Category: Web Design

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The Social Network in Cinemas 28 Oct 2010

I recall getting my first 14.4k dialup modem in 1995 where the sole objective was to access a few BBS, exchange messages (don’t remember what was it called before emails were emails) on Fidonet so that I can contact my girlfriend (now my wife) via such digital messages. I fondly remember even setting up a chat program on my own server so that we don’t have to pay for long distance calls. Then came Singnet which showed me what the Internet was together with mIRC.

The first social network website I recall getting on would have to be SixDegrees.com which was based on the concept of six degrees of separation. Then came eCircles.com which was really cool as it had a good graphical user interface to it. Did not have much friends who were very online back then, so any social networking was really with people whom I really did not know. However after the dot com boom, many such sites fell.

The next notable social network site that took center stage would have to be Friendster which came around in 2003. There was MySpace which somehow was not big in this part of the world, then came Facebook in a big way especially when they launched the Facebook Platform in may 2007.

I recall telling my friend Terence back in early 2007 that Facebook is it. It will be the last big social network site and looks like I’m still correct for these few years. I do believe that it will still be for the years to come.

If you’ve seen Pirates of Silicon Valley which was about the early stages of Apple and Microsoft, you are hardcore and I like you already. ;) I’ve not seen The Social Network yet, but if you liked Pirates of Silicon Valley, I believe from what i’ve read online on www.thesocialnetwork.com.sg its a movie not to be missed.

I had the privilege to go for the movie’s preview screening because Qais Consulting (where I work) was promoting the movie for Sony Pictures Singapore, but RESERVIST made it impossible. Looking at what friends like Claudia, Lester and Daphnemaia blogged + photos of the screening event make me want to so see the movie like NOW NOW. :( looks like I’ve got to wait till the end of the month when it launches in Singapore officially on 28 Oct. This is one geeky movie I believe my wife can appreciate as she also on Facebook and can relate for sure. lol. :)

Anyway, the theme song based on Creep is simply haunting. Its like the movie is calling out to me. Here is the version of it by Radiohead and The Pretenders.

Creep by Radiohead

Creep by the Pretenders

When you were here before,
Couldn’t look you in the eye
You’re just like an angel,
Your skin makes me cry

You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You’re so fuckin’ special

But I’m a creep,
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doin’ here?
I don’t belong here

I don’t care if it hurts,
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul

I want you to notice
when I’m not around
You’re so fuckin’ special
I wish I was special

But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doin’ here?
I don’t belong here, ohhhh, ohhhh

She’s running out again
She’s running out
She run run run run…
run… run…

Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You’re so fuckin’ special
I wish I was special

But I’m a creep,
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doin’ here?
I don’t belong here

I don’t belong here…

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7 observations of Singapore’s Social Media scene

About 10 – 15 years ago back in the 2nd half of 90s, every brand wanted to have an online presence, but now, every brand needs to have a social media presence. Social Media is every where, we check our tweets on the bus, flick thru our Facebook in the train, comment on this, share that, like this, rebuttal on that. And all this is all done in public online space.

As I’ve been more active on social media lately because of work, I’ve jumped in to the deep end and experimented on lots of stuff which was all in theory for me in the past. Knowing and experiencing it first hand is definitely two very different things.

I’m no social media guru, but I though it would be good for me to list out a few interesting observations i’ve had so far that are not usually openly discussed online.

1. The Singapore circle is small

People who do social media are active on social media obviously. If you follow and study enough of them, you will slowly find out that there are only a hand full of real online influencers, some are real genuine online celebrities with good reputation, some are just trashy and everyone takes them as entertainment and follow them anyway, some are not even real people.

Also because the audience of these influencers are constantly changing, some are trying hard to maintain their followers and are constantly reinventing themselves.

2. People can be quite cryptic

The online space is a place where rants are a plenty. People complain, have their out bursts online on anything and everything. But because its done publicly online, the art of #cryptic messages and sarcasm have reached an all time high. Its sometimes entertaining for those in the know, but for others, they would have no clue, but know that some one is really pissed off.

3. Brand Personas

There are quite a lot of brands having an online social media presences. Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Blogs, etc. All these are usually either ran by an internal team or via their digital / advertising / media / PR agency. The thing is, form the start, their objectives should be quite obvious. They either have a marketing objective, a customer service obligation or are just broadcast channels. Follow is the new Opt-In.

4. Individual Branding

You are who you are and online, what you say, blog, do, share, engage with determines your branding. Some talk about current events, some focus on their niches (eg. technology, marketing, food, fashion, parenting, toys, gov issues, porn, etc.), some purely talk for talking sake while others give well analysed insights.

When a list of social media influencers are drawn up, these individuals need to fall into some category / blog topics, etc. So do you know what is your branding?

5. Auto-Followers

Using tools like SocialOomph, one can set their twitter accounts to auto follow back twitter accounts. This naturally created a market of I-follow-you-you-follow-me-back arrangements. There are lots of auto follow back lists out there and when you see some people following more than 1000 people, you really start wondering if they really do read all those updates. If on average each have 2 updates, we are looking at 2000 updates daily to go thru, omg.

6. Social Media Politics

On Twitter, Social Media Marketers follow other Marketers and everyone taps on each others publicly available followers (of cause if you want can put them in a private list). When certain marketing messages goes out with a “pls RT”, you can be sure its conflict of interest to some to retweet. There is this invisible tension on the net that is so visible between them.

