ITIDA is the executive IT arm of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, MCIT, and is located in the heart of a modern business environment at the Smart Village. With local and international outreach, ITIDA plays a fundamental role as a one-stop-shop for foreign direct investors seeking to enhance their global offering using what Egypt has to offer and the competitive advantages of the country.

Led by Chief Executive Officer, Eng. Yasser El Kady, ITIDA extends a helping hand to your business and provides the Egyptian IT industry with the right tools to increase IT/ ITES exports. ITIDA is aware of the importance of innovation and talent to your prosperity and that is why we leave no stone unturned to ensure sustainable talent supply and great innovations.

ITIDA actively pursues two broad goals: building the capacities of Egypt’s local information and communications technology (ICT) industry and attracting foreign direct investments to boost the ICT sector locally and globally.

As a government entity, ITIDA works in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT) and the private sector to support the quality of IT services and applications.

ITIDA offers a number of services that are aimed at supporting and nurturing its home ICT industry and ensuring that Egypt is well-equipped to support local and international companies. These services range from support packages for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through to comprehensive education and training packages that focus on developing Egypt’s highly ambitious pool of graduates, in turn feeding the large number of experience IT employees who live and work in the country.

It is through these services and incentives that ITIDA is able to increase local and export demand, develop the skills of its talent base, improve the country’s infrastructure and create an open and secure business environment that is attractive to both local and multinational organisations.

Contact details:

Ahmed Reda
Media & International Relations Manager
Information Technology Industry Development Agency
T: +202 35 34 51 85
E: areda@itida.gov.eg

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Ahmed M. El-Sobky, Director of the Technical Office at ITIDA, will deliver his keynote speech in the plenary session Learning in a VUCA world: How Knowledge Workers Learn to Innovate, on friday 30th November from 09.00 – 11.00.  To find out more about ITIDA’s work, be sure to visit ITIDA’s stand in the Wintergarden area of the exhibition space (C105).

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Participants in ‘Security and Defence Learning 2012’ and SDL Educa are also invited to join leading experts at a special discussion luncheon on the Euro crisis and its possible security consequences. The lunch will be hosted by the New Security Foundation, organisers of SDL, and it provides an opportunity to discuss not only the possible implications of the crisis for European security but also how to prepare for them.

At the luncheon, economic analysts will join security experts for a debate about the implications for Europe of a failure to solve the currency crisis.

Speakers at the meeting, which is the first in The New Security Foundation’s series of ‘Politeia Circle’ luncheons, will include Wolf-Rüdiger Bengs, former spokesman of the Bundesbank, Klaus-Peter Willsch, Member of the Bundestag and co-founder of the ‘Alliance Against the European Stability Mechanism,’and Baroness Neville-Jones, former UK Minister for Security and Counter-Terrorism and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

New Security Foundation Chairman Dr Harold Elletson said: “A failure to solve the Euro crisis could have serious implications for European security. These need to be considered alongside any purely economic analysis. These are worrying times for all Europeans and we need to be aware of the dangers. ”

Please click here to reserve your place at the luncheon, which will take place from 12.30 – 14.30 at Hugo’s Restaurant in the Intercontinental Hotel, Berlin on 28 November 2012.

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The acronym VUCA – volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity – accurately describes the conditions under which organisations, corporations and institutions operate in the world today. As there is no predictability or way to plan for every issue or problem that may arise, it becomes necessary to plan for any issue that may arise. The VUCA world calls for innovative business strategies and processes that can be used to cope in any given situation, and if treated right, the VUCA world can be an opportunity for knowledge workers to learn and develop effective agile and flexible strategies. This year’s ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN conference will hold a plenary session to discuss learning in a VUCA world and the ways that knowledge workers learn to innovate.

By Claire Adamson

The term VUCA originated in the US military in the late 1990s and is a way of assessing and providing for the changeability of general situations and events. Volatility refers to the ease and speed in which a situation can change. Uncertainty refers to the lack of knowledge or awareness that surrounds unforeseen events, Complexity to the web of interconnectedness and chaos surrounding an event or organisation, and Ambiguity refers to the potential for confusion and misunderstanding within that organisation.

The term was quickly adapted to be used in business environments and now stands as a strategy for coping with unavoidable changes and events that may arise – anything from a change in consumer fashion to unstable government or the onslaught of recession. A good example of the recent influence of the VUCA world is the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull and its subsequent ash cloud. This unforeseen natural event disrupted air travel in Europe for 6 days in 2010 stranding passengers all over the world and costing air travel companies millions of euros, as well as affecting countless other companies. It was a completely unpredictable event and there was no way to stop it or prevent it from happening. Businesses just had to deal with the fallout, and suffered everything from mild setbacks to massive losses.

The changeability of our surrounding environment is of course not a new phenomenon, but it has certainly been amplified in the last ten years or so as technology has advanced and humans have become more connected than ever. The systems under which the world operates and the ways that individual businesses operate are vast and complex – interconnected to the point of confusion and uncertainty. The linear process of cause and effect becomes increasingly irrelevant, and it is necessary for knowledge workers to begin thinking in new ways and exploring new solutions.

While the VUCA world may seem like a scary and unpredictable thing, preparing a company for any eventuality is a massive opportunity for innovation, learning and change, and it should be treated as such. Promoting agility and preparing for constant change in a big company may weaken control and structure, but it will prime the company for growth and can be a real competitive advantage.

One of the most important ways that knowledge workers can interact with the VUCA world is through constant learning and access to new information and new processes. School-based learning is an essential part of personal development, but allowing employees to learn in action is one of the most important steps toward readiness in a VUCA world. ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN panel moderator Richard Straub (Peter Drucker Society, European Learning Industry Group) argues that the required changes need to be cultural – employees need to be given an environment in which learning (including from failure) is encouraged. Tools and technology are being created to enable this, but there needs to be a big shift in how companies are managed and the ways in which their learning environments are created and nurtured.

ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN will hold a plenary session with expert speakers to discuss learning in the VUCA world and how different-sized businesses from different sectors can grow and evolve. Steve Martin, behavioural influence expert and co-author of the international best-selling book Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion; Jens Hilgers of Geewa Games; Dr Terry Moss of Eskom Holdings and the International Hydropower Association South Africa; Ahmed El-Sobky of Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency; and Edith Lemieux, Head of Air Liquide University, France, will each offer their own insights and experiences with the VUCA world and how they have fostered learning and development amongst employees in their respective businesses whilst promoting innovation and readiness for any eventuality.

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The plenary session Learning in a VUCA world – How Knowledge Workers learn to innovate will take place on Friday, November 30^th from 09:30 to 11:00. For more information, please click here.

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English is a foreign language for 95% of the world’s children. Yet almost all digital literacy tools for young children are written in English. Mobile learning is therefore out of reach for all but those very few children prepared to start learning a foreign language before they have mastered their own. Isabelle Duston, a self-professed “serial entrepreneur” decided to tackle the problem by creating educational applications that will bridge the digital language divide without losing cultural diversity in the learning process. Her iLearn4Free venture is developing apps in several languages for teaching little ones how to read in their native language.

Identifying the niche

When Isabelle Duston’s Apps of All Nations LLC company took off in 2009, she decided to adopt a social entrepreneurship business model for her next venture, the not-for-profit iLearn4Free which she launched eighteen months ago. Its flagship application, M4Read, is still in development and promises to be a colourful interactive tool for 4-6 year olds who are learning to read. Duston had noticed the dearth of suitable mobile phone apps for non-English speakers and deplored the way many young learners were excluded from the mobile learning experience. “Learning to read is a difficult enough process without a child having to grapple with a foreign language,” says Duston. “That’s why we’re developing this app.” Duston is initially working with French, Spanish and English, and she is collaborating with a team at the University of Pretoria to work on at least some of South Africa’s eleven official languages. A Swahili version is in the works, and Duston also hopes to work on Danish, Swedish, Polish and other Eastern European languages. Although plans have been in place to work on a Papiemento M4Read app, that team wish to be paid, so the project has been set aside for the time being. Duston brushes off these setbacks and says, “As an entrepreneur I have to take it in my stride and adapt to the opportunities that do arise.”

Intercultural learning

The app consists of six storylines, available in different languages and featuring, for the sake of emphasising the world’s diversity, a character from a different cultural background. Achieving a universal design for an educational app is not a straightforward matter when contending with different languages, customs and standards. Duston says, “While some people see cultural differences as obstacles to be overcome, I see them as an opportunity for innovation, and on this very project we worked with ten people from

Isabelle Duston

different cultural backgrounds, five different countries in total.”  She found that their online collaboration fostered a trusting, fruitful relationship. The multicultural team brought a universal appeal to the app. The characters in the stories each have their own cultural specificities demonstrated within general themes that appeal to children everywhere: family, friends, animals, nature and, of course, play.

