Internet Future through the Crystal Ball

Jokes aside from the cartoon above, looking at the future of the Internet is constantly taking everyone by surprise. A bag chockful of innovations meant to inspire awe, and to always better than what was done before. There is of course, no crystal ball that can define a definite future of the Internet, something akin to the crystal ball, where the images are a little fuzzy and the corners a little blur. However, there are several predictions of what may soon to be. 

Augmented Reality is a hot favorite among the dreamers of the Internet. A future where the physical world is entangled with the possibilities of the Internet' a world where there are no possibilities left unearthed. An integrated home, work, play, and business area all seamlessly engaged with technology. 

Here we have Google Glass, a first shot at augmented reality by Google - to create an augmented reality, where there is instantaneous effortless access to information has been the main function of augmented reality so far, and emphasised in Google Glass. 

With the future of augmented reality not far away (seeing as Google Glass, Google driverless car) is already in the market and working well, how are you coping with the rush in technology?

Taking Control - Journalism

When one thinks of citizen journalism, the words of "public", "engagement", "freedom", "guerrilla", or "casual" comes to mind almost immediately. A play by play account of incidences and event by the public citizens, an active role in the whole process of relating bits and pieces of information to the rest of the world - a world where is there no gatekeeping, or rather lesser gatekeeping as compared to those of traditional media. Citizen journalism is rather a specific form of both citizen generated content and media, as compared to community, civic, or collaborative journalism where the other three are practiced by professional journalist, citizen journalism is purely by the citizens for the citizens. 

The impedance of new media technology, such as social networking and media-sharing websites, and the ever increasing pervasiveness of mobile phones, is creating a sphere where citizens of the world are getting content they did not even know they need. With the possibilities of online sharing being encapsulated in devices handy, convenient, and available, citizens around the world can gather forces and report news faster than what a traditional media sharing communicator can. 

Paul Lewis, head of multimedia special projects at The Guardian speaks of the case of political refugee Jimmy Mubenga, whose 2010 death on an airplane was attributed to illness and not foul play. Lewis and Matthew Taylor utilised crowd sourced information from different social and media sharing sites, to come out with a breakthrough truth of Mubenga having actually died of asphyxiation. Lewis had looked into another case of Ian Tomlinson, whose death at the 2009 G20 protests in London was said to be caused by a heart attack, however, Lewis collected evidences from footage taken by other citizen journalist who was present at that point of Tomlinson's assault by the police, and managed to prove how Tomlinson's death was caused not by natural causes, but rather a brutal beating by the Metropolitan police. 

The power of citizen journalism is not to be taken lightly, there are situations and events that can be uncovered by the accessibility of citizen generated content and information. Some instances remain where the citizens not only contribute to NEW information on the net, but rather as accompanying information to existing professional news sites. For example: 

• Readers are able to include their comments along stories done by professional reporters, an immediate response and feedback for both the readers and journalists. Take heed to post proper comments as well, since comments are vetted in certain sites. 

• An inclusive additional information site in concordance with the information given by professional journalists.Where citizen journalists are able to add on information that professional journalist might have been unable to touch on due to space and time constraints, or perhaps due to gate keeping done by the editor. 

• Collaborative Journalism - where both professional and citizen journalists are working together to form a story. Where there might be certain issues where the professional journalist is not as adept at, and this can be combated with the presence of a citizen journalist, where information can be gathered through other means. All information which is deemed as necessary will then be incorporated into the main story. 

• Or you can just be a Citizen Journo Cat ^__^ 
  

The Political Arena Brought Online

In Singapore, there were times when people gleaned information about the upcoming political debate, or the White Paper given by the Prime Minister;from the television and the radio. Where people were eager to have their opinions expressed through the rallies each different political party ran to garner support, and through the newspapers where people get their most updated version of events the political parties are running. However, those were the yesteryears. How often do people actually flip the newspapers to attain information about the political arena and their happenings? 

People now utilise social media for everything, including politics. 

A few years back, we see strong political presence, spanning from the unfortunate "Tin Pei Ling incident" to the ministers beginning to have social media sites to boost their popularity in the younger generation. 