7. There is currently no reliable list out there

The following are some places to find who are the influencers in Singapore. Although I don’t totally agree with the lists as some of the logic are not sound while some are opt-in lists. Some of those who are high on the list have also figured out how to be at the top, hence you can say some of the lists are manipulated.

What ever the case is, the lists are somewhat a good place to start your research. Personally i also look at the curated twitter lists of people that I respect, but then again its purely from their perspective.

If you know more out there, do share and i’ll add to the list and give credit. :)

I’m no social media guru, so do give me some feedback or views if you have any. Thanks.

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Happy 16th Birthday W3C from Singapore

W3C logo

On 1st October 1994, the W3C was founded, its 16 years now. If you are not too sure why the W3C is important, this is a good time to read about it.

If you are a business person and not too sure why Web Standards are important, you should read “The Business Value of Web Standards” by Jeffrey Veen who brought us The Art and Science of Web Design and the current Google Analytics Design. Also we should not forget Jeffery Zeldman who Businessweek calls King of Web Standards, he started The Web Standards Project and brought us Designing with Web Standards.

A huge thanks also to all those who have contributed quietly to the standards movement for their commitment, ideas and sheer sacrifice.

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Passion and Refocusing

My mom told me when I was much younger “either you do what you like or do what you are naturally good at.” I think that’s so true and wise even up till today after having 3 kids. We all need to be doing something that gives us enough drive to make us want to continue.

If you are feeling tired and fatigued, you are not alone. If you are feeling that all you are doing is just to make ends meet, you are not alone. If you are putting off the things you need to do in the next few years to achieve your dreams, you are not alone.

I know a few of the skaters featured in the above video “Grind & Air“. We used to skate together and its great to see some are still skating and kicking ass. To me, I think they made it. They kept with their passion and consistently improved their craft. I’m really proud of them.

In Singapore, there is no money in skating. We don’t have big skate brands from Singapore, skating is not main stream, its a sub-culture. So to keep at it and still have the drive, to me that’s true passion. You need to set aside time for it, you need to commit.

Of late I got caught up with lots of stuff, work, having Clara, kids education, twitter, facebook, etc. The next thing you know, so much time have slipped by and all I want to do is rest. Its a vicious cycle. I blame it partially in the fact that we are all so connected, we are all so online, we are all so distracted. Peter Bregman explained it best in his article Why I Returned My iPad. I agree with him, the problem is me, its not my iPad.

I’m sick of it, I’m sick of myself. So now, I’m gonna refocus, I’m gonna take away distractions, I’m gonna set aside time, I’m gonna commit. I’ll get back to do stuff that I like and stuff that I’m good at. I’ll refocus and get back on track with my passions.

A few more beautiful skate videos below for motivation and to remind us all not let go of our passions. Keep rollin… Keep your passions alive…

MADRID LONGBOARD from Juan Rayos on Vimeo.

skate – shot on red #1347 – 120 fps from Raphaël Aupy on Vimeo.

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#AisFor

This is a very simple game on Twitter. You just need to start tweeting “A is for [something]” with the Hashtag #AisFor then your friends can continue with “B is for [something] #AisFor”.

Just started it randomly and it ended with 3 other friends participating at the end. The hashtag only started at J.

@nickpan: A is for Angst
@jackiegay: @nickpan B is for boliao n C is for Cookie!!!
@nickpan: @jackiegay D is for Deadline
@jackiegay: @nickpan E is for Erdinger!
@nickpan: @jackiegay F is for FRIDAYYYYYYY
@chaos_pk: @nickpan G is for gg
@nickpan: @chaos_pk @jackiegay H is for HTTP://NICKPAN.COM
@chaos_pk: @nickpan @jackiegay i is for ipad
@nickpan: @chaos_pk @jackiegay J is for Javascript #AisFor
@chaos_pk: #AisFor K is for Kinokuniya!
@nickpan: @chaos_pk #AisFor L is for LPPL
@chaos_pk: @nickpan #AisFor M is for Me which is also for N which is NICE :D
@nickpan: @chaos_pk #AisFor O is for OMG, P is for PK!
@chaos_pk: @nickpan #AisFor Q is for Quickly! just a little bit more to go ;)
@nickpan: @jackiegay @chaos_pk #AisFor S is for Sleep
@jackiegay: @chaos_pk @nickpan why no J??! J is for no Jam haha! #Aisfor
@chufang: @nickpan #AisFor T is for Tweet @jackiegay @chaos_pk
@jackiegay: @chufang @nickpan @chaos_pk U is for Umbrella cos there’s so much rain!!
@jackiegay: @chufang @nickpan @chaos_pk V is for Vampire n W is for Wikipedia
@nickpan: @jackiegay @chufang @chaos_pk #AisFor X is for XHTML & XML & XXX
@nickpan: @jackiegay @chufang @chaos_pk #AisFor Y is for Y the hell are we doing this?
@chufang: @nickpan #AisFor Z is for what we should be doing @jackiegay @chaos_pk

Its super random, I think it needs to fall into a theme.

Other then it being a casually  fun MMOG (massive multiplayer online game) on micro blogging site twitter, there are of cause many other reasons why this game is a good game. ;)