Sri Lanka with my 75 year old mom

I've recently visited Sri Lanka with my 75 year old mum and updated the "Visit Dambulla, Sri Lanka" webpage. And I've asked my mum her thoughts after visiting Sri Lanka.

I love Sri Lanka, it has great beaches, nice waterfalls, great wildlife, interesting ruins, beautiful temples and cool highlands and tea plantations. However it does have its problems. Recently, I was in Sri Lanka in July 2014 with my mom and here is her thoughts I'd like to share so others will know if it is suitable for them to go.

1) Sri Lanka is much better now. With a highway connecting the airport to Colombo, travel time from 2.5 hours is cut to slightly over an hour.

2) Everyone is out to get your money. Within a week of travel, you can hear plenty to horror stories.

• Cab driver (or Tuk Tuk driver) never have change. A 300LKR ride becomes 1000LKR
• Driver does not recognize roads or read maps. Very often a tourist with Google Maps have to direct driver.
• Prearranged fee to airport can change. 2500LKR can become 3300LKR with a 300LKR toll on the highway and sometimes 3300LKR per passenger if passenger decides to pay more.
• Taxes and Service Charge is not shown till you get the bill
• Entry to some locations is US$30 to Tourists and less than $1 for local. (or even free)
• There is always a local menu and local price for food and things.
• Traffic is a mess, 40km trip can take 1.5 hours.

3) Service in many hotels is simply amazing. Luggages carried, rooms made with nicely folded towels, and staff happy with 100LKR tip.

4) Weather can be very bad for people not used to the tropics. Its HOT, MUGGY or RAINY. Humidity is always high and showering 3 times a day is common. On top of that, you get lots of bugs, mosquitoes and such. To make it worse, not a lot of places have airconditioning.

5) Many locations are very relaxing, the beauty of nature, amazing star gazing opportunities makes your troubles go away.

6) Quality of food is hit or miss. Buffets generally have low quality food and the spices are especially strong. May make your stomach upset. Outside Colombo and Kandy, it is hard to get options if your stomach does not agree with Sri Lankan food.

7) Tea is amazing... Simply amazing... Nothing like the ones you get overseas.

8) There is a lot to see, ruins, temples, waterfalls, beaches. And what do they have in common? LOTS OF WALKING AND STAIRS! OMG! Stairs everywhere! Wore kneeguards cushioned insoles and comfortable shoes and still have aches and pains everyday.

On the bright side, this 75 year old lady made it up Dambulla and Temple of Buddha's tooth in Kandy.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience for my mom. She liked it and enjoyed herself  but will never do it again.

-- Robin Low

Cat + Man = Batman

How to be Batman with low cost?

1) Find black cat
2) Befriend a black cat
3) Put cat over your head.

You are now Batman! (For photos)

No cats hurt in making this photo.
Caution, be gentle or be prepared to be clawed.

Popularity of Transmedia

Transmedia is gaining popularity

There is even a TEDxTransmedia in 2013

Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. It is not to be confused with traditional cross-platform media franchises, sequels or adaptations. From a production standpoint, it involves creating content that engages an audience using various techniques to permeate their daily lives. In order to achieve this engagement, a transmedia production will develop stories across multiple forms of media in order to deliver unique pieces of content in each channel. Importantly, these pieces of content are not only linked together (overtly or subtly), but are in narrative synchronization with each other. (Wiki)

Transmedia storytelling from Robin Low

In terms of digital media, I feel that the understanding Transmedia and the trends is very important and definitely a must in any movie franchise. When telling a story of several parts, after launching a successful book, understanding Transmedia can develop a fan base, crowdsourcing fan fiction and co-creating a rich world where fan can identify with is more important than merchandizing and making money, giving parts of a story away.

Imagine "Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" if you sold the merchandizing after book 1, how much of your story and brand will you have lost.

-- Robin Low

Jean Claude Van Damme is making great commercials now.

Jean Claude Van Damme makes good commercials, is it a new calling for him?

-- Robin Low

Trust, reputation and collaborative online model

The Internet business is built for trust. From Amazon to Ebay, many online businesses enable strangers to meet and trust each other for transactions. It took a long time before people embraced the Internet, making it more open and collaborative. Making transaction online relies on a lot of trust. Trust that the buyer pays and the seller actually sells the right product and ships the products that are paid for. There are many checks and balances build in place to encourage honesty and simply do what is supposed.

Trust and reputation are two interrelated concepts. We can find trust at personal level. Reputation expresses an opinion resulting from collective opinions of community members. This evaluation may lead to risks such as penalty of innovative and minority ideas, problem described as “tyranny of the majority”. (http://www.gnuband.org/files/papers/trust_it_forward_Tyranny_of_the_Majority_or_Echo_Chambers_paolo_massa.pdf) If they give each user reputation scores that take only other similar users’ opinions into account, they run the risk of becoming “echo chambers” in which like-minded people reinforce each others’ views without being open to outside perspectives. 

On Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia, perhaps, most of the webpages on the Internet, having an honor code is very important. On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the other social networking sites, you use your real profile so your friends, contacts, classmates and other acquaintances can find you and connect. Real accounts and profiles are important for online businesses to function as well. Today, more websites allow you to login using your Facebook profile and your real profile is important for many of the other services to function well. 

However, when people use fake profiles on Facebook, the whole fabric on what the Internet is built on is disrupted. Many people waste their time to maintain fake profiles just to spread hate and troll online. This behavior is very unproductive and serves absolutely no purpose -- sort of like the Nigerian Spam emails you get. Most of the people can see through the veil and ignore the trolls online that are just out to get a reaction and pick fights. 

Sadly, when a government is involved in Astroturfing and running fake accounts to "defend" their own opinions, it becomes a waste of taxpayers money. 

A property which characterizes the relationship between trust and reputation is reciprocity. The reciprocity is defined as the reciprocal exchange of assessment (favorable or not). Decrease any of these automatically conduct to the reverse effect. 

Like it or not, it is important that our society do not degrade to hate mongering and abuse, however controlling the medium, and being intolerant to bloggers critical about their policies, will only drive people to continue their conversations on other platforms and use fake IDs. 

In Singapore , although communication is more democratic today than what it was before, laws like defamation or contempt against critics are use used when the government could simply engage these parties in an debate to collaboratively find solutions to solve the problems.

Singaporeans are not stupid, they are very capable of finding solutions that work for them. There seems to be an open call for ideas, however, many good ideas are rejected by the government because it simply comes from the opposition. There are many views and opinions online, and just because they are different from the government’s view, it does not necessarily mean they are destructive, but instead it means they care about their country to comment. There are always the good, the bad and the ugly, online and in real life. Singaporeans today are better educated, and can think critically. 

To say that “satisfied people don’t go to the Internet, unhappy people do” feels like the Prime Minister has given up on engagement. It takes time to build trust and reputation but it is very easy to lose it. Sadly, there will only be more “unhappy people” as the future unveils more technology to keep more people connected – on the Internet.

-- Robin Low

Engagement and Relevance.

Many organizations, governments and companies want to get on to Social Media because they want to hear good things about their companies and perhaps get business with the help of word of mouth. However, it is important to know that even when businesses are planning and building social media programs and campaigns to try to gather more support, no matter how enthusiastic they are to create the best campaign, customers will always engage on their own time.

People go on social media to feel connected with friends and family. However, they are not going to "connect" with a brand or a business. Companies must strive to a higher purpose to design sharable experiences that deliver tangible value in return for the customers' "time, attention, endorsement and data."

Even when a customer gives a negative feedback, the feedback can be used as a learning case so other customers may not get the same negative experience. It does take time and effort to give feedback, positive or negative. For some customers, the situation can actually be saved, and resolving it transparently can win positive sentiments as well.

Take in the good and the bad.

Stay Relevant.

-- Robin Low

Social Media is the Reason Governing is Harder #Singapore

From Today Singapore where replies are disabled, showing how eager the government is listening to the citizens.

Previously, Singapore can ignore the coffee shop talks as they control and still control all forms of media. Ranked 149/179 on Press Freedom, Singapore has always struggled in winning views.

On Social Media, China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka have a lot of angry people online, and Singapore have their fair share. The fact that in many of these controlled countries with poor press freedom, views are very polarized and there are many hurtful remarks as many of these people use fake IDs.

In the US, you do get the occasional troll, however, there are a lot of constructive feedback as well.

I would say, the reasons why many people criticize about your government or your company is mostly because they do care. They want to share their views, and if you can actually share the reasoning behind your opinion, some may understand and you can win some over.

I must say the Prime Minister is trying to communicate, and I must be supportive of him trying. However, I do have some opinions to share.

Social Media being quick and real time, is actually a great opportunity for you to improve your government. If you truly want to engage, you will find that your actions and words, though gets analyzed by everyone, and critique by everyone, the bright side is that you can get instant feedback. To humanize is very important. If you reply transparently, share thoughts and confess to errors, people can see the human side and forgive. However, demonizing people who do not agree with you does not help at all.

On Social Media, we communicate. We do not wait for the best super-rationale, non-emotional and politically correct answer. It feels detached, scripted and formal. Proper engagement can gain trust and relevance. Policies can be crowd-sourced and co-created. If you want people to engage, you must listed to people, and take in both the good and bad. And most importantly, take actions that can regain the trust of citizens. (yes, even those on social media)

-- Robin Low