Speakers: Scott Galloway, Founder L2, Clinical Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern; Doug Guthrie, Dean, The George Washington University School of Business; Jan Stael von Holstein, College fo Design & Innovation, Tongji; Chen Tong, SINA; Li Shanyou, Ku6.co;  Sam Flemming, CIC;  Yi Rangyue, 360buy.com; Zhou Hongyi, Qihoo 360 Technology; Maureen Mullen, L2

Although the event was centering around the luxury brand market in China and a lot was about statistics, there were nevertheless a lot of thought provoking facts and figures mentioned in the presentations.

About SNS in China in general

In China, SNS are everywhere.

Most of the services successful in China started as clones of US services but very quickly left the US models far behind in user experience, user base etc, so that due to the Great Firewall there is no Facebook in China, but there are many Facebooks (Kaixin, Renren …); there is no Twitter, but there is Tencent Weibo, Sina Weibo etc.

Li Shanyou (ku6.com) explained some of the major differences between the Internet use in China and the West:

For Westerners, the Internet is a library, it is for information retrieval. For Chinese, the Internet is a playground, it is for communication.

For Americans, the Internet is about a better life. For Chinese, the Internet is for escaping life (it stands for freedom). In China, your find a lot of grassroot stars created by the Chinese Internet.

In the US, you find a lot of user generated content. In China, you find a lot of commercial content (foreign TV etc.)

All major Chinese companies are integrating SNS in their web presence.

Given the figures below, it is clear why:

36,2% Internet penetration

50% of Internet users use SNS

33% of users are watching videos each day

58% upload videos

60 millions Chinese watch TV only on the Net

In the last year, everything has been concentrating on Weibo – as Li Shangyou put it : Being on  Weibo is a way of life, a „Social Fiesta“.

On the SNS, some extremely succesful campaigns have taken place – they were not planned: the most famous exemples are VANCL (我是凡客）or Wanglaoji (CRS).

Case Studies

Sina Weibo

Chen Tong from Sina Weibo gave some brandnew impressive figures: Sina Weibo has

200 million users

800.000 really active users

80 million postings / day

48% mobile usage

1,3 million video clips / day

38% of users are based outside Mainland, HK, TW, SG (4.730.000)

On Sina Weibo, you find all the Chinese stars, scholars / writers  (more than on Twitter), Entrepreneurs. The proportion of students went down, now there are more freelancers, entrepreneurs, people working in IT, living mainly in Tier 1 cities in the East of China.

He cited some expamples of how Weibo is influencing politics (the Wenzhou train accident where the news have spread on Sina Weibo before published by traditional media outlets), how the police and other governmental institutions are using Weibo etc.

This breaks the monopoly of Xinhua – for decades, the state news agency was the first channel via which news were distributed. Now it is (Sina) Weibo.

During the conference, he also cited the latest regulations by the government on the use of Weibo (there has been a lot of discussion regarding the rumors spreading on the Internet and especially on Weibo and how to eliminate that – with speculations that the government wants to shut down Sina Weibo or monitor accounts with 50.000 plus followers etc): „The government will serve the people through Weibo“.

Qihoo 360 Technology: www.360.com

A very interesting case study is the www.360.com, founded by Zhou Hongyi. His company is focussing on a „safe Internet“, providing free antivirus and security software for PC and mobile phones. (This company, the 3 biggest IT company in China, is the only big player which has no direct western model.)

Zhou is an advocate of the concepts of „free“ and „good user experience“.

The Chinese Internet is perceived by the users as „unsafe“ and his company provides a feeling of security, of trust – the central factor for the future Internet. Through a good user experience, he wants to educate the average user so that they develop a basic understanding for technical issues – as small revolution on personal level.

One of the main elements of his portfolio is a „safe“ browser, used by 50 percent of the Chinese Internet users This browser has a strong recommendation engine which to a very large extent replaces the search engine (Chinese users do not search, they want to have immediate access and „click“) and pushes everything on to the desktop: The look and feel of the browser recalls the iPad: everything is ready to be used immediately and it gives access to the biggest Chinese App store (150.000 apps, 100 million active ussers, 300 million downloads / month) where are the apps are „safe“ to use.

Everything is PC-based because a PC is more open than a Mac – this is necessary to garantee a good integration between computer and mobile phone.

(On the conflict with Tencent  in 2010 on unfair competition see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_v._Tencent)

CIC

Sam Flemming von CIC defined the chinese Internet as „unique, fragmented and dynamic“, with more components used by Chinese users than by Westerners: Blogs (the diary, „about me); BBS (the community, about topics); SNS (closed networks, about relationships) and Weibo (open netword, real time events).

BBS are the mainstream for many users, where consumers exchange opinions about products. These BBS are the main source of information about products for Chinese consumers.

360buy.com

Another case study was 360buy.com (JingDong) by Yi Rangyue, an online retailer. What was most interesting, is the user group: 62% have a higher university degree. 92% are between 18 and 39 years old. In 2009, 70% of the buyers where male, in 2011 this figure dropped to 56%. 75% percent earn more than 3000 RMB / month, 75% live in the eastern cities of BJ; SH; GZ.

http://tttt.artlinkart.com/en/speakers.html

International Research Conference on Media Arts

Within the International Research Conference in the Series “Consciousness Reframed:    Art and Consciousness in the Post-­Biological Era”

The global impulse in new media art brings together disparate theories and practices from old and new societies, ancient and speculative philosophies, traditional and emergent technologies, into new conjunctions and configurations. There are transformative notions of place and presence, private and social, mind and machine. At the interface of sensibilities and systems , all that is solid melts into air…

These issues form the background of the conference of artists, scholars, scientists, and engineers that will constitute Consciousness Reframed at SIVA, convened by Professor HU, Vice-Dean of the College of New Media Art (SIVA, Fudan University) and co-directed by Professor Roy Ascott, Founding President of the Planetary Collegium.

