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Designer Laura Cahill wanted to make art without wasting new material. She did a bunch of research,
and found out that used books are the most common unwanted objects; they're also notoriously hard
to recycle because of the kind of glue bookbinders used to use. So she took her second-hand book
collection and turned it into beautiful pieces of furniture. The bench is pretty self-explanatory,
but for flower vases and lamp posts, Cahill uses a band saw to cut the books into desired shapes
and sizes, and then wraps the spines around test tubes to make the cylindrical core. It's such a
cool, eco-friendly concept. via Dezeen ( Lisa Katayama is a guest blogger.)...
Não acham muito estranho que há alguns dias atrás uma loja de discos
em Paris tenha decidido vender uma série de cópias de Death Magnetic, o
novo álbum dos Metallica, antes da data oficial de lançamento marcada para 12 de
Setembro e que a banda não esteja nem aí para este “vazamento”.
ainda para mais tendo em conta que em poucas horas o disco foi parar a inúmeros
sites de BitTorrent como o Mininova e o Pirate Bay?
Eu normalmente desconfio de teorias da conspiração mas neste caso existem
fortes razões para acreditar que o dedo dos Metallica esteve metido nisto.
Não terá sido uma iniciativa de marketing viral por parte dos
velhos metaleiros para mostrar aos poucos fãs que ainda lhes restam que eles
entenderam finalmente como funciona a Internet?
Com efeito, os precedentes históricos podem pelo menos dar azo a muitas
especulações. Senão vejamos: em Abril de 2000, os Metallica
instauraram um processo legal contra a Napster, o pioneiro programa de partilha de ficheiros de
música criado um ano antes por Shawn Fanning. Em poucos meses, a banda do
carismático baterista Lars Ulrich perdeu boa parte da sua legião de
fãs espalhados pelo globo que se sentiram ofendidos pela ganância de uma
banda que já tinha ganho milhões em discos vendidos e que parecia agora
apenas preocupada em ganhar outros tantos milhões.
Desde então, os Metallica lá descobriram que até podiam ganhar alguns
cobres com a venda de MP3 directamente a partir do seu site. Depois de alguns anos de um
braço de ferros com a Apple por a empresa impedir que os artistas autorizem apenas a venda
de álbuns completos na loja do iTunes, em Julho de 2006 o grupo
optou finalmente por permitir a venda de downloads de músicas individuais no
iTunes.
Em Abril deste ano, Lars Ulrich chegou mesmo a indiciar que os Metallica poderiam vir a fazer
algo semelhante aos Radiohead e dos
Nine Inch Nails, bandas que permitiram que os fãs descarregassem de borla os
seus mais recentes álbuns. Contudo, isso
não aconteceu e a banda chegou mesmo a desencadear uma zaragata com
os bloggers quando a sua empresa de management enviou
intimações a todos os que tinham publicado críticas dos disco com
base em audições prévias do disco enviadas a uma lista de selectos
convidados.
Esta semana, depois de Death Magnetic ter vazado Lars Ulrich concedeu
uma entrevista a uma estação de rádio de São
Francisco que surpreendeu meio-mundo pois o baterista disse que que estava bastante feliz na
medida em que faltam muitos poucos dias para o lançamento oficial e que as fugas de discos
para a Internet são fenómenos corriqueiros nos dias de hoje.
Das duas uma: ou esta “fuga” foi totalmente orquestrada pelos Metallica e/ou
management, editora, etc. de modo a gerar um buzz positivo poucos dias antes da
estreia comercial do álbum ou então Lars Ulrich deve ter retirado algumas
ilações com o episódio recente envolvendo um blogger que
reproduziu nove faixas de Chinese Democracy, o novo álbum dos Guns N’
Roses, e acabou com o FBI a levá-lo para a cadeia.
Giving away products can be a logistical pain. For instance, when we give
away a T-shirt or
laptop, we have to go through hundreds of comments, contact the person, and do a lot of
manual processing. A new Y Combinator startup called ContestMachine that
just launched makes giving stuff away as easy as putting a widget on your blog.
You create a contest widget by entering all the details of the giveaway: prizes, deadlines,
rules. Winners can be randomly chosen by ContestMachine or judged by the blogger. It automates
the process of creating giveaways, and opens up contests to any blogger or small business who has
a Website. The service is free to try out for up to two contests a month, and then charges $9 a
month or $90 a year for more contests.
The startup hopes to attract advertisers who want to connect with blog readers and offer products
to give away as a form of marketing. If ContestMachine can build up a large enough network of
bloggers, big brands might want to use it as an efficient means of creating attention or buzz for
their products. The bloggers, in this case, would act as filters for what is cool and what is
not. Or maybe they’ll just give away anything they can get their hands on.
Here’s a contest I just created to give away a coveted TechCrunch T-shirt. Just eneter your
e-mail, and ContestMachien will pick a winner at random. The contest ends tomorrow.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard
because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Blogger au bout du doigt est un site tenu par Rodney SANKINKA (à qui nous devons notre
widget de traduction) qui vous guide dans l'amélioration de votre blog hébergé
sur la plate-forme des blogs de Google, "Blogger". Vous y trouverez : * Des astuces pour
intégrer des fonctionnalités non prévues par Blooger * Des widgets à
intégrer dans votre blog * Des liens vers des modèles
Editor’s Note: This post represents the professional advice of Brian
Solis who is not formally affiliated with TechCrunch50. If you are a participating TC50 company,
resident TechCrunch PR expert Sarah Ross is available
to share and review the public relations guidelines with you. It is important to work directly
with Sarah to ensure you are in compliance with these guidelines to maximize your PR opportunity
while also avoiding disqualification.
——————————————————————————————-
How do you launch a startup at a big tech conference without getting lost in the
crowd? With TechCrunch50, Demo and several other major tech conferences around the
corner, this question is on the minds of more than one entrepreneur. How do you
create visibility for your startup, and do you need PR to do it, or just a great demo?
The coming days and weeks will be filled by some of the industry’s most anticipated,
attended and watched conferences. They’re all competing for mind share and they are
attracting influential attendees and spectators who will report their experiences and
observations far and wide. In the next two to three weeks, over 150-200 companies will vie for
attention and precious blog and media real estate.
Your story, as wonderful as it is, will need help rising above the flurry of news that will
jockey to reach the ears and eyes of bloggers, press, customers, investors, and partners.
Even though some A-list bloggers and high profile entrepreneurs (Jason
Calacanis, cough) have publicly implied that any good product or eloquent and outspoken CEO
will easily traverse the roads cluttered with inferior startups to quickly rise to stardom simply
by existing, the reality is, you really do need a strategic launch plan and some level of
PR. Most importantly, you need a polished, professional, and creative demonstration
that will resonate with attendees and compel them to want to learn more.
Public Relations
This advice may seem 101, and in some cases it is. Nonetheless, it’s an important refresher
for those companies who are using TechCrunch50 and other conferences to debut their company or
new products.
For those 52 companies presenting at TC50, there is a clear and prevailing rule to
participate in the event and it will make the difference whether or not you launch to accolades
or you’re disinvited before you hit the stage:
You have to introduce your new company or product, for the first time, on stage at TC50.
Some people are debating the merits
of this requirement. But given this rule, let’s explore a few ways to ensure a
successful launch.
What’s Your Story?
Let’s start by determining who your customers and users are and where they go for
information and insight. Identifying these groups will humanize the process of crafting your
story. It forces you to adapt what you’re introducing specifically to the people
you’re hoping to reach.
The next step is to summarize not only what you’re introducing, but distill the value,
benefits and extraordinary features that differentiate you from your competition and also
highlight how you’re solving real world problems and challenges. This process will impact
your press materials, your stage demo, your pitch, and ultimately the perception that conference
attendees form.
Demonstration
You have an obligation to attendees and also to your development team to present your company in
a way that makes people remember who you are and why you were invited to participate in the first
place.
This isn’t a local meetup for startups. This isn’t just another opportunity to
practice your everyday company pitch. This is a major production that requires an entirely new
level of presentation, probably of the caliber that you may not have experienced previously. The
world will literally be watching. (TC50, for instance, will be streamed live on
Ustream, photos will appearon a special Flickr page,
and stories will be organized by the audience at large on a dedicated Mixx
community site). And the live audience will be sitting through dozens of
demos. So what are you going to do that will make everyone in the room stop checking
email or updating Twitter, pay attention to your time on stage, and more importantly, remember
you after the event? This is your first and best chance to create enthusiasm and
support in order to ignite referrals and potential word of mouth for being one of the hottest
companies to debut this year.
Ditch the Powerpoint presentation. No one wants to see bulleted lists that say what you do or
endure a series of slides that detail your professional credentials and career experience. They
want to see what you do and how it was selected over the hundreds of other companies that were
hoping to make the cut. Quickly explain the pain that your solving, make us empathize with it.
But, get to that demo as quickly as possible. Show, don’t tell.
You may need help and coaching to become an incredible presenter to maximize your time on stage
and that’s OK. It’s how we become more incredible public speakers.
As TC50 co-founder and co-host Jason Calacanis (yes, the same one who does not think much of
formal PR) has recently emphasized in his email newsletter, companies need to attach their brand
to a movement, a trend, something bigger than just the next shiny new object, search engine,
widget, or next new social network. He also suggest the following rules for startup
demos: Show your product within the first 60 seconds; Talk about what you’ve done, not what
you’re going to do; One driver, one navigator; Short answers are best; Leave people wanting
more. It is good advice. (Read his full list of demo tips here and here).
Have charisma. Express how much you care about your product. Speak clearly with authority and
confidence. Move around the stage as you demo your product. Get someone to run the notebook
computer and don’t lock yourself in that comfort zone behind the podium. Please don’t
subject us to a dry demo of you staring at you notebook screen, clicking buttons and talking
monotonously.
Breeze through the frontlines of your demo and and get into crux of what it is you’re
launching. We don’t need to see the registration process. We don’t need to endure the
discomfort of watching you fumble through typos as you enter unnecessary data to support your
presentation.
Have everything ready to go and have it rehearsed and polished. You don’t need slides. You
don’t need 3×5 cards. Connect with the audience. Grab and hold their attention. This
is your baby and you know it better than anyone. Passion and enthusiasm are contagious and the
audience is there because they want to be amazed.
They are there for you, so help them remember why you’ve been singled out from hundreds of
applicants to tell your story.
Lobbycon
At any major industry event, there are always scores of people who don’t have passes who
want to participate in the can’t-miss excitement and action and also promote their agenda.
This adds a new layer of dynamics to an already incredible environment. When combined with the
onsite PR and marketing activity of all the presenting companies (both onstage and off), it also
creates an additional possibility to promote your company among those networking in the event
lobby.
Last year, PowerSet served delicious “branded” shots in test tubes to attendees as
well as the huge contingent that formed the unofficial lobbycon. Other promotional items and
clever memorabilia were also freely distributed all in the hopes of striking a chord with
attendees and rising above the fray.
Make no doubt that there will be an influx of companies competing for attention, whether or not
they’re part of the official event. You do need to offer something that helps you stand
out. So think of this as your chance to create and distribute something memorable that also
correlates with your brand so that attendees not only remember you after the conference is all
said and done, but are also reminded to test, and hopefully use, your product.
Put It in Writing
After you’ve run through your messaging exercises and presentation development, document
the story in a convincing press release, product/company overview, and unpublished blog post that
officially announce the product or service.
Make sure that the solution and the value is upfront.
Assume that the people who will ultimately read your story are short on attention span, whether
they’re a blogger, reporter, customer, partner, investor, or potential acquirer. Just
because you’re selected to launch out of the hundreds of companies that applied,
doesn’t mean your story is a guaranteed success.
In PR, writing usually follows an inverted pyramid format, which recommends that you pack all of
the pertinent information at the beginning and conclude with the supporting details. In
today’s highly competitive Web economy, solely relying on traditional press releases to
tell your story greatly restricts its potential. Time and attention are precious commodities.
Find a way to tell your story as quickly and as compelling as possible. If it’s one thing
that Twitter has taught us, it is how to say something significant in 140 characters or less.
Twitter and the onslaught of emerging micromedia communities are reinforcing this process of
sharing updates and insight through brevity and clarity. In PR and marketing, the study and
practice of saying more with less online, is referred to as MicroPR
With every sentence, description, or statement we verbalize or write effectively, we can earn the
chance to open the next door. The goal is to continue to tell the story
progressively, gaining momentum and increasing resonance along the way, and continue to open
enough doors to tell our story completely. This helps you tell the story quicker and
more persuasively. Just in case someone stopped listening at any point, the important information
and market opportunity should have already been communicated.
While paper press kits are long gone, or , digital press
kits are still alive and well. Pull everything together in one place, such as a USB key, a
downloadable zip file, an online press room, and consider experimenting with a social media press
kit or a >social media release.
For instance, a Social Media Press Kit, a.k.a. online press kit/press room, is a dedicated,
one-stop destination for your specific news event. This landing page contains embedded objects
that help reporters and bloggers assemble the news their way. It can feature an embedded version
of the press release and all other related social objects, for at-a-glance viewing and also for
quickly grabbing the necessary embed codes.
