[View the story "The Beena Project - A Global Collaboration \"Made by Us\"" on Storify ]The Beena Project - A Global Collaboration "Made by Us" Ramy Nagy launches a platform for ongoing innovative projects making a difference through collaboration in Egypt and the world Storified by The Stream · Wed, Oct 26 2011 21:59:34
@AJStream for next show, I recommend u guys look into how Ram Nagy and @beenaproject r using technology in midEast http://beenaproject.com/mujibmashal
Beena is a platform for inspiring collaborative projects making a difference. Beena means "by us" as in "made by us" in Egyptian colloquial Arabic. There are a lot of innovative projects that can improve communities through collaboration. Join the conversation, explore projects, share ideas, participate and innovate.beenaproject.com
Beena Project Home Pageajestream
Ramy Nagy , Mahmoud Tarif, and a group of volunteers launched the site this year. They provide most of the content and call on their users to share innovative projects to be featured on the site.
Join us in pushing participation and innovation forward in Egypt. You can join us by contributing projects, articles, videos and other posts to be featured on the website. The more you contribute and participate the higher access you get to editing and contributing on the website. Email: contribute@beenaproject.combeenaproject.com
Here are a few of the videos featured on the Beena website.
Eric Whitacre - Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'EricWhitacreVEVO
Murals for Martyrs - Street Art of the Egyptian RevolutionAhramOnline
Vote No - قول لأe7na
In addition to video, the Beena website showcases various types of projects happening around the world, including design, education, and technical initiatives.
Shasha, which means screen in Arabic, is a collaborative design project that will produce an original Arabic font specifically made for screens. Typography might be of interest to a limited crowd, but the context and implications of this project is relevant to millions.beenaproject.com
Educate-me aims at developing productive citizens capable of shaping their own future. On the initiative’s page, they introduce their goals by writing, “We believe that change won’t come by direct charity and financial support but rather by empowering and nurturing the talents of our society to create a generation of leaders that will lead the future”beenaproject.com
But here’s something else: Ushahidi (Swahili word for “witness”) is an open source platform that came out of the post election violence in Kenya in 2008. By allowing you to use their software to map and visualize information on anything. Anyone can report incidents through SMS, email, Twitter #tags, or submitting it directly through the website, and your Ushahidi-powered website will categorize that information, display it, and map it on an interactive map of a city, country, or the world. beenaproject.com
The site also offers users a more 'active' way for users to share ideas.
BeenaTalks is an ongoing series of short talks featuring several inspiring projects. Each talk allows presenters to introduce their big or small project in English or Arabic and get the opportunity to reach out to participants and collaborations.beenaproject.com
Each talk features 3-5 presenters, who are given 15 minutes each to share their project and are encouraged to use pictures and videos to bring their talk to life. The audience exchanges questions and answers with the presenters. Then everyone is invited to mix, talk more to the presenters and meet new people who might be interested to participate or collaborate with one another.beenaproject.com
In addition to their site, users can learn more about the Beena Project by visiting the
Facebook page .
We currently have team members giving talks about innovation in Egypt in New York and Washington DC throughout the next couple of weeks. Please get in touch if you want to meet and connect in either cities.Beena | بينا
Beena Project Facebook Pageajestream
Do you know of any other platforms giving a voice to bloggers in the Middle East? Share your favorites with
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