Uber Buys Local StartUp HKTaxi

One of Hong Kong’s first legal ride-hailing apps HKTaxi, founded in 2014 by Kay Lui and Maff Wong has been bought by Uber.

When it originally launched the HKTaxi app replaced many of the existing phone-based hailing systems. Now you can use the app to pay by Octopus or e-wallet, tip the driver in advance to encourage them to take your booking etc…

Kay-Lui-and-Estyn-Chung-hk taxi

“HKTaxi has been able to transform the Hong Kong taxi industry by turning the traditional phone call taxi into a taxi booking app, allowing riders to easily find drivers and vice versa, and enabling electronic payment in the Hong Kong taxi industry. All these features and services greatly improve the overall user experience,” said backer Lap Man.

Uber Hong Kong General Manager Estyn Chung said of the deal “It is an honour to partner with them in bringing greater innovation and growth to the taxi industry. When people think of Uber they increasingly think of taxis, and this deal only emphasizes the importance we place in the sector, in both Hong Kong and around the world.”

images: HKTaxi, transitjam, bcmagazine

HK SciFest 2021

With “Technology For Our Future” as the theme the HK SciFest 2021 aims to encourage the public to learn more about the latest achievements in science and technology as well as the development trends of the future in order to take advantage of technology wisely for dealing with future changes and challenges.

During the festival, 26 March – 11 April, at the HK Science Museum new exhibitions will explore different aspects of ‘science’ including the world of flowers, encounters between amateur naturalists and nature, the application of science and technology in agriculture, the future of seed technology, as well as global climate change.

Highlighted events this year include Fun Science Carnival, Croucher Science Week, and a series of STEM x SCM online activities which looks to expand and engage public interest in and understanding of science, technology, engineering.  There are also guided tours, science lectures and workshops aiming to provide diverse science experiences for people of all ages.

The 11 April, closing event Technologies of Gyroscope and Robotics  (broadcast live on www.youtube.com/user/hksciencemuseum) will have robots performing Tai Chi and tightrope walking to demonstrate how they maintain balance using gyroscopic technology.

Full schedule of HK SciFest 2021 events www.hk.science.museum/scifest2021

HK SciFest 2021
Date: 26 March – 11 April, 2021
Venue: Hong Kong Science Museum
Tickets: various

Aliens from the Galactic Silk Road

The 3rd Asian Sci-Fi Festival Melon will be held at JW Marriott, Hong Kong on Saturday 23rd March 2019. The festival focuses on science fiction, innovation and the future… Leading science fiction writers, scientists, industry professionals and fans from across Asia, China and the west discuss what’s next in science fiction, entrepreneurship and the future.

Melon 2019 will feature aliens, the future of science fiction writing, filmmaking and gaming as well as exploring the latest scientific research, innovative technology such as AI development, space exploration and Mars terraforming.

Date: 8am, 23 March, 2019
Venue: JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong
Tickets: US$450, US$250 (advance)

MarketingPulse @ HKCEC – 21 March, 2018

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Marketing-Pulse-HKCEC-21-March-2018/i-73wLjVr

An integrated branding and marketing conference, the inaugural MarketingPulse, organised by the HKTDC, featured a diverse range of interesting presentations on marketing trends and practices from across the globe. As well some amazing creatives illustrating these trends and practices in action. Watch the video of some of the presentations on youtube – link below.
Click on any photo for the full gallery of images.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Marketing-Pulse-HKCEC-21-March-2018/i-V7S6BDn

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Marketing-Pulse-HKCEC-21-March-2018/i-cBNVXvX

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Marketing-Pulse-HKCEC-21-March-2018/i-3z4rwgB

Virtual Frontiers, Art and Tilt Brush

Hidden away in the corner of the Collectors Lounge is Virtual Frontiers, Art Basel‘s collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, the results of a group of artists who were invited to create works using the Tilt Brush virtual reality app. And if you wondered why you needed to upgrade your pc and buy a VR headset, Tilt Brush a 3D drawing and painting application is that reason. Released a year ago (sadly only for Windows) it is quite amazing both in the creative sense and in the exploration of other’s creations.

The artists invited to explore and create with Tilt Brush for Art Basel included Cao Fei, Robin Rhode, Sun Xun and Yang Yongliang who attended residencies at Google’s offices in Beijing and Paris to create the series of interactive works on display during the show and in which you can literally climb inside and explore the creations.

Eternal Landscape (2017), Yang Yongliang‘s Tilt Brush work uses the ‘Shan Shui’, traditional style of Chinese ink painting that depicts scenery or natural landscapes and is often considered to be one of ancient China’s most important contributions to the history of art. ‘Eternal Landscape’ recreates a traditional Shan Shui landscape in a virtual immersive realm, while trying to preserve the classical aesthetics.

With Gusheshe (2017), which in South African township slang translates to ‘go faster’ or ‘very fast’, Robin Rhode references the BMW E30, a model that was produced and driven on the streets of the townships of South Africa in the early 1990’s, a politically tumultuous time for the country. Rhode took inspiration from the iconic street culture in South Africa and re-imagined ‘Gusheshe’ animated in a virtual setting.

The Previous Life of the Yimatu Mountain (2017) by Sun Xun is a portrait of Yimatu, the highest mountain in Fuxin in Liaoning Province, the artist’s hometown. It focuses on the way the artist imagines what life around the Yimatu mountain would have been like in the past.

Cao Fei’s mixed reality film, titled Derivation Blurs the Virtual and Physical Worlds (2017), declares a utopian future where walls and societal restrictions are broken and new conversations and new possibilities emerge.

In addition to being able to explore the VR artworks the ‘Conversations‘ part of Art Basel features Cao Fei and Yang Yongliang in conversation with Freya Murray, Program Manager, Google Arts & Culture. They will discuss the artists’ approach to making art in virtual reality, the impact virtual tools such as Tilt Brush can have on artistic practice and more broadly on the arts in general. The talk will take place at the fair in the auditorium on level 1, at the entrance of Hall 1A of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, on Wednesday, March 22 at 3.30pm. If you can’t make it, all the talks from the fair can be watch here later www.artbasel.com/hongkong/conversations.

The Battle for Hong Kong’s Cyberspace

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/OccupyHK-29-September-2014/44640815_wssnHW#!i=3572981998&k=7BcXHJj

A recent paper by Lokman Tsui, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong offers a chilling look at how authorities in Hong Kong outdid their rivals during the 79-day Occupy Central movement that hit the city in late 2014.

The Occupy movement braved police violence as well as political pressure and intimidation on and offline from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities before being driven out by police. Technology played an important role in the movement’s organization and coordination, becoming “a critical channel for communication with the public,” according to Tsui. He described this as “a fairly typical script” for how technology aids social movements.

In response, the government not only defended itself but, as Tsui states, went on the offensive. His paper describes the various tactics deployed by the government and its allies to dissuade and diminish the Occupy movement.

Abusing outdated online surveillance laws
The current surveillance regulation ordinance only refers to telephone, fax and postal mail, and makes no mention of Internet communications. By repeatedly refusing to confirm whether its protections extend online, the government is implying that there are none.

Twisting an online fraud protection law to arrest activists
“One of the more problematic arrests made under [Crimes Ordinance] Section 161 includes charging a 23-year-old from Mongkok with ‘access to computer with criminal or dishonest intent’ and ‘unlawful assembly’ for allegedly messaging folks on an online discussion forum to join him in a protest in Mongkok.”

De facto online censorship using content removal requests
“The number of requests for content removal in the four months of October 2014 until February 2015 exceeds the number of requests made in the previous four years combined.”

DDoS attacks on an unprecedented scale
“The pro-government side was able to hit a series of critical websites with an unprecedented amount of junk traffic (500 Gigabytes per second), including the website of the Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and PopVote, Hong Kong University’s online voting platform, leading Matthew Prince, the CEO of a hosting company that specializes in DDoS protection, to call it the ‘largest cyber attack in history.’”

Paid “50 cent” Internet commenters
Pro-government comments flooded online forums, blogs and social media networks similar to the paid online commentators working for the government elsewhere. It is generally believed that the pro-government commentators are hired by political groups sponsored by the Hong Kong government and Beijing.

Painting technology-related activities as a US conspiracy
In the case of Hong Kong, the government was “pushing a narrative of ‘foreign interference’, a xenophobic narrative that accuses civil society organizations of being inauthentic, that they are being used and funded by foreign governments, especially the United States government, who seek to undermine and weaken China by fomenting revolution in the name of ‘democracy.’”

Tsui ends the paper on a sobering note:
The Internet still has the potential to empower social movements; they might even allow temporary gaps of freedom. But the [Occupy Hong Kong] movement suggests that both the Internet and Hong Kong are at a crossroads, that both cannot take its freedoms for granted. This is not to say that spaces of autonomy and freedom no longer exist online or in Hong Kong; however, they are increasingly being marginalized and, at this point in time, are best understood as the exceptions rather than the norm.

Tsui’s paper, titled The Coming Colonization of Hong Kong Cyberspace: Government Responses to the Use of New Technologies by the Umbrella Movement, was published in the Chinese Journal of Communication in July 2015. Read the full paper on Tsui’s blog.

Originally published on Global Voices, some edits made  cc-by-icons-300

Yuan Yang: GlocalMe G2

glocalme-g2

Roaming charges are the bane of the web and today’s traveller, is the Kickstarter funded GlocalMe G2 a solution? The newly launched G2 pocket wifi device offers almost global 4G wifi coverage at download speeds up to 150mb with pay-as-you-go unlimited data capped at 10 euros a day. The squat device, which also doubles as power pack, acts as pocket wifi hotspot for up to 5 devices. Using a cloud sim to access the local 4G network of the country you are in, over 100 countries supported, you can use wifi for your data usage rather than paying those through the nose roaming charges… Alternately you can add your own data sim into the device if that offers better rates.

A secure login protected by wpa2 encryption ensures that only the people you chose can access the hotspot with unlimited pay-as-you-go data daily costs capped at 10 Euros (HK$84.8). Country specific data packages offer even cheaper access. The money credited to your glocalme account, similar to an Octopus card doesn’t ‘expire’, top-up’s can be made via credit card or PayPal – with refunds for unused credit within 7 days. Customer’s account data is encrypted on the server, although no exact details of how this is protected are revealed. In other words you are pretty secure against those around you but the customers protection from snooping by glocalme is less apparent.