Before I start my latest blog, I apologize for leaving for so long but truthfully I didn’t want to write unless I had something to write about. Due to some personal reasons I had to miss the few documentaries that ran on television this month about homosexuality in Lebanon, however I finally got them downloaded on my computer recently and I am currently watching Tahkik.

Let’s start with where I’m at right now, I am only halfway through Tahkik and I already feel a little upset and even amused by the show. To those who thought it was good, I agree and disagree, Luckily they did show a good side of us, but they still had some faults in their show. Because it is showing one single side of our story. To them, homosexuality is a psychological case even when Homosexuality’s been removed from the list of mental illnesses in the early 70s; and also according to them,  the tendancy to become a homosexual can be caused by a bad childhood – excuse me but I’ve lead a perfect childhood and up until my father and brother died a couple of years ago I had no reasons to cry, but by that time, I already knew I was bisexual and I even had a girlfriend, and I am not the only woman or man who would say the same thing. What had me even more furious is their dress up party, first off all, halloween or not, but Lesbians do not look like they’re out of an anime, and not every gay man wears make up and eyeliner (in fact, Lebanese gay men rarely ever do). Second off, not all of us go to gay bars, or the usual midnight hangouts, in fact, I have never been to either and I wouldn’t go.

Now, I have an important thing to add to the psychologist, to Sam and the young lesbian who spoke at the end of the show as well. Marriage, Sam mentioned marriage and the psychologist called it a fantasy, I’d like to correct her, it is not a fantasy, not when there are ten countries with legalized same-sex marriage (Argentina, Norway, Belgium, Portugal, Canada, South Africa, Iceland, Spain, Netherlands and Sweden.), six states (CT, DC, IA, MA, NH and VT) and Mexico City. Any human who wants to get married, whether it is a heterosexual marriage or a gay marriage can have one, so no Doctor, it is not a fantasy, and Sam (and the young anonymous Lesbian) you CAN get married, just find the right guy (and girl) and go to one of these places; I found the right girl, I’m planning to do that eitherway when I save up enough money.

Now moving onto the transexual part of the episode, to the young transexual talking about her life, I say you did a good thing insisting on being who you are, you’re courageous for having to live on nothing due to finacial reasons, you’ve done a wonderful job being yourself and I know that you’re happy as you are not as others want you to be, so thumbs up for that. However to the doctor, pampering your child won’t make them gay or want to be a girl, it’s called motherhood, check your dictionary.

Now that my episode’s done and I’ve finally finished all three documentaries, I can tell you that I truly don’t have that much to say. Zaven’s episode of Sire we nfata7it is a disgrace, the title is only to get attention because otherwise it has nothing to do with us. Ta7kik is well done, mostly when it comes to testimonies by homosexuals but otherwise, the opinions of these doctors aren’t quite so good because most of them only show us as psychologically ill, there are no contradicting thoughts there. I’d like to say that my personal favorite is ta7ta ta2ilat el mas2ouliya, not only because it is well done, but it shows both the homophobic and anti-homophobic side in this country, it shows us, and people who don’t like us and it speaks the truth about both, leaving every homophobic wondering whether they’re right to hate us or not. But I’d also like to add that the only reason WE are getting treated the way we are, isn’t because of our sexuality, it is because of the huge lack of education in Lebanon. I do not mean that we’re still at a stage where some people don’t go to schools (though we sadly do have that in lebanon) but we’re surrounded by people whom not only are afraid of what they don’t know, but they’re also not willing to learn what they don’t know about. You don’t see any straight guy or girl going online and looking up information about us, they simply sit back and assume we’re “ill” that’s the sadness of our situation, we are surrounded by quite a lot of people who don’t like using their brains at all.

