AMMAN - The Arab Knowledge Management Society (AKMS) announced on May 13, 2007, the forming and launching of the Multilingual Internet Committee (MIC), in an initiative to raise awareness and start a constructive dialogue within the Internet community in the Arab region on technical aspects and policies related to domain names and numbers.
The Committee is chaired by Samar Al-Labbad, Deputy Chair of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGorg), together with Baher Esmat, Middle East Liaison of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The MIC does not represent a partnership between ICANN and AKMS only, but it rather represents a real partnership between ICANN and the Arab world.
The Committee seeks to realize its objectives in coordination with ICANN on matters of interest in the Arab region, cooperate with Internet-related Arab regional initiatives, promote the development of a better Arabic content on the Internet, and arabicize and localize Internet applications.
The Committee will organize programs for education and raising awareness of the Internet in various Arab countries. Organization of three events for the coming six months was approved in Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf region.
The first event was organized on May 13, at Talal Abu Ghazaleh College of Business/German-Jordanian University under the patronage of HE Eng. Basem Rousan, Jordanian Minister of Information and Communications Technology. The event included a lecture entitled “Internet, Innovation and Policies: A Phenomenon of Cooperation & Collaboration” delivered by Esmat.
Al-Labbad stressed in a speech delivered in the lecture that AKMS assumed a long term commitment towards promoting information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development.
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, TAGorg Chairman, has been working for several years in this field and he occupied as well the post of the Vice-Chair of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF). This Task Force is considered a global body that aims at promoting the role of ICTs and utilizing them as tools for development. Since the first effects of the Internet during 1990’s, the development of a multilingual Internet in terms of application and content has emerged on the top of priorities.
In addition, Al-Labbad highly praised the constructive cooperation relations with ICANN, indicating that this Committee will not be the groundwork in our joint work only, but it will rather help us to make use of the experiences and progress achieved by our both organizations and pave the way toward further accomplishments for the Internet to become available and useful for all people.
The AKMS seeks through this Committee to support efforts exerted to better communicate the views of the Internet community sectors in the Arab region and seriously consider such views by the ICANN.
On his part, Esmat said, “This initiative is a joint effort between AKMS and ICANN and considered a significant step in implementing ICANN outreach plan in the Middle East. We look foreword to working more closely and further cooperating with AKMS in order to realize the established objectives of this initiative.”