GE Ming has a blog, but she hasn't posted anything on it since mid-November.



"I created it just because my friends all had blogs and gave me the links," said Ge, 20, a sophomore studying Russian. "Later, I found it was a real job updating it regularly. I don't think it matters whether I have a blog or not."



Ge did what everyone else does - she bought into the sales talk. Now, she and millions like her have a tiny piece of cyber space real estate. They express themselves with video cameras, computers and ideas.



These people may have been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year", but the real winners are the platform companies.



The most recent statistics from the China Internet Network Information Centre show that only about 24 per cent of China's Internet users blog "frequently". That's about 30 million bloggers ? out of 123 million Web users. More than half of them are under the age of 24.



"Web 2.0 allows a majority of people to participate online, but this does not necessarily mean that all of them are major players," said Hou Xiaoqiang, deputy editor-in-chief of Sina.com. "There has to be a group of leaders that tell people where to go."



According to Hou, Sina blogs have 300,000 postings a day. These can draw 100 million hits and 1 billion yuan in potential profits. So, Sina and Google executives will gladly trade Time's "Person of the Year" honour for their quiet profits.



But that doesn't necessarily mean that ordinary netizens posting things and editing video are wasting their time.



Peng Lan, a professor of Web media studies at Renmin University's School of Journalism and Communication, notes that Web 2.0 basically gives freedom of expression to the average person: "Individuals have more control of the content they produce on the Internet. This has inspired a desire to express themselves."



Having an audience, of course, makes that all the more exciting. But what about those who don't jump on the bandwagon and create a blog, open a YouTube account, or produce a video? Will they be left behind? And, will they be able to catch up?



Hou said there won't be gaps between Web 2.0 enthusiasts and those who don't embrace it, since it will just become part of life as the PC or Internet did.



But some doubt the assumption. "What concerns me is not that they won't. What concerns me is that when they do, the early users will have moved on," wrote one Web user, "Onelurv", on his technology blog



By then, Onelurv fears, it might be too late. The people who are stuck back in Web 1.0, where sending an e-mail is an accomplishment, may just say to hell with it all.



The consequences of this, Onelurv writes, could be devastating to technological evolution.



"If [new generations of Web technology] aren't filled quickly by new users, the economy might not be big enough to support itself." As a result, he predicts, everyone will suffer.



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assumption: 假定



cyber space: 网络世界



enthusiast: 狂热爱好者



jump on the bandwagon: 随大流地做某事



netizen: 网民



sophomore: 二年级生
关键字:英语文库
生词表: