01 July 2007

EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases

EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases

EU Tube – Sharing the sights and sounds of Europe on YouTube

The European Commission has launched a dedicated channel on YouTube to make its audiovisual material more widely available to the public. "This initiative reflects the Commission's commitment to better explain its policies and actions on issues which concern citizens across the EU – such as climate change, energy or immigration" said Margot Wallström, Vice-President for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.

20 September 2006

VoteMatch Test your political preference

Interesting Idea to help people better find the politician or party that suit their real preferences and opinions bypassing some of the media glow effect parties try to create for themselves...

Seems not to be updated though since last year ... pity!


VoteMatch Test your political preference

05 September 2006

Care for non-profits

Since 1998 Care2 has registered over six million members and has partnered with over 150 non-profit organizations to create a progressive online community. The goal, simply put, is to make the world a better place and Care 2 has made advancements doing this by connecting people who care with organizations, responsible businesses, and individuals getting results. The Care2 site was created to host a forum for connecting and facilitating the efforts of those who care through user-friendly action-oriented online tools and resources.

Care2 powers and collaborates with three additional sites that work with the same ideals in mind. Frogloop.com provides online resources for non-profits such as a discussion board and a job board. Frogloop also provides information on events, conferences, and book reviews. MovingIdeas.org is an interactive policy site that allows members to post blogs and take action on current political policy related issues. The third site powered by Care2 hosts one of the main tools Care2 provides. ThePetitionSite.com is used to create, publish and promote petitions on any topic, for free! These sites allow members to pool their resources and promote lasting change via cause-driven education, activism and fundraising campaigns.

The interactive component that Care2 provides allows users to stay abreast of political issues that are important to them. They can create a petition that supports their views and follow legislation through Congress.

(From Weekly PoliTicker)


Online political campaigning resource

Epolitics.com, pioneered by Colin Delany, is a place where Web professionals can find up to date information about what’s working in the world of online political promotion and is dedicated to “dissecting the craft of online advocacy” and online politics. The Web site is an important tool for politicians and grassroots activists looking to improve their political promotion on the Web.
The focal point of Epolitics is a series of lecture-style articles on almost every aspect of online campaigning. It’s a one stop class for Web politics on topics ranging from the campaign Web site fundamentals through fundraising, blogs, email list building, and RSS feeds. One can learn how to optimize a search engine and the best ways to utilize SM messaging.
Founder Colin Delany articulates, "The idea behind epolitics.com is to explore the nuts and bolts of how folks can effectively employ the Internet to spread ideas, influence the political process and help elect candidates."
(From Weekly PoliTicker)

03 September 2006

GOVERNOR MARK WARNER GOES VIRTUAL IN “SECOND LIFE”

GOVERNOR MARK WARNER GOES VIRTUAL IN “SECOND LIFE”
~First American political figure to hold an event in the virtual world~

Governor Warner, in the shape of an animated avatar, will enter into Second Life this Thursday afternoon (August 31st) at 3:30 p.m. Eastern to announce the first-ever virtual-world town hall on American politics later this fall. The Governor will conduct a brief interview with Second Life’s embedded reporter, Hamlet Au, and officially launch Forward Together PAC’s new Second Life group.

read more here
and here

24 March 2006

Deliberative Consultation on Pandemic Flu

In one of the most exemplary recent US government efforts to engage the public around an urgent issue, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened a series of public consultations on pandemic flu in the last quarter of 2005. According to one of the project's sponsors, "To conduct this public consultation, the sponsors engaged stakeholders from various organizations with an interest in pandemic influenza (the National Stakeholder Group), and individual citizens-at-large from the four principal regions of the United States, including Georgia (South), Massachusetts (North East), Nebraska (Midwest), and Oregon (West)."

"The purpose of the Public Engagement Pilot Project on Pandemic Influenza (PEPPPI) was to inform decision-makers about the public's priorities for the use of pandemic influenza vaccine during a period of anticipated shortage. This information is intended to lead to a sounder, more supportable decision and to demonstrate that citizens can be productively engaged in informing vaccine related policy decisions thereby leading to more public engagement in the future."

According to Patty Dineen of the National Issues Forums Institute, "This is the best public engagement project and report that I have seen. I really think that what you've done is groundbreaking and should be required reading for all of us who are involved in - or care about—public engagement."
To view a report of the consultation, please visit the Study Circles Resource Center, which carries an excellent article and links:
http://www.studycircles.org/en/Article.393.aspx
(reprint from www.deliberative-democracy.net e-bulletin)

17 February 2006

Cafebabel: Successful Citizen Journalism in practice.

On February 1st, CaféBabel the first multilingual European magazine,celebrated its 5 years with a new language published, polish which is the 7th along with english, french, spanish, german, italian and catalan.
Created in 2001 by a group of Erasmus and French students at the Institute of Political Science in Strasbourg, cafebabel.com very quickly evolved into a European wide network of journalists and translators.

Cafebabel.com relies on the idea of "citizen journalism" with a specificity : all contributions are free and open to anyone that wishes to write, but all articles are edited by a team of professional journalists based in Paris.

café babel counts 22 editorial offices in 14 European countries and a network of over 350 young journalists and translators and is read by over 140.000 readers per month, with over 800.000 pages viewed.

Link: www.cafebabel.com


14 February 2006

A new European blog on Safer Internet

"Global day of action aims to highlight internet safety
The European Commission is leading a worldwide 'Safer Internet Day' to highlight the potential dangers of using the web.
Insafe, the EU's network for safer internet use, is launching a global "blogathon" to draw attention to the legal, ethical and safety issues associated with the internet. A wide range of organisations involved in promoting internet safety and special guests will make postings on the blog, inviting comments from users around the world. It will contain content in several languages and will have a geographical focus that moves west through global time-zones from New Zealand to Argentina.


According to blog tracking site Technorati, 70,000 new blogs are created every day, many by young people, while a Guardian/ICM poll in the UK found a third of young people published content online on a personal blog or website.
The aim of the event will be to raise awareness of the potential risks associated with the posting of personal information and copyright material on blogs.
Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media and patron of the event said: “Blogs are a popular new way of communicating for young people and for all age groups, so it is appropriate that the Insafe network is using a blog on Safer Internet Day to show how using the Internet can be enjoyable, and what young people need to remember when blogging.”


By eGov monitor Newsdesk
Published Monday, 6 February, 2006


Visit the Safer Internet Day website here:
http://www.saferinternet.org
The Greek counterpart here:
http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/focus/greece.htm

13 February 2006

Connecting to citizens - EU unveils new eDemocracy and communication strategy

The European Commission has a sweeping new blueprint to close the public’s ‘perception gap’ towards the European Union. The strategy will rely on multiple initiatives to create or reinforce two-way communication between citizens and EU institutions, with web-based eDemocracy consultation heading the list.

“Communication is first and foremost a matter of democracy. People have a right to know what the EU does and what it stands for. And they have a right to fully participate in the European project,” said Margot Wallström, European Commissioner for communications strategy, when unveiling the ‘White Paper on a European Communication Policy’ on 1 February.

The paper’s main goal is to mobilise all the key actors in eDemocracy – i.e. EU institutions and bodies, the Member States, regional and local authorities, political parties and civil society – in order to move away from one-way communication toward citizen-oriented dialogue. It sets out five areas for joint action: defining common principles for communication on European issues; empowering citizens; working with the media and new technologies; understanding public opinion; and doing the job together.

The paper seeks the widest eConsultations from society for each working area. The consultations will run for six months starting on 1 February 2006. A special web-based citizens' forum to seek views on a European Charter or Code of Conduct will also be launched on 1 March 2006.

© European Communities 2006


Original article and more links here: http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/5301/194

03 February 2006

Biggest-ever public consultation on brain science

"37 recommendations on the ethical implications of advances in brain science were presented on 23/01 at the European Parliament. The conclusions were reached after a unique debate across Europe known as 'Meeting of Minds' using the techniques of participatory democracy in which 12 European organisations, led by the King Baudouin Foundation, pooled their expertise in public consultation. They randomly selected 126 laypeople from across Europe who then interviewed some of the Continent’s leading brain scientists, neurosurgeons and psychiatrists as well as pressure groups and patients' associations." (from the King Baudouin Foundation: e-news - February 2006)

http://www.kbs-frb.be/code/page.cfm?id_page=125&id=711&lang=EN&frommail=1

http://www.meetingmindseurope.org/europe_default_site.aspx?SGREF=14