Foriegn and Commonwealth Office Bloggers

David Miliband – foreign secretary – has been blogging throughout his previous ministries; Digital Dialogues has incorporated evaluations of his previous blogs in Phases 1 and 2. Unlike in previous incarnations, David Miliband’s current blog has been developed as part of a suite of blogs by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) whose global mission and understanding of the changing communications environment means that it is aware of the need to harness new technologies to engage those affected by its work.

The suite of blogs incorporated another ministerial blog as well as those of a number of embassy staff and delegates to a range of countries (from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe). Despite the sensitivity of the contexts from which the FCO bloggers were posting, they were given camcorders and encouraged to post videos of the environments in which they work. Many made multimedia entries to the blog, combining text with video to show the complexity of their work.

Although the blog was not designed to have any policy impact, there was one occasion when a comment from a reader of minister of state Jim Murphy’s blog, inspired policy changes. Moreover, despite the relative lack of online experience of the bloggers, many have impressive followings, with viewing figures and comments suggesting that there is a sustained interest in this kind of endeavour.

The FCO is aware that they may not be attracting people other than those who have a dedicated interest in the countries or subjects being tackled, but one of the advantages of its suite of blogs is its sustainability (which will outlive staff and ministerial changes). In addition, there is a growing sense of an online community with participants commenting on each other’s posts from time-to-time, providing a multi-layered engagement opportunity.