Articles prepared by Michael Novikov for EuropeMedia in 2000
December 13 2000 at Mariott Grand Hotel in Moscow an award ceremony of a National Prize in the business area Company of the year was held. Among the winners of a year 2000 was a group of the companies MTU Inform . According to the results of the contest that was held by a Company magazine this company is announced an Internet provider of a year. The decision of a contest committee was not surprising for a public. MTU Inform is staying the leading Internet provider in Moscow and Moscow region for a long time. Its clients consider the company the best provider of Internet access, and the appraisal can be objective: the amount of the clients is constantly rising, at the moment company has more than 130 thousand users. High quality of service provided by the Group of Companies MTU Inform is reached by the use of the biggest modem pool in a country (more than 3000 connection lines). The Group of the Companies MTU Inform is at the same time the largest commercial operator of telephone communication in Moscow and has facilities to multiply the amount of modem lines with the growth of the users amount. Besides the high signal transfer quality is provided with operation of an own main network of IP-over-SDH of MTU Inform with a productivity of 155 Mbit per second and powerful traffic exchange channels to all leading Russian Internet providers. Capacity of the international channels of MTU Inform is 34 Mbit per second. MTU Inform started to provide the Internet access in 1997. Today Company MTU Inform gives the access service trough leased lines, and also Web servers hosting and connection. Besides MTU Inform was the first among Moscow providers that introduced Internet cards in April, 1999. With their help it is possible to be registered for the Internet access, and also to fill up the obverse bill. Internet cards are also used for access to an Internet - telephony services since May, 2000. With the beginning of this project the clients of MTU Inform have the opportunity to call to any point of the world.
Source: Algo news (http://algo.ru/mtu/default.asp?ID=958)
A competition of student teams included to East-European semi-final zone of the 25th World Championship of ACM on programming (ACM ICPC, ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest) have finished in St. Petersburg, Russia. For a right to participate at the final competition fought 91 teams - the winners of eight quarterfinal subgroups of North-Eastern European Region that has the main office in St. Petersburg. The organizing committee was headed by the Minister on Education of Russia V. Filippov. The first place and the Champion of Russia title has won a team of the St. Petersburg State University (Nikolai Durov, Andrey Lopatin, Victor Petrov, a trainer Dmitry Lomov, a chief - Alexander Alexeev). The second place got the St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics (Andrey Stankevich, Denis Kuznetsov, Georgy Korneev, the trainer Matvey Kazakov, the chief Vladimir Parfenov). The third place has the Department of Computing Mathematics and Cybernetics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Victor Matyushkin, Anatoly Ponomarev, Alexander Petrov, the trainer Alexander Chernov). The right to participate at the final competition have also got three teams: the South-Ural State University (Chelyabinsk), the Lobachevsky State university (Nizhny Novgorod) and the Ural state University (Ekaterinburg). In March 2001 all the six teams will fight for the title of a World Champion at a final Competition in Vancouver, Canada. That season a sponsor of Russian teams was Western Union Financial Services Company, founded in 1851, that has 94 service points in 185 countries of the world and works at money transfer market. Now Western Union is a part of First Data Corporation that is engaged in e-commerce. "We support the championship because we understand that new IT are the power of a progress. Next year our company is to celebrate 150th anniversary and the whole history of the company is the history of innovation, research and development of IT" said a marketing manager in Eastern Europe of Western Union Robert Leffel. "We remind that at the final competition of 24th World Championship of ACM on programming Russian teams had a great success".
Source: PC Week/RE (http://www.pcweek.ru/news.asp?D=5048)
In 1997 at a memorable meeting Russian politicians and leaders asked the head of Microsoft to present his vision of business in a formalized form. You know how to build an electronic system for your enterprise having created an environment for virtual staff operation in on-line mode and having made the bunch of paper documentation unnecessary. You are sure that the newest technologies only can free a person of a routine work and extend the frames of business. But your boss considers that the only thing to be automated is accounting. Yes, bad luck for you, but now this trouble can be fixed: try to turn your boss to a new faith having granted him a book of Bill Gates «Business at a speed of thought» that was just issued in Russian at «Exmo» publishing house. The first book of this author that was the head of Microsoft corporation at the same time was named «The road ahead» (issued in Russian in1995). All interested in the IT development history, Microsoft growth and Bill Gates's biography in his own description can find an electronic variant of this book in Runet. But despite of all those funny facts and easy style «The road ahead» is not perfect: it is quite subjective and does not nave deep analysis as all the other biographies. But Bill Gates decided not to stop on «self-realization in history». The idea of a new book appeared after Gates's frequent conversations with top managers of different companies all over the world and «visitors» that were bothering him in Redmond with their requests to tell about IT possibilities. The last drop was the meeting in 1997 with Russian leaders and government members that asked him to present his vision of business in a formalized form. By the spring of 1999 a book for the leaders «Business at a speed of thought» was published in English. But by that time the questions of informatization were not that hot for many Russian businessmen on the reason of August events. The first Russian edition of this bestseller appeared in an open sale only at the end of November of 2000, and "EXMO" publishing was very skeptic about this project. But their fear was vain: 3000 exemplar circulation was bought out from the warehouses in two days despite of a rather high price (you can buy the book on the retail price of 180-200 rubles), so the publishers had to issue 5 thousand extra