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I met the most engaging, charming, articulate, Chinese gentleman named Professor Ling (second from left). The others from the left are Dr. Shaun Liu (IBM Director of Investments in China), Dr. Jean Chen (manager of Internet projects at IBM China Research Laboratory), and yours truly.

Professor Ling founded the first computer science department in China in 1956. Yes, 56! He was a professor at Tsing Hua University for 50 years. He is now retired and is the general manager of Advanced Systems Development Corporation. This joint venture is 50/50 IBM and the university. They have 40 engineers on board. 75% of them have masters degrees in C.S. and the average age is 25. I was so impressed by what I heard about them that I made a special trip to ASDC to meet them and see what they are doing. Here is a picture of the chief engineer and the lead developers….

Now, here is the exciting part, no pun intended! The ASDC team is wring JavaBeans as part of the 24-hour a day development effort to build PartPaks. They are focusing on two of the eight business areas. The other six are being done at our other collaborative partners in Latvia, India, and Belarus. I told the press that IBM had developed a 48-hour day, that we had redefined how development gets done, that global collaboration was enabling us to make the clock work for us instead of against us. I told them how we can initiate work in the U.S. and it gets done before it gets started! Professor Ling has a glitter in his eyes as he explains that his team is working while we are sleeping! Professor Ling is an incredible PR resource. Dr. Liu, Dr. Chen, Professor Ling and I conducted a press conference to tell Chinese trade press about the project. Dr. Chen did a superb job of translating for me and Dr. Liu discussed IBM’s joint ventures in China.

The press is laughing here because I was telling them how I ordered a beer in a restaurant the night before and the waitress was wearing a Budweiser dress and insisted it was great beer. I insisted on a Tsing Dao.