At work
Out of control, into a team
Journalism is a one-man (or rather, a one-girl) type of show. You dig your data, you conduct the interviews, you write your piece and then you sign it too, just so that everyone knows who is to laud or blame. Editor is there, true, but in the end, it's your mother who buys the [...]
The European Parliament dress code
Would you ever have thought of finding women parading in leopard dresses and men wearing bright green pants along the corridors of the European Parliament? Two months ago (before I started my internship), I would have thought it was a joke but believe me it isn't. In fact, you can notice colourful outfits and also [...]
Meeting Steve
Steve used to be one of our most active bloggers. And our boss. Then he said goodbye. Have you ever wondered what is he doing now? He is not blogging about it for sure… So we went to meet him and simply asked. What is your new job? I've become a director for Relations [...]
Making a hash of hashtags
There were more than a few distraught Cher fans on Twitter last Monday. Stumbling across the hashtag #nowthatchersdead, they assumed it referred to the popular singer of If I Could Turn Back Time instead of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher who died that day following a stroke. It's not the first time either that [...]
Put your brain on a healthy diet
In our 21st century, thinness is seen as the ultimate virtue. Every cover of magazines, posters at bus stops, adverts praise for slimness. Thousands of articles describe the latest miracle diet to get rid of unwanted kilos. It also applies to many other things: get rid of unwanted items in your house, toxic people in [...]
#Sex, #jobs & #2014EUelections
Sex!!! – Now that I have your attention… I'm selling my course book on Introduction to Economics, price: 2,000 pesetas. When I was student, Internet, the euro, Twitter and many other day-to-day things did not exist, so we stuck adverts like this one on the walls of our Universities and priced what we were selling [...]
Its snowing again…
Life always finds a way…
I met a social media country manager
To be honest for now we only spoke via Facebook and on the phone. She's a social media country manager in Tallinn both for European Commission Representation and for European Parliament Information Office. It's a pilot project called Share Europe Online. When part of my job is writing news stories for EP's webpage and tweet [...]
“You might want to learn how to tail better if you plan on making a habit of it”
Somewhere in this vast virtual space exists a blog post written by past Caroline, beginning trainee. Here we are, over a year later, and somehow… I'm staying! "Is this your first job-job?" – "Yes." (pauses) "Yes-yes." And what did I learn so far? What I learned from Engagor Statistics are your new best friend. But [...]
Being an Organization – Online #03 – Opportunities and Threats
Strengths and weaknesses belong to your organisation – there is something you can do about it (most of the time). The second part of the SWOT analysis aims at identifying external opportunities and threats. They happen to exist outside your organisation and are essential to consider in order to reach your objectives. Because you've [...]
Social media “family” photo
You don't see that often – our whole social media team in one picture! We're usually anonymous behind our computers, but this week we were asked to provide a photo to a journalist and it was a nice occasion to gather everyone. If you follow the blog regularly, you will notice many new faces. Our [...]
Small fish
It usually is tiny by any measure and I doubt it features highly in any chic restaurants yet there is something about the European sprat that keeps my thoughts occupied with it in recent weeks. Let me tell you why. It all started with an infographic. The European Parliament adopted its position on the reform [...]
Naked in the snow
Two women who posed naked in the snow to amuse friends had never expected having to cope with success in the end. Loads of naked-in-the-snow photos – and derivative versions – created a new fashion for the winter. Nowadays on social media success comes most of the times unexpectedly. Did the snow do it for the [...]
EP dances against violence
In spite of the heavy showers banning them from using the Esplanade, a group of forty fearless activists are about to spring into action, swinging white "V-day" umbrellas this Tuesday in EP in Brussels: – eight steps on site: right, left, right, left… – umbrella slowly up, and down in front… – four steps ahead: [...]
Anonymity online: freedom without the responsibility?
Is anonymity on the web encouraging people to misbehave? On 10 October 2012 Canadian teenager Amanda Todd committed suicide after being the victim of cyber bullying. In Belgium this month several girls filed a complaint with the police after a Facebook page published their photos and implied they were promiscuous. Politicians are increasingly becoming concerned [...]
A graphical Christmas Gift
In our team, we are blessed to count a Studio Web. They don’t only work on the design of all websites and pages, they also create the weekly infographics we publish in 22 languages. Our beloved Chief Designer, Fred, was kind enough to produce a “Christmas Special” for this blog’s readers. Yep, that’s exclusive! Enjoy.
Back to school with Hugh Grant
"Back to school" is a recent initiative launched by the EU to reach out to youngsters. The idea is that people working for the EU institutions go back to their high schools for a day and talk about their experience working in a multicultural and multilingual environment. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to [...]
The Boss that became Über-Boss: A portrait in four objects
From time to time, someone in the team came up with a new idea, a new format. One of the latest one (brought by Giulio and Dan) was to portrait MEPs via photos of items one can see in their offices, with said MEP explaining (voice over) why such or such object is important to [...]
The Turkle Triangulation
What do you see? Eurocrats? [...]
Destination unknown
Last week when I was packing my suitcase, I realized that I have been living (as we say in Poland) "out of a suitcase" since I was 17 years old. It reminded me of moments in my life where I was staring at my wardrobe thinking what I would need to take with me on [...]
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