Last but not least, 14

So, this marks the end of my COM125 lesson times with Mr. Abel Choy and learning about the Internet during classes. However, this is just the beginning of my time with the Internet - the possibilities are indeed limitless! :)

During the last session of class, I shared with the class one of the apps I like to use, and this app was covered in one of my blog posts as well - Quora. It's nice to be able to share with my classmates one of my favorite apps because good things should be shared right?

In light of the semester coming to an end, here are some fun things to do on the Internet:

1. Feel better about yourself by reading other people's secrets and confessions.

2. Send and receive a postcard from a random spot in the world.

3. Read something interesting on Wikipedia... here are a few I have stumbled upon: The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, Urban legends about illegal drugs, Tetris effect

4. Like tests? How about an online IQ test? (results are emailed to you after completing the test).

5. Like simple online games? Need a lot stimulation? Try The Grid - play 16 games all at once.

6. See if there are any geocaching spots in your area.

7. Play an online game.

8. Research your family history.

9. Learn to juggle. YouTube is a good place to start.

10. Find a world record -- and break it.

11. Check out some optical illusions.

12. Learn how to read palms with science!

13. Learn a magic trick.

14. Try some hand-shadow puppets.

15. Become a body language expert and learn to detect lies.

16. Get some free stuff.

17. Roll up your change, see if you have any rare and valuable coins.

18. Solve a riddle challenge. 

19. Take this site's survey? Please?

20. Install Stumbleupon. You'll be entertained/addicted for hours.

21. Spend $5-$10 on ebay. Did you know you can find all kinds of things for less than $10 (including shipping). Stuff I've gotten for less than $10 - MP3 players, Wireless Adapters, etc.

22. If you haven't already, sign up for a Paypal account. (For shopping online). Ebay+Paypal= Wasting Time and Money! Sweet.

23. Start a blog. (Like what I did in COM125!)

24. Try a fun quiz here on Blifaloo - or have you ever tried a Jung/Myers-Briggs personality test? Tons of great personality tests on similarminds.com

25. Have a dollar? Learn to fold it in interesting ways.

26. Origami is a fun hobby. Learn some.

27. Read some Best of Craigslist

28. Check out my collection of favorite online videos.

29. Find out if you could survive the Zombie Apocalypse.

30. Learn a foreign language, or at least how to curse in another language.

31. Get nostalgic. Let's pretend it's 1988... or check out my page dedicated to awesome toys of the 80s.

32. Learn when to use its or it's.

33. Watch Strongbad episodes.

Thanks for a fun and enlightening semester! :)

13

What are the benefits of Internet of Things?

The internet of things will transform everyday life, from managing airports’ passenger flow to heating buildings and caring for the elderly.

The ability to network electronics in a standard way is set to revolutionise intelligent device control. It represents the world defined by the so-called internet of things (IoT), where electronic equipment transmits data into the cloud over the internet using TCP/IP.

In the home, internet-based home automation is now possible thanks to low cost computing devices – such as the Raspberry Pi – RF networks and infrared-to-IP interfaces. British Gas’s Connected Home business, for example, sells a £200 internet-connected central heating controller.

IoT scales up to city-wide initiatives. For instance, Xerox Research Centre Europe has developed a system for managing traffic flow in Los Angeles with dynamic pricing at parking meters. The company deployed 7,000 sensors around the city to detect if a parking meter was occupied and adjusted pricing dynamically to ensure 20% of parking spaces were always available.
The IoT is a revolution that promises to change people’s lives, from inside the home to right across society. The reason it will happen is because of the boom in low-cost computing. In fact, Steve Furber, who was the principal designer of the ARM processor, believes IoT will be the next big growth area for ARM.

Lower costs

David Davies is group head of instrumentation at Elektron Technologies, a manufacturer of smart connectors and instrumentation for monitoring control. The technology it provides can sense the environment in various ways, such as monitoring temperature, pressure, viscosity and geo-positioning. Its systems are used in food preparation.

He says that, in the past, sensors may have connected to a local PC and were controlled using an embedded module.

"At a component level, IoT enables us to use cheaper wireless technology and move things into the cloud," says Davies. Elektron Technologies has built a system using Xively to provide a cloud-based back end, which is being used at Claridges  to monitor food preparation.

