Another Version of Excellence

幸福，又一年 / Love & Life, Another Year on

2012-02-18T11:33:00.000+08:00

幸福，又一年 / Love & Life, Another Year on

先向各位朋友问好，拜年了！

这个标题是去年年终的时候，我提笔写的。无奈只开了一个头：

"It's been a whole year since last post. Many things come and go, leaving us a lot of thoughts. I've got a lot to share, the founding of infoGenius Services, Project Alpha which became later auraHT, participation in some high-level talks…"

（流水按：这不是第一次虎头蛇尾了。之前去美国流浪的那个月，也开了一个头，"Restarting Blogging"，可是不但没有重新开始写博客，连本身那篇博客都没有完成，实在非常惭愧。
到了今年，还是用同一个模式开头，回想的内容就更多了。就让我继续这个开头吧。）

现在距离我上一篇博客已经三年了，如果把在爱尔兰的时光算作短暂的单身，那么我只在单身的时候才会，或者有时间写点东西吧。既然拖欠了那么多那么久，不如把这些东西都一并流水账了。

那就从2009年的生日继续吧。在爱尔兰的那休养的半年，给了我心境平和，清静思考前路的一个机会。很喜欢那里人们平静安详的生活的状态，就算是在金融风暴中心也能看见人们脸上那种发自内心和愉快和包容。我还能想起在 Galway 城东商店旁那个长坡上，一群老太太看见我努力地踩单车时对我喊加油的样子。离开了 Galway，再也没有见过那样恬静的小镇。

幸福，也蛮简单的。

不那么喜欢都柏林 Dublin 的喧闹，于是就骑车去了 Cork。遇到各种人，第一次也是唯一一次尝了 Guinness ，一边喝一边听着酒吧里面的乐器声和聊天声静下来，然后一支清澈的声音的清唱带给了大家幸福。遇见退休了还住青年旅舍恩爱有加的夫妇，也遇见了即将结婚来度婚前蜜月的小夫妻，甚至遇见了一个睡在我下铺、腼腆有加的星际达人（德国前五）。一个人旅行。

幸福，也蛮清澈的。

之后从 Galway 坐大巴去 Dublin，飞去伦敦再终于返回香港。几乎两天行程的劳顿，让我在飞机上睡得和死猪一样，12小时不吃少喝。下了飞机见到接我的雯佳，“我好累”就成了自然的流露；然而她期待的，却是五个月不见之后，深情的拥抱。当我安顿下来，说出一句“好了，你回去吧”的时候，她再也忍不住的眼泪没有让我明白她的期盼；而她也没有明白，连住所和未来都没有安排的动荡的我，不可能给她极度需要的安全感。我的疲累她不明白，她要的安全感我给不了，裂痕就这么显现了。

幸福，也蛮迷茫的。

（流水按：一晃三周又过去了。“没有时间”的托辞还是让我续写新年开篇的努力拖到了现在。2012年2月18日）

接下来是搬去了大埔仔。说是住在村屋，于是爸爸妈妈放心不下，还专程过来看了一次，给我买了好些厨具和被褥。然后又来参加了十一月的毕业礼，尽管听不懂广东话和英文，还是在凌凌的寒风中，为我庆祝。养育之恩，何以回报？

幸福，也蛮感激的。

而我也毕业得漂亮。不说绩点有多好，那个不是追求。读了一个其他人毕业都不容易的专业，还附带拿走了另外三个辅修学位，必然在内心给自己极大地承认的。最没意料到的，是社会学的辅修学位居然拿到了院长名单；更没有意料到的，是如果我“合理”安排一下课程，我居然可以拿到学术成就奖。当然，对于成绩没有什么期望的我，“神马都是浮云”。

幸福，也蛮洒脱的。

第一次正式的创业，infoGenius Services，中文是盈福精灵。说是正式，但是还是三天打鱼。不过这样一段经历，却尤其珍贵。不但给了我足够的经济支持去学习和积淀 IT 相关的知识，还可以亲身接触最平常的人们用信息科技的各种问题。后来发现，这些经历在我第二家企业的作用，几乎无可替代。

幸福，也蛮积极的。

可是裂痕还是裂痕，而且在我这么多年第一次回到郴州过年之后突然开裂。我见了周煌瑜，还拥抱了她。我是怎么了？肖玥后来还告诉我，她以为我会离开雯佳，和黄鱼一起。我不是这样的人。就算此时，我还是处子之身。嗯，是，会有人觉得很奇怪的。而这些事情，都是我第一时间亲自和雯佳说的。她那时刚从美国回来，还停留在仁川机场。

幸福，也蛮危险的。

在此期间一件非常重要的事情，就是智能电视遥控器项目的筹备。过年前在万能的华强北发现了“飞鼠”的概念，基本上就是 Air Mouse 的中国山寨版，但是加入了一点中国式创新的元素，即把键盘也集成进来了。本来只是想给家里的电视买一个比较好用一点的无线键鼠，突然发现，原来大屏幕不智能的瓶颈就是交互。于是立刻和 Matthew Shaxted 还有夏鹏晔一起筹划这样一个创业项目。公司也在四月注册成立了。之后还获得了林教授的支持，真是欣喜啊。

幸福，也蛮意外的。

当然后来雯佳和我还是和好了。然后就是更迷茫的搬家和工作。搬去了红磡这样一个美食基地，我和雯佳也就过着饮食男女简单而满足的生活。26路转91M巴士变成了最常用的交通方式。每天两小时的往返，例行，还能听完一期又一期的《经济学人》。而且开始用上的 iPhone 还带有每周三的免费电影票。雯佳和我是看了多少电影呢？

只能说室友李雯蔚的公主病不是我能治好或者能够打动我的东西，不过一起玩还是蛮开心的事情。当然还有另外一个公主也来到了这里，晚上轻推开门对我说做噩梦了，害怕；现在想起来还不由地挂上笑容。

