A World of Possibilities - Future of the Internet (Week 12)

Mr Choy showed us both these videos in class. One shows Corning's vision of the future and the other shows Microsoft's vision of the future. Both seem to have a similar view on what the future holds for us. I was genuinely amazed when I saw both these videos. The internet and the development of technology could open up a whole new world of possibilities in the future. A world where language is no longer a barrier to communication, a world which no longer needs to rely on paper and print, a world where everything is neat, clean, and simple and yet highly efficient. I know that we will not reach that level of technology anytime soon, and that we still have a long way to go. However, we are making progress. In time, I do believe that it is possible to achieve Corning's and Microsoft's vision of the future. I sincerely hope that we get there sooner than later, and that I live long enough to see such technology incorporated into our everyday lives. That would be truly amazing.

Citizen Journalism: Do we still need journalists? (Week 11)

In this day and age, citizen journalism has grown in importance. The internet has empowered people. It has given us a voice to express our own views, report what we see, do our own research, uncover truths, and share them with the rest of the world. Citizen journalism has its benefits. It allows the rest of the world access to first-hand accounts of events, especially when it comes to events such as natural disasters and wars. Citizen journalism also allows for different views on the same issue to be presented. The question we need to ask ourselves now is, "Has the rise of citizen journalism decreased our need for official broadcast stations and real journalists?"

On the surface, it seems plausible that citizen journalism could indeed replace the job of journalists. However, we still need journalists to verify the news that is published. When it comes to citizen journalism, many different versions of a single story may be published, and we may not know which source is reliable, and which source is not. Also, citizen journalists looking to get famous quickly could fabricate stories and doctor photos in order to sensationalize their stories. There are no rules and guidelines for citizen journalists to follow. However, journalists need to be responsible and accountable for every piece of information that they publish for public consumption. They need to verify their information, and check it with reliable sources before it hits the news stands.

Another point to note is that citizen journalists write and report about things that interest them. If we were to solely rely on citizen journalism, we would get an inconsistent flow of news. We need journalists to provide us with a constant and consistent stream of news on a daily basis.

Singapore GE 2011 - Internet and Politics (Week 10)

With Singapore's general elections just around the corner, the use of internet when it comes to politics is an issue that is frequently being discussed. Just recently, it was reported in the news that Singapore has chose to ease rulings on internet elections advertising for the upcoming Singapore GE 2011.

This is good news for political parties as candidates and their election agents will now be able to make use of a broader range of new media platforms to conduct election advertising on the Internet. These changes follow the amendments to the Constitution as well as the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act which was introduced just last year.

This basically means that internet elections advertising can now be conducted through a wide variety of social media platforms such as podcasts, videocasts, blogs, MMS and electronic media applications such as those found on mobile phones. It also includes microblogs such as Twitter, social networking sites such as Facebook, and photo-sharing platforms such as Flickr.

Experts predict that the relaxation of the rules could make this year's elections much more challenging. According to statistics, about one-third of the more than 2.35 million voters are under the age of 35 and these voters are all avid users of new media platforms.

"Traditionally the communication channels are one way- from the person who wants to say it to the public. This time round, what is different is that the public can now react and there can be interaction and really it will depend on whether the players are clever enough to create this interactive loop," said Dr Gillian Koh, senior researcher at the Institute of Policy Studies.

The Mp for Hong Kah GRC, Zaqy Mohamad felt that the current changes are keeping "in synch with the times."

"Today many political campaigns involve the new media. Also, many MPs have new media presence and without this policy many would be concerned if election campaigning online has to stop. With this relaxation, it means that the online space would be more vibrant and election will probably continue into not only the regular channels, that is the mainstream media, but also on the new media. "

Personally, I feel that the changes that have been made are very important ones. Not only will the inclusion of new media platforms change the way that campaigners reach out to the public, but I feel that this is also a way to get youths more involved in politics in Singapore. Bringing politics and the discussions and news for the Singapore GE 2011 onto new media platforms gives youths easy access to the information. Youths are tapped in to new media platforms, and bringing Singapore politics to these platforms will definitely increase the likelihood of youths becoming more aware of what is going on, and could also be a stepping stone to getting more youths involved in politics in Singapore.

