Social Media World Forum Asia returns to Singapore this year. Previously known as SocialNetworking Forum, this event is brought to you by Six Degrees, a UK based events & exhibitions company, specialising in social media related conferences and exhibition.

One of the highlight of this year’s conference include a a twitter & email question and answer session. It will include the following social media mavens;

• Reynold D’Silva, Global Brand Marketing Manager, Skin Care, Unilever (@reydsilva)
• Lawrence Law, Regional Marketing Manager, Relationship and Digital Marketing Asia, Diageo
• Liva Judic, Media Reputation Strategist (@merrybubbles)
• Laurel Papworth, Social Network Strategist (@SilkCharm)

Attendees may send in their queries about any matters that is close their heart or interests and key takeaways from the various on-going sessions. They may send an email to Richard@SixDegs.com & tweet questions with #SMWFQ hashtag. With the hashtag, they may see all the questions, answers and follow-ups by the panelists as well as others on twitter.

Speaking at this year’s event are several notable personalities. The following list are not exhaustive so you may refer to the event site for the complete list.

Brian Solis

Brian Solis is a marketing executive, author of Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web and a co-founder of the Social Media Club.

He goes on twitter with the handle @BrianSolis while his website is http://BrianSolis.com.

Together with Jesse Thomas, he created the Conversation Prism, as can be seen on the right(image from Wikipedia). The Conversation Prism, is an attempt to lay down before the eyes, the synergy of communications and engagements which takes places between social networks.

Jesse Thomas and Brian Solis have both identified that the conversations and social networks will continue to evolve as new social networks come up.

Shalabh Pandey

I first met Shalabh Pandey when he presented at a barcamp event at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in 2009. I was excited to know that social media can be used as a conduit to further a social cause; in his case, “Collaborative Ways to Change the World”. Shalabh is the author and founder of ChasingTheStorm and consults for organisations on digital marketing strategies. ChasingTheStorm celebrates underdogs and achievers alike and features original content.

Here is a video showing his interview with Orsiso CEO & Founder, Thorben Linneberg. For this video, I assisted Shalabh to turn the video-recorder on and off!

Since then, social causes in social media have been one of my focus. After I attended the Social Networking forum last year, I wrote a lengthy article looking at four different organisations, involved in using social media to either provide awareness or financial assistance to their wards. The four organisations are Oxfam, Kiva, Ammado & Unicef. You can read my article here http://mhisham.org/?p=473.

I am really looking forward to the upcoming forum. Here are some useful information about the forum.

• Event: Social Media World Forum Asia
• Venue: Suntec City Convention Centre
• Date: 22nd to 23rd September 2010
• Twitter: @SMWF
• Twitter Hashtag: #SMWF & #SMWFQ

If you are driving, here is a guide on suitable carpark locations around Suntec City. http://mhisham.org/?p=335

Q & M Clinic Reception

I had my first visit to the dentist last Sunday, August 15th 2010 after more than 10 years. The treatment room is smaller than the ones at Alexandra Hospital, which was where I had my last visit.

The clinic is located at Novena Square and known as Q&M Clinic. Q&M have started operations since 1996 and have mushroomed at various places around Singapore.

I am the first blogger to be treated, as part of this dare and the entire treatment lasted more than thirty minutes.

The dentist asked about my dental history. As my last visit was more than 10 years ago during my secondary school days (quick guess my age! ), I have not had any dental records. I did wear a teeth brace for a while but I took it off because it broke and I was too lazy to get another one.

He then did a quick scan and noticed certain portions of my teeth to be decaying and the gums, tender. Here is a screenshot of an image of human teeth from Wikipedia.

An Example of An Adult & Child Teeth Structure

While my central & lateral incisors are fine, there is a noticeable gap in between the tooth, which the dentist recommends to be closed. This is however, an aesthetic recommendation and not part of the treatment.

My third molar or otherwise known as the wisdom tooth, has been broken off, and I told the dentist so. He says he can see as the shape of the molar appears to be the one, which has been broken off. He also noted that the gum around that third molar is tender as a gentle probe from him causes me to say “AAHH!” sharply.

He then proceeds to tell me that he will be doing several things.

First of all, he will gently poke the area around each of my tooth, to find out which of the gum bleeds easily. This is to find out the score rating, which will be checked again upon the next visit in 6 weeks time, at the conclusion of the challenge.

Next, he will be doing a scaling – a treatment he says most people are anxious and agitated about. Scaling include the removal of dental plaque, calculus and stain from the crown and root surfaces of teeth.

• Dental plaque is a biofilm that builds up on teeth.
• Calculus or tartar is a form of hardened dental plaque. It is caused by the continual accumulation of minerals from saliva on plaque on the teeth. It’s rough surface provides an ideal medium for further plaque formation, threatening the health of the gingiva (gums).

Finally, he will be polishing the teeth – a treatment he says most people are happy & pleased to go through.

Here is a short video, explaining what gingivitis is about, the sign of which is bleeding gums.

As a result of the poking done by the dentist, he found out that there are a total of 92 bleeding points on my gums, and my score is calculated at 57%! It is scary to know of the number of bleeding points in my mouth!

After the entire experience of the treatment, getting my tongue to go over every tooth that has been polished is a delightful experience. It really feels smooth.

In a few more weeks, I should be able to smile wider, showing off my teeth!

I asked the dentist on the steps to take care of the teeth. He says there is only three basic steps.
1. Brush your teeth
2. Floss your teeth
3. Rinse(or gargle) your mouth
He mentions that, of all three, brushing the teeth is most important. He recommends using a soft bristle brush instead of hard ones as the soft bristle will be enough to brush away the dental plaque while a hard bristle may wear down the teeth. He also recommends brushing twice a day.

