Logic is Variable

an argument starts here

My budget, your budget
Friday, June 17, 2011

My budget article appeared in Profit, Pakistan Today (profit.com.pk) June 17, 2011 issue. Must have a look.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:23 AM, , links to this post

At the sidelines of Social Media Summit
Tuesday, June 14, 2011


I’m back home from Network!: Pakistan’s First International Social Media Summit held in Karachi (June 10-11. 2011). And let me confess, I loved it. It was good to meet with over 200 social media stars and renowned bloggers from all over Pakistan and abroad (Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia and via Skype from America) as well as some leading people (Jehan Ara of P@SHA) from IT industry. I was to share my experiences on the subject of Monetizing Your Social Media Space in Local Context but that is not about what I delivered there. This is what I learn from the bloggers summit and on the sidelines. Here are some of my personal reflections.


We in Pakistan have freedom of information and online expression and newly found social media channels are already changing the ways we consume information. Social media enthusiasts (bloggers, Twitters, Facebook crowd) are playing important role in creating awareness and bringing positive change in thoughts and actions – awaze khlaq has is loud and clear online. One thing that I can say with certainty is that it will never be possible to stop this most explosive outbreak in the information era.


Meeting so many social media stars was a pure joy. At the Summit, I got chance to meet Mohamed El Dahshan (Egypt), Hanny Kusumawati and Anandita Puspitasari (Indonesia), Rebecca Chiao (Egypt), Ong Hock Chuan (Malaysia), Claire Diaz Ortiz (Via Skype from US) and Karim Osman (Via Skype from Netherlands). What is more, it was a great pleasure knowing Jehanzeb Aslam, Dr. Awab Alvi, Ali Hafeez Azmat, Muhammad Imran Iqbal. Naveed Siraj, Ammar Hader, Salam ul Haq, Abdul Qadar M Siddiqui, Ali Hadi, Sibtain Javed, Ross Waheed, Danish Mughal, Usman Latif, Shafia Agha a little closely and connect to and so many other folks.


Some people are very prominent in Pakistan social media landscape. The Summit made it possible to connect faces Sana Saleem, Naveen Naqvi, Imtiaz Muhammad, Ali Abbas Zaidi, Shehrbano Taseer and Yasser Latif Hamdani with their online identities.

Two day Summit was sponsored jointly by PC World, Google, Intel, Raffles and media partners, including Newsweek Pakistan, Express Media Group, City 89 FM and the US Consulate. Meeting William Martin and Tristram Perry from US Consulate, Kamal Siddiqi from Express Tribune, Naveed Siraj from Intel Pakistan and Jehan Ara President P@SHA was learning in itself.

Earlier, during network dinner, I had the chance to meet Saad Haroon who also writes blog titled The most dangerous comedy in the world. Saad is the creator, host and writer for Pakistan’s first English language comedy show ‘The Real News’ - a show that uses satire and sketch to break boundaries as the first weekly comedy show in Pakistan to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. I was impressed with his command over the language, wit, and wisdom he has. He made the evening a wonderful memory.



Related: Network!: Pakistan’s First International Social Media Summit keynote speech - Monetizing Your Social Media Space, Challenges; Making Money with blogging in Pakistan context, Calling Corporate Pakistan

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:51 AM, , links to this post

Network! Pakistan’s First International Social Media Summit
Sunday, June 5, 2011













Network! Pakistan’s 1st International Social Media Summit, June 10-11, 2011, Karachi

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 7:59 PM, , links to this post

What you do at facebook?
Friday, June 3, 2011

Join Shirazi on Facebook
Facebook is one of the busiest destinations online. With over 500 million active users and millions of them updating their status millions of times per day has made it the most ubiquitous way to interact and reconnect online. One wonders what users do at Facebook?

Facebook has grown fast over time. I started using then not very popular social site when it was young, meant only for students who had .edu email address. Later it was opened to general Internet users and now one finds everyone (ok, almost everyone on facebook) including old people, businessmen, celebrities, writers, artists, political activist, governments, organizations, NGOs and a whole lot more promoting and pursuing their concerns.

It is hard to categorize who people use it? Adam N. Joinson (University of Bath) who studies Facebook users says, “The main use of Facebook is the recreation of social connections between people who had, or still have, a connection in their everyday lives. So, people mainly used Facebook to reconnect with people they went to school with, worked with, or friends they lost touch with. But, the key question is 'what do people do once they have created this network?' The results of the research suggest that this can be divided into four main activities – they can use applications within the site to interact with their network, they can browse their friends' friends and learn more about them, they can join groups and express their identity via shared social experiences, or they can use the site to inform others of their news, and keep up to date with others' actions.”

Adam N. Joinson’s work urged me to observe what users in this part of the world are doing. My personal scouting and spending some time on Facebook reveals two groups: some local members are using facebook purposefully promoting what they like (products, services, ideas). Other group uses facebook simply to have their presence, tagging other simply or replicating what catches their fancy. And ironical, I know of children who interact with their parents through facebook (pun intended).

Interestingly, I know facebook users who have created online profiles, displaying whatever biographical information they want, locations, workplaces, photos, hobbies, interests and some who simply don’t display any of the information through which someone can recognize them to become a friend. I know a few who update their status and sit by connected computers to wait for who comes and likes what they have done.

How you use facebook? Care to share here.

Follow Logic is Variable on Facebook and follow sAJs on Twitter for much more all day long.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:56 PM, , links to this post




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