My Doorway - A Nelson Wee Blog

Introducing Edtech Market Opportunities in Education Enrichment

2012-01-31T09:18:00.000+08:00

Recently, I had put together the following introduction deck in slideshare on "Edtech Market Opportunities in Education Enrichment". Edtech appears to be a buzz word these days and also identified as a hot market trend to look out for in 2012.

Edtech market opportunities in Education Enrichment

View more presentations from Nelson Wee

With the pervasiveness in broadband and the next generation of broadband (capable of delivering speeds of up to 1 Gbps) roll out, the learning communities of students, teachers, parents and out of school educators will have in their hands (devices) capable of rich interactions via video, voice, images, text, sharing notes and more. There will be many more opportunities in not only face to face in-school programs but also online and real-time out of school e-learning sessions and mentorships.

In my presentation deck above, I attempt to:

introduce the market trends of how digital publishing, learning and edtech are converging into the education enrichment of students today.
put a number on the potential market size in education enrichment - case in Singapore
discuss a framework on the education enrichment commerce ecosystem - case in Singapore

I will be writing another post soon to further elaborate on the above topic on edtech and the education enrichment market opportunities. I look forward to engage with you and hear your views on education enrichment and how edtech could help the pathways of today's new generation of students.

Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
also contactable via @nelsonwee

5 Hot Trends to watch in 2012

2011-12-28T17:47:00.002+08:00

It is at the point of the year when market experts and watchers, silicon valley VCs alike, put forth their points of view on what could be the top and hot trends to look out for in the upcoming year. Cloud, social and mobility are the easy 3 to mouth out and these will indeed be the key drivers in enabling both existing and new industry sectors to expand into new growth areas.

And so, without further ado, here are my pick (some read, some my added views) on 5 hot trends to watch for in 2012.

(1) EdTech

The Education industry has never been hotter. Every market and government (emerging, mature markets alike) are looking to leverage the pervasive computing devices like smartphones and tablets and bringing the education journey into the classroom and beyond. eBooks (children storybooks, self-improvement books), eTextbooks, eAssessments etc are in the markets and will take to the next level of growth in 2012 with increased interactivity and rich media to attract the new generation of learning minds.

(2) Data Science

In a market research conducted by MasterCard on Singaporeans recently, Internet surfing came in 3rd amongst the top fav activities of Singaporeans, behind eating (dining) and shopping.

Whenever our consumer fires up their browser and visits our sites or others, there're a huge load of behavioral data which could be harnessed and studied for our profiling and future use.

(3) Collaborative Consumption

With the price of cars going through the roof, and the rental car market coming up, will there be an opportunity for a peer to peer time-sharing opportunity here in Singapore? In the US, ZipCar appears to be successful. Perhaps apps or content rental could come into the fore as consumers and small enterprises are getting used to cloud-based services and move on to new experiences with other contents and media.

(4) Content grows more pervasive, being available online/offline

Global players like Google are looking to enter both emerging and their mature markets with solutions which cater to all segments. Take for instance Google Books, which will now be also availed offline. I see a not too distant future when Google Maps will be availed as a hybrid (online and offline) solutions.

(5) Merchants grow out of daily deals and look for tangible business models and relationship with their customers

Loyalty cards companies like Perx are looking to get a piece of the market being thrown away by the Groupons of the world who have sown disillusionment into a large number of disgruntled merchants who do not see repeat customers coming and revenue growing, after the daily deals effect have worn off.

Could loyalty card companies like Perx or social content feed marketing companies like Taggo or companies who could market and promote time or inventory limited offers (much like how airlines deal with revenue management), form the next wave to watch out for in terms of merchant e-commmerce?

What are your top trends for 2012?

Happy 2012 in advance and look forward to hear from you.

Nelson Wee
or engage with me at @nelsonwee

References:
Silicon Valley VCs predict top trends for 2012

From Print to Digital: Evolution of Retail Circulars

2011-12-12T21:44:00.001+08:00

I read recently from a Nielsen market report that in the US, the ongoing consumer love affair with the retail store circular is transforming from print to digital.

Every day across America, a shopper walks into a store, grabs a cart and reaches out for the store circular to find out what’s on sale. Now however, a new generation of digital savvy consumers are viewing their circulars (or brochures, vouchers, deals) online or via a mobile browser or app.

From my observations, there are 3 trends happening even here in the Singapore retail shopping landscape.

Consumers are checking their mobile for deals, product info (I wrote about this in my last post about e-commerce trends in Singapore).
Consumers are used to buying deals online or via mobile (mobile is nascent, covering 4% of total e-commerce market in Singapore).
Personalised offers beyond SMS, EDMs are coming to the fore with location-based targeted offers, QR code call-to-action.

Indeed, the future-state will be a shift to personalised tailor-made offers that will match the shoppers' interests and purchase patterns.

Another interesting insight from the Neilsen report described that almost half of the American category shoppers rely on circulars to draft their shopping lists (think mobile shopping list apps here). As in Singapore where 84% of consumers search on their mobile for product info, a large part (three-quarters) of American buyers make purchase decisions (think mobile research here) before setting foot in the store.

It is critical that players in the retail shopping ecosystem relook the consumer journey, and start to collaborate and play a part in working with forward-looking retailers to experiment with multiple digital pathways (mobile, tablet, laptop, PC, TV, retail, OOH displays etc) that will enrich and enhance their retail circular experience, by integrating video, interactive elements and smart features that would serve up information based on loyalty or location.

What are your views about retail offers and consumer behavior in e-commerce in your market?

Look forward to hear from you.

Nelson Wee

Poll: Changing Reading Habits?

2011-12-12T21:03:00.002+08:00

According to a 19-SEP 2011 Harris poll conducted on American readers, the following findings were made:

1 in 6 Americans use an e-reader and will likely get an e-reader in the next 6 months.
Users of e-readers will more likely both read more and buy more books than non e-reader users.

16% of non e-reader users read 11 to 20 books a year, compared with 32% of e-reader users
10% of non-e-reader users buy 11-20 books in the past year as compared with 17% of e-reader users.

Most popular genres for fiction comprise Mystery, thriller and crime.
Most popular genres for non-fiction comprise biographies, , history and religious/spirituality.
79% of Echo Boomers (18 - 34 years) read fiction whilst 68% read non-fiction in the past year.
73% of Gen X (35 - 46 years) read fiction whilst 82% read non-fiction in the past year.

What are your reading habits like?
a) how many print books do you read in a year?
b) how many print books do you buy in a year?
c) do you read ebooks with your smartphone, tablet or PC? And if so, how many do you read and buy in a year?

I look forward to hear your views.

Nelson Wee

Introducing skoob, Singapore's 1st hyperlocal eBookstore

2011-11-20T14:44:00.007+08:00

The ebook market in Singapore is in its early stage of growth. From my previous 2 posts "1-2-3 to the eBook market" and "Why the rise of eBooks (and opportunities to expand ancillary channels)?", the ebooks market is seen to be gathering momentum globally and having an impact to the market here in Singapore.

The US is leading the charge in the market for ebooks globally (with the introduction of the Amazon Kindle), where according to a survey by BookStats on the US publishing industry, that:

In 2008, ebooks comprise 0.6% (or US$156M)) of the total trade books market. Publishers made net revenue of ~US$26B in 2008.
In 2010, this number grew to 6.4% of the total trade books market, or US$1.8B (sales of 114M ebooks). Publishers made net revenue of ~US$28B in 2010.

The PWC report on "the future of ebooks" projected that share of consumer books sales by ebooks will grow to more than 22% in 2015.

From the local Singapore context, there have been also encouraging signs on ebook take-up seen from the following reading habits of Singaporeans:

(1) Sales of books in Singapore (according to Datamonitor report) in 2008 is SGD $190M and to grow to $215M in 2011, $232M in 2013 (CAGR ’08-’13 of 4.1%).

(2) From the Singapore Journal of Library & Information Management,

27.5% of Singaporeans placed reading as their most preferred leisure time activity.
While average reader in Singapore reads about 5 books a year, about 10% of readers do read more than 30 books a year.

(3) From an IDA study done in 2009 on infocomm access in households, it was gathered that the primary activity for ~3% of Internet users (110k out of total number of Internet users in Singapore, more than 3.7M) were on reading online magazines and electronic books.

To augment the above in terms of market potential, in Singapore, there are 3 more reasons why the eBooks or mobile books market is set to take off here in Singapore.

There is more than 145% in mobile penetration in Singapore (encompassing smartphones and tablets).
The vast majority of consumers here have data-enabled plans.
Many consumers here have multiple devices (smartphones, tablets) today.

Now with the launch of skoob, Singapore's 1st eBookstore (disclosure: I lead the team in the launch of skoob eBookstore), the eBook market in Singapore looks set to grow from strength to strength. And the below listed benefits for consumers celebrate this moving forward.

Firstly, skoob aims to meet the digital lifestyle needs of Singapore's increasingly on-the-go consumers with its multiplatform, multi-device stores. You could access skoob on your PC, Mac, laptops, iPads, Android Tablets, iPhones and Android smartphones! No more having to wait for your book to arrive at your door-step!
Furthermore with personal space being at a premium in Singapore, going digital is not only green but also frees up space in one’s living areas for other needs. With skoob, consumers here can also access, buy and download their eBook(s), each on up to 5 devices (PCs, Mac, laptops, iPads, iPhones, Android tablets, Android smartphones).
Previously, consumers in Singapore had to jump over many hoops to buy ebooks. To read ebooks on a Kindle for example, consumers had to order a Kindle via post (Kindle is not shipped directly to Singapore) and get an Amazon gift card or a US credit card to pay for the eBooks. Now with skoob, consumers in Singapore can buy eBooks from their PCs, laptops, tablets (iPad, Android) or smartphones (iPhones, Android) etc and pay via their Singapore local credit cards or via their monthly operator bill if they are SingTel mobile customers.
Previously, there was no local e-bookstore to cater to the tastes and needs of Singaporeans. But now with skoob, Singapore consumers can now get hold of more than 50,000 e-books from international bestsellers such as “A game of thrones” by George Martin or “Aleph” by Paulo Coelho to important sought after local content such as "Giants of Asia: Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew", Mr. Midnight series of children’s stories, and of course, the essential study and assessment guides from Popular Books.

I look forward to hear from you on your feedback on the eBook market trends in the world, Asia or even in Singapore and of course, your feedback on skoob as well. Never stop reading, whenever, whereever~

Later,
Nelson Wee
find me on Twitter as well

References:
1. CNet Asia - SingTel announces "skoob" eBook store in Singapore
2. Channel NewsAsia - Flip Skoob to read and study
3. ZDNet - Singapore telco offers country's first e-book app
4. AsiaOne - Singapore's first e-book service launched
5. The Register - SingTel launches e-reader
6. TODAY online - Too cool for Skoob

Why the Rise of eBooks (and opportunities to expand ancillary channels)?

2011-11-12T17:48:00.001+08:00

In my previous post on the "1-2-3 to the eBook market", I discussed about:

how eBook adoption is growing fast globally
how ebooks could and are being consumed via multiple screen sizes and devices (i.e. PC, laptops, tablets and smartphones)
how eBooks and eMagazines could provide opportunities as ancillary channels (and revenues)

It's with no surprise that with the market trends and opportunities in digital publishing that we are seeing today globally (e.g. in the US, UK) that digitization of books and mobile consumption is on the rise in Asia Pacific as well. In China, sales of digital content ran up sales of US$1B in 2009. Annecdotally, I have heard from a China publisher (who deals in both print and digital eBooks in China) that sales of eBooks in China (including probably mobile comics) have grown to about SGD $200-300M - now, that's HUGE!

In Singapore, the market landscape is posturing nicely for digital publishing as well:

with 3.7M Internet users,
accompanying market growth in the mobile internet, with the proliferation of tablets, and smartphones rapidly replacing feature phones,
185k consumers or ~5% of all Singaporean Internet users, 15 years old and above have purchased eBooks, eMagazines or eNewspapers (source: IDA 2009 Infocomm survey of households).
An average reader in Singapore will read up to 5 books a year whilst a heavy reader (10% of all readers) will read about 30 books a year.

It is hence with this market momentum that I have finally achieving my life-long ambition in being part of the launch of a book store, albeit an eBookstore here in Singapore (with my current employment in SingTel). Have a look at the introduction video below on skoob at http://www.skoob.com.sg/ , probably Singapore's 1st eBookstore!

Look forward to hear your feedback.

Til later, Nelson Wee

References:
1. Why Cell Phones will Dominate the E-Book Market in China?
2. My slideshare presentation on "How Digital Publishing Can Expand Ancillary Channels"

How Digital Publishing Can Expand Ancillary Channels

View more presentations from Nelson Wee

10 Key Takeways from the Ancillary Revenue World Asia 2011 Conference in Singapore

2011-10-02T23:25:00.003+08:00

I attended and presented recently at the Ancillary Revenue World Asia 2011 conference in Singapore. It was an excellent 2 days where I valued meeting up and learning from a number of key management illuminaries from the airlines, hotel, travel, banking and insurance industries.

Here are 10 takeaways I put together from the conference.

