Abel to Blog

Monday, January 26, 2009

Week 2: Social Media

Guys..

The gist of our second week of COm 125 lecturers can be simply summarized as the Pros and Cons of Social Media.

PROS

Decentralization of authority( personal empowerment whereby everyone has the freedom to express their views. Model example:Chee Soon Chuan.Any idea where he is?? ;p.therefore,maybe not so applicable to the Singapore context)

Ideal platform for various businesses to advertise their various products. Product placement , free trials etc.

Easier organization of interest groups. Through the use of Facebook, people are now able to organize and seek out various interest groups based on common interests.E.g. Fan groups. Beneficial to businesses as well whereby they can target a particular interest group and attract them with its products. Linking back to the example about fan groups, concert promoters can now directly approach these fan groups and inform them about upcoming concerts of their favorite singers instead of wasting resources on wide-scale advertising and promotional events.

Second life, Irc all allow for real time interaction with other users. Has led to the "death of distance" and acheivement of sense of self for some people. These social media platforms has led to the break down of social barriers which may have limited certain people's freedom of expression in the past.

RSS(Rich Site Summary)- real time update of news and weblogs to keep users in tune with the latest happenings.

Ironically,the Pros of Social Media have a negative aspect to it as well.

CONS

Through blogs, everyone now has become a "newsmaker". Everyone now has the power to influence others with his/her views. What if the person was a terrorist? Isn't this the very reason why our professors hate wikipedia so much; because everyone has the ability to alter the subject content and thus making it unreliable?

Yes, social media has resulted in economical advantages for companies but aren't they the very ones behind all those irritating pop ups and spywares which we detest so much

I maybe reaching too far out here or maybe even exaggerating when i say this. While Facebook has allowed for the formation of interest groups there are such things as hate groups too right? Its a possibility right?!

Living vicariously via the character one portrays on second life and IRC has its downsides as well. There are some who adopt these secondary lives for real, choosing reel life over real life. The crux of the debate for the use of IRC is that it has resulted in the loss of personal touch which can only come from face to face interaction. Perhaps a solution would be Skype.

So is social media a good thing or a bad thing? I seriously do not have an answer to that. Can we do without them..NOO!! I was backpacking in vietnam and I was very determined to lead the backpacker's kind of lifestyle..Budget lifestyle, don't shower(according to my buddy this is not true! lol) etc.. I was telling myself..I can do without my MP3 player, my PS3 and maybe MAYBE even Facebook. It turned out I had to log on to Facebook everyday because it was the only way I could be in contact with the other backpackers so as to plan our travelling schedule. How did we survive before Facebook??!!

Oh YA..HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR PEOPLE..GONG XI FA CAI! HUAT AH!!!

Baby Blogger,
11:12:00 AM

Sunday, January 18, 2009

WEEK 1..

Hello Mr Choy..and Hello to my friends who are reading my blog..too much free time is it??!LOL.here goes

“KNOWING THE PAST, GIVES US A PREPARATION FOR THE FUTURE,”

…In light of Mr. Choy’s quote, his statement has a huge bearing on his first lesson. The History of the Internet. As how a history teacher would put it, it is only by understanding the past that we would be able to predict and explain the events of the future. In the same way, I guess the purpose of the Monday lesson was to let us know about the origins of the Net and thus understand the progresses it has made over the years. In one way or another, I guess the first lesson would serve as a stepping-stone for the remainder of the course whereby we as students learn more about the web and its various functions…

Basically here is the breakdown of the first week’s lesson..

APARNET TO WEB 2.0

Our first lecture was basically a history lesson whereby we came to know about the origins of the Internet and personally, I found it intriguing as I never knew that its initial purpose was to serve the military. There was another video about Web 2.0 screened. In short, the video showcased the emerging and changing trends of the Internet, and as a user of web 2.0 itself, I could totally identify with the video. Truth to be told, the first lecture got me thinking about the rapid progresses of technology as a whole and not just the Internet. From its humble beginnings as a military project by the name of ARPANET, the Internet of today has become a NECESSITY to almost everyone is exciting to know that the Internet is STILL evolving and I am definitely looking forward to learn more about the emerging trends and functions of the Internet.

A BRIEF INSIGHT TO INTERNET JARGONS

While the first lesson may have captured my interest towards COMS 125, the second lesson was more of a technical lesson whereby we were taught about Internet connectivity. Technical jargons like LAN PC card, modems, networks were thrown in during the lesson. I've heard of these terms whenever I had to call the 24 hrs customer service hotline whenever my Internet was down. The technical personnel would mention these jargons and while I may follow his/her instructions and get my Internet up and running at the end of the day, I still would have absolutely no clue about Internet connectivity. What is a proxy? What is a firewall? I had no idea. Hopefully, the wed class has helped me gain some insight on the workings of the Internet. At least next time when I call the technical personnel I would know what I am doing.

INTERNET VS INTRANET

The term INTRANET was also mentioned during the course of the Wednesday lesson. I have never understood the difference between the Internet and the intranet. I did encounter with the Intranet during my NS days. I did have a vague idea of what it was. It was like the Internet, but only for military stuff. Regardless of how many times I typed www.google.com, all I got was page error. But the interesting thing was that I was still able to send out emails, share files with my fellow soldiers or even log into forums and download videos, only difference is, they were all military in nature. After the wed class, I finally understood the significance of having "an internal wed to serve the internal needs of the company" such as the military. I believe the reason for doing so is to be able to allow for greater online security, something that is extremely crucial for a sensitive organization such as the military. Joining a series of external networks (i.e. the internet) only increases the risk of being exposed to hackers, viruses etc.

…ALL in all it has been a good start to the COM125 experience, there has been no thoughts of dropping the module thus far ;p.. Together with a new found appreciation of the Internet and a substantial increase in technical knowledge, the first week has gotten me looking forward to the classes my “MONDAYS AND WEDESDAYS WITH ABEL” (hehe..Right not Jonno?)

Baby Blogger,
6:53:00 PM

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sunday, January 18, 2009

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