[Extreme Communication] 2013 Study Abroad Big Data

Author: JEFFI CHAO HUI WU

Time: 2025-7-28 Monday, 11:11 PM

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[Extreme Communication] 2013 Study Abroad Big Data

In 2013, I published a seemingly ordinary set of web information, which became a digital legacy that could not be replicated a decade later. At that time, the online world had not yet been completely driven by commercial traffic, and content production had not fully sunk into the quagmire of shallow entertainment. I published a Chinese study abroad database on the Changfeng Information Network in Australia, which included information from over a hundred universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, covering 55 Canadian universities, 100 American universities, 39 Australian universities, and 8 New Zealand universities. Each entry was personally organized, verified, and formatted by me, providing Chinese navigation and official link access for each one. This information was a lifeline for international students and their parents at that time. They may have had limited English proficiency and felt unfamiliar with the educational systems of various countries, but through the structured information system I established, they were able to bridge the gap of language and understanding and smoothly embark on their journey of studying abroad.

Many people might think that such information is readily available now and even look down upon it. However, when you actually try to find a "complete and up-to-date, Chinese-labeled, openly accessible global database of study abroad information for universities," you will find that it is either paid, incomplete, filled with advertisements, outdated, or simply lacks a systematic structural design. Ten years ago, I used the most primitive web structure and manual arrangement to sort out the information system of higher education worldwide, reconstructing pathways of information in simplified Chinese and incorporating universities from different countries and systems into the same classification framework. This is not just a simple translation task, but a deep cognitive reorganization, a bridge of information built by one person in an era when the concept of an "educational information platform" did not exist.

In 2013, my Changfeng Information Network had been operating stably for nearly a decade, with a total membership exceeding 1.5 million, making it one of the largest Chinese information platforms in the Southern Hemisphere. The release of these study abroad data happened to coincide with a historical turning point: social media had not yet monopolized the flow of information, search engines had not yet been fully commercialized, and individual webmasters could still attract massive traffic based on content quality. At that juncture, I devoted all my energy to the construction of "information public welfare," without considering any monetization or marketing, purely driven by the original intention of "providing real and usable information for the Chinese-speaking world." This concept has almost vanished with the development of the times. Now, when you open a seemingly free study abroad information page, eight or nine times out of ten it redirects you to consulting WeChat, purchasing courses, driving traffic to communities, or advertising pages. Even opening a single link requires navigating through numerous obstacles, let alone a fully open directory that allows bulk downloads, is free of advertising interference, and has a clear logical navigation system in Chinese.

Today, it seems that this batch of study abroad information released in 2013 is not only data but also a testament to a cultural phenomenon. It records an era that still believed "the web is a bridge," a time that did not rely on short videos for sales or algorithm-driven content, an age when a person sitting in front of a computer could open a window to the world for millions of Chinese families. Too many students copied the Changfeng links to access the application systems of various universities; even some educational institutions privately used the materials I compiled as internal training resources. I have never charged for this, nor have I left any watermark, only hoping that this information can, like the Changfeng, blow towards every person yearning for a future.

Another ten years have passed. As all content platforms began to prioritize eye-catching appeal, as the internet turned into a vast advertising network, and as search results could no longer find the true "source content," my system remained quietly online, almost unchanged. It did not rely on updated algorithms, nor did it follow traffic rules; solely based on its initial rigorous structure and clear logic, it still provides a stable navigation map amidst the scattered and chaotic sea of information. It stands like an island, recording the order of information civilization that once was. What is most shocking is that all of this is just a small part of the many projects I had in 2013.

In 2013, the big data of studying abroad is not to boast about the amount of work I have completed, but to remind the world: when all information seems to be flowing, the truly usable, verifiable, and trustworthy "knowledge pathways" are disappearing. Using extremely basic web technologies and Chinese logic, I completed in advance the work that studying abroad platforms, content companies, and information agencies will do in the next three to five years, and I have preserved it in a free and open form to this day. In a world where digital civilization is rapidly changing, this structure of "non-commercial, entirely public welfare, logically coherent, and operating for over ten years" is the most irreversible and irreplaceable scarce civilization of this era.

Perhaps decades from now, when people sift through the remnants of the early Chinese internet, they will unexpectedly discover that these webpages are still accessible, the content remains clear and readable, and the structural logic is still intact. Only then will they realize that this is not just a set of ordinary study abroad data, but a true coordinate left by individuals in a period of civilizational disjunction, expressed through words and structure.

Source: http://www.australianwinner.com/AuWinner/viewtopic.php?t=697062