幸福，也蛮开心的。

那个笑容在那个时候并不常见。动荡、沮丧、伤心和愤怒给这段艰难的时光提供了注脚。创业伙伴们的分歧和冲突，龃龉不断。最终在林教授建议下的股东会上，我赎回了另外三位创始股东的股份；分手了。再有就是11月11日单身节翌日，我很器重的尹珩力突然提出离开。还有我最终向税务局提交了终止盈福精灵营运的文件，和第一次创业说再见。之后我们技术上离开科大的创业中心。加上最终和雯佳的分手，2011年，是我的分手年。

幸福，也蛮伤感的。

和雯佳的分手，并不是迫于父母的压力。事实上暑期回到家，父亲终于很无奈地和我说，我们的事情他们也不反对了，如果真有一天成为一家人，只会有更深的嫌隙。于是当我开始要对我们的婚事负责任的时候，我成了反对自己的人——越了解，我对雯佳的一些基本人格越有保留。分手有一些导火索，雯佳的妈妈、于果、还有我没怎么见过也不怎么知道的她的准男友（们？），但是根本的分歧，在于价值观还有对一些做人的基本准则。君子绝交，不出恶言；我尽力。心存怨恨，双方多少会有点无奈。分手很和平，伴侣变故知。再相逢，能一笑而过，已经很奢望了。

幸福，也很受伤的。

再出发，到了深圳。《我们都是和时间赛跑的人》，2011年分手的打击，反而让我更专注于事业。各位朋友的帮忙，让我的奋斗不再孤单。遇见了很有意思的人，结交了未来的合作伙伴，清晰了未来具体的方向。

而感情呢，有邂逅，有冲动，再之后我遇到并喜欢上了一个公主；
只是作为一名游荡的徘徊者，也许我只能奢望爱情。

幸福，还是未完待续……

Restart Blogging

2010-05-24T05:00:00.001+08:00

Restart Blogging

I hadn't restarted blogging until the middle of this US trip. It's been a whole year since my last post. Two weeks later the subscription of the domain "ewangenius.com" will be renewed for the second time, and I feel that I owe it a lot - the site should have been there before I came back from Ireland. The only excuse is that I was too busy with my two startups; I was indeed, though.
Two years ago, I chose "Another Version of Excellence" because I simply thought there couldn't be only one kind of excellence, achieved in only one way, and judged by only one set of criteria. I still firmly believe so. Then I can't help but ask myself the question time and again:
What is my version of excellence?
Honestly, I don't know. An explicit definition might be either unnecessary or simply ridiculous - it goes the opposite way to my belief that everyone deserve their own versions of success, and elites have no monopoly for this.
But I do know what i should do for my vision of excellence; the Chinese title says it all: "the wise always feel happy; the explorers never reach the end of their journeys". Our Chinese ancestors taught us to "read tens of thousands of books; travel tens of thousands of miles". Prof. Otto Lin told me the same when I was to leave for Europe. It must be true. When one is travelling, he or she opens their eyes to the outside world, and their minds to other's cultures. This is not fiction - some research shows that those who have the experiences living or travelling abroad are generally more creative and open-minded. Certainly when i say travel, I mean staying some places for a while, talking with different people, exchanging different ideas, experiencing different cultures and societies, perhaps sometimes backpacking sometimes urban hiking. Those who don't speak local languages, only go to "tourist attractions" and travel one city a day do not count.

特别的生日礼物 / A Special Birthday Gift

2009-04-16T00:18:00.024+08:00

我刚收到李露送给我的特别的生日礼物。她是我在高威的房东Angela的女儿。谢谢你，李露，我很喜欢这张卡片，我今年最难忘的生日礼物了。

啊，是啊，今天是我的生日！谢谢你们的祝福，谢谢你们我的朋友、同学，哈，还有我的妹妹和父母！开心？太普通的用词了。 I just received a special gift from Li Lu, the daughter of my landlady Angela in Galway. Thank you Li Lu, I like the card very much, just lovely. It is absolutely the most unforgettable birthday gift I have ever had this year.

Oh, right, it is my birthday today! Thank you all for your greetings and bless. Thank you, my friends, classmates, and surprisingly, my sister and my parents! I can't feel happier now.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Cyberactivism

2009-04-15T00:10:00.056+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Martha McCaughey and Michael D. Ayers (eds) (2003) Cyberactivism: online activism in theory and practice.
Chapter 3: Vegh, Sandor (2003) Classifying forms of Online Activism: The Case of Cyberprotests against the World Bank
Vegh classify online mobilisation channels into three types:

Alternative channels for offline actions, mainly communication;
More efficient channels compared to traditional offline ones;
Unique channels for activities only possible online.

Although the first two are very important, the third really catches the media and our eyes, especially when hackers and hacking are involved. As Vegh noticed, people tend to dramatised it.
Vegh further classifies online conflicts into three categories below "by examining the identity of the perpertrators and the target, the method and frequency of occurrence, the goal to be attained, and the damage caused":

Cyberattack (isolated);
Cybercampaign (coordinated, part of an identified conflict);
Cyberwar (sustained mutual engagement).

As Vegh explained, although usually in the spotlights, cyberattacks conducted by individuals or civil groups rarely cause damage or direct loss to the international organisations such as the world bank. What they directly fight against is computer security experts and IT companies. This is like a gun-armed civil group against their mighty well-equipped national army. However, hacktivism does have strong meida effects which bring media exposures the organisations like. It also could, sometimes, change the aganda of big international organisations by mobilising people. But most of the time, it is questionable how effective "virtual match" or "virtual sitting in" could be.
However, it is no surprising that the protesters went online and invented all kinds of creative ways to continue cyberprotest. There are some personality links. Those people are usually open-minded anti-traditional and anti-authority - perfect fit for technology pioneers. Also the budget constraints make the "time- and cost- efficient" Internet the perfect tool for those protestors and convert them into "cyberprotestors".

给中文初学者的建议 / Tips for Mandarin Chinese Learners

2009-04-08T07:28:00.006+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

The learning curve for Chinese is much different from Latin languages - it is very, very steep. So here come a good news and bad news for you.

The bad news is you really have to show your commitment and study hard from the very beginning, and start from the Characters (NOT Pinyin!, I know it's hard, that's why it is a bad news).

The good news is after one month or even only two weeks, you will suddenly find everything becomes much, much easier - even easier than studying English, which requires continually vocabulary building while Chinese doesn't.

So here are some suggestion:

Ask yourself whether you really want to learn Chinese
If the answer of the first question is yes, pick up a period of about two weeks (a whole month would be even better); plan 3-5 hours Chinese study during this period;
Start from basic characters and their meaning then pronunciation (I know it is not the traditional way to learn Chinese as a second language which seldom works. You have to learn Chinese as your first language, otherwise you will forget everything after learning something)
Do not use Pinyin unless your teachers tell you to. (Pinyin is the major killer; it is a great tool, but too dangerous for beginners, including Chinese children)
You might feel totally confused in the first week, but be confident - everything would pay off after the first week. The first one hundred characters are the most difficult ones to learn. But after this milestone, you will find yourself start to UNDERSTAND Chinese, not only "LEARN" any more.

Remember the differences of the learning curves. I speak excellent Mandarin and very, very fluent English and Cantonese, and has been trying to compare and understand languages. What I found important to learn a foreign language is to forget that it is a foreign language. Don't think "how native people speak it". Instead, think "In which way I feel comfortable when I speak", because if you don't feel comfortable, the "native" probably feel the same way.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Conflict, Territory and New Technologies

2009-04-01T23:18:00.010+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

O Dochartaigh, Niall (2007) ‘Conflict, territory and new technologies: Online interaction at a Belfast interface’. Political Geography.

This reading is written by my lecturer of SP479, Politics and the Internet. I am not quite familiar with the Northern Ireland issue, nor could I understand why people hate each other based on their minor differences of almost the same religions. But I am no stranger to this kind of stupid yet fearful hatred - mainland China and Taiwan is another good example.

Dr. O Dochartaigh picked up some of the records of online message boards on the both sides on the "interface" in Belfast. The message shows that the people copied their offline violent behaviour online, threatening people on the other side and spreading fears and hatred.

It is very interesting that Internet does not play its role as a "global equaliser" to remove the boundaries but instead, it enhances the local communities and groups, and reinforce the boundaries -- boundaries not physical but in peoples minds and segregates people who should have lived together. Consistent with the theory of distance decay, almost no one outside care about the things happening in this area, either online or offline, which are important parts of the life of local people. Therefore, another kind of boundaries divide people inside and outside.

It is no surprising that the concept of online territory becomes visible when online boundaries are built. Not only do people in conflicts have their online territoris where they fight against any "invador", but even people in peaceful countries or integated societies divide themselves and built their online territories and boundaries which does not exist at all offline. Take Hong Kong for example, the conflict between male and female has been online for decades, and each side has their own e-forum or blogs with specific ideologies, supporting or fighting against faminism. There is no offline equivalent at all, because it is not imaginable that husbands and wives, or brothers and sisters, will fight against each other at home just for some ideology reasons. Internet changed the game.

Another interesting yet important question is whether internet promotes violence and extremism. The nature of Internet gives people the convenience to conduct online violent and the faster feedback to check the outcome, yet the illusion that they don't have the consequence because they don't face it directly. For example, online murderers will feel good about themselves and see the death of others as their acheivements - the only thing they have to face is just the word "suiside" or "death", while in the real world, they would actually see someone die in front of them. While violence can be conducted easily and the consequences get symbolised and public, people can be more easily illuted about the psycological rewards and punishments of misbehaviours.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: The Geographies of the Internet

2009-03-22T18:19:00.012+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Zook, Matthew (2006). The geographies of the internet. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 40(1), 53-78.

Zook discusses the concept of space and place and three topics of the geography of Internet, i.e.

Technical Geographies of the Internet;
Human Geographies of the Internet;
Visualized Geographies of the Internet.

His points support my previous guess well - if so-called "distance" is measured by interactions instead of physical distance between two places, Internet to some extent enhances the "local" interaction and existing community boundaries.

So here comes a very important topic - the measurements of online distance. The difference of two measurements with latency values and hyperlinks is the key to understand this issue. By measuring latency values, we measure the physical geo-distances, while hyperlink measurement examines the closeness of interactions. The two distances had been by and large identical until the recent technology shrinks the planet to a global villige.

Technology has brought down the barries of global activities. Capabilities, however, do not guarantee outcomes. People still tend to feel more interested in the information, events and people. The abilities to access local information and interactions with existing human connections from remote areas enhance the concept of "local" and community boundaries: "Distance decay, the fact that nearby things interact more strongly than distant things, is an axiom of geography". That is why Thomas Friedman emphesises "glocalisation" in his updated book "The World Is Flat".

At the same time, "the Internet has followed the standard diffusion model of a new technology", this makes Internet "reinforce existing inequalities or, more optimistically, provide a means for contesting existing power relations". It goes well as my idea that although Internet is a revolutionary tool, it is still a tool, and the outcomes depend on the people who use it. Since the rich have more resources (not necessarily more incentive) to adopt and adapt new technology, it is not too surprising that "per capita income and telecommunication pricing were key in understanding the diffusion of Internet use". There are some exceptions for sure - throughout the history, there are always some rich and powerful failed to lead or follow the development trend and finally disappeared. This also explains well why "to a large degree, the evolving infrastructure of the Internet is reinforcing old patterns of agglomeration: the world cities are alive and well."

