While a prestigious university could help you cross a border, could your Facebook friends?

"I confirm that there's a Basij [Islamist militia] station around the square and they shot ppl from the roof. #iranelection" posted Iran09 from his Twitter account on 15 June 2009.

The disputed 2009 Iranian election resulted in outrage and street protests.  Their government, determined to prevent an international outcry, blocked media organisations and rounded up journalists.  Ordinary Iranians turned to their mobile phones to produce a stream of information and photographs.

With the Iranian government shutting down all Internet access, Twitter - the micro-blogging platform - halted scheduled maintenance and became the sole platform left to thousands of demonstrators.

Overnight, social media services like Facebook and Twitter gained maturity beyond their usual labels of efficiency-sapping distractions.  They also became targets - with dictatorial governments from Pakistan, to Zimbabwe, to China - taking steps to monitor and ban access.

The hyperbole went into overdrive on 21 July 2010 when Facebook announced that it had 500 million users.  The media was flooded with info-graphics showing how the social site was now equivalent to the third largest country in the world, after China and India.  Just over a week later and Twitter announced their 20 billionth posted “tweet”.

The scale of social media has been like the California Gold Rush.  New professions, which a mere five years ago didn’t exist, now command massive incomes for those who can prove they have experience at “search engine optimisation”, “social media affiliations”, or “web analytics and pay-per-click marketing”.

Rather than allow professionals to work from anywhere, as many hoped, the gold rush is concentrated in the world’s largest and most globally integrated cities.

Business professionals no longer count unless, on top of their regular skills and duties, they also manage an ever-growing network of associates and update them with a river of “thoughts”.

Super-connectors abound; those famous for having lots of “friends”. People like:  Ron Bates, with 44,000 connections on LinkedIn; Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears, who used to be an actor and a musician, but now post regular updates to their over 5 million Twitter followers; and some dude by the name of Barack Obama has over 9 million Facebook friends, enough to get him elected US President.

One of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, spends so much time updating his Twitter feed that he no longer has time to write actual novels.

There has even been a surge of South African journalists onto Twitter before the ANC passes its “Protection of Information Bill”. As Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika was being arrested others kept pace with the action.  Interspersed with Mandy Weiner’s updates from inside the Jackie Selebi sentencing I got a sense of a future where the ANC can ban information but where free speech cannot be contained.

You can even follow me if you want.

But none of these services can really be described as “nations”.  The average MBA class offers more access and influence than does your network of Facebook friends.

A passport is no longer sufficient identity to cross national borders.  Now, with points-based visa systems, your university degree and work experience are of more use.  Harvard Business School, Accenture and HSBC listed on your curriculum open doors.

Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest company with revenues of $413 billion and 2.1 million employees.  If they were an economy, they’d be the size of Sweden and rank almost in the top 20 nations.

These companies and organisations might be regarded as being part of influential market-driven states.

Facebook and its peers aren’t yet nations but they are trying.  Facebook has its own currency.  They have faced down requests to censor members from a wide range of countries, democratic and otherwise.  Social statehood is on its way.

One of the things that those of us now filing stories online hope will continue long after national free speech is gone.