"Democracy in Azerbaijan: Goals and Challenges" broke new ground, allowing open discussion of sensitive topics, and bypassing traditional government-controlled media by using the Internet.One question I faced in the press conference we held a couple of days before the forum was: “How is your forum going to affect the election?”

This was an interesting question – and a pretty easy one to answer. The goal, I said, was not to affect the election. Everyone knows the president of Azerbaijan is going to be re-elected.

Some thoughts from the night before our forum - Democracy in Azerbaijan: Goals & Challenges.Oct. 9, 200811 p.m. The end is in sight for a project that has occupied Chuck & me for the last two months. Yesterday we had a press conference to the forum – Democracy in Azerbaijan: Goals and Challenges. We were also guests on a Radio Liberty talk show, discussing the event. Tomorrow, the forum will be held at the Park Inn in Baku. We have confirmation for about 40 guests. We have confirmation from most of the panelists.

Young Azerbaijanis learning how to use blogs as one form of modern journalism.

The 14 young Azerbaijanis who crowded into the Sheki computer center on Aug. 5 weren’t focused on building democracy, but the training they received from the ICFJ is leading in that direction. In one day, the students created both individual blog sites and a site for their collective blog.

Russian journalists had the opportunity to discuss journalism, politics and the relative merits of subway systems in a wide-ranging discussion with a New York Times correspondent based on Moscow. About a dozen journalists at Moi Rayon-Moscow got a personal introduction to Western-style journalism when Andrew Kramer, correspondent for The New York Times, visited the newsroom for a lunchtime discussion on Feb. 18, 2008. Discussion topics ranged from reporting styles to the comparative merits of the New York City subway and the Moscow Metro.

One of the three Moscow-based New York Times reporters recently visited the news room of Moi Rayon for an informal discussion about reporting, politics, and the relative merits of the New York City and Moscow metro systems. While the US has many positive aspects, the New York Times reporter on the record preferred the Moscow metro.

Dmitri Surnin, editor-in-chief at Moi Rayon-Moscow, listens as Andrew Kramer, New York Times correspondent, discusses his work with Russian journalists at Moi Rayon.

Cultural differences come to the fore as participants and trainers work together to solve organization's problems

Academics argue about what “culture” is – but anyone who has lived in a foreign country knows that clear differences in social behavior and expectations exist. I have been living in a foreign country – Russia - for nearly three months, and at this point cultural differences don’t usually get my attention. Sometimes, however, they do.