QotW10: SL

Standing tall, standing high. I love flying

My very 1st object that I created on Orientation Island

I am falling from the sky through 9 clouds

This is sunset in Secondlife

This is so romantic, isn't it?

My name: G0d Tenk ( I want it God Tech but this is what they allow me G0d( numer 0 instead of letter o)
My cloth: Night Club ( I want to attract more females)

Hix, in fact, this is all I can do on my computer while it hangs continuously after 2-3 mins of playing. So sad!

If you are below 21yrs, below STOP SCROllING DOWN








The picture is captured while my curiosity led me to a nude beach.





Hix....hix.....



I am allowed to control a couple. I was shocked. Linden actually allows users to do ANYTHING(except kiling)

This,,,,,

QotW9: Stomp Storm

Scientifically, a storm must be formed under certain conditions. Once all the required factors being met, a storm is born with the initial power. Like a storm, Stomp has the power or the strong base for citizen journalism. STOMP provides the best-ever platform for Singapore citizens to report by videos, photos, blogs via SMS,MMS, email and web. However, in order to make a success citizen journalism website in the Web 2.0 age, STOMP need to have more activity users.
The idea of citizen journalism is that everybody is a reporter. As we take a look at STOMP, there are variety content spreading from Talk back chit chat to Stompcast... In fact, there are so many ways a citizen can become a journalist on STOMP. However, as we compare to what Dan Gillmor defined about citizen journalism- the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information, STOMP is still far away from a citizen journalism website (Gillmor, 2004).
In Singapore Seen, there are not so many new photos updated. It is probably due to some restrictions of content. Obviously, users must follow a number of rules and regulations as well.
However, there is a more free-to-discuss zone: Talk Back. I had eagerly clicked on Talk back to see how Singaporean voice their problems out before realizing that Talk back is a Vbulletin forum. So, the so-called Talk back is just a new name for Disscussion board which we can find everywhere on the Internet. Worse than that, the skin of the Vbulletin board is totally contrast and ugly as compared to the whole website.
The best content award should be given to StompCast, especially SPI series ( Singapore Paranormal Investigation). The horror reality show was filmed unprofessional intendedly. It creates a true user-generated content feeling to viewers. However, where does the show contents come from? Let's heard from STOMP

Hooked on STOMP's paranormal series? Want more episodes? Let us know in Talkback>>

So all you need to do is to ask for your content through a community board. Well, how user-oriented Stompcast is! See what Stompcast promised to users

In order to create an Ideal citizen journalism, we need to see the influence of STOMP on Singapore users. The more people surf STOMP, the more chance they will contribute and the more citizens contribute to STOMP, the more success its citizen journalism is. However, the statistic show that STOMP is not really as hot as it said.
An average of 6.3 pages is what surfers spend on STOMP. It means normally, people which surf around 6 pages on STOMP before they move to another web site. The cold hard truth is STOMP has more than 200 pages (Alexa, 2007).
Furthermore, STOMP rank 125 of all Singapore website (Alexa, 2007). It's not even in the Top 100 popular website of Singapore. How could a citizen journalism website be not in the Top 100 things that Singaporean concern about?
Below is a deeper analysis of where people go on Stomp.com.sg:

* talkback.stomp.com.sg - 32%
* singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg - 31%
* stomp.com.sg - 25%
# epl.stomp.com.sg - 6%
# starblog.stomp.com.sg - 4%
# stinkandspill.stomp.com.sg - 1%
# mmsing.stomp.com.sg - 1% (Alexa, 2007)
We can tell that people love chit chat more than being a citizen journalist.

II. How can we improve

Honestly, SPH has done a marvelous job to stir up the citizen journalism in Singapore. It has not yet succeed because of external factors which are beyond SPH ability. However, there are few things STOMP could take into consideration

1. Allow users to personalize homepage because we saw that not all users surf ever part of the website. With the homepage rite now, it is truly overloaded for audiences. There are so many things which they do not need.
2. There should be users who are editors, reviewers. We have citizen journalism but we also need citizen editors in order to make sure that reports are un-interpreted purposely.
3. Make a nicer skin for Talk Back. People are sometime underestimated the design of a community site while it is the key figure.

