Idea Lab

In Denmark, a Citizen Journalism Experiment Heads to the Soccer Field

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

For me, June has always been a conference month -- and this year was no exception. On my way to the annual MIT-Knight Civic Media meet-up in Cambridge, Mass., I made an essential stop in Aarhus, Denmark. Aarhus University, which is based in the Danish city, organized a major soccer conference in partnership with a European organization called Play the Game. Aarhus has amazing scenery -- it's a historic city with colorful, dainty houses. And while the buildings' walls speak of that history, also in the air during my visit there were innovation and a passion for technology. The conference,...

• August 23, 2011
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SochiReporter Becomes Major Russian Media Player in 2010

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

2010 was a very good year for us at SochiReporter. In late December we took time to analyze the year's achievements and, to be frank, I was excited about the list of various activities SochiReporter initiated or participated in. Of course, I try to be cautious about praising myself and our team too much, as satisfaction is always a killer of development and a friend of stagnation. The undeniable good news, however, is that SochiReporter launched in the fall of 2009 and we managed to reach some serious heights in 2010, especially on the marketing side of the product. SochiReporter...

• January 13, 2011
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The Marriage of Social Media and the Olympics Is Inevitable

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I've just returned from England where I spoke at the Abandon Normal Devices (AND) event, an independently funded festival of new cinema and digital culture. It was held in the Cornerhouse, a 25-year-old arts and media space located in the heart of Manchester. My presentation was part of the #media2012 session dedicated to the growing importance of social media in covering the Olympics, and during the preparations for the Games. The event drew artists, designers, researchers and new media folks from many corners of the world, including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Scandinavia. Social Media and the Olympics A special...

• October 15, 2010
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English-Language Content a Boon to SochiReporter in Russia

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

On Monday, September 27, SochiReporter will begin publishing in English. From that point on, every Monday will see us publish new exclusive stories about ongoing preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics, and about life in four of the Big Sochi main areas: Central Sochi, Adler, Khosta and Lazarevskoye. (We will be translating the Russian posts submitted by our citizen journalists.) Vancouver Test Case As I previously wrote on Idea Lab, we began testing an English version of SochiReporter during the Vancouver Olympics. We then hired Yuliya Talmazan, a Russian-speaker from Vancouver who worked as an editor at NowPublic, to cover...

• September 14, 2010
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'Life in a Day' Collaborative Film Echoes in Hyper-Local Projects

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

When I think about my project, SochiReporter, I often recall the seminal 1961 book by Jane Jacobs, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." This book challenged the conventional wisdom of city planners of that era and celebrated the vibrancy of the urban streetscape. It also encouraged citizen involvement in the development of neighborhoods. I wonder if Jacobs ever looked at the cities and the changes they undergo to host the Olympics, as Sochi will in 2014? Life in a Day Along the lines of citizen participation, July 23 was the day when anyone worldwide could make a short...

• July 28, 2010
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Serving as Media Innovator in Residence at University of Nebraska

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

Flying over Lincoln, Nebraska, aboard a Delta jet, I peered down at the gently rolling meadows, farmlands and the statue on the peak of the high-rise state capitol, which is situated the heart of this cute town. The state capitol tower, a historic landmark, is one of the few places in the United States where all three branches of government are housed in one building.

• June 30, 2010
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SochiReporter Helps Transform Sochi in Preparation for Olympics

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I recently spoke with a friend of mine here in Sochi, Russia. She is a specialist in modernizing the technological infrastructure of sanatoriums, which were the places where lucky Soviet working class heroes would be sent to rest and relax. (Think of them as health spas.) It's a challenge to transform the Soviet-era sanatoriums. For example, her job entails computerizing the files and data and modernizing the registration of new clients. But she said it's exciting work. For her, the most enjoyable part of the job is organizing courses for the staff (doctors, waiters, janitors) who at first seem dazed...

• May 27, 2010
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Volcano Disrupts Plans, But SochiReporter Soldiers On

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

The eruption of a volcano in Iceland affected the travel plans of thousands, and inspired an outpouring of Iceland- and ash-themed jokes ("Dear Iceland, we want your cash, not your ash. Thanks, Europe") -- almost enough to fill a separate post. But I wasn't laughing about the fact that there was no way -- except for a 38-hour train expedition -- to get to London this week to attend a lecture by Andy Miah, a well known Olympics scholar and professor of the University of the West of Scotland. His speech, "Sport and Society: the Summer Olympics through the Lens...

