Arrianna Huffington was the founder of this internet newspaper and she incorporated the help of experts in various fields as well as anyone who wants to be part of this newspaper. She cleverly made used of normal people who wants to share what they’ve experienced or anything they think it’s news-worthy, write an article about it and post it on the website. If other people are interested, they will click on the article and read it, if not, it will be left untouched. This whole process is done voluntarily, meaning, if you feel like doing it, you’ll do it, and if you are feeling lazy or have nothing to share, then you can just browse the website and read other articles there. No one will point a gun at your head and force you to write anything if you don’t feel like it. Which also means that when you post something, you won’t get a cut in anything, you’re basically doing it out of free-will.

Anyone and everyone can be a part of it, the crucial aspect is the willingness of the individual. It also provides an excellent platform for aspiring journalist, they can practice their journalism skills on it and see if the stories they wrote are news-worthy and can create a buzz or not.

However, it didn’t take long before people got greedy and wanted a cut for the articles they supplied to The Huffington Post and that resulted in a multimillion dollars lawsuit. They are not wrong to ask for compensation for the work they have done and for the articles they have written, besides, if they don’t ask for money for the work they have done, the money is going to the higher authorities in the organization who might not have even written a single article or done much in that month.

Something to ponder upon regarding this issue is, will giving monetary rewards when publishing an article on the Internet newspaper make people want to publish more articles thus resulting in clutter? Take for example Singapore’s very own online citizen journalism site by The Straits Time, STOMP. For every article they write, the citizen journalist gets S$50. Look where that landed the site; it is filled with trivial articles and photos of teenage school children making out on MRT or under the HDB block. Those are not news-worthy information that I would want to know. Yes, they may be sensational but they are ultimately useless to everyone besides perhaps supplying a little entertainment that is short-lived.

Will taking money out of the equation be better for citizen journalism or is giving a small fee in return for the article be more advantageous for citizen journalism? Do share your thoughts on that here.

That was in 2006, then in 2008, Obama, the current president of the United States, used Social Networking sites and the Internet to garner support and reach out to people all over the US. He successfully raised half a billion US dollars within the 21-month campaigning period.

And most recently, in our little sunny island of Singapore, in our last election, PAP tried to use the widely used social networking site, FaceBook, to try and gain the support of some of the younger voters. However, that didn’t turn out too well, as some people found out that they might have created some profile and posted positive comments on their “wall” on FaceBook in order to shed some positive light on themselves. Now whether is that true or not is another matter can that be discussed.

PAP fabricated Facebook profiles?

All in all, the Internet can be used as a mean to achieve political goals, however, there definitely is the possibility of repercussions that might leave you in a bad light or the advantage of gaining half a billion US dollars through the right way of campaigning on the Internet. It is how you go to it, and how you react to negative comments that will help you or kill you on the Internet.

Internet and Multimedia definitely integrated greatly and immersed into practically everyone’s everyday life. The introduction of the Artificial Intelligence, Siri, in the iPhone4S will definitely create another trend of multimedia being part of our everyday life.

Of course, with multimedia and everything else, there are the good and bad. I’m sure the goodness of multimedia need not be stressed any much more, but the bad, that’s something that most people don’t focus on.

One of the main disadvantage of multimedia and internet is that it allows for the following to happen.

That was a podcast created by Mr. Brown, a famous blogger in Singapore, poking fun of Siri, and re-naming the application to Simi, meaning “what” in dialect.

Multimedia and Internet allowed for this to happen. It allowed room for criticism and/or negative feedbacks from people. One way to counter that negative things is to either, react in a gracious manner and perhaps correct the item in question if there are any, or simply just ignore it and be in peace with the fact that some people are just having fun.

Are there any other negative effects that multimedia has brought us? Or any other ways to deal with the negative effects or comments that were expressed through multimedia?

What you just saw is just another internet security spyware’s commercial. It doesn’t really tell you what Norton can do, how it can protect your computer against viruses or what kind of viruses it can protect your computer against. For this day and age, everybody is just looking for a laugh and if the commercial satisfy my need to laugh, then it must be good. If the commercial shows famous people, then it must be good. Nobody wants to bore themselves with the jargons and terms that comes with internet security. We all just want a spyware that works for our computers.

Now, what is this post about exactly? Well, it is about internet security and internet viruses. It is something that has been going on since the beginning of the computer age and yet it is something that many people do not know in detail about. The basic things that we all know about computer virus is that it affects the function of our computers and it might wipe out harddrive out, but how exactly can a computer code do all these?

Well, I’m not here to tell you how. Instead, I’m here to tell you to find out more about it. One thing that we might want to focus on is Identity Theft. It may not be prevalent in Singapore as of now, but it is definitely happening vastly in America. We should know what is it and how to prevent it. Here is a video that might give you a little insight on Identity Theft.

Ok, I know, we’re not exactly slices of pizzas but you get the drift.

The Internet opened our eyes to endless possibilities in life, and it also opened the window to endless harms if we’re not careful enough. So just to be on the safe side, be careful when you’re dealing with internet websites or people that is trying to offer great deals to you, like “CONGRATULATIONS, YOU’RE THE 10,000 VIEWER AND YOU WIN A FREE IPAD! CLICK HERE NOW!” You know it’s fake so do not click on it.

Be aware of these pitfalls on the Internet and you’ll be good to go!

enjoy:)

When e-learning is concern, all I can think about is, “YAY, time to sleep in at home and take my time to do the online assignment!” In my polytechnic days, there used to be a week in every semester where e-learning is assigned to it. And more often than not, that week is spent on chalet with the classmates for four out of five days and the last day will be spent cramming out all the assignments.

To be honest, e-learning wasn’t of much help to me at that time. I didn’t have the motivation to learn by myself when I could be having fun and enjoying myself. But now, as I grow older each day, education isn’t just something that I have to get through. Education has become something that I want to acquire, I now have the motivation to learn, and I think that if I’m given another e-learning assignment to do, I will do and make the best out of it now.

The blog that we have to do for our COM 125 is a form of e-learning. This allows us to review what was taught in class, write a reflection on it, and really think through what lessons we learned from all around us. It is not easy for us to do that without this writing assignment as we are living in a fast-paced society. Look, we’re already in the fifth week of school and we’ve learned so many things about the internet in these five weeks. Five weeks of school just zoomed passed us like the speed of lightning.

E-learning also allows us to search on the internet any enquiries we might have on the spot. I mean, the world is our oyster and the world wide web allows us to grasp any information that we want to seek. As long as we have the motivation to seek it, we will be able to find it, to know it and to learn it.

But this is my blog so I am going to talk about online shopping because that is what I know best about e-commerce.

You can buy anything and everything off the internet, from a computer or a sofa set to a pencil or paper, and from any part of the world (you need to check for the availability of international shipping first).There are many sites where you can take part in this activity of online shopping. Let me show you a few.

Website #1: Fredflare.com

From the picture, you can clearly see that fredflare.com sells almost everything. You might want to consider this website to do part of your Christmas shopping during the festive season. You’ll be able to find something quirky, girly, manly, indie, unique, cute, or simply awesome from this website. It’s a great place to start your journey to internet shopping here! The only downside to this website is that it is not from Singapore and does not ship to our sunny island. Therefore, you’ll probably need a vpost account to be able to do some shopping here. Visit http://www.singpost.com/ for more info about a vpost account.

Website #2: Asos.com

ASOS is from the UK and they sell more clothes and accessories for both genders. If you’re looking for an outfit that people won’t be able to find in the retail stores in Singapore, ASOS is the way to go. If you’re thinking, “why go through all that trouble just to get an outfit that I can’t find in Singapore?” Well, imagine going to a dinner where you’ll meet many new people, and there you are, with your amazing dress from Zara, and you think that no one else would come in that dress because you just bought it the day before. The next thing you know, another lady walks into the room with that exact same dress as you. … yea. Awkward isn’t it. Now if you were to buy a dress from ASOS instead, the chances of that scenario happening will be cut down drastically by at least 90%! I mean, what are the chances of another lady going to ASOS and browsing through their site, and picking the exact same dress and colour as you? Pretty low I would say. And the best part, ASOS SHIPS TO SINGAPORE FOR FREE (if you spend a minimum of 75pounds)

Website #3: Coupon purchasing websites like http://plus.bigdeal.sg/ and http://www.groupon.sg/

This is a couple of websites that has been the buzz in Singapore lately. Many people are purchasing coupons and vouchers for a deal that is offered by those websites. The deals range from food vouchers to travel vouchers to spa treatment voucher and even mani and pedicure vouchers. Discounts as much as up to 90% can be offered to shoppers and who would want to miss out on a deal like this? The downside of these websites is probably the fact that more than half the time, we’re purchasing for something that we don’t need, and maybe, it’s something that we don’t even want. But because there’s a deal on it, we simply have to buy it. Good for those who only buy when they need that offer, and to the rest of us who buy just to ride on the deal, well, let’s just hope that we are really saving more than we are spending.

Now, these are but a few of the many many many millions and billions of websites available out there for us to fulfill the need to shop. Do check out more and share some websites you think are worth introducing to everyone!

Then this week during our awesome lesson with the ever awesome Mr Abel Choy (attempting to gain some brownie points), he brought up Google+ again! Turns out my awesome friend Vera Tan has invites to spare! So I shamelessly asked her for a invite and tadah! I got into the exclusive Google+! Yay!

As I was figuring out what’s on Google+ and how to access certain things on it, I realised, “hey, this is just like Facebook! except with the circle of friends function and the video conference chat function!” Then I realised something again, that this was what I thought about Facebook and Friendster back in those days when Facebook was taking over Friendster and when I made the switch.

So anyway, I was trying my best to explore Google+ but it hit me, I DON’T HAVE MANY FRIENDS ON GOOGLE+ YET! That kind of restricted many things. I got bored of Google+ after about 5minutes and decided to go back to Facebook.

