Laith Zraikat

Last night was Jordan Planet's December meetup which attracted more than 20 people. I got a chance to meet new people, and get to know better those I had met in my first meetup. The meeting was in-formal, everybody just talked about whatever they wanted, but the spirit of blogging was evedident in the air.

I went to the meeting with Khalidah, and we decided to go a bit early in case we got lost on the way. Fortunately the directions to Canvas –the meeting place- were very easy to follow, and we were the first to arrive. This gave me a chance to look around the place, as I don’t usually get to do that when I got to places for the first time. The interesting thing about it is that It did not feel like I was in a restaurant, but rather in my home dining room. The place felt very cozy, especially with the rain pouring outside the windows. Ten minutes after we arrived came Roba, Lina and Rami. Three very interesting people. We got a chance to get to know each other until more people arrived.

Rami is a Jordanian journalist living and studying in Sweden, and currently on what you would consider a business trip to Jordan. He is doing some research for his university about blogging in Jordan and the impact it will have on law makers and the press association in the country. He also wrote a very nice piece titled "the Internet as a Communication Medium for Development" in which he argues that developing nations are quickly gaining pace as producers of information and knowledge, the same way that the traditional Information producer-consumer relationship is shifting because of the Internet.

Lina is working on her graduation project at the University of Jordan (my uni!) and wishes she could have 30-hour days so she can go to uni, work on her project and blog! Roba… Well, Roba is very interesting because it seemed like every single person in the meeting recognized her right away. That’s in addition to the fact that she is the first "Roba" I met who spells her name with an "O".

Next to arrive -I think- was Mariam. Mariam has her own NGO in London. And among the things she does is organize youth exchange programs for people aged 18-26 (I'm 27, does that mean I'm not a youth anymore??!)

After that everyone else started arriving, Issam and Abeer, Nader and Mira, Laith Majali, Ahmad Humeid, Jad Madi, Naseem Tamimi, Ammar Ibrahim, Tamer Al-Nasser….. forgive me if I can't remember the rest.

The meeting took off with everyone introducing themselves. The interesting part was when each had to say why they got into blogging. We had all kinds of reasons, some to express themselves, some just to experiment, but for Ammar, it was plain jealousy of Ahmad Humeid's blog. The meeting was also given a special taste because it brought together representatives from Arab blogging services.

Why did I tell this long story? To let you get into the atmosphere of a Jordan Planet meetup, and to help you understand how I think of Jordan Planet.

What is Jordan Planet?... I see it as a phenomenon the like of which was only witnessed back in the early days of NETS Online, where meetings starting online were carried into the real world in similar meetups. There were more than 20 people last night, and It's very hard to think that without Jordan Planet, a lot of them would have never met.

There is more than enough talk these days about blogging, but not nearly enough about communities like Jordan Planet, what it has done for many many people, and the impact it will have on the lives of more to come. In my opinion, this last meetup was a testimony to the successful mission that the founders of Jordan Planet have carried out. You should be proud guys.