Thinking Space

Is Murdoch mad?

2009-11-23T23:22:00.000-05:00

A recent news told that News Corp. was going to work with Microsoft/Bing to take down Google, which Jeff Jarvis named it Murdoch madness. Jeff is a great journalist, researcher, and thinker. His recent book What Would Google Do? is very much thoughtful and I am reading it now. Despite all the respect I am to Jeff, however, I tend to think of this issue in a slightly different way. I fully understand Jeff's passion, especially as an enthusiastic Google-advocate. However, my own theory of Web evolution makes me think of this issue in another angle.

As I have repeatedly mentioned, a major problem of Web 2.0 is the lack of production in exchangeable value. Sure, Web 2.0 engages lots of people. But it does not have a general answer on how we may convert the human engagement to value that is exchangeable and consumable. The advertisement business model is just a solution to the no-solution. Such a business model is insufficient in representing the recent achievement in Web technology. Some real breakthrough is expected.

Murdoch is trying to figure out a solution. What I agree to him is that the knowledge of professional journalists surely must be greater than zero. It thus means their work is worth of being paid, probably decently. How to make a balance between the value of profession and the call for the free knowledge, this is a great challenge to all of us. I probably would rather not full agree to Murdoch's action in specific. But I certainly fully understand his action and partially support the action under the condition that he must have had a smart execution plan.

We need to create user-generated asset in stead of the straightforward user-generated content only. This is my argument and it is also Murdoch's intention. Although I also feel that the action itself seems a little bit too trivial, this News Corp./Microsoft deal likely has started a new page in the history of the Web. Created Web content is a type of asset that is worth of being paid.

Recently I received several comments and emails encouraging me to continue blogging. I sincerely appreciate these messages. I, however, am very busy in a personal issue in these two months. Hence I have to say sorry to my readers. But I will come back regular blogging in the beginning of the next year. Thanks all who love this blog and look forward to your continuous support.

Big Switch

2009-10-24T23:29:00.002-04:00

Nicholas Carr is one of my favorite technology authors. His blog is always worth of reading. His book could only be better.

In Big Switch, Nicholas Carr expressed a key point: computing is turning into a new type of utility, which will bring the world the change as great as what the prevalence of electricity had done to us.

The claim is bald. But it is reasonable after carefully thinking of it. As well as electricity breaks the barrier of energy deliverance, the modern Web-based computing is breaking the barrier of information transmission. As I expressed in my book review for Programming the Universe, information along with mass and energy is another fundamental element that constitutes the universe. We thus may categorize the invention of modern Web-based computing along with the invention of electricity and the invention of wheel being the top three greatest inventions that fundamentally evolve our society.

The invention of wheel breaks the barrier of mass transportation; the invention of electricity breaks the barrier of energy deliverance; and the invention of modern Web-based computing breaks the barrier of information transmission. This path is the big switch we talk about.

Our human society began with consuming natural product, which is made of mass. Hence the primary demand from the beginning was to transport mass more efficiently. The invention of wheel overcame the gravity obstacle that in nature mass is to us. In consequence, the invention allowed humans to transport heavy-weight product in long distance and therefore we were able to live close to each other in which was away from where natural product grew. The invention of wheel enabled the formation of human society and its early evolving.

Natural product soon became insufficient due to the increased human population. We must produce man-made product to keep on the growth of the society. Energy forges mass to new product of mass, which is essential to human production. The problem of energy consumption emerged.

For long time, energy could not be delivered except of in the form of mass. We had to transport things such as wood and coal instead of delivering the directly useable energy in distance. The problem became extreme severe in the industrial revolution. Suddenly the demand to energy consumption was over what the regular local providers could support in general. The cost of energy deliverance soon became the bottleneck to the further growth of human society.

The invention of electricity overcame the distance obstacle that in nature energy is to us. Unlike mass, energy indeed does not have to occupy space; the gravity obstacle thus was not natural to energy. The distance obstacle does apply, however, because normally where energy is generated is varied from where energy is consumed. Electricity allowed energy being delivered in long distance at low cost by avoiding transporting them in the form of mass.

The further evolution of human society demands more improvement in the rate of production. The importance of information in production gradually became a major issue. Energy forges new product of mass, but it is information that guides how energy can be effectively used to forge the product of mass. The faster information can be spread, the more rapid information can be computed and analyzed, the better product rate we can achieve. After resolving the gravity obstacle and the distance obstacle of man-made production in general, the next major obstacle to overcome is the time obstacle. The modern Web-based computing is the solution.

Unlike mass and energy, information does not have the distance obstacle. Even if we have to physically deliver books, a mass product that records information, it is still not a problem at all if we compare it to the transportation of mass or energy in form of mass. The real problem of information transmission is time. Humans need to learn information, think of information, understand information, and then finally apply information. The process takes time. And time does matter critically in production. This problem became crucial after the general problems of mass transportation and energy deliverance had been conquered.

The modern Web-based computing constructs an environment that information can rapidly shared and computed before somebody consumes it. It significantly shortens the time needed for information learning, information understanding. Many times, we can directly jump to the stage of information application by skipping the previous stages of information consumption. Therefore, it overcomes the time obstacle in production.

Wheel --- mass --- the gravity obstacle
Electricity --- energy --- the distance obstacle
Modern Web-based computing --- information --- the time obstacle

This is the big switch we are experiencing at this moment.

Nicolas Carr’s book describes more details of what were truly happening in the last switch. The book is knowledgeable and I recommend it to whoever is interested in the future of our human society evolution.

See you in ISWC 2009

2009-10-23T21:34:00.000-04:00

I will go to attend ISWC 2009 tomorrow. If you are there, please stop by and say hi. See you there.

Contemporary China in 60 years (2005 - 2009)

2009-10-15T07:34:00.000-04:00

(1949 - 1954), (1955 - 1959), (1960 - 1964), (1965 - 1969), (1970 - 1974), (1975 - 1979), (1980 - 1984), (1985 - 1989), (1990 - 1994), (1995 - 1999), (2000 - 2004)

2005: Super Voice Girls (超级女声)

The champion of the Super Voice Girls contest in 2005, Li Yuchun (李宇春).

The 2005 Super Voice Girls contest was a phenomenon. Hundreds of millions of votes was sent through cell phones by the regular TV watchers. This was likely the most participated ever (let it alone through cell phones) private organized event in the entire human history until now. Moreover, it was the first time that all Chinese had an opportunity to participate a free public vote, though it was not to elect president. The consequence of the event on how it had taught regular Chinese people about the real free public voting would have long-term impact to the future of China.

2006: Agricultural Tax Regulations abolished (废除《农业税条例》)

Starting from Jan. 1st, 2006, the Chinese government abolished collecting agricultural tax from peasants. This was the first time in more than 2600 years of Chinese history that the agricultural tax was abolished.

This was a crucial step to eliminate the man-made distinction between the peasants living in the rural places and the citizens living in cities. In more than 2600 years, the man-made distinction was kept to consolidate the leadership of a small group of elites over China. The great number of peasants were chained to their land by this tax to make sure that they could not move freely through the nation in order to assure that they could not rebel. With time the tax had become a great obstacle that prevented China from being a modern industrial country. The abolition of the agricultural tax was thus critical to the future progress of Chinese economy.

2007: Zhou Zhenglong fake tiger photo (周正龙假虎照)

The fake tiger photo made by Zhou Zhenglong (周正龙) in 2007. The case was dramatic because it typically revealed the dark under-table rules in the Chinese civil service system.

In order to be promoted, one has to make some contribution. Therefore, one must try to make some fake contribution when the real contribution is hard to make. The root of this philosophy is the official-based culture in China lasted for thousands of years. The higher in rank an official is, he gets more honored and can get much extra benefit that otherwise can never obtain. This culture is a major problem that has prevented China from healthy progress in centuries. Now this bad tradition simply continues. The case of Zhou Zhenglong fake tiger photo was a typical example in modern China.

2008: Beijing Olympics (北京奥运会)

The open ceremony of Beijing Olympics in 2008. It was splendid.

What may I say? The open ceremony of Beijing Olympics was a great show of art and history. It showed the world how great a nation China was, is, and will be. China has the greatest number of population in the world. Beyond that, Chinese are well-known for their smartness in creation and diligence in work. This show was a formal public declaration of the re-rising of China as a big nation in the world.

