Jawwad Farid and risky business in the IT sector
Whenever we dicuss the IT sector in Pakistan, the conversation is usually about what we lack and not what we have. Then we compare it to India with all its government subsidies, state of the art infrastructure and lament all the catching up we have to do. While there is nothing wrong with making that comparison because competition is healthy, we need to realize that Pakistanis have been blazing trails in the IT industry for some years. Even with all the hurdles we have in our way, the sector has been providing niche services and is often unnoticed. There is ...
Read Full PostSo what’s wrong with being connected?
Look at the picture above. It was taken at an event attended by the most connected people in Pakistan, sitting row upon row, young and old alike. Something tremendous may be happening on stage, but all of them are staring into devices that are gobbling up their lives. When I was growing up, the biggest sci-fi thing out there to marvel at was the ‘tricorder’, which existed in the fantasy world of Star Trek. According to Wikipedia, a tricorder is a multifunction handheld device used for sensor scanning, data analysis, and recording data. A tricorder from Star Trek was about as capable as the ...
Read Full PostSaving Face at the Oscars
In the midst of all the negativity that seems to be coming out of our country, every now and then a bright spark emerges. Sometimes it’s a win against the best Test team in the world of cricket. Sometimes it’s something a little more enduring – like Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. This remarkable woman’s documentary “Saving Face” has been nominated for an Oscar. Yes – you read it right – a Pakistani is going to the Oscars on the basis of a project which highlights “acid violence”. Instead of showcasing the negative, the documentary shows the resilience of its Pakistani victims. ...
Read Full PostLet’s bring back concert culture
So what do people my age talk about when they meet? When I say my age I mean the mid-30s where almost all of us have settled down to something or someone. We don’t talk about politics like everybody younger than us (thanks to Immy K) and older than us (thanks to the rest) does. We don’t talk about cricket because frankly, we are too busy to remember all the names in this ever changing team which is divided for us into the Afridis and the Misbahs. So what do we talk about? Music. Yes, definitely music. The one force that binds us ...
Read Full PostTwo Golds and five Silvers! Well done Pakistan
People view the IT and software industry of Pakistan as a fledgling market. It does not get a lot of media attention and there are many rumours and speculation about what is actually being developed in these offices. However, this industry has behemoth competition, not just from our neighbours, but within the region itself. Our IT and software sector has an organization, which acts as an umbrella body representing and grooming products and companies to pitch to the world, called P@SHA or Pakistan Software Houses Association. A month ago P@SHA held the ICT awards in Pakistan, where they selected 18 ...
Read Full PostWho is @NaveenNaqvi ?
Naveen Naqvi is the Executive Director of Gawaahi, a Pakistan-based non-government organisation. Prior to this, she was the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Gawaahi.com, a completed, self-sustaining project of Gawaahi. As a broadcast, online and print journalist, Naveen has been a senior news anchor for DawnNews, producer at NBC News and written for Huffington Post, The Express Tribune, Dawn and The Friday Times. She has traveled from Kazakhstan to Germany and Brazil for her work as a journalist and now as a social media activist. Before this, Naveen was a television actor, model and music show host. When did you first join Twitter and why? I ...
Read Full PostWho is @FarhanMasood ?
A single dad to a 6-year-old princess Farhan Masood is the founder of Go Green Pakistan, a campaign aimed at connecting patriots in the country. He enjoys putting smiles on people’s faces and loves Pakistan. When did you join Twitter and why? I joined Twitter on July 2, 2009. I was known as Baba-e-Facebook due to my following and large numbers of comments on my funny statuses and then Talal Masood (@Taalz) introduced me to Twitter and I loved it. Twitter is like a text-based radio and every account holder has his or her own station. You can broadcast the text of your ...
Read Full PostVideo blog: What I saw in Badin
Two hundred people have fallen prey to the devastation that hit Badin and other areas in Sindh by more than 1,000 millimeters of rain in the last month. This is the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Sindh. Compare this to the 70 odd millimeters of rain that has fallen in Karachi over the past few days and one begins to realize the magnitude of the catastrophe Sindh is facing. I was in Badin earlier this week with a group of volunteers called SA Relief. I witnessed, first hand, what exactly was going on. From our entrance into the Golarchi area ...
Read Full PostWho is @TristramPerry ?
Tristram Perry is the information officer and spokesman at the U.S. Consulate General in Lahore. He was one of the driving forces behind Network, Pakistan’s first international social media summit, which took place in June in Karachi. Tristram is a career diplomat and has served at posts in Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Washington DC. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, he worked in public relations for several years in Boston, including as the director of Public Relations for the Boston Conservatory. He was educated at Tufts and Oxford University, and speaks Russian, German and Indonesian. 1) Why did you ...
Read Full PostWho is @Kalsoom82 Lakhani ?
Kalsoom Lakhani is founder and CEO of Invest2Innovate (i2i), LLC, a global social enterprise intermediary that matches investors with social entrepreneurs in emerging markets, with the pilot market launching in Pakistan in Fall 2011. Prior to starting i2i, Kalsoom was the director of Social Vision, which provided seed grants and hands-on support for social enterprises, and innovative initiatives in their start-up stages, mainly in Pakistan. Kalsoom is also a managing editor, and helped launch Think Change-Pakistan- a blog that tracks the social entrepreneurship and innovation space in the country. She also founded and runs the popular blog, CHUP, or Changing up ...
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