Helmi Noman

Content and Usage of Arabic Online Forums and Groups

Helmi Noman

This paper is part of a project that studies the demographics and usage patterns of Internet users in the Arab countries. The study identifies the demographic profiles of the Internet Arabic populations, and scientifically measures and defines their usage patterns, online activities, and interests.

Web Credibility: When links lie

Helmi Noman

Internet users’ assessment of Web credibility is affected by the navigational context and who links to what. Users tend to consider links as some sort of “endorsement”, especially if they are from .edu sites.

Web credibility is more than just the issue of "web of lies", the issue of "links of lies" is as important. Think about this: what do you call a lie when a "credible" site links to it thinking it is credible? I call it a "credible lie".

Here is an example, tass.net is a hoax site that “pretends” to be the web site of the Russian News agency ITAR-TASS. The site tass.net features a fake political story, supported with a photo and a video clip.

The problem is that credible sites such as cnn.com, link to the site thinking it is credible. Check this story from cnn.com and see the "Related Sites" at the bottom of the page! Many universities link to the very same site. Take the University of Pennsylvania as an example.

Internet Strategist: What's that anyway?

Helmi Noman

A senior manager at a newspaper called me the other day to tell me about his paper's terrible experience with the Internet.

"We have been using the Internet in all sections of our operation but we did not get the productivity we expected", he said. "We invested a lot in hardware, software, and IT staff, yet traffic to our web site is not increasing, if actually not decreasing. Our employees have access to the Internet but their productivity did not increase, either. To make things worse, one of our editors published a story based on information she found on the Internet which turned to be inaccurate. And you know what? A publishing company is suing us because, believe it or not,  we linked to their web site!"

"I suggest you talk to your Internet Strategist about all of this?", I said.

"Internet Strategist? What the hell is that?", he asked.

An Overview of The Demographics and Usage Patterns of Internet Users in Developing Countries:

Yemeni Internet Population as a Case Study

Helmi Noman

This study identifies the demographic profiles of the Yemeni Internet population and scientifically measures and defines their usage patterns, online activities, and interests.

The research answers a number of large questions that have not been answered previously about the Yemeni Internet users. It offers a better understanding of how issues such as poverty, high illiteracy rate, poor telecommunication systems, and lack of institutional support affect the characteristics of Internet users and their online behavior. The study also discusses why a tremendously vast portion of the 17.5 million population is offline. Full Study

ICT as a Development Enabler: A Review of the Case of Yemen

Helmi Noman

Summary

This article discusses the potential role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Yemen’s development process, presents an analytical overview of the current ICT diffusion, discusses areas of strategic interventions and national initiatives in this regard, and offers recommendations on ICT policy formulations. This article is an abridged version of a comprehensive and lengthy research paper.