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.

• 87% (21 million) of U.S. teens aged 12-17 use the internet (online teens), up from 73% (17 m ) in 2000. By contrast, 66% of adults use the internet, up from 56% in 2000.
• 45% of U.S. teens have cell phones and 33% are texting.

Of the 21 million online teens:

• 89% send or read email.
• 84% get information on movies, TV shows, music groups, or sports stars
• 81% play games online (52% growth since 2000), compared to 32% adults.
• 76% seek information on current events (38% growth since 2000), similar to adults.
• 75% send or receive instant messages (IM), compared to 42% adults. Of these, half use IM daily and have included a link to an interesting article or site in an IM; 45% have sent photos or documents; and 31% have sent music or video files.
• 57% seek information on schools they might attend, compared to 45% adults.
• 55% seek information on politics and the presidential campaign.
• 51% go online every day, up from 42% in 2000.
• Half lives in a home with a broadband connection.
• 43% have purchased online (71% growth since 2000), compared to 67% adults.
• 31% seek health information (47% growth since 2000).
• 30% seek job information, compared to 44% adults.
• 26% seek religious or spiritual information.
• Older girls are power communicators and information seekers.
• Asked about communication modes, teens consistently choose instant messaging (IM) over email and viewed email as medium for talking to “old people,” institutions, or sending complex instructions to large groups. However, 51% usually choose the landline telephone when they want to talk with friends.
• Face-to-face time still beats phone and screen time.

(Photo: CC Joshua Davis.)

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]

FRANKLY, I DON’T KNOW what to make out of the Tibetan protests. I’ve not spent significant time researching on the issues involved. However, from what I know and remember of Chinese history, I feel quite strongly that Chris Nebe (as a foreigner with insider knowledge and experience of China) is speaking the truth about Tibet in the video here:


Nebe’s post in YouTube:
The West is trying to demonize China. Why? To ensure an upper-handed position economically, politically, and socially.

Too many harbor strong opinions about Tibet, yet know nothing more than the few slogans offered by the mass-media outlets.

The media screams:
“They killed innocent monks!” - but those “innocent” monks and other young hooligans killed innocent Chinese before a single shot was fired on them.
“The Chinese are oppressive” - do you consider freeing over 95% of Tibetans from slavery, building a state of the art infrastructure, and a new economy oppressive?
“The Chinese suppress Tibetan Buddhism” - then why have the Chinese spent a fortune restoring ancient monasteries and places of religious significance?

China doesn’t SPIN NEWS like we do. Their silence is too often mistaken as admission of guilt. Don’t be another uninformed drone. Do everyone a favor and learn truths before forming opinions.

Here’s to Peace & Harmony! The 2008 Beijing Olympics deserve support!

Reminds me of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi”, where Emperor Palpatine said to Luke Skywalker: “The alliance… will die. As will your friends. Good, I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!”

.

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

.

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

.

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.

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• Uzyn, The Next Kevin Rose?

Last month (March 25), in a report entitled My Biggest Mistake, TodayOnline reported that Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi admitted making the biggest mistake in thinking that the Internet was not important. The PM’s ruling coalition suffered its worst results ever in March 8 polls that left five states and a third of parliamentary seats in opposition hands.

Among them was 67-year-old opposition Democratic Action Party chairman Lim Kit Siang who won a parliamentary seat in Ipoh Timor. He ran three blogs, which were meticulously updated with multiple posts every day. Long-time blogger Jeff Ooi, 52, also won as a DAP candidate in Penang. Like many other opposition leaders, they were able to reach out to young urban and educated people, many who were voting for the first time. Mr Ooi added that Web users are not limited by age. “We attract many citizens above 45 years old and these are the people who are more interested in politics and the oppositions’ viewpoint.”

In March last year, PR, market & biz dev coordinator Jonathan Dunn reported:

YouTube has launched a channel that will broadcast videos submitted by ‘08 U.S. Presidential nominees. The goal is for the channel to act as an information hub for the hopefuls and, one supposes, offer a way to counter unauthorized, potentially damaging, videos that may be posted by other users….

So far Rudy Giuliani, Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, Mitt Romney and Joe Biden are on board. The videos seem to be a mix of carefully scripted campaign stops and the usual ‘on the trail/vote for me’ rhetoric. A click on the candidate’s videos on the channel home page (or on the candidate’s names above) takes you to a profile page for each candidate where other videos and info are hosted.

