1. C. Bryan Gabbard and George S. Park, The Information Revolution in the Arab World: Commercial, Cultural and Political Dimensions (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corp., 1996), 16; S. E. Goodman and J. D. Green, “Computing in the Middle East,” Communications of the ACM 35, no. 8 (August 1992):21 The authors also indicate that they believe that Islamic religious constraints, often cited as a reason for the slow adoption of information technologies in the region, are overemphasized. The authors stress the importance of personal contact and fact-to-face communications in the Middle East.
2. Omayamha Al-Dahhan and Muhsan Makhamreha, “The Impact of Computerization on Work Activities of Banks in Jordan,” Journal of Dirrasat 17 (November 1990):168–86 (in Arabic); Minwir Al-Shammari and Fuad Najeeb Al-Shaikh, “Computer Utilization in Jordanian Industrial Companies” (Irbid, Jordan: Al-Yarmouk University) (First Conference on Administration, December 1993):1–23; Shirin Madon, “Introducing Administrative Reform through the Application of Computer-Based Information Systems: A Case Study in India,” Public Administration and Development 13, no. 1 (1993):37–48; Goodman and Green, 24.
3. TradePort, Jordan: Economic Trends and Outlook [http://www.tradeport.org/cgi-bin/banner.pl/ts/countries/jordan/trends.html]. TradePort is a current, comprehensive Web site for international trade. It is managed by the Bay Area (San Francisco, CA) Economic Forum and the Los Angeles (CA) Area Chamber of Commerce. Original sources for much of the TradePort data used in this article are from various publications and issuances of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and more specifically, the Department’s National Trade Data Bank.
4. “Our Say: Reforming the Civil Service” (Editorial), The StarOnline: Jordan’s Political, Economic, and Cultural Weekly (Amman), March 6, 1997 [http://www.arabia.com/star/970306/OP3.html].
5. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Background Notes: Jordan (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, October 1995). Also available on-line from the Department of State at the following URL: http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/index.html.