There are other ways, beyond press releases, summaries and blog posts to break news. With Web
video production and screencasting tools readily available, affordable, and easy to use,
producing a visual demonstration will only help convey your story and fortify the integrity of
your message when you’re not present to personally explain it. Also, short videos and demos
are shareable and embeddable to expand the story across the social Web.
The Launch Is Only The Beginning
Many of the industry’s most influential bloggers, analysts, and reporters will attend these
conferences, with many more observing and reporting on the highlights from all over the
world. Remember what your mother said: you only get one chance to make a first
impression. But if you do your job right, you will be repeating your demo many times
over in the weeks and months ahead. What you want to do is stand out so that people
will ask you to see it again and again and again.
Good luck to all the startups everywhere who will be stepping onto a stage for the first time
next week. We’ll all be watching.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard
because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Kevin Cogill was arrested on suspicions he was streaming songs from the unreleased Guns N’
Roses album “Chinese Democracy” on his Web site. Tags: wedding music samples Bookmark
to: Excerpted from:Blogger Arrested Over Guns N’ Ro...
Radio Zamaneh (Persian:
رادیو
زمانه) is an
Amsterdam-based Persian language radio. “Zamaneh” is the Persian literary term for
“time”. Radio Zamaneh (RZ) is an independent broadcasting organisation, registered as
a non-profit organisation in the Netherlands, with headquarters and a studio in Amsterdam. The
coordinator of the radio is the Dutch NGO Press
Now. It lauched about two years ago and calls itself a ‘radio for bloggers'.
Kamran Ashtary, blogger, photographer and Zamnaeh's
director of Communication & Development shares Zamaneh's challenges, hopes, achievements and
Iranian citizen media.
RZ has called itself a radio for bloggers. Why such a slogan? How much influence have
bloggers had at RZ ?
In Iran many journalists have turned to blogging to communicate since many newspapers are
continually harassed and shut down. Most of Radio Zamaneh's contributors were, and still are,
bloggers. Our director, Mehdi Jami, started blogging several years before joining Radio
Zamaneh.
As Radio Zamaneh has based its media policy on Citizen Journalism, reaching out to bloggers is
natural. Since August 2006, when Radio Zamaneh started, we have actively promoted bloggers on our
site and in our radio programs. Many were involved in the development of RZ.
Radio Zamaneh in many ways is connected to bloggers and blogging. Just take a look at our
extensive blogroll. Radio Zamaneh aims for two-way communication. This is something that blogs
are known for. This is why our site is working like a set of blogs. Each regular contributor has
their own page/blog and readers can comment on every page.
There are several news sites, outside of Iran, such as Deutsche Welle (DW) Perisan site,
covering Iranian blogs. Is there a difference between RZ's approach toward blogging and
theirs?
We don't just cover bloggers, we are bloggers and our style is bloggish: friendly, informal,
different, personalized, and diverse. Blogging is a part of our daily life. We are talking on
blogs and quoting blogs. We see them as a source of information about how people think about
politics and social issues. We see Iranian youth culture as a culture promoted by blogs and we
are working to make the informality of blogging a trend in media making. Radio Zamaneh is derived
from and inspired by blogging. That is very different from just covering blogs by other media
outlets.
How have Iranian bloggers reacted to RZ? Collaborating or criticizing?
A search at Technorati, will show
you that there are more than 30,000 links to the items we publish on our site.
In addition, Canada-based Iranian blogger, Arash Kamangir's
Didish Report, which searches Iranian site feeds
for links to other sites, consistently shows that we are at the top of the list for receiving
links. These show that many bloggers are interested in RZ and referring to us. Many of them work
with us in different ways and some are critical too. Bloggers are not ignoring what we publish.
We welcome both collaboration and criticism. In fact, one of our contributors thinks we could use
more people poking fun at us.
We invite criticism of Radio Zamaneh and even sponsored a competition with a review of the site
as its focus. This competition helped us discover some of our current colleagues. Radio Zamaneh
has a solid record of publishing differing opinions.
RZ has a list of bloggers in its first page. Some have criticized RZ for only listing
“politically correct” blogs, and not ones that are against the Islamic Republic. How
do answer them?
The Berkman Center at Harvard University reports that
more than 60,000 blogs in Iran are continually updated. Obviously, we cannot link to all of them.
Radio Zamaneh does not promote bloggers based on their political views. While we try to remain
independent, we link to blogs with strong political points of view, including those that can be
seen as *for* or *against* the regime. We read many blogs and do not limit our list to a select
group. That said, Radio Zamaneh tries not to link to blogs with strong affiliations to political
groups or extremists.
