Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst, has been researching Syrian history since 1996. He is the author of three books on modern Syria. Over an 8-year period, he has accumulated a very large collection of papers, documents, and photographs, which he decided to display in the first online museum of Syria. The idea came to mind and was executed with his friend Sahban Abd Rabbo, the site's webmaster, in late 2004.