Anonymous, 8 Sep 2010
Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East
editorial
CyberOrient is a peer-reviewed online journal of the virtual Middle East.
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editorial board
Editor-in-Chief:
Daniel Martin Varisco
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submissions
Submissions are welcome from scholars in any discipline.
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Surfing the App Souq: Islamic Applications for Mobile Devices

This article introduces issues associated with Islamic apps for mobile devices, and surveys some of the products that have emerged into the market. It considers the potential impact of mobile phone interfaces in relation to interpretations of Islam and the use of Islamic resources, given that mobile devices have widened potential audiences for online materials in various forms, especially in areas where other forms of digital access may be more problematic. The article also explores some of the religious and ethical concerns associated with mobile phone use.
CyberOrient, Vol. 4, Iss. 1, 2010

Muslim Swim Wear Fashion at Amman Waves on the Internet and Live

When viewed on the internet, the waterslides and pools at Amman Waves look deserted, but when paying a visit they are filled with children, women and men in various kinds of swim wear. At Amman Waves women’s swim wear fashion ranges from small bikinis to swim-suits that cover every part of a woman’s body except the face, hands and feet. In this article these differences in covering are discussed and categorized in relation to Islamic law. It is argued that this variation in swim wear also has relevance for European societies since it shows possibilities for negotiations (agreement) between traditional Islamic ideals and ideals in modern Western societies.
CyberOrient, Vol. 3, Iss. 1, 2008

Transnational Civil Society, Institution-Building, and IT: Reflections from the Middle East

The important connectives of information technology will come with institutions that successfully merge IT, transnationalism, and 'civil' society such that each conveys its properties to the other. How to conceptualize and understand these properties is a compelling need for social theory. Comparative study of the Internet in the Middle East, including its supporting and related technologies, points to the crucial role of alliance-building and coalitions that create new institutions. Some of the less-evident ones are the more transnational and 'civil,' providing points of comparison - even suggesting potential future directions - to others not so apparently transnational or civil. Some elements so far not brought into analysis include engineering cultures and the more general practices of thought they privilege, alumni networks that link these cultures with more material resources but also importantly with social capital, and how those pull or are pulled together in projects that are expanding the envelope for IT generally and for its most prominent proxy and gathering point in the region, the Internet.
CyberOrient, Vol. 2, Iss. 1, 2007

Virtual Dasein: Ethnography in Cyberspace

The cyberculture created by individuals who enter cyberspace is a fieldsite only recently visited by anthropologists. In this essay I argue that one way of approaching the ethnography of cyberspace is to treat it as virtual Dasein, in which the issue becomes being there in something-like-a-world yet still being in the world. Ethnographers now need to consider the impact of the Internet on the people they study, even in the remotest villages. The promise and potential peril of virtual reality calls for critical assessment of the economic and political consequences of cyberspace development. Finally, our own involvement with the Internet demands a reflexivity that goes beyond musing over the mutant prospect of becoming cyborgs to assessing a new combination of humans, technology and information.
CyberOrient, Vol. 2, Iss. 1, 2007

Disseminating On-line Reproductive Health Information in Arabic: Results from a Survey of Users of an Emergency Contraception Website

In May 2003, Ibis Reproductive Health and the Office of Population Research at Princeton University launched the first Arabic-language website dedicated to emergency contraception. During the first 19 months of the website’s operation, 212 individuals completed an on-line Arabic-language survey dedicated to visitor demographics, website quality, and priorities for additional health information and venues for dissemination. This paper presents the results of this survey. The responses suggest that readers are not only eager to obtain accurate information about emergency contraception but that there is also considerable enthusiasm for the development of on-line Arabic-language resources dedicated to additional aspects of sexuality and reproductive health.
CyberOrient, Vol. 1, Iss. 1, 2006