The eOK .network

I think they finally got it! Singapore’s Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports has put out a new TV commercial directed by renowned Malaysian film maker Yasmin Ahmad. Yasmin has a gift for creating emotive shorts and has lent her brilliance to the creation of many tear-jerking TVCs in Malaysia.

Apart from having the TVC air on broadcast TV, the ministry has taken it online under the ThinkFamily.sg banner (read campaign). They have a dedicated YouTube Channel and over 12,000 views of the English version since July 11 (this is just the original, not including the re-uploaded copies).

I feel that too often agencies and corporations are jumping quickly into the social media hype with “strategies” that are really just fancy methods of online activity instead of focusing on quality content. It appears that MCYS has thought through this campaign very carefully, put in good investment into creating the best TVC they can afford, run it in traditional media that’s proven and safe, then extend it online… Bam! instant social media success.

Here’s the video, watch it for yourself then compare its quality to other Singapore government social media acts. The social media is the wild west, may the best video win.

I use multiple computers, one at home (Mac) and one at work (PC). Both are laptops, both I own, both I leave in their respective shrines. I take them out when needed, but put them back right after.

So clearly as a Firefox user, Google Browser Sync was a God-send. Well, until Firefox 3 came along. For some reason, Google isn’t updating GBS for Firefox 3.0 anymore. So, upgrade to Firefox 3 or stick with GBS?

I finally took the plunge when I found out about Mozilla’s Weave. I hasitated a bit because it was an early prototype. Essentially it’s the same good service: syncronise bookmarks, passwords, form data, history, and cookies. All encrypted on a central server.

I don’t recommend services such as Foxmarks and others that only sync your bookmarks. Seriously, if you already use del.icio.us, syncing bookmarks isn’t too big a deal. What I really wanted is to remember sites I visited at home, and continue on them at work. And passwords too. I trust my browser a lot. =)

So if you were looking for a replacement to GBS, Weave is a good alternative. It has worked well so far… all 15 mins of it… and I think Mozilla has done a great service to the community to pick up where Google left off.

Today I sent this page from SingTel to the office following the 3G iPhone’s hype from last night. It was done in good faith that SingTel was making an effort to reach out to those who want to reserve themselves a 3G iPhone in Singapore. But instead of enthusiasm and excitement, I heard complaints. Not of my mass email, but of SingTel’s silly website.

For once I thought SingTel was ahead in customer service and marketing providing the excited public with a simple website to order a 3G iPhone instead of the crazy queues that wrap around the block in the US. I thought wrong. You still have to go down to the SingTel shop to confirm your reservation. Yes, confirm. If I was going to queue at the shop, I might as well be getting the darn iPhone! Incredible, SingTel has successfully evolved backward in customer service and marketing making it more inconvenient to get an iPhone.

From the main page, you click “Yes” and you get this form. No where does it say that you need to go down to the shop until you click “Next”.

When you’re done with the form, instead of a “Thank you, your reservation is done”, you get this:

Yup, welcome to SingTel’s online world where you still have to get your bum down to the offline shop. Maybe I should just get one from Australia since I’ll be there over July 11. Singapore is on the “coming soon” list.

This short video of Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, was taken last month at the 16th World Congress on Information Technology 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Although this isn’t the first time a life-size hologram was used to deliver a speech, it was the closest to home.

I think this is a great technology with amazing implications. How many of us get to see our heroes in the flesh? The closest I’ve gotten to real heroes of technology would be at the recent talk by Vinton Cerf, and on another occasion where Cisco’s CEO John Chambers came to Singapore and spoke on a government-led platform.

But beyond talks, what about rock concerts, product launches, religious preaching? This is important for a small country like Singapore. There isn’t much incentive for the best and brightest to visit our shores, we have a small population, and a small addressable market, but among the smallness, there are eager fans who would watch every TED Talk video, stay up for the WWDC 2008 keynote, or even fly to the UK to watch their favourite football club.

Holograms could make a difference. Of courses today’s holograms are pre-recorded. But one day I’m sure they’ll be live. As least it’ll be handy till we figure out teleportation.

