At work
Photo of the week
Starting with today, we will create a new series of posts and will publish a photo every week that Pietro, our photographer has taken at work. Certainly, we expect him to justify a bit his choice and give some details, where was it taken, what for, what does it mean, why you chose it [...]
Buzzing off: the EU and the honey bee
For many the death of honey bees seems like an unimportant matter. I'll readily admit that to me the death of bees ranked somewhere between the death of a dialect in Tanganyika and the death of one of my blobs of ice-cream that fell on the hot concrete in August of 1989. I thought 'they're [...]
Net neutrality revisited
In our speedy life, waiting in front of a screen for internet content to load can cause stress. One even can loose temper when confronted with "Not Found". We want it all and we want it now! There were days when one used to ask about computer's processor speed and memory size. Nowadays one is [...]
Hackers of the world, unite!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to hack into the European Parliament’s IT systems and replace its website with the message: "Suckers! We're smarter than you!" . This message will self-destruct in 10 seconds. Well, that isn’t quite true. Hackers don't always get a great press, but here the hackers [...]
The importance of taking measures
Some weeks ago, a little group of us went for a school trip at the European Commission, where our favorite geek-buddies showed us the wonderful tool they got to manage online reputation. No wonder that, big kids as we are, we got out of there saying “we want it as well!!”.
Parlamentarium – Interactive, multimedia, multilingual
Parliament has just opened its new Visitors Centre, baptised the “Parlamentarium”. Lena had a quick chat about it with a colleague who was heavily involved in making it all happen.
The trap falls of tweeting politics
Twitter is a bit like a spoiled princess: it needs a lot of attention, is fast to lose interest and doesn’t give much back. No wonder Twitter has long been the step-child of our social media activities. Sure, we cannot just leave it alone in the woods (Hansel & Gretel style). It is too well [...]
Two tailed story: reports and adiós!
DRAFT REPORT on the situation of trainees approaching their stage completion (2011/2091(COMM)) Committee on Best Traineeships in Europe Rapporteur: Andreea Corbu MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION on the situation of trainees approaching their stage completion (20011/2091(COMM)) The European Parliament, – having regard to the WEB COMM’s Recommendations [...]
I confess
I pop out of bed, get ready and rush to work, but I stop to buy a delicious croissant from Le Fous du Terroir. Once I arrive in the office, I say hello to Radka, who has the office on my way to mine, turn on the PC and head to the kitchen to make [...]
Tunisia 2.0: reporting back from refugee camps at the Tunisian-Libyan border
I went to Tunisia this summer and this experience may be worth a blog… You may think I just went there for nice, relaxed holidays on the seaside in a 5-stars resort. You may also wonder about the choice of this destination provided the recent events and the instability in the region…
MEPs Tab: the Birth of an App
It’s not new: many things that come to light in our work, come from very far away. On Facebook, most of the ideas that we are currently realising belong to Christian’s time. Challenges and satisfactions of working for a big and complex institution: “it’s like walking on eggs”, somebody said. Completely right.
When is a birthday cake not a birthday cake?
Do you rely on Facebook to remind you of your friends’ birthdays? What exactly do you think you are being reminded of?
Where’s my fountain?
Take a beautiful blond Italian girl, some lines in Italian (because everything sounds good in Italian) an extended crew of 2 and the ultimate setting: the EP. I know, we digress a bit from the whole “la dolce vita” concept, but before you begin to knock down doors and sharpen your axes, let me explain. [...]
End of an editorial season.
Since we launched the current version of the European Parliament website, circa September 2005, I refer to each year as editorial seasons starting in September and ending in June. Maybe this comes from my frustration of not working in TV production, where you do consider editorial seasons for your grid of programs. Or perhaps it’s [...]
From the Tunisian camps
An experiment in WebCom this week. Parliamentary delegations are frequently accompanied by a press officer, but thus far we have had little success in arguing the case for a web editor to go along. Until now.
We are scary!
What “we”? Well, I’m glad you’ve asked. It’s we, the trainees, we. I got the chance to see all the EP trainees gathered together in one room recently, and the experience was, let’s say, not entertaining. No. It was not funny. Far from it. It was just plain scary. 29 June, 2011. The EP was [...]
EP goes job hunting
The EP is a living and breathing institution. But if the 736 MEPs are its face, and the two hundred thousand square meters colossusin Strasbourg is its shape, what about its resume? This is no ordinary individual, so drawing an ordinary CV fell short for the task. The more time I spend here, the more I come [...]
Ten things I have learned in Brussels
I am new to the EP, the webteam, Brussels at large. So I will use the bedazzlement of these first weeks, when everything still seems exciting and/or strange, for a first post. In lack of any better idea, I will simply list my observations from one to ten. Anyways, web tracking experts say that lists [...]
Lessons from the Danish suburbs: Après Aarhus
Do Danish journalists get jobs? Why are Danish trainees so hard to find? Why do students still want to work for newspapers? Are media and journalism the same thing? Are Danes really the happiest people in the world? All this and more in these brief post-Aarhus thoughts.
Strasbourg, a black tie affair
This is Spartaaaa!!! In this manner, King Leonidas tells the Persian messenger how things work in Sparta. Why I am talking about the famous line from the movie 300, you ask? Well, that’s because until a few days ago I used to identify myself with the Persian messenger, making all kind of spooky scenarios in my mind about [...]
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