera forum in Doha, the annual media and political conference organised by the Arab TV network, which flies in participants and delegates from all around the region to take part. In the light of the well-documented involvement of social media in the recent uprisings in the Middle East and north Africa, the organisers rearranged the conference line-up, inviting bloggers and online activists who have been involved in the various revolt."

Podcast pop-up

Qatari blogger detained

aljazeera.net, Amnesty: Qatari blogger detained, 5 Mar 2011 "Amnesty International says a blogger and human rights activist has been detained incommunicado in Qatar and is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

"The UK-based human rights group said Sultan al-Khalaifi was arrested on March 2 by around eight individuals in plain clothes, believed to be members of the security forces."

Libya: Benghazi protests

BBC News, Libya: Violent protests rock city of Benghazi, 16 Feb 2011

More info: #Libya Twitter feed

Gheblawi tweets that "Security forces arrested Libyan writers and bloggers: Idris Al Mesmari, Mohamed Sohaim, Mohamed Alamin and his @ElhabibAlamin" #Libya"

Libyan4life (and others) tweet confirming reports that Facebook and AlJazeera have been blocked in #Benghazi #Libya

check out al-Jazeera's coverage

Twitter plans Arabic website

David George-Cosh, The National, Twitter plans Arabic website, 17 Nov 2010 "To keep up with the momentum of Twitter's growth and to help it generate more advertising revenue, the website plans to translate its service into Arabic, said Biz Stone, the creative director of Twitter and one of the website's three founders."

Makes sense, business wise. Research wise, yet another channel to monitor...

Moroccan blogger makes TV

magharebia.com, Moroccan blogger reaches Tunisian TV stardom, 4 Nov 2010

"When Oussama Benjelloun was a child, he wrote to Majid magazine about his ambition to become famous. He never heard back. Now the 26-year-old has realised his childhood dream by entering the world of media. His gateway to fame came by starting a blog. Today, Maghreb viewers can find him on Nessma TV, where he hosts a segment on new developments concerning the internet. He is known for his creative and humorous style of presenting facts. Magharebia sat down with Benjelloun in Tunis to talk about his new projects and his media experience. "

Saudi blogging

Chiara Bernardi, arabmediasociety.com, Saudi bloggers, women’s issues and NGOs, Arab Media & Society, Issue 11, Summer 2010"This paper examines how women’s issues in Saudi Arabia have been articulated in several parts of cyberspace and how they have been ‘rendered public’ (this research will use the term ‘public-ise’ as defined by Noortje Marres1) by Saudi women’s blogs, news media outlets and regional or international organizations that cover women’s issues ."

Lebanon bloggers' concern

meedan, Lebanese bloggers rally to stop ICT law, 7 Jul 2010 "A new Information Communication and Technology (ICT) law in Lebanon has sparked anger amongst Lebanon’s online community who fear the new law, which is pinned as a way to regulate e-commerce, could lead to a misuse of powers due to the vagueness of the law."

Bookmarking tools

Mohamed Marwen Meddah, startuparabia.com, Revisiting Arabic Social Bookmarking And Content Discovery, June 23, 2010, "A bit over two years ago, I wrote a post about the Arab social bookmarking services out there, listing the existing options, how good they looked and how well they seemed to be doing, identifying the top ones at that time.

"If anyone were to pull up that same list today and go check on each one of the sites, they’d find that some have shut down, others have become useless and spam ridden, some others have become pretty much inactive, and only one or two are still holding on. What’s clear though is that these social bookmarking services never caught on with Arab web users, and never achieved their founders’ initial dreams for them."

Useful overview of Arabic tools.

Arabic Bloggers Forum

WAM (Emirates News Agency), Arab Blogging Award launched in Ajman, 10 June 2010 "Outstanding Arab and Gulf bloggers will be recognised under a new ''Arab Blogging Award'' launched at the end of the first Arab Bloggers Forum hosted by the Emirate of Ajman."

More at GIA News, First Arab Bloggers Conference concludes sessions, 10 June 2010 "The First Arab Bloggers Conference, co-organised by the Department of Culture and Media (DCM) – Ajman, the Information General Authority and the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, has shed light on the personalities and fads of the people behind the over 75 million active Arabic blogs on over 120,000 platforms."

First Arab Bloggers Conference

Ahmed Shabaan, khaleejtimes.com, Arab bloggers discuss freedom, abuse of platform "Arab bloggers have helped spread Arabic content on the Internet and attracted millions of surfers in the region, according to the First Arab Bloggers Conference which kicked off on Tuesday in Ajman.

"“Not only have Arab blogs attracted some 60 million Arab web surfers, but also ranked Arabic language up to the sixth position among all active languages on the world wide web,” Saudi blogger Mohammed Badwi told the audience of the first session titled ‘Press and Media’."

Mona Eltahawy on blogging

If you're interested in blogging, especially in relation to KSA and gender issues, then listen to Mona Eltahawy's audio presentation [mp3] taken from Skoll World Forum, Reimagining Networks for Innovation and Impact, April 2010

Digital Publishing

arabnews.com, Crown prince calls for more e-books on Islam, 3 May 2010 "Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, chaired a meeting of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs here on Sunday and emphasized the need to publish more e-books and establish e-libraries."

Rachelle Kliger, themedialine.org, Digital Books Leave Arabs Cold, 3 May 2010 "Jalal Abdallah, managing director of Arabic E-Book, an online store for digital books in Arabic, said the most popular books sold on his site deal with culture and politics, while books on religion rank at the bottom of the list."

Press freedom/blogging

Deutsche Welle, International blogging conference puts Internet press freedom on the agenda, 16 Apr 2010 "n 2009, more than 60 countries experienced some form of internet censorship, according to Reporters without Borders. In March, RSF published a list of 12 so-called "enemies of the Internet," which are countries that seriously violate their citizens' free speech online.

"Apart from China and Iran, the list also includes Saudi Arabia, Burma, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Cuba and Egypt, who use a range of measures from Internet filtering and blocking Web sites, to imprisoning bloggers and journalists."

Op-ed on blogging

Khaleej Times, Bloggers have their way, 19 Apr 2010 "Blogging and social networks have allowed people with different beliefs, political views and cultures to talk about their lives, joys, sorrows and truths. And for Muslim-Western relations, the Internet constitutes an unmatched, eye-opening outlet for voices from all sides to have their say, mitigating divides and misunderstandings. We now know that at the end of day we are not as different as we first thought."

Written by Hisham Khribchi, a Moroccan blogger who blogs at almiraatblog.blogspot.com

"Middle East Bloggers: The Street Leads Online"

Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ, Middle East Bloggers: The Street Leads Online "In the Middle East and North Africa, where political change occurs slowly, blogging has becomes a serious medium for social and political commentary as well as a target of government suppression."

Although I haven't read this in detail, it looks very useful. There's also an MP3 audio report, and some related comments from bloggers. BTW there's a chapter on blogging in iMuslims.

MEI Bulletin - review of iMuslims

The MEI Bulletin this month focuses on media in the Middle East.

It contains a piece by Bruce Etling and John Palfrey on their work Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere (recommended).

There is a review of Deborah L. Wheeler's 2006 book 'The Internet in the Middle East: Global Expectations and Local Imaginations in Kuwait' (also recommended).

There's also a review by Clifton Martin of my own book iMuslims.

You'll find it all here:

MEI Bulletin Vol. 60 Issue 3, Sept 2009 [pdf]

Jordanian blogging

meedan.net, Jordanian bloggers get new "Blogging Manual", 18 Sep 09

"The Amman-based Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) has issued a new manual aimed at helping Jordanian bloggers achieve a more journalistic style in their blogs."