It’s a Webinar!

The very rapid development of ICT keeps on amazing me! First, some years back, you can do a conference call, then a video call with people living thousands of kilometers away from you. Then, just recently, I just found out the we can also have not only a conference call, but a webinar! *yes, yes, I am a bit of a lag here…*

Webinar, as you may have guessed it, is a web seminar. Basically converging the conference call with the video call, and incorporating the slides online so that you can see the slides being presented online as well, as you listen to the presenters. It’s quite interesting, slightly a fuss, but all in all an interesting experience.

The seminar, or conference, is held more or less like a regular conference, with invitations and RSVP. Each invitees usually receive the invitation that includes a certain link on which the seminar is hosted online. In the invitation, a certain username and password are also included, to make sure that the participants of the seminar are the ones invited.

So what you do is basically go the the provided link, enter your username and password, and voila! You’re connected to the conference. In my case, however, we needed to call the “bridge” – a line designated for the conference – in order to hear the audio. The callback function that was supposed to be used was not in order. Besides listening, you can also type in what you wanted to say, or you can raise your hand and speak up.

A very interesting experience!

Jakarta’s Ritz Carlton and JW Marriot Explosion

Jakarta is again shaken – literally. Two explosions occured in the strategic business district Mega Kuningan, and struck 2 hotels – Ritz Carlton and JW Marriot. So far, 4 people were reported dead and more were injured. The Indonesian TV stations, Metro TV and TV One are still trying to get the footage of the occurence, meanwhile the picture of the explosion was already out on the net, available from here. This is said to be the first picture of the explosion.

Citizen journalism on the move

Some speculations are out on Twitter, and the most popular of them is that it has something to do with the Manchester United players coming to Jakarta this weekend for a friendship match with Indonesian Soccer All Stars. We’ll wait for confirmation regarding this..

Hopefully the casualties are low… And my deepest condolences for all those who were affected by this incident…

careful vs. left-behind

Walah.

Adalah respon saya di hari pertama bekerja sebagai new media associate. Saya selalu berpikir bahwa di dalam tangga innovation adopters posisi saya berada di antara early dan late adopter – lebih kepada early daripada late. Tapi beberapa menit berada di ruangan kecil new media membuat saya berpikir bahwa I am a laggard – karena baru membuka account di Twitter, Plurk, WordPress, dan lain-lain 4 hari yang lalu.

Tentang social media mempunyai kekuatan dan peranan yang besar dalam dunia kita saat ini sudah bukan hal yang baru bagi saya – saya berkali-kali membaca dan menganalisis hal itu. Tapi ternyata mengetahui dan membaca berada jauh sekali dari menggunakan; menggunakan masih jauh sekali dari memanfaatkan; dan memanfaatkan masih jauh sekali dari membuatnya bermanfaat bagi orang lain.

Selama ini saya pikir saya selektif dan tidak mau membiarkan diri saya terlibas oleh dampak negatif dan adiktif dari berbagai new social media. Tetapi hal itu  ternyata mempunyai imbas negatif juga bagi saya saat ini. Kalau Manuel Castells mengatakan bahwa it’s a network society, and it’s either we get connected or disconnected – then I guess I am disconnected now. And I am planning to get connected.

Sekarang saya harus berlari mengejar ketinggalan itu. Sambil sesekali twitting menanyakan arah supaya tidak nyasar.