Saturday, September 02, 2006

Is Web 2.0 a native language to the Chinese?


Rebecca MacKinnon has been at the Chinese Blogger Conference and has come away from it wondering if "Web2.0 is potentially a very Chinese thing." She explained:



"One of the most important words in the Chinese language is “guanxi.” It means “relationship.” Whatever you think about the term “Web2.0”, the point is that social networking and relationship-building are at the core of today’s most exciting web innovations. The Chinese happen to be the most natural and skilled social networkers on earth."



Censorship is an issue in China of course and Rebecca outlined some practical measures to work around that, in her thought-provoking post. And I loved how Rebecca ended her post:



"Another thing about this story: it’s not so much about what the internet is “bringing” to the Chinese, or how the internet is coming in as an outside force and “changing China.” The real story is about how Chinese users are taking the connectivity, tools and applications, internalizing them, and making them their own."

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