Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
IT experts review
research, new developments
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — Experts in e-applications started a
two-day conference on Monday to address research and new developments as well as
share experiences in the use of IT in business, education and learning.
Participants in the first International Conference on e-Business and e-Learning
(EBEL 05), which is organised by the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT)
in cooperation with the EU-funded MEDFORIST Project, are discussing 40 papers by
researchers from 28 countries.
Inaugurated by HRH Princess Sumaya, who presides over the university's board of
trustees, the conference covers four major areas — e-business and e-commerce,
e-learning, information systems and knowledge management.
In her address to the conference, Princess Sumaya underscored the need to
restructure educational institutions to meet the present and future needs of
students.
“We must rethink learning and what it means and what it will mean to educators
in a changing world,” she told the meeting, held under the patronage of Prime
Minister Adnan Badran who was represented by Minister of Information and
Communications Technology Nadia Saeed.
PSUT President Professor Hisham Ghassib told The Jordan Times the 40 research
papers were selected on the basis of a set of standards from a 100 presented to
the selection committees.
Chair of the conference's organising committee, PSUT's Arafat Awajan, said
organisers “have solicited not just research papers, but also implementation
reports and case studies... on topics ranging from application profiles for
various fields and reports on e-business and e-learning in specialised areas
such as government and education to advanced technologies and models.”
EBEL 05 also includes two workshops on e-learning and Electronic Customer
Relationship Management, in addition to an exhibition featuring industrial
demonstrations.
In his remarks at the opening ceremony, Ghassib said the conference was the
“first substantive fruit” of MEDFORIST (Euro-Mediterranean network for sharing
IST learning resources) and noted the contribution of the Grenoble Ecole de
Management to the conference.
“The name of the game in such collaborative activities is information and
knowledge networks: Establishing such networks with the ultimate aim of
constructing a global research community and a globally extended knowledge
producing enterprise,” he said.
MEDFORIST is a project of the European Union's EUMEDIS initiative. Starting
August 2002, it will last 34 months and gathers 16 Mediterranean partners.
The project's components include e-commerce, enterprise resources planning,
supply chain management and customer relationship management.