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Reflections on a Wandering Life.....
Saturday, February 25, 2006
They have now wired the teachers' dormitory with high speed internet connection. Everyone is calling it "DSL," but I am not sure it really is. Looks like it could just be a very high speed LAN connection. At any rate, it is screaming fast. I am going to get really spoiled with this kind of access. Lots faster than the dial-up I have been using.
China wants to be known as a place that has good internet access. So far, my experience with Internet access has been good. In China, I have the best dial-up connections I have ever had. Much better than dial-up connections in America. Perhaps this is because the dial-up connections are more than what many people can afford, so usage is not that high. Anyway, my dial-up has been very, very dependable. Never get a busy signal.
But dial-up is dial-up. More and more, I am beginning to depend on the Internet for things that require broader bandwidth. But that's not all. I can do internet radio with a good dial-up connection. But dial-up connections are charged by the minute; they are not really designed for "always on" service. So my phone bill has been high, and the office has been complaining. With a high-speed connection, you get unlimited service for a flat fee. As more and more people begin to use this kind of service, the Internet moves closer to becoming the primary vehicle for radio and television. For me, it's almost that way now. Not quite, because I do watch a couple programs on the CCTV English channel. But I watch so little TV, that what I see on the Internet is a large percentage of the total. Radio? I have a radio, but it is gathering dust. For radio, I have already moved entirely to the Internet. The good Internet access in China makes this even easier. But it has caused problems for a country that wants two things at the same time--two things which tend to militate against each other. Those two things are a reputation for the best Internet access in the world, and the ability to control that access.
A recent story in the Washington Post illustrates this conflict as well as any I have read. Basically, this guy who was sort of an activist journalist published an editorial online criticizing his boss for ordering a reward system that gives points for publishing good comments about Communist officials. The editorial he published forced the end of this policy, because it generated so much criticism. Government orders to websites to remove the editorial were powerless to stop the spread of the information, because there are so many ways to publish on the Internet, and because, ironically, China has very good Internet access. Great story.
China wants to be known as a place that has good internet access. So far, my experience with Internet access has been good. In China, I have the best dial-up connections I have ever had. Much better than dial-up connections in America. Perhaps this is because the dial-up connections are more than what many people can afford, so usage is not that high. Anyway, my dial-up has been very, very dependable. Never get a busy signal.
But dial-up is dial-up. More and more, I am beginning to depend on the Internet for things that require broader bandwidth. But that's not all. I can do internet radio with a good dial-up connection. But dial-up connections are charged by the minute; they are not really designed for "always on" service. So my phone bill has been high, and the office has been complaining. With a high-speed connection, you get unlimited service for a flat fee. As more and more people begin to use this kind of service, the Internet moves closer to becoming the primary vehicle for radio and television. For me, it's almost that way now. Not quite, because I do watch a couple programs on the CCTV English channel. But I watch so little TV, that what I see on the Internet is a large percentage of the total. Radio? I have a radio, but it is gathering dust. For radio, I have already moved entirely to the Internet. The good Internet access in China makes this even easier. But it has caused problems for a country that wants two things at the same time--two things which tend to militate against each other. Those two things are a reputation for the best Internet access in the world, and the ability to control that access.
A recent story in the Washington Post illustrates this conflict as well as any I have read. Basically, this guy who was sort of an activist journalist published an editorial online criticizing his boss for ordering a reward system that gives points for publishing good comments about Communist officials. The editorial he published forced the end of this policy, because it generated so much criticism. Government orders to websites to remove the editorial were powerless to stop the spread of the information, because there are so many ways to publish on the Internet, and because, ironically, China has very good Internet access. Great story.
