This document discusses ways to engage youth online, particularly in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. It notes that while youth are already engaged online through platforms like LiveJournal, there is no single entity that controls the direction of that engagement. LiveJournal is described as a popular blogging platform in Russia that allows for strong online communities to form, both noble and extremist. The document then examines a case study of activism in Novgorod through LiveJournal communities in response to a local issue. It concludes by recommending developing new ways to incentivize online civic engagement among youth, such as through microfinancing small grassroots projects and better connecting independent online communities.

1. Budapest, July16/ 2007 Evgeny Morozov, Director of New Media/Transitions Online New ways to engage youth online: the case of CIS

3. More good news than bad news Good news : the youth is already engaged Bad news : nobody has much control over direction of that engagement Good news : that includes state actors

6. Russian-language blogosphere

7. Age distribution of bloggers

9. Country distribution

10. The Long Tail of the Russian-language blogosphere

11. Most discussed news

12. Occupation of Russian-lang bloggers

29. Case-study: the Novgorod affair

56. Legal/Social Issues raised ==should young people be left alone without supervision even for a short time? ==should those suspected of crimes which don't threaten society be locked up before trial? ==is it enough to have one underage witness to start a criminal case? ==is it acceptable to influence the state and especially the prosecutor's office through the Internet? ==is the existing system for the protection of system adequate? ==is the current nature between the prosecutors office, the court, and the defense adequate? ==is the overall criminal situation in Novgorod too bad?

63. Email: morozove@tol.org

64. disclaimer: I've done my best to attribute slides, graphs and screenshots used in this presentation. Nobody is perfect, and some of them may have slipped in unclaimed – apologies to the original right holders. Let's hope that my frivolous use of your graphs or tables falls under fair use ;-)