The BIG Future of Internet

The web of the future as shown above would turn into one that functions based on Web 3.0. The amount of information that is transmitted across the globe, everywhere, is increasing ever so rapidly!

Because of how knowledge has increased so much now, jobs are no longer the same as before, learning too, even ways of exercising, television, journalism etc. are changing from traditional, to highly modern.

From what I have learnt in class, the future Internet would seek to understand an individual – the semantic web. The web would no longer be directed by humans, but would direct humans instead.

Brown (2000) states that, “Over the next 20 to 50 years, it will become harder to tell the difference between the human and the machine. All body parts will be replaceable. A computer will function like the human brain with the ability to recognize feelings and respond in a feeling way. They will then produce fake people.”

This may sound like a very amusing and impossible future, but how can we ever know?

No caveman ever thought that language even exists and now, look! We have so many kinds of languages all over the world!

The Internet was created at first, for the purpose of war and battles, but now, it is an ubiquitous tool, EVERYWHERE.

When I looked at the videos in COM125 class, telling me how different forms of technology will soon be formed and placed in our everyday lives, I felt fearful.

I am fearful because this kind of world would be one I would not even dream of living in, and yet now, there is a hint of possibility in it.

I am not excited to be in this utterly advanced world where everything is created for extreme convenience. But who am I to control all these?

No way would I want to order anything anymore if things are going to be like this.

The Cowardly Bullies.

"I've thought of killing myself multiple times. I tried once. That's when my mom took me to therapy," said Sara, who has been

relentlessly cyberbullied via IM, Facebook and Internet forums since seventh grade.

It is infuriating to see that social networking sites can be abused and used as platforms for bullying and teasing.

Let’s define a social network:

A social network is a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

Oh man, why do they have to include “dislike” into the definition? Apart from that, as we can see in the definition, social networking

is, more than anything, a way for friendship and exchange to occur. It is to create more bonds than to break bonds.

However, Sara’s case is considered minor, and just one out of the many kinds of cyber-bullying found in social networking sites.

Sara pointed out that, “"Cyberbullying is worse than to your face, because it's out there for everyone else to see. I don't' think that, le

gally, or in society, anyone takes cyberbullying seriously enough.”

Well how true is that. And true enough, it is worse because people do not have to tell that person the nasty thing face to face – you just type it down.

Such things on facebook can damage people, as for the bullies, they simply do not learn from their mistakes. And for the bullied, they just keep avoiding, till they cannot take it anymore.

We need a police force online that could monitor these forms of bullying. Really.

e-Terror alert!

With the Internet, Terrorism now uses a new approach: E-Terror.

Wow.

Terrorists now spread their beliefs through the Internet, just like many other unlawful organisations that once spread news using primitive and small methods. Because of how the government has made Internet a platform for freedom of speech, terrorists can easily utilize this medium to air their views too, and to carry out propaganda.

As quoted from Terrorism Update, “At least 12 of the 30 groups on the State Department's list of designated foreign terrorist organizations maintain Web sites on the Internet. While U.S. officials believe that some terrorists use encrypted E-mail to plan acts of terrorism, most groups appear to use the Internet to spread their propaganda.”

When we look at journalism and the Internet, most of us only think of how beneficial it will be, but we fail to see how boundless it is. From the information above, we can see that the Internet has allowed such dangerous groups to propagate people – who knows, the person beside you using the Internet could be a potential terrorist.

It is true that online journalism has created great opportunities for citizens to air their views, and create their own ways of spreading news, but we should also be aware of the other people who misuse this tool for dangerous missions.

How do we deal with it?

As a Singaporean, I guess this is not a big matter at hand. However, I should keep up my vigilance in this matter. Just like how we have to be aware of viruses and spyware on the computer, e-terror should be something we are aware of too. Who knows if in the future, any other illegal and propagating organisations may just creep into our emails and access our information?

Let’s really keep our eyes opened.

Advertising Obama

As shown above, the is how President John F Kennedy rallied for his Presidential position - using Television.

And as shown above, this is one of the many advertisements screened by President Obama whether on TV or Youtube to rally for President.

“Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee,” said Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington Post.

President Obama participated in the elections with the use of YouTube, and it claimed him the title of President of the United States. President John F. Kennedy also utilized this act of “advertising” using technology in the 1960s. Both of them used technology that is ubiquitous and popular at the point of time. For President Kennedy, it was Television.

