... and we're back to work with The Europe roundup, some interesting links and many news to come on PdF Europe conference (have you registered?)

• UK | Tracking coalition pledges
  The Guardian has released the Coalition pledge tracker, a tool that allow people to dive into the pledges the government has made since it came to office (organized in lists and categories) and check if they have been fulfilled and what stage they're at. The tracker, inspired by the Obameter, lists the following categories:

The Europe roundup takes a couple of weeks off while we are still working on .
Meanwhile here's a talk and some readings we hope you'll enjoy:

• Sir Tim Berners-Lee's talk at TED from last February:
  

• 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 | Eurobloggers and EU policy: how to build bridges
  A couple of weeks ago on Public affairs 2.0 blog, Steffen explained the possibile influence of new voices in the EU, defining eurobloggers and policy bloggers and the intersection of the two groups. After all the conversations that followed the launch event of the Brussels Blogger Study, Mathew Lowry reflects on whether the lack of specialists in EU-oriented blogs is impeding the development of the European online public space.

• EU | The Brussels Blogger Study
  Brussels based PR company Waggener Edstrom has recently published a study on the EU blogosphere, called the Brussels Blogger Study (here available - but not downloadable). Many eurobloggers attended the launch event of the report (you can see all the Twitter reaction with the hash tag: #bbs10) [edit: as it was pointed out, almost all of them attended the event via Twitter, after Jon Worth - who was actually there - started tweeting. And he precised: "Odd then that I heard about the event via other bloggers, and had to invite myself to attend"]. But many of them weren’t convinced with the criteria that were used to determine influence and ranking.

• EU | EU Commission launches public consultation on net neutrality
  

  The debate on net neutrality has grown in intensity over recent months – we will respond with a Commission communication after hearing your perspectives and hosting a summit with the European Parliament.
  
  The process will be as open as the internet! As already made clear, I will not support any public policy that may threaten freedom of expression. I am committed to an open and efficient internet where freedom can flourish. And I have also underlined that I am keen to promote transparency, innovation, fair competition and investment in new efficient and open networks.

• UK | Digital engagement, where art thou?
  

  I don’t like the phrase ‘Government 2.0′ much, so the something bigger hopefully isn’t that. I quite like ‘Open Government’, and digital engagement is part of that, as is open data and general increases in transparency from government.

  A few weeks after the UK election, Dave Briggs wonders what is the place of digital engagement in times of austerity.

• UK | "...and free us from unnecessary laws"
  After Prime Minister Cameron's Spending Challenge, Deputy PM Nick Clegg has just launched "Your freedom", a website that addresses citizens, asking them suggestions for abolishing pointless and excessive rules and laws.

• UK | The UK Spending Challenge: the open source approach

Are you taking part to the spending challenge launched by the UK government?
Richard Fahey analyzes the initiative in depth, comparing the initiative to the Obama Administration’s SAVE Award, a competition that was so successful (over 38.000 ideas were submitted) that it has been turned into an annual event.
Then Fahey points out the importance of "the open source approach" to cut unnecessary spending:

Today we have a special feature insted of our usual roundup, thanks to our readers. 
Some weeks ago, one of our readers, Idoia Llano, suggested to bring writer and historian Paul Ginsborg to our next European conference. 
Anna Bellorbì, a researcher of Fundaciò Catalunya Europa (also a PdF Europe sponsor), looked into Ginsborg's new book, focused on democracy and populism, and provided this interesting summary. 
What do you think? What are the speakers that you would like to see at PdF Europe 2010? 
We'd love to hear from you.

The use of Internet in politics is creating a new paradigm in society: is there more democracy thanks to the use of new technologies? How much impact can have risks such as manipulation and populism?

Paul Ginsborg, Professor of European History at the University of Florence and author of Así no podemos seguir (Spanish for "We can't go on like this"), explains how politicians usually try to manage democracy - and its lack.
First of all, Ginsborg cites the "rhetoric of participation", used by every party when it claims to be "the party that listens to the people" and asks credit for that.
He then lists three models: