[We are getting suggestions from our readers about interesting initiatives and speakers for the PDF Europe conference. Thank you all.]

• EU | The European Commission Youtube channel...and a strange brand association
  EUtube is the Youtube channel of the European Commission, providing instructive and sometimes funny videos on many issues and EU initiatives, with a pretty innovative attitude.
  For example, watch the funny "Chemical party":

• EU | Managing communications during the ashcloud crisis
  EU institutions seems still shy moving forward in their social media efforts but the ashcloud crisis may have set a good example, thanks to Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. Technically, Eurocontrol is not an EU institution but a European intergovernmental organisation, but - as Julien Frisch points out "it is still a European organisation that has to work with obvious problems such as multilingualism and quite different stakeholders: State and public authorities, larger and smaller businesses and now also individual citizens, all having their own communication styles, working rhythms, and information needs."
  For further explanations, after the jump you can find Aurélie Valtat from Eurocontrol explaining how they managed social media communications during the ashcloud crisis:

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...

6.3 million: that's how many people viewed Obama's 2008 race speech on YouTube. 8.7 million clicked to see him dance his way onto the Ellen show.

By the time the Democratic and Republican national conventions of 2008 rolled around, Obama's team had uploaded about 1,110 videos on the candidate's YouTube channel -- more than four times what the McCain campaign had uploaded.

Is there a secret to moving a video messages online? What's the right mix of content, quality and, yes, quantity?

Join the PdF Network on Thursday, February 4 as Kate Albright-Hanna, formerly Director of Video for New Media, Obama for America, and now at VBS.TV, shares tips on building the right mix of compelling video content online.

Thursday, Feb 4th at the PdF Network
Digital Conversations: Using Online Video to Grow Your Campaign
1-2 p.m. EST

Join the call!

Check out our upcoming PdF Network calls...

"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.