Google and the Chinese Government: The dog barks, the wall stands

As you all presumably know by now, this Tuesday Google took an amazing step and announced that they will change their approach to China, and in a first step stop censoring search results on their Chinese Google search . They obviously are aware that "this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially [their] offices in China". By the way, they are not announcing that they will stop offering Google services in China as some headlines suggested.

For some Chinese views, check out the posts by Jenny Zhu and Jian Shuo Wang and also ChinaSMACK. Read also "Will Google stand up to France and Italy, too?" by Rebecca MacKinnon, a piece that reminds us that it is not only China who has problems with the Internet.

Just for the fun of it, I will make some predictions on how this issue continues. Will the Chinese Government block all Google Services? Will Google retreat? What about the long term of the relationship between China and the Internet?

Google has kicked the ball back to the Chinese government by announcing that Google.cn will no longer censor it results. To what extend previously removed results already appear on the site is not clear. I was able to perform queries that resulted in images of tanks on Tian An Men, but since I didn't do these searches, say, last week I don't have anything I can compare them to. However, I don't think that uncensoring the index is just a matter of a single switch. I guess over time, more and more "sensitive" results will appear.

But in any case, Google.cn does no longer comply to Chinese law. As a consequence, I am certain that the site will be shut down. However, I don't think that the Chinese government will kick back and block all Google services. This would be perfect ammunition for all those who argue that China is a threat to the Western world. Instead, the usual harassment will continue, getting a bit worse. From time to time www.google.com will not be reachable, as will GMail and other Google services. Secure access to Google Docs doesn't work anyway now, Google Spreadsheet is completely blocked.

Yet, making Google's life a bit more difficult is just for fun. I think that the actual goal of the Chinese government is far more ambitious. In a nutshell, they aim at redefining the standards and protocols of the Internet and the Web itself. The report "Does China Hope to Remap the Internet in its Own Image?" by Richard Winfield and Kristin Mendoza gives a good summary of China's activities towards this goal.

From this perspective, the problems with Google are just a momentary nuisance. Like the Chinese proverb that I just invented says: "The dog barks, the wall stands". Let Google bark a bit. Business with China will continue and enough companies will act like Opera and Microsoft did: quiet cooperation. Why should the Chinese government block access to Google services? This would just cause a stir among Chinese netizen and put a spotlight on the Chinese censorship, an issue that the the government rather prefers to keep outside the news.

Better have a bit of fun and kick the dog from time to time. The possibilities are infinite. Why not block Google's Web crawlers from accessing the Chinese Web? What a perfect way to increase Baidu's international market share. I'm sure "they" will come up with lots of other ideas to sweeten their days.

From Google's perspective, I don't see why the statement that they are willing "to shut down Google.cn, and potentially [their] offices in China" if they have to, should mean that their will disable access to Google services from China. This doesn't make any sense. What would the advantage of Google be if GMail, Google Reader, etc were no longer accessible? The idea of Google using GMail access as a leverage against the Chinese government would imply that they really wanted to start a fight with the Chinese government. This wouldn't do any good for freedom of expression and access to information, goals that Google supports. No, I don't see any danger here.

To summarize, my prediction is that google.cn will be shut down during the next two weeks. Access to other Google services will still be possible, but getting more unreliable. The Chinese government wants to control the Internet and has long ranging plans.

Reshaping the Internet is obviously not a goal that only the Chinese government has. The US has allegedly plans in the drawer to reshape the Internets basic protocols once a digital 9-11 takes place. The EU isn't better, either, see Frances 3-strike model.

Let's be dogs and piss against walls, where ever they are.

Image uploaded to Flickr by universaltheory.

Standardizing the audio industry means taking away control from you

Lenovo disabled recording your laptop's audio on their newer models. Make no mistake, this is a major limitation in case you want to use your computer for creating - and another example of how your control is taken away from you.
I stumbled on this while I was trying to record my students Skype conversations for later analysis. In theory, it is easy, even without special software. Use the Windows XP audio settings to put the microphone input onto the audio output (thus mixing my students input with their colleagues output). Then use any audio software, e.g., the open source Audacity and record from "Stereo-Mix", which the sound that comes from your speakers.
But I couldn't find the Stereo Mix option on my Lenovo X61s. After some browsing I found this thread, describing my problem in detail. To make a long story short: Lenovo has disabled the option to record what comes out of your speakers. Not only Lenovo, but other manufacturers, too, e.g. Dell. Dell however was able to roll back and re-enabled it after its customers complained. Leonovo, it seems disabled that feature on hardware level. Their official explanation (published only after lots of customer requested an explanation) states that this was

caused by a design change agreement between Microsoft and the audio chip hardware supplier. The new change drops the support of mixed-stereo function and direct playback of microphone. The change in design calls to have these function implemented in application level in future. The goal of this design change is to begin standardizing the audio industry. The design change affected all PC vendors worldwide. In the future, Microsoft and audio vendors expect individual applications developers pick up these functions.

