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and use all available resources including public libraries. i think the slogans from the united negro college fund sum up best: a mine is a terrible thing to waste. >> to see all the winning entries of the studentcam competition mrs. studentcam.org. >> up next on it "the communicators" a discussion on the use of technology of the state department to promote u.s. diplomacy. after that on c-span 2 and the airport security and u.s. efforts to combat the drug cartel. t(

this week we look at how state department wants use technology for diplomacy. our guest is alec ross and adviser to secretary of state hillary clinton. >> host: alec ross, describe your job. >> guest: it's my job and and my team's job to drive innovation it into america's foreign-policy and figure out how we can maximize the potential of technology and innovation and service of america's diplomatic goals. >> host: give us the example? >> guest: i will give a couple quick ones, they vary from things doing in mexico to the condo to siberia. in in siberia, for example, we

have a strategic dialogue with russia and if you think about the cold war innovation and with something they competed with the russians on and, in fact, if one of our nation's one it was perceived as though the other was losing and now innovation can be a shared resource. scientific and tough logical operation -- cooperation. we're building ties between the new russian government, the private sector and american governments and american private sector so by working together leveraging each resources we can produce scientific and technological breakthroughs that otherwise would happen. that's a positive example. another side ofñr it is fighting against bad guys and dealing with some of the threats in the world so one thing that's been very much in the news lately with are the problems related to a narco field crime in mexico saw another example in our

innovation agenda is working cooperatively with the governments of mexico to put in place technology program that allows mexican citizens to anonymously report crime via text message and restore anonymity, transparency and a little accountability back into crime-fighting. >> host: and the condo? >> guest: this is a case of a place that has been enormously challenge for decades. i was there not long ago now and it has a per capita gdp of $184 a literally $0.50 economic output per person per day and in the east congo there are rampant levels of violence. particularly sexual and gender based on progress has been so slow to come they're so what we're trying to do they're working hard but it's hard to make progress is handful of programs of one of which is to try to bring mobile banking into the region so the region becomes

less cash based because one of the things we know that cash based economies are ones that have disproportionately high levels of crime and corruption. a second thing trying to do is use the telecommunications infrastructure and remarkably in a place with a per capita gdp of $184 there's fairly robust wireless telecommunications infrastructure. we're trying to use that to provide information directly to women and families so they can protect themselves when there are bad guys nearby so they can be less vulnerable to predation by militias and people who would sexually or violently exploit them. >> host: is this the first time in state department this position was created? >> guest: yes the secretary upon becoming secretary of state, one of the things she did early on and she alluded to this during her confirmation remarks

was is increasingly the case that we live in a world that's less bound -- bound by vast distances and traditional national boundaries and sell one of the things she did from the outside was create a space for technology and innovation in her office and throughout the department so she brought myself and a variety of other people to create innovation agenda of with her at the state department. she is its godmother and she calls the 21st century statecraft. >> host: issue technologically capable? >> guest: shore. you don't need to be a software engineer. in fact, i would argue it's not to your advantage if your software engineer. if what you're trying to do is figure out how technologies become a mainstream technology is particularly can be used and service of global challenges so

i was a history major for example and most of the colleagues i worked with hoover to the technology and innovation space in the obama administration will actually have backgrounds such that we're all technologically literate in the conventional sense but we aren't cutters and what we understand is how to use these tools and service of our diplomatic goals. secretary clinton is a perfect example of someone who she doesn't have a technical background but she's brilliant about how to weave together technology and innovation into our foreign policy. >> host: well, alec ross, one of the things you've talked about in your position as senior advisor for innovation is internet freedom and recently in a speech to said 2009 was the worst year ever for internet freedom. why? >> guest: i said because unfortunately it's true. internet freedom is something

that used to be unit of this obscure piece of foreign policy arcanum and then threw out 2,009 the were in number of very bad trends that we saw worsening. in particular the degree to which governments sense of the internet so is increasingly the case and literally dozens of country, everybody focuses on iran and china but it's the case in literally dozens of countries where the internet is increasingly looking like an internet. the president i think sense this and what i thought or ground-breaking an incredibly important remarks in november at a town hall meeting in shanghai he addressed this issue had on. one statement he made that i thought was very important was he said in a more freely information flows the stronger the society and he spoke about internet freedom. two months later secretary

clinton on january 21st given absolutely paradigm shifting speech about internet freedom where what she made clear was that american values related to things like freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of the press, these things we value for not just decades but centuries must extend into the digital age. so 2009 was a very bad year on because of the secretary clinton and president 2010 is beginning to shift. >> host: joining us also on "the communicators" is aliya sternstein, correspondent with publication nextgov.com. >> guest: going back to internet freedom your boss -- your boss decided to halve the global internet freedom task force and last month the task force was renamed.

>> guest: pendleton at its first meeting and what are they up to now. >> guest: the secretary announced a series of the rebels in her speech on january 21st so in addition to what i thought was an incredibly important broderick an incredibly important policy statements she put a number of programs out there with and a great many people are now working to fulfill the vision she and the president set out here and what you described is one of them, the net freedom task force. so we have to undersecretaries of state, who are both incredibly seasoned, incredibly gifted executives. maria from the ngo sector was the ceo of an organization called the aussie on and robert

is a longtime executive of goldman sachs in his fourth or fifth administration. the two of them are cochairing this initiative. the purpose of which is largely to create a framework for a shared responsibility with the private sector so there's a lot that can be done in the internet freedom space, government to government, but the private sector is actually a primary actor and the space. i think it's notable that the secretary didn't call for a statute, she didn't make a call for there to be specific short-term legislative action when she gave her speech about what she did call for was shared responsibility with the private sector on this issue. so under -- so to the secretaries they began a process of engagement with the private sector so there can be some norms so that people understand sort of what our values are and hopefully can work with us in

the context of values and work around the world. >> guest: are you sensing that there is a concern among some americans companies about backlash because of this new internet freedom and agenda that is the company's will be economically challenged or their employees overseas can be retaliated against? where do you draw the line between protecting human rights and, in gauging good that thematic relations? >> guest: he went to the heart of the issue. part of why internet freedom is complicated is that security issues, economic issues and human rights issue. it's all of the things wound into one. the response in the private sector is great because part of what we've heard clearly from the private sector is they want clarity. what they want is for there to be a sense of community standards that they can all work

within so it's been very positive and very productive and i think that the companies that participated in the first net freedom task force meeting felt good, the interactions i've had with these companies have been good, so what they want is clarity and want to work with us on what the rules of the road are. not be told what the rules are and what they don't want us to do is guess at what they are. >> guest: what kind of standards are you bringing upon? >> guest: is chapter one page-one so this is the beginning. we've had one meeting on this so would be presumptuous of me to say what this specific norm will be, what the standards will be but what there has to be as clear process and when we set out is clear process. it's going to be collaborative between the private sector and government. >> host: alec ross, you talked about iran a little. we all saw the twitter that came out of iran during recent

uprising there. how can a government block technology because all the different avenues technology can flow out of? >> guest: this is a fast-moving space, it changes not year to year but really month-to-month and in some cases a week to week so networks, all in the internet whether wired, wireless, it all flows through global communications networks and there are things that can be done on a technical level to block content and filter content out of our networks. now, that's hard because there are four examples something akin to 200 billion e-mail's sent every day so surgically pulling out content or filtering content is difficult so what we saw and iran was i think the most extreme version of this.

so let's talk about june of 2009 and february 2010. in june of 2009 there was a very well-known post election aftermath in which the resistance organize itself over social media, over connection and technologies. what we saw between june of 2009 and february of 2010 was increasing sophistication of the iranian such that on the anniversary of the revolution just two months ago when a lot of people anticipated there would be enormous protests that would equal or exceed what took place last june, when we saw was with the iranian government willingness to literally close down and flip the switch, completely closed down communications networks, turnoff satellite television, turn off cellular networks, turn off the

internet. what are spokesman p.j. crowley said was it was in essence an information blockade and so when a government has a willingness to completely shut down communications and his country that's nearly unprecedented. >> host: and governments still do that even with the international internet and technology? i say that because of north korea, hearing some reports about north koreans on the border with china having cellphones and other forbidden technology in that nation but a lot more coming out. >> guest: that's right so in the case of north. as has been reported with the border with china does give opportunity for some people in north korea to access wireless networks that otherwise wouldn't be able to. there is a lot of evidence and in the public domain and says

particularly in places where there are borders and where wireless signals don't necessarily recognize actual border, there are opportunities for people to get information and content otherwise can't but if a government -- a lot comes down to will. the government has the will two completely shut down its net marks -- networks that it's hard to work around that. one of the things secretary clinton said in her internet freedom speech on january 21st was we weren't going to just sit back and allow this to happen so forgetting about iran but thinking about this globally, it's important to remember there are literally dozens of countries who have less than terrific internet freedom records. one of the things the secretary announced was the united states is going to increasingly support efforts to allow grassroots

organizations and allows citizens themselves and to circumvent government censorship so this is something the state department has done for -- supported for years but didn't speak about publicly until january this. part of what the secretary has done is she's put increasingly level of investment, focus into providing tools and resources to citizens around the globe so they can freely access the internet, web sites of their own choosing in each other. she calls this freedom of connection. >> host: let's take another example with china which is often seen shutting down websites and preventing information from reaching its citizenry. china works with the u.s. in so many other areas, but it google it is pulling out of china.

how do you diplomatically create internet freedom in china and not take the government on? >> guest: we have a very comprehensive partnership with china and is one i would argue largely is positive. this is an area with disagreements and what we continue to have a our candid constructive conversations with the chinese government. putting google aside because i know it's like cat nap for the press and it gets a lot of attention, but what matters far more than one company or even -- even one company is how we can engage diplomatically so one of the things we're doing because of the president's leadership and the secretary of state's leadership, this is something that set the table diplomatically so that the u.s. best diplomatic resources more so than what we can do to

support grassroots circumvention efforts, much more so than what we can do any more antagonistic fashion is engaging across the table with our interlocutors so this is a topic or we engage in continue to engage the chinese and i'm hopeful and optimistic that there'll be progress in the years ahead. >> host: this is c-span "the communicators" it. our guest is alec ross senior advisor for innovation at state department. our guest reporter aliya sternstein from nextgov. >> guest: you started off by talking about technology as a way to drive economy is -- economies. pd is something -- a country has an immediate consciousness of americans with the earthquake that happen in january. right after words the u.s. worked hard to get the communications network up there especially with mobile

telephones. while americans seem to have forgotten about what's going on down there, it sounds like the american government is still heavily supporting both the telecommunications and also the health care for haitians so can you talk more about what you're doing with cellphones and telecommunications. >> guest: i appreciate that because it's interesting study shows how isolated i'm when you said the earthquake is fading from the consciousness and american citizens because where i work i have to be honest, it's a big deal and the commitment from this administration to work in partnership with the haitian government so that hopefully the haitian society can grow stronger in the future, that commitment is incredibly strong. i think that one of the things that we did at the outset in haiti through things like

program that the state department set up through which the american people can text the word he too short code 90999 which raised more than $30 million to the red cross, from that to working with usaid and telecommunications providers to restore communication to the island to the present moment, one of the areas of focus has been on thinking about the role of 21st century infrastructure and the redevelopment of haiti. now, i think it's important to not be sort of a cyber utopian or technology utopian. a lot of things that cellphones can be a powerful instrument for economic and educational empowerment and i personally believe that however there are many more structural -- many other structural issues in haiti that also need to be attended to. issues related to food security, issues related to the educational infrastructure,