A few months later, in June, CBC News Today host Nancy Wilson interviewed broadcaster, researcher, and Internet evangelist Jesse Hirsh regarding the role and influence of social media on the 2008 US Presidential Election, e.g. “Why would candidates want to figure prominently on Facebook?”, intimacy on social media, dirty campaign tricks, blogging vs mainstream media, level playing field, etc.

By now, only three presidential candidates are featured on YouChoose 08: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and John McCain for the Republicans.

Will the US Elections voting patterns correlate closely with the subscription, viewership and interaction patterns on YouChoose 08 (on YouTube) and other social media such as Facebook?

Related Articles:

• YouTube: US “presidents”, UK queen & now Jap PM

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).

THESE DAYS, THE WORDS “Love is stronger than Death” keep coming to mind. Four reasons: (1) Two very moving movies recently, (2) Our bible group is currently studying the Acts of the Apostles, (3) Four days of prayers and meditations during Holy Week retreat (March 19-23), and (4) Today is the third death aniversary of Pope John Paul II (also known as Karol Wojtyla before he became pope).

One of the two movies is famous: “The Passion of Christ”. The other is not well-known but its message is just as touching and powerful. It is “Karol, a man who became Pope”, showing in many concrete ways how love can conquer hatred, violence and even death. Here’re two 10-minute video clips and the English transcripts (click the “Read the rest of this entry” link below) for some of its most moving moments:

Karol, a man who became pope - Part 1 of 5

Karol, a man who became pope - Part 2 of 5

All, have a happy and blessed Easter! JPII, unum corde et anima una!

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT for Part 1 of 5:

Note: The original dialog is in Polish. The subtitles are in badly translated English. I’ve edited them a little. Words in brackets are the replaced subtitles.

@6:45 - 8:06 min of video
Karol: Why don’t I know how to answer her? Why do men force other men (similar) to live in absolute pain and without hope? How can we answer that? How many million of monsters inhabit this earth, Tomasz? Why are the innocent the ones who pay? How many people have to be born only to fall into an abyss (”be boundless”)?
Fr Tomasz Zaleski: I can only tell you that I have looked at that Nazi in the eyes. The evil I saw was so absolute, so incomprehensibile, obscene, that I’ve felt the desire to kill him. And I am a priest! I’ve felt deeply guilty. We don’t need to hate as they do. Love… only love can prevent men from falling in the abyss.

@9:06 min of video
Girl 1: You are late.
Karol: I’m sorry.
Girl 2: We have decided to enlist in the armed groups. Everyone.
Man 1: Not I. You fight with weapons, I want to fight with the word. We have the theater and the theater has to continue.
Girl 1: And where? For which spectators?
Man 1: It will keep on living in secret (clandestine) in our houses, in the cellars. We needs to save the word.
Girl 2: Poland is prey of terror and chaos, and you talk about the theater? How do you manage not to be ashamed?
Girl 3: There is no alternative. We need to take up fire-arms.
Another voice: Correct!
Man 1: The word is stronger than bullets!
Man 2: Show it with a gun aimed at the head!
Girl 1: What do you think, Karol?
Men: We have decided! Armed resistence!
Girl 1: Karol!
Karol: Stop, wait! I understand and respect those who want to take up [aim] arms. The Nazis are exterminating our people. They also want to exterminate the culture, to cancel the Polish language. The only way to have still a future is to save our past. He who wants to choose the way of the arms, I think, it’s correct that he does it. But he [Man 1] is right, we need to keep our culture alive. We will make theater too, and we will do it secretly (clandestine). Remember: the theater is the conscience of life.
Man 3: You’ll have your theater and we’ll have our arms.
Karol: Ok, let’s fight the same battle… same hope and same enemy. [Embraces man 3]
Man 3: Let’s go!
[All embraces one another, saying] Unum corde et anima una!

FULL TRANSCRIPT for Part 2 of 5:

[Scene: Gunshot rings out. Woman screams. A man pulls Karol into a room.]
Man: Where do you think you’re going? Where do you run? Do you want to be killed like a dog in the middle of the road?
Karol: Who are you?
Man: Ian Tiranoski and who are you?
Karol: Ian, you will burn your fingers…
Ian: A match is ignited and it’s extinguished. It’s not the flame of a match that burns inside me. [Lights a candle.] You have not told me yet what your name is.
Karol: Karol. I have to go. I am looking for a friend, a priest, for a mass.
Ian: A corpse mass?
Karol: Yes.
Ian: We’ll win with love, not with fire.
Karol: Can you say that with the Nazis just outside your door?
Ian: Nazism will end, evil will devour itself, but…
Karol: But… if love doesn’t triumph, Nazism will return even with another name. Do you mean that?
Ian: Exactly! [Gives Karol a book] St John of the Cross, you’ll be surprised by it. It’ll become your preferred reading. Pick it up.
Karol: Thanks.

