The Jordan Open Source Association said on Saturday that it had begun creating an online Arabic-language educational portal covering a wide variety of topics and sciences in an effort to improve the quantity and quality of Arabic content on the web. The association is cooperating with Creative Commons, a US non-profit organisation that offers content producers flexible copyright licences in order to encourage the sharing of information, to build the online portal, Issa Mahasneh, the association's president, told The Jordan Times on Saturday. The portal, which will be free to use, is intended to function as an open educational resource system to provide researchers and students with information in Arabic on different topics, said Mahasneh. "Arabic content on the web is lacking and we in Jordan seek to contribute more to this content. Jordan will be pioneering in launching this portal in the Arab world," he said. Currently, only 2 per cent of all web content is in Arabic, although Arabic speakers account for 5 per cent of global Internet users, according to Google. The portal's content will consist of educational videos and articles developed with the help of academicians and educational institutions in the country, said Mahasneh. "We are currently in the process of collecting data and we will launch the portal as soon as possible to benefit not only Jordanians but also Internet users across the Arab world," he said. The Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation recently said it was working on a similar project called TAGpedia, an online Arabic encyclopaedia expected to launch in December with around 500,000 articles. The ultimate aim of the project is to compile the largest ever databank of Arabic content. In the Middle East, there are an estimated 78.62 million Internet users, a number that grew by 2,293 per cent between 2000 and 2011, according to www.internetworldstats.com. About 65 per cent of Arabs using the Internet surf the web in Arabic and look for Arabic content. Jordan Times
