Aug. 1, 2011
by Mark Ollig
Rummaging through my A-list of Internet sources, your statistical-scavenging columnist came across a recently released survey from our good friends at the Pew Research Center.
The latest polling percentages from Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, regarding American’s online video- watching habits, showed a dramatic change from just five years earlier.
Statistics from the April 26 - May 22 Spring Tracking Survey disclosed the results of questions asked of 2,277 adult Internet users, ages 18 and older.
This polling also included 755 cell phone user interviews.
YouTube, Vimeo, Videojug, and, in my humble opinion, the social networking site Facebook, are examples of online community video-sharing sites on the Internet.
Of course, there are hundreds of lesser-known video-sharing sites on the Internet which allow users to upload and share their homemade video clips.
The first survey question asked of adult Internet users 18 and over was if they “ever used a video-sharing site.”
As of May 22, the total percentage of these users, including both male and female, who answered yes was 71 percent.
Of this group, 92 percent were ages 18-29, while 80 percent were in the 30-49 age group.
The baby boomers in the 50- 64 age group acknowledging they had watched videos over a video-sharing site came in at 54 percent.
Not leaving out the senior citizens, a respectable 31 percent of those 65 and better said they, too, had at some time, watched videos over Internet online sites like YouTube.
Looking back just five years ago, the percentage of adults polled saying they had watched videos online came in at just 33 percent.
The next question asked of adults was if they had “used a video-sharing site yesterday.” In this instance, 28 percent answered yes.
Five years ago, this same question found only 8 percent answering in the affirmative.
One notable statistic from the April 26 - May 22 survey showed a dramatic percentage increase in number of people living in less populated rural areas watching and uploading videos to video-sharing sites.
In previous polling years, rural users always had a much lower percentage as compared to users living in more densely populated suburban and metropolitan urban areas.
However, it appears this year the rural area online users have caught up.
The latest survey reports 68 percent of rural adults polled as saying they had used a video-sharing site, which puts them right up there with the 71 percent of the suburban, and 72 percent of those living in the urban areas.
A couple reasons I give for this higher rural polling percentage is the rural user’s easier access to the Internet, and a more satisfying viewing experience being provided over better quality networks.
Most online users living in rural areas now have access to faster Internet data speeds because of the expansion and build-out of superior broadband technology where they are living.
Looking back five years earlier, just 21 percent of the adults polled living in rural areas said they had visited Internet video-sharing sites, compared to 38 percent of those living in urban areas.
“The rise of broadband and better mobile networks and devices has meant that video has become an increasingly popular part of users’ online experiences,” said Kathleen Moore of Pew Research in a released statement.
The growth of individual user’s creation of video content being uploaded onto YouTube-like sites is also seen as a reason for the increased polling percentage numbers.
The most recent poll shows 81 percent of parents reported visiting an online video-sharing site, compared to 61 percent of non-parents who said they had.
Pew thinks this difference is because many parents have minors living with them, and the higher percentage of those using video-sharing sites is among the younger people.
When a user uploads a video to YouTube or Facebook, they sometimes share it with friends or family, and those people will in turn, (most times), forward or share the same video with others they know.
Currently, YouTube has 28 different channel categories, including many sub-channel content topics ranging from automobiles, gaming, politics, pets, how-to’s, hobbies, sports and news, to numerous individual social categories.
In 2005, YouTube averaged 8 million video views per day.
By 2011, this number had soared to over 3 billion video views per day.
Here’s a recent statistic about YouTube yours truly finds incredible; every minute, 48 hours worth of video content is being uploaded to it.
The survey reports 34 percent of adult cell phone users as having recorded video, 26 percent watching video, and 22 percent uploading video to an Internet video-sharing site, using their cell phone.
Possibly at this moment, a parent on vacation near Brainerd is uploading video to YouTube from a cell phone showing their kids staring in wonderment at a 26-foot-tall (sitting) animated talking man named Paul Bunyan.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
China's Internet online population reaches 485 million
July 25, 2011
by Mark Ollig
The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) defines an Internet user as a Chinese citizen age 6 and above, who, on average, uses the Internet at least one hour per week.
Their website says the CNNIC, the state network information center of China, was established as a non-profit organization June 3, 1997.
July 19, the CNNIC website made available the “28th China Internet Development Statistics Report.”
Your humble and linguistic-learning columnist did his best with the Chinese-to-English translation of the report’s text.
The CNNIC report was supported by Chinese government and business, and by the Chinese community.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology investigations contained within the CNNIC report, were under the guidance of China’s national authorities.
This report stated at the end of June 2011, China’s Internet users or ‘netizens’ population had reached 485 million.
By comparison, the 2010 US Census Bureau confirmed the resident population of the United States April 1, 2010, was 308,745,538.
Microblogging (brief text, video or audio messages) in China, according to the report, is becoming “the fastest growing Internet user application mode.”
By the end of June, microblogging users on China’s version of Twitter, which they call Weibo, reached 195 million.
Blogging and “personal space” according to the CNNIC report, has become an important factor for many network applications.
The CNNIC report’s end of-June statistics disclosed an increase in the number of mobile Internet users. There were 65.5 percent, or 318 million of China’s Internet users operating mobile phones to navigate the Internet.
This increase is, according to the report, “an important part of Chinese Internet users.”
China’s online Internet shopping rose 7.6 percent during the last six-month period, as well as online banking and the use of online payments.