Why would they do such a thing? Well, the only reason why anyone would like to record their computers audio is obviously to illegally copy music. DRM can be circumvented by recording the song while it is played. So, let's disable it. And these guys that use their computer for mixing, podcasting, producing radio show, copying VCR tapes to DVD, making music, or whatever, well, bad luck. You can pay for an "application level" solution if it is ever implemented.
What can we do about this taking away of control? Talk about it is one way of action. That's why I'm posting about this event though it's already old news. Buying hardware that doesn't come with such restrictions. But how can you make an informed decision if you aren't aware of such "features"? Judging from Lenovo's explanation, we will see this more and more often. Let's hope that there will be alternatives available in the future.
The most ridiculous fact is that these measures, just like Internet blocking, can be circumvented. Buy an external sound card or install a virtual audio cable, etc. But this costs time and effort.

Image by siyublog.

Winter Barcamp Shanghai

Another example why we need clones, now. Three parallel sessions, great discussions all around, information overdose at BarCamp Shanghai! It is so refreshing to see such a crowd of people full of ideas and building great projects. A big mix of male, female, Asian, Western, all open-minded and interested in learning from each other.

Kerstin, Scott and I started the session with a talk on our experiences on cross-cultural learning, done together with Daniel Jackson. Earlier this year, our Chinese students and Scott's Australian students worked together using VoiceThread, a multimedia discussion tool. Students from both sites used VoiceThread for presenting and commenting. Some students did amazing work, see this presentation on Shanzai and this one about the differences between the 70/80/90 generations in China. We were lucky with our audience, Eric Pang from italki and Miles Metcalfe added their views on the topic, and Micah twittered our presentation. Our slides:

Active Learning with the Web

View more presentations from Carsten Ullrich.

Then, David, a student of Scott presented Monash's Chinese island on Second Life. Scott and his team have build an amazing Chinese city, and they showed us the temple, hospital and the airport. Their students are using it for emerged learning, practicing situation where they have to book a ticket, see a doctor, etc. NPC (non-player characters, bots) handle the interactions with the students, freeing the teacher of having to play the doctors/teller roles.

The discussion continued after the sessions and that's why I missed one of the most interesting talks of the Barcamp. Zola Zhou talked about online journalism, barriers and how to overcome them.

Other talks I attended, at least with half an ear:
Maxime Guilbot talked about "Minimum Marketable Features". A valuable collection of tips for start-ups.

Nini Sum presented idlebeat her screen printing studio that creates beautiful handmade T-shirts and Prints.

David Li talked about his project "Scratch for kids", where he and his team teach programing to kids, starting at five. The kids do peer programming (each team consists of a 5 and a 10 year old), each team supported by two tutors. David said that it is amazing to see how the 5 year old kids profit by learning from their peer.

Miles Metcalfe also talked about learning, namely "Learning 2.0 and OpenID". If you though that OpenId is a dry topic, come and listen to Miles. He managed to discuss these issues in a truly humorous way.

Finally, Gang Lu talked about his ChinaMode awards, a grass-root competition for the best Chinese Web sites. Great idea, great concept. Sadly, Kerstin and I had to leave in the middle of his talk, we had to have some hot food, as we slowly froze to death.

In between, Liu Yan presented the idea behind Xindawei, the coworking space in which the barcamp took place. Liu and her partners recognized the need for a place in which people could realize their ideas and within a few months build up Xindawei. Judging from the projects she presented and the barcamp, they have done a terrific job. Check out their Website, if you are in Shanghai. What I find particularly interesting about Xindawei is that they are so successful. Shanghai has created lots and lots of creative centers. Some breathtaking beautiful, some rather ugly, but most of them... deserted. I wonder what Xindawei's magic is, maybe bottom-up vs. top-down?

A big thanks to the organizers Scott Ballantyne, Toffler Niemuth, and Mark Evans. Ah, and for delicious Chinese coffee, check out Flying Turtle!

Let's close with a great quote by Michele Travierso: The only thing I hate about #barcampsh : too much interesting content being displayed at the same time.

Learning about Metacognition/Reflection

I just read the preprint "Reflection amplifiers in online courses: a classification framework" by Dominique Verpoorten, Wim Westera and Marcus Specht.

The annex is particularly interesting as it contains a very concise overview on 35 approaches on metacognitive/reflection. I am currently teaching French in the SJTU online college and this list gives me some food for thoughts on how I can embed reflection in a meaningful way. Meaningful meaning that my students (and I) actually see a value in it, not just as something that take their time away from learning "the real stuff".

