the buzzz autumn 2011 4

8/3/2019 The Buzzz Autumn 2011 4

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THEBUZZZ

Autumn 2011



EDITO

EU IN FOCUS

GEF NEWS

KEY FIGURE & QUOTE

COMPETITIONS’ CORNER

PORTRAIT

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Serbia comes to Brussels Page 4

Media literacy: a digital age cure-all? Page 10

Social Business Startup Camp: the step into action Page 5

A new vocabulary of crisis Page 11

Robert Madelin, Director-General, European Commission Page 8

To party responsibly? Page 6

Democracy 2.0 in Europe! Page 12

Building a bridge to China Page 13

The road to economic governance is paved with... Page 13

A bëjnë grate filma më të mirë se burrat? Page 14

I.T. in education? Page 7

The invisible battlefield Page 11

What do companies really care about? Page 5

CONTENT

Copyright © 2011 Generation Europe Foundation. All rights reserved.Publisher: THE BUZZZ is published by Generation Europe Foundation.We welcome your questions and suggestions on [email protected]

Become a fan on facebook.com/generationeuropeFollow us on twitter.com/GenerationEurop

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are notnecessarily those of Generation Europe Foundation.



There is surely a good joke to tease out about Google Buzz, the search giant’s

much-maligned attempt to break into the social networking game, which

was coincidentally launched only months before this magazine. Or if not a joke, then a lesson...

Google Buzz was a flash in the pan, a ‘me too’ service which failed to gain

significant traction. It showed how difficult it is to get ‘social’ right even for

the brain trust at Google, but in a testament to the importance attached to

the social web, they’re at it again with their new Google+ offering.

Also over the summer, Google announced the purchase of Motorola Mobility,

the pioneering manufacturer of mobile phones. It felt like a seismic shift in

the technology industry: a pure internet company moving in on the consumer

electronics space.

Just what’s going on?

We are experiencing a new wave of tech euphoria. The renewed faith in the

power of technology to transform nearly everything is based, in a word, on

connections. Smartphones and tablet computers enable us to be constantly connected to the internet. And

social networking sites allow us to connect with each other in new ways. But is all this hype?

As far as the financials are concerned, perhaps yes.

Many observers, recalling the heady dotcom days, believe that we are in the middle of another tech bubble, this

time fuelled by social networks and mobile apps. While the highly anticipated stock market debuts of Facebook

and Groupon have been postponed, LinkedIn, the professional networking site, went public in May. After the

first day of trading, the company was valued at $9 billion.

Whatever the market valuations, what can be said is that internet technologies have matured to the point that

they’re useful and accessible and even indispensable to millions of users around the world. But with new web

services popping up every week - invariably with innovative names that drop vowels and add extra consonants

- it can be difficult to cut through the cluttr. In the following pages, we examine some of the latest trends.

Enjoy the read! And please share your thoughts with us - yes, we’re present on both Facebook and Twitter!

Daniel , GEF Team (Editor-in-Buzzz)

The Digital issue

EDITO

/ 3



Almost two years after submitting its application for EU

membership, Serbia is still stuck in limbo as a ‘potential

candidate’. While the country might soon formally gain candidate

status, the accession process, up until now at least, has mostly

been a matter for the political elite. What about the citizens?

That’s where we stepped in. For the past several years,

Generation Europe Foundation, together with Bovan Consulting,

has produced a Serbian edition of the Europa Diary, funded by

the European Union’s Delegation in Belgrade. Most recently,

for the 2010-2011 school year, 75,000 copies of the Diary were

printed and distributed to all high schools in Serbia.

Similar to the editions destined for the 27 EU Member States, the

Serbian edition of the Europa Diary provides basic information

about the EU as well as consumer rights, health, internet safety,

environmental protection and much more...

As part of this project, GEF welcomed a group of teachers from

Serbia to Belgium at the end of July. The teachers, who all use

the Diary in class, were the lucky winners of a prize draw. Over

the course of five days, they took in the sights of Brussels and

the historic centre of Bruges.

The teachers also had the opportunity to discuss the practical

side of EU accession with an official from the European

Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and to

meet with a representative from the Serbian Mission to the EU.

Together with the language confusion, their international hosts

and all the Belgian food and drinks they sampled, it certainly

was a truly European experience!

Annika , GEF Team

We conducted a series of

surveys with students in Serbia

who used the Europa Diary

and learned some interesting

things. After using the Diary inclass:

- 49.5% are ‘interested’ or ‘very

interested’ in the accession

process

- 50.6% are in favour of EU

membership (35.8% are

undecided)

- 59.4% learned something new

(17.8% don’t know if they did or not)

Dušica, Milina, Marco, Ivana and Svetlana

/ 4

GEF NEWSSerbia comes to Brussels



/ 5

Brussels can be strangely quiet in August, as practically

everybody heads out of town on summer holiday. This year,

we took advantage of the slow period by giving ourselves an

assignment: to examine in-depth the ‘corporate responsibility’

reports of more than 50 large companies from different sectors

active in Europe. (The ‘social’ from CSR seems to have fallen out

of favour.)

All of the companies that we looked into, except for one, had

a corporate responsibility policy. And while these companies

uniformly support ‘good governance’, ‘good labour practices’

and ‘good environmental practice’, we also identified four clear

trends:

− Skills for the future: These are companies that are concerned

about being able to hire the talent they will need in the future.

− Environment: This applies across the board, from

manufacturers to investment portfolios

− Integration of young people: A lot of companies are reaching

out to disadvantaged young people.

− Technologies for the future: Many tech companies are

investing in pilot projects and research to develop green ‘cities

of the future’.

It is interesting to note that these trends are all future-oriented

and dovetail neatly with the work that we are doing here at

Generation Europe Foundation. We want to enable young

people to envision the future in which they would like to live and

to take steps towards achieving that future.

Despite the scepticism sometimes directed at corporate

responsibility initiatives, we’ve concluded, at least based on our

exercise, that companies actually are doing a huge amount of

work for the good of society. But they have a communication

problem: most of what they do remains unknown and

unrecognised.

The idea behind the Social Business Startup Camp (SBSC) was

born at the GEF GreEn Co-Creation Workshop in Brussels last

December. We recognised the crucial importance of the ‘flip’:

turning social activism into social business. At the SBSC, we

hope to bring people together from the NGO, social business and

Web 2.0 worlds, first to identify social changes that are needed

and then to lead them through a process to actually create new

social business startups.

I am currently travelling in the United States and connecting with

the international tech startup and sustainability scenes. After

two weeks at the University of Stanford and meetings in Silicon

Valley, my entrepreneurial journey has led me now to New York.

Since its beginning the SBSC idea has been about meeting,

discussing and working with the right people, and this trend is

continuing. The SBSC is being connected to great people, such

as the Share Community, as well as the processes tied to the

Rio+20 consultations. The SBSC is actively positioned in it,

because we perceive sustainable and digital entrepreneurship as

an important contribution to achieve environmental and social

business change.

The SBSC is rapidly evolving these days. We hope to provideyou soon with more information about our first events - stay

especially tuned until November and cross your fingers! We are

currently recruiting. If you are a social media geek and want to

become a social entrepreneur, join our venture as Community

Manager. Mail us at: [email protected] .

www.sbsc2011.eu

facebook.com/SocialBusinessStartupCamp

@TeamSBSC

Tobias Martens ,

GreEn Forum Representative from Germany

Social Business Startup Camp:

the step into action

What do companies

really care about?



/ 6

It is perhaps not surprising that, according to

one recent study, 71% of students have drunk

alcohol in the past year. But it is nevertheless

troubling to learn that nearly a third of

young people between the ages of 15 and

24 report binge drinking at least once per

week, more than any other age group.

Whatever the reasons that drive them

to such excess, young people, it would

seem, don’t fully appreciate the dangerous

consequences that their decisions can

have, both for themselves and for those

around them. But then who’s responsible

for informing young people? Parents?

Schools? The alcohol industry?

As it happens, Pernod Ricard, the second

largest producer of distilled beverages and

wines - including well-known brands such

as Absolut, Beefeater, Jameson and Malibu -considers it their responsibility to inform young

people about the dangers of alcohol.

In 2010, Pernod Ricard and the Erasmus Student

Network (ESN) teamed up to organise a series of

‘responsible parties’ across Europe over a two-

year period.

So, what can students expect to find

at these parties? To begin, there are

posters and flyers with messages

about binge drinking, peer pressure

and drink driving. But, more

importantly, there are ‘boots on the

ground’, young volunteers who can

speak to their peers about alcohol

and who hand out designated

driver bracelets, condoms and gifts

for those partygoers who have a

negative breathalyzer test.

Generation Europe Foundation was

approached by ESN and Pernod

Ricard to act as an independent third

party to evaluate these parties. GEF

Ambassadors have been attending

responsible parties and will continue

to collect surveys from participants

and organisers alike. The first interim

report by GEF found that, by and large,

this initiative was well received and has

had an impact on the drinking habits of

participants.

Arnaud ,

GEF Team

To party

responsibly?



I’m a twenty-first centurydigital boy, I don’t knowhow to read but I got a

lot of toys.

– Bad Religion

“

”

He is awakened by the sound of his mobile phone, which

has long since replaced the bedside clock as his morning

alarm. Groggily, he stumbles to his desk, where he checks his Facebook profile before hopping in the shower. At the

breakfast table, he posts an update on Twitter and receives a

quick call on Skype. With his headphones plugged in and the

music cranked up loud, he leaves for school.

This spring, GEF responded to a call for one-minute video clips

around the theme: ‘Making the Digital Agenda happen’, put

out by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for

Information Society and Media. The Digital Agenda for Europe,

a flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 Strategy, aims to make

‘every European digital’, as the slogan goes. The winning

submissions in the contest were screened at the first Digital

Agenda Assembly, held in Brussels on 16-17 June.

We are very proud that our entry was selected!

The purpose of our video was to draw attention to the contrast

between the use of technology in the everyday lives of students

and in the classroom. Are our schools ready for the digital

transition? Is the infrastructure in place? Are teachers prepared

to incorporate new technologies into their lesson plans? Webelieve these are important questions to examine, before we

plunge headlong into the digital future. To some observers, who

see that classrooms in many countries have remained largely

untouched over the past decades, the answer is not yet!

He sends a few text messages and records a short video of a cute dog on the metro. As he finally he enters the classroom, he

slips his phone into his pocket and takes his seat in front of the chalkboard. An old television set sits idly the corner. There is

no computer.

http://youtu.be/aPw-y_XsYUQ

I.T. in education?

/ 7



Around the time of the first Digital Agenda Assembly in June, you joined

Twitter as @eurohumph. You also have a Facebook profile. Do you find that

social media helps you to reach outside the ‘Brussels bubble’?

Yes indeed, I am on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I find these sites are agreat way to have a conversation or keep in touch with people from all over

the world, and to break out of the hierarchical chains of Brussels. I hope I

express myself in the same way and am as consistent on social media as

I would be at a conference, over lunch in a restaurant or in a newspaper

article. Yet the challenge lies elsewhere. I do not use social media to ‘reach’

people, but to also enable people’s views and ideas to ‘reach’ me. This is a

two-way process, part of a new global communication culture which I would

like to be as transparent, effective and direct as possible. Information has

never moved as quickly as it does today and social media are one way of

keeping people connected wherever they are.

This past spring, you held a meeting to discuss the role of young people

in the Digital Agenda for Europe, which Generation Europe Foundation

attended. What were the outcomes?

These were very good meetings and I know that Neelie Kroes was also

inspired by what we heard from the ‘digital angels’. They gave us their very

clear views on how the European Commission can help deliver the Digital

Agenda: we should communicate better, working hand-in-hand with the

public we want to reach; we have to inform and empower citizens to deal

with privacy and cybersecurity. We talked about the need to ensure young

experts’ and SMEs’ access to European funds if we want to benefit from

their creativity and innovative ideas. This certainly gave us food for thought.

RobertMadelinDirector-General,

European Commission,Directorate-General for

Information Society and Media

/ 8

PORTRAIT



But overall, I was excited mostly by the new way of doing things: a way that is highly creative and inherently

collaborative, and is based on the limitless potential and opportunities for communication opened up by new

technologies. This meeting was not the end of the process but the beginning of an ongoing dialogue. I have no doubt

that empowering this new generation, involving them in the Digital Agenda, can help policymakers go further and reach a

better, more digital future.

What do you see as the main hurdles to every European becoming digital?

There are, indeed, quite a few hurdles to clear before every European is digital: a quarter of Europeans have never used the

internet or lack the essential skills to be confident in the digital world or in the workplace. Another quarter, which is already using

internet, avoids shopping online over security concerns; so we need to enhance consumer trust in digital technologies.

For me, the main hurdle, and as a precondition for all of the above, is the need to have the right infrastructure capable of

delivering the ultra-fast internet connections which Europe’s citizens, businesses and economy need to keep competitive in

today’s world. But it is not the hurdles we focus on; we’d rather look forward and concentrate on the solutions. For example,

in our next financial planning, we have put the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ with a budget of €9.2 billion for 2014-2020, which

should help to give everyone the possibility of having high speed access.

One of the most tangible benefits for European consumers in recent years has been the cap on mobile roaming charges,

which the Commission would now like to eliminate entirely by 2015. What other policies from DG INFSO will have such an

immediate impact on citizens?

Our roaming policy is about choice and value: price caps are just one tool. Now, we want to open up the roaming market to

competition and increase consumer choice. This will create the structural conditions for that and will keep consumer prices

down. As of 2014, you will be able to select a different roaming provider alongside the operator you use for domestic mobile

services and new market players will have guaranteed access to the networks of mobile operators. Until these measures

take effect, we’ve proposed to keep caps in place until 2016 and introduce a new cap for data roaming.

Besides roaming, the new telecoms rules which came into force earlier this year mean consumers benefit from more competitive,

efficient and trustworthy communications than ever before. For example, consumers can now change their fixed or mobile operator in just one working day without having to change their phone number; they should be better informed on the communications services

they receive (e.g. is their connection speed as fast as promised?); and their privacy and personal data (names, e-mails, bank accounts)

are better protected as service providers now have the obligation to inform authorities and their customers about security breaches

affecting this data.

In the EU’s first Radio Spectrum Policy Programme, we have earmarked more

than 1 GHz of spectrum for wireless broadband. This means that people in

remote areas, for example, will have access to the internet through high speed

wireless connections. This should also spur the take up of 4 th generation mobile

communication systems which can offer internet access speeds above 100

Mbps, more than ten times faster than current systems.

With the notable exception of Skype, most big name internet startups seem to be American. How important is digital entrepreneurship

to the European economy? Do we need our own Silicon Valley?

Europe has entrepreneurs. But we need to build a better ‘innovation ecosystem’ of innovators, venture capital, business angels, repeat

entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators and billion dollar multinationals, alongside experts in technology, marketing, finance, etc.

Through the Digital Agenda, we are trying to create the right conditions for digital entrepreneurs to flourish and for their new and innovative

ideas to become a reality that is accessible to all of us. We already have a pan-European network of researchers in academia and the private

sector, unmatched anywhere else. And we need to build on this unique base and inject a more entrepreneurial culture in our universities;

invest in stronger trans-European networks of researchers, venture capital, and entrepreneurs; and stimulate our ‘old’ multinationals and

incumbents to be more innovation-friendly and to embrace, not fight, new technologies and disruptive business models.

/ 9

@eurohumph

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/

www.facebook.com/#!/robert.madelin



l33tspeak and txtese are foreign

languages to most of us who are casual

users of information technology, but

internet slang is practically the mother

tongue of young people who have never

known a world without computers and

mobile phones. They seem entirely at

ease with each successive wave of newtechnology... to the frustration of older

generations who struggle to keep up with

the latest developments.

Those who master these new

technologies have unprecedented access

to a near-limitless supply of information.

This has, in turn, transformed the

nature of knowledge from learning by rote

to knowing how to find the right answer:

googling has become the instinctive

response to all manner of questions.

But for all the benefits technology has

brought, we are at risk of drowning in a

sea of information. Sifting through all

the resources now at our fingertips has

become extremely important.

Media literacy is the key to navigating

this brave new digital world. It first and

foremost denotes the ability to find

reliable sources of information and to

identify bias in the way information is

presented in order to protect ourselves

against manipulation. This traditional

definition is, however, limited to media

consumption - and it has been passed by

the times. With the spread of internet-

connected gadgets and free publishing

platforms, media literacy must also

address content creation.

The advent of cheap, user-friendly

technology is turning the next generation

from passive recipients of culture into

empowered contributors. Amateurs can

now dabble in previously inaccessible

arts - digital cameras, for example,

turn everyone into a photographer or

filmmaker.

Media literacy implies not only the ability

to express ourselves in the new language

of technology, but also to understand

how these tools can be used to lead or

mislead the audience. In the internet age

then, media consumption and production

go hand-in-hand: having the skills to

create digital information helps us to

become more conscientious consumers

of information.

A comprehensive definition of media

literacy today must go further still:

internet users also need to be aware of

the implications of an online life. Who are

we talking to? What are we sharing? How

are we behaving? It is of vital importance,

for instance, to understand that privacy

does not obey the same rules and

limitations as ‘meatspace’.

By now, it is obvious that media literacy

requires more than a sound knowledge

of information technology. As is often the

case with technology, young people will

learn about this tangle of issues on their

own by trial and error.

And even if they aren’t up to speed with

the latest advancements in technology,

the older generations can still help guide

young people with their experience,

knowledge and wisdom, which is just as

applicable to the internet as it is to the

‘real world’.

Media literacy will be increasingly

important to participate fully in the

society of the 21st

century - in theclassroom, in the workplace and in

our everyday lives. Those who avoid

the pitfalls will benefit from access to

information, digital citizenship and ICT-

enabled change.

GLOBALPERSPECTIVEMedia literacy:

a digital age cure-all?

/ 10



Hacking, in the sense of unauthorised

access to computer networks, is hardly

new. Kevin Mitnick, perhaps the most

well-known hacker, gained notoriety

in the 1980s, before most people had

even heard of the internet, much less

logged on for the first time.

These attacks can take

various forms, from tricking

users into revealing their

passwords to exploiting

software defects. There

have been a number of high-

profile network breaches

and virus outbreaks over the years, and

cybersecurity has consequently become

a big business.

But as more and more critical services

are moved online, the nature of these

attacks has begun to change. Although

it’s fiendishly difficult to prove, there isgrowing suspicion that governments are

now sponsoring hackers. The mounting

evidence includes: the infiltration of

human rights activists’ email accounts

in China; the Stuxnet ‘worm’ which

specifically targeted Iran’s nuclear

facilities; and a serious attack on the

computer systems of the EU institutions

on the eve of a European Council

summit.

These incidents raise the frightening

spectre of cyberwarfare in the 21st

century. While an all-out cyberwar that

brings modern society to a grinding

halt remains the stuff of science fiction,

more mundane threats do exist - and

they also need to be taken seriously.

We must avoid falling prey to

scaremongering, but at the same time

remain prudent.

With everything from medical recordsto financial transactions now stored

on computers, we are all

potential targets. There have

been an alarming number

of cases in recent years of

hackers stealing credit card

and bank account details.

As has been clear from the

beginning, the most important thing

for staying safe online is the education

of end users, from devising strong

passwords to knowing who to trust.

www.enisa.europa.eu

We are witnessing the emergence of a

new vocabulary of crisis, as we stretch

our language to reflect the extraordinary

events of today. In the first phase, against

the backdrop of floundering banks and

haemorrhaging stock markets, we had to

wrap our heads around esoteric financial

terms like subprime mortgages and

credit default swaps. Now, as the crisis

continues into a fourth year, the argot

has taken on a distinctly more social

flavour.

Take, for instance, precariat , a port-

manteau of precarious and proletariat.

Notwithstanding the disputed origins

- by some accounts, it dates back to

the 1980s - the word has gained new

currency in Japan in recent years. From

there, the term has spread into global

circulation.

Precariat describes the economic

insecurity and social dislocation that

have resulted from the drive for more

‘flexible’ labour markets. The precariat

includes educated young people who no

longer see a positive future; the many

who work on short-term contracts and

without benefits, are left, above all, with

a feeling of uncertainty.

Here in Europe, the crisis has given rise

to the indignados movement, which in

many respects is a manifestation of

the precariat. The movement as such

originated in Spain, but has also seen

expressions in other countries like the

Αγανακτισμένοι in Greece.

The indignados are leading a non-violent

protest against the austerity measures.

While they do not necessarily share

a political colour, the protestors are

united in the face of what they view as

a corrupt system. They feel voiceless

and disenfranchised. They want to build

a different future. And as they do, our

language will continue to evolve.

A new vocabulary of crisis

The invisible battlefield

©

Z s uz s ann a

K i l i an

/ 11



The internet heralds a new age of

democracy, at once representative and

participatory. Technology has not only

transformed the relationship between

citizens and their representatives

in government by removing the

intermediaries, but has also opened

new avenues for citizen participation in

the political process. Barack Obama’s

2008 election campaign is often held up

as the example par excellence of these

changes.

