Written By Lina Ejeilat

It was one year ago, on Jordan’s Independence Day, that we officially launched 7iber dot Com. Many a time in the past year, we stopped to look at what it is we were trying to do and how well ideas were translated into actions and results. That’s an ongoing process. But given the way we humans like to give certain significance to “breaking points” on a timeline, this one-year anniversary is a good chance to share some questions and reflections.

What is 7iber?

We often tell people that it’s an experiment with “citizen journalism”. We say we want to offer an alternative source of local news and insights, building on the power and authenticity of blogs, and combining that with journalism standards that ensure credibility,...

Written By Dean Peters The Jordan Times is reporting that Fawwaz Khreisha of the Department of Antiquities, Samer Majali of Royal Jordanian and others have called into question the latest Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR ) publish by the World Economic Forum (WEF); a document that asserts Jordan's global rank among 130 countries dropped seven places from 46 to 53 last year. After reading the specifics of the report myself, I tend to agree with the fromer - the WEF/TTCR metrics do not measure-up. Beginning with and citing section 2.1 of the document "Country/Economy Profile for Jordan," on page 216, the 14 pillars indicate competitive advantage and the competitive disadvantage. While I won't go into detail on all the indicators, I will mention a few that are marked as disadvantageous that cause me to want more information on how they came to be considered as such: 4th Pillar - Health...

As promised earlier today, this is a video of the INJAZ booth in the workspace session, with Soraya Salti and an Egyptian student from the 2nd Company of the Year Competition that took place in Oman earlier this month. INJAZ is probably one of the more impressive business models presented in the workspace today, however, every organization had its own niche to fulfill, with INJAZ's being education and developing entrepreneurship. You can find out more about the organization here. ...

There is perhaps nothing as invigorating for me personally than seeing Fadi Ghandour talk about corporate social responsibility, and government responsibilities. Many of the words are ones he's consistently repeated but each time they feel injected with a new sense of passion than before. CSR is not simply about companies "doing good" or even attempting to brand themselves as "being good", but - as Ghandour made a point of saying during the first plenary session of the day that questioned whether Arab businesses really care - CSR is an investment, or should be seen as an investment by companies. Essentially, companies are investing in something, such as education, where they expect to see a return on that investment. It's a good "businessey" way to put it in my opinion, especially with CSR being so new in the region and many companies looking at it from a very Public...

Reviewing Bush's speech from earlier on, I have to say, it was probably one of the most hypocritical speeches I've heard in a while. He switched between talking about establishing a Palestinian state before the end of his term, something which one participant later discredited as fantasy in the following session, and then talked about women's rights in the region. I couldn't see the exact connection and I think it fell flat on most people as well. Here's an interesting excerpt:

"We must stand with the people of Lebanon in their struggle to build a sovereign and independent democracy. This means opposing Hezbollah terrorists, funded by Iran, who recently revealed their true intentions by taking up arms against the Lebanese people. It is now clearer than ever that Hezbollah militias are the enemy of a free Lebanon -- and all nations, especially neighbors in the region, have an interest to...