The Y2K problem will not cause total disruption and disasters for businesses in Jordan. Experts say that many of the chilling scenarios predicted about the millennium are unlikely to happen. They don't expect planes to fall from the sky and they do not think nuclear missiles will be accidentally activated. But they don't discount some unpleasantness, noting that some medium sized corporations will be affected.

The Higher Ministerial Committee, the National Task Force for the Y2K and the Working Team in the National Information Centre have been working to check the 2000 noncompliance results. The National Team has not only worked on big, vital organizations such as banking, distribution, healthcare, telecommunications and securities trading, but is also monitoring smaller organizations and has equally asked them to submit their contingency plans before the end of June 1999. Some organizations have done more than others to get ready. Banks get the prize for early preparations. However, the situation in some organizations is more critical than others. The Task Force gives organizations that are vital, like the power sector more attention. The billing systems in the Power and Water sectors are being modified to accommodate the 2000 problem. Legal issues are being looked at so that organizations would avoid the complications and expenses of going to court.

A lot of awareness lectures on the Y2K problem are going on. Organizations are getting more aware of the dimensions of the problem. Everyday there is a newspaper article on the subject and it is hoped that companies in the private sector will be motivated to find solutions if they have a Y2K problem. To limit the progression of the condition, government organizations have been asked to consult the experts before buying any new IT supplies. All new acquired IT should be 2000 compliant.

Inter border problems within the boundaries of Jordan are non-existent for the simple reason that few organizations are connected electronically via networks. On cross border coordination, Jordan has attended four meetings, two for the national coordinators in the United Nations headquarter, one in the Philippines and another in Beirut held by the ESCWA organization for sixteen Arab Countries. Jordan depends on few countries for supply and technology.

On a scale of 0-100%, Jordan is 60% almost fully ready. By the end of 1999, it will be compliant. In general, the scene in Jordan is not so scary, but we keep our fingers crossed. Getting elevators working, distributing water and electricity and fixing telecom switches and updating thousands of embedded systems is a big job that needs preparation and costs money. Some machines would have to be replaced. The cost is accelerating. Public organizations and ministries have been required to redeploy their budgets to allocate the Y2K expenses.

As the calendar rolls over to 1/1/ 2000, optimism prevails, inshallah.

NUMU would like to congratulate the new Board of Trustees of ISOC with special compliment to Dr. Tarek Kamel from Egypt. The Board will serve three-year terms (1999-2002). The Trustees include the following persons:

Martin Burack

Srisakdi Charmonman

John Gage

Tarek Kamel

Manuel Sanroma

http://www.isoc.org/members/vote/99election/99result.shtml

The latest figures for How Many Online? from NUA is 158.5 million. The breakdown is as follows:

Europe: 37.15 million

Middle East: 0.88 million

Canada & USA: 88.33 million

South America: 4.63 million

http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html

Two years ago, The Netcraft survey counted 1 million Web servers software on the Web. The last survey counts more than 6 million Web servers, host names that provide an http service.

The top developers are Apache, Microsoft, Netscape, and O'Reilly.

The server market is dominated by Apache, Microsoft-IIS, Netscape-Enterprise, and Rapidsite.

There is a rise in Internet encrypted transactions, widespread adoption of http/1.1 and the increase in Intel-powered systems running NT, Linux, BSDI, and FreeBSD.

The Jordan Telecommunication Company, in line with the mores and values of this country, will monitor the telephone numbers of the hot lines advertised by satellite services. These satellites transmit adult videos directed to the population of adolescents and young people. Although there is no law against transmission of this material, Jordanian parents would not want their children to be exposed to this kind of information without guidance. To safeguard its social structure and value system and protect the growing generations from the harm these videos cause, the Company will cut the call as soon as the number is dialed.

Maktoub, the famous Arabic-based email service has recently launched a new service about ISPs and Internet cafés in the Arab world. This guide will be available in English language for the time being. It will be launched in Arabic language in the near future.

The guide includes countries from all over the Arab World. The editor of NUMU found out the following facts about the number of ISPs in selected Arab countries:

Egypt 33 ISPs

Lebanon 14 ISP

Morocco 8

Jordan 6

Palestine 5

Bahrain 3

Kuwait 3

Tarek Kamel is a member in the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society and the co-founder and Secretary of the Internet Society of Egypt (ISE), an ISOC chapter.

Kamel founded the Communications Department at the Information and Decision Support Center IDSC/RITSEC. He is managing the main Egyptian Internet gateway, servicing over 40 commercial ISPs and hundreds of government organizations. Kamel's work extended into liberalization issues such as a tax reduction for ISPs as well as a government/private sector partnership to serve the Egyptian Internet community. He has actively participated in the establishment of community centers in remote areas to bring the Internet to the have-nots.

Kamel co-founded the annual ISE event: CAINET conference and chaired its program committee for the last three years. He received the first award from the ISE in recognition of all his efforts.

Kamel is currently a member of the program committee of INET'99 at San Jose. In INET'98 he was a member of the organizing group of the Developing Countries Symposium. Kamel has co-organized the African Symposiums at INET'97 and in Benin in December 98. In the latter event, he was elected in the interim board of trustees of AFRINIC. He also participated as one of the training staff members of the developing countries workshop of INET'94.

Academically, Kamel is an Associate Professor at the ERI. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Networks from the Technical University of Munich. He has lectured in various graduate level joint-academic programs led by Cairo University, Maastricht School of Management and University of Louisville.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced on 21 April the five companies that have been selected to participate in the initial test phase of the new competitive Shared Registry System for the .com, .net, and .org domains. They will be the first to implement the new system for competition in the market for domain name registration services in those domains.

The companies are:

America Online

CORE (Internet Council of Registrars)

France Telecom/Oleane

Melbourne IT

register.com

At present, the registration servicein the .com, .net, and .org domains are provided solely by Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI).

Creating professional looking web sites is becoming easier than ever, thanks to the numerous web authoring tools that have hit the market lately. Here are some of them, that will help you get up and running.

Web Studio 2.0 from Luckman Interactive provides you with HTML, Java, database and report generating capability in a user friendly drag-and-drop environment. It also enables you to view your web site as it would appear on the Web, through a special preview window.

Web Express 3.0 from MicroVision Development Inc provides you with several wizards that walk you through the whole web site design process from HTML , frames, until inserting sound and video clips and plugins.

For those who are new to desktop publishing, Splash from Beam International Ltd. may be the right tool. Java and customized Java applets can be incorporated automatically in a drag-and-drop environment. Page and site statistics are right at your fingertips and uploading your site is made easy with the built-in FTP utility.

One of the major activities of the Centre in 1999 is this Euro-Mediterranean workshop that was held in coordination with the Aldana Group of the EC. The number of participants exceeded 61 experts from over 18 Euro-Mediterranean countries. The general subject included lectures on the various means and ways of managing and protecting natural resources including water, which is a scarce resource in Jordan.

The exhibition is one of the most important Italian exhibitions for Information Technology and Communication Techniques. It was held in Bari city from April 15^th to 18^th, 1999. The exhibition focused on IT solutions for small and medium-sized businesses.

The FERAM meeting is the Federation of the Mediterranean Exhibitors in the Information Technology. It took place on April 18,1999. The meeting focused on the IT-related skills, and on how continuous training and new education methods and techniques can improve learning quality.

The Centre participated in the meeting that was held in Damascus from 26 -29/4/1999, and that was organized by UNDP. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the required level of skills of the work force and in the information society.

The evolved society entails planning and changing strategies to meet the objectives of the information society and to lessen the gap between developing and less developed countries.

Participants included experts from the UNDP, Arab Countries and Asia.

The National Information Center participated in the workshop on assessing the national infrastructure for the management of chemicals from 25-29 April 1999 at WHO Regional Center for Environmental Health Activities in Amman.

The main objective of the workshop was to assess and modify the national profile of

chemicals. An action plan was set for the coming 6 months to finalize the chemical profile.

The Ministry of Health was selected to be the national coordinator for the action plan. The preparation of a database for chemical information management including collection, storage and handling of chemical material was the main subject . The focal point will be housed in the Ministry of Health under the supervision of the National Information Centre (NIC).

The President of the Centre, the National Coordinator in the Y2K International body attended the Conference that was held in New York City for the National Coordinators. The purpose of the conference is to identify the work that still needs to be done on the most critical issues facing each region. A Y2K Readiness Survey was developed by the International Y2K Cooperation Centre and distributed to the different countries so that needs are assessed for the required assistance.

Based on the National Information Center objectives, NIC announced last month, that the international Internet links has been expanded via Hashem-1 Royal Station including the following:

Digital Communication Connectivity: NIC has established a digital network & multiplexes with Al-Abdali & Al-Khayam exchanges as a point of service (POS) for the digital network. POSs provide the institutions with a 64/128 KBPS digital connectivity with the NIC.

Dialup Lines (PSTN) Conversion to Digital Exchanges: NIC is maintaining a value-added service to the dialup subscriber. It has converted the dialup lines (PSTN) from the analogue exchange to digital one. This will provide a faster & a more reliable internet service performance.