Is there any finer example of entrepreneurial-ship than the recent developments in China regarding Google? It seems that the censorship restrictions placed on the internet by the Chinese government, known in China as the “Great Firewall” (www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/technology/internet/16vpn.html) has opened up a fantastic business opportunity for those who wish to help the Chinese circumvent the wall. This has created a booming market for software companies, which are capitalizing on the growing desire of China’s Internet users to “fanqiang,” or scale the wall, to visit Web sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
I find this kind of news extremely uplifting amid the tumult of bad news. While governments go to war, dispute boundaries, and fight over shares of natural resources, people are communicating without borders. The jury is still out on whether that’s a good thing. In fact, many juries are out, including in Iran, where the government there is also unable to stem the free flow of information. The early twenty-first century will certainly come to be known as “The Internet Age”.
By Myron Gushlak
