Connecting With Anything

Usually when an individuals speaks off connectivity, it all relates back to a communication device such as phones, computers, GPS and etc. However, in connectivity not only these particular devices are involved, but any other things one could find laying around the house or in college, even one's work place. An example would be such as the car alarm key, shoes, gloves, shirts, and etc which could relate to us in a way that it will affect us in a particular way. For example, some shoes today has the ability to measure one's heart rate and give the user a result whether or not that particular person is overweight or underweight and gives advice in having to achieve the perfect body shape which anyone could ask for through exercising. However, there are already such product in the market and is definitely scary to have objects such as shoes, gloves which usually one just wear them for comfort, able to talk to the user. It's as though the object is particularly talking to you. 

In fact another, point to relate back to object talking to us are us talking to objects. With the emergence of Twitter and blogs, who are these people actually talking to whenever they post something up upon into the internet. Looking into the case of Twitter, one usually updates on their inner thoughts and post it up upon their own Twitter's profile home page but there actually no one in the other side behind the wall, who is actually listening to this particular person's Tweets. Thus, this comes in on a weird scenario between human and communications with the Internet. Even looking at blogs, people are actually just posting stuff upon the internet as though these people are talking to the internet as though it understands the user very much and treat it as a place to release their emotion. 

Looking also at the latest technology implemented by Apple for the IPhone 4S which allows the voice recognition technology that allows users to talk to the Phone to input their message to send to other people. This already is as though asking a person to type out the letter or note for the user. These is in relation to the readings of Julian Bleecker writings, that mentions on the theory of Blogjects that people are communicating or talking with objects but not the usual humans anymore, which includes me as I'm typing this particular blog post. It's alright to talk to these objects and share one inner thoughts with these objects as an emotional release as sometimes no one really will appreciate and spend the time to listen to one's complains or thoughts as most people rather focus on their own issues rather than others. 

The problem arises when these objects which we are communicating with, one day decides to stop working with us and starts a rebel as in future these objects may have their own A.I (Artificial Intelligence). The world where a scenario is similar to the movie of Terminator that objects start to rebel against the human race as the objects believe that they are more superior and better. This will definitely be an issue, which could be worrying that may upset the balance between mankind. However, is definitely will be interesting being able to communicate with any of your own objects and not having the issue of these objects controlling or taking control over the master. Ever realize sometimes when you use your own item or equipment you feel more comfortable and have a more efficient usage of the object for example, having to type on your own laptop is much more faster as compared to typing on a friend's laptop which you are not familiarize with, what does this actually mean? Is it because in a way we have understood the object as we have already been using and communicating with it for a long time? or is it because we have understand the object inner feelings such as it has a soul... 

Writings are based on the readings of Julian Bleecker "A Manifesto for Networked Objects — Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things". 

Google and The Android Operating Software

Astoundingly compared to the past, phones have definitely evolved to a whole different level with the concept of convergence in place as discussed earlier in the older blog post, it became a device which have many different type of functions capability all in one small single handheld device which today known as the Smartphones. Phones today are somewhat similar to one could refer to as a miniature computer as well which gives the exact same function of a normal computer but the difference is that it can now fit into one's pocket. Revolving around this term of "computers" Google has bought over the Android Operating Software in July 2005 and have given a different aim compared to Apple, whereby the aim of Google was to open a whole new kind of wireless interface based on the open source Linux Operating Software. 

As a mobile phone user, currently am only using the older version Sony Ericsson operating software which no longer used by the company in the newer phones developed by the organization that had moved to the Android OS for the newer model phones. Currently have been on the search for a new mobile phone to replace my older Sony Ericsson C902 model, at first was only looking at the specs of the variety of Smartphones in the market today and not focusing on the Operating Software. Then as I tested my friends Smartphones, they as the consumer have already know the pros and cons of their own phone which will give me an idea of what my next phone would be. Previously when buying a phone, it usually focuses on the specs of a particular phone, whether does it have a good camera, a good speaker, a good space of storage and whether does it lags? today is different as the method of purchase of phone by users also now discuss on the particular type of operating software as different operating software have their own particular application store which have special applications just for that particular phone software as well compatibility with the phone's specs. 