东邪西毒(1994/2008) / The Ashe of Time (1994/2008)

2009-03-22T06:38:00.005+08:00

刚才一口气连着看完了两部东邪西毒。08版的果然是强啊，一帧一帧的数码修复。不过除了这个之外，好像就只加了几帧人物后续介绍，还有最后面欧阳锋烧客栈出走白驼峰的那两分钟。不知道王家卫怎么搞的，就这点修改也要拖到临近嘎纳的前两周才匆忙搞定。看来拖延还真是一山有比一山高啊。

人物关系还是挺怪的，真不知他们怎么可以搞到这么关系复杂。我觉得两个人在一起就够受不了了，这里居然是一长串：

唉……天哪，我实在是点点点了。上次看完重庆森林也是点点点。

还好洪七还是简简单单的。

Sorry, English Version is not available yet.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Cyberactivism

2009-03-17T18:56:00.008+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Martha McCaughey and Michael D. Ayers (eds) (2003) Cyberactivism: online activism in theory and practice.
Chapter 4: Elin, Larry (2003) The radicalization of Zeke Spier

Elin simply told a story of Zeke Spier, an ordinary young activist, about how internet and the online and offline communities helps to shape him. Yet he is a very good sample because he didn't grow up in a family heavily influenced by politics.

The significance of internet in this case is about its role of not only information distributor which "stirred his emontions and informed his ideology", but more importantly a powerful communication platform for all kinds of communication and an unprecedented organisating platform. Without the internet, Zeke Spier could not communicate with others who share the same ideas with him, not to mention they could organise, meet, discuss and act together. To them, internet behaves as a huge amplifier which connects the individual actions together and amplifies them, which traditionally could fade away because of lack of support or incentive.

Internet is also very important for the activist to collect information, which they would found otherwise very costly, time-consuming or simply not possible to access. Zeke Spier, like many other activists, distrust the mainstream media and keeps independent and sceptical. He gathers and studies all the information from all sorts of sources, which is possible in the reality only with the help of Internet. Otherwise without full support of theories and other information, their members could not get so motivated.

Internet also makes their activities flexible and powerful. Being fully informed, they could move from one place to another, or from one topic to another with more participation of other groups.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: The Information Society Reader

2009-03-16T18:39:00.004+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Webster, Frank (2004) The Information Society Reader
Chapter 13: Urry, John (2000) Mobile Society

The point from Bauman about gardening states and gamekeeper states is pretty interesting: gardening states are characterised by vertical orders and productive planning while gamekeeper states by laissez-faire management and boundaries. Urry noticed that the states are returning to the gamekeeper's model because the reduced state power.

Urry also discussed Margaret Thatcher's declaration "there is no such a thing as society" and tried to defend it in a theorised way. He pointed out that the core concepts of societies (or similarly nation states) such as "sovereignty, national citizenship and government" are human creations rather then natural properties, and "societies are never entirely self-reproducing entities".

He further argues that the current world could no longer be discribed as societies with boundaries but "global networks and fluids". Many movements become de-territorialised with much faster diffusion across boundaries. I do agree that globalisation has blurred the boundaries of sovereign states. I don't, however, think the boundaries of all kinds can be all erased. Contrast with the financial boundaries, which can be removed by information technology that connects all cities without geographic difficulty, cultural particularly language boundaries remain clear. People tend to feel more interested in their local news, stories and other information in their native languages. This maintains the society boundaries.

Urry also noticed that globalisation makes the mobilisation of people "non-linear, large-scale, unpredictable and partially ungovernable", hence the mobility becomes increasingly complex.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Culture and Politics in the Information Age

2009-03-14T18:38:00.003+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Webster, Frank (2001) Culture and Politics in the Information Age: A New Politics?
Chapter 8: Diani, Mario (2001) Social movement networks: virtual and real

Diani focused on "communication between individuals and organisations, and the spread of collective identities". He assesses the "computer mediated communication" (CMC) by fit it into a 2 by 2 matrix and compare it with "conventional" communication:

	Private	Public
Direct	face-to-face personal interaction	demonstration
mediated	mail, telephone call	press release, advertising

Diani argues that CMC can not be fit into any single cells of the matrix above because of its "ambiguous relationship to these forms of communication". This is pretty reasonable, since the flexible information technology has every possibility in real applications.

He examines the "resource moblisation strategy", and distinguish "professional resources" from "participatory resources". "Participatory resources" type is usually more decentralised because of its grassroot basis, while the members in "professional resources" usually share more things, views and knowledge in common. This difference led to the difference of communication styles and objectives, i.e. dispersing vs. gathering.

CMC also help on transnational movements because it speeds up the spread of collective actions. Increasing speed of idea and action diffusion has profound impacts. Movements could be at much larger scales with more diversity.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Digital Divide

2009-03-09T18:52:00.002+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Norris, Pippa (2001) Digital Divide
Chapter 6 e-Governance

This chapter gives a detailed survey on the governments' adoption of the Internet. Most of its contents are facts about the governmental websites evaluation on their types, functions and impacts on democracy. Norris concludes that most of the websites are still following top-down models focusing on information rather than interactivity, and no factor but technology diffusion has significant influence on the e-Government development.

It is not out of my expectation that governments tend to adopt Internet in a very conservative way. The bureaucratic structures provides people inside little incentive to change the status quo and try new channels to provide better services. Instead, governments are usually in a strong position in societies, and posting information more efficiently to reach the citizens with Internet is definitely more attractive to them than improving services by innovating operations. This makes government websites' roles "to replicate existing channels for the publication and distribution of official documents".

Another interesting point is closer to technology determinism. Technology development is the most important factor which determines the extent of e-Governance. Even without advanced socioeconomic development, high information technology penetration promotes online governments because the existing networks make these effort valuable acroding to Metcalf’s law.

However, I also think more efficient information channels will give people more interests in political participation and therefore promote democracy, but not the opposite direction. This is because democratisation does have many existing tools which work fine so far. If a society does not have its network online, it would be too costly and not effective to have a online form of governments. On the contrary, more easily available information and transparent political process may attract many people which is originally apathetic about politics. Internet also makes their voice heard by peers as well as government, hence provide a ideal platform for citizen organisation and feedback channels for governments. For instance, the pressures from organised so called "netizen" in China have helped amend servel laws and regulations since 2001.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Politics as Usual

2009-03-08T00:19:00.004+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Margolis, Michael and Resnick David (2000) Politics as Usual: the Cyberspace "revolution"
Chapter 4: Elected Officials and Government Bureaucracy in Cyberspace

This chapter examines how political entities appropriate the internet, which it concludes that tends to "reinforce the status quo than to overturn the established order". However, they also hold a positive view on easier access to governmental records and other documents. The online presences of executives, governments and legislatures are assessed accordingly.

Moving governmental documents online greatly improves civic engagement, because the reduced costs makes accessing those records no longer a possibility but reality. Many people did not read the governmental documents not because they didn't want to (willingness) or the documents were not opened to them (availability), but because it was too costly or too inconvenient. Online access to these documents provide unprecedented convenience to the political groups, scholars, activists etc. They also noticed that more people remain indifferent because their apathy towards politics. Those people, which are usually the vast majority, will usually feel intetested in commercial sites. Their demand for political information is very low.

The authors further argue that internet would not serve as a "flattener for documentary information and restore the balance among branches of governments". They take non-governmental bureaucracies as examples to illustrate selective information disclosure (for sensitive information) and uneven costs of information access.

Also the way that government agencies provide information is also by and large old-fashion and top-down. Those websites serve just as traditional media and information distributors, not two-way information sharing platform (until recently).

They also assess the sophistication and popularity of the websites, and found service-oriented websites are usually more popular than those policy-oriented ones. People care more about their life than abstract political terms. This also limits the power of government and legislature websites.

重拾智慧 / Pick up Wise Again

2009-03-07T00:40:00.012+08:00

这是Barry Schwartz先生在TED上面的一个演讲，题目是《The real crisis? We stopped being wise》。我和我女朋友都很喜欢。

About this talk
Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for "practical wisdom" as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.
About Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Lately, working with Ken Sharpe, he's studying wisdom.

我不想说太多，大家一起分享吧:

A wise person knows when and how to make "the exception of every rule".
A wise person knows how to use this moral skills in pursuit of the right aims.
A wise person is made not born.

或许特区的官僚机器应该反省一下了。

This is a TED talk given by Barry Schwartz and the title is "The real crisis? We stopped being wise". I like it very much, so does my girl friend.

About this talk
Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for "practical wisdom" as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.
About Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Lately, working with Ken Sharpe, he's studying wisdom.

I do not want to talk too much about this video but share some wisdom from it:

A wise person knows when and how to make "the exception of every rule".
A wise person knows how to use this moral skills in pursuit of the right aims.
A wise person is made not born.

Perhaps the HKSAR bureaucrat machine should learn something from it.

中国的过度消费问题 / Over Consumption in China

2009-03-02T22:49:00.003+08:00

走在空旷的路上忽然想到的。
为什么他们的路那么空，而我们的那么挤，我们还在鼓励发展轿车？
很奇怪是不是？

我们长久以来总是有一个思维定势，说是中国的过度储蓄满足了美国的过度消费，然后导致了世界经济的不平衡。事实是中国内部的经济都不平衡，过度消费和过度储蓄同时存在。

前两天运营战略课上讨论了爱尔兰为什么没有健全的公共交通系统（其实在一个地广人稀的国家，只能依赖私家车啊）。讲师说，我们每一元的油费，就有半元变成了税收。如果发展公共交通，私家车减少带来的税收减少是一回事，相关的石油服务业，汽车服务业，还有郊区的大型购物广场都会受影响。所以高效的公共交通反而短时间内对经济（主要以国内生产总值为度量）会有影响。

请注意“短期”这个定语。

想想看我们的汽车业和汽车保有量是怎么催生的？
还有我们的楼市。

政绩问题算一个问题吧...

Some ideas popped up in my mind when I was walking down the street.
Why do we stimulate car industry when our road appears much, much busier than theirs?
Counter-intuitive, isn't it?

It almost be a natural law of economics that China has problems of over-savings while America over-consumption, which combined and caused the imbalance of world economy. In fact, over-savings and over-consumption issues co-exist in China, which could be a major reason of imbalance of China's domestic economy.

We discussed public transportation system in the Operation Strategy course: why it is not as sophisticated as it could be. (How sophisticated do you want it be in a country with such a low population density?) The instructor, Mary, told us that for each Euro spent on gasoline, 50 cents go to the government as tax. Development of public transportation will lead to decline of tax income, which is only the beginning of the story. How about the oil production and service industry, car services, and distant shopping malls? A highly efficient public transportation system could have huge impacts on the economy in the short term (measured by gross domestic product, GDP).

Please be aware of the term "short term".

Thinking about our car industry and cars on roads.
How about household?

Could we blame the political system?

微笑是世界共同的语言/ Smile is All-Time Validated

2009-03-02T00:43:00.017+08:00

我自己很喜欢这个短剧。大概很多人也一样吧，不信你看，这已经在Youtube 上评为五星级了。

"Validation" is a fable about the magic of free parking. Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Winner - Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival, Winner - Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival, Winner - Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Film, Sedona Int'l Film Festival.

Kurt Kuenne 导演/编剧想必非常强。他在Youtube上有两部短片，都是五星级的。看上去他对表现戏剧性的浪漫情节乐此不疲。当然我们都喜欢看。他的另一部短剧是《Rent-A-Person》。快点击右边的链接欣赏吧！

I personally like this short film very much. And I am pretty sure many agree with me - it is a five-star film on

"Validation" is a fable about the magic of free parking. Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Winner - Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival, Winner - Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival, Winner - Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Film, Sedona Int'l Film Festival.

