Entry 6: Maps, Compasses and protractors?

Ever felt lost? Like extremely lost? Never fear! The maps and compasses are here! WHAT?! ARE YOU FROM THE STONE AGE?!

Just a decade ago, maps, protractors and compasses were used extensively to guide us through places and travels. But now, with the introduction of Google Maps, you can literally just click your way to you desired destination! Here’s an introduction of the amazing Google maps! Something that I used extremely often as well!

So what is Google maps all about? Here’s a detailed description of Google maps by our dear and reliable online encyclopaedia Wikipedia!

“Google Maps (formerly Google Local) is a web-mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free (for non-commercial use), that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner for traveling by foot, car, or public transport and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world. Google Maps satellite images are not in real time; they are several months or years old.”

There you go! A simple yet detailed description of Google maps all in one paragraph. And that’s the end of this entry! Hahaha… I’m just kidding. Here’s my personal experience with what I consider a godsend of an Internet tool.

I run a lot. But in order to do some proper running with a sense of direction and how far I ran, I needed something useful and user-friendly that could aid in my quest to find the perfect running rout around my area. So that was when I turned to Google maps! With Google maps I could map out all sorts of running routes and according to my different preference in distance and elevation in roads (well the elevation in roads were up to my own personal knowledge of the area, but they will probably implement that feature within Google maps soon, I hope!) here’s a few visual aids to show you the amazing Google maps and the easiness to plan out a route! So here’s an example of how I choose my own route, and this is real! It wasn’t done just for this blog; I actually do use this route!!

First go to Google maps itself. Here’s the link : http://maps.google.com/

Now type in the address of you choice as shown in the red circle above. Naturally mine would be Toa Payoh since I live there.

In the red circle, you can type in a specific location for you starting and endpoint of running route. For me, since I just want to run a huge circle around Toa Payoh, I’ll just type in the same address for both “A” and “B”.

So as you can see, I typed in the same address and this is what you get, shown by the black arrows. The blue line between the two green pointers is your route that you can click to hold and drag around.

So this is what happens after you play around with dragging the route; as shown in the red circle!

Viola! I have created the running route of my choice! A mini circle around half the estate of Toa Payoh! How do I know how long this distance is? Simple! They show you the distance as well as indicated by the red circle!

EASY RIGHT? Now go create your own routes, or just play around and have fun with Google maps! Google should pay me for this promotion that I’m doing for them.

Entry 5: Instant connection on the surface, anywhere, anytime

Technology has made leaps and bounds over the past decade. With these advancements, it has not only affected and improve our lives, its has wormed it’s way into every single aspect of life. In this day and age, without technology, life will literally just slow down to a standstill. The thought of this is mind-blogging. As I sit here and type, it makes me ponder over an interesting thought, that without a portable technological device, I would not be able to leave my house to sit comfortably at a Starbucks coffee house with a nice cup of coffee and do my work. Nor would I be able to refer to any information that I require as and when I want and I would just look like a lost sheep on the streets of Singapore! In addition, I would not be able to revise for exams, or do my work, or hand in assignments, or do my research or or or…. The list goes on!!! By now you should have an idea of where this topic is leading. Education! E-learning! Before I continue, just sit and think, how would you be able to EFFICIENTLY AND PROFICIENTLY progress our academia learning without technology? This is why the term “digital divide” exist. There have always been issues brought up in news about countries that do not have access to technology that inhibits their people’s learning and education. But that’s another topic altogether. Anyways, can you see how important technology is now? Without it, connectivity will be lost!

With this, people have always been improving technology so as to achieve better connectivity and sharing. The aim of the game in this technological era of ours is to strive for better inter-connectivity, because knowledge is shared and passed between each other. That’s the way people learn best. That’s why we go to schools to attend lectures. :) So without further ado, let me introduce you to a groundbreaking design: the Microsoft Surface Technology!

Here’s an introduction of what the Microsoft Surface Technology is all about!

With this kind of technology, only more opportunities and improvements can follow in its wake. Just imagine every school being fitted with this “table”, with students being able to communicate easily and efficiently with their teachers and being able to do group discussion and edit and work on projects and consolidate ideas with the simple sift of you fingers! Here’s a video to show you the visual wonders of Microsoft Surface being integrated into a classroom.

So can you see how the two go side by side so well? Quoting Microsoft: “Microsoft Surface and education are like peanut butter and jelly. Microsoft Surface is like that with a number of markets, but there's something about kids interacting with a computer in a very accessible way that seems right.”

In the near future, once this technology is available at an affordable price, education will be taken to a new level. Basically, it will change the face of education and how people learn and interact with each other. Wouldn’t that be awesome? :)

Entry 4: Privacy and ethical issues unique to e-business

The whole concept of e-business is quite difficult to understand, especially for me. While some may view the e-business environment as effortless, I am not surprised that others do not find it complex and problematic!

In this day and age, business has evolved and adapted itself to the wonders of modern technology as most businesses today is conducted through computers, wires, and the Internet. This has transformed the way we perform purchases and transactions and the new unique issues brought abut by this form of doing business. Ethical and privacy issues in e-business have changed the face of consumerism compared to the traditional storefront business where issues were more straightforward and much simpler!

You see, unique of e-business, the private information of individual consumers and other business are protected and enforced more considerably. Along with this is the cost of actually maintaining this privacy as it cost more to maintain privacy with e-commerce security measures compared to a traditional storefront security. For example if you have a load of private computerised information, wouldn’t it be easier to just store them in a computer with the click of a mouse rather than print out copious amount of paper information (in turn destroying the environment!) and storing them in a physical safe? Personally, I would rather spend more money protecting the privacy of consumer information on computers with electronic security programs!

