David Rothkopf talks with Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, Inc., who accepted this year’s Diplomat of the Year award on behalf of Google. The conversation at the awards dinner was centered on how the massive gains in connectivity are changing the landscape of diplomacy. Within just a few years, everyone on this planet may be connected to the internet. 

Sit down to a Shabbat dinner with an Israeli family, play a game of matkot or join the merry-making at a traditional Hasidic wedding at Open A Door To Israel, a multi-sensory exhibition that transports visitors to the Middle Eastern country through interactive doors. Opening today at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, the free exhibition is literally as its name suggests.

Beginning eight years ago, the Obama administration embraced a fresh approach to leveraging technology platforms and improved the experience of interacting with government. While leading the White House’s digital technology team, I witnessed the impact of private-sector principles and ideas becoming embedded in government. It was a push to close the digital experience gap between the private and public sectors. 

Chinese media company StarTimes on Wednesday launched a satellite digital television project in Kenya as part of its long-term agenda to bridge rural-urban information gap in the East African nation. According to StarTimes, the southwestern Kenyan county of Kajiado will pilot the project that has given over 120 households in Saina Village free access to the StarTimes digital television service. 

Earlier this month saw the world’s first celebration of all things emoji, Emojicon. The brainchild of Jennifer 8. Lee and designer Yiying Lu, founders of Emojination, and produced by Jeanne Brooks, the convention aimed to promote diversity and representation within emoji. It also brought together designers, enthusiasts, and members of the Unicode consortium.

Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband flew from his home in New York to the Greek city of Mytilene, on the rocky east coast of Lesbos, an island in the Aegean Sea. It was the fall of 2015, and Lesbos had for months been the primary landing point for refugees fleeing wars in Syria and Iraq. Now the steady flow was becoming a deluge—as many as 3,000 refugees a day. Local officials were overwhelmed.

Facebook kicked off its inaugural Social Good Forum in New York on Thursday by introducing a range of fundraising and community safety updates. [...] Keeping things charitable, Facebook also announced it is expanding its Fundraisers tool (which lets people raise money for select nonprofits). The company claims users can now add a donate button to their Facebook Live broadcasts.

External Affairs Ministry has emerged as one of the top central ministries to effectively use the social media with its Twitter handle @MEAIndia crossing one million followers. "Marking a #digitaldiplomacy milestone with 1,000,000+ followers! Hope to continue to serve & inform in the best traditions of the MEA," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup, who runs the handle, tweeted.