If you’d managed to read Straits Times today, you would have seen my big round face plastered on page A6. And ya, I’ve put on weight! LOL!

Gen Y gets down to work is written by Sandra Davis. She was also the one who did the previous Gen Y story where I laid down on the grass with my gadgets. Its very nice of her to remember me and got in touch for this latest piece.

She told me the piece will come out sometime this week and when my phone started ringing non-stop with SMSes since 10am, I knew its out.

The Beginning
Sandra dropped an email asking how I was coping with the recession. I shared what I did and how I try to maintain low running cost so that I can help my clients save too. And I do not see the recession as a downfall but a great opportunity. That’s why I started 24seven.

The photoshoot
Two weeks ago, I received a call from Sandra asking for a shoot and I was already out having a meeting with my team and not dressed for any shoot. But as it was urgent, I just had to do it. Praying that the photo will not be as big as the previous one. Well, it wasn’t as big, but it was a close up!

Thanks Desmond for the shoot. It was a fun session with many aunties and uncles passing by and stopping to see who was the subject being photographed. Sorry to disappoint them. There were two bounce light and even the umbrella reflector was used! It was ermm… very embarrassing lah! Doing this shoot at the crowded Chinatown area during Chinese New Year season somemore!

The Article
Here’s a shot of the print in Straits Times…

It was a very small mention of me in the long article, and am very shocked that my photo was the only one used and it had to take up such a big space. As @rabiz from Gothere.sg tweet “the writeup is not proportionate to the size of the picture“. Which is very true.

If you’d missed the article, you can read it online at Straits Times Digital.

Quoting the small part where I was mentioned…

With my big round face photo…

Ms Claudia Lim, 27, saw opportunity in the downturn and set up a consultancy to help firms market themselves online. She is one of many Gen Y workers proving resilient to hard times and a tough job market.

In the article…

Some like Ms Claudia Lim, 27, have already plunged into setting up their own businesses. Ms Lim set up a social media consultancy firm, 24seven, to help businesses market themselves through blogs and websites.

‘I don’t see a downturn, just more opportunities,’ says the technology-savvy Ms Lim who holds a business diploma from the poly and a teaching diploma from the National Institute of Education.

Really got to thanks Sandra for this and mentioning 24seven in the article.

If you would like to find out more about what I do, feel free to contact me or check our my company’s about page and FAQ page.

Updated on 11 Feb 2009: There’s another photo of my team and I in discussion too here.

i’m constantly having things to sell or give away. so do check back to my garage often. or better still, subscribe to my garage feed. you’ll never know what you’ll be able to find! usually it’ll be at super bargained price!

i really really need to get myself through this shitty time! please help buy my junk! or help me spread the words out k? especially if you know of anyone who might be interested in the list of things i’m selling.

Thank you very much!

It was Northlight School’s 2nd Prize Awards Night. It was a very simple affair, totally unlike those I was part of while in my teaching school. It may be simple, but I felt the appreciation from the students and parents. And the genuine support and love from the teachers was simply amazing! Never felt that strong of feeling through my three years in school. I was so touched that I teared! (Seriously I did!)

The NorthLight School aims to provide an engaging education for youth and prepare them for lifelong learning and employability.

A choice school to prepare youth for life and living, NorthLight School seeks to nurture confident, motivated and morally upright students. Graduates of the school will be dynamic and enterprising, enjoy lifelong learning, and make positive contributions to the community.

In my opinion, this school is a very special school that gives the second chance for students in education. Keeping class size small, 20 per class, and having their teachers concentrate solely on educating and guiding the students is the only way to go to provide a holistic education to this special group of students. It takes very strong passion and a huge heart to be able to guide and teach in Northlight. And I’m proud that Abang is part of it.

These group of students, when in the mainstream school, were not able to shine in their own way. But here at Northlight, they get to shine in their own ways. During the prize award night, there were awards given out to outstanding students in various specialties. I feel that this is the way education should be even in the mainstream schools. Why only reward those who excel in academic results or just sports? There’s so many more skills and talent every individual have. Shouldn’t they be celebrated and rewarded too?

See how happy and encouraging the teachers are! They are really very proud of the students achievements! And everyone there at the hall, parents, students, guests and staff were cheering and enjoying the simple yet meaningful celebration.

The entire teaching staff and even the Principal and Vice-principals joined in the finale performance with a very appropriate song “Lean on me”. Led by an American Idol standard singer the schools counselor whom I was told sings for the entire school weekly to encourage and motivate the students. And through my observation that day, he gels very well with all the students too. I think every school should have someone like him! It’ll help maintain order and increase everyone’s spirit that’s very much needed in mainstream schools.

I truly enjoyed myself during the celebration. Am very glad I got to be part of it.

I also took a short tour around the school before the ceremony. I’m shocked and couldn’t keep my mouth closed throughout the tour. I’ll keep that for the next post. You’ve got to see the school to believe it! I see how much the school is doing to help keep the students educated, entertained and encouraged. Even their school song is inspiring!

As shared by Student of the Year (year 4), Paul Tan

Northlight School
2 Dunman Road Singapore 439188
Tel 6580 6490
Site http://www.nls.edu.sg

Hi Everyone!

Thanks everyone for participating!

Are you a fan of Taiwan boy bands Energy and Bang Bang Tang (Lollipop)? Join me and my friends at Music Monster Festival concert at Singapore Expo! I’ve got 2 pairs of tickets to give away. First let me share more about the Music Monster that’s bringing this concert to you.

Meet Chicsy my music monster

She’s the one who’s wearing the music monster

Sony Ericsson W595 Walkman phone

I did few test shots with the 3.2MP camera around my house and here’s what I got…

A panorama shot of my messy table (combination of 3 shots)

Wow! I hope you’ve been reading my experience with the slim music monster! Cause that will surely help you to get this…

so that you can join me on 22 November to catch them

and them!

Hi Everyone!

You know what?? I just realised I messed up my dates!! I REALLY thought yesterday was the 18th!! And that’s why the winners were picked already!! Gosh!! Why was I soo blur?? So sorry for the trouble and mixed up!

But thanks for the postings and emails! The winners have already been contacted! Results here.

Thanks everyone for participating!

All you need to do is to drop me an email at contest (at) claudia.sg with your answers to the following questions. And you may just win yourself a pair of tickets to catch Energy and Bang Bang Tang LIVE at Singapore Expo!

Here are your questions:

1. What is your name?
2. Where do you blog? (If any)
3. What is your email address?
4. What number should I dial to find you?
5. Which phone is the above review about?
6. Why do you want those tickets?

Send me your email now to contest (at) claudia.sg!

This contest closes at 2359hr on 18 November 2008. Winners will be contacted via email and/or SMS from me! Good luck! Only 2 pairs of tickets to give away! So send in your entries now!

Yeah!! I’m trying to do it again!! Feeling sick and cold, but I’ll try my best. Started slightly late (my live blogging), but i’ll try to catch up. Here’s half the crowd in room 4.3 now…

Good news to start off is the organisers have combined Melvin’s and Walter’s session in the same room. So now we do not have any risk of getting unfriend from either of them! ha!

If you’re not here, come follow me on Podcamp Singapore…

Good about Social Media – empowerment, collaboration that enable learning opportunities (Social Media Breakfast | Singapore and Podcamp Singapore) and many friendship built. Not so good – lost of privacy, death threats (in the states) and much more evil and “boh liao” stuff. One big boh liao stuff is the much time spent on Plurk! Melvin is there so that he can keep his karma!

Melvin shared the effect of the stolen Obama sign. Will put up more on this when i find the links! Here’s the link to the news.

There’s more to social media than we now realise. So what can we do to make a difference in our world in 2009? With that he ends his session.

Next up, Walter will be sharing Old Stories. New Media. He’ll be sharing the experiences and growth behind Yesterday.sg. And he just asked us to visit the museum after Podcamp Singapore.

Out of the many social media tools, facebook is the one with lowest barrier of entry. Could this be the killer in the world of social media?

Users and visitors are turning their information to other sources that’s not by the company. As they think the details and information might not be all that true. That’s why blogging should be used too. and that’s why NHB started yesterday.sg – a way of crowdsourcing.

Yesterday.sg is not just by NHB alone, they’ve also a pool of friends, FOYers, helping in the the running and planning. Coleman, a presenter for later session, is part of the family too. Yesterday.sg is running on Expression Engine.

There are many challenges for a heritage organisation in the new media society due to the niche content. Such as the growth of the membership and social saturation. Walter shared how they tie-up with other sites and blogs and the use of mybloglog to help drive traffic to Yesterday.sg. Many traffic to Yesterday.sg comes from search too. Mainstream media is still needed to help spread the words. Word of mouth is very important too. In fact, Walter shared that some of the advertisements they’ve tried, were not as effective.

The future of Yesterday.sg will be more a social media platform, with the use of not just their own platforms, but make use of flickr and youtube too. They will also be looking into any collaborations with other social media communities, such as Ping.sg and SMB|SG. Their aim is to keep yesterday.sg contemporary, comfortable, compelling and connected.

Updated: You can now find Walter’s slide presentation here.

Now time for tea break. Breaking out to 2 rooms later.

I’ll be staying in room 4.3 for Charles Pownall, from Burson Marstellar, on Online Influencers. So I think we are going to be hearing things about us. *hee* Settling down now and its going to start…

Charles started off asking what we think the effect of having Obama on the cover of The Economists magazine. And on screen, Obama on Times.

With so many types of influences out there, with the really influencers one are those who are real, in the real world. And according to a survey by Nielsen, recommendations from consumers get the highest percentage of trust. With 78% of the people who responded choosing word of mouth over newspaper and advertisements.

Charles sharing on the 1% rule, where creators is the smallest in the world. Where 90% are spectators (readers, watchers, listeners and social networks) and 9% are commentators where they’re somehow being engaged. Today he’ll be focusing on the 9% of commentators.

He’s talking on e-fluentials and the numbers from survey results…

Sorry to stop right here, but I’ll be heading over to the next room to check out what the Tech65 guys are doing now…

Now I’m over at room 4.4 where Tech65 is sharing why content is king. Sharing by Renhao and Daniel. Tech65 hopes to share in details their first hand experiences with their listeners. And make people less afraid of technology.

A big challenge for the crew now is to see how they can reach out to the senior citizens too, where many of them now have more time. As the crew are more familiar with the younger generations who are also familiar with the technology, hence the barrier they’ve to break now is how to reach out to those who’re not.

The session is now much into the open where Walter, Coleman and Melvin are sharing their thoughts on podcasting and what could be the reasons why its still not receiving as much attention here in Singapore yet. Much more dynamic than the session happening next room for sure.

With just 9 days to go before Daniel’s ORD day! And he’s sure going to be spending more and more time producing more and better podcasts and vodcasts for 65bits too.

Walter brought up the question much talked about at yesterday’s DMfest – how tech65 going to continue sustaining? Will they be looking to making money from it. Daniel’s take is that the only earning they get so far is the passion and drive. Making money is still not in their agendas yet. They’re now happy with the “social currency” they’re earning now. The opportunities to meet the people here today and the chances to share at events. We all hope Tech65 will grow and gain more audiences locally and internationally too. All the best guys!!

Are Singaporean generally shy? Could this be one of the reasons why podcasting (and social media) is still not picking up? Keep this question in mind and let’s see how we can improve on it.

Session before lunch is by Brain Koh from Ogilvy PR in room 4.4. He’ll be talking about Your life on the line. Online reputation: A closer look at what into engagement with bloggers.

Waiting for session to start… setting up now… 12.20pm and we’re ready to go…

i’m no an expert, but am part of the community

Sharing on when and how he got started with his life online… from 16yrs old with a dial-up connection till now. His mantra – everything is harmless. And with good reputation you’ll get good pagerank too! Try searching ‘Brian koh’ on google!

Brain’s thoughts on blogger payola, which got sparked off by Daryl’s post. Quoting from DK’s post “Money can’t buy a good review. Bloggers have their reputation to protect too.” Today he’ll be sharing on the reputation that we, bloggers, are here to protect.

Three things to note…
Reputation begets authority, and translates to influence. Reputation comes from having a standard, a set of ethics sets you apart from the person next to you and how do we reward bloggers? Agencies have their own good practices and code of ethics on how they’ll engage and reward bloggers.

How many people are believing or even reading advertorials these days? Blogging is not just about paying to get things out to the readers, its also about the reputations and ethic of bloggers too. If there’s no money going to be paid, than so how are we, bloggers, going to feed ourselves? Or is blogging just not going to become a full-time career for any of us?

Corporations should learn that bloggers are not just a number, we are real people in real life too.

Are bloggers cheaper if we attend press or bloggers events and blog about it?

Money is seen as bribery in government… and while at that point, the system just decides to switch off itself! No screen, no slides and air-con is off too.

Filling up the gap, Melvin jumps in saying ethics are ethics and there isn’t a need for bloggers ethics. Bloggers are people and humans have our own sets of ethics already. But… people who has no ethic makes the most money! How? So it is now ethics vs money??

Point to note… people in advertising works differently as PR people. Victor from HPB mentioned that a proposal received from someone under the same umbrella is giving totally opposite take on social media. Giving things that’s advised not to do in social media. PR is about trusting relationship and its being true to their core ethics. In my words, being more human and believing in relationships.

Say no to backstabbing and say no to wearing a masks when engaging bloggers (humans).

Brian feels that reading personal blogs is like watching reality tv! Pretty true isn’t it? People generally are “kay pohs” and wants to find out things that’s mundane and personal.

Friends and relationship formed over the year or so, and the belonging in the community is what that’s driving many of us.

Time for lunch! Be back in an hour with part 2…

Something happened while I’m logging off for part 1… will share that in a separate posts another time. Its on the reasons why there’s more positive than negative posts on bloggers posts covering events and products etc. More on that another time ya. Hungry!!

Back from lunch… In room 4.3… waiting for all to settle before Coleman starts his session on Blogging, Podcasting or Youtube? Choosing the right medium

Look at his stylo way of displaying his slides!

Moving on… and saying that the title is a little misleading! How this session is going to happen is a “virtual meeting” on a “virtual wiki” which is hmm… offline.

Explaining the definitions of instructivism and constructivism. Interesting example he used. Didn’t know he’s so animated too!! The other side of Coleman I see today!

Brian is also updating this session on his plurk here. He’s typing much faster than me. So do check his plurk out too. :P

Writing on the whiteboard now… starting his virtual wiki!! We’re now like in a real classroom attending Mr Coleman’s class…

On the board…
Blogging (Text)
- easiest to start. lowest entry of barrier among the 3 mediums.
- subjective to user’s experience
- non-linear progression
- able to scan through content and searchable
- cheapest
- search engines
- needs time to digest

Podcasting (Audio)
- language learning such as phonetics
- can be linear and non-linear too
- not as easy as blogging
- often faded into the background

Youtube/ Vodcasting (Video)
- complex objects (e.g. product reviews that has many functions to show, movements and expressions)
- video production is now made easy too with advancement of technology. just shoot on your camera and upload to youtube directly.
- user’s experience is more dictate and less subjective.
- linear progression
- requires more engagement
- more control of experience
- impact more on the emotions of viewers

Other points to note
- Audience Preference
- Producer’s strength
- The kind of message to push out will affect the type of medium too

Sidetracking… this cheesecake is yummilicious!!!

Also live blogging this session is Derrick Kwa. Get more of the discussion happening in this session there. He’s using a cool live blogging tool Cover It Live.

Virtual meeting ended at 3.08pm.

Next up in the same room, Joshua Nair shares on 3-D Internet, the future of social media. And in the next room, Amelia Wong will be sharing something too… unsure of the topic though.

Decided to stay here as Derrick has moved on to the next room. So follow what’s happening there on his live blogging.

Here Joshua might be a little technical… so I’ll try my best to stay with him as much as I can.

On 3-D gaming now, showing a video on youtube on WWC.

Back to continuing on Coleman’s virtual wiki… with one more column…

3D as a medium
- immersive experience

Showing another video, now on an introduction to Second Life…

Second Life is not a game. And it has a fully convertible currency, credit cards and bank, made possible by a local company First Meta.

So where is 3-D now? We’re in the real environment but still very much in a virtual world. More and more virtual worlds with virtual boutiques entering the market. And the dream is Metaverse.

There’s now open virtual environments that’s plug-in based environment. E.g. Paradise Paintball in facebook and Vastpark and Pelican Crossing.

One of the most common problems in 3-D world is the navigation. There’s no one fixed keys or actions to use for navigation and thus takes longer time to get used to. Which is so true for me! I tried Second Life for less than 10 minutes and I never went back again.

