Thomas Crampton, who oversees social media strategy in the Asia-Pacific region for the marketing and communications company Ogilvy and Mather, spoke to a standing room only audience at a seminar hosted by SPRIE about how controls imposed by the Chinese government have created a vibrant and unique social media domestic ecosystem.

Daniel C. Sneider, associate director for research at Shorenstein Asian-Pacific Research Center, also shared his views on the issue of the role of the internet and social media in social and political change.

Much has been written of late about the PRC government's efforts to control and censor the internet. The government's censorship of websites is an important issue, but it is not the top priority of the country's 420 million internet users or netizens. Their top priority is to connect with other Chinese online. The internet has opened access to information for ordinary Chinese citizens in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Coming from a world where information was pre-filtered by editors at state-run media, China's internet is freewheeling by comparison.

"China's government officials are the most savvy in understanding the power of social media and actively trying to shape its use," Crampton noted at the talk. Rather than eliminate social media, restrictions on foreign websites and social media have resulted in a flourishing home-grown, state-approved ecosystem in which Chinese-owned properties thrive. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have faced blockage in China, but their Chinese equivalents are expanding. According to the official statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) , the number of Chinese netizens reached 420 million at the end of June 2010. But their patterns of use vary from those in other countries. Quoting a 2008 MTV Music Matters survey, Crampton showed a graph that young people across Asia have made a similar number of friends online and offline. Only in China, however, young people actually have more friends online than offline. This points to a convergence of the offline and online worlds, where it is less important to distinguish between what happens online from the "real world." In China, more than in many countries, social media has become deeply integrated into people's lives.

China's government officials are the most savvy in understanding the power of social media and actively trying to shape its use.

- Thomas Crampton, Ogilvy and MatherIn China, as elsewhere in Asia, local variations of internet usage are driven by language, culture, levels of economic development, and the underlying digital ecosystem. For example, rather than short videos popular on YouTube, China's Youku and Tudou are filled with longer form of content, up to 70 percent of which is professionally produced, though individual Chinese users produce and post videos too. Users in China spend up to an hour per day on these sites, compared with less than 15 minutes spent by Americans on YouTube. In the way they present programs, the Chinese sites seem more like online television stations or a replacement for digital video recorders.

Twitter vs. Sina Weibo

Crampton cited another difference between Chinese and foreign social media that is rooted in language. At first glance, Sina Weibo is a latecomer to the microblog phenomenon. Launched in 2009, just about three years after Twitter, it is by far the most popular microblogging platform in China.

Similar to Twitter, Sina Weibo allows users to post 140-character messages, and users can follow friends and find interesting comments posted by others. Small but important differences in the platform have made some say it is a Twitter clone, but better. For example, unlike Twitter, Sina Weibo allows users to post videos and photos, comment on other people's updates, and easily add comments when re-posting a friend's message.

Though mobile phones are used to send less than 20 percent of Twitter updates in the United States, nearly half of Sina Weibo's updates are sent via mobile phone. This phenomenon points to the growth of China's mobile internet, one of the biggest trends in China and Asia.

Perhaps the most striking difference between Chinese and foreign social media, however, is the length of communications expressed via microblogs in Chinese versus English. One measure is to look at what Dell Inc., a company skilled at social media, can communicate on microblogs in Chinese compared to English. Twitter holds messages to 140 characters, which is quite short in English, especially if users want to include a URL. Dell often uses its Twitter feed, @delloutlet, to promote special offers, such as this posting: "Today's Deal: Get FREE Eco-Lite Sleeve with the purchase of any Dell Outlet Insprion Mini 10 or 10v Netbook! http://bit.ly/77fUFG." This message came in at 136 characters, almost the maximum length.

Since each character in Chinese is a word, @delldirect, Dell's Chinese-language feed, can write much more using the Chinese-language Zuosa microblogging platform. As translated by Ogilvy's Beijing team, a similar message reads: "Dell's National Day Sale runs from Sept. 11 to Oct. 8. To celebrate the 60th anniversary with the motherland, Dell Home Computers is offering 6 cool gifts and deals on 10 computer models. These exciting offers will run non-stop for 4 weeks. Also, get a free upgrade to color casing and a 512MB independent graphics card, as well as other service upgrades. All offers are on a first-come, first-served basis. What are you waiting for? Act now!" Even with a message of this length-114 characters in Chinese-there is still enough space to put in a webpage link. In other words, 114 characters in Chinese translates into 434 characters in English, well beyond the text limit of a "tweet" in English. This language efficiency turns microblogging in China into a more blog-like platform.

Pradnya Palande's passion for improving human health through scientific research began during her graduate studies, and has continued to the present day through her work with Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) of India. Palande, a 2010-2011 Corporate Affiliates Fellow, holds a master's degree in zoology, with a specialization in animal physiology and a minor in biotechnology. "I used to dream of getting a job in the biotechnology industry," she says. Within just a few short months of graduating, Palande began working for RLS, and she has enjoyed serving the company for the past nine years.

RLS belongs to the Reliance Group, one of India's largest corporate entities. It conducts research in a wide variety of areas, such as stem cell therapy, molecular medicine, and industrial biotechnology, and it offers products ranging from therapeutic proteins to tissue-cultured plants. "RLS is a life sciences company in the truest sense," Palande states. In her role as a team leader for the company's biopharmaceuticals division, which is headed by Dr. Venkata Ramana, she conducts literature searches and strategic planning for new research projects, and also supports regulatory audits. In addition to her primary duties, Palande is dedicated to her role as secretary of the safety observation committee. "RLS believes in safety and a safe working culture," Palande emphasizes. "It is a perfect place for me to work."

During her year at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC), Palande is conducting cancer-related research in a laboratory under the direction of Cliff L. Wang of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Her Shorenstein APARC advisors are Rafiq Dossani, a senior research scholar, and Karen Eggleston, the director of the Asia Health Policy Program. Palande and her fellow researchers in Wang's lab are studying the population dynamics of cancer cells. In the process of cancer development, Palande explains, it is thought that cells often develop high mutational activity before accumulating mutations that lead to cancer. Mutations—changes in the genome sequence—can be advantageous, benign, or harmful to cells. Palande is examining whether a high mutation rate provides a survival advantage to cancer cells. For this, she is studying the activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) enzyme, which plays a key role in the development of immune response in the human body. The goal of the project is to provide insight into the nature of cancer development, and also to give direction for the prevention of chemotherapy resistance due to AID activity.

"Before I leave for India, I would like to complete my project successfully in a way that will instigate future research in cancer biology," Palande says. Upon returning to RLS, she intends to apply some of the concepts that she has gained while conducting research at Stanford. She also hopes to build upon the Stanford management classes that she has been auditing, studying the subject in more detail with the intention of utilizing it in her work at RLS.

"It has been a great privilege for me to work at Stanford, and it has been an amazing experience," she states. "Interacting with people from various backgrounds has been enlightening. Also, I am quite impressed by the professionalism of people [in the United States], their helping nature, and their free way of life. I love it." She adds that through her Stanford research and classes, her horizons have been broadened.

As passionate about the natural world as she is about scientific research, Palande looks forward to traveling more before returning to India. "I love traveling to be close to nature," she says. Also something of an adventurer, she has taken a rock-climbing course and has tried skydiving. Inspired by the range of activities in the United States, she plans to take an activity class, such as dance, after returning to India. "I want to keep myself as active and healthy as possible," she says with a smile.