Beijing goes online with English site

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 10, 2003 by JIM BAINBRIDGE

With the Olympic Games coming to Beijing in 2008, the Chinese capital figured it was time to enter the digital age and reveal itself to the world - online and in English.

Beijing's municipal government launched an English Web site last week aimed at foreigners. The subjects, predictably: investment, tourism, business, study and life in the city.

The site was "expected to help step up exchanges and cooperation between Beijing and the rest of the world," said Zhu Yan, director of the awkwardly named Beijing Municipal Office of Informatization.

The site includes such sections as "Life in Beijing," "Foreigners in Beijing," "Scenic Spots" and an area called "Consultancy," which features information on finding medical help, getting pet permits and applying for a driver's license.

www.ebeijing.gov.cn

Internet littered with dead Web sites

Despite the Internet's ability to deliver information quickly and frequently, the World Wide Web is littered with deadwood - sites abandoned and woefully out of date - that make the process of searching for information even harder. One study of 3,634 blogs by Perseus Development found two-thirds had not been updated for at least two months, and a quarter not since the day they were launched.

www.perseusdevelopment.com/corporate/news_shell.php?record=51

Web surfing at work may lift productivity

The new book "Managing Web Usage in the Workplace: A Social, Ethical and Legal Perspective" argues that, contrary to employers' beliefs, letting workers surf on the Web can yield some beneficial side effects.

"Personal Web usage in the workplace has a negative perception, especially among administrators who often see it as inefficient and creating a decrease in work productivity," co-author Claire Simmers told The Associated Press.

According to research, doing personal Web surfing while on the job can lead to better time management, stress reduction, improved skills and help in achieving a balance between work and personal life.

www.amazon.com

Music firms silence free MIT downloads

Massachusetts Institute of Technology students Keith Winstein and Josh Mandel thought they had found a way around the legal morass that is music file sharing. They had built the system within the school's cable TV network, assuming the analog TV network would allow them to sidestep the expensive and restrictive laws and regulations that have grown up around the copying and sharing of digital copies of music. Within hours of the system's debut, however, several music companies, including Universal Music Group, complained they had not granted - or been paid for - the required legal permission to make copies of the songs used by the Library Access to Music System, forcing it to at least temporarily shut down until the licensing rights can be worked out.

lamp.mit.edu

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