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The Russian Civic Networking program continues active development of Civic Networking within Russian communities. The project resides within the broader Friends and Partners effort, the grass roots project jointly developed by friends in the U.S. and Russia to actively explore how the Internet can be used to help foster new exchange and understanding between different countries and cultures. The first year of the project met with good success and, in early 1999, the U.S. and Russian Friends and Partners team submitted a new proposal to the Ford Foundation requesting a two year extension to this activity to enable the continued funding of the first three civic networks but also to select three additional cities with whom to initiate civic network development. This grant was awarded in August, 1999 and project activity began in September, 1999. The new grant from the Ford Foundation made it possible to conduct a new proposal solicitation across Russia and then once again select three communities which offered the best chance of sustainable success in developing local community networks. The second "invitation for partnership" and application guidelines were posted to the RCNP website during September. Compared to the first RCNP solicitation conducted in 1997, we were much more careful to narrowly define the expectations of grant recipients -- thus narrowing the number of potential applicants. We extended this practice to email and telephone inquiries to ensure that only those communities who were ready to be successful, having specific project goals and in a position to cost share at least half of all project costs, would apply. Our goal was to encourage those organizations only which met the rather strict guidelines. As a result by December proposals were received from a number of Russian cities and the three communities of Voronezh, Kazan, and Obninsk were subsequently selected for development. The three chosen communities addressed particularly well the following: (2) they have established relationship with organization which is providing connection to the Internet and which already has established good network infrastructure; (3) All three expressed desire and potential for developing civic networking not only in local community but in broader region as well; (4) All expressed eagerness to work with the other civic networking cities;
We are glad to introduce our new RCNP participants: Voronezh PI - Vladislav Yurasov, e-mail: [email protected]
Obninsk PI - Yuri Koftan, e-mail: [email protected] Obninsk Computer Club Kazan PI - Dmitry Vokhmyanin, e-mail: [email protected] Committee for Protection of Human Rights, Tatarstan Republic Several trips have been made to existing civic networks to assess project progress. Proposals were solicited from the existing civic networks in Chelyabinsk, Samara Sergiev Posad for their plans for expanding RCNP activities for the next two years. Legal agreements for grant extension have been signed between the Friend and Partners Foundation, Moscow, and the existing recipient grantees in Chelyabinsk, Samara and Sergiev Posad. Chelyabinsk PI - Dmitry Latukhin, e-mail: [email protected] Southern Ural State University Samara PI - Boris Chertkov, e-mail: [email protected] Sergey Agapov, e-mail: [email protected] Samara State Technical University Sergiev Posad PI - Victor Nemov, e-mail: [email protected] Foundation for Social Programs
Russian Community Current Activities (September-December 1999) Chelyabinsk "Chelyabinsk Civic Networking Project" Executor of technical and humanitarian part: Southern Ural State University PI - Dmitry Latukhin The Chelyabinsk Civic Network (CCN) is the oldest such project in Russia now. The network provides access to the Internet, public access at 12 organizations. They have provided 9 2-hour training sessions for disabled people, 16 seminars for schoolchildren, 11 individual training for 7 women and 4 men. Local Internet web sites are located at: http://www.ccn.org.ru Samara "Samara Civic Networking Project" Executor of technical part - Samara State Technical University, PI - Boris Z. Chertkov Executor of humanitarian part - Historical, Ecological and Cultural Association "Povolzje", PI - Sergey A. Agapov Samara continues its work supporting NGOs in the Samara region. The Samara Civic Network is now supporting 36 public access points, 20 NGOs and other organizations with access to Internet (total number of NGO's with access to Internet during this project is 98), 23 training sessions, and 11 local community meetings. The CivNET is publishing information on local government offices and officials. Samara CIVnet is also working with a local handicapped persons organization to develop a larger project for integrating isolated and homebound individuals into community activities. The Samara CIVnet has been working to expand its funding base to enable it to grow and sustain activities in the community. They have recently been awarded a grant from USAID of $140,000 to help develop local community content. Within the framework of project "Institutional Development of Samara Region's NGOs as a tool of people initiative realization in region social and economical development", financed by USAID, there was created a public access point which has been integrated within the Samara Civic Network. Within the framework of the projects "Democratic Legislation" and "Transparency of the budgets in Russia" the web resource "Samara Regional Budget" is now operational. Local Internet web sites are located at: http://samara.friends-partners.ru Sergiev Posad "Sergiev Posad Civic Networking Project" Executor of technical part - Sergiev Posad Chamber of Commerce, PI - Oleg Starkov Executor of humanitarian part - "Foundation for Social Programs", PI - Victor Nemov In addition to its web publishing activities, the Sergiev Posad Civic Network has begun publishing a weekly newspaper in cooperation with the local Chamber of Commerce and the local government. The newspaper focuses on local cultural and community life and is distributed as a part of the CIVnet's community development activities. Copies of this newspaper are included in the Appendix A (Sergiev Posad Subproject Report). A very strong relationship with the local Chamber of Commerce has yielded many advantages with contacts, business relationships and information for the local CIVnet. Sergiev Posad is now publishing 21 local web sites, providing 10 local public access points, has provided 3 training sessions for 28 individuals. They are now maintaining several interesting websites focused on local government offices and services. Local Internet web sites are located at http://www.fp.divo.ru Obninsk "Obninsk Civic Networking Project" Executor of technical and humanitarian part :Consortium of Obninsk city Organizations PI - Yury R. Koftan The Obninsk civic network is currently establishing technical server and telecommunications equipment for their civic network. The project organizers have been working closely with the Russian project director who, in her travels and meetings, has been encouraging broader community involvement - including local government. Several of the Obninsk network organizers traveled to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the US during January, 2000 to work on a joint Chamber of Commerce project funded by the USIA and to meet with the US project director on CIVnet and NaukaNet activities. Local Internet web sites are located at http://www.okclub.org/club_information/projects/partner.html Voronezh "Voronezh Civic Networking Project" Executor of technical and humanitarian part: Voronezh State Technical University PI - Vladislav G. Yurasov, Lubov I. Grigorieva, Galina Y. Arapova On January 25, 2000 the Voronezh Civic Network was officially launched during a grand opening ceremony. With participation of 22 organization representatives and the local media, the ceremony was a good success. The Voronezh network is completely operational with the new server in place, all telecommunications equipment operating and organizations already making use of the services. During realization of the Project the following work was putting into practice:
Kazan "Kazan Civic Networking Project" Executor of technical part: Kazan State Technical University, PI- Aydar S. Hamzin Executor of humanitarian part: Committee for Protection of Human Rights, PI-Dmitry V. Vokhmyanin, Tatiana A. Voltchenko The Kazan Civic Network is only now becoming operational. |