This blog post was contributed by Alison O’Leary, who works in Racepoint’s UK office.
After a week working with Irdeto (a Racepoint client) out of their Beijing office, I’ve come back with a different view of the great Chinese firewall. True, my broadband speed was pretty slow, I couldn’t access Citrix from my hotel room at all and trying to get onto Twitter actually crashed my laptop, but it’s not the picture of doom and gloom painted by much of the Western media.
Yes, Western companies are having to abide by Chinese censorship requirements, with Google the most talked about case in point, and we all know the Chinese government operates the world’s most extensive system of Web monitoring and filtering, but social media is really making a difference to its overall impact.
China already counts the world’s biggest Internet population, at 470 million users – already more than double that of the USA – and consultants BDA China predict that Internet users will reach 800 million by 2014. And those users are making the most of it. According to a recent report, the Chinese are twice as likely to use chat and three times more likely to micro-blog, blog and use video conferencing than American users. The Netpop Research study shows that mainland Chinese citizens are “more likely to share information broadly and openly.” Something of a surprise given the country’s censorship has been such a topic of contention. Nevertheless, the study estimates that up to 92 percent of Chinese netizens use social media, meanwhile, only 76 percent of US netizens do the same.
What really came across when talking to Chinese colleagues and ex-pats during my time in Beijing though was the huge popularity of bulletin boards. There are 117 million of them in China and it is here that many of the population express themselves, sharing often contentious news and views. Some deliberately translate everything in English so that stories can disseminate at a quicker rate before being found and censored. Check out www.chinasmack.com as an example. When you add the 221 million blogs and 176 million social network users who also use these platforms to spearhead criticisms of many companies and spread ideas and news, it’s clear to see the game changing impact social media is already having.
As time moves on it will be interesting to see how things develop but one thing’s for sure, with the world’s largest Internet population grabbing the social media gauntlet, the great firewall of China has the hardest job on earth trying to keep control of it.
A YouTube video of Israeli soldiers dancing to Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” has quickly become widely viewed – but is not without controversy and criticism.
The soldiers appear to be patrolling the streets of Hebron (the largest city in the West Bank) when a song is suddenly blasted over speakers, and the soldiers break out into a choreographed dance. They are fully dressed in their uniforms and carrying weapons during the duration of the video.
While the video is entertaining, the soldiers are currently facing disciplinary charges. Additionally, the chosen location for the video (Hebron) won’t help the soldier’s cause, as the conflicted area is the centerpiece of many ongoing disputes. A location such as Tel Aviv would have been a better location for the video – but any video at all might have still been frowned upon by army officials.
This is not the first time social media has been a problem for the Israeli army. In April 2008 an Israeli soldier was jailed for posting a picture on Facebook that contained sensitive information.
Back in October 2008, I wrote a post about charitable organizations embracing donations via text message to help meet their end of year fundraising goals. This week the island nation of Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake and two high profile charities, the Red Cross and Yele (founded by Haitian musician Wyclef Jean), urged those wishing to send aid to make a donation not via check, email, or even online donations, instead they asked for one simple item – a text message.
By text messaging a special code to the Red Cross or Yele you could make a donation to relief efforts in Haiti with the push of just a few keys on your phone. Last week I wrote about some of the exciting mobile technologies unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and its clear that the mobile trend is not just for tech, it has spread to non-profit.
The Red Cross text message donations are being managed by a company called mGive. mGive’s chief executive, Tony Aiello, told Jenna Wortham of the New York Times, “Catastrophic fund-raising is different from the everyday fund-raising that we help facilitate. This is a huge tragedy, and we simply hope to help provide relief. . . Mobile giving is currently outpacing the early days of online giving.”
How popular is the donation method exactly?
In an interview with MSNBC’s Suzanne Choney, Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless said, “All mobile texters in the United States have contributed $4 million to the Red Cross Haiti earthquake relief effort, the largest outpouring of charitable support by texting in history — by far.”
Nelson went on to say, “Previous donating-via-text message efforts raised $400,000 after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and $200,000 after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami by all wireless customers in the U.S.”
And it doesn’t end there. To get out the word about donating via text, concerned individuals posted the text message codes on a plethora of social networks, making the plea viral.
Jennifer Van Grove of Mashable wrote a post today praising the Red Cross’ decision to use mobile and social media to raise awareness and more importantly, to raise funds. Van Grove said, “The Red Cross’s involvement in the relief effort is to be commended. Not only did it immediately set up the simplest donation method possible, but its social media presence and outreach, when combined with the State Department’s involvement, has turned this into a viral funding initiative, topping Twitter trends and inspiring action.”
This week it has become clear the most effective method of raising funds is to reach people where they are: on their phones and on social networks. When launching a fundraising campaign, in the wake of a crisis or otherwise, fundraisers should consider that their staring point is in fact mobile.
Back in April, I had written about an Israeli solder that was put in jail for posting sensitive images and/or information on their Facebook profile. Apparently, the army has continued to monitor the social network pretty closely.
Another young Israeli has gotten into trouble for evading the army, which was discovered when someone looked at her Facebook profile. According to Jewish & Israel News, Israel’s army is using Facebook to track down draft dodgers:
The army visited the Facebook account of a teenager who was dismissed from army service after declaring she was religious despite attending a secular school, and discovered that she did not lead a religious lifestyle…Pictures on her Facebook account showed that she did not dress in a style acceptable to the religious community and that she attended parties on Shabbat. The army has since drafted her.
This case is justanotherexample of why people need to be careful about what they put online. In fact just to be safe, assume everything you post can and will be seen by everyone. That would sure help avoid one of these messes.