exemplars. The book was really worth reading. Even the manager that stands far from high tech will not find it hard reading. It does not content complicated terminology and intricate debates, but it has lots of descriptive examples from the experience of different companies and also practical advice on using IT and implementation of electronic tools. In comparison to the first book by Gates «Business at a speed of thought» contains some generalizations that are quite understandable by any person. To the base of the major part of arguments is laid a pretty simple concept of "an electronic nervous system" of a company, the definition of a Web-style of life and break points that characterize unmanageable change in a market situation. Coming out of these definitions the author forecasts fundamental change in the ways of business leading and offers 12 steps that the company has to take to get maximum profit from its investment to technologies. Common Russian reader after reading this book is left to regret that he works not under the sensible management of Bill Gates that is trying to free his employees of a routine work so hard, and to hope that his own employer will find the idea of global informatization very bright in the nearest future. It seems like for Gates himself the idea is a passed stage already. In the beginning of November at the conference in Seattle dedicated to technological support of the Third World countries Gates announced the computers are not able to solve the problems of contemporary society. Who knows, it is quite probable that in the nearest future we will see a new work - of a beginning social philosopher? Source: ZDNet news (http://www.zdnet.ru)
NTV-Internet company has announced the beginning of the commercial exploitation of the satellite Internet access system (*). Company has started the realization of this project on creation of the system in April of the year 2000 and from September 1 to December 1 of the same year has given the services free of charge in a text mode (all clients paid for was the equipment installation). Now the company provides the satellite Internet service without any time restrictions on connection time and data volume. The service cost depends on maximal amount of simultaneous TCP-sessions and monthly is USD 21 (12 TCP-sessions) or USD 63 (30 TCP-sessions). Besides, those clients that make pre-payment for 2 or 3 months are suggested to use a stop-list service (to stop the money transcription from the client's account on the term defined by a tariff plan, as for holidays and days off, vacation time, for example). The price of a standard equipment package that includes DVB-card NTVI-1, converter and aerial, is $215. The equipment installation and the sale of prepayment cards for NTV-Internet services both in Moscow and regions is made through the official dealers of NTV-Internet (18 at the moment). As "@" director of NTV-Internet on marketing and sales Yulia Klebanova has told, at present time the amount of clients of satellite access to Internet on a commercial base is more than two thousand, 28% of them are the subscribers of NTV+. Now NTV-Internet clients have to use services of two providers, one of them (the company itself) provides the satellite channel, and the other - the dial-up access or leased line. Further the company plans to provide the Internet-providers with the capacities of its satellite channel from the one side and to start providing its clients with commutative access to Internet from the other side. For these plans realization NTV-Internet is to open (after all necessary documents are signed) its first department in Saint-Petersburg in the nearest future. (*) The system of assimetric access to Internet created by NTV-Internet is based on using the high-speed satellite channel for the data receiving and earth channel for data sending to Internet. The system works with Eutelsat W4 satellite that covers the European part of Russia and Ural. Eutelsat W4 was launched the summer of year 2000 and is on the previous orbit of Bonum-1, that was placed to another orbit that now is being used by the company for service providing in Eastern Siberia. Source: Algo news (http://adaily.ru/news.asp?ID=4980)
Moscow, December 4 2000. The day when Communiware.net and Lomonosov Moscow State University Department of Mechanics and Mathematics have started joint development in the field of graph-based data structures in web programming. The objective of the project is to develop a high-performance software graph machine to be used in web applications based on a Communiware Platform - an application server for building of complex websites with extremely high performance and low support cost. The graph engine like this as a subsystem of data storage and processing in Communiware Platform will allow not to use the expensive relational databases in critical Internet applications, at the same time having speed up the users transaction in several times. "Now Communiware.net has the Communiware application server implementation basing on the relational databases PostgreSQL or Oracle. We think that the replacement of these databases by unique developments of Mechanics and Mathematics Department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University will give us a significant market advantages to competitive research first of all in the speed of operation of our web platform", Anatoly Levenchuk, President of TechInvestLab.com, has marked. The majority of work under the project from the side of the Department to be done by the students training on a recently launched program of supplementary education "Theoretical issues of computer science". The program was created for the theorists on metacomputation could apply their developments in practical applications. Communiware.net was one of the first companies of the IT industry that has taken the advantages of cooperation within the framework of this program. Communiware application server realizes many principles accepted in metacomputations area that makes cooperation with the program extremely effective. Andrey Chepovsky, the trainer of the program, has declared: "It is a first step only. Further we shall offer variants of cluster organization for web computations to lower the cost of high-efficiency Internet portals. It will require some reorganization of the existing Communiware application server architecture and we are very pleased that Communiware.net has agreed to experiment with us. The students studying within the framework of the program "Theoretical issues of computer science" are of the qualification that do not concede to many programmers of the branch. Certainly, our cooperation with Communiware.net will be useful to both sides."
