Karen Hughes: Public Diplomat

Karen Hughes has been employed by the White House since 2005, being a former adviser of President Bush when he was still the Governor of the state of Texas. Hughes' goal in working as undersecretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs was mainly to work on the image of the USA in the Muslim world. That had to be done by operating on the country's responses to the anti-American speeches of the Muslim community toward the US public diplomacy. I personally beleive that Hughes did not manage to acheive that goal, and did not even get close to completing her task. I am convinced that she would have needed to participate in the decision making process of the country's Policy.
My point is that if the image of the United States is tarnished by an event (War on Iraq for example), no matter what Karen Hughes does, the problem will persist. If the Muslim world criticizes what the US are doing, then however you change the image of the country, the facts still show the real image of the world's most criticized nation.
PS

U.S. Public Diplomacy:

-->America will continue to be the symbol of hope and opportunity to the eyes of the world (shaping the American Dream)

-->It will also try to "marginalize and isolate" the terrorist extremists; by having other Muslims speak up against and condemn terrorism

-->Spread American values, considered as Universal values, and share the Story of America.

Bill Gates last days in Microsoft

Assignement 2

Nicholas Negroponte's initiative "One Laptop Per Child" seems to be the perfect example of fighting against the digital divide concerning the access to computer technology. By mainly focusing on the "developping" countries as a target for the project, its founder is giving a more social and humanitarian image to the idea. Starting with countries like Mexico, Peru and others in Latin America, Negroponte is aiming to produce more than 1,000,000 units per month so as to provide the populations who are deprived from technology with the most essential device of our generation, computers. However, I see this initiative as a meer effort compared with the goal that is trying to be acheived. Supplying laptop computers is not the aim, but introducing a whole new ideology of information necessity to the lives of the remote.
I feel somehow embarrassed when I think of my country as a follower in the field of information spreading and distribution. Although we notice some noble works of facilitating access to computers and the Internet, I see there is much more work to do. People in my country are more preoccupied by water distribution and providing electricity and light to the rural areas, rather than focusing on the wide national ignorance of Moroccan people in terms of knowledge and information.
I beleive we are still far from the model of Internet access and computer literacy the governments of the world want to acheive for their populations. And moreover, Morocco does not seem to be the main target of many world wide Non-Governmental (or New Governmental) Organizations.
All in all, the initiative of "One Laptop Per Child" is a step forward toward the spread of knowledge in an information age that needs to spread to the world population as quickly as possible.

What is WIPO?

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.
WIPO was established by the WIPO Convention in 1967 with a mandate from its Member States to promote the protection of IP throughout the world through cooperation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

Strategic Direction and Activities

WIPO’s vision is that IP is an important tool for the economic, social and cultural development of all countries. This shapes its mission to promote the effective use and protection of IP worldwide. Strategic goals are set out in a four yearly Medium Term Plan and refined in the biennial Program and Budget document.
The five strategic goals defined in the 2008-2009 Program and Budget are:

• To promote an IP culture;


• To integrate IP into national development policies and programs;


• To develop international IP laws and standards;


• To deliver quality services in global IP protection systems; and


• To increase the efficiency of WIPO’s management and support processes.

Source: http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/what_is_wipo.html

If you are interested to have more information check this link:

http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en