10th Chinese Internet Research Conference

Play & Politics：Gaming, Social Media & Governance

Monday-Tuesday, May 21-22, 2012
USC Davidson Conference Center
3415 S Figueroa St
Los Angeles, CA 90089  

Click here to register

The  10th Chinese Internet Research Conference（CIRC10）is a premier gathering of scholars, researchers and industry players interested in trends and developments in the world's largest Internet community.This year's conference is hosted by the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism and the USC U.S.-China Institute.

In this year's conference researchers probe issues as diverse as the rising influence of microblogs, the explosive growth and development of online games, the mechanics and politics of Internet censorship to Beijing's employment of online mapping services and digital athletes as a way to extend its global impact.

This marks the 10th year since CIRC researchers begun examining Chinese Internet trends. Ten years ago, fewer than 23 million Chinese were online and Twitter and Facebook had not been conceived. China today has the largestinternet population of any country and Chinese netizens, companies, and the Chinese state are forces. From microblogging to the mechanics and politics of censorship, CIRC researchers have been at the forefront of identifying key trends in this annual gathering, hosted first by USC a decade ago and by other top universities on both sides of the Pacific.

This year's keynote speakers include:

Jenova Chen, game developer and founder, Thatgamecompany

Award-winning game developer Jenova Chen is the creator of the ground-breaking game Flow, one of the most downloaded games on Sony Playstation Network. Shanghai-born Mr. Chen is a first-generation video game design graduate from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and was named of the world's young top innovators by MIT Technology Review.

Ge Wang, founder and CTO, SMULE

Stanford professor Ge Wang is the founder of Silicon Valley-based startup SMULE, creator of iPhone/iPad virtual musical instrument applications such as Ocarina（one of Apple's All-Time Top 20 Apps）and Magic Fiddle. SMULE's products have been described as "cutting edge" by the New York Times and "pure, unadulterated musical awesome," by the tech news site Mashable.

Ting Chen, Chairman, Wikimedia Foundation

Ting Chen serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees for the non-profit organization that supports Wikipedia, the world's most popular online encyclopedia. He has been active in the English, German and Chinese Wikipedias since 2003.

For further detail on the conference and parking information and directions to USC campus, visit http://2012.circ.asia/.

Registration required at http://2012.circ.asia/register/.

USC U.S.-China Institute | 3535 S. Figueroa Street, FIG 202 | Los Angeles | CA | 90089
Tel：213-821-4382 | Fax：213-821-2382 | uschina@usc.edu | china.usc.edu