* * * The "Theoretical issues of computer science" program of supplement education at Mechanics and Mathematics Department of the Lomonosov Moscow state university provides the eduation of high qualified system programmers that are able to work with modern methods of metacomputations. At the moment twenty-one student is being educated on the program, mainly the students of last years of education of Mechanics and Mathematics Department of the MSU.
http://www.communiware.ru
On November 14 the First Tuesday Global Network opened its branch in Almaty, Kazakhstan Participants of the First Tuesday Almaty round-table were mostly professional players of the local Internet market, representatives of large telecom companies, experts, banks, press and governmental organizations. An interest of the Kazakh companies in opening the World Exchange branch of Internet projects in Almaty is not casual. The great plenty of them assimilate the Internet market independently. And the presence of the organization on it, that will stimulate the creation of conditions for the conversion of the market on the new qualitative level, will help companies to conduct e-business. The biggest banks of Kazakhstan expressed a wish for taking active part in First Tuesday's operations and to make a speech on the first meeting of the participants of the market. The great plenty of mass media, including such magazines as «AlPari» and «Neft and Gas of Kazakhstan», have expressed their interest to co-operate with the organizers of First Tuesday in the sphere of Internet-business. The owners of big Kazakh Internet resources have got to know about the fact of existing of the Internet projects Exchange through the Internet before the official opening and have expressed the professional interest to the activity of "First Tuesday". Their attention to the project and hot wish for working visually demonstrate the readiness of the Internet market to the transition on the new qualitative stage. «It is not a secret that Kazakhstan is "a white spot" on the map of the World Internet. We hope, the opening of First Tuesday in Kazakhstan let attract attention of the World Internet association to the business processes, happening in the Kazakhstan part of network. The interest of the foreign investors will help the owners of their projects to get the starting capital for conducting e-business; and this will come to the growing of interesting and visitable Kazakhstan web projects and the expansion of the Kazakhstan part of network», said Alexander Kozlenko, vice-president of the Actis Systems Company. The organizer of the First Tuesday St. Petersburg took part in setting up of the World Exchange branch of Internet projects in Almaty. His speech at the round-table was dedicated to organizational questions about First Tuesday; and unique facts of the speech attracted attention of the whole auditory. In details it was told about a process of working of the First Tuesday Global Network, how the meetings are held, what documents are prepared for the First Tuesday and what results the First Tuesday St. Petersburg has reached through a year of its existing. «Starting First Tuesday organization here, we do not create a company or a project, but the ground for regular meetings of investors, owners of projects and service companies, that work in the sphere of telecommunications. Success of these meetings depends primarily on activity of participants of the market, on their williness to work and create professional projects, that shall build a Kazakhstan part of the network not only on the information side, but that will be able to generate revenues to all of the parties involved», said Michael Novikov, addressing to participants of the round-table. Next day after opening the First Tuesday Almaty the organizers have got a great number of letters and calls as from investors so from owners of resources, who were interested in the First Tuesday project and expressed a longing for being a participant of the first meeting. On the site, that was created for the First Tuesday Almaty branch office one can find all the details about that meeting, rules of the World Exchange branch's working and a package of documents, which is necessary to be prepared for the meeting with investors. This site - is one of the most complete Internet resources about First Tuesday in Russian. Already now the owners of the projects can start preparation of materials for the first meeting with investors, that will take place on the 5th of December, first Tuesday of the month. Specially by that date a first comprehensive research of the Kazakhstan Internet will be completed, that will help foreign investors to oversee a situation on the Kazakhstan Internet market and make the Kazakhstan government more open for foreign companies. Today one can speak about the first results of the research: almost 10% of adult Kazakh population has access to the Internet, that exceeds the Internet penetration rate in Russia. First Tuesday Almaty, http://www.firsttuesday.kz
Portal NaKarte.ru (On a map) is created by an NetValue Internet-accelerator and Intermap project experts On October 10 Rambler Internet-holding has announced a launch of a portal NaKarte.ru. Actually it is a new version of Intermap project, that is being created by NetValue Internet-accelerator in cooperation with Doctor.ru and Mama.ru. New portal offers its users four blocks of maps - Moscow, Russia, Mediterranean and the whole world. In each of them schemes with interactive layers that contain various information on the objects of infrastructure and other data are submitted. Thus the maps are connected with databases and it is possible to search using these schemes. The users have an opportunity to mark maps with their own signs of eight kinds with future saving the results. So it is the way clients may create personal maps. NaKarte.ru offers the corporate clients different services such as putting the information on the company to the scheme, creation of separate thematic layers an map export to companies sites.
Source: Internet.ru (http://www.internet.ru)
CredCard is a new full time working site that was created to increase a popularity of this kind of payment October 6 2000 is announced as a date of launch of a full version of the site CredCard that is devoted to everything connected to various kinds of plastic pay cards. The resource carries informative character and is called to increase the popularity of plastic cards among the population. The site has information as for those who deals with this kind of payment for the first time and for the skilled consumers and experts in this area. The user has an opportunity to get acquainted with conditions of distribution and card service by banks, to know about kinds of payments in the Internet, and also about various aspects connected to safety of using credit cards. Besides, CredCard has news heading, interactive help service and also a catalogue of Russian online-shops.