It is refreshing to read positive and supportive articles by Lebanese media about LGBT issues. It is time our media starts dealing with the LGBT people as just another diverse Lebanese reality rather than a “phenomena” or a “weird” story that will make the headlines and increase the media portal’s audience and viewers. It is time our media realizes the great harm it inflicts on LGBT individuals when it propagates lies and incites hatred. It is time we tell our media that we will not stand idle or stay silent in the face of any insults, discrimination or defamation. We should actively back-up LGBT-supportive media to prove that portrayal of the truth, attaining justice, and respecting all human rights also “sell” in Lebanon.

Raynbow Monitor started the  “Homophobes Hall of Shame and Homophiles Hall of Fame” project to categorize Lebanese media figures and celebrities based on documented statements, positions or work. You can always suggest new candidates for this project by writing us at raynbow.org@gmail.com

Here is a scanned copy of the TimeOUT Beirut article. Credits go to Beirut Boy Blog

On October 18, 2010, two shows about “Homosexuality in Lebanon” ran on two Lebanese TV stations at the same time. Al-Jadeed (New) TV (NTV) presented episode 1 of “Mithly Mithlak” documentary by Riad Kobeissy. On Future TV (FTV), “The Homosexual Crime” aired as part of by Zaven Kouyoumdjian’s talk show “Sireh wou Infata7it“.

Episode 2 of “Mithly Mithlak” aired a week later on October 25, 2010.

The two shows received significant attention on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other media. Here is a quick list of social and written media reactions:

• Al-Akhbar writes: المثلية الجنسية: أول وثائقي لبناني يكسر الصمت Arabic for “Homosexuality, first Lebanese documentary breaks the silence”
• Myra Abdalla writes for Lebanese LGBT Media Monitor: الجديد” إعلامياً، و-”المستقبل” إلى أين؟ Arabic for “NTV is professional, where is FTV heading?”
• Beirut Boy Blog writes: “Zaven thinks he is breaking gay stereotypes“
• Gender across Borders, a global feminist blog writes: “Lebanese TV Shows Address Homosexuality (or: Is All Representation Good Representation?“
• Bekhsoos used a different approach and before they contributed to the discussion, they asked their readers what they thought of the two shows under Fesheh Khel’ik section. Check out what people thought.
• Raynbow Media provided a summary of most relevant tweets about episode 2 of “Mithli Mithlak”: “Live Twitter stream from Mithli Mithlak on NTV Oct 25 2010“. This same blog post includes links to episode 1 of “Mithli Mithlak”.
• Lebanese LGBT Media Monitor called on the community to live stream the show’s content on their Facebook wall. Brief updates were streamed live from the Future TV talk show.
• After the Future TV episode, Zaven Kouyoumdjian’s Facebook page was flooded with comments from agree fans. Lebanese LGBT Media Monitor saved snapshots of few comments here 1, 2, 3.
• All these reactions were nicely summarized in Katharine Ganly‘s “Lebanon: TV Shows on Homosexuality Create Buzz“.
• Meem group, a support group for Lebanese LBTQ, reported on this recent media mania in their own way with a sense of humor. Watch their video “Al-Shazoun” (Arabic for “perverts”) cleverly produced as a trailer for a horror movie, suitably released on Halloween (3 days ago) on Meem Group YouTube Channel. The video was featured yesterday in Bekhsoos, Queer Arab Weekly.

Today, MTV Lebanon will be hosting yet another talk show about homosexuality in Lebanon. “Tahkik” by Claude Hind will air at 10 PM (Beirut time). Make sure to watch it on TV or Live Online and contribute to the discussion.

We will be monitoring and actively streaming the content of that episode live to you via our Facebook page and Twitter. Stay tuned.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that this media mania is not rare. As we write about these current episodes it is worth reminiscing on previous TV spots made popular by how homophobic they were. Check out “Top 5 Worst TV Shows on Homosexuality” published in January 2010.

By Raynbow Founder,

He would have been one of the first to bring one of these amazing inventions into the UK, had our boys in Customs not sadly confiscated it on his way through Heathrow for unspecified reasons.

After this two-week excursion to ‘Japan’, he never fully explained to us why he had a suntan of the type one might get from, say, a package holiday to Lanzarote.

