U.S., Iraqi Partners Explore Potential
Washington - When officials of several leading U.S. technology companies visited Iraq in April 2009, they discovered that computer Internet access was limited and expensive, but cell phones had become ubiquitous.
Their conclusion: expand the use of these mobile devices and their applications to empower and connect people, launch businesses and make the Iraqi government more accessible and transparent.
The delegation is one element in a broad public-private partnership with Iraq to explore the potential of new information technologies for the country's development.
Following the delegation's trip, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton established the Iraq Technology Task Force - part of a broad set of initiatives called Civil Society 2.0, which uses new Internet and communications technologies to deepen America's engagement with civil society in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
"This organized effort will provide new technologies to civil society organizations," Secretary Clinton said ( http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/November/20091103083709bpuh0.9118311.html ) at the Forum for the Future, held in Marrakech, Morocco, on November 3. "We will send experts in digital technology and communications to help build capacity."
That same month, Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of the Internet giant Google, met with Iraqi government and university officials as well as computer-science students. He announced new technology initiatives involving the Iraq National Museum and YouTube.
Clinton has also announced a program to place Iraqi interns in U.S. technology firms, where they can learn the skills needed to transform entrepreneurial ideas into business realities.
In January, a first group of six Iraqi interns began 12-week internships with major U.S. information-technology firms.
"The program is huge opportunity to enhance the digital world in Iraq and to open the door for private investment," said Sadeq Shnaishel, who will work as a computer programmer with the telecommunications firm AT&T in St. Louis.
MOBILE EMPOWERMENT
"There were almost no mobile phones a few years ago, and now there are 10 million users or more," observed Jason Liebman, founder and chief executive officer of Howcast, during the delegation's first visit in April 2009. Howcast produces online instructional videos than can be distributed and shared through mobile devices.
"We heard that only 5 percent of Iraqis have Internet access at their homes. However, mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous," said Richard Robbins, director of social innovation at AT&T.
Along with AT&T and technology experts from Google, the delegation members represented the social networking companies Twitter (mobile messaging service), YouTube (online video sharing), Automattic/Wordpress (blogging), MeetUp (community organization) and Blue State Digital (Internet advocacy), along with Wired magazine, which covers digital technology.
Despite Iraq's limited infrastructure, the U.S. delegation agreed that mobile technologies offer a promising avenue for Iraq's public and private sectors to explore.
"Since coming back from the trip, I'm even more convinced that the combination of empowering individuals through platforms such as blogging and opening up the process of government is ultimately going to have a very positive impact on Iraq," said Raanan Bar-Cohen of Automattic/WordPress.
One of the delegation's first tangible accomplishments was convincing the prime minister of the Kurdistan region, Barham Salih, to join Twitter, where he since has been providing daily updates, or tweets. (Salih's postings can be found at http://twitter.com/BarhamSalih.)
"He's making the government a lot more human and approachable," said Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter.
On his November 2009 trip to Iraq, Google's Schmidt told his audiences that when individuals connect an institution like an urban university - with thousands of students, classrooms and coffee shops - they create a self-perpetuating "virtuous cycle."
The cycle can begin when someone starts a business using readily available Internet tools, Schmidt said, and is perpetuated when others join as the benefits become apparent.
SOCIAL NETWORKS
The same pattern holds for networks that form around shared interests in communities, culture, social issues or politics.
Effective use of new media tools can be as simple as searching Facebook or another social networking site by issue, country or mutual interest. People then begin inviting one another to join online groups, use live chat or share videos and information.
Facebook and Twitter were begun as sites for social and personal interaction. Today, however, these networks - whether interactive Web sites, online blogs, or cell phone texting - are empowering youth and citizen groups around the world in unexpected and powerful ways.
Howcast.com, for example, offers short videos on such topics as arranging flowers, cooking an omelet or doing the moonwalk dance step. But you can also learn how to use new media to organize a civic group online, hold a virtual town meeting or raise funds for a cause using mobile phones and the Internet.
Two riveting examples of the impact of mobile technology and social networks are the recent political protests in Iran and Moldova, which were largely organized and coordinated using basic tools including cell phones, Facebook and Twitter.
New media can contribute in less dramatic ways as well. On his personal blog, Bar-Cohen said Iraq has thousands of highly educated computer students with limited job prospects, many of whom are waiting and hoping to land government jobs.
Instead, he suggested, they could work with open-source Internet applications, blog online, and begin "to make a name for themselves." Then, they could start bidding for the thousands of online projects looking for contractors whose physical location is unimportant.
MUSEUMS AND YOUTUBE
In Iraq, Schmidt announced the launch of a Google project to create digital images of more than 14,000 artifacts from the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad. The result will be an electronic catalog where objects in the museum's unparalleled Mesopotamian collections can be viewed online from different angles and resolutions.
Google also partnered with the government in launching the first official Iraqi YouTube channel, designed to create more openness and help connect the government to its citizens. (The Web site is www.youtube.com/Iraqigov ( http://www.youtube.com/Iraqigov ).)
"We'll discover even more what's great about Iraq, this new country being built, the resurgence of a new society," Schmidt said in a YouTube message.
Liebman of Howcast sees a world of opportunity for Iraq, like other developing countries, in using mobile technologies for such activities as teaching classes, banking and making electronic salary payments to reduce corruption.
"This is definitely a country with a thirst for information and information sharing - and mobile will be a key for so many of the things the Iraqi people want to do," he said.
For more information, see the following Web sites:
YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/ ) and YouTube Handbook ( http://www.youtube.com/t/yt_handbook_home )
Twitter ( http://twitter.com/ ) and Twitter Blog ( http://blog.twitter.com/ )
Howcast ( http://www.howcast.com/ )
Baghdad Museum Project ( http://www.baghdadmuseum.org/index2.htm )
Google ( http://www.google.com/about.html )
WordPress ( http://wordpress.com/ )
Automattic ( http://automattic.com/ )
Meetup ( http://www.meetup.com/ )
Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/ ) and Facebook Blog ( http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php )
Blue State Digital ( http://www.bluestatedigital.com/content/index/?gclid=CIWnp82v0Z4CFQ_xDAodcwNRrA )
AT&T Wireless ( http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/welcome/index.jsp )
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