inform, educate and entertain and that's it

The internet in Xinjiang is being very slowly opened up again. Here are the currently permitted sites:

*7 News Sites (including China Daily and CCTV)

* 4 Travel Sites (including Ctrip and Air China)

* 3 Business & Finance Sites * 3 Telecom Sites (all three major Chinese carriers)

* 2 Shopping Sites (including Taobao, China’s version of eBay)

* 2 Computer Service Sites (so you can update your anti-virus)

* 2 Gaming Sites (more flash games…yippee)

* 2 Education Sites (study materials for students and help for teachers)

* 1 Fashion Site

via. What’s interesting about this part of the process is that it’s where you see the mind of the government at work through the kind of sites permitted, or possibly even of government full stop. Obviously the circumstances and actions of the internet ban are specific to China but that’s hardly the only place you can imagine the government wondering “if we could do the internet all over again with proper enlightened management what kind of sites would we let people see” and coming to a similar result.

I like the sop for the laydees at the end of the list. It’s like that old Castlemaine ad where the stockman’s loading his pickup with crates of beer and the shopkeeper says: “something for the ladies?"... “Oh yeah, a couple of bottles of sweet sherry mate...”

Comments

[Alex]

Very similar to the sort of thing on yer usual telco "portal" or for that matter to the top sites on Minitel (without the wild pop-culture/porno ghetto of the 3615 namespace).