In that contract the shape of WebCom’s annus mirabilis could already be discerned

One year ago. December 2008. I just remember being incredibly stressed out; and, remarkably, that Tibo was even more so. We were up against the deadline for signing the “online” contract with our agency, Scholz & Friends, our part of their big framework contract with the Parliament they won earlier in the year. Things didn’t have to be this tight, but there was always another quibble, another detail to be clarified, another dispute to be settled, another box to be ticked. However, we made it; the procedural issues were ironed out, the budget people gave us the nod, the financial controllers appended their seal of approval.

We maybe didn’t realise it at the time, but in that contract the shape of WebCom’s annus mirabilis could already be discerned.

Hitherto, we had had a clear, well-defined job: to publish on the “headlines” page of the Parliament’s website every day. We thought we didn’t do too badly: we had made big efforts to make the site far more attractive and varied than before. The team had upped its game, kept up a stream of great editorial ideas, absorbed some inspiring training in the secrets of good hackery (cheers Ben!). Traffic to the site was increasing steadily – we were doing OK.  But we knew it wouldn’t be enough for the big elections communication campaign coming up in 2009.

Our world did not collapse under an avalanche of obscenity and abuse from Parliament-haters, nor did political extremists hijack our comments columns

Already, at the end of 2008, we were about ready to go with a special new site for the elections. We were inordinately proud of this, not only for the result, but for the way we did it: in a small team bringing together editors (Eirini and Gaëlle), designers (Fred and Sophie) and geeks (Nicolas and Pascal). Most significantly, this site trailed a whole new departure for the Parliament online, because it included interactive features: comments, debates, polls. It had not been easy to persuade our bosses, still less our political masters, of the wisdom of letting the great unwashed loose on Parliament’s website, but 2008 was also the year when a certain US presidential candidate changed the rules of online campaigning, something which helped our cause considerably. At the same time, the site set a new tone: graphically appealing, occasionally light-hearted, not-too-earnest. It went live on 19 January 2009. Our world did not collapse under an avalanche of obscenity and abuse from Parliament-haters, nor did political extremists hijack our comments columns (well, maybe once…). So far so good.

A team that delivered the goods in 2009

However, the real revolution was still to come. The election communication campaign had to be about reaching parts of the public we don’t normally reach. A year later, it seems a completely banal statement – itself a measure of how far things have come – but we knew we had to get outside the website, and establish a presence on the internet where the people are, to talk to them there, engage them there and maybe get them to wake up to the European elections in June. As one of the Scholz guys put it at one point: we needed to “go fishing where the fishes are”. It was a message which, moreover, we found our masters, administrative and political, had thoroughly taken on board.

As I said, the seeds of all this were in the contract. Workshops on social media, the design of profiles on MySpace and Facebook, a YouTube strategy, online widgets, a Flickr page, viral videos… Ideas all in there, only needing to be made flesh. I, and others, have obsessed lengthily about all of this on this blog. It is interesting in retrospect to see the doubts we had, the sense that we were taking something of a gamble, the notion that all this could come horribly unstuck. Now it seems inevitable, but when we did it, though it was hardly avant-garde on the internet, it was still seriously radical for either an EU institution or any parliamentary institution. To this day, what we did – and are still doing – remains highly unusual in our institutional peer group.

Over a frenzied three months, March to May, we went from being purveyors of a single web platform – the headlines page – to maintaining seven or eight different platforms.  We did this knowing what we were getting into; we would never be forgiven if we barged into the social media only to fall silent once the elections were out of the way (as some suspected we would).

To this day, what we did – and are still doing – remains highly unusual in our institutional peer group

So here we are today, a year on and old hands at the social media game. And it’s true: once you’re in, that’s it, there’s no going back. The job now is to keep it going – constantly to ask what the next thing is, how to maintain the interest of those fearsome Facebook fans. And at the same time, we must not forget our core business – the website. Indeed, right now we are beginning the process of overhauling the whole thing – but I’ll leave it to Tibo to talk about that in the next post.

