010 the internet

Censored content in China

Research into the mainland Chinese Internet censorship has shown that censored websites include:

- Websites belonging to outlawed organizations, including Falun Gong, Tibetan independence, and Taiwan independence

- News sources that often cover some taboo topics such as police brutality, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, freedom of speech, democracy, and Marxist sites. These sites include Voice of America, BBC News, and Yahoo! Hong Kong.

- Web sites that host user content, such as Blogspot, Wikipedia, and Geocities

- Obscenity, Pornography and criminal activity

Blocked websites are indexed to a lesser[w] degree, if at all, by some Chinese search engines, such as Baidu and Google China. This sometimes has considerable[w] impact[w] on the search results.

c) Publishing web pages

The Web is available to individuals outside mass media. In order to "publish" a web page, one does not have to go through a publisher or other media institution, and potential readers could be found in all corners of the globe.

Unlike books and documents, hypertext does not have a linear order from the beginning to the end. It is not broken down into the hierarchy of chapters, sections, subsections, etc.

Many different kinds of information are now available on the Web, and for those who wish to know other societies, their cultures and peoples, it has become easier. When travelling in a foreign country or a remote town, one might be able to find some information about the place on the Web, especially if the place is in one of the developed countries. Local newspapers, government publications, and other materials are easier to access, and therefore the variety of information obtainable with the same effort may be said to have increased, for the users of the Internet.

quality website must:

• be transparent, clearly stating the identity and purpose of the website, as well as the organisation responsible for its management

• select, digitise, author, present and validate content to create an effective website for users

• implement quality of service policy guidelines to ensure that the website is maintained and updated at an appropriate level

• be accessible to all users, irrespective of the technology they use or their disabilities, including navigation, content, and interactive elements

• be user-centred, taking into account the needs of users, ensuring relevance and ease of use through responding to evaluation and feedback

• be responsive, enabling users to contact the site and receive an appropriate reply. Where appropriate, encourage questions, information sharing and discussions with and between users

• be aware of the importance of multi-linguality by providing a minimum level of access in more than one language

• be committed to being interoperable within cultural networks to enable users to easily locate the content and services that meet their needs

• be managed to respect legal issues such as IPR and privacy and clearly state the terms and conditions on which the website and its contents may be used

• adopt strategies and standards to ensure that the website and its content can be preserved for the long-term

• transparent - effective - maintained - accessible - user-centred - responsive - multi-lingual - interoperable - managed – preserved