Most Important Single Development

"The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting." - Dave Barry

Indeed.

With the Internet transforming our lives and society now, it is very difficult for us to refute this point. The Internet is developing still, but the way we operate and do things change with its gradual progress. Like how we chat with our friends or family members via online chats even when we're probably sitting side by side, like how we find out more about our friends without asking them just from Facebook and/or Twitter.

But of course, this may well be just the beginning.

In class we were shown video clips of the future of the Internet such as augmented reality glasses, "StarkHUD 2020". Just putting on that pair of glasses, people can travel to anywhere, anytime. Only they are still in the same location of course. It's their eyes that travel. Within that small pair of glasses, information can be provided and people can even see their own transformation into say, Iron Man.

And this is just one example of what the future of the Internet brings us.

There is even the integration of the Internet into television, as can be seen from the Samsung Smart TV commercial. You can "stream music and movies, connect with friends, and everything else you love".

This could well be just one of the trends. In future, as Mr Abel Choy has predicted, there may even be integration of the Internet into radio, text, news, movies, and photos.

Even the television can act as a control centre of the house, no longer requiring the remote control with extremely small buttons.

The gap between the digital world and the physical world may be bridged as well, such as integrating information to our everyday objects, as introduced by Pranav Mistry. We can pinch information onto just a piece of paper, and later on transferring it to our full screen computers.

Or, as a video clip shows, we can now wake up and even check out the latest news using our mirror while brushing our teeth, or chat with just anybody using a counter top. Or copy directions from a big digital screen onto our own device.

I think the future of the internet is too vast; with our current technology, which is developing still, we can create almost anything we want now. I believe the integration of internet into our daily lives is just the beginning; many more incredulous things that we never thought of may be awaiting us.

More Than Just Gaming Addiction

"Virtual reality is a medium, a means by which humans can share ideas and experiences." - Alan B. Craig, Developing Virtual Reality Applications

Since this week's topic is just about anything, I thought I could elaborate on Virtual reality, something my group did for our project.

I shall first begin with its definition, as quoted from dictionary.com: A realistic simulation of an environment, including three-dimensional graphics, by a computer system using interactive hardware and software.

In recent years, virtual reality is gaining much more attention, with newspaper reports of it causing suicides amongst other disastrous impacts. However, virtual reality surfaced as early as the 1960s, with the introduction of the first multi-sensory simulator called Sensorama.

In 1982, the Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator was introduced. It was an advanced flight simulator with an out-the-window view. As we can see, even in its early stages of development, virtual reality was not just targeting at the gaming aspect.

The term Virtual Reality was coined by Jaron Lanier, the father of virtual reality technology. According to Lanier, it was his attempt at distunguishing "between traditional computer simulations and the shared, digital worlds he was trying to create" ("Interview: Jaron Lanier", 1992). But Lanier feels that the term "has been bastardized and hyped up and turned into a whole subcultural craziness".

His view may not entirely be wrong.

After all, we see reports splashed across newspapers about how virtual reality has resulted in murder cases, and even negligence in childcare, leading to a baby's death. "A 22-year-old even burgeoned his mother to death for nagging at him for spending time playing Internet games." (Lim et al., 2011)

However, all these occurred due to long hours of play, resulting in addiction in virtual reality games.

We have to understand that even with these negative impacts, virtual reality has in fact, many other applications in various fields such as medicine, politics, and the military.

But because my group has already touched on the above few categories, I would like to zero in on architecture.

Archiform 3D, an Animation and Rendering studio specializing in Architectural and Landscape scenes, has been creating virtual reality renderings since the early 1990s. The company believes that "virtual reality renderings, visualisation and animations bring new designs to virtual 3D life, allowing you to see everything in its glory as though it was already built" (Archiform3D, 2011). Below are a few pictures from them.

(Photos courtesy of Archiform3D)

The photos show just how real the buildings are, don't they?

Furthermore, I've just learnt from the very same site that there are more than just a few types of virtual reality used in architecture. There's 3D virtual reality, 3D rendered virtual reality, photographic virtual reality, 3D animated virtual reality, real time virtual reality, and holographic reality. (Archiform3D, 2011)

More information can be found at Archiform3D.

Archiform 3D also thinks that "nothing exists in reality to begin with so our artists use any information that they can gather to create a virtual model, one that exists inside a computer" (Archiform3D, 2011).

I quite like this idea because it means people can do almost anything they dream of, which is limited in every sense such as physics. Also, we're often encouraged to think out of the box aren't we? This virtual reality in architecture certainly allows us to work our creativity into reality, albeit in just the virtual world.

Virtual reality indeed, is not just limited to the field of gaming and murder cases, as my shallow brain used to think so. I believe there are more areas that my group hasn't researched on. But virtual reality has proven itself to be a great help in areas such as architecture, medicine, politics and military, just to name a few.

A Shift

"The Internet has encouraged a shift in who creates, distributes and ultimately owns the news."

Journalism is the profession of reporting or photographing or editing news stories for one of the media. Since web 2.0, there has been an increase in citizen journalism.

Now anyone can be a journalist.

You post about an incident that you've witnessed on your blog, you're a citizen journalist.

You post a picture about something else on online forums, you're a citizen journalist.

It doesn't help that most people are holding onto smart phones now. Just a snap or the picture and it's up somewhere - Facebook, Twitter, even Stomp.

With the internet, people are getting an increasing amount of first-hand information. We do not have to wait for the journalists to get to the scene and verify the facts; they are all up on the internet almost immediately.

Citizens can now own their own news.

But it comes to the point when we have to ask ourselves, when is enough, enough?

We take the case of PAP's youngest candidate Ms Tin Pei Ling. Since her public appearance, there has been numerous stories about her on the internet. Some netizens even went as far as retrieving her old photos from the net and uploading them, suggesting that the male in the photos may well be her ex-boyfriend.

Can this be considered journalism at all when there isn't any accuracy? After all, the three main elements of journalism are accuracy, brevity and clarity.

Further, who doesn't have a past? Even if it were true, does it really matter because she's not standing for the prize of a virtuous wife, but a political candidate.

So, when is enough, enough?

With the internet, it seems this question is getting more difficult.

Getting Sophisticated

"A candidate who can master the Internet will not only level the playing field; he will level the opposition." - Larry Purpuro, RightClick Strategies

Steve Clift from Democracy Online once said this: "The Internet has become the main strategic communications tool behind the scenes in politics. It is not a medium to sway undecided voters. It is a medium to organize your supporters, feed them your message and get out your core vote. It may have an impact on new and less frequent voters some day, but that seems a long way off. No candidate that I am aware of has ever won because of the Internet."

But that was in 2006.

In 2008, current U.S. president Barack Obama proved Clift's statement wrong.

Joe Trippi, a political consultant, feels that Obama "used the Internet to organise his supporters in a way that would have in the past required an army of volunteers and paid organisers on the ground".

He used YouTube for free advertising and Trippi thinks the YouTube videos are more effective as compared to advertisements using traditional media because viewers chose to watch them instead of being forced to watch them during commercial breaks.

In addition, his website was "designed for common people"; individuals could view his websites the moments they typed in the link.

Hillary Clinton's website, on the other hand, gives the image of trying to force people to support her. It shows a picture of her, a quote, contact information, and a big icon that reads CONTRIBUTE in red. Other than that, there isn't a lot of information we can get out of the website as compared to Obama's.

A 2008 survey showed that "the internet is becoming an increasing part of the norm of political participation - people are using it to read the news, share their votes, or to participate in some other process to get others to take political action".

This is definitely evident in the fact that people are forwarding or writing their own political commentary, signing online petitions, and sharing online political videos among other things.

From all of these, we can see that the internet is no longer in its infancy in terms of the political arena.

However, there are certainly limitations to the internet for political campaigning, such as negative campaigning.

One example would be of PAP's youngest woman candidate Tin Pei Ling.

The 27 year-old is recently in the limelight for all the wrong reasons; her speech on her biggest regret, criticisms of her posing with her Kate Spade bag, and photos from her past.

All these was made possible with the internet; videos of her speech being viewed by many, photos taken from her Facebook page. There are even a few videos made just to mock her.

Such is the limitation of the internet.

I believe it does not just apply to politics, however.

No doubt this incident has reflected the impact of internet on political campaigning, of course in the negative sense, but more importantly it teaches us that the internet is a really scary thing; whatever has once been posted can always be dug out.

Already Here

"The future is already here, it's just that it's not so common." - Mr Abel Choy

Multimedia is a computer-based interactive communications process that incorporates text, graphics, sound, animation, and video. There are many major categories of multimedia application, such as entertainment, education, engineering and corporate communications.

Two examples are the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic multimedia presentation and the Official Apple iPhone 4 Video.

Comparing them both, I find the latter more impressive. Even though it is roughly five minutes longer than the Nokia presentation, already considered time consuming for some, I find that every bit of information of what the consumers should know is provided. From the functions of the iPhone to the material it is made of. This gives consumers full knowledge of the phone. It also shows consumers the iPhone has quality, and is not just a pretty little toy.

Although both presentations are well-structured, with the Nokia one even divided into the different types of functions, the iPhone 4 presentation is given a human voice, in that there is speech accompanying the video. This speech brings the audience through the video in a step-by-step basis. Further, authorities are used in the presentation - the vice-president of product marketing, senior vice-president of hardware, etc. This provides expert opinion, which is very useful in persuading people to buy the product. In this aspect, I think the Nokia presentation pales in comparison because there is only text and music. For someone like me who prefers audio as opposed to text, this presentation definitely does not appeal to me.

In addition, the mechanics of the phone is presented, showing consumers what they are getting themselves into. The public is even taught how to use the phone, such as the multi-tasking function, sorting of the icons and viewing their emails from multiple accounts in a single inbox.

Towards the end, the main ideas of the message is reiterated, summing up everything, while the Nokia presentation does not.

Hence I would say the iPhone 4 presentation impresses me more.

Even though both are multimedia presentations, there are many ways to go about doing it. I believe one way for companies to make the presentations better is to first do a formative research to check the preference of their target audience.

WiiFit with us

No Truly Secure System

“The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards.”– Gene Spafford

Now that technology is "as important as breathing", many more people are using the internet as compared to the past. However, the internet is both good news and bad news.

While it may be of help socially, politically, and economically, technology also allows hackers to take control of the whole system. Because of this, cyber crimes are on the rise.

There are three main programmes that causes damage to our computers: the virus, the worm, and the Trojan Horse. And even though most of us may mix them up thinking all are viruses, there are actually vast differences among them.

While worms do not require host files, viruses do. They have the ability to replicate themselves thereby infecting other programmes. They spread throughout the computer systems and are a "destructive payload".

Worms, on the other hand, spread through emails and replicates themselves without infecting other programmes.

Trojan Horses are a more serious kind of attack. "It's like putting spy on a computer". They may appear to be normal and useful softwares, but when downloaded onto the computers, they can do a lot of harm. While some may be harmless but annoying, such as changing desktop, others may not necessarily be so. In the worst cases, they may delete files and destroy information. This gives rise to phishing, a type of identity theft in which deceptive mails asking for personal information are sent.

I never used to bother a lot about such viruses, worms and Trojan Horses. I didn't even care about virus scans and getting computer protection such as anti-spyware. But now that I know about the damaging effects I guess it's time to start caring about my computer practices.

One way to start doing so is to always use the internet firewall. Another is to get computer updates and use up-to-date anti-virus software to detect and remove viruses. Never open attachments from strangers, and even if those are emails are friends or family, double-check the content if the title looks weird. I once opened the attachment from the email that said it contained my photos but it turned out to be a worm.

Lastly, do not leave your password around or use easy passwords. My cousins always tease me that my passwords are easy to remember and are universal. I guess it's time to change my password.

Like what Chris Pirillo said, “Passwords are like underwear: you don’t let people see it, you should change it very often, and you shouldn’t share it with strangers."

Too Diversified

"Many people have been complaining that Google is too diversified, they do not have any focus" - Mr Abel Choy

Indeed, Google alone has only too many tools: webs, images, videos, maps, alerts, ...

From a business perspective, it is difficult to survive without a focus, I have to admit, however, that Google has helped me in many different ways.

The web and images alone help me in my research and assignments. News allow me to read online and on the go. The list will go on, but the purpose of the entry today is to talk about Google Maps.

I was supposed to go to ADL building at Toh Guan Road East to run an errand, and asked my friend for the directions. Her immediate response was, "just go to google map". And so I did.

There are directions by car, by public transit, and by walking.

On the left of the page, several suggested routes and even the timings are shown. It even tells the user how many stops the buses will take.

On the right side, a map is shown. You can zoom in to get a better view and there are two different types of views - the satellite version and the earth. Click on the satellite icon and you can see just what's happening in the vicinity. In addition, there are pop-ups on where you are supposed to take the buses from.

Using Google Maps, I got to my destination without any difficulty. Who's to say that diversification is not good?

The Now Big Thing

"Online learning is not the next big things, it is the now big thing." - Donna J. Abernathy

E-learning is defined as learning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content. Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, which may include online interaction between the learner and their teacher or peers.

This phenomenon is very much prevalent in today's society. We see people uploading videos teaching others how to play a type of instrument, we hear students having a week off from school "because it is e-learning week".

As can be seen, e-learning has now become part of the classroom activity.

