CSDN is a tech forum/news site, kinda like Techcrunch. It has been around for quite a few years. This github like thingi seems like a joint effort between CSDN and Tencent, whose open source projects (currently six of them) can be found at https://code.csdn.net/Tencent.
Traditionally, China doesn't have a strong open source culture and Github was being blocked every now and then. Hopefully a Github clone backed by big players can change that.
Editor in Chief at CSDN here. CSDN is the biggest online community for developers and IT pros in China with more than 30 million registered members. Its news and discussion service part is more like HN or Reddit/programming other than Tech Crunch. And it also has services for blogging, code hosting, programming training and careers, all developers centered.
The code hosting service under discussion is based on Gitlab, developed and operated by CSDN staff. Tencent became a sponsor this year.
And because there are not enough open source projects and contributors in China, we are instead building user community around open source projects at first. It will be a little different with Github way.
I think Github team may learn something from the Chinese (and I recall this is true in many Eastern Asian) community. Portal is essential in many popular Chinese websites. People like reading columns and discover things from headlines and visual columns.
Imagine Github offers a way for organizaitons to publish news! So instead of me going to blog.mozilla.org or blog.github.com to find out what's going on, I can just subscribe to an organization, get a newsfeed of their latest releases and announcement, and highlight commits (ex: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/59) !
I don't have time to implement this as an idea, but I think Github has that resource to implement it.
I wonder what sort of technologies are popular in China. Heard rumors that there was a thriving golang community there, but that's literally the extent of my knowledge.
I don't really think there is anything special. I don't actually grow up in China as a programmer but when I was a kid PHP was a big thing due to the popularity of BBS like phpBB and Chinese's Discuz!. You can find Python, Java, C++, and .NET just like in America. Though I find (based on limited experience) Ruby is not a very popular language in China.
What really makes a difference is that, in China, online gaming is really huge, possibly the biggest cash cow for most of internet companies. This makes language like Go and Erlang really popular in China, for their performance in concurrency.
They're really good at copying and improving. Look at the Jiayu G5; it looks like an iPhone, with the metal casing, except stainless steel instead of aluminium... running Android, with dual-SIM, expandable storage, and removable battery.
Well, some copies are good, some are bad. I think it depends how much problem they solved and how much improvement they contributed. The best always be copied by others.
I used to think that the Chinese copied things that other people did because they wanted to make a living off of it. But lately I've been wondering if there's (1) a culture-wide case of not-built-here-ism, (2) a fear of doing things differently, and last but not least (3) the fact interactions in Chinese culture seem remarkably and subtlely different from interactions in Western culture.
(1) explains why they would clone something as mundane (and not wildly profitable) as github (as linked elsewhere in these comments).
(2) explains why I have heard Singaporean friends from school say, lets make a Singaporean Yelp! Westerners say, lets make a yelp for <different purpose>.
(3) explains why they would want their own forums and "public spaces."
These reasons seem as plausible (and a lot less malicious) than merely, the Chinese copy everything for fun and profit (even though there are elements of that elsewhere), and I think it's worth thinking about these differences in culture, because it helps us look into our own faults.
Not sure why you were downvoted, I think you're making fair points; I live in Korea and see very similar mindsets here.
Another reason specific to China is that it's downright impossible for a foreign company to operate an internet service there, the required licenses are incredibly complex to acquire. For instance, in order for Microsoft to launch Azure in China, they had to partner up with the biggest Chinese hosting company (21Vianet).
[+] [-] yiransheng|12 years ago|reply
Traditionally, China doesn't have a strong open source culture and Github was being blocked every now and then. Hopefully a Github clone backed by big players can change that.
[+] [-] turingbook|12 years ago|reply
The code hosting service under discussion is based on Gitlab, developed and operated by CSDN staff. Tencent became a sponsor this year.
And because there are not enough open source projects and contributors in China, we are instead building user community around open source projects at first. It will be a little different with Github way.
[+] [-] yeukhon|12 years ago|reply
Imagine Github offers a way for organizaitons to publish news! So instead of me going to blog.mozilla.org or blog.github.com to find out what's going on, I can just subscribe to an organization, get a newsfeed of their latest releases and announcement, and highlight commits (ex: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/59) !
I don't have time to implement this as an idea, but I think Github has that resource to implement it.
[+] [-] userbinator|12 years ago|reply
Not "legally/officially open source" at least, but for some other definitions of "open", the culture is definitely there. :-)
[+] [-] austinz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yeukhon|12 years ago|reply
edit: here is a list from 2012: http://www.ithome.com/html/it/25225.htm
chart 1, 2, 3: Shenzhen, Shahai, Bejing
chart 4, 5, 6: worldwide, US, India
Since many Chinese projects are system-level and scientific. Plus there is a huge gaming industry in China.
[+] [-] mimighost|12 years ago|reply
Proof: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=erlang%2C%20golang%2C...
[+] [-] hunvreus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dubfan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EduardoBautista|12 years ago|reply
"GitCafe is amazing!"
[+] [-] ausjke|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] est|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] polskibus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xuesj|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] finalight|12 years ago|reply
look at xiaomi phone; android phone with iOS feel
[+] [-] NaNaN|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] userbinator|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yong|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lambdasquirrel|12 years ago|reply
(1) explains why they would clone something as mundane (and not wildly profitable) as github (as linked elsewhere in these comments). (2) explains why I have heard Singaporean friends from school say, lets make a Singaporean Yelp! Westerners say, lets make a yelp for <different purpose>. (3) explains why they would want their own forums and "public spaces."
These reasons seem as plausible (and a lot less malicious) than merely, the Chinese copy everything for fun and profit (even though there are elements of that elsewhere), and I think it's worth thinking about these differences in culture, because it helps us look into our own faults.
[+] [-] hocuspocus|12 years ago|reply
Another reason specific to China is that it's downright impossible for a foreign company to operate an internet service there, the required licenses are incredibly complex to acquire. For instance, in order for Microsoft to launch Azure in China, they had to partner up with the biggest Chinese hosting company (21Vianet).
[+] [-] HowardMei|12 years ago|reply
Copying and improving is the safest way to gain attractions from the public when you cannot afford the risk of being ignored.
There is a business strategy called market follower strategy.
[+] [-] ChristianMarks|12 years ago|reply
1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/04/22/the-githu...