Search Results for 'priscilla'

Hello Buffalo News readers, the Social Cyborg welcomes you…

Published on 12/29/2008 in Academia, Blogging, Buffalo, Personal, Videos, Web 2.0 and wearable. View Comments Tags: , , .

Buffalo News: Living Under the Lens (12.29.08)
Read online version or print version (scanned)

Scott Johnson's "Kevin the Lifecaster"

Welcome Buffalo News readers!

You probably dropped by after reading Steve Watson’s article entitled “Video technology creates a few very-public lives“, which offers a great dialogue into the ambiguity of identity in our increasingly networked lives. As I’ve mentioned at the end…

“We are rethinking the things that we’ve taken for granted,” Lim said. “Whether it’s privacy, identity, or so on. What’s happening is we are re-evaluating these things. Because the status quo just isn’t enough.”

As someone transforming into a “social cyborg”, I’ve been experiencing what it would be like to be hyper-connected as a human being. My project continues to push the boundaries of digitizing and sharing rich experiences, by combining streaming video, GPS data and possibly bio + emotional impulses as accurately as possible. While experimenting with ways of establishing a richer sense of presence and feedback in a non-directional everyday setting, this project dabbles on concepts relating to:

1. Continuous Partial Presence: Be it text updates or video feeds, loved ones feel as if I am actually close by when I am actually half the globe away.

2. On-Demand Crowdsourcing: Decisions can be augmented by the minds of many. As I engage in everyday affairs, my peers are polled to suggest what I should do (e.g. purchasing decisions, useful lifehacks).

3. Public Therapy (?): The idea that I’d be mindful of habits since my life is visible to all, and particularly magnified for my internal review.

4. Redefinition of Identity / Privacy: Privacy is a broad term, so here I am trying to find boundaries. Technology augments behavior, for instance, private phone conversations become public after cellphones were introduced.

5. Memory Prosthetic: I can opt to record moments of my life on video, and render the media deep searchable by date, time, subject matter, etc.

If you’re interested to learn more about me, check out my About page. If you wish to learn more about lifecasting, check out the following key articles below:

"Kevin // Social Cyborg" on theITsociety quarterly (01/08)
How (and WHY) you might want to build your own lifecasting kit

As featured on Zaobao Weekly
Zaobao Weekly newspaper features the Social Cyborg

How about you try it?
If you’d like to try something like this, but can’t afford the equipment, all you might need is your camera phone. Using Qik, you can easily broadcast video live from your cellphone, and even get viewers to chat with you right while you’re shooting! Here’s our Prime Minister demonstrating Qik at his National Day Rally speech and here’s my Qik profile if you’d like to add me as a friend.

So… what’s next?
My friends have made interesting suggestions on how I could further this project, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you’d like to see this take flight. I also encourage you to try this on your own, so feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Finally, do watch out for Alex Halavais’ upcoming “wear-tech” blog (TBA). As a tech enthusiast and assistant professor of communications at Quinnipiac University, he’s been my key mentor and sense-maker in our age of complexity.





So… Would you hire a social media strategist? (Part 2)

Published on 5/1/2008 in Academia, Blogging, Business, Media, Networks and Web 2.0. View Comments Tags: .

Would you hire a social media strategist (Part 2)

Two weeks ago, it started with a simple question we’ve probably all had at the tip of our tongues: “Would you hire a social media strategist? (Part 1)”

The motivation to asking this comes from how social media has such a fluid definition, that its legitimacy for concentration would often come into question. As users ourselves, we naturally feel some form of reciprocity from our participation online; we are social creatures after all. On the flipside, there are also many reasons to be critical about the hype, myths and evils of Web 2.0, even on how it could even negatively affect the media industry itself.

Today, I’ll be sharing a consolidated report from around thirty responses I’ve received my initial LinkedIn Q&A (private responses), previous blog comments, as well as through the one-on-one interviews I conducted via video Skype over the past two weeks.

The more I write, the more I realized that one simple question has spawned so many more. As such, for your reading sanity, I’ll be sharing the entire report over a series of blog posts. The parts are as follows:

Part 1 was the initial question. Part 2 is what you’re looking at now, which features initial responses to hiring a social media strategist. Part 3 will allow me to give an elaborate response to the emergent themes in today’s post. Part 4 continues with the interview report on expected qualifications and measurements (ROI) for social media engagement. Finally, Part 5 should complete the series with a short video documentary pulling together in-depth interviews with several social media practitioners as well as related communication professionals.

Please note that instead of interviewing just the social media practitioners (i.e. their line of work), I went for a “wisdom of the crowds” approach by asking professionals across the board, including industries of entertainment, broadcast, design, education, IT, non-profit, marketing, advertising and public relations. Consequently, understand that these opinions do not represent my own; my role in this report is to present any emergent themes.

For busy readers, these interview responses were found to mention how…
(A) not all industries would be appropriate for social media
(B) social media should be a portfolio fixture of every PR / Marketing executive
(C) social media should be a cultural shift for the entire organization
(D) there are social media consulting opportunities abound

If you’re ready, the first interview report is right after the jump…
Continue reading ‘So… Would you hire a social media strategist? (Part 2)’





Waiting for the “social media strategist” interview report?

Published on 4/30/2008 in Academia, Blogging, Business, HowTo, Trends, Videos and Web 2.0. View Comments Tags: .

I’m quite done with Part 2 of “So… Would you hire a social media strategist” (see Part 1). Right now I’m just getting approvals for the quotes I’ll be using before publishing. While waiting for my upcoming interview report, why not follow up on a few interesting links interviewees have sent in?

Have you any favorite links about social media? Which links do you tend to give friends who ask you about blogging, twitter, etc?





Day 1: Landing in San Francisco (Pre-Macworld blogging)

Published on 1/13/2008 in Apple and Personal. View Comments Tags: .

W Hotel @ San Francisco - 01
W San Francisco: our base of operations
Click to see W San Francisco photoset

As my friend Peter managed to get a good deal on the swanky W in San Francisco, there’s no better way to report from Macworld than a hotel right across from the Moscone Center, where Macworld Expo 2008 is to be held.

The W is quite an amazing experience. A room with a fantastic view of Bay Bridge, bright cheery bedding (neat cloud mirrors), a glowing color-changing Buddha, a mini-candy store, an iPod dock with tuned-in Tivoli radio, a sizable work desk with multiple power outlets, HDTV with HD-DVD player, and the list goes on… Just take a look at the photoset above to get what I mean.

Priscilla & Kevin - 1But enough on our accommodations, being in San Fran for me was about Macworld and meeting people (like geek celebrities). On my first evening in SF, the first person I got to meet up with was Priscilla who stopped over from CES in Las Vegas, heading home to Singapore. We shopped a little at H&M, then had nice (and reasonably priced) Thai food along Powell Street.

After dinner we headed over to Borders along Union Square where I bumped into Roy Chean, the Singaporean Mac Specialist who came in from the University of Melbourne Australia. It was Roy’s first time in SF, and I’d offer to bring him around but I really had lots to do here. He’ll be busy with Mac conferences as he’s sponsored under the Apple university consortium (I believe). I’ll be seeing him again at Macworld Blast, an official expo party. Devo should be performing this year and I’ve created an Upcoming event for inbound folks to add.

Dim Sum brunch @ Grand Palace (South SF) - 05The next morning, Peter, Florence and I joined up with Dennis and Sam (with their kids) for a day of feasting. You know every time I come to SF, there seems to be an infinite number of new eateries to check out, not that I’m complaining but I’d be afraid to live here. Anyway, our first stop was a dim sum brunch at Grand Palace in South San Francisco. I could have made a time lapse video of the food streaming in, but I got lazy, so do your own. Here’s stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3. I said that coming into San Fran from suburban Buffalo and looking at this mad spread made me feel like an Ethiopian kid seeing food for the first time. I ate slowly, just in case.