Marketing Communication - Multimedia on the Internet (Week 9)

Marketing Communications are messages and related media used to communicate with a market. In today's context, advertisers and product promoters all over the world make use of multimedia to aid in their marketing communication.

Today, I want to take a look at something closer to home, which everyone is more familiar with. Singapore's TV programme advertisers make use of multimedia in terms of marketing communication as well. The local show, "The Noose" is a very good example of using multimedia to aid in marketing communication.



The Noose is a Singapore comedy TV series produced by MediaCorp Channel 5 which has aired in Singapore for four seasons. The name of the show is a play on the word The News. It is a parody of local news programmes such as News 5 Tonight, with fictional news reports and a presentation mimicking that of the real news.

An episode of "The Noose" looks something like this:



Although "The Noose" seems to be a funny and light-hearted show, the advertisers put in some serious work to promote the show. Aside from contstantly airing advertisements and snippets of the show on the local channels, many of these clips are also available on video sharing sites such as Youtube (like the video above)

To add on to that, many of the characters on the show own their own Twitter account. Leticia Bongnino, the domestic helper, one of the characters of the show is played by Michelle Chong. The character Leticia currently has her own Twitter account. Many of my friends actually follow her on Twitter, and they all have a good time laughing and the hilarious tweets that are posted under Leticia's account. The tweets are a very clever way of using multimedia for marketing communication. What is even better is that the advertisers have made it interactive for the fans and viewers. Leticia occasionally tweets her follwers on Twitter as well, and starts many conversations with random followers. By communicating directly with the fans, it definitely contributes to encouraging these fans to tune in to the next episode of "The Noose."

"The Noose" is just one example of a programme that uses multimedia for its marketing communication. Many advertisers adopt similar practices to promote their products and brands. Music artists use similar tactics to promote their albums and concerts. Practically all the famous music stars have a twitter or facebook account which connects them directly to their fans, allowing them to update their fans on new album releases and the availability of concert tickets and such. It seems everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, trying to use the multimedia tools to their fullest potential to reap the maximum profits and rewards.

Virus Protection - Internet Security (Week 8)

Many computers are vulnerable to various types of harmful software such as viruses, Trojans, and worms. They are known collectively as malware.

Why is virus protection important?
Having virus protection on a system is important to help protect data.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN A CURE.

As with most things, the best virus protection is prevention; an anti-malware program that will stop malware before it can get on your system. Possibly the most well known type of virus protection is an anti-virus software. However, it is also important to have an anti-spyware and a firewall installed and active on the system.

What do you look for?
When looking for virus protection, consider first an anti-virus program. The important options for an anti-virus program are:
- real time or on-access scanning
- the ability to schedule a scan on a regular basis
- automatic e-mail scanning.

Your anti virus should also:
- be easy to use and install
- be effective in both detecting and cleaning viruses
- provide easy to understand notices of found viruses and what the program has done with it
- have good customer support.

To add on to that, it should also be easy to update your software so that there is no unnecessary hassle when you try to keep your software up-to-date.

Who is at the top?

You're probably wondering right now what some of the leading anti-virus softwares are.

Here are just a few of the brands which consumers trust.

1. VIPRE Antivirus

Voters in the 2011 Readers' Choice Awards overwhelmingly selected VIPRE Antivirus as their choice for "best antivirus for Windows". 44% of all votes went to VIPRE Antivirus. In addition to a bevy of loyal users, VIPRE offers a low-impact, high performance scan engine free of the legacy code that can hinder some of the older antivirus scanners. VIPRE's malware detection has been repeatedly certified by all the major certification agencies and the company offers a no-hassle 30-day money back guarantee.

2. Norton Internet Security

Symantec's antivirus products have historically always provided excellent detection and removal of malware. On the downside, that protection came at the price of often crippling system performance. That's now a thing of the past. Performance overhauls were the hallmark of Norton Internet Security 2009, and enhancements continued in the 2010 product line.