Here is an alarmingly quirky video of Miss Tin not knowing what to say in face of the reporters that were interviewing her. And this video made it to YouTube, accompanied with her flailing arms and stomping feet, this video was a hit. 

And then we have her getting her own Facebook hate page...

As we all know, nothing came out of having all the negative news and feedback from both online and offline about Miss Tin... She still made it into the Marine Parade GRC, and still is part of the GRC. 

There is of course instances where there has been a powerful use of social media and online media in generating positive hits for the political arena. We have this man>>

Mr Barack Obama. The man who revolutionised the process of gathering votes, who advocated "Change", and came out of the online voting process a winner.

Here is an example of his voting homepage, where all everyone had to do was to donate a little to help him keep his campaign running. And when there are that many people donating just a little, he out won Romney with the amount he spent on online advertising as seen here:

We can now understand why you lost Romney *shakes head*, Obama was quicker in hopping on the express train of technology, just LOOK at the difference he spent online! A waiting landslide victory I will say. 

Never ever underestimate the power of social media and the online media, because online is where everything is is faster, easier, and much more potent than what is see on traditional mediums of communication. If you are an aspiring politician, you know you have to go and sign up for a facebook/twitter/instagram as soon as possible, and never post up probable pictures that would strike back at you- just think Miss Tin and her Kate Spade. 

Entertainment and Multimedia on the Internet

A million and one things to do and information for you to find out; does anyone even use the physical library anymore? Or to even watch the television for the most update news? 
Certainly businesses are thinking along the similar strand of argument of the technology savvy - the Internet with its enticing world of entertainment - music, video, animation, gaming, and podcasting - is claiming the coveted title of being the top form of media. 
Multimedia devices (or mainly just the mobile phone) is now an ubiquitous presence in the twenty first century, where everyone has a pocket friendly device to satiate their appetite for information on the go. Two dominating forms of mobile platforms , the Android and Apple operating systems, have been constantly innovating to provide different forms of entertainment for the masses. 
A most recent invention on Google's part is the Google Glass, an invention centering on the idea of wearable technology, to provide constant easy access to multimedia for the people. Google Glass is similar to the standard glasses short sighted people are made to wear, to aid in your "sight" is one of the aims of the Google Glass. A wearable computer which displays information in a smartphone like manner, without the hassle of handling a handheld device. 

Having a multimedia device that is able to do things your smartphone is able to, without the hassle? I'm sold. 

Although there are probable problems coming up..... where boys will probably catch their football matches while on a date..

And loopholes that allow assholes to exist...

There is a Project Glass coming right up, led by Babak Parviz, where there are plans (and possibly in the making) to put displays on contact lenses. I surely hope their contact lenses are of a certain wearable condition, personally though, how are they going to dispose of the lenses? 

Practice of Security even on the Internet

We bother to bolt the doors at night before we head to bed, double checking whether we had locked the car before we walked off to do the things we deem as important, yet the importance of protecting ourselves against the multitude of dangerous possibilities on the Internet never seems to cross our minds they way they should be. 

Internet security is not just installing that one malware/virus protector that came bundled along with our laptops or desktops, like these  fellows over here:

Yes, they do a pretty good job of maintaining the security for you when you surf the Internet, with pages that are deemed as dangerous being served to you as:

But what happens when there are issues where malware and virus protection programs are not able to protect you? Issues such as:

• Losing of Files

Never ever just have a singular copy of something that is important to you. Have a backup just in case a situation crops up and the data that you hold dear to your heart gets erased... and never to be seen again. Having a external memory (thumb drive or hard disks) is a great back up for all important data. 

• Attack of really strong Trojans( or similar viruses)

When you purchase your computer and the virus protection programme that came bundled along with it did a smashing job of protecting your computer for the first year... 

THIS (points upwards) happens. And as people all practice cognitive dissonance in one way or another, there are low chances of us actually renewing the subscription, but we continue doing the same thing before the programme had expired. This is where the trojans are likely to make an appearance due to our negligence. Always remember to not scrimp, and to invest in a malware and virus programme that will protect your computer's security from getting invaded. 

