The Internet Governance programme is organised by Diplo with support from partner institutions and individuals with expertise in Internet Governance-related issues. The programme aims to raise awareness about IG related issues through the development of a toolkit of text and visual resources, to train policy makers through seminars, workshops and training programmes, to promote research on issues of special concern to developing countries and to build a community of experts in developing countries who can contribute to the regional and global debate on Internet Governance. The project’s flagship training programme, the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme (IGCBP), aims to assist young professionals involved in IG issues from countries with limited financial and human resources to develop the skills and knowledge required to participate meaningfully in the global debate on IG. This is an innovative project, which offers a full scholarship for online training, research and fellowships to participants from developing countries. By the end of its third year of operation in 2007, the programme will have trained 264 young professionals from 90 countries and built a community of experts of nearly 300 people around the world.

Diplomacy Island is the next step in over a decade of research and development in the field of Virtual Diplomacy. Through Second Life, Diplo has begun to explore new possibilities for diplomatic representation and negotiation. Diplomacy Island will be another channel for Diplo’s main mission to assist small and developing countries to participate meaningfully in international relations. The Island includes a Diplomatic Quarter where Virtual Embassies are located, a Virtual Diplomatic Academy which offers sessions and panels related to modern diplomacy; the Virtual Diplomatic Museum and the Internet Governance Village, which hosts panels, round table discussions and conferences on IG-related issues.

This project, run in 2005-2006 through cooperation between DiploFoundation and Roma organisations, aimed to create a strong group of Roma “public diplomats” with the ability to bridge the gap between the Roma civil society and governments/EU institutions. The project included a year-long blended learning course in public diplomacy for 25 young Roma activists, a conference held in December 2005 in Brussels, and a seminar held in April 2006 in Geneva. The project was successfully completed with the publication, in 2007, of a book of papers based on conference presentation and the research of project participants. The project website offers a full project description, photo albums, the final project report, and updates.

Studies of diplomacy usually concentrate on the message rather than the means. However, examination of language use in diplomacy can lead to a better understanding of the way diplomacy functions and why some diplomatic processes are more successful than others. Through careful and critical attention to various aspects of diplomatic language we can improve our understanding of both the explicit and implicit messages world leaders and other political figures send out, and improve our own ability to communicate in the most effective and appropriate ways. Diplo’s activities in this field include the Language and Diplomacy portal, which offers an introduction to language and diplomacy related topics and a database of examples and resources about the use of language in diplomacy; and an online publication, Language and Diplomacy, a collection of papers presented at the February 2000 Second International Conference on Knowledge and Diplomacy and the January 2001 Conference on Language and Diplomacy.