Concerns about network security were made known in this report, as calls for strengthening Internet security were suggested.
Statistics during the first half of 2011 showed 217 million Chinese Internet users who encountered an online virus attack, and 121 million who had stolen passwords.
Chinese Internet users experiencing online consumer fraud during this same time period reached 38.8 million.
The report mentions a decrease in Chinese consumer confidence because of online fraud and security issues.
The CNNIC report said for the Internet to have credible security, the social, legal and other factors needed would require input from government authorities, Internet companies, and action on the part of all Internet users.
Strengthening of corporate network security systems, in order to allow for a safe and reliable Internet environment, was also stated in the report.
By the end of June, the number of Chinese users actively participating in online social networks was 230 million.
Ways of adding more Internet e-commerce was also discussed in the CNNIC report.
To increase “profit channels” the report talks about expanding e-commerce into what are currently called “simple entertainment sites” or Social Networking Sites (SNS).
In reading this portion of the report, it seemed to me there was some concern being communicated about SNS becoming too “entertainment-oriented.”
The CNNIC report mentioned how expanding e-commerce within SNS faced challenges.
It was suggested adding too much e-commerce within a SNS, could provoke the loss of its users.
The report said attaining e-commerce products that are SNS-oriented, is being developed as the Chinese domestic industry continues to explore this direction of the Internet.
Online travel booking services, or Travel Reservation Services, is specifically mentioned in the CNNIC report as seeing increased usage during the first half of 2011.
The report relates how personal bloggers, along with the emergence of other information and communication channels, appear to influence the users of traditional network news channels in providing instant news-related information to other online users.
The first half of 2011 saw a 125 percent increase, or 42.2 million new Chinese Internet users making online purchases.
The total number of Chinese online shoppers had reached 173 million by the end of June 2011.
The current Chinese online shopping marketplace will be upgrading to one with more brand names, quality, and competition. The CNNIC report goes on to say it will become normal for China’s Internet users to purchase their products and services online.
The end of June statistics showed the number of users of online entertainment applications, such as online gaming, at 311 million, while online music subscribers numbered 3.82 million.
The report also mentions the 815 million Chinese people who are “non-Internet users.”
Reasons given within the report for these non-Internet users include “do not understand the computer/network,” “not interested” and “expensive Internet access fees.”
The CNNIC report said that in order to help reduce this demographic, improved access conditions to the Internet and computing hardware is needed; along with better computing and Internet literacy skill enhancements in basic network operations for the elderly, and other people living in China’s rural areas.
The 51-page CNNIC report (in Chinese) can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/3hwy28q.
The China Internet Network Information Center website is http://www.cnnic.org.cn.
by Mark Ollig
The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) defines an Internet user as a Chinese citizen age 6 and above, who, on average, uses the Internet at least one hour per week.
Their website says the CNNIC, the state network information center of China, was established as a non-profit organization June 3, 1997.
July 19, the CNNIC website made available the “28th China Internet Development Statistics Report.”
Your humble and linguistic-learning columnist did his best with the Chinese-to-English translation of the report’s text.
The CNNIC report was supported by Chinese government and business, and by the Chinese community.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology investigations contained within the CNNIC report, were under the guidance of China’s national authorities.
This report stated at the end of June 2011, China’s Internet users or ‘netizens’ population had reached 485 million.
By comparison, the 2010 US Census Bureau confirmed the resident population of the United States April 1, 2010, was 308,745,538.
Microblogging (brief text, video or audio messages) in China, according to the report, is becoming “the fastest growing Internet user application mode.”
By the end of June, microblogging users on China’s version of Twitter, which they call Weibo, reached 195 million.
Blogging and “personal space” according to the CNNIC report, has become an important factor for many network applications.
The CNNIC report’s end of-June statistics disclosed an increase in the number of mobile Internet users. There were 65.5 percent, or 318 million of China’s Internet users operating mobile phones to navigate the Internet.
This increase is, according to the report, “an important part of Chinese Internet users.”
China’s online Internet shopping rose 7.6 percent during the last six-month period, as well as online banking and the use of online payments.
Concerns about network security were made known in this report, as calls for strengthening Internet security were suggested.
Statistics during the first half of 2011 showed 217 million Chinese Internet users who encountered an online virus attack, and 121 million who had stolen passwords.
Chinese Internet users experiencing online consumer fraud during this same time period reached 38.8 million.
The report mentions a decrease in Chinese consumer confidence because of online fraud and security issues.
The CNNIC report said for the Internet to have credible security, the social, legal and other factors needed would require input from government authorities, Internet companies, and action on the part of all Internet users.
Strengthening of corporate network security systems, in order to allow for a safe and reliable Internet environment, was also stated in the report.
By the end of June, the number of Chinese users actively participating in online social networks was 230 million.
Ways of adding more Internet e-commerce was also discussed in the CNNIC report.
To increase “profit channels” the report talks about expanding e-commerce into what are currently called “simple entertainment sites” or Social Networking Sites (SNS).
In reading this portion of the report, it seemed to me there was some concern being communicated about SNS becoming too “entertainment-oriented.”
The CNNIC report mentioned how expanding e-commerce within SNS faced challenges.
It was suggested adding too much e-commerce within a SNS, could provoke the loss of its users.
The report said attaining e-commerce products that are SNS-oriented, is being developed as the Chinese domestic industry continues to explore this direction of the Internet.
