Feature: Web Diplomacy

Profile/by Alex Anderson

In MONITOR . The National Capital Computer Report, February 1996. Pages 22, 26 and 27.

The new (in-your-screen) face of diplomacy

Speedy, then and now

"Speedy" doesn't just refer to the way he types, that's for sure.

His Excellency Dr. José Luis Pardos, the Spanish ambassador to Canada, was saddled with the moniker by his chat mates on National Capital FreeNet. Apparently, he was typing so fast he made a lot of spelling error so other users, mistaking his name for Mexican, dubbed him "Speedy Gonzalez" after the popular Looney Tunes character.

If they'd ever actually heard the avid Internet advocate speak, they might have called him "Road Runner" instead.

In October, Speedy played diplomatic tour guide, conducting about 70 of his foreign dignitary colleagues -including representatives from Sweden, Kenya, Cameroon and Argentina- around the online world, trying to sell them on the Internet as an effective tool for global communications. A tool he believes will make their jobs easier.

Information is their function

Call it an almost "Star Trek"-like mission, to ram the 20th century's newest communication frontier -cyberspace- down their collective gullets.

"Information is the basic function of ambassadors. We search for it. We crave it", Pardos said in a blazing, staccato delivery in Carleton University's new Bell Theatre. "Our function is to make a more communicative world".

"Internet is the medium of the 21st century", he said. "If you think you have something to say, this is where you can set up all your ideas. The Internet is a fantastic initiative".

"We all have to participate. It's a very easy technology, a very accessible technology. It's very easy, very cheap and it's right at your fingertips".

The Internet is very attractive to embassies, said Pardos, because it covers every common form of communication: you can send information with voice, the written word and pictures.

And before long you'll be able to take part in live, face- to-face "chats".

"Through the Internet ambassadors are able to receive new ideas. The heart of an ambassador is on information. In the messages, information is coming."

Proof in the practice

Pardos demonstrated "Sí, Spain", the colourful World Wide Web home page set up by his embassy through DocuWeb, an Ottawa Internet presence provider. So far, more than 230,000 people from 74 countries have accessed the fully bilingual (Spanish/English) Web site for information on Spanish culture, politics and tourism.

Even native Spaniards are logging on in high numbers. Several Spanish daily newspapers publish their stories on the site so Spaniards travelling abroad can keep up-to-date. But locals are using their computers to read the news for free, hours before the early editions hit the streets of Madrid -something Pardos finds extremely amusing.

"Spain is calling Ottawa to find out about Spain", he said, with a grin, adding that this is a prime example of the opportunity Ottawa has to become a focus point for world diplomacy in the 21st Century.

"Ottawa is an electronic city" declared Pardos, not slowing down for a second.

His ongoing mission...

Pardos' electronic diplomatic mission started on FreeNet about two year ago. The Spanish embassy was among the very first organizations to sponsor a FreeNet telephone line and publish cultural information online. Now Italy, France Britain, Uruguay, Ecuador, Kenya, Israel, Iran, Japan and Indonesia are among those represented. And that's just FreeNet. The World Wide Web is host to many more.

Web surfers can log on to home pages for governments and individual government departments from around the world. In addition to sites like "Sí, Spain" surfers can play electronic world travellers as far away as Japan or as near as our U.S. neighbours. Even the CIA has its own Web site.

"Our function is to make a more communicative world".
-Dr. José Luis Pardos

He's got all the right ideas, and a catching enthusiasm", said DocuWeb Director Neal Holtz of Pardos in the hall outside the Bell Theatre after the presentation. "It's a way for them to get the information out, that they want out."

Maybe next time a crisis such as last summer's Turbot troubles between Canada and Spain (in which Pardos was neck-deep) arises, it might be solved more easily, Holtz speculated. "There can be nothing better than communications. Anything that opens up communications has got to be generally good."

A dark-haired woman approached him in the corridor saying, "We are ready now", and that Holtz should call to arrange a meeting -none other than H.E. Lillian O'Connell, the Argentine ambassador to Canada, Holtz explained afterwards.

Basking in the aftermath

A month later, it seems Pardos achieved his purpose with the presentation . There's been "quite a bit of interest" from the Ottawa diplomatic corps, Holtz reports. "Mexico has come on and they have quite an extensive site. It almost rivals the Spanish one. We've talked to 10 or 15 other (embassies). I would say that in the next six months you could conservatively say 10 more will be up".

But, while Spain and Mexico are housing their Web sites in Ottawa, many others are setting theirs up "at home".

So far, there are about 20 embassies online including those on FreeNet.

Pardos believes that, with the burgeoning Information Highway, computers are the future of communications. There's nothing remarkable or original about that, considering the biggest question is not what the future holds, but who gets to hold the steering wheel -the cable companies or the talkies? But Pardos envisions a world where computers are like cellular telephones. You could be sitting in an office in Otttawa or under a palm tree on the Mediterranean coast. Wherever you are, you'll still have the world quite literally at your fingertips.

No fear of redundancy

But if everyone's interacting electronically, who's going to need ambassadors? Won't the jobs of diplomats become redundant? Not so, says National Capital FreeNet Chairman David Sutherland.

"A lot of diplomacy is about communications, between people and governments," he said. "I don't think the diplomat's job will become redundant. I think, as it opens up, there'll be a greater need for diplomats".

"There will always be a need for personal contact and communications", Holtz agrees. "An embassy has two jobs -one being to relay information bach to the home country. This information gathering duty will still be required in the 21st Century".

Holtz admits, however that many of the information-providing tasks embassies now perform, such as tourist and visa information and fostering business relationships between countries, could be reduced if that data was published online. "Computerization's going to effect everyone's job sooner or later."

The broader view

"Computers can help us. Modern diplomacy is not one of those areas that remains primitive" says H.E. Philémon Yang, ambassador from Cameroon and Dean of the Ottawa Diplomatic Corps. "The Internet will enable us to meet the dynamic changes of the next century. It's very important because it will give us information and help propagate information about our countries and related issues, thus making our countries better known to the rest of the world. That's the essential role of any embassy".

But there may be another force compelling Yang's support. The world is accepting and adopting electronic communications at a rapid space, and those who don't folow suit are likely to find themselves waiting for the next bus.

"We have no choice", Yan asserts. "If we don't change, we'll be left behind".

Explore the world...

To explore the world through the Internet, check out "Sí, Spain" at: http://www.DocuWeb.ca/SiSpain and sample more than a dozen other "country" sites accessible via Embassies Ottawa at: http://www.DocuWeb.ca/EmbassiesOttawa/.

This article as presented in the Monitor (English only).

Back to the main menu