Remarks
by
William B. Seebeck
Vice President & Managing Director, Technology Portfolio
The Dabbagh Group Ltd.
to
GITEX Dubai
at Dabbagh Information Technology's (DIT's)
Fifth Annual Information Technology Awards Dinner
Crown Plaza Hotel
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Saturday, 30 October 1999
Thank you Walid [Akwai] for that very kind introduction.
Excellencies, Special guests, Award Nominees, my brothers and sisters in technology.
I am also very pleased to welcome you to DIT’s Annual Awards Dinner. On behalf of Amr Dabbagh and the employees of the worldwide operations of the Dabbagh Group, we thank you for coming here tonight and sharing this great meal and celebration.
For the last five years, our company – Dabbagh Information Technology (DIT), the publishers of PC Magazine Middle East & Africa and DIT.Net have been privileged to host this dinner at GITEX. It is an Awards Dinner, put forth to honor those companies and their many bright, innovative and at times most courageous employees who create new products and services and bring them to market. We recognize them because they should receive this honor from all of us -- their peers in the technology industry.
However, those of us here and the many that we represent back in our offices around the world are more than just employees of companies. We are, each of us, partners in a technology revolution that changes all of the time, even as we share this great meal tonight.
Like you, I am a participant in that revolution and have been for 25 years, 18 of them in online. Like you, I have explored, invented, created, developed, risked, lost and won, but rarely have I done it alone. To create such a time-intensive technology revolution, you need colleagues and partners and alliances. You or I may think in a vacuum, but you can’t bring your visions and dreams to life alone. In many ways, it has always been this way.
When my ancestor, Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered thermoelectricity in 1821, he did it in an environment where he daily shared ideas with such people as Goethe, Schiller, Volta and others that lived in or visited the University town of Jena, Germany. They also met regularly at gatherings of the French Academy of Sciences, gatherings much like the sessions we are holding here at GITEX. There, they heard Benjamin Franklin of America and Peltier of France and others describe their work. From such sessions, new creations were put forth and advances made at a greater pace. Today, history calls that particular technology revolution -- The Age of Electricity.
But who are our partners today? Where are they located?
As this dinner and the GITEX show illustrates, our partners today are based in countries around the world – in America, in Britain, Germany, Holland, Australia, India, Italy, China, and yes, also in all of the countries of the Middle East. We can partner with anyone in a virtual world and in an evolving global economy.
Yes, this electronic revolution knows no national borders, we need only reach out and through the Internet, the world can be there for us. Whether we are seeking information on a company or a university; or medical research or building contracts; or in just linking through the power of e-mail with groups of people for business purposes or with friends or family for pure fun. With the creation of e-mail, we collapsed the information float that once divided us by geography and politics and religious beliefs. We created a virtual world that allows us educate, explore, conduct business, etc., all at the same time, in the same way, almost without risk.
The power of this medium is unlike any other in history. Yet, like anything else, it also has limitations. The Internet is finite because is defined as being available only to those who have credit cards. Yet, less than 3% of the world has credit cards (in the U.S., some 65% have credit cards but 35% don’t have bank accounts; less than 15% of the Germans use credit cards in what has traditionally been a cash society, etc.). The Internet is still a man’s domain, not being used widely by women, who are the predominant purchasers of soft goods in the Western countries. The Internet’s users are still defined as ranging from age 18-29, skewing to 33 years of age and finally, the Internet is still viewed as an "American thing".
So create we must, partner we must, alliance we must, promote we must, yet, understand that there are risks. The Internet without filters can offend and challenge the morality and beliefs of people as it has done in Belgium and Germany and here in some areas of our region; the Internet can also be used by some as the sole source of your children’s amusement – the virtual baby sitter.
Finally, the Internet is a powerful medium and while it was born in the U.S., the Internet must continue to aggressively evolve so that it becomes an acceptable member of the family of each nation, not just America’s.
We have plotted an aggressive future for ourselves on behalf of the countries of the Middle East, and in that vain, we celebrate the announcement by His Royal Highness yesterday concerning the creation of the world’s first Internet City.
As the leading online and information technology media company in the region, we at Dabbagh are committed to opening the Middle East to every other region of the world so that so that we can attract and offer a wide variety of partnerships and alliances to businesses in our region.
We at Dabbagh are committed to providing an Internet based IntraNet for every company and individual in the world that has an interest in or does business with the Arab world. Through this Arabic/English portal, we will offer business-to-business services, consumer services, educational activities and a fun but safe environment for the children of the region.
We at Dabbagh are committed to provide television and wireless services in the region that support Internet or other broadcast services.
To show that we are quite serious about these efforts, we at Dabbagh have created DIT Fund, an investment fund that in strategic alliance with Masayoshi Son, the president and ceo of Softbank Corp. has made and will continue to make select investments in pre-IPO Internet ventures. Many of these ventures can be applicable to our region as well and when appropriate, we will aggressively assist them in that effort as well.
In doing all of these things our company will be making, we believe, a major contribution to the development of this information and communication revolution in this region. We look forward to working with all of you and your companies as we work together in this, the Age of the Internet.
Now, let us celebrate and honor those companies that have made important contributions to our industry during the past year.
Thank you very much.
Copyright 1999 WBSeebeck
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