Education

While the young users are kept entertained, the app is actually replete with sound educational content for fostering literacy. Duston says, “We have adopted a global approach in uniting experts from different cultures and in trying to find a common educational ground to ensure that the project is efficient and financially viable. But we have not overlooked the importance of tailoring the content to the user’s linguistic context. We therefore work with reading specialists, linguists, teachers and writers from the specific languages featured.” The material in M4Read is modelled after the “Big Five” focus areas recommended by the (American) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Duston explains, “We have structured M4Read around four key components: Learn, Reward, Stories and Results, with all of this spread across 30-35 units. It depends on the language because the phonemes to be learnt of course differ.” So with instructions on how to sound out letters, some games, exercises, puzzles and stories, the app challenges the young users while keeping them motivated by the rewards and points needed to proceed through the successive units.

Looking ahead

M4Read’s mobile platform makes sense at a time when mobile phone penetration is growing exponentially in developing countries. The application will be available free of charge in developing countries where digital expertise and literacy lag behind the developed countries.  (M4Read will come at a small cost in developed countries). Duston hopes that M4Read will promote linguistic and cultural diversity by leading young learners to literacy in their native language. Her work has already been recognised by a TEDWoman award in 2010 for bringing literacy and intercultural understanding to children across the world.

Isabelle Duston will demonstrate the M4Read app at OEB during her presentation which is entitled Can International Collaboration Be a Tool to Achieve Universal Design for Educational Apps? She will speak on Friday, December 2nd at 14.15 – 16.00.

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After witnessing first-hand the effects of HIV, AIDS and poverty on South African children, Amy Stokes looked at how technology could be used to create a new way for adults around the world to nurture and support Africa’s children. Since its founding in 2006, Infinite Family has set up computer labs in orphanages, after-school programmes and squatter camps, using the Internet to connect almost 500 teens with approximately 300 volunteer mentors from all over the world.

Infinite Family believes that African teens will have a better chance of becoming productive members of their schools, communities and countries when encouraged and supported by a mentor. Weekly video conversations are used to establish enduring relationships between adult mentors and vulnerable teens. Activities include doing homework, learning about career options and sharing personal hobbies and articles of interest through blogging, video chat sessions, a virtual drawing board and photo uploads. This regular communication with their “net buddies” enables mentees to enhance their problem-solving and decision-making skills, improve their literacy, technology and interpersonal skills and be better prepared for employment.

Infinite Family Founder Amy Stokes has been nominated as a CNN Hero of 2011, an award which recognises everyday people changing the world. Having reached the top ten, Amy is hoping to win CNN Hero of the Year which would result in an award of $250,000 for Infinite Family. To vote for Amy, please click here. You may vote up to 10 times per day from each email account, and the deadline is December 7th 2011.

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Launched last year, the Europe 2020 strategy is an intricate ten-year plan to revive employment and stimulate the economy of the European Union. Such a plan requires educational goals that are simultaneously ambitious yet tenable, explains Lieve Van den Brande, a Principal Administrator at the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission. Her focus areas are “ICT for Learning” and the Lifelong Learning Programme. She spoke to Prue Goredema of the ONLINE EDUCA News Service about the educational dimension of the Europe 2020 strategy and how creativity and innovation in classrooms will be essential for the success of Europe 2020.

What is the role of education in meeting the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy? What are the targets of Europe 2020 in relation to education?

Education, training and skills are really crucial areas for development if the goals of Europe 2020 are to be met, and this has become even more important since the financial crisis. For instance, by 2020, at least one third of all the jobs in the EU will require fairly high skills, so we need a significant and sustained investment in training people. Looking at the five benchmarks of the Europe 2020 strategy, we now have an education benchmark set at European level. That benchmark states that by 2020, early school leaving (dropping out before completing compulsory schooling) should be reduced to less than ten per cent. And 40% of the people aged between 30 and 35 years old should have a tertiary education degree.

Is there a strategy to ensure that that these goals are met?

Both benchmarks are being analysed, and implementation measures are being looked into by the [individual] countries, so very soon we will have country recommendations which will be published, showing which countries are committing themselves in order to reach those two benchmarks. As for how effective Education and Training Europe 2020 has been so far, we are still at the [preliminary] stage where we are working with the individual countries to ensure that their country recommendations are leading to that benchmark.

What plans are in place for ensuring that the EU has enough of those high skills noted in the Europe 2020 strategy?

Well, it’s not just about more skills; it’s also about the right mix of skills, a good variety. We need to focus on skills that up until now have been less stressed in education, and this is where we need good communication and the coming together of the world of work (industry) and the world of education which, to date, largely have different discourses. What education is trying to achieve and what industry is trying to achieve don’t always fit. We need to listen to business and industry, telling us that Europe is suffering from a very serious skills shortage in certain sectors, in particular in healthcare, ICTs and several vocations like technicians and carpenters. We also need many more entrepreneurs, and thus entrepreneurship education, creativity and innovation are becoming essential competences which are requested by industry and often called “soft skills”. So to develop these transversal competencies and to ensure that there is variety in the overall skill set, we need better forecasting for future jobs and to find new forms of cooperation between business and training. In bridging the gap between education and stakeholders, we have established higher education-business forums and school-business forums as a way to look at how those two worlds can cooperate better.

The last domain we work on, which is very important, is employee mobility. In the case of true mobility, you are looking at developing skills necessary on a global scale, such as being autonomous, learning languages and developing team-working skills. These are the sorts of skills addressed by the Erasmus and Leonardo programmes. In sum, it is important to keep investing in education and training. It is a shared responsibility between Europe’s members.

Do you see any major challenges to achieving these ends?

Achieving those benchmarks is indeed challenging. For example, the profile of an early school leaver is complex. It’s not only educational problems that are to blame. Social matters influence early school leaving. There is never any one cause, so if a country wants to act, it has to take multiple measures. All the same, attainment is improving, and though that 40% target for tertiary schooling is quite a challenge, it is still not as high as in the United States which is perhaps close to 47%, I think.

Innovation is an important feature of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The last few years have seen a number of promising technological developments for the classroom, but their uptake has often been limited. What is preventing the use of more innovative methods in the classroom, and what can the European Commission do about this?

People recognise that the role of ICT is important, but it’s not yet used widely for daily learning and teaching. In other sectors, like e-government, e-health and e-inclusion, technology has really transformed the sector much more in such a way that new services and new ways of working have developed. This is not the case in education. There is a serious implementation gap in formal education. There have been a number of studies outlining the extent of the problem, for example the Schoolnet study and the EURYDICE survey on the uptake of ICT in schools in Europe. They all describe the seriousness of this implementation gap and the huge difference between the use of ICT by youngsters at home and at school. The difference is really shocking in that at home with their parents, children use ICT extensively and innovatively, but this isn’t the case in the educational setting. It’s not only in primary and secondary schooling; even in higher education ICT use is limited or used only in very traditional ways.

A key problem behind the poor uptake of ICT use is insufficient pedagogical training and teacher professional development. There is not enough focus on the use of ICT to change their teaching practices, so they simply never acquire sound pedagogical strategies to use ICTs in the classroom. With only basic ICT skills, teachers lack confidence and feel that they are underperforming. They may even feel their students are more able than they are.

So you’re saying that the main problem of poor ICT uptake lies in teacher education?

We’ve seen that in the northern countries teachers in primary schools are starting to receive better training, but we need to promote a new pedagogical approach because if you don’t know how to bring it into your teaching practice, you can’t get to the point of uptake. Digital competences are not really part of the curricula at present and don’t appear in the learning outcomes, and if you look to assessment on its own, you don’t find ICT supporting assessment. Surmounting this barrier requires a systematic approach to engage all the actors in education: the school, the parents, the learners, the support people, the head teacher and the teachers. Everyone has to have a view and vision of ICT and how it can enhance teaching and learning. But it must also show up in assessment methods, in professional development, in curricula and in leadership. So you need a whole system approach because if you don’t do that, if you just focus on one barrier, you don’t get there, and that’s maybe why this area has such a huge problem. It is a complex issue.

That gives us a fair understanding of the underlying issues in teacher training, but what practical steps are needed to remedy this? What is the European Commission doing to assist teachers, trainers and policymakers in integrating ICT in education and training?

