Week 13 ( Summary)

Summary and Conclusion of COM125

Wow time sure passes so fast and here I am, from writing my first post on the introduction to the internet till my summary post on what I've learnt for this past few weeks. Didn't cross my mind that there are so many areas that this course can cover ><

• Power of the Internet
• Social Media
• Social Network Marketing
• Doing business on the internet
• Education on the internet
• Internet Tools
• Internet Security
• Multimedia (Virtual and Augmented Reality)
• Internet and Politics
• Internet and Journalism
• The Future of the Internet - The internet of things

Through this course we go from the observable things that we can presently experience and see to anticipation of what the future can bring us! I am able to visualise the awesomeness of the internet with its many tools available for us to make use of and either get entertainment from it or assist in our day to day lives.  I enjoyed this course and of course blogging in which I have not done so for so many years. Going back on blogger makes me miss blogging and realise that it is much more easier than when it was in the past with the need to memorise how to input in hyperlinks. Now it is just so easy and it makes doing my blogging assignment not a burden but something like an online diary that I truly enjoy :) Thank you for accompanying me on my COM 125 journey :)

Week 12

The Future of the Internet - Innovators and innovations

Though till now, we are still at Web 2.0, it doesn't hurt to envision what is coming in the future! To imagine what the future of the internet will bring us! It is actually filled with endless possibilities !
Before going to the future future, first, lets look at Web 3.0, the one that we can look forward to right away as it is coming to us soon!

Web 3.0
--> Moving on from Web 2.0, Web 3.0 is the Intelligent Web where technologies basically are able to think due to machine learning capabilities as well as machine reasoning. It is therefore predicted to be able to better serve human's needs as it can gather data base on our day to day interactions with the machine and from there remember our thinking pattern. For example, a microwave is able to determine the amount of time you usually set for a donut for example (like how i usually set it to 8 mins), it will automatically set that as its settings when I put a donut in the microwave.

We also learned about the term called the "Internet Of Things" which  by definition is known as the wireless network between objects, and this network will usually be wireless and self configuring. As mentioned in my example with the microwave above. From this, we can be prepared to experience the feeling of connection in just about anything (of course by connection i mean through the WIFI)

However though the future may be exciting and all with literally the environment interacting with us, there is still some causes for worry as there can be some issues with privacy where with information being available everywhere, its hard to filter the information so that only some people can see it. Example, the shopping scenario where "when entering the doors, scanners will identify the tags on out clothing"( wow to me that is kinda intrusive as some people wouldn't want even the machines to know what size of clothes that they are wearing.

Therefore there will be two greatest challenges
1) Privacy and Security
2)Absence of governance

Yes, the future may be very interesting and awesome with the machines being intelligent enough to make our lives easier by collecting personal data from us, there may be greater problems of security arising out of it and in order to make Web 3.0 a pleasant change, we should think of the possible ways to get around these huge problem right now.

Week 11

Internet and Journalism!

For this week, we learnt more about how journalism and the internet is starting to get more and more intwined with each other :) Journalism by definition is the profession of reporting or photographing or editing news stories for one of the media. However, don't you agree that in the current world today, this definition is no longer relevant?

Behold - With the emergence of Web 2.0, Citizen Journalism is born! As a recap here, Web 2.0 is the "widely read-write web" where there is no longer solely published content, but also user generated content!



As seen from here, anybody will be able to see the shift towards the internet for news about the world, with traditional media sources experiencing a significant drop in viewership and readership. These statistics speak a lot in showing the gradual but significant shift from traditional media to internet journalism, where probably because of the benefit of fast news provided by the internet that caused people to prefer it more. Oh wells, whatever the case, internet journalism is here to stay :)

Internet shaping the future of internet journalism

• Internet Journalism have to meet the demand for fast and reliable news
• People expect free news as the sources where people can obtain the latest news is literally endless and uncontainable. (if a site requires that people pay a fee to view its content, it will only lose traffic) --> definitely not a wise thing to do
• Internet journalism as a area where people can obtain "more reliable" news about a certain situation. Citizen journalism is free from the propaganda by the government who frequently interferes into what news is broadcasted through traditional media 

How can citizen participate and contribute in the betterment of society through citizen journalism?

