Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

FIGURE 4-11Paper consumption and internet use worldwideand in some Arab countries, 2004-2005Internet Users Per Thousand Inhabitants900800700600500400300200100Arab CountriesR 2 = 0.6853World countriesWorldArab countriesR 2 = 0.7715Marked effortshave been recentlymade in Arabcountries to supportthe generationand distributionof Arabic digitalcontent in traditionalmodes and on theinternet, but theyare still insufficientin comparison withthose made byother countries00 50 100 150 200 250 300 350Per Capita Annual Consumption of Paper (Kilograms)Source: http://www.swivel.com/on 18 March 2009.lower than predicted by the levels of GDPin comparison with other countries of theworld. See Figure 4-10, which plots paperconsumption against per capita GDP formost of the world’s countries (blue dots)and some Arab countries (squares). 36Figure 4-11 depicts the correlationbetween paper consumption and internetuse worldwide, revealing the shortfall incontent production, in both its traditionaland digital formats, in the Arab countries(ESCWA, 2007, in Arabic). The currentsituation is not expected to improve in theabsence of strategies to deal with a wholeseries of inhibiting factors such as lack ofcadres specialised in the production of arange of content, scarcity of resources,limited cooperation to confront these, andthe rarity of research and developmentprogrammes related to the technicalobstacles and other issues that hindercontent production. Marked efforts havebeen recently made in Arab countries tosupport the generation and distribution ofArabic digital content in traditional modesand on the internet. These efforts, however,are still insufficient in comparison withthose made by other countries. Numerousindicators taken from other fields point tothe fact that the Arabic presence on thenet remains limited compared with that ofother languages.ARABIC LANGUAGE INTERNETCONTENT AND PROBLEMATICSThe production and distribution of Arabiccontent are beset by many and variedobstacles which become more severe whenconfronted by the new obstacle of internetpenetration. This is because the distributionof Arabic digital content via the internetThe distributionof Arabic digitalcontent via theinternet requiresthe adaptation of anumber of availabletechnologies tomake them ArabiccompliantINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES167