Are Clinton's townhalls abroad a departure from previous SecStates?

Factual Questions
1

I’m just curious if Sec. Clinton’s habit now of going to a university or other forum abroad and fielding questions from “regular people” is new for a Sec. State. I’m not asking if the concept is new, but if the frequency that Sec. Clinton does it is new. She seems to have tried to make it an integral part of her trips to various places (Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan).

Is this a departure from the practices of previous SecStates?

2

Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times seems to think that Sec Clinton’s town hall meetings abroad set her apart. But the Aug 2009 article was breathless enough for me to doubt the author’s seriousness. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/weekinreview/16gettleman.html