Title: Assessment views of the Arabic content of the internet: directions for future development

Authors: Saad Haj Bakry, Talal Haj Bakry

Addresses: King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia. ' King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: The last decade has seen world-wide increase in the number of internet users, and consequently in the utilisation of its benefits. Enhancing the internet content and services in various lively human languages such as Arabic can support this further. This paper is concerned with presenting assessment views concerned with the current state of the Arabic content of the internet. The views are provided by experts and influential people in the field, and are associated with three main dimensions: the main sectors of the internet content; assessment issues or criteria; and assessment scale. The related sectors considered include: scientific and educational; media and entertainment; conversational and social; government services; and banking and business. The assessment issues include: the general state of the content; investment level; user awareness; user trust; follow-up and updating; and use of standards. The scale of the assessment consisted of five levels. It has been found that while the Arabic content of the internet in all sectors require further development, the banking and business sector seems to enjoy a better position than the other sectors. The scientific and educational sector is viewed to be in the worst position in all assessment issues. These results highlight directions for future development.

Keywords: internet content; web content; Arabic language; internet banking; business content; scientific content; educational content; internet media; entertainment content; internet government services; internet conversational services; e-government; electronic government; e-banking; online banking; electronic banking; e-business; electronic business; e-learning; online learning; electronic learning; investment levels; user awareness; user trust; updating; standards.

DOI: 10.1504/IJACMSD.2010.037145

International Journal of Arab Culture, Management and Sustainable Development, 2010 Vol.1 No.4, pp.359 - 374

Published online: 26 Nov 2010 *

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