III. Conclusion
As David Carr recomend to "those of us who perpetrate journalism know in our hearts that it is a craft, not a profession, one that requires a finite set of skills to do competently and a lot of passion to do well", we need to cultivate Singaporeans' journalism spirit ( The New York Times, 2007). Once Singaporeans have the required set of skills, STOMP will be a better and truly CITIZEN JOURNALISM site.

References:
1. Gillmor, D. (2004). We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap1

2. Alexa (2007). Related info for Singapore. Retrieved March 29, 2007 from http://alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=stomp.com.sg.

3.STOMP. Retrieved on March 30, 2007 from http://www.stomp.com.sg/

4. Carr, D. (2007). All the World's a story. The New Yorks Times. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/business/media/19carr.html?ex=1331956800&en=223e434f8bf020ab&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Download Youtube videos to your HARD DISK

Guys, STOP! STOP all those presentations when we have to wait for the god damned slow Youtube video to load.
Here is the ultimate solution to get all Youtube and other video sites video.
First of all you need the best web browser in the world: Firefox. Download from the link on the right hand side of my blog

After that, Install the extension ( so called add-on)
Get it now because it supports for these following video sites: Youtube, Google Video, iFilm, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Myspace, Angry Alien, AnimeEpisodes.Net, Badjojo, Blastro, Blennus, Blip.tv, Bofunk, Bolt, Break.com, Castpost, CollegeHumor, Current TV, Dachix, Danerd, DailySixer.com, DevilDucky, Double Agent, eVideoShare, EVTV1, FindVideos, Free Video Blog, Grinvi, Grouper, Hiphopdeal, Kontraband, Lulu TV, Midis.biz, Music.com, MusicVideoCodes.info, MySpace Video Code, Newgrounds, NothingToxic, PcPlanets, Pixparty, PlsThx, Putfile, Revver, Sharkle, SmitHappens, StreetFire, That Video Site, TotallyCrap, VideoCodes4U, VideoCodesWorld, VideoCodeZone, vidiLife, Vimeo, vSocial, Yikers, ZippyVideos... and any other webpage with embedded objects.
Remember to install Flash support for your Firefox ( really , just access Youtube then Firefox will ask you whether you want to install Flash or not)
Have a good day

QotW7: Twitter , what are you doing?

I. The Online Community
One of the old traditions of online community is the combination of a forum and its portal. There would be a normal homepage with latest news, posts and statistics while forum is the heart of the online community. Users can interactive with each other through posts and replies. Then the revolutionary blog came with entries and comments. The existence of these social networks of strangers around the globe has formed many virtual communities. It is not that the world is a global village, but as McLuhan said, one’s village could span the globe. And technology must change in order to innovate and build stronger social online communities. The latest hottest trend in the world of Web 2.0 is Twitter – a new online community where people can know what other are doing.
I see Twitter as a new form of online community because of its nature, methods of communication and social networks.

II. Nature of an online community
According to Rheingold, an online community is “a social relationship aggregation, facilitated by Internet-based technology, in which users communicate and build personal relationships” (as cited in Lin & Lee, 2006). Twitter gives users a space to write whatever they like.They can connect to each other by updating friend list. The homepage is the collection of all latest entries by Twitter members. In this way, each member will be able to update with the whole communities.
III. How to use
Twitter appears to the combination of blogs, IM and mobile phone. Users are allowed to choose one of the above methods to update their contents. As the main question of Twitter is " What are you doing?", Twitter encourages users to instantaneously update their contents. Therefore, Twitter will definitely want users to utilize handphone as a main method to post entries.
Like I am in Vietnam now, I don't have access to Internet at the funeral site, I will still be able to post a live report on Twitter by using my mobile phone( I have to pay for international SMS fee)
IV. Social networks
As other online community, Twitter users will be inter-linked with each other through channels. In this way, Twitter will form many social networks within their big networks.
V. But
Personally, I don’t like Twitter. I saw nothing but a mixed of pre-existing online communities. The technology of moblogging or IM blogging is nothing new at all. Yahoo! has been integrated their blogs into IM for a long time. The sudden rocket speed spread of Twitter is caused by the aggressive. After a while, the question of how to keep users to come back is a big one for Twitter. Most of Twitter members are American while other countries like Japan, Korea ... mob blogging was an old fashion a few years ago. It will be not easy for Twitter to enter these markets.
VI. Wind of change
As Texas commentator Jim Hightower warned:" While all this razzle-dazzle connects us electronically, it disconnects us from each other, having "interfacing" more with computers and TV screens than looking in the face of our fellow human beings" (Fox, 1995, p.12), we will see more advance technology applied in online community which help to clear the gap between computer screen and human beings. Amanda Walker has already mentioned about that: " Every advance in communication changes the nature of reality as we experience it..."


Reference:
Lin, H., & Lee, G. (December, 2006). Determinants of success for online communities: an empirical study. Behavior & Information Technology, 25, 6, 479-488.


Online community. (2007, March 14). In Wikipedia, The Free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community

Wellman.B & Gulia.M (1996)Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone:
Virtual Communities as Communities. Retrieved on March 14, 2007, from http://www.acm.org/~ccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Bonus Mission #1: Coke Trick

QotW6: Who is who?

I. To surive is to surveil:
Managing a online community is a time-consuming and hard work. However, the joy of seeing the growth of your community can ease any pains. It sometimes becomes a good source of income for the owner as well. The happiness always pays a price: the threat of being hacked. Therefore, forum security is the most headache problem for every webmaster. One of the best ways to fight against hackers is surveillance: keep an eye on forum members.The reason is that most of the attacks come from a undercover member. Trust - in a person or in a system, such as a banking system - can be a means of coping with risk, while acceptance of risk can be a means of generating trust', Giddens writes
II. The required exposure:
As we can see from the above profile, an administrator can know a member pretty well. He can search on GeoIP member's IP in order to know where the member is living. For example, this is a free GeoIP service we can use from http://www.hostip.info/

We also able to find out members' characteristic as they exposed their MSN, Myspace, Skype, Yahoo ID.... Another way is googling email address. Even though a person hide all of his profile, he must provide a valid email address in order to register to an online forum. He might not fill his MSN ID on one forum, but he may disclose it somewhere else. And the Mighty Google will be able to trace his email address together with other information.
Hence, administrators require members to provide the above information. It will help administrators easily monitor their members' activities. If someone pose a threat to the forum, administrators will be able to ban IP or locating the attackers if necessary.
In this case, users have no choices but revealing their information to webmasters. Obviously, the information is claimed to be kept confidentially until someone hack into the database.
III. The Naked Crowd
Understanding the risk of being exposed, Internet users still reveal their identities. There must be some motivations:
- Personal branding: The idea of selling people as products began to appear in magazines like Ad Age as early as the 1970s; but the idea of personal branding didn't proliferate until the 1990s, when a series of business books emerged with names like Brand You, The Personal Branding Phenomenon, and Be Your Own Brand: A Breakthrough Formula for Standing Out from the Crowd. To invent a successful brand you have to establish trust with strangers, argues the personal branding guru, Tom Peters ( Rosen, 2004). People love to be famous. And of course, being recognized is an indispensable part of fame. The rise of social networking site urges people to show their pictures, videos, stories in order to be welcomed on every other sites.
- Social proof: As "we view a behavior as correct in a given situation to the degree that we see other performing it” (Cialdini, 2001), we will find our ways to join the stream of Blogging. Many people come to Blogs through friends, peer pressure rather than finding a place to record their daily lives. The spread of Blog is also contributed by words of mouth rather than advertising.
VI. Conclusion:
Surveillance is a sensitive word in many societies. It makes people feel lack of freedom. However, Web 2.0 is making people feel comfortable of being surveiled. RSS feed is a hidden form of surveillance. Through RSS feed, we can anonymously monitor someone behaviors EVERYDAY! Therefore, we should be careful of what we blog.


Reference:
Cialdini, R. (2001). Influence: Science and Practice. Allyn and Bacon: Singapore

Rosen, J. (2004, July 19). The Naked Crowd. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Giddens, A. (1998). Conversations with Anthony Giddens: Making Sense of Modernity. Stanford University Press

QotW5: Who Am I ?

- Who am I?
- Well,you are a newbie who joined our Internet Marketing forum on January. You focus on Community site building and viral marketing. Your birthday is 20th May 1985.
- No, he is not. He is an expert on our Hardware zone forum, especially Apple stuffs. He said that he was 30 years old.
- You are all wrong. He told me that he was handsome like Tom Cruise, rich like Bill Gates. He is going to marry me next month on Second Life.
- Okay okay, you all just know a part of his complicated mind. He is virtual. Leave him alone!

http://www.sfondideldesktop.com/Images-Movies/Face-Off/Face-Off.jpg

As Sartre said in Being and Nothingness: "The virtual world is different. It is composed of information rather than matter" (Donath ,1996). A person can have multiple identities AT THE SAME TIME. In our real world, he/she can't be a mad student and a quiet teacher concurrently. He either chooses to be mad at this point of time or smart at another the time. However, I can have multi personas at one point of time on the online world. It is like opening many browser tabs in Firefox or Internet Explorer. Each tab brings me to a totally different world. To name a few: Hardware Zone (IT talk forum), VNCNUS ( Vietnamese Community in National University of Singapore), IMS ( Internet Marketing Singapore), 360themes (as a webmaster) ...

Even though the above forums differer ed from each other in term of content, they required (in my opinion) the similar way to gain reputation: CONTRIBUTION. Online identity is never be trusted. Therefore, in order to gain trust from someone else, we must show how we can benefit them. Another motivation for contribution is common rewards include peer esteem, making social connections, and the natural pleasure of helping others (Masum, 2004). As a member of a forum, besides administrator position, people always want to have at least a moderator position. It's nothing but the power to control a box within the forum as if you are the bishop of a land. I was elected in a real election for the title of Moderator's Sensitive box (Sex Edu discussion) in 2006.There was campaign slogan: " Real Sex Ed builds life", give-away freebies ( clips, documents....) and of course a live Election Night. The more I contributed to the forum, the higher my reputation was. That's was how I won the moderation position in a community of around 10,000 Vietnamese students.

Besides contribution, I think BEING TRANSPARENT is an effective way to gain reputation as well. In the world where we TRUST NO ONE, suddenly when we find a peer who expose their personal life, photos, stories, we start to trust that AVATAR. We know everything can be faked but we still trust him/her much more than other members.

Transparence is like a playing with knife. Over-exposing personal information may lead to identity theft. Identity theft occurs when someone uses personal identifying information to commit fraud or other crimes (Forbes, 2005). Imaging that someone else use my identity to post nudity, political opinions which are not allowed by forum rules and regulations or even national laws. It's horrible to think of the consequences. Other sensitive information like personal email address, hobbies, cellphone number, real name, home address can be easily abused by credit card frauder.

In sum, Online Identity is nothing new or special. It's ourself or part of our inner mind. We should treat like the way we care about our name, fame in real world. We should protect it like the way we run the society.

Reference:
1. Donath. , J, S. (1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. MIT Media Lab. Retrieved on 20 February 2007, from
http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
2.Masum, H, & Zhang, Y.C. (July 2004). Manifesto for the Reputation
Society. First Monday, 9, (7). Retrieved February
22, 2007, from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_7/masum/index.html
3. Oxford Analytica (2005).Hooked on Phishing. Forbes Online. Retrieved on 20 February 2007, from http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/04/29/cz_0429oxan_identitytheft.html