Now showing more examples of virtual world from Korea, Germany, Singapore and China. There’s one in China owned by the government! And they’re trying to link the real world to the virtual world, i.e. linking their currencies. Lots of resources needed, but they’re doing it.

Pit-falls of 3-D world is that its a game-based technology, it’s hard to see it used for serious stuff. At this point, there’s no common language yet. And this technology will take awhile to stablize. Not everyone is involved in the virtual world and Second Life takes only 20% of the population. Even Cyworld has “only” 99% of the Korean population with still the 1% who “can’t” or “won’t” take part. The question now is why would anyone wants to get into second life when they already have a fulfilling and exciting real (first) life. But if the services or virtual world already has some form of relationship or needs by the real world, than perhaps, things might work out.

Using Samsung Labs as an example for mobile 3-D internet.

Pretty cool ya? That’s the blend of virtual and the real world. Aka the Mixed Reality.

The session is ending off with time for audience to share and talk…

Ending off…

Thank you all for following me at Podcamp Singapore at SMU. Hope you’ve had a fulfilling journey too.

Great session by all the speakers and great effort by the team! Congrats in the successful Podcamp! Looking forward to Podcamp v3.0!

Footnote
Follow podcamp singapore on twitter.
Summary of sessions can also be found on Kelvin’s blog starting from here.

Thought some of you might want to know, all photos above are taken the posted almost live. Thanks to cameraphones and mobile broadband on my sim card. :P

Click here to view photos taken with Samsung Innov8

I climbed many of these!!

Anyway, before the event starts, I checked out some of the companies showcase outside the ballroom…

Centre for Content Protectection

There’s also the HP and the Blackberry…

Time now… 9.15am, Mr Ng Chong Khim, Chairman of SiTF Digital Media Chapter giving his welcome speech.

Now sharing on stage, Mr Michael Yap, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Media Development Authority of Singapore on Grooming the next generation of digital media players.

With $5million of available fundings, MDA’s goals by 2015 is to fuel a vibrant media sector, establish Singapore as preferred location for IDM R&D and become the pioneers of next general media. Mr Yap is sharing the various programmes and activities available for startups and companies, including the latest launched i.MATCH. Everyone present is encouraged to approach Michael later if they’re looking for funding. :P

The business of internet and mobile TV by Dr. Patrick Chan, Research Director, Emerging Technologies, IDC Asia Pacific. Now sharing what he think is happening to the Internet – the Web2.0 (according to how he reads, “web-two-dot-o”) effect.

Due to the speed of speech and the tiny TV screen in front, and the even tinnier text, I’m not able to catch anything! :( The lady next to me is frowning too…

Psss… if you want, there’s also the DMfest updates on Twitter. Follow @dmfest.

Ok, hope I’ll be able to catch this next one… TV 2.0 Infrastructure with Iolo Jones, Founder & CEO, TV Everywhere (UK). Also launching a new product call VidZapper soon.

The business models for Internet TV…

The technologies needed for Internet TV Automation – VMS: Encoding > Management > Advertising > Delivery > Layout. The technical challenge is the bandwidth provisions. Types of Internet broadcasting includes options to download, unicasting, simulcasting, multicasting, clouding, P2P and CDN.

Have you tried Blinkx? The Video Search Engine!

Iolo sharing the business model for Internet TV. Revenues include sponsorship (the biggest pie), advertising/ advertorials, Ecommerce, subscription, pay-per-view and others.

Why TV models work better than Internet models?

The Webisodes — How Serialised Television is Moving onto the Internet with Hugh Hancock, Founder and CEO, Strange Company (UK). The Machinima pioneers!

Everybody wants to make videos and everyone is doing it! Some of them just want to emulate their heroes. And sometimes they’re very good at it. Although they may have no experience nor budget, but with their passion and creativity, they’re able to make pretty good videos. With almost no restrictions and guidelines, they’re able to produce videos much faster and the distribution is speedy too.

Hugh Hancock’s stick drawings

Digital video has made live action much cheaper. The best known is The Guild. Another one mentioned is Welcome to the Scene which uses webcams for their videos!

Super cool tools mentioned by Hugh – Motion capture, Music Creation with Garageband, cheap Color Correction and Moviestorm.

There are thousands of people creating but how would one know which is good? Too much noise and the lack of gatekeepers aren’t doing any help to promoting quality content. Viral engines, such as digg and stumbleupon, don’t work cause it doesn’t promote stuff that people love but they promote what people are talking about. Instead, Hugh recommends the moderated site Boing Boing. And there’s the problem of whether its truly famous or just paid to become famous? Than there’s the long thin tail effect.

Choose either to fail fast or to stick hard. Produce something and if it fails, move on and do something else. Or use the Questionable Content way, stick around for awhile and gain people’s trust. Once you get the trust, people will keep coming back, especially with the many content that’s already on your site.

What you should do now is to Get Out There Now! And that’s the end of Hugh’s sharing! And it’s Tea Break time!! Finally!!

A happy Claudia after morning tea! Good thing the Siew Mai is chicken meat!

And now around me, there’s Clapping Trees, Preetam, DK (with Live broadcast here), Daniel from Young Upstarts and Howie from TDM.

More familiar faces are here… Jonathan, Andrew Peters and a pretty lady whom I’m still trying to recall where I met! Sitting 2 seats away from my left. Hmm… Updated Alright, so the pretty lady I was trying to recall is from Text100.

Back to the conference…

Starting up after morning tea is on Community Television — Collaboration in Scripting, Subtitling, Distributing, and even Producing Films for the Internet with Timo Vuorensola, founder and producer, Energia Productions Ltd (Finland). Showing the trailer for Star Wreck now.

