Last week I was invited in Leuven for a brainstorm together with 6 other participants. We were asked about our favourite meeting places, both virtually and in the ‘real’ world, and about our intrest in politics. The brainstorm is one of the first facts within the so-called VEP project (Virtual European Parliament). In Belgium, research groups like memori and also the research lab i-City, participate in this project, which wants to involve young EU citizens in the decision making process of the European Parliament. The research is going on simultaneously in several countries of Europe. Here some more information from the official website:
- The VEP project aims as a trial project at integrating young EU citizens from 3 different regions (Lulea, Barcelona, Flanders) in the decision making process of the European Parliament. As a trial project the Virtual EP activities will run parallel with the actual agenda of the European Parliament. The young EU citizens will be able to: access relevant information via the VEP portal, share thoughts with the other participants, collaboratively write reports on specific topics and will be asked to give their opinion via mobile voting and surveying.
I always like brainstorms because it makes you reflect on ‘normal’ things in life you normally don’t really think about. So apart from learning a lot from the others on eg European politics (I could actually mention only one Belgian member in the European Parlimanent, shame on me), I learnt a lot about myself. Like: why do I like a place? I realised that it depends on my mood, my expectations,…So one day, I can like a place a lot, and the other day, I don’t (anymore). But a good place -for me- is always WARM, hmmm, nicely warm. I hate cold places…
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June 25, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Nele
Glad to read you enjoyed it Dorien!
Thank you for your participation again and we hope to welcome you in the future for further debate.
Anyone with political interests can join us at http://www.virtualep.eu/.
I also created a group on facebook to get some more attention.
The website still needs a lot of work, but we have time till 2009 and we are doing our best to create a sexy websites. Ideas & feedback are very welcome!
See you,
Nele
June 30, 2008 at 7:20 am
doriennmien
Hope you find more and more interested people Nele. It’s a great project I think!
September 12, 2008 at 12:53 pm
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