The document discusses the state of blogging in China in 2004 and issues around information control and lack of reflection mechanisms. It notes that blogs have the potential to act as an emergent and grassroots form of media that allows for distributed sharing of everyday content and collective intelligence. However, it also faces challenges from censorship and a lack of diversity. The document advocates for building trust-based communities of practice around blogging to help address some of these issues.

1. Weblog, and Emergent Social Evolution 2004/4 Isaac Mao SocialBrain.org

2. The Syndrome in China Unliterary people (Education) Information control (Media) No reflection mechanism (Management) Few NPO/NGO (Diversity) Centralized and single-point failure (Technical) Social trust crisis (Ethical)

3. Waiting For Godot? Vladimir: Well, shall we go? Estragon: Yes, let's go. They do not move.

4. Innovative Technologies Work Ubiquitous From grassroots Revolution by evolution Changing without high risk Emergent but powerful E-speed Low learning curve

5. Weblog --- the Godot ? 2002, CNBlog.org Dummy publishing Meme and non-formal voice Ecosystem with linkage and reflection echoes From mental to behavior change Everyday fresh content Lifelong learning Collective intelligence

6. Distributed but aggregatable The more distributed, the more powerful The more diversified, the more balanced The more micro-content, the more emergent

7. From Hierarchy to Peer In/Out

8. New Media Rules (Case Study) A meme’s route from a blogger to the world 2004/3/11, blogbus.com was ordered to shut down BB IM PG WXJ BC DW ZYS JL LC CH JI CNBlog CB

9. Open but Tacit Voice Dimming boundary From sensitive to undetermined From explicit to tacit knowledge, more reflections “ Today, I found a web site can’t be accessed, the web site…..” “ Oh my, …..” “ Who can save us?” More powerful than positive media report !!

10. Data Fact on Chinese Blogsphere Datasource: cnblog.org

11. Data Facts on Chinese Blogsphere (cont.) Content features: posts in Chinese blogsphere (from 8000+ blog samples) Lifestyle, 40% Tech, 20% Workspace, 10% Political & society, 6% Others, 24% Datasource: cnblog.org/grassland

12. Some Incidents Blogspot.com blocked, 2003/1/20 Some oversea’s Chinese blog was blocked, 2004/3/10 Blogbus.com, blogcn.com ordered to shutting down, 2004/3/11 Blogbus, blogcn, blogdirver compromised to self-police on their site, 2003/4 Typepad.com banned, 2004/3/25 What’s next?

13. Another Problem One-way world English Blogsphere Chinese Blogsphere

14. Actions: Blog-based COP Community of Practice based on trust Creative Commons Smiling Library Project Blogger Bidding Party Blogger donation and book collection Flash and Smart Mobs “ Free Culture” Translation Project Etc.

15. Future: We Media The Tipping Point Millions of bloggers in China, 2006 Media cooked by audience Diversified topics in blogshpere Distributed and decentralized Affecting mass media heavily

16. SocialBrain.org Pre-NPO Projects cnblog.org(2002, IsaacMao & Yunshen Zheng) creativecommons.cn(2003) oedu.org(2004) Social Software research and practise Social activity supporting and enabling

17. Thanks! Me@isaacmao.com