E-diplomacy

presentation by

Jovan Kurbalija

‘Diplomacy 2.0’ Course at the Geneva Center for Security Policy

February 2013

About Diplo

Involved in e-diplomacy since 1992 (as part of the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies)

Established as an independent foundation by the governments of Malta and Switzerland in 2002

Offices in Malta, Geneva, and Belgrade

20 full-time and 40 part-time staff

UN ECOSOC special consultative status

Alumni of 2300 diplomats & officials from 189 countries

Evolution of Diplomacy: Continuity & Change

Thousands years of the history of diplomacy

Continuity & Change

“My God, this is the end of

diplomacy.”

Reaction of Lord Palmerstone when he received the first telegraph back in

1850s

A few phases from Calendar 2013…..

Lord Palmerstone

EVOLUTION of Modern Diplomacy

Changes in the ENVIRONMENT for diplomatic activities

Introduction of NEW TOPICS on diplomatic agendas

Introduction of NEW TOOLS for diplomatic activities

NEW ENVIRONMENT

for

Diplomatic Activities

Cable Geo-Strategy

Emotional Geo-Strategy

New Actors- Facilitated by the

Internet-based communication

- Beyond governments and political elites

- Diplomats’ monopoly in foreign relations has been undermined.

- Need for dialogue with new actors in diplomacy (broad enough – deep enough).

NEW TOPICS

on

Diplomatic Agenda

Identity on the Internet

Dissection of a web (DNS) address:

http:// www. diplomacy. edu /igoffice@ mtid. gov. rs

Top-Level Domains (TLD)a) gTLD – generic: com, edu, gov, org; net, int; biz,

travel, info, ...b) ccTLD - country code: rs, uk, eu, bw, za

NEW TOOLS

for

Diplomatic Activities

E-tools forDiplomaticActivities

24 hours day

8 pieces of information in working memory

maintain 148 stable social contacts (Dunbar’s number)

Limits for theuse of e-tools

“Everyone tells me I should be on Twitter, should I?”

What is the best timing to join e-diplomacy?

essential

e-competencies

for diplomats

communicatecreate

collaborate curate

critique

audiences

Main challenges

Developing social media 'credentials' (engaging, relevant content) while preserving diplomatic credentials (avoid unnecessary controversies and reduce risk)

Curate Communicate? Collaborate – Create - Critique

Curate

Find - Internet search, Wikipedia, Google scholar, e-resources, image textbook, etc

Filter - RSS feeds, Collate/collect: social and personal

bookmarking, mind-mapping, online storage

Public curation

curate

RSS - netvibes

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles“http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html

be awareof searchbias

Communicate

Share /disseminate/ distribute - wiki, blog, discussion forum, email, Google+, twitter, online social networks

Promote - twitter, blog, online social networks, and email

Engage, engage, engage Anticipate and react

Case study: Car of Canadian Embassy in Beijing

31

Ambassador’s car: chinese media responses

32

Ambassador’s car: epilogue

33

collaborate

Wikis, Google tools Blogs Online social networks

– Twitter & Yammer

Integrated portals (mobile accessible websites)

§

Create

make digital content including audio, image, text, website, blog, video, wikis

Protect - copyright, privacy, digital footprint

Open data – are you ready?

Critique Monitor online media Assess the validity/authenticity of

sites/information Reflect on one’s own practice and that

of one's peers - blogs, forums etc Beware filter bubbles…

Brian

Solis –

Th

e co

nversa

tion

prism

http

://ww

w.th

econve

rsatio

np

rism.com

/

essential

e-competencies

for diplomatic institutions

How many MFAs use social media?

Approximately 140 MFAs have established an online presence.

38% use Twitter37% use Facebook 28% use YouTube 6% have a blog (or blog roll) on their main website.

(DiploFoundation study – ongoing)

Institutional capability for e-diplomacy

E-competent staff 21st Century ICT infrastructure and policies Enabling, responsive leadership/management

– Acceptance of risk and failure tolerant Knowledge flows freely laterally & vertically Organisational policies for e-tools Financial resource for training, experimentation

and scale-up

Institutional Resilience

Social media monitoring

Engagement with influencers

Capability to reach and engage mass audiences

Some principles…to be augmented

1. Put users, diplomats, particularly young officials in the driving seat.

2. Make it as simple as possible.3. The higher the budget often  the lower the impact of

e-diplomacy projects.4. Avoid a grand e-diplomacy strategy.5. You cannot succeed without failure. Make sure that

failures are contained and cheap and that lessons are learned.

6. The most valuable resource is in the huge knowledge and experience in people around you. Make sure you utilise it.

7. E-diplomacy is much more than public diplomacy.8. You cannot control the message in social media.9. Top leadership is innovation’s best friend.

How to build e-diplomacy capacity

ONE DAY – learn how to use social media technically

ONE MONTH – learn about organisation and culture of social media space

ONE YEAR – use social media effectively