Euroblog: Franco-German EU girl geeks - vasistas? (Twitter tag #bkaeb)

Long before the world of online media or social media, in La Débâcle (The Downfall), the novelist Émile Zola described the ravages of war from the perspective of ordinary people, even if he hoped that a new France could be raised from the ashes.



Sadly, the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71, leading to the downfall of the Second Empire in France and the proclamation of the German Empire, was not to be the last devastating conflict between these two great European nations.



After the Second World War the relations between France and Germany have developed on twin tracks: European integration starting with the Schuman declaration (1950) and bilateral cooperation based on the Elysée Treaty (1963).



vasistas? blog



„Das französisch-deutsche Weblog – Le blog franco-allemand“ (The Franco-German blog) is how vasistas? describes itself on the front page. The About page offers us a bilingual description of the themes of vasistas?, such as digital rights, the European Union, human rights, as well as politics and society in the digital age.



vasistas? publishes frequently in German or French (with a smattering of English).



27C3: We come in peace (in German) spreads the word about the next Chaos Computer Congress, on 27 to 30 December 2010 in Berlin. The French version of 27C3: We come in peace is the latest blog entry in that language.



Überarbeitung der EU-Datenschutzrichtlinie nicht vor 2011 tells us that the formal Commission proposal to reform the Data Protection Directive 1995/46 will be postponed to the latter half of 2011.



Instrumente der Europäischen Union zum Datenmanagement offers a German version of the Commission’s press release about EU information management instruments, with a summary of instruments regulating the collection, storage or cross-border exchange of personal data for the purpose of law enforcement or migration management.



#bkaeb Twitter tag



The Twitter tag #bkaeb, which stands for Better Know A EuroBlog, is meant for blog posts recommending a certain Euroblog to potential readers. The new tag has been described as a #followfriday (or #ff) for blogs related to EU affairs.



Despite holiday season for the EU institutions, the online world does not aestivate. For the Better Know A EuroBlog August 2010 challenge I decided to endorse blogs listed on Bloggingportal.eu and active during the last week. In addition to the objective criteria, I narrowed down the potential endorsements to Euroblogs I follow.



On Bloggingportal.eu vasistas?, a team of two, has been placed in the category Individuals, and it has published five entries during the last seven days.



The authors, who present themselves only as kirsten and marine, produce one of the hidden treasures of the Euroblogosphere. The #bkaeb recommendation is meant to draw attention of readers to a good Euroblog and to inspire its writers.



The vasistas? entries about data protection and challenges in the digital era deal with issues important for individuals and organisations alike. There are many bridges to build in the Euroblogosphere, and vasistas? does its part in the construction work, between two important linguistic communities.



Women who combine techie stuff and EU issues gather at the EU girl geeks’ Table607, where you find some of the active female Eurobloggers, including the authors of vasistas?



Are you a female Euroblogger? Perhaps you should join? Table607 has a Contact page for you.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. 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.