...of course an important part of diplomacy is public diplomacy, so that is how our country internationally connects with ordinary people,” he said.... He noted there were lots of ways for the British government to connect with local citizens, but the most important way was online with the use of blogs and social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.

The US Embassy in Jakarta has generated a fan base of 430,000 Indonesians with its two-year-old Facebook page. Embassy staffers have been operating the Facebook site as a base for public engagement, conversation, news, culture and tourism promotion.

Just when it seemed there was little hope for Twitter in Lebanon, the site finally got its "moment" earlier this week...when Mikati and British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher had a live 'Tweebate'...Following the event, Mikati tweeted that "social media is helping build digital diplomacy as a form of parallel public diplomacy".

The U.S. embassy in Beijing...broadcasts its readings via an iPhone app and through Twitter, which is blocked inside China but can be accessed by tech-savvy Chinese who...circumvent the country’s Web censorship system...As a result, many Beijingers are becoming increasingly aware that the embassy’s readings often contradict those from Beijing’s environmental bureau...

Digital diplomacy... has been made possible by the adoption, within diplomatic institutions and government more generally, of digitally-based systems of data creation, transmission and storage using the Internet, social media platforms, computers, and a variety of wireless electronic devices.

India's success with IT brought the world to India. Now India is using IT to help bring other countries to the world.

Now lay practitioners of hasbara, or public outreach, are joining the ranks of the digital diplomats. The latest video making the rounds to illustrate Israel's position is "Israel Wants Peace - Friend Request Pending" (above). We're in a Facebook era, "like" it or not. Not everyone will agree with the video's message but most will understand its language.

The challenges posed by the new media landscape...will likely take years to fully comprehend. But as the contours of the role of social media in the Arab Spring and elsewhere begin to take shape in the academic and policy-making arenas, everyone seems to agree on one point: The revolution is far from over.