News about earthquakes break via Twitter and scientists have actually come up with some correlation between the crowd, the cloud and their (multi-million dollar) scientific equipment. The article is reported in Wired Science.

On the street I saw a small girl cold and shivering in a thin dress, with little hope of a decent meal. I became angry and said to God; “Why did you permit this? Why don’t you do something about it?” For a while God said nothing. That night he replied, quite suddenly:

“I certainly did something about it. I made you.”

For many months, I have been silently following a website that is interestingly called InvisiblePeople.tv. It is an interesting play on how humans shun away from looking at something they wish to eradicate from their minds. All too often, we walk quickly past the people begging on the streets, stealing a glance or two from the side of our eyes.

We’re afraid – that’s the truth. Afraid of being asked for donations, afraid to be caught staring, and worst of all, afraid to care.

This project heavily invests in social media and uses it to make the invisible people, visible. Mark Horvath, the man behind this project was once known as the Lizard Man of Hollywood Boulevard, when he himself was once homeless. Mark had strong media beginnings as a Hollywood distribution executive, but lost it all to drugs and alcohol. In a nutshell, thanks to the LA Dream Center, he was set right again and freed from the bondages he once had.

Today, he goes out to the streets armed with a small camcorder, mic, laptop and iPhone. Mark posts raw unedited footage (sometimes deemed too raw) of the people he interacts with as they share their homeless stories with him.

So, how exactly does Mark use social media? Sites that are frequently updated include: his blog, Twitter, Facebook, Whrrl, MySpace, YouTube, uStream, Vimeo and Flickr. They serve as his own broadcasting channels to reach out to the public and update them on-the-go. Through the true-to-life updates, he has caught the attention of many and this has served to further propagate the message and his mission.

Is there any magic to it? From what I see, there isn’t: it’s about being true to your project and being as transparent as possible. Picking the right social platforms is probably very important too, as you would want to target the relevant audience through it. Frequent updates help too, and we can see videos are uploaded very often on the InvisiblePeople.tv site.

With so many platforms to manage, I was very curious as to how Mark manages them and sent him a couple of tweets. Here’s his down-to-earth reply.

Stats to date: CNN reports more than 1,000 videos are watched per week on the Vimeo channels and the project has more than 10,000 followers on both his Twitter accounts (@hardlynormal and @invisiblepeople). Mark has been featured on Huffington Post, CNN and loads more media as a result of him being extremely social with a fantastic mission.

He’s raised sponsorship and donations from many companies amongst which are Ford, Hanes (they give out socks to the homeless) and Virgin Mobile. Truly, it’s a powerful testimony of how one man has shared the stories of hundreds of homeless people with the world and brought smiles to those who are in need.

More importantly, via social media, an entire movement has been formed, out of people who are more aware that these problems exist. To all those who are interested in making a difference, Mark in a very practical way asks them to start helping in their own neighbourhood. There’s little point in helping out halfway across the country when the problems are prevalent in your own backyard.

May the invisible become visible, via the power of social media.

Never mind the ingenius barista who tried to upsell me the full-blown breakfast, I still got a swell deal on coffee.

The concept of the campaign is awesome – freebies will definitely engage the general population and word of mouth will be the powerful medium in addition to social media tools that will spread the brand like wildfire.

Literally 50% of my office went to the Starbucks outlet downstairs to get a cuppa, and we all came back with smiles on our faces. Many across the country were also like that, and were happily posting tweets and photos of their experience.

I’d say the campaign was a great success and the awareness of the coffee company and their offering surely went far and wide. Chris Anderson in his book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, talks about how the entire marketplace is changing – the under-30 generation refuse to pay for news and information, music is widely pirated, and people expect freemiums (think of limited accounts to certain services – Gmail being one and Flickr basic as another).

In this day and age, FREE is in. Look at the number of products that are given away these days, or sold at a very low price – companies make money off the related services – razors are given away, or sold cheaply, whilst the Gillette blades are sold at a handsome price. Printers are cheap, but the ink refills are a premium.

Closer to home, Air Asia sells tickets close to their cost price and make immense amounts of money from ancillary products such as food, advertising and travel packages. Another example in our Malaysian backyard is The Sun newspaper that is given away for free make a loss on production costs, but instead makes money from alternate revenue streams such as advertising.

Through this exercise, not only does Starbucks get more mindshare, they also get to sell their breakfast offerings, and they definitely created a buzz in the marketplace. Kudos to the team behind the campaign.

FREE is in, and FREE is here to stay. It drives us to be more innovative on how we can sell better.

(TwitPics were by @TheBackpackr, @smashpop, @jennihsurf, @sportysab)

Finally, there was even a TwitVid that was posted of the experience ordering their FREE coffee. (courtesy of @smashpop)

I think my favorite lines from here were with regards to how his laptop battery can last even longer, as he doesn’t even need to enable the screen to use it. Sit tight, and enjoy the show.

As with most of us, he admits to being an Internet addict.

I was interested to see what he would have to say and how live the interview would be. I was deeply unimpressed as there was really no form of active interaction between the audience and him. For all we know, he could have been asleep at home, while all this was going on.

There was more life in the Twittersphere and there were active conversations going on. Here is a transcript of the live interview, for those who might have missed it. And at the end, are some responses from the Twittersphere.

3:36 The Star Online:

Good afternoon and thank you for joining The Star Online today for our exclusive live blogchat with Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister. Dr Max has kindly taken time out of his busy schedule today to respond to some queries that you folks out there might have.

3:37 The Star Online:  We are getting Dr Max ready to reply to questions, so we’ll be ready to begin in a few minutes.

3:40 The Star Online:  The theme for today’s chat with Dr Max is “The Internet: Is speed all that matters.

3:40 The Star Online:  We would like to invite all of you tuning in here to leave your comments and questions for Dr Max, and we will try to fit in as many as possible over the next hour. We will also be posting several questions from readers of The Star Online who responded for our call for advance questions for Dr Max.

3:43 The Star Online:  Along the way, we will be uploading segments from the earlier video interview we conducted with Dr Max at Studio V at 1-Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya earlier.

3:47 The Star Online: It appears that Dr Max is ready to join us. Welcome Datuk.

3:47 Dr Max: Hello everyone, thank you for having me here today.

3:47 The Star Online:  Datuk, we have questions coming in live, and some advance questions as well. The first one comes from Shermaine.

3:47 The Star Online:

Hi Dr Maximus,

The Internet is the basis of much technological development. It’s not surprising that while Malaysia has a wealth of IT talents, and has been actively investing in technology and education, Internet usage still falls behind. Two factors plays a vital role, cost of internet and speed, this is largely due to lack of competition. The last time I was home, about a year ago, Internet service start from RM67 per month (not including phone line rental), mobile broadband costs a whopping RM 130 a month (apologies if these numbers are not exactly accurate). I am currently based in London, my Internet costs £15 a month, which after coversion to RM still works out about the same if not cheaper. This means Malaysians are paying London rate!
What are plans in the pipeline to at least make Internet connection more affordable and reachable for Malaysians?

Regards,
Shermaine

3:49 Dr Max:  Thanks Shermaine for your valuable input and questions

3:49 Dr Max:  Actually it is a chicken and egg situation.

3:51 Dr Max:

As I said earlier, the infrastructure for broadband is only starting to roll out. Hence, it has been costly for the existing infrastructure. We need major roll out of the broadband plan in order to reduce costs. PIKOM has proposed that the cost should be no more than RM30 per month to makebroadband accessible to all and increase Internet access.

3:51 Dr Max:  Once the broadband roll out is completed, the costs will average out and achieve the PIKOM proposal.

3:52 [Comment From Gabriel] what is the fucntion of MDeC within MOSTI and how does it differ from MSC Malaysia?

3:53 Dr Max:  MSC Malaysia is the flagship for the development of Multimedia Super Corridor and MDeC is the agency that spearheads the MSC development.

3:53 [Comment From Bob Chua] Good Afternoon Datuk – Glad to see you in Cyberspace. As a fellow Sabahan, do you see Sabah playing a role or having the opportunity to position itself as an ICT hub, perhaps via SDC (Sabah Development Corridor) or MSC Sabah?

3:56 Dr Max:

Thank you Bob. When there is a development, there is always an opportunity for the use of ICT to drive modernisation. I have already asked the Sabah state government to submit   a proposal for an MSC centre as a start before we talk about MSC Sabah. I understand that the proposal is being prepared and MOSTI will do its best to take the necessary action.

3:56 The Star Online:

This is another advance question, Datuk, from Fikri Salleh from the University of Melbourne.

