coffeefactory

Comments

1. On Thursday, February 22 2007, 16:02 by Alberti

1. The questions are funny to be answered: they feed the ego of the reader. Good questions.

2. I've got a huge Ego, so I could answer tones of those kind of questions.

3. My favorite song / I would like to learn ... portuguese / I'm afraid of ... Putin /

2. On Thursday, February 22 2007, 17:03 by Vanessa Witkowski

Hi! In Brussels we call each other Babelians (not Babelites) and in France "babéliens"... In German it would be "Babelianer/ Babelianerin"... A new sect????

1. List of questions is good.  

2. I think 10 questions is fine.  

3.  Il also like Alberti's added comment "I would like to learn... Spanish/ Portugese..." but would keep it to 10 questions. Would there be a comments section?

Vanessa

3. On Thursday, February 22 2007, 17:08 by Simon

Hi Vanessa,

What do you mean with " Comments section " ? On the profile ?

4. On Thursday, February 22 2007, 17:19 by Vanessa Witkowski

yes, a comments section where you could present yourself in a nutshell- like on bebo.com. It's super corny, but this is what I put for mine: "Born and raised in Strasbourg France, I'm also American and kinda Polish. I've been living in Brussels for the past two years- am having an amazing and enlightening time - ... I really believe in networks like Bebo or cafebabel.com, a European Magazine Online based on participatory journalism, who bring people together."

5. On Thursday, February 22 2007, 17:24 by Simon

Yes, there will be such a field where you can decribe and present yourself as well.

The "cafebabel.com questions" are there to put emphasis on the community values...

6. On Thursday, February 22 2007, 18:56 by G.

well...I agree with Vanessa about 10 questions..but..ehm..I don't like the last one..
Anyway...this little invasion in this space is also due to the new born we should celebrate...
Finally we have killed bureaucracy..
And the Babel Eesti association is alive!

7. On Thursday, February 22 2007, 22:40 by Piotr

1. List is ok, but: "I like cafebabel.com because...". What if you don't like cafebabel.com? So maybe "I think cafebabel.com is..."
2. 10-15, not more.
3. E.g. My most random experience was..., My favorite cuisine/actor/book/song/whatever..., My dream is to...

I agree with the point on babelians!

However my problem is that I am Polish (no mix), born in Poland, living in Poland, Polish is my first language, never been abroad for longer than 6 months, I never done Erasmus, Socrates or Leonardo, my last name is Kaczynski ... and I still feel European ... So I am a complete weirdo, or a rarity - if you prefer. Whatever! Enjoy

8. On Monday, February 26 2007, 16:14 by Thamar

Hello!
I agree, some of the questions do narrow down the audience somewhat. I like Europe... Politics is about, I like cafebabel.com,...
Perhaps, I have lived in... covers the cosmopolitan outlook of someone enough (or for Pjotr: being member of a community with people of another nationalities)?

People might not be interested in politics, but in culture. They might not feel European, but they may only be interested in other cultures, or they might join because their friends did. They might even feel a world citizen. (We should not discriminate George Soros! ;))

The aswers to more general (and neutral) questions, like my favorite book, film,... reveal everything a person is! I like the one proposed by Alberti too: I am afraid of...

I would gladly anwer the questions about politics etc., but I wonder if it will 'scare' people away who are not so interested in these topics.

One other question: will we be able to leave messages on eachothers profiles? And will those messages be sent automatically to some ones email? (lile on e.g. bebo.com?)
And will the Community have emoticons? <:0) The Dutch version of bebo is packed with these things. One message of fivee sentences contains on avarage at least four :%

9. On Monday, February 26 2007, 17:15 by Simon

Those questions will be optional. So if you don't want to answer, you don't have to. No one should be scared !
You should be able to get in touch with other people, of course, as this is the point of the community ! How precisely is still to be defined, together with the number of emoticons

10. On Monday, February 26 2007, 17:28 by Chakal

Hello all!

I think we should limit the cafebabel question to less than 10 questions. If not it can be too long to fill in.

To me, 5 questions is fine.

I agree with Thamar. Questions about politics might "scare people" little bit... So we should be more "cultural and identity".

