blogger - An emerging Chinese conversation

Xiao Qiang of the journalism school of UC Berkeley and spiritual father of the China Digital News summerizes for the New Scientist the history of the first few years of weblogging in China. Despite is short history, weblogs start to emerge as a growing force.
The article features prominently Isaac Mao and illustrates how, now semi-private, chinanewsman.net developed into a powerful weblog for 5,000 Chinese journalists.
Communication is changing from a lecture into a conversation, to paraphrase Dan Gillmor. It will be a tough call for both traditional media and governments that like to lecture.