Blog 10: Future of Internet

This post marks the end of my journey to learning about Introduction to the Internet. I have certainly enriched my knowledge of Internet and its uses through the course of this module. In addition, i am now more familarised with using a blog and i getting hands-on through the use of Windows Media Player to create a video. It was a good experience writing about what i have learnt each week and to be able to read what my friends' work was certainly additional information learnt.

A big Thank You to Mr Choy for making the class infromative and interesting at times. And also, for being flexible and helpful when i had doubts.

To mark the end of the final blog post, my take on the FUTURE of Internet will be somewhat like this...



Microsoft - Future 2019 - video powered by Metacafe

After viewing the video, i am certainly excited and looking forward to being able to use some of these technologies. In fact some of them are already avaliable in the market now. According to a Pew research done:

-A low-cost global network will be thriving and creating new opportunities in a flattening world.

-Humans will remain in charge of technology, even as more activity is automated and "smart agents" proliferate. However, a significant 42% of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans' ability to control the technology in the future. This significant majority agreed that dangers and dependencies will grow beyond our ability to stay in charge of technology. This was one of the major surprises in the survey.

-Virtual reality will be compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new addiction problems.

-Tech "refuseniks" will emerge as a cultural group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while others will commit acts of violence and terror against technology-inspired change.

-People will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves, gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy.

-English will be a universal language of global communications, but other languages will not be displaced. Indeed, many felt other languages such as Mandarin, would grow in prominence.

With so much anticipation, i believe the new WEB 3.0 will be ...

An Internet of Services: services are ubiquitous

An Internet of Things : in principle every physical object becomes an online addressable resource;

A Mobile Internet : 24/7 seamless connectivity over multiple devices is the norm

Need for semantics : to meet the challenges presented by the dramatic increase in the scale of content and users.

Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2006/The-Future-of-the-Internet-II.aspx

Blog 9: Internet and Journalism

Question: WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF PRINT NEWSPAPERS?

Answer:

Since my group is doing on Internet and Propaganda, i personally feel that the rise of internet has led to a new platform for politics, terrorism and journalism. What's more, even in my Media Effects class, issues like how the traditional print media are losing money, its value etc are being raised. It makes me realise just how fast and rapid technology is changing the world, changing our consumption of news.

It is evident in the recent elections how internet has shaped and changed the way politics work.

I believe that what makes the internet so outstanding is the fact that it is Interactive. Providing us the ability to engage instantaneously with people from all over the world in both print and on video.

As the internet moves into the next stage of broadband and wireless, TV is transformed into a genuine two-way medium.
Journalists will be able to read e-mails off their wireless phones as they come in, live on air from almost any place in the world.

The videophone - a concept that seemed like science fiction five years ago - will become more robust and versatile, and as more people get high-speed internet access, the viewing figures of webcasts will grow.

A question then comes to mind, Google News VS traditional newspaper- Allies or Enemies?

We have learnt that Google News aggregation is entirely automatic, using algorithms which carry out contextual analysis and group similar stories together. Articles on Google are ranked based on "how often and on what sites a story appears online," and "based on certain characteristics of news content such as freshness, location, relevance and diversity.

BUT, publishers of newspaper think otherwise and are resentful of Google News and other similar web structure. Main problem: publishers do not feel that the click through rate to articles is high enough, and thus any additional advertising revenue that they would gain from extra viewings of individual articles will not compensate for the income they lose from readers not going direct to their newspaper websites.

So, how can newspapers tackle these problems, which are all the more relevant in this time of financial crisis?

One example could be for newspapers themselves to provide more aggregation, such as the NYT's Times Extra page: an alternative homepage which includes links to articles from other sites under the Times' own stories.

OR

As quoted by the Automated Content Access Protocol, a coalition of newspaper, magazine and book publishers led by the World Association of Newspapers, "content owners in control of their online content in a way that is conducive to developing new online business models, putting new, high-quality content on the net and to maximizing the benefits of the relationship with search engines."

Hence it is evident that the internet has revolutionised the way that people read news, and aggregation and linking is undoubtedly going to continue to be a part of the news landscape. People in our generation like to be able to get news from many different sources around the world, and young readers like us have grown up with online news will have less loyalty to individual newspapers.

Therefore, a way for newspapers to gain an advantage is to offer a clear editorial voice in its selection of articles and how they appear, which is one of the aspects of newspapers that readers value highly.

The issue is whether it will be newspapers themselves or third parties which manage the system.

The future of newspapers is evident and we have to embrace it and not deny it...