Dear Dr. Ongkili,
I am an Electrical Engineering undergraduate from the University of Melbourne, currently majoring in telecommunications. In Australia they charge you for download quotas, where the more you download, the more you will have to pay, say 100 GB @ $100 versus 20 GB @ $20, after which the speed is throttled down (slowed). By charging more for more quota, this can improve overall connection quality. The heavy downloaders can still download, but now they have to pay more. Thus we normal users do not have to put up with the network being bogged due to these heavy downloaders, because there will be fewer of them.

Regards,
Fikri Saleh

3:58 Dr Max:  Hello Fikri, thanks for your comment. I totally agree with you. I will convey the concern and proposal to my colleague Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim.

3:58 The Star Online:  Datuk, this is a follow up question to your response earlier on the broadband rollout.

3:58 [Comment From Jerome] Hi Dr, when will be the projected completion time for the roll out? Surely we have an expected time line, don’t we?

3:59 The Star Online:  While we wait for Dr Max to respond, if you would like to listen to the earlier exclusive interview with him, please refresh your page and click on the audio links available.

4:02 Dr Max:  Thank you for your question. The whole broadband initiative will take 10 years to complete. But the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)  has organised the period into two-year plans. Priority will be given to Zone 1 i.e. the business, commercial and residential sectors. Of course, we are asking that the rural sector i.e. Zone 3 should be given attention at the same time. I will not agree that we have to wait 10 years to enjoy the Internet spoeds enjoyed by developed countries.

4:02 [Comment From CHEWLP] How can the ministry play a role to make sure consumer get what they pay for ?

4:06 Dr Max:  As I said, MOSTI deals with technology and content of the ICT and Internet services. We will voice out to the Cabinet and the relevant ministries our concerns regarding making Internet access as affordable as possible. In   fact, we have already done that.

4:06 [Comment From Firedauz]

Good evening, Dr Max. How do you see the future of Internet service in Malaysia? Will one day we will be able to grace the ultra-fast, fiber-optic Internet speed of Japan, which only cost around RM50 per month for the consumers? I have been based in Tokyo for several years now, enjoying the luxury of the quality services and speed of Sofbank and Yahoo! BB, which is why I hope that one day for the average citizens of Malaysia, I see them enjoying the same benefit as I do. Thank you — Firedauz.

4:09 Dr Max:  Thank Firedauz. My desire is to ensure all Malaysians could enjoy the same Internet speed as what developed countries like Japan enjoy. It is possible with the political will of the Government and the cooperation of all key industry players including state governments. As I said, we should not wait 10 years to enjoy that level of Internet speed in developed countries. My own expectation is that there will be a major achievement within the next three years.

4:09 The Star Online:  This question from Azlan, Datuk, is a follow up question on the broadband rollout replied earlier.

4:09 [Comment From azlan] What speed do we get in 10 years? and will the price be reasonable?

4:12 Dr Max:

Thanks Azlan. I think that the target speed of 20Mbps for the high speed broadband for the commercial sector and not less than 2Mbps for the general population especially for Sabah and Sarawak can be achieved within the next three years. Price is difficult to determine but the proposal of PIKOM i.e. RM30 per month is a reasonable target to achieve.

4:12 The Star Online:

Here is another advance question we received.

Datuk, can you elaborate a little bit on the MyIdeas portal?

Thank you, – JR

4:18 Dr Max:  Hello JR. About MyIdeas portal, it is to be launched by the Prime Minister in the next two weeks. It is a portal aimed at inviting the public to submit ideas to MOSTI regarding 2010 Year of Creativity and Innovation. The public can submit ANY ideas  regarding how we should solve the economic, social and technological problems that Malaysia is facing. Excellent ideas will be developed further by scientists and the final idea patented or ‘copyrighted’  to the original proposer. Such ideas or innovations will then be showcased during next year’s Year of Creativity and Innovation. So watch out for the portal launching on July 8th and please participate and submit your great ideas.

4:18 The Star Online:

I  would suggest some community/rural area projects to be implemented at a lower cost such as the design and development of a broadband/satellite services for a wireless connection at a lower cost for rural areas. This will benefit many like teachers, students, and people who are unable to travel or get connected. This will also indirectly motivate and make full use of ICT applications.

We also need to have applications for video conferencing, distance learning, VoIP, internet education and community service besides e-Government applications.

