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

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

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

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

Impact of ICT on the Community and Voluntary Sector

The eDemocracy Programme of the Hansard Society, is working together with the NCVO on the first strand of the Foresight project – on democracy, campaigning and activism. The research will illustrate ways in which ICT might empower charitable, community and voluntary sector organisations and their supporters. It will also identify comparisons with citizen engagement in politics.

If you are aware of a charitable, community or voluntary organisation using technology to engage with stakeholders or promote campaigns in innovative ways please email the Hansard Society, via edemocracy@hansard.lse.ac.uk