Two Maps from The Economist Magazine

Source: The Economist

Source: The Economist

Facebook has swept most of the world, with the major exceptions of China, Russia and Africa. Africa has the problem that there are relatively few personal computers, but Twitter is reaching the huge number of cell phones on the "Dark Continent".

Some 20 years ago I arranged for a briefing for USAID on networking. At the time we glimpsed however dimly the potential of the Internet. Indeed, some hoped for something like the World Wide Web. I at least didn't have a clue about the future of social networking.