I’m not sure what a “diplomatic actor” is, but this sounds interesting. “Agence France-Presse launched “the e-diplomacy hub” on Thursday, an Internet-based application that measures and visualises the presence and influence of diplomatic actors on Twitter.” Speaking of that, the US Department of State is seriously getting into Twitter. “On Wednesday, June 27, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EDT, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine will participate in a global Twitter Q & A. Using the hashtag #AskState, participants from around the world can simultaneously submit questions and share ideas directly with Under Secretary Sonenshine about U.S. public diplomacy.”

South African activist Ruth First is getting a digital archive. “It will consist of at least 5,000 pages, digitised and presented as academically rigorous clusters of material, and will electronically publish two of her books currently out of print.”

GMail is now allowing custom themes.

Speaking of Google, it has announced deep price cuts to its Maps API. Not at all surprising considering the number of map APIs out there.

Interesting blurb from Georgetown Law Library Blog: “The Death Penalty Worldwide (http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org), a research project based at Northwestern University’s Center for International Human Rights, provides up-to-date analysis on the law and practice of capital punishment for every country in the world that retains it.”

In the works: a large archive concerning the state of Missouri’s role in WWI. “The project is called ‘Over There: Missouri and the Great War.’ The library district has joined hands with the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirskville to take documents, pictures, and artifacts from the war and propel them into the 21st century.”

Yahoo and Liquid Comics are teaming up for digital motion comics From the press release: “Yahoo, the premier digital media company, today announced a deal with Liquid Comics to distribute premium original, motion-comic programs exclusively on Yahoo! Screen – the ultimate video destination. Liquid, a digital media company that specializes in creating graphic novels, will launch two motion comic projects on Yahoo! this summer in the U.S., with a number of similarly styled projects to launch throughout the year on Yahoo! Screen, the top destination online for original programming.” Now, I have nothing against comics — digital motion or otherwise — but what happened to the slimming down properties to focus on core competentcy or whatever we were hearing about from Yahoo corporate not that long ago? Good morning, Internet…