Subject: Report from Moscow conference From: Alan Boyle Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 21:56:53 -0400 (EDT)
How the Web Was Won
Subject: Report from Moscow conference
From: Alan Boyle
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 21:56:53 -0400 (EDT)
Dear Online-Newsers: I hope you don't mind if I send along this
report on what we're doing in Moscow. If this bugs anyone, please
send me a private message and I'll cease and desist.
- Thanks, Alan Boyle
GlasNews 5.3.1 - Autumn 1995
This is the first of three daily reports
from "New Media for a New World," an
East-West conference presented in Moscow
on the subject of online journalism.
The author is Alan Boyle, a Seattle
journalist and an organizer of the event.
NEWER MEDIA FOR A NEWER WORLD
East-West conference serves up Java, chat and more
Imagine a three-ring cybercircus in the city that's home to the
world-famous Moscow Circus: In this corner, perspectives on the
state of Russian networking.... In that corner, a bracing dose
of information about how to use electronic tools for news
research.... And above it all, a high-wire act
bridging Russia and America with a telecommunications line
moving 64 kilobits of data every second.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's "New Media for a New World 1995"!
The second annual Moscow conference about online media began
October 23 at the Institute for USA-Canada Studies and the Russian-
American Press and Information Center, known as RAPIC. This
year's conference was presented by the Art Pattison Communications
Exchange Program, RAPIC and Relcom, in partnership with the
Center for Civil Society International and GlasNet.
Major funding for the conference was provided by the
Russian-American Media Partnerships Program of the U.S. Agency
for International Development. Additional financial support
came from contributors to the Communications Exchange Program.
Golden Line, the International Science Foundation, Stel Inc.
and Sun Microsystems also have provided goods and services.
About 65 journalists are attending this year's conference.
Half are from Moscow, about half are from other regions of Russia
as distant as Vladivostok, and there is a smattering of
journalists from other former Soviet republics such as
Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Last year, "New Media for a New World" gave most of the Russian
participants (and some of the Americans) their first taste
of the World Wide Web and Mosaic. This year, the Net and the
Web are better-known in Russia, but "NMNW" is again demonstrating
innovations that are just beginning to make a splash in Moscow:
Thanks to Sun Microsystems and Friends & Partners, applications
using the Java programming language are on display. Participants
are seeing methods for sending audio and video over the Net. And
on the conference's first day, Eric Johnson of Internews, one of
the foremost organizations involved in media development in the
former Soviet Union, placed an Internet Phone call to a Boston
television station.
For half an hour, Johnson chatted with Boston journalists,
using the Internet rather than long-distance phone lines.
"One week ago it wasn't possible," said Alexander Filippov of
Relcom, who handled much of the technical preparation for
the conference. Filippov explained that just in the last few
days, a new Internet channel through Helsinki started providing
extra bandwidth for communications with the rest of the world.
Many of the first morning's speakers sketched out the current state
of Russian networking. In Russia, poor phone lines and
metered Internet access are still the norm, but networking
companies say they are aiming to make the Net more accessible
and affordable. For example, some companies have put together
packages of software and service that seem to follow the
"Internet in a Box" model.
Anatoly Voronov, director of the GlasNet online service,
said he found the younger generation to be more open
to exploring the Net. GlasNet conducts seminars in
Moscow schools to foster that interest.
"Our schoolchildren have their own home pages," Voronov
said.
In the afternoon, experts on databases, Net resources and
computer-assisted journalism explained how Russians can use
online systems to research news articles. Yevgenia Voronina
of the Russian-American Press and Information Center discussed
the Lexis/Nexis information database.
"My professional dream is that such a database can be used
in Russian," she said. Voronina gave journalists an introduction
to Russian databases such as Russica-Izvestia, as well as
electronic bulletins and CD-ROM resources.
Natasha Bulashova of Friends & Partners, a Russian-American
Web service, outlined the history and the structure of the
Internet, with demonstrations of e-mail, Web cruising and
other Net techniques. Holt Ruffin, executive director
of the Center for Civil Society International, discussed
the power of electronic communications in widening
international contacts and building Net-based communities.
Nora Paul, library director at the Poynter Institute for
Media Studies, talked about the sorts of questions
journalists should ask themselves *before* using the Net
in order to use their time and resources most efficiently.
She cited a remark by Pablo Picasso about the electronic
world: "Computers are useless, they can only give you answers."
"His point, I think, is that computers can't help you come
up with the questions you need to ask," Paul said.
Paul and John Garcia, director of online journalism at New
York University, illustrated how Net research techniques
can be used to find information and sources related to topics
as esoteric as unexploded World War II bombs, cryogenics
and the health risks of plutonium.
Dirk Smillie of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center
closed off the first day's program with what turned into a
spirited discussion on how talk shows and Web pages are
transforming the political process in America. He traced
the evolution of political communication from 1992 ("Larry
King Live") to 1994 (the De-Foley-Ate Congress campaign)
to 1996 (dueling campaign home pages).
_________________________________________________________
Alan Boyle is one of the organizers of "New Media for a
New World." However, this report presents only his own
perspective on the conference and does not necessarily
reflect the views of other conference organizers or any
groups affiliated with "NMNW." An official conference
report will be made available later on the World Wide Web
(http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/friends/aboyle/new.world.html).
GlasNews is the quarterly publication of the Art Pattison
Communications Exchange Program, which promotes contacts
between communications professionals in the United States
and the former Soviet Union. To subscribe electronically
to GlasNews, send the message "subscribe cepmail" to
majordomo@eskimo.com. To contact GlasNews electronically,
write to glasnews@eskimo.com. GlasNews is on the Web at
http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/friends/aboyle/glasnews/master.html.
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