Reflection & Summary

After attending the classes for module COM125, i have indeed gained much insights on the background of Internet; such as how it was introduced and its uses. Also, i was taught about the various social media, the tools of Internet, multi-media, Video-making and more.

More importantly, i have learnt that growth mindset is essential for individuals who want to make greater achievements in life as compared to fixed mindset, thus each and every one of us should try to cultivate a growth mindset like taking up challenges, be receptive to feedback and never should one be defeated by obstacles.

Lastly, i have found the chapter on virus and spyware to be very useful as this chapter has enhanced my knowledge on how to protect my computer and its data by installing protection tools, avoid sharing folders and visiting those unknown websites, as well as never open email attachments from unexpected sources, etc.

Hence, overall i feel that this module is interesting and i have enjoyed attending the classes being conducted, though the mid-term was a killer to me! HAHA  (: Well, this just means that i have to work doubly hard for my final paper (:

Add a comment March 29, 2009

The future of internet in 2019

According to the video, i do agree that the future of Internet will definitely be focusing on the 3 main aspects on storage, mobility and speed. Thus, in the near future, not only can the consumers enjoy greater speed when downloading their videos, songs or other data, they can even do so anywhere and anytime with the aid of their mobile phones.

The rising of internet2

The incubator for many of the emerging technologies shaping the future is known as Internet2. Formed in 1996 and administered by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), Internet2 is a partnership between universities, corporations and government agencies. It’s a Petrie dish for networking experiments. The project’s goals are to create new applications that can’t run over the existing Internet and to develop the infrastructure that supports those applications.

High Speed

Internet2 is a not a single network, but a consortium of hundreds of high-speed networks linked by fiber optic backbones that span the United States and links to other countries. The network transmits data at speeds up to 2.4 gigabits per second–45,000 times faster than a 56 Kbps modem– allowing scientists to test their laboratory discoveries in the real world.

High-speed networks will make it possible for professionals to work in ways never before possible. For instance, scientists around the world can share specialized equipment like electron microscopes.

NASAhas developed a Virtual Collaborative Clinic that connects medical facilities around the U.S., allowing doctors to manipulate high-resolution, 3-D images of MRI scans and other medical imaging. Not only can doctors consult and diagnose, but they can simulate surgery by using a “CyberScalpel.” Virtual surgery gives surgeons an opportunity to practice before ever entering the operating room, reducing the time required for the actual procedure. Using this kind of virtual technology, local hospitals can access resources and skills only available at larger institutions. NASA plans to use the technology to provide remote health care to astronauts on extended space journeys. 

As a result, in the year of 2019, Internet will evolve the world into a high-technology world whereby everyone is required to access to the net to vote, work, study, communicate and play. It will be so pervasive in everyone’s life by then (: Hence, it will definitely be a great deal of help to start learning more about the both the benefits and harms, as well as other information with regards to the Internet as a form of preparation for the future.

Add a comment March 28, 2009

Internet & Journalism

What’s going on today?

Lower consumption of print media – newspapers are fighting an invasion of increased consumption of alternative media.

Success of smaller sizes – magazines are also reacting to the consumption changes and changing sizes, becoming smaller. Even news magazines do not carrying breaking news any longer, but cover subjects that influence the lives of human beings – like health and so on. In Europe, a new niche in woman’s magazines is dedicated to shopping, which are really edited ‘catalogues’.

As a result, print media has decided to use their sites online more and more and in fact it is estimated that in 20 years, people will probably not be reading their newspapers on paper. People will get their news online and ebooks will dominate over paper. It will also be possible to watch TV, movies, and use your ebook as a computer.

This will definitely be very popular among  the younger readers as they are more comfortable in using electronic devices to read.

Printed paper will still exist in the future, but much less than today. Good photography, colour and black and white, beautiful illustrations and sophisticated layouts and fine typography will still be printed in the future. And maybe the magazine of the future will be a luxury purchase, to be enjoyed page by page.

Alternatively, it can be  very inexpensive to cater for low income readers who do not have ready access to technology. Editing and publishing will continue, and printing on paper will continue – but with a different set of challenges.

For readers, the major problem with print media is that it doesn’t address all of the ways they want to get information. They still like to read magazines, but increasing numbers of people like e-mail newsletters, blogs, RSS feeds, Web sites, and even special events or conferences. And they’ll give permission to accept these communications vehicles.