The same lad’s dad had been in the SAS or some other crack army unit – he swore blind he’d seen a sniper rifle and numerous pairs of nunchucks in his dad’s wardrobe. When his parents were out one day and I asked if we could have a look, I was informed that his dad had put an alarm on it that would phone him at work.

———–

Then there was my friend Colm – he knew a kid who had an earthquake detector built into his watch. Which was wasted in Hertfordshire really. The same kid’s dad actually did write the Superted theme, rather amazingly. (this was verified)

————

In something like 1986, one of those mates you have whose parents never let you go in their house informed me that he had a TV where you could basically type in the name of a show you wanted to see and it would come on. You could also type in things like ‘cow’ and a cow would appear onscreen. Or ‘sex’ and sex would happen.

So, he basically invented the internet. No matter how much we pleaded to be let in to see this marvel of technology, sadly we never once got a glimpse.

(thanks to Rob Hyde)

According to Nielsen Media Research in the last quarter of 2009, simultaneous use of the Internet while watching TV reached three and a half hours a month, up 35% from the previous quarter. Nearly 60% of TV viewers now use the Internet once a month while also watching TV. Also, the research shows that Americans watch TV online when they miss an episode or when a TV is not available.

As a result of this media convergence, Bruce Evensen, the Director of the Journalism program at DePaul University, sees these “convenient handy touch tone screens that provide people even with digital television. Instead of having to wait for radio programming to go on, with Pandora and some other technologies I create and design my own radio stations. So everything is moving in the direction of convenience and portability. We no longer wait for content, content waits for us.”

On the other hand, Graham Kostic, fashion editor of The Chicago Social and Creative Director and Host of a web based fashion show Glossed and Found is still not quite sure if the Web has established itself as a responsible media. “The downside of web-based media programming is quality control: anyone can produce and post to a site. Before TV and Web-based programming becomes interchangeable, I think there will need to be a more cohesive style guide that would allow web projects to transition from on-line to TV set.”

According to Sam Stephenson, web based software developer for the company 37 signals, web and TV convergence has already happened. “Digital video recorders, Blu-Ray players, video game consoles, and set-top boxes like Apple TV are all made of the same things as our desktop and laptop computers. The only difference is that we use a remote control to interact with them instead of a keyboard and mouse.”

Glossed and Found is entirely web based show.

A research conducted by Erik Qualman gives some facts that explain the rapid development of the Web as a major source of information. According to the data provided by Qualman, it took 13 years for the TV to reach 50 million people, while Internet needed only 4 years. Today 70% of 18-to 34 year olds have already watched TV on the web and 47% of broadcast TV viewers say they would pay for ad-less programming. This shows that people are already watching TV on the web and are ready to pay for it, because in the future television model there is no such thing like prime time, there is only my time.

Today more and more people get their news from the internet or other mobile devices. In order to keep in touch with its audience, traditional media outlets, such as radio and TV stations started to import most of the content on their websites. Furthermore, most major American media created their own mobile applications as an attempt to reach people wherever they are.

However, it is not only about news content but all kinds of content. For instance a major sports event like the US Open in Aug. 2009 was the perfect example of how what used to be television content can be placed on the internet. The online coverage of the first day of the US Open set the standards for how a big event should be presented on the web. People had the option to choose which game to watch out of all the games that were taking place at that moment while a regular TV channel chose one game to broadcast, because it doesn’t have the resource to show several games at the same time, or they switched in between the games, in order to keep everybody happy.

It is the same situation with entertainment television content. On Jan. 28, 2001, the first episode of Survivor : The Australian Outback was the forth most watched TV event in the American TV history. Only nine years later, you can still watch Survivor on CBS, but you can also watch every episode on the Web because with the decrease of the ratings CBS decided two years ago to move most of their content on their web site as well.

