Almaty in the sunset. Photograph by Flickr user NZR (CC-usage).

Well, it’s that time of year again — Central Asia BarCamp 2011! As always, neweurasia shall be well-represented, except this time we have a special treat: the presentation of our book, CyberChaikhana: Digital Conversations from Central Asia, which has been printed and the Russian edition of which, translated by our very own Andrey, we shall be passing out.

Afterward, the book production crew and I shall be touring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, giving presentations about the book. This is a big moment for neweurasia and for the Stanosphere, as it represents the culmination of two-and-some years’ work, not to mention the five+ years of the Central Asian blogging community’s gradual emergence.

Along those lines, personally-speaking, considering that this is my first book (“my” in an editorial sense), I take pride that it is not just another “expert” work, i.e., “Central Asia according to Christopher Schwartz”. Although my authorial voice is omnipresent, that voice is used to broadcast other voices, toward the goal of facilitating the further emergence of a community and its conversation. That’s good for the soul, you know?

There shall be a larger publicity drive for the book after our trip. I can’t share the details just yet. Nevertheless, stay tuned to neweurasia for updates.

Also, if you’re interested, here’s a tally of reviews about CyberChaikhana so far:

• Interview with Andrey Tolstoy on Radio Svoboda (RUS), which was broadcast over four evenings 1 – 4 April.
• “Conversations in the Shadows”, an editorial by our partners Transitions Online, 1 April.