Not an ordinary daY....

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=75833&site=lightreading&WT.svl=news2_2

2006-03-09T13:11:00.000+07:00

Skype Rules North American VOIP
JUNE 16, 2005
Discuss >

Calls using Skype Technologies SA account for nearly half of the VOIP minutes used (46.2 percent) and about 40 percent of the VOIP bandwidth used in North America, according to an analysis done by broadband management company Sandvine Inc.

That puts Skype usage ahead of Vonage Holdings Corp., Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC - message board), and other popular branded VOIP offerings (see Skype Extends Its Tentacles and Does VOIP Business Add Up?). In fact, Sandvine says Skype users account for 35.8 percent of individual VOIP callers on North American networks. “So this is not like five guys who figured out they could call Slovenia 24 hours in a row; this is a mass market phenomenon,” says Sandvine’s Steve McGeown, the company’s director of product management and main architect of the research.

Sandvine says it has a unique vantage point from which to form its analysis (see Sandvine Counts 1,100 VOIP SPs). The company monitors broadband traffic in cable and DSL provider networks, including six of the 10 largest ones in North America (see Allot Strengthens Carrier Products). So it claims to be able to identify and classify the traffic coming from about 11 million of the 60 million-or-so broadband subscribers in North America.

Why does this matter? Well, now that AOL (NYSE: TWX - message board) and Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO - message board) have entered the VOIP game, and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - message board) is expected to follow in some way, it remains to be seen whether these recent entrants can leverage their brand names enough to approach Skype’s progress (see Yahoo Enters VOIP Fray).

McGeown sees all this data as more pressure for existing carriers to change their stripes. “Providers out there have to realize that this is a real economic threat, that they will have to figure out a way to really differentiate their services with true VOIP. Then you get into the vision for VOIP, which is integration into Outlook, voice-to-text translation, voicemail-to-email [translation], that sort of thing...

“Niklas Zennstrom -- I have a lot of respect for this guy,” McGeown says of the Skype founder. “He understood that voice is a commodity and he marketed it as such, and that’s why it came out for free, and it worked all at the same time.”

Zennstrom's economic model was based on two things, McGeown believes. Skype is all about getting users hooked on the free part and then charging for additional services like SkypeOut and video conferencing (see Skype Launches SkypeOut and Skype Signs Four Carrier Deals).
Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron says the pricing models are different because the products themselves are different. In fact, Citron labels Skype an “ancillary service” and not a direct competitor. “Skype says it themselves, they are not a replacement for your home telephone -- they are an ancillary communication service.

“What Skype does is allow you to make a cheap telephone call using your PC -- so as an ancillary communications provider, who are they impacting? They are certainly not impacting Vonage,” Citron says.

“Skype is having its own issues with growing so they will have to figure that out,” he adds.
Sandvine's McGeown believes Zennstrom’s master plan is to begin licensing the Skype software to handset manufacturers around the world. “It would be completely, utterly brilliant, because you would make a dollar on every Sony phone that ever got sold,” McGeown says.

So while Skype may be a threat to VOIP companies and wireline carriers now, it could evolve into a threat for mobile service providers.

“So you can imagine if you’re a wireless service provider how horrifying that must be when your economic model is predicated on, basically, a free phone, and you sign the customer up for two years of service,” McGeown says. “Oh great -- now the phone’s free and so is the service.”

— Mark Sullivan, Reporter, Light Reading

my comments:

this week, we are going to learn about skype. I have heard about skype being good and free :p and now, with a little money, we can actually call HOUSE PHONE..

However, i have not tried skype before, because the internet connection in my hometown is still using dial up... No doubt, after i say 'HElo, how are you?' ' are you there?' 'hello hello?', my family has just heard 'helo, how...' n by then, i might have already disconnected the line... =p

according to the article, the pricing model is different because skype is selling a different thing altogether... It is a good way what skype is using, it shows us that we can be flexible in doing business, and doesnt have to folow the pricing models our textbook offers,... :D

there are some technical things *what ive got from my frens*, that skype is not a stable communication device. Sometimes it is clear to call, sometimes u can only hear the BUZZ.... According to them, you have to disable to QoS such as to reduce the noise level.

