There are three types of corporate blogs: Internal Blogs, External Blogs and CEO Blogs. Internal Blogs can be accessed through the corporation’s intranet and can be view by their employees and participate in the discussion. External Blogs is published to the public for idea sharing and to announce new products or services launch by the corporation. They also let public to comments and posts on their products and services, so they can understand the need of consumers. Corporate blogging has become a way for the company to react with it customers and build a strong brand recognition. More explanations at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog

To start a corporate blogging:

1. Hire the right person for the job

It is important to hire an expertise in blogging to manage the company blog. This is the best solution for most companies since they might not have more resources to devote to run a blog.

2. Plan the blog path way

Besides just creating the blog and throw up some post, company should have clear plan on the blog such as how often to post and the topic to discuss.

3. Design the blog to match the corporate site

Corporate company that work on branding need to create recognition on their blog. The blog design should be easily recognize to it corporate sites. Some company that use wild themes and did not have a sort of visual link between their blog and their corporate sites fail after implement the blog.

4. Use an RSS management system

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed in most blogs will allow readers to receive instant updates whenever the companies publish new post. The common RSS feed manager like Feedburner will help company to see the most popular views posts to the ones that don’t receive much traffic. Corporation need to have extra information at their fingertips.

5. Promote the blog

Use social networking sites to build the corporate blog readership.

Benefit of corporate blogging:

1. Build customers relationship

Comments post on the blog, forums, news products or services released and other directions user interaction will provide customers and investors to make their voices ahead. This will increase confidence in company and keeping company connected with their customers. It is a eay way to boost corporation business to new heights in customer satisfaction.

2. Earned investors trust

Relationship between bloggers and customer’s comments will help company investors to have more confidence to invest in the company. With the trust, company will gain a valuable asset to company growth.

3. Beat the press releases

Nowadays, everyone will read the blogs.More users that interested with the company business will watch the company blog rather than the company press releases. Hence, by making any announcements via the blog posts will spread the information faster.

4. Marketing medium

Blog also can help to market the company services and products. News products and services can be posts to the company blog forum to advertise it and make known to customers.

5. Consumer feedback

Consumers are allowed to express their opinion and feedback about the company services. So, the companies need to be able address consumers need as they arise. Concern about what the consumer saying and act fast to their problems will make the company get a great research opportunity.

refer link:

http://www.buildify.com/corporate-blogging-made-easy/

http://www.buildify.com/5-tips-on-corporate-blogging-for-companies/

http://www.buildify.com/5-reasons-to-start-corporate-blogging-now/

E-learning

One of the universities in Malaysia which implement e-learning is Open University Malaysia (OUM), incorporated in August 2000. There is no campus, teach through email but have tutorials during certain Sunday.

The E-learning application in University Technology Malaysia (UTM) is the integration between network learning and conventional learning. The course content, lecture notes, communication tools, quizzes, tests as well as the assignments can be accessed through the university computer network by using this kind of system.

Furthermore, University Science Malaysia (USM), University of Malaya (UM) also have implement e-learning as well.

There are some pros of E-learning from the student perspective:

(1)   Reduction of time and cost. Reduces travel time and cost for student.

(2)   Flexibility. Students are able to adjust the time, location, content, and speed of learning in accordance with their own personal schedules. It convenient for student access anytime, anywhere.

(3)   Preferences. Students are allowed to select learning materials which meet their interest, level of knowledge and what they need to know in order to perform more effectively in their particular activity.

(4)   Updated and consistent material. Student can offer just-in-time access to timely information. Those materials are more consistent since variations between teachers are eliminated.

(5)   Fear-free environment. It can facilitate learning for students who may not wish to join a face-to-face group discussion. It for whose reluctance to expose their lack of knowledge in public.

Nevertheless, there also have some cons of E-learning from student perspective:

(1)   Lack of face-to-face interaction and campus life. Lack of human touch. Intellectual stimulation through instruction in class with “live” instructor cannot fully duplicate.

(2)   Computer literacy. It cannot extend to students who are not computer literate.

(3)   Student retention. There is difficult for students to study by themselves since there is no physical attendance. Students have to be self-motivated, responsible for their own learning and have good time management skills. Furthermore, without human feed back may difficult to keep student mentally engaged and enthusiastic over a long period of time.

Related link:

http://www.oum.edu.my/portal/index.php?op=view&m=3&page=1

http://mirmsc.com/whitepaper_elearn.htm#

The vision of Electronic Government is to allow the government, businesses and citizens working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. It aims to deliver services to the people of Malaysia and become more responsive to the needs of its citizens. It helps to enhance the relationship and quality of interaction between the government of Malaysia and it’s citizens.

