Happy new year(s) 2010 & 1431

Happy new year 2010-1431

PS: No new year’s resolution this time

Yassine Sabir
http://www.linkedin.com/in/yassinesabir

Moroccan Elections 2009: Who steals the show?

After the victory of the makhzeno-khobzism back in 2007, Morocco is approaching yet another election date in June 09.

Besides the official elections site updated by the Ministry of interior to locate election offices on a map (certainly NOT the censored google maps!) there is no big buzz about this event online. I have tried some key words (in French or English) to google it but the results turned poor. There even seems to be a few bloggers subscribed to blogma aggrgator who are intersted by this event. The reason for this might be that more people are attracted to social networks these days like Fecebook to express themelves or simply that some people are stealing the show !!

Well let me allow a pragraph to those people who steal the show. You can all remmber the new face that emerged in the Moroccan political scene who had resigned in August to take part in the following September elections.  Si Fouad has created an association, then a party that has grown so strong to the point it s defying other ministries and shaking the government’s stability in case they try to apply the law against the new recruits. There isn’t a single day that I don’t read his name on the paper or see his face on the news.  The secons “show stealer” is si Chabat who is criticising not only living people but also the dead! 

All for Chabat and Chabat against all

 Source:  http://difad.wordpress.com

 Will the show stealers succeed in the elections? let’s wait and see!

A free online training for teachers of English

Cardiff Online 09

For over 75 years IATEFL have been organising annual conferences in different countries for teachers of English around the world.  The two past years  the conference workshops and seminars were made available online for people who cannot attend the conference in person. I could virtually take part in both conferences organised in Aberdeen 07 and Exeter 08. The original links are by now dead but the people out there could make a nice compilation of the featured workshops and talks of the conferences  and put it for reference here.

This year the conference is organised in Cardiff on a different platform (earlier sessions were hosted on Moodle). The online Cardiff website address will be very soon announced on the official IATEFL blog promising an enhanced experience and a coverage of 40 sessions.

I will keep you posted.

10 things I love about FaceBook

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the reasons I hate Myspace. In this post I’m going to list some of the reason that made me fall in love with Facebook:

1. Unlike MySpace, Facebook people have come up with a sleek simple design that looks quite clean evenfor busy social networkers with hundreds of friends and networks. I simply love the design and many people join me on that point.
2. FB is a social website that can be painlessly tweeked into a professional working place. You can think of the tools as an altenative to emails, phone calls, snail mail, blogging…  WWD have compiled a list of 12 to use face book professionally.
3. The news feed in fb help me get in touch instantly with my friends and colleagues without the fuss MSN creates. Of course twitter should get credit for that idea.
4. NGO’s and associations with limited financial  resources can have their word heard online professionally and reach their traget clientele though advertisng on given networks.
5. I can find anyone on fb ranging from my primary school friends to current work  colleagues, Kings, CEO’s and famous people. There are goup fans even for the dead. To stop abuse, fb have adopted an efficient privacy policy that helps people connect but at the same time dont get them overwhelmed.
6. I can sneak in anytime to learn about what the others are doing (alas, that’s human!)
7. People are referenced (most of the time) under their real names unless they mean to deceive the others.
8. Applications turn to be highly useful and entertaining. My favourites at this time are :  addicted to Boston Legal & Send Coffee
9. FB reminds me of my friends’ birthdays!
10. I can instantly promote my wordpress blogs!

Do you love facebook as well? Do you have any more reasons apart from the above mentioned? Or do you prefer anoter socialwebsite? Please share.