• 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 | 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.

• UK | The Emergency budget: If you had to, what would you cut?

Last Tuesday Chancellor George Osborne delivered his first budget speech with detail on how he plans to cut the budget deficit. "The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that cuts in spending and increases in taxes adding up to £74bn a year are needed to reduce government borrowing to the level it was at before the financial crisis." reports BBC, launching a tool that allows its readers to create their own Emergency Budget.
But it seems like citizens will have the chance to express their opinion - or so it seems:

Standing in line, pulling a lever, filling in bubbles -- voting in America isn't exactly on the cutting-edge of technology.

But with just a video camera, a simple question and an internet connection, one small organization is transforming Election Day itself.

How can your organization use online video to change politics?

Join the PdF Network on Thursday, April 15 as Barnett Zitron and Jacob Soboroff of Why Tuesday, show us how a camera and an idea can spark a national conversation.

Thursday, April 15th at the PdF Network
Reform by Video: How to Build an Organization Using Online Video
1-2 p.m. EST

Join the call!

Check out our upcoming PdF Network calls...

UPDATE: This call has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 15th. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you'll join us then!

Standing in line, pulling a lever, filling in bubbles -- voting in America isn't exactly on the cutting-edge of technology.

But with just a video camera, a simple question and an internet connection, one small organization is transforming Election Day itself.

How can your organization use online video to change politics?

Join the PdF Network on Thursday, March 18 as Jacob Soboroff, Executive Director, Why Tuesday, shows us how a camera and an idea can spark a national conversation.

Thursday, March 18th at the PdF Network
Reform by Video: How to Build an Organization Using Online Video
1-2 p.m. EST

Join the call!

Check out our upcoming PdF Network calls...

• Italy | "Internet is freedom": Lawrence Lessig at the Chamber of Deputies
  There were high expectations for Lawrence Lessig's lecture at the Chamber of Deputies yesterday afternoon during the event "Internet is freedom". Some days before, the organizers asked people to tweet about the theme of the conference: the chosen hashtag was #difenderelarete, a reference to some recent bills attempting to limitate freedom of expression on the web. There were thousands of tweets and even more during the speech, making the topic the most popular of the day in Italy.
  But, apparently, mainstream media still don't get it: the lecture was preceded by a speech of the President of the Chamber, praising the Internet as a force of peace and innovation, and that is the only part of the conference that has made it to the news so far.

"If you're not on YouTube, you're not part of the discussion."

So said Steve Grove of YouTube in a Newsweek interview just before the first of the 2008 presidential primaries, adding, “It’s the world’s largest town hall.”

By the end of 2008, online political video had expanded beyond “macaca” and 1984. Users (and sometimes, snowmen) submitted questions for candidates to debate; candidates uploaded campaign videos that made their way to primetime without spending a cent on advertising; and a single candidate speech garnered over 6 million views.

The amount of content currently pouring onto YouTube alone — about 200,000 three-minute videos added every day — is the equivalent of 385 always-on TV channels. In July 2008 in the United States, approximately 91 million viewers looked at nearly 5 billion videos on YouTube. During the 2008 election, 4 out of 10 Americans reported watching political video online.

Are any of those eyeballs watching your videos?

Join us this Thursday, June 25th at the PdF Network, where Head of News and Politics at YouTube Steve Grove will clue us in to “Politicians and Campaigns on YouTube: What's Working,” and of course, what’s not.

To join the call (and get the opportunity to pose your questions directly to Steve), you’ll need to join the PdF Network.

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to RSVP for this and any of our other upcoming calls with such experts in the tech and politics space as Katrin Verclas (MobileActive) and many more.

Oh, and if you’re coming to the PdF Conference in June, your PdF Network membership is included in your registration.