Do you remember my post about the expected construction of an opera house in Amman? GAM changed opinion and decided to build something not restricted to opera music only, a new, more general cultural center named "Darat King Abdullah II".

This center will be built on the former location of the cigarettes factory in Ras al Ein (What is now called the GAM strip, see above).

It will be home to the Amman Symphony Orchestra, the National Institute of Music, the National Folklore Group and the Amman Municipality Group of Folk Art. The center consists of two main theatres; the first with 1600 seats and the second with 400.

GAM has previously promoted an international competition to select the best designs. The first prize winners were world-renowned architectures Zaha Hadid and Delugan Meissl. Their futuristic proposals are amazing. If you look at the good work of Hadid which is inspired by Petra, you'll find movement, innovation and creativity. The proposed shape is really captivating.
Meissl's design is hard-shaped and fits very well with the urban reality of Amman (and it is more practical and buildable).

Zaha Hadid:

Delugan Meissl:

Labels: Art, Jordan

Yes, I still disappointed with the unpopular decision to replace Jerash Festival with what's now called "Jordan Festival". I don't know what crossed Minister of Culture's mind to issue such decision since I've not heard justifications or good reasons. The only thing I know is that Jerash festival, which finally obtained a good reputation, has been canceled and substituted by this new (but don't think innovative) festival.

Anyways, one of the good (pop?) artists who I really like is Mika. The good news is that he will hold a concert at the Dead Sea on July 25. (The bad news –for me- is that probably I will not be in Jordan !).

Mika has three awesome songs which I adore: Grace Kelly, Love Today and Relax (Take It Easy), which I am sure you've listened to before. He's 24 year old, and only yesterday, I discovered that he's half-Lebanese.

His public performances and jobs have varied from classical performances in the Royal Opera House to writing in-flight music for British Airways and creating an Orbit chewing gum jingle. He won three awards at the World Music Awards and he's nominated for the Grammy Awards.[W]

If you are charmed by his vocal tonalities, and shocked by his unique "falsetto", this will be the good chance to meet him.

A must for Opera lovers will be the live performance of tenor Placido Domingo at the Jerash South Theater on July 21. He's well known to be one of the Three Tenors (the other two are Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti). [W]

Diana Krall, who is really famous in Jazz circles, will be at Amman's Citadel on July 8. [W]

You can take a look at the program of Jordan Festival:

Labels: Jordan, Music

What is was Open Source Day 2008?
Everyone knows that JUST has the highest Jordanian rate of IT nerds, technology fanatics and pseudo-hackers. What do you think they would be capable to do if they were grouped and led by a person like me?!? :)
We (i.e. JUST Open Source Group) organized an open day to promote 'open source' between Jordanian students and it seems it is the first time such an event occurs.
To realize the hugeness of the event, these are some of the things we distributed: nearly 1500 CDs and DVDs, Mozilla and SUN gifts and a lot of giveaways (1000 pens, 500 notebooks, 500 folders and 20000 stickers) 450 donuts and unlimited coffee!!

Open Source for Dummies
If you are not a geek or a computer nerd, you'll probably not know what open source means.. I will try to make things simpler by giving an example. Suppose you purchase a car... it may be a Lamborghini, Jaguar, BMW (or more probably a Kia Sephia if you are in Jordan ). However, after you bought that car you will be free to do what you prefer. You can open it, try to fix the car if it's broken, change its engine and other parts or even modify its style (in the 'Pimp my Ride' way)!
Things are different when we talk about computer applications. You do own your car, but it's impossible to "own a computer program" at the same way. A software company which sells a program allows you to only use it. You are even not allowed to see how it works or to know how it was programmed.
You can get more freedom by using open source programs. Open source means that a computer program is accessible to everybody and that the 'source code' (the orders given to the computer) can be modified and changed as you like.

Open Day Highlights
- The day started with a deep philosophical speech of Prof. Bataineh (our faculty's dean), who stated that open source is a modern revolutionary response against capitalism and corporate ownership. He didn't say this explicitely, his opinions were thinly covered by ethicism and his personal Sufi theological views. But nobody can deny that what he said in the opening ceremony was a strong attack against new economic doctrines.
- There was a panel discussion titled "What Future for Open Source in Jordan?" with three key persons: Hussein Kawasmi, who is a main member of Jordan Computer Society, Razan Khatib, an open source expert and manager of important IT companies, and Zaid Mdanat, whose company is the REDHAT partner in Jordan. Unfortunately, the discussion became similar to a struggle between some Micro$oft-lover students and the guests.
- Mr. Joseph Shomali gave a very useful presentation about using Open Source software and tools in 3D and console game development. His company is now developing a state-of-the-art 3D game (For PC and XBOX) which will be sold in North America and Japan . The lecture was a must-see for all the gamers!

