Project Description

Goama magazine is a project started by Igor Grishin and Alexander Dinerchtein from Russia. It's a free weekly magazine. As of now (March 2007) we have published 46 issues. We have nearly 2000 subscribers from over 70 different countries. We have an expert group including Mace Lee, Tamsin Jones, Les Waller and other strong players. We publish news about professional and amateur events, interviews, and articles about developing Go around the world. We have permission from Baduk Sege magazine to translate their articles from Korean to English. Also we explain trick-moves and latest trends in joseki. We publish commented games from tournaments and Go servers. In addition we have "The Most Exciting Game of the Week" section. We sometimes offer Go quizzes with prizes. We support tournament organisers as well, publishing their invitations free of charge. Our magazine is translated into several languages by volunteers , including French and Russian. Currently the magazine has only one sponsor - Igor Grishin, the president of "Voshozhdenie" Children's Go school in Moscow. We could make the magazine even better if we had more time and resources to pay editors, webmasters , translators and experts. In the future we would like to introduce multimedia features, including video, to our newsletter and website. We aim eventually to have on-the-scene reporters at go tournaments, and events in asian countries. Ultimately, our goal is to turn Goama into the first Western Go newspaper, issued on paper! Please Note: Goama is not only publishing Go news and unique articles, but also makes easier to find Go-related information by inventing and supporting the Go Search Engine, which includes 99% of all Go sites.

Objectives

We try to develop Go around the world. Many Western players know little about top Asian players and club systems. We try to introduce them in our magazine.

Realisation

Since 2005, our readership has increased from 0 to over 2000. We have reached many countries and receive a daily average of about 100 hits on our website. Recently, we have been receiving many references on websites such as Sensei's Library, European Go Federation website, International Go Federation, American Go Association, American Go E-Journal and others. We have been getting a lot of feedback from our readers, which shows that we are succeeding in stimulating thought and discussion about current issues in Go.

Resources

Human resources: We have a team of editors and go experts, supported by several webmasters and translators. I work from home and my colleagues also work from home. It would be advantageous in time to be able to rent dedicated office space in Moscow for expanding the scope of Goama activities. Financial resources: Our current expenses are Internet, Hosting, Advertisements, Editors' and experts' salaries. We spend about 200 Euro per month, keeping our project alive.

Possibilities to copy this project

Our project is already available in other countries. We have French and Russian online versions of our newsletter, made by volunteers. Articles from our magazine are regularly published in different magazines (including Korean Baduk Sege) and translated into several languages. Our staff comes from several countries across Europe, including Russia, France, Canada, Holland and England. We aim to improve our links with one another so that we can reach out more effectively to the European Go World.