Latest news with #digitization
LBCI
a day ago
- Business
- LBCI
President Joseph Aoun calls for bold digital transformation at tech forum
President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday called for Lebanon to fully embrace digital transformation, saying the country can no longer afford to remain on the sidelines of modernity. Speaking at the 'Smart Government: Diaspora Experts for Lebanon' conference, Aoun said, 'I came here today to call for digitization in Lebanon to become a forward-looking vision for the good of all. We've made our decision — it's no longer acceptable to remain outside the digital age or stuck on the margins of progress.' He stressed that the goal of a smart government is to serve every citizen, adding, 'We want Lebanon to open up to regional and international partnerships and become a qualified destination for foreign investment.' Highlighting a key challenge, Aoun noted, 'In Lebanon, we have many statistics but little digitization. Let's correct that imbalance so our country can reclaim its standing as a key player and together build a digital republic.'
Zawya
a day ago
- Business
- Zawya
Kenya: No More Silos in the Health Sector, Cabinet Secretary (CS) Duale Assures Development Partners
Health Cabinet Secretary Hon. Aden Duale has assured Development Partners in Health, Kenya (DPHK), of the government's resolve to eliminate fragmentation in the health sector through full digitization. Speaking at a high-level consultative meeting in Nairobi, the CS emphasized that all health systems, existing and new must be certified and coordinated through the Digital Health Agency, as outlined in the Digital Health Act and its regulations. He noted that digitization will enhance service delivery, enable telemedicine, track and trace health products to end users, and ensure only qualified professionals provide care. 'We are building an integrated digital framework to align donor support with national goals and ensure long-term sustainability,' he said. The CS also briefed DPHK on Kenya's Universal Health Coverage (UHC) progress, built on six key pillars: publicly financed primary health care, a rights-based social health insurance model, transparent digital health systems, strengthened emergency and referral services, sustainable health commodity security, and a motivated, well-distributed workforce. He underscored the need for coordinated efforts, aligned investments, and joint accountability, which he termed essential for effective health delivery. He committed to institutionalizing the existing partnership framework based on the principles of 'one national plan, one budget, and one monitoring and evaluation framework.' DPHK Chair Dr. Serawit Bruck-Landais reaffirmed support for Kenya's UHC priorities under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). Hon. Duale thanked DPHK for their role in policy dialogue, financing, technical expertise, and capacity building, and called for structured alignment to replace fragmented goodwill. The meeting also reflected on key areas including KEMSA reforms, expenditure tracking, resource mapping and mobilization, and outbreak response strengthening. He was accompanied by Principal Secretaries Dr. Ouma Oluga (Medical Services) and Ms. Mary Muthoni (Public Health and Professional Standards), Director General for Health Dr. Patrick Amoth, WHO Representative Dr. Abdourahmane Diallo, and other senior Ministry officials. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Health, Kenya.
Zawya
a day ago
- Business
- Zawya
Qatar based ISLAMWEB migrates to Google Cloud becoming the benchmark for content delivery websites in MENA
Doha Qatar: As digitization envelopes various industries across the globe and in the MENA region, ISLAMWEB ( an Islamic religion knowledge and content provider, visited by more than 600,000 people daily, has partnered with Google Cloud, the AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tool provider, to upgrade its digital reach as it grows. The implementation was delivered by Qatar based Advanced Business Computing, a leading regional enabler of secure, scalable, and cloud-native solutions. The announcement, shared during the Google Cloud Summit Doha Qatar, held on May 29th, 2025, at the Qatar National Convention Center, which offered the latest trends in AI, Data Cloud, Security, showcased how ISLAMWEB has levelled up its digital reach and presence making its platform faster, safer and more scalable through Google Cloud. ISLAMWEB migrated its website infrastructure onto Google Cloud and implemented Apigee API Management which creates quality APIs (Application Programming Interface) without any specialized expertise integrated into Cloud Code, a major step in digital modernization. Committed to delivering faster, more secure and scalable digital services to its growing user base, ISLAMWEB, opted to migrate its infrastructure to Google Cloud, as part of its modernization efforts. ISLAMWEB by implementing Google Cloud now offers a future-ready platform that is more resilient, scalable with high performing. Additionally, the centralized platform also offers seamless developer collaboration, allowing for enhanced monitoring, visibility and reliability. ABC enabled ISLAMWEB not only to modernize the technical aspect their platform but also raised the bar for digital excellence in the MENA region. Bassem Shatila, General Manager, Advanced Business Computing noted, 'Whether improving content delivery or developer workflows, ISLAMWEB is now fully equipped to meet the evolving demands of today's digital environment. We are proud to have assisted in their growth strategy by optimizing their business resources and operations.' Google Cloud is now offered in 42 regions across the globe and continues to expand as digitization and AI implementations spur. About Advanced Business Computing Advanced Business Computing is one of Qatar's top Information Technology Products and Services providers. The company partners with top vendors in the industry; in addition to this Google Cloud success, it is a Dell Technologies Titanium Partner, an Apple Authorized Reseller, a Microsoft Gold Partner, and a VMware Enterprise Solutions Provider. Highly experienced and well trusted as an IT partner in the Qatar market, ABC has built a reputation based on providing excellent products, solutions, and services, blended with exemplary customer care. About ISLAMWEB Islamweb is a site designed to enrich the viewers' knowledge and appreciation of Islam. Its aim is to provide the viewing community substantial knowledge about Islam, particularly the non-Muslim who may need clarification of common distortions of the media and misrepresentations of ill-informed followers. The purpose of this site is to increase the awareness of Muslims and non-Muslims alike about the mission of Islam to warn mankind of God's punishment and to give the good news of their salvation in Islam. Islam is a revealed religion and a way of life that addresses all aspects of the human condition. As a rule, Islamweb adopts balanced and moderate views, devoid of bias and extremism. It is designed to address the interests of a wide audience - casual viewers, new converts to Islam, and Muslims of long standing. About Google Cloud Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘It's thrilling': almost three centuries of the Belfast News Letter go online
There was a packed news agenda on 3 October 1738. The father of the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin had been arrested after being found with a stolen horse. Cannon fire rang out in St Petersburg to mark a Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire. In America, four families had been killed in Virginia in clashes with Native Americans. Meanwhile, a horse fell in the Thames at Westminster, nearly causing a drowning. Welcome to the pages of the Belfast News Letter, where updates on the French Revolution run alongside adverts for brandy and the American Declaration of Independence was reported as a contemporary event. The 3 October copy has a special place in newspaper history – it stakes a claim as the oldest surviving edition of the world's longest continuously published English language daily newspaper. In fact, the paper is so old that it predates the UK's switch to the Gregorian calendar. The edition would have been published on 14 October according to modern dating. For the first time, the News Letter's coverage of the most momentous events of the past three centuries can now be accessed free by anyone with a library pass or an online subscription, after the completion of a project to digitise its surviving editions. Everything from the Crimean war to the Troubles in Northern Ireland are covered, thanks to the joint project between the Northern Ireland Office, the British Library and online platform, Findmypast. While the earliest editions are austere in appearance, Ben Lowry, the Belfast News Letter's current editor, said they had many of the ingredients of the modern-day newspaper. 'They look so severe that they're like a reminder of an almost ancient age of poverty and hangings,' he said. 'But actually, you see the genesis of newspapers in them. They're full of fun. They have gossip. They have salacious stories.' The first edition was probably published in 1737, some 60 years before the Act of Union and 175 years before the sinking of the Titanic, a major news event for a paper published in the city where the doomed liner was built. The American Declaration of Independence, reproduced in its 27 August 1776 edition, featured alongside adverts for books, an appeal for a lost watch and a reward for finding a stolen horse – one guinea for finding it, or three for delivering the horse and thief. Adverts were the only items featuring illustrations at the time. Theft was denoted by woodcut prints of the devil. It was once thought that its publication of the declaration was a Europe-wide scoop. The editor sneaked a peek at the document as it travelled to London via Northern Ireland – or so the story goes. Like other journalistic stories of triumph, it appears the tale may have grown in the telling. In truth, two London papers, the St James Chronicle and the General Evening Post, had already printed the historic text a week earlier. While the paper was dominated by world events, even the oldest editions have examples of unusual yarns too good to leave out. The 20 April 1739 edition carried a lengthy piece about a marriage near Dunluce, County Antrim, at which the bride was so drunk she demanded to go to bed the moment the ceremony had been completed, only to fall and break her nose. She was later spotted in bed with a man who was not the groom. The oldest surviving edition recounts the dramatic tale of an Italian woman who stabbed and killed a man who had been harassing her for 18 months. The earliest copies ran across just two pages and were largely made up of letters from around the world, or material relayed from other sources. 