For those who don’t follow the Arabic version of StartUpArabia, here is the interview with StartUpArabia founder, Mohamed Marwen Meddah, on Al-Hurra TV (in Arabic).
Month: January 2009
Al Jazeera Launches First Creative Commons Video Footage Repository
Last night, 
Al Jazeera Network launched the world’s first online repository of broadcast quality video footage released under the ‘Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution’ license. Select Al Jazeera video footage – at this time footage of the War on Gaza – will be available for free to be downloaded, shared, remixed, subtitled and eventually rebroadcasted by users and TV stations across the world with acknowledgement to Al Jazeera.
The repository is available online at http://cc.aljazeera.net, and through it Al Jazeera will release its exclusive Arabic and English coverage produced by the Network’s correspondents and crews in the Gaza Strip, that should make it a key resource for anyone producing content on the current situation especially with the scarcity of news footage available.
This step makes Al Jazeera the first news organization to release its footage under the ‘Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution’ license which allows for commercial and non-commercial use.
Mohamed Nanabhay who headed New Media at Al Jazeera and launched the project stated, “As one of the only international broadcasters in Gaza, our coverage of the war has been unsurpassed. The launch of Al Jazeera’s Creative Commons Repository means that our Gaza footage will be made available under the most permissive Creative Commons license (CC-BY). With the flexibility of the license we expect to introduce our outstanding coverage to an even wider audience across the world. This means that news outlets, filmmakers and bloggers will be able to easily share, remix and reuse our footage.”
Lawrence Lessig, the founder of the Creative Commons organization and Professor of Law at Stanford University, stated, “Al Jazeera is teaching an important lesson about how free speech gets built and supported. By providing a free resource for the world, the network is encouraging wider debate, and a richer understanding”.
Joichi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons and a world renowned Web 2.0 entrepreneur, added, “Video news footage is an essential part of modern journalism. Providing material under a Creative Commons license to allow commercial and amateur use is an enormous contribution to the global dialog around important events. Al Jazeera has set the example and the standard that we hope others will follow”.
DemoCamp Dubai 4 – Radisson SAS, Dubai Media City (Jan. 28th)
The fourth DemoCamp Dubai; the Dubai-based launch event for new products, technologies and companies; will be taking place at the Radisson SAS in Dubai Media City on January 28th at7:30PM.
This will be the first DemoCamp of 2009, and it is set to be held at the same venue and in the same room as the last time, the Al Nada Ballroom, 2nd floor in Radisson SAS hotel, Dubai Media City. Attendance is free, and everyone is welcome to join in.
A few interesting demos are already lined up for the event, but there are still openings for a couple more; So, if you’re going to be in Dubai around that date, and you are working on an interesting new web application that you would like to present, then just send an email to: contact@spinbits.com or leave a comment on the blog post announcing the event.
Startups and web applications presented at DemoCamp Dubai will also be reviewed here on StartUpArabia as usual.
Musafir, New Online Travel Portal For The UAE
Universal Tourism recently announced the launch of Musafir.com, a new travel website that will allow travelers from the UAE to search for flights to over 3,000 destinations around the world on all leading airlines and book them online in seconds.
Musafir means “traveler” in several regional languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu.
The venture was founded in August 2007 by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Al Thani, Sachin Gadoya and Albert Dias, with the aim to make booking travel from the UAE just as easy as it has been in the rest of the world for a number of years now.
“We live by three promises to our travelers in everything we do”, said the founders, when asked about what makes Musafir.com different from other travel websites in the region, “great choice, no-nonsense convenience and a premium experience”. The company also offers a Travel Expert service for travelers who would like to customize their trips over the telephone and a Travel Smart guide with tips for travel enthusiasts.
Online travel bookings are expected to account for over 30 percent of the UAE’s outbound leisure travel market by 2012, with e-ticketing and the zero-commission model in particular being credited for the recent impetus.
Musafir plans to offer a number of new services in 2009, including hotel reservations and sightseeing tours, to meet the growing demand. The company is investing AED 3 million in the development of a proprietary trip planning solution over the next two years to make planning holidays from the UAE easier.
TigerFish Network Aims To compete With Google and Yahoo
H2O New Media, the UAE based social media agency, recently released a bit more details about its TigerFish Network, previously covered here.
The TigerFish Network, is promoted as the first Middle East based social media advertising network, which will allow advertisers to target their online marketing strategy based on user profiles and user defined preferences. This advertising network will be offered to H2O New Media customers and publishers, giving them an opportunity to generate revenues from their online publications and social media websites.
The TigerFish Network will be implemented across all social communities owned and operated by H2O New Media and those of its customers.
