One last workshop ... in Zaporizhzhya

I did a workshop today in Zaporizhzhya, in southern Ukraine. We met with a group of enthusiastic journalists at the Media Center attached to the Alex TV Co. We spent the day covering computer-assisted reporting (Internet search and spreadsheet skills) and "Web 2.0" publishing. I created a temporary blog -- sorry, it's been deleted -- to which everyone posted content (including embedded video from YouTube or a poll from BlogPoll).

After the workshop, we had fun taking pictures:



Now, Lorenza and I are off to Crimea to do some hiking and swimming.

Ego alerts, in Russian

In my workshops on advanced Internet search techniques, I urge reporters to create "Google Alerts" on relevant subjects. I wrote about this strategy in an article that will be in Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists:

Most of us use Google by typing words and phrases into a box and clicking the search button. But you can also play fetch with Google Alerts [www.google.com/alerts]: You can tell Google to constantly search the Web, news sites, blogs and/or discussion boards for keywords – and then to e-mail you the results. You can receive the links as soon as Google finds them or bundled daily or weekly.

Google Alerts can be a godsend for journalists tracking specific topics. You can use all the search commands supported by Google: searching for phrases or synonyms, for example, or restricting searches to specific domains, Web sites, news sources or geographic locations. (For a list of these search operators, see www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html.)

So, if I were covering mining for a Virginia newspaper, I might set up a Google Alert with these parameters: mining +safety (location:va OR site:gov)



This means Google would search for mining or related words (mines or miners) and the word safety; it would look for information located either in Virginia or on government Web servers; it would search the Web, blogs, Google News and Google Groups; and it would e-mail me a compilation of results once a day.

At the very least, you might want to set up an “ego alert” – to see if people are talking about you or reprinting your bylined stories on the Internet.

[Me again, not quoting from Quill:] I've got an "ego alert" set up for "Jeff South" (and variations on my name) + VCU or variations of VCU, and/or "professor". The results go once a week to my Gmail account.

But that ego alert works only for references in the Roman alphabet. What about references to the Russian spelling of my name -- Джеф Саус? So I've set up a Cyrillic ego alert. Here are the hits so far:

http://www.zaxid.net/newsua/2007/6/12/105822/

http://www.zik.com.ua/index.php?news_id=87669

http://www.poralviv.org/pages/view/general-about-membership

http://atn.kharkov.ua/mess.php?id=18213

http://www.pr.ua/news.php?new=3926

Back from Lviv, Ukraine's 'most European' city

I just returned from a rocket trip to Lviv (that's the Ukrainian spelling; it's Lvov in Russian -- but Russian is disdained there). Lviv is the heart of the Ukrainian nationalist movement -- and somewhat chauvinistic about Ukrainian culture and about itself. And it should be: Lviv is a pretty city, more like Italy than like Kharkiv -- with historic buildings, sidewalk cafes, winding streets. The central district is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Last September, Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary. I got the impression, too, that Lviv wasn't decimated by World War II as other cities. (For example, 75 percent of Kharkiv was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War.)

Lviv looks to Poland (of which it once was part) and to Western Europe just as Kharkiv looks to Russia. To some extent, the two cities reflect the geographical split in Ukrainian politics.

I went to Lviv to do a series of technology workshops for journalists. Yulia came to serve as a translator and co-trainer -- plus, she got to see a good friend who lives in Lviv.

We left Kharkiv early Wednesday morning (7 a.m.); took a train to Kiev, then another train to Lviv, arriving around 1 a.m. Thursday. We crashed at a hotel (Yulia's friend, Olena, met us there and shared Yulia's room so they could catch up). Then, early Thursday, we had breakfast and took a taxi to the workshop.

The workshops were held in a conference room in the Lviv office of ПОРА! (pronounced "PORA"), a pro-democracy group. Here's what Wikipedia says about the group:

Pora! (Ukrainian: ПОРА!), meaning IT'S TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy, in opposition to what they claimed was the authoritarian governing style of Ukraine's president Leonid Kuchma.