Empowering Educators for Creative Learning is the title of the ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2011 session where the European Union will launch a new initiative entitled Creative Classrooms / Creative Learning Environments. The second term refers not only to primary and secondary education but all formal learning settings. So we’ll be looking at the diversity of innovative classroom practices all over Europe. One of them, One Laptop Per Child, opens the way for increasing ICT uptake by enabling a child to own a computer for use at home and at school. While policymakers and decision makers have lots of ideas, they don’t necessarily know what works in practice at grassroots level.

Creative Classrooms / Creative Learning Environments will be about dialogue between all stakeholders, using a bottom-up approach for people to share ideas about the strategies being implemented in classrooms across the Continent. We’re focusing on current practices rather than what might be possible in the future.

We also have the Lifelong Learning Programme for education and training, encouraging open coordination between member states. For example, we have new a working group ICT and Education, launched in October 2011, where 24 member states discuss the major barriers, teacher professional development and how to bring better digital competence into the curricula. We’re looking at how each country tackles the issues by discussing what works in practice so that we learn from each other. This working group will ultimately develop an evidence-based policy handbook, so it ties in neatly with the Creative Classrooms initiatives where we look at practical, grassroots approaches for improving education and training.

There is also the Training of the Teacher programme, and under the Lifelong Learning Programme, we have the e-twinning project which promotes bilateral cooperation. It involves about 150 000 teachers learning how others use ICT in the classroom. The final instrument of note is the e-learning portal which is an excellent resource for those seeking information, ideas and access to the many research papers conducted on these important matters of ICTs, education and training towards Europe 2020.

POL26 Empowering Educators for Creative Learning: A European View will be held on Thursday, December 1st at 14.00 – 16.00. Lieve Van den Brande will present a paper entitled EU Policy for ICT in Education: A New Initiative on Creative Classrooms / Creative Learning Environments.

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© Anton Gvozdikov - Fotolia.com

The Technical University Dortmund is designing an e-learning programme for young people that works equally well for apprentices with disabilities. The plan will bring e-learning to apprentices with visual, cognitive, motor and auditory disabilities and others in vocational training in the transport and warehousing sectors of German industry. Barrier-free training will comply with German and international laws and standards. Björn Fisseler, TU Dortmund’s project coordinator for ELoQ – the E-Learning-based Logistics Qualification, will explain at OEB how the team are handling this challenging project.

Today’s learning landscape provides more options than ever – and more challenges. A lot of learning takes place in inBjörn Fisseler explains e-learning promises great advantages for people with disabilities: “Most regular approaches such as textbooks are inflexible. Someone with a print disability might find the font size too small, or the contrast too low. But in a digital programme you just enlarge the font size or change the contrast, or you make the programme read out the text aloud. Those with learning difficulties can be offered additional visualisations of the content or illustrations.”

The EloQ project is developing vocational “e-education” in the logistics and warehousing sector that will cater for all adolescents, with and without handicaps or disabilities. It started in January 2010 and is funded by the European Social Fund and the German Federal Ministry of Edcuation and Research.

The apprentices will gain a qualification in storage logistics, covering fixing goods transport, working in a goods inward department, warehousing, picking and packaging.

Although vocational training in Germany takes place in both vocational schools and industrial firms, apprentices with disabilities are often trained in separate vocational units rather than in the regular system. E-learning for people with disabilities usually matches the needs of single groups.

Universal Accessibility

Before the team in Dortmund can start developing the actual content, extensive preparation is needed. The employment structures, characteristic job-tasks and work-processes of the German storage logistics sector have been analysed with a view to revising current training curricula in this sector.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) and tools for content creation have been evaluated for their universal accessibility. The technical infrastructure is currently being developed.

“This is complicated. Even the best tools will need modifying to meet all the accessibility requirements,” says Björn Fisseler.

The next step is content development, which will need the production of learning materials, teaching aids and educational scenarios for 60 to 90 hours of study. The programme will include text, audio, video elements and interactive exercises.

Universal Design

The teaching concept for this extremely heterogeneous group of apprentices is very ambitious.

But Björn Fisseler, who studied rehabilitation sciences and taught in various special schools in his early career, says, “Our aim is to provide a universal design for learning, on top of universal accessibility. This concept rejects the one-size-fits-all approach where all students use the same material and take part in the same learning activities. Learners have different skills, different backgrounds and different learning styles and preferences, whether they are disabled or not. All this has to be considered.”