If I were to choose between the operating softwares, I would prefer the Nokia Operating software as compared to the rest. Android will come in second place of my choice of operating software. Mainly because due to the fact that I would like to have more open source applications rather than having to pay for each application as compared to the IOS application store or more commonly known as Apple App Store. In addition, I choose the Symbian OS by Nokia as well is because that Nokia been in the Phone industry for a very long time and is one of the largest established companies in the mobile phone industry which gives me great trust towards the products and services done by them. The way Apple IOS is implying is as though information is controlled in a way which to gain this specific information, one must pay to attain the information as compared to the Symbian and Android software. The main reason Android is still one of my choice is due to the fact of the founders of Google, Andy Rubin and his team of coming up with a long term vision of establishing a marketing strategy which focuses in the future development of the wireless interface as a better and more comfortable efficient for information searching and internet browsing through these mobile devices. Given the combination of 34 established companies collaborating with Google, and also in the future definitely there will be an increase collaboration with the Google corporation in order to make a better wireless interface for the consumer to use. So having more people collaborating especially in the terms of the industry, definitely the Android OS have still lots of improvements to be made and even today the Android OS is still developing very much more which gives me hope that it would definitely have lots more variety of functionality in a particular phone to make it one of the greatest phone to ever have in one's hands.  

Writing are based readings on Daniel Roth's article in Wired Magazine on "Google's Open Source Android OS Will Free the Wireless Web"

Democracy Through Facebook & Twitter

From the past up until today, everyone crave for the right to have freedom, and most often spokes of today would the issue in relation to freedom of speech in few countries. Everyone wants to have able to voice opinion regarding issues ongoing in individuals own country such as subjects in relation to democracy issues within a country or country's income or even tax payments. The people have no one to turn to, in the case of media usage as well certain countries media are being governed by officials to ensure no news in relation to the goverment officials which are bad are displayed in front of millions of people via Broadcast, print, interactive and any other types of media out there today. In the past, it seems so believable that everything especially in television media are all so believable especially in news, and also if one have discomforts about a particular news especially in relation to politics, it can become really controversial in one's words.

Today, is different with the emergence of the internet media and the two major social networking sites Twitter & Facebook. Anyone can just post up a status in their own wall telling everyone in his/her social circle of friends. Any discomfort can be just post up on Facebook or Twitter. These two platforms of the internet has given many people the need of individuals to voice out their opinions and thoughts without having too much trouble with officials authority. It has given people a possible loophole in expressing one's inner thoughts or dissatisfaction towards the higher authorities. The need to voice out is very important to people especially in having a fully democratic country, where govern officials can take a look into the public needs and work upon having satisfying the needs and wants of the people. Having to filter or disallowing comments of the public but claiming one country as a democratic society, one could say the main core of democracy is not even there to begin with, without people there wont be a country, without a country there will be no government or without the people there will be no king.

The Word of mouth, is a definite more stronger effect compared to the ones seen on official media such as television, radio, newspaper, magazines, govern internet sites and etc, people will believe their own friends and relatives more rather than the media. Thus, with Facebook and Twitter, any latest news, trend, fashion, event, activity people will have access to this information on these social networking sites which friends and relatives of each individuals 1 out of 10 people will very least post up few of the latest scoop of news on their wall which thus can be seen on the Wall of each individuals allowing comments to be made. Looking into Twitter as well, similarly it has trends which have "#" for trend setting which will give people to know what are the in topics in today's society throughout the whole world, and people can just type in whatever each of them wants to into their Twitter Tweet box status and then posting it up. These 2 platforms have greatly served the need of the people in the position of freedom of speech which allow anyone to just post anything up on the internet.

The internet especially major sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have really change the perception of keeping people updated with latest stories around the world also gives room for people in public to voice out their opinion upon anything which are posted up upon the internet or anything which is happening in world today. With just one comment box and a topic, anything can happen especially between the users which will open up to sometimes more to a reproductive stage of allowing govern officials to work on satisfying the wants and needs of the people, for example: X says "Hey! this group of people are stupid, then another user comes, Y says "You think you very smart? Chinese ****?" thus racial conflict will happen with never ending comments by more and more users adding oil to the flame which sometimes can actually benefit the government officials by analyzing the problems faced by their people then helping them in return of helping themselves to develop into a better country.

