The Future of Internet...

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Indeed, the future of internet is limitless, is never ending. Once upon a time, when there were no aeroplanes, the Wright brothers dreamt of a future where people can fly. Great inventions by Einstein would not have surfaced without dreams. Dreams can be beautiful, but it takes effort for dreams to become reality. The internet has became a reality of past dreams. From Web 1.0 to 3.0 of today. From telephone, mobile phones and postal mail to internet conferencing, skype and instant emails. 

Let's take a look at the evolution of the internet from the past till today:

 

In regards to the future of the internet, there have been lots of predictions. According to an article by Six Revisions,authored by professional web developer and designer Jacob Gube, he predicts 4 outcomes of the future of the Internet:

1) Audio Web Surfing

Imagine people on the train with headphones attached to their mobile device, say attached to a watch, while Text-to-Speech reads them the latest articles from their favorite sites. It would be the use of HTML5. Rather than reading and clicking, the audience can tell the browser where they want to go with spoken commands. Speech recognition has not been possible in the last decade. But we can see it in mobile phones today, computers that recognizes voice commands, gate security that recognizes only the owner's voice frequency...etc.

2) Web Surf on any Device

In the past, web surf on the mobile seemed impossible. The mobile phone was used only to make phone calls, if not simple text messages or even more advanced, organizing the calendar. The future of internet may predict a touch screen on our refrigerators, chopping boards, or even holograms projected from watches. These items can deliver niche and relevant content. For e.g. the chopping board on the left, it could display instructions as to slice the onions into how small, showing a live-demonstration of a renowned chef chopping onions...etc. 

3) Input Revisited 

Imagine the movie Minority Report happening in our daily lives.Simple gesture implementation on the trackpad in OSX is do good that using gestureless laptops becomes unthinkable. Many hardware manufacturers would hence try to invent their own GUIs. 

4) Mobile Networking

Imagine Harry Potter's newspaper. The pictures in the newspapers are alive, and the videos in the newspapers reinforce the text in the news. Imagine too hands-free systems in cars. When we enter the car, just speak the command and the system will track the location via GPS and auto-pilot us to any location, speak about automated parking!

With advancing technology and unwavering dreams, the future of internet will be charming. One wonders if Internet would dominate human beings, like the robots in I-Robot. Will intelligence in the internet overtake human intelligence? What would happen? We could only imagine and pray this day would not come. 

Journalism + Internet or Journalism Vs. Internet?

As written on my previous blog, the power of Internet has closed down many newspaper firms in Iran. Is Internet killing Journalism? As the saying goes, the pen is mightier than the sword. Today, the internet is the most formidable foe would not be an understatement. The Internet has encouraged a shift in who creates, distributes and ultimately owns the news.

Today when we need reliable news, where do we search for? Newspaper? Internet? The evaluation of news should be based on these benchmarks:

1. Accuracy: 
• The news must have an author who can be traced. Newspapers all have editors and publication, so there's no problem in contacting them. In the Internet, anonymous posts of news coverage should not be taken seriously. If one is thoroughly very sure of his content, he would have no qualms in leaving his contacts.
2. Authority:
•  Although there have been many talks about newspapers having a biased point of view, newspapers are still reliable sources of information. Journalists and reporters all have video clips, interview clips, photos as evidences of the live situation. Some Internet sites are authoritative, hence the news that they publish are reliable too. (Refer to previous week's blog to understand more about Authority bestowed by various source)
3. Objectivity:
• The objectivity and goals of the publication should be consistent. A newspaper company whose aim is to publish political news coverage shouldn't cover entertainment gossips and stuffs. An internet site which supports Obama shouldn't have discriminating posts on him.
4. Currency: 
• The materials of the publication should be up-to-date. Newspapers publish on a dailiy basis, reporters and journalists reach the site of news as soon as possible, hence their coverage is always reliable. Internet sites which publishes news should ensure their news are not out-dated.
5. Coverage:
• Information should be quoted correctly. Too much pictures would discredit the news. Too much words would make it very wordy and difficult to digest. A healthy balance of words and pictures would be ideal for a news publication. Newspapers have live-situation photos to back up their coverage, hence it is always a good source. Internet sites have to ensure their pictures do not mislead any information.

let's end this with a short video on citizen journalism, where citizens are free to post news coverage, wherever they are.

Social Networking

How do we connect with our friends? In the past when there are limited technology, we communicate to each other via postal mail (snail mail), pagers, and public telephones. We get to know each other only through formal introduction face to face and in their social context. To get into activities with friends, we call up each other, fix a time and place, and will be there on time or else there's no way to contact except via the home telephone.

Today, we have mobile phone which we can use to contact our friends wherever and whenever they are. Official documents can be sent through Electronic Mails in an instant. Public telephones have become obsolete and pagers are  rare today. When we meet new friends, we can know them through friend's social networking sites. We can look through our friends' friends, photos, latest news...etc.No longer we have to meet up to have activities with our friends. We can have play a game of scrabble, of dungeons and dragon, challenge each others' high scores in addictive games such as icy towers.

Let's take a look at today's social networking:



Some of the more prominent social networking sites are Facebook and MySpace. Currently there is strong heated competition between these social networking sites. Check out this video:



Other than competition between Social Media network, there have also been debate on the effectiveness of social networking. 2  factors paved the ways for opposers towards social networking.

1. Communication through social network is inefficient: long winded and interpersonal heart-to-heart talk should be done using emails. social networking sites has no privacy and easily accessed by others.
2. Social Networks lose engagement over time: it get's boring after a while, it happened to Friendster and MySpace, it will happen to Facebook too. 

On a personal note,  Facebook happens to be my first social networking site. Till today, it is still as interesting as first day. What we connect is people, not applications. If people gets bored with social networking, they are probably bored at social relationships with people real-life.

Internet Politics

Obama Vs. John McCain is a typical example of how Internet prevails over traditional means to gain popularity for votes such as bidding, surveys, flyers distribution...etc. Let's watch a video about the contrast between using internet as a means for presidential election and the traditional way.



 To be successful today, Internet Technology is indispensable. First, let us take a look where does political power comes from:

1. Legitimate Power: This kind of power is given by a authoritative figure such as the President, government, or teacher. Legitimate power is used to enforce standards of behavior. A school prefect has this power to give demerit points to misbehaving students.
2. Referent Power: This power bestowed upon individuals by virtue of accomplishments. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew deserved this power when he single-handedly  built Singapore to what it is today.
3. Expert Power: This power springs from education and experience. To be called an expert, one must have expertise in a specialized field. to achieve that, he must spend years of research. 

Now, where does Internet comes in from here? Is it authoritative at all? Iran, a war-striken country, has much more online users than any country in the Middle East. During the Iranian Regime crackdown, the brutality were all captured  on mobile phone videos and posted online for the whole world via Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and email. The multitude of bloggers in Iran had closed down many newspapers firms and caused many journalists jobless. News and information spreads faster on the net then publications.

So is the Internet authoritative? During the Presidential Election in 2008, the Obama campaign used the internet to organize his supporters in a way that in the past would have required an army of volunteers and paid organizers on the ground. This not only helped him in the November election against the Republican nominee John McCain, but was probably the decisive factor in his Democratic primary contest against Hillary Clinton.

     First, the Obama campaign started off with few resources and little name recognition, but the internet helped him connect to his core supporters in cost-effective ways. It aided in his fund raising through advertising.
     Second, Obama was able to connect with young people aged  roughly 18 to 29 years old, the cohort known as the millennials. It allowed him to mobilize their energy and passion. This achieved a sense of belonging and achievement in the younger generations, knowing that they played an active and important in the future of their country.
    Third, Obama reached out to much more. He could create blogs and platform issues, which any one from any part of the world could understand and comment on his values. on MyBarackObama.com, a ‘cookie’ or internet tag, was placed in a voter’s web browser. This cookie could identify the types of sites the user visited afterward, helping inform which political ads were served up to the user.

Is Internet authoritative and influential? Well, it definitely is.

Multimedia On the Internet

We have 24 hours a day. On average, 8 hours is spent on sleeping, and the rest of 16 hours awake. During the hours that we are awake, how do we spend it?