H2O New Media hopes TigerFish will enable it to strongly compete with companies like Google and Yahoo, hoping that by being a local online advertising network that crosses different social media channels, they can provide a higher rate of return for publishers in the region, offering them targeted regional advertising based on users profiles.
“In 2009, the focus for TigerFish Network will be to expand our advertising sales team and recruit local publishers into the network. Our aim is to work with existing social media platforms in the UAE and into migrating them from Google on to TigerFish Network. We foresee significant workload in this transition however our relationships with media and PR agencies in this market is expected to boost the launch of this platform. We will compete directly with Google for a share of the UAE’s online advertising market as we are leaders of social media development and we provide a holistic and consultative service to clients and users” said Mr. Steve Vaile, CEO and Founder, H2O New Media.
The TigerFish Network is scheduled to open business by mid January 2009. The product is currently implemented on a number of social media platforms with a reach of over 300,000 unique users per month across a mix of platforms.
Bayt Launches Contest To Crowdsource Explanatory Videos
After asking people to help them redesign their website in a previous initiative covered here; Bayt, the leading Middle Eastern job site, has now launched a new video contest soliciting help from creative people in creating a visual style for a series of multimedia videos that can clearly explain what Bayt.com does and how their users can get the most out of the website.
Dan Stuart, Head of Strategic Initiatives at Bayt, created two scripts for the videos, and launched a microsite where he asks people to submit one video that shows their use of an original visual concept to one of his scripts.
The winning video concept will receive the contract to create more than three trilingual videos for Bayt.com. Also, both the winning designer and design will be promoted on Bayt.com, in all contest-related PR, and promoted on the contest Microsite.
The deadline for submissions is March 6th, 2009.
For more information, to submit videos and for the legal details, you can check the contest microsite that can be found here: icandraw.bayt.com
Ishki, A New Portal For Arabs To Post Their Complaints Online
Ishki (which means ‘complain’ in Arabic) is an interesting new portal that was recently released from Jordan, giving Arab users the chance to post their different complaints online and get their voices out to the world.
Other than just complaining, the portal lets users start petitions on several issues and collect signatures for them; They can also ask other site visitors for help on certain problems or situations they’re facing.
In addition to all that, the website also gives users the possibility to do the very opposite of complaining, by blowing someone’s horn and singing their praises.
A special imaginary character, humorously called “Dr. Shakib Tanash” (which translates into Dr. Shakib Careless), has his own section where people can share their problems and get his feedback and advice.
Each complainer gets their own page grouping all their submissions to the website, that they can either make private or keep public. Other visitors can vote on the submitted complaints, requests for help and praises; as well as sign whatever petitions they agree with.
The site is still new and not much content has been submitted yet by users, but the idea is a really good one, and it should be interesting to see how well it goes, what kind of reaction it’ll get from the people, and what role it’ll play in helping spread freedom of speech.
The portal was founded and put together by a talented team consisting of Wael Attili, Mohamed Al Razem, Ahmad Kharbat, and Wahid Barghouthi.
# Ishki
Laazi, New Job Portal Simplified For Job Seekers
Laazi is a new job portal that was recently launched in its beta version to cater to the Middle Eastern job market, trying to simplify the process of finding a job for job seekers in the region.
They started by the UAE job market but will be expanding across the entire region soon.
Laazi’s design is very simplistic, and attempts to make things as easy as possible for jobseekers, by eliminating the usually long registration steps; making it very quick to sign up and start searching for jobs on the portal.
To register with Laazi, a user only needs to upload their CV, and then all information is extracted from there to automatically fill in the registrations forms. All the user has to do then is check if all the information was filled correctly, make whatever modifications he needs and save his profile.
Laazi enters a market with some already big and established players, but hopes that by cutting down the time to create an account and start searching for jobs, they’ll be able to lure users their way and get them to use their service.
The beta version of Laazi was launched in September 2008; it’s a product of Danat, the same company behind Logta, which was previously reviewed here.
# Laazi
Bayt.com To Host First Virtual Job Fair In Kuwait
Bayt.com the leading job site in the Middle East just announced that they’ll be holding another one of their virtual job fairs; this time in Kuwait.
This is the fourth such event in the region, with previous ones held in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
The event will be hosted on the virutal job fair section of Bayt’s website and will run from the 18th to the 22nd of January.
The aim of these events that Bayt is holding is to offer employers and job seekers alike a chance to conveniently and effectively connect and interact online; thereby providing qualified job seeking candidates with interesting career opportunities; and giving local, regional and international employers access to professionals from around the region; pushing the online recruitment concept even further.
The virtual job fair will feature 3D booths of exhibiting companies, where they will be able to display company information and job vacancies. Visitors to the online fair will be able to leave CVs at the stands and apply for specific jobs. Companies can then connect to candidates through either video or online chat.