• April 28, 2010
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SochiReporter Drives Traffic with 2010 Olympics Coverage

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

At SochiReporter, we looked at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics (and Paralympics) as an important event that can move our site forward and attract more international users. I'm happy to say that our efforts have paid off with increased traffic and interest in the site. During the Games, SochiReporter experienced a 350 percent increase in the number of European and North American visitors to the site. We also published several exclusive posts from Yuliya Talmazan, a Russian-speaker from Vancouver who works as an editor at NowPublic. During the Olympics, Talmazan worked for NBC doing editorial research, and she also attended...

• March 23, 2010
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How Partnering with McDonald's Helped Boost SochiReporter

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I'm excited about finding new ways to market and promote SochiReporter.ru that inspire the citizens of Sochi, Russia to contribute to the site. I believe that you can be a lot more creative when marketing a website. As opposed to a newspaper or radio station, a website can reach a larger, even global, audience. I strongly believe that, because it is a form of new media, the marketing and promotion of a website should also break from tradition. We've done just that by pursuing a partnership that would probably make a lot of people scratch their heads. With the 2014...

• February 16, 2010
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How the Olympics Can Thrive in the Digital Age

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I'm honored to share that an essay I wrote was selected by the International Olympic Committee for inclusion in the official book that was distributed at the Olympic Congress held in Copenhagen from October 3 to 5. This was a great opportunity, especially given our work on SochiReporter. Here's an image of the book's cover: I submitted my essay in March as part of the Virtual Olympic Congress, an open international competition that was announced by the IOC in the early fall of 2007. Here's what the IOC said about the competition: Via the "Virtual Olympic Congress," a dedicated website,...

• December 16, 2009
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SochiReporter Launches with Time Machine, Wiki Guidebook

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I'm glad to say that SochiReporter, my Knight-funded project, launched on October 27. This was a very important day for me, and for our team. We tested SochiReporter for about two months before the public launch, inviting both web experts and users to comment on various aspects of the site. In the days before the launch, I didn't sleep a wink. But this is natural. I was very excited about the launch, and did my best to convey how cool and innovative SochiReporter is to the journalists and students that gathered on launch day in the hall of one of...

• November 20, 2009
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Hyper-Local a Hot Topic at All Russia Media Forum

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

The SochiReporter team recently presented our project at the 14th All Russia Media Forum, held in Dagomys, Sochi, in late September. This annual forum for Russian print and online media is organized by the Russian Union of Journalists. Among the participants this year were more than 1,000 journalists from local and regional Russian newspapers, as well as European and U.S. editors. The gathering discussed many global issues, such as the decline of trust in the press, measures of responsibility in journalism, and the social weight of the printed word. There were discussion groups, creativity contests, meetings with politicians, celebrities, scholars,...

• October 30, 2009
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Overcoming Drupal Challenges as SochiReporter Nears Launch

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

SochiReporter is getting ready to launch on the web and for mobile users. We spent the last three weeks fixing linguistic, technical and design bugs, all with the goal of maximizing ease of use. So far we have drawn a fabulous group of people from both local and virtual communities: garage tech geeks and web schizophrenics, coffee-shop amateurs, and folks who want to use the site and offer feedback. Their comments have helped us to get better. We also attracted an avid gamer in Sochi who spends most of his time in an underground Internet café at the center...

• September 18, 2009
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Students Get Blogging Seminar, Digital Cameras for SochiReporter

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I've just returned from helping deliver the first seminar about blogging and citizen journalism ever held in Sochi, Russia. Just weeks away from launching my Knight News Challenge project, SochiReporter.ru, I organized a seminar for third, fourth and fifth year students from the five leading Sochi-based universities. Thirty-five journalism and IT students participated in the two day seminar called "Web and Journalism: The New Trends." We received press coverage in over 30 online publications, in newspapers and from three of the city's leading TV channels. Clearly, this city, which will host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, is ready to embrace...

• August 20, 2009
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IOC to Include Citizen Contributions with Virtual Olympic Congress

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

The Olympics is a special brand that boasts a bottomless marketing potential. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) admits that it has to be careful in positioning the Games' name online. Even so, it's clear that, because of its social nature and enormous global outreach, the Olympics have terrific potential to develop on the web. I decided to look at what the IOC is doing to promote the Games today. In the early fall 2007, IOC announced the start of the Virtual Olympic Congress with an attractive tagline: "Taking the Pulse. Make your Move. Join the debate. Voice Your Opinion." Generally,...

• August 4, 2009
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Knight Rewards On-the-Spot Competitors at MIT Meetup

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

Last Thursday, I returned to Moscow from the Future of News and Civic Media Conference in Cambridge, Mass. Organized by the MIT Center of Future Civic Media and the Knight Foundation, this is the annual meeting where all the Knight News Challenge Winners discuss the future of civic media and talk about the digital tools to build local communities. This year, nine new exciting projects joined this community of innovators, raising the total of Knight News Challenge projects to 45. The conference was also a good chance for the past Knight News Challenge winners to talk about their progress on...

• July 1, 2009
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Think Community? Think Maps! (Going to MIT. Part One)

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I'm looking into the Delta airplane illuminator at the white snow valley with scattered grayish mountain peaks of Greenland, which just recently became independent of Danmark, and comparing the view with the satellite map right behind me on the horizontal Kindle-size screen. First thought: since last summer Delta tech guys made a great step forward and significantly improved the entertainment services onboard, introducing a sensor screen and a possibility for the flyer to choose movies, games, CDs by genres and tracks. And finally build a personal playlist, which is a worthy alternative to watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button...

• June 17, 2009
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YouTube Orchestra Brings Together Musicians Around the World

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

Well, it's Susan Boyle again singing "Now you say you're lonely," being not at all lonely with her 61 million YouTube viewers. That number makes the appealing British singer 61 times more popular than the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Global Mash-up musicians with their 1.1 million views. But the YouTube Symphony, a unique experiment uniting musicians from around the world, may be the one to watch (you can view the video embedded below). Ms. Boyle is singing a jazz standard and the YouTube Orchestra is playing the Internet Symphony #1 Eroica composed and conducted by the Chinese maestro Tan Dun. Both...

• May 28, 2009
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The Bustling Tech Scene at the Russian Internet Forum

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

I am entering the large movie theatre hall where the conference dedicated to the social networks is just about to start. A prominent web expert is commenting on the Russian President's decision to launch a Livejournal account and the first post on the Internet development in Russia. Someone is talking about the recent You Tube Success of Susan Boyle and the hot-spot detecting WiFi sneakers invented by the Canadian designer Stefan Dukaczewski. The atmosphere is properly wired. Six panelists representing the leading Russian media outlets are about to report on how social networks are being used by their marketing departments...

• May 2, 2009
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Progress Made: So What About the Hyphen? (Car Plant Scene 1)

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

According to the Council for Research Excellence, created by the Nielsen Company, an adult is exposed to screens - TVs, cellphones, even G.P.S. devices - for about 8.5 hours a day, the NYT reports. It seems like those last five weeks I was spending twice more time in front of my Mac and iPhone screens moving the Sochi Olympics Project forward. It was a creative spell of life. First, Sochi Olympics Project actually got a name. Out of a pool of various potential names I have chosen the one which I believe fits best. Needless to say, the decision was...

• April 6, 2009
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Сthulhu, Dr. Zoidberg & the Teacher of English to Symbolize the Olympics

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

On the web, choosing the mascot of the Sochi Olympics was probably the most discussed topic around the 2014 Winter Games. What is great with the Olympics is that being a global, international affair, each time it presents the local quintessence of the hosting city. Simply put, the symbol reflects the local Olympic dream as well as the local customs and traditions and the soul of the place where they are held. That's why choosing the symbol of the Olympics usually stirs vibrations and high response from people. When I just arrived in NYC as a Fulbrighter from Moscow in...

• February 13, 2009
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Choosing a Domain Name: Getting to Know Cyber Squatters (Starbucks Scene 1)

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

It's not the case when you can remain unnamed. At this stage - when working out the site structure and drawing graphic schemes, you can't stop thinking about the domain name. Soon after the Knight Foundation announced that my proposal made it and I was selected one of the winners of the '08 Knight News Challenge, I registered several domain names which could alternatively be the site address. In case with Sochi, most of the domain names bearing a word 'sochi' or a combination of words 'Olympic' and 'sochi' were purchased in a wholesale format by cyber squatters several hours...

• January 19, 2009
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When a Cell Phone Is Bigger Than a Yacht

by Alexander Zolotarev
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

Despite the global warming reports snow covered the Moscow roads and rooftops just on time this year, preluding to the urban installation of the New Year trees all around the city, bringing romanticism into the hearts of the Muscovites, and inspiring citizens to upload new Christmas-related videos (along with those featuring car crashes) at the http://mreporter.ru/, a citizen journalism project recently launched by the Rossiya TV channel. 'Mobile Reporter' is similar in its concept to the CNN iReport. A cell phone is called mobile phone in Russia, and videos are often taken by the mobile phone cameras, and the most...

• December 7, 2008
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