Timo is sharing his experiences from the production of Star Wreck, which took 7 years to make and did in a small studio in the City of Tampere. With total of 8 million downloads!

Timo shared that many film makers are afraid of collaboration using the Internet. He encourages people to engage and make use of their communities and friends to help distribute and collaborate in the production of a film. With that he ends his insightful sharing of his film making process.

The next one up is going to be of interest to many of you… Social Networks — Making Business Sense Out of It with Sandeep Bakhshi, Business Unit Executive, Lotus Software, ASEAN Software Group, IBM. He’s coming on stage now…

“Oh no! I think I’m going to have problem with this one…” :(

The new wave of Web2.0 disruptive technology is transforming all aspects of our consumer experiences. Now he’s sharing what is Web2.0 with the audience, showing LOTS of tiny logos of all the Web2.0 sites! The more you use, the more you learn, the better the purpose of Web2.0.

So why should you care about Web2.0? According to Sandeep, its because of the dollars and cents that’s involved.

The three software patterns driving Web2.0…

Three key areas and 8 new rules to consider…

Capitalizing on New Markets & Business Models
1. Grab and monetize the Long Tail of demand
2. Get ready – your customers value digital content
3. Jump in – virtual worlds are real business

Getting closer to your markets & customers
4. Trust the network – it really does know more than you
5. Embrace your customers
6. Use social networks to create solutions

Creating new capabilities
7. Embed flexibility in business models and information systems
8. Foster rapid collaborative innovation in the enterprise

Being repeated is how companies should embrace their customers. Its an essential that all companies should do, and social network and web2.0 are great tools to engage, communicate and embrace your customers. Are you doing that already?

Next up, a fun, fast and furious panel discussion! (Cause lunch is ready and waiting for all of us outside the ballroom!) Panel discussion with previous speakers Iolo Jones, Hugh Hancock, Timo Vuorensola and Sandeep Bakhshi. Moderated by Mark Laudi.

The panelists on stage

Discussing on the cost involved in online production… and $10,000 is considered too high for an online film and videos. Timo doesn’t encourage dollars and cents to be involved in collaborations. It’s all about karma (which reminds me of Plurk!). Huge shares that the online currency does not mean dollars and cents. There’s other forms of “currency” or rewards too. If you want others to provide things only that you can use, things wouldn’t work that way. Huge encourages for content and creations to be released on Creative Commons, everyone and anyone is free to use the content. That’s how things are happening now.

Two choices to take for startups… If its not your money, take as much as you can. If its your own, use as little as possible. (I like this quote! Ha!) Just go ahead and produce your content and whatever you want, give it out for free and strangely, somewhere somehow, people will come to you with the money you never expect! All these guys are doing things that’s really out of their own passion and doesn’t expect money to come. But just mysteriously, when you doesn’t smell like you’re out there for the money, money will just come. (Hmm…)

You can frame yourself with the right people supporting and it’ll be even better if you’ve a community behind you. Timo shares that its also about branding yourself. People wants to know who is behind the content. What the communities want to know is who are behind the content and not just the content itself. So show yourself and start branding you as you.

That’s the end of the morning session. Now… time for lunch!! *grrrrrrr* That’s the sound of my tummy. :P

Will be back at 2pm for the afternoon session… laterz!

Before lunch, we’re having a short blogger session with the keynotes speakers, Timo, Hugh and Iolo…

Going round the table to introduce ourselves and to ask a question. (Ok… stress… what question should I ask?? I’m next leh!!)

Phew! So clever of me! I managed to skip asking a question! DK asked a question that’s pretty close to our local bloggersphere… how do they (the speakers) engage and handle negative comments on their sites.

Timo shares that there’s a video with only negative comments and that ended becoming their best publicity effort! Hugh’s tactic is to make his enemies his real friends. If one comments negatively, they expect either no reply or one that fights back. So what Hugh will do is to give a constructive reply and eventually convert the hates to like them. Iola simple will say “You’re wrong!”. LOL!

Videos and films are one of the best tools for learning. Iola personally learns more from watching shows than from books. Yes, pictures tells a thousands words, but videos or shows show you much more than that. Videos are for everybody. So stop reading and start watching!.

Coleman shared that in Singapore, more people are into the extrinsic motivations (money and fame) rather than the intrinsic motivations (knowledge and experience). This is sad but true. And could this be the reason why there’s still the huge lack of user generated content here in Singapore.

After surviving 7 years from self and student/non-employment funding from the government, Timo will surely be using the funds provided by the Finland government for film production, valuing around 700k and up to 1-mil. And because of the cool concept of the film and story, everyone wants to help and chip in for the production.

2.02pm: The blogger session is still going on but I think the afternoon session is going to happen soon! And all of us here in the room have not gotten any lunch yet!! That’s partly the reason why I’m lagging in my updates! (When Claudia is hungry, her brain and fingers refuses to work.)

As the day passes, more bloggers arrive… Coleman, Walter and there’s Qua Chee from Malaysia here earlier whom I missed out in my previous update. And I heard, Pat Law and Derrick Kwa is on their way here too.

2.10pm: The bell is ringing outside the room, calling everyone to get back to the ballroom for part 2. But but but… we haven’t had our lunch!! Discussion is still happening here at the blogger session! *faints* Looks like I’ll be missing the next panel discussion on Digital Production and Visualisation. Just hoping that there’ll still be food outside later!

Back from a quick lunch. The room seems much smaller now. But still a good crowd of people around. Now on stage, Mr Kenneth Liang, Executive VP of TV Channel 5 Programming and Production of Mediacorp. I’m trying to catch up with what he’s sharing…

Still trying to catch up… but he’s already at his last slide! I guess the sharing was about the broadcast vs the narrowcast (e.g. online).

