This blog is designed to record the conversation around the development of ChinesePod. ChinesePod is a joint venture between Kaien English training centers - a leading English-language trainer in Shanghai - and my firm Network Sense, which develops web software. By combining two different schools of thought together - Kaien bringing decades of language training experience & Network Sense bringing web 2.0 principles, the result has been a "mashup of creative friction" which is moving both parties out of typical industry thought patterns (or maybe it has just been the summer 闷热 in Shanghai!). I hope the end result for the user will be a useful and innovative feature set.