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Information Technologies
for Diplomatic Activities
by Stefano Baldi | | |
 New working methods
New information technologies represent not only a big opportunity, but also a challenge for professionals
working in International
Affairs. In particular it will be most important to develop new working methods in order to exploit
fully the possibilities offered by
new technologies.
Appropriate use of IT can help in improving decision-making process
 Newspapers and magazines online
» See document: http://www.internazionale.it
Online Databases
One of the huge potentials of Internet is its capability to make databases already accessible online
to all Internet users. In fact, it
is becoming relatively easy to find the information or the document you are looking for.
- Official Documents online
- UN
Documents of general interest (e.g. resolutions) are available on the WEB, whereas working documents
are accessible through
the optical disk system (ODS) open only to authorized users.
Access to ODS is free for staff members of the United Nations Secretariat, for a limited number of users
in specialized agencies
and organizations of the UN System, and for up to ten users in Member States of the United Nations.
Requests for access can
be submitted to the following persons, as noted below, depending upon location:
Permanent Missions in New York
Mr. Surendra Bhatia
E-mail: bhatias@un.org,
fax: 212-963-3900, telephone:+1 212-963-3861.
Missions to the United Nations Office at Geneva
Mr. Wolfgang Schutt
E-mail: wschutt@unog.ch,
fax: +41 22 9170025; telephone + 41 22 9173636
Missions to the United Nations in Vienna
E-mail: ODS@unov.un.or.at;
fax to Chief Electronic Services Unit at + 43 1 21 3467-4260
URL for access:
http://www.undocs.unog.ch/
http://www.ods.un.org/
» See document: http://www.undocs.unog.ch/
- WTO
WTO has a Document Distribution Facility (DDF) with a public section, alongside another limited access
section
» See document: http://www.wto.org/wto/ddf/ep/public.html
- Vacancies
Most International Organizations publish their vacancies online. The transparency of recruitment has
thus been increased
together with the likelihood of recruiting the most suitable candidate.
» See document: http://missions.itu.int/~italy/vacancor.htm
- UN Databases
» See document: http://www.un.org/databases/
- Int. Affairs Hypertext Inform. System
» See document: http://heimedac.unige.ch/DOILM/GrDOILM.html
- Libraries
» See document: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/
Videoconferencing and chatting
Through Internet Relay Chat (IRC) several people can participate simultaneously over a particular channel,
or even multiple
channels. There is no restriction to the number of people participating in a given discussion or the
number of channels that can
be formed over IRC. All conversations take place in real time. People from all corners of the world
can use IRC, which makes it
particularly well-suited to diplomats, who often need to discuss an issue with colleagues spread around
the world.
- Video-conferencing through the Internet is still very restricted because of the limited bandwidth
of the communications.
Nevertheless, the progress being made in data transmission, and compression, procedures will probably
soon render
videoconferencing more reliable than it is at present and when the service is fully operable enormous
savings will be possible, as
meeting and travel costs will be drastically reduced.
Live Conferences (RealPlayer)
International Organizations have begun to use it in 1998
Radio and TV online
World Wide Radios (and to a lesser extent TVs) are no longer monopolized by a few big companies anymore.
International
Radios are not being replaced, but it is now more affordable for local radios to be heard
world wide.
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