What kind of customer value does YouTube provide in the marketplace?

YouTube provides/allows user to watch and share video content with anyone and with ease instead of having them to download special software to view/share videos. Videos could be viewed directly on the web conveniently at home or anywhere now with the availability of mobile devices such as PDA phones and iPods. YouTube’s videos are in a format that can be played by Flash player found on all PCs. They make recommendations to members at its homepage, according what they recently visit. So in a way, YouTube is a convenient platform for anyone to broadcast themselves and share videos.

How do businesses like YouTube alter the ways that organisations and customers interact?

YouTube allows users to link videos to websites, blogs and social networking sites. Good videos that will get passed on as users as sharing is part of networking. This will eventually build up a community of users. Users can rate videos they like; users can comment/critique a video. The comments section acts like a public forum in way that there will be user-to-user interaction.

Phone review videos like the above allows people from virtually around the world to come together and talk about the product or just share their opinions and experiences using that product. As you can see, that video alone captures the attention of over 1.3 million viewers!

What are the challenges facing YouTube in the future?

After reading the notes given..

• One of the most important challenges facing YouTube is generating revenue. This is hard for the company as it doesn’t want to alienate its current client base.
• The fear of losing money due to the costs of storing and delivering videos, there is also the risk of additional costs such as potential copyright lawsuits.
• Many other websites such as Yahoo, Metacafe and Vimeo provide a similar video sharing platform. Big content creators load well-known videos on their own websites which are free to watch.
• Metacafe only advertise/promote ‘good’ videos on its homepage. It rejects copies, uses 100,000 volunteers as film critics and analyses vlips using its VideoRank algorithm. Metacafe has this “exclusive image” that has the potential to draw in a different kind of crowd, crowds that would want to watch an original un-copied version of a video.

Alzheimer’s Disease Association (Singapore) Homepage

ADA’s website is very much Web 1.0 as the level of interactivity here is near zero. There is only a one-way communication here. Visitors can only read content and the web layout is unappealing.

Donations from the public is important to keep any not-for-profit organisations sustainable. Here, ADA’s donation page only allows potential donors to donate through mail by cheque. It does not show how donations are spent in the organisation.

Alzheimer’s Association (Chicago) Homepage [Visit Site]

Comparing ADA and this organisation’s website, we can clearly see the difference in design, content and layout. It is more Web 2.0 as there is more interaction between the site and the visitors and the level of interactivity is high. Visitor can participate in forums/discussion, play games and watch educational videos. The website is definately more appealing  and more organised with a obvious friendly vibe to it.

The above is their donation page. Here the page offers different types of donation the donor can choose – Tribute, General and Monthly Donation. I see this as very crucial as it gives the donor a freedom of choice to the type of donation they want to give.

Equally important, the page shows how every cent is spent, where the money goes and more. This will give visitors peace of mind without leaving them wondering where their contribution/s go. By having this page, the organisation gains the trust of its donors.

The part that puts ADA’s website out, is their usage of social media to engage as weell as create awareness of its programs and campaigns to the public. This site has Facebook, Twitter links and YouTube – to showcase its campaigns and edu-videos . As you can see, they have “Shop for a Cause” online where they sell items in relation to the organisation. This is a another innovative way to get donations.

(Alzheimer’s Association’s YouTube Channel) [Take a look]

There are other interesting features to this website such as online games. As it is proven that alzheimer’s disease can be prevented if one has an active mind and a healthy diet, games are introduced for anyone to play. Tips for a healthy mind are also posted and discussed with the organisation as well as between other visitors .

Overall, this website is indeed more than just another good-cause society. The site has alot of educational content as well as interactivity between visitors. The site puts itself in the visitor’s perspective by making navigation easy and providing necessary content/resources for everyone. By having a well built site as well as the usage of social media, it gives the visitors a sense of confidence towards the association and thus, will continue supporting it.

Who are they?

The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) is an institution (established by an act of parliament in 1968) that safe keeps all records (paper, audio and video records) of the nation’s happenings. NAS has moved beyond its traditional roles as record keeper of the nation as they constantly educate the public by having exhibitions and guided tours.

