Preparing for Cuba 2.0 with Social Media Tools

A few months back the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce held a crisis simulation for its students. The scenario was Fidel Castro's sudden death and the emergence of tensions between the American navy and Cuban armed forces. I wrote about the simulation for Business Lexington and wrote a companion blog post here.

I was particularly impressed that the faculty incorporated simulated blogs into their exercise. Professor Robert Farley (a fella with some pretty solid blogging credentials) created "Man About Havana" to simulate the first-person citizen journalism one may see in this kind of situation.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of Professor Farley's older colleagues dismissed the idea of adding a blog to a global crisis exercise. But interestingly enough, we're seeing the blogosphere play an important role in marking the history of another global "crisis" - Kosovar independence, from both sides of the issue.

And wouldn't you know it, thanks to Global Voices Online's Cuba page, you can already find some blogs providing perspective and commentary on the latest in Cuba.