BBMAK - Back Here

http://www.singshot.com/playPerformance.html?performanceId=JkH7CWQIoS8%3D&play=Y

I can't freaking embed it.

QotW: Second Life is cool!

This is me. I have ropey brown hair and silver clipped wings. I wear a spider suit and purple pants. So unlike me! Only the dark eye rings are like me.

This is the first place I went to. It's called Jade Jazz Place. Saw a lot of people dancing and simple love the songs. Also there shoutouts like "Love SL!", "Songs are cool here!"

Then I realise I lost the little guiding window on the left. So I went to search for 'Orientation Island' under 'Places'. I learn stuff smoothly on this pseudo Orientation Island. A lady named Magda told me politely I would not be able to get back to the one I came from. She also helped me to put my skull back.

I met someone who looked like me before. If you can see which is me. OK im the purple pants and the red hair was me before.

And then I went to another dance place, they played hip hop or R&B, and they let me dance, free! (said it the Singaporean style)

Obviously i haven't had enough of dancing, so i thought the poor status had stood still for years and danced infront of him.

I went to Help Island. And I played hangman. I won! The word is 'hanging'!

Then I went to sit on a bench, just to feel how it feels like to sit on a bench in a second life. Turns out that I sit too stiffly. So unlike me in real life....

In the end I decided I still like Jade Jazz Lounge the best.

Bonus Mission #2: Why is it not just a game?

• Because you can make money out of it.
  

A millionaire in Second Life.

Anshe Chung is now a famous U.S. millionaire. Not just any millionaire. She is the millionaire who makes her fortune by buying and selling property in the virtual game Second Life using Linden dollars.

Her creator, Ailin Graef started with an initial investment of $9.95 second-life account and bought large-scale lands which she then divides and builds buildings to rent out or sell. More than 2 years later, the fortune she commands is several million dollars in real U.S. money. Asked what is her motivation for building such a large mass of fortune in a virtual land, she replied that it is her vision of community in the virtual worlds and work spaces that is driving her. “It is her philosophy that Second Life is above all a social space...”

And while relationships are formed through the game as social space – business deals made, new friendships formed, even resulting in marriages in real life, they can also be determined through your avatar. It’s “kinda scary”, especially when these things “[avatar appearance] is changeable with a click” (Linden, 2006)

• Because your avatar represents your race and your social identity.
  

Racist biasness appears in Second Life

Well, Chip Midnight had always wanted to create a black skin in second life to show the true proportionality of races in first life, that is, real life. He asked his usual model Erika Thereian, normally a blond and white skin, to test-drive his skin. Immediately, she got racist remarks from a couple of people.

"One said, 'Look at the n***** b****.'" (Linden, 2006)

"Another said 'Great, they are gonna invade SL now.'" (Linden, 2006)

In the three months she was black, some of her friends avoided her and she stopped fitting in with her good friends whom chatted easily with her. Her social dynamics have changed along with her skin color. Some friends asked her, “when you going back being you?” (Linden, 2006) This shows their bias towards blacks. As much as this is a virtual world, as good as a second chance in life, in a whole world newly created, people brings their stereotypes and biasness into it.

Conclusion

That pretty much summarizes why Second Life is not just a game; why Warcraft is not just a game and why games should be treated seriously, as part of the society. Not just some silly teenage boy’s pastime that not only wastes parents’ money and does not benefit the child like education does. It is a good opportunity to learn about the real world through second life because it is modeled after real life. The issues and problems concerning real world are still appearing and happening in Second Life and soon we might see racial protests or environment non-profit groups appearing. The ways to get rich are also modeled after real life. Ailin Graef is not one of the first millionaires to realize that investing in property is one of the quickest and best ways to get rich. Before her, billionaires like Donald Trump and Li Ka-shing have already done it in the real world. Second Life might be a good "try-out" place for fantasies. As Arianna Huffington discusses her thoughts of saving her marriage if "her husband had fulfilled her gay fantasies virtually" (Poprocks, 2007), I say, "why not?"


