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Introducing the PdF Europe Blog

BY Micah L. Sifry | Sunday, August 2 2009

In case you haven't noticed, a few days ago we launched a new "vertical" here at Personal Democracy Forum: PdF Europe. The idea is to gather a community of voices reporting, analyzing and participating in the ways the internet is changing politics in across the Continent, and to build a gathering place online for all the people who are interested in this November's first-ever PdF Europe conference (Barcelona, Nov. 20-21). You can find posts by using the url www.personaldemocracy.eu or simply coming here.

Like techPresident and PersonalDemocracy.com, PdF Europe will be a group blog overseen by Micah Sifry (editor), Nancy Scola (associate editor) and Andrew Rasiej (publisher). Our primary partners in this endeavor, and the leaders of the PdF Europe conference project are Marc López and Javier Majan of NuestraCausa, a network and a platform of projects about collaboration between governments and citizens that they co-founded. With their leadership, we are recruiting contributing bloggers for PdF Europe and also hard at work organizing the Barcelona conference.

Here's a little bit of background about Marc and Javier, as well as the first three contributing bloggers they've brought on board: Bente Kalsnes, Laura Bononcini and Rafa Rubio. If you would like to join in as a PdF Europe blogger, please contact Javier directly (javier-dot-majan at personaldemocracy-dot-eu) or start a user-diary, tag your posts "Europe" and we'll find you.

Marc Lopez has studied in Law and Political Science and decided to set up NuestraCausa with Javier after some years of working in the field of politics and public administration. In 1999 he was elected MP of the Catalan Parliament and in 2003 he became the Chief of Staff for the Minister of Agriculture of the Catalan Government, position that he held until November 2005.

Javier Majan is a political analyst specializing in 2.0 politics and Social Networks. He studied Political Sciences and Sociology, and he has worked on projects related to the Internet since 1999.

Bente Kalsnes has a MA from Georgetown University's Communication, Culture and Technology program. In addition to writing articles for Norwegian publications such as Mandag Morgen and Morgenbladet, she blogs about politics, technology and media
here. She is also cooking up wild ideas with the political geeks at TechPolitics.eu.

Rafa Rubio is Doctor in Constitutional Law and Professor in Complutense University (Madrid) and a Partner and Consultant in Dog Comunicacion. He is specialist in Politics 2.0 (electoral campaigns and e-participation)

Laura Bononcini works as a political consultant in Italy for international clients coming from the ICT-TLC sector. She is one of the originators of the “Inter-parliamentary Group 2.0” project, an association of Italian MPs and Senators who have decided to create a platform of debate with businesses and citizens on Internet-related issues. Born and raised in Belgium, she graduated in Political Science and International Relations at the French university “Sciences-po”.

News Briefs

RSS Feed thursday >

"Power Politics in the Age of Google"

TechPresident's editorial director, Micah Sifry, will be speaking this afternoon on a panel at Harvard University called "Power Politics in the Age of Google," alongside Susan Crawford, Nicco Mele, Elaine Kamarck and Alexis Ohanian. The panel will be moderated by Harvard Shorenstein Center Director Alex Jones, and will be live-streamed here. GO

House Republicans Get a Jump on the Budget

Via Politico's Mike Allen, the House Republicans are out with a video — this one attributed to Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy — getting the drop on President Barack Obama's next federal budget, expected Monday. GO

What Twitter Won't Tell You About the Election

A new study released on Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press on Tuesday offers the opportunity to get real about what the political conversation on Twitter and Facebook can — or can't — tell you about the progression of the 2012 political campaign. Pew has found that even among users of Twitter and Facebook, a paltry percentage of people use social networks to get news about politics: Only 24 percent of Twitter users in the sample and 25 percent of Facebook users said they "sometimes" got campaign news through that network, while a full 40 percent of Twitter users in the sample and 46 percent of other social media users reported "never" getting campaign news through either Twitter or Facebook. GO

Navigating New York's "Road Map for the Digital City," One Year In

In May 2011, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed a "Road Map for the Digital City," a plan to use technology to make city government more and participatory, and to leverage the city's tech sector for economic and civic gains.

New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne will join our editorial director, Micah Sifry, on a conference call this Friday afternoon to discuss the progress on that road map so far. The call is free and open to anyone to join. You can sign up here.

GO

tuesday >

Pete Hoekstra's Campaign Website's "Offensive" Source Code Changed After Outcry

As if "chop suey fonts" and obvious graphic allusions to the stereotype of the Chinese as the Yellow Peril weren't controversial enough, the group that created an incendiary microsite for former Rep. Pete Hoekstra's campaign has managed to further fan the flames with what it's calling a mistake in its code. GO

Fidel Castro Loves the Internet

“The Internet is a revolutionary instrument that permits the receiving and transmission of ideas, in both directions, that is something we should know how to use,” Fidel Castro told a crowd of supporters on Feb. 4, according to the state-owned Cuban newspaper Granma International. Castro, who made his first public appearance since April 2011, launched his two-volume memoir, “Guerilla of Time,” and took the opportunity to discuss issues of importance to him. Earlier this week, Miranda Neubauer reported that one of these topics was the need for the Internet. Castro has been a proponent of the Internet as a tool for the exchange of ideas since 2003, but the average Cuban citizen faces great difficulty getting online. GO

Claire McCaskill Hires Blue State Digital's Alex Kellner As Digital Director

Missouri's senior Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill has hired Blue State Digital's Alex Kellner as its digital director. GO

Controversial Hoekstra Microsite Targeting Debbie Stabenow Created By The Prosper Group

Michigan Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra has caused a firestorm in the past 24 hours with a new campaign ad that depicts China as a young woman riding a bike in a rural area speaking in broken English. The thirty second spot aired in Michigan during the Super Bowl on Sunday, and it accuses Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow of aiding ... GO

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