Map maker is a collaborative map utility through which you can draw details place markers like roads (detailed), places, addresses and hell lots of other stuff on maps. Google has finally opened it for Pakistan and people have already started contributing in large volumes. All you need is a google account to contribute.
Collaborative digital maps, here we come. Click Here
Here are Sharjeel’s few cents about why 2’s Complement discontinued MapMyPakistan. Clicky
This has got to be the limit. For all those years I believed & continuously argued that Post paid is not an executive service by Warid and they are not taking it seriously. With Warid service getting crappy day by day, there Customer Service behaving strangely and packages getting stupid restrictions this is getting really annoying.
Quite a while back I once inquired there customer service about subscribing there Data and Sms package (Zoom). I was told its not possible to have both of them together. I understand that it was a billing software issue but ever since SMS Craze came out I am totally pissed off and I think every Postpaid Customer should be. For those who are not really aware of the package here are the details,
In Rs. 150 you get
2000 Sms or Mms
10 MB Data plan
(actual GPRS cost is 15×10=150 so SMS are sort of free)
Postpaid customer is an executive customer and he is the one who actually spends 5-6 times more than a prepaid subscriber, catering his needs and requirement should be on top priority. Even if not still all this data-warehousing and data mining bling bling (if the mechanism actually exists with Warid) should show them the usage trends and should equip them with skills to innovate and “Cross Sell” products to the spending customer. This is stupid, indeed it is!
Here is a great example of making a commercial thats decent, sweet and pretty much conveys the message. I think some of the people (working in Pakistani telcos) who actually approve the commercials made for there companies should have a look at this.
Telcos in Pakistan are making good sales anyways but I guess they have been attributing these sales to there marketing campaigns. If not they are just doing it just to create a brand impression but all we see is that almost everyone is sick of those stupid commercials. They should really learn from a lot of good ads like these. Vodafone has made couple of ads with the kids theme (another good one is the one about there customer care, google it).
Its not a debate that there were 3 lac or 5 lac people on the roads. I guess everyone should be mature enough to realize the fact that we witnessed one of the biggest mobilization all over country in the recent history of Pakistan. I was personally amazed to see such diverse nature of public showing up for protest including lawyers, Old citizens, students, activists, civil society, ex-service men and many many more. Recent blabbing on the media about Long March being unsuccessful seems hilarious to me (just like the pre-Long March propaganda by media).
Why Long March was a Success
A rally where student unions like Jamiat and ISF were standing side by side and did nothing to harm each other, focusing on the prime motive, isn’t that success?
Such a wide variety of society segments showed up for the rally, isn’t that success?
Residents of small towns and villages along side GT Road, standing all night on the road just to welcome the rally, isn’t that success?
President Musharaf asking channels to stop coverage of the rally, isn’t that success?
Big gatherings of people at Mall road, Azaadi Chawk, Gujranwala,Gujrat,Jhelum,Liaquet Bagh and in front of Parliament, isn’t that success?
Why didn’t they Sit-in?
Media is saying that this decision turned Long March to a flop. I think we need to get our facts straight. Few points that should be kept in mind are as follows,
How many sit-ins we have in the history with so many people in them?
How many of them have been continued for impressive period of time?
Who would arrange food for all those people sitting in front of parliament?
Where would they go for toilets in that Open space?(i know there was some arrangement but that wasn’t good enough for sit-in)
Government would have never restored judiciary within a week. Why? Government will restore the judiciary but would never in a way that gives credit to Long March. Government wants to be credited for restoration of judiciary, implying
Judges would have never been restored within a week of rally.
What would have happened then? obviously people would start moving out of that place. Students would be called back by there parents, Civil society and Old citizens would have never been able to bear the scorching heat. Hence turning long march to a flop.
Keeping so many people organized and patient for a sit-in in such a heat would have been impossible. Hence impatience resulting into violence, attack on presidency, with that comes 58-2B. No one will disagree that a person who is glued to presidency would have given a second thought to imposing emergency. Resulting in more violence, even worst economic,political situation of the country. Restoring judiciary would become impossible in that case.
In civilized world and civilized demonstrations if you show this much public power, the purpose gets fulfilled and there remains no need for sit-ins.
I second what Aitezaz Ahsan said,”its a success, we would never turn it into a defeat”. Thats what intelligent people do, thats what intelligent politics is, fullstop!!
Finally the long march is over with big success and little speculations. Took me some time to adjust with the “Bus Lag” but after a sleep of more than a day I am pretty much fresh and energized now. Indeed it was an occasion which will be remembered by many generations to come and those who were part of it will be very proud of what they did.
Digging through the history of citizen journalism 9/11 was an incident that can never be forgotten. Similarly Long March wont be forgotten whenever the start of citizen journalism in Pakistan will be discussed. Many sites appeared who covered Long March in many ways on the web and few of them were powered by people.
We at See’n'Report were determined to provide ‘Mile by Mile‘ update of Long March on the web, from the eyes of the witnesses and indeed we were successful to provide a platform through which a lot of people benefited and we did justice to the cause(Thanks to all those who contributed). Just like CricInfo re-creates the craze of cricket in those who don’t get a chance to watch live matches due to there official or personal work, we created a desire in everyone to be the part of the rally who missed it(I personally got few calls of friends who said that after watching see n report coverage they are coming to Islamabad & will be joining the rally in Rawalpindi).
We know its still a long way to go for see’n'report and citizen journalism in Pakistan and we are very much prepared for the battle for free & responsible Media (The Watch Dog as per journalism theories). We are in private beta and working day and night to finalize stuff and release it for public (You can still contribute news by emailing at yourcityname@seenreport.com).