Ethics covers a whole wide range of topics in e-business. It’s close ties to privacy for the e-business organisations and especially for its consumers. Organisations have made it a point to ensure that their consumer’s information is well protected and in strict confidence. UNIQUE to e-business, consumer information is EXCHANGED AND PROTECTED ELECTRONICALLY in secure websites and databases. In addition, it is our duty to make sure that the information that we provide is truthful.

The list goes on on the dos and don’ts regarding the ethics and privacy issues in e-business. But the core requirement or for lack of a better word, the core focus of these issues is naturally the protection of information of it’s customers, other e-business organisations and the organisation itself. Without this, it can lead to identity theft and whole load of legal issues.

Entry 3: Twitter vs Facebook

Twitter and Facebook, both hugely successful social medias and a driving force in today’s society, and the huge role that it plays in connectivity between individuals.

Despite what many may think, the phenomenal of social networking can still be considered to be in its infancy stage. People assume that since these social networking sites are such big and successful companies, one can easily forget that it was just a couple of years ago when these sites first ventured into the infinite space of the Internet. With its current exponential growth, it’ll make a person wonder how big these sites can become 10 years down the road. Or will one take over the other? Or will they co-exist side by side peacefully without hampering each other’s growth and popularity? There are so many questions concerning Twitter and Facebook. Questions that currently can’t be given a straight answer. Because after all, like I said, both companies are still growing. Only time can tell what is the future of these sites. So, right now all we can do is compare and contrast between both sites and just predict which will fare better than the other.

Twitter Pros

· Easy to navigate and update, link to and promote anything

· Reach far beyond your inner circle of friends

· One feed pools all users; anyone can follow anyone else unless blocked

· Pure communication tool, rapid responsiveness

· You don’t have to be logged in to get updates; you can just use an RSS reader

· Very interactive, extensible messaging platform with open APIs

· Many other applications being developed (Twitterific, Summize, Twhirl, etc.)

· Potential SMS text messaging revenue from wireless networks (although Twitter states they are not currently getting any cut)

· Potential future advertising and/or enterprise subscription-based revenue streams

· With its “thin” overhead, Twitter is probably more scalable than Facebook, giving it a cost advantage

Twitter Cons

· Limited functionality; find people, send brief messages, direct replies

· Limited to 140 characters per update

· Not all people find it immediately useful

· Over-emphasis on follower counts

· Easily abused for spam and increasing the noise level

· Relatively smaller installed user base

· As yet no readily apparent monetization strategy

Facebook Pros

· Application mashup; find people, make connections, email, instant messaging, image/video sharing, etc.

· Most people can quickly grasp the value of connecting with friends, family and established contacts; some people report they use Facebook instead of email and IM

· More emphasis on deep connections with others vs. who has the most connections

· “True Friends” feature increases your transparency to selected connections; almost like having private and public profiles

· Huge, rapidly growing installed user base

· Inherit stickiness, third party applications, “gift giving” and personal data collection make Facebook a powerful advertising platform

Facebook Cons

· More difficult to navigate and update

· Requires investment of time to realize sustained benefit

· Opt in model requires a user to allow others to connect

· Less immediate responses; unless you stay logged on continually

· Overhead of mashup and “thick” applications could limit scalability, bloat cost structure

The future of social networking

Looking at all these pros and cons between Twitter and Facebook, while zealots may point to either one as being more superior, the truth is, that these social networking sites has both its disadvantages and advantages. Ultimately these sites are just in its essences communication tools! So depending on how individuals want to broadcast their messages to others, it will depend on which type of medium they prefer to use! Naturally, both will continue to evolve and morph as users find new ways to extract value and either network may or may become a long term winner in the rapidly evolving social networking space. Because at the end of the day, the site that has the better profitable, scalable and sustainable business model than the other, will naturally overcome it’s competitors, just like Google did during the dotcom era.

Entry 2: social media + interactions = travelling the world FOC

What is the definition of social media?

“Social media are media used for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.”

- Wikipedia

See the relevance? Just by giving you guys the definition of social media, I am already tapping into one type of social media, which is Wikipedia and how are you guys reading this in the first place? Through another type of social media! Blogspot.com! Now can you see how interconnected we are in this century and how our lives have become so interwoven into social media! To the point where just by looking at our generation today, it is as if our lives depend on it! But what if that is not just a far fetched statement but actually true? Think about it…

The first thing you do in the morning when you wake up is to check your Twitter account, followed by you Facebook account. Whenever you want to research and look up for some info for class, you immediately type Wikipedia.com into your URL. Whenever you feel like watching generic entertainment on the Internet, you go to YouTube. With all these advancements made in technology, the connectivity between social media and us just keeps getting closer, tighter and stronger. What if it takes over our lives? That’s a scary thought to keep in consideration.

BUT…

Lets move on to something more positive. An example about how social media was used effective and social manner. I recently discovered about a seasoned traveler who through the use of his website, managed to travel the world for free!

Ramon Stoppelenburg

Is a world traveler and a Dutch author who in the beginning of 2001 started the website www.letmestayforaday.com. By using the Internet for requesting a place to stay and help with food and drinks, he received 3,577 invitations from 77 countries. In exchange for the given hospitality he wrote an extensive daily report on his website before hitchhiking to his following location. The travels took Stoppelenburg through the Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, South Africa, Spain, Australia and Canada. Coverage by international media and the number of visitors to the website allowed Stoppelenburg to have everything sponsored: his website, clothing, camera, backpack, shoes and even his airline tickets.

Now imagine that? Just wishing I could do the same as well. Because I just want to travel the world too! All expenses paid! But back to the topic at hand.

So guys can you all see how helpful social media is? How influential it can become? And this happened almost a decade ago, can one actually fathom the growth that social media has gone through for the past ten years?! I cant… but if you can, please leave a comment below to share your thoughts!