Introduction

The Consciousness Reframed conference series was founded by Roy Ascott at the University of Wales in 1997. Consciousness Reframed is a forum for trans-disciplinary inquiry into art, science, technology, and consciousness, drawing upon the expertise and insights of artists, designers, architects, performers, musicians, writers, scientists, and scholars, from many countries. Consciousness Reframed conferences have taken place in Australia, Austria, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The global impulse in new media art brings together disparate theories and practices from old and new societies, ancient and speculative philosophies, traditional and emergent technologies, into new conjunctions and configurations. There are transformative notions of place and presence, private and social, mind and machine. At the interface of sensibilities and systems, all that is solid melts into air…

These issues form the background of the conference of artists, scholars, scientists, and engineers that will constitute Consciousness Reframed at SIVA, convened by Professor HU, Vice-Dean of the College of New Media Art [SIVA, Fudan University] and co-directed by Professor Roy Ascott, Founding President of the Planetary Collegium.Speakers and Topics

China

Xin DING and Jin ZHU

Xin DING Lecturer Film and Visual Arts Department Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing; Master CalArts Film and Video Art, artist in Experimental film

Jin ZHU

Director of Beijing Planetarium

Speech Topic: Parallel Reality in Visionary Art Works

Bingfeng DONG

Deputy Director Iberia Center for Contemporary Art; Editor -­ in -­ Chief for “Art & Investment” , “Contemporary Art & Investment and “Art in China” magazines

Speech Topic:    The “Chinese Independent Film Archive” of the Iberia Center for Contemporary Art [Beijing]

Jun FEI

Artist / Designer, Associate Professor, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Media Lab, Beijing

Speech Topic: Artistic practice in digital invention and social intervention

Mengbo FENG

Independent artist, Guest – ­Professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing

Speech Topic: After the Digitalization

Yan GONG

Artist, Director of O Art Center, Institute of Visual Arts, Fudan University, Editor -­ in -­ Chief of Art World Magazine

Zhenhua LI

Independent Curator

Speech Topic: The Socialization of the New Media as Reality

Xinghua LU

Teaches in the Department of Philosophy, Tongji University and in the Institute of Contemporary Art and Social Thought, China Academy of Art. His major works include Contemporary Tasks for in Philosophy [2009] and What Is Contemporary Art For? [2011]

Speech Topic: Political Symptoms in Contemporary Documentary Practice in China and the Way Out

Ellen PAU

Filmmaker, media artist and curator based in HK, teaches in HK University, HK Polytechnic University and HK Academy of Performing Arts, full time medical image technologist, advisor to the HK Museum of Art, HK Art Development Council and a number of festivals

Zhijie QIU

Artist,    Associate Professor of China Academy of Art, Vice-­‐Director of Research Center of Visual Culture, China Academy of Art

Jie SHENG [aka gogoj]

New Media Artist, Founder of SHANavlab Beijing

Speech Topic: New Media Art and Survival

Xing WEI

Chief Curator, Himalayas Museum of Art, Graduated from Goldsmith College, University of London

Speech Topic: New Media Art: A View in the Context of the History of Art

Jieming HU

Artist,    Vice‐Dean for the College of New Media Art, Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, Fudan University

Speech Topic: Emotions of Media-­Beyond the Lab

Juehui    WU

New Media Artist, teaches at the School of International Art, China Academy of Art; Artist‐in­‐ Residence at TASML, artist‐in‐Residence at Media x Design Lab, EPFL

Speech Topic: MeatMedia

Weimin ZHENG

Founder of DDM Ware House and ARTLINKART

Speech Topic: Data Power

Yan LIU and aaajiao

Yan LIU

CEO/Cofounder Xindanwei

Aaajiao

CTO/Cofounder Xindanwei

Speech Topic: Co-­working as the vehicle of open design and innovation

Art YAN

Curator, Producer, Researcher, currently lives and works in Shanghai

Speech Topic: Media Future, Media Thinking

Abroad

Jeffrey SHAW

World-renowned pioneer of interactive art, whose seminal artistic experiments over forty years range between expanded cinema and virtual reality. He was founding director of the ZKM Institute for Visual Media Karlsruhe, and is currently Dean of the City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media.

Speech Topic: Future Narrative, Discovery Engines and Making Meaning in VR

Richard CASTELLI

Founder, Curator and Producer, Media and Performing Arts, Founder and Director Epidemic [France]; Former Senior Curator of Lille 2004 Cultural Capital of Europe and two French National Visual and Performing Art centers

Speech Topic: Infection of tired conceptual art in media arts

Victoria VESNA

Director, UCLA Art | Sci center, Professor, Department of Design | Media Arts. Currently developing Planetary ArtSci network and to this end is Visiting Professor at Parsons Art Media Technology in NY and Artist in Residence, IMéRA in Marseille

Speech Topic: HOX ZODIAC: Metamorphosis of a Human Animal

Online

Bill SEAMAN

Professor Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University

Speech Topic: Four Transcultural Case Studies: Transmedial Walks, Drives and Observations

Christiane PAUL

Curator New Media Art Dept., Whitney Museum of American Art Speech

Speech Topic: Curating New Media / Cultural Transactions

Ken FIELDS

Canada Research Chair, Telemedia Arts Associate Professor, Department of Music

Speech Topic: Sounding Chronotopic Networks

Luis Eduardo LUNA

Director of Wasiwaska Research Center for the Study of Psychointegrator Plants, Visionary Art, and Consciousness, Florianopolis, Brazil

Roger MALINA

Director Observatory of Marseille Provence and Executive Editor of Leonardo Publications, MIT Press

Speech Topic: From Art to Science and Back: A problem in Translation?

Thomas RAY

Professor of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, Biologist having studied ecology, evolution, and natural history in tropical rainforests; artificial life in computers; and who currently studies the human mind

Speech Topic:    Reason and Other Ways of Knowing:     Our Evolutionary Heritage

Soh-Yeung ROH

Founder and director of Art Center Nabi, also teaches at Seoul National University Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology

Speech Topic: Communication of Emotions

Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth, UK

Roy ASCOTT

British artist, Founding President of the Planetary Collegium, Professor of Technoetic Arts, University of Plymouth, and Professor Aalborg University, Copenhagen

Speech Topic: Art and Organism: the Generative Ground

Jane GRANT

Associate Professor [Reader] in Digital Arts at University of Plymouth, UK, co-director of the research group art + sound and Principle Supervisor in the Planetary Collegium, CAiiA-Node

Speech Topic: Matter and Mutability: Presence and Affect in Other Worlds

Mike PHILLIPS

Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts at the University of Plymouth and the Director of the arts research organization i-DAT.org

Speech Topic: Ceteris Paribus: 2 + 2 = 5

Alexander CETKOVIC

Multidisciplinary architect and computer scientist

Speech Topic: Flexibility in Architecture and its Relevance for the Ubiquitous House

Claudia JACQUES

Independent artist, educator based in the USA

Speech Topic: Escher’s Way: A New Paradigm for Conceptualizing Changes in Consciousness

Ellen SEBRING

Research Associate Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA, USA

Speech Topic: World on the Head of a Pin, Visualizing Micro and Macro Points of View in China’s Boxer War of 1900

Haytham NAWAR

Lecturer in Graphic Design at German University in Cairo, Egypt

Speech Topic: Visual Integration and Trans-culturalism, New Media Art, Technology, Visual Communication and Linguistics Communication

Isabella BUCZEK

Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Kiel

Speech Topic: Transmedial Intersections of Media Platforms in the 360° Medium

Julieta Cristina AGUILERA-RODRIGUEZ

Works at Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, USA

Speech Topic: A Categorization of Synthetic Experiences

Katerina J. KAROUSSOS

Artist, Researcher

Speech Topic: A PILG-[Image] to Second Life

Kathrine Elizabeth ANKER

Independent Researcher

Speech Topic: On Extended Sentience and Cross-cultural Communication and How to Generate New Stories on the Human Subject

Linus LANCASTER

Visual arts teacher, art director for the Healdsburg School District in California

Speech Topic: Abstract – Listening to “Dirty” Temporalities

Max KAZEMZADEH

Associate Professor of Art and Media Technologies at Gallaudet University, USA

Speech Topic: Apophenia: Mantras, Magic, Monsters & Moist Modeling

Nasim Zaman ZADEH

Designer and Researcher based in Milan, Italy

Speech Topic: The 7th Century, Iranian History in Late Antiquity Transition from Sasanian to Islamic Era

Pam PAYNE

Digital media artist and founder of Brickhaus production studio in NYC; currently is perusing a PhD degree at the Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth, England

Speech Topic: Altered States of Consciousness and Enhanced Experience

Xiaoying Juliette YUAN

Independent curator, Event Organizer/Researcher in Media Arts, China; Project Director for “Transcultural Tendencies, Transmedial Transactions” International Research Conference on Art, Technology and Consciousness”, SIVA/PC, Shanghai, 2011

Speech Topic: The Social Proprieties of Media Arts in an Open Source Era

Živa LJUBEC

Independent architect and researcher at the intersection area of art/science/consciousness

Speech Topic: Art of Peripheral Permeability? Revisiting Interfaces in Biological Media for Post-Biological Culture

Call for Papers Selected Speakers

Call for Papers Final

Fred McVITTIE

Artist and educator currently based at University College Falmouth, UK

Speech Topic: Psyche Pellucida: See-through Beings in a Transparent Society

Richard A. COURAGE

Professor of English at Westchester Community College/SUNY, Author of The Muse in Bronzeville [Rutgers UP], USA

Speech Topic: Re-presenting Racial Reality: Chicago’s New [Media] Negro Artists of the Depression Era

Rui CHAVES and Felipe HICKMANN

Rui CHAVES

Worked in the dance organization C-E-M [Centro Em Movimento]. He received an MA in Sonic Arts, currently is pursuing a PhD at SARC [Sonic Arts Research Centre], Belfast, UK

Felipe HICKMANN

Brazilian composer and performer, currently conducting PhD research at SARC [Sonic Arts Research Centre], Belfast, UK

Speech Topic: Paulista : A Networked Translocal Sonic Performance, Between São Paulo and Belfast

Goldy WU

Master Degree in Interactive Design and Electronic Art at University of Sydney, Australia

Speech Topic: Multiple-Channel Video Installation as a Precursor of Transmedia Art

Alexander TIBUS

Junior Lecturer at the German University in Cairo, Faculty of Applied Arts and Sciences, Egypt. Member of IDZ – Internationales Designzentrum Berlin. Member of Designcenter Berlin

Speech Topic: Watchful Reading: Optical Illusion in Static and Transient Characters

Christoph KLlUTSCH

Professor of Art History at Savannah College of Art and Design [SCAD], GA, USA. Received his PhD at the University of Bremen [Germany] in art science and computer sciences in 2006

Speech Topic: The point as Transmedia Transaction – On Kandinsky and the Plane of Composition

XML Beijing: Immersive Media consisted of two parts: the Conference Day on 25th November (General Admission); and  an Invitation Only Roundtable Discussion on the Potential of Immersive Media for China’s Future with XML Beijing’s International Keynote Speakers and Partners.

I was invited to present Ars Electronica’s Deep Space environment as a space for learning and exploring.The blue-ribbon list of partners participating in X|Media|Lab Beijing: Immersive Media (the China Immersive Media Market – CIMM) – include, the Ministry of Culture PRC, the China Association of Science and Technology (CAST – 30 million members), the China Science and Technology Museum, the Haidian District government, Zhongguancun Science Park, the Beijing Film Academy; Tsinghua University; Communications University China; Renmin University, and Zhonghai Serious Games Research Lab.

If you are in the immersive media space and interested in extending your network into China, where a new science and technology museum opens every month, CIMM will become the obvious meeting place for internationals to find China partners for development, co-production, or product distribution in business, universities, industry or government.

China is the world’s biggest market for immersive media technologies and applications. The venue partner for the CIMM is the China Science and Technology Museum, the institution from which all other museums in China take their direction.

