Beijing, China today introduced the new “Virtual Policeman and Policewoman” cartoon figures who will constantly monitor the web sites Chinese citizen visits. At the moment the Virtual Police is only monitoring 13 Chinese web sites and will eventually covers every domains registered in Beijing, China.
These Virtual Police would periodically appear on Internet surfer’s browser window reminding surfers not to visit porn sites, illegally download music and applications. If the surfers need further assistance, they just have to click on the Virtual Police figure and the surfers will immediately be redirected to the Beijing Police web site.
This is a perfect example of the cultural difference between mainland China and other western countries; particularly United States.
If this sort of government monitoring happens in Canada, United Kingdom or United States there will be a major up roar and citizen revoke. Of course, this is not to say that these government (particularly UK and USA) are not currently monitoring what their respective citizens are doing. In most cases, they are doing it much more subtly. It is well know that United States’ NSA (National Security Agency) monitors Internet traffic. In most cases, they justify the monitoring as domestic security reasons.
I think people, particularly governments, need to stop forcing their own principals onto other countries. Instead they should learn how to work with the local culture and improve the respective lives of their citizens.
Yesterday, a major earthquake in Southwestern Taiwan caused sever damage to the fiber optics communication cables on the sea bed.
This interruption prevented me from accessing my emails and the backend applications for my online stores which are stored on the server located in the United States.
Fortunately, for part of the day yesterday I was able to access my backend applications and email server via an European proxy server. I managed to set up auto replies for two of my main email addresses. Informing my potential and existing customers the problem.
Unfortunately, this proxy server was turned off latter in the day, may be due to overload of traffic. I was unable to change the message on my website to inform potential customers of the situation.
This incident exposed our dependence on technologies. While it also emphasize the important of technologies in our daily lives. Without these technologies I will not be able to operate these online stores for the past 2+ years. Without these technologies I will not be able to manage and process orders from 4 different online stores.
We should not be questioning the level of dependence we have with technologies. As technologies are already part of our daily lives and will continue to be in the near and foreseeable future. Instead we should be questioning the people who manage our technologies and whether they are placing the same importance on these technologies as we do. Most importantly having the foresight to protect the access to these technologies in events like this.
Beijing, China today introduced the new “Virtual Policeman and Policewoman” cartoon figures who will constantly monitor the web sites Chinese citizen visits. At the moment the Virtual Police is only monitoring 13 Chinese web sites and will eventually covers every domains registered in Beijing, China.
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