Arab Techies and our code sprint are mentioned in the new academic publication Access to Knowledge in Egypt: New Research on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development Edited by Nagla Rizk and Lea Shaver:

"Efforts to promote eCulture should also be encouraged from the bottom up. In parallel to the MCIT projects, initiatives on a grassroots level are also endeavoring to expand the Arabic-language presence on the web. The Arab Techies Group is a case in point. Convened in 2008, the group first met to discuss ICT issues that pertain to community support and access to knowledge, concluding that Arabic support problems are consistent. For example, existing Arabic search technology, an important pillar for research and development, does not match with the rapidly growing content on the web. The group also agreed that improving Arabic digital content will require a broader spread of language processing tools, ideally in the form of widely affordable OSS. Hence, the group came up with the idea of developing a code sprint, whereby they will work together on creating an open source solution around language tools. The group has launched a website at http:// arabtechnies.net and to convened its first intensive code development workshop in May 2009."

(Chapter 6: Information and Communications Technology for Development: Building the Knowledge Society in Egypt p.218-219)

The publication was released under a creative commons license and is available for download in PDF format.