The Open Government Directive has put out a call for openness and collaboration within and among government agencies. To do this, experts in open-source like those in the Drupal community are stepping up to help build an effective, open model for government.

The inaugural African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM) closed its call for proposals and has exceeded expectations by collecting 733 business proposals.

Crisis mapping by Jen Ziemke about the Angolan Civil War has helped predict when combatants are likely to target civilians.

Nandan Nilekani, former head of Indian company Infosys Technologies, has left his old post to help the government in its new effort to fight corruption and leakage in assistance for the poor. He is now leading the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India, a Cabinet Post in India's Planning Commission.

Come to Kelele, the first annual African Bloggers conference in Nairobi, Kenya October 29th-November 1st 2009. Kelele will be held in a diffrent African City each year and organized by a local committee. This year, the theam is "Beat Your Drum".

Journalist Bruno Ben Moubamba is creating excitement in Gabon's upcoming Presidential election. He is running as an independant and is making innovative use of social media tools to engage with voters during his campaign and document the corruption he encounters along the way.

A few months ago, I launched a fun little mash-up application called FricaFact. The basic premise being that I would tweet one fact about Africa every day. As I got busier setting up Appfrica Labs, I found it more and more difficult to sustain this as a hobby. Now that things are running more smoothly [...]

New ideas for a better world captivated the minds of many at an unprecedented event at the State Department yesterday-- TED@State. Leading thinkers in conflict resolution, environmental affairs, business approaches to poverty-reduction, social media and international health brought Washington DC its first-ever US Government sponsored TEDTalks.

Check out how communications technology enables participation,  empowers individuals and promotes democracy around the world in the latest edition of Perspectives.  This issue features stories on how technology is changing the face of elections in Egypt, an accounting of the pros and cons of participation from Francis Fukuyama, and an Op-Ed about promoting democracy through p