[Visit Website]

What do they do?

NAS’s primary job is to preserve priceless documentation of Singapore’s history and past events. Paper based items such as books, maps and blueprints are meticulously restored through various processes to retain its originality and stored in a vault for future references. Their secondary job is to educate the public by having exhibitions, guided tours and talks at schools and institutions.

What type of services do they provide?

Records Management and Preservation: Vital records are scanned and output onto microfilm for preservation in climate-controlled conditions. Records with intrinsic value are carefully conserved.

Providing Access: The value of archives lies in their continuing relevance to people who need them to understand the past, write research papers, as evidence of rights and obligations, or simply as creative inspiration.

Sharing Knowledge: In addition to our core work in protecting and preserving its archives, NAS shares expertise with the community through consultation and training. We run regular seminars on using archival resources, records management and oral history methodology. In partnership with our local universities, NAS provides internships and courses on archives and records management. We also conduct guided tours of NAS to educate the public on the nuts and bolts of archival work.

Archive Conservation Services: Archives Conservation Lab provides professional conservation services for paper records such as anoxic treatment, de-acidification, leafcasting, mechanical cleaning, manual repair, tissue mounting, encapsulation and high value (rare) book binding using archival method.

[Pictures of the trip to be posted]

Part of my project research, I’ll be looking through the available social media platforms out there that will benefit the organisation that my group is working on. Other than the infamous Facebook site, I find Twitter to be a potential (or already is) a powerful tool to get information across audiences. I’m a Twitter user myself and this social media application would be a great way to disseminate thoughts or ideas.

Why use Twitter? (Summary)

Information to be conveyed is kept bite-sized (max. 140 characters/update). It “forces” users to keep their message simple and easily understood, than reading lengthy messages which are usually ignored. I prefer reading short and to-the-point updates to know what’s going on. The idea of “instant” update and response is great. The ability to disseminate latest news, updates and events – instantly. Solve customer service issues. Followers can post questions on Twitter and both the organisation and even other users can answer to each other enquiries. The organisation can also gather valuable feedback from its customers. Certain updates can be re-tweeted (or forwarded) by other users so the updates on Twitter have a viral effect.

The points below are detailed advantages of using Twitter and I can relate it to my project. I’ve underlined some keywords.

(Online research | Source: http://www.doshdosh.com/ways-you-can-use-twitter/  )

Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.

Direct traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.

Read News. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. You can also subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows you to receive and view content quickly. This is very useful for active social news participants.

Network for benefits. Twitter can be used as a socializing platform for you to interact with other like-minded people. It can be used to establish consistent and deeper relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.

Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.

Event Updates. Businesses / Non-profit organisations can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information, especially when you don’t have the means to set up a direct mobile link between you and the audience.

So Twitter is something worth implementing to ADA’s website. Volunteers can easily be updated with anything from quotes to blog posts to upcoming events. Volunteers can in turn retweet updates to their friends, so theres a potential way to get a message across to a wider audience, and in the long run, get new volunteers or even support from other organisations OR government/media agencies.

About ADA and its website

The Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA) was formed in 1990 as a result of growing concern for the needs of people with dementia and their families. ADA is a voluntary welfare organization and is made up of caregivers, professionals and all who are interested in dementia. (ADA, 2009)

The website aims to :

• provide information about dementia, especially Alzheimer’s disease which is the most common form of dementia
• provide information about Alzheimer’s Disease Association (Singapore) and its services
• provide support and help for people with dementia and their caregivers

The reason we chose ADA is because, it will be a challenge for us to improve on their web presence as their site appears to be “outdated” in layout (more to Web 1.0 than 2.0). We believe that a better web presence will spur a greater public awareness of ADA in Singapore. I personally feel that civic engagement should start from young and the web is a better (and probably the best) option to reach the youths.

So What is Dementia?

Dementia is a mental health problem that usually afflicts the old, however, in rare cases certain forms of dementia may affect a young person. Dementia is an umbrella term that covers Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a variety of other dementing illnesses.