There is now e-learning even on Second Life, an online virtual world in which people interact using avatars. A "3D virtual world that can provide and deliver a unique educational setting", "Second Life is being adopted as a platform by more and more institutions of learning". It allows users to be imaginative, without any physical boundaries.

Second Life users, also known as residents, can practise role-playing and "interact with other characters". There is virtual replica of history too. Residents can learn while playing as well, using the concept of scavenger hunt to locate information relevant to their field of study". Students can even go into the "inside of a Dell computer". Language barriers are also broken down with the use of a language translator. And this is just some of the many educational experiences Second Life provides.

One video states that in Second Life, "you can take what's difficult or impossible to do in real life and recreate it here". Examples are defying gravity - flying and creating cities in the clouds. This is certainly "a wonderful place to experiment" should one be teaching astronomy, physics, atmospheric science or even geography. It works users' creativity and imagination and perhaps even brings them to a higher level. Obviously, activities are designed for other aspects of education too - computer science, multimedia, business, marketing, accounting, and architecture among others.

As the narrator mentioned, Second Life has a platform and potential of allowing educators to create a "truly experiential opportunity for students". They can interact with one another, collaborate and to show their knowledge and expertise with one another.

I would agree with this. And from the above-mentioned, Second Life definitely is a totally different type of learning experience from the traditional methods of teaching. However, in a century which is seeing increasing numbers of people being dehumanized by the virtual world, I'm not sure if this is the best method to encourage learning.

As one YouTube user had pointed out, "second life is ok, as long as you remember it isn't your 1st life".

Videos used:

Education in Second Life: Explore the Possibilities

Educational Uses of Second Life

As important as breathing

"Any company, old or new, that does not see this technology as important as breathing could be on its last breath." - Jack Welch, US former chairman and CEO of General Electric.

E-commerce, as we have learnt in lecture, involves digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organisations and individuals. This would mean the exchange of value across organisational or individual boundaries in return for products or services mediated by digital technology.

More simply put, 'e-commerce is the function of creating exchange (i.e., buying and selling) over digital media." (Kalakota and Robinson, 1999)

As of 1995, the growth of business to consumers (B2C) e-commerce has increased almost exponentially. The same can be said for business to business (B2B) e-commerce since 2001. Many companies have certainly been drawn to e-commerce.

So, how do we ensure success in e-marketing?

I think the most important factor would be search marketing, either via Pay Per Click (PPC) or organic search marketing (Search Engine Optimisation - SEO). Now that near to everything is digitalized, almost everyone uses the search engine. With search marketing, a list of websites appear with the click of a button. Of course, they are things to take note of even with search marketing. Keywords and content should be chosen wisely so that they are relevant. Especially with PPC, each click by consumers costs a certain amount of money. Companies definitely do not want to spend money on those who do not want to buy their products.

Customization is also important. This is one of the 6C's of customer power. Just as most of us want personalisation, customers want things to belong uniquely to them as well. This applies even to e-commerce. If customers are able to specify product categories of interest and are exposed only to those categories, this saves them a lot of time which makes their shopping experience a lot more enjoyable.

Navigational structure should be convenient and easy to use as well to ensure the well-functioning of the site.

Details about their companies should be included so that consumers know that they are trustworthy. "Allow customers to like you by knowing more about you."

There should be contact details too, so that consumers can contact the companies should they have any queries. This would mean office numbers, email addresses and even physical addresses. Include the time that you're able to take calls so that customers do not call at inappropriate times.

It would be best if testimonials from existing customers are provided so that they act as "proof that you deliver". This is very useful to a company's reputation. Guarantees, price matches and free returns can also be added so that consumers do not have to compare the prices with other websites manually.

Legal information is important so that terms and conditions, and privacy policies are reflected in black and white. Should there be any legal disputes, such information act as back-up.

Facebook Yay Or Nay

"Social networking sites like Myspace, Friendster, Facebook have literally exploded in popularity in just a few short years" - Mike Fitzpatrick

While the above sentence may have been true a few years back, Facebook is probably the only most-used social networking website today. Myspace, as many might have heard, has already lost its "space", and Friendster is so yesterday. Will Facebook users ever lose their interest in Facebook? Afterall we were once users of Myspace or Friendster, or other networking websites, and have since migrated over.

Just last lesson, we were showed the video on "25 things I hate about Facebook" by Julian Smith. Among them are "poking", "pillow fight requests" and "gifts", which I honestly do not understand their purpose. Like Smith said, "great, it's a lollipop, now what am i supposed to do with it?" I find no meaning in sending virtual gifts at all.