International Keynote Speakers include:

Professor Jeffrey Shaw – Chair Professor of Media Art and Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University in Hong Kong where he is also Director of the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media and Director of the Applied Laboratory for Interactive Visualisation and Embodiment (Hong Kong)

Dr. Fischer Cai – Co-President of the International Simulation and gaming Association (Singapore)

Professor Zhu Youwen – Professor of the Scientific Research and Planning Department, China Science and Technology Museum (Beijing)

Sten Selander – Business Development Director, Nordic Game Programme (Malmö)

Richard Sandford – Senior Researcher, Futurelab (Singapore, London)

Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber – China Representative of Ars Electronica (Shanghai)

Deng Lili – Director of Animation and Game Research Center, Cultural Industries Institute of Peking University (Beijing)

Liao Hong – Deputy of the Digital Museum Department, China Science and Technology Museum (Beijing)

Fei Guangzheng – President of the Games Designing Deparment, School of Animation, China University of Communication (Beijing)

Jeroen Jonkers – Manager, Asia Office, NorthernLight (Beijing, Amsterdam)

Kang Xiaodong – SUN Resolution Department Manager, Huanya Time Scientific Co. Ltd. (Beijing)

Xiang Ligang – CEO, www.cctime.com (Beijing)

Chen Danyang – Scientific Squirrel Member; Broke the Unofficial World Record for Rubik’s Cube blindfolded in 2007 (Beijing)

8th International Conferenc & Exhibition on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media
Berlin, October 6 – 8, 2010

http://www.languages-media.com/conference_programme_2010.php

Digitisation and the explosion in digital content, social media, cloud computing and new platforms offer growing opportunities for audiovisual production, distribution and localisation. These developments are flanked by diversifying concepts and modes of audiovisual translation (multidimensional translation, all forms of accessibility), consequently blurring distinctions and supposed dichotomies (professional versus amateur, productivity versus quality, subtitling versus dubbing, etc.).

Open resources, open markets and open societies are creating new distribution contexts but are also imposing new (working) constraints, which force us to question current training programmes and anticipate future ones.

The 8th International Languages and the Media Conference and Exhibition with its focus on language transfer in audiovisual media addresses these challenges with the following twelve themes:

THEMES

Global Content – Local Audiences / Global Audiences – Local Content: globalisation vs. glocalisation, global and local markets, multilingual access, internationalisation (English as lingua franca), consumer choice, supply and demand, power and ideology.

Broadcasting and Language Policy: programming, multilingual and multicultural settings, internet broadcasting, legislation, special interest channels, ethnic minorities, lesser-used languages.

Social Media: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Wikis and Co., Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, participatory culture.

Crowdsourcing: fansubbing, fandubbing, amateur translation and interpreting, activist networks, “natural” translators and interpreters, community translation, collective intelligence.

Technical Documentation and AV Localisation: corporate videos, corporate terminology, TMs, AVT and cloud computing, subtitling, voiceover, dubbing, interpreting, narration, reversioning.

Access and Live Entertainment: accessibility and social cohesion, audio description for the blind and the partially sighted, subtitling for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing, surtitles, audio subtitling, sign language interpreting, revoicing, museums, opera, theatre, religious settings, sports and other live events.

Games Localisation: interactive software, serious games, online and mobile gaming, dealing with linguistic assets.

Tools and Technologies: new software developments, 3D, translation memory systems and computer-assisted tools applied to AVT, machine translation, voice recognition, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, virtual environments, digitisation, on-the-go technology, eye-tracking.

Productivity and Re-Usability: quantity vs. quality, revision, redubbing, resubtitling, costs, pivot languages, archiving, metadata, multiple platforms, distribution and exhibition, translators’ rights.

Translator Training: academic curricula, translators’ agency, skills and abilities, didactics, undergraduate and postgraduate, work placements/work experience.

Audiovisual Literacy: research dissemination, professional ethics, audiovisual genres and translation, audience profiling, reception approaches, multimodality.

Language Acquisition: foreign language learning and AVT, mother tongue literacy, lesser taught languages, reading skills.

The Sharism Forum will be held in Shanghai on October 22nd as part of the opening day of the arts and culture festival GETITLOUDER 2010. Our one-day symposium will feature thinkers, practitioners and activists whose work concerns and shapes the global movement of a new sharing culture, which has been unified under the ideology of SHARISM. The public at large is invited to join and to become a “shareholder” of this movement. The event will spark calls-to-action and demonstrate new modalities and technologies of sharing.

About Sharism

SHARISM is a Mind Revolution: The more you give, the more you get. The more you share, the more you are shared. Sharism is a belief system for our Internet Age. It is a philosophy piped through the human and technological networks of Free and Open Source software. It is the motivation behind every piece of User-Generated Content. It is the pledge of Creative Commons, to share, remix and give credit to the latest and greatest of our cultural creations. Sharism is also a mental practice that anyone can try, a daily act that beckons a future of increased social intelligence. It should not go unnoticed that a superabundance of community respect and social capital are being accumulated by precisely those who share.

Sharism is operative in the very workings of the human mind. Our model of the functional mechanism of the nervous system shows it to be one which shares activity and information via interconnected networks of neurons through patterns of feedback. This has profound implications for the creative process. Whenever you have an intention to create, you will find it easier to generate more creative ideas if you keep the sharing process firmly in mind. You can engineer a process of creative feedback to generate even more ideas in return.

The rapid emergence of social applications that can communicate and cooperate are allowing more and more people to output content from one service to another in a creative ecosystem. This interconnectedness spreads memes through multiple online social networks, which can reach a global audience and position social media as a true alternative to broadcast media. These new technologies are reviving Sharism in our closed culture. The missing pieces are open source hardware and software services that enable true freedom from top to botton in the entire communication stack.

One legal concern is that any loss of control over copyright will lead to noticeable deficits in personal wealth, or loss of creative freedom. But today’s sharing environment is more protected than you might think. Many new social applications make it easy to set terms-of-use along your sharing path (such as selecting Creative Commons licenses or privacy settings). Any infringement of those terms will be challenged not just by the law, but by your community. Your audience, who benefit form your sharing, can also be the gatekeepers of your rights.

Through emergent mobile communications technologies, we can generate higher connectivities and increase the throughput of our social links. The more open and strongly connected we are, the better the sharing environment will be for everyone involved. The more collective our intelligence, the wiser our actions will be.

Sharism promises to be the politics of the next global superpower. It will not be a country, but a new human network joined by social software. We can integrate our current and emerging democratic systems with new collaborative technologies, which will allow us to query, share and remix information for the public benefit. The future of democracy is real-time, and always online.

Sharism is the inspiration that brings it all together.

