Written on October 16, 2009 at 2:13 pm by

Digital Technology Summit Connects People from Around the World

Filed under DoD News {3 comments}

By Roxie Merritt
Director of Community Relations and Public Liaison, Department of Defense

Valerie Miller, Marianne Oliva, Katie Ingebretson, Jack Dorseyand Roxie Merritt, Jason Liebman at the 2009 Alliance of Youth Movements Summit. Photo by Valerie Miller.

Valerie Miller, Marianne Oliva, Katie Ingebretson, Jack Dorsey, Roxie Merritt and Jason Liebman at the 2009 Alliance of Youth Movements Summit. Photo by Marianne Oliva.

I’m at the Alliance of Youth Movements in Mexico City with four members of my Community Relations team. The conference is supported by the U.S. State Department and seeks to bring together organizations and leaders from around the world who have found success in employing new media and social networking tools to increase awareness and broaden support for their causes. Attendees include humanitarian relief organizations as well as groups dealing with domestic issues, such as suicide prevention.

With social media being increasingly used across DoD, we were invited to attend the Alliance of Youth Movements to learn from other organizations that have successfully used Facebook, Twitter, Howcast, and other online tools to communicate with their own communities and the world at large.

We’ve had the opportunity to meet many dynamic individuals who have been eager to engage with us about the transformative opportunities of their on-line tools. Jason Liebman, co-founder and CEO of Howcast and Jack Dorsey, Chairman and Co-Founder of Twitter took a lot of time to share possibilities for the future of DoD communication and stopped for a quick photo op before attending a panel on Using Social Media for Anti-Violence. We look forward to continued partnerships with everyone we’ve met here as we develop the DoD Social Media Hub that will be launched in November on Defense.gov to help the DoD community use social media safely and effectively.

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  • http://www.digitalcenter.org Robert Hess

    The concept of applying social media to anti-violence is a compelling idea. The best way to defuse cultural violence is to increase understanding and tolerance through contact and relationship building. The Internet and associated social media technologies provide those tools. But, nothing defused misperceptions and builds understanding better than actual contact. We should bring every graduating high school student (high school may have different definitions around the world) on a reverse “Rhodes Scholar” program to the US. This would allow them to learn first hand about the US and its people and become ambassadors of understanding and moderation back in their own countries. Let’s keep pushing the envelop in helping the world’s youth play an important role in creating a better world.

  • glenn.selby

    Thank you for your comment and thank you for visiting DoDLive.

  • Keith “verong” Willis

    Hello Robert,

    You may realize that the 9/11 attack was carried out by students much like the ones you are talking about, so how do we know which are extremists?

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