The internet has been around for ages. Ever since it’s invention in the 1960s till now, the internet has improved and evolved with leaps and bounds. The functions and opportunities that it offers are limitless. But what will be its foreseeable future? That itself is a mystery for many users of the internet.
To predict what may happen to the internet in the future is a long shot. Since technology is ever-changing, everything around it gets sucked into its evolution as well. This makes the scenarios of what the internet would be like in 10 years, 50 years vast and unimaginable. The only way is to look at what general direction the internet is heading in now and speculate about what may happen to it in the future.
Presently, the internet is still a free and open source of technology or network where people all over the world can communicate with. But in some countries restricted usage and access to certain data has already been in place. Through censorship and blocking methods, certain corporations and governments even, have begun to shape the way one lives. For instance, in China, certain social-networking websites like Facebook, are restricted by the Government. By not allowing users’ free access to whatever content they please, these parties are able to make sure that users only see what they want them to see. This is not only scary but thought-provoking as given this kind of power, if fallen to the wrong hands, one may shudder at the thought of uprisings or dictatorships that threaten to topple the overall peace experienced in the world today.
In the future, if this is allowed to continue, one can see an effect called the “Boutique Network” happening. When government and service providers realized that they can restrict the way the internet is used, they will do so only based on their own interests. They will manipulate the way the internet is used. Making users think, do or even learn whatever they want them to. Though the “Boutique Network” depicts a scenario where the internet stops being free and evolves into many independent small intra-networks, the motive and result is still the same as discussed. http://www.isoc.org/tools/blogs/scenarios/
On a lighter note, the evolution of the internet does provide many improvements and advancements of technologies in the present and for the future. For instance, harnessing the power of wireless communication provided by the internet, car makers Toyota have manage to design and create a car that has internet access implanted on its car’s door via a touch panel. This brings a whole new meaning to the term “wireless communication”.
Whatever the future has installed for the internet, one can be certain of only one thing: Change is imminent and there’s no way or method that one can prepare for it.
As a topic it’s widely talked about all over the world. It’s an issue that’s highly debatable with multiple outcomes and many theories. What is it? It’s the issue known to many as the “tech wars” between giants, it’s Google Vs Apple!
So what exactly is this war about? To start, here’s a short background on both companies:
Google was a small setup dealing with Internet search and cloud computing technologies, by two PhD candidates studying in Stanford University back in 4 Sep, 1988. With leaps and bounds, the company has progressed to where it is today, generating sizeable revenue through advertising from its “AdWords” program amongst other outlets. Apple, on the other hand was a company which was established by 3 entrepreneurs which worked on building the world’s first personal computer kit. From being first known as the “Homebrew Computer Club”, fast forward decades later, Apple has made a name for itself as one or if not the largest technology company in the world based on its revenue and profit.
Since these two companies’ main selling points are based on the consumer technology market, it’s quite easy to see why there’s an ongoing war. One issue would be that both offer two different operating systems for mobile phones which have their individual strength and weaknesses. Besides that being the most obvious angle to look at, here’s another one: the business aspect. To bring all this technologies to life comes with much effort based on research and marketing policies. Over the years, to help them in these areas, both have bought over companies with experience, hoping to harness the talent to better their technologies and get ahead of the competition in this war.
Based on a recent study done by a technology website: http://www.techi.com/2011/08/google-vs-apple-whos-winning-the-tech-industry-land-grab/, from their most recent acquisition one can almost immediately see the competitive nature that the two have. Google bought over ”Endoxon”, which created specialized internet mapping technologies for the Europe continent This is smart move by Google which clearly has the intention to expand on its current map database. Apple, not wanting to be out shown has bought over a “Poly9” and “Placebase”, a small startup which specializes in online mapping. Clearly, they are hoping to create a new interface or way of online mapping that can directly compete with Google’s very own: Google Maps.
One may think that in this war the only casualties are the companies themselves, but in truth, the smaller companies are also suffering. Being firmly at the top of the food chain, both feel that to gain the upper hand in the war would be to kill of any opposition, be it large or small. Any direct competitor would strain its resources which would weaken their ability to compete in the war. An example would be Google’s recent acquisition of “Motorola”. “Motorola” as many would know, back in the day was one of the world’s leading mobile phone companies. Apple too has taken the ruthless approach of buying over a small start-up which it felt was affecting its music program “iTunes”. “Lala.com”, a start-up which created software that allowed users to stream music live from the Internet proved itself to be a direct competitor to “iTunes”. Not taking any risks, Apple decided to buy them over to stop another possible outlet for Google to gain the upper hand in the war.