There are 7 pilot projects under the Electronic Government Flagship Application of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC):

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)

• It is an online system that monitors the entire lifecycle of national programs such as from project application to approval to implementation, mid-term review and completion.

2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

• HRMIS is an integrated, technology enabled Human Resource Management Information System for the Malaysian Public Service, incorporating Global Best Practices in HR that would enable the Public Service to successfully deal with the Challenges of the K-Economy.

3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)

• It includes powerful document and office management solution that enables users to manage their office environment effectively and efficiently. It is fully web-based and has been customized based on local developed package, DRDok.

4. Electronic Procurement (EP)

• It is an electronic procurement system that enables suppliers to sell goods and services to the government through the Internet. Suppliers advertise their goods, present their pricing, process orders and deliveries on the World Wide Web.

5. Electronic Services (E-Services)

• E-Services enables the users to conduct transactions with government agencies, such as the Road Transport Department (RTD) and private utility companies such as Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) through various convenient channels like the eServices kiosks and internet. Users can now conduct transactions by themselves without queuing, traffic jams or bureaucratic hassles.

6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)

• ELX is one stop-centre for labor market information, as supervised by the Ministry of Human Resource to enable employers and job seekers to communicate on the same platform. It provides an effective center of labor market information and references and involves effective and integrated job matching process

7. E-Syariah

• It is a case management system that integrates the processes related to management of cases for the Syariah Courts. It aims to improve the quality of services of the Syariah Courts and the productivity and efficiency of the management of the Syariah courts throughout the country.

myGovernment

- it acts as the one-stop source of Malaysian government information and services for the citizens. This website provides us directory of government information and services that includes news, messaging, polling and e-transaction center.

MyEG

- MyEG Services Berhad is a concessionaire for the Malaysian E-Government MSC Flagship Application. It is a service provider for the E-Services component essentially provides the electronic link between the government and citizens or businesses. It
provides the Malaysian public a single point of contact between the government and the people it serves. Besides, it enables Malaysians to dynamically interact with numerous agencies within the Federal, State and the Local Government machinery providing services ranging from information searches to licence applications.

Citizen’s adoption strategies

1. Awareness

• Government can launch various programs or make advertisement to increase the people’s knowledge of e-Government project and the availability of electronic services online

2. Trust in government and the trust in internet

• The government should make sure that the information provided to its citizens is always accurate, relevant, timeliness, updated and completed. Besides, the technology that supports the services is advanced and secured to protect its citizens’personal data.

3. Compatibility

• Innovation or application used must be compatible with values, experiences and needs of citizens. The ease of use and compatibility allow citizens to interact  organizations, businesses, and government using the Internet.

Additional links:

http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm

http://www.malaysia.gov.my/EN/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.malaysia.gov.my/EN/Relevant%20Topics/IndustryInMalaysia/Business/ICT/MSC/Pages/MSC.aspx

http://www.myeg.com.my/

Some of the things highlighted in the new list of rules includes:

• All cyber cafes have to be closed by midnight daily.
• Cyber cafes are only allow to operate on the ground floor of buildings
• Operators are not allowed to use tinted glass windows and the cafe must be able to seen from the outside.
• Kids below the age of 12 need to be accompanied by parents/guardian and are only allowed to stay till 10pm.
• They’re banned from other co-business activities eg games, music, publications with negative elements
• Cigarettes and alcohol cannot be sold or consumed at cafe.
• Operators must keep a register to record the entry and departure time of patrons. (Apparently, students have been skipping school opting for the cyber cafe instead)

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/8/nation/21760296&sec=nation

However, there have been mixed rivews regading this issue as some customers treats cybercafe as a hangout place and for relaxation purposes whereas some welcomed the new rules as there have been robbery cases.  It might also affect the business for operators but some say customers left before midnight.  In the same month, police went undercover to detect gambling facilities.

KUALA LUMPUR, 24 Dis -- A tractor is used to disposed computerized gambling machines at the Kampung Baru Subang police station. Pix: Azman Firdaus

A month later, there have been an operation where 80 computer sets are seized from two cybercafes by a  joint operation by police and the Klang Municipal Council (MPK).  Local police is determined to enforced the rule and for the past year, lots of raiding operations have been carried out. Recently, 29 students from  three schools around Bandar Baru Selayang and Taman Sri Gombak are detained from 4 cybercafes in a raid. Moreover, 338 cybercafes have been sealed by local authority in Selang.

