Check out the new blog, Beijing Youth Voices, by 6 Chinese youth who live in Beijing--Iris, Siqi, Steven, Linda, E-mail, and Kelan. For the next few months, they will be posting bi-weekly blogs, giving you a peek into their lives and life in China. This blog is a project between the U.S. based-nonprofit What Kids Can Do, Inc. and Adobe Youth Voices.

Over the past few months of preparing this project, I have had the honor to work with What Kids Can Do, Adobe Youth Voices and ChinaPax (a Beijing based Mandarin language program). I am particularly excited about seeing this project come to life after a few months of connecting the most dynamic team of youth bloggers. Despite the number of Chinese blogs (being sited anywhere from 700,000 to 2 million), many blog posts that are written in Chinese rarely make it beyond China. With all the recent news surrounding China's Olympics in Beijing, we thought that in addition to the mass media reports it would be great to just hear what Beijing life is like from the perspective of 6 high school aged youth, who will be telling their stories (in English) of what Beijing means for them and what daily life is like.

Although we cannot stretch their writings to be reflective of life all over China, we can at least gain an intimate inside into life for these particular group of youth from a specific place and background. It is our hopes that through this aggregated blog, you will follow their writings for the next few months, give them encouragement and feedback by leaving comments on their writings. I am constantly amazed by their strength to open up their lives.

Please help spread the word about their blog by forwarding, reposting, or using their posts in your lesson plans! Thanks! -tricia

*Special thanks to Gloria Xu of Chinapax for being such a great facilitator!

Technorati Tags: adobe youth initiative, blog, bloggers, china, china pax, chinese, everyday, life, olympics, online, puppy, stories, website, what kids can do, youth

Posted by Tricia Wang at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From ChinaTechNews: Guangdong Mobile Offers Free Telephone Service To Migrants - "Guangdong Mobile has formally launched its "Appreciation to Guangdong" program, a series of activities including 15 minutes of free long-distance call service for each migrant worker in the province every weekend.

Starting with this free telephone service, Guangdong Mobile plans to help solve some hot social issues and difficulties through its technology platforms and offer benefits to companies, students, farmers and migrant workers in the area. Xu Long, general manager of Guangdong Mobile, says that the company's "Appreciation to Guangdong" program is an extension of its "Thank Guangdong" program that ran last year.

Migrant workers who don't have a mobile phone can come to Guangdong Mobile's Communication 100 Service Halls to make their free calls, while those who have mobile phones can enjoy the free service with a Shenzhouxing card. Li Xinze, general manager of Guangdong Mobile's marketing department, says that Guangdong Mobile will also arrange traveling service vehicles next month from which the migrant workers can make their calls." Photo from AP Photo by ELIZABETH DALZIEL

In addition, Guangdong Mobile says that it will build 500 Communication 100 Service Halls to provide free internet service for migrant workers.

"

Technorati Tags: cell phone, cellphone, china, guangdong mobile, migrant, urban

Posted by Tricia Wang at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The India China Institute at The New School, now in its third year of convening fellowships, public debates and trilateral research collaborations between experts in India, China and the United States, is ideally placed to host this major conference on “Prosperity and Inequality: Debates in India and China”.

Drawing on two cohorts of our own fellows from all three counties, as well as a remarkable range of experts who have been researching issues of urbanization, globalization and growth in India and China, this Conference will determine a benchmark assessment of Chinese and Indian urbanization and wealth-formation, of the social and political risks associated with skyrocketing growth in two massive agrarian societies, of alternative designs for future development in each society and of the search, in both societies, for a “third way” of development that combines the virtues of socialism and capitalism without sacrificing the virtues of democracy and grassroots inclusion."

