IBM Technology Breaks Barriers for Deaf Children

At first sight, children at the Deaf Reach School (DRS) in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Karachi are like any other school going children. They enjoy playing cricket, are excited to receive visitors and love going to computer class.

The difference is that all of these children are deaf, and many are attending school for the first time. Apart from the most rudimentary sign language, the students at DRS have not had an access to a medium that allows them to communicate with the rest of the world.

The school, along with teaching English, Mathematics and Science, coaches these children and their parents in sign language.

DRS, a project of Family Educational Services Foundation (FESF) recently received 10 Young Explorer units through IBM’s KidSmart Programme – a worldwide initiative that uses technology to more effectively introduce children in early-year settings to essential skills and knowledge. As an added benefit, it enables children to become more comfortable with technology.

The Young Explorer (YE) is a computer housed in brightly-colored, child friendly Little Tikes furniture, equipped with award-winning educational software to help children learn and explore concepts in maths, science and language.

The YE units are specially designed for children aged three to five with a focus on creating a positive impact on preschool learning and teacher training in line with government education agendas.

Technology already plays an important part in delivering lessons at DRS. Multimedia used during class speeds up the learning process together with making the curriculum more fun and interactive. IBM’s KidSmart programme will augment DRS’s ICT setup helping children learn important socialization skills, preparing them for future success in school and help level the playing field while ensuring all children have access to educational tools.

Students at DRS have started using the Young Explorer units collaborating with teachers where the software provides verbal instructions or comments. ‘At Deaf Reach Schools, technology is a key component to enhance learning. The KidSmart program has had a significant impact in our students’ lives, providing easy to use IT access and visual input allowing them to fully participate in learning activities. Students wait in anticipation for their sessions to start on the individual KidSmart stations, and they fully engage in creating graphic design art work, learning math, and developing improved computing skills.’ Richard Geary, Executive Director, FESF.

‘Today, with rapidly changing technology, unlimited internet access and dynamic educational resources, there are many options to provide education for students with special needs. Embedding modern technology in curriculums, like the KidSmart programme, provides tremendous opportunities for education, offering hope for a better future.’ Adnan Siddiqui, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan and Afghanistan.

5 Best Ways to Make Good Money by Promoting Amazon Products

Keeping in mind the economical condition of Pakistan where thousands of people are unemployed and have no source of income at all, internet is an alternative which comes to mind whenever you think about possible sources to earn some money.

However people totally misunderstand the concept of making money online. Let me tell you, it is possible and you can make healthy amount of money (more then what a salaried person can expect) but for that you need to understand that money never grows on trees. All you need to do is to learn as much you can, work hard, understand the basic concepts and research and then deploy your techniques and keep experimenting.

Most importantly take it as a business just like any other real life business.

There are many ways you can make money on the internet for example freelancing, affiliate marketing, selling etc. But I am going to get you through the affiliate marketing, an area of my own interest.

If you are a newbie and want to earn quick money online, I suggest you try promoting physical product instead of digital products. Now, there are many physical products vendor out there, but the most popular one is Amazon. It is better for you to use Amazon as a starter instead of Clickbank.

So, I will tell you why you should promote Amazon products. That’s because it is easy to make sales when you promote Amazon product, as long as you drive enough traffic to your landing page. Here are 5 best ways to make good money by promoting Amazon products:

P.S. I am assuming that you understand the terms such as affiliate marketing, blogging, adding affiliate links in your posts and so on.

1. Focus On Squidoo

Why should you focus on Squidoo? That’s because it’s free and you have all the tools necessary to promote Amazon products on Squidoo. Moreover, if you can set your lens right, it will look attractive and interesting for your readers. You know that website design is one of the most important factors that will improve your conversion rate.

Squidoo offers nice website design, and it will definitely help you to boost your conversion rate for your promotion. Just pick a product to promote from Amazon and write a simple review for that product. Then, publish your review on Squidoo. Don’t forget to add interesting images and videos to enhance the look and feel of your review article (i.e. Squidoo lens).

2. Build A Review Website On Small Niche

Pick a small niche. For example, you can pick digital photography as your niche. Then, what you need to do is to build a review website around this digital photography niche. You can call this website: digital photography review. Here you will publish around 30 product reviews related to your niche. So, in this instance, you will write about cameras, video camcorders, and so on. The next thing that you need to do is to drive traffic to your website using various means of traffic building. Don’t forget to make your website stand out from the crowd by using an attractive design and a good logo for your website.

3. Create A List Of Best Products

You can create a list of best products around certain product category, such as 10 best cameras under $500, best LED TV under $300, and so on. When you create a list of best products, you are promoting multiple products in one article. In this way, you will increase your chance of success in generating sales from your promotion. Also, you can create a list of best products related to specific target market, such as best video games for kids, best fitness equipment for men, and so on. Additionally, you can create a list of best products based on current event, such as best Valentine gift ideas, best Christmas gifts, and so on.

