New head of digital engagement for the Foreign Office
You might have spotted that the Foreign Office are advertising for a new Head of Digital Engagement.
It's a new job, created to take the digital diplomacy project on to the next level.
You might also have noticed that my own job title contains the words "Head", "Digital" and "Engagement" in a slightly different order. This is a different job - it's for our head of department. When the position is filled, it could change the dynamic of the team I work in. And my responsibilities (and job title) might have to change too. A lot will depend on who we recruit.
It's a great job. If you've done brilliant work elsewhere, and you're excited by the challenge of doing things that haven't really been done before, then you should apply.
Posted at 08:19 29 September 2009 by Stephen Hale | Comments[2]
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We've advertised 3 Digital Diplomacy jobs today: a senior editor, a web prototype developer and a digital producer for our engagement work. It's an exciting time to be working on this kind of stuff in the Foreign Office - there's a lot we want to do, and we need brilliant people to help us to do it all. Note: these jobs have really short closing dates because we're impatient to get people in. If you're interested, follow the links.
Posted at 16:29 17 November 2008 by Stephen Hale | Comments[2]
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In my job I'm sometimes surprised by the expectation that I should persuade people to take web engagement seriously.
I think the argument is already won - you really don't have to look too hard to find examples of the web being used to engage, influence, and change lives around the world.
The Obama campaign showed the web playing a crucial role in the election of the most powerful man in the world. Videos delivered via the internet are being used to radicalise young men in Afghanistan. And - in our daily lives - social media is profoundly changing the way we communicate with each other. This is mainstream media now.
I was at the eDemocracy conference yesterday as part of a panel talking about government web engagement. The conference is a worthy exercise, bringing together practitioners to share ideas and experiences and learn from each other. We should spend more time talking about how - rather then whether- we do this kind of work.
Posted at 10:26 12 November 2008 by Stephen Hale | Comments[2]
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Digital diplomacy - what's that then?
It's the title of a book that I haven't read, but probably should. It's the label the State Department have been using for a while to describe their digital outreach work. And it's quite difficult to say in a hurry.
Digital diplomacy is also the phrase we're using in the Foreign Office to describe our work on the web.
You can see digital diplomacy happening on our department website, on our network of embassy websites, on our blogs, and increasingly on websites and platforms that we don't run ourselves.
To be honest, we're still working out what we can achieve through digital diplomacy. We do have a plan. And we've given ourselves 2 years to deliver it. But what's exciting about this work is that we really don't know how it's it going to play out.
That's what this blog will be about. It's is an official blog about digital diplomacy and web engagement. So I won't be talking about my hobbies (unless they have a direct impact on web engagement), I won't be pitching for work, and I won't be posting photos from my holidays.
I realise that I'll be blogging about a pretty niche subject with a limited audience, but that's as it should be.
I've spent a lot of the last year persuading diplomats, ministers and officials that effective use of web engagement tools like blogs could be an integral part of their work. So I'm feeling the pressure to do this well. I promise to post regularly, and I'll read and respond to your comments.
There's more about me and what this blog is for on my about page.
Posted at 18:20 22 October 2008 by Stephen Hale | Comments[7]
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