Blog platform LiveJournal‘s new Russian owners are endeavouring to make the site more open by appointing some of their users to their advisory board. LiveJournal admits it stepped in it in March when it deleted some basic accounts, provoking a user backlash. It announced that no account created after March 12 could be turned in to an ad-supported free basic account, prompting the creation of anti-LJ user communities on the site as well as a “comment strike”.

But today it started open voting for two new board members - one Russian, one from elsewhere - who will join existing net luminaries law professor Larry Lessig, investor Esther Dyson, founder Brad Fitzpatrick and social networking academic Danah Boyd. This board first sat in San Francisco on April 25. Users can nominate themselves but need at least 100 motions of support to become a certified candidate. Nominations run to May 14, with voting the following week until May 30 and the new additions taking their seats the following day. Fitzpatrick said the board aims to “guide the site’s new management to the right decisions”. As LJ users might say: Mood; Optimistic:.

Wikipedia’s board includes some of its users, too. ITV.com MD Annelies Van Den Belt is due to take the reins as GM at Moscow-based LiveJournal parent Sup, which bought the community from SixApart last year.

• LiveJournal Ups Developer Focus From Russia; Mood: Hopeful
• ITV’s Van Den Belt Leaving To Head New LiveJournal Owner Sup