• By being able to provide a fair and bias free assessment of the situation so as to help provide the public with good quality news.
• Offer up to date news (e.g: Tweet whenever something happens to inform others as soon as possible in a situation where quick reaction is essential--> e.g. a fire

Week 10

Internet & Politics

The power and limitation of the internet for political campaigning

POWER

Politics is a sensitive topic to discuss but lets just get started :) It is easy to identify the main reason for the power of the internet as a tool used for political campaigning. The obvious answer being due to the amount of reach that internet can provide. As evident in the most recent political party campaign in singapore where the citizens of Singapore vote for the political party that they would like to run the country, possessing a social media account proved beneficial in helping people keep up with the news updates of that particular political party. As there will be new voters coming into the scene to vote(people are eligible to vote once they reach the age of 21), the bond between politics and the internet have to be even stronger as the new voters come from the younger generation who are mostly internet savvy and so, the internet is also where they tend to get most of their information from. With the great reach that the internet can provide, the internet is therefore influential in helping people make decisions on which political party to vote, based on what the people saw on social media.

In addition to this, as internet is everywhere, it is also more convenient for the public if political parties are active on social networking sites as just through a smartphone, one can easily get in touch with the updates and also the basic summaries of talks should they not be able to go to the talk in person.

LIMITATION

However, there are also limitations such as the possibility of a lack of credibility. There seems to be a kind of negative connotation in regards to things online as with the ease of editing, information on the internet tend to be rated as less credible in comparison to information that is being conveyed through face to face or traditional media. However this can be easily solved if the political parties are able to convince the public that it is official updates from them as well as maybe use a variety of media, both traditional and non traditional media to transmit information to the public.

Week 8/9

Entertainment, Virtual Reality



I just had to share this video when showed some clips on Virtual Reality in class! The one with goggle like thing to wear on?  :) The members of TVXQ were given the device to try on and were firstly presented with the haunted house experience--> going along with the new song that they are promoting, Scream, as the theme song for Sadako the movie! They also tried the roller coaster experience as seen in the video shown in class! This is really interesting as just through the use of technology, one is able to be immersed in the particular atmosphere and feel as though they are really in that environment without being physically present there! There you have it, the power of technology! :D

Week 7

Internet Viruses

Oh wow, week 7's learning is really something that is very familiar to me. I myself had been a victim of certain computer viruses, mostly the Trojan virus. That unfortunately usually comes up when I do a virus scan on my computer. I seriously had no idea how the virus actually intruded into my computer when I did not access unsecure sites at all. Though i do know the name of the virus, i did not know what it really is till this lesson as I did not bother previously to actually search what it is. It really seems to have a playful personality as it masquerades itself to look benign when it is actually malicious. Seems kind of a two-faced computer virus. Thankfully it just sticks to itself and does not replicate itself. One trojan virus is already destructive enough and difficult to handle.

Another shocking thing learnt through lesson time and also the group presentation is on the usefulness of the anti virus software. I had always assumed before this that anti virus actually works well in helping me rid my computer of viruses. However I did not think that the anti virus companies could actually have been the one who continues releasing more and more dangerous computer viruses so as to keep their business going! This is just so scary to even think about. I really hope that this is not the case as the present computer viruses are already damaging enough and no one needs more. Hope someone does something to solve this issue sooner or later before the problem gets out of hand :(

Week 6

Video Uploading~Evolution Of TVXQ



Instead of exploring Google services, as this is my first time using iMovies to make a video clip, I thoroughly explored its functions and learnt skills such as cutting the parts of the video that i wanted, putting breaks in between clips to ensure a smooth transition to the next, detaching audio and replacing it with the audio that i wanted etc..

