small talk 2.0

One month ago me and my good friend Alex Gafni created the new social network for public sector employees in Israel. The example for us was the american government network GovLoop that was created one year ago. After one month of activity we have 40 members and 10 groups, most of them created by two of us. So far this network's activities are based on our enthusiasm. It could be expected that not everybody will jump into active participation. So we will keep doing it, until we'll become a fashion first, and later - a tool for networking and inforamtio n sharing. And this will happen sooner than we think...

One of the important components of public diplomacy - in the past, in the future, and to even greater degree, in the future - is engagement with different ethnic groups in the host country/city. As public diplomacy strategy requires identification of groups and subgroups as target audiences, in order to try and influence them, the multuethnic environment provides good definition of such groups. The modern day communication, including social media, could serve as a tool for broa outreach effort as opposed to the limired outreach to formal heads of the ethnic groups if they exist. For many years diplomats were aware of the importance of leveraging the influence of ethnic groups. The ethnic communities that originated in the country of a diplomat were obvious and central targets in an effort to improve the image the country they represent inthe host country. Thus, for example, Italian Americans wanted to help their country of origin on US soil, and of course Jewish Americans are involved ...