• A man saw a photo of himself posted on the city Police Department’s Facebook fan site in connection with a robbery he didn’t commit. He went to the police station to correct the problem, and the information he gave police led to the arrest of a 30-year-old man police said they believe is the real robber. — HomeTownAnnapolis.com, 18 October 2009
• A 26-year-old fugitive was caught in Cancun, Mexico after he told his Facebook friends, including a former Justice Department official, that he was living in paradise there. — The Guardian, 14 October 2009
• A 33-year-old clubber who attacked a man with a bottle has been jailed Portsmouth, UK, after his victim tracked him down using the Facebook social networking site. — BBC News, 08 October 2009
• A 26-year-old burglar was caught in Rome, Italy because he logged onto Facebook during the break-in. — Telegraph, 03 October 2009
• A 19-year-old Pennsylvania man was arraigned on a charge of daytime robbery in Berkeley County, USA because he used the victim’s computer to check his Facebook status during the robbery. — The Journal, 16 September 2009
• [Feb 2010 update]:  The Singapore Police Force has a Police Appeal photo album entitled “Police Appeal: Do you know these people?” on Facebook. The photos were apparently added about nine months ago!

What about other social media?

“Boston police using Twitter and Facebook to track down bike thieves” — Mashable, 20th July 2009

“The next time you think about breaking and entering, you might want to consider that police departments are now savvy to social media and will use the power and reach of the web to catch you… the Los Angeles Police Department has just released surveillance video from a break-in that took place at Lindsay Lohan’s Hollywood Hills home on Sunday morning. Their method of conveyance— YouTube.” — Mashable, 26th August 2009

Recognize anyone in the video below?

See Also:

• Use of social networks in investigations on Wikipedia
  

CAUTION:

• Facebook scammers latest trend in cyber thievery — Sunday Gazette Mail, 18th October 2009
• Careless Facebook use can get you robbed too. — Mashable, 27th August 2009

IN CONTRAST, 9% (not 28% as above) are gay, 3% are mostly gay, 6% are bisexual, 19% mostly straight, 61% straight and 2% others, according to a similar poll by Dave Munger on his “Cognitive Daily” blog:

According to “Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002” (cited by The Neurocritic but link is broken now):

Sexual orientation

In response to a question that asked, “Do you think of yourself as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else?” 90 percent of men 18-44 years of age responded that they think of themselves as heterosexual, 2.3 percent (not 28% or even 9% as above) of men answered homosexual, 1.8 percent bisexual, 3.9 percent “something else,” and 1.8 percent did not answer the question. Percents for women were similar.

Is there a selection bias, as claimed by The Neurocritic (linked above)?

selection bias

Selection bias comes in two flavors: (1) self-selection of individuals to participate in an activity or survey, or as a subject in an experimental study; (2) selection of samples or studies by researchers to support a particular hypothesis.

If so, how much of a bias is there?

Is this also an indication that more gays and bisexuals are active online (as compared to straights), especially on Twitter (a simple microblogging tool), as compared to Cognitive Daily (which carries daily posts on psychology, a ‘heavier’ subject)? 

ANYWAY, HOW RELIABLE ARE ONLINE POLLS? According to Slate, online polls are NOT an accurate measure of public opinion because of the following reasons:

1. Respondents are not randomly selected. Poll organizers mailed ballots to people on a list of names.
2. Socioeconomic bias. Many have criticized online polling because Internet users tend to be wealthier, more educated, and more male than the population at large.
3. Questions and answers are always given in the same order. Pollsters speak of both the “primacy effect” and the “recency effect,” meaning that the first and last choices are more likely to be chosen, particularly when there is a long list of possible answers. In addition, the order in which questions are given can affect the respondents’ answers.

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Other factors could include:

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And just two more questions: “How gay is Facebook?” and “How gay is the Internet?”

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“.

How do these Internet users select their shopping sites? Nielsen’s statistics reveal some interesting facts. Over 30 percent actually bought on sites that they found through “General Surfing”, “Search Engines” and “Special offer I saw”:


MORE KEY FINDINGS: “Globally, more than half of Internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month… Internet is no longer a niche technology – it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life. Almost no aspect of life remains untouched by online media. As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isn’t surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to researching and buying products,” said Jonathan Carson, President, International, Nielsen Online.

“… Among Internet users, the highest percentage shopping online is found in South Korea, where 99 percent of those with Internet access have used it to shop, followed by the UK (97%), Germany (97%), Japan (97%) with the U.S. eighth, at 94 percent. Additionally, in South Korea, 79 percent of these Internet users have shopped in the past month, followed by the UK (76%) and Switzerland (67%) with the U.S. at 57 percent.

“Globally, the most popular and purchased items over the Internet are Books (41% purchased in the past three months), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (36%), Videos / DVDs / Games (24%), Airline Tickets (24%) and Electronic Equipment (23%).”

Oct 17 update from reported by TODAYonline.com: “ABOUT SIX IN 10 PEOPLE in Singapore now use the Internet daily and weekly, according to the latest Nielsen Media Index 2008 out yesterday. A fifth of the population used the Internet to listen to music and play online games, while one in 10 said they participated in social networking sites, it added.”

Impact of Blogging on Professional Life


MORE KEY FINDINGS: The average annual blogger revenue is more than $6,000. However, this is skewed by the top 1% of bloggers who earn $200k+. Among active bloggers surveyed, the average income was $75,000 for those who had 100,000 or more unique visitors per month (some of whom had more than one million visitors each month). The median annual income for this group is significantly lower — $22,000.

Bloggers with advertising invest an average of $1,800 annually in their blogs. U.S. bloggers earn an average of $5,000, though bloggers in Asia earn 50% more on average and European bloggers earn an average of 75% more than U.S. bloggers. Again, high revenue bloggers skew the mean revenue. The median revenue for U.S. bloggers is $200 annually (and the median annual investment is only $50).

Blogging has also brought many unique opportunities to these bloggers that otherwise would not have been available. One in four have been invited to participate in an event as a result of their blog, one in five have contributed to a print publication as a result of their blog, and almost as many have found themselves on TV and/or on the radio.

Have you been invited to any of the following as a result of your blog?

