——————————————-
Мой блог: http://vyazaniediana.blog.ru/

Our generation’s morale has been damaged. It is ok to give policemen money to get out of a situation. It is considered OK to use an insider source or a source of some political figure to get a job. This has slowly killed away our passion to strive and work hard towards something.

Its unfortunate that this is happenning in the majority and makes the hard working minority look bad… but the reality is reality. We all know this.

It will take 60 years of our hardwork to fix pakistan, just like it took years of hardwork from our grandfathers to make this country worth living in.

I had a similar situation when I moved back. I was excited about pakistan for pakistan. But the fact remains that for the next 60 years things are not going to change that much.

Another word for copying is best-practice. You take that best-practice and you improve on it, localize it.

I think one of the great points Plato made in his original comment was that we can think of doing startups within the context of the problems that they aim to solve.

There are some global contexts, like search or socializing which Google and Facebook are based on, but there are many local contexts that exist too.

I like the potential of IdeasHut and wish them well but the ideas there are still largely inspired by implementations elsewhere, from within a different context.

I’d love to see ideas with a localized context – Babar Bhatti’s idea of having a telecom tower real estate auctioning site was brilliant in this sense.

The second important thing to remember is that while copying is *possible* (anything is) but copying something that relies on Metcalfe’s law for its strength can give the 2nd guy a much greater challenge in front of its success.

The 2nd guy can still win but it would take “The Innovator’s dilemma” type of mistakes on the part of the 1st person to give room for the next guy in line.

Two very important things to focus on for startups is (1) where specifically in my entire model is value actually created and (2) What can I do thats so different that it accelerates the creation of that value compared to its rate of growth right now.

I am quite young and I am not that experienced so if i say something that is out of line please pardon me for that.

When I think of Pakistan, when I talk about Pakistan I get excited. My friends look at me as if i am some sort of blind person trying to find something in a dark room.

People hear about Pakistan they think about violence, political issues, no lights, no water, poor healthcare and so on.. where as i look at it from the point that it is OUR responsibility to fix these issues and not just b*tch about them.

The world around me is talking about BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China.. and I am want it to become PRIC – which will be hard work from all of us.

Copying ideas isn’t bad. Remember, Ideas are a million its the execution that matters. So if we can copy facebook do it. if we can copy google do it. Its better than sitting at home and not doing anything… once you copy it you will try to run it as a business. The keyword is *try* coz for 10 ppl who try this only 1 will pass and actuaally make it a business.. but that would be worth it.

I read ideashut twice a week to see what’s cooking but to be honest we all have ideas — some of them are very similar.. but we all lack execution, including me.

I tell my friends and myself that the best business (in software terms) is one that solves a problem. And I don’t think there is any lack of problems around us in Pakistan. Pick a problem, and try to design a solution around it. That’s what Facebook did, that’s what Google did, yahoo did, microsoft did, orcale did, 37signals did, zoho did, infosys did and the list goes on and on..

Lets think positive, there is are a lot of negative things around us.

I would be delighted to run that section. Where should I be e-mailing you this information.

Asim,

Agreed, however the japs, singaporeans, koreans and the list goes on copied but improved. They made it cheaper or better.

people here just copy.

Getting to the state were developed economies are right now is usually a four step process, which in layman’s terms can be labeled as the Do-How stage, the Do-Why Stage, the Know-How stage, and the Know-Why stage. The Do-How stage encompasses the ability to manage operate or just run a system, or an enterprise that essentially has some one else’s brain behind it. It’s nothing original, mostly replication. Once the industry masters this stage it will move onto the Do-Why stage where you are able to run the system without any foreign assistance. After the ecosystem has passed through this evolution stage, you can expect to be at the Know-How stage where you have the ability to adapt a product a system, a design on your own, and you acquire the skill and ability to re-engineer. Finally it’s where you reach the Know-Why stage where you have the stable ecosystem, and support system to generate an “original” and next generation system or product. I think Pakistani IT industry for most part is at stage 1. Some have moved onto stage 2, but I am confident it will someday acquire stage 4 too, where you will see original products and ideas coming forth. So have faith and don’t lose hope.

If you look at the biological ecosystem, those species who adapt to their environment survive. Rest become extinct. So instead of complaining what Pakistani IT industry “lacks” we can come up with ways to “adapt” I think

Good idea – if you’re willing to run / manage such a section consistently we dont mind putting it up

However after having interviewed a dozen “software engineers” I’ve concluded that most of them are lame, lack the motivational drive and passion.

I believe that to have a successful start-up one must have the passion and believe in the product/service you are planning to sell.

Many people here are just in it for the money and they expect it to be easy money. This can be seen across all sectors, people are more interested in ass-kissing and less interested in actually working and being innovative.

Mommy & Daddy want their children to study “computers” because CNN says IT is a big business.

Our creative agencies have 3% creativity and 97% copying skills.

If one wants a cost-effective web site designed, you’re looking to fish out maximum 15k. However the quality of that site is soo bad that at the end it isn’t worth 15k.

The fundamental problem in my opinon is the lack of passion. Because most of the students are all in it for the money, they only focus on technologies that they think will make them money… aka facebook.

Pakistan is unfortunatly a nation full of copycats. Blogging became famous, everyone is blogging. Facebook is cool, so lets make social websites, stop.pk??!??!

All that happens is copying…

I’m all for adapting to best-practices and improving it, but just simply copying the concept and expecting it to make you millions is sad.

So they day, universites start producing students that are passionate, I think that day, you might see a few interesting start-ups.

P.S. Green&White your website is great.
Maybe if you are interested you could dedicate a whole section as to what is required in a start-up, sample business plans and a panel of consultants who for free and in their free time will advise those very few who are looking to make a difference.