Jakarta – For the second consecutive year, the U.S. Embassy is sponsoring Pesta Blogger 2009, Indonesia’s only national-level bloggers’ gathering. The event will take place on Saturday October 24, 2009 in the exhibition hall of the SMESCO building.  Four U.S. bloggers, including Arsalan Iftikhar, a prominent American Muslim blogger and Mark Frauenfelder, founder of a leading technology blog, will participate. 

U.S. Ambassador Cameron R. Hume said: “The Embassy is proud to support and sponsor Pesta Blogger for the second year running. Freedom of expression is an integral part of any sustainable democratic system. Indonesia has a strong, vibrant democracy, and the robust growth of its blogging community indicates this.” Ambassador Hume blogged for the first time himself shortly after Secretary Hillary Clinton’s visit to Indonesia in February of this year on the State Department’s official blog. 

The U.S. Embassy also sponsored a series of blogging workshops in 10 cities across Indonesia over the past three months, in order to encourage more Indonesians to blog and to impart the principles of citizen journalism. Over one thousand people participated in the programs, which were held in Malang, Semarang, Balikpapan, Samarinda, Makassar, Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, Palembang and Yogyakarta. 

The U.S. Embassy has recently embraced technology and social media to conduct public diplomacy in Indonesia. The U.S. Embassy now has its own YouTube channel, featuring over nearly 200 short videos covering a wide range of topics about the United States, including American culture, society, education, religious practice, politics, tourism and English-language education.  Located at www.youtube.com/pasjakartaindonesia, videos featured on the video-sharing website are in Indonesian or have Indonesian subtitles. 

In January, the Embassy was the first diplomatic Mission in Indonesia to create a Facebook fan page, www.facebook.com/jakarta.usembassy. It now has nearly 15,000 fans. The page features unique content, including photos, videos and contests.  All U.S. visa appointments are now made using an online application system, and recently, American citizens living in Indonesia wishing to renew their passports are now required to make online appointments.  For further information on Embassy activities visit http://jakarta.usembassy.gov or follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/usembassyjkt.