So as one can see, this war is fought on many different grounds. Be it the technology aspect, business aspect or consumer aspect, it is quite certain that for the many years to come this war will go on bringing a lot of changes to the entire technology industry. But one thing’s for sure, the real victors of this war will who reap all the benefits from the technological advancements and marketing marvels will always and only be: the consumer.
Journalism is all about investigating and reporting on the truth with regards to world issues, events and trends. It is suppose to disseminate news and information to a large number of audience. However, with the intrusion of the Internet, journalism has since changed and moved away from its traditional way of getting information and also a change of style with its reports. Journalism with the new media and the various social network sites has helped this industry to grow more competitive and more advanced. In this modern era, there is this thing called “Citizen Journalism“. This term means that the citizens of a country are able to report on anything that they have seen & heard. At the same time, they are also able to discuss and publish materials on their own web portal such as blogs, twitter,facebook, anywhere with a platform for others to acquire information or read. This actually allows much freedom of “speech” through the Internet (cyberspace) and everyone is allowed to speak their minds.
Below is a video about what Citizen Journalism is about:
Now that you’ve learn about what is citizen journalism, we can now compare and contrast between the traditional journalism and citizen journalism. We will realize how the traditional journalism together with its media has revolutionized and how it is somewhat different today. However, besides citizen journalism, the traditional journalism should always be there because it acts as a pillar & everyone will surely want a 100% reliable source to tell us what we should believe and should not. Also, we should always retain the traditional way of investigation and reporting news, because that is what journalism is about, searching high and low, moving about looking for cover stories and world news that important in our lives, instead of just sitting by the computer, using a camera snapping pictures and posting it up. It should be more alive than just that.
Even though we already have traditional journalism, with the advancement of technology, citizen journalism is definitely here to stay and it will improve further in future so lets take a look why it will be significant in our lives.
What is a Political Campaign? An organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group or to garner votes from the citizens of the country. In democracies, political campaigns are often referred to as electoral campaigns, representatives are chosen or referendums are decided.
How has the influence and power of Internet aid in political campaigning in the 21st century?
In this era, the Internet is a vital tool for politicians to make use of. Communication technologies such as e-mail, postcasts, vlogs & websites enables them to communicate easily & effectively to the citizens of the country. At the same time, knowing that political campaigns are always in need of funding, the Internet is also used efficiently to raise funds. Knowing that the Internet is able to move at such a fast speed and delivering the message to a large quantity of audience, political candidates from the various parties uses the Internet as a platform to promote/advertise their respective campaigns in order to reach out to all living in the country. Besides being able to deliver messages to the massive number of audience, political campaigns done through the Internet reduces campaign costs as well as helps to increase the number of voters, be it the interested or uninterested, they will still look up the website to see what each politicians have to say. Through the use of popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, politicians are able to reach out to the passive & apathetic younger generation more easily than before. A good example will be about this years’ Singapore General Election, Nicole Seah, who was a political candidate was able to make use of social media to market her party and her political campaign.With that, she is giving herself a platform to connect with voters outside of the confines of Singapore’s media.
What are the limitations?
Despite the ever changing technology that we have in the 21st century and the society continuing to adapt to its rapid speed, political campaigns on the Internet will not be able to fully take over the traditional campaign of using the print media as well as televised media. We cannot simply use the Internet as the sole platform when doing a political campaign, as the Internet & social media channels caters more to the younger generation, we should also think about the older generation who may not be literate with the tools and are not updated with computer technology. Also, what about the poor who may not be able to get their hands on the computer and thus are not able to go onto the Internet to access political information. New media caters only to a particular segment of the population, it helps to reach out to more people than it could have. However, I personally think that it is probably not going to be the major deciding factor in terms of gathering more votes. Social media in Singapore is still underdeveloped as compare to a country which has a more politically-active environment and this may be due to the chilling effect that Internet regulations has had on Singaporeans. Although Internet regulations for political campaigns has been eased, tough penalties are still being put in place for defamation & fostering of racial and religious hatred.
