Grigory Tanissky. Runet in Coma

Runet in Coma
Grigory Tanissky

Date of publication: October 25, 2000

Interpol, issue twenty-five. About how nothing happens

Ivan Davydov

1. Such an innocent portal

Somehow , quite quietly and not really noticed by network old-timers, a new portal was opened with the almost common name Runet-dot-Kom (www.runet.com) . And this phenomenon, if you look closely, is far from ordinary. What is this portal? The first impression is that this is a news site - the news section opens immediately (I note in parentheses: it was made without any brilliant moves, but very competently - good design, programming, convenient navigation and structuring of the material; the content is more informational than analytical; it feels a good source base and the ability to initially process information; the publication’s own position is practically not demonstrated; rather, on the contrary, a deliberate detachment is noticeable in the coverage of events; a solid, but ordinary media resource). But looking at the site map, you pay attention to other sections located in the site map under the news section.

In addition to the traditional free mail portals, message boards, forums, etc., there are completely unique offers here. For example, create your own page in the “Community” section (My family, My party, My work). In addition, Runet.com “provides its users with fundamentally new web hosting opportunities: free access to unlimited disk space and original website design concepts.”

(Stop, stop, stop! - we exclaim here: what about our Russian programmers, who earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow? From now on, it turns out that their work will be taken over by professionals from Runet.com (whose level of professionalism can be judged by quality of the portal)? If it is possible to make a website for free, then why pay? Is this a redistribution of the professional market?) The portal also provides an FTP service: unlimited disk space where you can copy all the information from your local disk on your computer. .. and at any time of the day from any other computer you will have access to your files."

Here you involuntarily stop and think not about the advantages and disadvantages of this project and not about the possibility of freebies, but about what it all means. A LOT of money had to be invested in such a project. In the Russian Internet zone, no one before Runet.com had ever offered unlimited space for websites for free. How are the founders of Runet.com going to recoup such costs? That such services, combined with a good news section, will provide them with an influx of visitors is obvious, but there are simply few visitors; the history of the last six months of the existence of the RuNet (take Pole.Ru, for example) shows that portals do not pay off. Some considerations appear if you go to the modest, lost under the subscription section “About the company”. Paid services are already offered here, and they lead to certain thoughts.

For example, these sentences:
- creation of Internet projects of various types;
- analysis of business processes;
- modernization of existing Internet resources in order to integrate them into existing business ;
- use of Internet technologies to conduct financial and business transactions;
- creation of software products that simplify work with Internet resources ;
- training and provision of advice regarding any aspects of the creation and operation of Internet resources;
- creating conditions for attracting investments, etc.

It is especially noted that “Runet.com’s projects in this area (business optimization - G.T.) have practically no analogues in Russia.” Runet.com plans to develop and automate industrial portals for e-business. What does all this mean in reality? What is behind the “integration of Internet technologies into business” ? In fact, this is an attempt to standardize the Russian business space using American Internet technologies. The Robertson&Blums company, listed in the presentation materials as one of the founders of Runet.com (the others, by the way, are not named), specializes in the development and supply of software for enterprise and business management systems, in other words, it is engaged in the implementation of management standards. Because the implementation of an information system leads to the adjustment of management to its standards. This is, in essence, a tool for globalizing the business space. Robertson&Blums has been operating on the Russian market for more than seven years, but until now its clients have been large companies. Through Runet.com it becomes possible to attract medium and small private businesses. And it will be organized “in a Western way,” but our industry is ours, and, as you know, Western management standards are extremely difficult for Russian industry, which has developed its own management schemes. For the country (that is, Russia), this means an even greater deepening of the conflict between financial and industrial capital and, as a consequence, a further outflow of money from Russian industry.

Gentlemen, this is sabotage!