Apart from interactivity the web has other advantages. For Graham Kostic the biggest difference in producing TV and Web content is the way you can redesign it all the time. “With Glossed & Found, I have the ability to showcase our content in different ways from week to week since there is some flexibility with how I show material. For instance, if we shoot a webisode that is not particularly captivating, I can easily re-edit it, re-package it and place it on a different part of the site where it makes sense. I don’t think you have the same flexibility with TV. “

Another big advantage of producing web based content is the price. It is a lot cheaper and easier to produce video content for the web. First, you don’t need a producer or big funding if you want to create a piece by yourself. As Graham Kostic says “Websites allow for massive amounts of creativity. If you can dream it and you have the resources and talent to produce it, you can make it happen. It’s a great platform for people who do not have huge funding behind them as the overhead costs are very low to start.”

Bruce Evensen explains the evolution of new media through major news events. “If you look at major news events in world history, hurricane Katrina, the Virginia tech shootings, the Tsunamis in Asia, you see bit by bit, the web increasingly playing more and more central role in reporting these events. Since 9/11, with every major news event we have had over the last ten years, we have seen increasingly that new media is moving more to the center of how people create community and talk about major events.”

In 2005, when YouTube was launched it was considered a revolution. We already had On Demand Television, but YouTube allowed people not only to choose what they want to watch, but also to upload videos themselves. Today, YouTube makes the existence of Music TV channels pointless and unnecessary.

Very soon YouTube and iTunes will also lead to the downfall of movie rental companies like Netflix.  With the beginning of 2010 YouTube announced that it will allow users to rent five different movies from the Sundance Film Festival using their Google Checkout accounts. There are also rumors that YouTube is already negotiating with major movie studios for streaming movies as content on their site. Meanwhile, iTunes has very quickly evolved into one of the most used internet store, providing movies, TV shows, music and mobile applications.

Does this mean that the future of TV is not on TV?  Bruce Evensen thinks that the first experiments of new media will not be in the USA. “In other places the transformation of media is taking place more rapidly than in the United States. Britain for many years has had these technologies of the internet on one hand and their television screen on the other, being together.”

Britain’s Project YouView is considered to be one of the major revolutions in the evolution of television. This is a project aiming to create on—demand service for television sets through Internet connected set-top box. The project is a partnership between the United Kingdom’s broadcasters BBC, Channel 4, ITV plc, Five and the communication companies BT and Talk Talk. A set-top box is a device that can be connected to a television set and another external source of signal (Internet) and transmits the signal as content on the TV screen. The first set-top boxes are expected to go on sale around Christmas of 2010.

On Nov. 2009 Robert Tercek, President of Digital Media for The Oprah Winfrey Network, participated in the Future of Television Forum East. There he said, “From the plasma screen in your media room, to the portable device in your pocket, to the side of a high-rise in Manhattan, savvy broadcasters are creating comprehensive ‘ecosystems’ for rich media content with multiple consumer touch-points and immerse interactivity, blending television, web, movies and gaming to redefine the experience of television now and for the next generation.”

Furthermore, after the Forum, Tercek has said in an interview for digital media wire that the Oprah Winfrey network will take advantage of all interactive features and will be a television as a two way distribution. Expected to launch in 2011 may be The Oprah Winfrey Network will be the first American Television of a new kind.

Radio and TV, are clearly on the way out. Distributing audio and video content over the Internet is cheaper than broadcasting, doesn’t require a license, and allows producers to reach more people. Furthermore, audiences can access that content at their convenience rather than wait for it to be rebroadcasted. It is absolutely logical in the future all of our recorded media to be delivered over the Internet.

“The phrase or term broadcasting to mean over the air, in a studio, one source giving content to many will be absorbed into web content. It will all be the web. The web will be the skin of civilization. And broadcasting will be one more form of content that you access on the web,” Bruce Evensen concluded.

