This article was prepared for Ukrainian journal "Civic society". Читать дальше...

These days I came back from Amsterdam PICNIC-2007 Cross media week. That is one of the biggest annual events devoted to new media, creativity and innovation.

Together with Oleksandr Demchenko we were invited by European Journalism Center to participate in European Bloggers Confernce with "East meets West" concept. Bloggers and New media representatives from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belorus, Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Italy, the UK and other European countries enjoyed a 2-day course of non-stop communication and ideas sharing.

Video prepared by EJC:

I strongly recommend to visit next year PICNIC-08, since the atmosphere of this unprecedented festival is marvelous. Here is the desription of PICNIC from official web-site: "PICNIC is not only a conference. PICNIC is a festival. A week of fresh creative & innovative ideas. One of the world’s leading events where creative minds from the world of media, entertainment, science and the arts convene".

Nice people on the streets, cosy cafes, beautiful channels, bridges and benches. Amsterdam sets You into a very special kind of mood. More pictures from PICNIC-07 can be found here.

Well, now I'm back to Ukraine excited about Highway web-projects and looking forward to Blogcamp, which takes place on 13-14 October in Kyiv.

These weekend we had elections in Ukraine and today Highway server can hardly manage lots of visitors. I think, we'll probably set a record today, if server survives.

Here's the copy of my interview to http://redcouch.typepad.com, which took place thanks to Hugo Martin. I tell about Ukraine, our social media, Blogcamp, Highway citizen journalism project and the work of our team.

August 28, 2007

In Ukraine summer is believed to be a dead season. People go on vacations. Internet users become lazy and prefer to spend time outdoors. Nobody stays in the office till the late night, since evenings are beautiful.

However Highway as a citizen journalism startup company is another pair of shoes. No time for summer ;)

1. We introduced an option of Photoalbums.

2. Recommendation system will be launched these days. It'll enable people recommend stories and pictures to each other.

3. We continue developing recruiting service and employ our citizen journalists in professional media.

4. Together with Softpress Publishing House we launched a rubric on Highway, where we suggest publishing essays and two Intel core 2 Duo computers as a prize. Francly speaking, I don't like this idea. The subject of the essay is "Tell us how this computer will help in Your life". In fact CJs are asked to praise Intel. CJs and bloggers hate biased info and projects like PayPerPost. I think, we'll have to change the conditions of this contest.

5. We continue preparing Blogcamp, English section appeared at www.blogcamp.com.ua.

6. Due to smart advertising policy in July Highway is listed among TOP-10 Internet mass media in Ukraine.

7. We devoted several days of our time to optimize Highway code for Google and Yandex search engines. It helped to get additional 500-1000 unique visitors per day, however we don't have an accurate statistics yet.

8. As a next step we'll integrate Hiblogger and Highway so that Highway CJs will have blogs as a part of their profiles.

9. We launched a special program for PR and advertising agencies. We make presentations and suggest 1 week of Internet advertising on Highway for free. We talk only with big clients, which can afford buying ads on Highway in future. Besides, we published Highway print in InternetUA magazine (scanned picture can be found here).

10. Last week we had a staff meeting with pillows on the floor, hookah, tea and juice :) Everyone's invited for the next one, if You happen to be in Ukraine.