Technorati Tags: china, conference, equality, india, inequality, Prosperity and Inequality: Debates in India and China, the new school

Posted by Tricia Wang at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Graham Webster over at CNET's Sinobyte has written a balanced and informative post on how China might handle its information firewall during the 2008 Summer Olympics. I like the article's tone in that it doesn't focus on condemning the Chinese government, rather it focuses on explaining the situation. Webster doubts that "the entire censorship regime will be shut down during the Olympics" and thinks that "likely that some or all filtering will cease during the Olympics, but we'll just have to wait and see." Keep writing more posts like these Graham! I think this is really one of the most interesting aspects to keep an eye on this summer. -tricia

Technorati Tags: 2008 , beijing, china, firewall, graham webster, information, monitor, olympic

Posted by Tricia Wang at 1:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey readers, after a long winter break that included crashed hard-drives (i back up thankfully -so back yours up now too!), I am beginning to feel the blogging spirit again. I will still cover technology and youth orientated stories, but a lot of the posts will reflect my interests around the 2008 Summer Olympics. Happy readings! -tricia

Technorati Tags: 2008 , beijing, chinese , fuwa, internet, olympics, website

Posted by Tricia Wang at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"GGL Global Gaming today announced that it has signed an agreement with the China Internet Gaming Organizing Committee (CIG) to launch The Digital Games" for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"GGL "will host a series of official amateur online qualifying tournaments around the globe, across multiple gaming genres and platforms. GGL will also hold invitational competitions for professional and celebrity gamers – who will also face off at the welcome events hosted by the China Government leading into the Digital Games Shanghai finals."

Gamers from all around the world will compete to represent their country, with the finalists competing in the Grand Finals event in Shanghai.

“The China Internet Gaming Organizing Committee is proud to be the first in digital sports history to recognize videogames as a competitive sport, and we are pleased to be working with GGL to elevate videogames – the 99th Official Sport of China – to the world stage,” said Fong Hong, Honorary General Secretary of the China Internet Gaming Organizing Committee. “Because of GGL’s global reach, content and community, brand recognition, technical capabilities, tournament expertise, strong ties with the gamer community and a rapidly growing Chinese presence, it was a natural fit when deciding who would be the perfect partner for this event.”

Technorati Tags: china, digital , gaming, olympics

Posted by Tricia Wang at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

01SJ is the 2nd Biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, June 4-8, 2008, a multi-disciplinary cultural event on June 4-8, 2008 - San Jose, CA, USA. The festival has a youth program, where they are looking for digital arts made by youth (11-21 years old). They are giving out micro-grants of $500 to individuals/organizations that will support and/or co-produce a youth art project or run a some type of youth arts workshop.
They are looking for youth all around the world so please forward this to your contacts in other countries! But of course since this is a blog focusing on Chinese youth - I want to make sure Chinese youth are represented at the festival! Here are the application details, for more questions, you can contact Liz Slagus. Deadline: Nov. 12th, 2007

Technorati Tags: 2nd biennial, art, art on the edge, arts, california, chinese, digital, ew, exhibit, festival, global, grant, liz slagus, media, micro-grant, san jose, technology, united states, youth, zer01

Posted by Tricia Wang at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello YouMeiTI readers, as part of my October list to-do's now that I am all settled from traveling- blogging on YouMeiTI was my top priority. But I have a good excuse this week for slowing down again just as I was about to warm up - my city is burning up! Seriously.
I spend quite a lot of time in San Diego, CA - and right now I am surrounded by swaths of uncontained fires. I have friends who are evacuated at my house, and friends who trying to anticipate the direction of the capricious winds.

I usually don't blog about personal events on YouMeiTI, but I thought I this is an appropriate post because I can give you a first hand report about how seriously big the fires are in San Diego. The large news conglomerates in the USA are primarily focusing on the Los Angeles fires because of all their celebrities. But the fires in LA pale in comparison to the SD fires. In addition, when the SD news covers the fire, it mainly focuses on the luxury mansions in North County. In reality, it is also affecting the middle-lower class neighborhoods of South County - where there are more Mexicans - and it is 5-10 miles from the Mexican border.

