Hyperconnectivity = Hypertension

I've been blogging about how the world today is so connected in the cyber world. To many, hyperconnectivity brings about phenomenal advancement in product innovation. They call this hyperdifferentiation. Some even believe that it could impact civilisation like how the industrial revolution was sparked by the discovery of steam and petrol engine.

The Netizens, an always 'on' society, continuously sifting through the cyber world, creating, editing and exchanging information transcending race and cultures. Being informed, we allow ourselves to evolve in a more efficient way.

We have been innovating before but the speed that we are doing it today is mind boggling. We're transforming society to be collaborators as we've witnessed how state and corporate level policies are being influenced by the people's vote. Democracy are at it's best when decisions are made bottom up.

The world at light speed. Can our mind and body cope with this?

Add mobility to the connectivity equation, you get information exchange in a ubiquitous way. It's a powerful combination. Imagine a world that can be updated at the same time. It gives new and profound meaning to the cause and effect equation. Are we in a brink of a perfect economy? An economy that lives on perfect information exchange?

There's 2 sides of the coin for hyperconnectivity. One side says that it enables K-Economy. However, government's and corporate bodies are increasingly worried about cyber security. The threat is real as it can cripple the economy. But my worry is more on social security. We are witnessing today how the news on oil and food crisis are affecting the world. I believe that this threat could somehow be blown out of proportion. Interested parties could manipulate the situation by creating uncertainties in the market place.

With hyperconnectivity, these negative sentiments can infiltrate the mindset of people in a much more effective way. Any sort of crisis can ring alarm bells in people's mind. It heightens anxiety and it could stress up the market. It's a dangerous and most effective propaganda tool.

Today's effort are concentrated more on reducing cyber threat rather than content censorship. People say that there should be freedom of expression in the cyber community which I totally agree. What I don't agree is when people use it for their own gain by manipulating and exploiting others.

Freedom of expression is good, but it is those who does this irresponsibly that should be controlled. We need a system or a framework that authenticate contents. Just like how job placement services requires job seekers to authenticate their resume before being posted on the Internet.

How can we achieve this? Certainly, it requires strong political and corporate leadership. Companies like Google and Yahoo should show more responsibility and sharpen their effort on content authentication. What we need is someone or some framework to help net community to choose between fact or fiction materials.

Web space like Wikipedia is a great source of information and knowledge as contents are continuously being updated and edited by readers themselves. But the fact is, they are not being authenticated by the correct authorities. I think Wiki should be more honest and start to provide authentication services for their content.

Anytime, anywhere communication....the promise of a digital world..

Uncertainty and anxiety leads to greater risk. And there's a high price to pay for this risk. Hyperconnectivity will force the world to work in unison. The problem is, countries are at their different wealth and social maturity level.

It is in my opinion that poor countries will have no time or opportunity to learn from the developed economy as the world is already acting as one. They can never catch up and I'm afraid that they will always be under developed. The rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer. Hyperconnectivity will reveal capitalism's ugly face.

I have no doubt on the benefits of the true connected world. I just hope that in our quest to achieve these outcome, there must be mechanisms for check and balance. Connectivity will bring about new business models in the commercial world. Social and political engagement will be taken to a new level too.

Thus, we need to continuously review our capability in managing these changes. Not just looking at technology, but every other aspects the technology impacts on; financial, legislation and especially our social fabric. If we are honest in our quest, we can evolve human race to the next civilisation plateau or move up the value chain in a sustainable way.

No Astro?? No Problem...Youtube Kan Ada...

It's been more than a month for us living without watching Astro. The boys have been watching cartoon on DVD alternating with the mother. Who says we can't live without Astro? I myself finding it quite an experience spending more time watching contents from the Internet. And that explains why I'm actively blogging again!!!

I can't wait until this country has another broadcaster besides Astro. Like any other monopoly companies, profiteering is their one and only ambition. Oftenly customers are forced to accept whatever level of service provided as there's no other alternatives to choose. True that most of the content already belongs to Atsro, to me, this is not an issue. Content is the important pulling factor, but other differentiating strategies can be deployed to be competitive.

I wish that movies, sitcoms or programmes could be on-demand so that I can watch whatever I want and whenever I want. I don't want Astro to control my daily schedule but instead, I want to have control on the programmes. We, the customers determine what and when we want to see from TV. The technology to do this is already here and I think TM is conducting some trials with some of their customers in Penang. With IPTV (an IP based TV platform), the experience of watching TV would be more interactive and personalised.

The Americans seems to have everything in abundance, including time to watch TV....

Like any other industry in Malaysia, the government's role is to ensure that the long term interest of the end users are met. Usually, to do this, government tends to break down monopolies to create competition with the intention of improving quality of service and keeping prices low (but not necessarily affordable). In Malaysia, when the government liberalised the telecommunication industry way back in mid 90's, we saw how other players came into the picture and compete for customers.

We Malaysians benefited substantially. Although I do have some reservation in this, but in general, today we are constantly being offered and bombarded with attractive call prices and packages. However, for too long, we are being choked with basic voice and sms offers.

My question is, how can the government effectively create the same competitive market in the satellite broadcasting industry. Some might argue that the market is too small for other players to co-exist and the infrastructure cost would be astronomical for the new entrant. Well, there's one obvious solution for this barrier of entry. Tell Astro to open up their network and let other players leased their capacities.

New entrants wouldn't have to invest huge money for infrastructure but instead leased unused capacities from Astro. As for content, I think there's enough out there to feed viewers appetite. Malaysia has the most diverse viewing profile compared to other countries. Multi ethnicity and religious background brings about different content viewing preferences.

There's a need for content to be more specialise and specific to meet different market segment requirements. The future of media business is to sell more of less. Today, if I want to watch big movie hits, I've got plenty of options to do so including Astro. But if I want to watch something very specialise and specific like how to play badminton like a pro, I would go to youtube. Youtube is an example of how future of business should be. Selling more of less. Even when there's only a single viewer, the video is still on the cyber-shelf to be viewed.

Are we ready for triple play services?

I'm blogging about this tonight because I think we seriously need a competitor for Astro. The fact that I can't choose any other satellite broadcaster, democratically, it's like denying my rights to 'vote'. To beat a monopoly, the new entrants would require assistance from the government. The government must provide market and regulatory mechanism that creates a level playing field for the broadcasters.

However, it is crucial that they only do this with the customer's interest in mind. I hope that the convergence between TV and IP services would happen fast enough to break the dominance of satellite broadcasting in Malaysia. Just Imagine when the current Astro decoder is replaced with your computer's CPU as your lifestyle changing technology. The value it can create for the business community is immense as customer's interaction and engagement would be taken to a new level.

Until the arrival of this new media, I need to find my Astro card. We still haven't found it. If I call Astro for a new replacement card, I'll be charged for it for sure. But so far without Astro, no problem for me at least. I'll just stick to youtube while the kids are happy watching Transformers movies and cartoon repeatedly. We have many cartoon version of Transformers collection by the way. Gosshh..I'm surprised how this missing card inspired me to blog!!