cca proposal ed. 2/revised 2

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CCA Proposal for e2i Club

Prepared by: Lee Kian Yang Benny

November 21, 2011

e2i Club Tel 9654 0231 [email protected] Websitehttps://sites.google.com/site/e2iclub/
https://sites.google.com/site/e2iclub/https://sites.google.com/site/e2iclub/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Overview

Introduction

We propose the creation of a new Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) within the Clubs & Societies of Ngee Ann Polytechnic,focused on New Media. The goal of the new e2i Club is:

To foster, promote, and communicate high quality research in the science, design, engineering, technology,

educational applications, and culture of New Media.

Any proposal to create a new CCA needs to address several issues. First and foremost, since the creation of a CCA is, in

effect, a large stamp of approval for a new academic community, there needs to be some justification for the significance,

and long term prospects for this line of inquiry. Next, since several CCAs have focus areas that may appear similar to that of

e2i Club, the unique, novel niche of e2i Club needs to be established. Finally, pragmatic aspects of the new CCA need to be

addressed, such as its proposed activities, and initial slate of officers. These issues are addressed in the sections below.

Research on New Media

(Adapted from Wikipedia, Yahoo News, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Gizmodo and Mashable)

New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media

holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user

feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. Another important promise of new

media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content. What

distinguishes new media from traditional media is the digitizing of content into bits. There is also a dynamic aspect of content

production, which can be done in real time, but these offerings lack standards and have yet to gain traction.

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is an example, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-

links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and formation of a participant community of editors

and donors for the benefit of non-community readers. Facebook is an example of the social media model, in which most

users are also participants.

Most technologies described as "new media" are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable,

dense, compressible, and interactive. Some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer

games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs.

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Since its emergence, New Media has played a very important role in many parts of the world. It is used for social, advertising

and even political purposes. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong highlighted the need to use New Media, amongst

other things, during the 2008 National Day Rally. The incumbent President of America Barack Obama mobilized public sup-

port, and engaged with young voters who were disaffected with the political process, using Facebook and Youtube in his

2008 Presidential Election.

New Media also played a crucial role during occurrences of crisis. When the March 11 Japanese Tohoku Earthquake and

Tsunami occurred, many mobile phone networks were unable to cope with the immediate aftermath of the crisis. Websites,

powered by broadband connections, became a lifeline for many when mobile phone networks and some telephone landlines

collapsed in the hours following the 8.9 scale earthquake.

For many, Twitter, the microblogging site and Facebook, became the easiest, quickest and most reliable way of keeping in

touch with relatives as well as providing emergency numbers and information to those in stricken areas.

Even the US State Department resorted to using Twitter to publish emergency numbers, and informing Japanese residents in

America how to contact families back in Asia.

Skype, the phone services that operates over the internet, and Google, the information website, also became invaluable

resources for those searching for missing relatives.

Many parts of the world today rely a lot on New Media platforms. Twitter, according to a news report on 15 July 2011 by The

Guardian, has around 56 million accounts opened and an estimated 21 million users actively publish each month. Its Chi-

nese version, Sina Weibo, has 140 million users and 50 million active monthly users. According to a statistics report from

Nielsen dated 2 August 2010, websites like Facebook and Twitter account for 22.7% of time spent on the web. It also

shows that the degree to which social networking is displacing other forms of communication, with email as a percentage of

online time plunging from 11.5% to 8.3% from June 2009 to June 2010. However, email use on mobile is still on the rise -

from 37.4% to 41.6% - presumably as a users continue to migrate to smartphones from feature phones.

With the rise of many New Media platforms, teenagers have started to develop software applications. In year 2009, a nine

year old boy Lim Ding Wen from Singapore, developed an iPhone application called the Doodle Kids. It was uploaded onto

the Apple App Store and has attracted over 4000 downloaders in just two weeks. Recently, another boy from America by

the name of Thomas Suarez released several apps on the Apple App Store, namely Earth Fortune, Bustin Jieber and many

more. He taught himself programming basics in Python, C and Java, then took up Apples SDK and Xcode. Thomas has

also created his own company, CarrotCorp.

New Media is evidently very significant in current times and nevertheless growing in importance, impacting our daily lives. We

must, therefore, anticipate its changes and adapt to make the best out of it.

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Relation to Existing CCAs

Since New Media overlaps with many core areas of IT and Business, we expect and encourage collaboration with multiple

CCAs.

We are currently looking into a collaboration with a Special Interest Group (SIG) under the School of Infocomm Technology

(IT), namely the Overflow SIG. We would like to invite them over our section training sessions to share knowledge about IT,

in particular, web and application/ software programming. This collaboration is an effort to better facilitate our members in

the learning of programming.

Programming is a fundamental component of e2i Club, however, it is not the main focus of the CCA. Hence, the idea ofbeing structured as a subsidiary of any other IT related CCA (e.g. Computer Club) does not come into picture. The focus of

e2i Club is New Media, and programming only acts as a tool for our members to create products of New Media.

There is also an element of Business, in particular, social or internet marketing. Social or internet marketing strategies are

only deployed when the CCA wants to publicize the product it has created. Again, it is therefore not the main focus of e2i

Club and we do not wish to exist as a subsidiary of any Business related CCA such as the NP Student Entrepreneurship

Club.

Products e2i Club aims to create

The CCA aims to create virtual products that fall under the category of New Media. They will either be in the form of a web,

or an application (software), or a combination of the web or application. Web refers to any platform created on the World

Wide Web (WWW), it may be in the form of a website. There will be three main stages the CCA will undergo:

Stage ONE

Members of e2i Club join a specialist section in either Design for Media or Programming (Web/ Applications) to be trained in

their respective field of specialization.

Stage TWO

With members equipped with skills, the CCA works with organization such as social enterprises and educational institutes tocreate websites or simple applications.

Stage THREE

The CCA has built its reputation over time and is capable of developing its own applications and websites. The CCA

generates its own projects to create useful tools with a social cause in it.

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Proposed Activities

I. Normal CCA Curriculum

The e2i Club will only have one training session for its members, held every Friday at 5pm. Members will be grouped into

teams to complete projects assigned.

II. Symposium

As a CCA embarking on the concept of New Media, we will invite guests to share their knowledge of the different aspects of

New Media through seminars.

III. Special Projects

The e2i Club will approach social enterprises, institutions or organization to collaborate with them on projects. Members

identified for their talent in specialized fields will come together as a team to complete the projects and better understand the

practicability of New Media Convergence. The e2i Club, if established, will collaborate with the NP Co-Operatives to build to

an e-Commerce website for in preparation for its future operation plans.

IV. Competitions

The CCA aims to promote New Media in diverse ways. Within the CCA, intra-CCA contests will be held to foster a fun and

competitive environment for members to research more on New Media. Through proactive learning, this will help them

maximize their potential in the fields of Design for Media, Programming or Internet Marketing. The CCA will also host inter-

school competitions to increase awareness of New Media Convergence in our current society.

Initial Officers

The initial set of officers is proposed to be:

Appointment Holder Full Name School/ Division

President Lee Kian Yang Benny HMS

Vice-President Lee Kai Min Frank SOE

Administration Manager Tricia Tan Yu Jing HMS

Operations Manager

Public Relations Manager Chen Huiting HMS

Secretary

Treasurer Lim Shi Peng HMS

Section Leader (Media)

Section Leader (Programming)

Public Relations Officer

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Initial Memberships

We have collected the names of more than 15 people who have indicated they would join an e2i Club once it is approved.

These names were collected in two ways: in-person, as well as via online solicitation via an e2i Club Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Facebook Page and its website (https://sites.google.com/site/e2iclub/). To be placed on this list, the person needed to

provide their full name and NP Student Card Number to the official NP CCA proposal form.

Questions

If you have any questions or concerns about this proposal, please contact Benny Lee ([email protected]) and Frank

Lee ([email protected]).

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