The age of the Infocalypse

Image by Marshall Astor – Food Pornographer via Flickr

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

This world is now a heaving social consciousness that shifts and proclaims and tweets and updates and spouts gouts of data, information and knowledge about itself. What was once a series of nodes, is now a singular navel gazing datastrosity that finds itself reflected in a mirror that reflects to eternity. Its holding a mirror to itself, speaking into a mouthpiece, without a filter, it has its own ear hard up against its mouth, and this mouth whispers and whispers and whispers information which people are free to attach and attribute meaning and to anchor celebrity and diggs and likes.

It is the age of the infocalypse, where everyone can choose to be the Protagonist. We are no longer mere  consumers – we can take it upon ourselves and hide and block some and follow others. We can start our own memes, and incite our own flashmob.

Now is the time. Tom0rrow is the time. Anytime is a good time. The global village is no longer a village. We’ve upgraded and reached escape velocity. All information is now accessible if you have the user privileges. Google is going for the early land grab. Microsoft is making you view the land through their own window. How you see the information is a matter of the browser and the browsed.

What is next after the internet? Metaverse.  Datafeed –> Omnifeed –> Food for thought.

Nexus One – Want or Need?

Image via CrunchBase

Googles new phone, which is touted as the next iPhone killer seems to be just another solid smartphone entry into the market.

Image via CrunchBase

Googles name seems to have inspired a few oh’s and ah’s about matters, and you can see the tour of the phone here;

http://www.google.com/googlephone/tour/

Summarising and plagiarising from CNet, the main features of the Nexus One are; Excellent voice command features, good camera, ok media player, apps loaded in a flash, navigation is ok, plus the usuals: calculator, a full duplex speakerphone, a compass, a text-to-speech feature, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, text and multimedia messaging, and the full slate of Google applications like Google Voice, Google Talk, and Google Maps. .see;

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051200,45181460p,00.htm

which,  features the important bit of information that The Nexus One is also available to online buyers in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Nexus One, – just a phone, and not an experience, yet. Nexus One – a WANT.

Although , if you’re looking for a bit of humour, a fatal flaw is touted by one source [sic]

http://www.esarcasm.com/10031/esarcasm-uncovers-fatal-flaw-in-nexus-one-phones/ i

The Webby Awards list

The 10 most most influential Internet moments of the decade:

- Craigslist online classified site expands outside San Francisco (2000)
- the launch of Google AdWords (2000)
- the launch of online encyclopedia Wikipedia (2001)
- the shutdown of file-sharing site Napster (2001)
- Google’s initial public offering (2004)
- the online video revolution led by YouTube (2006)
- Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter launches (2006)
- Apple’s iPhone debuts (2007)
- the use of the Internet in the US presidential campaign (2008)
- the use of Twitter during the Iranian election protests (2009)

Do with this what you will!

One interesting point – hoping technometry gets on this list sometime…!

Online Legal Research Resources – Part 2

This is part 2 (of 4) of a informal article written for the LAWASIA conference in Kuala Lumpur, 2008 (amended for context). Its a quick snapshot of the different types of Online Legal Research resources that are available in the Malaysian and Singaporean legal landscape.

Free Online Resources

Search Engines

The ubiquitous search engine is the first choice in any basic trawl for information. Search engines are able to give a snapshot of relevant sites, news, general details and principles. However, to get effective results, the technical limits of the search engine that is being used must be understood, as well as the context of the terms that are being searched for and also how the ranking and grouping of results takes place. For example, a search engine may not compile information or types of content from relevant jurisdictions or key sources, or may incorrectly give a low relevancy rank to a relevant website thereby relegating it to the third or fourth page. The user may never have the opportunity to access a relevant site, unless they are doggedly determined. Google has become synonymous with search engines, and with good reason. Its complicated algorithms and page rank analysis allow it to consistently display relevant and real results. Google was an internet leader in identifying the different silos and types of information online and making it easy for the user to sift through the type of content they wished to find. As such, Google has fostered a growing suite of specific services.One service is Google Books, which is a tool that searches the full text of books that have been scanned and stored in its digital database. A preview or snippet of the book is displayed based on the keywords the user has searched.

Besides Google, there are many other types of search engines which can cater more specifically to a user’s needs. Rednano.sg is a good case study. Red Nano searches over web content, and also the archives of The Straits Times (a leading Singapore newspaper) which are not accessible to other search engines. Immediately, the Singapore user is privy to search results that are more likely to be relevant. In addition, the results that are displayed are grouped firstly into findings from Singapore sources, and then into results gathered from the rest of the world. Another type of search is provided by Technorati.com which searches blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (videos, photos etc) known as “citizen media”.

Article to be continued

Battle Continues; Google takes on eBooks and Amazon

Good news for eBook users and consumers in general – Google is stepping into the electronic literary ring, as it announced recently that it plans to launch an online store to deliver electronic books to any device with a Web browser.

The service is called “Google Editions” and is intended to launch in first half of 2010. See here for Yahoo news article.

Whatever the case, the consumer wins – as; competition is always good to keep prices down and the exposure and accessibility of eBook readers is increased.

Maybe now, people will finally start getting into this eBook reader thing?

Image via Wikipedia

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