Just to give you an idea of how big this fire is, here is a map with the city of Manhattan imposed on top of just ONE fire. There are at least 8 large fires burning right now. I am not burning, and neither is my house. The air is so horrific here that I have constant headaches, burning nasal passages and nausea. I am at least 15 miles (and many canyons) from the closest fire. I am updating about the fires on a regular basis at my personal blog where I have some video, pictures and media analysis. So give me a few more days to get myself resettled in San Diego. - tricia

Technorati Tags: california, fire, los angeles, manhattan, san diego, southern california, wildfire

Posted by Tricia Wang at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have finally got around to gathering my notes together from my talk at Leeds University this summer. My talk, The Stratified Global Informal Economy of Virtual Games: The Case of World of Warcraft’s Chinese Goldfarmers, highlights the emergence of the specialized labor of Chinese Goldfarmers. At the end of my notes, I have forecasted some implications.

Here's a summary of my main talking points below and you can click here for the extended notes:

• What we have here is not a new type of economy, but a new type of informal economy - the trading of online world currencies against offline world currencies.
• I believe that we are witnessing a new transition in capitalism, a transition to a virtual economy that transforms the medium in which capital is exchanged, labor is sold, production is organized, and value is created. But a new medium does not mean we are seeing new forms of economy, capital or labor relations. The new medium of virtual markets still reproduces the structures of labor and production of material capitalism.
• The economy of WoW is stratified, much like a complex capitalistic economy, where participants have different roles
• As long as value is a measure of wealth, complex virtual economies reproduce parallel conditions of labor power of material capitalist economies. Any utopian visions for virtual economies to transform social structure should take into account that a change in platforms does not always mean a change in structures.
• in China, we see a persistent loosening of technology skills acquisition but not a loosening of network resources.

Future implications for China, virtual worlds, and labor:

• Play is increasingly commodified in a complex global economy
• • In a post-industrial economy, we see the phenomenon of skill saturated intensive labor in technology sectors. Aneesh's theory of the phenomenon of skill saturation highlights the decisive role of repetitive skills in a post-industrial information technology world. This type of labor means that every action of labor can be monitored and surveillanced.
• • Governments will have a bigger role in virtual economies, for example China Central Bank's inquiry into QQ coins. And in China, how will the great internet-wall effect online global economies?
• • The offline will be increasingly tied to the online and future analysis of online worlds should always be tied to offline worlds.
• • The poor, but not necessarily less skilled, wiil have a larger impact on the formal economy - we will see this in other areas, like the increased ownership of cellphones among migrant laborers in China and India
• China's post-socialist dual economy is already considered to look more like a hybrid of a redistributive and market economy. We may be looking at an emerging tripartite post-socialist economy in China: redistributive, market and virtual. The question is to how they will be integrated and what type of combinations will be prod

Thank you WUN and Leeds University for the research fellowship! Special thank you to Dr. Xiyi Huang and Dr. Flemming Christiansen. It was an honor to meet scholars who's work i've read in journals. If you are in graduate school and you study something related to China, then apply for the WUN 2008 fellowship, which will be located in Brisols, UK. Here are my pictures from Leeds, where I found some great hidden graffiti next to the University. Thanks JimmyDan for this great photo of WoW coke cans in China and of course Jin Ge for your your research on Chinese Goldfarmers - without your generosity of sharing your footage and data, I wouldn't have been able to contribute my part to the discourse on WoW Goldfarmers.

Here are some of my new favorite research articles on China that I learned about during my research at Leeds, which I think will be excellent to read for anyone doing research on contemporary China:

• Martin King Whyte's Rethinking the Rural-Urban Cleavage in Contemporary China
• Wendy Bottero's Stratification: Social Division and Inequality (this one isn't about China, but I think it's useful for those studying inequality in China, and plus Dr. Bottero is really approachable so that always makes it more fun to read their work!)
• Xueguang Zhou's Economic Transformation and Income Inequality in Urban China: Evidence from Panel Data
• Carabine Jean's Unmarried Motherhood 1830-1990: A Genealogical Analysis, in Discourse as Data (this isn't about China either, but she shows step-by-step how to apply Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on illegitimacy in 19th century Britain, that can be easily abstracted to Chinese specific issue)

Technorati Tags: capitalism, carabine Jean, china, chinese, currency, digital, ean carabineJ, economy, game, goldfarmer, internet, labor, leeds, market, Martin King Whyte, material, MMORPG, network, online, platform, migrant, virtual , wendy bottero, world of warcraft, WoW, xueguang zhou, yu guoming

Posted by Tricia Wang at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Shen ma Yi si?
  How can one of the “hottest” blogs (ABC chick in Shanghai) be one that has only two posts between March 29, 2007 and August 23, 2007?
  (tags: Blog abc chick shanghai)
• Facebook, we’ve got a problem…
  While they do create points of interests (some are fun after all), you’ll find yourself spending more time tending to the micro-interactions, which adds up to being a good amount of labor, with almost zero utilitarian value (except as a long tail of ent
  (tags: american facebook socialnetworking)
• Berkman and SET: An Open Letter to the Berkman Community
  Technology is primarily seen as a tool for facilitating SET’s bottom-up approach to rehabilitation: by handing tutorials and equipment to the inmates, they are able to teach themselves and each other skills. This increases the sustainability of the proj
  (tags: Technology inmate prison recidivism policy female)

Posted by Tricia Wang at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• New Power in Africa: China’s Trade in Africa Carries a Price Tag
  Ms. Zimba, 40, a quality-control worker at the plant here who asked to be identified only by her common last name because she feared losing her termination benefits, first got a job at the factory in 1989, after moving to Kabwe from the depressed eastern
  (tags: colonialism china africa cotton raw materials)
• A Chinese Century? Maybe It's the Next One
  CHINA claims that its economy is growing at 10 to 11 percent a year, and China's official analysts say that their nation will catch up with the United States long before the 22nd century arrives.
  (tags: statistic statistics china analysis review facts)
• Blind Spots in China's Soft Power
  Traditionally, Chinese diplomacy in Africa has been strong in developing relations with the political elites but weak in engaging African civil society. Beijing's lack of tools and experience in engaging the "African on the street" makes it ill-prepared t
  (tags: china africa policy engaging civil society problem diplomacy responsibility corporate foreign african)
• I Heart Dalian, China
  the article talks about how China's early winners like Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen area "offered a steady stream of qualified employees, relatively good transportation links and more experience in dealing with foreigners" but are now faci
  (tags: dalian china intel company foreign urban development city industry)
• China inflation reading hits ten year high
  most central bankers and economists are uncomfortable with a number above 2.5 percent. China has been trending between 3 to 4 percent for the past several months. The latest reading is a ten year high.
  (tags: inflation ten year high economy food)
• The Arctic circle: The latest hotspot
  What all this means in dollars and cents is dramatic: Based on a charter cost of $30,000 a day, traveling speed of 22 knots and fuel costs of $170 per tonne, the route from Rotterdam to Shanghai via the Northwest Passage would be $590,000 cheaper than thr
  (tags: pollution arctic china)

Posted by Tricia Wang at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chinese netizens have quickly flipped their opinion of Zola Zhou, who has been hailed as China's first citizen media reporter for covering the Chongqing Nailhouse, but is now hailed as another pesky fame seeker. This is all because of his latest video where he documents his visit to Google over click fraud on his Adsense program and demands that Google compensate him for his losses.

Shanghaiist writes that "In the meanwhile, Zola's blog, appears to have been GFW-ed, and so is his Picasa album (which, the last time we checked, consisted mostly of pictures of himself at "troubled spots"). He says on his new blog, Alouz.com:

这是周曙光的国内镜像网站，老子的官方网站被GFW追杀，换一个IP还是被屏蔽了，火大了！有种就明的来打来杀，给老子一个行政处罚通知给我一个痛快，我建立一个国内镜像，我的电话是13467668333，要删除哪篇文章尽管来电话，有什么与事实不符的内容尽管给我一个诽谤罪，别像GOOGLE一样惩罚老子却列一个罪名表让我对号入座！　我操！没人比我更恨那些拥有不透明权力的机构和组织！操！操！操！ This is Zola Zhou's mirror website in China. My official blog has been GFW-ed, and it still doesn't work even after I've pointed it at another IP! I'm fuming mad! If you've got the guts, come beat me, kill me, or take me to court. I'm establishing a mirror website in China and my number is 13467668333. If there's anything you'd like to see taken off just call me. If there's anything untrue in my posts, just sue me for libel. Don't punish me like Google did. F*ck! Nobody hates those who hide behind unseen powers and organisations more than me! F*ck! F*ck! F*ck! "

