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.