26th December 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Nowadays, communication includes the freedom to express opinions in the Internet information environment and the freedom to discover them. That is to say, the freedom to speak and to hear. Moreover, this online environment gives a new perspective to what was once referred to as “word of mouth”. Now we might be tempted to call […]
20th December 2013 London, UK
One year ago this week we published the Foreign Office Digital Strategy, looking at how we would make the most of the opportunities of digital in our work. The Strategy set a clear vision – making use of digital tools in every element of foreign policy work; and moving to provide our services digitally by […]
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16th December 2013 London, UK
A timeline taking a look back at some of the major events that took place in 2013.
22nd November 2013 London, UK
Within the context of a globalized environment, each institution, whether public or private, needs to take the maximum advantage of social media channels, which usually include very low costs and have a wide range of coverage. In an embassy like ours in San Salvador, the digital work and maximization of resources takes great relevance because […]
21st November 2013 London, UK
During a crisis Twitter has proved essential for the dissemination of critical information. Building on this reputation Twitter launched a new service called Twitter Alerts in the US, Korea and Japan in September 2013. Twitters have now released the service in the UK and the Foreign Office has signed up to take part. The service […]
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29th October 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Public diplomacy, digital diplomacy, e-diplomacy, diplomacy 2.0. Has diplomacy changed that much in current years that it has divided itself into so many different strands? In one of this blogs’ first posts, Chris stated that we are in the business of talking to strangers. We want to “explain our ideas more widely and we need […]
16th October 2013 London, UK
Early in 2012, we agreed the FCO would be a “trailblazer” – one of the first departments to move to the government’s new single site GOV.UK. Travel advice visited by millions each year as well as over 200 country pages in over 35 languages are now on the site. One year on from GOV.UK’s launch, […]
3rd October 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Like most Londoners, I do not generally talk to strangers – especially on public transport. However, if I want to speak to them I can go to Speakers ‘ Corner in Hyde Park. It is an area where anyone can speak on any subject they want whilst others listen, debate or just heckle. I remember […]
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3rd October 2013 London, UK
I blogged in July on some upcoming opportunities to join the Foreign Office Digital Team. We’ve now externally advertised some great jobs. First, four digital transformation roles: Two Digital Transformation Manager roles – driving and defining how the FCO will move its services to digital and also helping drive improvement in our internal software and […]
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4th September 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
I’ve posted before about Naked Diplomacy and why diplomats must ride the digital tiger. Last week I was scheduled to join Foreign Minister Bildt for a Q&A session on innovative diplomacy with Sweden’s ambassadors. I was looking forward to learning from them, as the first Foreign Ministry to put all their envoys on Twitter. But […]