【中文标题】谷歌与中国的对弈
【原文标题】Google and China's chess game
【登载媒体】BBC
【原文作者】Maggie Shiels
【原文链接】http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/03/google_china_chess_game.html
谷歌花了两个月的时间终于决定停止在中文搜索引擎中过滤搜索结果，这可能是有史以来最漫长的一步棋，但也是最激动人心的一步。
哈佛大学伯克曼互联网社区中心的合伙创建人Jonathan Zittrain教授和我说，谷歌这是在给赌博加注。
“这一举措把中国暴露在聚光灯下，它要回答一个问题，即它是否要过滤一个被香港认为是合法的网站。我的猜想是，他们在真正行动之前会有大量的争论，最终会由高层下这个决定。”
谷歌曾经通过博客声明，中国可能采取行动来封锁其部分服务。为此，谷歌专门开辟了一个网页来监控是否有任何服务被封锁。
自从谷歌把其在12月份遭到黑客攻击的事件公之于众之后，它一直被孤零零地晾在那里。坦承自身存在系统漏洞是很少见的行为，其余二、三十家同样遭到攻击的公司都或多或少地隐身在幕后。
同样，在谷歌迈出被很多人认为大胆的一步，停止过滤其搜索结果之后，它得到的支持大部分都来自倡导组织和压力集团（译者注：旨在影响政策和民众舆论的非正式团体），而不是那些大牌的科技公司。
那么这对其它那些在中国做生意的高科技公司意味着什么？他们也会追随谷歌的脚步吗？大部分评论人士认为不会。
民主科技中心的Leslie Harris说：“在中国的美国公司必须要权衡一下，他们是否愿意放弃能力范围之内的事情，而公开自己的内部信息。他们早晚要决定是否继续在这个市场上运作，说所有公司都会追随谷歌而去显然是不现实的。”
Zittrain教授说他不认为会有哪个大牌公司在近期还敢在城墙上探头。他说：“其它公司就像藏在桌子下面的小孩子，等着家长打完架。”
即使是世界上最强大的互联网公司，人们也认为它不会轻松地与中国政权抗衡。当面对这个具有强大经济实力和3.84亿网民的国家时，很多人希望谷歌应该明哲保身，而不是挺身而出。
还有一些人认为应该采取更温柔的方式。美国商会的一份调查报告暗示了这个观点，其中提到越来越多的美国公司感到在这个国家不受欢迎。
Jacqueline Newmyer是长远战略集团的董事长，这是一家位于马萨诸塞剑桥大学里的研究公司。他对Market Watch说：“谷歌的新姿态能维持多久，以及这是否是西方公司试图驾驭政治体系所采取行动的极限，都是一个问题。”
但是，在谷歌创始人之一Sergey Brin接受纽约时报的采访时，他非常明确地表示这一举措与他个人的观念有极大的关系。以此来看，谷歌接下来只有一条路可以走了。
他6岁前都在苏联的专制政权下生活，那里不允许政治演讲。Brin先生承认，这段经历影响了他的思维方式，也影响了谷歌的政策制定方向。
他承认：“我的观点，以及公司的观点都毫无疑问地受其影响。”
原文：
It might be regarded as one of the slowest chess games in history, given that it took Google two months to make its move to stop filtering results on its Chinese language search engine. But it is also one of the most dramatic.
Professor Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University, told me that Google's play has certainly upped the ante.
"This now puts China in the spotlight to answer the question of whether or not they want to filter a site that is legal in Hong Kong. My guess is there will be a lot of discussion before they do that and it will be done at a high level."
In a blog post, Google has said it recognises that China could take action and block its services. To that end, it has launched a webpage to monitor what services, if any, are being blocked.
Ever since Google went public about the cyber-attacks it suffered back in December, it has occupied a lonely stage. While it was very unusual for a firm to 'fess up about such a breach, the other 20-or-30-odd companies that got hit have all more-or-less stayed hidden in the wings.
Similarly, after Google took what has been seen by many as a bold step in ending censorship of its results, support has largely come from advocacy organisations and pressure groups as opposed to big named technology companies.
So what does this mean for other high-tech firms doing business in China? Will they come out and follow in Google's footsteps? Most commentators seem to think not.
"US companies in China will have to balance the concerns about complicity with their ability to provide access to information," said Leslie Harris of the Centre for Democracy and Technology.
"There may come a point where you need to consider whether you continue to operate in the market. It is going too far to say every company must follow Google's lead."
Professor Zittrain said he doesn't expect any big names to put their heads above the parapet any time soon.
"Other companies are basically hunkered down under the table waiting for their parents to finish fighting. They don't want to get into this," said Professor Zittrain.
Even if you are the world's most powerful internet company, one imagines it can't be easy going up against a regime like China's. With its economic might and its growing internet population of over 384m, many might have expected Google to play safe rather than come out fighting in this way.
Some might have preferred a more softly-softly approach - or so hints a survey released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China. It indicated that an increasing number of US firms are being made to feel unwelcome in the country.
"There are questions about the durability of Google's new position, and whether we've reached a tipping point in terms of Western firms and their ability to navigate the political shoals of doing business in China," Jacqueline Newmyer, president of Long Term Strategy Group, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based defence research firm told Market Watch.
But a brief interview that Google co-founder Sergey Brin gave to the New York Times leaves no-one in any doubt that for him there is a very personal aspect to all of this, suggesting that there was only ever one path for Google to follow.
He lived in the Soviet Union until he was six-years-old under a totalitarian regime that clamped down on political speech. Mr Brin admitted that experience left its mark and affected his thinking and that of Google's policy.
"It has definitely shaped my views, and some of my company's views," he admitted. |
狗仔卡
发表于 2010-3-25 16:18
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发表于 2010-3-25 16:45
我想 当年谷歌来中国发展放下身段 进入中国市场是某种阴谋 为的是当得到中国网络主导地位的时候 利用这种优势颠覆ZF 可没想到后来出了个百度,他们的阴谋才没得逞 ,这是我自己猜测别骂啊
