The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Atef Helmy inaugurated today the events of a workshop titled “"towards a digital content that enhances transparency, participation and creativity in the Arab world” organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) under the auspices of the Arab League and in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Arab regional office and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (Escwa).
In light of Egypt’s efforts to raise the cooperation opportunities with the Arab world to promote the digital content, the workshop was attended by representatives of Arab governments, regional and international organizations, private sector, global companies, civil society organizations related to strengthening and enriching the e-content in the Arab World.
During the events of the workshop, participants sought to get acquainted to the international vision of the e-content industry and means to benefit from it to create the Arab e-content, through showcasing international Arab and international e-content statistics, discussing the international criteria and presenting best practices and regional international experiences to establish a digital reservoir that protects the Arab identity and heritage.
The workshop has been a great opportunity to highlight initiatives and projects related to e-content in the Arab world, especially those focusing on innovation, a main factor of the base of the e-content industry.
The workshop has also discussed means to promote the innovative content in the Arab world on internet and mobile phones, whether through suitable business models or building capacities to qualify human calibers, capable of creating such content to Arab countries.
As for the “User Generated Content”, a session was dedicated to showcase an internet’s quantum leap, thanks to Web 2.0 technology which was utilized by Arab youth to launch strong initiatives in this concern. Consequently, the user is now empowered by three capabilities: creating content, freedom of expression and interaction.
The session also tackled the various kinds of e-content in relation with society, education, media, as well as means to protect the intellectual property rights to this content.
The workshop has recommended compiling and monitoring the Arab digital content as a first step towards the future of the Arab cooperation in this field, encourage Arab countries to set a national strategy for the Arab e-content and establish an Arab e-content watch and an e-portal similar to Europeana.
Participants have agreed upon the importance of submitting these recommendations to the Arab ICT ministers’ council to make decisions in an attempt to activate the workshop’s recommendations, thus strengthening the Arab e-content.
