Partial Integration of India-Pakistan Social Media Mela

As of now, two-day India-Paksitan Social Medial Mela  2012 #SocMM12 is over . I had the chance to follow the highlights of the "mega-event" on twitter mostly today. I thought some Indian/Paksitani bloggers and tweeps are meeting to share their experiences and thoughts about different aspects of Social Media.  That sounded like a very positive move and I excitedly followed the later part. I tried the event's .com website but somehow it wont open. Probably, something to do with the DNS settings. I can browse  it now that everything is over. 

The only major thing I noticed on Friday was an Express Tribune report on how Rehman Malik swooped in to save the day. However, I took it as something in connection with MyKarachi exhibiton.  On the second day, I noticed some tweets about talk of Mohammed Hanif and Karuna . That sounded like some sorta  professional discussion is going on. More and more tweets poured in, some about the Indian tweeps out there. Later, few reports and and blog also appeared. 

At the very outset, I had a feeling the event is not about social media in general, rather, just a bunch of tweeps and journalists from mainstream media. The blog Social Media Mela or Twitterati kitty party? by Imaan Sheikh and the rather aggressive assesment by LUBP A critical assessment of #SOCMM12 point towards something similar. Birds of a feather flock together which makes newer birds  feel alienated rightly.  That may leave a hint about the how social the chaps in the social media can be in real life.  A casual look at Dawn's coverage and highlights of talk by Ghazal Pirzada have a similar case study to offer in terms of interns.

It makes no sense by the LUBP to claim as if PPP was left out of the event and tie the ShiaGenocide and killings to this issue. How would that fit to the mutual interest of Indian Paksitani bloggers in what I  suppose is their first gathering of the sort. However, the coverage by Dawn and the responses on the twitter present two different stories to me. Though people on twitter were claiming its all about tweeting  , there were tweets only about a few talks. Anyways the introduced the funny side of of Usman Saeed somehow, the only fun thing associated with a fun event along with some free goodies, I would say. MQM leaves no chance to exploit any such event to its advantage. For an hour of so, it flooded twitter with #WhyILikeMQM + #SOCMM12 hashtags. That's shameful in its very spirit. I wonder why no one talked about whether or not aunty Marvi Sirmed took Dr. Alvi to task for propagating the fake list.

When there are likes of Jehan Ara, Beena Sarwar alongwith entrepreneurs and bloggers, there must have been more useful and fruitful talks and discussions. Perhaps the event was arranged in a conference format, and most of the stuff was too technical for the participants to tweep the way, they would tweep a TEDTalk. 

I guess I missed most of fun. May be it will be compensated if more reports and videos of talks become available.... I still have a fundamental question:  What part was about the common concerns and issues of Indo-Pak tweeps and bloggers ??

Unexpected: Black Swans

These days, I am reading the book The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The book is about uncertainty and why the so-called champions on the subject fail to explain the occurrence of the black swans i.e. events that occur out of the pattern like natural disasters, stock exchange failures and also many of the discoveries that have changed our  lives immensely. 

At one point, the author illustrates, through an example, how we react when the unexpected may happens to us. Many a couples get divorced every day, but even their wildest imaginations, they would not have considered that things in their relationship would get to such an extreme. It was all so well, they made one of the best couples. The loved each other so much. At such instants, one asks, how come this occurred to us, as if the all other couples in the world had considered that would happen one day. It's all so unexpected. We can't predict such things. However, one such things happen, we try to find reasons for them. We try to identify patterns and categorize things into classes of failures and success. That's how our brains are wired to establish links and concoct justifications. 

I will end this note here unexpectedly and let you think whether this is true. 

Masters or No Masters?? Confusions of an Electro...!!!

After the graduation, fresh electrical/electronic/computer engineers in Pakistan typically go to one of the following types of job:

1. In the telecom sector: either vendor side Mobilink, Telenor, or the Operators: Huawei
2. In  the power sector, some power plants or the government jobs in WAPDA etc.
3. Join the likes of NESCOM and SUPARCO
4. In the Embedded and Control field, where we find names like PowerSoft19 
5. Join a set of fertilizer companies and oil refineries 
6. Go into Networking Sector 
7. Join the academia as Lectures/Lab Engineers hoping to be professors one day
8. Some join the software sector

The current situation of  job market by no means is perceived to good by any means. It is hard to find a job and in cases even an internship while the institutes are churning out more and more engineers annually or bi-annually. 

