Writing for (y)EU » The day when… http://www.writingforyeu.eu A blog for a team. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:07:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 School Trip to the New World of Work http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/02/school-trip-to-the-new-world-of-work/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/02/school-trip-to-the-new-world-of-work/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:21:35 +0000 Steve http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=8456 Working differently?

I'm a great believer in what we call our school trips. In other words, that now and then it broadens minds and strengthens the team to get out of the office as a group to do something professionally relevant, but different. Our first school trip was to visit the Flemish Parliament in Brussels, a fascinating cultural, political, artistic and sociological experience. Our second took place this week.

We have been thinking for some time about our office environment, and, not to point too fine a point on it, how inimical it is to the things we value: teamwork, energy, creativity, communication… Evita wrote about this recently and I am sure there are older posts going back some time on this subject and more to come. Suffice it to say that I at least have been sufficiently bothersome on this subject to induce our buildings colleagues to select WebCom as a pilot unit for a project they have launched, known as "travailler autrement" (working differently).

It's a trick, they aver, to reduce us to Dilbert-esque cubicle wage-slaves

Cynical old fonx, not without cause, smell a rat the instant you start talking about "open plan" offices. It's a trick, they aver, to squeeze us into ever smaller spaces, take away our personal domains and generally reduce us to Dilbert-esque cubicle wage-slaves. When you see how the open-plan principle has been implemented in the Parliament hitherto, it is easy to sympathize with this view. Open plan office space currently means cramped, noisy, improvised and, thankfully, only ever for short-term use.

Consequently, the team's first encounter with our colleagues from the buildings service was not an unalloyed meeting of minds. Things were not helped by the fact that, whatever their merits in their own specialist domain, a bit of work needs to go into presentation and communication skills. Such at least were my thoughts as we squinted at minuscule photos projected onto a distant screen and tried to decipher columns of obscure figures in excel tables. Death by Powerpoint, you've read about it. Worse perhaps was the insistence on how much space (and therefore money) can be saved by moving to an open plan office environment. I could have got up and strangled them: this was supposed to be about making our work conditions better, not about saving money at the expense of the mugs who volunteered to be Dilbert.

It is possible to work differently, better, than our current imagination-crushing rows of grey boxes

It was infuriating, because it so misrepresented the potential behind the ideas these genuinely motivated people were working with, but failing so abjectly to transmit. It is possible to work differently, better, than our current imagination-crushing rows of grey boxes. Moreover, it's about so much more than office space. It's also about using technology well, changing working practice, being more flexible, results-orientation rather than time-serving and so on.

Upshot of the first meeting? First, we're in, but only on condition this is done properly, not in some half-baked, sadly predictable manner. A model project, not a pilot project. Yes, you can save money, but our lives have to get better too. Otherwise we'll carry on sitting in our grey rabbit-hutches and yours truly in particular lives a much quieter life. Second, we need to SEE. Take us to a place which does this already. Then we might get it.

Vision of the future?

Whence, a couple of months later, our school trip to Getronics, a Belgian software company in Diegem, near the airport in the outskirts of Brussels, for a two-hour visit. The first hour was spent watching, and discussing, a presentation (now THAT's how you do a presentation! – on a wifi beamer moreover), which pulled together the three components of what Getronics calls the New World of Work: workspace, technology, culture. Workspace, to which I will return, is arguably the least important of the three. 

So what of technology? It means wifi everywhere, the abolition of desktop computers, everyone issued with laptops and headsets, open systems able to connect with people's personal devices, mobility, the ability easily to hold remote meetings, online chat systems replacing email for many purposes, genuinely paperless working, meeting spaces equipped for on-screen presentations, easy teleconferencing facilities, an extranet, and much more. 

Note to our HR people: there's no clocking in or out here, no "flexitime", no pointage…

And culture? That's where it gets really tricky, you might think. First, all that technology means that people can work easily from home, or on the road, from a client's premises, or any place with a power outlet and a wifi connection. But "can" is not "will", or even "is permitted". Getronics' answer is to move from requiring people to be in a particular place at a particular time to expecting results of them. Want to avoid the jams and come into the office at 10.00? Fine. Need to be free from 3.00 to 6.00 to fetch the kids from school? Fine. Prefer to work at night? Fine. (Note: WebCom has two or three like this!) Want to work at home today? Fine. As a result, we were told, most people probably work two days a week entirely at home, and come in during the other three. To make this all work, there's another gadget, of course, one which tells all colleagues when you're available, wherever you are, and when you're not. And of course, you have to deliver those results. (Note to our HR people, to avoid any misunderstanding, there's no clocking in or out here, no "flexitime", no pointage…) No-one is checking the time you work, but your managers are checking your results.

And so to the workplace. First thing to say, if all Getronics' employees turn up at the office at the same time, everyone will have a place to work, and the wifi won't crash. However, that is extremely rare. Normally, it's a question of coming into the office (when you need or want to) grab a free desk (any desk), plug in your laptop (to the one or several large screens) and do what you do. The open areas of the building are lined with pristine white tables (such as those on right in picture), mostly equipped with the aforementioned screen and a desktop-style keyboard (some – intended for developers and more "power" users – have several screens). These desks are first come, first served. You can sit anywhere. Just two rules: 1. you clear the desk completely when you leave, 2. don't leave crumbs (you don't eat at the desk). 

I have to say those two rules had me reflecting, somewhat guiltily, on my own desk, swamped by disordered papers mixed with the residue of too many lunchtime sandwiches-at-the-desk… 

But of course the "hot-desking" (as I've heard it called, though it wasn't a term heard at Getronics) is only a small part of the story. Perhaps more indicative of what it's all about were the myriad of differentiated meeting rooms all over the place. These fall essentially into two categories: the (usually) larger ones you need to book (via a very clever Outlook-linked system) for fixed periods, and smaller ones which are just up for grabs. Some of the latter were practically solo meeting rooms, little "I-need-to-concentrate" getaways for individuals (or for one-to-one teleconferencing), others were 4, 6, 8 person spaces, mostly with teleconferencing facilities and a large display screen on the wall for collective works on documents, presentations or whatever else can go on a screen. All these rooms had two things in common: first, you take them for as long as you need them, but when you've finished, you clear out completely; second, they had glass walls (with a couple of exceptions I'll come back to).

Besides all these glass rooms and the desks, what else? "Lounge" areas – these for social moments or, say, eating those desk-unfriendly sandwiches. Lockers, somewhere for employees to stash anything they want to leave in the building. The occasional centralized printer, showers (for cyclists and sporty types – without glass walls), mini-kitchen areas, a small library for chilling, and so on. On the ground floor, a large canteen, a large meeting room and a boardroom.

And, apart form the showers, the two exceptions to the glass-walled transparency? The CEO's office, perhaps? No. The boss goes with everyone else. The first exception was a room set aside for collective work on confidential or highly sensitive projects, where, for whatever reason, it is important to keep things under wraps. The second, which really caught our eye, was the "brainstorming room". This had opaque, but translucent, interior walls with an admittedly rather obvious blue-sky-and-clouds design. On the inside, a deep-pile carpet encouraging lying and sitting on the floor, a scattering of multicoloured plastic stools for not-too-comfortable sitting, a white-board and large sliding wall panels designed to be written on.

Finally , before you object, yes there were other anomalies: a legal service area, surrounded by strikingly out-of-place paper files, and a series of three or four individual offices occupied by the HR department where formal, personal conversations could take place (still with glass walls though).

So what did we make of all this? 

If the work-life balance thing permitted working at home, it clearly didn't involve playing at work

The first impression was of space, very low density occupation, plenty of available desks and vacant meeting rooms. This was very far indeed from the Dilbert cubicle nightmare, indeed it seemed almost excessively roomy, lacking in intimacy, perhaps. Second, a sensation – quite unexpected, but linked of course – of quiet, a general pervasive hush. Also, noticeably, this was not Google: no slides, no beanbags, no toys. If the work-life balance thing permitted working at home, it clearly didn't involve playing at work. But was it a pleasant and attractive environment to work in? For sure.

So, did we see the future?

What we saw at Getronics was so different from the staid and traditional working conditions in the European Parliament, notwithstanding our modest local efforts at subversion thereof, that it seems ludicrous to imagine a transformation on that scale ever occurring there. But, hang on, it was our buildings people who got us into this, it was they who took us to Getronics (though suspiciously cautious about its exact transferability), they who say they have the support of both the IT and HR people, so let's assume for the moment that there is a genuine will to pursue the idea. So, it is possible?

On the physical workplace, you need a budget and a suitable building. Let's assume, again, that the budget is there. After all, remember, amortized over a few years, this working environment costs less than the conventional one, and though we are not a commercial organization, saving money is something our decision-makers want to achieve, right? Besides, this is also a green option, playing to a need to which public institutions have to be seen to respond. On the buildings themselves, it's difficult to say how suitable Parliament's buildings are, but surely it cannot be beyond the wit of a smart architect to do something great somewhere in Parliament's half-million square metres? 

So all you need is a smart architect…

On the IT, sure, the technology exists, and is not even particularly advanced, nor, I am sure, more expensive than our current setup. It is certainly more productive and flexible. (Don't get me started on the time and effort we lose through the lack of wifi, the Mac-inimical technologies, the general disregard for mobility, the PC configuration actively hostile to us doing the things we do, the fact that we are constantly driven to bypass the systems we are given just to do our job… Hmm, rant over.) 

But, in reality, all you need are the will and smart IT people…

Where it really gets interesting is on the culture issue.

The culture of the institution: is it ready to do this? If so (which, as I say, it might be), is it ready to do it properly? Not some pared-down, heavily compromised, half-hearted, false-economy version, but the real thing? I confess I worry. I can feel the process by which we arrive at some half-baked conclusion in my bones, already hear the "buts" from all sides…

 I can feel the process by which we arrive at some half-baked conclusion in my bones

The trust-and-results HR practices on which the model is based is so far removed from the traditional practice of the public sector that the transformation is hard to imagine. A cynic might say that public officials who do not have to fear the loss of their jobs from one day to the next have little incentive to make it work. But that is not, honestly, what I see around me. I see people working – mostly – enthusiastically, for longer hours than they need, sometimes from home in their free time, using their own equipment, getting results… because they are motivated and believe in what they do. And mark this: the Belgian Ministry of Social Security has implemented the "New World of Work". Now there's a school trip we have to do! Don't tell me a Belgian ministry can do this and we can't.

We need to be a cross between a cool web agency and a frantic newsroom

But, finally, what of ourselves? Are we ready – really – to leave our comfort zone, to abandon our secure four grey walls? Is the model right for us? Can we handle the freedom? Is it what we want? 

On the last point, the answer is, actually, not quite. For us, the objective is not entirely the Zen-like calm of Getronics. In our mind's eye, we need to be a cross between a cool web agency and a frantic newsroom. Communication, cross-fertilisation, circulation of ideas, the ability to grab someone quickly, to knuckle down together in a crisis, to yell when a yell is needed, the opportunity to let off steam and to leaven the mood with a hearty dose of gossip and laughter, that's what it's all about. Plus of course giving people space when they need it, enabling small groups to work creatively together as and when they need to. Dare I say it's about what I hope is THE WebCom core value: being a team. So Getronics is close, but maybe we need something just a little rowdier, with a little more soul, a little more edge.

But, to give the presentation man his due, that's exactly what he said: first work out what you want to achieve, then implement it. So, do we?

 

(All the smaller photos in this post from Getronics' NWOW website. Thanks to them for their great hospitality.)

 

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/02/school-trip-to-the-new-world-of-work/feed/ 2 My accidental career part deux, or: the WebComm Way http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/01/my-accidental-career-part-deux-or-the-webcomm-way/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/01/my-accidental-career-part-deux-or-the-webcomm-way/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:35:16 +0000 Dan http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=8407 "We are what we pretend to be – so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

Thus the late great American author Kurt Vonnegut defines the moral of his seminal novel Mother Night.

It's about an American presumed Nazi propagandist during World War II. Only the reader knows he is in fact a double agent, recruited on happenstance by a secret agent for the US war department who approached him in a zoo.

The snag is that besides the reader, this agent is the only one who knows.

The book ends with the American, sitting in an Israeli jail awaiting not just trial, but desperately any sign from his mysterious recruiter that can attest to the true nature of his dealings with the enemy.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I made the infamous WebComm Christmas Video, which I'm sure is already be familiar to you all from several posts already published on this blog.

And here's a confession: I am no more a movie maker than I am a war criminal. I'm simply an ex-journalist – not even in television, but print media – who just happened to waltz in to the zoo known on Rue Montoyer 75 as "The Editorial Room".