Well2, although skype is referred to a threat to global traditional communication system *telcom* (read this in strait times not long ago), skype has emerging competitors themselves, such as yahoo messenger *with voice* and google talk...... although they are still dominating the market, they have to start thinking how to stay competitive :D maybe a lower rate for skype out????????? hehehee.....

on e-commerce

2006-02-07T12:16:00.000+07:00

Here's a short article on e-commerce (i was trying to find out things about amazon.com but i came across this, which is quite interesting and very short ^_^)

FRICTIONLESS COMMERCE
http://www.extenza-eps.com/INF/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.46.4.563.12061

There have been many claims that the Internet represents a new nearly ‘frictionless market.’ Our research empirically analyzes the characteristics of the Internet as a channel for two categories of homogeneous products—books and CDs. Using a data set of over 8,500 price observations collected over a period of 15 months, we compare pricing behavior at 41 Internet and conventional retail outlets.
We find that prices on the Internet are 9–16% lower than prices in conventional outlets, depending on whether taxes, shipping, and shopping costs are included in the price. Additionally, we find that Internet retailers' price adjustments over time are up to 100 times smaller than conventional retailers' price adjustments—presumably reflecting lower menu costs in Internet channels. We also find that levels of price dispersion depend importantly on the measures employed. When we compare the prices posted by different Internet retailers we find substantial dispersion. Internet retailer prices differ by an average of 33% for books and 25% for CDs. However, when we weight these prices by proxies for market share, we find dispersion is lower in Internet channels than in conventional channels, reflecting the dominance of certain heavily branded retailers.
We conclude that while there is lower friction in many dimensions of Internet competition, branding, awareness, and trust remain important sources of heterogeneity among Internet retailers.
Author(s): Erik Brynjolfsson1 Michael D. Smith2
copyInnerHtml("AuthorsHackSource", "AuthorsHackTarget")

MY COMMENTS... :

This is actually more related to last week's class :p! which was on demand n supply, competitive market (perfect competition)... but well... this is quite interesting as it brings forth the facts that e-commerce offers lower prices. Last week, prof also showed that amazon.com, despite offering a lower price, it didnt make profit until 5th year in business..... wheww... scary... imagine 5 years in business, didnt even make profit but loses.... the loses prof showed us are not those thosands of dollars.. it was billion (*US DOLLAR!!!*) whew... O_o'!

but well... "We conclude that while there is lower friction in many dimensions of Internet competition, branding, awareness, and trust remain important sources of heterogeneity among Internet retailers." this is when pay-pal comes into picture isnt it??

week 4......

2006-01-26T17:49:00.000+07:00

here's some important notes from last week's seminar.... (point form =p the rest that's not mentioned is in the lecture notes!)

competitive advantage : differentiation of products
5 forces = relationships with suppliers, competitors, consumers, substitutes and ...... (cldnt quite catch it) :p

sustainable competitive adv, self-assurance that this year n next year we'll have competitive adv in the market. (eg. Windows)

Properties of the Internet that potentially impact inter- and intra-firm activities (lect notes):

-(No. 6). becoz information assymetry inefficiency of market, efficient market : many buyers, many sellers and perfect knowledge if there is information assymetry, then itz nt perfect knowledge

Business model element :
(No.2 ) Scope : demographic, scope of needs
(No.3) Pricing : commission (airlines industries), etc.etc..

!!!!!PROJECTS!!!!!

C:\Documents and Settings\nbsuser1\Desktop\proposal.html

next thing discussed was about our projects. Prof said our project has a HUGE competitor, that is starhub (singapore) and Astro (malaysia). But to make things clearer, our group would broadcast it through the INTERNET.. while starhub is through cable tv..

Starhub's customer is paying subscription fee every month, while ours, would be based on PER movies watched. And our target audience is quite different too.

We are targeting people with access to internet, such as office workers and students (take for example, NTU).

In the case of NTU students, they have access to mIRC and not torrents at the moment. But in the future, we think that these 'illegal' sharings would be banned and hence, our 'movie online' would then come to light.. =;D

For the case of office workers, during their 'break time', they could just log in and watch THEIR movies (with resume button) and pause if they need to come back to work. Movie per customer would be put in their 'folder' for a week or two (still contemplating)...

