IBM's Innovation Jam

For those who subscribe to SPH's Business Times, you might have read an article in the 13 Nov 2006 issue about IBM's $100m investment in virtual worlds like SecondLife (but not necessarily only SecondLife though). Here's a similar article from CNET news.com:

IBM's chief executive, Sam Palmisano, is set to launch a $100 million investment to incubate new businesses--and he will make the announcement in both the physical and virtual worlds.

In the article, under the header "Where IBM is placing bets", some project ideas were mentioned:

He said that the ideas that seem likely to produce something solid in the next year or so are: "Intelligent Utility Networks," which looks into ways to do real-time monitoring and control of power transmission grids; "Real-time Translation Services"; and "Simplified Business Engines," a proposal to package Web 2.0 services up with IBM blade servers.

Medium-term projects are "Smart Healthcare Payment Systems," which use smart cards to process medical claims; and "Integrated Mass Transit Information Systems," a way to get real-time data for mass transit systems.

Longer-term projects are "Electronic Health Records" and "Big Green Innovations." In the second case, IBM intends to seek out emerging environmental opportunities, such as using nanotechnology for water filtration.

Other ideas include "Branchless Banking for the Masses," "3D Internet," and a simplified online storage service dubbed "Digital Me."

Interesting. I'm thinking "If those ideas become reality, what does it mean for libraries in general?"

I suppose there aren't any real answers to that, because "what it means to libraries" depend on how the ideas are manifested. Still, I can already visualise how some ideas could turn out.

The "Digital Me" idea is the most intriguing of all, at least for me. I can imagine myself carrying a device -- like how I wear a watch or carry a mobile phone or PDA -- and using that device to upload/ download/ share digital objects or files on the fly. Except that the storage space would not be on to the physical device but online. Implied is that access bandwidths are also vastly improved, and cheap enough that everyone can afford it.

Hmm... if such an idea does become reality, the question wouldn't be "what does it mean for libraries" but rather "what does it mean for society"... ...

OK, what I was really picked up from the article was something called InnovationJam, an online brainstorming session that IBM organised (see www.globalinnovationjam.com/get_started2006/index.shtml)



Under "Where we'll focus: Market Opportunities", there are four sub-sections:

• Going Places
• Finance & Commerce
• Staying Healthy
• A Better Planet

Each sub-section contain more ideas and elaboration, as well as related ideas and insights (e.g. under "Staying Healthy", there are links with headers like "Innovation that matters for Insurance" and "The Future of Work")

Another section I found really interesting was "Emerging Technologies", where they had these sub-sections:

• Embedded Intelligence
• Extracting Insight
• Global Collaboration for Individuals
• Global Collaboration for Companies
• Practical Supercomputing
• Intelligent IT Systems

I'm not sure how many of you read Hard Science Fiction. If you do, I bet the above ideas aren't exactly revolutionary or radical. But you can't deny that while the concepts and ideas aren't reality yet, the fact is that they have spilled over from the pages of fiction to the business realm. That has to mean something.

To read what others are blogging about InnovationJam, click on this Technorati Tag: innovationjam

Related Technorati Tags: futurewatch, future society

State of Play Conference 2007 - Singapore

Thanks to Wandie for the heads-up -- State of Play IV conference will be held in Singapore from 7th to 9th January 2007.

From their About page:

Organized by Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, New York Law School, Trinity University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, this pioneering global conference on virtual worlds invites experts across disciplines to discuss the future of cyberspace and the impact of these new immersive, social online environments on education, law, politics and society. The hallmark of the conference is its multi-disciplinary perspective.

Ok, sounds interesting. I'm intrigued by the programme line-up. Granted that conference programme and session names are often jazzed up to make them sound more sexy, I'm still quite keen to attend this one just to get a sense of what's being discussed and potentially network with conference participants to know what their thinking (and also discover new bloggers, heh).

Registration details aren't confirmed or published as I post this. You might want to subscribe to their blog feed to get latest updates.

Technorati Tag: state of play, conference

“Explore Singapore!” Campaign

Some Singaporeans may lament about "yet another campaign" but nonetheless, I feel this particular campaign is worth mentioning because (1) it involves libraries, and (2) it's a collaborative effort between three government agencies.