For more information:
http://sharism.org

http://freesouls.cc/essays/07-isaac-mao-sharism.html

http://freesouls.yeeyan.org/sharism-a-mind-revolution

Forum Guests

Christopher Adams

Christopher Adams is a publishing professional and free culture advocate based in Beijing and Taipei. He is a developer at Fabricatorz and works with Neoteny Labs. “Freesouls: captured and released by Joi Ito” was his first fully Creative Commons-licensed book project. Christopher is a co-founder of Sharism.org and a member of the Creative Commons Network. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a degree in Cognitive Science.

Edmon Chung

Edmon Chung currently serves as the CEO for the DotAsia Organization and as Vice Chair for the Internet Society HK Chapter. Edmon is also an elected member of the Elections Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, an elected councilor of the ICANN GNSO Council, and Secretariat for the ICANN APRALO (Asia Pacific At-Large Organization).
Edmon is an inventor of patents underlying technologies for internationalized domain names (IDN) and email addresses on the Internet. He founded Neteka, Inc. in 1999, and went on to win the Most Innovative Award in the Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurship Awards in 2001. In 2000, Edmon was selected by The Globe and Mail as one of the Young Canadian Leaders.
Edmon has a Bachelor of Applied Science and Master of Engineering from the University of Toronto, and is a PhD candidate at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Li Gong

Li Gong is Chairman and CEO of Mozilla Online Ltd, the Beijing-based subsidiary of the Mozilla Corporation, the producer of the Firefox internet browser. He was Venture Partner and Head of China Office for the US venture firm Bessemer Venture Partners until 2009. He previously held positions as General Manager of MSN China at Microsoft, and General Manager of Sun Microsystems’s R&D center in China. He has co-written 3 books (published by Addison Wesley and O’Reilly) and numerous technical articles, and has received 14 US patents. Li Gong has worked as a research scientist at ORA and Stanford Research Institute (SRI), has held visiting positions at Cornell and Stanford Universities, and served as Guest Chair Professor at Tsinghua University. He has served as both Program Chair and General Chair for IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, and IEEE CSFW. Li Gong received BS and MS degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, all in computer science.

Hu Yong

Hu Yong is associate professor at Peking University’s School of Journalism and Communication, and a well-known new media critic and Chinese Internet pioneer.
Before joining the faculty of Peking University, Hu Yong worked for a number of media sources, including China Daily, Lifeweek, China Internet Weekly and China Central Television. He is a co-founder of the Digital Forum of China, a nonprofit advocating a free and responsible Internet, as well as Chinavalue.net, a leading new media business in China.
Hu Yong is a founding director of the Communication Association of China (CAC) and China New Media Communication Association (CNMCA). His publications include Internet: The King Who Rules, and The Rising Cacophony: Personal Expression and Public Discussion in the Internet Age. He has translated several groundbreaking books on digital technology, including Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital, Esther Dyson’s Release 2.0 and Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. In 2000, Hu Yong was nominated for China’s list of top Internet industry figures.

Brianna Laugher

Brianna Laugher is a passionate free software and free culture enthusiast. She has been an avid editor on the Wikimedia projects, with over 10,000 edits, and was the first president of Wikimedia Australia. She has spoken at venues ranging from the National Library of Australia to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Mike Linksvayer

Mike Linksvayer is vice president of Creative Commons. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has experience as a software developer and consultant. He joined Creative Commons as Chief technical officer in April 2003, and held that position until April 2007 when he became vice president. He also co-founded Bitzi, an early open content/open data service.
Talk description: What does it mean for “culture” to be part of the “freedom stack”? How does free culture relate to other freedom stack components? What is its progress, prospects, and can sharism make a difference? This talk is informed by the speaker’s 7+ years at Creative Commons–providing licensing and public domain tools to increase sharing in the arts, education, media, science, and beyond.

Liu Yan

Liu Yan is the CEO and event curator of Xindanwei, the first collaborative workspace and community for creatives and start ups in China. Since 2004, she has been advocating cross-culture and inter-disciplinary connection and collaboration between Europe and China through events like PICNIC and Dutch Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF). She is also the chairwoman of 3S ReUnion in Shanghai, an event for people from arts, technology and academic fields to meet and share their knowledge.

Isaac Mao

Isaac Mao is a venture capitalist, pioneering blogger, software architect, entrepreneur and researcher in learning and social technology. He is the Vice President of United Capital Investment Group and Director of the Social Brain Foundation, and advises Global Voices Online and several Web 2.0 businesses. Isaac co-founded CNBlog.org and co-organizes the Chinese Blogger Conference (CNBloggerCon). He also serves as director of the Shanghai Youth Development Foundation.
Isaac is a regular keynote speaker at business and technology conferences around the globe, and has contributed to numerous commercial software projects. He earned a BS degree in Computer Science and followed an MBA training program at Shanghai Jiaotong University. From 2008 to 2009 Isaac was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Ou Ning

Ou Ning’s cultural practices encompass multiple disciplines. As an activist, he founded U-thèque, an independent film and video organization; As an editor and graphic designer, he is known for his seminal book New Sound of Beijing; As a curator, he initiated the biennale exhibition Get It Louder (2005, 2007) and launched the sound project in China Power Station, co-organized by Serpentine Gallery and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art; As an artist, he is known for the urban research projects such as San Yuan Li, commissioned by 50th Biennale di Venezia (2003), and Da Zha Lan, commissioned by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. He is a frequent contributor of various magazines, books and exhibition catalogues and has lectured around the world. In 2008, he was appointed the chief curator of 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture(09SZHKB). In 2009, he is chosen to be the jury member of the 8th Benesse Prize at the 53rd Venice Biennale. He is now working on 2010 Get It Louder and preparing a new literary magazine Chutzpah(Tian Nan in Chinese) which will launch on January 2011. He’s based in Beijing, and is the director of Shao Foundation.

Evan Prodromou

Evan Prodromou is an American writer and programmer based in Montreal, Quebec. He is founder of Wikitravel, the free, complete, up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide inspired by Wikipedia and running the MediaWiki software. He is also the founder of wikiclock, Vinismo, certifi.ca, and kei.ki. He is the founder and CEO of Status.Net, the open source open microblogging software and service that powers Identi.ca and thousands of other sites.

