It is incredible, but the Council of the European Union has a newly designed website. I got so much used to the old 1998-style of the portal that I cannot believe that they actually did this.
The style is equal to that of the European Council - probably the test ground (or the place where they realised that a new design was actually possible). A first quick look into the content makes me feel that the basic structure and content isn't changed, except probably for the digital press room.
It looks nice, that is for sure.
However, the most important change regarding that would be necessary is that the different Council configurations are filled with life. I want to click on the Agriculture Council and find all meeting documents, news, photos etc. (including the work of the Working Parties) available instead of heaving to search for them with a lot of efforts in the Council document register.
Speaking about the register that is linked under "Documents" in the main menu, I'd recommend that you don't need to click through four links until you actually can search for documents. Why not having a search right after clicking on "Documents"?
But let's not complain, it's already nice to see that the Council has moved into the 21st century, at least in website design. Waiting now for more transparency in its general work...
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Thursday, 18 March 2010
The European Council on the web
I was looking for the agenda of the next European Council when I wrote this post yesterday, which brought me to the website of the European Council for the first time - and I like it.
Different to most other European Union websites, this website actually has an appealing design. And more importantly, it is intuitively to use.
I was looking for information and I found them immediately. Documents are linked, the arrangement of the links and sidebars is simple and brings you to the places you actually want to go.
Some of the subpages - like this one - are a little text heavy which goes against the design of the front page, but that is okay.
What I couldn't find is a list of members of the European Council.
And please replace sentences like "The European Council elects its President by qualified majority." with sentences that actually tell what that means. No need to use Brussels jargon on a page that is probably directed to a broader public. At least link "qualified majority" to a web page that explains it.
But in general, I like the site; it's easy to use and simple in style.*
* One should notice that the European Council also is a much more simple institution than the Parliament, the Commission, the Council of Ministers which makes it easier to organise the information.
Different to most other European Union websites, this website actually has an appealing design. And more importantly, it is intuitively to use.
I was looking for information and I found them immediately. Documents are linked, the arrangement of the links and sidebars is simple and brings you to the places you actually want to go.
Some of the subpages - like this one - are a little text heavy which goes against the design of the front page, but that is okay.
What I couldn't find is a list of members of the European Council.
And please replace sentences like "The European Council elects its President by qualified majority." with sentences that actually tell what that means. No need to use Brussels jargon on a page that is probably directed to a broader public. At least link "qualified majority" to a web page that explains it.
But in general, I like the site; it's easy to use and simple in style.*
* One should notice that the European Council also is a much more simple institution than the Parliament, the Commission, the Council of Ministers which makes it easier to organise the information.
Monday, 1 February 2010
New layout of the European Commission website
Today, the European Commission has launched its new website layout as we just learned on Twitter.
At first sight, the front page looks well-arranged compared to how it was before, so it'll ease the access of newcomers which is an asset. I never found the previous layout inviting or structured, so now you get a much quicker overview over what you can expect from the Commission website.
As far as I can see, it is not a major re-design ("re-launch") but knowing that there is actually no single Commission website but, if I am well informed, a bundle of thousands of individual pages, I am glad that the Commission is trying start a redesign in order to make its information more accessible, especially for those not used working with EU documentation.
In the end, the process of re-layouting should at some point lead into an integrated website of the one European Commission instead of trying to connect the creative chaos of years of unstructured growth with layout redesigns. Clicking through into the policy fields and the topics linked therein, one is still re-directed to the old-style individual websites of the different portfolios, which shows that the re-design process will need more work if meant comprehensively.
However, I suppose this sounds much easier than it is in the practice of a large and fractured institution.
At first sight, the front page looks well-arranged compared to how it was before, so it'll ease the access of newcomers which is an asset. I never found the previous layout inviting or structured, so now you get a much quicker overview over what you can expect from the Commission website.
As far as I can see, it is not a major re-design ("re-launch") but knowing that there is actually no single Commission website but, if I am well informed, a bundle of thousands of individual pages, I am glad that the Commission is trying start a redesign in order to make its information more accessible, especially for those not used working with EU documentation.
In the end, the process of re-layouting should at some point lead into an integrated website of the one European Commission instead of trying to connect the creative chaos of years of unstructured growth with layout redesigns. Clicking through into the policy fields and the topics linked therein, one is still re-directed to the old-style individual websites of the different portfolios, which shows that the re-design process will need more work if meant comprehensively.
