Here goes!...

[In the name of God the most gracious and most merciful]
digitally speaking...
My name is Ibrahim Mamoun Ibrahim. Like many of you, it has been a nagging desire of mine - to keep a journal or memoir. I have also had the desire to write a column in a paper or magazine somewhere ...someday.......thanks to the internet, one can do both - write a blog and share thoughts and experiences publicly. When I was earning my undergraduate degree in the University of Khartoum (Sudan), I thought I would call such a column (if I ever wrote it) "Kallam Zahaj!".....roughly translated that means "Pet peeves!" when I came out to the US to pursue graduate school, I left my heart behind in Sudan, so in yearning for home my interests became Sudan-centric. Upon graduating, I started to work for a Silicon Valley technology company in 1997, at which time I came to fancy the idea of writing something along the lines of ... "Memoirs of a Sudanese in Silicon Valley..." Shortly after that, I launched the website omdur.com (a site about Sudanese Music). My brother Ali and I introduced many features on this site, one of which one was an editor's column called "Digitally speaking..." The column was not regular, as we struggled for time to design, write, code and maintain the site as wellas respond to a flood of email. As life sucked us into more and more obligations, the website (omdur.com) suffered but over the last few years we realized that it may be one of the most significant things we had ever done. It has introduced us to wonderful people, some of which have become dear friends. Also, it has been an extremely effective way to do something about and something for Sudanese Music and culture- which in our opinion deserves a voice and a larger share in the world music arena (and regional African and Arab regions as well).

So as my friend Harith just noticed, the name "digitally speaking..." captures several key ideas such as bringing ideas into the digital domain, turning analog fuzz into digital clarity (while this is not desirable in areas such as music where analog can represent warmth....in writing clarity is good).

So - here it is in all its unspectacular reality, my contribution at last - a mere indistinguishable drop in a sea of blogs or something that will become significant? Does it matter - probably not - I just want to express myself, document some thoughts and memories and have somewhere to interact with anyone interested.

Looking forward to your comments!

Enjoy...