You can tell that Kurt Kuenne is very talented. He has posted two films on Youtube, both rated five-star. He seems always happy to tell us dramatically romantic stories, which almost everyone enjoys. Another of his films is "Rent-A-Person". You can follow the link on the right to enjoy it.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Information Technology in the Political Process

2009-02-22T23:04:00.015+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Click here to read the paper

Agre, Philip (1998): Information Technology in the Political Process

It is very interesting to read this paper written over ten years ago. Many things which Agre thought are "oscillating between common sense and absurdity" are now common sense without doubt. While Agre argued that "TV ads are far more powerful", we could now see that websites, particularly social network sites, have been a major force in the current political processes.

Agre suggested "five ways in thinking about it (impact of IT in the political process)":

Proponents of IT believe in the roles of IT so firmly that they tend to use "future present tense" to describe it;
The idea that IT is the sufficient force for direct democracy is ahistorical;
The cyber-communities like direct democracy in their hearts, but the reality is IT will become another tool for traditional politics;
Voting has different meanings in the reality and in the technology way;
The idea of direct democracy is another version of American social utopia, only with modern technology.

Here Agre did notice the "qualitative changes", especially the process of disintermediation, brought by technological improvement. He even raised an example of Wal-Mart. At the same time, he also see the other side of the effects, i.e. the technology could also improve the traditional politics, simply speaking, another amplifer.

He was absolutely right to see all those changes, yet he could not imagine the changes could be so profound. The quantitative changes kept on accumulating and became qualitative, and qualitative changes kept on envolving and changed the political system entirely, at least in some societies like USA and China. One of the most overwhelming example is the recent American presidency election. This time technology did not only play the role of distributing information but more importantly, the role of super supporter and voter organiser. Even for the information distribution part, the communication is bilateral, which is very different from the unilateral internet age where Agre was in 1998.

To be fair, Agre did see all those, or at least got a sense. He only didn't see that far - and no one could. As he wrote, "One answer is 'nobody knows'".

活在自我 / Above the Influence

2009-02-20T01:02:00.027+08:00

时常有朋友诉苦，说是找不到方向，或者说人家又怎么怎么样然后自己很苦恼等等。每到这个时候，我就想推荐 AboveTheInfluence.com 这个网站。

网站的内容不但丰富而且积极向上，它本身也是我见过得设计得最好的网站之一。网站的主题就是超越其他人不好的影响而健康得生活，如果可能还要带给他人积极有益的影响。那个标志性的向上箭头和那句“Anything that makes me less than me is not for me” 时刻激励着我。

点击右侧的图片可以欣赏 "AboveIt" 的动画。我很喜欢其中的台词：

There comes a point in your life when you realise you are not a kid any more. Suddenly you have to make decisions; you have to make choices everyday.
This is the time when you define yourself, or you let others define you. You quickly learn that there are two ways to go: under the influence, or above the influence.
I am above the influence.

Very often, some friends complains about losing goals of life, or feel frustrated when comparing themselves with others. Every time I meet such a friend, I would like to recommend AboveTheInfluence.com.

It is a good site with rich and positive contents; its own design per se is one of the finest I have ever seen as well. It tells you how to get above negtive influences from others for a healthier life; it also calls positive influence if possible. I like the symbolic UP arrow and the sentence “Anything that makes me less than me is not for me”, which motive me all the time。

Click the picture on the right to watch "AboveIt", I like the transcript:

There comes a point in your life when you realise you are not a kid any more. Suddenly you have to make decisions; you have to make choices everyday.
This is the time when you define yourself, or you let others define you. You quickly learn that there are two ways to go: under the influence, or above the influence.
I am above the influence.

校内一日谈 / Finally Logged in to Xiaonei.com

2009-02-18T14:14:00.015+08:00

刚好一年再四个月了。
这近500天里面我都没有碰校内网一下。

这段时间因为网站建设的关系需要登录校内网，结果试了我所有的邮箱，都不可以登录。这是必然的，我并不觉得校内这么垃圾的网站值得一个正常的邮箱。昨天管理员回了邮件，给我的登录邮箱果然是一次性的……唉……

登录一看，还真是杂草丛生，状态还是500天前的，不过乱七八糟的通告倒是不少。回复了一些朋友加好友的申请，但是不认识的就任其自生自灭了。
这里还要重申一句，我不主动加其他人为好友，也只会批准认识的人的好友申请。

这一看，校内还是把能抄都抄了，没有技术能力抄的，也挂的不伦不类，唉……
我们才讨论了说Facebook并不一定对生产力有促进，看着校内网，我还是两年前那句话：

校内网是负生产力的。

One year and four months on.
I had never got anything to do with xiaonei.com in those 500 days.

Due to some website-related issue, I have to log on to xiaonei.com. Then? None of my emails would work as a login email. This surprises no one since a rubbish site like xiaonei.com deserves no normal email logins. Administrator replied yesterday that my login email was a desposable trash email -- as expected...

Everything after was also as expected: status remaining updated for 500 days, all kinds of notification flying all over. I replied some friend application and left the rest to the god.
My principle again: I never add others as friends, nor do I reply to someone I have no idea at all.

Another impression was that xiaonei.com must be a huge copying machine. It doesn't work adequately though. We did discuss before the controversy of facebook in productivity improvement. As for xiaonei.com? I still hold my opinions as two years ago:

Xiaonei.com must be counter-productive.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Politics as Usual

2009-02-15T01:00:00.009+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Margolis, Michael and Resnick David (2000) Politics as Usual: the Cyberspace "revolution"
Chapter 1: The Normalisation of Cyberspace

This book could be the one I am most interested in among all SP479 readings, though it does not mean I totally agree with the authors. In fact, I see many thing differently from them, but this won't prevent it from being my recommendation.

I totally agree with them on their observation that internet is just another way to "resemble" the real world, and their categorisation of politics into

Intra-net politics
Politics that affacts the net
Political uses of the net

is also very interesting and inspiring. I even agree with them on their conclusion "Manipulation, deception, and misinformation occur in cyberspace". But there are some facts they ignored. They notice the rise of cost "for repressive regimes to withhold vital information from their citizens and to censor ideas...", but the rise has been so fast and profound that the "Manipulation, deception, and misinformation" have to occur in some other forms.