[New Scene: Karol talking to a priest in a church.]
Karol: I want to look for the same reasons that you have, of hope and of faith, I want to close myself up in a monastery…
Fr Tomasz: Karol, in such times the people need to have priests nearby and not confined in a monastery.
Karol: I have thought a lot about what I want to leave, and I keep thinking about the importance of the choice that I am about to make. I wonder if it’s because I want to hide myself, or because I feel me in a guilt for all the pain that I see, or if there is something deeper… God is calling me.
Fr Tomasz: John has written in his Gospel that Jesus said: “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you”. The door is open, Karol. Now it depends only on you.

[New Scene: Fr Tomasz and Karol get out of a car.]
Fr Tomasz: Let’s go. [The two enter a building and meets a Cardinal.]
Karol: I have seen all the horror around us, and I have been drawn with strength toward a good, the priesthood. In the name of every human being, of his dignity… to know myself through the knowledge of God, to live God in the depths, I want to become priest…
Cardinal: In the darkness of this evil, we have to give testimony that the divine sense of life is more important than life itself.
Karol: I am here for this.
Cardinal: The Nazis have closed our seminary, you are risking your life. Therefore your mother must not even know that you study here. You’ll lead your usual life, but you’ll study and meditate secretly with us every time it’s possible for you.

[New Scene: Soldiers marching forward.]
Commander: Arm! [ Soldiers ready rifles to shoot. Fr Tomasz standing near the wall, talking to a German captain who has earlier saved Karol's life against the wishes of a Nazi leader.] Come back, father! Come back, father!
German captain: Thanks, Father, to have helped me to die. I’m safe now. I can’t see the Germany of my childhood, those white houses along the river…
Commander: Father, come back!
German captain: Go away, father. He has ordered you to walk away from me.
Fr Tomasz: Brother!
German captain: Go away, I beg you. Don’t get yourself killed.
Fr Tomasz: A new day will come when your children will see on the river those same white houses.
Commander: Aim! [ Soldiers raised rifles.]
Fr Tomasz: [Embraces the captain] God bless you.
[Nazi leader gets out of car and waves to commander.]
Commander: Fire!
[German captain dies. Nazi leader points gun at Fr Tomasz.]
Nazi leader: Who has killed him? You or me? You have killed him, Polish priest. And now, I’m going to kill you.
Fr Tomasz: [Controlling anger and grief] May God forgive you!
Nazi leader: According to my god, the world must be governed by honor.
Fr Tomasz: The world must be governed by love!
Nazi leader: [Walks away and tells commander] Kill him.
Commander: Aim! [Fr Tomasz pulls his priestly stole down from his neck and kisses it.]
Commander: Fire! [Fr Tomasz dies.]

[New Scene: Karol walking along a road, turns sharply around and sees the name of Fr Tomasz on a list of executed people. Weeps bitterly.]

[New Scene: Student priests studying in church. An explosion.]
A student [running and shouting]: They have exploded the bridge of Demlikj! the Russians are near! The Germans are going away, Poland is free! Thanks be to God. [The students embraced one another happily.] Poland is free! [Karol smiles and prays with relief.]

[New Scene: Ordination of Karol Wojtyla as priest. In a church, Karol (face flat) lying on the floor. Cardinal in front of him. Choir singing and praying.]
Karol: Come, Creative Spirit, I’ll be on the floor where others walk to arrive where you drive their footsteps.

[New Scene: Grim-looking man walking towards Russian leader.]
Russian leader: Welcome. Julian Cordec, correct? They have told me of you a thing that I judge impossible for a Polish.
Julian Cordec: That I don’t hate the Russians? My best years have been at the university of Moscow.
Russian leader: They say that you are not Catholic. What is it, a joke? An excuse (expedient) to have a career with us?
Julian Cordec: The joke for the socialist revolution would be to let the Catholics act unmolested, don’t you think?
Russian leader: Is there a reason why this should become your desk?
Julian Cordec: [Hands a file to the leader.] The list of the Polish clergy. The Nazis have eliminated one third of the priests, but they are still many, too many. I won’t let them act, think, or breathe. One day, they won’t even have the time to dream about their God.
[Russian leader raises cup and toasts Julian Cordec.]