"Treating People Right" - Tune Hotel's Mark Lankester believes in focusing on the customer's core needs, debundle the rest like insurance, transport and even air-con which could be offered as an upsell when required.
Mobile commerce will go Social and Local (with location-based services) and audience management of your consumers through search will go from PC-WEB to Mobile-WEB to TV-WEB (XBox-Kinect), says Manish Ladha, Microsoft.
Apps can expand ancillary channels to your business by driving new different ways in content consumption, and also offering new debundling and repackaging opportunities to your products - says well me, Nelson Wee, SingTel
Move from segments to customer-centric approach in targeting your customers - says Steve Pinchuk, Melco Crown Entertainment
Embed cross-selling opportunities before, during and post the booking process - best practices from Amit Saberwal, Makemytrip.com
Grow your partnership from a marketing partnership (value driven) to an ancillary partnership (revenue driven) - Wong Soon-Hwa, Hertz International
Best route to ancillary revenues is not to aim directly at revenue but at customer experience and value (case study on grabbing in-destination share of wallet through ancillaries) - says Aseem Sadana, Isango!
Using opt-out to good effect in booking process can give outstanding customer take-up in your ancillary services - Lim Kim Hai, Regional Express
Manage effective revenue management by balancing between your core and ancillary products, creating value for your customer and never over-bundle (instead review and fine-tune your current bundles) - Doug Hesley, The Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts
Generate revenue from cross-selling across multiple products through a centralized marketing organization, who looks to solving a need of your customer with a simple to sell, buy and service product, and follow up incremental value through life stage mapping - says Basker Rangachari, Standard Chartered

Well ok, I cannot resist providing a bonus takeaway from a good buddy of mine, Miguel Bernas, SingTel who was among the panelists during the "Social Media: Dwindling Potential" discussion.
11. Social Media could potentially replace the ice-cream parlour or the Saturday night poker game where you gather with your buddies and engage on stuff which happened over the recent week. Perhaps brands could offer a corner of the ice-cream parlour and partake in the engagement and conversations of their customers.

Here is also my presentation deck for your viewing. Most welcome your views!

How the use of apps can successfully expand ancillary channels & viability

View more presentations from Nelson Wee

Til later,
Nelson Wee
engage me here or in Twitter @nelsonwee

6 Players in the Location-Based Services Ecosystem

2011-09-25T16:18:00.001+08:00

My last post on location-based services set the scene on the reasons why location-based services are picking up with the the growth in on-the-go consumers who are more freely sharing information socially, and with more location context. With mobile phone-based location-based apps driving business recommendation services through integration with the social media internet, multi-channel merchants that sell online and via physical stores have, in many cases, have been very effective in using these services to boost both real-world and digital traffic.

Who are the players of location-based services? I have attempted to put together the location-based services ecosystem in the following value chain for our discussion.

Map Data Providers provide:

the base layer map data.
enriched hyperlocal POI (point of interest) data.

Application Software Providers

technology partners who build upon the map data providers' base layer map.
develop the user interface to work cross-platform, with customized features.

Advertising Network Providers

provide the connectors to ads in the LBS app.
and the field salesforce to sell the ads to brands.

Location-Based Content and Services Providers include

backend partners who serve out hyperlocal and relevant ads on behalf of merchants in partnered web and mobile sites.
front-end eShopping partners who vend free vouchers, paid eCoupons, aggregate deals.

Access and Provisioning Providers (Carriers / Operators) provide

affordable data plans to consumers and enterprises.
promotions in various marketing touch-points (Retail, SMS, MMS, PC internet, EDMs, DMs, Print, TV) to their targeted customer base.

Device Providers

work with the Carriers / Operators to provide out of box experience through preloading of the location-based services apps.
comprise the N-screens of mobile devices across PC, laptops, tablets, smartphones etc.

What are the revenue streams in location-based services?
Through Strategic Analytics, ABI research and various lit search, there are 3 main pillars of revenue streams in location-based services - some more immediately relevant, whilst others like community set to grow in the next 5 years.

Utilities

more immediate rational driver, referring to search, turn by turn navigation, personal tracking
for parents who would like to track their kids
for exploring and looking up places of interests and getting there on car or on foot
for enterprises for fleet management

Commerce

location-based eShopping deals
restaurant booking
mobile advertising

Community

social media integration leading to crowd-sourced sharing of recommendations
peer to peer value exchange
enabling more engagement with consumers through gamification

Before ending this post, I will leave you now with
2 real-world examples of how location-based services bring value and innovation to businesses in the ecosystem.

(1) Nokia Thailand Foursquare Campaign
Here is a first in the world campaign when a phone manufacturer (Nokia), a local operator/carrier (DTAC) and local Thai retailers came on board and collaborated to provide brand awareness of Foursquare check-ins with Nokia smartphones, value to DTAC consumers and driving real-world traffic to the retailers. (Disclosure: I was involved in the working team for this campaign with my Nokia Thailand colleagues during my career at Nokia)

(2) Nokia Gift Vending Machine Social-Location-Mobile (So-Lo-Mo) innovation
A pretty neat program which provided real-world treats to people who checked in. Delight: you never know what you are going to get!

How do the players in location-based services differ in your market?
How do the campaign mechanics from location-based apps in your markets provide value as ancillary channels for businesses?

I look forward to hear from you on your comments to this post, and write more on these topics.

Later soon,
Nelson Wee
engage with me at @nelsonwee

References:
1. Infographic: Location-Based Social Media – Every Move You Make
2. Location Based Services Usage & Perception Survey from Microsoft

Why are there opportunities in location-based services?

2011-09-24T17:17:00.004+08:00

According to a location-based media company JiWire, 53% of the "on-the-go" US audience are willing to exchange their location for more relevant content and better information, including mobile deals. And this "on-the-go" audience, which comprise users of notebooks, tablets and smartphones out of home or workplace is GROWING.

In one of my recent posts, I wrote about how content consumption has gone mobile as mobile is personal and always near. As we are always on the move, context in whatever we are doing (or could be doing), where ever we may be, becomes important to us amidst today's time-starved world. With GPS, cell-ID location tracking in mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are increasingly availed in the hands of the consumers of today and tomorrow, and data plans becoming more affordable, it comes with no surprise that there is increasing interest from on-the-go consumers in:

checking into locations via mobile for achievements or rewards,
searching for information more online via mobile (even while in the shops!),
or buying products and services while on the move.

Let's have a look at some key market growth trends in location-based services.

Location-based Apps and check-in features are garnering interest in mobiles

According to Pew Internet & American Life Project report (availed via this link) released recently 6-SEP-2011, 5% of all US cell owners or 12% US smartphone owners use geosocial check-in services like Foursquare or Gowalla.
With Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook "Places", consumers are sharing to show-off their "Fab life"
Mainstream audience: amongst 20 to 34 year olds, privacy appears less of a concern.
Secondary audience: 35 to 44 year olds who have higher spending power.
Emotional drivers focusing on the mainstream: gamification and social leaderboards are being used to engage consumers on the move.
Rational drivers largely to the secondary audience: price comparisons through daily deals, location-based promotions.

Group buys through social sharing and mobile coupons and local deals are growing

Players include Groupon (more than 30M subs globally), are expanding into Asia through acquisitions. In Singapore, Groupon acquired Beeconomic the #2 deal site in April 2010 and is now #1.
Local deals and ecosystem players in Singapore like deal.com.sg and Chlkboard are growing mind share and market share with advertisers.

Many players are looking into being your mobile wallet

Facebook credits for virtual goods now (in social games) - what about physical products in the future?
Paypal account - to order your takeaways
Operator (carrier) billing for lower price tiered products - both virtual and physical
Retail POS like VISA Paywave contactless paymenbt, MasterCard PayPass for tap and go convenience

Singapore shows strong growth in mobile subscribers and value-added services

In Singapore, IDC forecasts that the number of Singapore mobile subscribers will increase at a 3.9% CAGR to reach 8.3 million by 2014, pushing the penetration rate from 140% in 2009 to 163% by 2014.
Much of this growth is expected to come from the take-up of non-voice services, prepaid subscriptions (comes with data) and the proliferation of multi-sim cards (multi-device ownership - tablets, smartphones, mobile broadband).

Location-based services are going mobile and social (Lo-So-Mo). The ancillary channels to businesses and potential ancillary revenue streams are only emerging at this point. I will be writing more next on the various players in the location-based services value chain.

Meanwhile, I would be most interested to hear more on your views on how location-based services are taking off in your market.

Talk soon,
Nelson Wee

References:
1. Definition of location-based service
2. Location Based Services Usage & Perception Survey from Microsoft
3. Nearly 1-in-3 Adults Use Location-Based Services

How are eShopping trends shaping the market?

2011-09-20T00:20:00.004+08:00

These days, we see high growth with the usage of the mobile internet in SouthEast Asia. Besides your wallet and your keys, your mobile is probably the third personal item always by your side. In fact in a global survey conducted by OnDevice Research, it described how Asian consumers, more often than other consumers, would first go to their phones to research or purchase goods and services. To save time and get things done more efficiently in today's world, your mobile has become an ancillary channel for eShop browsing to help source, service and support your purchase decisions.

In fact, from a PayPal research done Jan-Feb 2011, there were several interesting findings:

Singapore online commerce market reached S$1.1 billion in 2010, and will grow to S$4.4 billion in 2015.
1.2 million Singaporean online shoppers (above the age of 18 years old) had an average spend per head of S$1,492 over the past year.
84% of Singaporeans used their mobile device to either research or purchase goods.
Mobile eShopping is in its infancy stage comprising 4% of online shopping market.
Over 364 thousand Singaporean online shoppers spent S$43 million ($$119/user) on their mobile devices last year, approximately 4% of the online shopping market
40% (~S$420 million) of online purchases were domestic.

Stores in Singapore could well look into putting together a multi-channel approach to in their sales and marketing. From a merchandising perspective, the I Love Deals in-app survey infographic below show that the 3 top products consumers expressed interest in online deals were clothing, shoes and consumer electronics.

With online and mobile eShopping primed to take off in Asia and Singapore,

How will sales and marketing change with eCoupons, vouchers? What are the ancillary revenue opportunities?
How will apps, the Web, TV impact marketing, promotions and distribution channels for eShopping? How will these ancillary channels evolve?
With daily deals fatigue, what are the new models in eShopping? Is gamification trending as an engagement tactic? Is yield management a new model to look into?

I look forward to engage into further discussions on the above.

til later,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

References:
1. The Stats and Facts of Online Shopping in Singapore
2. Mobile commerce on growth path in Asia Pacific
3. PayPal Study Shows Singaporeans Find Value in Shopping on Local Websites

1-2-3 to the eBook market

2011-09-12T23:30:00.005+08:00

In my previous post, I wrote about how content consumption is going increasingly mobile as mobile devices are personal and always near you. In this day and age of the Mobile Internet when time is now compressed more than ever, consumers are adapting their lifestyles in various activities like reading. With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle in 2007 in the US and rest of the world in 2009, eBooks and eMagazines are now changing the ways consumers are interacting with the book media.

Here is a quick 1-2-3 to the eBook market:

(1) eBooks Global Market adoption: US leads, followed by the UK, emergent in Rest of the World

Books business is BIG BUSINESS - around the world, people spent US$108 billion on books in 2009.
In the US, eBooks have grown from 0.6 percent in 2008 of the total books trade market, to 3% in 2009 and more recently to 7% in 2010. Expect to see eBooks to have a market share of 22.5% of consumer books in 2015!
The UK while lagging behind the US with 1.5% market share of consumer books in 2010 is expected to see this share rise to 14.2% in 2015

(2) eBooks can be consumed across multiple screens and ways

eReaders (Amazon Kindle introduced in 2007) as the dedicated eReading device which ensures a real book reading experience.
Tablets (iPad in introduced in 2010) as the multifunction alternative reading devices, while on the move, e.g. with eMagazines.
Smartphones for short mobile sequels read during daily commute.
PCs, laptops which are great for reading special interest group eBooks, reference, education books.

(3) eBooks and eMagazines provide opportunities as ancillary channels

Publishers can look forward to reinvent themselves in the book publishing value chain as content providers.
With eBooks, publishers now have in their hands ancillary channels to market with potentially lower costs and higher margins.
Publishers could earn ancillary revenues by going beyond the text in the books and repurposing the content to audio, video and even games.

Just like music, tv and video, the books industry has been experiencing disruptive changes in differing degrees around the world - led by the US and impacting the rest of the world through the proliferation of the mobile internet and multimedia consumption devices.

If you are a publisher, are you looking into eBooks? If not, why?

If you are a consumer, how would you see eBooks changing your reading behaviors, now and in the future?

Look forward to your views.

warm regards, later~
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

How content consumption is going mobile

2011-09-06T19:00:00.007+08:00

How people have been used to consuming content before and how they are doing so today have changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Content consumption has become more portable as mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc) become more personal and always near at hand.

Mobile is Personal
It probably all started when we could start personalize the ring tone of your Nokia mobile phone in the 90s. With that one feature sprang forth a large following and business for downloadable ring tones. Thereafter with the advent of iTunes, there was no stopping music going portable.

It was also in the late nineties that the Snake game in Nokia mobile phones enraptured a community of Nokia loyalists into mobile gaming. The mobile games business grew from strength to strength since then and ever more so today with the proliferation of smartphones and games with richer game-play.

The mobile has become ever more so personal with your favourite music and games mobile and portable, by your side.

Mobile is always near
Newspapers have not been spared. The time has come to a pass when Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has published the digital copy of the Straits Times as an iPad, iPhone app. With time looked upon as a premium by the current Gen-X professionals and Gen-Ys not known to read physical print, SPH is looking to engage these lost readers through the other more in-their-face screens, i.e. tablets (largely iPads today) and smartphones.

Besides newspapers, more screen time on tablets and smartphones with digital versions of magazines and books have also encroached upon our daily lives. Bookstores are disappearing one by one. In Singapore, I bade a sad farewell to the landmark Borders bookstore at Wheelock Place recently. With the mobile internet always in your hand whether from your tablet or smartphone, you now have easy access to your favourite magazine or book, whereever you are. Never stop reading. Never stop learning. No more downtime. No need to think about which book or magazine to bring along. It is also said that consumers now buy eBooks or eMagazines without thinking, more spontaneously so, as they require physical storage and are with you all the time!

For devoted readers of novels, people who sometimes voraciously consume several books in a single week, eBooks are a natural fit. With this new transitionary digital age, eBooks are now availed on the first day the physical book is published and can be about the same price as well (at times, more affordable too!) It comes with no surprise that eBook best-seller lists are now packed with the genre novels that have traditionally dominated paperback best-seller lists.

I have not yet touched on video but with YouTube being the world's second largest search engine and third most visited site, I reckon you get the drift on where's video going. [Added 7-OCT 2011]: According to a Nielsen India study, Indian Smartphone Users are now seen to be moving towards Data, Games and Content, and Away From SMS.
With content consumption habits changing with content consumption going more mobile, mobile apps with content could provide us with a number of ancillary channels and ancillary revenue opportunities. Although the type of content, (shorter) length of attention of your audience on your content from the mobile devices would need to be pondered upon, it has also been observed that consumers who read eBooks (not replacing books) are consuming more books - Amazon Kindle users buying 3.3 times more books after owning a Kindle.

What are your thoughts and observations?

Look forward to hear from you,
Nelson Wee
engage with me at @nelsonwee

Reference links:
1. Is “stickiness” a thing of the past?
2. The Dog-Eared Paperback, Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age
3. Indian Smartphone Users moving towards Data, Games and Content, and Away From SMS
4. The ABCs of E-Reading (new devices are changing habits)

Consumers are buying time

2011-08-30T18:06:00.000+08:00

If there is one thing that the world is trending towards to these days, it would be this - "Consumers are buying time."

Do you get it? Or perhaps, do the following ring a bell?

1. You have to get that gift for your special someone. But no, your office emails are piling up, the deadlines are looming, and you are totally fazed with the information overload. You dig deep to manage the pressure (and there are ways to focus and get things done). You reach down to your nearest trusted deals app to grab an attractive offer.

2. You work your butt out more than 10, 11, 12 hours a day at the office. Time flies by. You look at your watch and feel you need to pack up to catch a warm dinner at home and catch some time with your kid before bed-time. The dreaded Electronic Road Pricing system (the automated toll booth in Singapore) is still operational until 8pm every working weekday. But you decide to go home earlier, pay the toll because it's worth it.

3. You brave daily the crowded public transport (buses, trains), struggling to read the news on a daily from your smartphone, tablet (you missed getting hold of your newspapers from home or perhaps you have stopped subscription for the paper newspaper). You had decided a while back to pay for your digital paper, your favourite eMagazine or even that odd eBook you had decided to pick up to make the most of your downtime waiting for your ride to the office or back home.

Are you able to associate to the above 3 scenarios? While pretty local to Singaporeans, I dare say that these could be well linked to the lives of many urbanites all over the world.

With the sweeping wave of online and mobility trends all over the world and into Southeast Asia, ancillary revenue opportunities will open to different markets, abound via a mix of traditional and ancillary channels. What are your observations? Are you riding the wave today? I look forward to listen to your thoughts.

More discussions around the above topics in my later posts.

See you soon~
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Why the Nokia Communicator was loved in Southeast Asia

2010-11-14T23:08:00.003+08:00

In my last post, as I wrote about the doorway to the Internet opening very quickly in Southeast Asia markets, I also remembered how the Nokia Communicator came to the market.

Why? Because the Nokia Communicator was one of the very first converged smartphones in the market - a wide screen, comfortably spaced QWERTY keyboard, sms, fax, connectivity to the internet, black and white to color in a solid clamshell build ... from the Nokia 9000 in 1996 to the Nokia E90 in 2007, a new Communicator arrived every 3 years. And the Nokia Communicator certainly caught the hearts of a number of loyal fans and communities in Southeast Asia.

I remember fondly of being part of the launch of the Nokia 9500 Communicator in Southeast Asia (a touch of nostalgia for fans of the Communicator with the attached Nokia 9500 product video), and particularly the Indonesia go-to-market experience.

During the 2004 launch of the Nokia 9500 Communicator in Indonesia, consumers were lining up since 4am in the morning. Here is a photo of crowd I took on the day of launch. A steady flow of people streamed in continuously in long lines, some with babies in hand and a thick wad of cash in the other for the converted smartphone!

3 things which drew the Southeast Asia fans to the Nokia Communicator:
(1) Status
One of the very first converged smartphones in the market, the Nokia Communicator belonged to a league of its own class. Those who owned a Communicator felt that they had achieved a key milestone in life. Both the men and the ladies - businessmen, celebrities, I spoke to in Indonesia (and other markets) would attest to that. Status is a very key driving factor for Southeast Asia (and the larger Asia) consumers. And the Nokia Communicator grew a strong and loyal following in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

(2) Communication Options
The Nokia Communicator had sms, fax, internet connectivity and email as part of its rich communication options and further complemented by a wide screen and a well-spaced QWERTY keyboard. Businessmen used the Communicator to keep in touch with their personal and business networks with the flexible communication options.

(3) Productivity
Asian consumers have a very large number of contacts. I remember talking to many businessmen and government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, who literally owned a filofax of thousands of contacts in their Nokia Communicators! Just look at the photo I captured below of a consumer (notice the intense look) who was transferring the contacts, sms messages from his previous Nokia Communcator to his new Nokia 9500 Communicator.

Key productivity use cases of the Nokia Communicator:

Festive sms greetings could be prescheduled to their networks.
Business agreements conducted and captured over long sms threads.
Purchase orders could be conveyed over fax.

It's been a rather fascinating journey back in time as I reminisced the birth and passing of one Nokia Communicator to the next. With great interest and anticipation, I look forward to the arrival of the Nokia E7 smartphone, which just may herald the coming of the next line of modern Communicators into the market after the previous Nokia E90 Communicator in 2007 (of which I was also proud to be part of the go-to-market).

Any thoughts from you on your experiences with the Nokia Communicator?

Til later, more thoughts
@nelsonwee

Doorway to the Mobile Internet opens in Southeast Asia, a high growth market in the making

2010-10-31T00:36:00.004+08:00

I was writing in my previous post about the "5 Key App Insights from AppsXchange Asia 2010 Event in Singapore" where I was highlighting the evolution of the Asia mobile apps ecosystem. As I look back over the 10 years, I can't help but feeling amazed on the changes in the consumption habits of the Southeast Asia (SEA - comprise markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore etc) consumers for the Internet, for apps and contents, for checking out and into nearby events - all these, happening on their mobile handsets. With market competitive dynamics at play, consumers here are increasingly able to get hold of mobile handsets with mobile internet access with supporting data plans. QWERTY (full keyboard) mobile handsets incidentally are hot not only with working professionals but also with the youths, and these are getting lower in price in the markets here.

Profile the SEA's consumers being largely prepaid customers without data plans, cost-conscious and using their mobile handsets to make a call or sms and you would be very surprised to learn (source, dated 30-OCT-2010: http://www.checkfacebook.com/) that Indonesia with 29.8M Facebook users is the #2 largest Facebook community globally, with the Philippines with 17.9M Facebook users, also in the top 10 at #6!

Consumers in SEA today are getting on their mobile handsets:
1. Faster Mobile Internet speeds to browse the Internet with the deployment of 3G
The sprouting of more and more Internet Cafes and WiFi hotspots, particularly in the tier 1 cities, are catering to the voracious Internet access to the youths, is also a key enabler to mobile internet access and content downloads.

2. Transitioning from sms, to email and social networking interactions
Whilst sms will not yet go away in the forseeable future, mobile email has grown increasingly popular as PC penetration is low in the developing markets. SEA consumers are also using the mobile internet to reach out in social networks - Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter (btw, Indonesia is in the top 10 of Twitter users globally too!) are the 3 most popular social networks in SEA (source: http://www.alexa.com/).

3. Colorful and interactive apps and contents
From the days of yore when black and white tones, graphics and games were the in-thing, these days we see that downloads of customization contents like themes, wallpapers, ring tones (also subscribing to ring-back tones) and games are the drawing power for digital content, app stores in SEA.

There are undoubtedly challenges to account for, such as a number of SEA's dominant markets, e.g. Indonesia, Indochina, Thailand, Philippines, are dominated by prepaid customers who shop around for bargains. However, if you like me, are reading "The Developing World" by Fredrik Haren, you will discover that consumers from developing markets, like in SEA countries, engage more with the Internet and hence social networks, leveraging this global platform to the fullest, voicing their views in blog posts, personal updates, doing research and checking in on the latest events in-country and globally.

Watch out for the rising wave of the Mobile Internet sweeping through Southeast Asia. What have your Internet experiences been in the Southeast Asia markets? I will be writing more posts in the future regarding related topics for the SEA countries.

Later, @NelsonWee

More Related Reading References:
1. ANALYSIS - Southeast Asia telcos shine, tap mobile data for growth
2. Mobile Phones in South-East Asia - Talk is Cheap
3. Data Services to Drive Growth As Southeast Asia's Mobile Market Nears Saturation
4. Twitter Facts and Figures, 13 MAY 2010
5. Indonesia is The top Twitter users penetration in the world
6. [Updated 19-OCT] Facebook releases Messenger for BlackBerry

5 Key App Insights from AppsXchange Asia 2010 Event in Singapore

2010-07-11T14:30:00.082+08:00

The recent AppsXchange Asia event in Singapore on 16-17 June 2010 brought together the entire Apps Eco-system in Asia together -mobile phone manufacturers (Nokia, Samsung), operators (Telenor Group, Digi, Maxis, Singtel, AIS), content developers (mbounce, Zing Mobile, Touch Dimensions etc), mobile ads providers (Buzzcity, Mobile Spinach), platform solutions and payment providers (Oracle, Volantis, Globys, PayPal).

Here are the 5 key app insights gleaned from this 2-day discussion and networking forum around the Go-To-Market programs for Apps and the roles Operators and players could play in.

(1) With APPolution, Application Discovery is a Key Concern

In an earlier post "3 social News Apps for a Nokia Phone", I wrote referred to the increasing number of apps offered by media publishers in the many apps stores available today.
Arnie Chaudhari, Vice President, Sales and Business Development, mBounce, highlighted that with APPolution (i.e. app evolution), the applications marketplace is becoming increasingly crowded.
Praveen Rajan, Head of Mobile Internet, Digi, talked about working with partners from other apps stores to push recommendations of apps via various operator online, mobile and offline channels. One case study he shared was around promoting daily content discovery through SMS subscriptions to Youtube alerts

(2) Traffic and Downloads are going off-deck

Simon Wong, Sales Consulting Director, Oracle, highlighted that 50% to 80% of apps are now downloaded off-deck (note: Juniper Research)
Praveen Rajan from Digi also advised that from experience, that operators need to rethink the Operator WAP Portal. He suggested simplifying the operator wap portal with key promotional messages like attractive data plans, value-added service packages, or contests involving apps.

(3) Operators are trusted brands and offer value in platform enablers and to partner

In his address on "Developing converged apps for TV, mobile and online", Naveen Wathan, Head of Product Innovations, Product Development and Infotainment, Maxis, saud that the role of the of the network operator is to enable applications across different user interfaces (TV, Mobile, Online) - use the Cloud, develop easy to use APIs for developers & co-market.
Tanis Kuneepong, Partner VAS Marketing Manager, AIS (Thailand's largest operator) ahso shared about SingTel's regional apps store program, which is scaling up through shared apps sourcing, shared in -apps ads inventory, shared VAS offers across the Singtel group.
Dr. Calicrates Policroniades, Senior Researcher/Business Developer in Content and Applications, Telenor Group Corporate Development, highlighted that the Telenor group's strategy is to focus on providing platform enablers to apps developers, rather than building their own apps stores.

(4) Operators offer value in consumer insights and marketing

Praveen, Digi had started the event saying that "Everyone has favourites" (apps for that matter) and there are many opportunities for operators to promote apps, value-added services (VAS) and data plans to their consumers. Think about how to sell VAS the Apps Store way.
Duanne Edwards, co-founder and Senior Vice President of Product Development, Globys, stated that operators can win the apps race by enabling discovery, profiling their consumers and understanding occasions - i.e. segment apps by occasions of usage, thereby driving downloads for developers through marketing contextually relevant apps to consumers.
Urvashi Sahay, Director, Mobile Services and Integration, Singtel, reiterated support in providing more transparency to developers from Operators. Singtel for example is committed to sharing consumer insights to developers - what are the opportunities and in which verticals should developers be work on.

(5) Think about Feature Phones - they need some loving too

Tanis Kuneepong, AIS, shared that out that 7 of the top 20 top performing phones for their AIS Apps Store (launched 8-FEB 2010) were Nokia feature phones.
Arnie Chaudhuri from mBounce, Urvashi Sahay from Singtel, Dr. Lai Kok Fung from Buzzcity reminded the forum to think about the needs of the emerging markets which were largely proliferated with feature phones rather than smartphones. These consumers are looking for mobile ads with value, apps with sms-based content, utility apps for their feature phones.
2 examples of apps stores supporting feature phones are GetJar and the Nokia Ovi Store (which support more than 100 models of feature phones and smartphones today).

As seen by the 5 apps insights from the AppsXchange Asia event,

In Asia, where there are both developed and emerging markets,
where there are both smartphones and feature phones co-existing,
there are different needs of consumers which could be catered to by the apps eco-system players - operators, content developers, mobile phone manufacturers, solution providers etc.

I am very excited to be part of this dynamic and exhilarating apps growth market here in Asia. How are your experiences in the apps market space? Any best practices, case studies or key issues to share? I look forward to hearing from you.

best regards,
Nelson Wee
or tweet me at @nelsonwee

3 Showcase Takeaways from Nokia Connection 2010 Singapore

2010-06-20T23:48:00.004+08:00

Here is my post on the Nokia Connection 2010 event in Singapore where I added in my self-recorded videos on the 3 showcase takeaways - Nokia X5, local apps for Nokia Devices & the Nokia N8 (caveat: amateurish first raw takes on my part!).