About the thoughts on Long March, decision against Sit in and other things I would reserve another post which will be coming out soon.
In its pre-beta phase see N report will be covering long march for restoration of judiciary. All submitted pictures will be displayed on the website in order to facilitate real time reporting of the event. Those who want to contribute can send email or mms (containing pictures and description) at longmarch@seenreport.com
Tremendous progress in telecommunication industry has brought us to a place where everyone is connected. If you see around yourself almost everyone is carrying a mobile. In some places in the world the mobile density has increased so much that number of mobiles is more than the number of people in area. Telcos are making good money with not just calls and data plan but also with text messages. This eventually led to so much competition that now there are a lot of different MASS SMS packages available from Ufone, Warid, Mobilink, Telenor leaving the world at your thumbs range.
All this fun stuff was mainly intended for teenagers but things really got out of hands. This SMS packages frenzy eventually led to a new marketing opportunity which was previously ignored till the time. Delivering ads to mobile is considered to be the future of advertisement many companies and startups have been started on it in the past (I’ll talk about it later in some other post) and things are also progressing in a country like Pakistan where a lot of awareness is yet to be created.
All these opportunities have raised threats of mis-usage. In fact it has already started. Didyou notice that you have been getting random messages from unknown numbers, revealing the most important information you ever wanted like, where to buy a UPS, where the best Generators in the city are, some new shop is selling clothes only of your size and they will be wasted if you don’t buy them and if you like swimming in Lahore canal we sell tubes so that you don’t drown.
So how do they do it? Thats what i was searching for sometime back and I finally got an answer when on a random night (when I was in a GT) I got a SMS from an unknown number having information on how to advertise to people on sms. I called that number and engaged him in a conversation, pretending to be a customer. Long story short it turned out that he was trying to sell a software which had a pre-fed database of Phone numbers (as per him all the phone numbers in Pakistan, city-wise) and all we need is to buy it, install, connect a mobile to computer, select numbers and we are good to go. Another option was that if I don’t want to buy it I can buy this service from him and select to send messages through there infrastructure. Upon making him realize that this is spam and is illegal he was like “Sir, Pakistan mai loogon nay aisay he batein banaye howe hain”. My answer was well spam is an issue worldwide so he is wrong. For few weeks he kept calling on my cell but I finally shut him off by saying that I have some concerns about legality of this thing .
Customer Story I
Customer: I keep on getting these stupid messages from different numbers.
CS Rep: Sir would you tell me the number?
Customer: yeah sure its 0333…..
CS Rep: Sir… Sir… Sir… sorry to interrupt but thats a Ufone number.
Customer: so… :S
CS Rep: We can’t take complaints against Ufone number.
Customer: so?
CS Rep: This is Warid customer support …
Customer: and i am a customer of?
CS Rep: Warid.
Customer: so shouldn’t I be complaining to you?
CS Rep: No sir you have to complain to Ufone Support .
Customer: argghhhh!!!! (Hangs up)
…… AoA sir this is Ufone support .. I am bla bla bla…….
Customer: I am getting messages from this number.
CS Rep: Sir, kindly tell me your number.
Customer: 0321….
CS Rep: Sorry sir you are not our customer how can we take your complaint.
Customer: :O *&%$@)@$*(^@$
Customer Story II
Customer: I got Spam advertisement from a number.
CS Rep: Sir, you have to get at least 3 messages from this number then we will log your complaint.
Customer: What the hell, didn’t you listen properly. This is unwanted advertisement, the guy must be sending this to thousands of people.
CS Rep: Sir i told you there is no such rule.
Customer: Don’t you have any brain? What kind of people make policies at your end?
CS Rep: *repeated same text from his instruction book*
Customer: *hangs up*
Solution:-
New rules which are Spam specific (3 SMS rule is for normal mis-usage and has nothing to do with Spam).
A proper mechanism for cross career complaints (These people mainly take advantage by exploiting this loophole).
Whenever you get such message make a complaint about it, if not to your Service provider then at least to PTA.
When you get this messag, send 5-6 miscalls to the source number (thats a trick that sometimes causes an interruption in Spam sending process)
I wrote an email to PTA and Warid Customer Service, which contained some of these points. Warid Customer Support called me and just made an apology and tried to justify the fact that they can’t take action. Well I told them not to bother me if they don’t have anything better to say. Lets see how PTA responds to it(if they do, because recently they have not been upto the standard they used to). If you want to contribute to this then at least write a complaint when you get a unwanted advertisement.
“Batch 2001 correspondent raided a meeting between batch 2002 and 2003. The meeting’s Agenda was mainly to discuss how they can finally come up with there yearbooks after 2+1 years have passed.”
A symbolic representation of the treatment Pakistani public gets from it Military and Democratic regimes
Torn old flex hung behind the billboard instead of removing it while putting up a new one. The billboard stands few feet away from the hole on Ali Zeb road, Lahore (the main road that leads to cavalry). It can cause a big accident anytime in near future but don’t know what will make us learn. In this new race of commercialization and making profits we have totally forgotten whatever happened in Karachi and now we can find such born to kill billboards hanging on our heads all around us in Lahore with absolutely no safety checks.
After posting this one it occurred to me that our government has other important matters to attend, like ummm when I’ll think of some i’ll post them here.
but after a sleep of more than a day I am pretty much fresh and energized now. Indeed it was an occasion which will be remembered by many generations to come and those who were part of it will be very proud of what they did.
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