Some news sites are afraid to give more voices to citizen media because they consider
them as unreliable sources of information. What do you think?
It's hard to give up control. Fortunately, most of us have been bloggers ourselves, so we see
both sides. What we normally get from blogs are views, not news. Any news from blogs must be
checked against other sources. Blogs may be a starting point for a news story, but we do not rely
on them as a source. At the same time, we try to do training and work with citizen journalists so
that they can provide reliable information. In fact, we are currently working on a special
training site for citizen journalism which will be for our network and for registered users.
Outside of Iran many Persian sites covering politics, such as DW or Gozarr, have blog sections. Inside Iran very, very few mainstream
news sites have such a section. Why the difference?
Inside Iran, they want to have more control over what people read. They just don't have the habit
of presenting points of view that they cannot control. To be fair, major Western news sources
have been slow to embrace bloggers as well. It's not normal for a news organization to link to
competing sources of information.
What has been RZ's most important added value to Iranian media?
RZ has proven that it is possible to present an independent take on Iran and the news. It
provides a voice for the unheard, and highlights marginalized groups in Iran: writers, Sunnis,
women, bloggers, Armenians, Zoroastrians, and other ethnic and religious minorities. Radio
Zamaneh republishes, highlights, and links to articles written on the web by domestic critics of
Iranian politics, which are ignored by domestic media in Iran.
In addition we run programming that challenges the taboos of Iranian society such as
relationships and sex. Sometimes, the challenge is with the official reading of politics and
news; sometimes it is with the dogmatic views held by many inside and outside Iran.
What are the most important challenges?
If we want to stay on top of the game and hold on to our audience, we constantly need to stay in
communication with them. You have to have an open communication channel. We need to encourage
more reader and listener participation. We need to keep our ears open. We have to stay fresh and
be our own harshest critic, and we have to work hard to remain fair and independent.
A lot of people would like us to take sides, whether it's against the government in Iran or for
them, but we work hard to remain independent despite whatever personal beliefs we have.
The other major challenge for us is how to survive and make a sustainable media. We believe that
for a sustainable civil society in Iran we need sustainable democratic media in and for Iran.
How does RZ deal with filtering?
It's a cat and mouse game. We have to continually find new holes to hide in. We have changed our
domain name 5 times! We send our newsletters every day to many people who want to read RZ and
have no direct access. But we cannot say that we can evade filtering. Many pages are blocked.
Despite that, more than 60% of our readers are from Iran.
Sometimes a piece gets published from provincial or local bloggers. Are there any sharp
differences between what Tehran-based bloggers write and provincial ones?
In many ways those who live outside the capital feel isolated and ignored. For many, Iran means
Tehran. Tehran is very important, but we do not ignore cities in Kurdistan, Khorasan, Azarbayjan,
Khuzistan, Fars, and the rest of the country. We try to see them all and give them voice and
confidence and support.
We have a program designed to find good provincial blogs and promote them by quoting from them
and talking to them. We always welcome contributions from provincial areas even though we cannot
spend as much time covering them as we do major cities.
Mister Bookseller is a
short comic by Darko Macan (translated from
the original Croatian by a helpful blogger) about a bookseller who stocks almost every
book in the world.
Dan "Shoe" Hsu
has been writing some excellent pieces on the Sore Thumbs blog about the "behind the scenes" life of a video game journalist.
(Mentally quote the word journalist if you want to make yourself feel better! -Ed.) The former
Electronic Gaming Monthly editor in chief has recently been very blunt about the touchier subjects
in games writing — accusations of bribery, the ethics of junkets, etc. — but
now, it's the PR side's turn.
An anonymous guest blogger from an unnamed "Big Publisher" explains the dirty details of games PR,
from the "banning" of editors and media outlets, to the financial arrangements publishers make with
magazines and web sites to exchange coverage for good reviews, exclusives for the best reviews.
"Any good PR people working for a game publisher understand what a developer goes through, and
should fight hard to get the game looked at by journalists fairly," Anonymous Guy writes. "This is
not to say a bad game should get a free pass, but every game should be given a fair appraisal, with
considerations made for target market and price."
Anonymous also writes that "there aren’t that many good game journalists" and that developers
— just like publishers — hold many writers in high contempt. Present gaming
blog excluded, I'm quite sure.
What I'm not so quite sure about, is whether I agree with the assessment that those working in the
game media "are living off the blood sweat and tears of creative people who love games and
regularly work 100 hours weeks." I've known more than a few folks on the press side who pour their
heart and soul and time into their jobs for inequivalent compensation.
