digital diplomacy & new tech
There was a rare moment of inter-Korean friendship captured at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro when North and South Korean athletes took a selfie together.[...] The photo has gone somewhat viral on the Internet and is being roundly praised for embracing the Olympic goals of building peace and understanding.
Through a State Department-created internship program, students can create data visualizations for embassies around the world or design apps or websites for agencies in a 10-hour-a-week commitment that spans an academic year. This program, called the Virtual Student Foreign Service, is helping to coordinate remote internships for more than 30 agencies this year.
![Photo by U.S. Army | CC BY 2.0 Photographers expand horizons in 2010 Army Digital Photography Contest 110311](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/5546846883_6f8272d6a8_z.jpg?itok=5uAiMxya)
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Exposure to technology itself allows young women a chance to develop technical skills, and open new career horizons. Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA), a randomised control trial, spearheaded by the Population Council throughout Bangladesh over the last three years, has proven that such models can work in delaying child marriage.
Since a teenager, Art Thomya, YouTube host and travel vlogger, has enthusiastically participated in Asean cultural exchange programmes. His passion for the region rings true until today. The 39-year-old, who wears a number of hats, uses his talent as an independent singer/songwriter and travel enthusiast to promote the Asean region's tourism and culture on his YouTube travel programme Hey! Asean.
Mobile apps for social good used to be trendy, but international aid organizations need to think harder about how they can use the data they collect, says one senior program manager at the U.S. Agency for International Development. [...] Mobile technology is most useful when the data it produces lets aid groups send resources to the exact place they're needed
Digital platforms are enabling an era of digital diplomacy – but, says British High Commissioner to Ghana Jon Benjamin, there are certain rules of the game that need to be taken into account. [...] But here’s something different that touches on both aspects, but is itself a discipline in its own right – diplomacy in the digital age.
The team, comprised of ten refugee athletes from Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will compete in the Rio 2016 Olympics and march in the Opening Ceremony tomorrow. The International Olympic Committee is funding the team to draw attention to the global refugee crisis. UNHCR released a 90-second film about the refugee athletes today, which is hosted on the organisation’s YouTube page.