LONDON --- “Cultural diplomacy” has a nice ring to it; it brings to mind folk singing, dances around the Maypole, children’s finger-painting exhibitions, and other such feel-good exports that can make even global adversaries think kindly of each other, at least momentarily.

Mr Gianfranco Fattorini, a representative of PEC quoted the Chief of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet who affirmed that "Mobile phones, Internet and other measures for the management of new media need to be fully implemented to maintain the public's interests and national security."

There are more than 17 million Facebook users in Iran, but the site is banned throughout the country. Iran also bans its citizens from accessing Twitter and YouTube. Even so, people are finding a way around the censorship with the help of Virtual Private Networks...

While visiting Iceland for an online marketing conference last week, I found myself in the president of Iceland’s living room, scratching my head at how welcoming and eager he was to talk about the country’s use of social media and technology to rebuild the nation.

On March 14 Burmese state TV allowed something that would have been unthinkable...First of all, the generals want to show that they're capable of holding free and fair elections, since that's the only way that they'll get the U.S. and the European Union to lift the sanctions they imposed on Burma years ago.

If you're like us, hopelessly addicted to checking our smartphones every two seconds, you may think the answer is obvious: Use technology to spread the message. Post your thoughts to Twitter and Facebook and hope that others will follow suit.