Jerome Gary led a brainstorming session on some of the issues for the 2010 iDiplomacy conference to discuss items such as who should sponsor it, who will attend, the agenda, location, etc. The conference will be held in Washington D.C., next year with exact date and venue still to be determined. Attendees later split up into four groups to discuss different elements of the larger conference, such as the legislative agenda, what mediums should be used, and who should be attending.

Some of the issues discussed included:
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On Nov. 11 the groups reconvened after a breakout session to present their ideas for public diplomacy initiatives (mostly with a social media angle).

Group 1 presented an extensive list of suggestions:
1.) A series of video shorts called “My America is” or have a touring film festival about “my America is”. This can include particular ethnic groups and immigrants talking about their experiences.
2.) Encourage local community voting to select local development projects, whether it’s a public art center or sports center. This will give local development projects more of a feeling of local buy-in, rather than Americans coming in to push something on the local community.
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iDiplomacy’s new media panel Monday included Adam Conner, Facebook’s DC associate manager for privacy and global public policy, Price Floyd, principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs, James Fowler, author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Josh Klein, hacker of social systems, computer networks, institutions and animal behavior and Peter Marx, vice president of production and technology for Mattel.
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Duncan MacInnes from the State Department spoke about some of the challenges at the department and the way that they are incorporating new media to augment their programs.  

“Why is iDiplomacy so important? iDiplomacy is actually … more than public diplomacy. We have to look at the new media communications technologies as important for public diplomacy but also important for AID, programs in Africa – so you’re doing AIDS and other kinds of health programs via cell phone – you have marshalling communities such as the ‘No Mas Farc’ movement, and others where whole communities have come together against terrorism, against women; we see possibilities to use it in microfinancing, using cell phones to give loans to Africans and others. Those are not public diplomacy but ways that iDiplomacy can actually use new media to make a difference in the world today.”

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An earlier post about Studio Wikitecture discussed how non-architects could help design virtual buildings – like a health clinic in Nepal – in Second Life. But in addition to dispensing with geographical obstacles, the virtual world can also help overcome cultural and religious barriers.

Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts, both senior fellows at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, spent a year studying what people – represented by their avatars – were already doing to learn about Islam in Second Life.  (In addition to their virtual world explorations they also traveled in the real world to four continents.) King and Fouts are also CEO and creative director as well as chief global strategist of Dancing Ink Productions, “a full-service creative company that develops business strategy, policy, immersive narrative and mixed-media, mixed-reality content including games, conferences and cultural intelligence for a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age.”

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James Fowler, professor at UC San Diego and co-author along with Nicholas A. Christakis of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, will be one of the presenters at iDiplomacy.

Among the theories Fowler and Christakis posit in Connected is that you can influence people up to three degrees – such as your friend’s friend’s friend – who you might not even have met. For example, one of their studies found that obesity is contagious – a multicentric epidemic.

I spoke with Fowler on the phone last week about technology, social media and public diplomacy. (The interview has been condensed and edited.)

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We have updated the “Conference Information” with bios of some of the attendees, including distinguished figures in the video game, music and entertainment industries and academia. They include: Danny Bilson, Steven Corman, Steven de Souza, Flint Dille, Frank Gibeau, Danny Goldberg, Ron Goldstein, Peter Marx and John Nee.

Batman and Superman are going to be getting some international pals, according to the creator of the first Islam-inspired comic superheroes.

THE 99, for those who aren’t up on the latest in fictional superheroes, is a wildly popular comic in the Arab world conceived of by Dr. Naif al-Mutawa, who spent a decade as a clinical psychologist treating victims of war before founding the Kuwait-based Teshkeel Media Group.

Mutawa grew up in Kuwait but attended college in the United States. He conceived of the comic, which publishes THE 99, after he decided to “to take back Islam from its hostage takers.”

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