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 January, 2011
Russia: Bloggers Protest Against Educational Reform
Blog-based address [RUS] to Russian leadership with demands to cancel educational reform has received more than 10 thousands voices of support [RUS] within two days. Bloggers protest against wide reform of the high school that would reduce number of compulsory subjects to 4 while leaving such disciplines like Russian language, mathematics,...
Russia: Blogger Released After 14 Months of Penal Colony
Irek Murtazin [RUS], blogger and former spokesperson of the Tatarstan's president, has been released today after spending more than 14 months in penal colony, “Novaya Gazeta” reported [RUS]. After published a gossip about the death of Mintimir Shaimiev, president of Tatarstan Republic, Murtazin had been accused of defamation and sentenced to 2 years...
Russia: Domodedovo Bombings Expose Imbalance Between Traditional and Social Media
Social media played a significant role in the coverage of the terrorist attack in Domodedovo International Airport near Moscow. Russian bloggers and journalists discussed the consequences of increasing role of blogs and Twitter in emergency situations. Gregory Asmolov analyzes the roles of the government, traditional and new media in the coverage of the attack.
Russia: Students Launch Online Map of Illegal Gambling
Students of Saratov University of Technology launched gdecasino.ru, a crowd-sourcing website dedicated to map illegal gambling sites. A representative of Russian police said [RUS] to “Komsomolskaya pravda” newspaper that the website has already helped to close few illegal casinos.
Russia: Internet Industry Stays at Home
Emma Barnett, digital media editor at “The Telegraph“, summarized reflections from her recent trip to Russia and explained “Why the Russian Internet doesn't need the West.” According to Barnett, the Russian Internet industry is “self-contained and self-sufficient” and it has no “ambition for the foreseeable future to expand internationally.”
Russia: Bloggers Choose RuNet Events of 2010
LiveJournal administration published [RUS] list of the most memorable events and personalities of 2010 chosen by bloggers. The winners: Wikileaks, Moscow mayor's resignation, wildfires, riots on Manezhnaya square, investigation of corruption in Russian pipeline company “Transneft”. Ilya Varlamov (Zyalt) has been chosen as the best blogger, and the photo of the year...
Russia: Putin's Palace Exposed on Ruleaks
The Russian Wikileaks website published photos [RUS] of what is allegedly known as Vladimir Putin's $1 billion-worth palace on the shore of Black Sea . The story of the secret construction has been exposed [ENG] by Vedomosti newspaper few weeks ago.
Russia: Bloggers on Lessons of Tunisian Revolution
The outcome of the Tunisian protests has provoked people worldwide to think about political change. One of the major questions discussed by Russian bloggers is whether the possibility of similar scenario in Russia exists.
Russia: Ushahidi Project Adresses Problems of Russian Winter
“Help Map for Russian Winter” (Holoda.info), a new crowdsourcing project, was launched in Russia to address the problems of people who are affected by cold weather. RIA Novosti news agency reports [RUS] that the website's goal is to raise awareness about people suffering from the lack of heating and other...