Anyways, I present you with the end product of my first try in video making:) What better way than to use my favourite clips from my favourite band? I had so much fun making it even though it took me quite some time to make sense of things and how exactly does iMovie work , but i eventually did in the end and it is really an achievement for me who don't really do such things ( I prefer just watching videos that others upload than upload it personally) :D Enjoy watching the video! Presenting the Evolution Of TVXQ! From their debut song in 2003 to their 4th album in 2008, Mirotic! :)

Week 5

E Learning 

I really love the idea of e learning :) (partly it is because I get to stay at home to do it) Well, that being just part of it, I think that, learning should not only take place in the classroom as it will be very suffocating to just learn the so called "textbook details". What we learn will only be so limited as it is only what is being said in the textbook and nothing else. However, by the time we graduate and get out into the working world, are those information that we learnt during our study days still relevant? I am afraid not, looking at the rate the world is changing now.
E learning is more superior in a way that we can actually outsource from many sources to get the information we want, and from there get a more objective idea of it. In addition to this, we can also use youtube to search for educational videos that are being uploaded by fellow youtubers. My favourite being crashcourse and asapscience :) Search them and watch just one video. From there you should be able to tell the reason. They provide clear explanations on the subjects as well as included beautiful drawings and also good animation to make it more pleasant to look at and make learning more fun (far from the boring black and white writings commonly found in textbooks)

I guess the future digital classroom will be somewhat like e learning being made on a greater scale. People will mostly be siting behind their screens or if the Microsoft surface technology could be made into a bigger success, it will be cool if people could just touch a screen like thing that appears when we need it, and from there search for what we want to search just by a single touch. Something like this will be cool:) Learning will be made more convenient and easy. Hence encouraging more people to be educated

Speaking of Microsoft surface technology, I realised this is the technology that they used when they launched the Windows 8, which allows people to actually be able to touch the screen of the laptops and computers just like if it were a tablet. The idea seems cool but sadly, there were many bad reviews on it to the extent that I saw a link titled "which product launch was a bigger disaster" with Microsoft Surface being the one sadly. There is still a possibility of it being a success in the future though, Microsoft just have to pay attention to the criticisms of the current surface technology and find a way to improve it :)

Week 4

E Businesses 


The modern world today is a place where many things can be done on the internet, such as connecting with friends through social networking sites, as well as for entertainment purposes where one can easily go to YouTube to watch any video clips that they want :) Even businesses have got on the trend and set up sites to engage in e commerce. This proofs to be a strategic move as the internet is a huge platform and so the company can stand a chance to reach out to many customers, and therefore get more customers and more sales ! E commerce is now a popular thing but some companies does it better than others! Through a simple search on Google, I managed to find out some of the reasons as to why certain e business companies managed to succeed :)

1) It is important to ensure that the site is easily accessible and has eye catching design.

- A good presentation of the site always helps

This is to allow people to be able to scroll and explore your site without experiencing any confusion as to which button to click to find what they want, for example, the new arrivals and the items that are on discount.

For example, MyOwnBike's site is simple and easy to maneuveur, as there are only 5 basic buttons that are on the header that people can select from :)

2)Next, It is also essential that there is Flexible Pricing

-As the customers of online businesses are virtually everyone as anyone who surfs the net has a potential of getting on your site through surfing the net, having a flexible pricing is essential. This is so as to place your company in a competitive position and not have customers abandoning your site for another competitor's. Flexible pricing is especially important for e commerce due to the fact that there are different currencies used in different countries.One should therefore look out for the market pricing of the product and from there, price the products accordingly, taking into account those factors (different currency exchange, market price for the product, whether it is in demand etc..)

3) Present your prices well!

-As e commerce kind of takes away the middleman part, which is the sales person talking about the product to the customer, what is presented online is really important as that is basically all that potential customers see. Therefore pricing should be placed well. Example putting its as $2.00, instead of $1.99. Using round up numbers helps it to be easy on the eyes and hence more likely to get customers to want to buy the product.

This being said, i feel that in order to make e commerce a success, one must really spend time to think through many factors to try and place their company on a better light in the midst of so many other competitors who are all going onboard this e commerce platform to get more customers. Items to take special notice of ranges from the design and presentation of the website, the quick customer service (maybe an email address or the company hotline can be placed on the site), followed by the clean presentation of the prices of the products. These are just some of the factors, and though it seems a little intimidating, the amount of stuff to consider for an e commerce business to be successful, when one is able to get it all right, the rewards will definitely outweigh the cost :) So, why not give it a try? :)

Week 3

Social Media Marketing

For week 3, we learnt that social media marketing is an important strategic move that companies should adopt as not doing so will only cause them to be at the losing end. This is largely because, there is a already a significant shift from traditional media to the internet media environment. The statistics don't lie, from the media consumption chart that is in the notes give to us, it is predicted that by the year 2020, close to 90 hours per week will be spent on the internet. This is as compared to traditional television which is expected to be only reaching at about 35 hours per week. These statistics evidently shows to marketers that in order to capture the attention of the public, doing it on social media will help you to quickly access a large pool of people.