For example :

1. The cities I lived in?
2.To me cafebabel.com is?
3. To me Europe is?
4. What I like...
5. What I don't like

What do you think?
Alex

11. On Monday, February 26 2007, 20:55 by Helene

I do agree with previous answers about politics : a "hot potato" ! I would limit the list to a maximum of 10 questions. I liked one proposal : "My dream is to ...". Actually, a dream is maybe our most important motivation, the beginning of a future ... "What I like on the web" could be changed into "what I like MOST/PARTICULARLY on the web"; one suggestion : to add "What I like about (living in) my city/village/country is ..." , so as to better know each other. And some means to get in touch with someone of the community (e-mail, f.e. or common mail box managed by the webmaster). Possibility to insert a picture - not of the writer - but of his/her environment.

12. On Tuesday, February 27 2007, 09:14 by Emilie

hey

1. I vote for "babéliens" - it's even a pun in French, although it cannot really be translated, i guess

2. yep, ten questions, maybe add your favorite sentence or instersts or something, the languages you speak and of course your postiton: writer, translator, editor, president...

3. huh, i've been really a pain in the a- neck with this idea, but can we have a forum for translators?

13. On Tuesday, February 27 2007, 10:45 by jan

What do you think about this list?
- GOOD IDEA
Up to how many questions of this type would you answer?
- JUST ONE SERIOUS QUESTON (WHAT IS EUROPE FOR YOU) ANS SOME FIGURES (WHERE DID YOU LIVE, ETC)
Do you have other ideas of questions we could ask to members ?
- EUROPEAN DREAM
- FAVORITE BOOKS

14. On Thursday, March 1 2007, 09:05 by No comment

eu-citizens or Trans-Europe express, for the title.

Profile: Born in...Live in.. Understand broken english...
Top Ten Books, Films, Cities, Songs, Blogs, Webs, etc.

Also forums x translators, suggestions, etc.
and look at this: http://www.eoidiomas.com/aulautoapr...

15. On Friday, March 2 2007, 16:13 by Karo

Hi all,

I think profile questions are generally a very good idea! They give an easy introduction, which can also be amusing/provocative depending on the answers.

One of my favourite German magazines, NEON, does something similar and is very successful. They give similar statements for members to complete, e.g (if you speak German): http://www.neon.de/user/Steppenwoel...

I especially like the first statement "I am...". I think this could work really well in the coffee factory, seeing that Europe has so many different identities. I'd be curious to find out what people from different European countries write there.

I also like "this country needs..." which we could transform into "Europe needs...". I think it's essential that we focus on Europe-related statements, otherwise we are not any different to those community pages already out there.

Further ones could be:
-The good thing about Europe is...
-The bad things about Europe is...
-My European idol is...because...
-My favourite European city is...
(or: my best European holiday was...)

I don't think we should ask questions about cafebabel. It would look self-congratulating, even if the comments would be negative.
A mixture between political/cultural/social and 'easy' (e.g. 'my favourite city')/demanding (e.g. 'I am...' so that people have to really think and negotiate their stance on Europe) statements will make this really interesting.

A set of 10 questions is feasible. Also, we should leave some blank spots, as they do on NEON too, for peple to fill in their own statements.

Anyhow, this will be FUN FUN FUN!!!

P.S. a layout comment: the comment box in this seems VERY small. Is there any way of enlarging it??? (Maybe I'm just turning blind...)

16. On Sunday, March 4 2007, 11:50 by Thamar

I agree with every word Karo wrote!

(apart from the ps on the comment box. I am not sure I understand it)

17. On Monday, March 5 2007, 12:48 by Adriano

I like "for me Europe needs" instead of "for me Europe is...". For our audience Europe is a matter of fact, not a philosophical UFO.

18. On Thursday, March 8 2007, 20:20 by Karo

Thanks, Thamar!
With the PS I meant this little box we are writing comments in is REALLY small...Or maybe it's because I am on a MAC?
Adri, I don't agree with you...I think both questions are very valuable and point at completely different things. One of Europe's secrets is that is has so many identities and through this question "for me Europe is..." everyone will negotiate with their personal European identity. To me, this is the most interesting question of them all! I'd really like to see it on here!

19. On Friday, March 9 2007, 08:18 by Hanna

I think that this idea of an online community is great. However, one thought that came to my mind as I read through this proposal is - how are you going to keep people coming back to it regurarily and fully take advantage of its networking potential?

I don't know whether you all have heard of the Facebook (it's a very big thing in the US, and also some places in Europe) - it's an extremelly successful networking tool, because it's interactive and because you can search for people who have gone to the same school, are interested in the same things, have lived in the same places. It's success lies in the fact that it serves a purpose - you connect to the people you know to remember who they are and to be able to interact with them (send them messeges, post comments on their wall and the pictures that they post).

I started a Facebook group to promote cafebabel and was surprised to find out that quite a few of my friends knew what cafebabel was and were its devout fans. I think that it would be a great opportunity to have cafebabel connect to your Eurofriends who not only share the passion to further European integration and cross-cultural exchange, but also help you find the people you've met while you travelled or help you meet new people in the places where you're gonna be in the future - in this way, the online community could give you tangible advantages in addition to being just a wonderful forum to exchange ideas.

Well, this is just a random thought. To the people in charge of cafebabel development - do check out what the Facebook is and give a thought of where lies its success - what makes people come back to it time after time - and try to make something that could serve a similar purpose.

20. On Saturday, March 10 2007, 13:16 by Karo

Hi Hanna,

You're right to question the community's purpose, but I think it's quite clear what the cafebabel.com community is and why people would come back. The whole aspect of creating debate among Europeans (and at some point a public opinion) has not been very successful on the website thus far. The forum is barely used and I don't even think that many people know about it. The community is, in my view, going to change this. Via blogs, discussions will be more accessible and visible, which should encourage readers to react to them in the first place and then give them a reason for coming back. Why do people read other blogs? They work because people feel like continuing a discussion.

I'm also on facebook and an absolute addict. I also just joined your group, amazing that it already has almost 100 members!!! I'll get some of my Babelians from London to join!
I can also see that cafebabel.com's community will, after a while, create friendships across borders.
Simon, will people be able to create certain interest groups, like "cafebabel.com readers from Lithunia" or "Segolene Royal supporters"? I think this would be a good idea...

21. On Tuesday, March 13 2007, 10:07 by Simon

I think Karo's reply to Hannah is absolutely right. This is really where we're trying to head. I hope we'll succeed, and we'll make cafebabel.com not another community, but just the place for European debate, with the magazine, the Babelians, and all the tools open for debate.

22. On Tuesday, March 13 2007, 14:22 by Karo

"Simon, will people be able to create certain interest groups, like "cafebabel.com readers from Lithunia" or "Segolene Royal supporters"? I think this would be a good idea..."

23. On Friday, March 16 2007, 13:53 by Simon

This will be possible for local offices. At the moment, it might be difficult to have it for other groups, but we're working on it.

24. On Friday, March 16 2007, 15:44 by nushka

Just thinking about some other 'community' aspects - wouldn't it be nice to have a section 'Today's birthdays' on the community page, based on the date of birth members register with? we wouldn't have to disclose their age, but just their user name and link to their profile, so that people can stop by and say 'happy birthday'...

25. On Friday, March 16 2007, 18:02 by Karo

Birthdays is also an option on facebook, which is quite nice, but they are only available for members who are 'friends', in our case maybe people who belong to the same group, local office, or something. I don't know how feasible it would be to just list all the members' birthdays, which everyone can view at all times.
In general, it's a lovely idea!

26. On Friday, March 16 2007, 19:33 by Simon

I do admit it's a good idea. However, I'm not sure I can put it on top of the list of the functionalities we want to develop, as our budget is limited.

To make some hard choices, we'll have to keep in line with our core idea, which is an online community built around a magazine cafebabel.com, whose purpose is to foster a European public opinion, by informing Europeans, stimulating the European debate, and developing cultural curiosity and openmindedness.

Of course, the community will offer exchange opportunities between people, but birthday reminders tend to be a bit far from our goals

I hope, though, we'll succeed in making it not too serious 8-)

Who are we?

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This blog centralizes all the information you need to know if you want to become a key opinion leader within the new Babel community. Enjoy! If you want to contact us, please email us at info@cafebabel.com DO YOU LIKE THIS BLOG? If you have the time, why not translating it in French or in another language?

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