Netizens of the world, unite! Follow ACTA ad acta

Here are some more twitterers I enjoy following with regard to #ACTA and other things concerning politics in the digital era.

Professor Michael Kennedy @Prof_Kennedy offers a transatlantic perspective on the European citizens' uprising for digital freedoms.

The knowledgeable Internet policy advisor Ralf Bendrath @bendrath provides insights in both German and English.

The pseudonym A.Wood.B.Maven @awbMaven is an active and intelligent participant in the discussions.

Jérémie Zimmermann @jerezim is a pillar of La Quadrature du Net.

With selective tweets and discussion @CWICKET contributes more than a ”simple geek”.

Switching between English and Portuguese, net freedom is not the least of causes for @jmcest.

The founder of the first Pirate Party, in Sweden, @Falkvinge is now the evangelist promising weeping and gnashing of teeth to those who want to encroach on digital freedoms.

There are, obviously, many worthies missing. Follow, participate and share #ACTA to find your own favourites, then keep watching Internet politics.

Netizens of the world, unite!



Ralf Grahn
speaker on EU digital policy and law


P.S. For better or for worse, between the global issues and the national level, the European Union shapes our digital future and online freedoms. More than 900 euroblogs are aggregated by multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. Is your blog already listed among them? Are you following the debates which matter for your future?

ACTA online organisations, pundits and communicators

Many of the biggest anti-ACTA demonstrations yesterday took place in Germany. It is therefore only fair to begin with two German influencers of digital politics. Digitale Gesellschaft @digiges works for democratic participation in the digital world. Netzpolitik @netzpolitik is a blog and a political platform for freedom and openness on the Internet.

FFII (Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure) is a global network of associations campaigning for open standards and patent systems less detrimental to competition. Follow @FFII on Twitter or proceed to the web pages for more.

Glyn Moody @glynmoody is a prolific twitterer and writer, with four updates about ACTA and much else you can find through his blog.

Cory Doctorow @doctorow has a larger following than the vast majority of the politicians called on to ratify or reject ACTA. He yesterday sent the message through BoingBoing that Today is the day to kill ACTA.

The tech journalist David Meyer @superglaze has written a number of illuminating articles about ACTA.

These are some of the organisations, pundits and communicators I recommend following on digital policy (with more recommendations to come).



Ralf Grahn
speaker on EU digital policy and law

P.S. For better or for worse, between the global issues and the national level, the European Union shapes our digital future and online freedoms. More than 900 euroblogs are aggregated by multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. Is your blog already listed among them? Are you following the debates which matter for your future?

Euro cliffhanger: Crashing or not?

A short while ago @NinaMariaPotts tweeted me this:

@RalfGrahn Utterly depressing. #eurozone and #eu economies about to fall off a cliff - and #EU still scrambling around in the dark #crisis

Her tweet comes quite close to what I am feeling: Each day we see one step back from the abyss, but two forward steps towards the edge of the cliff (even if steps can here cover passivity).

I found the following blog post thanks to @TeraEuro. Blick Log writes clearly and offers us a background to the impending crash (in German): Europas Staatsanleihen: Ursache und Wirkung einer Finanzkatastrophe.

@npthinking made me notice this news item from Reuters about a Franco-German initiative to cobble together a new stability pact in no time and outside the EU Treaty framework. Since the public is given little useful (or convincingly hopeful) information from official sources, every rumour has to be taken seriously until proven to be wrong.

Thanks to @TeraEuro I stumbled across this blog post on Naked Capitalism: Is a Eurofix Around the Corner? Is it still possible that the euro crash could be averted, or did it become unavoidable a while ago?

Even if effective and expedient solutions are used, the basic questions about European level democracy are left unanswered and festering.

The euro and European level democracy are hanging off a cliff. Tune in for the next episode on the screen of your choice. Happy end not guaranteed.



Ralf Grahn

Twitter and Digital Agenda in your EU country?

Twitter is a wonderful news source. How about information gathering? I @RalfGrahn decided to test through this Friday evening tweet:

In the footsteps of #EU #DigitalAgenda does your country have a national one? In English or other widely understood language? Pls reply

If possible, tweet me a link to each language version and use hashtag #DigitalAgenda.


Ralf Grahn

Following the European Council #euco discussion

Are we going to develop a consensus on (new) Twitter hashtags concerning EU institutions and activities, I wondered in the latest blog post on this theme: European Council: Continued #euco discussion on Twitter (8 February 2011).

Inviting comments, there were also a few remarks about the European Union and the use of social media by European leaders, journalists and citizens.

@AnttiTimonen, a press adviser of the EPP group, admitted that there is much noise regarding the #EP hashtag and seemed supportive of #europarl.

