T-Salon

Out of the entire presentation that Isaac recently shared on the topic of Social Media and the China Internet, I like the slide on above the best.

It describes the way I receive, consume and reproduce information nowadays especially those pertaining to China that haven't gained media attention domestically in China or internationally in English-language press, and yet provides insights on the heart and
pulse of the Chinese (internet) population, in a sense that it reflects the issues that people care and have a stance on if not an opinion about.

Recent news about the detention of prominent China AIDS activists Hu Jia and the house arrest of his wife Zeng Jinyan as well as their new born baby is an excellent case in point. I am so glad that Isaac brought that up because I think it is so important to acknowledge and document how all the many little efforts that many Chinese bloggers
has chipped in did indeed help kept the news alive and flowing to many people, and at one point inspired some caring actions (even though not successful) while keeping track of Chinese people's concern that are hard to deny --- all despite the news being an off-limits topic in China. It really provides hope that at least pockets of Chinese society still have a sense of justice even though there is wide belief that the society is suffering from moral bankruptcy.

This also explains why there is hardly any updates here. But the communique has not ceased. It is just happening elsewhere and perhaps in another form.

Nowadays, more often than not, rather than spending time pro-actively searching for the latest development on a particular topic that I follow, I tend to split my increasingly limited free time and attention among:

Twitter - bits and bytes provided by a network of friends with shared interests. Information came from this channel is the most relevant
(that fits my interest best) while also the freshest, though I must
say there are lots of junk as friends also ramble there as well,

Anothr (via GTalk) - essentially fetching news from a few major media sites and latest news keyword search results from Google News.

Skype group chats - a more "private" information channel, again made possible by a network of friends with shared interests.

del.icio.us - for capturing links to and quotes from news stories and putting things "back to the pot" for others who have even less time
than I do to find relevant reading materials, and for my own future handy reference.

Long established blogging tools like Blogger that is being used for publishing this site and RSS feed look rather cumbersome in comparison to a new generation of micro-blogging tools that came on-line in the past 12 months or so.

But blogs still has its usefulness and its place in the spectrum of tools for editing, publishing, a repository for storing information and a point for conversations. I believe this will continue to be the case for years to come. Well established blogging tools only need to catch up with a new generation of micro-blogging tools such as tumblr and soup.io and continue to re-invent itself in order to remain useful in an increasingly complex information and communications environment.

One last thought when I saw the illustration that Issac made. The structure of the internet is changing fast. Linkages and by extension the flow between information, people and location are growing vast in volume become increasingly complex. Yet, information is also flowing much more instantly and to a wider larger geography
than before. This may perhaps open up new possibilities for many fresh new ideas?