249 About the Contributors Salam Abdallah is an IS&T academic and practitioner. Dr. Abdallah has a PhD in Information Systems from Curtin University of Technology, Australia. He has worked for several years with UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) overseeing ICT facilities and curriculum development at schools and vocational training centers in UNRWA s entire field of operations. He is an active participant on the Global Text Project, and a founder member of Special Interest Group of the Association of Information Systems: ICT and Global Development. Dr. Abdallah is also an active researcher in the field of Information Systems and has published articles in local and international conferences and journals. Currently he is the Coordinator for the College of Business and Administration at Abu Dhabi University, Al Ain, UAE. Fayez Albadri is a well established consultant, manager and educator for over two decades. He holds a Doctorate in Management from MGSM Macquarie University in Sydney Australia, Masters in Intelligent Information Processing Systems from University of Western Australia in Perth, Graduate Certificate in Computer Instructional Design from Edith Cowan University in Perth, and Bachelor degree in Engineering from University of Westminster in London, UK. He is recognized as IS&T Specialist and Management Expert for his record in managing IT projects, implementing ERP systems and e-business solutions. Dr. Albadri is a pioneer researcher and academic with important contributions in the areas of entrepreneurship, e-business, IT strategic planning, IT project management and risk management. He is renowned for his development of (IPRM) the Integrated Project-Risk Model and the introduction of (IELCM) the Integrated ERP Life-Cycle Management approach. He has also delivered numerous seminars and training workshops to hundreds of academics and professionals in Australia and the Middle East. * * * Abdelnasser Abdelaal is an assistant professor of IT at Sur College of Applied Sciences in Oman. He earned his Ph.D. in the area of socioeconomic implications of wireless networks from University of Nebraska, USA. Dr. Abdelaal has published more than a dozen of publications in international journals and conferences on social capital, and in service pricing and business models in the domain of community wireless networks. Dr. Abdelaal also writes for Alyahat newspaper on the socioeconomic transformations of technology. He also participated in a number of projects that support knowledge transfer to the Arab World and provide IT solutions to small business and underserved communities. Copyright 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Atef Abuhumaid is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education and Psychology in Amman Arab University for Graduate Studies. His research interests include ICT in education reform, e-learning, ICT teacher professional development. He is the author of ICT Integration across Education Systems. Before obtaining his PhD from the University of Technology in Sydney, he taught 1-12 teachers in both Jordan and Saudi Arabia, giving him valuable opportunities to practice and compare educational practices from different countries. Norita Ahmad is an Assistant Professor of MIS at the American University of Sharjah in UAE. She earned her PhD in Decision Science Engineering Systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and received her BS in Computer Sciences and MS in Telecommunications and Network Management both from Syracuse University. Her research interest includes decision analysis, database management systems, and knowledge management. She has also presented her research internationally and published in several scholarly journals such as International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, and International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics. Sami Akabawi is a Professor of Information Systems in the Management Department at the School of Business, at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He was the director of the Business Administration program from 1986 to 1992. He was early adopter of the concept diffusion of IT components in the teaching and course curricula. Dr. Akabawi is actively pursuing consultations and advisory services to local and regional business institutions and organizations in ICT area. His research interests are in the architecting, design, development and implementation of ICT systems. Adoption and institutionalization of Enterprise systems and their impacts on human agency s behavior, particularly in developing countries environment, are also part of his research themes. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the City University in London, in1977, Master of Science in Computer Science from London University in 1973, and Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Cairo University, in 1967. Alanoud Alhaj earned her Bachelor s Degree in Biological Sciences and Masters Degree in Genomics and Bioinformatics both from the George Washington University in USA. Ms. Alhaj is currently pursuing a second Masters Degree in Business Administration at the American University of Sharjah. She has a strong interest in medical research and has already published two research papers in Oncogene, one of the world's leading cancer journals. Alanoud is also interested in the managerial aspects of business. Hamed Al-Hinai is a PhD student at the School of Computing and Technology at the University of Sunderland in the UK. He obtained his BSc Computer Science from King Fahd of Petroleum and Minerals University in Saudi Arabia in 1990 and his MSc in Managing IT from University of Salford in UK in 2004. In addition, he is a certified PRINCE2 practitioner and Oracle certified professional (development track). Mr. Al-Hinai has led and supervised the development and integration of numerous software solutions to successful implementation, especially supply chain management systems. He has also worked as technical team member in two ERP implementations. His research focuses on enterprise systems implementation and their impact in organizations and stakeholders. Ali Al Kinani is a director of the Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) of the National Guard Health Affairs at King Abdulaziz Medical City in KSA. He works as an assistant Professor in Health Public 250
and Health Informatics College at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has over 15 years of professional experience in Computer Science and Information Technology. He earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Sciences from King Abdul Aziz University in KSA in 1996, and PhD degree in computer science from School of Computer Sciences at the University of East Anglia in UK in 2006. He has carried out many successful consultations in ICT and e-government projects for several organizations. He published 33 papers in the International conferences across 17 countries over the world, and participated in 76 conferences and workshops in ICT. Mohamed Baka is the ICT Advisor to the Abu-Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA). He is also the Chairman of the Emirates Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UAE University. He earned his PhD in Computing from Bristol University in the UK and received executive education at MIT Sloan and Harvard Business School. Dr. Baka has more than 20 years experience in the field of Information Technology Management. He has led several global ICT Programs for blue-chip firms as part of the European Strategic Project in Information Technology (ESPRIT). His academic experience includes a research tenure at Imperial College London and is currently a visiting Scholar at Waterloo University in Canada. Dr Baka is on the editorial board of the "Springer" book series on Technology and Knowledge Management. Helen Edwards is a professor of software engineering at the University of Sunderland in the UK, and a Principal Consultant for Hazel Insight. Her original background is in mathematics (she has a BSc in Applied Mathematics from UCW Aberystwyth, and an MSc in Engineering Mathematics from the University of Newcastle). She focused, for her PhD (awarded by the CNAA) in the area of software engineering methods. She is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Chartered IT Professional (CITP), and a Fellow of the BCS. Dr. Edwards research focuses on sociotechnical systems and she is particularly interested in qualitative field studies evaluating the impact systems and technologies in organizations and social situations. She has supervised a number of doctoral candidates who have based their research in the Arabian Gulf context. She has published widely in the area of software engineering and information systems. Sonda Fakhfakh is a doctoral candidate at the University of Tunis. Her current research interests concern the Arab culture and the ICT use in the Arab world. Ms Fakhfak has earned her undergraduate degree (maîtrise) at the University of Carthage and her Masters degree (DEA) from the University of Sfax. Her master s thesis examined the determinants of IT outsourcing in the case of Tunisian Banks. She taught courses such as Introduction to Management and Business Systems at the University of Sfax. Shahid Haling is a Senior Consultant with extensive experience working for many consultancy organizations both in the UK and Middle East. His interests cover adaptive e-learning systems and unified e-learning structures, as well as information security management and IT auditing frameworks. Bassam Hammo is an Associate Professor at the University of Jordan since 2003, and currently holding the post of chairman of the Computer Information Systems Department. Dr. Hammo holds a PhD. in Natural Language Processing from DePaul University (USA). He is an active researcher in Arabic Natural Language Processing (ANLP). Dr. Hammo is leading a research team working on developing tools for Arabic NLP including: Arabic corpora, morphological analyzers, parsers, thesaurus and ontol- 251
ogy. He has supervised over 12 Master theses. He has long been a supporter of free software tools and resources for the Arabic language. Tarek Hatem is a Professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship at the American University in Cairo (Egypt), with nearly 20 years of experience in teaching, consultancy and training in management in Egypt. Dr. Hatem earned his PhD in Strategic Management from the University of Colorado in the United States in 1986. Earlier, in 1981, he obtained his masters degree in Public Administration from the same university. He is a Certified Management Consultant from the Institute of Management Consultancy in the United Kingdom, and he was the first chairman of the Management Consultants Association in Egypt. Dr. Hatem was the Associate Dean for Executive Education and a Senior Research Fellow at Dubai School of Government (2007-2009). Dr Hatem has several publications and has also been an active participant in both local and international conferences and seminars. Ziad Hunaiti earned his PhD in 2005 from the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University, United Kingdom. He is currently with the Department of Computing/Design and Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology at Anglia Ruskin University, UK Ashraf Khalil is an Assistant Professor at Abu Dhabi University with a PhD from Indiana University in Bloomington, USA. During the last 10 years, he has conducted extensive research on all the main components of the research proposal, namely, social and mobile computing, persuasive computing, human computer interaction and privacy issues. The results of his research studies are published in the top conferences in the field such as CHI, CSCW, and INTERACT. His work has also been featured in USA public media such as National Public Radio and Slashdot. Since he moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2006, he is an active member of the Gulf community of academicians. During his research career, Dr. Khalil has accumulated vast knowledge in applying and developing usability testing techniques to mobile applications. He is interested in applying all the technological innovations in addressing pertinent problems in the Middle East in general and in the Gulf countries in particular. Sonia Kawas holds the position of Manager of Knowledge and Information Services at the British Council in Jordan, managing information, education, science and outreach projects with governmental, NGO and higher education institutions. During her years of experience at the British Council, Ms. Kawas worked on developing information products targeted to specific audiences. As part of her work on one of the British Council s major regional education projects, she was directly responsible for developing and managing the project s online community of practice and training Jordan s Ministry of Education on activating the community. Ms Sonia has also trained staff of the Ministry of Interior of Iraq, on establishing and managing information resources centers, in addition to extensive training courses delivered to different audiences on various electronic resources and British Council information online products. Ms. Sonia holds a postgraduate certificate in Management from Leicester University in UK and MSc in Information and Knowledge Management from North London University (London Metropolitan University) in UK. Nasim Matar earned his PhD in 2010 from the school of Computing and Information Technology at Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom. Dr. Matar published 7 different books in Arabic language covering different aspects of computer science. His research interests are in the field of Adaptive 252
E-learning Technology, Unified e-learning and Learning Object Networks (LON). He is worked in different Jordanian universities as a full time lecturer for the colleges of Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, Management Information Systems and Education College. His working and research experience has been specifically oriented towards the Middle East region. Sadi Matar is currently working at the Ministry of Communication and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an Expert Advisor for Information Society and as a delegate of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Broadband South Eastern Europe - (bsee) initiative. Mr. Matar is also an MCP, MCTS, and MCITP. Elham Metwally is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at Misr International University. She is also an adjunct faculty of Administration of Public Personnel at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Metwally earned her Doctorate of Business Administration (2009) and Master of Philosophy (2006) with distinction, from Maastricht School of Management, in the Netherlands. She earned her Master of Business Administration, in 2002, and Bachelor of Arts in Economics, in 1982, with honors, from the American University in Cairo. She is a member of the Academy of Management, and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in USA. She is also a member of the Middle East Council for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (MCSBE). Dr. Metwally is also the Associate Director for Scholarships and Budgeting at the American University in Cairo. Earlier, she gained more than twelve years of experience at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). Basem Saraireh is currently holding the post of Regional Director of the Arabian and Education Training Group of Al-Faisal International Academy, which is located at the University of Jordan. For the past three years, he was actively involved as a member in three joint programs in the fields of ICT Education, and Information Technology and E-Government..Dr. Saraireh holds a PhD degree in Reading and Language Arts with a cognate area, focusing on the use of technology in Education. He was a faculty member at Yarmouk University since 2003 and has taught various courses in the use of Technology in education and supervised more than 6 post-graduate theses. 253