A couple of interesting things I have stumbled across here and there recently which might be of interest:
SKMap, a Japanese project which maps Skype presence icons onto Google Maps (I can see two users in Antarctica!);
Worldmapper, an amazing project which rescales the world map to specific themes - this adds a lot of perspective to certain issues, such as the concentration of intellectual property in a few hands (look how big the UK is). A communication map is forthcoming.