Last week, Secretary Clinton's team at the State Department put up a short post on Dipnote, the departmental blog, asking for suggestions on technology and social media. It asked: "How Might the U.S. Utilize Innovative Technologies To Discuss U.S. Foreign Policy?"

The responses are illuminating and thoughtful, and worth reading by anyone considering the evolution of open government in the digital age.

She's been uncharacteristically quiet since her confirmation as Secretary of State, but the Obama Administration's other rock star seems poised to change all that with her first big overseas trip to Asia - with the help of a Twitter-fueled blog audience that has increased three-fold since Barack Obama's inauguration. And while she inherits massive foreign policy challenges from her predecessor, Hillary Clinton also inherits a new media team at State that's at least a year into remaking America's digital image on the web.

Started under former Secretary Rice - and emphatically seamless, professional and non-partisan in its transition to Secretary Clinton - the expansion of State's online operation seems primed for President Obama's primary international goal: rebuilding the U.S. brand overseas.

Bob Fertik, a longtime liberal activist, drew more than 23,000 votes on Change.gov for his question on investigating the Bush Administration. And yet, the response from the Obama transition last week? Crickets. So Fertik took his cause to George Stephanopoulos...With this second example, we're about to call a trend on the idea of journalists serving as the tenacious bulldogs who get crowd-sourced questions answered...One thing you'll notice about the just-launched Senate Hub and House Hub on YouTube: no ads...and more.

With Hillary Clinton set to be nominated as Barack Obama's Secretary of State, New York Governor David Paterson has a tough decision to make - which New Yorker will sit in the U.S. Senate in Clinton's place for the next year, thereby getting a huge leg up as an incumbent until the next general election in 2010.

Names making Gov. Paterson's theoretical list include state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Reps. Nydia Velasquez, Brian Higgins, and Kirsten Gillibrand, and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. But only one potential nominee has a Facebook group lobbying the Governor - environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose father once held the seat.

Watching the news media and a few hard cases in the blogosphere wring their hands over the vetting of former President Bill Clinton's philanthropy in the wake of President-Elect Obama's offer of the State Department to Hillary Clinton, you begin to wonder what life would be like if the Clinton Global Initiative went transparent with all of its charitable commitments.

With so much focus on CGI over the last 48 hours and the billions it has processed for causes like global warming, HIV AIDS, and education, it's hard not to wish it maintained a large searchable database open to anyone with a web connection.

Oh, wait a minute.

Citizen-journalists chosen by Decision '08, contest for "Why are you a Democrat/Republican," what do pollworkers of the 21st Century look like?, fears of security threats at the Democratic National Convention, Twitter scandal erupts over fake "speakerpelosi" account, and coded messages directed at Evangelicals in John McCain's "The One" ad.

Google political ad man Peter Greenberger thinks Hillary Clinton's campaign was hampered by its failure to use search advertising consistently throughout the primary season. While he acknowledges the New York Senator's campaign deserves credit for experimenting with new media tools, he argues savvy search advertising contributed to the success of both Barack Obama's and John McCain's primary season wins by helping them build supporter lists. Through sponsored links in search results, the McCain and Obama camps have driven users seeking information on the candidates to their official Web sites to register for newsletters, volunteer or to donate money.

The new McCain blog is clever, readable, and occasionally funny -- why that's a bad thing; we meet a southern California who used the Internet to go from unengaged voter to a "field commander of sorts;" the brouhaha continues over pinning online comments and diaries to the candidates whose names are in the URL; Team Obama creates an online and offline feedback loop to solve the supporter "free rider" problem; and more.

The online right bickers over the wisdom of holding a candidate responsible for a bustling online community; can Google Trends predict election winners?; Mayhill Fowler reveals the methods behind her two big scoops; a look at how Hillary Clinton and new media got along in throughout the primary campaign; and more.

Clinton brings 'er in for a landing via email while an ally launches an VP campaign on a little known women-in-politics website; freepers' reviews of McCain's Tuesday night speech tend towards "thumbs down;" Obama's small donor network seems poised to reward him big; the new new johnmccain.com seems awfully familiar; and more.