Amidst the week’s controversies and new developments, there were some stories which stood out as significant – ones that will reverberate for some time to come. Here are our blogger’s picks for the more momentous news items of the week.
Charlie’s picks:
Beijing says SMS weather warnings impossible; but then Guangdong sends 30 million weather warning texts before storm
Though the sales revenue stats from phone-maker Xiaomi are impressive, I have experienced Beijing’s rainpocalypse myself, so I’ve got to go with this story about how Beijing’s government might have prevented some of the deaths (the death toll has now been officially raised to 77) by sending warning text messages to the city’s mobile users. But authorities didn’t. The meteorological bureau claimed that was technologically impossible. But just a few days later, the Guangdong provincial government sent out 30 million warning texts about a dangerous storm. China’s three major telcos have all also denied that there would be any technological issues with sending warning texts.
Beijing floods last weekend. City residents got no emergency warnings. (Image from Agence France-Presse)
Rick’s pick:
Beijing says SMS weather warnings impossible
I agree with Charlie on this one. Living in Japan, I see the advantages and potential of communication technologies in responding to serious disasters. And if China cannot make the most of communication technologies in the same way that other countries do, then it’s at a serious disadvantage. This text message failure is one example, but I can’t help but think that the restrictions that the government puts on social/self-publishing services like Google’s, as I’ve said before, are a serious handicap when it deals with disasters and needs to communicate quickly.
Willis’ pick:
An act of class by Yahoo Indonesia
There are some quite big news stories across Asia this week. Tough choice, seriously. But my pick would be Yahoo Indonesia giving back all Koprol intellectual property and assets to the founding team. That comes after Yahoo said it would shutter the startup that it bought a few years back. That’s seriously classy, giving back to the entrepreneurs like that, and will certainly stay in my mind for a long time. Two other bits of news which very much interest me are Xiaomi’s monstrous $1 billion in sales revenue; and also Chope, a Singapore-based startup, which has served one million diners and also expanded to Hong Kong. Lots of big numbers!
Steven’s pick:
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