I have found the asthma patients for interviews, but not yet confirmed the interviews of the staff from relevant non-government organization and the responsible persons of the Action Blue-sky Campaign. It is planned to be confirm in within this week. And this Wednesday I will go out for photo taking.

Video will not be used in my final project. Maybe it will convert into the form of slide-show.
 

This is Isaac Mao, the speaker of “Seminar on Chinese  Grassroot Media: In Search of Free Thinking”. He is a Shanghai-based blogger, software architect, entrepreneur and investor.
He spoke about the emergence of China’s new media and the barriers to free speech and free thinking on the mainland last Tuesday in HKU.

Issac indicated the Three walls in China: one is Free Access, one is free speech, one is free thinking. They all include censorship on education, political and media control , blockage of accessibility of websites, etc.

He also mentioned the current thinkg model of Chinese, about 90% are silent group, while only 0.5% group has free thinking model. Few are aggressive like Furong Jiejie, who harnesses bbs and blog(this is her blog) to realize her dream.

The thinking model:
90% Silence

7% Defence

1% Funtional

1% Aggressive

0.5% FreeAs showned in the table:

 Issac think that the blogging can improve free thinking in China. Since the blogging is a self-organized learning activities. In the process of writing ,editing and publishing, you will learn. In addition, you can learn how to collaborate with other bloggers and get involved in the trust network. Bloggers can gain new social identity in the web.Nowdays, there are 600,000 bloggers in mainland China. Admist those group of people, some just want to have a quiet place on their own. That’s why they become the bloggers.

Parts: single media, multiple media, multimedia. I will use the multiple design for my final project.

I would like to use the story as the introduction of my topic. I think this would have more attractiveness to the reader as the topic itself may be boring to most people.

The approaches that used for my topic:

1. Audio
   1. Interview staff from NGO(fight against air pollution) like Clear The Air.
   2. Interview Frank C about his personal point of view of the worsening air pollution in Hong Kong (I will do video if audio)

1. Video
   1. I may use a video clip from RTHK since it is hard to capture the video of air pollution since it is too abstract and cost consuming. Like if I want to shoot the power plant in Lamma Island then I should take ferry to there; If I want to shot the worsening air pollution in Tung Chung, I may need to the suitable days for shooting.

1. Photos
   Photographs can help us see things about a story that words cannot convey. However, there are not too many diversified photos I can take. Photos will add to text-based stories.
   1. Contrast the air pollution in the past and nowadays
   2. Anything relevant to this topic
   3. The people involved in the interview
      
      
2. Graphic
   1. Tables will be used as to show the static’s of the air pollution index in recent year
   2. Pie chart will be used to indicate the source of the air pollution
   3. Number of people affected by the worsening air pollution
   4. Timelines will be made to show the government effort put on improving air pollution this year.
3. Text
   Foust said, “Despite the Web’s great potential for delivering a multimedia experience with sounds and visuals, words are still the most important element of online communication.”
   
   
   1. I may email or call the Environmental Protection Department about my final project. The information I get will be converted into text.
   2. Interview the asthmatics troubled by the worsening air pollution (with photos)
      
      
4. Hyperlink
   All the relevant website will be put on the website so that the readers can go further for detail and exploring of the topic
   
   
5. Opinion from readers
   1. The readers can leave their comments.
   2. A link to my blog is provided .
   3. Email will be provided.

This is the topic she takes for her final project.

Amanda’s final project topic is about homosexual people. Last year in May, a TV programme named Gay Lover launched by the RTHK became the hot debate in the society. In the past, we seldom and even put this topic public in traditional Chinese society due to high moral standard. How is the attitude towards Homosexuality in Hong Kong? You may not find difficult to find some homosexual people on the street. The Hong Kong society seems to be more open for acceptance the homosexuality. Is it the true case? Actually the parents will be furious and sad if they know you are homosexual. They urge you to have a right lover and remind you the importance of building up a normal family consisting of dad, mum and children.

This group of minority has faced lots of difficulties in their life. I don’t know whether we should call these difficulties as “discrimination”. If every one is equally granted the right of love freedom, can we choose what gender we fall in love?

