A popular view of the new online world that was beginning to emerge on the internet in its early years was that of a Utopian world, free from the influence of those in power – governments and big business interests. In 1996 John Perry Barlow, an early internet advocate and founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, published his manifesto ‘A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace’ online, essentially telling politicians to keep out of this new online world, a world he saw as an alternative to old systems of power. This early vision of the internet dominated the early culture and communities that grew around this technological revolution, but has now largely and clearly failed to materialism. Who is to address this philosophical issue ?