Chris Carr, VP Sales for Nokia SEAP opened the event when he talked about how Nokia's strategy is to integrate Ovi services (map & free global navigation, millions of songs, integrated social networking access and globally local app store - Nokia Ovi Store) across Nokia devices of different price points, to be able to address different consumer segments who use Nokia Smartphones or feature phones.

Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President of Nokia Smartphones, further augmented with the message that Nokia continues to own the largest market share of mobile devices, smartphones, with more than 1.2 billion people are using a Nokia device today - and so lots of opportunities (to reach).

And now for my 3 showcase takeaways from the Nokia Connection 2010 event.

(1) Nokia X5 Hip with Colors, QWERTY Keyboard, Cool Spin & Shake Features

The Nokia X5 is the latest addition to the ever enlarging portfolio of Nokia's QWERTY keyboard devices. It was just announced on 14 JUNE and will be availed in Indonesia in Q3 2010. The Nokia X5 feels nice when tucked in the palm of your hand. Slide the QWERTY keyboard out and you are on your way to access your favourite social networks on the nicely spaced out keyboard keys. View the video below which was recorded from the Nokia Connection 2010 event on other cool spin and shake features of the Nokia X5!

How cool is that?

Spin the Nokia X5 to change the music track.
Shake the Nokia X5 to hear beeps on how many unread sms you have.

(2) Local Apps from South East Asia Pacific

Presenting Nerd Attack, a 2 man company based in Malaysia who had developed upon their web design background with Web Run Time skills, built more than 10 apps in the past 1 year, working on regional South East Asia Pacific apps to the Nokia Ovi Store.

Key app titles from Nerd Attack include:

Sky News Australia
KL Traffic
Headlines
I-S Mobile

Presenting Nanyang Polytechnic, an educational institution based in Singapore, whose students had developed 9 apps (sms utilities, fun casual games and more) which have generated more than 500,000 downloads globally from the Nokia Ovi Store (October 2009 to 14-June 2010). Have a look at the video below on Nanyang Polytechnic's apps. And there are many more upcoming in Nanyang Polytechnic's apps pipeline - so stay tuned.

Presenting Breakdesign, a 3 man South African award winning Adobe Flash developer team who are now based in Singapore. The Breakdesign team have developed Barking Seed, which is an indie mobile gaming community that connects players together with social elements tied into a portfolio of flash games, now available exclusively globally from the Nokia Ovi Store (more than 635,000 downloads globally in last 4 to 5 months till 14-JUNE and growing). More about Breakdesign in a later post. Have a look at the 2 videos from 2 of the founders Rick Treweek and Stefan Wessels below.

Here Rick talks about Barking Seed.

Here Stefan introduces the latest new Barking Seed enabled game title (very soon to be launched exclusively to the Nokia Ovi Store) 10PM!

(3) Nokia N8 Smartphone HDMI Dolby Stereo Video Showcase

The Nokia N8 was showcased, attached via HDMI cable to a plasma TV and a home entertainment set. Imagine the possibilities ...

Signing out from the 3 showcase takeaways from the Nokia Connection 2010 event in Singapore. The possibilities are endless with Nokia's leading market share, consumer reach, new upcoming Devices and local Apps. What are your thoughts?

cheers,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

For other related links to Nokia Connection 2010, do refer below:
1. VR-Zone's Post on Nokia Connection 2010
2. TechieLobang.com post on "Nokia Connection 2010 Debut N8 and Unveil X5"
3. Hip to be Square: Two Xseries launches at Nokia Connection (photo gallery)
4. Nokia N8: First hands-on reactions (what the media are saying)

Three Reasons Why the World Cup is a Social Magic Magnet

2010-06-13T01:41:00.003+08:00

After a wait of four years, #worldcup2010 is now here, bringing with it a build up of buzz, a continual month of frenzy, before the winning country team hoists up proudly that symbolic cup of a global champion. As I watched Argentina #ARG beat Nigeria #NGA in the Singapore heartlands, I could see just why the World Cup is a Social Magic Magnet - from which social media marketing programs have much to learn from.

Here are the three reasons why World Cup is a Social Magic Magnet:

(1) World Cup Create Tribes & Tribes Are Social

There is a strong sense of nationalistic pride that people within a competing nation feel and this bonds them. Even fans like me, whose country is not competing in the World Cup, feel the need to wear the badge of their favourite team proudly. Here's me with my World Cup Twibbon.

People have an innate need of belong to a tribe and a cause. Belonging to tribes is infectious and social.

(2) World Cup brings about evolving stories & Stories bring Magic
Every moment in the World Cup can be magic. There is colorful drama, engaging conversations, continual buzz.

Different threads of movements and expressions can either be

weaved into delightful gems - brilliantly orchestrated OR
turn to near misses - lost in the cacophony of noise

Watch a World Cup match and you will see stories played before you every minute. And these stories are and bring magic.

(3) World Cup has a larger than life presence which acts as a Big Draw Magnet
The World Cup has a larger than life presence. Just go to any venue screening a World Cup match, and you will be drawn in to the match displayed on the TV or projector screen, as if it was a big draw magnet, to the match. World Cup matches

stops you in your tracks
draws you in
offers you exciting roller-coaster rides

World Cup matches are more fun when viewed and participated in groups. When you build up your presence like how the World Cup has succeeded in doing, you create raving fans, who act as a big draw magnet to the supporting tribes of the teams playing.

Looking forward to more of the pulsating moments, emotional drama, samba beats in the next upcoming World Cup matches. The World Cup is a Social Magic Magnet. So is social media marketing programs, when they hit the right chord in their targeted consumers.

I have learnt and still learing lots recently on social media success case studies and what they entail. What are your thoughts on how successful social media marketing programs are or should be like?

Later,
Nelson Wee
Also see you at @nelsonwee

3 Ways to Get Things Done Effectively in Today's Social Info-Crowded World

2010-06-06T00:57:00.003+08:00

Today, you are faced with a mad flurry of messages flying at you - memos in mails, urgent requests pinging you via sms or IM chats, SOS phone calls, people coming round your desks and not to mention the numerous meetings - internal, external facing which you need to attend. And then with looming deadlines to meet, there is that the age-old cry for help - where is that extra hour in the day?!!

Sound familiar?

I am all for the quality in time and trying to get on that balance of work and life. Here are 3 ways I use to focus and align my activities to ensure I get maximum impact in what I do.

1. Move the BIG ROCKS

I look to prioritize my daily activities in the following pegging order:

The Big Rocks: Key Deliverables which deliver huge benefits near term of mid term
The Stones: Medium term deliverables, medium term impact.
The Small Pebbles: The never-ending requests trying to grab your attention, which could be folded into Stones or Big Rocks (re-delegated or even ignored)

Early morning reminder for me: "What are the 3 Big Rocks I need to move today?"
This sets the course for my day.

2. Engage (Face to Face or Call) to Get Things Done

Context tend to get lost in the words of your emails, your smses. I find getting into a call or even better a face to face quick meet up, actually works better - especially in the face of critical issues, the BIG ROCKS. Do not get me wrong - emails are great communication tools ... to augment your message with the details.

3. Create Your White Space to Do Your Work

With many meetings, numerous teleconferences, webinars clogging up your calendars, it is growingly importantly to put aside your own white space - your own time when you could take a step back, think through and do your work.

The above are what I use currently to make things work out for me. Are these helpful to you? I would really love to hear from you on how you work out your days, and what are your best practices and tools you use to make you successful in achieving what you set out to do in today's social info-crowded world.

See you soon,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee
credits: really nice photos from freephoto.com

3 Key Takeaways from Social Media Success Summit 2010 (#smss10)

2010-05-31T22:42:00.012+08:00

With a wink of the eye, 4 weeks went by in May 2010 (5-MAY to 26-MAY) and the Social Media Success Summit 2010 was over. The entire journey however offloaded tons of excellent material, conversations, questions and answers, which are still on-going in the dedicated #smss10 hashtag and discussion forums in LinkedIn. And no more getting up at 3am, Singapore time (GMT+8) as well ... :)

To me, there were 3 key takeaways which left an indelible impression on my learning path:

(1) A.R.C Framework: Social Media Marketing with the A.R.C Framework

Attract, Retain, Convert (and then Refer)
Social Media Marketing is not a one-off affair
It requires consistent attention, engagements and conversations

(2) Activities adapt: Social Media Marketing Activities adapt with the goals set forth and the engagement in the social networks

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Foursquare, Digg or your own Blog etc social networks, endear themselves to different consumer segments, profiles
Key is to leverage upon the repurposing of your media and contents to address the distinct contextual use cases and content consumptions in the different social networks
It is very important to determine where your home base is (e.g. blog, facebook fan page).
And which social network(s) your target consumers are congregating at and so are the ideal positions to set up your outposts
Every social media marketing activity or tactic (whether it be an online-offline integrated program, contests, treasure hunts, chase around town for the product) in the different social network needs to tie back to its original business goals and key KPIs

(3) Resourcing varies. There are Social Media case studies but no one size fits all best practice

Whether there be that one special company social media champion @Ramon_DeLeon bringing to life the Dominos brand with his unique brand of #RamonWow
Or starting small and informally with a cross-functional core team and executive support, like @HomeDepot
Or deploying with global content, central support with flexible local individuality (like @wholefoods)
Or drumming up support throughout the organisation like Best Buy's Twelpforce
It all boils down to your business ambitions (goals, time frames, key performance metrics)

There are definitely to #smss10 than listed above and so lies my task ahead in learning and putting to practice and learning, tweaking, relearning ... ...

All in all, I wish to give a BIG THANK YOU to Michael Stelzner, his crew, all the marvelous presenters, and the wonderful participants in #smss10. This would not have been the unforgetable event that it turned out to be, without all of you!

The road ahead for social media marketing is going to be filled with continuous and never-ending improvements, refinements and tweaks. But one thing's for sure, it's going to be a real fun and exciting ride!

Looking forward to hear your views and comments on your key learnings so far from this summit, other forums, your current social media marketing experiences.

Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Recommended Links for your further reading:
1. Market It Write Coverage of Social Media Success Summit – #smss10
2. 17 Crucial Things You Must Know for Social Media Success
3. Top 9 Things I Learned at Social Media Success Summit 2010

How Chicago Domino Pizza Created Raving Customers with Social Media (#SMSS10 Day 2)

2010-05-08T02:22:00.020+08:00

Day 2 (6-MAY, 3 am, GMT+8) of the Social Media Success Summit 2010 continued building the momentum from where Guy Kawasaki kicked off, with lots of vigor and energies from both the presenters and the participants' #smss10 firehose of tweets.

There were 3 sessions in day 2. The third session "How a Chicago Pizza Franchise used Social Media to create Raving customers" was conducted with great passion by Ramon De Leon, well-known as the Pizza Guy to know in Chicago. Ramon's session was jam-packed with many cool ideas - some of which I captured from my tweets to this post.

Ramon remains committed to deliver his pizzas to his customers using both social media as well as on-ground events:
1. Online ordering in 1998.

2. AOL Instant Messenger in 2004.

3. Campus Outreach to Facebook Fan base from 2005 onwards.
- RT @marismith: "How do you get the retweet effect on Facebook?" @Ramon_DeLeon reaches out to Group/Page Admins. #smss10

4. Twitter with innovative hashtags
- #RamonWow for strong association
RT @MariSmith: Too fun!!! @Ramon_DeLeon has his own Twitter hashtag #ramonWOW http://bit.ly/9GLazt #smss10 (such a great idea!)
- # to enable dynamic offers

5. Twitter Photo Sharing
- Very personal sharing approach using TweetPhotos and getting customers to want photos and share them by @Ramon_DeLeon #smss10

6. Twitter IDs are conversational pieces
- RT @jaythedesignguy: Put your twitter IDs out there for people to see! Cards, billboards, cars! BE FOUND! @Ramon_DeLeon #smss10

- Promoting customers with a TwitterWall (distribute in pizza boxes) -> Neat Customer Intimacy & Engagement by @Ramon_LeDoan #smss10

My takeaways from Ramon when interacting with customers:
1. Be sincere in apologies to customers and you win them back
- his http://www.viddler.com/explore/dpzramon/videos/19/ has had more than 126,000 impressions

2. Always be ready to post and share content
- Ramon sent a video thanks from UK to a customer who was tweeting happily about his Domino
pizzas
- @RamonDeLeon Video Tools -> Flip Camera, Nokia N97 (5MP Camera, settings)

3. Stay focused and always engaged with your customers (potentials included)
- Monitter.com (looks like tweetdeck) is a great tool to monitor local (zip) topical (#hashtag) conversations says @Ramon_DeLeon #smss10
- Guest Pizza Maker Night Tweetup where a customer tweeted her request to learn to make pizzas - drew further conversations and engagements.
- Great tip->@Ramon_DeLeon to local businesses - set up your own location on FourSquare & see whos checking in & contact them! @kerifj

Ramon's mantra is to be the pizza guy from Chicago who always delivers his pizzas to his customers. And certainly, @Ramon_Deleon is redefining the Social Marketing Wow every min of this session => WOW! #smss10

There were much ground covered by Ramon in his presentation and I really look forward to you #smss10 participants out there could help me out in adding on to the comments.

Added to this post are related posts on Day 1 and Day 2 of #smss10 for your reference.

