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Alec Ross is the senior advisor for innovation to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ross is something of a social media guru and is leading US efforts in what the State Department calls "21st Century Statecraft," or digital diplomacy. Ross recently visited Lebanon and spoke with NOW about how US diplomats used social media in the wake of the Arab Spring.

NOW: You said in a December 2011 interview that the Internet amplifies voices on the political fringe at the expense of moderates, adding that in the face of the challenge that presents, the US "cannot curl up into the fetal position." Looking at Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, has the US curled up?
Alec Ross: No. First of all, I think it's important to say that all of these countries are not the same. The digital environment in Libya is very different than the digital environment in Tunisia. The way the technologies were used is very different country to country, and the way in which the United States has followed up on that has varied very much country to country.

NOW: Can you provide some examples?
Ross: In Libya, for example, we're focused right now on a program called e-Libya. So, one of the reasons there was a revolution in Libya was because of the opacity within the financial system which lent itself to wide-scale corruption by the Qaddafi regime. What we're trying to do-and unfortunately my partner in this effort was recently murdered, Chris Stevens-what we're trying to do is say, Can we use the Internet as a way to bring more transparency to historically opaque political and financial processes, you know, help the Libyan government put every government tender online. Every bid, online. Every government contract, transparent on the Internet.

NOW: And in Tunisia?
Ross: In Tunisia, it's different yet. Part of what they wanted were education programs, so what we did was a mobile phone-based, English-language learning program. This has more than 500,000 students in a country of fewer than 10 million people.

NOW: And in Egypt?
Ross: [Our efforts] continue to be focused on communications and public diplomacy. So there's been no curling into the fetal position but rather taking country-specific approaches to what makes sense in a given country. In Syria, it's very much focused on keeping activists safe and providing access to technology, the purpose of which can allow people to freely express themselves on the Internet and stay safe in so doing.

NOW: Has the State Department tried to amplify the moderate voices that tend to get drowned out on the Internet?
Ross: We tried, but... Look, it is, I believe, a law of social media, at least to this point, that nuance and moderation get less carry on the Internet than very simple, blunt messages. I think what we've tried to do is help bring voices of reason to oftentimes unreasonable dialogues, but I think it's an open question as to whether we've been successful or not.

NOW: How can diplomats, given their need to toe a policy line, use social media to change people's minds about a given issue?
Ross: I don't know. I don't really take the approach of social media as 21st century propaganda. If we're able to change some people's minds, great, but what I would rather do is incorporate more people into discussions. And some of it's very practical, learning about how to get a visa, learning how to access educational resources. A lot of it's actually very transactional in nature. I guess I take a non-utopian view of technology and social media as a diplomatic instrument. I think it's important, but it's just a tool. It's a great way of getting information and a great way of engaging people in discussions who are not going to the posh cocktail parties that an ambassador might throw, and I think that's a good thing. But it ought not be viewed as a 21st century propaganda machine.

NOW: Within the State Department, have you found it difficult to push the idea of digital diplomacy? Have you faced bureaucratic inertia?
Ross: It hasn't been that hard because even if people don't understand the technology, they understand geopolitical power. Anyone who has been the least bit observant over the last five years recognizes that the Internet is an increasingly powerful space geopolitically. So for me, I haven't had to work hard to make the case for digital diplomacy because even people who are non-native to the technology itself understand that it's increasingly relevant to their jobs. History's been on my side.

NOW: So this is something that will stick within the State Department?
Ross: It's done. It's stuck. There are over 150 people inside State right now that do nothing but practice 21st century statecraft.