Cyber Imprints

In Egypt, people are clamoring for government to bring the down the prices of basic commodities like food. The Egyptians are protesting in the streets of Egyptian cities and the protesters are gaining their number via the Internet, specifically through social networking sites like Facebook.

Is answering the people's demands the answer of the Egyptian government? No. The Egyptian government decided to shut down the Internet in their country in the hope that people will calm down and the number of protesters will stop growing.

As the year progresses, governments around the world are seeing the power of the Internet, especially social media sites like Twitter and Facebook in mustering people to action. It is the Internet crowd that is the noisiest of US President Obama supporters and their noise helped him to win the White House. Also, Facebook and Twitter became instrumental in the 2010 Presidential Election and helped Noynoy Aquino win the Malacanang. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter were used to construct and destroy images of presidential candidates.

The power of the Internet is reaching the developing countries around the world and the events in Egypt shows that the Internet can be used by the people to empower themselves against their corrupt governments. The answer of authocratic and corrupt government against this new found power of the people? "Total shut down of the Internet."

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Thanks Technorati for informing me about this event.

Of the subscribers of Internet service providers (ISP) in the Philippines, who can claim that they never experienced any delay in their Internet connection? I bet that majority of Filipino Internet users experienced delays or hassles when they connect to the Internet.

As of this moment, while I type this article, I am experiencing intermittent signal on my Smart Broadband. When I managed to connect to the Internet, the loading time is agonizingly slow that I decided to stay off line for a while. Many Filipino subscribers are experiencing the same fate as I am. When you do a Google search on the local ISPs, you will encounter, more likely than not, a blog post or forum that is full of angst against the faulty service of ISPs like Smart Broadband and Globe Broadband.
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As a response to the many complaints regarding the local ISPs, the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) drafted a memorandum. Based on the draft memorandum, NTC wants the ISPs to issue a minimum guaranteed speed for their service. Currently, the ISPs only publicize the maximum speed (like in Smart Broadband, which is up to 1Mbps). However, during my one year subscription, it is very rare for me to see a 1 Mbps speed for my Internet connection.

I welcome this move by the NTC, because this will force the ISPs in making sure that their subscribers will get the Internet speed that is close to the maximum speed that they advertised. This will reduce the number of angry posts on forums and blogs. This will be a big help for many Filipino Internet users who rely on the Internet to get extra income like bloggers and viewers of pay-to-click ads.

However, the point of contention of those against the NTC's draft memorandum is the proposed bandwidth cap for every user. This means that a user will be capped for their bandwidth usage. Thus, if the NTC says that all residential users should be capped up to 1 GB of bandwidth usage, then users will be not allowed to go beyond the 1 GB limit. Thus, if you are bit torrent addict and you already downloaded 1 GB of data, then your ISP will not allow you to download more torrents, unless you pay an additional fee for the exceeded bandwidth.

Yugatech is in support of the draft memorandum, while other bloggers like Cocoy of POC denounced the bandwidth cap. I suggest that you read their articles to decide on which side are you on.

As for me, I just want the local ISPs, specifically Smart Broadband, to improve their system and to build better infrastructures for their Internet services. I really hate it when I had to wait for a long time for a plain HTML page to load. I hate it when I have to wait for a long time for the pictures on my blogs to be uploaded. I hate it when the broadband signal is so intermittent that I had to stay offline, lest I punch my PC monitor.

In the NTC's draft memorandum, I would like them to implement the minimum guaranteed speed so as to make the ISPs improve their infrastructures. I have qualms about the bandwidth cap because it might limit my activities in the Internet. However, Yugatech mentioned about the abuse of the current system and why the cap is needed.

Further study is needed and (like Cocoy had said) we must look at South Korea to see how their system can be applied in the Philippines. However, as of the moment, while the issue is not yet resolved, I want to see my Smart Bro connection live up to its claim of up to 1 Mps speed, as advertised.
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As a blogger and as an Internet addict, I have many accounts on many social networking sites. I have an account in Twitter, Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, and Plurk, not to mention my e-mail addresses and other website for blogging and other activities. The sheer number of accounts is overwhelming especially if you are like me who have two accounts for Facebook and Friendster and four e-mail addresses. I have a personal account and an account for blogging in Facebook. I have an e-mail for blogging, an e-mail for work, and another e-mail address for personal matters.

Managing these accounts poses some problems and one of these problems is if you want to open those accounts simultaneously. In your browser (be it Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer), you can only open one Facebook, for example. Even if you open another tab, it would only show the account

So how can you open your multiple accounts simultaneously?

The only trick is to have more than browser in your computer.

I, for instance, have two browsers in my computer. These are Firefox and Google Chrome. I open one of my Facebook and e-mail accounts in one browser and then I open my other accounts in Firefox.

There are also other browsers out there if you want to open three, four, or higher number of accounts simultaneously. All you have to do is to download those browsers. Here are the browsers that I usually use (click on the link to go to the download page): Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera.

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One Pinoy blogger lamented that his grandfather left his memories through the letters that he wrote and through the many pictures of his that he left behind for his children and grandchildren. Now, in our age, we will be remembered not only through our handwritten memories or the still pictures that we had but also through our activities in the Internet. They will remember us through our blogs post that we uploaded. They will watch our videos that we uploaded in Youtube. They can read our tweets from the archives of US Congress of Library. We could also continue existing through our Facebook accounts.

That is how powerful our Digital Footprint is. It is as tangible as our handwritten letters and printed pictures. It is more widespread thanks to capability of the Internet to share information.

Our digital footprint leaves a great mark on our legacy. Because of this, we must always consider how will our grandchildren perceive us if they see the pictures and videos that we uploaded, read the tweets and blog post that we share. It is will also be the basis of other people to know your personality. By just searching your name in Google, they will mine many information based on your digital footprints that the search engine showed.

When we are surfing the net, we have the tendency to forget how our online activities it will affect our life. Many ignorant rant about their life for the people to see. Some people can’t get jobs because companies unearthed their negative digital footprints.

The tip here is for you to be mindful of your online activities and make sure that your digital footprint is clean. When you are online, you should always consider the nature of the Internet when it comes to coverage and permanence.

Coverage of the Internet and Its Effect to Your Digital Footprint

The Internet is as vast as the ocean and because of its vastness; people tend to be lost in it. Aside from being vast, the exchange of communication in the Internet is fast. In just a matter of seconds, the information you posted may spread to other websites and will be known by hundreds of people. Because of this nature of the Internet, many people’s personal information scattered fast. An example of this is the sex scandal videos that easily spread throughout the Internet. When you are online, do consider this nature and be mindful so that information that you want to be seen by other people is safe.

Permanence of the Internet

Digital footprints may last longer than the person because of Internet’s nature of permanence. Once your information went out to the Internet, many websites will copy that information and many people will download that information. Thus, it is possible that what I posted on this blog today might be seen by my great grandchildren even I am already for years.

Many people were victimized by their own ignorance to the Internet. As a precaution, be always mindful with what you write, post, and share in the Internet so that your digital footprint will not be your shame in the coming years.