Japan Town - 02Since we’re big on desserts, Dennis drove us over to Japan Town where we got to have the famous Muchee (I had red bean), then finish off with Sophie’s Crepes. I seriously can’t gobble down so much, but I-must-try.

Since Florence was here for a few days, we followed her shopping around Union Square. Other than checking out various branded stores, I spotted some Segways and GoCars (tri-wheeled cars) roaming the streets.

Espetus Churrascaria Brazilian Steak Dinner - 05Dinner reservation had to be made five days ahead for Espetus, Churrascaria Brazilian Steak House. Our group grew, with the addition of Marie, her bf Pan as well as Peter’s cousin, Arthur. It’s one of those cooked meat on swords deal, where servers come to you table to fill your plates with ridiculous quantities of delicious meats. Here’s a spiced chicken heart I tried. You even had a coaster which you flip to indicate your fill… green meant keep going, while red meant enough, enough. You do not want to look at the bill…

Desserts @ Golden Island Cafe - 5Before we could call it a night, we ended up Golden Island Cafe. Why? Desserts again of course! Marie suggested the Mango and Grapefruit with Sago, while Florence tried a Sweet Desserts sampler (just around $4!). Here’s the dessert menu and business card if you’re ever in the neighborhood.

Stay tuned for more Macworld-ish news. Meantime, you can check out the slideshow of photos so far…





Macworld Expo 2008: Check out my calendar + Let’s meet up!

Published on 1/8/2008 in Apple, Face2Face and Personal. View Comments Tags: .

Macworld Expo 2003
My first Macworld Expo experience (circa 2003)

Based on my blog entries, I’ve been to Macworld Expo twice so far… my first in 2003, then in 2006 when the MacBook Pro was launched (though I did go to Apple WWDC around 1997).

Back then, videoblogging was at the early adopter stage, so that’s where I scored the earliest video of the MacBook Pro’s debut. This was a milestone in my life as a blogger, with 733,560 Youtube views helping to thrust this blog into a moment’s limelight.

As many of you know, I’ll be making a trip to this year’s Macworld Expo where I’m expecting to see an ultraportable MacBook of sorts. My 12″ G4 Powerbook had served me well back in 2006, but Intel was the way to go for videoblogging, thus the 15″ MacBook Pro. I’d seriously get something smaller as I love getting out and about, without the lug.

While spending a week in San Francisco, I’m hoping to meet up various folks there. Besides checking off interesting meetups listed on Upcoming.org, I called out on Facebook and Twitter for anyone interested in catching up. Here’s a tentative plan for my week:


Expand my “Macworld Expo 2008″ Google Calendar and add to your own…

As you can see, the week is abuzz with activities, from Macworld Expo itself (which I’ll be covering extensively here), to various geek meetups (SF has so much going on!), to meeting personalities around the area. Catching up with my SF friends is a must, and some interesting appointments I’ve made include…
- Priscilla Tan who works at Yahoo! and is stopping over from CES.
- Roy Chean, a Singaporean who works as a Mac specialist in the University of Melbourne, Australia.
- Dave Cohn, director of distributed reporting at NewAssignment.net (see Assignment Zero).
- Also arranging an interview with the Microsoft Mac Business Unit to talk about Office 2008 for Mac.

Drop me a line if you’d like to meetup, especially if you have something that might interest me. I do wish I could visit some of the web companies there, but I don’t think I know anyone there.

Update: Representing Singapore, BAK2U anti-theft software will be at Macworld Expo booth number S-1338. If you’re interested, I did a video interview with CEO Paddy Tan last October.





Today’s Links: Inspector Gadgets, Freakonomists, and Socio-Politicians

Published on 11/28/2007 in DailyLinks. View Comments

Reuter's Got Mojo (that's mobile journalism)

For Inspector Gadgets

For Freakonomists

For Lifehackers

For Social Media Pragmatists

For Cyberculturists

For Socio-Politicians

We heart China





Hello My Paper readers… BTW, do you blog?

Published on 10/23/2007 in Academia, Blogging, Buffalo, Media, Personal, Singapore and Trends. View Comments Tags: .

MyPaper: Singapore (something) Blogging King

Welcome My Paper readers! If you’re interested to learn more about me, check out my About page. If you wish to learn more about lifecasting, check out the Story Behind Kevin’s Wearable Cameras, as well as see related wearable videos here.

Intellectual Democracy = Affordance of Blogs
It can be a little embarrassing to appear in the news time and time again, especially when there are other bloggers covering really important issues. I’m referring to bloggers who update us on the protest situation in Burma as well as those who engage in the multi-faceted discourse on Section 377A (Singapore Penal Code). In either cases, bloggers are free to take sides and argue their case. This is what I’d deem as a significant affordance of blogs, that is the ability to participate in intellectual democracy.

In any case, with sites like Repeal377a.com and Keep377a.com, the decent number of signatures received clearly illustrates how Singaporeans aren’t as apolitical as they seems. Perhaps all that’s required is an easy way to participate. While I deliberate on this, you can get your fill on current affairs in the Singapore blogosphere via Singapore Daily, and more political-related news via The Online Citizen.

Is that to say that the rest of us bloggers aren’t as important?
I’m pretty swamped just reading everything (and yes, I do have work!), that’s why I haven’t written much about both cases. Thinking beyond the currency of news, one interesting aspect about blogs is how it tends to be about anything and everything. We should really enjoy blogging by writing about whatever afflicts our attention. While I like exploring what lies beyond blogs (e.g. lifecasting, always-on presence), you could be blogging about what you ate last evening, people you hate at work (careful now!), what not… it doesn’t matter.

While I could simply explain this as beauty being in the eye of the beholder, my pragmatic self tells me that we as bloggers are filling all the gaps on the web, from the mundane to the exciting, popular to the esoteric, making every search in Google return a result. Perhaps something I’ve picked up from Tan Pin Pin’s “Invisible City” is how in reference to archaeologists digging up SIngapore’s past, the trash of today could be a valuable artifact of tomorrow. In essence, we’re performing a service for mankind, especially if you believe that a “1″ (something) is better than a “0″ (nothing).

While I can’t translate what the entire Chinese article says right now, here’s the email interview with the reporter (in English) which took place last week…

Continue reading ‘Hello My Paper readers… BTW, do you blog?’





To Straits Times & My Paper readers: You’ve found me!

Published on 10/13/2007 in Academia, Blogging, Buffalo, Media, Personal, Singapore and Web 2.0. View Comments Tags: , .

The Straits Times: S'porean in the running for US Blog Scholarship (12th Oct 2007)

If you came from the Straits Times or the blurb in My Paper (as seen below), congratulations on finding me!. If you’re feeling lost, I suggest taking a look at my About page which details my life’s adventures in one convenient place.

I’m really fortunate to be surrounded by supportive family and friends. This particular story was pitched to the press by my sister Lynda, a talented PR lady who rushed me through the wee morning of Thursday to get this story in on time. Besides my sister, I’d also like to recognize Priscilla, who has been a sweet friend for cheering me on and a partner-in-crime for keeping me informed on Singapore’s social media scene. As crazy as it sounds, it seems as if I have two pretty awesome publicity agents looking out for me.

MyPaper: Blogging scholarship - Pg6 (12th Oct 2007) From these articles, a quirky incident involved Singaporeans emailing folks at this university, to pass the word and to ask for my blog address (which wasn’t mentioned in the Straits Times). This resulted in my blog getting the attention of a few academic administrators over here, to the sound of me being a mini-celebrity. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be ATAS about it. Instead, I see it as a great credential to have for showing others the pragmatic side to blogging.

Now I’d like to share some of the Q&A that didn’t go to print. If you’re a blogger (or a prospective one), consider this as a motivational health-check. Simply take these questions and prepare for your own press interviews in future!

