Tag: Internet

  • As airfare soars, transpacific data prices plummet

    Anyone who has watched airfare prices between the United States and East Asia in recent years has noticed a pronounced rise. A year ago, this correspondent found it more affordable to fly from Beijing to Istanbul and then Istanbul to New York instead of a direct flight. Data prices from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo…

  • The internet entrepôts of China: back to the 19th century?

    For centuries, and especially since the mid-19th century, entrepôts have been important sites of communication—both information and goods—between China and the outside world. Now, many of the same cities are sites of the grand digital switches that connect China to the global internet. I’ve noted before the interesting work of TeleGeography, a firm that produces…

  • Internet and society resources at University of Washington

    As a new graduate student at the University of Washington, I’ve been hunting around for the various projects, professors, centers, departments, etc., that deal with internet and society issues. I’m going to make a list of links here and update them from time to time. If you find this post and I’m missing something, drop…

  • Mapping China's international internet business

    At Mobinode, Piet Walraven has published the results of some research into Chinese internet companies forming partnerships with overseas entities, and there’s a map. Walraven describes the map: It is a summary of all overseas operations organized in two categories: ‘partnerships, licensing, and co-production’ and ‘self operated or wholly owned overseas initiatives’. Through these two…

  • The straw man of Internet-fueled civil discourse

    Just because people are online doesn’t mean they engage in civil public discourse. This simple idea has emerged as one thread of conventional wisdom in recent years, especially in the context of the People’s Republic of China. In an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, Rebecca MacKinnon reinforces the idea: Back in 2001 a…