Missing Link: Free internet in Hong Kong – From cradle to deathbed
In our series of conversations with internet pioneers, we expand the perspective and turn to international players. Episode one: Charles Mok, Hong Kong.
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Diesen Artikel lesen Sie hier in deutscher Sprache.
Charles Mok does not tire to point out that government attempts to regain control over the internet is a global trend. He can speak to the situation in Hong Kong as few others because he was there from the beginning. After founding one of the city's first ISPs, he's been lobbying for the free internet in Hong Kong – and consciously sided with civil society.
Editors note: This is an unedited transcript of the interview as conducted in English.
heise online: You are a Hong Konger, now living in California. When did you leave Hong Kong?
Charles Mok: I left Hong Kong in May 2021. Currently, I'm researching and working on papers and projects related to Internet policies, cyber development in Asia Pacific. It's not just limited to Hong Kong or China now.
Was leaving Hong Kong related to you stepping down as a member of the LegCo, Hong Kong’s parliament?
I left the LegCo in December 2020. And in fact, I was ready at the time to move into another phase. Before coming into the legislature, I had been working in the industry for a long time and also working with civil society. So I was looking forward to a change of environment to do something different. Of course, in Hong Kong today, it would be a little bit difficult to carry out some of the work that I am interested in doing. So I was looking for a more open environment. I should add, that I did return to Hong Kong from the US in 1994. So to me, it's like returning to the place where I studied and worked. I was fortunate to get the appointment at Stanford to do some of this work here.
What are your long-term plans, is going back to Hong Kong in the cards?
I will stay here for several years, I think. But I do travel a lot. I just came back from Japan and Taiwan, where I looked into some very interesting developments in terms of cyber environments and digital transformation. My main interests are policies and regulations for the digital sphere, but digital transformation efforts of governments and industry are often related to that. I do enjoy the possibilities to do this kind of field work because I was not able to travel a lot during my time as a member of parliament. While you are a legislator it’s a bit like going to school, you have very rigid timetables.
Can you travel to Hong Kong these days?
I think it's easy, but let’s say it is also a choice whether or not we do want to go at this moment.
From Classmate’s Commodore to Unix at Purdue
When did you start to use the Internet?
I grew up in Hong Kong and went to school there. At that time, in the late seventies, we did not have a computer at our school. When I was in high school, there were one or two classmates whose families could afford a Commodore or an Atari. I remember we had to visit their homes in order to take a look at them. They were not only playing games, but still it was not too impressive what they showed us. My first encounter with the Internet only came when I started studying electrical engineering in the US at Purdue University. During my first year I choose a programming course. I had no idea at first, because I had never touched a computer keyboard before. We were working on virtual terminals that were connected to a host, like a micro or mini computer in the back end. We were using Unix at the time already and the host was connected to the net, not like the Atari at my friend’s home back in Hong Kong. That was in 1983, so 40 years ago.
What did you do once you were on the internet?
I started figuring out how to email my friends, who were at other universities in the US. Later on I tried to email friends back in Hong Kong. But my first email went to New York or New Jersey. (laughs) What’s funny is we probably wrote letters to each other before we started to email. We would let each other know our email addresses would be such and such. Because we didn't even know what exactly our email address would be. Initially it was not so straightforward. Many of those emails were not just your username at a certain domain name. That came later. At that time you had to figure out how it would go from one reachable host to the next one and the next in order to reach the final destination, basically you had to route it through by trial and error. That was called UUCP. Sometimes we called each other in order to figure out our email connections.
Did you focus on information technology in electrical engineering?
Yes. I chose computers and electrical engineering. I focused a bit more on the software instead of the hardware side.
Why did you choose it?
Good question, it was not a very conscious decision. We had no idea at the time. (laughs). When I compare it to students today, they're so much more prepared than we were. Today they plan ahead for the major they want and what school they want to get into for it. They calculate what job opportunities lie ahead depending on their choices. I really did not know what I would be doing after I graduate. In our times we did not even think about what we would become. And there were few role models. Certainly, we did not have all the information that students now draw upon to decide. In some way it was a lot simpler than it is today. Sometimes I consider telling students today that maybe instead of trying to plan everything ahead they should just jump right into it. The time to question your choice will come anyway, I think. I sometimes asked myself if should have chosen differently. I am, for example, very interested in history. What we in the 80s definitely could not foresee was the impact that computer and information technology would have on people's lives. Very few people were trying to predict the impact of the toys we played around with would have on people’s lives in the time to come.
