Yes, this year for me is definitely going to be a year of European Elections. But not only because of the fact itself but more because of the work we are doing for it. For the first time in my life I have an opportunity to be in a team that is working on communicating Election campaign. And not only in a conventional way. There are things that are being done differently. We are trying to think out of the box.

Pimping the secret agents (or YaBs)

As our work does not leave our minds as soon as we are leave the building, one evening I was talking to our Latvian editor Anete and she told me about an idea that had crossed her mind. She wanted to prove that the world (in our case we’ll stick with Europe) is smaller than we think and we are all connected in one way or another. Today her idea has grown into an experiment that we are opening this week.

Here is the recipe (in case of repetition modify amounts and/or steps accordingly):

1. Take 27 figurines and give them to your team colleagues who afterwards turn them into YaBs (yellow and blue, you know).

2. Assign them their nationality.
Each of ours comes from a different EU Member State.

4. Give each of the secret agents their real name and their own code name.

All their code, name and nationality.

5. Choose the starting date of the mission.
The YaBs will start their on 9th of May in the European Parliament’s Open Day (we will be handing them out at Web Communication stand on the 3rd floor in the European Parliament)

Naked YaBs

6. Make some rules to make it more fun.
6.1. Each YaB should travel from one person to another, and should be passed from hand to hand until it reaches its final destination.

7. Make a buzz about it

Fully dressed (hum, body-painted) YaBs

 8. Wait for the results

And this is how you create your own experiment!

P.S. Idea is based on the Six degrees of Separation theory which states that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth.

9. The YaBs project in a nutshell

1. We will release 27 YaBs on Saturday 9 May in the EP buildings at Brussels during the Open day. You want to be one of the first link in the chain? Drop us an e-mail at WebComm@europarl.europa.eu now!
2. Each YaB has a target and a destination. Your role is to give it by hand to another link in the chain so each YaB can reach its target and its destination before 4 June 2009.
3. All YaB travel’s steps must be illustrated with photos of the YaB and names or nicknames of their guardian (and as many photos of you and the YaB as you wish). You can follow the Yabs travel on their Facebook page.
4. It’s all about fun, degrees of separation and solidarity! Help a YaB, carry a YaB, give a Yab!  

10. P.P.S. Thanks, Nadina, for inspiration!