Alec Ross, Secretary Clinton's Senior Advisor for Innovation, said the new policy is designed to promote access to global education and culture by permitting certain telecommunications equipment and services to flow to those countries. Export of those equipment and services had previously been blocked by U.S. sanctions.

In its ongoing search for solutions to U.S. public diplomacy challenges – some might call it a deficit – the State Department has launched yet another new Internet venture, a social website called Opinion Space.

To keep up, the embattled government has done everything in its power over the last year first to stanch the flow of stories and then to make the stories that inevitably leak out impossible for outsiders to verify.

Diplomats with decades of experience and knowledge need to work with the under-30 age group that is deftly using Internet-based communication technology, Cohen [Jared Cohen, a member of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's policy planning staff] said. Traditional channels of diplomacy are fine, but they will need an assist from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to succeed.

Maltese and foreign diplomats will be exploring innovative ways of how modern technology can facilitate diplomacy in international relations in a conference, which will be held in Malta today and tomorrow. According to the Foreign Ministry, the Malta conference on e-diplomacy will discuss the ways in which information technology in general and the internet in particular are influencing and changing diplomatic tasks and the conduct of international relations.

The Israeli government is hoping YouTube and Twitter can help restore its reputation after a botched raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla killed nine people. Don't get your hopes up, Bibi. There's only so much a technological tactic can do after such a big strategic blunder.

The Obama Administration, which is making maximum use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in governance, feels these are "effective tools" that can enhance diplomacy.

How do you move from a culture of "need to know" to a culture of "need to share?" Richard Boly thinks about the answer to that question every day. Boly, a speaker at next week's Gov 2.0 Expo, is the director of the Office of eDiplomacy at the State Department.