This being said, it also takes skill to do social media marketing as well, as seen by the fact that some companies succeeded but some unfortunately failed. Lets check out the good ones :)

The ones that SUCCEED ~ :) (referred to the Forbes 2014 list for this)

1) OREO :D

-> I did not know that OREO actually did participate in social media marketing. However a simple search for their Facebook and twitter account is all i need to find out why they are successful. They are witty in their style for social media marketing by catching people's attention through a sense of humour as well as beautiful images that get the point. Which is to try to get the viewer to buy their product-OREO!

An example(Taken from their twitter page):


Get the point? :D (This is temptation)

Their sense of humour as seen from :

If a cookie won’t load, try refreshing the pack once. #OreoTech

They really have their way to engage people and thus increase the desirability of their product. I absolutely loved it and may find myself following their twitter account :)


2) STARBUCKS

A simple trip to their twitter account will show you why it is worth following. This is because you will be updated on any offers and special events and it will definitely give you an advantage over your peers who do not follow. What can possible be better than having your favourite cup of coffee but at a much cheaper price than user? :) At time, there may even be giveaways ! Hence one can only benefit by following their twitter account :) There is currently around 6 Million followers and this shows how successful their social media marketing is :)


As seen by just this two examples, we can already tell the reason why they were successful. Both companies were able to somehow capture the attention of people to get them to desire to follow them to stay updated on their sales and promotions! There is evidence of attention grabbing as well as communication with the public to get them involved :)

Week 2

Social Media

In the world today, social media seems to be the centre of everything and so it is a huge loss if one does not participate in it, particularly businesses. Through social media, it is easy to attain effective group communication as it is a easily accessible platform. For example, through Facebook which most is found to be the most popular social media site for now with 1.317 billion monthly users! It is easily accessible in a way that people can access it through computer or an app on their smartphones, hence whether they are behind their desk or up and about, they will not lose out on any new information. There is hence effective group communication as with people being updated on any new updates there is information passing through, as well as going back in when they reply with their comments to the issue. Therefore, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are ideal sites for people to promote social change as the population is easily accessible (millions of people are using them) as well as its accessibility in terms of ease of use that helps to ensure that the target population stays updated on what you are campaigning for. Other than social networking sites, there is also the Social Content Networks such as RSS and Email subscribers and also groups and forums.

One of the companies that made the list for companies who uses social media successfully to promote their business is Zappos, an online shoe and clothing store. The company mostly involves itself on Facebook and encourages people to engage in a "like-like" relationship with Zappos so as to be able to gain access to exclusive content and possibly promotions and discounts. Through involving themselves in social networking sites, they are better able to serve the customers and portray an image of a company that is sincere in accepting feedback from the public.

Week 1

Introduction

Com 125 stands for the module for the "Introduction to the Internet" My reflections on this first week of class is as follows…

Honestly, when i first looked at what i am signed up for in fall 2014 semester, I was shocked to see this module. I guess at that point in time, complacency comes in as with the modern world that we are living in now, we are always in touch with technology. For example, through smart phones and tablets. Even the television is now internet enabled, the Smart Tv! Hence, with such situations, it did crossed my mind that we already know enough of the internet to not have a need to take this course. Especially when it is named as the "INTRODUCTION" to the internet. I thought that if there is really a need for this, we should learn something like "a deeper look" into the internet.

However,after the first week of class, I realised that I did learn something from this class.These things are mainly things that i had taken for granted without ever questioning it, such as the protocols for example, as i only know the acronyms without knowing the full term for it.

it is also interesting to see how the web have evolved from the static in Web 1.0 to the interactive and ability for content changing in Web 2.0. Plus, the prediction of how the future web will be is actually quite exciting :) Hence, i guess this module isn't as bad as i thought it will be :)