A few minutes ago, a round table on the theme 'Runet 2010: itogi goda" concluded in the Gosduma. Its objectives were not only to map the patterns and tendencies of internet use in 2010 but also share observations about what can be expected in 2011. You can read more about it here. There was an active twitter feed (thanks to @ekozlov, @inna_smbatyan and others) from the conference, which yielded the following facts.____in 2010, 46 500 000 users logged onto Runet at least once.

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.

picture copyright Контекст + 2.0New statistics: at the moment, Russia contains the eighth-largest online audience worldwide. With 28,9 millions of unique users, it delivers 2,9 percent of the now 1,007 billion of individual Internet users worldwide. Or so online information provider comScore - a prominent source for statistical information on consumer behavior - claimed in a press release last week.If delivered with slightly utopian rhetoric - "surpassing one billion global users ... is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat", says the company's president Magid Abraham - the comScore survey nevertheless provides some helpful comparisons and conclusions. Did you know, for instance, that the Chinese Internet audience outranks that of the US? For those who follow digital developments this may not be a great surprise - but the comScore site is a good place to verify recent suspicions and preditions with hard facts and numbers.ERPS LJ user simmons_fan just sent us a post of his in which he explains why comScore is not the most reliable source thinkable for statistics on Russia. simmons_fan, I come at this as a relative outsider, so just out of curiosity: do you know of similar discussions about the reliability of Yandex Blogs statistics? Or do they have a solid reputation, as I have been led to believe so far? Whether you have time to look at this or not, thanks a lot for your comment. I should have known it: there exists no such thing as 'hard facts and numbers'.

Кажется, все теперь говорят о 20 % . Эту цифру часто повторяют отечественные и зарубежные официальные лица, отмечая, впрочем, что Интернет-аудитория весьма неравномерно распределена по территории РФ. (Я опускаю вопрос о количестве участников Рунета, т.к. мы уже обсуждали несводимость конфигураций русскоязычного Интернета к географическим  очертаниям нашей Родины). Мнение о 20% разделяют и исследователи: «… по данным на 2007 г. rоличество отечественных пользователей возросло более чем в 4 раза, достигнув 25 млн человек, т.е. приблизилось в отметке 20%, что означает массовый характер использования новой технологии» [Черных Алла. Мир современных медиа. С. 210]. Интернет аудитория Москвы и Санкт - Петербурга оценивается еще более оптимистично: по разным источникам от 30 до 40% москвичей пользуются сетью, а Антон Носик на октябрьской встрече в фонде МакАртуров говорил уже о 60 %!  Но вот несколько другая картина. Борис Владимирович Дубин, комментируя мою статью, переслал следующие данные, полученные Левада-центром в 2008 году. Более или менее постоянно пользуются Интернетом  5% взрослых россиян, от случая к случаю – 8% (данные 2008 г., N=2100 человек). Т.е. согласно этим результатом, Интернет в России все-таки не является «масс»  медиумом. Хотя ситуация по Москве сильно отличается: по данным Левада-Центра (сентябрь 2008, 1600 человек), имеют дома выход в Интернет 22% взрослого населения, 18 лет и старше, те же 22% - по данным другого опроса (май 2008, 2600 человек);  пользуются Интернетом  в целом  28% (видимо, с учетом выхода на работе, в Интернет-кафе).   К.Л.-К.

An inquiry: Yandex blogs provides a daily updated rating of the most popular RuNet blogs. Besides a list of author's names, the rating provides information on their avtoritetnost' (authority) and on the number of chitateli (readers). The first term is explained by the site hosts in a clear definition; but the second keeps on puzzling me.According to Yandex's own explanation, "readers" refers to the amount of readers known by their search system. Consider these contradictory numbers, though: according to the Yandex rating, Evgenii Grishkovets' blog has 26.563 readers today. I have looked up Grishkovets a couple of times in the past weeks, and this amount is more or less stable. However, in an interview - the source escapes me now, once I remember it will appear here - Grishkovets claims to have an audience of 150.000-200.000 daily blog readers. On which data are these numbers based? In reading his blog, I noticed that the author does not exactly fear self-promotion, but surely he is not trumping up fullblown lies here? Which other reliable sources than Yandex to track blog traffic am I missing? I am sure there is a lot out there, but finding the relevant sites is another story. Any "frend" out there to help?ER