Wikipedia Annual Donation Campaign

By the end of the year, Wikipedia will kick-off its fundrasing campaign though banner notice on each page to encourage users' donation (you can always choose to hide the notice) . As someone who always plans to edit more entries but fails to do so, writing a check is the best way to technically accomplish the plan (though a very small amount). Later one day, I read a tweet saying why Wikipedia does not keep advertising on each page. In that way, users can choose to view the ad or not, and Wiki dont need to do this donation campaign again and again every time.

It sounds O.K. at first glance because we've already get used to advertising-supported free content, and this turn on/off ad option keeps some voluntary meaning. However, in my mind, I just automatically rejected this idea and did not know why. This week, as I finished the book Predictable Irrational (Dan Ariely, 2008, HaperCollins), I found the answer to my spontaneous reaction.

In this enlightening book, the author conducts all kinds of focus group experiments to study behavioral economics. One chapter is about the cost of social norms and market norms. Sometimes, we put a lot efforts to do something but dont expect the cash pay back, for instance, cooking Thanks Giving dish for the family, the example in the book. This is the social norm. On the other hand, we expect that when we sit in the office for 8 hours (even just browsing Facebook page), we are adding money to our account. This is the market norm.

Researchers did an experiment in a day care center: initially, there was no fine for being late to pick up the children. The parents and the teachers understand the situation based on social norms that people do get late occasionally and they should not do that again to bother teachers. Then, the day care center imposed a fine of being late. Since a pay relationship is involved, the social encounter is being replaced by market norms that parents can choose to be late or not. And the late cases did not decrease as expected. Then, when the center dropped the fine , getting back to the social contract, parents still pick their kids late, even slightly more often. The author concludes from this experiment that social relationship will not be reestablished easily once it is trumped by the market norm.

And, this explains why Wikipedia cant not use advertising, even voluntarily, for funding. Advertising is totally a commercial concept following the market rule; let alone it will break Wikipedia’s neutral point of view, it will also ruin the collective efforts of Wikipedia as a social media foundation. Adding advertising essentially leads to market-value norms, even not for profits; once this market norm being introduced, the social norm, the volunteer spirit of Wikipeida will hardly be impaired.

As I finally figure out this puzzle, another question came to my mind. As social media becomes so overwhelming, how do we justify the “social meaning” when it is advertising supported? Is it another situation where social norms collide with market norm?

China Shuts down Major P2P Servcies

Last brilliant idea from Chinese government regarding Internet development was the Green Dam filter software, and this time is the massive shutdown of P2P services based file share websites, such as VeryCD.com and BTChina. The officials who issue the notification are the infamously well-known SARFT and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). According to them, these websites have to be shut down because they don’t own the “Information Network Broadcast Audio Visual Programming Permission Certificate".

• From the BTChina website: (BTCHINA was notified by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) that because of the absence of audio-visual broadcasting license, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC is to delete our record number and shut down the site. As for my personal safety, once again to prove rumors on the internet are untrustworthy, especially the news is the most unreliable, translated by Chinahush)

Initially, I doubt that it was the pressure from copyright holders oversea so the government has to take some action and these small websites become targets due to their huge popularity like the Pirate Bay case. Yet, after reading SARFT's regulation and blogger analysis, I realize this is not simply because of copyright infringement and censorship, it is still the question about who control the Internet content in the coming years. The SARFT definitely want to demonstrate their authority by then end of another year challenged by growing Internet activists.

This decision reveals the conflict of interests between two government departments the SARFT and MIIT. The popularity of these video sharing websites in some way humiliates SARFT since most of them promote cultural products from other countries, and SARFT want to defend their territory and control these websites as they do in traditional media. Yet, because these websites are not authorized by them but by MIIT, so SARFT has to compete with the clout of MIIT . This time, it is SARFT’s regulation forces MIIT to withdraw those websites’ licenses. As some bloggers have noticed, SARFT and MITT’s conflicts can be traced back to the development of IPTV and mobile television, anything between the media content and information technology. Two departments have not decided the disciplines and those service providers will be suffered because of these changing regulations.

I think fundamentally it is SARFT’s fear of lose the grip of media control that drives this shut down. According to government website (Chinese), the website should be state owned or state funded in order to be eligible for the Internet program permission certificate. Chances are rare that those fans organized private P2P share websites could meet this qualification. Therefore, it becomes clear that SARFT still wants to control Internet content especially as they see the threat of growing video streaming and video sharing business. Essentially, the crackdown of P2P share websites is another attempt to against the decentralized Internet trend.

References:

1. China shuts down BitTorrent websites (ChinaHush)
2. VeryCD.com may be closed for not having a license (Danwei)
3. State Funded Business Advances and Private Owned Business Retreats: recent regulations of online content influences the future of video business (Chinese)

Made in China Campaign

Today, both LA Times and PR Weekly mentioned that Chinese government has hired western background media companies to burnish the image of Chinese government and Made in China products.

The government hired Hill& Knowlton as its PR firm three months ago and now announced DDB Communications ( of Omnicom Group) for its advertising agency. The tag line of the 30 sec ad, which debuted on CNN, is Made in China is Made with the World. LA Times analyzes that it is the government’s attempt to relieve the intense trade relationship between China and western countries.

I agree that the main objective is to recover from those negative images, such as poisonous toys, or contaminated milk powder scandals, in investors’ minds and invite them back to China. During this global economy recession, many outsourcing manufacture factories in China have closed because of less needs in global market. Also, the ad campaign at the holiday season, is sending the message to bring consumers’ confidence to made in China toys and clothes since some consumers will avoid (quite impossible to completely eliminate ) made in china labels.

