For the last few weeks I’ve been silent on the blog, having been occupied finishing final book edits and working on special Olympics assignments with the Wall Street Journal doing reporting, video and multimedia.
But one thing that did crane my neck while zipping around the city was the sight of a London cab in Beijing taxi colors. So I finally tracked down one of the 30 new London cabs driving the streets of the Olympic city. Made under an agreement between Geely (China) and London Taxis International, the TX4 was brought in as a nod to the international tourists and the Paralympic Games that follow in September. I was lucky enough to find one queueing up, and the driver interested in gabbing.
He said they are indeed limited, to around 30 in the city, and they will continue to stay in service even after all the Olympics are over. They are wheelchair capable, and are left-hand drive, unlike their British-bound counterparts.
2008年12月28日星期日
Government Web Standards Usage: People’s Republic of China
Government Web Standards Usage: People’s Republic of China
In August 2005 the EU-China information society project (中国-欧盟信息社会项目) was launched. The first initiative of this project is dedicated to improving access to and enhancing the participation of people in electronic government in the People’s Republic of China.
The digital divide in China is closing with computers per capita steadily increasing (for more details see The Digital Divide: Lessons from the People’s Republic of China (PDF) by Jonathan Harrington). China has undertaken massive investments in the ICT sector. It is therefore interesting to see what the Chinese government will do within the area of government policy for public web sites.
Background
The EU-China information society project seeks in particular to assist Chinese government in copyright, telecommunications law and information security issues as well as in access to e-government. The four-year project is cooperatively financed by the European Union and the PRC. Five Chinese cities has been chosen as pilot areas for the project, including Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Yantai in east China’s Shandong and Baotou, the second largest city in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The project is being implemented by a consortium of the Emerging Markets Group and the German consulting firm GOPA.
Access to government information on the web is relatively new in the PRC. However, a recent report (quoted in an article in People’s Daily Online) said in China, 96.1 percent of government departments at the state level and 81.3 percent of local governments had launched portal websites.
I have gathered links to 80 government web sites from the Chinese Central Government’s Official Web Portal. These have been checked with the W3C validator to see if headings were used and if they were using the W3C HTML recommendations.
Test disclaimer
Please note that the automated test has only tested the start page of the site. Also, usage of the W3C recommendations is only an indication of accessibility. A site that does not validate may still be more accessible than one that does. I have not tested every site manually and you may find that some of the valid ones have a valid splash page but fail miserably for the rest of the site.
The validation result
The validation result details shows that none of the tested sites use valid HTML. More worrying is that only one site is using headings. A common problem with the tested sites is that encoding has been used incorrectly.
Although tests of other countries have shown similar results (USA: 2.4%, New Zealand: 5.7%) having no valid sites indicates the absence of a central policy for government web communication.
It will be interesting to see if the EU-China information society project can help provide a foundation for the Chinese government to implement web guidelines that will help citizens to access information in a better way.
In August 2005 the EU-China information society project (中国-欧盟信息社会项目) was launched. The first initiative of this project is dedicated to improving access to and enhancing the participation of people in electronic government in the People’s Republic of China.
The digital divide in China is closing with computers per capita steadily increasing (for more details see The Digital Divide: Lessons from the People’s Republic of China (PDF) by Jonathan Harrington). China has undertaken massive investments in the ICT sector. It is therefore interesting to see what the Chinese government will do within the area of government policy for public web sites.
Background
The EU-China information society project seeks in particular to assist Chinese government in copyright, telecommunications law and information security issues as well as in access to e-government. The four-year project is cooperatively financed by the European Union and the PRC. Five Chinese cities has been chosen as pilot areas for the project, including Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Yantai in east China’s Shandong and Baotou, the second largest city in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The project is being implemented by a consortium of the Emerging Markets Group and the German consulting firm GOPA.
Access to government information on the web is relatively new in the PRC. However, a recent report (quoted in an article in People’s Daily Online) said in China, 96.1 percent of government departments at the state level and 81.3 percent of local governments had launched portal websites.
I have gathered links to 80 government web sites from the Chinese Central Government’s Official Web Portal. These have been checked with the W3C validator to see if headings were used and if they were using the W3C HTML recommendations.
Test disclaimer
Please note that the automated test has only tested the start page of the site. Also, usage of the W3C recommendations is only an indication of accessibility. A site that does not validate may still be more accessible than one that does. I have not tested every site manually and you may find that some of the valid ones have a valid splash page but fail miserably for the rest of the site.
