ArabCrunch Award Logo

According to PostRank’s top blogs for the year 2009, ArabCrunch, succeeded in competing with multinational blogs, and narrowed the difference with firmly established ones. PostRank’s ranking came around after analyzing 2 billion individual engagement activities, from 15,725 blogs covering all over the world.

Commenting on this achievement of the Arab blog, Bassel Yassine Ojjeh, Former Senior Vice President at Yahoo! and Board member of the ArabCrunch Group, said: “Having an Arab blog ranked in the top 25 blogs is a huge accomplishment and an attestation to the vibrant Arab market.” Ojjeh also added: “We’d like to thank ArabCrunch loyal followers. We hope to continue delivering value and serve the hi-tech community.”

The Analytical data points out that ArabCrunch blog received 20,048 engagement points, 75% out of which was off-site; with 53.2% on Twitter, 11.7% on Digg, and 3.9% on Brightkite.

Gaith Saqer, Founder and CEO of ArabCrunch Group, attributed this achievement to the blog’s simple vision of providing information, influence, inspiration, and create a technological ecosystem centered in the region.
Gaith said: “the positive atmosphere was reflected on the blog and its users. It also reinforced their loyalty and sense of belonging to the ArabCrunch blog.”

Gaith pointed out that PostRank’s method was based on outlining blogs according to their topics as well as a profile page on each blog; it contains the blog’s rank, level of engagement activities it has achieved throughout the year, considering the top ten posts inline with the number of visitors.

On the other hand, Fadi Ghanour, Aramex Founder, CEO and Advisor to ArabCrunch Group, stated: “We are fortunate that ArabCrunch blog succeeded in delivering Arab entrepreneurs and innovators’ message to the world. Since its English version inauguration in 2008, the blog gradually permeated its similar international websites, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.”

Beside ArabCrunch blog in both Arabic and English, ArabCrunch group has launched in a private beta, in November 2009, their specialized Social Network ArabCrunch.NET which is the first global network that links regional entrepreneurs and techies with financing and mentorship from world-class experts.

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About ArabCrunch Group:
ArabCrunch Group’s mission is to inform, impact, inspire and create an Arab centric technology ecosystem that delivers information, and connects Arab entrepreneurs both in the region and throughout the world via its properties, ArabCrunch.com, ArabCrunch.NET and ArabCrunch.com/ar. The mission of ArabCrunch.NET is to help accelerate entrepreneurship and technology innovation in the Arab world by delivering an online social platform that connects participants of the technology ecosystem. www.arabcrunch.com

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ICICS is a forum for scientists, engineers and IT experts to present the findings of their latest research, ideas, developments and applications in all areas of computer and information sciences.
Speakers, presenters and researchers from more than 28 countries from around the world are participating in this conference, transforming it into an internationally recognized event. An event of this level of participation and nature of material discussed will inevitably be highly regarded in the Middle East.
NYIT, a non-profit university, has had a presence in Jordan since 2001 under an academic agreement with the Jordan University of Science and Technology. The university seeks to provide the labor market with highly qualified graduates. Currently, the university comprises three faculties: Administrative Sciences, Computer Science and Engineering, and Fine Arts.

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For editors
Established in 1955, New York Institute of Technology is considered one of the most well-established US universities, ranked in the top half of the 2nd tier of the universities in the USA that are recognized worldwide. NYIT has had presence in Jordan since 2001, offering undergraduate programs (school of Engineering and Technology, school of Management, school of Arts) and Graduate programs (school of Engineering and Technology, school of Management). The university seeks primarily to match between education and market needs. It supports research at the Middle East level, with research products discussed in specialized conferences and published in journals by international publishing houses.

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The Arab firm, located in Amman, said it will dedicate its participation in the first exhibition of its kind in the region to shed light on its innovative artistic solutions; KETAB Engage Interactive™ and its role in increasing the student’s comprehension up to an 85% rate.

The 2-day event, backed by Abu Dhabi Education Council, aims at advancing the educational projects in the Middle East and North Africa. It also assists those engaged in the educational sector in uplifting and enriching it with modern educational solutions.

Ketab Technologies’ CEO Khaled Kalaldeh forecasts that the new product would make a quality shift in the concept of modern education, especially since it exhibits unique features that meet the needs of class environment and enrich the learning atmosphere with more interactivity by the stimulation of the student’s five senses.

Kalaldeh added, “We have deployed our long and extensive experience in the industry to serve the academic sector and help it break free from the rigidity that has and is still hindering smooth communicating of information to students into a natural usage model, which is what we achieved with our interactive educational suit.”

Kalaldeh added “KETAB Engage Interactive™ grants teachers the ability to merge technology is classrooms to enrich it with sound effects, illustrations, and other interactive tools which would communicate directly to the student’s senses and deliver information with a certain smoothness that adheres to reason, as a shift from theorizing and ideation”, adding to the possibility of controlling the density of light shed on the board to focus the attention of the students on certain spots exclusively.
For time management purposes, the students no longer need to copy from the board; they can save the entire lecture on a flash memory and copy it in a later time!

It should be noted that KETAB Engage Interactive™ system comprises, among other components, KETAB Board ™ and KETAB Sheets ™, which are ultra wireless interactive sheet surfaces that allow teachers to facilitate lessons and control both the computer and interactive board with absolute convenience without being restricted to one place. To add more value content to the class, teachers can use the side tool box for additional applications such as drawing, writing and projection of still and animated graphics.

Another major component of the new issue of KETAB Engage Interactive™ is KETAB Studio ™ 2.0, which allows writing and shape recognition. The results are a clearer and easier to identify shapes and writings, once they are projected on the board. Not to mention the possibility to reduce and enlarge the size of any object easily through the drag and drop command. On top of that, it can screen multiple videos simultaneously with commentary, too.

To render drawing geometrical shapes easier, the teacher can, instantly, summon the help of specific drawing tools such as, but not limited to, a protractor, ruler, compass, or polygons.

Kalaldeh noted that using KETAB Engage Interactive™ is not restricted to a certain subject or academic level. The board and sheets involved in the system ensure a tediousness-free atmosphere whether the audience is a university or an elementary school class.

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About KETAB Technologies
KETAB Technologies Ltd. was founded in Jordan in 2002 as a creator of high-tech products designed the serve customers in all educational sectors, based on knowledge-exchange and human-computer interaction technologies. KETAB is considered today a pioneer & leader in developing high-tech products and technologies including its signature: Ketab Engage Interactive™. Headquartered in Amman, the company has a network of branches and distributors all over the Arab region, deployed to meet the increasing global demand and communicate with customer and provide them with the necessary know-how and technical support towards optimal utilization of technology. www.ketabtech.com
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The Jordanian-Saudi Company SSS Process, specialized in providing e-government services and software solutions, stated that it has begun incorporating the “C4 Sadad” solution in a large number of organizations and Saudi companies who seek e-payment services live via their website.

SSS Process expects to conclude a number of their current projects before the end of this year. Bill tracking and online payment will be accessible for customers of these parties via the “C4 Sadad” system, which confirms to the highest security and privacy standards.

In a display of his comment, Firas Al-Mousli, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SSS Process, stated that public sector organization in the Saudi Kingdom are giving priority to developing their services and exalting their performances that is competing with similar companies in the private sector, especially when it comes to electronic services, as same as for governmental electronic projects.

Al-Mousli emphasized the negatives of the insufficiency in the electronic payment services in the Arabic websites. Such lack renders them incapable of fulfilling the user’s demands from one side and the people in charge of the websites from the other. Beside saving time and effort for the clients, water, electricity, and telecommunication companies, for an example, can reduce collection offices’ operational costs by incorporating the system on their website.

Meanwhile, public sector facilities can minimize their interconnected tasks, especially when it comes to their payment collections and budgets.

Al-Mousily attributed the great demand on the system to its easy-to-use features, data security, and the user’s ability to track their bills as well as place them in an advanced-accounting-formula to easily allow businessmen to observe their various activities.

It is worth mentioning that “C4 Sadad” electronic payment system was developed to serve the needs of the linking process with SADAD Organization, a subordinate of the SAMA – Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, to benefit from the payment and communication channels with the general banks in the Saudi Kingdom.

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SSSProcess
Secure Services Systems Company is considered as one of the pioneering Arabic organizations in the field of innovative Information Technology solutions where it emphasized since its’ establishment in 2003 on providing specialized services to the governmental sector. It also worked on providing technical solutions with international standards that will satisfy local needs by increasing productivity and efficiency. The KSA based company has gained a lot of experience in running governmental projects especially in the gulf region.

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December 07, 2009
Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD), the IT infrastructure performance company for networks, applications and storage, recently announced upcoming enhancements to its Mobile WAN optimization solution to address the productivity challenges global organizations face when managing remote and mobile workforces. Riverbed® Steelhead® Mobile increases employee productivity while on the road, working from home or connected wirelessly in the office by providing application performance improvements. With this release, Riverbed will provide acceleration for Windows 7 and 64-bit systems for mobile end users. In addition, organizations will be able to take advantage of improved flexibility and simplified manage¬ment functionality to provide mobile workers with accelerated performance no matter where they are working throughout the world.

“As companies focus on consolidating their data through private cloud initiatives, the distance between their employees and critical data is growing–employees are becoming more mobile, working from a variety of locations outside of the office. This means that as centralization of data and IT infrastructure continues, remote access is becoming more of a challenge,” said Eric Wolford, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Riverbed. “With Steelhead Mobile 3.0, we are able to deliver to customers a solution that not only accelerates important Windows 7 and 64-bit applications while on the road, but also complements their broader Steelhead appliance deployment.”

“Riverbed’s leadership in the WAN optimization market can be attributed to product innovation and focus on creating a comprehensive WAN optimization solution. The company has maintained a focus on customer priorities and ever-changing IT requirements,” said Cindy Borovick, research vice president at IDC. “Enterprise IT departments are being pressed to improve IT efficiency and employee productivity with a reduced IT budget. As more companies move forward with IT consolidation projects to cut costs, performance for end users is a concern. Mobile WAN optimization can help overcome this challenge by improving the performance of critical enterprise applications for remote and mobile workers.”

Steelhead Mobile 3.0 introduces enhancements that allow organizations to provide their mobile workers with better access and performance, eliminating slow performance as a barrier to mobility.

Accelerate Windows 7 and 64-bit Systems for Mobile Users
Riverbed continues to deepen its optimization of Windows and other Microsoft applications, such as SharePoint, Office, Server and CRM, so that enterprises can provide accelerated access to and improved performance of Microsoft applications to remote and mobile workers. With Steelhead Mobile 3.0, Riverbed provides acceleration benefits to Windows 7 and 64-bit systems.

Organizations will have the ability to support Microsoft’s catalog of modern operating systems and advanced platforms. Through Riverbed’s comprehensive solution, companies will have the flexibility to upgrade operating systems or migrate to platforms while obtaining consistent application performance.

Web Applications – Up to 60X Faster
Enterprises are utilizing HTTP and HTTPS for everything from e-commerce to mission-critical applications. They are the underlying protocols for all Web-based applications used to communicate internally with employees and externally with partners and customers. By optimizing these protocols, users can dramatically reduce the amount of data that they need to send over the WAN, while at the same time streamlining the chatty behavior of transport and application protocols. With Mobile 3.0, as with the Steelhead appliances, these benefits are extended further to the application layer for HTTP and HTTPS users to make Web applications even faster while maintaining the preferred enterprise trust model. The common architecture of the Steelhead appliance and Steelhead Mobile gives organizations a single comprehensive solution to increase the performance of key Web-based applications.

By employing URL learning, page parsing, embedded object pre-fetching and metadata acceleration modes, Steelhead Mobile further reduces the chattiness and delays that plague enterprise Web-based applications. With these additional tools, business-critical applications used today such as SharePoint, intranet portals and Web-based document management systems, as well as Web-enabled ERP and CRM applications like SAP NetWeaver, JD Edwards and Siebel, all receive application acceleration of up to 60x.

Branch Warming – Immediate Acceleration Regardless of Location
Riverbed has extended its technological leadership by improving integration with the Steelhead appliance, allowing workers to take advantage of even more of the benefits of the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS®) while working remotely.

With Steelhead Mobile 3.0, Riverbed introduces Branch Warming, which allows mobile and branch office users to share optimized data and experience even greater overall acceleration. By sharing the data references between the data stores of the Steelhead Mobile client and the branch office Steelhead appliance, mobile workers not only take
advantage of all of the optimization benefits of the Steelhead appliance but are also able to contribute data references from their data store to help improve performance for the entire branch office, enabling “warm” performance regardless of location.

Dancker, Sellew & Douglas has approximately 40 users that have benefited from the acceleration capabilities of Steelhead Mobile for the past two years. “With Mobile 3.0 we are experiencing the same stellar acceleration that our team has grown accustomed to – for example, I have a user working in a remote office in East Syracuse that is experiencing 67% data reduction and 3X performance gains,” said Michael Vassallo, Senior Network Administrator. “We’ve found that the new Branch Warming feature helps our users switch seamlessly from working wirelessly to connecting back to a branch office with a Steelhead appliance. It greatly improves efficiency.”

Office 2010 and related products will deliver innovative capabilities and provide new levels of flexibility and choice that will help people:
Work anywhere with Office Web applications that will provide easy access to documents from virtually anywhere and preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of device
Collaborate better with co-authoring and advanced e-mail management and calendaring capabilities in Microsoft Outlook 2010, including Outlook Social Connector which is a new capability that brings social networking feeds into the inbox
Bring ideas to life with video and picture editing and broadcast capability in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and new Sparklines in Microsoft Excel 2010 to visualize data clearly

“Office 2010 is the premier productivity solution across PCs, mobile phones and browsers,” said Elias Tabet, Business and Marketing Director, Microsoft Gulf. “From broadcast and video editing in PowerPoint, new data visualization capabilities in Excel, and co-authoring in Word, we are delivering technology to help people work smarter and faster from virtually any location using any device. As we look at Office today, we have strong momentum behind our products and are very excited about where we are headed with Office 2010. With the new solutions, Microsoft remains committed to offering our customers the greatest possible choice in the technology they use and to deliver software and services that are compatible with the way they work and live.”

Microsoft also worked closely with customers and partners around the world to incorporate their feedback into the development of Office 2010 and continues to work with the partner ecosystem to ensure their products, services and devices are ready.

Commenting on the launch, Pinaki Kar, General Manager, Wipro for the MENA region said, “I believe this launch signals the beginning of a new wave of innovation that will have a profound impact on the way customers communicate and collaborate. Office 2010 in particular will help people work in a way that is faster, easier and more intuitive. For IT, it means utilizing a set of smart, easy-to-integrate tools in a security enhanced environment that works with existing infrastructure. When combined, all these technologies will connect workers across a single collaboration platform that a business needs to achieve significant productivity and efficiency benefits along with a dynamic technology infrastructure.”

Microsoft also announced that it is streamlining the number of Office editions from eight to five and enhancing each edition with additional applications and features. The company also announced that Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premise for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering.

Al-Natasheh’s project came as the third best business plan, out of 15 that were nominated to compete for the first place at Manamah. The project’s main idea is to commercialize scientific research in the Artificial Intelligence and IT Knowledge domains into software products that support the decision making processes in Marketing and Business Administration Departments in big companies like in the Telecommunication sector.

Upon receiving the award, Mr. Al-Natsheh expressed his happiness regarding winning the competition; its significance and dimensions confirm the Jordanian youth capabilities and potentials. Al- Natsheh said: “The competition period was characterized by its heated climate especially in its final stage, which lent, to winning, a certain kind of elation which I pride myself with.” It is worth mentioning that Ciapple Company has won the First Prize in a similar competition, specialized in a regional technology business plans, back in the year 2008.

MENA 100 Competition aims at stimulating entrepreneurs, facilitating their communications with financing sources in the region to acquire the capital they need to practically execute their projects, and connect them to a technical and professional communication network which would help them obtain the technical expertise needed to render their projects successful.

At the same time, Asma’a Al-Lawie from Morocco won the First Prize for her Turbo project plan in the Automobile sector, and Islam Samir, from Egypt, came second with his Bio Business project in the Medical Equipment sector. The winning Jordanian company Ciapple’s business plan was First in the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) sector, and Third in all sectors.

It should be noted that the MENA 100 Competition is leading the regional pioneer initiative that aims at stimulating entrepreneurship in the Arab World by admitting the need to encourage the expansion of the sector and economic growth via an award program that creates a network between technology, expertise, and investors from one end, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris from the other.

The Network for Financing Organizations has been brought together to support the region’s effort for financing the culture of entrepreneurship and enhancing the circumstances regarding financing entrepreneurship. The Network is considered a unique medium connecting all the parties involved in the business development process such as innovators, entrepreneurs, industrial incubators, those who support business activities, projects financing funds, and private equity funds in addition to international organizations, funding organizations, decision makers, and governmental officials.

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About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE): The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) is a not-for-profit & non-governmental organization. Established in October 2004 and located at the El Hassan Science City, Jubaiha. Its mission is to support economic growth by providing an array of services in entrepreneurship development and technology commercialization through the several programs conducted by QRCE such as: Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC), Technology Commercialization Program (TCP), CONNECT JORDAN, and the student Entrepreneurship society (DART). The QRCE is sponsored by Jordan Dubai Capital, Jordan Commercial Bank, Optimiza, Orange, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Jordan Business Magazine, and Google.

