The Jordanian capital, Amman, has recently hosted the activities of the 1st Arab Social Media Forum during December 2010. This Event, which is a first of its kind in the region, is deemed a pioneer in building successful social networks and interactive Arabian beacons.

This status is achieved by focusing on all aspects of digital media, supporting and developing them and expanding the arms of social media in the Middle East in terms of communication, e-commerce, business development or in non-profit organizations. The Forum also targets companies and Arab organizations specialized in the information technology sector by tackling how they can deal with such networks and the youth working in this sector.

In his inauguration of the forum, His Excellency, Mr. Marwan Juma, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, pointed out the Ministry's strategy that aims to increase internet penetration to 50% by the end of 2011.

"The Involvement of the private sector is critical in increasing internet coverage in the Kingdom," said His Excellency, Mr. Marwan Juma. "The government is working on spreading 'internet culture' through knowledge stations all around the kingdom."

He also stressed the government's goal in accelerating the establishment of a national network that encompasses the whole Kingdom.

From his side, Mr. Rashid Al-Ballaa, CEO of National Net Venture, commented, "Forums are a popular social communication medium in the Arab world and have become an interactive communication bridge that offers easy integration with services offered by most social networks. Forums go with our Arab culture as they are based on community interaction; they are also unique from other social networks due to their flexibility in dealing with search engines and possibility of longer interaction durations."

Al-Ballaa also compared the spread of social networks on both the global and local levels, where some sites have spread more on the global level such as Facebook, Twitter and others, while they were unable to attract a large number of Arab users. This is simply due to the fact that the percentage of Arabic-speakers using English websites in the Middle East is a mere 2% - a low percentage by any standard.

Al-Ballaa also emphasized the importance of such a forum in shedding the light on challenges that stand in the face of social network users in the region, which will in turn enable us to overcome them in the future. Moreover, the Forum emphasizes the necessity of supporting such media forces and companies working in the innovative social media field, so we may keep up with the modern technologies on the World Wide Web.

Mr. Malik Shishtawi, the Founder and General Director of the 1st Arab Social Media Forum, expressed, "The Forum focuses on the topics of digital community media in a wider and more specific manner for the listener and target Arab user on those networks. We have noticed that many events and conferences centering on technology view social media in a small, narrow light. Consequently, we have tried to give it the discussion space it needs with this forum."

The sponsorship of National Net Venture comes in line with its goals to develop leading global internet companies and providing the infrastructure, resources and tools for their success, in addition to accelerating the internet industry in the Arab world. The participants that include both keynote speakers and audience participants from the United States of America, United Kingdom, Sweden, France, United Arab Emirates and The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, hundreds of youth working in the social media, and 500 representatives of the business and private organizations and media on the internet, discussed the current status of social media in the region, its pressing concerns and challenges related to information technology in specialized sessions.

National Net Venture line of work is that of developing global internet companies and encompasses major companies such as Hawaa World, Net Advantage, OneCard, the Egypt Center for Web Development and other companies and websites. The Group belongs to the National Technology Group (NTG), the leading group in the field of information technology and communications.