If you haven’t tried Plurk, you should. Its like Twitter, only messier. In fact, with only 13 friends since I started a day ago, it’s getting a bit too much to track all the plurks and replies to plurks.

I discovered by accident an easier way to manage Plurk making it more Twitter-like.

Plurk has a mobile interface at http://www.plurk.com/m/ where it lists all plurks in a Twitter-like form. Although it’s created for the mobile browser, you can open it in Firefox or your favourite web browser too. But I found that the best way to use it was to place it in the sidebar. I use Firefox and this is how you do it:

• Go to http://www.plurk.com/m/
• Click Bookmarks > Bookmark This Page…
• Save the bookmark where you like and name it as you see fit
• Click Bookmarks > Organise Bookmarks…
• Right-click on your Plurk bookmark
• Click Properties
• Check Load this bookmark in the sidebar
• Click OK

Now click the bookmark and you should see it open in a sidebar like this:

Now it’s more widget/app like and you don’t have to keep a whole tab open for it. I’m sure it works in other browsers’ sidebars too, but here’s the Firefox way.

Two weeks back I was on a panel at the PR Academy’s conference discussing “new media”. Unlike the barcamps and unconferences we social media folks are so fond of, this conference was done old skool with a government Minister as the guest-of-honour and panel mates that were my father’s age.

I was the only “digital native” on the stage throughout the day-long conference and the general sentiment toward new media was approached with mixed feelings. A commenter mentioned to me that other than my optimistic self, it was “very much doom and gloom and what will become of our beloved printed press”.

The panel I was on was made up of two senior newspaper editors, a publishing consultant, an engagement consultant, and me. At one point during the panel a question from the floor asked the obvious, but realistic, question if the new (digital) media will kill the traditional (mostly printed) press.

The answers that came back was to the effect of “yes, but we’re trying new things”. That’s not surprising at all. In fact, as far back as 1998, there’s been talk about print dying and even current stats are proving that the prediction is true. Even the pron industry can’t cut it with print. Who else can survive?

That was my logical sentiment as well. But after the conference I started thinking about the development of technologies on a whole and now I’m beginning to feel otherwise. As Internet technologies improve together with screen technologies that make it easier for all of us to consume digital content (think Kindle), so does print technologies and recycled paper give rise to cheaper print media.

Amazon has offered print-on-demand for a while now, and I imagine all books will be available in PoD one day. In fact, the PoD model mixed with new media is a potent platform for new innovations. David Sifry’s new start up, Offbeat Guides, is doing just that compiling up-to-date information from the web and compiling them into printable PDFs.

But then again, maybe not all print is doom and gloom just yet. According to Chris Anderson, if you give out your newspaper for free, it can grow!

Looks like our media future is going to be a hybrid one.

Tonight I had the opportunity with about 200 others listen to and speak with Vinton G. Cerf, a founding “father of the internet” and Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist at Google. It was amazing to meet the guy that built TCP/IP in his protein form and listen to a true technologist speak about what the internet would look like in 2035.

But there’s just one “problem” with tonight’s talk … I didn’t hear anything new. No, I didn’t listen to a similar lecture from Vint on YouTube, and no I’m not a genius like Mr Cerf.

Off the top of my head’s short-term memory, I recall him mentioning 2035 to include:

• IPv6 being necessary when billions of other devices connect to the internet
• Internet and RFID linked refrigerators and bathroom scales
• Ubiquitous wireless internet access
• At least 1Gbps to the home
• Geo-spatial information will be available in real-time over the internet
• Virtual worlds will let us control real-world instruments
• Cybernetic technology would enhance human life
• Haptic sensory technology will make us touch and feel the virtual

What I found truly amazing was not the future possibilities, but the fact that this man built a network that was able to provide me with all the above mentioned predictions even before the visionary man speaks. A  good “problem” the internet is. I’m in no way disappointed that I didn’t learn anything new, but am in awe at the creation of a genius.

It makes me think about the work we do now. Be it technologies we develop, methods of marketing and communication, or simply the culture and habits we evolve. How will they impact and affect the future in the next 50 years? Will you stand then in front of a crowd like Vint Cerf did today and talk about the next 30 years with gusto and passion? I’d love to know I’ve made a difference.

Aside: Others who went tonight and blogged were: Raine Lai, Simply Jean, Ian. I’m sure more will blog soon.

I recently watched the geek thriller Untraceable, where the above web site was taken from. The show follows the FBI cyber crime unit as they try to track down a crazed computer genius who kills his victims through crowdsourced voyeurism. The more people visited the site killwithme.com the faster his victims died.

This started me thinking about our less extreme exhibitionism and the voyeurs who participate in the exchange. There are portions of the social media that are specifically designed around the concept of “presence” which is an invitation to volunteer voyeurism.

This week, I Twittered the message:

Never go to a new job thinking what you can learn, they pay you for what you can give and how much money you can make.

and the same day a friend sent me a message on IM asking if I’ve changed jobs. No I haven’t, I just felt it was timely advise that I’ve been repeating to others who were contemplating moves.

Two weeks ago, I turned on the “What I’m Listening To” feature on Microsoft Messenger as I was listening to Belle & Sabastian’s The Life Pursuit and immediately a friend started a conversation surprised that I listened to the same music she does and discussed how I missed their concert after I left Australia for Singapore back in 2004.

I’m sure this is a common experience for you too both as a voyeur and a “victim”. It intrigues me to observe how acceptable voyeurism is in today’s internet culture. I’m sure there are people observing others anonymously online, but at the same time, there doesn’t seem to be anymore shame in watching the exhibitionist and responding directly to him/her.

Even in the show, although the viewers were protected by the anonymity of their computers, they chose to participate in a live discussion in the chat box next to the gruesome video stream as if to say “the responsibility isn’t ours, you’re the exhibitionist”.

I feel that services such as MyBlogLog, Facebook’s status updates, and Twitter have made us so used to watching and being watched that voyeurism is now mutual.

Is this something to worry about or something to embrace? I’m caught in the middle right now because I love Twitter and I’m all for public viewing and responses, but like I mentioned a while ago, I still dare not use Seesmic (think video Twitter) although iSight is staring right at me everytime I use my computer.

I’ve been invited by the PR Academy, a division of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), Singapore to be on a panel discussing the challenges of communicating in the new media environment at the 7th Annual PR Academy Conference on the 22nd of May 2008.

I’m quite excited about this although MICA is a little late to the new (social?) media table. But, better late than never ya? I’m probably the youngest member of the speaking group and there’s already an expectation from the organisers that my opinions will be vastly different from the rest.

I don’t think you can plan for a forum discussion except to speak about what I’ve seen and heard. I do hope that I’ll be able to share something interesting at the table. I’m thinking I should bring up some examples of what’s been going on in the local social media scene.

Any good examples that I should be sharing?

Just grabbed VMware Fusion 2 Beta 1 off the VMware site and installed it. Immediately you can tell the menu is different, even the dock icon looks brighter (I think).

What’s the changelog? In summary from the VMware site:

VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 brings support for multiple displays, tools for even easier switching to VMware Fusion, experimental support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D acceleration

Although the long-awaited DirectX 9.0 support is finally out (gamers rejoice!), my favourite feature is the multi-display support. I’m glad it supports up to 10 screens although my MBP only gets the luxury of one other. Here’s how its done:

This feature works both in Full Screen and Unity mode where Windows XP and Mac OS are “blended” together.

The other thing that immediately caught my attention was the little icons at the bottom of the VM’s window. These icons now give you immediate access to iSight, IR, Bluetooth, and shared folders. Fusion 1.1 only gave you access to USB, optical drive, and network. This is so much easier to use and configure.

So far my installation hasn’t crashed, upgrade was seamless, and I’m quite happy with Beta 1. I’m still waitinf and see if I can find some bugs.

If you’re thinking of trying it out even if you don’t have Fusion 1.1, there’s a Serial Key just for the Beta on the download page. But if you’re upgrading from a purchased license, then you don’t need it.

Oh and if you want to switch over from Parallels or Virtual PC there’s importation support. I think I just learned a new word.

(Disclaimer: Although VMware is my client, this review is purely my opinion and my mucking around.)