Singapore: Waiting for results of the 2011 General Election was better than the World Cup – at least that was what some netizens felt as they followed the events in Singapore on their computers.
It didn’t matter that they were in Changi or Canada, all waited with collective bated breath as they impatiently stared at MediaCorp’s election portal, ge.sg.
From the night of May 7 through to the wee hours of May 8, Singaporeans all over the world came together as one united, Internet people.
“Thanks for this platform to keep myself updated on the election results and all the live action as seen from a small hotel room in Guangzhou, China” wrote Jason Yap.
Some were also closer home such as Sam, who wrote: “There’s about 50 of us here in JB having a great beer drink-a-long while waiting for the count, hope we are still standing when the results are announced!”
Most however, were far-flung Singaporeans who checked in from different parts of Australia, the United States, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Italy, France, Hong Kong and the Philippines; just to follow the General Election.
“In Buffalo NY now, thanks for the live updates. This is a historic moment in our history” said CY Kong.
The overseas Singaporeans who exchanged cheers and jeers met online through Cover It Live a live blogging tool which was employed as early as the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and utilised throughout the election period on ge.sg.
At one point of the night, there were 30,000 active users on the live blogging module on the MediacCorp election website which complimented the live video stream of the TV broadcast of polling results.
“Thanks for streaming live! I am in USA and the 9.30pm live streaming coverage is a god send!” said one user whose comments were echoed repeatedly by Singaporeans who dropped by.
“Watching from The Netherlands and loving our Singapore!” said JK who was joined minutes later by Boon with a “Hola” from Mexico and Leah who said “Thanks for the live stream! Watching here from Sydney. Go Singapore!”
At its peak, the website ge.sg served nearly 20 thousand live video streams at the same time as users followed polling results.
In total, 930,000 live video streams were served over the 6½ hours live telecast.
Live streaming was also available during the hustings with broadcasts being offered from different rally points each night.
The General Election had a clear online buzz that peaked on May 8, when the polling results were announced by the Returning Officer.
Page views on channelnewsasia.com hit a record 42 million from Nomination Day (Apr 27) to the small hours of May 8 as polling results were announced.
The increase of nearly four times the average daily traffic, was also seen on the special election website, ge.sg which offered a mobile site, m.ge.sg, for smartphone users.
“By having a mobile site, we were able to provide information to many smartphone users throughout the GE period. On Nomination Day, they checked where the political parties were putting their candidates; then followed the candidates’ rally speeches and walkabouts. And on Polling Day, they found out who won, within seconds after the results were announced by the Returning Officer”, said Yeo Hock Lin, VP (E-News), MediaCorp.
On the ground, it was not just Facebook and Twitter which helped keep the news flowing.
Other new new media tools proved handy in bringing updates to users, including those working on the back-end of the website, ge.sg .
As photos were a staple on the election website, Liveshare, a new off-shoot of the Cooliris photo platform, proved a successful collaboration.
“Just put the SD card into the attachment of the iPad, then drag and drop the photos. It’s great”, assistant producer Hester Tan said of the Facebook plugin that sent streams of images back to producers at base, as the small team of photographers went from one event to another.
Even as singlet-wearing uncles stood toe-to-toe with designer-togged young voters on open fields turned into election rally sites to catch political speeches, it was hard not to miss the presence of a laptop here, a smartphone there and the occasional iPad or even iPad2.
More significantly, the devices weren’t just in the hands of newshounds, but newsmakers waiting to make a speech as well as the average Singaporean who proved that in the 2011 General Election, the biggest win was for new media.
- CNA/sf
Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologyfeatures/view/1128177/1/.html
