open source in arabic countries, focus on middle east and iraq

["Helmut Igi" <karunumbo at hotmail dot com>]

Dear Arabeyes-Members,

I hope this post is on the right mailing list. C

urrently I'm preparing a presentation for a uinversity course about Open 
Source/FLOSS/Linux in arabic countries, with focus on the middle east and 
iraq.
Doing my research on the internet i found out that arabeyes is the biggest 
arabic open source project. Could you be so kind to send me information 
about ongoing open source projects, the spread and use of open source, 
communities, motivation, and the amount of people involved in open source 
projects in the middles east and iraq, or other arabic countries? If 
possible, i also need information about the internet infrastructure in the 
different countries? What kind of connection and how fast? another point of 
interest is the sponsorship for open source projects. I focus on my research 
on the economical effects of the use of Free Open Source Software and will 
relate all my research to this subject. So especially these issues 
(motivation, development of the country with FOSS, related also education, 
and economical value) of great interest to me. It is difficult to find 
appropriate information on the current situation therefore I addressed 
myself to you.
Also I would like to know how open source developers make their living when 
commiting their time to the development of open source projects. Is the work 
mainly done in the free time or is there something like a profesional open 
source developer.

I hope not to have overwhelmed you with all my inquiries.

Thanking you very much for your help in advance, I remain,

Sincerely yours,

Rami

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