While a significant and growing number of Jordanians are/have been working very hard for over 10 years to put Jordan on the global map of innovation in building and maintaining web communities/tools of all sorts and purposes, comes the Jordanian court’s decision last Wednesday with a big blow to our faces.

Yahoo! comes and invests in our own creation, Maktoob and what does our government do? A court decides to censor the web. Rendering each website, portal, blog, wiki, tweet, tumble, stumble, photo, video…etc an entity that can be governed under the aging Print & Publishing Law that is making our print media obsolete to a certain degree.

Not only do Jordanians bloggers as the print media Journalists alike practice self-censorship online in fear of being harassed or imprisoned, now they want us to talk about the weather all year long!

Thanks to people like Hajjaj for his brilliant caricatures and the analysis of Bassem Sakejha the existing law and how would it would apply to electronic media the absurdness of the situation appears there so well.

But let me try to speculate what will happen. This decision will be overturned somehow[I am no legal expert], instead the decision will be magically reiterated to put the real target of last week’s decision; increasingly  popular news sites like Ammon News under that law which will be bound to fail so miserably. Maybe some IT vendor here in Jordan or elsewhere is already making plans to supply the technology needed to make that seemingly impossible task possible! Maybe a catching-one-fish-at-a-time policy will be used instead!

But let me end with this, amongst other freedoms we don’t enjoy in Jordan, this is something we actually know what it tastes like, something we love so dearly, we nurture and are leaders in our region because of it. So this time around, we will not let that freedom be taken away from us so very easily!

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Meet Light Blue Optics‘ Holographic Laser Projection (HLP) Technology!

Can’t wait till we can use LightTouch at the office! or LightSpeed in my future car!

More on Light Blue Optics technology here.

(Discovered from an ArabCrunch.com post)

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Amazing technology, can’t wait for it to be commercialized with a better product design!

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Created by OnlineEducation.net

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A skeptical friend of mine the other day asked me while we were attending the Global Entrepreneurship Week launch event in Jordan why do people think Jordan is special and why would it ever be the silicon valley of the region?

Through answering him I explained how Amman is similar to the US in one important aspect. We are a city that grew through immigration of displaced people from different parts of the region throughout the years.

This sense of starting new, passed down from generation to generation. While the apparent difference in this analogy comes from the fact that when people settled in Jordan it wasn’t seen as a dream come true like what immigrants in the US felt. Nonetheless, I see this spirit of making it big in many of my circles, the social and professional alike. With people from older generations, the 40 somethings as well as my generation of 30 somethings. Now i see it more in the 20 somethings.

They all want to make it big, want to follow their dreams, want to be the next Microsoft, Google or Facebook or the better Starbucks, Landor.

It gets to a point at my startup that people get out to start their own after a while, might be annoying at times to an employer but the bigger picture is that they take the risk, they go and follow their dreams.

I don’t have statistics but I am sure if you look at the number of new tech companies that started up the past 10 years you will definitely see a sharp curve.

The torch for the next silicon valley was ignited already, we are still struggling to create an ecosystem but i see it happening. Yet as Fred Wilson mentioned recently in a blog post:

But it takes time. And you can’t fast forward because we are talking about experience which can’t be manufactured. You simply have to put in the time.

We have a long way ahead of us, the private sector needs to start investing in educating the next generation we must be proactive in creating innovative ways to bridge the gap between our existing educational institutions and what the workforce needs and not wait until our government does so. Sponsor innovation by investing in internal labs to experiment with ideas. We need to enable other Arab talent an easy path to come and start their dream in Jordan not get stuck at lousy immigration policies. Look at how many people from an Indian origin live in Silicon Valley? See how they are celebrated.

The Maktoob deal earlier this year ignited this hope once again, it gave everyone a successful picture and a reality that could be theirs in the near future or something along that path.

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Was a great evening tonight at the Royal Scientific Society who hosted Amman Twestival, Organized by Malik Shistawi Foundation, and Sponsored by Aramex and Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship in support of Al-Aman Fund for the Future of the Orphans.

Almost 100 people attended a very heated discussion about Twitter, social media and entrepreneurship prospects for Jordan and our part of the world. I was happy to be selected amongst the panel speakers along with Zeid Nasser, Laith Al Qasem and Laith Zureikat moderated by Moh’d Khawaja.

Majd Shweikeh CEO of Orange Mobile attended and shared great insights as well as the marketing, Shop’nShip and sustainability teams from Aramex including Lina Shihadeh, Firas Hilal and Raji Hattar.

The discussion topics were many, from use of social media to promote business, new ways of reaching and servicing customers, connecting to people as well as discovering content & opinions from around the web. The longed-for Qatayef break was equally interesting, as I got to meet lots of tweeps face-to-face! Ok, I never went to any of the Jordanian bloggers meetings so this was a first-time experience

Its one of those days where I have a good feeling about Jordan and us Jordanians.

As a contribution to this momentum, I worked most of the weekend to create a simple website that aggregates all tweeps (twitter people) and their tweets from Jordan, you can check it out at http://JOtweeps.com. To be included all you need to do is follow @JOtweeps and we will follow back.

Also you can go to #AmmanTwestival to read all tweets about the event.

Happy tweeting everyone!

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Just watched this video on CrunchGear, what’s more hilarious than the video is the imaginary conversation at Mircrosoft posted under it.

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Think again!

With the tech world busy talking about Google’s announcement of its upcoming Google Chrom OS, on the other hand, here is some answers to the question:

What is a browser?

(form some New Yorkers it seems!)

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Wonder why I haven’t been blogging that much lately? Yes, was busy for the past month and a half working on our new web application whom proudly I have codded my self yes, after 10 years of not coding complete applications, its has been so much fun!

So, what is folowen?

folowen is a social media search tool that aggregates social profiles of people and organization’s on several social media sites into one search result.

It simply makes it easy for you to follow a person or organization’s social web; be it a Facebook profile, page, group, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile, a YouTube channel…etc.

By simply entering the name of a person or organization you will be able to find their social links across 19 social networking sites!

We are currently in a private beta testing stage, trying out the search and getting feedback on its accuracy as well as getting to know what users want more out of the service in the near future.

I am giving out invitations for the beta for the first 30 people who comment on WEBsessed!

Thank you Gaith from ArabCrunch for writing about us

Thank you Mohammad from StartUpArabia for writing about us as well

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Ok it is one hardcore WEBsessed post. it even has a geeky name.

Wolfram | Alpha, the new product out of Wolfram Research labs (world known for their Matmatica product) is promising to be the real deal search engine. I think Google finally has the prospect of a real competitor.

This search engine is smart, is semantic and promises to use natural language search something we’ve always wanted to have. Most people in semantic search talk about RDF (restructuring the Internet) so machines as people can talk to each other. Wolfram team thought no, that would take a long time. Lets code smart algorithms to get the answers we want.

Well they say its here. Watch the introductory video to understand more and watch a demo.

Watch the countdown video and later live broadcast  here.

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Went to pick up my dad from the airport tonight. Mom went in before me to see if we are at the right terminal and if the flight arrived or not (since 4457200 stopped working by the way, ringing endlessly!) She called and said that the arrivals dashboard said that it was delayed. So I parked and went in.

At 11:25 I read the dashboard my self and it said it arrived at 11:21 pm. super cool. 15 min and dad should be out there waving for us! Mom said no its delayed, and i say no it arrived. Turns out she was looking at the Arabic dashboard while i was looking at the English one. Fantastic!

11:40, I call dad and ask him where he is, assuming he’s either at immigration or waiting for luggage. to my surprise he told me he was just walking out of the plane.

I say that’s weird. I go check the dashboard again and this time it says arrived on 11:30 on the English screen. The Arabic screen logged the flight “delayed” at 11:25.

(Dammam flight)

I didn’t for one min ever doubt that the data source for the English dashboard is different than the Arabic one.  What kind of system even if coded some 20 years ago would  log a different schedule in English than in Arabic.

I guess its one of those “only in Jordan/Arabia”  kind of things!

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I happened to watch this funny video earlier tonight about what the pilot of 24 would’ve been like in 1994…

the file is too big, its about 3 floppies!!

Then later as I was browsing I watched this video of Microsoft’s 2019 Future Vision Montage,

don’t you want to read your news papers like that?

I often think that one main reason I would want to live beyond the age of 75 was that I want to experience as many technological innovations as possible. Most important of which is my long time favorite “Beam me up. Scotty!”

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This is the time where the real power and promise of a service, a tool, a community portal or a social medium is when it turns into a Platform with a capital P.

Of all the thousands of web apps that started since 2005 till date, only few have made that leap. Facebook was the new kid on the block two years ago, when it turned its API into a platform.

But one can learn so much from comparing the story of Facebook and Twitter, the latter being the new hot kid on the block.

Here is how I view those two web brands as people:

Facebook to me is a control freak, from a developer’s perspective they keep changing their API without notifying developers in addition to all those restrictions on their API. From a user perspective, too many changes too soon. To that end, I think they have the highest record of how much interface changes a web app can do in shortest period of time. I think they keep forgetting that the user is the application and the capability of the environment is just the tool! I think to forget that is a sin in the web app development business.

On the other hand Twitter to me is this generous chef who since she moved into the neighborhood has had an open kitchen policy where anyone can use the restaurant’s extra kitchen tools to host their own events!

Soon after they launched, the created their API. Geeks from all over loved it and started using it as users and developers. So many tools were founded that helped people tweet better.

I am guessing that they intended it to be a mobile social network used between friends – real life friends, and that what it was at first. Its now in my view a communication tool free from any specific medium being sms, mobile app, browser or desktop.

Today its potential is in the transformation to be one hell of a data mining tool, as well as a new communication technology as Marshall Kirkpatrick from ReadWriteWeb put it

Show us a simple messaging tool that can be accessed through a wide variety of methods, using only a (hopefully) memorable username of the person you’re trying to communicate with – and we’ll show you a genre of technology that could disrupt not just email, it could disrupt telephony.

I like to believe that Twitter’s attitude is what eventually created the platform and its potential today. Not just PR, lines of code, big developer events or meetings.