- – - – - – - – - -

1. When did you start blogging?
As my blog archives will show, I officially started blogging back in 2004. I say “official” because before that, I was using blogger.com as a way to store my thoughts, less so to socialize. It was only after learning about celebrity bloggers in Singapore that I realized how blogging was more than simply updating web pages, but more of a literary spectacle.

2a. What is your purpose in blogging?
I’ve previously created a comic strip on my blog to explain this, but here’s an abstract:

First: To help make the web more useful.
(i.e. bloggers help make things more findable)

Second: To be recognized as an expert in my field.
(i.e. sharing what I know makes me the “go-to” guy)

Third: To get to know people like you.
(i.e. by making my life open, I gain trustworthiness)

2b. What content do you blog on?
One way to become a popular blogger is to have a focus. I’m the opposite, simply because I feel that life has too much to offer. I started out blogging academically, but realized I could do so much more. Since I enjoy the cultural aspect of technology, I’ve blogged about the different ways in which we could use existing tools. This included anything from using online video, del.icio.us and twitter as ways of streaming one’s life autonomously (i.e. life as a social cyborg), to participating and understanding particular online phenomena. When the Copybot tool was unleashed upon Second Life, it allowed less ethical residents to replicate intellectual property and to copy identities. I wrote about the Copybot incident, compared it with Star Trek’s replicator technology and highlighted the subsequent communist way of life in the Federation. This caught on with CNN Money as well as renown game theorist, Ralph Koster. So what do I tend to blog about? In Singapore, it’s rojak, with a dash of cyberculture.

2c. How often do you update it?
I used to update my blog several times a day. To be well-connected in the blogosphere, I used to spend a lot of time commenting and responding to other blog posts of interest as well. Nowadays as the many have become bloggers themselves, I feel less of a need for me to engage in matters accessible elsewhere. Naturally, I’ve scaled back, writing only when I’ve something unique or important to share.

3. Why do you decide to join the contest, how did you chance upon it?
My academic mentor Alex Halavais first reminded me of the college blogger scholarship this year. Since application was easy, I decided to give it a shot. I didn’t expect a response, but this week I received an email from the scholarship organization notifying me that I was selected to be one of the top 20 college bloggers, out of hundreds of other contenders.

4. Whose blog do you surf most? Any star blogger you admire or learn from?
My favorite blogger changes over time. I love to discover new talent and one I’ve been watching since the start of this year is Justine Ezarik. She’s the next generation of bloggers whom embodies social technology into the extreme. As an attractive 23 year old, she videoblogs, lifecasts, twitters and blogs all at once. More importantly though, she has showmanship, a digital virtuoso fluent with the ebb and flow of the blogosphere.

5. Tell us a bit more about yourself, your age/ how many years are you in US/ schooling or working background.
I’m now the ripe old age of 30 years, where I’m currently pursuing my doctoral in Communication in the University at Buffalo (State University of New York). I’ve been here since my undergraduate program and decided to carry on through my Masters after being awarded a graduate assistantship at the Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) on campus. At the TLC, I give workshops to faculty and staff on engaging students as well as the research community through the use of social media, such as blogs, wikis, podcasting, streaming video and social networks. Besides teaching, I am presently studying how citizens negotiate Internet regulations enforced in their particular country.

College Scholarship Finalist Button6. How do you intend to use the $10k scholarship if you win?
It’s a financial challenge just being a student, but I manage to get by with the support of my parents and an assistantship at the ETC. If I win this US$10k scholarship, I’m proposing to let the collective public decide on the wisest way to use it, by taking suggestions on my blog and picking the best ones to execute.

7. How do we vote for you?
If you’re interested in this idea, please vote for “Kevin Lim” over here. If you like, you can watch my pseudo-campaign video or join my groupie on Facebook too.





Campaign Video: Vote for Kevin (and help him spend $10k wisely)

Published on 10/9/2007 in Academia, Blogging, Media, Personal and Videos. View Comments

Since this opportunity is hard to pass up, I thought I start a narcissistic campaign for the hell of it…

I’ve started a Facebook group called “Vote Kevin for $10k blog scholarship, then help him spend it!“, to campaign for presidency votes to win the $10,000 college blogger scholarship.

On the Facebook group, I’ve even added a pseudo media kit consisting of photos you can use to create fake campaign posters / flyers (if you’re so inclined).

Interestingly, there are even testimonials made by fellow bloggers, such as…
- Alex Halavais’ uber-serious “I hereby endorse…“. He’s been the most interesting academic advisor I’ve ever had!
- Elia Diodati’s (acidflask) “Help feed Kevin” with silly reasons why you should vote me (he clearly indulges in self-pity)
- Priscilla Tan who says that you should help save this male cheerleader (hee hee!)
- Ivan the Rambling Librarian noted how the other bloggers write better than me but he likes how I embody openness and social engagement on the net.
- Siva (Otterman) who’s suggests doing a kind gesture, even though I’ve only garnered 1-2% of the collective votes.
- The Digital Movement’s massive plug with “SG tech blogger Kevin Lim makes waves in the States!“.

There are also friendly referrals from folks I recently got to know, like Brian “Harmless? Bananas!” Koh who explains why he bothers to read this blog, the(new)mediaslut who intends to help me get $10k (but can’t spell my name right, hee hee!), as well as the folks at The Singapore Daily national aggregator rooting for me.

To top this off, I’ve just created a fake public service announcement (PSA) video as seen above, explaining why you should vote for me and what you could expect if I win. Here’s the byline which goes with the video:

Vote for Kevin Lim for a college blogger scholarship
Having been selected as a top 20 college blogger, it all depends on you casting your vote to make winning $10,000 a reality.

If Kevin wins, he’ll invite friends to help him decide what to do with it. He’s crowdsourcing for ideas to use the money wisely, be it for a worthy cause (e.g. Saving Burma, Creative Commons, Space travel for all, etc) or to grow the capital (e.g. investing in a startup, high-yield savings account, etc).

Sounds fun? Cast your vote here.

Now I’m actually up against stiff competition. At the break of Tuesday (12.30am EST), here are the standings ranked by votes:

  1. Jess Kim (1066)
  2. Grant Brisbee (816)
  3. Shelley Batts (664)
  4. Kimberley Klein (658)
  5. Paul Stamatiou (440)
  6. Matthew Burden (375)
  7. Thomas Peters (231)
  8. Randall Booth (221)
  9. Shane Lavalette (149)
  10. Karin Dalziel (112)
  11. Travis Addington (110)
  12. Kevin Lim* (106)
  13. Chris Clark (66)
  14. Amanda Kern (61)
  15. Stephanie Collins (57)
  16. Kambiz Kamrani (48)
  17. Samuel Arbesman (10)
  18. Liz Funk (8)
  19. Sean Clark (7)
  20. Anders Ibsen (6)

Being at 12th place isn’t shabby really. Thanks to everyone who voted. I know some of you have problems casting your votes as the system may seem wonky, but don’t fret. The most important thing here is to play the game as it is. These are really mighty academic bloggers, I’m honored enough just to make the list! Sorry to friends and foes who didn’t make it. Drinks for all!

College Scholarship Finalist Button Before you go, how do you think I could garner the most votes?

Get down and dirty by offering iPods to a random voters?
Or do good by choosing a beneficiary / charity?

I’d like to hear your bright idea on how you’d best use this cash.

Update 1: It now on tomorrow.sg too!

Update 2: My friend Anggra found a news article talking about this on AsiaOne News.





Today’s Links: Online Influence, Tools and Science

Published on 9/12/2007 in DailyLinks. View Comments

On Influence

issuecrawler

On Fancy Tools

mingle2

On Science

Science Tattoos - a photoset on Flickr