However, I suppose this sounds much easier than it is in the practice of a large and fractured institution.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Spanish EU Council website is not secure?! (Updated 6x)
Update (Tuesday, 00:10): According to a statement of the Spanish government, there has been an XSS weakness in the presidency website.
However, this resulted not in a manipulation of the content of the site itself but in a manipulation of what the user was seeing on the screen (as you can see on the screenshots below). These manipulated websites are supposed to be only accessible through the specific URLs they are linked with and are thus no general threat for the users, the officials say in the statement. I hope I have translated this correctly; the original version applies.
There is also a very informative blog post in Spanish explaining the factual and technical background of this story (via a tweet of the Spanish state secretariat for communication), including the shortcomings and misinterpretations in the coverage of this story.
Update (20:10): The Spanish secretary of state for communication has been issuing a message on Twitter saying that the pictures below are photomontages.
However, these are original screenshots from subpages (not the frontpage!) of the presidency website (the links to these subpages are below in the text although they don't reproduce the original shots anymore). Other users on Twitter confirm this here and here.
More important than the Mr. Bean photo that has been taken up by many was the "hi there" window that opened in my browser when opening the second link provided below - this was definitely some kind of code because it triggered a direct browser activity, and I then had to close the little window that you see on the screenshot.
As I have said in my post, I am no technical expert and I cannot say how grave such kind of things are, but they happened in front of my eyes.
Update (11:30): It seems like the problem has been fixed, both the picture of Mr Bean and the "hi there" message have been removed, the links provided below just show ordinary "no results" pages now.
I am no expert in IT security, but it seems like the website of the Spanish EU Council Presidency is not secure, despite the fact that
At the following web discussions - here, here and here - people say that the site can be attacked due to XSS, and they provided two links - here and here - that brought the following two results on the actual web page of the presidency (though on sub-sites, not on the frontpage), apparently externally embedded code showing a picture of Mr Bean and a message saying "hi there" (both screenshots made at 03/01/2010 23:00):
I suppose that this is no minor problem and needs rapid fixing.
PS.: I was made aware of this problem by alvaromillan on Twitter.
Update: I tried to send an email informing about the issue to the contact address of the Telefonica web team - ue2010 [..at..] telefonica.es - as provided on the Contact site of the presidency website, but the email was returned as "Unknown user". Very, very strange...
Update: At around 10 am I have sent an email to the Communication Advisor of the Spanish Representation informing about the issue.
Friday, 9 October 2009
The Council voting calculator and the false image of an institution
At this moment, on the front page of the Council of the European Union website somebody has put up a short article linking to the "voting calculator".
This is a nice toy in which you can play around with the different weights of member states and see how this adds to different kind of majorites. It's nice for those who are not aware that the Treaties foresee different kinds of majorities and different voting weights of the member states.
However, taking a look at the public voting results of the Council, which I do from time to time, you notice that there are only rare times when member states do not vote in consensus.
In fact, as far as I can see from the outside, the Council usually plays the standard diplomatic game in which nobody wants to stand on other peoples feet, thus pushing for consensus even when majority voting could apply. The voting weights are thus just a shadow of power that can guide the negotiations, but their public relevance is low.
The voting toy also overshadows that a lot of the Council's work is done in diplomatic or administrative working parties and committees, where I expect that the voting rules are rarely applied (although due to the intransparency of the Council there is no way to prove that). And the calculator has no means to calculate the dynamics that dominate in there.
What I want to say is that the voting calculator is distracting from the actual working methods of the Council, creating an image that does only marginally represent the institution - and is thus not well suited for the Council's website.
PS.: If anyone working in the Council could prove me wrong, I'd be most glad to hear.
This is a nice toy in which you can play around with the different weights of member states and see how this adds to different kind of majorites. It's nice for those who are not aware that the Treaties foresee different kinds of majorities and different voting weights of the member states.
However, taking a look at the public voting results of the Council, which I do from time to time, you notice that there are only rare times when member states do not vote in consensus.
In fact, as far as I can see from the outside, the Council usually plays the standard diplomatic game in which nobody wants to stand on other peoples feet, thus pushing for consensus even when majority voting could apply. The voting weights are thus just a shadow of power that can guide the negotiations, but their public relevance is low.
