Today marked a historic event in the Pakistani Blogosphere, where the Sindh Ministry of IT sponsored a full fledged conference on blogging. The event was hosted at a local hotel in Karachi and was attended by a large audience and had some excellent presentations by a few well known bloggers in Pakistan. The Chief Guest was Federal Minister Dr. Farooq Sattar and was graced by Ardershir Cowasjee a prominent columnist whilst Mr. Raza Haroon, Sindh Minister of IT played host.
The event was extensively Live Blogged and the updates can be seen here & here
The highlight of the evening was the recognition of Umema Adil who completed her MCP [Microsoft Certified Professional] certification at the tender age of 11, she was presented with a laptop from the Minister and a heavy wrapped gift [?] from Cisco. The event was moderated by Rabia Garib and Barrister Ali Chishti and it kicked off with a short introduction and welcome address by the Sindh Minsiter of IT, followed by a number of presentation by fellow bloggers like Jehan Ara, Ammar Yasir, Farhan Chawla, Raja Islam, Ramla Akhtar, Ammar [Urdu Blogger] and myself.
Overall the event was a success, it may not have been as technologically interactive as we may have really enjoyed but it was a major milestone in bringing the government into understanding the elusive giant called Blogging. I sincerely hope that this is the start of a series of events that can truly help this citizen powered community develop into a positive source of energy for Pakistan.
It would be unfair to not acknowledge the hard work done by the MQM-PRAC in helping realize this event, despite my earlier reservations on this blogging event being metamorphosed into a political event, the organizers had promised me, and proudly stood by, keeping the non-political flavor to the event. I must acknowledge the hard work by Syed Ali Raza Abidi, Rehan Shakoor, Ali Chishti and their entire team of volunteers to have done a great event – well done lads, im happy to attest that these guys rose beyond the realm of politics and lets hope that we can together take this positive trend forward, changing the mindsets for a better and brighter Pakistan
Follows is the presentation I made on Free Speech in Pakistan available for download under a Creative Commons License
Comments
19 responses to “National Bloggers Conference Update”
awesome…check out your pic on my post lol… both hands raised.. ao blaggeron gale lag jao style.
alvi you didn't mention urdu blogger's presentation?????
Alvi sahib , mera nam Farhan hai , Faisal naheen , please change
keep up the good work… dr alvi…good job..
It was a really nice experience and a good initiative. And of course it was a pleasure meeting you Dr. Sahab =D
I agree with you Doctor that the event was really well managed. But I must remind all and sundry that we, the Karachi walla, shall never forget (and will never forgive) MQM and other blood thirsty parties for what they did to us on 12h May. And what they have been doing earlier.
Ameer Hamza – reservations aside – I think Ardershir Cowasjee quite aptly sums up all ideas in his column in DAWN today April 19th
@Farhan 😉 apologies – have edited the text
@Shoaib Safdar – what was his name ? in the confusion I did not note it
Ramla Ahsan? Ramla Akhtar, bhui!!! 🙂
So my theory was essentially correct? One thing becomes another in the process of being communicated!
So Doc, I think that you are doing a good thing by reminding people of their need/ freedom to speak. The two parts of "Freedom of Speech" are, as I mentioned at the NBC09, "Freedom" AND "Speech." As able, proactive thinking citizens we have the freedom, the right, and the capacity to examine what these concepts mean, and how to live them in our own society given our context.
That's all for now!
Ammar (ibn Zia)
Slide 12 in the presentation is brilliant!
@Ramla — LOL pardon my names – I have truly messed up practically everyone LOL – your sermon ahhh your sermon …
Free Speech is Free Speech – its jsut a matter of how you see the argument
LOL cant argue with ya – I let you have the last word 😉
@ freedom of speech, free speech ??
wonderful dream??
@Teeth Maestro
"But last Monday it (MQM) went far to redeem itself…"
I certainly agree with you, thank Cowasjee, and pray that MQM may shed off its fascistic proclivities for ever and keep up its challenge against barbaric Talibani Islam to save Pakistan as envisioned by Quaide Azam.
بلاگرزکانفرنس کا انعقاد ایک جانبدارانہ پلیٹ فارم اور ماحول میں ہوا۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ جو کہ غیر مناسب اقدام ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔اس سے ایسے شکوک شبہات۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔پیدا ہوتے ہیں کہ کہیں۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ بلاگنگ اور بلاگرز۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔سیاسی طور پر استعمال تو نہیں ہونے جارہے؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
ہونا یہ چاہئے کہ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔
بلاگرز۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ایسوسی ایشنز بنائیے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔اور مقامی،صوبائی، قومی و بین الاقوامی کانفرنسز کا خود انعقاد کیجئیے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔
the event was also live blogged at teabreak I thibk you forgot to mention that 🙂
Dr. Sb it's great initiative, and we really appreciate the kind of efforts you're putting towards creating awareness of blogging in Pakistan.
You are invited to attend the 9th ITCN Asia 2009 Int'l Exhibition & Conference from 11-13 August 2009 at Karachi Expo Centre.
Register yourself at http://www.itcnasia.com/visitors
Let me know, when you are there.
best regards
Adeeb Aijaz
GM Communications & Media
Ecommerce Gateway Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd.
Hi,
It’s been great time to read your article, really informative thanks keep it up.