“When we talk about globalisation, we are talking about the way in which we bring different complex operating systems together. It is like the internet. The internet was an ARPA discovery. That by each operating system accepting a certain protocol, TCP/IP, different systems could interconnect even though they have different legacies and different deep programmes. Built upon this, through hyperlinks, we could communicate as if we belonged to a common system….

“The recent financial crisis is a crisis of that hyperlink, or an aspect of that hyperlink. The global imbalance – so much has been written about it, this is not the subject which I am going to talk about tonight. Except that the financial crisis is a problem of the higher system which links us all together….

“If we look at globalisation today, it is really an American construct, the hyperlink – the HTML language, the XML language – is basically an American language. It is expressed in accounting rules, financial rules, the way armies are organised, industrial standards, financial standards and so on. The problem is when the US becomes excessive in this missionary zeal. Political scientists like Kissinger talk about the dual strain in American foreign policy. There is the national interest which defines the foreign policy of all countries, but there is in American foreign policy always an additional strain, a call to an American ideal, a desire to spread the word, to democratise the world. To a point, that is very attractive and to an extent it enables the world to be globalised. But beyond a point, when you start intruding into the deep operating system of particular countries or tribes, it creates problems.

“When America goes into Iraq and tries to democratise Iraqi society as if it has no legacy…

“Coming back to the issue of global governance – America has to lead, but America has to lead in a way which acknowledges the diversity of the human family…

“If we are all the same, something is very wrong. Countries are different, tribes are different, cultures are different, and in global governance, the basic building block must acknowledge that diversity and that difference. But that which binds us all together, that hyperlink, that for a long time will be American in its essence.”

Note: If you’re on Facebook, see his Facebook note and read the comments there.

The other groups measured in the study were the Central Asians (Indians), East Asians (Chinese and Japanese), the Southeast Asians, Arabic (north Africa and Middle East) and Amerindian-Mestizo (Mexican and Central America). All these groups will experience a population growth.

Question: Why is global white population declining and not the other groups? Does this have anything to do with the legal recognition of same-sex couples worldwide among predominantly white nations in modern history, besides general reluctance to have babies (see Causes of “Sub-fertility replacement” on Wikipedia)?

The media giant is the owner of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant and several other papers. It also operates 23 television stations.

“…factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm — a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt.”

“Like many US newspapers, the Tribune has been grappling with declining circulation, a loss of readership to online media, and a steep drop in print advertising revenue.

“The New York Times reported last week that another debt-ridden major US newspaper chain, the McClatchy Co., is seeking to sell one of its flagship newspapers, The Miami Herald.

“And the New York Times itself has not been immune to the crisis gripping the newspaper industry. The paper reported Monday that the New York Times Co. plans to borrow up to 225 million dollars against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building to ease a potential cash flow squeeze.”

September Update: See also “Dow Jones shutting down FEER” and “Journalists Losing Jobs at Three Times Rate of Average Workers“.

The reason? McKinsey’s findings suggest that companies are coming to understand the difficulty of realizing some of Web 2.0’s benefits. “However, fundamental changes are beginning to take place among the satisfied companies… [They] are not only using more technologies but also leveraging them to change management practices and organizational structures. Some are taking steps to open their corporate “ecosystems” by encouraging customers to join them in developing products and by using new tools to tap distributed knowledge.”

Mix of technologies used is changing: Blogs, RSS, wikis, and podcasts are becoming more common, perhaps because companies have a greater understanding of their value for business (Exhibit 1).

More technologies are in use: Overall, the respondents say that their companies are using 3.4 technologies from an expanded list, versus 2.2 in 2007. Companies use Web 2.0 technologies more frequently for internal than for external purposes, and the rate of deployment remains high for almost all kinds of uses (Exhibit 2).

Web services remains highest used: Respondents rate Web services (software that makes it easier to exchange information and conduct transactions) as the most important tool, with Europeans providing the highest marks. Companies in all regions perceive wikis and blogs as fairly important, and the use of both tools has increased over the past year.

Satisfaction varies markedly by geography: The developed countries of the Asia-Pacific region had the largest percentage of respondents expressing the highest level of overall satisfaction with Web 2.0 tools, and Latin America had the lowest (Exhibit 4).

This slideshow provides a quick overview. Also features a Ping.sg celebrity towards the end (slide 19).

Note: The slideshow is now featured on a similar post with a different title and intro.

Therefore, Google Docs users can now:

• Create and keep presentations in one place on the web that’s accessible anytime, from any Internet connected computer.
• Manage, update and share presentations with colleagues by sending them a simple email invitation.
• Edit together online and in real time, or contribute at different times to the same presentation on the web.
• Present and control slide shows for all viewers over the web, with no special setup required. Chat with viewers in real-time via integrated chat.
• Import existing presentations to get started quickly.
• Quickly publish presentations to the general public or individuals of their choice.

AND HERE’S A VIDEO showing how users can connect through Google Talk and “can chat about the presentation as they’re watching.”

More details in The Official Google Blog. And in related news, Yahoo! Drops $350m on Zimbra; an Open Source, Enterprise RIA. Looks like we are likely to see a three-corner fight soon — Microsoft Office vs. Google Office vs. Yahoo! Office.

In my case, I’ve chosen the latter because I’m basically a private person, PLUS council work has turned out to be really time-consuming (gasp!) AND really serious work, bound by strict building management laws and regulations.

I’m taking a break for another month or so. Pardon my silence.

“My expectations for this computer were, I must admit, not very high. But it completely took me by surprise. It was cleverly designed, imaginative, straightforward, easy to understand (I was given no instructions on how to use it. It was just, “Here. Figure it out yourself.”), useful and simple, entertaining, dependable, really a “stick to the basics” kind of computer.

“…unfortunately, the internet is the only fast element of the computer. My main problem with this laptop is how very slow it is. It’s true that I am used to faster computers, but that’s not the problem. It’s just really slow. I had to wait two minutes to get onto one application. That’s just a little longer than I can accept. Also, it got slower and slower and slower the longer I went without rebooting it. I had to reboot it all the time. We’re talking once every two or three hours of use!”

For more details, go to the “Freedom to Tinker” blog.

“A district court yesterday ruled that Virtual Map (Singapore)’s online maps on StreetDirectory.com had breached the Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) copyright. The judge also ordered the company to destroy or deliver up all infringing material.”

I’ve been referring to the maps and related services (e.g. Bus/MRT directions) on StreetDirectory.com for years and found them very useful in helping me find my way around Singapore. Yes, we are living in a very small island (only 699.0 sq km). But this island also has a population of more than four million people and God knows how many streets and buildings. I’m sure at least thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of other users find the site very useful too.

What a dreadful piece of news to read on the eve of our national day! Does this court case mean the end of a free and very useful reference site for Singaporeans and visitors? Or (still hopeful…) will SLA start providing this service instead?

Related Articles:

• Can Map.gov.sg Replace StreetDirectory.com?

This is definitely NOT true. First, blogs on Google Blogger have addresses that end with blogspot.com and NOT blogger.com. Second, blogs on Google Blogger might not even have addresses that end with blogspot.com if the owner chooses to point another domain on that Blogger blog. For example, Robert Scoble pointed the Scobleizer.com domain at his Scobleizer.WordPress.com blog and his blog is listed as Scobleizer.com in Technorati (Authority: 6,232, Rank: 70) with no trace of blog host WordPress.com at all.

