124 ◾ Web 2.0 and Beyond: Principles and Technologies
has profound implications for questions about free speech, democracy and the formation
of public opinions. e analysis of the structure and technical nature of the blogosphere
has an important bearing on these discussions and a key gure in these debates is Yale
University law professor, Yochai Benkler, who discusses them at length in his book, e
Wealth of Networks (Benkler 2006).
What is important here from the point of view of discussions about free speech and politi-
cal/cultural discourse is that, at least initially, Benkler felt that the power law was “dismal”
news for democracy on the Web. e topology that was emerging from experiments to mea-
sure the shape and size of the blo ...