The awards organized by the Middle East Excellence Awards Institute, to highlight the best examples of ICT planning and implementation by business and government organizations from the Middle East.
Read more: Winners of 11th Middle East ICT Excellence Awards announced
In a major technology investment, the Dubai Municipality is to roll out 27 next generation on-line services over the coming six months following its $4.6m contract with IBM to develop an SOA (Service Oriented Architecture).
Pervasive computing and communication has become essential to conduct our daily affairs. However, a considerable portion of individuals do not have access to these technologies. This is referred to as “The Digital Divide”. This problem is growing to become quite serious on a global level, especially, in the Arab world. According to 2005 projections, the average Internet usage rate in Africa is only 1.8%. This rate is roughly 8.3% in the Middle East and 14.6% for the whole world. Probably, this digital gap may create a new kind of poverty, “knowledge poverty”.
A cornerstone of these policies has to be effective authentication solutions, to ensure that only approved individuals have access to information and to reduce the threat of identity theft.
Read more: Middle East: Concerns over identity theft drive demand for authentication services
With developed countries forging ahead and the Middle East generally lagging in information and communications technology, there is a danger that the growing “digital divide” could hinder economic development, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
“The size and scale of the potential benefits foregone through failure to participate in the new ‘digital society’ are likely to be much greater” even than those missed in previous technological leaps, UNCTAD argues, in trying to help international and state policy-makers focus on the issue.
Read more: Middle East: Focus on contrasting fortunes with the “digital divide”