The Foreign Service Journal, February 2004

like access to information. Distri- bution controls built into department communications networks and vener- able protocols like TAGS have fos- tered the compartmentalization of knowledge rather than sharing. For example, it is difficult, if not impossi- ble, for an employee to access even routine, uncaptioned political and economic reporting from another region. A powerful search engine is part of the SMART concept, with the addi- tional capability of allowing an employee to fine-tune categories of messages to be “pushed” into his or her electronic in-basket. (There will be twin systems for unclassified and classified information.) To make that feature effective, the steering commit- tee pushed a decision memo on “defining conditions of access” to SMART all the way to the top. Keeping Up with Technology In October 2002, Secretary Powell signed off on guidelines for informa- tion-sharing under SMART that make classified and unclassified information broadly available to foreign affairs pro- fessionals with valid security clear- ances. That principle will open up political and economic reporting across the geographic bureaus. In this era, one can no longer say it is unim- portant for the Brazil desk to see reporting on AIDS policy in South Africa, or for Brussels to know the lat- est Australian position affecting genet- ically modified farm crops. Diplomatic practice must move forward with the technology. For every message of substance, it will be necessary to fill out a header that goes beyond TAGS to assign distribution and archiving. These new e-messages can include photographs and other attachments. Once the department’s archive is replete with information, however, it doesn’t mean that officers will automatically exploit it. Information search strategies and techniques are no longer the preserve of the reference librarian. News reporters and policy analysts through- out Washington use Boolean search strategies and work with research spe- cialists every day. As State’s technolo- gy catches up with the private sector, its workforce is lagging in the skills to make good use of even current capa- bilities. A problem we have yet to confront is how to achieve unclassified mobile computing: access to the unclassified system from any department worksta- tion, home computer or personal digi- tal assistant. The State Department is a global enterprise. Some 3,000 Foreign Service officers transferred last summer alone, and staff is con- stantly traveling among our facilities in more than 250 cities. Yet each employee is largely tied to the com- puter at his or her desk, requiring spe- cial arrangements to access informa- tion from any other location. What Is Security? This is not a technical problem: the impediments are security-related, and not trivial. The people responsible for 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4 S P E A K I N G O U T u As State’s technology catches up with the private sector, its workforce is lagging in the skills to make good use of even current capabilities.