RConversation

links for 2007-01-23

• China's growing blogosphere turns on US coffee icon | csmonitor.com
  "The Starbucks store in the Forbidden City drew criticism when it first opened, but this new wave is broader."
  (tags: china blogs blogging internet media starbucks)
• Taipei Times - Editorial: China can't fight the Internet
  "Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (劉德勳) on Friday confirmed that Beijing has partially lifted the block on Taiwanese media Web sites in some regions in China."
  (tags: china taiwan internet censorship chineseinternetresearch freespeech)

links for 2007-01-22

• …My heart’s in Accra » The article I didn’t write.
  Ethan Zuckerman describes a very unfortunate experience he just had with academic publishing, leading him to withdraw his article on the One Laptop Per Child initiative submitted to a peer reviewed journal, and posting it on his blog instead - where he fe
  (tags: publishing academia onelaptop blogs)
• EastSouthWestNorth: Rui Changgang On Japan
  Roland Soong translates a blog post by Rui Chenggang (originator of the Starbucks-Forbidden City flap) in which Rui shows that he is by no means an extremist nationalist, but thinks that Chinese should deal with the outside world in a sophisticated, self
  (tags: china nationalism blogging japan globalization media)

China's Starbucks-blogger-gate: Hype and reality.

This morning I was invited to appear on RTHK3's "Backchat" show to comment on the blogger-driven firestorm about whether Starbucks should have been allowed in the Forbidden City and whether it should stay. (The show's audio will eventually be archived here.)

The firestorm was started by Rui Chenggang, a star anchor on Chinese Central Television (CCTV)'s English-language service, who also writes a blog on Sina.com - one of China's largest blogging platforms - as well as on CCTV's blog site. On January 12th he wrote a post arguing that Starbucks should leave the Forbidden City. Roland Soong translated it on ESWN here.

The story - largely framed as grassroots cyber-nationalism and an example of the newfound power of Chinese "netizens" - has been lapped up by newspapers across the globe. The Wall Street Journal ran a piece late last week titled How blogging can galvanize China (thanks to Gen for the link to a freely available version on post-gazette.com).  It quotes Rui as saying: "Blogging is giving ordinary grass-roots Chinese people a chance to express themselves."

Let's keep a few things in perspective. Rui is no "ordinary grass-roots Chinese person." I first met him not in Beijing but in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. Unlike most "grass-roots" people he gets invited to speak at international meetings where he rubs shoulders with CEO's. As a very smart, sophisticated, and globally minded guy, Rui can talk to powerful people in their own language and they bother to answer his e-mails.

Rui is one of several relatively young and increasingly influential Chinese journalists who write popular blogs - and whose popularity and influence has increased thanks to their blogs. Let's call them "China's A-list Journo-bloggers," shall we? (Suggestions for some other term are welcome..)

His Starbucks blog post got the attention it did because of his position, because it contained original information about a direct conversation with a global CEO, and because the editors of Sina.com chose to highlight that blog post prominently on their front page. My friend Roland Soong says he told a journalist who called him for comment about the story that the power in this situation lies as much with anonymous editors at Sina.com who giveth influence and taketh away. (The journalist did not end up quoting Roland on this point.)

Another influential Chinese A-List Journo-blogger, "Rose" Luqiu Luwei of Phoenix TV, writes a blog in Chinese called Rose Garden. She has just published an article in the latest issue of the journalism journal Nieman Reports titled Blogging News in China that helps to provide  more context to the Chinese Journo-blogger phenomenon.  Her blog is also on Sina.com. She started it after a friend who works at Sina urged her to do so. Rose's blog, with accounts of her foreign travels to major world events as a Phoenix TV reporter and interviews with world leaders, quickly became a hit with the Sina.com readership - precisely because her life is so unlike that of the ordinary "grass roots." Her article explains why in more detail.

Rose also points out that three articles she posted on her blog were taken down because something about them was too sensitive - she declines to specify exactly what. Her piece concludes:

We are left to wonder whether in the near future China will allow citizen-journalism Web enterprises like Korea's OhMyNews to exist. If so, Chinese people would have more access to information about what is happening in their country and in the world. However, the restrictive changes Chinese officials recently instituted for the news media—both domestic and foreign—indicate they fear the power and the influence of the Internet.

Read the original article in full - it is fascinating and  you'll learn a lot - but my point is this: the Starbucks-blogger-gate is not about how anybody in China can go on the Internet and bring about widespread public debate and even provoke a policy change. What is really happening is that certain people who are already relatively successful and famous can use the Internet to galvanize public sentiment to bring about change in ways that weren't possible before.