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About d1g.com
d1g is the fastest growing Web 2.0 integrated online community that has become the leading Arabic portal for rich digital media such as online Arabic clips and pictures. d1g is a venue where Arab users can create and join online communities, publish their favorite music, share videos, create their own web identity and evolve into web publishers. d1g suite of services include a range of Arabic Web 2.0 service and new models of online social networking to capitalize on the enormous growth in internet penetration and digital media in the Middle East. d1g is continuously offering new online service concepts for the Arab online communities that address a gap in the current online content and services addressing the emerging needs of Arab users.

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About Yahoo!
Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most trafficked Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (http://yodel.yahoo.com).

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The launch came during a press conference held by ArabCrunch in cooperation with Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship at the headquarters of the Royal Scientific Society.

“ArabCrunch.NET will facilitate knowledge transfer and enable veterans from Silicon Valley to work with and mentor young talent from the MENA region,” said Bassel Yassine Ojjeh, a former Senior Vice President of Yahoo!, Inc. USA, a serial entrepreneur and Board Member of ArabCrunch Group, who led the round of funding. “We’ve built ArabCrunch.NET to fuel innovation, create a knowledge based society and an environment for job creation in the region that will serve high tech professionals throughout the 22 Arab countries and the western hemisphere.”

“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to be the first dedicated group that focuses on accelerating the innovation cycle both here in Amman and throughout the Arab world,” said Gaith Saqer, Founder of ArabCrunch Group. “Ever since we launched ArabCrunch.com in 2008, we have been committed to finding the most compelling technological innovations that impact the Arab world – this next chapter allows us to help foster collaboration on a scale never seen before in our region. We have built a social platform that connects participants and helps them find crucial resources, build strategic partnerships and promote services.”

Since it’s unveiling in 2008, ArabCrunch.com has grown to one of the most widely read technology blogs in the Arab world with over 30,000 monthly visits. Founded on the principle of “professional blogging,” ArabCrunch.com has become the primary source of information about the latest technological advancements relevant to the Arabic world. An Arabic version based on “citizen journalism” was launched last month and has met with great success.

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About ArabCrunch Group:
ArabCrunch Group’s mission is to inform, impact, inspire and create an Arab centric technology ecosystem that delivers information, and connects Arab entrepreneurs both in the region and throughout the world via its properties, ArabCrunch.com, ArabCrunch.NET and ArabCrunch.com/ar. About Arab Crunch. The mission of ArabCrunch.NET is to help accelerate entrepreneurship and technology innovation in the Arab world by delivering an online social platform that connects participants of the technology ecosystem.

About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship:
The QRCE is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in October 2004 and is now a complement of El Hassan Science City. The center’s mission is to support economic development through offering a package of services to promote excellence and market technology. The centre particularly targets college students, researchers, inventors and initiators to enhance and build their personal capacities. QRCE offers this group consultation and works to develop their sense of excellence and initiative through a set of programs including Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Excellence Competition, Technology Commercialization Program, Connect Jordan and Princess Sumaya University for Technology’s Entrepreneurship Society (DART).

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To start with, Etisalat will be extending its UAE local MPLS network upto US, UK & to Egypt, KSA, and Kuwait on its own backbone, whereas the connectivity at the distant end will be provided by local partners.

With the setting up of these new nodes, Etisalat will offer secure IP/MPLS links to carry data traffic on its own network. This will also translate into pricing advantages which will be passed on to customers since Etisalat will manage its own network from end-to-end in a seamless manner.

According to Abdulla Hashim, Sr.VP, Business Solutions, Etisalat, “This initiative is a major milestone for Etisalat and is part of a comprehensive strategy to follow our customers and offer them a secure network for connectivity solutions with advantages like single point of contact and price guarantees. Having our own nodes is a major differentiator in UAE and in the Middle East and we remain committed to offering our customers a truly world class connectivity solution with advantages like reliable quality of service & network manageability for customers.”

He added, “We will continue to expand our own network and we will follow this up with the launch of further new nodes globally as part of a phased approach. “

UAE based companies who want to communicate with their partners and offices abroad will now have a single point of contact for all their operational and customer service needs thereby making it very convenient for them to deal directly with Etisalat. Etisalat is also offering Managed services for International connectivity so that customers can outsource all their network operational & management activities thereby reducing their operational costs.

Global IPVPN offers customers the flexibility to communicate across multiple offices on their private network with an ability to run applications with guaranteed performance for each type of application. Customers can also take advantage of scalable bandwidth so that they can quickly add new sites on the network.

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