Article: A first TIME!

Hey! This is something I really wanted to share with those of you who read my blog but haven't read the article yet. It was a first from TIME magazine, to actually name the public as the person of the year. It is interesting and is so true and shows how new technology and the internet has really changed the world!

Time's Person of the Year : YOU

Session 2 Review

WOW!! That was a lot of information! I mean my head is still buzzing with all the TCP/IP, versions 4 and 6, HTML, xHTML, Fixed Mobile Convergence discussions!!

Starhub Case Study
I really have never had a class so far that has managed to link so many different aspects into one interlinked discussion. It was so insightful to do the case study of Starhub and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) which was written by Prof. Gilbert himself. It was informative to see how every little decision or event in a company can have so many different effects and outcomes. A simple idea of integrated billing can really make such a difference. It was a very new exposure to me to see how a new technology can affect a company's revenue, its customer pull and in the end probably even its future. It was also very informative to read about what companies like Starhub had to go through to come up the ranks of Singapore companies. Once you read it you start thinking differently about the company. I for one am a Singtel customer and have always just assumed that it is better than Starhub. I guess that it is a little hard to say which is better for me as a customer, since I have not tried both, but I am definitely opening up to the idea of using Starhub sometime in the future. Anyway the point I want to make is that no matter what business module I have taken, there is a common theme for service industry companies. They have to respect and work on what the public want and at the same time anticipate what the customers want. To me , that is what will make a company such as Starhub successful. A lot of companies have many services that are meant for the entire market, but most of the successful ones have one product initially targettted at a niche market segment. This niche segment eventually becomes the entire market and its presence in that market can only help it. Take Sony and walkman brand, Apple and iPod, Microsoft and Windows, and there are many more expamples.

HTML, XML, xHTML, ip6
To be honest all I knew about these terms before the seminar was that they are a type of coding language which the internet is based upon. Infact, I had never even heard of ip6. After using the trusty Google, I can give you a little bit more than "type of coding language".
Now let me start by telling you that the internet is just millions of computers and thousands of networks connected together to give you the biggest library of information possible. Now what is it that makes all of this possible: coded computer language. The birth of HTML (one of these languages) occured way back by Tim Berners-Lee. Its stands for HyperText Markup Language. The idea it is based on to is print out text, images, headings, etc onto a computer screen as we would see on a piece of paper. Sounds simple doesn't it! The coding session in class proved it was relatively simple. I hope in time I am able to learn a little more about its coding! (Source: Wikipedia)
The next language to learn about was XML, or Extensible Markup Language. Now the main idea of building this language was to enable easier sharing of data across the internet and various networks. XML like HTML was also derived down from a parent language of SGML (Standard General Markup Language). (Source: Wikipedia)
Now, xHTML, in lay man terms is basically a language that combines the capabilities of both HTML and XML all into one package.I am not going to get into the mainy details of the different markup languages as the links to more information on them are given above. But it is important we know the differences between XML and HTML. XML is not a markup language with defined tags and XML tags do not define how the text will look on the webpage. What I also didn't know that some of our web2.0 applications like RSS and MusicXML are actually coded in XML. I have heard and read about the history of the internet but it was a first to read about the languages that help keep the internet alive.
Now before we learnt about ip6, there was a brief introduction on TCP/IP. I have never known anything about it, except for the fact that it exists somewhere in internet options of my web-browser. Now TCP and IP are two separate tools that are responsible for disassembling and reassembling data before and upon reaching their destination and for specifying the addresses to each of these broken up packets respectively. The current internet technology is using IPv4 which is pretty outdated and IPv6 is basically a newer version of this technology. It allows many more addresses, faster routing, autoconfiguration by host and even the capability to handle packets with more than 64kb load! All these improvements can only give us a better web experience.(Source: Wikipedia)
Now reading about all these developments about the technologies surrounding the internet one questions seems to keep popping up in my mind. Why have we taken so long to upgrade the internet? The internet is accessed by millions of computers on a daily basis and is one of the most frequently used technologies worldwide. Its well known that the minute a technology is out and new the next upgrade is already in production. So it leaves me a little confused as to why humans have spent so much time and money upgrading all these new flashy gadgets that are used by just a few people rather than something so powerful like the internet which is becoming more and more of a necessity in day to day life.