These ones sound interesting (for the full references, please refer to the paper):

• Indicators of understanding: Learners are asked to qualify their understanding with simple indicators like "lost/foggy/got it" or equivalent. Stadtler & Bromme, 2008
• Formative assessment: The course offers assessment intended to generate feedback on performance to improve, helping learners to assess their own learning. Nicol & MacFarlane-Dick, 2006
• Where and Why Is It Wrong? Learners receive pieces of work for which they are asked to say what is wrong and why. Mitrovic & Martin, 2002.
• Practice of evocation (pausing to reflect) Learners are requested to recall important or puzzling facts/ideas/concepts from the previous learning episode. de La Garanderie, 1989

The Mitrovic & Martin publications is an example that less able students can profit from being helped to select the next exercise to work on, in this case by showing them the systems estimation about their knowledge state. Something teachers should do, too: explaining their students why they should work on a specific topic, and ideally teaching them this skill.

I am looking for more overviews on metacognition/reflection, in particular for language learning. Any suggestions?

Opera betrays its Chinese Users

Opera decided to lock out its Chinese users. Until today, Opera Mini was a great browser to use. Fast access to web sites, and the additional benefit for Chinese users was access to blocked sites. Since the traffic runs over Opera servers, they bypassed the Great Firewall. Until today, that is. Now, every user in China is greeted with this message (update: I replace the original screenshot with one I took):


Let me guess what has happened here. The Chinese government has put pressure on Opera to close down that free access. And like most companies, they complied.

And they betrayed not only their Chinese users, but also themselves. Yeah, yeah, Opera, making the Web better, a friend of its users. Plain bullshit, as we can see now.

And you don't even dare to admit it? No press release, no posting in a blog about that you are now blocking usage of the international version to your Chinese usage.

And the worst thing: you even pretend that this is a good thing! You dare to say that this was done for "better browsing experience". Bah, disgusting.

Opera guys, if you were up to your image, then you would first of all inform you users about what has happened. You would inform you users that their data is now accessible to the Chinese government (I'm guessing that this is now the case --- and it makes me wonder what other agencies can access Opera data). Of course you cannot tear down the firewall. My guess is if you hadn't complied than your proxies would have been blocked in China. Well, it was your choice to comply to censorship. But the worst part is that you don't even inform your users.
Update: I'm rather certain that Opera is gagged. But you know, there are sites like Wikileaks. And someone has to speak up, it has gone to far.

Thanks to xlight and mranti for pointing me at this.

Chinese Netizen Compare Chinese and US Education System using Cinderella

Again a worth reading post from chinaSMACK, this time a comparison between the Chinese and US education system: "Teaching The Cinderella Fairytale: China vs. America". The first paragraphs from both versions:

A Chinese teacher tells the story of Cinderella

Bell rings, students and teacher walk into the classroom. Guess which is which.
Teacher: Which characters did you like in the story? Disliked? Why?
Student: I like Cinderella, and the Prince. I don’t like Cinderella’s step-mother and her step-sisters. Cinderella is kind, adorable, and beautiful. Her step-mother and step-sisters were mean to her.
Teacher: If at midnight, Cinderella didn’t get into her pumpkin carriage in time, what would happen?
Student: She would turn back into a servant with dirty clothes. Aiya, that would be horrible.
Teacher: Therefore, you must be punctual, otherwise you might land yourself in trouble. Also, look around, all of you are very clean and pretty, you need to make sure to be clean or your friends will be scared of you. Girls, you need to be extra careful. When you grow up and go out on a date, if you’re not careful and your boyfriend sees you when you’re very ugly, he might be so scared that he faints. (The teacher pretends to faint, class laughs).
...

Teacher: Greetings classmates.
Students: Greeeee—tiiiinngs—teeeeeacher—(elongated vowels)

Teacher: Today’s class, we’re discussing the story of Cinderella. Did everybody study in advance?
Student: Study? Who doesn’t know the story.
Teacher: Is Cinderella a story from the Grimm Brothers or Hans Andersen? Who was the author? When was the author born? What were the major events in the author’s life?
Student: …..(In whispers) It’s all in the book, can’t you read it yourself?
Teacher: What is the theme of the story?
Student: This must be an exam question.
...

Several sites unblocked this morning UPDATE: NO MORE

This is my first post since months that I can write without using a VPN. This morning, a lot of sites are suddenly unblocked: blogspot, ow.ly, bit.ly, ... Even Facebook has become accessible even though this changes every two minutes. YouTube works in an interesting way: the Web page is shown, but I cannot watch the videos ("something wrong with the connection"). The secure connection to docs.google.com is also working again.

Let's see how long this last! For the time being, I'm happy.

Update: I received several comments on Twitter (which was accessible, but currently now longer isn't). Most people in China still cannot access these sites. My current guess is that currently CERNET (the Chinese network for universities) might unblock some sites.

The "unblock" now lasts for several hours, starting around 9:30 this morning.

Let's see whether the curtain will drop again or whether the other networks will follow. I wonder whether it has do to something with Obama's visit to China next week? To show him that nothing is blocked here...

Update 2: After one week, the magic stopped, everything is back to normal, meaning blocked.