Light Within

Government of Punjab (PITB), Google Pakistan and P@sha are doing series of sessions about how to make sure that your online data stay safe while moving around in cyber space. Badar Khushnoon is a man in the real know of the matter and talked about hardware and software security, web security and much more. I thought ‘I know it all’ but to my surprise, there is so much more than normal computer users like me think is enough. Thanks Badar for this very interactive and useful session.

Best thing is that governments are now realizing, though a bit late, the importance of IT and the power of blogging and social media. Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister Punjab (who is personally at Facebook now) was there and he also let us in on his IT vision including how he responds to people on facebook in the wee hours of the morning. Shahbaz Sharif also announced that the Government of Punjab is establishing a world-class IT University in Punjab in partnership with top universities in the world, including Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA and Middle-east Technical University (METU), Turkey. The university will be initially housed in the newly built Lahore Technology Park and will later move to a purpose-built campus in knowledge city in the heart of Lahore. This will usher in a new era of IT education, research and development and entrepreneurship in Pakistan.

Shahbaz Sharif also told the audience about his vision of laptop his government is offering to students. That reminded me of two initiatives (one laptop per child and $100 Laptop). What happened to those projects? Some geeks questions about the criteria for giving laptops but I personally strongly recommend laptop schemes. Go ahead Mr. CM, this will help in the long as well as short run.

At the end, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif also presented shields to Pakistan Blog Award 2011 winners.