[INTRO SCENE for the next part of the movie: In a church. Karol turns around and camera zooms in to show a closeup of his face.]
[Voiceover] I am a young face carved on the rocks of the Tatrs. May a grain field grow from my youth, mature in the hopes and the pain so that our joy may glorify You… great mystery.

When I gave a talk on Web 2.0 & Its Business Impacts at COM1, NUS last month, I cited various real-life examples of how the blogosphere “chatter” could affect a company’s corporate image positively or negatively. Also discussed briefly the people (how they get younger and younger!) and the milestones behind successful Web 2.0 apps such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc. This slideshow provides a quick overview, featuring famous Web entrepreneurs such as Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Kevin Rose (Digg), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)… and Ping.sg celebrity Uzyn Chua (slide 19) :

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• Live Coverage of Flea Mart On Ping.sg
• A video guide to the Ping.sg celebration - by an absentee …

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.

By the way, the interface of the YouKu.com site looks very like YouTube.com! In the spirit of Web 2.0 and open-source, let’s hope YouTube (or rather Google) would let things be.

1. If you have online access: Search online in the Wireless@SG - Coverage Areas section of the Infocomm123.sg portal.

2. If you are online AND looking for WiFi spots in a specific area: Search online in the Wireless.map.gov.sg site.

3. If you do NOT have online access: Download and install the Infocomm123.sg Wireless@SG WiFi Finder on your PC or mobile phone beforehand. Just follow the on-screen instructions.

1. Non-Standard GUI Controls
   1.a. Looking Like a GUI Control Without Being One
2. Inconsistency
3. No Perceived Affordance
   3.a. Tiny Click Targets
4. No Feedback
   4.a. Out to Lunch Without a Progress Indicator
5. Bad Error Messages
6. Asking for the Same Info Twice
7. No Default Values
8. Dumping Users into the App
9. Not Indicating How Info Will Be Used
10. System-Centric Feature

Useful note: “Application usability is enhanced when users know how to operate the UI and it guides them through the workflow. Violating common guidelines prevents both… Usually, applications fail because they (a) solve the wrong problem, (b) have the wrong features for the right problem, or (c) make the right features too complicated for users to understand.”

HERE ARE SOME PRACTICAL TIPS from a very interesting girl called June (a.k.a. princessgx on YouTube):

As Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins has written recently on Mashable:

First, the American presidential candidates, then (reportedly) the outgoing Australian Prime Minister. Then the Queen of British Empire. Now the Japanese Prime Minister. It seems now anyone who is anyone is posting videos to YouTube.

Here are some of the most viewed videos:

• New Year’s Greetings Yasuo Fukuda_1.1.2008 (【メッセージ】福田康夫総裁新春メッセージ_2008.1.1): 14,505 views so far
• The Christmas Broadcast, 2007 on The Royal Channel (added in Dec 2007): 842,481 views
• “I Got a Crush…On Obama” By Obama Girl (added on June 13, 2007) : 4,950,736 views

Related Article:

• Insight: Will social media change Singaporean politics?

I’m continually amazed by how low (or high) spiritually one can get! However, this shall be as far as I would go… lest the vitriol in me get brewed into hatred and I end up joining the Dark Side (just as Luke Skywalker almost got seduced by his Darth Vader father in Star Wars).

As Eleanor Roosevelt put it: “It’s far better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

CWNews:

Instead of the familiar scene of the Baby Jesus laid in a manger, the Vatican’s Nativity scene this year will show the infant Jesus in a home that also includes his father’s workshop. No reason has been given for the change.

Does the it look like this Honthorst painting of St Joseph, as displayed on AmericanPapist.com (with an infant instead of a child looking up at St Joseph)?

AN INTERESTING EXPLANATION from Zenit:

Lev [an art historian] said: “This Nativity is not so much a break with tradition but is presenting a new side of the Nativity, revealing a new facet.

“It is trying to represent Joseph’s experience, his dream of what will happen knowing that Jesus will be born and Mary is with child. He had no idea the way it would all work out as he prepared to take on this task given to him by God through a message of an angel. So it is what he imagines in his home amid his work before it comes to pass.”

“This fits Joseph and the acceptance of his call into the story,” Lev continued. “Joseph is never the star of the Nativity, but his role is crucial. So this is not upsetting biblical tradition, but [giving] a different facet, looking at it in a different light.”

