The Foreign Service Journal, September 2008

professionally edited documentaries or television news broadcasts, with flashy graphics, maps in the back- ground and split screens. Back to the Future The implications are clear, but don’t take my word for it. Judge for yourself. Check out a mix of embassy Web pages of different-sized posts in different areas. Could they hold their own against sites such as YouTube, Facebook or CNN? In order to win that competition for attention Karl Rove talks about, there needs to be an overhaul of our outreach efforts — just to get us back to the situation back in the 1990s, when we were at the cutting edge of information outreach. For starters, I would recommend: 1) A return to the status quo ante of independent embassy Web sites. Use CMS as a supplement to post efforts, not as a required platform for hosting. 2) Regular, external evaluations of embassy Web sites and other out- reach products. Internal evaluations like those conducted regarding a handful of CMS sites earlier this year are not helpful. State should instead be looking to independent consul- tants who can assess how well our Web sites are adapting new technolo- gies and recommend ways to improve our products. 3) Reinstatement of PDNet or an equivalent approach to manage the many crucial developing technologies on the Internet that OpenNet is not capable of handling. 4) Consultations with the field on future developments in information outreach, so that we stay abreast of the latest changes and don’t adopt flawed fixes like CMS that hamper our efforts. 5) Placement of information out- reach high on the agenda of the new under secretary for public diplomacy. There needs to be recognition at a high level that our efforts over the past five years have been inadequate, and that much more needs to be done to adapt new technology more quickly. This might include modify- ing designs for embassies so that there are some sections where employees can have access to essen- tial devices like USB sticks and cell phones with cameras that will allow us to do our jobs better. USIA had great success using the Internet to reach audiences in the 1990s because it empowered our employees to use their expertise and creativity in all kinds of new outreach efforts. The process of centralizing and regulating our use of Web pages through CMS has robbed us of the ability to keep up with rapidly chang- ing standards and all of the new tech- nologies that can be used with Web pages, such as videos, webchats and podcasting. If we want our messages to reach the audiences of the 21st century, tak- ing a few steps backward to the poli- cies of the 1990s might help us bridge the gap that has developed. n Scott Rauland joined the U.S. Information Agency as a Foreign Service officer in 1993. One of his first major information outreach pro- jects was creating the “Islam in America” Web site in Pakistan in 1999. Currently public affairs officer in Kabul, he has also been PAO in Frankfurt (the first consulate to post podcasts to iTunes) and Quito, and consul general in Yekaterinburg, among other Foreign Service assign- ments. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 15 S P E A K I N G O U T u