Meet the 2010 PopTech Fellows

Watch their PopTech talks - Sinan Aral on social contagions • Kim Cobb on how climate changes • Ben Dubin-Thaler on science-by-bus • Casey Dunn on evolving diversity • Gidon Eshel on the impact of food • Sarah Fortune on fighting TB • Justin Gallivan on custom bacteria • Sean Gourley on tracking innovation • Amro Hamdoun on cell self-defense • Brian Hare on peace and bonobos • Amishi Jha on building attention • Beth Shapiro on why species go extinct.  Lauren Abramson on better justice • Yasser Ansari on citizen science • Rush Bartlett on safe drug delivery • Matthew Berg on mobiles for health • Nina Dudnik on Seeding Labs • Brian Elliot on friend power • Brooke Betts Farrell on waste as treasure • Leila Janah on fighting poverty with jobs • Ben Lyon on mobile microcredit • Raj Panjabi on post-conflict health • Kel Sheppey on fighting HIV/AIDS • Ryan Smithon turning sewage into plastic • Laura Stachel on saving lives with solar energy • Salinee Tavaranan on micro-energy.  PopTech's Science and Public Leadership Fellows program is building a corps of visible and trusted scientific leaders who encourage science as a way of thinking and engage with the public about issues of critical importance.

US China Internet Summit

On November 15, 2010, San Francisco will host a US - China Internet Summit, opening up opportunities for companies looking at distribution of US Content and Technology to the China Broadband Market.

The thought leadership summit brings together Chinese and US business leaders, Internet companies, content publishers, and government officials, media to discuss business trends, challenges, and opportunities for distribution of US content in China. 

They are seeking content owners or technology solution providers for games, content, video, entertainment, Internet portals, e-commerce, retail services, web services and applications, consumer brands, media, and mobile applications looking for distribution partners in China.

Tens of thousands of first-time users join each day and the Chinese favor of the internet grows stronger and more innovative each day. As a result, business and investment opportunities abound, and companies such as Tencent (creator of QQ), Sina and Alibaba are leading the charge and earning strong profitability in the process. 

 However, this promising market opportunity is also characterized by diverse dynamics and demographics, requiring a significant understanding of both the Chinese consumer and the Chinese internet space.

Topics will cover the major trends influencing the development of internet in China and the US, focusing on the resulting business and investment opportunities between the two nations.

 

A Recap of the 2010 Tudou Video Festival

This year, a thousand people attended the 2010 Tudou Video Festival, which was held in an arts complex in Beijing China. It mixed the Oscars with a little bit of Sundance and Cannes combined. In a CNN recap, you'll learn how fabulous the event was below. Except instead of red, the carpet was green. Instead of fancy designer dresses, the attire was a combo of grunge, flannel and faded blue jeans. And instead of airing on television or in movie theaters, the nominated films came straight from the Internet. Welcome to the 3rd annual 2010 Tudou Video Festival, held over the weekend in the Chinese capital.

Tudou.com (which means “couch potato” in Chinese) is China’s first, and now one of the country’s largest (aside from rival Youku.com), video sharing portals. Launched in 2005, Tudou follows a similar model to Google Inc.’s video Web site, YouTube.

 

Tudou.com co-founder Gary Wang.

Tudou also hosts videos that push the boundaries of sensitivity on the country’s censored Internet. It was the first portal, for example, to show the “War of Internet Addiction,” a 64-minute computer animation film on government Web controls, Tudou co-founder Gary Wang said. The film, produced by a network engineer who goes by the name “Sexy Corn,” won the top award at this year's festival.

Aspiring filmmakers, actresses and actors, animators and amateur videographers from around China (all mostly in their mid- to late-20s) showcased their work at the festival held at an art complex in Beijing, with aorund one thousand people in attendance.

Of the more than 5,000 entries, 94 made it to the final round of nominations.

“Two to three years ago, the works were really amateur,” Wang said. “Now people are taking it much more seriously.”