The use of technology seems to be proven useful for the elections, only that President Obama was blessed to be rallying in this era of modern technology where TV is not the only form of advertising. He used the tool of the Internet to reach out to the masses, and true enough the masses were reached, and that does not simply include Americans but people all over the world!

Obama did not only use YouTube for free advertising but also used Facebook and Twitter, and many other social networking sites to reach to the people. Whether this method is fair or not, I sure do not know. But one thing I know for sure, he does have a smart technique in attracting people!

The rise of Internet usage and technology has not only changed how we learn but the way information is being passed. Like Obama, he knew that the best way to let people know him was through the Internet, and true enough, he won the elections!

John F Kennedy was a president who left a major milestone in American History despite his short period of ruling, and he used technology to rally. I feel that these Presidents do have a creative enough mind to utilize not just speeches alone to attract the crowd.

Obama, today, has caused a Paradigm shift in elections, and I am sure we can expect more to come if ever another election were to happen in the future.

Second life, Realistic or far-fetched?

Firstly, let me define “Multimedia”: it is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media, which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms.

Another term “Rich” media is also called Interactive media.

These terms, although commonly mentioned when it comes to sharing about music, animation, videos etc. is in fact, a powerful tool.

Multimedia and rich media, has made games and virtual reality possible. Now, many people in the world are immersed in this form of leisure.

It was only through COM125 that I knew abou

t this Virtual Reality Social Networking Site – Second Life.

Look at this; anyone can be a character like this on Second life - living on a beautiful beach house, dressing his or her ideal clothes. What is more, people can even meet and get married on Second Life.

It really makes me wonder if this is what we call realism, or simply too much imagination?

Out of curiosity, I actually signed up for Second Life to see what is the big deal about it. With all honesty, it was bad. It did not make me feel hooked to the virtual world at all. It could be because of my Internet connection, but loading the images in Second Life was such a slow process. The maps in the virtual world were so complicated and hard to utilize. Am I really a dork at this? Or is it a software glitch? I really don’t know.

Then again, in class, Mr Choy was talking about people who really met in real life, after meeting in Second Life. It really got me thinking. Well, maybe it is because they got the paid version, which has more features and loads more effectively? Haha.

Whatever it is, multimedia is definitely a part of the internet that is building up, and I certainly do enjoy the very enjoyable features of it like podcasts, music, video and animation. (But perhaps not Second Life.)

An Interesting Fact

Why do they Hack?

On 8 February 2010, “China has closed down what is believed to be the country's biggest training website for hackers, state media has reported.”

As much as the government said that they are not involved in the hacking incidents, the activity of hacking is one that is most prevalent in China. This was also the reason why Google decided to pull out of China despite such a large Internet population that could earn them a lot of money.

It is fascinating how China, a country that is so stringent about Internet censorship with the Golden Shield Project and Green Dam Youth Project, yet hackers are everywhere! It makes people wonder if their censorship is really made for security or simply as a form of surveillance of Internet users.

Personally, I have never visited China before, and so I do not exactly know how tight censorship is over there. However, recently, a group of friends and I did a project on the issue of the “China Milk Scandal”. To my utmost surprise, the government was actively censoring information disseminated to the world through the media and Internet. Consider it a face-saving country; it has brought harm and deceit to so many countries in the world with its motive to save the countries face.

With this, I would suppose that it is no longer an issue of “Who is hacking”, or “How tight is the security?” and “How to lose the face?” anymore (as much as these issues are pressing too). However, what I would think the government has to look into is the issue of “ethics” in the country. The extremely tight security has stifled so many Chinese nationals that hacking is the only way to get information they want.

From the google issue,

“much of the evidence, including the sophistication of the attacks, strongly suggested an operation run by Chinese government agencies, or at least approved by them.”

However, the only setback is that Google cannot fully prove that there is 100 percent involvement by the Chinese government.

Wow. That is politics for you.

MY LIFE in iMovie

iMovie is brilliant for sharing anything and everything. So, enjoy as I share to you a little about me that you may not know. :)

Find anything in Youtube

Above is a YouTube video that demonstrates the use of a “wild card” in the Google search engine. This is so interesting because through this, I am actually learning about an Internet tool, through an Internet tool. This is probably, the wonder of YouTube – learning and sharing through videos.

