bobjots : redux

I was recently asked by a friend of mine to work on a proposal to set up their website and one of the elements I was to include is a tool that would facilitate real time discussion and the sharing of tools and resources as well as training tools. Having been involved in some level of marketing online over the last few years, one of the first few things that came to my mind were web conferencing and webinars.

What exactly is a webinar? Wikipedia defines webinars as:

A neologism to describe a specific type of web conference. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a webcast. A webinar can be collaborative and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter.

I have managed to get my hands on a few units of Sony's latest contribution to the point and shoot digital camera market; the Cybershot DSC-T2. This model was first launched in Japan on October 23 and is due to hit the shelves in the US later today (ie. December 1). This also means it isn't available locally yet. At the very least, I don't see it on Sony Malaysia's website yet.

The Cybershot DSC-T2 has an 8.1 megapixel resolution and a whopping 4 gigs of internal memory enabling to store up to 40,000 VGA-quality photos or 1,000 8-megapixel pictures. This makes external media cards almost obsolete. It also comes with a state-of-the-art Automatic Images Management System making it a virtual digital photo album. Extra features include a touch panel LCD screen replacing the standard small buttons and Sony's distinctive "smile shutter" which automatically detects and captures a person smiling without the need to press the shutter. Its also available in some pretty funky colours to suit your individual taste - black, white, blue, green and pink. Pretty sweet, huh?

For more on the specifications and features of the Cybershot DSC-T2, check out Sony Asia's presentation here.

Interested in getting one for yourself or need an idea for a Christmas gift?

Check out my eBay listing here. Additional units are linked from the scroller at the bottom of the listing.

How much? Well .. its an auction but here's a hint .. it definitely is lower than the listed retail price.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the YouTube video has been flagged for alleged copyright violation. As a result, I have made a backup of the video from YouTube and published it here :

Some of you know that this blog together with a few other sites are hosted on a server managed by a friend and myself. The original idea was to provide affordable hosting and web development services to non-profit organisations and advocacy NGOs.

Having been in this industry for quite a while (has it been 10 years already?), I thought it was a little something I could do with relative competence for causes which I feel strongly about. I was also somewhat scandalised by the costs incurred in relatively easy-to-deploy technology by NGOs due to the lack of experience and expertise.

One very under-rated and often maligned method among the NGO and non-profit industry in Malaysia is the use of commercially proven practices in getting their message across. Whether we like it or not, we are competing for attention in a marketplace that is at this moment dominated both by commercial messages and Barisan Nasional political propaganda.

Taking into account that most of the mainstream media; both printed and electronic; are essentially controlled by a complicated system of licensing and distribution, the only entry-level arena essentially left for effective social communications would be the Internet.

Now that seems all taken care off, isn't it? Not exactly. How many web pages do you think are listed on a search engine like Google? 1 million? 10? How about 25 billion? And this figure is a 2005 estimate! How does one expect to get found on the Internet?

Malaysiakini reports the Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister, Shaziman Abu Mansor, as saying that plans are afoot to introduce an Internet code of ethics to curb what the powers that be claim is the "misuse" of the medium. This came in response to a question raised by a ruling party backbencher who asked if any steps were being taken to control bloggers.

In what is supposed to be a progressive and open society, why is the government afraid of public debate and scrutiny of their statements and activities? As a young child, I was always told that if one is upright and beyond reproach, they have nothing to be afraid of. Maybe this basic adage ought to be posted up on the walls of the Parliament?

Malaysia was recently rated 124 in the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Sans Frontieres (source: Malaysiakini). This is the lowest ranking ever received by Malaysia, for reasons of which I am sure is quite self evident and difficult to dispute. The Minister of Truth, Zainuddin Maidin, could try but I am quite certain Malaysians would know better.

One way to bypass this official stranglehold on the dissemination of information is to use the Internet as a tool for dissemination. One of the most common usages is through the humble e-mail mailing list. However with the general availability of affordable broadband today, a website could increase the effectiveness and methods available for the dissemination of information.

I have been asked to give a review of the HostGator Coupon blog. Rather than merely extolling the virtues of online coupons, I'd thought I'd see how something like this can really be relevant to the readers of this blog.

On a blog like this one where certain strong opinions are given, it's almost inevitable that it occasionally garners some strong and occasionally verbose reactions. To be fair to me, I've had to take some actions that I'd rather not. I provided some rationale in a previous post.