4. Create Comparison Article

People usually compare multiple products before actually choosing the one to buy. So, for example, you can compare two different products by stating its positives and negatives side by side, such as Samsung LED TV vs. LG LED TV. Of course, you need to compare specific product name in order to get the best result from this method. Then, you can publish your comparison article either on free blog or your own website. Just make sure to create comparison for popular products so that there are enough people that will read your article.

5. Small Niche Blogging

The last method to earn money from physical product is by creating a small targeted niche blog. For instance, if you really like playing golf and want to promote some golf products to your readers, then you can create a small niche blog about golf. In this blog, you will update it with good tips related to golf. Also, in this small niche blog you’ll create a page where you will recommend many golf products to your readers. You are going to establish yourself as an expert while your readers will be following your recommendation.

These are the best ways to earn money promoting physical product. It is one of the easiest ways to earn money online, and you shouldn’t miss this opportunity. Follow the tips above to make your first income online.

BlackBerry 10 Apps Touch the 100,000 Mark

A great news for the fans of the BlackBerry 10 platform is that the number of apps in the BlackBerry store has just reached 100,000. Of course, numbers don’t tell the whole tale but still its quite an achievement for a store which came into existence just 7 weeks prior to reaching the milestone.

The news also came just a day before the Z10 smartphone hit the all-so-important US market.

The milestone was achieved sooner than any of the platform’s rivals including Windows Phone, which is currently being declared its biggest competitor. Unlike Microsoft’s platform though, it at least had 70,000 apps to its name prior to its release including the abysmal Android ones. Windows Phone app market still has an upper hand in terms of quality apps and at the end of the day, they are what matter most.

With apps increasing at such a fast pace, its easy to see that even developers thinking or at least hoping that BlackBerry will make a comeback and capture the market as it once did.

Martyn Mallick, Vice President of Global Alliances at Blackberry mentioned that the response to the BlackBerry 10 platform and applications has been outstanding. Customers are thrilled with the applications already available, and the catalog just keeps growing, now with more than 100,000 apps. Top brands and application providers are joining us every day and are seeing the benefits of being early supporters of the new platform.

Telecom Consumers Registered 33,310 Complaints With PTA During 2012

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has said that it received 33,310 complaints from users against telecom operators during FY2012, out of which 99 percent complaints were addressed and resolved.

PTA said that telecom consumers registered these complains through various channels, i.e., online, email (complaints@pta.gov.pk), hotline (0800-55055), written complaints and faxes sent to PTA headquarter addresses and zonal offices.

These consumer complaints were against cellular operators, fixed line, wireless, broadband, LDIs and other telecom licensed operators.

PTA said that 71% of total received complaints were against cellular operators – with over 120 million subscribers base – while 27 percent out of total 33,310 complaints were against PTCL which has just 3.5 million customers.

Following graphs will give you a glimpse of complaints, their types, and share of complaints against various operators.

Summary of Consumer Complaints FY 2012

Share of Complaints by Category

Cellular Operator Wise Complaints Received and Resolved During 2011-12

Consumer Complaints Against PTCL During 2012

Effective Measure Endorsed as Digital Audience Measurement standard in Pakistan

The Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) has officially awarded Effective Measure as the industry endorsed service for digital audience measurement in Pakistan, said a release issued by the firm.

The recognition of the Effective Measure platform will give Pakistan’s advertising, publishing and digital media sectors a new level playing field to accurately assess, measure and develop their valuable digital assets.

PAS is the representative industry body of Pakistan’s advertising industry and its collective membership looks after the interests of 80 percent of the advertising spend of Pakistan.

The endorsement was awarded to Australian founded Effective Measure after a rigorous and thorough review process by the PAS Research Committee. Under PAS’s governing guidelines there will be a yearly independent audit of the service to ensure the reliability and validity of the data to ensure the highest levels of service.

“We have endorsed Effective Measure for their depth in service, technological expertise, global footprint and their guiding principles that will allow them to provide reliable and credible data to the industry” said PAS Executive Director Qamar Abbas.

Under the alliance Effective Measure will be working in collaboration with PAS to establish a world class digital audience measurement service for the Pakistan industry.

“The highest potential for media growth in the MEA region is on the digital platform, given the favourable youth skewed demographics and the strong uptake of smartphones and tablets. Pakistan plays an important role in this swing to digital platforms and advertising spend. We are excited about bringing greater digital transparency and insight into markets in the MEA territories, which we believe will accelerate growth in digital spend and awareness amongst advertisers across the region,” said Effective Measure Regional Managing Director MEA, Brendon Ogilvy.

The Effective Measure solution benefits advertisers and media owners by offering superior access to audience reach and demographic data.

“The alliance gives the dynamic Pakistan media industry, choice and diversity in selecting the best of breed solutions for managing their digital media assets, advertising spend and placement. Additionally it opens the door to a whole new layer of rich data analytics and exploration of audience behaviour across multiple digital platforms,” said Effective Measure Country Manager – Pakistan, Imtiaz N. Mohammad.

PAS members will be instructed on how to take advantage of the new measurement resources that Effective Measure provides and details will follow on how digital publishers can sign‐up with Effective Measure and get their sites tagged free of charge.