2009: ... Look forward to the future (展望未来)

The 2009 China's National Day parade.

Just 60 years ago, China was one of the poorest nations in the world. After 60 years, now China has become nearly the second most important nation in the world that is next to United States. In its glorious successive history, China is never lack of great politicians, economists, artists, scientists, and engineers. Chinese are hard workers, brilliant innovators, and brave soldiers. I can hardly think of another nation, probably except of Rome, that is comparable to China in its history.

But China also has its problem. Due to the official-based culture that is formed in the thousands year history, Chinese gradually lose their capability in innovation and braveness in fighting for freedom. By contrast, they are trained to fight for being higher rank government officials who can take advantage of the normal Chinese citizens. This type of elite-governing culture significantly blocked the advancement of China in recent centuries and it indeed still is a major obstacle to the progress of contemporary China.

Contemporary China in 60 years (2000 - 2004)

2009-10-14T06:19:00.001-04:00

(1949 - 1954), (1955 - 1959), (1960 - 1964), (1965 - 1969), (1970 - 1974), (1975 - 1979), (1980 - 1984), (1985 - 1989), (1990 - 1994), (1995 - 1999)

2000: Beidou Navigation System (北斗导航系统)

China's Beidou satellite was sent into space.

In the coming new information age, satellite navigation system plays more and more a crucial role in nearly every facet of economy. The launching of Beidou navigation system was a landmark of not only China's technological advancement but also the strength of Chinese economy. By holding an independent satellite navigation system, China gained the ability to be an independent economic unit in the new information age. This is a reason that few other countries might clone the success of China.

2001: Sino-US Hacker War (中美黑客大战)

A screen shot during the hacker war. The hacker war was a consequence of the China-US plane collision incident happened a few days earlier. In person, however, I think that this hacker war means more than the plane collision incident in history.

This was the World War I in the cyber space. Country-organized power had been extended from the real world into the virtual world. The invasion to our real life from the virtual worlds started to become no longer Sci-fi stories.

2002: South-to-North Water Diversion Project (南水北调工程)

The illustration of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project. In 2002, the project started.

This is one of the greatest ever water-technology projects in history. Northern China usually suffers from drought while southern China often suffers flood. The 50-year South-to-North Water Diversion Project is to solve this problem and to balance the water distribution all over the nation. If the project succeeds, it will significantly stimulate the Chinese economy by well balancing the economic growth in varied part of the nation. This is a project that will substantially affect the long-term future of China.

2003: SARS (非典)

Some protest pictures during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) season in 2003.

The outbreak and the control of SARS told the world two sides of contemporary China. On one side, China was a dangerous place where dangerous disease could suddenly emerge because of the lack of carefulness in public health. On the other hand, China had been a strong and responsible nation that was not only willing to closely cooperate with the rest of the world but also able to quickly develop effective solutions to cure a suddenly emerged deadly disease.

2004: Golden Shield Project (金盾工程)

The internet bar in China. All the internet communication was supervised by the Golden Shield Project (GST). The project started running in November 2003. 2004 was the first year it officially on the stage for the general public.

GST is the Great Wall in modern time. If the Great Wall had been proved useless most of the time to defend the real threatening invasions in history, may we expect a Great Wall in cyber space really do the job effectively? On the other hand, however, it does cost a lot of money in construction and will cost more and more in maintaining. Substantially it increase the difficulty for the regular Chinese to access information oversea. GST is a man-made obstacle to the advancement of Chinese economy. China is going to pay the debt.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1995 - 1999)

2009-10-11T21:04:00.003-04:00

(1949 - 1954), (1955 - 1959), (1960 - 1964), (1965 - 1969), (1970 - 1974), (1975 - 1979), (1980 - 1984), (1985 - 1989), (1990 - 1994)

1995: Forbes China Rich List (福布斯中国富豪排行榜)

The picture shows the 2007 List. Forbes started publishing this annual list in 1995.

The publishing of the list told the reforming of the capitalist class in New China. There were no longer only a few rich individuals. By contrast, an entire class of capitalists had reemerged. The relation between the rich and the government officials became one of the most critical social relationships in China.

1996: "China Can Say No" (《中国可以说不》)

The Chinese-version cover of the book "China Can Say No".

The book was less well written. But the meaning of the emerging of the book was remarkable. It was the beginning that the new generation Chinese started to be aggressive on how China might play more important roles in regular world affairs. China started its way of coming back to be a Big Nation again in its thousands year history.

1997: Hong Kong returned to China (香港回归)

The ceremony of Hong Kong's return to China in 1997.

This was the first step of China's reunion since the end of Qing Dynasty. Since then, Hong Kong became a model about how two fundamentally contradictory regulations might harmoniously exist together. "Part of iron and part of clay". This might be a perfect description of China since 1997.

1998: National Civil Service System founded (国家公务员制度入轨工作基本到位)

Cartoon, "Civil servant---a new gold bowl".

The National Civil Service System in contemporary China is a continuation of the Imperial Examination System in ancient China. Unlike the public service systems in western countries, the civil service system in China is a ladder for normal citizens to climb up the bureaucratic hierarchy. The system thus helps maintain the stability of the government from being overthrown. As the history of China has repeatedly shown, this type of systems can effectively protect the present government. The trade-off is, however, that the government will spend more and more resources to feed the expanding-ever group of the "civil servants" so that it may keep on effectiveness. When finally the cycle of feedback comes to a turning point, the entire system collapses rapidly. This was the cycle of dynasties in China, and it seems the cycle simply continues.

1999: The United States signed China's "accession to the WTO," a bilateral agreement (中美签署“入世”双边协议)

Charlene Barshefsky (left) and Shi Guangsheng (right) exchanged the signed text. Just before the new century, China and United States finally reached the agreement about China's accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization).

The Chinese economy was thus officially merged into the world economy. The agreement cleared the major obstacle for China's companies to export product. Hence it laid the foundation for China's rapid economic growth in the early 2000s.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1990 - 1994)

2009-10-10T20:45:00.004-04:00

(1949 - 1954), (1955 - 1959), (1960 - 1964), (1965 - 1969), (1970 - 1974), (1975 - 1979), (1980 - 1984), (1985 - 1989)

1990: Shanghai Stock Exchange (上海证券交易所)

Inside of Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1990. Since the later years of Qing Dynasty, Shanghai has been the economic center of China. In 1990, Shanghai Stock Exchange reopened the first time after 1949. Stock exchange finally became legal in the history of contemporary China.

Despite of the failure of Tiananmen Square Protests in 1989, the economic reform in China was still irresistible. Restarting of stock exchange showed that the fundamental form of Chinese economy had changed. Stock exchange may become popular only after the regular individual citizens start to have sufficient amount of private asset. The event thus claimed the accomplishment of the first stage of economic reform in China, i.e., wealth had started to be distributed from primarily owned by the nation to the hand of private individuals.

1991: Eastern China Flood (华东大水灾)

In the picture are the flood victims.

The Eastern China flood of 1991 had many meanings from the history point of view. As the short-term impact, the event gave the world an excuse to reestablish the broken connection with China since 1989. First time ever the New China government actively called for international aid, and the world responded. It thus prepared the external environment for the official coming back of the economic reform and opening up policy in 1992. On the other hand, however, in long term the flood was a warning to China of its environmental destruction since the economic reform. How to maintain the momentum of economic growth while at the same time preserving the environment became a major challenge to China.

1992: Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour Talk (邓小平南巡谈话)

Deng Xiaoping in his southern tour of China, visiting Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai in 1992. During the tour, he reclaimed that the economic reform and opening up was the fundamental policy of China.

"To Get Rich Is Glorious". This was the consequence of Deng's talk. The tour and talk thus unleashed a wave of personal entrepreneurship that continues to drive China's economy today. After this important tour and talk, China inevitably came back to the pre-1989 route in the facet of economy.

1993: Jingjintang Expressway (京津塘高速公路)

In picture is part of the Jingjintang Expressway.

"To get rich, construct road first." The finishing of Jingjintang Expressway, the first-ever expressway in China, in 1993 declared the beginning of an era of China when the entire nation was engaged to a huge tide of fundamental construction. In order to keep the rate of economic growth in high speed, a large number of high quality roads and buildings are prerequisite. It was this tide of nation-wide fundamental construction that provided the objective environment for the economic miracle in China in the following decade.

