The Zaytuna Distance Learning Spring Semester will be launching soon. One of the new courses is “Getting Back to Basics: Islam 101″with Imam Zaid Shakir.

Course description:

A course explaining the basics of Islamic belief and worship with a concentration on the elements and issues that are essential for the sound and practical practice of Islam in our time.  Appropriate and beneficial for not only the new Muslim, but for any Muslim living in the West, this course will cover “the Five Pillars,” “the Articles of Faith,” aqidah, basic fiqh, and critical issues such as appropriate gender relations and how to defend oneself against the attacks currently being levied against Muslims.

Originally taught in Zaytuna during the Winter 2007 quarter, the Zaytuna team has released this course as part of the Spring 2008 quarter. Another new course is “The Prophetic Characteristics: Part III” taught by Sidi Yahya Rhodus.

Visit http://www.zaytuna.org/distancelearning.asp for more details. Video clips will be added to the Zaytuna Facebook Page.

Please share this post with your friends and family. Please encourage them to register for classes. Here is a testimonial from our brother & fellow activist:

“For years I have searched for an affordable distance learning program to quench my thirst for Islamic Knowledge. Finally, with the advent of Zaytuna Institute’s Distance Learning program, I have been blessed with the opportunity to learn from knowledgeable teachers who are inspirational individuals in their own right. I look forward to being a student of Zaytuna Distance Learning program for years to come inshAllah”

- Adam Soltani

Due to the *very* personal relationship with the Distance Learning Program Manager at Zaytuna, we have the exclusive honor of posting this announcement first.

One of the most highly anticipated tech events rolls into the San Francisco Bay Area in April. We have already scored ourselves some expo passes. Thanks to the organizers of the event, we are able to provide our readers a code to receive a $100 discount off the expo pass. This means you can get an expo pass for FREE!

To receive the code, please drop a comment and tell us which web 2.0 you have submitted this post to: StumbleUpon, Digg, Pownce, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Facebook Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=16554925133

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Web-20-Expo-San-Francisco/6972960853

Main page: http://en.oreilly.com/webexsf2008/public/content/home

Web 2.0 technologies are empowering us in ways we could only have imagined even just a few years ago. We’re able to build more, connect more, have more fun, sell more stuff, share more than ever before—and do it all faster. But as the pace of change and innovation accelerates, separating signal from noise, useful from annoying, genuine from fluff becomes increasingly challenging.

What tools and applications are right for a given project? How can we provide a more meaningful experience for users and customers? How can we have a positive impact on the world we live in? What are the ways we can create more value for our businesses? How do we gather and focus datapoints to deliver relevant information? How can we increase conversation and collaboration?

The second Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco takes the pulse of the Web ecosystem and looks to its future, training a spotlight across the Web 2.0 universe to illuminate how the Internet Revolution is being created and delivered. Web 2.0 Expo is for the builders of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists, people who have experiences to share and a passion for learning–the hot new thing, lessons from failures, innovations and inspirations, and the practical applications of all of the above. What will you do with the power of Web 2.0?

Many of us are familiar with finding the qibla in a hotel when visiting Muslim countries. Even more of us are familiar with using a pocket compass to find the direction of prayer in our homes and offices. Now, with an internet connection, you can find the Qibla via QiblaLocator.com.

This service will be a practical tool for travelers or anyone needing to find the qibla in a new, unfamiliar region. In other words, no more excuses.

This reminds me of Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi’s advice on finding the direction towards the right path using Islam as a guide: “Turn right, go straight”.

Thanks to Ijtema for the reminder, ibn Mas’ud for developing QiblaLocator.com and to Kevin McGill for the photo.

Wuala invites available! Thanks to our friends at TechCrunch for the opportunity to test out this alpha release of an online file storage system.

How to get an invite:

1. Subscribe to this blog - see sidebar, enter your email, click ‘Subscribe’
2. Once you have subscribed or if you are an existing subscriber, forward your copy of either your confirmation email that you have subscribed or an email of previous IslamCrunch posts
3. We will confirm your subscription and send an invite
4. Do it now, very limited invites available

What is Wuala?

Wuala is a new way of storing, sharing, and publishing files on the internet. Free, simple, and secure.

Wuala, your free online hard-disk

Wuala is a new way of storing, sharing, and publishing files on the internet. It’s a free desktop application for Windows and Mac that brings you a convenient and secure online storage. Unlike traditional online storage systems, Wuala is decentralized and can harness idle resources of participating computers to build a large, secure, and reliable online storage. This new technology has a number of advantages and it allows us to provide you a better service for free.

Access, share and publish files

You can use Wuala to upload a file and access it from anywhere else, even when your computer is offline. Or you can use it to share files such as photos, videos, music, or documents with friends or groups. Furthermore, you can publish files for the whole world to see. In the public area, you can search and browse for what others have published. You can store any file you want in any size you want. Downloads are fast and there are no traffic limits.

Start with 1 GB, get more if you need

You start with 1 GB provided by us. If you need more, you can simply trade some space on your hard disk for additional online storage. The idea behind Wuala is not to give you more storage in total (apart from the first GB provided by us), but to change the quality of your storage: It is able to transform local storage into online storage that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, even when your computer is offline.

Security and privacy

Wuala is secure and protects your privacy: All files you store are encrypted such that only you and those authorized by you can access them. All encryption and decryption is performed locally and your password is never sent to us - so not even we can access your files.

Free, convenient desktop application

Wuala comes as a convenient desktop application for Windows and Mac. After a quick download, Wuala is ready. It is integrated into your operating system so that you can conveniently drag and drop files, upload files in the background, open files in your favorite application, and stream media files directly.

Sidenote: Is it us or does the Wuala logo look like it’s using Arabic letters? Meem alif meem hamza seen?

Our favorite file sharing service, Driveway, recently announced free 2GB online storage accounts. We use Driveway frequently to send large files, designs, mockups, samples and miscellaneous files to clients, friends and family. So, how do you get a 12GB account? By referring your friends. Here’s the kicker… your friends do not need to accept and you will automatically receive an extra 10 gigabytes of storage space!

Today, we signed up for the free 2 gigabyte account, referred 5 of our friends and clients who we thought would benefit from this and PRESTO! we had a 12GB account. If you do not want to share this with your friends, add your numerous personal email accounts as referrals

Benefits of Driveway:

• Users can upload multiple files, up to a maximum limit of 500 MB per file.
• Driveway web widget - add a widget to your website, blog, social network
• Driveway desktop widget - easy access from your desktop
• Driveway plug-in - send files from your computer

Benefits of Driveway online storage:

• Manage and share files easily
• Track file downloads
• Create and update web widgets
• Easily share files with your personal address book

Note: IslamCrunch has already received a 12GB account. This is not a referral post, just wanted to share Driveway with our readers.