neweurasia

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neweurasia is a network of weblogs about Central Asia and the Caucasus. neweurasia's central concept revolves around "bridge bloggers", coordinators who speak both English and local languages and can act as a bridge between the English and local-language blogging communities ("blogospheres"). They act as mentors to new bloggers, providing ongoing advice on the best blogging practices.

Initially a 2005 side project of Thinking-East.net, an "e-publishing platform" consisting of news analysis by Middle Eastern and Central Asian university students, by 2006 it grew into an independent operation. While Thinking-East.net (or simply, Thinking-East) has since become defunct, neweurasia project leader Benjamin Paarmann claims a monthly tally of up to 100,000 unique hits. The project is supported by Hivos, a non-governmental organization based in the Netherlands and EurasiaNet. Roundups of the Central Asian blogosphere appear on Global Voices Online.

In February 2006, neweurasia teamed up with Transitions Online (TOL), an online magazine based in Prague, Czech Republic, to explore the vast potential of blogging to act as a cost-efficient, powerful instrument of free speech, free press, advocacy, and self-expression in Central Asia. In July 2006, neweurasia was blocked in Uzbekistan.^[1] In 2006, TOL and neweurasia published "An Easy Guide to Blogging" by Nathan Hamm, a Founding Editor of Registan.net and "Safe Blogging & Online Privacy Made Easy". In September 2006, TOL and neweurasia held a conference on blogging in Almaty, Kazakhstan.^[2],^[3].

The online news aggregator Google News lists neweurasia as one of its 4,500 news sources. The project is also listed as one of the seven blogs on the Russia navigator page of the New York Times and was mentioned in The Guardian print edition twice. The project staff claim that there have also been cases of Central Asian news sources cross-posting neweurasia material, such as The Times of Central Asia, KUB.kz and Gazeta.kg.