DemoCamp Dubai 4 was ended with fun & exciting night, thanks for the organizer argaam & spinbits, even though I’m not feeling well last night I still manage to come over and check the demos that presented by different company. I was invited to do a live blogging in the democamp but because of my head is cracking & aching I just preferred to watched the demos, apology to rida:)…

So Yes! I decided to make a review of the demos that presented last night and here it is… click read more for more info.
Integrating iphone application by restate.ae – I think it’s a great move for spinbits to do an integration of their website restate.ae to a mobile application. Rida and Cloves Jr, 2 guys who founded the spinbits presented this demos to us.

Benefits
1. The restate.ae iphone application itself can search for sale and for rent properties in Dubai, it has a good search filter which you can see the result in real time.

2. Another feature is contacting the property agent directly through your iphone, you can send SMS, Call agent & I think the other one is contact agent which the agent will receive the message through the control panel of restate.ae browser. So everything is “at the tip of your finger“.

3. A user friendly interface. Yes! that’s what I can see, a few clicks and you can check the availabilities of the properties in Dubai.

Downside
This Downside “thingy” does not mean to criticize the demos, but to help in a such a way of developing/presenting the application to the next level.

1. Only in iphone??(!@$ – someone ask rida, if the application is only for iphone and he replied yes!.. I think that’s is one weakness of the mobile apps that they are doing, it’s only support iphone and not other mobile companies like Nokia, Blackberry, Samsung, HTC and other mobile companies but of course we are looking forward to see your apps supporting different mobile.

2. Adding Properties through iphone – I don’t know if I miss this but I think it would be nice if property agents can login through their iphone and add properties in a real time.

StartUp Database by StartUpArabia
This demo presented by Mr. Moh’d Marwan Meddah has a good impact to the Arab world. He receives a lot of compliments to the audience and I really like it, this breaks the silence of the democamp last night, but let see what is the benefits and the downside of it.

Benefits
1. For me my first reason in my Advantage list why startupArabia is welcoming by the Online Arab community is because of the awareness on how the internet can help individual Arab to make for their living or to prepare, choose the right career in the internet world.

2. Database overall is great for those people who are looking for a company who wants to finance or fund their project. If they are one of those who want to startup a business, they can check some successful entrepreneurs in the startuparabia

3. Another good thing is Marwan made this project not for a living hence he made this project to help people around the middle east countries to startup a business. I think the only thing that his getting is the adsense revenue .. which maybe handles his domain and hosting cost..

Downside
This Downside “thingy” does not mean to criticize the demos, but to help in a such a way of developing/presenting the application to the next level.

1. I think the downside of the Database Directory of StartupArabia can be the next Spam ground for people. Because it’s a wiki base application, people can add edit any information within the database. I think it’s ok for now to accept the changes but i hope in the future you need to have a per approval listing so you can monitor what information that you are getting..

2. I want to ask marwan lastnight about this organization who finance projects if they only accept arab people or they also accept other people instead, but I think it’s not relevant to the discussion so I shut my mouth- up..

E-Mapia Online location based marketplace – by Murshed
People might think this is just a nonsense idea, a common marketplace website but Murshed who presented Emapia make this as a big deal. In every aspects of the application it is well planned and well executed. By integrating google maps application into their service, they made a marketplace which has a main feature of google maps.

Benefits
1. It supports arabic text – of course this is great don’t you think?:)
2. Zooming Facilities and default zooming level
3. Easy Navigation with search filter
4. A new way of presenting Online Market Place

Downside
This Downside “thingy” does not mean to criticize the demos, but to help in a such a way of developing/presenting the application to the next level.

1. five items for every user – In my opinion this will be one weakness of Emapia, users can only add 5 items. Mushed was telling that they restrict user for adding 5 items only per account to control the spam in the website. I think it’s not the right decision to do it, instead of people likes the website and wants to add, help, contribute the website you are controlling them by restricting their capabilities as your user. Instead of restricting user you can do the following to control the spam.

• Captcha tools
• 2 user authentication
• mobile authentication
• per approval via email, browser or even mobile
• 5 items a day and not 5 items per account

if the above does not fit, you can monitor the ads from time to time.

2. Premium Account is not a good idea – take a note that ebay, amazon and I think souq.com does not require payment to add their listing. because in that way you are taking away the freedom of your user.

But as a whole you made a great job for doing such a wonderful web application.

w2task Time management application by Silviu Bojica
A twitter mate Silviu Bojica made a great job in his demo about w2task a web application where users can register online, create their own business (company) and projects, than attach efforts to them. In return the users will be able to track their own/team efforts and time spent on a particular project (time sheets) and invoice their customers. I think his a bit shy or I can say not prepared presenting his demo, because while listening to him

Benefits
1. It’s free and it will be an open source soon!
2. user friendly
3. Integrates to mobile application

Downsides
1. Not Manageable by time but that is in his list..
2. Notifications.
3. and more work to do Silviu! – Because it’s a new way of web apps, I think he needs to think some pointest buildin a web apps.. like Why w2task, some, what are the advantage, the difference from the other.. something like that. But you made a good job!Goodluck!

There you go my insights to the demos. Tariqq also added that in march this year there will be a DemoCamp Saudi Arabia and hopefully there will be more demos to present.. I am just wishing that someone can sponsor us to attend on the DemoCamp.

By the way comments is appreciated..

The 4th DemoCamp in Dubai will be held in Raddison Hotel Media City tomorrow January 28th at7:30PM. Even though we miss the 1st -3rd Democamp Dubai, SEO Dubai will certainly come tomorrow. According to the organizer (spinbits & argaam), they reserve the same room as the last event and they will keep the format the same. Here are some list of the demos who will be presenting in the 4th DemoCamp Dubai.

• restate.ae iPhone application: restate.ae is a real estate portal for the city of Dubai, the guys behind it (SpinBits) created an iPhone application to make it easier to find properties on the go, get more information about neighborhoods and some news.
• StartUpArabia Database: StartUpArabia is a weblog dedicated to new Arab technology startups and services, StartUpArabia Database is a free directory of Arab technology startups, entrepreneurs and financial organizations that anyone can edit and enrich, will be presented by Moh’d Marwan Meddah.
• eMapia: is an online location based marketplace. Using eMapia, people can browse through the country they live in to find businesses/people who added items for sale. Using Google Maps technology, everyone can check what is available for sale in areas near them!
• w2task: is a web 2.0 task & time management web based software, where users can register online, create their own business (company) and projects, than attach efforts to them. In return the users will be able to track their own/team efforts and time spent on a particular project (time sheets) and invoice their customers (planned feature).

So if you are interested and want to attend the event, you are free to come over and invite people you think might be interested in joining DemoCamp.

We are looking forward to see the outcome of the DemoCamp and hopefully soon SEO Dubai can participate in the demo presentation..