The original testing ground for new possibilities
The easy availability of tools through which to analyse data is creating many exciting opportunities for the digital humanities to explore the available data in new interdisciplinary methods which compliment existing approaches. These are my slides from a really interesting session at SOAS:
Many of the challenges of analysing social and other forms of digital media can be summed up as features of volume, speed, and credibility. The challenges of volume, speed and credibility often require analysis which focuses on the aggregate of human actions, habits of engagement, and the concept of emergent behaviour. Below a presentation showing how … Read More “Non-textual data and new media sources” »
I had the pleasure of presenting via videoconference to Daryl Copeland’s MA class at Ottawa University on October 10. The guest post on his blog, Guerrilla Diplomacy,  approximates the thoughts I presented. Tools for a more resilient public diplomacy With the right tools, smarter networks and collaborative strategies there is potential to deliver a more resilient … Read More “Guest post on Guerrilla Diplomacy: Tools for a more resilient public diplomacy” »
The inaugural School of International Futures started yesterday at Wilton Park, Britain’s foremost global policy centre, on the theme of Strategic Foresight. Interest in foresight among the international policy community has grown in this period of financial and geopolitical turbulence. Foresight provides a way of apprehending and addressing uncertainties associated with demographic, environmental, economic and resource challenges, and … Read More “Inaugural School of International Futures” »
New report, written with David Montez, published through the InterMedia Global Research Network, In this study (available here) we; (1) discuss research methods needed to develop, implement, and evaluate social media campaigns in public diplomacy; (2) assess the State Department’s use of digital media to support President Obama’s March 2011 visit to Brazil; and (3) offer recommendations … Read More “Evaluating Online Public Diplomacy Using Digital Media Research Methods, A Case Study of #ObamainBrazil,” »
Indra Adnan’s piece in the Huffington Post outlines the future of the Downing Street Project; The Downing Street Project is going to shift its gaze from equal representation for women, to the much broader question of the gender dynamics of the public sphere and its effect on society… [It is hoped this will develop] a … Read More “PD, Gender Gap Data and the ‘flimsy new framework’” »
The evaluation of Government 2.0 initiatives using a network analysis approach, has demonstrated the importance of understanding the type of the network which is being engaged through social media. The value of consciously considering whether the initiative will be centralised around Government or dispersed throughout society should not be overlooked. This may unlock the potential … Read More “#g2g” »
The many different approaches to communication can both compete with and enrich other areas of communication. The combination of communication and development work, as organisations such as PANOS have done, demonstrates much from which others can learn. Equally the experience of health promotion over the years provides useful insight. To reiterate, while many may practitioners … Read More “KAP Gap” »
Picking up on the last discussion of power and the articulation of power in relation to ‘allies’, it is also worth considering the power relationship with the potential target community when planning PD activities. In Options for Influence, we discussed the options which exist between telling and listening. At the ‘telling’ or message orientated end … Read More “Powering PD” »
A key part of the Dispersed Networks project is considering them as networks of influence – When engaged in any form of international communication, public diplomacy, cultural relations, or whatever other label practitioners or theorists wish to put on the work, the aim of the activity is not just changing people’s perceptions, but rather influencing … Read More “A short note on influence” »