COM 125 Bazzar~~~!!!

QotW10: Jogious Beck Emo on Second Life

2007-04-06T01:57:00.001+08:00

This is Mother Land-the place where I was created. I guessed Yong En did not put in much effort creating me because I didn't look as good as the "billboard" girl. Well, she explains to me that she has only 1 Linden dollar and could not afford to dress me up nicely. Hmmm, I seriously doubt that. There is always such a place known as the Freebies Warehouse in Second Life. She cought have brought me there! Yet again, she came up with the perfect excuse that it is hard for her to teleport from places to places given the fact how lag her internet connection was.

I guessed I didn't have much of a choice, did I? Everything just seemed to happen so fast! It was a blur and within seconds, I, Jogious Beck am being created. On the very day I was born, I suffered from what you people call it, pure embarrassment. Yes! I was naked, just like all these people from the picture shown. I apologised for not having the actual picture of myself because Yong En refused to take a photo of me being naked. Oh well, I don't blame her. It was embarrassing enough to be born naked and walk around naked for some time, and to pose for a photo as well? I can't do it!

This is my nursery. I learnt to walk, fly, run, ride a vehicle, communicate with other avatars and so on. I sort of hang around too long in here because I had yet to complete my tutorial and was unable to teleport to other places to explore. Now, this is a picture I took, with a guy in the middle of my nursery atrium. He's really cute! Look at that body *woo hoo* Okay, I really shouldn't be checking guys out. I have missions to complete or Kevin Suisei will be after me. After walking around in circles, I managed to teleport myself to Help Island! Finally, out of my nursery!!

TA DA! Presenting Help Island. Okay, seriously there's nothing much in there but there are really helpful people around. That's one of the volunteer in Help Island who taught me the works of Second Life, and most important of all, he taught me how to teleport myself to the mainland. You cannot tell how pleased I was. As you can see, both of us look really awkward in the picture. But thanks to my helpful volunteer, my real fun had finally began!

The first place that I went to was Butterfly Island. It was hotly recommended as one of the most popular place and I can see why. It is so beautiful! I am amazed by anyone who built the fascinating and dreamy water fountain. Of course, there's another reason why I chose to teleport myself here. It's an island for GIRLS! We can do our shopping here. However, the things are pretty pricey though. There's not much you can do with 1 Linden Dollar. I wish I knew where to find a nightclub or a party but my efforts seemed to be in vain. I did the next best thing, I went to Hollywood!

VOILA!!! This is the pathwalk where all the famous movie stars left their handprints. Oh my gosh! I can't believe I was actually in Hollywood. However, I think I'd feel much better if those "people" at the background of my photo are real. It was shocking to me that when I arrived, there was no one there at all. Come to think about it, of all the places I go, there seemed to a deserted place or a place with very few other avatar. Gee, I felt so....alone in here even though I have friends in my list.

Wow. Look at the beautiful horizon. If only there is someone there to share this beautiful view with me.

Background music: Lonely, I am so lonely, I have nobody, of my own...wooo~~~

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for me to meet interesting avatars from all over the world out there. Maybe they will teach me how to dance and bring me to fun places to explore...well...just maybe. What? Don't look at me, I am created as a Pisces, I get emotional easily.

Signing off: Jogious Beck

Bonus Mission #2: Second Life, not a game? You sure?

2007-04-05T11:56:00.000+08:00

"What is this? The SIMS? Hey! It's The SIMS! No?! Hmmm......" I stared at my computer screen in complete confusion. As I explored the Internet-based virtual world for the very first time, I was amazed and shocked by the functions of the program. Not only does Second Life consist the basic functions of a life-like game, just like the SIMS, its users, who are known as Residents, can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another (Wikipedia, 2007).

After a couple of hours of hands-on experience and consistent lagging, I began to notice the difference between Second Life and The SIMS. Basically, The SIMS is a simulation of the day-to-day activities of one or more virtual people (dubbed "Sims") in a suburban household located near SimCity (Wikipedia, 2007). Everything has been created for you in sequence and all you have to do is follow the hints to jump start the game. There will be a green diamond on your SIM that changes colour according to your SIMS mood, and if it has its expectations met. You get to choose and design your own character and after that, you'd be given a certain amount of SIM dollars to start off with your life. The player begins to earn money and unlock items every now and then. At the same time, building a strong friendship or relationship bond can earn you more SIM dollars. It's a game in all forms (PC-oriented, PlayStation, Nintendo etc) and it is designed to be just like the way you experienced life, full of ups and downs. However, one thing that distinguish the SIMS from Second Life was that it is less interactive. Players who plays The SIMS via PlayStation can interact with the second player. That's about it.

As compared to The SIMS, Second Life has no limitions. As quoted from Edward Castronova, "There will be a world that fits the fantasy of any life you want to lead," (World of Warcraft: Is It a Game? 2006). I guessed that's the gist of Second Life. In that whole-new virtual world that's ever changing every single day, people create places, items, services, products they fantasized. It's almost like Utopia in there where everything is perfect and just the way you want it to be. There are features in the program whereby you can fly or teleport yourself to a place, or a country. Unlike the real world, this only takes a few seconds. Besides that, you can socialize with people from all over the world and there is no boundaries for friendships.

We cannot see Second Life as an online game because from the way I interpret it, this is Second Life-your second chance to live life all over again. It is your world, your imagination, a place where you can be whoever you've always wanted or dreamt to be. It is a world filled with dreams, hopes and opportunities where we can't resist to not be a part of it. In the real world, there are many things that are beyond our control whereas in Second Life, you are your own boss. Besides that, there's no such feature in Second Life that your mood is determined by the expectations you need to meet. The player does not have to eat, does not have to go to the loo, does not have to sleep as compared to the SIMS. In this way, it actually saves a lot of time because there is so much to explore in that virtual world.

Unlike the SIMS, Second Life is "played" for real money. Whenever you log into the official website, there will be this page that encourages you to upgrade to premium membership. When upgraded to premium membership, you'd be charged immediately for the full amount of subscription plan specified-monthly, quarterly and annually. However, you'd be able to own land and at the same time, buy or run your own business. The Marketplace in Second Life currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges (Second Life, 2007). How fascinating is that? You get the kick moving your avatar around, socializing, exploring places, shopping and build stuff, you also make money out of it if you start a business.

After some comparisons with The SIMS, I conclude that Second Life is more than just an online game or for entertainment. Anyone with a vision and plan can make his/her dream come true in no time. After all, according to Joi Ito, "Yes, it's just a game, the way that the real world is a game," (World of Warcraft: Is It a Game? 2006).

REFERENCES:

Second Life. (2007, April 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:40p.m, April 4, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Second_Life&oldid=120268909

The Sims. (2007, April 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1:43a.m, April 5, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Sims&oldid=119832651

Levy, S. (2006). In World of Warcraft: Is It a Game. Retrieved 12.30a.m, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/.
Second Life (2007). In Second Life What is Second life?. Retrieved 1.15a.m, April 5, 2007 from
http://secure-web11.secondlife.com/whatis/

QotW9: What You Want To Say Just STOMP lah!

2007-03-31T01:35:00.000+08:00

The global web is "shrinking" and linking the world together. Everything seems to be connected in every way. We would be notified in spilt seconds in whatever tremendous things that happened at the other end of the world. In no time, everyone will be talking about it, be it on the internet, or in a random cafe where you sip coffee and chit chat. Have you ever wonder why gossips tend to spread so fast? This is why! People talk about everything and comment on things that not even their concern. However, some opinions and suggestions of random people are good and that's the reason why citizen journalism existed.

As quoted by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis, "Citizen Journalism is the act of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information" (Citizen Journalism, 2007). This is when citizens take action by acting as part of the media. People showed their participation and concern to a certain issue by providing the media with extra news or valuable opinions that could be taken into serious consideration.

In Singapore, our freedom of speech is pretty limited. A front page news could happen anywhere at anytime, but that does not mean our professional journalists, reporters or photographers would be at the right place and right time to film everything down. Thus, the Straits Times came up with STOMP(Straits Times Online Mobile Print) which allow our citizens to participate actively with the media. It integrates content and activities in the three platforms of print, online and mobile. These three platforms will enable STOMP to interact and engage with Singaporeans in exciting new ways (STOMP, 2006). Straits Times Editor Mr. Han Fook Kwang hoped that readers had found a place whereby they could express themselves, to interact with the news media and among themselves through STOMP (STOMP, 2006).

As you can see from the picture, the website contains many interesting news and hot topics. The topics discussed can ranged from serious news issue to where you can eat the best bak chor mee. At the same time, it also organizes different contests and so on for STOMP users to get together and know each other. After exploring the website, I found out that there is actually a STOMP ebay! I guess that is an interesting fact because not only it allows you to voice out whatever you think of a certain issue, it also allows you to sell your stuff and given the popularity of the website, there will definitely be other users out there who would check out your item. You can judged that STOMP could really be an ideal form of citizen journalism in Singapore. However, if you noticed, this website seemed to be catered for a younger generation. Serious issues like the wellness of Singapore or Politics are seldom touched on. It can't be blamed because an average Singaporean is only interested in coffeeshop debates, not the weighty national issues.

Besides that, Singapore is too strict with its freedom of speech. Everyone who writes about serious issues that evolves around the country wellness and government are careful with the words they used and the content they write. We never know when we'd get sued for blogging a random post about such issue with no evidence to support our content. Thus, it is hard to really bond the citizens and the media together because many people are held back in whatever they want to say.

Another thing to worry about is how trust is managed between the media and the citizens. Technology is so advanced these days that it has given us a world in which almost anyone can publish a credible-looking web page. Anyone with a computer or a cell phone can post in online forums. Anyone with a moderate amount of skill with Photoshop or other image manipulation software can distort reality. Special effects make even videos untrustworthy (Dan Gillmor, 2004). If all these are possible, who's to say that news cannot be distorted and do we believe whatever we read even if it's coming from a credible source?

I personally feel that Blogs, STOMP, Global Voices etc are the first steps towards the freedom of speech. The boundaries to voice out whatever you want to say still exist though. One may feel strongly about a certain political issue but was being deprived to voice out his thoughts due to the risk of being sued. His comments and opinions may be valuable and considerable, who knows, it might contribute to the wellness of Singapore. I think there should be an understanding between the Singapore government and its citizens. Of course, when we are given the space and freedom, it does not mean we can abuse it. It is important that we compromise and voice out only whatever that's appropriate. Lastly, to increase more national and political news in STOMP, I feel that Global Voices (which discuss about more serious issues)and STOMP could collaborate with each other. In this way, young readers could check out what's new in today's dating game, and at the same time, learn more about how other people feel about the political issues of Singapore and other national issues. The users who are more serious abut big issues could join STOMP as well and from there, they could learn about what issues are the younger generations concerned of and it would provide a better understanding between the young minds and the adults. There is definitely room for more improvement in STOMP and that we should not be restricted just by blogging to ourselves and our friends. Step up, voice out and be someone appreciated!

REFERENCES:

Citizen journalism. (2007, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:35p.m, March 30, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_journalism&oldid=118429022

STOMP (2006) In Singapore Press Holdings, STOMP-About Us. Retrieved 12.10a.m, March 30, 2007 from http://www.stomp.com.sg/about/about.html

Gillmor, D. (2004, July). In We the Media-Dan Gillmor: “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People” . Retrieved 12.30a.m, March 30, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tip

QotW7: Twit Twit, what are you doing?

2007-03-16T14:11:00.000+08:00

People always say that a picture speaks a thousand words. Look at the picture above, what do you see? What does it tell you? Well, when I first saw this picture, I feel that it presents the community. To me personally, a community is just like a web, everyone is linked to one another in everyway, be it online or offline. Should one day this web be destroyed, a new one will be 'built' up again in no time. These communities exist for a reason. A group of people will gather and connect with one another because they share the same interest In Singapore, we have places like the neighbourhood Community Centres where different groups of people come together for a certain event or activity they took part in. This is what we call "having something in common".

As technology advances, many people turn to the internet in search of their "kind" of people. They join online groups, forums, social networking sites etc to connect with people from all over the world. According to Wikipedia, a virtual community or online community is a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet. There is not a need for strong bonds among the members in an online community. An email distribution list may have hundreds of members and the communication which takes place may be merely informational (questions and answers are posted), but members may remain relative strangers and the membership turnover rate could be high. This is in line with the liberal use of the term community (Wikipedia, 2007).

Truthfully speaking, the only online community I am more involved in is Friendster. Other than that, I guess I don't pay much interest in other kinds of social groups or forums that I could join. Due to this blog assignment, I had no choice but to join a social networking service known as Twitter. I was not sure in how it works and when I was done with the subscribing, I got quite annoyed that I have to keep updating on the same question " What are you doing?". After a while, I finally realised that it works just like a message board. I find it pretty interesting to be updated on what my friends were doing 5 minutes ago and so on.

Twitter allows its members to inform each other about what they are doing and what they think. It also enables users to send messages via phone or instant messaging (Wikipedia, 2007). I think it is clever to ask the "What are you doing?" question because that is what we normally ask our friends when we are bored. However, after spending some time in Twitter, I noticed that no one really cares about responding to the main question anymore. Everyone just message whatever they want to say or ask.

I feel that Twitter is definitely an online community because as noted by Rheingold, people in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, find friends, lots of idle talk (Virtual Communities, 1995) amd provide information at the same time as well. That was exactly what we were doing while my friends and I were twiting away in Twitter. Besides that, it was mentioned also mentioned by Jan Fernback and Brad Thompson the structural process that is associated with community is communication. Without communication there can be no action to organize social relations (Virtual Communities, 1995). In Twitter, communication is on-going every now and then. At times it might lag and slow down a little, but the "chit-chattering" never stops!

However, as compared to instant messaging and sms, Twitter does not have the edge because it is not that user-friendly due to the lagging. Besides that, with it being a website, it might need to be closed down for maintanence at some point of time, if so, where will we twit? That is something for us to think about. I think that Twitter will only be more popular if it stands out more uniquely then whatever we already had, like MSN, IRC, our trustable cell phones etc. Why will we want to continue using such service when we can just message our friends instantly and have them replied instantly what they are doing? Sure, it is interesting now to Twitter newbies like us, however, in the long run, would we still be that patient to reload the website every minute? Maybe we will find out this answer soon enough. At the mean time, happy twitting folks!

REFERENCES:

Virtual community. (2007, March 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:58 p.m, March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virtual_community&oldid=115277136

Twitter. (2007, March 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:47 a.m, March 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twitter&oldid=115023086

Fernback.J & Thompson.B (1995, May). Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? Retrieved 11:30 a.m, March 16, 2007, from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html

QotW6: Any Idea You're Being Watched?

2007-03-10T11:42:00.000+08:00

"Singapore is a safe place, relax la, no worries. No one will be that sick to watch you lor, not like you are a celebrity or what." Yes, a very typical Singaporean mindset. Of course, most of us did consider the danger of having our privacy invaded, but we often brushed that thought away, thinking, “So many people out there, I won't so suay be the next one to be watched la.” Well, we are wrong. Ever since the Tammy incident, we know that our privacy could easily be exposed to the outside world. It is no longer safe to keep your personal information in mobile gadgets anymore because you never know when it will end up in the wrong hands or overseen by somebody else. Now, even the internet itself is not privacy-guaranteed. We do not know what awaits us online and most of the time, we’d be taken back by surprise when we find out that our little space are being invaded.

Before we take measures about protecting our privacy, we got to start off by understanding what privacy stands for and how important it is to reserve our rights of being watched by anyone out there. According to Wikipedia, privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of the public view or to control the flow of information about themselves (Wikipedia, 2007). There is always a limit on how much information one is going to provide to another. I know that psychologists often tell us that it’s important to reveal yourself to friends, family and lovers in stages, but few boundaries still ought to remain. (Privacy Lost, 2006).

Due to the advancement of technology, I guess that not many people care about exposing themselves to other people. For example, there was a study done on the increase in vanity amongst college students. Professor Jean Twenge claimed that most of the students have the “I am special, look at me” mentality and that's why they are not afraid or shy to broadcast themselves in Youtube (Associated Press, 2007). Many people, of course, don't care if they embarrass themselves before strangers on the internet. It is now commonplace on a website to reveal hobbies, favorite foods and music, and pictures of children, in an effort to create an illusion of intimacy (The Naked Crowd, 2004).

Today, people obtain intimacy and trust by self-revelation rather than by shared experiences or fixed social status. They try to prove their trustworthiness by revealing details of their personal lives to prove that they have nothing to hide before a crowd (The Naked Crowd, 2004). I personally feel that it is true to a certain extent. For myself, I’m actually quite a private person. I only reveal information to the people I trust as I’m well aware of the fact that not everyone could keep a secret. Some might even threaten or use your weaknesses against you one day. By being alert and aware, the chance of my privacy being invaded is not high, just as long as no one plays a prank and hid a camera like one of those candid camera shows.

As quoted from Jeffery Rosen, “the age of the internet forced us to increasingly interact with strangers whom we will never meet face-to-face” (The Naked Crowd, 2004). Normally, I used to reveal myself more to people I knew online rather than my friends. It is strange but I always feel that by telling your problems to a stranger whom you know you’d never meet, your secret is safe with him or her. However, as I grow older, I learnt that some things are meant to be kept to myself. Though Singapore always encourages free speech and stuff, it’s not completely freedom out there. There was this case a while ago where two students were prosecuted for discriminating and humiliating a certain race group in their blogs. As we all know, a blog is supposed to be an online diary where we can choose to keep it private and pen down our most personal thoughts. I relied on blogging a lot since I’m too lazy to write in a diary book. I used to blog a lot in the past and not many of my friends knew that blog address. I wrote a lot based on my personal thoughts, and actually felt comfortable exposing myself as I never thought of it to be exposed to millions of internet users out there. However, after I heard about this incident, I knew that my privacy could be at stake of being invaded, thus, I ended up closing down the blog. Despite having a new blog now, I am unable to bring myself to pen down my inner thoughts just like before. With the knowledge that someone might read it, I felt uncomfortable exposing myself completely.

After reading through the articles and based on personal experience, I feel that it is true that many people simply do not care about their privacy being invaded. No one really bother to take action to do anything just as long as it does not affect their lives. The danger of being watched is no one will know when, how, where and who is watching them. You will be caught by surprise when you realized your personal information is being leaked out. It is crucial that one has got to protect his rights as an individual and keep his most personal information out of reach to anyone. Be alert, don't be......the next Tammy.

REFERENCES:

Privacy (2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10.45 p.m, March 9, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy#Internet_privacy

Sullivan, B. (2006, October 17) "Privacy lost: Does anybody care?" Retrieved 3.45 p.m, March 9, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Study: Vanity on the rise among college students. (2007, February 27). In Associated Press. Retrieved 4.30p.m, March 9, 2007 from http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/27/self.centered.students.ap/index.html

Rosen, J. (2004, July 19). "The Naked crowd". Retrieved 2.30p.m, March 9, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

QotW5: No! I didn't do it!

2007-02-23T00:58:00.000+08:00

"Hi there! How's everything with you and Jeannie?"
"What's wrong with us?"
"You told me yesterday you guys almost broke up."
"No I didn't! I wasn't online yesterday, how did you know?"
"You told me!"
"I..."

Wait a minute. You could almost swear that you were not online yesterday. How did your class's number one gossiper know about the break up? Suddenly, it struck you. You share a computer with your younger brother and he was the only person around when Jeannie and you started a huge fight.

This is just the first warning sign of your online identity being used by someone else. A little personal information got leaked out, but it will not affect your life. What could be worse is that someone out there could be imitating you online right now, collecting enough personal data of you so he could hack your bank accounts, racks up debt in the your name, collects the cash, and disappears. You would be left holding the bag and it takes years for you to clear your name which was damaged by the credit-rating (Mitigating Identity Theft, 2005).

As we were growing up, our parents often remind us to protect our IC, our student passes or any other relevant personal documents. Not anyone is as nice and considerate to return you your ID without taking the advantage. So, is it safer to keep your personal information online? Can we rely on the security systems provided by the bank or credit-card systems online?

Before we pursue these questions any further, let's talk about online identity first. What is online identity? According to Wikipedia, an online identity is a social identity that network users establish in online communities. Most Internet users prefer to identify themselves by means of pseudonyms instead of using their real names online (Wikipedia, 2007). Identity is definitely necessary in virtual communities. In communication, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous (Identity and the Virtual Community, 1996). In the internet world, you could be anyone you want. Every single person you meet online should be given the benefit of doubt if he/she is worthy of your trust. Take mIRC for example, its a free and simple chat system which anyone can register. After going through the registering procedure and choosing your server, you get to create your own nickname. Its almost like the scenario in the youtube video clip whereby everyone is trying to be someone else. Sexual predators usually use the chat systems to lure ignorant teenage girls to their 'traps'. It is so simple to convince someone else to believe you, given that the chat system is a peer to peer sharing system, which means you can send music or picture files over to other people. Being able to see your 'photo' provides a sense of trust to the opposite, this is what we call 'a wolf behind the screen'. Besides that, people could also hack into MSN or email accounts of a renowned person and collect the victim's information from his friends. By doing so, they could either hack into bank accounts of the person or ruin his reputation by creating havoc under the person's name.

I was unaware of the importance to protect one's online identity until a good friend of mine trusted me with his ebay account. Due to his national service duties, he need me to help him check his ebay regularly in case there are messages about the items he's selling and if there's any problems regarding payments made for his items. I did as he said, check his account regularly, and that means at home and in school labs. When he found out I did check his account in school, he was mad. He gave me a whole lecture about hackers. At first, I did not understand why was he making such a big fuss about the issue especially when I remembered to log out each and every time I checked his account in school. After I attended the presentation by the guest speaker, I was stunned. I learnt about a program known as key logger which automatically records down your username and password. This way, hackers could easily steal your identity in ebay and take advantage of the available 'resources'. In ebay, you are charged a certain amount when you list each item. The money will be automatically deducted from your bank account. Thus, if anyone were to grab hold of your ebay username and password, that person could list as many goods as he wants to sell and you will be left paying the bill for the listing. Not only that, the hacker would also be able to assess to your paypal and he would definitely not hesitate to transfer all the money in your paypal to his own bank account. Ever since, I become very careful with usernames and passwords, and I never check ebay in school again.

Stealing of identity online has become a common crime these days. It is not easy to prosecute hackers and we never know whatever we download or information we filled in would end up in somebody else's hands. Therefore, it is strongly encouraged that we should never download unnecessary programs or give out information freely as the online security is not 100 percent safe guaranteed. Besides depending on security programs we download, we should also hold up our guard by changing our passwords regularly and keep a look out on websites we visit. It's the same in the virtual world and the real world, one's got to keep his identity safe in all ways possible.

REFERENCES:

Schneier, B. (2005, April 15). Schneier on Security: Mitigating Identity Theft. Retrieved 8.45p.m., February 22, 2007 from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/mitigating_iden.html

Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1:14a.m., February 22, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

Donath ,J S. (1996, 12 November). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community, MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 12.45a.m., February 22, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception

QoTw4: You Got To Share~!

2007-02-10T02:58:00.000+08:00

"You got to learn to share, don't be selfish..." my parents said this to me when I was a kid *I'm sure most of our parents said that to us* 15 years later, I still hear, " You got to share, don't be selfish..." However, its not my parents this time. Its the public who demands it now.

According to Wikipedia, Sharing is the joint use of resource. Besides that, sharing also figures prominently in gift economies, and is a key feature in the developing field of free software and open source software, with implications for economics. By looking at the definition alone, we can guess the most basic idea of what gift economy is. A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo (the Latin term for the concept of "a favor for a favor") (Wikipedia, 2007).
People exchange without expecting anything back from the person in return. Sharing is a huge deal over the internet. Anything ranging from music and video files, forums, and advice could be shared among the public.

In the ancient times, sharing of food was practiced in a hunter-gatherer society (Wikipedia, 2007). By doing this, there were no particular individuals to rely on for the food source. The people in the society might not know one another and it was harder for them to be obligated to return the favor. However, a balanced reciprocity would occur within the group as a whole (Kollack,1999). When someone had done a favor for a person they might not know in a group, they would not expect the person himself to return the favor but they anticipate or believe that in future they would also be given the helping hand. Therefore, everyone in the society played a part in it to gather food daily and if they failed to find any, they would not go on an empty stomach as food souce was shared. Not only that, it helped to maintain the survival of the society and kept the community close together.

Today, we are sharing without knowing. I never knew about Youtube until the beginning of last year. It is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips (Wikipedia, 2007). People could share tons of information over this website in video format. For example, we get to download shows that were not aired yet in our county from the uploaders and are able to watch ahead of time. Youtube also allows viewers to leave comments after watching a certain video clip a user upload. If it's a music video or exclusive scenes about your favourite band, you could leave comments about it or share your own experience. It is somewhat like a forum whereby people of similar interest will watch a certain video, they leave their comments and if anyone is interested in what they talked about, they could reply a comment to that. Besides that, uploaders could also get opinions from viewers about certain videos they make, on whether the image and sound is good, or if the viewers like the videos. The comments come about unexpectedly and with the comments, the user could post more videos based on the demanded interest or improve on their last home-made video clips.

THE BAND: a1
For myself, I never posted a video or any comments in Youtube before. However, when I was younger, I used to be nuts about this British pop group known as a1. I logged into their official website often and checked their message board regularly. At first, it was really JUST a message board where fans simply leave their messages for the band. As time goes by, people began to talk about their own experiences with the band. Not only that, many offered to do favors like helping other fans to get autographs and pictures of the band when they dropped by in the county. A simple message board slowly developed into a forum. Fans shared information or asked questions about the band. I remembered that there was this time a1 dropped by in Singapore. As the band was always busy and never really left messages at the website, some fans who did not meet the band at all had their hopes smashed. They wanted so much to give the band their encouragement and support but they did not have a chance to do it. Thus, I offered to help by leaving a message at the website, asking the fans to write down whatever they wanted to say to the band. I'd write down their messages in a beautiful notebook and pass it to them personally as I was going to attend their autograph session. Before long, I get tons of replies to my message. I could not believe how thankful the fans were.

It is human nature to keep things to themselves and that they did not want to share. We can understand that the rarity of a certain thing or certain information is what makes it exclusive and valuable. However, after writing this entry, I am very thankful to those people who made technology so advanced these days, allowing me to access to all kinds of information people shared or uploaded.

REFERENCES:

Kollock, Peter (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved 8:20pm, February 9, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Gift Economy (2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4:45pm, February 8, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gift_economy&oldid=105681971

Sharing. (2007, January 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 8:45, February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sharing&oldid=103691448

YouTube. (2007, February 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:20, February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=YouTube&oldid=106693896

QotW3: The Never-Dying Online Pirates

2007-02-02T17:42:00.000+08:00

What are pirates? As you can see from the picture above, pirates are actually thieves who commit their robberies at the sea, sometimes on the shore. Well, how is this relevant to the topic I'm going to talk about in this entry? Imagine...how will you feel if someone robbed your valuables be it in the sea or on the shore? That's exactly how content creators will feel if you conveniently 'rob' their hard work and take credit for it. This act violates the law of copyrights. Though many had been sued or charged for this violation, the act of copyrighting still continue even to this day despite the re-enforcement of laws.

So...what exactly is copyright? According to Wikipedia, Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. At its most general, it is literally "the right to copy" an original creation. The symbol for copyright is ©, and in some jurisdictions may alternatively be written as either (c) or (C) (Wikipedia, 2007). It is important to enforce this law because it will balance the interest of authors and the public (Why copyright?, 2005). For each case of copyright infringement, the fine could go up to as high as $30,000. If the person is aware of the infringement and still went about to do it, the fine could go up to $150,000 for each act of infringement (Copyright Questions, 2005).

The copyright law was established for the benefits of the content creators and the public. With the existance of this law, not only do the content creators benefit financially, it is also a motivation for them to create better work (Why copyright?, 2005). Besides that, it is also for the benefit of the public. If the authors' works are not exclusive and that anyone could excess to it and make it their own, these authors would lose their motivation to produce good work. These are the reasons why the fines increase every year for violating the copyright laws. Many original creators such as authors, musicians and so on suffered a great loss because of all these online pirates.

You can see the act of piracy and violation of copyrights being performed on the internet everyday. For example...file sharing. File sharing is the practice of making files available for other users to download over the Internet and smaller networks. Usually file sharing follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users (Wikipedia, 2007). There are a few music downloading programs that modeled after this system. A few years ago, one of the more popular peer-to-peer file sharing application is the mIRC. There were numerous channels in IRC which practice file-sharing. It was easy to use and downloading of mp3 files were fast. However, all these channels were soon banned due to the violation of copyrights in the music industry. Another well-known music application is Kazza. Kazaa is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet, however it can also be used to exchange other files types such as videos, applications, and documents. Throughout the past few years, Kazaa's developing company was the target of many copyright-related lawsuits (Wikipedia, 2007). The music industry was quick to blame file-sharing is the root of their declined sales. They complained and started to sue those file-sharing individuals. The congress is considering a number of measures designed to counter the perceived threat of file-sharing (File Sharing, June 2005). However, the public did not seem to be threatened by the fines. File sharing continued and increased as the years go by.

There are other file-sharing applications such as Sharezza, Baidu and Limwire which still exist now. Today LimeWire is the more user-friendly and popular file-sharing application amongst most people. It is a free software and it allows you to search for multiple files at the same time, available in several different languages, and is most famous for its ease-of-use and cross-platform compatibility (LimeWire, 2005). The copyright information in the official website stated that Limewire is a legal software but it is illegal for users to share copyrighted files without permission. Despite the re-enforcement of this rule before downloading the software, many people continue to share copyrighted files in this software. Singapore had already fined a few offenders who had been massively downloading and sharing files even though they were aware of it being an illegal act.

Not only are musicians and authors affected by the act of piracy, bloggers like us are could be affected too! As quoted from one of our famous Singapore bloggers, Xia Xue: Xia Xue

"I had to come out with the prices, the strategies, the methods, all by myself, and people are simply lifting them off me now, because I have proven to make things work. That's ok, shit happens. What I'm not ok with is when bloggers do not follow a code of ethics" (Xia Xue, 2007)

You can express your unhappiness, you can file a lawsuit, but you can't change what the public wants. This is a serious problem. Now, we ask ourselves, what can we do to stop the acts of piracy? There are a number of music websites like AllofMp3 which required users to pay a certain amount of money before downloading any songs. The users were charged accordingly to how many songs and what categories of songs they downloaded. These websites discourage the public to download music for free and also serve as a bonus to the music industry. In Singapore, once you are caught violating the acts of piracy in music downloads, you'd be either fined or sentenced to jail for a few years. The Singapore media always publishes such news so the public will be more aware and it also serves as a warning sign never to download music off the net as its hard work of some people.

Sometimes, there should be an understanding between content creators and the public. There were cases where people who were unaware that they were copyrighting. The Internet has been characterized as the largest threat to copyright since its inception. It is awash in information, a lot of it with varying degrees of copyright protection. Copyrighted works on the Net include new s stories, software, novels, screenplays, graphics, pictures, Usenet messages and even email. In fact, the frightening reality is that almost everything on the Net is protected by copyright law. That can pose problems for the hapless surfer (The Copyright and Internet, 1996). Even though there is no clear legal consensus to what internet users can copy, they should learn to ask for permission from the original creators before linking or using information from other websites to create their own. The copyright owners always have the exclusive rights to decide whether if another person could reproduce their work or distribute their copies. We should NEVER assume that a copyright owner has given up any of these rights.

The final solution lies in our education and end product. First of all, we must educate our public on copyright and intellectual properties. Such education should start from young. It allows kids to be creative and proud of their own work. Not only that, it also helps them develop the mentality that they should not copy others' work and claim it as their own. They will be brought up being aware of the seriousness of copyrights and piracy. In this way, the kids will tend to create more than they take when they grow up.

Creators could also learn to be more open minded in sharing ideas so new ideas will come. They must also make sure their contents are good enough to gain respect from public. Once the public recognise the content, they will rather get the original ones. To conclude, once people have the skills and creativity to go ahead, they won't bother to take someone's work.

