A really interesting presentation from Gilad Lotan, including his video from the Personal Democracy Forum 2012 in New York City. He outlined his key points:

1. My Network != Your Network: networks of followers, audiences differ substantially in time of day, activity, engagement and shape.
2. Overarching generalizations will most likely be misinforming.
3. We need to better understand networked dynamics such as information flows, audience intersections and the effect of algorithmic curation.
4. Networked spaces are NOT a pure meritocracy: certain positions are advantageous.

The US State Department looks at the role of social media in diplomacy. The US State Department has been increasing its use of social media for years now, not only in terms of using it in its public diplomacy efforts but also in terms of analysing social media to gauge public opinion, such as after Barack Obama's speech in Egypt.