Are the younger generation apathetic towards politics in Singapore?
Personally, I do not think that the young adults or youths are apathetic towards politics in Singapore. As seen in this years political campaign, I think that they are more engaged politically and more interested in political news. Two of these examples are, Tin Pei Ling and Nicole Seah who were the two political candidates, only in their 20s. With the rise of the use of Internet in Politics, young people are able to make use of this tool and as a platform to make their views and opinions known. Discussion forums are being set up for those we wants to share about their thoughts and interact actively with others who are alike them. Youths were also found to be more engaged and has increased amount of interest in reading up on politics. They consume political information not just only on traditional media such as newspapers and television. Other channels such as new media, the internet, they make use of smart phone applications to access e-print newspaper articles, The Straits Times and Temasek Reviews too. With much activity and political participation from the youths, I can safely say that they are more involved in politics, at least more than ever before and in the future, there will be more who will be interested and active in the various segments of politics, not just during the election period.
Multimedia is media and content that uses a variety of content forms. It includes a combination of text, audio, 3D images, animation, video or interactivity content forms. Multimedia such as mobile marketing, pod casting, photo, video and file sharing, are able to spread the word about a company and also help to build brand awareness in a powerful and influential way.
Marketing itself involves the 4Ps that we talked about during class, they are: Price, Place, Promotion, Product. So how do companies use multimedia for marketing communication? Firstly, they can create a video and upload it onto the Internet. Secondly, they can create Facebook or Twitter accounts which has high traffic flow to promote/market their product and branding.
Here are the two companies that I’ll be comparing on: Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. I think both companies managed to bring out the best in their products by simply showing the product itself and how it can be used at anywhere and any time of the day. However, I still prefer Samsung’s advertisement because they are more informative and detailed about what the product can do and they actually show how it is actually done in reality. As compared to the Apple advertisement where it does not show exactly what the iPad can do and instead it relies on more of the branding power Apple already has. Also, the Samsung’s advertisement has a more human touch to it and their ending statement was more humble “more possibilities on the go” as compared to Apple’s “Its already an revolution and its only just began”. Overall, Samsung offers a more interactive, sincere, and humanistic approach towards the marketing of their product that displays the strong detailed features of the product which makes it a better marketing approach.
#True Fact: In Singapore, 1/5 of the population are victims or have been a victim to cyber crime, last year (2010), a research done by cyber security company, Norton. There were more than 1.2 million people who suffered a loss of US$195m, not only that,they also spent another US$675m to resolve the crime. “Overall, the Norton Cyber Crime Report 2012 found that about 80 per cent of Singaporeans have been a cyber crime victim in their lives.”
#Interesting finding: More Singaporean men tend to fall prey to cyber crime, as they spend more time online and four times more men than women access porn sites.This is the one key factor that led to this trend as these men would download computer malware or viruses without any knowledge of it.
Taken from: Worrying cyber crime trends in S’pore (TODAYonline.com) Sep 14, 2011.
Cybercrimes are mostly found outside of Singapore, especially in the United States. However, we should always take precautions and be aware of it as well. There are many types of cyber crime, some are less significant and less sever than others but it does not mean they are not crimes.The more common crimes that has been around are illegal downloading of music files and video files through the internet. Also, tapping on other people’s internet connection illegally without any permission or authorization. An example of “mooching” or “piggybacking” on an unsecured wireless network happened in March ’07. A teenager piggybacked on his neighbor’s wireless internet connection in order to engage in online chatting and was hence sentenced to 18 months’ probation in the District Court.
Taken from: An Overview of Cybercrime Legislation and Cases in Singapore (2008)
Phishing:
Ways to prevent Phishing:
- If you are not a customer or a friend for the sender/ of the online website, delete the email instantly. Do not click on the link or reply.
- If you are a customer and is unsure if the email is legit, you should try and contact the organization to verify its contents.
- Try as much as possible not to use the link given by the sender, Google search the company or organization or type in the exact address on another new tab.
