Moi in the Limelight

Peeps, been lying low deliberately. Got something cooking up. Can’t tell until I have all the ingredients and seasoning. Meanwhile, I had to share something with you all.

I am truly blessed. No, I didn’t go and have quadruplets. What is it that make life really worthwhile? Yes, fancy vacations, limos, size 10, Brad Pitt all that helps. But they don’t give you true happiness or what reason does Ms. Jolie have to be depressed. Right?

What really matters is when you can form a true human connection with people around you. See and experience the best in them. The kind of best that makes you look at the madness surrounding human kind and start believing in an alien race conspiring against us. Because how can a specie capable of so much goodness, such love, such warmth and sensitivity ever hurt anyone at all.

I am fortunate enough to know many such people and Amy Scerra is one of them. She is a project manager at Thunderbird. We met while I was there for Project Artemis. We didn’t bond instantly. To me she was the distant one. The one who was quiet, didn’t laugh out loud much, kept her distance. She dressed awesome. Wore a diamond watch. The Rich American Woman. And then she let me have a peek inside her soul. We were riding one night in a van and she started talking religion. Oops. Seriously? A liberal Christian-American from NY who studied in Las Vegas wants to know about Allah and Qura’an. So happens she had a copy of the Qura’an she had bought on her many travels. This apparently small gesture made me see her differently. It was just the “respect” factor. A person who could bond with others as a “person” minus the titles and tags. And the more I came to know about her especially through her blog the more I knew she was my “kindred spirit”.

1st day, 1st impressions. What a DIVA! Diet coke, neon OPI and a Nordstrom dress. Can you blame me?

 

Lil Princess Amy and a giant Moi. We were color coordinated that day. *sigh. Miss her so much.

 

Today we are sisters and best of friends.

Why am I writing this? Because she recently gave a TED Talk in Phoenix that touched me to the core. A tweet, FB status, an email, none of those could do justice to how I feel every time I listen to it and neither does this blog. But I had to share this.

Love you soul-sister.

You can watch the TED Talk here:

Or on Vimeo here:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/65371163″>Amy Scerra at TEDxPhoenix Change – The Human Moment</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user15593072″>WD League</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Twitter – That Astounding Social Network

Social Media … WOW … someone in Belize (didn’t even know it existed a while ago) factory unlocked my iPhone 4 that was on Gevey Sim. Just IMAGINE the probability of that happening a decade ago (yeah OK there was no iPhone then either but you know what I mean). It’s just so mind-boggling.

I wasn’t a fan of twitter until just recently. And I met the most fun / cool people along with losers the likes of which I didn’t know existed. Below are some of my fav ppl on Twitter:

Nadeem Farooq Paracha
@NadeemFParacha (BTW he has blocked me *tear )
Have loved the guy since his sindi topi-wearing days when he would critique local music. I used to be (still am minus Salman Ahmed) a huge Junoon fan and loved how he would praise them. Some call him Brother Grim for h is constant sarcasm but I find it entertaining. Plus, it doesn’t hurt anyone personally.

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Nabiha Mehr Sheikh
@NabihaMeher
The lady rose to fame, at least for me, coz of a blogpost on eTribune where she publicly ‘fessed up to being bipolar. Then had a huge fight with some guy on Twitter accusing him of inciting others to “do the unthinkable” to her. Love how in her passion for feminism, she constantly picks up offense over the silliest of things, pushes the boundaries between being a women-right activist to being a male-antagonist).

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Shiraz Hassan
@ShirazHassan
He is a journo but anyone who knows me knows just how much I love reading papers. I enjoy his photos. He goes around the country taking pics of places no one has heard of. many of the places he photographs I have seen and passed by but have never had the time to really LOOK AT and ADMIRE.