Then a couple days later, I went back on Google+ to see if there are anymore people I can add to my circles, and incredibly, I found quite a number of my friends and schoolmates on Google+. I added them and tadah! I’ve got friends on Google+ now.

Some of us started a hangout on Google+ the other day when we were in school and realised that it can be quite fun to be able to see everybody’s face while chatting as a group. Now Facebook has to buck up on that aspect. It definitely makes the whole web video chat experience more exciting and fun.

I also managed to make my virgin post on Google+ and I decided to post something on 9gag.com on my Google+ page. 9gag.com is another website that is probably similar to tumblr where people post or repost what others have posted and people like me, well, we get to scroll down and see all the wonderful, funny, sweet, or cute images on the website and decide if we want to repost it or not. It’s linked to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ so we can easily repost them on those social networking sites.

There are so many different social networking sites available to us now, but my question is, is it really necessary for us to have an account with every one of them? I mean, our friends, followers, or people in our circles are most probably the same few hundred people that we know and have them on the other social networking sites. So why do we need so many different social networking sites when we are all sharing the same things with the same few hundred people? If you have a reason or two on why people do such things, drop a comment and let me know about it. Meanwhile, it’s time to get back to my Facebook and Google+ now!

The technological advancements is a partner in crime as well. We are all equipped with a smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phones) or tablets (iPad), that basically allows us access to social media at all times of the day.

Gone were the times when kids are playing outside on the grass patch, at the playground, where they socialise, meet and interact with other kids with similar interests. Right now, these socialising acts are replaced by meeting people on Facebook, randomly adding people as friends, exchanging gifts and requests on their Facebook games, talking to strangers whom they have never met before in real life on Twitter and so on and so forth.

But no worries, that’s the norm now. Parents need not worry too much because people do understand that those are strictly carried out on the social media platform, and if there are creeps out there who are trying to prey on an innocent girl, well, not to worry either because kids are well aware of the dangers of meeting strangers on the internet after the countless stories of previous gullible girls.

Social media allows each and every one of us to tell a story that may never see the light in the past. It allows every one of us to have our own little “reality show”. We choose what we want to show the world, we choose what we want people to hear from us, we can also choose who we want to show these to. Social media allows us to share our knowledge, our stories, our pictures, what we see, how we feel, what we think to practically the whole wide world.

Social media also allows us to open our minds, to the different ideologies present in this world. It allows us to read about what is happening in the lives of the people that we care about or that we want to know.

But more importantly, it allows us to share a laugh with people that appreciates it, to spread a little love around to those who need it, and to give a little hope to the entire humanity.

Now, when we look back, don’t you think it’s quite funny how we were all so worried about it? A few years back, BBC actually published an article claiming that the millennium bug was just a hoax! http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/oct/05/stephen-fry-y2k
Here’s the link to it.

12 years later, in 2011, here we are, with practically everyone owning at least one laptop each, and the use of a desktop isn’t as popular as the past. (Well, this applies to students, and businessman on the go, where a laptop will provide the convenience and portability of a desktop computer.) With the array of Internet websites that allow us to connect with friends and meet people from the other end of the world, who they might never meet ever without it. As many people would have already said, geographical barriers are broken and it seems as if nothing is impossible with the Internet. But is it true? Here a point for you to think, is the Internet really that good that it can make anything impossible become possible?

Well, sure enough, information gathering is much faster as compared to a decade  ago, but have you ever considered that sometimes, information on the Internet may not be credible and reliable? The Internet is an open source, anyone and everyone with access to it can create a website and include information of all sorts, be it true or false, and as long as it is able to drive traffic into the website and have people linking the website to their website, Google will rank that website higher than, say, a more credible and reliable website (wow, that is A LOT of “websites”!) But then again, what is credibility and reliability in this day and age?

Social networking sites allow us to connect with friends and meet new people, widen our horizons, some may say, but it also allows stalker behaviour to develop and perhaps you are thinking, “well, it’s no big deal if I’m looking at my eye-candy’s Facebook profile right?” Think again, imagine if that “eye-candy” is you, and the other person knows everything about you, from how old you are, what you look like, what your hobbies are, what music you listen to, to even where you stay! OK, then some may say, “well, I can always protect myself and not state where I live.” Let me tell you this, there is no such thing as PRIVACY on the Internet. As long as you have a blog, a name, a Facebook/Google+/Twitter account, you are practically as naked as a pig about to be slaughtered. OK, I apologize for that simile, but that’s what I think.

Think about it. Can you really protect yourself on the Internet? Once something is sent, there is no undo button for you, there is no way to turn back time and unsend that something, be it a statement or an email.

Now, let’s predict,  a decade later, what will happen to this world? Well, for a fact, a few years down the road, augmented reality will become huge and fascinate the whole world for maybe a couple of years or a couple of months. But what other changes will there be in our lives? Be it in the technological side or lifestyle changes. I think it’s something worth thinking about because it concerns us.

I’m thinking, maybe someone genius will create a time-machine so we can all turn back time and undo what we regret! But until then, we have to make decisions carefully and not regret about it.