Tweets from Beirut: Day Two of the Arab Bloggers Workshop

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The second day of the Arab Bloggers Workshop kicked off with a presentation about Herdict Web, a site which uses crowdsourcing to gather reports of Internet filtering from users around the world. Qatari workshop participant Muhammad Basheer tweeted a photo from the presentation:

Muhammad Basheer tweets about Herdict

Muhammad Basheer tweets about Herdict

Following the first presentation, Egyptian blogger Manal discussed the world of Arab techies, particularly touching about female techies in Egypt. Lebanese NightS noted the need for more women at #ab09:

NightS calls for more female techies

NightS calls for more female techies

After Manal's informative presentation, the bloggers broke into group workshops, touching on a variety of subjects. One workshop, conducted by hamzoz, focused on blogging from Iraq. Muhammad Basheer attended the presentation and tweeted:

Muhammad Basheer attended @hamzoz's presentation

Muhammad Basheer attended @hamzoz's presentation

Creative Commons rep Donatella Della Ratta also attended, tweeting:

Donatella tweets about @hamzoz's presentation

Donatella tweets about @hamzoz's presentation

Bahraini participant Amira Al Hussaini attended a presentation by the lead of the new Rising Voices project in Yemen. She was clearly impressed by the workshop:

Amira Al Hussaini is impressed by the number of Yemeni bloggers

Amira Al Hussaini is impressed by the number of Yemeni bloggers

The last major presentation of the day was once again perhaps the most captivating. Anas Tawileh, founder of Meedan, presented on the Arabic-English crowd translation project. Iraqi blogger Salam Pax best captured the sentiment in this tweet:

Salam Pax was captivated by the Meedan presentation

Salam Pax was captivated by the Meedan presentation

Tawileh opened his presentation with a number of interesting facts about the Internet including one that the number of hours spent on Facebook in a year, translated into volunteer hours, could be spent to build the Giza pyramids in only 9 days. Amira Al Hussaini shared another of Tawileh's tidbits:

Amira Al Hussaini tweets a fun fact

Amira Al Hussaini tweets a fun fact

Tweeting about the concept, Moroccan GV author Hisham G. summed up Meedan in a few words:

Hisham G. talks about the concept of a "translingual web"

Hisham G. talks about the concept of a "translingual web"

Lastly, Meedan itself (which has covered the workshop here) noted on Twitter that they'll be translating tweets from the conference (which can otherwise be found on hashtag #ab09):

Meedan will be translating tweets from the workshop

Meedan will be translating tweets from the workshop

1 comment

  • Effet de serre

    En ce moment les grands de ce monde sont réunis et discutent de l’ effet de serre qui menace notre planète. Il est vrai que les saisons ne sont plus ce qu’elles etaient, mais la pluie a renoué avec les deserts. Des inondations en Arabie Séoudite, Yeme, Maroc et ailleurs, des lacs dans des mers de sables Africains et donc il est plus logique d’alternance de zone climatique?
    Dans tous les cas, les pays industrialisés ont fourni aux démunis un jocker pour s’enrichir ..
    Tout a coup, les pays pauvres et ceux en cours de développement réclameront leur part du gateau, des milliards seront mis sur la table avec ou sans condition a titre de compensation par ceux qui sont la source des effets de serres au profit de ceux qui attendent les mains croisés.
    Nulle doute, que l’argent ainsi mise en circulation n’apportera rien aux pauvres démunis mais fera le bonheur des castes privilégiées, ceux qui savent manipuler les idées et jongler avec les transferts .. pour le reste , d’avantage de pluie leur apporetra serenité et bien etre….

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