Links

www.projekt-eloq.de

www.fk-reha.uni-dortmund.de

At OEB, Björn Fisseler will present ELoQ – Integrating Universal Accessible E-Learning in Vocational Education of Adolescents with Disabilities as part of the session At Risk in the Labour Market which takes place on Friday, December 3rd, from 11:45 – 13:15.

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Lieutenant Tuck Pendleton, played heroically by Dennis Quaid in Joe Dante’s 1987 sci-fi blockbuster “Innerspace”, pilots a miniaturised team in an unforgettable adventure inside a human body. Two decades later, Jan Gejel of the Aarhus Social and Health Care College presents at OEB the BODYexplorer, a new web-based learning game for disadvantaged citizens that takes its players inside a human body to see for themselves the damage done by drug abuse, fast food, idleness and alcohol.

Jan Gejel says BODYexplorer will be the first learning game in Denmark to target disadvantaged citizens. During two years of development his team analysed the gaming market in Europe and discovered there was not a single game offered for lifelong learning by the disadvantaged, the unemployed, the migrants or the young and the ‘bewildered’ of our world.

The plan now is that BODYexplorer, a web-based game environment, will be used in Danish Social and Health Care Colleges, in basic health education, upper primary schools and in adult education by the end of 2011.

It aims to get non-academic young learners interested in the prevention of lifestyle diseases caused by alcohol, drug abuse, fast food and serious lack of physical exercise.

“Learners will be very motivated because they can directly experience the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle on the human body,” says Jan Gejel.

Blending a Web-Based Game with Real Life Activities

Details are still being developed. One option is to present the game as a web series, running for three or four months and adding new plot elements once a week. Alternatively, a more classic concept offering permanent access to the full game might be provided.

“We are very interested in a concept that involves real time and requires real life activities to progress in the game,” Jan Gejel says. “One of the most promising elements is that the game will be embedded in a collaborative web platform through which the learners can play the game as well as discuss its challenges and different solutions.”

Some of these features were used in the Climate Mystery game and in other recent learning games. A game developer in the first generation of learning games is a key partner in the BODYexplorer project.

Another important perspective for the developers of BODYexplorer is to encourage the education sector to give the learners the opportunity to produce, organise and present knowledge in the form of games themselves. Therefore the BODYexplorer project will focus on learners’ access to uncomplicated game tool software, which might be integrated in the collaborative web environment of BODYexplorer.

Linking Commercial Game Producers and the Education Sector

The BODYexplorer project is linked to the promotion of learning games and to a Danish campaign running in 2010 and 2011 called nCOUNTr which aims at bringing together commercial game producers and the education sector.

BODYexplorer will, in its first versions, be financed, produced, implemented and tested in Denmark. But the developing team intends to promote it through the European Lifelong Learning Programme. The final budget of the full game is expected to be around 1 million euro.

Links

The Climate Mystery Game: www.congin.com/eng/cases_climatemystery.htm

The BODYexplorer project has been inspired by the global “Computer Clubhouse Network”, initiated by the MIT Media Lab in Boston: www.computerclubhouse.org

Jan Gejel will present BODYexplorer – Exploiting Computer Gaming and Animation for Interactive Learning for Disadvantaged Learners as part of the session Advanced Technologies and E-Learning for Quality of Life in a Disadvantaged World on Thursday, December 2nd, from 11:45 – 13:00.

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Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh is an extraordinary man, who has built a career as one of the Arab World’s most successful entrepreneurs in the face of adversity and despite overwhelming odds. Since 2009, he has been Chairman of UN GAID (the UN Global Alliance on ICT for Development), and he is passionate about his role in helping the world to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh will be a keynote speaker at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2010. He spoke to Harold Elletson about his life and ambitions.

By Harold Elletson

UN secretary General Ban Ki-Moon could not have found a better person than Abu-Ghazaleh to undertake this gargantuan task. Now 73, he has struggled for most of his life to achieve what would have seemed impossible to others. Forced to leave his home in Palestine in 1948, he settled in Lebanon, where he set his heart on winning a place to study at the prestigious American University in Beirut. It was an almost impossible task for a young Palestinian refugee.

“I owe my education to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency),” he recalls. “I was a refugee in Lebanon. When I wanted to join the American University in Beirut in 1956, there was only one scholarship offered by UNRWA for the top Palestinian student. So, I had to be the top Palestinian student. I earned it, went to University and graduated with distinction.”

Since then, he has never looked back, building his Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation (TAG) into a world-class company, which employs thousands of people in the Arab World and beyond. “I started in Kuwait in 1972, with a one-man office. Today we have 73 offices. The latest is in Kabul in Afghanistan. That shows how the organisation thinks. We always believe there is an advantage in being the first mover. At the moment, we are the only professional services organisation working in Afghanistan.”

TAG’s growth has been remarkable, and it has established itself as the leader in several different sectors. “We started as an accountancy firm in Kuwait. In five years, we became the biggest in the region. We became bigger than any of the big eight in the region. Then we became involved in intellectual property. Within twenty years, we had become the leading intellectual property firm in the world. Then we went into management consulting, IT, legal services and education. Now the group has 28 operating firms, including the largest translating firm in the world.”

Typically, Abu-Ghazaleh spotted the importance of intellectual property and the commercial opportunity associated with it fifty years ago – long before any of his competitors. “I was at a conference in San Francisco, organised by Time Warner when I first heard the expression. I was intrigued. At first we started advising governments on how to devise laws on intellectual property. Now we do a lot of portfolio management and show clients how to enhance the value of their brands and trademarks. The fact that we started as an accountancy firm was a great advantage. Having a financial background meant that we could appreciate the importance of intellectual property as a financial asset. We have been able to help our clients to understand its importance as an asset.”

Abu-Ghazaleh’s activity in the education sector has been no less ambitious and determined. As someone whose own life was transformed by access to knowledge, he is driven by a realisation of the opportunity technology brings to deliver the benefits of high-quality education to a wider audience. The TAG Organisation has recently launched a major new training initiative in the Arab World, the ‘TAG Knowledge Society,’ which aims to help young Arabs to develop new professional qualifications and upgrade their skills. TAG is creating a network of ‘one-stop shops,’ which are a combination of free internet cafe, business centre, stationery shop, classroom and digital library.

“We have tutors,” he says “who enhance students’ use of the internet and teach languages, for example, or how to sit for an interview. Because of limited resources or delays in introducing new technologies at their schools, the students can use our new technologies. We keep them updated. There are recruitment officers for job opportunities. The centres are a knowledge oasis. The students call them a ‘knowledge paradise.’ We get the top students in the region – those who know the value of knowledge.”

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh brings both his strong belief in the transforming power of education and his innovative management approach to his new role as Chairman of UN GAID. Originally a member of the United Nations taskforce on the use of ICT for Development, he succeeded Craig Barret, the CEO of Intel, as Chairman of UN GAID. “GAID is a multi-stakeholder agency, not just a UN agency,” he points out, “but it is under the umbrella of the UN and supported by them.”

Ban Ki-Moon had given GAID the task of focussing on issues relating to ICT for Development. From the outset, Abu-Ghazaleh was determined to use GAID to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Progress towards the MDGs had been mixed and he developed a “very ambitious programme”, which the Secretary General endorsed in April this year.

Abu-Ghazaleh has taken a typically innovative approach and GAID has created a new tool to help developing countries play their part in reaching the Millennium Development Goals. “Reports are useful. Studies are useful. But what we have is a hands-on implementation tool.”

The implementation tool is the ‘MDG Enabler,’ which GAID has developed with help from companies, including Microsoft, Intel and Ericsson and the enthusiastic support of academia and many governments. The response of developing countries has been very positive, with the UN representative of one African country describing it as “long overdue.”

Abu-Ghazaleh realised that, in focussing too much in the past on issues, such as ‘connectivity’ or ‘access,’ there had been some duplication of effort by UN GAID. There was no need to replicate the work of other organisations, such as the ITU. Instead of competing with other agencies, GAID had to focus on one thing, which was not being done by anyone else. He became convinced that what was urgently needed was a centre in cyber space, where countries could choose implementation tools and strategies and have access to virtual consultations from leading experts.

“It has been a beautiful exercise,” he says. “Developed and developing countries have been working together for the sake of the developing world in order to put resources into the engine.” He describes the end product – the MDG Enabler – as being “like a GPS in a car. You must have a car and a driver. But the GPS gets you there. The MDG Enabler gets you there.” Now the Kingdom of Bahrain has offered to host a virtual centre from which advice, help and consultancy can be provided to help countries to meet their Millennium Development targets.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh’s efforts and enthusiasm have not gone without recognition. He was decorated by King Hussein of Jordan and by the President of Tunisia and has received a Gold Mercury International Award, as well as honorary degrees and doctorates. As a great admirer of France, however, he is proudest of the award of Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, which was presented to him in 1985.

