Internet, the new dumping grounds

Lo and behold, I mis-clicked my gmail account and found my long lost blog. A blog for some college assignment that if it weren't for google, I would have failed. Wait now that I have gotten my cert they can't do anything to me right?

So this blog may or may not get a second breath of life. Most likely I will just use this selfishly and dump whatever I feel like dumping without a care about the world. If I somehow manage to get rich and never have to work another day any more, i'll give more thought to posting something more ............ intelligent.

So here ends the 2 cent I have. Content wise, there is a new club opening called Lust KL, or what everyone will call it Lust. Not sure why they want to add in KL in the official name since well, who is going to actually use it. I got some friends going over today so I am going to join them, the free-flow part got my undivided attention long enough for my brain to register that its something good.

I am just going to dump their poster and FB link so if there is anyone (yeah right) that reads it could gleem more info on it.

The Home Stretch

The experience gain from creating this weblog has been immeasurable. It has been a learning experience and the research into current publishing trends really opened my eyes. It also manages to change my mindset as in the case of the Wikipedia entry. Never really knew that it was so reliable before and now I can tell that to a lecturer of mine who hates Wikipedia.

Along the process of creating this blog, the lesson that really strikes me was Schriver’s theories on web design and hyperlink usage. This really is convenient to setup links allowing readers to shortcuts all over the place. Convenient alone should triumph the whole print vs online debate, hypertext and interlinking sure beats flipping pages and going after books after books.

Nielsen’s advice for web writing was also taken to heart as web writing should be as concise, scannable, and objective. However I am not used to web writing for an audience on an academic subject which is graded academically so forgive me if my text sounds cryptic. For some weird reasons, cryptic text seems to be able to score a good grade from personal experiences. Writing should always cater to the audience, only for this blog the audience which carries more weight is my lecturer.

Blogging is truly a wonderful tool where anyone can post just about anything at all. No wonder there are so many splogs and garbage blogs floating around the web. Instead of ‘Internet, the new media’ it probably reflects it better if its change into ‘Internet, the new dumping grounds’.

If anything, this experience solidifies my stance that bloggers should always blog for a reason and purpose. As long as it serves a reason however public or personal, then the blog has achieve an objective. Of course if the subject matter is serious or sensitive then bloggers should have their proper sources and citations.

Breaking the virtual and reality barrier

Ever felt like reliving your life all over again? Wished you could have remade your choices on some life changing decision? Trying to change over into a new leaf effortlessly? Well tough nuts, you can however do it in a virtual world, a virtual universe known as Second Life.

Leading a double life
More and more people are being drawn into the virtual world of second life, and for good reasons too. "Second Life is no more a game than the Web is a game. It's a platform," says John Lester, 39, of Somerville, Linden's community and education manager. The unique of Second Life is that the virtual world is boundless, almost anything and everything can be done provided the user follow a set rules to prevent it from spiraling into chaos.

According to Sege who publish this article in Boston Globe, even companies are venturing inside Second Life to sell their product. “Top Second Life fashionistas earn $50,000 to $75,000 a year”, says Wagner James Au, whose New World Notes blog chronicles Second Life.

Protest Staged in Second Life

Virtual reality.
As companies venture into Second Life, its effects on the real world are quite profound as well. In China, another virtual world is being setup known as Entropia Universe that is catered towards the Chinese, would create almost 10,000 jobs from the initial market penetrating strategy. Once the virtual have entrenched itself even more jobs would be available. (Simpson, 2007)

Top brand are also going in virtual worlds although their primarily intentions are not profit. “Second Life is a micro economy and there is no real-life brand that's here to make money. It is an excellent platform for building relationships, cementing brands and building consumer loyalty - yet few real-life brands are doing those things correctly in Second Life,” Cork-based Sabrina Dent said.

Real life laws are also being change by some government to allow them to exact legal right of virtual properties. According to James Harkin, a writer for Financial Times, “An American lawyer and virtual real-estate speculator on Second Life filed a lawsuit against Linden Lab for confiscating some of his virtual property.” Of course with the extension of legal power come with it a drawback, “People who take cash out of virtual economies are already required to report their incomes to the Internal Revenue Service in America.” He adds.

Clothing store in Second Life

Break the boundaries
Not as high tech as some movies life Matrix portray it to be, but virtual reality is already being develop and its success could perhaps lead to something like the Matrix. It would be awesome if that could develop in my life time cause I am dying to try out time-stopping-action moves.

