Coverstory - Urdu Online
Issues - Promoting intellectual property
Net Survey - Men, Women and Urban Legends
Net Survey - Hot M@il
Biz & Tech - ERP Rising
Ecommerce - U-commerce
Netforwebgrrrls - Women work it out
Last Byte - Voice over power
Coverstory - Urdu Online
It has traveled across time, survived aberrations, and knitted together a quilt of words from languages, simple and poetic. In transit since the 13th century, Urdu has come a full circle now spinning its yarn around the Internet. For years, cultural purists feared the combination of a post-Colonial heritage combined with globalization will leave Urdu out in the cold. Yet, it's still around, in use and en vogue. The number of Urdu pages as listed on popular portals such as Yahoo! exceed to several thousand in numbers. These figures grow on a daily basis. Clearly, there is a need for Urdu content development. What are the issues surrounding Urdu's digital break? How you can design your own Urdu page? And what are the top sites we picked off the Web? Find out in this month's issue.
Issues - Promoting intellectual property
Who has the right to block your access to the Internet? Should the PTCL play Net nanny at the expense of killing surfing speed or should users be permitted to make up their own mind about what they want to see on the Internet? Shakir Husain raises pertinent questions about the government's myopic, tunnel vision policy regarding a recent ban on objectionable and blasphemous websites.
Net Survey - Men, Women and Urban Legends
When it comes to using computers, Internet no doubt is one of the biggest attraction. Many of us now check our e-mails even before we have breakfast. People started flocking towards PC shops as soon as the Internet made its way (PTCL in 1996). There is a serious dearth of research on the social impact of this proliferation of computers in our lives. The Net is a great tool but what use is it to us on an individual level? SPIDER wondered what world of difference exists between Net usage of men and women. Nizar Diamond Ali surveyed 100 computer users, 50 men and 50 women between the ages of 18 to 22 in Karachi and our findings are presented in this month's issue.
Net Survey - Hot M@il
What is Pakistan's biggest motivation to get online? Could it be e-mail? In just about 15 years, e-mail has already affected different aspects of our lives, from personal relationships to managing business. In developed societies, it has already become a mover for the goods, services and ideas, now dubbed information and knowledge of the third millennium. Despite apprehensions among serious users, e-mail use and resulting traffic is visibly increasing in the country, wherever the Internet has reached that is. SAJ Shirazi investigates Pakistan's own passion for Hotmail.
Biz & Tech - ERP Rising
As organizations are growing and expanding to all corners of the globe, their information needs are growing at the same speed. For an enterprise, it is imperative to improve or replace old systems. Enterprises, instead of investing loads of money in to small software applications are moving towards ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning solutions. These can be parameterized according to the organizations day to day needs and in the event of a need for customization and the parameterization does not support it, the enterprise can organize a small team of IT professionals to achieve the said task in some other tool. Fouad Riaz Bajwa gives the readers an insight to current global economic and technology business trends and offers them successful models implementing ERP.
Ecommerce - U-commerce
Yasmin Malik says Ufone's strategy, that is putting "U" ('It's all about U') at the center of everything, echoes a global movement. Nowhere is this movement more profound than in the world of e-commerce. Except that it is no longer the world of "e"-commerce. The "e" slowly morphed into "m" (see previous coverage of m-commerce in SPIDER's November 2002 issue) and is now transforming into "u". U-commerce is the new word to be added to your dictionary of tech terms. The "U" does not actually stand for "You" (alas!), but implies "universal" and "ubiquitous". In other words electronic commerce conducted in such a way that is everywhere building upon "m"-commerce which is anytime.
Netforwebgrrrls - Women work it out
What do women want? A magic lamp that organizes life for them round the clock. The Net has all the answers and this month we turn the spotlight on working women who can use technology to smarten up. Ayesha S. Shaikh has the sites and sounds to bring some peace of mind in your chaotic life.
Last Byte - Voice over power
Who needs the phone lines when you can do VoIP over the power lines? ISPAK General Secretary V. A. Abidi says power lines have long held potential for high-speed, low-cost delivery of Internet service to household outlets, over an established and elaborate electrical network. Backers of the technology also say households or buildings with multiple users would benefit from the convenience of Internet access through power sockets. It is time that the Government of Pakistan should stop being fooled by the inefficient PTCL, which claims that no one else could develop a network, as large as they have and thus deny the people of Pakistan the benefits of modern and innovative technology. In any city and for that matter in any built-up area, every household and every premise is connected with the electric grid and that network is larger than the PSTN Network.
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