Although location-based apps like Foursquare and Gowalla are mainstream in the Middle East, Facebook users in the region have been enviously waiting for Facebook Places to become available. Withreportspouring in from all over the region beginning with Saudi Arabia, users in several Arab countries have started to check in to their favorite spots. The expansion was sporadically noticed by users all around the world andreportedon since March 18th with users from Bulgaria, Brazil, and India amongst others noticing the recently enabled service....

Since international media has struggled to slap the convenient label of the Facebook Revolution on the Egyptian uprising, it seems that Middle Eastern governments have been the first ones to sit up and take notice of the name. Fittingly, the Egyptian Supreme Council for Armed Forces seems to have been in the lead, launching theirofficial Facebook page. Since Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak stepped down on February 11, the Egyptian Supreme Council has announced all of its communiques to the country through the social network, which has been credited with a role in bringing the former regime down....

Activists across the Arab world are taking to their keyboards in their fight against sexual harassment. Using the hashtag#EndSHon Twitter, bloggers from Egypt, Sudan, Syria and Lebanon are encouraging people to take part in speaking out against harassment and gender violence. The #EndSH initiative is the brainchild of the Egyptian startupHarassMap, but the cause has been picked up by other similar websites in the region, including Lebanon’sResist Harassment Lebanon. RHL has also created a Facebook event for theinitiative....

Not every conference sees one of its keynote speakers deliver their presentation in a pirate outfit, however Tapulous Co-founder and software engineer Mike Lee did just that forThe Next Web Conferencewhilst talking about “The Future Of Technology”. What does the future hold for technology? According to Lee, the future is not about technology at all – he believes the key to success is to bridge the gap between technology and understanding people, designing products and services that deliver “experiences” but also have a “hook”....

Our generation will be remembered as the generation that got online. The generation that built something really and truly global. -Computer security expert Mikko Hyppönen The Internet has very serious problems with both security and privacy. The PC Virus problem is 25 years old and today65% of usare online crime victims. As we load more of our personal information online, and rely on it more for our day to day functions, security and privacy have never been so important....