We also would put in PROF's idea of broadcasting foreign language movies such as thai or indonesian or hindi or indian movies to cater to a wider range of customers. Of course these types of movies quite hard to find in singapore. I remember one of my friends telling me around 3 years ago that watching a hindi movie cost $11 ANY DAY when the usual movies on weekends were $8.50!! So, thanks tt Prof., we have more competitive advantages over starhub now!! yay!!!! ^_^!!

Lastly, our company would make sure that we broadcast movies from original and legal source, ie. original DVDs or VCDs.

So, i find that our company is rather different than starhub. Although in reality, we do not know if this would work now, but we have positive thinking of the future..

Any additional things we should include?

ps : HAPIE CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

review on FLASH

2006-01-26T12:31:00.000+07:00

Some Background on Flash

Many people don't realize that the term "Flash" is used interchangeably to describe an authoring tool and a player that displays the published output from the authoring tool. The authoring tool, called Macromedia Flash (now published by Adobe) offers drawing tools, video and sound encoders, an animation timeline, compression tools, and a programming language with which to script interactive logic. Files created in the authoring tool are saved in the FLA format, which can be edited from within the authoring environment of Macromedia Flash.

Files published from the authoring tool Flash are output in a format called SWF, which is compact in size for easy downloading and is optimized to stream over the Internet. A SWF file cannot be edited in the authoring environment; it is in effect, a read-only final version. Many tools, such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and ImageReady can write the SWF format, but not the FLA format. The only tool currently enabled to author FLA files is the software-authoring product called Flash.

The Flash player allows end-users to view the SWF on a desktop, game console, mobile device, Web browser, or wherever else it is installed. The player can come pre-installed on a device or Web browser, or can be downloaded from the Adobe/Macromedia Web site. It is cross-platform, and will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

A new Flash authoring platform, called Flex, has been published recently by Macromedia. Flex employs an XML-based language called MXML, and comes with various components and features that make capabilities such as Web services, remote objects, drag and drop, sortable columns, charting/graphing, built-in animation effects, and other interface interactions extremely easy to implement. This product is positioned as a tool that will easily create RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) and was built from the ground up for developers, unlike Flash, which started its life as an animation tool that gradually adapted to become a development tool shared by both designers and developers.

Before extrapolating what the future of Flash might bring, it's first important to identify its current features and benefits:

Flash contains development and design tools for drawing vector-based artwork, controlling dynamic and graphical text, pixel-artwork editing, an animation timeline, sound, video encoding, compression, scripting, and publishing to the SWF format.

It's possible for a SWF to be played within a Web browser, as a stand-alone desktop application, or on designated game consoles and mobile devices.

The Flash scripting language called ActionScript enables client-side programming of interactive applications as well as communication with a server—to get and post dynamic information. ActionScript can access a wide array of data formats including XML, WebServices (SOAP), XMLSockets, and Flash Remoting with just about any middleware technology such as ColdFusion, ASP, PHP, and Ruby on Rails.

ActionScript allows scripting of Flash "objects" such as sound, artwork, transparency, color, and filter effects.

Sound in Flash can by synchronous or asynchronous. Flash compresses sound and publishes the results as a smaller download than most other formats. While sound can be published without a picture, one of the advantages of Flash is that it can combine sound with static or moving picture assets, including video and Mp3.

Video in Flash can be used as a layer combined with other graphics, vector artwork, type, sound, and transparency effects. Of all the other Web video formats (QuickTime, Real, Windows Media Player), Flash video is the only format to support alpha transparency. This means that Flash video can be layered; video can composite on top of video. In addition, the programmability of Flash allows for interactive video, which other Web video formats don't offer.

It's possible to publish executable Flash presentations that run on the desktop, game console, or mobile device without the need for a Web browser.

Future Predictions 2006

Now, on to the future of Flash. With the stunning $3.4 billion acquisition by Adobe, there is clearly a huge amount of potential for growth and expansion. These predictions are based on conjecture; so do not take them as gospel!

It is likely that Flash will be able to be integrated into PDF, which will give the PDF format a huge increase in functionality. Interactive PDFs are currently clunky and limited in features. PDF could become a Trojan horse to deliver Flash as a document exchange format, rather than a device delivery format. This could be a way to distribute desktop applications in a seamless and compelling manner. Recent announcements at conferences, on Macromedia blogs, and on Macromedia Labs describe a new product—code-named Apollo—which looks to be the basis for the next generation PDF/Flash product.

It is likely that future Adobe applications will be able to export FLA files in addition to SWF files. This means that a Flash project might originate in Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Audition, or Premiere, and be fully editable within Flash. While Adobe tools currently export SWF files, exporting FLA files will be far more versatile and powerful. As well, interoperability between Macromedia and Adobe tools should improve greatly, which should eliminate what has historically been one of the harder challenges for professional Flash design and development shops.

ActionScript is already built into Macromedia Flex. Existing Flash users will be able to easily adapt their Flash skills to program Flex applications, which enables developers to build rich Internet applications that run on the desktop, Internet, and mobile devices. These applications will also be cross-platform and capable of interacting with other standard technologies.

The next generation Flash Player 8.5, combined with ActionScript 3, has a brand new code execution engine that was completely rewritten and offers a huge speed boost over past versions of the player. This will be a welcome change for developers and should bring new converts to the format who have previously been dissatisfied with performance.

Flash could overtake QuickTime and Windows Media player as the premier video format for Web, desktop application, and device delivery. Given that Flash video can include a level of robust interactivity that QuickTime and Windows media cannot support, along with its unique runtime alpha compositing features, it is natural that many video publishers will adopt Flash over other choices.

Flash has grown from a simple animation tool to a powerful application-building tool. With Adobe's muscle and Macromedia's mindshare, it is likely to play a more dominant role as a delivery standard, and will offer alternatives to Java and platform-specific development tools. All eyes are on Adobe, which has never created tools taken seriously by developers before, to see how it will grow the Flash Platform into a delivery system that rivals no other.

Lynda Weinman is the founder of lynda.com, a software education company that produces online training, books, training videos, and educational conferences. She is the founder of the Flashforward Conference & Film Festival, the world's first and largest conference on the Flash Platform. Weinman created the popular Hands-On Training (HOT) series of books, published through Peachpit Press.

====================================================================

MY REVIEW ON FLASH

Flash is not an alien word to me.. nevertheless, i have never learnt flash before.. =p! But thanks to this course, I learnt two different things in 2 weeks!! ^_^

as i was skimming through the article, especially the 'flash in the future' part, it says that in the future, Flash would be a big thing especially when combined with adobephoto shops.. :D I have highlighted the part which i think is the most important parts in the article.. I think advertisement would get much much fun with flash and photo-shop combined.. advertiesement and handphone application would improve very fast.. as such, i believe learning flash is indeed important... thanks for waking me up now prof.. :D well2.. i wouldnt say that i have TRIED any online tutorials on flash yet... but i will :p!! heuheuheue

2006-01-19T11:58:00.000+07:00

weblogs: a history and perspective
7 september 2000

In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of "other sites like his" as he found them in his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on Camworld, and others maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for inclusion on the list. Jesse's 'page of only weblogs' lists the 23 known to be in existence at the beginning of 1999.

Suddenly a community sprang up. It was easy to read all of the weblogs on Cameron's list, and most interested people did. Peter Merholz announced in early 1999 that he was going to pronounce it 'wee-blog' and inevitably this was shortened to 'blog' with the weblog editor referred to as a 'blogger.'

At this point, the bandwagon jumping began. More and more people began publishing their own weblogs. I began mine in April of 1999. Suddenly it became difficult to read every weblog every day, or even to keep track of all the new ones that were appearing. Cameron's list grew so large that he began including only weblogs he actually followed himself. Other webloggers did the same. In early 1999 Brigitte Eaton compiled a list of every weblog she knew about and created the Eatonweb Portal. Brig evaluated all submissions by a simple criterion: that the site consist of dated entries. Webloggers debated what was and what was not a weblog, but since the Eatonweb Portal was the most complete listing of weblogs available, Brig's inclusive definition prevailed.

