Update July 2000: Palestine Territories

1. Introduction

In the last quarter, there were two calls for concepts, one being for a Palestinian Internet Initiative and the other for the EUMEDIS Initiative. Furthermore, many workshops and seminars were organized dealing with the Internet, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Rights, to name a few.

2. Last Developments in the promotion of IS

CALL Actions

Mr Najah Husseini of the Government Computer Centre and EUMEDIS Focal Point Coordinator issued in June a Call for Proposals for the EUMEDIS Initiative. A press release had been issued in both the Al-Quds and Al-Ayyam Newspapers announcing the call. The EUMEDIS Initiative was explained and Mr Husseini appealed to Palestinian companies to participate in "enhancing the Information Technology field" within Palestine (E-mail to ITSIG members). A workshop for the EUMEDIS Initiative is scheduled for early July.

A Call for Concept Papers has been issued by the DAI (Development Alternatives Inc) titled "Palestinian Internet Initiative" which the interests lie in the support and development of successful private sector e-business ventures through the USAID-financed Market Access Program (MAP). MAP is designed to build competitive Palestinian business to compete in global markets. DAI has adopted a mission to accelerate Information Technology sector growth, therefore is in close collaboration with the Palestinian Development Fund (PDF) to achieve this. Support and promotion will be offered for the Initiative by Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA).

COMM Actions

In early April, Siemens Palestine donated Ethernet switches to Birzeit University. Birzeit will use these switches to handle networking traffic in critical areas of the network. Furthermore, a number o these will be used in the Mobile Networking Stations (MNS) which are units equipped with switches, hubs, patch panels, wireless modems and consoles that will be utilized in advanced networking training programs offered by Birzeit.

Mr Abed A Al-Khooli from the BZU Law Centre held an STS informal seminar on "Information Technology and Science Education" on April 4 at Birzeit University. Mr Al-Khooli discussed the how IT will become the most affordable option for educational reform.

A "Science, Technology and Society" seminar was held on April 18 at Birzeit University. Dr Ghassan Qadah, director of the Government Computer Centre gave a speech on "The Governement Computer Network: design and implementation".

A seminar was held on April 19 at the Grand Park Hotel for the "Palestinian Internet Initiative". It was jointly organized by DAI and PDF and was supported by PITA and Paltrade. The Initiative was explained and presented to interested applicants.

On the 26th of April, Dr Mohammed Shtayyeh from PECDAR held a seminar on the topic "IT and Economic Development". Dr Shtayyeh touched on how vital economic development and IT go hand-in-hand in the improvement of the IT industry of Palestine.

On May 17, Professor Dr H.C. Karsten Schoeneborn, General Manager of IBM Jordan and General Manager of Professional Business Machines (Palestine), gave a speech at PECDAR titled: The 21st Century- Trends in Technology. The emergence of e-business and e-commerce were discussed as was the Internet and the new concept of Net-revolution. Suggestions were made on which areas within Palestine should become focal points for development and the use of IT applications to aid the cause. The areas are education, legislation, the sponsorship of a national IT symposium and the Internet.

On June 6, Birzeit University held an opening ceremony of its new Advanced Networking and UNIX Laboratory. The event was held in the Kamal Nasir Hall at the University. The purpose of the lab is to produce highly specialized networking engineers, administrators and technicians. The lab has been equipped with RISC workstations and servers, which were donated by Hewlett Packard (HP), and also with PC's, hubs, servers, routers, switches and wireless modems, which were supplied by the University. In addition, HP, in cooperation with Safad Engineering and Electronics, have planned for a series of specialized training sessions on the equipment donated for easier utilization of these systems. The first was held in early May and the next is scheduled for September.

In early June, a group of Israeli and Palestinian universities signed a landmark cooperation agreement on Information Technology, as part of a project backed by Sun Microsystems. The project entails Sun equipping three Palestinian universities (Al-Quds in Jerusalem, Al-Najah in Nablus and Al-Azhar in Gaza) with computer equipment and, in turn, will also establish two centers for academic dialogue between the Palestinian institutions, Tel Aviv universities and Technion (Isreal's leading technology academic institution).

On June 10, a workshop was organized by DAI (Development Alternatives Inc) in collaboration with the GCC (Government Computer Centre) titled "The PS Domain and the Intellectual Property Rights" at Birzeit Univeristy. The objective was to discuss different aspects of having and running the Country Top Level Domain and the PS Domain with focus on the Intellectual Property Rights. Those who attended this workshop were MET and attorneys.

DAI/MAP and PDF, along with the cooperation of Paltrade and PITA organized a workshop on "Venture Capital & Equity Financing- creative options for business and economic growth". The workshop was held on June 19 at the Cleopatra Hall of the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah. One of the objectives of the workshop is an update on the Palestine Internet Initiative (PI2).

EXPE Actions

Birzeit University signed an agreement, in early April, with CISCO Systems to become CISCO Regional Networking Academy in the Palestinian Authority Areas. The CISCO Networking Academies Program teaches university, college, high school students the skills they need to design, build, and maintain computer networks.