802.11b/g/n or WiFi
Wifi seems to be the in thing these days. Every new product has them, from your laptop, to your camera, to mobile phone, the PSP and even home appliances for future smart homes. The internet has become such a powerful tool and a necessity that everyone and every piece of equipment seems to want it. And wad better way to put it in a device than with just a flick of a button and no wires! Its almost like its magically connected to the web! But the down side to all of this is that the more high tech the gadgets get the more "juice" and faster connections it requires. In steps 802.11b/g/n. Now the 802.11 basically denotes the standards for its various elements. 802.11a uses a 5Ghz band, 802.11b and g use the 2.40Ghz band. The other differences in each element lie in the data rate which is something we as Internet addicts are more interested in. The new 802.11n is supposed to provide us with upto 540Mb/s!!! 802.11a/g provide upto 54Mb/s and 802.11b upto 11Mb/s. What this all means is that with faster data speeds we will have a faster internet experience and also be able to share and send larger data faster over the internet. I also found an interesting article on Gizmodo (a site visit frequently) regarding 802.11n. It tells us that 802.11n is closer to reality and that Data2.0 specs have been sent and are awaiting approval. Click here to find out more!
I believe in the next few years more and more wifi hotzones are going to be started as it becoming more a necessity than luxury. Even the Singapore government has recognised this and is launching wireless@sg, which is a basically making Singapore a wireless city by providing free wifi hotzones in all the major areas of Singapore.

Internet2
Well believe it or not a new internet is already being developed in the name of Internet2. It is still in development and testing phase but is based on the ideas of web2.0 which is allowing more interaction. It will give us faster net speeds, more interactive services, and safer and more stable networking capabilities. Yet this dream is still far from reality and will take a while to come out. Infact I am sure it is still a little hard for people to picture better and more powerful than the current internet already is. But this is what I was saying earlier; it is good to see the advancement of a technology that is being used so frequently globally and serves as one of the most powerful tools mankind has developed.

Email and Usenet
Email is something that has really revolutionised the world. Today organisations and every day people all thrive on the internet and have atleast one email address. It is probably among the cheapest ways of sending a message across to someone from anywhere in the world. To be honest when I hear Nokia's slogan of "Connecting People", I picture a phone and the email! There is no doubt a phone call adds a personal touch to sending a message but most of the time an email is good enough and serves the purpose. Lets face it, it cannot be done without in today's world and is the disruptive technology from which postal services have never recovered.

It was quite new to me that Google Groups is actually Usenet and that Usenet was infact developed by a bunch of university students! Usenet is basically an internet discussion system and is the idea of what many discussion boards and forums are based on.


Finally towards the end of the seminar we had a brief overview of a few selected blogs. Reflections were made based on what was written and tips were given to guide in the direction we should be heading in.

At the end of the day, my final reflections on the class leave me eagerly anticipating these new technologies of IPv6, 802.11n and Internet2!

Session 1 Review

The first session of the class gave me an overview of what it is about ofcourse and also what I can expect from it as well as myself. Our tutor, Prof. A. Lee Gilbert did not come across as a usual NTU tutor who produces facts and expects us to produce them out every class and in the exams. In fact it refreshing to see how much he wants to inculcate active participation in class and constant learning process throughout the semester. Anyway my intial thoughts before the class was that I had made a big mistake and that I would drop it straight away. Reading the introduction to the course made me feel like I would be lost and finding myself devoting too much time to a subject I was not sure how much I would enjoy. The first seminar itself made me feel glad I am still taking it as I really believe I will learn so much from this course (from basic HTML, Flash, podcast, Wiki, and many more new technologies in our world). Besides learning all the various things I am a person who is constantly reading about new technologies and am totally fascinated by how advanced our world is getting. To be able to study about them and how they affect various behaviours is something new and I am eagerly looking forward to it.

Below I will further reflect upon different terms that came up in the first class that caught my intention and really got me thinking.

Wiki
Prof. Gilbert informed us that our text book was infact going to be online in the form of a wiki. I have been using the net a lot to learn concepts and various things for many courses but it is the first time I get to actually use a wiki as a text. The only other wiki I am aware of is Wikipedia, that too without really knowing what a wiki is.