This rapid growth continued steadily until July 1999 when Pitas, the first free build-your-own-weblog tool launched, and suddenly there were hundreds. In August, Pyra released Blogger, and Groksoup launched, and with the ease that these web-based tools provided, the bandwagon-jumping turned into an explosion. Late in 1999 software developer Dave Winer introduced Edit This Page, and Jeff A. Campbell launched Velocinews. All of these services are free, and all of them are designed to enable individuals to publish their own weblogs quickly and easily.

The original weblogs were link-driven sites. Each was a mixture in unique proportions of links, commentary, and personal thoughts and essays. Weblogs could only be created by people who already knew how to make a website. A weblog editor had either taught herself to code HTML for fun, or, after working all day creating commercial websites, spent several off-work hours every day surfing the web and posting to her site. These were web enthusiasts.

Many current weblogs follow this original style. Their editors present links both to little-known corners of the web and to current news articles they feel are worthy of note. Such links are nearly always accompanied by the editor's commentary. An editor with some expertise in a field might demonstrate the accuracy or inaccuracy of a highlighted article or certain facts therein; provide additional facts he feels are pertinent to the issue at hand; or simply add an opinion or differing viewpoint from the one in the piece he has linked. Typically this commentary is characterized by an irreverent, sometimes sarcastic tone. More skillful editors manage to convey all of these things in the sentence or two with which they introduce the link (making them, as Halcyon pointed out to me, pioneers in the art and craft of microcontent). Indeed, the format of the typical weblog, providing only a very short space in which to write an entry, encourages pithiness on the part of the writer; longer commentary is often given its own space as a separate essay.

These weblogs provide a valuable filtering function for their readers. The web has been, in effect, pre-surfed for them. Out of the myriad web pages slung through cyberspace, weblog editors pick out the most mind-boggling, the most stupid, the most compelling.

But this type of weblog is important for another reason, I think. In Douglas Rushkoff's Media Virus, Greg Ruggerio of the Immediast Underground is quoted as saying, "Media is a corporate possession...You cannot participate in the media. Bringing that into the foreground is the first step. The second step is to define the difference between public and audience. An audience is passive; a public is participatory. We need a definition of media that is public in its orientation."

By highlighting articles that may easily be passed over by the typical web user too busy to do more than scan corporate news sites, by searching out articles from lesser-known sources, and by providing additional facts, alternative views, and thoughtful commentary, weblog editors participate in the dissemination and interpretation of the news that is fed to us every day. Their sarcasm and fearless commentary reminds us to question the vested interests of our sources of information and the expertise of individual reporters as they file news stories about subjects they may not fully understand.

Weblog editors sometimes contextualize an article by juxtaposing it with an article on a related subject; each article, considered in the light of the other, may take on additional meaning, or even draw the reader to conclusions contrary to the implicit aim of each. It would be too much to call this type of weblog "independent media," but clearly their editors, engaged in seeking out and evaluating the "facts" that are presented to us each day, resemble the public that Ruggerio speaks of. By writing a few lines each day, weblog editors begin to redefine media as a public, participatory endeavor.

Now, during 1999 something else happened, and I believe it has to do with the introduction of Blogger itself.

While weblogs had always included a mix of links, commentary, and personal notes, in the post-Blogger explosion increasing numbers of weblogs eschewed this focus on the web-at-large in favor of a sort of short-form journal. These blogs, often updated several times a day, were instead a record of the blogger's thoughts: something noticed on the way to work, notes about the weekend, a quick reflection on some subject or another. Links took the reader to the site of another blogger with whom the first was having a public conversation or had met the previous evening, or to the site of a band he had seen the night before. Full-blown conversations were carried on between three or five blogs, each referencing the other in their agreement or rebuttal of the other's positions. Cults of personality sprung up as new blogs appeared, certain names appearing over and over in daily entries or listed in the obligatory sidebar of "other weblogs" (a holdover from Cam's original list). It was, and is, fascinating to see new bloggers position themselves in this community, referencing and reacting to those blogs they read most, their sidebar an affirmation of the tribe to which they wish to belong.

Why the change? Why so many? I have always suspected that some of the popularity of this form may be a simple desire to emulate the sites of head Pyra kids Ev and Meg. As the creators of Blogger, their charming, witty blogs are their company's foremost advertisement for its most popular product.

More than that, Blogger itself places no restrictions on the form of content being posted. Its web interface, accessible from any browser, consists of an empty form box into which the blogger can type...anything: a passing thought, an extended essay, or a childhood recollection. With a click, Blogger will post the...whatever...on the writer's website, archive it in the proper place, and present the writer with another empty box, just waiting to be filled.

Contrast this with the web interface of Metafilter, a popular community weblog. Here, the writer is presented with three form boxes: the first for the URL of the referenced site, the second for the title of the entry, and the third for whatever commentary the writer would like to add. The Metafilter interface instructs the writer to contribute a link and add commentary; Blogger makes no such demands. Blogger makes it so easy to type in a thought or reaction that many people are disinclined to hunt up a link and compose some text around it.

It is this free-form interface combined with absolute ease of use which has, in my opinion, done more to impel the shift from the filter-style weblog to journal-style blog than any other factor. And there has been a shift. Searching for a filter-style weblog by clicking through the thousands of weblogs listed at weblogs.com, the Eatonweb Portal, or Blogger Directory can be a Sisyphean task. Newcomers would appear to be most drawn to the blog rather than filter style of weblogging.

Certainly, both styles still exist; certainly the particular mixture of links, commentary, and personal observation unique to each individual site has always given each weblog its distinctive voice and personality; and certainly the weblog has always been an infinitely malleable format. But the influx of blogs has changed the definition of weblog from "a list of links with commentary and personal asides" to "a website that is updated frequently, with new material posted at the top of the page." I really wish there were another term to describe the filter-style weblog, one that would easily distinguish it from the blog. On the principle of truth in advertising, this would make it much easier for the adventuresome reader to find the type of weblog he most enjoys.

So, what of the weblog? Is it of interest or importance to anyone who does not produce one? Well, I think it should be.

A filter-style weblog provides many advantages to its readers. It reveals glimpses of an unimagined web to those who have no time to surf. An intelligent human being filters through the mass of information packaged daily for our consumption and picks out the interesting, the important, the overlooked, and the unexpected. This human being may provide additional information to that which corporate media provides, expose the fallacy of an argument, perhaps reveal an inaccurate detail. Because the weblog editor can comment freely on what she finds, one week of reading will reveal to you her personal biases, making her a predictable source. This further enables us to turn a critical eye to both the information and comments she provides. Her irreverent attitude challenges the veracity of the "facts" presented each day by authorities.

Shortly after I began producing Rebecca's Pocket I noticed two side effects I had not expected.

First, I discovered my own interests. I thought I knew what I was interested in, but after linking stories for a few months I could see that I was much more interested in science, archaeology, and issues of injustice than I had realized. More importantly, I began to value more highly my own point of view. In composing my link text every day I carefully considered my own opinions and ideas, and I began to feel that my perspective was unique and important.

This profound experience may be most purely realized in the blog-style weblog. Lacking a focus on the outside world, the blogger is compelled to share his world with whomever is reading. He may engage other bloggers in conversation about the interests they share. He may reflect on a book he is reading, or the behavior of someone on the bus. He might describe a flower that he saw growing between the cracks of a sidewalk on his way to work. Or he may simply jot notes about his life: what work is like, what he had for dinner, what he thought of a recent movie.

These fragments, pieced together over months, can provide an unexpectedly intimate view of what it is to be a particular individual in a particular place at a particular time.

The blogger, by virtue of simply writing down whatever is on his mind, will be confronted with his own thoughts and opinions. Blogging every day, he will become a more confident writer. A community of 100 or 20 or 3 people may spring up around the public record of his thoughts.

Being met with friendly voices, he may gain more confidence in his view of the world; he may begin to experiment with longer forms of writing, to play with haiku, or to begin a creative project--one that he would have dismissed as being inconsequential or doubted he could complete only a few months before.

As he enunciates his opinions daily, this new awareness of his inner life may develop into a trust in his own perspective. His own reactions--to a poem, to other people, and, yes, to the media--will carry more weight with him. Accustomed to expressing his thoughts on his website, he will be able to more fully articulate his opinions to himself and others. He will become impatient with waiting to see what others think before he decides, and will begin to act in accordance with his inner voice instead. Ideally, he will become less reflexive and more reflective, and find his own opinions and ideas worthy of serious consideration.

His readers will remember an incident from their own childhood when the blogger relates a memory. They might look more closely at the other riders on the train after the blogger describes his impressions of a fellow commuter. They will click back and forth between blogs and analyze each blogger's point of view in a multi-blog conversation, and form their own conclusions on the matter at hand. Reading the views of other ordinary people, they will readily question and evaluate what is being said. Doing this, they may begin a similar journey of self-discovery and intellectual self-reliance.

The promise of the web was that everyone could publish, that a thousand voices could flourish, communicate, connect. The truth was that only those people who knew how to code a web page could make their voices heard. Blogger, Pitas, and all the rest have given people with little or no knowledge of HTML the ability to publish on the web: to pontificate, remember, dream, and argue in public, as easily as they send an instant message. We can't seriously compare the creation of the World Wide Web itself with the availability of free technology that allows anyone with a web browser to express their unique, irreproducible vision to the rest of the world...can we?

In September of 2000 there are thousands of weblogs: topic-oriented weblogs, alternative viewpoints, astute examinations of the human condition as reflected by mainstream media, short-form journals, links to the weird, and free-form notebooks of ideas. Traditional weblogs perform a valuable filtering service and provide tools for more critical evaluation of the information available on the web. Free-style blogs are nothing less than an outbreak of self-expression. Each is evidence of a staggering shift from an age of carefully controlled information provided by sanctioned authorities (and artists), to an unprecedented opportunity for individual expression on a worldwide scale. Each kind of weblog empowers individuals on many levels.

So why doesn't every bookmark list contain five weblogs? In the beginning of 1999 it really seemed that by now every bookmark list would. There was a bit of media attention and new weblogs were being created every day. It was a small, quick-growing community and it seemed to be on the edge of a wider awareness. Perhaps the tsunami of new weblogs created in the wake of Pitas and Blogger crushed the movement before it could reach critical mass; the sudden exponential growth of the community rendered it unnavigable. Weblogs, once filters of the web, suddenly became so numerous they were as confusing as the web itself. A few more articles appeared touting weblogs as the next big thing. But the average reader, hopefully clicking through to the Eatonweb portal, found herself faced with an alphabetical list of a thousand weblogs. Not knowing where to begin, she quickly retreated back to ABCnews.com.

I don't have an answer. In our age the single page website of an obscure Turk named Mahir can sweep the web in days. But the unassailable truth is that corporate media and commercial and governmental entities own most of the real estate. Dell manages more webpages than all of the weblogs put together. Sprite's PR machine can point more man-hours to the promotion of one message--"Obey Your Thirst"--than the combined man-hours of every weblogger alive. Our strength--that each of us speaks in an individual voice of an individual vision--is, in the high-stakes world of carefully orchestrated messages designed to distract and manipulate, a liability. We are, very simply, outnumbered.

And what, really, will change if we get weblogs into every bookmark list? As we are increasingly bombarded with information from our computers, handhelds, in-store kiosks, and now our clothes, the need for reliable filters will become more pressing. As corporate interests exert tighter and tighter control over information and even art, critical evaluation is more essential than ever. As advertisements creep onto banana peels, attach themselves to paper cup sleeves, and interrupt our ATM transactions, we urgently need to cultivate forms of self-expression in order to counteract our self-defensive numbness and remember what it is to be human.

We are being pummeled by a deluge of data and unless we create time and spaces in which to reflect, we will be left with only our reactions. I strongly believe in the power of weblogs to transform both writers and readers from "audience" to "public" and from "consumer" to "creator." Weblogs are no panacea for the crippling effects of a media-saturated culture, but I believe they are one antidote.

rebecca bloodseptember 2000
citation: Blood, Rebecca. "Weblogs: A History and Perspective", Rebecca's Pocket. 07 September 2000. 08 January 2006. .

