The U.S. State Department is set to announce $28 million in grants to help Internet activists, particularly in countries where the governments restrict e-mail and social networks such as those offered by Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Google Inc.
In the midst of this turmoil, the Twitter hashtag #civ2010 has been providing an essential source of information in the country. However, many Twitter users have raised their voices to complain that the hashtag is fast becoming a virtual means for supporters of both camps to confront each other.
As hundreds of thousands of Egyptians in Cairo's Tahrir Square celebrated the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February, some held up mobile phones to snap photos of the crowd, others sent Twitter messages to their friends and a few wielded signs proclaiming, "Thank you, Facebook."
What is Gov 2.0? Gov 2.0 is all about a new culture of open governance, greater citizen involvement through the judicious use of web 2.0...The world has started moving towards Gov 2.0 without even being conscious about it. What has made Gov 2.0 possible is the widespread availability of Internet connected desktops and hand held devices. At present India has 80 million Internet connections, and over 50 million people use social media.
What is Gov 2.0? Gov 2.0 is all about a new culture of open governance, greater citizen involvement through the judicious use of web 2.0. Gov 2.0 is about interactive democracy against representative democracy, it is about open administration that involves citizens participation against closed administration and it is about spirit of voluntarily sharing information against closely guarding it.
Diaries were cleared in Downing Street and the Foreign Office recently for meetings with two Americans who tweet for their country. You might not have heard of them, but through Twitter the Arab protesters monitor their every tweet.
With Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao leading the bureaucratic pack in using Twitter to reach out to the public, social media websites have now been removed from the list of blocked sites for officials at India's foreign ministry.