Sam Stephenson thinks that the more technology develops, the more technology driven business will evolve. “The convergence is inevitable,” Stephenson said. “And who knows what will displace the Internet in 25, 50, or 100 years from now? The important thing is that people who have something to say can continue to say it, and other people can continue to hear it. Everything else is just an artifact of our time.”

The National, the UAE online publication, published yesterday the “essential viewing this Ramadan“.  Yahoo!Maktoob has also prepared a tailor made platform for Ramadan which includes a  TV guide to find out which musalsalat are being broadcasted by whom. It might be not so easy to find out what you want to watch during Ramadan, as with more than 500 FTA channels -many of them broadcasting musalsalat of good and very low quality- it`s kind of difficult even to make your personal viewing schedule. I started watching TV extensively yesterday afternoon, when most of the channels were broadcasting overviews of their Ramadan grids. I was surprised to realize how many “Bedouin serials” are about to be broadcasted this year, I could see desert settings and hear much more Khaleji dialect than I remember from last Ramadan season. Dubai TV was a mix of glittering “Hollywood style” stars as Yousra and the Syrian Bassel al Khayat introducing their new musalsalat, plus very basic -and not funny for me..but maybe it`s because the dialect is harder – bedouin musalsalat, kind of “low cost” look. From time to time, the presentation of its Ramadan grid was interrupted to leave air space to English spoken features -like one on “Dubai as the best shopping place for gold”- clearly addressed to potential tourists.

Al Jazeera had a show called “Mata Ramadan?” (When is it Ramadan?) in order to find out when exactly the holy month should kick off.

Today is the official start of the fast together with the musalsalat “grand bouffe”. The afternoon was mostly “colonized” by sheikhs dealing with religious habits, fast, Ramadan enquiries from the audiences. Even MBC was silent on musalsalat side and focused on those “religious” programmes.

The only place where I was able to watch a musalsal this afternoon was Dubai TV, which was broadcasting the latest Syrian actor Bassam Kousa`s Tv drama, where he plays an Arab “Rain man” (do you remember Dustin Hoffman playing the autistic but brilliant main character together with Tom Cruise?). The musalsal is called Wara` as-shams (Behind the sun) and it is produced by well-known Syrian company Aj headed by Hani Arshi (who also appears in the role of consultant for the musalsal). It tells the story of a young and beautiful couple whose life will change since the announcement the child they are expecting is affected by the Down syndrome. From which I could see on the screen today, Bassam Kousa is very far from Dustin Hoffman`s performance in “Rain man”. He over-acts and over-reacts and makes you wonder why if you want to have any success during Ramadan (or even want to be just noticed) you have to tackle sort of “taboo” issues -but the kind of taboos that make your audience cry, like an handicap-. Sounds like the old Hollywood lesson: just perform the role of a marginalized, handicapped, etc and you will get your Oscar home. Despite I love Bassam and the way he acts, I have to say that this first episode of “Behind the sun” did not convince me at all.

Dubai TV is betting on Hatem Ali and Yousra`s works as “main dishes” this Ramadan. Hatem, who I have met in Damascus and chatted about his view on musalsalat industry, has wonderful insights, he is a talented director and a gifted intellectual. I loved his last film work “Al leil at-tawuil” (The long night) produced by Haitham Haqqi which I could only screen in Barcelona at Wocmes congress for the first time last July. I`m not a big fan of his Andalusian or Bedouin works, but I`ll definitely watch “Abuab al ghraim” (the gates of the cloud) tonight at 23 pm KSA which has been taken from Sheikh Al Maktoum`s (the ruler of Dubai) poetry. The Sheikh inspires more than one programme on Ramadan grid,  it seems: just watched “Kawather ramadaniyya” (Ramadan thoughts) which also comes out from his pen.

Even if I have no idea about what the drama will be about, I`ll watch the latest Yousra`s of course, tonight at 00.00 KSA on Dubai. Yousra has been my favourite actress since the time she was acting with Youssef Chahine and, even if she is in a musalsal, for me it`s always the same blood- tempered girl of “Iskandria kaman wa kaman?“.

