The Internews Center for Innovation and Learning is pleased to announce the release of its first innovation paper, Social Change and the Russian Network Society: Redefining Development Priorities in New Information Environments.

This paper explores the use of new information technologies in Russia to examine the next generation of media development and to ask how the ability of the “network society” – and the new forms of collective action it allows to contribute to social change –  can be supported. Building on the idea of the “fifth estate,” and how networked individuals and institutions can use the Internet as a platform to challenge the influence of other more established bases of authority, these examples of social media and online activism, specifically blogging and crowdsourcing,  show how Russia’s networked society is helping invigorate the country’s civil society and traditional media.

Please join us in Washington, DC on September 20th, as authors Gregory Asmolov and Josh Machleder present their paper and lead a discussion of its findings.

Social Change and the Russian Network Society

Redefining Development Priorities in New Information Environments

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
9:00-11:00am

Hosted by Internews

Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Ave, NW
Conference Rooms A and B
Washington, DC 20036

Admission is free.  Please RSVP online
Light refreshments will be served at 9:00am.
Program will start promptly at 9:30am.

About the Authors

Gregory Asmolov is a contributing editor to Runet Echo, a project  of "Global Voices Online" that analyzes  the  Russian  Internet. He  has consulted on information technology, new media, and social media projects  for The World Bank, American Councils for International Education, and Internews, and conducted research at the  Berkman Center for Internet and  Society. Asmolov  has previously worked as a journalist for major  Russian  daily newspapers Kommersant and  Novaya Gazeta, and  served as news editor and analyst for Israeli TV. Asmolov is a co-founder of Help Map, the crowdsourcing platform, which was used to coordinate assistance  to victims of wildfires in Russia in 2010  and won a Russian  National Internet Award  for best project  in the "State and Society" category. Asmolov holds  an MA in Global Communication from George Washington University and is working towards a PhD on New media, Innovation and Literacy at the London School  of Economics.

Josh Machleder is Internews' Vice President for Europe and Eurasia Programs. He  brings 12 years' media development experience in the former Soviet  Union and 10 years of Internews field management, in Central Asia, and  Southeast Asia. He  has worked  for the Open Society Institute, IREX, and was an Alfa Fellow in Moscow in 2005- 2006. Prior  to working for Internews, Machleder worked  in TV and  Radio production in New York. Machleder holds  BA and MA degrees  from Columbia University. He speaks English, Russian, Hebrew and French.