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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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While making plans for international relocation, people usually try to get all sorts of information. They look at official governmental sites, at regional and municipal guides, at tourism and other private directories, at individuals' blogs, forums and chat rooms. From time to time they also send relevant questions to independent or affiliated experts. The preference some people give to official or unofficial information reveals their cultural background, what country they are living in, as well as want kind of country they may be interested in moving to.

As ideal types there are two kinds of governments at the age of Internet, age when any information or almost any can be established fast, checked and double-checked without leaving the comfort of our homes. The first kind of public authorities tries to hide as much as possible information from its own citizens and foreigners. At the extreme end, such governments try to eliminate even the Internet itself. More moderate version is to try to filter dangerous information only. Even more moderate version is just not to provide official information on matters nationals and foreigners may be looking at. And when no official information is available, unofficial Internet media try to fill the vacuum.

On the other hand, there are governments, which try to provide as much as possible official information on every imaginable topic. As a matter of fact these are longtime established democracies. They cannot hide many things outside the area of national security, so they prefer to control the flow of information by being its primary source. The problem with such information isn't the lack of it, but rather its abundance as well as its general nature. Many people are really submerged in ocean of details many of which have little if any direct links with their particular situation.

Any information flow has two ends, sources providing information and final customers. These customers also form two different groups dependent on their cultural background. Those living for most of their lives in countries where governments offer plenty of information usually are already accustomed how to filter relevant facts and when looking for information about a foreign country they look first at its official sites. It's good when both countries share same values of media openness. People moving from England to France, or from Germany to Spain usually find most of what they are interested in French and Spanish official sites.

Another situation occurs when people from open societies try to find information about less open societies. We assume that the really closed states don't offer anything to people in search for better life abroad. Looking for information in a free society without an established culture of openness is really a daunting task. The information is either lacking completely, or is dispersed without any particular order, or is contradicting among different agencies. People who are accustomed to trust all official information find it difficult to handle these contradictions. The answer to them usually comes as a set of unofficial sites, chat rooms, forums, blogs, that fill the void by providing more up-to-date information and/or information more suitable for each individual case.

Another possible conflict comes when people from more or less closed societies try to find information about open societies. Interestingly enough, these people look automatically at unofficial sources, considering them as more reliable than governmental Internet sites. Even when they find out that governmental sites aren't established in order to confuse the customers they still prefer unofficial alternatives. The problem in this situation comes from the fact that in most open societies unofficial information is less reliable by default. The only way for the open societies to solve this problem is to make appropriate changes in their official sites, by making their style and wording closer to the needs of their customers.