The Foreign Service Journal, March 2010

Windows-based personal computers just about everyone else in America was buying in the 1990s. This did not mean that State’s big-project mindset had been relegated to the dustbin, however. Indeed, for most of the past decade, IRM has put considerable effort into SMART — the Department of State’s Messaging and Archive Retrieval Tool- set. SMART represents an increasingly obsolescent orthodoxy of computer-dri- ven productivity designed around ap- plications on each user’s PC and servers. When complete, SMART will probably be the last big IT project of its kind to be undertaken at the depart- ment, and probably the last one to cater to the networked personal com- puter, as well. Three “Cs” conspire against such future projects: collaboration software, cybersecurity concerns and, finally, the potential of the computing cloud. Col- laboration software is a necessity for work with other agencies, nongovern- mental organizations, industry and ac- ademia, but it is confounded by many barriers to use, such as large on-com- puter software downloads or license costs. The vehicle for collaboration is the Internet browser, not something that comes in a box. Cybersecurity, for its part, will require more robust net- work controls, increased simplicity and limited functionality in which the browser replaces many client pro- grams on each desktop PC. The third “C” — the “cloud” — is a label for always-on networked re- sources, from spreadsheets and word processors to storage and e-mail. Cloud computing — what we thought of a few years back as “service-oriented architecture” — will exert a powerful force on government IT. It is back to the future, with massive server farms, the new mainframes of the day, sup- porting Web-connected smartphones, BlackBerrys and, the latest rage, net- books, as well as desktops and laptops. While State employees will proba- bly still want computers and monitors back at the office, the expectation is that wherever they go, their data will go with them. As anyone who has set- tled a trivia debate with an iPhone can tell you, we are moving toward a time of device-based augmented cognition (and distraction). In this environment, tools that quickly connect users to valu- able information with minimal sorting and sifting are desirable. Users want programs that will tell them what they may want to read or watch based on prior-usage behavior and interests — which Amazon is already doing with its customer data. For the desk officer or press attaché, wouldn’t it be nice to have machines doing some of the read- ing and flagging before messages hit the inbox? An Information Plan News of the creation of innovation adviser positions at State is heartening, as well. It is already working with so- cial media — Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — and strategies for engag- ing in many-to-many dialogue with for- eign publics, revolutionizing the busi- ness of public diplomacy. Also vital is adoption of this tech- nology by the department’s entire work force. IT is no longer simply the do- main of the embassy communicator, toiling in some vault somewhere to send and receive the day’s cable traffic. All department employees should see their responsibilities and capabilities change due to the continuing march of progress, if they haven’t already. If this means that each FS member should be a blogger for the department at one point or another, so much the better. While State has made significant strides in the adoption of IT to perform the mission of diplomacy, they are modest in comparison with the invest- ment the Pentagon has made in apply- ing information technology to its missions under the “Revolution inMil- itary Affairs” banner. An IT-driven overhaul of diplomacy will require still greater investment, outreach and ac- ceptance of culture change. On that last point, the stark reality remains that the transition at State from a Cold War posture to one able to cope with the multilayered contem- porary international system is incom- plete. The department will need to look more closely at multilateral diplo- macy and the value of “intermestic” re- lations, where allegiance to country is on a relatively low rung. To tackle this, a bulking-up of the department’s big “I,” little “t” compo- nents is needed. A revitalized infor- mation skunkworks built on the model of IRM’s Office of eDiplomacy — preferably reporting high up the ad- ministrative chain, perhaps directly to the Deputy Secretary of State — would send an important message on efforts to infuse innovation into the practice of diplomacy. In addition, the department’s CIO needs to become a true chief, not just the person at the helm of IRM. Finally, career tracks that reward IT-savvy generalists and recruitment efforts designed to drawmore technical and engineering graduates into the the department ought to be considered. Tempering any vision for IT at State, we must recognize that science and technology have a somewhat tar- nished history there. James E. Webb, 46 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 0 SMART will probably be the last big IT project of its kind undertaken at the department, and the last to cater to the networked personal computer.