Recently in Business and industry Category

After hearing about another misquoting incident in the local media I thought I should share a similar incident which also happened recently, to a classmate of mine.

A few weeks ago I reported that one of my classmates made it to the quarter finals of L’Oreal’s EStrat, a global marketing simulation contest. I scanned the article and congratulated him on his Facebook wall.

The part where he’s mentioned and quoted, is:

Mr S— M—, an Indian international and a semifinalist of EStrat, said that the competition gives him the chance to experience a real-life marketing challenge.

“It will be a great asset to add to my resume,” said the student at Insead, a post-graduate business school.

He thanked me for the info and added:

But I am surprised to see the comments in the news paper, I never told them what they have written.

They called me and this is what I told them “The idea of stepping into the shoes of a General Manager, having to manage a portfolio of beauty brands and facing marketing situations and challenges was an extremely appealing idea. We know that joining this competition is one of the best ways to glimpse what makes the world’s foremost beauty company tick and get hands-on experience in the business.”

I can understand if a quote has been slightly rephrased, or some words have been removed or re-arranged… but this seems to be very different from his original statement. Good that he kept a record in writing, so we can have a side-by-side comparison of the original statement and what was published in the end.

It could have been lost in translation, if his quote was given to the PR department or PR agency and then passed to the journalist. But we thought it’s unlikely that PR reps of a global company would warp the original statement so much. There’s no benefit to them changing it. The article was, however, one in a series on job searches, thus the rephrased quote fit better with the theme.

This is the second time a classmate of mine has been misquoted in the press. The first time, I had the impression that an incoming classmate sounded a little naive. Later she told me that these words were suggested to her so that it would fit better with the theme of the article; it wasn’t what she really wanted to say.

Perhaps ‘misquote’ in this first case isn’t the best word but I’m seeing a pattern - a need for quotes which help the article to flow well. Of course, not everyone you interview may say what you want, and if time’s short, why not rephrase it? However, news reporting should be non-fiction. If you want to change a statement drastically, I’d think you should contact the interviewee to discuss this, especially if you’re publishing their name.

I am fortunate that all the journalists who have interviewed me have been very professional - they check back with me before modifying my quotes, they are familiar with the topic at hand and ask good questions. Also, to be fair to journalists (having worked in a newsroom before) I’ve seen how some reports can get modified out of their control, literally from black to white. I don’t intend to point fingers at particular people because this seems to be happening too often, which means it’s not a ‘specific person’ problem but possibly an underlying problem with the system - incentives, procedures, hierarchy… There are a lot of other factors we may not know about - that’s what I’ve been learning in business school.

Later I’ll write a separate blog post to share my own experiences, and maybe we can all have a constructive discussion on what we can do to improve the situation.

While preparing my Organisational Behaviour presentation on stereotypes, myths and truths about our respective countries, I found myself collating more negative than positive points about being Singaporean. Actually, my groupmates and I took turns to talk about pros and cons of each of our countries, so we would have a balanced view. Still, my slide sounds more critical than others’, so far…

While begs the question: Do Singaporeans tend to be too critical of ourselves?

Had a great gathering at Geek Terminal this evening for Bluestocking’s StepOut event for women entrepreneurs. I told my INSEAD classmates about this and 5 of them managed to make it. So the mix was a little more international than usual.

Geek Terminal is looking very good after its renovation. Things started well from the beginning. Firstly, there were COCKTAILS! We could each try 5 different blue cocktails and the most popular flavour would become the Bluestocking cocktail.

Three lady entrepreneurs shared their experiences about starting their own businesses: Ms Goh Yiping (President, World Indigo Inc); Ms Virginia Cha (CEO, WOVE Holdings Ltd) and Mrs Kim Faulkner (CEO, Activiste Pte Ltd).

Yiping was the youngest but had a great location-based idea which intrigued my fellow techy classmate Reene, who gave her a contact who might help publicise her idea. I like my classmates precisely because they are helpful and share information willingly.

Virginia speaking

Virginia spoke of her experience doing business in China, and added that her story became an INSEAD case! There were other interesting details to her story that we didn’t get to hear. However her advice was sensible: Don’t go to China thinking you can do everything your way, because it’s very different from the rest of the world. Instead, feel the pulse there and go with the flow.

Kim speaking

Kim shared her interesting life story and how her business was bought up by a famous global company. She mentioned her experience as a consultant, and turns out she was from the same consultancy as one of my classmates, Eline! So it was a small world indeed. My take-home point from her was that wherever we work, our personal brand or reputation stays with us. It’s something important that we must maintain.

After the speeches were over, it was time for some audience participation. True to the theme, our activity involved standing behind a line and stepping out when we disagreed or agreed with a statement involving women doing business or generally cutting our own paths in this world. I and a few of my classmates got to air our views.

I discovered talent among my friends. One of my classmates, Anna, turned out to have a very astute cocktail sense, detecting a missing ingredient. Also I was suitably impressed with Coleman’s coffee making and decorating skills.

Woot! ;-)

Thanks to Raine and friends for a most wonderful evening, and to Danny and the team at Geek Terminal for making us feel at home!

Lately, there has been lots of interest in ‘green’, sustainable energy. However, many of us are going green for less than altruistic reasons. As Barack Obama put it during Al Gore’s endorsement of him, the former Vice President had done much to raise awareness of climate change, but “there’s nothing like US$4 a gallon gas to get your attention.”

Going green today means saving greenbacks, and - oh, incidentally - the environment. From a practical point of view, as long as behaviours are changing it shouldn’t matter, but ideally we should also understand how our consumption habits affect the world around us. Education is important, but so are the societal norms with which we live by.

As a motorist, I’ve seen my own petrol bills increase over the past year. Previously I paid just over S$40 for a full tank of petrol. Now I’m paying S$70-80. I wondered what the Americans were so upset about - we’re still paying more than they are. But they have to travel longer distances and have been accustomed to relatively low prices. And they have a weak economy and dollar to grapple with.

Similarly, I’ve heard laments about how Malaysian petrol is subsidised while Singaporeans pay the full price. But I agree with our National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan that ‘cutting petrol duties and giving out subsidies are not the answer to soaring global oil prices’ (source). We should modify our own lifestyles first. It would however be nice to see examples of how some of our own leaders are doing this.

Rich Singaporeans who flaunt their wealth by driving big cars can jolly well foot the bill instead of complaining. I’ve found it ironic that some who can afford to buy a car would jam up the roads waiting outside ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) gantries just to save a dollar. Car manufacturers should also think twice about flying their hybrid cars across the world for celebrity clients.

Of course, in other cases it’s not so clear-cut. Parents may drive an MPV or a SUV to ferry their brood about. Others may depend on mobility for their livelihood. Some of us can make changes more easily. As a student, I took a school bus or car-pooled with neighbours. If my parents couldn’t fetch me home - no big deal. There was public transport.

If things get too costly for me, I’m prepared to move back to public transport as well, even though it takes more travelling time. For years I’ve wanted to switch to a Toyota Prius or another hybrid car, because I was interested in using less fuel (and also because I am a geek who wants to hack it). However, the earlier models were expensive and out of our budget, although in time it would’ve paid us back in savings. It was too difficult for me to justify. But now, surging petrol prices are making such solutions more attractive for many of us.

We aren’t in want of technology. There are a myriad of green solutions and incentives, depending on the unique nature of each region. In California, where some of my relatives live, those who drive a hybrid car and have obtained a licence, may drive on the ‘Diamond lane’ which breezes them past other lanes with heavy traffic. This has led to a huge demand for hybrid cars, particularly the Prius.

There is also greater civic awareness of the importance of reducing waste, such as cutting down on electricity and water usage. Some of these initiatives bring about cost savings, but to practice this consistently also requires an active citizenry which I find strong in many Americans, and dormant in Singaporeans - to say the least.

But of course, California has its own set of problems. For one, its public transport system is less developed than ours, which is why many citizens feel handicapped without a car. Another issue is public safety. Once, I wanted to take the public bus so as not to make my relatives drive me downtown, but was warned not to as it was dangerous. So we in Singapore have some things to be thankful for.

Similarly, there was a big issue in Singapore about supermarkets charging for plastic bags, whereas in other developed countries it has long been normal to bring your own bag, or pay for one. It is good to have campaigns promoting re-usable bags, but the day we no longer need a campaign for something is the day we have succeeded.

Change is not impossible. But beyond inventing new green solutions and policies, we have to change our own attitudes first. It is probably our ‘kiasu’ mentality, general lack of awareness and ingrained apathy about how much difference our actions can make in this world, that has contributed to demands for short-term solutions.

[Disclaimer: I am still a public servant, at least for the next week or so. However my job has nothing to do with petrol prices.]

My fellow Media Socialists Ben Koe and Walter Lim are quoted in today’s Digital Life article on Web 2.0 for companies. I won’t copy the full article, but here are the myths that were debunked:

** MYTH 1: Web 2.0 technologies are fine for building social networks, but they are not relevant to my business.

MYTH 2: I don’t want my employees using social networking tools in the office because productivity will fall.

MYTH 3: My employees are used to working via e-mail, so there’s no need for these new Web 2.0 collaboration tools.

MYTH 4: My company is too small to take advantage of social computing and Web 2.0 tools.

MYTH 5: It is difficult to manage social computing tools because they are too unstructured. **

My take: Web 2.0 is more than just a technology. Setting up the technology today is actually the relatively easy part. Building a successful Web 2.0 app or community requires a mindset change from within, first.

Examples abound. You may start a corporate blog because ‘everyone else is doing it’. But you’re afraid of publishing negative comments, or think it is a chore to reply to them, not understanding that a blog can facilitate real conversations and garner genuine feedback.

You may love control, and want to build your own social network instead of using existing networks - where everybody is already at. Web 2.0 is all about collaboration. You don’t have to own everything to get the most exposure for your brand.

Or, you can build numerous Facebook Apps, but as over 120+ other Apps are launched every day (and growing), you are lost in the sea of anonymity.

Many organisations are leaping onto the New Media / Web 2.0 bandwagon, but not always for the right reason. If it is just to make you or your organisation look ‘cool’, time will reveal whether your actions will reap any meaningful rewards.

And if you jump onto it expecting immediate returns on investment above everything else, you have not fully comprehended the nature of social media. Treat everybody as your friend and not some soulless cash cow; tell them things they are interested in. Keep in touch with them regularly - don’t go to them only when you want something out of them.

New media / social media / Web 2.0 technologies are not an end in themselves. They are enablers and facilitators; a means to an end. They can make it more obvious which organisations are more open and sincere, and therefore more prepared for the business of the future.

Yes, I have started my own INSEAD blog. It will chronicle my life before, during and hopefully after my MBA. You can find it at vantan.org/insead.

Zanat0s, fabled Greek INSEAD blogger, had lamented in our Facebook group as to why my batch had yet to produce one MBA blog…

Well, at the time my plans weren’t officially made known at work, so how could I announce my INSEAD blog until now? :P

I will try to split myself between this blog, the new blog and a few other blogs. I think I may just end up updating the first two! Of course I want to tweak my blogs and add more features but have no time so will just add new content for now.