Bibliography

Levy, S. (2007). World of Warcraft: Is It a Game? Newsweek. Retrieved April 06, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Clarren, R. (2006, 16 Sept) Virtually dead in Iraq. Salon arts & Entertainment. Retrieved April 06, 2007 from http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/09/16/americasarmy/

Lydon, C. (2006, 27 Mar) Living in Game Space. Open Source with Christopher Lydon. Retrieved April 06, 2007 from http://www.radioopensource.org/living-in-game-space/

Dibbel, J. (2003, Jan) The Unreal Estate Boom. Wired News. Retrieved April 06, 2007, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/gaming_pr.html

Plush City @ Second Life, Wuhan, China @ Real Life. (2006, 26 Nov) Anshe Chung Becomes First Virtual World Millionaire. Retrieved April 06, 2007, from the World Wide Web: http://www.anshechung.com/include/press/press_release251106.html

Linden, H. (2006, 23 Feb) The Skin You’re In. New World Notes archive. Retrieved April 06, 2007, from http://secondlife.blogs.com/nwn/2006/02/the_skin_youre_.html

Poprocks, (2007, 25 Jan) Can Second Life save your marriage? nowpublic: crowd powered media. Retrieved April 06, 2007, from http://www.nowpublic.com/can_second_life_save_your_marriage

QotW9: Citizens' STOMP-ing Ground

Is STOMP an ideal form of Citizen Journalism for Singapore?

Citizens writing the news, editors investigating, whoever heard of such a combination a few years ago? Well, STOMP has done it, averaging more than 14,000 visits a day and more than 45% increase in traffic in the last 3 months (Alexa Web Search). Technorati also reports 1,653 links to the website.

Why all the buzz? A lively forums of news and discussions, STOMP has served as an avenue for citizens to make their own news. Outing, says “No longer is news up there, un-reachable. Like the Big Media—large and arrogant institutions… we told you what the news was, you buy it or you don’t.” For once, citizens can be amateur journalists. Actually, the public has always been doing that on their personal blogs. STOMP has merely provided a central platform and easier access for content to reach more people.

A “two-way conversation is an imperative characteristic of most citizen journalism.” (Outing, 2005) By allowing comments to be made and feedbacked on citizen news, an ongoing conversation is achieved. Gillmore predicts that “Tomorrow’s news reporting and production will be more of a conversation, or a seminar.” Readers bring up comments that was missed by the writer, or add new information that the reporter did not know, very much like the purpose of a blog editor where “the 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” (Rebecca Blood, 2000) Actually STOMP is more like a group discussion. Some of the news brought by citizens was actually investigated for validity and details by STOMP editors. Reported news from a citizen, and allowing comments, and having resident journalists “watch” over it actually made Singapore a little livelier!

When I looked through STOMP.com.sg (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) I found the topics surprisingly “homey”. They were the kinds of light, interesting topics that should appear on tabloids, not murders and robbery. After reading “We The Media”, my opinion is that citizen journalism has a different meaning for us, Singaporeans. STOMP is a form of citizen journalism for us but at the same time, it allows us to feel closer to the news. Events covered are close to their heart. Reading so makes one feel there is warmth amidst the city of concrete jungle. A video submitted by an Indonesian maid, Audrie, warning an unwatched boy playing at his window without grilles lets us know that we are genuinely concerned for the welfare of the homelanders.

Others see it as an outlet of frustration, such as the STOMPer who reports that he “cannot stand” his neighbour placing his belongings all over the common corridor in a “karang-guni style”. And the complaint on Band practices creating noise pollution everyday to another STOMPer’s flat were met with rebuttals from the band members themselves. This is journalism in its own right. Instead of having a reporter to acquire both points of views and then publish it, the citizens have done this for themselves by stepping out to publish their point of view. This makes a “full” news.

A “full and updated” news wouldn’t be possible without the medium. Outing said, “technology has given us a communications toolkit that allows anyone to become a journalist at little cost and, in theory, with global reach.” Indeed, STOMP is the necessary medium brought by existing technology.


How I would improve STOMP

I can see that STOMP, less than a year old (launched on the 14 June 2006), has made huge efforts to include sections that homelanders would be interested in, such as “EPL Stomping Ground”, “Love-In” and English As It Broken”. Even though topics naturally concerned with Singaporeans are brought up, problems naturally occurring to a society also appear.

On the 16th March, the STOMP team posted an announcement titled “Why we remove posts and ban accounts” to warn users to be sensitive to what they say. They specifically state that posts which are racist or offend religions will not be tolerated, as well as trolling and advertising. To catch remarks that violate these conditions quickly enough, STOMP can consider Outing’s suggestion of installing a “Report Misconduct” button in Layer 7 of Citizen Journalism. This service can be modeled after ‘Spam’ buttons in our Inbox. If users feels the message is offensive and should be removed, he or she can just mark is as “Offensive” which would notify the editor immediately.

