The Middle East’s latest unrest has revived once again a tired debate about the power of social media. Recent headlines gush about the arrival of the “Facebook Revolution” or “Twitter Diplomacy.”

An Egyptian political activist, a Bush-appointed diplomat, and Obama campaign staffers met in New York in 2008 to talk about revolution—of the social media kind. And now the Internet is buzzing. Plus, full coverage of the Egypt revolt.

Hours after the government in Egypt shut down that country’s access to the Internet, hackers around the world started banding together to craft some kind of work-around. And one group claims to be only a day or two away from delivering a partial solution. Their initiative is called the Open Mesh Project...

What began as a popular uprising that toppled the Tunisian government before spreading into Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and, of course, Egypt, may now be headed for Syria.

Co-chaired by Ambassador James Glassman and Secretary Dan Glickman, the Strategic Public Diplomacy Project seeks to develop recommendations on ways to tightly integrate public diplomacy with foreign policy to advance U.S. strategic interests in a new media age.

Meedan, a leading Arabic-English translation technology company announced today it is providing free Arabic translation for microloans on Kiva.org. The move will help expand the reach of Kiva and its lenders directly into the heart of the Arabic-speaking world, extending a global community of micro-lenders to include thousands of Arabic-speaking aspiring entrepreneurs.

During the street demonstrations in Tunis, amidst the signs demanding “Ben Ali Out” were placards saying “Thank you, Al Jazeera.” The Qatar-based pan-Arab television network has never been allowed to open a bureau in Tunisia – a prescient if ultimately unsuccessful tactic by Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s government...