Case Summary

In September of 2006, the Department of State created Diplopedia, an internet encyclopedia for all personnel of the Department of State. This program allowed staff of the department and members of intelligence communities to pass down and share information by posting or editing articles.

Business Challenge

In January of 2006, Secretary Condoleezza Rice outlined strategies for working with other nations around the world. This was apart of a larger concept is known as Transformational Diplomacy. Secretary Rice called for an increase in participation from the Diplomatic community in many needed areas included some dangerous ones. This plan called for Diplomats to be proactive with the local communities in order to establish issues and begin to work on effective strategies. However, Members and Foreign Service Officers from the Department of state were dissatisfied with the ability to share and pass down information within the Department of State; thus making it increasingly difficult to identify issues. Users were looking for ways to enhance the flow and passage of knowledge for Foreign Service Officers. In conjunction, senior officials were looking for ways to update preliminary reports done by previous embassy staff. Without a centralized location for information sharing, officials were unable to access any concluding information.

Approach Taken

In September of 2006, the Office of eDiplomacy created Diplopedia. Diplopedia is apart of the Transformational Diplomacy plan, and under this it will utilize web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and wikis to smooth the progress of information sharing. Diplopedia is similar to wikipediain the sense that it is an encyclopedia for the Department of State. All information pertains to all employees and members are allowed to add or edit articles. Users can access a plethora of information pertaining to diplomacy and international relations. The program provides intranet access for registered members of the department. Within the program there are communities and work groups. Communities have the ability to read and make contributions to articles, and work groups are a selected group who are able to access a specified type of restricted information. Diplopedia is also available to foreign affairs agencies as well as members of the intelligence community.

Results Achieved

Diplopedia has only been around for two years but in that time frame it has vastly increased internal organization communication. The way in which information flows has also transformed through the use of this collaborative technology. As of August 2008 there are over 4400 articles, 1000 registered users and 650,000 total page views.

Lessons Learned

This system has increased the efficiency in which our government communicates and passes knowledge. Through this technology, our government is taking that small step toward a better diplomatic program.