X-News

X-news! (pronounced, "ex news") is Pakistan's largest digital network of students. X-news! website is a collection of blogs from different universities. X-news! is unique the sense that there is no other chain of student news blogs in Pakistan..

Overview

“X-news!” is Pakistan's biggest digital student network and is currently operating in 11 major universities of Pakistan. The website, which is a collection of multi blogs, has the latest on-campus news of its member universities. X-news! is primarily SMS based information passing service and has a SMS reach of more than one thousand university students, faculty and staff. X-news! also has Pakistan's biggest educational Facebook reach of more than ten thousand. X-news' success can be appreciated by the fact that in a period of just six months it has grown from a stand-alone news service of 17 subscribers into a network which now has thousands of subscribers in 11 major universities! X-news is already being cited as one of the fastest gowning student news networks in Pakistan by critiques. X-news! web blog was also nominated as Pakistan’s best educational blog in the prestigious “Pakistan National Blog Awards 2010” .

History

X-news was launched on 18 April 2009 at Bahria University Islamabad Campus by three software engineering students Shoaib Khan, Casey Butt and Nabeel Ahmad. This service was initially available only on cell phones as the news updates were sent as SMS alerts and within a month X-news website was launched. The website attracted a decent traffic and received good reviews not only from Bahrian's but from students of other universities and colleges nationwide. Meanwhile the news subscriber grew at an exponential rate and in few months it became a brand name in the Campus! X-news was available on web and also on cell phones for free!

Website

The site also fosters discussion and a sense of community by engaging users in discussions that is extended on to its Facebook fan pages. The site administrators are also active users replying directly to users and commenting on stories. They also host video interviews with questions submitted by the community. The X-news! community have also have been known to socialize at local parks and bars around the world.

Logo

The X-news! logo is a capital roman "X" with news written in lower case in changes for various holidays and often for no reason, paying homage to Star Wars, classic video games, and geek culture in general. It often changes in response to major discussion subjects within the site or major news stories.

X-news! SMS

On June 18, 2009 X-news! launched its first ever SMS to about 17 subscribers. X-news! SMS is a daily news alert sent to the subscribers for free. This SMS is of maximum 3-TEXT length and carries the latest on-campus news. According to some reports, X-nes! SMS service has grown to more than ten thousand subscribers.

Expansion

X-news crossed a milestone in August 2009 when it expanded from Bahria University to the prestigious Ghulam Isa Khan Institute. Now X-news also covered GIKI hence its subscribers and the network expended. Another milestone was crossed in November 2009 when University of Central Punjab, Lahore joined the X-news network. By the end of November 2009, X-news network had expended to two provinces and three major universities in Pakistan! University of Central Punjab really appreciated the network and its student societies are closely working with the X-news team. After UCP, Pakistan's one of the biggest universities, National University of Modern Languages (NUML) joined the X-news network in November, 2009. In early 2010 X-news network expended to include International Islamic University Islamabad. X-news! co-founders have announced that this student network will be expanded to COMSATS, Islamabad and National College of Arts, Rawalpindi Campus by the end of current year .

See also

• Bahria University
• National College of Arts
• University of Central Punjab
• Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute
• International Islamic University, Islamabad
• National University of Modern Languages
• Lahore University of Management Sciences
• University of Engineering and Technology
• Foundation University
• University of Gujrat
• COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
• Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering
• government college university faisalabad

External links

• X-news!
• Bahria University X-news! (BU)
• National University of Modern Languages X-news! (NUML)
• University of Central Punjab X-news! (UCP)
• Ghulam Isa Khan Institute X-news! (GIKI)
• Islamic International University X-news! (IIUI)
• National College of Arts (NCA)
• Lahore University Management Sciences (LUMS)
• University of Engineering and Technology (UET)
• Foundation University Islamabad (FUI)
• University of Gujrat (UOG)
• COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT)
• Center of Advance Studies in Engineering (CASE)