Tech International
China moving to "purify social civilization"
Not only is China holding fast in its demand that filtering software aimed at blocking "unhealthy" stuff be installed on all PCs sold there as of July 1 -- as we reported in the Chronicle today -- it apparently wants to enlist citizens to help in "purifying social civilization."
This from the New York Times:
In a further sign that Chinese officials are trying to assert more control over the Internet, the city of Beijing wants to recruit 10,000 volunteers by the end of the summer to monitor Internet content, said an employee of the Beijing government's Spiritual Civilization Office.
The plan was presented in a document submitted on Tuesday by the Beijing Internet Administration Office during a meeting in which city officials discussed "purifying social civilization," said the employee, who identified herself only by her surname, Guo. She said she had no further details on the plan.
Chinese authorities have also sought to assert control by directly warning some on-line services. On Thursday, for example, an Internet watchdog group supported by the Chinese government criticized the Chinese-language site of Google for linking to a large number of "pornographic and vulgar" Web sites.
New York Times story here.
| June 18 2009 at 02:11 PM
France and "le high-tech"
Besson, whose ministerial portfolio also includes thinking about the future, spent much of his two days at Google's Zeitgeist, networking and picking the brains of local high-tech execs, entrepreneurs and VCs ahead of his government's launch of an ambitious project to bring high-speed broadband to the entire French nation -- via wire, wireless and satellite -- by 2012, or earlier.
Andrew S. Ross/The Chronicle
Eric Besson, France's "minister of the future"
The initiative, he said, is aimed at pushing France to the "forefront" of high-tech countries while closing its own version of the digital divide between high-tech haves and have-nots.
One of the most important take-aways from the two days, he said, are fingerprinting technologies being developed in Silicon Valley and elsewhere to combat illegal downloading of copyrighted material -- a major concern among artists and writers in France.
"Content protection is crucial to maximizing the digital economy. I'm now feeling optimistic there are ways to do that," he said.
Equally interesting to Besson was how social networking software and "serious" gaming was being used inside U.S. companies to "stimulate employees," in the areas of innovation and productivity and generally making for a happier workforce.
"This is very important for us in France," he said.
| September 18 2008 at 05:51 PM