For advertisers, the major problem with print media is that it’s difficult to measure. Despite research showing that people do indeed read print publications, advertisers often fail to feel much of a sales kick when they unleash campaigns, finding it hard to justify the expenditures.

Simply put, publishers have not adjusted their products and costs in line with the way people obtain information today, or the way marketers divvy up budgets. While many print media companies still have 80 percent or more of their costs tied up in print publications, research suggests that the typical American only gets 50 percent of information from traditional media, according to a recent study by Ball State University.

Most publishers get more than two-thirds of their revenue from advertising, when the latest surveys have found that marketers now spend nearly two-thirds of their dollars on “below-the-line” marketing.

No one knows the future of print media? But it’s really up to you to salvage their future by supporting it, so you have a choice 🙂

2 comments March 22, 2009

Politics & Internet

A record percentage of Americans have used the internet to participate in the most closely-watched presidential election in decades, finds a newly-released survey from the non-partisan Pew Internet & American Life Project.

 
The spring 2008 survey finds that a record-breaking 46 percent of all Americans have used the internet, e-mail or cell-phone text messaging to participate in the political process.

The survey found that the internet is becoming an increasing part of the norm of political participation — people are  using it to read the news, share their views, or to participate in some  other process to get others to take political action. 

Bloggers in general are having a huge impact on the course of election, but the kind of audio and video that they’re digging up is playing a significant role in driving the news cycle, the researchers write.

“Some 47 percent of online adults have watched at least one type of online political video (out of a list of five possible types of videos,)” write the Pew researchers. That amounts to 35 percent of all adults.

Overall, the surveyors found that just under a third of all internet users have participated in the online political process through a variety of means: They either forwarded or wrote their own political commentary, signed online petitions, signed up with the campaigns themselves to receive information, forwarded online audio or video segments, or signed up to volunteer for events related to campaigns.

Unsurprisingly, the survey found that almost two thirds of Obama supporters get their political news and information on the internet, versus 56% of McCain supporters.

 
The survey also finds that Obama’s supporters are more “more politically active social networking users than McCain supporters when the two candidates are compared head to head.”

At the same time as Americans’ use of the internet has grown in the political sphere, there’s also a healthy dose of skepticism.

Sixty percent of those surveyed, for example, agree with the statement that “The internet is full of misinformation and propaganda that too many voters believe is accurate.” Thirty two percent disagreed with that.

A surprising 74 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the statement that they would not be as involved with the campaign if it weren’t for the internet.

But age could be the factor that explains that finding. When the Pew researchers broke that out among age groups, a larger portion of the younger groups of people tended to agree that the internet is important in helping them to stay active and connected with the campaigns.

The survey also finds that Americans are eager to view source materials for themselves — almost 40 percent of internet users and a third of all adults have gone online to read or watch unfiltered campaign material, such as archived debates, speeches and announcements and position papers.

As a result, in my opinion, if Singapore is to implement the similar approach in our next election, perhaps more youths will be interested to read about the various campaigns being posted online. At the same time, this will inevitably encourage the involvement in the area of polticial news among them 🙂

Add a comment March 22, 2009

NewsML and the Semantic Web

The IPTC also maintains a number of controlled vocabularies, called NewsCodes, that are used to annotate news items. These vocabularies are publicly available and used by IPTC members as well as third parties.

Their goal is to help bring NewsML G2 to the Semantic Web as they have  already taken the first steps to this direction, by expressing the NewsCodes in SKOS, as well as the NewsML G2 model (originally based on UML) in OWL. 

At the heart of NewsML is the concept of the news item which can contain various different media – text, photos, graphics, video – together with all the meta-information that enables the recipient to understand the relationship between components and understand the roles of each component.

Add a comment March 8, 2009

Protection & Prevention methods against virus and worms!!

Say goodbye to these virus and worms by simply follow the respective pointers below 😀

1. Install protection tools

Install anti-virus software to prevent your machine from virus attack.

2. Maintain your protection tool

Keep your virus signature (also called virus definition file) updated daily before the start of the office hour. We recommend automating the update process.

3. Periodic virus scanning

Schedule at least a weekly scan of your harddisk to check for viruses. The scheduled scan could be done in non-peak hours, such as during the lunch-break or after office hour.

4. Limit the permission of access to user your computer

Do not allow other people to use your computer unless really necessary. These people might introduce malicious software and virus to your machine. Avoid sharing out folders. If there is a valid reason to do so, share the folder with user name and password settings. The setting can restrict an infected machine from implanting virus/worm on that share folder.

5. Uninstall /disable unnecessary software

If your are using Windows 2000 Professional or Server versions and if you do not need the web service (IIS) on your machine, uninstall/disable it. Many current worms try to exploit vulnerabilities on IIS.
This principle also applies to other applications like SQL server, DNS server, etc.

6. Handle email attachment carefully

Do not open e-mail attachments from unexpected sources. Some viruses / worms disguise itself as season’s greetings / celebrations.

7. Check external files before use

Check floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs and files downloaded from the Internet (especially those from unknown origin) with anti-virus software before use.

8. Patch your system and applications in a timely manner

Patch the commonly used software, including the operation system, browser and office application.
Monitor the latest patch information, e.g. turning on the Windows Update feature or subscribe to information security news.

9. Centrally managed your corporate anti-virus software

10. Screen all transport media of virus/worm

The email system is not the only transport medium of virus/worm. Consider screening mechanisms in other transport media like web browsing and FTP access as well to block virus/worm.

11. Guard your network against virus/worm spreading by external parties

Restrict external parties, e.g. guests and contractors, from tapping into your network before you have approved their machines are clean.

12. Prepare for the recovery of system and data

Create one or more Emergency Recovery Diskette/CD-ROM and put in a safe place.

13. Keep yourself informed of virus information and alerts

Subscribe to information security and virus news, e.g. HKCERT and your corporate anti-virus software provider mailing group.

14. Establish incident response capabilities

Develop reporting, response and recovery procedure to handle security incidents that include virus infection. Define the responsibilities of users and response/recovery personnel.

15. Learn about hoaxes

Do not send hoaxes to others. Hoaxes often spread fake alarms. They usually come in an email in a chain letter fashion describing some highly unlikely type of virus.

16. Do not use illegal software

Using illegal software is very dangerous. It may contain virus, worm or trojan. You may infect your own system by installing them on your machine.

17. Other Protection Procedure

Make sure your server and PC does not boot from floppy diskette drive or CDROM drive. Change the BIOS setting to boot from the local hard disk only. This is an effective measure against boot sector viruses.

Configure your firewall to restrict outgoing traffic. The outbound filter can effectively stop most of the trojans from making outbound connections to leak confidential information. Firewall filtering for incoming traffic only is not safe enough.

Add a comment March 1, 2009

Video making :P

This wk blog’s entry will be on video making using movie maker 😀

Therefore, i have decided to make a video for one of my good buddy:D

Add a comment February 21, 2009

E-learning

Electronic learning (or e-Learning or eLearning) is a type of Technology supported education/learning (TSL) where the medium of instruction is computer technology, particularly involving digital technologies.

And at the rate of advancement which our country is going, it will not be surprising to us if we were to change our traitional approach of teaching from classroom teaching to Electronic learning at home:)

Here’s are some of the advantages of E-learning:

However, if asked to make a choice between classroom learning or E-learning i will still opt for the traditional way of teaching as i believe that being able to learn together with our fellow peers and taught by our tutors in a face-to-face basis, it will definitely serve us well and be the best method to gain knowledge and clear our doubts or questions. Thus, i will still go for classroom learning in school 😀 Nonetheless, occasionally it will still be good to conduct E-learning lesson due to convenience purpose or emergency!

Add a comment February 15, 2009

How to make E-marketing a success???

The evolution of eCommerce and eBusiness practices has created online marketing channels that are simple to use, adaptable, targeted and incredibly fast. As a result, more and more businessmen are coming out with online marketing strategies to maximise the exposure and to leverage relationships with their customers and a very good example of a successful eBusiness entreprenuer is Vinny Lingham.

According to Vinny, his approach is relatively simple as he believes that in order to ensure success, one should employ Online Marketing channels that can be of help to achieve increased brand awareness, traffic and ultimately sales.

Search Engine Optimisation, Pay-Per-Click marketing, Social Media marketing, email marketing and Affiliate marketing are the primary channels that he places primary focus on to provide targeted, cost effective and measurable campaigns.

The foundation to any online marketing campaign is a Search Marketing strategy comprised of paid search marketing (Pay Per Click – PPC) and organic search marketing (Search Engine Optimisation – SEO). With SEO and PPC it is relatively easy to ensure success if one follow the following tips:

1. Keywords – choose keywords wisely. Pay attention to what your competitors are bidding on and develop your key-phrases accordingly. Be specific and never opt for one word, or broad phrases on your SEO campaign.

2. Content Relevancy is key – For both SEO and PPC if a user clicks through on a search result page from a query, the content that is displayed must be relevant to that query. If not, one will lose a potential client and money as they will click away from the site.

3. Clear navigation – The site should be easy to use. Do not make the users think about their next action, have it clearly visible to them.

4. Call to Actions – Make these clearly visible and identify them for the visitors. If your primary goal is to sell a product your call to action should be “buy this product now” or similar.

Social Media marketing campaigns may comprise of blog content, viral campaigns such as YouTube clips, social media websites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc as well as applications for use on social media websites and or mobile phones.

The key to achieving brand positioning with a social media campaign lies in the following:

1. Be present by participating in the conversation with your clients or consumers and please provides good and relevant content to them.
Listen to what they are saying about the product or service, and react accordingly.

2. Creative or inspirational campaigns spread like wildfire and be consistent in all your dealings.

Email marketing is another area to market or advertise your product or service successfully since it is considered as one of the most preferred types of marketing in all kinds of industries. Thus, in order to make your Email Campaign stand out from the rest, one ought to follow the following:

1. Personalised and Targeted Email Campaigns

If you know personal information about your email target, include this in the email. This shows that you are not sending out one spam email to a whole purchased client database. The personal information will also create intrigue in the users mind about what information the email holds. If your personal name or your business name is familiar to the email target, include these in the subject line and/or sender information. If the email target knows and trusts the send they are 1000 times more likely to open the email than if it comes from someone they have never heard off.

To increase open rates included trigger words that will subconsciously make them open the email. For example included terms like ‘last chance’ and ‘special offer’ as this makes them think they are going to miss out on something if they do not open the email. A note of caution, if you use the trigger terms, you must have a valid ‘special offer’ or people will lose trust in your email subject titles.

2. Keep the design simple

High graphical and image based emails may look stunning but with more images and graphics included in one’s email, it will increase the size of the recipent’s email  and this will prolong the downloading time in individual’s inbox. As a consequent, many email clients will automatically ban images from being downloaded, which means your email’s first impression could be a collection of rectangles with red crosses in top corner, not as aesthetically pleasing as you had hoped.

For example Microsoft Outlook 2007, does not render background images, therefore any background images can not be displayed in Microsoft Outlook 2007.

3. Promote your best deals in the most viewed areas

It may seem simple, but many businesses continue to promote irrelevant company information before the scroll and hide important promotions at the foot of the email. If you are promoting a 25% off sale, or a big event you are holding, it MUST be; Above the scroll, Eye catching and Relevant to the email subject.

4. Analyse feedback and use it to improve future campaigns

Once the email has been designed and sent out, you MUST analyse your data to help you improve your future email campaigns. Can open rates be improved? Can click through rates be improved? Has your email had the expected/desired affect?

Most good email marketing platforms offer high quality post-send feedback, from this analysis you can decided upon the perfect email subject and sender information, as well as working out which area of the emails are the most successful for converting.

Hence, by ensuring that all campaigns are relevant, targeted and engaging and by consistently measuring performance, one will definitely make his or her’s E-business a great success 🙂

Add a comment February 8, 2009

social media and its impact

I’m sure most of us would be rather familiar with the pop-up icons alerting us to accept a new friend request or to remind us to accept testimonial left by other users. At the start, one maybe enthusiatic about all these stuff and would simply download application, one after another. However, in the long run, when the craze died off or when everyone is busy with his or her social life, school stuff and other commitments, one would then have to abandon their account.

To me, i find that social media is quite useful in terms of notifying my friends about my current life through those pictures of video which i have posted online and it also enables me to keep track and remain in contact with my friends, especially those who are studying overseas (:

However, some users abuse these social media to track down people while others became so addicted to the virtual world that they encountered much difficulties in adjusting back to reality. In this aspect, social media can be deemed as harmful to some users.

On the other hand, if one is able to use these social media tools to deal with reduce stress through adopting a virtual identity in “Second Life” whereby one is able to have the freedom to do any activity which pleases him or her, why not? 😀

Add a comment February 1, 2009