Airport flow

Speaking at the Forrester Forum for customer experience professionals in November, Declan Collier, CEO of London City Airport, said he would like to see the airport become the 21st century of the London Docks.His ambition is to make London City Airport the fastest London airport. "We’re within half an hour from the West End. Our 20-15 proposition means that 20 minutes after you arrive at the terminal you will be on a plane and 15 minutes after you land you will be on your way."

London City airport is using the internet of things to enhance the customer’s journey. He says: "We use face recognition to measure the speed of the journey." Technology from Hitachi is used to count pixels to measure people’s movement in the airport.

Getting to know customers

Many companies are developing internet connected intelligence into their products. At the FT Innovate conference in London last month, Nancy Quan, global research and development officer at Coca-Cola, spoke about how the company’s drinks machines provide an interactive display, allowing consumers to customise drinks. The information collected from these units allows Coca-Cola to understand customers’ tastes better.

12

Where does Microsoft stand today?

For decades, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been the leading software company, dominating the market for PCs with its Windows operating system. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is known for creating major revolutionary moments, which is why the company is still one of the leading brands in the world.

Despite all of its success, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has lost much of its spark lately, especially after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s sudden impact on smartphones, tablets and PCs.

After having a successful time in the software market, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) expanded its operations and also entered the gaming segment with its Xbox console. Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have been going head to head in getting the major market share in the gaming segment; however, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s latest Xbox One has left many loyal customers, along with its investors, disappointed.

What went wrong with Microsoft?

For several years, things have not been looking that good for Microsoft. Microsoft used to rule the world, but today, it is just another company trying to survive with the fierce competition.

For years, Microsoft’s latest offerings have been disappointments including its Bing seach engine, which just couldn’t break Google’s strong search engine share. Then, Microsoft’s Zune player failed miserably against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPod.

On top of that, Microsoft’s strongest business division is also not having its best time, as the PC market is on a consistent decline. I still think a major part of this should be contributed to Apple’s iPhone in 2007. Since then, the entire industry has changed, and Microsoft was just not good enough to enter into new segments. A smartphone partnership with Nokia also hasn’t paid off, and Microsoft’s OS is still pretty far behind Android and Apple’s OS market share in smartphones.

Microsoft’s lack of innovation could also be considered as a major factor, as the company is just not what it used to be under Bill Gates. The smartness, getting the first mover advantage and bringing in revolutionary products has all gone away from Microsoft.

Valuation

Microsoft, with a market cap of over $285 billion, is currently trading at around $34-$35. Overall, Microsoft’s stock has performed relatively well in the market, going up from the $27 mark in April. Microsoft’s latest earnings report showed a profit of over $6 billion, which is not too bad with respect to the fact fact that Microsoft missed the smartphones and tablets market and witnessed a strong decline in the PC market.

Apple, perhaps Microsoft’s biggest rival, is trading around $417, with a market cap of around $391 billion. Microsoft isn’t the only company losing its spark in recent years as Apple’s stock has been on a constant decline since reaching the $700 mark last year. The company has witnessed a steady decline in market share for its iPhone smartphone, and I think its fair to say that Apple, under Steve Jobs, was a much better company.

Where does Google stand today?


Several people have said that Google’s co-founders,Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have sought to build their company so that it wouldn’t make the mistakes that Microsoft did in the 1990s.

Here are 7 similarities:

1. They have the same number of employees as Microsoft did in 1999. Google just announced its headcount is now over 32,000.  Microsoft’s headcount in mid-1999 was 31,000.  Of course, Microsoft’s headcount has only exploded since then and is now at 90,000.  Despite Google’s much ballyhooed “20% blue sky time” for dreaming up new R&D projects, Google has always had difficulty bringing new entrepreneurial products to market even when it was much smaller.  It will be increasingly difficult and more bureaucratic now.

2. Anti-trust fears. Google is under governmental pressures around its dominant share in search today just as Microsoft was distracted by fears of its Windows platform dominance back then.

3. Small ankle-biter competitors in plain sight. Microsoft’s future competitors were in plain view in 1999, but a fraction of their size today.  Google itself was founded in 1998.  Apple (AAPL) was still trying to sort itself out with Steve Jobs’ return to the company.  How big will Facebook (FB) grow to be in the next 10 years versus Google?  