From the Explore Singapore webpage:

To spark a national desire amongst Singaporeans to rediscover their heritage, National Heritage Board (NHB), together with the National Library Board (NLB) and Media Development Authority (MDA), has joined hands to organise the “Explore Singapore!” Campaign...

...Led by a pioneering info-tainment heritage show on primetime TV, “Explore Singapore!” will be supported by newspaper columns, radio as well as blogs and SMS to engage all Singaporeans in their heritage and culture. These channels will be complemented by enriching and edu-taining activities at Singapore’s close to 80 museums and libraries throughout the island.

There's going to be a TV series, events at the libraries, museums, and a contest.

My liblogarian colleague, Damien, has an on-going update at his blog:

• NLB Heritage Roadshow - Day 1 (11 Nov 2006)
• "Explore Singapore!" media preview (26 Oct 06)

You might also want to read these posts at Yesterday.SG:

• Top 10 Rare Finds of 11 Nov
• On the paper trail (interesting take on things that turned up during the roadshow)

Oh, there's a mention of $10,000 worth of prizes: "You still have one last day to bring your treasures down to the National Library to win up to $10,000 in prizes!" -- say, isn't that TODAY?!

Technorati Tags: explore singapore, singapore heritage, singapore

Fortune senior editor says Second life is not overhyped

The coverage and "hype" concerning SecondLife seems to mirror that given to blogs about a year ago, or so it seems to me. Here are two articles from CNNmoney.com:

No, Second Life is not overhyped(10 Nov 2006)
Is it a game? No. Is it a marketing opportunity? Yes, but who cares? What matters most is that it may point to the future of the Net, says Fortune's David Kirkpatrick.

A less-than-recent article also from CNNmoney.com, but one that might shed light on the economic potentials in SecondLife:

The Virtual Rockefeller (1 Dec 2005)
Anshe Chung is raking in real money in an unreal online world.
It's all virtual, of course--part of a flourishing online universe called Second Life. And if it sounds absurd, consider this: While Anshe won't talk about how much money she's making ("I'm careful not to stir animosity," she says), Philip Rosedale, the founder and CEO of Linden Lab, which runs Second Life, estimates that she's bringing in around $150,000 a year--in real, hard cash.

I found my way to those articles from, PacificRim Exchange, a blog created to "chronicle the development of the Pacific Rim Exchange project (PacRimX)":

This is a collaborative project between two school districts, one in California and one in Japan. This project will be built on a virtual island in Teen Second Life. Since this island will be “off the grid” it will only be open to exchange students from the two school districts, and their teachers that are part of the program. This blog will be your window into our world as it is built.

The blogger of PacificRim Exchange prefers to keep his/ her first life identity private and blogs under a SL identity.

In this post, he/ she also shared how the younger generation takes to virtual worlds like ducks to water, unlike the older generation (generally speaking), and I tend to agree. For the older generation (how old is 'old' is subjective but I'm talking roughly 40s and above) I suspect it's not even an issue of them being closed-minded. It's just a different way of doing things wrt virtual worlds. A cultural/ lifestyle gap even.

It's like the question, "Why do people blog?" How do you convince them that the answer is simply, "Because they can"?


Technorati Tag: second life

Podcast: Lady of Shalott (Down to Camelot)

My first serious attempt at a song with vocals (mine). Kevin heard it first and he said he found it funny. Er, not quite the response I'd hope for but at least he didn't cringe, LOL.


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[Playing time: 2min 51secs]
Download/ Play MP3

This song came about quite unplanned. I was just strumming the basic guitar chords and then decided to record into GarageBand, with a percussion (shaker) layer set at 80 beats per second (bps). Once that was done, I hooked up the microphone to test the recording of vocals with the recorded tracks playing. There was no specific plan to record it as a song. I hummed a tune and it seemed to fit. In a flash I decided I needed lyrics (recording a hum wasn't the same).

The fastest way to get lyrics was for me to grab a yellow-paged copy of "Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson" that was sitting on my bookshelf. I flipped at random and came upon the "Lady of Shalott" poem. In truth, the book wasn't mine. I've never read much of Tennyson either. But with the tune in my head, I started mouthing the Lady of Shalott poem, singing and narrating the selected lines of the poem. It just fell in place.

It was only after the song was recorded that I went to Google for "Lady of Shalott", and I found this page (www.pathguy.com/shalott.htm) that explained what the poem was about.

I have no training (formal or otherwise) in singing or musical arrangement. One time a friend (who's trained) told me to "sing through your nose". I don't really know what that means. The only practice I have had were during Karaoke sessions many years ago, heh.

Before posting the song on the web, I decided to let my wife listen to the song. About 30-seconds into the song she said, "You can stop playing now" but I forced her to listen in its entirety. Then finally she said "You can title it 'Relaxation Music'". Well, she didn't say "ugh" so I guess it's fit for sharing with the rest of the world. LOL.

I can't imagine myself blogging love notes to my wife like what Lucian does. But I can dedicate this song to her :)

No, I don't mean to imply she's the Lady of Shalott.

• Read the poem in full at: www.poetry-online.org/tennyson_the_lady_of_shalott.htm
• More about Lord Alfred Tennyson: www.online-literature.com/tennyson/
• Explanation of the poem "Lady of Shalott": www.pathguy.com/shalott.htm

LYRICS
[1 - Spoken]
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
(To many-tower'd Camelot);
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott/ (To Camelot).

[2 - Sung]
But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
And music, went to Camelot:

[3 - Spoken]
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
By the margin, willow veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:

[Repeat 1 - Sung]

[Repeat 2 - Sung]

[Repeat 1 - Spoken]

[Repeat 2 - Sung]

[4 - Sung/ fade]
When the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed:
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.

RamblingLibrarian's Podcasts:


Technorati Tags: garageband, mac, apple, lord alfred tennyson, camelot

Why men will prefer World Of Warcraft over Second Life

If the earlier explanations weren't clear on what is Second Life (SL), this video (Introduction to Second Life) might help.

Whereas this video (World Of Warcraft Trailer) will show you why men, especially men, will prefer something like World Of Warcraft (WOW) over Second Life!

[You can play both videos directly from this post]

In many ways, both WOW and SL are (to use this term that Walter said to me) "avatar based socialisation models". I've not played WOW. From what I understand, WOW is a role playing game, much like an extended Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Players team up with other players online, go through missions that involve battles and/ or engage in trade and crafts (like Blacksmithing) and gain experience points in the process.

In SL, there's no battles or killings but there's the trade-craft/ economic element (i.e. creating and selling objects). There's certainly the gaming element, for instance there are role-playing islands (like Star Wars), and bars/ music clubs/ casinos. There's also the educational element that WOW won't have. Read these posts -- by Vanessa Tan (on Learning Environments in Second Life) and by Kevin (How not to teach in Second Life).


Technorati Tags: second life, world of warcraft

More (on) Del.icio.us

Here's an article on the creator of Del.icio.us, Joshua Schachter. He's 32! Wow. What's significant about a service/ tool like Del.icio.us is the concept of "tagging". Here's an explanation of "tagging", written by a librarian, which I think other librarians will be able to relate to.

Technorati Tags: tagging, social bookmarking, folksonomy, taxonomy

Public library event: Blogging for Senior Citizens

Mr. Lam Chun See (goodmorningyesterday.blogspot.com), arguably the oldest blogger in Singapore, would be conducting a talk at Queenstown Community Library (QUCL) on Saturday, 25 Nov 2006. I'll be his assistant for that day.

Chun See is a management consultant by trade, and I think he conducts training as part of his work. I'm sure I'll be able to learn a lot by observing him in action. I'm already learning so much from reading his blog. He's a prolific and proficient blogger, who's also a frequent contributor to Yesterday.SG. He was posting videos to YouTube even before I'd even signed up for a YouTube account!

I've not collaborated with Chun See before. We're not sure if we'll have time to do a dry-run of the presentation before that day. But I'm confident we'll pull it off. It's not that I'm not giving this my 100% commitment. It's just that reading his blog regularly, and having met him (albeit much fewer times in person than online), I have quite a good sense of how well I would be able to work with him for a presentation. There's relatively less preparation involved also, since it's a talk and not a practical session.

