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

Digital Work for the Silk Road

I am helping to manage an IT Center in Karimabad, Hunza. It’s a part of my efforts for female emancipation through digital

TimeSvr Team Training the Women

work. Back in 2008 when I first started working online I had no idea this is where it would lead me. My only priority then was staying sane and earning a pocket-money. As the power of virtual work unfolded before me and my life turned around for the better, I realized the impact it could have on our economy, our lives, our society. And thus Women’s Digital League was born. I founded this ‘virtual firm providing digital services to client, owned and powered by Pakistani women working from home’. For 3 years I lived, breathed, slept WDL. There were moments of extreme adrenaline rush that lasted for months, and then horrible lows when I thought I was demented for thinking this could work. However, being the stubborn dreamer that I am, I stuck to it, met incredible people, had horrid experiences, held success and happiness in my hands, found a voice and a purpose …

I made money … a lot of it – did fun stuff, bought expensive clothes but it only lasted for a short time. I wanted more. Personal gratification … that’s what was lacking … what I wanted more than anything else. I got my chance! I was connected by a client with an NGO working in Karimabad, Hunza that owned an IT Center. A-ha!

Hunza has a 90% literacy rate with many youngsters going to the urban areas for higher education. What’s refreshing is that almost always these young students decide to go back to Hunza, especially the women … so I had no problem finding the right workforce. To make things better, TimeSvr joined hands with WDL and we decided to work together on our mission to reach remote areas of Pakistan that had a good literacy rate and where there was sufficient interest on part of local organizations to help us run digital work centers in beta. It gives me such a thrill saying this … Ladies, the experiment has been successful!

We started with Amazon MTurk and CrowdFlower, and now we are doing similar work with individual clients for a lot more than what the former two offered. Not only that, we are sending them more advance tasks like converting PDF files to Word, cleaning up Excel sheets, and so on. A typical school or college teacher in the valley earn up to Rs. 4000 ($45-50) per month working fulltime 6 days a week. In 1997 the population of Karimabad was said to be 5000 people. Even if it’s doubled since then, you can imagine just how many schools/colleges exist in the area. At the IT Center the women work for about $150 a month. The place has substantial room for growth and even profit if it can be sustained via regular work, solar panels to help with the power situation and a reliable Internet connection.

Now WDL is merged with TimeSvr. In fact, there is no WDL. I only work for the IT Center and hope there will be many more like it along the Karakoram Highway which is a part of the ancient Silk Road. I always have trouble winding up a post but I guess all I want to say is that is working on this project gives a meaning to my life and a direction … what the more dramatic would call a ‘calling’. And I am loving every moment of it.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Digital Marketing Workshop Gone All Wrong

I just couldn’t resist this one. Received the following email from Skill Development Council, Islamabad:

“Become a Digital Marketing Expert”

Attention:HR & Training Heads, Sales / Marketing Managers, SEO Beginners, Web Developers, IT Professionals, Affiliate Marketers, SEO Business Lovers, Marketing Companies, Ad copywriters, IT and Management Students.

Women are encouraged to join this program as it will enable them to start working from their home

Digital marketing has become imperative in today’s business world. Companies are looking for business development professionals who can help them in achieving their online sales targets. Without Digital marketing strategies, proper SEO techniques, conversion optimization methods, good content and handsome targeted traffic no business can succeed online.

Skill Development Council, Islamabad feels proud to announce an Intensive Training on “Digital Marketing”. Seats are limited and admission will be on first come first served basis.

Hurry up! and register online.

SDC also specializes in customized In-House Training programs tailored to meet the specific training needs of our valued client organizations and to improve performance and effectiveness of its team of professionals.

SDC Islamabad shall be grateful if you may kindly nominate your staff to this valuable training program and forward this information to your friends and colleagues who may benefit by participating in this training course.

Here is what I get my kick from … the formatting of the email is all over the place (LMK in comments if you want me to forward it to you because I suck at html and can’t replicate), the colors used are atrocious (I wasn’t able to reproduce the gem), and the attachment makes me want to bang my head against the wall or ROFL. It’s a DIGITAL MARKETING workshop for crying out loud … and they’ve done a horrendous job of marketing their workshop to me. Totally worth the Rs. 10k they are charging … AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (…contd)

Tell me I am exaggerating!!

OK byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Do it Desi Style

My pretties, I’ve been away too long. Logged in every day, wanted to say hello but always chickened out … writer’s block sucks. But been very happy to see you have all been coming here looking out for me (The Stats Don’t Lie). I love you all too.

But here is what finally made me come out of my miserable, pathetic condition. I made FB friends a few days back with the guy to whom I owe my love affair with online work … Monis Rehman. WHO IS MONIS REHMAN?! Yeah OK … like all of you, I didn’t know about him until a couple of months ago. But I knew his company … Ladies (and only ladies … sorry Gentlemen, I like ignoring you), heard of Rozee? I mentioned it quite a few time on my blog but never tagged it because let’s accept it … anything Paki ain’t poppin’ and imma too cool. *puke*

Lemme tell you my own awesome story once again; I was a school-teacher who had recently left my job and had my fill of lying in, and the urge to ‘do’ something was back with a vengeance. I knew people could get jobs online but had no clue how. So I naturally turned to my best buddy; Google. Stumbled upon Rozee just by chance … was surprised to see a market for online content writers … felt like singing A Whole New World from Aladdin … got my first break with a lady running a content writing shop from her home in Multan (yeah, I have told this story like a gazillion times but it’s for the benefit of new readers … stop being b****y), filled ether-sphere with absolute trash ranging from Benefits of Buying a Condo in Connecticut to How to Get Cat-piss Smell Out of your Carpets, and a lot of other things I am not proud of … but hey, I needed a distraction and it worked (and paid like less than a dollar an hour #SlaveLabor). And then,as they say, the rest is LEGEN-wait for it-DARY!

Why am I retelling something I’ve milked to the max already? It’s for your own good dudettes, stop being cynical … how many of you have tried getting an assignment on oDesk or Elance and ended up saying things your moms should wash out your mouths for? The solution is simple … why did I never think of mentioning it before (???) … look for something on a desi portal like Rozee. There is another one too doing quite well … uhhhhhh … yeah, it’s called Mustakbil. I dunno much about the latter but Rozee is owned by a gentleman from Lahore called Monis Rehman, who also happens to have founded Naseeb which is a matchmaking website for Muslims in the US and the UK. In case you are not impressed enough and thinking of going off for that pedicure, here is why you shallow ones should sit up and take notice: his ventures were funded by investors who backed Google, PayPal, LinkedIn and Zynga (we all know FarmVille, right!). There are an astounding 5000 companies using Rozee as a job board and if you are worth anything, I’m sure you’ll find a good fit for your skill-set.

Wait for a post on another job portal that I am absolutely fascinated with … if you know me at all you should know what I am talking about …

So, if you are not getting any joy on other portals definitely check out Rozee.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Plus: I am more mean than usual because I’ve OD-ed on Gossip Girl the past couple of weeks – no apologies though!

Social Communications Company

That’s what the acronym Sococo stands for. I think I am in love. I simply MUST have this integrated into my soon to be launched (hopefully – sighhhh) website. Obviously I am never going to be able to afford it (notice how I said “going to” and not “gonna” – I am trying to grow up). I am forever broke. But, my sad finances aside, this is amazing. The website’s About page says that, Sococo is a social communications company that develops and sells shared environments for network-centric individuals to work and play. A small piece of advise to people in Silicon Valley – we know you are brainy and your products are usually great but there really isn’t no need to make things sound so complicated!!!

Mr. Scoble, whom I dislike for his past disparaging remarks about Quora, does a far better job of describing it. Sococo gives you a virtual office, where you have an office space on screen. Yeah, so what it essentially does is it provides you with this wonderful tool to work with your remote team where you can have a virtual conference room or office space, you see who is “sitting” in her office, you can call them and have a voice chat. You can even make calls to landlines or cellphones, much like Skype. The thing can even be integrated into your website. Look at some of these images – I am drooling, I tell ya …

How YUMMY is this!

Conference Rooms come in different sizes

 

Your own virtual office - I know mine would read, 'Meryl Streep was a softie!"

You can also share multiple screens. If any of my family or fans or secret admirer is contemplating bequeathing me with half their wealth, please hurry up – because I need this. I really do!  Plans start from $39.99/month to $59.99/month.

OK now – I kept the promise I made in my last post, and actually wrote about stuff that could help you with your online business. I am off now …. To infinity and Beyond …

OK byeeeeeeeeeeee