China Blogging Tour

The end of the U.S.-centric Internet? ICANN to experiment with domain names in native scripts

Riddle: they're a global phenomenon. But most of them are in English and in Roman characters. What are they?

Answer: You guessed it; domain names like www.debbieweil.com. 

The U.S. has long been accused - rightly so - of digital colonialism. Interestingly, the technology for creating multilingual domains was created ten years ago. But it's never been put to the test.

This week ICANN decided to start experimenting with domain names written entirely in native script. So instead of reaching the Google China blog by typing in www.googlechinablog.com you would type in: [Chinese text].[Chinese text].

I'll try and post a URL typed entirely in Chinese characters when I get to China. Can't do it from here.

[via A Script for Every Surfer - The Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2007]

Useful Link

The ICANN blog on new top-level domains

Links

Here are links to the blogs I mentioned in my presentations on CEO blogging to AmCham China members in Beijing and Shanghai, along with a few other useful links. I will add more to this list.

Chinese CEO & Corporate Blogs

Note: these first few are multinational blogs in Mandarin

Dell China
http://www.chinese.direct2dell.com/

Microsoft Research Asia
http://research.microsoft.com/asia/default.aspx

SAP's SOA blog community
Can't find URL

Pan Shiyi (real estate)
http://blog.sina.com.cn/panshiy

Niu Gen Sheng (dairy factory)
http://blog.sina.com.cn/niugensheng

Wang Shi
http://blog.sina.com.cn/wangshi

Charles Zhang (CEO of portal Sohu.com)
http://charles.blog.sohu.com/

CCTV news anchor Rui Chenggang's blog
http://blog.cctv.com/ruichenggang

Furniture company (sofa contest?)
http://blog.sina.com.cn/caiming

Mini Cooper Online Community
http://q.blog.sina.com.cn/bmwmini

Blog & news portal Sina.com
http://www.sina.com.cn/

U.S. Corporate & CEO Blogs 

BlogWriteForCEOs
http://www.BlogWriteForCEOs.com

Ted Leonsis, former vice chair AOL
http://ted.aol.com/

GM's Fastlane blog
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/

Dell's blog
http://direct2dell.com

Dell's Chinese blog
http://chinese.direct2dell.com

List of CEO blogs on NewPR wiki
http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=Resources.CEOBlogsList

List of Corporate blogs on NewPR wiki
http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=Resources.CorporateBlogsList

List of Fortune 500 blogs
http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi

Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems (first Fortune 500 blogger)
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/

Richard Edelman, CEO Edelman PR
http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/

Bill Marriott, CEO Marriott International
http://www.blogs.marriott.com/

Bob Parsons, CEO Go Daddy
http://www.bobparsons.com/

Southwest Airlines blog (CEO Gary Kelly is one contributor)
http://www.blogsouthwest.com/

Other Resources

The Cluetrain Manifesto (seminal book positing that "markets are conversations")
http://www.cluetrain.com/

Definitions of Social Media terms
http://falkow.blogsite.com/public/item/185226

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil (U.S. edition)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591841259/wordbiz-20

The Corporate Blogging Book (Chinese edition) by Debbie Weil
http://www.amazon.cn/detail/product.asp?prodid=zjbk566925&ref=SR&uid=168-3748598-5505844

The World Is Flat (Third Edition) by Thomas L. Friedman
http://www.amazon.com/World-Flat-History-Twenty-first-Century/dp/0312425074

The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470113456/wordbiz-20

2007 Edelman China Stakeholder Study
http://www.blogwriteforceos.com/2007_Edelman_China_Stakeholder_Study.pdf

Enabling the Social Company (Social Media 101 for Companies) by Steve Outing. Free download:
http://www.enthusiastgroup.com/social_networking_white_paper

Business Value of Blogging (free download)
http://www.blogwriteforceos.com/Business_value_of_blogging.pdf