Another classmate asked how anyone could possibly upkeep a blog while doing our MBA. Firstly, to me, sitting down and blogging is not difficult provided I have something interesting to say. Of course I anticipate there will be busy days, even weeks, but there should be updates.

You only do your MBA once in your life (even if many of my classmates have more than 1 degree already - swots! :P). So why not chronicle it and also be a spokesperson for your school, and inspire prospective students?

Met up with Alan Rambam, Fleishman-Hillard’s youth and mobile marketing guru yesterday. We learnt about what was being done in the US and other countries such as location-based messages, SMS, MMS, Twitter and too many others to mention.

My main thoughts are that what’s successful in the US cannot be transplanted wholesale in other countries, and vice-versa. This we all agreed on. The next question is which CAN be adapted successfully and this has to be a case-by-case basis considering the country and the organisation involved.

Also, Asians are more shy than Westerners and are less likely to come forward if they have a disease or condition that has been stigmatised in their culture. So marketing strategies involving user-generated content or at the very least, personal testimonials, have to be tactful and respectful of privacy.

I was pleased to hear about Twitter being used, but it would be better if we had a local number for Twitter. Where regular use is asked of us, cost will be a concern. Unless of course we again depend on the wireless internet.

Another point we all agreed on was that in Singapore, a lot still depended on our own mobile phone packages. I am on GPRS and my bill shot up after getting the iPhone because I was checking mail etc in places without wi-fi. No way am I going to download some MP3 or video file on my handset.

I was amused to see WAP sites being presented. WAP feels so passé in developed Asian regions. Even if some of us don’t have 3G, more likely we’d use Wireless@SG and a phone browser to view web pages.

As for apps designed for handsets, I feel we have to cater for too many different platforms, whereas for the Web we just need to comply with Web Standards. Browser detection can help to adapt our web pages for mobile devices, so there is no need to design a separate site in many cases. But of course many of our local vendors don’t know or care about this, and charge clients extra because it’s seen as doing two websites.

I also feel that while Singaporeans can own more than 1 mobile phone each, and many have 3G connectivity, not many of us fully utilise this. There was a news report on this last year, if I recall correctly. Most of us still use it for SMS and calls instead of video conferencing or downloads. We thus need a behaviour change. Alan’s example was getting the American public to vote for their favourite Idol contestant via text. 40% did so for the very first time.

I am also interested to see how things may change once the iPhone officially comes to Singapore. We should actually start designing Apps for the iPhone already, using Apple’s SDK. But my suggestion a few months ago was pooh-poohed because of the belief that it would take a while to catch up with other handsets. I am not too sure about that and will try again via other channels.

I was at the Hitwise Singapore Online Performance Awards 2008 this evening. When I arrived at the venue, Indochine, surprisingly it wasn’t as packed as it was last year. It seems that one of the main taxi operator’s websites went down and people couldn’t book cabs. I joked to Hitwise’s boss that maybe next year that taxi site would win a Hitwise award!

Anyway. I’m sure the results will be announced on the Hitwise website eventually, but here’s what I can remember:

Here’s my account of how the panel went, with added thoughts thrown in. Kevin thinks it didn’t work out due to technical glitches, but I can assure him the audience loved him. I’ll add more blog links once they come up.

It was exciting seeing Kevin on screen. At least it was better than our own Media Socialist video conferencing attempt a couple months ago, as he had backup systems (Skype and Twitter). I also met the other panelist, Stuart, who was obviously a very polished speaker. He was in the middle of conducting a course and stepped out just for this talk.

I was the first panelist to speak, on how large organisations and Government agencies could use Web 2.0. I didn’t think most of my projects were particularly sexy, so I didn’t go into details or plug my URLs. From my point of view, large organisations already had their Web 1.0-style media, such as corporate websites and digitised brochures. They have to adapt to a new mindset and not all are ready for it yet. Also, the sustainability of Web 2.0 applications was important and that was why we didn’t go ahead with all projects.

I was surprised to be boo-ed so early at this point by a well-known social media practitioner, but I hope I explained our reasons clearly. The specific point I was making at the time, was that while we already had other Web 2.0 projects like blogging and podcasting, we decided not to go with a Wiki to replace our health articles because of public safety reasons.

Judging from the pitches we’ve received to endorse dubious products and services (e.g. asking for our logo to be placed next to their ‘health’ products), opening up our health information to the world for editing may not be safe. Also, I noted that Wikipedia has over 900 3,950 volunteer editors making sure that unreliable information and sales pitches don’t stay on the site for long. If we can’t sustain a new Web 2.0 application that relies on crowdsourcing for information, then we shouldn’t start one until we’re ready.

Another point I wanted to add during the talk but didn’t, was that I’ve seen many cases of people jumping onto the blogging and Web 2.0 wagon, hoping to reap its benefits without fully understanding its impact. On one occasion I’ve even heard a criticism of someone else’s website as “not looking Web 2.0 enough”. Having glossy banners, big shiny buttons and large text is just a facade. In fact it is the mindset behind the operations that will prove whether something is really Web 2.0 or not. Is the organisation open to receiving criticism and taking the issue further, on its blog? Or will it only respond to newspaper forums and letters, as tradition dictates?

If you’re in a large corporation, try starting a Web 2.0 project. It will give you insights as to how open and collaborative your departments are.

And let’s not forget Web 2.0 is still a means to an end. We want to meet new people, or build on existing relationships. We want to share our photos and our videos. We want to share information or let people collaborate on our work. In the past this was harder to do, which makes the present more exciting. Web 2.0 is an enabler and a ‘flattener’ (to borrow the term from Thomas Friedman) because it breaks down some barriers to entry. That brings things down to the same level, and that’s when we realise that it is still the value of your content and ideas that will help you stand out from the crowd.

I started out as a dotcommer but have been in the public sector for the past 4 years. So when ‘monetisation’ came up as a question, I was wondering what I could say that would be of value to the audience! The only examples I could give were from my personal blog - the Thinking Cap I designed for Ivan, which garnered a few sales on Cafepress.com, and my Amazon.com Associates referral scheme which has garnered me several US$ in sales after writing some book reviews.

I understood Gurmit’s point, evil adman though he may come across as, because it is some people’s jobs to make money from Web 2.0, while the rest of us play about with it. It is not my job to make money from it as we’re suppose to disseminate reliable health information. However I’m sure many of us wouldn’t mind making some money out of our blogs either!

Stuart noted that to follow this model of putting ads on your site, you need more than 100 readers. This is where internet marketing comes in. But as Kevin pointed out, there’s also a social value from Web 2.0 and if the idea is good, the money will come later. He was rightfully applauded for that.

It was good to meet some of you at the talk today. I am bad with names but I see you on Twitter. Thank you for coming to our talk. Thank you November, NTT, Farinelli, Raine and Nick. Thank you also to Marcus, Ridza and the rest of the team for organising this event.

I would’ve liked to reveal more at the talk, but didn’t think it was appropriate in my capacity especially as I’m not a decision-maker and can’t speak for other agencies either. I am happy that Singapore may join the Creative Commons, based on what the Creative Commons folk at SXSW told me - they too have no definite idea. I think it is a great idea to improve one of our systems for vendors, and build a platform for the public to contribute info in emergency situations. Like I said, I can send these suggestions to the relevant folks. I hope something comes out of it.

To those who came, in the spirit of SIA I say: “Thank you for going to our panel. I know there are other social media events that you could have chosen to attend today.” :)

Forbes.com has launched the Business and Finance Blog Network, comprising “a community of pre-screened, influential business and financial blogs”. I’m proud to be a member of this new community. Citing the press release:

The Blog Network’s content will focus on senior business decision makers and high-net-worth investors. Topics will be relevant to the banking, trading, hedge fund management, affluent investing, and senior business decision-making communities. Participation in the network is by invitation only, and all blogs are vetted by Forbes.com editors for appropriate content, and to ensure that they are in keeping with the Forbes editorial brand.

The network will allow advertisers to target a highly engaged, exclusive niche audience of senior business decision makers and affluent investors easily and effectively. Four hundred-plus blogs have already joined the network, with many more expected to sign on before the official launch in the next few weeks.

If you’re surprised, I don’t blame you. But in the next few months I’ll be able to reveal exactly why I’ve taken on business blogging in a big way.

Kevin and I will be speaking on the topic of Web 2.0 at the NUS Business School on Saturday 29 March. This is organised by Start-Up@Singapore and is part of their Emerging Industry Series.

Extract: Emerging Industry Series - Web 2.0

Join us in the concluding installment of the Emerging Industry Series to discover the dynamic and borderless world of Web 2.0. Explore in great breadth and depth the emerging trends and business opportunities of web-based communities such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs and many more! Harness this opportunity to learn how you can possibly make a difference in the rapidly growing online world of Web 2.0!

Register here.

Thanks specifically to Marcus for putting this together.

We’re looking for additions to the New Media team at the Health Promotion Board. These are our general benefits.

Specifically for the New Media team: We were the first in the Singapore Government to launch a podcast and one of the first to launch a blog. For mobile technologies, we’ve launched MMS ecards, a voting platform via SMS and a mobile diet tracker. We now produce health-related videos on YouTube (skipping the traditional TVC route) and also promote some of our campaigns using Facebook. There should be more to come.

The JobsDB listing has more details on our requirements. This is for a full-time post, closing date 25 March 2008. We’re also looking for a couple of part-time employees, doing a similar role.

For the full-time position you can submit your application directly via JobsDB, but still it’s good to drop a note to let me know, so we can look out for it. You can contact me.

Also, do spread the word if you know of any friends who may be a good fit for the work we do.

[ I’m so happy I’m officially allowed to blog about this :) ]

A while back, I rekindled my experiment with having a store on Cafepress.com, and designed some merchandise for my own store. I recalled Ivan being called a 'Thinking Man' by a journalist (?) last year, thus I decided to design the 'Thinking Cap'.

This one's for you, Ivan!

Last October, someone bought a Thinking Cap but then returned it. I just received an email from Cafepress, informing me that someone else has just purchased the Thinking Cap! Fingers crossed that this time the sale will go through!

I'm only asking for a US$1 commission, which ain't that hot, what with the falling US dollar. But still, it's exciting to see a sale anyway.

You could say it's a feather in my cap.

I was pleased to read about another step forward for the Creative Commons:

Carl Malamud's nonprofit organization Public.Resource.Org and the legal research company Fastcase today announced an agreement that will allow Public.Resource.Org to publish 1.8 million pages of federal case law in the public domain. The archive, which will become available sometime in 2008, will include all U.S. courts of appeals decisions since 1950 and all Supreme Court decisions since 1754... The cases will be marked with a new Creative Commons mark -- CC-Ø -- that signals that there are no copyrights or other related rights attached to the content.

