FUTUREEEEEEE

Hello! For my final Blog post, I've decided to use a video from YouTube to illustrate more about the future of Internet. Basically, it's about web 3.0. And I really like this video because of the animation, like it uses the form of sketches and I just tend to like this kind of animation because it entices me on how creative people are when they draw.

Anyway, do enjoy this video! :D

And goodbye to COM125 - Introduction to Internet. It was a great semester. See you Mr Abel Choy!

INTERNET IN MY FUTURE SEMESTER IN BUFFALO

This Spring 2011 semester is actually my last semester in SIM Campus. I'll be doing an internship in Summer 2011, thus I'll not be taking any courses. Then, I'll be heading over to Buffalo for Fall 2011, to complete my last semester before graduating.

So, in this post, I decide to write about how Internet will play a role in my life when I'm at

Buffalo during Fall 2011.

Although I'll only be staying in Buffalo for a period of 4months or so, I think I'll definitely be missing my family and friends in Singapore. So, with the wonderful Internet, I'll most certainly be able to Skype with my Mom, my boyfriend and friends. I guess it'll help lessen home sickness.

Also, the Internet will allow me to stay connected to Facebook. So I can just upload any photos or update my statuses to keep those who are interested posted on my situation there. Besides, I think I'll be cooking more often there. And so, I'll use my all time favorite Google to search for more recipes, or perhaps Email my Mom so I can cook some of the dishes that she usually prepares for me.

I guess Internet is probably the link for me to stay connected to the people who I'll miss when I'm in Buffalo.

THE NETIZENS ACTING AS JOURNALISTS

Citizen journalism has become a huge phenomena in the role of journalism. However, I believe that there is still a huge difference in citizen journalism in comparison to professional journalism.

Citizen journalism comprises of netizens acting the role of a journalist. However, unlike professional journalism, these netizens are probably unable to provide solid and essential facts, where mostly, their posts are probably their opinions, or perhaps facts that are skewed to their personal standpoints.

However, netizens do play an important role in today's journalism as well. I would say that they are an addition to the journalism family. For example, netizens are able to publish posts immediately using an iPhone for example. Allowing other netizens to share their first hand experiences regarding an event. In this way, netizens may be able to spread the latest news faster than a news coverage since it requires time for journalist to reach a current event to report the situation.

I think the recent tsunami in Japan is probably a great example of netizens acting as journalists. Although it's definitely a devastating situation which shocked the entire world, the victims during the tsunami were able to post videos and thoughts regarding their experiences during the tsunami. And some, perhaps was a last video of them before they got swiped away by the tsunami.

Therefore, as much as netizens may not be the best journalists, they are however, a great addition to the role of journalism.

INTERNET INSECURITIES

The Internet has caused many to feel secure to sit behind the screen and build their lives in a virtual world. However, there are actually many insecurities when using the Internet. Lets keep shopping online out of this topic.

I'd like to talk about the insecurities of Google. Almost every one has a Google account. However, do every user know that if Google ever falls, all our account information will be sold to other companies? This means that anything that have been secured on your Google account is not very safe at all. So that is one thing to feel insecure regarding the Internet.

Next, Facebook. Facebook allows all of us to literally link our daily lives to the Internet. We are even able to capture tons of memories using a Facebook account. Photos from years back are tagged to each others accounts, statuses updates reminds us of the things that we were going through years and years back.

But how secure is Facebook? Like Google, we do not own anything that is posted on our Facebook account.

Thus, if Facebook is ever bought over by another

company, we can jolly well lose all our information as well. This also means that no matter how 'private' we have made our account to be, our Facebook account is never really private since we don't own those information once it is on Facebook.

What about posting comments on the Internet? Due to the illusion of sitting behind a screen, many of us feel that we are able to voice any thoughts that we'd like to say since nobody really knows who we are. And if nobody on the other side of the Internet knows our identity, we can always say whatever we want right? No! That is absolutely wrong. Our identities aren't a secret. Even if we are the best technology geek, there are people out there who can still track us down using the IP Address. Say you're a technology geek, and you managed to bounce off and deter people from searching your IP Address. It's just a matter of time before others find out about your true identity.

So is the Internet really safe? Nope. There's tons of insecurities in the virtual world.

INTERNET AND POLITICS

We all know that the Internet allows a global reach. So how does Internet play a part in politics?

I think that the Internet has enabled politicians to spread their ideologies to the public better and transmit their thoughts and reach a wider group of audience easier.

Say for President Barack Obama, he made use of Internet to its fullest potential, where he came up with a campaign to reach out to the American public during the presidential elections period, and became the president of United States with the help of Internet.

President Barack Obama came up with a campaign before the voting period and made used of YouTube for free advertising.

I believe that politicians will definitely make use of the Internet more often to reach out to their public audience.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Oops. Apparently, I've forgotten to blog about Social Media. So here it is.

First, the definition. It sounds pretty boring. But here, social media are media for social interaction, which uses highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Basically, social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.

So, to put it simply, social media is just another form of

interacting with people, but in the cyber world. And we make use of our computers, mobile phones, and any gadgets to just connect with others. For example, we can just tweet immediately through our mobile phones to interact with every other one who's following us.

I guess social media is just another part of our lives.

THE MUSIC LAB STUDENT CONCERT PERFORMANCE

Okay. During one of the weeks, one of the Blog Assignments was to make a video. And it just so happen that on Sunday, 6 March 2011, The Music Lab was having a student concert.

And since I work part-time every Sundays, I went down to the Crazy Elephant at Clarke Quay to help record the videos for the student concert. So here is one of the videos out of the 3-hour long gig of the students' performances. And because the instructors also took the chance to showcase their skills, I'm going to upload the video I took of them instead.

For the first performance, 7 of the instructors started the night! There was Corey on the Saxophone, Fugene on Electric Guitar, Liang Hong on Drums, Yazzit on Bass, Fathul also on Guitar, and Vene on Keyboards.