• VPN/IP addresses getting stolen

Easily understood if you understand what does VPN and IP addresses are, you wouldn't want the police to come knocking on your doors one day claiming you had downloaded child pronography or dealt drugs online do you? (exaggeration is needed).

• Invasion of privacy through social media

REMEMBER that everyone can see your actions on social media, your mom, dad, aunt, boss, boss wife, enemy one, enemy two.... etc. You can never NOT be posting too little things on the Internet. If there is not a strong reason that you have to put something up on these sites, then DO NOT post anything. Nothing good can possibly come out of you slamming a girl you dislike on Instagram, except showing how petty and ill mannered you possibly are; hidden under that facade of calm and niceness. 

Phishing is a major problem because there really is no patch for human stupidity - Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Secuirty Solutions Group at Microsoft, April 4, 2006

Video day!

Okay, so for the video post. I have really ran out of ideas of what to video since I have no talents or whatsoever in videoing myself in my own personal blog . I have this thing for being awkward in the face of a video camera, or camera. And to add on, I have no skills in video editing as well. Maybe next time, I can do a best friend tag eh. 

But for now, this was a "video" that I did of my singing, where are no actual moving images, but it is really difficult to even get a link of this up. Seeing as this used to be  at this link.>>>http://herook.kuro.cn/player/android_html5.jsp?id=t6Yt9qB5tBT 

And I had to use this audio thing that took me super long to cut this song's audio out and then record over at Youtube. Not an easy feat for an internet/video idiot like me. 

And here is just a very nice video of my old bunny playing with her new playmate!

The Secret Life of Google

Everyone knows Google, and utilise it and its tools in someway or another. A Google tool is something that allows usage of its services online that could help you in your daily life. And here are a list of 5 Google Tools that you may or may not know! I personally found the tools really entertaining (yes, I know they are supposed to be useful and not for my own fun, but it was!), and took up most of time trying each of them!

• Google Translate (the tool that I love!!!) 

This has to be my favorite tool that I found out recently! Other than Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Trends! There are absolutely nothing you can not translate using Google Translate, and during my trip to Bangkok, I really utilised Google Translate till the maximum (as they have a smartphone version as well!) and was trigger happy with the app. I translated almost everything, from "washroom" to "fried chicken wings". The best part about having Google Translate is not just translating the words in to read-only format, they even have a voice-over! That will read out the words to you, and you will be able to speak to the local Thai people! How cool is that?

Here is a video that will teach you how to work Google Translate if you are too lazy to Google it!

• Google Ngram Viewer

Credits to treehugger.com

If you want to search for trends over time, for users who are more advanced, the Ngram vieewer allows you to search for keywords in books over the time span of half a millennium. They have better options as well, as such searching for particular keywords as specific parts of speech or combining keywords. 
I taught this to my parents, since they are really interested in finding out about the trends of the Internet because they are looking for viable trends before their decision of settin up a website.

• Google Correlate

blog.ineedhits.com 

Similar to Google Trends (which is just below), Google Correlates allows you to look at search trends on the internet over time. For example, you can input the word "blogshops" and you will see the increase in blogshops search in the recent few years as compared to 6 years back. You can do something fun as well! Which is search by its Drawing Functuon, and Google Correlate will give you the keywords results based on your graph creation. 
I found this to be more entertaining than the rest, mainly because there is the drawing function! I found that however ridiculous are the graphs I drew, they are still able to come up with a keyword result!

• Google Trends

www.mediabistro.com

With Google Trends you are able to look at popular searches, and you are able to browse by date, and look at top searches that are in different categories in its Top Charts functions. There is Explore function as well, where you can input a search terms and see the specific time and location where the search occured. You can even view it in full colored format. This is very similar to the second and third tool, and my parents were super excited with it *eyeroll* and got to using it for the whole day straight!

• Google Fonts

Google Fonts offers open source web fonts for all to use privately or commercially. As of now, there are 629 font families available. Filter fonts by thickness, slant, width and script.
Google Fonts has to be my second new favorite tool! It offers open source web fonts for everyone to use either privately of commercially, and as of now, there are 629 fonts available for use. You can have different thickness, slant, width, and script. However, I really haven't mastered this well enough since I couldn't change the font of this post to what I intended to get from this tool. Oh well. 

