Connection keeps dropping and I haven’t been saving
sorry
[session 2: Social Software and First Life] continued:
What is First Life? What we have to deal with when we hit 30
90% of people here today use social software
75% use facebook
35% on LinkedIn
Moderator Chen Luyi: Is anyone from Myspace.cn here? No
QQ? No
Baidu Spaces? No
Mai Tian is sick, couldn’t come today, founder of Haokanbu has invited a friend of his to fill that space on stage.
Discussing what social software is…and if you do’nt know you can read about it here
Alan Tien is not so sure that China necessarily wants social software
possibly evidenced by how CHina just copies foreign sites
China lacks localized content
Another problem is that Chinese users might just be too young
They might care more about their business contacts when they hit 30, but at 20 still wanting to have fun
(Not that Facebook isn’t fun)
Tien adds that trust is another issue, with trust of strangers in Japan and other countries, to ‘keeping it in the family’ in places like China, Italy, Greece
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One question from the floor:
How could current social network websites make themselves more ‘social’?
-see what users want/need; do surveys to find out
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Good luck, says Ian Chin, referencing the difference between ‘the west’ and China
In West, drawing your family trees in kindergarten
vs. ancestors relationships being a heavily guarded secret here in China
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[They keep calling Isaac (Isaac Mao/Mao Xianghui) 'Chairman Mao'...牛]
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Ian: But with Chinese fondness for social relationships, a lot of users would like to have many of them integrated in one spaces
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NOTICE: coming across the screens now: all attendees must wear their conference tags at lunch if they plan to be served food.
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Social networks will be strongest when they integrate ‘first life’ and ‘second life’, and as they grow, they remain as close to reality as possible.
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11:40-11:55 Not much of consequence is being discussed…lots of abstract social network theory 
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Alan Tien from Gini: “It’s very easy to build the family tree. Some families will want to build it, and one it’s built, what will you want to do with it? Let’s assume that family members will want to communicate with each other. You can chat with anyone in your family anywhere in the world over instant messaging anytime.”
Alan Tien: Through deep integration, the value of the network in Facebook will be found, years from now, from the minority of practical, innovative applications (ref. Facebook’s opening up to API programmers 7-8 months ago and the thousands of new applications designed since), and only then will the x billions of USD of investment in Facebook be realized.
——-
Time’s up.
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Ian Chin says all companies and social network services must be subject to competition, and through time, the best will become apparent.
-The most important key to success in social network isn’t so much following the theory of 1st degree, 2nd degree (?), but seizing opporutnities when they arise, based on what users want or need.
Classic Chinese behavior, Ian says, is doing certain things in a certain degree of privacy, in such a matter that specific parties will now know for specific reasons (ie. buying flowers for a girlfriend, buying them at a previously unknown flower shop as opposed to the one your classmate or aunt runs)
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A new contest? Jenny has asked everyone to take their best shop at giving feed (the rss kind, but it’s nice to have the eating reference now!) a Chinese translation, write it on the back of (their) a business card and drop it in the hat at the back.