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Worth Surfing: malaysiavotes.com

For all of you interested in following the Malaysian Elections through an independent news site that’s not biased to either side, you really should check out www.malaysiavotes.com.

The people running this site were journalists from The Edge and an ex-colleague of mine (who happened to be their colleagues in The Edge) has vouched for them. Personally, I’ve worked with at least one of them in the past (part of my job) and they are credible, intelligent and decent people so I’d vouch for them too.

Hooray for Online Journalism!

Social Networks shrinking – what are people using them for anyway?

Just a little while ago, the cross-section of the technology and marketing world was abuzz (and probably still is) with the idea of social networking and the possibilities to reach consumers in new ways with products and services.

The first chinks in the armour are starting to appear. Yesterday, the Guardian published a story citing Nielsen figures on a decline of 5% in UK Facebook users. Similarly, MySpace also saw a 5% drop.

Now, 5% doesn’t seem to be too much but if you put it against the context of all the furore that’s been going on around Facebook applications, forced invites and the (belated) measures Facebook are taking to respond, the message is starkingly clear – it’s time for social networks to clean up their act, literally.

People don’t want to receive spam from hundreds of different applications just because they have a couple of hundred friends who have vastly different interests and perhaps a few shared ones.

Facebook was appealing because it could let friends connect in groups of shared interests of play games they both had an interest in playing. It started to get painful when there were too many friends each trying to “recruit” you into playing their game. (I get about 12 vampire bites a day).

So, the final word in Social Networking (at least for now) seems to be “Niche.” Personally, I think Facebook has the potential to be precisely that by allowing people of similar interests (Groups) to connect with one another whilst making it simple to ignore and clear the clutter of the myriad of other stuff that doesn’t interest them.

I’ve asked a couple of friends about what they do on Facebook and while initially Vampires and Zombies were all the rage, the excitement has died down and it’s become a really practical communication tool for these people. For most of them, it’s about sharing pictures, posting comments, dropping personal messages and being a part of a group with similar interests. And of course, the odd app or two should still be there.

Niche doesn’t have to mean a social network that’s just built around one purpose (look at the very successful LinkedIn). Instead, I think it’s going to mean more and more the sort of flexible network that will let you carve your own space and find your own niche without having to drown in mass messaging.

Facebook’s clean up act could mean just that.

Just installed: Firefox Beta 3

I’m a sucker for Beta software. Just can’t resist installing the latest and (unready?) versions of software I use. So I went ahead and installed FireFox 3 Beta 3 yesterday. and it looks like this:

First impressions: Visually, there doesn’t seem to be much difference in the way FireFox 3 looks and feels compared to FireFox 2. That said, FireFox has always looked fine. What’s more important is that Beta 3 seems stable and hasn’t crashed on me yet even though I had like seventeen different windows and tabs open!

Function-wise, I like some of the new ’smart’ functions FireFox 3 incorporates (thus far, there may be more):

Smart Bookmarks

Auto-bookmarking isn’t really a new feature – FireFox 2 had it and virtually every browser built since the Netscape era has a handy tool called ‘History’ that’ll let you re-visit your previously visited pages. Smart Bookmarking takes this a step further, letting your auto-bookmarks be organised by the “most visited pages” and even tags. Tags works just like online social bookmarking services like del.icio.us, but allows you to attach tags to your bookmarks offline so you can easily search for previously bookmarked resources on any given topic. Real useful for doing research!

Revised Download feature

The biggest improvement for me here is the inclusion of a search function to help you locate those pesky files you’ve downloaded from the internet. If you do a lot of downloading, and have trouble finding files after that, this is just the right tonic for you.

These are the two major functions, for now that make FireFox 3 look like an evolutionary internet browser as opposed to a revolutionary one. Personally, I had hoped for more Web 2.0 functionality (incorporating OpenID?) like Flock but, I guess you could argue that just as much could be done with the extensions supported by FireFox.

Malaysia’s very own Internet Elections portal

So, what sort of change does the Internet bring to elections? Would it affect Malaysia? We’ll know in a couple of weeks, I guess.

There was a really good article from ReadWriteWeb I read that characterised how the Internet would change the nature of electoral campaigning and allow candidates to get closer, more directly engaged, with their audiences. Case in point:

• Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and the other US candidates all have Facebook profiles & groups.
• YouTube partnered CNN to host presidential debates on its Video Service.
• At least Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton have blogs. Many more campaign workers have blogs.

But that’s not all. Just run a Yahoo! search and you’ll find countless forums, blogs and sites that support discussion and debate on the US Elections.

Well, the good news is, us Malaysians aren’t too far behind. Beyond the political bloggers / watchers in our country, I’d like to point out that leading Bahasa Melayu daily Harian Metro has launched its own elections site entitled, aptly, “PilihanRaya 2008.”

Harian Metro’s Pilihan Raya 2008 site.

What really surprises me with this site is the functionality built in. You can not only get the latest news and information for the General Elections, but also vote in the on-going poll, or add your own comment.

Comments are on the left side of the screen.

I cannot stress how important a factor it is to allow people to comment. What’s an election if we don’t allow people to debate? The simple ability to comment makes this platform more than just a web-site. It’d be interesting to see the discussions (and… uh… moderation?) that’ll go on on the site.

This is pretty ground-breaking stuff, especially coming from an established newspaper. I’m personally wondering if we’ll see a similar site from NST the next couple of days to cover off the English-speaking audience.

Meanwhile, kudos to Harian Metro and its online team. Exciting stuff.

You Tube Videocracy: The event no press were invited to

… which made them want in even more.

Funny play on the human psyche this – we want the things we can’t get even more, but to go cover a press event? Granted it was an excellent event by an excellent brand and some key announcements were made. Some journo even tried to sneak in and was promptly thrown out.

Well, the news didn’t stay quiet for more than 24 hours thanks to Ian Schafer who promptly posted his notes up on his blog.

Personally, it wasn’t so much the news that excited me (what’s active sharing anyway?) but the manner in which YouTube pulled this event of. It’s got me thinking, if we organised a big event here in Malaysia, and “neglected” to invite the press, but made sure we invited loads of industry people (marketing folks, handphone dealers etc.), would that make it even more desireable for press to drop by and cover it.

Something tells me it won’t. Ah… the mysteries of life.

Here’s a quick video I found of what the event looked like:

Welcome to the World of Kitty-Craft

People say playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) games is a form of escapism. Back in the day, I used to “escape” daily into the (virtual) form of a raging Orc (green, Incredible Hulk-like thing) in World of Warcraft that goes by the name of ThrokTok (“me SMASH!”).

Now, though, people can choose the wonderful alternative of choosing to be a cat-with-no-mouth and prance around a cartoon world for escape in Hello Kitty Online. Yeap, NOW. It’s open for beta just a couple of days ago, and lucky folks can sign up for a chance to be a cat by simply submitting their email here.

Once in the world, players (according to the site) can choose to roam the streets of “the Flower Kingdom”, London, Tokyo, Moscow or Paris. You can not only build your own character, but build your “dream house”, “cultivate your own farm” and create “guilds”, according to the site.

So if you “escapist” dream has been to start your own megalomanical “flower-selling” empire, this is your chance! Be the first to get into the beta and start your very own flower-selling guild.

The Obligatory Valentines Post

I love Lydia a lot and in this, our 7th year together, we get to celebrate our Valentines Day in a simple way for the first time as a married couple.

Just to share a picture of us eating at Carl’s Jr:

And… not to forget, the best Valentine’s gift ever (for now):

Just a quick short post to say “Thanks dear, love you forever!” Always will.

A Nokia phone that’s nothing new

I’m so proud of Nokia (disclosure: one of my clients) today… this is the stuff I used to dream about as a kid – to take something from all the trash in my house and actually make something of it.

This phone’s called the ‘Remade’, simply because it’s made out of 100% recyclable or renewable materials. I spent a good while looking at the pictures to try and figure out where the recycled parts came from. You could almost see the aluminum that’s similar to what you find in canned drinks, and I’ve read that the plastics come off recycled plastic bottles. Really interesting.

Anyway, read Jan Chipchase’s blog post to get a better picture on the social idea behind Remade. He’s got some interesting pictures of a gentlemen “remaking” the phone.

Bill Gates quits Facebook, should you too?

Just a couple of months after splashing US$ 240 million on Facebook shares, Bill Gates has decided to abandon his personal Facebook account.

The reason? 8,000 friend requests a day and no way to bulk accept, set “limited profile” and “Skip this step” all of them at one go. If you take (internet connection speed-permitting) 10 seconds to add one friend, Bill’ll spend nearly a day (22.22 hours) just to accept those 8,000 friends. And there’s plenty more where that came from, you can be sure.

We’ve probably come to a cross-roads, then, as far as social networking is concerned. With MSNBC reporting Myspace users are spending 14% less time on the social network this month, it seems social networks as we know it now need a drastic re-design to keep people on them.

I’m sure some interface re-designing will help, but I also think we’re ready for the next big social network after Friendster, MySpace and Facebook have all had their day.

I’m wishing Social Network 3.0 will be an open platform that’s seamless across all my devices (meaning PDA, mobile device, desktop and laptop). Something that’s a bit of Microsoft Outlook mashed up with Facebook where with a single update to my contacts in Outlook whilst at work, I can easily sync up with that same address book at home and on my N95.

I know this sounds a bit like Open Social, but I think it should go beyond the web and onto the applications you use everyday (Thunderbird, this could be a great opp to one-up Microsoft!). It’s kind of how Flock integrates the web-browser with Facebook, Flickr and all your favourite Social Networking sites, only with a much, much higher level of integration.

Next, it’d be great if I could easily arrange people into groups, so only contacts I actually know will show up on my phonebook or email list whilst the “rest of the world” “friends” are kept on a “social only” page – on my desktop, laptop, PDA and mobile device. Perhaps make a work version and “life” version of virtual desktops to suit the time so different views appear at different times and switching is seamless at the click of a button.

Finally, can we just have ONE social network for everyone to be on? Or at least, have OpenID and Open Social succeed to the extent where we can be on different networks, but I’ll have all the same connections to my friends regardless of social network, offline client, or platform (desktop, laptop, mobile device).

So, maybe this is why Microsoft splashed US$240 million for…So Facebook could integrate with MS Outlook? It’s possible.