Idea Lab

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
• 3 comments

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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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
• 1 comment

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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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
• 5 comments

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
• 2 comments