Web 2.0 Summit

The two videos I watched were Isaac Mao (Social Brain Foundation) and Rebecca MacKinnon (Global Voices). The Isaac Mao video discussed social networking such as blogging and chat rooms. Mao talked about "micro behavior" in these blogs. This can be seen in various social networking sites such as Twitter where information is being shared, but in concise 'blogs' if you will. You can read about various micro-blogging tools here.

Mao also discussed censorship primarily with regard to the great firewall in China. He discussed journalism 2.0 with regard to professional and grass roots media and the importance of having the truth accessible. Obviously with censorship the users are not getting the entire truth and are not able to get all the information that is out there.

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The other video I watched was Rebecca MacKinnon (Global Voices). MacKinnon also discussed blogging with regard to what kind of information people were linking to in their blogs. She said that bloggers in the US did not link to blogs from other countries as much nor did they discuss issues in other countries as much. She also discussed censorship and how it is not only in China where the internet is censored. She talked about how companies are stuck in the middle between users and the government. She discussed one case in China where journalist Shi Tao was sentenced for 10 years in jail for speaking out and it was Yahoo who gave the government his email records. She then mentioned the issue of companies needing to "uphold their user's interests" and still operate as well. She discussed a website that is seeking solutions and that has a multi-stakeholder initiative: Global Network Initiative.

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