Syahida's Blog

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload and share videos.Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users over the age of 18.

YouTube made it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that a worldwide audience could watch within a few minutes.Therefore is it very easy to view  and watch the videos.It also easy for bloggers to embed a video from Youtube to their own webpages or blogs.

Difficulties Youtube faced is that how to generate revenue. So Youtube came out with solutions. Some of them are sponsored brand channels, display advertising, contests, Youtube video ads as well as Youtube in-videos ads which company can showcase their products.. Youtube also controls the ‘Featured Videos’  on its homepage which can dramatically increase the video’s popularity.This feature can actually help those companies who wishes to generate more publicity towards themselves or their products.

Eventhough Youtube is currently successful, the future is still uncertain for Youtube. This is because Youtube has been in a series of major legal issues over copyright and it also has a wave of aggressive new rivals. But even so,people still acces YouTube.

The Samaritans of Singapore which is set up in 1 December 1969 is a nonprofit and non religious organization.  It aims to prevent suicide and provide 24 hours emotional support to people who are facing depression and are suicidal. They also provide a listening ear to everyone in crisis.

Their vision is to be an available lifeline for everyone in crisis.

Their mission is provides 24 hours emotional support by trained volunteers to people in crisis,thinking of suicide or affected by suicide.

In other words, they want to prevent suicide through talks for the community,they also want to intervene directly with a suicidal person which is why they have the 24 hours hot line and face to face counseling. They also want to help people who are affected by suicide by providing emotional support.

This is the website of Samaritans of Singapore.In my opinion the web presence is bad because it is complicating.The visitors who visit this site are mostly people who wants help. So by having a complicated website will make the people feel more stress and suicidal. Not just that,people who are not familiar with the web will have a difficulty operating it.

Other than that we did not know if they will update the website. The website also does not have social media like Facebook,Twitter etc for people to know more about Samaritans of Singapore.

This is the statistics of social media usage in Singapore. It is shown that Facebook is the most popular. With that  i suggested that Samaritans of Singapore need to use social media to create awareness to the community. Since Facebook is the most popular, SOS can create a group in Facebook where people can join and know about the organization.

SOS also can create account in YouTube where they can upload videos of their campaigns and events and also informations about their organization. Not only that they can upload videos of people experiences who are affected by suicide and people who have decided not to commit suicide. This way it is effective and may help other people who are suicidal to change their ways.

They can also share their experiences through blogs like WordPress,Blogger or Tumblr. Twitter is a easy way to updatetheir organization and also ionteract with other people by answering questions.

With that i think Samaritans of Singapore can be widely exposed to the public by creating awareness. And also they can find volunteers easily. Since not many really find their website, social media tools are very efficient in helping them to find volunteers all over Singapore.In other words, social media is important and beneficial to the organization in order to promote it.

Reference:www.samaritans.org.sg/

It is formed in 1988, Action for AIDS (AfA) is a voluntary community based organization and a registered charity since 7 October 1994.

Their aims and objectives are to provide support and assistance to persons living with HIV and AIDS (PWAs). They also want to increase awareness, education and understanding of AIDS and HIV infection. Also to combat discrimination and stigmatisation of (PWAs) and their loved ones and to encourage AIDS-related research activities in Singapore.

They have events such as World AIDS Day Walk, The Red Ribbon Race that people can participate in. They have a blog (http://artagainstaids.wordpress.com/ )where people can showcase their talents and art work which are related to AIDS.

To create awareness, they have a few campaigns such as Play Safe,*Think Again,Cos AIDS isn’t Sexy to name a few. The campaigns aims are similar which is to prevent AIDS from occurring between partners.They also have education materials in the form of postcards,posters and cartoons.

Most importantly,they need  donations to help them fund life saving anti HIV medications and to help in their prevention efforts. Not only donations,they also need volunteers HIV Counseling and Testing Clinic.

I recommend that they should held talks in schools and public to create awareness  among young adults and teenagers especially.

Reference:http://www.afa.org.sg/home.php

It was first established in 1968.In 1979, with the addition of the Oral History Department, the National Archives was renamed the National Archives and Oral History Department. National Archives of Singapore is about the history, heritage and culture of  Singapore.

At the field trip we were shown around the place. the places that we visited are Archives Services, Archives Conservation Laboratory,Image Preservation Laboratory and Audio-Visual Archives and Exhibition.

Archives Services is the place where people can find information and stuff about Singapore for their projects and assignments. In other words,it is like a library. But the information there cannot be found in normal libraries since most of the things are personal documents from the government.

Archives Conservation Laboratory is a place where they preserve old papers from books or newspapers which are already destroy from insects or badly damaged to make it as good as new. This is also the place where they demostrate to us how they preserve the papers. For example the process of how preserving papers are being done.

Image Preservation Laboratory is the place where they reformat images of fragile paper records onto microfilm and digital media for effective long-term storage.

Audio-Visual Archives and Exhibition is the place where they capture and preserve the moving images and recorded sound heritage of Singapore and organizes traveling exhibitions to bring our history to Singaporeans. The video includes National Day videos from the first National Day till now and other videos that is related to Singapore’s history and culture. They also have recorded videos from Mediacorp.

In conclusion, National Archives of Singapore showed me a lot of interesting things which I am able to use in my project. The people were very friendly and are willing to tell us more about the National Archives of Singapore when we ask them questions.