In the Land of a Thousand Blogs

It was an ordinary brainstorming session: dreaming up new social media products and gimmicks to promote the Parliament. Someone suggested a competition on Facebook. The reward would be a trip to Strasbourg to see the EP in session.

"What's in it for us?" someone asked.

Oh, they have to write a blog about us.

Now, here's where I should have kept my mouth shut. But as I had not yet learned the philosophy of my boss – known henceforth simply as Le Boss – I spoke up.

Nuh-uh, I said.

No good.

In the Land of a Thousand Blogs, the viral video is king. We should make a movie of their visit.

"Great", Le Boss said. "You do that!"

Growing up in public

I tried protesting most vehemently that I certainly don't have the chops to do it and besides, don't we already have two units with film equipment as well as skill in our DG?

Too late. A semi-cheap camera the size of a matchbox was bought and a pilot movie commissioned.

Oh, and now that we have a movie director in our unit – albeit untrained, untried and, as far as anyone knows, unskilled – couldn't he make the Xmas video? Just a simple matter of organizing and perfectly recreating 15 of the most famous TV show intros in the world, right?

And by the way, those videos you make of Facebook fans visiting Strasbourg? You know, the first movies you ever made in your life? They'll be scrutinized and picked over by 200 000+ Facebook fans and Lord knows how many more on Twitter.

Arthur Rambo and I

Right about now, anybody would start regretting ever walking into that zoo. Perhaps even consider fleeing the country, starting up with a fresh identity as a gunrunner on the Horn of Africa. Dear reader, I was no different.

See, WebComm is a very special place indeed. Whichever meeting you walk into, you are sure to be dumbest guy in the room. I know I am. The colleagues who work here are consistently the best and the brightest.

But this is not all there is to it, as I was about to find out when I sat down across from Le Boss.

I can't do it, I said, well aware of the high standard set by my colleagues, the annoying little do-gooders.

"I don't care if you fail", Le Boss replied, much to my surprise.

"Fail as often as you like. Just as long as you fail fast and you fail cheap."

'Tis the WebComm Way.

My love affair with a small brass man

His gamble paid off. It didn't fail – and it didn't not fail both fast and cheap.

What makes a movie maker? 'Cos after having pretended to be one for a couple of months, I've made four videos, half in collaboration with and colleague and composer supreme, Kurt, making them complete in-house productions. Thanks to some user-friendly fruit-referencing technology and Le Boss' sheer bloody-mindedness, the unit now has extended our working resources into movie-making.

And we'll keep the videos coming, you can be sure of that.

The hero of Vonnegut's story ends up awaiting trial in Israel. My ending is not quite as dramatic, but I don't mind telling you it was with great pride I ousted Mr. Spielberg as Best Director at the WebComm Movie Awards 2011.

Oh, I know it's all pretend. But that doesn't make this kiss any less loving or real:

 

 

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/01/my-accidental-career-part-deux-or-the-webcomm-way/feed/ 0 The Buzek Phenomenon http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/01/the-buzek-phenomenon/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/01/the-buzek-phenomenon/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:59:38 +0000 Kathleen http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=8361 As I watched the presidential election today, I couldn't help but feel a little sad. I knew this was coming, but it is hard to realise that Jerzy Buzek won't be the President of the European Parliament anymore.

You may think this is silly, but even though I don't know Jerzy Buzek personally I grew very fond of him these last few months. You know how sometimes people say they feel like they grew up with a newscaster, a TV presenter or a cartoon character because they would watch him everyday during their childhood? Well, that's a little how I feel. I started my first traineeship in the European Parliament in February 2011, a little less than a year ago and since then I've seen Buzek at the plenary, in videos, and on the news. I've also written numerous articles where I mention him and I've even had the chance to meet him 3 times in person, all of which I am sure he doesn't remember, but that's ok.

My encounters with Buzek

The first time I met him, it was outside the Parliament in Strasbourg during the plenary in May. I waited for what seemed like hours to take a picture with him. A group of tourists, probably visitors in the Parliament, kept on talking to him and shaking his hand. His assistant, I can only presume, told him he was late for a meeting and should start moving. He walked towards me and I seized the opportunity to ask if I could take a picture with him. I really don't know why but my heart was racing and I tried my best to keep my eyes open and have a nice smile. It would have been a shame to screw up a photo opportunity with Buzek. Once it was over, I couldn't believe my chance. The other trainees would be so jealous when they saw my profile picture on Facebook… and indeed they were.

The second time I saw him, it was at a reception organised by trainees and his office in June. The reception was organised on the 12th floor of the PHS building, in the Presidential Salon. This time, it was a different story. There were 150 trainees in a small room excited to meet him. And they all had the same goal: to take a picture with him. It seemed as if Lady Gaga was in the room about to give a concert, but without the yelling and screaming, the trainees TRIED to look civilised but failed. I have a very special group photo to remember this day. Unfortunately, I am the only one who can know I was there as you can only see the top of my head. He gave a long speech about how as young people, we are the future of Europe, but what I remember the most is when he said “I hope that you are enjoying your time here in the Parliament, and in Place Lux!". Oh, so it is not a secret that trainees spend all their Thursday nights/ early Friday mornings at Place Lux? We should do a better job of hiding it next time…

The third time I met Buzek, it was actually kind of embarrassing and some of members of the Webcomm team know what I'm talking about. Two fans from the European Parliament's Facebook page had won a trip to come visit the Parliament's premises at Strasbourg and meet Jerzy Buzek. This was a big deal for the two winners to meet the President of the European Parliament. I hope I didn't ruin their moment nor the video that was recording. The incident is the following: I was standing close to them when they were introduced to the President when suddenly he turned to me and he asked me where I was from, thinking I was also a winner. He caught me by surprise and threw me off my guard. Quick, I have to think, what do I say? I finally mumbled something about being a trainee at the European Parliament. You know when you were a student and you weren't paying attention and suddenly the teacher asks you for an answer, that's exactly how I felt. He smiled, turned around, and I sighed in relief.

Buzek's popularity is off the charts

Don't get me wrong, I am sure that Martin Schulz will be a great president as well. But it just won't be the same… Buzek is Buzek. Why is he so popular? Well, first of all when you take a look at him he just seems like a nice, simple, accessible person. If you ask the EP trainees to describe Buzek, they will ALL say the exact same thing: "He reminds me of my grandpa". I would also like to add that he embodies the "cool attitude".

