Senegal is now the second country in Africa, following Ghana, where cellphone users can text an SMS to a Gchat account and receive a response for free...The former French colony is now the second country in Africa, following Ghana, where cellphone users can text an SMS to a Gchat account and receive a response for free.

So what if Hillary Clinton's "21st Century Statecraft" isn’t exactly reinventing international relations for the information age? It's still a worthy endeavor.

As global framing contests go, one of the most spectacular is the transnational effort to define proper regulation of the Internet (and in the process characterize China’s information policy).

Government agencies are increasingly using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to engage the public, but they will also need to establish a clear, well-defined social media strategy to prevent potential backlash, according to industry watchers.

...United Arab Emirates ambassador to the U.S., Yousef Al Otaiba, was making an official visit when he received a phone call from a friend asking what he was doing in Texas. “How do you know I’m here?” the ambassador responded. It had been on Facebook, said Bader Bin Saeed, media director for U.A.E.’s embassy in Washington.

As the history of past U.S. efforts to use technology to bring progress to other nations reveals, the United States should focus its current digital diplomacy efforts on small wins, not transformative victories.

Last week representatives from the U.S. State Department Elana Berkowitz and Bruce Wharton reached out directly to innovators in East Africa to discuss the Apps 4 Africa contest, and the role software developers play in solving civil society issues in their countries.

The Kremlin is getting more Internet-savvy every day. Not only has President Dmitry Medvedev joined Twitter, the Russia government now has an English language web portal to help funnel business and advertise their foray into the information age.