VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

Credit: OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev I strongly believe that Foreign Affairs Organizations have the opportunity to become pioneers in developing a comprehensive Digital Diplomacy and Social Media Strategy. The Internet as a whole and the different Social Media applications provide an opportunity to connect with various stakeholders, online communities, interest groups and individuals. The advantages of developing a Digital Diplomacy Strategy: To communicate the message directly to the public across the world. Without having to rely on International Media, Journalists or the Foreign Press. To harness public knowledge, share it with the world, so as to pursue national interests abroad. To maintain contact with audiences online and to utilize Social Media to listen and target important groups of individuals with key messages. To influence major online news leaders and International news agencies. To listen and gather information in order to anticipate emerging political mo...

It's good to see that the GOP is engaging with the Obama twitter townhall #AskObama . Something that they didn't do during the Obama facebook townhall. In my post " President's facebook townhall & creative online campaign tactics " I wrote: I expect to see more smart and creative online campaign tactics; hopefully the 2012 campaigns will use more creative thinking in the coming months. Reince Priebus send out a tweet , the GOP ReTweeted and posted an update to the GOP facebook page . One short comment: it doesn't matter if it's facebook, twitter or any other Social Network. Internet communications technologies are used by people at the same time. So, why not let facebook people take part in a twitter townhall? The Obama facebook page does not ask supporters for twitter questions; the GOP asked facebook a twitter question!

Sarah Palin concludes her latest facebook note with "November 2012 can’t come soon enough." , while Obama promotes a Strategy update video on: "What We're Building This Summer" . When you compare these two facebook messages one can understand that Obama is building on an ongoing campaign with volunteering initiatives and grassroots organizing; while Palin is asking: "Should we be borrowing money from China to turn around and give it to the Muslim Brotherhood?". This is the time to start organizing to campaign for 2012; not the time to engage in creative political rhetoric or 2012 debate talking points.  Here you can watch battleground States Director Mitch Stewart reporting on the nuts and bolts of what volunteers are building, for Barack Obama 2012.

So, Tim Pawlenty tweeted before the President's facebook townhall: Have a tough question for @BarackObama 's Facebook townhall today, submit questions that are unlikely to be answered here When I saw this I thought that it would link to the facebook live page so that people would actually ask the President all the " questions that are unlikely to be answered " but no... it linked to a page at the T-Paw website with a condescending photo of Obama asking people to: "Use the form below to let us know what questions need to be addressed but won't be asked at tomorrow's campaign event." This is so wrong in terms of new media communications in Politics! If T-Paw actually directed people to the facebook live page it could have been a really great tactical move to actually get his followers to ask the questions that " need to be addressed " at the actual event that they could have been addressed! It could have been a really smart move by T-P...

I've been following what is happening in Libya these days, and I am not sure why this uprising has not been hailed as a Social Media or "facebook revolution". Although this sort of tagging is mostly planted by mainstream media, I am sure that in the aftermath of the middle-east happenings there will be a lot of analysis and even research on how the Internet played a part. In one of my past posts, I wrote on " The Internet and Social Media in #Egypt, how It really matters ". Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , the son of Muammar al-Gaddafi , on a recent speech to the Libyan people (February 20th) referred to some people that want to drag Libya into: "what happened in Tunisia and in Egypt and it started by facebook, emails and twitter and in their media campaign". In an article " Libyan dictator warns against use of Facebook " Emil Protalinski confirms what Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said. So, not only citizens know how Social Media impact t...

In my Last Blog post " Papandreou talks about the role of Social Media in Government " I promised to write on how New and Social Media impact public diplomacy. I have been rather busy lately (haven't Blogged as much as I would like), however, in this post I want to draw your attention to a recent Facebook DC Live Event: Social Media and the World Stage , which was hosted by Facebook Washington DC. In this Video Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Senior Innovation Adviser Alec Ross and Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Baer talk about how people around the world have been empowered by social media. Watch live streaming video from facebookdclive at livestream.com I remembered Eric Schwartzman saying that there are no secrets any more, only information, that is not yet known. So, in the age of the Internet, do you believe that the " Chatham House Rule " can be applied in New and Social Public Diplomacy? Also, let me draw you attention ...

In a recent speech to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Athens, the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou referenced Social and New Media and their role in Government. You can watch what Papandreou said here: Some excellent points there. I also recommend watching the speech in its entirety; a starting point in understanding Greece in current affairs. P.S. I write this post, having Blogged on " The Internet and Social Media in #Egypt, how It really matters ". There is so many information, great examples and ideas that I want to share, on how Social and New Media can play a role in not only public communications, but innovative governance and public diplomacy; I promise to write an extensive post in the near future.