On the move, we have the mobile phone data plan which allows us to surf the net while on the move. One can read news, watch videos or even chat to each other via messenger or skype. At workplace/school, internet is used everyday. Emails are used to transmit information between departments, search engines are used for research and development, the world wide web is used as an education platform for students. Now, so much of the internet is being used, how do we use them?

In 2.0 -> 3.0 Internet, the web is no longer about scripts and words, it has music, sounds, even videos. The multimedia can be used for various uses, some commonly used applications are education, entertainment, communications and research. Multimedia education is used in schools to spur students' interest in their subjects. Multimedia communication is used everyday when we chat to each other via Messenger, Skpye each other and even social networking such as facebook.

This is an example of multimedia. 



Today, other than the time we use for work and play on the internet, most users gain entertainment from the Internet too. Usually reading off a story from the internet would be boring, watching a movie would be interesting. Movie is a form of multimedia. Multimedia is defined as a computer-based interactive communications process that incorporates text, graphics, sound, animation, and video.

The forerunner for multimedia entertainment is Games. Games of today incorporate texts, graphics, animations, music and videos. Different genres of games such as Role-Playing Games have a story-line and dramatic music. Check out this game trailer:



As mentioned, education in schools have become more advanced in technology and learning is becoming easier. Take a look at this:



These two commonly used multimedia on the web have displayed enormous improvement from one decade ago when pixel games such as Super Mario and yellow textbooks were used. With multimedia so advanced, one wonders if anyone can live without the internet today.

Protectors of the Internet

Two decades ago, to have a desktop computer at home is considered an honor and privilege. I still remember going to my cousin's place and played on his Floppy Disk games. There were no such thing as Internet, not to mention computer having a virus attack. Today, almost everyone has a computer with internet access at home. We use it everyday. And most of us have surely encounter viruses, spams and hackers in our Internet. Although it is a major issue, nobody kicks up a fuss anymore. Worst comes, we'll just reformat the computer; if that still fails, we just go along Sim Lim and buy a brand new one.

Well, prevention is still better than cure. If we can prevent viruses from attacking, spammers from sending malware into our hard disks, and hackers from stealing our information and identity, we would not have to spend the additional money re-formatting the computer or buying a brand new one. Since most problems we face today comes from the Internet, i'll be discussing Internet Security today. Let's watch a video.



Haha! Botnet is basically one of our many hackers online today. So they access your computer through email attachments, some website links that you clicked on, and with some software/freeware which you installed with. Scary isn't it? Just within the second we click on a suspicious attachment from our emails, the computer is theirs to control.

Virus, is a term used for malicious programs which spreads to many computers. It normally attaches itself to a normal program file, a host program. It could be exe, doc, or even ppt. The virus will start attacking when we open these files.
Worms on the other hand attaches themselves to email addresses, and tracks out our address book and sends itself automatically to our friends. Have you ever received MSN messages from your friends saying you've sent them a link which you don' remember at all? What about Facebook? Have you ever log in and realized your account has sent some links to your friends which you never did it? Well, that's worms for you.

As from the video, there are some tips in which we can prevent spams, virus, hackers from entering our computer:
1) Do not open attachment from suspicious emails. They often have typo errors or link to websites which you do not recognize. Once again, DO NOT OPEN.

2) Have anti virus software in your computer and keep it updated. The video introduces Norton Anti-Virus. To my knowledge, they have a one year protection, after which you have to purchase their software again. If you would like some secure freeware that helps keep viruses and malwares at bay, i recommend AVG, windows defender, and IObit security. These are freeware that can be downloaded from the Internet.

3) Have your firewall switched on, and keep it on always.

Best Employer in the world?!?

Before I say anything, just take a look at this video... and see if you'll get tempted to immediately quit your current job and send your resume to this company



Oh yes, favorite pastas, gyms, tennis courts, swimming pools, casual wear to the office, bringing your pets along... plus this is a worldwide renowned company, google. I would definitely want to work there. As the adage says: enjoy what you work, and you need not work for a single day. The culture in the Google company is having fun, in turn, the employees devote their energy and time to produce their best results.