Despite his success, there is still an air of regret about him, though. At its root lies his concern for the land that he was forced to leave back in 1948. He is understandably uncompromising in his attitude towards recent events in Palestine. “There is an occupation and the occupation has to end,” he says. “There is no peace process. It is a misnomer. There are UN resolutions and they have to be implemented. The occupiers have become more intransigent and more aggressive than ever. They are demolishing more homes and villages. They have killed 2,000 people in Gaza. The world comes up with polite and modest statements but nothing is done. There are two million people in gaol in Gaza and the whole world is watching. The whole world is silent.”

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh has never forgotten his origins and is immensely proud to be both an Arab and a Palestinian. He has long campaigned for the “Arabisation” of the Internet and, before the end of the year, he will launch TAGITOP, the Arab World’s first regionally based laptop. A state-of-the art product with a named account from Microsoft, it will adapt to the needs of the region and pre-load programmes for schools and the business community.

At the same time, he is actively involved in capacity building initiatives in Palestine. His organisation has played a part in helping to boost computer literacy and he is proud of what his people have achieved, despite their circumstances. “Basic literacy for people between the ages of 15 and 30 is 95 per cent. And Internet literacy is at the top of Internet literacy levels for the region. One of the highest Internet literacy standards in the world is in Palestine – in spite of the occupation and the unbearable life there.”

The TAG organisation has been working closely with UNRWA on projects in Palestinian refugee camps, involving the refurbishment of computers and the development of skills. It has not been easy but it is a part of what Abu-Ghazaleh sees as his duty towards the Palestinians and others in the Arab World. “I have learnt to work with agencies and international organisations,” he says. “You can get things done if you want to.”

It is a characteristically positive view of life, which belies the many difficulties he has had to overcome. “My life has always been a blessing of suffering,” he says. “I tell my grandchildren – don’t think of suffering as hardship. Think of it as a blessing.”

Only time will tell if the suffering of his homeland has been a blessing too. He remains optimistic. “Every occupation in history has ended,” he says.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh will deliver his keynote speech in the opening plenary of ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2010 on Thursday, December 2, 09:00 – 11:00.

Dr Harold Elletson is the Chairman of the New Security Foundation and a former Member of the United Kingdom Parliament.

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© ST.Art

“The first thing I drew was a clear political declaration against the people living in my street. I could finally have a voice without having to shout out loud,” Ricco explains. “This is why graffiti is not violence and at the same time it can mediate the will to communicate that usually gets confused with teenage violence and the feeling of not belonging.”

Street Art as a form of communication of young people in urban communities is the subject of ST.ART, a European initiative by the University “Giulielmo Marconi” of Rome. Together with several partners, a team around Dr Ilaria Mascitti and Jenny Petrucci have developed a virtual learning environment and an open simulation environment where students from five schools can try out forms of street art in a simulated life-like world. “We wanted to combine young people’s fascination for the Internet and social media with teaching about street art forms,” Petrucci explains the inspiration behind ST.ART.

The aim is to let the young adults experience the difference between aesthetic and street art forms, graffiti and vandalism, a distinction which is often not easy to make. “All street artists come from vandalism as a process of personal growth,” Ricco confirms, who also participated in a street art project of the Centocelle neighbourhood in Rome.

Young people’s sense of common ground and interests within their communities can be strengthened and supported by projects such as ST.ART, according to project manager Petrucci. “Through using the ST.ART eCourses, students can enhance their critical thinking about street art. At the same time they acquire transversal skills such as digital, social and civic competencies.”

“We are also aiming at the teachers who can increase their knowledge of new art trends, in particular they also can work on their possible prejudices against street art” she adds.

Ricco taught kids in the dull Roman suburb Centocelle how to use spray and colours to draw and express themselves. At the end of the project lab, each student was able to present their own drawing. They also drew a collective graffiti. “In this way we wanted to spread the idea that each of us is an artist as well as a vandal but at the end of the day being an artist is much more fun!” he smiles.

The ST.ART project website www.startproject.eu.

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