Who is in Control?

I read Miriam's blog entry about Youtube and wondered who is really in control? I think this is a valid question and Justin Tilson and Tomas had a very interesting points about the topic. In other countries control and public access/space take on a different reality.Our  Anglo/ Saxon/Puritan perspective is apparently quite different from the Southern/ Mediterranean European point of view. Their idea for an internet community center was articulated by Umberto Eco, a professor of Semiotics, satirist and author who was interviewed recently in Wired and had this to say, 

• 'I don't see the point of having 80 million people online if all they are doing in the end is talking to ghosts in the suburbs. This will be one of the main functions of Multimedia Arcade: to get people out of the house and - why not? - even into each other's arms. Perhaps we could call it "Plug 'n' Fuck" instead of Multimedia Arcade' 

So that southern perspective brings a more intimate, almost sensual environment, in contrast to the loner on a bar stool mode found on the Northern Euro/North American web experience.The 'Loner' archetype is already prevalent among the under 30 generation in Japan and slowly taking root in North America. Eco also comments,'You have to be careful to distinguish mass delusions from underlying causes.' I think that is important when looking at who is in control. 

I also see while the governments could try to put some controls in effect the borderless web and the volume of participants guarantee these action will only slow not stop the exchange and flow of information. In what way can we ensure our access to information?