The second annual "New Media for a New World" conference was conducted in Moscow from October 23 to 25, 1995, with the aim of showing 65 Russian journalists the latest in online technology and how such tools can lead to better stories, as well as better contacts with each other and the world at large. Here's a day-by-day rundown of conference activities:
Ladies and gentlemen, it's "New Media for a New World 1995"!
The second annual Moscow conference about online media began October 23 at the Institute for USA-Canada Studies and the Russian- American Press and Information Center, known as RAPIC. This year's conference was presented by the Art Pattison Communications Exchange Program, RAPIC and Relcom, in partnership with the Center for Civil Society International and GlasNet.
Major funding for the conference was provided by the Russian-American Media Partnerships Program (RAMP) of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Additional financial support came from contributors to the Art Pattison Communications Exchange Program.
Golden Line, the International Science Foundation, Stel Inc. and Sun Microsystems also provided goods and services.
About 65 journalists attended this year's conference. Half were from Moscow, about half were from other regions of Russia as distant as Vladivostok, and there was a smattering of journalists from other former Soviet republics such as Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Last year, "New Media for a New World" gave most of the Russian participants (and some of the Americans) their first taste of the World Wide Web and Mosaic. This year, the Net and the Web are better-known in Russia, but "NMNW" again demonstrated innovations that are just beginning to make a splash in Moscow: Thanks to Sun Microsystems and Friends & Partners, applications using the Java programming language were on display. Participants saw methods for sending audio and video over the Net. And on the conference's first day, Eric Johnson of Internews, one of the foremost organizations involved in media development in the former Soviet Union, placed an Internet Phone call to a Boston television station. For half an hour, Johnson chatted with Boston journalists, using the Internet rather than long-distance phone lines.
"One week ago it wasn't possible," said Alexander Filippov of Relcom, who handled much of the technical preparation for the conference. Filippov explained that just in the last few days, a new Internet channel through Helsinki started providing extra bandwidth for communications with the rest of the world.
The conference began with welcoming statements from several officials involved in organizing the event, as well as a statement from Ivan Laptev, chairman of the Russian Federation Committee for the Press.
The conference began with welcoming statements from several officials involved in organizing the event: Peter Klebnikov, American co-director of the Russian-American Press and Information Center; Peter Polojievets, editor-in-chief of Uchitelskaya Gazeta and Russian chairman of the conference; and David Endicott, chairman of the Art Pattison Communications Exchange Program and American chairman of the conference.
In his remarks, Sergei Rogov, director of the Institute for USA-Canada Studies, discussed the expectations for the conference:
"We are not only looking for information and to become more knowledgeable," he said. "I believe we are looking at new horizons in exploring new technologies."
He noted that in past eras the Russian intelligentsia turned to the people using various means to spread their ideas. "Today," he said, "turning to the people means gaining access to the treasures of information networks, and particularly the Internet."
Vladimir Orlov, RAPIC's Russian co-director, read a statement from Ivan Laptev, chairman of the Russian Federation Committee for the Press.
"The Russian Federation Committee for the Press is ready to render every support to the development of new information technologies, and hopes for active cooperation with the organizers and participants of the conference 'New Media for a New World,' " Laptev said in the statement.
Rob Coalson, associate director of RAMP, discussed his organization's involvement in media development and pointed out that RAMP was ready to consider new proposals for cooperative ventures growing out of the conference.
At the conference's first working session, computer experts described the current state of Russian networking. Among the speakers were Anatoly Voronov, director of GlasNet; Igor Semenyuk, network expert for Sovam Teleport; Anatoly Levenchuk, director of the Institute for Commercial Engineering; Dmitry Burkov, director of development for Relcom; and Nicholas Repin, director of the Moscow Telecommunications Project for the International Science Foundation.
In Russia, poor-quality phone lines and metered Internet access are still the norm, but networking companies say they are aiming to make the Net more accessible and affordable. For example, some companies have put together packages of software and service that seem to follow the "Internet in a Box" model.
Anatoly Voronov, director of the GlasNet online service, finds the younger generation to be more open to exploring the Net. GlasNet conducts seminars in Moscow schools to foster that interest. "Our schoolchildren have their own home pages," Voronov said.
In the afternoon, experts on databases, Net resources and computer-assisted journalism explained how Russians can use online systems to research news articles. Yevgenia Voronina of the Russian-American Press and Information Center discussed the Lexis/Nexis information database.
"My professional dream is that such a database can be used in Russian," she said. Voronina gave journalists an introduction to Russian databases such as Russica-Izvestia, as well as electronic bulletins and CD-ROM resources.
Natasha Bulashova of Friends & Partners, a Russian-American Web service, outlined the history and the structure of the Internet, with demonstrations of e-mail, Web cruising and other Net techniques. Holt Ruffin, executive director of the Center for Civil Society International, discussed the power of electronic communications in widening international contacts and building Net-based communities.
Nora Paul, library director at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, talked about the sorts of questions journalists should ask themselves before using the Net in order to use their time and resources most efficiently. She cited a remark by Pablo Picasso about the electronic world: "Computers are useless, they can only give you answers."
"His point, I think, is that computers can't help you come up with the questions you need to ask," Paul said.
Paul and John Garcia, director of online journalism at New York University, illustrated how Net research techniques can be used to find information and sources related to topics as esoteric as unexploded World War II bombs, cryogenics and the health risks of plutonium.
Dirk Smillie of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center closed off the first day's program with what turned into a spirited discussion on how talk shows and Web pages are transforming the political process in America. He traced the evolution of political communication from 1992 ("Larry King Live") to 1994 (the "De-Foley-Ate Congress" campaign) to 1996 (dueling campaign home pages).
Every true circus has its midway -- a boulevard where the circusgoers can try their hand at knocking down milk bottles or popping balloons, all for the sake of a plush-toy prize.
Midway through "New Media for a New World 1995," about 65 Russian journalists got their chance to try out RealAudio sound transfer and ShowMe videoconferencing.
The conferees were divided into two groups: In the morning, one of the groups gathered around nine computers set up in the Russian-American Press and Information Center, including Sun workstations, IBM-compatible PCs and an Apple Powerbook. The room was abuzz as Russian and American trainers guided participants through e-mail and listserv techniques, favorite Web sites and methods for searching the Web. The Russian- American Press and Information Center's library took requests, making database searches for out-of-town journalists.
Meanwhile, the other group of 30 or so saw presentations on electronic news ventures at an adjacent lecture hall.
In the afternoon, the groups switched places and the programs were repeated.
Among October 24's presentations at the Institute for USA-Canada Studies:
- David Carlson, director of the Interactive Media Lab at the University of Florida in Gainesville, traced the history of online news ventures - beginning with Prestel, Ceefax and Minitel in the late 1970s, continuing with the rise, fall and resurgence of online services during the 1980s and early 1990s, and touching upon the latest efforts such as the Microsoft Network. (A 1994 version of Carlson's talk is available via the NMNW FTP archive.
Carlson also outlined the requirements and costs associated with setting up services such as bulletin board systems.
None of the newspaper online services is making a substantial profit yet, Carlson said. But a small-scale venture today could open up bigger opportunities later. For example, it might take as little as $15,000 to $20,000 for an online news competitor to enter the Philadelphia Inquirer's market. Today, such a venture would be like a "gnat flying around the Inquirer's steak," Carlson said.
"But it's entirely possible that five to 10 years from now, the Inquirer will be wishing they had invested that small amount of money to keep you from eating their steak," he said.
- Representatives of the St. Petersburg Press discussed the development of their Web site, the first of its kind in Russia. The Press estimates that its Web publication has 5,000 readers in 50 countries around the world.
"Our Internet newspaper has been an enormous public relations success," said Lloyd Donaldson, publisher of the Press. He outlined the successes and strategies of the past year - and stressed that educating readers, sales staff and advertisers about online media was no quick and easy job.
"We've learned not to expect too much too fast from the Internet," Donaldson said.
Other speakers from St. Petersburg included Nikolai Gluzdov, the Press' Webmaster, and Denis Dolginski, who works with the Press and its network partner, NevaLink.
- Jonathan Nesvig of The News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington, and Andrei Kholenko of the Vladivostok News discussed their online venture, which puts news and information about Vladivostok on The News Tribune's Web service, TribNet.
Kholenko, who works for a company that publishes one of the Russian Far East's biggest newspapers, explained that the company's English-language ventures were not aimed at turning an immediate profit.
"The point was to occupy this market share," he said, in the expectation that the region's economic development would eventually bring in more international investors and advertisers. The Vladivostok News' Web presence is aimed at increasing his company's visibility.
- Konstantin Kanterov of Novaya Sibir, a newspaper in Novosibirsk, demonstrated his publication's Web site and discussed the search for further financing.
"The electronic version of news is not really a newspaper," he observed. "It is a new product."
By the end of the day, journalists at "New Media for a New World 1995" were exposed to two types of games on the midway: Games of skill, where researchers and reporters find their way through a tangle of online information - and games of chance, where publishers and entrepreneurs are placing their bets on what they hope will be the media of the future.
Journalists looked into the future of computer communications and their own careers on the last day of "New Media for a New World 1995."
With the explosion of information sources on the global Internet, and with more innovations in computer-based media for the consumer market, Russians as well as Americans observed that the role of journalists is almost certain to change.