Jon Phillips

Jon Phillips(rejon) is a developer contributing to society and building meaningful relationships. In 2002 he helped launch the open source drawing tool, Inkscape and the Open Clip Art Library, built Creative Commons‘ community and business development strategies from 2005 until 2008 and is growing the media company Fabricatorz in Beijing and San Francisco. He is community director for the open source social messaging service, Status.Net which powers Identi.ca, and is CEO of Aiki Lab in Singapore.

Jack Qiu

Dr. Jack Qiu is an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. His academic interests include Internet and society, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and class, late capitalism, globalization, grassroots media, China, and the Asian Pacific.
His publications include Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China (MIT Press, 2009), Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective (MIT Press, 2006, co-authored with Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernandez-Ardevol, and Araba Sey), and many chapters, articles, and review essays.

Wolfgang Spraul

Wolfgang Spraul is COO of Sharism At Work, a manufacturing company making the Ben NanoNote mini-computer and leading the copyleft hardware movement. At OpenMoko, a project to create a family of open source mobile phones including the hardware specification and the operating system, he served as the Vice President of Engineering.

Phil Tinari

Philip Tinari (b. 1979) is editor-in-chief of LEAP, a bilingual, bimonthly magazine of contemporary Chinese art and culture based in Beijing and published by Modern Media Group. Since 2007, he has also run the publishing imprint, editorial office, and translation studio office for Discourse Engineering. Tinari is a contributing editor to Artforum and adjunct professor of art criticism at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. He serves as China advisor to Art Basel and worked previously as academic consultant to the Chinese contemporary art department at Sotheby’s. He has written and lectured widely on contemporary art in China, for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, Parkett, and Dushu. Recent projects include the book Hans Ulrich Obrist: The China Interviews (2009) and the exhibition The Hong Kong Seven, mounted by the Foundation Louis Vuitton at the Hong Kong Museum of Art last year. A resident of Beijing for much of the past decade, he holds an A.M. in East Asian studies from Harvard, a B.A. from the Literature Program at Duke, and was Fulbright fellow at Peking University.

Gino Yu

Dr. Gino Yu is an Associate Professor and Director of Digital Entertainment and Game Development at the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). His research spans Design Automation, Computer Animation, Video Games, Creativity, and Consciousness with over 60 publications. Currently, his main research interests involve the application of media technologies to cultivate creativity and promote enlightened consciousness (meaningful media).
Gino Yu is co-founder of the PolyU MERECL, a commercially oriented digital entertainment laboratory that provides services to industry, and is Chairman and co-founder of the Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association. He received his BS and PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley in 1987 and 1993 respectively. He is a composer and father of three.

Zafka Zhang

Zafka Zhang is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of China Youthology, a boutique company focusing on brand-youth consultancy for marketing, communication, and product design targeting youth in the China market. Zafka formerly served as the senior front-page editor and columnist of China’s leading business newspaper, 21st CBH (21st Century Business Herald), and continues to write for mainstream media online and offline. He was an Advisor for the Association of Virtual Worlds and Director of Music Community and Public Relations of Creative Commons China, and was formerly head of research at HiPiHi.
Zafka is also an acclaimed sound artist and experimental musician. His art works have been published and exhibited in China, the US, Europe, and Asia. He obtained two Masters in Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology in Fudan (Shanghai) and SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)

2010 SHAREHOLDERS’ MEETING
Date · 22 October 2010
Venue · Shanghai, China
Event · Get It Louder 2010
Organizer · Shao Foundation

ABOUT SHARISM
Isaac Mao · Sharism: A Mind Revolution »
毛向辉 · 分享主义：一场思维革命 »

AGENDA
The official schedule will be publicized at www.getitlouder.com

Session I: Global Shares
Speakers from Sharism.org, Peking University & the Open Society Institute

Session I: The Freedom Stack
Speakers from Creative Commons, StatusNet & Sharism.cc

Session III: The Science of Sharing
Speakers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University & Chinese University of Hong Kong

Session IV: Open Panels
Speakers from DotAsia, China Youthology, Xindanwei, Leap Magazine & others

Moderators:
Ou Ning (Shao Foundation)
Isaac Mao (Sharism)
Jon Phillips (StatusNet/Fabricatorz/Sharism)
Christopher Adams (Freesouls/Fabricatorz/Sharism)

Shareholders Team
Sophie Chiang (Sharism)
Han Yan (Beijing/Urban China)
Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber (Ars Electronica)

GET IT LOUDER 2010
www.getitlouder.com

SHARISM.ORG
sharism.org

Opening Remarks

June 29, 2010 School of Journalism & Communication(SJC) , Peking University has seen the 8^th Chinese Internet Research Conference(CIRC) opening, which aims to approach further international cooperative study on interaction of China and the Internet.

Prof. XU, Hong, Executive Deputy Dean of SJC addresses her welcoming remarks.  “participating , interaction, equality, communication and sharing are core features and basic spirits innovated by the Internet and New media. we believe that all these factors will bring long-time and deep transformation to China society.” Prof. XU values the significance of this CIRC conference.

Patrice M. Buzzanell, Professor at Purdue University makes Keynote to CIRC opening. Prof. Buzzanell mentions that New Face of China poses intriguing challenges and opportunities for communication and interdisciplinary researchers. This “new face” strains and enriches intersections, such as hard-soft power, control and mediation tensions, traditional and new media, immigration and reverse brain drain policies, and online privacy and community. A research agenda is posed that illuminates what this “new face” might mean as communication in and about China and the field of communication becomes increasingly co-integrated.

Another CIRC opening Keynote  is from YANY, Boxu, Prof. at SJC. In his speech, Prof, YANG expounds the twilight zone in China when the polarized social capital in the real life meets the restructured social relations in the virtual world.

CIRC opening will be followed by topic session on Civic Cultures Online.

Session 1 : Civil Cultures Online

Jiang Min (speaker 1)

Jiang begins with some controversial events in 2008 including Nude Celerity scandal, Olympic torch relay incidents in France, runner Fan in Sichuan Earthquake, which showed Chinese netizens’ power. She points out that media plays an important role for every single event can be presented from various angles. With regard to ICIs (Internet Collective Incidents) emerging in China, approaches are initially identified into Who, Where and Why. Grassroots media (citizen media) other than professional reporters tell the public stories; standards of real & virtual are more and more judged “online only”; “we do not know the truth” and enormous rumors give Internet some power.