REFERENCES

Copyright. (2007, January 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:26, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Copyright&oldid=104668499

Ovalle, C. (2005). In Why Copyright, An Introduction to Copyright. Retrieved 04:30, February 1, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.php

Ovalle, C. (2005). In Copyright Questions, An Introduction to Copyright. Retrieved 04:50, February 1, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/4.php

Ovalle, C. (2005). In Why Copyright, An Introduction to Copyright. Retrieved 04:30, February 1, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.php

File sharing. (2007, February 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:15, February 2, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File_sharing&oldid=104947616

Kazaa. (2007, January 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:25, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kazaa&oldid=103970488

Oberholzer-Gee, F. (June 2005). In The Effects of File Sharing on Record Sales. Retrieved 05.20, February 1, 2007 from http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf

LimeWire. (2005). In LimeWire, The Official Site For The Fastest File Sharing Program. Retrieved 03.18, February 1, 2007, from http://www.limewire.com/english/content/features.shtml

Cheng, W. (January 24, 2007). In Xiaxue.blogspot.com-Everybody's reading it. Retrieved 02.30, February 2, 2007 from http://www.xiaxue.blogspot.com

Montecino, V. (1996). In Copyright and the Internet. Retrieved on 05.30, February 1, 2007, from http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm

COM125 Week2: The Wonders of Internet Communication

2007-01-27T16:27:00.000+08:00

Before I begin my argument, I’d start off with something personal. The Internet has always been a part of my life. My world evolves around it as its part of my information source, but most importantly, it has done wonders for my social life. I used to be in an all girls’ school for seven years. When I was enrolled into a mix school, I find it hard to talk to the boys. Not only that, occasionally I find it hard to express myself in front of my friends when it was something emotional and upsetting. In 1999, my life changes. Dad bought me a new computer with Internet connections. Not only was I more informed about the news; I could overcome my fear to start a conversation with the opposite sex. My circle of friends expanded and till now, I am still in good terms with some of them.

So, what is the Internet? The Internet is known as the networks of networks that include both technological developments and the merging together of existing network infrastructure and telecommunication systems (Wikipedia, 2007). The net is a very important tool for communication. Do the logos at the right hand side look familiar to anyone of you? I am sure they do! These four chatting systems were the few popular ones about a decade ago. Of course, we do use the email as a form of commuication too, but right now, we shall focus on the chat systems and how they have changed and developed as of they are today.

mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, created in 1995 (Wikipedia, 2007). In this chat system, you will be able to find the whole diversity of human interests, ideas, and issues here. Besides that, IRC also enables you to participate in-group discussions on one of the many thousands of IRC channels, on hundreds of IRC networks. If you prefer the privacy, you can choose to talk to family or friends, wherever they are in the world (mIRC,2006). I remember vividly that back in secondary school days, I always logged into IRC the moment I stepped into the house. I was really amazed and appreciative of that chat system as not only did it help me to make more friends from all over the world, it has other functions which include the sharing of photo, music and video files.

This picture shows how this amazing chat system is connected from user to user and how it really works. You can choose your own IRC server which helps you to determine which location and people of the world you are chatting with. With people sharing IRC servers and IRC servers which are inter-connected, many internet files are shared across the world.

In mIRC, there are hundreds of channels to choose from to begin your chatting adventure. In each registered channel, there will be one or operators who are in charge of the channel welfare. They have the power to kick anyone out if the IRC user was flooding the channel or sending viruses. This is how a typical channel looks like, with the operator who's always at the top of the channel.

Though the IRC is a hit among the youngsters, it is a threat to the music industry as it encourages channels to be set up for free music and video downloads. The connection is pretty fast and it takes less than an hour to download a whole new music album that has just been released. This is known as illegal downloading as its a form of piracy. Besides that, the IRC must always be used cautiously because most of the time, we never knew who we were speaking to.

The next chat system that was commonly used ever since 1996 was the ICQ. ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, owned by Time Warner's AOL subsidiary. The name ICQ is a play (an oronym) on the phrase "I seek you" (Wikipedia, 2007). The ICQ is somewhat like the MSN today. The main thing that is similar is that we can add the contacts of the people we want to keep in touch with, just that in ICQ the contacts are in numeric form whereas in MSN, the contacts are the users' emails. The system is designed in such a way that messages were sent with offline support. Normally, most people have IRC and ICQ. I'd use both chat systems at the same time as it is convenient for me to add new friends I made in IRC into ICQ after the conversation.

The MSN messenger came out later after the ICQ and IRC. In the year of 1999, the first version of MSN messenger was launched. MSN Messenger was a freeware instant messaging client that was developed and distributed by Microsoft between 1999 and 2006 for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, and aimed towards home users (Wikipedia, 2007). At first, it did not occur to me to use MSN, I was quite satisfied with the IRC and ICQ system that I was too lazy to try out this instant messaging program. I used the IRC and ICQ till I was in Junior College, where I finally realised the MSN messenger was so much better than ICQ. At first, the old messenger was like this:

It was plain and simple, but it did look more sophisticated as compared to the ICQ. Besides that MSN messenger is a very user-friendly chat system. It has a certain protection against outside files in case of virus and a caution would pop up if there is any incoming file. Should anyone wonder how did the old MSN messenger looked like and what was its basic functions, you guys can simply check out your Windows Messenger which was already pre-installed in your Windows. It functioned just like the old MSN messenger, and users can use the same email to sign in. The contacts in MSN messenger will still appear in the Windows Messenger. It sure is convenient in some way.

