I’ve excerpted a couple of snippets from the Ross’ remarks to the foreign press below that you might find interesting:
Question: You said something about your team. How many people are working on the 21st Century Statecraft in the State Department?Senior Advisor Ross: I work in the Office of the Secretary. So I’d simply responds by saying that when the Secretary gets behind something the entire department gets behind something. So I’ll give the examples of Mexico and the Congo.I have a team, but I don’t have a team in Mexico and in the Congo. We’re not this just anomalous little cell. We’re working with the embassy in Mexico City, with the Ambassador, with the Regional Bureau, and so too in the Congo, for example, we’re working with the Ambassador, with the Embassy staff.The commitment from the Secretary to bring 21st Century Statecraft to the department is to institutionalize it. It’s not to say oh, here are ten really smart young people, let’s empower them. While that might work over the short term, it’s not going to be institutionalized. So what we are doing is not saying all right, here’s an innovation team. What we’re saying is here is an innovation based department. I’d love for it to be the case that all 30-some-thousand employees of the State Department could say they’re working on 21st Century Statecraft.Question: If you look back on the Iran, the so-called Twitter revolution there. It’s been criticized for having done as much harm as good that America is trying to impact by helping citizens there. What are your conclusions with respect to that?Senior Advisor Ross: I think that I will point you to Hillary Clinton’s speech next Thursday. I do believe that access to the tools of the 21st Century is a net good, and again, to quote the President, the more freely information flows the stronger the society and the way in which information flows in the 21st Century is increasingly over our global communications networks and our digital networks. I’ll leave it at that.
I just checked those posts mentioned. US Embassy Congo is on Facebook, but not on Twitter. Its Facebook page has not been updated since December 30, 2009 11:24pm. US Mission Mexico is on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and has a mission blog; all in Spanish. Our US Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual is also on Twitter; follow him here.
KateatState on Twitter says that “After Sec Clinton's speech on Internet Freedom tmrw, we'll have a panel discussion & Q&A. Submit your Q's: http://netfreedom.state.gov/.”
This morning I also got a message from an FSO (wishes to remain unnamed) asking “How can State take a leadership role on Internet freedom while we continue to harass and discourage bloggers within our own ranks?”
Now, there’s a question that begs a good answer. I sent that question to Alec Ross and told him I’d be happy to post his response. A couple hours later, I got it! Reprinted in part below:
Alec Ross: My response: … When I joined State I saw that we had a long long long long way to go to incorporate technology into our diplomatic practices. 2009 was a spectacularly successful year doing so, but we're nowhere near the finish line and not yet everybody "gets it". If I'm given specific names of people doing the "discouraging" then I will take it up with those individuals (or their bosses or their boss' boss) directly. Listen to the Secretary's speech today.”
I'm sure you can connect with Alec Ross through the GAL. I'd be happy, of course, to forward specific information to him if it works better for you. Did I say his office is within the Secretary’s office? Follow him on Twitter here. Secretary Clinton’s speech will be livestreamed on www.state.gov at 9:30am ET.
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