Mai Abdel Hafeez

1- Digital Writing

Writing is the recording and storage of information, the recording of live events, and the testing of feelings and ideas, whether written on paper by hand and pen or on printing presses and traditional typewriters, as is the case in paper reality. Or written after being converted into digital writing by computer (DOC, TXT), or by programs known as optical character recognition (OCR) or by photographing them with digital cameras (BMP, JPG), or by optical scanners (PDF).

But the difference between digital writing and paper writing differs in terms of the impact on the reader, changing the ways of receiving texts, the method of recording, the stability or movement of texts and fonts, their branching, their tree-like structure... or their interaction with other parallel or homogeneous texts instead of footnotes and margins..... and shading instead of underlining....

2 - The Digital Book

These revolutionary changes are represented in the digital book, which has begun to witness an actual and effective presence, after a short moment - in the West - of hesitation and skepticism, as is the case with everything new. Every situation seeks to shake the constants that man has become comfortable with to the point that they become sacred. And settle in the consciousness and control public and private behavior alike.

But the digital book still lacks dynamism and interactivity. It is true that the digital book contains a number of books (paper copies transferred via the previously mentioned means: computer, scanners, digital cameras, mobile phones....) that are lightweight. Its number of pages reaches 4000 pages. It is easy to interact with because it contains dictionaries to explain vocabulary and simplify the process of searching and interacting with the content of the texts.

It makes it easy for the reader to search, comment, shade, and place (margins) and private notes. It is easy to move these 4000 pages anywhere, and thus read them in all situations, and it is also easy, and this is important, to download new books via the Internet when contacting specialized institutions, then there is the issue of the liquid crystal display (LCD) on which the texts are displayed, giving them the possibility of reading even in dim or dark places, instead of relying on external light glasses.

The interaction I mean is linked to the use of interactive programs such as PowerPoint, which converts texts into slides that can be displayed on the screen in a more aesthetic and dynamic way. Texts move through slides in different states. It drives the eye to interact with them. As well as the fonts that take on diverse and dynamic forms.

Among the most used programs in building personal websites are the "Dreamweaver" program and also "Flash MX" from Adobe, which give texts, fonts and images vitality and interactivity.

Among the issues raised regarding the digital book in our Arab world is its material cost. Here, what is known as the economy of the book intervenes: its production, distribution, and ensuring its spread and reaching the reader in an acceptable form.....

But the material cost is very important in the Arab world, especially in countries where the poverty rate reaches an embarrassing degree, in fact, some countries have social classes "under" the poverty level.

This dilemma is added to the dilemma of dilemmas; illiteracy, and ignorance of modern techniques. Which needs an effort that exceeds the personal capabilities of individuals, but is rather carried out by private and vernment institutions...

3 - Forums

As long as the digital book is rarely used in the Arab world, and on the desired wide public scale, electronic forums have created spaces for dialogue, creativity, and the circulation of thorny and simple issues alike. And gave the Arab "citizen" the opportunity to express himself and feel freedom.
It gave him a margin to furnish the space of trust between him and himself, and to conclude a reconciliation between his language and his ideas and return again to touch his feelings that he had fortten under the pressure of self-censorship generated by external censorship, and the "phobia" left by political repression and the suppression of opinions.....
But forums as open spaces for all forms of expression, and at all levels of awareness, culture, experience and practice, make the interaction unequal. The forums that I browsed and followed before writing this topic showed weaknesses, including:

• Weak knowledge of digital work hypotheses, and hence the forums became a carbon copy of what is prevalent in magazines and newspapers with an important difference, which is "time". That is, speed in interaction and speed in publishing, and even a person's control over what he publishes in terms of font, size, and drawing. Then freedom in expression and saying.

• Commenting on the topics raised often tends towards praise and commendation or vice versa, and does not touch the core of the cognitive issues and matters. This is a weakness in interaction and communication.

• The tendency of readers "browsers" to comment on "light" and short materials, and their avoidance of delving into literary, intellectual, and political issues.... Perhaps this is due to the diverse and heterogeneous composition that makes up the forums.

• Some comments concern "female writers" rather than writers. They would be important if they discussed poetic and narrative texts and avoided flirting with images. Perhaps a number of "female writers" noticed this, so their photos attached with published topics began to beyond the usual. That is, photographs "portraits", identity cards, passports.... Perhaps the spread of digital cameras and mobile cameras helped with that. The "writer" no longer hesitated to send a photo taken of her at a private party, or on a walk on the beach, or in a room, or in a public street. Others hidden their photos so that the reader would only comment on the published texts. This is another obstacle in front of entering the digital world.

Electronic forums remain extremely important in free expression among wide groups of intellectuals who have not been given, for various reasons, opportunities for publishing on paper, and thus communicating their voices and opinions to people. Forums also include a number of fundamental and important, fateful issues.

Writers who have their status, personal effort, and clear vision of the new and old world write in them.

4- Personal Websites

Personal websites are very important for multiple reasons.

Firstly because they are personal and the writer publishes his literary or intellectual production and his personal views on political issues specific to his country and the world, and presents his analysis of political facts as well under his personal responsibility.

Secondly, he chooses the readers of his texts, and he has the right to allow whoever he wants to comment. Because he does not publish it to the general public and thus cuts the road for those whose experience and awareness of the danger involved in the digital world have not yet matured. Therefore, the writer leaves his email, or puts a special guest book. Or leaves his personal site empty of any address.

A personal website has all the ingredients that digital writing and digital journalism aspire to. That is, it includes writing in traditional letters, but with it all the audio-visual effects, and here is the real and new revolution that differs between paper writing and digital writing. Because the personal website contains all the aids to create a novel or story or poem that is read, heard and watched in an influential and interesting dynamics and movement.

The most important thing that pushed me to build my personal website is "personal documentation". I found writings scattered in a number of Moroccan and Arab newspapers and magazines, and over time their number began to accumulate, and some pages their color began to change and yellow spots appeared staining the face of the newspaper, and another number I was no longer able to reach because the magazine moved from one country to another, or stopped. So I took the initiative to learn the basic language for creating websites (HTML). I spent about four years in this regard, the result was the simple personal website. But the experience and involvement in the digital worlds and the magic of symbolic and scientific languages at the same time.

But the problem facing personal websites is: how can a personal website be defined in a complex and branched spider world, and daily experience proves that it is in continuous growth and endless renewal.

5- Blogs

After personal websites, blogs (BLOG) appeared and began to spread like wildfire; as the Arab proverb says. But how do blogs differ from personal websites?

The authors of the book (Weblogs Les), Jens Winter and Jesper Balslev, say that there are, in general, three main and prominent points:

• Update rate: Some active blogs are updated a number of times a day, unlike the personal website, which the authors call an "ordinary internet page", which is only updated from time to time whenever the writer has a new topic or what to say and present to the virtual reader. Time and speed of updating are in favor of the blog here.

• Collective work: A blog can be your personal diary as it can be for others who read your writings and comment on them. This point is the one I personally considered in favor of the personal website. But the two writers assume that the participants in writing and commenting especially possess enough awareness and culture to develop thought and develop the personal perspective of the blog owner. And they do not take into account those who belong to forums and comment on blogs with pseudonyms and fangs of brass that sabotage and flirt with images - see here what she wrote.
A blog can be your personal diary as it can be for others who read your writings. Pauline Gebran about the email message she received, published on 2005-10-02 AD - and they ignore the content. Of course, this phenomenon does not hide from us the seriousness in many writings and the boldness as well. Perhaps time is sufficient to fix that.

• Ease of adding and publishing topics. If a personal website requires its owner to have knowledge of basic languages in processing topics and attaching images and music clips... then a blog does not oblige the person with this exhausting knowledge, but rather the blog owner finds enough equipment to substitute for him in that.

The two writers present in their book many possibilities for those wishing to own their own blogs. They define it (the blog) as diaries published on the Internet. Therefore, it is open to all content and all forms of expression. The most important thing in it is that it arranges its topics according to dates. Hence, it was perhaps compared to diaries (Journal).

6- Photo Blog:

Known as (Photoblogs), these enable you to take digital photos with digital cameras widely spread now, or via digital cameras integrated into mobile phones, then exchange them with real or virtual friends around the world, and through the wires of the Internet, and also receive comments and suggestions..... Added to all those possibilities that day after day consolidate the reality of digital writing and highlight its importance and inevitability, the personal space (perso Espace) that you get when registering your email, and with it at the same time the photo space (photo blog) of your own.

Is there a limit to the virtual world? Personally, I don't think so, but I wonder for how long will the Arab self hold out against this revolution? And are the programs what defy us, or are we the ones who defy the programs with all that structure and heritage stored in our depths?