Windows Movie Maker (Week 7)

This was my attempt at trying to put together my own short video using Windows Movie Maker. This is dedicated to the girls who make school THIS much more bearable for me. (:



I had a lot of fun putting this video together. It was the first time I was using Windows Movie Maker. I took a couple of minutes to figure out how it worked at first, but once I figured it out it was actually pretty fun. I have got to thank Mr Choy for making us put the video together, because this is something that I can keep for a very long time. (:

Google Maps: What's new? (Week 7)

Google Maps has proved to be one of Google's most useful applications. Most of us already know just how useful Google Maps. For a person like me, who has such a poor sense of direction, I cannot even count the number of times Google Maps has prevented me from getting completely lost in a part of town which I am unfamiliar with. It has prevented me from being late from countless of meetings, and at times, even saved me some money. Before Google Maps, whenever I got lost, I always had to resort to taking a taxi, especially if I was on my own.

Everyone knows the basics of Google Maps, but here are a couple of new features that you may have yet to discover.


1) It is easier to move in between views in the program.

- Moving in between the satellite view to the map view to the earth view is much easier with the new layout

- You can view the different "layers" available with ease. "Layers" refer to to traffic patterns, geotagged photos, videos and even webcam locations. Even bicycling routes, location-linked Wikipedia entries, and real estate for sale is available on Google Maps.







2) You can restrict your Google Maps search to include just businesses or user-created maps.

- User-created maps allows you to save maps with directions to places that you frequent, and makes it easy for you to retrieve these maps whenever you need them.

- It even allows you to create shortcuts to these maps on your phones or mobile devices, making it even easier to retrieve these maps.



3)You can find out what the places near the current location you are at are by right clicking on the "What's here" button.

- Google Maps will churn out a list of locations (be it a specific address or place).



Google Maps just got a whole lot more useful.

Education and Technology (Week 6)

The message behind the cartoon: Children are becoming more and more tech-savvy at a younger age.This generation of youths have been born into a culture which is heavily reliant on technology. They need to learn how to handle technology and adapt to this culture at a very young age.

As technology grows in its importance and significance to our everyday lives, educators around the world feel the need to harness the great potential of the internet and computers and to incorporate it into their lessons, bringing learning to a whole new level.

Currently, computers are such an important part of education. The students of today rely heavily on computers. Even the teachers rely on it to distribute slides, communicate with students, and even hold discussions online. If so much progress has been made in the last 10years, it would come as no surprise if technology will play an even greater part in education in the future. We may eventually reach the stage where there is no need for textbooks and handouts and possibly even exam papers. There may come a time where everything is computerized, and all you need is a personal computer or a hand-held device to get through your school days. Guess only time will tell what the future holds for students of the future generation.

The benefits associated with e-commerce (week 5)

E-Commerce is one of the most important facets of the Internet to have emerged in the recent years. Electronic commerce involves carrying out business over the Internet with the assistance of computers, which are linked to each other forming a network. In other words, it refers to the buying and selling of goods and services and transfer of funds through digital communications.

It is a well known fact that there are a great deal of benefits associated with E-commerce.

Here is a list of just a few of the benefits that are associated with e-commerce:

1) Factors such as time and distance are no longer a huge worry

2) The direct cost for sale of items are lower than the way traditional sales are made

3) It is the cheapest means for doing business. (You don't have to worry about the cost of rental space and electricity bills or hiring staff to attend to the store.)

Here is an example of a company that benefited greatly from E-commerce:







The video basically shows how dustbag.co.uk benefited from e-commerce. They were able to close down their retail store and move their business online. Aside from cutting costs and seeing and increase in sales, they are doing so well that they plan to expand their business outside of UK into Europe.

Businesses obviously benefit from e-commerce, but they aren't the only ones benefiting. Consumers benefit from it too.

- Buyers enjoy a reduction in their shorting out time. The internet makes it easy for them to locate EXACTLY what they are looking for in the shortest period of time

- It also makes it easier for them to make better buying decisions, because it is easy for them to compare and contrast the prices and availability of the required item from different sources and sellers.

- It also makes it easier for them to customise the products they buy to suit their tastes and preferences.

