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Asia Next Frontier in Blogging
Lullabye_Muse writes "Japan Today tells us that there are 3 million people blogging in Japan and over 16 million people visiting a blog at least once a month in the country. It also mentions that over the next two years the market for blogs will expand over 40%." Meanwhile, in regards to Chinese blogging, wayfaring stranger writes "A new Wired News article talks about Hong Konger Edwyn Chan's new www.blogkumedia.com Chinese blog network, which aims to make blogging a mainstream reality for the Chinese internet." From the article: "Blogs haven't caught on in China, so even when Chan can hire bloggers, it's hard to market them to consumers, attract advertisers and raise venture capital. The investors he has met don't use blogs as sources of information, so they generally have no clue of what a blog is. 'All they know is that it's something hot which they hope to be able to cash out hopefully in less than a year,' Chan said."
Any bets when we'll meet a bunch of sentients from another galaxy and break past thirty-two bits per code point?
There is a somewhat hilarious description of how the Java developers dealt with all this: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/In tl/Supplementary/.
Transhumanism/singularity will probably whittle down the whole thing to the bit of course!
Transcend Humanity. Please.
Does this remind anyone else of stories from when Netscape went public years and years ago? I remember hearing things like a woman called up and said she had no idea what the Internet or Netscape was, but she wanted to buy some shares in it, because it sounded like a hot money-making ticket to GET RICH QUICK!!!11
In Korea, only old people use blogs.
Instead of shutting him down, however, the Gong An told him if he wanted to continue he would have to remove the more heated posts, which he did
And so, why is blogging in China useful?
For the World Wide Web. Wiki is maybe a bit closer.
However I've been looking into it and it seems to me to be a sad, isolated, lonely world, there are no connections between the people producing these blogs. No community.
Deleted
Someone set up us the blog.
What happens when blogging rates reach 90%, do people just die in their bedrooms from malnutrition, while the economy implodes, and farmland is left to go fallow?
... and then they built the supercollider.
Chinese investors sound like they're state-of-the-art 1998. Which means blogs won't take off there until 2010. And their Internet crash will come right on schedule in 2008.
--
make install -not war
Is it hype or reality? I don't know, I write my own blog almost as a hobby; a nice pass time. I like to read the thoughts of others who enjoy the pass-time too. But I'm not so pretentious to think that blogging will "change the world" (tm).
It's nice that blogging has brought communities together and is replacing the lecturing of the old media (news papers and magazines) with the debate brought in new media (blogs).
When all is said and done, I think blogging is and will always be a nice pass time for the majority of people. Don't get me wrong, blogging is on the march and by no means has it reached it's destination. What I contend, is the final position of blogging within society; it will be somewhat different than people have come to expect.
Simon.
I wouldn't blog if I lived in China because you never know what could be used against you.
On another level, blogging could give open societies an edge as they offer processed information in the form of opinions which can be accepted or rejected as a whole when you only need general working knowledge of a topic. The quicker opinions can be integrated with yourself, the more mental ground you can cover. Of course if I was doing something critical I would not depend on Joe's opinion but would instead research the material myself.
Or not.
Shh.
I can't exactly see the Chinese Government taking a shine to this. Independent analysis? Free speech? Free information sharing? A community where anyone can say anything he choses? This... in a country that has a firewall at the national level to block access to block non-approved websites, a government that bullied Google into filtering its search results?
BLOGGING in CHINA?!
Was that the sound of hell freezing over...?
I really hope this *does* get off the ground, of course; this would be a wonderful human rights victory for the Chinese people. I'm just highly skeptical and cynical. While the government can shut down/monitor a few major blogs, can it really hope to monitor tens, hundreds of thousands, even millions of blogs? Is it willing to take the chance?
multifariam.net -- yet another nerd blog
Blogging has not caught on in China because citizens in China have learned to keep their head down and stay quiet to avoid jail time or being murdered by army tanks. Blogging cannot work where there is government oversight and censorship. Especially not when the government in question has a long track record in stifling free expression.
*puts on kevlar suit and runs away*
{ {SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP-SLAP--}}}
*THAT* is not going to help you. And the self-defending Cisco system won't help you, either.
Yie-Yie-Yie-Yie-Yie-Yie-ZZZZZPPPPT-B^ING!!!!
{
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
nt
i wonder how people will express opinions in public in a country that does not encourage that. In all likelihood, chinese blogs will be like chinese discussion groups, censored. Until the communist government is overthrown the only chinese that will be blogging are the diaspora and those in HK and the Republic of China.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
I dont get what the big deal about blogging is??
