Cairo University is the center of Egypt’s blogging universe this (Thursday) afternoon with the course "How to Become a Famous Blogger." Sponsored by the Cairo University’s Media Centers with the help of the USAID Media Development Program (MDP) the course has gone through several different working titles. “Become an expert in a weekend,” “Blogging, not just politics” were two early working ideas before we settled on being famous.
The course is running right now in spite some teething problems including of one of our staffers’ car being rear ended in Cairo traffic earlier this afternoon and a controversy about the course that hit Egypt’s blogosphere. (More on that below.)
So now 40 bloggers from Aswan to Alexandria are spending a hands-on blogging weekend under the guidance of Doha Shawki, who blogs about careers and consumerism; Mariam El Moatassem, who blogs on cooking and being a wife; Mohamed Ezzeldin, who hosts a weekly internet radio shop about blogging and lead trainer Ehab El-Zelaky, managing editor of Al-Masry Al Youm, who is credited with being the first to introduce blogs to print media. MDP Media Advisor Tarek Atia is host (ringmaster? He runs the website “Cairo Live”) and MDP marketing guru Ayman Salah is giving the bloggers tips on marketing their blogs.
Thank you to Wael Abbas, one of Egypt's foremost bloggers, for attacking us in his blog. We contend that blogging is about life, food, love, kids and, oh yes, activism. He holds that you have to be an activist to be a blogger. Thanks for the publicity! Are we having fun yet?
We’ve invited the participants to participate in this live blog. You should be seeing offerings in both English and Arabic throughout the weekend.
Rich McClear
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