Friday, June 5, 2009

Dept. of State Taps eDiplomacy to Spread Obama's Message Through Cairo

President Obama called for a new relationship between the United States and Muslims around the world during his speech in Cairo, Egypt on Thursday, June 4, 2009, and the State Department went to high- tech lengths to make sure that the mesage resonated to as many citizens of the Muslim world as possible. The U.S. Department of State utilized text messaging as a global communications tool, initiating an eDiplomacy program where people from around the world could sign up to receive SMS and text messages with highlights from Pres. Obama's speech. The updates were not available to U.S. citizens since the State Department paid for the text messaging and has a policy of only using funds to address foreign audiences. The text message highlights were available in 13 languages and sent out to more than 200 countries. By completing an online registration form on America.gov, available in English, Arabic, Urdu and Persian, enrolled participants were able to receive the speech highlights and invited to send in their comments. The New York Times reported that the State Department has had difficulty reaching those located in remote areas to inform them that the text messages were available and considers this first eDiplomacy text blast a pilot program. Duncan MacInnes, a State Department spokesman, told the NYT, "It won't be perfect. It is an area we will spend a lot of time thinking about." The White House has a full transcript of the speech posted in 15 different languages and released a short video soon after Obama's speech featuring featuring three Muslim Americans who work for the federal government. Photos of Obama giving the speech are posted on flickr.

No comments: