SMEX, the Social Media Exchange, [1] is an organisation which “aims to empower people and expand possibility by promoting the strategic use of new media in a variety of contexts”. Based in Lebanon, the context in which they work is focused on Arab society, language and culture.
Tasharuk [2] is a recent project to aggregate resources for social media activists which are available in Arabic (as well as English). Tasharuk, meaning collaborate in Arabic, lists and categorizes knowledge resources – many of which are open-licensed. They say:
The aim of the site is to make it easier and faster for new trainers and community media groups to locate high quality content related to digital and social media for empowerment and advocacy. By doing so, we hope not only to accelerate adoption and innovation in the strategic use of digital and social media but also to help local trainers lead in their communities.
We also think of Tasharuk as a first step toward convening a community of practice for media empowerment trainers across the region.
In coming weeks and months we will be featuring Tasharuk resources on our Facebook [3] and Twitter [4] feeds.