small talk 2.0

During the Digital Diplomacy training program we asked particpants to think how they can explain the idea of Digital Diplomacy to others. Look at one of the most successful videos from Youtube workshop. starring: Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, head of Interfaith Dialogue Department, and Jeremy Issasckarov, former Deputy Ambassador to Washington.

A priori, cette expression peut apparaitre trop exagérée et pompeuse. Est’ ce que c’est possible que la technologie devienne si importante pour le système politique et la société moderne en général ? Pour comprendre la connexion entre les media sociaux et le système démocratique regardons les caractéristiques principales des media sociaux. Tous les outils des media sociaux sont interactifs, ouverts et transparents pour tous. Tous les participants des media sociaux sont égaux et il n’y a pas de hiérarchie. Chaque internaute peut ajouter le contenu et réagir au contenu des autres participants. D’un autre cote, les media sociaux deviennent les outils pour les gouvernements : les services publics peuvent être donnés sur internet. C’est la raison pour laquelle les gouvernements des pays démocratiques vont utiliser les media sociaux pour améliorer la participation civile dans les affaires publiques. Les pays qui ont peur de la participation civile, limitent l’accès a Internet et espèrent que...

I must tell you, I was really upset when I read the following article in "Hindustan Times"! Diplomats and diplomacy should use the new way of communication. Necessary security measures must be taken, of course, but closing this channel comletely - it's too much! "Indian diplomats now cannot open a Facebook account, use external e-mail services, or write blogs, thanks to new rules and much stricter firewalls aimed at preventing cyber attacks and leakage of classified information. Over the past eight months, the Ministry of External Affairs has been overhauling its computer network security, putting up layers of barriers against intrusions into the network, officials associated with cyber security said." Full article here: http://www.hindustantimes.com/No-blogging-social-networking-for-Indian-diplomats/Article1-376183.aspx

On April 13, Ilan Sztulman, deputy director of Public Diplomacy department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and myself gave a presentation and answered questions from the audience at the Tel Aviv University, at the event organized by Internet Research center of Netvision 013. Thank you to Eli Hacohen who organized the event and to the participants for their interest and questions. The People and Computers on-line newspaper published an article about the event (hebrew). Read here: http://www.thepeople.co.il/_DailyMaily/ItemClean.asp?ArticleID=31700&Vol=1141&SearchParam=&CategoryID=72

On March 11, I took part in on-line conference organized by O'Reilly company. The goal of the conference was to feature Gov 2.0 projects and experiences in 4 countries: Canada, Great Britain, Australia and Israel, and also the social media work of US Peace Institute. I presented the Israel experience. This kind of information exchange is important not onlu because we learn from each other, but also because we meet people around the globe who deal with the issues of Gov 2.0. So, contect is the king, but connection rules, as my good friend Alon Gilad likes to say. The recording of the event is now available. To play it back, simply click on the link below. https://oreilly.connectsolutions.com/p81093334/ Please note that clicking on this link will launch the AdobeConnect Pro viewer. It may take a few moments to load. Once play back begins, you can navigate through the various presentations and search the chat room. The links in thepresentation are live. You can also download all of ...

Last week I gave presentation about digital diplomacy to the group of high-school students, about 35 individuals. And I must tell you this: high-school students are the best audience for this topic. Not diplomats, not branding specialist, not Web 2.0 evangelists. High-school students - because they don't have to believe in social media, they don't have to become social media professionals. They just live in social media. Unlike other groups I meet with, I didn't asked them how many have Facebook page, because all of them have. I asked them what other networks they use and whether they use blogs. More than half of them use Myspace and Twitter, and others participate in diverse networks. It was interesting to see that only two of them write blogs. Unlike other groups, including the diplomats from my ministry, the high-school students understand exactly the potential of digital diplomacy. They are already in fact digital citizens. It's not a big deal for them to become dig...