newswire 2.0
i wrote the following as an ed note for Buletin Popek.
The blogosphere is an interesting space. Those who refer to it as an alternative to mainstream media are missing the point. We are a generation rethinking information networks, creating what in a few generations will be mainstream media, itself exposed to its own challenges and limitations, only to be rethought again and again and again… The redeeming factor is that we are collectively advancing society by ensuring that information finds more efficient ways of doing what it does best…. spread.
PopTeeVee will be one year old in June. Our belief that ‘information needs to be free, information wants to be free’, feels much stronger and relevant today than when we first thought it up almost a year ago. So much information lives within the blogosphere, and while it is free for the most part (ever heard of a subscription based blog?) - fulfilling the first part of the equation - the sheer volume of information out there (a lot of it rubbish too, we should add) is daunting. It can’t be so free if one has to work so hard to find it.
Thinking about it further, we start to see that the blogosphere is really a form of crowd-sourced news-wire. What’s really going for it is that there is more journalism happening on blogs than in news rooms. If it is indeed a news wire of sorts, why aren’t newsrooms accessing the wealth of journalism it generates?
And so we have Buletin Popek, an idea still in development. It’s about finding the best bits of relevant news items on the BlogWire and creating a weekly (eventually to be daily) news program of the internets, by the internets, for the internets.
We welcome any feedback (please add to the comments section below) and hope to crowdsource the production of Buletin Popek. Scouring blogs, creating copy, voicing the puppets (yes, more to come) are just some of the roles that can be crowdsourced.
Thanks for joining us on the journey so far.
Here’s to One Malaysia, wherever you are.
hype machine redux
a couple weeks back i posted this on my facebok thought stream
Hardesh Singh Proton should concentrate on developing low-cost electric vehicles for the masses. Why do we keep missing opportunities?? http://tinyurl.com/b7drdb
About the same time, this story developed linking Proton with Detroit Electric. The name rang a bell, I checked my delicious tags and was lead back to a feature Wired ran back in Mar ‘08. Read about Zap Corporation and the apparent scam in developing low-cost electric vehicles for the North American market. Detroit Electric and Albert Lam, both connected to the Proton deal, are mentioned in the article. specifically on page 7.
Will Proton be the next Hype Machine?
Hold your bladder…
so it wasn’t just a joke, RyanAir is actually contemplating charging passengers for using toilets in-flight.
The AirAsia panel originally appeared in Amir Muhammad’s New Malaysian Essays 1. Now I wish Tony took my advice, could have been another first for Malaysia.
And here’s a funny reaction to RyanAir’s ridiculous plan.
What Colour is MAS?
One quick look and you’d probably think this is an AirAsia ad. Look again.
MAS banners have previously been blue-ish, as far as I recall. Will a major company with a global brand sacrifce its brand-ident to steal away customers from its competition? And how far would they go? The layout looks unmistakably AirAsia. Looks to me like a desperate attempt.
Here is an AirAsia screen grab I took sometime back for an entry I was intending to post but never did (can you spot what’s odd about it?)
Of course, the red may just be a temporary campaign for the Chinese New Year period. Still..
In an attempt to tell it from Gaza’s side, Al Jazeera has released footage shot from within Gaza under the ‘Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution’ license. Why does this matter?
From the Creative Commons blog:
In a conflict where the Western news media have been largely prevented from reporting from Gaza because of restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera has had a distinct advantage. It was already there.
More importantly, the permissive CC-BY license means that the footage can be used by anyone including, rival broadcasters, documentary makers, and bloggers, so long as Al Jazeera is credited.
Video with description here, press release here.
I shall do my part to spread word about this, and am requesting PopTeeVee to embed it as well. This is a perfect example of how mainstream media and bloggers can work together to get vital information out.
boycott if you’re stooopid
ok, im a little late getting in on this argument, but i intend to seal it ;)
boycotts dont work, we cant be so stupid to think that they do. not going to Mc’D today becuase you want them to know your stand?…well, its not like they were expecting you in the first place, were they? my, they must be so upset.
instead, go! and go with as many friends as you can. order as much as you want. more than you can eat. go nuts. when the order arrives, just turn around and walk away. now you’ve made your stand.
Thank you!
DiGi guerilla viral campaign?
the give away?
In fact she also changed her network from Maxis to Digi
only someone working for telco would bother with such specifics. but i may be wrong.
—- On Fri, 11/28/08, xxxxx xxxxx <xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com> wrote:
From: Alice Chang <xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com>
Subject: FW: MUST READ..real shocking……
To:
Date: Friday, November 28, 2008, 2:38 PM
Very Shocking…. .
This is a real story of a young college girl who passed away last month in Penang . Her name was Ai Ling. She was hit by a truck.
She was working in a call center. She had a boy friend named Tony.
Both of them were true lovers. They always talked on the phone. She used to be never found without her handphone.
In fact she also changed her network from Maxis to Digi, so that both of them can be on the same network, and save on the cost. Even when Tony left overseas to finish his masters, they constantly kept in touch.
She used to spend half of the day talking with Tony.
Ai Ling’s family knew about their relationship.. Tony was very close to Ai Ling’s family as well. (Just
imagine their love) . Before she passed away she always told her friends ‘If I pass away please burn me with my handphone’ she also said the same thing to her parents.
After her death, people couldn’t carry her body, A lot of them tried to do so, but still cant everybody that had tried to carry the body, the results were the same.
Eventually, they called a person known to one of their neighbors, who can speak with the soul of dead person and who was a friend of her father.
He took a stick and started speaking to himself slowly.
After a few minutes, he said ‘this girl misses something here.’ Then her friends told that person about her intentions to burn her with her phone.
He then opened the grave box and place her phone and sim card inside the casket. After that they tried to carry the body. It was then moved easily and they then carried her into the van.
All of us were shocked. Ai Ling’s parents did not inform Tony that Ai Ling had passed away as they’re waiting for him to come home after his graduation..
After 2 weeks Tony returned and called Ai Ling’s mom…….
Tony:….’Aunty, I’m coming home today. Cook something nice for me. Don’t tell Ai Ling that I’m coming home today, I wanna surprise her.’
Her mother replied….. ‘come home first, I wanna tell you something very important.’
After he came, they told him the truth about Ai Ling.
Tony thinks that they were playing a fool. He was laughing and said ‘don’t try to fool me - tell Ai Ling to come out, I have a gift for her… Please stop this nonsense’.
Then they show him the original death certificate to him. They gave him proof to make him believe. (Tony started to sweat) He said… ‘Its not true. We spoke yesterday.. She still calls me.
Tony was shaking.
Suddenly, Tony’s phone rang. ‘see this is from Ai Ling, see this….’ he showed the phone to Ai Ling’s family. all of them told him to answer. he talked using the loudspeaker mode.
All of them heard his conversation. It is the actual voice of Ai Ling & there is no way others could use her sim card since it is nailed inside the grave box!
They were so shocked and asked for the same person’s (who can speak with the soul of dead persons) help again. He brought his master to solve this matter.
He & his master worked for 5 hours. Then they discovered one thing which really shocked them….
Digi ‘I will follow you!!!’
Don’t shout at me I am also looking for the person who has sent me this mail….so what you can do…you should also forward this mail to all your buddies…and enjoy…like I enjoyed. HAHAHAHAHA…
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Rethinking physical text
Physical text is dead (as in static). Information is alive. It’s dynamic. The previous post is a piece I wrote as guest columnist for Klue. Information is constantly evolving. What bugs me about physical text is that it is one dimensional. And printing URL’s on paper doesnt work either. In most cases it is too long and looks like gibberish to be of any use to someone trying to type it into their browser. So I thought about a way to make the jump. To link physical text to digital information.
Remember ‘Quantum Leap’ from the late 80’s? The Quantum Leap Accelerator caused Sam to jump back in time and set certain events right. What is interesting is simply that time is no longer linear. Well, information in the digital age is non-linear as well. We can edit, update & remix information, everytime adding to the pool of knowledge because it is practically impossible to erase previous copies. But how does physical text, which is still a major source of information consumption, benefit from a so called ‘quantum leap’?
This isn’t a new problem. Shotcode is one of many potential solutions helping bridge the physical and digital realms. It requires a camera-phone (which is getting cheaper by the day) and WAP capability. Cheaper phones are starting to have WAP capabilities too, but it’s still nowhere near practical due to data charges.
So there shoud be a simpler opt-in approach that can work on existing infrastructure. I thought of simply using keywords next to sections of the story (much like tags online) that readers can key in to their browser which then open a list of resources tied to that article. The keywords will replace the URL’s (just like tinyurl does online) and create a bridge between physical text and dynamic information.
Having thought about this further, I’ve since come up with more ideas/features to make such a service useful. Ultimately, consumers will decide if this is really as useful as I hope. That is the best way to build something after all.
The Klue column (Dec ‘08) is what I think to be the first (and very elemental) test of the concept. See the sample here (note: this is not the final version of the column)