"I would suggest that we will spend less time gathering information and more time processing it," David Carlson, director of the University of Florida's Interactive Media Lab, said during a roundtable discussion concluding the conference schedule.
Eugene Peskin of Sovam Teleport's Russia-On-Line project said almost exactly the same thing in different terms just minutes later. The rise of information networks is leading journalists toward a different primary role, he said: "to be a navigator in a sea of facts."
Several other Russian participants observed that working with new media could eventually lead to a new breed of journalist, adapted to new tools and new techniques for telling a story.
"A journalist working for an electronic publication should probably not know how to write in today's (traditional) publications," one observed. "Journalists will be needed, but probably different (kinds of) journalists."
It was an unusual statement, coming as it did from one of the 65 Russian print journalists who gathered at the Institute for USA-Canada Studies during the conference.
Some participants stressed that the rise of new media does not mean an information-age utopia is nigh - rather, new media could magnify the trend toward tabloid journalism, erode the public's trust in journalists and lead toward a sort of Balkanization of information.
John Garcia, director of online journalism at New York University, warned that the coming political season in Russia and America could bring new perils. Because it's so easy to become an information provider using the tools of new media, ideologues of all stripes are starting to use those tools as weapons - and as a consequence, more of the public could turn away from the whole political process in disgust.
"You're going to see more irresponsible journalists, and you're going to see more people turning off," Garcia said.
The free development of new media is also vulnerable to threats from governments, in Russia as well as in the United States. Rafail Iskhakov, a journalism professor in Yekaterinburg, said a Russian general recently observed that "the development of electronic networks could be treated as interference in a country's internal affairs." The implication was that if Russia decides to close itself off from external influences, computer links could become a target.
Garcia referred to efforts in the United States to put new legal limits on computer communications, ostensibly to head off pornographers and terrorists. Some legislative proposals on telecommunications issues, he said, would be "absolutely dangerous to journalism."
Conference participants came up with several suggestions for strengthening international cooperation in the field of new media:
Among other presentations on October 25, the last day of the 1995 conference:
- Helen Holter, senior reporter with ConnectSoft, discussed her work over the past year as a CD-ROM/online journalist, first with Medio Magazine and now with ConnectSoft's new multimedia publication, The Next Page. She demonstrated how CD-ROM can make up for one of the Net's weaknesses: the relatively narrow bandwidth for transmitting video and audio.
Using a compact disk, a story about Russian President Boris Yeltsin could be linked to a 4-minute video clip about his life. Or a hyperlink could take the reader onto the Net to get the latest information about Russia from a home page on the World Wide Web.
"CD-ROM will die out," Holter said, if bandwidth becomes plentiful enough to allow for interactive television. But until that day, CD-ROM publications can bridge the gap, she said.
- Milana Perepyolkina, a native of Estonia studying at the University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Journalism, demonstrated the Microsoft Network. During the past summer, Perepyolkina worked at MSN in preparation for its launch, and she now edits international news as part of the Microsoft-Missouri Research Team at Columbia.
MSN is available via local phone numbers in Moscow and several other Russian cities. Although there are not yet any Russian-language resources on MSN, Perepyolkina's presentation sparked a whir of excitement among the Russian journalists, and many expressed interest in subscribing or providing content.
"I want my electronic newspaper to look like your product," said Konstantin Kanterov of Novosibirsk, whose newspaper is already on the World Wide Web.
Others came to the realization that it was not enough to duplicate a print newspaper on a computer screen.
"I have the strong feeling that we are dealing not with newspapers but with something somewhat different," one Russian newspaperman said.
- Greg Cole, director of the University of Tennessee's Center for International Networking Initiatives and American director of Friends and Partners, demonstrated applications using Java, Sun Microsystems' new programming language; ShowMe, a videoconferencing program; and RealAudio, Progressive Networks' system for transmitting audio over the Internet.
Cole showed how Java could be used to provide continuously updated stock quotes and charts on a Web page. Other applications enable users to manipulate 3-D graphics over the Net (using the example of animated chemical models), view real-time animation or play interactive games.
Two cameras were set up to transmit video over the conference's local-area network, and Cole showed how users in distant places could use a shared whiteboard to collaborate on graphic projects. Finally, Cole plugged into broadcasts from America's National Public Radio over the Internet using RealAudio.
When asked to predict the future course of the Net, Cole smiled, then said: "I've given up making predictions." The Net is developing so fast that it's hard to look more than six months ahead, he explained. But he did venture to say that the Net of the future seemed likely to offer much more audio and video capability to its users.
Also speaking during the afternoon demonstration was Mikhail Dubitsky, telco/government account manager for Sun's Moscow office, who discussed how Sun is entering the Russian market for software and services.