Besides the message of the ad, I think it is interesting to see they choose CNN for the commercial debut. For a long time, Chinese government and its media have taunted CNN for fabricated news and manipulated editing, which have constantly dignify the image of Chinese government (even with a website anti-cnn.com ). However, the government now picks up CNN for publicity. It seems the officials finally realize that business relationship is better than hostility with western media. The government has expanded its media outlets, such as XinHua News Agency, CCTV, etc. to reach western audiences, which I think is really useless, just thinking the stereotype ( or the fact) of Chinese mainstream media. And this business relationship serves the purpose better since mainstream media will not say too much bad thing about their big advertisers.

The LA Times article ended with several cynical quotations, doubting the cost and result of the campaign. I just want to recognize it as a positive sign that the government realizes the urgency to address this issue and is trying new approaches. And, I wish it is also a sign that the government develops a liberal view toward western media. Finally, here's a peak of the commercial (I have not found it on YouTube).

Still BBS: China SNS Development Report 2009

iResearch along with China’s popular Bulletin Board System developer Comsenz (developer of Discusz!) together launched a report on 2009 China’s Social Networking Sites (SNS) development. After reading the summary of the report (Chinese), though I doubt the methodology, I think it reveals the very unique feature, one essential question that I’ve been wondering, why BBS still plays an irrevocable role in SNS in China.

The Methodology: The report takes both user survey and industry interview approach for data. For the user survey part, the company displays survey link on 45 targeted websites and 324 smaller size SNS sites from July to August in 2009, asking users to fill in the survey voluntarily, ended up with 7462 samples. From the summary part, it did not analyze who took the survey, which raises the question if it has fair amount of diverse samples to illustrate the real situation. Therefore, when the reports says over 13.8% of people spend over 8 hours on BBS sites and 11.2% of people reply more than 15 posts every day, I tend to think that those who answer the survey are more likely to be heavy BBS users. With these findings, this report defines SNS as a BBS centered platform (threaded discussions), with functions such as announcements, group discussion, networking and value-added services.

Figure 1.0 How often do you reply a post everyday? 11.2% say they reply 15 posts everyday and 12.8% say between 10-15.

The findings: As a commercial report, the research goes to discuss how to effectively use BBS for viral marketing, branding and e-commerce in China market, etc. Currently, however, most SNS websites admit that advertising is still the major revenue. It could be the reason that forces BBS centered SNS system to embrace other services, like games, virtual goods, micro-blog in order to get various revenue sources.

Figure 2.0 2008-2009 China SNS Revenue Sources


One major finding of the reports is that these BBS centered SNS have the tendency to be more social: 53.3％ users saying they are using other social networking functions of the BBS, 30% say not yet but would like to try and only 10% are indifferent to new functions.

Actually, I think BBS should not be categorized as SNS if SNS are used for sites like Facebook, Twitter or RenRen (Chinese version of Facebook among university students, literally mean everybody), Kaixin (Facebook among white collar, literally mean happy). It probably is the same share culture, but for some reason that I have not figured out, the sharing concept is different in BBS context than in SNS context. Popular BBS system like Tianya.cn or Maopu cant nor be SNS, so does smaller specific BBS sites; and Kaixin, RenRen still need the links from these sites for content.

Then goes back to the essential question in the beginning, why BBS culture is so dominant, not only in China. Is it a cultural thing? That people would like to join an organized community and set the ranks, gain reputations and exchange opinions anonymously. Or is it a technical thing that it is just easy to use? Or, it is a GFW thing that people have no other option so BBS is a relatively safe harbor for information exchange (still some unfortunate guys were caught by Internet police for their posts). If I had sorted this question, I would have write a paper about it. I think it will be an interesting study to recognize the indispensable role of BBS in China's Internet culture.

For the report: Chinese English (China Internet Watch Blog)

Google Music US v Google Music China

Google lunched official music search Discover Music at the end of October 2009, which claims to give more accurate search results of songs as well as providing direct streaming link from content partners, including MySpace, LaLa, Pandora, etc. The ultimate goal is inevitably to gain traffic by the search syndication and share commission fees by redirecting users to buy songs. Especially, if certain promotional content were placed in the search results as this article suggests, this service is more like a marketing tool for music labels and music websites.

Actually, it is not Google’s first step in music search; Google China has already launched Music service to China mainland users (mainland China IP only) in March 2009. As we all know, Google China has a different motto than “don’t be evil” in order to accommodate to China market, the music service is also completely different from elsewhere due to the unique Internet policy and Internet economy.

Google China Music is partnered with a start-up Internet music service company Top100-CN, whose investors includes Chinese NBA player Yao Ming, to provide free music streaming and music download. This company negotiates the copyright with major music labels, including EMI China, Sony Music, Warner Music, Rock Records and Tape, Taihe Rye Music, etc and provides streaming and download for users totally free, though with DRM protection. The business model is almost completely relying on advertising support and it will share the ad revenue with contracted labels. Sohu reports that after 7 months of launch, the company’s revenue reached approximately $3.7 million, with a 29% market share (Baidu is still the dominant player in music search/download market with a 61% share), and the company is still expecting more advertisers in the coming months. For Google, the situation might be better. At least, it increases music search traffic and sells advertising on these music pages without worrying about copyright and content source.