While I do appreciate that Facebook allows me to connect with my friends as mentioned in my previous post, I find that privacy is becoming more of an issue. At least for me. Every activity you do, even if it were just a comment on someone else's status or photo, is updated on your wall. And it isn't just "Caitlin wrote on ____'s wall". Even the littliest details are given. Like what you've written. And the worse thing is you don't even know who is viewing your profile. What if he/she is someone you feel uncomfortable with viewing your own profile but because of friendship issues you let that individual remain your "friend" on Facebook?

I'm not sure if anyone is facing the same problem. Many a time when I've decided to do a Facebook spring cleaning I don't carry it out eventually. For fear of removing mere acquaintances that are friends of friends, and it may seem bad to delete them off, and you should be friendly... and the list carries on.

Of course, I can cease all activities and just use Facebook as a platform to check out how my friends are doing, but then what would be the fun? I prefer the old version. Sure, activities were updated, but they weren't too detailed. At least there was a certain amount of privacy.

Or maybe it's time to create another social networking account - Path.

Also known as the anti-Facebook, Path allows users to add only a maximum of 50 friends. This is based on the scientifically-proven fact that an individual can only have at most 50 friends. "The idea here is that you always control who you're sharing with and you can tell the story of your life to your closest friends and family." (Los Angeles Times)

I quite like this idea.

Connections made so much easier

"We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people." - Pierre Omidyar

Indeed.

Designed for social interaction, social media use highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques, and web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. As compared to traditional media, it is rich in content and its reach spans across the globe. Because of the user-generated nature of social media, it is very much interactive, perhaps one of the reasons for the richer connections with so many more people.

Also one of the reasons I disagree that social media is a bad idea. While it may have caused a little bit of invasion of privacy, I must admit that it has allowed me to "be in contact" with a larger number of people, something I might not have been able to do without it.

For one, social networking websites such as Facebook and microblogging ones like Twitter have made it all the more easier for me to keep myself updated about my friends. I don't necessarily have to call them to ask how they are, because the moment I log onto those websites all information is spread before my very eyes, right down to the littlest details. The sheer amount of people on Facebook certainly highlights the important social need: people need to connect. And they want to connect.

Furthermore, you get to comment on almost everything, from the status updates to photos and even videos and sometimes you get instant replies - communication made faster and easier without having to meet each other physically. Which brings us to Skype and webcams that allow you to even see each other in the comfort of your own home. What's not to love?

Such functions just underscore the sheer efficiency "for people to communicate, get information and share information" (Zuckerberg, n.d.)

But this again brings us to the question: as much as we may all embrace social network with open arms now, will we ever get burdened by the information overload?

Wonders of the Web

"The Internet is based on a layered, end-to-end model that allows people at each level of the network to innovate free of any central control. By placing intelligence at the edges rather than control in the middle of the network, the Internet has created a platform for innovation." - Vinton Cerf


Just last lesson, Mr Choy said that the Internet is not the web. And I was stunned. Because all along, I'd thought that the internet and the web are one and the same. Then I googled on the differences between them both and found out just how huge the web is.

But for the purpose of this first post, I shall just talk about the wonders of the web 3.0.

The web has indeed come a long way, from just a 1.0, something that allows read-only, to a 2.0, the "wildly read-write web", and finally, 3.0, a continuation of the already fantastic existing techniques. It uses collective intelligence and is so highly interactive people get to know so many more "friends", via gaming or what-have-yous.

There are just too many functions of the web; search engines, online businesses and transactions, viewing of dramas just to name a few.

It's amazing just how the search engine works, linking so many people together, showing us all the information we need just by a click of the mouse. I was just reading my cousin's blog and was linked to another lady's whom she had recommended. I guess this is how blog-hopping came about. And then you start being avid readers of blogs belonging to strangers, those you've never met before in real life. And speaking of blogging, the web 3.0 allows all of us to be authors, creating our own space. Some have their own photoblogs, some food blogs and so many more, that when you run out of ideas as to where to go to you can just google them.

Then there are the online businesses, how with the web you can now shop "overseas", visiting shops from all over the world. iBanking definitely helps all the online shoppers and my cousins have certainly benefitted a lot from it, instead of having to go all the way to the ATM machines to transfer the money. Again, everything is done within a click of the mouse.

And how can I forget the viewing of dramas! Ever since my cousins have given me the different websites for drama-viewing I no longer have to make sure I reach home and sit myself in front of the television just before my favorite programs start.

But then you wonder, with so many wonders already, can the web 3.0 still evolve into a 4.0?