We the People in Pittsburgh
We in the U.S. Government have a tendency to write in the first person plural. The first person plural narrator isn’t entirely a new breed in prose, but it takes a little while to notice it, and when you do, you swiftly realize that there’s something inherently difficult in attempting to engage with a narrative when you’re reading first person plural.
The management of the Pittsburgh Summit’s logistics is organized by a large group of people, a traditional “we.” I hope this blog will provide an understanding that summits, like the governments and organizations that delegations represent, are in many ways simply a large number of individuals coming together to work on something important. All of these people have their own experiences, and this blog is designed to share some of those experiences with you.
My own background very much informs my work this week in Pittsburgh. I’m from rural Pennsylvania, so it’s particularly exciting to me that we’re hosting this summit in a Pennsylvania city that’s a new model for the green economy. I have a master’s degree in Library and Information Science, so I’m fascinated by the ways that we’re organizing our information flows in order to better facilitate this event. I’m also coordinating the Virtual Student Foreign Service program, so it’s great to have this opportunity to think about how the U.S. Government can encourage and enable students to take an active role in our work. And I work in the Office of eDiplomacy at the State Department, so I’m very proud and excited to have the opportunity to share a little of what the Department does with American citizens through this site.
Welcome to the Pittsburgh Summit blog. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll actively participate with all of us here this week.
About the Author: Tiffany Smith serves in the Office of eDiplomacy at the U.S. Department of State.
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Pittsburgh Summit Bloggers write:
@ Daniel in Pennsylvania -- Thanks for your interest in the Pittsburgh Summit Blog! You may subscribe to entries here. The link is also found at the bottom of each page.
Thank you again for reading, and hope you continue to follow the events of the summit here on the blog!
Posted on Thu Sep 24, 2009
Daniel in Pennsylvania writes:
One suggest that would make it easier for people to follow this blog. Provide an RSS feed for the entries, and not just the comments.
Posted on Thu Sep 24, 2009
Richard in California writes:
Thanks for the human voice and your service. I'm excited to see how the Virtual Student Foreign Service scales.
Let us know if the images we see in the press fit with your view behind the scenes.
Posted on Wed Sep 23, 2009
Susan in Florida writes:
@ To the State Department staff and Tiffany -- This is a great idea! I will definitely read the postings on the Pittsburgh Summit, as I think this summit is so essential to the direction our world will be taking in the years to come. The summit blog is very well done so far. Looking forward to reading even more about the summit and the leaders who are involved with it. Thank you for making this available to us.
Posted on Wed Sep 23, 2009
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