The Foreign Service Journal, January 2013

12 JANUARY 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL And Speaking of Apps… Over the past couple of years, four U.S. diplomatic posts have received funding from State’s Office of Intellectual Prop- erty Enforcement to raise intellectual property awareness and report infringe- ments through the development of apps and crowdsourcing platforms. Each mission has adopted a different approach to development and marketing, but the message to protect intellectual property remains consistent. Consulate General Guangzhou was the first post to develop an IP-focused app. It links messaging about intellectual property rights to popular topics like job advice. That content, in turn, serves as a hook to encourage download and use of the app by the critical demographic of young adults. The app features videos in which top executives of multinational companies like Google, Hasbro and Harley-Davidson explain the value of IP protection and enforcement for their business models. Building on that success, the consul- ate general has created “how to” mate- rial describing the app’s development process. From soliciting funds to launch- ing the app, the process took about 12 months. As of this past October, the app is available free of charge for download- ing through four retail outlets online (one Apple, three Android) . In Indonesia, where an estimated 86 percent of software on personal comput- ers is pirated, Embassy Jakarta used its Fiscal Year 2012 IPE funding to launch the “IPR App Challenge.” The Challenge solicits designs for IP-themed apps likely to promote IP protection and awareness in Indonesia. The embassy partnered with Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia to carry out the competition, which will award funding to the top student and professional proposals to produce and market the apps. The public outreach campaign began in October and includes online and traditional media messaging and several promotional and educational events, culminating in a public demo night for the six finalists. Outreach programs have reached students, developers and tech startups, nongovernmental organiza- tions, government officials and media. Embassy Vilnius received FY 2012 funding to work with Bribespot , a crowdsourcing application for reporting corruption, to develop a Web platform where users can anonymously report IPR violations. The embassy is exploring comparable crowdsourcing, location- based projects and is sharing the test Web site with Lithuanian law enforce- ment and customs offices, the Busi- ness Software Alliance, the Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association and the local American Chamber of Commerce IPR Task Force. Once the site is live, the embassy will consider the development of a complementary mobile app. Consulate General Hyderabad is tak- ing advantage of widespread smartphone usage among India’s young popula- tion—expected to reach 500 million users within the next three to five years—by developing a dual-purpose app. This will disseminate real-time IP violation infor- mation among authorities and deliver entertainment news and IP-related mes- saging to the general public. To improve the development and marketing process, the consulate general is leveraging the resources of the Anti- Video Piracy Cell of the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce. As a bonus, the use of this app by police will increase 50 Years Ago I f you are FS-4 or above, give yourself this little test, answering yes or no to each question: Do you find your job no longer provides the inspiration and exhilaration it originally did, but has become, instead, a routine labor or daily drudgery? Are you less inclined to take chances, stick your neck out, or offer a minority opinion? Do you increasingly resort to polysyllabic words and current governmentese in writing memoranda and despatches? If you uncovered an irregularity, a potential scandal, or a superior’s grave error, would you try to sweep it under the rug, rather than do something about it and, in the process, perhaps rock the boat? On the few occasions you may still have fleeting thoughts of resigning and going into a nongovernmental occupation, are you held back by thoughts of retirement benefits, other manifestations of your “investment” in a government career, and the fact that the children are reaching college age? If you have answered yes to at least two of these questions, then you are an unwitting member of the American Establishment. Welcome! —From“The Real Truth about the American Establishment,” by S.I. Nadler; FSJ , January 1963