The group was established in 2004 to coordinate young people's opposition to the Kuchma government. Pora! was inspired and partly trained by members of the Serbian Otpor movement which helped bring down President Slobodan Milošević, and is also allied to related movements throughout Eastern Europe, including Kmara in the republic of Georgia (itself partly responsible for the downfall of President Eduard Shevardnadze), Zubr in Belarus (opposing President Alexander Lukashenko), Oborona in Russia, and MJAFT! in Albania. ...

Yulia and I felt a bit awkward doing our workshops under the auspices of a political organization, but if that's who opened the doors to us, who were we to complain?

Nine journalists (from newspapers, radio, TV and online media, as well as from the Lviv City Hall press agency) attended the workshops, and a few more drifted in and out. We covered Internet searching, spreadsheets and Web 2.0 publishing. Among other things, we divided the participants into teams and had them do a Web scavenger hunt:



We wrapped up around 4:30 and then did a little sightseeing. The City Hall folks gave us a VIP tour of the bell tower that's part of the City Hall complex. The view from the top was impressive. You could see churches like the one at the top of this post. And the tower looked down on the old market square:



We were under the bell when it went GONG! at 5 p.m. According to tradition, you're supposed to stand under the bell (it's a good idea to cover your ears!) and make a wish. [So Lorenza, if you're reading this, guess what I wished for?]



You'll find more pictures from my trip to Lviv here.

After having dinner at a terrific sidewalk restaurant, Yulia and I walked to the train station and caught the 11 p.m. train to Kiev. It arrived around 7:30 a.m. We had tickets for an 11:30 a.m. bus to Kharkiv. To kill time, we took a taxi to downtown Kiev (the driver was a talkative guy who met, and went drinking with, American soldiers in Germany; he had pretty strong conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination). I did some souvenir shopping. Then we caught the Kiev Metro back to the train station and got on our bus.

The bus unfortunately had an accident about an hour into our trip -- it wasn't our bus driver's fault: Somebody cut him off and he bumped another car. Nobody was hurt, but the police had to be called and paperwork had to be filled out before we could resume on our way.

As a result, we didn't get back to Kharkiv until almost 7:30. The silver lining: Yulia thought we'd arrive at 6:45; I bet on 7:30. The loser had to teach the winner three new words in the loser's native language. So ... I continue to build my Russian vocabulary, thanks to the bus accident.

Kharkiv turns on its fountains

Like many European cities, Kharkiv has a lot of fountains -- and several nice ones in Shevchenko Park, near my apartment. As the weather turned warm, the city turned on the fountains. They're refreshing during my run -- which I end with a loop through the park.

The fountain above is in the middle of the park; it's a popular spot for people to have their picture taken.

Here's a photo of a fountain at the back of the park. This one has water cascading down toward the main road below. (Sadly, graffiti is as common here as in the U.S.)



And finally, here's a fountain in front of the Opera House.

Happy Birthday, Slobids'kyj Krai

This afternoon, Yulia and I represented the Journalists' Initiative Association at a celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Slobids'kyj Krai newspaper. This is the official oblast government newspaper, and the oblast threw a big party. It was held at the Cultural Center at Karazin National University and featured local celebrities, government officials, singers, dancers, performers and a lot of food and drink.

We gave Volodimir Revenko, the paper's editor, a couple of books: one about journalism (something I picked up from the Knight program about international news reporting), and the other about advertising (by the legendary U.S. ad executive David Ogilvy; I found a Russian translation at a Kharkiv bookstore).

Here are a few pictures; you'll find more in my Picasa album.

Something in the air -- pollen!

For a big city, Kharkiv has a lot of trees -- especially poplar trees (топол in Russian). For the past three weeks, those trees have been giving off cotton-like tufts of pollen. People call it пох (I think; they might be saying пах). It's everywhere: in the air, on the ground ... When I go running, it gets into my mouth.

Fortunately, we've had a little rain, and that keeps the stuff from floating in the air so much.

Journalism pep talk

I visited a school last week -- a progressive private school founded and run by a friend of Serge's. It's called OChAG School. I talked to the students about journalism, the U.S. and other things. And, of course, I took a few pictures. Here's one of the 10th-form students (equivalent to our high school juniors):



And here's a photo of a 9th-form class: