The Week in Bloggingportal: A Crowd of Talkative Europeans

CC / Flickr - BY-NC-SA (Matthew Field)

THIS HAS been, without doubt, one of the busiest weeks we’ve ever had here at Bloggingportal towers. There have been so many great conversations going on in the blogosphere that the Editor-in-Chief has been reduced to a gibbering wreck trying to get us to cover them all. Firstly, let’s congratulate the European Parliament’s web team over at Writing for (y)EU – the winners of last week’s Readers’ Poll!

Here are the poll results in all their controversial glory:

The Top 5 Euroblogs (Readers’ Choice)

1. Writing for (y)EU

2. Treffpunkt Europa

3. Lobby Planet

4. Nosemonkey’s EUtopia

5. Jon Worth’s Euroblog

Treffpunkt Europa, after winning 2nd place, has temporarily broken down (could it be the sabotage of jealous rivals?) – but they thank everyone who voted for them. Lobby Planet has posted a thoughtful criticism of the poll (personally, I suspect the Rhino of sabotaging Treffpunkt) reminding everyone that euroblogging should not become egoblogging. Jon Worth is (after 5 years of euroblogging) the 5th best euroblog in the eyes of everybody (except, of course, those of us that would put him higher).

I’VE BEEN following European / EU blogging since 2008, and watching the blogs and tweets this last week has been like watching a crowd of Europeans talking politics. Spurred on by the report into the EU blogosphere last week (which Waggener Edstrom have since abandoned), bloggers, twitterers and commenters are conversing, debating, and even meeting each other in real life.

When the European Parliament closes for summer recess, the blogosphere always tends to indulge in a spot of navel-gazing (The European Citizen calls it “theology season“). Last year, we were talking about European identity. This year – it’s the fundamental challenges for Euroblogging; how are we going to get more people interested in Europe? Is specialisation the answer? Or is it time for a European group blog?

It might seem like we’re all being horribly self-indulgent by having this conversation, but there’s a reason we’re talking about this now. After the news that Charlemagne and Julien Frisch were quiting, we’re now losing another prominent euroblogger in Tony Barber – who writes the Financial Times’ Brussels Blog. He leaves us with this warning:

“The EU really must do something about the so-called “democratic deficit” – the alarming gap between the EU institutions and European citizens.  This problem is, quite frankly, reaching embarrassing proportions.”

Some of the oldest Euroblogs are closing down, and we need to attract new blood to replace them. There is an exciting proposal (originally an idea of the French blogosphere) to create a group-blog for Europeans – but not everyone agrees. An alternative (or complimentary) option is to add extra features to Bloggingportal (to turn it into a “social network” – a Bloggingportal 2.0). To this suggestion, I can only say – “Yes, please!”

Bloggingportal is a volunteer network, and we need all the help we can get. If you are interested in seeing a Bloggingportal 2.0 – and especially if you have any technical skills – we could really use your help. We are always open to suggestions on how we could improve the portal, so send us an e-mail.

THE BLOGOSPHERE has been buzzing with other news as well, of course. Next week, we’re going to be less self-indulgent and focus more on what’s going on in Europe (we promise). We’ve had some excellent examples this week of how the internet can affect European politics by explaining how much MEPs earn or how they vote, improving transparency, fighting censorship and holding mainstream media to account. The blogosphere also let’s us share personal stories, letting others know what Europe really means to us, or question just what the EU is actually for.

The growing EU blogosphere helps all these things happen. That’s why we spend so much time debating and arguing about it – because we want it to thrive and succeed. If you’re thinking of starting up your own blog about European affairs, you’ll find a community of Eurobloggers already here and ready to discuss the week’s news with you.

Let’s give the last word to newcomer Johhny Erasmus, who’s been “struck by how thriving and lively the EU blogging scene is.”

Glad you like it, Johhny!