• Privacy & Reputation: The digital reputation of people, especially those who have not opted in to that discussion (or “Conversation”). (Vijay Goel, M.D.)
• Truth & honesty: Firms who misrepresent themselves online, pretending to be a “user” (1) Gaming the SEO system to gain rank, (2) underhanded manipulation of product reviews and comments, (3) the accumulation of friends (and social groups) with the intention of monetizing them OR for promotion of business, political or personal agenda. (Albert Maruggi, SeLiNa and wayzgoose)
• Truth & honesty: Blurring of lines between “edit” and “advertising. (tmarklein)
• Security: Identity theft. (LewisG)
• Safety: Protecting children who widely use social media in ways many parents don’t know how to protect. (runnerkik)
• Spammers! (NancyMarmolejo)
  

Chris Heuer asked a good question: “How do we give bad actors in the ecosystem (exploitative, manipulative, dishonest, rude, etc…) a bad reputation that is more visible for others to know who to take seriously and who to ignore?”

Still, how indeed? Could such a penalty system (if developed and available) backfire and end up penalising the powerless and inept instead?

Most likely, your class is NOT going to be as exciting as this one (left), where the professor gamely laid on a bed of nails while someone else tried to break a cement block on him with a sledgehammer! In such a case, you are likely to be distracted by a backchannel.

As Chris Lott put it, “…regardless of what a participant has at hand– a backchannel, a laptop, a cell phone, a book, or a set of Legos– they are not and never will direct 100% of their attention forward and they will find ways to create the attention cycles that characterize engagement. I was able to ignore… incompetent teachers just fine back when the only thing digital [we] had access to was a watch.”

ON JUNE 9, ELLIOT MASIE posed a similar question to teachers and learning designers on LearningTown and received over 80 responses. It’s interesting to observe how Masie kicked off the etivity with a great “spark” (italicized emphases are mine):

Initially, some of the respondents expressed concerns of “how do we know where they are”, and that “It is distracting to the trainer and students sitting near you”.

Then one respondent Ray Eisenberg turned the tide by quoting George Siemens (”ERN – Social Media, Theory and Practice, Backchannel, Laptops in Classrooms” May 31, 2008):

“When I don’t have a laptop at a conference, I learn differently, not more. I learn what the speaker is saying, rather than the resources she is citing. When I have a computer, I don’t play solitaire … I use the opportunity to find related resources, follow up on information presented, and generally enlarge the sphere of what would often be a single-perspective presentation. I’m sympathetic with the concerns of laptop mis-use. Yet I wonder if the problem isn’t partly with our lack of modeling proper technology use. Perhaps we ought to utilize these tools for academic purposes, rather than continuing lecture models and seeing laptops as add ons to learning rather than a key contributor. “

Eisenberg then added, “I agree with Siemens. In a standard lecture, sage-on-the-stage format, there are probably going to be issues. If you bring the internet to center stage then I think that we will be able, as architects have long been successful in doing, convert a problem into a feature.”

Personally, some time last year, I’ve observed the same professor teach the same lesson to two classes of students in two different settings. One class was in a tutorial room while the other class was in a computer lab. The attention the students in the tutorial room gave the professor was much more. As a result, the professor’s level of confidence and energy in the tutorial room was correspondingly higher, and he managed to speak much more fluently and crack a few more jokes in the tutorial room than in the computer lab.

As for myself as a participant, I’ve often gone online while attending lectures and seminars. I’ve noticed that I’m able to add notes online and check out related resources quickly. However, I would often miss a few words here and there. If the speaker is a boring one, most of what he said would have escaped me.

FOR SOME TIME I’VE BEEN WONDERING: What’re the best ways to encourage comments on one’s blog? And not just any comments, but those that promote meaningful exchange of insights and experiences. I’ve found 10 techniques and 10 plugins through a Google search. Could you add a tip or two here please?

According to usability guru Jakob Nielsen, one needs to:

• Make it easier to contribute. The lower the overhead, the more people will jump through the hoop.
• Make participation a side effect. For example, Amazon’s “people who bought this book, bought these other books” recommendations are a side effect of people buying books.
• Edit, don’t create. Let users build their contributions by modifying existing templates rather than creating complete entities from scratch.
• Reward — but don’t over-reward — participants. Although money is always good, you can also give contributors preferential treatment (such as discounts or advance notice of new stuff), or even just put gold stars on their profiles.
• Promote quality contributors. …give extra prominence to good contributions and to contributions from people who’ve proven their value, as indicated by their reputation ranking.

According to problogger Darren Rowse, one could use these techniques:

• Invite Comments...new readers that are unfamiliar with blogging don’t always know about comments or how to use them.
• Ask Questions. I find that when I include questions in my headings… you set a question in their mind from the first moments of your post.
• Be Open Ended. While you don’t want to purposely leave too many things unsaid there is an art to writing open ended posts that leaves room for your readers to be experts also.
• Interact with comments left. If you’re not willing to use your own comments section why would your readers?
• Set Boundaries. I noticed that shortly after I set the rules for my comments section (with a comments policy) that my comment numbers jumped up a little… and that comment threads generally stay constructive as a result.
• Be humble. I find that readers respond very well to posts that show your own weaknesses, failings and the gaps in your own knowledge rather than those posts where you come across as knowing everything there is to know on a topic.
• Be gracious. There are times where you as the blogger will get something wrong in your posts… spelling or grammar… crux of your argument or some other aspect of your blogging… a graceful approach to comments where you admit where you are wrong and others is right can bring out the lurkers and make them feel a little safer in leaving comments.
• Be controversial? …it doesn’t always work (and I personally avoid it as much as I can these days) – but there’s nothing like controversy to get people commenting on your blog.
• ‘Reward’ Comments. There are many ways… that range from simply including a ‘good comment’ remark through to highlighting them in other posts that you write.
• Make it Easy to Comment. …there is one situation where I rarely leave a comment – even if the post deserves it – blogs that require me to login before making a comment. Keep your comments section as simple and as easy to use as possible.

