The Blogosphere and Democracy

I've joined the camp that says that the interconnectedness created by the internet, and in particular, the blogosphere is a necessary condition for real democracy.
 
My reasoning is as follows: Democracy assumes an informed public, which all along we knew was a ridiculous assumption. It definitely seems more ridiculous today than it did before. Before the internet most of us probably thought we _were_ well informed. But most of us should be realizing, we're _all_ getting a bit more informed. Except for those living in caves, we all know things today that we could not have possibly learned without the internet. For some, the internet has completely transformed their lives, by soaking them in an endless supply of searchable, sortable information. Sweet, sweet information.
 
And a public that is soaking in a giant tub of information is more informed, I would presume.
 
So, theoretically speaking, if the internet has changed the world in way that has turned a condition of essentially 0 connectivity into a condition of essentially perfect connectivity (i.e. 1) then the effect would be to enable something that was essentially non-existent before. If i, the informed public is a factor in an equation for democracy, 1 turns it on (potentially), 0 turns it off.
 
How the internet does this can be shown by looking at the blogosphere.
 
The blogosphere is the part of the internet that fulfills Marshall McLuhan's prediction that consumers of information reverse into producers of information under conditions of electric connectivity. The blogosphere fills the void for content that was felt in the late 90's when people started to say, "well we've got this network, but what is on it, besides porn?" Where would the content come from? The big media outlets and the big search engines fought it out to see who would rule content. 
 
But none of them can do what these simple weblog programs have done. And as a result, the online content providers died out. People are producing their own content, sharing links, linking to other linkers, and on and on. The blogosphere is a massive, endless network of related information. And all done voluntarily, for free. The network spawned the content. If you build it, they will come.
 
The blogosphere is the essence of "all at onceness". What the blogosphere permits, is for consumers of information to be just as easily, producers of information. So every consumer is also a producer. Everything is said, all at the same time.
 
The obvious risk of all at onceness is potential information overload. Even on the internet, with the best software tools, it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the information. "Information overload leads to pattern recognition", McLuhan said. What every blogger will tell you is that through blogging, they have become significantly more knowledgeable than they ever could have without the internet, at least with regards to the subjects that interest them.
 
What the blogosphere permits is the exchange of ideas with absolute impartiality (other than the power of the big search engines...). If an internet user is able to connect to one other person that shares their opinion, it validates that opinion where otherwise it might never be done.

When an idea gets validated, it becomes stronger. The blogosphere illustrates this beautifully, through various rating systems, raising the profile of popular articles. Popular blogs get more attention than lesser known blogs. The blogosphere is a closer representation of the "marketplace of ideas" often thrown around in political circles than any previous medium. Television and radio barely offered the ability to hear more than a handleful of different perspectives. The internet, through blogs and wikis, has the capability to expose the perspectives of every individual on Earth.

Currently, not everyone participates in the blogosphere, and many people do not even have access. Millions, however,  _are_ actively participating in this new environment. The information now being shared amongst these people is **fundamentally different** than prior to the popularization of the internet. It hasn't just _increased_ the access to information. It has increased the amount, the speed, and the quality of the information, as well as provided the SAME information to ALL people. This is at the crux of why the internet enhances democracy.