Monday, March 12, 2012

New dimensions to social networking in Pakistan


PESHAWAR: As novel as it sounds, Mardan’s 18-year-old Shahzad has developed a social networking portal that does not require an internet connection – “Smile SMS”.
The SMS-based social networking service enables users to gather local and international information on their phones, free of cost, without using the internet.
IT-savvy Shahzad has been into developing programmes and websites ever since he was in grade six. This hobby transformed into passion and helped him achieve a lot at a very young age.
Smile SMS – the first of its kind service launched in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – operates similar to Facebook, however, the only difference is that an internet connection is required for Facebook, while Smile SMS can be used without it.
“This service helps you update your status, let your friends comment on it and make new friends,” said Shahzad. “In K-P, not a lot of people have access to the internet, so I thought of developing a unique programme for them.”
Shahzad said he has done the first network test of the service and currently it can afford up to one million people. “We are planning on expanding and updating the service too.”
Sajjad Khan, one of the users of the service said that in his village, hundreds of students don’t have internet access to use this service. “This is the first time that such a service has been launched in K-P. It is benefitting a lot of people, said Khan.
Shahzad also said that the people of K-P can also make a name for themselves in the field of IT, only if the government encourages them.

Social Networking Redefined: Mardan Boy Develops SMS-Based Portal
This country is not of talent and resources and this is what we in the eyes of our young talented minds who have just started to come up with more innovative ideas every now and then. Earlier we read about Malala Yousafzai and Arfa Karim and now this 18 year old teenager, Shahzad Khan from Mardan is making us say Woww. This came to my knowledge just a moment ago when express tribune reported that a local boy has created a facebook like social network that runs on mobile phones through SMS, called SMileSMS
Since it is SMS based, therefore, it does not require any internet connection. Just like facebook, you can update your status, let your friends know about it who can also comment on that.
At the moment, the test network that Shahzad had created can accommodate 1 million users to share their information on it. But, with the help of government support and cooperation from cellular operators, this application can be enhanced to let more than 110 million subscribers of Pakistan to communicate through it.
If provided enough support, this could really boost our local application development market.
Shahzad is a University of Peshawar graduate and runs a small setup for its application development. He has this hobby of creating different small programs since grade 6.
How SmileSMS Works
To Create an ID on sMiLe sms CHAT (space) ID
Eg: CHAT Faisal
To Add Someone as Friend sms ADD (space) ID
To Update Status sms STATUS (space) Msg
To Comment on Someone Status sms Status Code (space) Comments
Eg: c1 Hi its nice
Status Codes are somewhat like Cxxx
Just to Get someone Public Updates sms LISTEN (space) ID
To send Public Updates sms STATUSP (space) Message
Send All messages on 03318190484/3 (Which will be Free of Cost)



0 comments:

Post a Comment