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AMMAN - HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global) stressed the importance of  professionalism in all fields of expertise in general and with respect to social media in particular. 

In his keynote speech as the Patron of the World Social Media Forum entitled ‘Professionalism of Social Media’, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh underlined his vision on the aspects of social media and its impact on various fields.

“We’re gathered today to discuss the power and potential of social media, and we cannot talk about social media without talking about data. Social media is about the monetization of data, and this has turned data into the most valuable asset on planet Earth. More valuable than oil and gas. More valuable than gold. Today, data is power and whoever controls it holds all the power,” Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh said.

In the Forum, organized by Moments Innovation for Events Management Company, headed by CEO Mr. Ayman Irsheid, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh addressed the gathering ‘not as a user of social media but as a Global Business Professional.'

However, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh pointed out that social media won’t be as it currently exists, without checks and balances, saying that after serving on professional international standard setting boards, he fully believes ‘professionalizing any trade is self-serving.’

It’s worth mentioning that Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh has served on many professional international standard setting boards and on several UN standard setting taskforces, including co-chairing the UN Global Compact as founder with UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan and subsequently with UN SG Mr. Ban Ki-moon, as well as on the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) on the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), on the ISO Technical Committee, on the Committee of Experts of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), on the Committee of Experts of the World Trade Organization (WTO), on Educational Quality Standards Boards, co-chair of UN ICT Taskforce, chair of UN Global Alliance for ICT for Development.in addition to others.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh refuted the idea that ‘professionalization kills innovation, saying that it is quite the opposite; calling for introducing a professionalism-based system that spurs innovation. He referred to TAG.Global as a hotbed for innovation because of its continuous professionalization, ‘not in spite of it’.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh shared with the participants a perspective on how to lay the groundwork for a more responsible, healthy, productive and inclusive social media future. 

“This is the perspective of Jumana, my daughter, the Founder of Pivot for Humanity: a non-profit organization with the singular mission of professionalizing social technology. The following are her words, adapted from various articles she published in a publication called Medium: ‘When you’re representing a point of view that hasn’t been widely propagated in a given debate, it’s only natural to encounter skepticism and resistance’,” he added. 

However, he affirmed: “we can’t even begin to face problems before we professionalize by attackin