Policy Innovations The central address for a fairer globalization

Home  >  Innovators  >  People

Text Size: A A  

Joshua S. Fouts

Chief Global Strategist

Dancing Ink Productions

josh@dancinginkproductions.com

Joshua S. Fouts is Chief Global Strategist of Dancing Ink Productions, a strategic, creative consulting and content development firm that is dedicated to the emergence of a new global culture in the Imagination Age—defined by powerful, creative use of all technologies available for sharing meaningful ideas and collaborating on solutions. Fouts is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and a Senior Fellow for Digital Media and Public Policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency.

Joshua has had a lifetime passion for the intersection of culture, art, and technology and a commitment to understanding human systems. He discovered the Internet in 1992 during the first Gulf War and subsequently dedicated himself to working toward a greater understanding of the power of Internet and technology toward better public and foreign policy.

Fouts has nearly 20 years of expertise in innovative uses of new technologies for international relations, journalism, government, and strategic nonprofit management and development. He is known as the world's leading expert on digital diplomacy. He has advised nonprofits and governments worldwide (including the United States, China, and Brazil) on how to understand and create a strategic presence using the Internet—especially the 3D Immersive Internet—as a tool for outreach. His work has been featured in or on BoingBoing, the BBC, the Guardian, Press TV, the New York Times, UgoTrade, New World Notes, the Washington Post, Wired, and NPR.

Before joining Dancing Ink Productions, Fouts co-founded and directed the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School where he launched the Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds initiative, which was the first effort to explore the intersection between immersive spaces, cultural dialogue, and foreign policy.

In 1997 he co-founded and edited OJR, the Online Journalism Review, the first Internet-based online-journalism review chronicling the early development of ethics in journalism as it evolved on the web, which is still in publication today. In 2001 he was recognized by the Silicon Alley Reporter as one of the "Digital Coast's 'Top 100 Survivors'" of the digital community of the Western United States.

From 1992–1994 he was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State and the Voice of America, launching numerous new technology public diplomacy projects throughout the world, including what ultimately became voanews.com. He is on the editorial board of Place Branding (Palgrave Macmillan). Fouts is a member of the Public Diplomacy Council.

Focus: Culture, Technology, United States, Americas, Global

Related Resources:

• Digital Diplomacy and Cultural Collaboration (Videos)
• Cross-Cultural Understanding through Virtual Worlds (Videos)
• The New Ethic of Public Diplomacy (Commentary)
• Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds (Policy Library)
• Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds (Videos)
• Digital Diplomacy (Policy Library)
• Collaboration, Culture, and Community (Videos)

Last Updated: Feb 19, 2009