In response to @SocialEUJ, because Twitter sometimes (usually) doesn’t give you the room one needs … On November 8, MEPs will discuss ’10 concrete political proposals’ for creating the European public sphere via digital media, developed by IHECS (Institut des Hautes Etudes des Communications Sociales) and their partners via Socialeuropeanjournalism.com. The site looks good. At [...]

“The Filter Bubble”, by MoveOn.org foreign policy director Eli Pariser, shows that the forces creating the Brussels Bubble are about to be reinforced by technology, operated invisibly – and with impunity – by a handful of companies. When I launched Blogactiv in 2007 I had some interesting experiences engaging with eurosceptics of the more rabid variety. [...]

If I recall correctly, a lot of us in the euroblogosphere reacted to the announcement of the European Public Communication Conference and Network (EuropCom) with a mixture of scepticism, hope and amusement, particularly with the original launch video, which was so badly done I for one was actually charmed. Fancy announcing a conference and not [...]

One of the topics I’ve been developing on this blog for quite some time came up at last week’s get-together organised by the Belgian IABC chapter: the need (or not) for social media guidelines for EU staff. I actually think such guidelines are needed not just for EU staff, but for everyone serious about using [...]

A Twitter conversation between two much-followed EU-oriented bloggers over the weekend caught my eye. I won’t identify them as you need to follow them on Twitter to see their tweets. It started when one asked whether anyone out there “still thinks that blogging is in any way likely to have an impact … why should [...]

Over on the Belgian IABC’s thriving ‘web2eu’ site, Philip Weiss embedded a TED video of Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, discussing the revolutionary impact of social media (more references on the be-IABC site). It’s really so good I thought I’d repost it here and add some observations (it takes some time to load):

Julien Frisch blogged about a very thoughtful post on writing for (y)EU by Steve, a web editor from the EP, who sounds distressingly like me (white, British, 40s and sceptical about the Generation Y definition of ‘friend’ despite having many) and seems to be coming down from a post-holiday Web2.0 overdose. The key paragraph, highlighted [...]

It’s been a long break from blogging. A month’s holiday offline in Australia had something to do with it, but mainly it’s been a summer of thinking about applying online community management to EU policies and programmes; catching up on three months’ worth of For Immediate Release podcasts on my new phone; and exploring and [...]

DG INFSO turns to Facebook in its latest ‘roaming-related’ communications drive. Back in 2005, I was on holiday on the north coast of Bretagne, listening to the BBC in my car while I waited for my wife to come back from the shops. And who showed up in my radio? Why, Martin Selmayr. Who? Martin [...]

[Note: this has been republished after it was lost during a software upgrade. Unfortunately, comments were lost. ;-( ] ReadWriteWeb published at the end of last year a thoughtful look at how the financial crisis may impact innovation in the online world: … we’re clearly now at a point where the financial problems of the [...]