Online gamer stabs another for selling his online weapon.

Supposedly, A & B jointly won a ''dragon sabre" in an online game & lent it to C, who promptly sold it for US$870. Which begs the question: why would anyone lend someone (least of all a competitor) something that valuable without having at least some sort of guarantee?

But I digress... What has this article got to do with my research anyway? Well, consider the following facts.

"A went to the police to report the "theft" but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law"

essentially, this means that C was stabbed to death over something which isn't even recognized as property by the law. 1's & 0's generated by a game server somewhere actually have a value of $870? Even enough to kill for? Why?

Which brings up the idea that value is a human construct. Cost can be measured in monetary terms, but value? Thats a totally different basket of (insert preferred seafood here). Lets take the purchaser of the dragon sabre as an example. The actual cost to him/her is US$870(Surprise Surprise). What did the buyer receive? Well, a bunch of 1's & 0's stored on a game server Somewhere which can be accessed when the buyer feels like it. The value derived isn't that easy To quantify Though. the enjoyment & fun derived from gleefully murdering other online gamers can probably be summed up in a parody of the advertisement:

• · Setting up new game account - $65

• · Purchase Dragon Sabre online - $870

• · Killing your irritating neighbour in an online game - PRICELESS

Value, dear readers, is something exceedingly difficult to grasp.
Which is something I'll probably elaborate on further as I foresee plenty of long bus trips in the near future.

Podcasting and Skypecasting

Having picked up the idea of pocasting from mrbrown's website, CNet introduced me to a new phenomenon-skypecasting. Apparently, certain skype users have been using skype To record "skypecasts" which they then distribute using the skype network. While this may sound fun, it means that somebody could be recording those calls you made on the net without having to go to the trouble of physically tapping your phone line. It gets worse if the other party has paid for skype's net-phone service that allows calls to regular phones. While having someone tape your conversations is nothing new, not everyone owns a telephone recording device. A computer? Now we're seeing a jump in numbers. Invasion of privacy it may not be, but the next time I get a skype call I just might not answer. Anyone up for a nice old-fashioned FTF (Face 2 Face) conversation over a kopi ?

Results of the Poster Design Competition

Oh well, thought I'd write about the URECA experience.
Dinner wasn't too bad, you can see all the NBS poster designers plus Carol and Joseph below. (Guess which one's me? haha...)

The NBS Poster Designers at the Appreciation Dinner

Well... I managed a 32nd Position! Not too bad considering the prize is a $250 phone plus $125 cash for Prof Lee Gilbert. And its out of 108 entries too.
And yes and you can see I've finally managed to get pictures up. Picasa2 and hello bloggerbot are great programs, recommended anytime. Mobile blogging on a PDA is great, but these 2 programs take the html editing hassle out of everything. Just a small comment though.
#1. If you publish directly from Hello, the time will be the default server time and not your local time.

#2. You'll have to get back to blogspot in your browser to edit any posts or they'll just end up as photos.
Ah well, more on that another time

Convergence

So yes here I am again blogging. At the MOELC (Ministry of Education Language Centre) where there's no wireless network, so saving this stuff into memory's going to have to suffice for now. Just read an avantgo cnet article on convergence with respect to the gaming market in the shape of Sony's new PSP. Supposedly, it brings convergence to a whole new level, saving pocket space by integrating games and media into one device. With built-in wireless networking capability, theoretically there's so much more the PSP can do. However, the article closed off by noting a barrrer to adoption in the form of Sony's proprietary media format - UMD. To watch movies on the PSP, users will have to pay about US$20 because the standard DVD is not supported. Which brings to mind this: what do users really want from their converged devices? Perhaps its because I stay in Singapore where commute time rarely if ever exceeds 3 minutes. In larger countries where commute time is longer, this could be a great device. However, there are a few problems which might crop up. Battery life for one. If a converged device has a battery life of 5 hours, would you accept that 5 hours of battery life from your handphone? I think not but there are always exceptions. Secondly, just try watching a movie on a crowded bus/train...

Mobility vs. Privacy

Had the chance to talk to a few KPMG partners over high tea today, and the topic turned to blackberries. Apparently, most of them were happy with working & clearing their emails while on vacation. This allowed them the freedom not to have to go back to the office on Sunday to clear their 300+ emails. Surprisingly, none minded having their vacation interrupted by work. Such people apparently place a very high value on mobility. However, two concerns popped up. firstly there was the issue of email addiction. Some would reply to emails even in the middle of a meeting. Second was the issue of poor decisions being made due to the lack of time spent on deliberating on important issues. Which brings the question: Do we really want to be able to do everything on the go?

''Fun"

Ah yes. here I am with PDA blogging again even though holding a pathetically small stylus is enough to give my hand cramps. So why do it? well, I guess its because its fun. Yup. sitting in one place and giving myself an increased risk of carpal tunnel syndrome is actually fun. Not to mention the headache which comes with trying to set up the PDA for use with the campus wireless LAN. which led me to realise one thing which I should have and did already pick up from sitting in on all those classes. Different people have different ideas of fun. To me this is fun because I get to fiddle around with a new gadget. What has this got to do with research? Well, quite alot actually. When your research is for the design of a mobile digital lifestyle and you find that fun factor significantly & highly influences intent, different people having different ideas of fun while to be expected, can be a real pain in the posterior. Oh well, more on that another time...

Convergence & a PDA

After much effort, I've finally managed to set up my pda for Blogger. So yes its a test blog of sorts, but it gives me the chance to blog some of my difficulty in using this mobile data device. First of all The input. transcriber is pretty cool but still there are errors. the learning curve's pretty steep too, had trouble connecting it to the school network. For the moment its still a pretty basic device though, Pocket PC 2003 running on a Toshiba e750. Place of Purchase? it fair '03. why a pure PDA and not a converged device? Firstly the battery life. with wireless LAN turned on, the battery life for this gadget lasts 5 hours. If ny phone battery lasted only 5 hours, I'd probably get another phone. I only use the ppc now and then anyway. Also. this short passage Took me almost an hour to write. Data entry's going to be a problem I think. Hand's cramping from holding the stylus for too long, so I think I'll stop here for now. More thoughts on this later...

"Attempting" to explain the regression

So yes. Here we are with a regression table and not much else. So I'll attempt to translate it into simple english.

techlit:
For every 1 point increase in Technological Literacy, Intent will increase by 0.235.
Probably not surprising here, for those people who are the most comfortable with new technology are probably more at ease with (and hence more willing to adopt) new technology.

actuse:
For every 1 point increase in Actual Usage of GPRS, Intent will DEcrease by 0.414.
Seems strange at first until you consider that 3G currently seems to be only the better version of GPRS. User needs are probably well met enough (at present) by current GPRS speeds which are adequate for the download of materials like Ringtones and Wallpapers.
This suggests that in order to create new demand, service providers will probably have to create totally new behaviours. (This is substantiated by the fact that Singtel is pushing video calls while Starhub is pushing EPL action live on mobile phones. Nobody really knows where M1 is going at the moment :x)

Perceived Behavioural Control
Every 1 point increase in pbc will supposedly lead to a 0.862 increase in intent to adopt 3G services. The largest increase so far, pbc seems to be the factor with the most potential to affect adoption. However, increasing pbc isn't that easy. Factors like education and aggressive promotion will probably have to be considered.

Social Interactive
Every 1 point increase in SI will lead to a 0.339 DEcrease in intent. This suggests that people think 3G isn't a service meant to be used for interacting with others. Probably reasonable if you consider that people are always concerned about the "loss of human touch" when it comes to computers.

Last but Not Least: Perceived Difficulty of Learning
Surprisingly, a 1 point increase in pdl will lead to a 0.645 increase in intent. This means that the more difficult people think learning 3G is, the more they intend to adopt it. Don't ask me why, haven't a clue. Perhaps the prof will have some ideas on that when we meet tomorrow.

New Work New Problems...

Regrettably, I now have to go back to data analysis of the data collected during the survey.

So far, from the data there has been a highly significant correlation between perceived difficulty of learning(pdl) and the perceived difficulty of use(pdu). The r value was also high at r>0.8

However, a problem arose when a regression against intent was done.
According to the regression, increasing pdl would increase intent by 1.095 (sig=0.05)
However, increasing pdu would DECREASE intent by 0.555 (sig=0.2)
I'm currently very tempted to just disregard pdu altogether since it is not significant even at the 10% level.

Giving in to temptation and regressing intent on ONLY the factors significant at 0.05 level,
Some new facts emerged.

Variable	Beta	Significance
techlit	.235	less than .001
actual usage	-.414	.002
Perceived Behavioural Control	.862	less than .001
Social Interactive Needs	-.339	.013
Perceived Difficulty of Learning	.645	.001

Revelations...

Yesterday was one of those days where I was reminded that not everyone thought like me.
One of the people I know (lets call him Mr. X) has recently purchased a 3G phone (Sony Ericsson Z1010) via yahoo auctions.
I'll try to "borrow" it from him to bring to MB362 on Wednesday.

And here's the best part.
There's no 3G SIM CARD! Even though Singtel has officially launched its 3G services and the price of making a video call is the same as the price of making a voice call (for now at least).
The amazing thing was that he just upgraded his SIM card yesterday from a 2.5G one to... well, a newer 2.5G SIM card. The reason given? Singtel requires people to pay for upgrading their sim cards to 3G UNLESS consumers purchase a 3G phone from them.

Now here's one of the most idiotic barriers to adoption I've ever come across (to me at least).
SALES STAFF.
Here they are trying to get people to adopt 3G,
a loyal customer of many years tries to upgrade his SIM card, and they tell him he can't do it UNLESS he pays a fee?
The final result was that he just continued using 2.5G service on a 3G phone.
When this researcher asked him why not just pay the one time fee and upgrade, the answer was that he didn't need 3G services. The reason he bought the phone was because of a larger screen with more visible words.

Oh well, to each his own...

Poster Design

Alright alright this dosen't really have that much to do with the research process, but it did help me put most of the stuff back in perspective (I was pretty lost by then).
So the poster was divided into:

Research Qn: What will stimulate adoption of new technology (in particular 3G?)
I hope I got this much right at least.

What we knew...This was mostly about the rudimentary literature review I did (starting with Hilda's work and working on from there)

What we now know... This section was mostly on the results of the research process (i.e. Surveys which were conducted with the MBA groups and biz minor undergrads.)

Where do we go next?
This was quite a skimpy section with mostly suggestions on what to do with the pilot study data.
suggestions included focus groups to explain the results (but I still don't know how to conduct a really good focus group yet) or surveys with a larger sample size for greater reliability

And yes the poster is available.
A1 sized at
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home2003/chua0015/ureca/A1poster.ppt

Powerpoint size (slightly lacking in details) at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home2003/chua0015/ureca/poster.ppt

Unfortunately, Powerpoint at A1 size isn't exactly easy to use. There was quite alot to sacrifice between readability and content. squeezing too much content would make the poster look really crowded while not having enough words would mean that the poster was not informative enough.
I did the best I could and while it looked pretty ok on a computer screen, I have no idea how the poster will turn out once its printed. I hope its good enough for $20 at least...