That in itself is a big step forward, but as Rose's experience shows, her power, or Rui Chenggang's, or any other Chinese journo-blogger's power is limited to issues that the Chinese blog-hosting companies and blog site editors feel: a) will likely be appealing to large numbers of readers and thus generate traffic and discussion on their service; and b) won't get their companies in trouble with the authorities. 

One other thing to keep in mind with this story is that in some quarters Rui Chenggang is being unfairly lumped in with China's head-banging anti-foreign nationalists - mainly because some such people have been commenting enthusiastically on his blog and citing him as a champion. Rui himself has made it clear (see a follow up post "What am I really trying to do?") that he is a globalist and he is not complaining about Starbucks in the Forbidden City because he is anti-foreign. Rather he is complaining about the rampant commercialism by the authorities who run China's national monuments more generally, and thinks that allowing tacky displays of commercial branding at China's World Heritage Sites is unbecoming of a people who ought to be proud of their heritage. His goal, it appears, is actually to provoke a total rethink about the way such sites are managed.

To highlight Rui's globalist perspective, the indefatigable Roland has translated a post that Rui wrote on September 30, 2006 titled An essay about Japan that every Chinese person ought to read. It is a call for Sino-Japanese friendship. It is also an appeal for young Chinese to stop going around with historical chips on their shoulders and rather to "look at Japan, America and the world in a multi-dimensional, diversified, rational and self-confident manner."

links for 2007-01-21

• EastSouthWestNorth: Daily Brief Comments January 2007: Media Food Chain in China
  Roland Soong draws on recent events to analyze how China's journalism "food chain" works, highlighting the vulnerability of reporters.
  (tags: china journalism media freespeech news)
• Tech Companies Get Serious About Global Rights Issues. But Wheres Cisco? - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog
  "When we asked Mr. Palfrey of Harvard’s Berkman Center why Cisco was missing from the list, he simply replied: “Ask Cisco.” We’ll do that, and keep you posted… "
  (tags: china humanrights freespeech privacy ethics CSR cisco)
• Wall Sreet Journal: How Blogging Can Galvanize China
  "The Starbucks case highlights what makes the Chinese style of consumer blogging particularly challenging for companies. The popularity of group bulletin boards and readers' commentaries can quickly amplify the voice of a single blogger."
  (tags: china internet chineseinternetresearch blogging blogs freespeech corporateimage starbucks)

Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Vodafone display some cojones

Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Cisco and others have been getting a lot of heat over the past year for colluding with human rights violations and state censorship in countries like China. Fortunately, three of those four companies have found the wherewithal to do more than just duck and cover.

A couple of months ago I alluded to a set of closed-door discussions that have been going on over the past year. Today this press release issued by Business for Social Responsibility has finally brought those quiet conversations out of the closet.

Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Vodafone are now committed publicly to a process "which aims to produce a set of principles guiding company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights." As BSR's CEO Aron Cramer put it: "This important dialogue reflects a shared commitment to maximize the information available via the internet on the basis of global principles protecting free expression and privacy."

A number of other companies had the opportunity to join this process -  including one of the four companies called on the carpet before Congress last year - but they have lacked cojones. Maybe the first-movers will help them find some?

This "multi-stakeholder" process, as it's called, includes a diverse range of organizations including Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, Reporters Without Borders, Harvard's Berkman Center (via whom I participated in a number of last year's meetings), Berkeley Law School, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation,  Boston Common Asset Management, Domini Social Investments, the Calvert Group, Trillium Asset Management, and a number of others (Click here to read the press release including a full list of participating organizations.)

I won't stop being critical when and where deserved, but I do believe that Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft are to be commended for taking all the criticism directed at them seriously enough to send representatives to discussions where human rights groups and socially responsible investment funds have been asking Internet and telecoms companies to set ethical standards and draw "red lines" that their global operations would not be permitted to cross.

This is not only the right thing to do, but these three U.S.-based firms plus the European Vodaphone all recognize that in the long run ethical business is smart business: if your users can't trust you to do all you can to uphold their interests and rights, you will be hard-pressed to retain customers globally. When a company is known to be colluding with state censorship in one country, that tarnishes its credibility in other markets. And when another firm hands political dissidents over to the police in one jurisdiction, its users elsewhere will think twice about using its services.

