The consular blog “The Consuls’ Files,” by Madam le Consul went missing from the blogosphere 30 days ago today. By missing, I mean just gone. Disappeared. Like it had never been. The only place it exists now is in piecemeal RSS feeds scattered among its subscribers, and one copy of the cached file, grabbed quickly by another blogger before whoever removed the blog eradicated that also.

If you go missing for more than 48 hours in real life, the chances of finding you drop precipitously. The chances of recovery in virtual disappearances, um don’t really know. But she’s gone. Missing for over 700 hours now. The trail is cold. Most likely dead. Just dead. And we can understand if she wants to stay dead for now.

I imagine that there are folks out there who are relieved that though she may browse among us, she is now a ghost among us. And ghosts, you know, can’t be seen or heard, and have not been known to blog, yet. Dead blogger gone. End of line.

Other folks out there, of course, still harbor hope that she comes back. Dead bloggers, like cylons, have many resurrection ships nearby: WordPress.com, Tumblr.com, LiveJournal.com, Yahoo 360 and more … dead bloggers do not really go away, they just get new URLs. But I won’t be surprised if she stays dead.
Every single day I also get somebody knocking on my door looking for MLC. I suspect that she is more popular now dead than she ever was, alive. If Madam le Consul is not resurrected, I hope her ghost starts micro-blogging on Twitter soon, if only to give the folks responsible for her demise nightmares and ulcers.

Yup, I’m going to hell for wishing that. Whatever. I’m still royally pissed that I no longer have her company when I have coffee each morning.

Liam Schwartz who publishes the Consular Corner has a brief piece on Madam le Consul (republished below with permission):

Respect for MLC

“The Consuls’ Files” — probably the best visa blog in the universe — has disappeared from our screens. Over a relatively short period of time, ‘Madam le Consul’ provided more consular education to more people than any of us would have thought possible. For her devoted audience, the reason for MLC’s sudden disappearance remains a mystery; that said, opinion in consular cyberspace is virtually unanimous that “The Consuls’ Files” was forced to close down by a skittish Bureau of Consular Affairs.
For a brief few months, MLC provided us with an enhanced level of information regarding the world of consular officers. In so doing, she created more public trust and support for that world than any one person has done in a very long time. We are deeply saddened by the loss of “The Consuls’ Files” and thank MLC for having given so much in such a short period of time.

MLC’s final blog piece, posted on October 2, 2009 was perhaps appropriately entitled “Yuck.”

Yuck, indeed!
I think we have to remember that the Bureau of Consular Affairs was born out of the McCarthy furor of the 1950’s and was set up under INA of 1952. Robert Walter Scott McLeod, the first Assistant Secretary of State for what was then called the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs (SCA) was known for his bureau’s slogan, “an ounce of loyalty is worth more than a pound of brain.” Also known apparently was his “field study” of 19,000 employees at home and abroad trying to find “security risks.” Donald Warwick, author of A Theory of Public Bureaucracy (1975 p.19) writes that “to become a “security risk,” one needed little more than an unflattering remark by a colleague.”

Ah, the bad old days. Don’t you just miss them?

I’m not saying that MLC was a security risk or that the bureau is still trying to fumigate the commies out there, just that the bureau’s “skittishness” may stem from its turbulent and sad history. In any case, I think we’ll let MLC rest in peace now. Let’s have a parade when she comes back.

Rumor is that the latest consular cable has an odd item discouraging the conception, immaculate or otherwise, of a consular blog. We shall see.

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Now, having more time to think about predictions in Social Media and Web 2.0 I have a few additional ideas on what the future might bring in the next year. I also asked some of our Navstar employees to give me their predictions, in which they will be posting throughout the remaining weeks left in this year. I have expanded on a few ideas myself to get things started.

Web 2.0

• Google Social Search will be used to make more informed decision. Feels like this is another shot back in the war between the search engines in the previous strike by Microsoft’s Bing.
  

Social Media

• Twitter will still be a strong contender, with the launch of twitter lists recently, users are now able to organize their followers by ideas, location, and other niche groups. This conversation will lead rise to organizations having conversations in public with each other for more transparency.
• Google Wave will continue to be in beta as it has yet to define itself or be completely understood by those who are currently waving. It may take years to fully develop Wave to its potential. If Google Wave had been our original email solution offered by Google years ago, we could be using it in place of many other email forms, including Outlook.

Enterprise 2.0

• I believe 2010 will have great strides for the Enterprise 2.0 revolution in organizations. This revolution will mean more grassroots movements by employees to adopt methodologies to collaborate across the dispersed workforce.
• Sharepoint will have some big contenders in 2010 with Jive’s Clearspace and Social Text as cheaper options with more flexibility. Small businesses will take advantage of the “free” versions of Enterprise 2.0 tools, but only if they allow a Community Manager for the Intranet to be a full time position to foster the growth.
  