Blogging for Senior Citizens
Date/Time : 25 November 2006 , 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm
Venue : Queenstown Community Library - Programme Zone
Subject : Education & Learning (English)
Presenter : Mr Lam Chun See and Mr Ivan Chew
Admission : Free admission

Blogging has become tremendously popular among young people in Singapore in recent years. Unfortunately there is a misconception among the older folks that blogging is technically very difficult is thus is only suited for the young and internet-savvy. The main aim of this talk is to explain what is blogging and to share with you the fun of blogging. You will also see a demonstration of how easy it is to start and create a blog.

Just realised Chun See mentioned about the upcoming talk as well. What a coincidence. BTW, even though the talk is aimed at Seniors, I think teens to adults will find it useful as well. Ah, I shall ask if my mum and dad if they want to attend the talk, heh.


Technorati Tags: blogging, senior citizen, senior citizen week

Trying out Vox

A few days ago, Kevin, Siva and I were sharing over email on some of our experiences in conducting blogging classes, particularly those that involved hands-on creation of blogs. In one of the email thread, I asked if any of them have shown Vox as a demo. Between the three of us, only Kevin had tried Vox (theory.vox.com).

In order to keep myself current in terms of blogging tools, I decided to check out Vox. As far as I can tell, Blogger.com and Wordpress.com remain the most popular blogging services used for demo purposes due to what I deem as good grounding of basic blogging features. Compared to those two, Vox.com seems a little late on the scene. However, it has a solid reputation as far as blog hosting services goes -- Vox.com is by Six Apart, the company that provide TypePad, Movable Type, and LiveJournal.

Over the weekend, I managed to create a Vox account and a new blog (ivanchew.vox.com). Heh, this time round I didn't have to think too much about the blog name. Apparently, "IvanChew" was available so I might as well take it.

I have to say I'm impressed with Vox.com overall, even though it's given me some problems (lucky for Vox.com, I was keen on trying out Vox and didn't give up trying to see if the issues were resolved). It was clear to me Vox has done some serious thinking in terms of the features and level of integration that a blog tool should have. I've blogged (Voxed?) about it in my Vox blog -- on Vox features and inserting videos in Vox.

Overall verdict for Vox -- it's done a nice job, even if it seems a bit late on the blog hosting scene. If I were new to blogging and starting a blog for the first time, Vox might even be my first choice because it provides a photo and audio hosting service along with the blog.

But I'm not giving up my Blogger or Wordpress blogs for Vox anytime soon. To be honest, I don't think I'll ever give them up. All three services have their unique features, strengths and weaknesses. For instance:

• Blogger allows multiple blogs to be created under one account (Wordpress.com followed suit relatively quickly), option to muck around with the blog template, ease of switching between WYSIWYG and HTML modes when composing posts, and Blogger Beta promises some new features that some bloggers have been hoping for quite some time. But I'm not sure if its design templates will be updated (they are relatively plain compared to Wordpress and Vox, but then again its advantage is also its simplicity...)
• Wordpress.com allows new "web pages" to be created and maintained just like a blog post, the ability to create and manage categories, and a hassle-free built-in statistical reports. But it's interface is not as intuitive as Blogger.com and Vox.
• Vox's advantage is its well-integrated photo and video hosting, loads of blog templates and other features that promotes interaction among Vox users. But more sophisticated users, especially those already used to using external photo/ audio/ video hosting services, might not see the integrated features as a bonus. Other missing features include Trackbacks and site reporting tools.

A few minutes ago, I recommended Vox.com to someone over IM. She said she wanted a blog tool that allowed her to upload audio files. She's not as inclined to explore external services like what I'm doing, so I think Vox would be perfect for her.

I quite like Vox too and I wonder if I should post more frequently at my Vox blog. I know to some of you, I already have one blog too many. But maybe it's the librarian in me who sees the use of subject or "intent-specific" blogs. Each blog serves its own purpose and audience.

Another reason why I might maintain the Vox blog is because the Vox URL is specifically for me (ivanchew.vox.com), rather than tied to an industry (ramblinglibrarian) or a hobby (MyRightBrain). But if you're expecting me to share really personal stuff over there, let's just say I'll be as personal as I have been in all the other blogs I maintain : )


Technorati Tags: vox, blog services

NLB (Staff) Learning Festival: Creating blogs with Blogger.com

As part of an internal "Learning Festival" for NLB staff, the NLB Academy organised a series of brief "Learning Hours"/ Sharing Sessions conducted by staff, for staff. I was asked to conduct a three-hour session on "Blogging", specifically on how to create a blog with Blogger.com. I was happy to see the class fully subscribed (20+ colleagues), some of them senior staff. It was a hands-on session, pretty much like the previous sessions I've conducted except that this focused more on using Blogger.com.

With only three hours, I decided to skip the "theoretical" stuff and tried to get the class jump right into Blogger.com. Of course, to set the context, I made them read the ST article of an interview with George Yeo, on his motivations for blogging (Oct 13, 2006. "George Yeo gets personal online: The Foreign Minister's foray into blogging has created a buzz among netizens. What is a Cabinet minister doing in the messy online world, Lynn Lee asks"). I chose this article as it's well-written, in a light-hearted manner, by the journalist (like a blogger). More important, it captured some essential points on blogging in the context of the session I was asked to share. These two points were pointed out when I asked the class to share what struck them most from reading the article:

Three rules guide him: 'Don't be controversial, don't touch on policy matters which involve organisations, and don't be nasty to people.'

He confesses he felt 'self-conscious, as if the world was watching', the first few times he posted. But he soon realised 'the whole world is not watching and not many people are interested'.

The session was also peppered with Questions and Answers, like "How do I know what my child is blogging?", "How do I locate/ search for blogs?", "Can blogs be set as private?", "Why do people blog?", "How much time does it take up?". The usual questions that are asked by those new to blogs and blogging.

From the feedback forms, it seems my colleagues enjoyed the session. About a quarter to a third even suggested a longer and more in-depth session. Someone requested that I email the slides I used, so that she can share with her colleagues back in her department. I've since emailed her. They were simply screen-shots of the process of registering with Blogger.com. I thought I might as well post them in my blog. The steps are correct as of 1st Nov 2006 (when Blogger.com will cut over to the new Blogger Beta, which might have a different interface).

*** UPDATE - See New Blogger Features (Dec 2006)

Click on the images for the larger-sized screenshots:

Step 1 - Blogger - Login/ Create Blog

This is where you you create a blog, or login to your Blogger account - Blogger.com (additional notes in Flickr.com - click here)

Blogger - Step 1 in Creating An Account

You are required to choose a User Name for your blogger account. Blogger uses Image Verification rather than Email Verification in accepting accounts. The email you enter is for things like "password reminder" rather than for creating an account with Blogger. If your preferred User Name has been taken, you'd be required to enter an alternative. Your User Name does not necessarily have to be your Blog Name or Display Name (i.e. you may wish to choose something totally unrelated to your blog name for additional security).

Blogger - Step 2: Name your blog

Here, you're required to enter a Title for your blog and the blog URL (these can be changed later; for the URL it will be subject to availability, so it's best to choose wisely at this stage). The Word Verification is a feature for blogger to ensure it's a human being that's creating an account, rather than an automatic program (spambot).

Blogger - Step 3: Choose a template

Click on any of the design. Tip -- you can always choose a new template, so simply choose anyone to proceed and complete your registration/ blog creation process. My observation is that most "Blogger newbies" spend way too much time at this stage, and adds unnecessary delay in registering the blog.

Blogger - After Step 3

You're almost there...

Blogger - Confirmation of new blog

Congratulations! You now have a blog. But you if you try to visit your blog URL, you'll get a 404 Page Not Found message. Don't worry -- you see your blog once you publish at least one post. Which is why blogger will bring you directly to...

Blogger - Create/ Publish Post

This is where you create a new post. It's almost like composing and sending an email. More explanatory notes are at the Flickr.com image - click here)

Technorati Tags: blogger, blog tutorial