Thanks and best regards,
Dinesh Wasoo

4:20 Dr Max:  Good afternoon Dinesh. I share your concern and proposal. That’s why for broadband for the general population (BBGP), we are proposing that we should opt for WiWi technology i.e. combination of Wimax and Wifi through the use of satellite infrastructure rather than laying out fibre-optic lines.

4:20 [Comment From Xtina] Hello Datuk, you proposed a National Innovation Foundation when you first became the MOSTI Minister. What has become of that plan?

4:24 Dr Max:  Hello Xtina. The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) has started to roll out its activities. The MyIdeas portal will be managed by NIF. It will also spearhead the organising of the 2010 Year of Creativity and Innovation. As part of the preparation, there will be creativity competitions at district and state levels. It will also embark on innovation awareness programmes for students, youths and woman groups  commencing in August 2009. NIF website will be up and running by August 1st and the public will be able to visit it and participate in the various programmes planned.

4:24 [Comment From Chee Yan Kuan] National Innovation Policy is good.How do you monitor the progress of the National Innovation Policy?

4:28 Dr Max:  Hello Chee. A national implementation committee chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Government has already met three times in the last one year to spearhead implementation of innovation policies and programmes. Various briefings at sectoral and state levels have been undertaken. Exhibitions and competitions on innovation are held twice yearly.

4:28 [Comment From John] Hi Datuk, I always heard about CyberSecurity Malaysia in the radio station. what is the function of CyberSecurity within MOSTI

4:33 Dr Max:  Hello John, thanks for the question. If you’re in the Peninsula I   invite you to visit CyberSecurity Malaysia and have a first hand feel of the latest technologies used to keep cyberspace in Malaysia safe. CyberSecurity Malaysia is the national specialist centre delivering and ensuring cyber security. It deals with education and awareness programmes, training, digital forensics, certification, international networking and collaboration and policy research, and acts as a help centre including Cyber999. I will be launching Cyber999 on July 7th. So hope you could make it there, John.

4:33 The Star Online: One last question, Datuk.

4:33 [Comment From MD] Datuk, will foreign player be allowed to roll out broadband services here?

4:36 Dr Max: Thanks MD. Malaysian infrastructure industry has always been open to national and international players. You can see that from the number of service providers in the country that are foreign-based. As usual, priority will be given to national ICT companies that have international networking and partnerships.

4:36 The Star Online:  Sorry folks, but that’s all the   time we have with Dr Max today. We have received many questions and comments from you. Those that we have not managed to pose to the Minister today will be forwarded to MOSTI.

4:36 The Star Online:  Just a reminder, the video on the exclusive interview will be uploaded shortly. In the mean time, the audio version is already available. For those of you who are not able to see the link, please refresh your page.

4:36 The Star Online:  Thank you for your time, Dr Max.

4:37 Dr Max: Thank you for giving me the time to answer your questions. If you still have further questions, please send me an email listed on MOSTI’s website at www.mosti.gov.my or directly to me at ongkili@mosti.gov.my. Take care and have a good evening everyone.

4:38 The Star Online: Thank you all for joining us today and for sending in your questions. Please make use of the two email addresses provided by Dr Max to send in your queries and comments. Have a good evening ahead of you.

Polls held during the live interview…

Random tweets…

Post interview tweets…

Before they departed, they wanted to send video greetings from their blog, and I was given the “privilege” to help them with that, and edit it too, with my limited amateur skills!

Several hours later, here you go…

Initially, I was elated to find that flights via Tiger Airways were at zero dollars, and you merely pay SGD25 nett from Malaysia to Singapore. So a return flight is SGD50 each, which is really dirt cheap. With that perception in mind, I go about processing my booking…

First, I am presented with a summary of my flight, which is fine. SGD100 for 2 persons translates to MYR228 which is absolutely fine.

After it times out several times, I persist and finally get to the part where you’re supposed to put in your credit card details. Obediently, I comply and suddenly, I am presented with this screen.

Hold on a minute… my memory isn’t that bad, and I distinctly remember the figures MYR228 – what’s this extra MYR50 that is being snuck in? I click cancel and return to the previous screen where an inconspicuous section says “All bookings made using an electronic form of payment are subject to a CONVENIENCE FEE per passenger per sector”.

What on earth is this?

1. You blew your budget while developing the booking system, and are forced to charge us for it
2. You’re trying to be sly-er than the coyote
3. Tiger hopes our eye sight isn’t so good, and they can hoodwink us by 50 bucks

Whatever it is, how can you pass on a convenience fee to us? You jolly well are inconveniencing me and driving me insane. As a web user, I feel this in an injustice and am really disappointed to experience this. I would rather they have told me upfront that there is going to be a fee for booking.

Don’t mask it and coin funky terms such as “convenience fees”, that’s just not cool. Tiger Airways, if you’re reading this, I hope you reconsider your devious strategy and position your miscellaneous fees transparently and not at the last possible moment, without even putting it in the billing summary.

Moses, our hero of the day made 4 main excuses when called by God.

Pastor Victor, in his characteristic style preaches a witty sermon, peppered with fun-filled slides that engage the audience

Mark was chosen to be “God” and read the passage with a thundering, echoey voice.

Ex 3:11
Moses asked, “God, who am I?” He asked out of a lack of confidence and inadequacy.
God’s reply is “I am with you”. He didn’t directly answer Moses, but said that He is with us, which is sufficient for us.

Ex 3:13
Then Moses asked, “Who are you?” And God says, “I am who I am”.
He means He is an all encompassing God. Fill in the blanks: I am _____. Fill in with Jehovah Rapha, Nissi, etc.

Ex 4:1
He also asked, “What if…” – He kept looking at the possibility of failure, thus creating fear.
Yet, God replied, “I am going to do it”.

God is everything to us, whatever and whenever we need assistance, He will fit snugly in that time of need.

Ex 4:10,13
Finally, Moses asked, “anyone else?”
When God wants us, He distinctly means us. He has chosen us. “You can do it”, God says.

“What is in your hand?”
God will do it with whatever we have. Moses only had a staff, and through that he used it for miracles. With the staff, he parted the Red Sea, producing water from the rock.

He will use the smallest item we have, be it a mini-camcorder or small camera to do great things. In the Asian culture, we often feel inadequate, but let’s not dwell in that, for God will take a nobody and make him a somebody.

BUT, be humble – there may be times when the senior pastor asks that you be assistant to someone else, despite your experience. God will elevate you in the right time – before you can be useful, you need to be broken.

The conference features Power Up! sessions, which are across all streams and address the spiritual aspect of media fanatics. Oftentimes, those who are creative and in the media teams get distracted and lose focus of the core – God.

The first session started with Pastor Victor Wong and hearing the call of God.

When God calls, it is directive – it is specific and for you. The call is tailored for your life based on your skills and gifts. Examples are Abraham, Moses, Samuel and Saul). All of them had directive calls and based on what they were good at doing.

God’s call is progressive – when he calls, it’s bit-by-bit and when you are obedient, he will reveal a little more to you. When we make a decision, it leads to another step and yet another – all in God’s plan and timing.

God’s call is retrospective – we oftentimes don’t see the big picture when we’re going through it, but only later when you look back, you realise that God had a bigger plan for you. Sure we may complain throughout the turmoil and problems encountered, but really, it’s all to mould and build you up. Look back and see all the points in your life that scenarios were orchestrated that just “seemed to happen”.

It’s also prerogative – God’s call is not about you, but about Him. He calls you for his sake. As such, we should us our talents and skills for enhancing His kingdom.

A quote from Oswald Chambers states, “if you can tell where you got the call of God and know all about it, he wonders if you even got the call. A lot of the time, God’s call is something you cannot put into words”. Which I guess is true, many times, we don’t know where exactly we are headed, and what we are called to do – and it’s okay. The beauty of serving God is trusting Him, and not knowing what comes next – that is the adventure, or the journey.

Wake up, Mr Paul Sebastian – you’re looking too comfy there!

He speaks on the Googles, YouTubes and Facebooks of the world and how they are the rare breed of today. Realistically, he focuses on making $1,000,000 first, and retaining your life – rather than selling out and losing everything. Some billionaires really aren’t that happy at all… true?

Makes me self-actualize and think about where I’ve come over the last 9 years of building Integricity as a digital interactive agency and where I’d like to go from here. Perhaps you should take some time out, sit beneath a coconut tree and restrategize the next part of your business-life.

David goes on to calculate that a million dollars can be derived in a year from 2,000 customers x $40 x 12 months. (He’s a little short on $1 mil in his calculations, but I’ll overlook that). It’s far easier to accomplish this feat, than to build a single Facebook sized web property.

So, you don’t have to be a superhuman to earn a decent wage.

(It take about 30 minutes to go through this, but it’s a good watch)