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Saadi Sattar 
@SaadiSattar
Every time I get stuck using WP this guy is the one I turn to. The kid runs a popular tech blog that he started at the age of … hold your breath … 14. So if you have a question about using wordpress, blogging, Nexus, or any gadgets, ask him. Chances are, he WILL respond and be helpful.
Blogs:
Android Muscle
Lolzz

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Amara Javed
@Amara807
Want to follow someone who will NEVER EVER tweet about politics or history or philosophy and just make you think the world was made of rainbow colored marshmallows with blue-haired, techni-color girls singing wearing disgustingly expensive designer clothes she is your gal. Have seen her grow from a 9-6 office registrar to the top fashion blogger in Pakistan. Sub-continent, Paris, NY, London, ME, she has it all covered.
Blog: Pink 2.55

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Dani
@iPhone5_nerd
In case you are curious about the guy that factory unlocked my iPhone, this is the dude.

 

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Miserable Madge
@MiserableMadge
This account is hilarious. Sure there is repetition but whoever is posting is doing a great job. Get my daily dose of laughter from here.

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Imtiaz
@Inspirex
An extremely helpful Pakistani marketing strategist. Stuck with a questions about SEO?  Or trying to decipher GoDaddy? The guy despite being next to a complete stranger offered to help and spent a good ten minutes explaining it all. Hats off to the innate goodness of people.

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Maham Ali
@mahamali05
Recently discovered her. She is hilarious & that’s enough for me to love her.

 

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Sana Saleem
@SanaSaleem
Meet my wife (inside joke u would only know if u were on Twitter). Don’t understand her activism tweets or posts but she can talk nonsense with girlfriends and hence she is on this most prestigious list.

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QZ
@Natrani
Met at Kuch Khaas – that most snobbish of places in Islo. Changed my perception about NGO/activist types. The chocs she fed me helped as well. Love her to bits.

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My Shiny Lights People – in other words, entrepreneurs or those involved with them

Azhar Rizvi
@Azhar Rizvi
My mentor.My brother. My friend. He believed in me when everyone else just laughed and even scorned. MITEnterprise Forum Pakistan’s Vice Chair. Founder Angel Fund Pakistan.

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Jehan Ara
@Jehan_Ara
Stalked the woman shamelessly for 3 years. An inspiration for Pakistani women. President @PASHAorg. Witty. Foodie. Techie. Loves all things “i” and “G” (go figure).

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Badar Khushnood
@Badar76
Google country head for Pk. Only G employee in Pk. Extremely humble and a thorough gentleman.

 

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Atif Mumtaz
@amumtaz
An entrepreneur. Cofounder of the first job portal in Pakistan, Brightspyre. Working on an International job portal now. A friend and advisor.

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The Pushtun-This-and-Pushtun-That Types (Journos, Bloggers, Media peeps)

There were too many here that I really like to follow. The title is a compliment so no Twitter wars please. (or why not!)

SAbaseen
@SesapZai
Blogger at BBC, Express Tribune, SesapZai.wordpress.com. Intellectual pushtun woman living in Canada and moving to France. She sketches and paints. Thinks I look like a younger (skinnier) caricature of Fauzia Kasuri and yet I still love her.

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Iftikhar Firdous
@IftikharFirdous
Journo at Express Tribune. Only vegetarian tribal pushtun I know (or that exists).

 

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Takhalus
@Takhalus
Jumps into random conversations between people. Shows off about his vast knowledge of history (yeah that kinda includes everything). Super secretive about his identity. As if anyone cares. Blogs at http://www.takhalus.blogspot.com/

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Usama Khilji
@UsamaKhilji
Claim to fame? He is my teacher’s son. The only teacher I was ever nervous with and made me feel like an idiot. Something called a Citizen Journalist. People seem to listen to him. Talks politics.

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Some International Tweeples

Alec Ross
@AlecJRoss
Met Alec at the US Ambassador’s residence in Pakistan. You remember him, right? Or let this jog your memory. Yeah the same guy. I like going through links he shares and his “This day in history” tweets. Plus, he is not hard on the eyes.

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Lukas Biewald
@l2k
I need this kid to sit up and take notice of me and my work and let my workers / service providers have access to CrowdFlower. Yes, I said NEED. Imagine the difference Rs. 4000 or $40 can make in the lives of a huge untapped workforce in rural Pak. Sigh!

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Dave McClure
@davemcclure
Cofounder of 500 Startups. ‘Nuff said. *SwirlyHearts*

Ok I think I am done. Once again – these are ppl I like to follow. Doesn’t mean this is an exclusive list of best tweeples out there. If you are here take it as a compliment and don’t read too much into anything.

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OK BYeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

P.S. No offense intended to anyone at all. If you are on the list, it’s a compliment from me – honestly – no side-dish of sarcasm served with that. Thanks

P.P.S. had to add the annoying lines coz otherwise the pics all ran into one another.

Journey to Excellence

Dear All, You know I don’t post anything but the deepest, most profound technology and startup news, gossip, whining. But I do like keeping it fresh. Give my own spin on everything. When Sajjad Saab sent me this article, I just had to publish it. You may think, “Gardening? On a startup blog?” Yes, dudes and dudettes. Every person needs something to unwind. A hobby. A pass time. Something that keeps stress at bay. Kirmani Saab being as big a name as he is in the local IT scene has a passion for gardening that he uses to not only show his creative side but it also keeps him sane through the daily challenges of running a biz. So read on my pretties.

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Spring is the perfect time to rejoice and enjoy the beauty of nature; it is the time when beautiful flowers blossom and beautify the whole world around them with their delicate feel.”

With this feel in mind, I showcased an exquisite arrangement of flowers at my Spring Garden in DHA Lahore. Antirrhinum, Petunia, Verbena, Pansy, Gazania, Tulip, Dimorphotheca Calendula, Cineraria were some of the flower varieties lined up in an array of colorful settings. As the panel of judges for the Spring Flower Competition 2013 entered into this garden, one of them quipped “this certainly is much better than what we saw here last year” while another one commented “it’s always a great pleasure to visit your garden”.

My humble efforts spanning over last the 6 months paid off when my garden was rated as the best garden in DHA Lahore while INFOGISTIC office also got recognized as the Best Trend Setting Commercial Office in DHA.

We the tech-entrepreneurs always wonder if there is also a life away from offices and gadgets. With fresh colors and amazing flowers, nature brings to us a magnificent state of bliss and comfort. The scent, the colors, the budding and blossoming new life refreshes one’s mind.

Apparently, developing software and raising flowers appears to be two different areas, but when gelled together, it makes the environment 100% green and eco-friendly. From the award of Best Start-up Company by P@SHA to the Best Garden in DHA Lahore, the journey has been truly enriching for me and for my entire team who are putting their best efforts to create a world class facility.

Though primarily a tech-entrepreneur, I have a passion for gardening that I pursue this in my spare time. Gardening is not about planting flowers only; it teaches us that in order to excel and be good custodians of green environment, we need to learn patience and to take the right steps in the right order at the right time. Just like human beings, the plants also respond positively to the love, warmth and care we accord to them. Having intimate knowledge of your landscape is imperative; as seeding a beautiful plant in the wrong part of your garden lets you down when it enigmatically does not perform well. One must know if a plant likes sun or shade, part sun or part shade, dry soil, wet soil, or something in between.

Finally, no matter who you are, what you do, if you are contented and satisfied from the inside, only then life shines and blossoms through you. I hope you enjoy some of the shots published here and the rest you can catch up on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/spring.gardening or  @SpringGarden_ on Twitter.

About the Author

Sajjad Kirmani is the Founder and CEO of INFOGISTIC (www.infogistic.com), an emerging IT company that focuses on providing information security, enterprise portals  and banking solutions to its customer across Pakistan and Middle East. INFOGISTIC was rated as the best Start up Company by P@SHA in 2012.

Sajjad holds a Master´s degree in Computer Sciences from University of London along with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from IBA. He is the President of IBA Alumni Association and has been the Vice President of Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA).

He showed us that age, gender or professional career cannot stop anyone from expressing oneself. Being an integral part of Software Industry, he introduces everyone to his Paradise.

Idea for an App, Maybe?

We badly need a repository of all startups (between 0 and 5 years old).

Also, a database of ratings for these startups as well as freelancers.

This will enable startups to collaborate and bootstrap each other. Will also help people like myself find freelancers for various tasks based on their skillsets and work ethics.

Yeah. I think it can be done via a simple Facebook App. Maybe the Pakistani Freelancers community can help. Badar Khushnood, you listening?

An app that all members of the page are required to sign up for. A rough mindmap would look like this:

Freelancers => First Name => Last Name => Skills (any 3)

I see a lot of people looking to hire for various projects. These people can also go to the app and see which freelancers offer what skills and they can directly connect with them. Once they find right person, they will check the freelancers name … something that shows s/he has hired xyz for xyz skill. At the end of the task, s/he can then leave a rating and comment.

This way, I am guessing we will have something that at least shows if service providers actually have the skills they claim. More importantly it will also solve a big problem where workers simply leave in the middle of a task or don’t do quality work.

What do you think? Is it too simplistic? Can it work? How much would it cost to build an FB app like that?

Woe is I

2-day blackout in dear ol’ Paki-land. Don’t let the official reports fool you. It wasn’t 2 hours. Went out for almost 48 hours. Not a problem, you say, I had a laptop and evo. Let me give you some basic 101 on the way laptops work. They need to be CHARGED which needs ELECTRICITY which we barely had for TWO FRIGGIN’ DAYS. How did that affect me? Um, let me explain that too.

I run an “online” business with ops running almost 24/7 since I have clients in about every continent. Soooo … I had some VERY annoyed clients. Oh no, they are usally very understanding and kind. But their patience has been tested to the max I believe. You see, Govt of Pakistan is personally responsible for ensuring all its citizens go to heaven. Soon as some idiot somewhere had the wonderful idea of making a video that hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the World and a few hundred people (read, Muslims) died in protests and some churches were burnt and public property was destroyed much in line with Islamic teachings, our wonderful Govt decided to ban YouTube. That way it protects its naive citizens from committing a sin and going to hell. Of course our IT Ministry and ICTR&D departments, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority etc have never heard of something called a proxy.

So I go to my clients and say err … can’t access any tutorials you have sent, I can’t also help maintain your YouTube channel any more. They were like, oh too bad but we love you so we will overlook it. Cool! But then … yes, there is more.

Govt decides to put a ban on Skype to phone calls. FINAL.NAIL.IN.THE.COFFIN.

Now how in God’s name am I supposed to call my clients, or call on behalf of them using their Skype number or receive calls on their behalf on their Skype number?

*SCREAMS

And no, Van Gogh had no idea what a scream, a real blood-curdling scream looked like. 

I lost 2 clients. 

While some poor, unsuspecting Muslim somewhere is sitting in his room watching whatever the hell he wants to watch using Hotspot Shield or VidProxy or whatever and condemning himself to hell.  

I thank the Government of Pakistan, Ministry of IT, PTA and, of course, the ONE AND ONLY, MR. Ban-It-All (that sounds strangely like PANADOL, no?), Interior Minister, Right Honorable Dr. Rehman Malik for coming up with all the brilliant ideas that are so effective in keeping peace in my country and ensuring we stay on the path to prosperity by banning YouTube, Skype to phone alls, and frequent bans on cellular phone services. Owe it all to you, Sir.

Crass but depicts how banning cellphones is NOT going to accomplish much

Am at the end of my wits.

Also, for more info on Internet Freedom, or lack of it, read here.

OK Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

Croak Croak … Croakun

This is a long over due post about the latest buzz in social media marketing and analytics.

Croakun [...] provides real-time social media analytics and personalized actionable recommendations to improve your online presence, engaging better with your customers while being more competitive than the competitors.”

Huh?

