A few days before Rex Tillerson's confirmation as secretary of state, Tillerson's Danish counterpart stood before an audience at a Copenhagen conference on the future of diplomacy and announced he would soon be naming a new ambassador. That would hardly be news — except this ambassador will not be heading to the U.S. or any other country. Instead, he or she will be serving as Denmark's chief diplomatic connection to the tech industry at large.

Maps provide the people who live in informal settlements, often for longer than they had envisioned, with tools to track down the resources they need, from doctors to Wi-Fi to mosques. And they enable humanitarian responders to provide recovery and relief. There are a growing number of ways to apply cartography to humanitarian and development missions. While some organizations develop new technology and launch new platforms, others are going back to basics, using pencil and paper. 

South Korea's president is cracking down on rumors in cyberspace in a campaign that threatens the popularity of Kakao Talk, the leading social media service in a country with ambitions to become a global technology leader.

As part of the IMPACT speaker series, Consul General of Israel to the Southeastern United States, Opher Aviran, spoke to Tech faculty and students to encourage political cooperation between the State of Israel and the Southeast United States. With the Gaza Strip crisis currently occurring, Aviran’s aim to strengthen ties is especially relevant.

The realm of social media and the power of the Internet lies in the hands of the people. Together they are a tool that allow greater access to information, global connectivity, a platform for speeches, advocacy and political statements, tools for video and photo dissemination and much more. The Internet, in many parts of the world, is free and open to the public, which allows for the rapid growth of people-to-people diplomacy across national borders, and has a democratizing effect on information. It has also created the space for the tech boom in which the giants of Silicon Valley thrive.