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While Kai Pan has been attending and liveblogging the CIRC conference, I’ve been watching it from afar, frustrated that my Silicon Valley responsibilities kept me from coming to Hong Kong. Here’s some aggregated information to help you follow it too if you are not there.

1. What is CIRC?

The CIRC conference is called “China and the Internet: Myths and Realities” and focuses on academic work. Some questions highlighted at the official site:

• Does the Internet bring more democracy to the country?
• Is there freedom of expression on the Internet?
• Does the Internet foster greater integration of China and its diaspora?
• Do the Chinese use the Internet for entertainment only?

For more, go to the CIRC Asia conference site.

2. Who is speaking at the CIRC Conference?

photo courtesy of Ching CHIAO

Here’s the schedule. Day 1 was today, Friday Jun 13. Day 2 is tomorrow, Saturday, Jun 14.

3. Who is tweeting at the CIRC conference?

Here is the conference twitter feed:

• CIRC2008 http://twitter.com/circ2008

Here’s an incomplete list I’ve compiled:

• Fuzheado http://twitter.com/fuzheado
• Lokmant http://twitter.com/lokmant
• Feng37 http://twitter.com/feng37
• Ch_infamous http://twitter.com/ch_infamous
• Lonsonlo http://twitter.com/lonsonlo
• Davesgonechina http://twitter.com/davesgonechina
• Chiao http://twitter.com/chiao
• Neokai (intrepid CNReviews blogger) http://twitter.com/neokai
• Rickmak http://twitter.com/rickmak
• Chpapa http://twitter.com/chpapa
• Isaac http://twitter.com/isaac
• Rmack http://twitter.com/rmack
• Dshupp http://twitter.com/dshupp
• Lokmant http://twitter.com/lokmant
• Goldkorn http://twitter.com/goldkorn
• Charlesmok http://twitter.com/charlesmok

Also, davesgonechina has aggregated a list of CIRCtweets here.

4. How do I see what people have tweeted about the CIRC conference?

One easy way is to use Summize’s Twitter search. Search for these terms on Summize:

• CIRC
• #CIRC

Now all their Twitterstream are belong to you!

Also, DavesGoneChina suggests using Twifan for Fanfou and Jiwai.de tweets.

4. who is blogging about the CIRC Conference?

Kai Pan of CNReviews just posted about the CIRC Conference Day 1. IMHO The conference organizers chose a noisy tag “CIRC” that brings up all kinds of stuff in Technorati, Google Blog Search, and Ice Rocket. Request to bloggers: Can you also use the tags “CIRCAsia” (also a noisy tag), “CIRC2008″ and “CIRCConference” also?

Here’s some posts from some other bloggers:

China Journal at Wall Street Journal has a great summary post highlighting Roland Soong’s study with the following interesting factoids about Chinese bloggers (quoted from the post):

• Bloggers are more likely to be young and female.
• Almost all bloggers use the major Internet portals.
• Among people who write blogs, 80% read blogs as well.
• Internet users eat more often at Western fast-food restaurants than the general population, and they prefer to pursue a life of novelty, challenge and change.
• Internet users value tradition less and care more about career than family, they are less involved in local civil issues and they feel less compelled to buy Chinese brands.
• Bloggers were even more likely than general Internet users to eat Western fast food and seek out challenges.
• Bloggers are more likely to enjoy spending time chatting with friends and seek to be regarded as leaders.
• Bloggers are less likely to value lasting relationships with a partner, get involved in local issues, and generally don’t believe a woman’s role in life is to make a happy home for the family.

See the post for more coverage on Deborah Fallows as well.

Ching CHIAO from Taiwan blogging at CCB 2.0. His CIRC Day 1 post here. Jeremiah Foo posts on CIRC Day 1 here [zh]. Lokman Tsui also posted resources (already compiled on this post). DavesGoneChina of Mutant Palm also posted resources.

Best coverage is on the CIRC Conference blog

The best coverage so far is on the CIRC conference blog. Go here for the most in-depth coverage. Here are their posts from Day 1.

• Session 5: Roundtable on Corporate Action and Responsibility
• Internet and the Chinese Diaspora
• China’s Great Firewall as the Iron Curtain 2.0
• What has China’s Earthquake Done to its Internet by Deborah Fallows
• Session 3: Roland Soong
• Panel 2: Discussion Summary
• Situational Characteristics of Language on the Internet
• Jingpo Kachin People Defined Online
• Diversity and Segregation in the Chinese Internet
• Web 2.0 as a Must Have Accessory in Shanghai
• Getting Farmers on the net in Anhui
• College students open to Online Health Information
• Panel 1: Please don’t blame the Internet
• Community Resources

On this post they propose the following tagging:

• Blogs: “CIRC” tag or category. But this is a noisy tag so can people also tag with CIRC2008, CIRCConference, CIRCAsia as well?
• Del.icio.us: Use “Chineseinternetresearch”

5. Where can I follow the CIRC Conference by IRC?

This is what Davesgonechina suggests but I don’t know if it is actually in use.

#CIRC Twitter a terrible pain right now, for an alternative go to mibbit.com, choose freenode.net and join chat #circ

http://www.mibbit.com/

6. Is there a Conference Wiki?

Yes, here is the CIRC Conference wiki.

7. What other links should I follow?

• Interesting Far Easter Economic Review essay on China’s censorship.
• Delicious: http://del.icio.us/tag/chineseinternetresearch

More to come on Day 2. Great job Kai, especially on 0 hours of sleep, jetlag, and a travel-induced ulcer!