I recall how we law students used to scramble for the same case books on our reading list as our library only had a few copies of each year. We would also hog the library computers downloading journals. At the time, most serious texts were only available via the library, not the Internet. How times have changed in ten years. At least American case law will be easier to access now.*

I also remember how, before I even heard of the name 'Creative Commons', I used to get excited over works that had fallen into the public domain. Over a slow dialup modem in my dorm room, I would trawl the Internet and collect links to texts written by authors long deceased. I think the enthusiasm was due to my interest in literature (as a former Arts student) combined with my growing interest in Intellectual Property.

While revisiting older versions of my website at Archive.org, I dug up an article I wrote, as a law student, on the public domain. I will share it with you in another post soon.

* - digression. I sense a business opportunity here. While companies that are currently selling access to American case law may be starting to sweat at the news, there will be a new demand: for services which help lawyers and students process the information. Say, for instance, you're preparing for a case and you've got a number of precedents to cite. In addition you'd like to find out which of the older cases were cited in newer cases, and whether they were considered by the judges as valid.

It will be complex and laborious but a system that can help bookmark or keep track of selected cases and show the link between them all, would be helpful. Also, ranking may be required. You may wish to cite newer cases as they may have more relevance. As relevant new cases arrive (tagged by keywords), lawyers can be notified - say, via an automated email or by RSS. A company that can tie all these things together can sell this online service based on a subscription model, to law firms. I sense Fastcase does these things at a more basic level, they're at "Web 1.5" in terms of features and they could add a bit more dynamism to take it to "2.0", for want of a better name.

I'll throw down the gauntlet and see if anybody with an entrepreneurial spirit will take on this opportunity.

Day 2 of the conference was much better than Day 1. There was more focus on new media. However in most presentations I felt there was still too much emphasis on the paid aspects of having an online presence, and not enough on unpaid publicity and building long-term relationships.

The most interesting thing we did today was probably when Clark Harris from Vocanic asked us to look at our own projects to see if people were talking about us in the Blogosphere, and what we could do to improve this 'buzz'. After several minutes of discussion, Clark and Ian asked for volunteers. A period of dead silence followed, so I took the mic and shared about feedback from the Blogosphere about our campaigns and the limitations we faced, including the difficulty of marketing a product that was intangible (health) to an audience that thinks they're going to live forever, that sees anything the Government says as uncool. That generated more discussions from the moderator and other presenters. Unfortunately, no one else in the audience wanted to come forward to discuss their own projects.

I take my hat off to today's moderator, Paul Soon from XM Asia, for actually mentioning the importance of Web Standards and its role in search engine optimisation. This is the first time I've heard of it in a relatively 'mainstream' marketing conference and I hope it happens more often.

Frederique Covington (Bates Singapore) gave a good presentation on music and youths. She advised us to tie in our activies with something that appeals to youth. Right after lunch, we learnt from Colin _ of XM Asia about how clever research in the Japanese youth market enabled Kit Kat to become the most popular snack in the FMCG industry.

While I think Microsoft's Chris Schaumann is a very nice guy, I had reservations about some parts of his presentation. Dramatic-looking increases in the signups for Microsoft's Spaces over the past year can look impressive. So did a chart of how Spaces was more popular than MySpace, Facebook and other social networks.

However, we must look at the figures in context. Sure, there is huge growth in Spaces, but was there also similar growth in rival services? Considering how Facebook opened its doors to non-students last year, and how many of my Singaporean friends are signing up for a Facebook account and actively trying to Zombify me, I'd say it has potential too. The growing popularity of one particular social network could simply represent a general trend in the proliferation of social network registrations.

Also, in the comparison with other social networks, other related community websites like Flickr and Friendster were not included. Next, even if Spaces is the biggest, I thought we should also know how many accounts are active. I would ask the same question of any other social network (Second Life included) that makes claims only on how many signups they've had. It's not the number of signups but the level of engagement that counts. Quality, not quantity. But people gloss over it because it looks less attractive and is much harder to earn.

I had to dash off early to go back to the office for an urgent meeting, so didn't stay for the Q&A session, or else I might have asked these questions. Other aspects of the conference could be improved, but the conference organisers were very professional in taking my feedback. Another aspect is impossible to ask for - a more participative audience. In fact the main thing the organisers heard was complaints about the food. The Mandarin Chicken Rice we had was nowhere as good as before, but at the end of the day it's the food for thought that is more important. It's a pity most did not share in the latter.

[BTW I am typing this all off the top of my head, as I left the conference notes in the office, so everything I wrote down here had to be memorable enough for me to recall.]

As I'm currently leading a large youth project, I attended this year's Marketing to Youths conference. Today was Day One. Being a new media person, I thought the tagline on 'making them click' meant there'd be more focus on online campaigns. However, most speakers focused on traditional media, at best mentioning blogs and other social media elements 'by the way'. That's how I felt, at least.

Initially, the presentations seemed to be focusing a lot on two things that young people like - Fashion and Entertainment (including music, videos, games). The case studies were also on brands that were already well known worldwide (MTV, fashion labels, McDonalds), or products that went down well with young people (anime). The presentations were all right. The problem for me was that I had seen most of them already, at last year's conference :(

I also started to wonder, 'How can we market an intangible product that young people don't think about?!' We could create yet another 'cool' looking website with lots of free MP3 or ringtone downloads, but that's just a short-term solution. It won't build customer loyalty. I would rather start small, have an authentic message, take the back seat and young people run the show, such as this youth online counselling service we're supporting.

For me, the presenter who stood out was Ian McKee from Vocanic. I saw his blog address at the end of his presentation, and realised I've been there before, perhaps as a link off Walter's blog.

Ian challenged other presenters' viewpoints and traditional marketing practices. For instance, he did not agree with another presenter that you (only) needed to go to the opinion leaders to promote products. Your brand advocate can be the average customer. He also made us wonder if spending lots of money on traditional advertising, year after year, and giving cursory replies to existing customers (on the phone or via email), or even removing such channels because they were seen as 'troublesome to upkeep', was actually a good idea.

I already knew of the trends and figures presented, and the misallocation of marketing budgets in most corporations today. For instance, more youths are online but a disproportionate amount of money is still being spent on traditional media. I also have Brandchannel.com's Reader's Choice 2006 survey results pinned on my cubicle wall, and knew that Google and Apple pipped traditional brands who spent more money on advertising.* What it did for me was to rehash these thoughts and wonder if all of us could change the way things were being done - and if so, how?

Word of Mouth marketing was another focus of Ian's presentation. I was glad to hear I was not the only person who's encountered people who think viral = word of mouth! Another thing that moved me was the appearance of the word 'conversations'. Authentic ones - not having to people to say good things but letting them recommend the product to their friends themselves.

Another point that spoke to me was that we tend to think only funny videos and games can be 'viral' in nature, forgetting about blogs (whose links can be forwarded, commented on, with trackback) and widgets (which can be embedded on other websites).

Apart from building on relationships with your average customers, which I feel is a 'maintaining' role, influencer marketing is worth exploring - letting respected experts have a go at your product earlier than the rest of the market. I suppose that's what Web 2.0 companies like Pownce and Joost have been doing, making the whole beta testing thing feel exclusive and exciting.

Generating lots of buzz, pageviews, visitors et al is not the end but just the means. For instance, most of us in the audience did not know that Subservient Chicken was a Burger King ad. I only knew of the chicken, and not the chicken sandwich. In fact, looking at a human being in a chicken suit put me off from even thinking of eating chicken for the rest of the day.

The Edelman-Wal-Mart fake blogging fiasco seems to be a standard example in the "Don't" section of marketing and social media conferences today, so I won't mention it in detail.

Day One ended with an apt summary of all the presentations by our moderator, Judd Labarthe. I found this useful because many presentations were on case studies more than marketing principles. He also noted that most presenters did not talk much about meeting their KPIs, which are so important to those of us in large organisations. He should, since he's the Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Effie Awards.

We were also reminded not to get carried away with technology for technology's sake - something that those of us in the emerging new media industry should heed.

*note: Upon Googling for brand surveys, I just found a newer Interbrand report placing traditional brands ahead of new ones, in terms of value.

This Monday, Melvin Yuan's article, 'What businesses need to do in the changed environment', was published in the Business Times. Hurrah!

He notes that a few companies here are now engaging bloggers to publicise their products, while others watch cautiously from the sidelines. As citizen journalism becomes more popular, corporations must change their mindset and embrace change. Customers can be your best advocates, and they should be engaged in blogs or forums. Before this happens, though, those within the company must understand the nature of the social web. Honesty, integrity and trust are very important here, because a wrong move can subject the company to intense scrutiny.

Mr Brown was featured. Also mentioned were a few groups I'm currently involved in - the Gahmenbloggers, which I co-founded with Ivan, the Second Life Singapore Community (group leader Alvin). At the rate things are going, I might turn out to be a Digital Movement groupie as well, considering my attendance rate at their recent events, like Nexus and BlogOut.

Knowing the people behind Ping, Singapore Angle and Singapore Entrepreneurs also makes things feel like one big family. So far, everyone I've met is brilliant, humble and willing to share ideas - very important qualities for developing our own Web 2.0 community.

Somehow, I feel this can make more headway than lots of stuffy board meetings and proprietary IT jargon. We're building our own Silicon Valley culture here, where ideas flow freely. Now, that's progress.

The Wall Street Journal reports Wal-Mart's biggest sales decline in 28 years. Factors cited also affected other retailers - bad weather, a change in the National Retail Federation's financial reporting timeline, tax refund spending, higher gas prices. Which leaves us with another factor - generally questionable business strategies.

I just read this letter in the Straits Times forum and wholly agree with it. The writer notes that while Singapore has had an edge against the Chinese so far because we are more fluent in English, this gap is quickly eroding. Also, as other forum writers have noted, we are required to be bilingual, thus we are not often strong in either language. The writer concludes by advising us to focus on speaking both languages properly.

While cross-reading 'Naked Conversations' and 'The Corporate Blogging Book', I came across this post, The Pursuit of Busyness, by Associate Professor Andrew McAfee of the Harvard Business School, and can emphathise with it. He writes about how employees are often shy to embrace Enterprise 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis etc) as well as the new mindset.

The second day of the Marketing to Women conference was just as good, if not better, than the first. At least there was no sales pitch today. Frankly, I find companies who try too hard to sell their products or services at conferences, are actually doing themselves a disservice.

Firstly, it shows that you don't respect your audience, who have paid thousands of dollars to attend the conference. We're here to learn about your expertise. We're not interested in the specific products you're selling, but HOW you marketed them. What were the difficulties you faced, internally and externally, and how did you overcome them?

In fact, presenting your expertise in an appropriate way will indirectly send a powerful message that enhances you and your company's image as the consultant to go to. Like a well-written blog, show us your thought processes and not your hard-sell tactics, and we will give you due respect.

Day 2 also re-iterated some points from the previous day: Don't just take a male or gender-neutral product, slap on some pink and expect women to buy it. Women want empathy. You have to understand them. Your brand must also have authenticity.

One point was that not all men can market to women effectively. We were shown numerous TV commercials which were either written by men or women, and it was very obvious which was which.

Then the popular question among the audience was how could we present our case to a board of directors who are mostly, if not all, male? The answer was to do testing and present them with the hard facts. Or, just give them what they want, and when it bombs, show them the bottomline and that may convince them to try something different next time.

Another big point I took home was that even if your Marketing team has got the creative concept spot on, the story shouldn't end there.

For instance, you may have re-designed a car to appeal to mums (ie, easy to drive, safe for the kids, spacious, not like a tank) but what about the nasty car salesmen who are typically aggressive with women customers and are only interested in closing a deal instead of listening to their customers' needs? Sometimes your products are not sold by your own company but through franchisees and dealerships. That's when you have to look at changing the way things work, or else you may alienate your customers further.

We were also given scientific evidence that a woman's brain is wired differently from a man's, such that we are extra sensitive to how something is packaged.

One American speaker (who was possibly the best presenter today) gave many good local examples of how customer relations could have been improved. A credit card company kept on asking her to sign up for the basic card when she's been with them for years and is already a platinum cardholder. A local telco never says 'thank you' personally to her, despite her being a very heavy usage customer. These are all areas that can be improved. Certainly we still have far to go.

I had the opportunity to speak with her during tea-time, and agreed as I had similar problems with both companies. I didn't have time to tell her about Orange, the Telco company I had such a wonderful experience with in my three years as a student in the UK. You can read about their wonderful services and rewards schemes in a previous post.

Sadly, another point was re-iterated: Singapore customers are still more interested in the lowest prices instead of looking at higher quality products. This makes it difficult for new luxury players to enter the Singapore market. So if you're wondering how come certain top brands are ignoring us, it could be for this reason. We're too small, and many of us are too cheap!

Tea-time talk among my fellow Conference-goers also touched on the fact that Singapore was a small market. How diversified an approach can we actually take towards our customers? Ideally it should be as segmented as possible. But others pointed out they had small budgets that could only do so much. Datamining was brought up as a possible solution.

At the end, I gave feedback that while the presentations were generally very insightful and well-executed, some examples were relevant only to Western countries. Creative agencies there have less trouble getting their citizens to come forward to give testimonials, which are a very powerful tool in marketing to women. However, it may not be as easy in Singapore and other parts of Asia, where people are more shy.

Technorati Tags: Marketing to Women

I enjoyed Tinkertailor's earlier post on how 'viral marketing' has become contrived and misused in discussions. Even if you call it viral, creating buzz for a product or service that has little substance will probably fizzle out the campaign.

I brought up that post because I just viewed all the Democratic presidential candidates' videos announcing their intentions to run for President. The IHT article I've linked to, BTW, notes that today's politicians are relying on internet video to disseminate their messages more widely. I thought John Edwards made the best move by putting it on Youtube, the most popular site for videos.

Now, I still strongly admire Barack Obama, but don't think he meant for things to look this way in his video:

This is a very minor issue and perhaps most of you won't care what the page title says, or notice it at all. And this page title is probably displayed for all other videos uploaded to Brightcove.com. But to those who are more aware of marketing techniques, it could look contrived.

It just reminds me that when doing something high profile or sensitive, we have to choose the medium carefully. Even if our marketing and PR people have the messaging down to pat, all we need is one oversight to knock a bit of wind out of the campaign. What would be seen as a technical error or typo on a normal website could be blown out of proportion on a high-profile website.

For instance, I think I've seen e-mail campaigns where the HTML web page version ("Can't view this email? Click here") takes me to a URL with the word 'viral' in the folder path. To most people, it may not matter, but to me it gives the sense that it's contrived.

Currently, I tend to say something like, "This sounds very catchy and people are likely to forward the message. Let's hope it has a viral effect."

The producer of the message does not have the final say on whether something is 'viral'/buzzworthy or not. You, the audience, have that privilege.

Technorati Tags: viral marketing

I'm pleased to report that we're expanding our little team of 2 people (including myself). View the job description here. You can also check out our general benefits.

If you live and breathe new media and are good at writing and managing projects, this may be a job to consider. It also helps if you don't mind working with people who can burst out spontaneously into song ;-)

We're the first agency here to launch podcasts, one of the first to develop a blog run by youths, and we also oversee the development of many types of mobile applications.

Spread the word around to any worthy friends who may be interested. Cheers!

Closing date: 5 Feb 2007.

You know your former newspaper company has made an impact when its demise gets discussed by an academic from the University of Texas.

Here's the abstract, which leads to the full PDF report (which you have to pay for).

I'm very tempted to buy this.

Technorati Tags: Project Eyeball, newspapers, newmedia, businessmodels

An earthquake in Taiwan reminded us of how fragile we are. Today most international websites were inaccessible because internet cables under the sea were disrupted. I'm even considering myself lucky that somehow I managed to access my website and post this at home.

I'm writing this quickly in case we get cut off again. Makes me feel that we're isolated from the rest of the (unaffected) world.

Stephen Baker, in a Businessweek Blogspotting article, asks if we are entering a new Jazz Age.

In the article, Bob Guccione, founder of Spin and now publisher of Discover Magazine, reportedly said that jazz is 'a pretty small niche in music' that preceded television. Those facts in themselves are true but he interpreted it too literally. Rishad Tobaccowala, the originator of this jazz concept, meant that today's workers should be more like jazz musicians and not expect to be given fixed, safe roles in large orchestras. He was speaking metaphorically.

I have quite a bit to say about this because of what I do at work and at play. At work, I am greatly involved with new media. At play, I am a jazz student and am the leader of an aspiring fusion jazz band. The two may not seem to have much in common, but that's only at the surface. I'll expand a little on this to tell you my story of learning classical music versus jazz music.

When I learnt classical piano, everything was fixed and pre-determined with little room for variation, if any at all. When I learnt my exam pieces, there were specific notes or bars where I had to play louder, softer, staccato and legato. And of course, at the end of each piece we usually had to slow down. Translated to the old-world working style, as long as you got your job done, you could clock in your hours, collect your pay and go home.

When I became a teenager, I started writing my own songs. I was heavily influenced by pop and contemporary jazz/soul acts and started figuring out the chords they used. They sounded nicer than the rigid arrangements in classical music. However, I learnt the hard way that we were not allowed to change the tune or style of classical pieces. This was emphasised very clearly to me when my piano teacher called in the vice principal of the music school, after I attempted another variation that was deemed unacceptable.

"If YOU were the composer, how would you like it if someone else came and played your music in a different way?" He asked, in an aggressive manner.

Being Singaporean, I knew what the model answer was. I muttered meekly that no, I would not like it myself.

"THEN PLAY IT THE WAY IT IS WRITTEN!!!" (He really did roar.)

That was the end of the story and I never tried to modify a classical piece again.

I was like a worker who tried to innovate, but broke the status quo and all societal norms. This was an affront to the company. In such situations, the worker gets duly reprimanded, and because he needs to keep his job (in my case, stay in music school!), he goes back to conforming with the big corporate plan.

After I completed Grade 8, I discharged myself from further 'duties' and switched to jazz piano.

I have never played in an orchestra before, so am not qualified to talk about the rigidity of finely-synchronised emsembles, which the Businessweek article mentions. However, I do play in jazz bands and jam sessions and can tell you what it feels like. When you read it, think in metaphors and see how it compares with the new world order.

When you play a jazz piece, you aren't expected to stick to the main tune, note for note. You play the main melody and chorus (variations are fine but the tune should be recognisable to the audience). Then you improvise. Ideally, you should work out with band members who gets to improvise and at which stage. Finally, someone gives a signal - drummers are usually good at doing this - then we know we're going back to the main theme and completing the song.

When I quit my "old world job" and joined this "new age company", I was at a loss. I could play the main theme of each jazz piece, as that was in the scoresheet. However, when it was my turn to improvise, I had no idea how to do it. My classical background was good at teaching me techniques and theories, but it taught me nothing about creativity and being spontaneous. (Does that sound like a certain education system?) Gradually I built up musical ideas and confidence, and am more confortable with improvising now.

So in a jazz band, there is flexibility without absolute chaos. We're given a basic framework (the "company mission statement") and are familiar with our main roles (the "organisational chart"). Everything else requires creativity, which is something you cannot memorise. The beautiful thing about jazz is that every performance has a unique tune. And chemistry is very important as each player has his/her own style, which can either complement or clash with others'.

Jazz musicians are better prepared for the unexpected. A change in key, tempo or rhythm doesn't upset the pro. He adapts to it and comes up with something new and mind-blowing. That is the whole point of improvising in music. Today's workers cannot expect to have an iron rice bowl (ie, permanent employment). Times and tunes are changing fast. We have to sing for our supper.

In the new world order, communication is especially important between team members. In jazz, there may be a band leader but different players can give signals to each other. In an orchestra, however, there tends to be a more obvious hierarchy ( or "organisational chart"). The conductor controls the orchestra in a top-down manner. A 'star performer' such as the solo violinist may get extra attention, with the rest of the members supporting him. But that's about it.

In jazz bands, there is also a bit of composer in every one of us. Each of my members can give feedback to change the way we play a certain piece. Try doing that in an orchestra - I couldn't even do that in my music school. [Off-tangent thought: Each time we play a piece it's like a blog post. My band members post comments on it. Then we revise the piece, and the cycle repeats.]

Jazz musicians who are in a good team and know their roles and timings can produce beautiful music. This can be compared to workers in the Conceptual Age - a term derived from Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind. I've blogged about his book before but I'll repeat the main message: The IT age is over, in the sense that it is generally taken for granted in our world (as with stone, bronze and industry). Basic IT jobs can be outsourced cheaply and we must adapt or become redundant (Also see Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat). The real value for today's workers, therefore, is the ability to conceptualise new ideas through various means such as play, design, empathy and story.

I hope I haven't offended classical music buffs because I am speaking mainly in metaphors. I warmly welcome comments and further discussions via trackback.

Technorati Tags: new world order, web2.0, businessweek, blogspotting, jazz, conceptual age

... where else but in a Youtube video!

They seem delirious with joy. I'd be too, if I was in their shoes.

Update:

I like how Gizmodo calls it GooTube. (link via Boing Boing)

Before the announcement was made, Kevin noted plenty of blogs theorising that copyright owners could just be waiting for Youtube to be bought out by a bigger company, before 'suing their pants off'. Heh. You bet! Lawyers must be rubbing their hands in glee now. Let's wait and see.

The Wall Street Journal reports that McDonald's in China advertises beef as sexy, to men. A TV commercial is described thus:

"...a man and a woman eat Quarter Pounders, and close-up shots of the woman's neck and mouth are interspersed with images of fireworks and spraying water. The actors suck their fingers. The voice-over says: "You can feel it. Thicker. You can taste it. Juicier."

Technorati Tags: McDonald's, advertisements, beef, sex appeal

Did you know? Apple Stores take in almost half a million bucks (US$) a week. Each. And employee turnover is less than half the average for the retail industry. Infinite Loop reports.