Online travel booking services, or Travel Reservation Services, is specifically mentioned in the CNNIC report as seeing increased usage during the first half of 2011.
The report relates how personal bloggers, along with the emergence of other information and communication channels, appear to influence the users of traditional network news channels in providing instant news-related information to other online users.
The first half of 2011 saw a 125 percent increase, or 42.2 million new Chinese Internet users making online purchases.
The total number of Chinese online shoppers had reached 173 million by the end of June 2011.
The current Chinese online shopping marketplace will be upgrading to one with more brand names, quality, and competition. The CNNIC report goes on to say it will become normal for China’s Internet users to purchase their products and services online.
The end of June statistics showed the number of users of online entertainment applications, such as online gaming, at 311 million, while online music subscribers numbered 3.82 million.
The report also mentions the 815 million Chinese people who are “non-Internet users.”
Reasons given within the report for these non-Internet users include “do not understand the computer/network,” “not interested” and “expensive Internet access fees.”
The CNNIC report said that in order to help reduce this demographic, improved access conditions to the Internet and computing hardware is needed; along with better computing and Internet literacy skill enhancements in basic network operations for the elderly, and other people living in China’s rural areas.
The 51-page CNNIC report (in Chinese) can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/3hwy28q.
The China Internet Network Information Center website is http://www.cnnic.org.cn.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Google+ bursts forth onto the online social networking scene
July 18, 2011
by Mark Ollig
It was predicated 20 million users would be interacting over this new Internet social networking site by July 17.
This impressive statistic from Paul Allen, founder of the popular genealogy website Ancestry.com, was posted by him on this new social networking site.
“The user base is growing so quickly that it is challenging for me to keep up,” Allen said.
Many folks out there in the cyber blogospheres and throughout the twitterverse are saying this new social networking site may well become a legitimate competitor to Facebook’s dominance.
The leading online search engine, Google has put forth their latest effort in the social networking contest by making available their new online social network called Google+.
Why they did not simply call it GooglePlus is beyond me.
I suppose someone may have thought having it read as Google+ would make it look more contemporary.
Maybe the “+” is just a way of saying they are adding yet another feature set to their existing online suite of offerings, such as Google Docs, YouTube, Chrome, Blogger and Picasa.
Why I am so fixated over a plus or +, I do not know.
This shortened URL will take you to Google’s currently active online product list: http://tinyurl.com/3zlwxlf.
Your humble and every-now-and then educated online social networking columnist recently viewed the official Google+ online demonstration.
Currently, Google+ is made up of the following collection of social networking features:
• Circles
• Hangouts
• Instant Upload
• Sparks
• Huddle
When using Circles, Google+ allows the user to create their own individualized categorizes. Under each category, the user selects the Google+ friends they want to add.
You can have an individualized circle of friends you associate with on a weekend, people who you visit when on vacation, your work associates, bosses, parents, kids, grandparents; people who share in your favorite sports teams, people you went to school with, friends you share common hobbies with . . . you get the idea.
You can also chat online within your circle of friends. By enabling the Google+ chat feature, your preselected individual circles are allowed to know whenever you’re online and available for a chat.
Hangouts allow for unplanned meet-ups. A Google+ user can alert specific friends, or an entire circle of friends, to let them know the user is available for an on-the-fly get-together.
This feature notifies others they are invited to stop by and chat online with you.
With Hangouts, you can see and hear each person in real-time, so look sharp and fire up those web cams!
The mobile Instant Upload feature provides for sharing your videos and photos instantly from your cellphone, tablet ,or other mobile device. Once you have taken that awesome photo or video, it can be directly uploaded to your Google+ private album; from there, you can choose who sees it.
Sparks asks you what your personal interests are and then searches the Internet to find the related content for you, be it video or articles.
Google+ demonstrated Sparks using examples of some personal interests, such as fashion, music, and food categories.
The Sparks categories you create are continuously being refreshed and updated with newer content; if you want to check out your categories’ latest updates, just visit Sparks.
You can also choose whether to share your Sparks categories with others.
When you want to invite, say, six of your friends to go to a movie theater, or meet someplace downtown, instead of having to do all that individual texting and placing of phone calls, Google+ offers Huddle.
With the Google+ mobile Huddle feature, you can set up a group texting chat with all six friends at the same time, with each friend reading and responding in real-time to each other’s text messages.
Google+ is still undergoing testing and is currently in its field trial period.
For now, in order to access and participate in the Google+ field trial, a person needs to receive an invitation from another Google+ user; however, Google is limiting the total number of users who can be actively using the service at any one given time.
A person can also sign up with their existing Google user account to be notified by Google when more people are required for Google+ testing.
Eventually, Google+ will conclude the field trial period.
I would then expect it to enter into a beta testing mode.
Once beta testing is completed, Google+ will become freely available to all.
I believe this new online social networking site has potential – once all the bugs (that will be discovered) are worked out.
You can read more about the Google+ project at http:www.google.com/+/learnmore>Google Project.
Google’s YouTube account recently uploaded a video about Google+ you can watch at http://tinyurl.com/6e8ht9e.
Facebook, the world’s largest online social networking site with 750 million users, has no real reason to be worried about Google+ . . . just yet.
However, stay tuned.
Something inside me says this online social networking contest is just warming up.
by Mark Ollig
It was predicated 20 million users would be interacting over this new Internet social networking site by July 17.
This impressive statistic from Paul Allen, founder of the popular genealogy website Ancestry.com, was posted by him on this new social networking site.
“The user base is growing so quickly that it is challenging for me to keep up,” Allen said.
Many folks out there in the cyber blogospheres and throughout the twitterverse are saying this new social networking site may well become a legitimate competitor to Facebook’s dominance.
The leading online search engine, Google has put forth their latest effort in the social networking contest by making available their new online social network called Google+.
Why they did not simply call it GooglePlus is beyond me.
I suppose someone may have thought having it read as Google+ would make it look more contemporary.
Maybe the “+” is just a way of saying they are adding yet another feature set to their existing online suite of offerings, such as Google Docs, YouTube, Chrome, Blogger and Picasa.
Why I am so fixated over a plus or +, I do not know.
This shortened URL will take you to Google’s currently active online product list: http://tinyurl.com/3zlwxlf.
Your humble and every-now-and then educated online social networking columnist recently viewed the official Google+ online demonstration.
Currently, Google+ is made up of the following collection of social networking features:
• Circles
• Hangouts
• Instant Upload
• Sparks
• Huddle
When using Circles, Google+ allows the user to create their own individualized categorizes. Under each category, the user selects the Google+ friends they want to add.
You can have an individualized circle of friends you associate with on a weekend, people who you visit when on vacation, your work associates, bosses, parents, kids, grandparents; people who share in your favorite sports teams, people you went to school with, friends you share common hobbies with . . . you get the idea.
You can also chat online within your circle of friends. By enabling the Google+ chat feature, your preselected individual circles are allowed to know whenever you’re online and available for a chat.
Hangouts allow for unplanned meet-ups. A Google+ user can alert specific friends, or an entire circle of friends, to let them know the user is available for an on-the-fly get-together.
This feature notifies others they are invited to stop by and chat online with you.
With Hangouts, you can see and hear each person in real-time, so look sharp and fire up those web cams!
The mobile Instant Upload feature provides for sharing your videos and photos instantly from your cellphone, tablet ,or other mobile device. Once you have taken that awesome photo or video, it can be directly uploaded to your Google+ private album; from there, you can choose who sees it.
Sparks asks you what your personal interests are and then searches the Internet to find the related content for you, be it video or articles.
Google+ demonstrated Sparks using examples of some personal interests, such as fashion, music, and food categories.
The Sparks categories you create are continuously being refreshed and updated with newer content; if you want to check out your categories’ latest updates, just visit Sparks.
You can also choose whether to share your Sparks categories with others.
When you want to invite, say, six of your friends to go to a movie theater, or meet someplace downtown, instead of having to do all that individual texting and placing of phone calls, Google+ offers Huddle.
With the Google+ mobile Huddle feature, you can set up a group texting chat with all six friends at the same time, with each friend reading and responding in real-time to each other’s text messages.
Google+ is still undergoing testing and is currently in its field trial period.
For now, in order to access and participate in the Google+ field trial, a person needs to receive an invitation from another Google+ user; however, Google is limiting the total number of users who can be actively using the service at any one given time.
A person can also sign up with their existing Google user account to be notified by Google when more people are required for Google+ testing.
Eventually, Google+ will conclude the field trial period.
I would then expect it to enter into a beta testing mode.
Once beta testing is completed, Google+ will become freely available to all.
I believe this new online social networking site has potential – once all the bugs (that will be discovered) are worked out.
You can read more about the Google+ project at http:www.google.com/+/learnmore>Google Project.
Google’s YouTube account recently uploaded a video about Google+ you can watch at http://tinyurl.com/6e8ht9e.
Facebook, the world’s largest online social networking site with 750 million users, has no real reason to be worried about Google+ . . . just yet.
However, stay tuned.
Something inside me says this online social networking contest is just warming up.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
China's improved version of 'big brother' fixes more eyes onto its citizens
July 11, 2011
by Mark Ollig
The Chinese citizens living in the city of Chongqing will soon have 500,000 new surveillance cameras aimed at them.
An upgrade of the municipality’s existing video surveillance system is currently being implemented.
This project has been described as a “massive surveillance system.”
The new video surveillance system (which will blanket most of the city) is being installed in order to “create a secured environment for the city.”
Chongqing, located in southwest China, is a city of about 33 million people and covers an area of 31,800 square miles.
About 4 million people work and live in the city’s urban area.
The Chongqing Municipal People’s Government website describes the city as “Towering mountains keyed in the valley, carrying Chongqing’s three thousand years of civilization.”
The general contractor for the new video surveillance system is Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., which is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.
Hikvision is in charge of the project’s design and will see to its deployment.
The cost for the project was disclosed in an article I found from an online website called Government Security News.
The article says a press release issued by Hikvision reports the total project investment will be in excess of $800 million in US dollars.
Meanwhile, The Huffington Post, in a related story about the Chongqing project, reported an additional $1.6 billion is being added to this project from “unknown sources.”
A Wall Street Journal article states during the course of the next three years, in one of China’s biggest and most complex surveillance projects ever, Cisco, and other western companies will be providing the hardware and technology required for building the Chongqing surveillance system.
The new video surveillance system will have cameras covering most of the Chongqing’s intersections, neighborhoods, and parks.
By law, American companies are banned from selling or exporting “crime control” products to China.
However, they are allowed to sell products – in this case video products – which are used for non-violent purposes.
The Chongqing video surveillance project has been named “Peaceful Chongqing.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote they have no evidence that any of the equipment Cisco sells is being customized for the purpose of crime control.
