The way information travels in these ad hoc networks is fascinating.

The thing about these networks is that they look quite different depending on which bit you are in. And Google, even with all its personalisation and tracking, cannot make sense of information as quickly and usefully as individual players in the network can, as they search for information, interpret it, aggregate it and share it from their particular perspectives, according to their own needs, and those of others important to them.

In these cases it’s very much about *enabling users to organise*, rather than organising on their behalf. That’s why content communities – whether owned by Google or not – become invaluable, alongside the grease provided by Facebook and Twitter.

And why keeping them at their core free to use, open and unmoderated is essential to the emerging ‘hive brain’.

[China, what happens if the rest of the world allows a hive brain to develop without you in it?]