IT Outsourcing Partnership wanted | Elance Job
Dear,
We are a new business based in Saudi Arabia, looking to partnership with offshore IT, Software development, Website Application, Web design, Web Maintanance, mobile application (IOS, Android). All companies worldwide are welcome. We aim to…
Category: IT & Programming > Other IT & Programming
Type and Budget: Hourly (Not Sure)
Time Left: 14 d, 22 h (Ends May 10, 2013 07:23 am ET)
Start Date: Apr 25, 2013
Proposals: 23 (High n/a, Low n/a, Avg $11 / hr)
Client Info: 24 jobs posted, 46% awarded, $3,072 total purchased, Payment Method Verified
Client Location: Bussia, Saudi Arabia
Preferred Job Location: Anywhere
Desired Skills: MySQL Administration PHP HTML
Job ID: 40746476
Personal logo and blog theme | Elance Job
Need a personal brand logo and identity with a blog theme for wordpress
For a Generic public figure
Category: Design & Multimedia > Other – Design
Type and Budget: Fixed price (Less than $500) Escrow
Time Left: 1 d, 23 h (Ends Dec 6, 2012 07:15 am ET)
Start Date: Dec 4, 2012
Proposals: 1 (High $40, Low $40, Avg $40)
Client: saroory (25 jobs posted, 72% awarded, $7,327 total purchased, Payment Method Verified)
Client Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Preferred Job Location: Anywhere
Desired Skills: Graphic Design Photoshop Web Design
Job ID: 35735780
A Digital Leash For Women: SMS Tracking Of Wives In Saudi Arabia
Saudi men can now be alerted via text message if women try to escape from the country. The new digital leash on women is being resoundingly criticized over social media channels. “Hello Taliban, herewith some tips from the Saudi e-government!”, wrote one angry commenter, according to Al Arabiya. The new technology has reportedly been in place since last week, and was discovered after a husband was alerted by immigration authorities while traveling with his wife.
“Saudi men earlier had the option of requesting alert messages about their dependents’ cross-border movement, but it appears that since last week such notifications are being sent automatically,” explains the BBC.
Al Arabiya further explains that a recent escape attempt by a Saudi woman to Sweden may have prompted the creation of a high-tech digital leash. While “the right of exit” has been generally recognized as a fundamental human right, Saudi Arabia remains a deeply conservative country and denies women the right to travel without the consent of their male guardian.
It’s unclear whether social media protests will do any good. Last year, Manal al-Sharif sparked a global wave of support after posting a YouTube video of herself defying the controversial driving ban. The support spared her from 10 whip lashes after King Abdullah overturned the sentence, but the driving ban remains a contentious legal battle.
This new controversy is perhaps even more egregious since it deliberately targets women fleeing from danger or simply seeking more freedom. It’s an important lesson in the fact that technology can be wielded equally for empowerment or persecution.
[Hat tip: Tiago Peixoto]
[Image Credit: Flickr user Retlaw Snellac]
Read more here: A Digital Leash For Women: SMS Tracking Of Wives In Saudi Arabia
Browsing Wikipedia is now completely free for 230 million mobile users globally
Thanks to a new partnership between Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Wikimedia, 25 million STC mobile customers in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait can now access Wikipedia free of charge – with zero data fees. This deal raises the total number of mobile users with free Wikipedia access to an impressive 230 million, as part of the Wikipedia Zero program; an initiative to bring free mobile Wikipedia access to developing countries.
Today’s announcement is extremely important, considering the massive amount of information that is now infinitely more accessible to millions of people in both arabic and english. Additionally, the decision reflects how key Wikimedia believes emerging, Arabic-speaking users will be for its future success, as part of a larger emphasis on everything mobile.
Wikimedia has already partnered with operators like Orange, Telenor, Digi and dtac to bring free access to countries like Uganda, Malaysia, Kenya and Thailand, although some of the partnerships only offer free access to the lighter-weight, text-only zero.wikipedia.org version. Lucky for STC’s 25 million customers, Wikimedia states that they specifically will have access to both m.wikipedia.org and zero.wikipedia.org.
According to Eng. Ibrahim Al Omar, Vice President for Personal Services:
One of the principles that STC adheres to is the commitment to spreading social awareness and the fostering of a knowledge-sharing culture that accomplishes the aspirations of all segments of our customer-base. Wikipedia Zero is considered an additional cornerstone that supports the continuous efforts of STC in the field of social awareness.
Wikimedia’s partnership is certainly an impressive development — one which could also benefit a number of other regions, even the US, as NY Daily News claims that just 50.4 percent of US mobile subscribers own smartphones.
Globally, we have a long way to go towards brining true accessibility to the Internet, but announcements like this can help move everyone forward.
Image credit: YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / Getty Images
Read more: Browsing Wikipedia is now completely free for 230 million mobile users globally
Tunisia jails two over Facebook cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (weeks after celebrating Web freedom day)
Less than a month after celebrating Internet freedom day, Tunisian authorities have sentenced two young Facebook users to seven years in jail after they published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on the social network.
Tunisia’s justice ministry says that the duo posted images showing Mohammad naked which, according to spokesperson Chokri Nefti, saw them punished for “violation of morality, and disturbing public order.”
One of the men, Jabeur Mejri, is already incarcerated while police are actively seeking the other, Ghazi Beji, who was sentenced in absentia.
Local blogger Nebil Zagdoud told Reuters that “the sentences are very heavy and severe, even if these young people were at fault. This decision is aimed at silencing freedom of expression even on the Internet. Prosecutions for offending morals are a proxy for this government to gag everyone.”
Sentencing took place on March 28 but news of them has only just been released, promoting concerns around free speech in Tunisia, which generated headlines as one of the countries which saw the effects of the social media-led ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions in 2010.
In a bid to move on, Tunisia celebrated its first national day for Internet freedom on March 13 but these arrests and other developments, such as the banning of Facebook pages and pornography, show that the Internet and social networks continue to trouble authorities.
Tunisia is still on Reporters without Borders’ (RWB) list of countries ‘under surveillance’ despite attempts by the newly formed government to distance itself from tactics used by its predecessors.
These arrests are the latest in a series of social network-related arrests in countries in the surrounding region.
Just last week, Palestinian officials made two arrests in relation to content posted to Facebook, and Twitter has also been a platform from which authorities have reprimanded citizens across the Middle East.
Last month a man in the UAE was arrested for criticising security forces on Twitter, while Malaysia deported Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari who arrived in the country fleeing a death penalty charge levied on him in Saudi Arabia due to tweets he sent.
Original post: Tunisia jails two over Facebook cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (weeks after celebrating Web freedom day)