To confirm that I am not the only "groupie" out there, let's look at some figures.
According to Xinhua, a Chinese news website, "the 72-year-old Polish engineer-turned-politician has at least one mission well accomplished: maintaining his personal popularity, as always and also via trendy channels". "The secret to his accomplishment" resides in the fact that he was the first Parliament president to hold a live chat with Facebook users. I guess now is also the time to say "kudos" to the Webcomm team who make these chats happen. Thanks to them, Buzek is more popular than before.

He is also a social media celebrity. With more than 44 728 Facebook fans and 15 203 followers, "Buzek has managed to deliver opinions in a personal and fashionable way amid the information blast in Brussels" says Xinhua.

Buzek is also popular in the political circles. Xinhua indicates that he was named "MEP of the Year 2006" in the research and technology category and crowned as "Best Polish MEP" in 2008 by Polish media. " Prior to the MEP errands, Buzek had also been a popular and respected Prime Minister back at home, who had initiated Poland's accession negotiation with the European in 1997 and guided Poland into the NATO structures in 1999 ".

Today definitely marks the end of an era.

 

 

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2012/01/the-buzek-phenomenon/feed/ 1 Togo or not Togo… http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/12/togo-or-not-togo/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/12/togo-or-not-togo/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:20:43 +0000 Florent http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=8154
Moderating the press conference. On the left MM. Assarid and Michel, on the right Mr Aguiriano, Director-general for DG EXPO (Thanks to my colleague Istvan for the pic)

Moderating the press conference (on the left Mr Assarid and Michel, on the right Mr Aguiriano, Director-general for DG EXPO (Thanks to my colleague Istvan for the pic)

This is a blog post I was supposed to write some time ago… But somehow I couldn't find the time to do it last week. Now I sit comfortably in my chair in lovely Strasbourg (yes, it's plenary once again), watching the Christmas market under the snow outside (or almost) and I can remember those sunny and bright days I spent in Lomé, Togo, at the end of November…

It all started with the boss (aka Steve) popping up in my office, a little bit embarassed. "Well, Florent, I'm afraid some people will be jealous…" Our sister unit, "the press" as we call it, had no French speaking press officers to cover a Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Togo… So we were asked to help them, and as French editor I was the first to get the offer.

It was a bit unfair, I must admit, as I already went to Tunisia for another mission last July. Missions are something rare in our unit, and two missions abroad in the same year was stretching the limits.

It took me about half a second to weigh up the pros and cons… And to accept the mission, of course not out of personal interest but to fulfil my duties and stay loyal to my beloved institution.

First times are always something special

I had never been to "black" Africa before and the first thing I would say now that I'm back is that I would like to return there. The country, as I could see during the 5 days of work and the 2 free days I had at the end of the mission, is really poor but people are extremely friendly. Yes, if there is richness in Africa, it's definitely the people.

The natural comparison that comes to my mind is always the one with China, where I went for several long trips. Togo seemed much poorer. Lomé is the capital and main city but you do not see more than 10 buildings in the whole town that have more than five or six floors. Industry and business seem to be non-existent. The hospital we visited with a delegation of MEPs and African, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) MPs was hosting a lot of… Chinese doctors and nurses. Many people were sleeping outside, along the roads. And unemployment hits -officially- above 30% of the population (it may be even higher in reality). With 60% of the population being under 25, it would be the "land of hopelessness" if people had no such a positive attitude…

First day, first date

I did not tell you yet what exactly I was doing there. So, here is the explanation. Elected representatives from the EU and the ACP countries meet twice a year, alternatively in Europe and in an ACP country, to discuss development. This has been decided in 2000, when both parties agreed in the Cotonou agreement on a stabile framework for their relations. The Joint Parliamentary Assembly, which gathers 78 MEPs and their counterparts from the 78 ACP countries, is a unique area of discussion for the representatives that control the governments' actions.

My job was the one of a press officer, as I said. I wrote press releases in French (another colleague took care of the English ones), something similar to what I do for La Une ("Headlines" page) maybe just a bit more factual and less free. I moderated the press conference and the press breakfast with the co-presidents of the Assembly, Louis Michel (Belgian MEP and former commissioner) and Assarid Ag imbarcaouane from Mali. And, last but not least, I was answering to journalists on the phone.

The first call I got was from a nice young lady that saw me during the press conference. She wanted to meet me – why not? But she could not come to the office. So she proposed to meet at my hotel at 8PM. Well… It sounded strange and not 100% professional… Following the advice of my experienced fellows from the Press unit, I asked whether it was about the Parliamentary Assembly or not. "Well, it's a bit about it and mainly about other stuff", was the answer. Gosh. I had to decline the "rendez-vous". I didn't know being a press officer was also about turning down this kind of requests. Damn, I was so naive, wasn't I?

A premature conclusion

This blog starts to be too long, so let's come to a quick conclusion, if you've not already left. I discovered a new continent and a new job. I liked being in contact with MEPs and journalists. I did not like very much the writing of the press releases since there is no creativity behind it. And I liked following the multicultural debates (yes, in such an Assembly multiculturalism takes another significance!) on the impact of public debt on development, on the fight against malaria, on the Arab Spring, on the situation in the Horn of Africa…

The political situation on the spot was also very sensitive. The country is in a democratic transition, with the actual president being the son of the dictator that held power for 38 years. There was a big debate about nine MPs that were "dismissed" for changing their political party. MEP Louis Michel was rather in favour of this decision, many journalists again – a very hot topic. The reasons behind are quite complex and I can't go into details but it generated some hostile press coverage and rather virile interventions during the press breakfast. Another challenge to master – really interesting from a professional and personal point of view. Yes, you get the feeling you're in the political business and not only watching it from the outside!

Yes, you get the feeling you're in the political business and not only watching it from the outside!

We also got the chance to be invited for dinner by the Togolese correspondent from Radio France Internationale, and we spent the whole evening discussing the political situation. It was a really enlightening debate that offered us to understand the situation much more in depth.

Get out and you'll see!

Getting out of the office, meeting new colleagues, working directly with MEPs, being on the spot and not hidden behind a screen is always worth it, being it abroad or not, being it in Africa or not. Now I'm waiting for the next opportunity and, as it won't come before a long time, I just hope other colleagues will have the same opportunity and share their experience with us…

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/12/togo-or-not-togo/feed/ 0 The Christmas video http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/12/the-christmas-video/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/12/the-christmas-video/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:35:17 +0000 Steve http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=8119 Ever since we did this lipdub back in 2007 (that was before social media were invented, right?) our colleagues have come to expect the annual WebCom Christmas video at the staff party.  And, sure enough, we were trailing and teasing our new opus from mid-November and showed it to our colleagues last night at the yearly bash.

But we don't do it for our colleagues, we do it for ourselves. I mean, what else would we do with lunchtimes and evenings – eat, sleep…? (Pyramid of needs, anyone?) Seriously though, this video is worth weeks of expensive team-building courses sitting in front of flipcharts or building rafts to cross muddy ponds – not that our employer has ever offered us anything like that – and is huge fun into the bargain. It has become part of the collective self-image and, yes, I do sometimes show these videos when I am asked to present the team and its work.

Inevitably, there is always the impulse to go one better, and in any case to find something a bit different from before. While everyone still remembers that first lipdub, we have done some nice stuff since. Nothing has gone viral like that first one did (nearly 100,000 views in the end, I think, on YouTube), but that's not the point: we've tried things out, had fun doing it and got good results. 

There can be odd spin-offs. Last year's exercise ("young me, now me") led to some of our number featuring in a book by American artist Ze Frank, and thus sitting on coffee tables from San Diego to Boston.

This year's movie is unquestionably the most ambitious we've done technically. The director, Dan, and  special effects ace, Mathieu, really excelled themselves, sacrificed a great deal of their free time to the project – even if I have the feeling they are both fairly nocturnal animals anyway… 

The concept is a ready made meme

The concept (Tibo, of course) is a ready made meme, though I am not aware of anyone else having done this in quite the same way. We collected some of our favourite TV series, past and present, and did mini-remakes of their title sequences, with small tweaks, naturally.  Much of the fun in watching the video is in the recognition, so we went mainly for American shows everyone knows.

Except of course they don't. One little side effect of making this video was the renewed realisation of how much our younger lives were conditioned by the Iron Curtain. The US shows that were to an extraordinary degree a common staple of audiences across western Europe turned out to be unknown in the East. Anyway, I think I can safely say that nobody, not even among the westerners, has yet recognised all the shows we included. 

So there's a challenge.

And here's the video.

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/12/the-christmas-video/feed/ 1 Today is D-Day http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/10/today-is-dg-day/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/10/today-is-dg-day/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:11:33 +0000 Caroline http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=7604 A new perspective on my city

A new perspective on my city

Or DG-day, if you will. 1/9/2011: my first day as a trainee at the Directorate General of Communication, Web Communication Unit. Rolled out of bed, into the shower, and sped out the door, subjecting myself to the hustle and bustle of the noisy city life shifting into first gear. Where are you all going? Young people, old people, people who look like they would have wanted to get a couple more hours of sleep in (guilty!) people who look like they haven’t been to bed yet. In tram 25, over the sound of Adele – who is, incidentally, setting fire to the rain – I hear cellular phones going off and the occasional coughing up of morning phlegm. Fact: you know exactly which sound I’m talking about. Once out of the tram, I follow the stream into the metro station. Obligingly, I swipe my metro pass and get on the orange tube that will bring me to Maalbeek, which is as far as public transport will take me.

Once emerged from the underground, I take a left and another left as I begin my search for the right building. There’s no way of mistaking the European Vibe in the air, important-looking men in suits and elegant women in heels throw me sympathising (pitying…?) looks as I get out my map and double-check the address where I am expected at 9 o’clock. It is now 8.30h. Biting back the annoyance I feel at looking like a tourist in the city where I was born and raised, I continue up the street. Without too much trouble, I manage to find the MOY building, enter, and have a chat with the receptionist who tells me that; yes, I am in the right place. So I put my envelope back in my handbag and wait. The time is 8.45h, and I silently congratulate myself for making it there in time. At 8.50h I fish the envelope back out of my bag, mainly to give my hands something to do, and – horror – noticed a sentence at the end of the letter, casually informing me that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Apparently I need a badge to get into the building where I am expected at 9 o’clock. Ah. Off I go again. So much for punctuality.

It is 8.55h and I find myself queuing (Swedish style!) with a group of trainees in the “Centre d’Accréditation” to get a badge, with a horrible picture to match. I hurry back to the MOY building, past security; and hit the elevator button that should take me to the 2nd floor. Scratch that, I take the stairs because the elevator takes forever. Upon asking the receptionist where the stairs are, he indicates them with a wave of his hand. (9.27h, in case you were wondering.)

Muttering a few choice profanities, I take the stairs, two at a time. Praying that I’m still somewhat on time (as if…), I make my way through the hallway on the second floor, gazing at each of the office-numbers on the doors as they zoom by, when I hear my name. “Caroline?” I twist around and see a pretty (“Don’t mess with Evita”), young (“Don’t mess with Evita”, bis.) woman standing in the doorway that I had just unceremoniously raced past.

“Yes?”

“Welcome, Steve has just started his introductory meeting, follow me.”

About 1 month later

A swarm of new trainees have descended on the unit, and I take pride and pleasure in informing them of the seemingly mundane pieces of trivia that I have gathered throughout the past month: stay away from the vending machine in the cafeteria because it will eat your money, yet refuse to distribute the food you paid for; use your informatics-degree to figure out how the scanner works (What’s that? You don’t have one? Oh well, no scans for you, then); and don’t trust Italians who say they will be ready for lunch “in 5 minutes”. There is no “in 5 minutes”. There is only you, gnawing off your forearm 30 to 45 minutes later, depending on how hungry you were to begin with.

Besides eating and failing to scan Very Important Documents, we also do some work, when we can fit it in. (Very) simply put, we help to manage the website: writing, scratching, re-writing, brainstorming, translating, interviewing… Let me clarify something: for a 24-year old with a degree in communication studies, a solid background in languages and a profound interest for the EU, the media and their love-hate-relationship, this constitutes a dream job. I happen to fit that profile to a tee, would you believe it?

Okay, so the first months had some kinks. Halfway through the first (!) day I managed to lock myself out of my account and I will need to sleep with an EU-dictionary under my pillow (I am a firm believer in osmosis) if I have any hope of producing an article that’s halfway decent any time soon. But all in all, I consider my first month here a success. However, if you see me some time next week wandering the streets of Brussels with a wistful expression on my face and a sign that says “ex-trainee”, you will know that something has gone terribly wrong. But if not, that means I’m still part of this dynamic group. Or, as Dr. House puts it: “There’s no I in team. There’s a ‘me’ though, if you jumble it up.” Here’s hoping.

