The population of Russian computer scientists (hereafter RCS) is both a myth and a reality. Russian authorities and foreigners alike imagine the possible contributions of RCS to the future of computer science, relationships on the web or the new economic landscape of a post natural resources Russian economy. Closer to us, every year, Russian programmers win contests organized by global internet companies. Yet, we know very little of the RCS population beyond the apparent fact that it is part of the most active new sector in Russia and a dynamic diaspora in the global knowledge economy. Our megagrant is the first attempt to study the RCS population in both qualitative and quantitatve ways, using digital signatures and traces that are left by the diaspora.
In this presentation, we start from a benchmark of various sources usable to the detection of RCS diasporas. We present the database and platforms like PatStat, GitHub and StackOverflow in addition to Web of Science. We then introduce a new method of detection of digital traces of Russian computer science specialists. A first example will refer to a name based detection algorithm of potential members of Russian diaspora. A second example will refer to detection of the places of this diaspora and to dynamics of geographic spread of the diaspora.