A Big Week
Call it the Obama Effect, call it the Tide of History, call it about time, but whatever it was it happened this week. A big week for the web team. We got the go ahead for a series of new enterprises we have been working on behind the scenes for a while now.
The first was this very blog, hidden behind a password for months as we trialled it internally, but now opened up to the critical eyes of the world. (See Time to go, two posts ago). Now we’ve actually got to do what we say we want to do – face our public. What will they say? Up to you, gentle reader. (Comments below)
Now we’ve actually got to do what we say we want to do – face our public. What will they say?
Second, we got the green light to pursue two big projects for Parliament that would have seemed inconceivable less than a year ago: in the fields of social networking and viral tools. I can’t give too much away, as we are still working on the projects and don’t yet know how and when they will come to fruition. Suffice it to say that it’s all part of our efforts to raise awareness about the European election next June, so if it’s happening, it’s happening soon.
Third, (OK it was actually the week before), we got our new special election website up and running, complete with interactive features, of which more anon.
Obama, Obama, Obama
“Hope for the political web? Obama”Everyone in political communications is obsessed with Obama. News articles, learned studies, geeky blogs, political tracts are gushing about how he Won It On The Web! No fear, I shan’t add to the gushing, let’s just take it as read. What makes the big difference for us is that everybody knows Obama Won It On The Web. As a result, our political leaders and administrative superiors, like the fellow diner at the end of that great scene in “When Harry Met Sally”, are telling us: “I’ll have what he’s having”. I don’t think they necessarily know exactly what it is they’re going to get, but they know they want it.
So it’s our job to deliver them a slice of the Obama pie. They want to “be on Facebook”, they want to do, er.., “Web 2.0″, they want to be “viral”. OK, we’ll see what we can do – let’s hope they are not too surprised by what this all actually entails. And one minor point: we’re in the market for a charismatic candidate with a gift for soaring rhetoric, tens of thousands of willing volunteers, pots of money, fortuitously favourable political circumstances and the world’s most devalued brand to fight against. These things would help, not inconsiderably. However, even without them, there is probably a fair bit we can do. Watch this space. Actually, link to it.
Meeting the people
When elections come round, political candidates “meet the people”. We don’t have to do that. Nevertheless, when election websites come round, we too meet the people in our own small way.
The election website we launched on 19 January is supposed to fit with the overall look of the EP website. It is actually published as a new section of the existing site. Behind the similarities though there are many novelties, the greatest of which is that we’ve opened up two way communications with the real world. Each week we publish a poll, seek reactions to a question and open debates on specific subjects. Nothing very extraordinary perhaps, but a small earthquake in terms of our organisation’s communications policy.
“2009 EP elections logo”The official website of the Parliament now includes user-generated content, in which people can express their views without being bound by the balance and objectivity which are our guiding principles. There were (still are) many understandable worries: what if the loony fringe targeted us?, what if all comments came from one side only?, what if we received only torrents of abuse?, what if nobody bothered to comment at all?
We too meet the people in our own small way.
In all things, moderation. We have taken the idea to heart, and moderate the comments we receive before they are published. Not for political content obviously, but for obscenity, hate, racism, commercial messages and all that sort of thing. It is the only way to go for an institutional website. It’s a hefty job; we are receiving reactions in 22 languages, so the whole team is involved and this is just another job on top of all the rest. Still, we’re happy. People are reacting, the comments and debate contributions are coming in and, to date, we have not had to refuse a single item. If you’re feeling the need to make your voice heard, get over there.
There are still questions about all this, of course. We are working on ways to use all this stuff, beyond just publishing it. This week, we will take some of the pithier remarks to a leading MEP dealing with climate change for his reactions. Down the line, we will use what we receive in election debates between politicians. We hope the politicians will check themselves what is being said. It’s all a bit experimental at the moment. Time will tell.
A long way to go to June
This is just the start. The build up to the elections in June will see us getting into all sorts of things we have never done before, and things that I don’t think have been done by anyone much in our peer group. So it could be fun, it could be traumatic. Whatever, it won’t be boring.
[...] time from the editors of the European Parliament’s own website, with all sorts of hints of interesting new developments in the EU’s previously more or less dire online communications policy. From the early posts, [...]
All sounding promising. Now how about an EP equivalent of They Work For You and The Public Whip?
Yes, I know – after years of moaning about how awful the EU’s communications strategy is, you finally appear to be heading in the right direction, and I’m just chucking more requests at you. I want the moon on a stick. And probably a magic goose to lay me a few golden eggs.
[...] time from the editors of the European Parliament’s own website, with all sorts of hints of interesting new developments in the EU’s previously more or less dire online communications policy. From the early posts, [...]