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.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:46 am #Mocha
It’s called LinkedIn and Facebook, why live in silos?
August 31st, 2008 at 2:16 pm #Fariha Akhtar
@Mocha
Facebook is not just for IT professionals and if it provides any of the features discussed in this idea for e.g. freelance job board etc. that is through forming groups. Do you think a facebook group can serve the purpose similar to that of Rent a Coder perhaps (if we consider just the job board it provides and not the entire system that includes payment system etc. as well)?
LinkedIn is also to make an online professional network but can we find the information about all Pakistani IT shops there?
Our main purpose behind proposing this idea to have a network for the Pakistani IT professionals so that the world may know the single point of getting in touch with the brilliant professionals we have here.
September 1st, 2008 at 7:44 pm #Shahjahan Chaudhary
Geography is going to become more important in forming virtual networks as we go forward into a global age.
So an IT Professionals (interest group) network for Pakistan (a specific region)…makes GREAT sense. It will add enormous value IF it is adopted by the community of professionals it is targeting.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:41 am #Mocha
@ Fariha, I know Facebook is not only for IT pros.
My issue is why create a platform when we can use existing web sites e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn etc. Groups on these sites can serve the requirements.
As a user, I don’t want to sign up again for another website.
Make a profile all over again. Then copy paste my contacts to make them come to that site and provide value to network.
I don’t know why in Pakistan everything needs to be started from scratch and gets abandoned. You can look on classified sites of Pakistan there are so many, yet they don’t have any good content.
December 13th, 2008 at 1:29 pm #Derwaish
Dear All,
I have seen this little community discussing ideas which you guys think are required, but due to some financial or technical reasons no-body yet have offered to develop such thing. :)
you guys think its realy a need of time, for Pakistani people or for whole world.
some guys have been found saying that Facebook and Linkedin covers all the things. I feel them right at the same time because of their thinking level which is still not broad enough to think at thatspecific point. i am sorry if you guys feel it like criticizing.
i am here to solve or try to solve this need, i wish if i can help in a way to develop this thing, or if somebody have an idea of features then i am ready to help in its any stage.
regards,
Derwaish
December 28th, 2008 at 5:53 pm #Muhammad Tariq
I think Mocha is very much right in his statement but I don’t think that the idea is workless. The problem and need pointed out by Sohail needs solution. Keeping the objective of the idea in mind, we are basically moving from general solution to specific one with some added features.
We need such kind solutions to make our presence felt.
I am already busy, working on my ideas.
I would be happy to work on this idea if I could takeout some time.
Regards
Muhammad Tariq
March 25th, 2009 at 2:03 pm #Syed Hasnat Bokhari
I will fully support this idea, And will be the part of it if applied. Software industry could be flourished in this way because we are little behind the world’s statndards. So we need to work together assuming working under the ONE flag. I have a cheap but very helpful ideas to make this IT business flourish like Water falls. But those ideas required a handsum amount of investments which is not available in my hands.
So if here is any investor there keep in touch and all of the IT professionals like Developers, Analysts and Designers should participate. I will send my idea very soon with all the initial details. I hope you would like inshallah.
email: hasnatkool@hotmail.com
Regards,
Hasnat Bokhari
April 1st, 2009 at 1:06 am #Danish
All we need is a compelling domain name like http://www.PITS.pk Pakistan IT Society etc., plug it in a customized CMS system like Drupal. Make it look more pro and pakistan-ized. Get a reasonable host and start advertising.
It should be very easy to get free lanced/outsource projects, as, for instance, we can even use the site as a proxy — that’s not a problem,
I dont think it would require much financial capital as much as human capital (to get the show on the road).
I am not sure if starting of with “Professionals Network of Pakistan” is wise. Lets focus on one thing. If needed, we can expland later and make Pak IT Network as a subordinate of the bigger network.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:10 am #Danish
Looks like the project was initiated almost a year ago – has anyone actually progressed with it?
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm #Fariha Akhtar
@Danish
Around a month or so ago I got to talk to one of the acquaintances and came to know that he’s working on something similar to this idea so, yes this idea is being worked upon, however, haven’t yet checked out any updates regarding implementation. I shall ask the guy to share some details with the readers here when i get to talk to him again!
April 7th, 2009 at 11:10 pm #Mudassir Hameed
Assalamu Alaikum,
This is an excellent idea if its carried out carefully and thoughtfully. It would need a lot of advertisement for sure but a good professional website is a must to get people to notice. There are so many Pakistani entrepreneurs outside of Pakistan who would want to outsource work to Pakistanis. However, the trend we see repeatedly is that it just doesn’t work out for them for reasons such as non professional work ethics and demanding too much for too little. On the other hand, our Indian counterparts are much ahead of us in presenting themselves. However, I think we have a great edge over them language wise.
So the bottom line is, if there’s a well known website that you could go to and compare people’s profiles that would be a great plus point. For those who already have profiles on facebook or linked in but are too lazy to create another one, why not let them import it over or simply provide a link.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:12 am #Danish
@Fariha
Keep us updated please as to how its coming along and if he requires any assistance
@Mudassir
In the last decade there has been a huge flow of outsourcing to Pakistan in IT, but certainly there is a greater scope as the discipline matures there. I like your point about importing stuff from Facebook, linkedin etc.