I've been reading on how social media has ignited the social developments in Egypt, and also how this argument is silly, since most people in Egypt do not have access to facebook and twitter so as to organize and utilize these new media. I do not want to say that the truth is somewhere in the middle, but there is a point to be made. During the past few days I've been watching live on  Al Jazeera  and reading on Blogs and twitter in trying to keep informed, I also read a very interesting article by Eric Schwartzman on " Thoughts on Social Media and Revolutions ". He references Steve Coll in the  New Yorker in writing: …youthful populations, high unemployment, grotesque inequality, abusive police, reviled leaders and authoritarian systems” are to blame. So let’s give credit where credit’s due. It’s bad government that led to the situation at hand. Social media just made it impossible to ignore. Well, it's not really easy to disagree with the above stateme...

Sarah Palin released a video today on Vimeo (First time she utilized this video service) in response to the shootings in Tucson AZ. According to THEBLAZE.com (a site managed by Glenn Beck ) Sarah Palin has officially broken her silence and indirectly responded to criticism that she is somehow connected to the shootings in Tucson. According to CNN , the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner has been anecdotally regarded as very troubled and perhaps mentally unbalanced because of his ramblings spotted on the internet and the way he has been described by acquaintances. There have also been widespread rumours that Loughners' actions mirrored the Tea Party or the rise of right-wing activists in America. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were named by some as the moral perpetrators to these despicable acts. Glenn Beck, from his TV and Radio shows, has defended himself, the Tea Party and Sarah Palin, he also wrote a letter to Sarah Palin, to whitch she replied. Although they both need to go on t...

Barack Obama was the second person to reach 10 million facebook likes, after Lady Gaga . Facebook for sure plays a distinctive role in online communications, and politicians in particular seem to be very fond of how facebook helps them connect, talk and get feedback. W hen  politicians become part of someones daily news feed, they connect in ways that are yet to be determined as to how they can shape future relationships and influence voting  behavior.  When people spend time in providing feedback, or channel political messages to friends, they need to be acknowledged for that.  facebook provides an intimate online technology platform that drives interactions in being more personal.  I can understand that engaging in dialogue can be time consuming, but politicians, in trying to help their constituents, need to get personal and provide useful information, just like other "facebook friends". Last year nobody knew Lady Gaga, she did however passed the 10 millio...

Sarah Palin has come a long way in U.S. politics, from being mayor of a small city in Alaska to becoming Governor and then VP candidate for the Republicans in the 2008 election. Since resigning her post as Governor, Sarah Palin published her book " Going Rogue: An American Life " and has been very active in her media exposure. She is now part of the Fox News channel as a contributor . As is another former Republican Presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee . It seems that Fox News is gathering the Republicans on TV, have a look at the ongoing twitter debate . Having searched a bit more on her Internet presence; it is really unique,  she uses her facebook page as the primary information outlet, along with her twitter account . The SarahPAC website is a very simple donate site, without any news or any other links to... nothing really. Sarah Palin is utilising her facebook supporters, having raised a huge fan base during the 2008 campaign. When she writes a commentary note on h...

I had the opportunity to be in Corfu this weekend at the informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers . It was a great experience from any perspective, media and otherwise! This was the first informal ministerial meeting of the OSCE .  During the conference we had the opportunity, as OSCE Press and Public Information Section, to explore new ways to link with the media and the general public utilizing the twitter and facebook accounts of the OSCE. For the scale of the event we did manage to stream the event live and have multimedia (audio and video) of the opening and closing statements and a great photo gallery ! I believe that the most important thing is that we learned so much in preparation for the Formal Ministerial Council in Athens in December 2009.  One of the suggestions is to project the OSCE twitter to the Press Center, so as journalists, reporters, media people and volunteers to keep up to date with schedule, press center and pool updates, media appeara...

Even if facebook was a great campaign tool for the previous US Elections and plays a big part in any western European political communications plan; we can clearly understand the power of facebook in politics by analyzing the recent ban in Iran. The upcoming Presidential elections in Iran are set for the 12th of June. The current opposition is utilizing the Internet and social media sites to connect to young and first time voters, while appealing to Internet users. facebook was banned in Iran for one reason - politics. The current state owned, or controlled, media provide the opportunity even for Iranian politicians to be pro-active in Internet political communications, and connect with voters that use the Internet as a medium of non-biased news. facebook in Iran provided a clean platform for all politicians to connect with citizens and campaign like in any other western country. The ban, only made facebook a more legitimate place to campaign and clearly demonstrated, that even in a...

Hey everybody, It has been long since my last Blog post; but I have been keeping active in my social media responsibilities… Hope to tweet even more now that I will have my new blackberry! As you might have noticed, I currently work at the The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna. I am at the PPIS (this stands for Press and Public Information Section) in developing a social media strategy for the Organization and using a multimedia approach to get the OSCE message out, create awareness and further expand the communication strategy. Check out the official facebook page of the OSCE , follow OSCE updates on twitter and be sure to watch our videos on the OSCE YouTube channel! Will try to Blog even more! But keep up with me on twitter!

I haven't stopped watching CNN for the the duration of the inauguration today... while micro blogging and updating facebook through CNN.com/LIVE and Twitter. Congrats to President Barack Obama!  Do check out the new whitehouse.gov and the new YouTube Channel ! PS> will try to write a post on my new ventures in Vienna Austria, for the time being you can visit the OSCE ...