'There was a lot more censorship during this early period,' said Beth Gaskell, lead curator of news and moving image at the British Library. 'There's a bigger focus on international news and a lot of verbatim reporting of events. There's less opinion because it was dangerous. But that doesn't mean that you don't get these kinds of really interesting stories.' From 1789, the paper was dominated by the French Revolution, but the news could be a little on the slow side. In the days that followed the storming of the Bastille, an edition stated: 'The French mails, which arrived this morning, brought little of consequence.' However, accounts of the tumultuous events in Paris appeared later that month, including how 'armed burghers paraded the city, attended by drums, beating to arms', before giving accounts of the storming itself. It described the Bastille's governor 'holding out a white flag and opening one of the gates' before a party entered and were fired upon. It states the governor was later beheaded. On Thursday 11 April 1912, the paper ran an enthusiastic if lowkey piece on the Titanic's maiden voyage. 'The departure yesterday from Southampton of the newest ocean giant, the Titanic, of the White Star Line, was an event that marks the last note of progress in modern shipbuilding,' it stated. 'A large concourse of people had gathered to speed the vessel on her maiden voyage and she made an impressive picture as she quietly glided in brilliant sunshine.' Just five days later, it ran what looked like a modern-day headline, albeit on page seven. 'The Titanic sunk. Collision with iceberg,' it declared. '1,500 lives lost.' In a sign of the printing timeframes, the front page of the same edition ran an advert for White Star Line and its 'triple screw' steamers, including the Titanic. The Belfast News Letter was founded by Francis Joy, a lawyer and notary. His death was recorded in the paper in 1790, but he had the misfortune to die just as the paper carried a lengthy obituary of Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers. Joy's passing was given a single sentence. Lowry said he had not 'given up hope' that more of the oldest editions would be located, but said the new digital archive would open up the existing back catalogue to anyone wanting a glimpse into the past over their morning coffee. 'It is thrilling,' he said. 'It's very important history, but above all, it's very readable and enjoyable history.'
Fast Company
23-05-2025
- Fast Company
Need to relax? The Internet Archive is livestreaming microfiche scans to a lo-fi beats soundtrack
Want to watch history being preserved in real-time? The Internet Archive, the digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts, has started live streaming on YouTube from its scanning center in California for anyone to watch. Monday through Friday, from 10:30 a.m. ET to 6:30 p.m. ET, viewers can tune in and watch live as fragile film cards are turned into searchable public documents, soundtracked to relaxing lo-fi beats. This work is part of Democracy's Library, a global initiative to digitize and make publicly available millions of government records. 'This livestream shines a light on the unsung work of preserving the public record, and the critical infrastructure that makes democracy searchable,' said Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. 'Transparency can't be passive—it must be built, maintained, and seen. That's what this live stream is all about.' If you're confused about what exactly you're watching on the livestream, scanning operators are specifically working with documents on microfiche, a flat piece of film containing microphotographs of the pages of documents. This format dates all the way back to the 20th century, and has been used to archive newspapers, court documents, government records, and more. 'The livestream features five active microfiche digitization stations, with a close-up view of one in action,' Chris Freeland, the Internet Archive's director of library services, explains in a blog post on the site. 'Operators feed microfiche cards beneath a high-resolution camera, which captures multiple detailed images of each sheet. Software stitches these images together, after which other team members use automated tools to identify and crop up to 100 individual pages per card.' 'Each page is then processed, made fully text-searchable, and added to the Internet Archive's public collections—completed with metadata—so that researchers, journalists, and the general public can explore and download them freely,' the blog post adds. This livestream was brought to life by Sophia Tung, a software engineer and app developer. She is also behind the 24/7 livestream of a Waymo parking lot that went viral last year. In off hours, the Internet Archive livestream turns into a stream of silent films and historical images from NASA to keep viewers entertained. There is also a live chat. 'This is such a good vibe to work on research,' one viewer commented. 'I hope your work is as mysterious and important as this,' Tung replied.