Second life and other virtual worlds could have the potential to alter the way the internet is use. Instead of merely seeing text, videos, picture and all the other things in the internet, they could provide all the information we extract from the web using virtual avatar which allow people all over the world to interact while surfing.





References
1. Harkin, F, 2007. Virtual style? In another life. Viewed on 8 June 2007 at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/733d2398-05a6-11dc-b151-000b5df10621.html

2. Harkin, J, 2006. Get a (second) life. Viewed on 8 June 2007 at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cf9b81c2-753a-11db-aea1-0000779e2340.html

3. Sege, I, 2006. Leading a double life. Viewed on 8 June 2007 at http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/10/25/leading_a_double_life/

4. Simpson, G, 2007. China's virtual plans are out of this world. Viewed on 8 June 2007 at http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044246,62019275,00.htm

The end of Internet Radio?

For years internet radio have been establish and thriving but all that may come to a pass soon. A disaster that would perhaps lay down the final blow upon an entire business class.

Royalty price hike
According to this article written by, Daniel Mcswain for Radio and Internet Newsletter, “The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate”. The new pricing would simply kill off small and medium size webcaster.

"This royalty structure would wipe out an entire class of business: Small independent webcasters such as myself & my wife, who operate Radio Paradise. Our obligation under this rate structure would be equal to over 125% of our total income.” Said Radio Paradise's Bill Goldsmith.

Radio Paradise is arguably the most successful webcaster in its category and the new rate would cost them 150% to 200% of their income from the web radio.

The End is Nigh
Webcasters are contemplating of taking their operations overseas, out of the CRB's reach allowing them to maintain their business and not go under. There really isn’t a way out for the small and medium as the price hike won’t allow them to survive and charging advertises more isn’t an option as they tend to focus on large, high traffic webcasters like Yahoo! (Kharif, 2007)

Hammering the last nail in the coffin, the increase rates are effective retroactively in 2006 although the CRB ruling was passed in 2007. Suddenly, smaller webcaster are already in debt and might face bankruptcy. Even the bigger web radio such as AOL Radio Network might face problem now that they face a USD 20 million dent in their treasury.

So who benefits from it?
Nobody, absolutely nobody benefits from the death of smaller and medium size web radios, well perhaps the ego’s of RIAA. The promotion of niche music and new and upcoming bands will stop as smaller web radio become extinct and would actually lower the amount of royalty being paid.

Not only that but web radio also serve as a market place where the public can get more information on an artist which they like. Web radio often serve as proxies that help sell more records, according to Doc Seal, writer for Linux Journal, “You'll get album cover art, links to the artist's website, tour info, and much more, including six different ways to buy the song.”

“I'm sure I'll continue listening to music stations from the U.K., the Netherlands, France, Japan and elsewhere. But unless we unscrew this latest decision, there is little hope for continuing to listen to music stations from the U.S. They have been, essentially, outlawed.” – Bill Goldsmith

Their only hope, that an appeal to the CRB would work before the 15 July 2007, the day the ruling is enforced.





References

1. Bray, H, 2007. Royalty hike could mute Internet radio. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/03/14/royalty_hike_could_mute_internet_radio/

2. Kharif, O, 2007. The Last Days of Internet Radio?. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070307_534338.htm

3. Mcswain, D, 2007. Webcast royalty rate decision announced. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/index.shtml

4. Searls, D, 2007. Internet Radio on Death Row. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000196

Malaysian Bloggers under fire.

It would seem that the government is trying to control all the information flow in Malaysia negating the freedom the people. In the wake of the governments attempts of spreading their tentacles to grip everything and control everything.

New law in the making.
A move by the government is trying to get bloggers to register and identifying themselves. According to this article by The Star, a legistration might be passed requiring all Malaysian bloggers to register with the authorities to curb he spread of negative or malicious content on the Internet.

The move is aimed at empowering the Defamation Act, Sedition Act and various laws within Malaysia to limits the freedom of speech and human rights. According to Ahirudin Attan of Rocky's Bru, the move is in fact a form of controlling what Malaysians were writing online. “This violates the Government's no-censorship policy with regards to the Internet,” he said.

The Malaysian Mentality
According to Marina Mahathir, Malaysian politicians are the only ones who makes such a fuss about blogs. All this is generated due to bloggers allegations of high-powered hanky-panky and instead of proving ones innocent, politicians choose to divert attention by creating doubt in people's minds about the Internet in general and bloggers in particular.