OK to simplify, you can watch this video. http://youtu.be/Zbl8K9ANlgg Dear ol’ Govt of Pakistan has put a ban on YouTube so can’t embed. If you are in Pakistan you can STILL watch it using this proxy site (no, don’t worry it’s not Hotspot Shield). Just go to www.Vidproxy.com and paste the above YouTube URL into the QuickLinks box.

Better than this, let me share some screenshots from the beta site. Yes, I have beta access since the founder, Kai Feng, is a friend and a client.

In. Your. Face. HA!

But ahem …

So suppose you want to keep a track of your Twitter conversations. Sure you can use Hootsuite but then how do you make any sense of all that data right in front of you? If you are a big business or an SME you will have to hire media experts (*eyeroll) to go through it and make some sense of it. So, you end up not only spending on the tool but also on your “experts”. Here is what croakun does.

This is where your Twitter stream shows. You can see on the left you can change between Twitter, Facebok and even G+ and LI I believe.

Geo Demographics tab takes all your data and puts it into neat charts based on languages and locations. Imagine how awesome this would be for an International Brand or a brand focusing on clients say in the US who speak both Hispanic and English. Possibilities are limitless.

The Volume tab is the cumulative tweets or facebook status by hours to see what time is the most active hour about a certain keyword!

Influencers – So if you are looking for influencers for certain keywords from your following list how would you know who are the most relevant tweeples and how they are ranked for that particular keyword? That’s where Croakun makes it all a piece of cake. Getting more and more excited?

Sentiments – ah, this gives you the pulse of twitterati. How are they feeling that day? Are they in a positive mood? This might be a great time to tell them about a new product launch. Bad mood? Yikes! Stay away – do not announce the new giveaway or what have you.

Can’t wait for it to go live.

In other news … I am well and as awesome as ever. Spending more time on Twitter than Facebook. Enjoying downloading torrents. Working with some great customers and service providers. Loving it!

OK byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Snippets from Past Few Weeks

Been a bit disturbed and distracted lately. My country is going through a really tough time and it hurts me to see it that way. Growing up I always thought people hurt other people for money, power, position. Now I am finding out they also kill for God. And a God that they all believe in but each wants the other to believe in Him exactly the same way s/he does. It’s all very confusing. I was going through my Facebook feed and I came across a quote by Rumi that resonates so well with everything happening.

“The truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.”

Anyway ……

I got great news today from the Hunza today. The NGO that I was working with to help bring digital work to the area has received grants to train 1500 locals in various kinds of online work. 60% of those trained are going to be women. I am so excited I can’t sit still. This area has 100% literacy rate in people 30 and below. They have advance, postgrad degrees from some of the top universities in Pakistan. If this works out, it’s going to be HUGE.

In other news, am thinking of registering TDL as a not-for-profit. Am a bit hesitant as the last effort to register as a sole proprietorship ended up with no results at all. If you know someone who can help me get it done with minimal hassle and a guarantee it will work out, get me in touch please.

Saw my beautiful guapa Amy after almost 2 years! I love technology and above all, Skype. We had a great video call reminiscing, laughing, planning, catching up. Wish everyone could understand that basic human feelings remain constant through every country, age, religion … if you are loved, won’t you love back? If you are respected, aren’t you gonna give it back? And if you are valued, will you respond any differently? I can never understand people who live in a different country but refuse to truly become a part of it because they are afraid of losing their identity or afraid of being treated badly. You receive what you give.

Pakistan mornings and Arizona nights were never filled with so much laughter!!!

Ooohhh … had these lovely keychains made for TDL by the very talented Varah Musavvir of Firefly.

We Can’t help everyone but everyone can help someone.

The Digital League – Empowering Pakistan One Digital Task at a Time

The Beauties

Thought these would be great for some marketing and for friendly give-aways.

Welcoming guys into The Digital League is proving to be a blessing and a great move. I am a feminist at heart and will always give preference to women-SPs over male ones (sorry boys!) but let’s face it – not very many women know setting up CRM systems and playing with SVGs. So am really glad to have these boys on the team now. Something tells me I am going in the right direction finally and it feels good.

OK then ….

byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee