The theme of the 7th Chinese Internet Research Conference, "The Chinese Internet and Civil Society: Civic Engagement, Deliberation and Culture," is designed to bring together scholars and professionals to examine the Chinese Internet from socioeconomic, political and cultural perspectives. While there has been significant research on the political implications of the Internet in China, we have yet to fully understand the changes the Internet is fostering in civil society, or on the intersection between the market and the state, as well as the Internet's cultural implications for identity formation, emergent cultural phenomena and social networking. This conference seeks to explore these uncharted areas through sessions on Public Sphere and Deliberation; Censorship, Surveillance, and the State of the Chinese Internet; Civil Society in China – Challenges and Opportunities; Women and Minorities; Civic Engagement and Participation; Panics, Nationalism; and Grassroots Culture, among others.

"I was surprised when I won. In the past, there have been people suing like me, but either the court did not take the case or they failed. This is the first successful case in China of a netizen or internet user suing their internet service provider," Hu told the Guardian.

"While hardly akin to the secret trip to China that Henry Kissinger made when he was President Nixon's national security adviser, the climate meeting — which included White House science adviser John Holdren and former Undersecretary of State Frank Loy — was not heavily advertised, and the group did not issue any statements when it returned. Together, the group members consented to the "Chatham House Rule," under which they agreed they could repeat generally what was discussed, but not identify who said what."

A study tests the idea that people outsource to countries with less strict regulations to avoid expensive regulation at home or wherever they would otherwise manufacture things.

The Polyglot Internet
Essay by Ethan Zuckerman, January 23, 2009