Today is the last day to sign up for 3DSxShanghai! A three-day caffeine-fueled marathon, 3DSxShanghai is a weekend challenge for tech entrepreneurs and Zuckerberg-wannabes to come up with a new idea workable idea in the space of a weekend. Sign up today for a chance to find out whether or not you have the requisite bill-paying skills. more ›

Start a technology company over the course of three days. We rent work space for an entire weekend, recruit 40 students with a wide range of backgrounds, cater food and drinks, invite top-notch entrepreneurs and investors, pick the best idea for a software startup during the Friday brainstorming session, and release a minimal prototype by Sunday night. The goal is to build enough momentum among a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend.

BarCamp is a fun, user-generated "un-conference." The BarCamp model started in the Silicon Valley as a response to formal, exclusive, and boring tech conferences and has since spread to 350+ cities worldwide. It's a can't miss event for techies, entrepreneurs, and social innovators. more ›

Yes, the open, participatory, user-generated 'unconference' for geeks, entrepreneurs, innovators, bloggers and techies that first started out in Shanghai back in 2006 is back. Billed as an "unconference where everyone who attends participates by presenting or helping out", the event will be on June 12 at The NetCircle along the Suzhou Creek. more ›

Aric Queen, former executive producer of ChinesePod, writing from exile, appears to think so. Once upon a time, his friend Frank Fradella flew to Shanghai and approached ChinesePod with a pitch for a new show designed to teach foreigners how to recognise radicals [see video below]. He was told by the Shanghai startup that they didn't have the budget for the show and Fradella flew home a little dejected, but that was that.
more ›

Shanghai-based startup Qifang.cn has been named by the World Economic Forum as one of 34 visionary companies to be part of its Technology Pioneer Community "for their accomplishments as innovators of the highest calibre, and whose technologies will have a deep impact on business and society." This makes the peer-to-peer microlending platform with the sole purpose of helping poor students complete their university education the very first Chinese enterprise to gain the honour. Our several chance encounters with Qifang's CEO Calvin Chin led us to believe this guy has a grand vision of where he wants to take this next. This is one startup you can expect to hear more of in the days ahead. more ›

About.com has entered the Chinese market as Abang.com (阿邦网), and the website, like so many other Chinese portals, is looking very 热闹 ("busy"). The range of topics on Abang.com doesn't look like its very extensive yet but that's because they've only just started. Thomas Crampton catches up with Matt Roberts of About.com and finds out why they have chosen the name 阿邦 for their China presence. We thought the name was a great idea — one that fit what About.com is all about and one that should go down well with Chinese netizens. more ›