Youth in Technology for Community Development has participated in the 10th International Arab Conference on Information Technology held in Sana'a from 15-17 December 2009.

Here is the excellent presentation of the Youth in Technology project team during the conference:

The Youth in Technology for Community Development project has launched its dedicated website that will include project news, update and materials.

Congratulations to our friends at the Youth Leadership Development Foundation for the great work and achievement.
The website can be reached on the following address: www.yit-yemen.org

An open day named (A Day with Massar) was held in Lattakia on the 24th Oct 2009 for Massar beneficiaries, their parents and a group of 30 volunteers to conclude the first round of implementation.

Massar beneficiaries have presented the work that have been held in the first round to their parents.

From 8-10 Dec. 2009, I (Edward) attended the Innovations in Mobile Data Collection in the Middle East Workshop sponsored by UNICEF Innovation and MobileActive.org in Amman, Jordan. The event was excellent and was attended by many impressive, talented people from the mobile technology, software development, and international development fields. I got the chance to meet the leaders in this field (such as UShahidi and RapidSMS). I also got the chance to introduce SOHITCOM which attracted the attention of several participants.

The Royal Scientific Society hosted the International Networking on MED-EU ICT Cooperation from 5-7 Dec. 2009 (www.join-med.eu). One of the themes discussed in the event was eHealth. During the Poster and Networking session, the SOHITCOM team showed a poster for the project and distributed project brochures and flyers. Many participants showed interest in the project idea. Another event is planned in Tunisia in May 2010.

SOHITCOM was presented in the 2009 METS exhibition which was held in Amman between 18-21 Nov. SOHITCOM team got the chance to talk to several IT experts, Governmental officials and general public to about the project and distribute project brochures and flyers. The exhibition was under the patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya bit El Hassan, the President of the Royal Scientific Society.

As part of the Youth in Technology for Community Development project being developed by the Youth Leadership Development Foundation (YLDF), the YLDF developed and conducted 5 surveys to assess the situation regarding ICT university education, job market requirements (with particular emphasis on civil society and Non Governmental Organizations – NGOs-) and employability of ICT graduates. Several interviews, workshops and data collection activities resulted in the collection of data from:

• 13 heads of departments and academic lecturers in ICT-related university departments;
• 100 final year ICT students (47 females, 53 males);
• 30 employees working in ICT;
• 5 NGOs;
• 19 private companies.

The Royal Scientific Society reached an agreement with Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) to benefit from services offered by the national SMS Gateway. The Gateway is one of the projects of the e-Government Program issued to facilitate communications between users of e-services and government organizations. It is the number one e-Service used amongst The Jordanian Society (according to e-Government portal: www.jordan.gov.jo).