The validation result
The validation result details shows that none of the tested sites use valid HTML. More worrying is that only one site is using headings. A common problem with the tested sites is that encoding has been used incorrectly.
Although tests of other countries have shown similar results (USA: 2.4%, New Zealand: 5.7%) having no valid sites indicates the absence of a central policy for government web communication.
It will be interesting to see if the EU-China information society project can help provide a foundation for the Chinese government to implement web guidelines that will help citizens to access information in a better way.
Supporting web standards in China
In early October I was lucky enough to spend some time in China talking to web professionals and students alike about web standards and their current status. It was an interesting couple of weeks that really opened my eyes to what the challenges are when following best practices. What hit me most is that those who support standards are a small and often isolated voice with little or no resources in Chinese to help back up or explain why we need standards and what the benefits are. Here I give a broad overview of what I learnt, challenges and hopefully some ideas of how we can help improve things.
Please do leave a comment if you have any suggestions, thought or insights. I’d also like to expand on the list of resources below so if you have any then post links and I will update the list.
Market forces
In the main those drivers that we see supporting web standards in some European countries, Australia and the States almost act as the opposite in China. There is no legal requirement to make your website accessible and market forces don’t seem to provide a significant enough push. Market forces is an interesting one. I’ve long held that the business case around web standards is essential even in a country that has a legal requirement for sites to be, for example, made accessible. The reasoning for this is that a site owner may be aware they legally have to make a site accessible but unless they see the direct benefit to them they may not implement accessibility properly and instead merely opt to do the bare minimum that needs to be done to comply with the law.
Currently in China there is a weak business case for web standards for a number of reasons. For one Internet Explorer 6 is still the dominant browser with a 95% market share. In general people are tied into using IE6 as most e-commence sites rely on ActiveX to work. This means that there is a trend towards building web pages that only work in IE6 with other browsers given less focus. This is gradually changing however with the rise of alternative browsers such as Opera, Safari and Firefox and Google Chrome. In fact the arrival of Google Chrome did a lot to raise awareness of alternative browsers in the web design community. Developers I spoke to however were very quick to point out that while they may use an alternative browser to IE when building and testing sites they still made heavy use of IE in day to day browsing simply because so many sites depend on it.
This lack of demand for compliant websites is a problem as without the demand there is little incentive for individual developers as well as companies. This may change however, especially as more and more multinationals outsource and base their development work there. With this increasing hopefully the trickle down theory will hold true and multinationals will have an impact on raising knowledge and awareness. When I asked one developer from Microsoft how he got into web standards he said that it was because the company sent over someone especially to train employees in standards based development. This was great to hear and certainly a key channel for advocating web standards. Opera, a long time champion of web standards (disclaimer, I work for Opera but all opinions are my own) are also playing an active role in advocating web standards. It’s at the heart of the development cycle in the Chinese office and the team are also very active in taking part in meet-ups and conferences.
Legal support
While there is a lack of concrete law to support accessible websites it was interesting to see how the Olympics had affected awareness. Public spaces, streets and buildings were much more accommodating and accessible as a result of the games and had done much to make people more aware. This is a start at least and links in well with the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which China ratified in July of 2008. The Convention is the first international legally-binding convention designed to protect and promote the rights of persons with a disability. As China has ratified the Convention they now have to legally support access to information, recreation, employment and education. As Article 9 states:
“State Parties shall also take appropriate measures to…promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet”.
It remains to be seen the direction this will take but at least China is signed up.
Grass roots advocacy
Most exciting of all was the passion and commitment shown by many web professionals I spoke to. There are some influential bloggers in China who are doing great things to promote standards. Notable bloggers include Jun Chen Wu and Xian An AKA Real Lazy. When talking with Xian An he mentioned that back in 2005, when he first started blogging about standards, he was getting around 1000 hits per day. This seemed to prove that there was a desire for people to learn more or, even if they were not researching for information about standards directly, they are landing on his site which was able to introduce standards.
This seemed to make sense as all the developers I spoke to said they they were more or less self taught. As with many countries web development and standards aren’t always covered in university courses so designers and developers have to self teach. One big drawback here however is the lack of resources in Chinese. This is compounded by the fact that while some ebooks exist they can be too expensive to buy for many people.
Probably most exciting while I was there however was the opportunity to take part in the first ever Web Standards Cafe in Beijing sponsored by Opera. The subject was Web Standards and Web 2.0 and focused largely on how we can support web standards in China. Combining grass roots advocacy such as this with BarCamps I think is a positive way forward.
Supporting web standards in China
There a few things that we can start doing now to help promote web standards and accessible web design in China. It may seem like a daunting task but if this is tackled bit by bit there is no reason why standards can’t become more popular. As the old Chinese saying goes “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand”. It’s not long ago that in Europe, Australia and the States that we were fighting for basic adherence of web standards, it’s worth while to look back and learn from that experience. For now I see the following as being instrumental to enabling web standards.
Translated resources - top of the list has to be the availability of translated and free resources for people to use. Currently many individuals have contributed their time to translating (see the resources section below) but I can’t help thinking that larger organisations should contribute to these efforts. Check out instructions and guidance on translating W3C resources for more information.
Multinational responsibility - large international organisations who actively promote and support web standards internationally should do what they can to help support web standards locally in China. This could be done via training in-house, sponsoring free or affordable courses or helping translate resources into Chinese. This should not be restricted to China only.
Grass root advocacy - developers understand the challenges and problems developers face better than anyone else. Advocacy through blogs, forums, BarCamps and Web Standards Cafe are always a useful way to go. This may take a different shape in China to suit cultural norms but communication and sharing have to be at the root.
So if you are a blogger, a developer, someone in a position to translate or communicate knowledge within your organisation then share what you have. As I mentioned above please do leave a comment if you have any suggestions, thought or insights. I’d also like to expand on the list of resources below so if you have any then post links and I will update the list.
Please do leave a comment if you have any suggestions, thought or insights. I’d also like to expand on the list of resources below so if you have any then post links and I will update the list.
Market forces
In the main those drivers that we see supporting web standards in some European countries, Australia and the States almost act as the opposite in China. There is no legal requirement to make your website accessible and market forces don’t seem to provide a significant enough push. Market forces is an interesting one. I’ve long held that the business case around web standards is essential even in a country that has a legal requirement for sites to be, for example, made accessible. The reasoning for this is that a site owner may be aware they legally have to make a site accessible but unless they see the direct benefit to them they may not implement accessibility properly and instead merely opt to do the bare minimum that needs to be done to comply with the law.
Currently in China there is a weak business case for web standards for a number of reasons. For one Internet Explorer 6 is still the dominant browser with a 95% market share. In general people are tied into using IE6 as most e-commence sites rely on ActiveX to work. This means that there is a trend towards building web pages that only work in IE6 with other browsers given less focus. This is gradually changing however with the rise of alternative browsers such as Opera, Safari and Firefox and Google Chrome. In fact the arrival of Google Chrome did a lot to raise awareness of alternative browsers in the web design community. Developers I spoke to however were very quick to point out that while they may use an alternative browser to IE when building and testing sites they still made heavy use of IE in day to day browsing simply because so many sites depend on it.
This lack of demand for compliant websites is a problem as without the demand there is little incentive for individual developers as well as companies. This may change however, especially as more and more multinationals outsource and base their development work there. With this increasing hopefully the trickle down theory will hold true and multinationals will have an impact on raising knowledge and awareness. When I asked one developer from Microsoft how he got into web standards he said that it was because the company sent over someone especially to train employees in standards based development. This was great to hear and certainly a key channel for advocating web standards. Opera, a long time champion of web standards (disclaimer, I work for Opera but all opinions are my own) are also playing an active role in advocating web standards. It’s at the heart of the development cycle in the Chinese office and the team are also very active in taking part in meet-ups and conferences.
Legal support
While there is a lack of concrete law to support accessible websites it was interesting to see how the Olympics had affected awareness. Public spaces, streets and buildings were much more accommodating and accessible as a result of the games and had done much to make people more aware. This is a start at least and links in well with the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which China ratified in July of 2008. The Convention is the first international legally-binding convention designed to protect and promote the rights of persons with a disability. As China has ratified the Convention they now have to legally support access to information, recreation, employment and education. As Article 9 states:
“State Parties shall also take appropriate measures to…promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet”.
It remains to be seen the direction this will take but at least China is signed up.
Grass roots advocacy
Most exciting of all was the passion and commitment shown by many web professionals I spoke to. There are some influential bloggers in China who are doing great things to promote standards. Notable bloggers include Jun Chen Wu and Xian An AKA Real Lazy. When talking with Xian An he mentioned that back in 2005, when he first started blogging about standards, he was getting around 1000 hits per day. This seemed to prove that there was a desire for people to learn more or, even if they were not researching for information about standards directly, they are landing on his site which was able to introduce standards.
This seemed to make sense as all the developers I spoke to said they they were more or less self taught. As with many countries web development and standards aren’t always covered in university courses so designers and developers have to self teach. One big drawback here however is the lack of resources in Chinese. This is compounded by the fact that while some ebooks exist they can be too expensive to buy for many people.
Probably most exciting while I was there however was the opportunity to take part in the first ever Web Standards Cafe in Beijing sponsored by Opera. The subject was Web Standards and Web 2.0 and focused largely on how we can support web standards in China. Combining grass roots advocacy such as this with BarCamps I think is a positive way forward.
Supporting web standards in China
There a few things that we can start doing now to help promote web standards and accessible web design in China. It may seem like a daunting task but if this is tackled bit by bit there is no reason why standards can’t become more popular. As the old Chinese saying goes “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand”. It’s not long ago that in Europe, Australia and the States that we were fighting for basic adherence of web standards, it’s worth while to look back and learn from that experience. For now I see the following as being instrumental to enabling web standards.
Translated resources - top of the list has to be the availability of translated and free resources for people to use. Currently many individuals have contributed their time to translating (see the resources section below) but I can’t help thinking that larger organisations should contribute to these efforts. Check out instructions and guidance on translating W3C resources for more information.
Multinational responsibility - large international organisations who actively promote and support web standards internationally should do what they can to help support web standards locally in China. This could be done via training in-house, sponsoring free or affordable courses or helping translate resources into Chinese. This should not be restricted to China only.
Grass root advocacy - developers understand the challenges and problems developers face better than anyone else. Advocacy through blogs, forums, BarCamps and Web Standards Cafe are always a useful way to go. This may take a different shape in China to suit cultural norms but communication and sharing have to be at the root.
So if you are a blogger, a developer, someone in a position to translate or communicate knowledge within your organisation then share what you have. As I mentioned above please do leave a comment if you have any suggestions, thought or insights. I’d also like to expand on the list of resources below so if you have any then post links and I will update the list.
范美忠,范跑跑被无限期推迟上岗
在那一刻地动山摇》是范美忠自责文章
开华学校校长冉东先生在新闻发布会上宣读了标题为“这是一场真与善的冲突”的声明。该声明表示，范美忠自身是应试教育的成功者，成功考取了北京大学，但是范美忠一直对应试教育有不同看法，也做过大量研究工作，并且应用于实际教学多年，有相关经验。这和开华学校的教学需要吻合。此外，在全面审视了范美忠引起社会广泛关注的《那一刻地动山摇》一文，开华学校认为范美忠并非如有的文章所说“逃命后还洋洋自得”，相反开华学校认为这是一篇范美忠自责、自省的文章。再加上他毕业于北大历史系得背景，开华培训学校认为他有资格担任开华人文讲堂讲师。
虽然开华学校认为聘任范美忠是基于教学需要，但目前，开华学校已经决定无限期推迟范美忠到开华学校任教上岗，声明表示，这一决定是基于社会对范美忠存在广泛争议。“由于社会对范美忠先生存在广泛争议而在此之前我们对此认识不足，为此，我们向社会各界表示歉意。基于这种情况，我们决定无限期推迟范美忠道开华学校任教上岗，为此我们向范美忠先生表示歉意。”
开华学校：与范美忠仍存在合作关系
记者：无限期推迟范美忠到开华学校任教上岗，与解聘有何不同？
冉东（开华学校校长）：范美忠与我们的合作关系依然存在，但不能上课了。范先生现在不能到其他学校任教。至于经济补偿方面，我们与范先生有沟通，也互有谅解，范先生还是同意按劳取酬的。
记者：范美忠有可能担任其他非教学职务吗？在什么情况下，他才可能上岗呢？
冉东：理论上讲，范美忠可以担任非教师职务，但是舆论似乎认为他不适合进入教育行业。这个要看机会。当社会宽容他的时候，范美忠就会走上讲台。
记者：听说范美忠先生没有教师资格证？
冉东：没有硬性规定说民办教育机构的老师都有教师资格证。
记者：开华学校是如何与范美忠先生接洽的？
冉东：首先是有人推荐，然后我们进行了面谈，达成了合作。范先生到北京签的约。当时，我们聘任范美忠先生时，内部有不同意见，但最后基于教学需要，决定与他合作。确实没想到会引起这些影响。我们本来以为事情已经过去了。
记者：推迟范美忠上岗是基于主管部门压力呢？还是基于社会的压力？
冉东：民办学校要在市场中生存，生存环境很脆弱。作为一个市场中的教育机构，我们还是迫于市场的压力。但是，我们的学生打电话来表示反对的不多，学生还主要是询问他的教学水平。
记者：人文课堂是否要取消呢？
冉东：范美忠只是该课堂其中一位讲师，我们的人文课堂没有取消。只是民族大学拒绝为我们提供场地（已经签了合同，交了订金），我们得寻找场所。
范美忠：我没有需要自省的 暂时不会当老师
在结束开华学校的采访后，记者采访了范美忠。
记者：您认为那篇《那一刻地动山摇》是一篇自省、自责的文章吗？
范：我没有什么自责的，也没有什么自省的。
记者：您会向开华学校要报酬吗？
范：会。我们的合同关系还在，而且我们有协定，我不能到其他教育机构找类似的工作。
记者：您以后会在教育行业找工作吗？
范：目前不会了，没有这个机会。我可以写书、做策划。我讲课写书比于丹好。
记者：您以前的学生还和您联系吗？
范：当然，我昨天还和一位留学的学生联系。
记者：他们对您的看法与社会舆论不同？
范：他们不会这样愚蠢。
开华学校校长冉东先生在新闻发布会上宣读了标题为“这是一场真与善的冲突”的声明。该声明表示，范美忠自身是应试教育的成功者，成功考取了北京大学，但是范美忠一直对应试教育有不同看法，也做过大量研究工作，并且应用于实际教学多年，有相关经验。这和开华学校的教学需要吻合。此外，在全面审视了范美忠引起社会广泛关注的《那一刻地动山摇》一文，开华学校认为范美忠并非如有的文章所说“逃命后还洋洋自得”，相反开华学校认为这是一篇范美忠自责、自省的文章。再加上他毕业于北大历史系得背景，开华培训学校认为他有资格担任开华人文讲堂讲师。
虽然开华学校认为聘任范美忠是基于教学需要，但目前，开华学校已经决定无限期推迟范美忠到开华学校任教上岗，声明表示，这一决定是基于社会对范美忠存在广泛争议。“由于社会对范美忠先生存在广泛争议而在此之前我们对此认识不足，为此，我们向社会各界表示歉意。基于这种情况，我们决定无限期推迟范美忠道开华学校任教上岗，为此我们向范美忠先生表示歉意。”
开华学校：与范美忠仍存在合作关系
记者：无限期推迟范美忠到开华学校任教上岗，与解聘有何不同？
冉东（开华学校校长）：范美忠与我们的合作关系依然存在，但不能上课了。范先生现在不能到其他学校任教。至于经济补偿方面，我们与范先生有沟通，也互有谅解，范先生还是同意按劳取酬的。
记者：范美忠有可能担任其他非教学职务吗？在什么情况下，他才可能上岗呢？
冉东：理论上讲，范美忠可以担任非教师职务，但是舆论似乎认为他不适合进入教育行业。这个要看机会。当社会宽容他的时候，范美忠就会走上讲台。
记者：听说范美忠先生没有教师资格证？
冉东：没有硬性规定说民办教育机构的老师都有教师资格证。
记者：开华学校是如何与范美忠先生接洽的？
冉东：首先是有人推荐，然后我们进行了面谈，达成了合作。范先生到北京签的约。当时，我们聘任范美忠先生时，内部有不同意见，但最后基于教学需要，决定与他合作。确实没想到会引起这些影响。我们本来以为事情已经过去了。
记者：推迟范美忠上岗是基于主管部门压力呢？还是基于社会的压力？
冉东：民办学校要在市场中生存，生存环境很脆弱。作为一个市场中的教育机构，我们还是迫于市场的压力。但是，我们的学生打电话来表示反对的不多，学生还主要是询问他的教学水平。
记者：人文课堂是否要取消呢？
冉东：范美忠只是该课堂其中一位讲师，我们的人文课堂没有取消。只是民族大学拒绝为我们提供场地（已经签了合同，交了订金），我们得寻找场所。
范美忠：我没有需要自省的 暂时不会当老师
在结束开华学校的采访后，记者采访了范美忠。
记者：您认为那篇《那一刻地动山摇》是一篇自省、自责的文章吗？
范：我没有什么自责的，也没有什么自省的。
记者：您会向开华学校要报酬吗？
范：会。我们的合同关系还在，而且我们有协定，我不能到其他教育机构找类似的工作。
记者：您以后会在教育行业找工作吗？
范：目前不会了，没有这个机会。我可以写书、做策划。我讲课写书比于丹好。
记者：您以前的学生还和您联系吗？
范：当然，我昨天还和一位留学的学生联系。
记者：他们对您的看法与社会舆论不同？
范：他们不会这样愚蠢。