The Rise of Middle East Technology Parks

The rapid growth of technology parks in the Arab world has so far created more expectations than outcomes, reports Waleed Al-Shobakky | SciDev.Net

Over the past few years, technology parks have been sprouting up all over the region: from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia in the north, to Kuwait, Oman and Qatar in the east.

Recognising that their natural resources, particularly oil, are being fast depleted, and looking to emulate the success stories of technology parks in Asia, Europe and North America in creating jobs and successful businesses, countries like Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have constructed as many as seven or eight parks. But as the ranks swell, the question remains: will technology parks be able to prove their worth?

Qatar’s Science Revolution

Qatar is building an education, science and technology infrastructure at record speed — but not  without friction, reports Waleed Al-Shobakky | SciDev.Net

Qatar is experiencing a near revolution in science aimed at catapulting the oil-wealthy emirate into the 21st century.

Last November, Qatar’s emir, Hammad bin Khalifa Al-Thani pledged to allocate 2.8 per cent of Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) to science research.

The pledge signifies a serious, long-term commitment to science of about US$1.5 billion a year — highly unusual in a region where science and research budgets are almost non-existent.

Web 2.0 Can Benefit the Poor

New web applications can benefit the world's poor, argue Waleed al-Shobakky and Jack Imsdahl | Science and Development Network

The term 'Web 2.0' captures the transition of the worldwide web from flat websites offering static information to a new computing platform independent of earlier shackles.

The applications available include web-based word processors and spreadsheets such as gOffice or ThinkFree, online calendars like Kiko and backup services such as that provided by Mozy. Most of these also offer free storage space, acting as a kind of virtual hard disk for saving files.

PCs for the Poor: As Good As Their Hype?

Technologists are at odds over how to bridge the digital divide.  What one group calls the ultimate solution, another dismisses as "the scam of the century," reports Waleed al-Shobakky | SciDev.Net

At the 2005 World Economic Forum in Switzerland a soft-spoken academic made an announcement that sent seismic waves across the computer industry. Nicholas Negroponte, then director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, spoke of making laptops available at US$100 for schoolchildren in developing nations.

The price was not the only big news. Negroponte named companies that had agreed to collaborate on what would become the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

Learning to listen: technology and poor communities

Waleed al-Shobakky reports on a Sri Lankan robotics scientist leading an effort to get technology working for poor communities around the world | Science and Development Network

Bernadine Dias, a Sri Lankan-born scientist based at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States, admits she "wears many hats". Her main focus is robotics, but she also devotes a lot of time promoting innovative ways of using technology in poor communities.

In 2004, Dias founded an initiative called TechBridgeWorld to forge collaborations between CMU and developing communities around the world, including poor neighbourhoods in the United States.
Dias believes this kind of relationship benefits both partners: university staff and students learn about the real needs of the world's poor, while communities gain skills and access to technology.

Ongoing TechBridgeWorld projects are using technology to improve healthcare in Haiti and to teach English in Ghana. And when Dias moved to Qatar last year to teach in the robotics department of 'CMU-Q', her university's recently launched local branch, she took TechBridgeWorld with her.

Maths for the masses

A partnership between UNESCO and a leading software company is introducing a new and affordable approach to mathematics teaching in Arab states, reports Waleed al-Shobakky | Science and Development Network

Teaching mathematics is a problem in both the developing and developed worlds. In North America, educators complain that even high-achieving students lack a good grasp of some basic mathematical concepts. The situation is even worse in the Arab region, according to the Arab Human Development Report 2003. 

The report, Building a Knowledge Society, emphasised the need for quality education, particularly in science and maths — areas that could help the lagging region move forward and catch up with developed nations.

But apparently, when it comes to maths, people lose their enthusiasm for learning.