In the future, plain blogging will no longer be an assignment for COM 125 courses (If there is still one). At the very least, it will be modified.
In the future, there will be no such thing as typing down and posting your daily events, or even our opinions.
In the future, bloggers will be able to purchase a device, called the iblog, and whatever Microsoft wants to call it.
This device is extremely portable and it can be carried around with bloggers anytime, anywhere and everywhere. It automatic records down and saves any activity the blogger goes through, and even any thoughts or opinions he/she has about a particular issue. All these bloggers have to do is to choose, and of course, censors before putting up a blog post.
In the future, there will definitely be a clearer convergence between blogging, participation, and brainstorming.
If one is dirty minded, it is advisable to set his iblog to the safe mode. This is to save himself from troubles.
And of course, save himself from the penalization of grades by Dr/Mr Abel Choy due to an accidental explicit post. (:
Monday, April 25, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Different forms of communications. (Free Post)
As the saying goes, “It’s not about what you say; it’s about how you say it.”
Non-verbal communication is indeed a powerful way in expressing yourself. As all of us should have known by now that non-verbal communication involves sending a message to the receiver without words conveyed. Have you ever said something stupid to your other half and he/she merely rolled eyes without giving a verbal reply? Or have you ever told a bad lie to your mummy and she raised an eyebrow? Well, these are just typical examples of non-verbal communication which occurs frequently in our lives.
With some thought, I came to realise that non-verbal communication can be categorized into two different forms; intentional and unintentional. Well, which category of non-verbal communications do you think each of the earlier examples fall into? This, I would say is another story. It is psychology, which I do not want to delve into, especially when I am rushing my COMMUNICATION assignment. ): However, this little pondering that I just had did give me another realization; certain types of non-verbal communications can actually fall into both intentional, and unintentional. One of them would definitely be body language. In some circumstances, your body language does truly express your thoughts and feelings. For example, if you are one who is extremely afraid of the supernatural world, you will definitely cringe, or even scream loudly if you see a ghost. This is when body language falls under unintentional non-verbal communications. Such cases usually occur to children, whose adolescence caused them to be more self-centered. They therefore tend to not hide their feelings and whatever usage of body language would most likely be the true interpretation of their thoughts and feelings at that point of time. However, body language does fall into intentional non-verbal communication as one grows older. This is when maturity steps in, which complicates one’s character and thoughts. As one grows older, there will be more circumstances where his/her body language is not a true representation of his thoughts and feelings, as it could act as a tool to achieve certain purposes. For example, when a young man goes to a nightclub, his body language would suddenly become that of an “alpha male”. He may purposely walk at a slower pace or suck in his tummy in order to achieve his purpose; maximize his sex appeal. Such is an example of body language which falls under the category of intentional non-verbal communications.
During this time when different forms of non-verbal communication fill my mind, I suddenly thought of The Morse Code. It is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm and it uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message. To me, it is a form of non-verbal communication as words are not being used to convey messages. And it definitely falls under intentional non-verbal communication. (You cannot “unintentionally” apply the Morse code?) The Morse code is definitely a very powerful and sophisticated way of communication and it is usually applied to achieve a purpose of huge importance. It is usually used to convey a secret message to another party.
From the movie, “Infernal Affairs”, the mole of the police force actually joined a particular secret society in order to spy on them. However, the method he uses to give out information of the activities of the secret society has to be extremely discreet in order not to put himself at risk. He can’t possibly just take out his cell phone and calls his superior in the police force, especially in the midst of certain dangerous gang activity. Therefore, he uses the Morse code to communicate with his superior and sabotaged the gang in many instances. That came to be very useful in many occasions of the movie. And eventually, not only did he manage to survive in the gang for a long time, he became the right hand man of the gang, trusted by the leader, and earned great respect from his fellow gang members. At 1:26 of the video posted, the Morse code is being used.
P.S. This is an awesome movie! A Must watch. (:
BUT, in the communication notes, it is written that non-verbal communication uses the right brain, while the application of the Morse code involves the left brain. However, again, the Morse code definitely does not involve any words. So is the Morse code non-verbal communication or verbal communication? Or is it neither?
Non-verbal communication is indeed a powerful way in expressing yourself. As all of us should have known by now that non-verbal communication involves sending a message to the receiver without words conveyed. Have you ever said something stupid to your other half and he/she merely rolled eyes without giving a verbal reply? Or have you ever told a bad lie to your mummy and she raised an eyebrow? Well, these are just typical examples of non-verbal communication which occurs frequently in our lives.
With some thought, I came to realise that non-verbal communication can be categorized into two different forms; intentional and unintentional. Well, which category of non-verbal communications do you think each of the earlier examples fall into? This, I would say is another story. It is psychology, which I do not want to delve into, especially when I am rushing my COMMUNICATION assignment. ): However, this little pondering that I just had did give me another realization; certain types of non-verbal communications can actually fall into both intentional, and unintentional. One of them would definitely be body language. In some circumstances, your body language does truly express your thoughts and feelings. For example, if you are one who is extremely afraid of the supernatural world, you will definitely cringe, or even scream loudly if you see a ghost. This is when body language falls under unintentional non-verbal communications. Such cases usually occur to children, whose adolescence caused them to be more self-centered. They therefore tend to not hide their feelings and whatever usage of body language would most likely be the true interpretation of their thoughts and feelings at that point of time. However, body language does fall into intentional non-verbal communication as one grows older. This is when maturity steps in, which complicates one’s character and thoughts. As one grows older, there will be more circumstances where his/her body language is not a true representation of his thoughts and feelings, as it could act as a tool to achieve certain purposes. For example, when a young man goes to a nightclub, his body language would suddenly become that of an “alpha male”. He may purposely walk at a slower pace or suck in his tummy in order to achieve his purpose; maximize his sex appeal. Such is an example of body language which falls under the category of intentional non-verbal communications.
During this time when different forms of non-verbal communication fill my mind, I suddenly thought of The Morse Code. It is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm and it uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message. To me, it is a form of non-verbal communication as words are not being used to convey messages. And it definitely falls under intentional non-verbal communication. (You cannot “unintentionally” apply the Morse code?) The Morse code is definitely a very powerful and sophisticated way of communication and it is usually applied to achieve a purpose of huge importance. It is usually used to convey a secret message to another party.
From the movie, “Infernal Affairs”, the mole of the police force actually joined a particular secret society in order to spy on them. However, the method he uses to give out information of the activities of the secret society has to be extremely discreet in order not to put himself at risk. He can’t possibly just take out his cell phone and calls his superior in the police force, especially in the midst of certain dangerous gang activity. Therefore, he uses the Morse code to communicate with his superior and sabotaged the gang in many instances. That came to be very useful in many occasions of the movie. And eventually, not only did he manage to survive in the gang for a long time, he became the right hand man of the gang, trusted by the leader, and earned great respect from his fellow gang members. At 1:26 of the video posted, the Morse code is being used.
P.S. This is an awesome movie! A Must watch. (:
BUT, in the communication notes, it is written that non-verbal communication uses the right brain, while the application of the Morse code involves the left brain. However, again, the Morse code definitely does not involve any words. So is the Morse code non-verbal communication or verbal communication? Or is it neither?
Monday, April 11, 2011
Internet and the rise of Obama
Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington post once said, “Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee.”
It is very true. Obama competed with candidates who were seemingly way more promising. Those nominees were of higher social status and power, and of course, not to forget, they were white.
But the significant role of the Internet has indeed greatly aided him in his way to presidency. At the same time, what Arianna Huffington had said also proved Barack Obama to be an expert in this form of media, as it is definitely not as easy as it seemed to be to work with the new media with his level of efficiency. Moreover, it was not as if the other candidates had no access to the Internet.
So, how exactly did Mister President do it?
Well, that you got to ask him yourself! It’s not that I am unable to analyze what and how he had effectively made use of the Internet, but I simply believe that putting it down in words is not enough. In simple words, he was able to reach out to the online community, which consists of many young people, and eventually captured their hearts. Just like how former president John. F. Kennedy did with the television then.