Government 2.0

• The Federal CIO and CTO will start leading more with actual Federal policies in place that encourage data sharing, collaboration between agencies, and greener IT.
• Washington will continue to embrace new ideas from Silicon Valley, but the DC Metro area will be thriving with innovation that will be showcased in the Spring Government 2.0 expo. This boom will continue to fuel the change for an open and transparent Government.

Mobile

• With the Android platform making huge strides in the final quarter of 2009, the cell phone gift this season will be either the Droid from Verizon or the Motorola Cliq with Motoblur for T-Mobile.

What are some of your predictions for 2010?

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As part of Enterprise 2.0 for Government, there are aspects of Green IT, Cloud Computing, and Social Media. Utilizing Enterprise 2.0 for our customers, Navstar is lowering operating costs and increasing productivity on the Cloud.

When you think about making your  mission and objectives being more open and transparent, many jump to social media as a solution. As stated, Social Media is a just one component of many in Enterprise 2.0. In future editions, we will be discussing Green IT and Cloud Computing, for now, let us ask what is the difference between Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media?

Simply put its internal vs. external, two different parts, that work separately, but should work together. See the breakdown below for more differences:

As you can see, we put some things in there for levity as at Navstar, we are biased for the Enterprise 2.0 side of the house. The reason, we believe  organizations should think internally before claiming they get it on the Internet. At Navstar, we do practice what we preach in Enterprise 2.0. We use both Open Source and COTS tools to collaborate internally with our dispersed and deployed employees.

You may look cool by having a social media presence to get new recruits and new hires. But if you do not have a productive and collaborative environment behind the firewall, you are NOT going to retain the young bright minds to take your organization into the future.

Our simple advice is this:  Your Enterprise solution and the content generated should be known by your social media strategy team. If you are public organization, who has or hires a marketing team, you should be in control of your brand presence on the internet.  For Government organizations, this position for brand management should be part of your Office of Public Affairs or equivalent. The persons working on this external presence for your organization, should also be a part of the enterprise solution for internal collaboration. The internal collaboration, the Enterprise 2.0 platform your organization leverages to communicate between employees is paramount to the growth of the organization.

At Navstar we specialize in providing Enterprise 2.0 solutions, to contact us for more information how we can transform your organization to be more open, transparent, and collaborative you can contact us at info@navstar-inc.com or leave us a comment below.

We will be following up this post with more about Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, and Web 2.0 as part of our reoccurring series.

Previously posted on http://andrearbaker.com and syndicated on Social Computing Journal. This version has been excerpted and amended from the original versions.

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A simple question but it completely floors me. I’m so used to the opposite and its stifling restrictions and requirements. I just can’t fathom the answer.

Then day two rolls around and I’m still floored. I decide to ask our VP, Corinne Combeau, what do you think? She proceeds to paint a beautiful picture for me. Complete with flowing creativity, ambitious goals, and even a prop. A sheet of paper that she turns into a metaphor with one side representing the Navstar way with a sky is the limit, blank slate approach and the other side representing ‘others’ with a job description that forces you into a box.

Again, I’m floored.

I keep thinking to myself…is this what it mean to be working for a top 25 technology company in DC (pdf)?

——–

This all means that I am officially an employee of Navstar. They have offered me an incredible opportunity to join their team where I will be helping their Green IT and Enterprise 2.0 programs.

Our  broad vision for Green IT is to help turn our Federal government in a mean green machine. Transform it one of the most sustainable and efficient operations in the world. Over the coming weeks we will be putting out more details of our program and services. The main focus of which will be providing sound solutions to federal agencies that reflect the modern environmental movement, where going green means cost savings, increased capabilities, improved efficiency, and much more.

In Enterprise 2.0, Navstar is already a leader in the space having caught the wave very early. Now, over 4 years later, the program is a defined leader in the space thanks to the work of Andrea Baker, the Director of Enterprise 2.0 for Navstar. I am excited to join her team and help grow the program (and this blog!). More details on my involvement to come.

This is an exciting time for me since I  have a deep passion in both areas. In the field of green I am a passionate change advocate for food and waste. I created the non-profit, A Clean Life, to allow for greater impact and change. I spend my days and weeks helping DC turn into a zero waste city and its citizens discover the joys and health benefits of real food.

In the online world I am non-stop. Since my earliest days I have developed an alter-ego, starting as a Senior Game Master at Blizzard. In that role I learned the new language of the nets as our success on World of Warcraft went through the roof, defining a whole new genre in gaming (massive multiplayer). With that new language I quickly progressed to teaching others about it in the Intelligence Community, helping scores of Intelligence Officers understand what a wiki is and soon blogs, tags, and more. After that I joined the World Intelligence Review helping spearhead their Agile Product Development and Project Management programs, watching as it became the most successful online enterprise in Intelligence.

Now, I am poised for success again as I join forces with Navstar to grow their Green IT program and contribute mightily to their Enterprise 2.0 work.

Still…I am left pondering the question…”what do you hope to do?”

I want to do it all 🙂

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