Now, traditional media along with advertisers are starting to take the content on Tudou much more seriously, too. Hung Huang, a blogge experiences working as a journalist in China won the “Golden Camera Award," and Hitch-hike Diary won the documentary category. The film, by a video blogger who goes by the name Tomato-Han Da Ka, is the story of a hiking trip on the border regions of Sichuan province and Tibet.

Sexy Corn

 

Sexy Corn, creator of “War of Internet Addiction,” which won the festival's top award. The film was shot entirely within the game World of Warcraft.

He is the producer of the “War of Internet Addiction,” an animated film shot entirely within the video game, World of Warcraft (it is a filming technique known as machinima, which involves making animated movies using real-time images recorded from video games). The movie won the top award at the Tudou festival.

The film centers on World of Warcraft gamers who are frustrated that a new version of the game was banned in China. However it also contains deeper themes about Internet freedom in the country. It has been viewed millions of times.

Video Link: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/8w0z0Q_TAQI/

Ai Weiwei Covers London's Tate Modern With 100m Sunflower Seeds

For an art exhibit at the Tate Modern in London, artist Ai Weiwei covered the Turbine Hall with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds. Each of the seeds were made by 1,600 Chinese artisans.

What Would It Mean If Every Child Had a Tablet?

Imagine if every child were issued a tablet computer? This is the next step beyond Nicholas Negroponte's "laptop for every child" initiative. Below he speaks with GigaOm's senior writer Matthew Ingram and Marvell's Co-Founder Weili Dai on the Mobilize stage in San Francisco this past week.

The idea behind creating a new platform opportunity for developers is that getting tablets in the hands of children can help to fix IT literacy problems around the world, particularly in developing nations.

Asian Bloggers & Social Media Conference

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 28-29, 2010, the Asian Bloggers and Social Media Conference 2010 will bring together top prominent speakers from the Asia region to introduce and educate individuals and business on how to adopt and effectively take advantage of social media. The event will also introduce the concepts and tools of social media and how they can assists individuals and business to gain profit. Keynote address will be delivered by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia.

A few of the notable guest speakers include: Dato’ Sri Tony Fernandes (CEO of Air Asia), Thomas Crampton (Asia Pacific Director, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide) and Paul Moss (General Manager of Alt Media). For a 10% discount, please use the code ABSM-MAS at registration.

Top Twitter Cities

As an avid tweeter and someone who has lived in countless countries over the years, I found this chart incredibly fascinating....twitter usage and popularity around the world, starting with London in first place, LA in second place and Chicago in third (a surprise). The rest of the line-up through #70 below.

Google vs China in Cyberspace

David Strom writes about Cyberwars: China versus Google, what they mean, and the results.

He writes, "we just witnessed the first Cyber War, but it didn’t go down quite as many of us expected. Instead of a group of anonymous hackers trying to take over thousands of infected PCs or trying to cut off access to critical infrastructure, we saw Google declare the first salvo in its war against Chinese censorship by moving its servers to Hong Kong."

You can read the full article by clicking on the Pearltree below.

  

Cloud Computing China Congress

The Cloud Computing China Congress (CCCC 2010), coming up on March 25, 2010 in Beijing, is specially designed for senior IT and line of business executives evaluating and making purchasing decisions in the areas of on-demand infrastructure and software services.

Attendees will learn which areas of the cloud are most widely adopted and which vendors are taking a leadership role. Case studies will focus on how cloud computing can increase capacity and extend IT's capabilities with minimal cost and significant flexibility and speed.

Using first hand experiences from analysts and end user case studies, the event will provide practical information, results from early adopters, and strategies to optimally blend on-premise to an on-demand business models.

Dr. Gino Yu Raps on American Integration 20+ Years Ago

Dr. Gino Yu from Playlab in Hong Kong does a short rap number he wrote twenty years ago in his college years. (about being Chinese and studying and working in the U.S.). It's endearing and amusing at the same time.