English has a problem: it doesn't really have an accepted term for the Italian or Spanish europeista or the French européiste. Just try googling "europeist" or "europeanist".

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

The text file of the diary and its comments can be downloaded from euro_dollar_diary.rtf. HTML mark-ups still need stripping out.

Jérôme suggests linking to the diary in other blogs etc.

So have at it. I do agree that some kind of intro might be good...

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

I'll write that diary today, post it this afternoon CST (Paris - 0700 hrs).

Revision suggestions over the weekend then.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

The first story I read was Aristocratic Right Wing Blogosphere Stagnating.

Then Progressive Blogosphere Not Breaking Through To Mainstream Media

and Meta-MyDD.

Here's a question - what sort of response are we after? A feature or article about ET? An ongoing mainstream commission to write or analyse in a pundity kind of a way? A TV show?

I suspect the interest from the meeja may be underwhelming. After introducing the New Statesman to dKos and ET last year, they asked for a small feature on spec about political blogging - and then decided not to run it.

From a story POV blogs are no longer news - the Grauniad has been quoting Kos since forever - so I think it needs something more than an introduction and a summary of thread, no matter how good the content is.

I think there is a story about the rise of the New Left (Left 2.0? maybe not...) - smart, centrist, mobile and wired, lacking the ideological baggage of the old left, and willing to take the battle into mediaspace and business-space, instead of running around throwing dustbins at policemen and doing 'street theatre' dressed in pink and silver.

"2006 proved the netroots are organised enough to make a difference - could it happen here?" Etc.

ET on its own though - I could be wrong, especially about foreign journalism, about which I know almost nothing. But in UK and US terms - maybe not the interest we'd like, I suspect.

1) If ET wishes to influence policy, it needs to define some goals, then set up debates in order to meet those goals.  Debates don't disappear.

(What I have noticed is that many ideas appear, some are enthused about, but very few make it past the next news cycle = > new diaries.)

2. If one of ET's roles is, indeed, as an online interactive magazine...where news cycles are okay--it's sorta like the news only better, more involved, arguments get taken up and dealt with over time (days rather than televisual minutes), etc...well...then I was wondering if the logo might need re-jigging.  It's a tad stodgy, and blue is cool....cool blue...but also a tad conservative (party in many countries)...  I would link this to losing those adverts to my left or right and a general re-jig of the site.  There seem to be enough willing (and able = not me!) tech helpers to do this.

3. Er..that's it.

4. Ah yes!  One other thing.  Jerome has stated (or is this a myth?) that he would like ET to be as big as DKos.  I don't know how many diaries the rest of you can get through in a day, but there is a number (we have gone through it recently on certain days) where I'm having to pick and choose, flick over here, then over there...all iss gut, of course, just a comment...something I've noticed.

You want people to read what we write....why?  Because we're saying things other people aren't?  In that case, we need to specify what we have said/are saying that others aren't--and publicise ET with it: that's the calling card (policy/influence etc.)  So maybe the dollar vs. euro debate was one o dem.

Or we want to be an example to others...in which case, we should just keep doing what we're doing.  Good examples embody their principles or somesuch...point is, if you advertise ET, people can come here...and see it...so it should match its rhetoric.  (For example, see point 1 above: we are slow at implementation...good at gassing--food for thought--and yes, who mentioned it?  Poemless?  I would add "educative"--that there is a clear didactic element to some conversations here, both in pointing out unknown info., and with questions for specific info...etc... I have learned a lot about wind turbines here...asking questions...so maybe we "have" experts rather than being experts...yack yack!

There was another point.  But I'll stick with the one about people who have deadlines, have to make decisions, have to choose...now...seeing ET as...interesting...setting debate...but...okay here's an example...

Fashion designers need fabrics.  So fabric designers are first in the process of bringing new clothes to market.  Fashion works a year ahead, so fabric designers work two years ahead = they are completely out of sync with current fashion... but in two years their ideas will be on the street... I kinda see some of that going on...

But as an organisation that wishes to influence policy (which I believe Jerome stated he wants us to be...among other things), I'd say we haven't yet produced enough...unless the diaries are what we produce, in which case we're another magazine on the internet stands and we'll have to...funk up the front page...but no!  No flashy things!  No!  No down wid da kids rhetoric!  No!  Just some tech ideas, muck about a bit, make it a bit more...magaziney?  Maybe a not-too-large title across the top?

Woah!  Enough!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.