ba3abar 3an ma3bar (Open Source in the Arab Region)

In the last few days, I attended a series of events organized by Ma3bar.org to disseminate the use of open source in the Arab Region. The vision is to contribute to the development of the society through such initiative. The objectives are truly amazing. However, is it doable?? Personally, I am very optimistic even with the differences in opinions on how to approach this.

My optimism stems from my experience with students. I saw skills, knowledge, awareness and enthusiasm that can overcome any obstacles in such area. I guess our role (academics) is to guide and motivate the students who are an integral part of such initiative. They are tomorrow’s employees, managers, educators, etc

However, before we start doing anything, I believe we (current Ma3bar members) should really adopt the open source philosophy and practices. Are we truly open? It is not easy. I have loved and used open source tools since my undergraduate years (*cough cough* long time ago *cough cough*). However, it wasn’t easy for me to be that open in my open source SE course. I have to develop and write my material on the wiki and share it with the students in a draft mode. It is not easy for me that students read my incomplete text. Additionally, I share all my thoughts (good and bad) with the students through the blog. It is truly truly open. So, are we ready???

One thing I learned about open source is that we can’t fake it We can’t pretend that we believe it while we don’t. It just won’t work. Therefore, let us first get into this culture. Let us see if it is for us and then decide to spread it.

I believe the Ma3bar’s workshop was enriched by the differences among the community members with their variety of expertise, experiences and visions. Diversity caused richness, but of course it wasn’t easy to reach to a common ground. However, I believe the panel discussion at the end of the launch event was very fruitful and a great wrap up of the things said. The most important output in my opinion is the decision to spread the culture and to work online as a community. Whether it is in the awareness, development or training, I believe we all have something that we can start with. So, let us start by following the Bazaar model. We have no chance otherwise

I am already blogging about what we are doing at the GUC and g-osc but in the future, I will do my best to blog about specific experiences in the Arab region.