Vacations Blog

It was my second time to join the bloggers at the Chinese Blogger Conference 2007 in Beijing on Nov. 3 and 4. Last year, I went to Hangzhou and met a lot of great bloggers, including one of the conference founder/organizers, Issac Mao, who has begun to be referred as “Chairman Mao” by bloggers; Rebecca MacKinnon from Global Voices Online；and Professor Chunyan Wang from Renmin University, who was the first person who introduced Creative Commons (CC) licence to China web-sphere. And this year, I had the chance to reunite with my blogger friends, and make new friends. How wonderful!

Weather in Beijing was welcoming, with a warm and clear sky. Early November is the right time for the changing leaves in XiangShan Park (Fragrant Hills Park), where the Fragrant Hill Hotel, a prize-winning hotel designed by I.M. Pei, is located. The conference was held in a 5-star conference hall in Tsinghua Science Park. Google China is one of the tenants of the science park.

So, it is easy to imagine that the once grassroots blogger party is now transforming into a glitzy Web 2.0 event, little by little. Like most Chinese conferences, this one has a theme: “Let hundreds of flowers bloom together, let hundreds of school of thought contend.” This is an idiom from more than 2000 years ago when a famous Chinese philosopher advocated “free thinking”. From my personal opinion, the theme is also one of the major reason that I saw a camera with “NBC’ logo, and Financial Times reporters. Rebecca moderated the most controversial panel and has very detailed coverage here.

But what attracts Chinese bloggers (like me) are diverse topics and the opportunity to have closer communications with bloggers who are passionate in building communities.

Exciting stuff from the conference:

1. jiwai, a micro blogging service provider “sponsored” the conference with a mobile messenger broadcasting service. Everyone can send a text message to a specific number and “twitter” on what she/he is thinking/doing about the conference. A message (shown on a big screen) rolls every 10 second and each message stays for 30 seconds, so people can comment and ask questions in real time mode without disturbing the speakers and audience. Most important, they can share their opinions with everyone. Bloggers outside the conference room can post online by following the ID.

Translation of the messages on the screen:

• QQ71527683: I am from QQ. (he/she is using the QQ instant messenger to send this message.)
• marcao: Mr. Wang Jianshuo said: “Chinese Blogger Conference is the only party for idealists in nowadays China.” ( Wang Jianshuo is one of the most well-known Chinese bloggers)
• Beijing：This speaker is performing very professionally, not like an amateur.

This picture was taken when the controversial panel discussion about “grassroots media v.s. professional media”was going on.

2. 1kg.org, a travel related volunteer coordinator/NGO. Its Chinese name is “pack ONE extra kilogram (stuff) on your trip”. The “stuff” is what you think you can give and help the children in remote villages where even a pencil is regarded as precious. This NGO will provide information on villages or schools that are close to natural attractions. The bloggers have raised funds by hosting photography exhibit in cities.

3. YeeYan: I had blogged about YeeYan in October 2006 when it was still a group blog of less than 10 people with a dozen articles/blog posts translated from English to Chinese. Thirteen months later it has grown into a thriving community with more than 10,000 registered users and 3,000+ translated articles. Founder Lei Zhang believes that social collaboration is the way to change the translation industry. A group of bloggers have translated “Inside Facebook” into Chinese. The book is published, and I got one too. Good to see they handle the copyright issue right so far.