US embassy cable - 05PARIS3507

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 003507 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR, EUR/PPD, CA/EX, IRM/OPS/ENM, IM/CIO/IA, 
EUR/EX/IRM, IIP 
 
EMBASSIES FOR PAO 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, PREL, CMGT, AMGT, ACOA, ANET, AADP, KRIM 
SUBJECT: Paris Launches Its First Internet Chat on U.S. 
Visas to Reach Broader and Younger Audiences: Lessons 
Learned 
 
 
1. Summary.  The Mission conducted its first 'Internet 
chat,' and we are pleased by the public's response.  In 
planning the chat, we contacted several regional posts to 
learn about their experiences.  Few had conducted chats, 
while others expressed an interest in learning from us.  We 
are, therefore, providing a read-out of our experience for 
interested parties. 
 
2. The chat's theme was U.S. visas, and we received over 
500 questions from the French public. In a fast-paced one- 
hour information exchange, the Consul General and Consular 
colleagues, assisted by the Public Affairs Section, 
answered 40 selected questions, mostly in French.   We 
posted the transcript and used the material for a 
'Frequently Asked Questions' site on the Mission website. 
The Internet-chat mechanism emphasizes USG accessibility 
for dialogue with French publics, especially for the 
younger generation.  We plan two more chats, on other 
topics, as part of this pilot project.  End Summary. 
 
3. Background: The Public Affairs Section initiated this 
pilot chat project as an effort to engage directly with a 
wider French public.  We expected a mostly young audience, 
given that youth are turning to the Internet more and more 
for their news and information.  We selected 'Ask the 
Embassy about U.S. Visas' as our first program.   Consular 
colleagues enthusiastically agreed to participate in the 
chat. 
 
4. Logistics:  IRM colleagues advised us it would be best 
to work on the DIN-network, and not the OpenNet Plus 
system, both for Department security concerns and because 
of potential slowness of service.  We bid out the project 
to three chat companies in Paris, and selected the company 
with the lowest price: 3,000 dollars for three chats over 
the space of a year.  The chat company arranged for the 
chat page to look just like the Mission's website, but the 
page actually belonged to the private chat company.  We 
posted a picture of the Consul General, his biography, and 
allowed the public to register their questions in advance. 
We conducted an off-line trial run a few days previous, 
answering a few questions to test the system and our 
responses. 
 
5. Advertising:  Ten days before the chat, we began to 
advertise it by placing a note, in French and English, on 
the website, by sending the note to selected contacts in 
our Audience Tracking System (ATS, aka Paris' DRS) who are 
active in the fields of education or university exchange 
programs or who are exchange alumni themselves.  We 
contacted selected media, such as the free newspapers, read 
by a mostly young public, and several radio shows. Lastly, 
we printed flyers and had them available at the consular 
offices for visa applicants to take with them. 
 
6. The Chat:  We received 280 questions in advance and were 
able to survey them and select the ones we thought most 
interesting and worthwhile.   During the actual hour-long 
chat, 187 visitors monitored the discussion, posting 253 
new questions for a total of over 500 questions received. 
The Consul General, another consular colleague, and a fast 
French typist answered 40 questions over the space of an 
hour, as Public Affair staff selected among old and new in- 
coming questions for them to answer.  The questions spanned 
the range of visa concerns:  student, transit, business- 
start-up, au pairs, babies and expiring visas as well as 
machine readable passports and visas. 
 
7. Audience Profile:  We asked the chat company to prepare 
an optional questionnaire for participants to fill out 
prior to posting questions.  From a pull-down menu, 
participants were asked to select their gender, age, region 
of residence, general occupation and field of work. 
Approximately one-third of participants did not fill out 
the questionnaire.  Of the two-thirds who did, we learned 
50 percent of our audience was female, 37 percent male and 
13 percent decided not to respond to that particular 
question.  Otherwise, the participants were young. 47 
percent were under 30 years of age and 29 percent were from 
the Paris region.  Audiences across France participated, 
however.  Students made up 32 percent of the audience. 
 
8. Follow-Up:  We have posted the chat transcript on the 
website, and are adding a 'Frequently Asked Questions' 
resource for website posting.  We plan on broadening the 
topics for future chats.  All of these chats would be 
collaborative efforts with Mission colleagues. 
 
9. Embassy Paris is pleased by the response to our first 
Internet chat.  This medium allows us to reach new and 
younger audiences and to engage them, in French and in 
'real time,' about American society, U.S. policies and 
other issues of interest to the successor generation. 
Wolff