Archive

Year: 2007

  • How will MEPs use the internet in 2009?

    September 5, 2007

    It is of course with interest that we follow developments in the current US Presidential election primaries. We love gun toting YouTube questioners and rejoice at the plethora of blogs, websites and social media that our US friends use to build their databases, motivate supporters and of course harvest small individual donations for campaign coffers. The question we keep asking ourselves is will our MEPs follow suit and adopt some of these tactics in 2009?...

  • Stubb returns to Strasbourg (thankfully we don’t)

    September 4, 2007

    Alexander Stubb, Finnish EPP member, guest blogs for the Economist this week. This being the first Strasbourg week of the new school term, his entry laments the regular treks down to the picturesque Alsatian capital that we have highlighted in the past. As Alex was packing his bags in preparation for the five hour (?) drive down the E411, some of us managed to sit this week out and only glimpsed the dizzy spire of...

  • Google News – make your own case

    August 14, 2007

    A constant challenge in public affairs is ensuring a fair case for our clients in the media. The influence of the most prominent newspapers is enormous. The nature of newspapers – the quest for brevity – can occasionally overly simplify complex arguments and overlook essential ambiguities. If you or your issue is misrepresented in the news, in the past the traditional response has been to pen a letter to the editor, hope that the editor...

  • The EU-US healthcare divide

    August 13, 2007

    EU: Universal healthcare rules In the EU, we take it for granted that pretty much everyone gets access to healthcare regardless of their ability to pay. Our healthcare systems are designed to provide universal coverage regardless of ability to pay and you'll be hard pushed to find people who question that principle, even if many of us might criticise the systems themselves. This means that on-line debate and blogging about healthcare in the EU examines...

  • WAG THE BLOG

    August 3, 2007

    The increasing use of social media in political campaigning in Europe became especially visible in France’s last elections (Royal vs. Sarkozy), but in the US they really have it down to a fine art. Right now in the US, with the race on for the 2008 presidential elections, everyone seems to be using social technology, such as YouTube, as part of their campaigns. The reason behind this is that the internet has created a platform...

  • How to practice safe blogging

    July 25, 2007

    Our EU blogathon article quietly lamented the small number of MEPs who blog. It seems to us that the most formidable ‘entry barrier’ to blogging is the frequent coverage of people who find themselves in trouble due to their blog. Every day unveils another blog controversy; a search of “blog + controversy” provides many examples. The problem with blogs, especially in policy areas, is that the content is controversial, the ability for readers to easily...

  • 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...

  • The inconvenient truth about celebrity eco-activism

    July 18, 2007

    Environmental campaigning has changed beyond recognition since the advent of the online world. Never has it been easier or cheaper to knock up a website, start a campaign or create an online environmental community. Slowly but surely, policy-makers have taken note. And now Hollywood and its celebrity A-list are jumping on the bandwagon. In the wake of the success of Al Gore’s The Inconvenient Truth, the latest addition to the world of celebrity eco-activism is...

  • Postcard from Italy – From D’Alema to Vaffa

    July 16, 2007

    "Unity in Diversity" is the EU's motto, although not of course officially. As it is true that to understand the EU we must at least occasionally look at what's going on outside our Brussels Bubble, we thought we'd venture out into the light and commence our virtual Grand Tour of what's going on out there in Member State land. This being the summer, as a first stop we followed the rest of Brussels and headed...

  • Virtual Protesters for PETA

    July 13, 2007

    There’s more and more talk in mainstream media about Second Life (SL) and at the same time we see that many large businesses, as well as official institutions (such as the US Congress) have made efforts to ensure a SL presence. But is SL really being used in the realm of public affairs and activism? Well, it seems it is… Once again, NGOs have been quick to embrace new ways of engaging people to take...

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