Blogscapes

Hmm..in case you clicked on the link hoping to see some smutty visuals, sorry to disappoint you but you won’t be getting any here.

Is there anyone who hates new media? Well, it’s probably Edison Chen and his bevy of lovers.

I’ve resisted talking about Edison Chen for the longest time. I mean, he’s been over-written and over-exposed (pun intended) in the media, both traditional and new. In fact, it’s new media that’s been the cause of his un-doing, not to say that he didn’t have a hand in it!

Well, if there weren’t any new media, Edison’s infamous pictures would not have gotten such globalised exposure, even in the nether regions. In the past, any of the pics would not have made it to the front page of any paper nor any website. I mean, the editors of the papers or mags would have put a stop to them, unless they were from smutty publications. And you would have to try hard to get your hands on a copy of the smutty publication too. But with new media, anyone who wants to share and view the pics can now do so easily via readily available new media channels! No editing needed.

In a way, I do feel sorry for the guy and his naive girlfriends. In this day and age, anything private can become very public indeed (have they learnt nothing from Tammy?). Also, word is out that triad bosses have put money on the poor guy’s head!

On the other hand, how could the guy be so naive to think that no one would look into his computer files - come on, this is Edison’s computer we’re talking about.

Well, if any good is to come out of it, it’s to remind people that as much as new media can be used for good, it can easily be abused too. Exercise discretion, people.

Congrats to Singapore for winning the bid to host the Youth Olypics 2010!

I got this from http://prspeak.wordpress.com/, that new media will feature significantly in the Youth Olympics.  

And why not? New Media resonates with the young, and is a good way to reach out to the youths. It’s exciting to see how new media will be used for the Youth Olympics. 

In my blog post last week, I wrote about the Singaporean blogger who’s in the running for a blog scholarship.

It was a nice surprise that Kevin actually dropped by and added the following comment:

Kevin  |  19, October, 2007 at 4:32 am

Thanks for the support! I didn’t think it’d be that big a deal, but I do feel honored to be listed among the 20 college bloggers.

Thanks for coming by Blogscapes, Kevin! We wish you all the best!

This is yet another example of the power of new media! It’s able to carry what you say across to a real audience.

I’d been resisting it - received invitations from people I didn’t really know or perhaps could not remember - invitations to become their friend in Facebook. I had resisted it, and simply deleted the email messages.

But I finally succumbed. And all in the name of education and research! After all, with so much written and said about the new social networking site, how could I, as a self-respecting educator, much less one who’s exploring new media, not know Facebook? I mean, it only has 34 million users across the globe (according to Wikipedia), with the number rising everyday. Anyway, like I’ve said, it’s all in the name of research.

So, what is Facebook and how did it start? It’’s all very much Web 2.0, with the creator wanting to have something to help people communicate and keep in touch and keep up with each others’ lives. If you look at the log in page, it looks innocently simple and inviting. It says, “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” It goes on to add

Everyone can use Facebook —

And how true, with reports showing that Facebook is now being used not just by the young digital natives, but by many young-at-heart digital immigrants too.

According to Wikipedia’s info on Facebook and its history, its famous creator, Mark Zuckerberg, launched it in Feb 2004 for Harvard students, but its use quickly spread and now it seems, everyone’s on Facebook.

The site is so successful that Yahoo made a bid for it to no avail. Recently, there was talk that Microsoft also made a bid for it, to no avail. Looks like either Mark Zuckerberg is so naively idealistic and passionate about his site, so much so that he quit Harvard to run it, or he’s one astute technoprenuer holding out for the best bid to make him one of the youngest billionaires around.

In any case, my initial use of Facebook was pretty ho-hum. So I created my profile and invited some friends to join in. Some did and some didn’t (”Why? Email not good enough?” asked one of them.) But over the days, I’ve discovered how convenient it really is to keep in touch! Due to the interactive and interconnected nature of Facebook, I’ve been able to keep in touch with old friends and colleagues who had kept in touch with others, and so the network grows.

It’s a pretty cool way to keep up with your friends. I say friends, as frankly, all that adding of people just to up your social circle numbers is just sad. It’s not the quantity but the quality that really matters.

But I’ve heard of how people have used Facebook in pretty interesting ways - to check up on potential boyfriends/girlfriends/bosses/exployees/room mates, etc. Which also highlights an important consideration. Be careful of what you post online. More importantly, be careful of what others post about you online - like what they scrawl on your Facebook walls, and all. But then again, can you really control what they say and write?

There’s no doubt that gaming has captured the hearts and imagination not only of  children, but adults as well.  

In an interesting article entitled Gaming? It’s no child’s play, we are told the virtues of gaming. Very much like what Marc Prensky (the guy who popularised the terms digital natives and digital immigrants) has said in his book, “Don’t bother me, Ma. I’m learning”, gaming has come a long way in shedding its image of schoolboys hanging around LAN clubs and playing games, to becoming an activity that is seen to have educational and lifeskills training!

There are currently an estimated 100 million gamers worldwide, according to Mr Eric Lesser, associate partner, IBM Institute for Business Value. And according to two studies conducted by IBM, MIT, Stanford University and Seriosity (a software start-up), “online games can help tomorrow’s workers become better corporate leaders as the workspace becomes more distributed, collaborative and virtual in nature.”