1994: China access to the Internet (中国接入互联网)

On April 20, 1994, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of High
Energy Physics (IHEP) built the first cable connected to the Internet,
realizing e-mail communication with North America and Europe.

This remarkable moment represented that China was integrated into the world. Internet broke the traditional boards between nations and allowed Chinese to access foreign information more freely. Since then, Internet and World Wide Web rapidly spread over the nation. Until now, China has become the nation that has the greatest number of Web users.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1985 - 1989)

2009-10-08T01:20:00.022-04:00

(1949 - 1954), (1955 - 1959), (1960 - 1964), (1965 - 1969), (1970 - 1974), (1975 - 1979), (1980 - 1984)

1985: JinJiang Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals Case (晋江假药案)

Jinjiang City in recent years. In 1985, there was a notorious counterfeit pharmaceuticals case that was related to many of the private-owned pharmaceutical businesses in Jinjiang.

Since then, counterfeit was related to the product made by the private-owned Chinese companies. Until now, made in China is still more or less doubted by the rest of the world about its real quality and genuine inside. Moreover, JinJiang Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals Case was a typical example on how quick and how much brutal general morality could lose when capitalism and Atheism were perfectly integrated. This problem became one of the main concern in China until now.

1986: Shenyang Explosion-proof Equipment Factory bankrupt (沈阳防爆器械厂宣告破产)

August 25, 1986, the former director of the factory Shi Yongjie (石永阶) watched workers to receive benefits card. Shenyang Explosion-proof Equipment Factory was a collectively owned business and it was the first business that was declared bankrupt in New China.

Since then, thousands of nation-owned or collectively owned businesses were declared bankrupt and bought by the private owners. It thus started the process of transferring the nation-owned property (before it nearly all the productive property was owned by the nation) into the hand of private parties. Fundamentally, the capitalist economy became part of the Chinese economy.

1987: The First Land Auction in New China (国有土地使用权首次拍卖)

The winner of the auction.

There is a question: if land can be owned by private, may the society still be socialist? Hence in China, what had auctioned was the right of use to the land in contrast to ownership of the land. And it is still the same until today. Legally, the ownership of all land in China still belongs to the nation. This is a typical "with Chinese characteristics" economic reform.

1988: First Inflation in New China (通货膨胀)

People were fighting to buy gold product in front of a small shop because of the money inflation. This was the first inflation since 1949 after the found of People's Republic of China.

Inevitably, the rise of free economy caused the first-ever inflation in the history of New China. For most of Chinese at the meantime, this was the first time they started to think of "investment". Chinese people began to stand out of their old lives and looked forward to a new style of lives that would be more challenging but also having more opportunity to gain. Fulfilled by this type of excitement and nervousness, China stepped into 1989, another year of transition in the history of contemporary China.

1989: Tiananmen Square Protests (天安门广场学生民主示威运动)

"The Goddess of Democracy" carved by students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and erected in the Square during the protest.

Tiananmen Square Protests in 1989 was the most important single event in contemporary China since 1976, the end of Great Culture Revolution.

(1) It terminated China's attempt to become a normal capitalist nation since the economic reform. Before 1989, China was one of the most likely communist nations that might be transformed into capitalism in a peaceful process. The 1989 event ended everything.

(2) Since then, China became a pure materialist nation since nearly all the idealist political leaders were either arrested or exiled. The young generation in China after 1989 became fairly different from their elder brothers and sisters. China really could have been a totally another nation if the end of the protest were different.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1980 - 1984)

2009-10-07T01:45:00.010-04:00

(1949 - 1954), (1955 - 1959), (1960 - 1964), (1965 - 1969), (1970 - 1974), (1975 - 1979)

1980: Private Business Reemerging (个体户)

People stood in front of the first private owned restaurant, YuBin, in China after Great Culture Revolution

The reemerging of private business was remarkable. It was the beginning of China's economic take-off.

1981: "One Country, Two Systems" (“一国两制”)

Deng Xiaoping (left) and Margaret Thatcher (right).

First proposed by Deng Xiaoping, "One Country, Two Systems" soon became a fundamental policy of China to handle its internal affairs. Although the policy was designed for dealing with mainland's relationship to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, implicitly it claimed the allowance of co-existence between capitalism and socialism. If capitalism can be executed well by Chinese in places such as Hong Kong, why is it not able to be effective in mainland China as well? While 1980 represented the return of capitalism beneath the water, the "One Country, Two Systems" policy in 1981 officially approved the reborn of capitalism in China.

1982: Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (具有中国特色的社会主义)

The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. In the conference, Deng Xiaoping claimed that since then China was going to explore a new route of socialism, which is the socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The statement became the political motto of Chinese government until now. Underneath the cap of "with Chinese characteristics", many new policies were passed though they indeed significantly contradicted to the traditional belief of socialism. In fact, nowadays the Chinese style socialism is nearly equivalent to the capitalism but led by a communist party.

1983: Severe Crackdown on Crime (严打)

Policewomen arrested a female in 1983's nation-wide action on severe crackdown on crime. Severe crackdown on crime (or "Yanda" by Chinese spoken) is a typical "with Chinese characteristics" action on against the crimes.

Yanda has become periodic since 1983. Despite of its good intention, Yanda seems, however, never have reached the goal. In contrast, Yanda becomes a way for the government to regularly inspect its control over the people.

1984: Start Business (下海)

In 1984, Haier signed contrast with German investors.

In this year, many later on famous private-owned Chinese companies were founded, which included such as Haier and Lenova. The Chinese business in private sector started blossom.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1975 - 1979)

2009-10-06T01:58:00.052-04:00

(1949 - 1954), (1955 - 1959), (1960 - 1964), (1965 - 1969), (1970 - 1974)

1975: Hybrid Rice (杂交水稻)

Yuan Longping (Father of Hybrid Rice, on the right) and his colleague was studying the hybrid rice in field.

In 1975, the Chinese Academy of Agriculture and Forestry passed the identification of the invention of hybrid rice and decided to prompt the planting of hybrid rice to the whole nation. Hybrid rice is the greatest contribution New China made for the world until now. It significantly improved the rate of rice production 30% over the ordinary ones. Therefore, the adoption of hybrid rice significantly helped solve the problem of world hunger.

1976: The Passing of Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Mao Zedong (周恩来,朱德,毛泽东逝世)

Tens of thousands people in Tiananmen Square sobbing for the death of Chairman Mao.

1976 was a year of transition in the history of contemporary China. After dramatically losing three most important leaders of New China in sequence within a year, China inevitably came to a cross point. Finally, Deng Xiaoping won the battle against the Gang of Four. China, therefore, started a new page of history being a more open and rapid-growing nation.

1977: Restoration of the National Higher Education Entrance Examination (恢复高考)

Students were doing exam.

Since 1977, National Higher Education Entrance Examination have become the most important national test in China. The examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. For a Chinese who wants to attend college, he must try to get a good score in the exam because there are many more students than who could be admitted every year in China.

1978: "Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth" (实践是检验真理的唯一标准)

May 11, 1978, the front page of Guangming Daily. The article is the one at the bottom.

This is one of the most influential articles in the history of contemporary China. In certain sense, this article claimed CPC's directing thought in the post-Mao age. For ones who want to understand the policy design of Chinese government since 1978, they must read and try to understand the main point of this article. In the following I list my understanding of the positive and negative consequence of the article to China.

On the positive side, the article claimed that we must not blindly follow a single person's order (which referred to Mao Zedong in particular). By contrast, only the real-world practice could eventually tell us what would be wrong and what would be right. This is a great leap forward in thought liberation from the individual worship during the Great Culture Revolution. Directed by this new thought, China started the so-called economic reform.

On the negative side, however, the article implicitly denied the existence of absolute truth. By following the thought in the article, no truth can last forever since the consequence of its practice might be positive or negative based on the meantime context. If context changes, truth might change respectively. This implicit derivation gradually caused more and more trouble to Chinese society with the progress of the economic reform.

1979: Four Cardinal Principles (四项基本原则)

The Four Cardinal Principles decided by Deng Xiaoping in 1979. They are:
        1. upholding the socialist path
        2. upholding the people's democratic dictatorship
        3. upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and
        4. upholding Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong thought

Four Cardinal Principles, together with "Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth", comprise the foundation of Chinese government since the economic reform. While "Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth" showed the side of flexibility of the government, Four Cardinal Principles declared that there was something untouchable, in which the core was CPC's leadership. Since then, within CPC it grew two forces, each of which emphasized more on one side of the foundation. The conflict between the two forces became more and more severe with time and it eventually led to the sad event at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1970 - 1974)

2009-10-05T01:05:00.027-04:00

(1949 - 1954)
(1955 - 1959)
(1960 - 1964)
(1965 - 1969)

1970: Diaoyutai Islands (钓鱼台群岛)

Diaoyutai Islands (or Senkaku Islands according to Japan's naming).

In 1970, Unites States "returned" Diaoyutai Islands to Japan despite of China's claim of its ownership. This event was similar to the McMahon Line British did several decades ago between China and India. The goal was to leave a hard debate between the two near nations so that United States gained a point to leverage its impact in eastern Asia in the future. The plan worked. The Diaoyutai Islands problem has become more and more a severe debate between China and Japan. It significantly affected the relation between the two nations and more and more limits the collaboration between the two nations in exploring the East China Sea.

1971: China Return to United Nation (中国恢复联合国合法席位)

Qiao Guanhua (on the left) was laughing when United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 was passed.

This was the beginning that China returned to the center of the world attention. Since then, China played more and more important roles in world affairs.

1972: Nixon visit to China (尼克松访华)

Zhou Enlai welcomed Nixon in Beijing Airport.

This journey broke the ice between the two long-term enemies. The Sino-American relation has been one of the most important international relations in the world.

1973: Deng Xiaoping Came Back to Power (邓小平复出)

Deng Xiaoping shook hands with Mao Zedong after he was appointed Vice Premier in 1973.

Since 1973 Deng Xiaoping had never left the center of China politics until his death. Eventually Deng led China to a new route of socialism (which was what Liu Shaoqi wanted to try but failed because of Mao's disapproval in 1960s) after the death of Mao Zedong.

1974: Invention of Artemisinin (合成青蒿素)

The chemical composition of Artemisinin.

This is another under-reported scientific achievement in contemporary China. Artemisinin was invented to treat multi-drug resistant strains of falciparum malaria. This is a great example of deriving modern-time drug from herbs used in Chinese traditional medicine. This invention saved the lives of millions of people from the threat of falciparum malaria.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1965 - 1969)

2009-10-04T00:32:00.001-04:00

(1949 - 1954)
(1955 - 1959)
(1960 - 1964)

1965: Synthesis of Crystalline Bovine Insulin (人工合成牛胰岛素)

Chinese scientists successfully synthesized crystalline bovine insulin, a bioactive protein, on September 17, 1965. China thus became a world leader in this research field at the meantime.

This under-reported scientific achievement was the last great technology breakthrough in China before the Great Culture Revolution. After it, the regular scientific research in China was significantly delayed by the worse and worse political environment. This achievement, on the other hand, showed the greatness of Chinese scientists. Even though prohibited by both of the western nations and Soviet Union simultaneously on high technology import, China still was the first in the world to successfully separate and recombine the two chains of natural insulin, the first to obtain crystalline insulin by combining the synthetic B chain with the natural A chain or by combining the synthetic A chain with the natural B chain, and the first to succeed in the total synthesis of crystalline insulin. It is due to the spirit in the soul of Chinese shown in this achievement that China is an unquestionable great nation lasting thousands of years in history.

1966: Great Culture Revolution (文化大革命)

People in Tiananmen Square celebrating the Culture Revolution. In everybody's hand they raised Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (or Mao's Little Red Book).

The 10-year Great Culture Revolution (1966-1976) was one of the most painful time periods in Chinese history. It is also the most important event in contemporary China since 1949. There are no words that may overstate the impact of this event to China as well as to all the Chinese people. Hence I must use a few more spaces to express its effect.

Many people have criticized this movement in various aspects. A great number of people were put to death in the ten years. Many families were broken. The normal trust among people was lost nearly totally. Husband stood up accusing wife and put her to prison; so does wife. Children stood up accusing their own parents and put them to prison; so do parents to their own children. We could not even imagine how all these might have happened in nowadays, while everything happened every day in these years. National wide, much economic activity was halted, scientific research paused, even the education system came to a virtual halt. In short, the entire China was in crazy!

Despite of all the negative consequences, Great Culture Revolution did reform Chinese, which was a main goal of Mao Zedong when he ordered the revolution. In this sense, we even might not be able to call Great Culture Revolution a failure, though the goal was reached in an extreme cruel way.

(1) The first time in more than 2000 years, Confucius and his philosophy gave the way to modern science in guiding the thought of Chinese people.

(2) The first time in 5000-year history, knowledge was spread into every corner of China. Tens of millions of Chinese people who lived in far rural places the first time in their life participated actively in nation affair. In order to learn Mao's words, the elementary education such as character learning quickly widespread all over the nation.

(3) The traditional hierarchical social structure in Chinese culture that had lasted thousands of years was overthrown totally. A new culture was forming.

(4) Again, the first time in 5000-year history, Chinese women gained the equal right in nearly all fields comparing to men.

For anybody who want to understand Chinese people and Chinese culture in nowadays, understanding the five-thousand-year Chinese history is not enough. He must understand Great Culture Revolution.

1967: Red Guards (红卫兵)

April 10, 1967, Wang Guangmei, the meantime first lady of China, the wife of Liu Shaoqi, was accused in public on stage by the Red Guards in Tsinghua University.

Red Guards were the primary force Mao used to start the Great Culture Revolution. The consequence was, however, that China lost nearly an entire generation of young people who might otherwise contribute to the nation constructively. The impact lasted longer than the generation itself. After they finally realized that they were deceived several years later, the Red Guard generation began to lose confidence on the existence of absolute truth in the world. Such belief was taught to their children and thus inherited. It laid the seed for the general decay of public morality in China after 1990 when the Red Guard generation finally seized the power of the nation.

1968: Down to the Countryside Movement(上山下乡运动)

Educated urban youth went to live in the countryside to learn from the workers and farmers there.

Again, this is another very controversial decision made by Mao Zedong in Culture Revolution. On the negative side, certainly it was a huge pain for the generation who was forced to leave their family in the city and moved to the countryside that was not only in poor living condition but also had nearly no hope of family reunion. On the other hand, however, never before in the history of China a government had made such an effort to spread knowledge into every corner of the nation. Because of this movement, modern knowledge was widespread in the land of China. It thus laid a solid foundation for the economic recovery and rapid growth in China after 1980.

1969: Beijing Grand Evacuation (北京大疏散)

University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) evacuated from Beijing to Hefei in 1969.

Due to the border conflict between Soviet Union and China in 1969, many of Beijing's key organizations (including USTC, the college I attended many years later) were ordered to be evacuated from Beijing to more inland locations. The order was continuously executed even after the border conflict. Although it was unfair to the organizations that were relocated, objectively the action helped balance the economic growth across the nation in long term.

The Third Year Anniversary (3)

2009-10-03T07:10:00.009-04:00

Intuitive Ideas

The posts in this collection are classified in four topics: Web, semantics, economy, and miscellaneous.

Web Science & Web Evolution

1. Evolution, a topic uneasy. Evolution does exist. But it does not contradict to the existence of creator. Web evolution is a typical example.

2. Steve Ballmer claimed: "only three things on the Internet that have made money". The model of Web evolution matches this claim.

3. President Obama, World Wide Web, the start of a new era. Isn't the real world nothing but another virtual world?

4. Build new centrifugal momentum on the Web. Now it is the time for us to build new centrifugal momentum on the Web.

5. swing between big and small. The swing between big and small in evolution must be constant cycle.

6. World Wide Web spreads like religions. As title.

7. Your online identity is a treasure inheritable. May we monetize it further?

8. The Golden Time of World Wide Web is coming. The financial crisis brought great opportunity to accelerate the Web evolution.