Sidenote: To all presenters, reading off a written script doesn’t engage your audience at all. Try doing it without the notes please. Thanks!

The forth panelists on stage now Mr Stefano Virgilli, Director of Ultimate Video FX and Manager of Adobe User Group Singapore for Photoshop and After Effects. He’s going to show us some pretty cool videos! Setting up now… MBP Crashed! Rebooting… he’s now sharing why he’s collecting all possible Adobe certification!

This discussion is about storytelling. How to get the story across to the audience? And how to tell it in the way(s) that users want.

Are audiences watching a movie for the story or the effects and eye-candies that comes with it? If the story is incredible and fantastic, are effects and sights necessary? Yes, they generally make the movie more pleasing and enjoyable. Isn’t it? Ask yourself, if you’re invited to watch a fantastically written and scripted movie but is pixelated, would you enjoy the show?

Mediacorp’s production more for local than for international audiences. Kenneth shares that production for locals and international still varies, due to the type of audiences, and their preferences. For instance, shows like Calefare and The Noose, will probably be a joke to the international audiences, but they get very high ratings here in Singapore. Hence there’s a need for productions that feeds the local taste and also joint collaboration with international productions to produce films to target the international market, which may not be highly rated here in Singapore.

Kenneth share that in the past, television used to attract the audiences. But now, its the content pursuing the audience in their preferred platform. Hence the need for TV Mobile and mobTV.

Next panel discussion will be on Web-Enabled Business Models & Channels of Distribution. First on stage Paul Meyers, CEO of Acme Mobile, sharing his journey thus far. They have four business models – wholesale, selling directly to customers through Acme Mobile, distribution networks and lastly free distribution (and than do cross-selling and advertisement to bring in the money).

On stage, the second panelist, James Seng, VP of International Sales of PPLive (China). James’ sharing his work in PPLive and what it does. One of the greatest advantage of PPLive is the sharing of live sessions, especially for soccer.

Next up, Philip Morgan, Chief Operating Officer of Muvee Technologies. Muvee is a Singapore company, 7 years old with 60 staff. They distribute Muvee with PC software (with HP, Nokia, Dell, Nikon and others), devices and Internet. Than they started a new site for users to create and share at shwup. Muvee looks fun, but its on Windows only! :(

Lastly on the panel, Joanne Teoh, Senior Producer of Channel NewsAsia. She’s currently exploring the use of digital tools to tell stories on the web – New Media Storytelling. Content producers should focus on your strength and don’t try to create something that you’re not familiar with. Young journalists are encouraged to equipped themselves with digital media tools to help improve their work and experiences. Perhaps journalists from Singapore can do live blogging with videos, photos and text of an event too!

Psss… she’s taking too long for her sharing!

Now let’s get back to the panel discusssion…

Content is not the money brewing item online, but the things around it is. Just like blogging is never going to earn any of us an income, but the advertorial and sponsorship around the blog or blogger does bring some money to some of the blogs/bloggers out there. (Well not for me yet thou. Why??)

Will PPV model eventually have to go and move towards advertising and sponsorship models? Paul shares that users would eventually be willing to pay for specific information that’s needed at a point. E.g. A visitor in Singapore wanting to know where to go for food in the middle of the night around Orchard Road. However, when there’s already information out there available for free, will users still want to pay for it? Unless the only channel they’re aware of is the paid one isn’t it?

Sorry for the lack of update here… kinda in offline mode for awhile just now. Now’s tea break time… be back later…

Over break, I met another blogger! Helloooo Shalabh! Nice meeting you! And Bernard Leong is here too.

BTW, Pat says Hiiiii!!! :P

Back from tea break, had chicken wanton and vegetarian roll. Tea too of course!

Now on stage, sharing Opportunities for the Net Generation with Nicholas Ang, Design Student of Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and creator of the DMfest logo. He shared how he created the logo, which I wouldn’t be sharing as its supposed to be trade secret isn’t it? :P

That’s him! Young designer!

Lastly, the final panel discussion for the day is on Web 2.0 and Building Online Communities. First on stage, Mr Aroon Tan, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Magma Studios.

Next we have a familiar face… Jonathan Wong, Web Platform Evangelist from Microsoft Singapore. He’s sharing how technology has enabled the growth of building online communities. Preview of the new (possible) mobTV portal! *woot* Sneak peek! Looking pretty cool! As a mobTV ex-user, this new interface looks so much cooler and more user friendly than the current one. However, the question is, will our broadband speed allow seamless use of this platform? If it hangs the browser while interacting with the platform, users will eventually lose interest. At least I know I will. Finally he shared the user interactivity at the Singtel Grid Girl site (not recommended for the ladies thou and it needs Silverlight to play…).

The third on stage is S.P. Raja, SOA Architect from IBM. Sharing the framework for media – technology, what motivates them and who. Community websites need to have an element to keep and track users’ profile, their movement and behavior. Motivation for users, as shared by Raja, the 7 deadly sins! The technology pattern of web2.0 – contribute, classify, rate and spread. The future (web3.0?) will be into semantic search on video indexes.

Forth on the panel… Lai Kok Fung, CEO of BuzzCity Pte Ltd. BuzzCity is in the field of mobile internet for almost 10 years. Mr Lai shared that there are two tiers of mobile internet users. The first tier where users use mobile as their secondary channel for web consuming (like many of us here) and the other tier is where users use mobile as their primary channel. This is where BuzzCity is managing, and is big in India. They run a community-based mobile advertising network. Two reasons why people come to the community, they want to find friends and feel loved. myGamma is the mobile platform by BuzzCity.

