Under the patronage of Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, UAE's Minister of Economy and Planning, a pioneering initiative aimed at creating new industry benchmarks and a certification program for commercial websites has been launched.
The initiative, the Internet Standards Organization (InterStandards), has the mission of accelerating the development of the region’s Internet industry by developing a set of new standards in e-marketing, e-design, e-content, e-security and e-solutions for commercial websites.
Supported by Dubai Internet City and eHosting DataFort, the initiative seeks to structure these benchmarks through a certification program that adheres to British Standards Institution (BSI) standards. The standards will be promoted among the industry through a comprehensive marketing program to be conducted in association with Dubai Internet City and EHDF.
InterStandards will have 5 standardization modules:
• e-design and structure module
• e-marketing module
• e-media / content module
• e-security module
• e-solutions / web coding module
These standards will act as guidelines for quality in the web development sector and serve as unified industry benchmarks for evaluating internet websites. “InterStandards aims to create a rich environment for the Internet industry to thrive and grow,” said Jamal Abdulsalam, Executive Director of Dubai Internet City. “As the region’s ICT hub DIC, we are keen to support and participate in initiatives that drive the growth of the ICT industry. Through this joint venture with eHosting DataFort and Arab Internet Standards Organization, we seek to help accelerate the growth of the Internet industry and revolutionize the growth of a new vibrant e-business sector from the heart of Dubai.”
“Establishing industry standards is key to the continued growth of the region’s emerging Internet industry,” said Dr. Saeed Al Barwani, CEO of eHosting DataFort (eHDF). “Standards promote best practices that in turn catalyze aspirations for higher levels of excellence. As the leading Managed Technology Services and IT Security Consulting services provider in the region, eHDF is very happy to contribute to and articulate towards creation of industry benchmarks that will accelerate ICT industry development in the region.
InterStandards will address the various inadequacies plaguing the Arab world’s Internet industry. “Very few internet portals in the world follow the right standards for structure and design,” said Duri Al Ajrami, InterStandards Managing Director. “Poor online payment security in the world and lack of online product lines and fulfillment logistics on Internet portals are hampering the developing of e-commerce. Very few portals follow industry regulations for traffic analysis and banner management to create a proper e-marketing medium. Very few portals also offer genuine content and use the right technology. The new intiative will work to address and drive quality in each these areas,” he added.
“BSI Management Systems is excited to be working with InterStandards on this exiting project, we hope that this will move the market forward and introduces international level standards to this new industry. BSI, being at the forefront of standardization, will be contributing to the success of this initiative” commented Laith Dajani, Regional Manager, BSI.
InterStandards promises to bring wide-ranging benefits to users and developers of websites. The standards will increase confidence levels for users in online payment security while certified websites will be able to drive traffic and raise advertising revenue for their site.
Advertisers will have access to more credible e-marketing data through audited website traffic statistics while content providers can tap into enhanced opportunities for digital branding and web development.
The standards are also expected to raise the quality of e-payment and e-security systems, and e-marketing solutions deployed on the web. These in turn will have several spinoffs for retailers, logistics providers and the credit market stimulating the growth of the entire value chain of the web-based industry.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