The voting toy also overshadows that a lot of the Council's work is done in diplomatic or administrative working parties and committees, where I expect that the voting rules are rarely applied (although due to the intransparency of the Council there is no way to prove that). And the calculator has no means to calculate the dynamics that dominate in there.
What I want to say is that the voting calculator is distracting from the actual working methods of the Council, creating an image that does only marginally represent the institution - and is thus not well suited for the Council's website.
PS.: If anyone working in the Council could prove me wrong, I'd be most glad to hear.
Saturday, 29 August 2009
The light bulb ban rage - just a symptom of the EU communication disaster [updated]
At the beginning, I just wanted to shortly comment on the latest blog post of EU Commissioner Andris Piebalgs where he defends the coming EU-wide EU light bulb ban - reacting to the rising "rage" all over the Union.
I wanted to ask why the Commissioner waited until now, three days before the directive starts entering into force until he writes a blog post about the topic. I wanted to ask why he doesn't link the the technical briefing on the topic that is available since December. I wanted to mock about the fact that Piebalgs announces that there will be a website explaining the ban - now, and not six months ago...!
I even wanted to link a EurActiv article from December, and a German language blog article from February where you learn that the Environment Committee of the European Parliament apparently rejected to discuss the issue of the light bulb ban in the plenary by 44 to 14 votes on 17 February 2009.
But then I tried to find this vote of the Environment Committee in original documents. I spent over 30 minutes on the EP's website to find the meeting, the respective documents, and the votes. I found the press release, some documents, even a draft agenda of the 17 February meeting, but not what I was looking for.
I cried out my anger on Twitter. Tayebot from the EP webeditors reacted on Twitter, giving me the link to all the meeting documents.
But even though Thibault from the EP webeditors worked on a Saturday to calm down a disappointed blogger - honestly, an impressive work ethic! - this blogger didn't find any hint to the votes in the documents, especially not the one in which the deputies decided not to decide the light bulb ban in the plenary.
And he finds that the presentation of the documents, the style of the documents, the search function regarding such documents on the EP's website are all quite catastrophic.
I imagine I was a journalist who gets the task from his editors to write a good story on the light bulb ban. He reads some other stories already written by his colleagues. He is a professional and wants to double check what his colleagues from other news sources wrote or said.
Opening the EP website, he tries to find an information on the process, he tries to get the original documents, the voting results, the MEPs involved etc. He is less experienced with EU documents than I am, and I am just a motivated beginner. He spends 20 minutes searching, without getting what he wants.
The consequences:
A) The story is not written.
B) The story is hearsay, it's negative, or biased at best.
It's the same with all EU institution sites. You don't find what is important when you look for it. Whether you are a citizen, a blogger, a journalist, a scientist or somebody else. Press releases don't link all the relevant documents, if they link them at all. The search functions are hidden, they are complicated, confusing, and they don't produce results that are helpful.
I spend hours searching for the right information, it's eating my time, just because I am interested in writing about the EU. I am a political European, and so I am ready to invest the time, but how many are as crazy as this?
The link between Piebalgs' late blog post and this conclusion is the general communication disaster of the European Union. The Union is strong and big in big communication efforts - and in defending them.
But why are millions spent on campaigns, if no individual looking for information on its own finds what it wants on the websites of the Parliament, the Commission, the Council?
Why are the institutions surprised if rumours spread in the Union, about the Union, its policies, its processes, if no one is able to check the stories, the rumours, etc. because you never find the original information?
Why all the the nerve-wrecking abbreviations, the COD 1774/77994 ENVI TYPO documents names that confuse everyone outside Brussels?
If there is a light bulb "rage" these days (and more and more articles are appearing in the news), this is not just because of the light bulb itself, but because it was impossible to follow the decision-making process that led to the decision outside Brussels - and it is still impossible without spending hours of research on poorly designed institutional websites!
AHHHHHHHHH!
PS.: And I don't want anyone to blame the EP webeditors, or any other webeditor of EU websites. I want that those deciding about money and other things to give these editors all the freedom and the time to make these sites better, not in a year, but now!
Update: Thanks to reader and commentator Daniel, the document proving the voting result has been found here (Word Document). The vote is documented under Agenda Item 19. But to get there, you have do really be an EU-expert!
