October was a very busy month for Aswat, but busy is good! On Aswat, being busy means that more members are blogging and more members are using the various tools and resources on the site. Although in the past month the Middle East and North Africa region did not witness many major events, which was the case over the past few months, we did see many of you come back to Aswat to blog about various hot topics in the region. At the same time, we were busy trying to make improvements on Aswat’s design and features based on the feedback you gave us through the recent membership survey.

With regards to regional events, we noticed that many of you joined us from Tunisia, and some of you blogged about the Tunisian presidential elections. We welcome the many new members who have joined us over the past month, and thank those who are still loyal to Aswat. Your input on the Tunisian elections drove hundreds to Aswat from across the region in search of more information on an election that seems to have gone by unnoticed. Many predicted the results of this election, and now that the results are out we want to hear more from you on what you think will ensue.

Speaking of our members, back in September we reached out to all of you and asked for your opinion on the look, feel and usability of the site, as well as whether or not it is meeting your needs. We would like to thank all of you for your feedback, and as you can see, we did not waste any time implementing some of the changes you requested. We added some color to the site, and rearranged the homepage to help you get to the information you want more easily. We are pleased to know that you come to Aswat to get updated on important issues, to voice your thoughts, ideas and opinions on topics, as well as find tools and resources to support your activities. We will continue to enhance your ability to perform all these functions through Aswat. We will also continue to report on all the issues that you told us you are interested in with a special focus on events relating to human rights, democracy, reform and citizen participation.

We are moved by how Aswat has become the home and voice, (pun intended!) for members from all over the MENA region, and we look forward to growing our network of friends and members. We are committed to staying in touch with all of you, and we will explore other creative ways of doing so in the near future. Stay tuned for more changes on Aswat to better meet your needs and to improve your experience. Thank you for your continued support and for driving Aswat to success!