Source: Internet.ru (http://www.internet.ru)
Russian Gun Portal has started its work at the domain Gun.ru. At the moment it consists of three sections. A group of forums makes it possible to have discussion on different topics - starting with legislation, concluding paintball. The Yellow pages Gun.ru are the catalogue of the links on thematic Internet - resources (now it has 44 positions, divided on 18 headings). Through auction of the portal it is possible to sell or to buy not only weapon and ammunition (within the framework of the Russian laws), but also accompanying accessories, literature, subjects of arts connected to subjects of Gun.ru. As the head of Interian company that has created the portal, Andrey Amelin, has told Internet.ru, in the future they are planning to start a new catalogue, that is going to cover all kinds of weapon regardless they might be forbidden for sale. Together with the encyclopedia the service that would let gun shops open their on-line stands is to be put in operation. On Mr. Amelin's opinion the creation of an Internet gun shop is not possible now, but even a simple database on sells is going to be helpful to offline sellers. In the nearest future a new heading will appear at Gun.ru, named "True stories". It is going to be devoted to real jokes on hunting, security business, etc. Now the portal does not have search system. According to Mr. Amelin's words it will appear as soon it is necessary. The catalogue rubricate is to be developed at the same time. Source: Internet.ru (http://www.internet.ru) Gun.ru, http://www.Gun.ru
Runet has just got a new on-line auction, the opening of which was initiated by the Russian Internet shop Bolero, part of the recently created e-House holding. The auction is created on the basis of the Itrade technology, developed by the Infoart company. To participate in this auction a user must get registered in the InfoArt Name System. The INS users, apart from participating in the auction, get access to free news and mail service, a personal daily e-paper and some other services.
Source: Russian Funds (http://i2r.rusfund.ru/rf/english/docs/news/index.html)
The Kaluga Bakery Plant has opened its own site in the Internet, which gave it an opportunity to attract remote customers from faraway cities. So, for example, orders of crackers and sooshkas came even from the northernmost towns of Russia. Recently this B2B site has successfully managed to establish stable client contacts in Moscow and Tula. The example of the Kaluga Bakery Plant is a demonstration of penetration of the Internet into the very depth of Russian regional business. Besides that, in case of some cataclysms anyone could use the site for purchasing the 'most valuable product of the time of changes' via the Internet. Perhaps, in the light of activation of state measures aimed to crime prevention in the Internet the plant can face an unexpected growth of the number of customers at the expense of Russian hackers. Source: Russian Funds (http://i2r.rusfund.ru/rf/english/docs/news/index.html)
The deal amount is 25 million USD, a half will be paid in shares. On July 31 Golden Telecom announced a purchase of the Agama portal group including Aport, @Rus and Omen.ru portals from an investment company Digital Holdings Corp. All the three portals will cost 25 million USD to the company. A half of the amount will be paid in shares that equals to 1.65 percent of the current capitalization of Golden Telecom. ABN Amro Corporate Finance (CIS) serves as an acquisition consultant. Golden Telecom is planning to promote its new portals as separate brand names using opportunities of the Russia-on-Line ISP also belonging to the company. Agama group was the latest purchase of Golden Telecom in July. Earlier that month the Russian telecommunication giant acquired one of the oldest Russian portal InfoArt for 8.28 million USD. And on July 26 Golden Telecom bought Kazakh ISP Nursat for 10.1 million USD. Together with purchased earlier Referat.ru and Absolute Games the company has got a leading position in traffic volume in the Russian Internet.
Source: Internet.ru News Agency (http://www.internet.ru)
At least three Russian Net companies are planning IPO in September There is a real necessity of Russian Internet companies to be publically traded. In July one of the largest cellular operators MTS went public at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with capitalization over 2 billion USD. Another large Russian telecom company Vympelcom has also issued its ADRs at NISE. The leading Russian exchanges the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), the Russian Trade Net (RTS) and the St. Petersburg Currency Exchange (SPCEX) announced preparations for share trading of Russian high tech companies. In contrast to telecom giants Russian Net companies do not possess sufficient resources to be interesting object at the American stock market. That is why the Russian exchanges are developing special sectors for high tech firms with eased requirements. As it was announced at Binternet-2000 conference an online shop Co@libri, Lenta.ru online news and Rambler portal are among the first Russian Net companies for IPO in September.
Source: Internet.ru News Agency (http://www.internet.ru)
During his recent visit to Moscow, Intel President and CEO Craig Barrett took part in the seminar on e-commerce held by the company. In his report at the seminar Mr. Barrett plotted the company's strategy for worldwide e-business propagation and called Russian companies to increase the efficiency of their operation by deploying Internet technologies. Addressing the top Russian businesspersons attending the seminar, Craig Barrett said that he considers the Internet as a principal engine of drastic changes in modern business, and thus expects an exponential growth of Russian Internet economy, among others. He highlighted that current forecasts indicate the growth of worldwide business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce up to US$ 7 trln. in the next four years. It is also anticipated that 75% of Russian businessmen will be utilizing the Internet for their activity by the end of the current year, with the most successful Russian e-business companies achieving 50 to 60 per cent year-to-year growth. "Russian companies need not waiting for development of worldwide Internet economy", said Craig Barrett. "Russia has sufficient potential to leap ahead by deployment of e-business. Russian enterprises should apply e-business strategy to compete in the current field of the new Internet economy." Craig Barrett also mentioned the increasing number of Internet users in Russia and the growth of investments in Russian Internet companies, availability of highly qualified personpower, infrastructure, and the widening choice of new Internet services and suppliers of turnkey solutions. On top of that, the cost of Internet access in Russia is gradually decreasing, thus making the unlimited access affordable for a greater number of local users. At the same time Craig Barrett mentioned that Russia lags behind many countries in Internet application in educational institutions. PCs and the Internet should be made more available for schoolchildren. He draw attention to the fact that currently only 3% of Russian schools have Internet access.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