“With the reviewed guidelines, we will be very strict on the illegal operators who make up 80% to 90% of the industry players in all cities and municipalities in the state,” he said, adding that the operators would be given a grace period of three months to set things right or face the music.

In spite of that, The Star newspaper reporter found out that 90 out of 120 cybercafes in Petaling Jaya flouted regulations and had their licences revoked recently by the local council. Not only that, only 33 cyber cafes in the city are licensed while more than 300 are unlicensed.

“The maximum fine is RM1,000 but that can be easily paid off by the operators to get the computers back and operate again as normal the next morning. If the council was given the right to seal their premises, the impact would be stronger,” councillor Richard Yeoh said.

Given the outrageous facts, I do not find it surprising as a real scenario is happening in front of me.  The cybercafe in front of Utar, did not follow the newly implemented guidelines. It is not operated in the lower ground, using tinted glass window, kids below 12 entering freely without checking  and computer games installed in every computer. This shows that the new guidelines are not being followed closely. It is difficult to tackle the random blooms of cybercafes throughout the country and with Malaysian’s attitude of not following the rules that governs us  makes it that much harder to stop the it.

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2009/6/25/technology/20090625143323&sec=technology

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/4/7/north/3643199&sec=north

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/3/14/central/3476094&sec=central

In Malaysia the most common pre-paid cash card is Touch’n Go that been use to pay toll at highway and pay for public transportation like KTM, LRT and Rapid KL in Klang Valley. Touch ‘n Go also can be use at selected parking sites, theme park and retail purchase for fast food industry. This function make easy to consumers, since they don’t need to wait long and queue just to make the transaction.

Other pre-paid cash card that has the almost same function as Touch ‘n Go are Octopus Card, Pre-paid vista cash card, EZ-link card and Smart Trip card. All the pre-paid cash cards just mention are used outside Malaysia. Octopus Card has been use in Hong Kong for a long period of time to transfer electronic payment, pay for all public transport, parking, fast food restaurants, at shopping complexes and other convenience store. EZ-link card first used in Singapore to pay the public transportation, but now it can be use at health care centre, government services, food industry and gaming. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) installs and operates a new smart card based fare collection system, known as Smart Trip card. This card is use for payment for all monorails and metrobuses in Washington.

Others Application of Prepaid Cash Cards for Consumers

1. Pay the bills online – pay rental, cell phone bills, make hotel reservation, car payment

2. Shopping – can shop anywhere as long as the using of the card been accepted by the shop. So consumers don’t need bring a lot of money  go out.

3.  Travel card – This provide traveler to carry funds in safer way. Traveler can withdraw the funds at ATM that access funds to local currency. It also use to paid the goods purchases and services rendered at millions of participating merchants.

4. Health care – Its provide easy access to healthcare funds and use to pay  for co-pays at the medical center and pharmacies for approved purchases and services received.

5. Transfer funds – can transfers money through electronic whether online or offline. Some also can transfer money between two card and via bank transfers.

6. Buy petrol at the pump

7. For people with poor credit record and young children

My refer to following link for more information:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/prepaid-cards/guide/

1. You’re earning many bonuses from using the credit card. For examples, you’re able to get more vacations because of the frequent flyer miles that you earn for everyday purchases. Sometimes, you’ll think that is well worth because there were only the small financing charges for every time you use the card.

2. Your credit card is the emergency fund. You just use your credit card when there was in emergency circumstances and you’ll find the money to pay it of whenever the bill comes in.

3. You can buy whatever you want now. You’ll be able to pay it off later. You will pay the credit card issuer after few months but you can enjoy the things you buy now.

4. Everyone has credit card debt, so what’s wrong with yours? Using credit card are so popular now, and there have so many people have credit card debt, so you only think that you just fitting with everyone else.

5. Spending is your comfort activity. You enjoy the feeling of spending. You can pay it off later but you can enjoy greatly spending now.

6. You don’t know how credit cards work. All the legalese about “minimum finance charges” and “revolving balance” just flat out confuse you.

There are so many causes of credit card debts which are discuss above but there still have many techniques to prevent it:

1. Manage your finance by determining your monthly income and needed expenses. If you have some savings then you avoid having to put large amounts of debt on a credit card in times of a crisis.

2. Read the fine print. Try to spend little time to read the fine print in order to understand everything from your interest rate and fees to how to earn rewards and how long of a grace period you have. 

3. Pay off the smaller balances first. It will take less time to repay and you’ll feel sense of satisfaction when you have actually completed your goal. This will increase your confidence to settle the higher balances.

4. Cut up your cards so that you are not tempted to use them. Only save one card for emergencies. 

5.Pay double the minimum payment. The minimum payment usually pays just enough for you to cover the interest and pays down a little balance. Therefore, pay extra if you can afford in order to pay off your balances more quickly.  

6. Avoid extra expenses. Buy the necessary things only so as to avoid extra expenses and decrease your credit card debts.

 Related link:

http://www.nodebtplan.net/2008/11/10/10-great-reasons-to-have-credit-card-debt/

http://www.nodebtplan.net/2008/11/10/10-great-reasons-to-have-credit-card-debt/

http://www.mozdex.com/prevent-credit-card-debt/

http://rapid-debt-reducer.blogspot.com/

One of the system of mobile payment in Malaysia is mobile money. Mobile money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed as an alternative to solve the problems created by cash, and credit cards. It allows shoppers to make payments wirelessly for the purchases and services immediately at anytime, anywhere by using only a mobile phone with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service) without being physically present at the store. To enjoy the benefits of mobile payments, users have to register and open an account with participating banks or mobile payment service providers. It functions like a credit card if a shopper uploads digital cash from a credit card to their mobile phone and swipe their mobile phone at payment counters. The shopper will be billed by the bank accordingly by month’s end (eg Hong Leong Mobile Credit Card). In addition, it also functions as a debit card if it is tied to shopper’s savings or current account. The amount will be deducted instantly from the account upon successful transaction.

In April 2009, contactless mobile payment service utilising Near Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless technology was introduced by Visa, Maybank, Maxis and Touch n’ Go. Visa is ready to go with near field communication (NFC) mobile phones running on 3G networks as an alternative to the traditional plastic card as a method of payment. Each Visa payWave-enabled transaction uses a tiny computer chip that sends payment information to a contactless card reader via short-range radio frequency (RF) waves. For instance, the San Francisco coffee outlet at KLCC is already equipped with the Visa payWave that allows for mobile payments via NFC. Meanwhile, Maxis has launched Maxis FastTap service with a Nokia 6212 (NFC-enabled phone), the only commercially available NFC-enabled phone that can be used with services like Touch ‘n Go and Maybankard Visa payWave.

The potentials of mobile payment

1. Brings convenience at fingertips

- it involves a cashless and cardless transaction in mobile payment. It helps the shoppers to carry less cash and cards around and reduces in queuing times during shopping. It also helps to avoid the problems encountered during online payment such as server down of websites.

2. Safe and secure

- With Mobile Money, merchants and shoppers do not have to be concern of cash or credit card handling problems or fraud. The Mobile Money Payment System conforms to the stringent requirements set by Bank Negara Malaysia and the participating banks.

3. Multi methods to request for payment

- Merchants have multiple mode of operation to request for payments such as SMS, Mobile Money Website, or real time Mobile Money Weblink API weblink that can be integrated with POS (Point of Sales) System or online storefront system.

4. Low transaction and maintenance costs

- The mobile payment transaction fee is lower than what typically being charged by credit card. There are no minimum monthly transactions and rental fees being charged to merchants who adopt the mobile payment method.

Consumer’s adoption strategies

1. Create consumer awareness

- Proactively interacting with consumers by simple SMS alerts and notifications or advertisement allows greater consumer penetration and awareness, leading to successful adoption of more mobile payment in the future.

2. Enhance the security

- The participating banks, telecommunication companies and merchants should always enhance the technology, security and reliability of mobile payment in order to increase the consumer’s confidence toward it.

Additional links :

http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp

http://www.hlb.com.my/mm/index.html

http://www.mobile-money.com/

Electronic money (also known as electronic cash, electronic currency, digital currency, digital money, scrip or digital cash) refers to money which is exchanged only electronically. *wikipedia.org. In short, electronic cash is to replace traditional cash in the physical world with payment in the virtual world.

There are several characteristics which define “electronic currency or cash”:

• The transfer is instant and real time. Moreover, it is ‘digital’ therefore the transaction cannot be reversed.
• The transfer of electronic currency is anonymous and private for the sender and receiver. Just like real cash, source of funds would not be disclosed to the receiver. It also guarantees that neither buyer or seller will know details about each other and the source of the funds is indeterminable

“Consumers would in many cases prefer cashless transactions when away from home. So around the world solutions providers have leveraged SMS, mobile internet and downloadable mobile applications to enable mobile commerce and payments.” Mark Beccue of ABI

Using electronic cash as a form of electronic payment has additional benefits:

• Fungibility
  

  Everyone can pay any particular sum easily if necessary money is available. Therefore, electric cash would be better than traditional as one may not be able to pay because the merchant has no
  appropriate change.
  