9. Art and Engineering. The relation between art and engineering in Web evolution.

10. The Internet, a bordered or borderless world? The Web is not going to be borderless in real.

Semantics & Intelligence

1. Positive Solitude, the losing capability. Solitude, a seemly negative attitude, is indeed not only critical but also positive to our real life. But we are losing it by the progress of the Web evolution.

2. Do not exaggerate the importance of machines. Make a contrast between machine intelligence to human intelligence.

3. Variation of meanings. Semantics have various types.

4. Learnable and Unteachable. Certain semantics machines may be able to learn. But we might never be able to teach machines some other types of semantics.

5. Consciousness has no single "seat" in brain. A new scientific discovery may let us know better about collaborative intelligence in the Web.

6. Mind, Gene, Spirit. Where does thinking come? My fundamental viewpoint about the answer to the question.

7. How to construct a high quality ontology?. Some basic methodologies for constructing the real-world ontologies.

Economy & Politics

1. Virtual economy calls for new institution. The financial crisis is an inevitable result of the conflict between the economic form and the economic institution.

2. President Obama's Vision. Liu Junluo rendered President Obama's actions during the economic crisis.

3. Big Idea inspires us, but what is big idea?

Miscellaneous

1. A beautiful mind of creativity. Elizabeth Gilbert is beautiful. Her beauty is, however, not only in her look but also (and more importantly) in her mind of thinking.

2. Outliers. May you be an outlier by your own struggle?

3. My Impression of Twine 2.0. Twine might have missed something critical when it matches toward 2.0.

4. Innovation: discover the profoundness behind simplicity. Tell an idea to somebody. In 30 seconds the one thinks he gets the idea and agrees to it, but actually after another 30-minute explanation he still does not really know. This is thus an innovative business.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1960 - 1964)

2009-10-03T01:29:00.002-04:00

(1949 - 1954)
(1955 - 1959)

1960: Three Years of Natural Disasters (三年自然灾害)

Drought land led to death of plants. "In 1960, at least some degree of drought and other bad weather affected 55 percent of cultivated land, while an estimated 60% of agricultural land received no rain at all." (cited from Wikipedia)

The Three Years of Natural Disasters was the period between 1958 and 1961 in China, which was characterized by widespread famine. Why was the superior socialist society NOT able to avoid the great famine caused by the "natural" disasters? The disaster temporarily cooled down the hype of socialism in China during the 1950s. Some Chinese intellects started to rethink the future of China. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping became the leaders of the new trend.

1961: Daqing Oilfield (大庆油田)

In 1961 Deng Xiaoping (on the right) came to inspect the progress of constructing Daqin Oilfield.

In the following two decades, Daqin Oilfield was the model of New China Industry.

1962: Sino-Indian War (中印边境战争)

Chinese soldiers were firing in the war.

Despite of its many impacts to the world politics and especially to India, the Sino-India War had led to several major consequences that greatly affected China in the following decades. (1) The victory (an unquestionable military victory in contrast to China's claimed "victory" in Korean War) again tremendously consolidated CPC's governing over China. (2) The victory consolidated Mao Zedong's personal control of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). This consolidation of military leadership eventually gave Mao the ability of starting the Great Culture Revolution to defeat his political enemies in just few years later. (3) The victory finalized China's overtake of Tibet. The Sino-India War claimed that any attempt of separating Tibet from China would be hopeless. (4) After the war, the Indian role in international affairs was greatly reduced and India's standing in the Non-Aligned Movement suffered. In comparison, the world started more and more listening to China's voice. The victory paced the way for China to become a major power of the world.

1963: Zhou Enlai toured 10 Countries in Africa (周恩来访问非洲１０国)

Zhou Enlai visited African nation Mali. In the middle was Premier Zhou Enlai.

The victory in the Sino-India War gave China tremendous confidence to be more aggressive in world affairs. Premier Zhou Enlai's tour to 10 African countries from late 1963 to early 1964 was one of its most importance consequence. In the tour, Premier Zhou showed his great skill in foreign affairs. Through Zhou's superior display, China won the heart of many Africans. It laid the foundation for People's Republic of China's return to United Nation in 1971.

1964: First Chinese Atomic Bomb Test (中国第一颗原子弹试爆成功)

The cloud generated by the first Chinese atomic bomb test.

China became the fifth nation that could build atomic bombs. The remarkable success at the meantime demonstrated to the world China's exceptional capability in scientific research as well as in manufacture production. From the moment, China entered a brand new era (the industrial age) in its 5000-year history.

The Third Year Anniversary (2)

2009-10-02T07:11:00.003-04:00

Analytical Insights

Again, the posts are ordered in accordance to my self-preference.

1. The Web is Expanding

World Wide Web is expanding, simultaneously in four facets---in the physical world, in the computational world, in the world of network communication, and in the financial world. The post supplements to my ThinkerNet post "a closer look at the expanding Web."

2. Five Web Trends Into 3.0: (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5).

Web 3.0 is coming. But what on earth is it? In a five-installment series, I expressed my viewpoint of Web 3.0. There are five major trends together pushing the Web to its post-2.0 age. The ultimate consequence is about to upgrade the Web from a web of platforms (filled by the user-generated content) to a web of marketplaces (filled by the user-generated asset).

3. Think beyond Build-A-BearVille (the Second Life for kids)

Build-A-BearVille is a fun place for kids. It, however, suggests much more than the primary intention. Build-A-BearVille shows us how we may virtualize the real world into the virtual world, and monetize the connection between the two worlds. Not only does this business model build true exchangeable value, but also it is generically applicable to nearly all the domains.

4. We intelligent because we connected, and unless we connected

Where does intelligence come? More and more evidences should that we intelligent only when our knowledge is connected to a greater network of knowledge. It is the quality of the outward links, in contrast to the quality of the inner knowledge nodes, that ultimately determines the level of intelligence. Thus, it is not hard to build a machine knowledgeable, but it is much more difficult to develop a machine intelligent.

5. From GeoCities to MySpace, another side of Web Evolution

MySpace is GeoCities 2.0. History repeats itself, but in an upgrading way.

6. Wall Street, Fall 2008: crisis, capital, risk, computation, and information

From studying the definitions of five terms (crisis, capital, risk, computation, and information) we can understand the financial crisis better. What the Wall Street hedge fund brokers have tricked us is making up equations measuring the equivalence between matter and information (in particular the information of risk). According to the quantum theory we discussed, however, the value of information per unit decreases definitely in time due to that the total amount of information constantly increases and the total amount of matter keeps constant. This is the theoretic reason behind this massive financial crisis.

7. The newspaper crisis

Newspapers are in crisis. "The cost of the raw information generation is minimized. The cost of static analysis over the raw information has been cheap. The cost of posting advertisement has been cheap. If the Web has decreased the value of nearly all the information asset in the traditional mean, what should we do to produce new type of information asset that can be charged decently in this new Web age?" It is really a question.

8. The Microsoft-Yahoo deal, Part 1 Yahoo, Part 2 Microsoft, Part 3 Google.

I have varied views about the Microsoft-Yahoo deal. The apparent winner might not necessarily be the ultimate winner and the apparent loser might indeed gain a chance of reborn. Moreover, we must not forget Google, the target of the deal.

9. The real-time web in a nutshell for Web developers and researchers

The real-time web has been hot. From the perspective of Web developers and researchers, what, however, is the real-time web? This post answers the question concisely.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1955 - 1959)

2009-10-02T01:15:00.048-04:00

(1949 - 1954)

1955: Food Stamp (粮票)

The food stamp printed by Hunan province in 1955.

Food stamp played important role in China since 1955 until 1993. It was not only certificate of food supply for regular Chinese citizens, but also a restriction to Chinese people on free relocation around the nation. During these years, generally people would not be able to get food supply unless they had the food stamps. Because the majority of food stamps were printed by specific provinces and they could be used only inside the respective province, however, the policy objectively prohibited people from free relocation.

1956: Xinjiang-Tibet Highway (新藏公路)

A picture of the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway. The construction of the highway began at 1956.

The highway is the key connection that links two most vulnerable provinces of China---Xinjiang and Tibet. In particular, the highway went through Aksai Chin, a disputed critical region between China and India. The construction of this highway not only helped foster the economy of the two provinces, but also protected the integrity of China by allowing rapid military reaction in the western board.

1957: New Population Theory (新人口论)

The book New Population Theory authored by Ma Yinchu.