The Wall Street Journal also quoted a Cisco spokesperson as saying the company “hasn’t sold video cameras or video-surveillance solutions in any of our public infrastructure projects in China.”
An article from the online media site, Fast Company, suggests how this new surveillance system could go far beyond the simple monitoring of the movements of individuals and vehicles.
The article says it would be a simple matter of linking the video surveillance system into the government’s own public ID database (which is assumed China has) to activate, for example, facial recognition capabilities.
This capability could interface with computational algorithmic formulas to be used for alerting government officials if a specific “politically questionable” individual or individuals were captured on a surveillance camera.
Their current location could also be instantly provided to government officials.
“There’s a fine line between ‘preventing crime,’ using totally off-the-shelf Cisco gear, and re-purposing that same ‘Peaceful Chongqing’ network of cameras to spy on the population,” said Kit Eaton, in the article he wrote for Fast Company.
It is commonly-known that Google has the capability of using facial recognition technology which could automatically identify the faces of people found in the many billions of web pages its search bots have crawled through and indexed over the years.
Google has not implemented this capability in their image search results, due to the possible misuse it could cause.
Nevertheless, Google has the technology available.
Also, since October 2001, the US has been tracking our location whenever we use a cell phone to place a 911 call.
Under an FCC enhanced 911 (E911) mandate, all wireless carriers must provide the geolocation of an emergency 911 caller to the appropriate public safety answering point.
The cellular triangulation technology must determine the caller’s geographical longitude and latitude location within 160 feet for 67 percent of emergency calls, and within 492 feet for 95 percent of 911 emergency calls.
The new Chinese video surveillance system could, for example, not only be connected into a facial recognition system, but also into advanced voice recognition systems, and specialized cell phone call processing monitoring systems.
This would provide an ultra-enhanced tracking capability of individuals, and is very doable using today’s best computing technology.
Right now, we know for certain that the Chinese city of Chongqing is currently installing a widespread video surveillance system networked with at least 500,000 video surveillance cameras located throughout the city, at a cost of more than $800 million.
“We built up a project team to conduct detailed planning based on local conditions and requirements in Chongqing City. We are making every effort to strengthen our technologies to deliver comprehensive city surveillance solutions to improve public safety,” said Yangzhong Hu, the president of Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
I located a picture of a video surveillance camera currently installed on a street post in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. You can see it at http://tinyurl.com/42sgope.
by Mark Ollig
The Chinese citizens living in the city of Chongqing will soon have 500,000 new surveillance cameras aimed at them.
An upgrade of the municipality’s existing video surveillance system is currently being implemented.
This project has been described as a “massive surveillance system.”
The new video surveillance system (which will blanket most of the city) is being installed in order to “create a secured environment for the city.”
Chongqing, located in southwest China, is a city of about 33 million people and covers an area of 31,800 square miles.
About 4 million people work and live in the city’s urban area.
The Chongqing Municipal People’s Government website describes the city as “Towering mountains keyed in the valley, carrying Chongqing’s three thousand years of civilization.”
The general contractor for the new video surveillance system is Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., which is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.
Hikvision is in charge of the project’s design and will see to its deployment.
The cost for the project was disclosed in an article I found from an online website called Government Security News.
The article says a press release issued by Hikvision reports the total project investment will be in excess of $800 million in US dollars.
Meanwhile, The Huffington Post, in a related story about the Chongqing project, reported an additional $1.6 billion is being added to this project from “unknown sources.”
A Wall Street Journal article states during the course of the next three years, in one of China’s biggest and most complex surveillance projects ever, Cisco, and other western companies will be providing the hardware and technology required for building the Chongqing surveillance system.
The new video surveillance system will have cameras covering most of the Chongqing’s intersections, neighborhoods, and parks.
By law, American companies are banned from selling or exporting “crime control” products to China.
However, they are allowed to sell products – in this case video products – which are used for non-violent purposes.
The Chongqing video surveillance project has been named “Peaceful Chongqing.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote they have no evidence that any of the equipment Cisco sells is being customized for the purpose of crime control.
The Wall Street Journal also quoted a Cisco spokesperson as saying the company “hasn’t sold video cameras or video-surveillance solutions in any of our public infrastructure projects in China.”
An article from the online media site, Fast Company, suggests how this new surveillance system could go far beyond the simple monitoring of the movements of individuals and vehicles.
The article says it would be a simple matter of linking the video surveillance system into the government’s own public ID database (which is assumed China has) to activate, for example, facial recognition capabilities.
This capability could interface with computational algorithmic formulas to be used for alerting government officials if a specific “politically questionable” individual or individuals were captured on a surveillance camera.
Their current location could also be instantly provided to government officials.
“There’s a fine line between ‘preventing crime,’ using totally off-the-shelf Cisco gear, and re-purposing that same ‘Peaceful Chongqing’ network of cameras to spy on the population,” said Kit Eaton, in the article he wrote for Fast Company.
It is commonly-known that Google has the capability of using facial recognition technology which could automatically identify the faces of people found in the many billions of web pages its search bots have crawled through and indexed over the years.
Google has not implemented this capability in their image search results, due to the possible misuse it could cause.
Nevertheless, Google has the technology available.
Also, since October 2001, the US has been tracking our location whenever we use a cell phone to place a 911 call.
Under an FCC enhanced 911 (E911) mandate, all wireless carriers must provide the geolocation of an emergency 911 caller to the appropriate public safety answering point.
The cellular triangulation technology must determine the caller’s geographical longitude and latitude location within 160 feet for 67 percent of emergency calls, and within 492 feet for 95 percent of 911 emergency calls.
The new Chinese video surveillance system could, for example, not only be connected into a facial recognition system, but also into advanced voice recognition systems, and specialized cell phone call processing monitoring systems.
This would provide an ultra-enhanced tracking capability of individuals, and is very doable using today’s best computing technology.
Right now, we know for certain that the Chinese city of Chongqing is currently installing a widespread video surveillance system networked with at least 500,000 video surveillance cameras located throughout the city, at a cost of more than $800 million.
“We built up a project team to conduct detailed planning based on local conditions and requirements in Chongqing City. We are making every effort to strengthen our technologies to deliver comprehensive city surveillance solutions to improve public safety,” said Yangzhong Hu, the president of Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
I located a picture of a video surveillance camera currently installed on a street post in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. You can see it at http://tinyurl.com/42sgope.
China's improved version of 'big brother' fixes more eyes onto its citizens
July 11, 2011
by Mark Ollig
The Chinese citizens living in the city of Chongqing will soon have 500,000 new surveillance cameras aimed at them.
An upgrade of the municipality’s existing video surveillance system is currently being implemented.
This project has been described as a “massive surveillance system.”
The new video surveillance system (which will blanket most of the city) is being installed in order to “create a secured environment for the city.”
Chongqing, located in southwest China, is a city of about 33 million people and covers an area of 31,800 square miles.
About 4 million people work and live in the city’s urban area.
The Chongqing Municipal People’s Government website describes the city as “Towering mountains keyed in the valley, carrying Chongqing’s three thousand years of civilization.”
The general contractor for the new video surveillance system is Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., which is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.
Hikvision is in charge of the project’s design and will see to its deployment.
The cost for the project was disclosed in an article I found from an online website called Government Security News.
The article says a press release issued by Hikvision reports the total project investment will be in excess of $800 million in US dollars.
Meanwhile, The Huffington Post, in a related story about the Chongqing project, reported an additional $1.6 billion is being added to this project from “unknown sources.”
A Wall Street Journal article states during the course of the next three years, in one of China’s biggest and most complex surveillance projects ever, Cisco, and other western companies will be providing the hardware and technology required for building the Chongqing surveillance system.
The new video surveillance system will have cameras covering most of the Chongqing’s intersections, neighborhoods, and parks.
By law, American companies are banned from selling or exporting “crime control” products to China.
However, they are allowed to sell products – in this case video products – which are used for non-violent purposes.
The Chongqing video surveillance project has been named “Peaceful Chongqing.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote they have no evidence that any of the equipment Cisco sells is being customized for the purpose of crime control.
The Wall Street Journal also quoted a Cisco spokesperson as saying the company “hasn’t sold video cameras or video-surveillance solutions in any of our public infrastructure projects in China.”
An article from the online media site, Fast Company, suggests how this new surveillance system could go far beyond the simple monitoring of the movements of individuals and vehicles.
The article says it would be a simple matter of linking the video surveillance system into the government’s own public ID database (which is assumed China has) to activate, for example, facial recognition capabilities.
This capability could interface with computational algorithmic formulas to be used for alerting government officials if a specific “politically questionable” individual or individuals were captured on a surveillance camera.
Their current location could also be instantly provided to government officials.
“There’s a fine line between ‘preventing crime,’ using totally off-the-shelf Cisco gear, and re-purposing that same ‘Peaceful Chongqing’ network of cameras to spy on the population,” said Kit Eaton, in the article he wrote for Fast Company.
It is commonly-known that Google has the capability of using facial recognition technology which could automatically identify the faces of people found in the many billions of web pages its search bots have crawled through and indexed over the years.
Google has not implemented this capability in their image search results, due to the possible misuse it could cause.
Nevertheless, Google has the technology available.
Also, since October 2001, the US has been tracking our location whenever we use a cell phone to place a 911 call.
Under an FCC enhanced 911 (E911) mandate, all wireless carriers must provide the geolocation of an emergency 911 caller to the appropriate public safety answering point.
The cellular triangulation technology must determine the caller’s geographical longitude and latitude location within 160 feet for 67 percent of emergency calls, and within 492 feet for 95 percent of 911 emergency calls.
The new Chinese video surveillance system could, for example, not only be connected into a facial recognition system, but also into advanced voice recognition systems, and specialized cell phone call processing monitoring systems.
This would provide an ultra-enhanced tracking capability of individuals, and is very doable using today’s best computing technology.
Right now, we know for certain that the Chinese city of Chongqing is currently installing a widespread video surveillance system networked with at least 500,000 video surveillance cameras located throughout the city, at a cost of more than $800 million.
“We built up a project team to conduct detailed planning based on local conditions and requirements in Chongqing City. We are making every effort to strengthen our technologies to deliver comprehensive city surveillance solutions to improve public safety,” said Yangzhong Hu, the president of Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
I located a picture of a video surveillance camera currently installed on a street post in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. You can see it at http://tinyurl.com/42sgope.
by Mark Ollig
The Chinese citizens living in the city of Chongqing will soon have 500,000 new surveillance cameras aimed at them.
An upgrade of the municipality’s existing video surveillance system is currently being implemented.
