I was born in Moscow, lived most of my life in Jerusalem, spent 3 years in Washington DC (where I did MA at GW). But now I live in London and my major role is doctoral student at PhD program in New media, Innovation and Literacy at the London School of Economics media department. The topic of my research is development of online political institutions and ICT based models of governance in crisis situations.
I also worked as a consultant on information technology, new media, and social media projects for The World Bank, American Councils for International Education, and Internews, and was a research assistant at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Previously I worked as a journalist for major Russian daily newspapers Kommersant and Novaya Gazeta, and served as news editor and analyst for Israeli TV.
Alexey Sidorenko and I were founders of Help Map, the crowdsourcing platform, which was used to coordinate assistance to victims of wildfires in Russia in 2010 and won a Russian National Internet Award for best project in the “State and Society” category.
My Russian blog (since 2002): http://pustovek.livejournal.com/
You can reach me through Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/asmolov
Latest posts by Gregory Asmolov from May, 2010
Russia: Bloggers Cover Moscow Gay Pride Parade
LJ-user Zyalt published [RUS] pictures from Moscow gay pride parade [EN] that took place despite it the ban by Moscow authorities. The event organizers had to change its location several times. Other pictures of the parade, which was just a few minutes long, can be found here, here and here.
Russian “Little Blue Buckets” Movement Reaches Ukraine
Ukraine-based feminist organization “FEMEN” [EN] conducted an action [ENG] in support of the Russian online movement “Little Blue Buckets” [ENG] and against the “unification of Russia and Ukraine under Kremlin patronage.” Activists with their breasts painted in blue tried to rally near the building of the Russian embassy in Kiev,...
Russia: Taking Children as a New Method of Pressure on Journalists
Children of Galina Dmitrieva, an oppositionary journalist and activist, were taken by Russian police after she published an investigation about Russian car manufacturer Avtovaz [EN], Anatoliy Baranov reported [RUS]. After instant blog-campaign her children were returned. Blogger Marina Litvinovich suggests [RUS] this method was used before against at least one oppositionary journalist.
Russian DST Group Will Increase Investment in Foreign Internet Companies
Yuri Milner [EN], chief executive of the Moscow-based Digital Sky Technologies [EN] (DST) investment group, revealed [ENG] The Guardian his plans to continue investing in major foreign Internet companies. One of them might be Twitter. DST had already invested in Facebook, Zynga and ICQ.
Russia: Video of a Man With a ‘Little Blue Bucket’ Attacking Government Car Raises Controversy
A viral video [RUS] of a man with a little blue bucket [EN] on his head attacking a government car near Kremlin has been distributed recently in the Russian blogosphere. The action is considered to be a part of the protests against government cars using emergency vehicle lighting [EN] (“migalki”). However, the...
Russia: Hacking of Women's Community Raises Gender, Ethical and Privacy Dilemmas
The legendary Russian women blog community "girls_only" with the most sensitive and private discussions was hacked by anonymous hacker and uploaded to a mirror site. The scandal raised a lot of legal, ethical and online security dilemmas. It also showed that men and women are creatures that live on different Internet planets and inspired online discussions about the gender differences.
Russia: Berkman Center Experts Visit Moscow
Researchers from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University visited Moscow and met with local journalist and bloggers at the Moscow State University. Lenta.ru writes about the meeting and the research of Russian blogosphere by Harvard University.
