Feral Jundi

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has written about the efficacy of samizdat in undermining the Soviet Union, sees a similar dynamic at work here. “The freedom of communication and the nature of it,” he has said, “is a huge strategic asset for the United States.” 

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    These three stories are all inter-related and based on this first one below.  The more I read this, the more I keep thinking that someone is reading Feral Jundi and taking the hint.  lol.  There are all sorts of things we could be doing with these technologies, and it is great to see some innovation in that department.  I especially like the Humari project, because that is flipping cool.  Facebook is already accessible on a mobile platform, but to actually create a social network for mobile for the Pakistani market?  That is neat.

   Why are these stories in PMC 2.0? Because not only is the freedom of communication and the nature of it an excellent strategic asset for the US, it is an excellent strategic asset for companies.  I recommend the reader to go back through all of the PMC 2.0 and social networking related posts that I have made in the past, and evaluate for yourself on the validity of this concept.  The future is coming and everyone will have mobile smart phones and everyone will be using social networking sites.  Is your company ready for that?-Matt

Edit: 12/14/2009- Check out this paper written at the Heritage Foundation about Public Diplomacy 2.0.

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Social Networks as Foreign Policy

12/12/2009

From the 9th Annual Year in Ideas

In August, after the suppression of Iran’s pro-democracy protests, officials in Tehran accused Western governments of using online social networks like Twitter and Facebook to help execute a “soft coup.” The accusation wasn’t entirely off-base. In Iran and elsewhere, this year showed the growing importance of social networks to U.S. foreign policy.

Long before the protests in Iran started, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. civilian international broadcasting, had in place software to counter censorship in countries like Iran, so people could better access the blogosphere. And the State Department financially supports agencies that make it easier for Iranians and others to surf the Web. After the protests began, the State Department asked Twitter to reschedule a maintenance outage so the activists could continue to spread the word about their movement.

The United States has long disseminated information to people living under repressive regimes — think of Radio Free Europe. The difference here is that the content of the information isn’t the important thing; the emphasis is on supporting the technical infrastructure and then letting the people decide for themselves what to say. Communication itself erodes despots’ authority. “The very existence of social networks is a net good,” says Alec Ross, a senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

(more…)