The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs was on Thursday given the prestigious India eGov 2.0 Awards 2010 for the most innovative use of social media and Web 2.0 tools in government. The event was held in the evening at the Hotel Claridges in Central Delhi.

Last Tuesday 215,646 Internet users in Iran evaded their regime to visit sites such as Facebook, Twitter and RadioFarda.com, the U.S.-funded Persian-language news service.

In the United States, the pressure on Facebook, relatively mild so far, comes mostly from journalists and advocacy groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center. But the time is coming when Facebook will begin to face ever more intense international pressure from foreign governments unpleased, for one reason or another, with how the site operates.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, is visiting Qom, the religious epicenter of Iran and the residence of most of the country's top religious authorities. But a little known fact is that the office of the supreme leader has a Twitter account that is providing updates and links, including pictures, from his visit.

Teachers and learners of English have now got a new tool to help master the sounds of the English language thanks to the British Council's latest iPad pronunciation app. Sounds Right is an interactive learn english pronunciation chart...

North Korean propaganda has emerged on popular Internet social media sites. It is not for domestic consumption as virtually no North Korean has Internet access. Rather it is targeted at other countries, especially South Korea.

There was an odd tweet yesterday from Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It reads, "We can't leave the digital playing field to Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. This... shows need for 21st Century Statecraft."

Diplomacy and outreach can't just be left to our government," Clinton said during a 75-minute speech and onstage interview sponsored by the Commonwealth Club. She spoke of the State Department's new "emphasis on technology and innovation.