It’s Spam-a-lot, but do Relax-a-lot!

Like a good breakfast, sometimes you get spam along with eggs, toast and grapefruit. If you’ve had trouble sending in your blog assignments in the comments, don’t fret as I’ve manually dug them out. We’ve been getting hit with tons of spam and the anti-spam system is having trouble telling the good from the bad comments. Hungry anyone?

You’ve Got Grade!

I’m still grading your blog entries for Bonus #1 and Week 8’s “Online Politics”, and I’m tabulating your presentation scores.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to put up available grades on UBlearns for your viewing pleasure / displeasure. Don’t worry about the final grade column as the scores haven’t been weighed yet.

You should login to UBlearns to check this out right now…

Aside: I’ll be updating the UBlearns gradebook and will let you know in class when it’s more complete.

This week’s “cool pick” of the class…

While grading your blogs, I chanced upon all kinds of interesting things you guys have been posting. It’d be a shame if no one saw, so I’m making a list and checking it twice (no, it’s not Christmas yet). Here are recent “non-assignment” blog posts you guys have done (ranked by coolness):

1. Liyana shows us a demo recording video of her amazing musical group called the Sinar Fusika. She plays bass. I want your album!
2. Ximin (aka AKnightInRustyArmor) says “If I catch the f**ker who stole my phone, you’re f**king dog meat.” Is there thievery in our class? Hopefully not. Let me know so we can expel the @%#$-er. If you know who did it, better tell the person to own up to him.
3. Mr Ho Viet Hai (aka Love Volcano or something like that) shows you how to download Youtube videos to your hard drive. No need to buffer videos for your presentations anymore!
4. Rosalyn (aka Razzle Dazzled) caught a video of who won at the Singapore National Barista Championship 2007, which happened at Suntec City. She wants to upgrade her phone. Pam?
5. Kenny discovers that SIM ads are everywhere, even on a Marvels Super Heroes News web site. Meanwhile, Hai Lee bakes a Banana Cake. Where’s our dear baker Carol?

Did anything cool lately? Stomp Blog it and let me know…

Video: Citizen Journalism Boot Camp

In case you missed this, Zhi, Bao, Pam, Mihiri and Monica have made a hilarious “how-to” video on Citizen Journalism for COM125B.

While I’m not expecting everyone to know how to produce videos, this serves to remind everyone on the importance of media literacy. The future truly belongs to those who don’t just master oral languages well, but the languages of the Web, which are spoken in text, music, photos, videos, photos, and so on.

QotW10: Wanna Play for Credits?

Are games simply forms of entertainment, or can they be much more?

As fair warning, I had you guys start early since this will take a while. Here’s the Question of the Week (QotW), which is more like a series of tasks:

1. Haven’t already done so? Register an account with Second Life
2. Get familiar with Second Life (SL) via our computer labs, or via the downloadable client for your laptop (Mac/Windows).
3. Complete the Orientation Island to understand the controls for Second Life.
4. Add yourself to our SL group: At the lower menu, click on Search > Groups tab > enter “COM125″ and join in.
5. Personalize your avatar as much as possible by editing appearance and finding clothes you like. Search via in-world for “freebies” (there are tons of freebie places), or check out this neat SL shopping blog (freebies category). If you have real money to burn into Linden dollars, check out Wired: Second Life Must-Have Stuff.
6. Go sightseeing in Second Life, preferably together with your classmate. (e.g. Look for web-based guides such as SLSingapore.com, Wired’s Travel Guide to Second Life or NMC’s SL Tips & Tricks).
7. Take screenshots of your avatar at your most favorite place in Second Life.
8. Blog about it under the title “QotW10:_____”
9. First, publish your screenshots and write captions under them.
10. Second, write about your avatar (SL name, likeness to your real-self, by gender, clothing, etc)
11. Third, write about the place you’ve chosen (Explore! Don’t be lame and pick something common).
12. Optional: Use the built-in SLurl generator to share a direct teleport link to that location.

Bonus Mission #2 (worth 3 extra credits)

1. Based on the readings below, argue: Why is Second Life not a game?
2. Support your argument by giving an example of how virtual worlds, such as Second Life, could be used beyond mere entertainment (plenty of real-world examples if you look hard enough).
3. Make a concise argument in 500 words or more (proper written English), supported with at least two APA-style citations.
4. Start the title of your blog post as “Bonus Mission #2: _____”
5. Drop a comment here with a permalink to your blog post.

Deadline
8th April, Sunday, 9am (special time!)
Warning: Late work will not be graded

Required
Why should we take games seriously?
• World of Warcraft: Is It a Game?
• Virtually dead in Iraq

Optional
• A Rape in Cyberspace
• Synthetic statehood and the right to assemble
• Second Life: CopyBot causes widespread protests…
• Video: Building a Flying-V Guitar in Second Life (by Ivan and Kevin)

Unreal Estate and Virtual Capitalisms
• The Unreal Estate Boom
• Pitfalls of Virtual Property (PDF)
• Video: Chinese Gold Farmers in MMORPGs (Ge Jin, PhD candidate @ UCSD)
• Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese

Optional
• Anda’s Game (short story)

Guest Speaker: Jennifer Lewis, Editor of STOMP

At last weekend’s Nexus 2007 conference, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel on Citizen Journalism. From there, I got to know one of the speakers, Ms Jennifer Lewis as the Editor of STOMP. Whether you’re a casual blogger or an aspiring journalist, this guest speaker session should be interesting to you.