A wiki is infact a website that allows different visitors to add, edit and remove content easily. It is always being updated and has so many minds adding information to it. It is a unique way to gather information and I feel will be one of the highlights of the course to be able to have a text book that each and every student can edit and add information too. The concept seems so simple but yet it can be so powerful. It makes so much more sense to have many heads formulating a page of knowledge rather than relying on scholars, teachers and journalists to educate us on matters. They say two heads are better than one and the idea of wiki really brings on a whole new meaning to that phrase. (Wikipedia)

Web 2.0
Never before have I encountered the phrase web2.0. I wonder if there are more terms like this. So after spending some time searching on google I realise I have been using Web2.0 for quite some time and again totally unknowingly! Web 2.0 is a phrase that was termed by O'Riley Media in 2004. It refers to a second generation of interactive internet based services. The keyword here is interactive and I suddenly realise our very own Wiki is infact a form of Web2.0. Infact this very blog, podcasts, RSS feeds are all forms of Web2.0. They are accessible by all the public and again emphasise on interaction and allow people to publish what every they want. Polpular web 2.0 applications and forms are YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, podcasts various weblogs.

Disruptive Technologies
Slowly Prof. Gilbert introduced us to the term of disruptive technologies. This concept was introduced by a person named Clayton Christensen. A little websearch on the name gave me various links about his life and achievements. "He is an outstandinly brilliant man!" was my reaction upon reading about him, his educational achievements and his enterpreneural skills. He is alos the author of many successful business books and was the one who introduced this concept of disruptive technologies. (ITconversations)

The concept took a considerable amount of time in discussion in our class. A disruptive technology is one that is exactly how it sounds: it is disruptive to particular industries. The class came up with so many examples that we all are so aware of and yet we find it so hard to think of it in this way. The most common example ofcourse being downloading of music and how it has affected the music industry. It has decreased the power and profits of huge record labels and give power to ones responsible for the industry in the first place: the musicians. Other examples would be eBay and Amazon and how they changed retail industries. The figures of Jeff Bezo's Amazon is simply staggering and makes you really think about all sorts of possibilities available in our world! In the end it is a different concept and being such a pro-technology person I find it a little hard to place a negative word like disruptive ahead of it!

VoIP
Voice over internet protocol is something that has gained a lot of momentum of late in the western world. It is a new technology that allows the breaking of voice into a digital signal to be carried over the internet and allow for cheaper and newer form of communication. Infact the last I heard was that Singtel is in its testing stage of launching VoIP in Singapore and hopefully it will soon be introduced! One of the most commonly used VoIP services is Skype. It is coming into the market in a big way and we are even beginning to see Skype enabled wifi phones available in the market. All this can only be beneficial for one group of people: the consumer!

Straying a little away from VoIP but still within the form of telecommunication was a discussion on a new mobile phone being launced, the iPhone. Personally, I have been looking forward to the launch of this product for quite a while and have been following up on various rumours about it. And its finally here! What is so special about this product? Well its not the most technologically advanced phone but has certain new technologies (multi-touch, mac osx, wifi, etc) and above all just oozes class in its design! Trust Apple to make an ordinary device seem like the most desirable, with just a simple design and some fabulous marketing! They surely did it with the ipod and i can see them doing it with iphone now.

At the end of the day, I had a lot of fun in this introductory class that has really made me give up my intentions of dropping it. I really do look forward to the podcast session. I really am hooked on to them and spend a considerable amount of time downloading new podcasts and syncing them to my ipod to listen to during the day! I look forward to all future classes and infact am beginning to enjoy blogging about it. Its a new thing for me and I am not surprised why so many people do it. Its addictive, not just to type but to read as well. No wonder TIME magazine's person of the year is infact "you" , the public who have shouted out their opinion! Until my next blog I leave you to ponder a quote I came across:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistiguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog for Electronic and Mobile Commerce!

This is the first time I am writing a blog and I hope its popularity goes on growing throughout the semester. I hope to learn a great deal of new things in the course and also increase my group of friends =)!

Have fun reading and hope to see you again soon!