Government 2.0 In Russia: Megabyte Democracy — An Interview With Russian e-Gov Expert Alena Popova
For Alena Popova, a young Russian woman specializing in the so-called “electronic government,” a lot of international conferences go the same way.
When Alena tells people she is from Russia doing consulting work in Government 2.0, a common response to her “elevator pitch” is disbelief.
“Really? You have Gov 2.0 in Russia? Are you joking?" is what Alena says she gets a lot.
Alena Popova, one of the pioneers of Russia's attempt at Gov 2.0.
At last month’s Government 2.0 Expo in Washington D.C., Popova was in high demand. She is one of the pioneers of Government 2.0 communications in her native Russia.
“I kept on repeating 150 times a day that there are elements of Gov 2.0 in Russia and that this area is being actively developed. People started to ask questions.”
Alena says the interest toward how Government 2.0 is developing in Russia is high. And, the offers for partnership keep coming. For one, a community engagement site seeclickfix.com that is growing big in the United States by letting citizens report issues in their neighbourhoods is now also expanding into the Russian market.
“Ben Berkowitz (the co-founder of seeclickfix.com) is smart for recognizing this project could pick up in Russia,” says Alena.
Alena Popova is a representative of the new generation of Russian women – confident, smart, ambitious. So ambitious in fact that she says she wants to become Russia’s first female Prime Minister by 2015.
I have first heard about Alena on Twitter. Popova’s handle ranked way up there in the Russian list of “key influencers,” hence she made it onto my Twitter feed. I started paying attention when Alena began referencing the Russian version of Government 2.0, a mystery term to me at the time.
I consider myself to be quite web 2.0 literate, but I have never heard about electronic government before. It made me curious, so I turned to the omnipotent Wikipedia to find out what it actually stands for. Turns out the so-called “Government 2.0” is a system for “creating a comfortable, transparent, and cheap interaction between government and citizens.”
Once I got Alena to share her insights with me, I asked for her own definition of what Government 2.0 means.
“Often people say e-gov is all about new technology. I think that Gov 2.0 is about the new strategies of communication between citizens and people in power, the greater public control by people over government’s actions…”
Sounds good, but does it work in Russia?
Alena says they are not that much behind.
“There is a lot that still needs to be done, but we are moving forward.”
The bottom line according to Popova is that Gov 2.0 experts in Russia understand that citizens using government services should be the ones to decide what services are offered to them, that the politicians should be active online, and that the government can benefit from the social initiatives.
“Our President has a Twitter account and a blog. On top of that, he calls on government officials to react to the citizen appeals they get online in an efficient manner. But in Russia, there is no one platform for that, no government e-mail system…The use of agency work is not up to par either, which forces the government to take on the functions that are not the government’s primary job. So we are consulting with a lot with international experts to discover mechanisms of Government 2.0 that would actually work in our country.”
Meanwhile, Popova is battling it out on the home front.
Duma 2.0 is Alena's brainchild (Duma is Russian for "Parliament"). Originally, the project was supposed to become a place to bring citizens and government officials together. The job of the people would be to discuss current issues and changes to laws, while the job of the government would be to listen in.
Yet, this experiment in "megabyte democracy" turned out to be too big a bite for the Russians to chew.
«We understood that right now this scheme does not work,» Alena sums up. «Primarily because users in Russia give few suggestions, reverting to scolding instead. So the efficiency is low…We are the pioneers in this format. That is why we had failures that we learned from. But, Duma 2.0 piqued interest. And people are waiting to see what it will ultimately end up being.”
Alena says the online market in Russia is aware of her project, and so is Medvedev's administration. But Popova says she is not the one to see the world through pink coloured glasses.
“We realize that it is hard to get politicians to be open and accountable. But for now, we have the lobby of the President who helps along with different programs in the realm of government openness.”
Popova says open data will never be 100% accessible. But, how effectively will things that do become accessible work is something that only future will tell.
For now, Russian e-gov experts disagree on how long it will take the idea of Government 2.0 to find solid ground in Russia -- some say it will take 3-5 years, others say it could take up to a decade.
«I think the next two years will show how this area will develop in Russia,» says Alena. «One interesting fact – there are 2-3 mobile phones per household in Russia, but only 30% of households have access to Internet. Our e-government has to find a model that works under these circumstances. I believe in apps. Plus, the mobile Internet is growing very fast in Russia…But on some level it will depend on myself and the like-minded individuals who are ready to create, fail and create again, while looking for models that work.»
YTFILES -- Alena Popova can be found on Twitter @alenapopova.
‘Mr. Trololo’ Edward Hill Owns YouTube With A 1967 Vocaliz Song
It is not often that Russian videos go viral, so when this one came about, I just knew I had to write about it. Mr. Trololo (a.k.a. Edward Eduard Hill) is owning YouTube with close to two million page views and 13,000 comments in just three months.
The guy has it all. He is:
a) Russian
b) a good singer with vocals that just make you want to jump up and sing along
c) quite animated in his singing style
The song titled “I am very happy for I am finally coming home” was performed back in 1967, hence the funny hairstyle and stage design. A native of Smolensk, 75-year-old Hill is still alive and well. Russian paper KP.ru reports that Hill found out about his Internet fame through his grandson. Hill says the original song had the lyrics, but the words were scrapped. Apparently, the lyrics were about an American cowboy singing along as he readies to see his lover Mary on his way home to Michigan. No wonder the lyrics were dubbed "inappropriate" by the Soviets, and the song was only a given a go if it was to be simply hummed. Yet, Hill still made it fun. Believe it or not, Hill’s animated style was quite revolutionary back in the Soviet times when any sort of emotion was not generally compatible with singing on national television. The song was quite popular in the USSR, but it never enjoyed the kind of popularity that it does now.
