I am a strong believer in the potential of technology entrepreneurship in the Middle East. From Alexandria to Damascus, I have met dozens of impressive ICT developers and entrepreneurs who, despite difficult conditions and archaic regulations which still believe that developing an Android application has the same needs as a fertilizer factory, are doing incredibly creative and potentially highly lucrative work.

During my last visit to Ramallah I spent half-a-day at Bazinga!, the fresh Palestinian technology hub. I wrote about it for TechCrunch…

 

They say Palestinians are more passionate about the Spanish football league than Spaniards.

Not here, though.

“The Barcelona-Real game? No, we’re not really the football watching type.” Mohammad and Mourad laugh. “We did read the results on Twitter though”.

Welcome to Bazinga!, the first Palestinian tech hub, offering a workspace and support to technology and internet entrepreneurs.

The brainchild of five friends, Bazinga! has in a few months established itself as a central address for internet and mobile applications startups, and its founding fathers (and mother) unavoidable figures of the Palestinian tech scene.

Fans of the “Big Bang Theory” sitcom will immediately recognize the famous catchphrase that gave the company its name, but it’s not clear to everyone. “People ask a lot about the name”, tells me acting CEO Mohammad Khatib. “Today at the bank the teller asked me to explain the company’s name – and there was a full queue behind me!”

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Read the rest of the article here – and come back for comments!