I could mention a whole lot of other things from this year, but let me stick to just three. First, it was the first year of this blog, our unofficial calling card in the euroblogging community (with especial thanks to avid readers and better-bloggers-than-us Julien, Jon, Kosmopolito, Cédric, Nosemonkey, Eurosocialiste, Ralf and all others who commented), and maybe beyond. Second, we also set up another special website, recently online, (Florent and Bárbara had the energy left for this one), which will cover the commissioners’ hearings next year. Third, we created a fun, embeddable widget – a Christmas eco-quiz – for MySpace (Raffaella’s baby, this), hopefully a pointer to something we will be doing more often in future.

So 2009 will be a tough act to follow: it was exciting, exhausting, genuinely creative and occasionally nerve-wracking. In the small world of WebCom it was the year of our online revolution. Now we live with the consequences. But, as they say: “you wanted the bike, now pedal”.

And now, on the last day at work before Christmas, it’s a good time to say this…

People think we fool around in videos and spend our days chatting on the web. Let them.

The team has been unbelievable this year. They have been asked to do more and more, to keep up the enthusiasm, to find new ideas every day, to work really hard. I won’t say no-one ever complained, but the team stuck together, kept up the spirit and did the biz. The outcome exceeded expectations. Most of all, the team kept its sense of fun, a feeling that even if it is tough, it is possible to enjoy your job if you’re doing something good. Maybe sometimes, from the outside, it looks like too much fun – people think we fool around in videos and spend our days chatting on the web. Let them. We know that we have something here which really works.

Thanks to everyone, and have a great Christmas. It was a year to be proud of.

And if you need reminder of all the things we do – here’s one!

Stuck with unequal representation in the five years to come (c) abbyladybug on Flickr

Next week the newly elected MEPs will flock to Strasbourg for the inaugural session of the Parliament. Among them approximately 35% female Members. A slight increase compared to the previous legislature (until recently Parliament had 31% female MEPs) but way too little to be able to speak of an equal representation, after all 52% of  EU’s inhabitants is female. How will this make them feel?

Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström wrote on her blog : “Elections are about representation and if voters don’t see themselves reflected in who represents them, then they will be seen as distant.”

What lessons can be learned? Countries who did worst and will be sending less than 30% female MEPs to Strasbourg are Malta (male Members only), Czech republic (18% female Members), Poland (22%), Ireland, Italy and Lithuania (all 25%) and Slovenia (29%).

Women need to be like G.I. Jane

Consensus between my Czech, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish and Slovene colleagues is that politics are traditionally dominated by men in their country, difficult for women to get in. According to my Polish colleague women need to be “like G.I. Jane“. He adds that these bad gender results may also be due to the right and centre-right being the biggest parties in his country and they are “not champions in equal treatment”. My Czech colleague thinks many people in his country would like to have more women in politics like in Scandinavian countries but in order to vote for a woman you also need women high enough on the voting lists….

“The women on the list were highly qualified for the job…..!” says my Maltese colleague about the female candidates in her country. In Malta there is the situation that the candidates on the voting lists appear by alphabetical order, although it is by proportional representation and single transferable vote. Nevertheless if people do not know who to give their second, third preference etc it is advantageous to be higher up in the list. That is why the second person and third persons on the both EPP and PES lists happened to be men and the women were further down in the list due to their surnames.

But for future elections Maltese women have a big advantage men do not have: they can change their name! So if you are a Maltese woman and you want to go into European politics and you are not married yet: try to find a decent guy called Abela (preferably) Attard, Borġ or Buttiġieġ to increase your changes of being elected.

My Slovene colleague says having two female MEPs among the seven Slovenes needs to be interpreted as  ”super”, given the participation of women in politics in her country. Finally our Italian photographer explains that Silvio Berlusconi was confronted with too little public support regarding the number of women he wanted to place on the voting lists.

Silvio Berlusconi was confronted with too little public support.

Most Nordic countries did well: Finland (62%), Sweden 56%), Estonia (50%). and Denmark (46%). I asked my Scandinavian colleagues how come. “It’s natural” says my Swedish colleague. If only Iceland and Norway would join the EU……

Other countries with more than 40% female representatives are the Netherlands (48%), Bulgaria (47%), and France (44%).  In the Netherlands there is a tradition of women voting for women. Dutch female social-democrat Judith Merkies was 4th on the voting list but still will be in the three-person team of Dutch social-democrats thanks to preferential votes.

My Bulgarian colleague thinks that the good result for Bulgaria may be thanks to many very good and well-known female candidates on the voting lists (e.g. Commissioner Meglena Kuneva). She also mentions the communist tradition of women playing equal roles in society and occupying higher posts. Perhaps, but how come some other former communist countries did so badly then?

As for France since the introduction in 2000 of the loi sur la parité, there needs to be equal representation between men and women on the voting lists. The result is there with 44% female MEPs. According to my French colleague, often the even numbers on the voting lists are reserved for women and the odd numbers for men: hence no real equal representation but in any case legislation that deserves to be followed by other countries.

So here we are, stuck with this unequal situation. Is there anything that still can be done? Yes,  Wallström writes: “Now we need to focus our efforts on ensuring parity in the European Commission and for top jobs within the European parliament!”

To be continued….

By Evita & Anete. Before the elections we had the opportunity to carry out a project that was a repetition of an experiment made 50 years ago. We already wrote about the recipe of this experiment and now it is time to summarize the results.

7 YaBs completed their mission

Overall we can say that it has been a blissful time – stressful, but very interesting.
 
• 7 secret agents out of 27 reached their destination and will become real agents as promised: Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Maltese, Spanish, Bulgarian and Estonian. 2 countries of Iberian Peninsula, 5 “new” Member States. Is there any connection?

• Some celebrities complained about not being informed beforehand officially.  Sorry, there are some things you don’t inform about. Did they inform us that they would become famous before they did it? For this reason or another, the Italian, Latvian, Greek, German and Luxembourgish secret agents got stuck one step before reaching celebrities.

• 2 secret agents got lost from the very beginning. Mystical things happened to Danish and Cypriot YaBs as we were never able to obtain even the smallest piece of information about their adventures. We just hope they’re still alive.

• Swedish secret agent made a virtual completion of the mission – Erik met his celebrity through the TV screen. Typically Swedish – reminds us of the jolly book of Astrid Lindgren about the best friend ever Karlsson-on-the-Roof who believed there was a man sitting in the TV box.

Mystical things happened to Danish and Cypriot YaBs as we were never able to obtain even the smallest piece of information about their adventures. We just hope they’re still alive.

• Remaining 13 secret agents travelled around from hand to hand, but at some point they got stuck. Why? Lack of motivation and interest? Fear of looking silly? Fear of being involved in political matters? Not knowing what to do exactly? Procrastination? The reasons could be more than many. Some movement followed after slight pushing from our side although we didn´t want to intervene during the mission. But still… Well, would somebody like to write a PhD on this?

• The first one to leave was the Italian YaB, the first one to arrive: Polish. Does it say something about the mentality or work culture?

• We received many funny and imaginative photos picturing the YaBs in diverse environments and situations — meeting mimes and military men at the Brandenburger Tor, bathing in the sea, having lunch or a drink, partying, having a medical check etc.

• Facebook page for Travelling YaBs now has 554 fans, out of them 61% are woman. In the web we found an article that says that 98% of women love James Bond. Of those 98%, 95.7% of them have had erotic dreams involving at least one of the Bonds. Is it something similar here or are the mother feelings stronger in this case because they are so small and cute?

• The Polish, Latvian, Danish, Greek, Italian and Portuguese media covered the missions. Strange enough: the most of the journalists involved were also women.
 
Conclusion: only 7 YaBs arrived but… sometimes the road is the destination. We hope you enjoyed.

Thinking about this coincidence I remembered that a few months ago I also had an unexpected meeting: a girl with whom I used to play basketball in Madrid when I was 12, or maybe 13, at the swimming pool of my gym in Brussels. I have more and more the feeling that this is a small world.

A friend knows a friend…

It's a small world... (photo from Flickr by kosmonautica)

It is true that Brussels is a kind of a melting pot that reunites many different people from many different profiles; but even taking that into account I still think that if I could know where all the people I have met in my life are, I would have some surprises. Maybe one of them got married with someone I met in a totally different circle, or another one is working in the most original place in the world… who knows!

That brings me to the title of this post, which fortunately does not refer to the temperature now in Brussels, but to a theory, the six degrees of separation. I am sure most of you know what I am talking about: that every single person in the world is separated from, and connected to, everyone else by just six others.

This idea constitutes the core principle of one of our initiatives for the elections campaign: the YaBs, Yellow and Blue want-to-be secret agents that have already infliltrated the 27 member States searching for one particular celebrity each of them. This blog has already talked about them: departing from Brussels, with 27 different missions, they have to be given from one person to another until they reach their objective. I am sure many of them will succeed in their mission with the power ful weapon of  “a friend knows a friend that knows a friend…”

Making the theory a bit more complicated, that would also somehow connect Audrey Tatoo and Iker Casillas, as both of them will receive an agent that departed from Brussels on the 9th of May. And that would also connect me, and all my colleagues, to them, as we saw how the agents were born; in a way they are our little creatures.

Many of them will (I hope) reach their destination after meeting some other European citizens on the way, to whom we would also be connected, as well as Casillas and Tatoo and all the other celebrities YaBs are looking for… this is starting to be a bit complicated!

In any case, the success of the YaBs’ missions would be a nice way of proving that the degree of proximity between so many different people is really amazing. So I propose a change in the name of the theory… six degrees of separation?? Better say six degrees of proximity!

People at Open Days: they -you- were all great!

There is one phrase that comes to my mind when I think of the Open Days 2009: “We owe (it) to those who came, who passed by, who will come, who will pass by” (by Greek poet Kostis Palamas). And I have one thing to say to those who came (or not) and who passed by (or not) the WebComm stand last Saturday: I love you -or “y(EU)” if you prefer!

With balloons and music floating in the air, Europe threw its party on 9 May. What made this party a success though was the 35.000 people who visited the Parliament alone, these “normal” people that we always try to take into account when we write an article for “Headlines“.

The handsome 11-year-old boy who started my two-hour shift by answering a quiz for children and making his parents proud.

The Romanian and Bulgarian girls who tried their best to answer (with the help of the available computers) at least three questions on the European Parliament in order to get a USB-key, a T-Shirt or a bag (you didn’t think we were just going to give the presents away, did you?).

The boy-genius who, being already familiar with the EP elections website, answered all questions within 3 minutes and was asked more advanced questions on the Parliament’s pages on Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, MySpace, etc.

The Greek woman who appealed to my compatriotism in order to get two T-shirts without doing the computer quiz (“at her age…”).

The Iraqi couple who said in the end of my quick demonstration and their computer searches that “they learned something today”.

The 80-year-old Belgian woman who warned me about the dangers of nuclear energy and electromagnetic waves (and who actually spoke a bit of Greek!), while I was making sure our stock of blocnotes and other material would not disappear within two seconds.

The guy who thanked me before leaving our stand and who came back two hours later to tell me he was leaving and to thank me again, this time with a kiss (no, Obelix, without ulterior motive!).

Some friends of mine who came (with their mother, their girlfriend, their boyfriend…) and also accepted to do the quiz (even though I would have given them the gifts anyway…) or even help an EP secret agent (“YaB”) reach its destination…

The couple with their two children who couldn’t answer many questions on the EU even with the help of information technology (as I said, “normal” people).

The one who asked me who he should vote for (and to whom I gave my “Cutty Sark” answer -meaning “follow your heart”).

The man who came and asked me to match famous European personalities with the equivalent photos for him (some other stands had much more difficult questions than ours apparently!). The one who asked me who he should vote for (and to whom I gave my “Cutty Sark” answer -meaning “follow your heart”). The colleagues who brought me coffee and whose tongue was also probably as tired as mine from patiently explaining to people how the Parliament’s website works. The security women who asked me to bring them “something” when I met them in the stairs (they couldn’t leave their position…). The two beautiful less-than-a-year-olds who were joyfully playing on the floor near the elevator and who still make me think “it’s a hit!” when thinking of Europe’s party.

All those waiting patiently to find a computer to answer a quiz and earn their way through a present. Those who came, had a look at our stand and left (afraid of the crowd or unwilling to bother with a quiz). Those who did (not) manage to register in time at their consulate in order to vote for the EP elections. Those who asked what language some of the T-shirts were (and my colleagues and I had no clue!). The ones that are part of the European family and the ones that aren’t. The ones that I forgot or that I will forget.  They -you- were all great! So, I just wrote to say “ I love you”! And a big “thank you” for the pleasure it was to have you around…

Really, aren’t people great? Could anybody imagine any other creature so perfect in their imperfection(s)?

P.S: “I love you” does not mean that I am on any kind of drug!