related to the health care infrastructure. so i think that technology and telecommunications in particular wireless can be a tool in the rebuilding of haiti, but my own sense of our strategy in this area is there is very basic building blocks of infrastructure the haitian people and the government are focusing on like health care infrastructure, and food security and what have you. i think a technology and telecommunications is more of a tool to help address the challenges rather than in and of itself. >> host: aliya sternstein. >> guest: so how this technology a tool for facilitating education and a security and health care? >> guest: in each of those three cases i think that most of this is to be determined. it's interesting last week was my one-year anniversary of working at the state department and the first year i came to

work there were 4.1 billion mobile handsets on the planet, literally one year later there are 4.6 billion mobile handsets on the planet so over the course of the year there's been an additional half billion mobile handsets and most notably 75 percent of those have been in the developing world. so it's just now that we're really past that tipping point of global connectedness so the challenge is two go directly to what you're saying and say how can telephones be used for more than making phone calls? bostick education. one of the three you pointed to. in a lot of places where educational resources are scarce and think there's now the opportunity for us to use that as a distance learning channel so we're at the beginning of making investments to look into that area and it's a case where the state department is part during closely with our development partner with usaid

which is to say let's not naively say they cellphone in and of itself can it be a way that people can become educated rather all the kind of thinking in the pedagogy that goes into developing any sort of curriculum and learning device can't now be applied in to this little piece of personal infrastructure that people in haiti or people in sub-saharan africa or in bangladesh can use for education. i will give an example and it's not an american example but something that the bbc did which i think is spectacular. they treated a program through which people can learn to speak english over a cellphone and they piloted it in bangladesh. in a few weeks they have more than 200,000 in bangladesh learning english over cellphone so that's an example of the things that can be done. >> host: alec ross clown

computing becomes more prevalent, how does that play in which you do it the state department? >> guest: it's interesting, the notion of a cloud computing, taking processing power and an evolving from our desktops two figurative clouds has a couple of occasions. number one taking us back to the internet freedom. where this content lives, where the servers are now become something relevant to the internetç freedom. so let's say web based e-mail like g. smale, that's the best content in a cloud. it now involves the state department because things like a government determining it has the right to investigate without due process the content of people's e-mail, if that e-mail

lives in the clouds who actually has dominion over it? is a company? is a country? is that the citizen of the country who is accessing the e-mail if e-mail lives on servers in silicon valley? if it is american and the servers are in india is a the property of the indians? so there's a whole new body of privacy and intellectual property work that's to be discovered, as the web becomes increasingly clouded based. >> host: have those issues been a reason? have a reason practically? >> guest: not much. in its beginning to get there. one of the things that was notable going back to secretary clinton speech on the internet freedom is it took topics like are increasingly networked foreign-policy. it took it from obscurity or

something that somebody on the third floor down the hallway might work on to something that now prime ministers and foreign ministers, princes have to work on so these conversations are just now happening. it was interesting the week after the secretaries internet freedom address i was in bahrain and i was visiting with ministers of communication for more than a dozen middle eastern countries and their reaction to america's new leadership in the internet free rum wasn't so much positive or negative as it was, my goodness, we have to get really smart on this and we need to examine our policies and to think about the implications for our country particularly in economic sense. >> host: is there international orientation that try to formulate these guidelines? >> guest: there are two organizations as stickout, the

telecommunications union and another called i can. so there are different bodies that exist out there that are global organizations that have global participation but i have a feeling -- i sense that a lot of what might have historic claim -- historic we lived in internet only our telecommunications only bodies will not become matters of deliberation in places like the un. so one of the things that the secretary announced in her internet freedom address for example was that she -- that the u.s. was now going to elevate these issues at the un. it's increasingly now going to be examined and engaged in multilateralism and rights bodies so it remains to be seen with the multilateral forum are where this plays out. >> host: next question