“The objective of this is possibly to allow for any allegations that surface on the Net to be pooh-poohed as just some fanciful stories, and of no need for any attention.” She said.

Already the government controls the mainstream media to a point where criticism of the government rarely shows up, its always from their perspective unless the public are aware of the problem and is vocal about it. An example of their control would be the gag order for all press to not publish any speech made by Dr. Mahathir which attacks the government. (Ooi, 2006)

Blogging Community
In a separate article of The Star, over 40 Malaysian bloggers have come together and form an alliance as the government accuses bloggers as irresponsible. “The alliance aimed to protect the rights of bloggers and promote blogging in a responsible manner.” said Ahirudin.

Former MP Datuk Ruhanie Ahmad said “The Government should not label bloggers as anti-Government because the views aired by them were mostly relevant and should be taken into consideration.”

Freedom of Speech? Rest in pieces
The move taken by the government is in directly violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, which states the following, ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’

The government will keep oppressing our rights until, well I personally don’t see an end to it as the government is all powerful. Unlike the western countries where rights and liberties are hold at the utmost importance, here anything that threaten the governments solid grip is going to face the law. The problem isn’t with the new things and circumstances which crops out now, it’s with the solid foundation of laws that allows the government to jail people with impunity.





References
1. Ooi, J, 2006. Chief editors summoned. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://www.jeffooi.com/2006/06/chief_editors_summoned.php

2. Mahathir, M, 2007. A blog is no e-surat layang. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/3/28/itedit/20070328165303&sec=itedit

3. The Star Online, 2007. Bloggers may have to register. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/4/5/technology/20070405153418&sec=technology

4. The Star Online, 2007. Bloggers form grouping. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/4/6/nation/17370655&sec=nation

5. United Nations, 1998. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Viewed on 7 June 2007 at http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

Attack of the Splogs!

The newest thing in the offensive lineup of spam. Cashing in on the big money of online advertising, people are now setting up fake blogs called ‘splogs’ to lure people to it and earn money. The annoying mechanism that sucks up internet user’s time, bandwidth and even slowing down search engines.

The age of Spam, Spamalanche
This article by The Guardian illustrates the situation properly, clearing stating that splogs have no value content and frustrate users by infesting the search results. Splogs which are often create by automatic scripts or programs are filling blogger, which ironically is owned by the biggest search engine, Google.

"Spam blogs cost Google money both on the hosting and infrastructure side for Blogger as well on the AdSense side with spam prevention," said Jason Goldman, product manager for Blogger.

According to The Guardian, “Yet this is a battle Google will not win. There are always people who see the internet as a money-making tool. Just as spammers rapidly adapt to anti-spam measures, the sploggers are learning fast, too.”

David Kesmodal, a writer for The Wall Street Journal Online explained that splogs earn money by ripping off content from other bloggers and then filling space up with advertisement that have some relevance to the content they rip off. They re laced with popular keywords allow they to show up frequently on searches.

There isn’t much a person could do with the obvious plagiarism of splogs besides getting a lawyer to sue them to oblivion, if they can find the culprit of the splogger which is often impossible as they hide behind proxies. (Stepforth, 2005)

An example of Splog

What can we do?
As splogs threaten to bury the internet, users often find that there is really isn’t much they can do. Best way is to be vocal and demand that those with power and authority to take action (Lee, 2005).

Fighting back require internet users to report splogs when they find it to their host and hopefully the host will delete it (Carton, 2006) However how many people actually use their time to report them to the proper channels so that they can be removed. Furthermore, a single script create 13,000 splogs, let me emphasize on the single script part (Lee, 2005). Users would spend a lot of time to combat splogs while they are being created automatically, it just doesn’t add up.

Splogger software

Money drives the world

Realistically though there isn’t much that we can do about it. As long as people can make profit from doing this, it will be done one way or another. Just like the piracy, it will be a never ending war of technology as both will try to outdo the other. Just the entry on ‘Big Bucks in Blogging’, money will drive people to develop more fake blogs as the market prove more and more lucrative.





References
1. Carton, S, 2006. Fighting the Damage of Splogs. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3595536

2. Kesmodal, D, 2005. 'Splogs' Roil Web, and Some Blame Google. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112968552226872712-a60HA16WosKoP_LNbwPAkLZQQJE_20061018.html?mod=public_home_us

3. Lee, N, 2005. How to Fight Those Surging Splogs. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/10/69380

4. Pollit, M, 2005. Cashing in on fake blogs. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1643774,00.html

5. StepForth SEO News Blog, 2005. Splogs + Scraping + AdSense = Fraud. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2005/10/splogs-scraping-adsense-fraud.php

Big Bucks in Blogging

Blogging are now emerging as the new medium for advertisers to spread their message. Gone were days that pop-up ads annoyed us while we surf. As blogs gain more and more momentum, advertising agency are homing in on blogs to spread their brainwashing messages.