This project has been described as a “massive surveillance system.”
The new video surveillance system (which will blanket most of the city) is being installed in order to “create a secured environment for the city.”
Chongqing, located in southwest China, is a city of about 33 million people and covers an area of 31,800 square miles.
About 4 million people work and live in the city’s urban area.
The Chongqing Municipal People’s Government website describes the city as “Towering mountains keyed in the valley, carrying Chongqing’s three thousand years of civilization.”
The general contractor for the new video surveillance system is Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., which is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.
Hikvision is in charge of the project’s design and will see to its deployment.
The cost for the project was disclosed in an article I found from an online website called Government Security News.
The article says a press release issued by Hikvision reports the total project investment will be in excess of $800 million in US dollars.
Meanwhile, The Huffington Post, in a related story about the Chongqing project, reported an additional $1.6 billion is being added to this project from “unknown sources.”
A Wall Street Journal article states during the course of the next three years, in one of China’s biggest and most complex surveillance projects ever, Cisco, and other western companies will be providing the hardware and technology required for building the Chongqing surveillance system.
The new video surveillance system will have cameras covering most of the Chongqing’s intersections, neighborhoods, and parks.
By law, American companies are banned from selling or exporting “crime control” products to China.
However, they are allowed to sell products – in this case video products – which are used for non-violent purposes.
The Chongqing video surveillance project has been named “Peaceful Chongqing.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote they have no evidence that any of the equipment Cisco sells is being customized for the purpose of crime control.
The Wall Street Journal also quoted a Cisco spokesperson as saying the company “hasn’t sold video cameras or video-surveillance solutions in any of our public infrastructure projects in China.”
An article from the online media site, Fast Company, suggests how this new surveillance system could go far beyond the simple monitoring of the movements of individuals and vehicles.
The article says it would be a simple matter of linking the video surveillance system into the government’s own public ID database (which is assumed China has) to activate, for example, facial recognition capabilities.
This capability could interface with computational algorithmic formulas to be used for alerting government officials if a specific “politically questionable” individual or individuals were captured on a surveillance camera.
Their current location could also be instantly provided to government officials.
“There’s a fine line between ‘preventing crime,’ using totally off-the-shelf Cisco gear, and re-purposing that same ‘Peaceful Chongqing’ network of cameras to spy on the population,” said Kit Eaton, in the article he wrote for Fast Company.
It is commonly-known that Google has the capability of using facial recognition technology which could automatically identify the faces of people found in the many billions of web pages its search bots have crawled through and indexed over the years.
Google has not implemented this capability in their image search results, due to the possible misuse it could cause.
Nevertheless, Google has the technology available.
Also, since October 2001, the US has been tracking our location whenever we use a cell phone to place a 911 call.
Under an FCC enhanced 911 (E911) mandate, all wireless carriers must provide the geolocation of an emergency 911 caller to the appropriate public safety answering point.
The cellular triangulation technology must determine the caller’s geographical longitude and latitude location within 160 feet for 67 percent of emergency calls, and within 492 feet for 95 percent of 911 emergency calls.
The new Chinese video surveillance system could, for example, not only be connected into a facial recognition system, but also into advanced voice recognition systems, and specialized cell phone call processing monitoring systems.
This would provide an ultra-enhanced tracking capability of individuals, and is very doable using today’s best computing technology.
Right now, we know for certain that the Chinese city of Chongqing is currently installing a widespread video surveillance system networked with at least 500,000 video surveillance cameras located throughout the city, at a cost of more than $800 million.
“We built up a project team to conduct detailed planning based on local conditions and requirements in Chongqing City. We are making every effort to strengthen our technologies to deliver comprehensive city surveillance solutions to improve public safety,” said Yangzhong Hu, the president of Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
I located a picture of a video surveillance camera currently installed on a street post in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. You can see it at http://tinyurl.com/42sgope.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Dance the night away and create some electricity
(from the Bits & Bytes archives)
December 8, 2008
by Mark Ollig
I had a feeling this thought-provoking headline might catch someone’s attention.
Alright my faithful readers out there, are you thinking your humble columnist has gone into his midlife trying desperately to turn back the clock and recapture his youth?
Of course I have . . . everyone knows this. But the electricity I want to talk about today is called “piezoelectricity” which can be created using the energy of a moving dance floor.
Some night clubs across the big pond in Europe have special dance floors built with piezoelectrics which absorb and convert the energy from dancing footsteps into electricity. This energy is used to help power the lighting above and on the dance floor.
In the Netherlands a new “eco-nightclub” called “Club Watt” features a piezoelectric dance floor which reportedly generates almost 60 percent of the buildings electricity needs.
Each dancer generated an average of between 5 and 10 watts of power.
In the US, one of these electricity producing dance floors is located at San Francisco’s Temple Nightclub.
One source out of Texas A&M University reports of a Hong Kong gym using the technology to convert energy from exercisers to help power its lights and music.
The definition of piezoelectricity from Wikipedia summarizes it as “the ability of some materials (which includes quartz crystals and ceramics) to generate an electric potential in response to applied ‘mechanical stress.’”
The dance movement on an “eco-dance floor” would equal this mechanical stress.
So, how can electricity be generated by dancing you are asking?
The nightclub’s dance floor is fitted with a built-in “bouncing floor” (stay with me on this) which is made up of heavy springs and rectangular cylinders called “power generating blocks.” These blocks are installed in-between the springs.