Russian Vice-Minister of Communication and Informatization Alexander Volokitin announced that the number of Internet users in Russia increased by the factor of six during the past four years. Currently it constitutes 2.5 millions. With account of unregistered users, Mr. Volokitin said, the entire audience of Russian Internet is instantly estimated at 4.7 to 5.3 million users, with its potential size being estimated at up to 36 millions. The figures were quoted at BINFO-2000 conference on information support for business, held in Moscow in July. Alexander Volokitin also said that currently there are more than 100 Internet shops operating effectively in Russia. The most popular are the ones specializing on books, audio and video records, CDs, computer software and hardware. Numerous projects supported by domestic and foreign investments are now being carried out for drastic promotion of e-trade. On the other hand, Russian vice minister said, the deployment of e-trade in Russia still suffers from lack of legislation and underdevelopment of market information infrastructure. Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
British company Europe Steel.com Plc., owner of Internet portal for trading metals with East European countries, announced that it is currently in the process of acquisition of Rusmet, a Russian Internet company. According to Europe Steel.com Plc. Press release, the company plans to purchase 100% of Rusmet shares; at the moment, 50% are being purchased. Rusmet's website registers, as a minimum, 40,000 visitors per month and places sale and purchase requests for more than 200 items daily. Rusmet company was established in 1997 for information distribution in the Internet. It also offered web design and site maintenance services for companies operating at metal markets of CIS countries. In 1998 the company set up an Internet exchange for trade of metallurgical products. Europe Steel.com Plc. says that the launch of trade section of europe-steel.com portal, scheduled for Q4 this year, will be followed by putting a similar solution into operation at Rusmet website. Thus metallurgical enterprises will get access to a uniform resource allowing them to sell metals at both domestic and international markets. Principal owners of Europe Steel.com Plc. are Middlesex Holdings Plc., a British company specializing in steel trading; Russian Gazprominvestholding, which is entirely owned by Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly; and Russian news agency Interfax. The authorized capital of the company is 500,000 pounds sterling.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
Vympelcom company, one of Russia's largest cellular operators, announced establishment of a new Internet content provider, BeeOnLine-Portal. The new company is aimed at building the first portal for personal digital services in Russian language universally available by various access tools. It will provide information services, entertainment, e-commerce services (including those based on prepaid cards), as well as specialized location-dependent services. Current BeeOnLine partners include, among others, Interfax and Prime-TASS news agencies, as well as NTV-Portal company. At the moment, BeeOnLine users may subscribe for such services as news broadcasting, currency rates, flight schedules, jokes and anecdotes, horoscopes, sending short messages from the webpage, personal organizer services. At the first stage of BeeOnLine operations, personal digital services will be available only to BeeLine subscribers. Most services are free for the first three months. Vympelcom is one of the top Russian cellular operators, providing its services under BeeLine trademark. The company owns two cellular networks in Moscow city and its suburbs, one of them operating in DAMPS/AMPS standard and the other in GSM-900/1800 dual-band mode. As of June 20, 2000, the number of its subscribers constituted 573,700. Vympelcom was also the first Russian company to place its American Depositary Receipts (ADR) at the New York Stock Exchange in 1996.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Russian Federation presented a Federal Program of Electronic Trade Development in Russia for 2001 to 2006. One of the key goals of the program is forming a legislation base for national system of e-commerce. To that purpose, changes in some existing federal laws are required, and more laws and regulations are to be developed. In particular, the draft law "On electronic digital signature" is under development now; the law is one of the most urgent for e-trade development. On top of that, changes should be done in federal laws "On participation in international exchange" and "On state regulation of foreign trade activity". Russian government believes that e-commerce should be developed on investors' account. As to the task of the government itself, it is said to be the creation "of favorable conditions for private capital for development of electronic trade in the direction desired by the state". The program of e-trade development, built by Russian Ministry of Communications and Informatization on instructions of the Russian Government (along with Ministry of Trade, Federal Agency of Governmental Communications and Information, and other relevant ministries and departments), was already considered by the government this April. Then it was submitted to the Ministry of Economy for defining the sources of its funding. The program is scheduled for another consideration in the government this September. Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
