Up until last year, according to a report in the New York Times, the US State Department was still doing things the traditional way: through diplomatic cables, official communiqués and government to government transactions involving diplomats travelling to other countries to negotiate agreements.

“White guys in white shirts…talking to other white guys in white shirts..with flags in the background” according to the irreverent young (28) year old member of the State Department present policy planning staff, Jared Cohen.

But when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took over as head of the department, things changed. “She’s the godmother of 21st century statecraft,” Alec Ross, the first Senior Advisor for Innovation at the State Department, said admiringly.

Cohen and Ross, who are responsible for shepherding the department into the digital age, started the ball rolling with a dinner which included Mrs. Clinton and the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, and the Chairman of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. (During the Iran post-election demonstrations, the news that first leaked to the West, came from Twitter and Youtube).

Impressed with their description of the advantages of the Internet, especially in terms of precious time saved, Mrs. Clinton gave the go-ahead to digitalize the State Department. As it happened it was a propitious moment. Within only a few days following that dinner the devastating earthquake hit Haiti.
 
By using the Internet the State Department was able to respond within two hours, setting up a Text Haiti program which raised over 40 million dollars through ten dollar donations for the Red Cross.

Today the State Department provides centralized information on the specialized services of NGOs to its embassies abroad, identifying those to tap for food aid and which ones offer refugee camp schooling, both saving time and avoiding overlapping programs.

The Internet has not replaced the traditional forms of diplomacy with which most communications are still carried out. But when there is an emergency or a crisis, the Internet offers the sort of instant communication that can save lives.

Mrs. Clinton has classified the “freedom to connect” as a basic human right, and added it to the official Human Rights Agenda.