Here are some counter-proof: Some of the Top 100 Technorati blogs that I know for a fact are on Google Blogger are:

• PostSecret (Authority: 11,787, Rank: 9)
• Official Google Blog (Authority: 8,653, Rank: 13)
• XiaXue (Authority: 3,841, Rank: 85)

And the Geo Locations for this blog in May were:

IN TERMS OF NUMBERS, membership in the directory, the map and the network now stands at 16, 30 and 45 respectively. Quite modest numbers really. However, I’m proud to say that we have quite a number of prominent and/or interesting bloggers among the members from various countries. For example:

• Chris Smith, whose Shambles Forest of Theme Blogs currently supports international school communities (teachers, support staff, administrators, students and families) in 17 countries in South East Asia!
• Keso, a top 10 blogger for China-related posts (according to Technorati)
• Keven Lw, founder of the Chinese Library 2.0 network and a library R&D leader in Shanghai, China
• Liew C.F., a top 10 blogger for Malaysia-related posts (according to Technorati)
• Pinoyblogosphere (Philipppines) – blog aggregator, directory, ranking, etc. for Pinoy blogs.
• And many others. (My apologies if I’ve left someone important out inadvertently. :-p)

Recently, to encourage ownership, I started inviting some of the more prominent bloggers to become admins/reps for their countries. Invariably, they also started to ask me what an admin/rep is supposed to do? I’ve no clear answer.

I know that I want to promote more exchange among social media users in Asia, possibly (especially?) in the areas of education and business. I also know that I’d like to have more visitors from Asia (other than Singapore). As for specifically where and how the network should be heading, I certainly welcome suggestions, ideas, etc. Could you give me some please?

A Japanese IT journalist confirms this in an online article in April, Twitter booms in Japan / Twitter from Skype. Nobi has been seeing more and more early adopters getting on board with Twitter. He wrote:

“I also started to see the third wave of Japanese early adopters have started using Twitter around yesterday. Seeing Orkut, Gree and mixi case, this could be the most critical group of all. Both Orkut and Gree captured some people of this group but they couldn’t keep momentum among them. This group of people are knows computers and Internet but they are not necessarily following latest trends in web technologies and services.

“This is a very colorful group and includes several big and significant clusters. One big cluster is Mac-fanatics in Japan. their occupations, generations and taste varies widely but they are very well connected through some extremely popular Mac web sites. They also tend to have closer relation with media, famous people, etc. thus are somewhat influential.”

Related Posts:

• Insight#5: More Good Ways to Use Twitter
• Japanese Loves to Read Blogs

“Visitors to the Ping.sg website will be able to see what is going on at the fair and chat online with the stall holders and visitors to the fair… At scheduled intervals, the emcee for the BuyButtonz event will also be delivering reports live from the fair. Interviews with BuyButtonz CEO, Ping.sg and the various stall holders at the fair will also be webcasted.”

This integration is believed to be the first to connect the traditional fair format with the online world via video streaming. Usually, live events are covered by local radio and TV stations.

So far, confirmed stall holders at the BuyButtonz Fair include ladies intimate wear ClosetLingerie.com, homegrown designer-wear Caramel.com.sg and T-Shirts vendor WantonDoodles.com . Each vendor will be bringing a selection of uniquely designed products that is normally available only online. Other online vendors include Good Image Tea BioLifeMarketing.com.sg, Animation Production and Training Intense-Animation.com, discount magazines outlet YourMamaShop.com, adventure travel company OhanaAdventure.com and many more.

BuyButtonz is an online payment solution that makes it easy for online payments to be collected securely. Ping.sg, a metablog popular amongst Singaporeans, is the official online media for the fair. Registered users of Ping.sg will stand to receive up to 5 free BuyButtonz on-top of the One free BuyButtonz that is given out to all Singaporeans.

• I’m a rather private and introspective person, which may come as a surprise to certain people. Someone had once commented, “But you’re so outspoken!” Yes, where work is concerned, I am often quite forthright
• In this blog, I write about my faith, inner thoughts and sometimes feelings. Sometimes, I merely quote passages or verses that I like. All these I had presumed that most people wouldn’t be interested in. In fact, this blog is quite religious. More specifically, it’s Christian and Catholic. People who are non-Christian sometimes get rather defensive (even offensive) when they are presented with something religious (or Christian).
• I’ve wanted to migrate this blog to WordPress for months, but have yet to find the time or the specific instructions (or means) to do so.