But American businessmen are planning more - Runet.com will enter the NASDAQ New York stock exchange by 2004 ( Manifesto ). Until now, NASDAQ has been the fastest growing stock market (high technology). But for several years now, experts have been talking about the overheating of American stock markets in general, and the NASDAQ in particular (the phenomenon of “overheating” is well described in George Soros’s book “The Alchemy of Finance”). There is a constant possibility of a collapse of an overheated market; new participants with new expectations are needed to continue its “life”. Now oil prices are rising, which is causing an outflow of money from the NASDAQ to the oil stock markets. It is clear that fresh players and finances (for example, Russian) are needed. In Russia, after the August crisis of 1998, finances began to be invested in industry. But this lasted no more than a year. Since our industry is practically not developing, there is nothing left to do but transfer finances abroad, and a project like Runet.com makes this much easier.

If the project gets back on its feet and really opens up access to NASDAQ to a wide RuNet user, then there is simply no chance for high-tech production in Russia, since its restoration and subsequent reproduction requires a lot of money, and the turnover of funds in industry is quite long.

Finally, the dream of economists of traditional schools - from Yavlinsky to Glazyev - will come true: money will formally remain in the country, there will be no export of capital. Which is exactly what we wanted. Hooray! However, while formally remaining Russian, capital will be transferred to NASDAQ (as before in GKOs, but at least they were our dear ones).

It is worth noting the anthropological component here. When it becomes possible to freely access the stock exchange via the Internet, the areas of user priorities will begin to shift. It is obvious that Runet.com is trying to make Russia like America, where even schoolchildren play games with securities. The situation turns out to be almost a copy of Gleb Pavlovsky : “The mechanism of propaganda broadcasting dishes... in a real challenge situation was good at doing one thing - it devoured the time necessary for the nation to build a response to this situation. ... deformation of any creative space: social-creative, political-creative, intellectual-creative."

But if, after absorbing the information noise, you still have time left, you can safely spend it on gambling on the Internet (if you are tempted to go to a casino, again, it’s kind of an illusion of thinking). And then there will be no time to listen to the “noise”.

In general, we have before us not just a new portal, but a powerful project 1) to introduce American technologies and, consequently, American standards for organizing Internet projects and electronic business into the space of the Russian Internet; 2) to attract Russian (and subsequently other CIS countries) financial capital to American stock exchanges. To put it simply: 1) for the final destruction of Russian industry and 2) for organizing the further degradation of the Russian population.

Already now - who sees the real problems of the country? Who discusses them, decides (until they turn into a disaster)? Only green noise around. " Myth and gossip win... "

"While receiving quite a lot of information about incidents, society does not have any real information about what could help it be prepared for future disasters. Meanwhile, we are actually talking about a threat to its security. ... political parties and cultural groups are not given the opportunity timely develop the necessary positions, goals and objectives on issues affecting national security and the very lives of citizens" ( http://www.strana.ru/doctrina.html ) .

But e-business continues, develops and multiplies. So you see the picture: ruins (houses are collapsing from old age), some creatures in rags are swarming in the rubble, the ruins of buildings lie right on the roads (there are no cleaning equipment, since the industry is at a standstill), filled with stinking slurry (the sewage system is broken), on top of all this New models of cars (Western, especially for Russia) that have come into fashion - a cross between a Mercedes and a Lunokhod - with built-in computers for doing e-business are moving around.

You involuntarily start screaming, calling out: “Country! Where are your heroes?!”

2. Country versus Runet

And here they are. Have you called a hero? The hero has arrived. And the name matches - " Strana.Ru ".

I'm not laughing. I'm terribly serious. Just like the situation today is serious and terrible. And the team of “Strana.Ru” today are the only ones who have declared loudly and to the whole country (and not in private): “Strana.Ru” is conceived as a place of communication between the people and the state. This independent institute of the Russian information market will help the Russian authorities state their intentions and motives for action, receiving an immediate response from citizens" ( Information about the project ).

“The essence of the project is to create a voice of power: a certain national point of view of Russia as a federal whole” ( Interview with Gleb Pavlovsky ).

The good and great goal is to gather the country. When there is no space for “representation of the political spectrum of society, there is not even a representation of society itself, its real forces, groups and real structure” ( Information Doctrine ).

And it is very serious to position ourselves as those who make this country, who live in it .

The transformation of a population that has only the experience of endlessly bashing everything in their country into a people accepting responsibility for what is happening to the country is the field on which the war is taking place.