The Social Network (Week 4)

Last October, I managed to catch the film "The Social Network" when it was being screened in the cinemas. The film “The Social Network” is a movie about the founders of the ever-popular social networking site, Facebook, and how it all began. It takes us through the whole process of how Facebook, from its humble beginnings, became what it is today. It started off with two friends, trying to execute a simple idea, and grew to be become something so massive, that it has become such a vital tool in our everyday lives.

Personally, I felt that the movie was filmed in a very clever way. It took a potentially boring plot and managed to turn it into something worth watching. The script was witty, and the way the plot managed to weave through the past and present without confusing the audience was impressive. The actors did a fabulous job of portraying their respective roles. Jesse Eisenberg did a particularly good job of portraying the arrogant and egotistical Mark Zuckerberg.

The film was a rather memorable one because of the ever-growing significance of social networking sites such as Facebook. In today’s day and age, Facebook plays a crucial part in creating culture, and in our everyday lives. Facebook users are not just limited to a narrow age group. It spans across a large range, from young teenagers to youths to working adults and even parents and possibly grandparents as well.

Facebook has numerous functions. People use it to maintain their own personal relationships and to keep in touch with their friends and loved ones. They use it to compile pictures, and organise events and gatherings, and to keep track of birthdays. Even companies are jumping on the bandwagon, trying to use Facebook to their advantage. Aside from using Facebook as a platform for advertising, companies also use it to organise events and seminars, and some companies even use Facebook as a tool in their recruitment drives.

It is obvious that majority of us rely a great deal on Facebook. Some might even call it an over-reliance. This over-reliance on a social networking site such as Facebook creates a culture where people start to communicate more and more through mediums online, and get increasingly lazy to initiate face to face conversations and discussions.

While Facebook seems to carry more benefits than disadvantages in today's world, we have to be careful to use such social networkings sites with discretion. Abusing a tool such as this by overusing it could lead negatively impact society in the future. Essentially, social networking sites should be used to complement face to face communication, and not replace it entirely.

The Effects of Facebook on the Individual and Their Relationships with People (Week 3- CNY Week)

We all know that Facebook has affected many aspects of our lives to a large degree. Its made communication easier and had made our world seemingly smaller.
However, it is interesting to look at the impact that social networking sites like Facebok have on the individual and their relationships with people.

I did a little research on the effect that Facebook has on the personal lives of its users, particularly students and adolescent. Research shows that:

1) Facebook is definitely an important part of maintaining relationships for adolescents.
If you’re not in, you get left behind. Facebook keeps kids connected to their loved ones. For many facebook provided a way to keep in touch with high school friends and acquaintances. This was demonstrated through the fact that the most commonly used information on users’ profiles was likely to be relevant for existing acquaintances trying to find them (eg high school)

2) Studies also seem to suggest that Facebook usage was correlated to self esteem in many of its users.
Those who seemed to spend more time on Facebook somehow seemed to be more sociable.


3) Facebook gives us another avenue to communicate with each other without doing it face to face
You would thing this would be a good thing, but it turns out that this has a negative side as well. Especially when it comes to personal relationships. A recent trend of breakups occurring on Facebook has been noted. In a recent survey of 1000 fb users, 25% of the respondents found out their relationship was over by seeing it on Facebook. Now that is harsh.

4) People feel the need to make themselves seem more interesting that they actually are.
Surveys show that 35% of respondents had updated their fb status to make it seem like they had plans, when they didn’t.

Statistics such as these sometimes make you wonder if the presence of social networking sites is more of a bad thing as opposed to a good thing.

The Future of Facebook (Week 2)

By definition, social media refers to media that is highly interactive, accessible and scalable. It encompasses everything from social networks like Facebook and MySpace, blogs, podcasts, video sharing, and social bookmarks.

Today, I want to talk about Facebook. Facebook has become a very important part of my life. I'm always connected to Facebook. It allow me to keep in touch with my friends all over the world and keeps me up to date with the happenings of their everyday lives.

