Common Ground News Service

Women in Saudi: The Drive for Rights Continues

Women in Saudi: The Drive for Rights Continues

NATANA J.DeLONG-BAS, CGNEWS: The campaign to improve women’s rights in the Kingdom has focused on the issue of driving but progress is being quietly made in other areas of Saudi life.

 M.-Lynx-Qualey

Aswany, IPAF, Translators: Daoud Takes Aim

Aswany, IPAF, Translators: Daoud Takes Aim

M. LYNX-QUALEY: In a wide-ranging discussion at the Shubbak festival Hassan Daoud, the Lebanese novelist and journalist, had much to say…

 Alexander McNabb

Overload: Could Google+ Be Too Much, Too Late?

Overload: Could Google+ Be Too Much, Too Late?

ALEXANDER MCNABB: With “too many streams of information to be comfortable” , could Google+ assault on Facebook be too much, too late?

 American Bedu

Saudi Arabia: The Muttawa Embrace Social Media

Saudi Arabia: The Muttawa Embrace Social Media

AMERICAN BEDU: Unfettered by the restrictions applying to mainstream Saudi media the ultra-conservative community are going online.

 Alexander McNabb

Media Watching: Be Careful What You Tweet

Media Watching: Be Careful What You Tweet

ALEXANDER MCNABB: This distortion of expressed opinion coming, let us not forget, from those who purport to give us ‘context and analysis’…

 David Roberts

Lesbian Syrian Bloggers & (Incorrect) Assumptions of Truth

Lesbian Syrian Bloggers & (Incorrect) Assumptions of Truth

DAVID ROBERTS: While blogging is good and all, it doen’t come remotely close to the rigour of a good newspaper…

 Sarah Grebowski

It’s Time to Debunk the Many Myths of the Egyptian Revolution

It’s Time to Debunk the Many Myths of the Egyptian Revolution

SARAH GREBOWSKI: A spontaneous, youth-led uprising that brought instant democracy via Facebook and Twitter? I’m afraid not.

 David Roberts

To Wear or Not To Wear the Hijab: An Experiment

To Wear or Not To Wear the Hijab: An Experiment

DAVID ROBERTS: How does it feel when you forsake the hijab and go public for the first time in many years? One woman writes movingly about the experience.

 M.-Lynx-Qualey

The Silence of the Poets – And That Includes You, Adonis

The Silence of the Poets – And That Includes You, Adonis

M.LYNX-QUALEY: Poets have traditionally held a central role in reflecting the life of Arabs. Is that role, however, being usurped by other, more modern means of communication?

 Alexander McNabb

Much to Lose as Calls Mount for a Regulated Web

Much to Lose as Calls Mount for a Regulated Web

ALEXANDER MCNABB: Regulating the Internet in the name of privacy and responsibility is all very well, but we also have to be wary of regulating discourse.

 Alexander McNabb

The Wild Web: The Super Injunction v.s. The Net

The Wild Web: The Super Injunction v.s. The Net

ALEXANDER MCNABB: Twitter, Google et al argue they are a medium. Suing them for the content on their networks would be like suing a telco for something someone said…

 Alexander McNabb

Internet Privacy? No Chance – You’re Being Tracked…

Internet Privacy? No Chance – You’re Being Tracked…

ALEXANDER MCNABB: It would do as well to be aware that you’re now essentially a public figure. And you’re leaving footprints behind all the time…

 Alexander McNabb

For Real News Tweet All About It…

For Real News Tweet All About It…

ALEXANDER MCNABB: Presumably GN felt it couldn’t use the word ‘Jewish’, but I do feel misled… Context and analysis? I’d rather trust Twitter…

 James M. Dorsey

Arab Leaders Losing Battle to Control the News

Arab Leaders Losing Battle to Control the News

JAMES M. DORSEY: Embattled regimes have failed in their effort to choke off independent reporting to ensure that their version of events dominates the news.

 Rachel McArthur

UAE First Arab Nation on Trend Countries

UAE First Arab Nation on Trend Countries

RACHEL MCARTHUR: This week, Twitter announced it was expanding its local trends feature, adding 70 new countries and cities – one of which is the UAE.

 Rachel McArthur

Interview: Arabs’ Got Talent’s Amr Qattamesh

Interview: Arabs’ Got Talent’s Amr Qattamesh

RACHEL MCARTHUR: Being part Egyptian, I’m happy to say I was the first UAE-based writer to interview the performer. Here’s what Amr Qattamesh had to say.

 Matt J. Duffy

Newspapers Inconsistent Over Blogger Arrests

Newspapers Inconsistent Over Blogger Arrests

MATT J. DUFFY: The question all UAE, and indeed regional, newsrooms ask is what is the responsible approach. A responsibility to reporting the facts, or to safeguard their future.

 Allan Biggar

Social Media: Are Brands Getting the Revolution?

Social Media: Are Brands Getting the Revolution?

ALLAN BIGGAR: The path is now open for a consumer revolution where a new generation will be more influenced by their social-network contacts than by traditional marketing messages.

 James M. Dorsey

Soccer vs. Islam: The Battle for Egypt’s Future

Soccer vs. Islam: The Battle for Egypt’s Future

JAMES M. DORSEY: The calm with which Egyptians accepted defeat, contrasts starkly with riots that erupted on two continents in late 2009 when Algeria stopped Egypt making it to the 2010 World Cup.

 Steve Royston

Thoughts On Blogging – How to Start, And Why?

Thoughts On Blogging – How to Start, And Why?

STEVE ROYSTON: You could say that I’ve now entered my next career. Not a hobby – because I do earn money – but an activity entirely under my control, and in which money is not the prime motivation.