• Ireland | MerrionStreet.ie: the government news service goes live - but not for citizens
  The Irish government has recently launched MerrionStreet.ie (named after the Dublin street on which Government Buildings is located), "the Irish government news service".
  The website is aimed at creating a new approach in communicating with citizens and based on the WordPress Open Source software platform. In an interview to Silicon Republic, the team behind the website even cited Number10.gov.uk as a particular inspiration for MerrionStreet.
  But Richard Fahey is not convinced that they are on the right track already: in a long and detailed post, he reviews the social media strategy of the government website, comparing it with those of UK and US.

• EU | Social media going local... on a European level?
  It may sound strange but it is how they may be used, according to Antonia Mochan, Head of Media of The European Commission Representation in the UK.
  In a long interview, Mochan tells the folks at Waltzing Matilda about about how she uses social media in her job and how they fit in the Commission’s news cycle:

• EU | Should bloggers get accreditation to EU institutions?
  Last March, the International Press Association expressed concern about the shrinking presence of European media in Brussels: it's recent news that there are now only 752 journalists with accreditation compared with 1,300 back in 2005. This created a debate on whether the accreditations should be extended to eurobloggers, lots of whom are already covering EU issues with competence, but lack access to documents and databases.
  Has the "eternal" question "bloggers VS. journalists" made it to the EU institutions, too? The situation might be a little different.

• EU | Should we give eVoting another chance?
  Voting in an election is not as easy as it may seem: during the British election night many people reported they could not cast their ballots. As reported by The Guardian, "at least 1,200 people lost their chance to vote on election night because of bad planning by councils, according to an official report by the electoral watchdog the Electoral Commission which says the entire system of running elections needs to be modernised ". The postal system didn't cause less problems, as some local authorities report postal voting enquiries up by 60%.
  The next question is unavoidable: could eVoting be a solution?

• Spain | The blogosphere in white coats
  Patients and medical walk through hospitals and surgery office, but also on the Internet. The Spanish network of medical blogs is one of the world's liveliest: patients seek additional information to learn more about symptoms and doctors share experiences, new techniques and studies. The blogs explore a range of topics, from rare diseases to government actions.
  "Some networks will always faster than can go the classic systems of management and organization" said Rafel Cofino, one of the most active bloggers. For these and other reason the most important bloggers in this field and the Fundación Gaspar Casal decided to organize the First Congress of the Health Blogosphere in Madrid. The conference will take place next June 14th and will explore this part of the blogosphere with teachers, experts in scientific communication and doctors.

Earlier today I published a story on Andrew Stott as the new director of digital engagement in the British government. Later I recognized it was a story from 2009. I deeply apologize to PDF readers for my mistake.

• UK | Introducing Andrew Stott, first Digital Engagement czar
  The U.K. government has hired Andrew Stott as "director of digital engagement" to push its plan to move more public services online and to pursue a better use of digital technologies to engage with citizens.
  Stott will be responsible for implementing the Power of Information Taskforce recommendations:

• Germany | From Minister Aigner to Mark Zuckerberg: the importance of privacy
  German Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner has written an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, expressing her concerns about Facebook’s plans to further relax data protection regulations:

• UK | Twitter: a new prediction system for elections?
  During the UK electoral campaign Tweetminster conducted a Twitter-based word of mouth experiment : they tracked the most mentioned constituencies and candidates and tried to map the correlation between buzz, word-of-mouth and the eventual election results through a predictive mode (here you can read more about initial findngs and methodology).
  The results?

• UK | Action replay: an Internet election in UK?
  UK has a new Prime Minister, David Cameron. As the new Prime Minister is working on the new government, it's time to reflect on how the web influenced this election. Well, we'll discuss it tomorrow in London at Action Replay, a formal review of the Britain's first digital election.
  Meanwhile take a look to some interesting views on the topic.

In the early primary campaign season of 2010, things seemed oddly quiet in Texas. In a heated primary battle, Texas Republicans did not get a single phone call, saw not one yard sign, and had no canvassers knocking on their doors -- at least not from incumbent Governor Rick Perry.

But Perry wasn't off the radar. He was online.

Are paper political campaigns a thing of the past?

Join the PdF Network on Thursday, May 13 as Ryan Gravatt, of Quicksilver Internet Solutions, shows us what campaigns can learn from Perry's experiment in online-only campaigning.

Thursday, May 13th at the PdF Network
Paper-free Politics: How the Internet Replaced Traditional Outreach in the TX Governor's Race
1-2 p.m. EST

Join the call!

Check out our upcoming PdF Network calls...