Archive for the ‘Qatar’ Category
Al Jazeera Launches Citizen Journalism Platform ‘Sharek’
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | November 26, 2008 – 10:22 pm |
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The New Media team at Al Jazeera just launched a new citizen journalism platform by the name of ‘Sharek‘ earlier today. (Sharek means contribute or share in Arabic.)
Sharek enables users to upload video material that they’ve recorded using their webcams, video cams or mobile phones; reporting the news that is happening around them.
Other than uploading content through the website, user media content can also be sent via email or directly from their mobiles.
More features will be added soon like live webcam recording, and live streaming from mobile phones.
Uploaded material will be reviewed by Al Jazeera journalists, who will choose newsworthy items and interesting commentary to feature on the ‘Sharek’ website, as well as on Al Jazeera as part of their coverage of a certain story.
This project expands on the successful results of previous trials by Al Jazeera with soliciting and collecting user submitted content on YouTube, and hopes to make it even easier for anyone to pass their content directly to the Al Jazeera team.
The project is pretty similar in concept to CNN’s iReport, with the exception of content being screened before publication in the case of ‘Sharek’ to maintain a certain level of quality.
Sharek is only available in Arabic for the time being, and so content uploaded through it is mainly for Al Jazeera Arabic, but an English version of the service is on the way.
# Sharek
Qatar’s Mobile Penetration Rate Re-visited
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | September 7, 2008 – 12:02 pm | No Comments
Recently, a study by Kuwaiti-based Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (IAIGC), put Qatar’s mobile penetration at 150% as of 2007-end, behind only the UAE’s 173% penetration rate in the entire Arab world.
But Vodafone, which will be the second mobile operator in Qatar and which is preparing for a service roll out towards 2009, disagrees with those numbers, and state that the mobile penetration rate in the country stood at only 94% as of December 31, 2007.
“Recent government released reports on Qatar’s population (included in your article) state that it is near 1.5mn. Based on this and Qtel’s published customer numbers, the actual penetration is only 94%.
“Qtel subscriber base as at December 31, 2007 was 1,260,000 which divided by new population of 1,448,000 gives an 87% penetration rate. Or if you take the latest population and adjust it back to December 31, 2007 (i.e. 1,337,000) you get a more accurate 94% penetration and not 150%,” Vodafone Qatar Chief Executive Officer Grahame Maher said.
Maher said, “Also, the population in Qatar continues to change on an annual basis as expatriates arrive and leave on an average time frame of three years. Finally, with more and more capability of devices for service such as email and mobile computing we believe that many people will have multiple mobile devices. Based on this we believe there is significant growth opportunities in the country.”
An ictQATAR spokesman said, “We estimate that at the end of 2008 the mobile penetration rate for Qatar will be around 94%. As you are aware, different reports use different methodologies to determine mobile penetration numbers. Our estimate is likely lower than the number in the Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation study because of the steady, significant increase in population of Qatar and our recognition of the many pre-paid users in Qatar’s market, which can lead to inflated estimates.”
He said, “Regionally, Qatar does boast of some of the highest penetration rates in fixed line and mobile and ictQATAR expects that percentage to rise considerably in future. Also, as a result of liberalisation in the telecoms market, we expect to see high speed internet penetration rise from its current rate of 37% to approximately 56% by 2012.”
# Source: Gulf News
Qatar Navigator To Create Automated Map Of Qatar
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | September 2, 2008 – 12:56 pm | 1 Comment
Qatar Navigator, a local startup company, has been awarded QR 1.6 million ($440,000) by Qatar’s Science and Technology Park (QSTP) to develop an automated map of the country.
Roads and landmarks will be surveyed and digitized with a video camera that can simultaneously capture images and GPS coordinates. Students from Qatar University will assist with the project, which is expected to be completed in the next five months.
The maps will be usable by common in-car navigation systems, as well as almost any other mobile device equipped with GPS. Qatar Navigator already makes its own software for such devices, called Gulf Way. The company aims to licence its maps to satellite navigation companies and also directly to Qatar motorists.
Financing was made possible under QSTP’s Proof of Concept Fund, which provides grants for universities and small-to-medium companies in Qatar to demonstrate the technical and commercial viability of their innovations. Grants range from $100,000 to $500,000, and can be used to develop prototypes, undertake market research and manage intellectual property.
Qatar Living, Community Portal About Living In Qatar
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | July 27, 2008 – 12:00 pm | No Comments
Qatar Living is an online community portal that was founded in 2005, and that has grown over the years to become a central point for information on everything related to Qatar.
The portal was built around the goal to facilitate connection, participation and sharing of knowledge and experience between members of the community; in order to enrich the content and provide more useful information for everyone, whether they already live in Qatar, or will be moving/visiting there.
Among the features that Qatar Living offers to community members are a free classifieds system, a Q&A system, a guide to Qatar and a forum; all to help users connect to find the different things they need, as well as answers to their questions, and helpful information about living in Qatar.
The portal tries to cater to users’ interests by providing details about the different events taking place in Qatar, as well as a directory of groups of people who share similar interests.
Qatar Living is also behind the Qatar Blogs Project, which aims to group all blogs about Qatar in one place; and then maybe start aggregating their content to help people find interesting stories.
The portal is powered by Drupal, and has a well structured design, that makes it pretty easy to navigate and find information. The site currently has around 43000 registered users, and generates an average of 6 millions page views a month.