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/10/today-is-dg-day/feed/ 0 When is a birthday cake not a birthday cake? http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/08/when-is-a-birthday-cake-not-a-birthday-cake/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/08/when-is-a-birthday-cake-not-a-birthday-cake/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:00:08 +0000 Steve http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=7207

Do you rely on Facebook to remember your friends' birthdays?

Emblematic incident for our age in the WebCom team recently.

Since most of us are Facebook friends, it had come to general notice that one of our number was celebrating his birthday a short while ago. Naturally, he was the recipient of the usual cascade of best wishes from his Facebook friends, though, as he was in one of his intense project moments, earphones on, hunched over a steaming keyboard, he had not yet, as lunchtime came round, registered the goodwill of the world at large towards him. He did however register the fact later when a delegation of smiling colleagues, bearing a homemade birthday cake, entered his office.

A look of puzzlement all round. But we saw it on Facebook…

His immediate and gratifying look of pleasure however swiftly gave way to one of some embarrassment as he clocked the fact that was not a simple social call, but birthday-related business. “Um, you know, it’s not actually my birthday,” he explained, “I was born in December…”

A look of puzzlement all round. But we saw it on Facebook…

Our friend and colleague is of course a true digital native, also one (I wonder whether this has a bearing on the case) who spent the early formative years of his life in the tender embrace of the German Democratic Republic. Suffice it to say that, like many others from his part of the world and others, his data-protection instincts had induced him to specify a Facebook birthday different from that recorded in his home municipality. Elementary, sensible, but we fell for it and took him a cake.

Miffed? Well, no. For this was a bona fide WebCom moment, a Facebook non-birthday cake. The tail of the virtual world wagging the real world dog. How appropriate. And the cake was excellent too.

Trouble is, they’ll all want Facebook non-birthdays now too.

 

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/08/when-is-a-birthday-cake-not-a-birthday-cake/feed/ 0 The (Flemish) Art of Politics http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/07/the-flemish-art-of-politics/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/07/the-flemish-art-of-politics/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:13:10 +0000 Steve http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=6999 Summer is coming. That’s good, obviously, but it also seems to create a horrendous accumulation of pre-recess deadlines. The doughty webcommers have been suffering lately under a avalanche of proof-reading, proof-listening, proof-this, proof-that, for weeks now, usually for other people’s projects. It’s the price you pay for (at least theoretically) covering every language, that when anyone in the vicinity needs to be sure that, say, the text of a new brochure or the recording of a new multimedia feature is in good, fluent Bulgarian, Greek, Portuguese, Latvian, Danish, or whatever (x22), they tend to look your way. (It usually isn’t, by the way.) And that’s on top of the day job, though I also suspect that another price we pay – this time for visibly enjoying our job too much – is that people often assume we just spend our time messing around on the internet and have plenty of time for more. (Not true, folks. You heard it here first…)

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that even the normally chirpy people of the second floor of Montoyer 75 were chafing at the grimness of the toil, the extended hours and the general slog. Dark mutterings were heard in the corridor. The time had come to take a short break from the routine, just to take a couple of hours out of the office doing something a bit different. Inevitably, everyone was soon calling it our “school trip”.

How we ended up deciding on a visit to the Flemish Parliament is a long story, but had to do with a previous visit by the undersigned which had left him most impressed. But on Friday, 1 July, after the weekly “stand-up” meeting (at which, perversely, most seem to sit on the floor), we all walked, cycled or scootered the 2km or so down the road to the Vlaams Parlement.

Installation in the old Post Office space, De Loketten

Now, I am not going to go into the intricacies of the Belgian constitutional system. Still less am I going to discuss the merits of Belgian politics. In fact, you can probably find out everything you need to know about Belgium’s surreal system in 4 minutes in this justly famous YouTube video.  However, I will pause to note that Belgium is a country of 10 million inhabitants which hosts fully seven Parliaments: the two-chamber federal parliament, the Flemish parliament, the Walloon parliament, the parliament of the French Speaking Community, the parliament of the German speaking Community, the parliament of the Brussels Region and (OK, cheating a little here) the European Parliament. Five of the seven are in Brussels, which clearly thereby holds the world record for largest-number-of-parliaments-in-one-city by a massive margin. In case you were wondering what happened to the parliament of the Dutch-speaking community, which should logically (!) exist, you should know that, in a bout of rationalising zeal no doubt, the Flemish decided to merge the two sets of of competences into the single Flemish Parliament, though they do, as a result, have to exclude the six Brussels-elected members from votes which would have been the responsibility of the notional Parliament of Flanders. Got it? Good. We’ll move on.

Unassuming entrance to the art wonderland

Though this visit was in part about getting to know the quirks and (generally hidden) wonders of our host country a bit better and indulging in a little inter-parliamentary liaison, it was really about doing something together and having the opportunity to marvel at something genuinely interesting, even inspiring. For whatever you think of all the constitutional contortions and political chicanery, the Flemish Parliament is undoubtedly the coolest parliament any of us had ever visited (and that’s quite a few).

The starting point of the visit was in the public area of one of the two buildings which are occupied by the parliament, formerly a Post Office building. The upper floors are occupied by the offices of the political parties in the parliament and by its administration. The ground level, however, is the old counter-lined hall where Belgians from all over the country used to come to do their financial transactions, now accommodating, at one end, a cafeteria and, at the other, an art exhibition or installation. The space has a rather stalinist design aesthetic, but has acquired a period charm, offset nicely by the contemporary art. From this meeting place, we proceeded to the top floor, where we were booked into the Daktuin (“roof garden”) restaurant for a lunch, which included, for those thus inclined, that well-known Flemish delicacy, Kangaroo stew. (For the record, lieve taxpayer, we paid for ourselves…) In best school trip fashion, we all took the opportunity to spill out onto the extensive roof terrace and took pictures of each other with our mobiles, with a great view of the rather scrappy Brussels skyline behind us. Yep, check Facebook…

The Google ceiling: Global Satellite Project by Joaquim Pereira Eires.

After that, the tour of an hour or so, with officials of the parliament doubling up as tourist guides, explaining to us a heady mix of architecture, art and constitutional niceties. The thing that strikes you most is the sheer quantity of contemporary art around the place, so much that it becomes of theme of the parliament itself. The aim here is not to be a tour guide for the Flemish parliament, so I won’t linger too long, but here are a personal selection of the art works that particularly caught my eye.