Though the company’s business is staggering, it seems the only way to do music business in a place where no one buys intellectual property. It is like a myth in china market: almost all global brands, especially luxury brands and urban life style brands/products see the emerging needs and markets in China, only cultural products see the market but can not penetrate it.The difference in Goolge US and China music service reveals the weakness of China Internet economy due to lacking intellectual property awareness. It once again reiterates the question where's digital economy in China (except online game).

Entries for 2009 Oscar Best Foreign Language Film (East Asia)

The Academy Award officially released the full list of 82nd Academy Award Best Foreign Language submissions this week, totally 65 entries. The nominations will be announced on February 2, 2010 and the Oscar will be held on March 7, 2010 , by ABC. The full list is here.

Luckily, in this long list of name, I found two movies I have watched this year, and of course they are East Asia films. I am interested in the entries of Taiwan, Hong Kong, S.Korea, Japan and Mainland China. Actually, every year, the press in China always put a lot attention to the Oscar entries ambitiously, though never succeeded in the past. I watched the Nobody Watch Over Me from Japan and Forever Enthralled from China, and honestly, I dont think they have too much chance.

Forever Enthralled (China, Chen-Kaige)
This is a story about the legendary Beijing Opera Artist Mei Lanfang, from his talented early years to the turbulent life during the 1930-1940s in Shanghai and Beijing, the Second-Sino Japanese War. This is not the first movie of director Chen-Kaige to depict an opera artist protagonist. In his well-known movie Farewell Concubine (1993), he successfully turned a novel about a gay opera artist's tragedy into a sensitive and touching movie, with Leslie Cheung's splendid performance. Though I know this time it is a autobiographic story, I cant help comparing two movies, and this new one is really disappointing. The story put to much emphasis on the patriotic side of the character stubbornly, which makes his life dull and rigid for a movie. Especially for audience in China, who have already read enough patriotic stories from the textbooks to newspapers to websites, why we have to pay another 5 dollars to see the similar story again? In terms of the cast, this movie invited internationally well-known actress Zhang ZiYi and also popular Beijing Born Hong Kong start Leon, but I did not see the sparks between them at all. Yet, I totally understand why China choose this one for Oscar, among limited Chinese movie last year, this one perfectly qualifies the propaganda theme.

Nobody to Watch Over Me (Japan, Ryoichi Kimizuka)
This is the first movie I've watched that boldly addresses the consequence and the moral issue of Internet users' online discussion when involving curse, condemn and privacy toward other people. This has been a common phenomenon in HongKong, China and Japan, when someone suddenly becomes the target of all the Internet users when he/she probably did something ethically wrong and the legal system has not caught him/her. In this movie, the police believed the little girl's brother is liable for murdering two kids, so the whole family was exposed to the media unexpectedly. The girl has to suffer all the resents and curses, and no one can help her. The movie won the best screenplay at the Montreal Film Festival this year. For me, the theme is definitely very important and enlightening, but the story telling was not impressive enough for a movie.



Prince of Tears (Hong Kong, YonFan)
This is a quite art-house movie, and the reviews I have read so far did not say too much good thing about it. Still, I would like to watch it since I like the director's previous movies Bishonen and Peony Pavilion. Interestingly, the director Yonfan is actually from Taiwan, and the story is about a unique situation in Taiwan; only the investors are from Hong Kong. This movie tells a love and betray story happened during the 1950s, a politically sensitive period of Taiwan, where the five people share some secrets in the past and are confronted with other secrets now. I watched the trailer on Youtube, the scenes are as beautiful as usual, but the actresses make the lines sound like reciting a childish poem.



No Puedo Vivir sin Ti (Taiwan, Leon Dai)
Though with a Spanish title, it is a very local Taiwan Movie, based on a news story. The news that a father wanted to jump off a bridge with his beloved little daughter, triggered the interests of the director. The movie uses a documentary storytelling to record the injustice, the prejudice against the vulnerable group and the apathy of the society behind the accident. In the interview I read, the director says that he is not intended to draw sympathy toward the father-daughter but to raise the general awareness and concerns toward the issue in the society.



Mother (Korea, Joon-ho Bong)
This is a very dramatic and bloody murder story like the director's previous movies Memories of Murder and The Host. It tells the estranged relationship between an over-protective mother and a mentally disabled son. I have not watched this one, and probably will not watch it according to my experience. The last Korean movie I watched is The Old Boy, for me, it is so depressing. Nevertheless, it seems some critical movie fans like the movie a lot.

Finally, hope some of these movies will find distributors in U.S.

Hulu: What's Next?

Rumors here and there indicate that Hulu will launch subscription based service soon, not RSS subscription but cable subscription model. Previous rumors said Disney will be part of the joint venture, and soon we watched Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy on Hulu. Personally, I think it is quite reasonable for Hulu.com to move forward to that direction as long as it is not subscription only service.

Reason One: Competitors are working.
A few months ago, we might still think Hulu is competing with other video streaming websites, such as Joost, which now is busy with its lawsuit against former President and CEO Mike Volpi. Actually, the increasing popularity of Hulu has already threatened traditional cable providers. Starting from July, ComCast announced a trial that offers its subscribers to streaming HBO and Cinemax shows through Comcast.net and Fancast .com, an effort of ComCast and Time Warner to enter video streaming business. In U.K., Sky TV has already launched a similar service for subscribers to watch TV program on PC by downloading their software. Confronting with the initiatives from cable providers, Hulu definitely does not want to get behind those competitors, ComCast already has customers but Hulu still needs some efforts to convert and educate its users. Maybe the desktop remote is a start.

Reason Two: No Television sets in the future
From consumer behavior perspective, many years ago, Nicholas Negroponte already said that the future is not about HDTV but no TV set at all after all information is digitized (Bing Digital, 1996). The prediction has not being completely proved but it is on the way. Hulu is definitely at the right spot to welcome all the viewers who turn away from television set but still need content, and would like to pay a little for that if it is user-friendly enough. Also, according to L.A. Times, HDTV sets guzzles energy and state like California is working on the energy efficiency plan to set stand for that. So, watching television on Hulu could be greener than watching it on the HDTV sets.

Yet, I hope Hulu will not go completely subscription only, which will be too cruel to its fans who just want to watch 30 Rock weekly and really does not need that much cable program. And, I saw more big advertisers, such as VISA and Macy's, so the ad-supported model is still working for both parties.

Law of Attraction: The Secret (2006)

My landlord is a very nice old man. Seeing my struggling with job-seeking, he insists that I should watch the documentary The Secret (2006), and he is going to kick me out of the house if I don’t watch it, which he describes as a life-changing movie.

I agree with the idea behind the movie, not the implausible “law of attraction” but the habit of positive thinking. To certain extend, the movie reminds me of also the best-selling book The Alchemist, through a boy’s pursuit of personal legend, the book tells that when you really want to fulfill something, “the whole universe conspires to help you”. It sounds very much like the lines in this movie and the famous saying from Aladin: “You wish is my command”. Coincidently, in the Alchemist, the boy has two stones, Urim and Thummim, to help him overcome frustrates and feel good. In the documentary, one interviewee mentions that he puts a stone in his pocket, feeling grateful for something when he touches it. Still, I like the novel better. In the book, the boy experiences up and down, and tries every possible way to achieve the personal legend, not just imaging he found the treasure while sitting in the dessert. The movie could mislead by repeating "ask, believe and receive”. This idea contradicts to Chinese philosophy which I grow up with that no working, no fruits. Overall, the movie used a more straight-for-word and aggressive to tell positive thinking, no, to sell it.

This design of the documentary is quite business-oriented and it is indeed a marketing success. As Wikipedia noted, the major selling point of the movie is the secret of “how to enhance wealth”. Therefore, it has a great hook, a popular way of narration (citing historically famous people), and a clear message. It once again proves the power of world-of-mouth selling. In certain way, the documentary projects the ideal middle class life and indicates people can achieve it by thinking. (Is it the reason the documentary becomes so popular on those talk shows?)

For me, it is just too far to believe the “law of attraction”, especially being presented in this way. I will rather go with the simplest saying, “dream big, work hard”. BTW, I think Wikipedia really does a good job in The Secret (2006) article in English.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_%282006_film%29

Visiting the JANM Museum

Last Saturday is my second weekend in Los Angeles. Honestly, I went to Little Tokyo just for grocery shopping. Even true, I was looking around because I cant find the store I used to go. Then, I saw the posters hanging in front of a museum like building: “Kokeshi: From folk art to art toy”. Well, I just could not go away when I see creative toys. (So, all the photos are from my cell phone.)

The building actually is the Japanese American National Museum, which holds two new exhibition currently, the Glories Excess by Linkin Park member Mike Shinoda and this toy exhibition. I will say both are worth visiting.

Though I listen to Linkin Park’s songs sometimes, I am not familiar with individuals of the band. So, I am surprised to see this kind of reflection on celebrity culture by a member of such a well-known band. Shinoda’s exhibition has two sections, which are Glories Excess (born) and the Glories Excess (death). The first part was held last year and this second part will be shown in the museum from August 30 to October 4. Under the death theme, he uses skeleton to symbolize the excess and illustrates its relationship with fame, money, sex and other tempting things. Comparing to his paintings, for me, the notes on the wall are more meaningful. He explained his initial interests in this project and explains his understanding on this excess. All the things we are experiencing are actually short and temporal which can not be over-used but we never pay attention to the excess until it is too late. I also like the meaning behind the exhibition, a celebrity’s awareness on the celebrity phenomenon and I think this critical expression should be appreciated.

The toy exhibition is on the second floor, no photos, sorry. Kokeshi (こけし), is a traditional Japanese doll, which usually has two parts, the head and the body. These dolls are all hand-made and painted by local artists. The evolution of the pattern and shape of the doll also convey the historical changes and the expression of the artists. The whole collection includes all sizes of Japanese traditional Kokeshi but also some creative Kokeshi by contemporary artists, a nice combination. I did not buy any Kokeshi souvenir when I visited Tokyo but I got two from the museum store this time.

For more information about the museum and the exhibition, please visit:
http://www.janm.org/exhibits/gloriousexcess/ (August 30~October 4, 2009)
http://www.janm.org/exhibits/kokeshi/ (July 11~October 4, 2009)

What if you can not find your valet program button

The remote control of my Mitsubishi Galant has been broken (cant attach to the key chain) for a while, so I have to use it carefully and elegantly by putting it in a small purse. I finally decided to buy a new one before I move to Los Angeles, where I need to use the car everyday. The remote is associated with the security system provided by Viper, so I thought I just buy exactly the same model and replace it.

It never goes that easy as I thought but also not that complicate as those professionals told me.

So, I got the new Viper remote with the manual, which says I need to re-activate the valet program button in my car and press it several times in order to set the system. So, I Googled and Googled and Googled, to see where is the valet program button of my car. Still, I cant find it according to those answers (around the dashboard area). I bought the car from someone who is now in Taiwan, so I have to figure it out by myself now. Then, I took it to Walmart auto center, people there cant help me, another local auto center, neither. Either of them can locate the cute valet program button. They suggested me to call StereOne, a dealer of Viper. The StereoOne in my town says they no longer deal with Viper but can take a look at the car, charging $65 for finding the button, totally disappointed.