To encourage wider readership, not just from those already plugged-in online and not just from those already following Singapore news, a weekly condensed print version can be circulated to different neighbourhoods of Singapore. This idea is taken from Outing’s Layer 8. To make this movement more effective, the print version can be circulated to that neighbourhood especially when there is news from there. If Outing sees a print version as a “retrograde”, a different perspective towards this move is needed. The aim, in my opinion, is to get more people concerned about what is happening around them and get them to participate in local news, therefore targeted neighbourhoods with familiar news. Also, by showing them examples of citizen journalism, they are inspired by role models and get a feel of the possibilities of citizen journalism.

Improvements that would make life easier for users would be to allow setting up of keywords and notifications. Let’s say you are VERY interested in news of “car accidents”. Set a keyword alarm with STOMP to send you an email whenever anyone posts an article that has “car accidents” in its titles or description. This should prevent readers from forgetting all about STOMP. It is now the Widget era. Let the news come to the readers at their desktop and/or inbox.

Lastly, STOMP can definitely work towards integrating its stories with news in ST Interactive. Taken from Layer 10 of “The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism”, Outing proposes forming a “full” story—the objective news, the insider stories, the variety of additional links and the public opinion on the outcome. This is definitely a step towards “when news is a conversation” (Laird, 2007). However, with ST Interactive not accessible free, is this still possible?

One final word, STOMP can probably do up their Wikipedia page a little.



References

1. Singapore Press Holdings. Office of Editorial Projects. (2006). The Straits Times extends its reach with bold new platform STOMP. Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from the World Wide Web: http://www.sph.com.sg/news/latest/press_060614_001.html

2. Gillmor, D. (2004, July). We the Media, Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrieved March 31, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap3

3. Outing, S. (2005, 13 June) The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=83126

4. Delzer, G. (2007, 30 March) News is a conversation. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/conversation/

5. Blood, R. (2000, 7 September) Weblogs: A History and Perspective. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

6. Audrie. (29 March). Young boy plays at window with no safety grilles. The Straits Times STOMP: Caught In The Act. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/viewPost2420.aspx

7. STOMP Team. (16 March). Why we remove posts and ban accounts. The Straits Times STOMP: This Urban Jungle. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/viewPost2305.aspx

8. Anonymous. (29 March). Help! Flat owner's junk spills into common corridor. The Straits Times STOMP: What Bugs Me. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/viewPost2422.aspx

9. STOMP (online portal). (2007, February 14). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOMP_%28online_portal%29

Other Sources

10. STOMP, About Us: http://www.stomp.com.sg/about/about.html

11. Alexa Web Search: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=stomp.com.sg

12. Technorati: http://technorati.com/search/stomp.com.sg

QotW8: Yawning Bread

A true mix-cultured Singaporean, Au Waipang was brought up in an English-educated environment, with Chinese culture embedded. He is one of today’s baby-boomer, having born in the 1950s. He could be my dad, for they are almost the same age. He runs his own “little” business, mainly in marketing, business development and corporate affairs, for practical reasons like feeding the family, but his passion is still in writing on politics. Even as in most people’s views, business clashes with activism, he pounces on the opportunity to explain that there is a political reason for business to exist. “Work and goals give people meaning and satisfaction in life. Families are fed and children schooled … The competitive effort to make better products, give better service… inventing new things entirely, is what creates wealth. [Wealth] on an individual level for some, but … wealth for whole societies too.” Business, to him, is necessary more for running a society than making the most profits.

He writes under the pseudonym “Yawning Bread” and owns and maintains the website yawningbread.org for the past 11 years, since 1996. Because that is not a blog, I cannot find the ranking in Technorati. His Google page rank is 5/10. My blog only gets 2/10. Newyorktimes gets about 9/10. Guess he is halfway there in popularity. He generally writes about gay news: real people and real events, mostly from a political point of view. He is self-confident in his writing and tackles contradictions head-on. In his About-me, one would think being sexually-oriented towards his own sex would make him an underdog, but he defies that altogether, “I have never been "confused", nor ridden with guilt and conflict.”

