Archive for October, 2009
Sand in the shoes
In today’s constantly-developing society where information technology not only forces its way into public, but also private life, reading and communication culture is changing: one can read a book on the Internet, or on the Amazon Kindle. One might wonder where the human touch has gone, when we used to attend literature classes and dip [...]
“Casus Belli”
We asked our three trainees (Lady, Lelde and Indre) to tell us a bit about their relationship with the medias. After all, they belong to the e-generation and could maybe teach us a thing or two about contemporary media. Well, guess what? Lady choose to talk about her family instead…
European Parliament “Question time” – can it deliver?
Many people are hoping that question time at 3 pm this afternoon will deliver a lively and memorable debate when Members bowl questions at Commission President José Manuel Barroso. To move things along and prevent waffle they are limited to 1 minute – for the question and response. Questions on any subject will come from [...]
‘Question hour’ time!
En première this Tuesday – It’s “question time” with European Commission President. In the first half, Mr Barroso will answer the questions of political groups leaders on any given topic they wish to pick out. Next, MEPs will put questions on a particular subject set up in advance. You want to follow it? Click here!
We all need a Guru sometimes
I could post a link a day to one of his posts so I’ll better point at his homepage. Seth Godin is a true Internet guru: his posts are short, sometimes unerving. He’s a typical holder of the Truth and some find him a bit arrogant. Me, I just like his vision of marketing and new [...]
Meeting Mr President (two times)
A friend of mine likes telling the story of the following oblivious encounter. One afternoon she negotiated the labyrinth of parliamentary corridors in Brussels looking for a colleague of hers who had invited her to a venue where some beautiful part of Europe boasting rich local traditions, displayed its architectural gems, lured passers-by with the [...]
May I? Hmm … This is Evita!
“Let’s try something new for the blog”, I was nicely egged on few days ago, something new which could give a bit of taste of the unit itself, leaving aside for a short while the daily news we are usually writing. And what would be better to start from than the actual wall I have [...]
Bloggers: “the parasite killing the host”?
The internet “leeches…reporting from mainstream news publications, whereupon aggregating websites and bloggers contribute little more than repetition, commentary and froth. Meanwhile, readers acquire news from the aggregators and abandon its point of origin—namely the newspapers themselves. In short, the parasite is slowly killing the host.” Thus David Simon, creator of the Wire, to a US Senate [...]
Make your step on an unknown path
A few days ago I was discussing with my colleagues about how and why we came to Brussels. I filled in my application for auxiliary agent (temporary limited employment) the very last evening before the deadline. I found it by accident on some Czech government page. Few weeks later I received a phone call from [...]
Plenary time
Next week there will be the plenary session in Strasbourg. As always, eight of us are travelling to Strasbourg, mainly chosen on a rotation basis. Some quite interesting things up for discussion and vote by our MEPs next week: winner of Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought for 2009, milk prices or the aid for German [...]
They play to stop
Look how EU and music combine to give a strong signal the dangers of global warming. This video wants to pass on this same message to young people and boost their active involvement. How? Play to stop! Watch Moby, the Editors and other stars performing and taking part in the fight against climate change.
The day the system broke down
This week started with a huge system failure. The first thing we noticed was that “Outlook” was not responding anymore. It left – for half a day as we discovered later – with no mention of when it would come back, and we couldn’t write e-mails to each other anymore. It became a day of [...]
The dangers of targeted online advertising
Congratulations to Bálint Szlankó, who today won the European Parliament’s Prize for Journalism in the internet category. (We will publish an interview with him on Parliament’s website on Friday, 16 October.) I went to check one of Bálint’s blogs, this one on foreign affairs, which is really interesting – though unfortunately I cannot read the content [...]
I thought I loved you but it was just how you looked in the light
Alex Cornell is a young designer. As a graduating project, he designed all required communication material for an hypothetical Wes Anderson festival. If you’re interested in design, in Wes Anderson or in both, his work is definetely worth a look.
The end is near… for e-mails
None of us got an invitation to beta-test Google Wave – which shows how low our tech-profile is in the Internet world… Nevertheless, it’s not because we cannot test the new generation of constant-cooperation-sharing-workflow that we cannot read about it. In the Wall Street Journal, they announce the end of the e-mail era.
This Thursday
We’ve been all invited to attend the Journalism Prize Award ceremony at the European parliament. Lady, Lelde and Indre will report on this blog the panel discussion on “The role of new media: an opportunity for democratic participation?” You can read it all here and you can even watch the whole event here from 9h00 on [...]
Micro-blog, they say.
Lately, we brushed up a bit our blog: more pictures, a Facebook live widget and the decision to use more the “Asides” area – exactly what you’re reading now. Click on the # sign at the end and you can comment (not that there is a lot to comment on this “Aside’s” post anyway).
All bags off!
I am Latvian. Latvians love to call themselves great singers. It is true, but unfortunately I am a bad singer. We have beautiful nature, it is also true. We have great minds and we are the best ice hockey fans, there is no doubt. I’ve heard Estonians say – if it is raining, then God [...]
Don’t forget you are a tourist!
New season, new trainees. Meet Indre, from Lithuania, and her consideration about the fleeting beauty of being a tourist.
A blogging guru visits
It was truly fascinating to meet – in the flesh!!! – euro uber-blogger Julien Frisch this week when he paid a visit to our humble faceless office block. Rarely-seen editors emerged blinking into the light to proffer a hand, impressionable young web-editors jostled for a sighting of a local myth, glamourous young ladies solemnly vowed not [...]
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