"Chinese netizens say he's 'crazy about fame' and 'worse than Furong Jiejie.'" Well you know that you are really being ridiculed when Chinese netizens start comparing you to Furong JieJie. -tricia

Technorati Tags: adsense, china, chongqing, citizen , click fraud, google, media, phone, reporter, zola zhou

Posted by Tricia Wang at 1:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's in Apple's best interest for the iphone to not be that difficult to hack. - tricia
From Shanghaiist - Unlocked iPhones now at Xujiahui: A few weeks ago, an American teenager made headlines by unlocking the American version of the iPhone, which is strictly limited to use on the AT&T mobile network in the U.S. The 17 year old published his work on his blog, forever cementing in place in the annals of nerdery. With the iPhone unlocked, iPhone users can use to phone on any GSM network, as used in Europe and Asia, free them from AT&T's grip. It didn't take that long and it was inevitable, but the iPhone has arrived in China (even though it is manufactured here).
Since one article mentioned Xujiahui as a hotspot for purchasing the phone, Shanghaiist went to look around and took these pictures at the electronics mall, near exit 10 in Xujiahui. Indeed, the phone was for sale. Although the Shanghai Morning Post reported that a 4G iPhone sells for 5800RMB, we found the prices a bit higher. "William", our salesman, informed us that the going price for an iPhone with 4GB will cost about 6300 RMB and an 8GB iPhone runs you more than 7000RMB. Perhaps we were given us the white face discount. Damn that "William"! Thank you to Micah for informing us that iPhones are now for sale on Taobao. Hélène Franchineau contributed to this story. thank you Pete for the photo!

Technorati Tags: china, hack, iphone

Posted by Tricia Wang at 1:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HipHop.cn is hosting a contest to find China's next rap star. Winner receives 100,000RMB worth of prizes (which is roughly $13,000). The contest rules state that you are supposed to download HipHip.cn's original beats - so it sounds like they don't want you to use your own beats which I think is really annoying, but maybe they're afraid of legal issues if people used another person's beats? Then you need to upload a video recording by Oct. 8th, and the public will decide the winner. I assume this means they will engage their online audience - so I can't wait to vote!
So far the only good rap artist who has a Chinese background is Jin, but he's Chinese-American (who's now also known at The Emcee). I would love to hear a truly original Chinese rapper - one who isn't trying to mimic the US, or trying to be "down." But one who creates their own hybrid style, fusing the US and Chinese cultures, and spitting lyrics with deep analysis and social commentary. I can't wait to vote! -tricia

Technorati Tags: challenge, china, contest, hip-hop, hiphop, music, rapper, vote, winner

Posted by Tricia Wang at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Thailand lifts YouTube ban
  Technology News: Website to block clips -- Thailand has lifted a five month ban on video website YouTube after the company agreed to block clips offensive to the country's monarch King Bhumibol.
  (tags: thailand youtube ban lift)
• GekTV brings Asian shows to U.S.
  Technology News: New platform to be offered via broadband -- Asian TV shows will have a new avenue into U.S. homes with next month’s bow of feevee platform GekTV Entertainment via broadband Internet.
  (tags: gektv Asia us Internet IPTV home broadband)

Posted by Tricia Wang at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello YouMeiTI readers, right before I went to Leeds for my talk I had a family emergency. I am back in the States still attending to my family, therefore I will not be blogging until September. Hopefully I can start sooner than that with some lite-fare del.icio.us posts - but for now just check in with YouMeiTI in a few weeks. In the meantime, you can enjoy YouMeiTI's newly updated source list to your right. Yipee! You will see that I've divided my blog roll into several helpful categories :) While you are waiting for my next post, you can read all my source's amazing blogs. I hope the rest of the world is having a great summer or winter! I will post the notes from my talk then too! - tricia
ps the comic above is from one of my favorite artists, Natalie Dee.