Well, after this whole complain, here comes the idea. I thought, since I actually only need the shell of the remote, what if it is just a whole chip inside, I just can replace them, not touching the system. So, I opened it, yes, it is exactly a whole chip. Finally, I saved the $65 and still dont know where's the valet program of my car, but, successfully replaced the old broken remote with a new one. So, if its just something wrong with the remote, maybe opening it and replacing the chip is a lot easier than trying to find the activate button of the car.

[Movie]I've Loved You So Long

《I've loved you so long》(Il y a longtemps que je t'aime)，是法国和德国合拍片，58届柏林影展竞赛单元入围作品，中文译作《爱你长久》，女主角是《英国病人》的美丽少妇Kristin Scott Thomas。

去年看预告的时候，就对影片整个灰蓝色的基调和流畅的音乐很有印象，终于有机会看了这部片，是一个悲伤而美丽的故事。看完觉得Kate Winslet要分一半的金球奖给Kristin，因为她把女主人公的神秘、憔悴、不安、以及坚强的每一个层面都表现出来了，非常感人。预告打的是悬疑牌，一个因为谋杀而入狱15年的女人突然出现，进入妹妹一家人平静的生活，好在故事没有朝着惊悚阴暗的方向走，而是讨论一个带着异类标签的女人，如何重新融入社会以及生与死与道德的问题，是一个充满社会关怀的故事。

IMDB显示，这部片是Philippe Claudel的电影导演处女作，他之前都参与一些电视制作，一上来就能够如此细致刻画女性情感，相当了不起。这部片没有获得那年的金熊奖，但是被授予了 “Prize of the Ecumenical Jury”，这是个有点宗教色彩的奖项，有译作“天主教人道精神将”，由世界天主教传播协会赞助，主旨是鼓励那些能够带来心灵、人性、社会价值探索的影 片。
以下有微雷，不过不涉及核心秘密。

电影一开场的2分半钟，真的很适合拿来做分镜头分析，姐姐/字幕/妹妹之间的交叉镜头，马上就把两人的互动表现出来了。在机场休息室的姐姐 Juliette面容憔悴，失神地抽着烟，妹妹Lea急匆匆地从停车场一路奔来，见到了姐姐，现在远处停顿了一下，走近，两人相识尴尬地笑了笑，姐姐起 身，妹妹上前拥吻，果真是熟悉的陌生人。

相对姐姐的坎坷人生和背负的巨大的悲伤，其实我更容易站在妹妹Lea视角来看这部影片，妹妹Lea是一个文学老师，面对姐姐被称为是谋杀犯，妹妹其实也是一个受害人，在讨论陀思妥耶夫斯基作品的 课上，论及人们对于谋杀犯的看法，Lea就几乎情绪崩溃，没有经历过的人，要如何理解杀人犯/杀人犯的亲人。与父母的冷漠不同，Lea长大以后，选择了包 容，相信和支持姐姐，I've love you so long，不仅仅是女主人公Juliette的独白，也是妹妹Lea对姐姐的表白，这句话就像支持姐妹两人自我救赎的主题。

不过影片中也有让我看不太明白的地方，就是负责监察Juliette生活的那位警察的故事，就算他觉得孤单寂寞，可是他仍然有梦想，为什么就这样抛弃梦想自杀了呢?虽然有一个悲伤的影子，本片基调还是温暖的，就像灰蓝色一样，虽然不是明亮的颜色，可是让人觉得平静温和。

The Death of a Super Star in Web2.0

I talked with my elder friend about MJ's sudden death today. She described how popular he was in India at that time. For me, it seems he is not the iconic pop music star for my generation in China. Yet, I don't know who else could be the legendary supers star for my generation. When I started to know pop culture by television or Internet, he has been the"love of tabloids" rather than the "king of pop".

But, I am still completely shocked when I learned it from New York Times' News Alert. When I rushed to my Twitter page, his name has been all over the trending words. At the noon, Farah Fawcett was the headline for the news; later in the afternoon, MJ's name has occupied all the evening news. I am still more interested to see the reaction from the web.

CNN has an article, " Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him", which describes the phenomenal outrages of several popular websites last night. The first sentence says "How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one -- if that one is Michael Jackson." Totally agree.

When I searched MJ on Wikipedia this morning, it says "Database Error". Maybe too many people were editing the page at the same time.

Also, I noticed Twitter's trending words disappeared last night. I am not sure if it is because system was too busy to respond. A picture by Raul Oorzco portrays what Twitter is experiencing by replacing Twitter's famous under maintenance whale by MJ.

Besides fans and Internet users' huge responses, websites also responded much quicker than televisions.

Time Warner's gossip website TMZ is reportedly the first media to release the news and has continued to offer exclusive updates. It also has experienced several outrages since last night, according to the CNN news. Meanwhile, YouTube has already highlighted MJ's channel on front page, and even Chinese video streaming website, Tudou.com, has featured MJ on the front page.

There's one backlash of Twitter, Blog and other web 2.0 applications that these platforms make it too easy to spread rumors without responsibility. Yet, this time, web 2.0 is the most convincing way to demonstrate the influence of an international legendary super star.

Michael Jackson (1958-2009) R.I.P.

Trible-Win Deal of Susan Boyle

Two months after YouTube user "BritainsSoTalented" uploaded Susan Boyle's performance at Britain's Got Talented 2009, the video has accumulated 67 million hits, currently 14th of the top viewed video worldwide. It took "evolution of dance" , almost three years to reach 121 million hits and the No.1 place, while Susan made it in an amazing speed just as her voice.

Off YouTube's honor, however, she lost in the final. A Times article is saying that both YouTube and the production company, owned by judge Simon Cowell lost as well, since they failed to reach an agreement on sharing the advertising revenue from YouTube exposure. This article says that ITV wants YouTube to redirect users to their website rather than sharing advertising revenue with YouTube because they can get better offer from domestic advertisers on their own websites. I am not sure how they negotiated eventually. Now, YouTube puts a text layer ad on the top viewed Susan video( user uploaded ) and ITV is running a Britain's Got Talented show channel as a partner, without ad banner around it, just promotion of the show

Scholars have already predicted that one advancement of video streaming websites is that it can distribute content internationally with no geographic limitations. Then, the interesting question is , who really benefits from the instant global distribution when website as YouTube achieved this capability?

In Susan Boyle's case, definitely, the performer does; rumor says she is going to sing in U.S. soon. Though YouTube , ITV and the production company did not get the financial profits initially, they are still benefiting from the video. YouTube now could once again tell its advertisers that only YouTube has the ability to make you over-night success, which might be helpful to transfer YouTube's reputation into into actual profits, which it needs indeed now. For ITV, the success proves that for reality show format, Idol is out and really Talent is in. They probably can sell the format for a better price. So, all of them definitely get something from this YouTube phenomenon, maybe not exactly what they want, but contributing to their reputation.

My question is, then, how do the content owner outside U.S., can really make money out of YouTube's global distribution ability? Thinking about how many Indian diaspora, Chinese diaspora are there, how can Indian television station, Taiwan television station, Hong Kong television station, make some ad revenue from YouTube? As far as I know, those users who are uploading Chinese programming on YouTube are very popular, always among the most subscribed users, contributing top viewed videos. We as audiences need such content, and YouTube makes it so easy to distribute the content, then why the content owners are hesitating to set a partner relationship with YouTube? It is not only an extra revenue source but also a way to educate your audiences. I know Hong Kong's ATV and RTHK are uploading some of their programs now, and I just can not think about any pros of doing that.

Finally, Susan is really popular in Greater China area, here's a picture of a Taiwan parody show, ( in someway like Saturday Night Live), where the actor is impersonating Susan.

[HK Movie]Those were the Days (1997)

王晶电影之恶搞，我这一代人，真的是从小看到大的。不过，这部以恶搞之名向香港早期粤语片致敬的喜剧，我真的是第一次看，王晶再度使用“不是女人”为名作编剧，打造这部从头到尾kuso至极的香港电影史诗片。

1937上海沦陷后，上海的电影资源逐渐转向香港，1940-1960间，香港的粤语电影和国语电影并济，国语片主要由绍氏兄弟出品作品类型主要有浪漫音乐剧和史实片，例如李翰祥导演的《江山美人》；而粤语片的制作成本相对较低，出名的有武侠片《黄飞鸿系列》以及一些描写现代生活的戏剧（melodrama），还常常会加入一些粤剧唱词，也被称为粤语长片。而这部《精装难兄难弟》就以香港电影人独有的态度来怀念那个粤语片的辉煌时代。我印象里另一部向粤语长片致敬的是刘镇伟导演的《92黑玫瑰对黑玫瑰》，也非常经典。

这部片讲的是获得法国金牛奖的大导演王晶卫对于粤语电影出言不逊，于是被粤语片导演楚活游（大导演楚原本人扮演）活活地从电视里伸出手把他拉到30年前的 1967年，让他拍出一部让人称赞的粤语片才放他回1997。于是，王大导演在片场就遇到了那些日后成为粤语片大牌的演员们，和他们一起混阿混，终于混出了几部作品但却不成功，在临死之前被一个胖胖小男孩王星（暗指王晶）夸奖，终于回到1997。全片的主题是，几乎每个人物原型都是响当当的电影人，但是剧情却90%是虚构，10%是基于事实的恶搞，相当KUSO。

暗指的演员：
王晶卫（剧情）--王家卫（真人）--黄子华（演员）
谢源 -- 谢贤 -- 吴镇宇
李奇 -- 吕奇 -- 罗嘉良
牛达华 -- 曹达华 -- -- 陈百祥
绍芳芳 -- 萧芳芳 -- -- 舒淇
程宝珠 -- 陈宝珠 -- 张可颐
秀秋姐 -- 于素秋 -- 陈法蓉
家燕 -- 薛家燕 -- 陈阎行

所暗指的这些明星，当年都是超级大牌。现在我们比较熟悉的，有谢霆锋的老爸谢贤，现在72岁了还保养的那么好就可推算当年的模样（电影里说他将来的儿子叫谢柠檬XD）；今年香港电影金像奖终身成就奖获得者萧芳芳（女人四十、还有方世玉的搞怪老妈）；薛家燕人称好姨，也常在TVB出现；陈宝珠，出身粤剧世家，这两年也有在香港登台表演。比较不熟的就有武打明星曹达华，其实他后期都还有在港片中客串，贴张照片就知道了；而吕奇也是个传奇明星，早年也走小生路线，和陈宝珠是荧幕情侣，后期转型投资拍摄三级片，息影后在台经商，《92黑玫瑰对黑玫瑰》中梁家辉扮演的那个警察吕奇也是暗指他，有点娘的气质外加很独特的嗓音。这几位演员都演得很好，尤其是吴镇宇，真的非常神似。

就像所有穿越时空的故事一样，王晶卫也要证明自己真的来自1997年，他的方法之一就是盗版VCD，方法之二是提出“建设性建议”，于是粤语片开始流行吊钢丝，怪兽出现，奶油小生等等（灵感每次都来自于惨痛经历），他自己也拍摄了《飞佬正传》、《黄飞鸿之春光乍泄》、《东蛇西鹿》，可惜还是没人看得懂。影片重现了很多粤语片的场景，就像我们现在看一部电影，里面如果穿插了大量周星驰电影的片段，也会马上被认出来理解为恶搞笑点。最后当王晶卫遇到小王晶的时候，小王晶对王晶卫说，我很喜欢你的电影，但是王晶卫对小王晶说，不要，你多去蹲蹲厕所，“屎尿屁”将会成为你电影的精髓（王晶果然从不忌讳低俗两字，只要卖座）。影片最后还附赠《差佬故事》、《金猪肉叶》、《古惑佬》短片，部部爆笑。

除了恶搞好笑之外，这部戏浓缩了香港电影的两个时代，一个就是当年的粤语片时代，孕育了80-90年代中港片的黄金时期，一个就是90年代到，无厘头小市民的香港商业片从鼎盛逐渐走下坡，也算是一代电影人对上一代电影人的致敬。也许再过10年，就有一部kuso周星驰、刘德华的电影出现了，算是80后、90后对童年电影的致敬。

June Fourth, After 20 Years

June 4th,2009, in China, Internet becomes Intranet. A bunch of mainstream western media (HK media, too) which are identified as "anti-Chinese" were once again blocked by GFW, including newbie Twitter, and Microsoft's new search engine, BING.COM (poor guy, only one-day old in Chinese market), flicker, etc. Another bunch of Chinese websites voluntarily closed for maintenance between June 3rd and June 5th (to avoid unnecessary conflicts), including Chinese twitter, Fanfou, Douban, etc. What is left on the Intranet then? Probably only CNN's interview with pop stat Edison Chan about his photos .

The over-reaction is just the fear of what happened 20 years ago.

I was less than 5-year-old in 1989 when the protest happened, and during my entire school education and family education, no one has ever told me anything about the protest. I learned the information from the Internet (no wonder they fear). I really would use June Fourth rather than Tiananmen Square Movement, or Tiananmen Square Massacre in memory of the students or the soldiers died that time. It is really important to recognize the date it happened, it is 1989, June 4th, the year which is 70-year anniversary of The May Fourth Movement for Science and Democracy, 1919 (the first student movement in Modern China history); the date exactly one month later. This is a tradition of young generation to pursue democracy with their true passion and idealism, that my generation will never ever have.

In a less developed society, the history is written by the ruler; but in a open and democratic society, the citizen should at least know what happened, and they will have their own justification. We know better that history is not black and white, so what the government is hiding.

This is a music video in memory of the 20-year anniversary of the June Fourth Movement of 1989 from Hong Kong. Hong Kong will hold an annual candlelight vigil on this day at Victoria Park for June Fourth. This song is by a Hong Kong rock band, Beyond, the name is War of Resistance for 20 years, perfectly matched.

[Reading] Who Controls the Internet (2006)

Though written by two law experts, this book on Internet governance and related civil rights, copyright, and cyber criminal issues is written in a humor and light style. Especially the first few chapters, which introduce the early history of the Internet development, contrasting to the current situation, is like a adventure of Utopianists fight with state machine. The early experts' forecast of the Internet is full of idealism, but still inspiring, especially the story of the root authority, Jon Postel , which is referred as "the god of the Internet" in this book. Culturally, Internet definitely brings the grass-roots spirit to the world, even in the Central-controlled country; yet, realistically, it is a tool, a commercialized tool, initially for national defense purpose, it is impossible to avoid the impact of the commercialization and government interference.

The book is divided into three chapters, first part is about the early history of Internet, and the second part includes governments' involvement in the past years while the third part discusses the future and the global law. I think there should be an update of the book: when talking about the MGM v Grokster case, the book only traced back to 2004, when the court still recognizes the technological innovation over contributory infringement of Grokster, so the book quoted "the death of copyright"(pp112). Actually, Grokster eventually lost the case in 2005, Gorkster is ruled as liable for infringement.

In the government control chapter, the authors devote a chapter for China, which makes me have to say something. The China chapter makes two point, the stringent control and the CPC uses Internet as a tool to raise nationalism. I totally agree with the two facts.

Looking at how the mainstream media online treat the 512 Si Chuan earthquake has demonstrated both points. Right after 2008, May12, the earthquake, the portal sites, such as SINA , SOHU, gave tons of information about the survivors, the casualty, the rescue team, which united the whole country by the efficient information flow. Now, a year later , we still dont know exactly how many students were buried during the earthquake and why those school buildings so easily crashed. Any negative news one 512 earthquake is sensitive information that is blocked by the GFW and by self-censorship of media. Independent blogger, Ai WeiWei, who conducted personal survey of the earthquake, has been 'invited' to talk to the police (Gong An), and his blog on SINA has been wiped out. Moreover, citizen journalist in that area (Wen Chuan, SiChuan Provence) were more or less targeted by the police (according to Ai weiwei's blog). With the coming 20-year anniversary of June 4th, no need to bother the GFW, the internal control of service providers and mainstream websites are sufficient, for instance, Baidu's university bulletin boards no longer allow users to post articles, you can just read but not comment; and some popular websites among youngsters also have deleted more information than past months by the end of May. And,Blogger has been completely blocked by GFW in May, 2009.