Dementia is a progressive and degenerative disorder of the brain (characterized by multiple cognitive deficits) that include impairment in memory. In the early stages, it can start as absentmindedness or forgetfulness. The patient may forget names, or where they left their keys. Since most people occasionally forget things, these early symptoms can go unnoticed, however, they will become more frequent and more severe, eventually developing into other symptoms of dementia.

For more information about Dementia visit here.

So this is roughly the idea that my group has to understand. Studying ADA’s current website, a base understanding of Alzhiemers/Dementia, case studies of other organizations (their successful campaigns) and researching other possible new media to improve ADA’s presence both online and offline.

My role is to:

• Research and compare current websites, between ADA other Alzheimer’s disease organizations (other countries).
• Research on various new media tools that is appropriate and implement them to the new ADA website.
• Design a mock website.

I write more on new media adoptions with regard to the case studies given in upcoming posts. (:

I feel that communication is important in our daily lives as we constantly need to get messages, regardless of what it is, across to the intended audience. You can’t get what you want and need by not communicating right? The notes I read about communication states “communication seems so natural and one generally assumes that there is no need of working on it.” I often go along communicating with people without realising that ‘good communication’ is not just skin deep. Simply because I often think that communication between humans is supposed to be natural?  I often spend time constructing the message I want to get across, making sure that what I say is understood easily. Message need to be encoded properly, channel must be appropriate and message need to be decoded the way it was encoded. Simply said, I spend most of my time making sure that my message is easily understood and (in which I find important) does not hurt or offend anyone.

Interference cannot be avoided I must say. The state of mind of the messenger can influence the message. If I’m unwell, having a bad headache or my day is bombarded with bad luck the message conveyed by me might be misinterpreted by others. Of course the channel used to convey a message is as equally important. For example, the most common problem now, messages sent through SMS would be different from calling the other party. Message intended might be misinterpreted thus the message conveyed is not entirely effective. Simple missing (or adding/extra) words or punctuation in the SMS would change the way the message is conveyed. Calling by phone too has its disadvantages as there are missing factors such as facial expression and body language that is important for an effective communication between one another. Interference by physical noise, such as a background noise and poor reception will affect the message.

Basically, a good communicator is someone who is aware of all the steps in the communication process, and the numerous possibilities for interference at each important step for an effective communication. Being aware of Shannon’s Communication Model, I believe that communication is not just a natural affair but conveying a message effectively (as well as naturally) will ensure my messages are well received and understood.

The 5 key points Lionel Chin mentioned in his presentation:

• He talked about his experiences in school and the working world, saying that both are totally different things. Although I already know about this, what he said just reassures everything, working is serious business.
• In the working world, you have to meet the expectations of clients, expectations of your boss. Cos as long as money is involved, you can’t play with time and ignore quality work.
• Costs of web-hosting for websites. There is a dedicated web-host, where the site stores all its files and elements in a dedicated storage area and bandwidth. Dedicated web-hosting is more expensive but it lets for a faster page load time. Then there is shared web-host, where multiple website folders share the same storage space and bandwidth, and it is definitely more cheaper than a dedicated host.
• He explained about how much should one charge designing a website, when a student asked about it. I was particularly interested cos I have no idea what the market price is. And my guess was right, it all depends on the project scope he said. But even that I’m unable to gauge a price. All he said was a simple website usually cost $500 – $800. Flash elements incorporated will have a higher price.
• Charges depend on self experience and portfolio. The more impressive the portfolio, the higher you can charge. Hiring a web-designer in a company and a freelancer have its pros and cons, in terms of cost, reliability and possibly the quality of website.

3 things that inspired me:

• All the websites that his company has designed for various clients.
• Sites can be made simple yet beautiful and engaging.
• Inspired me to start designing websites and make functional prototypes for my own portfolio.