Again there are taboos and myths and varying descriptions of realities associated with each career path. 

The scarcity of jobs, lower than expected pays and continuous questioning on part of relatives about salary and marriage is disheartening is and sadly, often heard of.  Patience and keep trying on is the usual advice floating around. 

People think of finding jobs outside Pakistan which in most cases needs some years of experience. 

A common alternative is to opt for a Masters Degree, either from a local university or go abroad. If the parents are willing to support your next degree and you are not too picky, getting admissions and visas is the only delay in your path. However, if you have to wait for offers with scholarship, you are into the lot of the troubled. There are not many scholarships for just a coursework based Masters and you are not willing to take the research path for you want to return to industry. 

In case, you believe you can somehow manage the finances, the big question is what will happen after Masters??

Will you be able to get a job in field of your choice or any field what so ever??

If you return to Pakistan, will the MS be of any value?? Is it not better to continue your current job and get some experience ??? But when will the situation in the country itself improve ???

Such the the woes of a fresher electro.... 

Do you have a solution to his problem? Do you have some experience of thoughts to share ???

Few Random Thoughts regarding Pakistani Media ... !!!

1. Qauid e Azam University ranked 69th in world in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering

2. Mustafa Kamal declared among top three mayors of world. 

Both of these news are absolutely fallacious but were widespread across Pakistan. 

Both the news have been taken good advantage of, to a large extent. VC got much appreciation on media and may be something officially too. Mustafa Kamal got a house from MQM... He may have performed well... but he was not even voted for in final voting as according to rules, he was not in office. His predecessor Mr. Naimatuallah and also Iran's Ahmedi Nijad ... as mayor of Tehran were mentioned in top50-60 but never voted for for they left the offices. 

And to the best of my info, there was no correction whatsoever to accept the mistakes on part of media or the concerned personnel. Who cares ... !!!

Same keeps happening day in and day out. 

Our politicians are fighting verbally in one or the other talk show and no one talks the whole picture. 

But that adds to ranking.... and so the phenomenon keeps on multiplying. 

One major factor contributing to this is that the media is looking only into political topics and not exploring more options.  That also indicates our jounalists have little if any understanding of how these processes of ranking etc. run. 

So, we have more and more such programs added on. 

What's missing totally missing in these burgeoning political and/or drama channels is any educational programs either scientific, social or daily life themes. 

If we start programs on career counseling, job hunting, starting your own business, what choices for future studies people have, that will definitely grab some attention and probably more than the stupid re-incarnation programs where they re-create murder scenarios on news channels. 

Why we can't find any interviews of our scientists and experts. I probably found only one or two short-length interview of our respected entrepreneur Dr. Omar Saif who was recognized as one of top entrepreneurs of world. 

I see so less of a coverage on TV of TEDTalks happening in Pakistan. 

Why our media failed to highlight awards Pakistani IT professionals like Dr. Shoab from Care were bestowed upon in Thailand few days back. 

Why there are no programs on villagers of Pakistan who form 70% of population. 

I remember some nice efforts in this regards like Sona Chandi on PTV dramatizing agricultural  issues, THe first blast on Dawn news focused on small issues and often invited doctors or other field experts. 

247Online TV efforts by Faisal Qureshi and Team is a recent attempt of different sort. 

Small informational packages by Royal TV on stats of Pakistan was also highly appreciated my some friends around. 

I think, as viewers we can write to the anchors and producers to consider these options too. Probably, non of us ever wrote to any media personnel to consider these options too.  That's one of the things we can do now that so many of them are on Facebook and twitter also. 

I wish Shehbaz Shareef could produce his clones.... all around Punjab...!!!

There are unprecedented examples of how Shehbaz Shareef gets things done in timely manner. 

I am an eye witness to the underpasses and flyovers built in Lahore including the ones at THokar Niaz Baig,

Mughalpura and Kalma Chowk. 

We have seen the roads in Johar town and the roads to Raiwind being overhauled and laden with greenery on both sides time and again. 

We have seen how Shehbaz wades across streets filled with rain water. 

Above all, who can ignore his matchless efforts during floods. 

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However, there one thing missing around such a good man.... and that's institutionalization???

I fail to understand why Shehbaz Shareef fails at building self-regulating institutes ??? 

I wish Shehbaz Shareef could produce his clones.... all around Punjab...!!! 

If "Institutions" could be added to his portfolio .... I believe entire Punjab will vote for him to be our next prime minister.