DiploNews – Issue 226 – 15 April 2013

Reminder: Online Learning Day

Have you registered yet for Diplo’s Online Learning Day, on Wednesday this week (17 April)? No matter where you are located, you can join our morning online debate. If you are based in Geneva, please come to our evening get-together at Diplo’s office for refreshments and stimulating conversation.

The Online Learning Day is part of the Geneva E-diplomacy Platform and aims to facilitate an informed discussion on online learning and to encourage an exchange of views and experience among providers of online learning solutions. In preparation, try out our short quiz to test your knowledge of online learning.

The online morning session (10.00–12.00 CET) will feature debates on current trends in online learning, including

• opportunities and limitations of massive open online courses (MOOCs).
• social media tools to enrich online learning.
• teaching practical topics (protocol, negotiations) effectively online.

The evening get-together at Diplo’s office in Geneva (18.00, at 56, Rue de Lausanne) offers the chance to hear from Geneva-based providers of online learning about their training programmes, as well as from participants who have attended some Geneva-based online learning courses. You will have the chance to discuss and ask questions in an informal setting.

This event is intended for anyone interested in online learning in the domain of diplomacy, international relations, and global policy processes. For more information and to register please visit https://www.diplomacy.edu/calendar/online-learning-day. Registration is required but takes just one minute via our website.
 

Summer online courses

This summer, starting on 22 July, Diplo offers the following courses:

• 21st Century Diplomacy
• Multilateral Diplomacy
• Infrastructure and Critical Internet Resources

Apply by 20 May for University of Malta accredited courses and by 17 June for Diplo Certificate Courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website. Register now to reserve your place.

Sign up for our courses mailing list to be informed about upcoming courses!
 

What’s been happening in Diplo’s blogosphere?

Just back from Nepal, Pete Cranston shares some Lessons for Diplomacy and Development from ‘Nepal in Transition’. On a completely different planet entirely, and in the wake of our event in Geneva to mark the 80th birthday of Prof. Dietrich Kappeler (Persuasion, the essence of diplomacy (report from the event)) Aldo Matteucci asks Can we persuade Martians? 

Petru Dumitrui takes a look at Climate refugees: a new concept on the move, a post that is countered by Aldo as he posits that Climate change refugees is a misleading analogy. In another post, When life is a business, Aldo wonders about ‘current trends toward deepening segmentation and persistent plasticity, which fuels fierce social competition’, while Jovan Kurbalija explores Colours in politics: when blue is green, opening the door to Blue Diplomacy and the concept of the blue economy. More on this to come.

Remember, you, too, can have your say by commenting on these or any of our posts on our interactive blog.  If you would like to be a guest blogger, e-mail us and let us know.
 

Discussing Internet governance

Last month, Dr Tarek Kamel, ICANN’s Senior Advisor to the President, described ICANN’s new engagement strategy during Diplo’s March Internet governance webinar, which was attended by participants from Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, and other countries around the world. The aim of ICANN’s new strategy is to foster closer regional involvement, better engagement with stakeholders (especially in developing countries), and a strengthened presence in different regions. Read more here – the link contains the digest of the discussion and the webinar recording. To subscribe to the latest news on IG webinars, fill in this form.

On Diplo’s IG community site, Eleanor Adwoa Forbea Afful and other community members are discussing the openness of the Internet beyond WCIT12: Should the Internet continue to remain open, or should governments be allowed to regulate its usage, including determining what kind of content should be published on the Internet?

Michiel de Weger shares information about a LinkedIn specialised news group on cyber hate and cyber terrorist content on the Internet. Read more here.

New community member Valerie Vlasenko writes about a new cyberweapon: MiniDuke, a virus designed specifically for malicious use, which is that of gathering data through Adobe Reader.

In a second blog post, Lawful Botnet and Internet Census: When law is not the case?, she looks at botnets from a different perspective: when the intention behind their use is for a ‘good’ purpose. Is the use of botnets categorically illegal, or does the law allow for lawful use? And what are the consequences for botnet authors?

Follow more IG-related discussions on Diplo’s Internet governance channel, and on Diplo’s IG community blog roll.