Heng and his "throw out the window" site

Since its inception, Heng and his "roll out of the window" Web site is like a mirror, reflecting the complex expressions of the public, business and regulators.

Risks from building a food safety website include: A. Site is exploding, B. Can't eat anything. On the evening of May 7, 2012, in a small restaurant in Shanghai, oyster sauce and pickled cabbage fish were heng in the eyes as additive-cooked fake beef and heavy metal fish. When he barely ate rice with vegetables, he was still assessing the amount of pesticide residue on lettuce in oyster sauce and whether the rice would be too cadmium.

A year ago, the graduate student at Fudan University in historical geography opened a Web site called the "throw out of the window", which brings together 8 of years of serve information about China's food safety and is a Wikipedia for toxic foods. May 3, the site was once paralysed by a thousands of times-fold surge in traffic.

Behind the crazy clicks, people are anxious about the status of food safety. As concerns increased, some suspected business owners began to bid for the deletion, and government departments called to listen to his advice. The most direct is the "surging public opinion". A netizen named "Slowsnail" represents the expectation of "moderate", "hope that the story of this site is a history, and not all over our lives." ”

Heng and his website are like mirrors, reflecting the complex expressions of the public, business and regulators.

Shanghai Food Safety Office listens to "opinions"

Whenever the food safety crisis is highlighted, it is the precursor of Heng's website being "activated" by the public. Throughout the April, the industrial gelatin mixed with food and medicine news constantly fermented, after 51 small long vacation, unprecedented attention broke out.

May 3 Noon, "Throw out of the window" site within two hours of the 25,000-person overload flow. Previously, the site rented servers cost only 300 yuan a year, on average, only to receive hundreds visitors per day.

The news of the website crash drew more curious people. May 4 After the expansion of the server, the day's clicks reached 650,000. Of the 2.296 million websites in the country, this number is enough to rank in the top 500.

The core of the site is a "China Food Safety News Database (2004-2011)", including 2,107 clear sources and victims of the news reports, and provide regional, food name, key words and other inquiries services.

If you click "Shanghai" on the "China Food Safety map" produced by Heng, you will see 105 news reports related to food safety in Shanghai, and the website will also remind the locals to pay attention to 73 kinds of food including youth group and dairy products.

"The public's initial reaction was shock, followed by anger, because almost all food had problems around them." "Then they will reflect and seek solutions," Heng said. ”

Hit the peak of the day, Heng received from the Shanghai Food Safety Committee Office (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai City Food Security Office), the other party invited him in mid-May with the relevant leaders face-to-face exchanges. The Food Safety office, which has been set up in recent years, is the core Department of Co-ordination and Coordination.

Some call this "interview", fearing it is a precursor to the site being shut down.

"We didn't say there was a problem with his website. Guzhenghua, deputy director of the Shanghai Food Security Office, told the south weekend reporters that the government is encouraging public participation in food safety management. "Third parties can focus on good things, we want to hear from him, and we want to know what help the Government can provide." ”

Let Heng feel lucky that his site is not targeted at a certain region, but focus on the country, like "shooting a pike in the sky." But from the results of the site, food safety reports are concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other developed regions. Heng that this is the result of the relatively open media developed and government information. "Where there is no exposure, the problem may be more serious. "he said.

The enthusiasm of the public also led to the company's attention.

--A third party food testing company in Shenzhen is willing to provide a job for the graduating master.

--a restaurant owner in a central province of China spits out his indignation at food safety and intends to expose the restaurant industry to him.

--it people smell the business opportunities, want to find him to cooperate to launch a food safety information on the mobile client.

A Shanzhai website has stolen the logo and slogan "Out of the window" and insists that it is "authentic" and leaves "business Contact" to those exposed to the food industry.

There are also anonymous messages eagerly asking "What is your contact information, how much does it cost to delete a website article?" -sounding like a food company exposed by the Web site. Heng said that he rejected the temptation of all commercial interests.

On the evening of May 7, Heng, who was on his way back to the school, was recognized by a man who had traveled to Shanghai. "Are you Heng?" The young man shouted, "Come on, people all over the country are watching!" ”

"No man is an island."

Time went back to a year ago, when Heng was not at all aware of food safety. He felt that he was on campus, not eating roadside stalls, not drinking powdered milk, and that gutter oil and melamine had nothing to do with them.

In the April 2011, many restaurants used beef paste and pork scraps to make fake beef. The literary youth said, at that moment, oneself "welling".

Before this, Heng used to call takeout, every time a little beef cap rice, 10 yuan but there is a whole lunch box of beef.