4. Google has about the same annual net income today that Microsoft did in 1999. Google shows no sign of slowing down its revenue and profit growth – just as Microsoft didn’t.  Google has done $38 billion in revenue in the last 12 months and $10 billion in net income.  Microsoft did $20 billion in revenues in 1999 and $7.8 billion in net income.  In the last year, Microsoft is up to $72 billion in annual revenue and $23.5 billion.

5. However, unfortunately for Google, future revenue growth doesn’t equal future stock growth. What can Google shareholders expect in the next 13 years?  Of course, if Microsoft’s stock chart is a perfect guide (and it isn’t), Google’s stock is heading for a 27% decline in the years ahead.  While that’s silly to expect that to a precise degree as circumstances are still vastly different between the company, that directional bet is probably correct.  Heck, Google’s stock has already been flat for the last 5 years, so investors are clearly worried about future growth prospects.  

6. Microsoft hadn’t yet paid a dividend then, just like Google but both had too much cash to be able to reinvest. Microsoft didn’t start paying a dividend until 2003.  We might have to wait 4 more years for Google to do so as well.  But Google today has nearly triple the cash that Microsoft did in 1999: $49 billion versus $17 billion.  A dividend is likely coming sooner than anyone expects for Google.

7. The Google co-founders are 38 today. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were 43 in 1999.  I’m sure that the Google co-founders like to think of themselves as young and hip.  However, compared to Mark Zuckerberg and Kevin Systrom of Instragram, Page and Brin are dinosaurs.  Anyone can see the flecks of gray in Larry’s hair in the last year.  That’s not to say old guys can’t innovate in tech.  Look at Steve Jobs.  However, Page and Brin are older guys with a lot of bureaucracy and path dependence surrounding them – just as “evil” Microsoft was.

Where is Apple going from here?

Hear the one about two guys who started a computer company in their garage? Of course you have: Today, one such company is estimated to be the most valuable one in the world (or pretty close to it, depending on the fluctuations of the stock market). And there’s a good reason for that, as I discovered recently on an Acelafrom New York to Boston: If you were an alien who just landed on our planet and somehow hopped on that train, you’d assume that all humans constantly consult some sort of oracle emblazoned with a fruit logo.

The history of Apple has been well chronicled, and the story of the two Steves has taken on mythic proportions. But the story has only just begun as far as I’m concerned. Apple’s value is now north of half-a-trillion dollars. (To paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen, a trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money.) So, as Jed Bartlet, might say, the question for Apple is: What’s next?

If you’re screaming “television sets!”, calm down. Yes, even you, Wall Street Analyst Who Shall Not Be Named. The entire television-set business is worth about $30 billion. That’s it. Even assuming Apple takes all of that, it’s hardly the type of revenue that Apple needs to fuel the future. That’s the kind of money the company keeps under the mattress for a rainy day purchase or two.

I don’t like to predict what Apple might or might not do on any given Tuesday. In fact, those that do make such predictions are almost always more wrong than right. I will venture to say that Apple must seek new opportunities in other markets. What I do know is that, in the past, Apple invented new places for itself to go that we didn’t even know existed, which is what makes predictions so difficult and why prognosticators often turn out to be wrong.

It is said that after conquering all of the then-known world, Alexander the Great wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. In a world where the Apple ecosystem has permeated the hearts, minds and wallets of people everywhere, what happens when everyone has an iPhone or iPad? How many product revisions will consumers continue to purchase? How many new product categories can be created that can spur growth as iPad did?

It wasn’t that long ago that a popular mantra in business was that no one got fired for buying IBM. A decade ago, Microsoft was viewed as nearly invincible in the digital age. Today’s technology industry is moving at a pace never seen before. Companies with literally no revenue and fewer than a dozen employees are bought for a billion dollars or more. It is in this world that Apple must look to a future of continued relevance and strive for the—ahem—“NeXT” big thing.

11

Here are some ways in which the Internet can shape the future of journalism:

Data will be at the core of everything media companies do going forward. Data will drive all business strategies including customer acquisition and retention, sales and pricing as well as audience segmentation and content and product development approaches. On the journalism side, deep data sets and sophisticated (and often free) analytical tools will advance investigative reporting; real-time analytics will impact decisions on headlines, article form and content, distribution, platform effectiveness and story placement. The message: to thrive, media companies should find scary-smart data scientists and journalists steeped in data analysis.

The future is visual. While the written word will continue to be a powerful form of expression, visual storytelling -- using a mix of media forms (see a great examplehere) -- will drive engagement and deeper understanding in a world of six-second messages. Journalists who can craft compelling stories using video, text, audio, animated gifs, innovative design, augmented and immersive reality and other tools will be in high demand. Media companies that use engaging forms of story presentation across devices and platforms will attract marketers who covet that relationship once owned by TV.

Community engagement is critical to business and journalistic success. Community means different things to different organizations. But regardless of how community is defined, if media companies are not emotionally connected to their constituencies in meaningful ways, those customers will drift to publishers they perceive as more interesting, relevant and inspiring. Social media platforms are providing powerful tools to connect, inform and entertain those customers. Journalists can use technology to establish a personal brand that can bestow more authenticity and establish deeper connections with their readers.

Embrace technology to solve problems -- for media organizations and their customers. A range of accessible tools and technology -- for both print and digital -- have emerged to help streamline operations, improve quality, create and distribute content across platforms and grow new revenue streams. For journalists, the tools available to enhance probing, reporting and storytelling - from drones to Google fusion tables -- are mind boggling. Digital strategist Amy Webb, CEO of Webbmedia Group, points to "must have" tools, including MindMeld, Quill and WolframAlpha, that could transform how news is captured, reported and edited going forward.

Those who ponder whether media companies should become technology companies or if journalists should develop programming skills are asking the wrong questions. The technology platforms and expertise are the easy part. What's hard is for media managers and journalists to develop the technological proficiency to think differently and creatively about what is possible.

Entrepreneurism needs to be the lifeblood of media organizations and the oxygen for journalists. While newspapers and other traditional media companies have embraced innovation, true entrepreneurship will not thrive in risk-adverse cultures. USA Today Publisher Larry Kramer -- who spoke at the America East conference -- urged media companies to "reward and incent people to do things differently" and to "recruit people who can think entrepreneurially and also understand the needs of the legacy business." Umano CEOIan Mendiola, another speaker, encouraged attendees to tap into young innovators and "create a team dedicated to exploring crazy things."

How does the future of digital journalism look like in 2020?

The good side

1) Information sharing over the Internet will be so effortlessly interwoven into daily life that it will become invisible, flowing like electricity, often through machine intermediaries.

David Clark, a senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, noted, “Devices will more and more have their own patterns of communication, their own ‘social networks,’ which they use to share and aggregate information, and undertake automatic control and activation.  More and more, humans will be in a world in which decisions are being made by an active set of cooperating devices. The Internet (and computer-mediated communication in general) will become more pervasive but less explicit and visible. It will, to some extent, blend into the background of all we do.”

2) The spread of the Internet will enhance global connectivity that fosters more planetary relationships and less ignorance.

Bryan Alexander, senior fellow at the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education, wrote, “It will be a world more integrated than ever before. We will see more planetary friendships, rivalries, romances, work teams, study groups, and collaborations.”

3) The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and big data will make people more aware of their world and their own behavior.

Patrick Tucker, author of The Naked Future: What Happens In a World That Anticipates Your Every Move?, wrote, “When the cost of collecting information on virtually every interaction falls to zero, the insights that we gain from our activity, in the context of the activity of others, will fundamentally change the way we relate to one another, to institutions, and with the future itself. We will become far more knowledgeable about the consequences of our actions; we will edit our behavior more quickly and intelligently.”

4) Augmented reality and wearable devices will be implemented to monitor and give quick feedback on daily life, especially tied to personal health.

Daren C. Brabham, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California, predicted, “We will grow accustomed to seeing the world through multiple data layers. This will change a lot of social practices, such as dating, job interviewing and professional networking, and gaming, as well as policing and espionage.”

5) Political awareness and action will be facilitated and more peaceful change and public uprisings like the Arab Spring will emerge.

Rui Correia, director of Netday Namibia, a non-profit supporting innovations in information technology for education and development, wrote, “With mobile technologies and information-sharing apps becoming ubiquitous, we can expect some significant improvement in the awareness of otherwise illiterate and ill-informed rural populations to opportunities missed out by manipulative and corrupt governments. Like the Arab Spring, we can expect more and more uprisings to take place as people become more informed and able to communicate their concerns.”

