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Mar. 2nd, 2009

RCJ2: From Comrades to Classmates

Now that issue 1 is online, we at The Russian Cyberspace Journal are keen on compiling material for our next issue. Do you have a scholarly interest in social-networking practices? With a special focus on the RuNet? Do consider the below call for papers for the RC journal, issue 2. We are a peer-reviewed journal and our first journal has been avidly visited in the past weeks - in other words, thorough feedback and a wide audience would be guaranteed. Questions about the CFP are welcome here in the blog. 

ER

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Russian Cyberspace Journal, issue 2: 'From Comrades to Classmates: Social Networks on the Russian Internet' 
Deadline: 1 July, 200
9

At the beginning of 2009, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation had approximately 150,00 members, while there were over 20 million users of odnoklassniki.ru, a social networking site for former "classmates." Russia's dominant political party, "United Russia," commands some 2 million members; however this pales in comparison to the 18 million active members of the popular networking platform Vkontakte.ru. While political activity in party organizations is certainly different from the spontaneous, informal, and often apolitical participation in social networks on the web, these comparisons demand inspection. Over the coming decade, sociologists predict a general shift from formal to informal organization of social groups and communities. Undoubtedly, this shift will be shaped by contemporary networking technologies.

The Russian Cyberspace Journal, issue 2, aims to examine the structure, taxonomy, function, and significance of social networks on the Russian Internet. What role do these new web-based forms of socializing play in contemporary Russia, particularly given the paradoxical stereotypes of Russian society as collectivistic on the one hand, and amorphous and apathetic on the other? Does social networking in Russia represent a cultural form specific to post-Soviet Russia, or is it only an unreconstructed and uncritical adaptation of "Western" net practices?

For 'From Comrades to Classmates', we seek contributions that approach social networks as a critical component of politics, society, culture, education, and economics. We are interested in exploring a number of questions, including: Have new social networks replicated and/or replaced Soviet traditions of social mobilisation? What is the role of social networks in maintaining Russia's regional integrity and binding together the widely-dispersed Russian- speaking diaspora? What can we learn about post-millennial everyday practices-dating, business associations, public relations-from the operation of Russian social networks?

For more information, including guidelines and contact information, please visit the CFP link on our website.


Jan. 6th, 2009

Openspace Media Overview 98 - 08

In case you missed it: the invaluable openspace.ru published a chronology of media events of the past decade. 'From Crisis to Crisis,' thus the site labels a series of 1998-2008 overviews in the fields of media as well as arts, literature, architecture, drama, and (pop and classical) music. 

The media chronology is written by prominent journalist and literary historian Gleb Morev. His list of events may not be long, but it does touch upon several key moments in recent Russian media history. When did Nosik start his Gazeta.ru? When was odnoklassniki.ru launched? And just what was that story of SUP and Livejournal about again? Here's your perfect fact checker for the decade in which RuNet became the major cultural platform that it is today.

ER

May. 26th, 2008

Attack www.odnoklassniki.ru: More Social Network Hacking



Virtual community hackers are going great guns, it seems. After vkontakte.ru (see preceding post), the website odnoklassniki.ru has now also fallen victim to hacker attacks. A social network which virtually links (former) classmates, odnoklassniki.ru wasn't having the quietest week in its existence anyhow - see our entry of May 23, below.

One can’t deny the hackers some wry sense of humour, that much is certain. They invite odnoklassniki.ru users to vote for “Miss RuNet” by choosing from a set of attractively photographed girls. Once a user has made his or her pick and clicks the “vote” button, a pop-up box ushers the victim to download the file firecodec5107.exe. This virus provides the hard disk with files that generate spam distribution, or so a gazeta.ru reconstruction says. (Did I get that right? It sure is a techno-wonderland out there for humanities-Alices like myself.)

Now it’s no news that viruses and computers go together like birds of a feather. The vkontakte.ru and odnoklassniki.ru cases do show, however, that social networks are increasingly alluring sites for hacking activities. “Social networks are particularly valuable for these types of [spam-related - ER] attacks, because of the large amount of potential victims”, explains the Russian director of anti-virus company Dr. Web, Boris Sharov, in the same gazeta.ru piece. According to Sharov, “in all cases mentioned, the attacks are incited by commercial interests and pots of money.” As elsewhere, it is money that makes the cyberworld go round.

http://www.odnoklassniki.ru

http://www.gazeta.ru/techzone/2008/05/23_a_2733025.shtml

ER

May. 23rd, 2008

Odnoklassniki.ru – User generated censorship?

Seit der russische Präsident Dmitrij Medvedev auf dem Russischen Internet Forum 2008 öffentlich seine Vorliebe für das russische soziale Netzwerk Odnoklassniki.ru (Schulkameraden) bekannt hat, steht die Site im Mittelpunkt der medialen Aufmerksamkeit.  630 virtuelle Doppelgänger hatte der amüsierte Präsident auf der Plattform ausfindig gemacht – einige seien ihm wie aus dem Gesicht geschnitten (siehe Einträge vom 04.,07. und 10. April.).

Dieser Woche machte Odnoklassniki.ru wieder Schlagzeilen. Der Menschenrechtler Igor’ Sazhin aus Syvtyvkar berichtet in seinem Blog, eines seiner User-Pictures sei vom Moderationsteam der ‚Klassenkameraden’ mit einem Bann belegt worden. Das inkriminierte Foto zeige ihn mit einem Plakat folgenden Inhaltes: „OMON [Spezialeinheit der russischen Polizei, H.S.], schlag mich, denn auch ich mag Putin nicht“. Das Foto verletze, so die Argumentation von Odnoklassniki.ru, „die Gefühle anderer NutzerInnen“. Die russische Internet-Zeitschrift Webplaneta konstatiert eine Welle der „Putinophilie“ unter den Schulkameraden und interpretiert diese als direkte Antwort auf die Gunstbezeugungen des neuen Präsidenten Medvedev.

Interessanterweise wird die Kontrolle der Inhalte und User-Pictures auf Odnoklassniki.ru von den NutzerInnen selbst durchgeführt. Eine Neuerung, die laut Webplaneta erst vor kurzer Zeit eingeführt wurde und bereits für viel Verdruss gesorgt habe. In der Tat stellt sich die Frage, ob perspektivisch „user generated control“ eine besonders bequeme Form der Zensur 2.0 darstellt, die eine banale direkte Einflussnahme politischer Instanzen überflüssig macht.

Links: http://www.odnoklassniki.ru
http://webplanet.ru/news/law/2008/05/20/odnokl_pu.html
http://seringvar.livejournal.com/186735.html

H.S.

November 2009

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