PITA – The Palestinian Information Technology Association for companies hosted an event on 11/12/2011 that was attended by representatives of the Palestinian Private Sector, Academics, and representatives from many Ministries, to discuss the Palestinian E-Government Academy project. The meeting was moderated by Mrs. Heda Al Saqqa – Membership Manager in PITA, who talked about the importance of engaging the Palestinian Private and Public Sectors in the E-government Academy Project. Dr. Yahya Al Salqan – a board member in PITA, emphasized the essentiality of the project in serving the Palestinians and facilitating their matters of life.

Dr. Mustafa Jarrar gave a presentation about the Project that included a brief overview, followed by demonstrating the role of the training courses offered by the academy in supporting the project’s main goal, represented in developing the needed experience for building the Palestinian E-Government, which in turn would fulfill the needs of the private and public sectors in both technical and legal aspects required to carry on with the project.

For his part, Mr. Amjad Abo Zaid, the consultant of the Minister of Communication, showed the importance of the project for Palestine, not only as an E-government project, but also as a project that supports all E-services, and called for cooperation between all involved parties, to work together to achieve the project’s goals.

اجتمع ممثلين عن القطاع الخاص الفلسطيني واكاديميين وممثلين عن وزارة الاتصالات وعدة وزارات أخرى في مقر بيتا يوم الاحد 11-12-2011 لمناقشة مشروع اكاديمية الحكومة الالكترونية. وقد أدار اللقاء هداء السقا مدير علاقات الاعضاء في بيتا وقد تحدثت عن اهمية الشراكة بين القطاع الخاص والحكومة، وقد تحدث السيد د. يحيى السلقان عضو مجلس ادراة بيتا عن أهمية هذا المشروع في خدمة المواطن الفلسطيني وتسهيل شئون حياته

وقد قدم د. مصطفى جرار عرضا حول مشروع الحكومة الإلكترونية، وقد تضمن العرض نبذة عن المشروع تلاها شرح عن آلية التدريب التي سوف تتبعها الأكاديمية لدعم أغراض المشروع والتي تتمثل في تنمية وبناء القدرات والخبرات اللازمة في مجال الحكومة الإلكترونية، والتي تهدف بدورها إلى تغطية إحتياجات كل من القطاع العام والخاص في فلسطين من النواحي التقنية والقانونية اللازمة لبناء الحكومة الإلكترونية

ومن جانبة بين السيد أمجد ابو زيد مستشار وزير الاتصالات أهمية هذا المشروع، داعيا للتعاون المشترك بين كافة الاطراف؛ من جهات حكومية وجامعات وشركات القطاع الخاص للعمل على تطوير هذا المشروع وتحقيق أهدافه

Sina Institute for Knowledge Engineering and Arabic Technologies in Birzeit University hosted an academic team from the Republic of Korea. The purpose of the visit was to see the projects and the activities conducted by the Institute in the field of e-government and to discuss ways of cooperation. The director of the Institute briefed them about the mission and goals of the Institute, and the main projects that the Institute works on. He focused on the Palestinian e-Government Academy project, which is an ongoing project in the Institute. He explained the aim of the professional trainings that are provided by the project, which will help in implementing electronic services, especially for the Palestinian e-Government. He also discussed one of the most important achievements of the academy, which is “ZINNAR” the Palestinian Interoperability Framework, in addition to the main challenges that face the project.

At the end of the meeting, the Korean team expressed their appreciation of the idea of the project, and their intentions of implementing a training center in the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology. They put forward ways of cooperation between them and the Institute to develop the training center, which will aim to train the government employees on using the electronic services offered by the project, and discussed the actions to be taken to support the project.

During the meeting, Dr. Jarrar presented the Palestinian e-Government Academy. The academy is established by Birzeit University as part of the TEMPUS-funded Pal-Gov project. The academy aims at building the capacity of the Palestinian private and public sectors in e-Government technologies. In particular, the academy intends to fulfill the needs of the Palestinian society in the technical and legal aspects necessary to build and maintain a Palestinian e-Government. This is done via (1) Training Programs (tutorials and academic courses), which cover the areas of Interoperability, Security, and Legal Informatics, (2) Consultancy for the private and public sectors in the area of e-Government and e-Governance, (3) Research, by which the academy aims to highlight and promote research problems and solutions and incorporate them to renovate and enhance the e-governance field, and (4) Publications that cover topics related to e-governance in order to make the exchange of technical knowledge and information possible.

Furthermore, Dr. Jarrar presented the Palestinian e-Government Interoperability Framework ‘Zinnar’. Zinnar (http://zinnar.pna.ps) was developed by six ministries and governmental institutions (in cooperation with the Palestinian e-Government Academy): Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology (MTIT), Ministry of Interior (MOI), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Ministry of National Economy (MNE), Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). Zinnar serves as an organizational/semantic mediator between heterogeneous governmental information systems and is also seen as framework/infrastructure upon which seamless e-government services are implemented.

During the meeting, the participants discussed further cooperation opportunities especially between the Palestinan e-Governemnt Academy and the Estonian e-Government Academy, particularly, on the topic of Information Security. Also, Mr. Astok presented a proposal of Training workshops where the Estonian Academy is to provide training to transfer know-how and skills to Palestinian governmental employees. The proposal comes as part of the Palestinian- Estonian cooperation program.

Dr. Mustafa Jarrar, the project director, explained that the project aims to bridge the knowledge gap and build the competencies of the Palestinian society with the know-how for implementing and deploying electronic and integrated services, in particular e-government services, which are a national priority. Specialized programs will be developed and delivered to the Palestinian ministries and to private sector; as well as several academic courses that will be introduced into the curricula of the partner universities. The project will focus on the capacity building in three main areas (Interoperability, Security, and IT laws), which are the main challenges in implementing any e-service in general and e-Government in particular. A Palestinian e-governance Academy will be established to disseminate and sustain the project results and outcomes.

The partners of the project are:

1. Birzeit University, Palestine (Coordinator)
2. Palestine Polytechnic University, Palestine
3. Palestine Technical University, Palestine
4. University of Trento, Italy
5. Vrije University Brussels, Belgium
6. University of Namur, Belgium
7. TrueTrust, UK
8. University of Savoie, France
9. The Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology, Palestine
10. Ministry of Interior, Palestine
11. Ministry of Local Government, Palestine

It is worth noting that Birzeit University is the initiator and the grant holder of the project, and will be fully responsible for the scientific and financial management. Moreover, Birzeit University is the only Palestinian university and one of leading Arab Universities that lead local and European universities in the coordinating Tempus projects. Tempus program is one of the most important cooperation programs between the European Union and neighboring countries, aiming to improve not only the quality of education but also to promote scientific research and transfer of knowledge and develop lifelong learning programs in society at large.

The competition this year was very high, in which 450 proposals have been submitted and only 64 proposals have been approved.

“Development of the Roadmap for Digital Information Security”

A workshop titled “Development of the Roadmap for Digital Information Security” will be held on 7-8 May, 2012 by experts and  lecturers from Estonia. This workshop is organized by the Estonian and Palestinian eGovernment Academies, and hosted by Sina Institute at Birzeit Unviersity.

The topics that will be discussed in the workshop include key elements of the cyber security and digital information protection, planning of roadmaps, action plan and organization development among others.

Following is the workshop agenda

Day 1

Monday, May 7, 2012

10:00-10:15 Opening of the session

Introduction of the participants, presenters and training program Hannes Astok

10:15-11:30 Digital information protection policy development. Samples of the national policies. Key elements of the roadmap for cyber security and digital information protection.

Raul Rikk, Arvo Ott

11:30-12:00 Coffee and snack break

12:00 -13:00 Group work: definition of the activities and work share of government and institution.

Raul Rikk, Arvo Ott, Hannes Astok

13:00-14:00 Presentation of the group work results. Discussion.

Raul Rikk, Arvo Ott, Hannes Astok

Day 2

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

10:00-11:30 Development of the roadmap for cyber security and digital information protection for the ministry/ institution. Key elements and activities.

Raul Rikk, Arvo Ott, Hannes Astok

11:30-12:00 Coffee and snack break

12:00 -13:00 Group work: development of the roadmap draft for ministry/institution..

Raul Rikk, Arvo Ott, Hannes Astok

13:00-14:00 Presentation of the group work results. Discussion. Conclusions.

Raul Rikk, Arvo Ott, Hannes Astok

A team from the Palestinian e-Government Academy visited STARLab at Vrije University Brussel in Belgium, as part of PalGov activities funded by TEMPUS. The visit lasted 8 days (from 16/6/2011 to 23/6/2011). During the visit, several researchers from STARLab presented the courses and exercises given by the teaching staff of the VUB in relation to the PalGov project, in addition to presenting topics and case studies related to ontology and semantics, ORM, Ontology based data matching, DOGMA tools, as well as several projects and research issues were discussed with the PalGov Team.

It is worth noting that all partners in the PalGov project are developing four tutorials related to Interoperability, including: Process and Data Modeling, Data Integration and Open Information Systems, Process Integration and Service Oriented Architectures, Ontology Engineering and Lexical Semantics. These tutorials will be offered to the public and private sector in Palestine, in a few months, to help implementing e-government services in Palestine.

Sina Institute for Knowledge Engineering and Arabic Technology invites you to attend

The Palestinian e-Government Academy Training Kick-off Event

As part of the Palestinian e-Government Academy project funded by Tempus, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology and the General Personnel Council, Sina Institute in Birzeit University has the pleasure of inviting you to the Kick-off event of the professional training sessions. These training sessions are directed towards building e-Government services, especially the Palestinian e-Government. The program is made of 6 courses (about 300 highly advanced and specialized training hours). The tutorials were developed throughout last year by Palestinian specialists in collaboration with highly reputed European scientists, and were tailored to fit the needs of the Palestinian society. These training courses aim to enrich the public and private sectors in Palestine with the needed skill and knowledge to build the Palestinian e-Government with skilled Palestinian hands.

Date and Time: January 31st, 2012 at 9:00 am

Place: Training Room in Najjad Zeenni IT Center of Excellence, Birzeit University

Note: The tutorials will be recorded and published for the public benefit

Training Program

Tutorial 1: Data and Business Process Modeling

Module I: Conceptual Data Modeling
-  Information Modeling
-  Object Role Modeling (ORM)
-  Advanced Integrity & Business Rules
-  Rules Contradictions and Implications
-  Optimization, transformation, (re)engineering of conceptual models.

Module II: Business Process Modeling
-  Business process identification.
-  Business process modeling and mapping.
-  Business process optimization, re-engineering, management .

Tutorial 2: Data Integration & Open Information Systems

-  XML and Namespaces
-   DTDs and  XML Schema
-   RDF and  RDFS
-   Ontology Web Language (OWL)
-   SPARQL, RDF Query Language
-   RDF Stores, Oracle Semantic Technology
-   Data Integration and Fusion
-   Data Schema Integration
-   GAV and LAV Integration
-   Data Integration and Fusion using RDF
-   Identity Management and Linked Data
-   Semantic Web and RDFa

Tutorial 3: Process Integration & Service Oriented Architectures

-  Service Oriented Architecture
-  Xpath, theory and practice
-  Xquery, theory and practice
-  Web Services, theory and practice
-  REST Protocol and Principles
-  SOAP Protocol and Principles
-  WSDL – Web Service Description Language
-  ESB – Enterprise Service Bus
-  Service Integration Patterns
-  BPEL – Business Process Execution Language
-  UDDI – Universal Description, Discovery &Integration of Web Services

Tutorial 4: Ontology Engineering and Lexical Semantics

-  The Need for Sharing Semantics
-  What is an ontology
-  Ontology Engineering Challenges
-  Ontology Double Articulation
-  Ontology Modeling Challenges
-  Stepwise Methodologies
-  Zinnar – The Palestinian eGovernment Interoperability Framework
-  Lexical Semantics and Multilingually
-  WordNets  and Lexical databases
-  Arabic Ontologies

Tutorial 5: Information Security

-  E-government security & ISO27000 standards.
-  Internet Risks and Attacks
-  Authentication
-  Certificates and Biometric Authentication
-  Firewalls and VPN
-  Federated Identity Management (FIM).
-  Access Control
-  Auditing

Tutorial 6: Legal Informatics and IT laws

-  Introduction to Law
-  Ethical and Social Issues
-  Introduction to ICT and E-government
-  Intellectual Property
-  Privacy and Data Protection
-  Digital Signature & e-Evidence
-  IT Contract
-  E-Commerce (e-Transactions)
-  Cybercrime
-  E-archiving

This launching ceremony came after the Faculty of Information Technology at BZU won a financial support of half a million Euros from the European Union, within the TEMPUS program. The core idea of the project is to prepare qualified Palestinian human resources in the area of e-governance, through capacity building programs at the ministries and governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations, as well as companies and private sector institutions, aiming to establish a Palestinian Academy for Electronic Governance

The Minister overviewed the vision of the Ministry of Communications and its role in building a network of relationships with a group of European universities, stressing that this project represents a unique case, as a result of the exceptional Palestinian conditions, in terms of the state of siege, checkpoints and barriers to movement, stating: “this project will contribute to the provision of services to refugees inside Palestine, In light of the division between the West Bank and Gaza, and the refugees in the neighbouring Arab countries and Europe.

Members of the Palestinian eGovernment Academy visited STAR Lab at Vrije University Brussels in Belgium, from January 11, 2012 to January 14, 2012 as a part of the academy activities. The goal of this visit is to review and evaluate the training program (6 tutorials, 300 teaching hours), which are Data and Business Process Modeling, Data Integrating and open Information System, Process Integration and Services Oriented Architectures, Ontology Engineering and Lexical Semantics, Information Security and Legal Information and IT laws.

During the meeting the tutorials were discussed with highly experienced professionals in the mentioned fields. In addition, professionals from the EU partners provided their inputs in order to build the best teaching material. This will help to conduct the best training and empower the Palestinian human power in building e-Government so to achieve the academy short term and long term goals.

The training will be started on January 31, 2012 and it will target the qualified employees from the Palestinian public and private sectors.

The meeting parties discussed and studied the cooperation mechanism between the Palestinian E- government Academy and the Council in the process of the selecting the best trainees that will in turn help in achieving the academy’s short and long term goals.

From his side, Minister Moussa Abu Zeid praised the cooperation with the Palestinian E-government academy, valuing the great objective the academy is seeking to achieve. He also stressed the need of having such project in Palestine in order to empower the Palestinian society by implementing the e-government services.

The Minister referred to the importance of the Palestinian Competence role and the need to build the skills and giving them the chance to contribute in fulfilling the Palestinian society needs. He promised to support the academy and its coordination with all the ministries.