His posts, although controversial and liberating in some point of time, does not really create democracy. Quoting theonlinecitizen, when mrbrown got really popular with his article in TODAY, he was sacked. But he was allowed to continue his criticisms towards the government in his blog, “which has a much narrower and more limited audience.” Like mrbrown, Yawning Bread has a limited audience too. Most of these posts goes to mailing lists or feeds subscribed by homosexuals. He is “preaching to the converted.” There is no awareness unless from the ones already aware of the problem. Rheingold said “virtual communities could help citizens revitalise democracy, or they could be luring us into an attractively packaged substitute for democratic discourse” (Rheingold, 1993: 276). To me, I think Yawning Bread is the latter. For God’s sake, his website is not even in the Review of The politics of Singapore’s new media in 2006. He must not have controversy enough. Or not gotten sacked because of his website before. Or the government has not found out about his website yet, because the circulation is too low.


References:

Au, W. P. (2003, July). About me. Yawning Bread. Retrieved March 23 from http://www.yawningbread.org/aboutme.htm

Thornton, A. (2002, October). Does Internet Create Democracy. Does Internet Create Democracy. Retrieved March 23, 2007 from http://www.zip.com.au/%7Eathornto/thesis_2002_alinta_thornton.doc

Giam, G. (December, 2006), Review - The politics of Singapore’s new media in 2006. theonlinecitizen: a community of Singaporeans. Retrieved March 23, 2007 from
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2006/12/31/review-the-politics-of-singapores-new-media-in-2006/

QotW7: Twitter Action!

At first I have my doubts that Twitter can be a community. Because it is just too fragmented… I guess it does not enforce existing communities because you cannot surf profiles and search for friends like Friendster allows. And the emphasis is not so much on the profile than the posts. If I wish to view a stranger’s profile, I could only click on their nicks that comes up at random at the Public Timeline.

From my observation, Twitter can be an online community, however, like how we, the UB-SIM students are using—by updating their random moves or updating news or information only which we know for sure that we share; like when we have completed COM125 assignment, or the presence of events in SIM like the EA games.

Twitter has a very strong concept; it asks people to do a specific action. The focus is on what people are specifically doing right now. This topic is relative to everyday lives and easy to understand. How many of you have always thought you’re doing something really special and wants to share it with anyone, anyone at all that would listen. It could be sky-diving, killing your first pest, or finding the perfect note for that part of the music score that you always thought sounded a little out of tune. Or perhaps, finally getting down to clearing that stack of old textbooks left on the shelf since the year 1997. Unlike other social network sites, people are asked to set up profiles to personalize themselves, to give a branding to themselves. After decorating their profiles with smiley photos of themselves and their affiliations with organizations as well as hobbies and pet-peeves, users often wonder, ‘what now?’ But with Twitter, the focus is on actions, almost on the grindings of the daily life. Although it is intended to report actions, the emotions attached to situations comes naturally from humans. Therefore, humans will speak of their emotions almost as if it a natural thing to “do”. The worry that Fox (1995) has that “all this razzle-dazzle connects us electronically [but] it disconnects us from each other, having us 'interfacing' more with computers and TV screens than looking in the face of our fellow human beings" might not be a cause for worry.

The simple urge for people to communicate and share encourages them to log on and post each time they are doing something of interest or importance to them. Twitter can be interpreted with what Sennett (1977) hopes to put across: that men can act together, without the compulsion to be the same. The very act of writing about your acts links us all up together as we all act on in our daily lives. The very act of telling about your acts brings us together as a community, according to Fernback & Thompson, who says that the structural process that is associated with community is communication.

On scouring the Public Timeline, I have seen non-personalized nicks. Mainly nicks are publicly recognized as a brand, existing communities such as freshpodcasts, BBCnewsworld, googlenews, technorati, wordpress, flickr and Giovy. Also, their avatars are the logos of brands. Good news. Icons of community interests are already starting to ignite. When “followers” of these icons have round up to a number large enough that qualifies as a community, that is be when the advertisers will come in. quoting Benjamin Koe, “If you have a community, you have a business”.

References:

Social Network. (2007, March 13). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking

Wellman, B. & Gulia, M. (1996). "Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities." Retrieved March 16, 2007 from http://www.acm.org/%7Eccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Fernback, J. & Thompson, B. (1995). "Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?" Retrieved March 16, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html

Koe, Benjamin. "Public Relations and Online Communities". Singapore Institute of Management, Singapore. 13 Mar. 2007.

Bonus Mission #1: Malay teenager hitting Chinese old uncle

This video is not from me. The citizen who posted this up reports that there was already a trifle before he got to the scene at the bustop outside Sim Lim Square, 10 Feb 2007. “There was an exchange of vulgarities and hand gestures before the Malay teenager got off the bus. The Chinese old man then continued taunting him. The bus driver (Bus 23) closed the back door after the Malay teenager got off, but he pressed the emergency button located outside the door to open it.”(Revised for language) And the scene continues in the video.

This is an example of a personal sousveillance from a third party that is going to create uproar between Singaporeans Malays and Chinese and Singaporeans teenagers and the elders. Posted in YouTube, this video has already met its peril and received numerous comments about how disrespectful and cowardy (hit-and-run) the teenager is and how egoistic the old uncle is.

References

Rosen, J. (19th July, 2004). "The Naked Crowd". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

QotW6: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

My personal blog has been with me for 4 years and going. These years as a young adult had been the hardest years of my life, the most confusing, most changeable, most complicated times of my life, and I guess anybody else’s. because I view a blog as an online diary, I often find myself negotiating more exposure for more self-revelation and more self-revelation for less privacy. Although Jeffrey Rosen states that “it’s impossible to know someone on the basis of snippets of information”, I still have the nagging fear that one day I would be found out, caught and condemned by the “many who is watching the many”. Vulnerability is often the theme of my entries in those years, if anyone diss at my thoughts, I would be so embarrassed, wouldn’t have anywhere to hide, not even on the Net, hence my worry.

“But people say one thing and do another.” (Bob Sullivan) My blog has been with me for 4 years and it hasn’t gotten any less explicit then when I first started out. Perhaps this is quite like a “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude. Since you can’t prevent pirvacy loss, you might as well reveal it all. Or you could tell a lie. Just make sure you remember it after telling. When role models and pioneers have reaped the benefits of disclosure, I and many others involuntarily follow suit. When Xiaxue’s earlier archives of her sad love life (which she had locked it away after she became famous, but I manage to find it) invited mockery from many others which lead her into fame eventually, one can’t help but be amazed by the irony of it. And look at Donald Trump, he certainly values exposure more than anything else. He loves having his stories all over the news page. He calls it ‘publicity’. If not why would he write book after book detailing every hour of his work and private life with his family?

Overtime I have learnt to overcome my surprise when an acquaintance come up to me and ask about my sick cat, which I don’t remember telling anyone about. I have learnt to be consistent with my online personality, by hiding my surprise, replying to her concern and assuming he or she read it from my blog but prefers not to leave comments. In this way, blogging has become my voice and a broadcasting tool for a continuous period of time despite the time when I first wrote the entry. In other words, I have created a set of “recording or monitoring (tools) of real or apparent authority figures (for) others” which is termed as sousveillance (Steve Mann).

This personal sousveillance has brought new meaning to my connectivity to social groups. Perhaps it is true that “we belong only when exposed”(Jeffrey Rosen). Without asking about my sick cat, I would never have told my friend how it passed away and found out he or she works at a local animal hospital and that we share our love for animals. Gradually, intimacy is built. Not an illusory one.

References

Rosen, J. (19th July, 2004). "The Naked Crowd". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Sullivan, B. (17th October, 2006). "Privacy Lost: Does Anyone Care?". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Privacy. (2007). Privacy. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved 03, 07 , 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy

QotW5: Online Deception Is A Part of Life

My identity online in forums is mostly of a seller or buyer. Otherwise I don't respond at all in forums. If there are good deals to be made from C2C tranactions, I will snag the bait like a mad dog and not let go. A small part of this online identity is deception. I get my deals everywhere: local, overseas forums; local, overseas online marketplace, Google, websites that lists retailers and wholesalers etc.. A wide variety of sources makes it easy to bluff.

Minor deception is easy and sometimes essential in order to get your way and to make the transaction worthwhile. I sometimes use it to garner ethos or even pathos. I usually try to keep my deception as real as possible, as close to truth as possible, probably you can term them "true lies". There are no phone calls requiring immediate response or a trustworthy appearance to put up with. The time needed to deceive extends far beyond immediacy in online communications like email, messages left on websites (blogs, forums etc.). Even when phone numbers are given for "fast deal", communication mode normally do not go beyond SMSes.

A type of deception I find useful is category deception as described by Judith S. Donath. By pretending to lack or to possess certain abilities, I can appear to be more vulnerable or in better position to negotiate a profit. For example, one of the rules on making a deal is never to sound desperate, so we have to make use of other information to persuade buyers to purchase. For very low prices, I will often assume the status of a wholesaler or that I acquire the goods from one. From this, I can assure buyers the best lowest price, without looking like I can't wait to get rid of the items. However to enhance my status as a seller of high-priced goods, I often will subtly enforce the authencity (for e.g., DVDs) or the scarcity of the product. In this way also, if I ever make any future discounts, the price drops but not the value.

Most of the time, these mild deception does not harm the gurantees the product makes but increases its value. It is also used to "soothe buyer's nerves" and make the transaction runs smoothly. As the famous cartoon says, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who you say you are, but how fast your item is shipped, a good price and your customer service.



My altruistic self is only shown in forums for sellers often. I seek to pass on my experience and knowledge of rules and procedures on selling. Not everything can be bluffed. Sometimes the cost of deception also equates to committing a crime, or going against a rule. If I break any rules, I will be heavily penalised either in reputation or in monetary terms. Therefore, when I use a third-party service to sell, I read all the rules and know all of them. Not knowing the rules can be very expensive, quoting from Gary W. Eldred in "Real Estate 101".

Since my identity varies from buyer to buyer, I don't suppose you can say it is deception. A 3D object looks different from every angle. Even the famous Mona Lisa painting has different interpretations to different people. I guess I prefer the interpretive part of life.


Bibliography

Gupta, J. (January 29, 2007). Nobody Knows You're A Dog 2.0. Retrieved Feb 22, 2007 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/nobody_knows_youre_a_dog.php

Eldred, W. G. (June 23, 2006). TRUMP UNIVERSITY REAL ESTATE 101: BUILDING WEALTH WITH REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS. Wiley Publishing.

Donath, J (12 Nov, 1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved 22 Feb, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Other References:
Presentation from Ian Loe on the Feb 12, 2007.

QotW4: Internet Economies and You…

On the surface, a gift economy might seems a tad idealistic. On further observation, it actually describes a scenario already happening around us. Peter Kollock quoted mainly examples from online communities while Wikipedia showed a large variety of gift economies. I think if I were to participate in a gift economy, I would have more opportunities to shine in online communities. In fact I am already doing it right now.

I notice that when I reply to a forum, I am contributing my wisdom and knowledge to people I have not met, but who desperately need some advice or support. That makes me a gifter. I simply want to share, like I have the biggest heart in the whole world. I have a lot to say, regarding what I know. Because I have gone through so much, I feel like the only way to do it justice is to relive it in stories. I guess that is how folk tales work too.

I cannot agree more that, ”In online communities, exchange relations are oriented to the mobilization and command of information" But note that it says information, not knowledge. I feel a greater need to share especially when the information I am sharing is part of many solutions to a problem. My solutions are often more of knowledge than information simply because it contains a trace of the experience ingredient. If the problems I am facing happen to be ones others are facing too, sharing my solutions make me more committed to solving it. My greatest achievement comes from finding the final solution to a problem and sharing it. When others commented that they have solved the problem with my solution, it is really adding cream to an already delicious pie. If the social dilemma is that what if everybody just takes and do not bother to return becomes a worrying factor in gift economies; well I guess if I really worry about reciprocation, I wouldn't blush at the words "notingless, u r a Super hero [girl] to internet dummy." The recipient mistakenly assumed I was a male. *Ahem.

Perhaps the only basis for such vast establishment of online gift economies is because of the simple fact that ‘one person's "consumption" of the information does not diminish another person's use of it.’ Not because I am selfish enough to think sharing property and goods are not to be shared, but because I have always believed in sharing of knowledge and information freely ad totally. To me, online communities is a true gift economy, because like Peter Kollock said, true reciprocity is hard to define recipients and gifters are simply unknown to each other. In Infoshop. Org, AnarchyAm made a statement that saw all men as good by nature, “There is no such thing as a lazy person, so why worry about "contribution" at all? Every single individual always contributes to themselves and the whole of society consciously and uncounsciously, and such contributions are always an equivalent exchange.” In fact it sounded a bit like what you hear in a religious setting. Indeed, what can be more altruistic than religion?

Wikipedia pointed out that a gift economy can also be represented in a religious setting. I think that is perpetually true. From the work of Marcel Mauss, he proposes a model that "suggests the more complex motivations of religious actors as they meet, associate, sacrifice, struggle, jostle, and contend with each other and God. Manuel Vasquez noted that this “provides a shallow and simplistic, understanding of religious behavior.” When I give in monetary terms to God, I view it as it is the minimum I can do as compared to what he say given me. I do not feel the need for him to reciprocate me. In fact my relationship with God is very extraordinary. It is what is inside me but an outer projection (God) would be useful.


Bibliography
Kollock, Peter (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved February 6, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Gift Economy (2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retreived on February 7, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gift_economy&oldid=105681971

AnarchyAm. (2006, Nov 20). Gift economy "question and answer session". [Msg 10]. Message posted to http://forums.infoshop.org/viewtopic.php?t=5069&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=f4efc770b809324b1107cead85cfcb3a

Vasquez, M.. Viewpoints from across the Spectrum. Religion in Latin America: Rational Choice Theory. Retrieved February 10, 2007, from http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/rla/discussion/round1religion.html

QotW3: Sharing, Copyright & Creative Culture

After going through all the required readings, I have summarized the issues between content creators and the general public to be about money. The content creators say, after so much of their hard work and creativity, they have no advantage received for it and so they do it believe in it anymore. They would rather be a doctor, research in science where it is highly paid and gives fame. Cary Sherman, President of the RIAA argued that this would rob artists of their livelihood and stifles innovation. However in June 2005, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf have found file-sharing has only a limited effect on album sales. In fact, they can safely and “statistically reject the null that even a quarter of the recent sales decline stems from file sharing.” Theirs was an experiment based on empirical evidence “exploiting temporal and spatial variation in the intensity of file-sharing.” In the Literature, it was noted that people who download might not necessarily buy the same albums given that downloading technology did not exist. My idea is that given the downloading technology, the sampling of new and interesting albums are done online instead adding to the royalties.

How about the general public? Why do they want to download free stuff from the net? There is a very simple reason why downloading might perform better than sales. It is simply because it is free. If something is free, everybody wants it, whether they need it or not is not important. If it is within reach, convenient, they would want it. It is just the way the world works. If it is in the public interest to make information free a.k.a. freedom of media, the good news is it is already free for access. It is free for access as long as you pay for it; there are no sections of it left behind. Everybody pays 17.90 for an album; there is no price tag discrimination between whites, black, Asians.

Basically copyright issues are somehow correlated to the economic gains, but are mistakenly trying to be seen as causality.

My question is: is the real issue between those who ripped off work and call it their own or general public who downloads copyrighted work? It seems like the Australian Government recently amended the copyright act so “consumers can tape their favourite episode of The Bill or download a track from a CD to their computer and then onto their MP3 player without infringing on copyright.” But if it is okay to download copyright material, but illegal to rip if off and copy it to others or allow others to freely download, then where do we get the material to download?

If it is okay to be on the receiving end of P2P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing, have you stopped and think where P2P copies originate from? From the original copyright material of course! The irony. It’s just like Singapore Government saying it is okay to chew bubblegum but illegal to sell them. Without bubblegum for sale, where do we get the bubblegum to chew? Our personal packets can only last a neighborhood across the border to be exact.

A very famous rule of Economics is the law of supply and demand. Even though photocopying a textbook is illegal because it infringes copyright, but selling the copy made definitely requires getting arrester and fined heavily. So the local bookshop does not want to do this business because it is illegal. The train of thoughts of a normal consumer would go like this, “If Bookshop A would not copy our textbooks for us, we would simply go to Bookshop B, or C, or D…” There is no stopping them. It is true this is a consumer world.

My recommendation to the people who collect royalties and fights for patent rights would be to go along with the flow instead of staying put and whine about all the injustice in the world. The introduction of downloading music online at a fee per track is a very good example of rising from the chaos. When retail prices were ripped to the bare minimum by Black Friday or online auction sites, instead of responding negatively, Amazon.com chose to follow suit. They created a similar scheme of their own and the response was massive. They might not have earned much but it sure created awareness to their site and probably signed up more long-term customers, some of which may still be buying from their site today.


Bibliography

Remix culture: a rights nightmare. ABC: Catapult. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/indepth/s1645533.htm

Brady, K. S. (2007). Copyright FAQ: 25 Common Myths and Misconceptions. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://users.goldengate.net/%7Ekbrady/copyright.html

Oberholzer-Gee, F, & Strumpf, K (2005). The Effect Of File Sharing On Record Sales. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www.unc.edu/%7Ecigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf.

Week 2 Assignment: eBay

eBusiness of eBay

What is often thought of as a past-time and hobby has turned out to be a lucrative and personally satisfying business over the years. One main ingredient that many eBay PowerSellers and store owners claim to possess is their passion to manage their own business and the thirst for freedom. However, it wasn’t necessary the case for the eBay founder. Pierre just wanted to sell his broken laser pointer.

EBay started as a nights-and-weekend project of Pierre Omidyar, an Iranian French American. On September 3rd,1995, the computer engineer sat down and wrote the code for an online auction website. He called it AuctionWeb at first, but later changed it to eBay 2 years later to reflect his consulting firm, EchoBay. He wanted to use echobay.com but the domain name was already taken up. The first item that listed was Omidyar’s broken laser pointer. It sold for around $14. (Data discrepancies from Reader’s Digest (14.94) and Wikipedia(13.83)) Before the deal was completed, Omidyar confirmed that the buyer know it was broken. The buyer did, and it turns out that he collected broken laser pointers. I guess this one story already sums up the success of eBay-one man’s food is another’s poison.

The auction house was generating so many hits that Omidyar’s internet service provider increased his monthly subscription from $30 to $250. He then started charging a “final value fee” to cover internet service provider costs. By 1996, the website was already profitable and Omidyar realized he needed help. He quit his full-time job and invited Jeff Skoll to be a partner. In September 1998, 3 years after eBay was created, the company successfully launched a public offering, making Omidyar and Skoll billionaires. Skoll soon left the company and is now known for his generous sponsorship of movies such as Syriana.

Now, eBay has hugely influence the way business is done around the world. No longer is it enough to monopolize your local market. And no longer is it costly to set up your own business and your storefront. EBay is truly the obvious example of a global market.

How eBay has changed the business and economy of Asians
EBay is definitely a good and stable source of income for many. In July 2006, ACNielsen released an eBay-commissioned global research stating that nearly 4,400 Singaporeans earn a living solely from selling on the International eBay website while nearly 10,000 others sell on eBay to supplement their incomes. In Hong Kong, some 12,000 individuals depend on eBay as their primary source of income and another 15,600 sell on a part-time basis. 1 in 10 was also considering leaving their professional jobs to sell full-time.

One individual in Hong Kong, Hades has already quit to run his eBay store which sold gemstones and other jewelry. His reasons were it was simply “too much to handle”. He explained that he has to attend to customers’ enquiries, spend some time sourcing new products and take pictures of them to list, and also do his own accounting and invoicing, as well as any fault handling. These, were enough reasons for him to concentrate full-time on his business. He now earns about US 2,574 (SGD 3,959.20) a month as compared to US 190.05 (SGD 292.29 using an exchange rate of 1.54) when he first started out. (ZDNet Asia) Shocking as the numbers can be, it is true that money can be earned on eBay and a business can be built on the Internet.

Another example of a Thailand PowerSeller on eBay, Shiana.com, made her fortune selling silver beads made by the Karen hill tribe. Every week, she treks her way into the remote hills in the north and brings back new silver creations to Bangkok. Unlike other wholesale dealers, Shiana offers fair prices to these silversmiths and does not slash their prices horrendously. The reason is because an international market like eBay enables Shiana to sell more at greater profits in a shorter time, compared to wholesalers selling merely to locals and/or tourists to Bangkok. EBay.com allows Shiana to reach out to the customers around the world at almost the same time. This has allowed Shiana to achieve the status of an international brand well-known for “Silver Beads from the Karen Hill Tribe in Thailand”, just like “Toyota economical family cars from Japan” or “Nike basketball shoes from U.S.A.”.

Recognizing the eBay as a hugely popular trading platform for Asians especially in Singapore, the American company has made efforts to buff up eBay.com.sg on the website design to include more technical support, reports People’s Daily Online, such as installing Live Help chat system, putting up a Seller Starter Kit to download for free, and creating programs to educate on setting up eBay stores. EBay.com.sg reportedly has already 3,000 people owning an eBay store and a quarter of these people are planning to quit their day jobs to sell full-time!

So what are you waiting for?



Bibliography

1) People’s Daily Online (2 July, 2006). “eBay expects flourishing business in Singapore”. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200607/02/eng20060702_279241.html

2) ZDNet India (11 September, 2006) “Web sees growing breed of shopkeepers”. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.zdnetindia.com/insight/communication/stories/153653.html

3) eBay (25 January 2007) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebay

4) Pierre Omidyar (19 January 2007) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retriever January 26, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Omidyar

5) Plouffe, Jim. (July 2006) “Perils of an eBay Addict” Reader’s Digest. pp. 108-112