Till the next time,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Related Posts:
1. #SMSS10 Day 1 Twitter: What is this crap? by Maeve Donohue

2. #SMSS10 Day 1 Kicking off Social Media Success Summit 2010 with Guy Kawasaki by Janet Barclay

3. #SMSS10 Day 1 Wrapup: Social Media Success Summit 2010 (#SMSS10)by Randy Duermyer

4. #SMSS10 DAY 1: Guy Kawasaki on making the most of Twitter

5. #SMSS10 Day 2 Wrapup: Social Media Success Summit 2010 (#SMSS10) by Randy Duermyer

6. #SMSS10 Day 2 Social Media Success Summit: Mari Smith on spiffing up your Facebook presence by Emily Molitor

7. #SMSS10 DAY 2: Defining and measuring Social Media success with Jason Falls

8. New Viral Marketing Program: Domino’s Social Media Campaign Offers Free Food to “Pizza Holdouts”

4 Steps to Start up & Engage in Your Presentations

2010-04-25T15:52:00.008+08:00

I apologise for this belated post. I was busy climbing the ever-growing mountain of backlog and balance between work and life with family. As I was preparing my 7 year old son for his Primary One School English Presentation slot, and seeing how queasy and uncomfortable he was, it got me thinking about my yesteryears - how I struggled in the unfamiliar territory in presenting to an audience, no matter how small or big.

Offline presentations provide a huge opportunity for everyone to sell yourself and your products, and not to forget, augments your online social currency as well. And so, here it is my E.E.L.S framework of "4 steps to start up and engage in your presentations".

(1)Energy boost from your nerves
I for one still get the jitters whenever I go up on a stage, an interview or even up for a closed room presentation. Harness the adrenaline from your nerves into positive energy. Take a deep breath and start your presentation with a smile.

(2)Engage with friendlies
There will usually be a friendly in the audience. If you are still nervous, especially if you are pretty jetlagged, exhausted after a long night preparing the presentation or particularly if you are in "hostile" crowd, focus on that friendly in the audience and regain your confidence.

(3)Look out, beyond your audience
Nothing could get more disheartening than to see the participants of your presentation nodding off (into ZZzzz land), chatting amongst themselves or texting away without looking up at you or your presentations. Besides focusing on the friendly in (2), look beyond your audience and think postive.

(4)Tell a Story (and have fun!)
And by far, the game-changer in all presentations, tell a story to engage your audience. Nothing captures attention than a good ol' story, case study to bring your presentation alive. Read more from Brad Shorr's article "5 simple Storytelling Techniques".

This E.E.L.S framework are the basics which I adhere to religiously before my presentations. However, nothing beats the good ol' practice and more practice, especially when it comes to presentations. And so volunteer for every great opportunity which comes your way. Keep in mind the engagement and entertainment aspects in your presentations and communications. Do your presentations well offline, and you would have achieved a great impression on your audience (prospects) and a credible link up (connections) going for you moving forward.

Look forward to hear you share what are the steps you take before and during any of your presentations. I find myself still learning and would love to hear your point of view!

catch you soon,
Nelson Wee
or see you @nelsonwee

Cloud Computing - A Primer

2010-03-21T23:17:00.013+08:00

"Cloud computing" buzz is everywhere. Google it. Bing it. Go to Twitter. Go to Link-in. Heck, go try Facebook and you will find fan pages around cloud computing!

Definition & Introduction

According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is defined as "Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like a public utility." With a web browser, anytime, anywhere, you could access applications which link up your workforce and organisational workflows. And the beauty of it? Pay as you use. With the economy in its current shape, the metered pay as you use model makes perfect business financial sense.

Now take a tour round with this "Cloud Computing Plain and Simple" video.

Tinkernut also has a nice tutorial around "Basic Cloud Computing". See the video below.

Market Players
There are also many different players in the cloud computing marketspace under 3 broad categories.
1. Software (example: Google Apps, Salesforce.com) - using your apps elsewhere
2. Platform (example: Microsoft's Azure) - building your apps elsewhere
3. Infrastructure (example: Amazon EC2) - hosting your solution elsewhere

In the region, we also have regional consortiums like Alatum which was formed by the Singtel group and leading SaaS and technology partners who will deliver software, computing power and storage as a pay-per-use, on-demand, on-line services to customers.

Conclusions
Cloud computing is not a new breakthrough in today's markets. It has been around ever since we have larger broadband pipes, faster internet and computing speeds and the inherent need for businesses, especially now more so, to scale up in the global markets, whilst maintaining a tight rein on costs.

There is no one-size-fits-all cloud computing solution. And there are evident risks to contend with in terms of data security and integrity, which comes from composing enterprise functionality from disparate services that are all integrated into the platforms and infrastructure of external service providers. Strong governance, vendor management and contract definition through SLAs will be required to ensure accountability, tracing issues to resolutions and most important of all, that the business benefits are realised by the investing organisations. And so, I really like the Burton Group's definition of "cloud computing" as:
The set of disciplines, technologies, and business models used to deliver appropriately managed IT capabilities as a service.

I would like to conclude with the following questions, which are begging for follow up conversations.
- What and how have your experiences with cloud computing been?
- Do you have any case studies you could share?
- Are there any implications from enterprise social media tools like Yammer, Salesforce.com Chatter, Microsoft's OfficeTalk in organisations as organisations move into cloud computing?
- How about mobile access to cloud computing tools?

In the meantime, do check out the following references for more on cloud computing:
1. Cloud Computing in Plain English Video (in 3 mins)
2. Burton's Group videos on Cloud Computing
3. Microsoft's "What is Windows Azure"
4. Salesforce.com: What is Cloud Computing?

Later,
Nelson Wee
or see you @nelsonwee

3 Social News Apps for a Nokia Phone

2010-02-28T22:08:00.013+08:00

In a previous post "4 Trends in New Digital Media Development", I wrote briefly about a trend where media consumption is going beyond only individual consumption. There are now increasingly more applications and services from the media publishers available from the Apps Stores which are incorporating social sharing features. Have a look below a good 2X2 overview chart from Distimo on the current Apps Stores in the market today.

In a report which Distimo wrote (yes, they do provide free monthly reports on apps stores, the downloads performance and killer categories etc), it was mentioned that by far the most sticky of all mobile apps was from the news and info genre - most sticky as a function of of frequency of use and lowest level of churn (this of course depends on the quality of the content). From my usage of apps on my phone, I certainly do not discount this observation one bit. In fact, all the 3 apps below - 2 from the news content genre and the last a Twitter client are on the home screen of my phone and constitute my daily news media fix in the mornings before I start work!

App #1: Snaptu - dashboard to News, Facebook, Twitter and more!

Snaptu offers me my daily news fix. It is a free ads funded app which provides a dashboard to various business (e.g. economist, new york times), technology (e.g. techcrunch, gizmodo), content (e.g. paidcontent.org), entertainment news (e.g. tmz), sports (e.g. reutersports), weather forecast etc. And the coolest social sharing thing? I could share interesting news articles and information nuggets to my Facebook Wall, my twitter account or an email address! I am currently using Snaptu on my Nokia N97 mini device but this app is also available for other platforms. Enough said, catch the video on this cool app.

Other reviews and information on Snaptu can be found below:
- Snaptu on Facebook
- oneforty.com

App #2: AP Mobile - Stellar News Reader from Associated Press - text, photos and video news!

I like the AP Mobile App from the Associated Press as it provides me with excellent news categorisations by region, country and also by media, i.e. text, photos and even streaming videos. It is certainly a very nice and rich news media reader and ... you guessed it, social sharing tool - allowing you to share the news article you found interesting to your Twitter account or an email address or Delicious or even a text message! I run AP Mobile app on my Nokia N97 mini but it also works on other platforms as well. Check out the AP Mobile website for more details.

App #3: Gravity - Gorgeous Twitter App for multiple Twitter accounts and image uploading

Thanks to all of you wonderful online friends, my Twitter account is by far and large the most up-to-date news channel for me. I get deja vu when I listen to the radio DJs using old news or the news channel on the TV. And so, talking about Gravity. This richly featured Twitter App, which by the way, looks simply gorgeous, is a main stay as one of the home screen shortcut icons on my Nokia N97 mini. It allows me to configure multiple Twitter accounts (if I have more than one, at this point only @nelsonwee), upload pictures to various Twitter Image services like TwitPic, monitor Twitter trends, form groups, get audio alerts etc.

Have a look at the following video on Gravity.

As for entertainment on the move, there are a couple more other apps I could talk about, probably in a subsequent post.

Catch you later.
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Under the sea ...

2010-02-22T00:19:00.001+08:00

A first time for me - visiting the Singapore Science Center Omni theater last Saturday (20-FEB) with my wife and son. The Omni theater was opened in 1989 and it has been offering a growing number of IMAX 3D movies over the years.

We watched "Under the Sea" and were instantly immersed into the enchanting beauty of the sea and her colorful fish, sea lions, corals etc. This 3D exploratory documentary, whilst had a most calming effect on our senses, sent us prodding reminders on the wonderous beauty we as man will be wasting away, destroying and so losing out in the coming years, if we do not cherish the seas and continue our current wayward ways in pollution.

Strongly recommend you go for this movie. Certainly sets you thinking. What are your recommendations for documentaries around similar themes?

related links:
1. Singapore Science Center
2. Science is Fun at the Singapore Science Center
3. Singapore Omni Theater
and more under collection ...

4 Trends in New Digital Media Development

2010-02-18T09:03:00.004+08:00

Quick, very quick these days.

As the months go by, 4 trends are emerging in the new digital social space in terms of what, how and where media is being presented to consumers and how interactions are taking place.

1) New Behavior: From Individual Consumption to Social Sharing
Reading and keeping up to date with news around you is mandated - like a daily coffee fix, especially in today's world where information flows go by in a flurry. News from print and radio are old. And so there are digital versions of newspapers and radio made into apps. To keep up with the changing digital generations, these apps have evolved from standalone features to contain social sharing capabilities.

2) New Evolving Business Models: From Per Download to Metering or Freemium or Social Currencies
One off pay per download digital contents start to lose their luster from a business point of view. We start to see experimentations in metering, getting freemiums into play or developing social games where social currencies are the in-thing for today's world.

3) New Touchpoint/Access: From Few to Multiple Appliance Readers
The age-old radio, TV and Movie Theaters are set to be replaced or a revamp, as we see new multimedia and internet capabilities come to mobile phones, e-book readers, netbooks etc.

4) New Reach: From Global to Hyperlocal, & vice versa
The search for location specific information is hot. Because the immediacy to satisfy your contextual needs is deemed relevant.

I will be making associated observations and looking to provide examples of how the above trends are impacting our behaviors in this day and age of new media consumption. Do feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.

Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

3 Trends in Social Media & Web 3.0 (Part 3)

2010-02-15T21:15:00.011+08:00

The third trend is the challenge and concern of privacy in this day and age, where spatial distances between individuals and their social networks are rapidly being reduced. The sociographs of all are increasingly being inter-connected, status updates and conversations are broadcast to all and so ...

(3) Privacy is but a Window away

In trend (1), I brought up examples from Google and Facebook, who have either through partnering or acquisitions, been positioning their social layer offering as the one dashboard for consumers to converge for their status updates, chats, emails, content uploads, sharing, collaborations etc.

Imagine now with trend (2), where we see integrations and inter-connections occuring in Google and Twitter (search and recently in Buzz), Bing search powered in Facebook, Bing search incorporating Tweets, the lines between "public" and "private" conversations in and across social networks become increasingly greyed. Everyone's sociographs, relationships and interactions can be eyed upon constantly in your friends' online streams.

Augmented reality is cool. Today, we have apps like Wikitude which tag places with contextual information. Now imagine in the near future, when you could activate an app in a mobile device, then by holding the camera of the mobile device towards a stranger nearby, be able to draw down the online profile of that stranger, based on what he has tweeted, updated into his Facebook etc. We are entering into a world where every consumer all around is being tagged. And this augmented reality becomes scary as an afterthought.

Privacy is and will be a key concern as we move into a much more inter-connected WEB 3.0, where everyone's lives grow more intertwined with one another's. However, there looks to be much promise in the future, where all our computing will occur in the cloud and our lives efficiently ordered through quick clicks.

Take a look at this video from Microsoft's 2019 vision. Certainly inspiring.

Later,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee
Additional links to read:
1. Your Social Networks: How Open Should You Be? (by Dr. Rachna Jain)
2. Google and Yahoo are indexing Google Buzz
3. Google Gets The Facebook Treatment: Privacy Group Files FTC Complaint Over Buzz
4. [updated: 19-FEB] Please Rob Me; the Perfect Compliment to Foursquare and Twitter

3 Trends in Social Media & Web 3.0 (Part 2)

2010-02-15T13:35:00.007+08:00

For those of you who have kids, you probably will be able to associate lots with the never-ending "barrage" of demands of your kids on why is the PC so slow or has no sound (my son cannot wait for the sound driver to load up) or hey dad, have you booked movie tickets to "Percy Jackson and the ..."? Utterly useless to try reasoning that your kid is too impatient or that you need some time to wind down before proceeding with the tasks at hand. And so, I see ...

(2) My Life Needs to be Served by a Click (& Quickly)
In a previous 2009 post, I wrote about how kids nowdays multi-tasks more and more. Kids, youths, innate (or evolved) Digital Natives as they are, live and order their lives with clicks at a PC, with a mobile phone, with a TV remote and so on. To get to the required information and service, there is hence an increasing focus into the semantic relevancy in search. You see this in Microsoft's positioning and development of their new search engine, Bing, as a decision engine.
A number of partnerships and integration between Google & Twitter integration with Social Search, Bing Search in Facebook, Bing & Twitter integration in search etc, have also sprouted in the recent months

GPS-enabled mobile phones have recently also introduced and increasingly started the market proliferation of location-based apps, with free maps (with Google Maps, Nokia Ovi Maps), augmented reality (e.g. Point & Find), cloud-based tags (wikipedia information, bookmarks, information of points of interests) and social sharing. Apps like Wikitude or Yelp showcase this capability.

E-book readers are increasingly also moving into color as well as supporting more multimedia content formats other than ebooks like games, with the recently announced Amazon.com Kindle development to launch its own apps store, and moving beyond ebook contents leading this market trend.

Enterprising developers are also looking to attract consumers with a richer ebook experience with Vooks (refering to Video Books) which comprise of ebook, great videos and further augmented with social comments, and available for both PCs and Mobile devices.

The Zip Cars service in the US is a great example of an end to end "click and mortar" or online-offline hybrid service. A consumer could find a nearby car to rent, unlock the car with an app and zip off quickly to his appointment venue.

Examples are aplenty.

Next coming (3) Privacy is but a window away.

til later,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

More reading reference links:
1. Google flexes Twitter integration with Social Search Lab
2. Google Social Search, and Twitter integration
3. HUGE: Microsoft Inks Deals With Twitter and Facebook to Put Status Updates in Bing
4. Google Social Search, Bing Twitter Integration, Yahoo Site Explorer
5. [Updated 17-FEB] and now MySpace Goes Real Time With Google Search
6. [Updated 17-FEB] Google's Social Search and Discovery

3 Trends in Social Media & Web 3.0 (PART 1)

2010-02-15T11:41:00.015+08:00

Do you remember Ask Jeeves? Valet, concierge services, whether offline, online or a hybrid of both click and mortar have been a facination of mine - how we as man constantly strive to get the automation of semantic understanding going, to enable our every whim and fancy more easily achievable with today's or tomorrow's hardware and software platforms.

As an on-going observation, I put together my thoughts on what I see as the 3 trends on-going in today's social media, web 3.0 - how we are moving into the futuristic age of the Semantic Web (we are getting closer) and what we could look forward or look out for.

(1) Doing all your computing in the cloud

Google and Facebook are positioning themselves as your life's dashboard. You do not need to have powerful computers or all the applications in your PC or mobile phone to perform tasks. Cloud computing that's the buzz word and that's where a number of organisations are moving towards.

Before Google Buzz came along, I was reading about a Singaporean company called Social Wok (have a look at the screenshot I link from SocialWok) who at last year's TechCrunch50 conference, made a big splash by winning the award for best demopit startup and launching its enterprise-friendly, FriendFeed-like layer for Google Apps - launching a social network wrapped around the very unsocial Google Apps. In 22-JAN ’10: SocialWok launched a gadget to allow users access all the features of Socialwok without leaving Gmail. With the new gadget, Socialwok’s interface will appear within Gmail’s main canvas. Users can view, post and comment on updates; access feeds, files and Google Docs and search for posts, people, feeds, and files. Hmm, thought: a potential candidate for Google Acquisition? Then along came #googlebuzz (just go search for Google Buzz or #googlebuzz in Twitter).

Then you have Facebook, where you can broadcast your life's moments, email, chat, upload and share photos, play social games like farming with friends and there are lots more apps which you could access from Facebook or apps you could link to Facebook available in the various Apps Stores.

More later as I talk about the other 2 trends
(2) My life needs to be served by a click (& quickly - thanks!)

(3) Privacy is but a window away

Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

The Year of the White Tiger -> my thoughts on Chinese New Year in 2010 (Part 1)

2010-02-13T15:36:00.002+08:00

The Year of the Hard Working Ox (note the space in between "Hard" and "Working") has been a year of uncertainties and unnerving changes to both the macro economy globally right down to the people like me living in the heartlands of Singapore.

Waking up just before 5am for my morning jogs, I see many (more?) of the government flat houses around the flat where I live already lit up. People appear to be getting up early or earlier to work, make ends meet. Roads, Express high ways along Singapore are abuzz already before 7am. Not sure if it were my imagination in the wee hours of the morning when driving to work. Reports of accidents in the mornings or even later in the evenings appear to be more. There are lots on people's minds even as they drive - heavy thoughts, and the lack of sleep did not help.

1 year earlier in end January 2009, I wrote a short post on "Dealing with the Financial Crisis" - changing priorities with Singaporeans. 1 year later, now, time to reflect. Lots have transpassed. Indeed, in my post "The Coming of the Year of the Ox - tamer, quieter, more reflective", there were signs of tightening purses, avid interest and sights on what laid ahead in the new year.

See you later for Part 2,
or catch me @nelsonwee

My Social Media Journey ... What I have been learning from Twitter

2010-01-24T09:33:00.004+08:00

Now into the 4th week of Jan 2010. It has been one exhilarating ride socially online for me - on Twitter.

The definition of the journey so far ...
T.W.I.T.T.E.R = To Write In The True Emotions Randomly

RT @ShebaJo @AskAaronLee @Lina_Martana @ihatequotes @TrendyDC (slight edit)

... and the benefits I got:
1. World News & Concerns (going beyond the facts and figures);
2. Industry updates;
3. Market reports & insights;
4. Educational Youtube videos;
5. Pings for participation in online surveys;
6. Tips and tricks, Tools which come in real useful;
7. Humorous Banter and quotes which put a smile on my face;
8. Inspirational Quotes which I value greatly;

The new information superhighway (if I may borrow this rather aged phrase from the nineties!) is really now super-charged and simply full of vibrancy. Lots of favourites and gradual listing (as I struggle *pant*) to keep up with all you awesome contributors to all the cool happenings all over the world, your thoughts -> the smiles when I get a funny quote or two with the rise or setting of the sun.

From @amusingtweets "All life is an experiment" - and to me now every day looks like a new moving canvass, ready to be painted with the light dabs, brushes of the social media.

I am working on compiling the cool and funny quotes I have received so far - stay tuned to get a copy.

Til Later,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Undeniable Wave of Social Media Set to Change Consumer Behavior

2009-12-31T10:09:00.008+08:00

Social Media looks like an undeniable force in the marketplace of today.

I am a newbie on Twitter, currently exploring, growing my following list and constantly amazed and gratified at the same time on the amount of knowledge which finds me, rather than I go googling, wikiing or binging. I am also reading a book Twitterville by @shelisrael, a prominent social media journalist and speaker - in easy converational twitter style, provides you with case studies and reasons why Twitter is hot and relevant to individuals, small businesses as well as large enterprises in their respective personal, customer service, special promotions as well as knowledge transfers in this new information age.

[added 6-JAN-2010]: My blog is always WIP ... here is a great slide deck on "Twitter for Business" which I found from a Tweet and could not resist sharing from the http://www.viralnetworkers.com/

Ogilvy On: Twitter for Business

View more documents from 360digitalinfluence.

I search and buy books from Amazon.com - largely trusting the rating there more before I buy from Amazon.com or the bookstore (if I need to get the book like right now and not having to wait for the logistics US to Singapore). Well for one thing, especially during these recessionary times, and discretionary spending and extremely crowded out schedules we live in, online sites like Amazon.com have been doing well - you can see from AMZN stock performance.

To add to the pudding, my wife shops for her clothing online - despite what many have disclaimed that shopping for clothes or accessories online is a big no-no. And my son, since he was 4, has been googling, you-tubing (for his fix of cartoons, movie trailers) and playing online flash games -> he keeps going on his hyper-linking (and comes to me of course with a suggestive, "Daddy, did you know that there is this interesting Transformers game coming to the stores" or "Avatar is so nice ... how about catching it this ... " And of course, I turned to the Cloud crowd in Twitter to ensure I am booking online for a good show - never regretted the decision.

Take a look at this Social Media video which I found via a tweet from @promedia - certainly gives one a or rather several good reasons why social media is not a fad but rather a wave giving rise to a a fundamental shift in consumer behavior.

My following this journey in social media continues to evolve and I suspect will ramp up in an even more frantic pace in 2010 ... how is your journey?

Happy 2010 everyone!
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Embracing & Participating in the Educational Journey of our children

2009-11-22T14:19:00.005+08:00

I was pleasantly blown away yesterday, 21-NOV, from the Primary One induction program for my son, Elijah, who will be entering the road to Primary School education come Jan 2010.

The school principal spoke about the mutual trust in her team which parents have to allay, the collaborative participation and support parents need to play at home, all in the continual efforts and spirit to reinforce the learning journey of our children in the 6 upcoming formative years in primary school education. Totally with her on what she presented. I also liked the section on the school's English program which delved into how students would start getting into writing, through experiential exercises, teacher-students guided exercises before later progressing to joint student team writing assignments before embarking into writing their own journals. There will also be a lesser emphasis on the final year examinations too, which will now account for just 30% of the total scoring - continual assessments and assignments in the terms taking up the majority 70%.

I also found the introduction of new age digital media literary refreshing - students will get an opportunity to learn the skills of interviewing, writing scripts, putting to production virtual student exchanges with students from the US - all with the use of PCs, digital editing software and podcast production tools - pretty cool. How I wish to be a child again!

til later,

Nelson

The Singapore Property Market - booming amidst gloom or slowing into cautionary speed

2009-09-26T15:21:00.006+08:00

The most recent time I experienced Singapore's property market falling into more affordable pockets was some time in 2006. Thereafter, it rose again, only to be hit by the 2008 financial melt-down and brought back done to mortal levels in Q4'08 to Q1'09.

Actually less ... arghh ... prices ... private housing (and public housing, which was pulled up by the private market) rose quickly, some time March '09. And suddenly there was a mad flurry of crowds flocking to new property launches as if there was the GREAT SINGAPORE SALE there. Just type "singapore property market" into youtube and you will see scores and lists of videos to support my claim. These scenes were constantly splashed across the media reports - TV news, newspapers alike, echoed the maniacal sprint to get, especially the much heralded catch - properties near the up and coming Changi South Business District, where banks were re-locating their operational centers to, where the logistics hub is, where there would be the next University Campus nearby. 1 example of the mad rush? Property named "Optima", where long queues of both agents (queuing for property buyers) and property buyers started 3 days before the property launch!

And the prices? Take a district 15 (you could refer to iProperty website for more information on the Singapore property market) property, priced at S$800 - S$820 psf (push you back S1.1M for a about a 1,300 sf size area, 1SGD worth today around 0.68USD) late '08 is now worth close to S$1,200 psf (close to S$1.6M)! For the high end markets in town, Orchard, District 9, just take a look in the papers and you will see smiling faces of property agents in the classifieds coaxing the well-heeled to part with S$2,000 psf and above. And such price moves come screaming so far without a halt, amidst the start of the 2nd Formula 1 night race in Singapore!

Property is important, it helps hedge against inflation. Property agents will tell you that. Evident when Singaporeans are face with stagnant or lowered salaries, near zero bank interest rates for savings or FDs, and rising prices of basic necessities - food for instance. Just take a look at today's 26-SEP-2009 Straits Times article "How much is a burger worth" - according to a recent UBS survey, Singaporeans can afford to buy less than what people in many other cities can because prices here have risen more than wages. Couple of statistics from the article to home in the stark reality here in this little island city - full of resolve and having built a global brand towards establishing itself as a very credible high tech industrial, pharmaceutical, financial and media hub:
Wage Level (benchmarked to wages in New York)
- Singapore ranked 41 globally
- behind Tokyo (11), Sydney (16), HK (36)

Price Level (benchmarked to prices in New York for a given basket of goods with 122 items)
- Singapore ranked 24
- above HK (28), Sydney (38)

Domestic Purchasing Level
- Singapore ranked 50
- behind Sydney (2), Tokyo (23), HK (41)

All these are scary. Soon to be wed couples or newly weds are being priced out of the markets. Not just for the private housing but even for public housing where prices are also skyrocketing! Asking prices, according to the newspaper reports are S$50k to $80k above valuation (you may need to fork out more than S$300k to S$500k for 3-room to 4-room public housing in choice areas), totally unheard of, in '06, '07, where prices of public housing were going anywhere between S$20k and more below valuation prices!

What will the future be looking like for our next generation?

If Music be the Food of Soul - On My Music Playlist

2009-03-29T13:18:00.015+08:00

I decided to pen down my playlist from over the years - a collective review and sharing on various music tracks I have found valuable, bringing back precious moments in life in waves of nostalgia. So here they are ...

(1) "Dream a little dream" by Laura Fygi
This was the first march in song for my wedding at the Intercontinental Hotel, Singapore. I will not forget the making of the dream which led to this milestone in my life. It never fails to dream, moulding it and making great moments happen in life. This is how I feel when I get this playing in my car music player.

(2) "Fallen" by Lauren Wood [click here for 30s sample]
This was the second march in song for my wedding (there were 2 march in for my wedding dinner). My wife was resplendent in her maroon and sequinned gown by Ted Wu. Playing this or hearing this on the radio never fails to bring back the moment.

(3) "All I ask of you" by Sarah Brightman and Cliff Richard [click here for 30s sample]

A most romantic rendition from the "Phantom of the Opera". Great to play this and listen in with your loved one by your side.

(4) "Jeux Interdits (Romance)" by Pepe Romero
This musical flute piece is becalming albeit comes with a tad of melancholic movements. I feel it makes for a great unique ringtone to call out for your attention, in a none too hurried wave - pleasant in today's rushed society.

(5) "For the first time" by Kenny Loggins
This brings back the many "first times" whimsical moments in your lives. Great to sit back, relax in a leather sofa and reminiscence.

(6) "Clarinet Concerto in A major" by Mozart

I played the B Flat Clarinet during my school days in the Band. I was introduced to this piece which had a great clarinet solo. I aspired then to achieve the mellow tone of the clarinet player for this rendition - Alfred Prinz. Que sera sera ... good ol' school days in Raffles Institution.

(7) "Abba Gold - Greatest Hits" [Click here for 30s samples]

The big band sound from Abba certainly transports one immediately into the seventies and early 80s. Even today, hits like "Dancing Queen", "Mamma Mia", "Knowing me, knowing you" etc lives on. Most evident especially in the recent "Mamma Mia" movie.

