I found this quote attributed to Tim O'Reilly -- my apologies if it's not accurate. For the sake of my remarks I'll need you all to believe it is a real quotation by someone other than me, and yet hopefully Tim O'Reilly:
"If an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It may not reflect the deep structure of the brain, which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought. And as a reflection of conscious thought and attention, the blogosphere has begun to have a powerful effect."
Now, please whittle this text down to "...the blogosphere is the equivalent constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads."
I believe there is a reason for the use of the word, "sphere" in this case, and this word connects directly to a power relationship. Further, that power relationship can at best be defined as ambiguous right now.
Beside it being a lovely word -- "sphere" comes from the latin word "sphaera" which may mean "globe," "area," and "campus" -- the power relationship is between the history of the Web and the development of the Web.
The history of the Web is early. I picture a boat seeking harbor, its crew seeking supplies in town. Today I see the crew just now taking their first stepst towards town.
The development of the Web is early, too. Looking back at the word "sphere" in the above quotation, that "chatter" should be acceptable as not the development of a new language, but the development of the actual ability to learn language.
The blogosphere as a concept of natural language exists at a fork in the road: one direction goes towards some formal change in its own history (like Web 2.0); the other goes towards beginning the educational process of understanding natural language within the sphere.
The power relates not only to the tension between these concepts, but also the relationship is important to three conceptual spheres containing:
a) all Internet users;
b) the connections between the users in any architecture;
c) the endlessly heating, cooling, convecting information architecture.
I am excited to watch the Web, the blogosphere, or any digital publishing technology as a reflection of the structure of the brain and conscious thought. And now I hope I can come up with the reasoning behind the relationships of the three spheres.