Local industry
According to this article by Lee, who works for The Star, the local advertising industry are only beginning to start homing in on blogs as a medium for advertising with the forming of 2 specialize blog advertising agencies, Nuffnang and Advertlets.

While in Malaysia the market is still in its infancy, however there are already professional bloggers who quit their day job and generate income solely from blogging. "Some of these bloggers who blog for a living own five or six blogs on different subjects – with each bringing in about several thousand a month, they can earn a cumulative of RM20,000 to RM30,000 monthly," Gareth Davies said.

Speed bumps
The problem that makes advertiser skeptical however is that advertising in blogs is a form of narrow-casting while they prefer to advertise in broadcasting. To overcome this problem, bloggers have band together to form a network and change blogs to a form of broadcasting where it can reach millions of people. (Cole, 2005)

“At the moment Asia's blogosphere is primarily driven by social connections, people wanting to have their own corner of cyberspace where they can express themselves with their network of family and friends.” Said Alex Stewart, Director of Microsoft's Online Services Business

Malaysia Boleh!
The growth of local companies tapping into the internet advertising market is an excellence sign as the market is dominated mostly by US conglomerates such as Google and Yahoo (Olsen, 2005). With the forming of our own local blogging advertising companies, hopefully we would be able to compete in the international market one day.

Malaysian bloggers should try and milk the growth advertisements in blogs as its would allow our industry to grow. Not only would it allow people to earn a side income by blogging, it would also allow current bloggers to write the things they usually write about without the temptation of selling out content to earn a side income.

“It is a service by Malaysian bloggers, for Malaysian bloggers.” – Kenny Sia, Malaysian blogger





References
1. Cole, J, 2005. Perspective: Blogs: The next big thing for advertisers?. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://news.com.com/Blogs+The+next+big+thing+for+advertisers/2010-1071_3-5721838.html

2. Lee, C, 2007. Blogging and big bucks. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/5/29/itfeature/17847964&sec=itfeature

3. Microsoft, 2006. Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE=

4. Olsen, S, 2005. Yahoo to launch blog ad network. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://news.com.com/Yahoo+to+launch+blog+ad+network/2100-1024_3-5815551.html

Wi Wi Wi Wiki Wikipedia

Savior the knowledge bestowed upon mortal *coughstudentscough* by the honourable, the one and only, Wikipedia. There are no words that could truly describe my gratification towards Wikipedia as it has made my life and countless others easier. However with that being said, Wikipedia is not a reliable source of reference because any Tom, Dick or Harry and type in any form of garbage and pass it on as facts.

An article by Jakubovitz and Paul stated the problem with Wikipedia is that information are constantly being made up and posted on Wikipedia. Although Wikipedia have a counter balance in the form that “…site's users, who all have editing privileges, ensure that false entries are quickly fixed.” Because of this lingering doubt of the credibility of Wikipedia, proper academical works that uses Wikipedia as a source are looked down and discourage or ban for college citation.

   

Wikipedia, full of lies?
However is Wikipedia truly that unreliable? According to BBC, a research conducted by the British journal “Nature” found very few differences in Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. According to them, “The free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows.”

“Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia," reported Nature. However it did noted that entries in Wikipedia are poorly written in comparison to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Recently, Wikipedia is gaining more acceptances among professors. According to Maxwell L. Child, who works for an university newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, “…some Harvard professors and teaching fellows have incorporated Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia, into their syllabi.” Believing that their student will be able to filter out reliable information within Wikipedia itself as it is very accessible and valuable tool for students.

My 2 cents
As for myself, I will stick to the fact that Wikipedia is in fact invaluable and the information provide can be a life safer. However I am also aware that not a lot of students are capable of filtering out which article is reliable and which isn’t so I don’t have a problem with lecturers not accepting Wikipedia as a source. Honestly, I believe that the true way to utilize Wikipedia is the references that they provide for reliable entries and those information are accepted.

We don’t have to beat the system, we students just need to work around it. For all it’s worth, LONG LIVE WIKIPEDIA! And hopefully Wikipedia will be reliable for lecturer to accept before I graduate.