This announcement is coming just a week after the Global Online Freedom Act, which would regulate company behavior through legislation, was reintroduced into the U.S. Congress. While it has noble intentions, I've got a lot of problems with the framing of that proposed legislation (note it has not yet been passed and is a long way from being so). I also agree with Berkman Center director John Palfrey that the bill makes it "nearly impossible for US technology firms to compete in markets like China." John observes:

If an industry code of conduct were to emerge that had real bite to it, and where NGOs and investors and academics are on hand to ensure that signatory companies live up to it, the results could be far better. And over time, it might well make sense to redact the global industry agreement into law or a treaty to ensure that it is enforceable, evolves over time, and has true public oversight.

My hope for 2007 is that the process of developing industry standards will be broadened beyond U.S. and European companies to include Asian telecoms and Internet firms. As many Asian companies now seek to become trusted global brands, getting in on the ground floor of a process like this one is a great way to build the trust of users beyond the home markets.

Congratulations to Leslie Harris at the CDT, Dunstan Hope at BSR, my colleagues at the Berkman Center and many other people who have persevered to bring things to this point - despite the fact that every single meeting so far has been "headache-making," as one of the participants aptly put it.

links for 2007-01-17

• Global Voices Online » Bangladesh: State of emergency, bloggers as information source
  Great post from Rezwan. Title is self-explanatory...
  (tags: globalvoices bangladesh freespeech blogging blogs)
• Thai junta censoring CNN’s interview with Thaksin « southeast asian press alliance
  "Thailand’s military leaders on 15 January moved to block CNN broadcasts of the cable network’s exclusive interview with deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.."
  (tags: censorship freespeech tv thailand internet)
• Thai website censorship jumps by more than 500% since coup! « FACT - Freedom Against Censorship Thailand
  "No identification of websites blocked has ever been disclosed to the public nor do these government agencies disclose which criteria they use to block."
  (tags: thailand internet censorship freespeech)

Global Voices seeks blogger to work for free speech

Global Voices, the award-winning online citizen media community that I co-founded, has gotten some funding to start up a new free-speech advocacy project and we are looking to hire a part-time Advocacy Director. Here is the original announcement as it appeared on our site:

Global Voices (globalvoicesonline.org) is seeking a part-time Advocacy Director. The advocacy director will coordinate Global Voices’s efforts in supporting online freedom of expression. This will include responsibility for building online relationships between national anti-censorship and anti-net filtering movements, interacting with international press freedom organizations, producing educational guides to anti-censorship tools and reporting on the movement for the Global Voices website.

Suitable candidates will have a strong understanding of the international blogosphere, technical understanding of the mechanisms of internet filtering and circumvention (proxies, Tor, anonymizing techniques), and journalism or technical writing experience. Active involvement in developing world anticensorship efforts is a strong plus, as is active involvement in the Global Voices community.

Global Voices expects that the Advocacy Director will focus 20-25 hours per week on the position, with a great deal of schedule flexibility. Some international travel is required as part of the position, including attendance at the Global Voices annual meeting (travel funding will be provided.) The Advocacy director reports to the acting managing director of Global Voices, and later to the managing director - the advocacy director will be expected to participate in the Global Voices editorial process, serving alongside regional editors, translation editors and our human rights video editor, and to contribute advocacy-related posts to the Global Voices website.

We are able to offer an annual salary of $25-30,000 USD for this position, based on experience. To apply, please send a letter of interest along with CV or resume to [email protected]

If you're interested and think you're qualified for the job, please get in touch with Ethan ASAP!

links for 2007-01-15

• Boycott Time's New China Blog - China Law Blog: a blog about Chinese law and the legal issues of doing business in China.
  "Time starts a China blog and then leaves out the good stuff that makes a blog a blog. It reads like none of its writers have read any other China blogs before starting this one. It has no heart, no voice, no soul. It has nothing to say. No reason for
  (tags: china blogs blogging journalism news)
• People's Daily Online -- China has 20.8 million bloggers
  "By the end of 2006, the number of bloggers in China had reached 20.8 million, of whom 3.15 million are active authors, according to the China Internet Survey Report 2007 released Wednesday."
  (tags: china blogs blogging media internet chineseinternetresearch)
• Popular Science Blog - Digging Under the Great Firewall of China
  Report on a talk by IT security expert Sebastian Wolfgarten about circumventing Chinese internet censorship.
  (tags: china internet censorship circumvention tor freespeech chineseinternetresearch)

links for 2007-01-14

• The Standard - Tightening the digital divide - in December the HK govt released a consultation document...
  "...that could lay the groundwork for new laws to criminalize any unauthorized downloading, remove obstacles for companies to sue citizens for liability and hold Internet service providers responsible for their users' online behavior."
  (tags: law copyright internet freespeech hongkong)
• The Standard - Industry call setting off alarm bells
  2nd part in a 2-part series about proposed changes to Hong Kong's copyright law that the music and film industries are pushing - and the uproar of critics who find the measures excessively draconian and stifling to cultural creativity, technology industry
  (tags: law ip internet copyright hongkong freeculture freespeech)
• Hong Kong Govt. Public Consultation on Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment
  This is the original PDF document on which the Hong Kong government is seeking public consultation about potential hard-line changes to copyright law.
  (tags: copyright ip internet freespeech freeculture hongkong)
• 香港獨立媒體 - 網絡維權：齊來回應「在數碼環境中保護知識產權」 諮詢文件
  InMedia HK opposes proposed hard-line copyright law in Hong Kong, supports Creative Commons and the formation of a new Open Knowledge organization to educate the public.
  (tags: hongkong freespeech freeculture copyright ip law)
• Hong Kong Govt. Public Consultation on Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment
  The full PDF document on which the Hong Kong government is seeking public consultation about potential hard-line changes to copyright law.
  (tags: copyright ip internet freespeech freeculture hongkong)
• BitTorrent User Goes To Jail - Software News by InformationWeek
  From late last year: "A Hong Kong court has upheld a three-month jail sentence for a 38-year-old man who the Motion Picture Association claims is the first to be charged for using BitTorrent file sharing. "
  (tags: hongkong copyright ip internet freespeech freeculture)
• Poynter Online - Take a Blogger to Lunch (And Other Radical Ideas for Journos Struggling to Understand the Web)
  "What our newsrooms need is a mindset that values the Web for what it is, an extention of our human desire for community."
  (tags: journalism internet media news web2.0)
• Teaching Online Journalism: Getting (and keeping) a job in journalism
  "How many j-schools are permitting students to graduate with a journalism degree and inadequate skills to pursue a career in journalism?"
  (tags: journalism web internet news education)
• Resources for Web Workers - Web Design Tips - Mindy McAdams
  Fabulous collection of resources from a veteran online journalism Prof.
  (tags: webdesign internet web journalism education tools)

links for 2007-01-13

• EastSouthWestNorth: Top 10 blog service providers in China
  I missed this when Roland originally linked to it in December.
  (tags: china blogs blogging internet)
• 2006百度搜索风云榜 Baidu's most popular questions of 2006
  Thanks to Roland and Virutal China for the pointer - missed this when it came out in December too. See http://www.virtual-china.org/2007/01/baidus_top_ques.html for selective translation.
  (tags: baidu search china internet chineseinternetresearch)
• Global Voices Online » The rest of the world welcomes the Apple iPhone
  "why the keen interest from outside the US in this costly gadget most of the world won’t have access to for quite some time? ... perhaps the more compelling reason is the critical role played by mobile technology in the information landscapes of many co
  (tags: mobile wireless iphone apple globalvoices)
• AsiaPundit » Blog Archive » China Internet Still Broken
  Asiapundit gives a good roundup of people's experiences with China's still-broken Internet in the wake of the Taiwan earthquake.
  (tags: internet china)
• Andrew Lih » Blog Archive » The Internet Gulag
  "International access to the Internet from Beijing has been poor since January 1, and seems to have gotten worse..."
  (tags: china internet)
• Andrew Lih » Blog Archive » Internet in China Post-earthquake
  Andrew's post-new year experience with the broken Internet in China.
  (tags: china internet)
• China Mobile Issues Corporate Social Responsibility Report - ChinaTechNews.com
  "China Mobile (CHL) has issued its corporate responsibility report, the first one ever issued in China's telecommunications industry."
  (tags: china mobile wireless chinamobile csr)
• Edelman Gives Up Tracking Chinese Blogs - ChinaTechNews.com
  "More proof, if any were needed, that China is not for dilettantes, and the corporate communications crafts are no exception."
  (tags: china blogs blogging technorati edelman)
• Technology News: ECT News Exclusives: OpenNet Partner Ronald Deibert: Internet Censorship on the Rise
  "Before, a government would block CNN, for instance. But now it is targeting blogs in Farsi or Chinese or Arabic while the Western media is relatively open. It's the topics that hit close to home that they want to control; locals aren't likely to read CNN
  (tags: censorship blogs internet freespeech circumvention)