Better Know A EuroBlog: August 2010 challenge

To much public acclaim, Martin on Europaeum proposed a new Twitter tag for blog posts presenting Euroblogs worth reading: #bkaeb (for “Better Know A EuroBlog”). The new tag has been described as a #followfriday (or #ff) recommending Euroblogs.



My own modest efforts to highlight other Euroblogs have led to two #bkaeb posts this far. The first post was on The European Citizen, a blog on relevant issues and with original content about the politics and law of the European Union.



The second #bkaeb post recalled Nosemonkey and Jon Worth as Founding Fathers among individual Eurobloggers.



After three blogs in English, it would have been nice to add some linguistic diversity, but instead my attention was drawn to the gaping hole left by now offline Le Taurillon (in French), as well as its sister publications in English and Italian (and German).



As we can see from the comments, as a stop-gap measure the German JEF activists had launched a separate blog, Treffpunkt Europa, but unfortunately without access to the database with earlier posts.

With no Le Taurillon post to read, and only four for Treffpunkt.Europa, I did not use the tag #bkaeb for my blog post yesterday.

I miss the French Le Taurillon, as well as The New Federalist (in English) and Eurobull (in Italian), and I hope that they reappear on their new server as soon as possible.

It is probably as futile to reject English as a bridging language today as it was to resist Latin as the common language of learning during medieval times, but individual blogs can reach out to respect the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of Europe, while promoting the shared values and joint actions aiming at improving the European Union.

The online world of social media thrives on linking and sharing. The Euroblogosphere offers the special opportunity to connect people across linguistic and national borders in the quest for a better future.



Here is my August 2010 challenge to Eurobloggers: I hope to see many Euroblog entries on Bloggingportal.eu and #bkaeb tweets promoting cross-border discussion in the pan-European online public space.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly, and as Eurobloggers we should promote interaction among Europeans. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:

I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.