Forum held to address online governance issues

A forum about Internet and nation governance, as well as the changing academic landscape, was held on Saturday at Fudan University.

Li Liangrong, director of the communication and country governance research center of Fudan, pointed out that in the cyberspace, Internet companies like Baidu and Tencent are more influential than traditional media and public opinions on Internet begin not to rely on traditional media.

He also said the well-educated middle class has become the main representatives of online public opinion, who are concerned about issues like education, health care, environment and security with rational attitudes.

While on the technical aspect, the fast development of intelligent Internet, such as personalized service or information distribution, writing robot and big data, has been reconstructing journalistic practices and overthrowing traditional ways of knowledge learning and production.

Meanwhile, our governments are also promoting cyberspace management to build up a safe online environment, according to Li.

The university released its second edition of top 10 cases of online governance.

These included the data service website in Shanghai, which was set up in 2012 as the first website in China to make date collected by the government to the public.

By October 19, the website has collected 54,145 pieces of data from 41 departments, covering almost all walks of life, such as economy, resources and environment, education and science, urban construction, transport, social development, public security and health.