Blog 8: Internet and Politics

In the early part of the 20th century the invention of radio and television greatly accelerated the dissemination of information albeit in a form that was mostly one-way, thus again proportioning a significant power in the hands of the wealthy owners of recording and broadcasting technology. At the same time, the populace of western nations were being induced into believing that the new electronic communications systems, like the telephone and television,

"liberate our domesticity from its dependence on physical location and enhance our social and cultural freedoms by enabling us, as active consumers and users, to create our own distinct and meaningful cultural identities."

This extrapolated to the new computer technologies, which began to develop when the U.S. defense agencies sought to create a system to make the U.S. military's weapons systems less vulnerable to attack.

POWER OF THE INTERNET

One of the most attractive attributes of the Internet for political activists would be its ostensibly uncontrolled nature. The fact that the Internet is able to render irrelevant the laws and controls of nation-states, and the essentially 'anarchic' quality where there can be genuine freedom of expression are qualities that attract those who have been voiceless in the past.

The range of groups active on the Internet vary from feminists and environmentalists to indigenous and liberation struggles to right wing extremists and white power advocates. Every conceivable group of like-minded people on the planet is theoretically able to connect and communicate with their fellow-travellers.

Furthermore, the global nature of the Internet means that for minimal outlay political activists now have the whole world as a potential audience for their propaganda via web sites, e-mail and discussion groups.

However, one of the major threats to the ultimate independent nature of the Internet might be posed by the major commercial imperatives of the new global corporate interests with incredible wealth and power.

Personally i feel that in Singapore, although forums and online portals make it easier for the exchanging of views among youths, such tools are unable to reach out to apathetic and disinterested parties.

People who are interested in music will visit forums which discuss music and entertainment. Sports lovers will frequent forums, or even blogs with a sporting outlook and content.

Likewise for politics, only youths who are interested in politics would bother to explore political forums, portals or even blogs online.

Hence, the Internet thus poses an obstacle for political parties like the Workers' Party to reach out to politically disinterested youths.

Fundamentally, the Internet does not solve the problem of raising political awareness among youths in general.

The Internet also leads to a false perception among the youths that they are contributing to their country by expressing their views and ideas online.It creates a facade that their ideas and views are being heard and considered by policymakers.

Blogs like i-speak, tend to reinforce the mindset among youths that the Internet is a feasible and convenient tool through which youths can voice their suggestions to the country and government.

BUT perhaps, nothing beats a face-to-face engagement with the public, which allows one to get a feel of the problems and circumstances afflicting Singaporeans in general.

On the ground is where the most exposure to youths is avaliable, by listening to the comments and opinions expressed by them. Providing an inkling of what exactly are their thinking and mindset. Only then can we propose effective and creative ideas and suggestions to reach out to these youths.

A very good example that i can give is The Youth Wing of the Workers' Party , which creates countless opportunities for youths to constantly interact with like-minded people, fostering the inception of various initiatives and ideas.

Being in a youth wing allows for a pro-youth stance without asserting the main political stance of the mother party. Putting aside the formalities and practices prevalent in a political party, thereby encouraging the development of ideas and opinions crucial to assisting and raising political awareness among the youths in Singapore.

Before i end off, i came across this interesting clip, the FUTURE OF POLITICS....

Blog 7: Multimedia

The evolutiuon of the 4th screen..... Not TV OR the internet...but......


This week, ive decided to focus more on multimedia, specifically in relation to Nokia VS Samsung

Nokia
I have been a Nokia user since young, infact my very first handphone was N8250. I have always been a fan of Nokia, which is why up till now, i am still carrying the same brand. Nokia advertisements have always amazed and facinate me. Lets take a look at this very first N78 ad..


Personally Nokia's N-series mobiles are all supported by high-speed wireless technologies like HSDPA and Wi-Fi. Each of the handphone is built to stream video, play music, take photos and video clips, enabling the user to share content easily with friends. In the ad that you have just seen, Nokia has made use of the handphone's unique multimedia facilities in the advertisement to entice and interest the consumers, which is a smart move as we are always searching for the latest device and gadgets that allow us to do many things in a small device such as this.

As for Samsung....
This particular ad that i came across attracted me and the way the advertiser had made use of multimedia to market the handphone is different from the above Nokia ad.


I believe it is evident that the type of advertisement for the different types and models of handphone will be catered and tailored to the specific targer consumer group. Personally for me, in this case, I felt that the Nokia was more professional and better at bringing out the features of the handphone compared with the Samsung ad which outrightly brought out the specs of the phone The features of both handphone were more or less the same with just some slight differences. Perhaps, the significant factor for some will be the appearance of the handphone which Samsung has a better advantage over.

To conclude, Nokia's multimedia marketing impresses me most, perhaps that is why i have been a Nokia user since my secondary school days. With the advancement of technologies and the current iphone trend now, i am waiting for Nokia to come up with something equally good or even better than Apple's iPhone.

Blog 6: Cyber crimes

WHAT IS COMPUTER CRIME?

Computer crime aka cybercrime aka e-crime aka hi-tech crime aka electronic crime.. the list goes on and on... generally refers to..

criminal activity where a computer or network is the source, tool, target, or place of a crime. However, these categories are not exclusive and many activities can be characterized as falling in one or more category.

As the use of computers has grown, computer crime has become more important.
Computer crime can broadly be defined as criminal activity involving an information technology infrastructure, including illegal access (unauthorized access), illegal interception (by technical means of non-public transmissions of computer data to, from or within a computer system), data interference (unauthorized damaging, deletion, deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer data), systems interference (interfering with the functioning of a computer system by inputting, transmitting, damaging, deleting, deteriorating, altering or suppressing computer data), misuse of devices, forgery (ID theft), and electronic fraud.

Computer crime issues have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement through warez etc. Problems like privacy arises when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise.

With this, i actually came across an interesting video which actually tells you more about what cybercrimes are and the growing global threat that it is causing..

Hence, according to this website which i came across, i actually found out that that the top 3 internet crimes surfacing in Singapore include identity theft, credit card fraud and spam. Most of us tend to use credit cards while doing shopping online, and this results in increasing threats from unsecure online transactions.

Most of us tend to fall prey to cyber criminals who use banks and popular e-Commerce web sites to "phish" for unsuspecting consumers who simply click on web sites that look authentic but actually feed key credit card login details directly to cyber crooks.

Moving on, i would like to address a more inportant and relevant issue to most of us, ie social networking services

As stated in the article, findings have shown that various forms of malware activities exist within many social networking sites. For example, a popular site was compromised in late 2007 by banner ads that installed malicious files and programs onto a victim's computer. Other sites were also found to be embedded with codes that redirect users to malicious sites -- all in an effort to steal identity and private data. In addition, social networking sites can often be a haven for adware and spyware.

An increasing number of consumers are vulnerable to identity theft as more users choose to display personal information on their profile pages. It is easy to determine other personal details with something as simple as a birth date. Many organisations still use the date of birth as one of the "screening questions" when you call for assistance. This allows hackers to obtain personal data from these alternative avenues easily and thus enable them to masquerade as someone else with their particulars.

Many of us do not realise this but as users, we can also face real-life threats through social networking sites through unwanted contact.

Behaviours such as online grooming (technique used by a sexual predator to convince an underage person to have relations with them offline) and cyber-bullying (online harassment of classmates or peers) are some examples of unwanted online contact.



It is no common for us to be persuaded to meet our virtual friends in the real world - which could spell DANGER.

While online social networks have revolutionised the way people communicate with each other and are ideal tools to keep in touch with friends and family all over the world, we need to be mindful of the threats and take adequate measures to protect our PCs and families from these threats.

Lastly, to end off, here are just some basic pointers to note on protecting ourselves against internet threats:

1)Set profiles on social networking sites to private

2)Be cautious and wise about what you post

3)Keep your security software up-to-date

4)Read between the "lines"

5)Avoid in-person meetings

Source: http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/Features/Story/A1Story20081007-92166.html

ONCE AGAIN, I URGE each of you to think twice before disclosing your particulars..PLAY YOUR PART IN PREVENTING CYBER CRIMES.

Blog Five: Using Common Internet Tools

Firstly, before i start off, let me show you a collection of the friends i have since my first semester at UB. However, some people are not in this collage as i have rarely taken pictures with them, but it does not mean that you guys are forgotten or not missed by me. THANKS to all of you, that my life in UB seems much more fun, enjoyable and meaningful.. i certainly hope the friendship will last and that these pictures will be good memories when all of us have graduated and look back to our time in SIM and how much we have all grown and changed..

"A big thank you to each and everyone of you"

In addition i have learnt how to make use of windows media player and enable it to help me create easy videos like the one i just made. I am sure most of you would be able to create a much better and interesting video clip, being the noob that i am. Since Poly days i have never liked doing all this kind of animation and stuff. It was never my favorite subject. Hence, when Mr Choy requested each of us to go and od a short little clip, i felt alittle overwhelmed. But with the help of my friend and fiddling around with the tools, i managed to create something pretty decent and nice. I was also fascinated with the types of effects we could actually create for the pictures. Compared to Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro , this is WAY MUCH EASIER! However, i still had some difficulties with the text and placement of them. Overall, the experience was still pretty good and i am proud of the result i got.