Let's watch what the employees in Google have to say about their fantastic job there. Perhaps we'll get a hint as to what requirements we need to possess to be able to their colleagues.



i am sure many of us have used Google, at the very least, Google search. There is Gmail, google maps, google earth, google scholar, google wave, google docs and many many great products. All we need to do is to access Google's home page and click on Google labs. Recently, Google has invented more great products which threatens even giant Microsoft. One such example will be the Google docs and Google wave, which helps us organize our documents, and email conversation seems easy.. Once again, a video is more than a thousand words.

A virtual Classroom

NO more difficult wake ups, NO more morning rushes for the bus, NO more facing bias teachers who favors "pet" students only, NO more having detentions for dozing off in class... no more classmates and friends.. Yes, it was proposed that students study at home, making education 24 hours accessible to them. Finally, education is catching up with technology. With such advanced technology today, we might as well send our avatar to school and he'll transmit all he learns back to our main server computer at home. Well, we've heard plenty about the pros and cons for having a virtual classroom to replace traditional whiteboard-lecturer classroom. Let's look at the idea from a video:



Cool isn't it? But is it applicable to students and apt for learning? Let's look at this systematically..

According to Bloom's Taxonomy, the most ideal learning involves 3 domains: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor.

Under Cognitive domain, students have to remember what is being taught, understand and apply it. A higher level for them will be to analyze the information given by the lecturer, evaluate it and re-create the information. From the video, the lecturer was apparently teaching geometry, it is analytical as the diagrams are precised. If they do not understand, they could virtually "raise their hands". Well... understanding it is one thing, applying it? I am assuming they have downloaded a worksheet, so that they can complete the questions and submit it back.

Under Affective domain, students learn best when they are emotionally "touched". For example, a teacher who cracks the best jokes in class is likely to receive attention, and during that point, the information related by the teacher will be embedded into students' brain. Another example, we all know how Titanic sunk, all due to the movie Titanic, with its amazing storyline and tears-triggering scenes. In a virtual classroom, i can't visualize how can teachers interact with students "affectively".

Under Psychomotor domain, students get to experience it real time, first hand. For example, nothing beats learning about Crystallization with doing the real experiment itself. Watching a video would be very difficult. You get to touch sodium sulphate, smell ammonium, taste (don't know) which would not be available through a virtual classroom. Sports, you can't become a sportsman by just reading up a Dummies guide to basketball. You have to experience it yourself: the sun and sweat, the the fatigue, the teamwork, the satisfaction of throwing the ball through the hoop.

Hence, although the cognitive domain is sufficiently attained, students who learn best in an affective and psycho motor domain get compromised. Of course, that's why schools in Singapore today still require students to be in class and the fields, but also INTEGRATE cognitive learning with technology by submitting assignments online, doing research and bringing it to class...etc. Yeah! 

BUSINESS on the Internet

Business is definitely not my cup of tea... (That's why i am taking psychology as major!) This semester, i tried to take up MGA201 Introduction to Accounting. Immediately after the class, i head to the library and dropped the course. All the terms simply makes no sense to me. All the formulas are harder than C-Maths. 90% into the class, i couldn't understand what the lecturer was saying.. So i made the right choice to drop it. As you can see, I can't do business when i can't even stay focused in a basic accounting class. If that is so, how dare I post a blog on BUSINESS on the Internet? This post is not a how-to-set-up-business, it is just a generic post to list down some pros and cons, so that those who wants to be their boss in the Internet have some realistic views over it. 

Ever toyed over the idea of becoming your own boss and setting up a business online? You could wake up at anytime you want, wear your pajamas, switch on the computer and check your revenue pouring in every day! Wow.. it sounds like a marvelous idea, but with so much scams today, is it actually feasible?

Technology has advanced so much throughout the years that of being slaves to technology, people today are making use of technology to their own benefit. But of course, these are clever people mind you. I am not talking about those websites where you enter to search for online jobs, i am talking about creating an own web space and attracting investors, revenue, and many potential customers who are willing to fork out the money to see your website grow.

Well, one of the benefits of doing E-biz is of course Communications. You could be living in SIngapore but have American investors and Chinese customers. You can easily discuss a business on a common internet platform such as google docs. You can communicate with each other via Skype and receive documents with a click at a finger on the fax machine. Technology definitely helps facilitate communications. Instead of printing mass catalog, and mailing them over the world, you can now reach out to more people when customers scour through your site for products.