In some western countries, it is already justified for homosexual marriage. The gays or the lesbian decide to live together with the respect of the society.  How does Hong Kon society look at this issue nowadays? Will it be possible that the homosexual marriage become justified?

This is my interview tape, please click and listen to it. It helps you understand the homosexual people more.

This is the photo taken in Sai Wan. The visibility is so low that we can not clearly see the building on the opposite side.

Smoking worses the air pollution in Hong Kong and caused the lethal health problem to the smokers.

According to the Thematic Household Survey performed in Hong Kong 2003,there were 819,700 daily smokers, accounting for 14.4 % of population aged 15 or above.

This is Cheung Sha Wan, one of old industrial district in Hong Kong.
The buildings are on the road side. The wall of buildings are blacken by the gas emission from the buses.

This is a photo take on the way to Lamma Island. The top three chimneys are the location of the power plant of HK Electric. The power plant is the major source of air pollution in Hong Kong.

This is a photo about clear blue sky taken outside my room last year. However it is seldom to see this beautiful sky now. What I can see is the sunny day with fog on the sea.

Firstly, according to Foust, ”as an online journalist, you should generally assume that anything you encounter on the Internet is copyrighted, unless it is expressly offered for public domain use.” We should get the permission form the copyright holder first before we put or copy others’ image onto our own websites. For example, if you take a photo from your interviewer, you should ask her permission for publishing her photo and exposing her nick name or full name. If you are not sure you can use something, and then do not use it.

Second, if you want to use the article, the concept of fair use allows you to use part of a copyrighted work in certain situations. Referring to Foust, fair use is designed to “allow criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching and research involving copyrighted work.”So, as an online journalist, we often excerpt copyrighted material, like video clips, images, journals, etc., and then you should know very well about the concept of fair use. Fair use can protect you from many copyright disputes.

After all, we should attribute our sources so that the readers know where it came from.

But, you should be very careful that others will copy the image on your websites for illegal and commercial use. It’s difficult for you to keep “all right reserved” to your work. It is simply because the copy and paste is so common and easy via Internet. Piracy is common and seems to be more rampant.

Under these circumstances, do we have the third way for protection of our copyright?Yes, Creative Commons. It shifts the focus of “all right reserved” to “some right reserved”. Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization that has released a series of copyright licenses that allow you to say how you want your work – your articles, photos, music and so on – to be used by other people. There are four type of license including Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works and Share Alike.

Simply by adding a button , you can choose the type of license onto your website.

I think the CC license approach is better than the traditional approach in terms of knowledge accumulation, flow and recreation.The traditional approach to copyright focuses on “all right reserved” and fight against the piracy by enhancing laws. It results two extremes: the strict control over knowledge sharing and flow and the expanding of piracy.

Lawrence Lessig (Here is the blog of Lessig), the creator of the CC, mentioned “the file-sharing provide access to content this is technically still under copyright but no longer commercially available”. CC authorizes the public for free use of the online material under specific conditions so that it enables the freedom re-creation. It can stimulate great potential of creativity. For example, readers can remix the images on the web for their own non-commercial production.

“And the P2P networks enable the sharing of content the copyright owners want shared, as well as work already in the public domain.”Currently, more than millions of entrepreneurs, artists apply CC license. These both bring the benefits to authors and society.

As what Heavens mentioned from personal side, if all your photos are attached to CC license, people will write for your permission for using your photos for specific use. Moreover, some of the contracts brought Heaven further paid work, and even make you a lot of friends from all around the work.

The CC also enables the creativity-continuity of photo which may by used by others in many other meaningful and creative ways. Especially for photographer journalists, they can maximize the use of their work by putting them online and license them.

Of course, while preserving the benefit, we should also consider how to minimize the harm it causes to artists. The CC is more flexible in current technology-oriented era.

After reading all the blogs founded from technorati b y searching “air pollution Hong Kong” I have found these three “leads” can inspire my final project. Those leads should be inspiring, clear and attractive.