“In the Nativity accounts, a mother figure is always there, but this Nativity makes present the importance of the father figure and the fact that he is essential. It’s a reminder that he wasn’t born only to a mother, while providing a source of meditation during this time when we are faced with the battle against marriage and the family. It is a good way for the Church, in nonaggressive and nonpolitical way, to remind us of the basis of our understanding of family through the Holy Family.

“This is a Nativity very much of Joseph Ratzinger, a teaching Nativity. Instead of complacently laying out the characters, this year they are being laid out in a way so we have to think about what this momentous birthday means, think about the circumstance in which Jesus is born, while reminding us of Joseph’s essential role.”

Here’s a summary of a post with a similar title by Dion Hinchcliffe:

1. OpenSocial offers the lowest common denominator, not the full richness of each platform. Like Java, write once, test everywhere is the name of the game for OpenSocial. Using the OpenSocial model, developers can create apps to run on dozens of different social networking sites, but can’t leverage the full capabilities of the site it runs on. To create a competitive product with the full richness of the underlying platform, custom coding is needed.
2. OpenSocial is largely based on open standards. OpenSocial uses the essential browser open standards of XML, HTML, Javascript, and the data formats are all ATOM and RESTful/WOA. It also supports Flash content and functionality and most of the really popular development platforms, including Ruby on Rails. OpenSocial documentation and sample code all uses the Creative Commons licensing and Apache 2.0, and everything will be open sourced at some point.
3. OpenSocial is a doorway to data portability AND potential security holes. A site that supports OpenSocial applications provides that application with all the people data in that user’s account. Their own info as well as their friends. Users can import/export their social data to/from sites and 3rd party app developers can knit together a person’s social data across other social sites that support OpenSocial. Michael Arrington has reported that the first OpenSocial app has been hacked.
4. OpenSocial is simple but also capable of full-blown, rich Internet applications. And without server-side infrastructure. Developers can innovate with a few bits of markup and procedural code and drop it into the OpenSocial ecosystem and leverage the massive audiences and scalable infrastructure of OpenSocial compliant sites. OpenSocial even supports powerful interactive Web user interface models like Ajax explicitly. Amongst a few real gems, mountains and mountains of relatively useless, uninteresting apps will also be created.
5. OpenSocial is from Google. OpenSocial will ultimately be very good for Google, if not outright bad for a few others (probably Facebook). The outcomes may not always be to the benefit of everyone playing under the OpenSocial umbrella. User beware.
6. A new era in competency in social software is being ushered. Building successful social applications is a lot different prospect from building traditional business and consumer applications. Understanding people is the key to building effective social networking applications, and that is often the hardest thing for an industry obsessed with connecting with each other via 1s and 0s.

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.

“…have you bothered to read Facebook’s Terms of Service (”TOS”) or Privacy Policy? What legal relationship have you agreed to? Who has access to your data and personal details? I waded through their terms and policies. Here are some things I found.

1. The terms can change any time…. you’re deemed to accept those changes by continuing to use the site. Even if you didn’t know of the change.
2. Personal use only. LinkedIn is all about jobs and business. MySpace is full of profiles for companies and products. But Facebook is supposedly only for personal use.
3. A single, individual user account…. you can’t have two accounts on Facebook.
4. You’re giving up a HUGE license… did you know that posting content gives Facebook a license to do whatever they want with your content?
5. Applications are NOT guaranteed safe… “installer beware.” A malicious application developer could break through Facebook’s security protocols and expose your info… but Facebook wouldn’t have to take the blame.
6. Disputes are arbitrated under Delaware law. You’ve agreed to “final and binding arbitration” for resolving most disputes with Facebook.
7. You surrender all submissions. If you send it to them, it becomes their property.
8. Privacy is NOT guaranteed. Besides, Facebook’s own third-party contractors might misuse your information.

.

Afternote 11 Aug 2007: See also: Terms of Use and Privacy Policy on NETCoachAsia.com. Most terms in these statements have stipulated and approved by TrustSg.

Another fun Simpson video:

• After this video ends, choose the fourth video from the left: “World of Warcraft in the Simpsons”.