Learning off the Internet

How learning can be made effective through the use of digital media? Give examples and using your own experience of learning 

Several years ago, I was still a student rushing through A levels, with a subject that all students have to take if they are taking the A levels - Project Work. There were many ideas that had to be explored, the choosing of a main "theme" and then the choosing of a main idea to set off our project. My group decide to go with the theme of "Modernisation", and together we brainstormed a load of ideas that we deemed effective to the theme, but after a few mistakes and hurdles, we chose the idea of e-Distance Learning (yes, I do have a point that is relevant to the blogpost title after rambling on for so long). 

We were all hyped up yet worried about implementing the concept of e-distance learning, since there wasn't as much examples that we could glean our information from. Through the many years of technological advancements, typing this post is such a breeze, since there are so many instances of learning through the digital media and supplementing the concept of e-distance learning. 

I had this crazy idea that e-distance learning through classrooms should be done the same way as the cartoon above. Yes, we even had this set up done in the classroom during the presentation (and our video), to ensure that our "students" around the world are able to have the convenience and flexibility to learn, and to create a e-learning environment where it is interactive, engaging, and to create a personal learning experience to each and every student. 

Starting this project was just a beginner style of research and implementation of an electronic learning environment, however, looking at the technology now and the level of critical thinking that every tech savvy human should have, learning through digital media has far surpassed what I had intended that 4 years back. 

Looking at this inspirational video where Salman Khan talks about how he created the remarkable Khan Academy - carefully structured series of educational videos that offer a complete curricular in math, and in other subjects as well. He showcases how powerful interactive exercises have one the minds of students, and how learning off digital media is much more effective and critical to exploring the minds of students. 

Remember, you can even get your college degree off digital media if you want to, you just have to have the passion! 

Electronic Business

I LOVE SHOPPING. To be clearer, I love online shopping. Who doesn't really? What with e-businesses sprouting left right and center, there are endless possibilities that everyone gets to choose. Just like normal businesses, there are some unfortunate closures and there those that are still up and running even as I am typing this.

If you are thinking of setting up an ecommerce website and have no idea what are the top ten key factors to owning a successful site, here are the top ten key factors!


TOP TEN REASONS WHY WEBSITES SUCCEED.

• ALWAYS REMEMBER TO UPDATE YOUR SITE DAILY

You have to know that great websites do not succeed by letting their websites grow cobwebs because they think that they have nothing left to update their site with. Weekly or monthly updates just does not make the cut. Let's say you have no new products to add in on a day to day basis, you have to continue trying to add something new so that your consumers will find for themselves a reason to continue heading back to your website as compared to the others. Maybe adding in some bolgposts reviews? Or maybe a competition? Clearance sales? Backorders? Just think about what you would like to see if you are consumer and you will not run out of ideas for your website. Furthermore, a daily update of your website will increase your search engine ranking! And in SEO terms, you will be at the top of your rank. 

Qoo10

• PROVIDE A SUBSCRIPTION OF SOME SORT

Groupon

Remembering the old time proverb of "out of sight, out of mind"? Well, that applies greatly to the internet as well. Or perhaps even more so. If your competition has constant updates for the consumer as compared to your lack of weekly updates website, the consumer will slowly but surely wipe your presence clear from their hippocampus and your business will fail. Successful website will tend to send newsletters/bargains/coming soon products/ clearance sales, at least once a week. This sending of the regular newsletter actually gives you a chance to push for new products and clearance sales, and you actually imprint brand awareness upon the consumer's mind and ensuring that they do not fail to remember your existence. 

