Who said it is impossible to gain popularity via new media in country with low level of online media development? Especially in Caucasus... One guy from Mingrelia, western Georgia have been caught by traffic police and as always recorded by cameras and showed on TV, that everybody laughed at him. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yfeNu7986E]
Then his video appeared in YouTube and have got 11.150 viewers in a country with near-to-zero new media development! That's incredible.
So next step was taking him to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Br2ElRBI8g&amp;feature=related">very popular show</a>. Last step - he has got contract with country-wide TV channel! Perfect work Koxora!

I am in Baku now for Bridge Camp or Körpü Kamp in Azerbiajani. It is a second Barcamp style event this year in Azerbaijan. Sitting in the chairs of the high-ranking GEF Hotel and listening on possible new media-NGO-media links, I feel pretty interested. Actually it is organized by Transitions Online Caucasus representatives, our activists and other people. I have seen a lot of people from our previous trainings and it is fun to see people coming to listen and speak on new media, and the end of the traditional one. Some people from Ganja asked me: Will i present something on new situation in Azerbaijani media?

Actually I will present old vs. new media, and sure, it is not yet the end of the one. It just should change as has been done by many. Now I see some websites from media that have pretty good design, open source based programming, comments, videos, voices in one place. That’s what I want. But still even these pages don’t t involve many journalists participating. People (even if they write comments for one of the biggest opposition newspaper) are still unanswered by editorial staff.

Hoping to change this year. Now listning to one of my first students - Rita Valiyeva on media and PR. Perfect knowledge of issues. She also serves as PR person for our Barcamps. Success - we have more people than planned.

Still a lot of jobs to do. I am always using this ugly web site to show what we need to change. Pop-up windows, no place to write comments, not even proper e-mail to the editor. But imagine - it is the most read newspaper and news website in Azerbaijan, according to various statistics. Imagine how much more they will get … if they will change.

Welcome to TOL’s New Media blog, the place to track events and developments in IT, social media and their intersection with politics, business and culture in the post-communist world. Join us here for a robust dialogue and a fresh take on cool sites, new apps, usage trends, gains and losses on the electronic-freedom front, and other media news.

We’re kicking off with a stellar lineup of contributors from around TOL’s coverage area:

Vojcech Sakłovic is a blogger, translator and online media expert who splits his time between Minsk and London (where he is studying for his MA in media). He is a Belarus contributor to Global Voices Online and does new-media training for journalists in Belarus, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Yelena Jetpyspayeva is an Almaty-based journalist, consultant and BarCamp enthusiast/organizer. She serves as Russian-language managing editor for the TOL partner project Neweurasia.net, and her own blog, Me. About., covers new-media developments in Central Asia and beyond.

Emin Huseynzade is TOL’s Caucasus project manager. He holds master’s degrees from the Azerbaijan State Economic University and the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs. Emin is a former producer for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and also contributes to TOL’s Steady State Caucasus blog.

Igor Kandyba is a Belarusian blogger, podcaster and Drupal developer from Belarus. He is fascinated with information design, the semantic Web, and using new media tools for social change.

We’ll be adding to the roster as time goes on, and we welcome new voices. If you’re interested in joining in, see the Blog for Us page for details.