The U.S. Department of State announced a redesign of its web site and its blog, DipNote.

You might want to check your bookmarks and OPACs for broken links.

See also: Another New Site, By Aliya Sternstein, TechInsider (12/17/09).

Steven Aftergood describes a new report on the State Dept. Office of the Historian and the Foreign Relations of the United States series:

• Something “Very Wrong” in State Dept History Office, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News, June 8, 2009.
• Management Review of the Office of the Historian, (Report Number ISP-I-09-43), State Department Office of Inspector General, May 2009.

With plummeting employee morale and departures of experienced staff historians, “something in HO is very wrong,” the Inspector General concluded. “HO is suffering from, and has for some time been handicapped by, serious mismanagement...

Under present circumstances, the task of the FRUS series, although mandated by law, is “almost unachievable,” the IG said.

State Dept. Hosts TED Talk, Tech Daily Dose, June 2, 2009.

The State Department on Wednesday afternoon will host the first ever U.S. government-sponsored Technology, Entertainment, Design, or TED, event. Speakers include social-media analyst Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody; philanthropist Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund; futurist Stewart Brand, author of the Whole Earth Catalog; economist Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion; and data visionary Hans Rosling, Karolinska Institutet Professor of International Health.... Video from the State Department event will be posted on the TED Web site, www.TED.com.

There is a nice overview of the "new, sleeker, and more interactive" web site of the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, on the blog of the American Historical Association: Office of the Historian’s New Web Site, By Elisabeth Grant, AHA Today, April 06, 2009.

Note, particularly, that the series Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) is being transferred to this site.

The U.S. Department of State has launched a new web site, ExchangesConnect (connect.state.gov), to promote international exchanges and enhance the United States' image abroad, particularly among young people. ExchangesConnect is administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. According to the Washington Post, "It’s a new online home for Americans and Web users overseas interested in interacting with other participants or potential participants in U.S. educational or foreign exchange programs." Use of the site requires registration. See also: State Department unveils social networking site, by Kellie Lunney, GovExec, December 1, 2008.

US Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security Countermeasures Directorate has recently launched a new public exhibition on cold-war era eavesdropping gadgets entitled, "Listening In: Electronic Eavesdropping in the Cold War Era." Scientific American posted a slide show ("Spying on the spies") of the exhibition and much of the text written about the devices, from old-school keyloggers to phone tap detectors. The permanent exhibit is located in the lobby of a State Department building in Rosslyn, Va.

Perhaps one of our DC readers can help us out and confirm the location. According to the State Department's list of field offices, there are 2 buildings in Rosslyn within a few blocks of each other: 1400 Wilson Boulevard and 1801 North Lynn Street.

MASON A3B RECEIVER: U.S. State Department engineers working for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security needed a receiver in order to find devices subversively transmitting signals to the enemy. The best kind of receiver was one that could be moved from room to room without looking like a radio, and the Mason A3 more than fit the bill.

The State Department's DIPNOTE blog posted a video of Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy and State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack discussing the process for creating a passport and its new security features. For the video's transcript, go to http://video.state.gov.

Diplomats take a shine to Wikipedia-like app

Thanks to my colleague Shirl Kennedy at DocuTicker.com for posting direct links to this "in the news" document.

Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States and Brazil to Advance Cooperation on Biofuels

Also online is this DOS News Release.

The U.S. Department of State has just released the 2006 Annual Report on Human Rights.

The 2006 Annual Report on Human Rights Consists of the Following Sections:
+ Preface, Overview and Acknowledgements, and Introduction
+ Africa Country Reports
+ East Asia and the Pacific Country Reports
+ Europe and Eurasia Country Reports
+ Near East and North Africa Country Reports
+ South and Central Asia Country Reports
+ Western Hemisphere Country Reports
+ Appendices
+ Related Material

You can access archived versions of the Annual Report on Human Rights back to 1995 here.

Last week, DOS released the 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Note the * to links to a PDF of a revised report. The website notes:

The 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report has been revised since its original posting to the website.