An online platform that joins all IT professionals of Pakistan. The platform should provides information and facilities for IT professionals to progress and flourish. This is the rough structure as far as I have thought out:
Information of all IT Shops: shop info, executives, location, work-areas, major projects, pros that work in shop (linked to the below section)
Information of all IT Pros: some bio data, the shop he/she works in (linked to the above section), job title, expertise, technologies
Freelance Job Board: Anyone can post work for IT Pros to do from home (after day-job?)
Start your IT Shop / Startup: All-in-one guideline describing each step in opening one’s own IT Shop or Startup
Angel Investment / Venture Capital Oppurtunities: Information about possible / available angel investments or venture capital it-shops/startups can avail.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:58 pm #Fariha Akhtar
“Great idea” and this is the same thing that I’ve been saying for the past 4-5 days :). Apart from the different features that it provides..some of the major benefits that it could provide to our country are:
a) With majority (if not all) IT professionals of Pakistan at one place, the world would be able to know better about our talent pool
b) Anyone from anywhere in the world can hire professionals (preferably as freelancers…we don’t really want brain drain :P) depending upon the requirements of their projects. Since I’m hoping that individuals on this network will have the option to either work onthe project themeselves or get it done in their companies….so this will lead to more outsourcing. This eventually will benefit the country because Outsourcing = Shifting of Power and actually Shifting of Power to East :)
My brain is evaluating this idea for the past few days and this is what I think about it…,however, I’d keep you posted if anything else also comes to my mind :)
May 29th, 2008 at 11:14 pm #Aqeel
I fully support this initiative Sohail. Will contribute as much as I can.
June 1st, 2008 at 7:02 am #Sohail Abid
After 2 daysof posting this idea, it seems what we initially thought for “Professionals Network of Pakistan” in big in scope and people want to see modules of it as separate projects. Mohtashim is doing It Shops Index. We have got an idea for Freelance Marketplace for Pakistanis by Arfeen. So may be it will be done in parts. What do you guys think?
June 7th, 2008 at 1:45 am #Muhammad Qasim Pasta
each corner of described idea itself a vast failed thats why we have different solutions like LinkedIn and oDesk etc. Each new idea should add some values as comparative to current solutions/workaround which called Value Proposition.. and I believe a value proposition never achieve by just mixing different solutions under one umbrella
June 8th, 2008 at 10:49 pm #Fariha Akhtar
@M.Qasim
You are absolutely right Qasim, in order to justify the amount of effort we spend implementing any idea, we need to figure out how much value it adds to our current set up.
June 8th, 2008 at 10:59 pm #Sohail Abid
@Qasim, @Fariha: The value it (whole idea or its parts) adds is that it fills a gap and a need. For example, freelance marketplace specifically for pakistani professionals is demanded by project-managers . They often need to get a work done but don’t want to hire a resource and ask people for referring a professional who can work on job-basis. There other parts of the idea fulfill some needs similarly.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:24 am #The Birth of Ideas Hut | Self Exile
[...] that. I was impressed by her planning abilities and vision. The first idea we have at Ideas Hut (IT-Professionals-Network) is in fact a result of her brainstorming. To be faithful, she has bigger part in start and growth [...]
August 14th, 2008 at 9:06 pm #Yousuf
you might want to look at
http://www.zumbeel.net
August 15th, 2008 at 1:16 am #Fariha Akhtar
@Yousuf
Welcome to Ideas Hut Yousuf..read your comments on another idea too. They are really insightful so, keep them coming.
Just checked out Zumbeel, the ‘Networking’ feature there can perhaps be somehow related to the idea being discussed here otherwise I don’t see any similarity between Zumbeel and ‘IT Professionals Network’ idea. Am I missing something?
Zumbeel seems to cater to just the telecom sector.