According to Caroline Middlebrook, we could use some of these WordPress Plugins (comments in [] brackets are mine):

• DoFollow plugin: [I've stopped using this because this attracts visitors who drop in just to add some inane comments and a plug for their sites.]
• Top Commentator plugin: [I'm using this. Useful.]
• CommentLuv plugin: [I've installed and activated this. But it's not working on my blog. Probably incompatible with some existing plugins.]
• Most Commented Posts plugin: [Maybe I'll use this too.]
• Recent Comments plugin: [I'm using this. Useful.]
• Subscribe to Comments plugin: [I'm using this. Useful.]
• Threaded Comments plugin: [Hey! How many plugins does one need to use?]
• Gravatars plugin: [ditto]
• Custom Smileys plugin: [ditto]
• Edit Comments plugin: [ditto]

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As of today, the Top 20 (most read) posts in Ping.sg (2008) are (tags appended in the list below are my comments):

1. v1.80 is Here: More Community Features | 81 pongs, 408 reads | by uzyn at Ping.sg Blog – community
2. Going into Ping.sg is now so stressful (see picture) | 79 pongs, 248 reads | by simplyjean at Simply Jean – curiosity
3. My Cousin Saw Mas Selamat! | 78 pongs, 399 reads | by jussaemon at The Original Juice – curiosity, piggybacking (post is not there anymore)
4. Xiaxue gets flamed on high-profile USA blog | 76 pongs, 222 reads | by sheylara at Sheylara.com – curiosity, piggybacking
5. Sex blogging can ruin your offline reputation | 75 pongs, 554 reads | by themediaslut at the(new)mediaslut – sex, advice
6. 15yrs old girl had sex for 300 times.. | 74 pongs, 466 reads | by ylva 2 at missYLva =D – sex
7. EDISON CHEN SEX PHOTOS: Another 200 are leaked online, with possibly more to come | 73 pongs, 1666 reads | by publiceducator on February 10, 2008 at Public Education – sex
8. Tammy NYP – Sex Scandal That Would Not Die. | 73 pongs, 597 reads | by ahpek at Malaysian Blogger – sex
9. Last blog entry | 73 pongs, 274 reads | by dk99 at Decay On Net – curiosity
10. [Living in Sin] Maia Lee is Fucked | 72 pongs, 274 reads | by nocturne at fruit of the poisonous tree – sex
11. Going to Geylang with DK… and he went too far! | 67 pongs, 462 reads | by simplyjean at Simply Jean – “sex”, curiosity
12. How to Pong Cheat Properly? | 67 pongs, 314 reads | by hendribudi at A Better Title – humor, curiosity
13. Something FISHY outside LT10, NUS. POLICE TAKING PICS. | 67 pongs, 309 reads | by estee at Geek Goddess – curiosity
14. Edison Chen sex photo scandals – latest blowjob photo leaked! | 66 pongs, 3683 reads | by jialat at Jialat dot Com – sex
15. My new girlfriend | 66 pongs, 358 reads | by adamzhang at AdamZhang.com – sex appeal
16. UPDATES on POLICE outside NUS LT10 | 66 pongs, 254 reads | by estee at Geek Goddess – curiosity
17. Very awkward Ping.sg gathering? | 65 pongs, 193 reads | by simplyjean at Simply Jean – community
18. Top 10 Singapore Babes in 2007 | 63 pongs, 899 reads | by chioeves at ChioBlog – sex appeal
19. Straits Times boo boo | pongs, 588 reads | by simplyjean at Simply Jean – curiosity, controversy
20. cute ntu girl: “oh my god” | 63 pongs, 448 reads | by chillycraps at department of crappy engineering – sex appeal

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ON THE OTHER HAND, the Top 20 posts in Tomorrow.sg (2008) are (tags appended in the list below are my comments):

1. Oppositions to be blamed for Mas Selamat’s escape | 6721 reads | by Lucky Tan – piggybacking (current issue of interest), controversy, politics, sarcasm
2. Local Comedian, MC King (???) is dead! | 5531 reads | by Alvinology – piggybacking, minor celebrity, death
3. Singapore JI terrorist leader escape = Black magic? | 3841 reads | by Slutty – piggybacking, controversy, safety
4. Singaporean girl sells her used lingerie on her website | 2944 reads | by IZ Reloaded – sex
5. Maid Abuse of 2 month old baby in Singapore! | 2856 reads | at YouTube – controversy
6. Possible Appearances of JI Fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari | 1559 reads | by AEN – piggybacking, controversy, curiosity
7. I won a battle against Nokia | 1550 reads | by xiaoyun – controversy, individual against organization
8. Ah Meng died this morning | 1535 reads | by Alvinology – piggybacking
9. My Last Post as an NSF… | 1412 reads | by farter – farewell, NS
10. MC King (???)’s Funeral Video | 1362 reads | by Alvinology – piggybacking, death, video
11. Singapore team wins Amazing Race Asia 2 | 1205 reads | at AXN Asia’s Amazing Race site – Singapore vs the world, news (community)
12. Chinese New Year exodus exposes Singapore generation gap | 1155 reads | at Reuters – Singapore vs the world, news (community)
13. size 8 – 10 = fat | 1124 reads | by sg_ljers at ST Life Forums – beauty, friendship, community (dumped for being fat)
14. Taiwanese poking fun at Singaporean English | 1010 reads | by Xiong – Singapore vs Taiwan, news (community)
15. Singapore’s Better Kept Secret – A North Korean Embassy | 994 reads | by Oikono
16. Quan Yi Feng slapped husband in public? | 978 reads | by Alvinology – local celebrity, controversy
17. Rich foreigner complains ERP is still too low | 962 reads | at ST Forum, flagged by Pavin Limanont – community, money
18. Comfort Cab – Yishun to Tanjong Pagar = $40.60!!!!!!! | 951 reads | by my secret garden – community, money
19. Singapore Toy & Comic Convention 2008 | 932 reads | by One – Singapore, toys, comics
20. Blatant discrimination in advertisements in SG | 921 reads | by Ridzwan – community, controversy, money

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Note: Like last year, finding the Top 20 posts for 2008 in Tomorrow.sg took some effort because:

• Unlike Ping.sg, Tomorrow.sg has an archive but not a Top Posts for the Year (or Month, Week, Day) page.
• Only five 2008 posts are displayed under the Popular section on the main page. It’s curious how three posts with low reads (not any of the above 20 top posts) are displayed: namely, “First Lungless Frog” (39 reads), “scammers pick on the wrong person” (238 reads), and “NUS Hostel Problem” (315 reads).
• Two 2007 posts (”Comparison between Singapore’s and Malaysia’s Ministers”, “Singapore Escort Ads on Yellow Pages”), one 2006 post (”Swingers swap sex partners in prudish Singapore”) and two 2005 posts (”Singapore Sex Scene”, “Taking upskirt photos – and tio caught!”) are still displayed under the Popular section on the main page.
• If honesty matters, the Popular section should be renamed Featured instead.

Related Articles:

• Top Posts in Ping.sg & Tomorrow.sg (2007)
• Alexa Ranks Ping.sg Above Tomorrow.sg (2007)
• Uzyn, The Next Kevin Rose?

1. Amazon.com – a great place to shop for virtually anything (Zappos.com)
2. BBC.co.uk – World news, sports, radio, articles and audio in 33 languages (PBS.org)
3. CitySearch.com – find the right restuarants, bars, nightclubs, hotels and spas in dozens of cities, with editors’ picks and user reviews, and a Yellow Pages directory
4. Craigslist.org – free classified ads in every category organized by locale
5. Del.icio.us – popular social bookmarking system which can be tagged and searched by keywords
6. Digg.com – leader in social news, where users determine what’s important and interesting by “digging” it and posting a comment.
7. Ebay.com – online auction powerhouse
8. ESPN.com – everything a sports fanatic needs.
9. Facebook.com – popular social network not yet corrupted by marketers and fake friends, dozens of third-party apps
10. FastCheck.org – independent, nonpartisan effort to check speeches, TV ads, news releases and other public statements for accuracy, and provide clarification and context
11. Flickr.com – over half a billion images, superbly designed sharing platform and social network for photo enthusiasts (Shutterfly.com)
12. Google.com – world’s leading Web search engine, wide range of useful Web tools and services (e.g. gmail, Picasa, Maps)
13. HowStuffWorks.com – Easy-to-read explanations of how things work. Users can upload supplementary photos and video.
14. IMDB.com – The Internet Movie Database with an extensive directory of films and TV shows of the past, present and future, plus dialogue, trivia and favorite flicks of film buffs (RottenTomatoes.com)
15. YouTube.com – monster video-sharing hub
16. Kayak.com – Trip planner. Search engine scours hundreds of travel sites to find the best airfares. (TripAdvisor.com)
17. NationalGeographic.com – great content (about animals, world adventures, environment, sciences, space) and educational stuff. (MyWonderfulWorld.com)
18. Netflix.com – Digital movie downloads
19. Technorati.com – search engine for blogs and other social media (photos, video and music) posted on online sharing sites. Tag cloud lists hot topics of the day. (BlogStorm.co.uk)
20. TMZ.com – best for celebrity and entertainment news
21. USA.gov – The official Web portal for the U.S. government, with links to every agency involved in federal business, plus reports, guides, reference material and other resources
22. TelevisionWithoutPity.com – Bitingly funny recaps of dozens of popular TV shows, plus forums for further discussion.
23. WebMD.com – portal packed with information about health and related issues.
24. Wikipedia.org – the people’s encyclopedia, with millions of articles written in hundreds of languages. It’s free, and anyone can edit.
25. Yahoo.com – number two in Web search. Also with basket of goodies (Flickr, Del.icio.us, Bix).

First, I read Chillycraps’ Pinging Party post and found the official recording of the live Ping.sg webcast on Ustream:
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This recording, however is almost three hours long! :-p So, here’s a quick guide to this video:

• 0:00 NTT and Rinaz warming up the camera, people streaming in, testing on stage…
• 39:00 Award Presentation begins with MCs Brendan and Rinaz.
• 45:00 Most Entertaining Blog: Chillycraps
• 51:15 Most Interactive Blog: EastCoastLife
• 58:00 Most Insightful Blog: Cobalt Paladin (entertaining video around 62:00)
• 71:00 Best Photoblog: Keropok Man
• 81:00 Best Blog Design: Veron
• 88:30 Most Controversial Post: EastCoastLife
• 97:35 Most Entertaining Post: EastCoastLife
• 103:42 Most Insightful Post: dk99
• 115: Best Citizen Journalist Post: dk99
• 120:30 Post of The Year: EastCoastLife
• 125:30 Blog Of The Year: Veron (Suddenly, there was no sound!)
• 131:00 How Ping.sg Got Started (Haha! Uzyn used the word “Web 2.0″ to describe Ping.sg!)

Next, read Chillycraps’ What the Fish post and found two amusing video recordings by Rinaz:

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1. Fishes! (Technology: Reactrix)

1. Begin sentences with subjects and verbs. Make meaning early, then let weaker elements branch to the right.
2. Order words for emphasis. Place strong words at the beginning and at the end.
3. Activate your verbs. Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal the players.
4. Be passive-aggressive. Use passive verbs to showcase the “victim” of action.
5. Watch those adverbs. They can dilute the meaning of the verb or repeat it. Use them to change the meaning of the verb.
6. Go easy on the ‘ings’. Prefer the simple present or past. For example, “wish and hope and think and pray” is better than “wishing and hoping and thinking and praying“.
7. Fear Not the Long Sentence. Take the reader on a journey of language and meaning.
8. Parallel Lines – Establish a pattern, then give it a twist. Build parallel constructions, but cut across the grain.
9. Let punctuation control pace and space. Learn the rules, but realize you have more options than you think.
10. Cut Big, Then Small. Prune the big limbs, then shake out the dead leaves.
11. Prefer the simple over the technical. Use shorter words, sentences and paragraphs at points of complexity.
12. Give key words their space. Do not repeat a distinctive word unless you intend a specific effect.
13. Play with words, even in serious stories. Choose words the average writer avoids but the average reader understands.
14. Get the name of the dog. Dig for the concrete and specific, details that appeal to the senses.
15. Pay attention to names. Interesting names attract the writer – and the reader.
16. Seek Original Images. Reject clichés and first-level creativity.
17. Riff on the creative language of others. Make word lists, free-associate, be surprised by language.
18. Set the pace with sentence length. Vary sentences to influence the reader’s speed.
19. Vary the lengths of paragraphs. Go short or long — or make a “turn”– to match your intent.
20. Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind. One, two, three, or four: Each sends a secret message to the reader.
21. Know when to back off and when to show off. When the topic is most serious, understate; when least serious, exaggerate.
22. Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction. Learn when to show, when to tell, and when to do both. (At the bottom are bloody knives and rosary beads, wedding rings and baseball cards. At the top are words that reach for a higher meaning, words like “freedom” and “literacy.”)
23. Tune your voice. Read drafts aloud.
24. Work from a plan. Index the big parts of your work.
25. Learn the difference between reports and stories. Use reports to render information and stories to render experience.
26. Use dialogue as a form of action. Dialogue advances narrative; quotes delay it.
27. Reveal traits of character. Show character-istics through scenes, details, and dialogue.
28. Put odd and interesting things next to each other. Help the reader learn from contrast.
29. Foreshadow dramatic events or powerful conclusions. Plant important clues early.
30. To generate suspence, use internal cliffhangers. To propel readers (to turn the page), make them wait.
31. Good questions drive good stories. Good stories need an engine, a question the action answers for the reader.
32. Place gold coins along the path. Reward the reader with high points, especially in the middle.
33. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Purposeful repetition links the parts.
34. Write from different cinematic angles. Turn your notebook into a “camera” — shifting focus to capture both landscape and character.
35. Report and write for scenes. Then align them in a meaningful sequence.
36. Mix narrative modes. Combine story forms using the “broken line.”
37. In short pieces of writing, don’t waste a syllable. Shape shorter works with wit and polish.
38. Prefer archetypes to stereotypes. Use subtle symbols, not crashing cymbals.
39. Write toward an ending. Help readers close the circle of meaning.
40. Draft a mission statement for your work. To sharpen your learning, write about your writing.
41. Save String. For big projects, save scraps others would toss.
42. Turn procrastination into rehearsal. Plan and write it first in your head.
43. Do your homework well in advance. Prepare for the expected — and unexpected.
44. Read for both form and content. Examine the machinery beneath the text.
45. Break long projects into parts. Then assemble the pieces into something whole.
46. Take an interest in all crafts that support your work. To do your best, help others do their best.
47. Recruit your own support group. Create a corps of helpers for feedback.
48. Limit self-criticism in early drafts. Turn it loose during revision.
49. Learn from your critics. Tolerate even unreasonable criticism.
50. Own the tools of your craft. Build a writing workbench to store your tools.