Google world glass ceiling. At the top of the administrative building there is a glass ceiling made up of a Google world satellite photo of the part of Brussels we are in, centred on the Parliament building. Nice that an image taken from above is here seen by looking upwards. Simple, but great idea.

Paintings in blood and hair by Philippe Vandenberg. His own blood and hair, by the way. This freaked some of us out.

A Flying Island by Panamarenko. Panamarenko is one of several artists of international fame represented here, another one is…

Jan Fabre, three of whose beetle sculptures adorn the reception room alongside the plenary chamber. We were told by our guide that these were in fact rather small fry. The King apparently has an entire ceiling in his Palace covered with Fabre beetles.

Reflections on the Illusion of Power by Roger Raveel. Strategically placed outside the Speaker's office.

A work called Reflections on the Illusion of Power, which plays subversively with reflections to remind the holders of power that their power may only be an illusion and will in any case pass. This is placed right outside the office of the speaker of parliament.

Lunar art. Did you know that the only art exhibited on the moon was created by a Belgian artist, who persuaded an Apollo 15 astronaut to carry to the moon a tiny aluminium figure amongst his personal effects? Well now you do, and a copy of the figure, produced by the artist, is displayed in a meeting room under a photo of the original lying in the moon dust. There’s something very belge about that, I think.

Neon displays in committee rooms. Self-obsessed artist-photographer Liliane Vertessen, has photo and neon displays in two adjacent committee rooms. The photos are, well, of herself and one of the neon displays reads: (in English) “Love yourself so you can love somebody else”.

Figures in a paternoster lift. The old constantly rolling lift system (actually out of action during our visit, sadly) cannot take human passengers any more, but is inhabited by full size replicas of random people photographed by the artist wandering around Brussels. Surprisingly addictive to look at.

Shadow writing. More meeting room art: seemingly random squiggles of wire cast shadows of written messages onto the walls. Nice.

The plenary chamber. Not exactly a work of art, perhaps, but the plenary chamber itself, which occupies the covered-over space of the internal courtyard of the neo-classical building which accommodates all the parliament’s meeting rooms, is a remarkable place, very much in the contemporary-meets-parliamentary-tradition mode that characterises the parliament as a whole. Everyone’s favourite story about this place is about its glass floor, designed to let light into a public meeting room below and generally live up to the ethos of transparency the architects were trying to achieve, but which proved rather too transparent for skirt-wearing lady members of the parliament meeting above.

Jan Fabre's suspended beetle sculptures, untitled

There is lots more art, I mean lots more, all over the buildings, almost to the extent that it is possible for the casual visitor to start to see the place primarily as an art installation rather than as a parliament. Apart from marvelling at the art, this particular visitor also found himself marvelling at the fact that this seems to have been possible without endless agonising over what should be installed where, which artists should be represented, how political and geographical (though not, in this case, linguistic) balance could be maintained, and all the considerations which afflict aesthetic decision-making in the European Parliament. The self-deprecating, almost subversive nature of much of the art was also impressive, revealing a certain humility and a willingness of the parliamentary authorities to undermine any illusions of grandeur they might be tempted to assume. But then, perhaps I’m wrong, this is just very clever branding and status-building. As our guide smilingly told us: “we couldn’t compete with the Federal Parliament’s huge collections of old paintings and classical art, so we decided to compete by buying lots of modern art.”

Maybe that’s the secret of this strange little country; as long as they are competing via art collections and displays of humility, perhaps they can still manage to rub along together for a while yet… I hope so anyway.

***

A word of thanks to the amiable, efficient and knowledgeable Dries, who set up our visit and guided half of our number around the buildings. And congratulations to the Flemish Parliament for being so cool. More pictures below. (All photos from art section of Flemish Parliament website.) A brochure (in French) is available for non-Dutch speakers.

 

Panamareko: Flying Island

 

Le Cannibale en Pleurs, by Philippe Vandenberg. Blood and hair. His own.

 

Belgian Moon art: the Fallen Astronaut, by Paul van Hoeydonck

 

Wire shadow writing, by Fred Eerdekens

 

Liliane Vertessen, Joshua Tree - Love yourself so you can love somebody else

 

Liliane Vertessen: Nooit hetzelfde altijd anders

 

Liftintegratie, by Guillaume Bijl

The plenary chamber

 

 

 

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/07/the-flemish-art-of-politics/feed/ 0 Farewell or time for new adventures http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/06/farewell-or-time-for-new-adventures/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/06/farewell-or-time-for-new-adventures/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:31:02 +0000 Maija http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=6962

Pic by James.Stringer - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesstringer/2660757799/

It’s 15h21 of Wednesday, the 29th June and the usher has come to take off my name from the office door. Parliament’s efficiency is sometimes surprising: my last day in the Parliament is only tomorrow. Anete whom I have been replacing during her baby time will be back on Friday.

It’s officially an end of an era, the EP II one.

When on December 2009 I came back to the Parliament, I was as destroyed and tired as a kitten hit by a car.  When people asked my how it felt to be back here, I said it was like crawling back into mother’s womb. After the scary, crisis hit business environment, here it felt like the safest place in the universe: reasonable work-load, decent salary, beautiful Parliament house and a boss(es) that would never yell. Though super weird (they say one should never work for the same company twice), it was nice to be back.

But even nicer was to join this team, the WebComm: unexpectedly young and dynamic, creative and always on the wave. Though it might be hard to tell and also explain why, this time has been precious to me beyond words. I am very thankful for it. And don’t take it wrong, but the bloody website project part was the one I enjoyed the most. Really.

But I am also happy to go on. I have always been much attached to the balance with ‘outside’ life and world, and somewhat happy not to be an official and tied to any EU Institution forever. For past couple of weeks I have been browsing the job offers and daydreaming how one or the other position or project would be in life, how would I work on it… True, business environment is different, working hours longer, risks higher, salaries smaller, but the career curb and adrenalin is goes up too.

I dare to hope the crisis in job market is truly over.

It’s highly possible that one day I might come back. For me, the Parliament is not an Institution; it’s more like a family house, like being back with mom and dad. The island (Isola felice?) where one can seek safety, nice welcome and caring environment. But now, just like all little kittens, once fed and calmed down, I am ready for new adventures in the dangerous word. To work till midnight, deliver above possible, learn new stuff every second, be under 100000000 kg pressure and all that.