Bill Clinton visits a group of Democrat bloggers. The former President understands that this is the new wave of public relations. (link from Bloggersblog.com) Some pretty nasty comments about Clinton there, but frankly he's one of my favourite US presidents, apart from Monicagate. At least, as Daily Kos notes, "he reads the blogs".

Random industry news for the day.

This press release, just released today (17 August 2006) has given some food for thought:

The Government has accepted the key recommendations of The Third Committee on the Supply of Lawyers chaired by the former Attorney-General Chan Sek Keong. The recommendations include: ... Allowing Graduates with Second Class Lower Division Honours degrees to practise law: The Government also agreed in-principle with the Committee's recommendation to allow Singaporean citizens or PRs who graduated from Overseas Scheduled Universities with Second Class (Lower Division) Honours to practice, provided they possess certain relevant work experience or qualifications. To ensure that the quality of our lawyers is maintained, in addition to the requirements (3 years relevant work experience or having the qualification as solicitors of Hong Kong or England & Wales), they will be interviewed by the Board of Legal Education (which will consider factors such as the actual results they obtained and the nature of their work experience). The Board of Legal Education will announce the details in the next two to three months.

For newer readers who may not know much about me, I am an overseas law graduate from one of the recognised law schools in the UK. Unfortunately, I obtained a Second Class Lower Division (Honours) degree instead of a Second Class Upper, which meant that I and almost half the cohort of other Singaporean graduates in my university were unable to practise Law in our own country.

I wrote a letter of appeal to the Minister of Law, but received a negative reply. I heard that the Minister wasn't even in Singapore at the time, so it could have been a standard rejection template. Anyway, I understood from my seniors that appeals were rarely granted and that the last successful applicant was a girl who fell ill and therefore did not do well for her exams.

In any case, life had to go on. Some of my schoolmates stayed on to take the London Bar exams, in the hope of working in a UK law firm. Very few were able to do it - even those with Second Class Uppers.

By that time I had noticed an attractive job ad for a new Singapore Press Holdings newspaper called Project Eyeball. Right after coming back from my graduation, I went for the interview and got the job as a web designer and writer. I discovered that I loved this type of work and the rest is history.

My friends who are currently working in large law firms are probably earning twice my salary by now. But if I let material facts like that bug me, I'd have gone mad a long time ago. I still like my work and the people I work with. There are different ways of serving my country and I'm pretty happy with the way things are working out at the moment.

As stated in the extract above, to return to the legal workforce, I need 3 years' relevant work experience or be called to the Bar in Hong Kong, England or Wales, and be interviewed by the Board of Legal Education. I don't have that much work experience in law firms but anyway it seemed a bit like a Catch-22. Judging from the job ads I used to pore over, most law firms and in-house legal departments generally preferred to hire candidates who have a Second Class Upper degree and have been called to the Singapore Bar. If I wanted to rejoin the legal community, the best option for me would be to apply to take the London Bar exams.

A couple of friends with Second Class Lower degrees have managed to find in-house work and they should have a good chance of going back to a local law firm, if they wanted to. Some other friends with Second Class lower degrees who have been called to the London Bar, and have legal work experience, also stand a good chance of moving to a Singapore law firm.

When this policy is implemented, there may be a mad rush of applications from the last decade (since the Legal Profession Act raised the standards). More recent law graduates would still have the law freshly in their heads, whereas older fogies like me would have to read the textbooks all over again.

In the last six years since graduation, many of us have moved on. Some of us are in Government jobs. Others who did get their Second Class Uppers, got called to the Singapore bar and worked in Singapore law firms, are either still working as lawyers, have taken time off and travelled the globe, or totally changed their jobs. One ex-lawyer friend of mine has opened a childcare centre. We've read of many others in the newspapers who have set up their own businesses, such as selling gelato. I think many of us are actually happier this way.

With the new policies, the net will be cast wider. But ultimately if the workplace environment for lawyers remains highly stressful, there will still be high dropout rates. There is still the cost of interviewing, hiring and training new lawyers, and even then some knowledge is lost through experienced lawyers who have left the firm.

All in all, if anyone asks me today if I'd want to become a lawyer in Singapore now that I have the chance - I'd probably say no.

[Update: This post has been linked on SingaporeSurf. View similar opinions by other blogs on this topic.]

I was checking out the BusinessWeek Online feed using Rojo and saw this headline and blurb:

What Will Google Use $2 Billion For?

As if it doesn't already mint money, Google's raising $2.1 billion more in a new offering. You sure don't need this kind of money to develop Web services, do you? So maybe the question is, how many more Web 2.0...

Two headlines below, was this piece of news:

Facebook for Sale; But $2 Billion?

So says our Steve Rosenbush in a story today. Apparently, the social-networking site turned down an offer for $750 million. Even that's way more than the $580 million News Corp. paid for the much larger MySpace last year...

Hmmm! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

I hadn't heard about teen mag Vainquer until I read about it in the Sunday Times today, but this lad is going far. Congratulations to Kristiano Ang, who even has a Wikipedia entry about his magazine. I particularly like what he said in his Founder's letter:

Vainquer Teens is an international magazine. Despite whatever criticism that might come to us for not focusing on a local context, let it be known that we have more than 5,000 online readers that reside in the United States alone. Vainquer Teens doesn’t seek to be a Singaporean entertainment magazine, it seeks to be a magazine that offers international youth perspectives, that entertains as much as inspires.

He is right not to focus on a local context, because the outreach would be extremely limited. Collaborations with youths around the world ensures a greater depth of perspective and variety in the style of writing.

As in any other context, once you strip away local 'dialects' (i.e. slang/content), a common language remains, and that is the essence of the matter. A great magazine will strike a common note with its intended readers, regardless of which country they're from.

[ Side rant: I was concerned at how local teen blogs seemed to write only about exams, school, their friends and other issues without seeming to take an interest in the wider world around us. I also wondered how they could break out of the cultural/social/educational system which has perpetuated this mindset. These youths are our future. That's why I'm so glad that one of our youths has done something different and brave. ]

For one so young, Kristiano is far more mature and enterprising than many of us, who are still afraid to step out from behind our desks and challenge the status quo.

[Update: Kristiano has emailed me. Everyone, let's go to HMV or Borders to pick up a copy of his mag! ]

There's an ongoing discussion in the Straits Times Forum section, on customer service. Some Singaporeans complained that white people get better treatment. However, two white men wrote in separately to say that they treat sales staff with respect unlike the locals, and they also get charged more. Touche.

Anyway, I'm sure we've all had our vexing moments with sales staff in Singapore.

Some Flickr users were up in arms when Yahoo! bought over Flickr's parent company Ludicorp.

Off a tangent: Whenever I hear 'Ludicorp' I think 'ludicrous'. And why is the co-founder's last name 'Fake'? Imagine when she's quoted in the article.

"We care deeply about our community, and their worries are ours," Ms Fake told the BBC News website.

But joking aside... Since I do have a Yahoo! account I decided to merge the two. After looking at the 'marriage certificate' I was about to submit, though, I hesitated.

Ready to merge your accounts? The accounts you've chosen:

Yahoo! Vanessa Tan [emailaddress1]
Flickr vantan [emailaddress2]

What it means (aka READ THIS)

1. You will need to sign in to Flickr via Yahoo! from now on. [Why? I prefer Flickr's interface. And frankly, I hardly ever use Yahoo for anything. I use Google for searching and Bloglines for reading feeds. Seriously I don't want to log into Yahoo. ]

2. Any Flickry applications you've downloaded (like the Flickr uploaders or some of the kewl API applications other Flickr members have built) may not work anymore because your account details have changed. [How inconvenient is that? OK, it's not like I have to change my operating system. But again, the user has to do the work. Why can't the system accept there may be two different email addresses for each user, and leave it at that? ]

3. If that's the case, you will need to get fresh copies and set them up again. (It may be that your favorite applications haven't updated yet, so check with the developers before you merge.) [ In which case, I don't want to merge until everything stabilises. ]

Despite recent hoo-ha about the acquisition and change of policy, Flickr proved useful in helping to identify this subway flasher dude. That should really see the jerk off. I mean, see him off ... to jail.

And on the plus side, Flickr's top-notch user interface will hopefully replace Yahoo!'s existing photo album section.

This is a work-related post. Does anyone know of any Singapore companies who can configure existing content management systems, so that news feeds (RSS and Atom) can also be published at the same time as web pages? Experience with Podcasting is a plus.

Let me know soon. Thanks.

It seems that you aren't supposed to rip legally-purchased CDs into digital format. When I first saw Chris's original post containing replies from IPOS, I nearly posted my own 'thesis' on the issues involved. Then I saw the long list of comments over at Mr Brown's and I knew this was an issue that hit many Singaporeans.

But considering that my knowledge of copyright law is rusty and not localised (at least while studying in UK I came across the word 'fair use' more often), I think I'll drop a note to my lawyer friends first. Any words written below, are my own unqualified thoughts!

In any case, that's why I'm so interested in what Prof Lawrence Lessig has to say, as well as his Creative Commons project.

I used to look up to copyright law, fueled as a child when I discovered my (then) best friend had copied my poetry word for word, and had submitted it to the teacher first. I thought laws made sure everything was fair. In university I couldn't wait to get to my third year so I could study Intellectual Property Law.

But when laws become so distant from real-life situations, you start to wonder. Where music's concerned: I only buy original CDs. I spent lots of money on original CDs. I can't possibly carry all of them around with me, so I got an iPod and I was happy up to now, with it. The RIAA could sue 8-year-old girls who illegally downloaded MP3s over file-sharing networks, but I think they didn't do anything to legitimate CD owners who kept files to themselves. And didn't we sign an FTA? Why do different standards apply in Singapore then. (I need to read up more on this before making further comments)

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Digital music issues affect some of us personally, and hinder our enjoyment and convenience. But what about global issues such as Third World countries not being able to afford drug patents? I think that's an even more serious case of IP (in this case, Patent) law being used in a way that doesn't help humanity. The law should be balanced so that those who created and developed the product or process, are suitably rewarded. But surely prolonging human lives are worth something as well.

Read: Brazil breaks AIDS drug patent and AIDS drug patent uproar - Putting people before profits.

Laws are balanced when they ensure fairness, accreditation and benefits to everyone who are rightfully involved. Laws should not be political tools of greedy corporations who have their cake, and want to eat it too - at everyone else's expense.

You know the feel-good ad campaign that Dove is running, using real women instead of the usual skinny models we expect to see? I actually thought it was clever.

Here's what a Slate writer thinks of Dove's worldwide campaign, in the short run (great) and in the long run (bad).

Oh, and I love their headline.

It's late, Kim Clijsters has been beaten by Lindsay Davenport, I have watched 2 hours of CSI in a row and now the news is out: Recording Industry and Moviemakers, 1; file-sharing networks, 0. Here's what the Beeb had to say about it.

Somehow I get the impression that a few other court decisions cited in the article didn't make the most sense, but of course I hardly know the details on any of them.