According to a New York Times report in September 2006 (quoting Bloomberg stats), Baidu is the leading Chinese language site, with a market share of around 57 percent for search engines and around 50 percent for advertising revenue. Google, the closest second, only has around 33 percent market share for search engines and 16 percent for advertising revenue. Baidu is reportedly very strong in Chinese MP3 music content and the first to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search in China.

Going by Alexa’s Traffic Rankings, Baidu is within the Top 10 worldwide and Number 1 in China. The other top 9 sites in China are (details extracted and summarized from Wikipedia):

1. Tencent QQ 腾讯网: The most popular free instant messaging software in Asia, and the world’s third most popular IM service. Over 160 million QQ users in China alone. Offers many subfeatures including games, pets, ringtone downloads, etc.
2. Sina.com.cn 新浪新闻中心: The largest Chinese-language infotainment web portal, with over 30 channels covering various aspects, including news, sports, technology, finance, advertising, entertainment, fashion, travel and more.
3. Sohu.com 搜狐: Offers advertising, a search engine, and other services.
4. NetEase 163.com 网易新闻: Search engine technology and massively multiplayer online gaming.
5. Taobao.com 淘宝网: A consumer-to-consumer trade site for Chinese customers. The main competitor to eBay in China for online auctions. Currently captures over 65% of the e-auction market. Part of the Alibaba 阿里巴巴 e-commerce conglomerate.
6. Yahoo! China 雅虎中国: News, information, email, and a search engine
7. Google China 谷歌中国: Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages.
8. TOM Online: A mobile Internet company, offering a variety of online and mobile services, including wireless internet and online advertising.
9. Microsoft Network (MSN): Dialup access and content provider.

WITH THIS BACKGROUND INFO, plus more details from Google Finance (added via links on the company names after this point), Keso’s articles on Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) now make much more sense:

In Baidu & Google China 《谷歌篇》, Keso considers Google China as Baidu’s strongest competitor. Both have very similar business models. Their main source of income is advertisements. However, Google is restrained by its headquarters while Baidu is constrained by the sentiments of its stock investors. In addition [taken from "Baidu & Alibaba"], Google, with its ever-expanding portfolio of productivity tools (such as Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Analytics, Webmaster Central, Apps for Your Domain), has been positioning itself as an economical search engine. Baidu, with its strong entertainment orientation, risk lowering its brand image, might raise costs for its advertisers and thereby lowering its value as a commercial “spine”.

In Baidu & Sina 《新浪篇》, Keso explains that Sina, with its recent launch of a music library, looks ready to compete with Baidu in the MP3 Search market. Sina, however, has quite fragile media relations. The whole situation is also likely to change with Baidu’s newly acquired news publisher license.

In Baidu & Tencent QQ 《腾讯篇》, Keso explains that Baidu and QQ (Tencent Holding) are very likely to top the charts if there’s ever a popularity contest among Internet youths in China. Interestingly, the nett value of QQ is larger than Baidu by 1.8 times. Baidu, with its huge in successes MP3 Search and Baidu Post Bar, has been expanding aggressively into social networking — moving closer and closer to QQ’s business model. The two companies look set to have a battle soon.

In Baidu & Alibaba 《阿里巴巴篇》, Keso explains that Alibaba, with its strong B2B business model, basically links suppliers to buyers. Thus it was originally not a competitor of Baidu. However, in August 2005, Alibaba acquired Yahoo! China. And once its estimated value of over 4 billions USD (超过40亿美元) was announced around the same period, people started comparing Alibaba with Baidu. In addition, more and more people are using search engines to find business partners. With increasing breadth and depth of search engine applications, the entire Internet has now been transformed into a gigantic trading platform!

.

As of today,the Top 20 (most read) posts in Ping.sg (2007) are:

1. Exclusive: $99 Internet Marketing giveway including Robert Allen book (1097 pongs) <- money
2. BAK2u.com – Exclusive iPhone images (504 pongs) <- gadgets
3. Mighty N80 (430 pongs) <- gadgets
4. Make $2,000 a WEEK or your money back! (402 pongs) <- money
5. FHM Girls Next Door – No Bras Day (394 pongs) <- sex appeal
6. Why 90% of Internet Marketers fail (313 pongs) <- money
7. Miss Singapore Universe 2007 (308 pongs) <- sex appeal
8. Leah Dizon (299 pongs) <- sex appeal
9. BAK2u in Top 10 Life-Hacking Business Ideas in 2006! (268 pongs) <- money
10. Is This the End of WhoIsAndrewWee.com? (244 pongs) <- money? curiosity?
11. Misa Campo (232 pongs) <- sex appeal
12. Video Clip: BAK2u.com interview (14 Feb 2007) (231 pongs) <- money
13. Jfoll – hot girl in bikini (213 pongs) <- sex appeal
14. Ewen Chia’s crazy profitable blogging offer (204 pongs) <- money
15. Minister Pay Hike (198 pongs) <- ministers, salary hike
16. Admiralty MRT Suicide Video (188 pongs) <- community
17. Maria Ozawa (188 pongs) <- sex appeal
18. My first $908.69 Clickbank check! (184 pongs) <- money
19. Ping.sg 1st Meet-Up (Please RSVP) (180 pongs) <- community
20. Britney Spears Bikini Striptease (178 pongs) <- sex appeal

.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the Top 20 posts in Tomorrow.sg (2007) are:

1. Singapore ministers set for million-dollar pay hike (1559 reads) <- ministers, salary hike
2. 我的朋友 My Friends Kawanku (894 reads) <- community, rant, video
3. Distasteful 98.7 FM Shock Jocks* (838 reads) <- community, sex, video
4. Airport Thugs (822 reads) <- civil service, rant
5. Organ Robbery, the truth (727 reads) <- hota, police, abuse
6. You spin me right round, baby…right round..like a record…round round round round… (679 reads) <- media, propaganda
7. NMP Siew’s speech on ministerial salaries (647 reads) <- ministers, salary hike
8. Singapore in the Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time (436 reads) <- community, humor
9. Sprice.com.sg (376 reads) <- money, airfare
10. Insight to NTU’s Allocation System for Students Attachment (323 reads) <- institution, policy, rant
11. Fiscal finagling in Singapore (315 reads) <- ministers, salary hike
12. Short & Sweet 2007 Tracie Pang, KK Seet, Tan Kheng Hua, Lim Kay Tong, Samantha Scott-Blackhall, Loretta Chan (304 reads) <- theatre
13. If All People were of the Same Race, Would there be Discrimination? (298 reads) <- community, what if
14. STFU (289 reads) <- ministers, salary hike
15. MICA bans film on former political detainee (288 reads) <- government, film censorship
16. Europe MPs ‘gagged’ by Singapore (286 reads) <- government, speech censorship
17. The MPAA’s Singapore lie (269 reads) <- media, propaganda
18. Meet Singapore’s F1 representative who will be racing in Europe (257 reads) <- car racing
19. Latest Internet Surveillance System reborn in Singapore (245 reads) <- politics, privacy
20. Yahoo Answer! teaches Singapore how to reserve tables (219 reads) <- Yahoo, answer, humor, video

.

Note: Finding the Top 20 posts for 2007 in Tomorrow.sg took some effort because:

• “Distasteful 98.7 FM Shock Jocks” above is the only 2007 top post displayed under the Popular section on the main page.
• One 2006 post (”SEX Party” with 48879 reads) and five 2005 posts (namely, “Sarong Party Girl Un-saronged”, “Singapore Sex Scene”, “Legs Wide Open”, “Taking upskirt photos – and tio caught!”, “The Bloggers.SG T-Shirt Design Competition”) are still displayed under the Popular section on the main page.
• It’s very curious though how three posts with low reads (and not any of the above 19 top posts) are displayed under the Popular section on the main page: namely, “To Join or Not to Join” [the civil service] (172 reads), “bad feng shui in farrer court” (108 reads), and “Lift-Upgrading Projects in progress are dangerous” (73 reads).

Related Articles:

• Uzyn, The Next Kevin Rose
• Alexa Ranks Ping.sg Above Tomorrow.sg
• A video guide to the Ping.sg anniversary celebration – by an absentee
• Top posts in Ping.sg & Tomorrow.sg – one year later

In China, Ya.IYee came up with a list of “Top 40 Chinese blogs” based on stats given by RSS reader Zhuaxia抓虾 (apparently most popular in mainland China right now, with around 30% or 60,000+ users).

In Malaysia (thanks, LiewCF), Gaman compiled a list of “50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia” based solely on Technorati rankings while Blog Webmaster Malaysia Alang created a list of “Strongest blogs in Malaysia” based on Page Strength, a combination of different factors, including Google PageRank, Technorati, Alexa, etc.

In the Philippines, a few dozen companies pooled resources to sponsor and to present “The 2007 Philippine Blog Awards” in 12 categories recently (end march) — based on the evaluation of 14 judges. I couldn’t help but wonder though: Who in turn has/have evaluated the competence and objectivity of these 14 judges?

Which evaluation criterion (or ranking) is most reliable (or not reliable) to you? Why or why not?

Afternote 14-04-2007: LiewCF.com, listed on Technorati’s Top 10 for Malaysia, is not among “the strongest of strongest blogs.” Somehow, Page Strength shows no result for his Alexa Rank and listing in DMOZ.

Afternote 13-04-2007: JUST FOUND this very interesting set of PinoyBlogosphere (”Pinoy” is equivalent to “Filipino”, I presume) sites:

• PinoyBlogosphere.Net allows you to submit a blog entry that will be reviewed by all readers and will be promoted (based on popularity) to the main page.
• PinoyBlogosphere.Org is a forum about pinoy blogging by pinoy bloggers for pinoy bloggers.
• PBS Ranking – ranks registered pinoy blogs according to average page views per week. Blog readers are also able to rate and give reviews on their favorite pinoy blogs.
• PBS Pinoy Videos is a collection of various pinoy videos uploaded by none other than by fellow pinoys.
• LiNK eXchange – using both manual and auto-links. Just enter Name/BlogTitle and URL or send requests via email.

By the way, in Malaysia, there are also several similar networks:

• Malaysia Bloggers Forum — a forum hosted by LiewCF, giving blog help and resources
• Digg Clone in Malaysia — all about Malaysian local content. Every article on digg is submitted and voted on by the digg community.

Also by the way, in Singapore, for those who might not know this, there are:

• Tomorrow.sg — Articles are submitted by the community and approved by a panel of editors.
• Ping.sg — All bloggers who ping this site have their posts displayed automatically for public reading.

Related Info:

• Asia Social Media Directory: China, Malaysia and Philippines pages
• FriedBeef’s Tech: How do you measure blog influence?

1. Speedlinker: Roundups, Comments, Trackbacks, etc of interesting posts. E.g. Problogger.com
2. Quoter: Blockquoting an interesting point of view, extract or news snippet and add a short bit of opinion and sourcing information. E.g. Susan Mernet’s “Quote of the Day”.
3. Entertainer: Amusing video, cartoon, image or joke. E.g. CartoonStock.com, BLaugh.com
4. Questioner: On-topic, interesting and conversation generating question. Insightful and interactive.
5. Updater: Ongoing project statistics or status.
6. Newsreader: Interesting news from press releases or grapevine. E.g. TechCrunch.com
7. Recycler: Dragging out some old goodies from the archives and reposting them for your new readers. (Collis didn’t have any example here, so I’ve added one. This “recycler” is a good online friend of mine. Her blog, a model for me at one point, also contains other types of posts.)
8. Guest-Poster: Your guest gets an extra plug, you get a day off and your readers get some variety.
9. Announcer: Own local blog news, short and sweet. E.g. what you plan to do, a new competition, reset of top commenters.

I think I’ve done 1-4, 6 and 9. Which about you?

