tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post2771972111749352771..comments2023-09-09T14:46:37.354+02:00Comments on Julien Frisch: Margot Wallström and the future of European CommunicationJulien Frischhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18167141111642456560noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-70890500799333242772009-12-07T00:55:51.869+01:002009-12-07T00:55:51.869+01:00Dear Martin - I suppose you are Martin Westlake (?...Dear Martin - I suppose you are <a href="http://www.martinwestlake.eu/" rel="nofollow">Martin Westlake</a> (?) -<br /><br />this is actually not sounding your own trumpet - this is the kind of interventions that makes the difference between sending out messages on a blog and blogging. This is the difference that brings not only readers to your blog but readers who might be willing to interact because they realise you interact, too.<br /><br />This is what I talk about when I say that the institutions need to learn to use the web 2.0 - because the web 2.0 is about interaction, about fostering and participating in debates, by introducing new arguments, new perspectives.<br /><br />And people like you or Dick have incredible insights into processes and realities within your institutions and beyond, and your contributions can add so much added-value to the debates, more than you might be aware of, that every comment you leave on a blog or in other public fora makes the EU more understandable and more human at the same time.<br /><br />And I agree that somebody working in a private office of a Commissioner today might not have the time to blog or to interact with blogs - but if the private offices would adapt to 21st century communication, they would have, in the nearest future, somebody in their teams who would do this as naturally as they have a press officer trying to get interviews with the press or trying to sell press releases nobody wants to read. :-)Julien Frischhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18167141111642456560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-895743774966372582009-12-06T23:10:05.695+01:002009-12-06T23:10:05.695+01:00I am not posting this comment to sound my own trum...I am not posting this comment to sound my own trumpet, Julien (though that's what it will look like), but the absence of comments on my own post (though I deliberately chose to allow comments) has, with certain honourable exceptions, not been encouraging. The most probable explanation is that my blog is crap and I don't do enough to publicize it but, still, as you know, keeping up a blog is a considerable effort. I chose to blog also to humanize my position vis-à-vis my own employees. I know I have a regular and frequent readership so that part of the equation is probably working. But as to the debate that you and your commentators would like to encourage, for me it hasn't happened, and that I regret. In any case, if I were in the Private Office of an extremely busy Commissioner I, with regrets, would not put a blog high on the list of priorities. MartinAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-71027473075101900692009-12-05T11:44:59.489+01:002009-12-05T11:44:59.489+01:00Julien, thanks for your comments. I largely agree ...Julien, thanks for your comments. I largely agree and I think a lot of my colleagues active in communication do think about all this in a similar ànd serious manner. We in Relex have put "external communication" in a lot of people's job decriptions. But this needs time. I wasn't trained for communicating (remember I was a biochemist in another life) and so aren't my colleagues that are lawyers, economists and political scientists. The Commission is now changing quite dramatically the way it recruits new staff. I think these aspects are becoming important.<br />More, there is now a group of Commission people from a wide range of activities looking at social media and discussing how to use it and when and for what. Soerensen (DG COMM) gave us a free mandate.<br />This will be input for the briefings for V. Reding.<br />The webmaster/internet editors community will soon post an open letter to Barroso asking for a change of culture and mentality towards more open communication (outside ànd inside).<br />And last but not least, in the near future we will include blogs and other social media in our standard procedures for media monitoring.<br />De doors are opening up, don't worry! But allow all of us a bit of time! :-)Dick Nieuwenhuishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13833536940719124910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-53000650838801625622009-12-05T02:43:52.727+01:002009-12-05T02:43:52.727+01:00@Jean-Yves
The difference between private organis...@Jean-Yves<br /><br />The difference between private organisations and state organisations is that the latter have been created to work for citizens, and the only question to ask is whether we as citizens have a disadvantage when their work happens transparently.<br /><br />@Dick<br /><br />You mention an important problem and I think the solution will be: Change. Institutions today are rather organised in a way that makes them more effective/efficient when they don't interact too much with the outside world.<br /><br />The main reason for this is that the job descriptions do not include external communication for most individuals in organisations, and that the internal working structures are focused on internal communication and self-reference.<br /><br />The concept behind this is that technical experts among themselves will find solutions that are best suitable for citizens, citizen organisations or society. But this society is in change, and I know you know this very well.<br /><br />We are slowly moving from a society held together by organisation to a society held together by communication. Until today, organisations had to get persons into their organisations that held a specific expertise to be able to use that knowledge in favour of society. But this is changing, and in the future the institutions will have to structure communication that helps to transform and transmit knowledge of parts of the society to other parts of the society or to society as a whole. And to be able to do so, these institutions will need re-organisation.<br /><br />To become more concrete:<br /><br />I don't want that every civil servant/official/politician blogs. But the institutions have to create more access points between their internal work and the external world. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook are just means, not religions, and they are differently appropriate for different needs.<br /><br />What we need and what the institutions need are brokers who explain what is really going on inside the institutions, and who can explain inside the institutions what society (parts of the society) thinks about what is going on within the institution or about what is coming out of the institution.<br /><br />Depending on the institution, on the policy area, on the abilities and resources, every department, every directorate, every directorate-general might have such a person or such a group of persons able of simplifying technical explanations for external target groups, connecting to multipliers who will help spread important information, or to reduce/summarise the multitude of external sources existing in social media and to filter relevant information/discussions/trends and make them available for the work of the institutions.<br /><br />In the end, a Commissioner doesn't need to blog and doesn't need to react to anything going on in the net. But the Commissioner needs to be aware of the fact that society is discussing about her/him or her/his policies - and that these discussions are shaping the conditions in which her/his policies can and will be executed. So even though s/he doesn't need to blog, s/he needs to have somebody who can help to shape discussions, help to interact in a way that creates trust, that convinces peer groups, that shows that the institution (and the person speaking in the name of the institution) are actually doing their work in a way that reflects and respects the ideas floating around, that takes account of legitimate concerns, reasonable criticism or intelligent advice.<br /><br />In short: If the institutions want to be able to help and to positively influence society, they will need to adapt to the way society functions. And if society and societal communication change - and they do so rapidly - institutions will have to change, too. If they want or not.Julien Frischhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18167141111642456560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-5229239296328021982009-12-04T23:42:31.427+01:002009-12-04T23:42:31.427+01:00Officials such as me can and do participate in pub...Officials such as me can and do participate in public discussions but there are plenty of areas where I am not competent to talk about. I know nothing about Jazz so why should I comment on that? I don't know much about transport issues , so why to engage in a discussion on that? And in my area of work, foreign policy, I don't see why my personal opinion on let's say the middle east peace process is relevant.<br />I rather see my contribution in explaining certain things or reacting on clear misunderstanding. <br />So to mention one, I disagree with Ralph about this culture of omèrta. First because we are not a maffiosi orgsanisation, second because it is not on purpose that we don't shout things from the roofs.<br />Julie has seen when he was in Brussels how easily you can talk to people.<br />We are supposed to work on a lot of different things (like myself) rather than spent my days on blogs. A lot of these things are useful and good for european citizens but it's often a long and slow process to get to something that everyone can agree upon. And therefore it is not simple to communicate about it. Believe me on this, I have been involved for the last 15 years.<br />And a lot is specialised stuff. Do you want your garage to explain everything about how they organise the work rather than fixing the problem with your car? Our work is rather similar. <br />Finally, are you really interested to see all 25,000 officials blogging and twittering around?<br />In te meantime, keep asking and keep poking into us. It means what we do makes sense!Dick Nieuwenhuishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13833536940719124910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-53573611299582005872009-12-04T16:20:56.065+01:002009-12-04T16:20:56.065+01:00Maybe it is no relief, but te discussion about hor...Maybe it is no relief, but te discussion about horizontal communication, "do we allow employees to blog and express themselves on social networks" and so forth is today a sensitive and painful within big private organisations. <br />If the EU is not in a top position regarding the web 2.0 field, the EU does not lag behind the others... yet.Jean-Yves Huwarthttp://www.globecorp.biznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-43587711583125549412009-12-03T12:11:06.695+01:002009-12-03T12:11:06.695+01:00Julien,
I agree about officials participating in...Julien, <br /><br />I agree about officials participating in public discussion, as citizens. Given the number working in the EU institutions and national administrations handling EU affairs, only tiny fractions participate as human beings, with thoughts, experience and feelings. <br /><br />Something should be done about this culture of omertà. <br /><br />A (generally) positive example: The Swedish EU Council presidency has set a benchmark for the following trio. <br /><br />President Sarkozy has done enough to undermine trust that the European Commission stands for the general European interest, to last for a good while. <br /><br />Media reports on Commission portfolios have mimicked, if not war reports, at least international matches between national teams. <br /><br />Hearing potential Commissioners in national parliaments would further strengthen pressure for candidates to defend "national interests". <br /><br />The only sound solution seems to be to turn the European Parliament elections into the event, which sets the course for European level government, although it may take a while before our national leaders come around to the simple view that an effective and legitimate European Union has to be based on European level democracy. <br /><br />At European level we are still in the year "1848".Ralf Grahn https://www.blogger.com/profile/02156293782163802007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492174345240444269.post-31892211246432087152009-12-03T12:06:59.869+01:002009-12-03T12:06:59.869+01:00Hey Julien, I really like your idea, that lower-le...Hey Julien, I really like your idea, that lower-level employees should communicate more via web 2.0 tools. Although this would, of course, even out hierarchies... your employee might write more interesting posts than you and might get more attention than his boss. And engaging directly with commissioners via blogging (as you did with Margot Walström) could be a great opportunity. Although not many people know about their possibilities yet. If every country presents 2 or 3 candidates (with blogs!), European debates might increase, who knows.Nikola Richterhttp://www.blogmacherei.denoreply@blogger.com