Another Quick Update: We were on the road most of yesterday testing EV China. It was yesterday that I realized why it was so crucial Peter and I came to China to test the speed of EV at different locations. We learned more yesterday about the situation than any research or reading or preparation. We could say now that we have a clearer understanding of what to expect. We performed some tests and tried to narrow down all problems. There's not much time to be specific in this post, but we're glad that we finally found a solution after 5-6 hours of testing with 10 chinese students in a computer lab. We also tested at teacher's offices and student dormitory at BNU. I made phone calls to Tsinghua, Beida, and Minzu. Our chinese host friend ZhaoXiaoPing made phone calls to his friends who are on their company network, QQ'ed all his friends online to test the site at their school, and called his friends at Beida. At first it was so frustrating, seeing the "random" and unexplainable results. It was a very productive day and we are happy that we figured out a solution.
Afterwards, we enjoyed our time with Lifu and two professors from a university in Gansu. They are all very sweet people and we were happy to be in their presence. I also forgot to mention that it was the BEST hotpot we've ever eaten! (BNU has many food treasures surrounding it, and Ping & Amy were absolutely right about the delicious dumplings) We got to meet XiaoYan who's finishing her dissertation today. She is so sweet. We really like her. She said after her dissertation, she will have more time to get involved with EV and XHJ. Good news: I recruited Yang Kaina and a few BNU students to join tomorrow's training. Teddy is coming to Beijing from Shanghai for a retraining to make sure he learned everything. I guess we can make the most of tomorrow's training with our new tiger team members (Luke, Rebecca, Kaina, Teddy, and BNU students). A big thanks to Lifu for being such a wonderful host. We really got to spend a lot of time with him and the two professors from Gansu during the past few days. OH! And they are planning a birthday party for me. Two more professors from DongBei region are being invited. I really see doors opening and lines connecting.
Lastly, the night was young and we wanted to explore the city. We went to Wangfujing on New Years Eve and went to the night market. Peter got a cool circus trick for cheap and he's now practicing it. Happy New Year, Villagers!
Quick Update (Yesterday, No Internet Access): We are now in Beijing at Home Inn. The student dormitory at BNU did not have internet so we moved out this morning to Home Inn. The internet here is medium, not that fast like our hotel in Shanghai, but we can still access Dongcunzu (at medium loading rate).
We tested the internet at BNU in Lifu's office yesterday and both US and HK sites were very fast on their global network for teachers. We went on the student's local network (education network) and dongcunzu loaded very quickly nevertheless.
Today we will proceed to test EV at more locations in BNU (classrooms dormitories) with a phd student of Lifu, ZhaoXiaoPing. Lifu is very nice and so was Tao Laoshi. Peter and I had a discussion seminar with 30 students in the conference room yesterday about doing nonprofit work (2-3 hours). It went really well. We had a chance meet many of their students.
Since we have finished EV Training and Testing in Shanghai (having a better idea of the internet situation in this location and a solid list of questions we want to answer in Beijing), we spent today introducing Shanghai to Peter. Teddy took us to explore Yu Garden, we had xiaolongbao and hulu apple candy. Then we walked to Nanjinglu to get to People's Square and then we went to Super Brand Mall to eat at Teddy's favorite restaurant. After that, we visited Jinmao Tower. Peter was able to find some cheap magic tricks that are very expensive in America and a kaleidoscopic green LED light.
Now this will be more of a stream of consciousness entry for my personal reflection and might not make much sense to the reader. At peace, recovering from the usual sickness that comes with adjusting to a new environment. It takes usually 3-4 days to recover. Waking up at 5am everyday gives me some time to prepare for the day - how to make the most of it, talk to family, quality time with loved ones over skype, and show that I think of them. I am still jetlagged but touched by some G-given moments. Energy is low due to recovering from my cold but my heart is present. Sitting back next to a fake ox on top of Jinmao Tower and admiring the shape of pearl tower, a lady approached the ox and continuously asked her husband, "Is this real? Is this real?" I decided to tell her in Chinese, "This is fake." I continued to sit back and relax and not push my energy. The husband and the lady smiled at me. They looked like visitors to Shanghai from another province. I asked them in Chinese, "Where are you from?" "Henan," replies the lady shyly. We continued in happy conversation.
With major jetlag, Peter and I visited Teddy's home and his mother at 10:30pm. We were picking up some business cards but the opportunity made way for me to have a deep conversation with his mother. I spoke in Chinese the entire time with his mother. It felt like I was speaking to another Vietnamese person. I forgot that my chinese is still very poor and needs a lot of improvement, because I really wanted to express my thoughts and the words came out. The spirit was with me.
Sitting back on the taxi, my brother and I shared our deepest reflections about the city.
This morning, I woke up at 5am and started to work and prepare for the day of EV Speed Testing. This involves shadowing our tiger team students and observing how they interact with the new EV China website at various locations in Fudan University. Our goal is to have the browsing experience and usability for EV China to be as comfortable and easy as possible for users in China.
The weather is still colder than ever, and I'm overcoming my cold/allergy. I fell back to sleep around 8am to make sure I had enough rest for the long day. Around 9:45am, we met Teddy and headed out to meet Ketty and Clarissa who guided us to various locations at Fudan University to test EV's speed. We learned many things through this observational trip about the situation at Fudan. The average speed for the Hong Kong site and USA site seems to be relatively similar and fast, which is a good sign. The USA speed test we were using had some problems with the Chinese firewall and gave us higher numbers than the actual results. We discarded this test and decided to change our speed test to be a relative speed test for our tiger team members to perform. The relative speed test will consist of a numeric scale from 1 to 10, 1 being very slow, 5 medium, 10 very fast. This will give us an idea of the user experience as well. Testers can use fast sites they browse on a daily basis as a benchmark. After testing the speed at three different locations in Fudan, Peter had a better idea of the situation.
For lunch, Ketty and Clarissa brought us to their school cafeteria and treated us to the student food. We enjoyed the experience and the food was not bad. We sat there simply enjoying the time together among the many Fudan students hurrying to eat their food to either get to class or take their finals. The more we walked towards the final destination, the more I realized, I have to say goodbye again to Ketty and Clarissa... it was not easy because they were such close friends to me during the summer and seeing their familiar, joyful, and eager faces made me cherish Shanghai this time again. I wish I could see them face to face more often. I told them, "I will miss you guys, " and Ketty replied, "I am already starting to miss you." The little time we spent this time around really meant a lot to Peter and me, and we felt like we've been here for more than a week already; however, it has only been two days.
After we waved goodbye to Ketty and Clarissa, Peter and I debriefed at the hotel. We decided to be more aggressive about observing the speed and we wrote down both of observations so far, analysis of the situation, and compiled a long list of questions we hope to answer. This process was very effective for us because we want to make the most of our time in China as well as ensure a robust and scalable platform for the Chinese people. Peter and I felt very good after the debriefing session and did some action planning for the rest of the trip to answer the many inconclusive questions we had.
Soon after, we had a wonderful talk with Teddy and he shared with us some feedback and we headed off to test EV at some public locations around Shanghai. The results were promising and quick for the China site. What we also enjoyed were some cheap rollerskate clips for our shoes that we bought at Nanjinglu (20 yuan each). Rolling around nanjinglu, xintiandi, and the bund was an interesting and memorable experience. The air was not too cold, and Teddy's company was much appreciated by my brother and me. Teddy is very funny and has been such a great friend to Peter and me.
Thanks for following our journey to setup EV China!
~ Driving a New Movement for Nonprofits in East Asia ~
Peter and I arrived in Beijing at 5am in the morning. We stepped out of the plane and the cold air rushed up my legs and face. It was freezing stepping into the connecting walkway. I thank my mother for reminding me to bring many layers of warm clothes. We then transferred from Beijing Airport to Shanghai Pudong, arriving at 10:15am. Immediately, Peter and I went to a hotel near Hanting. We quickly prepared for our EV Staff Training session and had no time for lunch. At 2pm, we met our dear tiger team friends. They are so sweet and energetic. We pulled our hearts into the 4 hours with them.
I have not held a 4 hour training session with people that engaged for all 4 hours in a long long time. It was a wonderful team bonding time. EV Staff are very excited to get the site translated. We also went through expectations, feedback, and the Chao Foundation 2010 Plan as well as our five year road map. We look forward to performing some EV tests with Ketty, Clarissa, and Teddy tomorrow morning at Fudan University and public locations such as coffee shops and other locations.
Peter and I saw snow fall in Shanghai! According to our friends who are Shanghai natives, they have not had snow in two years. It was a beautiful sight to see it falling slowly down our window. I was so surprised. Peter said his goal was realized today on the first day. His hope was to see snow and he got to see it and feel it. We looked outside our hotel window and in another building, a little girl was at her window with her hands spread out feeling the snow in the sky. We can't wait for tomorrow. Thanks for reading our China journey to setup EV 东村族！
We are presenting the Ping & Amy Chao Foundation Introduction Video. We hope this video will give you the big picture of our vision and passion for Children's Health, Promoting Volunteerism, Applying the Best Web 2.0 Technology, and Driving a New Movement for Nonprofits in East Asia. Please let us know your thoughts.
We will be updating you with some of the exciting programs Chao Foundation is working on. Currently, Chao Foundation is focusing on creating a strong alliance under the umbrella organization called "Little Red Scarf" to work on solving a very important health disparity in Gansu Province, China. We are also working to build a separate EV platform that embraces the Chinese culture, spirit, and language to help connect NGOs and sharing of resources with China called www.dongcunzu.org.
Many more updates to come!
Driving a New Movement for Non Profits in East Asia
Tiger Team is moving forward! We have a conference call each week to catch up and reconnect as a team. My goal for the upcoming china trip is to form team identity and clearer understanding of each person's function within the team through training. Another important goal is action planning for Translation Project with Ketty taking the lead. Lastly, technology testing. Luke had some great useful info today. China has 5 main networks and the network that will not be able to access EV US is the Education Network. We need to test how a hong kong website runs on the education network.
Peter and I are looking forward to our China visit. We hope to see the fruits of our visit by the receptiveness of many students, volunteers, NGOs in China to use the EV China tool.
Today Peter and i will head to the Acoustic Holiday Party to share about EV and LRS. I will need to prepare a few things to say about EV and LRS. Merry Christmas EVERYONE and we cannot do this without your support.
Our Tiger Team from the USA, Beijing, and Shanghai are forming our first steps in our respective cultures. I'll periodically update the EV community with many of the exciting projects we're working on.
Two main projects we are working on right now are:
1. EV China Translation Project (led by Ketty Jiang) - an intensive revision of our Translation First effort and a new effort to translate remaining pages item by item.
2. EV NGO Database - a collection of NGOs and training for NGOs (especially in China) to use East Villagers.
East Villagers is back and running with rapid speed!
Reminder: EV Points will reset December 31, 11:59 PM PST. If you plan on buying something at the EV Store, please do so before this date. Villagers will start anew on New Years!