I know of some friends who brush after each meal. :lol:   Flossing can be done before sleeping and the best way is to place it down in between each tooth and pulling the string out of the mouth instead of lifting up. After that, you can use Listerine® Total Care mouthwash to get all the benefits it offers.

I asked the dentist what is the recommended frequency for a dental visit and he says six months in between visits is recommended. Unless, there is a need for additional treatments, the time between the six months can be best used to take all the basic tasks of brushing, flossing & rinsing as part of daily oral health.

[Full Disclaimer: You may refer to my previous post about this LISTERINE® Bloggers Dare contest that I am participating.]

I was alerted to a twitter update my one of my friends, @aymarn, about a tussle between photographer Daniel Morel and Agence France-Presse(AFP). Briefly, Daniel Morel is being sued by AFP, for Aggressive Assertion of Rights, while Daniel Morel wants AFP to pay for usage of his images. The problem for Morel is that, when he sent out his images, it was done on Twitter, using Twitpic. AFP contends that Twitter Terms of Service negates copyright on the part of Morel. While giving that assertion, AFP still take down images are requested by Morel. The suit came up when Morel pressed AFP and its clients to cease-and-desist as well as for monetary claims owed for images that have been published.

Historical Background

Daniel Morel - Image screen-captured from New York Times

Daniel Morel was born in 1951 in Haiti. He is currently a contributing photographer to Corbis Images.

During the earthquake in Haiti early this year, Daniel was already on  the ground and he documented numerous shots of various tragedies and images of those fallen to the effects of the earthquake.

As he was new to Twitter, he got the help of Isabel Morse, a daughter of his friend, Richard Morse, the manager of the hotel that he is in, to upload thirteen high resolution photos on Twitter, via Twitpic.

That upload resulted in numerous retweets and major news agencies started to use the images that was circulated, including one tweet from Lisandro Suero, from the Dominican Republic.

AFP apparently used the images & credited Lisandro Suero, and then released the images to its clients & partners, including Getty Images.

AFP included the following statement from Twitter:

You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).

I include here another line from the Twitter Terms of Service,

We encourage and permit broad re-use of Content. The Twitter API exists to enable this.

For further reading up, I recommend these links to follow, which have also contributed to the written text above.

• Photo District News
• Media Nation by Dan Kennedy
• New York Times Lens Blog
• New York Times Miami Blog
• 100 Eyes Blog

What We Can Learn

1. Read the Terms and Conditions

My Tweet about Omy T&C which they have since corrected. Previously they filled it with lorem ipsum fillers!

Maybe I am one of the few odd ones who really look through Terms of Service or Terms and Conditions before clicking on the Sign-up or OK button on a website.

The example on the left is one good example of how not looking at the actual terms of service will determine that you have somehow signed up for something which is not desired or favourable to you.

Please do be careful when you are on any site that requires you to submit particulars.

2. If you are on Twitter, sign on to TweetCC.

I have been on TweetCC since June 2009.

I have licensed my website under creative commons. My website represents my thoughts, my ideas unless I have indicated otherwise. I am willing to share those thoughts and ideas with anyone else, provided they are not used for commercial gains. If need to, we can discuss separately, and information will be released to give as such.

For twitter, I do not see it differently. Unless it is a retweet or a link to another site or otherwise credited, the tweets I put on Twitter is my property (as Twitter themselves agrees) and with TweetCC, I have made it Non-Commercial, ShareAlike.

You may check out TweetCC here – http://www.tweetcc.com/

3. If you are on Flickr, please take note which copyright you wish to assign to your images.

An Album in my Flickr account, which belongs to another person

With Flickr, they offer you several ways to license your images, namely:

All Rights Reserved (images cannot be used without permission)

Creative Commons (images are allowed to be used with some parameters)

Getty Images (images are licensed through Getty Images)

On this picture on the left, there are two sets of notices. The first is that the album is All Rights Reserved. The second notice states that, I have absolved all rights to this photos, because I have assigned the ownership of this album to my friend Tawan Teo.

As a content owner on Flickr, you have all the rights you want to change the permissions of your content, as long as there is public awareness of it.

Recently on Twitter, a friend, @TwistedIan asked a question related creative commons on Twitter. Flickr allows you to change your permissions on creative commons any way, any time, you want. It also did include a disclaimer that changing your permissions to a stricter version, will cause inconvenience to the content users, who have used them under the older, more permissive license. Here’s a short description of use of Creative Commons from their wiki page.

What if I change my mind?

Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable. This means that you cannot stop someone, who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons license, from using the work according to that license. You can stop distributing your work under a Creative Commons license at any time you wish; but this will not withdraw any copies of your work that already exist under a Creative Commons license from circulation, be they verbatim copies, copies included in collective works and/or adaptations of your work. So you need to think carefully when choosing a Creative Commons license to make sure that you are happy for people to be using your work consistent with the terms of the license, even if you later stop distributing your work.

from http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#What_if_I_change_my_mind.3F

4. If you are on Facebook, you also wish to license your status updates, images, audio & video content under Creative Commons.

Facebook Creative Commons

Not surprisingly, you can protect your intellectual property via Creative Commons.

Head on to http://apps.facebook.com/creativecommons/ to determine how you want to manage your content on Facebook.

Social Media Responsibility starts from creating content, maintaining the content, uploading the content and then publishing the content. Whether you are a content creator, aggregator, publisher or consumer, it is always best to take all considerations before hitting that Submit or Enter button. It is easier to search a little on the copyright information that a particular site or users of its site have. I welcome all forms of discussion on this topic.

I wish Daniel Morel all the best of luck with his litigation.

(images that have been screen-captured from website are based on Fair-Use)