Technorati Tags: blog, emergency, family, natalie dee, sorry

Posted by Tricia Wang at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am heading over to Leeds, UK for a research fellowship, where I will be speaking about my research on Digital Inequality in China. So I will take a temporary 1 week hiatus (I know i've taken longer unannounced hiatuses - sorry! I'm changing now!) from blogging - but I will definitely post my notes from my talk.
Specifically, I will be talking about how looking at the online virtual gaming world of World of Warcraft, we see the unequal reproduction of material capitalistic relations of labor and production in the in-game and the out-of-game world. I was inspired to look into the research of WoW and Chinese goldfarmers by my friend Jin Ge, who has done amazing field work on the lives of Chinese goldfarmers. thanks Jin Ge for being such a great friend and a great researcher to think with. you are generous with your laughs and your ideas!

Technorati Tags: chinese, conference, digital, game, goldfarmer, jin ge, leeds, leeds, phones, capitalism, talks, uk, virtual, world of warcraft, wow

Posted by Tricia Wang at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Business Week on Net Neutrality
  But eliminating net neutrality would allow these companies to use the power of discrimination to favor their own content -- that is, they would use their domination of the broadband access market to exert power over the content and applications market.
  (tags: net nuetrality Business week article Internet)
• Help EFF pore over documents regarding possible FBI abuses
  We've had over 8000 downloads so far, and the blogosphere is starting to light up with feedback and analysis of the documents, which were disclosed after EFF sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) earlier this year.
  (tags: fbi eff documents citizen participation participatory national security government freedomofinformationact)
• ROK Comics offers $10k Prize to new Talent
  As well as a prize of $10,000 for the best original comic strip of cartoon published, ROK are also offering the winner of the prize the opportunity to feature front-and-centre online under a new section of the ROK Comics website to be called ‘HOT TALENT
  (tags: comic SMS competition contest artist UK)
• NYC Subway Groper's Cell Phone Pics Tossed
  They first saw him at Union Square, followed him on a train to Grand Central, and then back on a train to Union Square where he was grabbing a woman's rear.
  (tags: NYC subway cell phone mobile legal rights issues law evidence)
• Baidu Local Search Sucks, Ex-Employee Sees It
  When you type location plus business category as the keyword in search box, you will get a list of relevant candidates in the left sidebar and a digital map on the right side with several balloons indicating each store’s location.
  (tags: baidu local online Internet search engine)
• Motorola Adjusts Domestic Channel In China
  Ren says the company plans to develop more stores in cities across the country in order to seize back the market share they have lost in the past years to rivals Nokia [...]
  (tags: motorola domestical channel nokia mobile market cell phone china)
• China Construction Bank Launches Mobile Phone Financial Service
  China Construction Bank has launched a new financial service which enables mobile phone users to easily transfer accounts with their mobile phones.
  (tags: china construction bank financial service cell mobile)
• Top 10 Twitter Apps
  Alert and to-do service Remember the Milk has just combined its range of services with that of Twitter, meaning that if you include ' rtm ' as a friend in your Twitter network, your new task-oriented friend informs all of the web services that you've got
  (tags: twitter application review TOP10)
• On Twitter and Youth Adoption
  They've likely cut more features than they added, which is a design philosophy I really believe in. Its refreshing to see applications like these still viably coming to market - because in the past few months I haven't seen anything on Mashable or Techcru
  (tags: twitter youth application market social network)
• Samsung to Release New Blogging Phone
  Samsung Electronics will launch in Europe this month its Mobile Blog 3G Phone (SGH-L760), which allows users to upload content directly to blog sites on the Internet such as YouTbe, UBlog and Buzzet.
  (tags: SAMsung blog phone cell 3g europe)
• China Businesscast: Mobile Marketing
  Continuing China Businesscast's series on the mobile space in China, David Turchetti is founder and CEO of 21 Communications , a service provider that designs and carries out mobile marketing campaigns for consumer brands in China.
  (tags: china Business marketing mobile businesscast)
• Real Time Rome: Using Cellphones To Model a City's Movements
  Another screen is able to track Romans celebrating major events like the World Cup or the city's annual White Nights festival (Notte Bianca, which will happen on Sept. 9, the evening before the Biennale's architecture exhibition opening).
  (tags: rome cellphone city MIT bradyforrest lab)
• ‘Nomadic work’ workshop
  As pointed by Roberto: “I don’t care about where my colleagues are, they can be in the toilets, as soon as the work is done” “Second Life is a place populated by journalists who have virtual sex with each other to write articles about people havin
  (tags: mobile nomadic cell phone holes)
• Personalizing urban space with our gadgets - PAPER by MIMI ITO
  We've had to delve into literature related to urban space, infrastructures and finances that has taken as far afield from the work on social relations that was central to our earlier mobile phone work.
  (tags: mimiito paper urban gadget city essay)