Tools to protect users against phishing attacks:
- Use of Netcraft Toolbar
- The Google Firefox Toolbar has a built-in anti-phishing feature to detect known phishing sites
- eBay and PayPal also offer toolbar that are designed to protect your eBay/PayPal accounts only
- PC Tools Internet Security 2011- comprehensive security tools against spyware, viruses & cybercrime
Google Checkout
A new service that makes online shopping faster, more convenient and secure as this tool uses a single username and password. Google Checkout aims at simplifying the process of paying for online goods. The function of it works in a way where the customer only need to enter their personal information such as their credit card, shipping and billing information once and it will be stored in Google’s database forever.They also provides fraud protection, phishing and a unified page for tracking purchases and their item status.
For step by step instructions: http://checkout.google.com/buyer/tour.html
I am not sure if Windows live movie maker and Microsoft movie maker are the same thing. In any case, I’m a MAC user so I did not install it, but I did manage to make a video from Windows live movie maker. It was pretty interesting to play with the visual effects and I have learnt to use the various tools to cut my audio and incorporate it into my “movie”. Overall, I discovered interesting new things along the way and I can now make more videos within a short span of time. Below is a short video titled: HAPPY TIMES (just some fun, laughter and great memories) 
What is e-Learning?
- A form of learning through the Internet
- Involves online interaction between students and lecturers
- A form of self-learning, where you look for answers on your own
In this era of technology where everything is digitized, digital learning through digital media is gaining popularity for it’s convenience in terms of imparting knowledge to people anywhere and everything around the world 24/7. It is no longer the old days of a simple blackboard style of teaching. Teaching goes beyond the classroom and the same goes for learning especially with all the applications and technology such as the Internet and various application that helps students to enhanced their pursue of knowledge. In fact, the old Blackboard and chalk way of teaching has revolutionized into the Internet form of “Blackboard” (UBlearns)
Digital media has helped students to cultivate the ability to think out of the box and to come up with creative ideas. For example, with regards to classroom learning, students no longer need to use a pen and a paper to jolt down notes. They can make use of their laptops, tablets, and even use their phone camera function to take a picture of what was shown on the power-point slides. It is all about the ease and convenience that digital media has brought for us. Also, through class presentations, students and professors alike, they are able to use video clips, PowerPoint slides, iPad or films to share their ideas and opinions. Sound effects accompanying these various applications will also help to create a more interesting atmosphere for students to be in and to participate as well. However, personally, I do not like e-Learning, I prefer face-to-face interaction with my professors and through this session, I will then be able to clarify any doubts that I might have and also being able to learn & understand at a much rapid speed.
Maybe in the near future, it will be a total digital classroom where students do not have to go to school anymore or maybe not as often. All lectures will be LIVE on the Internet and a copy of it will be recorded for students to watch it when they have the time. Also, if there are any queries from the students to their professors, a mass video conference will be available for their convenience as well. Even hand-phones will have this function to accommodate to the needs of the students.
What is Microsoft Surface?
- “The Microsoft Surface® platform brings people together to connect, learn, and decide”. It enables experiences that change the way people collaborate and connect with a 360-degree interface. And, with PixelSense™, Microsoft Surface sees and responds to touch and real world objects—supporting more than 50 simultaneous inputs. “This experience comes to life in the new 40 inch Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface that can be used as a table, on the wall, or embedded in other fixtures or furniture.” (As cited from Microsoft.com/surface).
After looking at this, I really think this product by the Microsoft is really awesome and cool! It is really engaging for everyone and anyone. It seems easy to use and especially in offices and households as well! It brings the object to life, as if you are really touching it. It also makes learning more fun with all the rich visualization. There are so many functions that I can use and I really think that in the future, this product/technology will be put into good use. Maybe it being used in the classrooms to enhance learning, or in the homes of many where it not only can be a furniture but also a useful tool for all electronic openings (various switches in the house). It will be able to serve multipurpose such as it being a table, huge computer, for work or for play. Hopefully, this technology will be used widely in the near future.
I’ve always been confused about the difference between e-Commerce & Biz..& now after this week’s lecture, i finally understood. So here it is, according to my own understanding….
e-Commerce VS e-Business
e-Business: It refers to the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a company, which involves information systems under the control of the company itself. It actually goes far beyond e-Commerce, be it buying or selling over the Internet. It goes deep into the processes of an enterprise Business in the Internet as it enables you to connect important business systems directly to your customers, employees, vendors and suppliers.
An example of a company is Dell Computer as mentioned in class, it’s been getting a lot of attention as a pioneering e-business these days. The organization makes use of a three-way partnership with its suppliers and customer, and this, in the sense that they treat their customers as collaborators (business partners). They find ways to improve their processes across the company’s supply and demand.
e-Commerce: It refers to the buying & selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet. It can also refer to the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services as well.
Nowadays, people usually do their shopping online, be it purchasing household products, clothes,shoes even certain electronic products. Between the last 3-5 years, more and more blogshops, online shopping websites were being created and they are very popular among the young. I used to be addicted to these shopping sites because the prices were attractive but after a while my interest for them died down. Now I am on to another addiction which is purchasing cheap & good deals on Groupon.com, Deals.com.sg, Shiokedeal & i can go on and on..But i wont, so the question is..How do these websites/company do so well? & If not why don’t they do as well as others?
5 key factors why e-commerce is a success:
- Clear vision and goal: They need to know what they want to sell, the branding image and they have a plan on how to go about doing it.
- Customer is KING: They need know what to expect from customers as well as being able to predict what they want.
- Embracing technology and change: Keep up with times and developments online is important in online marketing, news, shifts in online culture and understanding them as well.
- Image and PR: The website needs to be simple,clear cut, knowing what customers want to see. Also, the company have to get their site to be featured on blogs, news sites, select ad space with news sites and doing off-line promotion too.
- Update website regularly & sending newsletters: Weekly update of the site, disseminating information with regards to their products will enable to draw more customers as well as allowing their customers to know what they have for them.
5 reasons why e-commerce could be a failure:
- Starting/going into business for the wrong reasons: Lack of passion to start/ go into business. May be because it is a handed down family business, and it is not the person’s wish to continue it.
- Lack of capital: Inadequate amount of money to sustain the company, often causes the company to go bankrupt or close down.
- Poor management: Poor leadership in the higher management, lack of long term goals and plans.
- Not being able to keep up with times/competition: with the internet business changing rapidly, some are unable to keep up with the times, and with many others copying their products, the company may not be able to catch up fast enough.
- Poor customer service: customer service not up to standard, and due to that, people are unwilling to go back to the same company again, and it could really get serious, due to the spread by word of mouth and could result in the loss of business & business opportunities
E-Marketing-how to make it a success?
1. Good web design: A good website is one where it makes it easy for their customers to use, search and locate various products within a short span of time.
2. Able to predict/determine what information is worthy & valuable to customers: The company needs to know what to put up onto their website, needs to know what are their potential customer’s interest, their average spending power as well as who are their target audience.
3. Banner and campaigning: Putting up their branding/ company logo or products ads onto a wide variety of blog sites, news sites to promote their company and also putting up promotions on various shopping websites that most people will go to.
Everyone loves to socialize, and that includes me, myself, and I
Therefore, I use various social networking sites to help me do so. You must be thinking what is social networking all about..It is a social structure made up of many individuals around the world, they are connected by one way or another, be it friendship, kinship, boy-girl relationship, etc etc etc…
The one and only social networking site (SNS) that i spend most of my time on is…. TWITTER!!! Let’s see how it works:
5 Reasons why Twitter is my no.1 SNS:
- Easy and convenient
- Keeping my thoughts short and sweet
- Able to connect with my friends 24/7
- Put my thoughts into words, great platform to share with others
- Instant update or just to rant about anything under the sun
Recently, I started to try and use Tumblr, i have a few friends who are using it, so i was quite curious as to what it was all about and how it works. Before using it, i was quite apprehensive about it because I felt like it was a hassle to use, it seemed complex for some reason. But after discovering it seriously….
5 Interesting things I found out about Tumblr:
- You can follow people whose post you think are interesting and it somehow creates a bond from people all over the world.
- Reading post about people’s lives, how much they complain about theirs and maybe i’ll feel better with mine. (LOL)
- A draw to personal bloggers, is the fact that Tumblr includes a variety of social networking aspects.
- Easy to use platform, it separates post categories into easy to follow types selectable from the dashboard
- Clean looking and easily manageable blog.
Wanna know how to use it? Check this out! :
Moving on, during class we talked about Facebook addiction.. Personally, I do not think I am addicted to it. It is how you want to use it, whether you allow it to control you or not..Am i right? Social networking websites should not be taking over your life, it is just a part of your life not YOUR LIFE itself because there are just so many other things that’s worth our care and concern!
XO, peace out.