• I cannot simply enter “Rochester Park”. I must enter a block number. So, I plucked a number from the air: “9″.
• After x seconds of inactivity, map.gov.sg would show a timeout message and then a timeout screen (!) as follows:
  
• As TedFox noted, “[map.gov.sg does] not provide any bus/mrt directions (which can be taken from the sbs website though)”. It also does not provide other useful information such as “Satellite Image”, “What’s nearby”, “Analyse Loc”, “Related Editorials” at the top of the StreetDirectory.com page:
  
• Nor does it provide this useful titbit of information at the bottom of the page:
  

  “Streetdirectory.com Rochester Park is located in Dover, Singapore. The Dover district is a small one filled with schools and tertiary institutions. Private schools such as Anglo Chinese School (Independent), or ACSI, and Anglo Chinese Junior College are located here, as well as public schools such as Fairfield Methodist Secondary School. Many locals study in ITE Dover to obtain technical certificates or go for a diploma education at Singapore Polytechnic. Many expatriates sent their children to United World College Southeast Asia (UWCSEA), one of Singapore’s international schools. These expatriates also enjoy going for a drink at Rochester Park, a popular cluster of restaurants and wine bars in Dover.”

• Finally, the location map itself look like this on Map.gov.sg:
  and the location map on StreetDirectory.com looks like this:
  

Disclaimer: I have no vested interest in either Map.gov.sg or StreetDirectory.com. Neither am I aware of having any friend (or foe) in these two organizations.

Related Articles:

• Is this the end of StreetDirectory.com?

“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?

• The Inc. 500 companies know far more about social media than one might predict,
• Social media have arrived in American colleges, and
• The use of social in the ivory tower is outpacing even the business world.

Sixty-one percent of the academic respondents use at least one form of social media. Four of the six social media have similar adoption rates to those of corporations. Blogging is the most common form among academia, at a 33% usage rate — 14% higher than that of the Inc. 500 respondents! Wikis, on the other hand, are used by only 3% of admissions departments compared with 17% of responding businesses in the Inc. 500. (See figure below.)

INTERESTINGLY, “ADMISSIONS DEPARTMENTS feel that social media is “very important” to their future strategy in almost a 2:1 ratio to Inc. 500 businesses that feel the same way (51% compared to 26%).” Nevertheless, it’s significant to note as much as 66 percent of Inc. 500 businesses consider social media important to their marketing/recruiting strategy! (See figure below.)

It’s such a pity that I cannot conduct similar studies among academia and businesses in Singapore and/or Asia. Still, my gut feel, since the beginning of this year has been: The statistics are likely to be similar.

Notes:

• The first study was based on detailed interviews with 121 companies from the Inc. 500, an elite group of the fastest-growing companies within the United States. The respondents are diverse in industry, size and location. They include 4 of the top 10, 7 of the top 25, and 22 of the top 100 companies from the Inc. 500 list.
• The second study was also based on detailed interviews in the US, this time among 453 admissions departments. The responding institutions are diverse in student size (from under 50 students to over 50,000), annual tuition (from less than $1,000 to over $40,000), funding (69% private, 31% public) and location (49 states are represented). The sample includes well-known private schools like Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Vassar and Wesleyan as well as many large public universities from states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

Afternote 7 Aug 2007: According to a page on the CATLS site (Consortium for the Advancement of Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, apparently part of University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth), Dr Nora Barnes is Chancellor Professor, Department of Marketing and Business Systems, Director, Center for Business Research. She also received the President’s Award for Public Service in 2000 for contributing to a strengthening of the southeastern Massachusetts region’s business climate by providing timely and customized responses to the problems and issues faced by employers and employees.

I’ve had a twitter and a pownce. I tried both for a good amount of time, especially since I have friends on both, but none on jaiku. However, I ditched them both for jaiku in the end, regardless.

Twitter’s good points:

• it was first, thus more popular
• streamlined

Pownce’s good points:

• ability to share actual files
• attractive templates
• comments on posts

Jaiku’s good points:

• ability to stream other feeds
• their “badges”
• comments on posts

I’ve found that twitter and jaiku are actually on the same level when it comes to server hiccups. I was turned off by pownce’s apparent lack of a separate method of displaying my posts. Jaiku’s feature of streaming my other feeds eventually won the war in my eyes.

Since the poll results shows that Jaiku leads with 48% (or 193) of the votes, I decided to ignore Pownce and checked out Jaiku instead. Added my twitter and ClappingTrees blog feeds to it. Looking good. I’d probably choose Jaiku too. If I do, I may need to start using Twitterfeed so that I only need post in Jaiku once and that “jaiku” would turn into a “twitter” and then a “tumblr”. What’s your take on this?

“R” is for “Renaissance”. On June 11, I suggested to the leader of BNI Renaissance, to hold its weekly meetings at the Geek Terminal. The chapter did so the very next Wednesday.

“C” is for “Crescendo”. As a result, a f