I would say that I am not an avid visitor of YouTube, but whenever I am in need of a visual explanation of things, YouTube IS the answer. Initially, what I would think of YouTube would be a platform to share any form of video – meaning videos shared through YouTube are mainly for entertainment purposes, not exactly informational but used to past time, or have a laugh or two.

However, as I seek to use it for informational purposes, I would say that informational videos have been uploaded to the site increasingly, some of which are very creative as well. So maybe YouTube, after all, is not just a site for funny videos and snippets of TV programs and movie trailers.

As we observe this trend, maybe YouTube has a bigger meaning to it!

A positive outlook would be, it is a platform now, for talents and opinionated individuals to air their views and talk about issues or problems not just diplomatically, but creatively! As shown in the video below, students can easily create a video on Singlish in such a creative and entertaining manner.

I would certainly believe that technology has allowed people to increase in their creativity. Internet tools and platforms like YouTube has given people a chance to share their views in any way they want, which is perhaps the most liberating thing about the Internet.

With a tool like YouTube being available now, I certainly do wonder how future movies and TV programs will be like as creativity will sooner of later go beyond boundaries.

In class, as Mr Choy discussed how Google has become something so informative and user-friendly in terms of information seeking (as shown in the first video), we can see an evolution in learning as well - learning is no longer just knowing as information is just at our fingertips, but learning equate to creating - like what YouTube is created for.

Blooming in Learning

As shown above, the Bloom’s Taxonomy depicts learning as a wheel of processes. We do not simply know information, but we learn by processing the information in 6 steps – only than have we truly learnt. This wheel is comprehensive as it depicts learning as not just a cognitive process but also one that is affective and involves psychomotor too.

According to Bloom, learning is: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This makes the process of learning, I would say, a lifelong one! We cannot possibly know something and immediately synthesize a new thing according to what we have learnt just minutes or days ago!

However, the changing world and the proliferation of technological inventions have changed learning from textbooks and print materials into a myriad of information through multimedia and the Internet. Hence, the pace of learning has certainly increased.

According to Spender,

“Online learning is the next generation of educational product, and no more negotiable than was its predecessor, the book. The printing press also transformed educational organization and the process of learning (and work, and society, etc), and that great cultural change created as much upheaval as does the present shift to digital. “

This means that technology, as a form of learning, although scarce at present, is a reality, just like how the book was thought of to be something unrealistic. Because of how the world has changed in pace, and in resources, learning certainly would require reform and evolution as well.

E-learning aka Online learning provides us with the means of getting information from stimulating and interactive medium, making learning an engaging, and productive process. At the same time, learning is not much of a qualification or privilege anymore, but a lifestyle, which is what online learning provides – accessibility to information, and convenience.

I suppose e-learning is also a platform for a collaborative learning environment, which could certainly allow the learner to be more equipped in his or her own pace.

In my opinion, although e learning is not an ubiquitous tool for learning, it shows great potential in this growing world of greater minds that crave for more knowledge. It is easy to say, life is increasingly complicated, but we also have to realize that life with Internet and advanced media and technology has been greatly enriching.

There is no better way to learn than in exploring.

How to Succeed in E-commerce?

I was searching online on how to succeed in e-commerce and I came across these points that I thought are appropriate by Steve Windhaus:

Non technically, what is important are

1. Your legal business structure

2. Business Plan

3. Occupational Licensing

4. Sales Taxes

Here, Windhaus describes these as the foundation to opening an e-commerce business.

So after these 4 things are accomplished, technology comes in with:

1. Web site hosting

2. Search Engine Optimization

3. Web site analytics

Out of the above that is mentioned, I would say that most of them are jargon to me, as I am not exactly into the business of e-commerce.

What caught my eye though, was the non-technical part of starting the e-commerce business.

Creating a legal structure, and a business plan may just seem like a must-do, or a basic requirement in the business, but I feel like how good these ideas are can simply make or break the whole e-commerce plan.

Another term that caught my eye was "Website analytics".

From wikipedia, it simply means " the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet date for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage". In the situation of e-commerce, website analytics helps to determine the web site's popularity after advertising, and detects the web site's traffic.

I had in mind to do an online business once - a blog shop. When I had the idea, I never thought it was tough at all, till i actually started doing everything up. Although it is not as tedious and big scale as e-commerce, but it did have the gist of it in there. My partner and I never really considered the technological part of the blog shop. We simply put up the page, and pasted flyers every where in hope of getting a response. We did not consider at all any website analytics, or business plan, neither did we invest in search engine optimization, or any web site hosting. And true enough, we stopped the business in a month.

What I have learnt from this is that e-commerce is not just about creating a website and doing business on it. But it is a creation of a new idea, that could attract attention, one that could sustain and develop.

What Exactly Is GOOGLE?

I bet everyone who owns a computer has utilized Google's search engine at least once before.

If you think google is just one of the many search engines we go to for information scouting, you are certainly wrong. Google's search engine is just the threshold of many unfolding conveniences, and information.

Google is an example of Web 2.0 which allows web-based communication, also allowing users to change information on the internet. It is "a company which does not focus on producing software such as a browser but instead focuses on providing a service based on data. The data here, of course, are the links Web page authors make between sites. Google exploits this user-generated content to offer Web search based on reputation through its "Page Rank" algorithm. Unlike software, which undergoes scheduled releases, a service such as Google is constantly updated, a process called "the perpetual beta"." From this, we know that Google is not just a platform for receiving information, but instead, for sharing.

One article struck me lately from The Straits Times. It is an article entitled "Google Republic versus the People's Republic" which was published on January 23 2010. As we all know, google is currently at "war" with the Chinese government as China is issuing a ban on Google in the country. This is detrimental for Google only because it has diminished Google's "global ambitions".

What captured my attention was not just the fact that there is a discord going on between the two "republics", but the fact that Google is seen to be a "republic", and powerful enough to stand alone as a "country" astonished me. "Through just a blog post on Jan 12, the superbrand grabbed international headlines and cast the emerging superpower as the representative of all that is bad about humanity"(China). Google being such a powerful agent, now, has the ability and the cheek in fact, to deem the Republic of China as a "villian", who is against "freedom and openess".

Upon reflection and some analysis, it is just remarkable to see how Google and China are seen as "on par" in power. We cannot look at Google as "just another search engine" anymore, but instead, Google is now an "interest state" that allows people to live in it, and create a social identity with it.

This has certainly allowed me to understand the great power of the internet that is now a monumental tool in not only some of us, but everyone in the world. Whether the war between both "republics" will result in a win-win, lose-lose or win-lose situation, this battle of two superpowers certainly will influence the global village we live in.

The Founder That Caused A Revolution

The internet is so ubiquitous in the world today that we fail to even realize how this fascinating invention even came about! The internet has become part of our everyday lives, to the extent of making almost every other means of information gathering unnecessary anymore.

When I think about the internet, I do not see anything incredulous about it now, because it has become an "everyday tool"; like a toothbrush, or the food we eat daily.

It is an enlightenment to know that how this great network of information that is so accessible to us now came very basically from an idea, resulting in a creation of the World Wide Web, by a man - Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

"In 1989, Berners-Lee submitted a proposal at CERN to develop an information system that would create a web of information.... In 1990, he wrote the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)—the language computers would use to communicate hypertext documents over the Internet and designed a scheme to give documents addresses on the Internet."

Tim Berners- Lee made the internet possible. Without him, this idea may not even have existed, which is why is was named the "100 most important people of the 20th Century" by Time Magazine. This led me to question, " Why would the creation of the internet be so useful, or rather so revolutionary?" The internet could be like the typewriter, the telephone, or simply like any other information giving device that made an impact, and would die down after a period of time - but it did not.

When Tim Berners-Lee created HTML, URI, and WWW, these functions served as a platform for communicating information to anyone, as long as you have a computer. The computer was invented initially, not with the thought of connecting with the world but the Tim Berners-Lee's idea of the World Wide Wed made this idea possible. In other words, it was an idea that allowed many ideas to become reality. And what made it so appealing, is not just the purpose of providing information but "unit[ing] the world".

Tim Berners-Lee has the initial idea of creating a software for "his personal use to help him remember connections between various people and projects at the lab." From a little thought of wanting to connect better with his colleagues, it resulted in a revolution of the world, and technology. Technology is not the same without the internet, because with technology today, we literally eat, drink and breath "internet".

Knowing that his small idea could lead to a revolution has inspired me to see how minute things can be made wonderful when we start thinking of the bigger picture - of benefiting the world around us. It has also made me understand that a "revolution" is not just a change, but a change that is embedded in our everyday lives, and routines.

This is what the internet has become.