Philip J. Crowley is a funny man. The Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, informally known as “PJ,” visited Boston University’s College of Communication yesterday, speaking at length about the role of social media and WikiLeaks in diplomacy.

he Public Diplomacy division of the Ministry of External Affairs was awarded the prestigious Gov2.in Awards 2011 instituted by Governance Now magazine for innovative use of social media and Web 2.0 tools in government.

The dashboard tallies the daily number of tweets about developments in each listed country (the site is currently tracking Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Bahrain) and shows the average number of such tweets per minute for each country.

In recent years the lines between official government communication and social sharing have become increasingly blurred, with platforms such as Twitter and Facebook emerging as legitimate (and even preferred) ways for government agencies to interact with both their employees and private citizens.

The social network revolutions have yet to dethrone the kings. In the Arab world, monarchies may be the most stable alternative to ruthless dictators, military juntas, or simple chaos currently available.

In Tunisia, the self-immolation of street vendor Muhammad Bouazizi, protesting harassment by local authorities, led to demonstrations that toppled the regime. In Egypt, it was photos posted online of Khaled Said, who had been beaten to death by corrupt police officers. In both cases, Facebook pages drew attention to the cases, and Twitter posts helped organize protests.

Recent riots in the Middle East and North Africa will not be repeated in China as the government is doing a good job and taking people's demands seriously, a key political adviser has said.

Operation ‘Safe Homecoming’, launched by the Indian Government to bring home thousands of Indian nationals stranded in conflict-torn Libya, is a success story. Every day, hundreds of Indians are flying back via the national carrier Air India and on chartered flights from Tripoli and other locations connected by air bridges in the Middle East.