Edit by Brice R.
3/06/2008
Yuri's Night, in many ways, is a product of the Internet. The Yuri's Night web site is our center for information, registration, and organization, and we've grown by leaps and bounds in the last several years thanks in part to people sharing our site with their friends, blogs and websites of their own. It is only fitting, then, that as the Internet and its use continue to evolve, Yuri's Night is following right behind it to keep spreading the word about space exploration.
Social-networking site Facebook has grown from a few hundred college students in 2004 to a vast network covering people of all ages across the globe. Tens of millions of people check Facebook each day to read up on their friends, catch the latest news, and be entertained--particularly people from 15-30 years of age, who Yuri's Night is actively attempting to reach out to. Several Facebook groups have been created for Yuri's Night-related parties and events; the flagship group, "Yuri's Night World Space Party", has nearly 500 members. Yuri's Night has also released a "Yuri's Night Countdown" application, which any Facebook member can place on their profile to display an active countdown time and party number. Visit
this Facebook page for more information. If you use Facebook, be sure to join the group and add this application!
Yuri's Night is also using other forms of "Web 2.0" and equivalent technology where applicable. The Yuri's Night press page, with a live RSS feed, has links that let you share releases on your Digg, del.icio.us and Reddit profiles--all popular, user-centered ways of sharing interesting news and information. Yuri's Night press releases are also frequently picked up in the Google News news aggregator. Yuri's Night's "Find A Party" page features integration with Google Maps, allowing you to zoom in to see exactly which cities in your state or country are hosting Yuri's Night parties. Finally, Yuri's Night has a frequently-updated feed on the rapidly growing social website
Twitter. Yuri's Night also supports the open-source Firefox browser, which has been downloaded over 500 million times worldwide.
If you have any suggestions about how Yuri's Night can continue to gain recognition--on or off the Internet--please contact us at brice@yurisnight.net.
Yuri's Night is a program of the Space Generation Advisory Council, an organization dedicated to engaging and developing the next generation of space leaders.