360east

Month: March 2010

  • ArabNet, Beirut and ‘Being Arab’

    Visiting Beirut is always a bitter sweet experience. My last trip to Beirut to attend ArabNet, the region’s first web business conference was my third trip to the city in 8 years, each of which had the duration of 48 hours. Each time I visit beirut I leave with a book, always from Librarie Antoine,…

  • What’s GAM’s problem with the spring?

    We have been blessed with good rain in Amman this year. Spring is all around us. Amman’s empty plots of land (and there’s many of those) are full of green life. Flowers, grasses, butterflies and bees are creating little heavens where usually you see urban rubbish. The scene above is what I see everyday as…

  • ArabNet 2010, Day 1: the Arab web industry emerges

    Photos stolen from Andfaraway With a ballroom full of participants during all sessions, buzzing networking activity during coffee breaks, inspiring talks from both older web hands and young ones, startup demos from all over the region, not to mention very active tweeting and live blogging, we can say that day 1 of the ArabNet conference…

  • ArabNet: Ten years late, the Arab web industry gets its conference

    Here is one of my favorite anecdotes about the Arab web industry: the web advertising spending of the whole Arab region, including the rich Gulf region and Saudi Arabia is less than the revenue of a single niche web marketing agency (which you never heard of) in Seattle where one of my friends works. Now…

  • On physical junk, mental junk and the joys spring cleaning

    We’re SYNTAX. And we create junk. Celebrating 12 years of junk production. And 10 years of accumulating it in one office. We’re spring cleaning. Read more in the SYNTAX:CONTEXT blog.

  • NewThink Theater: Infecting Jordan with the virus of positive action [with VIDEO]

    Here’s something that keeps Jordan interesting: there is always someone or some group initiating something. Regional politics might be depressing. Local politics too. The economy is not doing great. There are setbacks, deterioration, and the “I don’t care” attitude all around us. But at the same time, someone is launching a new initiative.. startup.. band..…

  • Counterparts – Ammani House 28 in transition

    Photo: Dina Haddadin House 28 on the corner of Rainbow Street is in a state of flux. The old landlady and her old, bed-ridden husband have passed away. It seems like yesterday she was showing Ahmad Sabbagh and me through the apartment under the main house. That apartment became what I called the “SYNTAX house”.…

  • The iPad is so 2010. Say “hello?” to the ePad..

    Read these related posts on 360east: After the dust settled.. some iPad questions Say Happy New 2010 on Amman’s 1st Cricle tomorrow Apps from Arabia 360east goes to Mobile World Congress 2010 Open City: Refuge urbanism in Amman, Cairo, Beirut, Istanbul

  • The NYTimess writes about Amman (and my fellow bloggers and tweeps complain)

    I really love my fellow Ammani bloggers and tweeps. I really think that they are one of the best things that happened to us in the last ten years. I love that many of them have give a voice to Amman’s urban issues and urban activism. But sometimes they have me shaking my head with…