Ms. Jennifer has taken time off her busy schedule to share with us on what STOMP is about, as well as to discuss the state of citizen journalism in Singapore. I’ve informed her about your blog posts and your suggestions to improve STOMP, so this is a dialogue you won’t want to miss.

As usual, it will be this Wednesday, 10.30-11.30am at LT4.13.

There will be regular lessons for the 2nd day this week, as I need to share with you a short presentation as well as to check on your progress in Second Life.

Our first “Most Popular” blogger: Jiayi

Her recent blog post entitled “The STOMP to Citizen Journalism” has caught the attention of Global Voices Online writer, Preetam Rai.

Her article now appears alongside other interesting news from around the blogosphere. Though it’s a quick blurb (which appears on the blog’s sidebar), it’s a good start for something I’ve been encouraging all students to do, that is…

To Get Public Recognition For Your Work

Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens’ media project, sponsored by and launched from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School. Since Global Voices Online serves an international community of bloggers, it’s a popular blog, so Jiayi should start getting visitors soon.

@Jiayi: Congrats! You have now earned the first ever COM125 “Most Popular” blog award for being linked by a reputable news media. Keep up the great work!

@Everyone: Publicize your work! A tip to get visitors would be to read more blogs and to leave decent comments on them. Most bloggers would naturally be curious about you and return the favor in kind!

Second Life getting mainstream here…

The past two weeks has been interesting. There has been signs of Second Life (SL) getting more mainstream in Singapore. As such, I’m ordering everyone start immersing yourselves into SL early, so as to fully experience what it has to offer. SL has a high learning curve so get the hang on it in your free time. Ride the wave now before you get left behind. Even if you’re too cool for school, you can join in from home.

Some of you showed interest in building a virtual SIM campus in SL, so I’ve contacted SIM administrators for permission. Even if we can’t finish this by the end of this semester, it’s be fun and useful to do it as a project outside of class time. I’ve also contacted Alvin Loo to see if he could give us some land in “Lion City”.

Lastly, I’d like to try to organize a virtual meetup in Second Life. Once more of you are ready, we can meet in there and conduct classes, or just explore the world together.

Related Links:

• SL Lion City appears in The Straits Times
  24th March 2007, on Singapore’s mainstream newspaper, The Straits Times, there was an article on Lion City (SLurl teleporter) talking about what Singaporeans are doing in Second Life.
• A newspaper interview, secondlife and of Nexus 2007
  Marina finally gets the recognition she deserves. She’s a little shy in real life, and expresses herself best in Second Life. She’s now recognized in the Straits Times as well as in Nexus 2007 as a panel speaker.

QotW9: What’s Citizen Journalism? (w/ extra credit)

Journalists, Bloggers, Whistleblowers and so much more!

Here’s the Question of the Week (QotW):

1. Explore The Straits Times’ STOMP.com.sg…
2. Based on the readings below, is STOMP an ideal form of citizen journalism for Singapore?
3. Regardless of your response, how would you improve it?
4. Make a concise argument in 500 words or more (proper written English), supported with at least two APA-style citations.
5. Start the title of your blog post as “QotW9: _____”
6. Drop a comment here with a permalink to your blog post.
7. *Selected posts will be shared with Jennifer Lewis, Editor of STOMP.

Here’s the Extra-Credit (BONUS MISSION):

1. Contribute news to STOMP via SMS or MMS at 75557, or via email 75557@stomp.com.sg
2. If your contribution appears on the site, publish a link to it in the comments below (mark it “BONUS MISSION”)
3. Extra-credit will only be given if your news gets accepted.

Deadline
31st March, Saturday, 5pm
Warning: Late work will not be graded

Required
• “We the Media” Chapters 1, 3, 9 (Web / PDF)
Note: The Web version has the whole book on the same page.

Optional
• We the Media (remaining chapters)
• Nieman Reports: The Future Is Here, But Do News Media Companies See It? (Web summary / PDF report)
• “How Technology is changing the Media” at Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Google Video)
• New York Times: All the World’s a Story (19th March, 2007): Assignment Zero, a new online journalism experiment,  combines reporting efforts of readers to tell the world a story (a crowdsourcing example).

Building a Singaporean Political Blogger Directory

Most of you have adopted a local political blogger in your previous assignment. For those who haven’t, you can still find one. We’re going to help the general public access political discussions online by creating a directory of local political bloggers. Here’s what we’re doing in class:

1. Go to this Google Spreadsheet…
2. From your QotW8 blog assignments (or recent find), add your information in the appropriate fields.
3. This Singapore Political Blogger Directory will shared to all.

Congratulations, you’ve just made the Internet useful again!