The Internet raised hopes that knowledge might become more accessible, reaching less affluent groups, as well as those farther away from the producers and sources of information. These early expectations remain largely unrealised. Knowledge institutions, including producers and distributors, around the world remain concentrated.
"Who controls Wikipedia entries?" The good old times when anyone could intervene and share knowledge on this medium are long gone. Nowadays Wikipedia is based on a pyramidal structure of volunteers who manage the system. There is a clear hierarchy within this structure and control is exercised concerning what is accepted and what not. The critical point here is that Wikipedia looses a considerable part of its legitimacy, which is, indeed, based on the concept of participation.
The geographies of knowledge remain largely characterized by strong core-periphery patterns. For example approximately one-third of commercial innovation in the US is concentrated in two small regions: Silicon Valley in California, and the Greater Boston area on the East Coast.
The United States, and to a lesser extent Europe and Japan, are home to the bulk of the world's content (90%) in Google. The poor rankings of some countries are undoubtedly due to censorship or competing platforms, but even in the rest of the world we see that large swathes of territory unambiguously have very little content created about them.
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