Tonight I had the opportunity with about 200 others listen to and speak with Vinton G. Cerf, a founding "father of the internet" and Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist at Google. It was amazing to meet the guy that built TCP/IP in his protein form and listen to a true technologist speak about what the internet would look like in 2035. But there's just one "problem" with tonight's talk ... I didn't hear anything new. No, I didn't listen to a similar lecture from Vint on YouTube, and no I'm not a genius like Mr Cerf. Off the top of my head's short-term memory, I recall him mentioning 2035 to include:

• IPv6 being necessary when billions of other devices connect to the internet
• Internet and RFID linked refrigerators and bathroom scales
• Ubiquitous wireless internet access
• At least 1Gbps to the home
• Geo-spatial information will be available in real-time over the internet
• Virtual worlds will let us control real-world instruments
• Cybernetic technology would enhance human life
• Haptic sensory technology will make us touch and feel the virtual

What I found truly amazing was not the future possibilities, but the fact that this man built a network that was able to provide me with all the above mentioned predictions even before the visionary man speaks. A  good "problem" the internet is. I'm in no way disappointed that I didn't learn anything new, but am in awe at the creation of a genius. It makes me think about the work we do now. Be it technologies we develop, methods of marketing and communication, or simply the culture and habits we evolve. How will they impact and affect the future in the next 50 years? Will you stand then in front of a crowd like Vint Cerf did today and talk about the next 30 years with gusto and passion? I'd love to know I've made a difference. Aside: Others who went tonight and blogged were: Raine Lai, Simply Jean, Ian. I'm sure more will blog soon.

I recently watched the geek thriller Untraceable, where the above web site was taken from. The show follows the FBI cyber crime unit as they try to track down a crazed computer genius who kills his victims through crowdsourced voyeurism. The more people visited the site killwithme.com the faster his victims died. This started me thinking about our less extreme exhibitionism and the voyeurs who participate in the exchange. There are portions of the social media that are specifically designed around the concept of "presence" which is an invitation to volunteer voyeurism. This week, I Twittered the message:

Never go to a new job thinking what you can learn, they pay you for what you can give and how much money you can make.

and the same day a friend sent me a message on IM asking if I've changed jobs. No I haven't, I just felt it was timely advise that I've been repeating to others who were contemplating moves. Two weeks ago, I turned on the "What I'm Listening To" feature on Microsoft Messenger as I was listening to Belle & Sabastian's The Life Pursuit and immediately a friend started a conversation surprised that I listened to the same music she does and discussed how I missed their concert after I left Australia for Singapore back in 2004. I'm sure this is a common experience for you too both as a voyeur and a "victim". It intrigues me to observe how acceptable voyeurism is in today's internet culture. I'm sure there are people observing others anonymously online, but at the same time, there doesn't seem to be anymore shame in watching the exhibitionist and responding directly to him/her. Even in the show, although the viewers were protected by the anonymity of their computers, they chose to participate in a live discussion in the chat box next to the gruesome video stream as if to say "the responsibility isn't ours, you're the exhibitionist". I feel that services such as MyBlogLog, Facebook's status updates, and Twitter have made us so used to watching and being watched that voyeurism is now mutual. Is this something to worry about or something to embrace? I'm caught in the middle right now because I love Twitter and I'm all for public viewing and responses, but like I mentioned a while ago, I still dare not use Seesmic (think video Twitter) although iSight is staring right at me everytime I use my computer.

I've been invited by the PR Academy, a division of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), Singapore to be on a panel discussing the challenges of communicating in the new media environment at the 7th Annual PR Academy Conference on the 22nd of May 2008. I'm quite excited about this although MICA is a little late to the new (social?) media table. But, better late than never ya? I'm probably the youngest member of the speaking group and there's already an expectation from the organisers that my opinions will be vastly different from the rest. I don't think you can plan for a forum discussion except to speak about what I've seen and heard. I do hope that I'll be able to share something interesting at the table. I'm thinking I should bring up some examples of what's been going on in the local social media scene. Any good examples that I should be sharing?

Just grabbed VMware Fusion 2 Beta 1 off the VMware site and installed it. Immediately you can tell the menu is different, even the dock icon looks brighter (I think). What's the changelog? In summary from the VMware site:

VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 brings support for multiple displays, tools for even easier switching to VMware Fusion, experimental support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D acceleration

Although the long-awaited DirectX 9.0 support is finally out (gamers rejoice!), my favourite feature is the multi-display support. I'm glad it supports up to 10 screens although my MBP only gets the luxury of one other. Here's how its done: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gREBVWUIqps] This feature works both in Full Screen and Unity mode where Windows XP and Mac OS are "blended" together. The other thing that immediately caught my attention was the little icons at the bottom of the VM's window. These icons now give you immediate access to iSight, IR, Bluetooth, and shared folders. Fusion 1.1 only gave you access to USB, optical drive, and network. This is so much easier to use and configure. So far my installation hasn't crashed, upgrade was seamless, and I'm quite happy with Beta 1. I'm still waitinf and see if I can find some bugs. If you're thinking of trying it out even if you don't have Fusion 1.1, there's a Serial Key just for the Beta on the download page. But if you're upgrading from a purchased license, then you don't need it. Oh and if you want to switch over from Parallels or Virtual PC there's importation support. I think I just learned a new word. (Disclaimer: Although VMware is my client, this review is purely my opinion and my mucking around.)