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BERKELEY CHINA INTERNET PROJECT

-- Explore the impact of the digital communications revolution on China’s transition

Overview of the Berkeley China Internet Project

China is in the nascent stages of a momentous transition that will shape the world of the 21st century and beyond. Over 130 million Chinese are now online, and 440 million cellphones are in use in the country. The development of the global, mobile, platform-driven Web 2.0 applications, especially participatory media technologies such as Weblogs, Wikis and Social Network Services are transforming communication, publishing, information flow and social organizations in profound ways. Although it exists in a still highly restricted political space, this digital communication revolution has already altered the course of China's ongoing social and economic reforms while also creating unprecedented opportunities for journalists and researchers to cover this complex and rapidly changing country.

How can we apply the participatory media approach – i.e. harness the distributive powers of the Internet by utilizing both traditional media and user-generated content – to enhance the world’s understanding of China? How does the Chinese government actually control the Internet? Will this pervasive, many-to-many and emergent communication platform play a critical role in transforming the Chinese political system by promoting the growth of a networked public sphere and nascent civil society? – or will China's authoritarian regime ultimately domesticate Chinese cyberspace, turning it into an Orwellian monster? Which technologies, methods of implementation, and culture of social practices will encourage China to become a more open, democratic and sustainable society? How can we systematically facilitate massive adaptation of such technologies and practices?