The authors have expressed deep concern of the censorship and the effective control of Chinese government. I am just wondering how effective it really could be. Though being censored again and again, we now are able to hear Yang Jia's case or Deng Yujiao's case that we would otherwise never know and never pay attention to discuss. The really terrifying thing is not that they are blocking and censoring things, but they are threatening your safety and family safety in a lot cases since no legislation to protect citizen in these situations till now. The well-know government control of China's Internet actually mirrors the fragile legislation and litigation system in China.

[Movie]Angels and Demons (2009)

已经知道了大魔王是谁的读者，可以把这部影片当作是灾难冒险片来看；还没看过小说的影迷，不用担心背景知识不足，剧情简化了推理部分，也可以当作是一部灾难冒险片来看；看过小说又忘记了具体情节的读者，跟着感觉走，更适合拿来当灾难冒险片看。

我一直觉得《达芬奇密码》的小说偏“文”，拍成电影不一定好看，外加预告里Tom Hanks的扮相实在和想象力里的Langdon教授差太多，所以我一直还没看电影版。《天使恶魔》 这部小说就正好偏“武”，将近千吨炸弹的威胁，连续不同地残忍杀人方式，限于24小时内的追踪，还有大批围观群众（聚集在梵蒂冈的那些信众）和媒体聚焦， 基本上就是好莱坞灾难片的情节了。而且，这次Langdon教授扮相有改进，还有小说中强调的特别帅的神父，以及众所周知的罗马建筑和意大利帅哥警察 (XD) ，使得我对这部片好感大增。

小说的两条主线就是Antimatter即将爆炸和销声匿迹的Illuminati 成员是否真的重出江湖，参与了谋杀科学家，毁灭梵蒂冈的计划。小说花了很重的笔墨来铺垫科学和宗教之间长久以来的纠葛，电影则力求淡化这一敏感主题，于是加快故事进度，一上来10分钟之内就已经宣布了Antimatter的巨大威胁和Illuminati的秘密，除了必要时候提及伽利略的经历以外，尽量避免讨论天主教和当代科学之间的矛盾，Langdon教授则凭借在宗教符号学方面的专长，逐一定位4个被抓走的主教并找到Path of Illumination。他不能完全阻止惨剧发生，不过因为影片是PG-13，所以特效不算太血腥，爆炸场面还够火力。除了特效，好莱坞大片还是需要笑点的，所以在神圣的梵蒂冈档案室里，总是意外不断，这里可以看到Langdon教授幽默的一面以及女主角的露脸。女主角Vittoria是个称职的花瓶，虽然不是小说里那个瑜伽功夫了得的高手，整部戏都踩着高跟鞋到处跑也算是女中豪杰了。

为了不得罪以梵蒂冈为代表的全世界天主教势力，电影虽然涉及了教皇之死以及密宗会议这样的内容，但基本上还是保持了很强大的宗教气场，梵蒂冈的圣彼得广场以及红衣主教集体出席会议，都气势非凡。电影甚至改编了小说中最后的身世之谜之梗，不知道是求能够和平上映还是因为时间不够。据Variety介绍，梵蒂冈这次的反应就是低调，不想给这部片制造更多的曝光率。

这部戏应该就是典型的Runaway Project, 英国、德国、意大利、瑞典的演员都有参与，女主角甚至是以色列的美女，当然不可少意大利政府的支持，看完这部戏真的很想去罗马城一游。

[Web2.0] Good for YouTube Bad for GFW

As the saying goes "there are two sides of the same coin", two approaches to Internet are the centralism and the decentralism, and I prefer the latter one.

Decentralism is mainly because of the user participation and collective intelligence, which is a good excuse for YouTube's liability to infringement but a miss for the China's Great Fire Wall
project.

According to DMCA1998, if the service provider could prove 1) does not have the constructive knowledge of infringing activity; 2) cant control the infringing activity and does not benefit directly from the infringing activity; 3) remove the infringing content promptly once receive the copyright holder's notification, the service provider could be exempt from injunctions. YouTube has been actively practicing the third provision, both falls into gray area of the first two. It is really difficult for YouTube to clean up all the infringing content because of users' effort. Some of clips are infringing; some could be fair use; and some of the clips dont have the identification tag that the system cant automatically detect them; and even YouTube moves them from on account others can secretly continue upload. Also, some users come to the site are just looking for user generated content, in such circumstances, YouTube is benefiting directly from non-infringing content. So, the user participation gives excuses, at least, enough arguments for the Viacom v YouTube case.

As for the GFW project, though the censorship is getting worse (YouTube is completely blocked by end of the April), users' collective intelligence and participation efforts make it possible to break the GFW. Users still can try proxy and VPN services to pass GFW to access foreign websites, and for domestic uses, users have developed many new words to avoid sensitive words block. The ironic thing is we all know GFW blacklist for sensitive words is unpredictable, yet, users intelligence to develop new words for reference is weigh more unpredictable and innovative. Therefore, GFW can never completely stop the access. Sadly, they will try physical violent ways then sometimes. Still, the decentralism makes it not that strong.

Here's a video that describes one of the latest popular Internet slang in China, and an article that explains how the GFW function, a nice piece. And, they are both in Chinese..
Interpret the GFW and Break the GFW
http://course.ccert.edu.cn/blog/dingxuan/2009/04/30/gfw/