he Public Diplomacy division of the Ministry of External Affairs was awarded the prestigious Gov2.in Awards 2011 instituted by Governance Now magazine for innovative use of social media and Web 2.0 tools in government.

The dashboard tallies the daily number of tweets about developments in each listed country (the site is currently tracking Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Bahrain) and shows the average number of such tweets per minute for each country.

Israel's Minister of Public Diplomacy, Yuli Edelstein, recorded a special message for Yisrael Sheli’s Online Ambassadors. In the video, the Minister gave a few tips about how to best represent Israel.

While the use of the Internet to reach out to people and communicate a brand’s message to the audience effectively is starting to gain traction and become the norm in India, the effective use of the digital medium by the government, which could create transparency and empower the citizenry, is not something which has seen large scale deployment in India yet.

The social network revolutions have yet to dethrone the kings. In the Arab world, monarchies may be the most stable alternative to ruthless dictators, military juntas, or simple chaos currently available.

In Tunisia, the self-immolation of street vendor Muhammad Bouazizi, protesting harassment by local authorities, led to demonstrations that toppled the regime. In Egypt, it was photos posted online of Khaled Said, who had been beaten to death by corrupt police officers. In both cases, Facebook pages drew attention to the cases, and Twitter posts helped organize protests.

Israel's Minister of Public Diplomacy, Yuli Edelstein, recorded a special message for YOU, Israel's Online Ambassadors. In this video, the Minister gives us a few tips of how to best represent Israel in our online activism.

As protests and unrest continue to destabilize the Middle East and North Africa, the effects of these popular revolutions have predictably affected Internet access in these countries. Below is a list of recent filtering measures implemented by governments who continue to face opposition from their citizens.