Brin's Transparent Society paints an optimistic picture of the online community. If the Internet moves toward a completely open society, which is seems to be, Brin feels confident the community will become pro-active. They will call out any errors that arise within society and keep the authorities and government in check. Overall he feels the online community will take the time and effort in shaping the World Wide Web instead of depending on a higher power.
In many cases I find this hard to believe. The complications that modern life have developed makes me skeptical that individuals will invest the energy to address these issues. To me they seem secondary to the immediate issues an individual faces. Additionally I see the Internet becoming a tool of fragmentation instead of connection because of its ability to customize and control content. Nonetheless sites like Wikipedia and the open-source applications we see on Facebook have made me reconsider. These examples show how individuals are willing to contribute for the greater good of society for minimal reward. As Brin says we are making the World Wide Web our own. As law fails to keep up with the daily transformations of the Net, this vision is coming true.
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There certainly is an interesting tension or dialectic between the shared information environment and increasing fragmentation, although the common denominator does seem to be the disappearance of privacy.
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