internet diplomacy

As temperatures drop across the East Coast, where the clean up efforts from Super Storm Sandy are ongoing, stories of resilience are permeating online: tales of New York City Marathon runners shifting gears from the cancelled event to volunteer efforts in Staten Island, tales of moms in New Jersey organizing clothing and supply drives to help those in the cold and dark, tales of musicians gathering in Brooklyn to entertain volunteers.

The government is going ahead with plans for a state-owned and controlled internet radio station which will be available around the world, and is looking for radio experts to set it up and run it – on government instruction.

Diplomats in all parts of Canada's Beijing embassy are being encouraged to learn how to use China's version of Twitter. The embassy launched a "weibo" microblog account on Chinese Internet portal Sina.com in June 2011. But internal Foreign Affairs documents show that not all Canadian diplomats rushed to type out 140-Chinese character updates when the account went up.

For 67 years Radio Canada International broadcast short wave programming around the world... Radio Canada International has had its budget cut by 80 per cent and has been reduced to a few staff and a weak web presence.... Unlike the Internet which can often be disrupted short wave signals cannot easily be jammed. Many in the world just have no access to phones or electricity let alone the Internet.

Will Internet companies help or hinder government authorities that try to restrict their citizens from using the Web freely? And will their customers, investors or shareholders care enough to do something about it? That debate was freshly stirred on Thursday as the UNHRC passed a landmark resolution supporting freedom of expression on the Internet.

June 24, 2012

Like any powerful tool, the Internet can be used for both good and evil, by citizens and governments alike. It is so powerful that the US State Department is actively tapping social media for public diplomacy. Just check out “It’s me, Kristie” – the blog of Kristie Kenney, the former US ambassador to Manila who’s now assigned in Bangkok.

Rep. Mac Thornberry wants a piece of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 to fall down. So the Republican congressman from Clarendon is the co-sponsor of a bill that would flick into Cold War history a provision prohibiting the State Department from disseminating its overseas propaganda here in the States.

...a wide adoption of .ng by Nigerians shall constitute a good tool in the effort to project the good people of Nigeria and the nation, noting that, “The ‘bad image’ war will be won on local and international fronts when institutions of government; credible, real and legal persons and entities in Nigeria, adopt the use of the .ng, not just from a consumerism perspective, but by generating Nigerian content on the Internet.”

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