It makes it easy for us to share photos and videos, and event plan events and outings without the hassle of having to send invitations through the mail.
Technology is forever growing and changing. Facebook is always being updated: new layouts, new applications, new functions. It makes us wonder what new gadgets and applications facebook will come up with in the years to come, or if it will even still be around in the future.

I read an article on xinmsn tech & gadgets section a few days ago, and they were discussing crazy new features that might pop up on facebook in time to come. Here are some of the ideas that they came up with:


1) People in your neighbourhood.
Since Facebook has a "people you may know" section now, it is highly possible that sooner or later they may come up with a "people in your neighbourhood" section. One click and you can see all the facebook users that stay around your area.




2) Automated stress signal.
The writers predict that, in the future, Facebook could begin tracking users login habits, and prepare some sort of algorithm that would detect anomalies in usage. For example, if someone who is usually on facebook 24-7 shows no activity for weeks, facebook could send notifications to friends asking if the person in question is missing or if he/she has disappeared. This function may not be useful to majority of users, but who knows? It might help save someone's life.




3) Posts mentioning your name.
A future feature could be one where you could search for any posts, pictures, or comments (not necessarily tagged) that mention your name within your network of friends.





4) Automatic Relative Search
Since Facebook already has a " people you may know" section, it is not that far-fetched to think that in the future, the might add a "people you may be related to" function. While this may be useful to people who are trying to locate long lost relatives, this function may prove to be more of a hassle than anything else, especially people who are trying to keep their relatives off their profiles because they want to maintain some privacy when it comes to their own private lives.




5) Specialised chat channels
Facebook chat has been around for a long time. Currently it is a very basic chat function. However it would come as no surprised if it evolved into a chatroom where you could meet strangers or new people. Aside from singles looking for someone to hook up with, specialised chat channels where people who shared similar interests or hobbies could hold discussion and such could emerge as well.





Those were the 5 suggestions given by the tech & gadgets section on the web. I came up with a few suggestions of my own as well.

1) Facebook's own "skype"
it is possible that, in the future, facebook chat will allow you to webcam and make video calls with the friends on your friend's list.




2) Tightened Facebook privacy settings
Currently, many employers use Facebook to "check out" their candidates applying for job vacancies to decide if they are suitable for the job. Many people are afraid that the activies they do on their own personal time ( eg. partying/drinking/smoking) may hurt their chances at securing jobs. Maybe in the furure, there will be a fuction where you can "hide" your profile from companies or accounts that you have no mutual friends with, making it harder for employers to spy on your through your facebook profile.




Of course, these are just mere speculations. For all we know, Facebook might crash and burn. And a new, more advanced social networking site may emerge to take its place. I guess we are just going to have to wait and see what the future holds.

Google Chrome VS Mozilla Firefox (week 1)

One of the most basic and essential tools when talking about internet technology is browsers. Browsing is a term used to describe the process of viewing or searching documetn during information retrieval. In the past, people mostly relied on browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer. However with the advancement in technology in recent years, it is no wonder that the variety of browsers available to us has increased and expanded through the years. Currently, the fight between the most reliable browsers seem to be between Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. I came across an article which clearly illustrated the main differences between both browsers. The article also highlighted both the strengths and weaknesses of both browsers.

The article can be found at http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/googles-chrome-vs.-mozillas-new-fast-firefox-4

Basically, the article states that the needs of the user is what mostly determines which browser trumps the other. While Mozilla Firefox is the "prettier" browser, with its add-ons and appealing layouts, Google Chrome, while not as visually appealing as Firefox, gets the job done just the same.

Personally, I am a fan of Google Chrome. I prefer using Google Chrome to Mozilla Firefox because I feel that it operates as a faster speed, and is very user friendly. However, my needs for the internet are very basic. I use it to surf the web, send out emails, manage my social networking accounts, and carry out research for school. I do not have a very strong need for the very many add-ons that Mozilla Firefox has to offer. Maybe as I get older, and as time goes by, my needs will change and I might lean more towards Firefox.

But who knows? At the rate technology is developing, and given the success of Google thus far, it would come as no surprise is Google matches us with, or if not possibly surpasses Firefox in time to come.