Firefox and JUST mozillaclub
We made a good work to promote Firefox and other Mozilla products (Mozilla was one of our global sponsors together with SUN Microsystems). It was really nice to know that people's lives changed completely after they've discovered Firefox. Students were also shocked by the large numbers of cool and useful add-ons they can download for Firefox.
The Open Source Day was also a great opportunity to spread Songbird. Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web which you can download from here. (Yes, it's really nice.. I love it)

Creative Commons in Jordan
I suppose the Open Source Day was the first CC-related event in Jordan . Mr. Ziad Marqa gave an extraordinary lecture about intellectual property and Creative Commons licenses. The lecture was extremely related to Jordanian laws, as Mr. Marqa is officially translating the CC licenses to Arabic to make them compliant with Jordanian laws. (Yes, he is really making a good work).
We had some wonderful guests like Donatella Della Ratta who is now working with Creative Commons to support and promote CC licenses in Arab World. Two artists, Eileen Simpsons and Ben White attended the Open Day as milestone to their wonderful project: the Open Music Archive, a database that contains free and creative music, especially that which has fallen out of copyright. (It is interesting that Jordan Times published a good article about them all).
All the parts agreed on the necessity to 'build' a CC-supporting community in Jordan .

Labels: JUST, Open Source

You can enter the Guiness World Records without swallowing a sword or balancing 30 spoons on your face!!

JUST mozillaclub and other Firefox fans will participate in the Firefox Download Day 2008. A way to show our passion to Firefox and to set up a new Guiness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours!!!

If you are interested, check the Download Day Headquarters. You can plegde to download Firefox 3 (Select Jordan as your country) and then download Firefox 3 when it goes live on Download Day (sometime on June).

Get Involved!!
Share the Download Day site with your friends and other students. You can also put a Download Day badge on your blog, profile or website!! And don't forget to join the Firefox in Jordan Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14628888871

Labels: Open Source

I am sure you edit and open PDF and Microsoft Word Document files on a daily basis. But did you ask yourself how these types of files are stored on your PC? Or why you have to use specific software to utilize them?

Take .DOC files for example, you have to purchase the Microsoft Office suite to fully edit this kind of file. No one, except Microsoft, exactly knows how these files are created and stored on a computer; also no one knows how they are elaborated and processed, this means that other programmers and developers cannot create their own programs to process this type of files without Microsoft consensus and without knowing the full specification of this format.

However, there exists an international standard regarding electronic documents, it is the Open Document Format (ODF), it is standardized by ISO and it is considered an "open standard", this means that everyone can access this type of files and can develop applications which read and edit such files.

Why using ODF?
Normal users can see many benefits of the ODF format, since it is "open" everyone can develop applications which read and write in ODF format, this means more competition between software houses and best prices and service for you.
Because ODF is a standard, you can open ODF files on multiple platforms and operating systems. You can save a file on your Windows PC and then send it to other Mac and Linux users, all of them will open the file as exactly as you saved it.
Take also in consideration that you can chose between different software applications which support ODF in writing and reading documents, this allows you to collaborate with others regardless of which software they use.
In addition, the ODF will result in major portability, more freedom of choice and lower expenditures if adopted by your government or organization. ODF files are easy to use and have a good file size.

How can I open and edit ODF files?
There are many applications which support ODF, some of them are free. Try OpenOffice.org (Windows/Linux), KOffice (Windows/Mac), NeoOffice (Mac), Google Docs…

Technically speaking, what is ODF?
A set of XML files and directories, which can represent a set of type files (word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, mathematical formulas, drawings…)
You can save in these files vector graphics, 3D shapes, forms, animations, sounds…

Are there other standards?
The most similar standard is the OOXML, but it has many localization troubles, security faults, incompatibilities and bugs. To know more about OOXML problems check www.noooxml.org.

To know more visit this site (http://www.documentfreedom.org)

Labels: Open Source

Labels: Arabic, Jerash

Would we like to see more of these photos?

Many sites are saying that Hollywood star Angelina Jolie is now in Amman, reports say she boarded a British Airways flight at the Los Angeles Intl Airport on February 4 to Amman's Airport.

Jolie, whose partner is the well-known actor Brad Pitt, is a United Nations goodwill ambassador and this is not her first time in the kingdom, in fact, she attended the Arab Children Congress in Amman in July 2004.

Recent articles on celebrity gossip websites and magazines revealed that Jolie is now pregnant with twins! The couple has also adopted three children "Maddox, Zahara, and Pax" along with the biological daughter Shiloh.
Is there a chance the Jolie-Pitt twins will born in Jordan?

Anyways, Ahlan wa Sahlan :)

Labels: Jordan