But what about Europe, whose

‘democratic deficit’ is still in need of

remedy? In fact, there are several

efforts underway to connect citizens

with the 736 Members of the European

Parliament (MEPs).

One of the most high profile is Citzalia,

currently in beta testing. In many

respects, Citzalia is reminiscent of

Second Life, the online virtual world. It is

a cross between a role-playing game and

a social network. Users create avatars

which inhabit a virtual recreation of the

parliament. There, they can learn about

EU decision-making, follow the latest

news, join discussions and interact

with other users - perhaps, one day,

even with actual MEPs. Of course, the

success of Citzalia will depend on the

platform’s ability to attract and retain a

critical mass of users, which is far from

assured.

Instead of convincing us to maintain

yet another online presence, Tweet Your

MEP facilitates the use of an already

popular service. More than one third of

MEPs are active on Twitter at last count.

While there are websites which bring

all of these different streams together

in one convenient location, Tweet Your

MEP goes a step further by actively

encouraging debate. Users can search

by country or policy field for MEPs who

have Twitter accounts and then pose a

question directly from the website - in

less than 100 characters! The questions

and answers are displayed right on the

Tweet Your MEP site for all to see.

With tools such as these available, is the

internet having a noticeable effect on

democracy in Europe?

A recent study by Fleishman-Hillard,

the public relations agency, confirms

that number of MEPs who ‘extensively’

use online social networks has

almost doubled since 2009. Still,

parliamentarians prefer to communicate

through their personal websites (which

aren’t necessarily interactive) and those

who do actually tweet or blog do so inorder to broadcast their views rather

than engage in conversation. So, it bears

asking: do they really get it?

Democracy 2.0 in Europe

/ 12

EUINFOCUS

www.citzalia.eu

www.tweetyourmep.eu



With all of the superlatives affixed to

China’s rising star - the People’s Republic

recently overtook Germany to become

the leading exporter and supplanted

Japan as the second largest economy

in the world - it is difficult at times to

escape the feeling that Europe has been

eclipsed, at least in economic terms.

While tempers have flared in the past,

as was the case during the infamous

‘bra wars’ over textile imports, the EU

and China remain important trading

partners. But is there something more

to the relationship than commercial ties?

In an attempt to answer that question

affirmatively, the two sides have, true

to fashion, inaugurated a series of

thematic years. Officials have given

a nod to the important role of young

people in deepening the relationship by

designating 2011, the first such year, as

the EU-China Year of Youth.

As is always the case with thematic

years, the calendar is punctuated

by a few high-level events. What is

more interesting are the topics to be

addressed, such as youth employment,

entrepreneurship and voluntaryactivities (2011 is also the European Year

of Volunteering), all of which seem to be

cropping up everywhere these days. It is

recognition that these are serious issues

with a global scope.

2012 will be in the EU-China Year of

Intercultural Dialogue, which almost

seems redundant, given that’s the entire

raison d’être of these years in the first

place.

www.2011euchinayouth.eu

www.facebook.com/EU.China.

YEARofYOUTH

Building a bridge to China

Buckle up! The financial markets took

us for a wild ride this summer, and the

road ahead looks decidedly bumpy.

Social unrest gripped Greece in June, as

people took to the streets to protest

the austerity measures imposed on

the country. Despite the painful cuts

already made, the markets were still not

satisfied with the results.

At an emergency summit convened in

Brussels at the end of July, eurozone

leaders agreed on a second bailout

for Greece and, at the same time, to

strengthen the European Financial

Stability Facility. But the accord, which

still needs to be signed off by the

national parliaments of the eurozone

countries, has already been passed by

events.

The markets are losing patience with

the lack of decisive action: despite the

severity of the crisis, European leaders

continue to apply plaster, instead of a

tourniquet. We are lurching from one

makeshift solution to another, while

Greece edges closer to default and the

markets turn on Spain and Italy and

now French banks. Our troubles in the

eurozone have started to worry world

leaders, many of whom, in a bizarre

reversal, have offered to help Europe.

As politicians yank the steering wheel

this way and that, trying to influence

the direction of events, citizens have

been left behind. At the time, the July

agreement was hailed as a deepening

of European integration, but this is

integration driven by market forces, not

by popular will. And as long as leaders

opt for austerity over a growth agenda,

citizens will be the ones to feel the pain.

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_

finance/focuson/crisis/index_

en.htm

The road to economic governance is

paved with…

/ 13



Diskutimi mbi pjesëmarrjen e grave në pozita drejtuese dhe

sipërmarrëse ka marrë një shtytje të konsiderueshme falë

përfshirjes në nivel ndërkombëtar të Kombeve të Bashkuara

dhe në Objektivat e Zhvillimit të Mijëvjeçarit (OZHM). Sdat dhe

problemet e reja me të cilat ballafaqohen gratë në shoqërinë

e sotme kërkojnë pjesëmarrjen e tyre aktive në pozita

drejtuese. Kjo është thelbësore për ndërtimin e një shoqërie më

demokratike dhe më përfshirëse.

Në njëzet vitet e fundit bota është përballur me një shpërthim

në fushën e artit. Me përparimet në teknologjinë kompjuterike,

televizionin kabllor, si dhe qasjet globale në informacion, rriten

dhe zgjerohen mundësitë e reja për pjesëmarrjen e grave në

sipërmarrjen e artit dhe shpërndarjen e informacionit në lidhje

me gratë.

Megjithatë, këto zhvillime sjellin sda dhe pengesa të reja.

Situata aktuale globale në media tregon vazhdimësi dhe

përforcim të imazheve negative të grave duke mos dhënë një

pamje reale mbi rolet e shumta të grave dhe kontributet për një

botë në ndryshim. Edhe më delikate është përdorimi i pjesëve

të trupit të grave si objekte seksi nga media, dhe dhunën ndaj

grave si “argëtim”. Përfshirja më e madhe e grave në si në fushën

teknike dhe vendim-marrëse të biznesit të

artit do të rrisë ndërgjegjësimin e

jetës së grave nga perspektiva

e tyre.

Realizimi i grave në

fushën e artit ishte në

qendër të debatit në

tavolinën e rrumbullakët

të Drejtuesve në Female

Eye Festival (FeFF) që

u realizua në Toronto,

Kanada nga 16-20 Mars

2011. Në këtë festival ufestua 9-vjetori i paraqitjes

së lmave të pavarur të

realizuar nga gratë e

talenduara drejtuese nga

gjithe bota.

Përveç prezantimit të punës së drejtuesve premtuese dhe të

famshëme, festivali shërbeu si forum i debatit aktual në lidhje

me gratë sipërmarrëse në fushën e lmit. Drejtuesja e talentuar

shqiptare Vilma Zenelaj paraqiti projektin e saj më të fundit “In

the Woods” apo “Në Pyll”, me aktorët Greta Zenelaj (Eva), David

Landry (Steve) dhe Roço DiNobile (Carl). Gjatë tavolinës së

rrumbullakët, diskutimi u fokusua edhe në hendekun mes

producentëve burra dhe gra.

Sda kryesore që gratë drejtuese përballen, përveç shterimit të

mjeteve të tyre personale për të realizuar projektet e tyre apo

mungesës së mbështetjes nga distributorët, është ‘audienca

e vështirë”. Të gjesh njerëz që mbështesin lmat është një

strategji e rëndësishme e nancimit dhe të marketingut. Gjetja

e investitorëve është një tjetër komponent kyç për të qenë të

suksesshëm.

Këndvështrimi gjinor duhet të zhvillohet nga pikëpamja

e diversitetit që rolet e grave shfaqin në industrinë ekinematograsë. Ka nevojë për gra të afta që mund të

zhvillojnë, prodhojnë dhe të bëjnë lma. Fokusi nuk duhet të

jetë në konceptin dhe përmbajtjen e lmave më shumë sesa të

kërkohet nëse gratë bëjnë ma më të mirë sesa burrat. Pyetja

duhet të jetë: Çfarë e bën një lm të mirë? Si mund që gratë

dhe burrat të përparojnë industrinë e lmit duke përmbushur

pritshmëritë e audiencave të larmishme? Si mund krijuesit e

pavarur të lmave të bëhen pjesë maxhoritare e zhanrit të lmit?

Këto pyetje janë vendimtare për të ardhmen e lmave.

Suksesi arrihet nëpërmjet krijimit të projektit ideal duke përdorur

paratë e njerëzve të tjerë. Nëse kjo nuk ndodh, nënkupton sedrejtuesi/drejtuesja duhet të rishqyrtojë strategjitë e marketingut

për të shitur më mirë skenarin, për të përmirësuar aftësitë e

prodhimit apo të përcaktojë qartë pse investitori duhet të

nancojë projektin. Jo kushdo mund të behët prodhues lmash,

ndaj ka nevojë për drejtues/drejtuese dhe prodhues/prodhuese

të aftë në këtë industri.

Dr. Ermira Babamusta and

Marsida Çela,

GEF Ambassador in Albania

Read the article in English

on our website:

www.generation-europe.eu

A bëjnë grate filma më të mirë se burrat?

/ 14



The share of overall electricity production in the EU consumed by data centres, equivalent

to about 56 terawatt hours. Cloud computing promises to deliver software as a service,

in contrast to locally installed and managed programmes, and to transform hardware

capacity - storage space and processing power - into a commodity, available on demand.

As more applications are moved to the cloud, the electricity consumption of the ICT

sector is set to grow significantly in the years ahead.

To facilitate this shift to the cloud, data centres, which can be imagined as warehouses

full of computers, are proliferating. The power demand of new data centres can exceed

100MW, so energy efficiency and energy sources - renewable or not - have become

important concerns for the industry.

But it’s not only information technology itself which must go green. As one participant

at a Friends of Europe roundtable, attended by Generation Europe Foundation, said: ‘ICT

alone will not deliver a low carbon economy; however, we won’t create a low carbon

economy without harnessing the enabling potential of ICT.’

We’re all publishers now. The internet has become a public space to share

whatever we can create or capture in digital form - even if we don’t always find

a ready audience! One of the most popular blog tools and publishing platforms is

WordPress, which powers an estimated 12% of the web today (including some of our

own websites).

WordPress is a free, open source, community-driven project. In contrast to

proprietary software whose inner workings are kept secret, the source code of

WordPress is publicly available for anybody to review and adapt for their own

purposes. Everybody is welcome to contribute to the project in one way or another,

but there’s the rub.

Speaking at the annual SXSW festival in Austin, Texas this spring, Mullenweg, a tech

luminary, continued, ‘Everyone... should know how to write code, because it’s the

next thing that’s going to separate.’

He raises a question of basic skills. When so much of our lives are spent interacting

with software, the three Rs at the foundation of our education - reading, writing and

arithmetic - no longer seem sufficient. Those who know a computer language, who

know how to tinker with the innards of software will have a leg up.

“Scripting isthe new literacy.” Matt Mullenweg,founding developer of WordPress QUOTE

Credit: KK+ via flickr

K E

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F

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1.4%

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COMPETITIONS'CORNER

What? A sustainable design contest

In our shift toward sustainable living,

we will have to examine the entire

lifecycle of the products that weconsume. Challenge yourself to come

up with fresh designs for home, office

or industry using solid board materials

while applying the principle of the 5Rs:

reduce, reuse, recycle, replace, return.

For whom? Anybody over the age of 18,

although the competition is aimed in

particular at students enrolled in design

academies and technical schools.

Until when? 20 October 2011

Prizes: The winner in each category

will receive a €1000 cash prize, and

the overall ‘hero’ will be offered

an internship at a solid boardmanufacturing company.

Organised by: REL Sales Consulting and

the British Chamber of Commerce in

Belgium

More info:

http://5rhero.com

@5RHERO

5R Hero Design Awards

/ 16

What? A design competition

Over four million copies of the 2011-2012 Europa Diary were recently

distributed to secondary schools across

Europe, the cover of which was designed

by a university student from Romania.

With the tremendous outpouring of

creativity that we’ve seen in previous

years, we are now, once again, turning

to you to submit design proposals for

the cover of the next edition.

For whom?

All EU citizens, regardless of age!

Until when? Entries must be received

before the end of the day on Saturday,

12 November 2011.

Prizes: A €1000 cash prize will be

awarded for the top design, whilst the

second and third place runners-up will

each receive €250. If the design is used,

the winner’s name will appear on the

inside back cover of the diary.

Organised by:

Generation Europe Foundation

More info:

www.europadiary.net

Europa Diary cover competition

the buzzz autumn 2011 4

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