The Moscow International Internet Festival is on since July 30 till September 30, 1999, in Russia. (http://idaystars.ru/). One of the central events of the festival is the census of Russian-speaking Internet users. By the moment, the number of forms filled by the participants has exceeded 7,000, with the total number of visitors of the festival site being about 120,000.

The third topical week of the festival was the Week of Mass Media, with a round table entitled "Internet and information agencies: new markets or new problems" being its key event. It was attended by heads of the leading Russian information and economic agencies, including RosBusinessConsulting, ITAR-TASS, MFD-InfoCenter, PRIME-TASS, Interfax, AK&M, RIA Novosti, Finmarket. Participants of the event discussed the problems of utilizing the worldwide computer network for everyday activity of mass media. The round table was monitored by Khachatur Arushanov, director of Internet projects of IT InfoArt Stars company.

It was highlighted during the discussion that, from users' viewpoint, Internet is typically associated with easy access to any information. Yet the activity of information and economic agencies is a peculiar one: they utilize Internet to sell their information. This commercial component complicates the process of distributing the information, and unauthorized access makes some agencies to avoid placing valuable information on the Net. According to agencies' representatives, Internet is an "non-regulated media", which can be easily used for any purposes.

Despite this, most of the participants recognized Internet as the most convenient media for collecting and distributing information.

Source: InfoArt News Agency

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