The Way of the IntraWebs
This is one of the most informative lectures about the internet that you will ever consume. Jonathan Zittrain not only de-mystifies the processes by which information travels from one site to another, but he lays out an ethos that the Internet operates by in violation of every Darwinian Rule of Human Interaction that you have ever learned.
Zittrain describes a system based not on economics and self-interest, but on random kindnesses, free favors, and civility. What he is describing is no less than the evolution of mankind into HuMan 2.0.
Incidentally, for the Meppers take on Wikipedia vandalism, check out Mep Report #26.
Link via Philosophy Monkey