In an average business, you have to fork out a start-up capital, know somebody in that field, have business partners...etc. But on the internet, your start-up is basically ZERO! All you need is a computer, internet connection, a basic business plan and some creativity to start up a business online. Sounds easy? (Seems very difficult to me..) 

Internet sometimes can become a bane for users if not properly managed. We have to deal with copyrights. A web entrepreneur is constantly faced with copycats, and has to learn how to protect his trade secrets, and continue to be innovative and attract customers. Just as you can attract customers all over the world, competition can come all over the world too. Hence you must be shrewd and have enough strategies to ride on them.

Security is one big issue too. You have to prevent professional hackers from hacking in either to your websites or your clients' transaction history. Their private data such as credit card number, addresses would be food for identity thieves. You would have to employ professional help in setting up firewalls, anti-phishing and malware...etc.

This seems like a long post, to prevent it from getting too dry, i shall continue on this topic some other times. ^_^ Stay tuned!!

GUess WHat? I got a taste of the medicine...

Last week, i blogged about how Technology has evolved so much such that humans can't live without internet. Just 16hrs ago, my modem broke down (supposedly out of power). i was out of internet!! i needed to send a draft assignment to lecturer, check my email, play a bejeweled game at facebook... immediately at 11:15pm, i called the technical support and arranged an appointment first thing today. Due to my network being Singtel Mio, my home telephone couldn't be used too.. what a whole lot of inconvenience.. the first thing i did when the internet was finally up just now at 2:30pm was... FACEBOOK!

Well, today I like to share about RSS. any idea what it means? Seen the logo on the right before?
That's right, its called Rich Site Summary.

Ever followed a blog before? I know a particular cute friend who follows friends' blog passionately. Do you find it a waste of time whenever you enter the blog only to find out he/she hasn't update for a long time? Forgot which blogs to go simply because you have too many of them? Fret not! Now with RSS, you need not go into each and every blog to search for new posts. The new posts COME TO YOU.
You will have a personalized site, where you can organize your RSS from blogs, news, movie reviews... etc. Next, subscribe to your friend's blog or CNN news or movie reviews... etc. With that, every time you log in your computer, you only need to go to your personalized site, and check on the NEW posts that will show up when your friends update their post on their individual blogs.

The next question you might ask is.. HOW?  First, you need a Reader. E.g. (www.google.com/reader). After that, go to the blogs you like, click on the RSS icon, Choose your reader from the list (blogline, yahoo, google...etc) and click "subscribe to feeds"! Easy right?

Now, I've done my homework.. most common blogs to me are blogspot, livejournal, wordpress. So both wordpress and livejournal has the RSS icon on the blog sites. Blogspot is more tricky. On your friend's blog address, enter /atom.xml.
For example, mosesmoses.blogspot.com --> mosesmoses.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Then the same thing happens again.. Choose Reader.. Click Subscribe.


Now you can save so much time surfing blogs.. the new ones come to you! ^_^

Introduction to the Internet

Life have become indispensable with the Internet. People can watch movies without going to the theatres, play games with friends without going to the cyber cafe, exchanging favorite photos and songs without having to burn CDs, and even going into business with an associate without having meet him physically!

Can we ever live without the Internet today? Before this, let's watch the reactions towards internet 50 years ago when it first came out.



Now, let's look at a small evolution of the Internet. A simple email account has became more than exchanging information and documents, but becoming a social media.



As seen from the videos, internet has become a social media, a platform for people to interact and change their lifestyles. Internet started of in 1968 as ARPAnet, as a defense measure from the United States to prevent information loss and chaos during an attack. Slowly, it evolved into an instrument from political uses to our personal uses of today. In a short period of 50 years, we can't live without the internet. Without emails, information exchange cannot be instant. Without the teaching resources online, teachers will have to revert back to textbook and boring lectures. Without the entertainment on the Internet, people will have very much less to look forward to when they reach home.

In the later entries to come, i will be talking about communications on the Internet, Business on the Internet, Education on the Internet, Security, Entertainment... etc. So stay tuned!!