The blocks are made with crystals, which will produce a small electrical current when they are compressed – this is the piezoelectricity process in action.
As the dancers continue to do the disco “Hustle” on this unique dance floor, the blocks are squeezed and the resonating causes current to be created which is directly fed into batteries.
The batteries are being constantly charged by the continued movement on the dance floor.
The electricity produced can be used to power the nightclub’s lights and other power requirements which fall within the capabilities of this piezoelectric generation of power.
MSN Encarta explains the “Piezoelectric Effect” as “an appearance of an electric potential across certain faces of a crystal when it is subjected to mechanical pressure.”
Britannica Online says: “When an electric field is applied on certain faces of the crystal, the crystal undergoes “mechanical distortion.”
It was back in 1880 when two French physicists, Pierre Curie and his brother Jacques, discovered this mechanical distortion.
They found a large piezoelectric effect in quartz, which is a crystal and also the major mineral of silicon used in the integrated circuits (chips) of your computer. They also found it in Rochelle salt, a potassium sodium tartrate (salt) which is a crystalline solid.
The brothers’ named this effect “piezoelectricity” from the Greek word “piezein” which means “to press.”
So piezoelectricity has been around for a while.
I do feel piezoelectricity will certainly continue to be used as an alternative eco-power source, especially in today’s green-conscious eco-societal environment.
On this week’s “Web Site of The Week” online forum, I have included full diagrams of this process and also added a video for you to watch.
To see a quick one minute video about the “piezoelectric dance floor” go to http://tinyurl.com/56txbd (YouTube link).
Just as this column is being finished, I was able to download the complete song tracks from the movie album “Saturday Night Fever” into my iPod off of the iTunes web site.
So, the next time you are dancing at your favorite “Retro 70s” discotheque eco-night club, ask them to crank up the disco music of the Bee Gees playing “You Should Be Dancing, “Stayin’ Alive” or “Night Fever.”
Then shake it up, shake it down – and create some piezoelectricity of your own.
December 8, 2008
by Mark Ollig
I had a feeling this thought-provoking headline might catch someone’s attention.
Alright my faithful readers out there, are you thinking your humble columnist has gone into his midlife trying desperately to turn back the clock and recapture his youth?
Of course I have . . . everyone knows this. But the electricity I want to talk about today is called “piezoelectricity” which can be created using the energy of a moving dance floor.
Some night clubs across the big pond in Europe have special dance floors built with piezoelectrics which absorb and convert the energy from dancing footsteps into electricity. This energy is used to help power the lighting above and on the dance floor.
In the Netherlands a new “eco-nightclub” called “Club Watt” features a piezoelectric dance floor which reportedly generates almost 60 percent of the buildings electricity needs.
Each dancer generated an average of between 5 and 10 watts of power.
In the US, one of these electricity producing dance floors is located at San Francisco’s Temple Nightclub.
One source out of Texas A&M University reports of a Hong Kong gym using the technology to convert energy from exercisers to help power its lights and music.
The definition of piezoelectricity from Wikipedia summarizes it as “the ability of some materials (which includes quartz crystals and ceramics) to generate an electric potential in response to applied ‘mechanical stress.’”
The dance movement on an “eco-dance floor” would equal this mechanical stress.
So, how can electricity be generated by dancing you are asking?
The nightclub’s dance floor is fitted with a built-in “bouncing floor” (stay with me on this) which is made up of heavy springs and rectangular cylinders called “power generating blocks.” These blocks are installed in-between the springs.
The blocks are made with crystals, which will produce a small electrical current when they are compressed – this is the piezoelectricity process in action.
As the dancers continue to do the disco “Hustle” on this unique dance floor, the blocks are squeezed and the resonating causes current to be created which is directly fed into batteries.
The batteries are being constantly charged by the continued movement on the dance floor.
The electricity produced can be used to power the nightclub’s lights and other power requirements which fall within the capabilities of this piezoelectric generation of power.
MSN Encarta explains the “Piezoelectric Effect” as “an appearance of an electric potential across certain faces of a crystal when it is subjected to mechanical pressure.”
Britannica Online says: “When an electric field is applied on certain faces of the crystal, the crystal undergoes “mechanical distortion.”
It was back in 1880 when two French physicists, Pierre Curie and his brother Jacques, discovered this mechanical distortion.
They found a large piezoelectric effect in quartz, which is a crystal and also the major mineral of silicon used in the integrated circuits (chips) of your computer. They also found it in Rochelle salt, a potassium sodium tartrate (salt) which is a crystalline solid.
The brothers’ named this effect “piezoelectricity” from the Greek word “piezein” which means “to press.”
So piezoelectricity has been around for a while.
I do feel piezoelectricity will certainly continue to be used as an alternative eco-power source, especially in today’s green-conscious eco-societal environment.
On this week’s “Web Site of The Week” online forum, I have included full diagrams of this process and also added a video for you to watch.
To see a quick one minute video about the “piezoelectric dance floor” go to http://tinyurl.com/56txbd (YouTube link).
Just as this column is being finished, I was able to download the complete song tracks from the movie album “Saturday Night Fever” into my iPod off of the iTunes web site.
So, the next time you are dancing at your favorite “Retro 70s” discotheque eco-night club, ask them to crank up the disco music of the Bee Gees playing “You Should Be Dancing, “Stayin’ Alive” or “Night Fever.”
Then shake it up, shake it down – and create some piezoelectricity of your own.
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