Related articles:
I wanted to ask why the Commissioner waited until now, three days before the directive starts entering into force until he writes a blog post about the topic. I wanted to ask why he doesn't link the the technical briefing on the topic that is available since December. I wanted to mock about the fact that Piebalgs announces that there will be a website explaining the ban - now, and not six months ago...!
I even wanted to link a EurActiv article from December, and a German language blog article from February where you learn that the Environment Committee of the European Parliament apparently rejected to discuss the issue of the light bulb ban in the plenary by 44 to 14 votes on 17 February 2009.
But then I tried to find this vote of the Environment Committee in original documents. I spent over 30 minutes on the EP's website to find the meeting, the respective documents, and the votes. I found the press release, some documents, even a draft agenda of the 17 February meeting, but not what I was looking for.
I cried out my anger on Twitter. Tayebot from the EP webeditors reacted on Twitter, giving me the link to all the meeting documents.
But even though Thibault from the EP webeditors worked on a Saturday to calm down a disappointed blogger - honestly, an impressive work ethic! - this blogger didn't find any hint to the votes in the documents, especially not the one in which the deputies decided not to decide the light bulb ban in the plenary.
And he finds that the presentation of the documents, the style of the documents, the search function regarding such documents on the EP's website are all quite catastrophic.
I imagine I was a journalist who gets the task from his editors to write a good story on the light bulb ban. He reads some other stories already written by his colleagues. He is a professional and wants to double check what his colleagues from other news sources wrote or said.
Opening the EP website, he tries to find an information on the process, he tries to get the original documents, the voting results, the MEPs involved etc. He is less experienced with EU documents than I am, and I am just a motivated beginner. He spends 20 minutes searching, without getting what he wants.
The consequences:
A) The story is not written.
B) The story is hearsay, it's negative, or biased at best.
It's the same with all EU institution sites. You don't find what is important when you look for it. Whether you are a citizen, a blogger, a journalist, a scientist or somebody else. Press releases don't link all the relevant documents, if they link them at all. The search functions are hidden, they are complicated, confusing, and they don't produce results that are helpful.
I spend hours searching for the right information, it's eating my time, just because I am interested in writing about the EU. I am a political European, and so I am ready to invest the time, but how many are as crazy as this?
The link between Piebalgs' late blog post and this conclusion is the general communication disaster of the European Union. The Union is strong and big in big communication efforts - and in defending them.
But why are millions spent on campaigns, if no individual looking for information on its own finds what it wants on the websites of the Parliament, the Commission, the Council?
Why are the institutions surprised if rumours spread in the Union, about the Union, its policies, its processes, if no one is able to check the stories, the rumours, etc. because you never find the original information?
Why all the the nerve-wrecking abbreviations, the COD 1774/77994 ENVI TYPO documents names that confuse everyone outside Brussels?
If there is a light bulb "rage" these days (and more and more articles are appearing in the news), this is not just because of the light bulb itself, but because it was impossible to follow the decision-making process that led to the decision outside Brussels - and it is still impossible without spending hours of research on poorly designed institutional websites!
AHHHHHHHHH!
PS.: And I don't want anyone to blame the EP webeditors, or any other webeditor of EU websites. I want that those deciding about money and other things to give these editors all the freedom and the time to make these sites better, not in a year, but now!
Update: Thanks to reader and commentator Daniel, the document proving the voting result has been found here (Word Document). The vote is documented under Agenda Item 19. But to get there, you have do really be an EU-expert!
Related articles:
- 14 June 2009: The EU in German blogs (1): The light bulb ban
Friday, 14 August 2009
The serious parliament: Only 8 light moments in 5 years
Dear EP web editors,
do you think that filling the boringness of the parliamentary summer break with a front-page article titled "Lighter moments" that contains a photo gallery of just 8 photos is shedding a good light on the parliament?
Were there just 8 lighter moments in 5 years? And did most of the "lighter" moments occur during meetings (which usually are far from light) or other work-related activities? In fact, the only photo I like is the hand kiss.
Yet, if there is some time these days to produce such kind of articles, why not finding some good photos that really show light moments?
Sincerely yours,
Julien
do you think that filling the boringness of the parliamentary summer break with a front-page article titled "Lighter moments" that contains a photo gallery of just 8 photos is shedding a good light on the parliament?