MBC will broadcast the “must follow” of the season, “Bab al hara 5″ and I`m very curious to see it on air, after I have attended the musalsal shootings in Damascus last May. No, of course I won`t tell in this blog if Abu Shehab or Abu Issam are coming back! Also curious to watch “Tash ma tash” in its 17th season, if I can make it to understand the Saudi accent. There are a number of Egyptian musalsalat on MBC that I will have a look at, knowing well that I will give up after a few episodes.

Future TV is broadcasting Najdat Anzour`s “Ma malakat aymanokom” (which I will not dare to translate: too many different translations are appearing on the Net, and the expression comes directly from the holy Quran, the women`s sura) which I have watched a bit in his office during the editing process, founding it beautifully done and extremely interesting. Najdat also has got “Zhakirat al jasad” (Memory of the flesh) on Abu Dhabi TV which is inspired by the life of Algerian writer Ahlam Mosteghanemi.

That`s already so much to watch and there`s even more to discover just by zapping with the remote control from channel to channel after the Iftar meal.

L’HOTE LIBANAIS : Beds & Breakfasts in Lebanon – Orpheus HADDAD’s interview on Future TV’s Akhbar El Sabah. Chambres d’hôtes au Liban – Interview d’Orpheus HADDAD dans Akhbar El Sabah de la Future TV.

A bientôt sur le site Web de L’HOTE LIBANAIS. See you on L’HOTE LIBANAIS’ Website.

For reasons I cannot comprehend, the TV station I’ve had most airtime on is the only one I don’t have at home. For those of you who watch Zaven’s ‘Seereh w Nfata7et’ on Future TV, you might’ve caught a glimpse of me, Victor, Thomas, Rayan, Merya, Victor , Lara, or Kinda last night. We were guests on the show which handled the issue of making cheating at school and university as lucrative business.

I will not dwell on the show much, or how we got there, because it was very random, very unexpected and honestly, the only thing I know about Zaven is the parodies of him on other channels and his famous ‘shu 7asset’. Nevertheless, I must acknowledge that Zaven and his team were very welcoming and pleasant to work with and that I will try to recalibrate my satellite dish to get the Future channel. It was fun!

That's Me in Zaven's Seat

Me in Chef Ramzi's abandoned set

Victor el 2alleed

Thomas being quizzed about his phenomenal jokes

The issue though is one which we often all overlook. Cheating during tests is inevitable, and I’m sure we all know that we (students) will always be one step ahead when it comes to beating the system. However, the issue has become a business, and a very lucrative one at that. This begs the question, is cheating really to our favor?

When one ponders the question, it’s simple. Cheating is totally acceptable if it means the difference between flunking a $1500 course or passing it with flying colors. Choosing your major does not rid you of the subjects you despise. My pursuit of a BS in Biology (which I will delve into more deeply later) has not allowed me to evade the mundane subjects of physics and maths. I’d totally understand why a student in my STAT 210 class would cheat if given the opportunity. But here’s the magic word, ‘opportunity’…

I will suffise in talking about the case with pre-medical students, which are often the exception to the rule when it comes to cheating. These students are notorious for their competitive, and often intolerable, attitudes when it comes to academic achievement. AUB accepts hordes of hopeful candidates, a hundred and fifty or so students later, usually the most cut-throat and persistent survive the 3-year knock-out rounds.

A premed student is thought of as a person who does nothing but study, and who would do anything to better his or her chances at Med school. This includes, and I have witnessed it first-hand, purposefully and knowingly misleading other students on issues regarding academics. For example, telling another student to study chapters that are not included in a certain exam (hoping he or she won’t have enough time to finish, or that he or she hadn’t given much attention to the material actually needed for the exam). Another is misinforming, again, knowingly, another student on the location of a test or registration session.