6) The spread of the ‘Ubernet’ will diminish the meaning of borders, and new ‘nations’ of those with shared interests may emerge and exist beyond the capacity of current nation-states to control.

David Hughes, an Internet pioneer, who from 1972 worked in individual to/from digital telecommunications, responded, “All 7-plus billion humans on this planet will sooner or later be ‘connected’ to each other and fixed destinations, via the Uber(not Inter)net.  Thatcan lead to the diminished power over people’s lives within nation-states. When every person on this planet can reach, and communicate two-way, with every other person on this planet, the power of nation-states to control every human inside its geographic boundaries may start to diminish.”

7) The Internet will become ‘the Internets’ as access, systems, and principles are renegotiated.

David Brin, author and futurist, responded, “There will be many Internets. Mesh networks will self-form and we’ll deputize sub-selves to dwell in many places.”

8) An Internet-enabled revolution in education will spread more opportunities, with less money spent on real estate and teachers.

A generally hopeful summary comes from Doc Searls, journalist and director of ProjectVRM at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, observed, “Of course, there will be bad acting by some, taking advantage of organizational vulnerabilities and gaming systems in other ways. Organizations in the meantime will continue rationalizing negative externalities, such as we see today with pollution of the Internet’s pathways by boundless wasted advertising messages, and bots working to game the same business.

The bad side

9) Dangerous divides between haves and have-nots may expand, resulting in resentment and possible violence.

Oscar Gandy, an emeritus professor at the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, explained, “We have to think seriously about the kinds of conflicts that will arise in response to the growing inequality enabled and amplified by means of networked transactions that benefit smaller and smaller segments of the global population. Social media will facilitate and amplify the feelings of loss and abuse. They will also facilitate the sharing of examples and instructions about how to challenge, resist, and/or punish what will increasingly come to be seen as unjust.”

10) Abuses and abusers will ‘evolve and scale.’ Human nature isn’t changing; there’s laziness, bullying, stalking, stupidity, pornography, dirty tricks, crime, and those who practice them have new capacity to make life miserable for others.

Llewellyn Kriel, CEO and editor in chief of TopEditor International Media Services, predicted, “Everything — every thing — will be available online with price tags attached. Cyber-terrorism will become commonplace. Privacy and confidentiality of any and all personal will become a thing of the past. Online ‘diseases’ — mental, physical, social, addictions (psycho-cyber drugs) — will affect families and communities and spread willy-nilly across borders. The digital divide will grow and worsen beyond the control of nations or global organizations such as the UN. 

11) Pressured by these changes, governments and corporations will try to assert power — and at times succeed — as they invoke security and cultural norms.

Paul Babbitt, an associate professor at Southern Arkansas University, predicted, “Governments will become much more effective in using the Internet as an instrument of political and social control. That is, filters will be increasingly valuable and important, and effective and useful filters will be able to charge for their services. People will be more than happy to trade the free-wheeling aspect common to many Internet sites for more structured and regulated environments.”

12) People will continue — sometimes grudgingly — to make tradeoffs favoring convenience and perceived immediate gains over privacy; and privacy will be something only the upscale will enjoy.

13) Humans and their current organizations may not respond quickly enough to challenges presented by complex networks.

Randy Kluver, an associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University, responded, “The most neglected aspect of the impact is in the geopolitics of the Internet. 

14) Most people are not yet noticing the profound changes today’s communications networks are already bringing about; these networks will be even more disruptive in the future.

Nishant Shah, visiting professor at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University, Germany, observed, “It is going to systemically change our understandings of being human, being social, and being political. It is not merely a tool of enforcing existing systems; it is a structural change in the systems that we are used to. And this means that we are truly going through a paradigm shift — which is celebratory for what it brings, but it also produces great precariousness because existing structures lose meaning and valence, and hence, a new world order needs to be produced in order to accommodate for these new modes of being and operation. The greatest impact of the Internet is what we are already witnessing, but it is going to accelerate.

How can citizens participate and contribute in the betterment of society through citizen journalism?Citizen journalism is also known as:

• public journalism
• participatory journalism
• grassroots journalism
• hyperlocal journalism
• democratic journalism
• networked journalism
• open source journalism
• bottom-up journalism
• stand-alone journalism
• distributed journalism
• unfiltered journalism
• guerrilla journalism
• street journalism
• crowd-powered media

What tools are needed by citizen journalists?

• tablet or laptop computer
• digital camera that shoots stills and video
• digital audio recorder
• software apps for editing text, audio, photos and video, and for creating visual data graphics
• blog, wiki, website or other content management system for texts, audio, photos, video and graphics
• social networks for staying connected

People without professional journalism training can use the latest technology tools and worldwide distribution via the Internet to find new and different news stories, and augment and fact-check mainstream media. The latest media technologies, social networks, media-sharing websites and the increasing presence of smartphones everywhere open news reporting to people who sometimes can discover and report breaking news faster and less expensively than mainstream news organizations. Citizen journalism has been criticized by professional journalists because citizen journalists have not been oriented toward the standards and practices of professional journalism. They say reports from citizen journalists are subjective, amateurish, inaccurate and haphazard. They see citizen journalism's quality as, well, not professional and its coverage spotty. Professionals often view citizen journalists with skepticism, especially when citizen journalists are proponents of the topics they write about. This leads professionals to say citizen journalists don't uphold the traditional journalistic value of objectivity. They say only professionally-trained journalists can understand the ethics required of reporters.

10

• Discuss - "the power and limitation of Internet for political campaigning"

It is indeed true that the Internet can be both powerful and limiting when it comes to political campaigning. Cell phones and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are playing an increasingly prominent role in how voters get political information and follow election news, according to a new national survey by the Pew Research Center in the United States. The proportion of Americans who use their cell phones to track political news or campaign coverage has doubled compared with the most recent midterm election: 28% of registered voters have used their cell phone in this way during the 2014 campaign, up from 13% in 2010. Further, the number of Americans who follow candidates or other political figures on social media has also risen sharply: 16% of registered voters now do this, up from 6% in 2010.

Voters of all ages are more likely to take part in these behaviors than in the previous midterm race, but that growth has been especially pronounced among 30-49 year olds. Some 40% of voters aged 30-49 have used their cell phone to follow this year’s election campaign (up from 15% in 2010) and 21% follow political figures on social media (up from just 6% in 2010). Voters in this age group now take part in each of these behaviors at rates nearly identical to 18-29 year olds. In Singapore, As the dust settles on what many observers have been calling a watershed election, we look at how the Internet and social media have played their part in the past Singapore General Election (GE) in 2011.

Unlike 7 years ago, where campaigning through Facebook, Twitter and podcasts were banned, the rules on Internet election advertising were relaxed in this GE, allowing communication of political messages on any conceivable new media platform.

For the first time, election campaign recordings can be posted as long as they are not “dramatized” or published “out of context.” Video taken at an election rally can be uploaded onto the Web without being submitted to the Board of Film Censors.

“Social media have lowered the barriers of entry into political discourse everywhere,” said Mark Cenite, an assistant professor of communication and information at Nanyang Technological University. “But that’s particularly significant in Singapore because here the barriers to entry into political discourse and the accompanying risks have been so high.”

Despite the changes to Internet regulations, demonstrations and public speech still require permits in Singapore. Political speech is restricted to candidates. Opposition politicians and news media face the possibility of defamation suits. The mainstream news media are tightly controlled and have not acted as a check on the government, experts say.

During the last parliamentary campaign, in 2006, a small number of current events blogs were the main forum for online citizen participation. Political speech was technically illegal and demanded a greater level of risk and commitment.

“Now that the barriers to entry to political dialogue have fallen, the effect has been electric,” Mr. Cenite said. “Government critics are able to easily identify and support one another without making a headlong commitment to politics and take the accompanying risks.”

All of this has contributed to an intense campaign in which opposition parties — which now hold just 2 of 84 elected seats — are drawing bigger crowds to rallies, fielding more candidates and, in contrast to the past, contesting all but one constituency. In the last election, opposition parties contested just half the constituencies.

• Why, in general, young adults and youth are apathetic towards politics? Will Internet help in this regard?