• SIMPLE,CONSISTENT, AND EASY NAVIGATION

Ebay

Yes yes, having that amazing flash animation on your websites gives you the kick that YOU want, when YOU open your site - that is because you placed it there and you understand its purpose. But not the consumer, they have no idea why you placed an annoying flashing animation over there, and they are annoyed by it so they decided to close the tab that holds your website. Just like any normal business, the bottom line for having a successful ecommerce website is to make life easy for your consumer! Make every navigation simple and classy, with the options for switching products to be clean and consistent, and your consumer will be more inclined to stay longer to take a snoop around. Remember to always include these few things:

1. About Us
2. Products / Services
3.  Contact Us
4. Testimonials / Product Reviews / Before & After
5. . Frequently Asked Questions
6. Site Map
7. Copyright Information
8. Return/Refund/Privacy Policy
9. Resources/Articles
10. Frequently Asked Questions

• EVOLVING MORE THAN YOUR COMPETITION

Old Facebook

 New Facebook

You own a website business. That itself speaks volumes about what you have to do to maintain a website business. You have to evolve the same way technology does, by adopting new technologies as they come, and remember that your consumer will like to see a change in the website they are visiting once in awhile. So be open with changing the outlook of your website, and factor in the cost incurred for this as something that is necessary. Don't be like the websites that have failed because they are the ones that are left in the dust when other websites had already changed. Think like the way CEOs of big companies are paid to think - think of the future. 

• PLACE YOUR WEBSITE IN GOOD HANDS 

Google Team

Needless to say, if you put in only 50% of effort in maintaining this as a business, then you can only expect to receive about 50% in returns. To succeed in your ecommerce website, do not be stingy with the money that you have to spend. Hire staff that are eager to make this business as successful as you desire it to be, and remember that this is not an area to scrimp on as well! Have a team of full timers that will be responsible for most of the day to day running of the site, and another group that will brainstorm along with you how to better the website; more heads will make better ideas.

• GOOD LOOKING LOGOS AND DOMAIN NAMES

You are your website, and your website is you. Treat your website like a living being, where similar to human beings, outlook and a classy name will create for you a "halo effect". Simply put, you have to look the part to be the part. As I have repeated countless of times, money is not something that you can be stingy about in every sense of the word. Hire a professional web designer to design the website for you, and a professional logo designer to ensure the appeal of your logo. Never choose a cheaper alternative, since you wouldn't want your website to fall through because your logo looks cheap and homemade do you?

• SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

This is something that every ecommerce website should do, and if you are not doing it... then your business has either failed, or you are very lucky. Remember I mentioned that you have to place your website in good hands? Your full time staff that is hired to manage your website has probably set about doing this as soon as they can. In the over populated world of the Internet that is based largely by SEO. this is something that you have to do. Need I say more?

• GOOD PR 

By now, you would have set about doing up your SEO, but that is not the end to placing your website on the map of ebusinesses. You have to remember that ecommerce is similar to regular businesses, where good PR is essential to making your website known. Get featured on popular blogs, news sites, ad space, and placing articles in regular newspapers for a wider coverage of your consumers. Do not look down on blogs or news sites, as they are your strongest platform to promote your website through. Or maybe you can get your team of workers to partake in pay-per-click advertising, a much underrated way to promote your site. 

• GOING SOCIAL

This might be something new to the consumers 12 years back, but no longer is going the way of social media deemed as unnecessary. In fact, if you have social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, etc.) for your website, remember to always put some social media "buttons" around your website, for people to share your website, or to just link to your Facebook page. Remember the team of workers you hired? You will have to dedicate one team to the management of your social media platforms, where information are to be updated daily and customer questions to be answered just as promptly. This is something that you are able to reach to all the different groups of consumers, and definitely not a force to be lightly taken. Whatever it is, just remember to have social media if you want to succeed. 

• EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE

Never ever forget that an ebusiness is no different from a regular company, where customer service is the most important in the process of sustaining your company. Ensure that you are able to fulfill what you have promised to your customer, payment has to be secure and quick, and delivery of orders have to be prompt and efficient - never to be slower than stipulated time on the website, and to handle all complaints and bad reviews with the grace of a lady. Remember that customers are able to post reviews on forums or discussion boards, and that word of mouth (even through the computer screen) is much more influential than what you can imagine. 

All in all, remember that you may be an owner of an ecommerce website, but you are consumer at the same time. Just think of what you would like to see, and you would have won have the battle.