Ms Jessica Tan, Managing Director of Microsoft Singapore, who is also the Member for Parliament for East Coast GRC
Mrs Marcia Yong, Educational Technology Officer at the Ministry of Education
Distinguished speakers
Ladies and gentlemen
Good Afternoon.
1. Welcome to this afternoon’s seminar in celebration of this year’s World IP Day. I am happy to see so many here today at this seminar on “What Every Parent Should Know – A Peek Into Your Child’s Cyber Realm” Seminar 2009 organised by the HIP Alliance, a public outreach initiative by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).
2. As parents and educators, I am sure you have seen your children spending considerable time online forming unique communities, chatting real-time via instant messaging, and posting and sharing content on social networking sites and blogs. Welcome to the realm of User Generated Content sites!
3. You may ask yourself, so what really is User Generated Content or UGC for short and how is this new “cyberwave” changing our children’s online landscape? With so much space and freedom for self-expression and creativity through these online platforms, what are the common scenarios where users may unknowingly commit an act of copyright infringement whilst creating, browsing and sharing UGC? Well, this afternoon, I am sure you will get some insights into this.
4. In the next few hours, we have lined up several speakers who will share with you their insights on the current online landscape, with particular emphasis on User Generated Content. I hope you will find this seminar interesting and useful. As for the children who have signed up for the Children’s programme, they will be well-taken care of at the Marina Barrage where they will explore and learn about IP in a fun and interactive way .
5. We have another reason to celebrate today – the launch of an animation clip, which was produced by 15-year-old Tan Wiphaporn from Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary who emerged as the winner in our Creative Comic Strip Competition in the annual IP Champion Camp in 2008. She transformed her winning entry, a six-frame comic strip, into a 30-second animation during her two weeks internship at a local animation firm – VividThree Productions during the December holidays last year. The clip has been screened on Animax channel since early this month. I am proud to bring to you the efforts of our very own IP Champion who has very creatively put together her notion of the dangers of illegal online file-sharing activities.
6. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our various partners, namely the Ministry of Education and Microsoft Singapore for supporting this seminar. We look forward to more collaborative activities going forward. And finally, thanks to you, the participants for making time on a weekend afternoon to attend this seminar.
7. I wish you a stimulating session ahead. Thank you.