Side note: The only other exciting thing next to twitter these days is of course the iPhone and its App Store 

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As Makan is turning 7, SYNTAX & Spring sponsored the design and development of their new website.

Check it out @ http://www.makanhouse.net

This was one of the projects we had most fun in doing, the design was inspired by Makan’s space with its welcoming atmosphere, simple interiors and clarity so comes the chairs and the sofa.

Makan really wanted to turn the website into a virtual space people can visit to learn more about the projects in the archives, get to know the artists who have participated in Bait Makan residency program as well as other programs.

Makan staff as well as residents have a blogging space to document their daily activities, so the blog section should be quite an interesting space to visit in the next few months.

One of the major needs Makan had was the ability to get feedback on exhibitions held at Makan after the even. In the new website, all events have a space for visitors to comment and give feedback to the artists after they have seen the exhibition.

Shatana, Makan’s flagship event has a section of its own where artists can apply for the workshop -held every year- as well as check the previous workshops; the participating artists and their projects as well as a photo gallery of the whole event.

enough talking, now go enjoy surfing the website

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Yes, finally Spring has a real website!

Check it out @ http://hellospring.net

Though we love the one pager Ahmad did almost 2 years ago; yet, telling people the old saying in Arabic translating to “the carpenter’s door is broken” got really embarrassing lately.

And since spring 2009 is almost here; we thought this is the time to get our website out!

A detailed list of our services is there plus a showcase of some of our projects. Also you can follow us on twitter.

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The latest tool from Google, Google Latitude sounds partly very very cool and partly very very scary. It seems to me as location-based mobile social networking at its best. You use your Google Maps enabled phone and you get to see where your friends are and what they are up to!

Here is a cool introductory animated video from Google:

Too bad it doesn’t support Jordanian operators yet But I was able to add it to my iGoogle homepage where you set your own location. Not that fun since Amman Map isn’t so advanced.

Some are calling it the jealous girlfriend/boyfriend’s best friend!  But I think like all technologies, if used well and you are able to set your privacy settings you will have so much fun using it.

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Britain form Above is a documentary done by the BBC giving viewers a bird’s eye view of the nation. The following amazing visualizations on how Britons communicate and transport by sea and air are on BBC’s YouTube Channel:

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I’ve spent over a week now researching to decide which is my future (2 year life span) mobile, and I’d like to share this with you!

So main features I can’t let go of any are:

1. Finger-friendly touch screen technology

2. Excellent Internet browsing ability.

3. Productivity software (Word, Spreadsheets, Calendar, Tasks, pdf…etc) with the ability to synchronize with Outlook both ways.

4. Over 3 MP Camera with flash, that shoots pictures and video

5. Media Player (Video and Music)

6. Copy and paste (yes you need it when you want to copy someones number and send it to someone else via SMS)

7. Ability to install more applications.

8. Physical keyboard.

9. Built-in G-sensor

My wishlist was:

1. Lighter weight than my current HUGE i-mate K-JAM

2. Over 2.8-inch screen size.

3. 3G

So, I first wanted of course to buy an iPhone, well aside from its excllent software user interface it failed items 3, 4, 6 and 8. Too much to accept just to get a great user interface.

Next, I checked HTC, and fell in love with HTC Touch Pro it matched my 9 items plus one on my wish list, brilliant design, great TouchFlo 3D interface built on top of Windows Mobole 6.1 (ok they try to imitate Apple, but who isn’t?) yet from reviews its G-Sensor doesn’t work on all interfaces in the phone. Weird!

But then the heavy weight kicked in, do I want another huge mobile phone?? So I checked HTC Touch Diamond, it had the 8 items on must-have list plus 3G and lighter weight on the wish list (No flash light with the camera), yet it had some not-so-good reviews especially for a bugy and slow TouchFlo 3D interface that HTC managed to tweak with the Touch Pro.

Next I decided to check other touch phones out there, and Samsung OMNIA and Sony Ericsson XPERIA came up:

The OMNIA, has a 5 MP camera with flash, lighter weight, a 3.2-inch screen but with no physical keyboard. I think it competes very well with the HTC Diamond, yet HTC’s proprietary touch interface TocuhFlow 3D is much neater.

The XPERIA on the other hand, was a bit less heavy than the Touch Pro (145 g instead of 165 g), has a nice sleek arc slider design for the physical keyboard, with a 3-inch screen. I just didn’t like its exterior design, those x’s everywhere.

My search then was concluded, didn’t check anybody else but Nokia, who depressingly  don’t have a touch phone to-date!

I think I am going to go with HTC, I love the brand and I like their design, they still have a way to go to mach the iPhone interface (physical and touch technology) but I believe they are on the right track, especially that Google’s open source operating system Android is going be first implemented on an HTC Dream with T-Mobile in the US.

Notes:

1. Nokia, where the hell is your touch phone??? its 2008! and I’ve been using touch technology for the past 3 years!!!

2. All mobile makers everywhere, people who are looking for business productivity like nice design too, like to take good quality pictures and video too.

3. This comparison didn’t include price.

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