Manal Hassan

A FOSS enthusiast, her main interest is adapting and delivering technology to non-techies, and training them to make it their own. She co-founded the Egyptian GNU/Linux Users Group (EGLUG) in 2004 and the Arab Techies Collective in 2008 and has extensive experience in working on web technologies and new media with NGOs, human rights activists, and children.

She won the Best of Blogs (BOBs) and Reporters without Borders Freedom of Expression award together with her husband in 2005.

منال حسن

مطورة مواقع وب،
متحيزة للبرمجيات الحرة مفتوحة المصدر،
مهتمة بتقاطع مجالي التنمية و تكنولوجيا المعلومات،
و يبهجها العمل مع الأطفال.

Alaa Abd El Fattah

From his work with children using facebook to ridicule their teachers in the arab digital expression camps, to his work with pro democracy activists using blogs to mobilize thousands of Egyptians against the government in the Kefaya movement, Alaa just loves helping people use ICTs to stick it to the man.

By day he works as a Free/Open Source Software developer, by night he dons his mask and cape and patrols the streets of cairo, jumping from campaign to campaign building websites, providing support and training, looking out for activists in need.

He likes to pretend that his work on the Egyptian Blogs Aggregator helped bring in a new era of citizen journalism and usher in a new generation of digital activists, while the rest of the world acts as if his blog is relevant.

علاء عبد الفتاح

كان بامكان علاء عبد الفتاح أن يصير عالما مهما أو مطور برمجيات مشهور لكنه كلما بدأ في الطريق تشتت ذهنه بمطارده الفراشات اللامعة أو التقى بصحبة لطيفة فجلس و نسى مشواره.

حاليا يقضي علاء أغلب وقته أمام شاشة حاسوب متظاهرا العمل و النضال، ان سئل عما يفعل سيرد بمونولوج طويل عن ثورة قادمة يعمل جاهدا على اذكاء نيرانها. و ستعكس خطة ثورته المزعومة آخر الموضات الرقمية فهي ثورة حرة مفتوحة المصدر منبرها التدوين و الصحافة الشعبية، و ميثاقها منقوش على ويكي دائمة التغير و طليعتها سحب من الروابط و الوسومات و عناوين البريد.

old bio

With an obsession with computers and cats named after French metro stations, Alaa Abd El Fattah was destined to become an uber geek. Somewhere along the way he lost his footing, the strict requirement of non existent social life and science fiction fanboyism became too much for him. To compensate, he has been posturing as a hacker, a FOSS advocate, a blogger, an ICT4D worker, a pro democracy activist, a citizen journalist and whatever else is the internet's buzz word this week.