Off the top of my head, I predict the following to happen: Massive downloading of MP3 and movie files by users, before the lawsuits and injunctions fly in and file-sharing companies shut down or modify their business practices.

Anyway, you can read the decision here on the Supreme Court website, or on the BBC mirror. Wonder if Professor Lessig will have anything to say about this.

What a whopper! At US$3.4 billion, according to this Macromedia press release.

According to the Seattle Times, Adobe is positioning itself for battle with Microsoft.

From my end user point of view, it's a mixed bag. A merger is good because now we don't have to decide which rival software package to get, like Illustrator or Freehand. The best features from both sides will probably be merged, and this is probably the end of silly lawsuits between the two companies. Macromedia users may now be able to fully utilise tabbed palettes again!!!

However less major competition in the graphics area could mean less incentive to improve existing software. Also, Macromedia's software suite has had more bang for the buck - I could buy the full Studio for the price of Adobe Photoshop. What if Adobe raises the price of Macromedia software?

I do hope Adobe keeps Dreamweaver and Flash - those I feel are Macromedia's strongest products. If they could combine the sheer power and depth of Photoshop with the user-friendliness of Fireworks, that would be great too. And imagine ... Flash PDFs!

But if something happens and we end up using Microsoft Frontpage in the distant future, someone's gonna HURT.

Some of you will probably hate me for saying this, but I'm glad our Government is clamping down further on smoking in public places. (A rare link to an existing Straits Times article - get it before it disappears for good)

Smoking can be considered a form of drug addiction. There's nicotine in it and many more harmful substances than you want to know that ought to belong in a car or factory. Drug offenders hang for bringing in drugs to Singapore. Smokers get off with heavy taxes and self-inflicted cancer - and also affect the loved ones around them with second hand smoke. Killing someone instantly by mistake - in many other circles we might call it manslaughter. Fast death, slow death - does it matter, as long as it's a death and causation can be proven? (I mean, German parents get into trouble for neglecting their child, resulting in her slow death.)

But the tobacco industry has hypnotised generations of people with the image of 'coolness'. We are also exposed to many other images implying it is acceptable to smoke. I'm sure we've all seen a cigarette sticking out of the mouth of some Hollywood legend.

A friend of mine wanted to look cool at a bar in England and didn't know what else to do, so he whipped out a cigarette. As a child, I too thought it was also cool to have a mock cigarette in my mouth. At the old Isetan, my favourite chocolates were the sticks that were wrapped in cigarette paper and put into a fake cigarette box. Then one day it was no longer on sale. I didn't understand why.

Then I resorted to making fake cigarettes by putting baby powder onto a sheet of paper, rolling it up and blowing into it, creating the illusion of smoke.

My endeavours to mimic the Malborough Man ended with me slipping on my own powder and slicing my ear on a table corner, requiring me to go to the A&E unit where my own father had to stitch me up.

So, you could say that smoking was very bad for my health.

Registered readers of the Straits Times Interactive, the online version of Singapore's quality daily, would have heard that we will soon be charged for web access.

I am curious to see how this little experiment will work out. As a trainee (in SPH itself, of all ironies) I was told by an American news guru that only newspapers with invaluable information in specialised areas - such as the Wall Street Journal, and perhaps the New York Times - could get away with this and make a profit.

Of course that was years ago, and I suppose our market (for paid print newspapers at least) is too small to sustain anything more than one or two big players. This makes it easier for them to control the market. And elsewhere in the world people like Glenn Reynolds, and most recently Jason Kottke, are making money by blogging. So perhaps it is worth a shot.

But once the doors close on readers of the Straits Times Interactive, we'd likely turn to TodayOnline and Channel News Asia, as well as the Asian sections of international news websites such as CNN and the BBC. I won't miss the sports section - I prefer British papers with first-hand accounts of English Premier League matches, anyway.

In my view, the benefits for subscribers are nothing to shout about. It's nice - but not essential - to access all Life! reports. I don't see the urgency in getting Digital Life and Mind Your Body at 6am. At most, the Money reports may be useful to some (but isn't sister paper, the Business Times, better for that?)

There are other ways to add value to this new subscription service, though I doubt much will be done:

Subscribers could get RSS news feeds. I scan the BBC and Guardian headlines off my feed reader, which is very convenient.

They could develop a more intelligent search engine, which actually lets me find the right articles.

They could cut down on advertisements. I particularly dislike the huge, distracting block of Flash in the middle of each article. Then again, I predict a dearth in pageviews once the subscription period begins. This will lower ad revenues, and gradually the company may be forced to lower their rates because they will be capturing much less eyeballs on their (presumably) most popular newspaper website.

Existing subscribers to the print edition could get free online access (like The Economist and BusinessWeek). Now, that would really rock. However, considering SPH's existing business model with Newslink, I really doubt the latter would happen.

Overall, I'm not terribly impressed and I won't pay for access. At most, I'll just try to get up earlier in the morning to spend more time reading the paper version.

Come March 15, where will you readers turn to, instead?

[Update: SPH has reviewed their policy after receiving numerous reader complaints. Existing print subscribers now get a 50% discount. Now that's more like it. About time they got more market-savvy!]

My legal friend K sent this link over from the Police Force website, and I think it's useful for all Singaporean drivers to know.

(I'm not sure if 'handphone' is an exclusively Singaporean term. To the Yanks, we're talking about cellphones. To the Brits, we're referring to mobiles).

There seems to be pretty strict liability here - the fact that you were using a hands-free kit does nothing to lessen the severity of the offence, as long as one hand was on the phone.

But I can understand what the lawmakers are getting at. Once as I was walking on the pavement around the Bugis area, a car swerved from the leftmost lane to the rightmost, causing other motorists to horn. As it cut across the 3 or 4 lanes, I noticed the driver was talking on the phone and steering his car with one hand. That happened years ago but the dramatic scene was etched into my mind.

Fortunately, my phone is usually plugged into the hands-free kit when I'm driving, and after a couple of rings it automatically answers the phone. Now I just have to remember NOT to press any buttons while the car is in motion - even to end the call (which happens by itself anyway, once the other person hangs up).

Another SPH newspaper closes down.

I can vaguely recall the pain felt when the newspaper I worked at, Project Eyeball, closed down 3 years before that. Vague, because time has eroded many of the memories I once had of the people and the place.

As a fresh graduate I was idealistic. And shaken. 'Why retrench the people who were simply doing their jobs well', I wondered, 'when the management who decided on the business plan would keep theirs?'

The emotions I felt have been whittled away, but some things in life still stay in my head because they seemed illogical. I suppose retrenchments hardly ever make sense to those who are affected.

Ironically, there may even be a few ex-colleagues who were transferred from Eyeball to Streats. I wonder how they must be feeling. Deja vu?

While I was in the middle of work this morning, my mobile phone rang.

It was a lady who said she was calling from Macromedia. She noted that I had attended a seminar before and asked if I could update my contact details. Sure, I said.

She asked if I was still with Fynch, the dotcom company I used to work at. I said no and gave her my new company's name.

She then asked if my work email address was still xxx@fynch.com. I was slightly surprised at that question, because if I no longer worked at my old company, why would I retain my old address? Anyway, I gave her my new email address.

Then she asked me if I had purchased any 'Micro-Media' software lately. I became more suspicious.

"Micro-Media? You mean Macromedia??" I cut in. How could she not even know the name of the company she claimed to be working for?

"Oh yes, Macromedia," she said hastily. She proceeded to ask me what software I had purchased from Macromedia.

"Waitaminute. If you're working for Macromedia, wouldn't you guys have my software registration details??" I was starting to get annoyed. No time-share apartments for me, thank you!

(To clueless or non-Singaporean readers, we sometimes get phone calls from people associating themselves with a company you've registered with before. The phone call usually ends up as a sales pitch for an unrelated product.)

"My company is working on behalf of Macromedia," she clarified, sounding less sure of herself. But she probably wasn't an imposter because she did have my old details and the name of the seminar I last attended. It was highly unlikely that a company like Macromedia would sell customer names to third parties (I did however have an entirely different experience with a local supermarket chain).

I decided this lady had probably never heard of Macromedia until this task was assigned to her. And I figured Macromedia probably hadn't quite integrated their software registration database with the local seminar attendance records, and all they gave this agency was the latter.

So I decided to be nice and answered the rest of her questions. And no, she didn't try to sell me anything new. *Growl*

Since Macromedia hadn't replied to my request for technical support, I called their helpline, and after a few attempts, managed to get through.

I learnt that the reason that I was unable to activate Studio MX on my new Mac was because I am not supposed to switch platforms! I first activated the software on my PC, and according to the End User Agreement I am not supposed to transfer my licence onto another platform after that. That was why, even after de-activating Studio MX on my PC, I still could not activate it on my Mac.

Initially the support officer told me I had to purchase a brand new copy of Studio MX 2004 to install it on my Mac. How ridiculous was that! I told him I spent S$1600 on software which I now cannot use. He decided to make an exception for me, and I'm grateful for that. They now want to see my original proof of purchase, but since the receipt's a year old I might have shredded it. Argh! And they will charge me a US$25 administrative fee.

I am just wondering how companies can sell original software in the notorious South-east Asia region, when they make it so difficult for customers who've paid good money for their products to transfer licences! Why do they treat legitimate customers cautiously, when there are thousands of other people who are free-riding on pre-activated, pirated versions of their software? It is preposterous.

[Update: By a small miracle, I actually found my old receipt. But the fax numbers they gave me don't seem to be working. Trying again... Interestingly, the number I called for Singapore support, got me redirected to the Philippines. No wonder the support staff had American accents...]

Today I decided to check the news using my Nokia 6600 WAP browser.

This was what I got on CNet, in chronological order:

1. Microsoft works on Office search

   Firm is working on ways to allow users to easily find information stored on hard drives, such as documents, e-mails and data files.

2. Microsoft staffer charged with stealing search code

   Worker allegedly took data after leaving AltaVista but before signing on at Microsoft, which is deveoping its own search technology.

Hmm. The plot thickens?

A new study (pdf) by Harvard and North Carolina universities indicates that file-sharing has a near negligible effect on music CD sales.

The main points were:

1. 'High selling albums actually benefit from file sharing.' File sharing forces CD prices to drop, therefore leading to more CD sales. People on P2P networks who browse other people's files and like the music, may purchase the CDs.
2. A survey indicated that file sampling in fact led users to purchase an additional 8 albums. There were only 159 people surveyed (footnote on p3).
3. 'While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing'. (p3-4. Wha-? So they're saying these users wouldn't buy the albums at all, yet they'd download the files anyway, just because they can?)
4. The study only covered US users, from 8 September 2002 to 31 December 2002. It admits that CD sales typically increase significantly during Christmas season (so would it be misleading to imply that sales were barely affected during this period?)
5. The data collected was based on downloads from OpenNap, a centralised P2P network (p8. Why didn't they use something more popular like Kazaa?)
6. The report concludes with a positive outlook on file sharing, by 'increasing aggregate welfare'.

This doesn't make sense to me, or to other people. I didn't think they had a realistic representation of users. Even during my time as an undergrad living on campus (circa late 90's) people were downloading music from the old, free Napster. Very few purchased CDs - we were, after all, poor students in the midst of the Asian financial crisis. [Note: Being anal about music copyright, I've never used a file sharing program in my life.]

Maybe if an album only had one good song, people would download the MP3 instead of buying the CD. Maybe some other people would buy the CD after sampling a few MP3s from the album, if they liked what they hear. My mind's all fuzzy now after looking at the statistics and equations. What do you think about file sharing?

In a previous post I mentioned how the EOLAS patent could very well disrupt the way browsers work. Now I am glad to report that the US Patent Office has invalidated this patent, meaning that life can go on as normal, and Microsoft (among other brower makers) doesn't have to pay US$521 million in damages.

However there is a 60-day appeal period and I'm sure the company won't be sitting around waiting for big money to slip out of their hands when they could try, try again. A new battle is probably about to begin...

When I started my first job in Project Eyeball, I probably took for granted the fact that almost everyone there spoke and wrote great English.

A programmer colleague said this was the most well-spoken lot he'd ever worked with, but having come fresh from a law school in England and an English-speaking home, I didn't think he was serious.

Then when I moved out into other sectors and started meeting more people, I realised that it wasn't the norm in Singapore. People mixed up their 'have' and 'has'; added an 's' to uncountable nouns, tangling up the he's from the she's and getting 'me' and 'I' confused.

What irks me greatly is hearing people speak with a smattering of Mandarin and Chinese. They use nouns of important words in English, while the rest of their statements are made in Mandarin. Perhaps it is a product of our bilingual education system that some of us have turned into a Jack-of-all-trades where it comes to languages. While my Mandarin is far from intelligible, I try to make complete sentences in the same language, even if it is to order a bowl of noodles with chilli.

We should aim to be proficient in one language without having to rely on other forms of lingo, or else it might be more tricky, or less natural, the next time we have to deal with foreigners who may not speak our dialect or understand Singlish.

Another lot of Singaporeans have an affinity for bombastic words. At a writing course I attended for the past two days, we did a short exercise trimming down lengthy phrases into one or two words which had exactly the same meaning.

I'm thinking that this built-in need for complexity comes about largely due to insecurity. By filling up the expression of your ideas with big words, you think the reader will be impressed and not notice the holes in your argument so easily. We were told that smart bosses aren't fooled. Lee Kuan Yew himself preferred clear and concise papers because those were actually harder to write than long, flowery ones. That was an interesting thought!

So that's what I've been up to the past few days - learning and reflecting on the state of our nation. Once again, thank you for bearing with my silence. Good night.

It was interesting that I watched the Hutton Report (pdf) live on the BBC channel, then read about the BBC Chairman quitting - on the BBC website. Not many news corporations would be so forthcoming with information portraying them in a bad light. Of course, they don't completely agree with the report, but at least readers are kept in the loop.

A few years ago, I had to find out from a rival TV station that my company was retrenching staff. A couple of years before that, I stopped reading a major broadsheet in the UK when I heard it was owned by a media mogul who fired his editors for not writing what he wanted.

Ironically, by attempting to cover up information it could worsen people's impressions on the organisation. Nobody can own the 'truth'; if it's out there, it will come out sooner or later.

I might be a victim of credit card fraud. Looking at my latest online statement, I noticed an unusual entry: Payment of US$13.95 to Blumountain.

First, I thought, hey, I haven't subscribed to the ecard service for 2 or 3 years - since I received my very first credit card (even then, I don't think I used this particular card, which I applied for later).

But before I notified my bank I thought I should verify whether I really was still a member. So I tried logging in. Now at bluemountain.com, members log in with their email address. I tried every email address I ever had, including now defunct ones, and nothing worked.

Then I noticed that the company name on my itemised statement wasn't 'Bluemountain' with an 'e', but simply 'Blumountain'. The annual subscription fee on the legitimate site, was US$13.95 however. Could it be a variation of the company name?

I visited blumountain.com and was hit by a popup ad and a redirection to an entirely different domain. I started to feel a little worried and notified my bank.

To be continued...

Today I tried to transfer funds electronically to a friend who ordered and paid for some tickets on my behalf, and realised that there is now a new ruling for those who use internet banking in Singapore, which requires users to provide their mobile phone numbers (for SMS security alerts) at an ATM before the new payee is activated. Obviously that is a move to stem a somewhat recent spate of fraudulent transfers which received some publicity in the press.

However I find it quite inconvenient. The whole point of me doing my banking at home, after work, is for privacy and convenience. I just want to make a simple transfer and I'll probably never use it again (unless she orders more things for me). From the look of things, it seems like I'll be paying her back in cash instead when I next see her. I guess things are safer now - but at a price.

I'm helping to write an ad for a full-time Flash designer and decided to check out the job advertisements other companies were placing online.

What amazes me is how some companies looking for 'web programmers' only require them to know XHTML and CSS, while some 'designers' are required to know how to program.

I am equally amused by the vagueness of some employers or agencies. For instance, to quote a line from an ad:

• Required skill(s): HTML, XHTML, Macromedia.

What exactly do they mean by Macromedia? Is it a new dance move? But seriously, which Macromedia program(s) in particular do you want prospective employees to be familiar with? They can't possibly know how to use the entire range of products. I'd assume this employer was looking for someone familiar with the Studio series (the usual, Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Freehand), but didn't know exactly what they did, either.

One more funny quote from another ad:

Applicants must be willing to work in Orchard.

If you were a Singaporean, you'd know that this advertiser probably meant 'Orchard Road', our main shopping district. But I couldn't help but imagine this: the eventually chosen employee sitting in the Botanic Gardens ... you got it, planting flowers in an orchard.

Other more minor gripes include poor spelling/typos (including important technical terms and software names) and bad grammar. I know that in a tight job market, the employer is still king, but being able to express your needs clearly would certainly make your selection process a little easier.

In summary, call a spade a spade - don't shut out potential applicants by making them think the job title disqualifies them immediately. And be specific, especially if the job has important technical requirements. How you recruit people also shows a lot about your own company.

A new phone blogging service has been launched in Ireland and is available on the 02 network.

FoneBlog is a server based system that integrates to operator messaging, portal and billing systems. Its advanced architecture supports all mobile networks and the full range of multi-media standards and handset capabilities. FoneBlog incorporates a wide range of blog features such as commenting, voting, bookmarks, skin designs and messaging that provide a rich and personalisable service.

All that metas: The Guardian reports that metadata is taking on an increasingly important role in software applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office 2003. The US government is using it in its documentation of the Iraq war, and so is the UK police force. Tied in with XML capabilities, I'd expect metadata to receive increasing support and usage in time to come.

Looks like we're not the only ones with this problem. According to the Business Software Alliance, more than a quarter of business software used by UK companies (mostly SMEs) in 2002 was illegal. The most popular pirated programs were products from Adobe, Autodesk, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec.

This Wired article sent off alarm bells ringing in my head. By 2005, 65% of automated teller machines in the United States will be powered by a pared-down version of Windows, in place of IBM's OS/2 Warp.

Hopefully, what will be cut down are security flaws and other bugs. Security experts' opinions are divided on the issue: some feel that the Windows OS would still be vulnerable to attacks, while others stress that this is unlikely to happen as the ATMs will not be connected to the internet.

On the bright side, this move, according to a report published by consultants Celent, is designed to 'open up' their systems by using an OS compatible to their internal corporate networks. It will also be easier to write code to add new features in the future.

Let's see how it goes.

Zeldman has suggested the (previously) unfathomable - to protect the future of rich web media by supporting Microsoft.

From what I understand, here's the low-down: Back in 1998, a company called EOLAS (short for Embedded Objects Linked Across Systems) devised a means of embedding plug-ins. Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer, was deemed to have 'stolen' this browser technology. Microsoft has lost the US$521 million patent case, but counterclaimed on misrepresentation. They lost the counterclaim. The full verdict will be out in a month or two. If Microsoft loses, it will appeal.

A workaround is possible, with Microsoft suggesting that a dialogue box could appear before the plug-in media loads. However, that would disrupt the flow of use. Worse, if EOLAS is not satisfied with any compromises, this decision could spell disaster for many rich web media sites, and as Zeldman notes, would bring us back to a web surfing experience reminiscent of the early 90's. Microsoft has already warned vendors to be prepared for the worst outcome, and is working on a plug-in free version of IE. Goodbye to Flash games, PDF files and Quicktime movies.

In actual effect, it is not only Microsoft that will suffer should they lose the appeal. According to this CNet article,

...should the jury's decision be upheld, Eolas' attorneys promise that browser makers and distributors around the world had better be prepared to pay up.

That may not be a problem for big companies like HP, but what about open source developers of free browser software? What about Mozilla? This is as bad as a previous patent lawsuit, where someone tried to sue for infringement of GIF (or was it JPEG) technology. Imagine a browsing experience without images and sound. Good thing I still have a copy of Lynx in my PC.

In time, more will be revealed, and many questions will doubtless be asked. My list, so far:

1. If this was patented, why didn't any vendor check before implementing it in web browser software?
2. Why didn't EOLAS take action immediately, once their patent was infringed? Was it only interested when people started making money out of their patent? [ Answer: They filed suit in 1999. So ... the case took four years to be concluded? That's an awfully long time by dotcom standards, and too many web apps use the technology already. ]
3. Will EOLAS give special consideration at least to programs and services provided to the community for free?
4. EOLAS' vision, as stated on its website, says 'To create and develop the inventions that allow information technologies to enhance the quality of life for everyone.' How will their lawsuit, award of damages and the removal of plug-in functionality in web browsers, achieve this?

On the bright side, web developers may be forced to use alternative techniques such as - you know what I'm going to say already - XHTML, CSS, Javascript and anything else that supports web standards. Although in the immediate future, I do not think the full-bodied experience of rich media can be wholly replaced by these other technologies.

The Wired article, Rude Awakening for File Sharers, highlights the common misconceptions that people have over 'paid' and 'legitimate' software and files.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has demonstrated that the two terms do not necessarily equate with each other, by proceeding to take action against paid subscribers of Kazaa, who are now surprised and confused:

Kazaa has a very pretty, very professional-looking Web page. I paid them a fee and assumed it was a legitimate way to buy music...

But take a look at Kazaa's end user agreement, and you will see that subscribers are not supposed to use the service for lawsuit-inducing activities:

What You Can't Do Under This Licence

You agree not to use the Software to:

2.5 Transmit, access or communicate any data that you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under non-disclosure agreements)...

2.6 Transmit, access or communicate any data that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party...

4.1 You are responsible for paying all applicable taxes and other costs you may incur in connection with your use of the Software including but not limited to all hardware and software costs and providing all equipment and software necessary to connect to our web site and to use the Software via the Internet and any royalties or other charges relating to the use of data owned by third parties...

