edward's blog

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.

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).

The (sohitcom.org.jo) web and e-mail domains are now activated. The portal is under construction at the moment as the SOHITCOM team are working on the various modules of the portal. It will be available soon!

The Royal Scientific Society (RSS) signed an MOU with the National Information Technology Center (NITC) to support SOHITCOM project activities through the Knowledge Stations Program (KS). The KS are working closely with the SOHITCOM project team in designing the scoping questionnaires to be distributed to residents of rural areas and to medical experts. The KS will also help SOHITCOM team in obtaining filled questionnaires through their nodes that are well distributed in the rural areas.