With the simple mechanism of freedom of speech such as Facebook and Twitter, it definitely has a larger impact then the previous media in the past history of media usage which has actually revolutionize every manner of activity of how work, entertainment, information gathering is done.

Readings are based on
"Facebook and Twitter are just places revolutionaries go" by Evgeny Morozov

Free Flow of Information!

The internet is a place which contains and produces lots of information by the prosumers or produsers of the internet. Internet offers a place which everything is decentralized meaning no one has control over this particular platform which make it a place that promotes freedom. However, freedom may seems like a nice or wonderful term to think of, sometimes freedom which may be a good thing to many people it also can be bad towards the people (everyone). Anything people need today in particular to information, most people will refer to the internet to get the latest scoop of the real news, what does one means by real news? fairly because news on television, newspaper, radio or any media except the internet is filtered. One of it is because is governed by the government to ensure the news that is delivered to the public will not cause panic or chaos to the public. 

It seems to be a fairly rigid reason one may assume to say, however as much as an organization wants to filter a particular news, somehow or another people will tend to know the truth behind a particular news even if is filtered in a way which might make a person seem powerful or glamorous but in actual fact the person may be a corrupted person in nature, which uses the media towards his advantage to gain popularity. People will know the truth behind every single detail regarding a particular news as time goes by. However, there are times such as things which people should not need to know is posted on the internet such as a particular platform organization Wikileaks.  

Sometimes, does people really need to know on details such as diary of the wars from people who was participating in war of America against Iraq, or on prisoner details in Guantanamo, are all these necessary one must mention. Firstly, these information may not affect any ordinary people's life but after publishing certain materials in the internet, it starts to become a factor and takes major impact upon people's life for example details of prisoners in Guantanamo, definitely there are reason why officials doesn't want details on prisoners to go public, first of all some of the prisoners could be leaders of a notorious gang leaders which could spark chaos towards the gang to start a rebel in helping to break the leader out of the jail, why not right? This could also cause, people to start wondering who are exactly all these people and why are they jail'd inside Guantanamo prison causing public to want to just visit the prison for entertainment purposes. Anything could happen which could endanger people's life having the free flow of information. 

Information, sometimes has to be controlled, a balance would be nice to be seen, easy to say but hard to do definitely putting one self into government officials sit, but also people want to know more of everything happening around the world. What would be the best solution to this? Regulating news then having people to find out the actual fact which is actually very different from officials point of view, or having people to not know whats happening around them, then suddenly hit them hard in life which could endanger them. 

 

Citizen Journalism

As technology improve throughout each second of our daily life, media sort to evolve as well and follows the flow of technological advancement. Thus, due to this fact one of the greatest media industry of all time has been affected greatly which is the under the journalism category. Today, most with internet access gets their news from the online platform due to journalism timeliness, whereby most news has to be up to date which will give the latest scoop of the dirt. Compared to the traditional media newspaper, is slower and by the time a reader gets to read a particular news, is old story as the ones with online access can retrieve the news way earlier compared to those waiting for the newspaper to publish the particular news. This is great news to everybody, but with growing platforms such as Facebook, lots of people instead of heading to the official news website, they just read it of people's wall in Facebook or status update which seem to be faster and more convenient and best part of all the news of a particular event is done by that person's friend or contact in Facebook personally. What does this means? Due to the fact of convergence, is so easy to bring along a camera, a writing tool, or even better just recording a whole particular incident. Lots of this case had happen, which have been posted on social networking sites such as Facebook which will gives the story more direct compared to the news agency which have sometimes distort the news value due to filtering & gatekeeping by the Editors of a particular news central. People would rather have the dirt than having something which is distort that blurs the view of news reporting, and capturing a particular event just through usage of mobile phones like Nokia N8, Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy SII, or any other phone that could act as a multi platform for news capturing and reporting. In short, even normal people can be journalist today and not needing a particular official journalist to work to give the inside scoop of an event, but the users themselves. Main highlight towards citizen journalism is credibility of a particular news, anyone can just come up with their own news today, with many different softwares online today which allows people to create their own particular videos and can insert many filters and effects to make a particular video seem real thus lying to many people just to get visitors to their own particular online page. Users of the internet has to watch out as well and be the editor the same time, meaning ensure that whatever news which one got can be measured whether a particular news is credible. How may one do so? simple just check in other online sources and official news page website, whether that particular news is broadcasted or shown in their website also with the information along it.

Longtail - Information, Demands, Statistics

Ever wonder? where is it possible for each of us to get the item we want but not in the local context, but can only get the items outstations. Thus the platform we use to gain our particular items will be of course the internet. One major factor of relation in Internet with the Longtail theory is that, Internet is the best platform that particularly describe the concept of the Longtail theory because firstly internet provides an abundance amount of information, second it has an unlimited amount of storage space and these particular information can be accessed at anytime and anyplace as long internet connection is provided. As explain'd internet is a great example of the Longtail concept, and here's a situation, Looking into the internet there are many information as mentioned, but all this information are not necessary important or useful to us, but only certain information or data, take an example of journals compared Facebook, the demand for Facebook information is definitely way much higher compared to those searching for a particular Journal. Thus this gives a great view on the demands or distribution of information showing that information on Facebook is at highest peak or rather one can say that the more popular a brand or product is the higher it will be in the position of the Longtail theory. Here is a view on the Longtail concept as the following image shows it;

Figure 1.0: The Longtail Concept

Information is always there, just it depends whether people wants the particular information or not. A hypothesis can be derived saying the higher the popularity of certain product, name, information or anything, the higher it will be placed in the concept positioning of the Longtail theory. 

A reading based on Kevin Kelly's article on "Better Than Free" talks more on the concept of Longtail in a particular way which emphasizes on making the digital materials valuable, the more valuable it is the higher also it will be placed in the Longtail concept. Thus there are eight criteria as mentioned by Kelly on making the digital materials valuable;

Immediacy

When something is new, obviously one would prefer to know more out of it so that one wouldn't get left behind the trend, an example will be the emergence of  the Apple Ipad2 launch in the market, everyone would like to have an Ipad 2, first day itself its sold out. People were practically camping outside the Apple merchandise store before the launch of the Ipad 2 in the market. Thus, at the heat of the moment Ipad 2 can be considered as one of the highest talk about topic by everyone during the moment of launching of Ipad 2 even if is just a sentece such as "What is this nonsense? everyone so crazy about Ipad 2", thus even if is a sentence, people still talks about it and thus sometimes search more information relating to this particular heat up topic.  

Personalization

Personalizing things online such as blogs, websites will definitely make things more interesting and unique to look at as well which usually gives a break through of clutter with the abundance of information online, personalizing would definite make one possible break through of clutter among the similar information. 

Intepretation

As understood, gaining a particular data from the internet sometimes can be a little messy especially if its a new software application. Having to understand the functionality of the software may require users to read through a series of instructions or manuals to enable the users to understand the software or usually people will tend to self-learn the program rather than referring to a long guided words of instructions. Making a particular product, service, brand or anything easier will tend to make people happier and attracted to the particular thing making it more popular. 

Authenticity

Anywhere, anything people want in value have to be firstly original in the sense it comes from a recognizable credible distributor. Anyone can have handphones, DVD's, Games and any other many things but when it comes down to authenticity, the products or things people have may be fakes and have lost in value. Authentic materials will have a definite more higher appreciation because it usually are hard to get the product thus making one of value become higher and much more valuable compared to the fakes. An example of authenticity issue would be such as in China having their very own imitation of any other product or services served internationally around the world. 

Acessibility

Having the internet have given much comfort for us to access information easily today 24 hours a day & 7 days a week anytime and any place as long there is internet connection. Thus gaining accessibility to certain materials unable to be found in one's own country can be found all on the internet which just a few clicks away, thus accessibility as well has to be easy for users especially in having to move around the particular website page in allowing these users to have a liking towards the website in order to have further more people to come and join in the particular website as well. This accessibility shouldn't be too complicated until the fact users had to go through manuals in order to learn them, ocasionally interactivity can be inserted to help on the accessibility such as mouse over then having a blurb to pop out giving instructions but then again a better website would be of course, after navigating around the website awhile, users will automatically tend to understand the interface provided by the website without the need of having to go through a manual which could be very dry at times especially to people who aren't into reading as much to bookworms.  

Embodiment
At times when we want to listen to music, not necessary we will have the particular music perhaps on our laptop which is why the radio station come in handy by requesting the songs one wants through the radio station websites or by calling the deejay in that particular radio station. However sometimes one requested the song already is unable to hear it and is a real waste of time having to stay in the car just to listen to one particular song one has requested. I would prefer to have that certain flexibility in another media thus Internet is the option one would prefer at times because today there is also Internet radio to enable one listen to a particular radio station to hear the requested song as one's computer might not have the particular song.

Patronage
To retain ones personal brand or product quality, is always good to have a great service provided to the consumers. One could imagine a platform such as the internet would be one of the best ways to answer questions by the consumers on the product quality services. Thus, a forum could be one of the ways for the creator and the consumer to have an interpersonal communication at different time period. This allows the consumer and creator to be able to stay connected to each other and this allow them to have a strong bond of connection between the company and the consumers. Thus, Internet does provide this particular platform for these communication

Findability
Most people especially when finding a certain particular information today, internet would be the first option one would think of in order to gain certain information, perhaps such as a product or service example Air Asia. Entering the word 'Air Asia' in the Google search engine would definitely show the Air Asia Airlines service at top of the search list which most people will definitely click on because the search engine put that as the first priority in the search list. But lets say one would like to find on the types of imitation products on the net such as those in China with product or services have the similar brand name but finding this China products will be a definite hassle as the search engine will come out the original company's name rather than the imitation even if one typed in the imitation name into the search engine. As the theory suggested the long tail, search engine will definitely have the most popular or famous search at the top of the search engine list, giving lots of clutter to one particular search having lots of irrelevant information coming out into the search engine list, even by using the advanced search function, the search information comes out on the search engine platform gives lots of unnecessary irrelevant information. The internet has an abundance of information, the information is there but is hard to get to the particular information especially searching for imitation products for education, entertainment, business or any purposes. Due to the abundance amount of information on the internet, the particular information at times can be cluttered by other information.  

# IN 1! (Worship at the Altar of Convergence)

Today's technology has given us the opportunity to lead a better and more comfortable life. Comparing to the past, everything was different as each object has its own specific purpose but not today. According to this week's article on convergence, among the issues discuss was on cell phones becoming a multi-functional tool than just simply being the normal usual phones. In relation to the issue of convergence, the cell phone or hand phone is one of the major tool which has evolved to further delight the lives of people for example, reading news, social networking, instant messaging, text messaging, e-mailing, calling, taking a picture, capturing a video footage, all could be done through one device which is the cell phone, hand phone or mobile phone. One of the many reasons for convergence to take place is due to the fact of the fast phase of working life in each and every individual today in the society. Work has to be done efficiently, and a need for people is to have all the functions a computer has, and could slip into the pockets of individuals. Thus, the cell phone industry such as Sony, Nokia, Apple, Samsung, and many others has given the platform for the people to have access to such variables using their mobile phone services platform. 

The problem arises, when the term of a particular tool becomes non specific anymore. According to the readings on Worship at the Altar of Convergence, it mentions on the particular specific products such as Hand Phone. Example, I want to buy a phone which only has the function to call and nothing else such as the classical old house telephone, but most stores today are not selling a single function mobile phone which sorts of distort the usage term of telephones. It has become multi-functional, even looking at the computers or laptops today, the internet service has provided the laptops or computers to work the same as the modern mobile phone today in society. A computer can now call, draw, take pictures, video conference and many more similarly to the hand phone. This could make life convenient but the fact remains that objects are becoming less specific but in a more broader sense of view of perspective. One major reason is as stated in the above, this can be an issue to consumers in the future, if everything starts to become multi-functional and these multi-function tools are as good as any others multi-functional tool out in the market, for example, imagine you are buying a camera, but the camera also comes with other functions such as calling, internet surfing and other multi functional tools. Thus walking into the store asking the store manager, 'Hey, I want to buy that camera' but it turns out actually to be a gaming console, with camera and many other functionality. It would come to distort the meaning of phone, camera, computer, or any other apparatus.   

Certain tools, should remain specifically for specific purpose I believe, if not every meaning to the word will become a clouded term looking into that sense, though it may make living life more comfortable where everything is in one, the specific usage of certain tools may lose appreciation perhaps one day camera, phones, laptops might just be a single word known as 'caonetops' (combination of words camera, phone, & laptop), which definitely would be weird.