(8) "Islands in the stream" by Bee Gees [Click here for 30s sample]

I love the Bee Gees and will settle myself at any spot, be it the Electronics store just the other day was playing a Bee Gees concert DVD. This catchy tune from the Bee Gees will catch me humming and singing along to it whenever I play it over my car music player.

(9) "Vincent" by Don Mclean [CLICK here for 30s Sample]

I studied the lyrics of this song during my school days as part of my Literature module. It tells of the struggles amidst the strokes of artistic creativity of Vincent Van Gogh.

There are still many many other favourites though. But then again, to the Chinese, the number "9" symbolizes longevity or long-lasting and so I will leave my list here to end at 9.

A bientot, Nelson

My 2009 Birthday Message

2009-03-24T11:21:00.005+08:00

Thought it appropriate to get to my long delayed posting since end Jan on my birthday - well incidentally, I am 29 this year, last year and the year after ... :) And well, like James, my apologies to my countable followers - life has been well hectic.

Another year gained in my journey in life ... another year wiser, another year tougher in mind and spirit I must say in these tough (getting tougher) times, and at times often than not, when I get to pause to reflect, another year of moments when I felt sorry for not spending enough time with my family. 24 hours, 7 days a week appear hardly enough these days for the mounting pressures and uncertainties in life these days ... it seems to me at least. Healthy for the spirit? purely rhetorical.

Around me, near areas I venture during the weekends, during meal times (we have to eat... though I wondered aloud to my wife just the other day, wonder how it would be like if I put my conscious into a cyborg and work tirelessly? you could imagine the hard stare I received) ... on a more serious note, there are often job fairs in the heartlands which set a sombre tone in the rhythm in life for a weekend out with family.

What's in store? When will the current cancer-stricken global financial system and markets rebound to better times? It's just about anyone's guess at this point. Could be 2 to 3 years later or more. And the harsh realities are blatant if not harshly poised in their assault. Mental strength, warm family support and we will all rise again, like a gryphon through the fire.

I am hanging in there. I hope and pray all will be well to one and all soon.

best regards,
Nelson

The Coming of the Year of the Ox - tamer, quieter, more reflective

2009-01-23T23:55:00.001+08:00

26 Jan 2009 will herald in the Year of the Ox, according to the Chinese lunar calendar. The Ox ( 牛 ) is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. It is said that people born in the Year of the Ox are typically born leaders, dependable, modest, extremely patient and tireless and systematic in their work, though they could be very hard to convince otherwise once they have set their minds on something. Indeed it is certainly the above traits which many of us would need to inculcate admidst the current Global Financial Crisis.

The current Year of the Rat had been a year of many lows globally. In what appears to have been a hungry and evil looking Rat, which had been eating away the grains in many stores in the many parts of the world - stores which had been trusted but now viewed with a more sceptical lens. It is not just financial losses I am talking about. But also the tainted dairy products from China with its what seemed unending rippling repurcussions into many many by-products availed globally,caused the loss of many lives in China, a loss of trust of many towards China food products, drops in sales for many dairy products on the shelves.

How is the atmosphere this year prior the Chinese New Year? For one, the lead up of events and festivities like the recent Christmas - QUIETER. There is a lack of celebratory and festivity in the air. Singaporeans are in a rather pensive mood, with uncertainties looming in our minds on whether we would still have a job to hold onto, in the near future. For this upcoming Chinese New Year, celebrations are expected to be tamer than previous years - preparations for this festive season eonomically skewed. A number of Singaporeans interviewed (source: 11-JAN'09 Sunday Times) are spending less on Chinese New Year goodies, decorations and clothes.

However, there were also a number, who whilst were scrimping on the spend in the preparations, would not be tightening their purse strings on the giving away of red packets or hongbao during the New Year visits. The perspective? "Chinese New Year ia a once-a-year thing and hongbao are a blessing to the children who receive them."

So what's next after the Chinese New Year? In every Chinese New Year that I could remember celebrating, my family and I always kept a look out to read up on what the coming New Year would hold for all of us, whether watching it from the TV or reading it in the newspapers.

In fact, just the other day while I was shopping in the heartlands, I saw many people crowding round a column. Venturing nearer, I found out why the huge interest level. All around the column, one could read up on what the Year of the Ox offered to the various people who were born in all the twelve Chinese Zodiacs.

What will the Year of the Ox offer us? Here is what I have gathered thus far from my lit search. This is the Year of the Earth Ox: Earth symbolizing slow and steady progress. Earth Ox will make us all hardworking and bring order to our business and home life after the turbulence of the Rat Year. Ox year is the year to be persistent without being pushy. Extra care to the fine print needs to be undertaken during negotiations to avoid misunderstandings in our communications. In the climate of credit crunch, consolidation will come to many industries. Hong Kong Feng Shui Master, Raymond Lo sums it up, "This year of the Ox is an 'earth' year, when people will take a breather and reflect on what they should do after a turbulent 2008".

No matter what. Here's looking up, leaning forward and gearing ourselves up with the indomitable human spirit for 2009. Work hard, keep on going but also stay healthy and communicate, communicate, communicate. Happy New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai, Wan Shi Ru Yi!

Cheers,
Nelson Wee

More links:
1. Chinese Astrology Forecast for the Year of the Ox
2.Chinese Fortune Calendar
3. 2009 Chinese horoscopes
4. Raymond Lo, Hong Kong Feng Shui Master on the Year of the Ox
5. Chinese New Year Celebrations in Singapore

Dealing with the Financial Crisis

2009-01-21T22:10:00.002+08:00

Many of us, especially from here in Asia, will remember that the last 10 years have been a journey wrought with bitter memories ...of 1997 with the Asia Financial Crisis ... of 2003 with the Sars epidemic and of 2007 till to date of the current Global Financial system meltdown.

This time round, the bearish stance of the financial markets have proved to be a long drawn seige, holding hostage everyone globally - from the banking to the manufacturing to the property to hospitality. Every single day, I hear and see around me, with a both saddened heart and numbed shock the on-going uncertainties of the macroeconomic outlook. Governments all around are putting their best foot forward to stabilize the sentiments of their people with economic stimulus programs - some short term like giving out cash vouchers in Taiwan, others mid term like the Singapore government putting in place Profession Conversion Programs to help facilitate professionals' mid-career switch (e.g. to pre-school education, pharmaceutical manufacturing, health care, workplace safety and health etc).

In the wake of all these upheavals, have the priorities of Singaporeans changed? According to 10-JAN's article in the Straits Times, it appears that it is back to basics for the Singapore Dream.

The top 10 Singaporean dreams and goals in 2008 were:
1. Seeing the world
2. Self-improvement
3. Making money
4. House and home
5. Good Health
6. Family and children
7. Charity and volunteering
8. Automobile
9. Starting a business
10. Retirement

In 2009 however, we have as the new top 10:
1. Family and children
2. Settling down/Starting a family
3. House and home
4. Making money
5. Retirement
6. Seeing the world
7. Automobile
8. Good health
9. Starting a business
10. Self-improvement

From a focus on personal luxuries and ambitions, Singaporeans are re-evaulating their priorities in life and focusing on home and family.

Stories in the Sunday Times papers have shifted their focus more on the man on the street - how people are coping with the uncertain working environments and the accompanying credit crunch, how some have managed to found renewed hope in new jobs centered around hobbies they have had over the years - I remember there was one story about a head of legal who had been attending Tony Buzan's mind-mapping courses and actually found a job in the Tony Buzan's training center as a trainer cum legal aide, after months of unsuccessful searches in the job market.

Whatever the road ahead will bring us in, 2009 will certainly be, like what Obama's campaign been all about, like what the cool frequent winds blowing past Singapore these days, be all about CHANGE.

Change in the make up of the financial markets, change in our mentalities towards professions, change in priorities, a realization, a pricking of conscience that no one in this world is omniscient - that we are all human after all in our ways.

Til Later,
Nelson Wee

Little Nonya - Peranakan Culture

2009-01-10T00:13:00.009+08:00

Little Nonya ended its run on 5-JAN 2009, after a 34 episode run. Despite a number of misgivings and criticisms on the show (e.g. on the selection of the actresses, how could the Peranakan culture be portrayed and described in Mandarin etc), the show certainly garnered a large following - well even my 5 year old son, Elijah was following almost every episode. Enjoy the video and theme song of the "Little Nonya" below.

I was personally also attracted by the show - more from the depiction of the richness of the Peranakan culture to which I am close to (having relatives both in Malaysia and Singapore who are Peranakans).

The Peranakan heritage originated from the Chinese immigrants who settled in parts of Malaysia like Malacca, Penang and in an effort to assimilate into the local communities, partly adopted the Malay customs there. "Peranakan" mean descendents. The "Babas" refer to the male descendents and the "Nonyas" refer to the female descendents. Baba Malay, the language used by the Babas and Nonyas, is a unique dialect from Bahasa Malay with Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) words. Unfortunately though, the use of Baba Malay has been increasingly replaced with English and the demise of this language looks imminent in the horizon.

What I will remember (in no particular order of preference) from the rich Peranakan culture would be the following:
1. the mannerisms,lilt in the ways of speaking and gestures, with the various proverbs and hidden innuendos

2. the Nonya clothing (sarong kebaya) with its elaborate stitching and colorful beaded slippers
Have a look at the video below on the sarong kebaya.

3. the manners - like greeting all your elders at the dining table before starting your meal. Try imagine if you have your grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts etc at a large gathering and each of the children present had to go round asking every one of their elders for permission to begin their meals. I in fact carry on with this practice til this very day.

4. the quaint crockery set, which are a rare and rich find if you do have in your possession. Click here to admire the Peranakan crockery.

5. last but not least, the delectable and unique richness in Peranakan food
Many babas like myself will always swear by the fact that there are no restaurants who could live up to the culinary standards of their mothers (note: there are always variances in the Peranakan recipes in different families). One of my favourite haunts for delicious Peranakan fare (besides my mom's or aunt's place) include Charlie's in Katong. I find the bua keluak pretty good (a dark gravy mixture of chicken, pork and the pre-stuffed hard shell seeds of a kind of fruit). Note there are not many of good bua keluak around to my mind in Singapore. And so to me, good bua keluak is a test for the rest of the food fare at a Peranakan restaurant. Have a look at the video below which shows the bua keluak dish...

I recall fondly of the sweet Nonya Chang or dumplings which my grand aunt used to make. These rice dumplings are smaller than the usual Chinese meat rice dumplings, contain sweet meat and have tinges of blue coloring on the gluttenous rice. My closest fix these days to Nonya Chang would be to get from Kim Choo's.

My list of other perenial favourites in Peranakan food include Babi Pong Teh (sweet light brown bean paste gravy with pork), Satay Ayam (spicy satay sauce with chicken, the satay sauce here is made from chilli and coconut milk and not to be confused with the nutty sauce which accompanies the satay meat on sticks), Itek Sio (duck stew), Chap Chye (simple yet flavourful mixed vegetables made like a rich stew and especially nice when accompanied with blachan, i.e. hot grounded chilli paste) and the Achar which my mom makes - I reckon I can keep on going on the food front ... :)

One of my personal goals this year would be to get to know more of my Peranakan culture. Do drop me a note on books, places (food, places of interest), URLs, people I could contact on anything to do with the Peranakan culture.

later,
Nelson

more links about Peranakan can be found here:
1. Wikipedia's article on Peranakan

2. The Singapore Association for Peranakan

3. Charlene's blog post on Peranakan culture and customs

4. Blog on "Is Singapore taking away Malaysia's Peranakan Heritage"

5. A nice video on Peranakan culture which describes greetings at New Year, Sarong Kebaya, Nonya Chang and some Baba Malay phrases.

6. "Into the life of baba and nonya", another video with more on the Peranakan heritage below (shows the interior of the Peranakan houses as well). Enjoy!

and more links I just found ...
7. The Straits Times article on "Little Nonya, Big Ratings"

8. Mediacorp forum on the "Little Nonya" show

9. Post on "Little Nonya" & Peranakan Culture by Valerie

10. More from QingLing "I am the girl who reviews" on "Little Nonya"

11. And also on Facebook, the "Little Nonya" community site

Enjoying Fishing experience at the Qian Hu Fish Farm

2009-01-06T08:45:00.002+08:00

We had a fantastic time at the Qian Hu Fish Farm last weekend, 4-JAN. I did have some initial challenges finding the place - 71, Jalan Lekar, near Choa Chu Kang Road. But no worries, after consulting my Nokia Maps in my Nokia E71 ... or simply go to maps.ovi.com and do a search for Jalan Lekar. From Ang Mo Kio, via Lentor Ave, the SLE ->BKE->KJE (exit Sungei Tengah) route worked for me.

Built over 4.2 hectares of land in 1995, there are a wide variety of activities for the family there - lokang fishing, feeding the ever-hungry Koi fish, leg spa fish (if you like to pay to offer your dead skin to the small fish), or simply marvelling at the large number of species of ornamental fish (and gaping at the prices as well, e.g. S$6,888 for an Arawana!).

Reminisces of my younger days as a kid where I ventured out to the drains near my home to fish, especially after it rained, came to my mind ... and heck, now I was paying $5 per pax for 30 mins to do the same! It was all good fun though. I roll up my sleeves, took my little fish net, carefully dipped my hand into the pools of water and went about netting my catch (caught about 8 fish in 20 mins)! My son, Elijah, patience not being one of his virtues, went from pool to pool, swishing his net here and there but alas had no luck.

We spent around 2 hours in the air-con fish galleries, and under the sun feeding koi and catching lokang fish. Good fun! There are other vegetable and farms around this area ... probable destinations for upcoming weekends.

