Walk the streets of any big city today, anywhere in the world, and it is impossible to miss the impact of digital communication technology on nearly every aspect of our daily lives. It impacts the way we communicate, socialize, travel, are entertained, buy products and services, and even find our life partners. But, what about diplomacy, that famously nuanced, human talent that is so deeply rooted in a face-to-face, personal connection? How has digital changed the diplomacy game?

The number of requests for Twitter user data from governments around the world continued to grow in the first half of 2013, the microblogging service said in its semiannual transparency report, released Wednesday. Overall, Twitter said, it received 1,157 requests for data covering 1,697 users, and it turned over at least some data in 55 percent of the cases. The number of requests was up about 15 percent from the last six months of 2012, the company said.

“The net is finished as a global network” wrote John Naughton this weekend, in a major UK Sunday newspaper, which, ironically, is part of the British press which he rages have lost the plot in their reporting of the NSA/PRISM revelations as largely about the whereabouts and options for Edward Snowden. Naughton isn't alone: "Did Obama just destroy the Internet" was typical of many comments in the immediate aftermath of Snowden's early revelations.

"So far everything is fine, there is a lot of talk, but its quiet in Benghazi. As far as any of us can see, Gaddafi's troops are nowhere near the city." The satellite connection was more or less clear, if a bit tinny. On the other end, 5,000 miles away, my wife didn't sound convinced. It wouldn't help that the next morning found us fleeing Benghazi with the international press corps, on the back of a hastily flagged down truck.

Since the 1960’s, public diplomacy has been discussed as a concept. Ever since, it has emerged to become the practiced reality for influential diplomacy in international affairs today. Twitter and Facebook are part of shaping the world, and to gain an influence for a nation state. Taking use of new tools, spreading the influence of a nation, or indeed an international organisation is being done through various means, in a combination of technical tools and ordinary diplomacy. Looking at public diplomacy in the light of the new technologies makes it even more pertinent.

One of the ways to think about China's Internet is as a Bizarro version of the World Wide Web. Facebook and Twitter are banned, but social networking sites like Sina Weibo and Kaixinwang operate freely. Instead of YouTube, there is Youku Tudou. And while Google does operate in China -- albeit intermittently -- the Chinese company Baidu dominates the search engine market. A foreign observer of the Chinese internet might conclude, to paraphrase Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction: "They've got the same stuff there that we do here, it's just ... a little bit different."

Among world leaders who engage in twiplomacy - the use of Twitter for diplomatic relations - President Barack Obama wins superlatives for the most followers but Pope Francis is the most influential, according to a new survey by Burson-Marsteller. The global public relations and communications firm found that more than three-quarters of world leaders are on Twitter - the online social networking service that limits messages known as tweets to 140 characters.

On Wednesday, Robert Mugabe, will seek another term as Zimbabwean president in a rematch of the contentious 2008 election with challenger Morgan Tsvangirai. ut this time, 33 years after the 89-year-old first took office, the icon of the African independence era is being hounded by a creation of the Internet age. In March, a self-proclaimed disaffected insider of the ruling Zanu-PF party created the Facebook page of "Baba Jukwa".