Some more facts and figures concerning the evolution of RuNet. Karina and her colleagues in a recent post sketched the overall dynamics of Internet users in Russia according to a FOM (Foundation of Public Opinion) report that singled out, among other tendencies, a growing "digital divide" within the country separating the metropolises and urban areas from the regions and the countryside.

Two workshops, held in the UK next Spring, address a broad range of new-media related questions. Initiated by Natalya Rulyova & Jeremy Morris (Birmingham), our own Vlad Strukov (Leeds), and Seth Graham (SSEES), they bear the overall title New Media in New Europe-Asia. The organizers are applying for CEELBAS support and plan to publish a selection of papers in a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies. 

Do you have a scholarly interest in social-networking practices? With a special focus on the RuNet? Do consider the below reminder - deadline: July 1 - of the call for papers for The Russian Cyberspace Journal, issue 2. The Russian Cyberspace Journal, of which this LJ is the blog pendant, is a peer-reviewed online journal, whose first journal has been avidly visited. In other words, thorough feedback and a wide audience would be guaranteed.

How much is online social networking embedded in academic practices? In the future, to what extent will digital networking tools such as Hyves, Facebook, or LinkedIn become a locus for scholarly dialogue and interaction? If the answers to these questions are as yet unclear, a growing number of scholars does subscribe to social network sites -- and not only to share pictures of their latest night on the town. That social networking is becoming an increasingly influential instrument for academic information exchange, indicates the launch of a social networking site targeting scholars: academia.edu. Besides such intriguing tags as 13th-Century Mercantile Communities of Iran and Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing, the site also boasts a Slavic Languages and  Russian Studies subdivision. Now before you rush there with wild expectations: academia.edu is clearly in its infancy. Launched last September, it doesn't exactly match the size of non-scholarly competers: for Russian studies, only 49 people provided their details until now; for Slavic Studies, the group is even smaller. Neither does the design deserve a prize for esthetic refinement.And yet, the project has potential. First of all, it's simply fun to browse a list of colleagues who inserted details on their professional affiliation, photographs, and, most importantly, a profile which allows you to quickly single out colleagues who share your research interests. Tags provide an easy way to search for specific scholarly themes - say 'Post-Soviet regimes,' or 'Nationalism' (not that there are many more Russian Studies tags out there at the moment, but that might be a matter of time).But most important, I think, are two tiny links saying 'Add X as a contact' or 'Send X a message'. For anyone who hesitates to contact colleagues whom they Googled, this might just do the trick: academia.edu users put their profile on the site with the very goal of being contacted. Working on Vaginov? Contact Anthony Anemone at New York's New School University! Or is Alexander Dugin and right-wing activism more up your research alley? Send a message to Andreas Umland at the Katholische Universitaet Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, who would like to 'hear from people with similar research interests ... and from those wanting to publish their dissertations, monographs, edited volumes or document collections in the ... book series "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society".' Or, even better perhaps: add your own profile. Yours truly certainly plans to do so before this day is ended.ER

Yesterday I had a really interesting „surf“ through Runet which led me from the website of fantasy writer Sergey Lukyanenko to the social network platform “Berloga” of the ruling party „United Russia”. Initially I just wanted to look up the date of first publication for Lukyanenko’s famous “hacker bible”, “The Labyrinth of Reflections” (1996, btw). I entered his homepage and got momentarily attracted by the diversity of web usages and Internet services offered. Would I like to read one of his novels as e-book on my mobile phone? Does his new weblog Dr. Piliulkin differ very much from the previous one he wrote under the nickname Dr. Livsy (which he closed down in July 2008 because he felt himself misunderstood by his readers)? But before I even could make up my mind to visit Lukyanenkos new ZheZhe, I came across an announcement in the news section of the website telling me that on January 19th, the famous science fiction writer has been "on duty" (dezhurstvo) on the social network platform “Berloga”. I decided to take a look. The social network “Berloga”, part of the only recently created web portal of “United Russia”, positions itself as a place “where different political forces, people with diverging opinions discuss the most actual questions and problems. The only thing uniting them is their love for Russia and their aim to take care of her prosperous future.” (sorry for this probably odd translation). "Берлога - это место, где различные политические силы, люди с разными убеждениями, обсужают самые актуальные вопросы и проблемы. Единственное, что объединяет нас всех - любовь к России и забота о её благе." Indeed, the site offers a list of communities and discussion forums dedicated to the different political parties in Russia beginning with the “Communist Party” and ending with “Narodnyj sojuz”. The “berlogery” are encouraged to join the forum of the party they associate themselves with. I am puzzled. Does this make sense: to represent one’s political opponents on the own website? While in “real life” active political opposition is reduced to almost zero? Observers have voiced different explanations. Thus, Vadim Treskin assumes that the aim of the “Berloga” social network might be to integrate the young political elites of the opposition into the “United Russia” movement. To give a more accurate account of the current life on the site would need more time than I have today. What is evident though is the creative adoption of Runet traditions and neologisms: the anagrammatical word play transforming “blogery” into “berlogery” with the help of the party acronym “ER” is an intelligent trick. The same is valid for the community appeal implicit in the web address of the project www.togeth.er.ru. Finally, what did Lukyanenko and his readers talk about during his “dezhurstvo”? A quick browsing showed that questions of literary genre were addressed as well as more directly political topics (concerning corruption, Putin’s strange status as party-leader without party membership). That brings me back to some of our previous posts where we discussed the impact and the significance of such (more or less) open web controversies within a political climate that is more than often determined by intolerance and violence against critics. Is the "Berloga" project only a smart and especially efficient sort of political technology? Or do make controversial discussions on the web a difference regardless of the communication contexts in which they are embedded? H.S. P.S. Sorry for the Pidgin-English. Dear native speakers among my blogger-colleagues, if you feel like correcting the one or the other sentence, please do not hesitate :)

Is the Internet in Russia a political factor of 'real' significance? Or do the countless websites, journals, and blogs simulate rather than stimulate political activity and decision making? These and related questions are central in the brand new first issue of The Russian Cyberspace Journal: Virtual Power. Russian Politics and the Internet. The issue was launched this week and is fully accessible online.As the name suggests, the journal is a kin of this blog - it is published by a team of scholars which partly overlaps with this ZhZh team. In Virtual Power, they and other international specialists explore the representation and mediation of Russian political discourse - with special attention for last year's most significant political events: the presidential elections and the Georgia-Ossetia conflict. Now before turning to the contents, let me stress that we are keen on discussing these with colleagues and interested readers in this blog. Feel free to add critical comments: tell us what you like, what you miss, which questions the articles stir, with which assertions you agree, with which you don't - and if so, why you do or don't. For this first issue, we are especially keen on peeping in our readers' minds.So, what can you expect between the two virtual covers of this first journal issue? Some teasers, with links that bring you to the right articles with one mouse click. The emphasis of the issue is on social networks and participatory digital platforms - think blogs, or chatfora (Rutten, Schmidt, Goroshko/Zhigalina, Fossato). Several authors make a distinction between official media and unofficial, digitally enhanced networks (Schmidt, Strukov), and between the presentation of political events on the state-controlled television and their mediation on oppositional web sites (Lapina-Kratasiuk, Sokolova).Other contributors analyse how the Internet - that allegedly neutral, transnational medium - is used to disseminate national imagery and expressing national sensibility (Strukov, Hofmann). The issue reaches beyond the borders of the Russian Federation in analyses that consider the cases of Belarus (Krivolap) and Ukraine (Hofmann), and that position the new media developments in post-Soviet space in relation to a wider axis of what was once deemed the Second World (Saunders).Maybe you never reached this conclusion, and you are now deeply immersed in one of the articles to which the above links can take you. But in case you're still there: we hope that you'll enjoy our discussion of virtual power - and we heartily encourage you to join it here. ER

Now that issue 1 is online, we at The Russian Cyberspace Journal are keen on compiling material for our next issue. Do you have a scholarly interest in social-networking practices? With a special focus on the RuNet? Do consider the below call for papers for the RC journal, issue 2. We are a peer-reviewed journal and our first journal has been avidly visited in the past weeks - in other words, thorough feedback and a wide audience would be guaranteed. Questions about the CFP are welcome here in the blog. ERCALL FOR PAPERSThe Russian Cyberspace Journal, issue 2: 'From Comrades to Classmates: Social Networks on the Russian Internet' Deadline: 1 July, 2009At the beginning of 2009, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation had approximately 150,00 members, while there were over 20 million users of odnoklassniki.ru, a social networking site for former "classmates." Russia's dominant political party, "United Russia," commands some 2 million members; however this pales in comparison to the 18 million active members of the popular networking platform Vkontakte.ru. While political activity in party organizations is certainly different from the spontaneous, informal, and often apolitical participation in social networks on the web, these comparisons demand inspection. Over the coming decade, sociologists predict a general shift from formal to informal organization of social groups and communities. Undoubtedly, this shift will be shaped by contemporary networking technologies. The Russian Cyberspace Journal, issue 2, aims to examine the structure, taxonomy, function, and significance of social networks on the Russian Internet. What role do these new web-based forms of socializing play in contemporary Russia, particularly given the paradoxical stereotypes of Russian society as collectivistic on the one hand, and amorphous and apathetic on the other? Does social networking in Russia represent a cultural form specific to post-Soviet Russia, or is it only an unreconstructed and uncritical adaptation of "Western" net practices?For 'From Comrades to Classmates', we seek contributions that approach social networks as a critical component of politics, society, culture, education, and economics. We are interested in exploring a number of questions, including: Have new social networks replicated and/or replaced Soviet traditions of social mobilisation? What is the role of social networks in maintaining Russia's regional integrity and binding together the widely-dispersed Russian- speaking diaspora? What can we learn about post-millennial everyday practices-dating, business associations, public relations-from the operation of Russian social networks?For more information, including guidelines and contact information, please visit the CFP link on our website.