Were there just 8 lighter moments in 5 years? And did most of the "lighter" moments occur during meetings (which usually are far from light) or other work-related activities? In fact, the only photo I like is the hand kiss.
Yet, if there is some time these days to produce such kind of articles, why not finding some good photos that really show light moments?
Sincerely yours,
Julien
Friday, 10 July 2009
Getting lulled and distracted: PR strategies in the European Web 2.0
Yesterday, The Lobby, a blog run by the PR agency Grayling (Brussels), lobbied for better strategies of European PR and communications agencies:
The first step is to become part of the community, if there is something like a "community":
PR companies establish blogs, like The Lobby (by Grayling), Public Affairs 2.0 (by Fleishman-Hillard) and Hyperthinker (by ZN) or at least react to blog posts written by others, like you could recently witness with the Hill & Knowlton CEO reaction to one of my blog posts.
More refined seems to be the strategic positioning of Burston-Marsteller:
Through the establishment of The New EP, a website informing about everything around the new European Parliament, including a blog-like front page that can be easily subscribed via RSS, as well as through the support of political debates, including the coverage on Twitter, they are apparently trying to build
But what one has to remember is that these companies want sell their services to well-paying customers.
All their activities are part of a strategy, either to position themselves as established players to get clients or to use their position to influence political actors for their clients. They are in competition with each other, competing about attention, about money, about influence.
Their interest is not to contribute to political and social debates because they have convictions that they like to defend. They don't socialise, inform, and discuss because they have so much fun doing this. They need to do this as part of their job, a job where they are not the actors but the advisors or the executors of whatever they are asked by their clients.
As soon as everyone around is lulled, accepting their activities as natural intervention of well-informed and competent actors, they will start using their position.
They will be bought (if they aren't already) by clients who are happy to get trusted and already embedded players to distract the general attention and to steer it towards the topics that their clients want to see discussed, at best going into the political direction the client would like them to go.
One of the "best" examples are GPlus and Aspect Consulting, which got nominated for the Worst Lobbying Award, supporting the Russian war propaganda, even though the strategy was still rather classical.
Altogether, I am watching the activities of the European PR agencies with interest but with caution - because they know what they do, and they do it for money.
PS.: And by the way, PR agencies are one of the most frequent recognisable groups of visitors to my blog.
"PR is not about ‘pushing’ news, rather it is about creating relationships “with the greater communities of influencers and users who can help extend a story, intentions, value, and sentiment as a means of driving awareness, building communities, and empowering advocates over time”. [...]This approach has to be seen in the wider context of the adaptation of public relations management that professional PR companies are going through these days. If I may summarise their tactics in two simple words: "Lull & Distract".
[...] Brussels agencies are keen and the tools are all around us, but it remains to be seen whether Brussels and its opaque institutions are ready for them.
I challenge you to name a single senior Brussels PR executive who has 6 influential bloggers and 4 prolific Twitter users on speed-dial rather than 10 members of the Brusssels press corps (and who is willing to take his or her story to them rather than to the press)?"
The first step is to become part of the community, if there is something like a "community":
PR companies establish blogs, like The Lobby (by Grayling), Public Affairs 2.0 (by Fleishman-Hillard) and Hyperthinker (by ZN) or at least react to blog posts written by others, like you could recently witness with the Hill & Knowlton CEO reaction to one of my blog posts.
More refined seems to be the strategic positioning of Burston-Marsteller:
Through the establishment of The New EP, a website informing about everything around the new European Parliament, including a blog-like front page that can be easily subscribed via RSS, as well as through the support of political debates, including the coverage on Twitter, they are apparently trying to build
- public attention,
- an image of competence in EP matters, and
- trust and relationship through targeted interaction with the euroblogosphere and the eurotwittersphere.
But what one has to remember is that these companies want sell their services to well-paying customers.
All their activities are part of a strategy, either to position themselves as established players to get clients or to use their position to influence political actors for their clients. They are in competition with each other, competing about attention, about money, about influence.
Their interest is not to contribute to political and social debates because they have convictions that they like to defend. They don't socialise, inform, and discuss because they have so much fun doing this. They need to do this as part of their job, a job where they are not the actors but the advisors or the executors of whatever they are asked by their clients.
As soon as everyone around is lulled, accepting their activities as natural intervention of well-informed and competent actors, they will start using their position.
