1. Managing the Opposites Arabic the fifth most spoken language LW Paris, June, 2012 Mohamed Hassan

2. Contents During this session we will discuss: • Facts and figures • Typing and direction • Ligatures • Sorting, Layout, and character sets • Numbers and calendars • Political aspects • Economical aspects • Social and cultural aspects • Technological aspects • Initiatives and orientation

3. Arab member states of Arab league Wikipedia

4. Arabic – facts and figures • About 374 million speakers • Official language in 25 countries/states • Mainly used in MENA but also around the world • One of the six official languages of the UN • Arabic is no. 7 in top 10 languages used on the internet1 (2010). Growth rate of 3,300% in internet users form 2000-2011. • Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the most used • Different spoken dialects but one written Arabic • Different preferences in calendars, numbering formats, weekends and naming conventions 1- Internet World Stats

5. Typing and direction • Arabic is a RTL language • Requires logical-to-physical transformation algorithm • Text input is in logical order • Output is in physical order • Unicode layout algorithm is applied (Bi-Di) • Non-contiguous cursor movement and selection • RTL reading order has to be set correctly view Bi-Di text • Keyboard input in Arabic/Latin 1 2 3 4 RTL LTR RTL

6. Ligatures • Letters connected to form words • No capitalization • Italics is not preferred • Combination of 2 or 3 letters in 1 shape • Accordingly no acronyms or abbreviations are allowed

7. Sorting, Layout and Character sets • Manual or semi manual sorting and indexing • Less tools and file formats support Arabic sorting • Arabic article “Alef Lam” is connected to words and starts with the first letter of the alphabet “Alef” • Dialogs, buttons, scrollbars, rulers, columns, menu bars, tables, some photos and flowcharts have to be flipped (mirrored) to run from RTL • DTP tools vary between no support to fully supporting Arabic • Charactersets and encodings that partially support Arabic are: Windows-1256 and ISO 8859-6 • Charactersets and encodings that fully support Arabic are: Unicode and UTF-8

8. Numbers and Calendars • Ten numeric symbols • Numbers are written from left to right • Two sets: Arabic and Hindi numbers • Two calendars: • Gregorian • Hijri (lunar year): depends on the moon cycle which is 11 days less than solar cycle

9. Political aspects • Arab spring: • 4 revolutions done: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen • 2 in process (Syria, Bahrain) • 2 warming up (Jordan, Morocco) • Others may follow • Youth ignited • ICT based – Internet, Social Media, Mobile, IM, video streaming, VoIP… • Form of governments Republics, Kingdoms, Sultanates, Emirates, and others • Political parties are not allowed in some countries • Policies to encourage/enforce employment of local nationals in private sector: Saudization, Emiratisation, Omanisation, Qatarization • Visa types and eligibility • Monopoly legislations exist in majority of countries and applied by different levels • Employment laws exist in all countries and applied by different levels • Foreign investment laws with different levels of openness and support

10. Economical aspects – inflation rates 2011 CIA World Factbook

11. Annual IT spending - KSA

12. Tech. markets spending - KSA

13. Arab countries GDP per capita 2010 UNData

14. Arabic Culture • A distinct culture influenced mainly by language, religion, environment and major traditions of a conservative nature • Majority are Muslims • Cultural/legal restrictions on types of content and media • Differences in the level of openness, with a common ground of traditions • Localization process includes: • Text translation • Cultural adaptation • Multimedia and photos assessing and adaptation • Other sensitive and geopolitical topics should be taken into consideration… • Arabic communication relies on symbols, emotional resonance and language used to create social experience • Arabic culture is a high-context culture which depends on how much meaning is found in the context versus in the language code • The Arabic culture also prefers indirect communication styles, and words may be tied more to emotions rather than concrete realities

15. Arab countries – Internet growth

16. Technology aspects • E-government and e-services programs – different levels of advancement • UAE, BH, KSA are among the 25 emerging leaders in e-government development* • UAE, EGY, BH are among top e-participation leaders* • UAE, BH, KSA, QA among top 50 e-government development index * • Saudi Arabia the number one country in the world with the highest proportion of mobile phone users 188% ** * United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 ** United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)) 2011

17. Arab countries initiatives • Increasing Arabic content on the internet • Increasing Arabic content usage and referencing (Arabization) • E-Learning and distance learning • Encouraging R&D • E-Government and E-Services • Government automation • Innovations and entrepreneurship support and funding • Automating health sectors • Large investments on ICT Infrastructure (mobile, internet…)

18. Q&A mohamed.hassan@arabize.com @mohamedhk