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Digital Tools in Public Affairs – presentation and links
December 8, 2008
Image by TPCOM via Flickr Last week I presented at the inaugural European Public Affairs Summit on digital public affairs. What was billed as a workshop quickly became an empassioned plea for more consideration of the use of digital tools in Brussels based public affairs. Thanks in any case to all those souls who attended, engaged in questions and answers and gave feedback to me or other FHers. All much appreciated. Any questions that have...
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We have a winner: digital communications sweeps Brussels awards ceremony
December 4, 2008
Last night saw the inaugural European Agenda Public Affairs Summit Gala Award ceremony, the second award ceremony of the season. Held in the (prestigious?) Renaissance Hotel’s Ball Room complete with US style oscar night voice overs (could they not find a European?) and Eurovision-esque compere, at least three of the awards recognised the role of the digital communications in Brussels. Worthy winner of the Commissioner of the Year, Miglena Kuneva, talked about the importance of...
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Why do letters on the size of sow stalls move MEPs?
March 28, 2008
Source: WikipediaWe highlighted the success of the online petition and social media activities of the Burma campaign last year and it seems that Tibet has also sparked a similar online movement. With the digital world potentially lowering the barrier to entry for those wishing to gather support around an issue, a Friday morning coffee corner conversation overlooking a cold Square de Meeus got us thinking about whether “expressed” public opinion counts more in some policy...
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From one seat to one president – a new digital dawn in Brussels?
March 3, 2008
Hats off to Brussels bloggers Jon Worth and Jan Seifert as they embark on a new Brussels digital campaign called “Who do I call?“. Their aim is simple. They think that the Commission President and newly created President of the European Council should be the one and same person. While we still remain to be convinced about the merits of the case, we do admire the team’s online efforts. (Admittedly as some of us have yet...
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EU receives petition of 1.294.997 signatures on disability rights
November 22, 2007
This morning saw the European Disability Forum hand over an EU wide petition of over a million signatures to the European Commission. The petition calls for stronger disability legislation in Europe. Under the new Reform Treaty: “Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens...
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Is Facebook useful for public affairs?
July 23, 2007
It seems to be Facebook’s moment at present. Everywhere we look people are talking about it – whether its our own FH Digital London colleagues debating whether MySpace is better or the Economist profiling Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg this week, it can not be long before Facebook becomes a verb and pays out to its founder (and perhaps his friends). However, we keep asking ourselves whether any of this is of relevance to what we do...
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One Seat – a breakthrough for a digital EU?
June 26, 2007
In case anyone missed it, the end of last week saw European leaders in Brussels to agree to the framework for an “amending” treaty to reform the way European institutions work. As Gideon Rachman has so equolently pointed out in the FT, the compromises on those pesky institutional issues return to the golden age of EU “obfuscation”. We have given up on seeking to get the citizen to understand the details of qualified majority voting...