Express Yourself
About Joshua Tseng Shi-Hao
SMU Email: joshuatseng.2017@sis.smu.edu.sg
LinkedIn: Connect with me on LinkedIn!
About Me: Ever-Learning in Spite of Vision Impairment
Academic Year:: 3
Degree: BSc in Information Systems
Major: Digitalisation & Cloud Solutioning
A picture of me as an invited speaker at the TEDxYouth @ Methodist Girls' School, 2018.
Why Virtual TSM?
- What motivates you to join TSM?
- Where would you like to visit virtually?
Though many of us feel passionately about technology, its advancements, and how it works under the hood, it is ultimately just a tool. What truly excites me about technology is how it is actually used, and that is what I hope to gain a greater appreciation of through TSM. Historically, enterprising technopreneurs have always been a key driving force in making technology “work” for us, and this is what I hope to see beyond the confines of our horseshoe-shaped seminar rooms through TSM.
I see a virtual TSM as a great opportunity, and not a constraint, because it means we have many more options available to us. Examples of places I would be excited to visit virtually in Asia alone would be:
- China: an ever-evolving competitor to the US every year, and the country my father worked in for about 10 years as an IT professional
- India: another mega player where technopreneurs and unicorns are being made, India is already a key rival to the US and China
- Vietnam: the place some people are calling China 2.0, I feel like Vietnam is sometimes overlooked by us students as an up and coming hub for technopreneurship
- Korea: the popular choice but for good reason, Korea (like Singapore) has advanced greatly in less than a century, and is a major source of innovation
- Indonesia: another source of technopreneurs and unicorns, Indonesia has a breadth of new firms popping up that I personally find exciting for the SEA region
Starting a business
- What types of business interest you?
- What plan do you have in starting a business? (list existing business)
Though it might be boring at face value, the types of businesses I appreciate learning about the most are the ones that simply "make sense". When a business can be shown to be sensible through the lens of its finances, product/service offering, environmental impact, human impact, etc all in total, those are the businesses I appreciate learning about the most. Especially in technology, there is often a temptation to simply be at the cutting edge for its own sake or, worse, jumping onto buzzwords without purpose or strategic intent. Considering this, I place a great deal of value in seeing the firms which manage to show balance, shrewdness, and restraint in its approach where appropriate -- even better if it is making money while creating a positive impact in its community through the use of technology and its business operations.
For better or for worse, coming up with business ideas has always been something relatively natural to me, and I do have some projects currently ongoing as well. In terms of other ideas I have executed on in the past which have not panned out, or other ideas which I may work on in the future / have shelved, below are a few.
Past Attempts
The Unusual School (2017-2018): A social enterprise spearheaded by Aaron Yeoh, Director of Etch Empathy, Ali Daud, a counsellor and fellow person with vision impairment, and myself. The enterprise would have people from marginalised communities (ex-inmates, single mothers, people with disabilities, etc) be trained as WSQ-certified Coaches for a particular topic, imparting life skills like resilience, compassion, and communication. The project shuttered after a few pilot programmes despite positive response due to the lack of means to implement immediate scalability.
6down Audio (2017-2018): A small-scale, enthusiast-level outfit that would build wood-based headphone products modified from existing models. This was capitalising on the relatively new niche of portable wood headphone products as seen from other small companies like ZMF, Meze, and E-MU. Despite completing R&D, selling some units, and looking to be profitable, the project was put on hiatus after numerous production roadblocks with the wood working studio and a lack of available time to resolve them.
Future / Shelved Ideas
Accessibility-focused solutioning: Leveraging on my education in SMU IS, my experience using assistive technology as a person with vision impairment, and my handful of experiences testing applications for various projects (internship, SMU Freshman Orientation 2020, and an SMU Research Project) I hope to be able to put this knowledge to use by assembling a team of fellow people with sensory disabilities to be able to test website, application, and hardware accessibility for companies which might not understand what users would need in this area. This is especially important as many countries are starting to have best practices and even legal regulations on minimum required levels for Internet accessibility, as seen in countries like the US.
Music video wedding shoots: As a school photographer in secondary school (before I lost my eyesight), ideas related to photography and videography businesses were something I often thought about. Similar to how wedding photo shoots are typically shot by the happy couple to make a photo book before the big day, a concept I have entertained the thought of were “music video wedding shoots”; the couple would pick a song they would like for their video, work alongside a videographer (me) to storyboard their vision for the music video, and be able to act it out on camera for a fun, unique form of wedding media that would be very different from stereotypical photo books or montage collages. Sometimes, I wonder if I would have been able to do this despite my loss of sight if I had found the right partners as a young teenager – alas, many people thought this was a stupid idea. Maybe they were right. With the advancement and commoditisation of AI algorithms, maybe some day this can be turned into an AI-powered service that intelligently stitches together a wedding video synced to popular music after being trained on several thousand music videos.
Past Experiences
Solo
Freelance Marketing Copywriter (2017 – present)
Public Speaker, Accessibility Advocate (2015 – present)
Digital Content Creator (WIP 2021)
Audio Hardware Modder, 6down Audio, funded by Temasek Polytechnic Small Project Funding (2017 – 2018)
Work / Internship Experiences
Coding Curriculum R&D, Curriculum Marketing, Empire Code (May 2018 – May 2019)
Digital Marketing Advisor & Website Copywriter, Enter the Void Deck / Sei Shuttle Records (June 2017 – December 2017)
Digital Marketing Advisor & Website Copywriter, Life Affinity LLP (April 2017 – August 2017)
Marketing Communications (Writer, Part-time), Grand Hyatt Singapore (February 2017 – August 2017)
Marketing Communications Intern, Grand Hyatt Singapore (September 2016 – December 2016)
Others
Restaurant Host (Part-time), Nox Dining-in-the-Dark (2017 – 2018)
Speaker & Workshop Facilitator, Etch Empathy (2015 – 2019)
Speaker & Workshop Facilitator, Big Heroes (2017 – 2018)
Speaker & Workshop Facilitator, Glow-in-the-Dark (2017 – 2018)
Highlight Projects
Invited Speaker, Microsoft Tech Community APAC Online (2020)
Speaker & Representative, The Purple Parade by National Council of Social Service (2019 & 2020)
Wire Sculpturer (for fund-raising auction), IC2 Prephouse (2018)
Invited Speaker, TEDxYouth @ Methodist Girls’ School (2018)
“Teaching the Blind How to Cook”, Team Member for pilot programme (2017)
What keeps you ticking?
Some of my favourite things in life are:
- Listening to and learning from others, the people who have "been there, done that".
- Having the privilege to tell stories and share about my experiences, so I can add value to the people around me.
- Discovering solutions, and avoid fixating on problems.
- Taking some time to reflect and treasure the little moments, especially with the people we care most about. Because *spoiler alert* everyone (even technologies) all die some day.
