The Foreign Service Journal, November 2010

human testing and is relying on ma- chine testing until a third party com- pletes a security review. For now, the company’s Web site bears the following warning in several languages: “We have halted ongoing testing of Haystack in Iran pending a se- curity review. If you have a copy of the test program, please refrain from using it” ( www.haystacknetwork.com/ ) . Commenting on the larger issue of resistance to governmental crack- downs on freedom of information, Patrick Meier, director of crisis map- ping for Ushahidi, a group of digital ac- tivists doing cutting-edge work in open-source interactive mapping, ob- serves that “The technology variable doesn’t matter the most. It is the or- ganizational structure that will matter the most. Rigid structures are unable to adapt as quickly to a rapidly chang- ing environment as a decentralized system. Ultimately, it is a battle of or- ganizational theory” ( www.ushahidi. com/ ). All A-Twitter in Pyongyang Only the most privileged North Ko- reans have access to the Internet, but that elite group is believed to include a group of master programmers and hackers. Indeed, South Korea’s spy agency has accused the North of launching cyberattacks last year that briefly paralyzed theWeb sites of some South Korean and U.S. government agencies and commercial firms. In its latest propaganda coup, re- ports the Telegraph ( www.telegraph. co.uk/ ) , the Hermit Kingdom opened a Twitter account on Aug. 12. Called uriminzok — roughly translated, “our nation”— the account ( http://twitter. com/uriminzok ) has already attract- ed more than 10,000 followers and is currently on 727 Twitter lists (a way users highlight and organize their fa- vorite members). Blogging for Forbes magazine, Eliz- abethWoyke comments that those are impressive statistics given the fact that every uriminzok tweet (392 as of Sept. 23) is written in Korean, and links to longer statements or videos, also in Korean. The postings address topics ranging from boasts about North Korea’s economy to condemnation of the joint Seoul/Washington military ex- ercises that were held recently in South Korea. Woyke also reports on a parody North Korean Twitter account ( http:// blogs.forbes.com/elizabethwoy 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... A merica’s reservoir of good will has undoubtedly been drawn down needlessly by our mistakes and insensitivity, yet most people throughout the world are still anxious to think well of us. Indeed, if we give them any excuse, they will. The American ambassador who conducts himself today in a foreign capital with simplicity and sympathy will almost inevitably, I believe, receive a warm response. Where can such articulate, down-to-earth men be found? Most of them, I believe, will be found right in our existing Foreign Service. Once we establish a clear standard of what we want our ambassadors to be, there will be no dearth of qualified professionals ready and waiting to tackle the most demanding assignments with skill and understanding. — Chester Bowles, “Shirt Sleeves and Striped Pants,” FSJ, November 1960.