#introtointernet

Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy? 

So, the semester is coming to a close, and formal lessons in school have ended. As for COM125, we are down to the Finals on a long time coming, Dec. 14 (albeit horribly late but better late than never). Excited? Yes. I think we all deserve a break from a very tiring semester. To be honest, the Internet is a lot more than what we know. COM125 has shown me that. The Internet - is something that keeps evolving. COM125 is not the same from 5 years ago and will not be the same in 5 years time either. I think that is the beauty of the Internet. A constant change and influx of information and intelligence. So here is the compilation of what we have done in 13 weeks.

Week 1: Introduction to Internet (Past, Present, Future)

Week 2: Social Media (Management Tools and Platforms)

Week 3: Social Media for Business

Week 4: e-Commerce

Week 5: e-Learning

Week 6 & 7: Internet Tools (Vlog)

Week 8: Internet Security

Week 9: Internet Media

Week 10: Internet and Politics

Week 11: Internet and Journalism

Week 12: Future of Internet

And here we are, back in the present of Week 13. Indeed, COM125 has been hella a ride but this is how the Internet will stay relevant - by constantly changing. Couldn’t have pulled through this module without Abel and his “baaaaaaaaaaad” jokes - thank you!

Signing off for the last time, ZNXL

(Leaving yall my favourite “baaaaaaaad” joke from class)  Abel: *teaching class material* So class, tell me whyyyyyyy? (proceeds to sing the song) 

(not a product placement but a great video summary with good graphics) 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. By the year 2020, it is estimated that at least 26 million things will be connected to the Internet. Some even project it at 50 billion things - that means.. approximately 5~6 objects for each person standing on Earth. Insane? Yes. Plausible? Also yes. This is the future of the Internet - a big part of what is envisioned to be “Web 3.0″.

As we know, even though Web 2.0 has changed passive users of the Internet to creators of content - there is still a lot of unlinked data of the same genre that is just simply... floating around in Internet space. Web 3.0 aims to close that gap. With all the astounding amount of new content created daily, the next step is to pool it all together into a particular global database - tasked with billions of sensors working in overdrive. So how do we do that? We make what we already have, but smarter. 

Set-ups like the Internet of Things Consortium have tasked themselves to educate companies about the power of IoT. “The IoTC educates technology firms, retailers, insurance companies, marketers, media companies and the wider business community about the value of IoT.” IoTC talks about the distinct shift from the Information Age towards the Intelligence age, the equipping up-to-age technology that can help better our everyday lives. So exactly how will this work? How does Web 3.0 and the IoT weave in seamlessly into our everyday lives? (watch the video)

The IoT is a lot bigger than everyone thinks. Even in Singapore, IoT conventions are held yearly where the next IoT Asia 2016 is held from 30 - 31 March at the Singapore Expo. They focus on the exploration of 6 main aspects of the future Web 3.0 - smart cities, wearables, design applications, enablers, industrial IoT and IoT data analytics. Many incorporated into homes and are ranked accordingly to usage/need of the preferences of the homeowner. 

As seen in the infographic, smart refrigerators would enable viewing of contents from outside of the fridge and recommend recipes based on the ingredients already present. Or even things like tooth brushing habits that could be sent to the dentist to help improve your dental practices. The IoT - as I’ve mentioned before, is to use what you already have and make it smarter. Many of these innovations are envisioned to be installed or ready by 2020 - a mere 5 years to go. Which is insane, considering that’s when the majority of the new Singapore MRT Line is ready. How prepared will Singapore be in moving towards the new IoT? How accepting will we be? Can it be weaved into this young’s country IT climate? We’ll just have to wait and see.

ZNXL

p.s It’s almost Christmas in less than a month!

The concept of Citizen journalism (also known as "public," "participatory", "democratic", "guerrilla" or "street" journalism) is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information."

Citizen journalism is the new know-how. Personal accounts of those who are there right on the scene of the event - documented, uploaded and usually viral within minutes. In this growing world of “who’s the fastest”, mainstream media has taken upon themselves to utilize the vast amount of information there is on the net of a particular incident. However, this also means breaking news is no longer - breaking. Indeed, mainstream media’s role in covering notable events has changed. It is not as though a reporter could anticipate every significant event that’s about to occur. But those found in these circumstances (sometimes, not the best place to be) are the new sources of immediate coverage. Mainstream media news articles are now made up of contributions by citizen journalists (with attribution - hopefully). That is how journalism is evolving. 

