Current Status and Future Prospects of Public Understanding of Science based on Internet in China Prof. Yan Baoping Computer Network Information Center of CAS

Outline Internet in China Why public understanding of science based on Internet in China What’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 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: 37,950 The total bandwidth connected to other countries – 2799M – Including American, Canada, Japan, Australia,German and so on

Internet in China (2) Percentage of users under 35 ages: 90% According to the report by CNNIC in

Why public understanding of science based 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 c 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) Websites for social commonweal – China Popular Science Exhibition Sponsored by CNIC, CAS – China Public Understanding of Science sponsored by the Department of Policy, Regulation and System Reforming, Ministry of Science and Technology – China People’s Science and Technology sponsored by China Association of Science and Technology

Some cases (2) Websites for social commonweal – Beijing Windows for Science Communication 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) Websites for commercial interest – SCITOM of TOM.COM – China Science Communication City – Science of Netease – Characteristics of these websites Driven by commercial interest, these web sites target at practicability with original and vivid design.

Some cases (4) Personal websites – Big Eyes Website for Science Communication and Education built and maintained by a group of teacher volunteers – Wuliucun China Culture and Science Communication 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 Exhibition 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 ( ) 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 ( ) Requested Logo for the main site – Page view per day: 10,000+ – Users per day: – Files requested per day: 60,000+ – Record of the page view : 20,611( ) – Record of files requested: 198,706 （ )

Feature of the website Scientific Systematic – 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 Science 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 Us contents lack recreation for Internet neglected the interactivity of Internet and the diversity of media Seriously lacking of contents No internal cooperation No international cooperation Short of funding

Suggestions 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!