• Usability on Networks
  

  It can be used securely through the internet for exchange with a secure micropayment system such as in large corporations (PayPal).
  

• Usability across Borders
  

  It is particularly valuable for travelers, in small countries, in border regions and in trans-border electronic commerce.
  

• User Friendliness and Trustworthiness
  

  Systems must be designed in a way that they can be understood and handled properly. Thus, e.g., in the case of un-traceability users expect that no additional information of the users is given to
  the payee during payment.
  

• Off-line Usability
  

  It reduces costs for lines or radio networks. In particular it is being hoped that the costs per individual payment in an off-line system can be reduced if the merchants submit collected batches off transactions overnight.
  

Here are a few popular examples of Digital Currency:

• Mondex
  
• DigiCash
  
• eCashdirect
  
• paypal
  
• Flooz
  
• Beenz
  

Related and useful articles regarding electronic currency:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7876154.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/1999/nov/04/onlinesupplement

http://www.cscoutjapan.com/en/index.php/e-money-in-japan-a-quick-video-overview/

http://ganges.cs.tcd.ie/mepeirce/Project/oninternet.html

http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/

http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/other/emoneysecurity200305en.pdf

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/banking/1998summ/ecash.pdf

Many people thought pay for a service to back up your computer’s files to a location outside the home will be the best way to safe their data. Online backup products, like Carbonite and Mozy, keep copies of the customer most important technological assets (pictures, home movies, and documents),safe and away from the customer house. They will still have all those precious files, if their computer gets stolen or their house burns down. These reliance until customer heard about Carbonite losing customers’ data, since then, people suspect those online backup product.

There have two categories for the threat and attack of online security:

(1)   Nontechnical attack

Phishing

Phishing is a technique used to gain personal information (for example, numbers for purposes of identity theft, using fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from legitimate businesses. Actually, phishing is theft.

(2)   Technical attack

Denial-of-service (DoS) attack

An attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing information or services. By targeting your computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites you are trying to use, an attacker may be able to prevent you from accessing email, web sites, online accounts (banking, etc.), or other services that rely on the affected computer.

There were a real case happened in February 2000: Ebay closed for 5 hours, Amazon closed for 4 hours, and Yahoo also closed for 3 hours as well.

Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) attack

An attacker may use your computer to attack another computer. An attacker could take control of your computer then force your computer to send huge amounts of data to a web site or send spam to particular email addresses. The attack is “distributed” because the attacker is using multiple computers, including yours, to launch the denial-of-service attack.

Virus

A program or programming code that replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer boot sector or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, or be present on a diskette or CD which usually unaware that it will contains a virus.

Worm

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. It does not need to attach itself to an existing program. It was one of the different between worm and virus.

Trojan horse

A program that appears to have a useful function but that contains a hidden function that presents a security risk.

So, do you think that the facebook privacy system is still safety for all of you to upload your privacy and precious photo regarding so many online threats ?

Related link:

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-015.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/V/virus.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_worm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/tech/real_technology/main4896328.shtml

Nowadays, using password becomes a necessary for all transaction online in our daily life. So it didn’t take long to realize that how many people are picked the same passwords over and over. The same password may be has been used by at least hundreds or thousands of people. This will make use to most hackers being use of the lists of common passwords. So better think twice before you want choosing a password for emails, online bank accounts and booking for airline tickets.

There is taking a risk when the computer connected to the network and start communicating with others. Internet security provides a protection to the computer internet account and files save in the computer from an unknown user. The basic securities for computer are selects passwords, change of file permissions and back up of computer’s data.

There also a lot of people using the same password for everything online and they used the password for long period of time. They simply do this because they can not remember a unique password for all the websites they go and transaction they make. So, basically the computer users will set a password that easy for them to memorize.

The passwords often used are ‘123456’ or ‘password’ for many wed sites and programs, making it extremely common and not secure. ‘123456’ and ‘password’ become a bad password and not creative at all. Other favorite passwords that also used by many of computer users is based on the names or birthdays of themselves, partners, children, parents, or pets as well.

A good internet security protection is better to choose a password that longer and have combination of alphabets, numeric, symbol and capital letter. For the different websites visit must has unique password for each of them.

Read more the related information about Internet Security from My E-Commerce blog.