"Every generation needs a new revolution and on November 18, 2009, Emiratweet was launched to revolutionise the Emiratis," said Hiba Al Samt, 25, Emiratweet founder and Dubai Women's College graduate.
The website was launched at the Twitter Conference held in Dubai in the hope of helping Emiratis revamp their image and come together as a community.
"They [expatriates] are afraid to approach us and we [Emiratis] are afraid to approach them," said Hiba. "I want to show them we don't bite and that we are easygoing and OK to talk to."
Coming together
Hiba's idea was to create a place where Emiratis could interact, similar to online communities set up for expatriates in the UAE. "When they [expatriates] come from their own countries they already have communities they can join," said Hiba.
She realised a need to bring the national population together when her visits to community events showed an obvious absence of Emiratis.
"I've recently been attending a lot of community gatherings and realised they are all organised by expats for expats and no Emiratis are involved," said Hiba.
Breaking down barriers
She added: "We are a minority in our own country and we Emiratis feel all that's happening is just for the expats."
Having vowed to herself that 2010 would be a year of change, Hiba organised Emiratweet's first talk on the second day of the new year.
In another initiative, EmiraTalks 1.0 — Think the Unthinkable, more than 120 people attended a panel discussion in which Emiratis from various professions spoke about the highly-publicised issue of Dubai and the financial restructuring.
"We've been getting a lot of media bashing and we've been listening," said Hiba. "So now I believe it's time for us to speak out and not allow the world to create this false image of us and do nothing about it."
Different initiatives
The next session of EmiraTalks will take place on March 6, Hiba said. But a topic has not been finalised yet.
Funded independently by its founders, Emiratweet communicates with its members and fans through online mediums. "We try to use any media we can find but currently the most active are Facebook and Twitter," said Hanan Huwair, 24, Emiratweet co-founder and American University of Sharjah graduate.
"You'll notice on the website we've divided Emiratweet into different initiatives" said Hanan. She explained how EmiraTalents, EmiraTalks, EmiraTech and EmiraTweet headline separate initiatives addressing various aspects of community life.
The founders plan to introduce additional initiatives such as Emira-Treasures, which will in essence be an Emirati book club. "The plan is to uncover books, poems and writings of Emirati authors that even I don't know about, and open them up for discussion," said Hanan.
