David Weinberger reports on John Palfrey's session at the Beyond Broadcast conference that David is attending and in which he is participating.

First, it might affect participatory democracy by providing open information enviornments, making new networks, enabling tools for individual activists, a productivity tool for campaigners, and attracting new participants. On the other hand, it might provide too much information, it can fragment us ("The Daily Me"), the participation can be watered down, it limits participation to those with access, some states are instituting censorship (cf. the ONI project), and maybe we should be jumping to "postdemocratic" order.

So, maybe we'll see refinements; the context matters a lot and it depends "a ton on what baseline you choose." That is, if you're only asking if participatory culture makes demcoracy better, that's an easy bar. But maybe we should be aiming higher

John lists takeaways:

- The Web is about creativity, innovation, and greater power at the edges.

- This is a global phenomenon.

- Big media companies generally have no idea how to deal with participatory democracy.

- The legal and political battle over the future of the Internet is where a lot of this will play out. The outcome is not assured.

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