Love affair with computers sparks drive for change

Jiang Yong, 45, a law postgraduate from China University of Political Science and Law, is the chief of Tian Tong Law Firm in Beijing and founder of itslaw.com, an internet company providing legal services. He talked to Cao Yin, sharing his wealth of experience in law and cyberspace.

"Joining the internet-related business sector was inevitable for me, but also by chance.

The first time I saw and got into the head of a computer was in 1991 at my mom's factory in Hunan province. At the time, I was immediately curious about this amazing machine and was itching to spend all my winter holidays learning about it.

I quickly fell in love with the computer, and I organized computer training when I returned to Beijing and often devoured books and magazines on the subject at weekends.

I had a close friend at university and he rented a basement for me after graduation. In this small and shabby space, we played computer games and he told me a lot of really interesting things about the machine, which was rarely used in the early 1990s. It made me hugely curious and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

After graduating, I joined the administrative case tribunal at China's top court and luckily I took charge of the only computer in the office. At the time, I also really got into the internet and at my own expense bought equipment to connect the computer to the online world.

I first learned how to send e-mails, helping a judge contact her daughter in the United States and had a ball discovering cyberspace.

Gradually, I realized that I wanted to pursue a freer lifestyle and my personality might not fit in with the strict work environment at the Supreme People's Court. So I quit in 2000 and built up the law firm.

I've discovered that many lawyers have great ideas about hot legal issues or cases, but it was hard to integrate their opinions. They were like independent workshops, without any connections.

To collect their great views and connect them and join them up, I established an online lawyer's community and in 2014 established itslaw.com.

Legal knowledge and services were finally connected by the internet - and a dream of mine to combine the two was fulfilled.

The connection is the first step. What I want to do is help litigants solve their judicial problems through artificial intelligence. That is why I and my colleagues developed FaXiaotao, the law robot.

We hope we will always be exploring, using both our legal and internet intelligence to serve people and witness the world entering a new cyber age."

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/16/2016 page16)