Tuesday, 11 December 2012

DOHA: As part of its Ethraa initiative to increase and enrich Arabic content online, Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) has partnered with Taghreedat, an Arabic digital content community initiative, to organise an 'Arabic YouTube Tweetup'. 

The event will highlight video creation as an important driver of digital content. It has been arranged as part of Google's Arabic Web Days programme, which runs from November 20 to December 20, to encourage Arabic contribution online.

"Studies and experience have shown that there is a disproportionately low amount of digital Arabic content, when compared to other languages, given the large number of Arabic speakers worldwide," said Majd Abbar, Director of Arabic Content Initiatives at QCRI. 

"At QCRI, our Ethraa initiative aims to close this gap through organising and supporting programmes designed to increase and enrich relevant Arabic language content on the web. To help us with this effort, we look to join forces with organisations that have the same objective such as Taghreedat and Google, who aim to raise awareness about Arabic online contribution."

Taghreedat initiated the first 'Arabic Tweetup' in 2011, which brought together hundreds of enthusiasts and volunteers from around the region to launch the 'Twitter Arabization Project' as a crowd-sourcing community initiative.

"We look forward to this year's tweetup, organised in partnership with QCRI, as an important opportunity to share key international best practices in Arabic digital content production," said Samy Al Mubarak, co-founder of Taghreedat.

Arab youth have embraced YouTube as an increasingly important channel for self-expression and insightful video content. Amateur film-makers have maximised opportunities to articulate their views through animation, documentary and comedy. 

The short film 'Super.Full' followed by an open discussion with film-maker Niam Itani will be held at the tweetup.

The tweetup, to be held on December 15 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at the Qatar National Convention Centre, is free and open to the public. To register follow @QatarComputing or @Taghreedat on Twitter, or visit http://youtubetweetup.eventbrite.com

© The Peninsula 2012