There was a roommate advising that the beef might be fake. Heng always disagree, the appearance of beef paste made him realize that he had lived in a lie.

Through the web search, he found a database called security letters, about 6,000 of which are related to food safety. After reading these reports, the same day at noon, he struggled for a long time, nausea did not go to dinner.

In a later call for volunteers, he cited the Donne's "Bell for whom": "No one is an island, can be from the whole." ”

In 1 days, he recruited 34 volunteers through the Internet, most of them strangers, including a senior student.

June 17, 2011, after one months of collection and collation, "Throw out the window" officially online.

The name of the website comes from the famous story of American food safety history.

In 1906, American writer Upton a novel slaughterhouse after 8 months lurking in a Chicago meat-eating factory. The novel, which describes the disgusting scene of the factory, has been translated into 17 words selling all over the world, resulting in half of U.S. meat sales. It is said that when American President Theodore Roosevelt saw the book at breakfast, he was surprised, jumped up, spat out the food he had not chewed, and threw a slice of ham out of the window.

Roosevelt then met with Sinclair to promote the adoption of the Pure Food and Drug Act and to create the Food and Drug Administration.

Another story that throws out the window is Heng. 2000, Heng Read High school, listen to the seniors: a few years ago, the school canteen had expired food to be sold the next day, angry students in the canteen after the purchase of breakfast, the collective of the fried dough sticks, the pie all thrown in the teaching building in front of the open space. Then the food was improved.

In Heng's view, the students threw fried dough sticks from the teaching upstairs, and Roosevelt in the White House to throw sausage from the window, although a century apart, but is the same-throw out the window, is everyone facing food safety problems should be attitude.

"If you want to go fast, go alone, and if you want to go far, go for a group of people." Heng said, "to promote food safety problems to improve, can not rely on only one person on a website." Only an increasing number of people are concerned about the possibility of improvement when they begin to explore solutions. ”

Do a "food safe net"?

Despite the flow, Heng has converged on a group of like-minded people, but past experience has taught him that once the media's attention disappears, the site will fall silent.

In addition, Heng also have to face those questions about the professional nature of the website.

"The passion and effort of Heng and companions is worth affirming, but all they do is collect media coverage." "Heng humbled, a popular science writer, said to the southern weekend reporters," their own lack of expertise in the field of food, the accuracy and scientific nature of the news report is difficult to correctly understand. ”

In fact, while Heng was plagued by beef paste, cloud inadvertently had the first time to publish the article "Pork to Beef-" the demonized "beef paste", pointed out that "can not just because the beef paste is an additive, it is considered harmful, even with ' chronic poisoning, deformity may even cause cancer ' to frighten the public."

The same concern Heng and its website of Shanghai Food Safety Office deputy Director Guzhenghua also believes that the information through the network is not complete. "The whole country is not good to say, any part that involves Shanghai, we are willing to communicate with him." ”

Guzhenghua also for Heng worry, after the attention period, the site of the future development of the road.

"For food safety information, the government has not publicized enough." "Guzhenghua bluntly, including the official website of the Food Safety Network in Shanghai, the number of clicks is not large, the visitors mainly from the media and the people who apply for permits."

How to improve the user experience and meet the public's right to know has become the next target of the regulator. "Heng now conveys what cannot be eaten. Guzhenghua said, "If we work with him to make the relevant information public, to tell people what can be assured to eat, the amount of clicks will also make the site paralyzed." ”

Heng initially wanted to use the government's public information to map, but he found that developed areas such as Shanghai have sampling information, while Midwest cities are rarely published.

He also wanted to make a corporate blacklist, but on the one hand worried about the lack of authoritative information available, on the one hand worried about risk-companies to ask a hacker can easily break the rental of cheap servers.

"The most gentle way is for consumers to use their money as a ballot paper to eliminate the problems that are frequent but not repentant," he said. "Heng said.

The Heng of history will always compare the progressive Era of American history (1880 to 1920) with China today. At that time, corruption rampant in the United States, fake and shoddy, major disasters occur frequently, social contradictions are extremely sharp. But the crisis is also a turnaround. "I thought Roosevelt was like an emperor, with a flick of his hand and a table, passed the Food bill and established the FDA." "In fact, the process is quite tortuous," Heng said. His website also wants to learn more about the history of this era.

After the scary dinner on May 7, people with the same seats couldn't help visiting the kitchen. The thin chef vowed to say, 30 yuan in oyster sauce beef, is the market to buy meat, pickled, no use of any additives. Then he lowered his voice and said, "those cheap fake beef will look especially tender." ”

The commitment of the chef by the