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China Innovation

China, Technology, Innovation and the Environment: Energy consuming industries developing too fast

Industries with high energy consumption and emissions are developing too fast in China, along with the quick economic growth, the Chinese State Council, or Cabinet, warned on recently. The traditional industry structure remained unchanged, while the service sector and high-tech manufacturing weighting fell in the national economy, State Councilors heard at a meeting focusing on energy saving and emission reduction, chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao […]

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China Design Innovation

Design in China: Shanghai to attract animation and cartoon enterprises into Pudong

The Pudong New Area government in Shanghai expects to attract more than 200 animation and cartoon enterprises into Zhangjiang High-tech Park within five to 10 years, the district government said recently. The new facility will also provide a creative hub for animation and comics artists and investors to tap the vast potential of the Chinese domestic market. ‘The combination of animation and online game development can help to form integrated industries that can optimize resources,’ said Yuan Liqiang, general manager of the Shanghai Zhangjiang Creative Industry Development Co Ltd…

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Design Information Technology Innovation Software

Autodesk Enhances Sustainable Design Capabilities

As part of its on-going commitment to support the practice of sustainable design and green building in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries, Autodesk announced two acquisitions to improve building performance analysis in the building information modeling (BIM) process. Autodesk has acquired substantially all the assets related to the Ecotect software tools for conceptual building performance analysis from both Square One Research Ltd. and Dr. Andrew Marsh. Autodesk also announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio, Inc., a provider of web-based whole building energy, water and carbon-emission analysis software […]

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China Economics Information Technology Software Trend Watching

China’s software industry scale ranks 4th in world

The scale of China’s software industry has reached 583.4 billion yuan, ranking fourth in the world, as learned at the recently held 12th China International Software Expo in Beijing. The software industry, the core of the information industry, advanced manufacturing and modern services, has now become a basic, pilot and strategic industry for China…

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Design Information Technology Innovation Software

Autodesk Announces Salzburg, Austria, as First Pilot City of its Digital Cities Initiative

Autodesk announced recently that it will be working with the city of Salzburg, Austria, as the first pilot city in Autodesk’s new Digital Cities initiative. The Digital City initiative is Autodesk’s technology designed to provide a collaborative environment for visualizing, analyzing, and simulating the future impact of urban design and development at a citywide scale…

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China Economics Information Technology Innovation Trend Watching

OCED on Innovation in China

OCED Observer is running a good piece this month assessing the state of innovation in China: ‘Part of China’s innovation stodginess reflects history: the Chinese R&D system has evolved from a Soviet-style mission approach, slowing the transition to a more market-led approach. Geography is also a factor, with many pockets of excellence living separate lives–more an archipelago than an interlinked whole. A glance at the map also reveals that the hot spots of innovation lie along the east coast. In bleak contrast stands the number of R&D facilities in the western and central provinces. Again, history comes in to play, since many of these sites were chosen during the Cold War because their remoteness from busy economic hubs was considered as a “third frontier” in defending Chinese intelligence…’

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China Economics Innovation

Intellectual Property: Introduction of China’s Intellectual Property Strategy

China has promulgated its own intellectual property strategy, which is aimed at promoting innovation and the use of new technologies by China’s industries. It’s hoped that via the implementation of the strategy, all innovations will be respected and more wealth will be created…

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Design Information Technology Innovation

“How to Make Good Design Decisions”, by Dan Saffer

About a year and a half ago, when Dan Saffer — experience design director of Adaptive Path — first started thinking about the material that would eventually become ‘UX Intensive: Interaction Design‘, he wondered what it was that helped designers make those leaps of faith, the great guesses, that we have to make on projects. So he came up with this talk, ‘How to Make Good Design Decisions‘ […]

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China Economics Information Technology Software

China’s Software Industry Revenue Rises 31.2%

China’s software industry income amounted to 193.55 billion yuan from January to April, up 31.2 percent year-on-year, and 11.4 percentage points higher than the electronic information industry, according to information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information. The revenue from software products accounted for 70.39 billion yuan (10.2 billion US dollars): it is still the main component of the software industry. Revenue from software technology services saw the fastest growth and amounted to 35.63 billion yuan (5.1 billion US dollars), growing by 48.2 percent year-on-year. Revenue from system integration increased by 23.8 percent to 46.07 billion yuan (6.7 billion US dollars); and the growth rate of revenues from embedded systems and IC design are relatively low…

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China Design

Chinese Calligraphy: Master Yue Le

In previous post in which I discussed chinese calligraphy, I talked a little bit about chinese calligraphy’s history, and my impressions of its influence in contemporary chinese design. Since a lot of people have been asking me for more on the topic, I’ve decided to post on YouTube some videos of a trip my wife, a couple of friends and I did to Zhu Jia Jiao, one of the many river towns just outside Shanghai. In Zhu Jia Jiao, we’ve met Master Yue Le, a local artist that makes his living on creating banners/posters for tourist that visit that town: with our little domain of Mandarin, we’ve asked him to create some banners to represent something he would consider typical […]