They will be bought (if they aren't already) by clients who are happy to get trusted and already embedded players to distract the general attention and to steer it towards the topics that their clients want to see discussed, at best going into the political direction the client would like them to go.
One of the "best" examples are GPlus and Aspect Consulting, which got nominated for the Worst Lobbying Award, supporting the Russian war propaganda, even though the strategy was still rather classical.
Altogether, I am watching the activities of the European PR agencies with interest but with caution - because they know what they do, and they do it for money.
PS.: And by the way, PR agencies are one of the most frequent recognisable groups of visitors to my blog.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Generation 2.0: Political individuals in the 21st century (hat tip to Jon Worth)
Jon Worth has written an article on political individuals in the 21st century that I can almost completely sign.
It is titled " It’s not a generational issue, it’s more important than that" and the main paragraph for me is the following:
The problem with the EU is that it is even more 1.0 than national party politics - more compromises, more technocratic understanding, more self-limitation due to false diplomacy. In some ways, blogging and tweeting are the only real means to express true political positions on EU-related matters, the rest is bargaining and power plays.
And since we are bored with these, we are here, discussing openly in the widths of the internets, no matter whether the Generation 1.0 (beta version) listens or not.
It is titled " It’s not a generational issue, it’s more important than that" and the main paragraph for me is the following:
"Blogs, Twitter and e-Communications more generally have given people like Eurosocialiste, Boris Wandoren, Kosmopolit, Julien Frisch and I the kind of public voice we would never otherwise have had.I totally agree with Jon, although I think that it is still a generational issue as I have written in a comment to Jon's post:
We’re young(-ish) individuals, answerable almost uniquely to ourselves, people strong views. In times past we would have been the annoying, nagging people at party political meetings, trying to hold everyone else to account. The internet means we have a wider audience to rant air our concerns.
We’re fine to argue back and forth on Twitter, because we’re the sort of people who would be arguing about how to make the world a better place over a coffee or a beer anyway; doing it online is hence really natural.
"In our generation, people like us have the technical possibilities to remain active although classical party structures are not what attracts us.The generation 2.0 of political individuals is using its freedom to freely express its views on politics and political ideals; we are using the means we dispose of to say what we wouldn't say in the standard political environment - not because we wouldn't be ready to defend our ideals but because time and circumstances would limit our focus and distract our attention from what we find important.
This is why some of us – still a small elite – can express their position more freely than within the compromise-driven and promotion-oriented political environment the generations before us have to live with (if they don’t learn to creatively use the opportunities they would have)."
The problem with the EU is that it is even more 1.0 than national party politics - more compromises, more technocratic understanding, more self-limitation due to false diplomacy. In some ways, blogging and tweeting are the only real means to express true political positions on EU-related matters, the rest is bargaining and power plays.
And since we are bored with these, we are here, discussing openly in the widths of the internets, no matter whether the Generation 1.0 (beta version) listens or not.
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Archiving web resources for a European Parliament Elections 2009 Collection
Below is an email I received on Thursday from the British Library.
As a scientist, I find the preservation of web resources an important work for a public archive, and with pleasure I agreed that they may use all content of this blog. I hope that others will do so, too.
(Email published with the consent of the sender.)
As a scientist, I find the preservation of web resources an important work for a public archive, and with pleasure I agreed that they may use all content of this blog. I hope that others will do so, too.
The British Library would like to archive the following website for European Parliament Elections 2009 Collection:
http://julienfrisch.blogspot.com/
Dear Julien Frisch
The British Library is developing a collection of websites relevant to the European Parliament Elections in June 2009. It is our intended aim to download selected websites once or more during the course of the campaign (from May to July) and subsequently make them available to the public via our website at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/.
The European Parliament Elections are of international interest and the British Library believes it has a responsibility to archive relevant materials for the benefit of current and future researchers. This project is an important collaborative initiative between European National Libraries which will set a precedent for international subject-based website collections.
We appreciate that you will be extremely busy at present however, we feel it is important to archive such valuable resources urgently before they disappear. If you do not wish us to archive your website please let us know, alternatively, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns at all. More information about copyright and how your archived website will be made available can be found in our FAQs at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/info/faq.
Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely
[Name]
Web Archiving
The British Library
E-mail:
UK Web Archive: www.webarchive.org.uk
pp.
Curator, Web Archiving
The British Library
(Email published with the consent of the sender.)
Thursday, 21 May 2009
European Parliament elections 2009 (111): EP web editors on the election night
Tibo from the European Parliament web editors has given a nice insight in the EP multimedia coverage of the election night on 7 June 2009, inter alia mentioning that 22 Twitter accounts in all official languages of the European Union will be set up by the EP web team to ease the flow of information on all results and coverage issues.
The English account already exists.
------------------------------
Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.
For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.
For the five newest post see also the sidebar.
The English account already exists.
------------------------------
Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.
For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.
For the five newest post see also the sidebar.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
EuroparlTV: How many MEPs...?
Nice little piece by EuroparlTV, interviews with citizens on their knowledge of the number and names of MEPs from their country:
How many names of MEPs from your country could you list...?
How many names of MEPs from your country could you list...?
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Council Working Party on Information to discuss access to information regulation recast and... Web 2.0
Next Tuesday, 21 April 2009, the EU Council Working Party on Information meets (agenda) and there are two interesting points under the agenda item 2 "Access to documents":
In parallel to the Council's discussions, the European Parliament is working on this regulation recast (co-decision procedure), and the issue has gone into the first reading and first initial votes in Parliament on 11 March 2009.
On the agenda of the Working Party on Information there is also another interesting issue under any other business:
But neither the Council website nor the responsible Commissioner Margot Wallström (in her blog or on the DG's website) talk about this event.
That is not even Web 1.0...
a. Seventh annual report of the Council on the implementation of Regulation No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documentsThis revision of the Regulation 1049/2001 on access to documents will show how the European Union and institutions take their democratic responsibility, in particular seeing how the Commission handles (in-)transparency and seeing how incredible inscrutable the Council works. At least, some governments, in particular from the north, have raised their concerns about the information access legislation, and now the Dutch government seems to join them.
d. Proposal for a Regulation (EC) of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (recast of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001)
In parallel to the Council's discussions, the European Parliament is working on this regulation recast (co-decision procedure), and the issue has gone into the first reading and first initial votes in Parliament on 11 March 2009.
On the agenda of the Working Party on Information there is also another interesting issue under any other business:
"Club of Venice: Workshop on Internet/Web 2.0 communication and on the implementation of the EP's communication strategy for the European elections (Brussels (IPC), 17 April 2009)"I didn't hear about this "Club of Venice" before, and there are not too many references to this thing. What I found is this information (own translation):
Created some twenty years ago, this informal Club gathers today the governmental information services of the European Union as well as the DG Communication of the Commission with the goal to exchange information and good practices.In other words, staff of the member states' governments and Commission officials will meet tomorrow to discuss the information campaign of the European Parliament and the use of web 2.0.
The Club of Venice meets twice a year, once in Venice and once in the capital of the EU Council Presidency.
But neither the Council website nor the responsible Commissioner Margot Wallström (in her blog or on the DG's website) talk about this event.
That is not even Web 1.0...
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Europatweets.eu: MEPs on Twitter united
A new initiative - europetweets.eu - brings together the Tweets of all MEPs who use Twitter. Very nice tool.
One example of a tweet I just saw:
One example of a tweet I just saw:
ALDE JeanineHennis (Jeanine Hennis): Proud to be a MEP. Though - sometimes I feel like living in la-la land (listening to some of my colleagues..;-))!!Welcome to la-la land, the world of Twitter!
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Daniel Hannan nationalises the European Parliament
Last week, British MEP Daniel Hannan ruled the world. Almost.
It is a pity that it has to be a speech from a British politician speaking to another British politician about basically British politics has to become one of the most viewed and famous speeches in the European Parliament ever (and for two days the most watched video worldwide).
The EP webeditors have discussed the viral effects of this phenomenon, but even Mr Hannan, a well-known blogger himself (which is one basic explanation for this success), seemed to be surprised.
So Mr Hannan has finally won: He managed to nationalise the European Parliament.
It is a pity that it has to be a speech from a British politician speaking to another British politician about basically British politics has to become one of the most viewed and famous speeches in the European Parliament ever (and for two days the most watched video worldwide).
The EP webeditors have discussed the viral effects of this phenomenon, but even Mr Hannan, a well-known blogger himself (which is one basic explanation for this success), seemed to be surprised.
So Mr Hannan has finally won: He managed to nationalise the European Parliament.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Is Europe a country?
I know that this is rather old in web terms, but I just learn about it at Europawahlgang.de, a German initiative that wants to get young Germans interested in the European Parliament elections:
"I thought Europe was a country?!"
I hope that one day this will not be a stupid question, but at least getting closer to reality than it is today...
(PS.: I don't support the sexism in the clip, but it's still funny from an EU perspective.)
"I thought Europe was a country?!"
I hope that one day this will not be a stupid question, but at least getting closer to reality than it is today...
(PS.: I don't support the sexism in the clip, but it's still funny from an EU perspective.)
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
EU Ombudsman: Easing complaints through an interactive guide
Via the European Union Law blog I found that the EU ombudsman - whose website Jon and me have criticised some time ago - has introduced an interactive guide for lodging complaints to the ombudsman.
That is a very helpful tool, leading you step by step towards the complaint to be placed with the ombudsman - or towards the right institutions to which your issue should be addressed.
I have started to follow the procedure for several steps forth and back and it looks very easy and helpful. If you reach the following words after a number of questions - eight in my case - you are at the right place:
That is the kind of online support that I would like to see more from all EU institutions - very easy, very effective, and very good!
That is a very helpful tool, leading you step by step towards the complaint to be placed with the ombudsman - or towards the right institutions to which your issue should be addressed.
I have started to follow the procedure for several steps forth and back and it looks very easy and helpful. If you reach the following words after a number of questions - eight in my case - you are at the right place:
The European Ombudsman should be able to help you.If you reach another result, the tool tells you why this is the case or where the complaint should be directed in order to be dealt with properly.
The "Could he help you?" section of the Ombudsman's website provides more information on how to make a complaint. A complaint form is available if you wish to make a complaint.
That is the kind of online support that I would like to see more from all EU institutions - very easy, very effective, and very good!
Thursday, 5 March 2009
The state of the (European) Union
Max Bergmann concludes in his article "The EU's political deficit" (in the Huffington Post):
(via Grahnlaw)
So where the EU goes from here is anybody's guess. The worries of collapse are legitimate, but it is likely that the EU will pull together to do just enough to muddle through this crisis. If it is able to get through, the opportunity could be there for the EU to strengthen its political union. The Lisbon Treaty, which is not far from ratification, is no cure all, but it would be an awful important step to improve Europe's ability to act more decisively.Quite general stuff in this article, but its on a prominent platform, so people might considered it more than other articles...
(via Grahnlaw)
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Kristina's (EP web editor) dream of the European citizen
In a heartbreaking post, Kristina from the European Parliament web editors describes her loneliness and her desire to meet European citizens.
Looking forward for you suggestions!
[M]onths pass and I cannot get rid of the feeling that I want to meet one of the tens of thousands of people visiting our website daily. Want to meet the real reader, to hear what they have to say, what they like, what they hate, what more they want to know, how we can do things better.Dear EU bloggers - at least those sometimes present in Brussels - what about organising a big or several small meetings with Kristina?!
Looking forward for you suggestions!
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Twitter, EU blogging, and the self-corrective nature of small groups
A very interesting article by Citizen Europe (Josef) was published on Sunday.
It has actually two foci, which may be interesting for different audiences but overlap in the small world of EU online maniacs: What is Twitter for? And what elements of Web 2.0 find its way in European media landscape? Some answers are given by Josef.
In addition, the self-corrective nature of small groups (and the EU blogosphere definitely is a small group) is shown by the number of corrections found in the second part of the text (and in the comments).
Through these we learn that the editors' profiles will soon be shown on bloggingportal.eu in order to make the process a bit more transparent. We are reminded that some EU bureaucrats who are blogging allow comments, but not all are published (I am still waiting for some of my comments to Mr Potocnik's blog...).
It has actually two foci, which may be interesting for different audiences but overlap in the small world of EU online maniacs: What is Twitter for? And what elements of Web 2.0 find its way in European media landscape? Some answers are given by Josef.
In addition, the self-corrective nature of small groups (and the EU blogosphere definitely is a small group) is shown by the number of corrections found in the second part of the text (and in the comments).
Through these we learn that the editors' profiles will soon be shown on bloggingportal.eu in order to make the process a bit more transparent. We are reminded that some EU bureaucrats who are blogging allow comments, but not all are published (I am still waiting for some of my comments to Mr Potocnik's blog...).
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