Egpyt: How is Gamal Mubarak doing Online?

Sharek,which means participate in Arabic, is the name of an online initiative launched by Mr. Gamal Mubarak, son of current President Hosni Mubarak and the General Secretary of the Policy Committee of the National Democratic Party (NDP). The new forum is targeting Egyptian youth, by answering their questions and engaging in a dialog with them through a series of online forums, receiving questions (mailed/videoed). So far, he executed two forums in August & October 09, this paper is an attempt to evaluate Gamal Mubarak, not politically, based on his online moves and utilizing social media tools within his political interests. Below are 9 Questions about Gamal Mubarak’s Online Initiative.

1. What online media tools did Gamal use?
o Facebook:
  - Fan page, gathered 9269 supporters.
  - Social Ad for Sharek

o Flickr:
  - Created an account in August 2009.

o DeviantArt:
  - Social Ad for Sharek

o MSN:
  - Social Ad for Sharek on the messenger.

2. How many minutes did Gamal speak in the two forums?
o 1st Forum: approx. 1 hour, 15 min (Out of 2hrs). And the rest for the Audience.

o 2nd Forum: approx. 48 min. (Out of 2 hrs). And the rest for the Audience.

3. How many pictures are taken for Gamal, comparing to the Audience? Where are they?
o 1st Forum: 10 pictures for Gamal, 12 pictures for Gamal & the Audience, 1 for the Audience.

o 2nd Forum: 4 pictures for Gamal, 11 pictures for Gamal & the Audience, 5 for the Audience.

The pictures are uploaded on Sharek’s website, Facebook Fan page and the Flickr account:
o 1st Forum: Facebook (uploaded 4 days later), Flickr (uploaded 6 days later, 2450 views).
o 2nd Forum: Facebook (uploaded same day), Flickr (uploaded 1 days later, 1428 views).

4. How was the broadcast?
o 1st Forum: weak broadcast, big gap between the real-time and broadcasted
o 2nd Forum: better broadcast, less gap.

5. Target volume?
Based on a report issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in July 2009, there are 13 million Egyptian internet user. Knowing that number of questions Sharek website received is only 700 question. I think getting only 700 questions from 13 million internet user shouldn’t be considered a success.

6. Is there any visual tools and attractions?
o 1st Forum: no any kind of attractions. Only a banner for the National Democratic Party.
o 2nd Forum: distributed book-notes with Sharek’s logo, the speakers on the panel had cups with the logo too, and the NDP banner was replaced by a banner having Sharek logo.

7. Is everything archived?
o 1st Forum: only 1 hr, 26 min is archived out of more than 2 hrs.
o 2nd Forum: only 1 hr, 77 min is archived out of more than 2 hrs.
Are they censoring what to be archived?

8. Was Gamal on time?
o 1st Forum: Yes.
o 2nd Forum: No, 30 minutes delay!!.

9. Video Questions?
o 1st Forum: the aired questions sent in a video format, were removed from the archive.
o 2nd Forum: they didn’t air any video question.
Probably because the videos aired in the 1st forum were not credible, and doubtful.


*Numbers mentioned are valid until the published date of the post. For more information about the mentioned numbers please contact me.