::MY COMMENT::

I have known the word 'blogging' eversince i was in Secondary School but during that time, not too many people own a blog yet. And even if they have, they would not say anything too openly in their blog. As such, blogs are only for their daily lives only. I didn't feel that blogging is great at all. It's like exposing your daily lives to the www. But in 2003, when my friends left for Australia for further studies, I found that blog is much more useful than telephone. It keeps us updated and connected without having to 'wait for the next telephone session'. We started to keep a blog each and started to share our views of anything and everything.

Now, the number of bloggers - whom as said in the article are impossible to maintain or keep track of their numbers - have increased tremendously mostly with the similar idea of updating friends and family.

I read in the ST a few months ago, that blogs are now of an equivalent 'precious moment' captor as a digital camera. There's a girl who was away for holiday. She was stuck in a ridiculous situation and the first thing she did was not to call home, but to BLOG. She said that it is more practical to write it and all people who are interested could read it from there. i cant agree more to her.

as said in the article "The blogger, by virtue of simply writing down whatever is on his mind, will be confronted with his own thoughts and opinions. Blogging every day, he will become a more confident writer", writing blogs helps to put thoughts into words more and more easily each day.

2006-01-12T17:46:00.000+07:00

Fun.... ^_^

My definition of fun is something that you could enjoy from it and you LOVE doing it... Different people might have different ideas of fun. and for myself, i think that Fun could be found anywhere and anytime.

For example, initial idea of fun MIGHT be going to sentosa island with a bunch of friends on a weekend. and the idea of BORING is studying. however, IF these bunch of friends get together on a weekend and start to study together, the boring studying might become FUN altogether.. ^_^

more on the word 'fun', a 'fun' thing to you might not be the same as others. For an artist, 'fun' is when he could sit down somewhere with a picturesque view and then start capturing the view on his canvas.. But for a sportman this whole activity might be too 'still' and boring..

My personal view of fun is when you do something with people you enjoy being with or people you love, which means, my friends and my family. When i go back to my country, all the time spent with my family is fun no matter WHAT the activities are. It could only be going to supermarket or just visiting a relative, but since it is done with these people you love, it becomes FUN. Does this mean that i wouldnt have FUN in singapore? No... ^_^

We can always find FUN when we search for it. In singapore, we could always do FUN things with these group of friends you click with and get some FUN ^_^

2006-01-11T10:18:00.000+07:00

Time	Information required/use	Location	Source	Cost	Value
6.30 monday	wake up	bed	-	0	low
6.35	bathe	bathroom	-	0	high
6.50	breakfast	breakfast table	myself	$2.00++	high
7.10	getting ready	room	-	0	low
7.20	last minute checking of school stuff	room	-	0	low
7.30	leave for NTU	outside house	-	$1.00++	low
8.15	reach NTU	jalan bahar	sbs 172	0	low
8.30	tutorial	TR11	cpe205 tutor	$$$	high
9.30	tutorial	TR11	cpe206 tutor	$$$	high
10.30	lecture	LT2A	cpe206 lecturer	-	high
11.30	lecture	LT2A	cpe 207 lecturer	-	high
12.30	lunch	canteen 4	canteen vendor	+/- $4.00	medium-high
14.00	met councellor	NS4	my counsellor	-	HIGH
14.20	printed notes	LWN	library	$2++	high
14.50	left NTU	NTU	sbs199	$1.00++	low
15.40	reached home	home	sbs172	0	low
15.50	nap	bed	-	0	low
16.10	checking mails	NTU webmail, hotmail, edventure, etc	internet	$60/mth	low
16.30	reading cpe 207	room	-	0	medium-high
17.30	meet friends	CCK-lot1	friends	+/-$4.00	high
18.00	dinner	lot 1	friends	$10.00	medium
20.00	reached home	home	-	0	low
20.10	bathe	bathroom	-	0	low
20.20	reading up html	room	internet	$60/mth	high
21.00	chatting on msn	room	friends	0	low
23.00	reading novel	bed	memoirs of geisha	$15.00	low