Russian broker and dealer company Unicom Partner from Ekaterinburg city has launched its online broker service. The Internet Broker system is based on Microsoft technologies aimed at support of e-commerce applications, such as Windows 2000 operating system and MS SQLServer 7.0. Multi-tier architecture of the solution provides concurrent service for a large number of users in real-time mode. The system supports multilayer scheme for security and shared access to its resources. Protection against unauthorized access, data encryption and user authorization are compliant with governmentally approved algorithms and standards and certified by the State Technical Committee of Russia and the Federal Agency for Governmental Communication and Information. This guarantees high reliability and confidentiality of the information stored and transmitted in the system. A definite advantage of the solution is that Internet Broker does not require any special software to be installed at the user's computer. After registration in the system and signing the necessary agreements the user obtains a special key/certificate at the magnetic media. It allows an investor to access the system from any computer running Windows 95 or higher operating systems with Internet Explorer 5.0 browser. The key functions of the system allow a user to make prompt requests for operations with securities (selling and purchasing), as well to transfer money and securities. Currently about 40% of broker operations with securities are performed via Internet, with this share being anticipated to reach 85% by 2001. Estimations done by Jupiter Communications indicate that online broker companies will control the securities totaling US$ 3 trillion by 2003.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The Russian Ministry of Communications and Informatization has considered a draft concept of development of mobile communications in Russia. The conclusion was to return the draft for further improvement. The following key principles, however, were announced to be taken into account in the subsequent version: - further development of mobile cellular communications in Russia will be primarily based on European technologies for migration from analog to digital networking; - evolution of the existing systems towards third generation (3G) solutions will be based on UMTS, the European version of the international IMT-2000 standard, with ITU recommendations for IMT-2000 technologies to be taken into account in what relates to both air interface specifications and networking solutions; - the existing legislation base should be improved towards building open and transparent market relationships by establishing adequate licensing procedures for all market players, etc. The second revision of the concept of development of mobile communications in Russia is scheduled for consideration in late April. Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
KVK Group from Russia, Hanet Internet Service from Netherlands and Avesta Design studio from Moscow, Russia, have carried out a new Internet project - online casino based on Flash technology. Developers say it to be the world first virtual casino built entirely on Shockwave technology using Macromedia Flash 4. Casino 2000 utilizes all the benefits of Flash technology. The games are able to emply the full power of the user's monitor - as many colors are supported by user's PC as many colors will be used while gambling. Screen resolution will also be exactly the same as set by user, with flash-content being scaled without a loss of quality. The casino offers its visitors ten games including Roulette, Black Jack, Bingo, Keno, Memory, Thimbles, and four types of slots. Gamblers bet not their money but score points, yet authors of the projects set up bonuses and prises for their visitors, both the luckiest ones and the most hot-tempered ones. Online gambling is available in both English and Russian. There is no need for users to download any specific software and install it on their computers. Unlike Java-based gambling projects, Flash technology provides quality of gambling which does not depend upon speed and correctness of data transmission. Even in case of lost connection to the Net, a user can continue gambling for five more minutes.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
IT InfoArt Stars company, the leading content provider in Russian segment of Internet, has already been offering its free iName mail service for a long time. Now the service is expanded by adding WAP support, thus making it available for WAP-compliant mobile devices (cellular phones, PDAs or HPCs). After entering their login and password, visitors of wap.infoart.ru website get access to their iName mailboxes and can read new mail and send the replies. Thus users of WAP-enabled devices have now a unique chance to check their mail from wherever they are, and iName became the first Russian free mail service with WAP support. The same mailbox, InfoArt notes, can be now accessed by means of both the conventional browsers through Web, popular POP3 mail clients, and WAP devices. Last January IT InfoArt Stars was one of the first Russian content providers to open its WAP site for users of WAP-enabled phones. The site contains information in WAP format specially developed for mobile phones and communicators. Currently it presents information in both Cyrillic and transliteration. (The latter feature is necessary for devices without Cyrillic support.)
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The Russian Ministry of Taxes and Duties has no plans on taxation of Internet business activity in Russia. That announcement was done by Minister Alexander Pochinok during the conference "Telecommunications in Russia: Legislation and Practice" held in Moscow in March. On the other hand, Mr. Pochinok said that Russia would have to levy taxes on Internet business if it is done in Western Europe. "We shall do this to avoid leakage of our tax amounts to the West", he said. Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The IV Russian Internet Forum (RIF) was held on March 15-18, 2000. Every year representatives of the Russian Internet community, business and press meet in Moscow suburbs for the Forum where during several days there are reports, discussions, meetings, round tables, performances. The event facilitates business cooperation and shows up ideas that will determine development of the Internet in Russia for the next period. A title of RIF-2000 was "Internet - a new factor of the Russian economy". A show of the newest achievements in Internet technologies was also held during the Forum. The following topics were discussed on RIF-2000: Internet and politics, Electronic commerce, Internet telephony, Internet Leisure, Mass media on the Internet, Investments into the Russian Internet, Leased networks and access networks, Advertising and marketing, Russian Internet projects, Internet regulation and self-regulation, etc. Over 600 people attended the Forum.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
On March 17 at the IV Russian Internet Forum a financial group Baring Vostok Capital Partners and investment bank United Financial Group announced establishing of a joint venture Ru-Net Holdings which will invest in Russian Internet projects. In March the Ru-Net Holdings purchased 51 per cent of a leading Russian Internet shop "Ozon" investing 3 million dollars in the enterprise. According to representatives of the Ru-Net Holdings an amount of initial investments of the holding will be about USD 20 million.
Source: Algorithm Group (http://www.algo.ru)
A conference recently held in Moscow was devoted to development of e-commerce in Russia. It was organized by Trade and Industrial Chamber of Russian Federation and the American Chamber of Commerce. The event was attended by about 100 participants from computer and telecommunication companies, credit institutions and various associations. The agenda included legislation of e-commerce, taxation issues, etc. While speaking at the conference, Russian vice minister of communications and informatization Andrew Volokitin quoted the underdevelopment of market relations and lack of legislation base as principal hindrances inhibiting the deployment of e-commerce in Russia. On the other hand, Mr. Volokitin said, Russia has good basement in the field of information technologies, electronic banking technologies, and domestically developed information protection systems. On top of that, Mr. Volokitin said that Russian Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Finances, under the assignment of Russian government, have prepared a draft program for development of electronic commerce. The document is nearly completed and will be submitted to the Government in the next month. The program pays principal attention to e-commerce legislation and building the e-market infrastructure.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
Online system for street traffic monitoring has been put into operation in Moscow. The system presents an electronic city map indicating traffic jams and difficulties at Moscow streets in real-time mode, with information being updated every 15 minutes. The data is also supposed to be broadcasted by paging operators and some radio stations. Raw data for the system is provided by drivers from the Angel auto club, which participates in the project. They report about traffic conditions to an operation center of the Ecological Compass company, where the information is processed and submitted to the Demos Internet provider for publication at the website. Currently the system operates as a non-profit project, though various options of its commercial application are being considered. Currently the participants believe that advertisement hosting could be a principal source of profit. The project further plans are to provide a broader range of services, like information about various technical services, parking, optimal route calculation, etc.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
On February 4, 2000 a number of largest companies dealing with Russian Internet announced official registration of a new public organization - Union of Internet Operators (UIO). Among founders of the Union there were such ISPs as Cityline, Global One Network, Relcom.Business Network, RosNet, Regional (Russian) public center of Internet technologies (ROCIT) as well as National Electronic Library and RosNIIROS (Russian Scientific and Research Institute of Development of Public Networks responsible for controlling the .ru zone). The creation of such an uncommercial union is targeted on coordinating activity of all Russian organizations dealing with Internet development professionally. UIO is going to assist federal authorities to develop legislative base for further World Wide Web development in Russia; implement networking projects and programs; Internet information distribution and exchange, cooperation with international organizations, etc. UIO is also intending to focus on legal problems of Russian Internet development. For instance, in the nearest future representatives of the union will reply on the assignment of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Mr. Igor Klebanov, about revision of the draft "About usage of domains in the Russian Internet segment" and will also participate in public hearings on Internet law. Russian Internet is growing quickly but is not an active participant in international matters, in particular, in networking restructuring which is held all over the world now. UIO hopes to become an organization that will take representative functions of the Russian Internet society. Commenting creation of the Union, Chairman of UIO, Marat Guriev said: "It is important not to prevent Internet activity of users. Ability of arranging matters with each other and the State about rules in the Internet is also quite important. Besides, growth of Internet activity independently on geographical frontiers will be pleasant and interesting for the Union. UIO staff will do their best to favour this activity".
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The Russian Internet Academy announced the end of applications submission for the Intel Internet Award. It will be given to authors of the best Internet works in Russian in the fields of culture, arts, and education. Intel Corporation is a title sponsor of the award. The Russian Internet Academy was established for promoting the development of the Internet in Russia, in particular, by popularizing the best Internet works in Russian. To stimulate the authors of these works, the Intel Internet Award was set up. The initiative has rapidly gained popularity among Russian-speaking websurfers. Since the contest was announced less than two months ago, more than 250,000 visitors were counted at its website, with approximately 1,500 works nominated for the award. The contest, InfoArt notes, turned out to be very representative in geography. Applications were submitted from plenty of cities and towns in European Russia, Volga Region, Urals, Siberia, Far East, from CIS countries, and even from a number of other countries. Currently the nomination committee of the Russian Internet Academy is selecting top works in each of the nominations. The list of these works will be published in the second half of February. Then any websurfer will be able to vote for his favorite works in "Web chooses you!" nomination. This is a separate nomination, with a winner being detected by the Net voting at the website. Winners in other nominations will be determined by the Grand Jury composed of the members of the Russian Internet Academy. Establishment of the Russian Internet Academy was announced on December 1, 1999. The Academy is a creative organization by itself and unites both creative and business leaders of Russian Internet society and well-known social and culture leaders worrying about the culture and technology future of Russia. It sees its principal goals in promoting Internet in Russia and in active assistance to development of public Russian segment of the Internet. Later this year two other alternative Russian Internet academies were established, including the All-Russian Internet Academy.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
Internet services have now become available in Terskol village, the largest Russian ski resort located in the Caucasus mountains. The village is located at the altitude of 2000 m (6000 ft) at slopes of the Mt. Elbrus, the highest European mountain (5642 m/18498 ft). Until recently, the very possibility of data communication here caused many doubts among specialists, since a quality of long-distance landlines was rather low even for voice calls. The village is 130 km (80 miles) away from the Nalchik city, where the nearest Internet provider is located. The wireline has been damaged by avalanches, landslides and stonefalls many times and repaired in the field, patches are numerous, and PBXes at the both sides are out-of-date. At the same time, long, deep and curved gorge leaves little chances for radio technologies. A team of enthusiasts, including people from local Internet providing company and IT InfoArt Stars company, managed to solve the problems and establish a stable Internet access via long-distance dial-up calls. That has become possible by using modems specially developed for low-quality phone lines and PBXes. Though the connection speed is rather low, it is sufficient for low-bandwidth applications like e-mail, access to newsgroups, online chats and surfing websites where text content prevails. In the nearest future a leased line to Nalchik will be set up, thus allowing to increase a speed of communications and implement a full-featured Internet access. Further plans call for deployment of asymmetric satellite channel for data communication, establishing a public Internet access node at the resort and opening an Internet cafe for tourists. Some travel bureaus in Terskol, InfoArt notes, do already have their own websites hosted by large Internet providers close to the core of the Russian Internet. Direct access to the Net will allow them to maintain and update their sites in real-time mode. Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
