The President is in Tokyo today, and will be in China for the first half of next week. In advance of the trip, our State Department hosted simultaneous press conferences in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou for audiences composed primarily of bloggers– a first for the U.S. in China. The attendees– a mix of English- and Chinese-language bloggers– were able to openly ask questions and comment on China’s internet restrictions, and several bloggers live-Tweeted the proceedings.
This is yet another example of the very smart 21st Century Statecraft being plied by the Clinton Department of State. Rather than limiting ourselves to interacting strictly with the governments of foreign countries, we can engage directly with people around the world. By lending credence to China’s bloggers, we help them in their effort to become a respected and efficacious voice for change in their own country. Even in cases in which our own objectives don’t quite line up with the ideals of the bloggers themselves, empowering a multitude of voices is a big step in the right direction.
We do, naturally, seem to be getting a bit of pushback from Beijing. When he stops in Shanghai next week, President Obama is hoping to hold a town hall meeting with Chinese youth in his typical free-flowing, agenda-free format. Rumors abound that the Chinese and U.S. officials are having some trouble agreeing on the terms for the event, and it may be scuttled as a result. Fine. I, for one, would rather see the town hall ditched than see a phony compromise event in which the attendees have no freedom to speak their mind.
Last week, the Indian government walked back on technological freedoms in Kashmir, 
Nokia sells more handsets than any other manufacturer in the world, but they have never really caught on in the United States. Rather, they make their bones selling simple, cheap, virtually indestructible phones in Europe and in much of the developing world. 
ICANN, the organization in charge of domain name and IP address registration, among other tasks, voted on Friday to permit domain names composed of nearly 100,000 different characters, beyond the 37 currently-permitted characters you see on your keyboard. Hindi and Chinese, Greek and Hebrew, Russian and Arabic characters will all be allowed in top-level domains.
It’s great for the beneficiaries, who can now spend their voucher on whatever food they like– including perishables like milk and eggs, which are not included in the typical food aid basket. What’s more, beneficiaries can now avoid the trip to the WFP headquarters and the wait on line for food.
Other countries, including France, have mandated internet access, but Finland is the first to set a threshhold for speed. (And they’ve set ambitious goals for growth, too: 100mbps by 2015) Ban Ki-Moon has made global ICT access a priority, and 
The biggest obstacle for telemedicine is that insurance doesn’t cover it. Part of the problem here is that when the CBO costs out implementation of telemedicine infrastructure, they don’t account for cost savings. True, a big upfront investment is required, but telemedicine is all about cost savings. It saves trips to the doctor. It saves the valuable time of doctors. Through preventive care and monitoring of chronic disease, people can avoid getting sick– and that’s a massive cost saver. So the CBO issue prevents Medicare and Medicaid from leading in telemedicine, and given a comfortable status quo, private insurers are unlikely to make the initial investment, either.