I mean yeah its cool to blog and be heard...But how is this different from years ago when everyone had their own website on geocities and said things there???
Yes its easy and more accessible and everyone's doing it...but its basically still the same old thing...
It cracks me up how theres all this hype about blogs... I'm sick to death of hearing about it. Just the phrase "blog" seems to imbue some kind of extree-special ambiance, as it were, when in reality, its just another goddam opinion on the web. And China exploding with blogs? I can't wait to spend endless hours glued to my FP slavoring over the latest agricultural news from Guangdong...
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
It seems like the melting pot to which people sometimes refer America is much bigger than the US.
I know, I know, this is nothing new. "We knew the Internet would do this!" you say. "That's old news!" you say.
It's just neat to see it coming to fruition--that's all.
And with translating software readily available, wouldn't it be neat to peek into the world of someone who, only a few years ago, we colloquially referred to as being ultimately foreign, far away, and exotic.
In fact, that's one reason I love MMORPGs. You can chat with people all over the world, while you wait for the Baal bot to get to the Throne room!
http://augustwestproducts.i8.com
I think it was about 2 or 3 years ago, there was an incredibly popular blog in China, written by a woman, about her sexual experiences. (And from what I read, yes, it really was written by a woman.) I'm blanking on her name, and can't even remember if she was in Hong Kong, or maybe Guangzhou. Anyway, it was incredibly popular, among people in China, and overseas. I think that put the idea of blogging on the map, in people's minds in China. But it seems to have faded from the public consciousness since then.
I'm sure someone here knows what I'm talking about and can post a link to more info.
Millions more pages of bizarro fecal fetishes.
If felching were a stock, I'd recommend buying up a shitload!
SWEET! My very first Flamebait mod!
All those years of perfecting my humor have finally suceeded in pissing someone off.
Do not taunt Happy-Fun Ball
... oh fuck it.
-pyrrho
In China, only fagots blog ... ... just like in the civilized world!
political blogging is more communal than what you are thinking of.
left example: dailykos.com
central example: tacitus.org
right example: redstate.org
-pyrrho
Again, another Zonk story regarding blogging. He's like the Piquepaille of blogging stories.
it's all no different then when you could put your idea on a piece of paper and hand it to your friend, except being more accessible.
and that makes a big, but not fundamental, difference.
-pyrrho
I've been an active and curious internet user since WAIS and Gopher were the tools of choice, maybe I haven't "seen it all", but I've tried to. Sooo with that in mind...
Can somebody please explain to me what sets blogging apart from Geocities "Meet my Dog, check my favorite links" pages.. multiplied by a million screaming ME TOO posts and cross links? Everyone with their own personal sad little version of Fark??
This is not a troll. I get that out of 10 million blogs a few will be thoroughly engrossing, but still I obviously don't get the blogging thing, so I'm seriously asking to be smacked with a clue-by-four regarding blogs. What's the big draw? What do they accomplish for most people? A good place for blogging newbies?
Swing away please. Thanks.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
posted at a web log.
you have just made the world that much better!
-pyrrho
Only old people blog!
I think it's more likely that if your blog isn't along the lines of:
"Wow, I can't believe how awesome my government is. Went out and got a new Mao jacket. Cute girl gave me her number."
You get shot and you die.
Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot how kindly a nation China is.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
In Japanese case, they were originally calling that king of thing "Diary" for a decade and recently start calling it "Blog" as they think it can get more attention. That's why there happened to be so many blogs suddenly.
I have no idea about China/Korea since their blog system is most likely on the server which their governments have a control to track or shut down.
Thats flamebait or, at best /. groupthink.
Having lived in China, I can tell you for a fact that people are more open about the opinions (political or otherwise) than in the US, where most people I dealt with had difficulty forming opinions without "help" from celebrities.
Perhaps a better base of comparison is Canada. Though I havent spent much time there, people were better informed, and had few inhibitions about sharing their views and thoughts.
I'm talking about government censorship in China and you start ripping the intelligence of the average American. That's an interesting diversion, but I won't go for it.
How about:
Tianennmen Square
Or this example
Do you think the PRC government will allow free and open expression in blogs?
of course, you know tianenmen square was a fabrication of western media to make communism look bad
dont bother, thats the only response you will get from most people here.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Well, perhaps the Chinese like rice because it's the only thing that isn't an aphrodisiac in their superstitious minds.
mrbrown.com. Blogging in Singapore before it was called blogging.
I have been teaching students in a small city called Pune in India since 1978 and I have been noticing that the blogging phenomenon is very high amongst them. This is growing by leaps and bounds.
Satish Talim Software Consultant Learning Ruby: http://sitekreator.com/satishtalim/index.html
...so that decent may take root in society and they collectively get more brave to confront their oppressive government.
Who knows, maybe the fall of Chinese totalitarian rule will be overthrown through public blogging.
Life is not for the lazy.
This is not directed at your comment, but answers the accusation that you made on behalf of others. I know someone who was shot during Tian An Men, couldn't go to the hospital for fear of being arrested, and couldn't use his knee properly anymore the last time I heard from him, which was ten years ago.
Put identity in the browser.
It's because all you fat white middle-class capitalist pigs are forcing the Chinese government to kill its own citizens because they can't afford to subsidize anything except for huge palaces belonging to their fearless leader! Oh...and maybe some nukes and machine guns.
I seriously think that some ministry in China has a staff of internet users who troll web fourms to try to spin the Chinese image anytime people mention China's track record on human rights and basic freedoms.
I know plenty of Chinese poeple - they aren't blind and stupid to think that way. Millions of Chinese want out, and many are in America for good reason.
Does China even have a tradition of freedom of any kind at all? The Communists didn't exactly change the cultural outlook on individualism overnight you know...
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
lollerskates to a job well done
"Tell him, Ching, chang, chong, Ah, Wah, So."
*puts on kevlar suit and runs away*
Why run?
Fat white guys named Dave with Bush bumperstickers on their SUV can blend into any crowd.
I think in many ways it is similar to Slashdot. People find out about news (and interpretations of news) that they wouldn't otherwise read. The liberating aspect of it is that anyone can do it, and millions of niches can be filled. You don't have to know anything about HTML to have your own blog that goes into extensive detail about whatever you want to discuss, whether that's of interest to 1 person or 1 million people.
In my opinion blogging has caught on because it has democratized the Web. Democratization leads to a cacaphony of voices, which makes the filtering much more difficult than when you're digesting mainstream media. But it also allows you to participate in a much more varied world of interests and opinions.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
H.K. is very different than the rest of China.
To a lesser extent this is true of Shanghai and then Beijing.
H.K. residents have a different world view than Mandarin speaking Chinese.
Blogging from H.K. is not surprising. There aren't protests against the Japanese in H.K. While now technically China once again, H.K. remains seperate economically and ideologically. Maybe this will change with the next generation of H.K.ers. Somehow, I think not, because of the language and culture gap between HK and mainland China.
There are *plenty* of blogs and blog hosting services in China e.g. http://blog.sina.com.cn/
:
Of course, the majority of these blogs are in Chinese. Just because you can't read it, doesn't mean they don't exist.
There're a handful of Chinese who blog in English:
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives.htm
http://ming.weblogs.us/
Imo, the best English language blogs on what's happening in China are
ESWN
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm
and
Danwei
http://www.danwei.org/
From: Someone living in China
Almost all young people in Korea use 'mini homepages' or blogs every day. 10 million Koreans (of 48 million) are already using blogs. Only 30 million Koreans are online meaning a full 33% of everyone on the internet in Korea have blogs. It also means that 20% of the entire population of Korea are writing blogs. In Japan there is only 3 million of 127 million people writing blogs, or about 2%. The difference is an order of magnitude. The registered blogs in Korea are also each unique to a person, as you are are required to enter the Korean equivalent of a social security number before making a new page.
. html
For a bit more info, check out this page. http://english.kbs.co.kr/life/trend/1337632_11857
Apparently, Ruby does not yet understand Unicode either. Ruby 2.0 will, but that seems to be some years off still. It's a shame, because it's probably the one big thing keeping me away from Ruby. In the modern world of a global internet, unicode is a prerequisite, imho. Which reminds me: since IRC doesn't specify a character set, are there any moves to standardise on UTF8 use for IRC, since that would solve the problem in a way that works for everyone (at least in future)?
Nothing at all, except now people too stupid to learn HTML can also contribute to the crapflooding of the web. Add to this that media is always slow to pick up tech-related stuff (I'm not saying this is tech), and you have your new, hot and empty media-hype.
Personally I'd rather visit those crummy websites with anim-gifs at Geocities at a regular basis than ever hearing the word blog again.
Nothing to see. Well, actually there's a lot to see, you just don't want to. Ofcourse the so called "bloggers" will have a different opinion on this.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
well, you are right, there is a division of the communist government that does exactly that.
China goes undercover to sway opinion on Internet
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
China and Hong Kong and Japan blogs are predominantly in non-English, making their content hard to gauge for non-Asians. However most bloggers in Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore blog in English. For example, timyang.com.