            1.FEATURE – Bad Air Clouds Hong Kong’s Future as Global Hub by
               measurementdevice.com
              This is a story about one of the Hong Kong top marathon runner, Mark Williams,  who has had enough of Hong Kong bad air and will leave for New Zealand. Then  this  article started analyzing and exploring the reasons of bad air in Hong Kong. The  case study is very effective and impressive to carry out our topic. And I believe that Mark Williams is one of the many. It inspired my to carry out an interview to people with asthma as to see how they perceive the worsening air pollution in Hong Kong and if they are badly affected currently.

           2.Clearing the Air from Beneath the Peak

This article suggests what the government can do to solve the local traffic as to reduce air pollution. Before this, I have never put local traffic as a big source of local pollution. What the local has done actually can improve the air quality greatly. The points are inspiring, I can find more sources about how the citizen and government can do the clear our air.

3. Air Pollution in Asia-The Tipping Point Is Reached by Edelman 6 A.M.

This essay is written by a man after his six city tour in Asian offices. He was so disappointed and impressive by the degradation of the air quality in Hong Kong. He has compared the Hong Kong air pollution with other big cities and commented about the government weak response to the current situation. After reading this journal from non-local‘s angle, it showed me a macro picture of the air pollution in Hong Kong. One of the aspect of our topic can focus how the air pollution affect Hong Kong’s image.

It’s so happy that I can find one useful video about the scenes of air pollution from Flickr.

My del.icio.us page is added on my link at the right column.

The useful articles added to my del.iciou.us page are:

1. Presentation by Dr Sarah Liao on HK’s Commitment to the Environment at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong
2. Implementation framework of emission trading pilot scheme announced
3.Tax Incentives for Environment-friendly Petrol Private Cars

My topic is the Air Pollution in Hong Kong. I have searched”Air pollution Hong Kong ” on the Technorati and Google. Technorati has 13 posts and Google has 1,660,000 items ; Also, I typed “action blue sky campaign Hong Kong”, then I find 0 post on Technorati while 603,000 items in Google. If found that I can get more accurate and relevant information from Google rather that Technorati. The reasons behind I think it is that Technorati is a searcher for the blogpost but not for all website. It serves different functions from the websites.Most posts found on Technorati are views from individuals. One in 香港的晚霞 only blamed that the factories in Mainland China has worsened HK’s poor air pollution. No deeper causes and result were analyzed but mostly for blaming. However, sometime in blog you can find the surprising information that cannot be found in mainstream media or the GOOGLE searching engineer. This information can be explored and investigated more and even become a news.

Tagging is the common functions provided by Technorati, del.io.us. Tags are specifically one used to describe an object and usually affixed to it.According to David Weinberger, tagging is known as “key-wording” the attaching of a simple phrase or two to some digital object such as a document or a photo.

According to Pew Internet, “tagging is gaining prominence as an activity some classify as a Web 2.0 hallmark in part because it advances and personalizes online searching.” This technology help to categorize the data conveniently. You can put data into different category names rather than only one. For example, you tag one photo on Flickr like hockey by different tap names like sports, hockey. When I search “Hockey”, you can find the hockey photo you have put online and see other hockey-related photo. Also, you can see your photo by searching “hockey”. You can see all the photos as relevant to the topic.It is really a highly useful tool not for only searching but sharing.

In the article “Tagging and Why It Matters”,David Weinberger said challenges comes to tagging as it become popular. “When tagging becomes more popular, it will become more attractive to spammers who purposefully mis-tag their resources in order to make them more visible.” I think this is a good point. The author will try to maximize their visiting of work by tapping the hit words used in searching. It will reduce the precision of searching cause time consuming for readers to read the irrelevant data.

It is known that the tagging system creates “folksonomies”. It refers to the popular tagging way on the web.People may tag in different ways on the samething due to the cultural differences.It is worried that the folksonomies can be a type of “tyranny of the majority” , which refers to favoring one language or one set of concepts over another. Weinberger said the prevalent group’s way of thinking about the world will overcome the lcoal and the quirky. However, I think it ‘s interesting to see that what differences between the oddball and mainstream when they are putting same information, idea or knowledge.