Latest posts by Alexey Sidorenko from April, 2011
Russia: Communist Party Leads Social Networks Activity Rating

Nikolay Podosokorskiy analyzes [ru] activity of Russian political parties in the social networks. According to his brief research, ruling party “United Russia” is one of the closest and inactive parties...
Russia: Bloggers Discuss Best Practices of Crowd Funding

Anton Nossik publishes [ru] 5 rules of successful crowd funding: 1.it should have an aim, 2. it should be transparent, 3. it should be tested before launch, 4. it should also...
Russia: Regions Reduce Digital Divide

More than 90 percent of new users are not from Moscow or Saint-Petersburg, Yandex regional Internet development report says [ru]. Authors note a significant increase in Internet use nation-wide, 30-60...
Russia: Grigoriy Golosov, Political Analyst and a Blogger, Assaulted

Grigoriy Golosov, professor at the European University at Saint-Petersburg and a political blogger at Slon.ru [ru], had been assaulted at the street. According to his blogpost [ru], on April 23, 2011...
Russia: Photos of Moscow, Circa 1931

LJ-user nikolas11 shares [ru] rare photos of 1931′ Moscow made by Branson DeCou, XX century traveler and photographer. Hand-colored photos depict Russian capital 2 years after the “Great Turn” and before many...
Russia: “Power of the Families,” Wikipedia of Nepotism

Marina Litvinovich, Global Voices contributing editor and profound investigative journalist, launches “Power of the Families,” [ru] a Wikipedia-like report on corruption and nepotism among the top-ranking Russian officials.
Central Asia: “Cyber Chaikhana,” Book Written by Bloggers
"Cyber Chaikhana" is a book project about Central Asian bloggers and their perceptions of their region, culture and everyday life. Edited by Christopher Schwartz and published by HIVOS, the book is a collection of narratives written by the bloggers at NewEurasia.net, the Central Asian blogging network. The aim of the project is to reach out to both the Central Asian (Russian speaking) and global audiences.
Russia: Bloggers Stop FSB Initiative To Ban Skype

It was just a stroke of luck that on Friday, April 8, 2011, LiveJournal did actually work; before and after this date it would constantly “crash” or “die” due to hacker attacks for periods ranging from several hours to half a day. But on this particular Friday it worked, and it’s possible that this saved the Russian Internet and all its users from yet another prohibitive initiative from the FSB (Federal Security Service). At least for the time being.
Russia: Regional FSB Tries to Prosecute Blogger for Anti-Putin Photo

Kasparov.ru writes [ru] about the case of Georgiy Sarkisyan, leader of Orel city United Civil Front. Sarkisyan had posted a photo [ru] with a slogan “Putin – pid…z” (an offensive...
Russia: Two Projects Win The BOBs People's Choice Awards

Two Russian projects win The Best of Blogs People's Choice Awards. They are: rospil.info, crowdsourcing anti-corruption community in the nomination “The Best Use of Technology for Social Good,” and the...
Belarus: Bombings in the Minsk Subway

Belarus twitterers share information on the latest bombings in the Minsk subway via 3 main Twitter hashtags: #minsk, #minskblast, #twiby. Notolerance-cp publishes first pictures [ru] from the scene of event...
Russia: Environmentalist Sousveillance Project to Watch Over Water Reservoirs

Russian environmental organization “Open Shore” [ru] has launched a sousveillance map [ru] of “occupied shores of Russian water reservoirs.” Activists map properties that were built illegally close to the water...
Russia: Analysis of the Latest DDoS Attacks By Security Expert

Andrei Soldatov, Russian security expert, analyses latest attacks on LiveJournal and other websites. According to Soldatov, “Kremlin did not have to use FSB resources to attack objectionable Web sites; it...
Russia: FSB Representative Urges to Ban Skype, Gmail, and Hotmail

Alexander Andreyechkin, head of Information and Special Communications Protection Center of Federal Security Service (FSB), said that uncontrollable use of Skype, Gmail, and Hotmail ‘can lead to a massive threat...
Russia: Distributed Denial of LiveJournal

Russian online space is getting more violent. The last series of attacks on LiveJournal blogging platform has proved this once again. Whatever are the reasons, the attack on LiveJournal is the attack on online speech in Russia. The bloggers, however, share responsibility for the situation.
Russia: RuNet Celebrates 17 Years Today

Habrahabr-user kremlin reminds [ru] the world that on April 7, 1994 “.ru” domain had been included to IANA, root zone database. This means, today is the 17th birthday of the...
Russia: Compromising Photos of Saint-Petersburg Judge Leaked

Blogger Yanvarlamov publishes private (and quite compromising) pictures [ru] of Alexey Kuznetsov, Saint-Petersburg judge famous for sentencing opposition activists. On the pictures, Kuznetsov is depicted as a heavy drinker and a...
Russia: Majority of Russians Are Unaware of the Blogosphere

Levada-center has published [ru] a survey poll results on how Russians use the Internet. 39 percent of users use it for entertainment, 27 percent use it to search information, 18...
Russia: Anti-Government Slogans Published On a Hacked Soccer Club Website

Blogger pilgrim67 publishes [ru] a screenshot of the “Zenit” soccer club website that has been hacked this morning (now restored). A hacker had defaced the website and posted pictures of...
Russia: Online Fundraising Changes Transparency Standards in Politics

Oleg Kozyrev, popular Russian blogger, writes [ru] about the effects of online fundraising (this year online opposition activists had fundraised nearly $230,000): 1. it improves transparency standards of opposition politicians, thus...
Russia: Anti-Corruption iPad Application Beats “Angry Birds”

iPad application for Rospil.info, Russian crowdsourcing anti-corruption service created by Alexey Navalny, has taken over [ru] “Angry Birds Rio HD Free” application in the Apple App market. The application has...