Diplopedia:
Wiki Culture in the U.S. Department of State
Presented at Wikimania 2008 Office of eDiplomacy • U.S. Department of State July 19, 2008
U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
A State Department primer
Basic roles
Make and execute foreign policy Provide consular and passport services Manage official U.S. presence abroad
Africa (47)
East Asia & Pacific (43)
Europe (77)
International Organizations (7)
57,000+ employees worldwide 46,000 unclassified network users
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Western Hemisphere (49)
Near East South Asia (36)
… plus 30 Geographic, Policy and Management Bureaus and Independent Offices
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Legacies
18th Century business model – highly autonomous business units (embassies and bureaus)
Mid-20th Century official communications system (telegraphic cables)
Cold War security (need to know)
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A knowledge and information factory
1,800,000 cable messages a year
1,500,000,000 e-mail messages a year
500,000 printed volumes in the foreign affairs collection 1,000 public and internal web sites (give or take a few)
U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
Office of eDiplomacy
Created in 2002 as a task force, became a regular office in 2003 Promotes knowledge sharing Major projects include:
Classified Web publishing from diplomatic posts Enterprise search Community blogs Diplopedia wiki
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Authorship within the Department
Documents are already created by multiple authors Multiple editors change, or at least approve, documents Roles in cable drafting are defined by the Foreign Affairs Handbook
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“Classic” media: the diplomatic cable
Cable (old) Cable (new)
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Social media and the State Department
Social media are useful in State Department for several objectives… Knowledge management Collaboration Expertise location Sharing information Reaching new audiences
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The Diplopedia plan
Open it up to all State employees, but no anonymity Oversee, but don’t overkill Make sure everything is informative and not ephemeral
Wikis are two-thirds planning, and the rest is a leap in the dark. Napoleon Bonaparte
U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
How it has developed
Slow start for first several months, then interest grew Integrated with enterprise search Acceptance increased as Diplopedia grew in size and quality, and wikis seemed less scary No article is locked down (yet) No edit wars (yet) Hard to argue with success
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Things we weren’t expecting
Mobile reading Biographies Trivia contests Interagency interest
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Diplopedia statistical snapshot
Total Users
1000
Total Articles
5000 700,000 4500 600,000
Total Page Views
900
800
4000
700
3500
500,000
600
3000 400,000
500
2500 300,000 2000
400
300
1500
200,000
200
1000 100,000 500
100
0 May-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08
0 May-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08
0 May-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08
1,000 registered editors 4,400+ articles 650,000+ page views
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Ingredients for success
Cultural change Marketing & training Governance Gardening
U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
Cultural change
Room for collaborative technologies New culture emerging around wikis (and other collaborative technologies) out of the old one Drafting roles Grassroots technologies in a top-down organization
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Marketing & training
Find the early adopters Provide training where necessary Tell lots of people about the wiki, or they won’t use it or contribute to it Repeatedly explain why benefits (large) outweigh risks (small) Integrate with enterprise search
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Governance
Central initiative and oversight with decentralized contribution of content Key tenets:
Informative and deliberative, not authoritative General guidance for conduct and content Anyone can read but contributors must register eDiplomacy office director adjudicates disputes
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Gardening
Gardeners help provide the right environment for content to grow Gardeners assist the growth of the wiki by organizing content Gardeners also help contributors with their articles, including scope and length
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Main Page
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Portal example
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Article example
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Related State Department projects
Podcasts Web chats Instant messaging Second Life presence Recruiting through Facebook
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Wikis in other U.S. Federal agencies
Department of Defense Intelligence community (Intellipedia) Other civilian agencies either creating them, or in the process
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What’s next for Diplopedia
Classified Diplopedia Expanded use of portals Replacement of “traditional” web sites LDAP authentication More support from management (we hope)
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Contact
Eric M. Johnson Team Lead, Knowledge Management Action Team Office of eDiplomacy, U.S. Department of State johnsonem3 /at symbol/ state.gov More information: eDiplomacy page on the State Department web site http://www.state.gov/m/irm/c23839.htm
U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE