First for-profit product is Translatedesk.

This morning at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, NGO Meedan.org has launched Meedan Labs, a for-profit spinoff to work on commercial ventures focused on regional and global access to digital real-time content.

Meedan Labs’ first product is a social translation product for social media, called Translatedesk. The company said: “This product was informed by our extensive work translating tweets, Facebook posts, and voice messages from Egypt during the early days of the January 25 Revolution.” It will release on teh Web on Nov 11 in a partnership with Taghreedat to translate Saudi Arabian social media for National Geographic’s Out of Eden Walk.

Meedan.org, based in San Francisco and Cairo, was founded by Ed Bice [pictured], Chris Blow, and Karim Ratib.

The non-profit arm of the outfit has been developing social translation software with a focus on Arabic and English translation since 2006. Meedan.org will continue to promote open-source technologies and strategies.