It's a fascinating, potentially eye-rolling read, should you care that much about the integrity of
the industry and game writing in general. Fortunately, I feel like most of the accusations and
uncomfortable situations are alien to me, as our particular circumstances aren't exactly like those
of bigger print publications and web sites that employ dozens of writers, editors, designers and
layers of management.
The lazy part, though. I can relate to that. From the
perspective of a game publisher [Sore Thumbs]
The fallout from
the closed trial given to Yang Jia
after he murdered six Shanghai policemen in July continues to bear down on the blogosphere as one
of the most discussed topics.
Discussion has been intense and reactions to the verdict have varied; at least one YouTuber took
it upon themselves to interview Shanghai residents on their thoughts on the trial and verdict:
“The law isn't even for the people anymore, and Yang Jia's sentence is simply insulting
to the people of China!!!!”
For establishment artist and Olympic venue designer Ai Weiwei on his Sina blog, posting videos which have since been
deleted of the crowd assembled outside of the Shanghai #2 Intermediate People's Court on the day
of Yang's trial just prior and
after the trial was held,
after having having applied to
attend it himself and then denied, were all decisions made after having written a post [zh] calling on his readers to
take action in support not just of Yang, but for rule of law in China itself:
Too much gratuitous rage and violent language, followed by too much distrust, giving up, and
death.
But to give up, to lose hope, and say it's all just futile, to sit and wait until they pull the
trigger, is part of what people are cursing as a rotten sin.
September 1st, Shanghai, Yang Jia was so hastily sentenced to death. The local government and
judicial system, in ignoring the divine rights granted citizens by the constitution, trampling on
the sanctity of the law, disrupting the legal process, revealed just how seriously flawed
Shanghai's public court system is.
Things are not that simple, though; the Yang Jia case is no longer about some guy that can just be
ignored. Through his readiness to die, a single citizen has not only put China's judicial fairness
to the test, but its confidence in and stance on social justice as well, awakening China's
awareness of civil liberties. The thing that Shanghai just doesn't get is that China is nothing
like life along The Bund, in
fact it's far more complicated than you could ever imagine.
The Yang Jia case is by no means over; the sentence against him, only illustrates these fraudsters'
desire to defile the sanctity of the law. Stained are the souls that decided upon this obscene
fate, people who in the end are unable to break free from their logic which forsakes our people,
the abuse of power and spite for the law. We ought to show them, that this time, they will have to
pay a price for their stupidity.
For Yang Jia, for every person with dignity dead or alive, for those as young as Yang Jia, for
mothers just like Yang Jia's mother.
I call upon the state to retry the Yang Jia case, through an open and transparent judicial process,
with a public and legal trial, one that upholds the constitution, as a test of the resolve and
strength of China's judicial reforms.
You and I are the same, in that as Chinese people, we believe that the state has made unremitting
efforts toward implementing social justice and judicial reforms, believing that through legal
means, the highest and most honored legal authority in the country, the Supreme People's Court, can
and will resume its duties.
Please use your precious time, and write down your thoughts on the Yang Jia case, and through
action, call for fairness and justice.
Demand that the Supreme People's Court dismiss the first trial verdict in the Yang Jia case,
appoint a court in another jurisdiction, rehold the trial and make it public, uphold the state
constitution, and uphold his rights as a citizen.
Call upon the national leaders to bring the Central Disciplinary Committee, the Central Politics
& Law Committee, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court, the Public
Security Bureau and the Ministry of Justice together to form a joint investigative team, to get to
the bottom of the origins of the Yang Jia case, and to investigate the illegal conduct of a
closed-door sentencing; rectify the Shanghai PSB, Procuratorate and Courts; clean up those local
forces working against the state and disregarding national laws; uphold the unification of the
national legal system and the authority of the constitution.
Yang Jia's death sentence, to be honest, didn't surprise anybody. Due to the trial being held
in secret, with no media or people from outside the bureaucracy able to understand what went on
behind the curtains, there is only hearsay. For example, it's said that “Yang Jia and his
defence didn't say a single word throughout the entire sentencing, nor did they indicate whether or
not an appeal is being considered.“ It's understandable that Yang Jia wouldn't have spoken a
word, because it was precisely due to his lack of confidence in this whole system that he went
looking for his own conclusion; but for his lawyer also to go without saying anything, that really
just makes you sigh: money definitely wasn't wasted with having the PSB as a legal consultant! They don't
just advise, they can even make the lawyer for the other side go dumb.