Current Status and Future Prospects of Public Understanding of Science based

on Internet in China

Prof. Yan Baoping

Computer Network Information Center of CAS

HTTP://www.kepu.net.cn

OutlineOutline

Internet in ChinaWhy public understanding of science based on

Internet in ChinaWhat’s the current status

– Overview– Some cases– China Popular Science Exhibition

A series of virtual museums about public understanding of science based on Internet

Problems faced by us Suggestions

Internet in ChinaInternet in China Computers connected to Internet: 9,420,000

– Directly connected: 1,490,000– Dialing up: 7,930,000

The number of Internet users: 23,860,000– users directly connected : 3,850,000– Users through dialing up : 16,390,000– Users in both ways: 3,620,000

The Number of websites in China: 37,950The total bandwidth connected to other countries

– 2799M– Including American, Canada, Japan, Australia,German and so on

Internet in China (2)Internet in China (2)

Percentage of users under 35 ages: 90%

According to the report by CNNIC in 2000.12

Why public understanding of science Why public understanding of science based on Internet in Chinabased on Internet in China

More and more young people in china are using or attempting to use the Internet

There are many Advantages by using Internet to get information– No time limit– No space limit– Open– Interactivity– Multimedia– Information can be saved and reused

What’s the What’s the ccurrent status urrent status

Overview– No more than 200 websites provide popular

science information service– The percentage is only 0.5%– The are no more than 20 websites which only

provide popular science information service

Some cases (1)Some cases (1)

Websites for social commonweal – China Popular Science Exhibition

http://www.kepu.net.cn Sponsored by CNIC, CAS

– China Public Understanding of Science http://www.cpus.gov.cn sponsored by the Department of Policy, Regulation and System

Reforming, Ministry of Science and Technology

– China People’s Science and Technology http://www.cpst.net.cn sponsored by China Association of Science and Technology

Some cases (2)Some cases (2)

Websites for social commonweal– Beijing Windows for Science Communication

http://www.bjkp.gov.cn sponsored by Beijing Association of Science and Technology

– Characteristics of these websites Supported by central or local government somewhat authoritative and policy-oriented managed and operated in a standard way contents are more plentiful and systematic

Some cases (3)Some cases (3)

Websites for commercial interest– SCITOM of TOM.COM

http://www.scitom.com.cn

– China Science Communication City http://www.stcity.net.cn

– Science of Netease http://science.163.com

– Characteristics of these websites Driven by commercial interest, these web sites target at practicabi

lity with original and vivid design.

Some cases (4)Some cases (4)

Personal websites– Big Eyes Website for Science Communication and Educ

ation http://www.eyecn.com built and maintained by a group of teacher volunteers

– Wuliucun China Culture and Science Communication http://go.163.com/~sltao built by Dr. Tao Shilong

– Characteristics of these websites Personal interest, no restrict and no funding contents selected randomly can not be updated in time

China popular Science China popular Science ExhibitionExhibition

Background– Sponsored by CAS, NSFC, MST– Many institutes and scientists in CAS attend

enthusiastically– Advantage in scientific information

Biggest scientific database in China

– Advantage in network CSTNET

– Opened up on Oct, 1999 Lake museum, Astronomy museum, Plant museum,

Hydrobiology museum

Status of the website Status of the website (2000.12)

Virtual Museums– In Chinese version： 19– In English version： 3

Total data: 1105M– Total HTML Files: 27,862– Total Picture Files: 25,256– Total Multimedia Files: 500

Mirror Sites:– Taiwan, China– Nanjing City, China– Tianjing City, China– One site will be in USA

Status of the website Status of the website (2000.12)

Requested Logo for the main site– Page view per day: 10,000+– Users per day: 1000+– Files requested per day: 60,000+– Record of the page view : 20,611(2000.11.2)– Record of files requested: 198,706（ 2000.10.26)

Feature of the websiteFeature of the website

ScientificSystematic

– Organized in different discipline

Authoritative– Contents were written by scientists and experts

Interesting– Make full use of multimedia and other technologies

Highlight the Chinese special contents

Future plan for the China Popular Future plan for the China Popular Science ExhibitionScience Exhibition

Develop more virtual museums in Chinese version Develop as many virtual museums in English version as

we can Have more mirror sites which will spread all over the

world Design and develop some multimedia compact disks

based on the website Publish a series of books based on the website Organize some activities, such as science trips and science

summer camps More international and internal cooperation

Problems Faced by UsProblems Faced by Us

contents lack recreation for Internet neglected the interactivity of Internet and

the diversity of mediaSeriously lacking of contents No internal cooperationNo international cooperationShort of funding

SuggestionsSuggestions

Build some websites for public understanding of science on national level

Research the characteristics of public understanding of science based on Internet

R&D new technologies – Multimedia– Virtual Reality

More internal cooperation Develop international cooperation

The virtual museums about public understanding of science will be built up by all scientists together in the world!