E-leap forward
It’s a simple story about now and then. Then it was early 2009 and I was doing my traineeship at the very same unit where I now, almost three years later, started to work in full position. During this period of time Web Comm has enlarged its grip of using online mediums and I feel [...]
My accidental career part deux, or: the WebComm Way
"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 [...]
The Buzek Phenomenon
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 [...]
Frankly about lingua franca
Out of different practical reasons EP’s Facebook page similarly to this blog is being updated only in English (apart from casual insertions in other languages). Our fan community is continuously and quickly growing but how long can we justify our monolingual existence in the main social network of the world? And should we at all? [...]
Four gurus and six ideas to improve our web presence
With some other colleagues dealing with social media and the Parliament web presence, we went for a two-days trip to Paris to meet some geeks. Or, to be more precise, to meet web experts, public institutions webteams and web-journalists. A highly valuable school trip which gave some ideas about how we could further improve the [...]
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…
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?
Love your geeks, love me
“Love your geeks!” So we have been told. We could not do what we do without them. We could not progress without them. It is they, not us, who come up with the ideas which take the internet forwards. But should this love for our geeks extend to letting them loose on the blog? Read on, if you dare.
Yes, Facebook matters. Bahrainis show the way
It’s been a big week on Facebook for WebCom. You know how we’ve been obsessing about what happens to all those comments we get on our Facebook page? Well, this week provided one answer.
Lessons from America 3: Life beyond Facebook
Mid-life, it turns out that some of our obsessions are shared. One of these is worrying continually about What It All Means. Facebook, I mean.
FB chats : and now ?
It is obvious that you cannot run FB as « business as usual ». You have to experiment, be new, fresh and come up with some good stuff all the time, if you want your audience to “react”. We, “the FB team” of the European Parliament, have always tried to keep it in mind. But…
Strikes everywhere – also on our Facebook page?
What’s going on? France is on strike, Belgium was on strike, but also Facebook was on strike during this plenary week. Was there a way to predict that in advance? And do you have any explanations for that?
“Doing something” on Facebook
I suppose it’s the price of success, but we are starting to wonder how to deal with a new phenomenon: the “do something on Facebook” syndrome.
Is it about money, privacy settings or democracy?
I also belong to the lucky ones, as my colleague Evita said, who went to Barcelona for the Personal Democracy Forum one week ago. Steve already wrote about this event, the sense it makes for us to be present there, the creative atmosphere there was etc. I don’t want to repeat what has already been said, but just to share the schizophrenic dimension in which we work on Facebook.
Time for selFB-confidence
The FB page of the European Parliament rocks, and we shouldn’t be afraid to say it. As Florent wrote on his post, we’ve the broadest EU community and the biggest Parliament’s presence on Facebook in the world. I’m honoured to work at this project, and I want to invest myself to make it bigger, nicer, [...]
Facebook: 4 reasons to hope and 7 reasons to keep going
Last Tuesday, we had a very interesting meeting with Richard Allan, the Facebook European boss for what is related to politics. I picked up some facts and statistics to give an overview of where we stand in the Facebook-galaxy.
Why I think social media are on the right way in the European Parliament
It’s always interesting to see who’s convinced by the use of social media for institutional communication purposes. We had a seminar with our whole directorate at the beginning of the week and it was very telling – not only because of what we said, but also because of the structure and organisation of it.
Behind the screen – Open day on May, 8th
If you ever wondered if we look as good IRL as in our videos and photos, if you’d like to know more about the way we work, where you can find the EP online and if you happen to pass by Brussels this Saturday, May 8th – then you definetely should come and meet us [...]
Do you check Facebook during your “intimate moments”?
Everyone’s talking about social media (including us). We are generally keen of course, but, as we all know, there are dangers too. So it was high time for Raffaella to look at the latest research into social media obsession. Her research took her in surprising directions.
How many MEPs use social media? A tentative update
Some rough ‘n’ ready figures on how many MEPs are using social media. Thanks to our doughty trainees for an arduous online trawl to produce these. Main finding: a qualified majority of MEPs are Facebook users!
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