Office of eDiplomacy

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The Office of eDiplomacy acts an applied technology think tank for the United States Department of State. As part of the Bureau of Information Resource Management, eDiplomacy serves as a liaison between Department of State IT specialists and the end user. Its mission is to support diplomats overseas through collaborative technologies, and to promote other technologies that assist their work.

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[edit] History

In 2002, Ambassador James Holmes started the eDiplomacy Task Force. In 2003, the task force was reorganized into the Office of eDiplomacy. Currently, eDiplomacy falls under the Deputy CIO for Business Planning and Customer Service.

Stephen T. Smith is the current director.

[edit] Projects

eDiplomacy is actively developing a number of technologies which allow the diplomatic community to share and maintain institutional knowledge. A few of its current projects are:

  • Diplopedia, a wiki space that is the encyclopedia of the Department of State, currently containing over 2800 entries [1]
  • Virtual Presence Posts (VPPs), a new approach which allows for U.S. diplomatic presence in foreign cities without buildings or permanent staff. The technique involves regular travel, programs, media outreach, and new technology. As of September 2007, there were 42 VPPs worldwide. [2]
  • Communities @ State, a series of communities of practice using web log (blog) software that are designed to strengthen various types of communities within the Department. As of November 2007, there were over 37 existing and planned communities at State, ranging from a technical discussion group to groups of diplomats involved in human rights reporting and the VPP program. [3]
  • Virtual Work Environments: eDiplomacy is poised to play a leading role in the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) adoption effort at State. The State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolset (SMART) program is heading the WSS deployment effort.
  • Remote access and teleworking
  • Classified web publishing for sharing diplomatic reporting and analysis with the U.S. Government's foreign affairs and national security communities.[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] External Links: Virtual Presence Posts

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[edit] References