Having examined the high rate population growth of the early 1950s, Ma concluded that such a trend would be detrimental to China's long-term economic progress. Therefore, he advocated government control of fertility, which was the key point in his New Population Theory. The Chinese government began by totally rejecting the theory and accused Ma's attempting to discredit the superiority of socialism. After nearly all the negative prediction in Ma's theory came true, however, the Chinese government later on ironically turned the decision entirely around by enforcing the One-child Policy all over the nation---the other extreme about Ma's theory.

1958: Pinyin (汉语拼音)

The table of Hanyu Pinyin first published in 1958.

Pinyin is until now the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. The publication of Pinyin is one of the most influential events in the history of China. It significantly helped the Chinese character learning for children as well as for the foreigners in western countries. On one side, it quickly reduced the rate of Chinese population who could not read. On the other side, it greatly accelerated the prevalence of Chinese in the world.

1959: Dalai Lama exile from Tibet (达赖出逃)

Dalai Lama greeted reporters in 1959.

The Tibet problem became international wise afterward.

Fujifilm Medical Systems USA launched a blog

2009-10-01T16:40:00.003-04:00

Called From the Inside Out, the purpose of the blog is to give people yet another way to communicate with FMSU. While designed to be less formal than other means of communication, the blog will allow FMSU to share key messages while ultimately becoming interactive with the customers. The style of writing is a mix of provocative, witty, and even some unusual commentaries. Please check it out if you are interested in the technological achievement in the most frontier of medicine technology, especially the radiologic technology.

The Third Year Anniversary (1)

2009-10-01T07:17:00.055-04:00

It has been a tradition. In the October 1st of each year, I summarize the Thinking Space posts in the last year for another anniversary of the blog. The summary also becomes a comprehensive index of Thinking Space in a year.

This year in three installments I go over the Thinking Space articles from Oct. 1st, 2008 to Sep. 30, 2009.

The theme of the first installment is genuine thoughts, the original thinking that could not be found anywhere else except of this blog.

The theme of the second installment is analytical insights, the less genuine but more comprehensive analytical thoughts in their depth and broadness.

The theme of the last installment is intuitive ideas, the intuitive opinions about a few timely topics.

Genuine Thoughts

The posts with original thoughts might last. They are ordered in accordance to my self-preference.

1. It is the free choice that produces the value of mind

Believe it or not, Web business is entering a brand new age of embodying mind to be exchangeable asset. What is the key of monetizing mind asset? The question is worth of thinking and rethinking. As well as human labor is the basis of value generation in the real world, human free will (or free choice) is the basis of value generation in the virtual worlds like World Wide Web. Moreover, the next post expresses the thought within a broader background.

2. From UGC to UGA, and the limitation of Web 2.0

This post supplements to my Internet Evolution article "User Generated Content (UGC), Revisited" in which I revisited a few fundamentals of UGC. In this post, therefore, I extended the discussion by pointing out the key limitation of Web 2.0 according to business model. That nobody is willing to pay is because Web 2.0 itself has not really produced anything that is worth of being purchased! I then settle the argument that Web 3.0 will be a web of UGA (user-generated asset) in contrast to Web 2.0 be a web of UGC.

3. The upside down of the traditional thought on user interface

May user interface have to be external to the service? If the question sounds strange to you, think of it again. What would happen to the user interface if a service is not in a convex shape but in a concave shape? Now, is the thought still weird?

4. Gravitation, the Web, and Wikipedia

Semantics is the gravitation in the Web. This finding may help us solve some sophisticated semantic integration problems in the Web.

5. The Link in Linked Web

May we think of the Web a ternaristic world in contrast to a dualistic world? Traditionally link is known to be a special type of data. What would happen, however, if link is neither data nor service but just link itself? This view of link in the linked web may bring us a brand new interpretation of the Web.

6. Also, Consciousness vs. Memory

Memory is the reserved and refined consciousness. This distinction brings us hints about the fundamental difference between the regular Web and the real-time Web.

7. Web evolution has to have a purpose

The intrinsic reason of World Wide Web evolution is to realize the immortality of human mind. Web evolution must never be aimless. A global scale evolutionary event such as the Web evolution has to have a definite purpose so that the process could sustain. The thinking is impressed by Al Gore's Web 2.0 Summit talk "Web 2.0 has to have a purpose".

8. 7 best thoughts at Thinking Space 2008

A short summary of the seven best genuine thoughts posted in Thinking Space in 2008.

Contemporary China in 60 years (1949 - 1954)

2009-10-01T01:29:00.002-04:00

The 1st of October is the Independence Day of China. This year it is the 60th anniversary. I use twelve posts with more than 60 classic photos (5-year period in each post) to summarize the 60-year history of China. Hopefully the photos and my comments would help the Thinking Space readers understand better about China and Chinese people in the contemporary age.

1949: Declaration of Independence (开国大典)

Mao Zedong (on the left) and Liu Shaoqi (on the right) stood on the top of Tiananmen, ready to announce the independence of People's Republic of China.

These two close comrades eventually departed from each other several years later when they started to pursue different plots on the future of China. The fight between the two routes composed the main melody of the contemporary Chinese history until today.

1950: Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship (中苏友好条约)

Zhou Enlai (the Premier) was signing on the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship in Moscow with Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong stood on the background.

This is one of the most influential contract signed in the history of contemporary China. On the positive side, the main infrastructure of industry of modern China was built because of the treaty by the help of Soviet Union. Also due to this treaty, an entire generation of Chinese people became pro-Russia in nearly all facets. On the negative side, however, the resistance to Russia's attempt of controlling China's policy through the treaty laid the seed that eventually led to the break of the relation between the two nations.

1951: Korean War (抗美援朝)

The Chinese People's Volunteer Army was marching forward.

There is no way we may overestimate the importance of the Korean War to China and especially Chinese Communist Party. This was the first time in more than a century since First Opium War that China finally did not lose in a war against a major western country. The "victory" greatly rebuilt the self-confidence of Chinese people. After long time, once gain Chinese felt the greatness of the motherland. At the same time, the result tremendously consolidated the leadership of Chinese Communist Party. At the end of Korean War CPC's governing over China had become unshakable.

1952: Three-anti/five-anti Campaigns (三反五反运动)

The former capitalists in Shanghai reported themselves to the officials in the Five-anti campaign.

The Three-anti (anti-corruption, anti-waste, and anti-bureaucracy) campaign was to purify the Chinese Communist Party internally. The event prepared the foundation for the following up nation-wide mind reconstruction projects that included the Five-anti (anti-bribery, anti-theft of state property, anti-tax evasion, anti-cheating on government contracts, and anti-stealing state economic information) campaign and the much later Great Culture Revolution. The Five-anti campaign officially ended all forms of capitalism in China until the late 70s when Deng Xiaoping reopened the door of China to the western world.

1953: The First Five-Year Plan (“一五”计划)

Jiefang (Liberation) trucks were ready to be shipped in Changchun First Automotive Works (FAW).

Indeed, however, the Jiefang trucks were not built until 1956. But it was due to the First Five-Year Plan that FAW could been constructed with assistance from Soviet Union. The publish of the First Five-Year Plan in 1953 determined the fundamental economic form in contemporary China. The consequence is long-lasting until today.

1954: A Letter about the Study of Dream of Red Chamber (关于红楼梦研究问题的信)

The photo of a letter about the study of Dream of Red Chamber. The letter was written by Mao Zedong.

Although Dream of Red Chamber is probably the greatest novel in Chinese history, the letter was indeed not about the book. By contrast, in the letter Mao Zedong encouraged the amateur young people to stand up and challenge the elder professionals in all areas and in any circumstance. This philosophy of "rebelling" was going to be spread all over the nation and it would impact generations of Chinese people. In reality, the spirit of the letter (which is actually one of the fundamental belief of Chairman Mao) had significantly reformed the mind of Chinese. Due to this reason, this letter was indeed much more crucial to the contemporary China than the other important events (such as the first national congress in contemporary China) of the year 1954.

My Impression of Twine 2.0

2009-09-20T17:00:00.002-04:00

Radar Networks is about to release Twine 2.0. The CEO, Nova Spivack, had made a presentation of the coming T2. I include the video in the following. It takes less than 5 minutes and is worth of watching.