This is a new design challenge in this age of information anxiety and abundance of meaning. More and more people, myself included, are doing many things at the same time. However, decades of research (and common sense) have indicated that the quality of one’s output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks. For example:

• “We are under the impression that we have this brain that can do more than it often can,” says René Marois, neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University, quoted in a recent NYTimes piece about how multi-taskers max out their brains, creating neural network bottlenecks and causing confusion and mistakes (thanks, Susan Mernit).
• When people try to perform two or more related tasks either at the same time or alternating rapidly between them, errors go way up, and it takes far longer–often double the time or more–to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially, says David E. Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan: “The toll in terms of slowdown is extremely large–amazingly so.” (thanks, DeedsDoing 2006)
• “Kids that are instant messaging while doing homework, playing games online and watching TV, I predict, aren’t going to do well in the long run,” says Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, quoted in a CNN report last year.

IN MY EXPERIENCE FOR EXAMPLE: During Nexus 2007 last Saturday, I found myself switching among three screens on my laptop most of the time. We were using Twitter.com for message sending, Campfirenow for chatting, and Nexus Live/Interactive to view Twitter messages from everyone. I could barely pay attention to the speakers/panel on the stage. Probably listened to only half the words. One possible way to reduce distraction could be better to replace Campfirenow with a shoutbox hooked onto Twitter via its API, the way Uzyn managed to hook Ping.sg shouts into pingsg_shouts on Twitter. Open Tweetbar on the sidebar and everyone would have two less screens to distract their attention — in other words, Let everyone look at just ONE screen.

Recently, Bjorn Lee twittered: “i have ADD, maybe i shld enrol in that china camp where they reform internet addicts.. oops, thats called NS in spore.” (ADD stands for Attention Deficit Disorder here, I think.)

What other solutions are there? Listen to former Microsoft VP Linda Stone perhaps (thanks, Mike Rohde):

“Continous Partial Attention (CPA) is different than multi-tasking, where the motivation is productivity: giving equal attention to many activities. CPA’s motivation is being a live node on the network, gaining meaning from the network, being ready for new opportunities at any moment…”

“But this always on, anytime, anywhere, anyplace era has has created an artificial sense of constant crisis. The adrenalized fight or flight mechanism kicks in. It’s great when we’re being chased by tigers. How many of those 500 emails a day is a tiger? Or are they mostly mice? Is everything really such an emergency? Our way of using the current set of technologies would have us believe it is.”

And learn from Jakob Nielsen (thanks, Beth):

1. Don’t check your email all the time. Set aside special breaks between bigger projects to handle email. Don’t let email interrupt your projects, and don’t let the computer dictate your priorities.
2. Don’t use “reply to all” when responding to email. Abide by the good old “need to know” principle… send follow-up messages only to those people who will actually benefit from the reply.
3. Write informative subject lines for your email messages. Assume that the recipient is too busy to open messages with lame titles like “hi.”
4. Create a special email address for personal messages and newsletters. Only check this account once per day.
5. Write short.
6. Avoid IM (instant messaging) unless real-time interaction will truly add value to the communication. A one-minute interruption of your colleagues will cost them ten minutes of productivity as they reestablish their mental context and get back into “flow.” Only the most important messages are worth 1,000 percent in overhead costs.
7. Answer common customer questions on your website using clear and concise language. This will save your customers a lot of time — thus making you popular — and will keep them from pestering you with time-consuming phone calls and emails.
8. User test your intranet. Clean it up so that employees can find stuff faster, and make the intranet homepage their entry point for keeping up on company news and events.
9. Don’t circulate internal email to all employees; instead put the information on the intranet where people can find it when they need it. (This obviously assumes that you’ve fixed the intranet’s usability.)
10. Establish a company culture in which it’s okay not to respond to email immediately. This frees employees from the pressure of incessantly checking email and lets them get more work done.

Finally, run 5 miles or do a spin class like Beth does. She explained:

“For some reason, vigorous cardio exercise helps clear out the information anxiety Maybe it is the just the stepping away from the reflected light dancing across my eyes coming from the monitor.”

Related Posts:

• Web of Mass Distraction I

First, Benjamin Koe, in Almost social media (Nexus 2007), had been most flattering:

“Although the speaker line up included Nathan Torkington (O’Reilly) and Cory Ondrejka (Linden Labs), I learned the most from a fellow Singaporean: the blogger known as ClappingTrees…

“This happened in a panel discussion hosted by Kevin which included Kathy Teo (CNET Asia), Jennifer Lewis (STOMP), James Seng (Tomorrow.SG). As the discussions went on about crowdsourcing the media, I began to wonder why the distributed nature of free content creation was embraced, but gatekeeping was left to a bunch of editors… Then came ClappingTrees to the mic and spoke the words that were on my mind.

“The question (paraphrased) was basically: In a world of social gatekeeping (think digg), why do the above crowdsourcing media qualify as gatekeepers of content that’s not even theirs?“

NEXT, THREE BLOGGERS who mentioned me (that I know of) had been quite factual in their reporting. For example,

Vanessa wrote:

“Question time. Josephine reminds us of Sim Wong Hoo’s old article on Singapore’s no U-turn policy, while in the US everyone can do a U-turn unless they’re told otherwise (it’s an allusion to our over-reliance on rules to limit what people can do). James responds that attempts in Singapore to form a Digg-like community has yet to really take off.

This is the point where Uzyn from Ping.sg shows himself and we give him a round of applause.”

DK wrote:

“Uzyn stole the stage for 5 minutes halfway thru the panel. It started with Clappingtree talking about tomorrow.sg’s way of selecting article and how difficult it was for bloggers to gain readership. She mentioned about ping.sg which suddenly drew lots of attention among the audience.”

Marina (a.k.a. Rinaz) wrote:

“In the middle of the session, a lady from the floor, Clappingtree, asked the panelists on why there should be a censorship. She reasonsed that everyone, as long as they are within social values, should have a voice and a chance to be heard. She mentioned that ping.sg, a blog aggregator was a site where every blog had an equal chance of being read.

“After the session, Uzyn, creator of ping.sg got hounded by fans.”

Then surprise of surprises… reading the writeup of Kevin Lim (the moderator of the session) gave me a shock and an aftershock. Initially, he wrote (the same thing) in three separate blogs on his site:

“James took the opportunity to explain how news gets published on Tomorrow.sg. He considers Tomorrow.sg as a form of human news filter, where they depend on a diverse set of editors to create balanced gatekeeping. From geeks to celebrities, conservatives to liberals, tomorrow.sg has them all. Still, this has never been enough for some bloggers (JK> Here is a link to my blog. And wow! I’ve become “some bloggers”), and tomorrow.sg has constantly come under fire for being biased given their set of editors. This issue has been beaten to death years ago, and there are always ways to get around this.”

