Our “beloved” spam, is 30 years old, if you believe it or not! The first spam was sent out on May 3rd, 1978 by a defunct marketing company. “Spam” actually means “something that keeps repeating and repeating to great annoyance”.

However, their intention of spam was with no ill intent. Just a message to advertise and create awareness.

Now, spam can be seen in a variety of forms, from pure advertising to the intent of causing harm.

I used to receive spam almost everyday on my Yahoo! email. Now, with the increasing advancement of technology, they have managed to keep out most spam from my spam inbox. I now occasionally get a spam or two, asking me in buy enlargement pills, or diet pills, or winning a lottery that I have never heard of. Hooray to Yahoo! spam protection!

Even on this blog, i get spam comments with links to suspicious sites advertising suspicious products. With Askimet, it helps me filter away the spam comments and I can just delete them off with a click of a button! Whee to Askimet!

With the notorious use of spam to flood one’s mailbox or site with annoying messages to buy or trick, it is no wonder why REAL advertisers have difficulty standing out from the hundreds of spam!

Singapore’s laws now require advertisers to send e-mails or SMS starting with the phrase “<ADV>”. This is to help consumers to differentiate that this “spam” is not spam. It also helps to protect the companies from being accused of flooding the consumers mailbox. Advertisers are also required to put in an option in the mail to let the consumer choose to unsubscribe to the mailers and avoid being “bombarded” with unwanted advertisements.

Pondering on this, I wonder, 30 years later, what would spam look like? Perhaps it would not exist at all!

References:

For 30 years now, you’ve been getting spam
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080502/tts-technology-internet-spam-history-30y-c1b2fc3.html

as the last marked post has been thought on, researched about, written about, and published; it is now time for me to set my head down into the books and notes, to figure out -

how to score an A for this module.

whether or not this blog will be further updated after the finals, remains to be seen.

i have had fun researching for this blog’s topics, keeping it relevant and up to date for viewers out there - be it regular visitors, a chance upon from some other site or search engine, i thank you all for viewing my writings.

Journalism is defined by dictionary.com as the collection, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines, radio and television broadcasts. These reports are objective and usually done by professionals.

But now, a new form of journalism is emerging with the help of the Internet - citizen journalism. Citizen journalism as defined by dictionary.com as “the collection, analysis, reporting, or disseminating of news and information outside of traditional professional journalism organizations. Citizen journalism is done by ordinary people like you and me, without any training in professional journalism skills.

The Internet, Web 2.0, has given ordinary people the power to create, write and publish. What is written is usually based on events that they have experienced and seen. These reporting of events might be nonobjective as it could be written with the writers feelings in mind.

Internet will change the way journalism will be published and broadcasted. It will see a power shift from big corporate institutions to individuals like you and me. Big corporate institutions who broadcast news and media, have been traditionally, gatekeepers of news and information. Now with citizen journalism, information can be spread to the masses without any restrictions.

A video on Youtube by PodTech interviews some big shots in the Internet industry, Robert Scoble (ScobleShow), Marissa Mayer (Google VP), and Jeremiah Owyang (Web Strategist) on how Web 2.0 will change journalism. Here’s the video:

The video questions these 3 people on their views on how the Internet will shape journalism in the future. Scoble believes that Web 2.0 will make journalism more interactive and faster than what it is today. However, Mayer and Owyang believes that although journalism will come to the Internet, but traditional journalism on newspapers will stick around.

Here is another video on YouTube that supports citizen journalism. It’s by Leeds University in the United Kingdom together with BBC on citizen journalism.

A reporting on the floods in Sheffield, England by citizens of Sheffield help to augment the reporting done by the BBC. BBC supports citizen journalism as professional journalist cannot be at all places at any one single time due to time and resources constraint.

Citizen journalism is supported by the Web 2.0 technology - weblogs, v-logs (video logs), podcasting and so many more. This allows one to become a self-publisher, who can cover news from many areas and spectrum. As a self-publisher, one can filter out unwanted information that is shown on traditional media and focus on information that matters. Citizen journalism promotes democracy where more voices in journalism are welcomed rather than just one main voice.

Citizen journalism is here to stay. With Web 2.0 technology, this will assist in the growth and popularity of citizen journalism. Traditional journalism will have to cope with this growing trend and incorporate it into their way of business to ensure that they do not lose out to this trend.

References

journalism - Definitions from Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/journalism

citizen journalism - Definitions from Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/citizen%20journalism

YouTube - Leonard Witt and Citizen Journalism                     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK7I96n61A4

YouTube - How Will Web 2.0 Change Journalism                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIji8pdW-ow

YouTube - HFTV - Citizen Journalism                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePNxpWzl8f4

As we all know now that Web 2.0 has offered many applications and services that allows the online community to create and share information with ease. There is an increasing number of people leaving the traditional media to go online to get their information, their daily transactions, and to be entertained. About 71.1%  of the 334 million American citizens uses the Internet and that is a 120% growth from the year 2000. Youths and young working adults make up these numbers.

The politicians know this. They also know that for them to garner more votes from the younger generation they have to turn to the media that they use most, which is the Internet. The Internet and Web 2.0 has added more avenues for politicians to turn their campaigning efforts too, in addition to the traditional media of television, radio and print.

In the recent political US campaigns between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, they have utilised the Internet to great efficiency and have set the tone for future election campaigns in the years to come. I will highlight their campaigning strategies on the Internet and comment on its efficiency.

Internet Homepage

Both Clinton and Obama have their own Internet homepage for their supports or would-be supports to get more information on the politician. Listed below are the links to their respective websites.

Hillary Clinton

Barack Obama 

Both websites incorporate  picutres and links to other pagess detailing information on their upcoming campaigns, the number of states won so far in the Primaries, and issues they have talked about so far. It is also a place where fellow supports can come together to share their views, opinions and help out in the campaigning effort by volunteering or donating.

Blogs

On their individual websites, there is a link to their official blog which is maintained by the campaign support team and talks about how the campaigning went in certain states, to announce where the politician will be next to campaign in which state, comment on news about the campaigning and much more.

Pictures are posted to keep the supporters in the loop of the events supporting the campaign. However, this is more of Obama’s blog that features more pictures than compared to Clinton. This is the same for videos; Obama has more videos on his blog than compared to Clinton.

More links to various newspapers, or pages to vote are sprinkled liberally in blog posts to direct viewers to the pages that need their action or to let them read more on certain information.

 Social Networking

With the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, the candidates are also jumping on the bandwagon to reach out to their supporters. Using this technology, they are able to reach out to the younger supporters on a platform that is more familar to them. These sites allow them to “come down” to their supporters and be looked upon like a normal human being, rather than a figurehead that is remote and distant. For example, the sites allow the candidates to put their dislikes, likes, feelings about a certain topic; making them sound just like you and me, allowing supporters to relate to them.

Here is Clinton’s MySpace site, and here’s Obama’s Facebook site. Look at it and see what I mean.

Youtube

Joining another Internet bandwagon, the candidates have posted up their own videos on Youtube. Youtube recieves millions of views each day. Not only can viewers just view the video, they can add it to their favourites, rate it and share it. This ensures that the political candidates ideas and views will be widely known to all.

Youtube has dedicated a page to the  political elections - “Face the Candidates - You Choose” Listed on this page is all the videos on Youtube that is about the current political scene; the broadcasts on television, the many media coverages of the election, and personal commentaries on the candidates.

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As you can see, the Internet platform is beginning to be the new frontier for political campaigns in the years to come. This is especially true when there is an increasing amount of people going online and helping the Internet to grow. Who knows? A few years down the road, maybe voting will be done electronically, online!

References

Pew Internet & American Life Project - The Internet Gains in Politics          http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/234/report_display.asp

North America Internet Usage Stats and Population Statistics               http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats14.htm

YouTube - You Choose              http://www.youtube.com/youchoose

Barack Obama - Homepage          http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Hillary Clinton - Homepage             http://www.hillaryclinton.com/?splash=1

Barack Obama - Facebook                    http://www.facebook.com/barackobama?q=barackobama&ref=ts

MySpace.com - Hillary Clinton                    http://www.myspace.com/hillaryclinton

Sounds like Web 2.0? It is somewhat related but E-Learning 2.0 taps on Web 2.0’s features to increase and facilitate online learning.

To define E-Learning 2.0, we can say that it combines e-learning trends with the features of Web 2.0. For example, tagging and sharing a webpage on social bookmarking sites.

Web 2.0 is defined as anyone on the Internet can create and publish content with ease and share it to the community at large. Most of Web 2.0 content is user-defined and commented on, creating a shift in publishing power from institutions to the society. Development of software has also shifted to providing the service of the software rather than to sell the software.

E-Learning 2.0 assists e-learning that is no longer from a single authoritative source, but from a peer-to-peer level. Peers can tag and share web pages through del.icio.us, a social bookmarking too. This allows information to be shared widely, fully accessible from any computer and everyone can have the same set of information. Blogging about the information learnt or gathered will generate feedback from fellow peers and the blogging community. Wikis can be done up as a shared resource that peers can edit and use. RSS readers can keep peers in the loops of wikis, social bookmarking tools and blogs for updates and new information.

Information is now peer-to-peer and is readily avaliable anywhere with a computer and an internet-access. However, E-Learning 2.0 is a new avenue of learning. It may not work in traditional studies systems where the emphasis of the teacher being the all-knowledgeable one and information not coming from the teacher is considered not true. This too is changing as the Internet is expanding rapidly and databases full of reliable information is at our fingertips. E-Learning 2.0 may not happen now, but it is slowly gaining momentum to take over conventional e-learning!

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  Hey! Wait a moment! Isn’t what we are doing now E-Learning 2.0?

*scratches head*

References

Understanding E-Learning 2.0 by Tony Karrer        http://www.learningcircuits.org/2007/0707karrer.html

Like how the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears goes, Goldilocks crept into the Three Bears house to eat their porridge, sat on their chairs and slept on their beds; a hacker or a invasive software can come into our computers to “eat” our information and use it for their own evil devices.

Should we allow these hackers avail themselves to our personal information? NO!!

Luckily, we have software that we can use to protect our computer from this immoral hackers and software. There are many softwares that can be used to protect the computer but I will only cover 3 sections - Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Firewall.

Anti-Virus Software

This type of software helps to protect your computer against computer virus that infect the computer to destroy files, reformatting the hard disk. Viruses are spread when it is sent to an uninfected computer via the intranet or the Internet, or by carrying the virus on a removable drive, e.g. USB thumb drive.

Viruses are spreading with much help from the ease of transferring files across the Internet via e-mail, MSN sharing folder, and downloading off the World Wide Web. So how do I protect myself against this?

On my desktop and laptop, I have installed AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition (version 7.5) to protect my computer against viruses that might be accidentally downloaded or transferred to me. Voted by PC Pro as Software of The Year 2007, it helps scan my programs, files in real-time to help clear them as virus-free, updating itself whenever I log on to the Internet and best of all - it’s offered to all as free!!! It is also offered as AVG Anti-Virus Version 8.0 to those who want to pay for extra services like anti-spam, firewall and much more.

Anti-Spyware Software

Spyware as defined by Wikipedia is a software that is installed into the computer without the user’s knowledge and monitors the computer’s activities and may take partial control over the computer’s activities. It can collect the user’s personal information, install additional software that slows down the computer’s processing speed, blindly accessing unknown websites that might increase the chances of getting a virus. Spyware software is not as malicious as viruses but is seen as an annoying and an invasion of privacy.