Posted by Tricia Wang at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Daily Wireless: Hong Kong: Chinese Broadband Wireless - Hong Kong marked 10 years since the end of British rule yesterday with parades and protests that “vividly illustrated its role as China’s beacon of political diversity”. Many in Hong Kong believe the next 10 years will be full of tough challenges for the 7 million people living in this global business center on China's muggy southern coast. They fear Singapore and Shanghai will seize a bigger chunk of the city's key businesses, such as shipping and financial services.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has a plan. They want to develop a "knowledge-based" economy, and announced plans to invest some HK$210 million (US$27 million) to build a free Hong Kong-wide WiFi network, explains Tech News.

The government plans to invest HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) in various high-density residential areas of Hong Kong this year to develop more than 1,000 WiFi hotspots, offering wireless broadband connectivity as a community service to the public, said Wai Kay “Ricky” Wong, chairman and cofounder of City Telecom (HK). WiMax at 2.5 GHz is foreseen to be a key enabler in the future. The Hong Kong government will assign broadband spectrum using a market-based approach, based on auction, planned to be conducted in 2008.

Technorati Tags: hong kong, hotspots, internet, china, wifi

Posted by Tricia Wang at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I found this piece of news from Shanghaiist YouMeiTI worthy. It's about a young Japanese male looking for a young Beijing female who he saw on a subway and immediately fell in love with. He uploaded the video online of the subway girl, in which he had secretly captured using his cell phone's video camera. Now he is asking the Beijing webosphere to help him find her.

This is a great glimpse into how youth are experimenting with mobiles, social software and real world relationships. Maybe this will prompt some savvy Chinese internet developer to set up an application a la Craiglist's Missed Connections, or a la Dodgeball to spot potential cuties with cell phones?

I also find it interesting to read some of the very encouraging online comments that Shanghaiist posted (it's all about contentious Japanese and Chinese relations).

日本猪都是杂交的东东，劣等岛国习气！变态！杀光日本猪，把日本猪从中国土地上赶出去
Japanese pigs are all the products of inbreeding and incest. They are an evil island nation! What a freak! Kill all Japanese pigs! Drive them out from Chinese soil!

日本狗，她不会跟你这个日本狗的，等我老了，快死了的时候我到日本放“炮竹
Japanese dog, she is not going to come with you. When I am old some day and about to die, I will come to Japan to set off fire crackers.

就这样还要找中国女人。..难道日本慰安妇死光了?
Look at you, and you want a Chinese woman? Have all the comfort women died in Japan?

Ok well let's see if there will be future news of Chinese boys and Chinese girls cell-videoing each other and posting it online - perhaps the Chinese online community will be a bit more supportive ehh? But you've got to give this Japanese guy some credit for picking a very appropriate song as his background song for his video - Bryan Adam's I Will Be Right Here Waiting For You, - tricia

Technorati Tags: beijing, cell phone, china, craigslist , dodgeball, girl, internet, japan, japanese, love, man, missed connections, mobile, bryan adams, relationship, subway, video

Posted by Tricia Wang at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)