It seems that playing massive multi-player online role playing games can actually help you to pick up interactive and communication as well as leadership skills as you interact, collaborate and compete with thousands of other gamers, on a global basis!

And with things being played out in real time, players need to make snap decisions and adapt to the ever changing environment. And such skills honed in the virtual game worlds can have real benefits and it’s suggested that employers of the future look out for people who have played games as they have picked up those requisite skills.

Hm..so it’s no longer taboo to put gaming or playing games as one of your interests in your resume!

But of course, the consequences of  ‘game over’ in the virtual and real worlds have vastly different consequences and that’s something players need to be made aware of.  “Leaders in the future will need to be able to tolerate and manage informed risk to be successful in an increasingly fast and complex environment,” said Mr Lesser. 

In another interesting article, Avatars without borders, we learn that the creator of Second Life and IBM have joined forces to enable people’s animated online personae, aka avatars to rmove freely from one virtual world to another.

Currently, avatars are stuck in the world they inhabit, so an avatar in Second Life has to stick around Second Life worlds. Given that people spend so much time and money customising their avatars, getting new wardrobes, hairstyles, gestures, etc, they don’t really want to repeating the processes in multiple virtual worlds. This creates an obstacle to the full potential of the online universe to allow for avatars to socialise, advertise, do business and make money. 

“We don’t think the future of virtual worlds is going to involve a lot of ’siloed’ experiences competing against each other. The future is going to involve going from one world to another, ” says, Mr Yoon of Linden Lab. According to Gartner research firm, 80 per cent of the people using the Internet will have alter egos in virtual worlds by 2011. IBM also has its vision of a “3D Internet” that includes companies using virtual worlds for tasks such as recruiting, meetings and employee training. Hm..imagine your avatar going for an interview online in your future virtual company! Better start practising your online interview skills! And make sure your avatar can fly straight!

So, once again, the gaming and virtual worlds are having more and more impact on the real world we inhabit. It’s no wonder some are beginning to not know where to draw the lines.

When we talk about the digital divide, we often talk of the gap between those who are technologically advanced, as opposed to those who have less oppotunity or access to technology.

At one level, we can talk about the digital divide between the richer developed countries and the poorer less developed ones who don’t have the infrastructure for a digital lifestyle.  

But that may be changing, as on another level, as a recent survey by communications planning firm Universal McCann shows, “netizens from China, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines have the most active blogospheres.” The survey also found that Singapore holds the 8th place as most avid bloggers in the world.  In addition, not only are some of the less developed countries more actively blogging and reading blogs, they also participate more in social and new media such as podcasting and sharing of photos and videos.

Thus, perhaps it’s time to rethink what constitutes ‘first world’ status and challenge traditional definitions of ‘first world’ and ‘the digital divide’.

On another level, I would like to add that the digital divide can be seen on a more personal basis, in terms of the gap in technological know-how and tech-savvyness between the younger and older members in a household. This is turning the age-old adage of ‘older and wiser’ on its head!

Mark Prensky has coined the terms ‘digital native’ and ‘digital immigrants’ to describe the two groups, and I think it’s important that both parties learn to bridge the gap, so mind the gap! 

There has been much talk about terrorism getting a new edge with new media. In Singapore, recently, a well-educated lecturer in a local polytechnic, Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader,  has been arrested for having extremist ideologies and supporting terrorists. His ‘Islamic teachings’ came from pro-terrorism websites he read on the Web. 

Terrorists have gone global in their reach. Not only are they getting their hands on those near to them, they are also getting the attention and support from those far away and in the comfort of their own homes, to such a ‘unlikely suspect’ as Abdul Basheer. 

In the article, The new face of extremism: Young, Internet-savvy and easily duped, we are told that the usual stereotypes of the terrorist as someone who is a “misguided religious zealot”, “someone raging at perceived injustices” and ”a school dropout with little to lose” has changed. In today’s high-tech world, think instead, of “Internet-savvy teenagers lapping up the errant ideology of the likes of Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)”. 

In particular, teenagers and young adults are most likely to visit radical websites and have “a shallow understanding of religion” and thus could easily be persuaded by warped ideologies. 

In Singapore, the Muslim community and the government have been trying to reach out to youth by dealing with contemporary issues and making sure that the correct teachings are imparted. 

Not only that, the battle to counter ’cyber-terrorist’ attacks and influences has also gone high-tech, with the launch of the portal (www.singaporeunited.sg). The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore has started a forum at www.iask.com.sg to respond to queries and clarify doubts regarding Muslim beliefs.

Also, local terrorist research analyst, Ustaz Muhd Haniff Hassan has created an anti-terrorism, counterideology.multiply.com  that contains resources such as blog entries, videos, etc that help dispel myths about certain misguided beliefs. British Islamic scholar, Aftab Malik also has his website at www.amalpress.com to denounce terrorist ideologies.

Let’s hope that with the terrorism taking on a new cyber frontier, online users will be savvy enough to go back to basics, ie discern right from wrong.