The love for Mr. Trololo throughout the world comes through in dozens of parodies posted on YouTube in recent weeks. Even 2010 Oscar winner Christoph Waltz could not resist Hill’s charm and conjured up his own version of Trololo.
There is now a petition for Hill to go on a world concert tour, which has already been signed by over 900 people. Asked if he would go on a world tour, Hill says he would give it a thought. And, if you just can’t get enough of Mr. Trololo, you can download his ring tone on your phone. Domain trololololololololololo.com is already offering it. Hill also has his own Facebook fan page and a T-shirt service that offers Trololo themed gear.
The truth is that Eduard Hill does have an amazing voice and personality. And, to prove that he does not just hum along, here is one of my favourite songs of his that I think shows his vocal range and that unmistakable singing style quite nicely.
Google Zeitgeist Russia: Explanation Of Why Things Trended In 2009
So, the yearly Google Zeitgeist is out for 2009, and for those of you who do not know Google Zeitgeist is a summary of the top searches that Google releases every year to show what people looked for the most. In many ways, Google Zeitgeist is a reflection of what was important to the online audiences around the world in any particular year. It is a cross-section of what has gotten people’s attention to the point that they just had to Google it to find out more about it.
Since Google breaks down its report by country, I was very curious to see what the top searches were for Russia. And, some very interesting trends popped up. But, I realized that you have to be in the culture, so to speak, to really understand the significance of some of them, so I decided to write a little “explainer” of what these trends really mean.
First of all, the fastest rising searches of 2009 were:
1. Windows 7
2. Odnoklassniki account page
3. Michael
4. VKontakte
5. Movies online
6. Torrent
7. Translation online
8. Work in Russia
9. Eurovision 2009
10. Opera 10
Now, Odnoklassniki is one of the top social networks in Russia that grew immensely popular in the last couple of years. Unlike most of the social networks here in North America, you have to pay to join Odnoklassniki, which was a bummer for me when I was trying to sign up. I just do not believe in having to pay to use a social network. But, Odnoklassniki have permeated the Russian culture so much, it is almost kind of awkward and anti-social not to have an account, so people are ready to pay for it just so they don't stand out. Vkontake is another popular social network that really is just a mirror image of Facebook. It is also free, so its popularity is on the rise lately – justifiably, it took the No. 4 spot on the list.
Sure enough, Michael Jackson hysteria could not have possibly missed Russia, so no wonder “Michael” was the third most searched item. Windows 7 being in the top spot was kind of surprising, but not really because most computer users in Russia are still loyal to PCs with a very limited number of Mac users. As in previous years, downloading stuff and translating online were popular. But, what was interesting is that Eurovision 2009, which Russia hosted this year, was the No. 9 top rising query. In previous posts, I wrote about the significance that the Eurovision contest had for Russia in terms of the national branding, logistical and financial maturity to hold major international events and just being in the position to welcome much of Europe on the scale that is unprecedented. I actually was expecting Eurovision to be in the top 5, but I guess you can’t argue with the Odnoklassniki’s phenomenon.
The news makers of the year were mostly Russian, but I was surprised to see the name of Arsene Wenger, the manager of Arsenal FC in the top 10. Of course, people in Russia cared about Wenger solely because the country’s top soccer player Andrey Arshavin had a very publicized and speculation driven transfer to Arsenal from St. Petersburg Zenit this summer. Arshavin was called nasty things for quitting his home club to seek better pay in England. In any case, the drama of his transfer is still lingering in people’s minds as Russia failed to make it to the 2010 World Cup in last month's qualifiers.
Sure enough, the current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was the No.2 news maker of the year. But, what was surprising to me is that the current President Dmitri Medvedev was nowhere to be seen in the top 10.
In the “I want” category, the top searchers were – “woman”, “work”, “sleep”, “a lot of money”, “to get pregnant” and in No. 7 spot – “to believe.”
In the “why” searches of the year, people were wondering most about “why they are lonely”, “why the dollar is rising”, “why men cheat”, “why cats meow” and “why manholes are round”, which is actually one of the questions that Microsoft allegedly asks in their job interviews, so kind of unusual to see it here.
In the “events of the year,” Eurovision took the No.1 spot – no surprise there. Interestingly, the earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy was in second place, followed by the collision of the U.S. and Russian satellites. I am at a loss to explain such interest in the Italian earthquake, but I can say that Russia had its fair share of natural disasters in its recent history and any kind of large-scale calamities anywhere in world just tend to pull the trigger in people’s minds to Google the gory details. Apparently, the swine flu was not as important and sits in the fourth position in the top ten events. That was a surprise to me. With the kind of medication freak-out that Russia experienced when major pharmacies started to increase the price tags on antivirals for no reason, I was expecting people to go nuts and research the swine flu to death online, but evidently that did not happen. In other notable events, the 2009 world hockey championships, which Russians won this year, was the seventh most searched event. Winning the championships was extremely important for Russia heading into the 2010 Olympic Games. I remember watching Russian news days after the tournament and the country was still in the party mode, so no wonder it made the trends. Finally, the tenth most searched event was the election of the new Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church after the death of the former Patriarch Alexy II. I think the fact that people cared enough for the search term to make it into the top 10 events is pretty interesting, and shows that religion still has a pretty important place in the minds of people in Russia.
So, to me, many of the things in this year’s Russian edition of Zeitgesit were obvious, but many became a revelation. But, way to go, Google. The top searchers never seize to entertain!
