coffeefactory - Making of

In three words:who still dreams about Europe?

Prune — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:35:00 +02:00

Cafebabel.com is preparing a special edition about Europe: is it still a utopia? Institutions seem ever-distant and far away from the reality of daily life... Through crossing borders, communication, helping each other... what is a better future for a whole continent and its people?

Write to Jane at redaction@cafebabel.com, and define what Europe means to you! Three words, no more (please add your sex and age). Read the results of this survey on 30 September on cafebabel.com.

If you are lacking inspiration : here is a speech from the French writer Victor Hugo, given on 21 August 1851 during a peace congress in Paris:

'All of us here, we say to France, to England, to Prussia, to Austria, to Spain, to Italy, to Russia, we say to them, A day will come when your weapons will fall from your hands, the United States of Europe, stretching out their hands across the sea, the recognition of all nationalities, the restoration of the historical unity of nations'

(Credits:Guesus/flickr)

cafebabel.com is hiring!

natalia — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:35:00 +02:00

In line with the development of our website cafebabel.com, we are looking for a:

Community editor, based in Paris and a
Polish editor, based in Warsaw

Please click on each link in order to download the job offers.

Cafebabel call for articles Society February 2008

Jane — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:17:00 +01:00

Babelians, come and find out what 2008 February’s Society section will be about!

To write or to propose different subjects for cafebabel’s society section you simply need to be a member of our community. Nothing easier: go on the homepage just click on the red button “participate!” in the upper right to find out more about the conditions of being a writer for cafebabel.com.

If you’re interested in one of the topics below, do not hesitate to contact our society editor Jane at redaction@cafebabel.com. We’re looking forward to reading you in 7 languages!

1. Dossier : Your first steps in work world
a. 1000 ways of writing a CV
b. Can Erasmus change your career?
c. "I am a French baker in London " Working world first impressions.
d. Best of sites to find a European job

2. Divorce in a click and let's go dancing

Cafebabel Call for articles CULTURE February 2008

Katha — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:49:00 +01:00

Babelians, come and find out what 2008 February’s CULTURE section will be about! To write or to propose different subjects for cafebabel’s CULTURE section you simply need to be a member of our community.

Nothing easier: go on the homepage just click on the red button “participate!” in the upper right to find out more about the conditions of being a writer for cafebabel.com.

If you’re interested in one of the topics below, do not hesitate to contact our cultural editor Katharina at redaktion@cafebabel.com. We’re looking forward to reading you in 7 languages!

1. DOSSIER: ARTS AND YHE CITY

a. Make arts from city dust: Romanian artist Nicolae Comanescu

b. Monsieur Chat: European tagging

c. Interview with young Paris architecture photographer

d. Eboy design: German-Norwegian pixelcity artists in Berlin

e. Lokstoff: when theatre discovers the city (author: Yvonne Pöppelbaum)

f. Photo-gallery: arts and the city

2. Cultural Agenda for January

3. Literature Agenda for February

4. Culture projects panorama: “European Year of intercultural dialogue”

5. Sweet & Tender: European art project

6. Torino: World Capital of Design 2008

7. Film: Bianco e Nero - discrimination in European film business?

8. Beatles’ song as archi project in Stavanger (cultural capitals 2008)

9. Tokio Hotel phenomenon swaps Europe (author: Yvonne Pöppelbaum)

10. Expo “C’est notre histoire” + debate with Simone Veil (author: Graziella JOST)

11. Italian photographers without limits (author: Valeria Ibello)

12. Hong-Kong animation in Europe (author: Inga Pietrusinska)

13. “Tower of Babel” idies out without your help! THIS LANGUAGE SECTION REALLY NEEDS AUTHORS! I look forward to recieving your proposals and ideas. Think of any strange expression in your country and look up its origin, compare idiomatic expressions in the babelian languages, explain why a film title has been translated in a very bad way. Everything around you could be a Tower of Babel! Do not hesitate to contact me if you need help or hints! WE ARE THERE TO HELP YOU.

Katharina Kloss

May 68 pictures needed!

Jane — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:43:00 +01:00

Remember the old pics of your parents with long hairs and wearing wierd large pants ? Did they tell you their memories about demonstrations in the streets of Paris, Roma or Prague during the year 1968 ? Were they students or workers ?

Cafébabel.com is going to publish very soon a weekly edition to celebrate 1968 anniversary. Please, send us your family photos of this particular year when Europe experienced waves of emancipations. We need these pictures to illustrate our edition.

You can scan your pics and send them to redaction@cafebabel.com before january 15th. Don't forget to write a small description of the picture, the place and the date when it was taken. Credits will be mentionned. Thanks you!

Call for blog reviews

natalia — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:51:00 +01:00

I guess each of you has a favorite babel blog, the one you find most interesting, funniest, the one you go on every day to see if there are some new posts. Now you have a chance to express your interest - or maybe tell which ones you hate? - by writing about it!

We are looking for bloggers and blog readers willing to write blog reviews for cafebabel.com.

It’s easy – check one of already published blog reviews – all you have to do is write a short comment on 3-5 posts from different babelblogs, saying what you liked about it, making reader want to go on blog (it means: not spoiling the surprise! ) and spicing it up with a smart comment.

Interested? Contact me before writing at redakcja@cafebabel.com

Call for articles Politics february 2008

Alberti — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:44:00 +01:00

ISSUE: European Politics
PUBLICATION: February 2008
EDITOR IN CHARGE: Fernando Navarro
redaccion@cafebabel.com

RULES: This “Call for articles & information” aims to find writers for the next proposed issues related to the Cafebabel.com European Politics section during February 2008. If you are interested in writing a paper about current issues described below, please send me a short outline of the proposal. (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Italian or Portuguese read).

If you request more information about the current issues described below, do not hesitate to feed us with, so that we can focus much better our information and editorial offer.

Be careful: please, contact me before writing!

If you have any other idea for an article in Politics section July 2007, do not hesitate to communicate it to me as soon as possible.

WE WANT TO COVER:

24th January: Drugs in Europe
4th February: Treaty ratifications
06th February: Muslims economy
07th February: Nuclear energy in Europe
13th February: Streets of Europe
14th February: Commissioners blog review
15th February: Videopolitics
28th February: Price of fuel

Call for articles Ñam nyam

Alberti — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:54:00 +01:00

PUBLICATION: Spring 2008
SECTION: Ñam Nyam
EDITOR IN CHEF: Fernando Navarro
redaccion@cafebabel.com

RULES: This call for authors and information aims to find writers for the next proposed issues related to Ñam nyam section of Cafebabel.com during the spring 2008. If you are interested in writing a paper about gastronomic issues desribed below, please send me a short outline with your concrete proposal.

Be careful: please, contact me before writing.

If you have any other idea for articles, do not hesitate to communicate it to me.

WE WANT TO COVER:

Michelin stars
Bio food
European kitchens = plenty of foreigners
Chocolate
Interview cook specialised in desserts

Want to write for the January CULTURE section of cafebabel.com?

Katha — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:34:00 +01:00

Babelians, come and find out what 2008 January’s CULTURE section will be about! To write or to propose different subjects for cafebabel’s CULTURE section you simply need to be a member of our community.

Nothing easier: go on the homepage just click on the red button “participate!” in the upper right to find out more about the conditions of being a writer for cafebabel.com.

Go for it! If you’re interested in one of the topics below, do not hesitate to contact our cultural editor Katharina at redaktion@cafebabel.com. We’re looking forward to reading you in 7 languages!

1. DOSSIER: NO LIMITS IN ARTS

a. Investigation: Scandal, disgust & creativity: Limits in arts

b. Panorama: Europe’s most revolting contemporary artists

c. Feature: Exposition “Körperwelten” - making dead bodies art

d. Interview: Michel Houellebecq or Elfriede Jelinek

e. Feature: Across limits - Arts in Second Life

2. Cultural Agenda for January

3. Investigation: New ideas of young European designers

4. Multicultural metro art project in Germany

5. Investigation: Music download - the end of traditional music industry?

6. Trend: More & more female Mangas

7. Panorama: Should museums be for free?

8. European architecture awards in Austria

9. “Tower of Babel” is watching you! THIS LANGUAGE SECTION REALLY NEEDS AUTHORS! I look forward to recieving your proposals and ideas. Think of any strange expression in your country and look up its origin, compare idiomatic expressions in the babelian languages, explain why a film title has been translated in a very bad way. Everything around you could be a Tower of Babel! Do not hesitate to contact me if you need help or hints! WE ARE THERE TO HELP YOU.

Katharina Kloss

When ECOSOC communicates for and on Europe

Vané — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:12:00 +01:00

What is ECOSOC? In the Brussels Euroxpat language it stands for the European Economic and Social Committee, a consultative body where European representatives of civil society, trade unions and employers share a platform to put forward opinions on decisions made by the European Commission, the European Council or the European Parliament.

On 12th Nov ECOSOC organised a one day seminar on "Communicating Europe: what role does civil society wish to play?" which gathered around 150 communicators from across Europe.

Daniel Feher (Dialog 09) and I moderated a workshop on "How to better reach the European Public? The Role of the Internet in communicating and consulting civil society organisations". I always enjoy these types of events because 1. you meet new people 2. you share ideas. The objective of the workshop was to find ways to improve communication towards European citizens and provide communication channels for European citizens to use when seeking to connect with EU Institutions. The web 2.0 can open these channels (let's not get into the whole debate of whether 2.0 is for real or not ). And given the fact that ECOSOC works directly with civil society, it has a key role to play in making them available.

This was the idea Daniel and I tried to convey during our seminar. I was surprised to see, however, the general skepticism towards the blogosphere: what legitimacy does it have? How can we control the information? Does it really have the power to influence? I thought it was even quite difficult to stick to 2.0 topics at times.

Nonetheless, some valuable examples were given such as, the "Our Europe- Our Debate - Our Contribution", which published videos of people randomly interviewed about Europe, or the Interactive Ideas blog animated by a young Greek participant. For some, like Willy de Backer, former chief Editor of Euractiv, blogging on environmental issues is now part of his daily professional activities (see 3E Intelligence). In the end, we all agreed that new media tools should be used to provide information in all languages and gather consultations for civil society. "How" remains to be determined. What's important is that communicators continue to share their ideas. Beacause as Yochai Benkler says, there's no point in trying to analyse too much "popular tools of communication", since "these will undoubtebly be supplented by new ones". This is why Daniel and I have created a facebook group called "Communicating Europe", a group to share ideas and best practices- so feel free to join.

In fact, should the new Treaty of Lisbon be ratified, civil society will have its word to say so figuring out how is extremely relevant. During the morning session, one of the participants suggested the idea of launching a "European Civil Society" wiki tool, based on the wikipedia model (see also Adriano's eurogeneration article on "Inside Wikipedia and more"). One of the panelists suggested to create a sense of European belonging with simple means: first day of school under a Greek theme or a Spanish day at the canteen. And why not see the Erasmus programme extended to apprentice students and teaching bodies?

I'm fairly convinced that many of these brilliant ideas had already found a fertile ground at MEP Gérard Onesta's "Citizens' Agora" organised the week before at the European Parliament and which was mentioned here and there throughout the day. But the best place for inspiration remains in cafés (hence café babel... get it? :-). After an intense day of listening, brainstorming, networking and communicating (!), a nice drink with Mrs Jillian Van Tournhout, Vice-President of ECOSOC (and former business woman who converted 2 years ago to the non-profit sector), her team and other participants gave new impetus to our common objectives.

Photo credit: EESC/ Vanessa Witkowski

Live from Paris office

Adriano — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:46:00 +02:00

It's a sunny day today in Paris. Here our English funky editor, Nabeelah.

Our Spanish editor Fernando (right) with a seller of EU-flag umbrella during the semi-final of Rugby World Cup last saturday in Paris.

"I made it". Behaviour of a Spaniard getting to edit a bad translation...

GA 2007 in Paris

Spock — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:17:00 +02:00

Babelians all over Europe met in Paris to be part of the futur of cafebabel.com. Web 2.0 and our new tools have been widely discussed.

Adriano is commenting our propositions: Bene! Bene! Bene! These babelians have ideas! They want to launch a communication campaign with naked breasts! Bene!

In the evening we could get relaxed in a restaurant with a very nice meal. Food is quite international - and wine too

A little song was played for Simon, Martin and Nuala, who are leaving cafebabel.com. Adriano and Nicola have been the singers! -Let's make a CD with many more cafebabel.com songs!

Simon's last day as babelian.

You will find many more pictures here

(Credit photo: Erika)

General meeting coming soon!

Adriano — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:35:00 +02:00

Every year cafebabel.com hosts a general meeting with the most active members all around Europe who have created a local team... This year we decided to open this meeting to all babelians and put in place an application system... We want to thank you for your enthousiasm because we receive a lot of requests to participate! Thank you also to all those who applied but we could not host more than 30 people... But everyone of you is sooo precious to build a strong, transnational community all around Europe! That is why we propose you to comment the following Agenda of the meeting... we'll keep and represent your thoughts and come back to you with a report of the meeting! Ad maiora, babelians!

Friday 15th June

10:00 – 13:00 Plenary session: Nicola, BI President chairing

10:00 – 10:30 Presentation of every babelian attendingWe want to now everything of you in 1 minute : 'What I do in my life, what I did in cafebabel.com, my spoken languages, why I'm here'

10:30 – 10:50 Introduction: how cafebabel.com is changing The project of new website and future steps. Community + magazine = the eurogeneration media. The vertebral column: tags and multilingual navigation. Presentation by Adriano, Executive Manager

10:50 – 13:00 What does 'community' now mean? Getting to know your tools... The concept: from the 'network' to the 'community'. The tools: presentation and their aim. How to create/moderate: profile/ babelblogs/ forum / chat / petitions / surveys The organisation: what can be your role as local team or simple Babelian and the organisational structure. Possible partners: European NGOs from Council of Europe (special guest: Silvia Geise from CoE) Presentation and discussion animated by Vanessa, Community Animator

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch

14:30 – 16:30 Workshops: Vanessa chairing Putting your tools in action! by Vanessa - Every group chooses a rapporteur 1.Local team blogs What for? Events, practical info, features, your activities? 2.Forums and chats ...or how to build the real-time transnational debate? 3.Petitions and surveys how to build a transnational public opinion? Which kind of campaigns? Have we to limit this by fixing criteria? __16:30 – 17:00 Coffee break

17:00 – 19:00 Plenary session__ Presentation of workshop results. Roundtable: how do I see my role in community animation. Eleonora will present the example of digiTO, a local e-community in Torino, Italy End of the session. Transfer to restaurant Le coin de Malte for a singing dinner. Bring your guitar!

Saturday 16th June

9:30 – 13:00 Plenary session: Nicola, BI President chairing

General Assembly: the legal meetingOnly persons who belong or have applied to become Babel International branches can attend. If you are to create a Babel International branch and want to attend as observer, request inscription by emailing dellarciprete@cafebabel.com and farano@cafebabel.com

__13:00 – 14:00 Transfer__

__14:00 – 15:00 plenary session, Alexandre, Communication Director chairing-

Communicating about cafebabel.com 2.0__ What is buzz communication? Best practices and benchmarking. What is the communication planning for the community? Presentation of readership survey. by Alexandre

15:00 – 17:00 workshops

Brainstorming buzz strategy : web mapping to spread the word* - with Alex & Monika buzz campaign: finding creative concepts - with Adri local teams in the community : how to communicate? Which partners? Which opinion leaders to babelize? - with Vanessa

17:00 – 17:15 Coffee break

17:15 – 19:00 plenary session, chairing: Alex Results of workshops and roundtable on everyone's role 19:00 – 19:15 Best profile contest: results by Vanessa

19:15 End of the session Free evening but partying together for those who want around 10pm!

What you can do before coming...

1. Test the community! please go on http://community.cafebabel.com with Firefox navigator instead of Internet Explorer

create your profile with photo and your babelreplies (and compose your babelmix). Then send an email to Vanessa before Monday 11th June to participate to the contest of the best profile among people attending! post comments on babelblogs... if local team, scan local blogs for workshop 1

2. Gather ideas! Get informed about communities and interactive tools in your country! Very important for Saturday's web mapping workshop. Our aim: to spread the community word all over the Web!

cafebabel.com on Polityka.pl

Simon — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:07:00 +02:00

cafebabel.com is also famous in Poland !

This article was published today in Polityka.pl, a famous Polish newspaper.

Congratulations to Polish team !

cafebabel.com goes video

Simon — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:32:00 +02:00

Or how to make a video in seven languages : Music goes beyond borders.

cafebabel.com on Daliymotion

Thanks to Ophélie Neiman (Miss Fandango) for shooting and editing this video.

cafebabel.com on Le Monde

Simon — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:27:00 +02:00

A half page article on cafebabel.com has been published today on the French "reférence" newspaper.

You can read it here.

Le premier média européen en sept langues sur cafebabel.com
LE MONDE | 17.04.07

'Middle East or Near East'? The world according to cafebabel.com...

Adriano — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:08:00 +02:00

I am very excited since that's my first post on this wonderful blog! Thanks to everyone for his/her participation until now... I think we are creating, step by step, a very constructive debate in order to buid an extraordinary European website!

Today, we would like to share with you a reflexion that is important for us: the one on geographical zones in the world.

A bit of background: you know, every article will receive a series of different tags, useful to reference the piece, useful for on site research and for search-engines. Tags will be both free and included in some lists. Among these lists there will be one with all the countries of the world. But a transnational media also have to include a list of geographical zones or regions in the world.

Do we say Middle East or Near East? Asia or Asia-Pacific? South-Eastern Europe or Balkans?

In the attached file (in French but easily understandable), you'll find three list of zones: the first one is a broader one, the second the one I propose for us, the third the world according to European Commission website.

What do you think? Please focus your comments on the second list. I really think that is a subject that is linked to our culture(s). That's why your opinion matters!

Why cafebabel.com (and the Web) is changing

Simon — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:16:00 +01:00

This video really shows why we are changing cafebabel.com website.

And why cafebabel.com is changing the media world !

Names - Episode III : Babel returns

Simon — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 12:03:00 +01:00

Back again on names...

What are your thoughts on :

Babelblogs

for the blogs (such as this coffee factory), which though being part of cafebabel.com, will be managed and personnalised by their authors

and we think everyone will agree unanimous on this one :

Babelians, Babelianos, Babéliens, etc...

As the name of the members of cafebabel.com

What do you think ?

Finding a name - episode II

Simon — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:46:00 +01:00

Thanks to all those who participated to the debate about giving a name to our future community

Many proposals were made, most of which were very interesting. We also came up with some ideas, like "Barzine", as an café like place being a sort of balance for the magazine part of cafebabel.com...

Finally,
Discussing the issue with our graphic designer,
Considering the various issues we're facing,
and according to Robert Jonhson's proposal (see comments) - the funny thing is that we don't know who that guy is :-),

The community, as such will...

Have no name

But a specific graphic design

linked of course to cafebabel.com general design

This design will appropriately identify this speficic part of cafebabel.com where participation and membership is put forward.

Why such a choice ?
Various matters & solutions:
- difficulties to find a catchy name in the various languages of cafebabel.com
- risk of creating a "new", distinct "product" , while it's just a part of cafebabel.com, not something different
- cafebabel.com already contains the "values" expressed in the community : debate, place where you feel, good, cultural diversity etc...
- cafebabel.com is a media, relying on a communty of readers and contributers.
- Such a distinction between editorial and "community" contents (blogs, chats, forum, commentaries on articles) strenghtned with a distinct name is artificial, as both type of contents will be highly integrated.
% - we can find graphic solutions to this problem. And graphics go beyond languages.

Thanks though, for your contributions, which were very useful to have the debate goes forward. Some of the material you suggested will certainly be used in other fields.

Soon, episode III