Last year, Year One of the Personal Democracy Forum in Europe, I wrote a rave review of this Barcelona-based event. By happenstance, it came for me in a succession of internet/politics events, and, frankly, stood head and shoulders above the rest. So how did Year Two match up?

Andrew Rasiej opens the 2010 edition of PDFEU

As conference impresarios Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry put it this week, PDFEU 2009 “rode the wave” of the Obama internet election phenomenon. It was a very American event at which speakers from the Obama team (I confess I did start to wonder at one point just how many people were in the Obama team, as I seemed to be meeting them all year without ever meeting the same person…) and indeed from the opposing team (I’m thinking of the gleefully self-cast villain, David All), lined up to wow us with their cool videos and grassroots social media campaigns. And wow us they did. Notwithstanding the odd remark that PDF Europe would have to become, erm, a bit more European (including by me), we loved it, we lapped it up, we were inspired by it. And duly came back for more in 2010.

The Obama buzz of 2009 was a bit of a one-off

Myself, as much a PDF groupie as anyone, I viewed this as something that the team who works with me on social media just had to experience, so this year there was a six-strong delegation from WebCom to soak up the vibe. So how did PDF 2010 shape up?

I think implicit in the “riding the wave” remark was a recognition that the Obama buzz of 2009 was a bit of a one-off. It was a great, inspirational calling card for PDF’s first European edition, but ultimately represented an unsustainable phenomenon, just us the Obama phenomenon itself seems – sadly – to have abated in the face of the dampening reality of 2009-2010. Moreover, the organisers were right to make a conscious effort to “europeanise” the event, to address more European concerns, to look at the internet in the context of European politics, to connect the thing more with the real lives of your average European politically-inclined geek…

As a result, notwithstanding the rather grander (too grand?) venue of the University in Barcelona, this felt a rather lower-key event. It was a little more local, a little more parochial, with the zeitgeist perhaps favouring a little less pizazz. European presenters (yes, I include myself) don’t have that American chutzpah and narrative instinct which makes US speakers so great to listen to – and this year there were proportionately more European presenters. Generally speaking, TED it wasn’t. In terms of the plenary, there was a marked contrast this year between day one (more European/institutional) and day two (more US/non-institutional). Sentiment in the EP contingent was clear: day two was cooler, the glint in the collective eye brighter, the urge to get out there and do stuff stronger. This is not just a US/Europe glamour contest: ask anyone who was there about the highlight of the conference, and I will guarantee 9 out of 10 will opt for the irredeemably cheeky and contrarian Croatian, Marko Rakar. He was provincial. He was from an obscure corner of Europe (certainly when viewed from across the Atlantic). But, dammit, this guy was funny, he told a story, he did something. He got arrested. He touched a nerve. In this, he reminded me of another low-production-values speaker from last year, Tom Steinberg, who roused the hall with his call to “love your geeks!” We need these people at every conference.

This year, the conference goers felt more like protagonists, there was a genuine sense of being in this together, a sense of a pioneer community with a job to do.

I am conscious that it sounds like I am on a bit of a downer about PDFEU 2010. Not true. It’s just that this was a rather more grounded event. And that’s good too. This could be felt most strongly in the margins of the conference. Last year, the atmosphere could arguably be summed up as a poplace rather overawed, however gladly, by the Obama-dudes. Inspired, but also infected with a sense of inferiority. This year, the conference goers felt more like protagonists, there was a genuine sense of being in this together, a sense of a pioneer community with a job to do. We are maybe feeling our way a bit, a bit more reserved, less brimming with self-confidence, in some cases less self-assured about sounding clever in the English langauge, but also with a growing sense that we are collectively onto something, that there is a job to do and that, possibly, we may be the ones to do it. This was fantastic. This was what PDFEU 2009 did not have.

PDFEU is, I dearly hope, here to stay. We need the inspiration. We love the cool, smart Americans who tell us their stories. It blows our minds to hang out for a cerveza and boccadillo with Randi Zuckerberg as if that were a normal thing to do. Above all, it makes us want to get out there and find our own voice, our own version. We also need – and read this as an EU metaphor if you wish – the outside agent to help us see our own collective interest, our own potential, our own capacity for changing the world with technology… (Good grief, now I sound like an American.)

So what does all this lead me to conclude? First, PDFEU is the biz. Long may it live, and long may it have a European edition (and frankly, long may the European edition be in Barcelona!). Second, the organisers, who I had the privilege to get to know a bit better this year, deserve our gratitude. I have the feeling that they do this, as it were, as much for love as for money. So thanks. Third, as long as I have any say in the matter, this is definitely a place where the European Parliament’s web people need to be.