The broadcast centred on a question that seemed especially acute in 2019. By then, large platforms had already firmly established themselves as the main channel of communication, but around them there was increasingly frequent debate about privacy, moderation and users' dependence on a single service. The programme's announcement states the topic plainly: is the time of craft social networks arriving, divided by profession, type of administration and authority, and will big networks in an era of crisis be squeezed by small communities?
The danger was discussed separately. Would such communities turn into isolated 'islands' within the global internet? For Mas, the answer lay in the very idea of his project: a community that belongs to its participants can move its audience and not depend on one large platform.
From Physics and Mathematics to the First Social Networks
Oleksii Mas was born in 1974 in Kyiv, attended physics and mathematics school No. 145, and later graduated from the radio physics faculty of Kyiv University. From 1993 to 1997 he worked at NIIASS, after which he moved to Ukrainsky Kapital bank. From September 1997 to March 2000 he was a leading specialist at the National Bank of Ukraine, where he dealt with payment processing, and already in 1999, together with fellow student Ruslan Dmitrakovich, he launched the Ukrainian Banner Network.
In 2000, the UAportal project with investor Alexander Soroka and the 'Tree of Friends' service became the first social network on a Ukrainian portal. The next step was the Infostore.org photo hosting service, supported in 2003–2004 by investor Alexander Olshansky. The project did not last long: on 4 December 2008, police seized Infostore's servers and the service closed. Forbes and AIN give the closure date as 2008.
also occupies a notable place in the history of the Ukrainian internet, but Mas had nothing to do with it. It was created by Ivan Savchenko, a native of Infostore, as Forbes wrote. Mas himself during this period was organising more serious venues. In 2009 the first iForum took place, and over time it became one of the country's main industry conferences.
Kyivstar and the Turn to 'Crafts'
In 2015 Mas joined Kyivstar, where he became IT & Digital adviser to the company's president, Peter Chernyshov. Later he headed the operator's Innovation lab. In 2016 the company announced the VDNH-TECh-Kyivstar telecom accelerator, and in December of that year four startups from the accelerator went into production. Working in a large corporation combined two roles familiar to Mas: technology entrepreneur and a man who knows how to talk to an audience.
Not everything in his public life went smoothly. In May 2017, his post comparing the blocking of VKontakte to deportation sparked sharp debate. Mas was the author of that comparison, not the object of any ban, and it was precisely this reputation as a sharp-tongued author that accompanied his later projects. On 31 July 2019 he left Kyivstar.
He launched craft social networks in August 2019. The idea was simple: a community is built around a specific profession or interest, participants themselves decide how it is governed, and they have a right to their own audience. Financing was through a syndicate with a hundred-dollar entry. By November 2019 the syndicate included about 280 people, and it was this project that Mas discussed on Radio NV.
What Happened Next
Work on iForum continued, but in March 2020 the 2020 conference was postponed to the autumn because of the coronavirus. The number of syndicate participants continued to grow: an MC special project cited about 315 people, and by August 2021 there were 411 investors, with total funds raised amounting to about 58 thousand dollars.
On 6 October 2021, Oleksii Mas died. His brother Viktor announced the death, and a wave of obituaries from industry colleagues followed on 8 October. Retrospectives of his career were published by LIGA and Forbes in the middle of that same month.
On 29 November 2021, a statement announced the project's closure, and Bohdan Hnatiuk continued to run the syndicate. On 30 November the project was renamed Craf, and later it became Chakloon. Today Bohdan Hnatiuk is the owner of Maralles and Chakloon.
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