Nelson
for more info on Qian Hu Fish Farm, click on the following links.
1. Qian Hu Fish Farm corporate site
2.Uniquely Singapore, Qian Hu Fish Farm

Kids nowadays multi-task more and more

2009-01-06T08:41:00.002+08:00

Have you ever noticed kids these days? How they are able (claim to be able) to "multi-task" - TV switched on, using the laptop to browse the Internet or browse a book, toy cars in the other hand being moved here and there and all these happening whilst he is having his lunch. Well, this is the activity profile of my son, Elijah, 6 years of age this month, for the last 1.5 years or so.

The term "DIGITAL NATIVE" comes to mind. Wikipedia states that the term digital native, which was coined by Marc Prensky and also used by Gartner in their presentations, refers to a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3 - it pertains to a new breed of student entering educational establishments. The term draws an analogy to a country's natives, for whom the local religion, language, and folkways are natural and indigenous, over against immigrants to a country who often are expected to adapt and assimilate to their newly adopted home. A number of parents or some grandparents are probably more akin to Digital Immigrants. I try to find comfort to be more associated to a "Digital Settler", being in the industry, immersing myself and keeping up to this new fast-paced, solution-driven, and attention-lacking mental model our kids (tweens, teens) are capable of and yet at the same time, be able to absorb information, and regurgitate when the need arises!

Marc Prensky's article also mentions the following from a student, "School didn't teach me to read—I learned from my games." Familiar? I see that in my son who talks about (and recognized off the road) Ferraris, Lombourginis, asks me about little geography like Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo - all these by playing the Game Asphalt in his portable gaming device.

I also hear from others that their children do not read newspapers any more - their teenagers claim that they are not out of touch; on the contrary, the teenagers get their own dose of news they find relevant to their lives from the Internet.

Used to the old adage from my parents (I am) on the need to focus on 1 thing at time (though nowdays I also tend to read a few books, magazines at a time, at times during the news on TV). What I am now trying to do, is to learn how to address my old mental model, adapt to the new trends in how kids today behave - these digital natives, who are so comfortable with technology and browsing multiple information at a go.

Most interested to hear (I would be) from the observations and learnings from all parents out there - do you observe the same in your children and how are you coping in your conversations and guidance to your children in their studies and everyday life with regards to this fast-track dizzying skimming from 1 activity to another syndrome. Do help comment to this post.

cheers,
Nelson

More notes on the term "Digital Native" can be found here in this link from Marc Prensky.

Embarking on my Parent Volunteer Duties ... siong!

2009-01-05T08:05:00.003+08:00

Like a large growing number of Singaporean parents, I am currently doing my parent volunteer duties on FRI, 2-JAN at a nearby primary school, looking forward to secure a place there when the placement and balloting takes place mid 2009.

Here's a little introduction to newbies to parent volunteer work. Due to their popularity (especially when their students performed remarkably over the years for their PSLE results), a number of primary schools may resort to a balloting exercise when demand is greater than supply of places in their schools. And so parent volunteer work, whilst not compulsory, may (and the word to note is may) put the parent volunteer's kid(s)' chances to be better in securing these scarce places in the schools of the parent's choice. A total of 40 hours of parent volunteer duties are required of the kid's parents (father, mother combined).

Tough, yeah, believe you me, it was TOUGH. Why? Well for one thing, my legs and knees were turning jelly after 4 hours of arranging books in the school library, standing and stooping, shifting books around the shelves all the time!

The other 2 hours were well more relaxing in comparison. The 12 parent volunteers, including myself, who turned up were responsible for guiding the new primary one pupils in the canteen, observing them as they bought their food(some probably for the first time in their lives). The freshies were fine. Each of them were paired with an older student from the school who helped them along - introducing the food in the canteen and helping them with their selection, payment and carrying of the plates of food. A couple of the freshies appear to be lost, terrified when faced with the prospect of ordering their food, collecting and accounting for their change. This is definitely a good practice of independence and practical maths - mental note taken to inculcate in Elijah.

More interesting and fun experiences to come, I am sure for the next 34 hours of my remaining duties in the school!

For more info on the various phases of primary one school registration, you could click on the following link in the Ministry of Education website. And there are also a number of community sites out there discussing on this very topic - just search and you shall find.

ciao!
nelson

First Thoughts on 1-JAN-2009

2009-01-01T17:41:00.007+08:00

Today, I chanced upon the following illustration in the Straits Times, page 2, which I found most apt given where and what economic platform we are starting from in 2009, and what our attitudes we should adopt to face this upcoming year's challenges.

Despite what dark clouds may loom above us, we will need to rise above our comfort zones, reach out and grab the moments - whether with family, with colleagues, with work, to relish, and have lived to tell others of a most fulfilling 2009 we all had.

And here's a simple wish for all, in this coming 2009 with an all-time favourite band of mine, ABBA - the sound which has had a resurgent wave since the Mama Mia movie... so infectious that my 6 year old insists I turn on the Abba or Mama Mia CD whenver he gets on our car...:)

And with this, I would like to end with the notes of ABBA's song "I have a dream" in my head and for you who are reading this ... I am sure we all are ... to see the wonder of every moment and to bear hope as we usher in a brand new year albeit with its challenges. Here's my wishes to you, to the world for ... a most safe, healthy, and peaceful 2009 to all of you ... cheers!

Nelson

DEC 2008 Japan Family Holiday

2008-12-31T18:54:00.004+08:00

Singaporeans love to travel. Despite the current market situations where many are tightening their purse strings and spending only where necessary, Singaporeans when polled, still say they will save up and still travel, albeit less or to nearer places. My family and I decided we needed a well-earned trip and Japan called out to us (somewhat influenced by the Japan Hour programs we watched over the weekends and the raving reviews from our working colleagues)

We travelled early december over 8 days and 6 nights with ANA tours. The trip itinerary was pretty punishing to say the least. Picture this: Singapore - Tokyo to Osaka (domestic flight after 3 hour lay over) Universal Studios - Chitose - Sapporo - Lake Akan - Noboribetsu - Chitose - Tokyo Disneyland - Singapore! But heck, the experiences were sweet and memorable - See the pictures for some highlights.

Elijah and I also enjoyed our snow mobile ride up the hill and down, and played with the soft cotton-like pristine snow. He did not even bother to put on his gloves, throwing all abandon in moulding a ball of snow into his little palm and whoosh ... yeah tossing snow balls at this "hapless" dad.

I personally felt the magic of Hokkaido under the fairy tale like snow landscape with ambient music box music tinkling in the air ... beautiful. See the video below:

Elijah was also enthralled by the swans who flew in from Russia to the Lake here in Akan area to bathe in the nice warm hot spring water as well as getting free food! Have a look at the video on the swans.

My main gripes for this holiday: the early morning calls, the daily change of hotels, the rushed schedules, the commercialized and not as tasty food (we had frozen and rather lean salmon sashimi!)

If I were to go again, I would probably go free and easy, plan my routes, stay longer at Otaru (languish on its cheese cakes, caramel cream, soft Hokkaido ice cream) and visit the famous port at Hakadote (for its fresh seafood, sashimi).

Click here to get more details on photos and annotations from my Hokkaido Holiday Channel.

Nelson Wee signing off for 2008~
Til 2009 ... Happy New Year to all!

Singapore First World? Hmm...her social fabric needs work!

2008-12-31T15:00:00.001+08:00

I am bothered. I should not be I reckon on the last day of 2008. However this being the last day of 2008, the year of the "thieving rat" if I could place it that way, I am reflective.

Just 3 to 4 weeks ago, I was enjoying my trip with family to Japan: Osaka Universal Studios - Hokkaido (Chitose, Sapporo, Otaru City, Soundkyo Gorge, Lake Akan, Noboribetsu) - Tokyo Disneyland. Challenging tour group itinerary but beautiful memories of the soft pristine snow land and magical tinkles at Otaru, fantastic rides at Universal and Disney, certainly left an indelible mark in our sweet memories. I will leave further elaboration of my trip in my next blogs.

My conclusion from my trip was that Japan is really First World. There is this strong sense of RESPECT in her people - respect for oneself, respect for others. You see the commitment of the Japanese in the basic cleanliness of their environment (Japanese keep their environment and that of their neighbors clean). You see their commitment in the packaging of their gifts and products. Everyone of us received a small chocolate bar from the Musical Box Museum at Otaru. And everyone of the delectable chocolate token was box wrapped with the words "A gift sincerely from our heart". Then there was the mochi (soft rice balls dessert with filling - did I get this right?) which was packed in really nice red box (which could serve up pretty well to hold trinkets). You be the judge (see below image).

The commitment and the most importantly the respect Japanese have for themselves and others around them are certainly world-class benchmarks for us to look up to. I would like to walk around in clean parks, clean elevators, clean toilets.

1 week ago, earth beckoned and I was brought back down to the harsh reality back home here in our motherland Singapore. I was appalled to find a cigarette butt lying on the inner bay window ledge of my apartment.

A few days ago, I found a plastic packet of biscuits lying just under the mailboxes, the biscuits almost fully consumed. Today, to top it all up, I see a presumably used cotton bud lying in the elevator.

Yes, we are a relatively young nation, independence only having come in 1965. However we have taken huge strides in developing our nation economically, with sound financial and infrastructural platforms and industries for current and future growth. And we should and I suspect which is the grand scheme of things strive to be and reflect ourselves, our environment to be in the class of First World countries. Yet the observations I made over last couple of weeks (and well over the last couple of years as well all around Singapore), we certainly have our work cut out for us to first improve the basic elements in our social fabric – that elusive attitudinal element called RESPECT, before we could call ourselves FIRST WORLD.

Nelson Wee, 31-DEC 2008

Elijah's December Reading List

2008-12-30T21:08:00.000+08:00

My son, Elijah is an avid reader. He reads whenever he can - during meals, before sleep, and well even in the toilet doing his dump ... :)

In my spare moments, I enjoy reading to him. If you see his reading list (see below), you may understand why.

There is simple magic played out when I start reading with him his books - some borrowed from the public library, some he received as presents.

I like especially the book on "How's it made - a chocolate bar" by Sarah Ridley. From the picking of the cocoa beans from the cacao trees in Ghana, I am educated through the entire process in chocolate production - the quality selection of the beans, the fermentation process, the transportation to the factories, the production and the packaging. Delectable reading, really ... :-)

And by the way, did you know that the Aztec civilization used cocoa beans the way we use money today?

Why My Ovi?

2008-12-30T09:20:00.000+08:00

Ovi means Door in Finnish. My Ovi - my doorway, my perspective, how life is viewed in my lens. Hence myovi as my doorway to my perspectives in life.

Here a couple of highlights ...
My Italy Trip in SEP 2007 ... CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO GET MORE DETAILS

Watching my son, Elijah growing up ... CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO GET MORE DETAILS

Enjoying good food ... CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO GET MORE DETAILS

Like the carousels of life you see above, I will be striving to pen my thoughts in life, my encounters and experiences with family and friends here. As part of my continuous and never ending improvements, I seek you, my reader for your valuable comments and inputs as well on the topics written - what could be further worked upon and what you would like to see more on.

cheers to 2008, and more to look forward to in 2009,
Nel

For more on the above, you could also go to my following channels:
1. My Italy 2007 Holiday Channel

2. Elijah's Channel

3. My Food Channel

Our Visit to the Singapore Flyer

2008-11-22T20:21:00.001+08:00

We are most blessed to be Singaporean - I must say. Yes, there are the ever-growing number of ERP gantries sprouting, the unceasingly growing traffic irrespective of measures taken, the typically unique local Singaporean nuances (like "choping seats at food centers", but heck, don't you (well I do) feel that tingling sense of belonging and welcome when you hear the air stewardess announce over the air "... and a warm welcome back to Singapore for all Singaporeans" as we touch down on the runway of Changi Airport?

Anyways, back to my visit to the Singapore Flyer. My family and I decided to experience the Singapore Flyer on 6-SEP ... or should I put this as my son kept reminding me (like a broken record as kids seem to be these days or is it just my son?) "Shall we go to the Singapore Flyer this weekend?".

First experience ... not trying to start on an unhappy note ... about the parking ... there was this car queue we had to contend with before we could get into the carpark located next to the flyer. And then the reason dawned upon us. The car park fee was not cheap - S$8 per entry (cash). Right ...

Elijah was excited though, chatting non-stop like a lark, supervising us to queue for the ticket (ticket booth was one level up from the car park via an elevator). While we queued, there he was then busy collecting brochures from the brochure stand and exclaiming, rather loudly for all to hear apparently, "Daddy, why are the brochures not in English?" "Well they are out of stock?" then the usual "why, why why ..." tirade starts ...

Ok back to the outing proper ... walking across the overhead bridge to the Singapore Flyer ... here is Elijah posing with his brochure.
"Let's go to the garden there ok?" said Elijah as we passed over the greenary located under the flyer. I nodded to yet another request from my 5 year old.

And so onward we marched for our ride ... and with Elijah by your side, it was like ...
step, step, question,
step,
question,
question again,
request,
step, step,
and then ... voila ... we reached the "launch pad " to our ride ....

We all entered then the carriage (do I call it that? tell me please) of the flyer gingerly - ample space to walk around and gaze at the oncoming full-360 panoramic views. Have a look below. Notice the views around were prior the Singapore Formula One Night Race.

After the ride, we got round to the garden below the flyer. It was a nice cooling oasis, amidst the warm weather outside - small waterfalls, dedicated misty area, adopted plants, pond with fishes (and yes there was a kiosk for you to buy a small plastic box of fish food- costs about S$1 if I recall right), and yeah a small tunnel which Elijah was excited about (something I could not comprehend but hey, that's kids for you)

There were a restaurants, the usual souvenir shops and also a spa (to soothe your tired muscles (and fish to nibble at your toes too) - we did some window-shopping and then headed for our dinner somewhere else.

Personally, I found it a nice, pleasant experience. It is always good to spend time with the family and this was perfect - to have such panoramic views of a Singapore you seldom get to see, realize and appreciate.

Signing off, Nel