Later, he revised this writeup in one of the blogs as follows:

“James took the opportunity to explain how news gets published on Tomorrow.sg. He considers Tomorrow.sg as a form of human news filter, where they depend on a diverse set of editors to create balanced gatekeeping. From geeks to celebrities, conservatives to liberals, tomorrow.sg has them all. Still, this has never been enough for some bloggers. Some time ago, I witnessed that the power law was developing in the Singapore blogosphere, and it was Clappingtrees (aka JK) who revitalized this idea at the panel’s Q&A, by *arguing* that popular blog aggregators such as Tomorrow.sg had *biased editors*. I do feel that this issue has been beaten to death years ago and that the more productive route would be to try new ways of getting around this.” (Note: Asterisks added by me.)

Come, come, all of you who were there and listening to me. Tell me what did I say?

Afternote 30-03-2007: Just found CoolInsights’ comments on what I said.

SECOND, the Podcast Awards for 2006 are out. Among the winners are three Catholic podcasts:

• People’s Choice: MuggleCast
• Best Produced: The Signal
• Best Podcast Directory: iTunes
• Best Mobile Podcast: Catholic Insider (Catholic obviously)
• Business: Manager Tools
• Comedy: Distored View
• Cultural/Arts: Anime Pulse
• Education: Tips from the Top Floor
• Entertainment: Pottercast
• Gaming: Podtacular
• General: Rosary Army (Catholic)
• Movies/Films: The Signal (again!)
• PodSafe Music: AccidentHash
• Political: Free Talk Live
• Religion Inspiration: Daily Breakfast (Catholic)
• Technology/ Science: DiggNation
• Travel: Mouse Tunes

• Structured Data: RSS integrated into Microsoft’s new Vista OS, Yahoo Mail, Google Base. Interesting RSS services. More e-commerce and multimedia widgets expected. Google forging ahead with its own standards, largely ignoring microformats (the Web community’s open standards).
• Enterprise: Web Office battle expected between Google and Microsoft. Small startups may be acquired by the big Internet companies. Consumerization of the enterprise IT in the form of web-based office apps and more collaborative systems.
• Web Development: Rich Internet Apps, a continuation of the hybrid web/desktop apps theme, expected (notably Adobe Apollo and OpenLazlo). Browser-based apps extended, possibly Vector Graphics (VML/SVG) + Ajax. More Semantic Web products (E.g. RadarNetworks and Metaweb). More Amazon-like Web services (WebOS), especially from Google and Microsoft, e.g. Windows Live services vs a Google-optimized Linux.
• Search and Online Advertising: AdSense will have competition, especially from MSN AdCenter and Yahoo. Better, more robust online ad model than CPA (CPC/PPC issues). Search 2.0 in the form of vertical search engines (e.g. Google Health) and SearchMash (e.g. search result returns not only homepage of company but also some semantic meaning).
• Multimedia: More Internet-based TV (e.g. Brightcove, Google Vide/YouTube), more Interactive TV (e.g. Skype’s Venice Project), more IPTV with P2P (e.g. DemocracyPlayer). More virtual worlds (e.g. SecondLife, Habbo) and virtual money (e.g. Second LindeX, Microsoft points).
• Consumer Apps: Online real estate market ramps up, disruptive business models persists, data portability needed among social networks.
• International Web: One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) may increase the adoption of thin-client PC, web apps and Linux for the mainstream.
• Mobile: More VoIP competitors for Skype. Online/Offline mobile technologies (e.g. Smartpox). Emerging Webphone market. More user-generated content, mobile search, mobile ads, QR codes (retail), image recognition, card swapping, download hotspots, “smart client” solutions.

• Social Network: MySpace. Runners up: Bebo, Facebook, Vox, XuQa, MyBlogLog (Me> IMHO, MySpace seems rather sleazy. Academics, students and alumni probably would do better to join FaceBook. People keen on business networking would do better to join LinkedIn.)
• Start Page: Netvibes; Runners up: Pageflakes, Windows Live, Goowy.
• Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon. Runners up: Delicious, TrailFire, Magnolia, Listible.
• Peer Production News: Netscape. Runners up: Digg, NewsVine, Reddit.
• Social Media Sharing: YouTube. Runners up: UnCut Video, JumpCut, Google Video, Revver. (Me> What about Eyespot? Like the remix feature there.)
• Online Storage: Amazon’s S3 with JungleDisk. Runners up: OmniDrive, iBackup, AllMyData.
• Office 2.0 Suite: Zoho Office Suite. Runners Up: ThinkFree, Ajax13, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Foldera. (Me> Just give me everything on the same platform as far as possible. Right now, looks like I can find most essential services on Google. Looking forward to Zoho Notebook though.)
• Honorable Mention: BlogFilers: TechMeme, Social Music: Pandora, Professional Social Network: LinkedIn, Consumer Generated Advertising: The Chevy Apprentice campaign, Online File Conversion: Zamzar (MS Office docs, images, audio, video, etc), Web Application Stack: Ruby on Rails, Mashup Tool: DataMashups

• FIREFOX 3 will go beyond HTML rendering to provide Information Broking services based on microformats (which add semantics to markup). For example, “the contact information you see on a Web site will be associated with your favorite contacts application, events will be associated with your favorite calendar application, locations will be associated with your favorite mapping application, phone numbers will be associated with your favorite VOIP application, etc.” (see ReadWriteWeb entry and InformationWeek article; thanks to Elearningpost)
• GOOGLE READER now tracks Personal Attention Metadata. “Now I can see what’s on the top of my radar… I am subscribed to 483 feeds. Over the last 30 days I’ve read 24,891 items and have shared 1,657 items.” (see MicroPersuasion entry; thanks to Eric Rice and Robert Scoble)
• OQO’s latest handheld PC, MODEL 02, arrives — looking really cool and sporting a 1.5GHz VIA processor, 60GB drive, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 5″ 800×480 display (interpolated up to 1200×720), pen-based input, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, integrated EV-DO, and an HDMI-out port. (see Engadget entry; thanks to Robert Scoble’s link blog on Google Reader)
• SANDISK launches 32GB solid state drive (SSD), and indicates that within a year from launch, they should drop in price by some 60%. “So we’re talking 32GB SSDs for what, $250 by Q2 of 2007?” (see Engadget entry)
• UCLA announced plans in December to adopt Moodle as their institution-wide learning and collaboration environment (see EdTechPost entry; thanks to Stephen Downes’ OLDaily).