New Euro digi tsar 'H-dot' Oettinger to host sort-of-live Twitter chat

In October, Andrus Ansip, Europe’s new super-commissioner for all things digital, conducted a Twitter chat to present his ideas on the future of the EU’s digital economy to the wider public. Now, more than a month later, Europe’s new digi tsar, Gunther H-dot Oettinger is to follow suit.

However, unlike Ansip, Oettinger’s “chat” – scheduled for Thursday, 20 November (15.00 Central Europe / 14.00 UK) – is not being organised by his own Commission team. It seems that instead it will be farmed out to the German Press Agency (DPA), which will then syndicate it to its clients in German.

Oettinger (technically Ansip's subordinate) will respond to questions with the confusing hashtag #dpaLiveChat in English and in German. The agency’s generic hashtag has been used before for other speakers and doesn't specify the speaker or the subject... plus, it really doesn’t quite have the ring that #AskAnsip did. German speakers have also been using #FragOettinger.

Nor has Oetti (or his Twitter team) deigned to let his English-language followers know about the upcoming exchange.

Neither the DPA nor Oettinger’s Commission team were able to say how many “live” questions he will respond to on Thursday, but with questions are already being submitted, it seems likely that most responses will be pre-prepared ... somewhat undermining the exercise of a “live chat”. ®