Mainstream media is moving towards being a consolidator, weaving in context through the personal accounts of the people on the street, checking, double checking, triple checking if the information holds true. This is how 21st-century journalism works. Some might disagree that this is a bad shift for the mainstream media - where the society should take on a more passive role and receive news from “credible” news outlets. I’d like to challenge that notion.

Journalism is about stating facts - no opinions, no bias (unless an opinion piece). Of course, that is highly unattainable because perfection isn’t anyone’s thing. The role of journalists, be it mainstream or netizen contributed should be just a presentation of facts. It can be coupled with contexts, additional information to create a truthful story behind it. But ultimately, judgement lies on the reader - the journalist does not make the decision for the people. 

But with citizen journalism, there is the notion of reality and the fake. Mainstream media outlets have more to lose when they produce an unchecked news article - its years of reputation, dampen. However, netizens can just upload a photo/video under a pseudo name, keep his or her identity hidden. It is then, as readers to make judgement and fact-check on your account - to ensure what is said is true. This is when mainstream media is used to cross-reference for consistency. This is how 21st-century journalism works. 

In the video below, Erin Finicane - a citizen student journalist, gives tips on how you too, can be a citizen journalist. To uncover social problems that the mainstream media has failed to addressed, to shine light on a problem that needs to be eradicated. 

What do you think of this new age journalism? Is it fair to mainstream news outlet who have worked centuries to produce news for its people? Or is citizen journalism - a complementary outlet to the mainstream outlets? Or does mainstream news outlet even hold a place as our source of information anymore?

ZNXL

In the upcoming elections in the United States, we have the GOP (Grand Old Party) which represents the Republicans and the Democrats. Now - we all know how well the Democrats have utilised the Internet for their elections. Obama and his #YesWeCan campaign that I’ve elaborated in a previous blog post. And in the recent news is Hillary Clinton’s email scandals - though not interesting enough for an entire blog post. So I’d like to take this opportunity to shed some light on the infamous Donald Trump, or The Donald, The Don, The Trumpster. 

Now, I’d first like to state that I am in no way a supporter of Donald Trump and whatever he’s up to. Honestly, I don’t get how he is running for Presidency. However, I’d like to think that America being the country of Freedom is providing us some sort of, entertainment per se. I mean, who isn’t actually a little tickled by the thought of The Trumpster as president. I’d like to see him build the wall between the border of America and Mexico as his first project as President. Other than his harsh comments and blatant racism towards coloured people - I’ve always wondered if The Trumpster is actually self-funded. Because, funding essentially directs a candidate’s opinions and stances which are facilitated by the Internet through social media etc. 

Interestingly enough, despite being the CEO of Trump Organisation, his campaign is not exactly self-funded. According to this article, Donald Trump 2016 Campaign has raised USD$3.9 million through “unsolicited donors”. So exactly how does this bring us back to the Internet? It would make sense that if Trump was self-funded, what he says and what he represents is not limited by his sponsors. That would mean that his (nonsensical) views would not have any liabilities. But apparently he’s not. So how well has Donald and his Make America Great Again campaign worked out so far? Not too great - though who is surprised? 

The Trumpster is very vocal on his twitter account (@realDonaldTrump) - I mean, can’t get any realer than this right? So what has gone wrong? Or very right? As part of his Make America Great Again! campaign, he visited Twitter’s HQ for a #AskTrump Q&A. Now this is not uncommon, many other politicians such as Obama’s Q&A on Tumblr and Hilary Clinton’s Facebook Q&A. Except that instead of being asked important issues that a presidency candidate would tackle as President, the Trumpster gets a whole lot of... silly ones.

Like this, or this, or that, if you look over there, and then here and etc.  As you can see, the Internet does not take him seriously (I mean, who does?). Clearly, Donald Trump is not that great at the Internet when he tweets a hella a lot, over 3 thousand now (a lot for someone who only recently got on the Twitter train). Furthermore, he’s not good at it either. Here are some examples:

Not that great, huh? It’s no wonder Donald Trump is by far - unpopular. Although I am sure he would beg to differ. Politics in today’s world is highly influenced by the way you represent yourself on the net. I am sure, the Trumpster will be having a hella a time trying to prove his statements true but I’d give him credit for trying. We can only wait for the elections in 2016 to see how it plays out, and if the Internet plays in his favour.

ZNXL

Augmented Reality will take over the world. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, used for education, work, or just information sharing that will blow this world away. 

However, I want to focus on the entertainment usage of AR. Because, what’s fun without actually having fun? 

First, I’d like to introduce one of the most successful games by Google, Ingress. 

Ingress is a real-world smartphone game (now available on both Google Play and the App Store) where it is a giant game using our landscapes on Earth to facilitate the game process. The games usually happen in “portals” of human creativity, such as landmarks - museums, sculptures, parks, public spaces. It is GPS based, and when you’re near a particular portal you can either hack it, capture it, reinforce it or liberate it from the opposing team. There are now seven over million people worldwide playing Ingress that pushes you out of the comforts of home to meet other people. It is fully integrating the technology of our phones into the world we neglect out of it - bringing it together for the best kind of results. 

Another segment to Augmented Reality is Virtual Reality. Those who are immersed in virtual reality no longer see anything from the real world - and is usually achieved by wearing a headset that completely blocks out the world around you such as the VR helmet known as the Oculus Rift. 

To me, one of the best inventions for virtual reality games are the horror games that comes with it. Played mostly by YouTubers - you can sense the immense amount of fear even though it is virtual. They go through the game as though they are walking through a haunted house - which seem to have the same effects. This shows how effective and successful the Oculus Rift has been, where once the headphones and gear are equipped the user knows nothing else but what he or she feels within the game. A truly terrifying full body experience indeed. Here’s one of my favourite, Affected played by Pewdiepie. P.S Warnings for his “expressive” language - which means, please do not which if you are offended by crude language. 

But of course, a more practical and relevant way that AR is used today is educating the generations to come. With globalisation occurring like rapid fire, it is important to bring the world into the classroom. Usually, that’s not how it is done with textbooks with rows and rows of text that would put anyone to sleep (I can relate). Just like living in the world of Harry Potter, with moving pictures that line the wall of your school - that is what AR is trying to achieve. One of my favourite application is the DAQRI’s Anatomy 4D. 

By seeing the body in 4D, it helps the student visualise and pinpoint the exact body part such as a particular bone, organ or vein. In contrast to a 2D textbook print out, this would help facilitate learning for students at a much faster pace. This engages the students without extra spending on the physicalities on education. This - augmented reality - will change the world as we know it. 

ZNXL

As we all know, YouTube is the most used Internet tool as of today. This video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees (I guess you can’t run away from the Internet industry, huh?) allows you to upload, view and share videos. Videos can be user-generated, or by corporate companies. Some can be both, like Buzzfeed - a company based off YouTube by creating their user-generated videos. In 2014, YouTube is reportedly uploading 300 new videos every minute and 3/4 of it comes from outside of the USA. YouTube is a cycle of innovation - it pushes people to find inspiration within the videos and out of it. From being YouTube stars like Tyler Oakley now hailed as the popular champion of his YouTube career to corporate brandings. 

Here are some interesting facts about YouTube: 1. The former PayPal employees actually used their bonuses from the Ebay buyout of PayPal (Thank you Ebay!)  2. It was first, meant to be a dating site influenced by “Hot ‘N’ Out” but turned out to be YouTube as what we know today.  3. The very first video uploaded to YouTube is by one of it’s co-founders, Jawed Kamin which still can be found on YouTube today, titled “Me at the Zoo”.  4. YouTube crossed 1 Trillion hits in 2011 which means an average of 140 views per person. 5. It would take 1,700 to finish watching all of the videos on YouTube (I would if I could but who knows what on the dark side of YouTube).

ZNXL

As a photographer by profession (assistant), cinematography albeit similar have very different challenges. My subject matter is a dog, Mexx, a dog that I occasionally had over at my place when his owners were away. The choice was simple - Mexx has the cute factor that people would adore! Plus, it did help that he posed for the camera, all the time. 

The vlog is shot entirely in Nikon D7000, accompanied by Nikon NF 55-200mm and Nikon AF 50mm 1.8 lens. Indeed, filming was pushing me out of my comfort zone as in photography, your main goal is to capture the entire story in a single shot. Whereas in cinematography, the luxury of unlimited frames gave me too much choice and chances. The only setting available was in the house as the haze was insane and it was too impractical to venture outdoors. Hence, I had to take more proactive shots to keep the vlog moving forward without boring the audience. I struggled immensely with the focus while videoing, and hence explains the switch to a fixed lens which provided much better (in focus!) shots. The free application, iMovie comes together with my Apple iMac and was used to edit the vlog. It was very time consuming when it came to editing as it came to the seconds. As this was, a type of “silent film” in majority, I thought the addition of background music, Cute by www.bensound.com - a royalty free music source. 

Though I had to say, I was rather proud of my final product and I enjoyed the process thoroughly. It was fun and engaging, and now I understand the amount of work that goes into Youtube stars and their daily vlogs (totally insane!)

ZNXL