As the years go by, people favor IRC and ICQ lesser and there is a popularity increase for the MSN messenger program. From a simple chat system somewhat like the ICQ, it progressed beyond the virtual world. It started off with display pictures and microphones plug-ins, whereby you could still chit chat with your friends online if you were tired of typing. It was as though you were on the phone. The conversation may go slow due to some lagging of the net-working system but imagine all the money you would save in phone bill if you were chatting with your friends or family from overseas! The display pictures allow your friends or family to keep updated of how you look now if they have not seen you for years. In 2006, this is the newest and most upgraded MSN messenger ever:

Not only does this new MSN messenger (Windows Live Messenger)allows you to use your microphones to chat with your peers online, it also allows you to see them! Due to the invention of webcams, live chat is very popular nowadays. There has always been arguments about the distance in human relationships in regards to chatting online or talking in person. Many claimed that chatting in-person allows more interaction and is able to enhance a certain relationship. Besides that, we can read off the facial expressions and body language of the people we are chatting with, to determine if they are lying or telling the truth. It is also a way to detect sincereity, and to prevent you from making the wrong friends. In most chat system, you could not tell if the person is lying or not because all you can see were just words. With the new Windows Live Messenger, you can see the person you are chatting with online. It felt as though you were chatting in-person. This new upgrade has certainly done wonders for many people and it makes people feel closer to one another this way.

Yes, technology has once again taken its step into the new era. From the simple IRC and ICQ, to such a great improvement in Windows Live Messenger, it sure is unbelievable how people can create and even improve similar chatting programs to what it is today. The basic functions of every chat system is still intact, but there are alot more other user-friendly functions and gadgets which helps to make our social life so much more perfect. Now, there is this E-buddy which is a web messenger that functions like MSN messenger. It does not require us to download it, it can be used and shut down anytime as and when we want. This is convenient for people who just goes online using an outside computer with no MSN, he/she need not waste the time to download. It is also a high popularity amongst students as most computers in Singapore's schools do not allow students to download anything besides surfing the net. In years to come, we can see interactive internet system such as Stickam making its way to popularity. In this blog entry, I have bring all of you down the road and 'experience' the evolution of the internet chatting systems. Who knows if anything new and interesting may be created in the later years? We shall all wait and find out!

ReFeReNcEs:

History of the Internet. (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:00pm, January 27, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Internet&amp;oldid=103255177

MIRC. (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:15pm, January 27, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MIRC&oldid=103094950

mIRC. (1995-2006). "What is IRC?” Retrieved 02:02pm, January 27, 2007 from http://www.mirc.com/

ICQ. (2007, January 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:57, January 27, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ICQ&oldid=102904759

MSN Messenger. (2007, January 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:31pm, January 27, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MSN_Messenger&oldid=102749081

The Perception of Beauty...

2007-01-20T10:03:00.000+08:00

Dove - Evolution

Hmm, I have a sudden inspiration to write after I saw this certain clip from you tube.

Notice how the girl started out as a plain Jane next door, and with all the makeup and hair do, she looked almost different. However, the advertiser was not satisfied with the outcome and went to photoshop the image of the model to make her look perfect and flawless. This ad does have a hidden meaning, doesn't it? No one really knew what was hidden behind the media, everything seemed to be so glamorous, but we are fooled by what we see. No wonder our image of beauty is distorted, look at what they did to the original photo in the ad! It kind of struck me now that those beauties we see on advertisements might have their image photoshoped as well, misleading us to believe that's what we'd become if we use this, or buy this, or do that. This shows that we have always been victimized by the media because our mentality and concept of a certain issue is always being distorted by what we see or hear.

The First Assignmentzz

2007-01-17T13:11:00.000+08:00

HELLO THERE!!

Lolx, I've been shopping for blogskin this couple of days and well..I have narrowed down to using this one..geez I hope you have a sense of humor about it and find it cute instead of offending...that's what most students really think yeah? Come on, I should be given credit for such a perfect blog skin *grinzZ*

Okay, it's a bit weird I'm actually writing about myself....should this entry be expressed in a spontaneous and casual way or in a formal way? Well, what the hey, I'd start off with my name. My full name is Banh Yong En. This year, I'd be turning 21, one more month to adulthood...woo hoo! Right, nothing to get excited over aging. I'm just a normal teenage girl who enjoys shopping and hanging out with friends as much as others do. I'm not all nuts about the interent but yeah, I can't live with out. It would be weird not to check emails or friendster everyday. I just got to know what's happening around the world and internet is the place where I can find what I need. I don't surf the net much, the usual websites I go to are hotmail, friendster, my friends' blogs, yahoo, the normal ones. I do check out websites like jobstreet, jobsdb and jobscentrl alot when it was the school holidays. They advertised high paying temporary jobs once in a while and it's on a first come first serve basis (provided you are qualified as well).

Hmm, I don't have many special abilities at the top of my mind now. I did mention I love to sing and draw. I was in the choir for 6 years, I wouldn't call that a special ability, that is my interest. For drawing, I had that interest since young, I have a certain knack for drawing cartoons but I never did further pursue that area of profession. Yep, I'm pretty normal, no special psychic powers to move stone, move mountain or what so ever. I guessed that's all you need to know about me..

I hope this course could widen my scope in the internet field because I feel that most people only know how to surf the internet but not learn about the internet. I think it'd be cool *not boring I hope* to learn and discover more. =)

P.S. I'm a movie and sitcom maniac as well...so yeah...you can figure I'm an ultimate couch potato. =p

Presenting yours truely~!!lolx