Another rss to java service...

As a follow up to my posting December 7, 2004 about converting to RSS to javascript and the virtues of streaming feeds directly to a webpage, here's yet another service that does this: http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

(aha - per 02/09/2005 - here's yet another: http://www.rss2html.com/)

Also, here's an example of how you can stream the ircworld rssfeed (ircworld.blogspot.com/ircworld.xml)directly to your website.

New Public Diplomacy Report

The Public Diplomacy Council, a non-profit organization committed to the study, practice and advocacy of public diplomacy, released a report today entitled "A Call for Action on Public Diplomacy"



Following is the media alert released by the Council in connection with this report.



PROFESSIONALS CALL FOR TRANSFORMATION OF U. S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY





Members of the non-partisan Public Diplomacy Council, in a White Paper

released today, call on the administration and the Congress to undertake a

transformation of American public diplomacy to bring it into the 21st

century. The "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy" notes that U.S. public

diplomacy is in crisis. Reorganized and adequately funded public diplomacy

is vital to a successful foreign policy and the war on terrorism. The

report posits the need for a more robust global communication strategy and

puts forward five action recommendations.



The recommendations include: creation of a new agency within the State

Department to manage civilian international information and exchanges

functions; a 300 percent increase in overseas staffing for public diplomacy;

increases in funding and closer integration of international broadcasting;

the establishment of a cabinet level interagency committee to coordinate and

direct a national public diplomacy strategy; and a public-private sector

partnership to provide permanent funding for international exchanges.



The entire text of the "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy", with

commentaries on the paper, is available on the Council website at

www.pdi.gwu.edu <http://www.pdi.gwu.edu>.





The Public Diplomacy Council, founded in 1988, is a non-profit organization

committed to the academic study, professional practice and responsible

advocacy of public diplomacy. Its fifty members represent practitioners and

observers of public diplomacy past and present. The Council joined with

George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs and Elliot

School of International Affairs to establish the Public Diplomacy Institute

in 2001.

A Lawyer in Baghdad

IRCs with international law contacts may be interested in an article recently published in the Green Bag online law journal. Entitled 'A Lawyer in Baghdad,' it is an account of the work of a Washington lawyer who worked for the General Counsel to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

His conclusion? "In sum, to those who say international law does not exist, or who say the occupation of Iraq was somehow extra-legal, I invite them to scrutinize the legal work of my former office, where international law was lived, breathed, and debated, with realworld consequences, twenty-four hours a day."

The eight-page article, originally discovered at the Instapundit web site, can be accessed at:

http://www.greenbag.org/McGurk.pdf



# Posted by Tel Aviv IRC http://194.90.114.5/publish/resource.htm

Best Free Reference Web Sites 2004

This is an annual series initiated under the auspices of the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of ALA to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web - see 2004 list at http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/MARSBestRef2004.htm