With this, let's now move on to something else. Initially this week's lecture seemed pretty boring to me, however, after watching the clip shown to us in class a bout Microsoft surface, wouldnt it be great if in the near future everyone of us are linving in a dynamic web era? How cool would that be if all of us can be like Tom Cruise in Minority Report and touch the air , moving objects around as and when. Having such high technology.....after much researching i decided to focus more on dynamic web interatcions which i strongly feel will be a big evolution that will come in the future.


Before further going on, let me just provide you a deeper understanding of WHAT EXACTLY IS A DYNAMIC WEB INTERATION?

Firstly, dynamic web sites like electronic commerce, dynamic links to local databases, interactive conference lines are available thanks to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.

WHAT DOES ASP DO?
-Active Server Pages are interactive web pages that permit information exchange between company database and web surfers. Ranging from simple on-line order processing to multi-level financial portfolios and stock updates.
- Active Server Web Pages provide members of global community with powerful means of interaction.
-ASP provides a framework for building dynamic HTML pages. ASP's are implemented using server side scripting that can be performed in any language such as Visual Basic, C++ Microsoft's JScript, Java or C.
-It allows interaction with ODBC compliant databases on the web server, such as; Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, or Sybase.

Hence, perhaps some of you may question WHY SHOULD WE HAVE A DYNAMIC WEBSITE?

1)Dramatically reduce the amount of hard copy marketing materials that have to be mailed out, making them available for potential customer from your server database.

2)Make updated marketing or technical information immediately available to prospects or customers at a fraction of the cost of printing and mailing.

3)Target potential customers in each market segment. Additional sections of a web site can be set up to address specific needs of specific client groups at low cost to you.

4)Speed up the sales cycle. Advertisements, promotional pamphlets, newsletters and catalogue updates could be posted directly on your site, eliminating time and money required for an information package to reach a potential customer directly.

5)Deliver frequently required technical or business information in an interactive, concise format.

6)Allow your clients to give feedback to a survey or other type of questionnaire without the phone time and the delay time caused by numerous back and forth voice mails.

7)Allow an order for a product to be placed in an e-commerce enabled site. Customers can pay for the product, re-order necessary parts, inquire about available items and check out your return or exchange policies.


After all that is being said, this video certainly amazed me and i await the day whereby....

Blog Four: E-learning and Virtual Education

After attending this week's lesson, i truly believe that learning has changed and there are vast differences between the traditional classroom and a technologically advanced classroom. Students are now taught to be independent THINKERS.

With this, one very good example that i can think of, and which i am sure most of us are familar with is the Bb (Blackboard). We access this form of e-learning medium in order to retrieve our lecture notes, get the lastest update on our modules and even submit our work through the digital drop box. Likewise for Polk County Public School, e-learning has been a success as shown in the video below.

Which then leads me to this week's lecture on E-learning and virtual classrooms. Infact, for some of us, during our course of study in UB, we have encountered some modules which required us to participate in e-learning. SO, what is e-learning?

In simple terms, e-learning allows us to learn anywhere, and at any time as long as we have a properly configured computer.
Examples of e-learning include CD-ROM based, Network-based, Intranet-based or Internet-based. It also includes text, video, audio, animation and virtual environments which enables it to be a very rich learning experience that can even surpass the level of training you might experience in a crowded classroom. It's self-paced, hands-on learning.

HOWEVER, i do not neglect the fact that e-learning can suffer from many of the same pitfalls as classroom training, such as boring slides, monotonous speech, and little opportunity for interaction and thus not everyone is suited for such learning methods since we have been accustomed to the traditional way of learning in a classroom.

One very good example to illustrate this is depicted in this video clip deaturing Second Life Media Zoo, which uses Web 2.0 to create an interactive and advanced e-learning and virtual classroom environment.


Hence, perhaps we should consider this 10 tips on on how to be a successful online student!

1. Be open minded about sharing life, work, and educational experiences as part of the learning process.

2. Be able to communicate through writing.

3. Be Self-motivated and self-disciplined.

4. Be willing to "speak up" if problems arise.

5. Be willing and able to commit to 4 to 15 hours per week per course.

6. Be able to meet the minimum requirements for the program.

7. Accept critical thinking and decision making as part of the learning process.

8. Have access to a computer and a modem.

9. Be able to think ideas through before responding.

10. Feel that high quality learning can take place without going to a traditional classroom

Source: http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp

With this, i am sure many of us will thus be able to cope much better with e-learning. In fact, i am very sure that with technology advancing rapidly, the future e-learning will move on to even greater heights...


In fact, i believe that e-learning and virtual classrooms will be such a success with all the convenience and effortless way it enables us to reach each other and transfer information that the structure of traditional classroom may just go into extinction some day.