On my desktop, I have installed Ad-Aware to protect and scan my computer for spyware, Trojans and worms, and Ad-Aware helps me to destroy these nasty things too! Ad-Aware has a feature called TrackSweep that “sweeps” away my Internet surfing trails to further increase privacy. Similarly to AVG, this is a free version and has paid versions for increased protection.
Firewall Software

A firewall is a barrier that is between your computer and the Internet. This barrier’s aim is to prevent threats from the Internet from spreading to the computer. The firewall works in the background of the computer to monitor Internet traffic through the computer and when it determines a suspicious request or traffic flow, it blocks it from entering and connecting to the computer. Also, a firewall can help hide your computer from view from the Internet. Invisibility cloak!

Both for my laptop and desktop, I have installed ZoneAlarm Free Firewall to help protect my computer from unwanted intrusions. Here is what ZoneAlarm looks like.

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With all these softwares protecting my computers, I feel much safer. But of course, I should not let my guard down and download suspicious looking files or go to unknown websites that might increase the risk of infecting my computer with viruses and spyware.

Maybe the Three Bears should have installed a “firewall” to keep unwanted people of their property. Or in the first place, lock the door!!

References

AVG Free Advisor - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

PC Pro: News: Hot Topics: PC Pro Award Winners 2007 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/hot-topics/news/143886/

Wikipedia - Computer Virus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

Ad-Aware 2007 Free - Lavasoft http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Wikipedia - Spyware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

ZoneAlarm by Check Point - Why You Need a PC Firewall http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/support/zasc/whyFirewall.jsp

The full name?

News Markup Language.

What does it do?

It is an electronic infrastructure that helps assists in keeping track of news items and its related media to  publish news in any format; video, photos, text and in any language.

Why do we need this?

According to newsml.org, the need for NewsML arose from the ever-growing and expansion of the Internet and the continuous use and re-use of news around the world.

Publishers around the world can publish content from these sources gathered easily and consumers will be able to read all the news on a certain topic in different languages and different media types.

OMG….

that was the first thought as i saw the exam paper.

Mr Abel Choy’s instruction was to write about half a page for the definitions and examples. *sheesH* and its 5 marks!! how to elaborate until half a page? *faints*

i think that was the most difficult part of the paper. after that it was relatively easy. the information flowed out of me easier than question 1 and 2.

i really hope that i can score well for this paper. *cross fingers*

argh!! its tommorow!!

everybody study for it yet??

gambate everyone!

To gain the attention of the consumers, websites must come up with innovative ways and attention grabbing words and pictures to keep the consumers on their site. After all, the next competitor’s website is a click away.

Many types of multimedia can be employed to make the site more interactive and colourful. Pictures, videos, Flash multimedia are just some of the ways a site can make itself more interesting.

In this entry, I will look at the Singapore’s website of Sony Ericsson and note its multimedia features that are used to market the new products.

Adobe Flash

Used extensively in their site, it is the best way to interact with the consumers and to get them interested in the product.

An interesting and unique feature of Sony Ericsson is to allow the consumer to “try” out the phone online!

Pressing the “keys” of the phone will simulate the actual functions of the phone, similar to using the actual one. This will allow the consumer to try out the phone in the comforts of their home, without going down to the mobile phone shop to test out the phone. In this Flash version of the phone, you can simulate a call, take a photo, send a short message, and explore certain areas of the phone. It is almost as real as the real product!

Another example of Flash used in Sony Ericsson’s website, is the website’s ability to browse and compare different phones at the same time. In the screenshots above, you can see how I was able to click and drag the phones I want to compare into the template and generate a comparison of the phones features.

Video and Pictures

Some other multimedia used to market the product, would be the standard pictures, showing the customers what the phone looks like. A video is also used to showcase the phone’s features and distinct qualities. More of its features can be showcased in a 30 second video rather than clicking on a few links to get the whole picture.

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To conclude, these are not just the only multimedia types avaliable to market the product and the brand. With the variety of multimedia avaliable on the Internet, it is possible to use unique ways to market the product. For example, product testimonials through podcasting, promotion of brand through virtual reality game -Second Life and so much more!