Innovation vs. Web Control

A habit of mine, embarrassing though it may be, is to frequently monitor my internet usage and note how it is affected not only by new web innovations, but also by China's efforts at restricting web use here.

Today's monitoring led me to both an innovation and a control.

On the innovation side, Digg today pointed me to this neat Firefox Add-In called PageAddict which helps you self-monitor your internet usage. The tool can help you finally see for yourself how many minutes per day you spend on email on news/blog websites, etc.

As to censorship:
1. As I mentioned last week, access to Bl0gsp0t, granted mid-September after a 2+ year blockage (At least since I noted here in August 2003), is back down again.

2. W1k1p3d1a too, seems have, once again joined the "no access list" at least in Beijing. I am hopeful, however, that the censors are getting more delicate as before this new blocking W1k1p3d1a access would only go down if a web user tried to access sensitive content (I got booted for searching for "T1ananm3n Squar3 MAssacr3 of 1989, " and "T1b3t.")

3. Also my new find for the day is that when accessing MySpac3 from behind the Chinese ISP system, I can access my main home pages, but I am unable to link to anyone's personal pages (like this one). Put another way, I may be able to get the core functionality of the website (and the core--incl NewsCorp--content), but not to any non-government approved user-created content.

No wonder Web 2.0 technologies are finding it hard to get traction here. Nevertheless, as disappointing as it is for my personal web usage here in Beijing, I still feel that the direction of practice if not of policy is positive with signs of opening and relaxing of the internet blockage coupled with increasingly precise blocking of sensitive date.

So that's where the big wide world of the internet led me today. Till next time.