The talk wasn’t as fun and engaging as I thought it would be, most of the information conveyed is what I already know or taught of. I’ve been to this web design talk brought by Toteboard (for the website competition I was in). Toteboard invited speakers from various local creative agencies to share about their personal experiences, good and bad, new ideas for the future web, they got the audience involve and they are really enthusiastic and passionate about their job. But I did learn a few new pointers from this talk nonetheless. (:

The name of the speakers:

Ferdinand Gutierrez – General Maganer, Neo@Ogilvy Singapore Visit Site

Benjy Choo – Creative Director, Kilo Studio Visit Site

Melvyn Lim – Creative Director, OgilvyOne Worldwide Visit Site

Sharon Ng – Course Manager/Consultant/Lecturer (New Media) Institute of Systems Science, NUS

http://mashable.com/2009/11/05/social-networking-isolation/

I asked few of my friends some questions on New Media just to get me started. Questions like “How often do you watched TV?”, “How long do you spend online each day?”, “Preferring Facebook or Twitter?”, “What is the first search engine that comes across you mind?”, “When you think of blue in the context of media, what comes to your mind?” and stuffs like that. Yup, it was a ‘need’ more than a ‘want’ for me because of the NEED to know how new media affects us all. There was this particular question I asked that strikes me most, “When you think of New Media, what comes to your mind?” And they all answered the same thing – INTERNET. In the end, the whole situation became ironic; I’m asking those questions via MSN, Internet drives it.

Internet – a shared global computing network in which PCs can interconnect anywhere around the world at any time. I’m in awe on how far the Internet has come. How it affects people around the world then and now. It affects people mentally and emotionally. So much so, it becomes very much a part of our lives. We have to technologies and software/s to get us wanting to communicate, for example, I’m using MS Word to type this post out. But getting the message (or this post) across is a whole different thing. How and where do I share my message? Where do I get an audience?

Let me share my thoughts when I first came to know “Internet”. It was back in year 1995; I was at my granny’s place when my uncle used this off-white, bulky-yet-sophisticated-looking machine called a computer. Accessing files like games in that computer was pretty complicated. No proper Operating System at that time yet. While being curious as to what he was doing, I heard something – ticking sounds, at times it sounded like Morse codes. I asked my uncle what that sound was and he answered with a smile, “That’s the modem (I didn’t know what a modem is back then) and I’m talking to someone, someplace else”. Then I went “Woahhh” like some amazed cave kid. But I didn’t use internet until around 1998. The year when 512k dial-up modems and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) are like the coolest things on earth!

Now Internet has become the most indispensable thing. We find, we observe, we share over the internet. That’s the way of Media right? To communicate? Then, came a category under New Media, called Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace to name a few. We spent so much time socialising over the Internet without realising. Even when we’re offline, we socialise with people on or about things that are online, the latest trends, news and funny videos. Many years ago, we were all worried that internet will isolate and deprive us from socialising. But it is not true at all. With technology advances (i.e. mobile phone, applications) there is even greater ease of communication outside our social circle, people from any parts of the world.

“Social media activities are associated with several beneficial social activities, including having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds. For instance, frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.” (from article)

I personally think that the above statement is true. We are indeed socialising more when we’re online, especially the younger generation. Socialising with an even bigger audience. Blogging, e-mailing, participating in forums/reviews, Twitter/Facebook updates via mobile phones, are the common things now. And the ability to get more opinions and views across all age groups. Link below is an interesting survey report.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18–Social-Isolation-and-New-Technology.aspx?r=1

However, although the myth is busted, are we isolated from people close to us, our family especially, since we socialise more with people online?

Honestly I’m a noob in WordPress. Yes I’m a noob. Suddenly I’m seeing  lots of click-able stuff around here. I’m a Blogspot-ter, but please spare me can? I shall be nice..HAHA. Alright, I have to intro myself. So here goes..

My name is Aizuddin Othman but I go by the name “Dane”. So address me as that (: Why? Din (my short nick) is pronounce as “Dane” and not “Dean” “Deen”. Simple? hahaha! I’m an Interactive Media Informatics student doing the above module. I shall blabber more on my upcoming posts yeah? So wait for it. *evil laugh*

Take care.

Love, Dane