Wu Qiang( speaker 2) -The emerging twittering politics in China:a cybernetic perspectives

As we all know,twitter plays an important part in the internet world.Professor Wu Qiang brings out a question at the beginning of his presentation:What does twitter mean in China?In his opinion,it means highly politicization,opinion leaders’ grouping and contentious engagement.Twitter has its own language and contestant grouping,what’s more,its easy accessibility leads more people participate in it.Professor Wu thinks that,twitter is full of importance as it links field online and protest field;and it links discourse and action;and it links occasional events and social movement networks.

Dai Jia (speaker 3)

Dai focus on Deliberating in the Chinese blogosphere, which is more a theoretical framework than some data analysis. Blogging in China has become sort of “phenomenon”, because China’ authoritarian deliberation and its commanding control system lead to citizens’ unsatisfaction of information availability. The cause relationship between these two conflicting factors roots in incomplete information availability.

Steven J.Balla(speaker 4)

Steven starts with two key questions after reviewing the Chinese health systemreform.Firstly,what are the demographic altributes of participants in the health system reform proces?Secondly,what attitudes of commenters toward public involvement in the policymaking process? Followed is Steven’s answers.In his opinion,there are some broader implications on the long run.Much research on Chinese Internet and political participation focuses on high-stakes confrontatons.What’s more,what about use of Internet to facilitate policymaking as it is ordinarily carried out?And how information technology plays as an instrument of incremental evolution in Chinese policymaking?

Mou Yi (speaker 5)

Mou reviews literature on “folk culture and popular culture”, and then moves to “online folk culture”. Another key concept of YI’s speech is Media Ecology, which in Chinese tradition focuses on common people’s interests in supporting folk culture.She pointed out it’s ironic that Chinese folk organizations always started from the form of folk culture,while ended up within the market economy.What’s the reasons?She mentioned that,Chinese policy does not provide the environment,and global economic downturn deteriorates the communication environment for Chinese folk culture.Besides,Chinese people are not used to the idea of donating to support folk culture.

Randy Kluver gave thanks to the presenters and made a short comment on the presentations.He found it interesting to talk about Chinese Internet.Randy Kluver said 4 “beyonds”and some questions.As events make history,there are still much more events uncovered by history.While specific technology shakes our life,how does it challenge the social construct?Will the specific technology leads to a better Government?And how does the Internet challenge the social relations?

Session 2 : ICT Infrastructure and Public Administration

Xue Hong (speaker 1)

Xue took a glance at the History of Chinese domain names as a begining.It is on Nov.28 1990that CN domain was registerted.On base of the general observations of Chinese domain names(CDNs),Xue found that,on one hand,CDNs have great potential,and market will be more competitive,transparent and open.But on the other hand,Government is enforcing stricter measures.What’s more,the Sovereign act is potencially conflicting with the DNS under oversigh of ICANN.After all,China plays an important role in the international domain system.

Hong Yu (speaker 2)

At the beginning of the presentation,Hong reviewed the background of China’s export-dependent growth  model.And then she mentioned the 3G telecom networks and ICT-based economic recovery.Finally,Hong came up with the idea that China’s dominant carriers had some success in commercializing a homegrown technology.

Hu Ling (speaker 3)

Hu gave a general presentation on topics as followings:Information infrastructure in China;Great Firewall and Golden Shield;Net Neutrality Theory and its application in Chinese context;

Administrative Vertical Integration and the SARFT;The future of the Internet in China.

Zhen Meiling(speaker 4)

Zhen pointed out that,Internet reguliation and Penal Code are the main laws to limit the online pornography in China. She took Google as an example.What if Google chose to stay in mainlang China?In Zhen’s opinion,the website could be shut down,and top executives could be arrested and jailed for disseminating obscene articles online.Last but not least,the top Executives may be life imprisonment! Zhen made a summerise that recent campaigns anginst online pornography is still going on,and a lot of websites will be affected and shut down.

Session 4: Cybercultures,Activitism and Nationlism in China

Hu Yinan (speaker 1)

Hu Yinan, who comes from the Cover Story and China Daily, gave a presentation named Swimming against the tide: Tracing and locating Chinese leftism online. He explores the resurgence of Chinese leftism online, its historical rationale, characteristics, scopes of influence, space for survival, contributions and limitations, and prospective implications.Finally, he came up with a conclusion:” The present online Chinese leftism is a practical necessity rather than a choice made by its members.”

Wu Changchang (speaker 2)

“Who is using ‘shanzhai’ word? Why internet? Why shanzhai word?Is it a rise of the urban petite bourgeois?” Wu began his presentation with these questions related to “shanzhai”, ie copycat. He tries to  examine the use of Shanzhai word by netizens and its political and economic implications, demonstrates how the distinctive uses of Shanzhai word reflect and emanate from the cleavages between the haves and the have-nots, or the class stratification.A lot of recent examples that illustrated in his presentation attract much attention.

Zhao Yu (speaker 3)

Zhao gave a talk on the topic of Human Flesh Searching Engine, which has emerged in cyberspace since 2001 as a particular collective activism. She makes a brief description of the process from its emergence as just promulgating an online order in search of some particular guys including the lost relatives and friends, to its developments into the netizens movements with its unique searching model of “one question, countless response” and “online combining with offline” to seize out the corrupt officials, and in particular the “betrayers” who ran counter to the principle of nationalism and nation—state.

Lai Yun (speaker 4)

Via virtual ethnographic research into the Chinese female participants’ performance in the virtual communities of which the main topic is their Korean idols, Lai tries to examine how these women developed their identity through the online practice and, in the contexts of the ups and downs of Sino-Korean relationship, how the subject of nationalism interacted with this identification process. In her opinion,the Internet could act as either centrifugal or centripetal force in identification process. However, the crisis of identity among “cyborg-vagrants” demands that the netizens to identify their home, hence turning them into ‘cyborg-diasporas’.

