Taiwan’s “digital minister,” Audrey Tang, a computer prodigy and entrepreneur who taught herself programming at age 8, says she’s a “civic hacker” who like a locksmith uses specialized skills to help rather than harm. Appointed by leaders hoping to better connect with young voters who helped sweep independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen into office last year, the 35-year-old Tang is using her expertise to more directly involve the public in policymaking, and to counter “fake news.”

CultureSummit 2017 Abu Dhabi ended with a commitment to develop a collaborative web-based platform to foster ongoing cross-cultural conversation and the creation of metrics which can more accurately measure cultural impact. [...] have helped build new partnerships which contribute to finding innovative ways of strengthening the role culture and new technologies can play in building societies. 

In the last 10 years, in light of China’s rise, the resurgence of Russia on the world stage, and the proliferation of non-state actors in the Middle East, the concept of soft power has taken on renewed significance. Definitions of it abound and expansions of the examples and explanations of its various forms are offered from across the academy. [...] The other major change affecting soft power definitions and policies is technological innovation. 

In January 2010, secretary of state Hillary Clinton stood before the world and delivered a landmark address, calling the internet a “new nervous system for the planet.” She was describing an emerging State Department doctrine known as the “internet freedom agenda,” which built on a universal declaration that “people have the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” 

Mark McDowell was a career diplomat for 20 years with the Canadian Foreign Service, where he made a name for himself as a pioneer in e-diplomacy. Defying the strictures of government bureaucracy, he pushed use of the internet and social media to engage with foreign publics and bring about cultural exchange. Mark brought his web-savvy and unconventional approach to public diplomacy to Myanmar

With technology empowering non-traditional actors who create asymmetric threats, there are real questions as to how the Department of Defense (DOD) can best ensure security and preserve privacy. For many years, DOD has worked to attract top technologists from Silicon Valley. I was part of one White House initiative called the Presidential Innovation Fellows, where technologists and venture capitalists go to Washington.

Social media experts gathered at the Bond Conference in London on Tuesday to reflect on their favorite global development-related social media campaigns in recent years and to offer lessons learned for raising the profile of an event, cause or organization. Covering a variety of the most successful campaigns to date — from a hashtag promoting pride in British aid to an effort to engage with online trolls.

The native language of Wales is one of the oldest languages in Europe, dating from the 6th century when it emerged from a related Celtic language. Today, Welsh is fluently spoken by about 300,000 people. But certain letters of the 28-character Welsh alphabet have never been available as part of a contemporary digital typeface.