The Foreign Service Journal, February 2006

yet available to them at home via official channels. The combination of greater legitimacy accorded to learning, a willingness on the part of top offi- cials to at least entertain the possi- bility of changes in the traditional cultural mindset, and an improved IT infrastructure has set the stage for the next phase in the evolution of the work of the Department of State: “Anywhere, Anytime Diplo- macy.” The enhanced access and work flexibility defined by this con- cept will help realize Sec. Rice’s vision of transformational diplomacy. The current five-year information technology strate- gic plan goals paper, covering Fiscal Years 2006 through 2010, and related documents envision nothing less than creating a knowledge-sharing culture at the Department of State. Specific goals include the increased availability of 24/7 remote access to unclassi- fied information and greater attention to collaborative work, the latter encompassing improved interagency connectivity and establishment of “communities of practice” — networks of people who collaborate on common interests, tasks and needs. These communi- ties may have a variety of goals and employ a variety of means to work on them, from e-mail to online home pages. The department’s strategic plan for IT also envi- sions the introduction of knowledge management tools such as desktop search engines, expert and expertise locator systems and knowledge databases. I have extracted the accompanying table (see p. 31) from the strategic plan to highlight those trends and best practices that represent potential for change in the department’s work practices. Behind the Curve Taken together, these items are not just the sum of the individual tools or concepts listed. They rep- resent something much more: a fundamental shift in the conceptu- al model of how diplomatic work should be carried out. As just one example, FSOs require access to unclassified e- mail and files outside of office hours, both at home and on the road. Working as we do in a global context, often coordinating closely with colleagues located sev- eral time zones away, restricting access to official e-mail and personal files to desktop computers during office hours at our primary duty stations represents a tremen- dous opportunity cost for American diplomacy. In terms of remote access, we are behind the curve with respect to our colleagues in other national securi- ty agencies, not to mention foreign governments and the private sector. In the Government Accountability Office, all 3,500 employees have remote access to their work. In contrast, at a recent WTO negotiating session in Geneva, only the State representative lacked remote access within the U.S. government negotiating team. Use of an encrypted means to log on to the Internet, OpenNet Everywhere, has only just begun to catch on at State. Currently available only in Washington, ONE has been undergoing proof-of-concept testing at select- ed posts overseas, and initial reports are positive. At present, some 2,000 employees in Washington, 10 per- cent of our global work force, have access. The goal is for this figure to rise to 5,000 ONE accounts, 25 per- cent of the total, by the end of the current fiscal year, including some overseas users. While the department pays for remote access for teleworkers, the relatively high annual cost for non-teleworkers must be paid by individual bureaus, which could impede rapid adop- tion of the technology. Another area where change is needed in order to increase our diplomatic effectiveness around the world is collaborative work and knowledge-sharing. At F O C U S 30 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 6 Peter Gadzinski is an economic-cone Foreign Service officer who served in six overseas posts before return- ing to Washington in 2000. After serving in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, he was a Pearson Fellow with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before heading State’s liaison office on the Hill. Presently, he is with the Information Resource Management Bureau’s Office of eDiplomacy, where he seeks to represent the customer point of view in IT and knowledge management issues. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of the Department of State. The lack of remote access forces many State personnel to depend on commercial services such as Yahoo and Hotmail for connectivity.