Editor Liz Steffey and I have just returned from China. Our first stop was Shanghai, where I spoke about blogging and moderated a closing session on enterprise social networking at China’s first Web 2.0 conference, “Nurturing and Commercializing Online Communities.” It was fascinating to see the Chinese equivalents of companies like Twitter, and to hear the discussion of building and nurturing communities online, a subject I organized a panel about in New York recently for the Software & Information Industry Association.
Then on to Beijing for photo research and meetings with publishers about Chinese editions of Berkshire titles. The photo shows Liz and me with GONG Li, president of the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, in front of the photographs of editors to their major reference works.
One of the charms of doing business in China is that meetings are generally followed by extraordinary Chinese meals, and this was no exception, with Peking duck and a wide range of Sichuan dishes. If only we could recreate them here!
People outside the United States appreciate our focus on global information and ideas and our eagerness to bring fresh perspectives to U.S. students. We’re also developing connections with Chinese librarians, who are primarily in academic settings , but the school and public library sectors in China are also growing. There’s a great focus on education, as you know, and a desire to build links with colleagues around the world, and we think librarians can play an important role in improving understanding between the United States (and other Western nations) and China. You also have a vital role to play in educating today’s students, who know that their careers are likely to be influenced by developments in China.
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