Jay's Mobile Lifestream

Tech-culture futurist and ranting blogger, Jay Oatway, is pushing video blogging in Hong Kong to dizzying heights with his mobile lifestream. His latest posting, wittily reminds us of tonight's social mixer, ""It’s Web Wednesday tonight, when HK’s Internet geeks come out and get drunk." Here's the full mobile video posting, filmed and uploaded live from his HTC mobile on the Peak Tram earlier today:



For more of his thought provoking rants, you can visit his blog (portension.com), subscribe to his lifestream feedburner feed (on assignment for Charged magazine) or hang out on his Youtube channel.

Figleaves - Special Valentine's Offer

Do you remember Charlie Bodycote (no, that's not him featured above!), who flew in from the UK to attend our Social Mixer V8.0 event in January?

As a Founder and CTO of Figleaves, a lingerie, underwear and swimwear site for men and women, he's generously offering all our Web Wednesday members (450 of you!) a 20% discount off all their products on the UK site, figleaves.com/uk.

Enter "HONGKONG" when you complete your purchase. Offer open until end of Feb 2008 for all deliveries to Hong Kong. Shipping costs from the UK are very reasonable, only GBP4 or HK$65 or so.

Interview with Thomas Crampton, Next Media

Hard-hitting international correspondent and new media entrepreneur, Thomas Crampton, called me in for a sharp shooting interview to talk about the internet scene in Hong Kong for Next Media's live interactive web TV channel, Apple Action News.

You can view the interview below and visit Thomas' full posting, where he introduces some of the companies we talked about (Discuss, Open Radio, Sifu TV, Frenzoo, Dookaz, EditGrid, Bullpoo and Jade Tower). This is a trial technology with video call ins so all comments welcome.

Kung Hei 'Rat' Choi

As we transition from the bloated Year of the Pig into the scandalous Year of the Rat, a (sadly large) segment of the internet and media community has gleefully leapt from the trough into the gutter. On top of ruining the careers of local celebrities, what's more at stake is the issue of safe harbour and protecting people's privacy and rights in the online world.

Thankfully, we still have high-quality journalism to draw us back to the issues that really matter. The folks at the Wall Street Journal came out with this multimedia report on the value and taste of rats in Vietnam. In the last rodent cycle 12 years ago, rats were very much on the menu in Southern China. I'm not sure if we've moved on or whether the freezing temperatures have frozen up all our rodent delights in this part of the world.



To cheer you up after those post-CNY blues, the creative team at Atomic Sushi (thanks for the witty headline!) have created a catchy Facebook game, aplty named "Rat Race".

Baidu - 100 Degrees of Cold

Unlike the mash-up map launched by Google China (see our previous posting), the Mainland's leading search engine, Baidu, has devoted its person-of-the-month page (renwu.baidu.com) to the people affected by this year's wintry woes.

The page includes a new section offering links to weather reports and charity organizations providing support to those affected by heavy snow. Baidu also replaced its standard Baidu Zhidao and news links with Baidu Post and Baidu Space links related to recent frost-bitten events.

There are plenty of charity groups out there, but we recommend World Vision Hong Kong. You can donate directly via their website or print out the donation form. So far they have committed HK$2 million and their relief teams have reached Hunan, Guangxi, Anhui and Jiangxi to distribute 40,000 quilts to villagers to ease their desperate situation.

Sending warmth in the snow

Unlike the sexual diatribes of Edison Chan, Hong Kong's other celebrities are putting their fame to good use and have teamed together to "send warmth in the snow" (雪中送暖) to brothers and sisters in the mainland being hit by the record freezing weather. The Chinese description of the video puts it very well: "五十年一遇的暴雪肆虐中國十幾個省區，災情嚴重，災民的苦況，牽動著每一個人的心。香 港百位藝人參與大合唱，為內地同胞送上溫暖關懷的歌聲". Or in English, "The worst snow storms in 50 years have struck 10 provinces in China, causing serious damage and bitter pain which has deeply moved everyone. Over 100 Hong Kong celebrities have united their voices in song to send warmth and care to their brethren in the Mainland."

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) brought the artists together to sing this song and distribute it over RTHK channel on Youtube. Hopefully, the gatekeepers of the Great Chinese Firewall will let this one through!

Stranded in China? Google to the Rescue!

With snow storms raging across China, the odds of migrant workers getting home to their loved ones for Chinese New Year holidays seem increasingly low. The cover of today's Wall Street Journal relates a very personal story about a lady stranded in Beijing and reinforces the message with photos like the one below (thanks to Reuters).

The innovative team at Google China are doing their bit - and beating Baidu to the game - by publishing an interactive map that pulls the latest news about weather and transportation blockages into a mash-up map of the People's Republic of China. How's that for giving back to the society?

Click on the icons below for the latest updates.



查看大图