On February 1st NeurOK company held a press-conference to demonstrate a number of technologies and devices developed by its staff within the framework of 3D Display project. The majority of them was devoted to real stereovision systems and creation of 3D content. The 3D Display project is aimed at building new optical solutions and devices based on the most up-to-date developments in laser technologies and holography. Investigations being carried out by NeurOK company include virtual displays, application of holographic technology in traffic control, torches, lasers, and new types of solar power cells. The press conference included presentation and demonstration of a revolutionary 3D Stereo Display. The product results from development and application of modern neurocomputing technologies for 3D visualization. As the technology does not require any special add-ons like stereo glasses of helmets, 3D Stereo Display is rather convenient multi-user system. In the future, it will serve as a component of stereo TV system. NeurOK company was established in August 1998 for funding high-tech projects in Russia. Its principal efforts are concentrated at the development of intellectual self-educating software and optical systems. The company has 34 employees.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The Committee of Information Politics and Communications of the State Duma (the lower house of Russian parliament) began public debates on legislation initiative in the field of Internet. One of the key issues of the bill which is under development is electronic commerce. The Committee chairman O.A. Finko said that lack of legislation for Internet, as well as inefficiency of applying adjacent legislation and regulations to that field, already plays a negative role in Internet development in Russia. There is a lot of problems requiring thorough investigation from legislation viewpoint. Among them, Mr. Finko quoted data security, with special emphasis on security of personal data, protection against information attacks to mailboxes, security of economic transactions in Internet, protection of individuals and the entire society against electronic distribution of data discrediting their honour and dignity, protection of intellectual property objects, and so on. The Committee believes that development of that essential legislation topic should be open to the maximum possible extent and involve as many Internet professionals as possible. It is greatly interested in responses to draft regulations from broad scope of Internet users and members of the Russian Internet community. Taking the importance of legislation issues for Internet development, the Committee plans to engage a broad range of interested parties and experts into discussion. To this end, modern information technologies will be utilized, including Internet debates. Also planned for publication are documents of the European Community and other international organizations in that field, and similar laws of other countries. Answers to questions posed by Internet users and comments to the proposals will be given by parliament members, people from the Committee of Information Politics and Communications, experts of the Russian Ministry of Communications participating in the development of the bill, as well as representatives of major computer and telecommunication companies, including ACT Group, Aquarius Systems, Belmont Consultants, Cisco, Classica, Compaq, Computer Age, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Kraftway, Sun Microsystems, Terra Link.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The Monitoring.ru project published a report based on the Russian National Institute of Social and Psychological Research (NISPI) study. According to the report, audience of the Russian segment of the Internet reached 5.4 million people in the fourth quarter, 1999, with only persons of the age of 18 and older being taken into account. Among these websurfers, 1.3 millions were spending in the Internet more than three hours a week, and 1.8 millions - more than one hour a week. During the fourth quarter of 1999, 18 million adult Russians (i.e. every sixth) were obtaining information from the Internet either themselves or via their friends and colleagues regularly working in the Net. 29 per cent of regular Internet surfers have computers and Internet access at home. The core of Russian Internet audience are those who visit the Web regularly and stay there for three or more hours per week. According to the report, that group constitutes 0.9 per cent of the Russian adult population. "White collars" prevail in the Internet audience, with students and businessmen following them. On the other hand, workers, retired people, housewives and unemployed persons are rare Internet users. The quarter forecast of the dynamics of maximum Russian Internet audience indicates that it will reach 6.1 mln. in Q1, 6.6 mln. in Q2, over 7.0 mln. in Q3 and 7.8 mln. in Q4, 2000, provided that the growth rate will remain the same as in November 1999. Those amounts include people who visited Internet al least once. The most popular topics among regular Internet users are news (42%), science and education (36%), business and finances (32%), entertainment, games and anecdotes (31%), music and literature (25%), chats (24%), information about goods and services (18%), erotica (13%), sports (12%), purchasing goods and services (8%). The total sum exceeds 100% as multiple answers were allowed.
Source: InfoArt News Agency (http://www.infoart.ru)
The Russian Government is preparing a number of documents to restrict the media freedom On December 28, few days after a first "protocol" meeting of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with representatives of the Russian Internet, the on-line newspaper Lenta.ru has published a draft of the government provision "On assigning and using domain names in the Russian sector of the Internet." The document has shocked the Russian Internet community - the provision implies a severe state control of the .ru zone. Immediately a hot discussion started over the Net. One of the best discussion platforms became the Moscow Libertarium moderated by Anatoly Levenchuk, a web site well-known for the antiSORM section. Another ominous draft of the Government resolution "On the state registration of the mass media using the global information networks for information dissemination" appeared recently in the Deadline.ru on-line newspaper would require a licence to any Russian news website by June 30, 2000. According to Mikhail Fedorov, the Press Minister in 1992-1993, whose interview was published on January 13 by Lenta.ru, the Russian Federation Press, TV, Radio and Communications media Ministry is preparing a draft of the government resolution which would seriously restrict rights and freedom of the press by additional licensing. Yuri Vdovin, a Vice President of the Citizens' Watch, a St. Petersburg based non-governmental human rights organization, says "All the current measures to regulate the Internet indicate that the state is trying to establish a global control on citizen's information interchange and on the information space which was not previously censored. A real information freedom is frightening the authorities and they are calling for help to all of the KGB's traditions and means."
Lenta.ru, http://www.lenta.ru
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