The Kazaa Media Desktop program is a "peer-to-peer" program; this means that it communicates with other peers (other Kazaa Media Desktops or compatible programs). Other users may download files that you have stored in the My Shared Folder and other folders you have selected to be shared. Don't share files which are confidential, such as financial information, or which you do not have the right to distribute.

Kazaa have, in short, cleverly covered their tracks by transferring the liabilities to their subscribers. And as always, many people do not bother reading user agreements because they are often too lengthy. Besides, companies with user agreements must surely have consulted a lawyer, so their products must be legal too, right?

Also, I have noticed how people differentiate 'pirated' and 'original' software. The former, as many of us know, is packaged in a cheap plastic wrapper and can be purchased for several dollars from dodgy street vendors. That is 'bad', we know it, and Singapore has hefty fines for companies which use unlicensed copies of software.

However, many people still think it is legitimate to install software that you have purchased a licence for, on multiple computers (home computer, work computer, laptop). Unless the Licence Agreement stipulates otherwise, you aren't supposed to do that. One licence = one computer.

Naturally, in such a situation, ignorance is bliss. After all, if you don't know it's wrong, why should you be liable for your actions?

But for users of Kazaa, reality has set in.

Microsoft has lost another major client, The US Navy:

The new way of fighting is built around Internet standards, including web pages, routers, Ethernet, instant messaging, and chat rooms. Casualties appear to be both expensive customized systems and Microsoft software.

What users probably don't like about Microsoft:

1. High price tags for many of its products, especially with the advent of free or relatively affordable open source software. CNET News, July 21 - Microsoft to pay US$1.1 billion back to consumers and corporate clients who have been overcharged.
2. Microsoft products, having proprietary source code and tonnes of 'legalese', are also less easily customisable by users than open source software
3. Microsoft products are infamous for numerous security loopholes. I admit it's good that problems are acknowledged and fixed, but how did this happen in the first place?
4. Loss of goodwill. It's the general arrogance of a monopoly which has eradicated or swallowed up, by fair means or foul, many competitors such as Netscape, relying instead on its huge war chest to battle it out in the courtroom.

Many users have stuck to Windows, Internet Explorer and Office, because that's what came pre-installed; that's what everyone at work is using; they've been using it for years and don't feel the need to try anything new. It's perfectly understandable. Anyway, more programs are written for Windows precisely because of this vicious cycle.

But obviously trends are changing. With slashed IT budgets, many corporations are turning to cheaper alternatives, and alarm bells are ringing. Subsidies are now being dished out, with Linux being singled out as the biggest threat.

Yet Microsoft shouldn't fight the open source movement but go with the flow. It has already taken some steps in its integration of .NET with XML web services. But it has failed to 'innovate', despite its assertions, in many other areas. Internet Explorer may be the most popular browser now, but it is lacking in functionality that others such as Safari and Mozilla, provide - popup ad blocking, tabbed windows - little improvements that make the surfing experience all the more user friendly. Also, it has some well-documented CSS bugs which have not been fixed.

And now that Internet Explorer will no longer be a standalone browser, I wonder whether the Windows-IE alliance will hold out despite growing user defections to alternative operating systems. Only time will tell.

Today was 'Patch-The-PCs' day. Fixing the Microsoft Windows security flaws, that is. A big thank you to the LSD Research Group for spotting the kinks in the armour, and not releasing the source code over the Internet for evil hackers to prey on.

If Microsoft were a car manufacturer, there'd be countless casualties, product recalls and multiple lawsuits at hand. In reality, nobody's really batting an eyelid because we're already conditioned to the fact that things will never be perfect. The Microsoft share price has dipped slightly by US$0.83 (-3.02%) to $26.69, but in other news, the company has posted a huge third quarter profit.

The US Army and Department of Homeland Security might just want to re-think their recent software contracts with Microsoft:

"Microsoft wants to boost sales to government anti-terrorism and security agencies. The company has been working to reassure federal authorities who said they were concerned about Microsoft security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In March, a hacker breached a Defense Department computer through a flaw in Microsoft's Windows... Microsoft last month [June 2003] won its biggest contract ever, a $478 million, six-year deal with the Army." Source: the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

[On an unrelated note, the USDHS is now using blogs to keep track of their correspondence. Hmm. ]

Zeldman reports that parent company AOL has dismantled most of Netscape in a mass-firing exercise. However, the Mozilla spirit will live on over at mozillafoundation.org.

According to a press release, AOL has pledged US$2 million over the next two years to support this new independent movement. Red Hat and Sun Microsystems have also promised software support.

Update 17 July 2003: Wired reports that Mozilla wants to rumble with IE. Well, good luck to them. I use Mozilla much more often than Internet Explorer now, but I'm a geek. Geeks use Mozilla. Because we're more interested in standards compliance than the average man on the street running a pre-installed Windows operating system. Because we're fascinated with the open source movement, and have probably considered using Linux, if we haven't already.

Which is why Mozilla controls less than 2% of the browser market.

Mozilla also has lower name recognition than Netscape. I don't have hard statistics to back this up, but just ask the colleague next to you (anyone who's not a geek) if they've heard of Netscape or Mozilla. I can assure you, the former would ring a bell with more people.

But I'm still sticking to Mozzy. Because it is more standards-compliant than IE. Because I love how it tabs my browser windows. The only grouse I have is how it runs Java applets more slowly than IE. Not good for online transactions. But that could partly be the web developers' problem - many sites are probably still designed for and checked only in IE. Unless the Windows-IE monopoly is broken (there is hope via the Open Source movement).

So the new Mozilla foundation have a rocky, uphill task to climb. The geeks have to go a-marketing. Let's see how they do it.

The latest Netcraft survey is out. Apache has increased its market (server) share by 0.56% to 63.72%, while Microsoft has fallen 0.90% to 25.95% overall. More details here.

In more bad news for Microsoft, eight major players have formed an alliance with Linux for consumer electronic devices. Sony, Matsushita (parent of Panasonic), Hitachi, NEC, Sharp, Toshiba, Philips, and Samsung. The group claim that IBM will soon join them.

It's time to embrace the Penguin! :-D

As Sheryl has mentioned, mobile phone users in Singapore now have the freedom to switch telcos without paying a levy. It's definitely about time the IDA did something about levies! Seven years ago, UK telco customers were already retaining their numbers at no charge. Which goes to prove that you don't just need the technology; you need an open mindset to make it work as well.

But I still don't think I'll switch networks. I've been getting annual discounts from SingTel for the past few years, and personal calls from customer services once or twice a year asking for my feedback. Surprisingly everyone's been prompt and courteous. Also I believe SingTel still has the best coverage, though I've heard Starhub has cleaned up its act a little.

Another thing is, my default SIM card can hold lots more data. My colleague who's on M1 and using the same phone model as I am, had to upgrade her card, which now is able to hold 30-40 text messages - which is still half the capacity of mine. My father was also stranded in South Africa a couple years ago, unable to call home, because he assumed that if SingTel offered roaming there, M1 did too. A quick call to M1's Customer Service department confirmed that they didn't.

Despite this, I believe the local industry has far to go. In the more developed UK market, each telco had more distinct brand personalities and I don't recall price wars being as rampant in newspaper advertisements as they are over here.

The players were the (then) big boy, Vodafone, BT's Cellnet (now called O2, which you have probably seen plastered on some English Premier League uniforms). Then there was One-2-One (now called T-Mobile), the cheapest by far. Loads of friends started off with them, then switched to either Voda or Cellnet because they kept on getting dropped calls and poor reception. Sounds familiar?

Then, there was Orange. Some people think I'm silly to feel loyal towards a company. Believe it or not, I still do. Orange was the newest kid on the block, but a year after I graduated I heard that they had overtaken Vodafone as the largest player in the market. Their prices weren't the cheapest, and they weren't on the GSM network which many Singaporeans preferred. But they put great thought into every step of the branding, marketing and customer relations experience, without making the effort look obvious.

What I loved about Orange was the way they pampered me. I'd get a cool Orange lifestyle magazine (that didn't need to use the word 'Lifestyle'), and their rewards system was the most intelligent by far. I could do almost anything with my points. I collected enough of them (3000+) after three years, which allowed me to adopt either an endangered rhinoceros or orangutan. Or buy one acre of Brazilian rainforest. Or go skydiving. Or rent a boat. That sort of thing.

Occasionally Orange saw the need to adapt particular handsets to suit its technology, so instead of the Nokia 6110 we'd get the 6110e. I'm not too sure what difference this made, but I quite liked having a beautifully designed user's guide for your phone.

And I liked it when I made a call to customer services. The rep would answer crisply with a, "Good morning Miss Tan. How may I help you?" Their system was sophisticated enough to put my name to a number, even in the mid-90's.

Moreover, their price plans were clear and frightfully simple, so I was dead certain of what I was paying for. Things which I still have to pay for seperately in Singapore, were a given with Orange, such as roaming. I also had free itemised billing, meaning they would tell me who I called, exactly which district they were in, which other networks were involved, and how much each individual call would cost. I could switch talk plans immediately without paying a surcharge, which was useful as a student going on three-month holidays. And if I didn't use up my allocated talktime for the month, it would roll over to the next month.

Apart from what I've mentioned above, there are specific things that local companies can improve on. First, simple marketing approaches. Drop the words 'excellence' and 'value-added services'. I'll decide for myself, thank you very much. Most of the time, your rivals are offering exactly the same thing. And why call something 'value-added' when I have to pay more to use it?

Also, I wish they'd do away with the greeting, 'Dear Valued Customer'. If your technology was really so sophisticated as you claim in your e-newsletter or website, why can't you use my real name instead? Also, websites that still look like sales pitches, chock full of price-slashing deals with confusing navigation, really do not help.

Advertising-wise, I don't think much of cheap digs at rivals. Remember that old SingTel ad, with the big red and small orange umbrellas? Let your network performance and your customers do the talking!

They called OS 10.2 Jaguar. And the latest version? What else, but Panther (press release).

I'm now wondering what version 10.4 will be called. How about Cheetah? Since we keep on stealing glances at sleek-bodied Macs, scheming to get our hands on one.

Or Hyena. Together with its behemoth G5 processors, the folks at Apple seem to be having the last laugh - for now.

Read more about OS 10.3's features on the official website.

Microsoft is involved in another big legal battle, but this time I'm on their side.

The company estimates that more than 80 percent of the more than 2.5 billion e-mail messages sent each day to Hotmail users are spam. It now blocks most of those spam messages.

The NYTimes reports that Microsoft has agreed to pay AOL Time Warner US$750 million in compensation and grant them licence to integrate more fully with the Windows operating system where browsers and instant messaging are concerned.

Of course, the settlement amount pales in comparison to the price AOL paid for Netscape in 1999 - US$10 billion. And to what avail? Netscape now has a paltry market share of less than 5%, and according to CNet, may now face extinction at the hands of its parent company.

'Makes you wonder who the real loser of the antitrust case, is.