Internet review

Citation

Crowston, K. (2003), "Internet review", Information Technology & People, Vol. 16 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp.2003.16116aag.001

Internet review

This special issue of Information, Technology & People is devoted to information technology in the Middle East. In this column, I will discuss a few Internet resources concerning this topic. Unfortunately, neither Babelfish (http://babelfish.altavista.com/) nor I can read Arabic or Hebrew, so my review is limited to sites with content in English.

Al-Jaghoub and Westrup discuss Jordan’s strategy to develop a strong ICT sector. They specifically discuss the Regulatory Framework, Estate, Advancement Programs, Capital, Human Resource Development Initiative (REACH), which is available at: www.reach.jo/. REACH is described as “a clear plan of action to bolster the country’s nascent IT sector and maximize its ability to compete in local, regional, and global markets”. This project has the support of USAID, which provides some further information (http://www.usaid.gov/regions/ane/ict/ict-jordan.htm). A related Jordanian organization is int@j, the Information Technology Association of Jordan (http://www.intaj.net/), “a voluntary non-profit, private organization is to effectively represent, promote, and advance the Jordanian software and IT services industry in the global market”.

Egypt enjoys a similar organization in the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre in Cairo (http://www.ritsec.net/). The centre is a joint project between the United Nations Development Program (UNDP, http://www.undp.org/), the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD, http://www.arabfund.org/, in English and Arabic) and is hosted by the Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC, http://www.idsc.gov.eg/). RITSEC is a non-profit organization that “provides technical, professional and developmental services to the agencies, institutions and governmental organizations in the Arab Region”. Another project of the IDSC is Egypt’s Information Highway project (http://www.highway.idsc.gov.eg/), which includes TourismNet, CultureNet, HealthNet, EnvironmentNet, LibrariesNet and Government Online (though I had trouble connecting to some of these sites).

Of course, Israel already has a well-developed information technology industry, with exports of software forecasted to approach US$3 billion in 2002. The Israeli Association of Software Houses (http://www.iash.org.il/) is the umbrella organization for Israeli software and IT companies and currently has more than 100 members. Paige Wunder and Lauren Rapaport, two MBA students at American University, have developed a Website on the “Information technology landscape in Israel” (http://www.american.edu/carmel/nk3791a/israel.htm). The government of Israel offers an English language information site (http://www.info.gov.il/eng/mainpage.asp), with pointers to and descriptions of many technology-related sites (e.g. from the government Internet committee, http://www.info.gov.il/eng/min-mof-UAD.asp). However, the referenced Web sites are mostly in Hebrew.

For technology news from the Arab Middle East, turn to Dabbagh Information Technology, which provides a Middle Eastern technology news site (http://www.dit.net/). DIT hosts other technology-related sites such as Computer Gaming World, Electronic Gaming Monthly, PC Magazine Middle & Near East, PC Magazine Arabic Edition and COMDEX Arabia.

Aladwani discusses the state of the Internet in Arab countries. Numerous surveys of Internet penetration around the world and in the Middle East in particular are available from the NUA Internet Surveys (http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=FS&loc_id=6) and from CommerceNet (http://www.commerce.net/research/stats/wwstats.html). These surveys suggest that Internet penetration, though low, continues to rise across the region. Similarly, Michael Pastore, in an article entitled “Arab world holds potential for e-commerce” (http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/geographics/article/0,1323,5911_568861,00.html), notes that “There are more than 3.1 million Internet users in the Arab world, and much potential exists for early stage e-commerce and online ventures, according to research by the Arab Advisors Group (http://www.arabadvisors.com/)”.

There are several Yahoo-like directories listing sites in the Middle East, including the Arabic Search Engine (http://www.4arabs.com/), the Middle East Directory (http://www.middleeastdirectory.com/) and the Middle East Internet Pages (http://www.middle-east-pages.com/, available in various specific versions, such as the United Arab Emirates Pages, http://www.uae-pages.com/). Of course, Google (http://directory.google.com/Top/Regional/Middle_East/) and Yahoo (http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Regions/Middle_East/) also provide directories.

A number of university research centres provide more selective lists of resources, including:

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  World Wide Web resources on the Middle East (http://itc.gsw.edu/atws/mideast.htm);

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  Internet resources for the Arab information project (http://www.georgetown.edu/research/arabtech/ecit.htm);

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  the Middle East North Africa Internet resource guide (http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jwr9311/MENA.html);

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  the Middle East studies Internet resources (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/); and

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  the Middle East network information centre (http://menic.utexas.edu/menic/).

Government agencies also provide lists of links, such as:

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  International technology useful links, from the US office of technology policy (http://www.ta.doc.gov/International/MideastAfrica/Links-MidE_Afr.htm)

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  Middle Eastern government internet resources, from the National Library of Australia (http://www.nla.gov.au/gov/middle.html).

AME Info (http://www.ameinfo.com/cgi-bin/news/listnews.cgi) provides general news about the region. You can also find local newspapers with an English-language Web presence, such as the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/) and the Jordan Star (http://star.arabia.com/).

Finally, if you are interested in further research, Georgetown University offers working papers on new media and information technology in the Middle East (http://nmit.georgetown.edu/). This series presents “preliminary formulations of new data and thinking from ongoing social science research on the economic, cultural, policy and social implications of new media, communication and information technologies in the contemporary Middle East”.

As usual, you can avoid having to retype the URLs in this article by starting from the on-line version at http://crowston.syr.edu/itp/.

Kevin Crowston