Chinese Bloggers’ Mountain Meetup

[WSJ/vodpod]

The China Bloggers Conference was held last week in the mountains of LianZhou (a city in the southern province of Guangzhou). Yes, you heard right. It was held in the sticks and looking at the WSJ video (above), the attending bloggers somehow had Wi-Fi access and electricity to power their laptops. I have no idea how they did it, but I’m impressed.

The location, nevertheless, seems very weird. I mean, could you even imagine Macworld being hosted in Golden Gate Park or CES in Death Valley? Strange as it seems, the location – according to the video testimonials -  had a lot of symbolism. It represents the technology gap between the wealthier coastal cities in the east and the poverty-stricken regions in the west. On another level, it also represents the repercussions of Green Dam (i.e., China’s netizens are now forced underground because of increased censorship and on/off blockage of Facebook Twitter and Amazon).

What do you think? Would you go to a tech conference if it was held in the woods or on a farm? For sure, it would be a logistical nightmare, but it sure would be an “experience.”

China’s annual blogger conference was held

Filed under: Breaking News, Social Media, Web, Asian, Blogging, China, Conference, Green Dam, Social Media, Web 2.0

Punk’d [WIRED.com Edition]

[Flickr/jacketseason]

Have you ever received an accidental SMS text from someone with the wrong number? While most people would ignore it or kindly let that person know that they’ve texted you by mistake, here is what happens when the text recipient is a tech reporter with a penchant for pranks and a huge Twitter following to egg him on.

Premise: This morning, Brian X. Chen over at Wired’s  Gadget Lab tweeted about a random text message that he got from a would-be “Romeo” who had the wrong number. At the suggestion of Macworld’s Roman Loyola via Twitter, Brian then proceeded to prank the poor guy by pretending to be “Juliet” and make a startling confession that “she” got knocked up. Hilarity ensues…

[Flickr/jacketseason/SMS prank set]

I wonder if “Romeo” ever figured out if he got punk’d or if Brian decided to put the guy out of his misery and say, “just kidding…tee-hee.” Either way, I was very entertained this morning and I hope you are too </3

Filed under: Breaking News, Social Media, @bxchen, @pinatubo2000, Asian-American, Brian X. Chen, Comedy, Prank, Punk'd, Roman Loyola, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0

Thoughts on Twestival SF

twestival sf, originally uploaded by emilychang.

So I attended the Twestival in San Francisco this evening with @flackette and @tommyktse. In case you didn’t get the memo, this even was a worldwide fundraiser for charity:water. There were about 175 participating cities, in which the Twitter communities in each community would host a party. Proceeds from the entry fees are to be donated to a nonprofit dedicated to providing clean water to developing countries. Here’s a short blurb about the Twestivals on CNET’s Webware blog.

While I thought the event was a very worthwhile cause, I couldn’t help but leave Twestival SF with some thoughts on the pros and cons of the event.

Let’s start with the pros. I am glad that the Twestival organizers chose a real charity with a cause worth raising awareness for rather than something fluffy. The free t-shirt and reusable bag were great quality swag. The cupcakes by teeny cake were delicious and pretty! Props to the sponsors who made that happen.

….and in terms of the cons, I felt that the organizers were not as prepared as they should have been. I got to Paradise Lounge around 6:30pm. The event was suppose to start at 6:00pm, but I stood out in the cold for a while since “they weren’t ready yet.” Lame. In terms of the setup, I thought that there should have been more focus on the charity (e.g. provide materials, run slide shows, etc.). It just seemed like a regular networking event than anything else, though nothing wrong with that. Also, maybe it was just me, but I thought that there wasn’t a whole lot of mingling at this event. Most of the Tweeters kept to themselves and the groups that they came with. Though, it wasn’t a total loss, since I did meet some cool people this evening.

Filed under: Social Media, Charity:Water, Event, San Francisco Bay Area, Social Media, Twestival, TwestivalSF, Twitter, Web 2.0

Polyvore: Collages for the Web 2.0 Generation

The Frog Prince, an original Polyvore creation by yours truly.

Collages were never my favorite art project; however, if you went to my high school, then you would not graduate without being a collage master. You see, for pretty much every end-of-the-semester class report that I had to complete, 5% of my grade was dependent on an artistic collage that would serve as my cover page. I suspect that these collage assignments was suppose to make sure that we were all exposed to “the arts” in some shape or form, but really, a college?

If only I were a child of the Web 2.0 generation (FYI: in case you suspect that I am old, I was a college student during the rise of social media), then I would have Polyvore at my fingertips.

In case you haven’t encountered this new social media web application, Polyvore “is a unique, easy-to-use web-based application for mixing and matching products from any online store” according to its “about us” page. But what it really is (or rather what it has become) is a new, glue-free and online way of making a collage. With most of the items (product images, background, frames and texts) already provided by other users, you are just a few clicks away from making your next master piece. Of course, if you wanted to, adding your own images are selections is very quick and easy using Polyvore’s special copy & paste tool. It is all very easy and fun. I know I squandered my Saturday last weekend on this site and now you can too!

Filed under: Social Media, Web, Polyvore, Social Media, Web 2.0

The Web 2.0 Generation of Asian Americans

All orientals look the same , originally uploaded by chanman171.

Today, Jeff Yang contributed a rather insightful article about the changing Asian American identity in SFgate.com. This got me thinking about the state of multicultural marketing in age of social media. To read the full article, click here.

Yang observes that his generation, which fought against social ignorance and insisted on being Americans before Asians, is largely out of touch in a Web 2.0 world.

Today’s Asian American youth, in comparison, “sees its connection with Asia as an opportunity, not a handicap.” Yang gives the example of young Asian Americans who strive to learn their heritage tongue, while traveling abroad, whenever they can, to their parents’ or grandparents’ motherland.

One common fallacy among multicultural marketers is the idea that reaching out in-language media outlets (print, broadcast and radio) via PR and advertising is a sure fire way to target all Asian Americans of every age. Just like mainstream America, there are many segments defined by age, language and profession that separate Asian America.

Marketers should avoid believing that just because the young people are trying to learn and retain their heritage language these days, does not mean that they are now relying on ethnic media for information. Just like every other American kid, they were raised with the Internet and they will source their up-to-the-minute news as such.

Even the fresh-off-the-boat Asian American youth are not relying on traditional media, even if it is in-language. Those kids often refer back to their home country’s own social media outlets in addition U.S.-based social media.

At the same time, many Asian American organizations and media outlets have not fully embraced social media. Many of them are only just beginning to post their content online; however, Yang cites that the Center for Asian American Media and Asia Society as two exceptional standouts. (I’d like to add Hyphen, Giant Robot, as two Asian American publications, to that list.) This means that most cannot be considered the true influencers of our community’s youth, though they continue to be influential among other Asian American segments.

So in order to be successful in reaching out to today’s Asian American youth, multicultural marketers must embrace social media–blogs, podcasts, vlogs video sharing and social networks, just like every other marketing and PR professional out there. Just because ethnic media and social groups are not up to speed does not mean that we can just mosey along. Instead, it means that we must find the youth community’s new influencers who are blogging, on YouTube, etc.

For sure, we’ve got our work cut out for us.

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media, Web, Asia Society, Asian-American, CAAM, Center for Asian American Media, Jeff Yang, Marketing, Multicultural Marketing, Multicultural PR, PR, Public Relations, Web 2.0