References
1. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2005. Wikipedia survives research test. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4530930.stm

2. Child, M, 2007. Professors Split on Wiki Debate. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=517305

3. Jakubovitz, J & Paul, D, 2006. Wide World of WIKIPEDIA. Viewed on 6 June 2007 at http://media.www.emorywheel.com/media/storage/paper919/news/2006/04/21/News/Wide-World.Of.Wikipedia-1865022-page2.shtml

Spewing Insanity

Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting. Everyone have times where sanity fails them though it rarely happens logic doesn’t govern every aspect of our life. Here I will place all the little spurts of intelligence that I have. Rarely does my brain function sanely thus I save it all for academic works.

Purpose
This blog will discuss about the issues regarding publications and design that are happening around the world. Publication has now expanded so fast due to the pace of technology, thus it is important for students to know and be able to analyze these issues.

Target Audience
This will primarily be targeted towards students who have a need to know and learn about publication issues. Information here may also interest those who are in the industry though it will be presented in an academic form.

Blogs, the new icebreaker among the younger internet hooked generation.

The blogging phenomenon
Blogging have developed itself into a big craze in Asia. Blogging is a social phenomenon where people maintain and build their social connections and the express themselves. According to Microsoft, nearly half of those online in Asia have a blog. An alarming 50% of people regard blogs as a reliable news source showed in their research. However only a small amount of blog have high visitor to their site with 40% having less then 10 visitors a day.

Is personal blogging is a waste of time?
Well in general blogs aren’t viewed as a waste of time because people usually do it for a reason and feels gratified from blogging, thus making it rewarding for them to continue blogging. While most blogger are there to keep in touch with family and friends, there are other who uses blog to achieve some other objective like Jeff Ooi’s blog that provide Malaysian with more in-depth details about cover-up in Malaysia as mainstream media doesn’t cover them at all.

To me, blogging is last free medium in Malaysia which we are allowed to write whatever we want and however we want it. Every other channel is usually blocked due to political reasons and Malaysian inability to accept criticism, thus making the new media as our last resort to voice out. Blogs are as useful as the people who write them, making a very idea to generalize personal blogging as a waste of time.

Variations of blogging

• By media type

o Vlog (a video blog)
o Linklog (links to other sites)
o Sketchblog (portfolio or sketches
o Photoblog (a photo blog)
o Tumblelogs. (mixture of medias)

• By device

o Moblog (blogs for mobile phones)

• Genre

o Political blogs
o Travel blogs
o Fashion blogs
o Project blogs
o Splog (spamfest)
o Food blogs

Text blogs with images are still the dominant blogs types around however there are more and more vlogs appearing as technology continues to improve. Splogs are also on the rise as more and more people are trying to milk the new media for all its worth. According to Charles C. Mann, 56% of active english blogs are splogs and are compromising the effectiveness of search engines.

Blogging community

For many bloggers, the motivation to update their blogs are derived from the community of the blogosphere that they exist in. The community they formed bring people together and usually form a strong friendship due to the similarity they share. Some sites even help forms a community such as Petaling Street, it’s a Malaysian portal blog which bloggers updates it when they update their own site. Apart from bloggers who maintain their blogs for a family audience, most blogger belong to a certain community as a natural social circle expansion.

Print vs. Online

Writing for an online medium is quite different compared to print. Following the many thoeries of Jakob Nielsen, he basically says that web writing should concise, scannable, and objective. Which surprisingly is quite similar to writing a hard news story except for the language use. Both needs to be concise, short, simple, inverted piramid writing and credibility. Of course the similarities doesn’t extend towards other print writtings as though are usually longer and often have a tendency to play with words.

The only difference I notice is that the design of text placement is very different. Web writing consist of a lot of segments that divide the article to make easier for readers to locate the specific thing that they are looking for.

Another point to take note is that when writing on the internet, articles are catered to a huge audience as all sorts of people surf the net therefore it is very important to be able to write for people with varying level of interests. While it very difficult to write to such a large audience, multi-level writing captures the best web writing techniques into a logical layout process. (Wallace, 1999)


References
1. Mann, C, 2006. Spam + Blogs = Trouble. Viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/splogs.html

2. Microsoft, 2006. Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia. Viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE=

3. Nielsen, J, 1997. How Users Read on the Web. Viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

4. Wallace, N, 1999. Web Writing for Many Interest Levels. Viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.e-gineer.com/v1/articles/web-writing-for-many-interest-levels.htm