Happy Eid to everyone in Lebanon and throughout the region. We wish you a pleasant and relaxing time with your family and friends! And if you’re going to the village, please drive carefully and wear your seatbelts!

A photograph of digital cameras, all with the Colosseum in Rome on their screens, a recent acquisition of the Princeton University Art Museum.

SMEX has also been on the road for the past two weeks, first Cyprus and now the US, which goes a little way at least to explaining our recent silence. We’re using this much needed break to think about next steps as we see new needs emerging with the evolution of the social media landscape evolving in Lebanon and throughout the region. We’ll keep you posted with our thoughts.

In the meantime, we’re also planning for a busy fall. In the first week of October, we’re excited to host graphic designer John Emerson for a series of workshops and talks about information visualization for advocacy. We’re still setting the final schedule, but will post it soon and provide a way for NGOs and civil society organizations, as well as designers and others to get involved.

Also expected in October: WIT will host a Networking & Sustainability conference, Creative Commons will visit Lebanon, and the 4th New Arab Women Forum will feature social media as one of its themes. We’re still gathering all the details and will post them here as soon as it’s all official.

Meanwhile, enjoy your holiday. We’ll enjoy ours. And we look forward to seeing and working with you again very soon!