From the viewpoint of the European Union #EU is another hashtag which tends to drown.

We'll have to check later to see if there is going to be more of a #euco discussion on Twitter and blogs.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. In addition to The Week in Bloggingportal, the Bloggingportal.eu blog has a new feature: The Month in Bloggingportal. The continually growing multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu brings you the posts from 743 Euroblogs, part of an emerging European public online space. Keep up to date and improve your language skills!

P.S. 2: On my Euroblogs I want to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations. Details of internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the recurring themes. Hopefully my blogs succeed in educating and guiding towards relevant sources. For me the blogs offer disciplined study as basic training for my teaching and legal counseling activities. My blogs are: upstream Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as usually downstream the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. If you are interested in European business, politics or law, we can get acquainted through Twitter @RalfGrahn or Facebook.

Twitter discussion about the European Council #euco

The Grahnlaw blog post Busy week in Brussels: EU politics and governance (5 February 2011) looked at the General Affairs Council (GAC) and the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) preparing the ground for the European Council, as well as ”summit” preparations and materials.

European Council conclusions and Twitter (4 February 2011 meeting), on Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (6 February 2011), offered a short guide to the different editions and language versions of the conclusions from the ”summit”.


Twitter #euco

The blog post noted that there was some common ground under the Twitter hashtag #euco with messages from European leaders and reactions from journalists and EU citizens.

If the political leaders have not discussed much with citizens, @Dana_Council of the EU Council press office @EUCouncilPress has invited further discussion about the #euco hashtag.

Since then, we notice one of the important functions of Twitter put to use. Toute l'Europe has broadcasted its informative post about the results of the European Council (in French): Conseil européen : vers un marché unique de l'énergie en 2014.

The Bloggingportal.eu blog announces The Week in Bloggingportal: Where the hell is Ashton? The inactivity of the EU high representative Ashton was cruelly contrasted with the blogging and tweeting activities of Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt.

We see the importance of perceptions, partly created through social media use – blogs, Facebook and Twitter – although in Ashton's case lack of drive and weak language equaled her feeble media presence.

@eDiplomat promises a briefing by Richard Werly on EU diplomatic challenges in 2011. At this stage we have an announcement, but nothing wrong with that. Somehow news has to get around, and Twitter is an effective means.

My own blog post in Swedish highlights existing strategic reports (Europe 2030 and Mario Monti), now available in all official languages, paints a background picture and describes how the proposals have been received. Here success or failure for us Europeans will be determined at European Council #euco level.

As I see it, the #euco hashtag can be put to various good uses, as long as the tweets deal with the strategic level the 29 characters of the European Council are supposed to act on (impetus for EU development, political directions and priorities), within the limits of 140 characters.

Lengthier arguments and discussions have to take place elswhere, such as on blogs, but announcements, short reactions and discussions are possible on Twitter, if the interest is there.

Perhaps communication and social media experts want to add their wiser remarks, while we are waiting for Godot to make his appearance in the form of discussion by and with the European leaders.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. In addition to The Week in Bloggingportal, the Bloggingportal.eu blog has a new feature: The Month in Bloggingportal. The multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu brings you the posts from 738 Euroblogs, part of an emerging European public online space. Keep up to date and improve your language skills!

P.S. 2: My Euroblogs aim to discuss legal and political issues relevant to European enterprises, jobs, employers and employees, consumers and citizens, especially in cross-border situations. Internal market reform (Single Market Act) and the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020 flagship initiatives) are going to be among the main themes. Hopefully my blogs educate and guide towards relevant sources, and I remain open to suggestions. For me the blogs offer disciplined study as basic training for teaching and legal counseling. My blogs are: upstream Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as usually downstream the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland. If you are interested in European business, politics or law, we can get acquainted through Twitter @RalfGrahn or Facebook.

Bloggingportal.eu and social media experiences in Grahnlaw post number 1,800

There is no magic in numbers, but it often feels comfortable to choose a certain date or an even number for a milestone. Say, the better life (learning Italian, keeping fit ... whatever) we start on 1 September – every year. Or, an even number of blog entries as an excuse to think aloud.

If active participants have called the Euroblogosphere self-referential, what can be more so than writing about your own blog, with no more justification than this being entry number 1,800 on Grahnlaw?


Temporarily, Grahnlaw has been centred more on Euroblogging and social media, than on issues of EU law, politics and policies. Online media offer unique opportunities for participation across linguistic and national borders, building European online public spaces. The explicit multilingual comment policy is one of new features on Grahnlaw.



Bloggingportal.eu



It has been a joy to see the continued growth of the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu, which has now reached 651 blogs related to EU affairs (Euroblogs).



The editors’ choices on the front page of Bloggingportal.eu (and in the daily email newsletter), as well as the weekly roundup on the Bloggingportal.eu blog (and in the weekly newsletter), are valuable, but they reveal only the tip of the iceberg.



The continually updated stream of new posts is significantly down right now, due to the holiday season, but I expect Eurobloggers to return with zest, after rest, and the published posts are worth reading wherever you are.



Linguistic diversity? Virtually invisible interests?



This is only a snapshot at an arbitrary moment, but there is an astonishing difference between the size of the language communities in the European Union (European Economic Area) and blogger activity in the 25 languages on offer:



Among the 50 latest posts, there were 2 in Danish, 2 in German, 24 in English, 2 in Spanish, 3 in French, 1 in Norwegian, 1 in Polish, 1 in Portuguese and 14 in Swedish, when I checked.

Are there any conclusions you would like to draw?

Should bloggers engaged in European affairs take up the challenge to place their language (among the 16 missing from this sample) on the virtual map of the Euroblogosphere?

Are some linguistic communities under-represented, even if there was a post or two?

The European Union does not have exclusive competence in many policy areas, but it is active in more than thirty broad fields, with shared powers or in a complementary capacity, and a plethora of more narrow policy issues.

The EU is the frame of reference for many policy debates at national, regional and local level (although more seldom discussed in those terms locally).

There are huge numbers of European interest groups and associated national bodies, businesses, labour market organisations, EU and government officials, policy experts, consultants, lobbyists, EU projects, Europarties and their political foundations, politicians at all levels, NGOs, journalists, researchers, teachers, students, engaged citizens, and networks, who need to communicate with the outside world.

In my view, the Euroblogosphere needs more professional blogging on real issues, but online visibility is a key to success and interaction between different levels of governance is a necessity for various interests, although regular blogging is hard work.




Yesterday, Anne Christensen described on the Waltzing Matilda blog how the Commission and the other institutions of the European Union are upgrading their presence on social networks. This lays the foundations for a gradual shift from an information mindset to participation. Some day more politicians and officials may become courageous enough to venture onto outside forums as well, or at least start following exchanges on them.

If even institutional dinosaurs are on the move, shouldn’t nimble mammals be running ahead at high speed?

Naturally, the need for “hard information” is going nowhere. I need the Official Journal of the European Union, news and documents from the Council and the European Parliament, as well as other EU agencies and bodies, both for my blogging activities and in my work as a lawyer, interested in cross-border issues.

Online media offer valuable news and comments.



Volunteer work by editorial team



In principle, there is a chance to look for blog posts thematically (Topics button), but Bloggingportal.eu needs more voluntary editors to tag all new posts (and highlight the best ones).

The system of available tags is far from perfect, but with added programming skills on the editorial team, some improvements might be possible, even on the current platform.



Why not apply to join the team of editors?

Willingness to do grunt work (tagging), an eye for journalistic merit and original writing (not only among mainstream media), linguistic skills and programming abilities are much appreciated. Editorial independence is a valued asset, so people working for the EU institutions, or with pronounced commercial or organisational interests may not fit the bill to become editors, even if their blogs are welcome. Do not apply with the hidden agenda to promote your own posts: This is off limits.

Central and Eastern European languages are still under-represented among editors, as they are among Euroblogs.

The editors form a loose network, with little decision-making structures and even less executing powers, but the team is also a community which discusses common editorial issues, and the team spirit facilitates occasional personal contacts regarding other matters between individual editors.



Own experiences on other social media



I have participated actively on Twitter for a few months, and I use it to announce when I have published a new blog post, but especially to follow what others in the Euroblogosphere are saying, to retweet interesting entries or article links and sometimes to engage in discussions within the 140 character limit per tweet.

Almost daily, I find someone new with an interest in European affairs to follow, and it is usually a pleasure to find that somebody wants to follow my tweets.

Tags like #EU, #euroblog, #eulaw, #eurozone, #EP (European Parliament), #europarl, #EuTrioBe (Council presidency), #bkaeb (Better Know A EuroBlog recommendation), #EU2020 (for the economic reform strategy) and @bloggingportal help to keep me updated on the Euroblogosphere and media, when the tweets on the Home page keep disappearing at an increasing speed.



I follow a number of Euroblogs and media on my own blog - jestingly the “canonised version” although constantly developing - but also more widely through Google Reader and Bloglines feeds, as well as email subscriptions.



A few days ago I joined Facebook, after dithering for long, so I have only taken my first tentative steps. While getting the feel for the place, I have had time to add only a small number of friends, but I have been pleased to notice that already some blog readers, as well as other virtual and real life friends and acquaintances have taken the initiative.

It will be interesting to see how the Facebook experience pans out in the long run.



Incidentally, I found that there are great numbers of European and EU related groups (even if you look only in English), which could start blogging and join Bloggingportal.eu (if they have not done it by now).

How do you relate to European online media and social media networks, and how do you evaluate your own experiences?




Ralf Grahn



P.S. The Grahnlaw blog invites comments relevant to the topics discussed, but the number and the variety of spam comments seems to be increasing steadily. This is the sad reason for comment moderation, so it may take a while before your pertinent comment appears. Sometimes technical problems occur, such as yesterday when I received nine copies by the same author of the same comment, of which one copy was published.

It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and 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.

Europarties: Yes to primaries for EU Commission President 2014

Conor Slowey (Eurocentric) drew my attention to the campaign for the Party of European Socialists (PES), to which he dedicated a thoughtful post on The European Citizen blog: PES primaries and a Parliamentary EU.



This made me reread the blog entry by Jon Worth as well: Campaigning for a PES primary.



This time around, I went a little bit further. I checked the Campaign for a PES Primary website, launched by Desmond O’Toole, as well as the Facebook campaign page.

A short while ago, the Facebook Campaign for a PES Primary group had already gathered 590 members, among them a number of top Eurobloggers and citizens keen to build a more democratic European Union, such as Jon Worth, Valéry-Xavier Lentz, Laurence Modrego, Martin T. Teubner and Conor Slowey.

The campaigners make the following demands:

WE want to be involved in selecting the candidate who will lead our party in 2014.

WE want to make European democracy a reality for ordinary citizens.

WE demand the holding of primary elections, involving PES party members across Europe, to select our candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission.

I hope that all the activists of PES and members of the national social democratic and socialist parties join the Facebook group, and that the campaign is successful.

However, the party loyalists who framed the call limited the scope to members (“our party”).


As an independent outsider I hope that all constructive Europarties field candidates for the presidency of the European Commission ahead of the European Parliament election in 2014, and that they nominate their candidate through primaries.


I still value my independence to treat the political parties without second thoughts, while waiting for one Europarty (and its political foundation) to show enough leadership in EU affairs and interaction with citizens.

Although I do nothing to hide my belief in the need for a democratic and federal European Union, as a lawyer I serve entrepreneurs and individuals of all persuasions, so a party political label is not necessarily on the top of my personal agenda.



The invitation to join the campaign was one of my first experiences on Facebook, where I have taken my first tentative steps, having participated actively on Twitter for a few months before that.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and 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.

Mathew Lowry and the European online public sphere

Martin on Europaeum launched the Twitter hash tag #bkaeb for Better Know A EuroBlog, for blog posts giving reasons for reading a specific Euroblog.



Mathew Lowry’s Tagsmanian Devil has been mentioned frequently on Grahnlaw, because Mathew has spent a lot of time and effort thinking aloud about the European online public space.

Please, take the time to read a number of older blog entries to get acquainted with the state of the Eurosphere.

In this #bkaeb post I am going to refer to the two latest posts only.



Mathew presents his starting points on group blogs, ethics and group inertia, inspired by the long but important blog post where Bora Zivkovic says farewell to Scienceblogs.



Mathew’s latest post Bloggingportal2: What, Why, How … and When? acknowledges that Bloggingportal.eu (BP) helps people find out what people are saying about the EU in social media.

However, according to Mathew, more is desirable and possible:

Human curation is essential to overcome the barriers of language and national political contexts. And that curation is what BP’s model offers.

So I would want to see BP remain focused, laserlike, on this aim. It doesn’t need to become an intranet for bloggers, or (another) blogging platform, or (another) group blog. People should blog wherever they like, with BloggingPortal doing better what it already does.

He then discusses the need for resources, curated policy sections and finding the necessary funds for development, before he invites ideas from readers.

By reading Mathew’s entries, you do not only get to know one Euroblog, but the state of the Euroblogosphere.



Mathew is the engine for SWOT analysis in the European online public sphere: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Please, join the conversation.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. Multilingual comment policy: In order to facilitate interaction in the Euroblogosphere, I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.

My Europe Tweets for even better Europe Days

In #MyEurope we don’t have to be dragged closer to the #EU – we are the union


In #MyEurope the right issues are solved at the right level - #EU or national


In #MyEurope #EU citizens have full political rights


In #MyEurope #EuropeDay is an #EU wide public holiday


#MyEurope acts as one #EU internationally


In #MyEurope we defend our currency and territory together


In #MyEurope we have the most modern Bill of Rights (Charter) plus empowerment of #EU citizens


In #MyEurope the internal market becomes a reality


In #MyEurope netizens’ rights are respected


In #MyEurope net censorship proposals are thrown on the scrap heap


In #MyEurope language rights are protected, multilingualism is promoted and everyone learns #English




Ralf Grahn