Well, I am able to let you (and myself) have a glimpse of how Obama extensively used the Internet. Not only that he took advantage of YouTube for free advertis let ing, where it was argued that the videos were more effective as viewers chose to watch them themselves instead of having their television shows interrupted, he even started a website called MyWhiteHouse.gov to talk to the citizens.
We all know that he was successful in capturing the attention of voters via the Internet, but do we know how successful? Let me give you a glimpse of that too!
His campaign’s official video on YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours! (That would have cost $47 million on the TV.)
And of course, he made use of social networking sites as well!
Below is the list showing some facts of how Obama was "all over the place" in social media during his campaign:
• Obama has gained 5 million supporters in third party social networks.
• Obama maintained a profile in more than 15 online communities, including BlackPlanet, a MySpace for African Americans, and Eons, a Facebook for baby boomers.
• On Facebook, where about 3.2 million (during the campaign) signed up as his supporters.
And Facebook users did vote: On Facebook's Election 2008 page, which listed an 800 number to call for voting problems, more than 5.4 million users clicked on an "I Voted" button to let their Facebook friends know that they made it to the polls!
• About 200,000 offline events were planned
• About 400,000 blog posts were written
And more than 35,000 volunteer groups were created - at least 1,000 of them on Feb. 10, 2007, the day Obama announced his candidacy.
Are you impressed now?
You can even go and take a look at the full presentation here
All these facts also showed a substantial amount of efforts by him during his election period too.
Barack Obama on his blackberry during his election period, possibly working out something for his campaign via the Internet.
Last but not least, feel free to take a look at his YouTube channel! And you can go be one of the 202898 subscribers.
It is very true. Obama competed with candidates who were seemingly way more promising. Those nominees were of higher social status and power, and of course, not to forget, they were white.
But the significant role of the Internet has indeed greatly aided him in his way to presidency. At the same time, what Arianna Huffington had said also proved Barack Obama to be an expert in this form of media, as it is definitely not as easy as it seemed to be to work with the new media with his level of efficiency. Moreover, it was not as if the other candidates had no access to the Internet.
So, how exactly did Mister President do it?
Well, that you got to ask him yourself! It’s not that I am unable to analyze what and how he had effectively made use of the Internet, but I simply believe that putting it down in words is not enough. In simple words, he was able to reach out to the online community, which consists of many young people, and eventually captured their hearts. Just like how former president John. F. Kennedy did with the television then.
Well, I am able to let you (and myself) have a glimpse of how Obama extensively used the Internet. Not only that he took advantage of YouTube for free advertis let ing, where it was argued that the videos were more effective as viewers chose to watch them themselves instead of having their television shows interrupted, he even started a website called MyWhiteHouse.gov to talk to the citizens.
We all know that he was successful in capturing the attention of voters via the Internet, but do we know how successful? Let me give you a glimpse of that too!
His campaign’s official video on YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours! (That would have cost $47 million on the TV.)
And of course, he made use of social networking sites as well!
Below is the list showing some facts of how Obama was "all over the place" in social media during his campaign:
• Obama has gained 5 million supporters in third party social networks.
• Obama maintained a profile in more than 15 online communities, including BlackPlanet, a MySpace for African Americans, and Eons, a Facebook for baby boomers.
• On Facebook, where about 3.2 million (during the campaign) signed up as his supporters.
And Facebook users did vote: On Facebook's Election 2008 page, which listed an 800 number to call for voting problems, more than 5.4 million users clicked on an "I Voted" button to let their Facebook friends know that they made it to the polls!
• About 200,000 offline events were planned
• About 400,000 blog posts were written
And more than 35,000 volunteer groups were created - at least 1,000 of them on Feb. 10, 2007, the day Obama announced his candidacy.
Are you impressed now?
You can even go and take a look at the full presentation here
All these facts also showed a substantial amount of efforts by him during his election period too.
Barack Obama on his blackberry during his election period, possibly working out something for his campaign via the Internet.
Last but not least, feel free to take a look at his YouTube channel! And you can go be one of the 202898 subscribers.
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