After painting this unpleasant, yet true picture on the atmosphere in the premed community, it becomes obvious why cheating is not really an option (at least cheating off a friend). Why? Well, obviously the average premed student would rather not help his or her peer and get the higher grade (and ultimately better chance at med school). My reason would probably mistrust among those seen as doing better academically than myself, for I doubt they would agree to help, or, much worse, if they do, I fear it will be given wrong to lessen my chances of success.

These accounts might seem too extreme to be true, but it does happen. This is one of the many reasons that drive so many to drop their medical school aspirations and switch to a less cut-throat atmosphere (and I emphasize on the word ‘less’)

So, this scenario is practically cheating-proof. The students have realized that it is not in their interest to help another, nor accept help which might as well be sabotage at times. But, what kind of atmosphere is that? The one where you have to question everything and everyone? An unpleasant one indeed, which I try to keep away from, hence the reaction ‘Oh, you’re Business, right?’ much to my dismay (no offense guys =P)

There’s still so much to be said about this issue, a million scenarios and a ten million reasons why or why not. But, I guess the main issue on the show is whether or not people or groups that do tests and projects for others, is in fact legal, and if it is, is it ethical?

That’s why I’m going to stop here and not go any further at this point in time

If you have any thoughts about this, please do comment and we (mainly Victor and Lara, the Bisharaf people) will try to bring it up next week on Zaven.

The Archaic Cheater

How it's done today

Good Proctoring =P

Cheating in Ads

I'm sure you know a parent or two like that

My culture:

And yours that I refuse:

No you are not a part of whom I am and NEVER will be !

As a result of tuesday’s meeting, we (Blogging Beirut, Beirut NTSC, Chroniques Beyrouthines, Jad Bitar & I) met for a radio show for Atelier des medias with Philippe Couve that you can happily listen to on Saturday morning on Radio Liban 96.2 and of which you can get a sneak preview on Blogging Beirut. I don’t know the exact timing yet but will let you know as soon as I do… [Updated] You can listen to it here.

In other news, I will be in a live (oh no!) interview onFuture TV’s morning show today thursday at 10:30 am (if everything goes fine) to talk about the book & blog.

Other than that, preparing for the signings and events to come in October, which is not a very easy job… With this, I wish you all a lovely day!

If you can wake up early on Sundays, check out a report about the event on Future TV, (& Future News channel) tomorrow, August 16th, between 8:00 am and 9:00 am, in their morning news sequence. If you talked to the camera during the event, you will get to see yourselves  

Rotana TV | 18/08/2009 | 8:30 pm – 11:00 pm – 3:00 am – 10:00 am (the next of course)

Rotana will also add a report about the event in their news section, Tuesday, August 18th, at the times specified above.

Geeks and inventors everywhere have been working tirelessly, hoping that their contribution to the development of futuristic television technology will be honoured with this esteemed prize. There’s a trophy and everything.

Every technology kid's dream

PrimeSense was on display this week at the CableLabs’ Innovation Showcase in Colorado, USA. The technology works through a chip inside a camera that plugs into the set-top box, but what it sees look more like thermal imaging than a clear detailed picture.

Though the image is not clear, the television will still be able tell how many people are watching and whether they are adults or children.

Watching TV

Panic over privacy

Of course online respondents have expressed major concern about issues of privacy in the home. On his blog, Open Source, Vlad Nedelcu makes the point that digital TV sets already keep track of every remote button pressed, but PrimeSense takes the concept a whole lot further. Personally, I like to dance to Beyonce music videos in my lounge and I imagine that the knowledge of something staring at me would definitely kill the vibe.

However, the idea is obviously exciting for TV networks, which could use PrimeSense to customise advertising and target content so much more effectively. Also, PrimeSense and other products that follow it could see the end of TV remote controls or keyboards.

Because the television set will be able to detect the presence of people it allows for the possibility of virtual touch interfaces, whereby viewers can interact with a menu as they would a touch screen, but from a distance. No more getting off the couch or lifting up sofa pillows to find the remote, brilliant.

The new technology is also good news for the gaming industry, as the PrimeSense website says, “making video games more immersive and fun to play by allowing users to play naturally using body movements and gestures” – Wii without the controls.

PrimeSense is ready to start mass production, with some undisclosed customers already in the pipeline.

I think I need to spend the weekend reading 1984 and watching The Truman Show.

Related Link
PrimeSense tech watches you watching TV

ANYTHING

Jordan’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Omar Kurdi confirmed Tuesday Jordan’s commitment to a comprehensive review of policy sectors of Communications, Information Technology and the postal sector.

Talking during his inauguration of the country’s third Media and telecommunications convergence conference 2006, Kurdi added that Jordan is expected to announce the new policy of the sector during the fourth quarter of the current year.

The conference, which witnessed the participation of over 300 regional and local key players representing the media and telecom sectors in the MENA area, was web cast to around 50 paying subscribers over the Internet for the first time through Join Vision, and was organized by the Arab Advisor Group.

Kurdi said the convergence of communications and media has been widely developed, especially following the upsurge of digital communications technologies, and the expansion in the evolution of modern technology.”

“We believe Media & Telecommunications Convergence offers a great opportunity that Jordan and rest of the region can not ignore, and should make great stride to leverage, for the benefit of their respective economies and people,” he added.

The two-day conference had various interactive sessions in addition to presentations delivered by local and regional key players from telecom and media. The conference speakers were all top executive and decision makers from major operators in the region.
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Chris Forster from the London based ‘Inside Satellite’, which offers new media newsletter, told The Star “I wanted my presentation to open people minds, because we are all trapped by our experience, and I wanted to provoke the delegates to think outside the box, look at what is happening in media and telecom.”

“In telecom there must be more to life than just ring tone and I believe content is what will make the difference,” he added. “I wanted people to understand what may be around the corner of an iPod type device capable of storing 50,000 or 100,000 tunes, or a video device which carried the top 5,000 Hollywood films… I want people to see that today’s business model is going to change. “

Forster also said that the convergence between the media and telecom is happening today and that telecom needs the content the TV supplies.

In his speech Forster discussed “Mobile TV: current state and prospects”, and he tackled the recent emergence of content materials produced at home by young people and broadcast over the internet to other young people.

Talking about the conversion in Middle East he said, “today it is embryonic and many lesson have yet to be learned.”

Tarek Ayntrazi, Lebanese Future TV’s General Manager, told The Star “it is very interesting conference, I was supposed to leave at the first day but I postpone it for the next day because the conference is interesting.”

Talking about the benefits of the conference he told The Star “we as media –people- will better understand the telecom operator’s vision in conversion and get to know some of the leaders and future leader of the industry.”

Asked about his opinion regarding conversion, he said “video and audio content provided to mobile subscribers via the hand set is a new delivery system, in which we are exploring this opportunity.”

Prof. Ibrahim A. Kadi, Senior Advisor for Communications and Information Commission (CITC) of Saudi Arabia, the telecom regulatory body, told the Star” I am very pleased with the level of members and the quality of interaction they all are professionals, there were a lot of interesting presentations, and lots of interesting discussions.”

He added” we attended the conference basically to draw attention to new business opportunities in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the largest telecom market for fixed, mobile and the internet.”

In his speech he talked about the liberalization of telecom in Saudi Arabia, where he mentioned that CICT has opened the fixed market for competition for the first time this year, in addition to offer additional mobile license.

Onno Bos form TeliaSonera a telecom operator in Netherlands, who was one of the delegates, told the Star “the conference is good because most of the regional players are present, it gives you an insight of where the market is, and how the parties act on the deregulated market.”

Talking about business opportunities in Jordan and the region he told The Star” we are interested in doing business in Middle East and Jordan, like offering our international services to the regional players like international voice termination, IP (internet protocol) transit –VOIP (voice over IP) and Internet access to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) capacity and specific mobile service like GRX (GPRS rooming exchange), and data rooming MMS (Multimedia messaging service)