The ratings for the Beijing Olympics are way up over Athens. The Los Angeles Times reports that NBC’s 12-day average prime-time viewership is 29.3 million for Beijing, up from 26.1 million in Athens. With so many people watching the likes of beach volleyball champs Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, Gymnastics studs Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, and the dominating swimming performance by Michael Phelps, it’s no wonder why the Olympics are so popular.
However, if there is one complaint about the coverage, it’s that NBC hasn’t aired enough live events – something ESPN is hoping to capitalize on.
John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president for content says that “[ESPN’s] DNA is different than theirs [NBC]. We serve sports fans. It’s hard in our culture to fathom tape-delaying in the same way they have. I’m not suggesting it wasn’t the smart thing for them to do, but it’s not our culture…We would never put an event on tape delay. When we put ‘live’ on the screen, we mean ‘live right now.’ We don’t mean live three hours ago.”
While I was watching the Olympics last night, I noticed that the men’s 200 meter run was not shown live, but an interview with Shawn Johnson (about her Gold medal high beam performance) was. I understand how popular Johnson is in these Olympics games, but the 200m was a really exciting race and the U.S. finished in 2nd and 3rd. Bolt also broke Michael Johnson’s world record time, and the athletes that originally placed 2nd and 3rd in the race (one from the U.S.) ended up being disqualified for stepping on the line. How was this not live?
NBC has made big news with extended online video, including 2,200 hours of live coverage, thanks to Microsoft’s Silverlight. However, the reality is that ESPN has a valid point – we want to watch these sports live, not hear about the results online then watch the event afterwards, already knowing the results. That’s part of the beauty of sports – the excitement that no one knows what will happen next.
Noel Hidalgo was walking around Tiananmen Square in China on Saturday when he came across a free-Tibet protest. He decided to Twittertheprotest, and also broadcast it live over Qik.
It turned out that the live broadcast ended up being his ticket home.
Chinese authorities deported Hidalgo as a result of the live video streaming, sending him back to the United States. So while it has been reported that many Chinese have been very eager to please visitors during the Olympic Games, it turns out that anything involving Tibet is crossing the line.
As the Olympic Games kickoff tomorrow in Beijing, the best athletes around the world will be competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals in their respective events.
While you’re on the couch, no doubt witnessing some of the greatest athletic performances of the year, or ever, you’ll also be watching some other competitions coming straight into your living room.
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will be competing for your vote – and spending a combine $11 million in the process. NBC sure is lucky that the Olympics fall during the same time as campaign season!
Meanwhile, Olympic sponsors such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, and McDonalds (powering Olympic athletes? Suuuuuure) are giddy at the sight of having an attentive television audience and the ability to market their products to Asia. These types of ‘global sponsors’ have paid an average of $72 million each, but one study found that only 15 percent of 1,500 Chinese city dwellers could name at least two of the 12 global sponsors.
So while you’re watching some of the world’s greatest athletes over the next couple weeks, try not to think about the companies and politicians competing for your money and votes – just enjoy the moments that the summer Olympics bring us ever 4 years.
Even while the Olympic Games will be taking place on the other side of the world, viewers will now be able to watch whatever events they want, thanks to some cool new technology.
No, not YouTube – that’s only available to countries that don’t have access to NBC and their long line of advertisers.
Instead, NBC’s Olympics Web site will feature 2,200 hours of live coverage, thanks to Microsoft’s Silverlight, their equivalent of Flash (However, this will only be available to viewers in the U.S.).
Thanks to this technology, viewers will have the ability to:
- See multiple camera angles & rewind video.
- Watch whatever sport they want whenever they want.
- See 3,000 hours of ‘on-demand encores of full events and highlights’.
- Switch between up to 4 live streams.
- See the standard world feed that is sent to all broadcasters, with no TV commentators.
- Access statistics, biographies and other information.
This enhanced Olympics viewing experience will be great for people looking to catch certain events that aren’t always on TV, especially as NBC aims to stick countless hours of competition into nicely organized time slots during their prime time hours.
With the Olympics starting on Friday, there is so much to look forward to. I can’t wait to see the track & field events – especially the 1500 and 5000 meter races. Volleyball is always exciting to watch, and who doesn’t want to see Michael Phelps’s attempt for eight gold medals? However, what most people don’t realize that until this year, not everyone had access to this worldwide event.
Thanks to the popular video site, for the first time ever the Olympic Games will reach 77 territories that aren’t officially covered by Olympic sponsors, including South Korea, India and Nigeria, according to The Wall Street Journal.
YouTube will be streaming about three hours a day of exclusive content from the Olympics on a dedicated channel during the Games. However, viewers from outside those 77 territories will be blocked from the channel because of broadcast rights.
While it’s hard to believe that the Olympics weren’t available around the world before 2008, it’s pretty funny to think that the first year they will be available worldwide (via the internet) will be the same year the Olympics are taking place in Beijing – where open internet access has become such a hot issue.
It was reported a while ago that China was going to allow uncensored internet during the Olympics in Beijing next month. Well, apparently that’s not quite true anymore.
The New York Times reports that “since the Olympic Village press center opened on Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.”
For reporters covering the games, it is important that they have access to the internet to research, communicate, and file their stories. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had negotiated with China to provide unregulated internet access, but China’s concern for their national security, particularly relating to Tibet, has trumped their one-time promise that there would be an open access for all.
In a world where some people are connected to the internet 24/7 via their cell phones or other devices, China’s decision to block certain sites and information from thousands of foreign reporters and their own citizens seems like quite a bold move.
What’s your take? Should countries have the right block certain sites that they believe are dangerous for their national security?
UPDATE (8/1)
The Associated Press is reporting that some sites have been unblocked at the main press center & media venues on Friday, after the IOC met with some Chinese officials.