Last but not least, on stage is Hu Shunjie, Flex Developer at Seesmic. Seesmic is a video side that allows communication not just on their site, but on your own too. One of our local bloggers (currently oversea), Kelvin Lim, uses their service pretty often. Shunjie shares the importance of allowing users and community members to provide inputs. Sites mentioned during his introduction include Get Satisfaction, OtherInbox, Twitter, Friendfeed and Blogs.

Running overtime (again), we’re now into the panel discussion on Web 2.0 and Building Online Communities.

The final panel for dmfest 2008

The discussion is being directed back to how online content can bring in money! Sounds familiar ah? Mr Lai shared the leading content provider that have successfully made money out of their content are Habbo Hotel and one more from China which has slipped out from my mind! Well, this is what happens after 8 hours of live blogging! Mind is kinda overloaded now…

With few more points discussed, this marks the end of today’s Singapore Digital Media Festival 2008 – Television 2.0: Internet Services and New Media Mashup. Thank you all for following my very first attempt at live blogging! Hope I managed to share most part of the conference with you.

Signing off… byeeee!

Footnotes
Here are other links and blogs talking about DMfest 2008 too…

• Updates by Stefano Virgilli
• Updates by DK
• BL’s Thoughts on Web2.0 and Building Online Communities
• Daniel shares on how it pays to follow your passion (most of the time)

Here’s the link to the fantastic moderator for the whole conference… Mark Laudi. He’s very good! Smooth and engaging. Highly recommended by me (Claudia) for your event! (If you’ve got very good budget of course!)

The Lenovo U330 is pretty compact and has a steady build. Equipped with dual graphic processor which allows a switch between the Intel integrated and the ATI graphics.

A closer look at the ports and “holes” around the machine…

On the left side

On the right side

In the front

The Lenovo U330 can also double up as a home theater system!

Having used the macbook trackpad for long, any other trackpad seems so small for my fat fingers. The one on the Lenovo 330, though smaller, but I got used to using it pretty fast. If they can make the scrolling on the right more sensitive or slightly bigger, it might help make it more usable. The buttons for the mouse is a tad too light for my liking.

The keyboard is very nice to type on. The fingers got used to it immediately on the first touch.

Also tried watching a movie on DVD with the Lenovo U330. The movie was crystal clear and the sound experience was pretty good! Slightly better than my mac’s sound quality. But still can’t beat watching it with my X-mini plugged in.

I wanted to try out on the switchable graphic feature to test the duration each will last on the battery. To see how much longer will the Intel graphic last as compared to the ATI one. However, the sad thing was the battery that came with my review unit was not working properly. I’d fully charged the night before and when I switched in on the first time the next day, the battery level dropped to only 40%! Thought I could have missed something out the first try, so I charged it fully again a second time. But it happened again! Anyone using the Lenovo U330 encounter the same problem too?

I think this is not the first time a laptop has battery problem. Hope Lenovo will do something about it and solve the problem soon.

Other than the disappointing battery, all else is good.

Read a very detail review on the Lenovo U330 here.

Click here to view photos taken with Nikon D40

First, changes was made to my PSP slim. In June, I Zhng-ed my PSP, but after only few months, the blings started coming off and leaving ugly sticky marks on the garskin. And I was also getting tired of the bright ah-lian zhng-ed PSP so I decided to pull everything off and keep it original.

My clean white PSP slim

For those few days where I was playing on the naked PSP, I was extra careful with it, afraid to get any scratches on it. I decided, I need to get it protected again. So I found this at one of the pushcarts at CompassPoint.

I got this at just $10

So now my PSP slim looks like this…

The front…

The behind…

That was the first change. And now the second change I did was to my blog layout. Few friends have been telling me that they’re confused when reading my blog.

What I intended was to make my blog less personal and less like a blog-blog. Ermm… more like a blog-azine style or a website? When I found this theme, I was delighted as it gives me lots of flexible and moving elements or widgets around is made simple. Because of the nature of some of my posts that are kind of “timeless”, like my reviews, social media sharing and others, I want to highlight them and made known to new readers on my blog. If I had used the usual chronological blogging theme or format, these posts will just disappear when new ones are posted. This theme does well in giving them more and longer exposure. And I like the boxes and simple layout design too. So what I did was to rearrange the boxes a little and this is the little changes and explanation. Hope it’ll help make it less confusing for you.

The before…

And now, the layout looks like this…

Some of you also suggested that I keep a separate blog for each of my focus. Like having a Claud talks Gadget blog, one for my social media sharing and one for my personal whining and what not. There are reasons for me to keep them all under one roof. I’ll touch on this in another entry soon.

And finally! I’ve changed my phone!! I just couldn’t live without it! After using it for 2 weeks with the review unit I got from Samsung, I got so in love with it that I just have to get one! Thanks to the $300 handset upgrade voucher received from Starhub, the $100 discount for getting a 3G phone and the trading-in of my motoQ9h, I paid only $88 for my Samsung Innov8! *grins big big*

With a 8-megapixel camera in my hp, I’m now using less of my Canon Ixus camera! Wonder if I should sell it off.

Claudia is a happy woman! :)

Psss… to make claudia an even happier woman, anyone willing to sponsor a new Macbook Pro? Muahahahaha!! *evil grin*

Are you sure you really know who I am?
Photo from here.

Let’s imagine this scenario…

A and B are both blogging on their own blogs. A is a friend/family of B. A is pretty active in a community and wants to do something for the community. Other than writing about B’s own life, B also shares how B felt about A, and how much A has done to help B succeed. B makes A shines like a super star. C, D, E to G reads A’s and B’s blog. C to G believes that whatever B wrote about A and worship the ground of A. But what C to G don’t know is that A has been logging in using B’s password and editing or even writing the posts about A itself! A wants the world to know that A is the best and B cannot live without A. A may be the public figure in the community, but A as part of the community, how much do you really know about A?

That’s just an example of what might happen in the blogging world. Whatever that’s written on the blog may be fictional that’s made to believe. You never know who the real person is writing those entries. I can always start a Claud-fan blog or a Claud-hate blog. All these to build up the persona of Claud, be it good or bad. But is this necessary? Are you running an election campaign right here?

“I can have 2 sides of me. But are you aware of it?”

The world is getting smaller as the internet gets bigger. Suddenly everyone online starts getting to know more new friends online. 80% of the conversation and discussion and things happen online. And the thing about being online is anyone can have as many personalities and characters as they want. There’s no one rule that says Man Z can only have one identity in the huge cyberspace. This makes things very scary. If Man Z’s multiple personality is kept a secret till the day he dies, than good for him. If not, can you imagine the consequences he has to face for all the possible things that one man has/had done?

I’m not going to let myself get affected by such things online. I have a life (outside of this cyber world). I will continue to stay true to my unique identity and will ignore whatever noise that may be taking place around me. Ignorance is bliss. And I hope I can continue to ignore. Can you?

I think I’ve finally found the mobile phone I want! After trying out few other to-consider-getting phones, finally I found one that meets my needs!

Features I need in my mobile phone…
(+) Auto focus camera that produces good quality photos
(+) True web browsing feature that loads flash
(+) Good sound quality
(+) Loud enough alarm that plays mp3
(+) Comfortable and big enough buttons for my fat fingers
(+) Fuss-free user interface

The Samsung Innov8 (GT-i8510)

And this phone has got all of the above! I want to buy this phone! I’m so unwilling to part with it now that I’m loving it.

This phone fits perfectly into my palm and feels oh-so-sexy! The body feels steady yet sleek. The sliding of the phone is super smooth too. Unlike some of the slide phones where you feel a jerk when the phone is slide open. When you hold the Innov8 in your hands, you’ll just not want to let it go. (At least for me lah!) It was love at first sight for me.

Samsung Innov8 comes with a 8.0megapixel auto focus camera with super cool feature for a cameraphone! With options such as face detection, smile detection and blink detection, you’ll be able to capture perfect shots of your friends and yourself (perfect for camwhoring) almost all the time! With good lighting of course! Don’t expect good take at night or at dimly lighted places. There’s also scene modes for you to choose from. It’s almost like a point-and-shoot digital camera!

Easy-acess to video, camera and play mode

To switch between the different mode for your camera, all you need to do is the push of a button! This make switching between photo taking and video taking super easy. There’s also flash option for your videos and you can try doing slow-motion videos too!

One feature which I find pretty neat is the panorama shots. Usually cameras with such feature allows user to have the previous shot as preview and you’ll have to join the shots on your own and when you’re done, you’ve to press the shutter button again. But using the Innov8, all you need is press the shutter for the first take and just turn yourself to capture the shots. Below’s a video of the panorama feature in action…

This is how a panorama shot looks like…

In the day…

Click to view 2800×400 version

And at night…

Click to view 2800×400 version

You can take vertical panorama shots too!

that’s my messy room

You should be able to notice that the photos aren’t as sharp and clear, but that’s the not-so-good thing about this feature. Only the first shot is auto focused and the remaining shots are not. But still a pretty cool option to have.

Couple more test shots from the Innov8 camera…

Model at Canon VIP event

Parking FAIL!

Being categorised as an infotainment phone by Samsung, this small black beauty does have super powerful sound quality! Great for listening to music and watching your favourite movie on the go. But please please please use a earphone! It supports the standard 35mm audio jack! Spare a thought for others near you, they don’t want to listen to what you’re playing on the phone, no matter how good the audio quality is!

35mm audio jack at the side of the phone

This irritates me a little, when I have my earphone plug in, I can’t fit the phone into my pocket! Not so friendly for those who likes to have their music plugged in while you’re on the go.

Below’s a short video showing you the audio and video quality of the Samsung Innov8 phone.

Before this phone was released, I was upset that most of the slidephones comes with small keypads or not so comfortable to use ones. I’m so glad that the Innov8 keypad fits nicely for my fat fingers!

I simply cannot use phones with hard to use buttons. I’ve absolutely no problem with this one! (See I’m really loving it!)

With so much powerful features packed into a tiny phone, with a tiny and slim battery, the battery has to be charged daily. If you’re a hardcore information and content consumer, I’ll advice you to buy an extra battery or bring along your charger everywhere you go. From what I’ve tested, the battery will run low after about an hour listening to mp3 + total of an hour plus for web browsing + roughly 30 SMSes + less than 30 mins of talktime + about 20+ shots of photos w/o flash. Something like that lah! That’s a typical day for me with the mobile phone.

This phone is 99% perfect for me already. And when I showed my uncles during our recent dinner, they are all tempted to change too! Perhaps I’ll have a Samsung Innov8 outing one day when I get my own!

Now I can’t bear to part with the review unit lah! Singtel! When are you going to have another promotion for the Samsung Innov8? I missed the launch promo leh! Quick have another one! I want to buy! Wahahahaha!

There’s a whole lot more cool feature for this phone! If I continue, this will be the longest post on my blog ever lah! Here are few other links I found with reviews of the Samsung Innov8. Can go check it out if you’re considering getting this phone too.
>> Video review by PhoneArena
>> Hands-on with Samsung Innov8 by Mobile Burn
>> Smasung I8510 blog and forum