Arabic-L:GEN:A Wikiguide to Study Abroad in the Arab World

[Dilworth Parkinson]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Tue 06 Apr 2010
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l at byu.edu]
[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to
listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
            unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

-------------------------Directory------------------------------------

1) Subject:A Wikiguide to Study Abroad in the Arab World

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 06 Apr 2010
From:Alexander Magidow <amagidow at gmail.com>
Subject:A Wikiguide to Study Abroad in the Arab World

Dear all,

When studying abroad in the Arab world, it is often difficult to find 
the kind of practical information that one needs to plan ahead for a 
study abroad experience. Guidebooks, while providing some information, 
vary significantly in quality and are generally aimed at an audience of 
tourists, rather than students who intend to stay for extended periods 
of time. Individual programs may provide some information, but there is 
no central place that all students can find information on everything 
from the basics of daily life to bureaucratic issues. It is with this in 
mind that I hope to help direct the creation of a Wiki-style website to 
leverage the experience of previous students in making this kind of 
information available.

Since it would be an insurmountable project for a single person, this 
website will be based on submissions from students who have lived and 
studied in various countries in the Middle East and North Africa. 
However, to maintain the quality and consistency of the submissions, an 
editor will collect and patch together the submissions into a cohesive 
whole, then upload the information to the website. Submitters will be 
credited if they wish, or may remain anonymous. The current design of 
the website (link below) is to allow only members to modify individual 
pages, but for anyone to submit messages to the discussion, so 
information can be commented upon or updates given by anyone.

The website will hopefully contain the following types of information 
(the list is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive):
- Basic pretravel information (Vaccinations, Pre-flight visas, currency, 
what to bring, what is available in-country)
- Basic information on available programs (Program start dates, 
registration information, levels offered, cost)
- Daily life (currency, ATM availability, where/how to get groceries, 
what to wear, cell phones)
- Housing (How to look for housing, what types of housing is available, 
prices, neighborhoods)
- Transportation (Bus routes within the city, how to flag a 
bus/taxi/service, how to request a stop, etc)
- Cultural information (Cultural expectations, behaviour, etc)
- Basic city information (Restaurants, hotels, hostels, cinemas, 
embassies, etc)
- Research institutions (Libraries, universities, research centers, book 
stores)
- Linguistic issues (Local accent, important basic words, daily life 
vocabulary)
- Women's Issues (Harassment, safety, etc)

Currently, the project needs the following: 1) Country/city specialists 
who know a particular country or city well enough to synthesize 
submissions on a per-country basis, and 2) basic informational 
submitters who will write the individual articles. Volunteers for either 
position (and country specialists can certainly write articles) are 
welcome to send me an email with the topic (and area) they're going to 
write about so that we can control a bit for overlap.

The current website is:
http://arabworldstudyaroad.wikispaces.com/

This website is quite rough, and will remain more functional than 
attractive for some time. However, Wikispaces allows a lot of the type 
of control that a project of this nature needs, and will make a 
reasonable host for the time being.

An example of information on housing in Damascus is located here:
http://arabworldstudyaroad.wikispaces.com/Housing+in+Damascus

Obviously, submissions would not be expected to be nearly as detailed or 
lengthy- all sizes and types of submissions are gladly accepted.

I am sending this email now, but don't expect to have significant time 
to personally devote to this project until around June, however I was 
hoping to get the ball rolling while study abroad programs are winding 
down and the information is still fresh in peoples' minds. If there are 
volunteers for country specialists, they can begin adding to the website 
immediately, one of the benefits of a relatively decentralized design.

Please forward this email to people who may be interested in joining 
this project.

Alexander Magidow
amagidow at gmail.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Arabic-L:  06 Apr 2010


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/arabic-l/attachments/20100406/49ba77a9/attachment.htm>