But it has always been the custom in Rus' that our heroes are all Ivanushka the Fool. What steps is Strana.Ru going to take? - “Our project is to create an information resource that can restore the integrity of the information flow... will allow us to move from the destructive phase to some kind of information construction...” ( Interview with Gleb Pavlovsky ) .

"The question arises: which of the democratic state institutions... is fully and adequately represented in Russian public opinion? In Russia, in fact, there are no political forces except the President and the media! On such a foundation it is impossible to restore Russia as a free people's state" ( Information doctrine ).

It truly sounds like an anthem - A FREE PEOPLE'S STATE . Yes, only in Russian public opinion anything can be represented or not represented, but the existence of political forces is not determined by such representation at all (the phenomenon of the “gray eminence”). And it is this “gray” that should be remembered first of all. While Gleb Pavlovsky is resolving the global issues of the war with media magnates and the old-new bureaucracy in the information field, RuNet and Russia are being captured from the rear.

"Strana.Ru" wages war exclusively in the information space: propaganda and news (information) are opposed. But in reality, words and action are opposed, oriented towards the entire integrity of a person and his life. They go around from the rear, based on human weaknesses. So who wins in the end? How much strength must a person have in his soul to resist the temptation to agree to turn stones into bread?

And freedom of information is seen only from the point of view of who is the boss. Hence the miserable tasks: “It is necessary to re-equip not only the authorities, but also the main social groups with the tools of real information independence” ( Information Doctrine ). Yes, the whole point is not in information, but in goals. We need target independence !!! A boy sits, plays on the stock exchange, but you can inform him any way you want - he didn’t care about all this. He is only interested in information from the stock exchange. He is dependent on goals, he does not have his own. Freedom is not FROM (something, someone), it is FOR (action).

Let’s add some touches to our landscape: above all the ruins and cars, a gray mesh of endless discussions is spread out over (under) the sky about what is happening and who is the boss. Discussions are based on all the laws of the new information approach. Pseudo-metaspace flickers and trembles. (Here is a footnote: of course, I understand that the landscape being drawn is flawed - the President is not represented in it. But I believe in the sobriety and creative will of our president. He cannot find a place in idiotic scenarios.)

3. The final part of the apocalypse

In the end, we will scare Internet residents who are far from the hustle and bustle of off-line life.

The freedom to look for a new profession for our domestic programmers has already been said. Let's add more horror. The organization of the business Internet space according to American standards (remember: “Runet.com projects in this area have practically no analogues in Russia” ) will gradually entail a reorganization of the entire Internet space (maybe minus the home pages, although... how know). The Runet.com portal is designed not just as a set of various services. As the project develops, the various pages will become increasingly intertwined. For example: the website of a certain off-line store + an e-version of the same store (in Russia and abroad) + an informal “My Store” page, etc. That is, the globalization of the Internet will begin to occur in the sense of the possibility of combining different types of projects and in the sense of linking its Russian and Western sectors.

In May of this year, Roman Leibov wrote : “Following the era of globalist dreams, an era has come that can be called the time of virtual nationalism... In our country, this era (of the formation of the Russian sector of the Internet - G.T.) was marked by the transition from translit to Cyrillic (the first stage ), the accumulation of actual content and the creation of powerful search devices (second stage) and the invention of the impossible word “Runet” (last stage).” It seems that on October 2, 2000 (when the Runet.com portal opened) a new stage in the development of Runet began. Or even a new era - the era of globalization. Launched, however, no longer by us. Great changes are coming, gentlemen, but is it for the good...

In conclusion, here is a story told at the presentation of Runet.com by Ekaterina Shapochka, Marketing Director: “As a result of the competition for a new domain name, we realized that “Runet” was, of course, the most successful option. However, it turned out that such a name had already been registered We managed to find the owner, he turned out to be an American citizen, and since there was no real information resource behind this name at that time, we simply bought the name. By a funny coincidence, the last name of this citizen was Loch."

In general, they bought Runet from the suckers and took over the Runet from the suckers. And at the same time the country. So it goes.