In honor of World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development on May 21 and the campaign to “do one thing for diversity,” IREX is pleased to highlight the recent efforts of two Russian students, Anastasia and Alina, who coordinated
Open Government is increasingly perceived as a new paradigm for ICT-enabled government transformation offering a number of instruments for improved governance, transparency and innovation.
[This is a guest blog post by Gregory Asmolov, an intern at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, contributing editor to “Runet Echo” and a Russian language blogger. He and Alexey Sidorenko deployed the Ushahidi platform Russian Fires.ru. This deployment is the second for the Help Map Team]
The first deployment of Ushahidi in Russia – the “Help Map” project (Russian-fires.ru) that worked as a mutual aid coordination platform during unprecedented wildfires last summer – received the most prestigious award of the Russian Internet.
Being part of Ushahidi has given us a front row seat to what I like to term the “InfoWars“. A time when it seems like the fourth and fifth estates are pitted against the other three.
Today is the anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict over South Ossetia. In preparation, both sides have dialed their rhetoric up to 11. Georgia released a report saying that “Moscow interfered in Georgian politics, supplied separatist militias with arms, ignored its peacekeeping responsibilities, failed to prevent widespread ethnic cleansing of Georgians and, ultimately, sought to annex Georgian territories by means of military force.†And that is just the introduction.
