Former US vice-president Al Gore will broadcast a presentation every hour for 24 hours across 24 time zones, as part of a campaign to convince sceptics of the link between climate change and extreme weather events. The 24 Hours of Reality campaign also asks people to hand over control of their accounts on Facebook and Twitter for an entire day to deliver Gore's message.

The internet is transforming public diplomacy around the world and has spurred popular involvement in key global issues such as accountable governance, climate change and terrorism, say experts and diplomats.

The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs has actively embraced Web 2.0 tools so that it can engage with the widest cross-section of people in India and the around the world. We have also found social media a powerful medium to expand our outreach amongst younger audiences

U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, who has made a name for himself in recent weeks for his risky visits to remote cities where a popular anti-government uprising has grown violent and deadly, posted a message on Facebook late Thursday...

Essentially, the heart of our public diplomacy initiative is to engage more effectively beyond the official level contacts. Sort of going beyond the seminar circuit and establishing a people-to-people contact... The mode involves targeting campus interactions, developing contests, which get young people to think creatively beyond collaborations, beyond summit level engagement. It’s a work in progress.

On the other hand, consumers are gravitating towards companies that are using social media to dialogue with them about social issues. A well-known example of this is the Pepsi Refresh Project that used crowdsourcing to invite consumers to co-create where Pepsi puts its charitable contributions.

There are government agencies such as the police forces in Delhi, Indore and Meerut which use Facebook creatively to track crimes and keep citizens informed . The ministry of external affairs has come in for praise for using Twitter as a tool for public diplomacy. But such examples are few and far between.

The 24-year-old host of "OMG Meiyu," a trendy, cross cultural English teaching feature produced by Voice of America’s Mandarin Service, has become an overnight sensation in China...More than 2-million people have now clicked on Jessica Beinecke’s quirky videos, which teach Chinese speakers about common English expressions used by young Americans.