Thanks momdadParliament, I love you, but truth is that now I am quite happy to leave again. I’ll keep you posted how it goes.

]]> http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/06/farewell-or-time-for-new-adventures/feed/ 1 Dictators are (also) on Facebook http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/05/dictators-are-also-on-facebook/ http://www.writingforyeu.eu/2011/05/dictators-are-also-on-facebook/#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 15:03:53 +0000 Raffaella http://www.writingforyeu.eu/?p=6702 Damascus is only a three hour flight away from Brussels, yet an infinite distance runs between Syria and our understanding of the recent events. I went to Syria two years ago. Like in the other “Arab spring” countries, nothing could have lead us to imagine what would happen today under the puzzled and incredulous eyes of us Europeans. Likewise, we are far from understanding the spam attack on the European Parliament’s Facebook page by pro-Syrian messages that started two weeks ago is still going on.

Some of the comments from the first day. "Fans" were using pictures of Assad or the Syrian flag and copying/pasting the same messages several times

What happened

As chance would have it, on Tuesday 10 May I was in the Strasbourg hemicycle following the debate on the EU foreign policy with Lady Ashton. My interest was the EU position towards Bahrain, which was the previous week’s case on the FB page of the Parliament. But the most important and controversial point of the debate was Syria, on which  the EU had just imposed sanctions.

Coming back to the office I found several phone calls and emails. Alarm! During the previous night we had been spammed by some hundreds of pro-Syrian regime messages praising president Bashar al-Assad and the Army (yes, those who killed so far more than 800 people in the streets and tortured at least 8000) and attacking Western media and politicians for mingling with internal politics.

They were posting multiple comments each, with copied/pasted sentences (the most common “We love our president Assad”) under every single post of the EP page, starting from at least the beginning of April. Clearly a spamming action.

How to react?

We immediately informed our spokepersons as well as colleagues in the Foreign affairs business, and contacted Facebook to better understand what was going on.

In the meanwhile Karolina, our new 007, had found a FB page called “Syrian struggle” that was calling on fans to attack ours as well as other Western media and political pages on FB. We also read some articles explaining that there is an ongoing fight between FB and the Syrian government, responsible not only for spamming but also for fake security certificates and for torturing some activists in order to get their FB password and infiltrate their profiles. The articles were reporting suspicions that the Secret services or the Telecoms ministry were behind these actions.

After a couple of hours we published our reaction. In the meanwhile, the word had spread on FB and Twitter: “EP FB page under spamming attack by pro-Assad posts”.

The news rebounded quickly on the traditional media. A friend called to tell us that she heard it on Radio France International. Afterwards, we realised that the news was reported by over 150 online articles only in English and even more in French. Including Libération, the Washington Post and even the Bangkok Post (!).

A small parenthesis. I find very interesting the media reaction: it was the first time that our social media drew the attention of the media without passing through our traditional media channels (press releases, etc). Of course the involvement of our press people has been key, but they spontaneously opted for Twitter when choosing how to communicate what was happening on FB, and journalists quoted our FB post as a reliable source, with quotation marks. But this online-offline circle could be the subject of another post.

Going back to the spam attack, it happened again and more massively the following night and over the weekend, with thousands of messages every time. We were, of course, not the only victims of the attack. We felt almost honoured to be in the good company of the White House, the Washington Post, Nicolas Sarkozy and Oprah Wifrey.

We decided to cancel all the comments and ban the users, but it is very difficult to do it in a timely manner as the attacks were mostly at night. After some quiet days today 23 May they started again, probably in coincidence with the new wave of sanctions from the EU, this time personally targeting, among others, Bashar al-Assad. This week we temporarily closed our page to all posts from Syria, hoping for a better solution in the next days. We continue to be in touch with FB and to follow the situation on the media. We will soon fully brief the upper levels of our administration and the politicians with a complete dossier on this case.

From the Syrian side

We cannot say exactly what and how is happening, who is behind the attacks and how are they done. An article in the New York Times and another in the Washington Post this week explain how the regimes in Syria and other Arab countries are using the same instruments of the rebels: the “Repression 2.0“. It’s really scary.

From our side, in the beginning we thought it was a machine-made attack. We couldn’t believe that human beings could be able to post up to 800 comments in 6 minutes. After we mentioned it in our post, though, Syrians came to tell us that “they were not robots” and even left their coordinates to prove that they were real people. Now we tend to think that it is an organised movement, with a lot of fake profiles, but not necessarily generated by bots.

Indeed, the “Syrian struggle” page gives precise orders on when to attack (at night), and when to stop (in the early morning), as well as the messages to copy/paste on other pages (we discovered how Google Translate can be useful in such cases!). FB removed their page every time we (and, I guess, others) have flagged it up, but they keep opening a new one. At the moment of writing we are at its 13th version.

After the “fans” have done their job (attacked the targeted pages), they get back on that page and write comments like “done”. Yesterday, after we blocked Syrians, they wrote that “the European Parliament page has been shut down. Victory!”. But they promised to monitor it and be ready to come back if we open it again. (Of course we didn’t close the page, it’s just currently invisible  in Syria. Unfortunately, it is impossible at present only to block comments from a particular location while leaving the page visible, an issue we have raised with Facebook).

"Syrian struggle 2" incites its fans to attack the Parliament's page, 12 May 2011

The “Syrian struggle” pages are linked to the “Syrian Electronic Army” website, that also manages Twitter and Youtube accounts. We still don’t understand how official this page is and what are the links between it and the Syrian government. What is sure, is that there is nothing spontaneous in the proclaimed “love” of the spammers for Bashar al-Assad.  FB is being used as just another weapon of the dictatorship, together with tanks, rifles and torture.

The social media war

When I went to Syria, less than 2 years ago, Facebook was blocked. The regime was afraid of the freedom of the net, as in many other non-democratic countries. But later dictators understood the role of social media in the Arab spring, so they opened the sites better to control them. The repression in Syria is being played with all the possible instruments, including the very same of the rebels: digital media.  FB – after playing a central role in the freedom movements in the Arab world – is now also a weapon in the hands of the regime.

I hope that this entire story will finish very soon. Not the spam, but this horrible, dirty war in Syria. And that the EU is ready to take a stand against the “Arab Tiananmen”, as an MEP put it. From our side, we can survive with some spam on our page. We would just like to hear the joyful, brave voices of freedom coming from Syria, and not those of a gloomy, grim dictator and his obsessive supporters.

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