Internet

Sina.com's anti-CNN imagery is violent

The logo looks like something CNN would cook up at the dawn of a new military campaign, but this time the computer-generated bullet holes are in the CNN logo itself.

"Will" at Imagethief noticed this banner on a special page devoted to resisting "Western" media coverage about Tibet and China in general.

The text, according to Will's translation, which is about as good as I can do as well, reads: "Rise up! Angrily resist the demonization of the Tibet affair! / Chinese netizens roast CNN and other Western media!"

Here's a good Global Voices post … Read more

Your neighborhood Sinobyte blogger, now on Twitter

After meeting with another blogger in Beijing, I decided it's time to open up Pandora's Box and join Twitter. Follow me: gwbstr.

Red heart spreads as MSN and QQ symbol of Chinese patriotism

Xinhua and a Zhejiang province news website report on the spread of "Red Heart China" on IM and e-mail platforms.

The Zhejiang News Center link, auto-translated here, says the word is spreading via QQ, a top instant message platform in China.

Hexun.com carries step-by-step instructions in how to inscribe your MSN account with slogans declaring "I love the Olympics" and encouraging them to go on strongly.

This is all part of an extensive reaction to foreign press coverage on the recent events in Tibet. Other websites, including anti-cnn.com, have emerged to point out examples … Read more

Rocketboom creator pulls plug on auction of Twitter account

It appears that for now at least, we won't get to find out the value of identity on Twitter.

A few days ago, Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron put his Twitter account up for sale on eBay, offering access to his 1,500-plus followers. (It's now at 1,757 followers.) Within a few days, the bidding had gone over $1,500 and appeared headed for much more.

At the same time, Baron went on Craigslist and was also offering to sell a two-day guest-hosting slot on his Twitter account for $150.

"I really love my Twitter account but … Read more

Rocketboom creator selling Twitter account on eBay

Here's an interesting question: In the world of social media, how important is identity? For example, if someone "friends" someone else, does it really matter who the friendee is?

Well, we might be getting a bit of an answer to this question. That's because Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron has announced he's selling his Twitter account--which includes more than 1,500 "followers"--on eBay. And as of Sunday morning, the auction had already gone up to $560.

"I really love my Twitter account but I feel like I haven't been using it … Read more

Blogspot inaccessible in Beijing, again

From my connection in Beijing, Blogspot has again gone offline. The transmission stops on a Chinese ISP server.

I was able to get through using proxies. Anyone else, or is this just me? Blogspot had reemerged two weeks ago after years being blocked almost continuously.

Why I post censorship workarounds

Does posting censorship workarounds help the censors? That's the question I've been mulling for the last few days. I asked for your comments, and the verdict is in: Almost no one thinks we should keep these tricks to ourselves. I agree.

I started grappling with this question after I posted a now-defunct workaround for Mainlanders to access the still-blocked Chinese language Wikipedia. After a commenter posted the link on Sinobyte, I featured the link in the post. Then the commenter, Ted Chien, wrote me concerned that having the workaround posted would lead to the authorities blocking it. I … Read more

China censorship workarounds: 'To post or not to post?'

This blog is often faced with the question of whether to post methods of accessing sites that are inaccessible from China because of government controls. I want to turn the question to readers, who I hope will have some opinions. Help me decide whether to reinstate a workaround for Chinese Wikipedia.

The argument for posting: I tend to believe it would be selfish to keep circumvention methods to myself when others who are less habitually engaged with technology news would also appreciate a way around the blocks. For instance, before the BBC News site was unblocked, I posted information on … Read more

Digerati discuss future of tech conferences

It seems that the future of tech conferences is on a lot of people's minds these days.

On Friday, I ran a story here about how to survive and thrive in the so-called "Conference 2.0" era. The idea being that even as a multimedia backchannel made up of live, online chat on services like Twitter, IM, Meebo, and others proliferates at conferences and makes audience members feel empowered to demand more direct participation in keynotes and panel discussions, it doesn't have to be a disruptive force.

In fact, experts I talked to for the story … Read more

Even the Chinese Wikipedia is now available through a relay

Commenter htchien points out that Chinese users can now reach the Chinese-language Wikipedia through the site's SSL-encrypted gateway.

The standard site, zh.wikipedia.org, is still blocked. (The URL I thought led there, cn.wikipedia.org, sent me to Yahoo China last time I tried.) But for now at least, the secure URL is functional and could open the big wiki to more participation from China.

Htchein is Ted (Hsiang-Tai) Chien, who lists a position as Secretary of Wikimedia Taiwan.

UPDATE: At Ted Chien's request, I have (at least temporarily) removed the secure URL from this post. His … Read more