BUT WHY THIS CHANGE NOW? I’m beginning to notice that many bloggers can get quite personal and many blog readers actually like to read personal details and thereby get to know the author more personally.

Also, some people have mistaken me for a man. They said, “You write so impersonally in your blog.”

PLUS: It would be wonderful if some of you actually like what I’ve written there and start sharing with me more interesting or inspiring stories of similar nature!

So anyway, to stop teasing your curiosity, here’s my “secret” blog: SingleCatholicWoman. Note that this is NOT a Singles ad. I’m simply blogging about the challenges and opportunities (or advantages) of being single, Catholic and female.

Asia Social Media Directory is “non-competitive” in the sense that all Singaporean bloggers and social media activists are still encouraged to add relevant info on their sites on the Singapore Social Media Directory. However all, including those from Singapore, are welcome to join the Asia Social Media Directory Frappr map:

WHY AM I DOING THIS? Basically, I want to reach out to a much wider audience, especially people in Asia. Currently, about 50% of my visitors are coming from Singapore. Too few are from the rest of Asia.

However, there is no Asian directory available on the Internet right now (at least not one that I could find on the Internet via a Google search) that is:

• “Unconditional”: All bloggers and social media activists in Asia are most welcome to join and list their blogs and/or social media sites there without having to add a reciprocal badge/link to the directory from their sites.
• Community-managed: Anyone can add themselves in without being screened first. (Of course, if abuse occurs then abusers will be barred.)

In addition, I also plan to read more Asian blogs and start providing insights and roundups on how free/open-source/social technologies are being used in Asian business and education. Reasons include:

• More and more, Singapore is being used by westerners (Europeans, Americans, Canadians, etc.) as a springboard to Asia, and by easterners (Asians) as a stepping stone to the English-speaking countries.
• Over 50% Internet users will be Asians soon

So, would Asia Social Media Directory and my finetuned focus be of interest/value to you, my readers?

I know that Ping.sg is NOT competing with Tomorrow.sg. And I know that Alexa statistics are based on the visits of people who have installed and are using Alexa toolbar. Still, out of curiosity (and since Compete.com does not profile ping.sg yet), I checked the rankings and related stats for the two sites just now and was pleasantly surprised.

And the Web traffic meter on Alexa (via AttentionMeter) over the past six months reads:

Perhaps this is a herald of more good things to come for Ping.sg?

Afternote 04-04-2007: More charts from Alexa

Related Posts:

• Insight#4: Of Alexa, Dmoz & Technorati
• Lester Chan’s comment on the Alexa ranking of Ping.sg
• Top Posts in Ping.sg & Tomorrow.sg Reveal That…
• A video guide to the Ping.sg anniversary celebration – by an absentee

Afternote 01-05-2007: Traffic Rank for ping.sg is now: 73,025

“I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable behaviour, I would hope that it doesn’t come through any kind of [legal/government] regulation it would come through self-regulation.”

While condemning the bloggers who issued the threats, Mr O’Reilly was keen that the whole blogosphere should not be tarred with the same brush.

“…The fact that there’s all these really messed-up people on the internet is not a statement about the internet.”

O’Reilly’s call came shortly after high-profile blogger Kathy Sierra reported feeling threatened and at risk online. Coincidentally, the Media Development Authority of Singapore has just opened some guidelines entitled Internet Code of Practice for public consultation a few days ago.

More details on BBC Technology News page, Susan Mernit’s post, Doc Searles’ post on this (based on a letter from Alan Herrell, apparently one of those who threatened Kathy on MeanKids) and a ChannelNewsAsia report.

Update 30-03-2007: See also Bjorn Lee’s Death Threats on the Blogosphere.

Update 09-04-2007: See also Blogger’s Code of Conduct at Wikia, BlogHer’s Community Guidelines and A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs at NYT.