CONTENTS
 

 

Minister of Communication and Information Technology Visits the NITC, 15/12/2005.

 

On 15/12/2005, the newly appointed Minister of the MOICT visited NITC. He convened with the Director General and some of his senior staff. Dr. Yousef Nusseir,  gave a short presentation on the NITC and its general strategy, objectives and mission and achievements during the past ten years, since its establishment, and its future work plan and the budget. Specific subjects relevant to the development of NITC were discussed and included the new organization structure that has not been implemented yet, the human resource available at the Centre and the present regulations.  The mission and objectives of NITC were explained including the main objective of establishing and managing a National Information System that includes more than 150 organizations arranged according to type of sector that each organization belongs to. The Minister was also briefed on the different activities that NITC implements including:

§   Publication of guidelines and standards related to IT in Jordan.

§   Registration of domain names and provision of Internet service (ISP) for government  organizations and hosting of Internet pages for the public sector.

§   Research and consultation.

§   Management of the Knowledge Stations Project which is implemented at the national level with the aim of bridging the digital divide. One hundred Stations have been established until now.

§    Legislation Network which includes all laws ,by–Laws, court decisions and interpretations and modifications of all laws since 1921.

§    Hosting and supporting the E-government Operations Centre.

§    NBN Operations Center which has been transferred to the Jordan University. The NITC , as per the suggested plan,will manage the NBN of schools .

§    Adopting the National Information System as the information base at the national Level, which compliments the e-Gov Portal.                                               

To develop the NITC and increase its productivity, the DG suggested that restructuring of The Centre through adoption of a new organization chart and new by-Laws and regulations. In addition the infrastructure should be developed and that allocations to the budget should be increased.

 

 

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World Summit on Information Society, Tunis, 16-18, Nov, 2005.

 

The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society closed in Tunis on 18 November 2005. The Summit - endorsed by the UN General Assembly and under the high patronage of Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General - was held in two phases: the first in Geneva (10-12 December 2003); the second in Tunis. The WSIS brought together Heads of State and Government, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, civil society entities, and industry leaders and media representatives to tackle the problem of the "digital divide" and to harness the potential of information and communication technologies to drive economic and social development.
The Tunis Summit documents - the Tunis Commitment                                                       
 http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/7.html
and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society                                                           
http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html
 were endorsed by world leaders and cover three key issues: Internet governance, financing strategies, and implementation mechanisms for the Action Plan developed by the first phase of WSIS in 2003, in Geneva.The issue of greatest concern was the Internet Governance. WSIS addressed Internet Governance in its broadest sense, Domain Name System , issues related to spam, cyber-security, interconnection costs for developing countries, etc.

The WSIS became an opportunity for many countries to voice their concerns related to the Internet and its administration or management and the role of certain governments. The final text on Internet Governance in the Tunis Agenda, recognizes the success of the existing governance mechanisms. The text calls for respect for the legitimate interests of countries with regard to their ccTLDs, the need for further public policies for gTLDs, the need for strengthening the regional internet resource management institutions, and the need to maximize developing country participation in decisions regarding Internet Governance. The text also calls for the creation of a forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue, called the Internet  Governance Forum (IGF). The IGF will be neutral, non-duplicative and non-binding, and have an initial mandate of five years. The first meeting of the IGF is to occur by the end of the second quarter of 2006.The Jordan Delegation included representatives from the MOICT, and different public sector, private sector, international and civil society organizations, including the National Information Technology Centre (NITC). NITC participated in the ICT Hall Exhibition.
 

  

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The Future of Communication and Information Technology in Higher Education, Amman, 1-3/12/2005. 

 

The National Information Center participated in the conference entitled : The Future of Communication and Information Technology in Higher Education. The conference included a brain storming session about the use of communication in education to enhance educational output in students. Main stakeholders of the conference included the Ministry of Education and the University of Delpht and the University Network Company.

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Conference for Education Ministers, Educators and Research Workers, 10th, Sana’a, Yemen, 3-8/12/2005

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The 10th Conference for Education Ministers, Educators and Research Workers in Education was held in Sana’a from 3-8/12/2005. The NITC received the invitation from the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science.  The first part of the Conference was dedicated to different studies and subjects related to the conference and presented by experts from the Arab World. The Jordanian paper was presented by Dr. Yousef Nusseir, the Director General of NITC on “Information Technology and its Role in Creativity Development”. Recommendations included the Sana’a Declaration on the importance of updating and developing university and higher education systems in the Arab World by unifying all Arab university standards related to accreditation. The recommendations will be presented in the coming conference for Ministers of Higher Education and Research in the Arab World.

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The Impact of the Jordanian Knowledge Stations in Bridging the Digital Divide: A Workshop, Amman, 17/12/2005.

 

A study on the Impact of the Jordanian Knowledge Stations in Bridging the Digital Divide was launched on 17/12/2005 under the patronage of the Minister of Education and Higher Education and Research, head of the Royal Committee for the Knowledge Stations.  The results of the study show that the Knowledge Stations have been successful in alleviating the digital divide and poverty and gender inequality in the villages and remote areas in Jordan. The Knowledge Stations are hosted by different organizations from civil society and the government.The study concluded that at the end of 2004, 92000 citizen used the IT training services provided by these stations and that more than half of the trainees were trained in IT skills in their local Station.  35% were trained in IT related skills. An opinion poll showed that the satisfaction level of the local community with the services provided by the Stations was “good”. Citizens in remote areas considered the Knowledge Station an opportunity for further awareness in IT and the Internet and training in advanced IT skills. Training in the local KS helped them refresh and upgrade their qualifications and trainees believe that this  helped them find better jobs.

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The Arabic Meeting for Free and Open Source, Tunisia, 22-24/12/2005.

 

The National Information Technology Center represented Jordan in the " The Arabic Meeting for Free and Open Source" , in Tunisia during the period 22-24 Dec, 2005, in response to the invitation from the Arab League for Education, Culture and Science (ALECSO).The advantages of using free and open source software were discussed, focusing on open source software free availability for use in their source code state, without the need of prior consent from any party. Definition of the term "free" was explained by Free Software Foundation

During the meeting, the current state of Free Open Source Software in the Arab world was discussed by reviewing national reports for Jordan, Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco. In addition, relevant scientific papers were discussed, and proposals for projects based on free and open source software were presented. An important topic was the degree of utilization of several free open source software such as Linux Operating System, Open Office Desktop Application, MySQL and Postgres Databases, as well as Apache Webserver. In the final statement of the meeting, several recommendations were drafted:

  • Promoting and supporting collaborative projects in the Arab world based on free and open source software, especially those related to scientific, educational and cultural fields.
  • Establishing National Committees for open source software and standards comprising governmental, nongovernmental, private and civil society institutions. This committee would take over the task of spreading awareness, introducing relevant legislations, as well as following up activities related to free and open source. In addition, it would act as a national representative in the related regional and international forums.
  • Introducing the free and open source software into the educational curricula, with special emphasis on higher education, including graduation projects. Intellectual property concepts should also be part of the education process.

 

 

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