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

2Copyright © 2011 Generation Europe Foundation. All rights reserved.Publisher: THE BUZZZ is published by Generation Europe Foundation. We welcome your questions and suggestions on info@generation-europe.eu

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily 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 in class:

- 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 provide you 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: teamsbsc@30dna.com.

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 century digital boy, I don’t know how 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? We believe 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 a great 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 4th 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 new technology... 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 the classroom, 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.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVEMedia 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 is growing 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 records

to 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

© Zsuzsanna Kilian

/ 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 in order to broadcast their views rather than engage in conversation. So, it bears asking: do they really get it?

Democracy 2.0 in Europe

/ 12

EU IN FOCUS

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 voluntary

activities (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). Sfidat 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 sfida 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 u festua 9-vjetori i paraqitjes së filmave 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 filmit. 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.

Sfida 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 filmat është një strategji e rëndësishme e financimit 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 e kinematografisë. Ka nevojë për gra të afta që mund të zhvillojnë, prodhojnë dhe të bëjnë filma. Fokusi nuk duhet të jetë në konceptin dhe përmbajtjen e filmave më shumë sesa të kërkohet nëse gratë bëjnë fima më të mirë sesa burrat. Pyetja duhet të jetë: Çfarë e bën një film të mirë? Si mund që gratë dhe burrat të përparojnë industrinë e filmit duke përmbushur pritshmëritë e audiencave të larmishme? Si mund krijuesit e pavarur të filmave të bëhen pjesë maxhoritare e zhanrit të filmit? Këto pyetje janë vendimtare për të ardhmen e filmave.

Suksesi arrihet nëpërmjet krijimit të projektit ideal duke përdorur paratë e njerëzve të tjerë. Nëse kjo nuk ndodh, nënkupton se drejtuesi/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 financojë projektin. Jo kushdo mund të behët prodhues filmash, 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?

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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 is the new literacy.”Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress

QUOTE

Credit: KK+ via flickr

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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 we consume. 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 board manufacturing company.

Organised by: REL Sales Consulting and the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium

More info:

http://5rhero.com

@5RHERO

5R Hero Design Awards

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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