Outstanding Arab and Gulf bloggers will be recognised under a new ”Arab Blogging Award” launched at the end of the first Arab Bloggers Forum hosted by the Emirate of Ajman.
Dr. Sheikh Majed bin Saeed Al Nuaimi, Chief of Ajman Emiri Court, was the chief guest of the concluding session of the meeting.
The Ajman Department of Culture and Information and the General Information Authority jointly organised the first Arab Bloggers Forum in Ajman from June 8 to 9. The event, held with the support of Abu Dhabi Music ‘&’ Arts Foundation (Admaf) and under the umbrella of the League of Arab States, highlighted the shared belief of the four parties in importance of blogging; its cultural, media and social dimensions and the important role it plays in maximising Arabic language content on the World Wide Web.
The bloggers called for staging an international exhibition on parallel with the second forum to showcase technologies and techniques of blogging, IT, digital media and graphics.
They also recommended launching of a pan-Arab blog to contain all presentations, working papers and researches as well as recommendations to capitalise on them towards crystalising a blueprint of policies that feature highlights on blogging, its criteria and good practices and its engagement with the community.
Ibrahim Said Al Dhahiri, Director General of the Department of Culture and Information in Ajman, said, “The knowledge outcome the conference has produced would be instrumental in upgrading mechanisms of creativity in blogging and open digital space.
Organisers said Arabic language blogs have invaded the web over the last few years, forming alongside international blogs a new phenomenon referred to as new media. Today there are around 75 million active blogs in various languages worldwide. It is estimated that some 120,000 blogs are created on a daily basis.
The themes to be discussed at the conference included: understanding blogging, its forms and objectives; blogs as media outlets and platforms for sharing experience, cultures, arts and literature; the current status and future of blogging in the Arab region, which is entering the digital world today, despite the disparity in internet usage across Arab countries.
Al Dhahri has earlier pointed out that the individual efforts of thousands of young Arabs on the Internet have contributed to promoting the status of Arabic language to rank seventh among those languages that are active online.
“There is no doubt that blogging has become a media, information and technical phenomenon that helps not only to spread news, reports and analyses but also to act as a forum for exchanging experience, knowledge and cultures in addition to the various social roles it plays,” he added.