According to the Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, to be apathetic, is to be uninterested or unenthusiastic about anything. Going by this definition, it can be said that no one on Earth can be completely apathetic. Everyone has some things that interest or attract them, such as their hobbies, or sports they enjoy. The same goes for Singaporean youths. However, if "apathy" is to be more narrowly defined, it can be said that most Singaporean youths are apathetic to happenings that do not directly concern them. This may be because they do not see the importance of keeping themselves informed when they do not have any influence over the handling of matters. This can clearly be seen in their display of political apathy.

The president of the political association at the National University of Singapore, Yong Yih Ming, lamented that at regular campus political events, the same 20 to 50 people turn up to participate. Similarly, youths across the island have the same level of enthusiasm for politics as these university students, and schools, which organize forums with local politicians, or current affairs quizzes often have to make these events mandatory.

These seemingly apathetic youths are hence unrecognizable when they transform into throngs of screaming fans when meeting their idols at the Changi International Airport, or when they are gyrating to the music of their favourite band. It seems like all their vigour and enthusiastic applause have been reserved for long-awaited events like this. Hence, it can be said that Singaporean youths are selectively apathetic, as they only willingly engage themselves in activities that directly affect them, such as their studies, or in activities they are personally interested in.

• Recent events and civil unrest that utilized Internet as a power tool for political activities.

What Firechat's Success in Hong Kong Means for a Global Internet - the app now connecting political protesters could soon connect people in the developing world.

In an online video, a Hong Kong protester explains how the Occupy Central movement is using Firechat. (VanessaGler/YouTube )

Look at pictures of any protest and you’ll see a mix of high and low technology. The Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong are no different. As the futurist Georgina Voss noticed, you’ll see umbrellas to deflect tear gas cans and saran wrap to protect from pepper spray. You’ll see bamboo threaded between metal barricades to strengthen them.

And you’ll hear about one thing more—a piece of software protesters are downloading to their phones. It’s helping them communicate digitally across the miles-long protest site, asking for supplies or reinforcements, and it stays useful even when the Internet is blocked or down. It’s called Firechat.

A special version of Firechat's logo made to celebrate the protests. (OpenGarden)

Firechat is a messaging app. It places users in chatrooms—both large and small, either across the Internet or locally—and allows them to talk with each other. Everything its users say inside it is public. And, crucially, it doesn’t need the Internet to work. It connects users directly to each other through their phone’s wi-fi or Bluetooth.

Firechat is, in the word of Stanislav Shalunov, “an electronic megaphone, that’s more resilient and goes further” than other tools. Shalunov is a co-founder and CTO of OpenGarden, the startup behind Firechat. Firechat, in other words, erects a mesh network among its users. Unlike the modern Internet, which is essentially built around certain huge centralized hubs,  mesh networking allows users to connect directly to each other. Even if “the Internet” is still blocked, a mesh network still works—there’s no main outgoing connection to block.

Firechat’s use in Hong Kong is the first massive use of a mesh mobile network in a political protest. The app, which debuted only in March, was also used by a smaller number of users in Taiwan’s springtime Sunflower student movement, and by people subverting Internet censorship in Iraq and Iran. This is the power of a simple app during political unrest. If someone told me 5 years ago that this would happen, I wouldn't have believed them.

After some research, I came across E-democracy (a combination of the words electronic and democracy), which incorporates 21st-century information and communications technology to promote democracy. That means a form of government in which all adult citizens are presumed to be eligible to participate equally in the proposal, development, and creation of laws.  E-democracy encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination. E-democracy can be applied within the political processes of local communities, states/regions, nations and on the global stage.

Democratic actors and sectors in this context include, in order of importance, citizens/voters, political organizations, the media, elected officials, and governments. E-democracy, like democracy in its ideal form, is a direct democracy. In practical form it has been an instantiation of more limited forms of democracy. There has been a significant growth in e-democracy in the last four years. Public- and private-sector platforms provide an avenue to citizen engagement while offering access to transparent information citizens have come to expect. Social networking services have been an emerging area for e-democracy, as well as related technological developments, such as argument maps and eventually, the semantic web.

Another related development consists in combining the open communication of social networking with the structured communication of closed panels including experts and/or policy-makers.Those are seen as important stepping stones in the maturation of the concept of e-democracy. The social networking entry point, for example, is within the citizens' environment, and the engagement is on the citizens' terms. Proponents of e-government perceive government use of social networks as a medium to help government act more like the public it serves.