Deng Weijia (speaker 5)

As a fan of American TV Series, Deng probes into the “Yi Dian Yuan (the Garden of Eden)” online forum of American sitcoms. How do the members distinguish themselves from others with the same age, or a taste as Bourdieu described that exclusively embodies their unique social status and petit bourgeois disposition appropriated from the western countries?With these questions, She ended up with the conclusion that, the Internet could act as either centrifugal or centripetal force in identification process. So far as the nation-state remains to be the dominant form of political structure, the national identity still plays an important role in those people’s identification process.

Yang Guobin, an honoured respondent who comes from Barnard College and Columbia University, gave a final comment on the presentations. He said that, all the five papers have brought out new perspectives on typical phenomena of Chinese Internet which help us to understand the Internet culture fully. He gave remarks on the presentations one by one.” I love these papers.” Said Yang Guobin.

Session 7: Identities and Social Formations

Elisa Oreglia (speaker 1)

In her speech, Elisa Oreglia shared her findings of her continuing field study in Chinese rural regions. She pointed out that when discussing the internet in China, the focus is still often on ‘privileged’ urban users. However, migrant workers are engaged in the internet as enthusiastic as their urban counterparts. Through her participant observation, she discovered that the internet is becoming an important bridge between the city and the countryside. Urban life comes to the countryside increasingly, from the personal experiences of migrants transmitted through new ICT.

Ren Jue (speaker 2)

Ren started her presentation with two questions: How the rural-urban migrant women adopt computer and internet? What is the impact of computer and internet use to their everyday life? Through methodologies like participant observation, in-depth interview and snow-ball sampling,She came up with the idea of Technologycal Intimacy. “Technological Intimacy, would explore more practical and symbolic meanings for the ICTs using in the household moral economy.”Said Ren Jue. Finally, she came to the conclusion: firstly,  migrant Women as active sexual citizen ,  can use internet with the support of cyber friends to negotiate with the local government. Secondly social networking is the strong relation to their civic activities, especially from male cyber friends. Thirdly,  family members are not a strong support to their civic activities, but their computer and internet use is also related to their family value.

Suo Huijun (speaker 3)

Suo Huijun, a Ph.D. student of Purdue University, examined how multi-culture influences conflicts and collaboration in Wikipedia. She discovered that what intensive communication did was more about changing format, bias, presentation strategies and style, rather than solving conflicting views guided by different cultural beliefs.

Silvia Lindtner; Marcella Szablewicz (speaker 4)

Silvia Lindtner and Marcella Szablewicz gave a presentation named In Between Wangba and Elite Entertainment:China’s Many Internets together.” Internet technologies and sites of Internet use in China have undergone rapid transformation over the last ten years.”They mentioned that on the one hand, Internet technologies are praised for their potential to equalize social inequalities. On the other hand, they are critiqued for their potential to exacerbate difference and cause social unrest. They found that Internet users do not consider themselves participants in a single Internet. Rather people act across multiple digital media to engage with like-minded others, to form new identities amidst rapid technological, political and economic changes.

David Kurt Herold (speaker 5)

David Kurt Herold focused on the confrontational online meetings between Chinese and American internet users. Through the online fights between “Rednecks” and “Red Guards”, the young Chinese net users are often blamed for the misunderstanding. But Herold thinks these misunderstandings are merely the surface of deep culture differences between the two parts. Basically, China and the west have different views almost on everything: the West regards history as linear while China believe it cyclical; according to the West, the Chinese people are oppressed by Chinese government, while Chinese people believe themselves are led to prosperity by government. In the end, he called for more detailed studies on encounter patterns between Chinese and non-Chinese.

Wu Jing, a professor from Peking University, gave a comment on the five presentations. She made up a summery by 4 “Beyounds”, which was said to be similar to China Daily on style. Professor Wu said that the papers brought many fresh concepts and ideas for her, and they were really facinating.

Keynote: Yang Guobin

Professor Yang gave a speech about the poetry of the internet in China. He came up with five conclusions: first, there is poetry in Chinese cyberspace. Second, in historical terms, Chinese internet culture is becoming both more poetic and less poetic at the same time. Third, the development of the forms of internet may well be in anti-poetic direction. Fourth, in views of arguments in favor of imposing a universal realname registration system, he suggests that such a  system would damage the poetry of the internet. Finally, real-name registration is just one of the many threats to the poetry of the internet in China, including the crisis of community.

Keynote: Monroe E.Price

Monroe E.Price,the honored guest from University of Pennsylvania,deliverd a long keynote speech named Of Ghost and Vampires: the Emerging Debate Over Internet and Free Expression Discourse. In his speech, Monroe came up with three main points: publication and an effort to push transparency, the invocation of sovereignty, the many Internets approach that sovereignty implies, and the feature of expressing, even badly, Free Expression as an element.  Finally, he said:”Openness, freedom, human rights, sovereignty, cybersecurity,  pluralism—probably not Ghosts and Vampires—these will all redound through various debates.  And, it is possible, but not wholly likely, that Truth will Prevail.”

By June 30 2009, the number of netizens in China has reached 338 million, surpassing the total population of the United States. Already the country with the largest number of Internet users since 2008, Chinese Internet now boasts of 2.1million websites and more than 100 million blogs. The fast changing landscape of Internet usage in China has seen both quantitative and qualitative developments. In fact, the visions and thrills of getting online parallel China’s ambition to build a modern society with Chinese characteristics. The Internet has penetrated into social institutions, political processes, cultural activities and people’s everyday life. It is time we look beyond numbers and events and delve deeper into the fabric of China’s social life in order to understand how the Internet integrates, counteracts or cooperates with institutional, cultural and social forces in seeking and creating a modern form of existence. The theme of the 8th Chinese Internet Research Conference, “Internet and Modernity with Chinese Characteristics: Institutions, Cultures and Social Formations,” is designed to bring together scholars, experts and leaders in the field to explore these fascinating developments and trends.

This will be the very first time this conference is held in mainland China. We aim to open a forum where different perspectives and expectations meet, communicate and interact, and where the agendas and hopes of the Chinese population are heard, discussed and analyzed on an international scale. The working languages of the conference will be both English and Chinese, and we will provide translation service if necessary. The forms and contradictions in which China tries to conceptualize and materialize modernity, and how the Internet is helping out in this process are the main focus of this conference.

CIRC Asia: http://circ.asia