Rocking it in Moldova
For years, Moldova has been depicted as the poorest, most corrupt and least developed country in Europe. Lately, it has also seen a rise in protests. But Moldova is also a country full of talent and its incredibly active entrepreneurship scene is growing and growing.
Last week I returned from a visit to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, where I participated in the Rockit Summit, an event that brought together a large number of startups, digital marketers and media professionals.
I was invited to speak at the event about what we do at Sourcefabric, and why open source in newsrooms is a trend worth watching. One of the examples I used was the Coral Project, which intends to make internet commenting better, and is a project of the New York Times, Washington Post, the Mozilla Foundation and the Knight Foundation. I also gave shout-outs to D3.js, which Mike Bostock was able to develop further while he worked at the New York Times, as well as to Vox’s Meme Generator, which I think are good examples of ways an open source approach can benefit not only the host news organisation, but a larger community.
There were a number of interesting presentations at the Rockit Summit. I was particularly intrigued by what speaker Alan Soon called ‘Homeless media’ - media organisations that exist primarily on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and whose home page is simply a pointer to those platforms. I was also intrigued by Vitalie Esanu’s ideas regarding cryptocurrency, the blockchain and new media; as the developer of the popular “Camera Genius” app for iOS, Esanu’s definitely clear on where opportunities lie, although he pointed out that Moldovans view cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as being like a Ponzi scheme. In a country reeling from a billion-dollar banking scandal, the time may not be right for the market to accept bitcoin.
Moldova is an interesting place, and certainly, while there are a large number of political and structural issues the country needs to work on, it is clear that there is a lot of potential in its highly-educated population. One statistic I heard at the Rockit Summit was that 9.5 % of Moldovan GDP is in the IT sector with outsourcing being one of the key drivers. The talent is definitely there, and events like Rockit are useful to bring together a large cross-section of participants working in the sector.
During the event I had the honor of meeting up with Adrian Plesca, who was one of the participants in the Shift-Shape-Mobilize workshop Sourcefabric held last year in cooperation with the Bundeszentrale fur Politische Bildung, Germany’s Agency for Democratic Education. Adrian is a civic activist in Chisinau, and was the driving force behind one of Moldova’s entries (if not its only entry) in the Guinness Book of World Records. Adrian had the idea of decorating a long and abandoned staircase in one of Chisinau’s parks; the initiative grew in interest and participation, and now Chisinau holds the world record for the world’s longest decorated staircase.
I also got to meet up with Lia Ciutac, a blogger focused on life and style. She explained that a number of efforts are underway to promote Moldova’s agricultural products, especially its wines, as Russia has embargoed Moldovan agricultural imports. This video, produced in support of Moldovan farmers, really surprised me. It evoked a mixture of “WTF?” and “wow!”...you’ll just have to see for yourself.
Lia explained that local style bloggers are working to support Moldovan designers and products, and that a local design scene is starting to emerge. Judging from some of her recent posts, she herself is involved in supporting local design.
I’ll be the first to admit that I probably wouldn’t have sought out a trip to Moldova, but now that I’ve been, I’m definitely looking forward to returning! Check out our events page for more info!