Their view of internet as "a mass medium" for "citizens of the real world" to "pursue their own agendas" appears to me is absolutely right, they even notice the visitors / readers / audiences online are both producers and consumers at the same time, which is called prosumers in Wikinomics. What they didn't think though is when the people who share the same "own agendas" united, the agendas could be very powerful. It only became possible after internet greatly reducing the costs.

Another thing I don't like is to disinguish presentation from conversation online. It is completely an old fashion top-down web1.0 view, which struggles hard in the current web2.0 world where websites are no longer the most important elements but online communities. They tend to undervalue the online contributors based on the wrong assumption that talents are only paid to be online: "the sheer quantity of information has led to problems with quality and selectivity". Talents in the real world, however, are also ordinary people and behave like ordinary people. If the real world does not have the "problems with quality and selectivity", why does the virtual world have to? On the contrary, Wikinomics claims internet has been greatly reducing the costs of collective talents and create unprecedented accurate and valuable information.

英国口音的情人节 / British Accent and Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T04:53:00.014+08:00

这是我第一次进酒吧。

我倒是知道对不少人来说这不大寻常，不过我真的滴酒不沾。当时在香港，朋友听说我要去交换的时候，每个人都很奇怪：“你去那地方做什么？你喝酒？”我当然不喝酒，所以才只叫了两瓶红莓汁。

红莓汁的颜色和这天的色彩很搭──某些人管今天叫情人节。虽然我对西方节日不太感冒，但是这颜色我还是蛮喜欢的。说到色，好像中文里面还有其它什么意思哈。原本以为大学酒吧有个单身聚会，结果发现我弄错日期了，不过我也不大在乎这些东西。

我推崇“单身”这个词。不管是谁为爱欣喜若狂或者伤心欲绝的时候，我都会说单身是世界上最好的事。如果你了解我就知道这不是调侃或者安慰的话。事实上我真的笃信光棍情歌：

一人简单；（一个和尚挑水喝）
两人麻烦；（两个和尚抬水喝）
三人灾难。（三个和尚没水喝）

就这么简洁明了。单身的美，或者说白了就好处吧，在于自由，虽然太自由也未必就一定是件好事。我倒是想单身，无奈给绑着了。至少还知足了吧，至少不算太坏。

每个男人都应该结婚，毕竟人生不只有快乐。

别怨我，加菲猫说的──虽然英雄所见完全相同。

好了，再说这个酒吧。
我拿着红莓汁就上了一楼，然后就遇见 Katie 和她的朋友。他们在准备一个聚会或者什么的。当然我对台球更感兴趣，就看者一群爱尔兰人玩。当我和他们提起我从没到过酒吧的时候，他们都不信：“不可能！那你在英国晚上都干什么来着？”好吧，我又被误认为是英国人了。我说我是土生土长的中国人，我想他们又吃了一惊：“你怎么就一标准的英国音啊？”

我在香港的时候，很多美国交换学生说我听起来像澳大利亚人，当然我不这么想。现在在爱尔兰，几乎每个人都以为我是在英国的中国人。我房东Angela一周前在她家里说我的口音“非常BBC”。

然后一个高个子的家伙就说：“想必你一直在英国读书？”
好吧，算了。

我很喜欢爱尔兰人，他们很热情好客。这些爱尔兰人还邀请我和他们玩掷色子，后来其中一位很好人的朋友（不好意思我记不住外文名）还出钱和我玩了一句台球，还教我如何打。非常开心。

然后我回到 Katie 和她男朋友 Mike 这边。我们聊了很久。他们俩都很小，居然都不到20岁。聊到我的英文的时候，他们又和其他人一样搞错了。Katie 甚至“抱怨”说，“怎么办啊，你英文都比我们好多了。”“别开玩笑了。”“没开玩笑，我真的觉得你的英语正宗，因为你不用懒人音和不标准的词。你在英国待了多久？”

“没去过。嗯，如果在希斯路机场待的时间算的话，14小时吧。”

顺便说一下，Katie 很漂亮，Mike 也很精神。（这张照片是从Mike 的 facebook 上弄下来的。Mike，这没有版权问题吧？ :D ）

It was my FIRST time to be in a bar last night, first time during the last 22 years.

Well, I know it would be surprising to many people, but the truth is, I am totally alcohol-proof. Back to the days in Hong Kong, when I told my friend that I would go exchange to Ireland, every was like "What? I never knew you are a friend of alcohol". Surely I will never be. That was why I only asked a bottle of cranberry juice and later another.

And the colour of cranberry juice gave the best illustration of the day - someone else' Valentine's. I am not fond of western holidays but the colour, though the word "colour" in Chinese has another sex-related meaning. There was said to be a single party in the University Bar but later it turned out that I mistook the time - it was there one day ago - OK, I don't quite care about that.

I like the word "single". Whenever someone cries or gets crazy about love, I will tell them that being single is the best "single" thing in the world. Not words of comfort if you know me. Actually I do believe the bachelor song:

Single is simple;
Couple is trouble;
Triple is terrible.

That simple and clear. The beauty, or should I say advantage, to be single is about freedom, although too much freedom can do great damage as well. I wish I could be single but now with many troubles bundled. It could be worse, since if I was single I might later end up with something more troublesome.

Every man should be married; after all, happiness is not everything...

Garfield said that, not me - though I think exactly the same way.

Anyway, back to the pub.
I went to the first floor with the the cup of cranberry juice, and met Katie and her friends. Their were preparing some party there. I felt more interested in the pool game, and was watching a group of Irish playing. They were totally shocked when I told them I had never been to a pub before. "No way! Where will you go for night in Britain other than pubs?" Right, again, I was mistaken for a Brits. Apparently my reply that I am a native Chinese astonished them one more time, "But you sound purely British!"

When I was in Hong Kong, many American exchange-in students said my accent sounded Aussie while I didn't think so. Now in Ireland almost everyone treats me as an English Chinese. Angela, my landlord, commented on my accent a week ago in her home, "Very BBC-ish."

The tall guy ended up saying, "So you must be studying there for quite a while, huh?"
Never mind.

I like Irish because they are pretty warm and helpful. They invited me to a dice game and then one of them, a pretty kind one but I just forget his name, even paid the game and taught me to play pool. It was great fun.

Then I came back and found Katie and her boy friend, Mike. We talked a lot. The two are just as young as babies - both under 20! Again, when it came to my English, they made mistakes just like others. Katie even "complained", "Oh, dear, your English is even better than me.""Are you kidding?""No, I mean, you speak proper English because you don't use the slack words like we do and your accent is kind of British. How long have you been in England?"

"Never. Well, if the transition time in Heathrow counts, 14 hours..."

By the way, I think Katie looks gorgeous and Mike very cheerful. Just like them. (The photo is grabbed from Mike's facebook. It isn't copyrighted, Mike, is it? :D )

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Culture and Politics in the Information Age

2009-02-13T08:31:00.003+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Webster, Frank (2001) Culture and Politics in the Information Age: A New Politics? (Chapter 1)

Since most of the articles in this book are from conference presentations (University of Birmingham, 16-17 September 1999), the first chapter is more like a preface, introducing all the ideas presented to the readers.

Frank Webster, again, emphasises the "unprecedented changes" over the last two decades. He highlights the fast acceleration and the deep profundity of the changes by comparing them to those which happened in the industrial revolution. He also gives eight themes of the changes, which are

Technology,
Globalisation,
Decline in national Sovereignty,
End of the collectivist experiment,
A pervasive spread of media,
Recomposition of stratification,
Heightened reflexivity,
Decline of community.

He then introduces Manuel Castells' book The Information Age, and summarises some characteristics of the "Network Society", i.e. the rise of "information labour" and the "flows of information" which alters previous ways of life. As a result, politics changes as well:

Identity politics,
Transfer of focus on the social movements,
Information networks play crucial parts,
Traditional politicians lose effective control,
Negative campaigning predominates,
Thus, a "crisis of democracy".

I like the categorisation, indeed, I believe it give very good overall pictures of the contemporary world. Only the last theme of changes does not satisfy me very much, because what I observed in China is that the community actually got stronger due to the power of networks. I think it may have something to do with the reduced communication cost, the shifted interests among the youths, and probably the control of the state.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: Digital Divide

2009-02-02T07:07:00.009+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Norris, Pippa (2001) Digital Divide
Chapter 5 Theories of Digital Demacrocy

This chapter examines how important the roles of Internet are in different societies, groups and countries. Norris compares the different views of cyber-optimists and cyber-sceptics, and gives three different sets of theories to explain the role of technology and its implication, i.e. developmental theories, technological theories and theories of Democratisation.

Cyber-optimists' views are very attractive: Technology which enables information limitlessly available and could facilitate opportunities for direct democracy. On the contrary, cyber-sceptics worry about

Possibility of the widening "gap between engaged and apathetic";
Control from the "major parties, traditional interest groups and heavyweight media corporations;
Virtual forms of communication as inadequate substitutes for traditional face-to-face politics.

Also, it may not be valid to extend the experiences of internet politics in the postindustrial societies to other countries. Digital technology might become another tool for the rulers in the semi-democracy or authoritarian countries, although it is getting more and more difficult. The fact is always that elite groups benefit first because of their economic and political power.

The discussion on the three theories is pretty much like the chicken-and-egg dilemma. Developmental Theories argue that technology will be useful only at some certain social development phase, while technological theories think technology shape the society more. Theories of democratisation instead argue that virtual politics is just another form, a mirror of the traditional politics.

读书笔记 / Reading Notes: The Information Society Reader

2009-01-31T09:51:00.004+08:00

抱歉，暂无中文版本

Webster, Frank (2004) The Information Society Reader
Manuel Castells: An Introduction of the Information Age

This paper is a real intodruction, which gives the most important and overall ideas of what the information age is and its impacts on society, economy and politics. Manuel Castells first numerates all the important changes consisting "a series of major historical events", and illustrates why they are so important, especially when we try to examine the "structure of the network society". He continues explain why and how this new information society, which depends on "knowledge", "information" and "technology" has been reshaping the global economy, create a new "fourth world", and stimulate the "network enterprise".

The impacts on politics are quite interesting. The fact that media play a essential role on the political stage is a common sense to our generation, so we never really think about it. But political presence wasn't so crucial until recently, when media have become more and more powerful to filt the information delivered to us. Media "as a simplifier", convert message to pictures and then pictures to persons. It makes personal factors central in politics and thus a boost to the negative campaigns.

In his view, the current network society actually is a capitalist world more than ever, with intertwined individual roles, declined state power and diversified identity code.

计划的烦恼 / Plan My Plan, Pain My Pain

2008-06-18T23:51:00.015+08:00

一定要为这个暑假订计划了，不然这个暑假又废了？
或许吧。确实有些事情需要做，包括

可能的两个暑期课程
雅思考试的准备
西班牙语的学习
网站建设
第三个商业计划
……

说吧，有谁可以搞定这么多的任务？

我是不是应该保证每天

一小时的英语复习？
一小时的网站学习和建设？
两小时的课程学习？
……

这样我就有每天五小时的固定工作计划了。可是尽管这样，我还是觉得时间就算加倍还是不够用。
我是不是太贪了？

I have to do some plan, or I will just waste another summer?

That might be true. I have got many tasks to be done, including

Possibly two summer courses;
IELTS preparation;
Spanish learning;
Website building;
The third business plan;
...

Tell me, how would you deal with all these things?

Should I promise

1 hour daily English review?
1 hour daily Spanish learning with Rosseta?
1 hour daily website learning and building?
2 hour course study?
...

Then I will have 5 hours fixed daily schedule, which I can still feel the lack of time until they get doubled.
Am I too greedy?