China Herald: Internet in China

Monday, September 22, 2014

Technology moves away from the geeks to the masses - Kaiser Kuo

Disruptive new technologies of the coming decade will not focus on a small number of geeks, but on the billions of users, Baidu´s director of international communication Kaiser Kuo, according to the Holmes Report. "And PR people are not prepared for that change."

The Holmes Report:

Kaiser Kuo, director of international communications, for Chinese internet giant Baidu and Dan Wong, vice president of Samsung’s media solutions center, discussed some the new technologies in development by their companies and others at an In2 Summit session on Tomorrow’s Tech moderated by Zaheer Nooruddin, vice president of Waggener Edstrom’s Studio D digital and social media unit in Asia, who suggested that “technology is empowering interactions with our key audiences.”

Kuo suggested that many of the most interesting developments of the next decade will not be new gadgets for tech-savvy consumers in the west, but products “for the next billion. Things like speech and visual recognition don’t require high levels of tech literacy but they will have a huge impact on how we communicate.”

And, he suggested, PR people may not be ready for the changes that are about to occur. “As an industry we are way behind. We are not ready for this. We don’t have industry standards; we don’t have a strategy.”

More in the Holmes Report. Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you interested in more experts on the internet at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check our latest list.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Talking to strangers: Tricia Wang at the Berkman center

+Tricia Wang

Young Chinese use social media to develop a new public sphere, away from the old concepts of family ties and Guanxi, argues sociologist Tricia Wang in her Phd. On February 18 she will talk about this subject at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard University.

From the invite:

When we read about the Chinese internet in the Western press, we usually hear stories about censorship, political repression, and instability. But there's a lot more to be learned about life on the other side of “The Great Firewall.”

Based on over 10 years of ethnographic research, Tricia Wang's fieldwork reveals that social media is creating spaces in China that are shifting norms and behaviors in unexpected ways. Most surprisingly, Chinese youth are sharing information and socializing with strangers. She argues that they are finding ways to semi-anonymously connect to each other and establish a web of casual trust that extends beyond particularistic guanxi ties and authoritarian institutions.

Chinese youth are discovering their social world and seeking emotional connection—not political change. Tricia argues that this reflects a new form of sociality among Chinese youth: an Elastic Self. Evidence of this new self is unfolding in three ways: from self-restraint to self-expression, from comradeship to friendship, and from a “moral me” to a “moral we.” This new sociality is lying the groundwork for a public sphere to emerge from ties primarily based on friendship and interactions founded on a causal web of public trust. The changes Tricia has documented have potentially transformative power for Chinese society as a whole because they are radically altering the way that people perceive and engage with each other.

You can rsvp for the meeting at 18 February at 12:30pm ET, or follow the proceedings online. Please follow the link for the details at the Berkman site.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you a media representative and do you want to talk to one of our speakers? Please drop us a line.