From the beginning, Twine is a service that I constantly study. I had written the first impression, the second impression, and Twine went public that shared my analysis of the service before its beta, in the beginning of its invitation-only beta, and when it went public, respectively. I would like to continue this tradition for the news of the T2 release.

In short, the T2 moves Twine closer to the realm of Web search in contrast to Web bookmarking, based on Nova's talk in the released video.

Although there is natural connection between bookmarking and search, the distinction between semantic bookmarking and semantic search is significant. Usually, through bookmarking we briefly store the Web pages in which we are interested. Then by search we may retrieve the particular Web page of interest out of the pool of bookmarked pages. But semantic bookmarking asks for the organization of the semantics only within a self-defined knowledge network, i.e., basically with respect to every individual user only. Semantic search, however, demands the organization of the semantics cross the varied knowledge networks, i.e., across the varied perspective of knowledge organization over multiple users. This distinction dramatically increases the degree of complexity of the problem. I am truly impressed by the new announcement. At the same time, however, I really feel doubt of how much Twine 2.0 could solve the problem.

I feel that Twine missed something critical in its progress. In the following I will try to explain my viewpoint of what it might have missed.

Within Twine, there are actually three layers of semantic representations, which I would call them the layer of the twines, the layer of the individual knowledge networks, and the layer of the overall knowledge network. As the names suggest, the layer of the overall knowledge network represents the entire knowledge stored in Twine.com, the layer of the individual knowledge networks is composed by individual users' personal knowledge networks, and the layer of the twines is composed by all the individual twines defined in Twine.com.

Until now, Twine 1.0 pays most of its attention to the layer of the twines. Based on Nova's video talk, Twine 2.0 will mostly dedicate to the layer of the overall knowledge network. The missing part is thus the layer of the individual knowledge networks.

Back to my first impression of Twine, I had highly praised Twine's effort on developing the personal knowledge networks. They should be the foundation of Twine in contrast to the twines. Although it sounds ironically, it is indeed reasonable because the twines are nothing but the links among the individual knowledge networks. It is indeed the individual knowledge networks, instead of the twines, that are truly what the users are interested.

Unfortunately, it seems that Twine jumps back and forth between the layer of the twines and the layer of the overall knowledge network. But it forgets the crucial one that is the real foundation on which a best-performing Twine must rely.

On the other hand, it is much more feasible for Twine to develop a good business model if it does semantic search rather than semantic bookmarking. I guess that this is the real motivation underneath.

I am still look forward to the service. However, I feel sorry that it chose to walk the most difficult way to go ahead rather than choosing the other less aggressive but more stable (and promising) ways of approaching.

Outliers

2009-09-14T19:30:00.000-04:00

“人之贤不肖譬如鼠矣，所在自处耳！” (李斯 (Li Si), 280 B.C. － 208 B.C.） [English Translation: Whether a man is noble or ignoble is as if rats live here or there. It is where it lives that determines the fate.]

Finally I finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. The book is fabulous in its broadness and depth as well as the writing. In the book, Gladwell argued that the outliers (exceptional winners) succeed because of the environment they grow more than their born genius. To be successful requires only certain degree of goodness (in contrast to absolute superior) in IQ. Really successful stories, however, heavily depend on the luckiness of the individual growing up environment.

Li Si, the Prime Minister of the King of Qin and later First Emperor of China (Qin Shi Huang), once was a minor official taking care of barns in Chu (another kingdom in the meantime China). One day Li Si observed that the rats in the outhouse were dirty, hungry, and scared of any tiny unusual circumstance. At the same time, the rats in the barnhouse were clean, well fed, and much easier to adopt external changes in circumstance. Li Si then asked himself: were these rats born to be so different from each other? To get the answer, Li Si put some barnhouse rats outside and caught a few outhouse rats and moved them inside the barnhouse. After a few days, Li Si found that the original barnhouse rats became dirty, hungry, and scared of any tiny unusual circumstance, while the original outhouse rats became clean, well fed, and started to be easy to adopt unusual external changes. It was then Li Si spoke the sentence we quoted in the beginning of the post. By saying so, Li Si quit the job, left Chu and went to Qin. Eventually he became one of the most well-known Prime Ministers in the multi-thousand-year-long history of China.

Both Li Si and Malcolm Gladwell have emphasized the importance of the growing-up context to one's success. Few people are really incapable of being outliers. Still few, however, truly become outliers. The reason is not due to that the outliers are exceptionally smarter. It is only because the outliers happen to having the right context for their growing up in order to become exceptionally good.

The difference between Li Si and Malcolm Gladwell, however, is also worth of thinking. The former one emphasized that one could always invent a proper context to become outlier. The latter one, instead, emphasized that one should be ready to adopt the right alternate context to be successful. This distinction sets apart the two in their accomplishment. The former one became one of the greatest Prime Minister ever who helped unite China the first time in history. The latter one, on the other hand, become an exceptional writer who is well-known of being able to settle the common rules out of the variety of multiple culture.

Malcolm Gladwell told that one can never be exceptional without the right context. Li Si, by contrast, told that it is always possible to invent the right context for oneself when there is no right context ready for him by nature. Only by taking the two advices interactively, it is a balanced life for any person (not necessarily have to be a well-agreed outlier) so that he would neither be too proud nor be too timid about his accomplishment.

Gravitation, the Web, and Wikipedia

2009-09-13T13:22:00.001-04:00

Gravitation

Gravitation is a natural phenomenon by which objects with mass attract one another. It is one of the most fundamental restrictions applied to every object in the universe. A universe without gravitation would diverge in random. According to the General Theory of Relativity, gravitation along with space and time together define the geometry of the universe. Philosophically, space allows the universe to contain things, time allows the things in the universe to grow and evolve, and gravitation makes the universe be a reasonable system (the fundamental rules can be established since gravity forces mass converging).

World Wide Web

World Wide Web is a man-made universe in which data is mass. Every object in the real universe is composed by mass. Every object in the Web is composed by data. In similar, the Web as universe also has space, time, and gravitation together defining its fundamental geometry so that the Web can contain things, the things contained in the Web can evolve, and all things in the Web constitute a reasonable system.

Space in the Web is the unlimited expanse in which everything in data is located, which is similar to that space in the real universe is the unlimited expanse in which everything in mass is located. The entire volume of the space in the Web equals the overall capacity of the memory and hard disk in the Web computers. The size of the space in the Web constantly expands when we continuously add more machines into Internet.

Time in the Web is inherited from our real universe. Through this dimension, and this dimension only, the man-made virtual universe is connected to the real universe. I feel astonished by this discovery myself. Basically it tells that the Web could be totally lost (inaccessible) if time would stop. The derivation is, however, reasonable since it always takes a few time (though it could be very short period) for us to access the information stored in the Web through computation. When time stops, this type of computation the Web relies cannot be performed. Hence probably we might conclude the Web indeed resides in the dimension of Time.

Gravitation in the Web is certainly not due to the gravity in the real universe. As we have discussed, the decisive function of gravitation is to bring things toward each other. In the real world, the gravity plays the role of pulling mass together. In the web, semantics plays the role of pulling data together. Gravitation in the Web thus is semantics. Without semantics, data in the Web will fundamentally diverge. With semantics, however, data in the Web converges essentially. Semantics is also the fundamental force that makes the Web be reasonable.

Wikipedia

The rise and popularization of Wikipedia is a phenomenon. But why Wikipedia? Certainly there are many reasons. Here I would like to take a look at the phenomenon in the way of Web Science using the gravitation in the Web we just discussed.

Unquestionably, Web 2.0 has reshaped the Web to become a social platform. A representative character of Web 2.0 is the prevalence of user generated content (UGC) due to all kinds of the online social activities. The variety of UGCs makes the Web more and more exciting. But there is a problem.

In order to make the UGC production be faster and more efficiently, most of the UGC is not self-explained as if the Web pages produced in the pre-2.0 age. By contrast, UGC heavily relies on the external references to settle the common ground of mutual communication. For example:

Party A: The UGC in site A is laid out ugly.
Party B: We use UGC to provide geographical information.

Did the two parties talk about the same UGC? (Actually they did not. The first party talked about User Generated Content, while the second party talked about Universal Geographic Code.)

Such a problem was generally not a problem in the pre-2.0 Web, when there were very few demands on mutual online communication between the Web content publishers and the Web readers. The majority of the webmasters thus had enough time and be professional enough to make the Web content be self-contained. That is, the key terms were always unambiguously defined to avoid potential misunderstanding.

The rise of Web 2.0 broke the scheme. Suddenly the demand of producing UGC becomes tremendous. Most of the UGC producers are either non-professional in the domain of content they are going to produce or they do not have time or patience to settle the unambiguous ground for the messages. In order to maintain such a new scheme, however, the Web demands a commonly shared place of semantic grounding for people to reference. This is thus some intrinsic reason behind the rise of Wikipedia; Wikipedia happened to match the demand on time.

By using the model of Web gravitation we can summarize all the discussion of Wikipedia till now in a fairly concise but illuminating way. The Wikipedia phenomenon tells that in the age of Web 2.0 the gravity in the Web has started the process of data solidification. After the Big Bang gravity started to pull mass together and solidify it to produce the stars and planets. In the Web, the process is similar. The various domain-specific Web sites are the planets while the sites that engage the formalization of semantics like Wikipedia are the stars around which the planets circulate. Despite all the sites are built by humans, it is actually the gravitation in the Web (semantics) that intuitively guides the construction of all these sites. Data in closely related semantics moves to each other and new sites emerge.

The excitement of Web evolution just starts.

Special thanks to Eric Goldman for sharing me his work on the Wikipedia study. The initial thought of the post was made during the email discussion with him in discussing the future of Wikipedia. Eric's latest article, "Wikipedia’s Labor Squeeze and its Consequences," is an excellent work and I recommend it to anybody who is interested in the research of Wikipedia as well as the research of the fate of social media.

ISWC 2009

2009-09-11T11:07:00.004-04:00

I am going to attend ISWC 2009 (The 8th International Semantic Web Conference) this year at Washington, D.C. If you will come to the same event, I would like to meet you and have a chat. Please leave me a comment or drop me an email.

The real-time web in a nutshell for Web developers and researchers

2009-09-07T11:19:00.001-04:00

The "real-time web" is more and more popularly mentioned in various discussion. For example, ReadWriteWeb recently posted a three-installment series about The Real-Time Web: A Primer. In this post, I would like to share some of my thoughts of this new jargon in a concise way. Primarily, the post explains the real-time web in the way of Web research, which is different from the ReadWriteWeb post that targets the regular non-professional readers.

1) The real-time web is a web of information produced in real time.

The statement tells two points: (a) the real-time web is a data web; and (b) the information in the real-time web is genuine.

The two points are equally important. First, unlike World Wide Web in general contains plenty of services and connective links as well as data, the real-time web is primarily a web of data. Until now, no specific web services are designed for the real-time web (and indeed it is unlikely a necessity anyway). The dominant majority of the web links in the real-time web is referential to the details of the data mentioned rather than being connective among varied semantics in the web.

Second, the information the real-time web produces is generally genuine. It thus means that many times the produced semantics among the real-time-web data is new (i.e. has never occurred before or could not be search elsewhere) in the Web. This implicit hint carries tremendous amount of value. For example, once we might know the start time of a semantics coined in the Web, it would significantly reduce the difficulty of semantic search in the Web.

2) The real-time web is built upon a network of instant messaging.

Not necessarily be. But in reality the real-time web has been developed as a network of instant messaging. Twitter plays a crucial role in this migration. It is Twitter that invented the 140-character threshold in the real-time data production. This invention ties the data production in the real-time web tightly to the technology of instant messaging since the latter favors the production of the former. By contrast, the real-time web could have been in very different ways if it was led by the other companies such as CNN (by which the real-time web could be a network of a greater chuck of data integrated with complex services but with timestamp).

3) The real-time web is a subset of World Wide Web.

The real-time web is not World Wide Web in the next stage. It is a just a newly emerged subset of the Web. It is especially important for the Web developers to recognize the distinction so that they might not faulty interpret the evolution of World Wide Web.

4) The real-time web is a web of heavily overloaded information, full of duplicated data.

The percentage of data (as well as semantics/meaning) duplication is significantly greater than the rest parts of the Web. Very often the same data (or the same semantics) repeats itself extremely frequently within a short period of time frame in the real-time web. Hence any attempt of consuming the real-time-web data must be carefully thought to handle this unusual environment, which is quite different from handling the other Web data.

5) The real-time web is a web of uncooked information.

The real-time web shows the instinct human consciousness versus that the rest of the Web shows human memory. Again, this distinction implies the varied data mining technologies required for handling data in the real-time web.

6) The real-time web is not a new form of communication.

I disagree to the argument that the real-time web is a new form of communication. The argument not only incorrectly expresses the essence of the real-time web but also misleads the readers from the proper use and implementation of the real-time web.

The real-time web is not a form of interpersonal communication; the instant messaging is. The real-time web is a platform of instant messages. Why is the distinction critical? The two views of the real-time web demand significant differently on the issues of security and data integrity. By treating the real-time web be a form of communication, we need to focus on the restriction of accessing personal information. By contrast, by treating the real-time web be a platform of instant messages, we need to pay more attention to guarantee the freedom of information broadcasting. Try to mix the two fairly contradictory purposes could only lead to the unnecessary complexity of developing the real-time web.

The correct attitude is that (a) we need to have a public and free real-time web, and (b) we may need to invent better forms of private communication within the real-time web.

7) The real-time-web information decays.

Unlike the information stored in the regular Web, the information in the real-time web decays significantly faster. When a piece of information decays, it is meaningful to be used no longer. The fact implies that we need to invent a channel that allows the transportation of an information from its real-time web accessibility to the regular web accessibility to stop the process of decaying, if the information is truly worth of preserving. There is a lot more work to do in order to truly facilitate the real-time web.

Summary

Do not underestimate the production of the real-time web. Do not overestimate the value of the real-time web. Take a different thought of the real-time web.

Core Interest

2009-08-29T11:33:00.001-04:00

Interest is something with the power of attracting or holding one's attention. When one claims a thing being his core interest, however, he scarifies everything else to protect his holding of the thing of interest.

Dai Pingguo (Chinese: 戴秉国), a State Councilor of China, talked about the core interests of China in the recent US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue. He stressed that China’s core interests were "safeguarding its basic systems and national security, maintaining its sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as ensuring its sustained economic and social development." I will not comment on this statement. But let's think of what Hillary Clinton might have said if she had had to address the same question. What would have happen if she had said that the core interests of United States being security, territorial integrity, and economic growth?

Core interest is different from the most urgent issue to be solved.

Now let's think of another question. Were World Wide Web a nation, what would be its core interests? In the other words, what are the decisive reasons that drive the Web evolution?

I have a very short list in the following, and you may comment on your own opinions.

(1) A healthy environment of growing up that any new Web node may be popular by a definite period of time and by a definite amount of effort.

This is essential to the evolution of the Web. If the Web is solely a place where the rich gets richer, it can hardly evolve. There must be ways of balancing. It is not only because people want to be social that social networking becomes such a critical technology in the Web. The Web itself demands the technology for its evolution. The technology of social networking allows any newly produced Web resource (distinctive to the humans who produce the Web resource) to grow up being popular in definite period of time. It thus fosters the healthy growth of the Web.

The same philosophy is beneath the other key technologies in the current Web such as Web search and Web syndication. In the other words, the Web always demand the invention of new technologies that helps the growing popular of newly produced Web resources. Or we may interpret it in another way. If a company wants to abuse the technologies to formulate a pure rich gets richer pattern in the Web, it will fail in definite time of period as well.

(2) A fair environment of competition that the unpopular resources have chances of being popped up without the prerequisite of having been popular.

Believe it or not, unpopular represents creativity and innovation. The Web needs to foster the technologies that allow people to access the unpopular resources that may be kept unpopular forever.

This is a crucial topic especially to the society of Semantic Web or the community of linked data. A well linked web of data does not means the every piece of data in it is weighted evenly or can be accessed equally. When we request a semantics, some time we expect to get the most popular resources of the semantics and some other times we do not. More importantly, don't we need to add a layer of the innovative potential over all the linked resources so that it may facilitate the access to the innovative but unpopular mind?